The Scout Report - June 25, 1999

Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sci-eng/1999/se-990623.html
Volume 2, Number 19 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates nine resources on lightning. [MD]
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LINK: Online First [.pdf]
http://link.springer.de/doi/online-first.htm
The newest addition to Springer-Verlag's evolving Journals Preview Service, LINK Alert (discussed in the January 9, 1998 Scout Report), now offers Online First, a series of full-text articles (.pdf format) slated for print publication in the coming months. Currently, Online First offers articles from the following journals: Applied Physics A,Applied Physics B,European Physical Journal C (EPJ C), Inventiones mathematicae,Mathematical Programming,neurogenetics,Supportive Care in Cancer, and Theoretical Chemistry Accounts: Theory, Computation, and Modeling. Articles are placed online as they are accepted. This is an incredible service for academics wishing to follow the cutting edge of science, as these publications appear online well before they appear in print. [LXP]
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"Science at its Best. Security at its Worst. A Report on Security Problems at the US Department of Energy" -- FIAB [.pdf]
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/pfiab/pfiab_report.pdf
The full text of the scathing 57-page report on the US Energy Department and its nuclear weapons laboratories released by the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (FIAB) on June 15 has been placed online at the FIAB site. Chaired by former senator Warren Rudman, the FIAB concluded in its report that the Energy Department is incapable of reforming itself and called for dramatic restructuring, including the creation of a semiautonomous agency within the Department to oversee the nuclear weapons programs. Users can download the full report and the 34-page Appendix in .pdf format at the site, which also offers background information and a history of the Board. [MD]
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Update to the Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection
http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/
The Internet Public Library this week announced a major addition to its Online Literary Criticism Collection (originally reviewed in the May 18, 1998 Scout Report), a literary metasite containing annotations of sites and articles devoted to literary criticism and information on authors. In addition to the 200 American and British authors already in the collection, this update adds more than 50 international authors. The revised Collection now indexes over 2,500 resources. The links to criticism information can be to sites or articles (some of which have access restrictions). Visitors may browse the site by author, title, or nationality and literary period. In addition, IPL's literary criticism guide and pathfinder provide guidance for those who wish to further explore Web and print resources on the topic. [MD]
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arXiv.org e-Print archive [.dvi, .gzip, .pdf, .ps, .tarz]
http://xxx.lanl.gov/
Although the title does not allude to the site's content, this Los Alamos National Laboratory Website is an example of one of the best uses of the Web. Here, the newest results from science experiments in Physics, Mathematics, Nonlinear Sciences, and Computer Science are reported, often before (or as) the results emerge in print. Over 100,000 articles on specific subjects are currently available, with most recent additions posted first. Cross referencing makes the site even more useful; if a user clicks on an author, all of the other titles by that author in the archive will be found and listed. Abstracts and full papers may be viewed online (.pdf format), or downloaded in a variety of formats (.dvi, .gzip, .pdf, .ps, .tarz). [JJS]
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The Surgical Planning Laboratory (SPL) [.mpg, JAVA]
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/
A project of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School's Department of Radiology, SPL is a multidisciplinary research institution "combining the fields of Computer Science and MRI Radiology towards a goal of real-time 3D imaging of patients during surgery." Professionals in the fields of radiology or 3D modelling, as well as curious general users, will find numerous items of interest at the site. In addition to a very large collection of full-text reports and research papers, the site has two primary features. The first, the Case of the Month, presents a radiology case study for each month of the year from July 1995 through (currently) April 1999. Each case study includes 3D models and radiology images. Some are also illustrated with MPEG animations. The other main section of the site is the AnatomyBrowser, a JAVA applet that combines 3D models, scans, and text on selected anatomical structures. The AnatomyBrowser section currently contains ten anatomical atlas cases, four clinical cases, and a selection of related scholarly cases. Additional features at the site include a collection of images and MPEG movies and a list of upcoming lectures, courses, and presentations by SPL staff. Faster connections and newer browsers are recommended for viewing this site. [MD]
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Updated Education-line (eLib) [Word 6.0, .ppt]
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
A "pilot service" when originally reviewed (in the July 18, 1997 Scout Report), this archive of education and training papers, a part of the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), has continued to grow, now featuring over 1,000 full-text documents, nine fully searchable programs from recent conferences, and a conference listing service. The collection, which consists mainly of conference pre-print and "grey" texts, can be searched by keyword and field or by the British Education thesaurus, which contains hypertext connections to automatically-generated searches for broader and narrower terms, as well as for the terms selected. A guide to selecting a search strategy (including five Powerpoint presentations) is available. The collection can also be browsed (latest acquisitions). The full text of each paper is available in HTML or Word 6.0 format, and bibliographic information includes number of pages, abstract, level, document type, and related subjects. While the documents in the collection naturally have a UK focus, almost any educator and training policy maker will likely find several items of interest. [MD]
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Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening -- PBS [RealPlayer]
http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/
This site is a companion to a new PBS program on the life and work of nineteenth-century Louisiana author Kate Chopin, reviled in her own time after the publication of The Awakening in 1899. Fifty years later, however, Chopin's place in American literature was restored, and her best-known work is now one of the five most-read American novels in colleges and universities. Visitors to the site will find a RealPlayer clip from the documentary, the transcript, excerpts from interviews made during the production, and a chronology of Chopin's life. Both fans and literature teachers will appreciate the main feature of the site, an electronic library containing the full text of The Awakening and twelve short stories. Additional resources at the site include related links, bibliographies, primary sources, and an extensive list of selected criticism. These latter resources, combined with the full-text writings, make this site an excellent adjunct to American or Women's literature courses. [MD]
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Two New Collections from the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE [RealPlayer]
Mapping The Icelandic Genome
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/biotech/iceland/
The Last Jews of Libya
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/LibyanJews/
The Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE (see the February 9, 1996 Scout Report) has recently added two new digital collections. The first, Mapping The Icelandic Genome, is an anthropological forum that examines and debates the "scientific, political, economic, religious, and ethical issues surrounding the deCode Project," a controversial project begun by a biotech company, deCode Genetics, "to produce a comprehensive genomic map of the Icelandic people." The second collection, The Last Jews of Libya, chronicles the history and explores the current daily life of some of the last Jews remaining in Libya. The site includes photographs, writings, and oral histories, which are presented verbatim as full-text files and aurally as RealPlayer files. [AO]
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Racial Profiling in America -- ACLU
http://www.aclu.org/profiling/index.html
This new site from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contains several resources on racial profiling, a topic very much in the news after President Clinton's recent order requiring federal law enforcement officials to collect data on the race and gender of people they stop to question or arrest. The centerpiece of the site is a new report entitled, "Driving While Black. Racial Profiling On Our Nation's Highways," which offers a useful, although thoroughly one-sided, overview of racial profiling procedures and the ACLU's recommendations for putting an end to them. Additional resources at the site include ten recommendations the ACLU offered to Attorney General Janet Reno, a press release on a recent lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol, and general background information and links related to the ACLU's campaign. [MD]
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The State Hermitage Museum
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/
IBM and the Hermitage Museum present this Website to showcase the vast collections of the State Museum of Russia, founded by Catherine the Great in 1764. A highlight is the Digital Collection, a database of high resolution images of museum artifacts, grouped into twelve browseable categories, such as Paintings, Prints and Drawings; Jewellery; and Machinery and Mechanisms. These categories are further organized in appropriate subdivisions such as artist and title under paintings, and country under machinery. Eventually, IBM Query by Image Content (QBIC) technology will be implemented at the site to allow users to search for images by associating color and shapes. Currently, visitors can take the Virtual Tour, which proceeds through over 20 rooms of the museum, such as the Library of Nicholas II and the Michelangelo Room, observing both the architecture of the Hermitage and artworks on display. [DS]
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VAGUEpolitix [Shockwave]
http://www.pbs.org/weblab/vaguepolitix/
Launched on June 14 and hosted by PBS Online, this new Web Lab project aims to offer an irreverent but balanced guide to important political and public issues. A review of the first issue, a "prototype" which focuses on crime, reveals quite a bit of engaging content (although most of the more useful and authoritative material is not original to the site), links, and other resources presented in a somewhat flashy and pretentious, but very clean, format. For instance, pieces on crime range from a humorous but fairly thorough overview ("all you need to know in 10 minutes or twelve hours") to crime policy "nutshells" to an article on crime and the arts to an excellent piece on the misuse of statistics. This issue also includes a section on Body Politix, navigated via clickable human figures, that contains mini-essays and related links. [MD]
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The Blue Flame Cafe
http://www.blueflamecafe.com/
This online biographical encyclopedia of the blues contains entries on almost all of the "great blues singers and singers of the blues." Entries include the pioneers and foundational figures such as Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, and T-Bone Walker; their lesser-known (outside the Blues community) contemporaries; and their more recent musical heirs such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. Each singer's entry includes a concise overview of their influences, career, and musical legacy. Most are also accompanied by a tantalizingly short (only ten seconds) song excerpt in .wav format. A collection of blues links and an internal search engine round out the site. [MD]
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1999 The World's Richest People -- Forbes [Javascript]
http://www.forbes.com/tool/toolbox/billnew/
The rich get richer, indeed. The latest annual ranking of the world's richest people from Forbes magazine includes 200 billionaires from around the globe. Leading the pack once again is Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, with a cool $90 billion. Six other Americans join him in the top ten. Users can peruse the list of the filthy rich by name, net worth, or country. Brief biographical entries are provided for each. A clickable world map of billionaires and an internal search engine are also provided. [MD]
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WW8 Papers
http://www8.org/fullpaper.html
The full-text papers from the Eighth International World Wide Web Conference, recently (May 11-14) held in Toronto, have been placed online. Forty-eight papers from sixteen sessions are available. Each includes an abstract, full-text, and basic author information. Sample paper topics include: A Query Language for XML, User Adaptable Multimedia Presentations for the WWW, Finding Related Pages in the World Wide Web, and Focused Crawling: A New Approach for Topic-Specific Resource Discovery. [MD]
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PC Expo '99
ZDNews Special Report: PC Expo '99
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/pcexpo99.html
PCWeek Webcast [RealPlayer]
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/webcast/pcexpo99.html
CNET Special Report: PC Expo '99
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1016-414-1809-1.html tlpg.co_pcexpo99
This week, the movers, shakers, and would-be innovators of the pc world gathered in New York to show off, share ideas, and ogle the latest developments in computer technology. The conference ended yesterday, but users can still read archived stories and features on the new software, hardware, and gadgets unveiled at the show from two of the leading online sources for computing news and analysis, ZDNet and CNET. In addition, ZDNet's PCWeek Online offers archived audio and video broadcasts of the three keynote speeches and a selection of interviews. [MD]
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Supreme Court Rules on States's Rights
ALDEN et al. v. MAINE -- FindLaw
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=98-436
FLORIDA PREPAID POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION EXPENSE BOARD v. COLLEGE SAVINGS BANK et al. -- FindLaw
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=98-531
Power tilts further toward states -- JURIST
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/06/24/p1s1.htm
"States Are Given New Legal Shield by Supreme Court" -- New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/scotus/articles/062499state-laws.html
SCOTUS - States Rights -- NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/19990623.atc.09.ram
"Supreme Court Boosts States' Rights" -- Infobeat
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560046470-832
The US Supreme Court closed out the 1998-99 session on Wednesday with 5-4 rulings in three related cases that dramatically enhance the political power of the states. In deciding one case involving probation workers in Maine and two involving trademark law and the state of Florida, the court has substantially limited the ability of individuals to sue their state government for what they believe to be a violation of their rights under federal law. The rulings and sharply-worded dissents reveal that the court is strongly divided over the issue of federalism, and analysts suspect that appointments to the court made after the next presidential election could tip the balance. In the meantime, the court has already agreed to take up two more cases involving states' rights in October. The full text of the decisions and dissents can be found online at the FindLaw site (reviewed in the February 23, 1996 Scout Report). An analysis of the decision is posted at JURIST (discussed in the April 11, 1997 Scout Report), a site aimed at law professors, and the New York Times (free registration required). Further coverage is available from National Public Radio (NPR) and Infobeat. Additional resources on the Supreme Court can be found in the Scout Report Signpost, the Scout Report's database. These include the Cornell law School Legal Information Institute's Eye on the Courts, the Federal Judiciary Homepage, and Northwestern University's Oyez Project. [MD]
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