Rowland Institute Library Blog

Several library association, along with  the National Security
Archive and public interest groups, filed an amicus brief in the
Supreme Court case waged by Vice President Cheney to keep his Energy
Task Force documents confidential.  The amici state they “share
the copnviction that broad access to government records protects values
essential to representative democracy.” (Source: beSpacific, which has a full page devoted to reporting on the case.)

there’s an article on the front page today’s Harvard University Gazette
that delighted me as much as anything I ‘ve read recently…. “Academic
turns city into social experiment” profiles Antanas Mockus (is that his
real name or was he sent to “Mock us”?), mayor of Bogota, who recently
spent two weeks as a visiting fellow at Harvard.  In a city racked
by murder and despair, Mockus used theater to get people back into the
idea of civic investment.  The picture on the front page shows a
“traffic mime” waving an “incorrecto” sign at a jaywalker.  Other
innovations included a ladies-only night in the city, during which men
went home and policewomen were in charge of security.  Mockus got
to people to use cards (“thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down”) to express
approval or disapproval of their fellow citizens’ public behavior and
launched an anti-terrorism march, “‘a vaccine against violence’, asking
people to draw the faces of the people who had hurt them on balloons,
which they then popped.”  the latter  drew 50,000
participants.  As a result, among other improvements, people are
saving water, paying taxes and engaging in civic life.  
Extraordinary….

“News organized by topic and location” says Topix.net … You can plug
in your zip code and get news stories proximate to your area, or browse
by specific location, person in the news, or from a variety of
categories. Even has XML feeds. (Source: ResourceShelf)