White Rabbit Syndrome
by Dr. W. David Currie

Remember the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.... "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date."  Fearing that urgent time commitments had taken over our lives, resulting in a lot of unnecessary stress, my wife abandoned her wrist watch several weeks ago.  As a professor, I cannot so easily abandon the time restrictions imposed by class times, assignment deadlines and the plethora of meetings of various sorts (valuable and not so valuable, for example).

I never see many of my students... although those I do see sometimes refer to me as "The old man in the computer lab."  Presently, for example, I have nearly 60 students enrolled in an online class which is available to anyone with Internet access.  Class participants stretch across a number of time zones.  Until recently, the cursor image on my online "calendar of assignments page" was actually a clock with working hands, including a sweep second hand.  I recently dumped the intricate "cursor clock" in favor of a still image of a clock.  The clock image is hyper-linked to the Official US Time page.  By following the hyperlink, students in various time zones across America can now check official Eastern Standard Time to determine exactly when assignments are due (speculated to be accurate to within approximately 0.9 seconds over a 28.8 Kbps phone modem.  All assignments are posted Mondays before 6 pm, and fall due the following Sunday at midnight.  Now, observe as your author does a poor job, at best, of composing a smooth segue into the following...

While browsing the Internet recently in search of remnants of the online Y2K element (yes, Y2K is pretty much out of sight, but not out of the world wide web; see for example remnants of the Y2K Personal Preparedness Web Ring (the Y2K ring may throw a few run time errors... don't panic!), this browser came upon some interesting clock related items.

First, some of you may wish to check out "Office Playground," to obtain your own reasonably priced, accurate backwards clock... similar if not identical to that carried by the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Just click on the backwards clock! Your author won't steer you wrong, here... the price is about $15-$20 less than for the same item at several other sites.
But what if you want the backwards running pocket watch or wrist watch... for that, you may have to visit The White Rabbit by clicking on the backwards pocket watch depicted! No, this is not a picture of a pocket watch in a mirror as some of my colleagues have speculated... it is a real backwards pocket watch.
But what if you want some animated 3-D desktop clocks or wallpaper clocks?  For that, you really need to check out ClockDomain.com, with 50 animated clocks available for free... just click on the "3D sealed with a kiss clock image!
But what if you just want to know about the history of timekeeping? Check it all out here... starting with shadow clocks and ending with cesium atomic beam devices accurate to within picoseconds!
Want the backwards watch with the accompanying running nose, squirting brains and Freudian slip pad... for those you need to check out NeuroMart! Just click on the image.
But what if you just want to know how close the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists feel we are to doomsday (as depicted in minutes before midnight on the official doomsday clock; surely you had not forgotten about the Doomsday Clock just because the cold war came to a somewhat unceremonious conclusion... save for the knocking down of a wall, partial disarmament of the great nuclear powers and dismemberment of the Soviet Union).    Just click on the image, or be satisfied to know that we are currently about 7 minutes away from midnight... not great... but a whole lot better off than we were in 1953 at 2 minutes from midnight, or 1984, at 3 minutes from midnight!
Feeling particularly morbid?  Want to check the Death Clock to see when you will be pushing up daisies?  Check out the interactive death estimate available from DeathClock.com.  Just click on the skull! (No one really wants to do this, but the temptation is almost too great!).
Finally, if you just want to find out exactly... and I mean precisely.... what time it is in your neck of the woods?  Click on Lady Liberty to go to the official US Time Page... backed up by the timekeeping accuracy of the United States Naval Observatory Clock!

With any luck, this editor will return with a more timely article next month. Of course, only time will tell.  But it is definitely time to get with the program.  No more time to waste!  Should probably get started on it right now... no time like the present... as we all know, time waits for no one... and it's not like time is standing still.  Maybe better take a little time for myself before getting started.  No, better get back to work... time is money, after all!  And it's not like I have a lot of time on my hands.

You are welcome to submit articles about interesting internet related happenings.

Dr. W. David Currie

NetNacs! Management