Happy 15th birthday to the World Wide Web

If your house was burning down, what would be the first thing (thing - not person!) you would save? Family photos? A grab-bag with all the important family documents in it? Your handbag?

For me, it would be my computer - my trusty laptop. I do so much with it - make my living, communicate with friends and family, pay my bills and keep track of my accounts, educate and entertain myself, keep myself up-to-date with what's happening in the world... I'd be lost without it.

But, much as I love my computer, it wouldn't be half as much use (or fun) if I couldn't connect to the Internet - which brings me to the subject of today's posting - the World Wide Web is 15 years old today. April 30, 2008 marks the 15th anniversary of the date when CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) announced that the web was free for use by anyone.

To commemorate the anniversary, msn.com looks at 15 ways in which the World Wide Web has changed our lives - for better or for worse...

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor, Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university before a packed McConomy Auditorium on 18 September, 2007. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Five things happy people do

When 'O', the Oprah Magazine, canvassed leading experts on happiness in an attempt to find out what happy people had in common, this is what they came up with:

1. They find their most golden self
2. They design their lives to bring in joy
3. They avoid "if only" fantasies
4. They put best friends first
5. They allow themselves to be happy.

To find out more, visit Five Things Happy People Do on msn.com.

Top 10 First Aid Mistakes

Placing a severed finger directly onto ice to preserve it, pulling off clothing which is stuck to burnt skin and treating a sprain with heat - these are just some of the mistakes we make when administering first aid. To find out what you should and shouldn't do in a home health emergency, visit the Newsweek website and read Top 10 First Aid Mistakes.

When bargain hunting becomes an addiction

Are you the sort of person who can't resist a bargain? Do you get so excited when presented with a great deal that practical considerations, such as whether you need or can afford the bargain you've found, just never enter your head? In this article for msn.com, Melinda Fulmer examines how, for some people, bargain shopping can be as addictive as drugs or alcohol...

Great Quotes - On travel (and procrastination)

You cannot assume that something beautiful and unique that exists right now will be the same tomorrow. Better get to that unsullied oasis in your dreams without delay - because you may look up one day and discover they've opened a Wal-Mart there...

Phil Keoghan

Do you have what it takes to start a business?

Passion for your product or service, perseverance, realism and the support of family and friends - these are all on the list of 'absolute essentials' for someone who wants to succeed with their own business. To find out if you have what it takes to release your inner entrepreneur (and make a success of it!) check out Have you got what it takes to start a business by Rosie Beasley.

Does the recommendation of 8 glasses a day hold water?

Where did the recommendation that we all should be drinking eight glasses of water per day come from? Apparently, no-one knows because Dr Dan Negoianu and Dr Stanley Goldfarb from the University of Pennsylvania have reviewed every published clinical study into the subject and found that none of them showed any benefit to organs from increased water intake.

In fact, we can get all the fluid we need from our food and drinks such as tea, coffee and fruit squash. In this article by Alice Hart-Davis for msn.com, scientific experts, including a dermatologist, a nutrition scientist and one of the UK’s leading experts on hydration, debunk the popular myths about water consumption.