The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 7

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is an annual citizen science event arranged by the Cornell Ornithology Lab and the National Audubon Society. This year, the twentieth GBBC will take place from February 16 - February 19, 2018. During the GBBC, bird lovers from around the world are invited to create a free account on eBird (available online and as an Android or iOS app) and report on the birds they observe in their backyards or communities. In doing so, participants provide valuable information about global bird populations and migratory patterns. Those interested in participating this year may want to start by checking out the GBBC instructions, available in the GBBC toolkit section of the website. Here, visitors will also find a helpful bird list, along with a collection of online guides and "tricky bird IDs." [MMB]

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The Boston Public Library (BPL) is home to, "one of the largest and most important collections of abolitionist material in the United States," which includes thousands of letters, pamphlets, newspapers, and other materials from the early and mid-nineteenth century. BPL recently digitized this impressive collection on the platform Zooniverse and has enlisted citizen historians to transcribe these documents. In doing so, the BPL aims to create a collection that is freely available and machine-readable for those interested in pursuing digital research. Interested in helping out? Citizen historians will find a helpful tutorial in the transcribe section. In addition, this section of the website includes a helpful field guide to help participants with the task of interpreting nineteenth-century handwriting. The project also features a lively talk page where transcribers can crowdsource any questions that arise during the transcription process and share insights with fellow historians. [MMB]

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The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has a fabulous track record of creating a number of top-notch classroom resources for science educators. That said, the new short film series "I Contain Multitudes," created by science writer Ed Yong (who authored a book by the same name) and HHMI's Tangled Banks Studios, is not for science teachers alone. This series, which is dedicated to microbes and their role in the world, is highly entertaining and suitable for viewing both inside and outside the classroom. In one episode, Yong explains how the bobtail squid teams up with the bacterium Vibrio fischeri to emit a glowing light that allows for squid to blend in with its oceanic environment. In another episode, Yong discusses recent research about the emergences of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Interested viewers can access this series through the above link or on YouTube. These episodes, which are each approximately eight minutes in length, offer an excellent resource that biology instructors may want to use to supplement existing curriculum. [MMB]

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Whether you are participating in a mathematics course or calculating your taxes, you need access to a good calculator. Fortunately, calculators have become increasingly available via websites and free applications. This website is dedicated to providing a reliable collection of freely available calculators "for domestic and commercial use." The majority of these calculators have been developed by the team behind this website, who describe themselves as "fervent IT professionals." Visitors can browse these calculators by category, which include engineering calculators, statistics and analysis calculators, and budget calculators. [MMB]

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From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, The Tar Baby & the Tomahawk is an online collection that investigates "the intersection of race and childhood between 1880 and 1939 as viewed through children's literature, its illustrations, and associated material objects." As the team behind this project notes, this collection may especially be of interest to scholars and instructors of literature, art history, history, and ethnic studies. This collection is best explored through the topics section. Here, visitors can explore four different thematic collections, which include both primary sources and interpretive essays. One collection examines the work of Joel Chandler Harris, the late-nineteenth century folklorist who authored stories featuring the characters Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit. Many critics, including Alice Walker, have criticized Harris for appropriating African-American folklore and perpetuating racist stereotypes. Another collection examines the children's literature authored by black authors during the Harlem Renaissance. Here, visitors can examine works including The Brownies' Book, a children's magazine edited by W.E.B. DuBois. Collectively, this project offers a glimpse into the ways children's literature authors have re-enforced or resisted ideas about race throughout U.S. history. [MMB]

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The U.S. National Archives is home to billions of records that date back to the late-eighteenth century. Thanks to Today's Document, visitors can explore selected items from this collection with ease. Each day, the National Archives posts a single document that was created on that day in history. For instance, on February 9, 2018, the National Archives featured a letter authored by Enrique Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish ambassador to the United States, on the eve of the Spanish-American War. As an accompanying caption explains: "Cuban revolutionaries intercepted the letter from the mail and released it to the Hearst press, which published it on February 9, 1898, in the New York Journal." Meanwhile, on February 6, 2018, the archive featured the military treaty that outlined the alliance between colonial America and France signed on February 6, 1778. Social studies instructors interested in incorporating these documents into the classroom will want to check out the educator resources tab, which features links to resources developed by the National Archives to help young historians engage with primary documents. [MMB]

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Sarah Werner is an English scholar and author of the upcoming book Studying Early Printed Books 1450-1800: A Practical Guide, which is to be released in 2018. Werner has also served as the digital media strategist for the Folger Shakespeare Library. On her personal website, Werner offers this very helpful guide to digital collections of early-modern print books that are in the public domain. This guide includes links to major open-access collections at places like the Beinecke Library at Yale, the Ghent University Library, and the Huntington Library (to name just a few). In addition, Werner includes an extensive list of aggregator resources, such as Europeana and the Biodiversity Heritage Library, that scholars of early-modern print culture may want to check out. In creating this guide, Werner is careful to note limitations of certain resources, including limitations regarding fair use. In doing so, Werner has created a remarkably detailed "one stop shop" for scholars and instructors looking for early-modern resources. [MMB]

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As social media platforms continue to grow, so has the concern about online harassment. What specific behaviors constitute online harassment? This recent Pew Research Center study from January 2018 investigates public opinion about this question. To do so, the research center presented participants with a single vignette describing a situation that involved an escalating online dispute surrounding a controversial political issue. Participants were then asked to describe what parts of each vignette if any, they considered to be online harassment. The survey examines three different vignettes in total, including scenarios that involve sexism and racism. In addition, some survey participants were presented with variations of these three scenarios so that researchers could discern if certain factors (such as the hypothetical online user's gender) had any impact of whether or not respondents viewed certain behaviors as harassment. As this survey reveals, Americans are divided over what specific behaviors constitute harassment. To learn more, visitors may download the full survey through the link above. [MMB]

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Audrey Watters is a journalist interested in the intersections of education and technology. As part of her blog, Hack Education, Watters has created the History of Teaching Machines: an interactive timeline that traces educational technology all the way back to 1866, when Halcyon Skinner patented a machine for teaching spelling. In 1912, Columbia University psychologist Edward Thorndike envisioned a mechanical textbook in which, "only to him who had done what was directed on page one would page two become visible." This timeline incorporates a wide variety of fascinating primary documents (including a 1930 advertisement for a "New Automatic Testing Machine for Testing and Teaching" and a 1955 video clip of B.F. Skinner explaining his teaching machine) to illustrate that while technology may be a hot topic of conversation in education circles, it isn't a new one. Many timeline entries are also accompanied by links to longer essays that delve into the history of educational technology in greater detail. [MMB]

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Caricatures and cartoons have existed in a variety of formats for decades and offer a glimpse into the art and humor of yesteryear. The Library of Congress's Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon contains over 2,000 works of art spanning three centuries. Over 750 of these items have been digitized and made available on the LOC's website. Visitors can browse this collection by date, location, contributor, or subject (including editorial cartoons, periodical illustrations, and caricatures). A few of the (many) highlights in this eclectic collection include: "A Corporation Meeting," a 1790 piece by British cartoonist G.M. Woodward that pokes fun at a municipal meeting; Otto Lang's vivid "The Country Store," which the artist created with India ink and watercolor around the turn of the twentieth century; and a 1932 caricature by painter Miguel Covarrubias that imagines a meeting between John Rockefeller Sr. and Josef Stalin. [MMB]

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From the SETI Institute comes Big Picture Science: a weekly radio show/podcast dedicated to "connect[ing] the hottest and coolest in scientific research and technology with lively and intelligent storytelling." The show is hosted by Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, and Molly Bentley, a science journalist and executive producer of the show. Each 50-minute episode centers on a specific scientific topic or question, often with guest researchers. For example, in the "Creative Brains" episode, released on February 5, 2018, Shostak and Bentley interviewed neuroscientist David Eagleman and composer Anthony Brandt about the science behind human creativity. In another recent episode, "Geology is Destiny" (released January 15, 2018), Shostak and Bentley chatted with geologist Walter Alvarez, planetary scientist David Grinspoon, and biologist Eugenia Gold about how geology has shaped human activity and how humans are shaping geology in the age of the Anthropocene. Each episode of this podcast is accompanied by a short description. Interested listeners can check out current and past episodes of Big Picture Science on this website. Listeners may also subscribe on iTunes or RSS. [MMB]

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During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the European colonization of the Americas was accompanied by a series of efforts to convert indigenous communities to Christianity. To achieve this aim, European missionaries sought to learn indigenous languages. This recent online exhibit from the Newberry Library, "allows users to visualize the painstaking, technical, frustrating, and improvisational process by which European missionaries sought to learn and utilize a language entirely new to them." In doing so, this exhibit provides insight into both the history of colonization as well as the prevalence of indigenous languages during these time periods. Items featured in this timeline include a 1540 dictionary (author unknown) that provides both Spanish and Nahuatl translations for Latin words; a grammar text authored by Father Diego Gonzalez Holguin in 1607 (and printed on the first South American printing press) that provides Latin and Spanish translations for Quechua words; and Roger Williams's 1643 A Key Into the Language of America, or, An Help to the Language of the Natives, which documented the Algonquian language Narragansett. [MMB]

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Dan Hogman is an architect, photographer, visual arts enthusiast, and prolific social media poster based out of San Francisco, California. On his blog, Hogman shares recent projects along with photographs of architecture from around the world. In addition to Hogman's blog, visitors may also want to check out his sketchbook, which features sketches of architecture in Paris and Heidelberg, along with Hogman's contributions to SFMOMA's Secret City exhibit, which featured sketches of esoteric parts of the Golden Gate City. Some of these sketches are accompanied with links to YouTube videos in which Hogman shares his process and inspirations. Finally, visitors may also want to check out Hogman's regularly updated Instagram feed, which features his sketches and photographs. [MMB]

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The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is home to over 12 million items, some of which have been digitized on their fantastic Digital.Bodleian website (featured in the 07-31-2015 Scout Report). Understandably, the sheer number of rare and historic items in the collection can sometimes feel a little daunting. Enter the unique Bodleian Treasures exhibit, which features just 42 items in the collection arranged into 21 thoughtfully curated pairs. Each of these pairs features a famous letter or document from the collection and an illustration of some kind, often from a natural history book. For example, William Shakespeare's "The First Folio" (which includes Macbeth and Julius Caesar) is paired with Opera - a work by the tenth century German dramatist Hrotsvitha. The treasure Navanitaka, which is a Sanskrit manuscript dating from approximately the sixth century that provides, "medical, divinatory, and magical treatises," is paired with a gorgeously illustrated Latin manuscript, dating from the late- eleventh century, that prescribed herbal remedies for various ailments. Why is this collection called "21 Pairs and a Tropical Forest"? In addition to these 21 pairs, this exhibit includes a trio of colorful images from three nineteenth-century natural history books that depict tropical flora and fauna. [MMB]

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The Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Wiltshire County, England is dedicated to preserving the history of the region, including the county's rich architectural history. The centre also has an archeology team dedicated to preserving archaeological sites in the county. The WSHC blog's main purpose is to keep those interested in learning more about the centre's work and the history of Wiltshire informed of current events. In one recent blog post, Community History Advisor Ian Hicks discusses one of the most unusual items at the History Centre: a mummified cat. As Hicks explains, people used these cats in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to protect their homes against witchcraft. Those interested in exploring this blog can browse previous entries by category including archeology, archives, photography, and traditions and folklore. [MMB]

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With support from the Joseph F. McCrindle, Samuel H. Kress, and David L. Klein, Jr. Foundations, the Morgan Library & Museum is digitizing its impressive collection of works. The goal is to create a digital library of over 10,000 images that date from the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries and will be available to scholars and researchers, although due to copyright and other restrictions, some images may not be available. The highlights section includes rabbits by John James Audubon, dancers by Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne apples, and a host of other works by well-known artists. There are also familiar book illustrations, such as "How Alice Grew Tall" by John Tenniel. It's also possible to browse by school, century, whether an image is available, and alphabetically by artist name. Viewers can zoom in on images and can download them at relatively large pixel dimensions, suitable for viewing on a computer screen. [DS]

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Psiphon is a proxy and VPN service designed to circumvent internet censorship. The first version of Psiphon was developed at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. This initial version allowed users in countries that do not censor the internet to provide proxy services for their friends in countries where the internet is censored. In 2007, Psiphon, Inc was founded as a Canadian company separate from the Citizen Lab. In current versions of Psiphon, connections are routed through Psiphon Inc's globally distributed cloud-based network of proxy servers. This network uses a performance-focused single hop architecture. The Psiphon FAQ notes that this design focused on circumventing censorship, but it does not provide strong anonymity - users that require anonymity should consider Tor instead. Psiphon has been used to circumvent large-scale government censorship of the internet a number of times in the recent past: in 2015 and 2016 when the Brazilian government blocked WhatsApp; in 2016 when the Moroccan government blocked VoIP services; and in 2016 when the Ugandan government blocked Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Mobile Money. Psiphon is open-source software under the GNU General Public License, with source code available on GitHub. Psiphon clients are available for Windows, iOS, and Android. [CRH]

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OpenStreetMap is a community-driven alternative to GoogleMaps. It is essentially Wikipedia for spatial data. Like Wikipedia, anybody can contribute new geographic data or refine the existing data. All of OpenStreetMap's data is open data, licensed under their "Open Data Commons Open Database License," which is broadly similar to a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Users may copy, distribute, transmit, and modify the data provided that they credit OpenStreetMap. Modified versions of the data must be distributed under the same license. Users that don't want to download the full 64 GB data file can select from a number of smaller "extracts" or use the OpenStreetMap APIs to access the data online. Numerous desktop and mobile applications understand this API and a full list is available on the OpenStreetMap wiki. Users interested in contributing to OpenStreetMap may be interested in the projects category on the wiki for a list of ongoing projects (for example, wheelchair-friendly walking routes, US railways, historic battlefields, and dozens more). [CRH]

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Stanford University has long been at the forefront of designing engaging and unique digital humanities projects. This week, we are revisiting Kindred Britain (last featured in the 02-14-2014 Scout Report), which offers a fascinating glimpse into the connections of social networks of historic Great Britain.

Are Charles Darwin and Jane Austen connected by blood? It's a good question, and this remarkable site from Stanford University has answers for the curious visitor. The Kindred Britain site presents a network of nearly 30,000 individuals connected through family relationships of blood, marriage, or affiliation. Visitors can use the learn more tab to first find out how to use the site. After this exploration, visitors can "connect the dots" by dragging the circles onto each other to learn about connections between individuals. There's also a color guide to the various tabs and circles here that is most helpful. The site also features a timeline that's a real pip and the stories area has some nice, short historical essays on Frankenstein and "Centrality and Notability in Genealogy."

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