http://www.behindthechair.com/

The demand for cosmetologists and hairdressers in the United States seems to be insatiable, and the breezy world of personal care has been transformed over the past few decades. Those who aspire to seat “behind the chair” as they say, will appreciate the information presented here, which includes information on the latest trends in the field. Users browsing for the first time will need to complete a free registration form, but after that is completed, they will have full access to the materials offered here. The site is divided into nine different primary sections, including “Hair”, “Haircolor”, Multi-Cultural”, and “Nails”. Of course, visitors will need to traverse some advertisements, but subsections titled “Hair Step by Steps” provide information about creating some of the latest hairstyles. And for those going on the job market, the “Salon Jobs” section lets users perform detailed searches for current openings across the country. [KMG]

http://www.nflonline.org/Main/HomePage

Over its eighty year history, the NFL has graduated such notable alumni as President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Pauley, and Don Ameche. They never played a moment in the NFL that celebrates the legends of the gridiron, but rather they honed their powers of persuasion and oratory in the National Forensic League. Over one million additional alums have joined these well-known personages, and persons who wish to know more about the organization and its operations will want to take a close look at their site. From the homepage, visitors can move through sections that provide hands-on resources that will help both students and coaches get familiar with the world of debate. Most of these resources are located in the “Coaching Resources” area, and are divided into such topics as speech assignments, vocabulary, and peer evaluations. [KMG]

http://www.sonicmemorial.org/sonic/public/index.html

As a way to cope during the difficult period after the attacks on the Word Trade Center on September 11, 2001, many people began to revisit their memories of the buildings themselves. With a keen eye towards preserving some of these materials, National Public Radio brought together artists, historians, and other interested parties in order to collect and preserve various audio traces of these impressive structures. Through an impressive browsing feature, visitors can aurally move through the audio clips contained within the archive, such as an interview with a Taiwanese tourist and a voice mail from a concerned fellow fire fighter based in Austin to his fellow firefighters. Visitors can also search all of the materials by theme, such as commute, elevators, witness, work, and concourse. The “For Educators” section is a real gem, as it contains a number of lesson modules that will help teachers use the site to talk about the nature of historical events, memorials, and civic practices. [KMG]

http://www.craftzine.com/

More and more people are rediscovering crafts these days, and craft mavens such as comedienne, writer, and hobbyist Amy Sedaris are dusting off the world of the crocheted tea cozy and finger puppets in a number of innovative and inherently hip ways. Sponsored by the magazine Craft, this site contains a weblog of compelling craft projects, excerpts from their print magazine, and a number of community forums where visitors can kvetch and commune about their diverse craft experiences. The “Projects” area is a delight, as visitors will get introduced to multi-colored spiral crochet hats and funky skirts made out of fabric from a broken umbrella. There are even a few projects that may gain the attention of costume-oriented visitors, such as a rather compelling pattern for a knitted wig that will allow the wearer to resemble Princess Leia of Star Wars fame. Like a child at a candy store, even casual visitors may find themselves dipping back into this site’s proverbial jar of craft treats and projects repeatedly while no one’s looking. [KMG]

http://livinghistoryfarm.org/index.html

In 1881, one Diedrich Wessels left Germany and came to America in order to seek a better life. Not an uncommon story for many immigrants from Europe at that most propitious moment, but his legacy certainly lives on in an interesting fashion. Upon his death, it was revealed that Wessels left a condition in his will that “a certain amount of land and capital should be set aside to establish the Wessels Living History Farm.” His will was done, and today, this farm still stands in York, Nebraska as a testament to his life and to the importance of family farms. There are a couple of great features right off the bat on the site’s homepage, which contains a reading by Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and a film that documents a modern corn harvest. This is just the beginning, however, as the site also contains sections that also offer insights into the lives of farmers in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1930s. Each of these areas contains brief topical essays on elements of farming such as plowing and fertilizing, coupled with interviews with farmers about some of the technological changes that were underway in each decade. For those who would like a first-hand view of the farm, this is also covered on the site by a series of live web cams that look onto various parts of the grounds. [KMG]

http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/

Open-access peer-reviewed journals continue to grow in number and in scope, and those dealing with the future of public health are no exception. One of the latest is Globalization and Health, which provides “a platform for research, knowledge sharing and debate on the topic of globalization and its effects on health, both positive and negative.” With such a broad range, it is no surprise that the journal has included articles on the tobacco industry, intellectual property rights, the effect of trade agreements on health, and the dissemination of Western diets across the globe. The journal currently publishes everything from book reviews to debate articles, so interested parties should definitely take a look at their work and requirements for publication consideration. [KMG]

http://www.photography.si.edu/

This year, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI), which is dedicated to promoting the use of Smithsonian photographic resources -roughly 13 million images located in approximately seven hundred collections -, launched a new Web site. The Web site serves several purposes: an online repository of images, a gateway to exhibitions, and a community where visitors can find not only images, but can also connect with others with similar interests, ranging from experts to amateurs. The site also includes Enter the Frame, an interactive interface where visitors can browse images from 19 Smithsonian museums, arrange selected images into sequences, and tag, or apply descriptive keywords to images. Sequences can then be saved, and viewed by subsequent visitors. For example, a sequence entitled "August" - submitted August 21, 2006 - included an 1855 Daguerreotype of a tree-lined street in Savannah, Georgia; a cyanotype portrait of Thomas Smillie (chief photographer for the Smithsonian from 1870 until his death in 1917) from the Smithsonian Archives; a 1992 photo of an African girl with flowers in her hair from the American Art Museum; and an 1865 albumen print taken by Julia Margaret Cameron, among its 10 selections. [DS]

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SouAfrVc/

The digital collections at the University of Wisconsin continue to be intriguing for both scholars and the general public, and the South African Voices website is another small triumph that is worth of consideration. This particular collection brings together the three-volume collection titled South African Voices, which was researched and brought together by Professor Harold Scheub. Drawing on his fieldwork beginning in the late 1960s, this set of works explores the histories, oral storytelling traditions, and poems that were part of various peoples in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the former country of Swaziland. Visitors are welcome to search through the entire contents of all three volumes, and along the way they can also listen to various audio excerpts from the collection. [KMG]