The weekly reference collection: research gleanings:
Another terrorist bombing today, this one in Casablanca. Is this the world's future?
Lots of links to news on the Riyadh bombing on the Bushwars weblog.

Background on Vinnell, target of Saudi attack.
Nothing like sex stories to bring us back to reality, though. Lots of comments in blogs in last few days about GW Bush's appeal in his tight (in strategic places) flight suit. And, of course, another Kennedy revelation, timed interestingly, some think: Background on the Kennedy Intern: In the Daily News; Also in The News; in Newsday (AP); in the Guardian.
And: The difference between Mimi and Monica by Jill Porter in the Philly Daily News.

The useful links....

Reference

1000 best movies ever made database of reviews from the NY Times.

SR-71: an online military museum; photos and stats on military aircraft.

Discover Middle East: EBrary has fulltext books. Requires reader software download and signup.

Agesource Worldwide: facts on aging from AARP.

Census facts for Louisiana Purchase bicentennial includes population, timeline, etc.

GovernmentViews of SARS good links collection from library at CCNY.

Hockey history from National Archives of Canada.

All about chiles great resource on chile peppers.

Spanish proverbs and their English translations or equivalents over 300 proverbs! From UCLA.

Seafood Lovers' Guide from Audubon, help in choosing sustainable seafood, including wallet cards to print out.

Atlas of the Body from AMA.

Gun law changes: Washington Post gun control page has gun laws by state. State NRA and shooting assn listings (via Morning Meeting).
Tools:

AlltheWeb Converters easy conversions directly from the search engine. If you put convert:1 gal in the search form, you get this.
News:

Indian Country the Native American news service. I'm seeing more and more references to this publication's stories.
Governments/Politics:

Documents From Congress' Joint Inquiry into 9/11 some of the documents Graham (and news outlets, including Knight Ridder) is trying to get released have already been transcribed by The Memory Hole.
Statistics:

National Priorities Project database "offers state data on socio-economic needs and federal expenditures, and allows you to create customized tables, graphs and reports." Find out what your state's getting from the federal government.
Public Records:

Access to electronic records Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press has updated this guide to how/where to get data from local governments.

Free bankruptcy search from American Bankruptcy Institute. Probably not complete but a good first step (then search Nexis or PACER).

Database of dangerous bridges from MSNBC; finds none in Dade, 3 in Monroe, 8 in Broward......(via Derek Willis)

Foreclosure Free Search get lists of foreclosures by state/county. Commercial product requires membership for full info but gets lists of addresses.
People:

State Library of Virginia: has searchable databases for genealogy, etc. (Census, court, military records, lots more; many refer to microfilmed files.)

Latest Social Security Administration list of most popular baby names, 2002.
Florida, Business, Journalism: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Home run to Havana: next on GWB's list? In the Guardian.

Bombay=Mumbai, Calcutta=Kolkata, India changes its history. From BBC.

The War in Context this new Weblog is pulling together opinions on the future of Iraq, etc. Good news links too.

Keepers of the Bush image; fascinating story by Elisabeth Bumiller in the NYT.

Dirty dealings in data report on Choicepoint by Greg Palast. Also: Jim Crow in Cyberspace, chapter on 2000 Florida election from his book, The Best Democracy Money can Buy. (Note we (and Baltimore Sun) ran an oped piece by Palast and Martin Luther King III a couple days ago).

Nelson Mandela's handprint contains an image of Africa from BBC.

New temperature monitoring system can find people with fevers in airports without their knowledge.

Is your personality set in stone from childhood? new APA study says we change personality through life.

Chinese couple names their child Saddam SARS.

More on affirmative action and Jayson Blair from Rochester D&C opinion editor James Lawrence.

Minitel is 20 years old: France's 'mini-internet' started about the same time as Knight Ridder's Viewtron...with better results.

AJC's Ron Martz on hatemail he got on his reporting on the war (not like what people saw on TV).
Fun/Entertaining: none this week