 |
This 'un is the German Space Operations Center - GSOC. With it, you can find out when Mir will be visible, or the Shuttle, or the new ISS (International Space Station). You can enter a city near you and get this info. If you really like satellite viewing, enter your exact lat/lon coordinates. If you want to see an Iridium Flash, you'll have to, because they're very location specific. You can also keep track of Lacrosse and other US spy satellites. NORAD won't tell you where they are, but the Germans will!! This site is now managed commercially by Heavens Above.com, but it still uses the GSOC search engine. |
 |
If you're interested in the facts about the shuttle, ISS, and other aspects of Manned Space Flight, this will take you to OSF's home page. You can link to other parts of the NASA web server from there. NASA has one of the largest web sites around. Check it all out. I'll see you in a couple months. |
 |
Home Power Magazine. If you like renewable energy, this one is good. They'll even let you download the magazine for free. You'll get it in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) format. Click the download link and go eat dinner. It might be done loading when you are. |
 |
If ya
wanna check on the weather anywhere in the US, you can click
on the NWS office near you. This is a clickable map.  |
 |
If you'd rather see what the weather's like in your neck of the woods from 22, 236 miles up, this link will take you to the GOES site. That stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. You can check on that big cold front that's gonna screw-up your plans. |
 |
If you want a closeup of the GOES image in the Western CONUS, hit this link. The 1 km resolution available here provides much greater detail. The Tuscon image shows Baja all the way down to Isla Angel de la Guarda.  |
 |
If you want to see if the Grapevine is closed, Tioga Pass is open, Buckhorn Summit is snowed-in, 101 is washed out in Willits, or if chains are required going over Donner Pass, hit this one. |
 |
If you're going out ocean fishing and want to see how seasick you'll be getting, go to CDIP. This is the Coastal Data Information Program. They have bell buoys ready to take your luggage. They also keep track of the wave heights on the West Coast. |
 |
On the other hand, if you want to see if that river you're planned on fishing on or in is at flood stage or below the minimum flow, start here. You'll need to navigate a bit to get where you want to go. When you find your favorite river, bookmark it or it'll take you another half hour to find it the next time you look! |
 |
If you want to find out about restrictions, permit requirements, or trail conditions of that wilderness area you're planning on visiting, you can try here. I say try, because not all forests have Virtual Visitor Centers, but many of the more popular ones do. |
 |
If you're looking for similar stuff about National Parks, here's a list of 'em. |
 |
This is a pretty cool non-gov't homepage for Yellowstone. Keep track of the bears and what the Druid Peak Wolf Pack is up to. This guy goes up there about monthly. |
 |
This is a similar link to Yosemite. I use it mainly for getting decent road info. It's also good for reading real people perspectives on the shenanigans that the NPS is up-to. No mush-headed bureaucratic hype here. |
 |
Gorp is a commercial site that has some usefulness. You can get some decent info on your next outdoor adventure here. |
 |
This is a cool link to the Library of Congress' American Memory collection. You can view Lincoln at Gettysburg, daguerreotypes of President Polk, or watch them string-up Colonel Wirz (Commander of Andersonville). Nice site for history buffs. |
 |
Captain Jim has his web page here. The Captain has some huge images though, so take your coffee with you. This is the boat on which Bruce goes out often and I go out occasionally. |
 |
This is Bill Meier's home page for insulator collecting. I like insulators, so I like this site. |
 |
For some really cool
Brazilian bird songs, click on the happy bird. |
 |
To see what rare birds have been sighted in yer area, start here. These pages have been ill-maintained as of late, so good luck. |
 |
For Fish Counts from the local San Diego Sportfishing Fleet, go here. |
 |
If you want to check-up on the critters coming to waterholes around Kruger National Park in South Africa, check out the Africam. Remember, it's GMT+2, better known as 10 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Go there early in the morning or in the evening to see the critters at dusk & dawn, respectively. |
 |
If you need to take a
break from herding yaks in Kazakhstan, are piloting your boat
off the coast of Kourou, French Guiana, or less romantically,
you're just hanging out in southern California or near Cape Canaveral,
hit this link. It will tell you the next launch for any site
in the world. |
 |
For those of us here in SoCal, we can also check out this direct link for launches at Vandenberg (VAFB). |
 |
For the most trusted name in all Baja, go to Bwana Bob's Campo News. On it, you can read about all about our adventures and misadventures down at the Campo Loncho. Lots of great hi-resolution images here. |
 |
To read about the ones that didn't get away, check out Mikey's Fishing Page. Mikey has lots of good geology field trip reports too. |
 |
To read of the exploits of that great white hunter, Erik Nelson, check out Erik and Elizabeth's web page |
 |
I found this site about the finer points of tequila while browsing through a website. For those connoisseurs of same. |
|
|
My friend Joe further piqued my interest in the Millennium Madness that really starts January 1, 2001. I think it's a howl that some people celebrated it this year, when at the turn of the 20th century, they realized that the 20th century didn't start until 1901! Have we gotten even dumber in the last 100 years? You can read about how it all got started here...with good ol' Dennis the Short. This link goes to Ian Chadwick's Home Page. He's a rather interesting guy. Check it out further from the "Home" link on this page. |
|
|
A cool page with webcams is available from the Oregon Department of Transportation. Watch it snow up on Siskiyou Summit, on Santiem Pass, or at Lake of the Woods. You can create your own custom cam page with up to 5 webcams on it. |
 |
This great site will get you a topo map image for any place in the US. It can do name searches too. My first two trials were searches for Camp Zoe in Missouri, where Cathy went camping when she was a kid, and Moonville, Ohio, a ghost town in Ohio where I used to hunt. It found them both!! |
 |
If you're looking to learn how to play the banjo or ukelele, call Pandro, Ramona and Dmitria's dad, Fred. |
 |
In the Bay Area, Cathy's friend Linda Wiggins can set you up with a band for your wedding, funeral, or bar mitzvah. Or for a good 'ol fashion hoe-down. |
 |
If you want to see your backyard from space, go here, to the Terraserver Site. Scary. Big Brother's watching. |
 |
The latest news from San Felipe is located here. If you want a real report on the San Felipe weather, hit the weather link. The weather reports in the newspapers and online weather services (Weather Channel, etc.) are sometimes 30° off! |
