Yesterday, my E(vil) T(win) and guest blogger for the Femmes, SJ Rozan posted about a website that tracks marine traffic...live. In a tizzy of geekish glee, I shared a website I'd recently discovered, on the period table of elements. Click on an element, get its phyiscal properties, its history, and cool facts. It's a pretty site, too, complete with a (Chemi-)Cool Image of the day, about yes, elements.
I love that stuff!
And it got me thinking about the information we can access, enjoy, and share instantly. And geekily...even when we don't have access to our libraries (or their guardians). And geeky isn't restricted to the sciences; a good geeky site is dedicated to something specialized. For example: many are the virtues of having a website that lets you list what ingredients you have, what you don't want, and then brings up recipes. It's like having Jacques Pepin schooling you in “cuisine economique,” making a great meal out of what's left over or in your pantry. A site that cleans my cupboards, saves me money, and makes me food? Love! And sharing information is the essence of geekery, I think: fannish, academic, or otherwise. Lifehacker, for example, offers suggestions for how to get things done, whether business, technology, or life. Another example of "if you need it, someone else has probably already figured out how to do it," can be found on the deliciously geeky Make.com (I'm especially fond of the "make: Projects" section, for those MacGyver moments).
Back in the nineteen-aught-nineties, I couldn't believe the magic of IMDB.com. You could discover who is perfect for your “Fantasy Shakespeare Company” or, more importantly, solve relationship-threatening arguments over who directed which “Alien” movie. Similarly, Femme Toni Kelner likes Songfacts, for figuring out what the song really means.
Communication, anyone? Femme Charlaine Harris reminded me of perennial favorite Yahoo!Bablefish, which will translate to and from English for a variety of languages. For example, the sign to the right tranlates as "The Wolf in Cow's Fur" (or probably "the wolf in cow's clothing"). There is also "Effingpots," the American's Guide to Speaking British, brought to my attention by the lovely Maria Lima, which is broken into sections on “Slang,” “People,” and the like. Very helpful if you don't know your "cracking" from "dickey."
Maria also turned me on to Old Maps Online, which links to historical maps around the world. You can specify the collection, the region, or the dates, and it will not only suggest maps, there are links to the maps in which you can zoom in! Reference Frenzy! I know writers out there are slavering...
Humor? I love XKCD, a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language," even though I don't get all the math, all of the time. Okay, most of the time.
Design milk: I love seeing the modern art, fashion, architecture. Some of the shoes are great; some are scary. They will all make you think. There is also “House Milk,” “Dog Milk,” and...ooh, a shop!
Clearly, I'm just scratching the surface. Keep the geek frenzy going! Tell me: What are your favorite web-places to geek-out?
I'm so happy to see that the cool periodic table includes even the brand new (in element years) #116 Livermorium!
Posted by: Camille Minichino | April 18, 2012 at 08:05 AM
It's such a neat site, Camille! Did you catch "Hunting the Elements" on PBS? It was terrific (at least to the non-professional)! http://video.pbs.org/video/2185064316/
Posted by: Dana | April 18, 2012 at 08:15 AM
definitely these!
http://www.notcot.org/
http://inhabitat.com/
http://www.instructables.com
http://www.gutenberg.org
Posted by: D Hawk | April 18, 2012 at 08:36 AM
Wow- geeks of a feather. Either I or Himself or our daughter have bookmarked all of these sites! Some of them we visit everyday.
Great blog!
Posted by: Kelly Saderholm | April 18, 2012 at 08:41 AM
Oh, they're brilliant, D Hawk! Thank you so much for sharing! And thanks for mentioning Gutenberg!
Posted by: Dana | April 18, 2012 at 08:43 AM
Yay, Kelly: Geekery rules! Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by: Dana | April 18, 2012 at 08:45 AM
Astronomy picture of the day
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
Posted by: Cathy | April 18, 2012 at 08:59 AM
Oh, AWESOME, Cathy! Thank you for sharing it!
I want to press all of the buttons...
Posted by: Dana | April 18, 2012 at 09:18 AM
The Featured Creature is pretty spiffy too.
http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/#axzz1hwzPn9p7
Posted by: Cathy | April 18, 2012 at 03:46 PM
Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh
http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/
Tying knots - animated:
(updated, but they've had a page for over 15 years)
http://www.42ndbrighton.org.uk/?page=knots
Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia
http://www.spectrumnet.com/pez/
Ballparks by Munsey and Suppes
(this one's been online forever too)
http://www.ballparks.com/
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html
A bit of everything for Kids
http://www.super-kids.com/
Posted by: B.G. Ritts | April 18, 2012 at 05:32 PM
Oh, thank you, B.G.! The Pitt site is beautiful, and...Pez!
The knots have me enthralled, and I see the map site (yay!) uses info from the CIA's world factbook, which I use a lot: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.html
Cathy, those are some awesome critters!
Posted by: Dana | April 18, 2012 at 06:47 PM