Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites may be search engines, medical resources, household hints, educational resources, recipe sites, sites I call "head scratchers", and/or new sites dealing with all kinds of things of use to the general internet community. To find the criteria I use, simply click on the "Why and How Info" link on the right side of this page.

This page is updated on a weekly basis, each Tuesday evening Australian (Queensland) time (GMT + 9 hours according to the world clock). Please come back and visit us often.

Important Note: If you are returning to my page, welcome back! Please click your "Refresh" or "Reload" button on the top of your Internet browser to ensure you are seeing the current week's page of my "Picks of the Week". Also, I would love for you to make my site your home page. Simply click on Tools - Options in Explorer, or Edit - Preferences in Netscape, and click Use Current and it's done.

Even with the fantastically hot summer weather Queensland Australia has faced this past week, we all still have to eat. One site, the All you can eat Metafilter list of food related blogs, is worth taking a look at. Many are blogs you can contribute to yourself and join in the discussion. If you're looking for something dealing with food preparation you'll most likely find it here.

If you're looking at that garden and wondering what you should be doing now to prepare it for the next season, you could hop over to The Old Farmer's Almanac - Home Page and have a browse around. This publication has been around for longer than I have, and that's saying something. ;-) Enjoy.

Need a quick and easy recipe for dinner tonight? If so, hop over to the Quick N Easy - Recipe DB site where you will find heaps of yummy recipes including a daily pick. That surely is worth a bookmark.

What was the last hoax or chain letter or urban legend that appeared in your email box? They not only are becoming a real pest and scaring a lot of people unnecessarily, they also clog up the net with unwarranted transmissions of data, thus slowing everything down even more. What can you do about it? Hop over to The Hoaxkill service Let's get rid of hoaxes now! site and have a read, This site explains virus hoaxes, chain letters, and urban legends, and does it so everyone can understand them. Have a look and join the fight by not passing on any yourself, no matter how dire they sound.

How many pairs of shoes do you own? For many it is almost a hobby to try and see how many they can accumulate. From memory, Amelda Marcos made history with the amount she owned. Do you know how many style changes took place in the last century with shoes? If you hop over to the Solemates The Century in Shoes site you may well find some of your own shoes on display. It amazes me that an industry based on two symmetrical pieces of clothing can support itself, and well too I might add. Enjoy.

If you are a student of any kind, you will find The Knowledge Connection invaluable. It contains heaps of links to all kinds of help online. Have a look at the major list on the right side of the page. Click on one of those and it will take you to a filtered list on those subjects. This one is definitely worth a bookmark for future use.

The folks at NASA have done it again. They have managed to take an incident that happened in 1859 and present it in an exciting and informative manner. The Solar Superstorm site will allow you to not only read about it but also download a running verbal commentary on this event and point out that it could happen again on our little green orb. Interesting stuff and worth a look and a listen.

You've heard of these pesky programs that get dumped on your computer and send all kinds of private info about you to other sources? Well, yet another "nasty-finder" has been released. If you click on the PestScan - free online spyware scanner from PestPatrol site, read what they say, and scan your computer from their FREE link, you could be one step further in the fight against prying software. Do it now. It only takes a few minutes and it's worth it.

You know that most of the dictionaries in the world are online, but did you know that the Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year, 2003 is? Here are 2003's top ten words, based on your online lookups. Now that has to be interesting to most folk. Have a look. You might learn something new.

I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy and Castro feud. However what I didn't know is now contained in the Kennedy & Castro The Secret History site. Their headline states "Oval Office Tape Reveals Strategy to hold clandestine Meeting in Havana; Documents record role of ABC News correspondent Lisa Howard as secret intermediary in Rapprochement effort" Now that is an interesting look at past events. Have a look and see what you think?

I hear on the news and see in various publications a lot of talk about the question of the proper use of biotechnology. I must admit I had my own feelings on the subject but was glad to see that the i-bioUK - absolute beginners - Biotechnology site seems to confirm what I thought. It is a simple way to find out if what you know about it is accurate or not. Have a look, then make an informed choice.

The search engine Google simply keeps getting better and better. It not only is a search portal in the usual sense of that term, but they are developing new and exciting tools all the time. Hop over to the Google Services & Tools and try out their latest offerings. This might be worth a bookmark as well, so you can refer back every once in a while and see if something else has been added to the list. Enjoy.

Rebecca Game of "Digital Women - Women with their modems running...", is a graphic designer who is superb to say the least. Rebecca designed this "new look" web site specifically for me, and I can't praise her work enough. Her site, dedicated to women on the net, is worth seeing and bookmarking for future reference. If you are looking for links of interest to women, please visit her site. And if you need the best graphic designer on the planet, I seriously can't recommend her more highly. Oh yes, and when you visit her site, tell her Mac sent you. Thank you Rebecca. I am eternally grateful for your assistance and expertise. ;-)