NSDL Scout Reports for the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences
The second issues of the first volumes of the Life Sciences Report and Physical Sciences Report are available. The Topic in Depth section of the Life Sciences Report annotates overfishing. The Physical Sciences Report's Topic in Depth section offers sites and comments on Yellowstone National Park.
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Hartford Black History Project
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/HBHP/index.html
The Hartford Black History Project originated as a single exhibit that was distributed between two host institutions: the Charter Oak Cultural Center and the Connecticut Historical Society. The project is the first comprehensive research on the history of Hartford's Black community between the 17th and 20th centuries and is currently composed of two exhibits -- A Struggle from the Start and the Hartford Studies Project. A Struggle from the Start is a virtual exhibit of the history of Hartford's African-American community from 1638 to the present. The Hartford Studies Project is a digitalized collection of gathered images of the Black experience in Hartford, taken from photographs of the Connecticut State Library (CSL), Connecticut Historical Society (CHS), the Hartford Collection at Hartford Public Library (HPL), and other private collections. [MG]
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Women, Enterprise & Society: A Guide to Resources in the Business Manuscripts Collection at Baker Library
http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/wes/
Presented by Baker Library of Harvard Business School, Women, Enterprise and Society (WES) is an online publication that identifies materials in the Business Manuscripts Collection at Baker Library and documents women's participation in American business and culture from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. The launch of WES represents the culmination of a three-year project to identify and catalog resources for study of the unexplored sections of Baker Library's manuscript collections. As a result, this collection is not a comprehensive study of the larger topic of women in business. Researchers will find, for example, that the guide does not include papers of major twentieth-century women entrepreneurs or corporate leaders. The guide does, however, include hundreds of individual items, such as account books, day books, letters, legal documents, and payroll registers. These materials clearly document the extent to which women were an integral part of the fabric of American economic and business life, participating in and contributing to enterprise and society in ways that were largely overlooked until recently. [MG]
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The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut 1636-1776
http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu/
The Colonial Connecticut Records (CCR) project is an initiative of the University of Connecticut Libraries and supported by the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. CCR effectively scanned images of all fifteen volumes (via microfilmed copies) of the 19th century publications owned by the Libraries. One can browse names and topics via an A-Z subject index for each volume individually, search by date, or search by volume and page number. The complexities caused by inconsistent spellings has thus far prevented implementation of full-text and keyword access, but the browse list is quite extensive. Other handy features include the ability to download TIFFs (300 dpi) of each page image and the ability to retrieve groups or classes of documents (Charters, Documents, Laws, etc.). Overall, this is a wonderful tool for historians of Colonial American History. Given the target audience, one oddity is the lack of specific bibliographic information on the source material. To remedy this problem, this reviewer discovered this entry in the University of Connecticut Libraries online catalog : "The public records of the Colony of Connecticut ..."; published by Hartford, Brown & Parsons, 1850-1890; Vols. 1-3 edited by J. H. Trumbull; v. 4-15, by C. J. Hoadly. [DJS]
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The Berkeley Law & Economics Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.bepress.com/blewp/default/
The John M. Olin Foundation Program in Law, Economics, and Institutions at U.C. Berkeley Law School presents the Volume 2001 Fall Issue of the Berkeley Law & Economics Working Papers. These papers have been published by bepress.com (last mentioned in the April 5, 2001 Scout Report) and include "Flexible Citizenship For a Global Society", "Aligning the Interests of Lawyers and Clients", and "Executive Compensation in America: Optimal Contracting or Extraction of Rents?" Acrobat Reader is needed to view articles in its entirety. [MG]
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American Institute for Cancer Research
http://www.aicr.org/
The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is the nation's third largest cancer charity and a pioneer in the areas of diet and nutrition as they relate to the prevention and treatment of cancer. This informative site offers news, research updates, recipes, and free publications as well as tips for good health. In addition, AICR's services program provides a reliable source of accurate and current information on a variety of subjects related to health and offers free answers to diet and health questions by registered dietitians. [MG]
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Living Words: Voices of the Holocaust
http://www.education.bl.uk/new/index.html
Presented by the British Library, Voices of the Holocaust consists of personal, oral testimonies gathered from Jewish men and women who came to reside in Britain. These testimonies are true stories told by Holocaust survivors that depict life during this horrifyingly tumultuous time. The testimonies are divided into six main categories -- life before the Holocaust, ghettos and deportations, the camps, resistance, liberation, and testimonies by Edith Berkin. For scholars, researchers, historians, and those interested in the Holocaust, this site serves as a compliment to the sixteen-volume set of typescripts of 70 interviews of Holocaust survivors conducted in 1946 by the Illinois Institute of Technology (mentioned in the September 1, 2000 Scout Report). Transcripts may be read or played using RealPlayer. [MG]
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Fuel Property Database
http://www.ott.doe.gov/fuelprops/
Scientists and environmentalists will be excited to have such a thorough resource as the Office of Transportation Technology's Fuel Property Database available at their fingertips. An amazingly rich resource, the database lists and crosslists the properties of advanced-petroleum distillates, enabling those users working on the fuels of the future and the vehicles that will rely on them to be ever more efficient and less harmful to the atmosphere. Arrived at almost exclusively according to American Society for Testing and Materials' (ASTM) standards, the database presents an unbelievable array of properties and attributes. Viewable separately or all at once, they are ready for instant online consultation. [WH]
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Population Profile of the United States: 2000
http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html
The Population Profile of the United States: 2000 is the first Internet-only version of this US Census Bureau product. It includes data from surveys conducted in the year 2000 and earlier, as well as some limited Census 2000 data. This report attempts to provide the public with updated information in the years in which a printed version has not been issued. Chapters include population dynamics, households and housing, social characteristics, household economics, and the facets of diversity. Primary sources for this report come from the Census Bureau's Decennial Census of Population and Housing, the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the American Housing Survey (AHS). [MG]
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Columbia Newsblaster
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/newsblaster/
With a team of researchers headed by Prof. Kathy McKeown, Columbia Newsblaster is an online project at Columbia University's Department of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Newsblaster currently looks at news reports from thirteen sources, including Yahoo, ABCNews, CNN, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Virtual New York, Washington Post, Wired, and USA Today. The product uses artificial intelligence techniques to cull through news reports published online and then sorts and summarizes these reports in five different news categories -- US, world, finance, entertainment, and sports. These summaries are based on reflecting factors, such as where a fact is mentioned in the published reports and how often it is repeated across reports dealing with the same event or subject. They are also based on the news value of individual facts, such as how many were killed or injured, or how much damage to property occurred. On the whole, in an age of information overload, this newly developed tool may provide assistance to journalists, executives, and average news consumers. [MG]
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CrisisWeb: Latest Publications
http://www.crisisWeb.org/projects/reports.cfm#top
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational organization "committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain conflict." The ICG, which is chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, is headquartered in Brussels and has advocacy offices in Washington DC, New York, and Paris. The organization currently operates field projects in nineteen crisis-affected countries and four continents: Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Zimbabwe in Africa; Myanmar, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in Asia; Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in Europe; and Colombia in Latin America. Teams of political analysts gather information from a wide range of sources, assess local conditions, and produce regular analytical reports, containing "practical recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers." For those users interested in exploring publications on issues related to conflict prevention and management, this is definitely a place to start. [MG]
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The Investor's Clearinghouse from the Alliance for Investor Education
http://www.investoreducation.org/
The Alliance for Investor Education has created the Investor's Clearinghouse in an effort to facilitate a greater understanding of investments and the financial markets among current and prospective investors of all ages. This site offers a range of investment information that includes investing basics, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, online Internet investing, financial planning, and tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of stock market fraud. Overall, this site is a great resource for current investors and anyone considering investment opportunities. [MG]
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Acurian
http://www.acurian.com/patient/
Very timely and in ever-increasing demand, services like Acurian hold a glimmer of hope to those suffering beyond the reach of currently-approved medical drug treatments and therapies. Offering state-by-state listings of clinical trials of cutting-edge drugs under investigation both by pharmaceutical manufacturers and/or academic research facilities, Acurian can serve as a vital link to users who want to be included, but who might not otherwise know where to look. An academic resource, the Acurian site is quick to note the experimental nature of the treatments to which it links. That said, it is there for those who feel they must look beyond the currently-sanctioned armory of treatments. Providing such data as length of studies listed, a given drug's side effects, and stage in the FDA approval process, Acurian promises to help many make informed decisions about some of life's hardest choices. [WH]
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PhotoGraphic Libraries: Education Resource
http://www.photographiclibraries.com/
PhotoGraphicLibraries.com is an educational resource site that provides links to other sites related to the field of photographic images. Links are arranged in categories that include stock and moving images, media services, photo and ad agencies, graphics, and clip art. The site also contains a library and archive collection that consists of national and private photographic collections. Ultimately, this site is an excellent resource for television producers, advertising agencies, libraries, education centers, picture researchers, and media services researching visual communications. [MG]
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Business 2.0 Web Guide
http://www.business2.com/webguide/
According to one of its own brochures, "Business 2.0 is the essential tool for navigating today's relentlessly changing marketplace, particularly as it's driven by the Internet and other technologies." In both print and electronic versions, Business 2.0 does cover an incredible amount of ground, including day-to-day and month-to-month information and offering extensive subject lists of its material, broken down by general subjects -- from management and marketing to Enron and the Internet. Not only clearly in touch with today's business world, Business 2.0 promises to put its readers in touch with it through company links, as well as through straightforward contact lists. While Business 2.0 is open for anyone's consultation, registered readers are granted greater access privileges to archived and premium content. [WH]
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The Moonlit Road
http://www.themoonlitroad.com/godschillun/intro_godschillun.asp
In honor of Black History Month, the Moonlit Road (last mentioned in the January 22, 1999 Scout Report) proudly presents a new story from Veronica Bryd entitled "All God's Chillun Had Wings." This classic slave tale of deliverance from the Georgia coast can be read or heard using RealPlayer. In addition, in an attempt to provide a better understanding of the historical and contextual make-up of the story, the site offers background information on the Sea Islands and Gullah culture. As important, Moonlit Road has brought back "The Boo Hag," one of their popular African-American folktales from the past. [MG]
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IE Booster
http://www.paessler.com/products/ieb/?ref=LGDM
IE Booster is a freeware collection of tools that extend the context menu of the Internet Explorer Web browser (version 5 and up). By Paessler, this software shows page source, hyperlinks, images, style sheets, and detailed information of an image, as well as all forms and applets of a Web page. It also opens the current frame in the same or in a new window, resizes the browser window to various screen formats, opens selected text as URL in a new browser window, copies selection as a plain text, and copies image source paths to the clipboard. In addition, for ZOPE-users, it manages the page or parent folder and restarts the server. [MG]
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Tyrantula
http://animalaesthetics.com/tyrantula/
Tyrantula is an animal aesthetics's analysis tool that provides an array of "sundry information" about a Web page. Some of this information includes providing statistics and data concerning the visible text extracted from a Web page, gathering information about the total size (page weight) of a Web page, and calculating estimated page download times for various connection speeds. Tyrantula also examines the tag structure and other characteristics related to a Web page (to determine what types of content and formatting attributes it includes); displays the page title, description, keywords, and last-modified date (if available); provides information about outgoing links; and checks search engines for incoming links in the form of link referrals from other Web pages. [MG]
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The Tri-State Crematory
CNN.com: Georgia crematory operator faces Friday court date
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/21/crematory/index.html
Associated Press: Corpse Recovery Effort May Top $10M
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020221/ts/corpses_discovered_51.html
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Lawmaker seeks to close loophole he helped open
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/metro_c3470a95d249b0fe00f8.html
Susan Ager: Families need their minds put at rest
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/ager21_20020221.htm
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: OUR OPINIONS: Preserve the dignity of the dead
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/opinion_c3179fb23180706d10c0.html
Funeral Consumers Alliance
http://www.funerals.org/
Funerals: A Consumer Guide
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/services/funeral.htm
A county judge issued a gag order Thursday in the case of a crematory operator accused of failing to cremate hundreds of bodies and instead hiding them on his northwest Georgia property. Stacks of decomposing corpses were recovered Tuesday from vaults and sheds near the Tri-State Crematory, including one body that had been dumped above ground in a casket behind the operator's home. Helicopters are being used to survey other properties owned by the crematorium operator, Ray Marsh. Investigators have said Marsh told them the bodies were not cremated because the incinerator was broken. Authorities are unsure exactly how long the incinerator has been broken, but evidence reveals that some dumped bodies have been there for 15 years or more. Currently, Marsh has been charged with 16 counts of theft by deception -- one count for each of the bodies identified at the time he was charged. His bond hearing has been delayed until he hires an attorney. It was recently reported that McCracken "Ken" Poston, a former state representative and Juvenile Court judge in nearby Catoosa County, has agreed to represent Marsh.
At the state capitol in Atlanta, a House committee approved a bill Tuesday that tightens rules for crematories and the treatment of the dead, which could come to a floor vote early next week. For detailed information concerning the Tri-State Crematory phenomenon, click on the first two sites listed above. The third site gives information on the bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Snow, that now requires the inspection of every crematory. Sites four and five are editorials concerning this scandal, while the last two sites provide educational materials and information for planning a funeral for a loved one. [MG]
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From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2002. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
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