HotSites -Aug97
ABC Interactive World Fact Book
From the creators of 'Flags of All Countries' and 'Immigration
Superhighway,' this site is home to a new 1,200 page interactive
world fact book full of CIA facts on all countries and regions
recognized by the U.S. State Dept. Contents are organized.
SEARCH ENGINE WATCH
If you're serious about searching the Internet, then consider this
required browsing. Learn how search engines work and the
finer points of using them. You'll also find reviews, history,
news, and even a search engine game.
MIR SPACE STATION SITES
MIRNEWS
Maximov Online
On the eve of the spacewalk to repair the Mir we thought you might be interested in a couple of Mir sites. Maximov Online hosts a good Mir background site which, aside from the latest news updates has interesting information about the design of the station, research conducted there, and its history. There's also a good links section pointing to everything from the NASA Shuttle-Mir site to the Russian Space Forces pages. One of the links is MIRNEWS, a set of reports produced by Chris v.d. Berg out of the Netherlands. He gets his info "by monitoring radio frequencies used by spacecraft, tracking ships and Russian broadcast stations and other sources". If you're looking for Mir news unfiltered by the usual media fog, this is your best source for detailed and sometimes quite technical information. We highly recommend MIRNEWS to all space affectionados.
STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE: UFO SPOOKS 'N KOOKS
Once again a glazed-eye conspiracy theory - government cover-ups of UFO activity - proves true, sort of. The semiannual 1997 edition of Studies in Intelligence (declassified version) features an article entitled "A Die-Hard Issue: CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990". It turns out that the feds were indeed engaged in some serious fibbing when it came to UFOs, but to cover up the existence of spycraft, not spacecraft. According to the study, "over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States". The rest of the paper dryly details more history, which, at times, reads like farce - CIA operatives' valiant attempts to convince UFOlogists that the Agency has nothing to hide only makes things worse. Why would anyone try so hard if they didn't have anything to hide? For that matter, why go to the trouble to publish an alleged history, eh? This is a CIA publication, after all.
NATURE FORUM: THE WILDLIFE GARDEN
This forum is a great site for everyone interested in creating a backyard
habitat. A backyard habitat is a landscape that provides food, water, and
shelter for various wildlife. This forum touches on plant and animal
identification, ideas for construction, various techniques in attracting
wildlife, and help in choosing the right landscape materials.
NETB2B.COM
This is the Web site of NetMarketing, a regular section of Advertising
Age's Business Marketing. It offers a searchable database of Internet
marketing case studies, a business-targeted directory of Web developers,
how-to tutorials, head-to-head shootouts between competing Web marketers,
and columns from leading Internet journalists and analysts. Content is
refreshed daily with Web tips and columns.
WEBMUSEUM: BIENVENUE
View digital reproductions of artwork by the most famous painters in the
world. Over 150 artists are represented. The site is based in Paris, but
offers 30+ mirror sites around the world.
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