The Weekly Update, Iraq and more:
This week lots of stuff on occupation/rebuilding, more on treasures of Mesopotamia...

The Law of Belligerent Occupation: Analysis from Crimes of War Project.

Postwar reconstructions: the Guardian resurrects stories from their archive on German, Japanese rebuilding. Also here: original Achille Lauro stories, Basra in 1991, more.

Rebuilding Iraq: the contractors special report from OpenSecrets.org, lists contracts and political contributions.

More basic reference guides:

Library of Congress Portals to the World: Iraq

Virtual Library: Iraq great resource links.

Iraq National Museum, Baghdad click on "Stock" or "Erdgeshoss" and then click on rooms with red text to see images of things in the galleries......

University of Chicago: Archaeology and War in Iraq has links to stories on the looting.

Mesopotamia: history, culture, etc. from British Museum.

Gateways to Babylon: more on Iraq history, museums, looting.

BBC story on reopening of the Baghdad history museum in 2001; CNN story.

The Iraqi history museum: before the destruction, guide to the treaures from a Baghdad tourist agency.

And more...

Iraq and the Media links to articles from FAIR.

Syria's military capability analyis from Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Why we didn't remove Saddam by George H.P. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, in Time, 1998.

The 10 plagues of Iraq interesting analogy at Passover....

An account of Marines' incredible gestures from an 'embedded' reporter for Arab News. "I can honestly say that seven weeks as an embed has changed me forever. And I have often found many similarities between Marines and Arabs."

Most Wanted: Iraq the Defense Dept. playing cards.


And more useful links....

Reference

Pacific ethnology database beautiful objects from Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

Holiday Resources good links (Passover and Easter, included) from Librarians' Index to the Internet.

Military women veterans: this page has lots of resources on women in combat, etc.

Weather.gov: National Weather Service has clickable map to go straight to local weather forecasts, warnings; lots more.

Aneki.com World Rankings: what country has the most beautiful women? The most Muslims? highest defense spending?

...and of course, for more lists there's Gary Price's List of Lists.

GLBTQ Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transexual & Queer culture....

Online Sibley Guide to Birds can search, locate bird names, drawings. Subscription required for full access.

Search USDA Nutrient Database; or download Nutrient lists (in PDF) by type of nutrient; or Download the entire nutrient database. More food composition links.

Commencement Speakers: who's speaking where?

S.S. United States Foundation. Available here: link to NCL purchase info, history, celebrity sailing photos, passengers' stories, and ship store.
Journalism

APME update this newsletter for managing editors has a nice mention of this blog. (Thanks to Laura Soto for finding this and mentioning on the NewsLib list.)
Statistics:

Fastest growing counties in the US from Census.

Survey of state procedures related to firearms sales, 2002 latest report from Justice dept.
Tools:

Inflation calculator from BLS. Has dollar value from 1913-present.
Business:

Global Edge from Michigan State U, site with news/resources for international business...Recommended by Gary Price on FreePint.

2003 Baseball team evaluations from Forbes. (Marlins rank 29, Expos 30).
News:

Net News Tracker use this to monitor mentions of a company, etc. in Usenet news groups.

Entire Christian Science Monitor archive from 1908 has been digitized, along with New York Times and Wall St. Journal.
Governments/Politics:

Military budget request, fy2004 from Center for Defense Information, breaks down Bush's budget.

Canada Cabinet conclusions search database of Cabinet decisionmaking from 1944-1972. From the National Archives of Canada.

What you missed Capital Eye reports on what's been going on in Washington while we've been watching the war.

Georgia Reporter newsletter on Ga. politics. Lots on the flag controversy.

Presidential Candidate Fundraising: Opensecrets.org has compiled Contributions by state of Democratic candidates. Highest contributions to Bob Graham? Coral Gables (ZIP 33134). Also: FECInfo (Political Moneyline) and Dwight Morris have posted raw FEC filings from the candidates.
Public Records:

New public records in Nexis: voter registrations in Alabama, Montana, Nevada, South Carolina; Motor Vehicle registrations in North Dakota.
People:

CNN's advance obits exposed temporarily on a public server, grabbed by FARK and The Smoking Gun....
Florida: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam research published in Nature finds levels are higher than reported.

London Bridge Tower a 1016-ft. tower in Southwark?

Amitai Etzioni's blog.
Fun/Entertaining:

Tour of Dave Barry's office on Dave's Website.

IraqiInformationMinistry.com