http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/

National Journal magazine has been part of the political reporting and analysis landscape since 1969. Working with a team of crack reporters, they "provide foresight and insight to Washington's corridors of influence on a weekly basis." They cover a wide range of issues, including the state of Congress, defense, health care, and national security. On this site, visitors can read their cover stories, look through the table of contents, peruse a list of articles arranged topically, and check out their regular features. The site has some noteworthy multimedia features, including the "Hotline TV" section which contains links to short news segments and insider analysis of today's political issues. Right beneath this area is the "Columns" section. Here, users can view the latest columns by Charlie Cook, Mark Blumenthal, and John Mercurio. Finally, visitors should check out the weblogs, as they are quite good and include intelligent and informed responses to the different posts. [KMG]

http://shc.stanford.edu/events/archive.htm

Stanford University invites many distinguished guests to its campus in Palo Alto every year, and the Stanford Humanities Center certainly sees its fair share of those various talented individuals. In the past few years, the Center has worked to make more and more of their talks and lectures available to the general public via this site. The archive dates back to 2003, although the first lecture available online is from 2004. The guests include such figures as New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini, Marina Warner, and Richard Taruskin. For many of the lectures, visitors can play the talk or lecture directly from the site, or they can also download the file directly to their own computer. Additionally, visitors may also wish to check out the Stanford iTunes Podcasts site, as there is a link provided here as well. [KMG]

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/pleasevoteforme/

Independent Lens recently went inside a classroom in the Chinese city of Wuhan to witness a rather interesting experiment in democracy. Recently, elementary students at the Evergreen Primary School there were asked to elect a class monitor. Filmmaker Weijun Chen took his cameras inside the classroom to document this process, and the results are quite fascinating. Visitors to the site can learn about Chen and his work in "The Filmmakers" area. When here, visitors shouldn't neglect to read Chen's statement on democracy and to take a look at his biography. Moving on, visitors should also click on the "China" area. Here they will find information about China's one-child policy, their educational system, and some of the patriotic songs featured in the film. In the "Learn More" visitors can make their way through a collection of external links that complement the material covered in the film. Finally, visitors can watch a preview of the film and also offer their own feedback on the program. [KMG]

http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MAPS.html

Taking a geographic trip through the history of New Jersey just got much easier, courtesy of the Rutgers University Cartographic Services. There's really something for everyone here, as the site contains over 150 maps that cover glacier movements, historical county boundaries, early city maps and plans, and historical railroad maps. The site doesn't have a search engine, so visitors may have to browse around for a bit to find what they are looking for here. One collection that is definitely worth a look is "The Changing Landscape of New Jersey". Here, visitors can click on a specific county, which will lead them to a set of diverse maps complete with a brief set of facts about each county. Also included for each county are links to the county's historical society (if available), other historical collections for the county, and a helpful article entitled "A Historian's tips to students researching local history". [KMG]

http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=1529

Some very fine wares are on display in the online exhibit of decorative arts and drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection at the Massachusetts of Fine Arts, Boston. An excellent tour of 20 of the exhibit's almost 75 pieces is accessible with the click of your mouse. Just look for the bright red rectangular button with the word tour emblazoned on it in white, and you're on your way. The beginning of the tour gives a brief overview of the exhibit's focus, and clicking "Start Here" will take the visitor through each piece. For visitors who want to pick and choose what pieces to see in more detail, they can click on the thumbnails and use the red arrows next to the thumbnails to progress through the collection. Once the visitor is viewing a piece in detail, there are several ways in which to explore the piece. Clicking on the magnifying glass allows the visitor to examine the details of the piece, using the arrows to pan within the image, and clicking on "larger image" opens a new window to get a full view of the piece. And the fun doesn't stop there, visitors who wish share their splendid findings can click "Send as an ecard" to send out a message accompanied by the image of the piece they have enjoyed. [KMG]

http://health.nih.gov/

The Health Information portion of the National Institutes of Health website covers a wide range of topics. This consumer-oriented site includes Quick Links, on the left side of the page, to such topics as "Child & Teen Health", "Men's Health", "Minority Health", and "Seniors' Health". To browse health categories, the visitor can browse several different ways. They can browse under "Body Location/Systems", "Conditions/Diseases", "Procedures", and "Health and Wellness". On the left side of the page the visitor can also choose to search for Health Topics alphabetically and for those more inclined toward audio learning, visitors can listen to NIH Radio by clicking on "MP3 audio reports" on the right side of the page. The Research in Action feature in the top middle of the page offers insight into how humans hear. Just click on the picture above Research in Action to be taken to the article. For visitors who just can't find what they need on the Health Information site, there are a slew of Related Links near the bottom of the page, including Health Information on the Web, Health Newsletters, Health Databases, and Federal Health Agencies. [KMG]

http://rmoa.unm.edu/

The Rocky Mountain Online Archive contains archival collections in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico from 20 participating institutions. To view a list of these institutions, visitors should click on the "About" tab at the top of the page, then click on the link "Participating Institutions". Visitors can click on the "Browse the Archive" tab at the top of the page to browse by institutions, subcategorized by Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, or by subjects, which includes the subcategories of subjects, genre, and places. The genres represented are "Audio-visual", "Correspondence", "Diaries", and "Photographs". Visitors may find the abundance of oral histories available under the "Audio-visual" tab very interesting to explore. The "Inventory of the Alamo Navajo Oral History Project 1977-1984", "Inventory of Italians of Albuquerque Oral History Project, 1995-1996", and "Guide to the North Poudre Irrigation Company Oral history Collection" are just some of the many available oral histories. [KMG]

http://digitaltibet.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/

The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning presents this resource for the study of Tibet. Primarily a database of digital objects, Engaging Digital Tibet provides tools that should enable instructors to create valuable learning experiences. For each object, lengthy annotations are provided, often linked to various details of the item. A silk Hevajra Tapestry, ca. 13th century, can be displayed accompanied by 9 notes, contextualizing the piece, explaining that Hevajra is a semi-wrathful form of Buddha, discussing the symbolism of the tapestry, and that it was created for religious use. There is also a bibliographic note with citations for more information, both online and in print. Another example is a 20th century Medicine Buddha Wall Mural located inside the Amgon Monastery. The object comes complete with a formal analysis, pointing out that although the mural was created for religious purposes, it is indeed a work of art. [DS]