The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 12

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which is the country's national museum, opened in Wellington in 1998 following the consolidation of New Zealand's National Museum and National Art Gallery. As a result, the museum today is home to a rich, diverse collection that includes contemporary art, historic photographs, centuries-old artifacts, natural history specimens, and much more. In September 2017, the museum launched the new and improved Collections Online, allowing visitors from around the world to explore the museum's impressive collection (which hosts over 800,000 items) with ease. When users enter the site, they will be presented with a handful of collection highlights. From here, they may conduct a text search of the collection with the option to filter results by type (e.g. object, specimen, publication), image reuse (most items in this collection have unrestricted use or are part of the Creative Commons), or collection (including art, photography, history, Taonga Maori, museum archives, rare books, and plants). Users may also restrict searches to only include results with accompanying images. The collection includes both individual objects as well as topics, which are mini-collections of related objects and publications, accompanied by contextualizing information. [MMB]

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As mathematics educators know, students need strong literacy skills to successfully solve story problems and read and interpret graphs. This interactive tutorial from the Annenberg Learner is designed to help math students develop these skills. In this short tutorial, students explore two short passages that describe driving at different speeds for differing lengths of time. As students read each passage, they complete an accompanying activity to graph the information from the passage in the form of a line graph. In the third activity, students are presented with a graph and are instructed to write their own story to accompany the information on the graph. This hands-on activity is designed for middle school-level students. [MMB]

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Mining the Dispatch is a digital humanities project by Robert K. Nelson, an American Studies Scholar who heads the University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab. In this project, Nelson uses a variety of digital tools (including MALLET software for text analysis and Google Charts API for data visualization) to analyze the Richmond Daily Dispatch newspaper, which was in circulation during the U.S. Civil War. In the topics section, visitors can explore the contents of the Daily Dispatch through a series of graphs and charts. Each chart is accompanied by a series of "exemplary articles" that demonstrate different types of published content. This format allows historians to explore quantitative and qualitative data alongside one another and glean new insights into the Confederate press during the American Civil War. [MMB]

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Since its publication in 1962, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has garnered acclaim from adults and young readers alike. With the recent release of Ava Duvernay's adaptation of the beloved novel, educators and librarians may be looking for resources to engage a new generation of readers with the book. On this official Madeleine L'Engle website (maintained by L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis) educators will find a collection of curricular resources for teaching the novel, including two study guides (courtesy of McGraw Hill and Dr. Betty Powers, respectively) a unit guide (courtesy of ReadWorks.org), and a lesson plan (created by Peter Royston for Stage Partners). In addition, the website includes a short video of physicist Dave Morgan explaining the existence of tesseracts. While the site includes a few links that are no longer active, all above-described materials are available. Educators are also invited to share additional materials to be added to this collection. [MMB]

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Isaac Newton is remembered today for his groundbreaking work in the fields of physics, mathematics, and astronomy. However, the renowned physicist was also an alchemist - a discovery that vexed some of Newton's admirers when it was uncovered in 1936. Originally featured in the 11-11-2005 issue of the Scout Report, Indiana University's fantastic Chymistry of Isaac Newton is dedicated to "Newton's involvement in the discipline of alchemy, or as it was often called in seventeenth-century England, chymistry." The Chymistry of Isaac Newton offers a number of resources for educators, researchers, and the generally curious. At the heart of this resource is a collection of digitized manuscripts, which have been transcribed and annotated with both normalized and diplomatic transcriptions. Those interested in exploring these manuscripts will find a helpful alchemical glossary in the online tools section, which will acquaint contemporary readers with the vocabulary of seventeenth-century alchemy. Meanwhile, in the educational resources section, science instructors can learn how to facilitate one of Newton's alchemical experimentations in the classroom. As noted in this section: "Newton's chymistry was in many cases fully operational and explicable in modern chemical terminology." Collectively, this website reveals an often-overlooked part of Newton's intellectual world, offering insights into both the scientist himself and into seventeenth-century England. [MMB]

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This edX course from Georgetown University addresses "the history of ideas about American Sign Language (ASL) with research that has been done on the structure, learning, and historical change of ASL and other sign languages." This course is instructed by Ted Supalla, a professor of Neurology, Linguistics, and Psychology at Georgetown, and is designed for students with all levels of experience and expertise in ASL. All lectures in this course are given in ASL, with an accompanying voice recording for students who are not fluent in ASL. Topics covered in this course include common misconceptions about ASL, the historical development of ASL, the syntax and grammatical structures of ASL, and more. As with all edX courses, users may choose to audit this course for free or they can enroll in the course for credit for a fee. Much of the content in this course will especially appeal to students and researchers who study linguistics, learning sciences, and neuroscience. [MMB]

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In 1922, Claude McKay published Harlem Shadows: a collection of poems that included "If We Must Die," "America," and "December, 1919." English scholars Chris Forster and Roopika Risam are creating this open-sourced electronic edition of the publication. Here, visitors can read Harlem Shadows in full and explore a number of accompanying texts, including additional McKay poems, reviews, literary criticism, and historical media coverage. Many of these texts are accompanied by helpful information that places the poems in context and links to related content in the collection. For example, when visitors select the poem "The Easter Flower," they will learn that the poem was originally published in The Liberator in March 1921. Visitors will also be directed to read Mary White Ovington's 1922 review of Harlem Shadows for The Dallas Express and Hodge Kirnon's 1922 essay about Harlem Shadows for Negro World, both of which directly reference the poem "Easter Flower." All text in this electronic edition is available in PDF, plain text, and TEI format to allow scholars to use digital analysis tools with ease. [MMB]

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The Ask an Astrobiologist Show from NASA features a series of live interviews in which the general public is invited to submit questions to a guest astrobiologist. Since its launch in November 2016, the program just recently completed its twelfth interview with Dr. Shawn Domagal-Goldman of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on March 20, 2018. The show is hosted by Sanjoy Som - a planetary scientist and astrobiologist who founded the non-profit organization Blue Marble Space. A variety of astrobiology experts are interviewed for the show: Sara Imari Walker, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University; Darlene Nim, a geobiologist at the NASA Ames Research center; and Juan Perez Mercader, a Harvard University professor and founder of the Centre de Astrobiologia. In each episode, Som first interviews guests about their work and path to becoming a scientist. In the second part of each episode, each guest scientists answers questions submitted by viewers on Twitter (though the hashtag #AskAstroBio) or through the SAGANet chat room (available through a link on this website). Visitors can check out all previous Ask an Astrobiologist episodes on this website. [MMB]

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Founded in 2000 by Claire Hsu and Johnson Chang, the Asia Art Archive (AAA) is a non-profit organization that was formed to address "the urgent need to document and make accessible the multiple recent histories of art in the region." Based out of Hong Kong, the AAA is home to artwork, photographs, manuscripts, and more from across the continent of Asia. On the collection page of AAA's website, visitors can browse 32 collections, which includes over 60,000 digitized items. These collections include the archive of Pakistani artist Salima Hashmi, the archive of Indian artist and printmaker Jyoti Bhatt, and the archive of Hong Kong artist Ha Bik Chuen. In addition to individual artist archives, the collection includes archives from specific art centers or exhibitions (such as the China Avantgarde Exhibit Archive) as well journals and magazines. Visitors can also conduct a text search of these archives and filter results to see only those that are available online. Visitors may also filter by content type, document type, or language [MMB]

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In 1821, Charles Babbage set out to create a machine that would mechanize mathematical computations. Over the next two decades, Babbage designed three machines: Difference Engine No. 1 (Babbage completed a section of this machine in 1832), the Analytical Engine (for which Ada Lovelace wrote the first published computer algorithm) and Difference Engine No. 2. Alas, none of these machines came to fruition during Babbage's lifetime. In 1985, a team at Science Museum in London launched a project to build Difference Engine No. 2. To create this machine, the team used Babbage's original designs, which were created between 1847 and 1849. In 2002, the team successfully completed the project, at last making Babbage's computer a reality. The Computer History Museum has created this fascinating online exhibit about Charles Babbage and Difference Engine No. 2. The exhibit incorporates a number of fascinating primary documents, including a photograph of the portion of the Difference Engine that Babbage was able to complete in 1832 and portions of Babbage's plan for Difference Engine No. 2. [MMB]

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From the Kelsey Museum of Archeology at the University of Michigan comes this online exhibit about jackal gods, which are "among the most recognizable and vivid symbols of ancient Egypt." This exhibit was curated by a team headed by Terry G. Wilfong, Director and Curator for Graeco-Roman Egypt at the Kelsey. Through this exhibit, visitors can learn more about how jackal gods were connected to rituals relating to death and burial. Visitors can also learn more about specific jackal gods (including Anubis, Wepwawet, and Duamutef) and jackal god myth. This exhibit incorporates a number images of jackal gods, including statues, hieroglyphs, engravings, tomb paintings, and more. [MMB]

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Between 2012 and 2017, the Tate Archives & Access project digitized over 52,000 items held in Britain's Tate Archive. Here, visitors can browse or search this digitized collection, which includes artworks, artist sketchbooks, letters, photographs, audio-visual materials, and more. Visitors may browse this collection via 76 thematic collections. These include 953 photographs that were part of Eileen Agar's personal collection; a collection of "Drawings and notes about paintings," by Francis Bacon; and a collection of drawings and watercolor paintings by Josef Herman. To learn more about the Tate Archives visitors may want to check out a series of eight short videos available via a link on the archive's homepage. [MMB]

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For readers with a connection to the Gopher State, the University of Minnesota offers this interactive map of historic aerial photography dating from the 1920s through the 2000s. In total, the map hosts over 100,000 photographs from the John R. Borchert Map Library. To explore this map, visitors can zoom in on any area of the state that is of interest. When they do, they will see each aerial photograph as a dot. Each dot is color-coded according to decade. Visitors may also filter results by decade via a panel on the left-hand side of the screen. Users may also search the map (for example, by zip code or the name of a city). Collectively, these images provide a glimpse into the history of Minnesota. [MMB]

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For U.S. - based Scout readers who like to take the scenic route when traveling (as well as anyone curious about American highways), Geotab has compiled this guide to America's Quietest Routes. To identify the quietest highway in all fifty U.S. states, Geotab examined traffic data from the Highway Performance Monitoring System. As visitors enter this site, they can view the quietest highway via a map: for instance, in California, the honor goes to State Route 139 between Susanville, CA up to the Oregon state line. When visitors select a state, they have a chance to take an interactive virtual tour of each highway via a Google Street view. In addition, landscape photographer James Q. Martin has selected his ten favorite highways on the list. Visitors can check out Martin's selections (Alaska's Route 11 tops the list), accompanied by gorgeous photographs. [MMB]

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Shelf Understanding is a monthly podcast from the Bloomington, Illinois Public Library dedicated to books, ideas, art, and much more. The podcast is usually hosted by librarian Danny Rice, along with library associate Marion Archer. Although podcast episodes are directly tailored to events at the Bloomington Public Library (e.g. interviews with authors featured in Bloomington community reads), these episodes may appeal more broadly to book lovers around the world. In the February 2018 episode, Rice interviews author Jamie Ford, who wrote The New York Times bestselling novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Another recent episode, hosted by Archer, features a conversation with tattoo artist Ricky Sturdivant about the history of tattoos. Visitors can listen to all past episodes of this podcast via the website. Interested listeners may also subscribe via RSS. [MMB]

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The Isabella Stewart Gardner Collection allows visitors to search and browse through the majority of the objects on display at the museum in digital format. The collection includes sculpture, furniture and textiles, garments, ceramics, silver and other household artifacts. Items in the collection come from a wide variety of eras: the museum contains artifacts ranging from twenty-first century BCE to modern-day. It's possible to browse by artist, room, century, country, or category; however, some objects (particularly books) do not have digital images. Bibliographic descriptions of books are available. After leaving the collection area on the museum website, one finds an assortment of videos and textual information that provides the history of the museum, a biography of Mrs. Gardner, and under the title of "New Meets Old," the story of the Renzo Piano, which was a new wing added in 2012 to the Venetian-style palazzo that has housed the museum since 1902. [DS]

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Wehe is a tool to determine if your ISP is deliberately slowing down some kinds of traffic. It works by sending pre-recorded chunks of traffic to Wehe's servers. For example, one can send a recording of traffic when playing a YouTube video. Wehe then sends the same amount of random data to the same server. Lastly, it compares the transfer speeds of the pre-recorded traffic and the random traffic to see if your ISP slowed the recorded traffic down. Wehe comes with pre-recorded data from Amazon Video, NBC Sports, Netflix, Skype, Spotify, Vimeo, and YouTube. Future versions will allow users to record their own custom test data to sites of their choice. The stats section of Wehe's website gives anonymous summary information, showing which networks slow or block traffic to the popular sites they test. Source code for Wehe is also available on GitHub under the Community Research and Academic Programming License. Academic papers based on data collected by Wehe are listed in the "Technical details" and "Case Studies" sections of their site. Wehe is available for Android and iOS devices. [CRH]

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Gitter is a real-time chat system similar to Slack or IRC, but with an emphasis on ease of use for open-source communities, especially those using GitHub. For example, Gitter provides a "badge" that can be placed in a GitHub project's README file that allows users to join a Gitter chat with a single click. Rather than creating a dedicated Gitter account, users can sign in using either their Github or their Twitter credentials. Messages can be formatted using GitHub-flavored Markdown and can contain inline media files. Message archives are both browseable and searchable by month. In addition to Github integration, Gitter also integrates with Trello, Jenkins, Travis CI, Drone, Heroku, and Bitbucket. Public Gitter chats are provided with unlimited message history and can use all available integrations. Source code for Gitter is available under the MIT license on gitlab.org and the service can be self-hosted if users wish to do so. In addition to the web client, which works in any modern browser, device-specific Gitter clients are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. [CRH]

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Nicholas Bauch's Enchanting the Desert is a fantastic example of how interactive monographs can enhance scholarship. We enthusiastically recommend this resource to anyone who loves the Grand Canyon.

Between 1899 and 1930, Henry G. Peabody took 43 photographs of the Grand Canyon and compiled his images into a lantern slideshow. This slideshow serves as the basis for geographer Nicholas Bauch's interactive monograph, Enchanting the Desert. With this born-digital project, Bauch maps out the location of each of Peabody's photographs in order to examine the history of human interaction with the Grand Canyon. More specifically, the project examines the ways that white explorers, cartographers, and photographers named, mapped, and created infrastructure in the Grand Canyon. From the homepage, users may select Enter to explore this unique space-based project. There are six chapters in all, which include Toponymy, Settlement, and the History of Tourism. Each chapter is then divided into sections, each of which is illustrated with one of Peabody's photographs and an accompanying map.

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