Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:

This week I posted some useful links to the Herald blog, including links on flu and aviation history. Also several fun links, many holiday-related.


The useful links....

Reference :

Equinox and Solstice: site on celebrations of these annual events.

Brown@50 Howard University site celebrates 50th anniversary (2004) of Brown v. Board of Education.

All About Snow.

An Atlas of the Universe.

Holiday Trends from Journalists Toolbox, has lots of links for retail/shopping stats and lots of other stuff (holiday movies, etc.)

Food and Nutrition national country profiles from UN's FAO, includes info on Latin American countries.
Public Records:

Southern District of New York: Finally online! Now available thru PACER. (via Genie Tyburski.)
Florida:

Expertnet: Florida's researchers, finds experts in Florida state universities.

Quick Link to Florida County Websites
Statistics:

Facts about Christmas fun statistics from U.S. Census.
Tools:

WHOIS.sc, a really easy-to-use new WHOIS search, now gives you an image of the Web site of a domain, as well as good description.

Google number searches New! You can search by number for things like tracking numbers, airplane registrations and patents.
Governments, Politics:

Court Tech Forum: site from Florida's 9th Circuit focuses on technology and the courts.

Web Watch from Governing.com, this site finds interesting government Web sites. Latest: a teacher monitoring database from Vermont.

More Election 2004 links from Gary Price

Color of Money: another project on campaign finance, from the Fannie Lou Hamer Project. Find contributions from metro areas, ZIP codes, racial/ethnic groups.

Good summary of Supreme Court decision on campaign finance law from FECWatch (Center for Responsive Politics).

Campaign Finance Institute's EGuides

Fullcoverage of campaign finance from Yahoo.

United States Counties: from NACO, National Assn of Counties, click on a map to get information on a county, including demographics and lists of officials, and a link to the Web site. More useful searches from NACO (includes finding county by city, finding coastal counties, population range searches, etc.).
Business:

SBA Pro-Net database: search for small businesses by location, type, ownership, etc. I checked 'services' in local area code and got 5 businesses with lots of info including owners names.
People:

Western States' historical marriage database: search historical records from several states (mostly pre-1900).
News, Journalism: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Your Right to Know: an FOI Weblog from Society of Environmental Journalists. (via Cyberjournalist.)

Powerful animation on Dennis Kucinich Website.

Did the 'blaster' worm cause the August blackout? from CNet.

A new IE flaw: Allows creation of a Web site with a supposedly valid URL in the address field. See how it works.

James Nachtwey: The photojournalist injured in Iraq. Amazing photos.

The Saudi Connection: huge investigative report by US News and World Report on how Saudi money financed terrorism.
Fun/Entertaining:

Talking Heads news and pictures for cable news anchor fans.

The Museum of London: includes a large photo gallery.

The Non-Verbal Dictionary: definitions of body language.

Have you heard about the "GoogleBombing" of G.W. Bush? Snopes explains how it works.

Key Ingredients: traveling Smithsonian exhibition on how America Eats, has a history of American cooking, a cookbook (with stories about the food), and "Eating from Coast to Coast", recommending restaurants, festivals and markets.