Weekend update: Other things found last week:

Along with the changes I'm planning on making here in the next week, some thoughts about whether to continue this 'link dump'. It consists mostly of things gathered from resources most researchers read regularly anyway, like Resourceshelf and Depth Reporting (links in sidebar), so is a bit redundant (and I can't credit people like Gary Price and Mark Schaver enough, as well as the other researchers and reporters whose blogs I use to find useful tools); but I like to think I'm picking out the cream of useful journalistic tools.

I had been considering dropping this format and just linking to the things that most catch my eye as I find them, but this week I got a comment from someone who teaches Information Visualization and who says he likes the weekly update. Hmmm. Maybe I will keep it.

The links:

Reference:

Guide to Ethanol from Iowa Corn.

New York Database lets you search for all things bigapple-y. There's a Los Angeles database, too. Also directories.

Appellation America, guide to wineries, wine regions and varietals in America. Pretty complete: it even has my favorite local winery in north Georgia.

The History of Money from Library of Congress.

Reports:

Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared, report from Senate committee on homeland security. Includes hearings and documents.

American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the U.S., study from Violence Policy Center.

Vehicle Theft Hotspots, highest ranking cities all in the west. (Mia-Ft.Laud, 36th.)

State of the World's Mothers, 2006, report (PDF) from Save the Children.

American Gaming Assn Survey of Casino Entertainment.

Top Ten markets to watch for real estate investors: Orlando comes in #2, Palm Beach/Lauderdale #4. (Press release).

Statistics:

Foreign born workers: characteristics of the labor force in 2005, BLS report.

State of the World's Refugees, 2006 from UN.

Governments, Politics:

Emails from the edge of disaster, Center for Public Integrity reads ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown's emails. The emails available in a 900-page PDF.

Center for Nonproliferation Studies: Iran Special Collection has reports, country profile, treaties, satellite images....

Iraq Index, 'Tracking variables of reconstruction and security in Post-Saddam Iraq', from Brookings Inst. (PDF)

ExpectMore.gov from White House, a site rating government programs by performance.

Journalism:

Knight Science Journalism Tracker reports on good stories, including medical stories (About).

2005 Gay Press Report; press release.

People:

WW II Army enlistment records are accessible now via National Archives databases.

Business:

IATA Economics, good stats, reports on airline industry: traffic, fuel prices, lots more.

CEO Compensation, 2005, latest compiliation by Forbes, sortable by name, rank, location, etc. Covers top 500 companies.

Best Places for Business, Forbes report.

Tools:

Printable maps by state from NationalAtlas.gov, includes maps with counties and towns.

Amtrak Interactive Route Atlas.

Some great ergonomics links from ResourceShelf.

Polly Glotto: type in a word, phrase or paragraph and Polly will translate and read it to you out loud in any of 11 different languages.

Google Trends, see what people are searching for and how much.

Geostat (the Geospatial and Statistical Data Center) is a new version of UVa's collection of databases, with maps, geospatial data, and social science datasets. Also: GeoData.gov.

News:

American Lawyer publications will no longer be on Nexis, a big loss. Included: The Daily Business Review (Miami and Broward/PB editions).

Some interesting stories/blogs:

Losing Louisiana, a multimedia presentation.

Fun/Entertainment:

Newspaper Snippet Generator make your own newspaper page with your own story, as an image you should be able to copy and paste.