Research and Education
http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf
As notions about ethnicity and ancestry have changed over the past, various government institutions have become more sensitive and more sophisticated in their efforts to collect data in this area. During the 2000 Census, the Census Bureau modified its questionnaire to allow individuals the ability to give one or two attributions of their "ancestry or ethnic origin." This 12-page Census 2000 brief, authored by Angela Brittingham and G. Patricia de la Cruz, offers some insights into the various trends throughout the United States afforded by the responses to this particular Census question. Through insightful and concise prose, the report contains some noteworthy findings, include the statistic that nearly one of six people reported their ancestry as German and that more than four out of five people specified at least one ancestry. Reflecting national trends, the report noted that the largest ancestry for seven of the nation's ten largest cities was Mexican. [KMG]
http://www.mla.org/resources/census_main
Drawing on information from the United States Census 2000 long form, the Modern Language Association has crated this important interactive map that allows users to see where the speakers of thirty-seven languages reside throughout the country. The map allows visitors the option to toggle certain themes (such as rivers, lakes, and highways) and to look through the numbers of speakers by zip code, town, city, or county. Visitors can also look at data at the state level, and they can also print out their own customized maps as well. Users of the site can also generate interactive maps for two languages in the same state, or compare the concentration of the same language in two states. If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, visitors can also take an online tour of the site's features. This site will be of great interest both to linguists and to those interested in learning about the spatial distribution of the languages spoken across the United States. [KMG]
http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition.org/index.html
Alexander Hamilton was not only a member of the First Continental Congress but was also a co-author of the Federalist Papers and a vital force behind the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. To honor Hamilton the New York Historical Society has created a special museum exhibit that is due to open in September 2004 at its building in New York City. The actual exhibit is complemented nicely by this online exhibit that offers a timeline of events during (and after) his life, the Hamilton Log which offers highlights from his writings, and a biographical gallery of his peers, such as DeWitt Clinton and Robert Morris. The site is rounded out by a twenty-question quiz that tests visitor's knowledge of Alexander Hamilton and his various accomplishments.
While this year's International Aids Conference is now finished, the website created to disseminate the discussions, keynote addresses, and reports remains a valuable online resource for those persons interested in this ever-important public health issue. Perhaps one of the most important areas of the site is the webcast area, which contains archived broadcasts of a number of the sessions held at the conference, provided courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Here visitors can view videos and transcripts from each of the six days of the conference, including a daily conference update and official conference press briefings. As might be expected, the site contains a number of relevant publications for consideration, such as Children on the Brink 2004, which presents the latest statistics on children under 18 who have been orphaned by AIDS and other causes. The site also contains authoritative information on the various research presented at the conference, along with a complete conference program and abstract database. [KMG]
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/
Various professors, independent scholars, and technology gurus have developed a keen interest in the use of weblogs as pedagogical tools and as virtual communities. The Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota has gone one interesting step further in this arena by creating the Into the Blogosphere website. On the site, visitors can read, critique and comment on essays that analyze and critique situated cases drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Some of these pieces available for general consideration include the titles Culture Clash: Journalism and the Communal Ethos of the Blogosphere, The Labyrinth Unbound: Weblogs as Literature, and Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom. Along with browsing through the table of contents, visitors can also look through the works divided into categories, such as genre, gender, identity, and virtual design. [KMG]
Sandia National Laboratory's Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) responds to "challenges impacting national security and US economic competitiveness." Research areas include: Economic competitiveness, engineered collectives, high consequence systems integration, intelligent systems modeling & simulation, and robotic vehicles. In other words, their technologies can be used for automated biomedical devices, mechatronic technology for oil and gas pipeline inspection, landmine detection and removal, and shipbuilding. The website includes descriptions and pictures of their robot vehicles, robot modeling and simulation projects, as well as other software and hardware technologies they have developed. Various publications and information on the facilities are also posted online. [VF] This site is also reviewed in the July 30 NSDL MET Report.
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/
The Children's Book Online website has been online for eight years, and during that time it has grown immensely (largely due to the efforts of numerous volunteers from around the world and the able direction of its president, Guy Chocensky). The site contains full versions of dozens of classic children's books, including David Copperfield, Grampa in Oz, and Peter Rabbit. What is equally compelling is that a number of the books are available in a number of different languages, including Polish, Italian, German, Romanian, French, and Russian. Visitors will want to also join their electronic mailing list to be informed when new titles are added to the site, and to sign their online guestbook. The site also contains a few rarities that may be unfamiliar to contemporary readers, including The Bashful Earthquake by Oliver Herford (first published in 1898) and the lovely work, The Marquis of Carabas, painted by Edmund Evans. [KMG]
