Engineering

Hotsites - New & Notable Sites for Engineering

The Science of Gardening How evidence-based growing beats relying on old wives' tales

World domino record set on TV

SurLaLune Fairy tale site

National Geographic Magazine: Photosynth 

Instructions on how to make or do a myriad of things

All Sewn Up: Millinery, Dressmaking, Clothing, and Costume

100 Exceptional Free Paper Models and Toys

Crossword Construction Kit

Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings: EDVR

Activities for Kids: Travel Tips

America's 10 Most Walkable Cities

Dali: Painting and Film

Rock Cycle Animations (geology not music)

Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists

Sacred Contexts

A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff

National Galleries of Scotland: Education & interaction with exhibits

Sesame Street Video Archive

New Zealand Food, recipes & drink

The Science of Gardening How evidence-based growing beats relying on old wives' tales.
By Constance C. "Confronted with huge, uncontrollable forces, we tend to fall back on magical thinking. Say a goat was sacrificed on the volcano rim last year and lava did not engulf the village. It must follow that this year some poor goat is doomed. To garden is to encounter forces of nature less threatening than molten lava but still bewildering. Weird weather, chewing insects, trees mysteriously dying—these can make a gardener as superstitious as the villagers. ... Two smart, crusading authors are making it possible to practice evidence-based gardening. Happily, understanding what works and why almost always leads to expending less effort, spending less money, and gardening in a way that's environmentally sound. "
Read more at http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2205576  

World domino record set on TV
Watch it happen. "A world record for the number of dominoes toppled was set when 4.3m fell during a two-hour TV show. More than 85 people from 13 countries took part in the challenge, which took eight weeks to set up and was a year in the planning. "
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7730834.stm  

SurLaLune Fairy tale site
"Here is an assortment of questions, essays, guides, links, and even a short story that will hopefully enlighten and inspire, or at least help you along the way." ao if you run out of stories to tell, here is a wide assortment with background information as well.
Read them at http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sitemap.html  

National Geographic Magazine: Photosynth [Photosynth]
It would be pretty great to fly close by over the ponderous 16th century castle of El Morro in San Juan, but it could be a pricey proposition, and you might garner some unwanted attention from Puerto Rican officials. Well, there is another option, and that is to take in El Morro (and many other world landmarks) via the National Geographic Magazine's Photosynth website. The site draws on technology developed by Microsoft, and essentially takes a large collection of photos, analyzes them for similarities, and stitches them together to create a rather fine immersive experience. Visitors are also welcome to submit their own photos for inclusion in this project, and landmarks currently under construction include Petra, the Sydney Opera House, and Seattle's Space Needle. Also, visitors will need to download the free Photosynth software to take full advantage of the site. [KMG] Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2008. Internet Scout (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.
Read more at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photosynth/synth  

Instructions on how to make or do a myriad of things
Instructables shows how to make and do all sorts of things - Christmas ornaments, Christmas lights, chair from cardboard, trimming dog's toenails, mexican tiles sink, bath bomb, laundry, pan fries, ....
Learn how to do all this and more and more and more at http://www.instructables.com/home  

All Sewn Up: Millinery, Dressmaking, Clothing, and Costume
From millinery to dressmaking, this excellent digital collection from >the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections group brings together a myriad of books from the early 20th century on the world of such matters, along with forays into costume design. Interestingly enough, the University of Wisconsin offered courses in these fields in the 1910s and 1920s. Visitors can start their exploration of these materials by browsing through a few of the titles, which include Florence Anslow's 1922 work "Practical Millinery" and Gene Allen Martin's "Make Your Own Hats" from 1921. In total, this collection contains 36 complete works, and visitors may be inspired by the site to create their own costumes, dresses, and so on. [KMG] Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2008. Internet Scout (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.
Read more at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/HumanEcol/subcollections/MillineryBooksAbout.html

100 Exceptional Free Paper Models and Toys
Here's a little something to entertain the kids until school starts up again: downloadable designs for paper models of Chinese dragons, carousels, sailing ships, dinosaurs, race cars, robots, insects, etc.
See more at http://www.creativecloseup.com/100-exceptional-free-paper-models-and-toys  

Crossword Construction Kit
You don't have to be Will Shortz to create a great crossword puzzle, and this handy desktop crossword publisher will help users on their way to puzzle nirvana. With this application, users can enter the words and clues, select a puzzle shape and page layout, and the puzzle will be generated shortly. It is worth noting that this version can be used for thirty days at no charge and that it is compatible with computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and XP. [KMG] From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/
Puzzle about it at http://www.crosswordkit.com/  

Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings: EDVR
The Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) is an index to master recordings (matrixes) and published discs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company beginning in 1900. The database is edited by a team of researchers based at the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries and currently includes master recordings made by Victor in the United States through the fall of 1914. The database includes trial recordings of new artists and sessions from which no discs were issued. Approximately 1,000 new master recordings are added to the database monthly and the database will eventually extend to the end of the 78rpm era in the early-1950s.
Read about it at http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php  

Activities for Kids: Travel Tips
Counter the dreaded "Are we there yet?" with car games, food that's perfect for travel, and road-trip printouts of coloring pages, wordsearches, tic-tac-toe, etc. Just what you need for a journey.
Check these out at http://www.activitiesforkids.com/travel/travel_hints.htm  

America's 10 Most Walkable Cities
http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/ If you're relocating, and don't want to spend money on gas, this should interest you: WalkScore has ranked "2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities to help you find a walkable place to live," where all the basic amenities are within walking distance. For each of the top cities, there's data on the most walkable neighborhoods. There's also information on the 138 neighborhoods that are "walkers' paradises," and on what makes cities and neighborhoods walkable. Input your own address for an analysis of your neighborhood's walkability.
Plan that walk at http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/  

Dali: Painting and Film [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
The late Salvador Dali was a rather brilliant artist and a very effective self-promoter. Throughout his long life he remained interested in the power of cinema and he engaged in a number of collaborative works with Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock, and Walt Disney. Recently, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) decided to launch both an in situ exhibit and this interactive website in order to explore some of these collaborations. After reading a brief narrative essay, visitors can wander around an interactive version of his 1929 work, "The First Days of Spring", to learn more about some of these projects. Clicking on each element of this surrealist work will take visitors to a different collaboration (such as his work with Buñuel on "L'Age d'or") where visitors can read a bit about each project and also view images, sketches, and photographs related to each project. [KMG] Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2008. Internet Scout (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.
Add some surrealism to Christmas at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/dali/

Rock Cycle Animations [Macromedia Flash Player]
Many people might know about the life cycle of a rock, but it can be a process that is hard to understand without a handy visual aid. Just such a series of aids can be found right here, courtesy of Mark Francek of Central Michigan University. These rock cycle animations display some of the most common rock-forming processes, including the crystallization of magma to form igneous rock, rock erosion to create sediment, and several others. That's not all, as visitors can also examine a comprehensive Flash animation which contains three separate movies, each of which looks at the formation of igneous rocks in environments that include a deep magma chamber and rocks forming from a pyroclastic flow. The site is rounded out by an interactive igneous rocks classification chart, arranged by texture and chemical composition. [KMG] From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2008. http://scout.wisc.edu/
Interrested in more?, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/rock_cycle.html

Print posted @ Wednesday, December 17, 2008 2:48 PM