The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 34

Launched in 1974, the Darwin Correspondence Project centers on an impressive collection of 8,500 transcribed letters authored by or addressed to Charles Darwin. In recent years, this longstanding project has added to its impressive collection of correspondence and introduced a number of new features, including lesson plans, multimedia resources, short essays, and more. The letters collection can be explored in a few ways, including via an extensive timeline within The Letters section. Here, letters are organized by date and accompanied by a short description; when visitors select a letter, they may also view letters involving the correspondent. These letters include personal correspondence with family along with letters from other naturalists, biologists, and geologists that helped Darwin craft his theories. Visitors can learn more about these correspondents via the People tab; visitors may also be interested in a short essay, "Correspondence with Women," available via the Letters tab. Meanwhile, educators will find a variety of teaching resources organized by level (from Kindergarten through University) in the Learning Resources section. [MMB]

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Australia's Curtin University offers this EdX course dedicated to the history of universal human rights, along with critiques of this concept. This twelve week course, taught by a team of scholars from Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights Education, may appeal to instructors and students of philosophy, political theory, history, education, social work, and more. Topics explored in this course include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its legacy; postmodernist critiques of human rights; postcolonial and decolonial critiques; feminist critiques; sexual orientation and gender identity; and the intersection between human rights and environmental issues. These topics are explored via readings, video-recorded lectures, short assignments, and online discussion. As with all EdX courses, visitors may audit this course for free, or earn a certificate for a course fee. [MMB]

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Science Robotics is a peer-reviewed journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that is dedicated to technological advances and the critical social, ethical, and policy issues surrounding robotics. Articles discuss nanorobotics, the use of robotics in medicine, robotics for human augmentation, and other topics. On this website, visitors will find helpful overviews of these subfields within the About Science Robotics section, as well as a number of Free Sample Articles. These resources provide a glimpse into a quickly growing field and may especially be of interest to college-level instructors or researchers. The two editorials featured in this sample collection may especially be of use in the classroom as a way to introduce students to the field and some of the legal and ethical questions that robotics provoke. [MMB]

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The Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) contains more than 14,000 digital images of medieval and early modern manuscripts of polyphony, the simultaneous performance of multiple melodies. Combining high-quality images of music manuscripts alongside detailed metadata (including Description, Bibliography, Commentary, and Contributors), DIAMM is an extensive resource for scholars and librarians of medieval music and manuscripts. This vast collection of images not only facilitates musicological research, but digitally preserves the content of parchment manuscripts which are otherwise vulnerable to damage and illegibility over time. Visitors to the site may conduct a simple search from the homepage or perform an advanced search to further narrow results by Composer, Genre, Archive Location, and other filters. Recently Added Sources are listed on the homepage and currently include items from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. To get the most from this resource, visitors will need to register for a free account. [MMB]

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NASA's Hurricanes and Tropical Storms website offers a number of resources about the science and history of hurricanes and tropical cyclones, including articles, photographs, videos, and more. These resources may be appreciated by those who want to keep abreast of current hurricane and tropical storm activity as well as science instructors. On the site's homepage, visitors will find up-to-date information about current hurricanes and tropical storms developing around the world, including satellite and video images. Instructors may want to start by exploring the Overview tab, which provides a summary of this collection of resources. Two resources that may especially appeal to educators include the Hurricane Archive, where visitors can find all NASA resources related to hurricanes between 2005 and the present, and an extensive collection of hurricane information links. Additional materials of interest are located in the Media Resources section. [MMB]

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Since 1991, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has been publishing Conservation Perspectives, a biannual newsletter dedicated to art conservation. Each newsletter centers on a specific theme and includes a number of related articles, along with updates about current projects and events at the GCI. For example, the Spring 2017 newsletter, "Imaging in Conversation," features an article by Giovanni Verri of London's Courtauld Institute of Art that discusses the many forms that images take in disciplines including art, archeology, and science and how the practice of imaging has changed over time. Another article in this issue explains how the GCI uses x-ray imaging techniques to uncover an artwork's history, including original techniques and restoration efforts. Finally, Fenella G. France of the Library of Congress's Preservation Research and Testing Division explores how digital imaging can be used to uncover new insights about documents including the Declaration of Independence. Other recent issue themes include Conserving Modern Paints, Conserving Modern Architecture, and Heritage Inventories. [MMB]

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From the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University comes Youth and Media, an ongoing research project that investigates the risks and opportunities of youth involvement in new technologies and social media platforms. On this website, visitors can learn more about this research and K-12 educators, youth workers, and youth librarians will find a number of educational materials. One such resource is the Digital Literacy Resource Platform (listed under Teaching and Outreach), where visitors can search for materials related to digital literacy. This platform can be easily navigated by Type of Tool (Infographic, Curriculum, Guide, Informative Video, Research Paper, or Podcast) and Theme (Privacy, Information Quality, Creative Expression, and Safety). In addition, educators can check out classroom activities and lesson plans about a range of topics, including news literacy on online platforms and navigating relationships online. Those who want to look at research papers from the Berkman Klein Center may do so via the Publication tab. [MMB]

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NPR ED compiled this list of resources designed to help educators in all settings facilitate conversation, reflection, and learning in the wake of the incidents that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month. As the accompanying article notes, many of these resources were suggested to NPR by educators, who have been sharing ideas and teaching materials via social media. Here, teachers, youth workers, librarians, and others will find a range of materials, including youth friendly book lists, lesson plans (including ideas for students from kindergarten through college), and historical documents. These resources address a range of issues, including bias, the history of racism in the United States, and coping with traumatic events. These materials are compiled from Teaching Tolerance, the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, and the University of Southern California's Critical Media Project among other sources. [MMB]

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The Internet Archive recently unveiled this digitized collection of over 25,000 recordings from 78rpm records. First introduced in 1898, 78 revolutions per minute (rpm) records were especially popular between 1920 and the late 1950s and continued to be produced as late as the 1970s. This collection provides a glimpse into a range of music produced in throughout the twentieth century, including big band music, polka, gospel, country western, blues, novelty tunes, and much more. Visitors are invited to browse this collection by Year (the earliest two records in this collection are George P. Watson's "Sleep Baby Sleep" and "Medley of Emmett's Yodels" from the year 1902), Topics & Subjects, Collection, Creator, or Language. This collection includes both well-remembered classics by artists such as Bing Crosby, Count Basie, and Judy Garland, as well as a number of more obscure records. There are also a few non-musical recordings, such as Yiddish language lessons and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressing Congress in 1942. [MMB]

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The University of Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute has been devoted to studying all aspects of the Arctic and Antarctic since 1920. The Institute also hosts a museum with a number of impressive digitized collections, including this collection of over 2,000 "[o]bjects relating to the history of exploration and science in the Antarctic, from the heroic age to the present day." These items range from a pair of snowshoes worn by British Navy commander E.W. Bingham during the British Graham Land Expedition of 1934-1937; an unopened bottle of horseradish from 1957; and a tooth from a sperm whale. Each item is accompanied with full cataloging information and a short description. Collectively, this eclectic catalogue provides insight into both the nature of Antarctic exploration throughout history as well as its scientific and cultural significance. [MMB]

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The Story Collider aims to engage the general public with personal stories about science via live shows and a weekly podcast. The founders of The Story Collider, Ben Lillie and Brian Wecht, are both physicists who share an appreciation for good narrative storytelling, such as the kind promoted by Moth StorySLAMS. With each half hour long podcast episode, visitors can listen to two personal narratives, told by scientists and recorded during live events. This episode of The Story Collider features two powerful stories about medical crises. The first is told by Ken Heller, who recounts encountering the AIDS crisis - and homophobia - as a medical resident and young gay man in 1981. Heller also discusses losing his partner to the disease in 1994. In the second story, neuroscientist Maureen Boyd discusses her experience of studying the science of addiction and working in the field of drug policy while having a close family member ill with mental illness and drug addiction. Through this link, visitors can listen to both stories in full or read the complete transcript of each talk. New episodes of the Story Collider are released weekly. [MMB]

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TwilightBeasts is a fascinating blog authored by four people "who share a passion for the wonderfully weird beasts of the Pleistocene." These four include Jan Freedman, Natural History curator at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; Ross Barnett, who is currently a fellow at the Center for GeoGenetics in Copenhagen; Tabitha Paterson, a student in Paleolithic Archeology and Paleoanthropology at the University College of London; and doctoral scholar Rena Maguire. Together, these authors write about all creatures from the Pleistocene Epoch, which lasted from 2.6 million to 13,000 years ago and saw dramatic changes within ecosystems across the planet. On this blog, visitors can learn more about the animals that thrived during the Pleistocene, from mammoths to giant horses to parasites. This blog is perhaps best explored via the Index of Beasts section, which allows visitors to browse featured fauna by continent. Each blog post incorporates images and outside links as well as a full reference list for those interested in further reading. [MMB]

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This episode of BBC's radio documentary series Crossing Continents takes listeners to Darayya, a Syrian city that has been devastated by the daily violence of war. Darayya is also home to an extraordinary project: an underground library comprised of books that people have collected and, oftentimes, salvaged from buildings and homes destroyed by bombs. As of the show's July 2016 recording, the library was home to 14,000 books of all genres (the volunteers who direct this library adhere to just one rule when collecting books: no censorship). In addition to providing the community of Darayya with books, the Secret Library, has also become a community space that hosts discussions on issues of interest. Recent issues have included Japan's recovery after World War II and the ongoing civil war in Iraq (as one participant explains, "we want to learn how to prevent such awful things from happening to us when this war is over.") This thirty minute episode, which includes interviews with volunteers and patrons of the library alike, poignantly illustrates resilience in Darayya. [MMB]

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How many best-selling books are penned by women? How has the figure changed over time, and how does it vary across genre? Writer Rosie Cima took data from The New York Times Best Seller list and created a series of eye-opening visualizations, accompanied by analysis. Her resulting essay was recently published on The Pudding, a "weekly journal for visual essays." As this essay reveals, while men outnumbered women on the bestseller list 3 to 1 in 1950, in 2001 that ratio was exactly 1 to 1. As Cima emphasizes (and as her charts illustrate), the number of women on the bestseller list has been "volatile" throughout the second half of the twentieth century, fluctuating wildly in the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, the 1990s saw gains in terms of the number of women on the list. Why? As another series of charts illuminate, much of this change can be attributed to the declining popularity of "genre" fiction during the decade. Check out the full the essay to learn more. [MMB]

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Named after George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Company, the George Eastman Museum, is dedicated to photography and cinema. The museum opened in 1949, making it the oldest photography museum in the world. For those who can't make the trip to Rochester, New York, anyone can explore the almost 130,000 photographs that have been digitized by the museum here. This collection includes photographs spanning throughout the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries and encompassing genres. To best explore this collection, visitors can select Advanced Search and check the Image Available box (the catalogue also includes over 100,000 images that have not been digitized). From here, visitors can search by Object, People, or Exhibition. This impressive and diverse collection includes works from turn of the century French photojournalist Charles Chusseau-Flaviens; the pioneering artistic photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn; child welfare photographer Lewis P. Hine; and others. [MMB]

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Backups are essential to avoiding data loss over the long term. To reduce the risk of data loss as much as possible, backups should be performed frequently and stored off site. When using cloud storage, backups should also be encrypted so that storage providers cannot rifle through them. Duplicati is a free and open source backup client designed with online backups in mind. All data is encoded with AES-256 encryption before being uploaded. After an initial full backup, Duplicati wiil perform incremental backups, only sending the data that has changed. Duplicati can upload data to numerous cloud storage providers, including Amazon S3, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive. Any generic file server that provides WebDAV, sftp, or ftp can also be used. Duplicati includes a scheduler that can automatically keep backups up to date. Duplicati is available for windows, macOS, and Linux. [CRH]

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Email shines as a tool for person-to-person correspondence, but it can often be less effective as a collaborative space for teams. It can be difficult to share old messages in a thread with a new team member to bring them up to speed. Furthermore, the process of fleshing out new ideas often works better as a conversation rather than a correspondence. A number of collaboration platforms have arisen in recent years that provide both a global history and a more conversational interface. Twist is one such platform. Unlike similar platforms, Twist maintains the concept of threads with their own distinct topics. It also features an inbox where users can see all threads with recent activity. The "Twist vs Email" and "Twist vs Slack" sections on Twist's website present an argument for why this organization is a sweet spot for team collaboration. Twist is available on the web, as an application for Windows and Macintosh computers, and in the iOS and Android app stores. [CRH]

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