The Scout Report

May 29, 1998

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

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.

An Acrobat .pdf version of this report is available for printing and distributing locally. For information on Adobe Acrobat Reader, visit the Adobe site.

Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/sci-engr/
Vol. 1, Number 18 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. It annotates over twenty new and newly-discovered Internet resources in the physical & life sciences and engineering. The In the News section annotates eight resources about satellites. [JS]
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1998 ThinkQuest Jr. Award Winners Announced
http://www.thinkquest.org/tqjr/
Advanced Network & Services, Inc. announced its ThinkQuest Junior Award Winners on May 15, 1998. ThinkQuest Junior is an offshoot of the well-known ThinkQuest K-12 Internet Contest (discussed in the December 5, 1997 Scout Report). ThinkQuest Jr. concentrates on student teams in grades four through six who work with their coaches to create content-rich Internet sites. Interested users can view the Best of Contest winner, "J.J.'s Adventure: A Baby Grey Whale's Rescue and Release," which was created by a team from the North Country Christian School in Escondido, California, or any of the six winners in five subject-based categories. In addition, all of the 77 finalists, as well as the total of nearly 300 entries can be accessed from the "Explore" menu. [JS]
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Agricultural Statistics 1998--USDA NASS [.pdf]
http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agstats.htm
The 1998 issue of this annual United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service compendium is available (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format only) from the Agricultural Statistics site. Its fifteen chapters consist of time series tables covering all aspects of the US agricultural economy, including crops, livestock, farm income and expenses, price-support, and fertilizer and pesticides. Time series and geographic coverage vary. The site also contains national and state tables and an archive of Agricultural Statistics back to 1994. [JS]
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Geographic Names Information System Antarctica Database Query Form--USGS
http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/antform.html
National Mapping Information: Geographic Names Information System
http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/index.html
The US Geological Survey provides this site, an interactive database that allows the user to query over 12,000 Antarctic geographic names by Feature Name (variant name searching is also supported), Feature Type, Elevation, Description, and Location (latitude and longitude). Retrieval contains all of those variables and a map generated by the Xerox PARC Map Server (discussed in the November 25, 1994 Scout Report). The Antarctica database joins the well-known GNIS US and Territories database, which contains "almost two million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States." [JS]
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The Maturity, Sectoral and Nationality Distribution of International Bank Lending--BIS [frames, .pdf, .csv]
http://www.bis.org/publ/
Select: The Maturity, Sectoral and Nationality Distribution of International Bank Lending
Provided by the Bank for International Settlements (discussed in the March 7, 1997 Scout Report), this semi-annual publication (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format only) tracks the distribution of international bank lending. Current issues are accompanied by relevant data in .csv (comma-separated value) format, for easy use in spreadsheet or statistical programs. The latest (May 1998) issue addresses late 1997 developments, including "the movements of funds which took place at the height of the Asian crisis." Reports generally cover banking developments with a lag time of about six months, and are currently available back to June 1996. CSV tables are available back to January 1998. [JS]
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ASM Biofilm Image Project
http://www.asmusa.org/edusrc/edu34.htm
This new site from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) provides information and images on biofilms, assemblages of "microscopic animals, plants and bacteria attached to a surface." Deleterious or beneficial, biofilms occur "when bacteria adhere, colonize and eventually form complex community structures on various surfaces." At the site, which is organized into biofilm resources, digitized images, and curricula, users can find introductory text as well as SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), magnified photographs, and Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) images. Of special note is the modest but excellent collection of related links--pointing to biofilm movies, the Center for Biofilm Engineering, an impressive collection of SPM Images, curriculum information on Unicellular Organisms, and the World of Microbes. [LXP]
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Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide
http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/
Less graphical entrance:
http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/contents.html
To guide anyone who wants to produce a well-designed web site, the Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media (C/AIM) provides this style manual, which comfortingly states, "The basic elements of a document aren't complicated, and have almost nothing to do with Internet technology." C/AIM develops multimedia educational and communications programs; the Web Style Guide is an outgrowth of their web development projects. The Guide addresses the problem of creating Web sites that are both easy to use and full of complex content by applying sound design concepts derived from print media traditions. The Guide is broken into chapters on topics such as interface, site, and page design, web graphics, multimedia and animation, and also includes extensive bibliographies and a visual glossary of common interface icons such as buttons and check boxes. [DS]
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The Stanford-Berkeley-MIT-IBM Quantum Computation Research Project
http://squint.stanford.edu/
The Quantum Computation Research Project web site illustrates a collaborative project among researchers at Stanford; the University of California, Berkeley; the Massachussetts Institute of Technology; and IBM. Maintained by Isaac Chuang, this site features interesting and useful current information about quantum computation ranging from a Dilbert cartoon to a nice collection of published and unpublished research papers. The site also provides many links to other worthwhile quantum computation sites. Anyone, from the curious to the researcher, can benefit from this excellent starting point for timely and applicable information on quantum computation. [CL]
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The Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/robhome.htm
The Rossell Hope Robbins Library, a special collection of the Rush Rees Library at the University of Rochester, contains over 12,000 volumes on "all aspects of Middle English literature." The site is highlighted by four virtual collections: The Camelot Project; The Robin Hood Project; TEAMS (Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University) Middle English Texts; and Robbins Library Bibliographies. The first two collections contain texts, images, and bibliographies pertinent to their topics. The TEAMS collection contains, at present, over 100 full texts (each with an explanatory introduction), from "Above All Thing Thow Arte a Kyng" to The Book of Margery Kempe to Ywain and Gawain. There are also eight bibliographies at present, covering the Arthurian legends, Robin Hood, and general medieval literature. These collections, with their combination of primary and secondary source material, combine to make an excellent medieval studies resource. [JS]
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Hubble Takes First Image of a Possible Planet Around Another Star and Finds a Runaway World [RealPlayer]
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/19/
The Hubble Space Telescope has returned an image of what is possibly the first planet outside our solar system. TMR-1C, about 450 light years away in the constellation Taurus, appears to have been "flung away from the vicinity of a newly forming pair of binary stars," as evidenced by a luminescent filament leading from the "planet" back to the stars. "Susan Terebey of the Extrasolar Research Corporation in Pasadena, California, and her team using Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)," made the discovery. Hubble experts estimate the chance of the object being a background star instead of a planet at one to two percent. This Space Science Telescope Institute site contains the press release, captioned images in several formats and resolutions, and a space science update, a one hour RealPlayer press conference with Dr. Terebey and other astronomers. [JS]
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Sorry Day in Australia
National Sorry Day
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/sorry/index.htm
Bringing Them Home
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/hreoc/stolen/
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/orgs/car/
Australia: The Divided Nation--The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/special/dividednation/index.html
"Sorry Day," held on May 26, 1998 in Australia, was an attempt on the part of some Australians to come to grips with the policy of forced removal of Aboriginal children that took place for 150 years until the 1970s. The National Sorry Day site is provided by the Reconciliation and Social Justice Project of the Australasian Legal Information Institute. The site contains background and an educational activities kit. The centerpiece, however, is full text access to Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, which was tabled by the Australian Federal Parliament exactly one year before Sorry Day. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, made up of 25 members, over half of whom are Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, as well as members of the Commonwealth Parliament, maintains a site highlighted by its Weaving the Threads: Progress Towards Reconciliation report to Parliament. The Age, a Melbourne newspaper, provides a series of articles chronicling Australia's racial divide. [JS]
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Uniform Crime Reports 1997 Preliminary Annual Release--FBI [.pdf, 7p.]
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucrann97.htm
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has released the preliminary 1997 edition of this report (available in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format only), a brief compendium of crime statistics for the US and its cities of over 100,000 people. Three of the report's four tables compare trends in various types of crime. The bulk of the report, however, is a table that enumerates eight different types of crimes, including murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and arson in cities over 100,000, during 1996 and 1997. Also included are crime index totals. Final figures will be available in Fall 1998 in the FBI's annual Crime in the United States report. [JS]
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State Small Business Profiles--SBA
http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/stats/profiles/
The Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration (discussed in the September 25, 1997 Scout Report for Business & Economics) profiles small businesses in all states for 1995-1997 and small businesses in the entire US for 1997 at this site. The profiles are snapshot views that include such topics as the number of businesses, income, minority businesses, turnover, finance, job growth, and industries. As such, they can help users quickly and easily gauge the state of small business in a state, a region, or the United States as a whole. [JS]
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Canadian Heritage Information Network [frames]
http://www.chin.gc.ca/
The Canadian Heritage Information Network, provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage, contains an abundance of information about the resources in Canadian museums and galleries. Through either the Guide to Canadian Museums and Galleries or the Official Directory of Canadian Museums and Related Institutions, users can find information about thousands of museums, galleries, and associated institutions. Information can be searched or browsed by name or location. CHIN also features eleven virtual exhibits at this time, ranging from Hauling Job Sturge's House to Endangered Species in Endangered Places to In the Countries of the Francophonie. A new exhibit, Gestures and Words, a project on Francophone artists in Canada, is forthcoming. The site is rounded out by Artefacts Canada, a searchable and browsable database on "millions of museum objects, natural history specimens and archaeological sites" contributed by Canadian museums and heritage organizations, and a set of miscellaneous professional resources. [JS]
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The Bed & Breakfast Channel
http://www.bbchannel.com/
With this site, founders Eric and Liz Goldreyer provide travelers with "comprehensive, user-friendly, up-to-date information on bed and breakfasts and inns" via the Internet. The primary focus is on providing access to bed and breakfast listings in North America (over 20,000), although there is also a growing collection of listings from around the world. In the Quick Search, users may search for accommodations by city, state or country. Users who don't have a specific destination in mind, can browse geographically with the World Search. Basic entries include the name, address, and phone number, as well as a link to a city map. Bed and breakfast owners may include additional information, photos, or a link to their own web site, for a fee. [AG]
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Diabetes-Care Mailing List
The Diabetes-Care mailing list will discuss triumphs and disasters with diabetes, techniques for controlling the disease, life after complications, the future of diabetes research and transplants, and the everyday concerns of diabetics. [JS]

To subscribe send email to:
majordomo@msstate.edu
In the body of the message type:
subscribe diabetes-care
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Libwww--The W3C Sample Code Library
http://www.w3.org/Library/
The World Wide Web Consortium has begun to make its sample code library, Libwww, publicly available. "Libwww is a general-purpose Web API written in C for Unix and Windows (Win32). With a highly extensible and layered API, it can accommodate many different types of applications . . . The purpose of Libwww is to provide a sample implementation of HTTP and other Internet protocols and to serve as a testbed for protocol experiments." The numerous 'plug-and-play' modules include a rudimentary HTML parser. Compressed source code, documentation, and example applications are available. [JS]
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Good Documents
http://www.gooddocuments.com/
Dan Bricklin provides this site, a clearinghouse of information collected to help content providers write for the Intranet and Internet media. Rather than stressing site building that will attract the most users, Good Documents provides tips for writing that will be read on-screen. The Techniques and Samples sections provide no-nonsense tips on how to create screen-readable documents and offer examples. The site is interesting in that it assumes that its users want to create content that will be read rather than viewed. [JS]
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HVS GIFCruncher--GIF Compression Tool
http://www.spinwave.com/
HVS GIFCruncher, provided by Digital Frontiers, is an online tool that compresses the file size of GIFs. There are three modes for compression. Basic optimizes a single GIF from the hard drive or web page, Custom provides control options for optimizing a GIF from the hard drive/web page/FTP directory, and Batch (not yet available) optimizes multiple GIFs from a web page or FTP directory/subdirectories. After the GIFs are processed, GIFCruncher provides several new GIF options as well as the original image for comparison. Users can also obtain specific information such as file size, number of colors, dither percent, savings in bytes, and savings in download time on a 28.8 modem. Since the site is currently in beta test, all three modes are free of charge (although you must register to use Custom and Batch). In the future, the Custom and Batch modes will require a fee. [TB]
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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. 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 Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. 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 or the National Science Foundation.

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

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The Scout Report - May 29, 1998

The Scout Report

May 29, 1998

New From Internet Scout

Research and Education

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