http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/

The Nieman Watchdog Journalism Project at Harvard University is concerned with helping "the press ask penetrating questions, critical questions, questions that matter, questions not yet asked about today's news." It's a very laudable mission, and for anyone concerned with these matters, their website will be one worth returning to numerous times. Along the top of the homepage, visitors can investigate sections that include "Ask This", "Showcase", "Commentary", and "Discussions". In the "Showcase" area, visitors can learn about their online tools for journalists (such as "The History Commons"), take a look at recent Nieman reports, and read some self-reflective works on the future of investigative reporting. "Ask This" raises a number of timely questions, including tax reform, debt problems, and nuclear weapons. Lastly, the "Blog" area offers up expert opinion and editorial pieces from Nieman staffers and affiliates, and the pieces here address everything from civil liberties to the world of talk-show hosts. [KMG]

http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html//index.html

Written by Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita" is a Russian novel that blends magical realism with social satire in a spot-on effort that effectively skewers the bizarre bureaucracy and social order of the Soviet Union. The book features characters that include a talking black cat, a young poet, and a cast of others that poke in and out of the narrative. Upon reading this novel, some might wish for a website that provides a road map of sorts to all the activities and places in the book, and they would then be glad to learn that such a site exists. Created by Professor Kevin Moss at Middlebury College, this site provides illustrations from various editions of the novel, detailed maps depicting places discussed and mentioned in the novel, and a guide to the characters. Overall, the site is delightful, and one that serves as a nice adjunct to the actual work itself. [KMG]

http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/23/

Following in a long line of excellent online publications from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the Loci brings together a wide range of educational resources, interesting pieces of math history, and other ephemera for general consumption. On the homepage, visitors will find access to the "Convergence" site, which provides a range of teaching modules and activities for students. Also, users can avail themselves of the Loci-specific resources, which include such gems as "The Beauty of Parametric Curves". The site's homepage also includes "Featured Items" culled from the MAA's separate publications. Recent teaching materials featured here have included "The Most Marvelous Theorem in Mathematics", "Mountains of Fractals", and "How to Gamble If You Must". Finally, visitors can search all of Loci's vast resources via a search engine that sits on the upper left-hand corner of the page. [KMG]

http://diva.library.cmu.edu/Shull/index.html

In 1994, Clifford Glenwood Shull was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics. His career as a scientist started six decades prior at what was then the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Shull was known as the "Father of Neutron Scattering" and primarily known for his work on the neutron diffraction technique which was used to study condensed matter. This particular digital collection created by the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries allows interested parties to explore Shull's papers, correspondence, teaching materials, and other items related to his work. After reading a brief biography of Shull, visitors can click on through to the "Contents" area to get a better sense of the offerings available within the collection. In the "Access" area visitors can browse through the document series, which cover his time at MIT, the Oak Ridge Laboratory, and New York University. [KMG]

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf-net/

The birth of the Internet is the subject of this utterly engaging and well-thought out special report created by the National Science Foundation. After a brief introduction, visitors can browse through a multimedia site that includes video clips of early pioneers talking about their work on this endeavor, along with maps of Internet growth from the 1960s to the 1990s and documents such as the Lax Report. Interestingly enough the Lax Report, issued in 1982, was influential in the creation of the National Science Foundation's supercomputing centers. The materials are divided up by decade (1960s through the 2000s) and visitors can click on each section to learn about the advances and challenges faced by persons working in this field. Along the way, a small section in the bottom right-hand corner of the site keeps a running total of the baud rate and the Internet users in each decade. Of course, visitors will not want to miss the section dedicated to Mosaic, which was the browser developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in the early 1990s. [KMG]

http://www.asdlib.org/onlineArticles/elabware/thompson/Home1.html

Any aspect of forensic science can be quite tricky, and educators will be delighted to learn about this helpful educational resource designed just for them. Created by Professor Robert Thompson of Oberlin College this online forensic chemistry lab manual is designed to help chemistry faculty in developing forensic chemistry project laboratories for both undergraduate and graduate courses. In this manual, visitors will find sample preparations, procedural details, instructions for students, and typical results in a variety of formats. Along the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors can look through the forensic chemistry analyses, which include explosives, fabric, glass, and arson. The site is rounded out by a selection of "Stories", which are meant to provide the background for chemical analyses of crime scene samples. [KMG]

http://www.econstats.com/index.htm

For anyone looking for a vast cornucopia of economic statistics culled from all over the world, they need look no further than the EconStats website. The homepage is a bit visually cluttered, but one couldn't ask for better and more complete data, as visitors can quickly access a wide range of economic data from the United States, such as information about inflation, unemployment levels, productivity, new factory orders, and the price of crude oil. The homepage also contains links to economic data from Canada, Britain, Germany, the European Union, France, Italy, Russia, and China. On the right-hand side of the page, visitors can click through to interest rates for dozens of countries, check in on various stock markets, and look up commodity and futures prices. Those individuals looking for quick help with pressing questions can post queries to the "Econ Chat" section of the homepage. [KMG]

http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Four/index.html

It's pretty hard to argue with Professor Frank W. Elwell's list of great social theorists, as he brings together Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and other intellectual heavyweights on this site. The purpose of bringing together these luminaries and their writings is "to promote greater understanding of classical macro-social theory." A rather laudable cause indeed, and Professor Elwell has devoted sections to each of these authors, and several others, including Auguste Comte and W.E.B. Dubois. In each section, visitors can read selections from their major works and also click through to other relevant online resources. Finally, visitors can also learn about Professor Elwell's own scholarly endeavors, including his book "Macrosociology: Four Modern Theorists". [KMG]