13th March 2007, 07:44 am
Hey, this is pretty neat. Time Search is designed to allow you to search for information based on time with location or theme. Check it out at http://www.timesearch.info .
Make sure you have JavaScript turned on because this site doesn’t work well without it. Click on the buttons to pick an area if you like (broken down by continent, with sub-areas available; you can also choose World) and pick a theme if you like (technology, war, politics, religion, society, etc.)
If you’re REALLY feeling specific, choose which timeline sites to search (click on the Timeline Sites button at the bottom of the query box) then choose the year you want to search and BC or AD.
I chose 79 AD, worldwide, no themes, no restrictions on site. I got a timeline as a search result. The timeline starts at 79AD (Titus is emperor) and goes as far as 175 (Confucians take rubbings). These are the simple listings. Extended listings cover about a paragraph and as you might imagine are much more extensive. Sometimes the listings leave out a fact or two; the first entry says “Titus becomes emperor” but even the extended listing doesn’t say OF WHERE. Now you know and I know, but does everybody know?
Each listing has several icons to the right and left. One set of icons are blue and will take you to text-based search results for several different resources based on keywords in the timeline listing. (For example, the first entry in my search result might have text search links for Titus, Vespasian, “Roman Empire”, etc.) The other set of icons links directly to Google Image search results for selected words in the timeline entry.
The interface took a little getting used to; once I got the hang of it it was great. What a great way to browse history! A definite visit.
This post came from ResearchBuzz, a site with news and information about online data collections. Visit us at ResearchBuzz.com .
12th March 2007, 07:47 am
UC Davis has put up a new butterfly site by Art Shapiro, which consists of information about butterflies and their habitats in California as gathered by Dr. Shapiro over a 34-year period.
The front page has a helpful left nav consisting of butterfly taxonomy, but for those of us who’re a little rusty, a nav at the top allows you to browse butterfly information by common name. The butterflies are divided into six groups, with each group having its own page and list of butterflies. The Gossamer-wings, for example, range from the “Agricultural” Melissa Blue to the Willow Hairstreak. There are over 150 butterfly species covered at this site.
Each type of butterfly has its own page, with an overview of its habits and habitats, and a list of places where it’s been spotted. (Click on a site and you’ll get graphs of spotting over the last 30+ years and a probability graph for spotting the butterfly at any given point in the year.) There are also butterfly images, though unfortunately most of the pages I saw had only one image.
(UC Davis probably wants to protect the site, but this would be a great place to insert a Flickr search. I mean, if someone is putting up a picture and tagging it Willow Hairstreak, it’s probably going to be a butterfly. It’s not like any of these things are named Fred.)
In addition to the individual butterfly pages there are several other sections on this site, including an education area (”Meet the Lepidopteran Detective”), a library (ah, a call for photos), and a “Data Depot” (34+ years of butterfly observation data for you to splash around in.)
More pictures!
This post came from ResearchBuzz, a site with news and information about online data collections. Visit us at ResearchBuzz.com .
11th March 2007, 10:43 pm
Sony is opening its own virtual world. In my perfect universe, Nintendo will buy Linden Labs and I’ll be able to walk around Second Life with a Wii.
Wikia aiming for 4th quarter search engine launch.
Bloggers helping with natural disasters. Interesting.
The National Archives (UK) releases new exhibit: 300 Years of Carribean History.
Q&A With Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist. It’s 2007 and we STILL need Internet evangelists?
Comparing the Congressional Record to the videotape from the actual proceedings. Guess what? They don’t match. http://reason.com/news/show/119028.html. (Digital archive available which is why I’m covering this.)
A database of “snow science” information.
University of Florida: Abandoning Net Neutrality Discourages Improvements in Service.
Job listings in podcasts. Hey, why not?
Thanks to Cyber Aspect for their nice review of Information Trapping.
