This week’s websites range from golf and opinionated movie reviews to
a money tree and stories by kids.
Leaf Peeping. It’s the time of year when many Americans’
thoughts turn toward fall foliage. Where are the leaves the prettiest
and when will they reach their peak in various areas? Several websites
give you the answers. The StormFax Guide to Fall
Foliage not only links you to leaf update sites for the states that
have them, but also gives you all the toll-free foliage hotlines.
The Weather Channel’s fall foliage report page
makes you click more to get to the information, but is comprehensive.
Instead of offering just New Hampshire, for instance, you can choose
among five regions of the state. If you have Real Player installed on
your computer, you can also hear the reports and see 360-degree images
of what’s being talked about.
Vermont has a foliage cam so you don’t
even have to visit the state to see the leaves changing.
1000
Inns offers American Indian legends about why and how leaves change.
More Search Options. For all but the simplest searches, the
ability to search multiple sites at once is a must. A recent site that
does this is The Big Hub. It will
submit your search to Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, Web
Crawler and Hot Bot. But probably its best feature is the ability to do
specialty searches in the areas of business, news, health, travel and
many other topics. If you take the time to poke around, you’ll probably
discover sources you didn’t know existed.
Since you never know what a Web search might turn up, many parents
prefer that their offspring use a search engine that’s just for kids.
One you might not have discovered yet is Searchopolis.
Once Upon A Time. At KidPub, youngsters can enjoy any
of 36,000 stories written by other kids from around the world, or can
add their own creative paragraph to a never-ending collaborative tale.
Fore! Anyone who took the time to access all the golf sites on
the Net would never have time to tee off. But visiting a few now and
again can help improve your game. Golf
Guide lets you ask two pros questions or you can go to their
individual pages on the site to read mini tutorials on various aspects
of the game (handicaps, for example).
Mr. Golf also lets
you ask questions and read the answers to what other people have asked.
He also presents lots and lots of golf jokes and, for those
new to the links, a golf etiquette primer.
Golfing Resources is the
most commercial of the group, but it offers free stuff, tips from their
pro and an online registry of your hole-in-one.
Meet the “patron saint of golf” — St. Duffer.
Who Says Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees? It does at TreeLoot. The odds aren’t great (but
certainly not any worse than the lottery) and you have to read a bunch
of ads (you also have to be 19 or older), but click on a money tree at
the site and see if you win a couple of bucks — or $25,000. There’s no
fee to pay — if you win, this is a free lunch.
Your Home. Although the site is sponsored by Honeywell, and
likes to recommend its products, the new Your Home Expert Web offers
some good solutions to home problems.
Bug Olympians. Speaking of the greatest, the University of
Florida has compiled an online Book of Insect Records
It tells you which insect is the fastest flier, lays the smaller eggs,
is heaviest, loudest and most heat- or cold-tolerant. This is the spot
to learn that Australian tiger beetles are the insect kingdom’s fastest
runners, covering ground at a clip of 5.6 mph.
Digital TV. Ready or not, government-mandated digital TV is
going to be a fact of life. Analog
2 Digital tries to make sense of going digital.
Is America prepared and willing to fight and win a war?
Ron Boat