Woman power, South Pole blogs and McGill's Google

By Mark Shainblum | Come explore the hidden gems and secret places on the websites of McGill University and its affiliated institutions.

Women at McGill: Resource Site

www.womenresources.mcgill.ca

The title says it all: If you're a woman studying, teaching or working at McGill, this site is your one-stop shop for all matters gender-related. Established by McGill's Senate Sub-committee on Women, the site has no local content of its own, rather, it's a portal providing links to vital information like working at or relocating to McGill, family and child- care options available to members of the McGill community, links to McGill women's groups and an overview of gender-equality issues on campus.

McGill's South Pole Telescope Deployment Blog

http://kingspeak.physics.mcgill.ca/twiki/bin/view/Main/2007_SPT_Blog

Talk about telecommuting. Professor Matt Dobbs is currently about as far away from McGill as you can get without leaving the planet (which is appropriate, considering he's McGill's Canada Research Chair in Astro-particle Physics) but he's still on the payroll. He and a group of colleagues from the University of Chicago are literally at the bottom of the world, assembling the massive South Pole Telescope (SPT), which will help physicists explore the nature of dark energy, the unexplained phenomenon responsible for the observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe. Professor Dobbs is keeping an ongoing, personal blog of his Antarctic experiences as the SPT slowly takes shape, under weather conditions most of us couldn't even imagine. Read more about the SPT project at www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news?ItemID=23785.

Google McGill

www.google.ca/univ/mcgill

Pop quiz: What does McGill have in common with France, Botswana, Israel and Thailand? Believe it or not, like those sovereign nations, we have a Google search engine all our own! OK, technically, Google McGill isn't "within" the McGill website, but it's all about searching within the McGill website. It's a great supplement to McGill's existing web search tool, often uncovering obscure and hidden resources that are otherwise almost impossible to find. And, yes, some other universities also have Google search engines, but let them toot their own horns.

Do you have a favourite McGill website mystery-place? Please send it to mark.shainblum@mcgill.ca.