http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/gawu/index.html

Noted Ghanaian artist El Anatsui works with a variety of found objects, including wood, ceramics, and discarded pieces of metal. For the past 28 years, he has lived in Nigeria, where he as spent a substantial time creating metal "cloths" from the aluminum wrappings from the tops of bottles from local distilleries. This utterly engaging online exhibit from the National Museum of African Art is offered as a complement to an in situ exhibit at the museum's headquarters. On the site, visitors will have the opportunity to listen to El Anatsui talk about three of the objects in this show via a podcast. Before doing so, they may wish to read through the "About the Artist" to learn a bit more about his life and artistic philosophy. After this, visitors will want to get into the thick of things by clicking on the "Artworks" area. Here, visitors can get a sense of his bold projects, which include the "Peak Project", which was inspired by "huge piles of detritus from consumption." All of these works are thought-provoking, and they could even be used in an environmental studies course. [KMG]

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/

From Raymond Chandler's hardboiled gumshoes to the decline and fall of the city's streetcar system, the City of Angels underwent a dramatic transformation from 1920 to 1990. This remarkable digital archive offered by the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections brings together over 5700 photographs from that period. Culled from the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News photographic archives of 3 million photographs, this collection covers topics that include religion, popular culture, urban development, law enforcement, and the entertainment industry. Visitors can browse through a list of subjects or search for specific items of interest by keyword. To get started, visitors may wish to search for "Bud Abbott", "Oil Wells", and "Urban renewal". [KMG]

http://www.villacicognamozzoni.it/sito/index.php

Italy has a surfeit of cultural treasures from the Renaissance, and they include tapestries, paintings, writings, and of course, various aspects of the built environment. One such piece of architecture happens to be the Villa Cicogna Mozzoni near Lake Lugano. This website conveys a bit of the sumptuousness and splendor of this 15th and 16th century hunting lodge built by the Mozzoni family. On this site, visitors can learn about the history of the grounds and buildings, read up on the gardens, and learn more about guided visits if they happen to be in Italy. The "History" section provides visitors with several fine visual images, including a woodcut of bear hunting in the region and a painting of Ascanio Mozzoni. Moving on, the "Villa" area provides a schematic drawing of the grounds, complete with a history of their evolution over the past five centuries. Finally, the "Gardens" area offers additional perspective on the evolution of this masterpiece of Italian Renaissance garden design. It is worth noting that the materials on the site are also available in Italian, French, and German. [KMG]

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/

Keeping cities clean and "green" is at the top of many policy makers lists these days, and the "Clean Cities" initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy is a great place to learn more about everything from alternative fuel sources to hybrid vehicles. Visitors to the site can sign up for their free electronic newsletter, take a look through the alternative fuels and advanced vehicles data center, and read through "Clean Cities Now", which is their quarterly newsletter. Policy makers and others will definitely want to click over to the "Coalitions" area. Here they will find information on how to start a coalition of local stakeholders to work on these issues in their area. Additionally, visitors can look through the "Coordinator Toolbox" area for information on how to fund various projects and how to communicate with fellow stakeholders and participants. [KMG]

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/

Martin Luther King Jr.'s last year of life was complex, and prior to his assassination he was involved in a number of ambitious projects. This compelling and thoughtful documentary produced by Kate Ellis and Stephen Smith of American RadioWorks (in cooperation with the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University) closely examines this period of King's life. The documentary is divided into five parts, which include "Beyond Vietnam", "King's Last March", "The FBI's War on King", and "From the Pulpit to the Heart". Interested parties can download the entire radio documentary, listen online, or read the transcript. Overall, it's a rather fine piece of documentary work, and visitors with an interest in this pivotal 20th century leader will want to pass this site along to friends. [KMG]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fitness/SM99999

The Mayo Clinic offers a wide range of outreach services for the general public, including websites providing basic information about cancer, smoking cessation techniques, and others. Their online Fitness Center website will be a real boon to anyone who is looking to pick up some basic fitness awareness, learn about strength training, or read up on sports nutrition. First-time visitors can start by reading through the "Fitness Awareness" area, which answers questions like "Why exercise?" and also provides information on getting warmed up before exercising. Further down the site's homepage, visitors can also use the "Ask a Mayo Clinic Specialist" to learn more treatments for hyperextended knees and other related maladies. Those who know exactly what they are looking for can use the "Find it Fast" feature on the left-hand side of the homepage to look up materials on everything from back pain to tennis elbow. [KMG]

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/

With its marine mammal style title, The Walrus magazine has been gracing Canadian newsstands and the web since September 2003. Their mission is to publish works by writers from Canada and elsewhere who are "curious about the world." Their homepage is visually stimulating and easy to navigate, and first-time visitors may wish to look over their various thematic sections to get a sense of the magazine's general tone and perspective. Some recently published pieces include "Grounded", which imagines a world without air travel and "Tripping on the Trans-Can", which is a collection of quotes and photos from journalists, policymakers and participants involved in the "youthful invasion" of the early 1970s when some 50,000 Canadian youths "bummed" across the country. The "Web Extras" is also worth a look as it features photo essays on Vanuatu, growing up Canadian in the 1970s, and the world of Canadian sports. After that, visitors may wish to dip into their online archive. [KMG]

http://www.coveringphotography.com/covering_photography.html

The special project of Karl Baden, photography professor at Boston College, Covering Photography is essentially a web-accessible database of book covers that feature photographs or photographic art work, provided "for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design." The database can be searched by a number of factors, including photographer, author, publisher, date, or designer. In Baden's own words, the database is not "completist"; rather it is highly selective, and therefore searching may not yield the expected results. Fortunately, it is also possible to browse by the search keys, rather than trying to guess at an appropriate search term. For example, proceeding to the P - T photographers reveals covers by Alec Soth, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen. Some entries have lengthy comments, such as the notes for The Great Pierpont Morgan, a biography of J.P. Morgan, with an Edward Steichen portrait on the cover. [DS]