Notable Web-Sites

CM April 26,
1996. Vol. II, Number 28

Every week, CM presents a brief collection of noteworthy, useful, or just interesting sites we've turned up and actually checked.
Please send us URLs and evaluations of any web-sites you think deserve the exposure.

Yahooligans: The Web Guide for Kids

http://www.yahooligans.com/

Yahoo, of course, is the premier search engine for the WWW. Yahooligans is their new kid-friendly adjunct. It's attractive and fast. I tried searching for a few naughty words; nothing. Tried ``magic" and got, among others Hocus Pocus Palace -- a fun site featuring info about magic tricks, and links to magic sites. Clicked on the ``Random" Button and went to a home page for the Minnesota Vikings. . . .

Also has a good ``Street Smart on the Web" button that takes you to a page offering parents and children good advice about keeping the Web a safe place to visit.

World Population Figures

http://www1.tip.nl/users/t865190/Countries.html

When I recall social studies, what I remember are:

Colouring and labelling maps using pencil crayons
Making charts involving population figures
Trying to find out what the largest city in the world was (our antiquated references materials often listed London, currently -- I just checked on this site -- twelfth on the list)
Having my copy of Tarzan and the Lost City of Gold ripped out of my hands by a teacher who thought I should have been paying more attention.

This site contains lots of information to help students with tasks 1-3.

The Chesley Bonestall Gallery

http://www.secapl.com/bonestell/Top.html

You were waiting for this week's cool space-related site, weren't you? Chesley Bonestall was an artist whose realistic paintings of spacecraft and of other planets (rendered with painstaking astronomical correctness) not only graced the covers of innumerable science fiction books and magazines, but inspired:

discussion and debate among engineers and scientists. Was space flight feasible, or was it just a romantic adventurous dream? Were there economic benefits to be gained? Was it worth the money? While theorists argued about the possibility of rockets and spacecraft traveling to the Moon and planets, Bonestell showed what it would look like when we got there!

Bonestall's images are still the closest most of us can get to outer space.

STOMP: SEE WHAT ALL THE NOISE IS ABOUT!

http://www.usinteractive.com/stomp/

This is one slick, appealing, and highly evolved site (that is, you want an up-to-date browser, a fast link, and good sound capabilities). STOMP is the the British ``Let's hit any two things together and see what sort of noise they make" percussion ensemble, and their site will appeal to adults, children, and neolithic cave-dwellers alike.

Warning: it's so popular it's hard to get to the good stuff, probably because a lot of people found out about it the same time I did. Give it a few weeks though. Has an excellent (and educational) section on kids and STOMP, with detailed activities so you can get your own students banging things together (and thus starting on the long road towards civilization).

MLA CONFERENCE: GATEWAY TO MANY WORLDS

http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/mla

You might think that a news piece and a mention in the editorial would be enough promotion for this conference for one week. But any conference that has presentations by Margaret Buffie (author of The Dark Garden), Srinija Srinivasan (the head of design and maintenance for the YAHOO! Web-site), and me and Peter (talking about this magazine) is obviously really, really worthwhile. Check out this Web-site for full information, register, and come visit Winnipeg, Thursday, May 9 to Saturday, May 11. The snow will almost certainly be gone.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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