The word on ‘bird flu’
For some sensible information on this, especially how it relates to humans, go to the World Health Organisation's Avian influenza fact sheet.
Hoaxes & cons galore
You have to admire the sly joke in the site's name: purportal.com is all about stories that purport to be true but are anything but. In other words, it's a single front-end page leading to five well-known sites that specialise in debunking hoaxes, particularly the virus variety.
Just by way of topicality, I tried Snopes.com for "weapons of mass destruction" and there it was, or at least, a lengthy list of things people have said on the subject in the last few years. Very interesting reading.
Hutton Inquiry
Anyone wondering what all the fuss is about could do worse than look at the official Hutton Inquiry site, where the whole thing is online. If you'd rather download it as a pdf to study in your own time, go to the UK Online homepage and follow the links.
In my view, an overexcited piece of journalism has succeeded only in allowing the Government to bury the real issue, namely, why we went to war. Given that we know know the Government was not dishonest, can we please have it explained to us why it was so gullible?
Master the nations
My last post was for a UN site that let children compare countries using statistics.
Now here's NationMaster.com, an excellent Australian site that does something similar for adults.
It takes the raw figures from the well-known CIA World Factbook and presents them in all sorts of interesting and useful ways. Basic uses are free: if you want to sign up, at a basic $5 a month, you get lots of other bits and pieces.
Did you know, for instance, that Australia is the worst place in the world for car theft, followed by Denmark and – you've guessed it – us?
Good Housekeeping
Two bits of New Year tidying up.
Firstly, I have been through the site and removed as many dead links as possible. Of course, there are still lots of links that while technically alive, lead to the wrong things. In due course, I hope to fix them.
Secondly, I have removed comments. I got a bad dose of comment spam and never quite got them to work properly again, so I've abandoned them. But I still do want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. My email address is at the bottom of the page. Thank you.
The world made simple
If you ever have to do one of those stories where you are comparing literacy rates in various countries, for instance, this site will help you no end. It's meant for children, but the United Nations Cyberschoolbus is a useful repository of all sorts of comparative information about the nations of the world, very simply presented.
The thing I like best is the InfoNation comparison engine that lets you pick a selection of countries and compare their vital statistics. Very well done and all based on solid information.