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Newsletter 11-25-2007
Government data and lots of it can be found here.
FedStats provides easy access to statistics and information produced by more than 100 U.S. Federal Government agencies. The site provides data from U.S. Government statistics on various demographic indicators such as aging, agriculture, equal opportunity, population, etc.
http://www.fedstats.gov/fast.html
Continuing with government data, we have to include the largest government agency with respect to data, the Census Bureau. As the nation’s largest statistical agency, their website provides a vital national resource. The pages contain a wealth of statistical information about the nation’s people and its economy – information that is used by the general public and researchers, as well as federal, state, and local governments, in making important decisions. Their website also provides information about the surveys they conduct and the information that is available.
http://www.census.gov/
Keeping on out data theme for this week, The Annual Reports Service from Yahoo, is a FREE Service provided by PrecisionIR for the readers of Yahoo! Finance. The Annual Reports Service provides you with quick access to annual reports and other information on select companies. New companies are added weekly. You’ll receive the latest edition, and where possible, be registered for the new report once it’s received. Use the following search options to find the information in which you are interested.
http://yahoo.ar.wilink.com/asp/YAH1_search_ENG.asp
What about your personal financial data? How is your credit report doing these days?
The following site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
Ok, back to the large data collector, the US government, also provides useful info like the Consumer Price Index.
The Consumer Price Indexes program produces monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. This site is by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/
IF you managed to read all the above data, Project Gutenberg was started to make as many books as possible free in electronic format. There are over 20,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog. A grand total of over 100,000 titles is available at Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.”
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Newsletter 11-18-2007
This Thursday marks Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. We have a lot to be thankful for, especially as we look around and see what we have and what other less fortunate people are doing without. Make a pledge to help some unfortunate person this week while saying Happy Thanksgiving.
For many years, most of the best writers of the English language found their way to Don Swaim’s CBS Radio studio in New York. The one-on-one interviews typically lasted 30 to 45 minutes and then had to be edited down to a two-minute radio show. Wired for Books is proud to make these important oral documents publicly available for the first time in their entirety. Listen to the voices of many of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
http://wiredforbooks.org/index2.htm
The Encyclopedia of Television includes more than 1,000 original essays from more than 250 contributors and examines specific programs and people, historic moments and trends, major policy disputes and such topics as violence, tabloid television and the quiz show scandal. It also includes histories of major television networks as well as broadcasting systems around the world and is complemented by resource materials, photos and bibliographical information.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/index.html
Quote from the above web site.
“Hollywood studios, led by Universal Pictures and Disney, promptly brought a challenge in Federal Court, claiming that the device inherently was useful only for stealing copyrighted material. The issue oscillated in court until 1984, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that home taping for home use was not an infringement of copyright, Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984), the “Betamax case.” From that date, sales of home recorders and the rental of tapes exploded. The studios have come to enjoy greater revenue from cassette sales and rentals than from theatrical exhibition, and must look back in wonder at their temporary insanity.”
History is now repeating itself again. You can fill in the blanks. (CDRW, DVDRW) (MPIA,RIAA) (HDDVD vs. Blue-Ray) and the list goes on.
On October 14th I posted a challenge on my blog (http://seniorgeek.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/your-tax-dollars-where-should-they-go/ )for you to tell me what percentage of your tax dollars should go to what item. If you haven’t responded and posted your thoughts, now is the time. The following web site will give you the complete list of how the federal government spends your tax dollars.
http://govbudget.com/front/
Whether you are young or old, this web site has an incredible collection of brain games, thinking puzzles and other online recreations to keep you pleasantly entertained for many, many hours. OK, so it is not the latest high tech graphical take no prisoners game, it does have time tested enjoyable games that many have enjoyed over the years.
http://thinks.com
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Newsletter 11-11-2007
Please remember all the veterans that served proudly defending our country.
Armistice Day officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans. In 1968, new legislation changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.
http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday
What is America’s oldest continuously published periodical that features the best in home, garden, history, food, and fun? Don’t know? Well check the following link and you will know.
http://www.almanac.com/
“This site is dedicated to poetry and to the people who make poetry possible: poets and their readers. FamousPoetsAndPoems.com is a free poetry site. On our site you can find a large collection of poems and quotes from over 628 poets.”
http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/
Asserting that one must first know the rules to break them, this classic reference book is a must-have for any student and conscientious writer. Intended for use in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature, it gives in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style and concentrates attention on the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated.
http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
Do you have this great idea that for an invention? If so read on.
This handbook was created by the Lemelson-MIT Program to address the independent inventor’s and aspiring entrepreneur’s most frequently asked questions regarding United States patents. We hope that this handbook will provide some helpful information on the patenting and commercialization processes.
http://web.mit.edu/invent/h-main.html
Need to know if a commercial flight is on time? How about its current location in flight? FlightAware is a free flight tracker that will change what you think about live flight tracking and aviation information. Tracking 4,337 airborne aircraft with 54,421,683 total flights in the database.
FlightAware has tracked 39,657 arrivals in the last 24 hours.
http://flightaware.com/
With the cost of gasoline rising it pays to know what to expect to pay and if you are getting a reasonable price. AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report is updated each day and is the most comprehensive retail gasoline survey available. Everyday up to 85,000 self-serve stations are surveyed.
http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/
