Later...
Weblog for military families at the Kansas City Star.
Great map of Basra from Daily Telegraph.
Deja Vu: Vietnam: Subject - Vietnam II Preflight Check ...this brings back some BAD memories....

A new news week:
And new developments: Rumsfeld v. the Pentagon by Seymour Hersh, in New Yorker.
Peter Arnett fired, Arnett's Baghdad Diary on MSNBC.
Most wanted man in America? on Adnan Gulshair El'Shukri-jumah in the Miami Herald.
US officals' quotes about how easy the war would be.... (before and after war started) from Reuters Alertnet.

The Weekly Update: Nothing but War (nearly)
Mostly useful links added this week:

Iraq: Toward Liberation from US State Dept. Has Briefing transcripts from State, Whitehouse, Defense, Centcom...

Military domains search engine.

Why Another War? Backgrounder on the Iraqi crisis good background, PDF pamphlet. From Middle East Research and Information Project.

Builder of Saddam's bunker says it can't be destroyed built by a German company...from PressText Europe.

Background on RFA Sir Galahad British humanitarian supply ship (replaced a ship lost in Falklands).

Military Operations on Urban Terrain from Army Center for Lessons Learned.

U.S. Military Units factsheets, lists, links to Websites, etc. from Globemaster, a German site.

Terms describing American military units from Gulf War Briefing. Both of these suggested by Al's Morning Meeting.

Also on Al's page: Information about how to send acceptable packages to soldiers overseas.

Why were're losing helicopters, not planes from the Daily Standard.

The War on the Web, from Slate: Part 1 (March 19); Part 2 (today).

Media Map of Iraq: where the journalists are from Poynter.

World and America watching different wars in Christian Science Monitor.

Shaking Hands with Saddam report/documents on US relations with Iraq in 1980s, from National Security Archive.

Oil-for-Food UN page on the Iraq program.

UK Online: Gov't site has situation reports, humanitarian info...

War jargon from the Guardian.

Eye on Iraq: from Center for Defense Information. Includes Daily updates.

ReliefWeb: Iraq documents including UN Humanitarian reports, etc.

Human Rights Watch Report, 1991: Needless deaths in the Gulf War.

Natick Soldier Center has a lot of info on urban warfare.

Defense briefing transcripts.

Strategy Page is keeping up on locations of military units, including maps....

DigitalGlobe Iraq Gallery high-resolution satellite images available for download (if credited).

MEDLINE special report: chemical weapons.

The Geneva Conventions.

And more useful links....

Reference

Coverage of SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) from Medscape.
Journalism

Times Watch new Website critical of New York Times.

Pushing Numbers article in Quill on Computer Assisted Reporting by Lou Rom.
Florida:

Florida Wetlands from UF.
Statistics, Public Records, Tools,Business, Governments/Politics, News, People: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Gary Hart: Weblog

The Daily Czech best blog address this month (czechout.blogspot.com), from a Czech journalist.
Fun/Entertaining:

Mark Fiore has done amazing animated cartoons on the coming war. It continues. Latest: "Congratulations".

Make a drawing and save it as a PDF: amazing!

The Chairman Smiles: Posters from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and China.

Iraqi Idol: silliness.

Face of the pro-war movement? in Oliver Willis' Weblog.

And a few more:

Military City: Order of Battle daily updated map of troop movements from Army/Navy/etc. Times publications.

The Ethics of War from BBC.

National Guard/Reserves mobilizations latest update, 3/26.

Centcom home page has briefing texts, press releases....

The Bombing of Baghdad story from Jon Lee Anderson in New Yorker.

Also in New Yorker: Seymour Hersh's story on the forged document on Iraq nuclear program

In the Guardian: Reported claims so far in the war ...some debunked.

1940's war posters remixed:

...at Sidney Morning Herald.

A busy day:
Full of war links/articles:

Saddam's War from Newsweek. Among the strategies listed here: Saddam has bought thousands of US military uniforms for his forces.

War could last months, officers say in Washington Post.

Practice to Deceive: Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan. new article in Washington Monthly.

"Dear Raed" Transcripts: Salam's Diary all the last month's posts together in one page from The Guardian.

Cheney on quick liberation, March 16 from Daily Kos. (When I saw this interview, I wondered what kind of wacky weed Cheney'd been smoking.....)

First Woman soldier casualty from Daily Kos

The threat to world heritage in Iraq list of threatened archaelogical sites. Background here; and BBC story.

Sacred sites of Iraq from Beliefnet.

What can you do to support the troops? compiled at Winds of Change.

Iraq TV Update technology writer Paul Boutin is keeping track of how to access Iraq TV. Is it up, or not? Instructions here (if it's working).

The Paper Chase Jurist's Weblog is covering legal aspects of war.
And: The Onion on Iraq War.

Military movements:
LT Smash has moved to get more bandwidth. Read his dispatches at www.lt-smash.us (the old address was .com). Noted here:
Thomas Mullen Adams 1975-2003
Adams, a Lieutenant in the US Navy, was killed early Sunday morning when two British Sea King helicopters collided shortly after takeoff from a ship in the Persian Gulf.
A descendant of two presidents and a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Adams was a Naval Flight Officer participating in an exchange program with the Royal Navy. He was 27 years old.

Guardian cartoon by Steve Bell:

More Steve Bell cartoons.

A blogger goes to war...
Chris Albritton, who started his Back to Iraq blog to raise money to go to the Mideast to cover the war, has made the $10,000 he needed and is on his way. He expects to continue the blog by posting via listserv email. Let's see how this goes: the first Weblog war correspondent?
In one of the latest posts he links to this Paul Krugman column in the NY Times about Clear Channel and pro-war rallies. Clear Channel, of course, is run by big Bush supporters.
More on Chris' trip in Warblogging.com.
(Note I haven't linked to Warblogging before but find some interesting things there, including the Index of Evil and this entry on torture....)

Good Guardian article on torture and international law.

Did you know....
This, about Basrah?
Basra takes its name from the great military camp, which was founded by the second Caliph Omar Bin al-Khatab in 637 AD near the present town of Zubair, to control lower Iraq and its sea approaches. From this military camp grew the first famous city of Basra, where philosophers, poets, historians and theologians founded important schools which profoundly influenced all Islamic thought and Arab literature.
It was called Basorah in the collection of Oriental folk tales known as the Arabian Nights. It is associated with the name of Sinbad the sailor (from "The Thousand and Nights"), for it was from here that he set out to his seven fabulous voyages. An Island close to the river bank bears his name.
...from GlobalSecurity.org.

Do it yourself war coverage: Boston Globe's Alex Beam on finding news you need on the Web. (Here's my list. And this one.)

War coverage:
Knight Ridder's Joe Galloway has a fascinating look at the war situation so far and the contrast between Rumsfeld's hopes and combat reality. As a Vietnam-era survivor, I consider Galloway's (and Hal Moore's) We Were Soldiers Once....and Young to be one of the three or four best books about that war. The sidebars on this bio page link to Joe's biography, information about the book, movie and the battle of Ia Drang, and previous columns.

It doesn't stop....
More war links:

An English version of Al Jazeera's Website is now up. They say it's a "temporary site".

The Philosopher of Islamic Terror Did you ever hear of Sayyid Qutb? Is he behind it all? In NYT magazine.

U.S./Coalition Casualites names, ranks, hometowns, details, from CNN.

What about Guantánamo? in Deborah Branscum's blog.

Jupiter Research: Iraq War Weblog discusses effect of war on business.

Halliburton makes a killing on Gulf War from Corpwatch.

Profile of Uday Hussein from Sports Illustrated (he heads Iraq's Olympics committee).

On Fratricide from Army Center for Lessons Learned.

Shock and Awe the original book from National Defense University, 1996.

War news Web pages Poynter started collecting front pages last week after start of war.

French's mustard is not French it's a sad day in America when a press release like this has to go out....

...and more....

Something strange is going on with my Website host at Earthlink. That's why the image/ logos at top keep popping in and out. Also, the links in middle left column (including Iraq links) are there. If you can't get to them, try later. It's intermittent.

Things change by the moment:
Radio Netherlands has moved its Iraq media coverage to a new Radio Weblog, at radio.weblogs.com/0121781/.

Sean Paul Kelley at The Agonist Weblog is giving the TV networks a run for their money as he monitors news with a couple dozen browsers open. An incredible job.

In another mass blogging enterprise, The Command Post has several correspondents posting links to news/analysis. And another, similar enterprise at Winds of Change, which also includes a posting called "Essential War Briefing" with links to timeline and military and weapons analyses.

Salam Pax is back online after a couple days of no Internet access in Baghdad.
"Today’s (and last night’s) shock attacks didn’t come from airplanes but rather from the airwaves. The images Al-jazeera is broadcasting are beyond any description. First was the attack on (Ansar el Islam) camp in the north of Iraq. Then the images of civilian casualties in Basra city. What was most disturbing are the images from the hospitals. They are simply not prepared to deal with these things. People were lying on the floor with bandages and blood all over. If this is what “urban warefare” is going to look like we’re in for disaster. "

War blog:
Knight Ridder joins the warblogging effort with a blog from two SiliconValley editors.com: War Watch. Good current links to breaking news.

Also, good blogging on the war from Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press.

The Weekly Update: More war links and other helpful things.
Continuing with war links today (a few of these may have been mentioned earlier):

Al Jazeera on Nexis: the English Website is not up yet, but Nexis now has translated major stories going back to January 2002. Database is now up on dialup software version but will be on Web version March 24.

E-Media Tidbits Special War Edition comments on online coverage.

Florida antiwar organizations descriptions, phone numbers and email addresses; Florida Peace Events.

The Unfinished War CNN special report on Gulf War 10 years later has statistics, facts, useful info.

Iraq Media Dossier what's in the news from Iraq today, from BBC Monitoring via Radio Netherlands.

Covering news in wartime guides for journalists from Project for Excellence in Journalism.

War and Peace war on Iraq resources from Librarians' Index to the Internet.

Streaming audio & video news worldwide: newly updated compilation from Gary Price.

FAIR report on Network news pundits on the war.

Seattle Times war Weblog

How to tell if we're winning in Iraq by Fred Kaplan, in Slate.

Speech and Transcript Center: Gary Price is updating this again, now with current speeches/transcripts on the Iraq crisis, and has added some reference resources on the topic, too.

Iraq Body Count Database

Great Iraq coverage online links to the best from Cyberjournalist.

Your religion's stance on war from Beliefnet.

And more useful links....

Reference

Airchive: "the Webseum of Commercial Aviation". Has old airline schedules and route maps.

Global Water Crisis reports, maps, stats from Nature.

Info on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) : CDC page; WHO report.
Governments/Politics

Operation Liberty Shield factsheet from Dept of Homeland Security.

2002 Campaign Web Sphere Analysis studies how candidates "used the Web in the 2002 campaign to facilitate civic engagement, establish connections to other political Web sites through links".

Destination USA new US govt site on entering the US (unitedstatesvisas.gov).

Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services new agency replacing INS.

Office of Personnel Management: Electronic Reading Room: On this page, a list of addresses/phones of top federal bureaucrats, in a straight text format, or downloadable Access database.

Common Cause report on Patriot Act and campaign contributions shows a major provision of the bill is to protect corporate wrongdoing...
Journalism

Homefront Confidential: "How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know." From Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Statistics:

Fast Facts for Congress Census makes stats easy for our Congresspersons.
Public Records:

Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project database of information about public access laws nationwide, from U of Florida school of journalism and The Brechner Center. Also has laws, experts, much more.

Search for Georgia parolees.
Tools:

Feedster this search engine (briefly called Roogle) searches RSS feeds, news and blog entries converted to XML for news aggregator software. Why use this? It may find news/comments too new to show up in Google.
Business:

Denied persons list downloadable database from Commerce Dept. Bureau of Industry and Security. Persons/companies denied export licenses.
News, People, Florida: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Debbie Wolfe's Website: former researcher is training editor at St. Pete Times. Included here: IRE/NICAR tipsheets.

New Things: a Weblog ("things magazine is a bi-annual journal of new writing about objects, their pasts, presents and futures").
Fun/Entertaining:

No fun this week.

Refining the blogosphere
Nothing like a war to jumpstart innovation. For those who are relying more and more on Weblogs for the news, a couple of things:

Warblogs.cc pulls war news out of various blogs. There's an RSS link too, but doesn't look like it's working...

Current Events in the Blogosphere, updated last 2 hours from Technorati, this one compiles and ranks the most popular links.

Agonist is doing an amazing job distilling news from all around, and putting some extraordinary maps online, too.

...and more...

Origins of regime change in Iraq report by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Includes Original documents, experts, etc.

Explore Baghdad incredible street-level map (from satellite photos) from Newsweek.

The Blusterizer latest animated political cartoon by Mark Fiore.

And on it goes:
The Guardian is publishing day-by-day news of the war, too. Here's Day two. Also: Guardian reporter diaries: With the troops.

Reuters Alertnet is also doing quick war action summaries: Military action by 1230 GMT on day two of Iraq war.

"Salem Pax" on Iraqi TV:
"This leaves two channels: Iraq TV and Shabab (youth) TV. They are still full of patriotic songs and useless "news", they love the French here. We also saw the latest Sahaf show on Al-Jazeera and Iraq TV, and the most distressing minister of Interior affairs with his guns. Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for them to do."

Speaking of front pages:
(Post changed Friday morning:) Yesterday after my comment about a huge "WAR" headline, I went to Newseum and checked other pages. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many papers had subdued heds. But there were about 15, I'd guess, with huge WAR heds. So guess my local paper wasn't the only one. (Note yesterday I posted two eerily similar front pages from the SF Chronicle and Seattle Times. The links changed today, to today's papers. So if you noticed my post earlier today and wondered what it was about, please ignore.) -- Friday Mar 21, 9:10 am.

Today's war links:

Think of these people as the bombs fall...

For quick access to latest news, Iraq Latest At-a-Glance from BBC.

The world's policeman after all? The President's Real Goal in Iraq.

BBC Reporters' Logs from Iraq war.

ElectronicIraq.net Iraq news from an antiwar coalition.

War in Iraq news and info from Radio Free Europe.

Agonist Weblog is distilling news reports into an online diary.

...And more...:
Another resource not mentioned yesterday: Lost Remote is full of good war links, war coverage links, and links to war correspondents' blogs and online reports.

Linked from Lost Remote: Iraq War Weblog, USA Today's coverage of Weblogs as the war begins.

How big was the headline on your front page today? I was embarassed by ours. It was huge and unseemly (I thought), WAR BEGINS. I'd have made it about the third the size, and called it US ATTACKS. Project for today: I'll be going to the Newseum to compare headlines.

More hot war stories/links (or not so hot):

Covering news in wartime guides for journalists from Project for Excellence in Journalism.

3-d map of Iraq You'll have to install software from this Jutland Post news site to see the map. Buttons below map control view. Best one: "Flyv Irak Rundt" to fly around the entire country. (Click and move to move around, right click and move to zoom).

Arms and the Man new Weblog subtitled: "Who's Making A Killing On Killing In Iraq?" from someone called "Major Barbara".

Reserves and National Guard callups, March 19.

Michael Moore's letter to George Bush.

Angry weapons inspectors in Mercury News.

Mark Lane's column in Daytona News-Journal on "War doofuses".

News researchers provide help:
The News Division of the SLA (Special Libraries Assn) has posted Tim Rozgonyi's Iraq links, a very complete compilation. I know news librarians/researchers are scrambling to get links lists in place in their newsrooms; I have been keeping a list up for a few months (mostly linking to larger, better compilations...a version is here...), but this week have expanded and targeted the newsroom links. This list, from Tim, will help other researchers keep up. Thanks, Tim, and Jessica Baumgart, SLA news div's Webguru. (There are also links to Tim's lists on Sabrina Pacifici's BeSpacific law Weblog.)

And more on blogging: from today's post on Deborah Branscum's blog:
"As Scoop Nisker always said, if you don't like the news, go out make some of your own. So I hope you're blogging. Truly."

The Weblog war:
Here's how Kevin Sites sees it, after just a few days of blogging from Iraq:

"It's good to be in the blogosphere.
...Look at all of the people responding, because you put this blog out there. This experience has really made me rethink my rather orthodox views of reaching folks via mass media. Blogging is an incredible tool, with amazing potential. The feedback readers are posting motivates me to provide as much as I can for all of these folks hungry for first-hand info. "

Good list of more war blogs and correspondents' reports linked on the Cyberjournalist Great Iraq Coverage page linked below.....

Meanwhile, this has been discussed in other blogs but worth mentioning again: Americans are going to foreign news sources for coverage of war news; in Wired.

And, found in the Wired story: Buzz.weblogs.com (Straight talk on media matters), Deborah Branscum's blog...her take: "Thus far the press has done a pretty shitty job of covering the US conflict with Iraq..."

Newest war/crisis links:

Seattle Times war Weblog

Iraq Body Count Database

Great Iraq coverage online links to the best from Cyberjournalist.

Pretzel ("bretzel") for Bush this French site is soliciting donations to send the president a lot of pretzels (for charity)....

You won't see too many headlines like this here, I'd bet....


....wonder if any of these guys will be in office 2 years from now...?

The new Op-ed?
A new acquaintance asked me yesterday if I read newspaper editorials and opinion pieces, and I said don't much anymore. "What do you read then?" My automatic answer: Weblogs.
Never thought about it until then, but I realized that I rely on the Weblogs I regularly read (those in the left column, and others linked on the more Weblogs link) to point me to opinions I am interested in reading. That access gives me a worldwide perspective that I don't get from my local newspaper, or even from the major national newspapers.
I rely on the bloggers I read to help me find things I might have missed: a Times leader or Guardian columnist, an fascinating story in a small newspaper across the country, a study on an interest group's Website, a lovely piece of online art. Or sometimes to a personal opinion written by someone I never heard of but am very interested in reading.
I’ve read all the analyses of why blogging is or is not journalism, and agree with points in pieces on either side. But it's become clear to me that reading blogs has become my method of choice for broadening my understanding.
I still read my local newspaper -- and newspaper and broadcast websites local and international. But I get the straight news from them. For finding out what people are thinking, I'd rather rely on my online “friends.”

The weekly update:
This week, as usual lately, dealing with disturbing issues in the news. As librarians and other people who deal with information learn to deal with new privacy restrictions, help is coming from various organizations. From the librarians at UC Berkeley, a resource: U.S. Patriot Act resources from LII -- Librarians' Index to the Internet. And from the Special Libraries Association (which may not have that name much longer): SLA's Patriot Act portal.

And, for those putting together war toolboxes, this week's war collection, including things pointed to earlier in the week:

US Reserve Activations state-by-state info from AP.

Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms over 700-page PDF book.

Newslab links for journalists: Internet Resources for Covering Iraq. Lots of other great tips for coverage of all sorts of topics on Newslab main page.

Guide to Iraqi Web Sites from Iraq Foundation (via Jeff Jarvis).

Middle East Key Maps useful maps from BBC. Also: Iraq Navigator interactive maps of Iraq, Baghdad.

Iraq Resources: Poynter pulls together all the resources on their site, as well as links to resource links from other journalism organizations.

L.T. Smash messages from the front (an anonymous reserve officer).

Al Qaeda and the Internet report from a US Army analyst.

George Bush interview in Times...not in agreement with his son on war....

Salam Pax: a weblogger in Iraq tells how people are coping.

Back to Iraq a weblog by journalist Christopher Albritton, former NY Post reporter who traveled in Kurdistan and wants to go back.

And more useful links....

Reference

Enrich UK, devoted to good things being done with lottery money. This includes a huge collection of databases: Among them: Historical church plans online; Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1834; the British Pathe and other newsfilm archives; Ten Generations: London Life 1700-2000; multimedia transport histories; an immigration archive; Plimsoll digital maritime archive; Black Presence: Sources for Black and Asian History in the UK, 1550-1850; lots of local history resources, and much more.

Food Routes: Click on Find Good Food, put in your ZIP code and get local growers, farmers markets, etc. Also has a documents library, etc.

Academic Info This high-quality online resource directory has a section on Iraq Studies.

Directory of maps, geography resources online from EKU Geography dept.

Classical.com: download digital music here (fee); also has free Reference material: biographies, pictures, glossary, and free music to listen to...

Food and Nutrition Information Center from USDA.

Author Yellow Pages locate authors' websites, etc.

Top 100 Websites from PC Magazine.

New Yorker: The Film File 10 years of movie reviews.
Governments/Politics

US Dept of Education: Emergency Planning help for schools on homeland security.

PoliticalWeb.info from Library of Congress, has info on 2004 candidates' websites, an analysis of the 2002 elections, research on elections and media issues, and link to the 2002 Web archive.

Election 2002 Web Archive from the Library of Congress' Minerva web archive, now you can see Websites as they existed then.
Journalism

Math and Statistics Toolbox for Journalists has tipsheets to print out for reference on calculating percentages, averages, etc. From St. Pete Times' Debbie Wolfe at No Train No Gain website.
News:

New newspapers in Nexis: Bucyrus Telegraph Forum (OH), from 9/02; Californian (Salinas), from 6/02; Coshocton Tribune (OH), from 9/02; Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, LA), from 7/02; Daily Times, Salisbury MD, from 8/02; Herald Times Reporter (Manitowac, WI), from 5/02; Ithaca Journal (NY), from 7/02; Lancaster Eagle Gazette (OH), from 10/02; Mansfield News Journal (OH), from 9/02; Marion Star, OH, from 9/02; Montgomery Advertiser, from 9/02; New Zealand Herald, from 11/02; Newark Advocate (OH), from 9/02; News Herald (Port Clinton, OH), from 9/02; News-Messenger (Freemont, OH), from 9/02; Poughkeepsie Journal (NY), from 10/02; Statesman Journal (Salem, OR), from 6/02; Tulare Advance-Register (CA), from 8/02; Visalia Times-Delta (CA), from 8/02; Zanesville Times-Recorder (OH), from 9/02.

Also: business/legal journals from several cities: New Orleans, Colorado Springs, Portland OR, Rochester NY, Milwaukee, Hampton Roads VA, Minneapolis, Idaho, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Long Island, Pueblo, St. Charles MO, St Louis, Vancouver WA.

Australian Newspapers Online: exhaustive list from National Library.
Statistics:

Foreign-Born Population of the US latest Census report, press release leads to fulltext.
Public Records:

The Virtual Chase: Criminal records description of each state's available criminal records online. Good explanation of limitations, but may not be complete, as it doesn't have FDLE background check searches in the Florida section. (Interview with Virtual Chase's Genie Tyburski at Marylaine Block's Ex Libris site.)

New public records in Nexis: Alabama Corporations, Kansas boats, North Dakota motor vehicle registrations.
Tools:

Google News: did you know you can search by source? Simple, search source(miami herald) to get only stories from that source. Also, for easier searching of Google News, use Tara Calashain's Google News Google Hack.
People, Business, Florida: no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Dan Gillmor's E-Journal at Mercury News has moved.

Another Pentagon Papers case?

How the US (with UK, Israeli backing) put Saddam in power 40 years ago (France, Germany opposed). By Roger Morris in NYT.

Microfilm Follies: Old ads rescued from a dying medium Star-Tribune columnist James Lileks has collected these on his browsing expeditions in the library.

Lex Alexander the Greensboro features editor and CAR specialist has a Weblog.
Fun/Entertaining:

Iridescent clouds

The Gashleycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey.

Technology for Country Folk (via Presurfer)

Need a smile?
If watching cats does it for you, take a look at this short but hilarious cat fight video. Found on Portage, which also has some lovely art links today.

Friday war links:
Food for thought: Bill Moyers interview with former NYT reporter Chris Hedges on what war REALLY means. "Our whole civil society is being torn apart. Once again, as is true in every war, the media parrots back the clichés and jingos of the state. Imbibes and promotes the myth. In wartime, the press is always part of the problem." The PBS site has some good links on war reporting.
And, on this topic: Pentagon rules for the news media; also, a strange restriction in Kuwait via Nick Denton's blog.
For the toolbox: Newslab links for journalists: Internet Resources for Covering Iraq from NewsLab.
And: Guide to Iraqi Web Sites from Iraq Foundation (via Jeff Jarvis).
Another war blog: Kevin Sites CNN correspondent is blogging from Kuwait. Includes audioblogs.

Website roundups from Washington Post: Rallying online: story on pro-war Websites and Weblogs. Previous stories: Religious groups online for peace; Antiwar Websites overseas; Mobilizing online against war.

Happy birthday, Albert Einstein and Alan!

Emotional returns:
Sun Sentinel columnist Ralph de la Cruz returns to Cuba to visit family he left 40 years ago, in An Immigrant's Story, a 5-part series and photo gallery. More and more of these stories are coming out of South Florida, as people who once feared or refused to return to Cuba have decided it's worth it now.

War has its benefits?
In times of instability, who wants to fly to Cancun or Caymans when you can have just as good a time in the good old us of a? Spring break comes back to South Florida -- with a vengeance. On top of all else, Girls Gone Wild. And we wonder why American culture isn't respected abroad?

Meanwhile:
Center for Responsive Politics has issued a new report, Postwar Profiteers, showing how the usual suspects... you know, Brown & Root, Halliburton, Bechtel....have given millions to Republicans, and are now first on the list to get plum construction jobs in post-war Iraq. Deja vu, again....just like back in the bad-old days of Vietnam...

Strange goings-on:
I sign on this Wednesday morning, and find strange things in the news (not in my morning paper): an assassination in Serbia, the Great Lakes freezing over. Bad omens. When I was a kid, growing up just a mile or so from Lake Ontario, the last anyone could remember the lake freezing was in the mid-'30s (although Ontario isn't one of the lakes freezing now...despite being the smallest).

And, of course, in my morning paper: Mother of all bombs. It was the first test of the weapon, which could be dropped on Iraq to deliver a blow as devastating psychologically as physically. U.S. military officials and civilian analysts said the timing of the test was not coincidental.
"It has a lot of shock and awe to it," said Harlan Ullman, ...". Oh good. So we drop it over Florida just to try it out. We can take it.

Meanwhile, it's still unseasonably hot in Miami. March is usually the best month here, with temps in the low 70s and warm breezes. This year, it's in the high 80s and we have the AC on. It's so cold at work I need a jacket every day, and I've come down with a roaring cold. All these things make me uneasy. As if the months of warmongering haven't already made us all a little insane.....

Meanwhile, Poynter adds to the useful war coverage links with an Iraq Resources page which pulls together their coverage suggestions/links with links to other resource pages at other organizations.

And, in war blogging news, the newspaper site NJ.com has started breaking news Weblogs, including War in Iraq, by Jeff Jarvis.

Uncovered news:
Living in a motorcycle racing-loving family, I hear complaints all the time about newspapers not covering this international, growing sport. This weekend was the start of the season and some of the most important races of the year, at Daytona. Not a word in my local (Florida) newspaper, or even a mention that the biggest race of yesterday was postponed til today because of rain. No wonder some people give up on newspapers. I know it's hard to cover everything, but it's what people go to papers for: news about things that are important to them.
In more moto racing news, British star of the 70's, Barry Sheene, died yesterday. Lots of people know this name. Will it be in the papers here? Doubtful. (We got to see Sheene race in a vintage race in England two years ago. My husband, a huge fan, was thrilled.)
End of rant. Making coverage decisions is difficult, I know. How do you do it all?

Afghan websites:
On another front, the first sites under the .af domain are coming online: Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan , an official government site (at www.af). Also: A UN site based in Afghanistan.

Email solution
Have created a Hotmail address which I'll use to replace the infi.net address that's going away: ElisabethDonovan.

Minor annoyance:
An email from my mail and Web page host, Earthlink, tells me that they are losing the infi.net domain name in May. So they've purchased a new domain name, infionline.net, which goes into effect on May 15. (Wouldn't it have been easier just to switch us to earthlink.net?). If you have my email in an address book, keep in mind that the old address won't work after May 15.
Although they say the Web storage will stay the same, keep an eye out for problems with any bookmarks to the home.infi.net/~edonovan Web pages, like the Behind the News research site/Weblog directory, after that date......(FYI, for anyone interested, the infi.net address came from the company that originally supported Knight Ridder newpapers' Websites.....once my address was @herald.infi.net...)

The weekly update:
Didn't get to posting much this week, lots of stuff going on. And with the temperature reaching 90 in Miami almost every day this week, rather discouraging. Hope it'll even out -- and cool off -- next week. Meanwhile, more of the same:
War, war and more war:
More things to add to the growing war resource lists:

Centcom leaflet gallery: Iraq images of leaflets being dropped by US forces.

UN statements posted by Gary here in fulltext as available.

Investigating Al Qaeda: Timeline useful resource from BBC.

Baghdad weather: historical averages from Washington Post. Current weather from Weather Underground.

The Pentagon's New Map Analysis, also in Esquire, by Naval War College analyst Thomas Barnett.

Standoff with Iraq complete coverage from Yahoo! News.
And, mentioned earlier this week:

Beyond the Battle: Bringing global stories home site from American Press Institute has suggestions for local coverage of war, etc.

War on Iraq experts: at Duke; at Vanderbilt; at Harvard.

And one good resource on another topic still in the news:

National Academy of Sciences: Shuttle and Space Station reports, searchable fulltext of books.

And more useful links....

Reference

MusicMoz a giant directory search of everything to do with music.

The Pantheon resource for Greek mythology.

Baseball Library

Black Facts Online "your Internet source for Black history information".

Online Etymology Dictionary recently listed; new address. Find world origins.

AncientMexico.com

National Sexuality Resource Center

Timeline of North Korea crisis from BBC.

Census Facts for Women's History Month.

Search for schools, colleges and libraries from US Dept of Education. New search page.
Governments/Politics

Ben's guide to U.S. government for kids from GPO.
Journalism

New OJR column on war coverage.
News:

Daypop news bursts see the most-reported news.

Foreign Media Summary US State Dept site summarizes news reports/themes.

Harvard Weblog News Aggregator news headlines, from major news sources and blogs, in a Web-based newsreader/aggregator. Very cool.

LisFeeds Web-based news aggregator for library news from websites/blogs.
People:

The world's richest people: the latest Forbes list.
Statistics:

Census Facts for St. Patrick's Day.

World Oil Market and Oil Price Chronology, 1970-2001 from DoE.

OPEC: official website. Has daily market price and statistical data.

Federal Statistical Office of Germany in English.

Worldometers get world stats as they happen; covers population, environment, energy, etc.

Census 2000 information: school districts Census data on school district demographics.
Public Records:

Final reports of the Florida study committee on public records

Search St. Louis freedom suits local circuit court has put over 300 slavery lawsuits online. (Or, search suits related to the Lewis & Clark expedition).

Wisconsin Name Index searches databases of newspapers, deaths, lots more genealogical sources.

Puerto Rico records: Corporations (only shows name, number, no officers or other info), and a directory of professionals.

Tools:

Google Hacks: Tara Calashain has been programming Google searches to make them easier. Here's Google Yellow Pages search. (Search Miami Herald FL and get 3 pages of results!) More on the Buzz Tool Box page and in the new book, Google Hacks.

InXight: history of space flight utilizes a new program from Xerox Parc that visualizes data: this one shows history of space flight under NASA. Very cool.

...or try Recipe.com's version of an InXight database: find recipes by category.
Business:

Canadian Importers Database from Industry Canada.
Florida:

Final reports of the Florida study committee on public records

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

World of Ends: What the Internet is and how to stop mistaking it for something else.

Bang for the Bucks fascinating 8-part series in OC Register about a plot to steal money from an illegal Richard Nixon campaign fund.

Fort Florida St. Pete Times (Sydney Freedberg) story on how Florida police departments have built huge arsenals from federal surplus.

Sun Sentinel story on unreported crimes in Palm Beach schools.

Sources of income for Saddam and sons fascinating report from Coalition for International Justice.

Garrison Keillor song about the Station fire.

Florida State Library protest slide show.

Don't read German? Who cares, with the beautful photos of Berlin on this photo weblog.

Weblogs ranked by popularity, from Organica e.g.Dave Barry's blog comes in near the top, with 450 other websites linking to him.

Daypop word bursts will show you topics that webloggers are writing about. A good way to identify new trends...also here: news bursts!
Fun/Entertaining:

Amazing photo of Europe at dusk from satellite. But...read the explanation below. The photo has been tweaked.

Are you good or evil? Take this test and find out.

Search the White House website, and see what you get...

Homeland Security logo contest entries...choose your favorite...

Thumb fun guide to text messaging shortcuts from ATT.

Things of interest....
There was a demonstration in support of the Florida State Library yesterday. See a slide show of the 'human chain' around the library. Comments on Metafilter. Meanwhile the online petition got 13,099 verified signatures. More info from Rootsweb, and from Florida Library Association.

American Press Institute has started a new Weblog/directory, Beyond the Battle, with information to help news media prepare for War.

Seattle Times' sports weblogs covering state hoops. (via Derek Willis)

Conflict in Iraq very nice links page from the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, includes blog links. (via JD Lasica).

Winter (nearly spring) in the NC mountains:

Some photos....

Back again: Still catching up on email, messages, and scanning what I missed last week. I have a long way to go, but will try to post some things during the week. Spent a lovely week in a log cabin in the mountains....cold and rainy, then sunny with hints of spring. I love the mountain views in winter...no leaves to block the vistas. Things happened. We are excited. More later.

Meanwhile, some research news:

Sheila Lennon and the Providence Journal have been providing invaluable help to people needing to know more about their local tragedy: The Station fire Web log has been posted outside the registration area of the Journal's Website. There's information from readers, on pyrotechnics, foam, information about victims, etc.

Poynter staff compiled previous links to Iraq war story ideas from the Morning Meeting column: Al's Iraq Meeting. These have been indexed for easy browsing.

Resource Shelf's Gary Price has created a new site for more detailed links lists, called Resource Shelf Extra. This one is devoted to patent databases/information.

San Jose Mercury News photographer Pauline Lubens has started a Weblog of her photographs and experiences covering the mobilization in the Gulf.

Newslib listserv correspondents posted links to War on Iraq experts: at Duke; at Vanderbilt; at Harvard.