Those of us who have been using the World Wide Web for a dozen years or more can remember how incredible Google was when it first rose to popularity — it finally became possible to find what you wanted on the web, and quickly. Google became the powerhouse it is today because what it did [more...]
Exactly what were mom and dad doing back in their college days? Seeking new knowledge in the library, or sneaking out the dorm for a midnight rendezvous? Getting stoked for the big game, or getting a secret smoke behind the gym? I can’t tell you all the details, but maybe with a bit of prompting, you can get your [more...]
Quezi, I am told, is Australian slang for question, as in, ’scuse me, mate, I’ve got a quezi for ya’. Don’t believe me? Try looking up the history of the word in old newspaper archives. There are a number of free online newspaper archives covering Australia and New Zealand. Here are the major ones you should [more...]
Online newspaper archives are a wonderful source for researching your ancestors, studying history, learning more about your family, hometown or roots, or simply browsing to learn what was happening in day-to-day life in earlier times. There are some wonderful free newspaper archives online covering history and news in Canada. Did I mention they’re free? Take a look! Canadian newspapers [more...]
There are literally billions of pages of newspaper archives available online. Only a small portion of them are from the UK, and a still smaller portion can be viewed for free. Nonetheless, the few free archives that are available from England, Scotland and Ireland are a rich source of history writ large and small. Here are [more...]
It takes a lot to get a politican to change their mind. After all, Gordon Brown still considers his management of the British economy to have been prudent. And sometimes it seems that it’s even harder to elicit a change of mind from someone who is an entrenched expert in their field. Every year the World [more...]
Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded each year by an organization called Improbable Research. They honor research which first makes you laugh, then makes you think. Serious research about oddball topics, in other words. They like to celebrate the unusual and imaginative, and get people interested in science and technology, by honoring real achievements that are [more...]