Something to keep you awake at night
An ingenious Google map linking nuclear power stations and fault lines.
Movable Type rides again
After a bit of messing about, I've got Movable Type to work again. Now I can add some updated information to my What's New pages.
Google Realtime
If you want to search for things as they are actually happening you need realtime search, most obviously exemplified by Google Realtime. It's quite intriguing to put your search terms in the box and watch as the page updates itself every couple of seconds with new results, primarily from Twitter. Google Realtime is not the only way to do this, however. Collecta does a similar thing, but lets you choose from blogs, blog comments, photos and videos as well as Twitter, Facebook and Buzz.
Online newspapers of the world
Onlinenewspapers.com is the most comprehensive collection of links to online news sources that I have seen. It's not without its quirks, though. Bizarrely, it lists Scotland and Wales under Northern Europe, while England appears under Western Europe.
Common Errors in English Usage
Paul Brian, Emeritus Professor of English at Washington State University, has created a useful site listing common grammatical and usage mistakes. It deals with American usage primarily, of course, but he has been careful to note where British English practice differs (and, indeed, where it is preferable). I note that he takes a hard line on "could care less" and "couple" rather than "couple of", two common Americanisms that set my teeth on edge. Good fun for pedants everywhere.
Translation
Google has updated its translation tool so that it translates as you key in your text. It also does clever stuff with non-Roman alphabet languages. You can type in a word phonetically in, say, Arabic and it will give you the proper Arabic script at the same time as it translates it. Clever stuff.
Find Any Film
Here's a useful way of tracking down a film you may need to watch. The UK Film Council has launched Find Any Film, a search engine for movies that lets you discover whether the film is showing anywhere, whether it is available on DVD, or even whether it can be downloaded. I discovered, for instance, that Don't Look Now is available on DVD, that Citizen Kane is on next month in Newark on Trent, that no Truffaut films are available in any medium, and, bizarrely, that Genevieve is available to download.
Magazine launches down
A survey in America has shown that magazine launches were down 13 per cent in 2008 compared with the previous year. The survey, by Crain's New York Business report, noted that 335 new magazines were launched, but that they tended to be small niche titles. Fear of the Internet is as much to blame as the economic downturn, but there is still more advertising money in print publishing than the online variety.
News search engine
Take a look at newsflashr.
If you want to know the time…
… take a look at The World Time Engine.
