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week 40:

1000 journals

The1000 journals lproject is an independent, privately funded social experiment. It is an attempt to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels, to see where they go, and what people do with them.

The Roy Lichtenchtein foundation

Established in withthe wishes of the artist and his immediate family, this private operating foundation aspires to encourage and support a broader understanding of the art of Lichtenschtein (1923-1997) and of the contemporary art and artists of his time.

World History

World History consists of some 400 separate histories and 4000 tagged events. Choose "Histories" to read a chosen subject, and to move seamlessly from one history to another. Try "Tours" to travel through time on your own selection of interconnecting trails. Use "What When Where" to discover what was going on at any moment in time.

Internet Society

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a professional membership society with more than 150 organization and 11,000 individual members in over 182 countries. It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

Noodle Tools    

NoodleTools is a suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and professionals with their online research. From selecting a search engine and finding some relevant sources, to citing those sources in MLA or APA style. An efficient tool for students or researchers.


week 39:

The Schoyen collection

The Schøyen Collection comprises most types of manuscripts from the whole world spanning over 5000 years. It is the largest private manuscript collection formed in the 20th century. The whole collection, MSS 1-4517, comprises 12,536 manuscript items, including 2,083 volumes. 6,178 manuscript items are from the ancient period, 3200 BC - 500 AD; 3,848 are from the medieval period, 500 - 1500; and 2,510 are post-medieval. Never before there has been formed a collection with such variety geographically, linguistically, textually, and of scripts, writing materials, etc., over such a great span of time as 5 millennia.

The Glenn Gould archive

This site was developed by the National Library of Canada which is the official repository of the archives of the late concert pianist, Glenn Gould. A supremely gifted artist and Canada's most renowned classical musician of the 20th century, Gould was a recording artist, radio and television broadcaster and producer, writer and an outspoken apologist for the electronic media. Visitors to this site will find a virtual exhibition drawn from his archival papers, a look at the National Library's audio archival tapes available using RealAudio, two searchable databases of the National Library's Glenn Gould Papers, research aids such as two chronologies, a Gould bibliography, lists of films, videos and radio broadcasts made by and about Gould, selections of writings by Gould and writings about Gould, works of art and of poetry inspired by him, and links to other related internet sites.

NASA visible Earth

The purpose of NASA's Visible Earth is to provide a consistently updated, central point of access to the superset of NASA's Earth science-related images, animations, and data visualizations. Simply the best and largest searchable database of images and videos of the Earth. Common jpeg as well as very (very) high resolution pictures are available. Browsing can be made by topic, or using a powerful search engine.

Old Computers museum

The site of reference for those of us who started their computer mania with an Amstrad, a Vic-20, a C64 or God knows what else. More than 600 computers are referenced in this efficient site, the elephant cemetary of personal computing.

Shadow Crew    

Identity theft is one of the most widespread cyber crime. By entering this site and reading the forum and vendors sections, you can see how anyone can obtain a new identity and a new life, including a fresh passport, credit rating, bank account, telephone number... And how the most sophisticated hologram-protected IDs can be forged. Beware, this site belongs to the underground Internet, and laws of your country might not permit you to enter it without risk.


week 38:

The last expression

Designed by the Mary and Leigh Bloch museum of art, this site offers a great insight on the numerous works of art that were produced in Auschwitz.

Zen koans

These japanese koans, or parables, were translated into English from a book called the Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and Sand), written late in the thirteenth century by the Japanese Zen teacher Muju, and from anecdotes of Zen monks taken from various books published in Japan around the turn of the 20th century.

Klassiknet

Just as great wines have their great years, so works of music have their "vintage" recordings which are of major historical significance and establish the standards by which all other recorded performances are judged. The comparison stops there because the shelf-price of a great recording is most often the same as a mediocre one. Over 500 new releases come on to the market each month. Unless you are a specialist, who knows the real value of what's in the bins. Building a coherent record library can therefore be a daunting task, not to say very expensive if you get it wrong! Klassiknet's 101 Best proposes a collection of vintage recordings worthy of the most demanding connoisseur.

Slow wave

Slow Wave is a collective dream diary authored by different people from around the world, and drawn as a comic strip by Jesse Reklaw. A new strip is uploaded every Saturday.

Guggenheim virtual projects    

The NYC Guggenheim is hosting a permanent exhibition of web art and projects, along with a clerverly designed virtual museum.


week 37:

The Schubert archive

The official site of the Schubert foundation. Just about everything that one can find on Schubert without infringing copyrights laws is there. Beautiful Flash site.

Solar system simulator

This truly awesome site was set-up by NASA a few months ago to give neophytes and students a better feeling of the solar system. With this interface, it is possible to watch, say, a computer-rendered sunset over Mars, at any given date, or any celestial body of the solar system, still or in motion.

Symbols.com

Symblos.com is the largest internet database of graphic symbols. SYMBOLS.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti.

BBC oral history

Discover the power of oral history in this vivid documentation of everyday life throughout Britain during the 20th and 21st Centuries.

The supercomputing portal    

According to the founder of this site, “our goal is to document as many of the world’s installed High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems as possible, and make the data available for free to the entire HPC community.” Useful as a gateway to supercomputing news.


week 36:

Ansel Adams at 100

Developed in conjunction with the exhibition Ansel Adams at 100, previously shown at the San Fransisco MOMA last January, this program provides insights into the history and world of ideas behind Adams' photography.

Tinfoil

Listen to early recorded sounds taken directly from the original wax cylinders, in the ancient age of sound recording history.

Greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century

How many of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements will you use today? A car? Computer? Telephone? Explore our list of the top 20 achievements, and learn how engineering shaped a century and changed the world

Goofresh

Google offers a date-based syntax, but you can only access it via the advanced search, which limits your time options, or the daterange: syntax, which uses Julian dates and is a bit difficult to use. This form is a way to search for sites added today, yesterday, within the last seven days, or last 30 days.

The museum of hoaxes    

Deception has been used throughout history for many purposes. From the donation of Constantine (750 AD) to the fake Garcia Marquez farewell poem (May 2000). This site gives a pretty good insight of these attempts. Good week-end or lunch break reading.


week 35:

WBD took a break and went to the Riviera.


week 34:

Spam Radio

Spamradio is using spam as an art form. Received emails are turned into a streaming audio broadcast, dictated automatically using a speech engine, and mixed with music.

Crossfade

The San Fransisco museum of modern art has developped an interactive art within its site. Crossfade features regular internet exhibitions. This week, I recommend Atau Tanaka's history of japanese sound.

Astronomy picture of the day

Simply the best site for astronomy on the internet - as far as I know. For each one of the thousands of picture is a detailed describtion, stuffed with hyperlinks explaining key terms to neophytes. A pure delight.

The Prime Pages

Prime numbers have always fascinated mathematicians. This site is entirely devoted to them, and features the latest discoveries in this field, including Mersennes primes.

Keep your secrets    

This controversional web site provides guidelines and techniques for keeping your personal life private. The techniques and guidelines on this web page cover many aspects of keeping information secret, keeping physical objects secret (hidden and secure), and keeping your activities private. Recently added, are sections about keeping your private life from becoming public because of lax governmental protections and/or active intrusions by public and commercial entities.


week 33:

The academy of American poets

The Academy of American Poets was founded is the largest organization dedicated to poetry in the US. It maintains one of the liveliest and most comprehensive poetry sites on the Internet.

The Gutemberg bible

The British library has put the unique Gutemberg bible online. The level of digitalisation is impressive. Fast connexions only.

Eye witness

History through the eyes of those who lived it. From the ancient world to the present, accounts of everyday life, as well as major historical events. A great amount of audio and pictures.

How stuff works

This site will tell you, from the basics to the complicated, the inner mechanisms of living things and objects. From lockpicks to jet engines, spiders and recession.A bit of a scruffy site, but the content is worth it.

The vaults of Erowid    

Erowid.org is an online library of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals and related topics. The information on the site is a compilation of the experiences, words, and efforts of hundreds of individuals including users, parents, health professionals, doctors, therapists, chemists, researchers, teachers, and lawyers.


week 32:

Modern living

A great interactive art show by little web genius, Han Hoogerbruge.

World lecture hall

World Lecture Hall is an entry point to free online course materials from around the world. From the Center for Instructional Technologies, based at The University of Texas.

Internet 2

Internet2 is a consortium regrouping over 190 universities, in partnership with industry and government to develop advanced network applications and technologies, tomorrow's Internet.

The White House: economic statistics briefing room

The purpose of this service is to provide easy access to current US economic indicators. All the estimates for the indicators presented in the Federal Statistics Briefing Rooms are the most currently available values.

Electro-acoustic music at Darmouth College    

A very interesting interdisciplinary degree program dedicated to work that explores the interrelationships among music, technology, cognitive and computer science, acoustics, and related disciplines. Check out the sounds gallery for examples of music.


week 31:

Medieval illustrated manuscripts

This database contains all kinds of information about the illuminated medieval manuscripts of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum. A beautiful collection. Fast connexions or patience needed.

The Engelbart demo

On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface. You've read right: the year was 1962. Fast connexions only. But if you are interested enough by the topic, you probably have a decent connexion :)

Federation of American Scientists

Founded in 1945 by atomic scientists of the Manhattan Project, the Federation of American Scientists is dedicated to the responsible use of science and technology. FAS engages in analysis and public education on a broad range of science, technology, and public policy issues, including weapons nonproliferation and information technologies. This site is must-read for your everyday or advanced geopolitics fan.

Namebase

NameBase is an index of people influential in politics, the military, intelligence, crime, business, and the media since WWII. One of the best search tools on the web, especially when you wish to find links between certain people, using the "proximity search" tool.

Android world     

This very thourough site is devoted to androids. An android is an anthropomorphic robot - i.e. a robot that looks like a human. Also a gateway to many organisations and corporations working in the AI field.


week 30:

The shape of song

With this stunning graphical tool, you can spot the patterns of a wide selection of music pieces, and even submit your own midi files.

I was a negro in the South for 30 days

He was really a nationally famous journalist. And though none of the 150 black men and women gathered in the old Midway A.M.E. Zion Church that pleasant Sunday afternoon in 1948 knew it, "Brother Crawford" was not really a Negro at all. He was a white man masquerading as one.

Middle East media translated

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Google Zeitgeist

Google Zeitgeist is updated frequently to reflect lists, graphs,and other tidbits of information related to Google's users search behavior.

American antigravity     

Lifter technology is a method of producing directional thrust using an electromagnetic propulsion system that has no moving parts. This could be considered the effective equivalent, or "effective" Antigravity for the purpose of future vehicular transportation.


week 29:

Willing to try

A beautiful animated Flash trip, with a very arty but minimalistic touch. From the Try Group, an organisation seeking new methods of learning.

The real 13 days

All the recently declassified documents on the Cuban missile crisis. Including passionating sound clips of JFK talking with key staff on several stages of the thirteen day crisis that nearly brought the world to an end. A must see.

The way of the samurai

"The way of the samurai is found in death" would be one way to summarise this book. But it is full of other thoughts, sometimes relating to Zen.

Echelon: EU official report

Communications intelligence (Comint) involving the covert interception of foreign communications has been practised by almost every advanced nation since international telecommunications became available. Comint is a large-scale industrial activity providing consumers with intelligence on diplomatic, economic and scientific developments. The capabilities of and constraints on Comint activity may usefully be considered in the framework of the "intelligence cycle"

Computational capacity of the universe     

According to this study, the universe, like any system, has processed a finite amount of information - measured in bits - since the Big Bang. Very technical, even though the physics are not mind-threatening difficult.