I'm gone:
On vacation for the next week. Back on the 8th. When I get back I will try to deal with the nearly constant unavailability of my Web server at Earthlink (where the photos, toolbox, and Blog list are stored).
Meanwhile, some more links:
On news feeds:

CNN Email alerts sign up to get news.

So all these news services are still offering email news alerts, at a time when spam & worms are making email nearly useless? Steve Outing says It's time to switch to RSS delivery, in his E&P column.

Yahoo's doing it: Yahoo! News RSS feeds.

Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac Nice collection of facts & stats.

Finding experts from Mary Ellen Bates' Tip of the Month. (via Journolist.

How Everyday Things are Manufactured from Stanford's Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing. Has videos on over 40 products.

A little bragging:
The Miami Herald's football preview (covering Florida pro, college, and preps programs) sections out today, with some of the best photos I've ever seen. Athletes with animals. Here's Junior Seau in the Dolphins section:
and accompanying text:
" Put on your No. 55 jersey and jump into the fishy Seaquarium water? No problem.
Frolic with a couple of dolphins unimpressed by your fame? No problem.
Put a stinky bait fish in your mouth? No problem.
Drop said bait fish accidentally and retrieve another from the bait bucket? No problem.
Junior Seau will not be nearly this cooperative with running backs."

The Bucs' Warren Sapp had a little problem being photographed with a lion, according to this St. Petersburg Times story.

I've added some links to Herald blog today...

More journalist blogs:
I've linked to Tom Mangan's website in the past, but today found something new by him: Prints the Chaff, a blog for newspaper editors.
And: LA Observed: blog full of links from former LA Times reporter Kevin Roderick; lots of LA and CA news but also good journalism links.

Posted on the Herald blog today: More Iraq links, some followup links.

One of those stories that just makes you smile:
Man builds his own town, in the Asheville Citizen Times.

Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
Rather disturbing news this afternoon: former priest John Goeghan killed in prison. This sad story just keeps getting worse.

Two interesting sites for more background on last week's blackout:

Geographic Outage Animation: this map from Renesys shows animated blackout route (there was one in Florida that day too). (via Sheila Lennon)

System Disturbance Reports, 1996-2001 from NERC (North American Electrical Reliabilty Council.

More on another of this year's big stories:

Columbia shuttle accident report is due in a few days: Nature magazine special report.

And: some things covered on The Herald blog this week: South Florida team in the Little League World Series (playing for the U.S. Championship tonight); indictment of Cuban MiG pilots and Air Force chief in shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996; and more.
The useful links....

Reference

Distance tables between U.S. Ports from NOAA.

Collect Britain online exhibitions from The British Museum.
News:

MediaPost's AllMedia Directory covers newspapers, broadcast, networks, agencies, Internet, and a media 'people finder' database; free registration. Suggested by Gary Price.
Tools:

Alta Vista Toolbar

Poynter's Al Tompkins posted a downloadable file that will install a rule on Outlook or Outlook Express that will move any Sobig worm emails out of your inbox.
Journalism:

Media Casualties story, links, reaction to shooting of cameraman by U.S. troops in Iraq.
Public Records:

Wisconsin Criminal History records check

Pennsylvania criminal history (PATCH) system

Washington Criminal History database $10 with credit card.
Governments, Politics:

Center for Responsive Politics' Capital Eye has a report on top Bush fundraisers.

The Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly, in the UK.
Statistics:

Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001 from BJS.
Florida:

Biscayne Bay Digital Library from Rosensteil School.
Business, People, : No links this week.
Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

California Insider new blog by Sac Bee political columnist.

Breaking Views blog at Chicago Tribune by Eric Zorn.

New York City blackout photos

RSS hits critical mass good explanation of RSS/XML syndication from Dan Gillmor of San Jose Merc.

Hatless.com a blog from Broward Co., Florida by Steve Koppelman.
Fun/Entertaining:

Learning to love Powerpoint: using it to create art.

Moon the White House: these folks want you to help finance a trip so they can do this....

Friday post:
Good New York Times story on Improving your Net searching (registration required, of course). Quotes our friend Gary Price, among others.

I posted some thoughts about blogging and grief (reacting to Doc Searls' postings on his mother's death) to the Herald blog.

This is just too ironic: Southern politics blog The Wyeth Wire has a photo of SD Rep. and former Gov. Bill Janklow being inducted into motorcycle hall of fame in Sturgis.

The Horror!:
The National Enquirer archives are about to be shredded, according to this article in the NY Times (registration required), along with archives from the other tabloids produced by American Media. Another of the unimagined consequences of terror, the destruction of these fascinating files is just part of the recovery from anthrax contamination which shut the American Media building in Boca Raton, FL, nearly two years ago. American Media librarian Kathleen Cottay extensively quoted here.

Later:
It's interesting going back to read the article I wrote for News Library News in July. I'd just given a talk at the SLA convention in New York on the topic, had gotten positive response from some news librarians and researchers. But many are still skeptical on the topic, which is partly why my lede read as it did. ("I'm a blogger. I almost hate to admit it, since the word 'blogger' seems to dredge up all sorts of uncomfortable images." Not sure I would write it that way again, although some days I do get really tired of the word...

Another thing I've become aware of since I wrote the article is that Radio Userland has categorization of posts built in to the software, and many of the Radio blogs I read do have category lists.

Also, since I wrote it, I have started a 'blog' on my newspaper's site. So add me to the list of official researcher blogs (that makes Leigh Montgomery and me, far as I can tell).
At any rate, a small step. And still a pretty new idea for news researchers.

Go, Boynton!:
South Florida has its first team in the Little League World Series, and they're playing in the semifinals tonight: Links on The Herald blog.

Anti-abortion threats:
Great story in The Herald this morning about bullets mailed to state officials, and a Web site threatening violence if abortion doctor killer Paul Hill is executed: Threats, bullets sent to protest pending execution, by Lesley Clark. The newsletter promoted on the site says Hill is "a hero, an authentic Christian martyr, whose death proves the government of the United States of America has been enslaved by the forces of Satan".

Blog troubles at The Herald: my bad:
Added at 2 pm: I set the publication date wrong when I added a new post to the Herald blog this morning. Instead of 9 am, I set it to appear at 9 pm. (Because I'm doing the entire blog manually with no blogging tools, things like this are bound to happen.) So the post below is no longer relevant, but the URL is still good for the current blog, so far:
Somehow the Herald blog has gone haywire and I can't call up the file to edit it. Worse, it's not showing up on the columnist page which I recommended bookmarking as the best URL for finding the blog. Oh well. If you're looking, the current blog URL is working: www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/liz_donovan/5471055.htm.

Blogging, RSS, and all that stuff:

The Chicago Tribune now has a blog, Breaking Views blog by Eric Zorn.

RSS hits critical mass good explanation of RSS/XML syndication from Dan Gillmor of San Jose Mercury News (Siliconvalley.com).

Blogging for research: my blogging article in News Library News is now online.

Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
A busy week this week, lots of links, probably the longest list I've posted in awhile...

First, more on the Blackout:

Cities in Darkness a collection of blackout photos from various news websites.

WashPost's Filter column says the Internet kept working right through the blackout. (Note Filter links to news stories in other papers).

You've Got Journals new AOL blog by journalist John Scalzi. Lots of blackout links here on Friday.

Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House by Greg Palast. Blames George HW Bush, Enron, George Pataki, and George W.

Eastern Power Outage Unfortunate but Entirely Predictable study released Friday from Rocky Mountain Institute.

Talking Points: your blackout experience BBC collects reports from people.

Cooking in a blackout: the Julie/Julia Project blogger tries to do French cuisine without power.

And, the Blaster attacks Microsoft today. If you've got it and are having trouble removing it, some help:

Very good instructions for removing the Blaster Worm from your computer from the Guardian.

Get Net Wise site has advice for keeping Web safe for kids, dealing with spam, avoiding worms and viruses, and privacy.

How to remove MSBlaster from Detroit Free Press's Mike Wendland. Good, simple instructions.

And, nostalgia (Thanks to Sheila for pointing this out):

Poor People's March for Economic and Human Rights: marching from Mississippi to Washington DC. I remember the first one, in 1968 (they built 'Resurrection City' where the Vietnam Memorial is now).

The useful links....

Reference

Civil War Portal recommended directory of war sites and information.

RAND-MIPT Terrorism Databases from Rand Inst. and National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. Two databases here: Terrorism incidents, and Terrorism chronology.

CDC Yellowbook Handbook for International Travelers.

Drug Image Database from Drugs.com. See what a particular drug is supposed to look like.

Historical hurricane tracks from NOAA.This and some other trackers are already listed on the Hurricane page; I still prefer this animated one from Universty of Illinois.

National Environmental Directory lists over 13,000 environmental organizations.

Love Canal@25 what's happening 25 years after discovery of this environmental disaster.

Bring Them Home Now: organization of military families, etc.
News:

Extra! Extra! RSS Feed the IRE site listing new investigative stories every day now has this XML feed so you can set it up to appear in your news aggregator daily. No aggregator? You can still go to the IRE website and read it there.
Tools:

Lockergnome's RSS Resource.
Journalism:

Society for Young Journalists: just started, only a link to subscribe to listserve on this Website so far. More info in this story by Jonathan Dube of Cyberjournalist.

InteractiveNarratives.org new site highlights great online news presentations.

OS CAR (Open Source Computer Assisted Reporting) has news and links on software for journalists, like SQL, Open Office, and PERL. (Thanks to Derek).

Newspapers lose Web war report from Harvard Business School. From the report:
Some of the more successful newspaper responses include companies like The New York Times, Knight Ridder, and The Washington Post.
Public Records:

New Mexico DWI history search just need name or SSN to search.

Pennsylvania physician profiles; Virginia Board of Health Practitioners database.

Real Estate credit searches in Mass, Conn. gets bankruptcy, lien, foreclosure info. Free search, charge for full records (about $5).
Governments, Politics:

Renewal in Iraq: 100 days of progress from the White House.

Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Includes a link to U.S. Government Iraq Reconstruction Contracts from State department.

US Government Graphics and Photos: directory page on FirstGov.gov.

White House for Sale Public Citizen site on Bush fundraising.

LA Times Recall coverage and links. (will probably require registration).

Election Law blog from a Loyola law prof.
Statistics:

Digest of Education Statistics, 2002 latest release from Dept of Education.

Global Youth Tobacco Survey

World Factbook, 2003 latest version now online.

Changes to Census Bureau's American Factfinder: will make it a little easier to use, starting Sept 6
Florida:

Florida unclaimed property search .

Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions

Business, People, : No links this week.
Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Real Live Preacher blog from a Baptist minister in Texas. Beautiful and thoughtful. Found on Christopher Lydon Interviews of prominent bloggers. Check out the Aggregator page here too: a quick easy way to get news from important blogs as it's updated.

Tumour Diary: Last entry BBC science writer Ivan Noble has been keeping an online diary since a brain tumor diagnosis a year ago. Today he decides to face life and end the journal.

Frauds, Scams and Misinformation on the Web by Mary Ellen Bates in Searchenginewatch.

Political Wire a national politics news blog.

FC Weblog from Fast Company, fast news on business.

Cuba, Alabama: this Weblog 'explores the connections between Cuba and Alabama', including the story of Alabama reserves who were at Bay of Pigs.

Celeb Buzznet photos of celebs moblogged from cell phones.

Baghdad's media explosion BBC story says newspapers and other sources are popping up everywhere.

New use for Weblogs: 20 Questions. Click on 'Comments' to see the questions and answers. Fun from Dave Winer, but this underscores how useful the 'comments' function of a blog could be.
Fun/Entertaining:

Forgotten NY a tribute to what's left of the old NYC (with some modern NY links).

Dilbert Games: several of them, including Catbert Salary Calculator: let the Evil Human Resources Director estimate what you're likely to get.

Someone in Pasco County is Selling their floodwater on EBay.

And, speaking of EBay: George W. Bush National Guard action figure.

Whale Flatulence captured on film.

The Ibiza Experience: P Diddy and Rony Seikaly and Elle Macpherson are there: why aren't you? At least experience some of the fun via this blog......

Emergency blogging:
The Northeast Blackout had a terrible effect on all the Websites of Advance Publications' newspapers: they can't update. The solution: Blog it!. This link goes to www.cleveland.com, normally the Plain Dealer's Website. Another version is at www.nj.com. By the time you see this it's possible the real sites will have returned. But meanwhile, Blackout Blog is a way for all the papers (even including papers outside the blackout area are affected, like OregonLive) to get blackout news to readers. There are also links to separate blogs for each paper where they're posting local news (mostly sports in Syracuse when I looked earlier but they've added more now). Advance Internet's Jeff Jarvis explains on his Buzz Machine blog.

Jarvis also points out journalist John Scalzi's new AOL blog, which is full of blackout links today.

Fair and Balanced, Part 2?
South Knox Bubba has the "Fox Website" down....

"Fair and Balanced?"
Fox News: the left hates Bush the way the right hates Clinton.

Some fun links on today's Herald blog.

Help with blackout news:
IRE has just released its Resources for Covering the Blackout. This includes NICAR tipsheets, databases, and government and industry energy links. Thanks, Carolyn and Jeff.
The Poynter Institute is putting links on its main page.
In a new way of seeing disasters as they happen, here are some folks moblogging the blackout with photos from mobile phones.

Good news from bad weather:
The Herald's Fred Tasker reports that early harvests of grapes in France caused by the heat wave should result in one of the best vintages in memory.

"Fair and Balanced".

Some fun things today:

The Language of Heat the BBC compiles ways to say it's hot in lots of languages.

Participatory Journalism: I like the photos on David Gallagher's Lightningfield photo blog today, and also like the feature he set up to get people's opinions of photo phones, using quicktopic.com.

North Florida town of Waldo is still a speed trap(!) This has been going on for years. This story from Gainesville Sun. (via Florida Blog)

Jules Witcover on Bob Donovan: tribute to a first class old-style journalist (LA Times Washington bureau head for many years...no relation).

Nice commentary on Tim Porter's First Draft journalism blog about how copy editors deal with long names: Schwartzenegger becomes 'Actor' or worse, 'Arnold'. Porter also gives us The Copy Editor's Lament.

Free archives question comes up again:
To the horror of news librarians, bloggers are continually wondering why they can't link to news articles permanently. Jenny at The Shifted Librarian has some amusing -- and intriguing -- thoughts on the topic today.

Weather or not:
It's strange weather time in South Florida. Fantastic photos of this morning's waterspouts in Herald.com today.

Voter rolls, part 2:
Erika Bolstad follows up with a story on statewide Florida voter rolls: counties average 75 percent voter registration, meaning they're carrying lots of 'deadwood'.
Investigative stories to your news reader:
Extra! Extra!, the IRE site listing new investigative stories every day now has an XML/ RSS Feedso you can set it up to appear in your news aggregator daily. No aggregator? You can still go to the IRE website and read it there.
More:
Bob Graham blog, terrorism database and new fun with GPS on Herald blog today.

Sunday paper:
The Miami Herald had some wonderful stories today, including one by Jennifer Babson on owning an island in the Keys, Ellie Brecher on medical help for Haiti and on travelers' identity problems, Jay Weaver on Cuban art forgeries, and more. But most impressive: Beth Reinhard and a team in The Herald's Broward bureau started a two-part series on problems of huge voter rolls in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with thousands of people who never vote. Fascinating followup to the 2000 election disaster, using voter roll databases and other databases to find people to tell them why they haven't voted.

Library directory:
Poynter's David Shedden points out the Libraries with journalism resources directory he maintains on the Poynter Website. Very nice, and pleased that David has added my Herald blog to the list. This blog is listed on his Journalism links page.

Blog rhythms:
I was intrigued this week to see several people linking to Salam Pax's photoblog, as if it were a new thing. It was mentioned on Boing Boing and went on from there. But the photos posted there are from mid-July, and I saw several postings linking to it when it started in early June or so. Interesting that these recent posters didn't notice it earlier. Goes to show yet again, what seems new may not always be....

Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
For those interested in blogging, lots of news this week, including several interesting new blogs and address changes, below. The big news was that Typepad, the new blogging/blog hosting software from the makers of Moveable Type, went online for sale this week. If you're thinking about blogging, this might be the way to go. Costs $4.95-$14.95 a month, including photo albums. (for an example, Mike Wendland has moved his blog to Typepad, and it looks great: ej.typepad.com. Here's another recommended blogging service: PMachine (mentioned by Steve Outing in e-media tidbits).

Also, here's Waypath a new search engine for Weblogs. I may have already linked to this, there are so many now; several others listed on bloglist section of the Behind the News page.

If you've tried to access things on that page, you've noticed it's really unreliable lately. Even the photos on this page sometimes don't display because the Web space they're stored on is unreliable. This has been occurring ever since my Web provider, Earthlink, changed the URL from infi.net to infionline.net. It's too bad, the site was pretty reliable for 2 1/2 years but I can't depend on it any more. Guess it's gonna be time to start paying for server space somewhere. So many choices!

The useful links....

Reference

Canadian National Climate Data and Information Archives has weather data by station going back to 1840s.
News:

Google News Alerts

ZaSOS.com is a blog monitoring Kobe Bryant case news. For more links: Yahoo Full Coverage: Kobe Bryant.

Kobe Bryant searches make the Lycos50 top searches: analysis. (They won't publish the accuser's name either.) (Note: Kobe is 4th of alltime most searches, after 9/11, Iraq War, and Election 2000.) (via NDN blog.

Colorado State Courts: Media info on Kobe Bryant case

Iraq Body Count claims over 20,000 civilian injuries.
Tools:

Fagan Finder Translation Wizard has more languages than any other translator site I've seen. This from Michael Fagan, young Web search genius.

Questions for Candidates, From Robert Niles.

Ministry Watch religious groups' finances...
Journalism:

BBC Style Guide.

100 Worst "Groaners": I've linked to a similar list before, but this one from Newswriting.com is worth a look. One of my favorite Herald reporters, now retired Arnie Markowitz, would love this...it lists 'officials said', one of his pet peeves (along with 'residents said').

We Media report from NDN (New Directions for News) on participatory journalism. Related story in Online Journalism Review by JD Lasica.

Interview with Snopes.com creators in OJR.
Public Records:

New York Administrative Decisions nice searchable database (via BeSpacific).
Governments, Politics:

International Documents: Government Websites nice directory from NWU.
Statistics:

Facts for Back to School from Census.

International Insurance Statistics: latest update from Insurance Institute.

2002 Census of Russia
Florida:

Washington Post story on Florida's 'Matrix' antiterrorism database. MATRIX Website. I've seen some commentary on this about the Hank Asher connection, mentioned last week. Yes, Choicepoint was the company that provided the erroneous felon list to the Florida Elections Department that resulted in people being removed from the voter rolls. Although Choicepoint bought the company (DBT Online) that Hank Asher founded, it's a tenuous connection, since they also bought another Florida public records provider and already owned several others across the country.
Business, People, : No links this week.
Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Babalu Blog: from Miami.

Regions of Mind the weblog by Omaha editorial writer has moved to a new address.

Darryl Cagle's Cartoon Weblog: fascinating stuff here.

Test Pattern: new Weblog on MsNBC by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper.
Fun/Entertaining:

College nicknames: How many 'Hurricanes' are there? Just three.....

Wood that Works: amazing kinetic sculptures from a Connecticut craftsman.

Amazing photos: Blogger/former MTV host/helicopter pilot Adam Curry took pictures of the Norwegian cargo ship loaded with luxury cars that sank in the English Channel a few months back: they're sawing the the ship into pieces and have raised a section...Take a look at these pictures. Infographic on the salvage Website.

Iraq Faces and Surfaces photos of people and places in Iraq: photos from a photographer who visited Iraq in 2002 and 2003. "With these pictures I want you to get a sense of the simple fact that Iraq is not only Saddam Hussein, weapons and wars. Iraq is 24 million fellow human beings. It has been a civilisation for some 7,000 years." (via Dublog.)

Aerial photography of Miami and the Florida Keys by photographer Joseph Melanson, who also has aerials of New England, other places.

A quiet day:
But a couple address changes to report:
Sheila Lennon's blog is now at this: www.projo.com/blogs/shenews/.
Mike Wendland has moved his blog to Typepad, and it looks great: ej.typepad.com".
Both of these redirect automatically.

Washington Post's Terry Neal says Florida is no longer the most ludicrous state in the nation.

For laughs: GWBush04.com, includes Dubya's Blog.

Good stuff:

Iraq Body Count claims over 20,000 civilian injuries. This new report is based on media coverage; says the interim government is not paying attention.

Colorado State Courts: Media info on Kobe Bryant case.

We Media report from NDN (New Directions for News) on participatory journalism. Edited by JD Lasica with introduction by Dan Gillmore; Lasica also has a Related story in Online Journalism Review. Also see JD's blog, where he displays the OJR story (and its sidebars) differently.

Also in JD's blog later today: Discussion of GoogleAlerts and Google News Alerts with input from Gary Price. Apparently GoogleAlerts has fooled a lot of people into thinking it's a Google service. Not so. Never was.

New today:

The Pied Piper of Blogging interview with Ken Sands of Spokane on the Spokesman-Review's popular blogs.

Google News Alerts enter a search and an email address and you'll get emails everytime your search shows up in a news report. This is different from GoogleAlerts mentioned last week, which is not a Google product and searches the whole database, not just news.

Waypath a new search engine for Weblogs.

In the news again...
Interesting to users of the public records databases Autotrack (when it was DBT) and Accurint, Hank Asher's past comes to light again. The computer genius behind these two search engines was connected to drug smuggling years ago and recently got a new anti-terrorism contract from Florida's FDLE. This story in St. Pete Times, with researcher contributions.

And, a couple good resources...

Robert Niles has a great list of Questions for Candidates, local and otherwise, on his Website. This is a great checklist for political coverage....

Ministry Watch this site evaluates religious groups, keeps eye on donations/finances... (both via Journalists Toolbox.)

More fun with style:
The BBC Style Guide is online, in PDF. I love to collect links to style guides, the differences in things they discuss are fascinating. This one has some wonderful discussions, including one on Americanisms. The blog I found this link on (can't remember where, now) was using this to add to the anti-BBC fog that's going around these days. Oh well. The style guide is part of a greater collection of free Online Courses for radio and visual journalists. How can you knock that?

This week's photos:
Here's the clouds over Miami Beach I mentioned on Tuesday (you could have seen it on the Heraldcam if you looked that evening)....



More photos (downtown Miami, Key Largo).

Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
This week everyone must have been on vacation. Not many new links, and not much that'll remain a permanently useful reference source. Of course this Saturday update gets shorter as I've been adding more daily to this blog. And to the Herald blog, which gets a few of the things I might have posted here previously.

The useful links....

Reference

Moving Here tells the story of 200 years of immigration to Britain through records, photos, etc. from the national archive, in a huge searchable database. BBC story.

American Women a guide to women's studies from Library of Congress.

American Rhetoric: a database of greatest American speeches, including video and audio archive. Most popular movie speech: Mel Gibson as William Wallace's speech on Freedom, in Braveheart.

Physician's Guide to Assessing Older Drivers from the AMA.
News:

Ascribe Alerts sign up to get news of academic studies as soon as they're released.

Utah Digital Newspapers project: search several historical Utah papers online.

The top 100 newspaper archives a useful archive on best search services for consumers, in Searcher magazine. (NewsLibrary gets high marks.)
Tools:

Spamotomy.com: tools, fascinating news and information on junk mail.
Journalism:

Blogs have a place on news Web sites by Steve Outing, in E&P.
Public Records:

New criminal records: Kansas Dept of Corrections KASPAR search (inmates); Kansas postrelease/supervision searches released inmates, probation.
Governments, Politics, Florida, Business, People, Statistics: No links this week.
Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Bill Maher starts a blog.

Here's a fascinating investigative series: Badge of Dishonor, about cops' abuse of women/wives/girlfriends, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

A Heavy Toll: how overfishing has changed the world's oceans; New York Times series.