We were surfing around the web a while back looking for background on a tip regarding NASA hiring Army soldiers to become seismologists (anybody got any info?). We didn't exactly find what we were looking for, but during our search we came across an amazing website called Storming Media,
"a private, independent reseller of Pentagon and other US federal government reports on many subjects. Whether you are interested in biochemistry or military strategy, weapons or noise pollution, or anything in between, Storming Media delivers the information you need with speedy and courteous service and with our money-back guarantee that you will be satisfied. You may order any of our government reports in printed and/or downloadable PDF formats."
We were so intrigued that we emailed the company to find out what the site was all about. Was it run by ex-government employees? Ex-spies? It turns out that the owner, Jock Friedly (Is that his real name?), is a former investigative reporter and former senior managing editor at The Hill newspaper. Way cool. Jock wrote,
"I started Storming Media in 2001. Since then, I have created other companies that deal with federal government information, including PatentStorm (also of potential interest to scientists) and LegiStorm (of more interest to political scientists than real scientists)."
PatentStorm offers patents from the U.S. Patent Office and allows you to perform a full-text search on all patents since 1990. LegiStorm is "the Web's only source for congressional staff salaries." (FYI - Hillary Clinton's highest paid staff member, Deputy Chief of Staff Kris Balderston, earned $64,500 in five months from April to September 2006.)