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Editable Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
One of the most remarkable online
encyclopedias on the Web! All the content is free, in the public domain,
and quotable. Wikipedia is maintained by an army of volunteers. Even so,
its content remains of very high quality. Wikipedia is a good example of
how the Web can function at is best! Be sure to visit whenever you have
any question that an encyclopedia might help you answer. You might be
surprised how often Wikipedia will come through for you!
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Impress your friends with synonyms
for "grandiloquent," search the encyclopedia, or test your vocabulary
with the daily crossword puzzle—all at Dictionary.com. The partner site,
thesaurus.com, is also worth checking out when you need that perfect
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From the mundane to the sublime: Learn
how everything works, from batteries and Krispy Kreme bakeries to credit
and debt, roller coasters, and Earth itself.
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The Library of
Congress
LOC
The Library of Congress makes the
resources of the
world's largest library even more available to the public through its
Web site. The site is organized into special feature sections covering
different aspects of American history. It also offers resources to fit
your specific needs and has an "Ask a Librarian" section to answer all
your reference questions.
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Explore. Discover. Learn. The National
Geographic Web site provides a wealth of in-depth and comprehensive
information about our earthly home. Travel to ancient, once-powerful
empires or learn about newly discovered plant species from the Amazon by
using the site's interactive features and viewing the awe-inspiring
photos.
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See What you Hear
PBS
If PBS's 1,300 programs and specials
haven't quenched your thirst for knowledge, PBS supplements its regular
over-the-air programming with over 175,000 Web pages that allow you to
delve deeper into the subject at hand.
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Virtual Library
VLIB
Virtual Library relies on a consortium of
experts around the world to present the richest content available on the
Web in a broad range of subject areas.
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Expert Village is a repository of all
sorts of useful (or useless) info, put together by experts, freelance
writers, and even a video team. Get help fixing your leaky faucet, watch
a video on kickboxing technique, or become a better soccer dribbler.
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Smithsonian Institution
SI
The Smithsonian Institution site has
pages for its numerous museums and research centers, resources for
children, information about exhibits and events, and interactive
features on a wide range of topics related to science, art, and history.
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Hidden, Lost, or
Forgotten
TheMemoryHole
The Memory Hole exists to bring hidden,
lost, or forgotten info to light by way of posting documents on its home
page. Check out reports such as the one detailing Pfizer's efforts to
create chemical and biological weapons for the U.S. government in the
1960s, or another from the 1950s on evidence of ESP in animals. There's
plenty of content on the site, so you're sure to find something that
piques your curiosity.
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Quotes Database
QuoteDB
"Life is ours to be spent, not to be
saved," said author D.H. Lawrence. So make sure you spend your time at
QuoteDB. You'll find a database of over 4,000 famous quotations in 60
categories, from Dave Barry and Hunter S. Thompson to Emily Dickinson
and Leonardo da Vinci. Get your daily fix with the Quote of the Day,
peruse recently added quotes, or add quotes to your Web site with the
Quote Generator.
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Led by National Geographic, My Wonderful
World is dedicated to teaching parents, educators, and kids about
geography. Test your global IQ, participate in family activities, print
a wall map of the world, and more. You can even write to lawmakers to
urge them to support education and educating students about the world.
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This online reference lets you look up
common definitions as well as medical, legal, computer, and financial
terminology, along with antonyms, synonyms, and idioms. The fun doesn't
end with looking up words, either. The Web site has plenty of extras,
including news alerts, word games, RSS feeds, and a customizable
homepage.
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Answers to Everything
Answers
Type in "sunscreen" and you'll be
presented with not only its meaning, but also sun protection, history,
translations, and buying links. Described as the world's greatest "encyclodictionalmanacapedia,"
Answers.com is a useful resource with over three million answers in
categories such as health, technology, and history. |
About Everything
About
More practical than a typical reference site and
more reliable and consistent than Wikipedia, About.com has a boatload of
articles on a wide range of topics, and the whole project is overseen by
a panel of expert contributors. It's easy to spend hours browsing the
site and finding answers to questions you've always (or never) had.
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The Internet
Public Library
IPL
The IPL is the first public library for
the Internet community. It has a huge collection of Web resources split
into several broad categories, as well as the full text of over 20,000
books, available for free. And if you can't find what you're looking
for, IPL's free "Ask a Question" service lets you ask its trained global
staff, who will find the sources you need.
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Librarians' Internet
Index
LII
Librarians' Internet Index is a publicly
funded content portal and weekly newsletter that points to an extensive
collection of quality sites covering a variety of topics. You can read
the newsletter by e-mail, RSS, or on its Web page, which also has a
searchable database of over 20,000 entries organized into 14 main topics
and nearly 300 related topics, all maintained by a stable of librarians.
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Welcome to slang heaven. Definitions are
contributed by users—hence the site's slogan, "Define Your World." And
there's a ton of them. On a Saturday in July, for example, the site
claimed over 2,000 new entries. Go to this hilarious site, bone up on
some new urban vocabulary, and then bust it out on your friends, family,
and coworkers. Fo' shizzy.
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Double-Tongued Word
Wrester Dictionary
DoubleTongued
The Double-Tongued Word Wrester
Dictionary highlights words and phrases that you may not have heard
before, with a specialty in slang and fringe English. Citations of usage
in the media are included, in case you doubted that a word like "Septoctnocember"
was ever really used.
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Wondering why pigeons bob their heads
when they walk? Or why prices always end in .99? Maybe you've got a
burning need to find out how lava lamps work. The Straight Dope has an
archive of over 30 years of answers to questions like these and more,
plus an active and engaging user message board dedicated to fighting
ignorance wherever it should rear its ugly head.
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The folks at ScienceDaily keep you up to
date on a wide variety of scientific fields with the latest research
news. They cover everything from recent medical findings to new cosmic
discoveries, and the site aggregates gobs and gobs (and gobs) of content
from the various scientific fields.
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Are you Gullible?
Gullible
Head to Gullible.info for your daily dose
of, er, trivia. The factoids are brilliant, but are they real? The site
never divulges, but its name is Gullible.info—you tell us.
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You've got your choice of search engines
if you're looking online for articles. Photos and graphics are easy
enough to find with Google or Yahoo Images. But what if you're looking
for sounds? Let's say you need to find the hoot of a barn owl or the
grind of a jackhammer. FindSounds is designed for just that kind of
search. Scouring the Web for AIFF, AU, and WAV files, the site provides
a list of search results. Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound,
or choose the Sounds Like icon to get a new list, with sounds that are
related to the one you've chosen.
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Where can you go to learn about the
English language from a British point of view? Point your mouse to World
Wide Words. Written by author Michael Quinion, the site serves up a
large collection of his articles, Q&As, reviews, and explanations of
topical words and weird words. For instance, you'll learn that the term
"blue moon" didn't always mean something that happens rarely; it used to
refer to two full moons in one month. The next years in which this will
happen are 2018 and 2037. But you knew that.
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The Web's public library, Project
Gutenberg offers free e-book versions of public-domain works. A
distributed staff of thousands of volunteers transcribe, proofread,
convert, and translate the books, which now number over 18,000.
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Click
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