Recent CRS Reports: Economic Effects of Capital Gains Taxation, Economic Stimulus, Cuba, Endangered Species Act
March 04, 2009 - The Economic Effects of Capital Gains Taxation
March 03, 2009 - Medicare Advantage
February 27, 2009 - Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies
February 25, 2009 - Cuba: Issues for the 111th Congress
February 25, 2009 - The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 111th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices
February 25, 2009 - Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier (CVN) Homeporting at Mayport: Background and Issues for Congress

LLRX.com : Knowledge Discovery Resources 2009: An Internet MiniGuide Annotated Link Compilation - Marcus P. Zillman's compilation is dedicated to the latest and most reliable resources for knowledge discovery available through the Internet. This wide ranging selection of resources provides specialized tools, applications and sources relevant to researchers from many disciplines.

Data rot affects computers. Over the years, both the hardware and software programs become obsolete and are abandoned. Just ask biotech worker Bill LaVia, who can no longer open his slideshow presentations from ten years ago. "The program is Aldus Persuasion, and it was a slideshow presentation program. They basically went out of business, because PowerPoint took over that marketplace." PowerPoint can’t open his Persuasion files. In fact, so many computer formats have come and gone, they could fill a museum. And they do: The Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley.
Converting your old recordings to digital formats is only the beginning. Preserving those files is a job that will last the rest of your life, and beyond.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/01/sunday/main4836569.shtml

Federal Reserve Bank Beige Book
"Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that national economic conditions deteriorated further during the reporting period of January through late February. Ten of the twelve reports indicated weaker conditions or declines in economic activity; the exceptions were Philadelphia and Chicago, which reported that their regional economies "remained weak." The deterioration was broad based, with only a few sectors such as basic food production and pharmaceuticals appearing to be exceptions. Looking ahead, contacts from various Districts rate the prospects for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010."
The Beige Book, March 4, 2009: Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District

March 2009 Petroleum Marketing Monthly With Data for December 2008 (03/02/2009): "Monthly price and volume statistics on crude oil and petroleum products at a national, regional and state level. Also including feature article: A Comparison of EIA-782 Petroleum Product Price and Volume Data with Other Sources, 1998 to 2007."

Hundreds Call on EPA to Restore Public Access to Toxic Pollution Information
Hundreds of national, state, and local groups and individual signers have called on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to reverse a 2006 Environmental Protection Agency rule that limits public access to information about toxic chemical releases. The rule, finalized in December 2006, allows industries to withhold information on the quantities and locations of toxic chemical releases previously reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).
Delivering a letter (PDF; 96 KB) signed by 238 state, local, and national organizations, along with nearly 1,300 individual signers, the groups urged the EPA to settle an ongoing lawsuit with 13 states and invalidate the Toxics Release Inventory Burden Reduction Final Rule (71 Federal Register 76932-45).

bon ton noun
1. Good form or style
2. Something regarded as fashionably right
3. High society
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally, good tone A.Word.A.Day

March 8 is the birthday of Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1841). He joined the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers to fight in the Civil War, and he was shot once in the chest, once in the neck, and once in the heel. While recovering from his third wound, a family friend came to visit and asked Holmes what he'd learned about war. He said, "War? War is an organized bore." He decided to study law. He became a legal scholar and lectured at Harvard. In one of his lectures, he said, "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience ... and it cannot be dealt with as ... a book of mathematics." Teddy Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court, and he served for 30 years.
March 8 is the birthday of writer John McPhee, (books by this author) born in Princeton, New Jersey (1931). He writes for The New Yorker, and his subjects have included canoes, geology, tennis, nuclear energy, the Swiss army, and his family tree. He was rejected by The New Yorker for 10 years before he finally published his first article there.
On March 9, 1959 the Barbie doll first appeared, at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. A woman named Ruth Handler noticed that when her daughter, Barbara, played with dolls, she liked to give them adult roles. At the time, most dolls were baby dolls, and only paper dolls were made to look like adults. Ruth's husband, Elliot, was the co-founder of a small toy manufacturer named Mattel, and Ruth suggested to her husband that Mattel make an adult doll for children to play with, but he thought it would be a failure. Then, on a trip to Germany, Ruth found exactly what she had imagined: a doll called the Lilli doll. Ruth didn't realize that Lilli was based on a prostitute in a cartoon, and had been created as a toy for adults. She bought three Lilli dolls, brought them back to America, and Mattel changed the doll's design, renamed it Barbie (after Ruth's daughter), and debuted it on this day in 1959. In the last 50 years, Mattel has sold more than 1 billion Barbie dolls. The Writer’s Almanac