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.

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.

One of the things that plagues most folk when trying to find interesting ways to make meals is that you don't have a house full of people (maybe did once, but not any more) to feed. Making larger amounts of food is most times easier than trying to make food for less amounts of people. Thus, the Small Household Vegetarian Recipe Index site, which also has on its homepage "Or, How to Feed Two Vegetarians for a Week" caught my eye. I wish more sites would have recipes for one or two people, not half the block. Have a look. Even if you're not a vegetarian, some of these recipes look yummy.

Are you a problem solver? Maybe you enjoy crossword games and that sort of thing? Think you're pretty good at it? Hop over to the Dictionary.com-Slide Solve Puzzle and let's see how good you really are. To me, this one is REALLY hard, but to a true puzzle solver like you, I'm sure it's a snap. (Yeah, right, sure, uhuh *chuckles*) Enjoy.

If you live in North America, or even down under, here in Aussie or Kiwiland, you may have had dreams of traveling through, and ultimately living in some part of Europe. Well, hop over to the Living in Europe site and you'll be able to read blogs from Europe by people who do, and learn all about living there. You might be surprised, but you won't know if you don't go have a look.

One of the unique things that Australia has to offer the traveling world public is a look at, and in some cases, a close encounter with, Australian Animals. I have to admit, before I came here to live, I wondered about seeing things like the bird life that lives here (some of which I had only heard about) and things like Kangaroos, Koalas, and various kinds of nasties as well (though thankfully those stay well away from populated areas). If you've wondered about them as well, hop to this site and have a look, then plan on coming out and seeing them for yourself.

If you're a regular visitor you'll know that I'm a minor Space nut. I love seeing things that have to do with our solar system and our universe. The NASA - Multimedia - Video Gallery and NASA TV site is really something to see, and yes, it also allows you to watch NASA's own TV channel, and I can tell you, some of the stuff they broadcast is simply breath taking. Have a look. You might become a fan as well.

Though I don't run Windows XP on my own machine, an awful lot of folk do. I know, I'm behind the times but my theory is, if it isn't broken (and Windows 2000 isn't), then don't fix it. If you do run it however, you might like to hop over to the Windows XP Themes, XP Skins, XP Visual Styles, Icons & Wallpapers for your ultimate desktop experience! site, browse around a bit, and download and install some of the free things there. There are some interesting things to make your computer do things you might like, so do have a good look if you're running XP.

"When I was a lad, we used to travel on Brontosaurus tails and had no idea folk would travel on these new fangled contraptions you all do". *shakes head at his own silliness*. Ok, so what does the future hold for all of us in the realm of transportation? A look at the Transportation Futuristics A Presentation of the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library site might just give us an idea. Some of the concepts may be a little far fetched, but hey, your great grandfather would probably think you needed some early nights if you tried explaining how you would travel a couple of hundred miles from your home in under a day as well. Have a look. You might just be looking at your grandchildren's modes of travel.

How many people have your name? If you took 5000 names and put them on a sort of timeline that showed when they were the most frequently given to newborn children, where would yours turn up? If you hop over to the The Baby Name Wizard NameVoyager site, then click "Launch NameVoyager". and then type, letter by letter, your name, you'll find out. This is a really visual way of seeing your name and its popularity among 5000 others. A very interesting concept. Anyone willing to try and increase the name base?

You'll no doubt know the name Albert Einstein, and his theory of relativity. But what else do you know about him? For instance, did you know that a headmaster once told his father that what Einstein chose as a profession wouldn't matter, because "he'll never make a success at anything." Wonder if that stupid individual (no, I won't use the term educator because any educator should know better) ever got to see the folly of his prediction? How about dropping by the Albert Einstein Biography and Much More From Answers.com site and reading about the works of, and life of, this wonderful man. He wrote a number of wonderful books, and had a unique way of looking at the world and its problems as well. Interesting site and would make a wonderful school project for someone as well, especially anyone who struggles with math. *smile*, Enjoy.

Out here in Australia, almost all of the gardening shows, and even gardening shops, have a section devoted to what is known as a water feature. It may be a pool, a fountain, a babbling brook, but they all seem to get involved in them. There even is a site and publication called Australia's Premier Water Gardening Magazine for you to browse through. If gardening is your thing, and you need something to add to it to give it a different look, then maybe this is it. Have a look.

Still getting a lot of spam email? If so, then hop over to the Junkbusters Home Page site and have a look at their Junkbusters Spamoff page to see how they may be able to help you in your fight to rid your email box of it. Also, see their Junkbusters Declare page for ways to also rid your snailmail box of junkmail in your letterbox. Fight advertising pollution. I do, and encourage you to join in the fight as well.

Many folk have collections of things, some a little stranger or just different from the rest. For instance, Kilokat's Antique Light Bulb Collector's Site shows this collection of antique light bulbs, early radio tubes and box art, Geissler and Crookes discharge tubes, x-ray tubes, Aerolux figural neon glow lights, vintage Christmas lights and more. Now that's not strange, but it sure is interesting. Have a look.

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. ;-)