101 Most Useful Sites
Reference

Know When to Plant: The Old Farmer's Almanac
Whether you're an overall-wearing, tobacco-chewing real McCoy, or more of a back-to-the-Earth weekend country dweller, you'll find wisdom and old-timey advice at The Old Farmer's Almanac. Learn the significance of red-letter days, and read next month's weather predictions.

Choose the Perfect Pet: AOL's Pets Decision Guide
If your kid wants to get a Great Dane, but your already crowded apartment is better suited to a hermit crab, consult AOL's Pets Decision Guide for wisdom in making a tears-free compromise. Plug in your preferences concerning size, smell, maintenance, and personality, among other variables, and this impartial decision-maker will tell you what type of domesticated critter is best suited to your lifestyle and environs.

See Into the Future: World News Forecast
There are plenty of news sites that tell you what's already happened, but what if you need to know what's going to happen? You could hire a fortuneteller, or you could check at World News Forecast, a site that tells you about world events a month ahead of time. You'll learn about upcoming political and cultural events on each continent. Never miss a space launch again! If you'd like news for a full year ahead of time, you can subscribe (for a fee) to the YearAhead Calendar here, too.

Answer a Trivia Question: Infoplease.com
What is the state flower of Alabama? You'll find the answer to such basic (yet puzzling) questions as this at Infoplease.com, the online version of the enduring reference guide Information Please. Most useful is its Fact Finder, a searching tool you get to keep at your virtual side as you browse the Web. (Oh-the answer is, of course, the camellia.)

Look Up a Word: OneLook
OneLook is the metasearcher of the dictionary world. Type in any word, and instead of searching just a single volume OneLook will probe its huge list of specialized and general dictionaries to give you the most comprehensive group of definitions.

Look Up a Foreign Word: A Web of On-line Dictionaries
OneLook is the metasearcher of the dictionary world. Type in any word, and instead of searching just a single volume OneLook will probe its huge list of specialized and general dictionaries to give you the most comprehensive group of definitions.

Translate Your Correspondence Babelfish
Write a letter to your faraway relatives in English, then convert it to your grandparents' mother tongue with AltaVista's Babelfish translation service. Be advised: Machine translations can still yield humorously incorrect results. To make sure you get your points across, don't use too many idiomatic phrases.

Track Your Politicians My Government
Take My Government-please! Plug your ZIP code into this handy feature on the America Online Web site, and you'll find out your state and federal representatives, as well as their recent key votes. If you don't want to use the fax or phone numbers you find here, don't sweat it-there's also an e-mail form so you can voice your opinions immediately.

Sound Off to an Elected Official Mr. Smith Emails...
In 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart's character did just that-he went to D.C. and ended up having his say in the Senate. But this isn't Hollywood, and it is almost the 21st century. The 1999 Web version of Mr. Smith-Mr. Smith E-Mails…-provides all the online forms you'll need to sound off to the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives simultaneously, without boarding a bus or even licking a stamp. And when the politicians won't listen, there are also forms for selected newspapers, magazines, and TV networks.

Get Government Statistics FedStats
The truth is out there. You might not be able to confirm an alien contact, but at FedStats you will find just about any bit of government statistical data that is public knowledge, on topics ranging from agriculture to transportation.

Learn Anything Learn2.com
They tried hard, but your parents somehow managed not to show you how to clean silverware. Come to think of it, you never learned how to serve wine, drive a car with a stick shift, play chess, or fight jet lag, either. Save the resentments for your therapy session, but catch up on lessons lost at Learn2.com. Hmmm, so that's what a "first down" is!

Figure Out How Much Time is Left Internet Clocks, Counters, and Countdowns
How many more days until Y2K? That's only one question out of hundreds that you can get the answer to at Paul Nagai's Internet Clocks, Counters, and Countdowns site. The Web has timers of all types, and Paul links to darn near all of them. So if you want to find out how long you'll have to wait until the next Halloween, or how close to doomsday the atomic scientists think we are, or the size of the national debt (updated every second), you'll find it here. Hurry up and check it out! Time's a-wastin'.

Spice Things Up Spice Encyclopedia
No, the Spice Encyclopedia has nothing to do with Baby, Posh, Sporty, or Scary. Rather, it has to do with those little tins that sit in your kitchen cabinet. Which spice goes in what dish? You could experiment on your own, but it might be safer to read the appropriate entry here first. Choose your spice from the lists and you'll get a quick history of that spice, storage tips, and ideas for using it in your cooking. Even if you're just heating up a can of soup, add a spice or two from the suggestions here and you can pretend that you're Julia Child.

Stay Up to the Minute The Time Zone Page
Where are those old-style newsroom clocks when you need them? If you're stumped as to what time it is in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, The Time Zone Page is a timely addition to your bookmark file. Type in a city name or pick several from the list of more than 600 locations to get the appropriate time. (Bonus tip: If you bookmark a city's results page, you can click to it directly for a time check.) It's a great way to avoid awakening your cousins in Dublin when you just want to talk about soccer and whine about your job.

Fly the Right Flag World Flag Database
If you're trying to draw the Italian flag, but instead you render Ireland's pattern and color, you need to consult the World Flag Database. Search by country name to get flag images and some handy facts along the way. The site smartly includes the flags of such organizations as the United Nations and OPEC, as well as ensigns and flags of republics within larger countries. Bet you didn't know that more than 15 countries can shout, "Three cheers for the red, white and blue!" Now you do.

Get Tech Help SupportHelp
Program bugs and computer crashes always seem to strike just after you've lost the number for tech support. That's where SupportHelp comes in. The people behind this site can't answer your questions, but they can point you to the folks who can. Search here on the company or product name, keyword, or category, and you'll get complete tech-support contact information-phone numbers, e-mail and snail mail addresses, fax numbers, and Web links-for more than 4,500 technology companies. All the support in the world is worthless unless you know how to get it.

Grab the Perfect Gear ReviewFinder
Buying electronic gear or computer hardware and software is tricky business; even propellerheads can get stuck with a lemon that's a poor performer, incompatible with other products, or just doesn't work. ReviewFinder can't guarantee you a lemon-free existence, but it can help you learn more about the gear in which you're interested. Type in the name of the computer hardware, software, or consumer-electronics product you want to buy, and it gives you a list of links to reviews of that product online. Check out each one to get a well-rounded assessment of the product, instead of one reviewer's bias. Then decide whether that car CD player is worth the investment.

Learn Abouth TLAs PDQ Acronym Finder
Acronyms, those (usually pronounceable) words formed by combining the initial letters of words in a descriptive phrase, can be helpful shorthand. But they can also be confusing to the uninitiated. Acronym Finder is your searchable dictionary of almost 60,000 acronyms, from AAH (Advanced Attack Helicopter) to ZPG (Zero Population Growth), covering topics from the military to politics to computing and telecommunications. You can search by the acronym, or use advanced search to find all acronyms with a particular word in their meaning. This is a serious tool for decoding acronyms in news articles and office memos, but it can also be enjoyable to browse with the BOYC (Beverage Of Your Choice).

Dig Up a Biography Lives, the Biography Resource
We're big fans of Biography.com, but Lives, the Biography Resource is another great place to read up on the famous, infamous, and not-so-famous. You'll find not only a profile of Albert Einstein but also some good words on the lesser-known, but quite notable, jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. LTBR's pages link to thousands of sites, and many of its biographies are smartly grouped into collections dedicated to specific professions or eras.