The Scout Report - December 10, 1999

December 10, 1999

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/1999/se-991124.html
Volume 3, Number 7 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates seven resources describing new research on the link between large-scale ocean circulation patterns and climate. [MD]
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Research and Education

Kosovo/Kosova - As Seen, As Told -- OSCE [.pdf]
http://www.osce.org/kosovo/reports/hr/part1/index.htm
Kosovo/Kosova - As Seen, As Told, Part II [.pdf]
http://www.osce.org/kosovo/reports/hr/part2/index.htm
Press Release
http://www.osce.org/e/docs/presrel/1999-087-mik.htm
Background paper
http://www.osce.org/kosovo/reports/hr/index.htm
Released on December 6, these two new human rights reports from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) document extensive human rights violations in Kosovo. Totalling more than 900 pages, the reports reveal human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict. The first report "presents probably the most extensive and systematic survey to date of human rights in Kosovo in the first half of 1999," based on hundreds of in-country reports and statements from nearly 2,800 refugees. The report concludes that in this period, which also saw the NATO air campaign, the province's Albanian population suffered the overwhelming majority of abuses. The second report covers the period between June 14 and October 31, 1999, when over 800,000 displaced Albanians returned to Kosovo. Analyzing human rights conditions and events in each of the five regions of Kosovo, the report finds that the vast majority of violations were committed against Kosovo Serbs, Roma, Muslim Slavs and others who were marked for revenge by the returned Albanians. Both reports are offered by chapter in HTML or .pdf format. A background paper and press release are also available. [MD]
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Chaos at Maryland [.ps, .tex, .zip, .tar, .tar.z, .pdf]
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/
US News has ranked the Maryland Chaos Group number one in the country (tied with University of Texas, Austin) for Non-linear Dynamics, or Chaos. Chaos is an interdisciplinary science founded on the idea that "nonlinear deterministic systems can behave in an apparently unpredictable and chaotic manner." The department's homepage has been divided into three main sections: General Info, Publications, and Pointers. The General Info section holds brief descriptions of the group's research interests as well as a Chaos Pictures Gallery. The Publications section will be of most value to researchers as it contains general references, abstracts, and papers. The online papers (which come in a variety of formats) consist of preprints and published articles on bifurcations, fractal basin boundaries, quantum chaos, general chaos, and more. Papers and abstracts are searchable. The Pointers section contains links to other chaos-related sites. [KR]
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USDA Forest Service Strategic Plan (2000 Revision) [.pdf, 217K]
http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/strategicplan/
Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment -- USDA Forest Service
http://www.fs.fed.us/plan/
Recently released, the draft 2000 Revision of the USDA Forest Service Strategic Plan focuses on long-term outcomes, such as the health of the land, water quality, and customer satisfaction. "The four goals of the draft 2000 Revision address ecosystem health, multiple benefits for people, scientific and technical assistance, and effective public service." Users can read the full text of the plan in .pdf format, browse the plan in HTML format, submit comments on each section, and view a summary list of all comments. The Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment homepage offers a number of additional resources, including the 1997 Strategic Plan, publications, and related links. [MD]
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All-in-One Biblical Resources Search
http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/goodacre/multibib.htm
Designed and maintained by Dr. Mark Goodacre of the University of Birmingham, creator of the New Testament Gateway (reviewed in the October 19, 1999 Scout Report for Social Sciences), this new site will find ready use among scholars and students in religious studies. Essentially a search page gateway, the site allows users to perform keyword and advanced searches of over 25 online Bible and religious studies resources. These are organized under four headings: Bible Versions & Translations, Biblical Resources Sites, Email Discussion List Archive, and Ancient World (Various). Most of the sites and discussion lists included are well-recognized scholarly resources, a number of which have been noted in past issues of the Scout Report. Search results are conveniently launched in a separate browser window, allowing users to keep the main page open for easy additional searches. [MD]
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Julian Samora Research Institute (JSRI) [.pdf]
http://www.jsri.msu.edu/
Located at Michigan State University, the JSRI "is committed to the generation, transmission, and application of knowledge to serve the needs of Latino communities in the Midwest." To that end, the Institute produces several series of reports and papers, which are also offered in full-text at the Website. The numerous publications (over 170) can be browsed by type (Institute Research Reports, Working Paper Series, Statistical Briefs, Newsletter, Published Books, etc.) and then by author and title (listed in chronological order). Paper titles link to an abstract which in turn links to the full text in HTML and .pdf format. Also available at the site are a collection of census diagrams and maps focusing on Michigan and the Midwest, a Migrant Labor Database, conference and events notices, a what's new listing, and general information about the JSRI. [MD]
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The National Education Goals Report, 1999 [.pdf, 709K]
http://www.negp.gov/
In September 1989, President George Bush met with the nation's governors in the first National Education Summit. In the wake of the summit, six National Education Goals (later expanded to eight by Congress) for the year 2000 were adopted. Released last week, the 1999 National Education Goals Report reveals that these goals will not be met, but the report does indicate that many states have made steady improvement on the 34 state indicators that measure progress toward the goals. Users can read the full text of the report in .pdf format at the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) site. Users can also see how their state rated via fact sheets and score cards, the former in HTML format and the latter in .pdf. In addition, the NEGP site offers weekly and monthly newsletters available at the site or through free email subscription. [MD]
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World Resources Institute [.pdf, RealAudio, PowerPoint]
http://www.wri.org/
The goals of the World Resources Institute (WRI) are to reverse existing environmental problems and avert future ones, foster active public and private involvement, and make environmental improvement compatible with economic growth. Their Website contains countless documents sorted by (worldwide) geographic location as well as subject area, including sustainable development, biodiversity, climate change, forests, governance, oceans and coasts, and trade. The site also features a news center with news releases, facts and figures, and audio reports (RealAudio); a Library and Information Center with full-text searchable postings of all WRI publications; and a Sustainable Development Information Center with data, maps, facts, and sustainable development publications. This comprehensive site goes beyond the surface of environmental issues facing much of the world today. [KR]
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Government Policy on Archives [.pdf, 3759K]
http://www.pro.gov.uk/archives/archivepolicy/default.htm
Laid before Parliament on December 2, this policy statement represents an effort to "promote awareness of the importance of archives throughout the public and private sectors and in the public mind more generally." The document explores the cultural and administrative role and potential of the archives sector in the UK and how they can make their holdings, especially in electronic formats, more readily available to researchers and the general public. Users can read the full text of the report (HTML or .pdf format) as well as an introduction at the Public Record Office (PRO) Website. [MD]
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EPA Publications Search
http://www.epa.gov/epapages/epahome/pubsearch.html
This new site, located off of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) search page, simplifies finding EPA publications. Users can search by document number, title, or keyword. Search returns include a brief abstract, URL, and reference to document format (HTML or .pdf). The site also offers a Guide to EPA Publication Numbers and more information about EPA publications in general. [MD]
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General Interest

Children orphaned by AIDS: responses from eastern and southern Africa [.pdf, 1863K]
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/children/young/orphrepteng.pdf
MS Word Version
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/children/young/orphrepteng.doc
Press Release
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/newyork12199.html
"Call to Action" [MS Word]
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/children/young/orphanaction.doc
Released on December 1, World AIDS Day, this new report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) explores the skyrocketing number of children in sub-Saharan Africa made orphans by the AIDS pandemic. The numbers involved are simply staggering. By the end of 1999, over 11.2 million children will be orphaned by AIDS, 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where over 16.3 million have died since the epidemic began. Before AIDS, the report reveals, approximately "2 per cent of all children in developing countries were orphans. By 1997, the figure had jumped to 7 per cent in many African countries - in some countries the figures run as high as 11 per cent." The report, available in both .pdf and MS Word formats, includes a brief introduction to the crisis and then provides case studies of responses to the orphan crisis in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Also issued on December 1 and available in MS Word format only, is a "Call to Action" from UNICEF, UNAIDS, and the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (BLCA), which includes a series of recommendations for governments and communities. [MD]
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Taken on the Road: American Mile Markers [Flash, QuickTime]
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/onTheRoad/home/index.shtml
Produced for Kodak by Second Story Interactive, designers of the PBS companion site to Not For Ourselves Alone (reviewed in the November 5, 1999 Scout Report), this site presents an amazing and ingenious project by engineer and amateur photographer Matt Frondorf. Frondorf spent six days driving across the country from New York City to San Francisco with a camera hooked to his car's odometer, automatically snapping a picture from the passenger side every mile along the way, totalling 3,304 photos. The result is an unpolished and captivating photographic tour of the nation, in which city melts into suburb, suburb into farmland, farmland to forests, mountains, deserts, and then back again. Users can experience Frondorf's trip via manual or cruise control. The first is an Flash picture viewer that allows users to cross the country mile by mile or every 25 or 100 miles, tracking their progress with an interactive, zoomable map. Visitors can click on any picture to see a larger version, and, if they like, send a postcard. The cruise control rendition of the trip is available in the form of four QuickTime movies offering pictures mile-by-mile in rapid sequence. Also included at the site is information on Frondorf and his project. [MD]
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WebWalker
http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/webwalker/
Airworld
http://www.airworld.net/
PHON:E:ME
http://phoneme.walkerart.org/
WebWalker "is a newsletter about the Walker Art Center Websites and digital culture on the net." The third issue features Airworld, net art by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, and Mark Amerika's PHON:E:ME. Airworld is designed to make readers question what they expect from a Website. At first, the site looks slick and commercial, but then one starts noticing oddities, such as a repeated slide graphic that will not fill in, linked to text does not quite match, and blurry images, all of which raise questions about what kind of site this actually is. PHON:E:ME was launched in June, 1999, and WebWalker coverage includes links to the work itself, a collection of essays, interviews with the artists, and viewer comments. Three issues of WebWalker are currently available, and instructions are provided for subscribing to future issues via email. [DS]
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Radio Diaries [RealPlayer]
http://www.radiodiaries.org/
Radio Diaries is a nonprofit radio production company which looks "to find extraordinary stories in ordinary places, to create original and moving first-person documentaries - true radio verite - from voices that are rarely heard." And that it does. Radio Diaries staff train all kinds of people -- from teenagers to the elderly -- to become reporters. These fledgling reporters create tapes about their area of interest, tell their stories, and send their product back to Radio Diaries. A collaborative editing process then ensues, and the end product is aired as part of National Public Radio's All Things Considered. The Radio Diaries site brings together an amazing range of recorded stories divided into adult and teen areas. Two examples of diaries on the site include a piece by a teenager from New York City with Tourette's Syndrome as well as the story of the last two known remaining Civil War widows whose husbands fought on opposing sides of the war. Users can listen to the recordings using RealPlayer, or they can read transcripts; other materials are occasionally included too. The site encourages users to send in their own story ideas and will provide even more support for creative ventures with their Handbook for Teen Reporters (available in January of 2000). The site also has a store section where tapes of various radio diaries are for sale. [REB]
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School Tales in 19th Century Fiction
http://www.schooltales.com/
Creator David Safier, prompted by an interest in educational history and almost 30 years of experience as a high school English teacher, has combined his love of literature with his belief "that good literature can also be good history." This collection of school tales includes passages drawn from nineteenth-century fiction about "common schools" (rather than costly private institutions). With one exception, all are works by US authors, including Mark Twain, Caroline Kirkland, and Edward Eggleston. Currently, there are tales from six writers with more in the works. Common themes are highlighted in the texts, including stories about the schoolmaster, punishment and revenge, students at work, and schoolmates. Introductions and commentaries (in the form of footnotes) are provided for each text. The numbered footnotes, when clicked, appear in a separate frame at the bottom of the page. The notes for each text are also available as a separate page. [AG]
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Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home By Emily Post
http://www.bartleby.com/141/95/
"Charm says everything--tact, sympathy, poise and perfect manners--always." Brush up on your manners for the holiday party season with the first edition of Emily Post's 1922 classic. Placed online last week by Bartleby.com (last reviewed in the September 3, 1999 Scout Report), the electronic edition includes all 627 pages, numerous illustrations of social cards and invitations, the original photographs, a helpful subject index, and select quotations. Users can browse the book in HTML format by chapter. Whether gentlemen or women of charm would like to know when to remove their hat or bow, how to issue and receive invitations, how to avoid bungling their formal dinner parties, or simply how to conduct themselves in the office or at home, they will find it all here, presented with style, grace, and authority. [MD]
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Meta-List.net
http://www.meta-list.net/
This site allows users to search for over 234,000 public newsletters and discussion lists by keyword or category and in thirteen different languages, although the interface is implemented only in English and German. Discussion list entries include a short description and an option to subscribe. Web interfaces for all the main languages are scheduled to be added over the next year. Non-German users are recommended to use the keyword search engine over the somewhat limited and Germano-centric category listings. Despite this, the site is an excellent resource, especially for non-anglophone users searching for mailing lists in their native language. [MD]
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Network Tools

iCab 1.8 Preview
http://www.icab.de/
iCab is a Mac-only Web browser loaded with features that offer a viable alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. While the iCab 1.8 free preview is fully functional, the browser does not yet support JavaScript or Cascading Style Sheets (this support is anticipated in the "iCab Pro" release which will sell for $29). iCab's strength is its integration with and support of the Mac OS. iCab supports such Mac OS features as OS 8.5 appearance, contextual menus, and proportional scrolling. iCab also supports OS 9's "Key Chain" feature. In addition, iCab also supports HTML 4.0 and recognizes Microsoft and Netscape HTML enhancements such as BLINK, MARQUEE, etc. For those doing Web design, iCab can automatically reload Webpages as soon as they are edited in a separate application, eliminating the need to switch to a browser to see the results of an edited Webpage. The current preview version will expire at the end of February 2000, though iCab will offer a free version of the $29 iCab Pro. [AF]
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Backflip
http://www.backflip.com/login.ihtml
Backflip is a free Web-based personalization and organization service. After creating an account, users can add any Webpage to their personal lists. The concept is similar to the standard bookmarks, but Backflip allows access to personal lists from any Web-connected device. Also, saved pages are organized into nested (hierarchical) categories and may be browsed by category or alphabetically by title. In Backflip's words, the service "organizes your sites into a Yahoo-style search engine -- created just for you." An additional appealing feature is that users have the ability to search only the pages in their personal lists and soon, any Webpage they have ever visited. Even though Backflip promises not to share personal information, there is a privacy/convenience tradeoff that every potential user needs to consider. [JB]
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Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (beta) [Window 95/98/NT]
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ie5/55pprevu/5.5/W9XNT4/EN-US/ie5setup.exe
Detailed Setup Instructions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/webtechnology/ie/setup.asp
Right after its release of version 5.01, Microsoft has made a beta version of Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 available to the public. Improvements in the new version include better support for DHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), and a new print preview feature. In addition, IE 5.5 (beta) offers an AutoSearch feature that allows users to select their search engine and display results in different ways, an AutoComplete feature that displays a drop-down list of potentially matching sites when users begin to type a URL, and a Radio Toolbar. Please note that IE 5.5 beta features Active Setup, which requires an active Internet connection after launching ie5setup.exe. More setup information is available from the Microsoft site. [MD]
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In The News

Martin Luther King Assassination Conspiracy Verdict
Jury Finds King Conspiracy -- Yahoo News
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/US/King_Family_Civil_Suit/
"Why we love conspiracy theories" -- BBC
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid%5F558000/558349.stm
Conspiracies & Extremism: Martin Luther King Assassination -- About.com
http://conspiracies.about.com/culture/conspiracies/msubmlk.htm
Martin Luther King Assassination -- Real History Archives
http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/assassinations/mlk.htm
The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: An Overview
http://www.parascope.com/mx/luther1.htm
MLK Bibliography
http://www-portfolio.stanford.edu/104334
National Civil Rights Museum Interactive Tour
http://www.midsouth.rr.com/civilrights/it1.html
Thirty-five years ago, on December 10, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior received the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. This week, Dr. King has again been very much in the news. On December 9th, a Memphis jury handed down a verdict that the 1968 assassination of the civil rights leader was a conspiracy rather than the act of lone gunman James Earl Ray. The verdict was the conclusion of a wrongful death suit brought by King's family against businessman Lloyd Jowers, who admitted on network television in 1993 that he was given $100,000 to arrange King's murder. King's relatives have long argued that the crime was never fully examined by the courts, and brought the lawsuit in an attempt to learn the truth. The family accepted a token settlement of $100 in damages from Jowers.

Yahoo! News is a good starting point to investigate the issues, offering this week's news coverage of the verdict, plus links to related sites on King, conspiracy theories, and Civil Rights. The BBC site features Washington correspondent Paul Reynolds's essay on the comforting nature of conspiracy theories and an archive of related articles. At About.com, editor Marc E. Fisher has compiled a guide to Conspiracies and Extremism that includes resources on the King assassination. Lisa Pease's Real History Archives has a Martin Luther King assassination section that summarizes the official story and its problem areas, and includes links to a variety of materials: citations for books, transcripts of television news shows, cartoons, and audio of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: An Overview contains six sections written and complied by Charles Overbeck, examining reasons for the growth of a conspiracy against King, background on James Earl Ray, and a lengthy bibliography. The MLK Bibliography is maintained by the Martin Luther King Papers project, and provides a searchable interface to approximately 2,700 bibliographic references for works on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, the interactive tour at the National Civil Rights Museum relates the long history of the Civil Rights movement in the United States and concludes with a view of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where King was slain. For more background, the Scout Report's database, Signpost Signpost, points to resources such as The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Memphis We Remember, and the Martin Luther King Directory[DS]
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The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1999. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing the entire report, in any format:

Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1999. 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.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, or the National Science Foundation.


The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout
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