http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/

Members of the public health community and those from the world of urban planning have teamed up to create the Active Living By Design program, and by extension, this fine website. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and an academic home at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, the program was created “to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies.” On the site’s homepage, visitors can browse through sections that include information on “Active Living Essentials”, “Active Living Programs”, and “Active Living Resources”. The “Essentials” section is a good place to start as visitors can learn about the organization’s major fields, which include information on the links between physical activity, urban design, and health. Visitors who are looking to learn about the specific “on the ground” programs will want to look over the “Community Partnerships” area, as it contains information on initiatives in Chicago, Nashville, Orlando, and Cleveland. [KMG]

http://siepr.stanford.edu

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) has a rather distinguished pedigree, as one of the prime instigators who lobbied for its creation was noted statesman and economist George Schultz. He, along with others, wished to create a center at Stanford where economic scholars could come together to discuss their research, and in 1982, SIEPR was born. While economists will certainly appreciate the working papers and other related materials on the site, there is plenty for more casual users as well. To begin with, there are the SIEPR Podcasts, which include conversations about the long-term impacts of the events of 9/11 and inflation in both China and the United States. Along with these podcasts, visitors will also find webcasts of related conferences, symposia, and seminars on a wide range of topics in economics. The site is rounded out by a calendar of events and a place where interested parties can provide feedback to staff members at SIEPR. [KMG]

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG557/

Nation building is a difficult process, and creating a suitable template that could be used in a host of different regions around the world seems practically impossible. A team of three scholars at the RAND Corporation has recently completed their 330-page scholarly exploration into this complex subject. Drawing on experiences from 16 US- and UN-led nation-building operations since World War II, the report deals with the various constituent elements of any nation-building mission, including the rule of law, governance, and economic stabilization, among others. Visitors also have the opportunity to watch an interview with one of the report’s authors, James Dobbins, and if pressed for time, they can also look at a research brief which summarizes recommendations from the complete report. [KMG]

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/features/mut/

The entire borough of Brooklyn has never been able to make a collective trip over to the Mut Precinct in Egypt, but fortunately a number of very talented individuals working for the Brooklyn Museum have been going that way for over thirty years. The Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut (pronounced “Moot”) has been an important religious site for almost two thousand years, and on this website, visitors can learn more about the archaeological work going on there. Visitors can read entries from the “Dig Diary” from the past few years; the diaries are weekly photo journals that follow the team’s activities and work in the field. For users who would like to see more photos of the Mut precinct, they can also look through the site’s photo project section, which features photos that have been uploaded to the Flickr website. [KMG]

http://www.reading.org/resources/index.html

Working together with a wide range of partners, the International Reading Organization has created this fine website that brings together hundreds of resources related to reading in all its forms and varieties. The materials and links presented here are divided into four primary sections, including “Teaching Tools”, “Issues in Literacy”, and “Literacy Community”. The “Teaching Tools” section contains lesson plans, a number of thematic booklists, and resources for parents. The booklists are well worth a look, as they feature lists compiled by children themselves and young adults. Moving on, the “Issues in Literacy” area includes access to “Reading Today Daily”, which features stories about reading and instructional issues and a selection of relevant reports on the state of reading. Finally, the “Literacy Community” area contains a number of online discussion forums, information about upcoming events throughout the literacy policy world, and a categorized collection of external links. [KMG]

http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/
For many students who wish to embark into the world of statistics, the whole process can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, the Exploring Data website makes such a proposition a bit easier for both students and teachers. The site is easy to navigate, and the homepage contains an index of topics and materials ranging from linear regression to sampling. Each of these sections includes activities, worksheets, and datasets that can be used in a variety of ways. More advanced students will appreciate the fact that the site also contains material that goes beyond some of the basic concepts within the field, and educators will also want to recommend this site to students who might need a bit of a refresher on certain key areas. [KMG]

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp

For nurses and other health care professionals who seek to distinguish the habitus from the humerus, this online medical dictionary provided by MedicineNet will be a place to bookmark for repeat visits. The dictionary contains well-written explanations for over 16,000 medical terms, and users can go ahead and browse around, or enter keywords or phrases into the search engine that resides on the page. The site also features a “Word of the Day”, and visitors can also look through recent news items that address different health issues and also look over the latest entries to the dictionary. The site is rounded out by a list of the “Top 10 Medterms”, which is also a good way to start exploring the materials here. [KMG]

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/courses/rad/

With a strong interest in providing high-quality online materials for budding radiologists and radiology technicians, a team of doctors at the University of Virginia’s Department of Radiology have teamed up to create this online radiology tutorial. First-time visitors will find a number of sections of note, including those that deal with emergency ultrasounds, gastrointestinal radiology, and an introduction to pediatric radiology. Each of these sections provides details on performing various medical techniques and procedures, along with a brief summation of key principles. The section dedicated to skeletal trauma radiology is quite a find, and it includes x-rays and other illustrations of elbows, wrists, and knees. [KMG]