Interesting Stuff

Here are videos, notes, and links to various things I have discovered or located during my work. No particular commentary or opinion is being expressed by me. I found this interesting, thought-provoking, or just fun. That's it...

Lists and Miscellaneous

• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience. Both past and present topics.
• Grammarly (The World's Best Grammar Checker--their quote). An automated proofreader and your personal grammar coach. Correct up to 10 times more mistakes than popular word processors. It is not the ultimate force in proofing, but it will help considerably (still use your eyes and the eyes of others with skills).
• Demonyms. What are people called from a country or place? Selected list (not complete; limited to website's use).
• First Name. Find anything you want to know about a first name, including famous people with that name, songs with the name, and other reasons the name is known.
• Lists of Minor Fictional Characters. Wikipedia page linking to lists of characters in numerous books and television shows, etc. Even has a list of Barbi's (doll) friends and relations.
• Perpetual Calendar Calculator. Choose month and year; displays calendar.
• Lord of the Rings Scenery Site. Want to model architecture, sculpture, or terrain from the stories? Beautiful pictures to assist modeling. Has download section with plans for constructing various items. Create your own Argonath, or Watcher in the Water, or Orthanc.

Google Searches

• London Architecture Photography. Beautiful photography of London's buildings and skyline.

Atlantic Videos

• Geography of Small Talk http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/359545/how-do-you-say-hello/
• We Are Dead Stars http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/370784/we-are-dead-stars/
• What Happens Around the World in 60 Seconds http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/359066/the-frequency-of-humanity/

Archeology and Mapping

• Ancient Monument Placemarks. View a variety of archeologic sites and download map (.kmz) files showing site-specific descriptions.

Assorted Resources

• The Great War, 1914-1918. Canadian site on World War I with articles, photographs, stories, anecdotes, music, and memorial resources.
• Documentary on the M4 Sherman Tank http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlmaRvzsvw
• Russian Generals Of The Napoleonic Wars Period. Portraits and short biographies.

Color Theory and Designing with Color

• Primary Colors of Light and Pigment. Basic starting point for learning about color.
• Hue, Value, Saturation. Color is not just a set of colors. There are light, dark, intense, etc. This page provides a clear, concise description.
• Adobe Color Wheel. Make wise choices based on color principles and techniques used by artists and designers.
• Choosing Colors for Your Presentation Slides. Attributes of colors. Help in choosing colors to use in presentations.
  • Color Contrast Calculator. Determine whether two colors you are thinking of using on your slides have enough contrast to be seen clearly by the audience.
  • Testing how a slide looks to someone with color deficiency. When selecting colors, learn how to choose ones that will help persons with disabilities see your work. Color blindness is a loose term
• Color Contrast Checker (WebAIM). Enter color codes and see how they rate, in terms of display contrast. This checker will provide a rating that is easy to use.
• Coblis: Color Blindness Simulator. Referred to in the above page, this simulates various types of visual deficiencies. Additional links to color deficiency tests.
• Expert Color Choices for Presenting Data (Maureen Stone). PDF article offers help with learning color theory, enough to develop better designs and presentations.
• Combining Colors in PowerPoint: Mistakes to Avoid. Examples of color mixes that should be avoided.
• Colordot. Check and compare colors and get code for specific shades. Also compare colors. Change: Hue, Brightness, and Saturation.
• Color Palette Generator. Search for combinations of color schemes. Provides hex codes for each color.
• Picking a colour scale for scientific graphics. Tips and concepts for selecting the most readable colors to use in presentations. Includes color-disabled rules and also links to more resources.

Digitization Standards

The following are selected sources of requirements standards for scanning printed materials and artifacts, preserving recorded materials, and other forms of transfer to digital file formats.

• Best Practices and Procedures Guides (Visual Resources Association). Good starting point. Also contains links to some of the resources below.
• Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations (ALA. Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Preservation and Reformatting Section). June 2013.
• Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).
  • Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.
• Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access Creation of Production Master Files: Raster Images (National Archives). Section on images.
• Guidelines for Digitization Projects For Collections and Holdings in the Public Domain, Particularly Those Held by Libraries and Archives (IFLA).
• Digitizing Collections (Smithsonian Institution Archives).

Shakespeare 400th Anniversary

• Folger Shakespeare Library. Facsimile images of texts, plays, maps, other materials of the period. Example:
  • Book of magic, with instructions for invoking spirits, etc.
• Map of Early Modern London (MoEML). The Map of Early Modern London is comprised of four distinct, interoperable projects: a digital edition of the 1561 Agas woodcut map of London; an Encyclopedia and Descriptive Gazetteer of London people, places, topics, and terms; a Library of marked-up texts rich in London toponyms; and a versioned edition of John Stow’s Survey of London.
• Maps of London. View maps published between 1560-1666.
• Fly Through 17th Century London. Virtual fly-through of the city, particularly the Pudding Lane area, in 1666, just before the fire of London (Pudding Lane is the site of the Great Fire's origin).
• London and Environs Maps and Views. Maps showing the period of Shakespeare's life and after.
• Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT). Articles, maps, videos, and other resources on the theater world of Shakespeare's time. Includes:
  • Globe, 1599-1642. Images and diagrams, etc. on the Globe Theater.
  • Locations map and links.
  • Walking Map of London's Theaters. Routes to theaters from 1567-1642.
• Bermuda's History from 1500 to 1699. Bermuda played a major role in the colonization of English America. Text and maps show its development and effect on the expansion.

Really Random but Fun

• OnlyPencil Drawing Tutorials."Tips and Techniques for Pencil Drawing." Instructional pages on drawing from overall to small detail. The attention to drawing realistic representations is great. Examples of pages:
  • Drawing A Realistic Dog Nose
  • Drawing the Human Eye
• Drill Network. Everything you need for learning and studying drill and maneuvers of the Civil War.
• Dragon Bestiary. Dragon stories, legends, history, pictures, and also German text dragon lore.
• Italian Cookies http://noblepig.com/2008/12/italian-cookies/
• Mental Floss. Variety of articles on all sorts of mind-melting topics.
• Glass Bottle Cutting
  • Wine Bottle Cutting 30 seconds Perfect Edge Bottle Cutter. Simple, safe, and consistent method.
  • He has a follow-up video showing how the bottle holds water after cutting. Demonstrates how even the cut is.
  • This one has some ideas on what you can do with the bottles. Note the hot/cold technique is the same almost.
    
  • Video on alternate method to separate glass. Slightly different technique; not as consistent as above. Also shows good sanding ideas.
  • Doctor Who transcript excerpts. Read key pieces to episodes from the first doctor onward.

American Civil War

• Battle of Gettysburg Buff. Ignore the "buff" word. This site has resources and photos that will interest anyone who walks the fields and wants to see common and unusual spots on the field.
• Union Army Uniforms and Insignia of the Civil War. Illustrations of soldiers and equipment based on originals, photographs, and regulations.
• Original Civil War Uniforms. Photographs of original artifacts.
• Tyler Victorian Photo Album. An album of Carte-de-visite photographs from 18602-1870s. Shown original size. View more albums from Roger Vaughan Picture Library.

Maps and Mapping

• Old Maps Online.
• Maps, Atlases & Gazetteers (Ancestry.com). Map resources. Many of these are facsimiles of old maps and are very useful for research in other areas [requires Ancestry subscription to view results].
• Data Tools & Apps (U.S. Census). Before you try and buy commercial software, take a look at the free stuff from the government first and see if something there might work.
• Floating Sheep. Cartography meets social media. Serious studies of social issues using data shared by people as they tweet through their day.
• Free ZIP Code Radius Finder Application (no endorsement). With the same great features as our free Radius Search and more, the ZIP-Codes.com ZIP Code Radius Search Application lets you run as many searches as you like, right from your computer. Stand-alone, but might require you to subscribe to databases of US and Canadian postal codes to use properly.
• Prehistoric Lakes list. Wikipedia listing of ancient lakes in the world with links to pages and maps on those lakes.
• Endorheic Basins list. Also Wikipedia. This lists water basins that do not drain to the sea.
• Radius Maps for Business Planning. Build radius maps with data embedded for interactive use.
• Real Property Information for Erie County. Enter a name or address and get the parcel data for that property. Includes parcel ID, owner name, previous ownership history, assessment, taxes paid, and property data.
• Hexographer. Convert maps to hex-grid maps. Mainly for gaming purposes but has other applications.
• 4 Tools to Compare the True Size of Maps. Neat tools for comparing countries and continents. Includes:
  • MapFight. Pull-down list of countries/continents; second pull-down for comparison region. Provides numeric and map comparison
  • OverlapMaps. Compare countries, states, bodies of water, physical features
  • MapFrappe. Uses Google map overlays to compare locations; match using specific features or addresses, etc.
  • BBC Dimensions (currently down 3/9/15).
• Bing Maps: Bird's Eye View. Map using oblique satellite/high-altitude aerial photography to show more real view of ground.
• Flash Earth. Using cross-hair target, get coordinates; every time the map is moved, the target's location reveals coordinates (in DMS).
  • NASA Terra daily map views. See your site from space as it is today (or select a date to see other dates).
• OpenStreetMap maps. Link off to a variety of map tools and types; current link is to Niagara River example, but change location to wherever you want to go.
• Google Compass. Stick a compass on your screen map and make sightings.

Cartography & GIS

News

• In the News (ESRI). GIS News.
• Relevance of Cartography Series (ArcNews).

Coordinate Searching (Lat/Long; UTM; DDS)

• Mapawi. Find coordinates for cities and towns (link goes direct to NYS). [Note: this site may contain stupid pop-up ads. Too bad since its data is useful.]
• MapTechnica. Shows boundaries for administrative divisions on map (cities, towns, counties), as well as for zip codes. Can be used to search free, or buy data sets for divisions.
• Geoplaner.
• Google Maps GPS Coordinates: Latitude and longitude of an address.
• Get Latitude Longitude. Enter name of a place, city, state, or address, or click the location on the map to get lat long coordinates.
• Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to/from Decimal Degrees (FCC). Convert between latitude/longitude systems. Also has page to change NAD settings. Also has a page to Convert Lat and Long to DMS (but not in reverse).
• Convert Coordinates: Calculate a position in a variety of formats (Earth Point). Enter Lat/Long and get coordinate system of your choice. Also has a Batch Convertor in case you have input coordinates into a spreadsheet already.
• iTouchMap. Latitude and Longitude of a Point. On map, clicking a spot provides Lat/Long. You can keep adding points to get next coordinate (for perimeter marking or subsequent sites). Does not build a list; you must write down each coordinate as you plot it.

Buffalo, NY and Western New York

• City of Buffalo Street Tree Map. GIS showing every tree, by trunk diameter
• City of Buffalo Maps (from Official city site). A site search for the word "map."
• Buffalo River Watershed. Map.
• Sub-watersheds of the Niagara River Watershed (Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper / WBFO News). Map.
• Buffalo Riverwatch Monitoring sites. Map showing sites in the Niagara River watershed (includes Buffalo River and other watersheds).
• Buffalo Sewer Authority. Map showing sewer districts, other.
• Buffalo Photographs (Woj Photography). Galleries of beautiful photographs of landscape, architecture, churches, in the area. I found this when I hit his Buffalo's Houses of Worship pages.
• Scajaquada Creek Watershed
  • Scajaquada Creek Watershed Management Plan (Erie County Soil & Water). Extensive report and planning for restoration and enhancement of watershed.
  • Scajaquada Creek (Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper).
  • Scajaquada Creek. Website about the creek, history, environment.
  • Scajaquada Drain Expedition Executive Summary. Improvement schemes for cleaning up the creek.
  • Scajaquada Creek Watershed (Google search). Find more resources and new materials. Some examination of sites is necessary as not all sites provide quality data.

Erie County

• Sigalert.com Buffalo/Erie County Traffic Report. See traffic cam feeds using the map to locate them. Good for viewing weather as well.
  
• Erie County Map Gallery (Erie County Official site). Prepared maps of county, cities, and towns. GIS available at main page.
• Climate Data Online Search (NWS/NCEI). Find data on climate and weather, such as how much rain, snow, etc., and what the temp was for any day, in any U.S. station. Varies by station, but some station data goes back to 1891. Examples:
  • Erie County, NY. Lists stations. Choose your station.
    • Wales, NY.

New York Central Maps

• Historical Aerial Photographs of New York (Cornell Univ.). Six counties in the Central-West Finger Lakes Region. Digital scans of aerials from 1938, 1954, and 1960s.
• Cayuga County NYGenWeb Project. Assortment of Finger Lakes area/Central NYS maps.

Eastern United States

• Historical Maps of Pennsylvania. Maps of the region and state from the 16th to the 21st century; organized chronologically, with road maps separate.
  

Niagara Falls (City), Ontario, Canada

• Open Date Catalogue (GIS data). Data on a variety of topics, available for download and use in GIS systems.

Ciphers and Cryptography

• List of Cipher Types from the American Cryptogram Association (ACA)
• Ciphers from the Classical Era Cipher on Practical Cryptography
• LANAKI's Classical Cryptography Course
• Paper and Pencil Systems on John Savard's Cryptographic Compendium
• Classical Ciphers List on Wikipedia
• Hand Ciphers at the Crypto Museum
• Nick Pelling's Cipher Mysteries

Names and Words

• Language and Etymology. Links to online resources.
• Behind the Name. "The etymology and history of first names." Name origins and relations. Covers many languages and includes mythological names. Useful for writers. "Family Tree" maps names and variants.
• 10 Nicknames.

Plots, Characters, and More Insanity for Writers

• Characters: Appearance Generator. Create believeable characters with names, physical and mental traits, etc.
• Writing Roulette: All the Generators You'd Ever Want, Part 1. Generate writing prompts, characters, places, and other types of data to create your story and give it realness.
• Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators. Series of generators for writers.
• Seventh Sanctum. Plot generators, and other resources to create ideas and prompts to getting started with your writing. A nice list; includes movie and song idea helpers.
• WritePop. 1001 story ideas in all genres; separate pages for science fiction, horror, comics, etc. Plus writing tip pages. Example:
  • Science Fiction Story Ideas. Categorized plot starter concepts.
• Plot Generator. Fill in a series of responses and choices, then push the button and get a short plot blurb, complete with a few "praiseworthy" quotes. Partly nonsense, but interesting. Has generators for many genres, including song writing (by style). More fun than work, but you might find some ideas worth writing about. Here are categories:
  • Entire Short Story ~ Freestyle ~ Romance ~ Fantasy ~ Paranormal Romance ~ Crime ~ Horror ~ Mystery ~ Science Fiction ~ Teen Vampire ~ Bronte Sisters ~ Summertime ~ Pen Name Generator ~ Song Lyrics Generator ~ Letter Generator ~ Drabble.
• Writer's Plot Idea Generator: random story ideas. Tools for plot ideas, ways to help eliminate "blank page" blocks, writing tips, and more. Also has a "funstuff" section where you can come up with things like "science-fiction insults" and other items.
• Writing Exercises. Tools to help generate plots, improve writing, get ideas for words, names, characters, scene settings, etc. Also has exercises to stimulate creativity.
  • Children's Section. Kids can work at their level and still boost idea-making for writing.
• Fake Name Generator. This one is cool. Create a complete workup on a character, including name, height, weight, e-mail and credit card info, address, etc.
  • Bulk Identity Generator. Do you need to create thousands of minions to populate your story? This allows you to create bulk lists with characteristics as above and save them to a spreadsheet. You can create lists for specific countries/nationalities too.
• Now We Can Map Every Magical World into a Multiverse. Create a chart of the "reality/fantasy" and "good/evil" rating of your favorite other worlds.

Places to Be

• Hiking trails in the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. In Vatnajökull National Park, this canyon is intriguing and unusual. Hiking maps are available online. In the area are many other geological wonders, including:
  • Hiking trails at Ásbyrgi.
  • Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe.
  • Holuhraun: an eruption in the Bárðarbunga volcanic system. Of course ice wouldn't be as much fun without fire.
• Visit Húsavík. Near to the above locations, this northern city in Iceland is a good starting point for many things to see.

Quotation Checking

Quotes are everywhere, but how can you trust what you read? Older printed reference works provided accurate quotations with citations to the source. Now, Internet quote resources sometimes provide cites, but more often provide misinformation and mis-attributed quotes. A small number of websites offer verified quotations and some include discussions on specific quotes. Here are a selection. You must try to check sources and decide for yourself. You will be surprised at how many misquotes are made.

• Quote Investigator. Discussions of specific quotations with an analysis of their accurate attribution.
• Wikiquote. Find accurate attributions and also mis-attributions. Entries by author and by topic.

Database Creation

• EndNote Tips and Help (Univ. of Canterbury, NZ). All sorts of standard and unique tips.
  • Importing references from word, Zotero, Mendeley into EndNote
• Zotero and EndNote Resources (Univ. of Missouri).

Videos Worth Watching

• The Frightening Future of Digital Maps (Monica Stephens) TEDxEureka. How geographic perceptions are being altered by subjective online experience.
• Maps & Macroscopes: Gaining Insights from BIG Data (Katy Borner) TEDxBloomington.
• How to learn any language in six months (Chris Lonsdale) TEDxLingnanUniversity.
• Why I read a book a day (and why you should too): The Law of 33% (Tai Lopez). Tedx Talk. Mentors and ways to be something.

Internet Accuracy

• How Much of the Internet Is Reliable and Accurate? (Pew Research Center). Quick chart and data.
• Google has developed a technology to tell whether ‘facts’ on the Internet are true (Washington Post). Report on an article (Knowledge-Based Trust: Estimating the Trustworthiness of Web Sources) that theorizes a method for a computer to be able to prove the accuracy of Internet resources.
• US agency's balloon hunt tests internet accuracy (BBC). A test conducted to see how news travels based on an intitial event.
• Study in Accuracy and Use of Information on the Internet.
• Testing the Accuracy of Information on the World Wide Web Using the AltaVista Search Engine. Older article but basics are still valid.
• Internet Accuracy Project. "...works to improve the accuracy of the reference sources we all rely on. In addition to offering error corrections and clarifications, our organization is also dedicated to the presentation of thoroughly-vetted educational materials and classic literary works." Covers all sorts of data resources and includes samples of errors, accurate transcriptions of data, and various data lists that have been verified for accuracy.
• Evaluating Sources - Evaluating Information (Johns Hopkins University Libraries).
• Evaluating Internet Sources (Olson Library, Northern Michigan University).
• Evaluating Websites for Truth. One-sheet document with some tips.
• Guide to Evaluating Websites (Western Connecticut State University Library).
• Trash or Treasure?: How to Evaluate Internet Resources (presentation given at the Maryland Educational Media Organization conference, 1997). Evaluation skills do not become obsolete.
• Research Tips. Variety of techniques. Includes some videos, such as: Databases vs Google.
• Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools Olin & Uris Libraries, Cornell University).
• Web Page Evaluation Form. Helpful to check off items when assessing a website.