General Interest
http://www.lib.utk.edu/arrowmont/
A fraternity for women, Pi Beta Phi, built a settlement school in Tennessee to honor the 50th anniversary of the fraternity. This website has digital collections of letters, diaries, and scrapbooks related to the founding of the school, as well as historical photos of the surrounding community and an interactive gallery of artwork that resides at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the institution that the settlement school has become. Near the top of the page is a link to a "Timeline" that puts the fraternity's founding and the opening of the school in the context of major world events. Visitors can start there to read a brief synopsis of each event on the timeline. To get look into what the school was like from a teacher's' perspectives, visitors should check out the beautifully digitized scrapbooks they made by clicking on the "Scrapbooks" link near the top of the page. Visitors should not miss the 360-degree image gallery to see every angle of some beautiful artworks that include a turned ash bowl and a raku vase. Click on "View Interactive Image" to start the art object turning, and then to slow it down or stop it or reverse direction, just drag the hand cursor onto the object. A zoom feature can also be accessed with the "+" or "-" at the bottom of the viewer. [KMG]
Originating from public radio station WBUR in Boston, "On Point" is a two-hour talk show that covers everything from news to poetry to science. The website provides the opportunity to listen to each hour of the show separately, which covers different topics. In order to read a few paragraphs fleshing out the topic and read who the guests will be, click on the title for Hour 1 or Hour 2, at the top of the homepage. For visitors interested in moving along straight to the show, click on "Listen to This Show". Previous shows, back to 2001, are available by clicking on the "Past Shows" link on the menu on the left-hand side. The Producer's Picks and Recent Shows, in the middle of the page, touch on pressing issues, such as the "Economy" and "Angry America" and seasonal topics such as "Bernd Heinrich's 'Summer World'" and "College Decisions" (click on "More Shows" to listen to the latter). [KMG]
http://ak.zoomorama.com/static/onetime/artsxsw/
The South by Southwest (SXSW) festival brings together distinguished speakers, musicians, social activists, and others every year. It seems they've also been dabbling in art, as this tremendous online art exhibition attests. Billed as the "world's first online HD art exhibition", the online collection contains over 280 paintings, including works from Gauguin, Cezanne, and Van Gogh. Using a visually unobtrusive icon, visitors can navigate the site through thematic subsections like "selfportrait", "portrait", "landscape", and "inspiration". At the top of the page, users can take advantage of the all images button (set just between the arrow buttons and the "Menu" button), which allows a broader view of all the images on the site. The left and right arrows to the left of the menu buttons allow visitors to scroll through each artist's section and the aforementioned thematic areas. As one might imagine, the level of detail that can be obtained from each painting is exquisite, and artists in particular will appreciate this flexibility. Clicking on the "Menu" button will allow visitors to email a selection to a friend, embed a link, and view copyright information. [KMG]
Established under the United Nations Charter, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the principal organ "to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions, and five regional commissions." First-time visitors may wish to start by clicking over to the "President's Corner". Here they can learn about the key issues addressed by the ECOSOC, which include climate change, financing for development, global public health, and peacebuilding. In the "Documentation" area, visitors can read up on the ECOSOC's latest resolutions, decisions, reports, publications, and newsletters. In the "Events" area, visitors can learn about upcoming commission meetings and joint conferences. The site is rounded out by a set of "Quick Links", which lead to information about their subsidiary bodies and their rules of procedure. [KMG]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/
Many have asked the question: "How do we understand the world around us?" Truly, it is a question that has animated discussion from Beijing to Bogota over the millennia, and it's one that motivates Melvyn Bragg, host of the BBC program "In Our Time". Drawing on guests from around the world, Bragg takes on science, culture, religion, philosophy, and history. Visitors can click on the "Archives" area to travel through past programs, organized by theme. The "Science" section alone is a real triumph, and with programs like "Neuroscience: Does the brain rule the mind?" and "The Multiverse", a group of friends could start their own mini-salon of ideas around the computer. Moving on, visitors can also sign up to receive Bragg's online newsletter and subscribe to the program's podcast. Finally, visitors can also throw their own three cents into the ring by offering their own commentaries via the "Have Your Say" comment form. [KMG]
The Media Lab at MIT has worked on all kinds of projects involving industrial design, nanotechnology, sturdy low-cost laptops, and so on. Their LabCAST site takes things to a new level, as visitors can check in on their latest endeavors via a set of video podcasts. The site has already won a Webby Award, and after visitors take a quick glance around, they'll see why. Currently the site has over 35 podcasts that include such titles as "The Psychology of the Guitar", "Urban Pixels", and "RoboScooter". One podcast that shouldn't be missed is "Storied Navigation". This particular podcast profiles a rather intriguing approach to constructing a story based on a collection of digital video and audio. Visitors can also elect to subscribe via RSS feed to receive new LabCASTs as they are released.
[KMG]
To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at
http://amser.org.
As a student of French and other languages, Jennifer Wagner has created this most helpful site to assist people looking for some basic language tutorials in French, Italian, German, and a number of other languages. The site currently contains fifteen language tutorials, divided into sections that include "French Slang", "French Phonetics", and "Italian I". First-time visitors can click on the "Language Tutorials" to look over other languages like Swedish and German, and they will find thematic subsections that cover nouns, subject pronouns, and adjectives. Moving on, the "Linguistics" section provides short articles that provide an overview of the field and some of Jennifer's writings on the biology of language. Finally, visitors shouldn't miss looking at Jennifer's weblog, which features her musings on living in the French city of Annecy. [KMG]
http://americanart.si.edu/education/picturing_the_1930s/index.html
Learn about the 1930s in the United States by wandering through this virtual version of an icon of the period, an Art Deco movie palace. Curators from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art are your guides to a collection of artwork, photographs, newsreels, songs, posters, and artists’ memorabilia. There are actually eight exhibitions in the theater: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. A guided tour is available for those new to the site. Visitors are also invited to select materials from the show, and use them to create their own documentary, which will become part of the exhibition - a movie-making tutorial can be found in the projection booth. [DS]
