Potpourri VI

During the year, we investigate hundreds of Web sites in preparing this Internet column. Some were good content sites. Those were the places we recommended you visit each of the past 11 months. We found many more Web sites that, although not appropriate for the given issue, certainly had some amusing or interesting features and content. This is the sixth year-end edition of this column in which we explore some off-the-beaten-path "sights" that don't necessarily have any rational relationship to the business life of the plant professional.

Successful fishing trips depend, of course, on the willingness of various piscine creatures, preferably large and lively, to willingly suspend their disbelief and chomp down on your lure anyway. If making such events happen regularly is one of your passions, you might want to know about a Web site recommended by Fred Bryson of Woodhill Communications in Bay Village, Ohio. The site, River Smallies, is a work of art dedicated to the proposition that catching smallmouth bass puts an angler in Nirvana. It's also a strong proponent of catch and release. The site claims to have had more than 1.4 million visitors.

So, if you need a glossary of fishing terms, general info about smallmouth or a discussion of the best gear to use for catching them, this is a site to consider. Check out the list of fishing tips and photos sent in by site visitors, review the proper way to catch and release, and drool over the photographs of wet and dry flies. Also, there are links to outfitters, fishing resorts, books stores and other fishing-related materials. So, drag out your fishing gear and cast a mouse in the general direction of http://www.riversmallies.com/.

On the plant floor, tracking infrared radiation is a common way to monitor the health of physical assets. Directly across the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum you'll find X-rays. And nobody knows more about X-rays than the Chandra X-ray Center that the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. operates for NASA. Launched on July 23, 1999 and still circling high overhead in a highly elliptical orbit is Chandra, the largest man-made satellite ever sent into space. This beast observes X-rays from high-energy regions of the universe, such as the remnants of exploded stars and other such energetic objects.

Send your astro-mouse onto orbit around http://chandra.harvard.edu/ and you'll be rewarded with a wealth of information about this technological wonder. The false-color photos and video clips are remarkable, considering that the subjects are so far away and depicted with a resolution that's 50-fold better than what was available five years ago.

Eavesdropping on the daily life of distant celestial bodies is a natural outcome for mankind's insatiable curiosity about trying to make sense of life and the environment in which we find ourselves. Relying on a remotely-operated instrument, such as Chandra, is fine, but getting a first-hand view is better. That's why, for more than 40 years, we've also been launching people into orbit. The first, John Glenn, spent a whopping four hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds in the void riding the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. Since then, our intrepid explorers have had many adventures, some more successful than others.

NASA, of course, has chronicled the entire effort on its Web site. Anyone who has wondered about zero-gravity meals, sleeping arrangements, bathrooms and so many other common things we take for granted down here definitely should visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ to access the archive. It contains more text than you can read; hundreds of still images, MPG videos and animations; as well as audio files of interviews, astronaut wakeup calls and mission communications for most NASA programs, including the shuttle, space station and Skylab, and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. Reserve some time to explore this site. Each click you make there will uncover many interesting opportunities for getting sidetracked.

This pesky Internet. It's everywhere. Can't get away from it, or so it seems. But it does have a few good points. For example, the servers for many Web sites presented here are located in other countries. Yet, while you're accessing, in some cases, large files that are delivered to you through your phone line, your heavy-duty Web browsing incurs no long-distance charges. Curious, no?

Jeff Pulver, founder of Free World Dialup, Melville, N.Y., figured out a practical way to exploit our favorite Internet. His contribution to the big scheme of things is using Web interconnectedness to place long-distance and international calls for a per-minute toll cost of approximately zero. There's a hitch, of course. Subscribers must purchase a special Internet telephone instrument to place the calls, and they can talk only to other subscribers connected to Internet service providers that established a business relationship with Pulver's company. Nevertheless, he claims to have more than 60,000 subscribers in 150 countries. If the numbers work, subscribers can find themselves with a rather healthy return on investment. Have your mouse call http://www.pulver.com/fwd/ and http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,47204,00.asp for additional details.