The Scout Report - March 23, 2001

March 23, 2001

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.


In This Issue:

Subject Specific Reports

Research and Education

General Interest

Network Tools

In The News


Subject Specific Reports

Scout Reports for Social Sciences & Humanities and Business & Economics
Scout Report for Social Sciences & Humanities
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/socsci/2001/ss-010320.html
Scout Report for Business & Economics
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/bus-econ/2001/be-010322.html
The thirteenth issues of the fourth volumes of the Scout Reports for Social Sciences & Humanities and Business & Economics are available. The In the News section of the Social Sciences & Humanities Report annotates eight resources on the debate over campaign finance reform in the United States Senate. The Business & Economics Report's In the News section offers seven resources on recent economic developments in Japan.
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Research and Education

Tangled Roots
http://www.yale.edu/glc/tangledroots/
Hosted by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, this project has brought together over 200 documents and other items related to the history of American slaves and immigrants from Ireland and the links between them. The history of Afro- and Irish-American relations and the "whiteness" of Irish immigrants to America have long fascinated scholars, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that such a large collection of primary sources on the subject have been offered together online. Visitors may browse the archive of speeches, legal documents, letters, interviews, cartoons, and articles by author, subject, date, and document type. The majority of the documents featured concern only one of the two groups, but collectively they can be used to compare and contrast experiences, legal disabilities, and popular prejudices. Also featured at the site is a Making Connections section, which contains a series of document-based investigations of African- and Irish-American history, and a collection of annotated links. [MD]
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Report of the National Workshop on Internet Voting: Issues and Research Agenda [.pdf, 62 pages]
http://www.netvoting.org/Resources/E-Voting%20Report_3_05.pdf
Conducted by the Internet Policy Institute and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, this report made headlines earlier this month with its conclusion that online "voting from home" was not yet a feasible reality. The 62-page report finds that "remote Internet voting systems pose significant risk to the integrity of the voting process, and should not be fielded for use in public elections until substantial technical and social science issues are addressed." On the other hand, the report does recommend that trials of poll site Internet voting systems should be conducted in the next several election cycles to determine the convenience, reliability, accuracy, and feasibility of such systems. According to the authors, these monitored sites pose far fewer problems in terms of security. The report is a result of an Internet Policy Institute workshop conducted at the University of Maryland last October. Participants included election officials, political scientists, Web security specialists, and experts in voter fraud. In light of the problems in Florida during the last election and the new voter reform discussions occurring at both the state and federal levels, the report's publication seems particularly well-timed. [DC]
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ThinkQuest 2000 Winners
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/ic_2000_winners.html
ThinkQuest Homepage
http://www.thinkquest.org/
Advanced Network & Services Inc. recently announced the winners of their fifth annual ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, in which twelve- to eighteen-year-old students and their coaches create educational Websites. The 23 winning entries were submitted in the categories of arts & literature, science & math, social sciences, sports & health, and interdisciplinary. Best of the contest was an entry titled Sighting the First Sense - Seeing is Believing. Interested users can view the winning sites and finalists, and browse or search a library of entries since 1996 at the ThinkQuest site. More information on the competition and the Internet Challenge 2001 can be found on the Homepage. [MD]
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Trial of the Major German War Criminals - Update
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/
The Nizkor Project, one of the largest online repositories of primary documents related to the Holocaust (see the August 24, 1999 Scout Report for Social Sciences), has announced the completion of its four-year effort to place online the full transcripts from the Nuremberg trial of the major German war criminals. Consisting of "2,768 pages of encoded HTML," the transcripts document the entire trial, from the opening statements on November 20, 1945 to the verdicts handed down on September 30 and October 1, 1946. After completing this project, the staff at Nizkor have an even more ambitious follow-up: adding all of the documents entered into evidence and linking the entire set with other resources at the Nizkor site. [MD]
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Free Trade Area of the Americas
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) stems from a 1994 initiation to "unite the economies of the Western Hemisphere into a single free trade arrangement." The three main components of this agreement include the trade ministers from countries in the Western Hemisphere, twelve distinct working groups (such as market access, smaller economies, and competition policy), and the Vice Ministers of Trade of the Western Hemisphere. This Website follows the progress of the FTAA over the past seven years including reports and activities of all the working groups, information on business negotiation efforts, and a publication database of official documents. The Website is available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. [EM]
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Writing for the Web
http://www.ids.ac.uk/gdn/tools/writing.htm
New from Eldis and the Global Development Network, Writing for the Web is an easy-to-use tutorial examining the differences between communicating on paper and communicating online. The site is designed to help users present their research and writing effectively on the Web. It considers basic issues of usability, including how people read on the Web, problems with academic writing online, and how to rewrite research for Web presentation. The site also teaches the basics in good Web design and provides reviews of helpful Web tools. Each short lesson is concluded with related Websites for further information. [EM]
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Research & Reference Gateway: Research Guides: Business
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/business.shtml
An important resource from the Rutgers University Libraries, this business research resources guide puts the top business research sources in one easy-to-use place. The portal is divided into eighteen sections, including Business News Sources, Job Searching, Market Research, and Financing Your Business. Within each section, there are myriad well-organized sites complete with short annotations. The librarians responsible for this site have thoughtfully included dates for each section denoting when each part was last updated. [EM]
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Beyond Reason: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/ustat/
Newly released by Human Rights Watch, this report examines the recent history of capital punishment of mentally retarded offenders in the United States, offering "the first comprehensive human rights-based analysis of such executions." The report reveals that 25 US states still permit the execution of offenders with mental retardation and that at least 35 such offenders have been executed since 1976. The report explores the topics of mental retardation, legal standards, and criminal culpability, and tells the stories of sixteen individuals "who have been sentenced to death despite the profound intellectual limitations they have suffered since birth." The 50-page report may be read by chapter in HTML format at the Human Rights Watch site. [MD]
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Catholic College Search [.pdf]
http://www.catholiccollegesonline.org/
Recently launched by the National Catholic College Admission Association (NCCAA), this site is a handy resource for anyone who might be interested in attending one of the approximately 200 colleges indexed. Visitors may browse the index by name or region of the country or search by a number of options, including student enrollment, campus settings, undergraduate academic programs, ethnic diversity, and sports, among several other options. Results offer links to a quick facts page and to the school's official page. Quick fact pages contain contact information, an overview, school facts, and a listing of academic programs, sports, and activities. Separate sections of the site offer information targeted at prospective students, parents, counselors, and NCCAA members. [MD]
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Pharma-Lexicon
http://www.pharma-lexicon.com/
Designed with pharmacists and pharmacy students in mind, this UK-based site indexes over 18,000 pharmaceutical acronyms and abbreviations and their definitions. Users may browse the listings alphabetically or search by keyword. In addition, the site offers a number of (unannotated) links to related resources worldwide, such as hospitals, wholesalers, pharmacy schools, medical search engines, jobs, and news, among others. [MD]
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General Interest

The Reagan Tapes - NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/mar/010320.reagan.html
The Day Reagan Was Shot -- The Atlantic Monthly
http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/2001/04/allen.htm
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by John W. Hinckley Jr. as he left a Washington hotel. National Security Adviser Richard Allen and other key members of the cabinet met shortly afterward in the White House Situation Room to manage the crisis and keep the government on course. Presciently, Allen decided to forgo normal practice for the Situation Room and made an audio tape of the historic proceedings with the consent of all present. Twenty years later, Allen has made these recordings public and published transcripts in this month's issue of The Atlantic Monthly. On Wednesday, Allen appeared on National Public Radio's (NPR) Morning Edition to talk about the events and play selections from the tapes. Users can listen to the interview and the tape excerpts at the Morning Edition site and then read the article at The Atlantic site. Both provide a fascinating and clear account of the dramatic hours following the assassination attempt and the debates and personality clashes within the inner circle of the Reagan White House. [MD]
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The Swiss Poster Collection -- Carnegie-Mellon University
http://swissposters.library.cmu.edu/Swiss/
Carnegie-Mellon University presents this collection of 300 Swiss advertising posters, dating 1971 to the present. Many of the posters were winners in Switzerland's national poster of the year competition, and all are examples of Swiss graphic design, which the curators of the collection explain relies "heavily on composition, typography, and clear communication" and has had international influence. The curators also suggest viewers look for changing design trends over the approximately 30 years the collection covers. Viewers can take a "tour" of posters organized into fifteen broad themes such as Food & Drink, Fashion, Sports, or Politics, or search across the entire collection using preselected categories, dates, designers' names, or keywords. [DS]
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Blank Slate: The Story of A Charter School's First Year -- New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/bronxprep/
This Website posts articles from the New York Times' ongoing series on a charter school in the Bronx established last Fall. In addition to showcasing regular feature articles from the Times about the school's students, teachers, administrators, and environment, the site offers copies of the school's original charter documents, examples of students' written work, lesson plans, faculty bios, the school's newsletter, and video selections from the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration. Also posted are state-by-state data on charter schools and a graph showing the growth of charter schools nationwide. The site serves as a fine journalistic case study. [DC]
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Private Passions, Public Legacy - Paul Mellon's Personal Library at the University of Virginia [Flash]
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/mellon/
Last May,, the University of Virginia Library received 447 rare books, manuscripts, and maps from the estate of Paul Mellon, well-known philanthropist but also an enthusiastic (and well-heeled) collector of books, especially Americana and original documents of American history. The Library has created the first full-scale public exhibition of these works and created a companion Website to showcase some of the highlights of this extraordinary collection. The online exhibit consists of digital images, mostly of letters, accompanied by explanatory paragraphs. The items are arranged in five chronological sections, from Exploring the New World to Slavery and Civil War. Also included are a number of Flash-driven interactive features, including maps and an online version of the Myriopticon (available via the Slavery and Civil War section), which is modeled after the mid-nineteenth-century stagings of larger-than-life moving panoramic scenes. Anyone interested in either American history or book collecting will certainly want to pay a visit. [MD]
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The UN Works
http://www.un.org/works/
This new site from the United Nations briefly profiles individuals who have benefited from various UN programs. The profiles discuss how selected programs or agencies have contributed and also offer links to the homepages of each one cited. The site is quite modest in size compared to most resources featured in the Scout Report, but it offers an important glimpse into how the seemingly remote supernational programs make a difference on the ground. The site could also readily serve as a teaching tool for lessons on the UN and its activities. [MD]
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E-Vision [RealPlayer, Windows Media Player]
http://www.economist.tv
Here is another fine resource for news junkies from The Economist. This site will offer a rotating selection of video reports, aimed at an international audience, that analyze and comment on current topics of interest. The videos are grouped in six sections, covering world news, business, art and culture, science and technology, and interviews. The selections average about five minutes and may be viewed in RealPlayer or Windows Media Player formats. [MD]
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Congressional Quarterly [.pdf]
http://www.cq.com
Congressional Quarterly (CQ), a leading source for news on the US Congress for over 50 years, has recently announced its new Website. The site offers a daily bulletin (also available via email), a top breaking news story of the day, a daily and weekly column, and indexes of the CQ since 1998. Other features include a Capitol Hill jobs listing, a photo gallery, and information on paid services from CQ. In all, an authoritative but not overwhelming current awareness resource that should be valuable to anyone who closely follows US politics. [MD]
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A Sightseer's Guide to Engineering
http://www.engineeringsights.org/
Provided by the National Society of Engineers and National Engineers Week, this fun site helps users locate engineering marvels to visit in every state. Visitors to the site may browse by state, category, or engineering discipline, as well as search by keyword. The page for each site includes contact information, a brief description, a link to the official site, and a map. Users are also invited to submit additional engineering sights. Many of the listings seem rather brief. For instance, there are only sixteen sights for California, Texas, and Pennsylvania combined, but this Website is a fine starting point for the engineering-minded traveler. [MD]
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Congressional Pictorial Directory [.pdf]
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/107_pictorial/index.html
This week the Government Printing Office (GPO) placed online the Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 107th Congress. The online photobook may be browsed by state or alphabetically. Images of congressional leaders and officials are also included. [MD]
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Network Tools

Ethics In Computing
http://www.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/
Created and maintained by Professor Edward F. Gehringer of North Carolina State University, this site offers a good selection of thoughtful articles and essays on a series of topics related to ethics in computing. The writings are organized in eight categories accessed via an interactive map. These include privacy, intellectual property, speech issues, and social justice issues, among others. Selecting a category takes users to a list of topics, each of which links to papers and articles located off-site. Each topic page also contains a study guide and discussion questions or lecture notes. A nice, straightforward resource on an important topic. [MD]
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CNet Newsletters
http://www.cnet.com/subscription/0-16335.html?tag=nl
One of the top-two providers of online computer- and Internet-related information, CNet offers over 50 free email newsletters that help subscribers use the Net and their computers more efficiently. The newsletters cover a wide range of topics, and anyone who uses the Internet and computers on a regular basis should find something of interest. Descriptions of the newsletters are helpfully offered on a single page, and users only have to enter their email address once and then select the newsletters they would like to receive. Many newsletters are offered in both text and HTML editions. [MD]
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Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science [.dvi, .ps, .pdf, .gzip]
http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/research/publications/cjtcs/
Published by the University of Chicago Press, the Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that explores and discusses, you guessed it, theoretical computer science. The journal is very much aimed at scholars and students in the field, and these readers can access the full text of the articles from 1996 to present at the site (there is a voluntary subscription policy). The articles are listed in reverse chronological order, preceded by an abstract, and available for download in several formats. Also included at the site are a bibliography of over 360 books, articles, conference proceedings, and technical reports about self-stabilization or applications that employ stabilizing techniques. [MD]
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In The News

William Hanna, 1910-2001
Boomerang [QuickTime]
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/boomerang/
Big Cartoon Database -- Hanna Barbera
http://www.bcdb.com/pages/Hanna-Barbera/
"Legendary American cartoonist dies" -- BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid_1237000/1237370.stm
"The Passing of a Cartoon King" -- ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/DailyNews/hanna010322_obit.html
"William Hanna; Innovator in Television Cartooning With Joseph Barbera" -- Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/obituary/20010323/t000025191.html
"William Hanna, Who Created Cartoon Characters, Dies at 90" -- New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/arts/23HANN.html
MGM Animated Shorts - William Hanna
http://www.geocities.com/mgmshorts/creators/hanna.htm
William Hanna -- IMDB
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Hanna,+William
Scooby Doo
http://www.scoobydoo.com/
Randy's Tom and Jerry Cartoon Information Site
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6859/tj.html
Unofficial Flintstones and Hanna Barbera Homepage
http://members.optushome.com.au/webrock/
The Jetsons Unofficial Home
http://www.cybercomm.nl/~ivo/
Legendary cartoonist William Hanna has died at his home in Los Angeles at age 90. Hanna, along with his partner of over 50 years, Joseph Barbera, created some of the world's best known and most beloved cartoon characters, including Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and many, many others. Hanna got his start as a lyricist and composer with Harmon-Ising Studios, the company that created the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series, in the early 1930s. In 1937 Hanna moved to MGM and soon afterward partnered with Barbera. Their first success was "Puss Gets the Boot," a cat and mouse cartoon that earned an Academy Award nomination and provided the genesis for Tom and Jerry. Between 1943 and 1952 the team won seven Oscars for their animated shorts. After MGM closed its animation division in the 1950s, Hanna and Barbera formed their own company and moved to television, producing numerous successful animated comedies. Probably the best known of these were the Flintstones, a parody of the Honeymooners and the first prime-time cartoon series, and Yogi Bear, who was modeled after Phil Silvers' Sergeant Bilko. Over the years since its creation in 1957 the Hanna-Barbera company developed over 150 cartoon and live-action television series and produced more than 5,000 TV animations, winning eight Emmys in the process. As a testament to the continued appeal of Hanna and Barbera's characters, the Cartoon Network recently created the Boomerang cable network, which exclusively showcases the Hanna-Barbera library.

Readers would do well to begin exploring the artistic legacy of William Hanna with the official Boomerang site, which lists a different H-B cartoon for each year between 1958 (Huckleberry Hound) and 1976 (Jabberjaw), along with the hit movies and records and a few news items from that year. The site also provides a program schedule and some QuickTime clips. Another fine resource is the Big Cartoon Database's amazingly deep database of over 5,700 H-B cartoons. News reports on Hanna's life and career are available from the BBC and ABC News, while the Los Angeles Times and New York Times (free registration required) have printed obituaries. The MGM Animated Shorts page offers some background information and a detailed filmography of William Hanna's years at MGM. An even more extensive filmography of Hanna's works can be found at the Internet Movie Database. Finally, the official Scooby Doo page and fan sites dedicated to Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, and the Jetsons provide further information, sounds, images, and proof that we will never tire of watching Tom get smacked on the head by irons, frying pans, bowling balls, or any other heavy object that is handy. Thank you William Hanna. [MD]
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From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2001. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

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