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老婆和老妈同时掉在了水里终于有答案了(ZT)
孟子:
从小死了老爸,老妈拉扯我不容易,为了让我健康成长,又搬了三次的家,给我吃好的穿好的为得就是让我有出息。
老妈和老婆落水当然先救老妈了,万恶淫为首,百善孝为先嘛!老婆死了我可以再找一个,老妈死了可不能再找一个,再找一个那就是後妈了。听说後妈没几个好的。
——————「世上只有妈妈好,没妈的孩子像根草。老妈,我来救你了」。扑通一声孟子跳下了水。
周幽王:
老婆和老妈落水了当然得先救老婆了。想当年俺为了逗亲爱的褒姒笑一笑,连江山都不要了,连自己的小命都不要了,何况是老妈?
再说这死老太婆在立太子的时侯老是偏向俺弟弟,害得俺差点都没当成太子。
————「情深深雨蒙蒙,我对你的爱很深,褒姒我来救你了。」周幽王扑通一声跳进了水里。
刘备:
兄弟如手足,老婆如衣服,衣服破尚可补,手足断安可续?只要俺二弟和三弟没掉水里就行了,其它人俺可不管他。
—————「老婆,老妈。你们死的好惨呀!」刘备一头栽在河边上嚎嚎大哭起来。
曹操:
宁叫我负天下人,休叫天下人负我。管它是老婆还是老妈了,只要不是我掉水里就行了。
—————「轻轻的我走了,正如我轻轻的来,我挥一挥手,不带走一片云彩。」曹操哼著诗提著剑慢慢的走远了。
屈原:
这个世界太黑暗了,这个国家太腐败了,活著也没啥意思,不如都死了乾净,沧浪之水清兮,可以濯吾缨,沧浪之水浊兮,可以濯吾足。
投身于河水中倒是一个挺好的归宿。
——–「现在的一片天,是肮脏的一片天,星星在文明的天空里再也看不见老婆,老妈,我和你们一起死」屈原一边唱著一边跳进了水里。
庄子:
生又何欢,死又何哀?其始而本无生;非徒无生也,而本无形;非徒无形也。
老妈和老婆死了就死好了,不过是从有形的元气状态回到了无形的元气状态,有啥好伤心的呢?救他们干啥呢?谁都不救啦!
—————「对面的女孩看过来,看过来,看过来。」庄子分开著双腿像簸箕一样坐著,手中拿著一个瓦缶,边敲边唱,看著老婆和老妈慢慢地淹没在水中,满脸快快乐乐的样子。
和砷:
老婆和老妈落水就落水吧,反正我爱的是钱,钱就是我的老婆,钱就是我的亲妈。
我说老婆和老妈呀,你们就不能穿差一点的衣服再掉到河里呀,可惜了你们头上的那些金钗手饰呀!
———–「有啥你别有病,没啥你别没钱。」和呻一边看著他老婆和老妈慢慢地沉下去一边叹息著。
王勃:
手心手背都是肉,老婆是自己最爱的人,老妈是自己最亲的人,怎么办呢?不管它,先跳下去,看看离谁最近就先救谁吧。
王勃扑通一声跳了下去。
———「不好,我忘了自己不会游泳了。」王勃咕噜噜地喝了几口水,也慢慢地沉了下去。一代才子王勃就是因为此事溺水而死的。
孙悟空:
俺是从石头缝里蹦出来的,没有老妈。所以不存在老妈落水的问题;俺是个和尚,没有老婆。所以不存在老婆落水的问题。
不存在老妈落水的问题,也不存在老婆落水的问题,就更不会存在老妈和老婆同时落水的问题。
这白痴的问题也不知道是哪个猪头想出来的,简直比俺师弟猪八戒还蠢。
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女友跟人跑了,网友安慰楼主竟成如此!(ZT)
某论坛有一楼主伤心发贴,竟然引来一批网友安慰,然后形成如此结果……
原帖如下:
我和我老婆是大学里认识的,大2的时候,我们在同一个学院,故事很平常,朋友租房子我去帮忙抬东西,朋友的朋友也去帮忙,这样我就认识了朋友的朋友,也就是老婆。
大学的生活很快,日子过去。我是个穷人,家里没有钱,父母以前是工人,现在下岗了在外打工,虽然穷,但是日子过得很快乐,我和老婆也是一样,最让她感动的是 2003年我节约钱给她买了她很喜欢的那双 NIKE的鞋,她很感动,那时候我也觉得自己很幸福。
她的家庭情况也一般,她说以后想考公务员,而我刚上大四时去了一个房屋公司兼职做了个小职员,一个月1500。一切看来都很好。我是成都人,老婆重庆的。我在重庆读大学自然就在重庆的工作了,公司在两路口,那时候我和老婆计划着以后奋斗的生活。
风云突变,就在大四的下学期,在毕业来临的日子里,我们和中国农业大学进行友好学生活动。她认识了里面一个大四的上海人。那天活动我也去了,我见到了那个上海人,带着个傻忽忽的眼睛,可是一看那小样就有点钱。二天后,老婆就搬出了我们租的房子。只是匆匆的来了个电话和一封信,大概意思是对我道歉,还叫我努力,鼓励我去面对未来美好的生活。
那一时刻我的头都炸了,没有伤心的感觉,只是觉得脑袋空空的,后来她的朋友来告诉我,那个上海人很有钱,有车有房子,家里还有船。那天上海人陪她坐车出去到了,大概是到瓷器口方向有一段路不好,那上海人就出了钱找几个民工买材料把那段路修好,就这一举动彻底征服了我老婆。
在我看来这纯粹的无聊花钱行为中,老婆没有了,毕业典礼的时候她已经在和那个上海人软语开心的聊天了。我觉得自己很失败,那天晚上我坐在通往到解放杯的公交车上,在最后一排我终于忍不住哭了。
事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途。有时我常常笑我自己是井底之蛙,1500元要多少年才能买车买房,没有钱哪来的浪漫?让人跟你受穷?人家上海人有钱就该娶美女,我这种穷鬼要是找到了美女那不是阻碍了先进生产力的发展方向?还怎么构建和谐社会? 每当有人提起她,我的心理都这样想着。
以下为其他网友安慰楼主的回帖,请欣赏:
原帖如下:
我和我老婆是大学里认识的,大2的时候,我们在同一个学院,故事很平常,朋友租房子我去帮忙抬东西,朋友的朋友也去帮忙,这样我就认识了朋友的朋友,也就是老婆。
大学的生活很快,日子过去。我是个穷人,家里没有钱,父母以前是工人,现在下岗了在外打工,虽然穷,但是日子过得很快乐,我和老婆也是一样,最让她感动的是 2003年我节约钱给她买了她很喜欢的那双 NIKE的鞋,她很感动,那时候我也觉得自己很幸福。
她的家庭情况也一般,她说以后想考公务员,而我刚上大四时去了一个房屋公司兼职做了个小职员,一个月1500。一切看来都很好。我是成都人,老婆重庆的。我在重庆读大学自然就在重庆的工作了,公司在两路口,那时候我和老婆计划着以后奋斗的生活。
风云突变,就在大四的下学期,在毕业来临的日子里,我们和中国农业大学进行友好学生活动。她认识了里面一个大四的上海人。那天活动我也去了,我见到了那个上海人,带着个傻忽忽的眼睛,可是一看那小样就有点钱。二天后,老婆就搬出了我们租的房子。只是匆匆的来了个电话和一封信,大概意思是对我道歉,还叫我努力,鼓励我去面对未来美好的生活。
那一时刻我的头都炸了,没有伤心的感觉,只是觉得脑袋空空的,后来她的朋友来告诉我,那个上海人很有钱,有车有房子,家里还有船。那天上海人陪她坐车出去到了,大概是到瓷器口方向有一段路不好,那上海人就出了钱找几个民工买材料把那段路修好,就这一举动彻底征服了我老婆。
在我看来这纯粹的无聊花钱行为中,老婆没有了,毕业典礼的时候她已经在和那个上海人软语开心的聊天了。我觉得自己很失败,那天晚上我坐在通往到解放杯的公交车上,在最后一排我终于忍不住哭了。
事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途。有时我常常笑我自己是井底之蛙,1500元要多少年才能买车买房,没有钱哪来的浪漫?让人跟你受穷?人家上海人有钱就该娶美女,我这种穷鬼要是找到了美女那不是阻碍了先进生产力的发展方向?还怎么构建和谐社会? 每当有人提起她,我的心理都这样想着。
以下为其他网友安慰楼主的回帖,请欣赏:
某网友回复:
我是上海人,遭遇和 LZ一样.上个月我认识半年的女友和一个香港人跑了. 我收入还可以有房有车,但那HK人不但有房还有辆三菱的跑车,月薪有七八万,够我做大半年的了.最可气的是 ,我1.86她1.70那个矮子才1.60. 事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途,不需要自怨自哀. 希望能与LZ共勉
某网友回复:
我是香港人,遭遇和LZ一样.上个礼拜我认识才半个月的女友和一个日本鬼子跑了.我收入还可以,有房有车,还是三菱的跑车,月薪也有七八万,够 LZ做好几年的了.最可气的是,我1.60那个日本鬼子才1.55。事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途,不需要自怨自哀.希望能与LZ 共勉.
某网友回复:
我是火星人,遭遇和LZ一样.上个礼拜我认识才半个月的女友和哈雷慧星人跑了.我收入还可以,有房有车有飞碟,还有宇宙飞船空间站,月薪也有七八个兆。可是那哈雷慧星人开的是激光束啊!最可气的是,我0.55那个哈雷慧星人才0.5,事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利 ,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途,不需要自怨自哀.希望能与LZ共勉.
某网友回复:
我是哈雷慧星人,遭遇和LZ一样上个礼拜我认识才半个月的女友和土星人跑了.我收入还可以,有房有车有飞碟,还有激光束,月薪也有七八个亿兆。可是那土星人开的是土星光环啊!最可气的是,我0.5那个土星人才0.05,事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途,不需要自怨自哀.希望能与LZ共勉.
某网友回复:
我是土星人,遭遇和LZ一样.上个礼拜我认识才半个月的女友和M78星云的奥特曼跑了.我收入还可以,有房有车有飞碟,有激光束,我还有土星光环作交通工具,月薪也有七八个万亿兆。可是那M78星云的奥特曼不用坐什么自己就能飞!最可气的是,我0.05那个奥特曼有400多米,事后想想也不怪她,人人都有追求幸福的权利,但作为一个男人只有提高自身的含金量才是正途,不需要自怨自哀.希望能与LZ共勉.
某网友回复:
我是奥特曼,遭遇和LZ一样 .上个礼拜我认识才半个月的女友和一个重庆人跑了。我收入还可以,有房有车有星球,不用交通工具自己就会飞,翻个身就十万八千里,没有月薪,自己印钞。没办法,女友说我不是人。
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加入 MSN 彩 虹 行 動 - 送 暖 到 汶 川 按入
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Talking about Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources | OEDb
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Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources | OEDb
Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources
Published on Thursday 26th of October, 2006
Got a research paper or thesis to write? Want to research using the Internet? Good luck. There’s a lot of junk out there — outdated pages, broken links, and inaccurate information. Using Google or the Wikipedia may lead you to some results, but you can rarely be sure of accuracy. And what’s more, you’ll only be searching a fraction of all of the resources available to you.
Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around eight billion web pages indexed. That’s a lot of information. But it’s nothing compared to what else is out there. Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index.
Do you think your local or university librarian uses Google? Sure, but certainly not exclusively. In order to start researching like a librarian, you’ll need to explore more authoritative resources, many of which are invisible. Note: Although some of the following resources are visible and indexed, they have all been included here because of their authoritative nature.
$ = Available only by subscription.
Topics Covered in this Article
Deep Web Search Engines | Art | Books Online | Business | Consumer | Economic and Job Data | Finance and Investing | General Research | Government Data | International | Law and Politics | Library of Congress | Medical and Health | Science | Transportation
Deep Web Search Engines
To get started, try using a search engine that specializes in scouring the invisible web for results. None of these can search the entire invisible web, but they make some inroads that Google has not as of yet.
- Clusty — A metasearch engine that combines the results of several top search engines.
- Intute — A searchable database of trusted sites, reviewed and monitored by subject specialists.
- INFOMINE — A virtual library of Internet resources relevant to university students and faculty. Built by librarians from the University of California, California State University, the University of Detroit-Mercy, and Wake Forest University.
- Librarians’ Internet Index — A search engine listing sites deemed trustworthy by actual human librarians, not just a Googlebot.
- Internet Archive — A database of tens of thousands of movies, live music, audio, texts, and home of the Wayback Machine that allows you to find old versions of web pages, over 55 billion.
- direct search — A list of hundreds of specialty databases and search engines. No longer maintained, but still perhaps the most complete list of the deep web.
Art
Hundreds of other museums all over the world have their own databases. This is just a list of the databases for a few of the most popular. Within these databases are descriptions of the work, its location, and an image of the work.
- Musée du Louvre — One of the oldest and most famous art galleries in the world. Contains Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Alexandros de Antioch’s Venus de Milo.
- Guggenheim Museum — A collection of over 160 classical and new artists, searchable by artist name, title, date, movement, medium, concept, and museum.
- Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery — A searchable database of more than 80,000 portrait records.
- The National Gallery of Art — A searchable catalog of all of the museum’s 110,000 objects, with images of more than 6,000 available online.
Books Online
There are tens of thousands of classic books with full text available online for free. Some authors whose books are available in full text online include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
- The Online Books Page — A searchable database of more than 25,000 English works with full text available for free online.
- Bibliomania — A searchable database of free online literature from more than 2,000 classic texts.
- Project Gutenberg — A searchable online catalog of more than 19,000 free books with full text available online.
- The National Academies Press — A searchable directory of 3,000 free books online and 900 for-sale PDFs.
- ebrary — A searchable database of more than 20,000 full-text books.
Business
The most accurate quantitative business knowledge often comes from specialty search engines and business directories/databases.
- Explorit Now! — A portal allowing searchable access to numerous business journals and databases.
- AAAAgencySearch.com — A searchable database of advertising agencies from the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
- Agency ComPile — A searchable database of advertising and other marketing agencies.
- Kompass — A business to business search engine.
- GPO Access Economic Indicators — A portal to economic indicators from January 1998 to present.
- CBDNet — A searchable database of materials published by the US Department of Commerce.
- Hoover’s — A searchable database of businesses.
- ThomasNet — An industrial product search directory.
- SBA Loan Data — A database of loan program approval activity from the Small Business Administration.
- GuideStar.org — A searchable database of non-profit organizations.
Consumer
For consumers, authoritative product reviews and pricing information often times are hidden in the deep web or among subscription-based reports.
- US Consumer Products Safety Commission Recalled Products — A database of recalled products, sortable by company name.
- Melissa Data — A directory of complete demographic data, sortable by ZIP code.
- Kelley Blue Book — A guide to pricing new and used vehicles.
- Edmunds — Another guide to pricing new and used vehicles.
- Consumer Reports $ — A guide to consumer product reviews, including cars, appliances, electronics, computers, personal finance, travel, and more.
Economic and Job Data
A wealth of information regarding microeconomic and macroeconomic data is available from government sources and other organizations.
- EUROPA Press Release Database — A searchable database of press releases distributed by the European Union.
- FreeLunch.com — A searchable directory of free economic data.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — A directory of job-based and consumer economic data from the US Department of Labor.
- Salary Wizard Calculator — A tool that shows national average salaries adjusted by location for different jobs.
- Economagic — A free economic data directory containing over 200,000 data files.
- Penn World Tables — A database of purchasing power parity and national income data for 179 countries for the years 1950-2000.
- America’s Job Bank — A searchable database of jobs and resumes.
- USAJOBS — A searchable database of federal government jobs.
- Regional Economic Conditions (RECON) — A database of economic data available by state, county, and MSA.
Finance and Investing
A variety of web-based investment analysis tools and financial statistics can only be found in the deep web.
- Bankrate.com — A directory of interest rates for different types of loans, mortgages, and savings accounts.
- InvestIQ — A database of market data from different world regions.
- BigCharts — A searchable database of quotes and performance charts for different stocks and mutual funds.
- SmartMoney.com Tools — A portal of different stock analysis tools.
- NASDAQ Trader — A database of trading data from the NASDAQ stock exchange.
- SEC Info — A searchable database of EDGAR SEC filings searchable by name, industry, business, SIC code, area code, topic, CIK, accession number, file number, date, ZIP code, and more.
- EDGAR Online — A database of EDGAR SEC filings searchable by ticker or company name.
General Research
These are good places to start researching for background knowledge on any topic. The subscription-based databases will help intensify any research by scouring numerous scholarly journals.
- GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications — A searchable database of federal publications, with links to those available online.
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries — A collection of 20 libraries from the world’s largest museum complex.
- The National Archives — A list of all of the National Archives’ research tools and databases.
- HighWire Press — A searchable catalog of the largest repository of free full-text, peer-reviewed content, from over 900 different journals.
- Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) — A catalog of more than 1.2 million bibliographic records, providing links to the full text where available. Sponsored by the US Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences.
- Encyclopædia Britannica — The authoritative encyclopedia searchable with full text online.
- Topix.net — A news search engine.
- Internet Public Library — The Internet’s public library. Fully searchable.
- San Francisco Public Library – A list of all of the databases offered to SFPL library card holders. Not a California resident? This is just one example of many such local public libraries that offer similar services.
- Xrefer $ — A searchable database of 236 titles and over 2.8 million entries.
- LexisNexis $ — The world’s largest collection of public records, unpublished opinions, forms, legal, news, and business information. Over 35,000 individual sources are searchable with full-text available online.
- Forrester Research $ — An independent technology and market research company, publishing in-depth research reports on a variety of subjects.
- Factiva $ — A searchable collection of over 10,000 individual sources.
Government Data
The United States government publishes data on a variety of subjects, some of which is derived from census data or CIA findings.
- Copyright Records (LOCIS) — A database of copyright records, searchable by documents, serials, and multimedia (including books, music, films, sound recordings, maps, software, photos, and art).
- American FactFinder — A repository of aggregate census bureau data searchable by city, county, or ZIP code.
- FedStats — A gateway to statistics from over 100 US federal agencies.
- United States Patent and Trademark Office — A database of patent full-text and full-page images.
- Historical Census Browser — A data bank of historical US census data dating back to 1790 compiled by the University of Virginia.
- Geospatial One Stop — A searchable database of geographic data, displayable on maps.
- Grants.gov — A database of grant opportunities, searchable by keyword, funding opportunity number, or CFDA number.
- Technology Opportunities Program Grants Database — A database of technology grants, searchable by keyword, state, and year.
- United States Government Printing Office (GPO) — A search engine for mutliple government databases, including US budgets, campaign reform hearings, code of federal regulations, congressional bills, unified agendas, and more.
- CIA Electronic Reading Room — A searchable database of declassified CIA documents.
- POW/MIA Databases and Documents — A datbase of POWs and MIAs information.
- ZIP+4 Lookup — A database of US ZIP codes and ZIP+4 codes, searchable by city or address.
International
Data on international economic indicators and demographics are available from US government agencies and international organizations such as World Bank.
- International Data Base (IDB) — A computerized data bank of statistical tables and demographic information for 228 countries and areas.
- FIRST — A database of military aggression and weapons holdings.
- Economics of Tobacco Control — A database of information regarding tobacco usage and policy in over 180 countries.
- Country Indicators for Foreign Policy — A directory of statistical tables indicating different countries’ foreign policies.
- World Bank Data — A database of key development data and statistics for different countries and worldwide groups.
- CIA Factbook — A reference material published by the CIA, containing information on every country in the world.
- US International Trade Statistics — A database of international trade statistics, searchable by country or type of good.
- US Foreign Trade Highlights — A database of information on US international trade in goods and services.
- Energy Information Administration International Energy Data and Analysis — A data bank of energy balances sorted by country.
Law and Politics
Information on Congressional law and other legal and political matters are available online from universities, independent organizations, and the US federal government.
- THOMAS (Library of Congress) — A searchable database of legislative information from the Library of Congress.
- Law Library of Congress — The largest collection of legal materials in the world, containing over 2 million volumes.
- Global Legal Information Network — A searchable public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other legal sources.
- FindLaw — A free legal database with searchable collections of cases and codes, legal news, and an online career center.
- Office of Postsecondary Education Security Statistics — A searchable database of college campus crime statistics, sortable by institution type, instructional program, or campus.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics — A directory of legal and judicial statistics, ranging from crime to law enforcement to courts and sentencing.
- The Avalon Project at Yale Law School — A searchable database of documents in law, history, and diplomacy.
- US Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1873 (Library of Congress) — A directory of historical Congressional records, bills, statutes, journals, and debates from LOC’s American Memory.
- Lobbying Database — A searchable database of firms who have spent lobbying money from 1998.
- Legislative Activities — A directory of the House of Representatives’ bill summary, status, and text, public laws, and roll call votes.
- Project Vote Smart — A database of government officials and election candidates, searchable by last name or ZIP code.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the largest library in the world and offers catalog descriptions and some full text and images of many of its 130 million items.
- Library of Congress — A searchable catalog of the world’s largest library, containing over 130 million items.
- Library of Congress Digital Collections — A searchable database of the LOC’s items that have been digitized and fully available online.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room — A searchable catalog of the Library of Congress’ prints and photographs. Results include thumbnails of the items.
- Library of Congress Online Catalog — The LOC catalog, searchable by title, author, subject, keyword, call number, ISBN, and more.
- American Memory — The LOC’s digital record of American history.
- Sound Online Inventory and Catalog (SONIC) — A portion of the LOC’s audio collection, searchable by name, title, subject, and keyword.
Medical and Health
Scholarly medical journals as well as government agencies and independent organizations offer a variety of statistical data and other information regarding medicine and health.
- PubMed *NEW ADDITION* — A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. Includes links to full-text articles and related resources.
- Department of Health National Research Register — A searchable database of records of ongoing or completed project funded by or of interest to the UK’s NHS.
- National Institutes of Health — A searchable encyclopedia of health topics.
- American Hospital Directory — A free searchable directory of US hospital information.
- Globalhealthfacts.org — A data bank of world health information, sortable by country, disease, condition, program, or demographic.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data and Statistics — A data bank of statistical health information compiled by the CDC.
- New England Journal of Medicine $ — A scholarly medical journal with full text of current and past issues available online.
Science
Science journals and databases are searchable through specialty search engines, while real-time geological data is available from the USGS.
- ScienceResearch.com — A portal allowing searchable access to numerous scientific journals and databases.
- Science.gov — A searchable gateway to authoritative science information provided by US government agencies.
- WebCASPAR — A database of science and engineering statistical data resources.
- The Complete Work of Charles Darwin — All of Charles Darwin’s published texts, fully searchable and available online.
- USGS Real-Time Water Data — A map of the United States showing real-time streamflow and water quality data of the nation’s rivers and reservoirs.
- USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Maps of California, Nevada, the United States, and the World, showing real-time earthquake data.
- Ask.com Recent Earthquake Activity — An interactive map of the world, showing real-time earthquake data.
- IEEE Publications $ — For engineers, this is a database of over 1.4 million documents from the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers.
Transportation
Real-time aviation data as well as historical and current transportation safety information is available from different US federal government agencies.
- FAA Flight Delay Information — A map of the United States with flight delay information from the nation’s largest airports.
- NTSB Accident Database and Synopses — The National Transportation Safety Board’s database of aviation accidents, ranging from 1962 to present.
- NTSB Aviation Accident Statistics — A directory of aggregate aviation accident statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — A database of car and car part defects, searchable by item number or car make and model.
- SaferCar.gov — A database of crash test safety ratings for all automobiles since 1990.
- fboweb.com — A real-time flight tracking service, with support for Google Earth.
- FlightAware — Another free flight tracking service, complete with history, graphs, and maps.
A special thanks to Gary Price at ResourceShelf for his thoughtful suggestions.
Talking about To Thine Own Self Be True
Originally from Jenny’s Space
Quote
How can you intelligently decide what to do with the rest of your life? And how can you find an answer that you won’t later change on a whim?
Many of us face this decision for the first time in our late teens and early 20s. Some never face it at all and shrink from the magnitude of it, allowing chance to decide. But this is a decision that can be made consciously — you just have to know how to approach it.
If you’re a typical reader of this site, then you have a number of long-term career possibilities. You could succeed at many different things if you put your mind to them. The problem isn’t that you don’t have a choice — it’s that you have too many choices. And because of the overload of choices, it’s difficult for you to commit to any of them. Perhaps you’ve made certain commitments in the past, only to change your mind a short way down the path.
The problem with outside-in
Most likely you were raised to make your career choices in an outside-in manner. Would you rather be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer? Do you want to get a job, go into the family business, or become self-employed? You scan the available options — even though they seem countless — and do your best to make a reasonable choice. Many people would consider this an intelligent approach.
The problem with the outside-in approach, however, is that it’s ultimately circular.
Suppose you want to make the best choice you can regarding what to do with your life. If you look outside yourself for the answer, you’ll see an overload of options — way too many for you to consider with any depth. You can’t make the best choice by scanning all the possibilities. You’ll die before you get close to finishing, and new career possibilities are being created all the time.
So instead of best, perhaps you’re willing to settle for a good choice. In order to know what a good choice is though, you need some kind of evaluation criteria. How do you define the “should” in “What should you do?” You need a context. For example, if you’re playing a game of chess and you want to know what move to make next, you need to know the rules of the game, the current board configuration, and ideally something about your opponent. If you don’t even know what game you’re playing, then you can’t intelligently answer the question, “What should you do?”
And that’s the basic problem — you don’t really know what game you’re playing here on earth. You don’t know the complete rules of the game. None of us do. Science and religion attempt to give us answers, but the most brilliant and respected people on both sides often disagree, and each side still has many unanswered questions. You can jump to conclusions like many people do, but the wisest approach may be to simply admit, “There are some things I just don’t know.”
You could take this a step further and say that if you don’t know the rules of the game, then your purpose should be to learn them. Figure out how the world works, and then your role may become more clear. This line of questioning leads many people into scientific and religious studies. And that’s fine. Humanity slowly pushes forward in these areas, but you as an individual still need to decide what piece of the puzzle to work on during your lifetime, and you’re still left swimming in a sea of choices. But at least this line of thinking gives you a goal – to learn why you exist and what you should do with your existence.
You’ve come full circle though. You conclude that what you should do with your life is to figure out what you should do with your life. Dead end.
You’re playing a game where you don’t know all the rules, and the exact purpose of the game isn’t clear. However, you still have to make a move. You have no choice in that respect. Even standing still is a valid move in the game of life. If you look to the game for answers, the ultimate answer will be that you should make moves that will help you figure out the game. But since you don’t know the game well enough, you still don’t know what move to make right now. This approach simply isn’t helpful. It just doesn’t create clarity. It will only leave you more confused.
Of course, you could just start making random moves to learn about life through trial and error. That’s a valid short-term approach, but we can do better than that…
The inside-out approach
The inside-out approach means that instead of looking to the game for guidance, look within yourself. Instead of asking, “What should I do?” or “What move should I make?” or “What career should I select?” just ask yourself, “What kind of player am I?”
Regardless of what game you’re playing, you bring a unique style to it. How would you describe that style? What is the style in which you would most like to play the game of life?
Are you aggressive, calculating, spontaneous, generous, compassionate, courageous, cautious, exploratory, etc?
We’re not really talking about values here. Values can shift around a lot. Sometimes your career may be more important than your social life, and other times your social life may come first. In this case we’re talking about deeply imbedded character traits. What kind of person are you at the core of your being?
How would you describe the “I” that is you? What do you love most?
I love to grow. It’s such an imbedded part of my psyche that I can’t not grow. Another attribute of my core self is courage. I have an almost inborn desire to want to run towards fear instead of away from it. And a third component is freedom. I love having tremendous personal freedom, especially when it comes to how I use my time.
The opposites of these attributes repel me. The opposite of growth would be stagnation or complacency (not decline because even in a state of decline, you can still learn something from it). The opposite of courage is cowardice. And the opposite of freedom is confinement. Someone who is my opposite would thus be drawn to lead a stagnant, cowardly, and confined existence.
Once you develop a sense of what kind of player you are, you can then play the game of life by injecting your own character into it. Whenever you don’t comprehend the rules of the game, supplement them with a part of yourself. So if it isn’t obvious what career you should pursue, look inward instead of outward for the answer. This will greatly narrow the field of possibilities and allow you to make a fairly intelligent choice. The better you come to know yourself, the more intelligently you can narrow that field. As your inward focus improves, your outer world will become more focused as well.
Being vs. doing
Suppose you list your core character attributes. How do you use those to make a long-term career choice?
First, let’s redefine the way you think about career. Just for a moment, forget about job titles, responsibilities, goals, projects, and tasks. Consider your career as an expression of who you are: being instead of doing.
If you’re an artist, your career is to create art. But what creates a masterpiece? Is it the brush strokes or the canvas? Is it the education of the artist? What creates a masterpiece is the artist. Really it’s the artist who’s the true masterpiece, and the artwork is the physical manifestation of the artist’s inner self. The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci.
Once you come at this problem from the mindset of beingness, instead of doingness, your real career becomes this: Your career is to express your inner self through the physical universe. That’s your job description.
Your true career is the dynamic expression of your inner being.
Instead of thinking of your career in such narrow terms as job titles, think of your career as an outward expression of your inner self.
If I gaze inward and see that I resonate with growth, courage, and freedom, then my career is actually to express these inner qualities out into the world. My job is essentially just to be myself.
Now as simplistic as this sounds, it’s actually very practical. How would you use this mindset to make real-life career decisions? You make your choices by asking, “Which is the best way to express my inner self?”
For example, when faced with a career-related choice, I can ask questions like, “Which choice will yield the most growth, require the most courage, and provide the most freedom?” These parts of my inner being shape my outward doing. I run a personal development business (growth). I work hard to increase web traffic (growth). I like to tackle controversial topics (courage). I do public speaking (courage). I work from home and set my own hours (freedom). I create mostly automated streams of income (freedom).
I love this approach because it creates clarity. The outside-in approach just doesn’t work for me. Should I be a writer, a speaker, an Internet entrepreneur? I can’t decide – all of them seem interesting. But when I turn inward, I see that all of these can be parts of my career because they all harmonize with my inner self. They’re all valid. I don’t need to choose just one of these narrow bands; in fact, the type of “player” I am dictates that I should include all of these things under the same umbrella.
To thine own self be true
Do you hesitate to make a long-term career commitment because you don’t want to limit yourself? I don’t want to limit myself either. By using an inside-out approach to career, you don’t have to limit yourself. You can express the whole you to the world, not just a small piece.
Do you find your current career too limiting? Do you enjoy your work while also wondering about all the other things you could be doing? Why not find a way to do them too? Stop thinking in terms of A or B, and think A and B. What would happen if you redefined your career as the outer expression of your inner being? What parts of your inner being are not enjoying enough outward expression? Are you incapacitating your intellect? Curtailing your creativity? Squelching your sense of humor?
Don’t turn your career into a prison for your soul. If your inner self wants to spread out, let it. To thine own self be true.
