• The spies come to your county
They once were top secret, but now nearly 50,000 images photographed during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s by U.S. spy satellites are posted on the Web for all to see — and even download — at www.usgs.gov/features/satellite_images.html. The U.S. Geological Survey’s site features some of the images, as well as links to the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which has large-scale images of a shipyard in Siberia, the Eiffel Tower, and views of Moscow, Hanoi and Beijing.
The Bush Administration recently allowed the images to be released. Now scientists can use them to plot the course of global warming, historians can use them to learn about the Cold War, and county historic commissions may soon be using them as resources for information in their own communities.
Beware though. The new site may contain a few discrepancies, such as the image of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis in 1964. In the image, the arch appears intact, yet the final piece of the 630-foot-tall monument to westward expansion was not wedged into place until Oct. 28, 1965.
• So you’ll never be belated again
One fun site that should come in handy for us all is www.birthdayalarm.com. With free membership, the site allows users to quickly send a mass e-mail to friends and family asking them to fill in their birth dates. The information is routed back to both your e-mail and birthdayalarm.com, which will send you a reminder seven and three days prior to the birthday you’re not supposed to forget.
There are optional reminders for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day. There’s also a “name popularity” link, where you can discover, by decade, how popular your name has been over the years. “Paul,” for instance, was the 13th most popular name in the 1920s, but it has dropped in the rankings steadily, and stood as only the 64th most used name of the’90s. And wait, there’s more, such as e-cards, invitations and a selection of gifts.
• Take a look into the 2003 night sky
Nobody’s New Year should arrive without a quick check of what’s in store, and one of the Web’s most popular sites is truth-teller Kelli Fox’s www.astrology.com/2003/. Once there, click on your horoscope sign to discover how your life will unfold in the coming year. There are also separate readings on your career and love life for 2003. For those not into astrology, the site supplies links to a free IQ test, a Victoria Magazine recipe-finder search engine, and a place to discover “the gifts of awareness.”
