The Scout Report

May 30, 1997

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin

A Project of the InterNIC

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.

Two from KIDS
When I Grow Up (Maybe)
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/KIDS/archive/KIDS-970519.html
Exploring Our World
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/KIDS/archive/KIDS-970529.html
For more information on KIDS
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/KIDS/index.html
The two latest KIDS (Kids Identifying and Discovering Sites) Reports, produced by New Vista High School and Nederland Elementary School third and fourth grade students (both in Colorado's Boulder Valley School District) respectively, are available from Internet Scout's KIDS site. The first contains annotations of nine sites related to reviewers' prospective career interests. The second contains nine sites related to cartography, weather, volcanos, wildlife, and geology. [JS]
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Feminist Collections World Wide Web Reviews and Computer Talk
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/fcmain.htm
Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources, provided by the Women's Studies Librarian's Office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (discussed in the February 6, 1996 Scout Report), contains two sections on the Internet that are very useful to women's studies researchers. World Wide Web Reviews (available from the home page or individual issues), is a new feature offering web essays on a variety of topics. To date, three reviews are available, on the subjects of funding sources, breast cancer, and women and computer technology. Computer Talk (also available from the home page or individual issues) is an ongoing column by Linda Shult of the WSLO that lists and briefly describes women's studies-related email lists, electronic journals, and websites. Together, they make a formidable Internet awareness resource in Women's Studies. [JS]
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BIODIDAC--Digital resources for teaching biology [CorelDraw, PowerPoint]
http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/
The intent of this biology image resource (free, registration required), provided by the University of Ottawa (Canada) is to aid French language biology teachers, but its over 2,700 images are a veritable gold mine to biology teachers in any language. Images can be searched or browsed (under Resources) in three major categories: zoology, botany, and histology. Images may be diagrams (black and white or color), photos, or annotated diagrams. The annotated images are provided in CorelDraw or Microsoft PowerPoint format and may be .zip compressed. Most images are briefly described, and thumbnails are linked to much larger images. The site is available in both French and English. Note that the botany section is quite rudimentary at this time. [JS]
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Voice of the Shuttle--Internet humanities resources
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/
"Woven" by Professor Alan Liu of the University of California-Santa Barbara, the Voice of the Shuttle is a comprehensive, well organized meta-site with pointers to all areas of the humanities. Whether interested in the most basic General Humanities Resources or specialized disciplines such as Postindustrial Business Theory, those pursuing humanities research on the net will likely find the information they need here. The organization of the pages is the site's real value; a sensible hierarchy of disciplines, with pertinent cross-referencing, makes browsing a pleasure. A simple search form is also provided. Each link is accompanied by an author attribution, and many have concise summaries or quotations from the site. A Highlights page presents the most advanced or interesting sites from each category. The site is updated constantly--no small undertaking. [ML]
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Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers [.pdf]
http://ppt.geog.qmw.ac.uk/
This quarterly, peer-reviewed scholarly journal concerning "any theoretical or empirical subject on geography" is available in its entirety (in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format only). It has a European flavor, but is international in scope. The latest issue contains articles on environmental science and policy, river management in Kruger National Park (South Africa), and the political geography of ethnic protest in Israel, among others. Each issue also contains several book reviews. At present, the current issue (Vol. 22, No. 1) is available, as well as the last issue from Volume 21 (under Transactions). [JS]
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Energy Research News--US Department of Energy
http://www.pnl.gov/energyscience/index.html
Energy Research News (ER News) is a bimonthly newsletter supported by the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Research. This newsletter focuses on informing engineers, researchers, and the interested public of the latest research and technology advancements at OER. Topics include energy generation, microbiology, the Human Genome Project, global weather change, computing, and more. Users may register for an email reminder (topic list) that announces each new issue. Back issues (to April 1995) are available. [TB]
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NewsPort--San Francisco State University Journalism Department [Java, Shockwave]
http://newsport.sfsu.edu/
A product of a lab (Journalism 677) at San Francisco State, NewsPort "seeks to address a serious concern over bringing the hard-won standards of accuracy, attribution, multiple sourcing, comprehension and fairness to the growing power of journalism on the World Wide Web." It's a sober mission, belied by the often flashy front-end that each story wears. But beneath the bells and whistles there's quality content here; from Microsoft's acquisitive nature to the increasing resistance of microbes to antibiotics, the treatments in Issue 3 are deep and often fearless. Just when it seemed that Java gimmickry would mean the end of meaningful content on the Web, NewsPort provides a hopeful portent. [ML]
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FYI--K-12 Education Ideas Using Technology mailing list
FYI is a list whose objective is to provide a weekly forum for K-12 educators and instructional support personnel to share ideas on using technology in the classroom. Each week's digest is comprised of the following kinds of information: classroom technology integration questions and ideas; websites that might be useful to K-12 schools; information on listservs of interest; and educational technology news and trends (from other lists, vendors, etc). Posts that discuss technical issues, hardware questions, configuration queries and the like are not appropriate for this list. [JS]

To subscribe send email to:
Listserv@ocmvm.cnyric.org
In the body of the message type:
subscribe fyi yourfirstname yourlastname
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Fedstats--Hyperlinks to US Government Statistics
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Site map:
http://www.fedstats.gov/map.html
That the US government provides a treasure chest of statistical information is a well known fact. That it is provided through a large number of agencies at a dizzying number of sites is also a fact that, until now, made finding the information you needed a daunting task. FedStats, the US government's new one-stop shopping site for statistical information, has made that task much easier. It provides links to government statistics from over seventy government agencies, with purviews from agriculture to transportation. Access is via agency or topic (program), with much agency information also providing direct links to specific statistical series. For example, if you are looking for energy information, FedStats not only provides a link to the Energy Information Administration, but also direct links to twenty-six different energy statistics data sets. This is a key value-added feature, as anyone who has tried to find specific information at a large government site will attest. The site also offers links to regional statistics in eight subject areas. The search interface currently searches the offerings of fourteen federal agencies; contact information is also provided for these agencies. [JS]
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American Visions--PBS [Shockwave]
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanvisions/
American Visions is the companion site to an eight-week PBS series of the same name that runs from May 28 to June 18, 1997. It "tells the history of America's people and places through its art"; this guided tour is conducted by veteran Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes. The site is highlighted by the Exhibition section, a collection of Shockwave-based interactive photo essays on American art history (images and commentary accompanying the first two episodes are available at this time). Each exhibit contains an overall commentary section, as well as specific commentary or quotes for selected images (visible when the mouse pointer moves over the multi-colored bullets that accompany the images). The pages of each exhibit can be navigated from the bottom frame. There is also a large "art gallery" of over 100 images from the series, a series synopsis, and a "remote control" web tour (a separate pop-up window) of sites related to the series. It is a beautiful, though extremely browser and graphics intensive, site. [JS]
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Protect Your Pension: A Quick Reference Guide
http://www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/protect/protectoc.htm
Produced by the US Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, Protect Your Pension provides an overview of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). It "was written for workers and retirees who are participating in or receiving benefits from company or union pension plans." Although not quite a quick reference guide at 77 pages, it discusses specific methods for individuals to monitor defined contribution and defined benefit plans to protect against fund mismanagement and/or poor management, and explains pension rights and responsibilities. As not all pension plans are federally insured, being your own watchdog may be your best bet. [ATW]
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iBIKE--From Interzine
http://www.outdoorexplorer.com/bike/
This latest entry in Interzine's collection of mountain recreation websites offers resources for the serious or dilletante mountain biker. It claims to have the first online national trail guide (readers may submit their own favorite rides), as well as a large collection of digitized trail maps (though these are often too small to give more than a general sense of a trail's path). Navigation through the site is aided by the trail map on the right side of the page, which conveniently displays an "X" at the user's current location. There are pages devoted to nutrition, equipment, and shopping, as well as pages you might not expect, such as microbreweries (arranged by state, and searchable!). The site is polished, well written, and heavily commercially supported. [ML]
[Note: Site title has changed since the original Scout Report review. Site formerly referred to in the Scout Report as "iBIKE."]
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Thanks for Nothing--Entertainment Weekly celebrates Seinfeld
http://www.pathfinder.com/ew/seinfeld/
Do you find yourself in front of the television on Thursday nights watching four of the most selfish and petty people in the world? And, well, loving it? Then this Seinfeld site is for you. Produced by Entertainment Weekly, it chronicles all the particulars of their codependence as well as trivia tidbits (e.g., the 1989 pilot episode was deemed "weak," and Elaine's home town is Towson, MD). Learn lessons like "No good ever comes from helping one's fellow man" or simply peruse all eight seasons' episodes, which are critiqued and graded for your viewing pleasure. [Note: Resource(s)/URL(s) mentioned above is no longer available.]
[ATW]
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TriLite--New Age Philosophy mailing list
The TriLite list is for mature individuals interested in metaphysics and New Age philosophy. This list is especially suitable for the beginning New Age Thinker. All questions pertaining to humankind and the New Age will be discussed. [JS]

To subscribe send email to:
majordomo@UserHome.com
In the body of the message type:
subscribe Trilite
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Dogpile and MetaFind
http://www.dogpile.com/
http://www.metafind.com/
Don't be fooled by the frivolous attitude conveyed by Dogpile. Provided by Aron Flin and Unusual Solutions, Dogpile is a powerful meta-search utility that will query up to 23 Web, Usenet, and FTP search indexes with one command. Boolean AND/NEAR/NOT and phrase searching is supported. Results are retrieved from three search engines at a time. The user controls which Internet protocols are searched and the time spent searching. In custom search mode, the user has complete control over both the indexes searched and the order searched. Unusual Solutions also provides MetaFind, which searches six web indexes, supports all the operators of Dogpile plus OR searching, and retrieves a limited number of "hits" from each index. Dogpile and MetaFind are fast and easy ways to query multiple search indexes, and are formidable individual efforts. [JS]
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SoftSeek--PC Internet software archive and information
http://www.softseek.com/Internet/
Subscribe to SoftSeek Week
http://www.softseek.com/_other/newsletter.html
Provided by SoftSeek, Inc, the Internet section of this PC software site contains various freeware, evaluation, and shareware programs for Windows 95/NT, Windows 3.x, and DOS. Navigating within this site is easy; possibilities include browsing by category, subcategory, top 10 downloads, top 100 downloads, as well as quick searching. There are also sections devoted to editor's picks, new releases, and what's in the spotlight. Beyond this, each program is accompanied by a review that includes features, system requirements, and more. SoftSeek also offers SoftSeek Week, a free electronic newsletter that contains the latest information on PC evaluation software, shareware, and freeware. This site and newsletter are great ways to get and keep up to date on the latest PC software. [TB]

To subscribe to SoftSeek Week send email to:
SoftSeek_Week@groupserver.revnet.com
In the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE
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The Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML)
http://www.phone.com/products/upsdk.html
The Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), a product of Unwired Planet, Inc., is a relatively new language that allows web content to be displayed and accessed on handheld devices such as mobile phones and pagers. A proposal for a Handheld Device Markup Language was submitted to the World Wide Consortium (W3C) on May 7, 1997. It may seem strange that it is possible to view web documents on the tiny display screen provided and navigate with a limited number of keys, but it is. Briefly, HDML provides a special navigational model that does not rely on visual context, as HTML does. The Unwired Planet HDML page contains detailed information as well as a link to the proposal. [TB]
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Volume 1, Number 5: The Scout Report for May 27, 1994
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/5-27-94.html
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/home.html
JAIR Keyphrase Searchable Index
http://ai.iit.nrc.ca/jair/keyphrases/
The May 27, 1994 Scout Report annotated the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, one of the pioneer web scholarly journals. At the time, only the first issue was online. Presently, Volume 6 of the Journal is available. While most articles are in PostScript format (.ps), beginning with Volume 2 selected articles are available as HTML as well. The site now offers an interactive keyphrase searchable index of all articles, in HTML and Java. The journal is published via Usenet news, FTP, and automated email, as well as the website (see Frequently Asked Questions for more information). [JS]
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Copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-1997. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout

Susan Calcari
Jack Solock
Matthew Livesey
Teri Boomsma
Aimee D. Glassel
Amy Tracy Wells
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Managing Editor
Editor
Production Editor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor

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The Scout Report - May 30, 1997

The Scout Report

May 30, 1997

New From Internet Scout

Research and Education

General Interest

Network Tools

Where Are They Now

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