·http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/ballooning.cfm

Few people realize that President Abraham Lincoln convened an air force during the civil war. In fact, the 16th president of the United States authorized a small Union Army balloon corps which made thousands of reconnaissance flights in 1862 and 1863, making them the first aerial spies in U.S. history. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website has all the details. Readers might like to start by reading the short introductory article and perusing the historical photographs. There is also a short video outlining the career of balloonist Thaddeus Lowe, who spearheaded the efforts, an interesting blog about Civil War ballooning, and an interactive online conference about Mr. Lincoln's Air Force. [CNH]

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·http://www.penn.museum/about-our-collections/african-section.html

The Penn Museum's African collection is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. It features approximately 15,000 ethnographic and 5,000 archaeological objects. Most of the collection was gathered between 1891 and 1937. Readers may like to scout the excellent introduction to the collection before clicking View African Section Highlights, which links to 35 of the most interesting and diverse objects in the collection. Selecting individual photographs provides a closer look at each object, as well as a short explanation of the item in question. This is a wonderful peak into one of the great African collections in the world. [CNH]

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·https://www.quantamagazine.org/

As the Quanta Magazine website notes, traditional news sites tend to emphasize developments in health, medicine, technology, and engineering. Quanta seeks to fill the gaps by emphasizing the complex worlds of mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science, and the basic life sciences. Recent articles have illuminated the intricacies of advancements in the modeling of prime numbers, examined how scientists are unlocking the hardest-to-read parts of genomes, and offered a Q&A with quantum computing pioneer, Peter Byrne. The magazine can be scouted by Topics (biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and a dozen others), or by Most Viewed. For readers looking for higher level math and science reporting, this is an excellent place to start. [CNH]

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·http://www.treehugger.com/

Treehugger lists itself as a media outlet "dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream." It runs an attractive Huffington Post-style interface of articles, videos, blog posts, and weekly and daily newsletters. On the homepage, readers may scout the latest stories as they are posted. The site also lists the ten most popular stories and includes a section where editor's picks are featured. For those who would like to search by subject, articles on the site are also divided into the categories of design, technology, transportation, science, business, living, energy, slideshows, and social. For readers who are looking for a savvy, fun-loving approach to environmental sustainability in all its many forms, Treehugger is a welcome resource. [CNH]

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·http://naturalstart.org/

While the Natural Start Alliance is primarily an advocacy group for getting kids outdoors, there are a number of interesting resources on the group's website. Readers may like to start by perusing the Bright Ideas section, which recently displayed an article on the No Child Left Inside legislation recently introduced to the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. There is also a section for feature stories, highlighting projects that resonate with the organization's ideals. Readers looking for in depth information should check out the Research tab for access to the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. [CNH]

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·http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/172109.aspx

According to this report by the Transportation Research Board, people living in small communities and rural areas spend a lot of time in their cars, as they "drive back and forth between their homes and work, shopping, school, appointments, and more." While many studies have been conducted on how land use affects daily driving in urban and suburban areas, very few similar investigations have been done on less urban areas. This report takes a look at three rural communities to see how car travel might be influenced by changes in employment, population, and land use patterns. The colorful PDF, replete with maps, graphs, and other images, is freely available for download, or readers may simply peruse it on the website. [CNH]

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·http://blog.concord.org/

The Concord Consortium is a Concord, Massachusetts-based non-profit educational research and development organization that seeks to introduce helpful technology into the teaching of science, math, and engineering. The consortium's blog, which dates back to January of 2008, can be a helpful resource for teachers, students, or anyone who is fascinated by the latest developments in the intersecting worlds of education and STEM. The monthly write ups average about 700 words. Each one focuses on some topic that students of STEM will likely find engaging and educational. Recent blogs have focused on the common architectural styles supported by the computer-aided engineering tool Energy3D, the deception of unconditionally stable solvers in the production of video games, and two "global experiments" on the policy of climate change. [CNH]

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·http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state

This fascinating infographic from NPR's Planet Money blog traces "the common job" in each state from 1978 to 2014. What emerges is a story of changing economic, demographic, and technological constellations over a period of 36-years. Readers will notice that several themes stand out. First, there are a lot of truck drivers. This is partially due to a very inclusive census category. But it's also true that truck drivers can't be downsized or outsourced. Second, manufacturing jobs disappeared from the list in the 1980s. Third, secretaries were likely put out of business by the personal computer. This snappy presentation of complex information will light up readers who love a good dose of well-presented data. [CNH]

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·http://lookingatappalachia.org/

As Roger May, the founder and curator of Looking at Appalachia, notes, Appalachia has often been associated exclusively - and unfairly - with poverty. This project, founded 50 years after Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" unwittingly helped create such stereotypes, seeks to set the record straight by snapping pictures of the people and places of the region in all their complexity. Readers may like to start by reading the excellent Overview of this crowd-sourced internet project. In addition, the tab Defining Appalachia provides a complete map of the stretch of country from Mississippi to New York that defines the region. From there, readers may explore the beautiful, often haunting, portraits that make up the site by clicking from state to state. [CNH]

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·http://digital.library.unlv.edu/collections/menus/

This online exhibition from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas offers a glimpse into the history and development of menus. This site begins with a brief history of restaurant menus, which proffers an overview of the history of the restaurant, early restaurants in America, the origins of the menu, and a short treatise on early menu format and structure. Unsurprisingly, the menu was likely invented in mid-19th century Paris, a city known even then for its exquisite cuisine. There are also opportunities on the page to read comments and share one's own stories. But the most fascinating draw is the 1,699 menus that can be viewed on the website, many of them from France, Italy, and the United States, and documenting trends in dining from 1870-1930. Notable items in the collection include a menu from the R.M.S. Majestic and an 1884 New Year's Day menu from the Sweet's Hotel. [CNH]

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·http://www.skepticalscience.com

This website gets serious about addressing climate change skepticism. Using only peer-reviewed research, John Cook, the Climate Communication Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, takes the time to seriously consider the doubts that people might have about the state of the earth's climate. Readers might like to start with the sidebar that addresses the ten most common climate myths, including the idea that the climate has changed before, that warming is due to the sun, that climate change isn't bad, that there is no scientific consensus, that the earth is actually cooling, and five others. The site also offers a variety of interesting tabs to explore, including an excellent Resources page. [CNH]

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·http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/university-archives/wildcats

The Football Films Collection at the Northwestern University Library comprises hundreds of hours of worth of cinema, dating back to 1929. Many of those have now been digitized, and are available on the Library website. Readers might like to start with the brief video introduction on the homepage, in which curators speak about the collection and its importance both to Northwestern and to football lovers everywhere. From there, readers may browse at will. For instance, one might view the 25-minute clip from the 1937 contest between Northwestern and Michigan and then view the downloadable PDF of the program cover and roster. Clips from dozens of games from nearly every year between 1929 and 1986 are available for viewing. [CNH]

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·http://www.neh.gov/news

For readers who want to stay up to date on what's happening in the humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Newsroom is a welcome site. Covered by the Scout Report almost fifteen years ago, there is much to enjoy here. The site can be searched by press releases, which include coverage of such topics as the Obama administration's recent $147.9 million request for humanities funding for 2016. In addition, NEH in the News provides links to news reports from around the web, including recent write ups about Clement Alexander Price, 1945-2014 and Humanities on Campus. The site also links to NEH's beautiful Humanities Magazine, which can be easily viewed online.[CNH]

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·http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/quake.html

The University of South Carolina Libraries presents this digital web gallery documenting the Charleston Earthquake that occurred on August 31, 1886. Contemporary photographs by George LaGrange Cook, William Wilson, W.H. Fairchild, J.H. Wisser, and Joseph Hall show the destruction immediately following the earthquake and are complemented by reports, maps, and geological surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For example, a search on "tent" retrieves a view of a tent city in Washington Square, another on Hampstead Mall, and yet another in an unnamed park. There are multiple views of buildings, including Mayor William A. Courtenay's house, with roof damage and props to hold up the walls until more repair could be done. The gallery was created with CONTENTdm software; moving from image to image can be a little clunky, but once an image is selected, images can be zoomed for great detail viewing. [DS]

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·https://www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts provides a simple, efficient way to track the subjects readers love as they appear on the Web. Free to anyone with a Google account, readers may ask Google to alert them about self-selected information, delivered directly to their email. Alert suggestions are grouped around such categories as Companies, Music, Politics, Sports, TV, News Sections, Finance, Movies, Programming, Technology, and Health. Whatever your scouting interests, Google Alerts serves as a great tool to hand deliver the information you want. [CNH]

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·https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/

This Firefox add-on provides interactive visual representations of which first and third party sites are tracking you on online. As the site notes, not all tracking is bad. While many services compile user activity and information to improve their services, tracking without users' knowledge can be problematic. Lightbeam simply allows readers to track the tracking so that they can make informed decisions about the complex relationships that exist on the Web. Released under Mozilla Public License, version 2.0, Lightbeam for Firefox 1.2.1 works with Firefox 31.0 and later. [CNH]

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African American History Month
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/index.html

A new generation of voices takes back Black History Month
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/a-new-generation-of-voices-takes-back-black-history-month/

Is Black History Month still needed?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/24/black-history-month-still-needed/5797753/

Black History Month reading list: the best books this February
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/10/black-history-month-best-books-authors

Black History Month
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month

Huff Post: Black History Month
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/black-history-month/

President Gerald R. Ford officially instituted Black History Month in 1976, encouraging the media and the public to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history." The origins of the enterprise, however, go back to 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. In the fall of that year, two prominent African Americans, the minister Jesse E. Moorland and the historian Carter G. Woodson, cofounded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASALH). By 1926, the ASALH was sponsoring a Negro History Week. Over the next several decades, mayors around the country began recognizing the holiday - and this eventually culminated in President Ford's Announcement. [CNH]

The first link takes readers to the Library of Congress's coverage of African American History Month, which includes links to exhibitions concerning the murals of Hale Woodruff, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and a section for teachers, among other resources. The second link, from PBS, celebrates a new generation of black Americans who are reclaiming their history by including figures that have often been left out of mainstream narratives. Next, Larry Copeland, writing for USA Today, wonders whether Black History Month is still needed, citing his interviews with black men and women in their 20s who sometimes view the celebration as a "trite anachronism." Readers may also be interested in a Black History Month reading list, courtesy of the Guardian, which includes titles such as The Portable Malcolm X and James Baldwin's The Price of the Ticket. In addition, the History channel's website features several videos and a clarifying text concerning the history of the month, and the Huffington Post has gathered together all its content about Black History Month on a single, highly readable and accessible page.