The findingDulcinea Blog

How to Do Good

With Wall Street in crisis and the economy in a downturn, nonprofits and volunteer organizations need help more than ever. Now is the perfect time to contribute your time and money to those who need it, and these Web resources can help you step up your efforts to do good.

Idealist.org is a good place to start. A project of the group Action Without Borders, it offers a wealth of resources for volunteers and nonprofit organizations alike.

Network for Good and VolunteerMatch both make it easy to find volunteer opportunities that match your interests in your region.

Charity Navigator evaluates philanthropic organizations so that you know whom you can trust with your hard-earned cash.

GoodSearch allows you to search for and donate to the cause of your choice.

Soojung Chang
Senior Writer

Here are a couple of findingDulcinea resources:

Web Guide to Philanthropy and Nonprofits
Volunteer Opportunities for Kids 

A Cornucopia of Foodie Web Sites

Everyone loves food. But there is a difference between those who enjoy food and those who want to learn about the difference between organic, sustainable, AOC, DOC, and so on.

If you’re interested in obscure food knowledge, Snobsite.com offers selections from the book “The Food Snob’s Dictionary,” which will teach you the distinction between romanesco and romesco among other foodie essentials.

To keep up with more down-to-earth elements of culinary culture, visit Culinate for articles and recipes that focus on sustainable food culture.

The best way to stay abreast of food or wine trends is to read food magazines. Many offer a lot of content for free on their Web sites. Gourmet and Food & Wine are two of the most widely read. For a casual look at classic cooking, try Cook's Illustrated. Wine Spectator is an authority on the wine industry.

To find a culinary publication that services your neighborhood, try Edible Communities. Each regional quarterly includes directories to local farmers markets as well as recipes featuring seasonal produce.

Isabel Cowles
Senior Writer

Travel Trends: Now’s the Time to Go

Hate the staycation? You may be in luck. Because so many Americans skipped summer vacations this year, prices have gone down around the globe. Hotels and airlines, rental companies and restaurants—it seems they’ve all cut prices. This means there’s only one thing to do: travel now.

The following Web sites spotlight deals and present ideas to help you get going.

CNN Travel details a few discounted travel options. For example, in Orlando, dine on the cheap during September’s Magical Dining Month, and in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, take advantage of free hotel stays.

National Geographic Adventure points to easy weekend getaways for fall on the East Coast (the print version of the magazine has options across the United States), including a “trek to a haunted hut” in New Hampshire.

During British Airways' “UK for Free” sale, on through October 2, you’ll get two free nights in one of nine participating hotels in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester or Newcastle, after booking roundtrip airfare from the United States to England. There are specifics and stipulations, so read carefully before you book.

Sarah Amandolare
Senior Writer

Explaining the Financial Crisis

Jin Lee / AP

While we’ve all watched in wonder as the world’s mortgage and credit markets have grown steadily more fragile, and some of the nation’s largest banks have teetered on the edge of the abyss, it’s become clear that a great number of people have no idea what is going on—and we’re not just talking about the ones in charge.

The confounding maze of rules, penalties, gambles and now bailouts, amounts to nothing less than a riddle for many readers, especially those not clued in to the intricacies of the market or the rules and regulations that govern it.

Fortunately, there are a few keen observers who have made sense of the mess and the government’s $700 billion attempt at making things right, and offer up their insights online, free of charge.

The American Scene’s Jim Manzi offers a clear and succinct history of the mortgage crisis and how it has gone on to affect the larger national market, providing no shortage of criticism where he feels criticism is due, not to mention some interesting alternatives to the current administration’s official solution.

Investopedia by Forbes is the investor’s clubhouse with advice and guidance about how to understand, navigate and hopefully survive, the shifting credit and real estate marketplace. Search for unfamiliar terms in the site’s database.

RealClearMarkets is a one-stop shop for market news and columns from all sides of the bailout argument—an imperative bookmark to have for staying abreast of the roller coaster market.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

Visit our U.S. Economy Web Guide for more useful resources on the topic.

Monitoring the Arctic

Sam Soja / AP

The Arctic has been in the news a lot lately. Ice in the Arctic is shrinking at a rapid pace, and some researchers believe that it might melt away completely in just a few years. Use the Web to do your own monitoring of points north.

The Arctic theme page, created by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, allows you to view frequently updated images from the area via Web Cam 3, which provides “a fish eye view showing sky and cloud cover.” Be sure to explore its gallery of older images as well.

The National Science Foundation has an overview of its research on both of the poles, the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The Athropolis Arctic Library lists Arctic resources alphabetically and by category. Athropolis also offers a Guide to Arctic Sunrise & Sunset.

The Arctic Studies Center hosts resources concerning the peoples and cultures of the northern region, including the Ainu, the Vikings, and the Yamal.

Soojung Chang
Senior Writer

Surfing the Financial Tsunami

While investment banks are falling by the wayside, and the stock market’s shakiness puts the camerawork on “Cloverfield” to shame, there has been no shortage of phrases evoking nature’s fury to capture the magnitude of the biggest upheaval on Wall Street since 1929.

Speaking of magnitude, the Associated Press sized up the Dow Jones via the Richter scale in its Sept. 20 piece entitled, “A quake rocks Wall Street and the tremors ripple.” Of course, financial quakes set off financial tsunamis, as pointed out by Indian news site Rediff.com’s headline, “Financial tsunami swamps the world.”

Seismology isn’t the only earth science to get a nod in credit crunch coverage, however. Weather Channel buffs can flip the remote over to CNBC to learn about Wall Street meteorology—namely to answer the question, “Can NYC Weather This Financial Hurricane?”

Britain’s Halifax Bank of Scotland also faced stormy times last week, although the clouds lifted when Lloyds TSB took it over. Read about it in The Independent’s op-ed, “Lloyds holds all the cards as HBOS seeks shelter from financial hurricane.”

Anne Szustek
Senior Writer

To read more about the current sweep of bankruptcies and mergers to roil Wall Street, please see:

“Barclays Grabs Bulk of Lehman Brothers”

“Why Did the Fed Prop Up AIG?”

“SEC, U.K. Tell Traders, Brokers, to Fix Their Shorts”

Help in a Hurricane

Smiley N. Pool/AP

I moved to Houston last September and Ike marked my first encounter with gyres from the Gulf. Initially I paid little heed to storm warnings: Gustav had just come and gone as a gentle gust, and I had a feeling that hurricane propaganda was just a bunch of hot air. Well, turns out it was—literally and formidably. By Friday, I got serious about storm preparation. But since Ike was my first hurricane, I really didn’t know where to begin. Fortunately, there were more than a few resources to help.

The Hurricane Season page on The Weather Channel Web site provided up-to-the minute news and information about Ike’s advance. Once Ike was approaching Galveston, I could watch video coverage of reporters on the scene withstanding 80 MPH winds.

Another site that caught my eye was Stormpulse, which provided satellite tracking of Ike and maintains an archive of storms by month, dating from the 19th century.

The American Red Cross explained how to interpret storm warnings, and the National Hurricane Center told me how to prepare for a hurricane. The site offered tips that never would have occurred to me, including how to make hurricane straps to help keep my roof intact.

When Ike had passed, I turned to information from The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “After a Hurricane or Flood: Cleanup of Flood Water” article for tips on how to deal with water damage in my house.

Isabel Cowles
Senior Writer

Building a Budget Kitchen

Having lived a nomadic existence for the past few years, it was with great trepidation that I viewed the prospect of settling down, and, for lack of a better term, nesting. Starting from scratch in the kitchen, the process was made all the more challenging by the steep prices charged by everyone from Sur la Table to Le Creuset. But as many have proven time and time again, a great meal can just as easily emerge from the low end as the high. In the process of putting my own budget bistro together, I’ve collected some of the best tips and guidance on the Web to help make sure that no matter what your budget, a culinary workspace is within reach.

Mark Bittman’s 2007 article in the New York Times about how to outfit a proper kitchen on the cheap is possibly the most cited and debated take on the subject, promising a working, functional kitchen for under $200.

The Dish food blog by Keith Law points out Bittman’s limitations for those without the access to lower Manhattan’s wealth of restaurant supply stores, offering a few alternatives for the rural or suburban reader.

The Tennessee Journalist gives the task the college try, providing a list of the essentials for any budding, university-bound foodie.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

Simplicity

Sure, in-depth and extensive Web sites are useful and engaging, but lately we’ve come across a few that are genius in their simplicity:

Umbrella Today asks for your zip code, then tells you, in a word, whether to bring an umbrella that day. The site takes this concept one step further and allows you to receive text message umbrella alerts.

The site Has the large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet needs just one page to tell us we’re safe to live another day.

Wonder whether it’s Dec. 25 yet? Check Is It Christmas to find out.

Emily Coakley
Senior Writer

Travel Trends: Lessons From the Frugal Traveler

Matt Gross in transit.

Like many people these days, I’d love to travel more often, but can’t afford to. Instead, I sometimes live vicariously through the exploits of Matt Gross, known as the Frugal Traveler at The New York Times. For the past few summers, Gross has hit the road, blogging and writing feature articles about his treks across the United States and Europe. This summer, we got to watch Gross’s exploits in video features—for example, working on an organic farm in Southwestern France. It’s tough not to envy this guy. He’s young, and he’s making a living out on the road, meeting new people and absorbing foreign culture.

Last week, at Idlewild Books near Union Square in New York City, Gross gave a talk about his Grand Tour of Europe, revealing a few frugal traveling tips he’s picked up, and discussing the pressures of being a travel writer, particularly having to come up with a “lesson-learned” to impart to readers at the conclusion of each jaunt.

Luckily for most of us, when we travel, we’re free to draw our own conclusions and learn our own lessons without worrying how they’ll be accepted by anyone else. As for saving money, we can all learn a few things from Matt Gross.

Lesson #1: Get a Capital One credit card before going abroad. The bank does not charge extra fees for overseas ATM withdrawals or credit card purchases.

Lesson #2: In Italy, try convent accommodations to save money. There may be a curfew, but you’ll have enough extra cash for a nice dinner before you hit the hay.

Lesson #3: Plan ahead. This sounds obvious, but in the rush to get away, vacationers sometimes neglect pre-trip research. Gross advises even travelers on weekend getaways to find out about activities, such as free museums or outdoor sports, in the cities or towns they plan to visit.

Sarah Amandolare
Senior Writer

Visit our Travel section for web guides to travel in dozens of countries and regions.