Computer Times
Education
Mensa Workout
All right, so you think you're so smart? Try the Mensa Workout - a series of questions that takes a half hour and will determine just how smart you are. Should you answer them correctly, this elite society rolls out the red carpet and invites your membership. This is not an IQ test, just a series of brain teasers best approached by those who excel at mental gymnastics. Sample: If it takes two typists to type two pages in two minutes, how many typists does it take to type 16 pages in 6 minutes? World Wide Web: http://mensa.org/workout.html
Kids With Opinions
High-school students who've got a bit of the Royko in them have a place to go online. Greg Gagliardi's Progressiverevelations.com has a spot opened up to high school students, "The High School Columnists Network," where budding opinion writers can take on the world and have an audience while they do it. According to the site, "The High School Columnists Network is dedicated to increasing the readership of young columnists, with the hope that one day such writers will gain the audience and support they deserve." But membership is competitive and the site warns students that if they hope to join, they'd better have their written samples at the ready. World Wide Web: http://www.progressiverevelations.com
Russia Before WW I
The U.S. Library of Congress is featuring an exhibit of the lost world that was Russia, pre-World War I, courtesy of images taken by photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944). Using a view camera, Gorskii traveled throughout Russia documenting the life and work of Russia's enormous and varied population, from hay farmers to carpet dealers, miners to nomads, 150 million citizens strong. The photos, originally shot in black and white but designed to be in color, have in fact been colorized here using a technique called "digichromatography." The result is fresh and lifelike, as if the shots were just taken yesterday. World Wide Web: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire
Barbed Wire
A museum devoted to ... barbed wire? Yes, there is one. The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum in LaCrosse, Kan., is the only museum in the world devoted solely to the history and legend of what is often referred to as the "Devil's Rope" or barbed wire. Believe it or not, this museum approaches the nasty twine from every conceivable angle. For instance, on exhibit are over 1,000 barbed wire varieties including samples manufactured between 1870 and 1890. The museum's Web site also illustrates the more innovative uses for the steel fencing, including war, taming the West, and the building of nests by birds. World Wide Web: http://www.rushcounty.org/BarbedWireMuseum
Who Said That?
Quoth D.H. Lawrence: "We only seem to learn from Life that Life doesn't matter so much as it seemed to do - it's not so burningly important, after all, what happens." Well, given that, there's not really any good reason not to stop by Quotesandsayings.com, where you will find that bit of wisdom along with plenty of others. Obscure quotations are great to have in your bag when, for instance, you're lecturing your teen-age kids and you want them to become silent and confused. And, of course, they're good for writers and lecturers, too. The site contains what it claims is "the only quotations search portal on the internet for finding quotations, sayings and proverbs by keyword or author." World Wide Web: http://www.quotesandsayings.com
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