Research and Education
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/drakehtml/rbdkhome.html
With his ship, The Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drake cut an imposing swath for Queen Elizabeth (and country) as he circumnavigated the earth from the years 1577 to 1580. During this time, he claimed a portion of California for the crown and continued to wage battles against the Spanish. Many of the primary documents, including maps and engravings, related to his travels and life were collected by the late Hans Peter Kraus. Kraus was an avid collector and antiquarian book dealer who successfully compiled a significant collection of materials related to Drake, which he later donated to the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has placed these remarkable materials online in this collection, and the general public will be delighted to wander through some of these offerings. Visitors who may be less familiar with Drake’s life may wish to look over a timeline of his life, complete with period engravings and illustrations. [KMG]
With an interest in developing a global consortium of arts organizations, a number of institutions, including Cornell University and Columbia University, came together “to create easily accessible, multimedia, and multilingual information resources for the study and preservation of the performing arts.” Perhaps their biggest accomplishment thus far is the Global Performing Arts Database (GloPAD), which is a massive database that includes detailed multilingual descriptions of digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects. As one might imagine, using the database can be a bit complicated, but fortunately there is ample information provided here for the neophyte. As might be expected, there are a number of sample searches to get users started, including production titles such as Showboat, or people such as George Bernard Shaw. [KMG]
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/
Edited and maintained since 1996, Tim Spalding’s Isidore of Seville website is a real find. It contains a number of online exhibits and collections that explore a wide range of themes, ranging from perceptions of Mona Lisa over time to the use of dragons in art. One of the most helpful collections is dedicated to the Oracle of Delphi and other ancient oracles. Here visitors can view a photographic collection of images and read a variety of academic interpretations about oracles throughout history. Those with a penchant for the ancient world will also want to look at one of his most recent additions, the Wiki Classical Dictionary. Devoted to the history, literature, as well as the mythology of the ancient world the dictionary currently contains 564 articles, all of which may be searched in their entirety. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/
It is hard to overestimate the importance of Albert Einstein’s equation, “Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared”. A recent special from NOVA explores many different facets of the lasting and pervasive effects of this revolutionary statement. The website was developed to provide a host of complementary resources to the actual television program, and as such, anyone with even a trace of interest in the history of science or physics will want to take a close look. The interactive features are excellent; they include 10 top physicist’s explanation of the famous equation and a timeline of Einstein’s life. The essays offered here are also top-notch, and they include a piece titled “Einstein the Nobody” by David Bodanis and “Relativity and the Cosmos” by Alan Lightman. [KMG]
A number of research centers are concerned with the state of the world’s coral reefs, and the National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE) is one such center of scholarly excellence. Located at the University of Miami, NCORE is primarily concerned with “the analysis and predication of coral reef resilience”. On their site, visitors can learn about some of their primary research initiatives, such as their work on the Florida reef tract and on tracking the effects of climate change on the reef communities. The general public will also find their digital map series quite useful as well. In this section, users can examine a number of complex digital maps and images that provide information about the state of coral cover around Puerto Rico, South Florida, and the Bahamas. [KMG]
http://www.uncommonknowledge.org/
Hosted by Peter M. Robinson of the Hoover Institution, Uncommon Knowledge has been taking a critical look at public policy issues since 1996. With support from the John M. Olin Foundation, Uncommon Knowledge is distributed by American Public Television and can also be heard on NPR. In keeping with the traditions of the Hoover Institution, the programs feature lively debate on any number of topics, ranging from gun control to international foreign diplomacy. Visitors to the website can browse through a list of recent shows, or look through their archives which date from 1997. Visitors may also wish to view the entire television program on their computer, listen to the audio presentation, or read a transcript. [KMG]
