Net Picks

The Writer's Almanac - The Writer's Almanac is a five-minute literary offering that appears on hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States. Narrated by author and man-of-many-hats Garrison Keillor, the show offers up poetry and information about authors from the past and present. Each show usually starts with a short poem and then goes on to feature short profiles of various authors. Visitors to the Writer's Almanac website can search the archive (which dates back to 1993) by poem title or author. Visitors can also contact the staff members at the program, take a look at their interactive "Bookshelf", and learn when the Almanac appears on their own local radio station.

Astronomy Center - The American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C., created the Astronomy Center website to "provide a web-based databank that with links to a wide range of teaching and learning resources for [an] Undergraduate Introductory Astronomy course."  Visitors will find that the website can be browsed by topic or by type of resource. Some of the topics include "Cosmic Time and Distance", "Historical Astronomy", and "Exoplanets".

National Center For PTSD - Information, research, and videos on PTSD for veterans, providers and researchers. It includes an overview, and discussions of types of trauma, treatment, coping, return from war, the role of family and friends, etc. There's also information specific to PTSD among female veterans.

WeatherSpark  -  Weatherspark lets you look up years of past weather data to see what weather is really like during certain times of year. It can help ensure that the highlight of your vacation isn't cable re-runs...or camping out in the library instead of the beach (although we would still like to see you...come rain or come shine).

crazyguyonabike - If you like to do your touring on a bike, here's a place where you can find inspiration and share your own story and photos. The journals and articles are browsable by categories such as types of bike, events, offroad, routes, with kids, etc.

History Cookbook from Cookit! -  Do you know what the Vikings ate for dinner? What a typical meal of a wealthy family in Roman Britain consisted of, or what food was like in a Victorian Workhouse? Why not drop into history cookbook and find out? This project looks at the food of the past and how this influenced the health of the people living in each time period. You can also try some of the recipes for yourself. We have a wide range of historical recipes from Brown Bread Ice Cream to Gruel (Why not see if you would be asking for more - just like Oliver Twist).