News hacks and info junkies

This week’s journey through the Web World will take you through The
New York Times of 1876, an unusual museum and a couple of resource-rich
sites put up for reporters. Along the way, the kids can stop off at
Hanukkah sites, since the Festival of Lights begins Friday evening.

Reporters’ Resources. Because print and electronic media use
the Net frequently to get background on stories and to find sources,
they often have a page of links to quickly take them to useful sites.
These are just as valuable to the general public, when they can be
accessed, because they put a lot of research in one spot.

One such page is AssignmentEditor, for the news
staff of WBBM-TV in Chicago. From this page you can connect to multiple
search engines, yellow and white pages, newspapers, network news, an
extensive collection of online maps, list of child predators, magazines,
travel information and scores of other sites.

Not as well organized, but just as resource-rich is Jeff Porter’s
Useful Links for Journalists at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in
Little Rock.

Britannica — Finally. Of course, a good encyclopedia is one
of the best beginning sources of all when you’re searching for
information. After all the hoopla of Encyclopedia Britannica going online
(and crashing from too much traffic), the site is finally operational.
It looks like a portal (complete with annoying pop-up ads), offering the
day’s top news, today in sports and business and a number of categories
you can click on (from arts and books to travel and technology).

But the full encyclopedia is there and it was worth waiting for. It’s
fully interactive and includes even more than the text of what’s
considered the most authoritative encyclopedia in English. There’s the
Books in Print database, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and
selected articles from more than 70 top magazines and publications.

Headline News. CNN has an entire cable channel devoted to it,
but if you’re not near a TV and just have to know the latest news, First Headlines gives you about 150
of them, divided by topic. Great for news junkies or when you need all
the details you can find on a particular item that’s making news.

Presidential Politics. Talk about specialization. Primary Diner is devoted strictly
to news about the upcoming presidential primaries. It includes a list of
the primary schedule, the latest news and headlines, speeches, polls and
an opportunity to fill out a voter registration form. This is the place
to go when you’ve heard in the news about a candidate’s latest New
Hampshire commercial or stump speech and would like to read it for
yourself instead of accepting someone else’s interpretation.

Learn To Speak English. Well, you already know how, or you
couldn’t be reading this. The same is true of the Free English website. There you have
to know a bit about downloading to your computer, as well as English.
But if you know someone from another country who needs to learn to speak
English, and you can help them get connected, the site is very helpful.
It offers quizzes, games, spelling bees and chat as well as instruction
in English for those who speak another language.

Signs Of The Times. Earlier this year, the National Signs of
the Times Museum came into being. Its website tells you where you can find
vintage signs as you travel (collections can be found from Pennsylvania
to Vancouver). Online you can see examples of vintage signs — from a
huge neon ad for a movie theater to simpler signs painted on the sides
of grocery trucks and atop barn roofs (remember See Rock City and Mail
Pouch tobacco?).

Oh, Canada. Anyone who needs to look into Canadian history has
a fabulous resource on the Net. Early
Canadiana Online has put online more than 650,000 full-text pages
(from 3,000 books and leaflets) dealing with Canadian history, starting
with the first European visitors. And they’re searchable (in French and
English).

Custer’s Last Stand. Speaking of history, it’s fascinating to
see how a now-famous event was covered in the daily news at the time.
One example of this is The New York Times’ coverage of the battle of Little
Big Horn.

Festival Of Lights. Some good Hanukkah sites for youngsters:
Hanukkah at Billy Bear’s Playground, The Hanukkah House, Torah Tots
Chanukah Fun & Games, Hanukkah
activities and The Festival of
Lights

Going Places. Winter’s a great time to plan next year’s
vacation or even a getaway for when the weather gets cold and snowy. A
great starting point is the Rec.Travel Library. Want to
contact government tourist offices for other countries? You’ll find a
list of them. Considering pedal power? Bicycle travel has its own
section. So do freighter travel, train travel, cruises and the
continents/major regions of the world (including Antarctica). This is
also the spot to find travelogues and advice from those who’ve been
wherever it is that you’re going.