Did I miss something? I knew the how-to was one of the most overused stories to get a blogger more linkbacks and rankings, but where did all these how-to video sites popup from? I’m not complaining really cause I love these sites and love learning new and often times useless tricks and DIY. Instructables and Video Jug are both extremely useful video sharing sites with a focus on how-tos and distribution of knowledge, one of the many great uses of this here internet thingy we’re filling up pipes with. Both are social internet services, allowing users to sign up, download, rate and create video how-tos and share them among their similarly DIY-addicted friends. Quick hint fellas, over at Video Jub there’s a how-to on the front page for giving yourself a testicular exam!

Read more: Instructables – Step-by-step Collaboration | Video Jug – Life Explained. On Film

An interesting tool launched a few days ago via the German Wikimedia Toolserver which tracks the 100 most popular Wikipedia pages by visit count, charting them on a monthly basis. The Wikicharts tool allows a user to filter Wikipedia’s access statistics per month, giving us quite a bit of insight into Wikipedia usage patterns. Wikipedia’s top 10 pages accessed in August were:

1. Main Page
2. Wikipedia
3. United States
4. JonBenét Ramsey
5. List of big-bust models and performers
6. Irukandji jellyfish
7. Hurricane Katrina
8. Pluto
9. Wiki
10. Jeff Hardy

Read more: Top 100 Wikipedia articles per month

Breaking up is a difficult thing, pets get separated, record collections are split, mix tapes are broken, but for many the hardest is when their favorite songs get caught in the middle of everything. But worry not, there is support out there for the music lover recovering from a rough break up. Ruined Music is a small, but constantly growing community writing effort full of essays and short stories about songs, bands and albums that are ruined during an ended relationship’s resulting fallout. The editors behind Ruined Music are currently looking for your submissions, so if you have a story about your favorite Red House Painter’s song on a break-up mix or an ex-lover mis-quoting Johnny Cash lyrics, now’s the time to write about it and call them out!

Read more: Ruined Music – When your favorite song is caught up in a relationship fallout

We recently received a tip (thanks!) about ViewDo which is a site I can’t get enough of. ViewDo is a giant social video community, featuring hundreds upon hundreds of video tutorials on just about anything you could imagine, and if they don’t have it, you can request that another user create a video sharing their knowledge with you. Even cooler, all videos are downloadable in iPod and Playstation Portable formats. Just today I’ve learned how to make origami stars, how to break-dance, how to make an ethernet cable, tie a double windsor and throw a split-finger fastball. I’ve finally found a reason to actually use my PSP!

Read more: Video how-to community site

Long URLs are always a problem, especially when you’re sending your parents a link from Amazon or eBay which Outlook Express decides to break up, rendering it completely unusable to your folks. That’s where human readable linking come into play, with TinyURL’s amazing service, taking long, un-readable URLs and shortening them down to usable size. Now, the bar has been raised by Shorty, a freeware server application, which allows a server admin to have trackable and permanent “Shorties” originating from their domains. The links you create are stored on your own server, using your own domain name and usable only to the people you share them with, unlike other public service’s. Shorty is currently in beta and is free for personal use (but consider making a donation to the developers.

Read more: Shorty – Human readable links for your domain

It happens to me all the time that I’m listening to a song and wondering what they hell the artists are going on about. Is that broken shell they’re singing about symbolic of the rough life they had growing up as teens in the USA or did they just have mishap making breakfast and felt it was traumatic enough to try and build a career out of? Well, thanks to the internet, and more specifically, SongMeanings.net, most of my questions have been answered. SongMeanings.net is a user-driven database of song lyrics, which is nothing new in itself, but this time with a twist. The goal behind SongMeanings is to allow users not only to talk about their mis-heard lyrics, but also to discuss and provide their views on the actual meanings behind their favorite songs. A lot of the times, it’s pure speculation, but, quite often we have solid sources on what exactly was going on in the artist’s head when they were singing about purple skies and raining fish.

Read more: Song Meanings.net

Journalists Diego and Paola have been documenting Europe’s megalithic and prehistoric sites since 1996, during their many holiday travels. During this time they’ve taken thousands of photographs and written many stories on the history behind Europe’s many prehistoric sites, which they’ve combined into a large online travel guide, taking readers on a virtual tour of prehistoric locations throughout Europe. Thousands of images and panoramic 3d images are available on the ‘tours’, as well as travel diaries, maps and local resource links in case you decide to take the plunge and visit one of these beautiful locations in real-life. Today’s a good day to be bored at the office.

Read more: Virtual tours of Europe’s megalithic and prehistoric sites | Cartabianca Books

Everyone loves a little bed jumping, especially on those springy uncomfortable hotel beds. Meet the Bed Jumpers, a small, but rapidly growing group of normal folk, who can’t resist getting a little massive air during their travels around the world. The Bed Jumpers have setup a great Flickr photo pool, where their jumps and tumbles are being displayed and shared for all to see and enjoy. Have your own Bed Jumps you’d like to share? Then by all means, join the community and start uploading photos of yourself in nighties destroying hotel property. If you haven’t experienced a massive bed jump, run into your bedroom and go for it, you’ll thank us later.

Read more: Flickr bed jumpers pool

The Foreign Service Institute is the US Government’s primary training institution for officers and support personal of the US Foreign affairs community. Through the use of language programs and studies, the FSI prepares future diplomats and other professionals who are advancing US foreign interests overseas and around Washington, via communication and whatever else those people do. These foreign language courses are published using federal money, which basically means they are public domain, and thus, available to any citizen who’s interested in learning a new language. So enter FSI Language Courses.com, a community-driven site, collecting, scanning and distributing the Foreign Service language program documentation and audio-tapes to anyone interested in learning Cantonese, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese, among many other languages, all on the government’s dime (well, your dime really).

Read more: Foreign Language Courses (many thanks to Stiv for the updated link!)

A quick and easy way to save a little money by lowering your electric bill and help the environment by reducing the amount of CO2 emissions you’re responsible for is by replacing your normal incandescent bulbs with low-wattage compact fluorescents. Replacing four 60-watt incandescent bulbs with 11-13 watt (60-watt light equivalent) soft-white CFLs can reduce your electricity consumption by 1,500-1,800 kilowatt hours over the life of the bulbs and eliminate up to 2,500 pounds of atmospheric CO2 emissions you would have normally produced using the incandescents. Not only that, but CFLs last on average, 10 times longer than a normal incandescent bulb. Right now, Energy Federation Incorporated is trying to encourage adoption of CFL bulbs by offering those in the U.S. a 4-pack of 60-watt-equivilent CFLs at the amazingly low-price of $11.99 including shipping. Sure, the costs are a little higher up-front, but, over the life of the bulbs you’ll notice a higher return on investment and you’ll be doing a small deed towards helping the environment survive another year, or two (at least!). For readers in other countries, EFLs are certainly available at your local grocery or hardware store or through Amazon, among many other outlets.

Read more: 4-pack of CFL bulbs for $11.95 w/ free shipping | CFL savings calculator