Tuesday's Tool: Fourth of July Bounty

In honor of Independence Day, herewith a round-up of some sites that will help with today's holiday celebrations and festivities (and later ones, too).

First, a site from the New York Institute of Photography that will be useful to either 4th of July celebrants or attendees at some of the local (Orlando) nightly displays: three how-to articles on fireworks photography.

Next, the "Your Holiday Helper" section of The Weather Channel changes with the seasons and holidays to keep you aware of weather issues plus help you plan outdoor activities. (For example, there's a section right now on planning a picnic.)

From the Library of Congress comes American Memory's "Today in History: July 4" site linking to multimedia sources for songs, documents, speeches, photos, related topics, and more to educate about the history of the holiday. Useful to research any day of the year.

If red, white, and blue food is your thing, there's quite the collection of recipes at Fabulous Food's 4th of July/Independence Day page. Also provides links to virtual postcards, holiday history, fireworks safety, and more.

For fun activities for kids and families, there's this 4th of July page from Kaboose (formerly Kid's Domain). With crafts, foods, books, games, etc., this site always delivers great ideas.

Of course, with all the anticipation surrounding the planned and oft-postponed shuttle launch this week, the various NASA sites are a must. The mission page itself for STS-121 Discovery is found here [note: it did launch on the 4th and a photo of the ultimate firecracker (captioned "the rocket's red glare") plus videos can be found there], the NASA Space Shuttle Launch Archive site is good for past mission information, and the NASA Kennedy Shuttle Operations page gives background information on the whys and hows of the shuttle and launch operations.

There's much, much more out there, but rounding out the list today is a site that will likely answer any other questions you might have about how this holiday is celebrated, The Fourth of July Celebrations Database, which includes chronologies and geographically indexed information about celebrations from 1776 to the present.

Happy Independence Day!

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