Weekend update: Other things found last week:


Reference:

Good tips on saving gas, collected by Al Thompson.

AskSam has added Pride and Prejudice to their list of downloadable e-books.

30 most popular pet names from SPCA/Infoplease.

The Illustrated London News is being put online in page format. Great history resource.

Reports:

CRS Reports for Congress: Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Hurricane Katrina: Perceptions of the Affected: survey (PDF) from Fritz Institute.

Spending Millions to Save Billions, how several of the richest families lead the campaign against the estate tax. From Public Citizen.

Report on marital rape from Violence Against Women.

Report on teen date abuse from Liz Claiborne.

Amnesty report on detention and torture in Iraq.

Amnesty report on taser use.

Statistics:

Free Lunch has free economic and demographic data.

Gas price temperature map shows price ranges for each U.S. county.

2006 World Development Indicators, World Bank.

Global Monitoring Report 2006, from World Bank.

Judicial Facts and Figures: latest data from US Courts.

Public Records:

Miami Dade County, FL marriage license search

Broward County, FL arrest search from sheriff's dept now has mug shots.....

FindLaw column on personal information in public records, especially in Florida.

Tools:

MapAsia has searchable maps of China.

Business:

EDGARScan offers a fulltext search of SEC filings. Good for searching a name, etc?

The Oil and Gas Industry, a guide from Library of Congress.

NCAA Financial Reports Database, from Indy Star.

The 2005 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball, UCF study.

News:

Section 1227 Report on Iraq: State Dept's Presidential report to the United States Congress.

New in Nexis: Florida Shipper, Shipping Digest and several other shipping news publications from the U.S. and Canada; VerdictSearch Florida Reporter, reporting on court cases.

Newspaper Archive has added free access to stories about the Kennedy assassination as well as other new topics. See also their 'this day in history' feature, the crossword of the day, the Birthday Newspaper, lots more.

Governments, Politics:

National Conference of State Legislatures: Issue Databases links to legislation on the issues, back to 2001, searchable.

Credit due:

Very pleased today to see that Sree Sreenivasan's column on Poynter gives credit to Neil Reisner's website.
Neil, a long time IRE trainer, Miami Herald CAR specialist, now professor of journalism at Florida International University, has been a friend and inspiration for a long time. I have linked before to his 'Finding (almost) anybody' page; Sree links to more.
Neil's insight on finding and using public records is unsurpassed. Except, of course, by Florida Times Union's Joe Adams, who's quoted in an entry from Neil's site here.

Yesterday I tried to blog about Dave Winer's comments on why Dan Rather should blog, but couldn't get in to Blogger, so it's on my Infomanicac blog.

Offshore archiving?

Gaol House Blog is an anonymous news librarian in the UK. (S?)He links to a column in the Press Gazette that mentions the last librarian at the Mirror is now gone. Archiving is done in Delhi.

Wow. First Fleet Street, now the libraries. British journalism sure is changing. Here too?

From the Press Gazette's Axe Grinder blog:

Loss of Mirror library may be embarrassing

THE MIRROR has said farewell to Steve, the last remaining member of the paper's in-house library. Yup, the Mirror no longer has a library.

Or rather it does, but from now on all cuttings are compiled electronically by the cheap labour in Delhi.

The India-based "librarians" have previously earned mentions in Axegrinder, you'll recall. It was the Delhi crew who lost an 'aitch from Horse Racing so that in the cuts it become "Orse racing".

And then there was that highly embarrassing and offensive match report of Scunthorpe United v Man City. It ended up in the digital cuts library with the ‘S' missing from Scunthorpe.

Thanks, Al:

Al's Morning Meeting, written by the Poynter's Al Tompkins, is five years old today.

To me, this site is one of the best examples ever for a journalism blog. It pulls together useful sources for stories in the news, or for stories that should be in the news. It prods reporters and editors to become better researchers. It should certainly prod researchers to think more about what stories or resources they should be suggesting to reporters and editors.

Al gets help from other Poynter staffers like Larry Larsen, and today credits his intern editor, who is just starting out in journalism. It's a great resource.

Weekend update: Other things found last week:


Not sure if I'll be able to get this posted as I have been trying to post to the photo blog for quite some time with no results, so sorry about the delay....

Blogger says one of its databases is down. I'll keep trying to post here and on my photo blog, but have had no luck so far. (If you can read this it has succeeded.)

Later Monday afternoon...the photo blog has updated, so trying this one again....

Reference:

Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary

National Archives' baseball records: page tells you what's there and how to find it.

World History Sources, a guide from George Mason U.

Medical Reference for Non-Medical librarians, nice guide to resources.

Reports:

The Shape of Metropolitan Growth: Brookings study compares Seattle and Orlando.

A Performance Review of FEMA's Disaster Management Activities in Response to Hurricane Katrina, report from FEMA's IG.

Health Fraud, links from Medline Plus.

Hispanics and the Future of America, new book from National Academies Press, available for sale or to read online as an e-book.

Is there a Human Right to Free Movement? Immigration and Original Ownership of the Earth, study from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Lethal Risk to Birds From Insecticide Use in the United States -- A Spatial and Temporal Analysis

Statistics:

Snapshot: Health Care Costs 101, 2006 Edition from California Healthcare Foundation.

New Study Finds Lifetime Costs of Injuries in Billions; Costs Associated with a Year Top $406 billion, CDC report.

Crime and the nation's households, 2004 from BJS.

The Death Penalty in 2005, annual Amnesty report.

NHTSA study on driver inattention and accidents

Public Records:

Oklahoma District Court Records.

Stolen Jewelry Database from Jewelers' Security Assn.

Journalism:

Why radical evolution is good for print, too; another report from APME.

Health News Review looks at news stories and critiques them. From a Health Journalism prof at U.Minn.

The Net for Journalists: A practical guide to the Internet for journalists in developing countries from UNESCO.

Tools:

Mappy.com, the Europe-based mapping service, now provides detailed aerials of lots of European cities.

ZOHOSheet, a free Web-based spreadsheet program, allows you to share online or keep private. Also by ZOHO: ZOHOWriter, a word processing web program.

Business:

Company Information Guide from Virtual Chase, is a searchable database of resources.

Forbes: The Business of Baseball, including team valuations.

Florida:

Folkvine cute Flash site for Florida Folk art.

Fun/Entertainment:

The American Roadside: diners, drive-ins and attractions. Has a story about the 11th St. Diner when it was the Olympic, in Wilkes-Barre.

Why are newspaper websites so annoying?

Here's one reason, from Peter Zollman in E-Media Tidbits.

This probably happened because the KR papers hold stories only 7 days in the searchable archives...but the URLs are forever. Seems this makes that cut-off useless, and only annoying to readers, and frustrating to those who don't know to search for it on Google....

Wikipedia and bias -- again

Mark Glaser has an excellent article in MediaShift, Is There a Neutral View on George W. Bush? about the Wikipedia entry. My thoughts on this on my Infomaniac blog.

Journalism and blogs in Cuba

Via an email from a member, a link to the Cuban Journalists Union: Union de Periodistas de Cuba. Fascinating stuff here including El periodismo en la revolución cubana (also available in English: Journalism in the Cuban Revolution).
With the anniversary of Playa Giron/Bay of Pigs, lots of info on that too.

But, best of all, there is a directory of Cuban journalists' blogs and personal websites. Among them, for example, one from a photographer from the national newspaper Granma, Realidad Foto Cuba. First photo blog I've seen from Cuba, aside from tourist photos. Here's another: Cuba desde mi camara. There are more.

"Pulitzer for Treason"

Some people are not happy about a couple of the Pulitzers this week. Links on my Infomaniac blog. Also, links to the Katrina stories.

New this week:

Derek Willis has posted the most recent of his Fixing Journalism posts, Putting it Out There.

Two new blogs on online journalism, Online News Squared from Tribune Interactive, and Journerdism (a blog for journalist nerds) from Will Sullivan at Palm Beach Post online.
Both of these seem to be full of good linkage and will be added to the sideroll.

And, in the gossip area, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is having a blog feud with The Miami Herald and some Cuban-American Miami bloggers.

Weekend update: Other things found last week:


Some great resources this week for news coverage of the biggest topics in the news: the war on terrorism:

• Voices of Jihad Database from RAND Corp., text of speeches, publications, etc. by Jihadist leaders; searchable. Part of larger RAND site on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
  
• Faces of the Fallen: the Washington Post memorial to Iraq/Afghanistan dead has switched from a Flash display to a searchable text database. Much better. You can search by state, branch, date, too. This also has photos of many of the solders, unlike Coalition Casualty Count. Or: put this link in your RSS reader to get news of recent casualties when they're added.
  
• Coalition Operations Bibliography from library at Air University, Maxwell AFB.

Immigration:

• Immigration-Related Products from GAO includes demographics reports, documents.
  
• Public Agenda: Immigration various links, reports, surveys on the issue.

(Added later:) Another place for news on these topics: Lexis Nexis' free news site.

The other links:

Reference:

Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), from Library of Congress, searchable database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, etc.

Resources on Immigrants and health from KFF.

SORA: Searchable Ornithological Research Archives, has archives of old birding journals going back to 1800s.

Governments, Politics:

2006 Congressional Pig Book now out from Citizens Against Govt Waste. Includes a Complete Pork Database.

Pushing Prescriptions, report on the drug industry and political influence from Center for Public Integrity.

Statistics:

Statemaster.com lets you compare states by statistics. Also: Nationmaster.com.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims, 2006 from DoJ.

Population Profile of the United States, Dynamic Version from Census, this format for latest population releases is Internet-only and updated whenever new info is available.

World Health Report, 2006 from WHO.

Index of Leading Environmental Indicators 2006 from Pacific Research Institute and American Enterprise Institute.

Glenmary Research Center is mapping religious faith in the U.S. and has statistics on Catholics.

Public Records:

Some states are now putting traffic accident reports online, at least for awhile after the crash: here's Missouri; Iowa.

Journalism:

Real or Fake? fascinating story in National Journal about separating faked photos from real in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tools:

Domain Tools, formerly WHOIS.sc, one of the best domain name search directories. This new site has more features, including historical domain names by subscription (but there is also a similar database on Dialog). There are also DNS Tools, like ping and traceroute.

Yahoo! Maps (beta) said to have more satellite image detail than Google Maps.

What was the price of gold then? going back to 1257. Part of How much is that? economic history site at Miami University.

Some interesting stories/blogs:

Gangrey.com, a reporters' blog 'prolonging the slow death of newspapers', highlighting great writing.

Passport blog from Foreign Policy magazine.

PJNet Today, a public journalism weblog from Leonard Witt.

Language Log, interesting blog on useage, including a discussion on why use of 'spaz' is so much worse in Europe than here.

Daily Pulp breaks the Florida journalism news:

I'm glad to see (via Pulp's linkage) that Mindy McAdams has put Tom Fiedler's memo from this morning online. As soon as I read it I hoped it would be somewhere to link to (like Romenesko, where there's now a link to McAdams' blog).

In it, Fiedler describes a change in latitudes in the Herald's newsroom, where writing, editing and illustrating for online will become an equal partner to newspaper work. Says Fiedler:

Let me stress that we aren't going to milk The Miami Herald
to do this. This newspaper is what brought us here and it
will remain very successful for many years. There is something
special and unique about journalism on the printed page and
we won't neglect that going forward. But we didn't fall in
love with journalism because of ink and paper. We fell in love
with it because it had the power to change lives for the
better -- and we can do that on paper, on the web and over
the airwaves with equal devotion.

This gives me hope for the future.

I'm also glad to see UF journalism prof McAdams' new blog Teaching Online Journalism and Website. I've been linking to older versions of her pages for years, since we shared a panel in London...

Also via Pulp, a link to the IRE Training page listing the upcoming boot camp to be held in Miami: Computer-Assisted Reporting Boot Camp, April 23-28, 2006, being organized by Neil Reisner and held at Florida International University's North Miami campus. I had seen emails about the camp, but not a link to the course description.

No reporter or researcher should pass up the chance for this essential training, if possible to attend.

(Added Friday:) One more thing I should have linked here, it's been linked on most journalism blogs but for anyone thinking about the future of newspapers and online newspapers, a must read: How Web + print + cutbacks can still equal success, the report from APME.

Weekend update: Other things found last week:


Lots of good links again this week, many found via Gary Price's team at Resourceshelf and their Docuticker spinoff, from Mark Schaver at Depth Reporting, and from some of the other sites linked in left-hand column.

The links:

Reference:

Human Rights Library at University of Minnesota. Lots of documents and useful links.

Based on the book, a database of movies and where they came from.

U.S. State and Local Transit links. Here's Florida.

How Americans use their cell phones, survey by Pew Internet.

Identity Theft, 2004

US News best grad school ranking, 2007.

America's Immigration Quandary, public opinion report from Pew Hispanic.

Federal Allocations in Response to Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, report from Brookings.

National Drug Threat Assessment 2006, report from DoJ.

Internet Crime Report, 2005 from FBI.

Governments, Politics:

The Insurgency in Iraq, a collection of fulltext articles and reports.

FDA Staff Travels on Drug Industry Dollars, report from Center for Public Integrity.

State agencies regulating charities from NASCO.

Business:

The IPO Market, report from Ernst and Young.

Airline Quality Rating, 2006

Market Segmentation: Guide to Sources of Information from Library of Congress, great links on ethnic/gender/generational/geographic segments, as well as info on relevant books, reports, etc.

Information on Telecommunications Companies, search of FCC form 499-A Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet. Can also search by type of business and state. I found 64 companies in Florida doing prepaid calling cards.

Statistics:

Historical Census Information on Educational Attainment, 1940-2000.

TRAC immigration: Transactional Records Access Clearing House has gathered reports, data on immigration issues.

Users of Online News Sources, report from Pew Internet.

People:

Missouri Death Certificate Database covers 1910-1920 now, will go to 1955.

Journalism:

Online tutorials on business journalism, covering financial markets, understanding numbers, SEC filings and the economy.

Florida:

Voting Rights in Florida, 1982-2006, study by UM's JoNel Newman, posted on CivilRights.org; summary from Michael Froomkin.

News:

Is the Media telling the real story in Iraq? new discussion page from Reuters.

Upcoming events sites for news planning, list compiled by Gary Price in 2003, most are still good.

Tools:

New features on Mapquest like a 'no highways' or 'no tolls' option.

Some interesting stories/blogs:

BallBug a new 'Memeorandum'-style automated feed of news, blogs about baseball.

Tom Delay blog from Public Campaign Action Fund.

Baseball season:

The latest addition to the online lineup for those looking for baseball news: Ballbug, from Memeorandum. Like Memeorandum politics, Memeorandum Tech, and the lastest for celebrity gossip, WeSmirch, Ballbug finds news articles on baseball and blog links to them. Great place to browse for the latest news or controversial comments.

Too much Barry Bonds here though......

Help with today's stories:

The always-helpful IRE/NICAR data library has updated their resources on Aviation Accidents (adding some links for military aviation) and Deadly Tornadoes.

Weekend update: Other things found last week:


Just a straight link dump this week:

The links:

Reference:

BNA's Web Watch Reading Room is a great resource highlighting new government reports, bills filed, hearing information, and NGO reports by topic of the day.

U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Center for Operational Analysis: unclassified historical report of military operations conducted in Iraq

Fairchild Guide to Palms

Current topics in psychology, research guide for finding web sources from a psych. prof. Links on addiction, conditions, etc.

Facts about Sexual Orientation, guide from UC Davis psych. dept.

US Weather Service Climate Data from Weather.gov, click on a location to get recent climate data, then click NOWData tab for historical climate info.

AP's profanity study

Governments, Politics:

Lobbying Database from OpenSecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics. Search lobbyist spending from 1998-present.


Business:

Boat Manufacturers Database from Coast Guard, get info and address. Can search by state, city to get local factory list.

Statistics:

OECD Factbook 2006: international databases of economic, environmental, and social statistics.

The size and characteristics of the undocumented alien population in the U.S. (summary), full report; from Pew Hispanic.

Cost of Driving: Now $.52/mile, press release from AAA with link to full report in PDF.

Liber8, a research resource from Federal Reserve bank, St. Louis. Has links to databases like FRED (economic statistics), CPI and other stats, inflation tracking, IES (international economic stats), plus research.

Journalism:

Baghdad: the besieged press in NY Review of Books by Orville Schell.

News:

Two new newspaper story archives from NewspaperArchive.com (stories are images of pages in PDF): FBI archive and September 11th Archive.

Tools:

Aeroseek Web flight tracking. a new tracking service using data from FBOWEb, with a nice display, with maps of the flight in progress. Search with airline and flight number, but if you don't have a flight number click on 'Check it out' to get a search page with airport, airline, or time/day searches. There's also an aviation search engine here.

Use Firefox? Did you know you can customize your search bar to add whatever searches you want? Go here. I added Wikipedia, Ask.com, Technorati blog search, and Food Network recipe search. Lots more available, including BBC News. More here.

Some interesting stories/blogs:

After the Levees, a Katrina recovery blog from TPM Cafe.

TPM Muckraker

Fun/Entertainment:

Top 15 skylines in the world. Great photos. Miami isn't one of them.