The Scout Report -- Volume 25, Number 41

In September 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a special report that "assessed the latest scientific knowledge about the physical science basis and impacts of climate change on ocean, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, and the human communities that depend on them," and also highlights "options for achieving climate-resilient development pathways." At the link above, readers will find a link to the report's Download page, as well as its official press release (available in English and 5 other languages), an 11-page Fact Sheet, a recording of the IPCC's press conference that was live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook, and more. On the Download page, readers will find options to download a 45-page Summary for Policymakers, or they may download the full 1,170-page report either as 6 individual chapters or as a single PDF. This section also offers material like a Glossary of scientific terms (available as a 34-page PDF) and supplementary content for each chapter of the report. The IPCC was established by the United Nations in 1988 to examine and synthesize current knowledge on global climate change. This report was prepared by over 100 experts from 36 countries and references roughly 7,000 scientific publications. [JDC]

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From the College of Charleston's Special Collections Department comes "New Gardens Are Ever Appearing," a digital exhibit focused on the work of Loutrel Winslow Briggs (1893-1977), a landscape architect who spent four influential decades of his career in the city of Charleston. In its introduction, the exhibit notes that Briggs is best known for "his contributions to the design of Charleston's small town gardens, most of which were commissioned by private citizens of means," and also points out that the architect's influence extended "well beyond the private gardens enjoyed by Charleston's elite." Incorporating numerous archival documents, such as plat maps and architectural sketches sourced from a variety of cultural heritage institutions, this exhibit highlights the history of Charleston's gardens and landscapes and showcases how Briggs' work evolved within this context. Readers can navigate through the exhibit via the menu on the left or by clicking the arrows on either side of each exhibit page. For those interested in viewing a particular document in greater detail, clicking the image brings up an up-close view. This exhibit was curated by Mary Jo Fairchild, the special collections manager of research services, with assistance from Annika Liger. [JDC]

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Scholars and students interested in interdisciplinary approaches to medical discourse, as well as the generally curious, may want to check out this website created by McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. This research portal offers visitors links to a variety of resources related to the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities, with the aim of "gather[ing] resources in medical humanities for students, scholars, physicians, and the general public for learning, exploration, and research." For example, in the menu on the right side, readers will find numerous History of Medicine Digital Exhibits as well as Medical Humanities & Medical History Blogs. First-time visitors may want to begin by reading the How to Use this Website page before exploring its myriad resources. This still-evolving research portal was created in 2016 by its principal investigator Ellen Amster, the Jason A. Hannah Chair in the history of medicine and an associate professor in the departments of Family Medicine and History, along with a number of graduate student researchers. In the future, this project plans to add six thematic learning modules on topics such as the History of Health Professions and Arts, Literature, and Ethics as they pertain to medicine. [JDC]

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Computer and smartphone use has practically become ubiquitous in the everyday lives of most students, but how do computers actually store all those homework assignments and selfies? Middle school STEM teachers who would like to explore this question with their students may want to check out these standards-aligned classroom activities published by Science Friday in August 2019. Here, readers will find four activities, each with detailed instructions, helpful images, and downloadable materials. Before going into the activities, this resource opens with a brief explanation of analog and digital signals. In the first activity, students "simulate sending analog and digital signals [by] copying a series of drawings," while the second activity deepens their understanding by using scrambled cards and a writing prompt to help them "familiarize themselves with characteristics of digital and analog signals." The third activity introduces students to binary coding and the concept of logic gate maps using Post-It note mosaics, while the final activity encourages students to reflect on and synthesize what they learned in the prior activities. These engaging teaching materials were created for students in grades six through eight by Andrea LaRosa, an eighth-grade science teacher in Danbury, Connecticut. [JDC]

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Fordham University, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S), and the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (Mexico), presents this site for the study of Visual Culture in the Spanish Colonial Americas. Website content is arranged into six broad themes: Making Sense of the Pre-Columbian, Reckoning with Mestizaje, the Political Force of Images, Patterns of the Everyday, the Mechanics of the Art World, and Otherworldly Visions. In the Gallery, it's possible to browse more than 300 images of paintings, sculptures, architectural monuments, and objects of daily life from Spanish America between 1520 and 1820. These results can be filtered by medium, the six themes, or keywords. For example, selecting "Patterns of the Everyday" in the Gallery retrieves a set of images related to daily objects and spaces, everything from the geometric patterns of the cotton and wool Saltillo serape, to architectural photographs and floor plans of buildings such as churches and homes, furniture, and portraits of Spanish settlers and indigenous people. The site also provides an extensive Bibliography and links to additional web-based information, a Timeline and Glossary. Syllabi for related courses at Fordham and Ohio State are available via the Classroom tab and readers interested in primary textual documents can find many organized by century, with both original Spanish and English translations, under Library. [DS]

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Taking inspiration from sources like news articles, photographs, medical records, and more, "documentary poems combine primary source material with poetry writing." Poetry River, a site dedicated to open-access poetry and related resources, engages this exciting poetic genre in their Documentary Poetry section. This section begins with a brief overview of the origins and characteristics of documentary poetry (also called docupoetry), then goes on to offer readers a docupoetry sampler, with links to text, audio, or video versions of example poems. The site also lists contemporary poets who create docupoetry, linking to these poets' websites and examples of their poetry. Those interested in conducting their own documentary poetry workshops will find helpful materials, which discuss topics like sourcing and citation in docupoetry, available for download in PDF form. For further guidance on sourcing, select the Sources subsection from the Docupoetry tab at the top of the website. Poetry River is curated by Wendy DeGroat, a librarian, writing instructor, and poet. [EL]

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What is the role of truth and news in poetry? This article from the Poetry Foundation written by Philip Metres, poet, war literature expert, and professor of literature and creative writing at John Carroll University, takes up this question. Tracing the history of documentary poetry back to William Carlos Williams, Metres creates a "roughly chronological" assemblage of documentary poems that "offers a few highlights of the tradition of poet as journalist, poet as documentarian, poet as historian, poet as agitator." This list explores the historical context and impact of such artistic works as Allen Ginsberg's "America," Bob Dylan's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "911 Is a Joke" by Public Enemy. Throughout, the article features links to text versions of the poetic works mentioned and information on their authors. This article grew out of two panels at the Make it News: A Symposium on Poetry and Journalism, an event jointly mounted on November 8, 2017 by the Poetry Foundation and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. [EL]

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Created by writer and editor Dave Bonta, Moving Poems describes itself as "an on-going anthology of the best poetry videos from around the web, appearing at a rate of one every weekday most weeks." The site primarily focuses on showcasing videopoetry, which juxtaposes poetic texts with audio and visual elements. Readers may wish to begin by browsing an alphabetical directory of poets and videopoetry filmmakers, as featured on Moving Poems, under the Explore tab. Users can browse by poet name, nationalities of poets, filmmaker name, and other tags. Those interested in learning more about videopoetry can visit the Magazine section to read Interviews with people working in the industry, and find Reviews of film festivals. Another feature of the Magazine section is Top Ten Lists, which the site describes as "galleries of noteworthy poetry films and videopoems assembled by filmmakers, poets, film festival organizers, scholars, critics and other knowledgeable fans of the genre." Moving Poems also catalogues poetry film festivals, which readers can find listed on the main site under Links. [EL]

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Have you ever wished you could visit poets in their homes and hear them discuss their writing processes, their outlook on the world, and how their experiences shape their art? Then this video series from The Cortland Review, a long-running literary publication, may be for you. Poets In Person allows viewers to step into the homes and lives of nine poets (as of this write up) whose work has been featured in The Cortland Review. The first video, published in January 2011 features former US Poet Laureate Philip Levine. Other poets profiled in the series include Jane Hirshfield, Claudia Emerson, and more. The most recent installment, released in April 2018, visits Gregory Pardlo at his home in Brooklyn, New York, where Pardlo discusses his beliefs on genre and traces his poetic influences back to his interest in rap music as a teenager. Videos range from about three to six minutes in length and can be viewed on The Cortland Review's YouTube page as well as on their main website under the Video tab. [EL]

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Readers in search of a new podcast exploring the practice and craft of poetry may enjoy No Good Poetry, a "podcast that explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of poetry." With just over one hundred episodes (as of this write up), the podcast has been running since March 2017. The hosts, both named Joseph, are often joined by professional poet guests to discuss particular themes and their own work. Episode 93, for example, features an interview with poet Hank Lazer on his docupoetry and shape writing, as well as the connection between performance and the "music in poetry." Other recent topics covered on the podcast include Creole music and poetry and the role of poetics in dating. While not the most polished of podcasts, No Good Poetry features a wealth of writing information and reflects the passion of the creative writing community. Potential listeners should be aware that the podcast is geared toward adults and contains some explicit content. Episodes are generally around an hour long (although they range from approximately half an hour to 120 minutes) and can be streamed via platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Player FM, PodBean, and at the link above. [EL]

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Kakoune is a source code editor for the console inspired by the venerable Vim editor. As with many similar tools, Kakoune is modal, featuring an "insert" mode where text is entered and a "command" mode that allows users to make bulk changes to files. In command mode, Kakoune works using multiple selections on which commands can be performed. Users enter a series of filtering and narrowing commands to select just the portions of a file they wish to modify. These selections can comprise regions of a file, individual paragraphs, specific lines, individual words, or any combination thereof. Then, users provide a command specifying the changes they wish to make. Kakoune prioritizes interactive use, providing incremental results and auto-completions as users type. It also focuses on providing simple commands that can easily be combined. Kakoune's "Design Notes" goes into detail on its specific set of goals and the philosophy applied to achieving them. Kakoune is available for Unix-like systems. Linux and BSD users can find Kakoune in their package repositories. Users of Apple's macOS can install Kakone using Homebrew or Nixpkgs. [CRH]

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DD-WRT is a Linux-based open source firmware for a wide variety of wireless routers. This firmware supports hundreds of devices from dozens of vendors. For many devices, DD-WRT provides updates after the original, vendor-supplied firmware ceases to receive such updates. Often, DD-WRT also includes features not present in the vendor-supplied firmware. Some examples of features include: traffic shaping to prioritize certain types of data, transmission power control, SNMP monitoring, and virtual private networking using either OpenVPN or WireGuard. Users can determine if their hardware is supported with the Router Database. Any special notes for specific hardware will also be located there. Those uninterested in flashing the firmware on their existing router can also purchase routers with DD-WRT preinstalled from the Shop section of the DD-WRT website. [CRH]

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Since we last featured Poem-a-Day in the 2018-01-19 Scout Report, this resource continues to provide readers with an ever-increasing database of new and classic poems.

The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day is, "is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 2500 new, previously unpublished poems by today's talented poets each year." Every day this website features a new poem, which visitors may choose to receive in their email inbox (by simply entering their email address in a sign-up box on the website) or explore on this site. The series features a blend of work from both contemporary poets and famous poets of yesteryear. Looking for a poem for a specific event or mood? This site also allows visitors to browse the Poem-a-Day archive by occasion (e.g. election day, break-ups, graduation), by theme (e.g. environment, parenting, vanity), or by form (e.g. acrostic, haiku, sonnet).

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