by CKR
Here are links, mostly provided to me by Science magazine, to enhance your Oscar Day. I reserve the right to reaward any category if a better site comes along.
And now the envelope...
Most Natural Sounds: The British Library Sound Archive has thousands of recordings of animal and bird sounds, as well as environmental sounds, weather, water, the wind in the trees, the sea lapping at the shingle. Listen to Nature arranges 400 of these recordings with commentary as an easy-to-use introduction to the collection. You can find more bird and animal sounds at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library. It’s a bit easier to use than the British Library’s site.
Greatest Variety of Photos: Just the first page of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative is a treat, with a selection of photos set to music. You can search in a conventional way, or you can get into one of those tagging things I haven’t mastered yet. I particularly liked the historic photos of technology, but there are lots of fascinating ones, from poison dart frogs to the first boat on Yellowstone Lake to Arshile Gorky. The photo at top of this post is from the Consolidation Coal Company, 1922, photographer unknown.
Subcategory: Best Historical Weather Photos: NOAA provides them for you in their Photo Library. Auroras, lightning, the Johnstown Flood, and The Great Dust Storm by Woody Guthrie are all here, along with topical commentary on the last two. Besides weather, there are photos of weather scientists in action and their tools.
Best Leading Dinosaur: The Plesiosaur Directory is “your online source for all things plesiosaur.” It contains a cladogram along with plesiosaurs in the movies, toys, and lots of pictures of these long-necked aquatic dinosaurs.
Longest Lists: I have to admit, what I really like in a guidebook or website on plants is pictures. The USDA Plants website boasts 30,000 of them, line drawing and photo. That may be enough to figure out the plants in my yard that aren’t in my guidebooks, but it could take some time. You can also get a (long) list of plants found in your state, or lists on various topics, like wetland and endangered plants. However, the length of the lists can be daunting. I’d like to see a more imaginative search function, through which I could find, say, small purple-flowered members of the crucifer family that live in New Mexico.