The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 34

The Caribbean Memory Project (CMP) is a fascinating digital humanities project focused on collecting and increasing awareness of Caribbean cultural history. Launched in 2014, the CMP is "the Caribbean's first crowd-sourced cultural heritage research platform," created with the intent of combating erasure by archiving and preserving the cultural memories of Caribbean people. Visitors to this public repository will find well-organized archives that can be searched by keyword or browsed by country (subdivided by language) and document type. These archives include media such as oral histories and archival videos, as well as visual materials such as posters, historical and contemporary photographs, maps, and personal documents. There is also a lengthy list of links to educational resources and the CMP has a number of its own ongoing research projects, such as the Place+Memory Heritage Initiative. The Caribbean Memory Project was created by Kevin Browne, Lecturer in English Literature at the University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, and television/film producer Dawn Cumberbatch. The CMP is an active project, and those interested in Caribbean cultures would be well-advised to pay it a visit. [JDC]

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From the National Academy of Sciences comes Extreme Event, an in-person role-playing game that simulates "build[ing] community resilience in the face of disaster." In this hour-long exercise, participants are assigned roles and choose between three different disaster scenarios (earthquake, hurricane, or flood), then work together to help their community survive. Extreme Event is designed to be played by teens and adults in groups of 12-48 participants, making it well-suited for classrooms or adult team-building exercises. All necessary materials, including instructions, handouts, and sound effects, are freely available to download, and the game can be facilitated using either the downloadable script or their web-based "digital game portal" (this option requires the use of seven laptops/tablets). Video tutorials on facilitating the game and creating your own game materials are also available. Extreme Event was developed collaboratively between the Marian Koshland Science Museum (now LabX) and the Resilient America Roundtable (both projects of the National Academy of Sciences), and it "draws on recommendations from the seminal National Research Council report Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative." [JDC]

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Teachers looking to incorporate contemporary Native American culture into their curriculum may be interested in this collection of lesson plans from Native Report, a Duluth-Superior PBS production that celebrates Native American culture and converses with Native American leaders. As of this writing, Native Report's teaching resources contain more than thirty lesson plans, with six new lessons added for 2018. Most lesson topics focus on various forms of creative arts, such as beadwork with Marcie McIntier (and other artists), cellphone photography with Vern Northrup, narrative writing with Michael Meuers, and rap with Chase Manhattan. Nearly all of these lesson plans are designed to be used in conjunction with provided short video segments. Target age groups for these lesson plans generally range from grades 4-8, though it should be noted that some lesson plans do not specify a grade level. [JDC]

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Nature's Notebook is a fun and educational citizen science project focused on phenology throughout the United States. Here, nature lovers of all ages can contribute to science by observing the seasonal life-cycles of plants and wildlife. Visitors to Nature's Notebook will find educational resources for all grade levels (including lesson plans, activities, and archived presentations), help for local phenology groups (including how to start one), links to multimedia (including podcasts, videos, and webinars), and most importantly, opportunities and instructions (also available in Spanish) for participating in one of their many nature observation campaigns. After creating a free account, participants can enter data of their observations for as many species as they would like and they will also have access to a dashboard showing visualizations of their entered data. Nature's Notebook provides numerous resources for learning how to do phenological observations and they also have mobile apps available for Android and iOS devices. This long-running program was launched in 2009 by the USA National Phenology Network, "a national-scale science and monitoring initiative" formed in partnership between multiple government agencies, resource managers, and volunteers (among many others)." [JDC]

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Today, the act of voting is a largely secretive affair in the US, with booths and ballot machines protecting voters' privacy. This was not always the case--voting used to be "conducted in the open before interested spectators," and in some states, votes were cast viva voce, or by voice. This type of voting is key in Voting Viva Voce: Unlocking the Social Logic of Past Politics, a project examining the lives of residents in 1860 Alexandria, Virginia, "a commercial city based on slave labor," and in 1870 Newport, Kentucky, "an industrial city based on immigrant labor." Visitors can search or browse each city's database by social group, business, or individual, with the results displaying on a map of the city showing their residences or business locations. A remarkable range of individual-level data is available, such as demographics, occupation, relationship to slavery, and which candidates individuals voted for in elections. This resource also provides useful contextual information about public voting in Alexandria and Newport. Voting Viva Voce was created by Don DeBats, Professor of American Studies at Flinders University (Australia) and a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia. [JDC]

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Formal and informal educators intrigued by all things avian may enjoy this series of free webinars offered by BirdSleuth, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's K-12 education program. Every month, BirdSleuth offers two sessions for a new live webinar on a different educational topic. Examples of upcoming topics include "Building a Birding/Nature Club," "Designing Bird Study Experiments," and "Integrating Literacy and Science with Birds." Each webinar includes background information, highlights relevant educational resources, and offers ideas for how to implement the discussed topics successfully. The webinars are approximately 50 minutes long with 10 minutes for audience questions. BirdSleuth also includes a link to their previous 18 webinars available via their YouTube channel. For those interested, attending the live webinars can also be used to complete one continuing education unit from Cornell University (note that a fee applies in this case). [JDC]

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The Rainbow History Project is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to collecting and preserving "an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture relevant to sexually diverse communities in metropolitan Washington DC." Here, readers will find online archives containing over 1,400 publicly available items (as of this writing) relating to LGBT history in the DC area. These archives can be browsed in a list, by tag, or by map, and they can also be searched by keyword and a variety of fields. This project also offers several online exhibits, such as "'Gay is Good': Gay and Lesbian Organizing in DC, 1961-1975." The Rainbow History Project's archives have been organized into several dozen thematic collections, including newsletters and fliers, t-shirts and textiles, and oral histories. It should be noted that while the oral histories have a publicly available interview description, few of the sound files are online to protect the privacy of those interviewed. Those interested may contact the organization to request access to specific interviews. [JDC]

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The ecosystems of many water bodies around the world are under threat from aquatic invasive species. Scholars interested in this pervasive problem may want to check out the international peer-reviewed journal Aquatic Invasions. Established in 2006, this open-access journal offers readers "academic research of biological invasions in both inland and coastal water ecosystems from around the world." Aquatic Invasions publishes scientific research focusing on topics such as the population dynamics, dispersal patterns, and ecological impacts of non-native species. Recent articles include studies in the Netherlands, the Gulf of Maine, and Croatia. This journal is published by the Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre in Finland, and Kit Magellan of the University of Hong Kong is its editor-in-chief, supported by an international editorial board. Aquatic Invasions is one of the official journals for the International Association for Open Knowledge on Invasive Alien Species (INVASIVESNET), and it is indexed by databases such as EBSCO, Thomson Reuters, and DOAJ. [JDC]

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Fans of ancient sculpture may now be able to view some of their favorites without having to travel to Italy. The world-renowned Uffizi Gallery in Florence has collaborated with Indiana University's Virtual World Heritage Laboratory (VWHL) to create the Uffizi Digitization Project, which aims to digitize in 3D "the complete collection of Greek and Roman sculpture in the Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens." This five-year project began in 2016 and its website was made publicly available earlier this month. As of this writing, the Uffizi Digitization Project contains over 300 sculptures and fragments. Readers will find an easy-to-navigate interface whose high-quality 3D models allow viewers to rotate and zoom closer to pieces, and even look inside them in the case of works such as the Philosopher Sarcophagus. Each 3D model is accompanied by information identifying and characterizing the depicted artwork, as well as "paradata" about the 3D model itself, including the camera and lenses used to photograph it and the name of the photographer. The Uffizi Digitization Project is co-directed by Bernard Frischer, Professor of Informatics at Indiana University and Director of the VWHL, and Fabrizio Paolucci, Curator of Classical Art and Coordinator of Scientific Activities at the Uffizi. [JDC]

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On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), along with 239 passengers and crew, disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. In an attempt to solve this mystery, the Australian government led a massive investigation consisting of a two-phase search of an area covering 120,000 square km, culminating in a final report that was released in July 2018. Though its results were inconclusive, this investigation yielded valuable data about the deep ocean floor, which previously had not been studied in great detail at such a large scale. Using the data gathered in their search, Geoscience Australia has produced "The data behind the search for MH370," a story map that narrates the scientific process of their search for MH370 and explains what the investigation brought to light, both about the flight and about the deep ocean floor. This story map presents images of deep ocean data visualization from before and after the MH370 investigation, brief videos showing 3D renderings of newly-revealed underwater geologic features, and explanations of the scientific significance of these findings. This interactive visual format will appeal to general audiences and to those interested in oceanography. [JDC]

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A background in art history (or even an interest in it) is not required to enjoy ArtCurious, a podcast that tells stories of "the unexpected, the slightly odd, and the strangely wonderful in art history." Launched in 2016, ArtCurious is written, produced, and hosted by Jennifer Dasal, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Visitors to ArtCurious will find (as of this writing) approximately 40 entertaining and educational episodes telling stories on a variety of topics, including rivalries between artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse (Episode #39), the true story behind the 2014 movie The Monuments Men (Episode #29), and whether English painter Walter Sickert could have been Jack the Ripper (Episodes #6-7). The ArtCurious website provides show notes with links to additional information, as well full transcripts for each episode. Listeners can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and other platforms. [JDC]

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Bees (and other pollinators) are an essential part of America's agricultural industry, accounting for roughly one-third of the food we eat. California's vast almond industry, in particular, is completely dependent on pollination--but California doesn't have enough of its own bees to pollinate all the almond trees. In "The Super Bowl of Beekeeping," a long-form essay published in The New York Times Magazine on August 15, 2018, Jaime Lowe explores the world of the beekeepers whose domesticated honeybees travel around the country every year to pollinate almonds in California, blueberries in Maine, apples in Washington, and other crops. Today, the futures of these bees and beekeepers are threatened by dangers such as parasites, pesticides, and even international tariffs. As one beekeeper explains to Lowe, "Beekeepers are pushed into the margins. [...] We're doing things we never imagined would even be a factor in beekeeping." This essay is also accompanied by multiple photographs taken by Ilona Szwarc. [JDC]

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Created by the McGill University Library, Islamic Calligraphy is a digital exhibition showcasing the beauty and varying styles of Arabic scripts. Here, visitors can view a curated collection of over one hundred images showing representative examples of Arabic calligraphy from McGill's Islamic Rare Books Collection, including the sixteen pieces that were on display as a physical exhibition in 2011. The items in the digital exhibition are organized by albums, isolated leaves, or panels, and each image is footnoted by a brief description with a link to its full catalog record. This resource also contains a lengthy bibliography with citations for books and journal articles, as well as a list of links to other relevant web resources such as virtual museums. Islamic Calligraphy was curated by Anais Salamon and Sean Swanick, librarians in the Islamic Studies Library at McGill University. [JDC]

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From the U.S. National Library of Medicine comes Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine. This digital exhibition highlights the relationships between the magic depicted in the Harry Potter universe and the "Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science, including alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy." Here, readers will find (under the exhibitions tab) multiple examples of Renaissance texts discussing potions, monsters, herbology, magical creatures, and immortality, with each example paired with relevant examples from the Harry Potter books. Under the SEE the digital gallery tab toward the bottom of the page, visitors can browse scanned images from 25 works by Renaissance thinkers such as Nicolas Flamel, Paracelsus, and Ambroise Pare. Teaching resources, such as lesson plans and modules for students in middle school through university level, can be found under the education tab. Harry Potter's World uses materials from the NLM's History of Medicine collection and was curated by Elizabeth J. Bland. It is is the digital counterpart to a traveling exhibition by the same name, which has been on the road since 2009. [JDC]

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Readers interested in archaeology and prehistoric art may enjoy the Tanum Rock Art Research Centre. This non-profit museum is devoted to documenting rock art in Scandinavia and educating the public about this cultural resource, particularly regarding Tanum, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visitors to this website will find helpful background information explaining rock art research, such as ways to interpret rock art and the importance of documenting it, as well as galleries of rock art photographs organized by country. These galleries emphasize Scandinavian countries, but also include examples in Italy and other countries, as well as photos of field work and a collection of night photography. Under the motives tab, visitors will find discussions of the types of images observed in rock art, such as weapons, boats, humans, and animals. Readers may also be interested in the publications section, where articles can be read from Adoranten, the Scandinavian Society for Prehistoric Art's peer-reviewed magazine. The Tanum Rock Art Research Centre is managed by the Scandinavian Society for Prehistoric Art and is funded solely by donations and membership fees. [JDC]

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Quassel is a cross-platform, graphical Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. Users can opt to run the core of the application as a standalone server on an always-on machine, which they then connect to with the Quassel client. In this client/server mode, Quassel functions similarly to Irssi or WeeChat inside GNU Screen or tmux; users maintain a persistent connection to their IRC networks that they can splice into from any of their computers. Quassel can also run in a monolithic mode, where the client and server are all wrapped up in a single application. In this mode, Quassel is similar to more traditional chat programs. Quassel executables can be downloaded from the website for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Many free operating systems also include Quassel in their package repositories. Quassel is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License, with source code available on GitHub. [CRH]

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Chrono Download Manager is a Chrome extension that enhances Chrome's built-in download features. For example, Chrono provides a "detect all images/audio/video on this page" button that will generate a list of resources it could download. Users may then narrow this list by file type or regular expression filtering on file names. Download rules can also be configured to sort files into different folders based on file type, file name, and other attributes. The FAQ section on the Chrono website provides detailed documentation on the rule system along with examples. Chrono Download Manager is available for Google Chrome via the Chrome Web Store. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 6-12-2015 issue of the Scout Report, the Urban Natural Resources Stewardship continues to conduct valuable research on how urban trees affect issues such as public health and environmental justice.

Over the past 100 years, more and more of the U.S. population has moved into urban areas. Currently, more than 80 percent of Americans live in or near a city. The Northern Research Station (NRS), a division of the U.S. Forest Service, seeks to keep cities and suburbs livable by ensuring that trees, parks, greenways, rivers, and lake fronts remain elements of the "urban forest." In addition to information about the NRS' Urban Natural Resources Stewardship efforts, this website includes a list of science topics, each dedicated to a unique aspect of land use in urban areas. For instance, "Neighborhood quality of life" links to information about how trees increase social well-being and an article outlining the group's research on what attracts and repels visitors to urban recreation areas. In addition, the site links out to other research themes of the NRS, such as sustaining forests and providing clean air and water.

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