The Scout Report

June 6, 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.

FERRET--The Federal Electronic Research and Review Extraction Tool
http://ferret.bls.census.gov/cgi-bin/ferret
This new service of the US Census Bureau allows researchers to extract information from the Current Population Surveys March 1995 and 1996 supplements and CPS Displaced Workers 1996 data. For CPS March supplements, pre-formatted macrodata tables are available in nine categories at present, including health insurance, family income, and poverty. But the real power of the site, especially for researchers, is the ability to query and extract microdata records from both datasets, and either view this microdata or download it as ASCII text (user's choice as to delimiter format), with crosstabs or frequencies, or as SAS datasets. Presently available datasets are just the beginning of what will be a much larger searchable statistics database, and "FERRET will be one of the tools in the Census Bureau's Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS)," a data retrieval system "being developed to provide better access to all census data." Note that users must supply an email address before using the system. [JS]
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Chemistry Software and Information Resources--NHSE and NPAC
http://www.csir.org/
This site, part of the National HPCC Software Exchange (discussed in the November 22, 1996 Scout Report) and provided by the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center at Syracuse University, is highlighted by the Chemistry Software Exchange. The Exchange is a "catalog of chemistry software running on anything from desktop computers to massively parallel processors," organized into 21 major subject categories (browsable only at present) including data analysis tools, molecular dynamics, chemistry presentation tools, and integrated problem solving environments, among others. Each software entry may contain an abstract, contact information, and operating system information, as well as a hyperlink to the site that contains the software. At present, over 120 programs are available. CSIR also contains a large list of chemistry mailing lists and newsgroups. [JS]
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CLE Now!--Continuing legal education programming from the experts [Frames, RealAudio]
http://www.clegroup.com/aba/
This set of free (registration required) continuing legal education RealAudio files is provided by the American Bar Association Center for Continuing Legal Education, in cooperation with the CLE Group. Tips from the Top contains legal advice from fourteen judges, law professors, and attorneys (28 tips, 45 minutes total), concerning such topics as preparing witnesses, opening and closing arguments, pretrial motions, and cross examination, among others. McElhaney's Trial Notebook, by Professor James McElhaney of Case Western Reserve University Law School, contains almost 50 minutes of advice on attorney credibility, "humanizing the client," and "the theory of the case." Stopping Domestic Violence Against Women: Using New Federal Laws is a combination of text and over 50 minutes of audio from a panel of experts on four aspects of that topic. Note that all of the above information can be found under "Menu of Programming." [JS]
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Superconductivity Papers Database--ETL and ISTEC
http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/db013/english-ver.html
The Electrotechnical Laboratory (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and the International Superconductivity Technology Center Foundation (Japan) provide this no-frills, searchable-only bibliographic database of 32,000 superconductivity papers in the areas of High Tc, C60 (Fullerene) related, organic, non-oxide, and oxide conductor. Papers can be searched on title, author, abstract word, or year. The database contains citations mostly from 1987-present in pertinent scholarly journals. The "How to Search" section gives hints on browsing parts of the database via use of the truncation symbol in combination with a classificatory serial number prefix. While there is nothing pretty or particularly user-friendly about the interface, the number of citations on these highly specialized topics should be of use researchers in the field. [JS]
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American College of Physicians Web Watch
http://www.acponline.org/computer/webwatch/wwatch1.htm
American College of Physicians
http://www.acponline.org/
Internal medicine practitioners will find this selective annotated medical meta-site a useful bookmark. Latest site reviews are on the main page, along with a search interface that allows keyword searching or browsing among eleven topics from clinical reference materials to universities and hospitals. While there are fewer than 200 site annotations at present, they are all carefully reviewed, making this a valuable, selective resource. Sites are compiled and annotated by Dr. Richard Baker. The ACP site contains information about the organization, including selected articles from the ACP Observer and Annals of Internal Medicine. [JS]
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Native American Authors--An IPL bibliographic project
http://www.ipl.org/ref/native/
Created by five graduate students at the University of Michigan, this bibliographic site covers approximately 400 Native American authors, 700 books and 200 URLs. The collected information may be accessed by browsing author name, book title, or tribe. Author pages list tribe and works, and most have links to web pages that focus on the author. Each tribe also has a page with links, and each book has a page with bibliographic data. This is not a site with content about particular authors; rather, it offers an annotated bibliography of print and web sources that will help anyone interested in learning more about Native American authors. [ML]
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Caucus on Emerging Disciplines in Higher Education
This forum will address aspects of creating new branches of study within institutions of higher learning, focusing particularly on technology-oriented graduate programs such as aviation and computer technology. Anticipated themes include: preparatory research to prove need accreditation; developing instruments to identify skills and knowledge required; infrastructure requirements of program; curriculum development; degree requirements; credit balancing (course work vs. research/dissertation); and delivery, e.g. traditional, internet, teleconference, etc. [JS]

To subscribe, send email to the owner, Carl Reimann at:
reimann@radix.net
and ask to be added to the list.
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Uniform Crime Reports 1996 Preliminary Annual Release--FBI [.pdf, 9p.]
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucrpre96.pdf
Number Crunchers Precision Journalism Crime Rates and Ranks
http://www.newstrench.com/02nc/02nc.htm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on June 1, 1997 released this report, a compilation of four tables chronicling the state of crime in the US in 1996. Three tables briefly summarize national crime index trends by population group or area, geographic region, and time period. The bulk of the report is a city table containing crime statistics in eight different crimes ranging from murder to arson, comparing 1996 and 1995 figures. Number Crunchers Precision Journalism has taken this raw data and created tables of rankings for big city crime rates, murders, and motor vehicle thefts. [JS]
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CNN Custom News
http://mycnn.com
Joining Excite's NewsTracker (discussed in the February 7, 1997 Scout Report) in the personalized news service fray, CNN has teamed up with database powerhouse Oracle to present its Custom News site. Users of the site first select a news profile that determines the selection of headlines on their personal front page; an innovative aspect of this process is the range of preconfigured news assortments from which users may choose a profile that matches their interests. Of course, building a profile from scratch is also an option. Having set a profile, users register, select a username and password, and then watch as their personalized front page is composed. A news ticker may be displayed at the bottom of the screen or as an independent Java item on the desktop. Custom News relies on general topic settings to select stories; newshounds desiring more focused coverage are limited to three keywords or phrases in the On Target personal clipping area. [ML]
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Confronting Cancer through Art
http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/CCTA/
Less browser-intensive version:
http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/ccta/
This online exhibition, an outgrowth of a 1996 juried exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center and the Arthur Ross Gallery, gives "vision and voice to the experiences of all those who have confronted cancer." The exhibit is alphabetically arranged by artist, with brief explanatory captions. Artists include cancer survivors, as well as family members and loved ones affected by the disease. [JS]
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Earth Island
http://www.earthisland.org/
The Earth Island Web site is maintained by the Earth Island Institute (EII). EII also publishes the Earth Island Journal quarterly. The current issue of the journal can be browsed by section or by subject, and offers current news, world reports, and feature articles on a wide range of environmental subject areas. Earth Island also undertakes a number of projects that are discussed at the site as well as in a portion of the journal. The entire site is searchable. This is an excellent site for those interested in keeping up on environmental issues. [TB]
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Bonus.com: The SuperSite for Kids [Java]
http://www.bonus.com/
Bonus.com, provided by Apaloosa Interactive Corporation, is innovative in both content and style. Part activities meta-site, part virtual toybox, it allows children to find hundreds of fun, interactive online things to do, including "games, coloring books, puzzles, and photo galleries," in sections entitled Play, Color, Explore, Dissect, and Imagine. More innovative, however, is the "NetScooter" technology employed to create a Bonus browser and hide the regular browser behind it. In this way, a "fence" is built around the Bonus site, which, while allowing navigation within the site, keeps your child out of the Internet at large. While this will not foil older, more Internet-savvy children, it is a wonderful way to protect younger children from stumbling onto some of the more unsavory Internet sites--although they'll probably be having so much fun with this site that you'll have to tear them away from it. Note that many of the activities are Java-based and browser intensive, and that parents should read the help files for more information on features and navigation. [JS]
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WALDEN--About Henry David Thoreau Mailing List
http://www.mcelhearn.com/thoreau/thoreau.html
WALDEN is a mailing list dedicated to Henry David Thoreau. It is named after his best known work, Walden, a recounting of a period of time he spent living "deliberately" next to Walden Pond, outside Concord, Massachusetts. The list will discuss: the relevance of Thoreau's ideas to life in the 21st century; books about Thoreau's life and works; other authors that were Thoreau's 19th century contemporaries; and "living deliberately," among other topics. Subscription and further information is available at the above URL. [JS]

To subscribe send email to:
Walden-request@lists.best.com
In the body of the message type:
subscribe
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PointCast Network 2.0 Beta
http://www.pointcast.com/
What's distinctive about the latest PointCast (discussed in the February 16, 1996 issue of the Scout Report) client software may not, at first, be obvious. The software, currently available only for Windows 95/NT, functions just as previous versions did: after a user-specified period of inactivity, PointCast takes over the screen and fills it with headlines and advertisements. Users can click on items of interest and open a web browser window with more information. The one fascinating new feature is the Ticker, a crawl that when placed at the top or bottom of the screen runs headlines and other data non-stop. Behind the scenes, though, is where the real changes are taking place. The user interface is new, and it presents an almost dizzying array of configuration options. And underneath it all are PointCast's revamped content and server systems, which allow webcasters large and small to customize and broadcast their own content on internal channels. If the push war has replaced the browser war, this is the latest salvo in the struggle for standards domination. [ML]
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Dynamic HTML--HTML made interactive
Microsoft's Dynamic HTML technology
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/default.asp
Netscape's Dynamic HTML technology
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/communicator/dynhtml/index.htm
Microsoft and Netscape offer Dynamic HTML technology in the preview releases of their Internet Explorer 4.0 and Communicator 4.0 browsers. Dynamic HTML is a new technology that allows for immediate interaction with a web page; additional content does not need to be downloaded. Netscape states that it "...provides the next major step forward in the HTML revolution." Additional information on Dynamic HTML technology is provided at the above URLs, as well as links to demo sites that implement the technology. [TB]
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Web Developer's Journal
http://www.WebDevelopersJournal.com/
This e-zine, provide by Markland Communities, Inc., is a one-stop smorgasbord of information for web developers. It contains software downloads, articles on web techniques and trends, software, hardware, and book reviews, and several subject related discussion groups. It's information is aimed at the intermediate to advanced web developer. [JS]
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Volume 1, Number 6: The Scout Report for June 3, 1994
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/6-3-94.html
The Chance Database Welcome Page
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/
The Electronic Zoo--NetVet
http://netvet.wustl.edu/
The June 3, 1994 Scout Report annotated the Chance Server, a probability and statistics resource to support a Chance course originally developed by six universities. The page, still situated at the University of Minnesota, is an excellent example of an information resource that connects course content to "the real world." Its Chance News section abstracts articles related to probability from newspapers and journals, with hypertext connections when available. It also contains teaching aids and connections to other Internet resources. The same issue also annotated the Electronic Zoo, a gopher-based "list of animal-related computer resources at Washington University at St. Louis." The site, maintained by Dr. Ken Boschert, a veterinarian at WUSL, has been merged with the well known NetVet to become one of the longest running and most comprehensive veterinary meta-sites on the Internet. [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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The Scout Report - June 6, 1997

The Scout Report

June 6, 1997

Research and Education

General Interest

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