http://www.mathaware.org/index.html

Voting is on the minds of many these days, including politicians, statisticians, policy wonks, and a number of talking heads. With that in mind, it's not surprising that the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics has offered up "Math and Voting" for the theme of Mathematics Awareness Month 2008. The site is full of compelling activities, contests, and thoughtful essays, and even those who feel some resistance to various forms of mathematics may find themselves completely won over. Visitors should click on the "Theme Essays" section to read insightful pieces like "Roles for Statisticians in Elections" by John S. Gardenier, D.B.A, and "Fair Majority Voting (or How to Eliminate Gerrymandering)" by Michel Balinski. After that, visitors can click through to the "Activities" area, where they can try different voting methods and watch and listen to talks on voting paradoxes and the mathematics of voting. [KMG]

http://www.rwjf.org/pr/type.jsp?catid=11

General Robert Wood Johnson was head of the Johnson & Johnson Company and was also a vice chairman of the War Production Board during World War II. In addition, he was a philanthropist, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was created in his name to help support and improve the health care of all Americans. The Foundation's website is a treasure-trove of interesting and timely information on their work and research, and the webcasts & video section is one that will delight and inform health care professionals, researchers, and others. Currently, the site has almost 90 webcasts which cover everything from childhood obesity to improving health care for the elderly. Additionally, the site also has a small selection of podcasts and videos which profile organizations awarded funding from the Foundation. [KMG]

http://www.urban.org/toolkit/issues/childwelfare.cfm

The Urban Institute has been actively involved in research on urban-themed policy issues and related matters for over four decades. One of their thematic research programs covers child welfare. On this site, visitors can learn about this program, look over recent research reports, and sign up to receive their electronic newsletter. The "About the Program" is a fine place to start, and here visitors will learn that their work includes research on the finances of child welfare programs, adoption, and kinship care. Further on down the homepage, users will find recent reports like "Who Will Adopt the Foster Care Children Left Behind?" and "Trends in U.S. Foster Care Adoption Legislation: A State by State Analysis". The site is rounded out by information on the program team and an area where visitors can sign up to receive the Child Welfare Research Program's quarterly electronic newsletter. [KMG]

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

Chest imaging is a common technique used by health care professionals to diagnose and treat a range of medical conditions. Persons attempting to learn about this technique may find this site valuable, as it provides an overview of chest imaging and radiology. Created by experts at the University of Virginia's Medical School, the site provides an introduction to the technique of taking chest images as well as reading and understanding chest x-rays. Moving on, the other useful materials on the site are divided into sections that include "Technique", "Anatomy", "Interpretation", and "Pathology". Each section is complemented with x-ray images, diagrams, and short tutorials. The site concludes with a short test which covers some of the key pieces of information offered here. [KMG]

http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp

The public interest organization, Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), was founded by Frederick van Zyl Slabbert and Alex Boraine in 1986. Their goal was to help find "an alternative to the politics of repression" and over time they came to work more generally on promoting sustainable democracy based on "active citizenship, democratic institutions, and social justice." First-time visitors will want to start by looking over the "Topics" area, which contains information about their work on human rights, peace building and dialogue, and active citizenship. Within each area, visitors can read book reviews, articles, monitoring reports, newsletters, and fact sheets. Moving on, visitors can also sign up to receive their newsletters which are released every month. It's a well-thought out site, and for persons with an interest in development issues, political science, and related fields, it's a site they will want to return to several times. [KMG]

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

Like environmentalists before him (such as John Muir), Aldo Leopold was a passionate advocate for conservationism. While he contributed to many disciplines, perhaps his best-known work remains "A Sand County Almanac", which was published shortly after his death in 1949. Leopold was a professor of game management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and this collection from the University of Wisconsin's Digital Collections group brings together his diaries and journals for consideration by scholars and members of the general public. The project was funded in part by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and visitors are welcome to browse through his voluminous journals at their leisure. Also, visitors can look at the online finding aid to his papers, which may be helpful for those looking to do more in-depth research in person. [KMG]

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-023JSpring-2007/CourseHome/index.htm

How will various institutions respond to global warming? It's a multifaceted question, and one that forms the basis of this thoughtful course offered by MIT's Sloan School of Management. Materials for the course are offered as part of MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative, and they include a syllabus, reading suggestions, lecture notes, and several assignments. The course was originally taught in the spring of 2007 by Professors Henry Jacoby and Ronald Prinn, and it also draws on research from the university's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Visitors can get a sense of the course's basic objectives by looking over the readings and the lecture notes, and interested parties may even want to take on some of the homework assignments offered here. [KMG]

http://www.croptrust.org/main/

Amidst the backdrop of climate change and staggering world population growth, many agronomists, scientists, and government leaders are concerned about both food security and availability. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is intimately concerned with such matters, and their primary goal is to maintain and preserve crop diversity through a variety of creative and innovative techniques. Information on the site is divided into five primary sections, which include "Crop Diversity", Programmes", and "Media Room". The "Crop Diversity" area is a good place to begin, here queries such as "What is crop diversity?" and "How is diversity conserved?" are given concise answers. As with many of the other materials on the site, Spanish and French translations of these writings are available as well. In keeping with this theme, visitors can also take in an interactive tour of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Scholars, journalists, and the generally curious will want to click on over to the "Publications" area. Here they will find copies of the Trust's annual reports, press releases, and video clips which describe the different facets of their work. [KMG]