The California Solar Center offers this history of Solar Energy. Written by John Perlin, author of "From Space to Earth - The Story of Solar Electricity," the article summarizes three major solar energy subjects -- photovoltaics, solar thermal, and passive solar architecture. Visitors can get a quick overview of "how we have learned to capture sunlight and use it to make electricity, heat water...

York has held a special place in English history, and during the medieval period it was actually the capital of the country for a time. This interactive and well-thought out website explores the history of York, and it was created by the York Museums Trust, with support from the City of York Council. Visitors to the site's homepage will note that they can use the "Pick of the Day" to learn about...

For some, becoming more interested in history may be somewhat of an uphill battle. Sometimes it may be due to preconceived notions about the way the subject was presented when they were young, and others may find the material a bit dry. This website offered by the BBC presents a variety of historical perspectives that are both engaging and informative, and as such, the site is well worth a look....

The Great '06 Cannon Hack http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17439 The MIT Hack Gallery http://hacks.mit.edu/ The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/newsletter/nov2002.html Student Pranks at Princeton http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/pranks.shtml Bascom Hill Pink...

Las Vegas (or "The Meadows" in Spanish) is a curious place, and it is not much of a stretch to say that it was transformed from a sleepy railroad town into a ring-a-ding swinging town in just a few decades during the 20th century. The Las Vegas Sun has gone above and beyond the call of duty by crafting a site that presents a multimedia-rich experience that narrates the history of this rather...

Colonial Williamsburg has been a popular destination for American history buffs for eight decades, and they continue to impress with their fine website dedicated to providing biographies, essays, and articles on "the everyday life of extraordinary Americans." Visitors can read biographies of people who inhabited colonial-era Williamsburg, listen to their fife and drums corps, and tour the town....

Historypin is "a global community collaborating around history," and they have successfully "pinned down" over 281 thousand items to various locations around the world. Over 1,400 institutions and 50 thousand visitors have participated thus far. It's a remarkable experiment in community mapping of everything from Hurricane Sandy to sharing memories of the Queen's visits to foreign lands. Visitors...

One million words of history can seem a bit daunting, but not when it is divided into 300 narratives and 10,000 events. That's the basic format of the Historyworld site, which was created by Bamber Gascoigne. The narratives are all linked together, and visitors will find that the homepage rotates through different selections, including the history of painting and the history of Andean...

In June of 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that several otherwise healthy young men were dying of diseases usually seen only in elderly or immune-depressed patients. Soon the CDC realized they were dealing with what become known as HIV, which is the virus that produces AIDS by effectively impairing the human immune system. This compelling website was created as part of...

The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) at Harvard University has scholars working on housing conditions, international policy issues, and dozens of other areas related to government. This site offers works-in-progress for scholars and others, and visitors are encouraged to search the database, view abstracts of papers, or download the complete paper. The papers found here date back to 2007, and sample...