General Interest
http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=podcast
What do passenger pigeons, coal mining in Kentucky and cattle ranching have in common? Not a great deal, perhaps, but they are all grist for the mill of the Nature Conservancy's most excellent "Nature Stories" podcast series. The series started in February 2006, and currently there are well over 100 podcasts available on the site. Visitors can browse through them at their leisure, sign up for the podcast feed via iTunes, and also listen in right here. There's much to recommend here, but visitors might want to start by listening to the "Son of a Coalminer" podcast about a father and son coalmining team and "Wild Crafting", which profiles a couple who earn their living by foraging mushrooms and other items in Vermont. [KMG]
When thinking about the history of photography, many will think about the annual exhibition catalogues of the Photographic Society, London. Fortunately, the talented individuals at De Montfort University have scanned and digitized all of the catalogues dating from 1870 to 1915. Currently the database contains over 45,000 records, which include detailed records of all the exhibits, reproductions of all the catalogue pages, all of the pictures of the photographs that were printed in the catalogues, and reviews of the exhibitions. Visitors can perform a detailed search across all of the catalogues, or just browse them by date. For those who might be working on a similar digital collection, the site also provides detailed information on the project, its methodology, and its execution. [KMG]
http://www.uniteforchildren.ca/
Recently, UNICEF Canada launched a new campaign to assist those living with HIV and AIDS, and this website provides copious information about this laudable initiative. First-time visitors may wish to start by clicking on "The Campaign against AIDS" area to learn more about the basic goals of the campaign and also to read some success stories from their work thus far. Moving on, visitors can stop by the "Countries in Focus" section to learn about their fundraising efforts that will help projects in countries like China, Guyana, Haiti, India, and Malawi. The general public as well as public health experts and officials will definitely want to browse on through to the "Publications & Resources" area. Here they will find fact sheets and reports on topics that include preventing mother to child transmission, prevention for youth, and providing pediatric treatment. [KMG]
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/moahtml/snchome.html
In the 19th century, Americans flocked to periodicals in a fashion that would have been almost unimaginable a few decades earlier. They had many to choose from, including Atlantic Monthly, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Scientific American, and the American Missionary. This rather fine collection brings select issues from these magazines (and nineteen others) together in one place, courtesy of the American Memory project at the Library of Congress and the Cornell University Library. Visitors to the site can search through the entire archive, or just browse through individual periodicals at their leisure. Some of the articles reflect popular pursuits of the day, but others take on more weighty matters, such as the November 1884 issue of the "New Englander and Yale Review", which offers up pieces like "An Analysis of Consciousness in its Relation to Eschatology" and "Virtue, from a Scientific Standpoint". Finally, visitors should not miss the project's special presentation, found near the bottom of the homepage, which provides historical background and essays on the periodical "Garden and Forest". [KMG]
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/eminent
If you're just casually taking a photograph of the Empire State Building can you get in trouble? It's not an unimaginable possibility as New York City officials recently considered regulations that would have required even everyday tourist-photographs to obtain a permit and $1 million in liability insurance to photograph or film in the streets of the city. This fine online exhibit is meant to complement a recent in situ exhibit that appeared at the New York Public Library, and it explores a number of the issues that this recent piece of proposed legislation raises. Visitors can look over photographs by Thomas Holton, Bettina Johae, Reiner Leist, Zoe Leonard, and Ethan Levitas and learn about their techniques, their photographic equipment, and their general philosophy as artists. Visitors should definitely look at Leist's work as it offers up images from his 26th floor apartment on Eight Avenue over the past decade. Additionally, visitors can submit their own related works for inclusion on a Flickr set and YouTube. [KMG]
Founded in 1985, the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) is "a nonpartisan research and educational organization which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media." The primary goal of the CMPA is "to provide an empirical basis for ongoing debates over media fairness and impact through well-documented, timely, and readable studies of media content." On their homepage, visitors can read through their latest press releases, and then move along to their "Studies" area. Here they will find timely studies on recent elections, previous elections dating back to 1988, and even reports on the political humor deployed by late night comedians. Visitors should also check out the "Media Monitor" area, which brings together current and previous issues of this bi-monthly publication which presents the central findings of their research studies. [KMG]
The Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, was created in 1973 as a way to bring together the English-speaking nations of the Caribbean in order to work towards a set of common goals. Their website allows visitors to learn about some of these common social and economic goals, and to learn more about the countries that are members of the organization. First-time visitors can click on the "Community" tab to learn more about the original agreement that created the Caribbean Community organization and also learn more about the regional issues that the organization addresses through its work. Moving on, the "Projects" area provides information on their renewable energy program and their work combating HIV and AIDS across the islands. Additionally, the site also includes a "Communications" area where visitors can read official statements issued by CARICOM throughout its existence. [KMG]
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/color_of_life/
This website from the Getty presents highlights from "The Color of Life", an exhibition of painted sculptures dating from antiquity to the present, that "reveal the many uses of color in figural sculpture over the course of four millennia." Examples shown here span from a terra-cotta head of a Greek God, probably Zeus, from 325 B.C. to Duane Hanson's polychromed bronze sculpture, Old Couple on a Bench, 1994-95. The exhibition slideshow provides 14 more examples, with curator commentary, such as a head of the cruel Roman Emperor Caligula, in both original (A.D. 31 - 47) and reconstructed views. The original was recovered during the Renaissance and scrubbed clean; the reconstructed version created in 2003, is in full color. [DS]
