http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/

It's a fairly difficult endeavor to reconstruct an Iron Age roundhouse, what with all of the archaeology training required and such. Persons with such interests who lack the necessary training need worry no longer, as the BBC has created a rather fine site that lets users take in many facets of archaeology, including the aforementioned roundhouse. From their homepage, visitors can delve into the latest archaeology news or go straight away to the "Excavations and Techniques" section. Within this section, visitors will find more detailed subsections, including "Techniques", "Recording Finds", "Types of Archaeology" and "Reconstructions". The "Types" section includes overviews of various fields of archaeology, complete with first-hand commentaries and photographs. The "Techniques" area includes a feature titled "The Story of Carbon Dating" and a piece on the relationship between archaeology and metal detecting. The site is rounded out by the "Reconstructions" area, where visitors can view that roundhouse and also look into the reconstruction of an Iron Age chariot. [KMG]

http://www.sba.gov/services/training/onlinecourses/index.html

The failure rate of small businesses continues to remain quite high, so those individuals wishing to start such an enterprise may wish to consult some of these free online courses. Offered as a service by the Small Business Administration (SBA), these courses come from a variety of organizations, including Kutztown University and the South-West Texas Small Business Development Corporation. Most of the courses take approximately 30 minutes to complete, and they include such offerings as "Starting Your Small Business", "Developing a Successful Business Plan", and "Building Your Brand". Other courses cover such timely matters as government contracting, risk management, and e-commerce. The site also features links to relevant resources offered by the SBA and courses available in Spanish. [KMG]

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/

Keeping tabs on important developments in the world of science can be rather exhausting, especially considering the number of websites dedicated to various fields of scientific endeavor. One very helpful way to do this is through the ScienceNOW site, which features daily news items from both ScienceNow and weekly news from Science magazine. First-time visitors should spend a few minutes just looking at some of the recent postings, which could include items on the use of genetically modified crops to land reclamation schemes in South Africa. Visitors can access all news items from the previous four weeks at no charge, and they may also wish to sign up to receive email alerts and RSS feeds. [KMG]

http://content.lib.washington.edu/jacksonweb/index.html

Henry M. Jackson served for over three decades in the U.S. Senate. First elected in 1941, Jackson was a strong supporter of the defense industries located in Washington and also found time to run for President in 1972 and 1976. Recently, the University of Washington Digital Collections program created the Henry M. Jackson digital collection for the use of scholars and anyone with an interest in political and state history. First-time visitors should read the essay about Jackson titled "A Legacy of Public Service" and then begin looking over the nice archive of photos. The photos are contained within fifteen different sections, such as "Atomic Energy and Hanford", "In Washington State", and "With the Kennedys". [KMG]

http://www.oscarwildecollection.com/

Added after its initial publication, the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray allowed Oscar Wilde to directly address some of the initial criticism of his rather controversial novel. Perhaps one of the most well-known epigrams offered in that statement is "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." Visitors to this site can read this preface (and the complete novel), along with many other works by Wilde. These works include "The Happy Prince and Other Stories", "A House of Pomegranates", and plays like "An Ideal Husband" and "The Importance of Being Earnest". Of course, visitors should not overlook his masterful poem, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". [KMG]

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/sousa/sousa-home.html

Arguably the most well-known marching band leader of all time, John Philip Sousa's music can be found in a number of likely places, such as 4th of July parades, and a number of less likely places, including the humorous introduction to Monty Python's flying circus. During his long life, Sousa composed hundreds of marches, fifteen operettas, and seventy other separate vocal works. This prodigious amount of work fits with Sousa's work ethic, which he summed up by saying, "When you hear of Sousa retiring, you will hear of Sousa dead." His work and legacy can be explored in this rather lovely online digital collection created from materials held by the Library of Congress. Visitors can browse over 100 photos, vocal scores, instrumental parts, librettos, and other printed materials on the site. The site also features 57 audio recordings, and visitors should listen in to such lesser-known works like the "Ye Boston Tea Party" march, performed by Sousa's own band. Finally, the site also includes a Sousa timeline, a discography of the Sousa Band, and several articles on Sousa's work and contributions to American culture. [KMG]

http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00o

When the Battle of the Somme ended in November 1916, over one million people were dead as a result of the intense fighting that had dominated the long battle front along the River Somme. Through the use of diaries, letters, maps, and photographs, this compelling online exhibit from the Imperial War Museum examines that long and difficult World War I land battle. These items are all contained within three sections: "The Battle", "Personal Stories", and "The Somme Revisited". In "The Battle", visitors can learn about the various aspects of this military endeavor and read essays on the German and Commonwealth armies. Moving on, "Personal Stories" features the recollections of 21 different persons involved in this conflict, including the first-hand memories of Robert Graves, who would go on to author the moving memoir, "Goodbye to All That". Finally, "The Somme Revisited" offers up some insights into the modern interpretations of this epic battle and a few short film clips of cameramen who were present along the Western Front. [KMG]

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2007/seurat/

This Web exhibition from MoMA accompanies Georges Seurat: The Drawings, currently on view at the Museum, a major show including 4 sketchbooks, around a dozen oil sketches and paintings, and over 120 single sheet drawings. While only a few examples of all these artworks are included at the Web site, the value of the online format is proven with the sketchbooks - it is possible to page through the sketchbooks and look at 9 or 10 selections from each - far more than can be shown at the Museum, where the sketch books are displayed open to only one particular page, at least on any given day. It's also easier to display background information in context on the Web, as evidenced by the lengthy section on conservation, which explains how the handmade paper that Seurat used to draw on was made as well as how the paper affected the look of his drawings. [DS]