News research news and information, and other things I like. From the original Infomaniac, a Florida news researcher.

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Behind the News archives 11/2000-8/24/2002

Heraldcam

 
Last thoughts of 2003:
Happy New Year, all! On this last day of 2003 it's nice to know that the South Florida stories keep coming. Today it's the 'Most Wanted' Florida man who killed a UK cop the other day (although this story mistakenly says it was in London. It was Leeds).

I'm very sorry I won't be in Brasstown tonight for the annual 'lowering of the possum'. But hope to be there by tomorrow night, so there won't be any postings for the next few days, unless I hit the public library. Keep safe!

And a setrec: I mistakenly said in an earlier post that Lex Alexander had worked for the Charlotte Observer. It was the Greensboro News & Record, of course. I hate it when I do that.
I apologize for all the mistakes I've made here in the last year. Hope it hasn't been too many.....
posted by liz donovan at 5:19 PM

 
Bad blogspot:
I know no one's going to be able to read this, since Blogspot seems to be down. But the publishing page does come up, so I'm going to try this anyway. I posted something earlier today, though, and it doesn't seem to be here. I know it's not just me because other blogspot blogs (like Dave Barry's) are also going to the main Blogger page...

(4:30): OK, that worked. Seems to be back.
posted by liz donovan at 3:54 PM

 
And, on blogging:
Tom Mangan has some interesting comments in reaction to the USA Today article on blogging.

"Hype and anti-hype aside, blogging is worth doing well, it's just not especially easy to do well."

(Later: Link fixed, apologies....)
posted by liz donovan at 2:56 PM

 
Paper, bits, or PDF?
There's a very interesting conversation going on between J D Lasica and Vin Crosbie on the value and meaning of digital reproductions of newspapers. Crosbie takes issue with Lasica's depiction of PDF fans as having "old-time media inclinations". Fascinating. As a 'old-time' newspaper reader who loves online but also really likes the chance to see a newspaper as it ran, ads, layout and all (at least occasionally), I'm enjoying this debate.
posted by liz donovan at 2:50 PM

 
More great research news:
To me, this is one of the best things to happen in news research since I started in this business a loooong time ago.
First the New York Times, now The Washington Post is putting its historical archive on the Web. Searches covering 1877-1986 are free, with a standard $2.95 charge (same as recent electronic archives) to read/download/print full text of a story. (Discounts available for larger purchases.)
This is a dream come true for those many of us who may have access to only one newspaper's microfilm, in many cases unindexed.
posted by liz donovan at 12:21 PM

 
Strutting:
Today's the King Mango Strut in Coconut Grove, Miami. Definitely worth visiting the Web site if you can't get to the parade.....
posted by liz donovan at 1:02 PM

 
New blog noticed on Blogger:
Media Mayhem, St. Louis-based.

"Born to Blog
After applying three times for openings at the Post-Dispatch in the last year -- and not even being provided the courtesy of a form letter rejection in return -- I have decided I was born to blog. "

posted by liz donovan at 11:04 AM

 
Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:

The list is quite short this week; not much new comes up on holiday weeks, and I've already posted much of it, here and on the Herald blog. Among things I posted there this week: Holiday Travel tips.

In the midst of the mad cow stories, a couple interesting things: UPI has been trying to get BSE test info from USDA for months, and Did the Canadian case come from the U.S.?

More useful links....

Reference :

Airline logos: 75 pages of them, from Aerosite.net.

Educator's Reference Desk great education source directory from creators of ERIC database.

Festival Network Online search for art and music festivals, shows, craft fairs, etc.

Libdex: an international library guide, find info about a library, including branch libraries; also has a directory of library blogs, a Publishers search and a directory of online newspaper lists.

A Sightseeer's Guide to Engineering 7 'sights' in Florida, none in S. Fla.
Florida:

UPDATE, S. Fla. Historical Soc. magazine now is putting some stories online. The link is to an index of all issues. Highlighted stories are available, like this one: Lost in the Everglades by The Herald's late Earl DeHart.
Tools:

The National Map Viewer: this is a new mapping service from USGS: I like this pretty well, you can zoom in down to street level but all maps show topography as well as other features and you can customize it in a lot of ways.
Journalism:

SinColumna.com a site for writers who don't have their own columns (in Spanish).
Business, Statistics, Governments, Politics, Public Records, People, News, no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Satan's Laundromat, a photoblog from New York.

Letters from Iraq: a soldier blog from one who participated in Operation Red Dawn.

New Blog: John Perry Barlow.

Marilyn Thompson on her 20-year pursuit of Strom's daughter
Fun/Entertaining:

The Foolish Dictionary

G.W. Bush as Gollum, from bushrecall.org.
posted by liz donovan at 10:58 AM

 
Another thing:
Just a thought about the Iran earthquake: the casualty counts started out high (10,000), then went down (4,000 to 5,000); now they're talking about 20,000 people dead! This is puzzling, after seeing this page on the city of Bam. According to this, the city was mostly abandoned, so where did all those people come from? I guess a new city must have built itself up around the outskirts. And seeing pictures of the ancient buildings, it would be no wonder if it all fell down. Beautiful but very fragile looking.

More good links on the Iran situation from Iranian Truth blog. This site says 80,000 people lived in Bam. (via Jeff Jarvis.)

More on this and lots more topics on the other blog.
posted by liz donovan at 6:43 PM

 
Getting more on the news from photo blogs:
Hampshirecam has photos of the QMII arriving in Southhampton.
Much more than the BBC had, even on BBC Southhampton.

Marlette speaks:
This has been mentioned a few places, but I didn't click on it until I saw the excerpt on Lex Alexander's Blog on the Run: "I was a tool of Satan", by Doug Marlette, now with the Tallahassee Democrat, in Columbia Journalism Review. Alexander, who worked on the Greensboro News Record's breaking investigation of Tammy and Jim Bakker and PTL, pointed out (Charlotte Observer cartoonist at the time) Marlette's lovely response to a reader complaining about a cartoon done on the subject:

""They try to screen for tools of Satan," I explained. "[Parent corporation] Knight Ridder human resources has a strict policy against hiring tools of Satan.""

Hmmm. Being with a KR paper, I wonder.......
posted by liz donovan at 5:55 PM

 
There's breaking news:
...And Poynter's Al Tomkins has already posted good earthquake and Iran links for coverage of the disaster there.
Of course, Iran Full Coverage from Yahoo also has the breaking news and lots of good links.
posted by liz donovan at 12:21 PM

 
Lazy Christmas day:
...And a good day for a walk through some undeveloped areas, ' future park land' along Biscayne Bay in Coral Gables. Unfortunately, we found junk thrown everywhere along this about 2-mile path. Nice day anyway:

(They call this Florida Holly.) More photos...

Sometimes the 'just published blogs' list on the main Blogger page leads to some intriguing blogs. Today the one that caught my eye was "Wisdom of the Ages, or Three Whiney Old Women". Subtitle is "Madness or Genius, We aren't Sure". How could I pass that one by? Turns out to be entertaining, with Christmas doggerel and cute descriptions of the three women: a "potter extraordinaire, soon to be ex of one stupid man"; a "writer and reader of great things", and an "eternal idealist and optimist". I'll be looking back at this one.

Hope your day was enjoyable.
posted by liz donovan at 7:14 PM

 
Adding to my list:
A couple new things: Smart Mobs, and The Progress Report.

posted by liz donovan at 4:54 PM

 
Cold Mountain:
I blogged links to local information, if you want to know about the real Cold Mountain and other places where it really happened, on the Herald blog.
Note there are a couple fun Christmas reading links there too, via suggestions from copy editor blogs.
posted by liz donovan at 1:57 PM

 
Yes, Santa, please?
Rhetorica.net's Andrew Cline has a list of things he wants for Christmas. I really like number 5:

"5) I'd like the chattering classes to realize that, unlike most pundits, average Americans do not routinely polarize and demonize their friends and neighbors of opposite political opinion."

Of course, number two is pretty good too:

"2) I'd like the talking-head TV pundits to shut up. America can't hear itself think."

posted by liz donovan at 12:28 PM

 
Quake!:
As usual, the research community responds. At least two places to go, so far, for help with covering the earthquake:

• IRE: Resources for covering California earthquake.
  
• Earthquake resources from Al Tompkins at Poynter.
  (Added later:)
  
• Doc Searls has posted useful links and commentary on the quake, too.
  
• Links from Jonathan Dube (Cyberjournalist)
  

Public Library databases, again:
Gary Price keeps reminding us, and I've linked to similar resources in Florida. But it's worth harping, over and over, that you can get access to great databases through many local public libraries. Here's another example, in Knoxville. Access to NewsLibrary! ReferenceUSA! But you have to have a library card. These things are like gold, these days.....
posted by liz donovan at 6:59 PM

 
A couple more fun finds:
From my list of things to check out, here's a wonderful new site called Food History News, Web site of a magazine by same name. There's a blog-type Editor's Notebook with fun links on food and food historians. I found there the Guardian obit on Alan Davidson, fascinating man who died a couple weeks ago of the flu. I've owned his Mediterranian Seafood cookbook for many years. And a link to Anson Mills, a place where I've heard they grind the best grits around. This is going on my list.
Also on this site: a page of food history resources.

And, via email, notice of a site called Diplomacy Monitor, from St. Thomas University here in Miami. Main page has current diplomacy news, but inside there's an archive of news categorized by topic/country, etc. This looks to be a very useful resource.
posted by liz donovan at 12:04 PM

 
Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:

My backyard birds have disappeared in the last 6 weeks or so. Have yours? I thought it was due to the loss of trees in my neighborhood, where several older houses are being replaced with much larger buildings, but then I found recent stories in the Orlando Sentinel and Providence Journal that report it's happening in lots of places, at least reduced numbers.....Project Feeder Watch keeps track.

New Iraq links:

The big news from Iraq found several new links to add to your Iraq list:

• Poynter's Al Tompkins has ideas for local coverage of the Saddam story.
  
• INDICT international organization dedicated to setting up tribunals in Iraq.
  
• IraqNet: blog-style news and information on Iraq. U.S. based.
  
• Coalition Provisional Authority
  
• Future of Iraq portal (large page of links).
  
• The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook from National Security Archive, has documents from past U.S. relations with Iraq.
  
• Operation Red Dawn: Centcom Powerpoint presentation on the capture. Lots of maps, charts.
  
• The Osama Clock

More useful links....

Reference :

Collection of "Best of 2003" lists.

International Religious Freedom report, 2003 from State Dept.

A roadmap to African American resources from Santa Fe Community College.

Kennedy and Castro: the secret tapes and documents from the National Security Archive.

TheatreHistory.com: history of theater around the world, and a script archive of plays or monologues in the public domain.
Florida:

Dear Florida Hero: send a holiday message to a National Guard member.

Demographic profile, Miami-Dade County, 1960-2000 Census data from county planning department. More data, including Miami-Dade Facts, a 62-page compilation of stats.
Statistics:

Preliminary Uniform Crime Report, Jan-Jun 2003 from FBI.

Foreign-Born Population of the U.S., 2000 Census report.

Institute for the Study of Homelessness has lots of stats, reports.
Tools:

Google Print is a new beta test search that searches fulltext of books. This link leads to FAQ page. Sample search. (I searched my name and found out there's been a character in a romance novel. Hmmm.)

JAlbum: highly recommended (by Scout Report) free photo album software: save albums on your hard drive or publish to the Web.

More software recommended by Scout Rept: WebAssistant lets you download Web pages to read or use when not online.
Business:

Cable Industry statistics from Natl Cable and Telecom. Assn.

Job Watch: Economic Policy Institute, tracking jobs and wages.
Journalism:

News Page Designer a place for designers to show off their work, info about design.
Governments, Politics, Public Records, People, News, no links this week.

Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Coaches who prey: amazing series by Seattle Times.

Mention on UM law prof Michael Froomkin's blog: 100 interesting math calculations for kids. Fun for the holidays?

Philly Inquirer has a story on bloggers' reactions to Saddam capture.

Fla's Bill Nelson says he and other senators were told Iraqi missiles could hit U.S. in Florida Today.

OK, here's an environmental problem I never heard of before.

Scary story about a Nigerian scam from Guardian's Paula Toynbee.

Newsweek debunks the Telegraph story that said Atta was in Baghdad in summer of '01.
Fun/Entertaining:

Tales of the Holy Cow: a fake 'priest' milks one of the Nigerian scammers...

Mistletunes: in case you can't remember all those old rock 'n' roll Christmas songs.

Radio Lovers: free old-time radio shows in MP3.

Modern Humorist: Best of the Web

Photo/poems: these are beautiful.

Pong story: how the whole video game thing got started.
posted by liz donovan at 11:43 AM

 
Lots of Blogging:
In that other place today.
posted by liz donovan at 7:44 PM

 
New today in the Guardian:
Special Report on Weblogs. Includes British blogging awards, guide to blogging software, analysis and news.
Note the art by Hugh McLeod. He's the one who does those cool back-of-business-card drawings.
posted by liz donovan at 1:24 PM