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The Scout Report - June 6, 1997
The Scout Report
Volume 4, Number 6
June 6, 1997
A Publication of Internet Scout Services
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin
A Project of the InterNIC
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and
newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and
educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to
subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription
instructions are included at the end of each report.
An
Acrobat .pdf version of this report is available for printing and
distributing locally. For information on Adobe Acrobat Reader, visit the Adobe site.
Visit the Scout Report web page at:
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Send comments and contributions to:
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In This Issue:
Research and Education
FERRET--The Federal Electronic Research and Review
Extraction Tool
http://ferret.bls.census.gov/cgi-bin/ferret
This new service of the US Census Bureau allows researchers to extract
information from the Current Population Surveys March 1995 and 1996
supplements and CPS Displaced Workers 1996 data. For CPS March supplements,
pre-formatted macrodata tables are available in nine categories at present,
including health insurance, family income, and poverty. But the real power
of the site, especially for researchers, is the ability to query and
extract microdata records from both datasets, and either view this
microdata or download it as ASCII text (user's choice as to delimiter
format), with crosstabs or frequencies, or as SAS datasets. Presently
available datasets are just the beginning of what will be a much larger
searchable statistics database, and "FERRET will be one of the tools in the
Census Bureau's Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS)," a data
retrieval system "being developed to provide better access to all census
data." Note that users must supply an email address before using the
system.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Chemistry Software and Information Resources--NHSE and
NPAC
http://www.csir.org/
This site, part of the National HPCC Software Exchange (discuss
ed in the November 22, 1996 Scout Report) and provided by the Northeast
Parallel Architectures Center at Syracuse University, is highlighted by the
Chemistry Software Exchange. The Exchange is a "catalog of chemistry
software running on anything from desktop computers to massively parallel
processors," organized into 21 major subject categories (browsable only at
present) including data analysis tools, molecular dynamics, chemistry
presentation tools, and integrated problem solving environments, among
others. Each software entry may contain an abstract, contact information,
and operating system information, as well as a hyperlink to the site that
contains the software. At present, over 120 programs are available. CSIR
also contains a large list of chemistry mailing lists and newsgroups.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
CLE Now!--Continuing legal education programming from
the experts [Frames, RealAudio]
http://www.clegroup.com/aba/
This set of free (registration required) continuing legal education
RealAudio files is provided by the American Bar Association Center for
Continuing Legal Education, in cooperation with the CLE Group. Tips from
the Top contains legal advice from fourteen judges, law professors, and
attorneys (28 tips, 45 minutes total), concerning such topics as preparing
witnesses, opening and closing arguments, pretrial motions, and cross
examination, among others. McElhaney's Trial Notebook, by Professor James
McElhaney of Case Western Reserve University Law School, contains almost 50
minutes of advice on attorney credibility, "humanizing the client," and
"the theory of the case." Stopping Domestic Violence Against Women: Using
New Federal Laws is a combination of text and over 50 minutes of audio from
a panel of experts on four aspects of that topic. Note that all of the
above information can be found under "Menu of Programming."
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Superconductivity Papers Database--ETL and
ISTEC
http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/db013/english-ver.html
The Electrotechnical Laboratory (Ministry of International Trade and
Industry) and the International Superconductivity Technology Center
Foundation (Japan) provide this no-frills, searchable-only bibliographic
database of 32,000 superconductivity papers in the areas of High Tc, C60
(Fullerene) related, organic, non-oxide, and oxide conductor. Papers can be
searched on title, author, abstract word, or year. The database contains
citations mostly from 1987-present in pertinent scholarly journals. The
"How to Search" section gives hints on browsing parts of the database via
use of the truncation symbol in combination with a classificatory serial
number prefix. While there is nothing pretty or particularly user-friendly
about the interface, the number of citations on these highly specialized
topics should be of use researchers in the field.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
American College of Physicians Web Watch
http://www.acponline.org/computer/webwatch/wwatch1.htm
American College of Physicians
http://www.acponline.org/
Internal medicine practitioners will find this selective annotated medical
meta-site a useful bookmark. Latest site reviews are on the main page,
along with a search interface that allows keyword searching or browsing
among eleven topics from clinical reference materials to universities and
hospitals. While there are fewer than 200 site annotations at present, they
are all carefully reviewed, making this a valuable, selective resource.
Sites are compiled and annotated by Dr. Richard Baker. The ACP site
contains information about the organization, including selected articles
from the ACP Observer and Annals of Internal Medicine.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Native American Authors--An IPL bibliographic
project
http://www.ipl.org/ref/native/
Created by five graduate students at the University of Michigan, this
bibliographic site covers approximately 400 Native American authors, 700
books and 200 URLs. The collected information may be accessed by browsing
author name, book title, or tribe. Author pages list tribe and works, and
most have links to web pages that focus on the author. Each tribe also has
a page with links, and each book has a page with bibliographic data. This
is not a site with content about particular authors; rather, it offers an
annotated bibliography of print and web sources that will help anyone
interested in learning more about Native American authors.
[ML]
[Back to Contents]
Caucus on Emerging Disciplines in Higher
Education
This forum will address aspects of creating new branches of study within
institutions of higher learning, focusing particularly on
technology-oriented graduate programs such as aviation and computer
technology. Anticipated themes include: preparatory research to prove need
accreditation; developing instruments to identify skills and knowledge
required; infrastructure requirements of program; curriculum development;
degree requirements; credit balancing (course work vs.
research/dissertation); and delivery, e.g. traditional, internet,
teleconference, etc.
[JS]
To subscribe, send email to the owner, Carl Reimann at:
reimann@radix.net
and ask to be added to the list.
[Back to Contents]
General Interest
Uniform Crime Reports 1996 Preliminary Annual
Release--FBI [.pdf, 9p.]
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucrpre96.htm
Number Crunchers Precision Journalism Crime Rates and Ranks
http://www.crunch.com/01nc/01nc.htm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on June 1, 1997 released this report, a
compilation of four tables chronicling the state of crime in the US in
1996. Three tables briefly summarize national crime index trends by
population group or area, geographic region, and time period. The bulk of
the report is a city table containing crime statistics in eight different
crimes ranging from murder to arson, comparing 1996 and 1995 figures.
Number Crunchers Precision Journalism has taken this raw data and created
tables of rankings for big city crime rates, murders, and motor vehicle
thefts.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
CNN Custom News
http://customnews.cnn.com/
Joining Excite's NewsTracker (discus
sed in the February 7, 1997 Scout Report) in the personalized news
service fray, CNN has teamed up with database powerhouse Oracle to present
its Custom News site. Users of the site first select a news profile that
determines the selection of headlines on their personal front page; an
innovative aspect of this process is the range of preconfigured news
assortments from which users may choose a profile that matches their
interests. Of course, building a profile from scratch is also an option.
Having set a profile, users register, select a username and password, and
then watch as their personalized front page is composed. A news ticker may
be displayed at the bottom of the screen or as an independent Java item on
the desktop. Custom News relies on general topic settings to select
stories; newshounds desiring more focused coverage are limited to three
keywords or phrases in the On Target personal clipping area.
[ML]
[Back to Contents]
Confronting Cancer through Art
http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/CCTA/
Less browser-intensive version:
http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/ccta/
This online exhibition, an outgrowth of a 1996 juried exhibition at the
University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center and the Arthur Ross Gallery, gives
"vision and voice to the experiences of all those who have confronted
cancer." The exhibit is alphabetically arranged by artist, with brief
explanatory captions. Artists include cancer survivors, as well as family
members and loved ones affected by the disease.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Earth Island
http://www.earthisland.org/
The Earth Island Web site is maintained by the Earth Island Institute
(EII). EII also publishes the Earth Island Journal quarterly. The
current issue of the journal can be browsed by section or by subject, and
offers current news, world reports, and feature articles on a wide range of
environmental subject areas. Earth Island also undertakes a number of
projects that are discussed at the site as well as in a portion of the
journal. The entire site is searchable. This is an excellent site for those
interested in keeping up on environmental issues.
[TB]
[Back to Contents]
Bonus.com: The SuperSite for Kids [Java]
http://www.bonus.com/
Bonus.com, provided by Apaloosa Interactive Corporation, is innovative in
both content and style. Part activities meta-site, part virtual toybox, it
allows children to find hundreds of fun, interactive online things to do,
including "games, coloring books, puzzles, and photo galleries," in
sections entitled Play, Color, Explore, Dissect, and Imagine. More
innovative, however, is the "NetScooter" technology employed to create a
Bonus browser and hide the regular browser behind it. In this way, a
"fence" is built around the Bonus site, which, while allowing navigation
within the site, keeps your child out of the Internet at large. While this
will not foil older, more Internet-savvy children, it is a wonderful way to
protect younger children from stumbling onto some of the more unsavory
Internet sites--although they'll probably be having so much fun with this
site that you'll have to tear them away from it. Note that many of the
activities are Java-based and browser intensive, and that parents should
read the help files for more information on features and navigation.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
WALDEN--About Henry David Thoreau Mailing
List
http://www.mcelhearn.com/thoreau/thoreau.html
WALDEN is a mailing list dedicated to Henry David Thoreau. It is named
after his best known work, Walden, a recounting of a period of time
he spent living "deliberately" next to Walden Pond, outside Concord,
Massachusetts. The list will discuss: the relevance of Thoreau's ideas to
life in the 21st century; books about Thoreau's life and works; other
authors that were Thoreau's 19th century contemporaries; and "living
deliberately," among other topics. Subscription and further information is
available at the above URL.
[JS]
To subscribe send email to:
Walden-request@lists.best.com
In the body of the message type:
subscribe
[Back to Contents]
Network Tools
PointCast Network 2.0 Beta
http://www.pointcast.com/
What's distinctive about the latest PointCast (discus
sed in the February 16, 1996 issue of the Scout Report) client software
may not, at first, be obvious. The software, currently available only for
Windows 95/NT, functions just as previous versions did: after a
user-specified period of inactivity, PointCast takes over the screen and
fills it with headlines and advertisements. Users can click on items of
interest and open a web browser window with more information. The one
fascinating new feature is the Ticker, a crawl that when placed at the top
or bottom of the screen runs headlines and other data non-stop. Behind the
scenes, though, is where the real changes are taking place. The user
interface is new, and it presents an almost dizzying array of configuration
options. And underneath it all are PointCast's revamped content and server
systems, which allow webcasters large and small to customize and broadcast
their own content on internal channels. If the push war has replaced the
browser war, this is the latest salvo in the struggle for standards
domination.
[ML]
[Back to Contents]
Dynamic HTML--HTML made interactive
Microsoft's Dynamic HTML technology
http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/
Netscape's Dynamic HTML technology
http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/communicator/features/Dynamic_HTML.htm
l
Microsoft and Netscape offer Dynamic HTML technology in the preview
releases of their Internet Explorer 4.0 and Communicator 4.0 browsers.
Dynamic HTML is a new technology that allows for immediate interaction with
a web page; additional content does not need to be downloaded. Netscape
states that it "...provides the next major step forward in the HTML
revolution." Additional information on Dynamic HTML technology is provided
at the above URLs, as well as links to demo sites that implement the
technology.
[TB]
[Back to Contents]
Web Developer's Journal
http://nctweb.com/webdev
This e-zine, provide by Markland Communities, Inc., is a one-stop
smorgasbord of information for web developers. It contains software
downloads, articles on web techniques and trends, software, hardware, and
book reviews, and several subject related discussion groups. It's
information is aimed at the intermediate to advanced web developer.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Where Are They Now
Volume 1, Number 6: The Scout Report for June 3,
1994
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/6-3-94.html
The Chance Database Welcome Page
http://www.geom.umn.edu/docs/snell/chance/
The Electronic Zoo--NetVet
http://netvet.wustl.edu/
The June 3, 1994 Scout Report annotated the Chance Server, a probability
and statistics resource to support a Chance course originally developed by
six universities. The page, still situated at the University of Minnesota,
is an excellent example of an information resource that connects course
content to "the real world." Its Chance News section abstracts articles
related to probability from newspapers and journals, with hypertext
connections when available. It also contains teaching aids and connections
to other Internet resources. The same issue also annotated the Electronic
Zoo, a gopher-based "list of animal-related computer resources at
Washington University at St. Louis." The site, maintained by Dr. Ken
Boschert, a veterinarian at WUSL, has been merged with the well known
NetVet to become one of the longest running and most comprehensive
veterinary meta-sites on the Internet.
[JS]
[Back to Contents]
Copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-1997. Permission is granted to make and
distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright
notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides
information about the Internet to the US research and education community
under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation:
NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science
Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.
The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet
Scout
-
Susan Calcari -- Managing Editor
-
Jack Solock -- Editor
-
Matthew Livesey -- Production Editor
-
Teri Boomsma -- Contributor
-
Aimee D. Glassel -- Contributor
-
Amy Tracy Wells -- Contributor
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© 1997 Internet Scout Project
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