Deep Impact [QuickTime]
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/
Comets have fascinated humans for hundreds of years, and most recently with the idea of creating a "deep impact" upon a comet in order to study the interior composition and makeup of these bodies. With this scientific mission in mind, a team of researchers (including participants from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Maryland) will send an impactor spacecraft into the Comet Tempel 1 on July 4th, 2005. The data collected from this fascinating experiment will help answer many questions about comets, and should be of interest to research scientists and the general public alike. The site itself contains quite a few helpful sections, including one dedicated to explaining the science behind studying comets. A technology section offers detailed explanations behind much of the flight system, the launch vehicle, and the various instruments on board. The gallery section has some nice animations that show how the mission will encounter and impact Comet Tempel 1. Overall, this is very engaging and well thought out site that explains this mission in jargon-free language. [KMG]
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Higher Education Resource Hub [pdf]
http://www.higher-ed.org/
Developed and maintained by James Forest, the Higher Education Resource Hub is a fine source of information about the field of higher education within the United States and around the world. Most of the site's sections can be reached from the home page, and deal with such topics as assessment in higher education, news, and recent publications that feature research on higher education. Another helpful feature is a collection of links to the syllabi for courses at the college and graduate level that address the topic of higher education. The history of higher education is particularly helpful, as it contains a number of primary documents including the text of the GI Bill, the Morrill Land Grant Acts, some rather trenchant commentaries from John Henry Newman, and Thorstein Veblen's scathing critique of American higher education published in 1918. The site also has a section devoted to job resources in higher education, and is completed with information about the reference work, "Higher Education in the United States: An Encyclopedia," which is co-edited by Mr. Forest and Kevin Kinser of SUNY-Albany. [KMG]
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The Crisis of the Union
http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/abolitionism/
Created and maintained by the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image at the University of Pennsylvania Library, this online document archive contains material related to "the causes, conduct, and consequences of the US Civil War." The collection is largely comprised of books, broadsides, cartoons, pamphlets, and other printed ephemera from 1830 to 1880. Drawing heavily on materials held by the Library Company of Philadelphia, the documents include speeches by Charles Sumner, cartoons by Thomas Nast, and promotional material from the Know-Nothing Party. The entire archive can be browsed by author, date of publication, title, or subject. Using a built-in viewer, each document can also be viewed in its original format, and visitors can zoom in or out on discrete areas. Finally, visitors can also search the entire archive by keywords, subjects, graphic elements, or date. [KMG]
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Shakespeare: Subject to Change [Macromedia Flash Player]
http://ciconline.org/bdp1/
Developed to show the potential use of broadband cable in the classroom, this demonstration project from the Cable in the Classroom group details how the words of the immortal bard have been transformed and interpreted by a host of different individuals. After a brief multimedia introduction, viewers can go on to two sections: "Pen to Print" or "Stage to Screen." The "Pen to Print" section contains a number of fun and educating areas, including Shakespeare's Language, Altered Texts, and The Writing Process. In Shakespeare's Language, visitors can listen to hear some of the now-common expressions (such as "into thin air") coined by him. Equally revealing is the ability to learn about how proof-readers and correctors transformed almost all of Shakespeare's works. The "Stage to Screen" area is also quite fine, as viewers can watch two different interpretations of Hamlet's legendary soliloquy. The screen version is from 2000 and is performed by Campbell Scott, and the stage version is performed by the masterful Richard Burton, under the direction of Sir John Geilgud. All in all, the site is a nice example of how this technology may be used in the classroom. [KMG]
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The Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection
http://www.unt.edu/lully/welframe.html
Jean-Baptiste Lully was perhaps the most noted French composer of the 17th century and the inventor of the French operatic tradition. Born in Florence, Lully moved to France at the age of 14 and, at the age of 21, was appointed to the position of "composer of instrumental music for the king" for the court of Louis XIV. The University of North Texas Music Library has digitized 23 17th- and 18th-century scores of operas and ballets by Lully and his sons, and placed them online for public perusal. Here, visitors can look over the scores for works ranging from his 1684 opera Amadis to his Le Triomphe de l'Amour. There is also a great deal of background material located on the site, including an extended bibliography, discography, and essays on French music printing techniques in the 17th century. [KMG]
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Dumbarton Oaks Electronic Texts [pdf]
http://www.doaks.org/etexts.html
Located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks was donated to Harvard University in 1940 as gift from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. Currently, the Dumbarton Oaks Center offers a number of fellowships in its three areas of academic inquiry, which include Byzantine studies, pre-Columbian studies, and landscape architecture. The organization is also well known for their numerous edited volumes, which deal with the aforementioned research topics. Some of those volumes can be downloaded from this site, and cover a wide array of subjects, including pieces of Byzantine-period gardens and works on gender in pre-Hispanic America. Divided into the center's three main research areas, the lists of works contains a brief abstract about each volume and links to each chapter in the work. [KMG]
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High School Hub
http://highschoolhub.org/hub/hub.cfm
Developed by Wanda G. Wojcik and Dyann K. Schmidel, the High School Hub is an omnibus of links designed to be of assistance to high-school students looking for any number of online resources ranging from school subjects to reference works. Many of the links are quite topical, such as the daily news quiz (provided by the New York Times) or the Today in History feature, provided by the Library of Congress's American Memory project. The Homework Help section will be one that students will want to return to multiple times, as it is organized around academic subject; and each one contains several dozen links to features like an online table of chemical elements and famous American trials. Finally, the site also contains some pastimes and diversions, such as word puzzles and a typing challenge. [KMG]
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A Conceptual Design for the Space Launch Capability of the Peacekeeper ICBM [pdf]
http://www.asdl.gatech.edu/publications/pdf/2002/AIAA-2002-5854.pdf
The Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was originally intended for military use, but this paper considers how minimal modifications could transform it into a "rapid resupply system for the International Space Station (ISS)." A detailed overview of many important facets of the conceptual Peacekeeper Space Launch Vehicle is given. Possible propulsion configurations, ISS interfacing equipment, and payload characteristics are compared. An analysis of each of these items is shown and a final recommendation is made based on the goal of achieving maximum payload. The importance of this research could be much greater in light of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. This site is also reviewed in the May 23, 2003 NSDL MET Report. [CL]
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