ORIENTATIONWelcome to Tangents! This web site is devoted to the expression of ideas on a variety of topics—politics, philosophy, religion, science, and social issues. The approach varies from serious to humorous, and the viewpoint is typically a bit apart from today's mainstream. Most of the articles are fairly brief. Nevertheless, in addressing controversial themes, an effort has been made to examine underlying issues in greater depth than typical of parlor chat or pub banter.
This site is adult-oriented, in the sense that it contains little of interest to youthful web surfers, save perhaps the most precocious. Its objective is to engage the active mind, not to amuse and abuse the mass-market crowd. I hope you enjoy it!
PURPOSELike most personal web sites, this one represents an expression of the owner's personal interests and opinions. However, unlike many personal sites which are essentially "output only," this site invites input from you, my esteemed guest. I depend on your ideas to stimulate and develop my own thoughts, to help me see things from perspectives which I might not otherwise have considered. Such a "feedback loop" enables me to produce material for this site which addresses your concerns as well as my own. Communication tools are available on the FEEDBACK menu at the top of the MAIN page.
I invite you to use them often, whether to express agreement or disagreement, to ask questions, or even to post an item of your own, be it a single sentence or an entire essay. If there is sufficient response, I may even post items of exceptional interest (with the sender's permission) on a MAIL BAG page.
NAVIGATIONThis site is organized with your convenience in mind. It is easy to find what you want and to access related material, without having to dig through stuff that doesn't interest you. The first page you encounter is likely to be the WELCOME page. Aside from Web Ring links, this page does not itself contain much of interest; rather, it provides quick and easy access to services addressing your individual needs, whether you are a first-time guest, a regular visitor, or a web-ring surfer.
THE MAIN PAGE & MENUS: The MAIN page is the hub of the site, comprising several menus, from which everything else on the site is accessible with five or fewer mouse-clicks.
The Information and Feedback menus at the top of the page, and the Search tool immediately below, can be accessed by clicking MAIN on most menus, or HOME on a main-page menu. These are fairly intuitive, but are explained below under the FEATURES heading.
The Issues menu is the central access point for most of the material on this site. It allows you to browse and select various fields of interest.
The What's New menu alerts you to any major changes on this site. If things seem to have been rearranged since your previous visit, this is the place to find out what has gone where.
The Links menu provides some ideas for where to go when you're ready to leave this site. In addition to direct links to other web sites, here you will find access to web rings and meta-search engines.SECTION PAGES: After choosing an area of interest from the Issues menu, you will, in most cases, find yourself at a section page for the category you have selected. Here you will find listings of related articles, data, links, and perhaps some introductory notes. Each section page also features quick access back to the MAIN PAGE, as well as direct access to Links and Rings.
MENUS: Site navigation is made easy by a hierarchy of menus. As already mentioned, the ISSUES menu on the MAIN page lists the major areas of interest, and the SECTION (ISSUE) pages feature section menus of articles, data, links, and notes. In addition, almost every page features a site menu at the top and / or bottom, such as this:
From these menus you can instantly access the related Section page and menu, as well as the Information, Feedback, and Search tools at the top of the MAIN page, and the Issues, Links, and Rings menus elsewhere. On many pages, clicking the "modified" date (near the top right corner of the page) will take you directly to the most recent addition or change on the current page.
On most long pages there are also page menus, located either down the left side (as on this page) or across the screen between items. These allow you to skip quickly up and down the current page. Besides links to specific items, the symbols "«" and "»" link to the top and bottom of the page, respectively. In addition, on very long pages there may be detail menus to assist in locating specific points.
Some menus (typically on the Main and Section pages, as well as this one) contain graphic navigation arrows, which may replace or augment the "«" and "»" symbols. As a rule, up/down arrows link to the current page, while left/right arrows link to other pages. These are fairly intuitive, but further explanation is available in the HELP section under Menus.
When you are finished with a document, access the site menu by clicking TOP ("
" or " « ") on the local menu, or by pressing your HOME key or scrolling. From the site menu you can go back to any previous menu, or jump to the MAIN page, LINKS or RINGS.
A few pages have no menus, since they are designed for limited access. To exit such pages, press your BACKSPACE key or use your browser's BACK feature.
FEATURESThe Information and Feedback menus are located at the top of the MAIN page. Information includes particulars about the owner and the site, including an alphabetical site index of documents and features. Feedback features include a guest book and e-mail.
The Site Search tool is also near the top of the MAIN page. It allows you to search the entire site for words or phrases of your choosing. Located in this same area are an Exit Frames button (convenient if your browser is stuck in the frames from another web site), and a Use Material button, which explains the site copyright, and the conditions under which material from this web site may be legally copied and distributed.
The Issues menu on the MAIN page displays a modification date for each interest category, noting when the most recent addition or update was made. This enables you to see at a glance what has changed since your previous visit.
Counters on some pages are mainly to give me an idea of what is popular and what is not. They do not tell me who views a page or why, but only how many times a page has been visited since the last reset of the counter. (As a rule, I reset all counters, except the one on the WELCOME page, on 1 January each year.) You can use the counters, too, to get some idea of whether you're "going with the flow" or "blazing a new trail."
GRAPHICS AND FONTSBecause most of this web site is text-oriented, I have avoided the use of garish graphics where they might interfere with the presentation of ideas. As a result, most of my pages appear rather plain compared to the more eye-catching works of the web's many graphic artists. Even so, I have made use of menus to assist in site navigation, tables to organize information, and backgrounds to enhance visual appeal. Colors are selected to offer variety while being easy on the eyes, and in some instances also serve as visual keys to subject matter.
There are some pages on this site which feature photographs as well as text. But for the most part, the emphasis here is on artistry of a different sort, an artistry of words, wit, and whimsy, with a dash of wistfulness, and perhaps a jot of wisdom here and there.
The the following table shows the fonts used on this site.
| Font | Sample | Style | Type | Application |
| Arial | ABCabc123 | Gothic | TT | menus and tables |
| Book Antiqua | ABCabc123 | Roman | TT | document titles |
| Comic Sans MS | ABCabc123 | Comic | TT | effects |
| Courier New | ABCabc123 | Typewriter | TT | non-proportional |
| Impact | ABCabc123 | Gothic Black | TT | effects |
| Imprint MT Shadow | ABCabc123 | Open Roman | TT | banners |
| MS Sans Serif | ABCabc123 | Gothic bitmap | BMP | controls |
| Old English Text MT | ABCabc123 | Ornate Black | TT | effects |
| Symbol | ABCabc123 | Special | TT | common symbols |
| Times New Roman | ABCabc123 | Roman | TT | compact text |
| Verdana | ABCabc123 | Gothic | TT | controls, menus, text |
Most of these fonts are standard on current Microsoft systems, from Windows 95 to present. If your computer does not have some of these fonts installed, in most cases text should still be legible in your browser's default font. The exception is the Symbol font, which contains the Greek alphabet, math and logic symbols, and other characters not contained in most fonts. If your computer does not have the full TrueType Symbol font installed, special characters might display as something else in your default font, or not at all.
Aside from the applications mentioned, preference is usually given to the browser's default font for text documents. This permits each guest to choose his or her favorite font for on-screen reading. Guests are urged to bring to my attention any problems with fonts—particularly if readability or site navigation is adversely affected. (To report difficulties, select CONTACT on the FEEDBACK menu at the top of the MAIN page. Please mention any pertinent factors, such as the size, type (e.g., CRT/LCD, color/monochrome), and resolution of your monitor, as well as any vision problems I ought to consider.)
HISTORYThe Tangents web site was established in August 2001 and opened officially on 1 September 2001. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ten days later helped solidify and direct the site's thrust.
Tangents is an outgrowth of my original site, The Gent's Lounge (established December 1998). Tangents has absorbed and expanded upon most of the original site's controversial and general-interest themes, leaving the Lounge as an exclusively personal site.
CREDITSThis web site resides on facilities provided by AT&T Worldnet. It was created and maintained using Microsoft® FrontPage Express, with occasional applications of brute force and colorful language. Commencing in January 2005, Microsoft's standard FrontPage became the primary editing software. The spelling- and hyperlink-checkers are welcome additions to my toolbox, and should enhance guests' experience as well.
I am indebted to many for their advice, services, and words of encouragement, and to those who have generously—and sometimes unwittingly—supplied me with ideas and materials. (Specific contributions are acknowledged on the pages containing them.) Ultimately, however, I must assume all blame for whatever you find here.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONThis web site's predecessor, The Gent's Lounge, was the featured "Lifestyles" community site for December 1999 - January 2000 in AT&T Worldnet's Communities Showcase. My thanks to those visitors (whoever they are) who enjoyed the site enough to nominate it. I am grateful and honored—not to mention utterly astonished.
SECURITYYOUR PRIVACY: There are no features on this web site which collect personal data without your knowledge and consent. The page-hit counters register only the number of times a page is visited, not the identities of visitors. As a general rule, however, you should regard e-mail, guest books, message boards, chat rooms, and the like as unsecure and subject to public scrutiny. The provider (AT&T Worldnet) reserves the right to monitor activity on its servers. In addition, remember that it is possible for your published remarks to be copied to other locations on the Internet without your knowledge or consent.
YOUR SAFETY: Although some material on this web site might be considered controversial or challenging, there is no material here which might reasonably be construed as harmful to any mature and stable person.
YOUR COMPUTER'S SAFETY: Currently there are no features on this site which install software on your computer. Software programs directly accessible from this site are provided by AT&T Worldnet. This does not ensure they are problem-free, but at least they are most unlikely to cause any harm.
DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstances does the owner of this web site accept responsibility for any use or misuse of material or features contained herein, or for any consequences of such use or misuse.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All material generated by me is protected by copyright, unless specifically placed in the public domain. In most (but not all) cases, the copying of material from this site is permitted with proper accreditation. A few pages (identified by headers containing "special restriction" statements) are intended strictly for viewing at this web site and may not be copied, although the URLs may be published or hyperlinked elsewhere.
