The latest online information on the Oklahoma Federal Building explosion can be found in the newsgroup alt.current-events.amfb-explosion and at the following URLs: "http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~pthomas/oklahoma.html" "http://www.uoknor.edu/okdaily/bombing.html"
HORDES OF NETSURFERS VISIT GENGHIS KHAN EXHIBIT
The Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, B.C., Canada, is hosting a special Genghis Khan exhibit in real life - and on the Web - from March 31 to September 10, 1995. Stop by and learn more about this fascinating ruler, his followers, and their culture. This is a most informative and visually appealing site. The descriptions of exhibits tease the visitor, though, as they foment interest but leave you wanting more than the token artifact images you get. More pics would improve the site. It's enough to make one feel like invading at the head of one's thundering horde. "http://vvv.com/khan/"
The Olympus Group bonsai pages include artful graphics and an explanation of the art of bonsai tree growing. The home page provides a history of these miniature trees and links to topics such as how to grow them. The "Bonsai Master" has created a page for himself, in which he promises updates on his success in creating the Master's own strain of bonsai based on a tree found only in North America. Imagine all those little bitty cans of maple syrup. "http://www.novanet.com/~ogi/bonsai/bonsai.html"
Our friends, the vegetables, have found a champion in A.C. Levesque, who put together this compelling manifesto in support of Vegetable Rights. Of interest to all vegophiles is the reference link to "Vegetables in the Movies: A Hollywood Tradition" where you can find listings of Positive Vegetable Films like "The Good Earth" (1943; features many scenes with wild cabbages growing free) and Negative Vegetable Films such as "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991; the camera often lingers on tomatoes frying in a pan. Extreme sadism). Vegetarians (legume-sadists) may not feel welcome here. "http://www.cam.org/~acl/veg.html"
There are some things in this universe that are intrinsically funny. Milk spewed out the nostrils. The subtle interplay of anvil and cartoon character. Cheese. What can one say about CheeseNet? Well, for one thing they are (mostly) serious. Discover "The Wide World of Cheese", delve into "Cheese History", speak the secret "Cheese Language", and - wait for it! - there is the immortal Monty Python "Cheese Shop" sketch. On the serious side, there are recipes, literature, vendors, a Cheese of the Week (tm), and the ever helpful Dr. Cheese and Signor Formaggio. Smells like a winner. "http://www.efn.org/~kpw/cheesenet.html"
THAT VOODOO THAT YOU DO SO WELL
With an initial page that's dull and poorly edited, the Voodoo Server doesn't impress at first, but those netsurfers intrepid and brave and with some time to kill (like us) will find a treasure just a few links away. Set up by a knowledgeable professional, the site is a gold mine of historical information pertaining to the voodoo religion and its synthesis from native African religions and Christianity. A greater variety of information is promised, but nothing can really be said to be lacking now, though more pics would be nice. Remember - you can't judge a site by its home page. "http://www.nando.net/prof/caribe/voodoo.html"
The page is subtitled "How to tell dinner from a hole in the ground" and this bunch of engineers and scientists from Cal Tech delivers the goods. In typical engineering fashion they proceed with an informal experimental pit cooking party. That's cooking in pits, not cooking of pits. Four pits, several meat carcasses, and an indefinite quantity of beer later, you get to see the results in an entertaining write-up accompanied by photos and MPEG films. If you want to dig up some hot meat (and who doesn't?) then visit this page. Bring a drool bucket. "http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~salmon/pit.html"
As Net-stunts go, this is a pretty neat one. Yet another spiffy way to netsurf, this interface is as good as any we've seen so far. Worth a click or three. "http://www.wideweb.com/baby/"
DR. FELLOWBUG'S LABORATORY OF FUN AND HORROR
The lab is three neat links and very cool graphics. Start with the "Keeper of Lists" and gems like "Top 99 Things Your Mom Told You That Turned Out Not To Be True", or "Top 160 TV Shows That Suck" (but wait, that seems low...). Move on to the disarmingly limber "Letter RIP" word game, a more sanguine variation on Hangman. Finish off with "Evil Little Brother's Excuse Generator" forms. Not unlike fungus, this site grows on you. "http://www.dtd.com/bug/bughom01.html"
Avalanche Brewing Company is the official sounding name for a bunch of San Francisco roommates. They make lots of beer and share it with whoever shows up on those special days the brews are deemed ready. In case you can't make it, you can still partake of the festival - but not the liquid - via a CU-SeeMe Avalanche Keg Tapper Net Brewcast. Avalanche also offers tasting notes and recipes of past Avalanche products and their theme song. Unfortunately, the beer-colored HTML3 background makes it tough to read the text. More beer resources are available at John Lock's WWW index page, including a list of periodicals, recipes, and commercial beer ratings. Avalanche: "http://www.dnai.com/~tmurphy/BREW/Welcome.html" Lock: "http://www.mindspring.com/~jlock/"
TO BOLDLY HEAR SONGS NO ONE HAS HEARD BEFORE
Well, not many people anyway have heard Star Trek cast members warble and warp, but here's a page with sound clips if you have the impulse. In 1968, William Shatner (Kirk) released an album entitled "The Transformed Man", which includes the immortal track, "Spleen". This page is worth it for the oh-so-1960s album cover alone. Leonard Nimoy (Spock), not to be outdone, released ten of his own albums in hope of overwhelming quality with quantity. Even Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) has one. Star Trek:The Next Generation couldn't leave well enough alone. Brent Spiner (Data) released "Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back", but let's hope it's not to be followed by nine more. All "singers" have representative clips at the site, which also has a comments form. "http://www.ama.caltech.edu/~mrm/kirk.html"
ANVILS AWAY: THE WILE E. COYOTE QUESTION PAGE
Here's your chance to cut loose and formulate a philosophical analysis of one of the most important cultural icons of our time: Wile E. Coyote of Warner Brothers cartoon fame. The following home page asks the question "What is Wile E.'s significance in the greater scheme of things?" English majors and other pontificators are invited to reply. You've got to see it to believe it. Answers to the big question will be posted at a sister site. "http://www.duke.edu/~rutabaga/wile.html"
BEDROOM SLIPPERS OF THE FUTURE
And you thought trivial research was no longer funded. The Slipper Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sponsored in part by the MIT Media Lab, has created a WWW server devoted to bedroom slippers and their future in your happy household. Complete with pictures of the revered objects, the server includes an opportunity for you to contribute your ideas on this important topic as well as links to other slipper and foot-related sites around the Internet. "http://slipper.mit.edu/"
SELF-ANALYSIS AVAILABLE ON THE WEB...
Curious to explore your personality type and compare yourself to others? SRI International's Values and Lifestyles (VALS) program allows you to do just that on the Internet. Use the VALS Interactive Server to personality-type yourself according to the VALS system, which SRI describes as "one of the world's most prominent psychographic research tools". Wondering what the heck psychographics are? They measure your attitudes and "lifestyle characteristics". You'll then get to compare your data with that of others, including such common interests as magazines, music, and food. "http://future.sri.com/vals/valshome.html"
...AND AN INTERACTIVE TEMPERAMENT SORTER, TOO
If you really feel like playing Freud, you'll also want to take Keirsey's Temperament Sorter Meyers-Briggs Personality Test. This online interactive test program scores your answers and gives you a summary of what they mean. Select one of two choices offered for each question and press the return key when the prompt "score your test results" is highlighted. Your score in four categories appears, with the four letters identifying your personality type. Highlight your score (the four letters) to see an explanation of your results. "http://sunsite.unc.edu/jembin/mb.pl"
Vigra, a multimedia hardware developer, has used its own product to bring us CanyonCam, a constantly updated snapshot of "the exciting Sorrento Valley canyon landscape in San Diego", i.e. a gorge outside its office windows. More spectacularly, a short MPEG of 50 consecutive frames and a much larger film compiled over the course of a few weeks can be downloaded from the site. These are large files, obviously, but kind of fun. There's even a highlight film of one day's fascinating cloud formations. "http://www.vigra.com/misc/peek-auto.html"
Maybe not, if it gets put into electronic form. Find out how to protect and maintain your electronic personal documents from a Web site that has all the latest info on cryptography, PGP, and privacy. There are many good resource links with info on cryptography, privacy articles, digital cash, the "Clipper Chip", and privacy-related newsgroups. There are also links to a site for downloading PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software, to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and to the Electronic Privacy Information Center. This and much more on privacy at: "http://draco.centerline.com:8080/~franl/crypto.html"
OTTAWA AND ICY MEMORIES OF WINTER
Those of you pining for the cool days of winter may want to take a look at the Ottawa Tourist page. This travel page, in additional to the usual set of Canadian regional resources, includes a link to the "Memories of Winterlude" exhibit showing the results of a recent ice sculpture festival. Photos of the amazing ice works are available and well worth surfing. Raamses II had nothing on these contestants. Numerous other links of interest to travelers round out this well constructed and informative site. "http://www.digimark.net/iatech/tour/"
ALOHA AVAILABLE VIA VIRTUAL HAWAIIAN FIELD TRIPS
The "Virtually Hawaii" home page includes NASA images of all the Hawaiian Islands taken by satellite, space shuttle, and aircraft. Created by the University of Hawaii's NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and TerraSystems, Inc., the server provides links to Earth and space science data focused on Hawaii. And, when they've got you pining for pineapple and leis, just click your mouse and take a virtual field trip to such exquisite sites as southeast Oahu and Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island. These "trips" include a discussion of remote sensing as well as images of interesting local features. "http://www.satlab.hawaii.edu/space/hawaii/index.html"
Though not an official site by any means, the Egyptian Gallery does bring to your monitor the spirit of Egypt, ancient and modern. Hany Nagib has whipped up a fine blend of culture and sights in a well thought out, crisp manner. Egyptiana from popular music to bedouins to the focal Nile are present, as are the expected ancient splendors. If you want more classical Egyptian history, Hany provides links to a selection of online museum and research collections. "http://www.mordor.com/hany/egypt/egypt.html"
TAKE A VIRTUAL TRIP TO THE PHILIPPINES
It's just like it sounds. The Philippines Page brings you to the Philippine Islands, spotlighting literature, music, cuisine, and travel opportunities. And if this celebration of Filipino culture and history isn't enough for you, links to most other Philippine-related URLs are available, too. "http://www.europa.com/~ria/pinoy.html"
A new Web site "down under" has an interesting history of the design and building of Australia's capital city, Canberra (betcha thought it was Sydney). It also includes info on tourism, technology and business, and cultural events and attractions. Even more info on Australian tourism can be found at the second URL below. "http://acslink.net.au/~tomw/actgov.html" "http://tourism.gov.au/welcome.html"
SEARCHABLE USENET NEWS PERL SCRIPT
Paul Gillingwater has designed a series of Perl scripts for Netscape which fetch all newsgroups and their descriptions, and make it available for keyword searching and browsing. The experiment may be found under the "News Demon" link at: "http://www.austria.eu.net/paul/index.html"
CHRIS'S WEB CD PLAYER AT YOUR MERCY
Chris Gregg allows Web visitors to select what his CD player plays. Avail yourself of the opportunity to be the deus ex machina that makes him pay for his mistake. "http://ec68.residence.gatech.edu/~chris"
U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES DOCUMENT SERVICE
The National Archives and Records Administration has a list of what's available to the public - stuff like the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection register and the more mundane. Some of the docs are even available at the Gopher URL. "http://www.nara.gov/" gopher://gopher.nara.gov
HTML CHECKER RELEASES NEW VERSION
An update to the htmlchek HTML error checker program has been released, raising the version number to 4.1. Docs: "http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh/htmlchek.html" htmlchek 4.1: "ftp://ftp.cs.buffalo.edu/pub/htmlchek/"
AL-ANON AND ALATEEN WWW PAGE AND LISTSERV
Al-Anon and Alateen (for younger members) are worldwide programs for concerned families and friends of alcoholics. The Web page explains how to get in touch. Subscribe to the listserv by e-mailing "Listproc@solar.rtd.utk.edu" with the message "SUBSCRIBE al-anon firstname lastname". "http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~al-anon/"
Not much more to say, really. Other than bad fish puns. We'll spare you. "http://www.northcoast.com/cgi-bin/fishtime"
WEB SITE CATALOGUES "NEWSLTR" MAILING LIST
The "newsltr" mailing list delivers various newsletters concerning the Net, and MIDnet maintains a multi-field searchable database containing the announcements. "http://www.mid.net/NEWSLETTER"
The latest covers and tables of contents of 203 print magazines concerning computers; sports; science; electronic and computer games; and music and entertainment. Updated every Monday. "http://www.mag-browse.com/"
The site, a sanctioned entity of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, wants to become THE source of diabetes information. "http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/diaknow/index.htm"
...AND A MORE GENERAL MEDICAL PAGE
The SANTEL-WEB server provides health-care professionals and students a starting point for Web surfing to medical pages as well as relevant software. "http://www.crpht.lu/SANTEL/home.html"
The Discovery Channel, an American cable channel devoted to science and discovery, has launched a site designed to help teachers and students devise innovative uses of its programming. "http://ericir.syr.edu/Discovery/" "gopher://ericir.syr.edu:70/11/Ed/Discoverya"
JUST HOT SOFTWARE OR IS IT...SATAN?
SATAN is probably the hottest piece of free software available on the Net right now. In case you missed the stories in the media (cover of Information Week no less), SATAN is a tool to help systems administrators recognize several common networking-related security problems. It reports the problems without actually exploiting them. You will need Perl 5.0 to run SATAN. This Web page lists numerous FTP sites where SATAN is available, and answers FAQs. SATAN: "http://www.fish.com/dan/satan.html" Perl 5: "http://www.metronet.com/perlinfo/perl5.html"
WEBSPACE: THE 3-D FUTURE OF THE WEB
In the middle of the interminable Web page editors and site providers populating the recent Internet World conference, one product stood head and shoulders above the others, both in terms of technical virtuosity and promise for the future. WebSpace is a browser, much like Mosaic or Netscape, except that it enables you to netsurf around in a graphically rich, three-dimensional Web space. This product interacts with 3-D Web spaces designed using VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). Think of it as Doom for the Web. Pre-release versions of this browser for all major platforms will be available at the end of April. Meanwhile, this site has a graphic shot, VRML sites, file formats, and other product info. This is the technical future of the web, folks, so pay attention. "http://www.sgi.com/Products/WebFORCE/WebSpace/"
WEB DEVELOPMENT REFERENCE SITE AVAILABLE AT THE VIRTUAL LIBRARY
The WWW Virtual Library section on Web Development has over 1,000 links to sites with information of interest. Whatever you want to know about the World Wide Web can probably be found in one of the sites pointed to by their extensive topical list. This site makes it quick and easy to find sites containing more information. "http://www.stars.com/Vlib/"
CONTRIBUTE TO THE ENIAC VIRTUAL MUSEUM
This museum site is looking for contributors to what promises to be a terrific exhibition on the history of computing. It is being developed in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the announcement of ENIAC, widely acknowledged as the first real computer in the modern sense. They are looking for images, old technical documents, historical essays, links to Web sites on the history of computing, and so on. Check out the documentation for the upcoming Web-based ENIAC simulator. We can't wait for the exhibits to open, and urge everyone who has some interest in, or knowledge of the history of computing to contribute. Contribute: "http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~museum/museum_cguide.html" Museum: "http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~museum/overview.html"
NOVELL NOT YET AND VIDEO CAM ELSEWHERE
In issue #14 we erroneously reported that Novell had released Internet Publisher, a program which includes a template for HTML creation. The product is not yet available, and won't be until later this year. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. In the same issue we mangled the quirky video cam URL for "One Man's Voyeurism Is Another's Art". The correct URL should have been: "http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/~hutch"
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