Full Screen Weather : Weather Underground
http://www.wunderground.com/auto/wxmap/
Weather Underground offers screen-size weather maps which provide local temperatures, conditions, and other information.
Railroads and the Making of Modern America
This is a digital history project from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that “explores the dynamic social change that came between 1850 and 1900 with the growth of railroads, telegraphs, steam ships and other technologies”–from the website.
Historic Bridges of the United States
This site offers a wealth of information about bridges past and present. Most entries include history, descriptions, photos, inspection and any other pertinent details. Very easy to search or browse.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator’s Fact Book
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/aba/admin_factbook/
The Fact Book provides data and statistics for aviation accidents and incidents, airports activity, air traffic activity, industry trends, employment and more.
December Is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
http://www.stopimpaireddriving.org/HolidayPlanner/
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration offers this web site with multimedia tools and other information to help communities support their law enforcement agencies’ enforcement of impaired driving laws during the holidays.
Travel Etiquette
http://www.traveletiquette.co.uk/
This site offers over 70 articles with explanations of local customs and traditions for various countries and geographic areas. There is also a very useful section for general travel information.
WorldTimeServer.com
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/
“Are you about to make an International long distance phone call? Are you planning a trip to a foreign destination? Are you preparing for a web cast or online meeting? Are you looking for a free clock for your own web site or blog? Just want to know what time it is? The Internet can bring locations around the world together, but with each place having different times, World Time Server is here to help!”–From the Web site.
FluTracker
Thanks to Audrey May (LINC) for suggesting this site:
http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/
Visual representations of the spread of swine flu, created using data from official and local sources. Includes number of cases per country and differentiates between suspected, confirmed and fatal cases.
Free Foreign Language Lessons
www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html
This is a fairly comprehensive list of sources for free language lessons, generally in the form of podcasts. Most are beginner-level, but some of the more popular languages have much more in-depth lessons. And, of course, there’s always the “Nightly News in Latin.”
America.gov
From the Scout Report: “Created by the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), the purpose of the America website is to deliver information about current U.S. Policy an d U.S. life and culture to international audiences. The site brings together video programs, radio broadcasts, interviews with officials, and other media to accomplish this feat. First-time visitors can take a look at the six primary sections on the site to start their explorations, or they can also click on the section titled ‘World Regions’ to look at materials that deal with the United States’ involvement in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. The site also contains interactive quizzes and information about travel and visa information and U.S. embassies around the world.”
>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2009. http://scout.wisc.edu/
FreeLargePhotos.com
With some reasonable restrictions, these are free large photographs available for personal use or for use on a web site. To use a photograph to promote a product for sale or to promote your business or organization you need to contact the publisher for permission and there will be a fee. There are over 2,600 images available.
Name Pronunciation Guide
This is a wonderful tool for business folk or anyone who has ever stumbled over a foreign name. How To Say That Name.com allows the user to listen to a quick sound file of a native speaker saying given names and surnames. Of course, not every name in the world is included, but an impressive number are!
Personal Emissions Calculator — Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html
“Use this online calculator to obtain an estimate of your personal greenhouse gas emissions or your family’s greenhouse gas emissions. Then move on to the next section of the calculator to explore actions you and/or your family can take to lower your emissions while reducing your energy and waste disposal costs. For each action you choose to take, the calculator displays the amount of emissions you could avoid and how that amount relates to your total emissions.”–From the web site.
National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) and 811
http://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/
Thanks to Caroline Barnett, Cordova Branch Library Manager, for passing these two sites along:
NPMS — “The National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) is a geographic information system (GIS) created by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) in cooperation with other federal and state governmental agencies and the pipeline industry. The NPMS consists of geospatial data, attribute data, public contact information, and metadata pertaining to the interstate and intrastate gas and hazardous liquid transmission pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, and hazardous liquid breakout tanks jurisdictional to PHMSA.”–From the website.
811 — “A new, federally-mandated national “Call Before You Dig” number, 811 was created to help protect you from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines while working on digging projects. People digging often make risky assumptions about whether or not they should get their utility lines marked due to concerns about project delays, costs and previous calls about other projects. These assumptions can be life-threatening.”– From the web site. 811 is the number you should call before beginning any digging project.
Alternative and Advanced Fuels
The U. S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office offers information on alternative fuels such as natural gas, hydrogen, methane, and others that are currently, or have been, available commercially for vehicles, as well as information on other emerging alternative fuels, such as biogas, biobutanol and others.
There is other information including information on alternative fueling stations, which includes a station locator, a route mapper, a view of alternative fueling stations in the U. S., total station counts, and a customer database query, which allows you to search a database for specific fuels in specific states or throughout the U. S.
