Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites are family friendly, and cover subjects dealing with a focus on the family as a whole, search, internet, internet radio, news, health, medical resources, household hints, education, educational resources, recipes, food, strange, different, help pages, homework, kids, diy, 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 How Info" link on the right side of this page.

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

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Throughout history various groups founded by and for women have risen to help women take their rightful place in our societies. It is good to see that the Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party - (American Memory from the Library of Congress), which is an "American Memory from the Library of Congress" has chronicled these photos for all of us to see. Things certainly wern't easy in those days. Mind you, I suspect they aren't really all that great in many parts of the world right now either. Have a look. These are historical photographs of those who helped shape women's roles in their US society.

Talk about search facilities and one naturally thinks of Google or Yahoo or one of the other various facilities one uses. However, there is a new player on the block by the name of Clusty the Clustering Engine and no, it's not a children's nursery rhyme. Clusty is a metasearch engine that can be very useful in your arsenal of search capabilities. It submits your query to a number of different sources and brings all of the results back to you. That should help make your search easier. I'd bookmark this one.

My grandsons will grow up in an environment where computers and the net are as commonplace as the telephone is to you. However, it is necessary to try and ensure that they can surf the net safely and enjoy what they find without the dangers that do lurk there. Thus, sites like Welcome to Cyberkids! ok will always get my attention and my award. As they say on their site, "Your child does not have to register or provide us with any information in order to use Cyberkids.". Now that's the kind of thing I like to hear. Take your younger family members with you to view this site, then bookmark it for them so they can find it again.

When one thinks of the Nestlé corporation one is liable to think of chocolate in the same thought. However, did you know they also provide recipes to some really delicious sounding food on their website? Take the Nestlé Australia - Good Food Recipes site for instance. Here you will find chicken recipes, pork recipes, beef and lamb recipes, seafood recipes, vegetarian recipes, and ... um... the odd chocolate one as well. Aw, come on. You knew it would. Enjoy.

If you're interested in the latest news from Vroom town in the USA (Detroit of course, where the majority of new cars are made) and like reading blogs by folk who seem to know what they are talking about, then hop over to the Detroit Auto News - Auto Industry News from the GM FastLane Blog and Bob Lutz blog and have a read. "Gentlemen - Start your engines".

Speaking of safe surfing, did you know that if you use a web proxy to surf through, your info isn't harvested by unscrupulous websites for inclusion in their spam lists? Usually the proxy acts as an intermediary and thus, protects you just that little bit more. Where do you find a proxy to surf through? You simply go to the 250+ working proxies for safe web access from work or school eConsultant site, pick one, go to it, and continue to surf from there. The folk at eConsultant have done a great job here of providing this list for all of us to use. Give it a go.

If you are a frequent visitor you will know that I'm enjoying rediscovering digital photography, and the site called A complete guide to digital cameras, digital photography, and digital video has some pretty impressive information for you to look at if you are also interested in using that digital to good advantage. Happy snapping and photo manipulation. *smiles*

History, most of us would admit, is usually written by men for male consumption. However, that should not detract from the contributions women have made in our societies to improve the standards of how things are viewed. Thus, the Internet Women's History Sourcebook site is certainly worth a visit and if you are studying women's issues in particular you might find this a good source of information for your assignments. Acknowledgement where it is due is of importance to us all, and I feel this site is due that acknowledgement.

When one thinks of the name Merriam-Webster one normally thinks of dictionaries, and though that is not wrong, it could also be linked to geography. Thus, the Geography - Merriam-Webster's Atlas site could prove useful to you the next time you hear of a place in the news that catches your attention. This, at least, will show you where it is.

With so much technology and new gadgets surrounding us we can get confused as to how to best use those we already own, let alone those we think we should. Thus, the Lab Rats! A vidcast about technology you already own. site is well worth a visit and I suggest that doing so regularly will help you to get the most out of what you presently have. You most likely paid a fair amount of money to have it, why not get the most out of it?

If you own an ipod (as thousands of folk do) you might find that the Unlimited Ipod Movies site is of use. Why not download a few and watch them on your way to work? You could do worse. *smile*

Weight gain, loss, and maintenance is a subject most of the world population has in common. As you know, many varied and interesting diets are out there, though not necessarily all should be tried. For instance, there is The Hacker's Diet proposed by an internet hacker. Does it work? Yes. Is it a healthy way to lose weight? Umm, you decide. I think I'll stick with more boring and conventional methods but, to each their own.

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. ;-)