Saturday, December 24, 2005

Interfaith Household

The Judaica Libraries and Archives on the Web is a one-stop reference to the web pages of research-level Judaica collections in libraries and archives. It lists over 100 Web sites in eighteen countries. Presents links to information on the history, publications, and scholarly activities, manuscript collections, and photographs. A helpful resource for learning more about Judaica collections and the cultural institutions which house them.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Somewhere Out There

The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight is an on-line A-Z maintained by astronomer David Darling. The site provides a comprehensive source of information covering contemporary astronomy, astrobiology, and astrophysics, SETI, space missions, advanced propulsion concepts, historical aspects, and biographies (past and present). It is intended to be of use to the interested layperson, student, and academic alike.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

The Right Track

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse(TRAC) is a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization associated with Syracuse University. The TRAC Public Web Site has been in operation since 1996, TRAC has mounted and updated a series of specialized sites on the World Wide Web with highly detailed but easy-to-access information on selected federal enforcement agencies, special topical reports, and "snapshots" about federal expenditures, staffing and enforcement. The sites -- featuring colorful maps and graphs and tens of thousands of pages of tables and other supporting material -- are available without charge to anyone with access to the web. Currently featured are separate TRAC Web sites describing the enforcement activities and staffing patterns of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the U.S. Customs Service.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Cough Cough

FluSTAR reports the spread of influenza across the United States and shows areas of flu outbreak. Over 400 doctors report their findings to the site; data is also "gathered from four different surveillance methods including rapid assay data and clinical diagnosis data." The site also has information on symptoms, treatment, prevention, studies, and strains; flu news; and links to related sites.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Slash And Burn

OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public interest. Located in Washington, DC, OMB Watch was founded in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The organization has since expanded its focus to include the substantive areas that OMB oversees: federal budget, taxation and government performance; information and access; nonprofit action, advocacy, policy and technology; and regulatory policy.

Monday, December 19, 2005

At A Glance

U. S. Economy at a Glance provides six months of key economic data displayed in an easy-to-use format, including unemployment rate, average hourly earnings, consumer price index, producer price index, U.S. import price index, and productivity. Provides economic data charts for each state as well as links to Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Vinegar Rice

Sushi Links offers the best sushi resources on the web, as well as information on the history of sushi, pointers on sushi etiquette, and answers to frequently asked questions concerning sushi. You'll also find links to websites that offer a wide assortment of sushi recipes.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Veteran Affairs

Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Data and Information Web Site is managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Policy and is designed to provide you with a variety of data and information about veterans. The site includes socio-economic data, the demographic characteristics of veterans, the geographical distribution of the veteran population, and other statistical data and information by veteran program.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Brain Salad Surgery

BrainInfo is a website that helps one identify structures in the brain and provides many different kinds of information about each structure. It consists of three basic knowledge bases: NeuroNames, which provides the index to brain structures and narrative information about them; the Template Atlas, which shows the structures that are found in the primate brain; and NeuroMaps, a set of several hundred overlays that will show the location of different kinds of information that have been mapped to the standard background maps (templates) of the Atlas. Information about brain structures in other species, particularly the human, is provided by links to other websites. Provides information about more than 15,000 neuroanatomical terms. Defines the brain in terms of about 550 primary structures to which all other structures, names, and synonyms are related. Provides standard English and Latin names for more than 850 unique structures including the primary structures, superstructures and related superficial features. Shows hierarchical relations of each structure to its superstructures and substructures. Provides a unique acronym for each structure that is suitable for labeling illustrations, graphs and tables. Defines more than 1500 other neuroanatomical entities in terms of structures in the Hierarchy. Shows relations of about 9,000 synonyms to the standard names and structures they represent. Shows alternate definitions (homonyms) of terms in the Hierarchy commonly used to denote different structures or combinations of structures. Links to 1500 illustrations of brain structures in four species.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Concealed Weapon

Arms Sales Monitoring Project: Profiles & Sales Data "provides general arms sales statistics and highlights policies of concern in some of America's major client states." Information covers proposed arms sales, official arms transfer statistics, foreign military assistance (including training), lists of America's biggest defense contractors, and background information on countries that have received weapons from the U.S.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Connect the Dots

Kids Count collects national, state, and county-level statistics on the educational, economic, social, and physical well-being of children in the U.S. "Offers several interactive online databases that allow visitors to create free, customized data reports on-the-fly. The report choices vary by system, but include the ability to generate custom profiles, line graphs, maps, and rankings, and download raw data." Includes state and national profiles, state rankings, census data, and city and rural conditions.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Bring Out Your Dead

"The Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) weekly contains data on specific diseases as reported by state and territorial health departments and reports on infectious and chronic diseases, environmental hazards, natural or human-generated disasters, occupational diseases and injuries, and intentional and unintentional injuries. Also included are reports on topics of international interest and notices of events of interest to the public health community." The site has data back to 1982.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Way Out

The National Space Science Data Center provides access to a wide variety of data from NASA space flight missions for astrophysics, space and solar physics, and lunar and earth sciences. The Photo Gallery has pictures of planets, stars, and spacecraft and the Image Catalog those of planets and comets. The General Public Page leads to a chronology of lunar and planetary exploration and fact sheets on each planet. The Space Science Education Page has lessons, online activities, and resources for educators.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Shopping Season

Holiday Watch features information and statistics about trends in holiday shopping back to 1999. Topics include "hot" gifts, busiest shopping days, data on tracking holiday sales figures, and winter holiday season sales as a percentage of total sales for general merchandise, apparel, furniture, and furnishings.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Graduate Work

The National Information Center for Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis and provdesi information and comparative data for states regarding postsecondary education. Includes maps, graphs, and data about preparation, participation, affordability, student learning, completion, benefits, employment, and finance. Also includes special analyses, race/ethnicity data for selected states, answers to policy questions, and interactive data and map generation features.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Yay Or Nay

The washingtonpost.com's U.S. Congress Votes Database is a deep database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991). It lets you browse votes in a variety of ways -- both in aggregate and for individual members of Congress. You can browse the database by drilling down to a particular Congress such as the 109th Congress) or particular member or group such as the 109th Congress senators. The site publishes an RSS feed of recent votes by each member of Congress, and a feed of the most recent votes in both chambers. The site is generally updated every day, and is taken directly from several official Internet sources; House vote data comes from the Web site of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Senate vote data comes from the Web site of the Senate, Member biographical information, including birth dates and hometowns, comes from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Member gender information comes from Women in Congress site and the Women in the Senate page, Representatives' district information comes from the Library of Congress' THOMAS site. For each congressional vote in each chamber beginning with the 102nd Congress (1991), the Post has assembled detail and summary information about that vote and the members who took part. In addition to displaying the details of every vote, washingtonpost.com calculates a majority position for Republicans and Democrats, if one exists.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Major Minority

The Hispanic Population in the United States: 2004 and 2003 updates the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the nation's Hispanics, with national summary data from the Current Population Survey. Characteristics include, for example, sex, age, citizenship, nativity, educational attainment, occupation, and income and poverty status.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Encyclopedia Of Life

The Biodiversity Information Databases compiled by NatureServe represents a network of member programs comprising 74 independent centers that collect and analyze data about the plants, animals, and ecological communities of the Western Hemisphere. Information on species and ecological communities is first compiled from existing sources, such as scientific literature, field guides, and museum collections. Natural heritage biologists conduct extensive field inventories to locate and verify species populations and to assess their current conservation condition. Each program maintains and continuously updates a sophisticated computer database that tracks the relative rarity of each species or community and the precise location and status of each known population. Representing more than 25 years of continuous ecological inventory and database development, these are the most complete and up-to-date conservation databases available.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Meet NED

The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database is built around a master list of extragalactic objects, such as galaxies and pulsars. Cross-identifications of names have been established, accurate positions and redshifts have been entered to the extent possible, and photometry, position, and redshift data collected. Bibliographic references relevant to individual objects have been compiled, and abstracts of extragalactic interest are kept online. NED also includes images from 2MASS, from the literature, and from the Digitized Sky Survey.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Crossing State Lines

State Fact Sheets (ERS/USDA Data) contains information on population, per-capita income, earnings per job, poverty rate, total number of jobs, unemployment rate, percent employment change, farm and farm related jobs, top export commodities, farm characteristics, and farm financial indicators for each state and for the United States as a whole. Sources include the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, and Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Includes links to further data, including agriculture commodities and a rural development briefing room with social and demographic analyses.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Ship It Shape

Foreign Trade Statistics provides monthly U.S. foreign trade reports, these reports are available as far back as January 1994. Annual import and export data for trade with each foreign country is also available from 1996. Users can browse, search, and download the schedule B commodity export codes, access the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes for imports, and obtain information regarding compliance reporting using the Automated Export System.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Show Me The Money

Political Money Line has information on campaign contributions for federal level Unites States elections from 1980 to date. Searchable by name (contributor or candidate), occupation, or zip code. Includes individual contributors as well as corporate, political action committees (PACs), unions, and other organizations that contribute to political campaigns. There is also information on illegal campaign finance activity.

Friday, December 02, 2005

All Aboard

Transportation History Collection : Railroads is a collection of railroad material consisting of over 14,000 items relating to American, Canadian, Mexican, British, French, German, and Russian railroad companies and their rolling stock. There are annual reports, including extensive runs of most major lines in the United States, pamphlets, timetables, charters, stock certificates and other legal documents, surveys, advertising brochures, posters, artwork, archival collections and photographs.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Small Man, Big Change

GandhiServe Foundation's mission to carry on and complete the task of Devadas Gandhi, who died at a premature age in 1957, to document his father's life visually day-by-day. He contributed to it by putting together the first major collection of film footage. The GandhiServe Foundation's e-archive is the best online resource on Gandhi. There is 110 hours film, 8,800 books listed, 10,000 photographs, 35,000 letters listed, Over 200 writings online, 50 hours of Gandhi's voice and genealogies with 1,600 entries. The purpose of the foundation is the promotion of science, cultural and historical research, and education.