Archive for October, 2006

Pafalafa-ga noticed an interesting New York Times article entitled Daughter Seeks Sins of Father: Are There Any? It's an engaging story of Mrs Coffey, a 75-year-old who has niggling doubts about a murder that occurred after her late father was arrested for graft.

Whilst attempting to track down anything related to the incident, Mrs Coffey's trail went cold. Her son Bill then turned to Google Answers:

But then, at last, a breakthrough: With the help of a $200 inquiry on Google Answers, a Web site Mr. Coffey turned to for guidance, he discovered that Mr. Sebeks death certificate was tucked away in New Yorks municipal archives. Five weeks later, in April, a copy of the certificate arrived in Mr. Coffeys mailbox.

The mystery is still not completely solved, but thanks to politicalguru-ga's answer a few more clues were uncovered.

More than 500,000 eBooks can be downloaded free of charge from the World eBook Fair during October (membership is normally $8.95 per year).

The collection is a real mixed bag. It includes many titles readily available elsewhere (such as the Project Gutenberg collection), and it includes many long, dry government documents (such as WMD reports).

But there are some real gems too. My favourite section is Renascence Editions – an online repository of works printed in English between the years 1477 and 1799. For example, you can read Queen Elizabeth the First’s “A Proclamation agaynst the maintenaunce of Pirates” from 1569.

Probably the best place to start is with the World eBook Fair’s list of collections.