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For something totally silly, especially if you're a fan of sites like Stuff White People Like , here's a new one: Stuff Journalists Like . Like 'Professional Organizations': Journalists need to connect with others who enjoy long talks about deadlines, copies and incompetent editors. That is why journalists like professional organizations. Groups like Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors give journalists a sense of community and a place to feel better about the career choices they have made. (Via Miranda Writes .)

Europeana is a just-released Web site that is a repository for information from archives all over Europe, including "digitised books, films, paintings, newspapers, sounds and archives from Europe’s greatest collections."... Unfortunately the demand has exceeded server supply and the site is now down and being retooled to re-open in 'mid-December'. A development site is still up, in English only. Measuring Worth gives you 'six ways to measure the relative value of a U.S. dollar amount, 1774-present.' Policy Archive , a 'a comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 16,000 documents'. The Bivings Report gives us The Top 10 Best Newspaper Websites . The Washington Post and New York Times, no surprise, but how about two Tennessee newspapers?

( An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) ( See the posts in chronological order ) A few days after the election, as the reality of Nixon's election sunk in, Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block ran his 'free shave' cartoon: it depicted his studio, with a barber pole outside a window, and a sign on the wall: " This shop gives to every new president of the United States a free shave. H. Block, proprietor. " A shaving mug and brush stood on the desk next to post of pens and bottles of ink. (For those who don't remember, Herblock's depictions of Nixon had long featured a thuggish dark-bearded character. During the campaign, Post editor Russ Wiggins had sent Block a razor with a poem asking 'Give that man a shave'. Block's response: " He's shaved with new Gillettes 'n' Shicks 'n' Still he is the same old Nix'n. ") One happy result of the election: Shirley Chisholm of New York was elected to Congress, th...

The announcement yesterday of the availability of the Life Magazine photo archive on Google Image has lots of sites buzzing. (See Sheila Lennon , for example...) Getting access to this treasure trove is nearly unbelievable, and will be invaluable to researchers and historians. Take one search, for example: searching 'Miami' on the archive finds two great collections, a series of many photos taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in winter 1940, mostly on Miami Beach; and a large number of photos from the 1972 Republican National Convention that nominated Richard Nixon. A small collection of other random photos completes the list, some well-identified like the Eisenstaedt photos and others nearly unidentifiable. A couple of the 1940 Eisenstaedt photos: (The second photo is from a cold spell in which temperatures hit 31 degrees for a couple days. There are others, including one of a woman wearing a mink jacket over her bathing suit -- fascinating stuff.)

At ProPublica, Jennifer LaFleur reports that the Obama agenda pages are back at Change.gov. Some have been rewritten. (See previous reference here.)

Wall Street Journal's Photo Journal large versions of photos in the news, like the Boston Globe's Big Picture. The Plum Book (United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions): 2008 Edition , list of openings in the Federal govt. Comics.com has opened up a huge archive of United Features comics for free , including 50 years of Peanuts. Also: The British Cartoon Archive . Credit card industry facts, debt statistics 2006-2008 Plant Information Online From U. Minn. libraries, "finds sources in 1054 North American nurseries for 107631 plants, find 377083 citations to 140104 plants in science and garden literature, link to selected websites for images and regional information about 12759 plants, and access information on 2448 North American seed and nursery firms. " World Stadiums Database , the "most comprehensive stadium database on the net, which currently contains more than 10 000 stadiums in over 223 countries".

All over the country, gun stores are seeing sales jump in response to Barack Obama's election. Gun enthusiasts...never comfortable with Obama's stated laisse faire policy on guns....are saying 'I told you so' now that the election is over and it's clear that Dems will control both houses of Congress and the presidency. The biggest concern to many: the assault weapons ban put in during the Clinton administration and allowed to expire after G. W. Bush became president. So what's the truth about Obama's policy towards gun ownership? Factcheck.org published a good rundown during the campaign, citing NRA propaganda that made all sorts of outlandish claims about what could happen to gun laws. Most of the claims are debunked, but the report does link to an early Obama policy agenda sheet on Urban Policy that does promise to make the assault weapon ban permanent, close the 'gun show loophole' and make all weapons childproof. This policy sheet has been seiz...

I started a website with a 'blog' page in early November 2000, which I remember because I missed the Ramble at Fairchild Tropical Garden that weekend, putting it together, and because just about that time we discovered that the results of the presidential election were in doubt -- and would be for several weeks. Most of the first postings were about that election and the legal and political wranglings around the Florida results. I also posted a page of links about it, which I still get asked for at times (I have found a copy of that page but haven't posted it since all the links are out of date). The original Web site and 'blog' are gone now, since I changed Web providers last winter. The blog was converted to a Blogspot blog in August 2002.

Good posting from Ken Doctor on his Content Bridges blog: 10 truths the press can learn from the Obama campaign.

There's a new website for the president-elect: Change.gov . Lots of information here on the inauguration, the new administration, the agenda (or will be). It includes a link to Presidential Transition Resources site, a directory of new position holders as they are named. Should be very helpful. ( Updated: ) Also see Sheila Lennon's posting on the new site. This is a surprise, I think, considering that in the past I haven't found federal government websites to be particularly current; I must say there has been a big change in the last year or so and new websites have been coming online in response to current issues. (Example: another new site for information on veteran services, Warrior Care .) But: was this created by the Obama team and a totally new product, not a product of the current administration's web team? It'll be interesting watching what the Obama administration does with the federal Web. I just hope there aren't lots and lots of URL changes, as ha...

I love Joel Achenbach's blog posting with photos of the spontaneous demonstration that erupted outside the White House Tuesday night: All-Night Party at the White House ; as well has his report on the lines for copies of the Washington Post the next day. (And more, on other demonstrations .) Washington was always a place where you never knew what was going to happen next, and people came out to express their feelings. I still miss it some days.

In The Times Online, an interesting analysis of the state of American politics: It was a great victory - but not for the Left . The Guardian has a good three-part Obama biography: The Obama Story . Slide show: Road to the White House . Then there's Newsweek's blockbuster, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign .

Great story in next month's Vanity Fair about the New York Times bureau in Iraq, the only U.S paper that hasn't cut back it's in-country coverage. The New York Times’s Lonely War.

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) (See the posts in chronological order ) November 5. The election was upon us, a scary time. The choice, between LBJ's vice president Hubert Humphrey, a likable former mayor, congressman and senator from Minnesota who had for years been a reliable liberal campaigner, and Nixon. In 1948 HHH had been one of the first who stood up to the southern Democrats and demanded a civil rights plank. He introduced the bill that created the Peace Corps. He had tried for the presidential nomination in 1960 and gave up his senate post and majority whip position to become LBJ's VP in '64. Despite all his good points, many Democrats and other voters, especially the young, deplored his complete loyalty to LBJ and support of Johnson's war effort and were upset he was the nominee instead of the dead Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy. A Tom Lehrer song " Whatever Became of Hubert? " went " I wonder how many people here tonight...

Dress Like Palin . What you could do with Sarah's spending money.

Right here. No lines. (Although one began to accumulate as we were leaving.)

How The Times followed a trail to find Barack Obama’s aunt .

Our Vote Live tracks election problems during election day. Google Elections Gallery will show real-time elections results on maps. fivethirtyeight.com on electoral projections. Early Voting Database, 2008 . 2008 Electopedia from New York magazine. Ballot Measures Database from Natl Conference of State Legislatures. Ballotopedia . The International IDEA Voter Turnout Website . And something else in the news: Failed Bank List from the FDIC.

Up the mountain road near us on the way to Hiwassee Dam, a sign at a small country church, saying something like this: 'Never fear change. Think how glorious fall is'. Yet, in front of many of the houses nearby, little shacks with junk and dead cars in the yard and little insulation or even siding, lots and lots of McCain/Palin signs. Hmmm. Then again, in the Asheville Citizen Times, a 103 year old woman voted for the first time in her life. She and her husband raised their children in a log cabin and she says she never voted because 'he took care of all that'. Urged by a granddaughter, she got in an absentee ballot -- for McCain. 103-year-old woman becomes first time voter. Speaking of those fall colors: Photos at Southern Highlands Cam .