I found it online

May 10, 2008 — Saturday

National Train Day

Today, May 10^th, is the first annual National Train Day which has been created to celebrate the day in 1869 that the golden spike was used to create a single train line across the US.

In more detail, from the about National Train Day section:

On May 10, 1869, in Promontory Summit, Utah, the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie that joined 1,776 miles of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways, ceremonially creating the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. And America was transformed.

Suddenly, the country was united in a way it never had been, and train travel sparked imaginations in small towns and big cities, among folk who desired adventure and businessmen who saw fortunes to be made. The sound of a train whistle was the soundtrack of happy reunions and tearful farewells. It heralded the arrival of mail, supplies and change.

For more, go check out the National Train Day site.

— michael | 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2008 — Monday

Cinco de Mayo - US Census Bureau

Today is Cinco de Mayo, so Happy Cinco de Mayo. If you’re wondering about the latest facts and figures, you can rest assured. The US Census Bureau has the latest with their Facts for Features: Cinco de Mayo. The Bureau explains:

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the legendary Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a Mexican force of 4,500 men faced 6,000 well-trained French soldiers. The battle lasted four hours and ended in a victory for the Mexican army under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Along with Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16, Cinco de Mayo has become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture.

Some of the facts include:

— 28.3 million - # of US residents of Mexican origin in 2006

— 9% - percent of total US population this represents

— 25.7 - median age of people in the US of Mexican descent

— 630,000 - # of Mexican-Americans who are US military veterans

— $37,661 - median household income in 2006 for households with a householder of Mexican origin

— 23% - poverty rate in 2006 for people of Mexican heritage

For more, go read the whole thing: Facts for Features: Cinco de Mayo.

— michael | 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2008 — Thursday

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month - US Census Bureau

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, and the US Census Bureau has released their Facts for features for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. From the release:

In 1978, a joint congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history: the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992, Congress expanded the observance to a monthlong celebration. Per a 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive, the Asian or Pacific Islander racial category was separated into two categories: Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. Thus, this Facts for Features contains a section for each.

Some of the facts include:

— 14.9 million - # (estimated) of US residents in July 2006 who said they were Asian alone or Asian in combination with one or more other races

— ~5% - percent of total US population this represents

— 5 million - Asian population in California

— $64,238 - median household income for single-race Asians in 2006

— 1 million - # (estimated) of US residents in July 2006 who said they are Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, either alone or in combination with one or more other races

— ~0.3% percent of total US population this represents

— $49,361 - median income of households headed by single-race Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander

For more, go read the entire release: Facts for features for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.

— michael | 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

Resources for Online Writers

If you do much writing, you might be interested in Job Profiles post on “50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers” by Christina Laun which covers a range of types of resources including Word Processors, Reference, Organization, Helpful Tools, and Web Tools. For more, go check out the whole list: “50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers.”

— michael | 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008 — Thursday

Federal Government Spending in 2006 - Census Bureau

The US Censusu Bureau has released data on government spending from 2006 entitled: Where Did Your Federal Dollars Go in 2006?

Some of the facts of 2006 covered include:

— $2.45 trillion - federal government’s domestic spending

— 7.5% - percent increase in federal spending over 2005

— $400 billion - defense spending

— 10.3% - percent California received of the total distribution of federal expenditures

For more, go read the whole thing: Where Did Your Federal Dollars Go in 2006?

— michael | 03:41 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2008 — Friday

Simply Google

Google is often seen as a one stop searching spot for online research, although it’s clear that things are a little more complicated than the one search box that show up at first. Right from the Google home page there are additional search options: images, maps, and news to name a few, as well as a drop down to searches of Google video, Google books, Google scholar, and even a search for blogs.

Beyond these, there is even a Google government search and a Google code search.

Of course, you can always go to Google’s Product page to get the full range of services, but what if you could search any of these without having to go to different pages?

Now you can, and it probably says something about the complexity of searching that there are this many different search options. To see almost all the different ways of searching Google, you should take a look at:

Simply Google

If you take a look, you will find 35 Google search boxes, as well as links to other Google products and search boxes for some of Google’s competitors.

Of course, another option is that you can always ask us, because remember, Google is still not doing a great job of searching the deep web.

— michael | 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2008 — Wednesday

National Library Week - State of America’s Libraries

In honor of National Library Week, here is some of the information from the recently released ALA The State of America’s Libraries.

Some interesting details:

From a 2007 survey:
— 53% - % of Americans who said they had visited a public library in the last year

— 70% - % of those visitors who asked for and received assistance from library staff

— 88% - % of those asking who found all or some of what they were looking for

— 53% - % of those who didn’t ask who found all of some of what they were looking for

(hmm... maybe you should ask us)

Other facts to be gleaned from the report:

— over 2 billion - # of items checked out of public libraries annually

— 7 - # of books/year average user checks out of libraries

— $31 - cost to average taxpayer for public library services each year

That’s just the beginning of course. There’s information on the use of ebooks, gaming in libraries, outreach and diversity efforts, first amendment issues, and funding and salary information. To find out more about any of this you download the complete report: The State of America’s Libraries (pdf). You can also view just the information on academic libraries online.

— michael | 11:11 AM

April 15, 2008 — Tuesday

National Library Week on Second Life

The American Library Association (ALA) is celebrating National Library Week on Second Life. The ALA reports all the details: ALA celebrates National Library Week in Second Life.

The schedule is:

Tuesday, April 15
* Library Stars Photo Op: For National Library Workers Day, take a snapshot of your avatar and have it posted on the Constellation of Library Stars gallery.
* 2:00-3:00 p.m. (12 p.m. SLT) - Tai Chi Session to celebrate wellness for National Library Workers Day at the Main Stage
* 6:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. SLT) - Fireworks
* 6:30 -7:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. SLT) - Public Programs Office Storytime at the Pond Space

Wednesday, April 16
* 11:00 - 12:00 am (9:00 a.m. SLT) - Libraries Across America: The Bold & the Beautiful at the ALA Gallery
* 1:00 -2:00 p.m. (11 a.m. SLT) Scavenger Hunt at the Main Stage
* 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. (4:30 pm SLT) Public Programs Office Storytime at the Pond Space

Thursday, April 17
* 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. (11:00 a.m. SLT) Young Adult Literature Trivia Contest to celebrate Support Teen Literature Day at the Main Stage
* Time TBD - YALSA Podcast and discussion at the Pond Space
* 6:00 - 7:00 pm (4:00 p.m. SLT) Books With Bite: Vamp it up for YALSA at ALA Party Central. This party will include fireworks display.

Friday April 18
* 11:00-11:30 a.m. (9:00 a.m. SLT) Gaming in Libraries Presentation at Sky Presentation Space to celebrate "gaming @ your library"
* 2:00 - 3:00 pm (12:00 p.m. SLT) Salon Huron Discussion Group at Salon Huron
* 6:30- 7:30 pm (4:30 p.m. SLT) Come as your favorite video game character party at ALA Party Central

Saturday 4/19
* 11:00 - 12:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. SLT) Book Discussion at the Book Platform
* 5:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. SLT) Knowledge Rocks Concert in conjunction with the Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant winner, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County at the Main Stage

To get there:

The ALA Island/ALA Main Stage is located at 128, 107, 29. In Second Life: teleport there directly

— michael | 12:10 PM

April 14, 2008 — Monday

National Library Week - Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt)

April 13–19^th is National Library Week. Libraries have a long history, stretching back into history. One of the earlier ones, the library at Alexandria was famously burned. There is a a new Library at Alexandria, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which was recently visited by staff of American Libraries:

American Libraries Editor in Chief Leonard Kniffel visits the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt for the library’s 5^th anniversary. Kniffel takes in some of the local sights (including the ancient library at Serapeum, circa 297 A.D.), and speaks to Library Director Ismail Serageldin and Chief Librarian Sohair Wastawy, among others

You can watch highlights of the visit here:

For move videos on National Library Week, you can check out the American Libraries Focus website for more.

— michael | 10:09 AM

April 09, 2008 — Wednesday

Gmail Hacks & Tricks

Use Gmail? You might want to check out Best of the Web’s post on Gmail Hacks, Tips & Tricks which features 35 different Gmail hacks.

One thing I don’t see mentioned is that you can encrypt your entire Gmail session (rather than just the logon process) by visiting https://mail.google.com (or https://gmail.com) instead of just the plain old http version.

For more on https, you can read about it at Google’s support page.

— michael | 02:02 PM

April 08, 2008 — Tuesday

Researching an Unknown Online Retailer

The Consumerist has a how to on researching an unknown online retailer. They provide a good set of questions to ask about a vendor, as well as some online tools for verifying information about the vendor before you starting clicking away and enter your credit card number.

Some of the questions include:

Do they take credit cards? It is no guarantee of quality if they do, but it is one step up. I think you should generally avoid any place that only takes Western Union money transfers.

Do they have a security/hacker prevention or testing certificate?

Does the checkout process use an encrypted HTTPS page?

For more, go read the whole thing: How To Research An Unknown Online Retailer.

— michael | 03:31 PM

April 04, 2008 — Friday

Today in History: Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the evening of April 4, 1968.

For more:
The Other Side of the Mountaintop: Scholars Assess Nation’s Progress—And an Icon’s Rougher Edges—Four Decades After Assassination by Kevin Merida at the Washington Post

The Death of MLK Jr.: RFK Said It Best video/audio of Robert F. Kennedy speaking about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on MojoBlog (the Mother Jones Blog).

Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. at Nobel Prize dot org

In Memoriam: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from Black College Wire

— michael | 02:12 PM

April 03, 2008 — Thursday

Social Media white papers

New technology is rapidly changing the way we communicate with each other. If you ever wanted to learn more, Mashable.com has gathered together a range of links to white papers and ebooks on the issue: 15 Free Social Media White Papers and Ebooks. They come from a range of sources (even an anti-social media source), so if you’re a fan of social media, you might want to see if any of them look relevant.

— michael | 11:05 AM

April 01, 2008 — Tuesday

Accessing Print History

Increasingly print publications are finding it worthwhile to make their back content available online, although not always for free. kottke.org takes a look at this in his post: Our collective recent history, online. Specifically, Kottke points out the NY Times, Harper’s Magazine (1850 to present for subscribers), and the Washington Post (most content has a fee).

Sites making their content available for free include: Times Magazine (1923 to present), Sports Illustrated (back to 1954), and Nature (back to 1869).

For more, you can read more: kottke.org takes a look at this in his post: Our collective recent history, online.

— michael | 03:26 PM

Love Books?

If you’re a fan of books, you might want to check out Kevin Bondelli’s YD Blog where he provides links to 80 Online Resources for Book Lovers. The list includes: Social Networking for Book Lovers, E-books, Online Bookstores, Audiobooks, Library Resources, Bibliography and Research, Book Exchanges/Swapping, Online Documents, What to Read, and the always critical Miscellaneous.

Some of the resources are obvious, Amazon is obviously the online bookstore, but if you’ve never heard of AbeBooks they’re a great resource for rare and hard to find books. Also, the list is not complete. It doesn’t, for example, list Powell’s Books under the online bookstores, and Powell’s is certainly an alternative to
Amazon.

Still, if you like books, there are some great resources here, so you might want to check it out.

Update: Fixed links.

— michael | 01:22 PM

March 31, 2008 — Monday

Cesar Chavez Day

Today, March 31^st is Cesar Chavez Day here in California (and seven other states), a day set aside to honor the civil rights leader. The Cesar Chavez Foundation explains:

This Chavez holiday season also marks the historic 40th anniversary of Cesar’s first long public fast, of 25 days, to rededicate the Farm Worker Movement to nonviolence. During hungry winter of 1968, the Delano grape strikers were in the third year of their walkouts. There was little hope. The grape growers were often abusive and sometimes violent. With some young male strikers talking about resorting to violence, Cesar stopped eating. Even though his health was in danger, he refused to take food until all the farm workers promised to follow the path of nonviolence instead of violence.
The fast succeeded. All talk of violence ceased. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote Cesar, expressing admiration and solidarity. Thousands of farm workers and supporters attended a Catholic mass to end the fast, including Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who described Cesar as “one of the heroic figures of our time.” For Cesar, strikes, boycotts, marches, political campaigns and other activities were not only weapons against opponents, but also his way of involving masses of people in their own struggle to avoid “the senseless violence that brings no honor to any class or community.” He saw nonviolence in action and was convinced all people—especially the poor—have a duty to exercise freedom and to take part in the democratic process.

For more:
— Cesar Chavez Foundation
— Cesar Chavez Foundation: Cesar Chavez Day page
— UCLA’s Chicana/o Latina/o net page on Cesar Chavez
— America’s Library: Cesar Chavez page
— Las Culturas’s Cesar Chavez book
— Wikipedia’s Cesar Chavez page
— Wikipedia’s Cesar Chavez Day page

— michael | 02:44 PM

Women’s History Month - Women’s Health Resources at the National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine and Office of Research on Women’s Health are working together to provide access to a range of Women’s Health Resources at the National Library of Medicine. Much of the focus is on the 2008 National Institutes of Health Priorities for Women’s Health (PDF). The data looks similar for the two sites, but they are organized differently.

The two sites:

Office of Research on Women’s Health access to Women’s Health Resources at the National Library of Medicine

Outreach Activities and Resources: Specialized Information Services access to Women’s Health Resources at National Library of Medicine

via Our Bodies Ourselves

— michael | 10:35 AM

March 25, 2008 — Tuesday

Women’s History Month - National Women’s History Project

The National Women’s History Project (NWHP) is celebrating Women’s History Month by focusing on Women’s Art: Women’s Vision. The list of honorees for NWHP’s Women’s Art: Women’s Vision is:

— Judy Chicago - Painter, Printmaker, Tapestry, and Needlework

— Harmony Hammond - Painter

— Edna Hibel - Colorist, Painter, Stone Lithographer, Serigrapher, Etcher, Sculptress, and Filmmaker

— Lihua Lei - Multimedia Installation

— Violet Oakley - Muralist and Stained Glass Artist

— Rose Cecil O’Neill - Painter, Illustrator, and Sculptress

— Faith Ringgold - Painter and Quilter

— Miriam Schapiro - Print and Painter

— Lorna Simpson - Artist

— Jaune Quick-To-See Smith - Painter/Printmaker

— Nancy Spero - Painter

— June Claire Wayne - Painter and Lithographer

For more, you can visit NWHP’s Women’s History Month page.

— michael | 12:59 PM

March 21, 2008 — Friday

Ten Legal Commandments of Photography

Ever wondered about what is and what is not ok when snapping pictures? Photojojo has come to your rescue with the Photography and The Law: Know Your Rights. These rights come in the form of “The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography.” The first of these:

I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.

For more, and for advice on what to do if you’re confronted as well as links to additional resources go read the whole thing: Photography and The Law: Know Your Rights.

— michael | 10:01 AM

March 18, 2008 — Tuesday

Vanishing Rings of Saturn?

Saturn’s rings are vanishing? Yes, in a way, NASA reports in The Vanishing Rings of Saturn that the rings are shrinking only in that as our angle of viewing changes to a more edge-on view, the rings are significantly less visible. Even Galileo noticed what has come to be known as “ring plane crossing.”

The NASA article explains:

As Saturn goes around the sun, it periodically turns its rings edge-on to Earth—once every 14-to-15 years. Because the rings are so thin, they can actually disappear when viewed through a small telescope.
In the months ahead, Saturn’s rings will become thinner and thinner until, on Sept. 4, 2009, they vanish. When this happened to Galileo in 1612, he briefly abandoned his study of the planet. Big mistake: ring plane crossings are good times to discover new Saturnian moons and faint outer rings.

It’s also a good time to behold Saturn’s curiously blue north pole. In 2005 the Cassini spacecraft flew over Saturn’s northern hemisphere and found the skies there as azure as Earth itself. Saturn is a planet of golden clouds, but for some reason clouds at high northern latitudes have cleared, revealing a dome of surprising blue.

Interested? You can go read the rest: The Vanishing Rings of Saturn or listen/download a podcast of the article in mp3 format.

— michael | 02:04 PM