Stamp Collecting for Beginners and Philatelists
| Stamp Auctions for Every Collector Stamps, Covers by US State 5 Hours Register on eBay today |  |
Stamp Column Archives
The Glassine Surfer Column Archive
This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.
January 2003
Currently, a subscription to the online edition costs the same as one for the paper edition, but you can get both for about ten dollars more.
“Linn’s”
http://www.linnsonline.com/
La-Z-Boy
http://www.lazboy.com/
###
Sharing help
Help AP readers on the Web. If you know a site that readers should know about, send me an e-mail with some details and the URL.
If you are a Webmaster debuting a new site, moving to a new location, or making alterations, let me know. Sharing helps everyone and makes stamp collecting more fun.
Mike Mills
###
Translations
From time-to-time I mention some new tweak at an online language translation service. They’re of interest because the only thing that stands between stamp collectors in the US, Mexico, Belguim, and China, is the words.
On the other hand, you may have noticed that the translations, themselves, may have added unnecessary layers of confusion. If a severely mangled foreign phrase hasn’t had you gasping for air lately, you might check out “Lost in Translation.”
The site asks you to submit some text for translation, such as this snippet, “You are invited to join the nearly 50,000 members of the APS.” Then the site “babelizes” it, translating it back and forth into other languages before finally returning it to its original, though now unrecognizable, English.
The above phrase came back in English as “Invite to him that it assembles the SGP with that with almost 50.000 members.” which should be fair warning that the only thing the survives translation is the translator.
Lost in Translation
http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/
###
Science
“A Selective History of Science on Stamps” comes to you through the hard work of Maiken Naylor at the Science and Engineering Library University at Buffalo in New York.
The site opens on the table of contents, individual pages of sciences, with physics, astronomy, and math having the most listings. Each page shows stamp issues about facets of that science, along with a scientific explanation.
This online resource is something that teachers should have bookmarked on their classroom Internet machines. It’s colorful, entertaining, easy-to-use, and authoritative.
“Science on Stamps” is a SciLink at the National Science Teachers Association website, and a three-star FIP site, and of course, it’s a member of the American Topical Assoc.
A Selective History of Science on Stamps
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/exhibits/stamps
In addition to its classroom use, this site is a model layout for a topical website, and if you click on physics, you can read about Ernest Rutherford, who though he was opinionated about science and stamp collecting, knew nothing about philately.
###
AOL CD’s
We are what we eat, and future civilizations shall know us by our garbage. In which case, they’ll have to wonder if AOL was as country, a currency, or a mania when they find billions of AOL promotional CD’s in the landfills.
These disks have nests in post offices and schools, and infest all printed magazines since 1996. I’m thinking it’s only a matter of weeks before they’re hot glued to six-packs of beer.
But AOL is on record as saying they’d gladly take back any unwanted disks so that they could be recycled or disposed of properly, and wouldn't you know it, two California guys are taking AOL at its word.
Jim McKenna and John Lieberman now plan on accumulating one million AOL CD’s and returning them all to AOL’s Virginia HQ to make the point that all those disks are a waste of energy and natural resources.
No More AOL CDS
http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
I don’t know if it will help stop the plague, but it might stop some other ventures from flooding the mails and malls.
###
Glassine Surfer
Drop into the Glassine Surfer online archive to check on stories and links to just about everything about stamp collecting.
The Sociable Stamp Society holds informal, though informational, chats on Sunday or Wednesday evenings at eight eastern. Click on “chat.”
The Glassine Surfer
http://www.glassinesurfer.com
Thanks for supporting the “Glassine Surfer,” and remember that stamp collectors need each other, so support your local stamp clubs.
