The Scout Report for Social Sciences - July 11, 2000

July 11, 2000

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

The target audience of the new Scout Report for Social Sciences is faculty, students, staff, and librarians in the social sciences. Each biweekly issue offers a selective collection of Internet resources covering topics in the field that have been chosen by librarians and content specialists in the given area of study.

The Scout Report for Social Sciences is also provided via email once every two weeks. Subscription information is included at the bottom of each issue.

In This Issue

Research

Learning Resources

New Data

Current Awareness

In The News


Research

Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic -- UNAIDS [.pdf, Excel, PowerPoint]
http://www.unaids.org/epidemic_update/report/index.html
Released ahead of the thirteenth International AIDS Conference, which began on July 9 in Durban, South Africa (see this report's In the News section), UNAIDS's second comprehensive report is sobering reading indeed. For the first time, the impact of AIDS on young people has been calculated, and the report concludes that up to half of all fifteen-year-olds in the most severely affected African countries (primarily sub-Saharan) will eventually die from HIV/AIDS regardless of whether rates drop substantially in the near future. Worldwide, the report finds that some 34 million people are infected and that "Barring a miracle, most of these will die over the next decade or so." Speaking on NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday, Paul Delay, Chief of the AIDS office at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) stated that life expectancy in the affected countries has been reduced by 20 to 30 years on average, setting development back 50 years or more. The massive infection rate, averaging 10 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, with 20 percent of inhabitants in South Africa and nearly 36 percent in Botswana living with the disease, has begun to devastate the economy and social services. There are, however, a few success stories. For instance, the infection rate has been almost halved in Uganda thanks to a strong prevention program, and progress has been made at a local level in India, Thailand, and Brazil. The full text of the 135-page report is available in .pdf format in its entirety or by chapter in English, Spanish, and French. Country-specific estimates and data are offered in Excel format, and a number of PowerPoint slides are also available. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

Child Poverty in Rich Nations -- UNICEF [.pdf, 33 pages]
http://www.unicef-icdc.org/pdf/poverty.pdf
In mid-June, UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center released a data report on child poverty in the industrialized world. The report offers statistics on the number of children in developed countries who live in relative and absolute poverty -- the first defined by living in a household with an income of below 50 percent of the national median, the second defined by the now 35-year-old formula first developed during President Johnson's War on Poverty, usually referred to as "the poverty line." Some of the more dramatic findings: one in every six of the "rich world's" children is living in poverty, and in the statistical table of relative child poverty, the bottom four places are occupied by the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Law.com [free registration required]
http://www.law.com/index.html
Describing itself as "a single, comprehensive destination for legal information, e-law services and legal products on the Web," this Website offers law students, legal professionals, business firms, and the general public news and information on the law. Lawyers will find here such items as the complete text of the latest edition of the American Lawyer with its listing of the top 100 law firms in the country. Law students can take advantage of features about schools, transferring, and recruiting, as well as links to professional associations. Businesses can find news and analysis of recent issues in business law as well as updated, annotated links to business law sites. For the public, the site offers news and analysis on prominent legal issues, such as recent Supreme Court decisions and the Wisconsin suit against the EPA over formulated gasoline. In addition, an online Real Life Dictionary of the Law gives accessible definitions to over 3,000 common legal terms. The search engine for the site draws on a surprisingly extensive archive -- for instance, we received more than 350 returns for "bankruptcy" -- making this site also a manageable resource for legal research, especially for practicing lawyers, journalists, and the general public. While this is a commercial site offering to sell law books, pamphlets, multimedia materials, and various online services, there is a considerable collection of free materials for users. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Buying Time: Television Advertising in the 1998 Congressional Elections [.pdf]
http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/cmag_temp/download.html
This new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law presents a "comprehensive overview of the scope and content of candidate, party, and interest group television advertising in the 1998 congressional elections." Using a new data source -- "media tracking information generated with the help of recently developed computer technology" -- the study provides a detailed map of presence and influence of television advertising in political campaigns and examines the relationships between so-called issue-advertising sponsored by special interests and PACs, party-controlled advertising, and candidate-directed advertisements. These different types of advertising are considered in the light of the ongoing congressional and judicial debate over the constitutionality of limits on such ads and the often shakily defined differences between them. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Learned Publishing [.pdf]
http://www.alpsp.org.uk/volcont.htm
Learned Publishing, a journal for publishers and librarians on academic publishing from the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, is now available online. Issues from 1995 to the current July 2000 issue can be accessed at the address above. The journal has been made available by Catchword Electronic Publishing and currently can be accessed for free and without registration. Users can download articles in .pdf format, and a table of contents email alert service is also available. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Learning Resources

Human Origins Program: In Search of What Makes Us Human -- Smithsonian [QuickTime]
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/
The Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian "is dedicated to understanding the biological and cultural foundations of human life." Their new site gives visitors an accessible and informative tour of the current state of human paleontology. At the heart of the site is a hypertext family tree of early human phylogeny that helps users see not only the relations between various incarnations of human ancestors, but lets them click on parts of the timetable to examine fossil evidence and read about the discovery of and conclusions drawn from crucial skull bones and fragments. Another section allows users to examine three key fossilized skulls with QuickTime, so that one can rotate the skull and zoom in on key features. The What's Hot! in Paleoanthropology section offers readable summaries of key professional articles published in the field in the last three years. Finally, users are invited to ask questions via email of the paleontologists at the Human Origins Program. Some of these will, no doubt, be posted in the yet-to-be completed Frequently Asked Questions portion of the site. Ironically enough, materials for the latest entries in the human family tree, including Homo sapiens, are still under construction. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

How Race is Lived in America: "Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation" -- New York Times Special Series
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/070600kleinfield-hiphop.html
Last Thursday, The New York Times published in print and online its twelfth installment in an ongoing report on race relations in America. This latest installment examines the culture of hip-hop through the story of one particularly sincere and knowledgeable white aficionado who has gained an unusual measure of credibility with many black performers and critics. The story explores the tensions inherent in a music created by African-Americans primarily for African-Americans, but which is financed by white-owned corporations and, some argue, co-opted by white, middle-class young men. Like the other eleven installments -- which deal with race in such areas as religion, the army, politics, education, childhood friendship, family, and more -- the article is unusual for its nuanced and affecting presentation of racial tensions in America. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
http://ech.cwru.edu/Default.html
Sponsored jointly by Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society, this excellent online text offers hundreds of articles on the history of Cleveland. There are two categories of articles in the Encyclopedia, general entries -- short articles of 200 to 500 words -- and interpretive essays -- "longer articles of 500 to 4000 words that explore major topics in local history." Both feature numerous hypertext links to related entries as well as photographic images that can be expanded to full screen. (These images may also be examined in a separate gallery on-site.) The encyclopedia features an alphabetical as well as a subject index and can be searched by title, text, and subject. A Reader's Guide and a bicentennial timeline of Cleveland history are also offered as supplementary text. New articles are added on a regular basis. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Education World: "Students Flunk U.S. History Test: Congress Calls on Teachers to 'Redouble Efforts'"
http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues100.shtml
This report from Education World focuses on the results released last month of a survey of the knowledge of American history among college seniors at America's elite institutions. Five hundred students at the nation's best colleges and universities took the one hundred-question phone survey conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) at the University of Connecticut. "Sixty-five percent of the students -- from such schools as Yale, Northwestern, Smith, and Bowdoin -- failed to 'pass' the test and only one student answered all 34 questions correctly." Among some of the more surprising results: 26 percent of the students asked thought the Articles of Confederation, rather than the Constitution, established the division of powers between the states and the federal government; and 34 percent could not correctly identify the axis powers during World War II. The results have caused sufficient consternation in Congress to lead to the passing of a sternly worded resolution calling on public schools to do better in educating students in American history. The article offers links to the resolution as well as to the survey results, the test, and the correct answers. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Jelly Roll Morton -- Chicago Tribune Web Special [RealPlayer, Flash]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/ws/front/0,1413,77,00.html
This Website from the Chicago Tribune examines the career of one of America's great jazz performers and innovators, Jelly Roll Morton. The site features a three-part series examining the rise and fall (and posthumous return to glory) of one of a handful of performers credited with inventing modern jazz in the 1920s. Drawing on court and copyright records, personal letters, archival material, and financial documents from New York to Los Angeles and Chicago to New Orleans, Tribune writers have stitched together a story of the exploitation of a great musician by the American music industry, his business associates, and even close friends. A discography accompanies this story, offering selections from newly discovered scores composed by Morton in the last years of his life -- revealing that his creativity extended beyond his heyday in the 1920s, as well as shorter selections from earlier compositions, and an interview with Wynton Marsalis discussing Morton's influence. Also included are a photo gallery of Jelly Roll Morton, a biographical timeline, a 21-minute video featuring interviews with four leading Chicago jazz musicians discussing Morton's contribution to American music, and links to related Websites. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Civilrights.org [.pdf]
http://civilrights.org/
Billing itself as the "definitive source for civil rights on the net," this Website "aims to serve as a central repository and trusted intermediary for information on a variety of civil and human rights issues." The site provides information on recent policy issues and legislation, a civil rights library, which includes materials on the 2000 Census, and a section devoted to supplying support and materials for educating students and adults about civil rights. An event calendar and newsletter can also be accessed from the site as well as a copy of a recent report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights entitled "Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System." The report can be browsed in HTML or downloaded in .pdf format. Annotated links to hundreds of organizations involved in Civil Rights issues are listed in the site's main directory; click on "our coalition." Civilrights.org is maintained by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Perspectives on Television and Radio [RealPlayer8]
http://www.mtr.org/perspectives/
The Museum of Television and Radio has brought to the Internet interviews with well-known people in television and radio. The goal of this project is to have radio and television personalities "talk about the creative process behind their work." Currently the site offers video interviews with ten people, including Mike Wallace, Mary Tyler Moore, Julia Child, Steve Allen, and Norman Corwin. The interviews for each person have been segmented by topic, allowing users to view short portions of each interview. [AG]
[Back to Contents]

Theatre History on the Web
http://www.artsci.washington.edu/drama/jack.html
Maintained by Professor Jack Wolcott, emeritus of the University of Washington School of Drama, this well organized Website provides an annotated directory of links to resources on Theatre history from classical Greece to the present. The directory is broken down into Web Navigation and Web Tools; Area Studies; Cultural Sites (offering background on the theater of different times); and Centers, Museums, Libraries. This should be a useful reference for students doing research in the theater on the Web. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

The Stoic Place
http://www.wku.edu/~garreje/stoa.htm
Probably everything you always wanted to know about stoicism but were too stoical to ask is available on this Website. The brainchild of Western Kentucky University philosophy professor, Jan Garrett, the Stoic Place gives a fairly detailed introduction to the ideas of ancient and modern stoics, clearing up some misconceptions along the way -- such as the notion that stoics were supposed to be indifferent to pleasure. Also included here are full online texts of philosophers of stoicism as well as links to other sites holding texts, recent academic work on the stoics, and information on (and a link for) joining the International Stoic Forum. Go ahead, indulge yourself. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

New Data

"Highlights of Women's Earnings in 1999" [.pdf]
http://stats.bls.gov/pdf/cpswom99.pdf
In 1999, median, weekly earnings of male, full-time wage and salary workers were $618, while female, full-time wage and salary workers earned only $473, approximately 23 percent less. Data from this report come from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of the US Census Bureau, and represent nearly 50,000 US households. The main body of the report contains eighteen data tables, including "Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, 1999 annual averages," "Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and sex, 1983 and 1999 annual averages," and "Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by sex, marital status, and presence and age of own children under 18 years old, 1999 averages." The report also contains several pages of highlighted findings, in a browseable, bulleted format. [EM]
[Back to Contents]

2000 World Population Data Sheet
http://www.prb.org/pubs/wpds2000/
Posted in late June by the Population Reference Bureau (see the November 17, 1998 Scout Report for Social Scienceshttp://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/socsci/1998/#4 ), this publication "contains the latest population estimates, projections, and other key indicators for all geographic entities with populations of 150,000 or more and all members of the United Nations." The data are broken down by standard variables such as birth and death rates, infant mortality and total fertility rates, life expectancy, percentages of populations with HIV/AIDS, population of rural vs. urban, increases in population rate, "doubling time" at current rate, projected population totals for 2010 and 2025, and more. These variables may also be examined by region. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Three New Additions to the American Religion Data Archive (ARDA) [MC4, SPSS, ASCII]
Middletown Area Study, 1997
http://www.TheARDA.com./archive/MAS97.html
Middletown Area Study, 1998
http://www.TheARDA.com./archive/MAS98.html
National Religious Attitudes Survey of Catholics, 1997
http://www.TheARDA.com./archive/NATREL.html
The ARDA (see the December 11, 1998 Scout Report) has recently added three significant data sets of interest to academics in religious studies or sociology. The first two come from an ongoing annual survey of people who lived within Delaware County, Indiana. The survey poses questions regarding "life satisfaction, education, income, family, religion, and politics." The 1997 study assessed religious beliefs and practices, among other things, while "the 1998 survey was designed to assess the nature of congregations, the 'unchurched,' and caregiving in 'Middletown.'" For both, a detailed description, codebook, internal search engine, and downloadable files in several formats are provided. The third data set comes from a national survey of Catholics on "controversial issues facing the church today." A description, codebook, files, and variable/ survey question search engine are also provided. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

General Data Dissemination System -- International Monetary Fund
http://dsbb.imf.org/gddsindex.htm
The International Monetary Fund has created the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS), a system of metadata collection intended to "guide countries in the provision to the public of comprehensive, timely, accessible, and reliable economic, financial, and socio-demographic data." This site offers information from and about the countries participating in the GDDS. The project's main goals include improving the creation of country information, as well as creating a standard for the dissemination of reliable, current, thorough, and accessible economic, socio-demographic, and financial information. The data on participating countries, which include Fiji, Albania, Uganda, and Kuwait, may be accessed through a menu system, by country and by topic. The site also contains a helpful guide to the General Data Dissemination System, as well as a What's New? section and a soon-to-be-added FAQ. [EM]
[Back to Contents]

Current Awareness
(For links to additional current awareness on tables of contents, abstracts, preprints, new books, data, conferences, etc., visit the The Scout Report for Social Sciences Current Awareness Metapage: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/socsci/metapage/).

Two on the 1999 Supreme Court
ACLU Summary of the 1999 Supreme Court Term
http://www.aclu.org/court/2000summary.html?cw6
Supreme Court Roundup -- Policy.com
http://www.policy.com/reports/supremecourt2000/
On June 28, the Supreme Court handed down its final rulings for the 1999 term in a flourish of historic decisions that included striking down a "partial-birth" abortion law, upholding by a 7-2 vote the Miranda decision, and according private organizations the right to exclude members whose known sexual orientation was considered to be at odds with the organization's values (see the June 30, 2000 Scout Report). The two sites above offer overviews of the court's last term. The ACLU provides an advocacy-based summary of the term, commenting on the likely consequences of each decision of the past year for issues of civil liberties. Policy.com has collected their Supreme Court Roundup articles published over the last nine months offering summary and analysis of the Court's major decisions. Because of the potential impact on consitutional freedoms, the ACLU summary examines some of the lower profile cases that Policy.com passes over. Policy.com also provides links to relevant Websites devoted to the Court or constitutional issues. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

New Working Papers

Blau, Francine D. and Lawrence M. Kahn. "Do Cognitive Test Scores Explain Higher US Wage Inequality?" -- Russell Sage Foundation Working Papers [.pdf, 69 pages]
http://www.russellsage.org/publications/working_papers/blaukahn_cognitive.pdf

Lichter, Daniel T. and Diane K. McLaughlin. "Economic Restructuring and the Retreat From Marriage" -- Russell Sage Foundation Working Papers [.pdf, 58 pages]
http://www.russellsage.org/publications/working_papers/lichter_marriage.pdf

McGee, Rosemary (with Andy Norton). "Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategies: A Synthesis of Experience with Participatory Approaches to Policy Design, Implementation and Monitoring" -- Institute of Development Studies, Working Paper Series [.pdf, 84 pages]
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/publicat/wp/Wp109.pdf

Palloni, Alberto. "Demographic Analysis: New Theories, New Models and New Data" -- Center for Demographic Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison [.pdf, 33 pages]
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/cdewp/2000-01.pdf

Palloni, Alberto. "Living Arrangements of Older Persons" -- Center for Demographic Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison [.pdf, 73 pages]
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/cdewp/2000-02.pdf

Raphael, Steven and Michael Stoll. "Can Boosting Minority Car-Ownership Rates Narrow Inter-Racial Employment Gaps?" -- Russell Sage Foundation Working Papers [.pdf, 37 pages]
http://www.russellsage.org/publications/working_papers/stoll.pdf

"Social Equality in New Zealand" -- International Social Survey Programme, Department of Marketing, Massey University [.pdf, 4 pages]
http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/gendall/Social%20Equality%20in%20NZ%20.pdf
[Back to Contents]

New Think Tank Policy Papers and Briefs

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP):
Turetsky, Vicki. "What If All the Money Came Home?"
http://www.clasp.org/pubs/childenforce/pilr2300.htm

Economic And Social Research Institute:
Regenstein, Marsha, Christy Schroer, and Jack A. Meyer. "Medicaid Managed Care for Persons with Disabilities: A Closer Look" (for the Kaiser Commission) [.pdf, 46 pages]
http://www.kff.org/content/2000/2179/A%20Closer%20Look.pdf

Overseas Development Institute:
Wily, Liz Alden. "Land Tenure Reform and the Balance of Power in Eastern and Southern Africa"
http://www.odi.org.uk/nrp/58.html
Payne, Ian. "The Changing Role of Fisheries in Development Policy"
http://www.odi.org.uk/nrp/58.html

RAND -- Health:
"Helping Adolescents Resist Drugs" (Research Report on Project Alert)
http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB4518.1/

The Urban Institute:
Moon, Marilyn. "An Assessment Of The President's Proposal To Modernize And Strengthen Medicare" (for the Commonwealth Fund)
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/medfutur/moon_pres_371.asp#introduction
[Back to Contents]

New Offerings from Academic Publishers

Association of American University Presses: New Releases
http://aaup.uchicago.edu/new_releases/

Baker&Taylor Academia -- Upcoming Books to Buy (July 2000)
http://www.baker-taylor.com/Academia/M07/Home.html

Cambridge University Press
http://www.cup.org/books/hot.html

Basic Books: New Releases
http://www.basicbooks.com/newreleases.html

Thela Thesis -- Just Published
http://www.thelathesis.nl/new.html

Perseus Publishing -- Book News (click on category)
http://www.perseuspublishing.com/booknews.html
[Back to Contents]

Conferences

Infoethics 2000: right to universal information in the 21st Century (UNESCO)
November 13-15, 2000
Paris, France
http://webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/index.html

Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) 2000
November 16-19, 2000
Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
Orlando, Florida
http://w3fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Call%20for%20Papers/CFPhome.htm

Nanovic Institute for European Studies: Globalization and Cultural Diversity in Europe
December 8-10, 2000
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
http://www.nd.edu/~nanovic/conference.html

International Symposium on Structural Equation Modeling
December 13-15, 2000
Worldwide Center for Professional Education
St. Charles, IL
http://www.ssicentral.com/symposium/symposium.htm
[Back to Contents]

New Tables of Contents/ Abstracts

Annals of Tourism Research (table of contents only)
Volume 27, Issue 4
http://www.elsevier.nl/cdweb/journals/01607383/viewer.htt

African Affairs (table of contents, abstracts, full-text [.pdf])
Volume 99, Issue 395 (April 2000)
http://www3.oup.co.uk/afrafj/hdb/Volume_99/Issue_395/

Music and Letters (table of contents only)
Volume 81, Issue 3 (August 2000)
http://www3.oup.co.uk/musicj/hdb/Volume_81/Issue_03/

Applied Geography
Volume 20, Issue 2
http://www.elsevier.nl/cdweb/journals/01436228/viewer.htt

Health Education Research (table of contents, abstracts, full text [.pdf])
Volume 15, Issue 3 (June 2000)
http://her.oupjournals.org/content/vol15/issue3/index.shtml
[Back to Contents]

Job Guides

H-Net Job Guide
http://www.matrix.msu.edu/jobs/

The Chronicle of Higher Education Job Openings
Humanities
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/humanities/links.htm
Social Science
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/sscience/links.htm

Academic Employment Network (By State)
http://www.academploy.com/jobs.cfm

American College Personnel Association: ACPA Ongoing Placement Listings
http://www.acpa.nche.edu/placemnt/placemnt.htm

Academic 360.com (Update of "Jobs in Higher Education" site)
http://www.academic360.com/
[Back to Contents]

In The News

International AIDS Conference Begins with Dire Projections, Political Controversy
1. XIII International AIDS Conference
http://196.33.164.114/
2. The New York Times: "Amid Controversy, South Africa Opens World AIDS Forum"
http://www10.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/071000africa-aids.html
3. The Washington Post: "Hundreds Walk out on Mbeki"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11764-2000Jul9.html
4. Associated Press via Yahoo! News: "AIDS Cutting African Life Expectancy"
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000710/hl/south_africa_aids_conference.html
5. Reuters via Yahoo! News: "Uganda, Senegal, Thailand AIDS Success Stories"
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000710/wl/aids_leadall_dc_3.html
6. UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
http://www.unaids.org/
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm
8. Alive and Well: AIDS Alternatives
http://www.aliveandwell.org/
9. The Village Voice: "AIDS - The Agony of Africa"
http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/africa/
The thirteenth annual International Conference on AIDS is being held this week in Durban, South Africa -- a nation in which one in five inhabitants are said to be infected with the AIDS virus. Controversy swirled around the conference's opening Sunday as keynote speaker, South African president Thabo Mbeki, failed to recant his suspicion expressed last week that HIV was not the determinant cause of AIDS. The President's remarks were subtle and ambiguous, focusing on poverty more than on medical care and discussing not only AIDS but several other potentially fatal epidemic illnesses "with complicated Latin names." Mr. Mbeki had consulted last week with two American biochemists, Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick, who contend that poverty and malnutrition, not HIV, cause AIDS.

A statement signed by 5,000 scientists and doctors affirming HIV as the cause of AIDS was scheduled to be released at a press conference hours before the conference opening, but that press conference was cancelled, reportedly due to pressure from the South African government. The controversy is heightened by recent demographic projections from the US Census showing that the AIDS epidemic will reduce the life expectancy in many African nations to age 30, a level lower than any seen in the last 100 years in Africa. Along with the release of these alarming numbers came one positive development this weekend: a pledge from the World Bank to commit 500 million dollars to AIDS prevention and treatment in Africa.

The official site of the conference (1) posts press releases, sessions summaries, news updates, Webcasts from the conference, an email forum, and a conference programme. The New York Times(2) gives a thorough picture of the tendentious climate in which the conference began on Sunday. The Washington Post(3) reports on Mbeki's opening address of the conference and the choice of many delegates to walk out in protest of Mbeki's statements questioning HIV as the cause of AIDS. Yahoo! News has posted an AP story (4) summarizing the most recent projections of the US Census on the dire effects of AIDS on African population and life expectancy in the next decade as well as a Reuters News article (5) reporting on the success of AIDS prevention programs in Uganda, Senegal, and Thailand. The UNAIDS site (6) offers a plethora of documentation and information on AIDS issues worldwide, including the latest Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic published in late June (see the research section of this issue of the Scout Report for Social Sciences). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site offers a clearinghouse for data and reports on all aspects of HIV and AIDS from the disease's etiology to current treatments, possible vaccines, and various prevention programs (7); included here is a section offering the current medical arguments for the HIV-AIDS link. On the other side of the debate, the Alive and Well: AIDS Alternatives site (8) presents arguments against the conclusion that HIV causes AIDS and includes a separate section on "Rethinking AIDS in Africa." A Pulitzer-prize winning, eight-part series from The Village Voice(9) published last November examines the social, political, and medical impact of AIDS on the African continent and considers the prevention strategies available. [DC]
[Back to Contents]


Scout Report for Social Sciences Subscription Instructions

To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report for Social Sciences every other Tuesday, join the SRSOCSCI mailing list. This is the only mail you will receive from this list.

Internet Scout team member information

The Scout Report for Social Sciences
Brought to You by the Internet Scout Project

The Scout Report for Social Sciences is published every other Tuesday by the Internet Scout Project, located in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Computer Sciences.

Susan Calcari
Travis Koplow
David Charbonneau
Pat Coulthard
Alan Foley
--
--
--
--
--
Director
Managing Editor
Editor
Technical Specialist
Website Administrator

Below are the copyright statements to be included when reproducing annotations from The Scout Report for Social Sciences.

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 for Social Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. 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, 1994-2000. 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.

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.


Internet Scout
A Publication of the Internet Scout Project

Comments, Suggestions, Feedback
Use our feedback form or send email to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

© 2000 Internet Scout Project
Information on reproducing any publication is available on our copyright page.