Whitey - 9:54 pm on Oct 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

We believe it's an important service to our readers to link to further information - some links will be internal, but there's usually at least one external link.

Firstly the Panda algo seems not to be influenced by external links - that is a separate issue.
Secondly, my observation of sites in general supports your view that a useful site might include links to external sources - it could even be a Panda plus "signal" - certainly not a negative if it is done in context.

For this reason i continue to think that no follows are associated or counted with the recipient page ( even if they don't pass link juice or anchor text influence ), but again that's a separate issue and off topic.