INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
December 23, 2001
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #52 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!
Thanks to Gary Price at the Virtual Acquisition Shelf and Steven Cohen’s Library Stuff for the nice mentions last week. Visit their sites -- they both have a lot of great resources for lawyers and librarians alike!
Welcome to all my new subscribers – for the holidays, this will be a slimmed-down version of the Weekly, with only some site reviews and other fun holiday-type stuff.
And away we go…..
News Update
What? MORE Google Headlines?
Yep – another week, and Google is STILL in the news. First, Google debuts a clean, simple page of up-to-date news headlines each day – a good place to quickly read your news.And Google Zeitgeist, which collects and reports the most popular searches on the Internet, is out with its “Best of 2001” report.
E-Filing a Natural Consequence of Anthrax Scare
The Supreme Court is considering acceptance of electronic filing, in the wake of this year’s anthrax threats.Help Desk
Has anyone installed Windows XP yet? I have, and I must say it’s the best thing that’s happened to my computer since – well, ever. Since getting rid of Windows ME two months ago, I have had no serious computer crashes – this system is amazingly stable now. Anyway, if you have XP, here’s a tip for you – this tip will probably work in previous versions too:
Are you tired of getting spam in your Outlook Inbox? Stop that spammer – right click the message name in your inbox, and choose Junk E-Mail. When you get a submenu, choose “Add to Junk Sender’s List” – from then on, that sender’s e-mail should be blocked.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail– I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
Understanding Your Tests
Have you ever gone to the doctor’s office and wondered what the heck they were talking about when they talked about your bilirubin, or triglycerides? Presented by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Understanding Your Tests aims to change that. Just select from the long list of tests, and learn more about them then you ever wanted to know. Learn how the test is taken, how it’s measured, and have your questions about each test answered. This site is extremely useful for lawyers/paralegals who have to read a lot of medical records
in their practice.Abyz News Links
Looking for a new gateway for your news and information needs? Try Abyz, which has a terrific set of links to both print and broadcast media sites. The layout is clean and very easy to use – I was able to find out about Supertyphoon Faxai’s current threat to Guam in less than a minute. You will also have the ability to add or modify links in Abyz’s database in the near future.Crime and Justice Data Online
A service of the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Crime and Justice data you can find here is grouped into three areas – crime trends, homicide trends, and law enforcement management and administration statistics. Most of the federal information dates back to 1960, with the state and local information back to 1985. Once you select a particular type of statistic you’re looking for, you can customize your search in a number of ways. You can search by violent or property crimes, and narrow your search to one state or multiple states.Daypop
I *love* Daypop. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to tell you about it. Daypop describes itself as “a current events/weblog/news search engine. The site searches over 6,000 news and weblog sites every day, so its content is more current than regular search engines. Daypop is similar to Rocket News, except it also provides information from weblogs, which are small online communities on almost every topic imaginable. A fun thing to try is the Daypop Top 40, which lists the most popular stories/sites of the day.Firmseek
Firmseek hopes to be a place where professionals and those seeking their services meet. There are areas for lawyers, consultants, accountants, lobbyists, and finance and public relations professionals, with a directory so companies or individuals can search for them. Firmseek offers a service it calls Network Relationship Management, which helps institutional buyers of professional services gain competitive advantage through stronger professional relationships and institutional networking. Toward that end, there are databases containing Requests for Information and Requests for Proposals. Firmseek could be a good place to network and further increase your firm exposure.InstaCase
The goal of this site is “to provide the legal professional with immediate access to court decisions.” Big goal, huh? Unfortunately, this site is limited to eleven jurisdictions (U.S. Supreme Court, Third Circuit, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Maryland, California, Texas, Vermont, Delaware), and I could not be sure whether the decisions mentioned are all the cases available. You can visit the site or receive daily e-mails free of charge, or you can subscribe to Igest, a more expanded service for $99/year or $8.50/month.Portals to the World
This very plain site from the Library of Congress packs a wallop in terms of resources available. Just select a country, and find links to general, business, embassies, education, law, government, history, and many more sources of information. A good place to start your research on one of the world’s countries.The Business Law Site
Law firms that understand the Internet don’t just create a firm website – they create a website on a specific subject. The Business Law Site is such a creation – brought to you by Methven and Associates, a California law firm. The design of the site isn’t very sophisticated, but there are many helpful links here for the business law practitioner, especially in California. You can also subscribe to a periodic newsletter, which appears to cater to business law on the Internet.Vera Institute of Justice
Compared to the site above, the Vera Institute of Justice had an extremely sophisticated site designer – there’s lots of flash and java here. The Institute is 40 years old, and provides resources to those arrested in the New York City area who cannot afford bail but nevertheless can be trusted based upon their ties to the community. But Vera doesn’t stop there – it has developed plans for dealing with many problems in the criminal justice field, from drug treatment for juvenile offenders to school safety planning to rehabilitating prisoners and ex-offenders. The Vera site is HUGE – if you’re interested at all in criminal justice reform, this is a terrific place to get information.Accident Investigation Search
This service of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration provides access to workplace accident information. The database purports to range from 1972 to the present, but the searches I conducted did not reveal any documents after 1997. You can search by keyword, or browse the alphabetical index. I found 256 results for “flammable liquid,” including a 1993 even where an employee was burned by magnesium particles. There you can find specific information on the accident, as well as the penalty issued by OSHA to the employer.
And now, for some fun and useful sites:
Do you have a birdfeeder? Birdfeeders? Do birds flock to your window or backyard? Cornell University wants YOU! Head over to Project Feeder Watch and become a volunteer data-gatherer. They are trying to collect migration statistics from bird feeders all over the country.
Trying to avoid having lunch with that boring friend? Try E-mail Alibi – it will send out delayed e-mails to make others think you really care. But what happens if they respond to your e-mail and you don’t write back? Hmmmm.
A few months ago, a British website attempted to determine the “world’s funniest joke,” by asking for submissions. Without further ado, here’s the winner (I take no responsibility for whether it’s actually funny or not):Famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his gruff assistant Doctor Watson pitch their tent while on a camping expedition, but in the middle of the night Holmes nudges Watson awake and questions him.
HOLMES: Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce.
WATSON: I see millions of stars, and if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it is quite likely there are some planets like earth, and if there are a few planets like earth out there might also be life.
HOLMES: Watson, you idiot! Somebody stole our tent!
And for your last-minute Christmas pleasure, here are some links to try:
A Louisiana man was arrested after attacking a 7-foot Christmas tree in the Bossier Parish Courthouse – Bah Humbug!
Now, technology makes it possible for you and your child to track Santa as he heads across the globe on Christmas Eve – just head over to beginning at 4:00 a.m. eastern time on December 24, and you can track him all the way to your house!
Well, that’s it for Issue #52 – I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.
Tom Mighell
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