Reference sites

[handy]

Google has a few searches besides just text, they have news, images, directory searches, also I catalog search (?). But most of all they have all the newsgroup posts ever made for non binary newsgroups.

[Max Torque]

I'd like to nominate a site for general (not just computer-specific) acronyms that I've used for years:

The Acronym Database

[Tapioca Dextrin]

A good cooking reference is at All Recipes

Almost everything you need to know about wine at Strat's Place

[Tuckerfan]

They're just getting it started, but the Public Library of Science is a non-profit organization of scientists committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.

[Patty O'Furniture]

I don't see anything EE related so far, so let me toss in WebEE. All sorts of electronics stuff there from basic to advanced. The "more" link on that page leads to a good set of primers.

[Tuckerfan]

Forgot about this on it's the US Government's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases.

[sunbear]

Is it possible to answer all questions in one thread, before they are asked? Just wondering.

[Trollificus]

While I realize these are primarily factual reference sites, I have found a good (my liberal friends say, 'slightly conservative') site for samples of writing about the arts, politics and philosophy is
Denis Duttons' Arts and Letters Daily.

I've long considered it indispensible as a way of at least having an idead about what the really smart people were thinking...

[rsa]

Science and Technology

An excellent source for Physics papers online (free and no registration required).

http://arxiv.org/

or the Los Alamos National Laboratory mirror site that I use:

http://xxx.lanl.gov/

ArXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science and computer science. The contents of arXiv conform to Cornell University academic standards. arXiv is owned, operated and funded by Cornell University, a private not-for-profit educational institution. ArXiv is also partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

Don't be scared! Most of the physics papers are quite readable for an interested lay person if you skip over the math equations if you are math impaired as I am.

[barbitu8]

As long as we are continuing this, some health newsletters and JAMA on line:

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/

http://www.mayoclinic.com/index.cfm

http://www.healthletter.tufts.edu/

http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/current/toc.html

[Q.E.D.]

One of my favorite computer helpsites is http://hardwarehell.com/index.shtml, featuring articles. links and an extensive message board community.

[Urban Ranger]

The Skeptics Society

Crop Circles

CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal)

[Urban Ranger]

Physics Newsletter (FSU)

City Population

CIA Factbook 2002

Project Gutenberg

[mkl12]

www.rulers.org - All the rulers and many other important politicians from all over the world from the last 200 years. I think this is very helpful.

[Mishka Drake]

First of all -- wow! I've never seen so much great information in one place in my life. I need to get out more.

Not sure if this is something that you might like on this thread, but how about this one: Questia

Read entire books and journals online. Huge selection, c.$45/3-month period Pretty nice format. I guess this would be good for someone who gets snowed in for three months or someone who's too lazy to go to the book store/library.

[moriah]

Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried

Religion
Catholic Encyclopedia: Information on Catholic teachings

Chyhaaah... ya know what? That's not such a good resource. The online Catholic Encyclopedia is the copyright-lapsed (and therefore, public domain) version of the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia.

A lot has changed in the Catholic Church since then: How liturgy is done; how the Pope is elected; the code of canon laws; the explanation of why Confirmation is a sacrament; the realization that there is a human right to freedom of conscience; et al.

For a much better authority of official Church teaching you'd be better off with:

Catechism of the Catholic Church: An official compendium of Catholic teaching (1997).

Code of Canon Law: The official laws governing the Church institutions (1983).

Documents of Vatican Council II: The official teachings of the 1962 Ecumenical Council.

Peace.
-----------------
"Do you have a resource that lists resources containing lists of resources?"

[Meatros]

Shoot, there's a lot of great sites in this post. I just wanted to add to the movie/entertainment field this site:
Aint it Cool

And this site for Busted Celebrities:

The Smoking Gun

[Tapioca Dextrin]

The Oxford English Dictionary surely has to be the best dictionary out there. It is a pay site, but if you have a public library card (mine was issued in Austin) then you should be able to use that to access it for free.

[El Gui]

SearchSystems.net
A great compilation of links to online public record databases broken down by state and then, if applicable, by county/municipality.

At last count, there are links to 12474 different online databases. Everything from the Oklahoma Criminal Court - Traffic Docket, to a listing of Ohio home sales in Hamilton County to a California listing of Licenses issued to Apprentice Embalmers!

[monica]

Does anyone know of any sites where I can search for precendents for a legal case? Findlaw.com has never seemed to be very helpful for me. Thanks!

~monica

[barbitu8]

http://www.lexisnexis.com/ But there's an annual fee.

[OxyMoron]

Monica, for many Federal and some state decisions, Cornell University's Legal Information Institute is very helpful. Beware, though, that it isn't updated quite as quickly as the commercial sites like Lexis and Westlaw: www.law.cornell.edu

[eman77]

For complete databases try
www.hockeydb.com All the hockey statistics you can ask for
www.rcdb.com Information on every roller coaster and amusement park in the world.

[tanstaafl]

For those "what song is that in this commercial" questions - http://www.songtitle.info/

[AbbySthrnAccent]

www.lds.org
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints official site with links to curriculum, scripture (the KJV of old and new testament, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Book of Mormon), past conference addresses, and much more.


www.mormon.org
Information about the church itself or to explore our beliefs about
Families, the Nature of God, and the
Purpose of life. Answers to Frequently asked questions as well.

www.familysearch.org for help with your family history research.

www.providentliving.org
Information to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of individuals and families. The site has information about food storage and 72 hour emergency kits (we were doing it long before Y2k and the recent warnings from the government), information about eduation and literacy, physical health, social and emotional strenghtening, service and caring for others, and resource management.

[Algernon]

www.everyrule.com
A site to lookup rules for sports, computer games, kid games, board games, casino games, card games, etiquette, and misc.

[JungleLove]

How to cite sources for research papers:

http://www.library.fullerton.edu/cybercites.htm (APA, MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, & Turabian)

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/ (APA, MLA, & Science)

(However, the Modern Language Association is coming out with a 6th edition next month,
hopefully with a lot more guidance on citing electronic sources!!!)

IIRC, no one has mentioned the site
Search Engine Showdown http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/
that compares Internet search engines and offers statistical data.
(In case, an engine overtakes Google someday. ; ) )

[saiorse]

www.bartleby.com
must one of the greatest places on earth

[bordelond]

www.baseball-reference.com has a sister site with NFL data: www.profootball-reference.com .

[Fang]

You may wish to replace the MathWorld link with the more general ScienceWorld, as it incorporates (in addition to MathWorld), physics, chemistry, astronomy, and science biographies.

[skyzoo]

wowie zowie! what a wallup page of info!
Thanks, all! I am astounded!

[remisser]

Television / movies
http://www.tvtome.com (tons and tons and tons of telvision info, trivia, nitpicks, goofs, guest star information)
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/star_links.html (link any movie / tv star to any other movie / tv star)

News Sources
http://www.fark.com (tons of news with funny headlines)
http://news.google.com (news engine cataloging many major sites)

Other Google Services That Should Be Included
http://images.google.com (for those needing certain images)
http://groups.google.com (catalogues newsgroup postings. good for references.)

Random things that I don't want to put categories of...
http://www.wikipedia.org/ ('open source' encyclopedia)
http://www.howstuffworks.com (The domain name says it all)
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ (Everything you'd want to know about math)
http://www.topozone.com/ (Topographic maps)
http://bartleby.com/ (reference books online)
http://www.gutenberg.net/ (public domain texts)
http://archive.org/movies/movies.php (an amazing resource of old informational videos [ex. Duck and Cover] and other video)
http://web.archive.org (an archive of many internet websites)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/ (The 'hitchhikers' guide to Earth)
http://www.securityfocus.com/ (for people wondering about computer security information)
http://www.mobygames.com/ (A Comprehensive list of games. Does for games what imdb does for movies.)

Sorry if any of these are a repost.

[remisser]

Oh, information from the CIA on every country in the world:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Drugs (their effects, etc.)
http://www.erowid.org

Music
http://www.discogs.com (music discographies)
http://www.findsounds.com (find wave files)

Other stuff
http://www.xe.net (currency converter)
http://www.infoplease.com/ (everything you need to know)

[remisser]

I'm bored and got more links. Once again, sorry for any duplicates.

Clocks
http://time.gov (the atomic clock time)
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/what.html (us navel observatory atomic clock time)

People Locators
http://www.usbluepages.gov (the us blue pages)
http://www.anywho.com (a telephone / reverse lookup directory)
http://www.vitalchek.com (birth certificates and other records)
http://dpsinfo.com/dps/index.html#top (the dead people server)

Random Dictonaries
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/ (dictonary of slang)
http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/ (brewsters dictonary of phrase and fable)
http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/ (websters legal dictonary 'findlaw')
http://www.gabiscott.com/bigdog/ (grammar dictonary)

Other Translators
http://www.google.com/language_tools (googles translator)
http://www.tranexp.com/InterTran.cgi (intertran translator)
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/ (Funny dialect translator. translates pages into things like redneck and sweedish chef)

City Guides
http://www.10best.com/
http://verticals.yahoo.com/cities/ (city comparisons)
http://www.placesnamed.com/

Cars
http://carinfo.com/
http://www.kbb.com/ (blue book values on cars)

Calculators
http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic (another currency converter)
http://www.moneyadvisor.com/calc/ (financial calculators)
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/econo...c/cpihome.html (inflation calculator)

The Government
http://www.google.com/unclesam (googles government search engine)
http://www.ready.gov (official homeland security 'protection' site)
http://www.firstgov.gov/ (the governments official website portal)
http://www.westminster.ca/usalook.htm (zip code lookup - USA)
http://www.dubyaspeak.com/ (dubya speak. )

Other other...
http://www.gnod.net (it's the center of the internet)

[Burnt Sugar]

Originally posted by monica
Does anyone know of any sites where I can search for precendents for a legal case?

http://www.worldlii.org/ - World Legal Information Institute

[wolf_meister]

Ask Dr Math and SOS Math are good sites for explanations of mathematical concepts. If you want to find actual solutions with online interactive calculators, the place to go is "Calculator City" at www.1728.com
This has calculators for solving problems in algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, etc.

The Digital Dutch Converter and the Mega Converter are also good sites. However, if you want the easiest, most user-friendly converters, then try this link:
http://www.1728.com/indexcon.htm

Just try one of their converters - the temperature converter for example.
http://www.1728.com/convtmp2.htm
You'll notice it is VERY fast and easy to use. It does NOT use that traditional "from" "to" format.

[OxyMoron]

If you're interested in the details about a particular U.S. company, one of the great (if cumbersome) resources is often the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K. If the company is "public," meaning it has stock or other securities sold on a U.S. public stock exchange (usually NYSE, Nasdaq or Amex), the company is required to file an Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 10-Ks include a treasure trove of information, ranging from corporate history and major transactions to key officer compensation and financial results. 10-Ks are usually much more detailed than glossy "annual reports to shareholders," which are often all that a lot of shareholders ever look at - much to their later chagrin.

Many companies post their 10-Ks on their websites. But they're also available on the SEC's website, through a system known as EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval). EDGAR is not the easiest system to use - it was already quite outdated by the time the SEC unveiled it - but it's a great way to find stuff out.

Some key limitations:

1. Remember that only companies with securities that are publicly traded in US markets are required to file annual reports. (Peculiarly, the very webpage I cite to above makes it sound like all companies must file. Not true.) There are some pretty big companies out there that are completely privately owned - such as Cargill, Hallmark Cards, and Booz Allen Hamilton. And of course, foreign companies that don't trade on U.S. markets aren't required to file. There may be equivalent sources of information in other countries, but I'm not familiar with them.

2. It really helps if you know the company's exact name. In some cases, companies also file reports for similarly-named affiliates - sometimes you'll have to spend a bit of time weeding through to find the parent.

3. It appears that the readily available reports only go back to 2000.

[Tusculan]

MelodyHound - Tune recognition and search. Allows you to search for tunes even when you don't know the exact notes: you just have to know the relative movement (up-down) of the tune. Also has 'whistling' recognition.

[biqu]

For all your Latin translation and grammar needs.

[dnooman]

http://www.imdb.com

The Internet Movie Database, bar none most inclusive site I've ever seen. Used by others sites/services as a reference library.

[PatriotX]

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

GPO Access disseminates official information from all three branches of the Federal Government.

[coosa]

I've read through the thread and I'm pretty sure I have a great resource site that hasn't been listed yet:

Martindale's Reference Desk
http://www.martindalecenter.com/

I'm sure many of the sites already listed here are included in the listings at Martindale's, but there's tons more stuff, too. Online calculators, tutorials, translators, plus both general and specific info pages on just about anything.

[ccwaterback]

General

http://abcnews.go.com/ - News

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecas...int+Petersburg - Weather

http://www.sportsline.com/ - Sports

http://www.tvguide.com/Listings/inde...0850&zip=33709 - TVGuide

http://www6.MapsOnUs.com/bin/maps-map/usr=~new - Maps

http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm - Dictionary

http://www.movielink.com/ - Movies

http://www.earthlink.net/home/access/numbers.html - Earthlink

http://www.bigbook.com/ - BigBook

http://www.apartments.com/ - AptFinder

http://www.mrqe.com/ - MRQE

http://www.imdb.com/ - IMdb

http://www.cnn.com/index.html - CNN

http://www.usatoday.com/usafront.htm - USA

http://www.infoplease.com/ - Almanac

http://www.webbyawards.com/ - Webby

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ - Medline

http://www.epinions.com/ - Epin

http://www.promo.net/pg/ - Gutenberg

http://imusic.com/ - iMusic

http://www.allmusic.com/ - aMusic

http://www.ecola.com/news/ - Ecola

http://www.ipl.org - IPL

http://www.archive.org/ - Archive

http://www.sportingnews.com - SN

http://www.bettingedge.com/ - Book

http://www.sportsbetting.com/ - Bet

http://www.theonion.com - Onion

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm - HistAt

http://www.viewzone.com/ - ViewZone

http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/ - Candy

http://www.jokepost.com/ - JokePost

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/ - Animals

http://www.snopes.com - Snope

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php?s= - Dope

Jobs

http://www.florida.computerjobs.com - FL-Jobs

http://www.ITmoonlighter.com - ITmoon

http://monster.com/ - Monster

http://hotjobs.com/ - Hotjobs

http://www.teleworker.com/ - Telework

http://www.careerbuilder.com/ - CareerBuilder

Shopping

http://www.mysimon.com/ - mySimon

http://www.dealtime.com/ - DealTime

http://www.amazon.com/ - Amazon

http://www.travelocity.com/ - Travelocity

http://www.expedia.com/ - Expedia

http://funtastiktravel.com/ - Funtastik

http://www.smartpages.com/ - SmartPages

Technical

http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/ - CFS

http://tile.net/ftp/ - Search FTP

http://www.cooltool.com/ - CoolTool

http://www.gamelan.com/ - Java

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ - JavaTutorial

http://mindprod.com/jgloss.html - MindProd

http://www.whatis.com - WhatIs

http://www.iec.org - IEC

http://photo.net/wtr/thebook/ - TheBook

http://www.cnet.com/ - C|Net

http://www.zdnet.com - ZDNet

http://webreview.com/ - WebReview

http://www.cmpnet.com - CMPnet

http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/ - CSS

http://www.willcam.com/cmat/html/crossref.html#list - HTML

http://www.htmlcompendium.org/Menus/0framefn.htm - HTML

http://java.sun.com/xml/docs.html - XML

http://www.perldoc.com/ - Perl

http://www-dbs.ethz.ch/~infosys/syntax_diagramme/ - SQL

http://wdvl.internet.com/ - Wdvl

Cities

http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/ - Dmoz

http://www.digitalcity.com/ - DigitalCity

http://www.citysearch.com - CitySearch

http://www.town-usa.com/ - Town-USA

Chicago

http://www.chicagofunnews.com/ - Fun

http://www.metromix.com - MetMix

http://www.chicago.il.org/ - Org

http://www.infogrid.com/chicago.htm - Grid

http://www.ci.chi.il.us/ - City

http://www.chicago-scene.com/ - Scene

http://www.chireader.com/ - Reader

http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/ - MusicBox

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Mark...o_Frameset.htm - LMT

http://www.yourcta.com/maps/systemmaps.html#a - CTA

http://www.metrarail.com/ - Metra

http://www.pacebus.com/ - Pace

http://www.illinoislottery.com/ - Lottery

Financial

http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm - Edgar

http://www.rukeyser.com/Todays_Market/Upgrade.asp - UpGrades

http://www.askresearch.com - Ask

http://www.stockta.com - TA

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^DJI&d=1d - Dow

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^IXIC+qqq&d=1d - Naz

http://www.fidelity.com - Fidelity

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/ - MarketWatch

http://finance.yahoo.com/a0?o=l:0 - Leaders

http://investor.cnet.com/ - Cnet

http://www.wirehouse.com/ - WireHouse

http://www.wallstreetcity.com/ - WSCity

http://www.cme.com/httpwrapper.cfm?w...te/gflash.html - Globex

http://www.ipo.com/ - IPO

http://www.nasdaq.com - Nasdaq

http://www.thomsonfn.com - ThomsonFN

http://www.barchart.com - BarChart

http://www.buyhigh.org - BuyHigh

http://www.clearstation.com/index.html - ClearStation

http://www.stocksite.com/ - Silicon

http://www.ragingbull.com/ - Bull

http://www.equis.com/free/hotstocks/upstox.htm - Equis

http://www.stockconsultant.com/consultnow/basic.cgi - Consultant

http://www.multexinvestor.com/ - Multex

http://www.stocksplits.net - Split

http://www.bloomberg.com - Bloomberg

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/home.asp - MSN

http://www.bigcharts.com/ - BigCharts

http://www.thestreet.com - TheStreet

[Uncommon Sense]

Probably more for GD
Logical Fallacies Table of Contents

Excellent site for the occasional Q about patents and such
Acquiring and Defending Patents

When the puter just wont co-operate anymore
Bootdisk.com

Discover Magazine
Discover Magazine

General Home and Residence Wiring With Pictures and Code References
Home Wiring

[cletus]

Collection of drivers for download.

Windows security resource.

THE Simpsons resource.

Explanations and background for many philosophy concepts.

IP Address Locator.

Online source of literature of Western Civilization.

User-based Windows support site.

Explains many of the items in Registry and Services.

Windows Registry Guide.

Many guides for computer DIYers available.

[Xavier]

Just some additions (in case you didn't catch them):

Scientific American (Science + Technology Magazine)

How Stuff Works (Variety magazine including engineering, health+medicine, culture+society,"cool" stuff etc.)




The Maths and Sciences:

http://www.mathforum.org/

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Mathematics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/ Astronomy resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/chemistry/Chemistry resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Physics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/ Reference of scientific biography

http://www.nist.gov/dads/ Glossary of Algorithms and Data Structures

http://www.webelements.com/Good chemistry reference

http://www.matweb.com/ Chemical and material reference

http://www.msdsonline.com/ Material safety data sheets, useful for chemistry pre-labs

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/Astronomy picture of the day

http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/gallery/galindex.html Hubble telescope images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Chandra space telescope homepage, w/ images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Common and not-so-common physics questions answered

http://www.si.edu/revealingthings/ Smithsonian online

http://xxx.lanl.gov/ Print archive mirror, e-print archives: physics, math, computer papers

PubMed Public Medical



Additional Science websites:

The Calculator Website geometry, algebra, trigonometry, chemisry, physics, astronomy, finance, and units converters (length, area, volume, etc)

Project Gutenburg free online stash of world books

Encyclopedia Britannica

[Xavier]

Just some additions (in case you didn't catch them):

Scientific American (Science + Technology Magazine)

How Stuff Works (Variety magazine including engineering, health+medicine, culture+society,"cool" stuff etc.)




The Maths and Sciences:

http://www.mathforum.org/

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Mathematics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/ Astronomy resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/chemistry/Chemistry resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Physics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/ Reference of scientific biography

http://www.nist.gov/dads/ Glossary of Algorithms and Data Structures

http://www.webelements.com/Good chemistry reference

http://www.matweb.com/ Chemical and material reference

http://www.msdsonline.com/ Material safety data sheets, useful for chemistry pre-labs

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/Astronomy picture of the day

http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/gallery/galindex.html Hubble telescope images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Chandra space telescope homepage, w/ images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Common and not-so-common physics questions answered

http://www.si.edu/revealingthings/ Smithsonian online

http://xxx.lanl.gov/ Print archive mirror, e-print archives: physics, math, computer papers

PubMed Public Medical



Additional Science websites:

The Calculator Website geometry, algebra, trigonometry, chemisry, physics, astronomy, finance, and units converters (length, area, volume, etc)

Project Gutenburg free online stash of world books

Encyclopedia Britannica

[Xavier]

Just some additions (in case you didn't catch them):

Scientific American (Science + Technology Magazine)

How Stuff Works (Variety magazine including engineering, health+medicine, culture+society,"cool" stuff etc.)




The Maths and Sciences:

http://www.mathforum.org/

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Mathematics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/ Astronomy resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/chemistry/Chemistry resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Physics resource library

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/ Reference of scientific biography

http://www.nist.gov/dads/ Glossary of Algorithms and Data Structures

http://www.webelements.com/Good chemistry reference

http://www.matweb.com/ Chemical and material reference

http://www.msdsonline.com/ Material safety data sheets, useful for chemistry pre-labs

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/Astronomy picture of the day

http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/gallery/galindex.html Hubble telescope images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Chandra space telescope homepage, w/ images

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/index.html Common and not-so-common physics questions answered

http://www.si.edu/revealingthings/ Smithsonian online

http://xxx.lanl.gov/ Print archive mirror, e-print archives: physics, math, computer papers

PubMed Public Medical



Additional Science websites:

The Calculator Website geometry, algebra, trigonometry, chemisry, physics, astronomy, finance, and units converters (length, area, volume, etc)

Project Gutenburg free online stash of world books

Encyclopedia Britannica

[Derleth]

ibiblio.org -- Online library, encyclopedia, dictionary, and reference desk.

dict.org -- Dictionary metasearch.

Shakespeare search engine -- Complete works of Shakespeare, searchable.

[II Gyan II]

For all the consciousness/psychology/human experience kinds of GD threads, a few resources:

• Online papers on consciousness: 1284 linked papers dealing with everything from philosophies and science of consciousness and the mind.
• Brain & Mind magazine: useful primers in past issues.
• The Emerging Mind: 2003 Reith lectures by Ramachandran, a distinguished neuroscientist at UCSD.