The Scout Report -- Volume 26, Number 25

Inviting viewers to "explore the largest existing collection of original writings and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci," Codex Atlanticus offers a unique and incredibly comprehensive look at da Vinci's musings and work. Before diving in, visitors will likely want to toggle through the instructional tabs on the How to Read page (linked at the top-center of the site). Here, you will learn about how the site is ordered, as well as different ways to view its contents. Returning to the project, readers can select certain parameters (such as ordering numerically or chronologically) and filters (such as "Physics and Natural Sciences" or "Tools and Machines") to make the site's contents easier to digest. Each page of the Codex is represented by a colorful box in the General Overview. Clicking on a box enlarges that page for viewing. Readers should note that the project is available in English and Italian, and you can change your language preference using the button in the lower right-hand corner. The site has garnered significant praise for its creative visuals, including winning design awards from both Information is Beautiful and Indigo. The Visual Agency produced Codex Atlanticus with support from Biblioteca Ambrosiana and Mondadori Portfolio. [EMB]

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Cataloging stories and dreams of LGBTQI active duty service members and veterans, Among Dreams LGBTQI Military Archive seeks to "illuminate the bravery and activism distinct of LGBTQI who risk their lives in service of a nation that has - past and present - upheld laws against their own personal freedoms." Though the project's physical exhibition has closed, an archive of its interviews (from 2011-2014) remains available. On the Archive page, readers can filter records by name, date, and category (e.g. army or Vietnam). Each post offers first person perspectives, including an audio clip and a written narrative, as well as photographs and an entry about the featured individual's dreams. In its entirety, the archive shows the full range of emotions contributors felt, from "fear and hiding ... [to] determination, bravely and unwavering patriotism." Readers should note that the exhibition covers potentially triggering topics such as PTSD, sexual assault, and violence. Chelsea Rae Klein created the project with support from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the San Francisco LGBT Center, and Intersection for the Arts. [EMB]

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Publishing peer-reviewed articles on various agricultural topics, the Open Food Science Journal provides "an important and reliable source of current information on recent important developments in the field." Currently on its 12th volume, the journal releases an annual batch of articles covering topics such as sustainability, food processing, microbiology, and food engineering. Recent pieces include "A New Ready-To-Bake Seafood Meal Based on Pacific White Shrimp: Product Development, Cost Evaluation, Consumer Acceptability, and Shelf Life Stability" and "Antioxidant Activity and Bioactive Compounds of Babassu (Orbignya phalerata) Virgin Oil Obtained by Different Methods of Extraction" (both published in the 11th volume). All articles are available for free download and all volumes (from 2007 to present) are linked on the Home page under Published Contents. Researchers interested in submitting a piece for publication consideration can do so via the "Submit Manuscript" page. Open Food Science Journal is edited by Food engineering professor M. Angela A. Meireles and published by open-access science journal hub BENTHAM Open. [EMB]

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Booooooom is many things: part online magazine, part artists' community and membership organization, and part shop. Started in 2008 as a blog by Vancouver-based artist Jeff Hamada, the site has since become Canada's largest online art platform. On the website, visitors can view an archive of articles covering topics such as drawing, painting, and sculpture, as well as artist spotlights (featuring one particular creator's work). Readers have multiple browsing options. The homepage catalogs posts by recency and the entire website can be searched by keyword using the query bar next to the site title. To view post categories (e.g. design or film), click the icon of three horizontal lines just to the right of the query bar. For example, the Photography category includes compilations like "A Year in Photos," cataloging remarkable images from 2009-2019. While membership requires a fee, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic Booooooom has made access to its Slack channel (normally reserved for members) free to all. More information about this service is available on the Membership page. The site also recently published "COVID-19 Crisis Resources for Creatives: A Giant List of Helpful Links for Artists," organized into resources available Worldwide, in Canada, and in the U.S. This post is located in the Art section. [DS]

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Inviting viewers to "stay curious," UK-based YouTuber Maddie Moate dedicates her channel to family-friendly science and education videos. Her videos cover all sorts of sciences, from biology (see her "Amazing Animals" playlist) to technology (see her "Machines and Makes" playlist). Fellow science enthusiast Greg Foot co-hosts many of her videos. The dynamic duo's "Let's Go Live!" series is a particularly great resource for young people over the summer months. The videos are educational (including interviews with science experts and highlighting experiments, crafts, and games you can try at home) and entertaining (as the pair's upbeat and lighthearted energy is infectious). In addition to covering a variety of subjects, Moate's videos range in length from around 5 minutes to approximately 30 minutes. Whether you have all day to binge-watch or have just a few minutes to spare, you will find something of interest. Since joining YouTube in 2009, Moates's videos have accumulated over 28 million views. [EMB]

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Branded as "the podcast refresher course on the basics of how our democracy works," Civics 101 distills important government topics, such as the separation of powers and the electoral college, for listeners of all ages. Since its launch in 2017, the award-winning podcast has released nearly 200 episodes. Traditional episodes are around 20 minutes long, while "Civics Shorts" ("bite-size" recaps of important topics designed for middle school students) are less than 10 minutes in length. These episodes are available on most popular listening platforms and at the link above. In addition to the podcast, the site offers instructors some great classroom tools, including lesson plans and quizzes, on the Educator Resources page. The Civics 101: NH page contains information about the off-shoot program of that name, a podcast focused on New Hampshire's state government. Looking for a topic not yet covered? Civics 101 welcomes questions via their Ask a Question page (found under the For Educators dropdown menu) or through their social media channels (@civics101pod on Twitter and Instagram). Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice host the show, which is produced by New Hampshire Public Radio with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [EMB]

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Launched by Oxford Constitutional Law, this Timeline of the United States' Constitutional Law provides an overview of legal history from the Magna Carta to the present day. The interactive timeline invites users to scroll through centuries of history, delving into landmark cases and major moments from the past. Some of these events will likely refresh your prior knowledge, but other events are less well-known (e.g. the dates of each state's constitutional ratification). The included case law highlights monumental legal decisions (such as Brown v. Board of Education, which declared school segregation unconstitutional, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which "ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,"). In addition to the picture and caption provided for each event, many slides embed links to other Oxford Reference documents that provide further information. Readers should note that access to some of the embedded Oxford articles and tools requires a subscription. However, many of the documents have abstracts available to non-subscribers. [EMB]

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Many recollections of United States government and history fail to paint an accurate and inclusive account of the complete "American identity." IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas seeks to remedy this by highlighting "the lives and experiences of people who share African American and Native American ancestry." The exhibition showcases how "African-Native American people were united in the struggle against slavery and dispossession, and then for self-determination and freedom." After reading the Introduction section, readers can explore the four major themes: Policy, Community, Creative Resistance, and Lifeways. These sections explore many events in U.S. legal history, including the creation and amendment of tribal constitutions, colonialism's influence on legal systems, struggles over land rights, and self-governance and tribal regulations. The exhibition is a collaboration between several institutions, including the National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. [EMB]

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This year marks the 24th United States Census. The U.S. Census has important implications for our government and legal systems. For example, the data "determine[s] how many seats each state should have in Congress." Over time, the Census's questions have evolved. As The Evolution of the American Census notes, these changes "tell us a lot about the country's priorities, norms, and biases in each decade." Using data from the U.S. Census website and other primary and secondary sources, the project tracks the questions asked each decade (color-coding by question category to show broader shifts in Census priorities over time). Readers can also explore the project by theme (e.g., "Economy and Employment" or "Immigration and Citizenship") using the dropdown box near the top of the page. The left-hand panel of the screen briefly summarizes each Census year; meanwhile, the right-hand panel provides historical context, chronicling key dates and events (e.g., wars and legal decisions and amendments). Not only is the project interactive and informative, but it ends with a reflection, reminding users: "the democratic ideal of the census means that every ten years, we have the chance to carry out a better system to count every person in the United States." Developer Alec Barrett created this project at data visualization agency TWO-N, and it was published in The Pudding in March of 2020. [EMB]

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A century ago the United States ratified the 19th amendment, prohibiting voter discrimination based on sex. Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, a project of the National Archives Foundation, commemorates the ratification. The exhibition features nearly 100 items, including political cartoons and postcards, petitions and legal documents, and pictures and quotes from women who shaped the movement. In doing so, it seeks to show the movement in a way "that look[s] beyond suffrage parades and protests to the often overlooked story behind this landmark moment in American history." While the physical exhibition is located at the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery at the National Archives Museum, many of its items are on digital display through this online portal. Select records are embedded at the link above, as well as links to related resources, including: "Road to Ratification" (a state-by-state exploration of the ratification process), external lesson plans, and a 19th amendment-themed youth art competition. The remainder of the records are accessible by clicking the "More Records" box (located below Featured Records). Here, users can select an online exhibition to view (primarily categorized into five questions such as "What was the 19th Amendment's Impact?" and "Why Did Women Fight for the Vote?"). Users will also find an introductory video from the exhibit's curator, Corinne Porter. A variety of sponsors supported the exhibition, including the National Archives Foundation and Unilever. [EMB]

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The CoffeeCup HTML editor is an award-winning website creation system. It includes a library of responsive themes and layouts to jump start the creation of new websites. Its Components Library feature allows users to create reusable blocks of code that are kept synchronized across all the pages on which they appear. This is helpful for toolbars, menus, and other such components. In addition to directly editing HTML, CSS, and Javascript, CoffeeCup also supports generating sites from Markdown files. Features such as syntax highlighting, automatic code completion, and support for building a reusable library of code snippets can help streamline the site maintenance process. The CoffeeCup HTML editor is available for Windows computers running Windows 7 or newer. [CRH]

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Meld is a graphical tool for comparing different versions of files and folders. While it is primarily written for developers working with folders of source code, it can also be used to compare any other text-based format (such as HTML, XML, and JSON). It provides both two-way comparisons (version A vs. version B) and three-way comparisons (versions A and B against a common ancestor), along with tools to merge sets of changes together. When applied to folders of files, Meld can quickly highlight which files have been modified and how they have been changed. Meld may also be used as a GUI front end for several popular version control systems including Git, Subversion, and others. Windows users can download a Meld installer directly from the Meld website. Linux and BSD users can locate Meld packages in their system's package repositories. MacOS users can install Meld using MacPorts, Fink, or Brew. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 04-19-2019 Scout Report, Caselaw Access Project continues to be a great resource for legal scholars. Readers both within and outside of the legal realm may enjoy the site's Gallery projects, including the Caselaw Limerick generator (which turns phrases from cases into creative prose).

Readers with an interest in the U.S. legal system may want to take a look at the Caselaw Access Project (CAP), a massive digitization project that makes 360 years of American court cases publicly available online. This large database was created "by digitizing roughly 40 million pages of court decisions contained in roughly 40,000 bound volumes owned by the Harvard Law School Library," adding up to approximately 6.7 million unique cases with the earliest from 1658 and the most recent from 2018. Visitors can access this database through the CAP's open-access API, which the project states is "the best option for anybody interested in programmatically accessing our metadata, full-text search, or individual cases." CAP also offers a bulk download option for readers who need a large collection of cases. It should be noted that, while all CAP's data is freely available to the public, accessing the full text of a case requires registering for an account and at the time of this write-up visitors are limited to 500 cases per day. In addition to the case law database, the Gallery page catalogs creative projects that were designed using this data. Launched in October 2018, CAP is the result of a collaboration between the Harvard Law School's Library Innovation Lab and Ravel Law, a legal research company owned by Lexis-Nexis.

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