Internet Archive: Free Movies - Download and Streaming

"Feature films, shorts, silent films and trailers are available for viewing and downloading. Enjoy!

View a list of all the Feature Films sorted by popularity. Do you want to post a feature film? First, figure out if it's in the Public Domain."

Why the Archive is Building an 'Internet Library'

Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster educ
ation and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.

Exercising our "right to remember": Without paper libraries, it would be hard to exercise our "right to remember" our political history or hold government accountable. With much of the public's business now moving from paper to digital media, Internet libraries are certain to become essential in maintaining that right. Imagine, for instance, how news coverage of an election campaign might suffer if journalists had only limited access to previous statements that candidates had made in the media.

"The Internet Archive is a service so essential that its founding is bound to be looked back on with the fondness and respect that people now have for the public libraries seeded by Andrew Carnegie a century ago.... Digitized information, especially on the Internet, has such rapid turnover these days that total loss is the norm. Civilization is developing severe amnesia as a result; indeed it may have become too amnesiac already to notice the problem properly. The Internet Archive is the beginning of a cure - the beginning of complete, detailed, accessible, searchable memory for society, and not just scholars this time, but everyone."
Many early movies were recycled to recover the silver in the film. The Library of Alexandria - an ancient center of learning containing a copy of every book in the world - was eventually burned to the ground. Even now, at the turn of the 21st century, no comprehensive archives of television or radio programs exist.
But without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically, with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has referred to as our "digital dark age."
The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other "born-digital" materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.
Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.
The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization.

Future Libraries - How People Envision Using Internet Libraries
Exercising our "right to remember": Without paper libraries, it would be hard to exercise our "right to remember" our political history or hold government accountable. With much of the public's business now moving from paper to digital media, Internet libraries are certain to become essential in maintaining that right. Imagine, for instance, how news coverage of an election campaign might suffer if journalists had only limited access to previous statements that candidates had made in the media.

"The Internet Archive is a service so essential that its founding is bound to be looked back on with the fondness and respect that people now have for the public libraries seeded by Andrew Carnegie a century ago.... Digitized information, especially on the Internet, has such rapid turnover these days that total loss is the norm. Civilization is developing severe amnesia as a result; indeed it may have become too amnesiac already to notice the problem properly. The Internet Archive is the beginning of a cure - the beginning of complete, detailed, accessible, searchable memory for society, and not just scholars this time, but everyone."

Earth Wind Map: Mesmerizing Map Shows Which Way the World's Winds Are Blowing

Florida, 9am May 21st, 2014

Earth:
a visualization of global weather conditions
forecast by supercomputers - updated every three hours

Mesmerizing Map Shows Which Way the World's Winds Are Blowing

Last year, designers Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg brought us the “Wind Map,” an artistic visualization of wind patterns across the United States.
Now their map has inspired another Web developer, Cameron Beccario, to adapt the concept to a global scale.

Beccario started with a wind map of Tokyo, where he lives. Then he took on the world. You can see his animated map at earth.nullschool.net.

Using data from the Global Forecast System, Beccario’s map updates every three hours, showing near-current weather patterns worldwide.

You can spin the map like a globe, zoom in on a particular region, or just soak in the oddly soothing sight of the neon lines steadily making their way across the globe.

One takeaway: If you think the winds are bad over land today, check out the ones sweeping across the seas.

Another takeaway: The waters around Antarctica do not look like a pleasant place to sail.

As the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang points out, you can also use the map to get a broad view of specific weather events making news around the world.

The Weather Gang matched up the map to last week’s Middle East snowstorm and the Norwegian winds so strong they knocked people down.

Beccario told me he liked Viégas and Wattenberg’s U.S. wind map so much that it inspired him to learn Javascript so he could make his own. He has posted his own code on Github for others to explore.

this description from: Will Oremus, www.Slate.com, Dec 18, 2013.

ManualsOnline

Get the most out of the products you own

ManualsOnline helps you locate user manuals, installation instructions and tutorials from thousands of manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of products. We offer the most expansive repository of free product support information on the Internet. We found it, so you don't have to!

Solve problems with help from our community
ManualsOnline Community
Learn and interact with fellow owners. Discuss common problems, provide tips, and exchange help. There are thousands of users interacting on ManualsOnline everyday! Ask for help » 

Product developments delivered to your inbox!
Product developments
Ownership Digests are delivered to your inbox with solutions and tips related to just the products you own and care about. Digests notify you when a manual that you are looking for has been located, a question resolved, or an article published on the topics that you have shown interest in.

ManualsOnline also offers product-specific newsletters and interactive tools that enable consumers to manage their manuals, articles, how-to's and warranty information.

Be sure to check out Life Manuals - our articles for the do-it-yourselfer, at Articles.ManualsOnline.com. 

Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America.  Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.

Do you have a question about how to legally use the music you find on the Free Music Archive? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

Every MP3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era.  These uses vary and are determined by the rights-holders themselves (please see our FAQ) who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits, but to our society as a whole.   Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio?  A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won't put your audience to sleep?  A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples?  Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist?  The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

The Free Music Archive is a platform for collaboration between WFMU and a group of fellow curators, including KEXP, dublab, KBOO, ISSUE Project Room, and CASH Music. The site combines the curatorial approach that these organizations have played for the last few decades, with the community generated approach of many current online music sites.
Recommended in May 2014 issue of ALA's Choice. 

History in Dispute series

Every Story Has Two Sides — And Every Entry Gives Both

Each volume in the History in Dispute series has a thematic, era or subject-specific focus that coincides with the way history is studied at the academic level. Presenting dynamic, easy-to-understand scholarship, each volume contains roughly 50 entries chosen by an advisory board of historians and academics.
Entries begin with a brief overview  summarizing the controversy. This introduction is followed by two or more signed, point-counterpoint essays of 1,500 to 2,000 words each.

The unique pro-con format fosters lively discussions, helps students organize information and promotes critical thinking.

Additional features of this valuable series include:

• Primary source materials connecting entries to actual historical documents
• Photographs and drawings illuminating pertinent individuals, sites, objects
• Extensive bibliographies guiding users to recent resources as well as classic texts for further research
• Chronological list of events framing individual events in their broader context
• Cumulative subject index and clear table of contents providing  multiple access points to target information
• And more

The History in Dispute series
is available online for registered TCC students and faculty.
Login using a TCC ID card and your library pin, or user name and password.
Login is also available through the Florida Electronic Library, with any Florida city or county public library card number.

Check with your local library for non-Florida residents or non-TCC related access. 

Pew Research Global Attitudes Project

The Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project conducts public opinion surveys around the world on a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. Over 330,000 interviews in 60 countries have been conducted as part of the project’s work.. . .

The project provides to journalists, academics, policymakers and the public a unique, comprehensive, internationally comparable series of surveys.

To browse reports and data by subject, select from the topic list link on the right. Each subject page collects all reports published since 1983.

Since its inception in 2001, the Pew Global Attitudes Project has released numerous major reports, analyses, and other releases, on topics including attitudes toward the U.S. and American foreign policy, globalization, terrorism, and democracy.


The Pew Global Attitudes Project team regularly consults with survey and policy experts, academic regional and economic experts, activists and policymakers. Their expertise provides tremendous guidance in shaping the surveys.

Highly recommended for all college student levels in April 2014 issue of ACRL's Choice

Cinco De Mayo

From History.com: Cinco de Mayo —or the fifth of May—commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867). A relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Cinco de Mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States. . . .

Cinco de Mayo in Mexico 

Within Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is primarily observed in the state of Puebla, where Zaragoza’s unlikely triumph occurred, although other parts of the country also take part in the celebration. Traditions include military parades, recreations of the Battle of Puebla and other festive events. For many Mexicans, however, May 5 is a day like any other: It is not a federal holiday, so offices, banks and stores remain open.

Cinco de Mayo in the United States 

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is widely interpreted as a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with substantial Mexican-American populations. Chicano activists raised awareness of the holiday in the 1960s, in part because they identified with the victory of indigenous Mexicans over European invaders during the Battle of Puebla. Today, revelers mark the occasion with parades, parties, mariachi music, Mexican folk dancing and traditional foods such as tacos and mole poblano. Some of the largest festivals are held in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

Confusion with Mexican Independence Day 

Many people outside Mexico mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican independence, which was declared more than 50 years before the Battle of Puebla. That event is commemorated on September 16, the anniversary of the revolutionary priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s famous “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”), a call to arms that amounted to a declaration of war against the Spanish colonial government in 1810.

UNHRC: The UN Refugee Agency.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.

The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.



It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people.

In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 8,600 people in more than 125 countries continues to help some 33.9 million persons

Recommended in May issue of ACRL's Choice

NOAA View Data Imagery Portal.

NOAA View Data Imagery Portal

This new user-friendly portal does not require advanced scientific skills to browse. Images from Google Earth files can be downloaded or animated. 
Thre are models, satellite images, and historical climate change information on land, the ocean, and the cryosphere.

Historical Sea Ice Border 1981-2010

Images and topics range from ocean temperature variations during El Nino years, greenhouse gas emission scenarios, coral bleaching, active fires, sea ice movement, and precipitation amounts.

Change in Nighttime Lights in 2010

Viewing options include zooming and pan features,adjusting the sampling periods, and selecting the data type. Background information and links to similar resources are available.

An online tutorial is available with instructions on using the web mapping tool Reviewed in April 2014 issue of ACRL's Choice, "the site is easy to use, and this reviewer did not encounter navigation difficulties" Recommended for general readers and college students

Drought Inded 4/14/14 - 4/20/14

NOAA View provides access to maps of NOAA data from a variety of satellite, model, and other analysis sources. NOAA View is intended as an education and outreach tool, and is not an official source of NOAA data for decision support or scientific purposes.