Cricket Anyone?

If you've read this blog for a while, you know I love gross things...and dead things. Here's a way to get both!

Michaelle at Adventurous Women Blog is giving away "Salt N' Vinegar" (my favorite flavor) edible crickets. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on her Edible Cricket post. Good luck!

CRS Reports on the U.S. Congress

You can find a nice selection of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports related to the U.S. Congress housed on the House Committee on Rules' Web site. The free, online reports are listed under the following categories:

• Congress: The House
• Introduction & Origin of Legislative Measures
• House Committees
• Congress: The Senate
• Relations With The Senate
• Presidential Relations
• House Floor Proceedings
• Special Rules and the Rules Committee
• Budget Process

Looking for CRS Reports on a Different Topic?

Don't forget, Open CRS is a great place to start when looking for CRS reports on a wide variety of topics. Open CRS also has links to other repositories. Not only can you access 6 additional online collections from their "collections" page, but you can also get RSS feeds for each so you can keep track of recent additions.

Yearbook of the United Nations Online for 1946-2005

The University of Michigan Documents Center points out that you can now obtain free access to the Yearbook of the United Nations for 1946 - 2005. You can browse or search the online versions.

Rumsey Historical Maps Integrated Into Google Maps

Elisabeth Grant at the American Historical Association's AHA Today points out that there is a Google Earth/David Rumsey Historical Map Collection mashup. The mashup puts the historical map on top of the current Google map.

For example, you can see what Washington, DC looked like in 1851 on top of Washington, DC today. In the upper right-hand corner, you make the historical map fade in and out to pinpoint it against today's buildings.

There do seem to be problems opening some of the maps. So, it's not perfect, but those without problems sure are fascinating (like Japan in 1694)!