Alcove
9: An Annotated List of Reference Websites
Geography, Weather,
Time
Geographic Names Information
System (U.S. Geological Survey)
Massive searchable database of place names in the United States
and its dependencies, giving latitude/longitude, estimated population,
elevation, and in many cases links to digital maps of the locale.
The search
form for U.S. geographic names allows researchers to do fielded
searches by name, state, county, elevation, population, or type
of feature (choose from an alphabetical listing from "airport"
to "woods").
Mapquest
Maps of countries, regions, and cities, searchable by place name,
address, city, state/province, or postal code. There are also clickable
interactive maps available for many areas around the world. Users
can also create personalized travel maps. Free user registration
required for some services.
National Weather Service
Forecasts and climatological data by state and locality, with
current weather
conditions (including conditions
at Washington National Airport).
Thesaurus
of Geographic Names
Search facility for the controlled vocabulary of geographic
names established by the Getty
Research Institute for searching its various online databases.
Entries usually find include all or most known versions of a particular
geographic name, often with brief historical notes about the locale.
Time Zone Converter
Quick conversion of current time anywhere to GMT, conversion
between any two time zones that automatically factors in Daylight
Savings Time and other local variances, a feature for setting up
customized
time zone cards, and a list of time
zones by country. Advertiser-supported.
Time.gov
Real-time Java-based online clocks giving the official time for all
U.S. time zones. A service of the National Technical Information
Service and the U.S. Naval Observatory.
U.S. Naval Observatory
Provides a variety of services related to timekeeping and astronomy,
including online applications for generating daily and annual
sun and moon data by locale and date, synthetic views of day
and night on the Earth's surface for any date and time between 1700
and 2300 C.E., and a static world time zone map (printable in PDF and PostScript formats).
Worldtimezone.com
Interactive world time zone map, with a day/night map, a time zone FAQ,
a world-wide synopsis of daylight
saving time, and many other features. The site is heavy with advertising,
including some popups which deploy adware.
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