The Scout Report - January 7, 2000

The Public Records of 1969 -- PRO
http://www.pro.gov.uk/releases/nyo2000/default.htm
On January 1, the UK Public Record Office (PRO) (last discussed in the July 30, 1999 Scout Report) released UK Government Records from 1969 that had been sealed under the 30 year rule. The PRO site provides general descriptions of the record series augmented by the releases, a list of the highlights of this release, a list of Cabinet Ministers in 1969, and information on accessing the records at the PRO office in Kew. The highlight of the site, however, is the collection of images of selected original documents. These are offered in thumbnails with brief commentary and include such diverse topics as the deployment of British troops to Northern Ireland, nuclear deterrence, the Royal Family, President Nixon's visit to Britain, and government funding of a study on the communications aspects of fashion changes (dubbed, "the mini-skirt project"). 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]
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Research Group in Mathematical Inequalities and Applications [.dvi, .pdf, .ps]
http://rgmia.vu.edu.au/
From Australia's Victoria University of Technology, the Research Group in Mathematical Inequalities and Applications (RGMIA) is comprised of academics and researchers from Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The purpose of the group is to disseminate results via publication, create an awareness of the theory of inequalities, and illustrate the applicability of inequalities in the sciences. Highlights of this site include a preprint series called the Research Report Collection. Every few months, a new volume is added online (.dvi, .pdf, .ps) providing registered users with access to cutting edge research. Another excellent feature is the database of Papers in Theory of Inequalities & Applications. The database contains an expansive collection of publications in the field, all of which are downloadable. Members are invited to send in a list of publications for inclusion in the database. Membership (which provides a username and password, and serves as a measure to protect copyrights) is free via an online form. This is an excellent resource for those in the field of mathematical inequalities. [KR]
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United Nations Interregional Crime & Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)
http://www.unicri.it/
Established in 1968 to "advance policy and practice in the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency and adult criminality," UNICRI has more recently created a Website that offers a number of criminology resources. The most important of these are two databases, the World Directory of Criminological Resources and the LMS Bibliographic Collection. The first contains information on over 470 institutes in 70 countries, and the latter indexes more than 6,000 authors and 300 series. Both are searchable by keyword with several modifiers. A free weekly Alert Service notifies subscribers of new and updated entries to the LMS Bibliographic Collection according to subscribers's criteria. Additional resources include a UNICRI Thesaurus which lists the keywords used by UNICRI Documentation Services to index documents, a selection of full-text publications, and information on various projects at the Institute. [MD]
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Beilstein Abstracts -- ChemWeb
http://chemweb.com/databases/beilstein
Recently added to ChemWeb, Beilstein Abstracts is a free database of titles and abstracts of approximately 600,000 articles from 140 journals in organic and related chemistry. The articles run from 1980 to the present. After free registration with ChemWeb, users may browse or search the database by author, title, abstract, and several modifiers. Search returns include title, author, source, document type, language, and an abstract. [MD]
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Euro Homepage [.pdf]
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~corsetti/euro/Euroit.htm
Frames
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~corsetti/euro/
European Mirror
http://www.spbo.unibo.it/corsetti/Euroit.htm
Frames
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~corsetti/euro/
Created and maintained by Giancarlo Corsetti, Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University, this page contains a veritable host of frequently updated links to information and resources on European monetary policy and the European Monetary Union (EMU). The links are organized in more than a dozen sections, including basic readings (co-written by Corsetti), emerging policy issues, a regularly updated daily chronology of events (1998-present), fiscal and monetary policy issues, official sources, economists (with links to their publications), and debates. Some of these links are prefaced with commentary or extensive quotes; others are briefly annotated. All in all, the site is an excellent resource for students, researchers, or anyone else interested in current news, analysis, and background information on the EMU. [MD]
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Biennial Report to Congress on the Status of GPO Access [.pdf, 379K]
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/biennial/index.html
Completed on December 30, this biennial report to Congress describes the status of GPO Access, one of the most important online sources of US Government information. Available in .pdf and text formats, the report offers an overview of GPO Access and discusses recent improvements, partnerships, and the future of the service. Eight appendixes are included and may be accessed separately. [MD]
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WebChron: The WebChronology Project
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/
Developed and maintained by David Koeller, Associate Professor of History at North Park University, this site offers fifteen hyperlinked chronologies for use in survey courses on western civilization and world history. The chronologies, which are divided into various subsections, contain links to related chronologies and a number of articles on specific topics written by Koeller's students. Since they are designed for survey courses, the chronologies themselves are rather broad, with many details left out. However, they can still certainly be useful as either a resource for introductory history courses or a model for similar projects. [MD]
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Lesson Plan Links
http://rrnet.com/~gleason/lesson.html
This latest creation from the doyen of online K-12 resources, Gleason Sackman, offers links to over 40 master lesson plan sites, which collectively provide thousands of different lesson plans. The site will be updated and all links checked on a monthly basis, and new links are listed at the top of the page. This no-nonsense page deserves a place in the bookmarks folder of any K-12 educator. [MD]
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Lycos Vote 2000 [RealPlayer]
http://www.lycos.com/news/flash/assist/newsTop/vote2000.html
As the primary campaign season kicks into high gear, yet another portal offers a comprehensive political news site. On the whole, the site is rather impressive, bringing together a large number of resources in a well-organized format. These include 24-hour news feeds from Wired News and Reuters, news and analysis from Slate.com, candidate profiles, and concise focus sections on over a dozen national issues. According to Lycos, the site will provide local and state election information, and links to local and state officials are included. At present, however, the focus is clearly the presidential primaries. Additional resources at the site include chat events, online debates, and related political links. [MD]
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LisNews
http://www.lisnews.com/
Created in November 1999 by librarians Blake Carver and Steve Galbraith, this (usually) twice-daily updated metasite links to a large variety of news stories from around the world that relate to library and information science. In addition to scanning the list of latest stories featured on the main page, users can browse for past news in over 50 categories. In the future, the site will also feature user-submitted columns and editorials. Readers are welcome to submit ideas for stories. A fine current awareness resource for librarians. [MD]
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The American Experience: Houdini -- PBS [QuickTime, RealPlayer, Shockwave]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/
Come one, come all to this site on Harry Houdini, the man who escaped a locked crate lowered into the East River, the Milk Can, the Water Torture Cell, and being buried alive. This companion site to a forthcoming program in the PBS American Experience series chronicles the life of the world's greatest escape artist and one of the best showmen to grace the stage. At the site, users can trace Houdini's career, watch several video clips of his daring escapes, learn some of his secrets, and view twelve posters from his heyday. In addition, the site offers articles on the people and events featured in the program and a Teacher's Guide. [MD]
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Illustrated Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/tps/tax/rhb/
This site, which guides users through the US Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, will appeal to anyone who owns an old home or has an interest in historic preservation. After an initial overview of the standards, users can browse illustrated guidelines for specific building features and areas (windows, entrances, roofs, masonry, wood, etc.). For each, the site offers a list of recommended and not recommended practices. Additional topics addressed include energy, new additions, accessibility, and health/ safety. Another useful on-site resource is the National Park Service's Good Guides to historic buildings, landmarks, and landscapes. [MD]
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American Posters of World War One, from the collection of Roger N. Mohovich
http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/amposter.htm
The Special Collections Department at Georgetown University opened this show of posters on November 11th, 1999, to coincide with the 81st anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I. The exhibition Website is simply designed, presenting the posters as one long list of captioned thumbnails that link to larger views. An introductory essay discusses the posters and the artists and printing firms that created them, and also includes titles of several standard books on World War I posters. Captions, in addition to providing artist name and publication information for each poster, include page number references to these books. The site also links to an earlier Georgetown exhibition of British World War I posters. [DS]
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2000 Around the World -- New York Times
http://www10.nytimes.com/library/photos/timezone_one.1.html
This attractive, if a bit slow-loading, site from the New York Times (free registration required) features photos from New Year's celebrations in 22 of the world's 24 time zones. Users can view the time zones in sequence or select from a map at the bottom of each page. The number of photos for each time zone vary significantly, but collectively they offer an interesting visual account of how the world brought in 2000. [MD]
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Peter Rabbit Homepage [Shockwave, QuickTime]
http://www.peterrabbit.co.uk/
While undoubtedly created with commercial purposes in mind, this attractive online home of Beatrix Potter's much-loved bunny offers plenty of free content for young and young-at-heart users. These include examples of Potter's art and a brief biography, video and audio clips, online games, electronic greeting cards, and news of related exhibitions and events. [MD]
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SearchMil.com
http://www.searchmil.com/
Developed by Beckstrom Software, this no-nonsense search engine claims to index approximately 785,000 pages in the .mil domain. Like the Google search engine, SearchMil.com caches the versions of pages that its robots find. This helps prevent errors from changed addresses, or in the case of the .mil domain, sites that have been subsequently pulled due to security concerns. Also like Google, SearchMil.com offers a simple keyword search interface and ranked returns that include brief excerpts from the site and links to the site or the cached version. While SearchMil contains more .mil domain pages than the other leading search engines, it is unclear what percentage is indexed, as the Pentagon itself doesn't know the exact size of the .mil domain. [MD]
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Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 Beta [Windows 95/98/NT]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/webtechnology/ie/iepreview.asp
Close on the heels of its 5.01 release, Microsoft has made a beta version of IE 5.5 available. New features include a Print Preview, improved stability, and support for new web standards. Users can download IE 5.5 at the Microsoft site. [MD]
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1 Cool Button Tool
http://www.buttontool.com
1 Cool button tool creates buttons for Java applets and the supporting HTML from a graphical environment. No Java or HTML programming is required, but of course, knowledge of these languages makes using the tool more intuitive. The background and any text on the button may be specified; actions associated with up, down, and mouse-over states are configurable; and buttons may be linked with a URL which is fetched when clicked. This tool can speed up development of buttons and may be useful to someone learning HTML. 1 Cool Button Tool is available for Windows 95, 98, and NT. A free trial version is available, and it may be registered for $29.95. [JB]
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Turmoil in Sri Lanka
"Sri Lanka lifts curfew, hundreds detained" -- AsiaNow
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/01/07/bc.srilanka.reut/index.html
"Mass Arrests in Sri Lanka" -- BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_594000/594108.stm
Recent Reports from Voice of America News Correspondents On Lanka
http://www.lacnet.org/voa/index.html
LankaPage
http://www.lankapage.com/
"Kumar : Politics of the gun" -- The Island
http://www.upali.lk/island/isleditr.htm#editorial
Tamil Eelam Homepage
http://eelam.com/
Sri Lanka Government Information Department News
http://news.lk/Whats_new.html
Thousands of men and women from the minority Tamil community were arrested and about 1,500 detained during an all-night curfew last night in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Announced without warning after reports that ten suicide bombers had entered the city, the curfew involved massive house-to-house searches in Tamil areas. This action follows a suicide bomb that killed thirteen people in front of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's office on Wednesday. On the same day, Kumar Ponnambalam, a prominent Tamil politician, was found shot dead in Colombo. The Prime Minister's daughter, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was wounded by one of two suicide bomb attacks on December 18. Targeted by Tamil separatists in the waning days of her campaign, President Kumaratunga won re-election to a second six-year term on December 21, with just over 51 percent of the vote. These events are the latest chapter in the island's costly and long-running civil war, pitting the rebel Tamil Tigers, who want an independent homeland for Tamils, against the government. For the present, a resolution to the conflict seems unlikely, as neither side seems capable of securing a conclusive victory.

Users may want to begin with AsiaNow's concise report on recent developments, which also includes a number of links to related stories and sites. The BBC also reports on the arrests, offering several analytical pieces and a timeline of the conflict as well. Users can track breaking news at the Voice of America site and LankaPage; the latter also hosts a number of related links. The Island, a daily paper in Colombo, offers an editorial on the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam. Finally, reports on recent events from both sides of the political spectrum can be found at the Tamil Eelam homepage and the news page from the Government Information Department. Please be advised that the latter includes graphic photos of some of the recent violence. [MD]
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Susan Calcari Rachael E. Bower Michael de Nie Travis Koplow David Charbonneau Aimee D. Glassel Sheilah Harrington Emily Missner Laura X. Payne Krishna Ramanujan Mike Roszkowski Debra Shapiro Amy Tracy Wells Joseph Bockhorst Pat Coulthard Alan Foley

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