The Scout Report - October 13, 2000

October 13, 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-001011.html
Volume 4, Number 4 of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. The In the News section annotates nine resources on dioxins and the dioxin reassessment initiative. [MD]
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Research and Education

NatureServe
http://www.natureserve.org/
A product of the Association for Biodiversity Information and the Natural Heritage Network, this site offers conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the United States and Canada. Users can keyword-search the database for plants and animals or ecological communities or browse by group. Search options for both categories include common or scientific name (or either), location, and conservation status. Search returns contain conservation status, distribution, and links to detailed reports (summary, conservation, distribution, comprehensive). Information about the data used at the site and a glossary are also provided. A fine resource for students and researchers in wildlife ecology and conservation. [MD]
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Global Development Gateway (GDG)
http://www.worldbank.org/gateway/
This new pilot project from the World Bank is designed as a portal for resources and tools on development issues, enabling those in the field to "share information, easily communicate, and build communities of practice around significant development challenges from the grassroots up." Currently, users can visit the site to learn about the project, its prototype features, and view the demo. At present, the demo offers country gateways for twelve nations. Each gateway provides numerous annotated links organized by topic under four categories: country guide; government and law; economy and business; and society, culture, and human development. News, a link to data, and a keyword search engine are also provided. At least 50 country gateways will be operational by June 2003. The demo also includes resources for selected topics and links to development-related news stories. Anyone interested in development issues will want to track the progress of this site. [MD]
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2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
http://www.iucn.org/redlist/2000/index.html
IUCN-The World Conservation Union has spent the past four decades working to provide objective, scientifically based information on the current status of the earth's threatened biodiversity. To that end, IUCN-The World Conservation Union has just released its much-anticipated Red List of 2000, listing the more than 11,000 species of the earth's plants and animals that face a high risk of extinction in the near future. Since the IUCN's last assessment in 1996, over 200 new animal species have become threatened, almost all as a result of human activities. The searchable IUCN Red List Website has ten sections: Introduction, Data Organization, Red List Programme, Summary Statistics, Sources & Quality, Categories & Criteria, Habitat Types, Threat Types, Image Captions, and References. Two search options (regular and expert) enable users to search by taxonomic classification, with four additional modifiers: Red List Category, Country, Geographic Region, and/or Marine Region. Typical returns include taxonomic details (scientific classification and common name), Assessment Information, Distribution (by country), and Summary Documentation (Biome). This seminal resource represents the most current and reliable information of its sort and is a "must read" for any one working on ecology or conservation. [LXP]
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Film-Philosophy
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy/files/
Part journal, part Internet salon, part discussion list, Film-Philosophy offers engaging and in-depth explorations of a wide variety of cinematic topics and lively email response and argument. Users can sign up to receive both the weekly review articles and discussion by email, or they may search and browse them at the site. The full text of all the articles from February 1997 to the present and discussion logs from February 1998 are available. In addition to articles from the current volume, the homepage lists calls for papers, film festivals, and related announcements. The site also features full-text book reviews, bibliographies, and links to journals, organizations, and sites about film philosophers (some broken links in the latter). Film-Philosophy is a terrific resource for film studies scholars and serious cinema fans. [MD]
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Public Bills before Parliament
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/pabills.htm
Provided by the UK Stationary Office, this site is an excellent resource for users interested in current British politics and legislation. Here users will find the titles and full text of all public bills before the House of Commons and House of Lords. The bills are listed alphabetically, and links are also offered to the full text of bills that have been passed and have received the Royal Assent and to the House of Commons Weekly Information Bulletin, which lists all public bills introduced in Parliament in the current session and provides information about their progress through Parliament. [MD]
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The Dreamer and the Doer - The Life and Work of Fiorello H. LaGuardia -- LaGuardia and Wagner Archives [RealPlayer]
http://www.laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/defaultm.htm
The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives has recently placed online a RealPlayer version of an NEH-funded, seven-part radio series on the life of fabled and fiery New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1933-45). The program offers a thematic account of LaGuardia's career, addressing topics such as LaGuardia and Labor, Health and Housing, and LaGuardia and Relief, among others. Well-produced and engaging, the radio program includes numerous clips from LaGuardia and various scholars. The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives hold a number of collections of interest to historians of New York and urban reform. In addition to LaGuardia and Robert Wagner, its collections include material focused on the New York City Housing Authority, Queens's Local History, Steinway and Sons, the New York City Council, Abraham Beame, and Edward Koch. For each collection, finding aids and searchable document, artifact, and photograph databases are provided. The latter offers access to collectively thousands of images online. [MD]
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SEARCH -- The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics [.pdf]
http://www.search.org
SEARCH is a nonprofit consortium created by and for the states and governed by a membership group composed of one gubernatorial appointee from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. SEARCH's primary objective is to assist state and local justice agencies that need to "exchange information with other local agencies, state agencies, agencies in other states, or with the federal government." To that end, it manages a number of special projects, including Law Enforcement IT, Integrated Justice, Drug Courts, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). An excellent selection of information and resources for these projects and others is offered at the site. The site also features other resource links, recent publications, highlighted articles, and related news. [MD]
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The Internet's Coming of Age
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9823.html
Not yet available in print, this forthcoming title from the National Academy Press (NAP) is accessible in its entirety online. Written by a committee of the National Academies's National Research Council, this new 176-page report "presents a detailed analysis of the Internet's infrastructure and provides a set of guiding principles for those who build and operate its components and for policy-makers who attempt to regulate it." It also identifies key trends in the evolution of the Internet and examines a variety of current and prospective challenges. As with all online NAP titles, the report can be read and browsed using the Open Book interface. [MD]
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Australian dissertations on Asia, 1999-2000
http://www.gu.edu.au/school/ais/asaa/austdistertations.html
Edited by R.E. Elson and hosted by the School of Asian and International Studies at Griffith University, this straightforward listing of recent Australian dissertations on Asia may be useful to students and scholars in Asian studies all over the world. Entries are organized by region and nation, with title, author, and abbreviations. Dissertation status (completed, in progress, started) is also noted. [MD]
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General Interest

Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes
2000 Nobel Prizes [RealPlayer, .pdf]
http://www.nobel.se/announcement/2000/index.html
Ig Nobel Prizes [RealPlayer]
http://www.improbable.com./ig/ig-top.html
Over the past week, the Nobel Foundation has announced the winners of its 2000 prizes, beginning with the prize for Physiology or Medicine and culminating with the Peace Prize this morning. This year's Peace Prize was awarded to Kim Dae Jung "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular." Press releases, general and advanced information, related links, and archived webcasts of the announcements are available for each of the winners at the Nobel site. On October 5, the tenth annual Ig Nobel awards ceremony was held at Harvard University. The Ig Nobel awards honor individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." This year's illustrious winners include, in the Physics category, Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Sir Michael Berry of Bristol University (UK) for using magnets to levitate a frog and a sumo wrestler, and the Peace award goes to the British Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!" A complete list of winners with links to further information is provided at the site, along with previous winners and an archived webcast of this and past year's ceremonies (free registration required). [MD]
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Drug Wars -- PBS Frontline [RealPlayer, Shockwave]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/
Drug-Wars -- NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/drugwars/
These sites are companions to the outstanding PBS Frontline program and National Public radio's (NPR) special on All Things Considered, both of which aired this week. Simply put, the two-part Frontline film was probably the most balanced and detailed examination of America's war on drugs ever aired on television. In addition, it contained numerous interviews with figures on both sides of the drug war, including people who had never before made themselves available to American journalists. Whether or not you watched the program, the companion site offers some excellent and engaging content. This includes video excerpts, charts and graphs, excerpts and unused portions from interviews featured on the program, as well as numerous features unique to the site, one of the deepest companion sites PBS has ever produced. The NPR site is a bit more modest, but it does offer the excellent radio reports from this week's All Things Considered special series. [MD]
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Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/splash.htm
Here's another fine example of the National Gallery of Art's use of the Web to supplement its regular exhibitions. Art for the Nation, on display at the gallery until February 2001, showcases 140 works that the museum has acquired since 1991. The Website currently presents in-depth features on four artists: Degas, Harnett, Vernet, and Verspronck, with plans to add ten more artists in the next three months. The features include analyses of the works in the show, as well related art that's not in the show. For example, the Degas feature begins with The Dance Lesson, the painting in the exhibition, and from there moves to a section on the young dancers, prima ballerinas, laundresses, and milliners that Degas painted; a sculpture photographed in the round so that we can see all sides; and a section on the media -- oil paint, monotype printing, pastels, and chalk -- that Degas used in his work. Those fond of art trivia may want to try guessing which artists will be featured next, by examining the image excerpts on the splash page. [DS]
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The Report of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain
http://www.runnymedetrust.org/meb/TheReport.htm
The Runnymede Trust
http://www.runnymedetrust.org/
Released to some controversy on October 11, this report from the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain calls on the UK government to make a formal declaration that Britain is a multi-cultural and multi-faith society. While the report authors emphasized their recommendations concerning education, employment, and criminal justice, critics in the Conservative party and press focused on the report's suggestion that use of the word British should be called into question because of its connotations of racial exclusivity and imperialism. The two-year study was coordinated by the Runnymede Trust, an independent think tank on ethnicity and cultural diversity. The full text of the report is not available online, but the Runnymede Trust has placed the full preface and chapter headings on its site. [MD]
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Poems that Go [Shockwave, Flash]
http://www.poemsthatgo.com
Launched in the spring of 2000, Poems that Go offers experiments with new media poetry, many of which are engaging and some even beautiful. The site offers new sets of poems each quarter, all of which require Flash or Shockwave. Past issues are available as is a nice collection of links to critical essays about the aesthetics of new media and poetry. Links to related projects and inspirational new media poems are also provided. It is unlikely that all the poems here will appeal to everyone (at least one contains a mature theme), but anyone interested in poetry and the aesthetic possibilities of new media will certainly want to take a look. [MD]
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Secrecy News -- FAS
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy, which works to "challenge excessive government secrecy and to promote public oversight," has recently launched this email publication. Distributed two to three times per week, Secrecy News contains stories on recent developments in secrecy and security policy and links to new materials placed on the FAS Website. A subscription form is provided at the site. [MD]
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Canadian Landscapes
http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/tsdweb/landf_new.asp
Provided by the Terrain Sciences division of Canada's Geological Survey, this site features photos taken by Survey scientists over the past 30 years. Users can browse this large collection of mostly unpublished photos via an interactive map or by province/ territory via a pull-down menu. Photos are offered as thumbnails which link to full-sized images. Each is accompanied by a caption describing the geological forces at work. [MD]
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Popular Science 50 Best of the Web
http://www.popsci.com/features/bow00/index.html
Popular Science has recently released the 2000 version of its annual listing of the Web's best science sites. The 50 sites are listed in ten categories, including visual science, science learning, the universe, and high technology, among others. Each site receives a brief review, and special features (video, audio, plug-ins, etc.) are noted. The sites included are not necessarily new; a number of them have appeared in the Scout Reports and other places, but they are all high quality resources worthy of notice. [MD]
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Network Tools

New IT-Search Engines from TechTarget
http://www.techtarget.com/
Since it was last reviewed (see the August 4, 2000 Scout Report), TechTarget has added four new IT-specific search engines to its impressive collection: searchWebHosting, searchSecurity, searchXMLResources, and searchWireless. These search engines are accessed via a pull-down menu on the main page. Each engine features a keyword search, daily related news, a collection of sites selected by the editor, a HelpDesk, and other resources. Registered users can save their searches for future reference, receive free daily email updates, and obtain free access to chats with experts and other users in that field. [MD]
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Google Adds More Languages
http://www.google.com/
Google, one of the Scout Report's favorite search engines, has added even more options to its multiple language search service. The new options are currently available for Beta testing, and users can search and receive returns in ten additional languages: Czech, Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Romanian. GoogleScout and cache functions are available in multi-language searches, though links to related categories in the Google Directory are not. Search returns and rankings will vary considerably based on the selected language. [MD]
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In The News

Peace Efforts Continue Despite Violence in Middle East
Mideast Peace Process -- BBC [RealPlayer]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/middle_east/2000/mideast_peace_process/default.stm
Mideast Peace Process -- Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/issues/mideastpeace/
"Palestinians, Israelis exchange gunfire at Ramallah" -- CNN [RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/13/mideast.violence.04/index.html
"European Union Leaders Meet With Peres to Arrange Mideast Summit" -- New York Times [RealPlayer]
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-EU-Summit.html
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/
Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/htmls/1_1.asp
IsraeLIVE [RealPlayer]
http://www.israelive.com/English/nc.htm
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/home.asp
Israeli Defense Forces
http://www.idf.il/english/news/main.stm
Palestine Times
http://www.ptimes.com/
Daily Star (Lebanon)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Jordan Times
http://www.jordantimes.com/
Syria Times
http://www.teshreen.com/syriatimes/
Arabic News
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/index.html
Palestinian National Authority
http://www.pna.net/
Israel and the Palestinians -- Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists' Index
http://cagle.slate.msn.com/news/mideast/main.asp
Israel and the Palestinian territories were relatively quieter today after yesterday's murder of Israeli Defense Force reservists and rocket attacks overnight by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Security and tensions remain exceedingly high, with a few gunfights between Israeli and Palestinian forces reported and an Israeli blockade of Palestinian territories. Some leaders from both sides declared the peace process dead yesterday, each predictably blaming the other party. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has invited right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to join a national emergency government. Sharon is very poorly regarded by the Palestinians, not least for his visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound twelve days ago which sparked the current round of protests and violence. Sharon has not publicly responded to the offer, but should he accept, the Palestinians will certainly be provoked even further. Faced with the prospect of violence spiralling out of control and the destabilization of the entire region, reinforced by recent attacks on a US warship and the British Embassy in Aden, UN, US, and European diplomats have been working feverishly to arrange a summit, possibly this weekend, to end the violence and put the peace process back on track.

The BBC's special report page includes breaking news, background, analysis, interactive features, audio and video content, and related links. The Washington Post's report also provides breaking news, archived articles, video content, background information, photos, commentary, and editorials. CNN and the New York Times (free registration required for the latter) offer analysis, archived reports, video content, photos, related links, and other resources. The latest stories on these events from an Israeli perspective are available from the Jerusalem Post,Haaretz Daily Newspaper, and IsraeLIVE. Official information from the Israeli government can be found at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Defense Forces Websites. Coverage from a Palestinian and Arabic viewpoint can be found at the _Palestine Times,Daily Star,Jordan Times,Syria Times, and Arabic News. Users will also want to check the official homepage of the Palestinian National Authority, although it was not available at time of writing. Finally, the crisis as seen by American and Canadian editorial cartoonists is presented at Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonist Index. [MD]
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The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout
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