Reference

Acronym and Abbreviation List - If you think LLOX belongs on a bagel (no, silly--it's Lunar Liquid Oxygen), or you're not sure what DEFCON stands for (DEFensive [Readiness] CONdition), this is the site for you.

Acronym Finder - The Acronym Finder bills itself as the web's largest database of its kind, with over 156.000 listings and their meanings. Definitions for acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms about all subjects, including information technology, telecommunications, military, government, and more.

Airliners.net - Features photos of commercial and military airliners and helicopters, including cockpit views. The site also contains airport overviews and photos of aviation accidents, if you're into that kind of thing.

Allexperts.com - This is an interesting concept: the site lists experts in a variety of categories, who will attempt to answer any question you submit. The number of categories isn't huge, but this site might be valuable if you need an answer in a covered category.

AltaVista Translation Page - We have no idea how it works, but this site provides a rudimentary translation of any web page from French, Spanish, Italian, German or Portuguese into English (and vice versa). You can also input plain text phrases. Very cool.

American Family Immigration History Center - This searchable database contains records on the 22 million passengers and ship crew members who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 on their way to The American Dream. In addition to basic passenger records (name, ethnicity, place of residence, age, marital status, ship of travel, etc.), visitors can also view a copy of the original ship manifest, and even a picture of the ship traveled on. A treasure for online genealogy research.

American Secular Holidays Calendar - Enter any year after 1776 and get a chronological listing of all secular U.S. holidays for that year.

American Sign Language Dictionary - This cool site uses animated photos to teach basic American Sign Language (ASL). Although kind of slow, it's an excellent use of the Web, and includes resource links of interest to the deaf community.

Ancestry.com - Billing itself as "the World's #1 Genealogy Web Site", the site includes hundreds of searchable databases that will help you trace your (or someone else's) roots. The focus is on the United States, but links are included to the Social Security Death Index, The Ancestry World Tree and many others.

Ariga - An indexed-by-first-letter listing of familiar and not-so-familiar Yiddish words and expressions with their English translations.

Ask Jeeves - Ask Jeeves allows you to ask a question in plain English and, after interacting with you to confirm the question, takes you to one and only one web site that answers your question.

Association of Film Commissions - This site links to film commissions around the world. A useful aid for location scouting from your computer monitor.

The Aviation Zone - The Aviation Zone bills itself as the most comprehensive online resource for military transports, aerial tankers, and fixed-wing gunships. The site represents about 75 different aircraft dating back to 1940, and includes over 2000 high-quality photo images, detailed fact sheets with aircraft diagrams, and dozens of video and sound files.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations - Searchable database of the standard reference work.

Baseball Statistics and History - If you can't find the fact you're looking for about America's Pastime on this site, you're not trying. Stats on past and present players and managers, sections for every Major League Baseball team, and a whole lot more. A grand slam.

Behind The Name - The site lists the origin and meaning of a huge number of first names.

Bible Gateway - Search through six different English translations of the most widely read book in history. Besides English, you can search in French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Latin, and...Tagalog!

Bibliomania - Bibliomania has complete texts of hundreds of classic literary works formatted for easy web browsing. A search tool lets you stroll through public-domain reference books, novels, short stories, drama, poetry, biographies, science texts, and other works.

Biographical Dictionary - Includes more than 27,000 notable men and women who shaped our world from ancient times to present day. The dictionary can be searched by name, birth year, death year, positions held, profession, literary and artistic works, miscellaneous achievements, and other keywords.

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - This site lists every Congressperson from 1774 to the present, including such basic info as state represented, political party, years served, and a short biographical paragraph. Searchable by name, state, and/or position, this is a great reference resource.

Birding On The Web - If you're looking for facts about our fine feathered friends, this is the site for you.

Britannica.com - The Encyclopedia Britannica, that peerless, quintessential reference work, is now online in its entirety, and its free. In at least two ways, the online version is even more useful than its hardcopy counterpart: subjects can be looked up using either specific terms or by category, and articles contain hyperlinks to related subject matter. We find the user interface a little clunky at this point, but hopefully that will be smoothed out with time.

Bullfinch's Mythology - A searchable on-line version of the venerable reference work.

CIA Factbook 2000 - The newly-updated and re-designed version of the CIA's extremely useful global guide. Contains facts on 250 countries: maps, flags, and information on the geography, population, government, transportation, and defense systems of each country. Widely recognized as one of the finest online resources for quick country information.

Common Errors in English - A great place to check those tricky little spelling and grammatical quirks of our language. Are you sure you know the difference between "imply" and "infer"?

Compendium of Common Knowledge: 1558-1603 - Full of interesting facts about and idiosyncrasies of the Elizabethan era, including language, religion, games, currency, foods, and a lot more. A WHOLE lot more.

The Costume Gallery's Research Library - A rich resource dedicated to the art and history of costuming.

Country Studies - Information on 85 countries around the globe, including photographs, tables, glossaries, and bibliographies.

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - The hardcopy version, commonly known as DANFS, is regarded as the foremost reference on US naval vessels. This online version of DANFS is similarly exhaustive, chronicling virtually every ship that the US Navy has ever put to sea. Among other things, it includes over 7,000 ship histories and physical characteristics.

Ecclesiastical Calendar - Enter any year after 325 A.D. and get a chronological listing of the major ecclesiastical events for the year.

eHow - Step-by-step instructions on how to do lots of stuff, like play third base, create an Austin Powers costume, or spot a Libra.

The Elements of Style, William Strunk - Classic aid for basic writing.

eNature.com - The core of this site is its searchable Field Guides section, containing information about more than 4,800 North American plants and animals. Also includes a searchable database of U.S. national parks.

Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History - Dedicated to the contributions African Americans have made to the cultural, political, and scientific life of the United States, this site features articles, photos, and a time-line going back to 1517.

Encyclopedia of Conspiracies - Everything you were afraid to ask about conspiracy theories, neatly indexed by alphabet.

The Encyclopedia Mythica - An on-line encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, legends, magic and more, with over 2,300 definitions of gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world.

ERIC - The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a database of educational information and materials.

Ethnologue - An exhaustive language reference that presents statistics about more than 6,700 tongues, including number of speakers, countries and regions, and dialects.

The Farmer's Almanac - On-line version of the venerable print publication.

FAQ Finder - FAQs are documents with answers to Frequently Asked Questions about a particular subject. This site helps you find a wealth of useful FAQs on the Web.

The 50 States of the United States - Listings of state capitals; population figures; official birds, trees, flowers, and songs; government representatives; etc.

FindArticles.com - Search for on-line articles from more than 300 magazines and journals.

Foreignword.com - Provides 178 on-line dictionaries for 64 languages, as well as links to lots of other web-based language translators.

French Reference Library - Potpourri of information including French national holidays, an on-line metric conversion program, a list of French departments (the French equivalent of states), a glossary of French legal terms, even French wine vintage tables.

Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory - Named for the gasoline-swallowing event that took the life of young rocker Bobby Fuller, the creator says this is A Site About Dead Musicians And How They Got That Way. Even if it doesn't help you write your script, it might help you win a bar bet.

Geography at About.com - This valuable jumping-off point for geography-related websites includes annotated links to hundreds of the best sites for maps and geographical information, an online world atlas, a glossary, weekly articles about geography, weekly quizzes, a forum and a chat room for geographical discussion. The historical map links are especially cool.

Glossary of Hardboiled Slang - A guide to the English language as spoken by Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Mike Hammer.

Government Information Locator Service (GILS) - GILS records identify public information resources within the Federal Government, describe the information available in those resources, and assist in obtaining the information.

Hickok's Sports History - Historical data on sports from air racing to yachting. The info on this site isn't comprehensive for any given sport, but it sure covers a lot of territory.

Holidays on the Net - A site devoted to our favorite days. Choose a holiday and get a concise primer on the traditions, folklore, foods and fundamentals associated with it.

How Stuff Works - Ever wonder how your cell phone works? Or your refrigerator? Or your immune system? Useful illustrations and clear explanations make this a great reference site.

The Human-Languages Page - Devoted to information about the languages of the world, ranging from dictionaries and general reference works to language tutorials and spoken samples.

Inflation Calculator - Pick a year between 1800 and 1998, input a dollar amount, and find out what it was worth in any other year in that range.

Information on Militias - A single page of links to websites of, and articles about, some of the scariest folks around.

Information Please - On-line version of the classic all-purpose almanac and fact book. And like the printed version, this site contains an enormous potpourri of factoids. And unlike many websites, this outfit takes pride in the accuracy of its content.

InfoNation - A great source for up-to-date statistical information on all the member states of the United Nations. The database contains dozens of statistical categories including largest city, major imports, life expectancy, population growth, etc. And you can compare the stats for up to seven different countries.

Infowar.com - Large collection of articles concerning computer hacking, cyber-terrorism, espionage, privacy issues, and more. If you're not paranoid, you will be after you read some of this stuff.

International Atlas - This site, called Altapedia, supplies not only physical and political maps of the world, but concise social, political and historical profiles of every country. If you want to know the total area of Argentina, the capital of Kazakhstan, or the main exports of Estonia, this is the place for you.

Internet FAQ Archives - FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions, and thousands of FAQ lists on thousands of subjects are on the Net. Problem is, they're all over the place and they can be tough to locate. This site organizes them in easily searchable ways. You can choose to display listings by Category, Archive Name, Author, or Newsgroups. A handy and valuable research resource for topics from acorns to Zoroastrianism.

Internet Hockey Database - This site has the standings and regular season scoring stats of every professional hockey team to play since 1926-27, as well as info on many junior, NCAA, and amateur teams. Not to mention an archive of hundreds of hockey team and league logos both past and present.

Jane's Internet Defence Glossary - Over 20,000 defense-related acronyms and abbreviations from the publisher of England's famous "Jane's All the World's Aircraft."

Jargon File Resources - Everything you ever wanted to know about computer-speak, and more.

Journalist's Guide for Finding Data on the Internet - Statistics geared to writers, basic reference data, and topics ranging from aviation to weather.

Legal Dictionary - English and Latin legal terms translated into plain English, with internal hyperlinks.

Legends - Explanations of the songs and stories surrounding King Arthur, Robin Hood, pirtates, and other characters of legend and lore. Includes some links to original texts on-line.

Librarian's Index to the Internet - Though designed for use by public librarians, this 7,000-site directory is a useful resource for any Web researcher. It includes links to sites related to the arts, education, geography, literature, law, medicine, sports, and many other subjects. Each site listing contains a brief review.

Lighthouse Explorer Database - A database with information on over 1,300 lighthouses around the world. Browse the listings alphabetically, by category, by state or country, or search by keyword. Entries include name, location, supervising organization, contact information, email and website (when available), and in some cases a photo.

List of Dictionaries - Links to lots of useful on-line dictionaries, including language-to-language, technical, rap, hackers dictionaries, acronyms, etc.

MagPortal.com - A categorized index of links to some of the latest magazine articles available on the Net.

MapQuest - This site will generate a zoomable map of any location in the U.S., down to the street level! You can find business addresses, get the distance between any two points, obtain personalized driving directions and shortcuts, etc.Includes interactive maps of six continents. Very cool.

Mental Health Matters - This extensive site includes research, libraries, societies, mental health law, databases, substance abuse, childhood disorders, phobias, anxiety disorders, and much more.

Military Analysis Network - Just one part of the Federation of American Scientists website, this enormous collection of data on American military and naval firepower may be the most comprehensive ever made available to the public.

NASA Thesaurus - Sound like you know what you're talking about with this low-tech, but detailed site.

The Nobel Prize Internet Archive - Information on current and past Nobel Prize winners in all categories.

NYNY - Site creator David Minor describes NYNY as "a chronology of New York City and New York State history, covering roughly the period between 450,000,000 BC and 1990 AD." Info on the early period is a little light, but the more recent factoids are a handy way to get an idea of the major goings-on in the Big Apple and the Empire State over the years.

OneLook Dictionaries - At this mega-dictionary site, you can input any word and the site will search close to 600 on-line dictionaries to retrieve a meaning. Words can be looked up with wild cards if you're not sure of the spelling, and the dictionaries referenced by this site cover a huge range of classifications including general, medical, scientific, computer, military, religious, and acronyms.

ParkMaps.com - Get maps of favorite and hard-to-find parks from all over the world.

The Phobia List - You wouldn't believe how many things there are to be afraid of, and this site seems to list them all. Interestingly, there doesn't appear to be any such thing as a fear of lists.

The Pulitzer Prizes - Contains the works and profiles of Pulitzer Prize winners past and present.

Reading A - Z - Online publisher of education literature provides downloadable books for reading teachers. They have a subscriber list of over 300,000 teachers.

refdesk.com - Refdesk is basically a reference portal of impressive scope. From this site you can link to a mind-boggling number of resources, from news to finding the best "10-10" long distance phone rates.

Reference.com - This site facilitates finding, browsing, searching for information and participating in more than 150,000 newsgroups, mailing lists, and web forums.

Reference Desk - A comprehensive collection of reference links; it's like sitting in the middle of your public library research area.

Resources for Writers - Links to scores of Web sites for writing and research.

Rhyming Dictionary - An on-line rhyming dictionary that matches perfect rhymes, rhymes for last sounds in a word, and homophones.

Roget's Thesaurus- An on-line version of the standard reference book.

RxList - Search this drug database for information about thousands of medications, dosages, side effects, drug interactions, and warnings. Includes a list of the top 200 medications prescribed in the U.S.

SYMBOLS.com - Contains more than 2,500 Western signs (ranging from Cro-Magnon ideograms to hobo signs), arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics, plus 1,600 articles about their histories, uses, and meanings.

The Slot - Bill Walsh, a copy editor at The Washington Post, presents this wry website dealing with the niceties and not-so-niceties of the English language. Not sure if the correct term is "jerry- rigged" or "jury-rigged"? Check out The Curmudgeon's Stylebook.

THOR: The Online Resource - Created by Purdue University, this site collects links to a variety of reference materials (dictionaries, zip codes, maps, etc.) and organizes them into convenient and well-populated categories.

Time Zone Converter - Handy on-line program that converts dates and times between major cities and countries all over the world.

Travlang's Translating Dictionaries - Translate between a large assortment of languages, including Portuguese, Afrikaans, and Esperanto.

Tutorialfind - This index of online tutorials leans pretty heavily toward computer-related tutorials, but it also covers arts and crafts, health and fitness, sports, and other topic areas.

Universal Currency Converter - Fast on-line program that converts the current value between any of over sixty currencies, as well as gold, silver and platinum.

U.S. Census Bureau - Searchable statistics on social, demographic and economic information for the United States from the official 1990 census. Maps, customizable search matrices and numbers galore.

US Military Aviation - An extensive website dealing with active aircraft operating units and air bases of US forces around the world. Includes links to related US organizations and other aviation sites as well as a government website search engine.

Whatis.com - An on-line encyclopedia for the IT (Information Technology) Age. Need to know what a "qubit" is? Look it up here.

Witchcraft In Salem Village - 18 people were hanged as witches in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. This site offers sizable collections of verbatim transcripts from the 1692 trials, and narratives from witchcraft cases between 1648 and 1706. Also included: the digitized full text of a 1693 treatise on witchcraft, a brief introduction to the Salem trials, a map of Salem village, and some answers to FAQs about witchcraft.

WordNet - An extremely useful searchable on-line dictionary/thesaurus. Includes how terms are used in context.

World Wide Words - If you're the type who's curious about the origins of phrases like "hat trick" or the meanings of obscure words like "autohagiography," Michael Quinion is your man. His site explores the English language's many strange and fascinating roots.

Writer's Resource Center and Reference Library - A great place to kick-start any writer's imagination, this website is an interestingly organized group of links to other websites. Includes sections on nostalgia and other provocative locations, searchable databases, various on-line reference works, even puzzles to sharpen your wits.

Webster's Dictionary - Merriam-Webster's searchable on-line dictionary provides hyperlinked definitions, word origins and pronunciations.

YourDictionary.com - A fabulous compendium of on-line dictionaries and thesauri of every imaginable description, including foreign language, acronyms, biographical, multilingual, and the ever-popular Pimbly's Dictionary of Heraldry. If you can't find it here, it's probably not a word.