The Scout Report - September 15, 2000

September 15, 2000

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 Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sci-eng/2000/se-000913.html
Volume 4, Number 2 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates nine resources on three recent projects that contribute to our understanding of global warming and ecosystem-wide responses to warming events. [MD]
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Research and Education

FDR Library places 10,000 Documents Online
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/safe.html
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum [RealPlayer]
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/
In an absolute boon to scholars and students, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library has recently announced the release of some 10,000 digitized documents, 6,000 of which are pages that had been locked in FDR's White House safe (Safe Files); the remainder come from the Vatican Files and German Diplomatic Files. The documents are offered as both digitized originals and text files. The Safe Files may be browsed by box (of six) and topic. Each topic heading indicates number of items, document types, and topics covered. The Vatican Files may be keyword-searched (all returns display in full-text on a single page) or browsed by box and topic. The German files are browseable by box and topic. While some copies of the original versions were unavailable at the time of initial review, they were accessible on subsequent visits. Additional resources at the FDR Library site include a collection of thousands of copyright-free photos, a K-12 Learning Center, finding aids, and related links, among others. Without a doubt, this is one of the finest online presidential libraries. [MD]
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"Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children" -- FTC [.pdf]
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/09/youthviol.htm
With a bit of fanfare, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released on September 11 a new 104-page report which accused the entertainment industry of marketing violent material to children, even when that material is labeled for mature audiences only. The report was conducted after requests by President Clinton and some members of Congress in the wake of the school shootings in Columbine, CO. The report finds that, though entertainment companies have taken self-regulating steps to identify mature content, they regularly target children under seventeen in marketing those same products. While recommending additional self-regulation by the industry, the FTC report does not call for any legislative remedies at this point. In a well-timed interview with the New York Times, Vice-President Gore chided the entertainment industry and stated that he would seek new regulations if the report's recommendations were not adopted within six months. The full text of the report is available in its entirety or by section at the FTC site, along with the official press release. [MD]
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ViVa: A Bibliography of Women's History in Historical and Women's Studies Journals - Update
http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/vivahome.htmlvivahome.html
ViVa (originally reviewed in the October 6, 1998 Scout Report for Social Sciences), a current bibliography of articles about women's and gender history, has announced the release of the complete bibliography online. Compiled at the International Institute of Social History, ViVa contains over 5,200 articles from 114 European, American, and Indian journals published between 1975 and 2000. To facilitate browsing, bibliographic citations are divided by the year of publication and then by the historical era of article content. The bibliography is searchable by keyword or via an advanced search with six variables. A list of journals indexed and a link to a related collection of women's history sites round out the site. [MD]
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Two from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) [.pdf]:
Teachers' Tools for the 21st Century: A Report on Teachers' Use of Technology [.pdf, 178 pages]:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000102.pdf
Executive Summary and Chapters One and Two [.pdf, 28 pages]:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000102A.pdf
The NPEC Sourcebook on Assessment [.pdf]
Volume 1: Definitions and Assessment Methods for Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Writing [.pdf, 118 pages]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000195.pdf
Volume 2: Selected Institutions Utilizing Assessment Results [.pdf, 52 pages]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000196.pdf
Interactive version:
http://nces.ed.gov/npec/evaltests/
In the past week, the NCES has issued two significant publications. The first, Teachers' Tools for the 21st Century: A Report on Teachers' Use of Technology, "uses multiple data sources to describe teachers' use of education technology in their classrooms and schools." It examines the availability of computer and Internet technology in the classroom, teacher training and preparation for using such technology, and the barriers that teachers encounter to its use. Key findings of the report include the fact that approximately half of the public school teachers who had access to computers or the Internet used them for classroom instruction and that the most frequently reported barriers to instructional use of computers were "not enough computers (78 percent), lack of release time for teachers to learn how to use computers or the Internet (82 percent), and lack of time in schedule for students to use computers in class (80 percent). The second publication, The NPEC Sourcebook on Assessment Volumes 1 and 2, offers "a tool for researchers who are seeking comparative data about the policy-relevance of student outcomes measured in the primary skills areas of critical thinking, problem solving, and writing." The first volume provides a "a compendium of information about tests" used to assess these skills at the postsecondary education level, while the second volume "presents a series of case studies at postsecondary institutions highlighting the successful use of assessment data for policy-related decisionmaking purposes." An interactive version of the Sourcebook is also available, though we found this to be more difficult to use. [DC]
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Front for the Mathematics ArXiv [.ps, .pdf]
http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/
The University of California-Davis Mathematics Department provides this searchable preprint database of mathematics articles. The Front is an "overlay" for ArXiv, a database from Los Alamos National Laboratories that covers other topics besides mathematics. The UC-Davis Front concentrates only on math articles and provides a user-friendly interface with a search engine. The Front does not redistribute the articles themselves, but instead links to ArXiv mirror sites. The site includes instructions for submitting to the ArXiv, but it does not process new submissions itself. Users may search by author, title/ID, words anywhere, or Cat/MSC. Abstracts and articles may be downloaded in .ps or .pdf format. The database can also be browsed rather than searched. Browse topics include algebraic geometry, combinatorics, complex variables, and classical analysis, among others, and sample subtopics for each category can be found in the Categories Writ Large section. Links to Mathematics journals (some require passwords and/or subscriptions), other overlay sites, and to the original Los Alamos ArXiv are provided, as are Help and Q&A pages. [HCS]
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The Federal Death Penalty System: A Statistical Survey (1998-2000) [WordPerfect, .pdf, .zip]
http://www.usdoj.gov/dag/pubdoc/dpsurvey.html
Released on September 12, this 356-page report reveals wide racial and geographic disparities in federal death sentences. In announcing the results of the survey, Attorney General Reno stated that she was "sorely troubled" by the racial disparities but did not believe the figures revealed any systematic bias in her department and ordered further studies. Critics of the death penalty immediately seized on the data to bolster their calls for a moratorium on all federal executions (the last of which was in 1963). The statistics are as follows: between 1995 and July 2000, US attorneys forwarded for review the cases of 682 defendants who faced capital charges (20% white, 80% minorities); the death penalty was recommended for 183 of them (26% white, 74% minority); Reno approved seeking the death penalties for 159 (28% white, 72% minorities); and 20 defendants were ultimately sentenced to death (20% white, 80% minorities). Users can download and read the report for themselves by chapter or in its entirety in Wordperfect or zipped .pdf format at the Department of Justice Website. [MD]
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Web Guide to Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers [.pdf, RealPlayer]
http://www4.nationalacademies.org/pd/postdoc.nsf
Released on September 11, this new 212-page report from the National Academies describes postdoctoral scholars, especially at universities, as "neglected, even exploited." After studying the employment conditions for the 52,000 postdocs currently working in the United States, a joint committee of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine determined that a number of reforms are badly needed. These include limiting postdoctoral appointments to five years, raising salaries, and strengthening the mentor system. At the National Academies site, users can access the full text of the report, read the opening statement and news release, and listen to the archived Webcast in RealPlayer format. [MD]
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EduPuppy.com
http://www.edupuppy.com/
EduHound.com
http://www.eduhound.com/
Launched on September 7 by Eduhound, EduPuppy bills itself as "everything for Education Preschool-Grade 2." Edupuppy is a large (2,600 sites) subject directory/metasite. The links are organized in over 40 main categories, and most are briefly annotated. The directory may also be browsed via an alphabetical list of keywords. Eduhound has a similar design, with 60 categories of K-12 resources and several additional features. These include a site of the week, a collection of "A+" sites, and EduHound Hotlists, a free service that allows users to create their own password-protected Webpage of educational resources. A smaller version of the site is available in Spanish. Both sites offer a free weekly newsletter delivered via email. Subscription information is accessed through a button on the main page. The first issue of EduPuppy Weekly is slated for September 26. [MD]
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Report of the FDA Retail Food Program Database of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors [.pdf]
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/retrsk.html
Released online by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 7, this 59-page report "establishes a baseline to measure how effective industry and regulatory efforts are in changing behaviors and practices that directly relate to food-borne illness in the retail food industry." Based on data collected from close to 900 institutional food service establishments, restaurants, and retail food stores, the report finds that three areas deserve special attention: improper holding times and temperatures, contaminated equipment, and poor personal hygiene. The full text of the report is available in HTML and .pdf formats. [MD]
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General Interest

The United States Government Manual - 2000/2001 [.pdf]
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/browse-gm-00.html
The latest version of this manual (first described in the September 12, 1997 Scout Report) has been posted by the National Archives and Records Administration and the US Government Printing Office. Like its predecessors, the manual offers comprehensive information on the branches of the federal government, departments, offices, and related bodies. The Manual's 690 pages can be retrieved in either text or .pdf format. Each department or office entry is listed separately, and entries include an overview and contact information. Subject and Name/Agency Indices are also included at the end of the Manual. [MD]
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UK online
http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/
Officially launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair on September 11, UK online is a partnership effort between the government, businesses, and trade and consumer groups "to make Britain a leading knowledge economy." This effort will include establishing 6,000 Internet training centers, creating a national online learning initiative (learndirect) that offers one million courses a year by 2002, increasing resources to help UK businesses get online (UK online for business), and attempting to place all Government services online by 2005. While many of UK online's features are still in development, the site does offer a number of useful resources at present. These include a listing of currently open Internet training centers, a number of online government services, and the UK online for business site. As UK online will soon serve as a single point of entry for all UK government information and services, any users who regularly access these sites will want to track its development. [MD]
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Still Home: The Jews of South Philadelphia [RealPlayer]
http://nmajh.org/exhibitions/stillhome/index.htm
This new online exhibit from the National Museum of American Jewish History (reviewed in the January 15, 1999 Scout Report) is an outstanding photographic and audio document of Jewish life in South Philadelphia. Once the vibrant center of the city's immigrant Jewish community with tens of thousands of residents, South Philadelphia now holds only about 400 mostly elderly Jews. The exhibit combines evocative photos with the residents's reminiscences of Jewish South Philadelphia's past and their thoughts on the state of their neighborhoods today. This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Jewish urban culture and the transformations of America's immigrant neighborhoods. [MD]
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Guide to E-Commerce
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/reference/guides/ecommerce/
Guide to E-Commerce is the newest resource from Catherwood Library at the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, Cornell University. Geared toward a novice audience, this guide offers basic information on E-commerce in its introduction, and the main body of the guide consists of a collection of thoughtfully annotated links. Along with general sites about E-commerce from a variety of commercial and academic sources, the guide also contains links to international ecommerce information sites, legal resources, US government sites, and online news and journals. This compilation offers an excellent collection of ecommerce sites for basic information and for keeping up with current issues. [EM]
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Prosperity for America's Families: The Gore-Lieberman Economic Plan [.pdf]
http://www.algore.com/pdf/gore_prosperity.pdf
This 196-page document from the democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates Al Gore and Joe Lieberman details their proposed economic plan for the United States. Their plan centers on issues of the American families, and their goals include "extending the life of Social Security and Medicare," increasing the family income by one third, and cutting the wage gap between men and women in half. The first chapter of the report describes the candidates's goals to tailor the American economic plan to help Americans and their families. The subsequent eleven chapters investigate the plan in greater detail, including proposed economic policies and budget outlines. The plan also links to the official Al Gore Website, which offers additional information about the economic plan. The proposal provides an in-depth view of the Gore-Lieberman economic plan in easy-to-read language. [EM]
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Rochester Images
http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/rochimag/
The Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, New York offers this substantial database of photographs and other images, both historical and contemporary, that depict the Rochester area. Sponsored by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and funds from the federal government's Library Services and Technology Act, the site's goal is to demonstrate that electronic access to images can be a boon to scholars and researchers. The images themselves, some 22,000 of them, can either be browsed or searched by keyword, or users can search a specific field (author, title, subjects, etc.); search results include thumbnails that link to full-sized pictures. A helpful Search Tips page offers guidance on searching the images. Providing increased access to visual materials has proven to be one of the Web's successes for many libraries and archives, and this site is a good example of what can be accomplished through a well presented digitization project involving visual materials. [SW]
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Spy Fi Archives: 40 Years of TV and Movie Spy Fiction -- CIA
http://www.odci.gov/spy_fi/index.html
This new site is a companion to the Central Intelligence Agency's Fine Arts Commission's physical exhibition of selections from Danny Biederman's private collection of over 4,000 items related to movie and TV spy fiction. The online exhibit features images and (some) descriptions of 26 items from television shows such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,The Avengers,Get Smart,Mission Impossible, and Wild Wild West, and movies such as Our Man Flint,Dr. No, and Austin Powers. This unique and entertaining collection is a nice diversion for any fan of pop culture spy TV shows and movies. [MD]
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The Bureau of Atomic Tourism
http://www.atomictourist.com/
This travel guide fills a very specific niche, offering travel information on "tourist locations around the world that have either been the site of atomic explosions, display exhibits on the development of atomic devices, or contain vehicles that were designed to deliver atomic weapons." These are divided into two categories: Atomic Museums and Sites of Atomic Explosions. Even those not specifically planning an Atomo-centric getaway may find numerous items of interest. For instance, on reviewing the site, I discovered that Bikini Atoll is now considered one of the world's foremost dive destinations, with its ghost fleet of ships sunk in A- and H-Bomb tests. Descriptions of each location include an overview, what you'll see, public tours dates and times, and how to get there. Links to official and/or related sites are also provided. [MD]
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Network Tools

Mac OS X public beta
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Macworld Mac OS X coverage
http://macworld.zdnet.com/subject/macosx/
Apple Store
http://store.apple.com/
On Wednesday, during his keynote address at Apple Expo Paris, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the public beta release of Mac OS X. Mac OS X (read OS ten) is Apple's next-generation operating system and represents the largest overhaul of the Mac OS to date. Mac OS X promises to bring key technical features such as protected memory (which prevents an individual application from crashing the entire system) to the Macintosh platform for the first time. In addition to completely replacing the underpinnings of the Mac OS, Apple is also working on overhauling the user interface for OS X. The new interface, known as "Aqua," sports a translucent candy-colored look and adds a new feature called "the dock" to the bottom of the screen. According to Apple, Mac OS X beta is supported by any Macintosh that shipped with a G3 or G4 processor except for the original PowerBook G3; Apple recommends 128 MB RAM. To run older applications in the "classic" environment also requires a copy of Mac OS 9; the CD doesn't include one. The public beta of Mac OS X is available only from the Apple online store; the price for the CD is about $30. [PC]
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Google Launches New Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Search Services
http://www.google.com/
Press Release
http://www.google.com/pressrel/pressrelease34.html
Google recently announced the availability of four new language versions of its search engine: Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. This brings the total number of supported languages at Google to fifteen, and the company promises to add Hebrew, Greek, and Russian by the end of the year. All international language services are accessed through the Language, Display, & Filtering Options link on the Google main page. Users can view Google pages in their preferred language and search for content in a specific language. Language preferences can also be saved for future visits. [MD]
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In The News

Summer Games Underway in Sydney
Sydney 2000 Official Site
http://www.olympics.com/
NBCOlympics.com
http://sydney2000.nbcolympics.com/
Sydney 2000 -- New York Times [RealPlayer]
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/15/olympics/15CERE.html
Olympics 2000 -- BBC [RealPlayer]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/olympics2000/default.stm
Sydney 2000 -- ESPN
http://espn.go.com/oly/summer00/index.html
Sydney 2000 -- CNNSI
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/
Sydney Games -- Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/
Olympic Buzz
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/depts/olympicbuzz/index.html
On Friday, nearly 11,000 athletes from 200 countries strode into the newly built Olympic Stadium in Sydney to open the 2000 Olympic Summer Games. Watched by a crowd of 110,000 and an estimated television audience this evening in the billions, the ceremony was filled with pomp, ceremony, fireworks, dancing, and everything else that might be expected. While due attention has been paid to the various elements of the ceremony and the athletes, press coverage has focused on two events at the opening. First, athletes from North and South Korea marched into the stadium under one unification banner to a standing ovation. Second, the Olympic flame was lit by Australian Olympian Cathy Freeman, who is of aboriginal descent. Preliminary events have already begun, and the games will continue until October 1.

The official site of the Olympics offers the latest stories and results; in-depth coverage of each sport, athlete, and country team; and information on Sydney. NBC's site focuses on television coverage of the games, with video highlights, television schedules, news stories, background information, and more. The New York Times special section features new and archived stories indexed by sport, a map of venues, athlete profiles, medal count, photo and multimedia galleries, and postcards from the Times's correspondent, among other offerings. The BBC's Olympic special contains breaking news, background reports, audio and video features, special features, and a photo gallery. ESPN's Olympic page includes news and analysis of selected events, headline news, columnists, a schedule, venue information, and a number of other features. CNNSI's coverage includes top stories, articles, a day-by-day guide to viewing the games, and feature sections for each some of the most popular events. The Sydney Morning Herald offers news and opinion on the games from a local perspective, with breaking stories, commentary, features on various events, and the latest results. Olympic news from a decidedly different and less-reverential perspective is available at Olympic Buzz. [MD]
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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2000. 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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The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout
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