Scout Report for Science & Engineering and KIDS Report
Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/sci-engr/1999/se-990106.html
KIDS Report
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/KIDS/archive/KIDS-981222.html
Volume 2, Number 8 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates ten resources related to the fragile health of the Bering Sea ecosystem. The December 22 issue of the KIDS Report, written by and for K-12 students, comes to us from Mrs. Whartnaby's High School Class at the Overbrook School for the Blind, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This issue explores Internet resources on American Government. [MD]
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The Public Records of 1968 -- PRO [.gif]
http://www.pro.gov.uk/releases/nyo99/default.htm
On January 1, the Public Record Office (PRO) released UK Government Records from 1968 that had been sealed under the 30 year rule. Some of the most interesting of these were featured on Leviathan, a topical history program on BBC2. The PRO site provides general descriptions of the record series augmented by the releases, a list of the highlights of this release, and information on accessing the records at the PRO office in Kew. The highlight of the site, however, is the collection of .gif images of the original documents quoted in the Leviathan program. These are offered in thumbnails with brief commentary and include such diverse topics as a list of UK Nuclear targets in 1968, the Prague Spring, race relations and immigration, cigarette advertising, and the public row over Prime Minister Harold Wilson's purchase of a color television set. Although this latest release will be noticed mostly by researchers, anyone with an interest in recent British history will enjoy the selected full-text documents. [MD]
[Back to Contents]International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
http://www.icimod.org.sg/
Focusing mainly on the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region (HKH), ICIMOD is "the first international organization to make a commitment to improve the living conditions of mountain communities in a sustainable way, helping them to live and not merely exist upon the highest wonders on earth." The HKH and many other mountainous regions are home to a vast array of natural resources as well as rich ethnic diversity. Despite its geographic focus, many of the sustainable development resources offered at the new ICIMOD site are useful to residents and planners in similar regions around the world. These include a number of articles on the mountain environment and people-focused and economic development, a list of best practices and appropriate technologies for sustainable development, a full-text paper series on Issues in Mountain Development, and the full text of recent ICIMOD Annual Reports. Additional resources at the site include a publications catalog, project briefs and profiles, an overview of the HKH, and related links. Note that a few areas of the site are still under construction, but that it is substantially complete. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Education Review: A Journal of Book Reviews
http://www.ed.asu.edu/edrev/
Hosted by Arizona State University, Education Review (ER)is an online journal of review articles on recently published books in education. Reviews may be browsed by topic, book author, title, review author, or book publication date. Reviews, which are written by educational scholars, average about eight paragraphs and include references. Users may opt to subscribe to the journal's mailing list, which announces new reviews posted to the site. Unsolicited reviews are accepted, and guidelines for contributors are provided on-site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]National Severe Storms Laboratory -- NOAA
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (mentioned in the November 11, 1998 Scout Report) sponsors the National Severe Storms Laboratory. The primary goal of this Environmental Research Laboratory is to improve short-term predictions of hazardous weather events such as blizzards, ice storms, and tornadoes. Ongoing research conducted in the Stormscale (SRAD) and Mesoscale (MRAD) divisions helps improve the forecast services of the National Weather Service (NWS). An excellent tutorial about weather phenomena and weather map analysis is presented in the Weather Room section. [SN]
[Back to Contents]Story Arts Online
http://www.storyarts.org
Heather Forest, storyteller and director of the non-profit Story Arts of Huntington, New York, divulges the methods of her trade at this refreshing, well-conceived site that is funded by a Bell Atlantic Foundation grant. Students, teachers, librarians, parents, and other storytellers can explore the rudiments of telling a story, learn some ways to practice storytelling such as retelling folktales and collecting family stories, and refer to the concise archive of stories summarized by Forest including stories from around the world and 26 of Aesop's fables. The Lesson Plans and Activities section outlines specific ways for teachers to include storytelling in their curriculum; they can also contribute their own plans and activity ideas to the Curriculum Ideas Exchange. The Storytelling Books and Tapes and the Links sections point visitors to additional storytelling resources. [JR]
[Back to Contents]Vesalius [Shockwave, Quicktime]
http://www.vesalius.com/
Provided by Lion Reef Software, Vesalius is a free online graphical educational resource for the medical and surgical communities. The site contains two primary sections: the Image Archive and Clinical Folios. The Image Archive currently includes image collections for sixteen regions of the human body. Images are in color and may be downloaded for free, non-commercial use. Users with version 4.0 or better of IE Explorer or Netscape can access images that can be highlighted and marked up with pointers and arrows and then downloaded. The Clinical Folios have even more potential as a teaching tool. The folios are listed by topic (Biliary, Heart, Musculoskeletal, etc.), and each contains a Storyboard narrative, sketches and text illustrating a selected procedure, and Quicktime- or Shockwave-detailed transparencies which "show a constructive view of anatomy and procedures." Although the site is aimed at the medical community, upper-level high school and university Biology instructors will want to pay it a visit. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive (ALBA) [.pdf]
http://www.alba-valb.org/index.html
Brandeis University Spanish Civil War Collection
http://www.library.brandeis.edu/specialcollections/collections/mancoll2.html#spanish
Composed of North American volunteers, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was one of several international brigades that fought on the side of the Republicans against Franco's fascist Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9). The ALBA was founded in 1975 by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) to preserve the history of the Brigade's actions in Spain and the post-war activities of its veterans in America. Part of ALBA's mission includes supervising the comprehensive archive of materials related to the North American involvement in the Spanish Civil War at Brandeis University. At the ALBA site, users will find exhibits of posters and photos brought back by volunteers; contact information for researchers interested in using the archive; a high school curriculum entitled "Between the World Wars," downloadable in .pdf format; a brief history of the VALB and recent issues of its journal, The Volunteer (in .pdf format); a discussion list; and related links. The Brandeis University site provides a description of the collections, a select reading list, and related links. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Footage.net [Quicktime, RealPlayer,.mpeg]
http://www.footage.net/
Image Bank
http://www.theimagebank.com/
This powerful gateway to stock, archival, and news footage is designed with media professionals in mind. However, certain researchers and perhaps some instructors can make excellent use of its access to over 1.6 million indexed shots. The site's Global Search page allows users to perform keyword searches of hundreds of major stock footage sources worldwide or within selected major databases. Most search returns include only clip descriptions, technical details, and ordering information. However, some databases, such as the Image Bank, provide online samples. Production professionals who cannot find particular clips through the search page can fill out a free Zap Request form, which is forwarded to footage companies and researchers who may be able to assist (note the Zap Request service is not available for personal or educational use). Additional resources at the site include a directory of key resources and contacts in the footage trade and a Newswire listing of the latest industry stories. [MD]
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Art & Letters Daily
http://Cybereditions.com/aldaily/
Scitech Daily Review
http://www.scitechdaily.com/
Users wishing quick and easy access to some of the best writing online will want to examine these sister sites. The first, updated six days per week, offers links to articles, new book notices and reviews, and essays and opinion pieces in all fields of the humanities. The latter, updated four days per week, does the same for the fields of science and technology. Neither site provides original content, but rather both mine a wide array of online newspapers, journals, and other publications and offer links with very brief introductions to the "precious nuggets of real content" on the Web. In addition, each site provides a linked list of the publications and columnists used to glean the reports as well as an archive of past features. Certainly few users will find all of the pieces interesting or pertinent, but the quantity and variety of content and the frequency with which it is updated guarantee that there will be something for almost anyone. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection -- LOC
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rghtml/
The American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress has recently provided online access to this ethnographic field collection of "religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents in rural New Mexico and Southern Colorado." Juan Bautista Rael (1900-1993), a Stanford University professor and linguist, collected these recordings of alabados (hymns), folk drama, wedding songs, and dance tunes in 1940 in New Mexico. Textual transcriptions (in Spanish) are available for many of the 146 audio titles. The Research Materials section provides access to recording logs, correspondence about the collection, and the full text of the introduction to Rael's The New Mexican Alabado, as well as the text of an article by Rael on New Mexican Wedding Songs. [AG]
[Back to Contents]Substance Abuse and Treatment of State and Federal Prisoners, 1997 -- BJS [.pdf, .zip]
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/satsfp97.htm
Released on January 5, this new study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reports a rise in the proportion of state inmates who used drugs (including alcohol) in the month before their arrest and an increase in use by federal inmates within prisons between 1990 and 1997. In the same period, the proportion of state inmates receiving drug abuse treatment fell from 24.5% in 1991 to 9.7% in 1997, and the numbers of inmates in treatment in federal prisons fell from 15.7% to 9.2%. Analysts attribute these figures to both a new awareness by police and the court system towards offender drug use and the exploding prison population, which has doubled since it reached 1.8 million in 1980. Available in .pdf or ASCII format, the report contains data tables on "prior alcohol and drug abuse by type of drug, type of offense, severity of prior substance abuse, and other offender characteristics," as well as the types of treatment and programs in prisons. A press release, spreadsheets in .zip format, and related data sets are also available. [MD]
[Back to Contents]The River of Song - PBS/Smithsonian [RealPlayer, Quicktime]
http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/
This Smithsonian four-part series on contemporary music along the Mississippi River debuted on PBS on January 6. Featuring live performances and discussions with musicians along the river, the series explores the musical heritage of the heart of the nation, from an Ojibwe powwow in Northern Minnesota to brass bands in New Orleans. At the site, users can read artists' biographies and discographies, listen to sound clips, and view video segments from the interviews. Artists can be browsed by episode, genre, alphabetically, or via an interactive map. Additional resources include articles and related links on the culture of the four geographical sections of the Mississippi River featured in the project and an interactive Teacher's Guide. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Child and Youth Health (CYH)
http://www.cyh.com/
A division of the Department of Human Services of Australia since 1909, Child and Youth Health provides information and primary health care programs to Australian citizens. With the creation of this Website, parents all over the world can now benefit from CYH's experience and expertise. The site is, of course, aimed at Australian citizens, with practical information on contacting CYH and Child and Family Health Centres. However, all users may browse or search the database of youth health and parenting information. Containing basic information on over 150 topics, the database is not limited to disease treatment and prevention, but also encompasses issues such as peer pressure, passive smoking, step-families, and living with adult children. Presented in a bullet-point, checklist style, the topics are by no means comprehensive. Rather, they offer helpful overviews and tips for parents and would-be parents. Additional resources at the site include a glossary, tip of the week, and question of the week. [MD]
[Back to Contents]The American Museum of Photography
http://www.photographymuseum.com/index.html
A virtual visit to the American Museum of Photography includes all the amenities you would expect at a "real" museum -- exhibitions to browse through, a guided tour, education and research resources, a museum store, and even a museum cafe (a link to cybermeals, an online restaurant guide at http://www.cybermeals.com/) The photographs on display are selected from the collection of William B. Becker, who also serves as the Museum's director. Becker's collection is strongest in the first 75 years of photography, 1839 to World War I, and "includes five thousand individual images, from the earliest daguerreotype portraits through the first practical color photographs." Some of the current exhibitions feature architectural photographs; cartes de visite, the small card photographs extremely popular in the second half of the nineteenth century; and a set of silver prints made in the 1930s by a Japanese department store executive on a world tour. Perhaps the most charming exhibit, entitled "At Ease," consists of a group of daguerreotype portraits compiled to contradict the notion that all sitters in old photographs look stiff and uncomfortable. [DS]
[Back to Contents]A National Strategy to Prevent Teen Pregnancy: Annual Report 1997-98 -- HHS
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/teenp/97-98rpt.htm
Recently released online, this document from the US Department of Health and Human Services is the first annual report on the progress of the National Strategy to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, introduced in January 1997. The report does contain some good news: teen birth rates have decreased nationally and in all states since 1991, falling twelve percent nationally and sixteen percent or more in seventeen states. The report contains statistics and analysis of teen birth and pregnancy rates, by age and race. It also details the strategies and partnerships forged by the HHS to continue this encouraging trend. Appendixes include Teenage Birth Rates in the US: National and State Trends, 1990-96; an overview of various HHS teen pregnancy provision programs; and Teen Parent Provisions by state. [MD]
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Internet Explorer 4.5 Macintosh
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/iebuild/ie45_mac/en/ie45_mac.htm
Internet Explorer 128-bit Security Upgrade (US & Canada only)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/128bit.htm
Microsoft's newest release of its Web browser, Internet Explorer 4.5 Macintosh, contains an array of new features, many of which are specific to the Mac OS platform. Sherlock (discussed in the October 16, 1998 Scout Report) has been integrated directly into the browser, both as a search engine and as a way to summarize the text of a Web page and place it on a clipboard. Images are also easier to export from the Web. Explorer allows users to drag-and-drop images onto the desktop, where they are saved and displayed as thumbnails. Additional new features include a Form AutoFill command to automatically fill in Web-based forms, better control over printed pages and a Print Preview command, and a improved/ self-repairing installation process. For residents of the US and Canada who require a higher level of security in their Web transactions, a 128-byte security upgrade is available. [PMS]
[Back to Contents]KatieSoft Scroll 5.0 [javascript, Windows 95/98 NT]
http://www.katiesoft.com/
KatieSoft, Inc. has released version 5.0 of KatieSoft Scroll, a Web browsing tool that lets users view and organize multiple Web pages in a single display. Users can configure up to four browser panes in a display and save "snapshots" of the multiple displays. One can, for example, bring up four related pages and save a snapshot and later call up the snapshot to bring up the same four sites. Scroll also lets users quickly submit queries to a favorite search engine and ask for stock quotes or news stories from favorite sites with just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks. Finally, Scroll supports "ScrollShows," which lets users set up a series of URLs that are displayed in the multiple browser panes and are periodically rotated. Scroll 5.0 requires either Microsoft Explorer 4.0x and the Desktop Update or Netscape Navigator 4. It is currently available for free download for an undetermined limited time [MR]
[Back to Contents]Jigsaw 2.0.0 -- W3C
http://www12.w3.org/Jigsaw/
W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium (last described in the Scout Report for November 27, 1998), has recently released Jigsaw 2.0.0 to the general public. Jigsaw is "W3C's leading-edge Web server platform, providing a sample HTTP 1.1 implementation and a variety of other features on top of an advanced architecture implemented in Java." Jigsaw is meant to be a flexible and continually evolving, yet stable and usable, Web server. It is distributed under an open source license. Download information, release notes, support FAQs, and the W3C Jigsaw Activity statement are available at the site. [MD]
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The Impeachment Trial
An Impeachment Trial Primer -- CNN/All Politics
http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/01/06/primer/
Impeaching the President -- NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/news/national/impeach/
Clinton Under Fire -- BBC News [RealPlayer]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/events/clinton_under_fire/
The Politics of the Presidency -- CBC [RealPlayer]
http://www.newsworld.cbc.ca/news/indepth/clinton/index.html
USIA Foreign Media Reaction Daily Digest
http://www.usia.gov/admin/005/wwwh9j06.html
The major news story of the week is, of course, the beginning of the impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton in the Senate. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist opened the proceedings yesterday by swearing in the 100 senators to "do impartial justice" in deciding whether the President should be removed from office for perjury and obstruction of justice. As mentioned in the December 15, 1998 Scout Report for Social Sciences, the New York Times and Washington Post sites both have excellent resource collections for understanding and analyzing how the process has arrived at its present position and where it may end. Users wishing for a straightforward introduction to the procedures, personalities, and issues of the trial will appreciate the CNN/All Politics Impeachment Trial Primer page, part of a larger special feature on the impeachment. The National Public Radio (NPR) site features RealAudio recordings of radio coverage, a Regional Coverage section with recorded remarks and voting records of House members, and a summary of House actions and the President's responses. The next two sites offer a glimpse of reporting and analysis on the impeachment process and the US political system by the media in two of our closest allies, the UK and Canada. The BBC site contains profiles of key figures, tapes and transcripts, a timeline, and a collection of video and audio clips. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation site provides analysis, video selections, a brief text of the articles of impeachment, and related links. The final site is a collection of short quotes on the impeachment process from newspapers around the world compiled by the United States Information Agency (USIA) between December 28 and January 6. Additional resources for understanding impeachment in general and Clinton's impeachment in particular can be found in Scout Report Signpost, the Scout Report's database. These include the University of Pittsburgh School of Law's Jurist site, which offers a number of impeachment resources; Harpweek's site chronicling the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson; and the full text of the now infamous Starr Report. [MD]
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