Wednesday, February 18, 1998

A variety of off-ramps on the information highway

By Doug Williamson / Abilene Reporter-News

Today's journey through the World Wide Web stops are a variety interesting sites.

-- How did the guitar become electrified? "From Frying Pan to Flying V: The Rise of the Electric Guitar" is a Smithsonian exhibit at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. The online version of this superior display is found at http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/nmah/le mel/guitars/.

-- If you want to find out more about the proposed federal budget surplus, here are a couple of resources. The budget itself is downloadable at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/budget99/maindown.html/. The Washington Post offers an online game where you guess what percentage of the budget goes for what programs and services. Play it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/polit ics/special/budget/budgame.htm/.

-- I'm not very handy around the abode, but here are a few sites that are. Home and Garden TV's webpage -- http://www3.hgtv.com/hometalk/hometalk.shtml/ has forums in which to ask your questions and solve your quandaries. House Net at http://www.housenet.com/ is a good source of info about home projects, home improvements, decorating and lawn and garden. A good set of links to home improvement sites is at http://doityourself.com/.

-- Let's have some fun. Enjoy Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus at http://www.ringling.com/.

-- I spent an hour wandering through http://www.usia.gov/posts/posts.htm/. It is a group of links to U.S. embassy and U.S. Information service home page. I found traveling through the world through the eyes of our American government officials was intriguing.

-- It is Mardi Gras time and http://www.mardigrasday.com/ has video broadcasts of many of the parades, wonderful recipes, survival tips, etc.

-- If you are doing extensive research comparing larger American cities, Rutgers University has a comprehensive database on more than 3,000 variables from 77 towns. It includes indicators on employment, economic development, demographic measures, housing and land use, income and poverty, fiscal conditions and other health, social and environmental indicators.

Abilene is not one of the cities, but Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio are listed. The site is at http://policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/SoNC.htm/.