The Scout Report -- Volume 27, Number 46

Inclusive design - in which a product is made to be usable by as many people as possible - is becoming an increasingly common practice, especially in software and website design. The Australian Centre for Inclusive Design (CfID) is a global network of industry experts and partners dedicated to providing design solutions for start-ups, entrepreneurs, educators, and governments. CfID works with clients to achieve inclusive design in five ways: creating more accessible products; measuring current performance and goals; evolving existing policies, products, and goals; learning and mastering tools and practices; and connecting to exchange ideas. For general readers interested in inclusive design, the Resources drop-down menu on the page linked above offers tools and guides on accessibility. These include a report, The Benefits of Designing for Everyone, which outlines how inclusive design is advantageous for designers as well as audiences. Also in the menu, readers will find "Tools" such as accessibility testing tools, captioning and translation services, and checklists for inclusive events; "Guides" to topics such as accessible web browsers; and the "Match/Mismatch" project, an interview series exploring notions of disability and designing for disability. In collaboration with partners that include Microsoft, W3C, Adobe, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Hudson, Capgemini, and Web Directions, the Centre for Inclusive Design is a thorough and versatile resource for anyone seeking to improve accessibility and inclusivity. [RMP]

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With a focus on reframing Black music history and a goal of making "resources about Black music history as comprehensive and accessible as possible," the wonderful collection of the Black Music History Library provides access to a diverse array of materials, including articles, books, documentaries, radio broadcasts, and podcasts. Educators, students, and other interested readers will find something to their liking, as the resources range from informal to scholarly, yet are united by the common thread of helping visitors learn about the origins of traditional and popular Black music from the eighteenth century onward. To facilitate discovery, resources are organized topically into genre folders (e.g., "Spirituals," "Disco," and "Reggae"), and chronologically within each topical folder. The site also has a helpful list of related websites and other relevant resources, including newsletters and blogs, which can be found by clicking the "Relevant Websites" folder on the page linked above. There are also folders with links to musicologists, historians and scholars, music journalists, and creatives. The library is curated by Jenzia Burgos, a music journalist from New York, and is supported by the initiative Critical Minded from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation. [REB]

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Readers who have ever felt like their writing skills might be out of practice or who sometimes struggle with certain words, sentences, or writing formats may benefit from the refresher resources available from Writing Explained. Writing Explained offers free materials for anyone who seeks to brush up on grammar, style, literary terms, literature, and more. Among the resources available on the page linked above are an alphabetical list of common "Confusing Words" in English (e.g., "Toward versus Towards"). Each entry explains the difference, offers examples, and summarizes the correct usage. Other resources include the guide "How to Create a Blog," a drop-down menu of Style Guides that includes AP, Chicago, MLA, and APA, and dictionaries of abbreviations, grammar terms, literary terms, idioms, and spelling. Readers may also sign up for an email newsletter to get a complimentary e-book, 35 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Writing. Writing Explained was created by Jordan Conrad. [JMW]

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Everyone plays a part in making society function, but many forms of labor and individual contributions can be apparently invisible. Labor policy professionals, workers, union members, and general readers will benefit from the InfoStory resources available from the International Labour Organization (ILO). InfoStories compiles articles that cast perspectives on different labor-related themes, as "told through narratives enriched with infographics, videos, maps, and case studies." On the page linked above, users can scroll to find Featured Stories and Report Summaries to learn about trade unions, collective bargaining, increasing women leaders, and more. These materials cover topics ranging from information on minimum wage during the COVID-19 pandemic to progress made on improving working conditions for domestic workers. Older stories are archived and available to view at the bottom of the page linked above. The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, dedicated to the promotion of decent work and social justice. [JMW]

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When readers hear the word piano, they may think of a typical upright in a quaint home or grand piano on a large stage, but the full spectrum of pianos includes much more. Some are tiny, some are giant, and some are just plain odd. Whether readers are musicians, interested in the history of musical instruments, or experts looking to research pianos, Clinkscale Online will prove to be a useful tool to explore the dynamic history of this instrument. Created by Martha Novak Clinkscale, a musicologist and piano performance instructor, this online database is currently administered by piano technician Tom Winter and retired music teacher Michele Winter. On the page linked above, users can click "Search Pianos" or "Search Makers" to find items in the database, which can be queried by CEP number, maker name, date, place of origin, or even photos. Visitors can also "Submit Data" using the menu at the right side of the page, or find related resources such as a "Bibliography" or "Glossary" of piano terms. Clinkscale Online is supported by the American Musical Instrument Society. [JMW]

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Stigmas surrounding nuclear energy are prevalent. Individuals may think of Fukushima, Three Mile Island, or Chernobyl when they hear discussions of nuclear power. However, in a situation of exacerbating effects of climate change and exponentially increasing energy demands, nuclear energy will likely be part of any solution. This research publication from the MIT Energy Initiative, the final report in an eight-part series on energy and the environment, explores the role that nuclear energy could play in reducing reliance on unsustainable fossil fuel energy production. Some of the topics the report explores include advances in safer nuclear technologies, the need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the costs of nuclear power, and public perceptions of nuclear plants. According to the report's authors, it is "designed to serve as a balanced, fact-based, and analysis-driven guide for stakeholders involved in nuclear energy." On the page linked above, readers can download a PDF of the report in English or Chinese (with executive summaries also available in French, Japanese, Korean, and Polish). Visitors can also find links to a press release about the report and a podcast episode featuring some of the study authors. [JMW]

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Nuclear energy is subject to intense debates over safety, cost, and long-term effects. Are the potential risks of nuclear power generation outweighed by the benefits in terms of reduced pollution and emissions from greenhouse gases? This 60-minute lesson plan, appropriate for middle school science, social studies, or language arts classrooms, engages students in discussing these complex problems. Students take on roles as members of the community of Solutionville, debating whether to support the construction of a nuclear power plant in their town. The debate requires students to synthesize information from credible sources and weigh the pros and cons of nuclear power versus fossil fuels. On the page linked above, middle school teachers will find an overview of the lesson activities, materials to prepare and use during the lesson, and links to additional resources. Further, the lesson content is aligned with NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas and Science and Engineering Practices, in addition to Common Core English Language Arts standards. This lesson plan was created by the California Academy of Sciences (previously featured in the 08-20-2021 Scout Report), a San Francisco-based non-profit dedicated to regenerating "the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration." [MJZ]

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Nuclear energy will be a key component of efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. This infographic on nuclear energy uses current data and handy visualizations to explore the efficacy, capacity, and safety of nuclear energy generation compared to fossil fuels. Readers can scroll the page linked above for textual and graphical overviews of total nuclear energy production and nuclear as a share of primary energy generation (by year and by country). Further down the page, visitors will find information about the health impacts of nuclear power, including air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and accidents. Throughout, creators Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser strive to use well sourced data to overcome decades of anxiety about nuclear energy driven by high-profile incidents and popular culture. All data are available to visualize as charts, maps, and tables, and can be downloaded as images or CSV files. Best of all, the visualizations, data, and even the code are available for distribution and reproduction under a Creative Commons BY license. The Nuclear Energy infographic comes from Our World in Data (previously featured in the 05-11-2018 Scout Report), the "database of databases" dedicated to providing comprehensive, scientifically informed insights into complex questions and topics. [MJZ]

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Nuclear reactors exist across the globe, found from China to the United States and in between. But where, exactly, are they located? Developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and maintained for the past 50 years, the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) is a database that provides an overview of "power reactors in operation, under construction, or those being decommissioned." On the page linked above, users will find an interactive map showing the physical locations of nuclear reactors and world and country-specific statistics on the ages of reactors, the power-generating capacity of these reactors, the regional distribution of nuclear power capacity, and other information. Visitors can navigate to these using the "World Statistics" and "Country Statistics" tabs in the menu at the top of the page. PRIS also releases several publications, which can be found by clicking the "Publications" tab. A "Glossary" is also available that defines key terms for readers who are unfamiliar with nuclear energy terminology. These features make PRIS useful for professional scientists and amateur readers who wish to explore nuclear energy and its standards of practice, recent developments, and future state. [JMW]

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"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." These are the words attributed to J. Robert Oppenheimer as he witnessed the detonation of a nuclear weapon that he had contributed to creating. Oppenheimer and many other scientists took part in the famous Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first atomic bomb and left a legacy of nuclear power - for good and for ill - that would be felt by citizens of the world for generations to come. The Atomic Heritage Foundation, in partnership with the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the Manhattan Project and the atomic age it produced. Historians, educators, and general readers will find much of interest on the page linked above, which provides access to "oral histories, interpretive vignettes, and articles about the Manhattan project and its legacy." Users can navigate to these contents using quick links on the main page or the History tab in the menu at the top of the page, which includes sections such as "Projects Sites," "Timeline," "Key Documents," as well as lesson plans and a Google Map of important sites. Further, the "Profiles" tab in the menu links to profiles of some of the 600,000 people who worked on the Manhattan Project in various capacities. The Atomic Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. [JMW]

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Pytype is a static analysis tool for Python code that performs data type inference and type checking. It is used by "thousands of projects at Google," to weed out errors. It will identify and flag places in the code where there is an execution path that can perform an operation that will fail because the types of the operands are incompatible. It also flags common mistakes, such as misspelled attribute names, calls to non-existent functions, and a long list of other possible errors. Users can also provide type annotations in comments for each function, declaring explicitly what the types of the arguments should be rather than relying on Pytype's inference engine. Pytype can also produce a list of all the data types it infers that can be used to add type annotations. Pytype can be installed via Python's pip package manager. [CRH]

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The Helix authors describe it as a "post-modern text editor," one that was heavily influenced by Neovim and Kakoune. Like Kakoune, Helix uses multiple selections as an editing primitive with an 'object verb' command syntax. Unlike Kakoune or Neovim, the editing interface and command syntax focus on being easy to reason about rather than accomplishing common tasks with a bare minimum of keystrokes. While most editors rely on a set of regular expressions to provide syntax highlighting, Helix goes a step further and integrates parsing of code into abstract syntax trees using the tree-sitter library. As a result, it can track local variables, indicate when nested code is incorrectly indented, and provide semantically-aware editing commands. Helix also has built-in support for language servers that can be leveraged to provide context-aware autocompletion, as-you-type code diagnostics, and actions for highlighted code blocks. The helix site provides executables for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 10-31-2003 issue of the Scout Report, the National Atomic Museum has been re-christened the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. The museum's website features a number of virtual resources that will be appealing to science educators and parents.

Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this Smithsonian-affiliated museum is the only congressionally chartered museum of nuclear science and history in the U.S. The museum was established in 1969 to support education about "the Atomic Age, from early research of nuclear development through today's peaceful uses of nuclear technology." In addition to its in-person exhibits, the museum has a number of useful online resources available on the page linked above. Under the Visit tab in the menu at the top of the page, educators may want to explore options for "Virtual Museum Tours." Using Zoom, museum staff will take groups through exhibitions (for a small fee) on topics such as the Manhattan Project, the Cold War, Atomic Culture, Nuclear Waste Transportation, and Nuclear Medicine. Under the Educate tab, teachers and parents will find options for enhancing students' learning using museum resources, such as a set of "Online Resources" of audio and video content that would be particularly useful for science classrooms. The museum receives additional support from the Atomic Heritage Foundation. [RME] [MJZ]

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