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CIA 2002 World Factbook

The 2002 edition of the CIA's World Factbook is available online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html. Select a country from the drop-down list, and the country's page will open with a thumbnail print of the country's flag. Click on the print to view an enlargement and description of the flag.

Adjacent to the flag is a list of categories that bookmark to locations down the page. You can also browse down the page and view the categories which starts with an introduction that has a map and a brief history of the country. One of the two icons by each heading links to a Field Listing of each country's
categories. The other icon links to definitions and notes, such as how an age structure effects socioeconomic issues.

Browse down the page to view other categories such as People, Communications and Transnational Issues. This site also features Reference Maps which can be enlarged or downloaded as JPG or PDF files. Additional references in the Appendixes include abbreviations and cross referenced data codes listed by country.

Physician.info

Physician.info, at http://www.physician.info, is a portal for locating physicians and doctors inside and outside of the United States. States are listed in alphabetical order with links to searchable resources. Following the states is a list of countries, such as Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom,
that also link to searchable resources.

The states have extensive list of links, sorted alphabetically with brief annotations for the most part. The numbers of links vary with the locations outside of the States. It would be nice if the links here were spaced out
more -- as it is they're hard to read. But it's worth a look.

JustAdvocates.Com

Young lawyers and law students who are especially interested in advocacy might find Just Advocates, at http://www.justadvocates.com, interesting. This site describes itself as "designed for law students and lawyers who believe it matters which side of the 'v.' they are on."

This site's many resources include a database of over 500 law firms covering 30 areas. You can browse the database alphabetically or search by category/state/keyword. Information on the firms includes specialties, contact information, demographic information about the attorneys at the firm, and
responses to several questions about the firm (covering hiring policy, logistics, and compensation.)

But that's not the only thing at the site. There's also advocacy news (though there seems to be a bit of a problem with this at the moment) discussion forums (look rather slow) and a list of links related to advocacy of various
issues (lengthy but not often annotated.)

Misspellings In Library Databases

I went to the State Fair last week. It was difficult for me to enjoy the exhibits and the displays because I was too busy picking out the misspellings and grammatical errors.

Thank goodness I'm not he only person who does that kind of thing. Typographical Errors in Library Databases, at http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/typoscomplete.html, lists words that are likely to be misspelled in library databases. The words are listed in five categories, from highest probability of misspellings to lowest, and color-coded by the date of addition. This is handy if you're doing library database research and want to expand your searches a little bit. The list is available in PDF format so you can print it out and take it with you.

If you like this page, check out its sister page, More Typographical Errors in Library Databases. These are words that are correctly spelled but used improperly (dairy for diary, etc.) There's also a mailing list for people interested in discussing library typos. A fun exploration.

Cuban Missile Crisis Documents From the Washington Post

The Washington Post has announced a special seven-day opportunity to view newspaper articles written between October 22 and October 29, 1962 -- the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

You can get to the newspaper sections at   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/digitalarchive/index.html . Every day a new edition of the newspaper will be added (currently October 22 and
October 23, 1962, and are available.)

The papers are in PDF format. Click on a date and the paper will load. The paper is presented as it originally appeared -- ads, comics, and all. The October 22 paper was 45 pages long. A pull-down menu at the top of the page allows you to choose the page you want to view (there are also forward and
back arrows next to the pull-down menu.)  A zoom of 100% allowed me to read anything I wanted to read, though you can zoom in closer if you like just in case you didn't quite get everything in the Peanuts cartoon.

There are a few other offerings in addition to the newspaper editions. There are pointers to recent stories related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, commentary, and a couple of presentations related to the crisis. Worth a look.

California Nursing Home Search

There are over 1400 nursing homes in the state of California, and now you can search for information about them. The California HealthCare Foundation site, at http://www.calnhs.org/.

From the front page you can either choose a city (from Alameda to Yucca Valley) or you can enter a zip code. (There's also an advanced search that allows you to search by county or facility offerings.)

Entering the zip code 90210 found 36 results. Result pages include the name of the facility, number of beds, city and county, facility type (freestanding, hospital- based, etc.) certification (Medicare, Medi-Cal), and organization type
(for-profit or non-profit or one of many variables thereof.)

Click on the name facility and you'll get additional information, including complete contact information, occupancy rate, and ratings for several different factors including staffing, cost indicators, and quality evaluations.