General Interest
Over the past few years, organizations like National Geographic and the National Academy of Sciences have been offering up interactive features on their websites. Many print newspapers have entered this arena as of late, including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Recently, the Tribune offered up this tremendously interesting and visually engaging portrait of the effects of global warming on and around Antarctica. Visitors can start their travels through the continent by looking at the ways in which the thawing sea ice is taking its toll on the Adelie penguins, and then continue to learn about how scientists are attempting to reconstruct the history of various global climate changes. After that, they can take a 360 degree look around the South Pole and also listen to the voices of people who live and work on Antarctica. [KMG]
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/
Taking a page from Adam Smith, the motto of this delightful site is "Making the 'Invisible Hand' Visible." Under the guidance of Catherine Mulbrandon, the site brings together economic data and the powerful techniques of information visualization. She does this quite effectively through such thematic maps as "Where do Britain's rich and poor live?" and the "United States Household Income Map". Visitors can make their way through the maps here at their leisure, and also post their comments as they see fit. Additionally, users can look through the "Most Popular Posts" area and sign up to receive updates about new maps via email. Overall, the site is quite a find, and could even be used to spark debate and discussion in the classroom or around the break room. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/index.html
In June 1948, British and American pilots began delivering coal, flour, and other important items of sustenance to residents of West Berlin. It was known as the Berlin Airlift, and the event was one of the earliest serious crises of the Cold War. The noted PBS series, "American Experience", dedicated one of their episodes to exploring the Berlin Airlift, and this site complements that program quite nicely. The materials offered here include an interactive map of the airlift route, contemporary newspaper accounts of the Airlift, and a great essay on "The Chocolate Pilot". For those who don't know, the Chocolate Pilot was United States Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen, who had the excellent idea of delivering packages of gum and candy to the children of West Berlin via miniature parachutes. [KMG]
http://www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/maps/index.htm
Michigan State University has a well-known geography department, and an equally fine map library. On the map library's website, visitors will find a very nice selection of digital exhibits and maps. By clicking on the "Printable Maps", visitors will find a number of boundary maps that include those for the entire world and the continents. Moving on, the site also includes a section of scanned maps that includes historic maps of Michigan and a variety of 19th and early 20th century maps of Africa. Finally, visitors should definitely look through the "Exhibits" area as it includes an exhibit that explores the evolution of Michigan's roadmaps and the state's legal boundary. [KMG]
Headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, The World Conservation Union (IUCN) was founded in 1948 as the International Union for the Protection of Nature. Today, it is a network which brings together 83 nations, 110 government agencies, and 10,000 scientists and experts. For anyone with the remotest interest in conservation, this site will be quite a find, and one that might be worth returning to multiple times. From their homepage, visitors can learn about their latest research findings, which include everything from reports on the economic contribution of drylands to their annual investigation into at-risk species around the world. A series of tabs near the top of the homepage will help visitors navigate to sections that include "Our Work", "Commissions", "Regions", and "Get Involved". Users looking for research reports and general interest newsletters will want to click on over to the "Publications" area, which includes access to their in-house magazine, "World Conservation Magazine". Additionally, visitors can sign up to receive RSS feeds from the site. [KMG]
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/79.pdf
Throughout the United States, there has been a growing concern about the future of the racial and ethnic makeup of public school districts. After a number of prominent court decisions, some people have become concerned that many school districts will become segregated again in a matter of years. Recently, the Pew Hispanic Center's Rick Fry authored an important report on the changing racial and ethnic composition of U.S. public schools. The 17-page report was released in August 2007, and it offers a comparison of public school enrollment date from 1993 to 2006. One of the report's findings is that during this time period, "white students became less isolated from minority students while, at the same time, black and Hispanic students became slightly more isolated from white students." Interestingly, these trends can be traced to the tremendous increase in the number of Latino students in public school systems and throughout the country in general. [KMG]
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/workhouse.asp
Visitors to the digital archive of the Southwell Union Workhouse with an interest in British history and the broader concerns of social welfare will be positively enthralled. Visitors without an interest in this subject may very well leave with the desire to learn quite a bit more. Recently, The National Archives in Britain digitized records from 1834 to 1871 that document the history of this well-known institution. Along with learning about the history of these places more generally, visitors will find correspondence between the administrators of the workhouse and the central authorities, along with details of individual paupers and workhouse staff. Visitors might wish to start at the "Introduction" area, and then move along to the search engine. Finally, the "Further Information" area contains additional links that provide additional context on the subject of poorhouses. [KMG]
http://www.sfmoma.org/eliasson/data/index.html
SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) presents this interactive Web feature on Olafur Eliasson, a Danish/Icelandic artist who works primarily in large installations. The web site consists of four sections: Seeing Yourself Seeing; Art As Experiment; Your Experience Is Individual; and Why Take Your Time. The sections utilize video, texts and images to discuss Eliasson's approach to the art making process. Since Eliasson's major works are immersive installations, viewers' responses to the work are an important component, described in the "Seeing Yourself Seeing" section. "Art As Experiment" points out the collective nature of Eliasson's art-making process in his Berlin studio, where Eliasson often works with as many as three dozen collaborators. The title of the exhibition, "Why Take Your Time?" asks viewers to decide if the artist has wasted their time, or created a valuable experience, worthy of the time spent. There is a row of thumbnail images along the bottom border of the main page of the site and clicking anyone of these opens a form to post comments to the exhibition blog. [DS]
