Disaster Recovery Plan Resources

A little over two years ago, I wrote a post called, Emergency Management Suppliers/Services that included useful links for writing a disaster recovery plan. I see that the Library of Congress has just added a Fire Recovery page (in light of the California fires) that is a good addition. LC has a lot of other great links that are helpful in writing a disaster plan here.

Citizen Media Law Project

I recently started subscribing to MediaShift's new Idea Lab. If you're not familiar with it, MediaShift is a PBS blog that reports on how online media technologies like blogs, RSS, wikis, aggregators, podcasting, etc., change the way people get their information. The Idea Lab is:

"...a group weblog by innovators who are reinventing community news for the Digital Age. Each author won a grant in the Knight News Challenge to help fund a startup idea or to blog on a topic related to reshaping community news. The authors will use Idea Lab to explain their projects, share intelligence and interact with the new-media community online."

Idea Lab has several category feeds to which you can subscribe:

• Audio/Visual
• Best Practices
• Education
• Financial
• Games & Virtual Worlds
• Government & Politics
• Legal Issues
• Marketing
• Mobile
• Participation
• Philosophy
• Technology

I am subscribing to 4 of those feeds and have found them pretty interesting. For example David Ardia had a post entitled, Importance of Knowing Local Laws: The Phoenix New Times Arrests which, among other things, talks about the Citizen Media Law Project (of which Ardia is the Director). The Project is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media. They are currently working on a Litigation Support section (Find a Lawyer), a Legal Threats Database (submissions can be made here), and a Legal Guide.

The Ghost of Abe

No, I'm not referring to the former prime minister of Japan. But I'll get to the other Abe in a moment.

I was going to hold off until the 31st before I plagued you with another Halloween post, but then I saw lots of other Halloween posts today. It suddenly occurred to me that this is Halloween weekend. In DC, that means Boo at the Zoo has started. We have two main (in my view) Halloween events in DC:

1. Boo at the Zoo - It started tonight (in the rain) and goes on through Sunday. I will be there with "Mulan" tomorrow night. A little known fact: the zoo has a lot of mice running through the cages at night! Scary!
2. Drag Race - Also known as the High Heel Race, this event takes place every Tuesday before Halloween. I don't recall that I've ever actually gone to the Drag Race, but because I worked near Dupont Circle for many years, I saw a lot of the contestants. Watching the parade of participants is the best part. I think I might be depressed watching people run in high heels better than I can walk in them. Here's a Washington Post video of last year's event.

OK, so now about Abe's ghost. It's Honest Abe's ghost and you can see it at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, Illinois where:

"The ghosts of Lincoln and his contemporaries momentarily appear and disappear, their transparent images drifting through the 'Library.' A quill rises from a library table and begins to write in the air, in Lincoln's handwriting."

You might catch a glimpse of Abe here.

Revised Standing Rules of the U.S. Senate

You can view the September 14, 2007 version of the Standing Rules of the Senate (in PDF) at the Senate Rules Committee's Web site here.

Top 50 Computing Tips

Today, PC Magazine came out with a list of their 50 Top Computing Tips from the past year. Among the top 50:

• The Best Free Software
• Dangerous Searches
• Undiscovered Computing Web Sites
• Internet Explorer Sluggish at Start
• A Hot Tip for Firefox Users

Index of Presidential Signing Statements: 2001-2007

Matt Steinke at Moritz Legal Information Blog points out that the American Constitutional Society for Law and Policy has a 228 page Index of Presidential Signing Statements 2001-2007 (free, full-text, PDF) available. The index, which was made available on 8/29/07, was compiled by Neil Kinkopf, associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law and former special assistant in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.

For more information on Presidential Signing Statements, see the CRS report, Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications (updated 9/17/07).

Copyright Registrations Available via RSS

Thanks to DigitalKoans for pointing out that copyright registrations from the United States Copyright Office Catalog of Registrations are now available via RSS. There are two feeds to which you can subscribe:

1. Latest copyright registrations in the Catalog of Registrations, as they are added throughout the day.
2. A daily archive of all copyright records added the previous day.

You can access both feeds from public.resource.org here. You can read how this came to be at O'Reilly radar.

Zuula: Searching Multiple Search Engines at Once

Yesterday, TVC Alert mentioned a search engine that allows users to search multiple search engines at one time. I had not heard of Zuula, but (according to their "News" page) the company was founded in 2005 and the beta search went live almost a year ago. It's still in beta, but it seems to be functioning very well.

You can run a "Web" search and your results will show up in separate tabs (so you don't have to leave the page). Just click on an individual tab to view the results of your search from:

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN
• Gigablast
• Exalead
• Alexa
• Accoona
• Mojeek

Along with searching general Web sites, you can also search specific categories:

• Images
• News
• Blogs
• Jobs

Of course, the search engines change depending on what what category your searching (for example, searching "Images" will provide results from the top three Web search engines listed above, but will also include Pixy and Flickr). This is obviously a very useful tool, but it's also fascinating to compare results.

Full-Text International Research & E-JASL

Among those items listed on today's New Online Books Page are two full-text journals that look pretty good. The first is International Research: an international electronic journal (volumes 1-12). Of particular interest is the current (October 2007) issue which has an article entitled, "The Use of Weblogs (Blogs) by Librarians and Libraries to Disseminate Information." The article references notable librarian bloggers such as:

• Library Stuff
• The Shifted Librarian
• Resource Shelf
• Peter Scott's Library Blog
• ResearchBuzz

There are lots of good links and interesting statistics in this article. You can read the full-text here.

The second interesting journal listed is E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship where you can access volumes 1-8.

Dalai Lama in DC

As you have probably heard, the Dalai Lama is in Washington, DC to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor today. You can view the schedule and watch the Webcast here.

In honor of the event, the Library of Congress will be displaying 40 Tibetan items in the Asian Reading Room until October 19th. You can read more about that here.

You can't mix religion and politics without controversy. So, here's a CNN piece about China's reaction.

For more on the Congressional Medal of Honor, you may want to read this CRS report. For a separate list of medal recipients, click here.

First Baby Boomer Files for Social Security Benefits

According to the Social Security Administration, today marks the day the nation's first "baby boomer" filed for Social Security retirement benefits. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling was born one second after midnight on January 1, 1946. You can read the Social Security press release here: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/babyboomerfiles-pr.htm

By the way, there are approximately 80 million baby boomers. And then there are the rest of us....

Blog Action Day: Environmental Organizations

Here is a list of four "watchdog" organizations that can help you research environmental and other charitable organizations:

• Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org)
• Standards of Excellence Institute www.standardsforexcellenceinstitute.org)
• American Institute of Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org )
• Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org)

Source: http://www.opm.gov/cfc/html/qfd.asp#two

Blog Action Day: Environmental Blogs

Here is a list of (currently) 20 Environmental Law blawgs from the ABA Journal's Blawg Directory.

Here is a list of the "Top 35 Environmental Blogs" from Read/WriteWeb. They encourage people to list more in the comments, so be sure to check for more there, too.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change Calculator

American Forests has a Personal Climate Change Calculator allowing you to enter your power, waste, driving, lawn mowing and travel usage to calculate the number of trees that would need to be planted to offset your "climate-affecting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions."

This time last year I was in Beijing, China. According to the calculator, my round trip flight between Washington, DC and Beijing, China left a carbon footprint requiring me to plant 9 trees. Here's where you can calculate your tree-planting needs: http://www.americanforests.org/resources/ccc/

Discovery to Buy HowStuffWorks

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Discovery Communications, Inc. plans to buy the HowStuffWorks Web site for $250 million. There is more information here. If you're not familiar with it, also check out the BrainStuff Blog.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day. That means:

"On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future."

Looney Tunes

If I am to be one of "The Unmentionables," I want to be Elegant Mess.

NLM Style Guide - Citing a Blog

Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed points out that Citing Medicine: NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 2nd Edition 2007, has a section on Sample Citation and Introduction to Citing Blogs.

Blawg Lawst

As promised, here's the follow-up to yesterday's post. Below is a list of the 10 blawgs that appeal to me right now (and I think most of them also fit into Scott's revised category of, "who do I read that I think may have been overlooked by those that I read that have been meme'd ??"). I chose these blawgs (some are new to me, some I have subscribed to for years) based on the fact that while skimming through 350+ feeds ,each day, in the past few months, these have caused me to stop and read. I will also include a link to one of those posts that made me stop.

1. ABA Site-tation (recent attention-getting post: The Uniform Law Commission Approves the Uniform Rules Relating to Discovery of Electronically Stored Information)
2. ACSBlog (recent attention-getting post: Steiker on Federal Sentencing Guidelines)
3. beSpacific (recent attention-getting post: Too many to name, but here's one, I kept hoping to comment on, but will just link to here: Searchable Database Offers Access to Congressional Trip Data)
4. Information Overlord (recent attention-getting post: Re Meme Bur Me)
5. Law Librarian Blog (recent attention-getting post: Check out Citebite - I haven't, but I hope to do so.)
6. Moritz Legal Information Blog (recent attention-getting post: CRS Annotated Constitution - I did check that one out; it's cool!)
7. novalawcity (recent attention-getting post: Advice for Research Assistants)
8. On the Record (recent attention-getting post: Court keeps Hanssen’s secret)
9. Technolawyer Blog (recent attention-getting post: LexisNexis Total Litigator: Read Our Exclusive Report - I haven't yet, but I hope to do so.)
10. WisBlawg (recent attention-getting post: Using Jing for Quick and Easy Screencasts - A Wonderful Tool for Librarians - Gotta check that out too.)

Creating this list made me realize that most of my feeds are not for blawgs or even blogs. For that reason, I've decided to subscribe to every last law library blog on Bonnie Shucha's list which is now up to a whopping 132! Maybe you'd like to check them out too.

The Meme That Ate the Blawgosphere

First, let me provide a definition for "meme." I can't think of a more appropriate site (for an Internet meme) than the Glossary of Paper Chain Letters, which provides the following:

"As defined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976): 'a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.' 'Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.' In this sense, chain letter components are memes."

You can see a typical chain letter-like reaction in Robert Ambrogi's recent post about having been tagged by the Blawg Review's Simply the Best meme. He says,

"I truly hate these things. The anonymous editor of Blawg Review (who I don't hate) has started a meme he calls Simply the Best. He's tagged his top 10 law blogs; each of them, in turn, is supposed to tag theirs, and so on, until we end up with one great big group hug. I've now been tagged..."

Despite his feelings, he did go ahead and list his top 10. It's easy to relate to his reaction and to his decision to go ahead and create a list.

And now I find myself in a similar situation. Scott Vine of Information Overlord kindly tagged me in his list. However, he changed it from a top 10 (Simply the Best) list to a "who do I read that I think may have been overlooked by those that I read that have been meme'd ??" I think you could have used a few more question marks there Scott. Scott goes on to say,

"Abbie Mulvihill is a wonderful source of information, and was a blogger I missed when she stopped blogging for some time. Is her blog a 'blawg' or not? Open to interpretation I guess, but for the purpose of this list, it is a yes."

Very nice words, but for some reason, I stalled out on "Is her blog a 'blawg'...."

Gasp. I had never considered that AbsTracked might not actually classify as a blawg. This comment caused me to (as a good friend of mine often says) clutch my imaginary pearls. If not a blawg, than what? A blig?!

I had to find out. So, I contacted the woman credited with coining the term "blawg." I am referring to attorney/blogger (blawgger) Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage (and lots of other great stuff). I asked Denise if she had a definition for her term. She kindly provided one for me. Denise says a blawg is a:

"Law related blog, or blog by someone in the legal profession that is not necessarily or 100% law related."

"Law-related blog." AbsTracked is a blawg. It says so right on my header, "links will generally be related to the topics of law...." Sigh of relief. Thank you Denise.

Oh, and as for my list...well, this post is long enough. So, I'll dedicate my next post to my top 10 list...or maybe it should be lawst....

Halloween Facts

OK, I'm sorry, I love Halloween, so I have to mention it again. The U.S. Census Bureau has a page of "Facts for Features" for Halloween, Oct. 31, 2007.

I had no idea that my home state was the top pumpkin producer (492 million pounds) last year. I guess they're tired of corn.

Lots of Company (Including Law Firm) Info. Feeds

The Alacra Store has a lot of free company information feeds on their site. While you can subscribe to the feed abstracts for free, you do have to pay for any full-text reports you want. Here are a few of the feeds to which you can subscribe:

• ALM Research Law Firm Reports
• D&B
• Hoover's Company Records
• FitchResearch
• Moody's Global Credit Research
• Thomson StreetEvents

You can check out all of the feeds here.

The End of Findory

Sadly, Findory will be shutting down on November 1, 2007. Greg Linden, founder of Findory says,

"Some day, online newspapers will focus on your interests, building you your own unique, customized front page of news. Some day, search engines will learn from what you do to help you find what you need. Some day, your computer will adapt to your needs to help with the task at hand. Some day, information overload will be tamed.

But not today. Findory will be shutting down on November 1. The website will no longer carry news, blogs, videos, podcasts, or favorites. The daily e-mails will cease. To ease the transition for users of Findory Inline and the Findory API, empty feeds will be served for a couple weeks into November."

You can read more here. I, for one, will miss it.

A Little Halloween Help

Do you want to do some good this Halloween? Here are a couple of possibilities:
1. From Give the Gift of Sight:

"Help the Gift of Sight Foundation recycle used eyewear for people in need around the world. This Halloween, volunteers across North America will collect used eyewear and sunglasses during trick-or-treat night. Volunteers from the Gift of Sight Foundation and Lions Clubs International clean, repair and classify the prescriptions and then hand deliver them to people in developing countries."

Click here for more information on how to volunteer. Now I just need to locate my current glasses so I can find my old pair....

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2. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF:

"UNICEF—the United Nations Children's Fund—is working in 156 countries to provide health care, clean water, nutrition and education to children and their families. And by Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF, you can be a hero and help other kids around the world!"

Click here for more information on how to get your orange box and more. When I was a little ghoul, this is what everyone in my elementary school did. I guess I'm not the only one feeling nostalgic.

Washington Post Fact Checker Feed

You may have already heard about the Washington Post's political Fact Checker site which says,:

"Our goal is to shed as much light as possible on controversial claims and counter-claims involving important national issues and the records of the various presidential candidates."

But did you know you can subscribe to the Fact Checker feed? You can do so here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/index.xml

U.S. Government Blogs - Bigger List from USA.gov

A lot of bloggers seem excited that the Associated Press (AP) put out a list of U.S. government blogs. If you want U.S. government information, USA.gov is a better place to go. Check out their list here.

DOJ Congressional Investigations, 1920-2007

Open CRS has posted a new CRS report (published 10/3/2007) entitled, "Congressional Investigations of the Department of Justice, 1920-2007: History, Law, and Practice." You can read the summary here and the 61 page CRS report here.

Legal Disclaimers for Blogs

Yesterday, Lorelle VanFossen of the Blog Herald posted an article listing sample blog disclaimers. She followed up today with another article on how to actually write a blog disclaimer.

RSS Best Practices Profile

The RSS Advisory Board has published a draft, Really Simple Syndication Best Practices Profile. They welcome public comments while they continue to work on the draft profile.