The Scout Report - August 25, 2000

August 25, 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 Social Sciences and Business & Economics
Scout Report for Social Sciences
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/socsci/2000/ss-000808.html
Scout Report for Business & Economics
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/bus-econ/2000/be-000810.html
The twenty-fourth issues of the third volumes of the Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics are available. The In the News section of the Social Sciences Report annotates eight resources on presidential candidate Al Gore's bounce back in the post Democratic Convention polls. The Business & Economics Report's In the News section offers eight resources on Silicon Valley's backlash against the changes wrought by dotcoms. [TK]
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Research and Education

Two from NCES [.pdf]
"NAEP 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance"
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main1999/2000469.shtml
"Projections of Education Statistics to 2010"
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000071
The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) released two new reports this week. The first, a 138-page report from NCES's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), presents long-term trends in the performance of nine-, thirteen-, and seventeen-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science. The NAEP has administered assessments in these three areas since the early seventies (1969 for seventeen-year-olds in science), and this report summarizes the findings, including overall national trends, trends analyzed by student subgroup (e.g., ethnicity, gender, parents's level of education), and data on experiences at school and home that may have an impact on achievement (e.g., classroom equipment, television watching). Generally speaking, the NAEP reports that math and science performance declined in the 1970s but increased during the 1980s and early 1990s, remaining mostly stable since then. Students made modest gains in reading, and improved most clearly across the assessment years in mathematics. The second report listed is part of an ongoing series begun in 1964. The 179-page report revises projections made in last year's "Projections of Education Statistics to 2009" (see the August 20, 1999 Scout Report), and includes national data covering the last fourteen years and projections to the year 2010 for enrollments, teachers, graduates, and expenditures; and state-level projections for enrollment graduates to the year 2010. [TK]
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Community Health Status Indicators Project -- HRSA [.pdf]
http://www.communityhealth.hrsa.gov/
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Public Health Foundation, has recently unveiled a new Website that makes available health data for all 3,082 US counties. The Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) Project has compiled pre-existing data from a variety of sources (no new data were collected) and created a report for each county. The reports offer data on a variety of topics, among them Population Characteristics, Leading Causes of Death, Vulnerable Populations, Environmental Health, and Access to Care. To access reports, users can either enter a county, or they can search for a county by selecting a state and/or a population range; searches can also be limited to those counties with the highest percentage of non-white or Hispanic inhabitants. Once a county is selected, reports can be downloaded in a viewable or printable form (both .pdf format). In addition, the data can be compared to that of "peer" counties, which share similar demographics. The site provides supplemental material to make the reports more understandable and usable, including a FAQ; a document on data sources, definitions, and notes; and a guide to using the reports. While the CHSI reports were created with public health professionals in mind, because the site is easy to navigate and the reports are readable, anyone with an interest in community health issues should find this a useful resource. [TK]
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Federal Rulemaking: Proposed Amendments for Comment [.pdf]
http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/proposed.htm
Federal Rulemaking
http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/
The federal judiciary is in charge of establishing and maintaining the rules governing procedure, practice, and evidence in the federal courts. As part of their mission to "carry on a continuous study of the operation and effect of the general rules of practice and procedure," the Judicial Conference of the US periodically recommends amendments and additions to the rules to promote "simplicity in procedure, fairness in administration, the just determination of litigation, and the elimination of unjustifiable expense and delay." Current proposed amendments cover Federal Rules of Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, and Criminal Rules of Procedure, as well as a Comprehensive Style Revision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. While public input has been a part of the process of amending the federal rules since before the Internet existed, this year for the first time, public comments are being accepted electronically as part of a two-year pilot project, despite "reservations voiced by some members that comments submitted electronically may not be as carefully prepared or worded as comments submitted in writing." Users can download the proposed revisions in .pdf format, and instructions for submitting comments electronically (due by February 15, 2001) are available on-site. From the Federal Rulemaking front page, users can access a schedule of meetings and hearings and an introduction to the rulemaking process, along with other documents. [TK]
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International Regulation Database -- OECD [.pdf, Excel, Access]
http://www.oecd.org/subject/regdatabase/
Created and maintained by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Regulation Database is a "comprehensive internationally-comparable set of information about the state of regulation and market structures in OECD countries." The contents of the database are derived primarily from an ad hoc questionnaire that was given to OECD member countries in 1998. The database contains over 1,100 variables for each country and includes both broad regulations dealing with product markets, such as "state control of business enterprises" and international trade and investment barriers, as well as sector-specific regulations for areas such as telecommunications, retail distribution, and electricity supply. The database must be downloaded to users's computers, and is offered in both Access and Excel versions. An eleven-page, detailed description of the database's contents, structure, and use is also available, as is a Users' Guide, which offers step-by-step instructions for manipulating the Access database. [EM]
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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program: Annual Report to Congress -- OPRE
MS Word version (4,300K)
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/annual3.doc
.pdf version (2,086K)
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/annual3.pdf
Executive Summary
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/annual3execsum.htm
Tables
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ofs/data/q499/index.html
TANF-AFDC Data Analyses and Reports
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/director.htm
The Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (OPRE) of the Department of Health and Human Services's (DHHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) this week issued its annual report on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF). The 300-page report, available in .pdf and MS Word formats, "compiles emerging data about welfare caseloads, family employment and earnings, marriage and two-parent families, out-of-wedlock births, and State policy choices, to give a picture of these first four years of welfare reform." Among the findings: welfare caseloads continue to fall; last year, five states received bonuses for reducing out-of-wedlock births; and the federal government collected $1.3 billion in overdue child support from federal tax refunds alone in 1999. Readers seeking a critical look at TANF may have to go elsewhere as, in general, the report praises the program's successes and, while admitting that preliminary data are not definitive, further indicates that "programs that strongly push parents to work with well-implemented approaches to making work pay can succeed in producing a broad range of improved outcomes for families and children," including a reduction in children's behavioral problems, better performance in school, and increased access to child care and health insurance. In addition to the documents listed above, from the TANF-AFDC Data Analyses and Reports page, users can access reports for the previous two years as well as the MS Word version of the Executive Summary. [TK]
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Managing the Digital Future of Libraries: Proceedings [PowerPoint]
http://www.rsl.ru/tacis/menupceedings.htm
The Moscow Manifesto
http://www.rsl.ru/tacis/manifesto.htm
Russian State Library Information Project
http://www.rsl.ru/tacis/Home.htm
English and Russian translations of the proceedings from last spring's Managing the Digital Futures of Libraries conference held in Moscow are available from the Russian State Library Information Project Website. The proceedings contain over 50 papers representing speakers from more than 20 countries addressing trends and issues related to digital libraries, as well as reports on specific projects. Among other topics, papers cover electronic serials services, electronic document delivery, digital audio collections, and digitization efforts. In addition to HTML documents, several of the papers link to PowerPoint presentations. The conference represented the final phase of a joint European Union - Russian State Library project through Tacis, an EU initiative designed to foster development in the New Independent States and Mongolia by cultivating links with organizations in the European Union. The Moscow Manifesto presents the recommendations that resulted from the conference. Users can access the Russian-language version of the site (click on Russian Federation flag) from the Russian State Library Information Project Homepage. [AG]
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The Chemistry Preprint Server [.pdf]
http://www.chemweb.com/preprint
ChemWeb.com this week launched their Chemistry Preprint Server (CPS), a free (registration required) online server of the newest chemistry-related articles, fresh from the authors. Because it is so new, only about 20 articles are online so far, but the site is sure to grow as papers are submitted voluntarily. Topics covered include environmental, analytical, organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry. Articles and abstracts are available for download as .pdf files, and each preprint contains a section of author's comments and additional, related papers as well as a feedback form for readers. A simple online submission form allows authors to post their pre-prints, which the program automatically converts to .pdf format. A user-friendly search engine aids in navigation. The CPS looks to be an exciting new electronic forum for chemistry professionals to share ideas. [HCS]
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General Interest

Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations [.pdf]
http://www.un.org/peace/reports/peace_operations/
In March of this year, Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened an independent panel to review UN peacekeeping activities and make recommendations for improvement. Wednesday, the UN posted the panel's report, together with Annan's full endorsement. From the links on the bottom of this page, users can access the full report in HTML or .pdf format, along with the executive summary, a summary of recommendations, the press release, fact sheets, and a list of panel members. The report opens with a somewhat dire pronouncement: "The United Nations was founded, in the words of its Charter, in order 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.' . . . Over the last decade, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to meet the challenge; and it can do no better today. Without significant institutional change, increased financial support, and renewed commitment on the part of Member States, the United Nations will not be capable of executing the critical peacekeeping and peace-building tasks that the Member States assign it in coming months and years." In light of this judgment, it's not surprising that the panel recommends far-reaching changes, each of which "is designed to remedy a serious problem in strategic direction, decision-making, rapid deployment, operational planning and support, and the use of modern information technology." In addition to English, the site is available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. [TK]
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MoMA2000 [Flash]
http://moma2000.moma.org/
This exciting online exhibition from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) traces the history of modern art from 1880 to the present in three separate installments. The first, Modernstarts, was posted last Fall and offers essays and selected images on the changes in the representation of people, places, and things as nineteenth-century Edwardianism gave way to the experimental caprice of Modernism. The three sections of this first exhibit offer commentary and representative images on changes in the figuration of the human body in sculpture, painting, and photography; the shifts in the design and ontology of objects, both everyday and "artistic"; and the mutations in the visual representation of the traditional opposition between country and city. The second installment, Making Choices, focuses "on the years between 1920 and 1960, a period of social and political turmoil and spirited artistic debate." Exhibition titles for this installment include "Art is Arp," "The Raw and the Cooked," "The Marriage of Reason and Squalor," "Anatomically Incorrect," "Walker Evans and Company," and "Paris Salon." The text of both exhibits is unfailingly engaging, but Modernstarts offers a larger supplement of images. The final installment of MoMA 2000, Open Ends, is scheduled to come online this Fall. Once completed, the exhibition is sure to be one of the most useful and informative introductions to Modern Art available anywhere outside of the museum itself. [DC]
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Two Surveys on Internet Use and Effects
Preliminary Release from "Surveying the Digital Future" -- UCLA Center for Communications Policy
http://www.college.ucla.edu/InternetReport/
Press Release
http://www.uclanews.ucla.edu/Docs/LSHL379.html
"Trust and Privacy Online: Why Americans Want to Rewrite the Rules" -- PEW Research Center [.pdf, 29 pages]
http://pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=19
Press Release
http://pewinternet.org/releases/release.asp?id=6
UCLA's Center for Communications Policy released last week a brief excerpt of their report forthcoming in October. "Surveying the Digital Future," funded by "an unprecedented alliance of corporations and foundations," is part of the World Internet Project, a series of international studies, which aims to give a vision of the Internet's worldwide impact. This initial release, which shows the responses of users and non-users side-by-side, focuses on four main areas: political participation and the Internet, the relative importance of different mass media sources, the credibility of information on the Internet, and online privacy. Among the findings, 63.6 percent of users and 76.1 percent of non-users agree that "people who go online put their privacy at risk." The second report listed above, the PEW Research Center's "Trust and Privacy Online," details Americans's feelings about this latter concern in a 30-question survey conducted in May and June of more than 2,000 people (over 1,000 of which are Internet users). The survey covers the gamut of privacy issues, and PEW reports that two-thirds of respondents don't think that Internet companies should be allowed to track users's activities. When online respondents were asked who would do the best job setting rules governing user tracking, half said users themselves would be best; 24 percent said the federal government; and only 18 percent said Internet companies would be best. The director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project Lee Rainie explains that, overall, the survey shows that "Internet users want . . . a presumption of privacy when they are online." [TK]
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disAbility.gov
http://www.disAbility.gov/
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities last month created disAbility.gov to provide a single portal through which users can access federal government services, programs, and information relating to disabilities. The site offers annotated listings of resources organized into a wide variety of categories ranging from Recreation and Travel, to Tax Credits and Deductions, to Choice and Self-Determination. From the front page, visitors can access Hot Topics, including Federal Regulations (currently the Federal IT Accessibility Initiative), the Report and Success Story of the Week, Celebrations, and Information Technology Opportunities. The site bills itself as a "work in progress," and users have the option to sign up for email updates on site additions. [TK]
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Exquisite Corpse
http://www.corpse.org/
The online version of Exquisite Corpse, brainchild of novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu, recently posted issues five and six as a double release that Codrescu calls the "most humongous Corpse ever released." The term "exquisite corpse" comes from a classic game of narrative-making popular among European surrealists in which different players add the next line to a narrative written on a paper effigy, and this "double issue" suggests both the experimental and protean nature of the journal's inspiration. Indeed, six different departments offer a cornucopia of literary efforts. These departments include Broken News, which features satirical articles on news that never happened and assuredly never will; Critical Urgencies, a collection of polemical rants and essays by notable -- and largely alternative -- poets, scholars, essayists, and fiction writers; Burning Bush, containing recently penned poems and epitaphs; Ficciones, proffering short works of fiction "with minimum concessions to narrative"; Secret Agents, featuring a host of not-your-usual travel narratives from all over the globe; Stage and Screen, an anthology of dramatic works; a gallery of visual arts creations; and EC Chair, featuring commentary on each issue from Codrescu himself. Readers can appear in the Corpse themselves by submitting original materials (detailed instructions are offered), emailing letters -- a selection of which are posted, or joining the discussion list, Corpse Cafe. An archive of the previous four issues, a search engine, and a sizable, annotated list of staff favorite links round out this prodigious e-zine. [DC]
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HealthLink Plus
http://Healthlinkplus.org/
This new site from the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC), North Carolina aims to "facilitate access to consumer health information in an effort to develop and enhance public knowledge of important health and fitness issues." HealthLink Plus is divided into eight main sections of annotated links to current and authoritative health-related sites: General Health Information, Health Care Providers, Health Insurance, Medical Research, Staying Healthy, Mental Health, Complementary & Alternative Medicine, and (available from the front page only) Evaluating Health Information on the Internet. Users can search or browse annotations, and though the listings can be scant in some areas, the site promises to grow. In fact, visitors who wish to suggest a site can use the on-site Web form. Note: We found the Bookshelf link within each major category to be a bit confusing. The descriptions of books were helpful, but we were a bit surprised by the links to Amazon.com on a public library site, and the links to PLCMC's card catalog are difficult to navigate. [TK]
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Network Tools

ResellerRatings.Com
http://www.resellerratings.com
You need a new monitor for your home computer and a company has one for sale really cheap on the 'Net, but you've never heard of them and their Website doesn't exactly inspire confidence. How do you know if they'll give you the deal of a lifetime or just take your money and run? Or (more likely) what if the new monitor does show up but doesn't work? Will you be able to get your money back? It's hard to make a big purchase with doubts like these hanging over your head, but fortunately help is available. As their name implies, ResellerRatings.Com provides ratings of over 1,300 online computer hardware vendors, determined by feedback from people who have purchased products from those vendors. In addition to an overall score, each company's rating is broken down into component totals that evaluate things like how knowledgeable or helpful their salespeople were, whether there were any problems with shipping or delivery, or how well the company dealt with returning or replacing a product. Also available are comments on each company from the customers who contributed to the ratings, so you can get more of a feel for exactly why the scores might be low or high in a given area and, in general, what kind of experience you might have when making your purchase. Overall, ResellerRatings.Com is an invaluable resource for anyone buying computer hardware over the Internet. [EA]
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DomainNameBuyersGuide.Com
http://www.domainnamebuyersguide.com
Do you own your domain name? Will you still own it tomorrow? These may seem like silly questions; if you've registered a domain name, of course, you own it (as much as you can own a piece of virtual property). Sadly, as more and more people are finding out, upon reading the fine print, you may discover that these questions are not so silly. Many domain registrars have slipped statements like the following somewhere in their customer agreement: "You agree that we may, at our sole discretion, delete or transfer your domain name at any time." So do you need to hire a lawyer to read through the pages of fine print before signing? Well, for some that may be a necessary step, but for those more reluctant to spend large sums on legal bills, there is an alternative: DomainNameBuyersGuide.Com. DomainNameBuyersGuide.Com provides reviews and rankings of the wide array of Internet domain registrars that have sprung up in the last year or two, including comments on their customer agreements and any pitfalls that may be contained therein. The site also provides rankings by price, which take into account not only the initial and annual fees, but also additional charges that the registrar may impose for transferring domains or providing other needed services. Unfortunately, rankings and reviews are limited to those domain registrars who are directly approved by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- the international authority on these matters), but the selection here is wide enough that you should be able to find a registrar who meets your needs. If you're registering a domain or even wondering whether a domain you've already registered could be in jeopardy, the site is well worth a visit. [EA]
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In The News

NIH Publishes Guidelines for Federal Funding of Pluripotent Stem Cell Research
"Guidelines for stem cell research kindle controversy" -- CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/08/24/NIH.stem.cell/index.html
"Guidelines on Federal Funding for Embryo Research Released" -- Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12201-2000Aug23.html
"U.S. to Fund Controversial Stem Cell Research" -- LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20000824/t000079442.html
NIH Guidelines for Research Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
http://www.nih.gov/news/stemcell/stemcellguidelines.htm
NIH Press Release
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/aug2000/od-23.htm
NIH Stem Cell Information
http://www.nih.gov/news/stemcell/index.htm
"Stem Cell Laws in Flux" -- BioMedNet (free registration required)
http://news.bmn.com/news/sreport#flux
Stem Cell Research: Medical Progress with Responsibility -- Department of Health, UK
http://www.doh.gov.uk/cegc/stemcellreport.htm
Fetal Tissue Research -- American Life League
http://www.all.org/issues/ftalrsch.htm
"Stem Cell Companies Score Fresh Gains" -- Reuters (via YahooNews!)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000824/tc/health_stemcells_dc_2.html
On Wednesday, the National Institute of Health (NIH) released its Guidelines for Research Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. The Guidelines, which go into effect today, end the moratorium on federal funding for stem cells obtained from human embryo or fetal tissue. NIH published an earlier draft for public input at the end of last year (see the December 3, 1999 Scout Report), and the final Guidelines begins with an attempt to address some of the various criticisms that different advocacy groups and individuals have raised. Nonetheless, the decision to allow federal funding for such research has predictably unleashed a storm of controversy. Detractors (among them, most right-to-life groups) maintain that the use of human embryonic stem cells is unethical and unnecessary, arguing that other avenues of research (adult stem cells, gene therapy, etc.) should prove just as fruitful. On the other hand, proponents of the Guidelines (including many patient advocacy groups) feel that the restrictions on funding delineated by NIH will ensure that stem cell research be conducted ethically, and that stem cells obtained from embryonic and fetal tissue hold an unparalleled potential. Scientists hope that research on human pluripotent stem cells will lead to methods for growing organs and tissues, developing drugs, and better understanding diseases and conditions.

CNN.com reports on the new guidelines, including links to related "Ethics Matters" columns, a biweekly feature from the Center for Bioethics and CNN Interactive, and a message board where readers can post their opinions. The Washington Post touches on reactions from Clinton, Gore, and Bush, along with other politicians and researchers, while the LA Times sees the controversy as one among many contentious bioethics issues with which politicians and the government will be confronted in coming times. To have a look at the Guidelines themselves, head to NIH's site, which also features the press release announcing the Guidelines, and a page linking to a wealth of on-site material on stem-cell research. Readers curious about how other countries are addressing these issues can turn to BioMedNet's July article (free registration required) on international laws governing stem-cell research and the report published last week by an expert group selected by Britain's Chief Medical Officer, which concludes that research on human embryonic stem cells potentially offers significant health benefits and should be permitted. For the view against embryonic stem-cell research, see the Fetal Tissue Research section of the American Life League Website, which offers a half dozen articles. Finally, Reuters reports that, following NIH's announcement, two of Nasdaq's hot stocks have been Aastrom Biosciences Inc. and StemCells Inc., both biotechnology
companies that specialize in stem cell research. [TK]
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