Encyclopedia of Life Lives!

After crashing and burning on Tuesday (due to receiving 11.5 million hits in 5.5 hours), when it was unveiled to the public, the collaborative Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) appears to be alive and well. And well on its way to documenting all species of life on Earth.

I like the fact that the preferences allows users to choose information from authoritative sources only. I hope that works! If you want to subscribe to the EOL Blog, here's the feed: http://blog.eol.org/feed/.

Do You Want to Be a Diplomat?

If you do, you may be interested in U.S. Diplomacy's list of Useful Websites. If you're looking for something to read during your commute, check out the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service Officer's Suggested Reading List.

FY 2007 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics

You can now access the 12th ed. (fiscal year 2007: October 1, 2006 - September 30, 2007) of the United States Sentencing Commission’s Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics as well as the Commission's FY 2007 Annual Report.

Help Examine Lost JFK Files

The Dallas Morning News is asking for your help in reviewing recently found documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The documents, which consist of transcripts, personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, lists of jurors, police reports, rap sheets, autopsy reports, trial notes, police notebooks, photographs, and more, were found in a vault in Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office.

You'll find 90% of the documents here. The paper says the other 10% will be posted in the "coming days."

Thanks to CyberJournalist.net for pointing this out!

The Truth About Visiting DC

It's Friday evening and I refuse to do anything worthwhile. So, I thought I'd comment on Fodor's 25 Things We Love to Do in Washington, D.C. After all, I will have lived here for 20 years this July (I think I'll pretend that was a typo.).

If you want links or useful information on these places, you can check out Fodor's article. If you want my views of their 25 things (and you know you do), here they are:

1. National Air and Space Museum - Abbie: I only go for the freeze-dried ice cream.

2. Watch films of flying saucers at the National Archives - Abbie: Really? They have that there? Get out of my way, I'm going!

3. Natural History Museum's Insect Zoo - Abbie: Despite how gross it is, I find myself there a lot - and usually just in time for the tarantula petting.

4. Twirl around the ice-skating rink in the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden - Abbie: Do you like to stand in long lines in the cold?

5. National Museum of African Art - Abbie: It's on the list. The only reason I haven't gone is that it's underground. Three stories underground. OK, I need to get over it.

6. National Museum of the American Indian's Mitsitam Café - Abbie: Mmmm, fry bread.... Maybe after the flying saucer movie....

7. National Portrait Gallery - Abbie: I feel like I've been there, but maybe that's because everyone else has.

8. Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden - Abbie: Sculptures + Garden. What's not to like?!

9. Bureau of Engraving and Printing - Abbie: This has got to be the most touristy thing to do and I can't believe I've never done it. It's going on the list.

10. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Abbie: If I ever recover from my trip to Dachau (17 years ago), I will go there.

11. National Zoo - Abbie: It's the closest thing we have to nature.

12. Ben's Chili Bowl - Abbie: It's on the list. 'Probably not for long since there's food involved.

13. White House - Abbie: It's only worth it if you can get a private tour, but I think they banned those.

14. Capitol's House and Senate Chambers - Abbie: I worked in the Capitol for nearly 8 years. I only go for retirement parties now.

15. Eastern Market - Abbie: 'Haven't been since the fire.

16. Hawk & Dove - Abbie: I was engaged there. Someone asked, "When he got down on one knee, could he get back up or was he stuck to the floor?"

17. Library of Congress - Abbie: The thrill is gone baby.

18. International Spy Museum - Abbie: It's on the list, but no one who visits me ever wants to go there. They all want to go to the Insect Zoo.

19. Nana - Abbie: 'Never heard of it. It sounds fashionable. That would explain it.

20. Dupont Circle - Abbie: Fodor's mentions "Power Lunchers" - I've had a few nonsensical lunch-time chats with people pushing shopping carts there. I am a magnet for them.

21. Scope out the art scene on the first Friday of every month, when Dupont Circle's art spaces are open late and score complimentary wine as a bonus. - Abbie: Art? Complimentary wine? What?! I'm always the last to know.

22. Etete - Abbie: I've eaten at a lot of great Ethiopian restaurants, but never heard of this one. 'Probably fashionable.

23. U.S. Naval Observatory - Abbie: They let people in there?

24. United States Botanic Garden - Abbie: 'Great place to go in winter. It's not far from the fry bread. Mmmm fry bread.

25. Celebrate happy hour like a local on Capitol Hill at the stylish Lounge 201 (201 Massachusetts Ave.), where you can sip a half-price Martini on Tuesdays. Or grab a beer and half-price nachos until 6:30 at Bullfeathers (410 1st St. SE). - Abbie: OK, guess which one I've frequented....

This thing has the look of a DC area blogger meme. But, of course, I would never start such a thing. ; )

Beijing Sculpture A.K.A. AbAtar

OK, a few people have asked what the heck my avatar is over at law.librarians. Since it is a little small over there, I thought I'd try posting a bigger version of the full photo. The photograph is of a sculpture in a Beijing park (I took the photo 10/2006).

The sculpture consists of an old, traditionally dressed, Chinese man holding a scroll, looking over the shoulder of a young, modern Chinese woman. The woman is working away on a laptop (I'd like to think blogging freely) and is wearing her cell phone around her neck. I love this sculpture!

Ask BILL!

Ask BILL! - The Best Internet Law Library is a great site for online legal resources. It is produced by the Library of the U.S. Courts of the Seventh Circuit.

What's really amazing is how current it is. We've only just recently been hearing about bulk.resource.org, The Public Library of Law: PLOL, and the PreCYdent search engine, but you'll find links to all of them on the Ask BILL! home page.

I want them to have feed. Can wishing make it so?

Law Library of Congress - New RSS Feeds

ResourceShelf reports that the Law Library of Congress has new RSS feeds. You can grab feeds for:

• News & Events
• Research Reports
• Webcasts
• Global Legal Monitor
  

DC Court of Appeals - New Rule 49

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals Rule 49 (Unauthorized Practice of Law) was amended and became effective yesterday. Since I think they're a little challenging to find, I thought I'd link to the two versions on the Court's site:

• Compare Version (additions are underlined, deletions are lined-through)
• Clean Version of Rule 49 as Amended

A Chance to Win a $10,000 Scholarship by Submitting a Google Doodle

Google announced the launch of "Doodle 4 Google" today. Kids in participating K-12 schools are invited to submit a Google doodle inspired by the question, "What if...?" The winning doodle (logo) will be displayed on Google May 22, 2008 and the doodler will win a $10,000 college scholarship plus a $25,000 technology grant for their school.

Teachers can register their class here: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

Free U.S. Federal Cases Online

Thanks to lo-fi librarian for mentioning that the long-awaited U.S. federal cases are beginning to appear at public.resources.org. You can now access:

• Federal Reporter 2d (F. 2d)
• Federal Reporter 3d (F. 3d)
• U.S. Reports

The collection is located here.

Ask a U.S. Government Information Librarian

GPO is announcing the Ask a Librarian service at Government Information Online under their "What's New" section, however, the service has been around since 2004. Free Government Information (FGI) (here's the blog feed) has more about the service's evolution here.

The service is new to me and looks very useful. You can chat with or e-mail librarians at any or all of the participating libraries. Here's a list of all current and past participants.

See also: Ask a Law Librarian

law.librarians

lo-fi librarian has started a fun blogging experiment with many law librarian bloggers. You can check it out at http://lawlibrarians.wordpress.com/. For more information, see lo-fi's post here.

Oh, and here's the feed: http://lawlibrarians.wordpress.com/feed/

Free, Recycled PACER Docs

Bonnie Shucha of WisBlawg has a great post about Public.Resource.org's PACER recycling page. You can upload your old PACER court documents so others can get them for free. You can access the recycled documents at bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/pacer.

Official U.S. Federal Court Rules Now on House Judiciary Site

The House Judiciary Committee has finally posted the current (December 1, 2007), official U.S. federal court rules on their site. Here are the links:

• Federal Rules of Evidence
• Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure

Related AbsTracked posts:

• U.S. Federal Court Rules Changes (11/14/2007)
• 2007 Version of U.S. Federal Court Rules Online (12/23/2007)

FY 2009 U.S. Budget - Mapped by State

The Budget of the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2009 is now available online. You can view the state-by-state budget information here.

NYCRR (& More) Available On Web

Last September I mentioned that a link to the complete, unofficial copy of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) would soon be posted on the New York Department of State Website and now it is, at http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/nycrr.htm. Thanks to Steven Cohen at Library Stuff for pointing this out. The link takes you to Westlaw's free online state codes site. Besides free online state codes (similar to Michie's site), that site has an interesting assortment of free, searchable online legal resources including:

• Alaska Case Law Service


• Kentucky Real Estate Professionals and the Law


• Michigan Official Historical Reports


• Mississippi Attorney General - Official Opinions


• New York Official Reports Service (You can search for free, but have to pay for full-text.)


• New York State Register


• Washington State Employment Security Department Precedential Decisions of Commissioner

Crime Reports for Your Neighborhood

CrimeReports.com is working with law enforcement agencies to let citizens know where and what kind of crimes are occurring in their neighborhoods. You can enter any part of your address to get a map with current crime report details. By clicking on "Crime Types/Sex Offenders" you can search which crimes you want to see listed (including "Show All"). The "Analytics" tab provides bar charts, pie charts, graphs, and grids that point out trends and further details. You can also register to sign up for regularly scheduled e-mail alerts as well as "time sensitive crime alerts, neighborhood and community policing program bulletins and other crime awareness and prevention information as they become available."

Currently, the following states have cities/counties participating in this online program:

• Arizona
• California
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• Nevada
• Ohio
• Texas
• Utah
• Washington
• Wisconsin

You can check the list of specific jurisdictions (participating police departments) here.

Finding Cheap Airfare Online

There's little that thrills me more than finding great travel deals. Over the years I've become quite good at it. However, I'm always on the look-out for something I've missed. For example, Scott over at InformationOverlord had a post not long ago that mentioned the flight search engine Momondo. At the moment I read it, I was desperately looking for cheap one-way tickets and Momondo proved to have flights that weren't showing up at SideStep. That was quite a shocker to me.

Anyway, there are a lot of great sites for finding cheap airfare and hotels deals online (many of which I have linked to on this blog). The Washington Post also has a lot of good links in the article entitled, "Finding a Flight at a Price That's Right" By John Deiner and Carol Sottili, Sunday, February 3, 2008; Page P08. The article has 9 steps for finding cheaper flights. Remember, a lot of those searches can be done by e-mail and RSS alerts, so it's not as time-consuming as it may look.

The Washington Post also has a companion piece, "54 Online Travel Sites to Bookmark Now," Sunday, February 3, 2008; Page P04. The articles are definitely worth the read.