The Scout Report - April 2, 1999

Scout Report for Science & Engineering and KIDS Report
Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/sci-engr/1999/se-990331.html
KIDS Report
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/KIDS/archive/KIDS-990330.html
Volume 2, Number 14 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates ten resources on the tenth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the worst oil disaster in US history. The March 30 issue of the KIDS Report, written by and for K-12 students, comes to us from students of Whitehorse Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. This issue features Internet resources on Native American culture. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

109 - A Visual Interpretation of the Table of Elements -- chemsoc [.pdf]
http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/
Provided by chemsoc, the chemistry societies network, this new site offers an attractive and informative visual interpretation of the periodic table. Blending the work of artists and chemists, the site features computer-generated interpretive images, descriptions and histories, and a link to a data sheet in .pdf format, for each of the 109 elements. The site's contributors have also collaborated to produce Periodic Landscapes, computer-generated models based on various patterns and relationships within the periodic table. These graceful and other-worldly images will be accompanied by interpretive material and annotated animations. Users may also choose from a selection of landscapes to send as electronic postcards. Additional resources include a history of the periodic table and a selection of desktop patterns and screensavers (Windows NT/95/98). [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Electronic Briefing Book: US Policy in Guatemala, 1966-96
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/
The National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute hosted by George Washington University (reviewed in the September 20, 1996 Scout Report), has collected and placed online another invaluable collection of previously classified US foreign policy documents. This time, the Archive has turned its attention to US involvement in Guatemala, creating an Electronic Briefing Book of 32 digitally imaged primary documents related to policy in Guatemala and spanning the years 1966 to 1995. The documents -- secret cables, letters, and briefing papers from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and State Department -- are offered in chronological order with concise and helpful annotations. Researchers might consider this Briefing Book, which reveals extensive knowledge of human rights abuses in Guatemala by the US intelligence community and State Department, as a companion to the recent report, "Guatemala: Memory of Silence," produced by the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) (reviewed in the March 5, 1999 Scout Report). [MD]
[Back to Contents]

National Oceanographic Data Center
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/
NODC online data
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/NODC-online.html
One of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) three data collections, the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is "the US repository and distribution facility for global ocean data." The NODC holds global data (available as databases via the NODC online data access page) "that describe the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean water column from the sea surface to the sea floor." Global data are available in separate collections including global temperature and salinity profiles, water temperatures for coastal US, marine environmental buoy data, archives of sea level, and global ocean observation data, among others. Each database may be accessed separately and is accompanied with instructions for use and retrieval. In addition to providing data, the NODC homepage offers links to research laboratories, library and information services, information regarding data submissions, and NODC's Top Ten Questions about the Ocean. For researchers or serious students of oceanography, this is an outstanding resource. [LXP]
[Back to Contents]

Women Writers Project -- Brown University
http://www.wwp.brown.edu/
The Brown University Women Writers Project has recently published the beta-test version of an online textbase. The textbase is a collection of primarily pre-Victorian (1450-1850) literature written by women. The initial release of the textbase will include over 200 texts, and 50 to 100 more will be added in the first year. The collection spans a wide array of topics and genres, providing a unique and valuable resource for the study of women's writing in English. The textbase will be freely available until the final version is released, tentatively scheduled for August 1, 1999. [AO]
[Back to Contents]

World Economic Situation and Forecast for 1999 [.pdf, 61p.]
http://www.un.org/esa/analysis/wesp99.pdf
Produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (ESA), this new report offers a review of the worldwide economic situation in 1998 and a forecast for 1999. Offered in .pdf format, the report contains a global overview and six chapters analyzing Developed Economies, Economies in Transition, Developing Economies, International Trade, Financial Markets, and Official Development Finance and Debt. Eleven statistical tables are also provided. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

American Factfinder -- Census Bureau [Java]
http://factfinder.census.gov/java_prod/dads.ui.homePage.HomePage
This new "data access and dissemination system" from the US Census Bureau offers easy access to some of the Bureau's largest data sets. Users can create a variety of tables, reports, or maps with information on their community, the economy, or American society in just a few steps. Users will have three options for accessing data: Quick Tables and Thematic Maps, which offer predefined reports on the most widely used statistics; Detailed Tables, which require several selections (such as geographic area and time frame); and Build A Query, which requires a few more steps. Note that the Industry and Business Facts section will not be available until the release of the 1997 Economic Census data (currently overdue). Help files, a FAQ, and an internal search engine are also provided. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Dictionary of Sensibility
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enec981/dictionary/
The language of sensibility in eighteenth-century Europe encompassed a number of interconnected vocabularies and offered manifold and varied meanings to terms such as virtue, imagination, sublime, character, and community. This online dictionary, hosted by the University of Virginia English Department, allows users to explore these vocabularies and meanings through excerpts from primary texts of sensibility. The Dictionary offers a list of terms (currently 24) pertaining to sensibility, each of which links to an introduction and a collection of annotated relevant excerpts. Source and critical bibliographies are also provided. Readers are invite to contribute to the Dictionary, and submission details are included at the site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

1998 Library & Information Statistics Tables (LIST)
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dils/lisu/List98/list.html
1997 Version
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dils/lisu/List97/list97.html
Compiled and published by the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at Loughborough University, these tables offer "a broad overall perspective of the Library and Information scene in the UK." Users can consult the tables to discover statistics such as the number of national, public, and university libraries in the UK, their expenditures and acquisitions, professional staff, borrowing trends, and many others. Additional sections on public library services for children and publishing and book trade statistics are also provided. The 1997 LIST is available as well. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Two New Van Gogh Sites
Van Gogh Museum
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl
ArtMuseum.net -- Van Gogh's Van Goghs [MSVideo, LivePicture Viewer, RealPlayer G2]
http://www.artmuseum.net/
On March 29, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum relaunched its site, and art historians and Van Gogh fans will want to take notice. Although the site currently only features fourteen of the artist's greatest works, it offers an excellent selection of supporting material not on display anywhere else. Scholars and students researching these paintings can access sketches and studies, lesser known paintings, drawings, watercolors, and digitized letters related to each painting. Seven works and supporting materials by other painters who connected with Van Gogh personally or artistically are also provided. Additional resources at the site include an illustrated biography and information on the collection and museum events (the physical museum is closed until June 1999). Launched by Intel Corp. on February 28, Artmuseum.net is a new venture which will showcase both the treasures of the museum world and Intel's newest technology. Despite its subtle commercial motivations, the site does have considerable potential for students and art lovers. Currently, the site features an expanded version of the National Gallery of Art's (NGA) online exhibit, Van Gogh's Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum (reviewed in the October 16, 1998 Scout Report). In addition to the original 70 paintings and virtual tour included in the NGA exhibit, Artmuseum.net adds an Archives section featuring sketches, drawings, watercolors, photographs, additional paintings, and several letters to and from Van Gogh's brother Theo. A "fully immersive ... 3-dimensional re-creation" of the NGA's physical Van Gogh exhibit is also planned. Please note that users must register as a member to take the virtual tour and to access the 3-D exhibition. Despite a notice on the front page that the first 10,000 members may register for free, Intel has dropped plans to charge for access, and the site will remain free to all. After this preview exhibition, Artmuseum.net will formally open on April 23 with the launch of "The American Century: Art & Culture 1900-2000" online and the simultaneous installation of the exhibit in the Whitney Museum of American Art. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

The Picture Collection - Time, Inc.
http://www.thepicturecollection.com/
Although this is a commercial site with pictures and images for sale, users can nonetheless view and appreciate one of "the most extraordinary collections of pictures in the world" at The Picture Collection from Time, Inc. An initial free registration is required, and after that users need only log on to gain access to over 22 million images, including illustrations, prints, and photographs. Archival materials from many popular magazines are available here, including images from Time,Life,Sports Illustrated,People, and Entertainment Weekly, as well as material from the recently acquired Mansell Collection. "Mansell photographs date from the beginnings of the medium in the 1840s through World War II [and] depict a vast range of scenics, important news events, and historical personalities, with a special emphasis on art and architecture. In addition, the new Mansell Collection includes extraordinary holdings of engraved illustrations, lithographs, and drawings predating the advent of photographic imaging." In addition to a key word search function, The Picture Collection offers a special searching and licensing program that lets you search for and store materials in "Lightboxes" of your own creation for later use; these are similar to folders that one might use in a conventional software setting. The program also calculates licensing fees for images based on what type of usage is intended (newspaper, magazine, Website, etc.). Research help is available for those users who would like someone else to do the searching, with one half-hour of free research offered initially. After that, a fee of 85 dollars an hour is charged; some or all of this fee may be waived if one or more images are licensed. An excellent help section rounds out this site and makes perusing this amazing (if somewhat overwhelming) collection even more pleasurable. [REB]
[Back to Contents]

American Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy 1999 [.pdf, 41p.] -- CCFR
http://www.ccfr.org/publications/opinion/opinion.html
As part of its effort to promote public understanding of the foreign policy of the US, the non-partisan Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) has sponsored seven quadrennial surveys of public opinion since 1974. The key question in the recently released 1999 survey, as in previous surveys, was the extent to which "the American public and leaders support an active role for the United States overseas." For the most part, the CCFR found strong support for an active American role in world affairs. At the site, users can read the full text (in .pdf format) or a summary of the report, which examines issues such as foreign policy priorities, globalization, security, the role of the US in the world, perspectives on particular regions and countries, and the current adminstration's performance. The report also contains a brief but helpful account of the political and economic context of the survey, which was carried out in the fall of 1998. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

The Week in Europe
http://www.cec.org.uk/pubs/we/
Background Briefings
http://www.cec.org.uk/pubs/bbrief/index.htm
Published online each Thursday by the UK Offices of the European Commission, The Week In Europe offers a weekly summary of political, social, and economic developments in the European Union (EU). Indexed by title and topic sentence, the summaries consist of short paragraphs with links to full-text documents, statistics, or other sites with further information. Users may also be interested in the UK Offices of the European Commission's Background Briefings section. This collection of short summaries (currently 32) is intended to explain some of the "important aspects of the European Union and its policies." Many also contain links to full-text documents and related sites. Although written with a UK audience in mind, any interested reader can use the Briefings as a concise introduction to the EU and its policies. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

AFRO-American Almanac
http://www.toptags.com/aama/
Created by Dr. Jack Powell and Donald E. Jones II, this site explores African-American history from the beginning of the slave trade, through the Civil Rights movement, to the present. The easy-to-navigate and fast-loading Almanac offers a number of resources for any user interested in an introduction to some of the cultural, political, and social facets of African-American history and identity. These include traditional folk tales, commentary and speeches, the text of 26 related books (including works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Henry David Thoreau), historical documents, brief biographies, and synopses of key historical events. Additional features include trivia games and a collection of related links. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Artcyclopedia: the Guide to Museum-Quality Art on the Internet
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/
If you are just getting started searching for fine art on the Web and you are looking for works by a particular artist, Artcyclopedia is a great jumping off place. Using Artcyclopedia, you can type in or select an artist's name, and be taken to a list of Websites providing digital images of that artist's work. For example, selecting Jan Van Eyck yields a list of about fourteen sites. The advantage of using Artcyclopedia is that they have already done some of the searching for you. Instead of guessing which museums might have a digital image of your artist and going to each museum's site to begin searching, Artcyclopedia allows you to search a number of museums at once and go directly to their holdings on your artist. While the hit list does not give you any idea of how much material a given Website might have on your artist, this does not detract from Artcyclopedia's value as a good place to start. Artcyclopedia also offers links to publications, a monthly featured artist, and a master list of museums that have contributed to the project. [DS]
[Back to Contents]

America's Best Graduate Schools -- US News
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/bchome.htm
US News Online has placed its 1999 rankings for American Graduate Schools at its .edu (discussed in the January 17, 1997 Scout Report) site. The rankings are taken from the recent US News and World Report's Best Graduate Schools publication. Rankings are posted for ten broad subject areas, including Business, Law, Engineering, Education, the Arts, Medicine, and others. Each area includes separate rankings for various specialties. The Ph.D.'s section offers overall rankings and rankings by specialty for twelve disciplines, including English, History, Physics, Mathematics, Political Science, and others. Ranking methodologies are explained at the site. Additional resources include several interactive search tools and related articles. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Two Resources for Consumers
Consumer Reports Bumper to Bumper
http://www.ConsumerReports.org/news/autos/
Consumer E-News Alert
http://www.sheller.com/enews.htm
One of the most respected consumer organizations, Consumer Reports (CR) has put together a nice collection of resources for car owners and buyers. At the site, users can read up on CR's top new car picks for 1999, view a list of 35 used cars that are "good bets," print out a leasing worksheet, get advice on buying a new car, and search a database with profiles of over 1,600 models. Please note that full car profiles are only available to subscribers, but all visitors can use the search function to find cars that match their criteria. Additional features at the site include lease advice, safe driving tips, tire care and car-washing instructions, and a list of CR's top selections for child car seats. Provided by Sheller, Ludwig & Badey, P.C., a Philadelphia-based law firm, Consumer E-News Alert is a free biweekly newsletter that focuses on a range of consumer issues, such as scams, consumer rights, and business misconduct. The most recent issue (March 16) includes short pieces on bank scams, pyramid schemes, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and recent product recalls. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Gecko Layout Engine (Developer Preview)
http://developer.netscape.com/software/communicator/ngl/index.html
The Gecko Layout Engine, an open-source project being developed by mozilla.org, is the heart of both the next Netscape as well as Mozilla Web browsers. The engine provides the core facilities for rendering various types of Web content (HTML, XML, images, etc.) on the screen for use in different applications. Some of these applications will be "standard" Web browsers such as Navigator, but the engine is designed so that its components can be used in any application to display content in a standard way. This release is a developer preview and provides a browser-like application as well as a simpler content viewer application. The viewers support several interesting standards including HTML 4.0, style sheets, XML 1.0, DOM, and other complex and basic types. Both applications are far from perfect and contain numerous bugs, so this release is intended for hard-core users only. For developers interested in embedding a layout engine in an application, document creators who want to tinker with new document types, or those who want to get a glimpse of aspects of tomorrow's Web browser, the preview release of the Gecko Layout Engine is a start. The Layout Engine is freely available as an executable for MacOS, Win32, and Linux; source code is also freely available from mozilla.org. [CL]
[Back to Contents]

GestLab Download
http://www.rgaros.nl/gestalt/gestlab.sit.hqx
Gestalt Selectors List Overview
http://www.rgaros.nl/gestalt/index.html
The Gestalt Manager, part of the Mac OS since System 6.0.4, allows applications to know any number of details about the environment (software and hardware) in which they have been launched. GestLab is a utility that enables users to see the Gestalt selector information. GestLab includes a database of known selectors and offers the ability to scan files for new or changed gestalt information. The Gestalt state of a machine can be saved and later compared to the then-current state. The Gestalt Selectors List Overview provides an online list of all currently known selectors and includes a function for searching the database. [PMS]
[Back to Contents]

Refugee Crisis in the Balkans
Kosovo Crisis Update -- UNHCR
http://www.unhcr.ch/news/media/kosovo.htm
Violence and Displacement in Kosovo -- USCR
http://www.refugees.org/news/crisis/kosovo.htm
Kosovo Situation Reports -- US State Department
http://www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/kosovo_more.html
Human Rights Watch Kosovo Campaign
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98/
Morning Edition -- NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/19990402.me.01.ram
Strike on Yugoslavia -- CNN
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/10/kosovo/
This week's In the News returns to Kosovo, where humanitarian workers and government officials warn that the refugee crisis is rapidly spinning out of control. What appears to be an organized and systematic expulsion of the ethnic Albanian population from Kosovo has created the worst humanitarian disaster in Europe since World War II. According to UN refugee officials, over 220,000 persons have fled or been expelled from Kosovo over the last ten days, to Albania, Macedonia, or Montenegro. With entry into Macedonia ground to an almost complete halt, Albania swollen with over 120,000 refugees, and thousands still behind them, the Kosovo-Macedonia border in particular has become a humanitarian nightmare; little food, shelter, or sanitation is available for people who have been forced from their homes with almost nothing. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has created a special site on the Kosovo crisis, with analysis, news updates, and an eyewitness account. The US Committee for Refugees (USCR) has also posted a special report, featuring current news stories, background, testimony, resources for Kosovar refugees, and information on how readers can help. The State Department's special Website on Kosovo features situation reports and reports from the field. Yesterday's report on the Kosovo Humanitarian Situation offers an overview of key facts and developments, background, and a look at the current situation. The site for the Human Rights Watch Kosovo campaign offers a number of updates on the human rights and refugee situation in and around Kosovo. Today's Morning Edition on National Public Radio featured several pieces on Kosovo, including a moving report from the Macedonian border by Anne Garrels. The entire program is available in RealPlayer format at the site. Finally, CNN's special report on Yugoslavia includes a feature on email from Kosovo and an interactive Refugee Exodus map. Users interested in additional resources for understanding the current crisis in Balkans should consult last week's In the News and the resources in Scout Report Signpost, the Scout Report's database. These include UN Wire, the Red Cross's International Humanitarian Law Database, and the International Crisis Group (ICG) South Balkans Reports Index, [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Below are the copyright statements to be included when reproducing annotations from The Scout Report.

The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1999. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing the entire report, in any format:

Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1999. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

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, or the National Science Foundation.

Susan Calcari Rachael E. Bower Michael de Nie Travis Koplow Aimee D. Glassel Todd Hanson Sheilah Harrington Christopher Lukas Dave Mayer Sujani Nannapaneni Andrew Osmond Laura X. Payne Jeannine Ramsey Mike Roszkowski Debra Shapiro Geraldine Wanserski Megan Waters Amy Tracy Wells Paul M Schwartz

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Director Managing Editor Editor Production Editor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Contributor Webmaster

Scout Report and Scout Report HTML Subscription Instructions

• To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report each week, join the scout-report mailing list. This is the only mail you will receive from this list. Unsubscribing from the scout-report list can also be done at this site.

  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/

• To receive the Scout Report in HTML format for local viewing and posting, subscribe to the scout-report-html mailing list, used exclusively to distribute the Scout Report in HTML format once a week. Unsubscribing from the scout-report list can also be done at this site.

  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/lists/

The Scout Report's Web page:

Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) versions of the Scout Report:

[Back to Contents]

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project

Comments, Suggestions, Feedback
Use our feedback form or send email to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

© 1999 Internet Scout Project
Information on reproducing any publication is available on our copyright page.