FreeLists / networknewsletters / The Scout Report -- October 6, 2006

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=======
The Scout Report
October 6, 2006
Volume 12, Number 40

====== Research and Education ====
1.  Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
2.  Public Policy Institute of California
3.  French in Action
4.  Advanced Papyrological Information System
5.  Mouse Atlas Project
6.  NationMaster
7.  The Physics Front
8.  Internet Resources for the Mathematics Students

====== General Interest ====
9.  National Association of School Psychologists: Crisis Resources
10. Building Musical Instruments
11. Small Business Video Seminar
12. Listening To Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North
Pacific Coast
13. Take Five
14. Justice Talking
15. County Waterford Image Archive
16. InternationalEd.org

====== Network Tools ====
17. HandyFind 2.0.3
18. Winamp 5.3

====== In The News ====
19. In Wisconsin, a state renowned for its cheese, competition arises from
the farms and factories of California


====== Research and Education ====

1.  Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
http://sscm-jscm.press.uiuc.edu/jscm/

>From the tones of the viola da gamba to the mellifluence of the lute,
seventeenth-century music (and its instruments) is considered a premier
subject of inquiry by musicologists and others around the world. Published
by the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, the Journal of Seventeenth-
Century Music is dedicated to studying all aspects of music from this era,
including performance practice and theater. The Journal was started in 1995,
and visitors with a penchant for such topics can utilize this website to
look over past and current issues of the Journal as they see fit. Along with
looking over the past articles, book reviews, and commentaries, visitors can
also learn about the guidelines for submitting items for review. [KMG]


2.  Public Policy Institute of California [pdf]
http://www.ppic.org

In the early 1990s, a group of concerned Californians (including William R.
Hewlett) decided that there should be a policy research institution
dedicated to providing both wise counsel and expertise on the issues and
events that were of great concern to the residents of the state. With a
sizable gift of $70 million, the Public Policy Institute of California was
formally created in 1994, and since that time they have continued their
research with great vigor, along with disseminating their findings to the
broader public. Visitors to the Institute's homepage can look over their
reports listed by topic area, such as demography, education, or political
participation. Scholars and policy analysts will appreciate the "Data Depot"
area which includes information on the natural resource budget over the past
three decades and information on the federal transit grants provided to
different parts of the state. [KMG]


3.  French in Action
http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

For those people who embarked on a program of instruction in French in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, the phrase "These people speak French. In this
course, everybody speaks French" may remind people of a very well-regarded
television program designed to get students speaking French quickly. This
program is "French in Action", and on this website, educators and students
can partake of all 52 half-hour programs at their leisure. Originally
created by master teacher Pierre Capretz, the presentation of this program
is made possible by the Annenberg Media Foundation. Over these episodes,
users will learn French in context through the experiences of one French
family (and a visiting American) as they go on trips, make their way around
Paris, and visit with friends and strangers alike. [KMG]


4.  Advanced Papyrological Information System
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/projects/digital/apis/

Writing from the ancient world frequently appears on papyrological materials
such as papyri and wood tablets, and many of these important artifacts are
in far-flung locations that may be difficult for researchers to access. The
Advanced Papyrological System (APIS) has stepped in to provide a virtual
location to house digitized images of many of these materials, along with
English translations. The funding for the project has come from a variety of
sources, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and
participating institutions, such as the University of Chicago, Duke
University, and the University of Toronto. Visitors can perform any number
of elaborate searches using keywords, collection, date, and so on. For the
more casual user, there is also the option of just browsing by subject word,
writing material, or language. [KMG]


5.  Mouse Atlas Project
http://www.loni.ucla.edu/MAP/

The past decade has seen a number of innovative mapping projects emerge, and
some of these initiatives have also migrated to the web along the way.
Recently, the Mouse Atlas Project (MAP) was released to great acclaim, and
so far, a number of researchers have reported that they are tremendously
satisfied with the results. Located at UCLA, the MAP is designed "to empower
researchers with the ability to compare gene expression patterns with a
conveniently accessible inventory of digital brain maps." It's an ambitious
project, and visitors can learn more about the project on the homepage, and
then begin to browse through the various atlases. To view some of the atlas
volumes correctly, visitors will need to download the SHIVA software
application, which allows interested parties to load and manipulate various
3D image volume file formats. [KMG]


6.  NationMaster
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

With endorsements from such respectable institutions as the New York Times
and the BBC, NationMaster presents a formidable amount of data for the
general public in a way that is both accessible and at times, downright
addictive. The website brings together data from such sources as the CIA
World Factbook, the United Nations, as well as other such organizations.  On
the left-hand side of the page, visitors can peruse areas such as "Top
Stats", "What's New" and "Stats in the News". The "Top Stats" presents
information on the countries with the greatest life expectancy, the highest
median income, and so on. Journalists may find the "Stats in the News" area
particularly helpful as it presents data on topical areas of interest such
as statistics on bird flu infection rates and oil consumption.
Additionally, users can offer comments on some of the data sets, and at any
given time, there tends to be a great deal of commentary on almost all of
the items featured on the site. [KMG]


7.  The Physics Front [pdf]
http://www.compadre.org/precollege/

Richard Feynman was one of the great communicators and scholars within the
field of physics, and his very accessible lectures remain the stuff of
legend today. While Professor Feynman is no longer with us, physics teachers
can avail themselves of the very nice resources offered at The Physics
Front. Created by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the
National Science Foundation, the site contains lesson plans, activities,
labs, and other pedagogical tools for physics teachers. The site also is
notable for its "First Time Physics Teachers" section which contains a bit
of information about the nature of teaching physics and how these resources
might be best used in the classroom. The "Activities" area of the site is a
real treat, as educators can find activities by subject, which include
optics, energy, momentum, and wave energy.  [KMG]


8.  Internet Resources for the Mathematics Students [Last reviewed on
September 1, 1999]
http://qpr.ca/math/resources/

Back in the late 1990s, the Scout Report first reported on this site, which
was a collection of useful mathematics resources intended to serve both
students interested in college-level mathematics and their teachers. Since
that time, the site has grown substantially, and they have redesigned their
site with an emphasis of graphical economy and simplicity of use. The
resources were compiled by Langara College in British Columbia, and they
remain responsible for the maintenance of the site. The database contains
over 800 different educational tools, and visitors can browse through them
by topical headings which include statistics, calculus, and the history of
mathematics. From each of these topics, visitors can continue to narrow
their search. If they so desire, visitors can also revert to the previous
incarnation of the site, which may be easier to use for some. [KMG]



====== General Interest ====

9.  National Association of School Psychologists: Crisis Resources [pdf]
http://www.nasponline.org/NEAT/crisismain.html

Helping young people deal with crises can be a difficult task, and is
something that should not be taken lightly. The National Association of
School Psychologists has brought together a set of valuable resources on
this site for professionals who work with children. The resources are
divided into eight different sections, and they include links to other
online resources, and those that deal with specific subjects, such as
suicide, trauma, and natural disasters. The natural disaster section
includes fact sheets on how to help children after a wildfire and in the
aftermath of a tsunami. Moving on, the suicide section contains like-minded
materials on how to address teen suicide and preventive measures. The site
is rounded out with a selection of crisis resources in Spanish. [KMG]


10. Building Musical Instruments
http://www.wannalearn.com/Crafts_and_Hobbies/Woodworking/Building_Musical_Instruments/

Not many people go around wishing to be the Stradivarius of the hurdy-gurdy,
but this website's instructional materials might just make this dream a
reality for some lucky individual. The staff at WannaLearn.com have brought
together a set of resources for the aspiring musical instrument craftsperson
that will be a source of delight, inspiration, and potentially, future
innovation. Within categories that include flutes, guitars, and keyboard
instruments, visitors can learn how to make wind chimes, banjos, a
tinwhistle, and a dulcimer. Most of the instructional materials are quite
easy to follow, and in no time at all, visitors can realize the joy of
creating their own instruments from such basic materials as plumbing pipe,
wine boxes, and nylon string. [KMG]


11. Small Business Video Seminar [Quick Time, iTunes, ppt]
http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/smallbiz/video.html

Starting a small business can certainly be a risky proposition, but with a
little assistance from those who have embarked on such an entrepreneurial
venture in the past, the whole process can be made a bit smoother. The New
York Public Library has teamed up with the Partnership for New York City to
create this collection of "how-to" seminars and podcasts. While the sessions
relate to doing business in New York specifically, much of the material and
suggestions could apply to persons interested in starting a business just
about anywhere in the United States.  Currently there are eleven broadcasts
available, and they include such presentations as "How to Start a Fashion
Line in Today's Market", "Legal Strategies for Small Businesses" and "A
Quick Guide to Building a Successful Export Business". [KMG]


12. Listening To Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North
Pacific Coast
http://americanindian.si.edu/listening/

Over the past several years, members from eleven native communities along
the North Pacific Coast of North America came to visit the National Museum
of the American Indian. They came with a purpose, and it was to work with
museum staff members to select ceremonial and everyday objects to feature in
an exhibit that would explore the relationships between these items and
their cultures. The exhibit is currently on display at the Museum, and also
exists in a virtual form on this website. On the site's homepage, visitors
can click through an interactive map of the region, moving around to learn
more about the items created by such groups as the Haida and the Tlingit.
Within each of these sections, visitors can view the community gallery which
presents items such as ceremonial dishes, masks, and copper carvings. The
zoom feature is quite remarkable, as it allows users the ability to follow
the patterns and designs on these objects in great detail. [KMG]


13. Take Five [Quick Time, Real Player]
http://www.utexas.edu/inside_ut/take5/

What if you could learn about how to prepare for emergency situations,
explore the legends of the Alamo, and the rise of wireless communications
all in one place? Sounds like a pretty good deal, and it is all possible via
the Take Five website. Presented by the University of Texas at Austin, the
Take Five website presents videos of various faculty members talking about
their areas of expertise in an accessible and engaging format. Since the
spring of 2003, the Take Five project has presented five new lectures each
semester (hence the name of the project), and visitors to the site have
access to all of these materials. The presentations are uniformly quite
good, and along with the previously mentioned topics, they also cover such
areas as minority entrepreneurship and the role of technology in addressing
the world's major health problems. [KMG]


14. Justice Talking [Real Player]
http://www.justicetalking.org/

Produced by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of
Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communications, Justice Talking has been
bringing insightful conversations and dialogues about important legal issues
to public radio listeners since 1999. The program is hosted by Margot Adler,
and a quick survey of the programs she has recently hosted reveals the
variety of topics covered, including nuclear energy, the effectiveness of
the Endangered Species Act, and the debate over the ways in which Hurricane
Katrina affected the justice system in New Orleans. The site contains a
number of extra features, including an area where visitors can sign up to
receive updates about the program, debate forums, and information about
attending a future taping of the program in Philadelphia. [KMG]


15. County Waterford Image Archive
http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org/exhibit/web

Using volunteer help and a locally written image management system, the
Waterford County Museum in Ireland has created this collection of close to
3,000 historical images that document Waterford County and its parishes from
the late 1890s to the present. The Web interface to the collection includes
a number of helpful features - for those familiar with Waterford county and
its place and family names, there is a search box, but for those less
familiar there are several ways to browse the collection, by selecting
photographer, location, image format, or subjects from drop down lists, as
well as selecting parishes from a map to see the pictures associated with
each. A photo of the week is posted on the site, and visitors can sign up to
receive an RSS feed or, alternatively, an email message when new images are
added. There are also easy ways to submit photographs for inclusion in the
archive, and for locals to contribute identifying information. [DS]


16. InternationalEd.org [pdf, Macromedia Flash Player]
http://www.internationaled.org/

As part of the Asia Society's continuing efforts to educate the public about
the world around them, they have created this website which is meant to "put
the world into world-class education." To accomplish this goal in the United
States they are primarily interested in developing resources that will help
Americans learn more about the geography, history, culture, and languages of
other regions around the world. First-time visitors will appreciate the
visual legibility of the homepage, and they can move around to sections that
are designed to provide them with information about the world of
international studies. There are a number of concrete, hands-on activities
for young people and educators available in the "Network "section of the
site. Here, visitors can learn about upcoming pedagogical workshops, browse
the online library of lessons plans, and also partake in a discussion forum
for fellow international-studies aficionados. [KMG]



====== Network Tools ====

17. HandyFind 2.0.3
http://www.handykeys.com/

Are you searching for Kazakhstan? With HandyFind 2.0.3 you can find the word
"Kazakhstan" and any other words you might desire in Word documents,
webpages, and many other places. Visitors utilizing this program will find
that as they are typing in any of the above (Word documents, webpages,
etc.), the application will look for the word or phrase currently being
typed, relieving them of the responsibility of relying on the normal "Find"
feature. Additionally, there are a number of keyboard shortcuts provided.
This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000 and XP. [KMG]


18. Winamp 5.3
http://www.winamp.com/

Long-time Winamp users will appreciate this new release, and those
unacquainted with the program will be glad to learn of its existence.
Visitors can customize this multi-faceted media player with a number of
skins, and they can also view many different types of media, including
streaming video and podcasts. This version is compatible with computers
running Windows 98, 2000, and XP. [KMG]



====== In The News ====

19. In Wisconsin, a state renowned for its cheese, competition arises from
the farms and factories of California
A wedge issue of pride for the cheese state
http://www.startribune.com/484/story/712980.html

The Big Cheese
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/09302006/business-b-930_cheese.html

Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research and Development [pdf]
http://babcock.cals.wisc.edu/

Cheesemaking in Wisconsin: A Short History
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?id=WI.Cheesemaking

Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association
http://www.wischeesemakersassn.org/

Real California Cheese [Macromedia Flash Player]
http://www.realcaliforniacheese.com/

Cheddar cheese prices
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Cheddar_Cheese_Prices/index.asp

People in Wisconsin take cheese seriously. While always remaining generally
good-natured about their well-known nickname ("cheeseheads"), the state's
residents hold everything from limburger to cheddar close to their
collective hearts and stomachs. There has been some potentially
disconcerting news revealed over the past week or so, as reports from both
the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the California Milk Advisory Board
indicate that California's annual cheese production may soon surpass that of
Wisconsin.  In the past fifteen years, California's production of cheese has
more than tripled, and currently the state's farms are producing 2.14
billion pounds of cheese compared with Wisconsin's 2.4 billion pounds.  Many
in Wisconsin find this possible takeover unfortunate, for as Terese Allen, a
former president of the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin remarked,
"Cheese really is part of our identity."  Some in the Wisconsin cheese-
making community have also countered that California's rise to cheese
producing prominence has been achieved by relying heavily on enormous
factories, rather than more intimate cheese producing facilities. The
subject remains a contentious one around Wisconsin's core cheese
manufacturing counties. In places like Green County, home to the famed
biennial "Cheese Days", the cheese making espirit de corps remains s a vital
force, and fortunately shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. [KMG]

The first link will gently take users away to an article on the recent news
of California's rise in cheese production offered by the Star Tribune in the
Twin Cities. The second link leads to a story from the Portsmouth Herald
about the recent successes of the Sartori Foods Company's numerous forays
into the world of Wisconsin cheese making. The third link leads to the
homepage of the Babcock Institute for International Diary Research and
Development, housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here visitors
can read about some of their recent research findings and also examine their
"Weekly Dairy Fact". The fourth link leads to a digitized version of the
1924 publication, "Cheesemaking in Wisconsin: A Short History". Along with
presenting a number of photographs of cheese farms of the period, it also
offers a brief overview of the development and growth of this sector of the
state's economy and identity. The fifth link leads to the online home of the
Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, where visitors can learn about such
perennial events as the World Championship Cheese Contest. In the interest
of providing fair and balanced coverage, the sixth link will take interested
parties to the homepage of the California Cheese Makers Association, which
contains a virtual cheese making tour and other such diversions.
Agricultural economists and other such types will appreciate the final link
which leads to a chart created by the National Agricultural Statistics
Service that tracks the price of cheddar cheese in the United States over
the past calendar year. [KMG]


From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2006.
http://scout.wisc.edu/


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