Thursday, June 12, 2008

New Links on our web for the week of June 12, 2008 Black History and African American Resources Famous Firsts by African Americans "List of firsts by African Americans, such as "the first African-American billionaire, combat pilot, Nobel Prize winner, poet laureate, Oscar winner, and Miss America." Browse list by category such as government (such as Barack Obama, first African American to head a major party ticket in a presidential election), law, diplomacy, military, science and medicine, scholarship, literature, film, sports, and more. Includes links to related material. From Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. Note: Generates pop-ups." (LII) Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program "Details about this National Institutes of Health program (launched in May 2008) to help patients with undiagnosed diseases by providing "answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis and ... [advancing] medical knowledge about rare and common diseases. Features information for patients and care providers, a FAQ, a press release and audio announcing the program, and related material. From the National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases." (LII) Reference Desk United States National Seismic Hazard Maps "Many persons are interested in seismic hazard maps, including geologists, everyday citizens, and persons working in the insurance and actuarial fields. This site will be of great interest to all of those persons, as it contains the national seismic hazard maps created by the United States Geological Survey. User can view the latest series of maps via their homepage, and then proceed to look over their on-line web tools that will allow individuals to assess which sources might pose the greatest hazard in a given region of the country. Along the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors will find handy resources that include "Earthquake Hazards 101" and detailed hazard maps of urban areas. Additionally, the site also includes maps which predict the median level of ground shaking from a particular scenario event and a series of maps which forecast the likelihood of an earthquake rupture occurring during an interval of time in the future. (SR) GasBuddy.com "GasBuddy.com can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. It is a network of [over] 180 gas price information web sites that helps you find low gasoline prices." "Search for prices by ZIP code." Information is member-supplied. Registration (free) required to post gas prices on most of the gas sites or to create a fuel log for tracking your expenses. Includes tips for conserving gas, links to news stories, and other resources." (LII) SafeManuals "They have copies of something over 800,000 user manuals online, covering the range from 3Com to Zyxel. You can search by model number or drill down starting with the manufacturer name (I’ve found going via manufacturer to be more reliable than their search, though). You can preview online and then download the entire manual as a PDF. They’ve saved me from tech support hassles more than once." (WWD) 11:46:33 AM

© Copyright 2008 Jocelyn Shaw. Last update: 11/18/2008; 2:42:31 PM. Photo curtesy of Marjorie O'Brien