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 often.

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This past week I was privileged to watch the Australian Open tennis tournament on television as did many other sport fans. One thing struck me as very odd however, and I invite you to have a look at yet another of "Mac's Musings" titled Time For Tennis To Grow Up. I know not everyone will agree with my sentiments, but as I always say, these are, after all, only my musings. If you are involved in the game of tennis either as a player, an official, or simply as a spectator like me, I feel this issue should be looked at and the game of tennis should move into the 21st century. Have a look and see if you agree.

As you may know, I love Italian food. I grew up in a mixed Polish and Italian town and the food remains a favorite with me. One of the sites that I find brings us interesting ways of looking at Italian food is the Italian Recipe Index - Italiansrus.com site. Italiansrus is a site that houses all kinds of information about Italy and the people and places there, and this section deals with some of the wonderful food to be found. Have a look, and enjoy.

If you have young children in your family, and at gift giving times (birthdays, religious holidays, etc) you wish to give them something they will enjoy more than the box it came in, you might be well advised to have a look at the FamilyFun 2004 T.O.Y. Awards Great Gift Ideas site. This site is a little different in that it doesn't sell anything, but rather lets you in on the results of their research into what children actually play with. Their research simply takes toys, and children, and lets them play, and watches what toys they consistently play with again and again, and which they discard after the first play time. With 1,170 children and 38,000 hours of play time in their research, I would suggest they probably have it pretty accurate. Have a look and make up your own mind.

We've all heard of vehicles and vehicle designers who fight to be non-reliant on fossil fuel for their movement. Well, how about a blog that looks at that subject on a regular basis? The Hybrid Cars and Vehicles - MixedPower.com blog looks at more environmentally friendly vehicles and tries to work out how to make things better in this regard. A great read, and who knows, maybe you can contribute something of value as well.

I love looking up at the night sky in particular and wondering about the marvels of this tiny galaxy we all live in. Thus, the Astronomy News, Star Charts, Space Pictures - Astronomy.com site is one I find most absorbing, in that it also explains things in non-technical terms for back yardgazers such as myself. Have a look. You might find out more about what is above you as well.

Those folk at Google just keep coming up with more and more useful things. For instance, they now have (in beta testing form) the Google Scholar site. As their information page states, "Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.". Now that has to be useful to any serious researcher. Have a look, bookmark it, and give it a try.

It's almost Oscar time again. Have you made your picks for this year's crop of actors, films, shorts, animations, directors, etc. etc. etc? Well, one way to keep track of it all is to hop over to the Welcome to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences site, bookmark it, and keep coming back right up until Oscar night. Enjoy.

Urban legends have come a long way from one of the first and most publicized (The legend of Craig Shergold) to ones that will have you believe that if you don't forward such and such a message to everyone you know, that your ISP or Yahoo or whoever will ban you from using their service. If you don't know of Craig Shergold, do look it up. It's a story all on its own, and it's true - it's still going as well. Anyway, the reason for telling you all this is to have you have a look at the Urban Legends Reference Pages which, when you get something that looks suspicious, might just come in handy to verify (or not). Enjoy, and Craig, I do hope they finally stop one day *smiles*.

In many towns across the globe, rather large building were built at one time or another to house supermarkets. However, over time, either the population in that area moved or lessened for some reason, or business got so bad, that the supermarket ultimately met an unfortunate end, and the building is now an empty building. Some clever people have found that in some places, these buildings can be used again for the public good, and thus The Re-Use of Abandon Supermarkets site was born, to share with you (and with those who have the power in your town) how your local abandoned buildings can be reused. Have a look. You might be helping your community at reasonably small cost if you pass this info on to your local city council.

If you are running ©Windows XP you will no doubt like the way it looks. But, after a while, everything, including XP, becomes dull and boring. So why not spruce up your version of XP with a new look? Hop over to the ThemeXP- Desktop Themes, Wallpapers, Screensavers, WinAmp Skins, and more! site, have a look at a new look for your XP desktop (and some others as well), download some and try them out? Remember, it's your desktop. Make it reflect you, not someone else. ;-)

You'll have noticed that the item directly above this one ended with a smilie. A smilie is simply made from keyboard characters to look like something. If you lean your head on your left shoulder and look at that smilie again ;-) you will note the winking smilie with the winking eyes, nose and grinning mouth. Well, smilies is an art form that has come about using computers, but it's not restricted to computer use or the net. In fact, hop over to The Paul Smith Foundation Home Page and have a look what this man did with a typewriter, paper, and colored ribbons. This is nothing short of fantastic. You thought smilies were good? Think again.

Being mid summer out here in Australia one is constantly reminded to become Sun Smart, and thus avoid the harsh rays of the sun and what they can do to our frail human bodies and skin. In fact, The Cancer Council New South Wales Be Sun Smart site has some good sound advice on how to protect yourself from the damaging rays. Have a look and ensure your family are safe at all times.

I love seeing innovation, especially when it is used to raise a chuckle from the everyday passer by. I think you'll find that Sam's Mailbox Pictures, for the most part, do just that. I know they did for me. And I can also remember a favorite of mine when I lived in New Zealand, just outside the little village of Bunnythorpe, composed of a small mailbox on top of a newspaper holder, which was attached to an old wood stove. All had brightly painted signs which said, in descending order, "Mail", "Newspaper", and "Junk mail and Bills". *(chuckles)* Enjoy.

Friends, the terrible natural disaster that happened in the South East Asian part of our little green orb still needs your contributions and support. I know you may have given already in one for or another to help our brothers and sisters who lost so many of their family and so much of their lives, but please consider continuing your donations to the following good relief organizations. Remember, do NOT do it via direct deposit to some bank account (yes, amoral individuals around the globe are even stealing money that is meant to help these poor folk) but do it at these agencies listed below. There is the Direct Relief International organizations site, the Oxfam International United for a more equitable world site which is doing so much good, The Official Save the Children Site which needs so much help to assist the literally thousands of new orphans as a result of this disaster, and UNICEF - UNICEF Home who continue to fight the good fight for people everywhere. Thank you for helping in whatever way you can in the relief and rebuilding of lives wrecked by this terrible tragedy. I am proud to see that Australia has pledged One Billion dollars in aid from our government, backed by all political parties in this country. We've led the way. Let your heart open and your wallet as well to help us help the victims. Thank you.

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