Weekend update: Other things found this week:
FYI, after reading all the horror tales about Internet Explorer, I've decided to switch to Firefox from Mozilla. I like it. Of all the alternative browsers I've tried (but not quite adopted), this one seems to get it right. Tabbed browsing inside one browser really works. And managing popups is a cinch. So far so good....

A couple books I've read over the last week or so seem to fit right in to the 4th of July theme:
The Mammoth Cheese, by Sherri Holman, recaps the tale of the giant cheese once made in Cheshire, Mass. for Thomas Jefferson. In this modern-day story, a struggling Virginia dairy farmer and cheesemaker whose farm hand is a Jefferson interpreter, finds her desperate hope for help from a politician leads her to a nearly impossible quest: create another mammoth cheese and deliver it to her hoped-for savior in the White House, while dealing with a rebellious teenage daughter (whose revolutionary teacher encourages her). There's lots more to the story, which gets to the heart of small town life. It's a wonderful tale of rural America.
A story about the original cheese (1802).

Charlie Wilson's War, a book by '60 minutes' producer George Crile, who traveled often with the former Texas congressman, is the story about how a single legislator, with the help of a CIA officer, used back channels to fund massive support for the Muhajidin in Afghanistan to repulse the Soviet invasion. Strange history, and a bit disconcerting in retrospect. Where are all those weapons we funneled to Islam fundamentalists now? And how many more of these rogue operations have been going on over the years?

The links....

Reference :

Why is a colonel called 'kernel'? explanation to understanding military rank from Naval Historical Center.

American Indian Health from Natl Library of Medicine.

The safety impact of vehicle-related road debris, study by AAA Foundation. Pretty relevant in S. Florida.

PubMedCentral has free searchable medical journals. Now some journals go back 150 years!

Atlanta Time Machine uses old/new photos of places to show change. This would be a good project for Miami.

How modern terrorism uses the Internet. Study from U.S. Institute for Peace.

The Jewish Encyclopedia: entire 12-volume set from 1906.

Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930 from NWU, has a downloadable database of all the homicides and special reports on 25.

Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at American U., tracks trafficking in persons, money laundering, etc.
Governments, Politics:

State and Local government on the Net: guide to finding Web sites, with a Weblog to announce new sites.
Tools:

Want to keep your home computer free of Gremlins? Slate tells you how.
People:

More terrorist lists: World Bank list of Ineligible Firms; Bank of England financial sanctions; Canadian lists of terrorist names
Business:

Job Watch Economic Policy Institute is trying to keep track of job loss/creation.
News:

Al Ahram Special: Iraq turnover the Egyptian weekly has coverage from Iraqi journalists and intellectuals.
Statistics:

Do Not Call registrations, complaints statistics at first anniversary of the registry.

Facts about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from Census.
Florida:

Florida Charts track communities' health and demographics (by Census tracts, 2000 data) indicators.
Public Records, Journalism: no links this week

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

BBC blogger Stuart Hughes, who lost a leg in Iraq last year and was the first of any news media to report the handover on Monday, covers the Saddam hearing (from London). How he got the handover story