The Scout Report -- Volume 14, Number 17

http://speculum.lib.uchicago.edu/

Antonio Lafreri was a master printmaker and publisher in sixteenth century Italy, and his Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae offers a number of engravings of Rome and Roman antiquities. The University of Chicago Library happens to have a copy of this work which they have recently digitized and placed online here for the general public. It's a remarkable collection, and all told visitors can look through 994 prints which depict major monuments and antiquities in Rome. After reading a brief introduction to the work, visitors should click on over to the "Itineraries". Here they will find mini-exhibitions designed by scholars that will allow them to travel through the collection based on a theme, location, collection, or artist. Among their number are a tour of the Belvedere Cortile (an outdoor garden space) and the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is one of the largest buildings in Rome. The site concludes with a collection of related links and information about the technical processes used to create the site. [KMG]

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/activities/3860.html

Most people are familiar with Shel Silverstein's poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends", but do they know where and why sidewalks crack? It's a valid and worthy question, and this handy educational activity from Charles Onasch of Bowling Green State University explains just that. Here, students will learn to use fractures in sidewalks as an analog for natural outcrops and also learn how to make systematic observations of such fractures. This activity is offered as part of the "Teaching Structural Geology in the 21st Century" website maintained at Carleton College, and educators are welcome to use it in a variety of classroom settings. Visitors can read a brief summary of the activity, and then go on to download all of the necessary documentation related to the activity. [KMG]

http://www.rad.washington.edu/academics/academic-sections/msk/teaching-materials/radiology-anatomy-teaching-modules

As more and more individuals elect to enter the various health science professions, there is an increased demand for teaching resources designed to keep students aware of basic skills and techniques. Created by the University of Washington, these radiology anatomy teaching modules are designed to supplement regular instruction and to serve as a reference resource for medical educators and students. Along the left side of the site visitors will find a muscle atlas, an online radiology guide, and the "Teaching Files" area. Further down the homepage, visitors will find the "Anatomy Teaching Modules" section. Here visitors can take advantage of modules that cover the basic radiographic anatomy of selected parts of the skeleton and related resources. [KMG]

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

Planning for the Perseus Digital Library began in 1985, and they have made a series of ambitious changes, additions, and transformations over the past several decades. The Library is best known for their coverage of the history, literature, and culture of the Greco-Roman world. They recently unveiled this new website, and it is well worth a look. Along the top of the homepage, visitors will find sections such as "Collections", "Art & Arch", and "Publications". In the "Collections" area visitors will find thousands of primary and secondary sources for the study of ancient Greece and Rome, along with a number of resources on early modern English literature and life in the 19th century United States. The "Art & Arch" area contains an impressive library of art objects that includes over 1500 vases, 1400 sculptures, and approximately 500 coins. Additionally, the "Publications" area includes work that discusses the process of creating the Perseus collection and its related databases. [KMG]

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

Not many websites bring together whooping cranes, gray whales, and bald eagles, but this educational resource from Annenberg Media manages to do just that. The site is designed to help students learn more about the global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change by drawing on their own observations. On the homepage, visitors can click on a diverse set of animals to learn more about their migratory patterns. Moving on down the site, visitors can also contribute their own recent sightings and take a look at data that's been submitted by other users. The "Maps" section is a great way to get a visual overview of the most recent sightings and there's a great area for teachers that includes instructional activities and classroom lessons. [KMG]

http://www.innocentive.com/

The world is faced with a number of pressing issues, including climate change, food security, and a range of public health epidemics, just to name a few. In an effort to inspire solutions, the Innovation Management site allows a wide range of creative thinkers, scientists, and policy experts to exchange ideas via their Open Innovation Marketplace. Currently, the site has over 14000 persons signed up across 140 countries. Visitors can make their way to the "Solvers" area to learn more about some of the challenges currently under discussion, and also learn about a number of prominent invention contests from across the globe. Moving on, visitors can go to the "Marketplace" to learn more about some of the "challenges" in disciplines like chemistry and engineering that are waiting to be solved by willing and bright individuals. [KMG]

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/idnc/Default/Skins/UIUC/Client.asp?skin=UIUC&enter=true&AW=1209163217786&AppName=2

The digitization of historically important and interesting newspapers continues apace, and this latest collection is quite a find. The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection is a project of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Their first project is the digitization of select years from the Daily Illini, which is the student newspaper on campus. Currently, visitors can browse and search papers from 1916 to 1936, and there are plans to include the years 1937 to 1945 in the near future. Interested parties can also search by keyword across articles, advertisements and photo captions. One can imagine that this type of archive would be of interest to social historians, journalists, and anyone who wishes to peer into the world of campus life in the Roaring 20s and the not-so-Roaring 30s. [KMG]

http://www.intropsych.com/

Psychology is a vast and complex area of inquiry, and students entering the field may be confounded by the number of subfields within the discipline. Professor Russell A. Dewey of Georgia Southern University has created this fine online introductory textbook that covers everything from states of consciousness to social psychology. The online text includes sixteen chapters, and each chapter contains a number of parts that break each topic into smaller subtopics. The text is well-written and it draws on a number of examples and well-known experiments that will keep readers engaged. The site is rounded out by the inclusion of Professor Dewey's contact information and links to additional resources. [KMG]

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida/

During the 1930s and 1940s, teams of writers and scholars scoured the United States on behalf of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) collecting materials about the places they saw and the people they met. This particular digital ethnographic field collection brings together materials which document the Arabic, Bahamian, Cuban, Green, Seminole and Slavic cultures across Florida. Here visitors will find folksongs, work songs, dance music, interviews, and religious music from these groups and a number of others. First-time visitors to the site should start by reading an essay by Stetson Kennedy which talks about the "labor and the legacy of the WPA in Florida." Visitors can browse the collection by performer, place, or media format. It's a real treat to listen to some of the folk songs included here, and the collection includes over 300 of them. Archivists will also appreciate the inclusion of interview transcriptions and recording logs which can be viewed in their entirety. [KMG]

http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/jthom/

Born in 1881 in Ashland, Kentucky, Jean Thomas defied many social conventions throughout her life, and the world is a richer place for it. In the 1890s, she decided to attend business school and shortly afterwards she became a court reporter. She traveled around Kentucky for her job, and along the way she became quite enamored of the musical traditions across the state. Later in life, she would go on to stage the American Folk Song Festival from 1930 to 1972. Thomas was also a photographer, and this delightful digital collection from the University of Louisville Libraries contains over 1000 of her photographs. Visitors can read an extended biography of Thomas, and then browse or search the collection at their leisure. Some of the subjects covered here include the American Folk Song Festival, live performances, and rural landscapes. [KMG]

http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/

What qualifies as good urban design? It's an important (and thorny) question, and one that's important to the staff members at the English Partnerships organizations. They've created this website to serve as a clearinghouse for high-quality information on what constitutes good urban design. First-time visitors should click on over to the "Urban Design Principles" area. Here they will find a complete guide to urban design that includes such chapters as "Creating the Urban Structure", "Detailing the Place", and "Fundamentals". It is a solid document and it could certainly be used in a community development setting or with a group of urban planning students. The "Case Studies" area features over 100 case studies which explain how others have applied urban design principles to deliver quality places. Visitors can search the case studies by keyword, location, scale, or type. Finally, the site also includes a document titled "Aiming Higher" which discusses how future urban developments can draw on some of these basic principles and guidelines. [KMG]

http://www.census.gov/history/

While the U.S. Census Bureau has only been in existence since 1903, the first population census was taken in 1790, per the requirements stated in the United States Constitution. This rather engaging website traces the history of the census through statistics, historic photographs, and other documents. On the homepage, visitors can browse through the "This Month in Census History" feature and learn some quick facts in the "Did You Know?" section. Moving along, the "Census-Then & Now" area should not be missed. Here visitors can learn about past directors of the census (such as Thomas Jefferson), read up on relevant legislation, and even look over biographies of notable census alumni. Next up is the "Geography & Mapping" section which contains an overview of how the Census maps data, coupled with a few famous maps from censuses past. One item that shouldn't be missed is the "Centers of Population" map, which shows the mean center of the population of the United States following each census. The site is rounded out by a "Through The Decades" feature, which brings visitors up to speed with the various changes made for each census. [KMG]

http://www.wetlands.org/

Established as a non-governmental organization, Wetlands International is concerned with promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands on the global, regional, and national levels. Much of the information on the site is contained within a dozen or so sections along the left-hand side of the homepage. First-time visitors may want to read through the "About Us" area before proceeding to the "Introduction to Wetlands" area. Scholars and policy analysts will want to also look through the "Publications" area. Here they will find information sheets on peatland loss, user handbooks on various wetland regions, and related fact sheets for general use. Visitors may also want to peruse the "Biodiversity Programmes" area to learn more about the species and habitats that Wetlands International works to preserve through their advocacy work. The site is rounded out by a collection of recent news stories and press releases. [KMG]

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/survivingexhibit/index.html

Billed as a "journey of self-discovery", this very fine online exhibit from the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology takes visitors on an interactive tour through the world of evolution. Along the way, visitors will encounter well-known scientists and revolutionary thinkers as they discuss their breakthrough theories. The exhibit doesn't skimp on the particulars of evolution either, as visitors can learn why "your sister had trouble giving birth", or "why your back may ache". All of this is discussed and presented in sections that include "We Keep Evolving", "Our Place in the Natural World", "We Are Not Perfect", and "Finding Our Human Ancestors". The site is erudite, well-thought out, and suitable for all ages. Additional resources on the site include links to other relevant websites, including the University of California Berkeley's Evolutionary website and articles on evolution from Scientific American. [KMG]

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12184

The promise of desalination as a panacea to the world's insatiable demand for freshwater has been held out for decades, and engineers and others have set their full intellectual powers to this task. Released in late April 2008, this repot from the National Academies Press takes a close look at the feasibility of large-scale desalination schemes. One of the reports primary recommendations is that federal research and development on desalination be planned and coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and funded at the level of existing desalination research and development programs. The report also suggests that significant research efforts should be committed to developing cost-effective and environmentally sustainable ways to dispose of the salt concentrate generated by the desalination process. Visitors are welcome to download the entire report (a short registration may be required), or they can just browse around through the table of contents as they see fit. [KMG]

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/peterdoig/

Over 50 paintings and works on paper created by figurative artist Peter Doig between 1989 and the present are currently on view at the Tate Britain. If a trip to London is not on your schedule, you can opt to visit this site for an interactive video tour. The tour allows visitors to explore the different exhibition rooms and they can also zoom in on selected paintings. It can be a little hard to read the titles of the paintings while on the video tour, but happily, it's also possible to take a slower browse through the eight rooms of the exhibition. In the room tours visitors can read more information about selected works, such as Young Bean Farmer (1991) or Jetty (1994), two works in room two. Finally, there is a 15-minute interview with Doig, at the Tate the day before the show opened. Here, Doig admits that the sole reason the paintings are arranged chronologically is because it was easier to do it that way. [DS]

http://www.varasoftware.com/products/screenflow/

Capturing images and screen shots can be tricky, and it's nice to hear about new applications that can help out with such tasks. ScreenFlow 1.1 allows users to create screen recordings and it also includes an array of editing options. Visitors should note that this is a trial version, and that the full-featured version costs $99. This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. [KMG]

http://www.callgraph.in/index.php

Perhaps you need to make recordings of calls you make to business associates. Or maybe you need recordings of conversations with loved ones via the Internet. The Call Graph application can help out with both situations (and others) as it allows users to record their Skype conversations as an MP3 file. Additionally, visitors can use tags to mark different sections of their recordings. This version is compatible with computers running Windows NT and newer. [KMG]

May 1968, France's fast-forward revolution
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bhistoryb-france-is-still-torn-over-its-revolution-forty-years-on/2008/04/28/1209234751594.html

France Still Divided Over Lessons of 1968 Unrest [Free registration may be required]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/world/europe/30france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Visiting the ghosts of Paris 1968
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7354335.stm

Time: Battle of the Sorbonne
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838353,00.html

BBC Radio 4: 1968, the Year of Revolutions [Real Player]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/1968/yearofrevolutions.shtml

Echoes of 1968 [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89372462

Revolution was certainly nothing new to France in 1968, but a series of student protests that began at Nanterre University in March that year continues to be a polarizing subject of conversation throughout the country. Eventually the university was closed in May, and students began a widespread attack on the outdated rules imposed on them by the university system across France. Demonstrations and riots soon engulfed the Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne and forty years later, the country remains deeply divided about the legacy of these events. Even the language used by different factions within French society reflects the stark differences, as the right refers to the protests as "the events", while the left refers to these protests as "the movement". One person who has not minced any words about his feelings on the matter is French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has stated that May 1968 represents anarchy and moral relativism. A student activist from that period, Andre Glucksmann, recently commented, "Sarkozy is the first post-'68 president. To liquidate '68 is to liquidate himself." [KMG]

The first link leads to an excellent article from this Tuesday's The Age (Melbourne), which discusses the legacy of the student protests and demonstrations in France 40 years ago. The second link will whisk users away to an article from the New York Times about the legacy of the protests and general perceptions about these events in contemporary France. The third link will take visitors to a personal reflection on the protests offered by BBC correspondent John Pickford. Moving on, the fourth link leads to a piece on the protests that originally appeared in the May 17, 1968 edition of Time magazine. The fifth link whisks users away to a four-part series from the BBC on the "year of revolutions" conducted by Sir John Tusa. The final link will lead visitors to a nice series from National Public Radio on the various social and political upheavals going on in the United States during 1968. [KMG]