http://www.weingart.org/institute/

While the mention of Los Angeles to some may conjure up images of the wealth and glamour of such locales as Westwood and other prestigious communities, there is also a great deal of poverty within the broader urban and exurban region. Located at the Weingart Center (the largest homeless service organization in Los Angeles), the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty is a research and policy organization that investigates issues surrounding both homelessness and poverty and disseminates much of its findings via this website. Here visitors may learn about the intitute's programs (both in terms of outreach and publications) and view an extensive list of recommended links that are selected by the institute's staff. Interested persons may also elect to sign up for weekly email updates from the Institute or email queries to staff members. As with most research centers and institutes, the publication series is particularly well-developed, and includes such recent pdf-formatted documents as The Puzzle of the L.A. Economy, Poverty in Los Angeles, and Who is Homeless in L.A. [KMG]

http://apps49.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/gs/brown/bc_report/2003/2003report.pdf

Released in October 2003, this detailed and helpful report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution offers a broad overview of the current state of American education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Authored by Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center, the report notes that overall student achievement across the United States was largely a mixed affair, as was charter school performance. Among other things, the report notes that between 1990 and 2002 students in the fourth and eighth grades made gains in both reading and math, but that twelfth grade reading scores declined. The report also notes that while rural schools are generally the lowest funded schools in the United States they tend to perform better as a whole than their urban and suburban counterparts. As noted, the report also contains a section on charter schools, including research that suggest that the academic achievement levels of these institutions continues to remain below average, and that many of them are failing education standards set outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act. [KMG]

http://www.geophys.washington.edu/SEIS/PNSN/welcome.html

While earthquakes in the state of California may garner most of the attention of the major media, the Pacific Northwest continues to be a region of intense seismic activity. Based at the University of Washington (within the Department of Earth and Space Sciences), and funded by the USGS and several other organizations, the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network provides a host of detailed materials about ongoing and historic activity and hazards. From the homepage, visitors may traverse on over to sections that detail the latest seismic activity in the region, or peruse a list of recent notable quakes, complete with detailed information on their duration, magnitude, and respective epicenters. Interesting historical seismic information may be gleaned through a perusal of the Volcanoes area of the site that allows visitors to look at data for the major volcanoes in the area, including Mount Adams, Mount Baker, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helens. [KMG]

http://research.yale.edu:8084/divdl/adhoc/index.jsp

Designed as part of the Yale Divinity Digital Image and Text Library, the AdHoc Image and Text Database is a web-searchable database that contains electronic images and texts related to the history of Christianity. Visitors may begin looking for relevant materials by a keyword search, or decide to peruse a list of categories for browsing. The categories available include listings organized by geographical area, historical area, object type, or topic. These four divisions include topics such as Religious Doctrines and Practices, Missions and World Christianity and People. Some of the materials here are restricted to the Yale community solely, but many of the images (and a few of the texts) are available for the general public. Quite a number of the visual materials here are quite fascinating, such as a 1879 map of Calcutta that shows the location of churches, schools, and government offices and another map that shows the location of Protestant mission stations in China. [KMG]

http://www.mediaresource.org/

Given the importance of communicating complex scientific ideas, theories, and advances to a sometimes indifferent public, the services provided the Media Resource Service will be quite useful to journalists. Since 1980, the non-profit Media Resource Service is not only a valuable data bank, it is also a database of 30,000 scientists, engineers, physicians, and policy-makers who have agreed to provide information on short notice to print and broadcast journalists. This service is provided by Sigma Xi, an interdisciplinary, non-profit honor society, that represents all of science and engineering. Utilizing this website, journalists can submit their requests for assistance, along with perusing the Science in the News area which culls together the top science news stories on a weekly basis. Equally helpful is the SciStacks area, which contains links to other resources in biology, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, and other related fields that will be of assistance to journalists. [KMG]

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/ahri/

The Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI) is a project at the Georgia Institute of Technology that seeks to "create a home environment that is aware of its occupants' whereabouts and activities." One of the main focuses of AHRI is the design of specialized technologies to assist older adults or help keep them in closer contact with relatives. This site describes the motivation for the initiative and outlines the goals of intelligent, context-aware systems. A large collection of research papers is presented, highlighting AHRI insights into privacy issues, design challenges, and software engineering for such technology. [CL] This site is also reviewed in the November 21, 2003 NSDL MET Report.

http://posner.library.cmu.edu/Posner/

Designed to showcase the outstanding collections of the late Henry Posner, Sr., this digital archive contains close to 622 titles from the landmark titles of the history of Western science. Housed and developed at Carnegie Mellon University, the availability of these works is the result of Mr. Posner's intense passion for the printed word, which began in 1924 and continued unabated until 1972. Visitors looking through the collection may search by title, subject, publication date, or author, if so inclined. The archive may also be browsed extensively, again by author, title, or call number. Some of the works here include An essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus, Opticks by Sir Isaac Newton, and Descartes' Discourse on Method . This fine collection is rounded out by several short pieces on Mr. Posner, his collecting preferences, and the importance of the collection as a whole. [KMG]

http://www.arthritis.org/

With over 70 million Americans coping with the effects of arthritis, the mission of the Arthritis Foundation is quite timely and one that will most likely be of interest to those persons dealing with arthritis or those hoping to assist a friend or family member with this condition. Last reviewed on November 4, 1994, the website of the Arthritis Foundation contains a number of invaluable resources, including the online edition of Arthritis Today magazine, a place for visitors to ask questions about arthritis, and a search engine that allows visitors to learn about related programs and events in their region. Visitors can also look through the latest arthritis drug guide developed by the Foundation that will assist those living with arthritis in selecting an appropriate treatment or therapy. Additionally, visitors may also want to look at the research section of the site, as it contains extensive materials on the work sponsored by the Foundation and materials for those seeking grants to perform arthritis research. [KMG]