USA Today, which has a CAR specialist for every desk, including features and sports, used statistical regression to see if there is a relationship between movie critic ratings and profits at the box office. They found high-rated movies earned more money than low-rated movies.

USA Today also used a 1.2 million record database of speeding tickets for a two-part series on fast drivers.

Queryster aggregates search results from many different search engines.

Forbes maintains a Web business calendar of upcoming business events, including upcoming Webcasts on earnings reports and economic events.

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria, an associate editor and columnist for The Spokesman-Review, has a blog called "No Holds Barred." The blog "will provide an irreverent view of life and politics from the perspective of a conservative curmudgeon."

An interesting interview with a San Jose Mercury News copy editor on weblogs and why newspapers should be making more use of them - especially for breaking news. "It just stands to reason: when the big fires hit San Diego last year, bloggers started posting news updates, comments, personal perspectives, links to other stories. It's an organic reaction to breaking news. It's an indictment of our industry that we've been so slow to catch on to something so painfully obvious. Painful because amateurs are in some cases doing a better job than we are," Tom Mangan says.

Jim Malone recommends Google Watch for all the reasons NOT to use Google.

NICAR's 'NET Tour offers its take on the best Internet sites for journalists.

IRE and NICAR have updated their SBA 8a database on socially and economically disadvantaged businesses. This database contains all businesses that have participated in the SBA 8a program, including the name, address, number of employees in the firm, NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes, and average annual sales of the firm. IRE/NICAR obtains and sells government databases to journalists for a small fee.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has an Oscar database, but this reviewer doesn't think much of it.

BusinessJournalism.org (an affiliate of the American Press Institute) on how the "Top Five Mistakes on the Business Beat are Avoidable."

The Orlando Sentinel has issued a big mea culpa (free registsration required) for its tarnished Oxycontin project. Some of the failings involved computer-assisted reporting: Reporters and researchers used a number of databases to check on the background of a central figure of the series, a former New Mexico cop who was portrayed sympathetically as an innocent victim of the drug. Turns out the newspaper missed a few not so minor details - including a conviction for cocaine trafficking, a guilty plea for forgery, 34 police and court reports involving domestic violence, custody and support disputes with his wife, and a bankruptcy filing. The paper's public editor explained that this happened in part because a reporter did a keyword search of a database wrong and didn't realize the database she searched didn't include New Mexico.

Soople makes it easier to use Google's advanced search features. The creator says he made it for his mother, who "though computer-savvy, still didn't know about all the possibilities Google offers." He says the word "Soople is an early English dialect, which means 'to soften, make supple'."

A member of the Canadian Association of Journalists explains (in an admittedly old article I just came across) how he used a spreadsheet on deadline to explain the election loss of a popular mayor.

The American Camping Association has a searchable database to help you find a summer camp for your children.

There's a blog for everyone: Here's one on sports law.

Waypath is a Weblog search engine that also finds books related to a Web page or blog post.

Find political blogs at Feedster, a Weblog search engine.

Bill Wolfe recommends this free program to create your own PDF files "with just a click or two." You see an ad each time you use it - but if you don't want that you can pay $9.95 for the ad-free version. That compares to hundreds of dollars for the full version of Adobe Acrobat (which does have more features). The company also sells other PDF, imaging and document software.

IRE and NICAR have updated their Federal Audit Clearinghouse database, which "contains audit information for non-profits, state and local agencies that receive substantial assistance from the federal government. The database lists all the federal sources of the organizations' expenditures and the amounts spent, starting in 1997. The data also includes notations about whether the audits have revealed any problems, plus valuable contact information, including names, addresses and phone numbers, for the organizations being audited and the auditors." IRE/NICAR sells databases such as these to journalists for a small fee.

CNET's technology news site News.com is testing e-mail news alerts that send alerts based on keywords, companies or topics.

USA Today and the Des Moines Register used CAR in a joint project on college sport finances that showed how money that normally would have gone to academics is increasingly going to athletic programs. One of its prime examples is the University of Louisville.

A writer points out how journalists use Google to produce meaningless statistics.

Every day University of Pittsburgh law students compile "legal news worth thinking about," including related research materials, every day in The Paper Chase. The site itself, Jurist, is one of the Internet's best legal sites.

Yahoo no longer uses Google's search engine and has developed its own.

AGRIS is a searchable database of research on agriculture.

Weblocator calls itself "the Premier Site for Locating Attorneys and Legal Research"

The Skeptic's Dictionary is "A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions (and how to think critically about them)."

The Reno Gazette-Journal used a doctor disciplinary database to look at "Doctor Discipline: Does Nevada Do Enough?"

The author of the Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook offers a companion Web site containing links from his book. He also offers a comparison chart summarizing the search features of the major search engines.

Search Tuna "'swims deep' into the web, analyzes what it discovers, and emails a complete report"

Some of you used and loved GuruNet when it was known as Atomica and was totally free. You can still get a dumbed down, ad-supported free version, which includes a dictionary, thesaurus, and word translations, but $24 a year gets you the full version with instant access to more than 150 reference sources.

The St. Pete Times used geographical information system (GIS) mapping to report on soaring home prices in its region. The Census Bureau has posted a good one-page collection of historical statistics on population, immigration, marital status, birth and death, school enrollment, crime, GDP and much more.

A journalism professor offers a "checklist of computer-assisted reporting skills." It's a good way to see where your skills stand.

The Polling Report offers free summaries of national polls on Bush, the presidential race and national issues. You have to pay for more detailed information.

Common Nonsense is "a free online textbook. ... about the scientific method and critical thinking, written for students and professionals in business, law and journalism."

You should also check out "A Field Guide to Critical Thinking" from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. As the author points out, one of the reasons for widespread belief in the paranormal is "the irresponsibility of the mass media, who exploit the public taste for nonsense."

The 2003 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States is just out. You can order a book or view it online.

Technorati helps Weblog fans find who's linking to the blog of your choice, which helps you find others that share the same interests.

Mamma, "the Mother of All Search Engines," searches Google, Teoma, Open Directory, Business.com and other search engines in one go.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database contains bibliographic access to over 60,000 "articles, books, news reports, obituaries, motion picture reviews and other material about science fiction and fantasy."

The Librarian's Index to the Internet offers an in-depth collection of resources on the 2004 Presidential Election.

The National Governors Association offers biographical and term information about all the nation's governors.

The 2003 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States is just out. You can order a book or view it online.

Technorati helps Weblog fans find who's linking to the blog of your choice, which helps you find others that share the same interests.

Mamma, "the Mother of All Search Engines," searches Google, Teoma, Open Directory, Business.com and other search engines in one go.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database contains bibliographic access to over 60,000 "articles, books, news reports, obituaries, motion picture reviews and other material about science fiction and fantasy."

The Librarian's Index to the Internet offers an in-depth collection of resources on the 2004 Presidential Election.

The National Governors Association offers biographical and term information about all the nation's governors.

A good tip from Jim Malone on finding a boat's owner:

"Suppose you are following an official you suspect of being in the pocket of unsavory interests and he or she goes to the local marina and boards a fancy yacht or cruiser to party with other revelers. Who are these folks and who owns the boat?

If the boat has a name painted on the transom, you can search ownership records here, for free.

Just type in wildcat as a search term and you can see some Kentucky boats. It not only give you the current owner and address, but also the former owner."

The U.S. Education Department, as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, has begun putting all state's school test results online. Only six states are there now: Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, but eventually all will be. That is, unless they opt out of federal financing all together, as some have threatened to do.

The IRE and NICAR Database Library has updated its SBA Disaster Loans database. It "contains information on disaster loans approved for businesses and individuals by the U.S. Small Business Administration from 1980 through September 2003."

ObitsArchive.com lets you search archived obituaries from newspapers across the U.S. (including, in Kentucky, the CJ's, the Lexington Herald-Leader's and the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer). You have to pay to see the obituaries, for $3.50 each or buy a monthly pass for more, but it could be useful if you're trying to figure out family relationships or otherwise backgrounding the living or dead.

The NY Times reports that "When a Search Engine Isn’t Enough, Call a Librarian." It quotes a professor saying, "When Google doesn't work, most people don't have a plan B." That's true of most journalists too, so remember the people on the third floor.

NPR's ombudsman reflects on the "sexed up" BBC scandal and offers five rules for investigative journalists.

Knight Ridder political reporters are blogging on the presidential trail too.

A Project for Excellence in Journalism study of ten media Web sites found that online coverage is less extensive this year than in 2000.

Yahoo has a 2004 election page.

Personally I find this outrageous: The state of Kentucky now offers an online bill tracking service for this legislative session. Anyone can track up to five bills for free. Good on them for that. But if you want to track more, you have to pay $450 or more. Think about it: That means, essentially, that well-paid lobbyists and insiders can have full access to what's going on in the General Assembly, but average John or Jane Q. Public can't unless they pony up big bucks. What am I missing here? Anybody want to write about it and explain it to me? Or am I just not sufficiently appreciative when our government uses our tax dollars to make money off of us by selling access to itself?

Policeone.com offers "Police and Law Enforcement Resources."

Wikipedia.org's goal is "to create a complete and accurate free content encyclopedia." It now has more than 200,000 articles contributed and edited by anyone who cares to participate.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an online inflation calculator. Given the source, this is the one you should use instead of the many other examples floating around the Web. Not that government sponsorship guarantees its accuracy either.

PRONOM "is a resource for anyone requiring impartial and definitive technical information about the file formats used to store electronic records, and the software products that are required to create, render, or migrate these formats."

New York Times reporters are now blogging from the campaign trail.

The Congressional Directory "presents short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district, and additional data, such as committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and television galleries."

The Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research offers detailed information about school desegregation and court cases involving the racial composition of schools that date back to 1968. It includes information on school districts in all 50 states.

Black Book Online, a companion to "The Investigator's Little Black Book," offers links to "free web searches for investigators."

Loyola University's Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists is "a free service to professional journalists who are seeking the correct course of ethical conduct while covering the news."

WholeHealthMD.com is "dedicated to providing the best in complementary and alternative medicine. All of our information is developed by a team of leading board-certified doctors and specialists." (I offer this because who am I to let my own prejudice against quackery - I mean, alternative medicine, prevent you from risking your health on superstitious remedies?)

PlacesOnLine, a product of the Association of American Geographers, "provides access to the World's very best place-based Web sites."

The Smithsonian offers a caricature collection.

Bright Lights Film Journal "is a popular-academic hybrid of movie analysis, history, and commentary, looking at classic and commercial, independent, exploitation, and international film from a wide range of vantage points from the aesthetic to the

Child Care Aware "is a non-profit initiative committed to helping parents find the best information on locating quality child care and child care resources in their community."

ECOLEX is "a database providing the most comprehensive, global source of information on environmental law."

Indiana U's Lilly Library is offering an online exhibition of caricatures, "from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and to the presidential elections of 1860 and 1864."

All about the bird flu:

• World Health Organization
• Centers for Disease Control

The National Security Archive is hosting declassified government documents, the Saddam Hussein Sourcebook, detailing "Secrets from the U.S.-Iraq Relationship."