All The Web - A fairly recent entry in the search engine category, this one may be the fastest ever. Comprehensive results are usually returned in less than a second with a broadband connection!

Dogpile Search Engine -This mega-search facility simultaneously looks at about two dozen top Internet search engines, adjusting boolean and proximity operators to each one. And it's really fast!

EuroSeek - A Yahoo-like search engine devoted to Europe. And you can search in about 36 different languages. Very cool for the linguistically-blessed.

Excite - Excite tracks down information by searching for concepts, not just keywords.

Google - This search engine indexes more pages on the Internet than any of the others, by a wide margin. And it's fast. Highly recommended—our current favorite.

Google Groups - A complete 20-year Usenet Archive with over 700 million messages.

Harley Hahn's Master List of Usenet Newsgroups - There is a newsgroup for pretty much every interest under the sun, and this site makes it easy to find and search the one you're looking for. They're listed by listed by category and topic.

HotBot - This search engine from Wired magazine claims to index more than 55 million web pages.

Lycos - Search engine and comprehensive Internet portal.

WebCrawler Searching - Internet search tool.

Yahoo Search - The granddaddy of Internet directories.

American Society of Association Executives - This directory service takes you directly to many of the associations currently operating on the Web.

BigBook - An impressive Yellow Pages directory that lets you search by category, complete with location maps.

Bigfoot - Huge directory of e-mail addresses and white pages.

Canada411 - Canada’s Telephone Directory. People or business search. Get maps, driving directions, reverse address search or reverse phone lookup.

Canadian Government departments, agencies and Crown corporations

Canadian members of parliament

InfoSpace - This huge collection of online directories includes Internet Yellow and White pages, classifieds, public listings, local city information, and complete Federal, State, County and City government listings for the United States.

Liszt - Often, people interested in the field you're writing about are the best source for research information. This site lists over 70,000 mailing lists devoted to specific and general topics.

Political Links for Canadian Reporters (off-site)

Switchboard - U.S. residential and business listing White Pages.

WhoWhere? - White Pages service for locating people and organizations on the Net.

Yahoo People Search - Look up phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Calgary Herald - Alberta-based newspaper

Calgary Sun - Alberta-based newspaper

Canada.com - The canada.com network integrates Canadian news and specialty content by offering newspaper, television and other online content from  media properties, including National Post, Global National, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette,Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald and many more media properties.

The Canadian Press: Breaking - The Canadian Press is a bilingual news agency providing real-time text, photos, audio, graphics, video and online services. 

The Canadian Press: National

The Canadian Press: World

The Canadian Press: Biz

Canada NewsWire - CNW Group is a Canadian resource for news and information from more than 10,000 sources.

CBC News Canada - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s on-line news service.

City News - City TV’s on-line news service.

CTV News - CTV Television Network’s on-line news service.

The Globe and Mail - National newspaper (editorial slant is “left”)

Halifax Herald - newspaper

Halifax Daily News - newspaper

Hamilton Spectator - newspaper

The Hill Times - Ottawa-based newspaper

Kingston Whig-Standard - newspaper

Kitchner Record - newspaper

London Free Press - newspaper

Montreal Gazette - newspaper

National Post - National Canadian newspaper (editorial slant is “right”)

Ottawa Citizen - newspaper

Ottawa Sun - newspaper

P.E.I. Guardian - newspaper

Regina Leader Post - newspaper

Reuters Canada - Canadian on-line site of Thomson Reuters, the world's largest international multimedia news agency.

Sympatico - Bell Inc.’s Sympatico and Microsoft Corporation’s MSN comprehensive Canadian Web portal.

Toronto Star - newspaper (editorial slant is “left”)

Toronto Sun - Canadian newspaper (editorial slant is “right”)

Yahoo News Canada - on-line news site with broad range of information resources.

BBC News - On-line site of the British Broadcasting Corporation news division.

Chicago Tribune - On-line version of the Chicago Tribune.

CNN Interactive - World news, sports, weather, showbiz, technology, style and fun.

Drudge Report - Matt Drudge brings tabloid journalism to the Internet.

Entertainment Weekly - Feature articles, movie and multimedia reviews.

The Hollywood Reporter
- On-line edition of Tinseltown's daily entertainment trade magazine.

Hollywood Scriptwriter - Screenplay excerpts and writer interviews.

In-Box Direct - Spend less time surfing for news. In-Box Direct gives you free subscriptions to the best publications on the web, delivered straight to your email in-box.

L.A. Weekly - On-line version of LA's leading alternative newspaper.

London Times - The  200-year-old newspaper. Well-organized with back issues and a searchable archive.

Los Angeles Times - On-line version of the LA Times newspaper.

Los Angeles Times - Washington Post News Service - The Los Angeles Times-Washington Post newspapers’s on-line News Service.

The MoJo Wire - Mother Jones Magazine Online: Alternative view of news.

Moreover - A bonanza for news junkies—offers top stories from more than 1,800 sources grouped in more than 700 categories.

MSNBC - The online version of the news network.

Nando Times - Online news service drawing from a number of newspapers, as well as the Associated Press, Reuters, etc.

New York Times - On-line version of all the news that's fit to print.

New York Times Books - Includes the entire Sunday Book Review and a searchable archive of over 50,000 reviews.

News Central - Links to over 2,700 newspapers from all parts of the planet.

News Index - Search for breaking news stories and topics of interest from this database of articles from hundreds of news sources.

Pathfinder - A complete, online collection of all Time-Warner magazines.

PBS NewsHour Online - Daily and archived transcripts from the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

People Magazine

Sports Illustrated

Television News Archive (Vanderbilt University) - Since August 5th, 1968, The Television News Archive has systematically recorded, abstracted, and indexed national television newscasts.

Time - News from Time magazine, with links to related stories.

Time-Life Photo Sight - A collection of photos from Life magazine, including a searchable database of their cover photos from 1936 to 1972.

TV Guide

USA Today - News, sports, money, life, weather.

U.S. News Online

The Village Voice - On-line version of the venerable New York City alternative weekly newspaper.

Wall Street Journal - On-line home of the famous journal.

Acronym and Abbreviation List - If 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.

Adcouncil.org - The Advertising Council, a private, non-profit US organization, has been that nation's leading provider of public service campaigns for more than 60 years.

Airliners.net - Features photos of commercial and military airliners and helicopters, including cockpit views.

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.

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.

American Sign Language Dictionary - This site uses animated photos to teach basic American Sign Language (ASL).

Ameristat - This site offers some revealing statistics about the increasingly diverse population of the United States.

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 roots. The focus is on the United States.

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

Ask An Expert - A directory of links to people who have volunteered their time to answer questions and webpages that provide information.

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.

Ask Oxford - This site is devoted to helping visitors make the best use of the English language.

The Aviation Zone - 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.

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

Baseball Almanac - This site contains an enormous amount of information about baseball teams, players, managers, and ballparks.

Baseball Reference - Stats on past and present players and managers, sections for every Major League Baseball team, and a whole lot more.

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.

Biographical Dictionary - Includes more than 27,000 notable men and women who shaped our world from ancient times to present day.

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - Searchable lists of every Congressperson from 1774 to the present, including such basic info as state represented, political party, years served, and a short biographical paragraph. 

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 online.

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

The Canadian Encyclopedia - comprises the complete text and multimedia of the reference work originally published in 1985. Since the encyclopedia appeared online in 2001, it has been continuously updated and expanded.

Card Games - Contains complete rules for hundreds of card and tile games from all over the world.

CheeseNet - This site houses a world of information on characteristics of various cheeses, the history of cheese, facts about cheesemaking, etc.

CIA Factbook 2001 - The  CIA's useful global guide. Contains facts on 250 countries: maps, flags, and information on the geography, population, government, transportation, and defense systems of each country.

College and University Home Pages - Home pages for universities and colleges all over the world.

Common Errors in English - A great place to check those tricky little spelling and grammatical quirks of our language.

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

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.

Crash Database - This Web site is the Internet's first fully searchable online database of virtually every commercial airline accident, from 1970 onward.

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - This online version of DANFS is exhaustive, chronicling virtually every ship that the US Navy has ever put to sea.

dMarie Time Capsule - This online database generates an information page for any given date from 1800 to the very recent past. Useful for an overview of headlines, top songs, Academy Award winners, and political leaders of the day.

Duhaime's Law Dictionary - English and Latin legal terms translated into plain English, with internal hyperlinks.

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 - The classic little aid for basic writing.

eNature.com - Searchable Field Guides, containing information about more than 4,800 North American plants and animals.

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.

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.

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.

Everyrule.com - Contains the rules for card, casino, and board games, and even for many TV game shows.

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.

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.

FishBase - If you're an ichthyologist, you'll find this database about everything to do with fish very useful.

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

Freetranslation.com - This site allows you to translate text or an entire Web page from Spanish, French, German or Portuguese to English, or from English to Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, or Norwegian. The translations are sometimes laughable, but they will give you the gist of what's being said.

French Reference Library
- Potpourri of information including French national holidays, an on-line metric conversion program, a list of French departments, a glossary of French legal terms, French wine vintage tables, etc.

Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory - The creator says this is A Site About Dead Musicians And How They Got That Way.

Geography at About.com
- This valuable jumping-off point for geography-related websites.

Glass Encyclopedia - Collectible glass, from depression glass to ornately cut crystal stemware.

Glossary of Construction Terms - Need to know what a cantilever is? Or screeding? This site presents a limited but useful glossary of construction terms.

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 US 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.

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.

Household Cyclopedia - A “book” for people who need to be able to amputate a limb, grow their own fiber for material, take care of their horses, give birth to children, build houses, concoct medicines.

How Stuff Works - Useful illustrations and clear explanations make this a great reference site.

I Love Languages - Devoted to information about the languages of the world.

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 Please - On-line version of the classic all-purpose almanac and fact book.

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.

Infowar.com - Large collection of articles concerning computer hacking, cyber-terrorism, espionage, privacy issues, and more.

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.

The Internet Archive - Web pages and sites appear and disappear constantly. This site is a digital archive that lets you search for Web pages that no longer exist in their original locations.

Internet FAQ Archives - FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions, and thousands of FAQ lists on thousands of subjects are on the Net.

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, plus an archive of hundreds of hockey team and league logos.

Investopedia - This on-line glossary will help you understand the special jargon of the financial world.

ITOOLS - Search, language, and research tools.

Jane's Internet Defence Glossary - Over 20,000 defense-related acronyms and abbreviations.

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.

Legends - Explanations of the songs and stories surrounding King Arthur, Robin Hood, pirtates, and other characters of legend and lore.

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.

Library Spot - A reference mega-portal with links to all sorts of dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, maps, and more.

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.

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

LiveManuals - This site has multimedia manuals for a wide variety of common products.

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.

Medal of Honor Citations
- More than 3,400 US Medals of Honor have been presented to America's bravest military men and women since the decoration's creation in 1861. This site, arranged by wars and intervening time periods, lists each recipient along with a brief description of the actions that prompted the medal being awarded.

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

Merriam-Webster Dictionary - On-line version of the standard reference text, with hyperlinks to associated terms.

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.

Minor League Baseball - Everything you might want to know about the diamond stars of tomorrow.

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

The Nobel Channel -This rich and gorgeously-designed site boasts exclusive access to the largest archive of Nobel materials in the world.

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

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.

Online Conversion - There are more than 8,100 conversions available on this extremely handy site.

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

The Phobia List - There doesn't appear to be any such thing as a fear of lists, but all others are covered here.

ProfNet - Ask a question and have it answered by an expert source at one of more than 1,000 colleges and universities in North America and Europe. Free to reporters and writers, the ProfNet (Professors Network) database allows you to search 7,500 expert profiles and to send queries individually or in small groups.

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

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

Researchpaper.com - An on-line repository of research papers covering over four thousand research topics across more than one hundred categories.

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

Rhyme Zone - Type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.

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.

Search for Scotland - Scotland's complicated history and complex character are explored in this website (a companion to the BBC's 10-part series of the same name), which explores the country's rich history and character.

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.

The Totally Unofficial Rap Dictionary - Get wit' dis.

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.

Webtender - One of your characters is a bartender. Yeah, that's it! This site has nearly 6,000 cocktail recipes to keep the party a happening place.

Whatis.com - An on-line encyclopedia for the IT (Information Technology) Age.

Wildflower Center - The companion website for former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson's Texas-based Wildflower Center, its database can be searched by state, common name, and scientific name.

WordNet - 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.

Writer's Free Reference
- An extensive list of free reference web pages useful to writers and anyone looking for free information.

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.

Yahoo Phone & Address Reference - This handy section of the Yahoo search site lets you look up businesses/individuals and find national and international area codes.

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.

Internet Public Library
- A library of and for the Internet community which organizes books and reference sections in books and stacks.

Library of Congress WWW HomePage - Allows you to choose from a variety of topics and gopher menus.

Libweb - Links to public and academic libraries across the U.S. and around the globe. Many of the text and image collections physically housed at U.C. Berkeley are available here in digital form.

McGill Humanities and Social Sciences Library

- Extensive catalog focusing on history and popular culture.

University of Virginia Electronic Text Library

- Academic treasure trove of medieval and modern literature, including prose, poetry, and religious resources. Literary masterpieces in English, French, German, Japanese, and Latin.

Abebooks - A huge marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books. A particularly good resource for finding signed and inscribed collectibles, first editions, documents, manuscripts, and other ephemera.

Aesop's Fables - This online version of Aesop's Fables includes the full public domain texts of all 393 fables, indexed in a single table with each fable's moral listed.

Amazon.com Books - The original online mega-bookstore (and slugging it out with Barnes and Noble for the title of "world's largest"), this site lists millions of books, searchable by author, title, ISBN number, subject, and keyword. Who says books are dead?

Barnes and Noble On-Line - Billing itself as the "world's largest on-line bookstore", this site features lots of reviews and other book-related information.

Bibliofind - This site offers over eight million old, used and rare books for sale by about 3,500 booksellers around the world.

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.

Bookfinder - Over 40 million new, used, rare, and out of print books at your fingertips.

The ETEXT Archives - Electronic texts of all kinds, from the sacred to the profane, from the political to the personal.

Harvest Moon Publishing - Harvest Moon offers a catalog of film and TV scripts published in association with the Writers Guild Foundation. Scripts are published with the approval of the credited writers and presented in their authentic production format. A portion of all sales goes to the Writers Guild Foundation, a non-profit organization.

Hugo Awards - Part of a larger site called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Science Fiction: Travelogue and Phrase book, this page lists winners of the annual Hugo awards in all categories from 1953 to the present.

On-line Literature Library - Literary works from many writers.

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

The Online Medieval and Classical Library - A searchable collection of some of the most important literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization.

Project Gutenberg - One of the net's oldest and most venerable sites, the founder of PG thought it would be a great idea if lots of famous and important texts were freely available. He was right. These e-books are all public domain (think pre-1923), and include classics by Shakespeare, Poe, Dante and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Shakespeare - Complete works of Shakespeare, some annotated.

Sherlockian Holmepage - Everything you ever wanted to know about the famous Baker Street detective, his sidekick Watson, and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

David Akin

Charles Adler

Rick Bell

Christie Blatchford

Christina Blizzard

Mark Bonokoski

Michael Coren

Colby Cosh - Blog

Andrew Coyne - Blog

David Frum

Lorrie Goldstein

Richard Gwyn

John Ivison

Warren Kinsella

Ezra Levant

Linda McQuaig

Eric Margolis

Rachel Marsden

Don Martin

Lawrence Martin

Geoff Matthews

Rick Mercer

Rex Murphy

Adam Radwanski

Mark Steyn

Stephen Taylor

Allan Thompson

James Travers

Ian Urquhart

Neil Waugh

Paul Wells

Margaret Wente

Greg Weston

Peter Worthington

American Bar Association -Structure and governance, news and monthly membership magazine.

California Legal Codes
- Online listing of California's legal codes, prepared by the state's Legislative Counsel.

Decisions of the U.S.Supreme Court - This archive contains all opinions issued since May of 1990.

DrugStory - Presents the latest drug-related information to entertainment writers and journalists, features poignant interviews with people whose lives have been affected by drugs, and provides writers with the opportunity to email specific questions to a select list of drug experts.

Famous Trials - Explore some of the most famous court cases in American history, from the Salem witchcraft trials to O.J.'s murder trial. The site includes overviews of the trials, court documents, photos, and other materials.

The FBI - A surprising amount of public information, FAQs, famous cases and reports.

FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives - Save yourself a trip to the post office.

Gang Land - From crime journalist Jerry Capeci, this site is self-described as the "world's most comprehensive web site on organized crime". Includes brief histories of major crime families, capsule backgrounds on various notorious individuals, and an archive of various Capeci columns on the subject.

Infoguys - Get the scoop on how private detectives do their thing. Tips on background investigation techniques and links to lots of information sources.

Nolo's Legal Encyclopedia - From the publisher that offers legal guides to the layperson, a companion on-line resource that includes a legal dictionary.

The Smoking Gun -You like conspiracies? They've got conspiracies. Culled from nation wide government, law enforcement and court files, the material is guaranteed to be "100% authentic" and a Pierre Salinger-free zone.

Supreme Court Decisions - Searchable database of U.S. Supreme Court decisions and opinions going back to 1937. Search by citation number, party name, or full text.

THOMAS - Legislative Information on the Internet. The database covers bills and amendments, how laws are made, congressional issues and many other links to other legislative sites.

The American Civil War Homepage - Well-organized links to sites and documents dealing with the Civil War.

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.

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.

Document Center - Detailed archive of historical and current federal, local and international papers, from the University of Michigan.

Douglass Archives of American Public Address - An electronic archive of American oratory and related documents.

Early America Archives - Original newspapers, maps and writings from 18th Century America—the Colonial Period, the War of Independence, and the presidencies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

The Historical Text Archive - This site, organized by geography/nations and topics, provides original historical materials, links to other sites, and electronic reprints of books.

History Buff's Homepage - A site devoted to newspaper press coverage of events in American history, it includes every Presidential Inaugural Address, as well as searchable categories like the Civil War, Crime Figures, and the Old West.

Historynet - Comprehensive resource for information on national and international history, including eyewitness accounts, personality profiles, great battles.

HyperHistory Online - A cyber-companion to Nothinger's World History Chart. It presents 3000 years of world history with a combination of colorful graphics, lifelines, timelines, maps, and descriptive text files. A great way to catch up on what's been going on in the world for the last few millenia.

Inaugural Addresses - Inaugural addresses for all the presidents from Washington to Bush.

Medal of Honor Citations - More than 3,400 Medals of Honor have been presented to America's bravest military men and women since the decoration's creation in 1861. This site, arranged by wars and intervening time periods, lists each recipient along with a brief description of the actions that prompted the medal being awarded.

National Archives and Records Administration - Documents—diaries, letters, drawings, and memoirs—created by those who participated in or witnessed the events of the past.

National First Ladies Library - On-line version of the national archive devoted to U.S. First Ladies and other important women in history.

Russian History - From students in the Russian Studies Program at Bucknell University, this site contains links to other sites dealing with Russia's history, its dynasties, genealogies of Russian nobility, and other interesting historical aspects of our ex-Cold War enemy.

U.S. History OutLoud - Fascinating audio clips from world leaders of history in the making, especially personal notes by JFK regarding meetings on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and phone conversations by Lyndon Johnson to various Congressional leaders as he wheels and deals his way through the Vietnam War, the Warren Commission, and civil rights legislation. Requires Real Audio player.

Women in American History - An on-line guide to the women indicated by the title. From the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Autopsy - Put together by a professional pathologist, this small but concise site explains in very simple lay terms the procedure followed in an autopsy.

Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters (1980-1998) - The National Climatic Data Center presents these summaries of the costliest weather disasters to hit the U.S. in the last two decades.

Biotechnology Information Center - Guides, directories and newsletters.

CSICOP - This site from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) investigates paranormal and fringe-science claims.

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.

EurekAlert - A comprehensive news server for up-to-date research in science, medicine, and engineering. Tracks the latest advances in cancer treatments, gene mapping, global warming, space probes, etc.

Fear of Physics - This modest site tries to take the mystery out of certain areas of physics by explaining them in plain English.

Forensic Science Web Pages - Provides lay person-level explanations of the main disciplines within forensic science.

The Galileo Project - A hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time.

How Stuff Works - This site offers refreshingly easy-to-understand explanations of how many everyday objects around us operate.

How Things Work - Louis A. Bloomfield, Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia, provides this site where you can ask him to explain, in simple terms, how the things around us operate.

Latent Print Examination - Fingerprint expert Ed German, a veteran print examiner with 25 years of U.S. Army criminal investigations under his belt, presents this website that should tell you everything you might want to know about the art and craft of fingerprinting.

NASA Kennedy Space Center -information on recent missions, manuals, phone contacts and space-related links.

PhysLINK - Includes links to equations, online periodic tables, nuclear and particle physics resources, physics journals, newsletters, and publishers.

PLANTS - Provided by the US Dept. of Agriculture, the PLANTS Database provides a single source of standardized information about plants. PLANTS provides standardized plant names, symbols and other plant attribute information. What does PLANTS stand for? Plant List of Attributes, Nomenclature, Taxonomy, and Symbols.

Frank Potter's Science Gems - Physical science, earth science, life science, mathematics, and engineering.

RxList - Information on over 4,500 of the most common drugs in use today. Includes a medical encyclopedia defining over 53,000 terms as well as a section on alternative medicine.

SciCentral - Maintained by professional scientists, this site's mission is to identify and centralize access to the most valuable scientific resources online. It provides a gateway to over 50,000 sites pertaining to over 120 specialties in science and engineering.

Your Weight on Other Planets - Putting on a few pounds? Take heart -- you can weigh much less if you travel to a different planet. This calculator gives your poundage elsewhere in the solar system.

Absolutely Positively Useless - "All the information displayed in this site has been deemed a total waste of time, effort and space," it says, but a lot of it sure is interesting.

Calculator.com On-line versions of every type of calculator you can imagine.

Calendar Zone- More different calendars than you ever dreamed existed. Includes links to calendar software you can download.

ClicheFinder - Looking for the perfect clich? Search this site's database of over 3,300 clichs.

dMarie's Time Capsule - At this site you can relive the headlines, top music, Oscar winners, and costs of living for years past.

Freetranslation.com - This site allows you to translate text or an entire Web page from Spanish, French, German or Portuguese to English, or from English to Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, or Norwegian. Be forewarned--the translations are sometimes laughable, but they will at least give you the gist of what's being said.

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.

Internet ScamBusters - A cyber-publication devoted to revealing current and past scams on the Internet.

Learning Language Library - The largest and most comprehensive language learning portal on the Web offering highly relevant and useful language learning related resources.

PhoNETic - Simple but useful site that converts phone numbers to words or vice versa.

Roberts Rules of Order - The Official Roberts Rules of Order Web site. Everything you ever wanted to know about running an orderly 

Statistics Every Writer Should Know - Here, described in plain English, are some basic concepts in statistics that every writer should know. Includes an area where you can post questions.