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By John Hunter

June is the wedding month. You know moon, spoon, June and all that. For those of you planning weddings or going to weddings, www.weddingchannel.com will "give you everything you need to plan the perfect wedding." The homepage presents a link to 30,000 pictures (count ‘em) of gowns, hairstyles, cakes, flowers and so on. You can search for photographers, reception locations, musicians and everything else needed for a perfect and perfectly expensive bash. Brides are able to register their hearts’ desires for obliging wedding guests, friends and relatives to purchase. If weddings don't appeal to you, read on.

Additional surfing options present a general mix of websites that you may find useful. For those of you who enjoy reading about the environment, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation has replaced its quarterly New York State Environment paper newsletter with a monthly online newsletter. The online newsletter "combines colorful illustrations, a lively presentation and timely information about DEC programs and the natural resources of New York State." To access this site click on http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/environmentdec/.

When you click on the URL the DEC newsletter homepage comes up. The May issue features articles about Bond Act grants that will fund brownfield cleanups in Yonkers, the Mohawk Valley (Town of Webb and Utica) and Erie and Niagara Counties. Another article features the selection of Beacon, NY as the site for a Rivers and Estuaries Research Center. A third article deals with the DEC acquisition of wetlands on Staten Island. You may also subscribe to the wonderful environmental journal, Conservationist, published six times a year by DEC. This Magazine is truly a great use for our tax dollars.

Another site you may wish to look at is the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) at www.idtheftcenter.org. This site provides useful information for anyone worried about identity theft or who has experienced identity theft. For victims, the site provides a Victim Resources section that offer action guides, fraud forms, and inspirational thoughts in English and Spanish for comfort. The consumer resources section provides prevention tips, ID theft test and a list of current laws that try to protect consumers. This organization is a national non-profit group that focuses exclusively on identity theft and was founded in 1999. Tip: Some nefarious perps use imbedded commands to gather necessary financial information that proves costly to victims when the attempts are successful.

For help with another kind of virus try the Center for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov. Click on this URL and you will find a wealth of information about diseases, terrorists’ threats, smallpox information, SARS, Anthrax, Ricin, plague, and VX nerve gas. If identify theft doesn't scare you, this site may.

Another Federal government website that may provide you with useful information is Fedstats Home Page at www.fedstats.gov. The Home Page indicates that this site provides statistics generated by all Federal agencies that spend more than $500,000 per year on any of the functions listed: 1. planning of statistical surveys and studies, including project design and selection, and design of questionnaires, forms or other techniques of observation and data collection; 2. training of statisticians, interviewers or processing personnel; 3. collection, processing, or tabulation of statistical data for publication, dissemination, research, analysis or program management and evaluation; 4 . . . you get the idea.

According to the webpage, individuals can query data collected and published by more than 100 agencies without having to know in advance which agency produces them. All this data is provided by individual agencies that presumably have linked databases accessed from this site. This seems more efficient than using the Firstgov.gov site that takes you to individual agencies. All data is downloadable in TXT or PDF formats. And, it is free for the asking or clicking.

According to the site, you can access more than 400 topics that range from acute conditions (colds and influenza) through weekly earnings. I clicked on the weekly earnings and found a ton of information including: unemployment rates (seasonally adjusted and annual), change in the civilian labor force, and so on. For the truly obsessed, enjoy.

I also encourage you to visit The Library of Congress at www.loc.gov. I clicked on the Newcomers tab and found a treasure trove of information. At some future date I’ll devote more time to this site. Just go there.

Finally, several months ago I wrote about the vegetable orchestra. The URL appeared to be located in Austria or Germany. Since that column I have begun receiving spam from Europe and usually in the German language. I assume that either the orchestra site or an embedded link snagged my email address. At present this constitutes a minor irritation, but care obviously must be taken when visiting strange sites. Until next month . . .

John M. Hunter

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