A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators. 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.
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Send comments and contributions to: scout@cs.wisc.edu
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC): On-line Particle
Physics Information
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/library/pdg
The
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) Library provides this electronic
"guide," which organizes and annotates online databases, Webpages,
catalogs, and directories that are of value to the particle physics community.
Online resources are categorized by data, collaborations and experiments,
conferences, current awareness services, five different directories (for
research institutions, libraries, etc.), online scientific papers and journals,
four types of educational sites, and software directories. Within each section,
links to outside databases and Internet sites direct users to additional
resources on particle physics. [KH]
[Back to Contents]
International Dunhuang Project (IDP) Interactive Database
http://idp.bl.uk/
The IDP
was founded in 1994 to coordinate efforts among holders, conservators, and
researchers of material from Dunhuang, a Buddhist library cave discovered in
1900 near the Silk Road oasis town of Dunhuang on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
This new online database from the British Library is both a catalog and image
bank, containing text details of over 20,000 pre-eleventh-century manuscripts in
Chinese, Tibetan, and other Central Asian languages, and images of over 1,000 of
the documents. Free registration is required, and users may recall details from
previous searches. Users may search the database by languages and scripts,
document form, site, and subject. The database is also designed to be
interactive, allowing scholars to submit comments and details of their own
research. Other resources at the site include instructions for accessing the
manuscripts at the British Library, a bibliography, past issues of the IDP
newsletter, and an annotated collection of links. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
JAMA Women's Health Information Center
http://www.ama-assn.org/special/womh/womh.htm
The Women's Health Information Center, offered by editors of JAMA: the
Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), provides the latest
research and clinical information on women's health issues for physicians and
other health professionals. A Newsline section features current stories from
Reuters Health Information and special reports from Morbidity, Mortality and
Weekly Reports (MMWR) which may be read in HTML or downloaded as .pdf files. The
Library section features full text of selected articles on women's health issues
and abstracts of articles recently published in medical journals. For the latest
information on sexually transmitted diseases or contraceptive issues, visit the
STD Information Center or the Contraception Information Center, each of which
features the latest news, patient education materials, clinical guidelines for
treatment, recommended Internet resources, and abstracts and full-text reports
on the latest research. [GW]
[Back to Contents]
PBS TeacherSource
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/
PBS
recently debuted this site for educators to help them plan their lessons and
more easily access resources on television and the Web. Station schedules (with
listings for local stations) are combined with lesson plans and online exercises
for students to make this a sort of one-stop site. Resources include lesson
plans that are correlated to select state and national curriculum standards,
activities, and guides for teachers; these are organized into six major subject
areas. Visitors can search by keyword or by selecting a subject or grade level
from a pulldown menu. Teachers can subscribe to PBS Teacher Previews for updates
on PBS's programming, Website, and other services. Links to additional related
resources and a bibliography are provided. [JR]
[Back to Contents]
Clerk of the House Election Statistics [.pdf]
http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/history/elections/elections.htm
The Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives has been
publishing official statistics for federal elections since 1920. However, many
of these statistical documents have been out of print for several years. To make
this valuable information readily available to students and researchers, the
Clerk of the House has provided all previously published federal election
statistics on the Web. At this site, biennial election data from 1920 to 1996
can be viewed in .pdf format. Data for the last three federal elections are also
available as HTML files. Each file contains vote counts from every state and
territory in the US for congressional and presidential elections. [AO]
[Back to Contents]
Palinurus: The Academy and the Corporation [frames]
http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/liu/palinurus/index2.html
This pilot site, maintained by Professor Alan Liu of the University of
California-Santa Barbara, author of the Voice of the Shuttle site (described in
the Scout
Report for May 30, 1997), was created by humanities scholars to examine the
practical and intellectual challenges faced by higher education in a
post-industrial world. In today's "information society,"
"knowledge work" in the business and academic worlds have begun to
merge. As any tenured or aspiring academic will tell you, pressures on
university departments to downsize and restructure have never been greater, and
academia now ignores the lessons and laws of the business world at its own
peril. This site reflects on these issues through a hypertext linked
bibliography of Suggested Readings, Featured Controversies (Grade Inflation,
Faculty Against IT, and others), and in the future, plans to link resources and
courses "relevant to the role! of higher education in contemporary
society." The Discussion Topics and Gallery of Quotes sections offer
suggestions on using the bibliography and a Discussion Board is provided for
user responses. [MD]
[Back to
Contents]
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 1998--NCES
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/safety/index.html
.pdf Version
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/safety/98251.pdf
Released on October 13, this report is the first in an annual series on
school crime and safety from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It offers data on different aspects of
school crime and safety and describes victim characteristics. The report
consists of five sections: Nonfatal Student Victimization--Student Reports;
Violence and Crime at School--Public School Principal/Disciplinarian Reports;
Violent Deaths at School; Nonfatal Teacher Victimization at School--Teacher
Reports; and School Environment; as well as highlights and several appendices.
[MD]
[Back to Contents]
The Funding of Political Parties in the United Kingdom
[.pdf]
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4057/4057.htm
Contents Page
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4057/contents.htm
On October 13, the Committee on Standards in Public Life released their long
awaited report on the regulation of party political funding and expenditure in
the UK. Chaired by Lord Neill of Bladen QC, the Committee recommended the most
radical changes in British political party spending in over 100 years. The
report contains 100 recommendations ranging from the institution of a 20 million
pound maximum spending limit on general elections, to the establishment of an
independent Election Commission, to implementing tax breaks to encourage
ordinary citizens to contribute to parties in order to wean parties from their
reliance on large contributors and corporations. The report has immediately
received cross-party support, and its main findings may become law by next
Autumn. [MD]
[Back to
Contents]
Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages
http://homepages.infoseek.com/~landsber.html
Lecturer at the Sinological Institute of Leiden, the Netherlands, and avid
Chinese poster collector (he claims to have about 1,000) Stefan R. Landsberger
offers this attractive on-line exhibition. Propaganda, a traditionally important
element in Chinese political culture, was perhaps developed to new heights by
the Communist Party in China after 1949. This was especially evident in the
almost universal use of posters to impart and reinforce correct ideology and
behavior. Landsberger's site examines several topics explored by propaganda
posters, such as the future and development of China (Visualizing the Future),
the role of women (Iron Women and Foxy Ladies), the New Year Print, and the Hong
Kong Handover. Each section features a number of nicely digitized posters and
commentary tracing changes in the art of the propaganda poster since the 1940s.
Additional resources at the site include a bibliography and related links. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
New Images from Hubble and Galileo
Hubble
Finds Many Bright Clouds on Uranus [.jpeg, .pdf, .tiff]
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/35/index.html
Hubble Provides A Moving Look At Neptune's Stormy Disposition [.jpeg, .pdf,
Quicktime]
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/34/index.html
Galileo: New Images
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo/atjup/newim.html
NASA has recently released a number of new images form the Hubble Space
Telescope and the Galileo Project. Hubble has discovered about twenty
orange-colored clouds near the prominent bright band of Uranus which circle the
planet at more than 300 mph. The site offers a press release and images in
several formats. Simultaneous observations at Hubble and NASA's Infrared
Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii have also provided glimpses into
Neptune's huge storms and equatorial winds of 900 mph. The site provides a press
release, images, and a Quicktime animation. Finally, the Galileo Project has
posted new images of Lightning & Water Clouds on Jupiter, Aurorae & HOT
volcanoes on Io, Cratering on Callisto, and More on Europa. Press releases and
science abstracts are provided. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
Van Gogh's Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh
Museum, Amsterdam at the National Gallery of Art [LivePicture
Viewer]
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/vginfo.htm
Seventy paintings by Vincent van Gogh from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
are now on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. To complement
the exhibition, the National Gallery provides this informative Website, with
information on obtaining passes, the exhibition brochure, Van Gogh programs at
the Gallery, press releases, online purchase of the exhibition catalog, and
links to additional works by Van Gogh in the Gallery's permanent collection. You
can also take a virtual tour of the exhibition, an attractive option, since all
of the advance passes for the show have already been distributed. The virtual
tour uses a plug-in called LivePicture Viewer (also used for the Gallery's
virtual Calder exhibition (described in the Scout
Report for July 3, 1998), to allow virtual tourists to move through rooms in
the museum and zoom-in on individual pictures. The Gallery plans to make a
version wi! thout the plug-in available in the near future. [DS]
[Back to Contents]
The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study: Final Report
(AOA)
http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/abuse/report/default.htm
.pdf Version
http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/abuse/report/main-pdf.htm
Prepared for the Administration on Aging (AOA) of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, this distressing and important report estimates that
at least 500,000 older persons were abused and/or neglected, or experienced
self-neglect during 1996, the study period. This, the first ever National Elder
Abuse Incidence Study, also estimates that for every report of abuse or neglect,
five go unreported. The site offers an Introduction, the full text of the
Findings, Background, Study Design and Methods, and Conclusions. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
Wall of Sound Top 100 Albums [RealPlayer]
http://www.wallofsound.com/features/stories/top_100_albums/
Wall
of Sound
http://www.wallofsound.com/
Wall of
Sound, a music news and review site, has recently polled users on the ten best
albums of the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. Over 400,000 votes were received, and
Wall of Sound has compiled lists by decade and a list of the top 100 Albums of
All Time. To create the final list, Wall of Sound ranked each album based on the
percentage of total votes it received within its decade. Any such list is bound
to produce disagreement, and this one offers some predictable results (the
Beatles have two of the top five), and perhaps a few surprises (The Police,
Nirvana, and U2 all appear in the top ten). The site lists the complete 100, the
top 25 by decade, and the top write-ins by decade. A capsule review and
RealPlayer sample is provided for each. [MD]
[Back to Contents]
The ICYouSee Guide to the World Wide Web
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/Training/ICYouSee.html
Reference librarian John Henderson, of the Ithaca College Library, is the
creator of this site designed for self-guided training of the World Wide Web.
The content of the ICYouSee Guide is arranged around seven fundamental questions
about the Web, such as "What can you do on the Web that is actually
useful?," "What went wrong? or Why did it do that?," and
"How can you create a Webpage for yourself?" The glossary section
("What do they mean by that?") provides easy-to-understand
explanations in a question and answer format to over 120 Web-related terms. The
section that answers how to find anything on the Web is an annotated guide to
Internet search tools. The "What went wrong?" section is a problem
solving guide to some common situations that users may encounter. [AG]
[Back to Contents]
Sherlock & the Internet Scout Project [MAC OS 8.5,
StuffIt Expander]
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/sherlock/InternetScout.sit
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/sherlock/InternetScout.sit.hqx
http://www.apple.com/sherlock/plugins.html
With
the release of MAC OS 8.5, Apple Computer introduces a new search technology
called Sherlock. In addition to the standard Mac OS "Find"
functionality and an expanded search-by-content feature, Sherlock includes the
ability to search multiple Internet databases without opening a browser.
Enhancing this new capability is a plug-in architecture that allows any site to
provide access to their search engine via Sherlock. The Internet Scout Project
has built a Sherlock plug-in that searches the Signpost database of previous
Scout Reports and sends the annotations directly to your desktop. [PMS]
[Back to Contents]
The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing any portion of this report, in any format.
From the Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project
1994-1998.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing the entire report, in any format.
Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, is preserved on all copies.
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, or the National Science Foundation.
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