# What the web needs is a site about... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 2, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008 "2012-07-02T15:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/1 "2012-07-02T15:30:25Z")
As Weird Earl often points out, there’s a site for everything. Except there isn’t. There’s probably a site somewhere that lists all of Bert Kaempfert’s footwear, sorted by weight, but some sites that I might expect to find are non-existent. Today I’m looking for a listing of all of Lightning Hopkins’ recording sessions with a discography. Hopkins is kind of a big deal. It’s surprising that I can find a listing of the only two sessions that Dick Justice ever made (1929), but I can’t find squat for Hopkins (1946-1982). What reference sites have you searched in vain for? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/2 "2012-07-02T17:33:47Z")
I’ve mentioned this one before. There’s a site called [Starship Dimensions](http://www.merzo.net/) that shows various SF vehicles from movies and TV series side-by-side so you can get an idea of their scale. I’d like to see a similar website based on well-known paintings. Most of use are only familiar with paintings from seeing pictures of them in books. And these illustrations are virtually always scaled to the size of the page and create the impression that all paintings are basically the same size. The example I’ve used is the [Mona Lisa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa) and [Guernica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)). If you look at the illustrations, you’d get the idea they were basically the same size. Which is totally untrue - this is what they would look like if you put them on display next to each other: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/3 "2012-07-02T21:30:18Z")
That’s a good point. Several people I know have been disappointed in the Mona Lisa in particular. One said that she would never buy it if she saw it at an art show because it was too small to hang anywhere but the bathroom. People have come to expect that paintings are couch-sized like those they see at a “starving artists group” sale. I’ve been surprised by the actual size of many things. For example, I expected Mt. Rushmore to be more imposing, but the distance and general atmosphere of the place left me wanting. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/4 "2012-07-02T22:37:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The example I’ve used is the [Mona Lisa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa) and [Guernica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)). If you look at the illustrations, you’d get the idea they were basically the same size. Other than the fact that both links you provided, do provide the dimensions of each painting, but I guess some people need pictures side by side for it to make sense. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/5 "2012-07-03T23:08:23Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Other than the fact that both links you provided, do provide the dimensions of each painting, but I guess some people need pictures side by side for it to make sense. :rolleyes: I guess it’s just another one of the burdens you must face each day from being so much smarter than everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/6 "2012-07-04T01:11:26Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Other than the fact that both links you provided, do provide the dimensions of each painting, but I guess some people need pictures side by side for it to make sense. :rolleyes: There should be a site that teaches folks how to conduct a casual conversation without being a dick and attempting to one-up the other posters with trivial observations. We’re unconcerned that Omar’s little, there’s no need to try to over-compensate. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/7 "2012-07-04T01:45:27Z")
I’d like to know when it’s time to go blackberry picking. I always seem to miss them. I have a site where I can go look up the Growing Degree Days for my area, but I searched in vain for a site that lists the GDDs needed to ripen various fruits. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/8 "2012-07-04T02:42:30Z")
I want an encyclopedic grouping of Chinese/Asian vegetables! Dammit! I’ve searched for such a book, even mentioned it to publisher I know - nothing. I want to know, from pictures, what it’s called?, how you clean it?, which part you eat?, how you cook it?, what’s it called where I live? Because the Asian market has stuff I just don’t know what to do with, and they speak English not so good. Some of it I’m certain I’ve eaten. In Singapore my Chinese friend would tell me as we did her marketing, I asked a thousand questions. But within a few months, of my return, I couldn’t remember any of it, and some stuff just looked really different there, rather than how it looked here. I want, want, want this, and have for oh so very, very long. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/9 "2012-07-04T02:52:52Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I want an encyclopedic grouping of Chinese/Asian vegetables! Dammit! I’ve searched for such a book, even mentioned it to publisher I know - nothing. > > I want to know, from pictures, what it’s called?, how you clean it?, which part you eat?, how you cook it?, what’s it called where I live? Because the Asian market has stuff I just don’t know what to do with, and they speak English not so good. Some of it I’m certain I’ve eaten. > > In Singapore my Chinese friend would tell me as we did her marketing, I asked a thousand questions. But within a few months, of my return, I couldn’t remember any of it, and some stuff just looked really different there, rather than how it looked here. > > I want, want, want this, and have for oh so very, very long. I smell a business opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/10 "2012-07-04T06:12:59Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I want an encyclopedic grouping of Chinese/Asian vegetables! Dammit! I’ve searched for such a book, even mentioned it to publisher I know - nothing. > > I want to know, from pictures, what it’s called?, how you clean it?, which part you eat?, how you cook it?, what’s it called where I live? Because the Asian market has stuff I just don’t know what to do with, and they speak English not so good. Some of it I’m certain I’ve eaten. > > In Singapore my Chinese friend would tell me as we did her marketing, I asked a thousand questions. But within a few months, of my return, I couldn’t remember any of it, and some stuff just looked really different there, rather than how it looked here. > > I want, want, want this, and have for oh so very, very long. It takes some research, but wikipedia can be really good for “identify the unknown food.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/11 "2012-07-04T07:55:48Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I’d like to know when it’s time to go blackberry picking. I always seem to miss them. I have a site where I can go look up the Growing Degree Days for my area, but I searched in vain for a site that lists the GDDs needed to ripen various fruits. I thought about setting up a database for budding, flowering and fruiting times for just about everything, but it’s difficult, because regional climate/daylength/rainfall differences push things in odd directions (as well as year-on-year fluctuations in temperature, rainfall, etc) I thought maybe it would be possible to do it comparatively on a sort of Gantt chart - for example, when Lime(Linden/Basswood) trees are in full flower, Bilberries (lowbush blueberries) will be ready for picking, but even that doesn’t work, because something like higher-than-normal rainfall may advance the flowering time for the trees, at the same time as retarding the ripening time of the berries. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/12 "2012-07-04T11:59:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I thought about setting up a database for budding, flowering and fruiting times for just about everything, but it’s difficult, because regional climate/daylength/rainfall differences push things in odd directions (as well as year-on-year fluctuations in temperature, rainfall, etc) > > I thought maybe it would be possible to do it comparatively on a sort of Gantt chart - for example, when Lime(Linden/Basswood) trees are in full flower, Bilberries (lowbush blueberries) will be ready for picking, but even that doesn’t work, because something like higher-than-normal rainfall may advance the flowering time for the trees, at the same time as retarding the ripening time of the berries. Yeah, I think the best you’re going to get - apart from sites for specific farms or locations that update to tell you what’s ripening now - is something like this [crop harvest calendar](http://www.pickyourown.org/US_crop_harvest_calendars.php) site. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/13 "2012-07-04T13:27:06Z")
There needs to be a site with practical advice on hearing loss for young people. I’ve been looking, but I haven’t found any good ones. There are plenty of websites with good info about the most mundane problems such as ironing clothes, tying your shoes, or cleaning the bathroom. However, when it comes to a major problem like hearing loss, I only can only find information on commercial sites selling their products, or advice for old people on how to hear at dinner parties and church Mass. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/14 "2012-07-04T15:02:40Z")
I want a site that allows me to look up movies and see the current status of the cast - who’s alive, who’s dead. I want to be able to find out easily which is the most recent movie without a living cast member, which movie has the highest average age of cast members at dead, which movie is the oldest to still have living cast members. And then expand it to cover television too. I’m pretty sure this site would have a single user: me. But all these years of playing the celebrity death pool have made me interested in longevity statistics for films and tv. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/15 "2012-07-04T15:03:51Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d like to know when it’s time to go blackberry picking. Go right now! Mine are all plump and sweet, right now! ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/16 "2012-07-04T15:14:12Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Go right now! Mine are all plump and sweet, right now! Blackberries? Or black raspberries? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/17 "2012-07-04T15:25:14Z")
Blackberries! With long, long thorny spikes weighed down with tons of juicy berries! (They were growing wild in the yard when we bought our house, all I did was coral them into a single location. Giant, overgrown, wild blackberry patch!) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/18 "2012-07-04T16:46:31Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > I want a site that allows me to look up movies and see the current status of the cast - who’s alive, who’s dead. I want to be able to find out easily which is the most recent movie without a living cast member, which movie has the highest average age of cast members at dead, which movie is the oldest to still have living cast members. > > And then expand it to cover television too. > > I’m pretty sure this site would have a single user: me. But all these years of playing the celebrity death pool have made me interested in longevity statistics for films and tv. George Carlin would have liked it. He once said, "Do you ever watch old movies and in scenes with a lot of extras and lead actors, ask yourself, ‘Are all these people now dead?’ I do." ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/19 "2012-07-04T16:48:20Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Blackberries! > > With long, long thorny spikes weighed down with tons of juicy berries! > > (They were growing wild in the yard when we bought our house, all I did was coral them into a single location. Giant, overgrown, wild blackberry patch!) Dang! I’m gettin’ a snake stick and heading north! (As a kid, I always had to have a snake stick – a sturdy stick with a fork at the end – when we went blackberry picking, in case we encountered copperheads. I suspect such a stick wouldn’t have done me much good, especially since it would have been left in the brush as I hightailed it in the opposite direction if I had even thought a snake was in the vicinity.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008/20 "2012-07-04T18:37:13Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > I want a site that allows me to look up movies and see the current status of the cast - who’s alive, who’s dead. I want to be able to find out easily which is the most recent movie without a living cast member, which movie has the highest average age of cast members at dead, which movie is the oldest to still have living cast members. > > And then expand it to cover television too. > > I’m pretty sure this site would have a single user: me. But all these years of playing the celebrity death pool have made me interested in longevity statistics for films and tv. It would have at least one other user. I do this all the time. I watch an older movie and then I go online to see which members of the cast are still alive. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-web-needs-is-a-site-about/627008.md?page=2)