Here are just a few of the many terrific web sites on the internet, culled from a quick survey of my friends, a little online searching, plus a few of my own favorites.

Amazing Videos, Photographs, and Ideas

• http://www.ted.com: Named for Technology, Entertainment, Design, not some guy called "Ted" - Inspired talks (about 20 minutes each) by the world's leading thinkers and doers - Don't miss this architect's talk about piecing together publicly-available images into a three-dimensional experience: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/blaise_aguera_y_arcas.html
• http://grin.hq.nasa.gov: Great Images in NASA - Over a thousand high-quality photographs
• http://www.airspacemag.com: Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine - Don't miss http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Top_NASA_Photos_of_All_Time.html
• http://www.chandra.harvard.edu: NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html: NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
• http://www.photographymuseum.com: American Museum of Photography
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com: National Geographic Society

Entertainment, Television, Radio

• http://www.imdb.com: The Internet Movie Database (also includes TV shows) - Two of my favorites: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058331 and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314
• http://www.film.com: Movies, Trailers, Reviews, TV Shows, DVDS, and Celebrities
• http://www.cartalk.com: Car Talk (Boston-based radio show) plus a huge array of articles and information - Don't miss http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/fueleconomy: Car Talk's Guide to Better Fuel Economy
• http://www.pbs.org: Public Broadcasting Service (TV)
• http://www.npr.org: National Public Radio
• http://www.zap2it.com/tv/listings: TV listings
• http://streamingtvepisodes.com and http://www.fancast.com/full_episodes: Watch a wide variety of classic and recent TV shows on your computer
• http://www.dtv2009.gov: Read about the change that will occur at midnight on February 17, 2009, when all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting

Art

• http://mfa.org: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• http://moma.org: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• http://www.museumofbadart.org: The Museum Of Bad Art, Dedham, Mass.

Learning

• http://urbanlegends.about.com: Debunking online and real-life myths
• http://www.wikipedia.com: The Free Encyclopedia
• http://www.loc.gov: Library of Congress
• http://www.theonion.com: The Onion - News, dripping with satire
• http://www.jir.com: The Journal of Irreproducible Results - The Science Humor Magazine, targeting hypocrisy, arrogance, and ostentatious sesquipedalian circumlocution
• http://www.improbable.com: Improbable Research - Research that makes people laugh and then think; They also administer the annual Ig Nobel Prizes, intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and encourage interest in science, medicine, and technology
• http://www.exploratorium.edu: Exploratorium - The museum of science, art, and human perception, San Francisco
• http://www.archive.org: The Internet Archive Way-Back Machine - Enter a web address, you'll see past versions of that web site - Another reason to be careful about what information you post online, even if you later remove it

Food and More

• http://www.betterhomesandgardens.com: Better Homes and Gardens - Home decorating and remodeling ideas, gardening, recipes, and more
• http://www.eaglebrand.com/recipes.asp: Fun recipes from Eagle Brand (the Condensed Milk people)
• http://www.kingarthurflour.com: Festive recipes and catalog of baking ingredients and tools, featuring a clever idea I've never seen on any other online shopping site: Once you've put something into your "shopping cart," it displays additional items you can add without increasing your shipping cost

Investment news stories, research, analysis and more

• http://finance.yahoo.com: Yahoo! Finance
• http://www.morningstar.com: Morningstar online - Such a respected standard for investment information, your local library probably subscribes to their paper version
• http://www.fool.com: The Motley Fool - Championing shareholder value and advocating tirelessly for the individual investor; named from the works of Shakespeare, whose wise fools both instructed and amused, and could speak the truth to the king, without getting their heads lopped off
• http://www.thestreet.com: Another good site for investors with lots of free and valuable content among the clutter and advertising
• http://www.measuringworth.com: Lets you explore different measures of the economy, including inflation, purchasing power, stock growth, and more, using the most reliable historical data available

Useful

• http://www.musicnotes.com: Sheet music for a fee, transposed into whatever key you need
• http://www.yousendit.com and http://www.pando.com: Send files that are too large to be emailed
• http://mapquest.com and http://maps.google.com: Maps, driving directions, satellite images, and more
• http://www.wunderground.com and http://www.weather.com: Weather conditions and forecasts
• http://www.catalogchoice.org: free service that tries to help you reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalogs you get through the mail

Health and medical information - two well-respected sites

• http://www.webmd.com
• http://www.drweil.com: Andrew Weil, M.D.

Community

• http://www.freecycle.org: The Freecycle Network - A grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving away (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns
• http://www.paperbackswap.com: Swap books with other book-lovers - Paperbacks, hardbacks, audio Books, textbooks, and more
• http://www.craigslist.org: Read (and post your own) listings in a huge array of categories, including discussions, services, jobs, housing, childcare, and more
• http://www.yelp.com: Real reviews on what's great (and not so great) in your area, including restaurants, stores, services, and more

Wacky

• http://www.stopabductions.com: How to make a "thought screen helmet" to prevent you from being abducted by aliens
• http://www.halfbakery.com: A communal database of original, fictitious ("half-baked") inventions

Where to go from here

• It's a big world out there, and a chunk of it is on the internet. Whatever interests you, whether it's art, literature, politics, investing, religion, a hobby, how to get out a stain, how to improve your business, medical questions, or something else, search for it online and you're likely to find thousands if not millions of interesting places to visit.
• Enjoy, but don't believe everything you read. Look for credible sources. (If you're not sure, do a google search for "xyz.com review" to find reviews of a given web site.)
• Remember that the entire world is not on the internet.
• If you have a wonderful web site to share, please let me know!

If you know someone who might find this helpful, please feel free to forward it.
If you have any comments about this article, send me a reply!
If you have a topic that you'd like me to write about, I'd love to hear about it!

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email: martin@kadansky.com
phone: (617) 484-6657
web: http://www.kadansky.com

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I love helping people learn how to use their computers better! Like a "computer driving instructor," I work 1-on-1 with small business owners and individuals to help them find a more productive and successful relationship with their computers and other high-tech gadgets.