Home

Internet resources

Google keyword-based Web search Google Usenet search (newsgroups)
Freetranslation.com Babelfish translation
Wikipedia; a free online encyclopedia Dictionary
Reverse telephone number lookup Reverse telephone number lookup
Find real-world address from IP (network) address Look up patents
Online maps (MapsOnUs) Online maps (US Census)
Maps of various countries CIA factbook on various countries
The exact time Urban legends
Farm subsidy database Public domain sound clips of wildlife
Bird calls More bird calls
US Drought Monitor

Laughs

Weapons of WHAT destruction? The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Kissing Hank's Ass Geek jokes! (scroll down)
Small things amuse large minds Periodic Table of Condiments
Nipple addition surgery??? Pop? Soda? 'Coke'?
Bush: 'Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over' (not as funny as it was back in 2001...) 'When you program Open Source, you're programming COMMUNISM'

Milwaukee/Wisconsin

Weather radar for Milwaukee area Weather radar for Milwaukee area
Weather radar for Madison area Weather radar for Madison area
Weather radar Another weather radar
Weather forecast from NOAA Jobs in Wisconsin (a very small page...)
Charter for milw.* newsgroups Wisconsin Circuit Court Access
Cheesehead? 'Come to Milwaukee -- the wholesome city'
WI Department of Transportation
(winter road conditions; construction)		 'Wisconsin's economic problem isn't creating college graduates, but its failure to attract employers who will hire them'
Diamonds in Wisconsin?

Software that I like

Free Agent (Usenet reader) Proxomitron. HTML and HTTP junk buster; makes pages load faster and prevents browser crashes
Off By One; a tiny web browser for Windows (~1 Mbyte executable) Opera web browser. HTML 4.0, CSS, Javascript. Smaller and faster than Mozilla-derived browsers, and runs under Windows 95
Internet Utilities for Win95: finger, whois, host, and graburl WGET for Windows. Downloads web pages from the command line (graburl is similar).
Maplay 1.2+. Small MP3 player. Doesn't handle network streams, tags in MP3 files, or certain bit rates. GPL source code available. Home Planet, an electronic planisphere (star finder). Public domain source code available.
DOOM and other DOS games VESA 2.0 video BIOS TSR for S3 video cards.
CD-ROM extras for Win95 GNU 'units' (conversion) program for DOS
pdftotext converts...err...PDF to text (and does so much better than either Acrobat Reader or GhostScript/GhostView) Tera Term Pro. Telnet and serial comms program; replaces the useless HyperTerm.

Space

Online planisphere (star finder) Another online planisphere
Downloadable do-it-yourself planisphere (PDF files) Get time of sunrise/sunset for any location
Northern Lights (aurora) (predicted) Northern Lights (observed)
Constellation star maps See the Space Station
Precious metals in near-Earth asteroids 'Asteroids' at Jupiter's Trojan points are actually comets (water!)
Flaring pulsar (SGR 1900+14) irradiates Earth on Aug 27, 1998 Another flaring pulsar (SGR 1806+20) irradiates Earth on Dec 27, 2004
Neutrino burst from supernova detected The Pioneer 10 anomaly
Did a lump of 'strange matter' strike the Earth? The Oh-My-God particle
First man to Mars (his ashes, anyway) ESA studies human hibernation
Astrononomy Picture of the Day Robert L. Park on why the space station is a crock

Tech

Aerogel Farnsworth fusion reactor (build your own!)
Star Trek tech now: force fields Trek tech now: phaser (stun only :)
Trek tech now: a drug to treat radiation sickness
(Not hyronalin? :)		 Trek tech now: Artificial silicon retina treats blindness from retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration
Beam of pain Efficient antennas designed by evolution
Non-stick submarines? 230-mile-per-hour Russian torpedo
Large, cheap, and beautiful artificial diamonds Lab-grown steak
Ultrasonic teenager repeller Automatic underwater camera prevents drownings

Energy

James Lovelock, prominent Green, embraces nuclear power Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, supports nuclear power
Sustainability of Human Progress Wind power brings prosperity to a poor rural region of Spain
Birds not being killed by wind turbines, say Danish ecologists Robert W. Bussard: US Tokamak fusion program is a sham
Integral Fast Reactor Integral Fast Reactor
Oil from garbage: thermal depolymerization (TDP) Biodiesel from algae
Cellulosic ethanol plant operating in Canada Efficient incandescents soon? Tungsten photonic lattice

Free e-books

Lots of old books and novels in text format Textbooks in Wiki format
Applied math book (a work in progress) Elementary Calculus: An Approach Using Infinitesimals
The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing Introductory physics textbook
Short story by John Walker John Walker #2
John Walker #3 John Walker #4
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (and other books) by Cory Doctorow
Accelerando by Charles Stross A Colder War by Charles Stross
The Concrete Jungle, by Charles Stross Tank Farm Dynamo, by David Brin
Acts of the Apostles by John Sundman (PDF file) Short stories by Robert Heinlein

Health/medicine

Curry may prevent cancer and treat Crohn's disease Oily fish (salmon, sardines and mackerel) cuts risk of Alzheimer's
Gene therapy treats four-year-old with SCID Plasma scours prions from surgical instruments
Clinical trials of the reovirus that kills cancer Wisconsin girl cured of rabies
Adenovirus (common cold) as possible cancer cure What will happen when antibiotics are no longer effective?
Is obesity caused by a virus? Viruses may make you fat and depressed
Possible cervical cancer vaccine by 2007 Ebola and Marburg vaccines work in monkeys
Possible vaccine against food allergies Novel Vaccine Stops HIV
Vaccine against Type-1 diabetes in human trials Intestinal worms used to treat Crohn's disease
Can a parasite carried by cats change your personality? Weak AC magnetic field kills malaria parasites
Stem cells cure Parkinson's in monkeys Islet cell transplant cures 61-year-old man of diabetes
Dentistry moves out of the Dark Ages?
Replacement teeth grown from stem cells		 New jaw bone grown on patient's back
A wank a day keeps prostate cancer away? Niobium HPA may immobilize AIDS virus
Brain tumor turns man into pedophile Nigeria halts polio immunization program; 10 neighboring countries become re-infected
Immune to AIDS? Dogs 'sniff out' cancer
Unpaid Pakistani medical transcriber threatens to release medical records

Misc

Color satellite photo of tsunami hitting Sri Lanka Giant swastika made of larch trees
Where bad high-school textbooks come from DHMO, a deadly and ubiquitous chemical
How noise can improve signal detection: stochastic resonance demo (Java)
Thoracic cavity cake Homeless children create their own mythology
The pstench of love Why Nerds are Unpopular; a condemnation of the American school system
Scientific Experiments for Fun and Instruction Teenage boy builds backyard breeder reactor
Radiotherapy cancer patients set off subway radiation alarms Tour of abandoned missile silo
The Lawn Chair Man Science or science fiction?
Man swallows iridium pellet Dead wife as coffee table
Fun with fluorescent lights and high-voltage lines: Sesame Street, Epistemology, and Freedom
Depopulation of the Great Plains and the Buffalo Commons First hand account of the appalling conditions in North Korea from Norbert Vollertsen; a German doctor
'Around Ypres 200,000 to 250,000 live shells [some with poison gas in them] rise to the surface each year.' Interview with Chernobyl engineer/survivor
Defective TV emits international distress signal A common problem, I guess: Defective DTV box emits international distress signal
Cat trained to dial 911 in an emergency, and does so Unskilled and Unaware of It
Trompe l'oeil (sp?) pavement drawings that look three-dimensional Meteorite crashes through roof of Chicago home in 2003
Tuskless elephants evolving in China due to poaching Locksmith makes car key from X-ray
Apparently, many pedophiles are Trekkies

Politics

Hear money talk! The US national debt (OVER $8 TRILLION)
Red vs. blue Market Fundamentalism
US oil interests behind Venezuela coup? Karl Rove's smear campaign against John McCain
All about neoconservatives Bush appointee to NASA (NASA!) gags reports of global warming, espouses creationism
Liberal rant from the 2004 election

Don't buy CDs!

Recording Indstry Association of America (RIAA) sues innocent 66-year-old woman RIAA sues 12-year-old girl
RIAA sues 79-year-old man who does not own a computer RIAA dumping unsold CDs on libraries to settle lawsuit
Apaprently, the RIAA can't count Music redacted from 'WKRP In Cincinnati' because of staggering ASCAP fees
The decline in CD sales is due to piracy..
price-fixing has nothing to do with it, nosir		 Payola is back
Girl Scouts to pay for singing copyrighted songs Finnish taxi drivers to pay royalties for backseat music
Why no music in the sub sandwich shop?
Beatles sue EMI for 30 million pounds in royalties Music CDs from Sony give your computer 'AIDS'

'Intellectual property' run amok

Refilling printer ink cartridges is now a crime Intellectual Property Is Costing Me My Life
The patent application process as a circle-jerk Anti-patent article in Forbes
Patent #6,368,227: Method of swinging on a swing Patent #5,567,454: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
'Dewey Decimal' is a trademark? Who knew? Monsanto sues farmer for re-using seeds
IP extremists go overseas to subvert US law Copyright comic in NYtimes
Donald Knuth's letter to the US Patent Office IP adds $40 to $15 model airplane
Lexmark uses DMCA to block 3rd party printer ink cartridges Woodworking tools that are 'licensed, not sold', and can't be loaned to others
Carmakers want to keep trouble codes secret Web site for ratting out people who sing 'Happy Birthday' without paying royalties to Time-Warner
India wins bio-piracy case against WR Grace States threaten confiscation of drug company patents to force lower prices

What the HELL...?

Did Yahoo help jail a Chinese reporter? White collar felon gets $2 million fine and 18 months in jail -- and $2 million 'bonus', and 18-month 'leave of absence', and $350,000 annual salary
Find terrorists? Stop corporate fraud? Nah,
the FBI has much more important things to do.		 FBI going after file-sharing
Protect the President? Stop counterfeit money? Nah,
the Secret Service has much more important things to do		 Keep America safe? Nah, Homeland Security agents have much more important things to do
Homeland Security agents going after porn in the library TSA dumbshits arrest teacher with 'concealed weapon': a bookmark
Tom Delay used DHS for political purposes Most FCC complaints filed by a single activist group
What is happening in America? America the Dickhead
Fuck you, America Echelon wiretap network used for corporate espionage
Student suspended
for wearing Pepsi shirt to school on Coke day		 Zero-tolerance means zero-thought: 8-year-old suspended from school for pointing a chicken nugget like a gun
Bland, commercial-laden Mc  Radio: Clear Channel Media consolidation kills?
Levamisole the pig wormer: $0.06 per pill
Levamisole the human anti-cancer drug: $6.00 per pill		 Two men arrested for telling lawyer jokes
US sugar industry threatens funding of WHO 'News media in America functions as propaganda just as well as any system concocted by a dictator.'
Diebold voting machine gave Al Gore -16022 (negative) votes (search for Lana Hires) Head of Diebold vowed to 'deliver' Ohio to Bush
Still more problems with electronic voting machines
Weak crypto making ATMs vulnerable to fraud and theft? No problem: just litigate the critics into silence. Pictures of Windows Media Player running on crashed Diebold ATM
Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage Buy an SUV; get a tax break
Bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster: the Martin County slurry spill Monsanto pays $1.5 million fine for bribing Indonesian official
Note to American media: Inclusivity is not objectivity Court ruling: the media can legally lie (Why yes, the defendant was a Fox affiliate. How did you know?)