NSDL Scout Reports for the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences
The eighth issues of the first volumes of the Life Sciences Report and Physical Sciences Report are available. The Topic in Depth section of Life Sciences Report annotates sites on biological remediation. The Physical Sciences Report's Topic in Depth section offers Web sites and comments about telescopes.
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Revalidating External Prison Classifications Systems: The Experience of Ten States and Model for Classification Reform [.pdf]
http://www.nicic.org/pubs/2002/017382.pdf
The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) funded projects to assist ten states with the revalidation of their external objective classification systems that determine which facility an inmate should be housed. The ten participating states included Delaware, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Written by Patricia L. Hardyman, James Austin, and Owan C. Tulloch, this 146-page report reveals the work undertaken by the participating states, provides an overall outline of the essential tasks required for revalidation, and summarizes external classification trends along with the lessons learned from these reforms. The report also includes copies of classification instruments and statistical tables to describe options for other states faced with similar problems. [MG]
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Factiva 2002 White Paper Series: Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added Information Services [.pdf]
http://factiva.com/collateral/files/whitepaper_feevsfree_032002.pdf
While promotional, the Factiva 2002 White Paper, entitled "Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added Information Services," raises some issues worth considering by anyone relying on Web information. Primarily aimed at those working in knowledge-based enterprises, the report argues that, while the majority of "knowledge professionals" believe they can find everything they need online, most are inefficient at doing so, wasting much of their time wading through all of the "hits" that a random search generally yields. It is this imprecision and basic inefficiency (in the free Web world) that leads Factiva to maintain that information professionals would do better to rely on value-added services such as those they provide, services tailored to granting access to a broad spectrum of authoritative, proprietary, and professionally-maintained resources. Rightly, the Factiva report points to two critical problems or needs confronting all information professionals and, beyond them, everyone else seeking reliable factual content on the Web: authority and efficiency. Noting that search time is money, and that not everything available online is free, Factiva contends that those in need of fast, accurate information would do best to turn to value-added services, especially those operating under tight time constraints. [WH]
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Feminist Perspectives on TANF Reauthorization: An Introduction to Key Issues for the Future of Welfare Reform
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/e511.html
In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) replaced the federal cash public assistance program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the state-level block grant Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. By September 30, 2002, the TANF program has to receive congressional reauthorization, and it is expected that Congress will consider making changes to this program during the reauthorization debates. As a result, some feminist scholars and advocates are adamant that the realities of poor women's lives are not ignored during the upcoming TANF discussions. Written by Janice Peterson, this paper identifies "some of the key issues and goals that are emerging in TANF reauthorization discussions," and considers a feminist agenda for a TANF reauthorization program. The report, which is in HTML format, includes a brief introduction, a summary of key elements and impacts of the TANF program, a discussion of critical TANF reauthorization issues, and a feminist agenda for TANF reauthorization. [MG]
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Black Drama: 1850-Present
http://alexanderstreet.com/PSBLDR.htm
Sponsored by the Alexander Street Press, Black Drama is an ongoing database that plans to integrate approximately 1,200 "rare and hard-to-find plays written from the 1850s to the present by playwrights from North America, English speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African Diaspora countries." The collection will include previously unpublished plays by writers such as Ed Bullins, Randolph Edmonds, Femi Euba, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Willis Richardson, and many others. The collection currently contains 207 plays by 64 playwrights. Quarterly releases will be issued until the collection reaches its targeted goal. Searchable by actor, author, character, play, scene, or performance, plays are accompanied by reference materials, ancillary information, and a database of notable performances. A list of the collection's contents are freely accessible to the public; however, the actual database must be purchased and can be downloaded on a server via magnetic tape or CD-ROM. The first of its kind, this research collection of black theatre highlights and gives voice to the often unacknowledged variations of black life, culture, and creativity. [MG]
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Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America
http://www.asian-nation.org/index.html
Feeling an overwhelming need for Asian Americans to represent themselves within mainstream American society, as well as to educate the public about Asian American experiences, Cuong Nguyen Le, a Vietnamese PhD candidate in sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, decided to create a gateway into the Asian American community. Asian-Nation allows viewers the opportunity to take a peak into the Asian American world through the lens of an Asian American. Contents of the site includes old and new elements of Asian American culture (which features religion, spirituality, and faith); a section on Asian American history; and a separate section on Vietnam history. The site also contains an extensive list of related links divided by category, and a section on current events and issues affecting the Asian American community. Although much of the information presented is referenced, the site does contain opinionated editorials written from the author's perspective. [MG]
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Classics of American Colonial History
http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-1.htm
Presented by Dinsmore Documentation, Classics of American Colonial History is a research database consisting of scholarly books and articles on American colonial history that, according to the creators, "appear to be of continuing interest." The collection currently offers 22 source materials by 15 different authors. Browseable by author or subject, the collection contains subject categories including Administration, African Americans and Slavery, Economics and Trade, Immigration from Europe, Law, Native Americans, Politics, Religion, and Wars. [MG]
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National Geographic Inca Mummies: Secrets of a Lost World
http://crater.nationalgeographic.com/inca/
Hosted by National Geographic, the Inca Mummies Web site is an accompaniment to the television special airing on PBS Wednesday, May 15, at 9pm Eastern Time. Inca Mummies is about the excavation of over 2,000 mummies at the pre-Hispanic site known to archaeologists as Puruchuco-Huaquerones, located in Peru. Since 1999, scientists have been removing, examining, and photographing mummies of all ages and ranks buried within the Puruchuco cemetery. At 20 acres, the cemetery consisted of bodies buried in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is the second largest cemetery ever excavated in Peru (after Ancon) and the largest from a single time period. Viewers may find out more information regarding the Inca mummies and the television special at the Web site, which contains photo galleries, press releases, exhibition information, and an abstract of an article presented in the May 2002 edition of the National Geographic magazine. In addition, users can view a fascinating online documentary regarding the excavations, and explore the layers of the Cotton King mummy bundle. Archaeologists, scientists, and historians, as well as anyone interested in the ancient world, may find the Web site and the television special intriguing and useful. [MG]
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Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line
http://www.phillipscollection.org/lawrence/
An accompaniment to the special exhibition entitled Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, the Over the Line Web site features the paintings of Jacob Lawrence, along with photographs and a brief synopsis of his life. The site is divided into three sections -- Beginnings, Young Artist, and Over the Line -- and covers the period between 1917 (the year of his birth) to 2000 (the year of his death). The site also contains suggested classroom activities, discussion questions, teaching strategies, and recommended books in the areas of social studies, language arts, math, science, and visual arts. It also includes a collection of paintings by secondary students in the Washington, DC area. Users can choose to view the exhibit in Flash (which requires a Flash 4.0 plug-in) or HTML (which has been optimized for low bandwidth computers). A part of the Phillips Collection located in Washington, DC, this is an excellent online exhibit that delves into the life of painter and educator Jacob Lawrence. [MG]
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Mines and Mineral Occurrences of Afghanistan [.pdf]
http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-110/of02-110.pdf
The USGS has recently released the report Mines and Mineral Occurrences of Afghanistan in .pdf format. The 95-page open file report is an inventory of more than 1000 mines and mineral occurrences in the country that includes metals, industrial minerals, coal, and peat. The data were compiled from published literature and digital files of the members of the National Industrial Minerals project and are presented in tables which include mineral showings, deposits, and pegmatite fields. This site is also reviewed in the May 3, 2002 NSDL Physical Sciences Report. [JAB]
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theclearances.org
http://www.theclearances.org/clearances/main.php
A work in progress and a labor of love, theclearances.org offers stories and reminiscences about a two hundred year old blight on the Scottish Highlanders. Beginning in the eighteenth century, a concerted effort was made, for a variety of reasons, to move the Scots off their ancestral Highlands. That effort and the places in which it has occurred have come to be known as the Clearances. A sore legacy, thousands were made to flee and thousands more to die in struggle or famine over the course of the years. This site is dedicated to all who have suffered the impact of the Clearances, to their families, and especially to the fallen and the lost. As the site claims, much of the history of the Clearances are currently and readily available online via other sites. This resource, then, looks to fill in the gaps by offering more personal testimonies of the curse of the Clearances. Thus, it actively solicits visitors to share what they know. At the same time, it serves as an archive to those searching to glean news of their kin and what might have happened to them. Users can search, for instance, ship, port, and parish registries for glimpses of the past. Similarly, they can also contribute anecdotes of their own, drawn from family histories. Beyond the above, visitors to the site can also browse through a collection of historical resources and links offered by the site. [WH]
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Voices of the Colorado Plateau [Flash]
http://archive.li.suu.edu/voices/voices.html
Voices of the Colorado Plateau presents first person oral history interviews of twelve Plateau residents, describing life in this part of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Some stories are illustrated with historical images. Listen to Elizabeth Mayes, who came to Page, Arizona to teach the children of workers building the Glen Canyon Dam, or Margarita Gomez, who came to Flagstaff from Spain in 1920. Hear Marvin Litton talk about naming his boats after natural places, Heber Hall tell how his father bought a homestead for $14.90 before World War II, or David Estrella watching his mother make "Ten Tortillas at Once." The site is organized into People, Places, and Topics, but selecting the Archive link gives a list of all twelve interviewees and the subjects they speak about. The interviews were collected from the 1970s through the 1990s by eight cultural heritage institutions, including universities, museums, state parks, and an historical society. The complete list is under the About Us section. [DS]
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NOVA Online: Fire Wars
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fire/
Although wildfires can be quite destructive, some plants and animals become adapted to and even require this disturbance for their survival. This companion Web site to the new PBS NOVA program, Fire Wars, focuses on wildfires, the people who fight them, and the impact that the fires have on natural ecosystems. A teacher's guide accompanies the site, offering ideas for discussion and activities that can be used alone or with the television program. One particularly interesting section is entitled On Fire. This sequence of interactive features walks the user through the chemical reactions involved in combustion. This site is also reviewed in the May 3, 2002 NSDL Life Sciences Report. [AL]
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A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius
http://www.wildlifeart.org/Rungius/
For those of us who have no idea what makes a good painting, let alone where to begin to create one of our own, this site offers several invaluable lessons. For starters, visitors are taught the basics, including the essentials of composition and thematic selection, as illustrated in the work of renowned wildlife artist Carl Rungius (1869-1959). The first tutorial is Flash-animated and presents geometric concepts, followed by actual artistic representations. Next up is a unique opportunity to put the principles to the test, rendering a work of one's own using pre-selected building blocks borrowed from Rungius. Thus, users select elements from Rungius' work and rearranges them to suit personal tastes. Ultimately, students are afforded the opportunity to offer their work for the consideration of their peers -- other visitors to the site. A great pedagogical tool, this last feature really sets this site apart as it calls attention to artists in the making. [WH]
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Population and Reproductive Health
http://www.developmentgateway.org/pop
A new portal sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Development Gateway Foundation, this Web site is an Internet initiative that provides a community-built database of information regarding population and reproductive health. The site offers research; projects; a news service; a bulletin board; an events calendar; and population/ reproductive health project information from a shared database that includes activities by donor agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the UNFPA. In addition, the site provides a discussion forum on reproductive health and population topics, and promotes innovative knowledge-sharing arrangements among expert organizations in the field. For researchers and book lovers, this site also contains a development bookstore where users can shop for publications on development issues from a range of publishers worldwide. Visitors to the Web site are able to sign up for free membership, which entitles them to receive regular updates on added resources. [MG]
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Museums Online
http://www.museumstuff.com/
MuseumStuff.com is the one-stop shop for museum information, where Internet users can discover and explore thousands of museums and related resources around the country. This search engine, which features a "broad range of museum 'stuff,'" offers links to various museums, virtual exhibitions, museum events, fun and game sites for secondary and post-secondary students, and educational links. The museum links are arranged in three separate categories -- art, history, and science -- and can be accessed from the main page. The virtual exhibition section offers 55 topics ranging from African American, to ceramics, to evolution, to motorcycles, to religion, to zoos/ animals. Viewers can search for museum events by organization name, month, and specific day, or perform an advanced search using a combination of selections. On the whole, this gateway to museum stuff provides enough resources to pique the interest of persons in many different areas. [MG]
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ETB Thesaurus
http://www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/etb/content.cfm?lang=en&ov=7208
The European Treasury Browser (ETB) Project has recently released a multilingual thesaurus available in eight languages: Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. The thesaurus is "aimed at indexing educational resources" and building an "interoperable infrastructure to exchange and network metadata on educational resources for schools in Europe." The project seeks to add value to national resource collections by allowing teachers and students to locate Europe resources. The thesaurus gives users access to all resources, regardless of the indexing method used. Users have a choice of downloading the thesaurus between three different displays -- alphabetical, rotated, or systematic. Potential users of the ETB thesaurus are indexers working in education documentation services, publishers, libraries, teachers, students, administrators, scholars, and researchers. Interested users may find downloading the thesaurus a bit difficult; the first download yields a URL from which users can download the actual file. [MG]
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GNU wget
http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html
GNU Wget is a free software package that allows users to retrieve files using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP, the most widely used Internet protocols. It is a non-interactive command line tool; therefore, it may easily be called from scripts, cron jobs, and terminals without Xsupport. Some of its many features include resuming aborted downloads using REST and RANGE, using filename wild cards and recursively mirror directories, converting absolute links in downloaded documents to relative so downloaded documents can link to each other locally, and using local file timestamps to determine whether documents need to be redownloaded when mirroring. This software runs on most UNIX-like operating systems, as well as Microsoft Windows. [MG]
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Rat Robot
Boston Globe: Scientists Produce 'Ratbot' - First Radio-Controlled Animal
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/122/nation/Scientists_produce_ratbot_first_radio_controlled_animal+.shtml
New Zealand Herald: New York Scientists Unveil Robo-rat
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1843131&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
Considerations for the 2002 Farm Bill
http://www.fb-net.org/FB/
Farm Bill Network Information on Use of USDA Conservation Programs
http://www.fb-net.org/
Intro to Jose Delgado
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/implant/
Dr. Jose M. R. Delgado
http://earthops.net/klaatu/delgado.html
Scientist have created the world's first radio-controlled animal by wiring a computer chip directly into the brain of a living rat. The rats, each wired with three hair-fine electrical probes to their brains, can be directed by remote control by an operator typing commands on a computer up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) away. Developed by Sanjiv Talwar at the State University of New York and colleagues, this latest discovery in machine-based mind control not only responds to a user's commands, but also transmits a sense of touch. "The animal is not only doing something -- it's feeling something," said Talwar, who also suggests the rats might be used as scouts for sniffing out hidden land mines or for search and rescue teams that look for survivors amid rubble. Unlike clunky machines, Talwar reveals that rats have the ability to travel adeptly over rough terrain and, therefore, might be more easily deployed in chaotic environments. Last year, the US Department of Agriculture adopted regulations that might someday limit such experiments if they're shown to cause unnecessary harm or stress to laboratory rats and mice. However, an amendment to the Farm Bill, now pending in Congress, would repeal these protections. Sen. Jess Helms (R-SC) inserted the amendment in February that would scuttle any protections for laboratory rodents or birds. Helms asserted the regulations would only lead to cumbersome paperwork. "Isn't it far better for the mouse to be fed and watered in a clean laboratory than to end up as a tiny bulge being digested inside an enormous snake?"
Mind control research projects is nothing new to the scientific world. In the 1960s, Yale physiologist Jose Delgado proved he could influence the mood and actions of animals through remote control. In one famous demonstration, Delgado stood, unarmed, in front of a charging bull. As the bull bore down on him, Delgado flicked a switch on a small radio transmitter that sent charges to electrodes implanted inside the bull's brain, causing the animal to immediately brake to a halt and meekly walk away. Delgado also experimented with monkeys and cats, and generated horror when he suggested the technology could be used to limit obsessive and criminal behavior in human societies. For recent press releases on the rat robot phenomenon, viewers may access the first two links listed above. The third link gives information on the status of the 2002 Farm Bill, as well as other major bills. The fourth link provides information from the US Department of Agriculture Farm Bill on use of USDA conservation programs. Finally, the last two links provide information on Jose Delgado's research and practices. [MG]
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