Welcome to this week's selection of Picks, where for all intensive purposes, we've been feeling very strongly about grammatic principals. If you detected nary a misstep in the previous sentence, then maybe you'd better take a gander at Common Errors in English, which, obviously, is concerned with the mistakes we all tend to make with standard English usage. Visit the sub-sections principal/principle and for all intensive purposes for information on the errors in our opening. Other common errors? Bare/bear, ambiguous/ambivalent, and the ever-popular that/which. Why were we looking at this site in the first place? Mind your own beeswax.
It's ironic that anyone would suggest looking at a computer screen to view grand vistas. Nevertheless, we're suggesting exactly that by recommending the panoramic photographs in Taking the Long View, yet another cool collection from the Library of Congress. Sure, it's not as good as actually standing in front of Mount Hyndman or strolling along the Place de L'Opera, but then again, who wants to be a first-hand witness to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake or a storm-wrecked Corpus Christi? The 4,000 pictures date from 1851 to 1991 and include panoramas of sports, beauty contests, and agricultural life, among many others. So get out there and take a look around.
Been canvassing the Web in search of a quality Vincent van Gogh site? Something you're willing to give your left ear for? Well, by a (brush) stroke of luck we've found Handshake in Thought, dedicated to the life of the famous painter. Handshake goes right to the source: you'll find a gallery of images, selected letters by Vincent (the bulk to his brother Theo), excerpts from the memoirs of Johanna van Gogh Bonger, a FAQ, and more. What adds to the interest of the site is the way it's all tied together. For example, you can read the letters on their own or as a part of the galleries, where the artist's words and images come together to bring context to his work. Hey, did you know that van Gogh never actually chopped off his ear? It's true, he simply mutilated it. How wrong we were...
Of course, everyone knows that it's more fun to look at art on a full stomach. However, if your pie crusts are crumbly and your gravy is goopy, perhaps it's time to consult the world of science. The folks at the The Inquisitive Cook explain the chemical ins and outs of dairy, bread, fruits, meats, and, most importantly, chocolate. (Did you know that white chocolate has no caffeine?) Learn to make the perfect pastry, discover why apples float, or get the skinny on translating mysterious terms from old cookbooks. If you have a cooking query, you can head on over to the discussion area, which is peppered with questions about fudge, zucchini, and unripe plums. Oddly, no one has yet asked our most pressing kitchen question, "Who left the #&@$ dishes in the sink?!" Surely science has an answer.
Well, then again, maybe not. Science does, however, have an answer for the question "What do you do when your dishes sink?" You salvage them. The researchers at the Kingstown Harbour Shipwreck Project have been pulling ceramic plates and copper cauldrons from the ocean floor as they excavate a mysterious wreck from the bottom of Kingstown Harbour. View a slideshow of recovered artifacts from the wreck and read speculation about the ship's origin. Although little is known about the identity of the vessel, it's believed to be from the eighteenth century, a relic from the times when "the Caribbean Sea was a volatile theater of international tension and intrigue." Ah, the good old days.
Speaking of the turbulent ocean, you may have been hearing a lot lately about El Nino, the tropical Pacific "weather phenomenon" that has a profound effect on conditions around the globe. Yes, El Nino is back, and you could be experiencing the consequences in your own backyard. The simple version: when the trade winds relax in the central and western Pacific, then--well, a whole heap 'o trouble happens: droughts in Australia and Southern Africa, excessive rainfall and flooding elsewhere. For a truly comprehensive understanding of all of this, see the El Nino Theme Page, put together by various laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Be sure to bring a raincoat.
If your favorite part of The Jetsons was the car-in-the-briefcase, then you're gonna love this next pick. Virtual Tech, from Discovery Online, traces the connections between comic books, animation, and emerging technology. The current issue, "Art Imitates Tanks," explores the Japanese anime Madox-1 and its real-life inspirations: the Abrams M1A1 Battle Tank and developmental "man-amplifying exoskeletons." If you're a fan of Robotech, you'll thrill to passages like, "The suit has a laminated ceramic torso that can resist .50-cal armor-piercing ammunition and lightweight graphite epoxy is used for the exoskeletal joints." Check out the back issues for articles on Space Planes and Synthetic Humans. This isn't your father's Spacely Sprockets.
And now, by popular demand, we bring you Vot Der Dumboozle. We say popular, because the site takes a nostalgic look at some of the long-lost relics of popular culture. Ever heard of Willie the Kool Penguin, Mistinguett, and the Katzenjammer Kids? They were their eras' cultural equivalents to Joe Camel, Madonna, and "Dilbert." The site's creator, Jim Lowe, does a fine job of putting each item in the context of its time, and he adorns each section with attractive period photographs and illustrations. Among one of the more interesting tidbits: Willie, the Kool cigarette mascot, actually appeared in a comic book for children. True, the different subjects are a somewhat quirky, subjective sampling of each era's cultural zeitgeist, but what the hey, when we do ours in forty years or so, we're going to point to "Sailor Moon," Jim Nabors, and "Weekly Picks." No accounting for taste.
Finally, we leave you with PhinisheD, a new discussion group for people who cannot seem to finish their dissertations. [something something something] Take your Pick(s).
You can also get Yahoo!'s Weekly Picks delivered to you via NetDelivery 
