A great website that makes finding and following the myriad of podcasts available from museums around the U.S. and the world. The site makes selecting podcasts easy from a simple menu - just click on "Museum Directory - and the site also provides plenty of technical support (including a live chat option) for how to listen to podcasts. They also provide some freeware, museum job listings, and a blog.

Information Architects, a design firm with offices in Japan and Zurich, release their annual web trends map. This is the fourth one in the series. Popular domains on the Web are mapped to the Tokyo Metro and organized by how they are most related to the cities. Heights represent success in traffic and branding. Subway lines are colored by area of interest. For example, take the orange line to find the creatives.

The NSA sometimes gets a bad rap as a shadowy uber intelligence organization, but the reality is that they do a lot of the boring but important (and often difficult) work to secure national infrastructure for both the U.S. and its allies. Most of that is of hands-on interest only to bureaucrats and security wonks, but every so often something makes it out of Fort Meade that's useful to the rest of us.

These "Security Configuration Guides" provide excellent outlines of some simple steps you can take to secure the computers in your workplace and your home against intrusion. Guides are provided for Mac, Linux, and Windows users, with in-depth recommendations for the major releases of each operating system.

For pretty much anyone who has ever plugged in a computer, a television, or even a telephone, Christoph Niemann's beautifully-illustrated take on the snarl of problems that cables present will be painfully familiar, as well as good for a few laughs along the way.

This article from breitbart.com takes a look at a certain aspect of American life that may be contributing more to global warming than you would have thought possible – your diet. Did you know that people are eating close to double the recommended amount of meat per year? Did you also know that one kilogram of beef releases sixteen kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent into the air which is ten times higher than that of poultry? Salad anyone?

If you enjoy eating bagels (this New Yorker certainly does), check out this history of our favorite breadstuff. Anyone know where I can get a good one in Madison?

You know the song that plays in cartoons when the sun comes up? Or what about the theme song from Monty Python's Flying Circus? You know the melody, you might have a little dance that goes with it, but do you know the composers? The titles? With Kickass Classical, you can find out about classical music from "movies, commercials, cartoons, songs, video games and ringtones." You can listen to excerpts and links are provided so you can download a song from iTunes. Go through composer by composer or check out the Top 100 List and see if you can name each tune's claim to popular culture fame.

A chill is still in the air here in Wisconsin (actually it was 10 degrees, today), but we know that Spring is on its way because Major League Baseball’s opening night is only 24 days 22 hours and 32 minutes away (at least as I write this blog). For this reason, I felt it appropriate to mention my favorite baseball statistics website, Baseball-Reference.com. I’ve always found this site to be much more useful than anything actually produced by Major League Baseball. Finding statistics from a mere two years ago is almost impossible at MLB.com, but Baseball-Reference is there to help, providing statistics from the 1851 season onward. In addition to just raw data, everyday a new “Stat of the Day” is provided. Recently, one of these stats was that Alex Rodriguez, currently of steroid fame, has the single season record for the most homeruns by a shortstop. Apparently steroids do have an effect on the record books? Who would have guessed! Regardless of that, find your own fun facts with this great resource for baseball fans.

This site brings together the visual aspects of today's news items in one riotous format, complete with thousands of images, tags, and other goodies. Visitors can click on through to various news items related to each image, and also just wander around for fun!

This very useful list from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies provides you with a way to check out alt news sources across the country. Click on the name of the weekly pub to get a very nicely written description and history of the publication or go directly to the weekly via the web site link and get your local news fix!

North Korea is about to launch its first satellite. Iran launched theirs last month. India\'s space agency recently got the green light to send people into space, and China\'s announced plans to build a space station. Getting to space is no longer for a few, technically apt nations. Here\'s a look at seven countries that have their sights on orbit and the capabilities to get there.

The dream of every child — having the ability to use an "old Jedi mind trick" on his or her parents in order to skip those Brussels sprouts — has become closer to reality. A toy manufacturer will soon be selling an interesting device called the "Force Trainer" which allows the wearers of its EEG sensor to "control" the floating position of a ping-pong ball within a plastic tube: the more the wearer concentrates, the higher the ball floats. While I sense the novelty would unfortunately wear off after the first 30 seconds or so, it gives us "a new hope" that soon we will be able to punish our adversaries with lightning from our fingertips.

Ever wonder what the 200,000+ flights a day in North American airspace look like? Artist Aaron Koblin has overlayed the FAA's flight tracking data for Aug 12, 2008 with a Google Map. The results are fascinating. Lighter lines on the map represent lower altitudes. Peep this video for more. Bonus: Election 2008, mapified.

This online quiz from addictinggames.com is not, as advertised, impossible, but it will frustrate and entertain the user from start to infinite end. The answers to the seemingly easy questions are clever, witty, and sometimes make you shrug your shoulders in complete bewilderment and 'skip' to the next question. Here are a few tips from me to you - pay attention to detail and guard your 'lives' because you never know what the next question will bring!

This blog of pretty pictures runs the gamut, including imagery of the urban landscape, fashion photography, product design, illustrations, and an occasional inspired commercial. It's at times gorgeous, at others, bizarre, and at another turn, hilarious. Some highlights include monsters of the universe stamps, a 19th century toolbox, musical roads, and the Hidden Radio. Wander back through the archives and discover tidbits to send around. There's something for everyone.