Links

gourmetfile.com This site has free, downloadable tags for your edible gifts in two designs, ready for you to personalize and print. It also has lots of links to recipe sites, food blogs and sources for specialty ingredients.

Blood found on the bottom of a Harford County man's car links him to a second woman who was among four found dead in fields around Aberdeen last year, a revelation that came yesterday during a hearing leading up to the man's murder trial later this month. Charles Eugene Burns, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Lillian Abramowicz Phelps, a 43-year-old Elkton woman whose body was the first of four found last year. Burns also has been charged with attacking and sexually assaulting six other women.

Chris Hughes left Silicon Valley's hottest tech company in February to move to Chicago to join another start-up: Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Only 23 and with a haircut straight from the Beach Boys, Hughes has already been part of one generational shift that is altering the way people use the Internet. Now he hopes his experience as a founder of Facebook can transform politics by harnessing the power of social networks to see if hundreds of thousands of virtual "friends" can help put Obama into the White House.

The Internet is filled with information on, about and for seniors. Here is a list of my favorite sites. For those of you who do not have a computer at home, try your local public library for Internet access.Alzheimer's disease* www.alz.org/ links you to the national Alzheimer's Association page. You can locate the association nearest you, programs, publications and the latest research. There is an excellent step-by-step approach to obtaining a thorough medical assessment of this difficult disease.

Six months ago, Carroll County school officials debated whether to take their once avant-garde Web site off the Internet.Instead, they decided to redesign the site, and last week they unveiled what some believe will become a model for school systems throughout the nation.What sets the Carroll site apart is that it helps users find information quickly and easily -- information that could benefit every Internet user.The Homework Helper section, for example, provides links to home pages on the World Wide Web.Parents of preschool children, for instance, will find links that will help their children get started with language skills and arithmetic.

Six months ago, Carroll County school officials debated whether to take their once avant-garde Web site off the Internet.Instead, they decided to redesign the site, and last week they unveiled what some believe will become a model for school systems throughout the nation.What sets the Carroll site apart is that it helps users find information quickly and easily -- information that could benefit every Internet user.The Homework Helper section, for example, provides links to home pages on the World Wide Web.Each link contains a description written by Carroll teachers, telling Internet users what they will find at each site.

Six months ago, Carroll County school officials debated whether to take their once avant-garde Web site off the Internet.Instead, they decided to redesign the site, and last week they unveiled what some believe will become a model for school systems throughout the nation.What sets the Carroll site apart is that it helps users find information quickly and easily -- information that could benefit every Internet user.The Homework Helper section, for example, provides links to home pages on the World Wide Web.Parents of preschool children, for instance, will find links that will help their children get started with language skills and arithmetic.

Click on the blue.That is what George Fox Middle School students want online visitors to their school's World Wide Web home page to be able to do.By clicking a computer mouse on blue words on the screen, they would be able to reach the rest of the world and a wealth of resources: Kidlink, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Yahooligans, even the personal pages the students make up with graphics, information about their music, games or jokes.The Anne Arundel County school system, however, forbids all such connections on its home pages.

Dear to their heartsMother-and-daughter dressing may be saved from extinction if Cecilia Benalcazar has anything to do with it. The young Baltimore entrepreneur has revived an old-fashioned idea with a line of clothing called Fancy Frocks. The dresses in women's and little-girl sizes rely on prettiness, which has a far longer shelf life than trendiness. They're strong on themed prints, ruffles, petticoats and laces with an eye to wearability in easy jumper shapes.The distinguishing touches at Fancy Frocks are fanciful porcelain buttons in a variety of themes ranging from kiddie caricatures to romantic Victorian flowers.

James Wagster spends his day peering into empty shell casings, analyzing distinctive ridges and grooves that could link a fatal shooting in West Baltimore to a robbery on the East Side.Daniel Van Gelder can dab the skin on someone's thumb and forefinger and not only tell if he has fired a gun recently but also show the exact location where a minute particle of gunshot residue landed.He also can match an almost invisible white speck on the tip of a crushed bullet that has just passed through a man's head to latex paint on a wall, helping prove the man killed himself.

You've seen plenty of e-mail trying to trick you into sharing sensitive data. Now the Federal Trade Commission is urging consumers to be even more cautious of online scammers looking to take advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace. The FTC is warning consumers to be wary of e-mail messages that look as if they come from a financial institution that recently acquired a consumer's bank, savings and loan, or mortgage. These messages, the FTC says, may be from "phishers" looking for your account numbers, passwords and Social Security numbers.

WASHINGTON - As thousands protested yesterday that childhood vaccines are unsafe, federal health officials emphasized that they're looking for any signs of a link between the shots and autism but that evidence supports the health benefits. "I don't believe there is evidence that links vaccines to autism, but I do believe these are concerns we need to take seriously," said Dr. Peter L. Goodman, director of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccines division. FDA officials said that the agency has been monitoring reports of vaccine side effects with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that it inspects vaccine manufacturing plants at least every two years, all the while reviewing new research that might shed light on the causes of autism and the workings of the shots.

gourmetfile.com This site has free, downloadable tags for your edible gifts in two designs, ready for you to personalize and print. It also has lots of links to recipe sites, food blogs and sources for specialty ingredients.

Chris Hughes left Silicon Valley's hottest tech company in February to move to Chicago to join another start-up: Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Only 23 and with a haircut straight from the Beach Boys, Hughes has already been part of one generational shift that is altering the way people use the Internet. Now he hopes his experience as a founder of Facebook can transform politics by harnessing the power of social networks to see if hundreds of thousands of virtual "friends" can help put Obama into the White House.

What's the point? -- Ever been watching a television show or movie and gotten totally distracted by an actress' outfit? If so, you are the target audience for this site. It has photos of characters in costume and includes links on where to purchase the items. What to look for --The site blog also includes photos of actresses out of character - in paparazzi and red-carpet shots - and links to where to find those clothing items, as well.

What's the point? -- Get regular up-to-date movie news and gossip from major news sources and industry personnel. Users can read quick summaries of movie news articles and commentary on the specific story before clicking on an embedded link to view the official story posted on other news sites. What to look for --Movie reviews for new releases and DVDs, interviews, links to the newest movie trailers (rating them based on a scale of 1 to 5), synopses where coming movies are given a rating on the popcorn meter (a scale based on the anticipation or hype)

PC World magazine came out with an interesting and thorough article last week titled "100 Blogs We Love," in which the magazine's editors listed their "favorite stops in the blogosphere, covering everything from high tech to low comedy and all manner of pursuits in between." The list contained the perfect mix of popular stalwarts and lesser-known sites and is one of the better guides of who's driving the blogging agenda in 2007. But blogger Jason Kottke - whose popular blog kottke.org was among those on the list - had a nit to pick.

It's a long-standing question: What causes suburban sprawl? No, not the unbridled growth of exurbia but, rather, what's behind the growth of suburbanites' - well - behinds? That's something Karen Mumford would like to know. The Atlanta academic is part of an unusual partnership between a real estate developer and public health research team that aims to find out whether people would be more inclined to walk if there were something they could walk to. She's equipping study participants with high-tech pedometers and global-positioning devices to track their activity before and after they move into a development in Atlanta that promises a walk-to-nearly-everything lifestyle.

Somewhere in Baltimore this weekend, men will probably herd two pit bulls, both heavily muscled from weight training and both driven mad by recent starvation, into an abandoned field or the cellar of a vacant rowhouse. They'll toss another, weaker animal - a cat, rabbit or maybe a blinded dog - in between the canine gladiators and then set them loose to tear one another apart. The dog that inflicts more puncture wounds might win hundreds of dollars for supporters and be hailed as a champion.

Blood found on the bottom of a Harford County man's car links him to a second woman who was among four found dead in fields around Aberdeen last year, a revelation that came yesterday during a hearing leading up to the man's murder trial later this month. Charles Eugene Burns, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Lillian Abramowicz Phelps, a 43-year-old Elkton woman whose body was the first of four found last year. Burns also has been charged with attacking and sexually assaulting six other women.