The Scout Report

August 8, 1997

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin

A Project of the InterNIC

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.
Note to our readers:
We are appreciative of the fact that many of you find the Scout Report a useful resource. We also understand that no matter how useful it is, five copies of it are not five times as useful.:) We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the listserv software error that distributed multiple copies of the August 1, 1997 report. We would like to thank the many readers who alerted us to the problem, and expedited its quick solution.Thanks for your patience. [JS]

Addition to the Scout Toolkit
End User's Corner--August 1997
scout.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/enduser/archive/1997/euc-9708
Scout Toolkit
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/
Librarians--Gatekeepers of the Information Age, or the New Luddites: Views from the 116th ALA Conference, has been added to the End User's Corner section of the Toolkit. It discusses the wide range of attitudes that librarians have toward the Internet as an information resource, as demonstrated in microcosm in a conference session led by Michael Gorman, James Rettig, and Samuel Demas at the recent American Library Association Conference in San Francisco. [JS]
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TRAC FBI Web Site
http://trac.syr.edu/tracfbi/
The Transactional Records Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, a widely respected independent and non-partisan "data gathering, data research and data distribution organization," has done it again. TRAC's new FBI site is unparalleled for the amount of information it offers on one of the least monitored federal agencies. After free registration, users can access over 23,000 pages of information, including numerous tables, maps, and graphs. Findings and data graphics on the FBI are divided into five sections: Key Findings, FBI national Profile and Enforcement Trends Over Time, White Collar Counts, FBI at Work, and District Enforcement. The site also directs users to the text of criminal statutes enforced by the FBI and the sources for the data, including descriptions of strengths and weaknesses. This site demonstrates how technology and the Freedom of Information Act can be combined to provide citizens with highly-detailed but easy to acess information about their government. [MD]
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Human Anatomy On-line [frames, Java]
http://www.innerbody.com/
The Informative Graphics Corporation offers an excellent educational aid/tutorial. Human Anatomy On-line presents an interactive environment for the end user through the use of Java applets, over one hundred images, and animations. What makes this site so interesting is its use of descriptive links which provide names, information, and in some cases a link to an image providing a closer view. Human Anatomy On-line offers both the Interactive Anatomy version for exploration on your own and the Anatomy Lesson for a guided tour. IGC specializes in the development of commercial viewing software, however this site is free to all. [TB]
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American Studies Electronic Crossroads (ASEC)
http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/
This site, sponsored by the American Studies Association and hosted by Georgetown University, is an excellent collection of resources for using technology in American Studies classrooms. ASEC is equally useful for both novice and veteran users of electronic teaching tools, as it offers beginner's guides as well as cutting edge electronic curriculum research and case studies. The site is divided into four sections. Under Communities, users will find newsletters, links, conferences, and professional opportunities of interest to the American Studies community. Technology and Learning offers indexes to online courses and syllabi, workshops, case studies, and other resources related to developing and improving electronic-based instruction. The Curriculum section includes guides to American Studies academic programs and essays on teaching the subject. Finally, Reference and Research features an American Studies Virtual Library and a collection of search tools. Instructors at any level who want to begin or improve their use of technology-based learning tools will find numerous items of interest. [MD]
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Review and Atlas of Palaeovegetation
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tjms/adams1.html
Updated atlas maps:
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/ern/qen/nerc.html
The Review and Atlas of Palaeovegetation is an exemplary site provided by Jonathan Adams, Ph.D. and the Quaternary Environments Network (QEN), Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, England. The QEN Atlas provides land ecosystem maps for seven major regions of the world since the Last Glacial Maximum (18,000 years ago). These regions include Africa, Australia, Eurasia, Europe, North America, and South America. Also provided are maps detailing the early Holocene (8,000 years ago), the mid Holocene (5,000 years ago), as well as the late Holocene periods. The late Holocene map is described as the 'present-potential' since it provides an approximation of the late Holocene vegetation without agricultural modification. A detailed key and discussions of the vegetation types greatly enhance the maps. Recently updated maps to the QEN Atlas are availabe at the second URL. [TB]
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Anthropology in the News
http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/news.html
This site at Texas A&M features frequently updated links to anthropology news stories published on the web by major news sources and university press releases. Please note that "some services require that you register and select a password in order to retrieve articles, but none of the services listed here charge a fee to retrieve these news stories." [MD]
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UniGuide Guide to U.S. Universities [frames]
http://www.aldea.com/guides/gu/attframes3.html
[Note: Site title has changed since the original Scout Report review. Site formerly referred to in the Scout Report as "InterNIC Guide to US Universities."]
UniGuide Academic Guide to the Internet [frames]
http://www.aldea.com/guides/ag/attframes2.html
[Note: Site title has changed since the original Scout Report review. Site formerly referred to in the Scout Report as "InterNIC Academic Guide to the Internet."] InterNIC Directory and Database Services have introduced a new online guide to American universities to complement their pre-existing Academic Guide. Users of the Guide to Universities can search by name of institution or by state. Search results include contact information (generally the computer science department or information services) and a link to the institution's web site. The Academic Guide to the Internet was created especially for the higher education research and education community. The site is divided into topical listings of primarily science-related categories. These include: Biological Sciences, Computer and Info Sciences, Education and Human Sciences, Engineering, Geosciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. Each category is further divided into more specific fields and sites listed under these have icons which identify their major characteristics. The guide is designed to be interactive, and users are encouraged to express their opinions about the academic value of various sites. [MD]
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Balanced Budget Act of 1997
H.R. 2015 Summary
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d105:HR02015:
H.R. 2015 Text
ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c105/h2015.enr.txt
Balanced Budget Overview from the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/Budget/background.html
1998 Budget Publications from the OMB
http://www.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy1998/fy1998_srch.html
H.R. 2015, a bill designed to eliminate the federal deficit by 2002 and create the first balanced budget since 1969, was signed into law by President Clinton on August 5. The first two sites, hosted by the Library of Congress's THOMAS, give a comprehensive summary and the full text of the Balanced Budget Act, respectively. The White House's site provides a short and somewhat adulatory list of the bill's major highlights. Finally, the Office of Management and Budget offers several online publications concerning the proposed FY1998 budget, including Analytic Perspectives, a Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget, and the full text of the 1998 Budget. [MD]
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Dow Jones Careers.wsj.com
http://careers.wsj.com/
Careers.wsj.com, a new service provided by Dow Jones, features selected content from the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition and the National Business Employment Weekly (Career News). NBEW also supplies articles on "career focus," and "practical tips" (including resumes, interviews, networking, relocating, and using the Internet to find a job) in the Resources section. The centerpiece of the site is a growing database of searchable jobs. Twenty-one companies from Allmerica Financial to Sun Microsystems are participating at present. The database is searchable by company, job type, industry, and location, with the advanced search allowing education, experience, and salary variables. As new companies are added, Careers will notify interested users via email (Job Alert). Best of all, site content is freely available. [JS]
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Reuters: Commodities, Energy, Financial Futures
http://www.commods.reuters.com/
This site (freely available after registration) is divided into two sections: Commodities 2000 and Energy 2000. At its heart is the price section: grains, metals, "softs," financials, and energy. Prices are given for cash and futures markets (when available) and by commodity and exchange worldwide. This allows interested users to follow both the commodities and exchanges simultaneously, a powerful enhancement for a commodities site. Clicking on contract name provides a historical price chart going back as far as two years. Links are provided to exchanges with web pages. The site also features commodity news, weather, and shipping stories from Reuters. [JS]
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Two Sites for Beginning Amateur Astronomers
Astronomy Magazine
http://www.kalmbach.com/astro/astronomy.html
Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston
http://www.jovian.com/atmob/
Looking to get started as an amateur astronomer? Here are two sites which can help you do just that. The Astronomy Magazine site, provided by Kalmbach Publishing Company, offers a table of contents and a few articles from the print magazine as well as information regarding current sky events, latest news, getting stared as an amateur astronomer, press releases, links to other astronomical sites, and software. The Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMoB), who claim to be one of the nation's oldest and largest astronomy clubs have a site that offers information mostly directed towards club members. Nevertheless, users will find a guide to getting started in amateur astronomy, member submitted astro-photos and articles, and a list of astronomy related sites. [TB]
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Internet ArtResources
http://artresources.com/
Internet ArtResources is beautifully presented and contains some wonderful content. In Feature Articles, Postcards from Venice celebrates the Venezia Aperto Vetro, a celebration of Venetian glass. The postcards read somewhere between reviews and travel guides, the only dissappointment is that they are dated from September 1996. The Guide, Galleries, and Fairs, Expos, (and) Shows are all geographically broad and provide a list of showings by specific segments of the arts community or region; whereas, the well-executed Art World Reviews focus on shows in New York, Arizona and occasionally Chicago. The Museum provides access to museum listings and offers some basic contact information, however, they are not listed by geographic region. [ATW]
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Big Brother--A Hyperlink Validation Tool
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~fpottier/brother.html.en
Big Brother is an easy to use tool for fast and efficient site hyperlink checks. This Macintosh shareware (cost of $10) was developed by Franois Pottier, a theoretical computer science student at Projet Cristal, INRIA (The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control). All that Big Brother requires is a URL and it takes care of the rest. The output includes a detailed summary of the links including the name, URL, source, and the diagnosis. Big Brother can also be configured for quick opening of sites and/or scripted to automate checking. [TB]
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SiteMap and MailCast--For Latest Website Change Updates and Quick Navigation
http://www.jazzsoft.com/
Also provided at webreference.com
http://www.webreference.com/services/validation/sitemap/
JazzSoft, an independent business unit of Jazz Multimedia, Inc., now has two new free online services called SiteMap and MailCast. SiteMap is a great online tool which puts out an interactive map (hierarchical table of contents) of any site. This is nice since it may allow for an easier means of navigating through your favorite site and eliminate unwanted download time due to graphics. In addition to this, Mailcast provides the option of subscribing to various pages of a mapped site in order to have a notification sent by email when a change has been made to that page(s). Users are free to decide whether or not to use SiteMap and MailCast together. Currently hundreds of popular sites are already mapped. [TB]
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Volume 1, Number 15: The Scout Report for August 5, 1994
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/8-5-94.html
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
http://www.aip.org/
ArchNet
http://archnet.uconn.edu/ArchNet.html
The American Institute of Physics was featured in the August 5, 1994 edition of the Scout Report. AIP has one of the most long standing presences of any scholarly society on the Internet. The AIP site contains employment opportunities, links to its ten member organizations, its publications, and programs. One of its highlights is Physics News Update (discussed in the February 7, 1997 issue of the Scout Report), a weekly digest of breaking news stories about physics. In addition, its Center for the History of Physics has recently added an exhibit celebrating the centennial of the discovery of the electron (discussed in the April 25, 1997 issue of the Scout Report). ArchNet was and is one of the premier archaeology meta-pages in existence. Maintained at the University of Connecticut, it is geographically and topically browsable, as well as searchable. The home page is available in six languages. [JS]
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Copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-1997. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout

Susan Calcari
Jack Solock
Jeannine Ramsey
Teri Boomsma
Michael de Nie
Aimee D. Glassel
Matthew Livesey
Thiam Hee Ng
Amy Tracy Wells
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The Scout Report - August 8, 1997

The Scout Report

August 8, 1997

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