Scout Report for Science & Engineering_
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sci-eng/2000/se-000607.html
Volume 3, Number 19 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates twelve resources on submarine volcanoes and vents with press releases and photos of the most recent eruptions. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
The Condition of Education, 2000 -- NCES [.pdf, 6150K]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000062
The US Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has recently placed online the 2000 edition of the well-regarded Condition of Education (last reviewed in the June 11, 1999 Scout Report). This compendium of 65 indicators, selected by education studies professionals and based on data from various NCES studies, summarizes the health of education, monitors important developments, and describes trends in the major aspects of education. The weighty 340-page report is divided into six sections: Participation in Education, Learner Outcomes, Student Effort and Academic Progress, Quality of Elementary and Secondary Educational Environments, The Context of Postsecondary Education, and Societal Support for Learning. Two sets of supplemental tables, totalling over 100 pages, are also available. Users may download the publication in its entirety or by section in .pdf format. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/arabichome.html
This recently announced site highlights the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) collection of Islamic medical manuscripts, "one of the three greatest in the world," with over 330 texts, including some with no other known copy in existence. The illustrated, online catalog includes essays on the featured texts accompanied by thumbnail images, physical descriptions, provenance, and additional resources. Also on-site are an introduction to Medieval Islam and bibliographies. Throughout the site, selected terms are linked to their definitions in the glossary. The texts will be posted in three installments. The first, now online, deals with medical encyclopedias. Subsequent additions will cover pharmaceuticals, plague tracts, veterinary medicine, and general hygiene; with as many as 300 illustrations in the final catalog. While especially useful for students and researchers in the history of medicine and science, the site will also appeal to general users interested in these topics as well as the history of Islamic and European culture. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Mammalogy Section
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/mammalogy/
Nine of the world's 29 orders of mammals are found in the state of Washington, including bats, primates, rodents, marine mammals, and carnivores, among other groups. For a plethora of information on mammals in Washington state and beyond, check out this Webpage from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (University of Washington-Seattle). In the Mammals of Washington section of the Website, nine mammalian orders are described in 148 separate species's accounts. Each account gives the natural history of the species (characteristics, diet, behaviors, habitat), as well as its geographic distribution, and in some cases, phylogeography. In the Burke Mammalogy Research section, current research on the Biogeography of Pacific Northwest Mammals is described, with details of other research projects (in Chile, Mexico, and China) still under construction. The Burke Mammal Collection section contains information on the Museum's 44,000 specimens, including history and composition of the Collection and Database, use of the Collection and Database, and Publications and Theses (related to the Collection). The Website is beautifully conceived, easy to navigate, and highly informative, making it an excellent learning or research resource. [LXP]
[Back to Contents]Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/commission.html
Released on June 5 by the National Commission on Terrorism and posted online in its entirety by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), this new report contains a number of recommendations that have raised objections among civil libertarians, parts of the Arab-American community, and others. The commission, composed of private experts and former federal officials, was created in the wake of the US embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 and has heard the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. Among its recommendations are enhanced monitoring of foreign students enrolled in US schools, using the CIA or military instead of the FBI to lead investigations into terrorism on US territory, the repeal of regulations that supposedly prohibit the CIA from using unsavory informants, and the levying of sanctions against Greece and Pakistan for not "cooperating fully" against terrorism under a statute Congress passed in 1996. Users can read the full text in HTML format at the FAS site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Holocaust Survivors [RealPlayer]
http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/
Originally a photography project, Holocaust Survivors has developed into a touring exhibit and a Website. Directed by John Menszer, this moving and well-constructed site is an outstanding adjunct to any class or course that discusses the Holocaust. University courses, especially larger surveys, often deal with the Shoah on a broad institutional level in an attempt to impart the sheer scale of the mass-murders. What is lost is the individual and personal experiences of loss and survival in these years. This site, with its photo gallery, survivor stories, and especially the audio gallery, offers students or any visitor invaluable personal accounts of the Holocaust. To help users place these in the larger context, the site provides an historical introduction, an encyclopedia, a collection of primary documents and scholarly articles, a bibliography, and related links. The site also hosts a discussion board. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Digital Economy 2000: The Third Annual Report of the Electronic Commerce Working Group [.pdf]
http://www.esa.doc.gov/de2000.pdf
Department of Commerce Press Release
http://www.ecommerce.gov/ecomnews/pr060500.html
United States Government Electronic Commerce Policy
http://www.ecommerce.gov/
On June 5, the Commerce Department announced the release of the third annual report on "the information-technology revolution and its impact on the economy" (for the previous report see the January 13, 2000 Scout Report for Business & Economics). It reveals, among other things, that IT (Information Technology) accounts for half or more of the improvement in productivity growth since 1995, that IT is lowering inflation, and that, between 1994 and 1998, employment in IT industries expanded by 30 percent, from 4.0 million to 5.2 million jobs. In addition, these jobs "average $58,000 a year, 85 percent higher than the average for the private sector." Users can download the full text of the 71-page report in .pdf format from the Electronic Commerce Policy site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Search Systems
http://www.pac-info.com/
Created and maintained by Pacific Information Resources, this useful metasite links to a wide array of free searchable public record databases, more than 1,500 in all. The links are organized geographically, with nation-wide databases for the US and Canada, and state databases broken down into state-wide, county, and city. The number of databases listed for each state varies widely, but most include property records, court dockets and filings, professional licenses, and administrative code. Other databases include city job postings, restaurant inspections, most wanted, inmate locator, lottery winning numbers, toxic release inventory, births and deaths, and charitable organizations, among many others. At time of review, a few broken links were found, but most operated correctly. A New Sites section lists the latest additions, and users can sign-up for free email notification of additions to the site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]LookSmart -- Science Multimedia
http://www.looksmart.com/eus898513/
This new subcategory of the LookSmart directory links users to a large collection of multimedia resources for teaching and learning about science. The sites are organized by discipline into twelve headings, including Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth and Environment, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics, among others. Each link includes a brief description which notes the plug-ins required to use the site. From the Science Multimedia page, users can also access the other categories in LookSmart's science directory. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
Smithsonian Online Collections
http://collections.si.edu
This new site from the Smithsonian will serve as a portal for accessing the myriad digitized image collections from the Smithsonian's museums, archives, and libraries. Using the site, visitors have several choices to browse or search for topics or collections across the museums: free text search across multiple fields, search by artist/maker, or browse or search by department of museum. The multiple field option allows users to search for particular objects or artifacts within certain museum departments as well as specify dates (additional fields include culture/ region, object number, medium, and object name). For instance, a search for paintings, after 1900, in the American Gardens archive produced two results. Users can also simply select a department of interest and browse the entries. Initial returns are displayed as thumbnailed images, with the options to display as a text list or as a list with images. A gallery of Highlights and a Help section are also provided. At present, the Online Collections contains over 15,000 images, and many more will be added in the coming months. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development, and Peace for the 21st Century (Beijing +5) [.pdf, RealPlayer]
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.htm
UNICEF & beijing +5 [.pdf]
http://www.unicef.org/programme/gpp/new/beijing5/index.html
This week the UN General Assembly held a special session, "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century," also known as Beijing + 5, to review the actions taken and lessons learned since the Platform for Action was unanimously adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. In addition, the session debated "further actions and initiatives for achieving gender equality in the new millennium." Attended by over 10,000 women and men from 188 countries, the session is expected to issue today a final political declaration calling for a recommitment to the Beijing Platform for Action. Throughout the week, this final document has been the subject of considerable debate and negotiations, and users can read the full text, as well as related documents and resolutions, at the Women 2000 Website. Other resources at the site include live and archived RealPlayer Webcasts, daily press releases, background information, and a list of speakers. UNICEF has also created its own site in honor of the conference, which identifies key themes, offers related documents, tracks the implementation of the Platform for Action, gives background information, and lists related links. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Three Sites on Astronomy/ Space Exploration
Cycle 1 Chandra Science Images
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1.html
Peering into the Heart of the Crab Nebula [QuickTime, .tiff]
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/15/index.html
Popular Science 5 Year Guide to Space Exploration
http://space.popsci.com/space/
These three sites, from NASA's premier telescopes and Popular Science magazine, should offer plenty to users with even a passing interest in astronomy and space exploration. The first site features a collection of amazing images from the Chandra orbiting X-ray observatory that were recently unveiled at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Highlights include a crossbow-shaped shock wave of warped gas, a jet that emanates from the center of the galaxy and extends across 360 thousand light years toward a brilliant hot spot, and a hot bubble of matter surrounding a dying star. The images are offered as thumbnails which link to a larger image with a description. "Handouts," images with descriptions that can be printed on a single page, are also available. The second site features some recently released images of the Crab Nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope which reveal the structure of the Nebula's center with unprecedented detail. The images are offered in several sizes and formats, along with a QuickTime movie and the official press release. The final site is a guide to the more than 100 NASA missions planned for the next five years. The missions are grouped by year, with links to detailed information such as launch date, estimated cost, objectives, mission details, images (where available), and the homepage for the official site. Other sections include a tech focus, an interactive timeline of spacecraft propulsion, and a crossword puzzle. [MD]
[Back to Contents]WRIT
http://writ.findlaw.com/
Launched on May 30, this new online magazine from FindLaw (last discussed in the January 15, 1999 Scout Report) is aimed at both the legal community and "all Americans interested in law and its impact on our culture." The premier issue features commentary on current legal questions and law in our culture from prominent lawyers, legal scholars, and writers, such as Alan Dershowitz, Walter Dellinger, and Sol Wisenberg. Features include commentary on Miranda, the Napster-Metallica lawsuit (from the principal attorneys and a University of Chicago law professor), judicial activism, school prayer and football, and "the algebra of true love." A daily updated News section also reports on recent cases or legal developments in the headlines of The Washington Post and other sources. The Commentary and Cafe (culture) sections will be updated each week, and message boards are in development. Well-written and engaging, the premier issue of WRIT should appeal to a wide range of readers. [MD]
[Back to Contents]SunSITE Library SuperSearch
http://www.librarylandindex.org/llsearch.html
Maintained by Jerry Kuntz, the SunSITE Library SuperSearch offers a convenient way to search six library-related resources, all hosted on the Berkeley SunSITE. These include Current Cites, Index Morganus, and the archives of two electronic mailing lists: Web4Lib, for systems librarians and Webmasters, and PubLib, for public librarians. A team of librarians monitors information technology literature to produce Current Cites, a monthly list of articles, many available for free online. The design of Current Cites lets users produce a list of articles or an annotated bibliography. Index Morganus makes it possible to search over 80 electronic serials, including some ephemeral publications, such as the Library of Congress Cataloging Newsline, the (ceased) Katharine Sharp Review from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Progressive Librarian. Also at SuperSearch is the LibraryLand Index, a search engine for over two dozen sites dedicated to the practice of librarianship, with hundreds of individual Webpages. [DS]
[Back to Contents]Memorandum and Order/ Final Judgement in Microsoft Antitrust Case [.pdf]
http://usvms.gpo.gov/
Microsoft Press Release
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/default.asp
As expected, on June 7 Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson approved the Department of Justice proposal to split the world's biggest software company into two entities. The company, of course, has announced it will appeal the decision, although they do not support Judge Jackson's intention to expedite the appeal process directly to the Supreme Court. The company would rather first move the case to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which previously overturned one of Jackson's decisions. Even if the case does move directly to the highest court, a final decision is unlikely before at least a year from now. While the breakup would not take effect until then (assuming the decision is upheld), the conduct remedies imposed by Judge Jackson will take effect in September. These bar Microsoft from withholding licensing terms, sales, or technical support from competing products; prevent them from forcing computer manufacturers to add other Microsoft products as a condition of licensing Windows; and force the company to provide the same licensing terms to all manufacturers. The full texts of the Memorandum and Order and Final Judgement are available from the Government Printing Office (GPO) in HTML and .pdf formats. Microsoft's reaction has been posted at the company's trial news site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Literature 2000 [RealPlayer, QuickTime]
http://www.literature2000.org/
The European Union has designated nine Cities of Culture for the Year 2000; this site is a collaborative effort from public libraries in seven of those cities. The site highlights the literary contributions of selected authors of fiction residing in each of the participating cities, which include Bergen, Norway; Bologna, Italy; Brussels, Belgium; Helsinki, Finland; Krakow, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; and Reykjavik, Iceland. The main Literature 2000 page links to separate city pages maintained by the participating libraries; these city pages provide varying degrees of information about the authors that each city has chosen to present. Helsinki's contribution, for example, lists eighteen authors, but at the time of our visit, only provided very basic biographical information for each. In contrast, the sites from Bergen and Brussels offer much richer presentations of three authors in each city. Reykjavik's segment of the site includes RealAudio and QuickTime video offerings, while Bologna's segment was not yet available at the time of our review. Overall, the city sites vary in thoroughness and quality, and some segments are obviously still under construction. Still, the information will likely be useful to those interested in the contemporary literature of Europe, and users can certainly monitor the site in the coming months for further developments. [SW]
[Back to Contents]
Zapper [Windows 95/98/2000/NT, IE 4.0+]
http://www.zapper.com/
While probably most helpful for consumer-related Web use, this new free application does offer some interesting possibilities for researchers and power-users. With Zapper, users can instantly access related online information for a user-selected term or terms in any document, Webpage, or almost any desktop application. For instance, if a user receives an email that mentions a particular book or movie or current event news story, selecting that term and launching Zapper will then allow the user to search for related sites within personalized categories and subcategories (Zaplets), such as Reference>Thesaurus or Shopping>Books, and then to open a browser window with the results. Users can also launch Zapper and simply type in a term in the search field. Zapper also features IntelliZap, which uses the context surrounding a search term to return more relevant results. This proved especially helpful for us when selecting terms within news stories. For instance, an IntelliZap search for "United Nations" in a story on Sierra Leone returned hits that concerned the UN Mission in Sierra Leone. After downloading (free registration required) Zapper, users can expand its capabilities by adding available Zaplets or Zap Packs (collections of related Zaplets), or creating their own. In all, an interesting new technology that certainly deserves "a spin around the block" by Windows users. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Search Adobe PDF Online
http://searchpdf.adobe.com/
According to Adobe, their new search engine indexes over one million .pdf documents. The interface is clean and simple: a keyword search powered by AltaVista. Initial returns are listed with a brief description and a link to the full entry, which includes a summary, the title, author, date, size, estimated download time for a 56kbps modem, and of course, a link to the full text in .pdf format. [MD]
[Back to Contents]Apache Today
http://apachetoday.com/
This new online magazine from internet.com is designed for professionals and community members interested in the popular Apache Web server. At the site, readers will find constantly updated features, breaking news, as well as archived stories and related links. After free registration, users can customize and filter the news content that appears when they view the site and sign up for "Triggers," essentially a push technology that informs users when news items that meet their interests have been posted. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
Solar Light Show
"Solar Storm Warning" -- NASA
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07jun_1m.htm?list
Strong Geomagnetic Storm in Progress -- NOAA
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s440.htm
First Major Solar Storm of the Century -- NOAA Space Weather
http://www.spaceweather.noaa.gov/stories/sw3.htm
The Solar Forecast
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/solar_forecast_000607.html
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
Sunspots and the Solar Cycle
http://www.sunspotcycle.com/
Over the last few days, the Earth has been buffeted by a geomagnetic storm caused by a major solar flare. In addition to disruptions in radio, telecommunications, and electric service, the flare may also produce a dramatic light show as it peaks tonight. Weather permitting, the aurora borealis, or northern lights, may be visible as far south as Washington, D.C. The best viewing time will be local midnight. The sun is currently at the peak of its eleven-year solar cycle, spawning flares and "coronal mass ejections" (CME), violent outbursts of gas from the sun's corona that can carry up to 10 billion tons of electrified gas traveling at speeds as high as 2000 km/s. Geomagnetic storms result when solar winds compress the magnetosphere, sometimes interfering with electric power transmission and satellites, but also creating beautiful aurorae, as many stargazers hope will occur tonight.
NASA's solar storm warning is a good place to learn more about the storm and solar flares, with numerous illustrations, animations, and related links. Reports from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) main and Space Weather sites briefly discuss the storm and how best to view the aurorae, and offer a number of related links. Space.com has posted the full text of the latest Solar Forecast from NOAA along with a gallery of images and some related resources. A Host of additional images and other resources can be found at the NASA/ ESA SOHO site. More background information is provided by NASA Science News Sunspots and the Solar Cycle site. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
Below are the copyright statements to be included when reproducing annotations from The Scout Report.
The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing the entire report, in any format:
Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2000. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.
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
Susan Calcari
Travis Koplow
Michael de Nie
David Charbonneau
Aimee D. Glassel
Emily Missner
Laura X. Payne
Krishna Ramanujan
Debra Shapiro
Joseph Bockhorst
Jen E. Boone
Scott Watkins
Ed Almasy
Hilary C. Sanders
Pat Coulthard
Alan Foley
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--Director
Managing Editor
Editor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Contributor
Technical Specialist
Website Administrator
Scout Report and Scout Report HTML Subscription Instructions
To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report each week, join the SCOUT-REPORT mailing list. This is the only mail you will receive from this list.
- To subscribe Scout Report, go to:
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/misc/lists/ - Or send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
subscribe SCOUT-REPORT - To unsubscribe, send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
unsubscribe SCOUT-REPORT - For subscription options, send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
query SCOUT-REPORT
To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report in HTML format, subscribe to the SCOUT-REPORT-HTML mailing list. This is the only mail you will receive from this list.
- To subscribe online to the Scout Report in HTML, go to:
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/misc/lists/ - Or send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
subscribe SCOUT-REPORT-HTML - To unsubscribe, send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
unsubscribe SCOUT-REPORT-HTML - For subscription options, send email to:
listserv@cs.wisc.edu
In the body of the message type:
query SCOUT-REPORT-HTML
A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Comments, Suggestions, Feedback
Use our feedback form or send email to scout@cs.wisc.edu.
© 2000 Internet Scout Project
Information on reproducing any publication is available on our copyright page.