The Scout Report - October 1, 1999

Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sci-eng/1999/se-990929.html
Volume 3, Number 2 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates nine resources related to the EPA's recent proposal to limit the dumping of bioaccumulative chemicals of concern (BCCs) in the Great Lakes. [MD]
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Three from the NCES
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 1999 [.pdf, 982K]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999057
NAEP 1998 Writing: Report Card for the Nation and the States [.pdf, 3944K]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999462
The NAEP 1998 Writing State Reports [.pdf]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999463
On September 28, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) released three major reports. The first analyzes national data from several sources on crimes committed in schools and to and from schools. In addition, "data for crime away from school are also presented to place school crime in the context of crime in the larger society." According to the NCES, this report represents the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools. The second report presents the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 writing assessment for the nation and for participating states and jurisdictions. It contains average scores and achievement level performance for the nation and 39 states and other jurisdictions, as well as results for selected subgroups of students. An executive summary of the report is also available. The final offering from the NCES is a collection of customized State Reports from the NAEP. Each report contains an introduction to the NAEP, a description of the assessment methods, an overview of results for public schools, and comparisons of that state with other participating states. [MD]
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British Atmospheric Data Centre
http://www.badc.rl.ac.uk/
The British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) is designed to "assist UK atmospheric researchers to locate, access and interpret atmospheric data." With this aim in mind, the BADC provides one of the only permanent archives for data sets from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded projects. Also, the Centre serves as a single repository for third party data sets of value to the atmospheric research community. Among the 46 data sets included in the searchable archive, data pertaining to ozone experiments; stratosphere, mesosphere, and troposphere measurements; sea temperatures; and forecasting are all available here. The Centre is an outstanding single source for atmospheric data. [KR]
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Farmland Information Library
http://www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/
Hosted by Northern Illinois University and part of the Farmland Information Center, this site is an excellent resource for scholars and others working on farmland protection and urban/ suburban development issues. Too numerous to list in their entirety, resources at the site include state snapshots from the 1997 Census of Agriculture; case studies; annotated links to articles, white papers; community and state research reports; abstracts of key literature; case study summaries of farmland protection laws; farmland protection statutes arranged by state and category; fact sheets; state and country farmland information; and much more. Users will also find resources aimed at children, maps, a list of discussion groups, and a free email update service. [MD]
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Census of Governments, Vol. 1, No. 1 Government Organization [.pdf, 3536K]
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/gc97org.html
As required by US law, a census of governments is undertaken every five years. As with the previous one, the 1997 census covers three major fields: government organization, public employment, and government finances. Recently released by the US Census Bureau, this is the first volume of the 1997 census. "The report contains the official counts of the number of state and local governments. It also includes tabulations of government by state, type of government, size, and county location." The report is available in .pdf format and consists of an introduction, a number of tables, and lengthy appendixes containing individual state descriptions, definitions, and county-type areas without county governments. [MD]
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The British Empire
http://website.lineone.net/~british_empire/index.html
Created and maintained by Alexander Schulenburg, an honorary Research Associate at the Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, this site hosts three resources of interest to scholars of the British Empire and Commonwealth. The first, EmpireHist, is an unmoderated mailing list for discussion of British colonial and imperial history. As with similar academic lists, users are expected to communicate current research, announce related news and conferences and publications, and discuss research and historiographical questions. Subscription information is provided at the site. The second resource is an international register of researchers and scholars in British imperial studies. Entries include name, institution, email address, keywords, and a few sentences on research interests. Finally, the site offers a modest collection of links to related sites and mailing lists. [MD]
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On The Prairie
http://www1.umn.edu/bellmuse/mnideals/prairie/index.html
On The Prairie is brought to the Web by Bell LIVE!, a superb, online science learning center that emphasizes Minnesota's resources and research. Six sections form the core of the On The Prairie resource: LIVE! from the Prairie (see below), Build a Prairie (a learning game that emphasizes the functional role of species), Field Guide to the Prairie (complete with scientific names, photographs, life history information, and a glossary), Experience the Prairie, Curriculum Goodies, and Researching the Prairie. In each section, users will find background information on the ecology and natural history of prairie organisms, tips on prairie plant and animal identification (and ecological function), and learning games (Build a Prairie), among other resources. A special feature of the site is the upcoming electronic prairie field trip, involving "live satellite broadcasts driven by a curriculum and Internet activities," to be broadcast live -- from the prairie -- on October 13, 1999. For anyone interested in learning more about prairies, this is an outstanding site. [LXP]
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Virus Databases Online
http://life.anu.edu.au/viruses/
Maintained by the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, this site is developed under the auspices of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). ICTV has committed itself to developing a universal virus database (ICTVdB), and as part of that effort, it has created the Index Virum, a catalog of ICTV-approved virus names. The Index Virum is essentially a large catalog of viruses, browseable alphabetically, by nucleic acid, or by general host range. Users can also search the database by keyword or multi-word concept. Also included are lists of acronyms, genomic sequence accession numbers, and host range and vectors (when known). Additionally, the site offers a virus picture gallery, virus descriptions, and information about the history and goals of the ICTVdB project. [MD]
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Gulf/2000 Project
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/
Located at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, the Gulf/2000 Project was established as a service to scholars, journalists, and others who have a professional association with the Persian Gulf. This metasite is a continuation of the Project's mission, offering numerous classified links to news and reference sources for each of the eight nations that comprise the region. For each country, users will find a map and links for general background information, government, what's new, newspapers, demography, human rights, oil/ energy and commerce, and selected books for purchase. The general reference section of the site contains additional links to general sites in these categories as well as strategic issues sites and libraries. An internal search engine is provided, and a discussion board is under construction. While probably offering little that is new to the Web-savvy scholar of the Gulf Region, this site will serve as a useful supplement to university or secondary school courses. [MD]
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National Monuments Record Thesauri
http://www.rchme.gov.uk/thesaurus/thes_splash.htm
English Heritage, the UK government body "responsible for advice and conservation of the historic environment in England," has recently developed a set of seven new thesauri to assist standardization of terms when creating records of the past. New users are first guided to an introduction to thesauri as indexing tools and then to the contents page, which offers access to the seven thesauri: Monument Types, Archaeological Objects, Building Materials, Defence of Britain, Maritime Place Names, Maritime Craft Type, and Maritime Cargo. Within each thesaurus, entries can be displayed by class or alphabetically. The entry for each term usually includes a definition, what it can be used for, a class name, related terms, and in some cases, broader or narrower terms. Directions for use and a key to abbreviations are available at each thesaurus page. The site also includes a comments page where users can submit candidate terms, but this was inoperable at time of review. Although the site is probably most useful to those involved in historic conservation in the UK, it should also appeal to other users in related fields as well as thesaurus enthusiasts the world over. [MD]
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Central Europe Review
http://www.ce-review.org/
This new weekly online journal from Central and East European New Media Initiative (CEENMI) offers news and analysis of events in politics, society, and culture across the region. With over 45 contributors from 17 countries, the journal provides a surprising amount of coverage each week. In addition to regular columns and weekly news summaries, the journal contains several in-depth articles and special feature pieces, including a number of resources (such as articles, film and book reviews, and related links) grouped around a weekly theme. The journal also offers a weekly list of Central and East European cultural events in the UK, links to related stories from other online news sources, and an archive. Users can read the Central Europe Review at the site or receive free weekly summaries via email. [MD]
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Two From American Memory -- LOC
African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920: Selected from the Collections of Brown University
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/
American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936: Images from the University of Chicago Library
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/icuhtml/
The indefatigable Library of Congress American Memory collection has expanded yet again with these two new exhibits. The first contains 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. The pieces span from the antebellum black face minstrelsy of the 1850s to the Civil War to Reconstruction to the early period of urbanization and the northern migration of African Americans. As the site notes, "unlike many other sorts of published works, sheet music can be produced rapidly in response to an event or public interest, and thus is a source of relatively unmediated and unrevised perspectives on quickly changing events and public attitudes. Particularly significant in this collection are the visual depictions of African Americans which provide much information about racial attitudes over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." Users can search the collection by keyword or browse by subject, name, or title. The site also offers a special presentation, The Development of an African-American Musical Theatre 1865-1910. The second site features approximately 4,500 photographs taken by American botanists Henry Chandler Cowles and George Damon Fuller and other ecologists from the University of Chicago between 1891 and 1936. The photos document a wide range of natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities across North America. Users can search the collection by keyword or browse by subject or geographic location. The photos are offered as large thumbnails that link to full-sized images. A special presentation on Ecology and the American Environment rounds out the site. [MD]
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Red Files -- PBS [RealPlayer, Quicktime]
http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/
Red Files, a four-part documentary series from PBS, utilizes previously unavailable archival sources and interviews to present a fascinating look at the Soviet Union and its Cold War rivalry with the US. This attractive companion site offers a number of resources related to each of the four episodes: Secret Victories of the KGB, Soviet Sports Wars, Secret Soviet Moon Mission, and Soviet Propaganda. For each installment, users will find a story synopsis, the Producer's script, theme music, updates on related events, human interest stories, complete interview transcripts, video clips, a reference section, access to related sections of Russian Archives Online, maps, a timeline, lesson plans, and more. Additional offerings include a collection of links mentioned in the series and an internal search engine. This site joins an already strong tradition at PBS of creating sites that are actual companions to the program, offering new and expanded content for interested users. [MD]
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ASIANOW [RealPlayer, Windows Media Player]
http://www.cnn.com/ASIANOW/index.html
A joint venture of the editors of CNN, Time, and AsiaWeek, this site serves as a very useful portal for breaking Asian news, analysis, and commentary. The homepage features the latest major stories from throughout the region, with links to articles in Time and AsiaWeek, video and audio content from CNN, and special features. The site is further divided into five regional sections, each of which offers region-specific content organized in the same manner as the main page. Sections on business, weather, sports, travel, and entertainment are also included. [MD]
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ABC News: Video and Audio Newsclips [RealAudio, RealPlayer]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/video_index/video_index.html
ABC News has added a section of video and audio newsclips to its news service at the GO Network, InfoSeek Corporation's Internet portal. Users can see and listen to national headline news, such as a clip from Warren Beatty's speech at an awards dinner Wednesday night (sounding rather presidential). They can also search for additional video files using Videosearch, by Virage. Beatty as a search term turned up a clip about the Clinton family's summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard that included a mention of Beatty's presidential aspirations and opinions on the Democratic Party, but no additional pictures of Beatty. [DS]
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Tales of Wonder: Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World
http://darsie.ucdavis.edu/tales/index.html
Richard Darsie of UC Davis has put together this wonderful site which brings users a full-text collection of folk and fairy tales. The stories are organized by their place of origin: Africa, Central Asia, Central Europe, China, England, India, Ireland, Japan, Middle East, Native America, Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Siberia. Although most of the text is on-site, occasionally Darsie links users to other sites to access a particular collection of materials. Stories that are part of published collections are always noted as being so, which gives users the opportunity to seek out and use the print versions if they so desire. A nice collection of links to other folk and fairy tale sites is also included. [REB]
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Food Safety Music [RealPlayer]
http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/music.html
Carl Winter, a golden-throated Extension Food Toxicologist at the University of California, Davis, has written and recorded two albums of parodies of popular songs "with a food safety/ science twist." Lucky for us, Winter has made a number of these tunes and their lyrics available at this site. The songs are organized by food science topic (Food Safety, Pesticides, Biotech, Toxicology, etc.), and listed with file size, the song that inspired it, and a link to the lyrics. Highlights include "I Sprayed It on the Grapevine," "We are the Microbes/ They Might Kill You," "Food Busters," and "Food Irradiation." Graduate students especially will enjoy Winter's take on academic life and the advisor-student relationship: "Money for Nothing." [MD]
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Netscape Communicator 4.7
http://netscape.com/computing/download/index.html?cp=hom09pbro
While not the eagerly awaited 5.0 version, this new update of Netscape's popular browser does offer some useful improvements. These include a three-paned, integrated mail and news interface; a scalable address book; and the newest versions of RealPlayer G2, AOL Instant Messenger, StuffIt Expander (Mac), and the Shockwave and Flash players. Additional features include the Winamp MP3 player and PalmPilot Synch tools (both for Windows only). [MD]
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Two Final Version Releases
Google
http://www.google.com/
RealJukebox
http://www.real.com/jukebox/
Two previously reviewed nettools recently announced the release of their final versions. Google (see the June 4, 1999 Scout Report), a search engine originally developed at the Stanford University Computer Science Department, rates the relevance of a Webpage to a particular search query in part by examining how many other Webpages link to it. A new feature in the final version is GoogleScout, which offers an additional list of related URLS for each search return. RealJukebox (see the May 7, 1999 Scout Report) allows users to play, record, organize, and search for music from a single interface. Unfortunately, this nifty utility is still only available to Windows users. [MD]
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Zuberlinks
http://www.zuberlinks.com/
Created and maintained by Bethany Bilbrey, this metasite is a well-organized and easy-to-use resource for Website builders. Links are organized by topic and then broken into subcategories. For instance, under the Site Tools section, users will find multiple links to general tools, link checkers, counters, trackers, Web editing programs, log statistics, and design software. Other topic headings include Registration & Hosting, Policies & Legal Info, Design, Development & Programming, Organizations & Lists, and Annoyances. The featured links vary, with a mix of free, noncommercial, and commercial sites. [MD]
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Fifty Years of Communism in China
The 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC -- Chinese Embassy
http://www.china-embassy.org/Press/50years.htm
National Day Special -- People's Daily [RealPlayer]
http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/50years/index.html
Full Text of President Jiang Zemin's Speech at National Day Rally -- People's Daily
http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/199910/01/enc_19991001001013_TopNews.html
China at 50 -- South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/Special/ChinaAt50/Index.asp
"China's 50th Underwhelms Taiwan" -- Inside China Today
http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=95946
CNN In-Depth Special -- Visions of China
http://cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/flash.html
Less Graphical Entrance
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/
"China marks 50 years of communist rule" -- ASIANOW
http://www.cnn.com/ASIANOW/east/9910/01/china.anniversary.02/index.html#r
The People's Republic at 50: Special report -- BBC [RealPlayer]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/09/99/china_50_years_of_communism/newsid_456000/456465.stm
China's annual National Day parade took special significance today, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). While the streets were swept clear of any potential undesirables and Beijing's residents were told to stay home and watch the proceedings on television, over half a million specially selected people participated in a huge, choreographed celebration of Communist rule. Highlights included a five-mile military parade punctuated with fly-overs by fighter jets and over 90 floats depicting the heroism and progress of the Chinese people. In addition to their sheer size and pomp, the celebrations were notable for a number of aspects. Some saw the massive military display as a warning to Taiwan that China may resort to force to reclaim what it sees as a renegade province. Also of interest was the positioning of President Jiang Zemin, who delivered his speech from the balcony of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the same spot where Mao Zedong declared 50 years before that "the Chinese people have stood up." Jiang was the only living leader to have a float dedicated to him and is clearly aiming to place himself in the same pantheon as Mao and Deng Xiaoping. His efforts to do so, and the recent state-sponsored surge in Chinese nationalism, lead some to speculate that Jiang may attempt to base his claim to posterity on the reunification of Taiwan and China.

The first site, from the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC, contains a selection of statements on various aspects of Chinese economic, social, and political development in the past 50 years. The online version of the People's Daily, offers a special on National Day, including commentary, charts and figures, a list of achievements, photos, video selections, and numerous other resources. Also available from the People's Daily is the full-text of President Jiang Zemin's Speech at the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Another thorough, and more independent and balanced, review of the achievements and failures of the past 50 years is available from the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English daily. Inside China Today reports on how the lavish proceedings were viewed in Taiwan. CNN's feature-rich special on the 50th anniversary of Communist rule includes reports, analysis, galleries, maps, timelines, and several interactive features. ASIANOW (see this week's report) also offers several pieces on the anniversary, with links to archived stories and other related resources. Finally, the BBC's special report includes several analytical pieces, an interactive glossary of the revolution, some audio content, and related links. Additional resources on China can be found in Signpost, the Scout Report's database. These include China News Digest, China the Beautiful, and The Transnational China Project. [MD]
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From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1999. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

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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.

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Susan Calcari Rachael E. Bower Michael de Nie Travis Koplow David Charbonneau Pat Coulthard Aimee D. Glassel Sheilah Harrington Christopher Lukas Emily Missner Laura X. Payne Krishna Ramanujan Mike Roszkowski Debra Shapiro Amy Tracy Wells Paul M Schwartz

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