The Scout Report -- Volume 13, Number 8

http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/

Members of the public health community and those from the world of urban planning have teamed up to create the Active Living By Design program, and by extension, this fine website. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and an academic home at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, the program was created to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies. On the sites homepage, visitors can browse through sections that include information on Active Living Essentials, Active Living Programs, and Active Living Resources. The Essentials section is a good place to start as visitors can learn about the organizations major fields, which include information on the links between physical activity, urban design, and health. Visitors who are looking to learn about the specific on the ground programs will want to look over the Community Partnerships area, as it contains information on initiatives in Chicago, Nashville, Orlando, and Cleveland. [KMG]

http://siepr.stanford.edu

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) has a rather distinguished pedigree, as one of the prime instigators who lobbied for its creation was noted statesman and economist George Schultz. He, along with others, wished to create a center at Stanford where economic scholars could come together to discuss their research, and in 1982, SIEPR was born. While economists will certainly appreciate the working papers and other related materials on the site, there is plenty for more casual users as well. To begin with, there are the SIEPR Podcasts, which include conversations about the long-term impacts of the events of 9/11 and inflation in both China and the United States. Along with these podcasts, visitors will also find webcasts of related conferences, symposia, and seminars on a wide range of topics in economics. The site is rounded out by a calendar of events and a place where interested parties can provide feedback to staff members at SIEPR. [KMG]

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG557/

Nation building is a difficult process, and creating a suitable template that could be used in a host of different regions around the world seems practically impossible. A team of three scholars at the RAND Corporation has recently completed their 330-page scholarly exploration into this complex subject. Drawing on experiences from 16 US- and UN-led nation-building operations since World War II, the report deals with the various constituent elements of any nation-building mission, including the rule of law, governance, and economic stabilization, among others. Visitors also have the opportunity to watch an interview with one of the reports authors, James Dobbins, and if pressed for time, they can also look at a research brief which summarizes recommendations from the complete report. [KMG]

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/features/mut/

The entire borough of Brooklyn has never been able to make a collective trip over to the Mut Precinct in Egypt, but fortunately a number of very talented individuals working for the Brooklyn Museum have been going that way for over thirty years. The Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut (pronounced Moot) has been an important religious site for almost two thousand years, and on this website, visitors can learn more about the archaeological work going on there. Visitors can read entries from the Dig Diary from the past few years; the diaries are weekly photo journals that follow the teams activities and work in the field. For users who would like to see more photos of the Mut precinct, they can also look through the sites photo project section, which features photos that have been uploaded to the Flickr website. [KMG]

http://www.reading.org/resources/index.html

Working together with a wide range of partners, the International Reading Organization has created this fine website that brings together hundreds of resources related to reading in all its forms and varieties. The materials and links presented here are divided into four primary sections, including Teaching Tools, Issues in Literacy, and Literacy Community. The Teaching Tools section contains lesson plans, a number of thematic booklists, and resources for parents. The booklists are well worth a look, as they feature lists compiled by children themselves and young adults. Moving on, the Issues in Literacy area includes access to Reading Today Daily, which features stories about reading and instructional issues and a selection of relevant reports on the state of reading. Finally, the Literacy Community area contains a number of online discussion forums, information about upcoming events throughout the literacy policy world, and a categorized collection of external links. [KMG]

http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/
For many students who wish to embark into the world of statistics, the whole process can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, the Exploring Data website makes such a proposition a bit easier for both students and teachers. The site is easy to navigate, and the homepage contains an index of topics and materials ranging from linear regression to sampling. Each of these sections includes activities, worksheets, and datasets that can be used in a variety of ways. More advanced students will appreciate the fact that the site also contains material that goes beyond some of the basic concepts within the field, and educators will also want to recommend this site to students who might need a bit of a refresher on certain key areas. [KMG]

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp

For nurses and other health care professionals who seek to distinguish the habitus from the humerus, this online medical dictionary provided by MedicineNet will be a place to bookmark for repeat visits. The dictionary contains well-written explanations for over 16,000 medical terms, and users can go ahead and browse around, or enter keywords or phrases into the search engine that resides on the page. The site also features a Word of the Day, and visitors can also look through recent news items that address different health issues and also look over the latest entries to the dictionary. The site is rounded out by a list of the Top 10 Medterms, which is also a good way to start exploring the materials here. [KMG]

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/courses/rad/

With a strong interest in providing high-quality online materials for budding radiologists and radiology technicians, a team of doctors at the University of Virginias Department of Radiology have teamed up to create this online radiology tutorial. First-time visitors will find a number of sections of note, including those that deal with emergency ultrasounds, gastrointestinal radiology, and an introduction to pediatric radiology. Each of these sections provides details on performing various medical techniques and procedures, along with a brief summation of key principles. The section dedicated to skeletal trauma radiology is quite a find, and it includes x-rays and other illustrations of elbows, wrists, and knees. [KMG]

http://www.animalbehaviorarchive.org/

The Scout Report has never profiled a website that has sections titled Best of Courtship or the Best of Territory Defense, but then again, there are many wonderful surprises contained with the Macaulay Librarys Animal Sound & Video Catalog. Housed within Cornell Universitys Lab of Ornithology, the Animal Sound & Video Catalog contains thousands of audio and video recordings of animals such as the harp seal pup, the golden-fronted woodpecker, and a variety of turkeys. Visitors are welcome to utilize their basic and advanced search engine features to look for specific animals, or they can also browse some of the previously mentioned Best of categories. While just listening to (or watching) these animals is fine enough, visitors should also consider viewing the free audio visualization tool offered here. Called RavenViewer, the application will allow users to watch audio spectrograms, control playback speed, and inspect low-frequency sounds. [KMG]

http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/

Given the differing viewpoints of certain American presidents, its hard to think of some of them being in the same place at the same time. Fortunately, the dedicated individuals at the Learning Technology Center in The University of Texas at Austin College of Education have done just that. Working with the Presidential Libraries and Terra Incognita Productions, they have created this visually stimulating and wonderfully informative interactive Presidential Timeline. Upon entering, visitors can explore the timeline at their leisure, all the while learning about significant events during each of their presidencies and about what they did after their time in office. The Exhibits area is another rather fine area, as it features profiles of various events that defined each presidents time in office, such as the crash of the stock market during President Hoovers four years in the White House, or John F. Kennedys work in establishing the Peace Corps. [KMG]

http://www.noaawatch.gov/

When the weather outside is frightful (or even when it isnt), budding meteorologists will want to turn to the NOAAs All-Hazard Monitor website. Drawing on an impressive array of weather-tracking devices, satellites, and so on, visitors can monitor a number of types of weather here, including tropical weather, droughts, volcanoes, earthquakes, and oil spills. Along with the Weather Summary map that is front and center on the homepage, visitors can also click onto detailed maps of surface weather and the current drought outlook. The site also features information about weather in space, rip currents, and harmful algae blooms. One can imagine a number of educational uses for the map, from displaying the map in a visual communications class to a basic course on meteorology. [KMG]

http://sfpl.org/news/onlineexhibits/amusing/

In the closing decades of the 19th century, American began to come together on the grounds of amusement parks, dance halls, and other such places. These commercial amusements had quite a heyday for a few decades, and this online exhibit from the San Francisco Public Library pays tribute to that period. From a virtual Ferris wheel, visitors can enter the exhibit by clicking on a number of images, including a smiling clowns face and a trio of bathing beauties. Visitors can learn about San Franciscos famed Sutro Baths, tour the grounds of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and the hustle and bustle of the Playland. If visitors make some popcorn and pink lemonade while wandering around the site, it might just make the experience complete. [KMG]

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/diplomacy/index.html

While there may be some individuals out there who know precisely what diplomatic personnel do during their time overseas, most people are unfamiliar with diplomatic duties. This intriguing and enlightening online exhibit provides a great deal of insight into that very subject, as it presents a number of oral histories from the archives of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Working together with the Library of Congress American Memory Project, this collection allows users to browse through some of the many interviews conducted with former diplomatic officials over the past seven decades. Visitors may also wish to read the delightful essay The Interview Process, written by Charles Stuart Kennedy, who serves as the director of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program. [KMG]

http://omahatribe.unl.edu/

Bringing together Native American artifacts and documents can be a difficult process, but fortunately for the preservation of materials from the Omaha tribe, a group of organizations in Nebraska have taken on this project. Drawing on resources from the University of Nebraska State Museum, the Nebraska State Historical Society and other partners, they have created this fine website. At the present time, the site includes sections containing online texts, photographs, and artifacts. The online texts contain important documents such as James Owen Dorseys 1891 article The Social Organization of the Siouan Tribes and Alice C. Fletchers 1895 piece The Sacred Pole of the Omaha tribe. Visitors will also want to look through the photographs, which include a portrait of Omaha scouts from 1865 and a number of images from a powwow that was held in 1938. The site concludes with a list of thematically organized links to external sites about the language, art, and laws of the Omaha people. [KMG]

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/

Despite the claims of certain science fiction novels and films, humans cannot see in infrared. As many people know, the primary source of infrared radiation is heat, and the study of infrared astronomy allows scientists to detect radiation emitted from objects throughout the universe. This delightful website (created by NASA and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology) provides a wide range of material on this fascinating area of scientific study. Visitors can lean about the discovery of infrared, learn about the technology that is used in such endeavors, and of course, look over dozens of infrared images and video clips. Educators will be glad to learn that there are a number of activities offered here for use in the classroom, including one that will help students learn how to build a photocell detector. [KMG]

http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/nahua/

This website was created to accompany an exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum to focus on one ceramic object, a Nahua effigy censer. The effigy censer is made of clay and the mouth, nostrils, ears, and heart were perforated to allow breath-like scrolls of smoke from burning incense to be emitted from the body cavity. The censer was created in the likeness of one of the five gods called the Maquiltonal, who are depicted in a Pre-Colombian screenfold book called Codex Borgia, also represented on the website. In addition to describing these gods and their symbols and powers, the Codex Borgia was a calendar used by royal diviners, to predict the fate of children born on particular days. The web site includes sections where visitors can closely examine the effigy censer and read about the geography of the region that is its probable place of origin - the Tehuacan Valley located in southern Mexico. The website also includes sections on the Codex, as well as information and images having to do with Nahua prayer, the symbols of Nahua gods, and diviners' powers. [DS]

http://www.superantispyware.com/

This is the latest version of the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware, and it contains a number of compelling new features. With this latest version, users can examine broken Internet connections and desktop problems and also remove pesky bugs and such. Also, this latest version will allow users to scan the entire system with great speed. This version is compatible with all computers running Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP. [KMG]

http://www.schmap.com/

When looking around the Internet, it can be quite annoying to stop and save addresses or phone numbers. Fortunately, this handy application recognizes and saves addresses and phone numbers as users move from page to page. Additionally, the program links up with Skype application, so users can call any saved phone number with one click of the mouse. This version is compatible with all computers running Mac OS X 10.1 and newer. [KMG]

Illinois Says Farewell to Chief Illiniwek Mascot [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7455065

Chief Illiniwek needed to disappear
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/02/22/columnists/justin_breen/docc89f8e2c31a6f1a38625728900824a29.txt

Sorrow for the Chief sets in
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/02/23/sports/sports006.txt

University fails to unify a campus divided on Chief
http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/02/23/OpinionColumns/University.Fails.To.Unify.A.Campus.Divided.On.Chief-2738211.shtml

NCAA Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity Issues Report on References to American Indians in Intercollegiate Athletics
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/governance/assoc-wide/executive_committee/gender-diversity_subctee/2005/ECsubcmt080405reportATTACHMENT.htm?ObjectID=42487&ViewMode=0&PreviewState=0

History of the Yale Bulldog, Handsome Dan
http://yalebulldogs.cstv.com/trads/mascot.html

Mascot Net
http://www.mascot.net/

Mascots have been an interesting and curious part of collegiate athletics for well over a century, and their number includes the University of California at Santa Cruzs banana slug to Yales much-loved Handsome Dan, who happens to be an English bulldog. Perhaps the most controversial types of mascots are not animals, but rather those that depict Native Americans. While some people have defended the use of such mascots on the grounds that such depictions honor members of various tribes and their traditions, many groups find them offensive, and in many instances, racist. The issue has come to the publics attention in recent weeks, as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided to retire Chief Illiniwek, who had been a regular feature of athletic contests at the school since 1926. The controversy has been ongoing around many campuses for the past decade, and the matter has intensified since 2005, when the NCAA decided that member institution with hostile or abusive mascots would not be allowed to host postseason athletic activities. As a number of commentators have suggested in the press, it may now also be time to take a closer look at symbols and mascots used by professional sports teams, such as Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians or the Washington Redskins. [KMG]

The first link will take visitors to a piece from NPR that features an interview with one of the students who portrayed Chief Illiniwek in the early 1990s and his reaction to the recent decision. Moving along, the second link takes visitors to a piece written by Justin Breen, the sports editor for the Times of Northwest Indiana that comments on the removal of Chief Illiniwek. The third link leads to a piece from the Journal Gazette, based in Mattoon, Illinois, and it covers the dismay that some have felt over the removal of Chief Illiniwek. The fourth link will take users to a piece from the student newspaper of the University of Illinois which comments on the divisions within the school over this subject. The fifth link leads to a rather lengthy report from the NCAA regarding references to American Indians in Intercollegiate Athletics from August 2005. The sixth link leads to a detailed history of Handsome Dan, Yale Universitys own beloved bulldog, complete with information on the current animal, who happens to be the sixteenth bulldog to serve in this capacity. The final link will be of special interest to anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming a mascot, as it features information on how to tryout and audition for such a position, along with a section on crafting a crowd-pleasing routine. [KMG]