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These are the research sources I keep on my bookmarks list.
Some are free, some cost money but allow you to accumulate "points" in place of
money, and then some just cost money - but reasonable amounts for the data made
available.
Free:
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Supreme Court of the United States - 2005 Slip
Opinions of the Court
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/slipopinions.aspx
This site contains the "slip", or first
officially-printed version, of decisions of the US Supreme Court.
Opinions are generally released on the website in the afternoon of the
decision, in Adobe Acrobat format. Although Mark Twain was of the
opinion that "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the
legislature is in session", the members of the legislature, unlike US
Supreme Court Justices, don't serve for life. Who knows what will
happen while the Court is in session? At least you can find out
at this site what's just become legal or illegal. |
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Bartleby.com - Great Books Online
http://bartleby.com
This site allows you to read or search several
publications, including:
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the American Heritage Dictionary (current
edition), the Columbia Encyclopedia, and three collections of
quotations;
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specialized references such as the King James
Bible, Gray's Anatomy, and Strunk's Elements of Style;
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various works such authors as Shakespeare, Aesop,
Chesterton, and many others.
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FindArticles - Over 10 million articles from over
a thousand publications
http://www.findarticles.com/
This site contains indexed, searchable links to
articles in publications ranging from newspapers to general circulation
magazines to scholarly journals. One drawback is that some of the
articles are only available through premium services; however, that still leaves plenty of articles that don't
require those services. |
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FindLaw - Laws, Court Decisions, and General Legal
information
http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/
This site contains the US Code (US Federal law), the
US Code of Federal Regulations (rules established by Executive Branch
departments), the Federal Register (proposed or newly approved Federal
Regulations), the laws of the several US States, as well as general
legal information and assistance in finding legal representation. |
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iLoveLanguages - places to find language resources
http://www.ilovelanguages.com/
This site is not a resource in itself; rather, it
contains a comprehensive catalog of language-related information.
Generally, easier to use than a general index like Google or Yahoo when
looking for specific language-related information. |
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PoemHunter.com
http://www.poemhunter.com/
This site contains about 100,000 poems, browsable
and searchable, from both widely recognized authors and from people
you likely never heard of. It also has lyrics to 40,000 songs, and
a collection of quotations. |
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RhymeZone
http://www.rhymezone.com/
Writing your own poems? Stuck for a rhyme?
Go to this site and your problems may be ended - at least in rhyming. |
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stats
http://www.stats.org/
This site, maintained by George Mason University,
researches the statistics presented by news media. |
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Free with points, or else
pay-for-access:
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Experts Exchange
http://www.experts-exchange.com/
OK, just skip this one if you're not a computer geek.
;> If you are a computer geek, here's your chance both to
show off what you know - and get increased access for showing off
in the bargain - or to ask those questions that the software providers
never seem to be able to answer even for fifty bucks a question. There
is a limited access option, with ads, available for free. By
accumulating points (for being an accurate show-off) - or by taking
the shortcut and paying (US$ 99.50 / yr as of Jan 2006) - you get
access to premium services such as unlimited questions and no ads. |
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These sites want money - but look at
what you get!
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questia
https://www.questia.com/
This site is so not kidding. About the size
of the library, I mean. Over 60,000 books, fully searchable
and browsable. 100 magazines, mainly not overlapping with
KeepMedia; and over 500 journals, also fully searchable and browsable. The
site also provides a way to quickly organize multiple research projects
and to create citations to the source media easily and quickly.
On the yearly plan, questia charges (as of Jan 2006)
US$ 100 / yr for the service. |
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Safari
http://safari.oreilly.com/
Another item for those who are not computer geeks to
skip.
For the rest of you... isn't it a pain when you're
sitting there programming, or configuring a network, and you just
don't have the proper instructions for what you're trying
to do - or you have them somewhere, buried under what seems to be 20
tons of coax cable and those old 300-baud modems the department never
threw out? Safari is the solution to that problem. Questia
(above) doesn't cover computer science books. Safari only
covers those. Over 1300 of those, including all the
O'Reilly books.
The pricing structure is a bit complicated:
when you sign up for the service, you get a "bookshelf". The
prices are set based on how many "slots" you have on your bookshelf.
Most books occupy one slot; some occupy two, and some occupy one-half
of a slot. You can search the entire library at once, but if you
need detailed information from a book, you must place it on your
bookshelf. Once you've placed it on your bookshelf, it cannot be
removed for 30 days. Another complication to the pricing
structure is "Max" - which gives you the opportunity to download
chapters (and costs more) - versus "Basic".
Bookshelves come in 5-slot, 10-slot, 20-slot, and
30-slot sizes, ranging in price (for Basic service) from US$ 110
to US$ 330 / yr. It may seem a bit pricey... but if you're
an alpha geek, just look at how much you spent on computer books
in the past year - and just see if you can find them. I personally
have found the 10-slot sufficient for my needs.
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