General Interest
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/index_flash.html
Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly has been a PBS fixture since September 1997. The program takes on the important subjects of religion and ethics in a manner that is rather engaging, and the same can be said of their very fine website. First-time visitors to the site will want to look over the “This Week’s Stories” to get a sense of the programming offered here. Of course, they can also just listen to the entire weekly show in its entirety, or download it and take it with them on their personal audio device. Educators will want to take a look at the “For Teachers” area, which features a number of lesson plans and teaching tips designed to be used in conjunction with segments from the program and related websites. Finally, visitors can also search the contents of the site via a handy search engine that sits at the right-hand corner of every page. [KMG]
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp
As an old saying goes, “There are only so many fish in the sea”, and this is a saying that is becoming more and more true each year. With that in mind, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has developed the Seafood Watch site to help people make informed decisions about purchasing different types of seafood. The site contains sections such as “Which Seafood To Buy & Why”, “Why Your Choices Matter”, and “What You Can Do”. In the “Which Seafood to Buy & Why” section, visitors can take a look at some regional seafood guides and also learn which types of seafood are most endangered. Visitors can also order free copies of these guides online and also sign up to receive their free newsletter. [KMG]
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG477.pdf
Many policy analysts and urbanologists are interested in the role that cultural institutions play in cities, and this report from the RAND Corporation explores the interaction between these institutions and the different cities in which they are located. Released in March 2007, this 124-page report was authored by Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L. Novak. After starting their research in Philadelphia, this team of researchers moved on to study systems of support for the arts in eleven different metropolitan areas, including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh. Their findings include the observation that while the nonprofit arts sector flourished over the past decade, the sector continues to face a number of challenges, including shifting funding patterns and a public that is skeptical of government growth or increased taxes. As one of the authors commented in the report, “It is crucial that cities like Philadelphia realize how much the arts can contribute to other city goals, such as economic competitiveness, tourism, and quality of life.” [KMG]
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/exploration.html
There’s a great deal of interesting research going on at Vanderbilt University, and their in-house online research magazine titled “Exploration” offers up detailed stories about some of this compelling work. Visitors to the site will enjoy looking through detailed multimedia presentations on the cosmological nature of diamonds, the facts of life in a cancer laboratory, and those unstoppable racing neurons. Visitors can also browse these features by themes, which include social sciences, life sciences, and engineering. Additionally, visitors can sign up to receive RSS feeds and chime in with their opinions via a contact page. Overall, this site is quite a nice find, and one that inspire other universities and colleges to set up a like-minded site. [KMG]
http://www.electricboatproject.com/
If you thought Electric Motorboat Drag Racing was the name of a hip new band, you would be wrong. However, if you thought a moment and decided it might be a useful online hands-on physics project for students you would be correct. Drawing from a range of disciplines (such as engineering and physics) this site contains information for educators who seek to help their students learn about these fields in a way that is both educationally sound and quite a bit of fun. Visitors can start by reviewing the project rules and also looking through the online photo gallery, which includes video clips of the boats in action. Additionally, the site’s “Information for Teachers” section features information on how to create the actual boats and on how to effectively incorporate this project into their science curriculum. [KMG]
Jack London’s life included trips to the Yukon, a front-row seat at the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and many journeys aboard his beloved sailing vessel, the Snark. During his short life, London found time to write over a dozen novels, numerous short stories, and hundreds of articles on socialism and other weighty matters of his day. Later, he would also become the hero of another literary “Jack”, who happened to enjoy wandering on the road and in various subterranean locales. Maintained by Dave Hartzell, this site is a virtual cornucopia of all things Jack London, including full-text version of his novels, rare articles penned by London, and copious amounts of information about his family and his ranch in the Sonoma Valley. Visitors can also look over a number of scholarly works related to London, including a complete bibliography of his poetry and the first English-language translation of Dr. Vil Bykov’s two volume biography of London. Finally, visitors should not depart the site without taking a look at London’s first published story, “Two Gold Bricks”, which is also available here. [KMG]
With financial support from The Joyce Foundation, The Center for Responsive Politics created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Watch in 2001. As one might expect, the objective of the FEC Watch is “to increase enforcement of the nation’s campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws.” Students of political science and the general public will enjoy perusing this site, as they can learn about the Watch’s recent activities and also learn more about recent campaign reform activities in Congress. New visitors may wish to start by looking over the “How Things Work” section. Here they will learn about how the FEC enforces federal campaign finance laws and about related matters, such as rulemaking, litigation, and advisory opinions. Additionally, the Watch site contains a set of annotated links to other related centers, such as the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Brennan Center for Justice. [KMG]
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/faraway/index.shtm
Using this small web feature from the National Gallery of Art, visitors can closely examine four relatively fragile and little seen works from the Gallery's collections: The Triumph of Dionysus, ca. 1598, an etching by Pierre Brebiette; The Land of Cockaigne, 1564, an etching by Niccolò Nelli; seven scenes from The Journey to Constantinople, published 1553, a woodcut by Pieter Coecke van Aelst; and Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Nation, ca. 1710, a mezzotint by John Simon. What these works have in common (as well as the sixty works on paper on view at the museum thorough September 16, 2007) is that they were created to give Europeans a glimpse of distant and imaginary places, at a time when images were in much shorter supply than at present, and photography did not exist. Each print is presented with numbered details that can be moused over for more information. For example, in the mythical Land of Cockaigne there is a pot on top of a mountain of cinnamon that spews out pasta. It is also possible to zoom in on any of the images, for a close up of additional details, such as the turtle totem of Etow Oh Koam. [DS]
