The Scout Report -- December 16, 2005
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The Scout Report
December 16, 2005
Volume 11, Number 50
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A publication of the Internet Scout Project.
Sponsored by University of Wisconsin - Madison Libraries.
=======
== I N T H E S C O U T R E P O R T T H I S W E E K ========
====== A Note to our Readers ====
1. Scout Holiday Publishing Schedule
====== Research and Education ====
2. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
3. Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo
4. FDA Consumer Magazine
5. Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings & Prints
6. Business Plan Archive
7. Poetic Waves: Angel Island
====== General Interest ====
8. Delta Society
9. the Warhol: Time Capsule 21
10. Science Cinematheque
11. Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait
12. The New Yorker
13. American Press Institute
====== Network Tools ====
14. FireTune for Fire Fox 1.x
15. GeoQuiz 1.1
====== In The News ====
16. Pollution reporting requirements may change shortly
Copyright and subscription information appear at the end of the Scout
Report. For more information on all services of the Internet Scout
Project, please visit our Website: http://scout.wisc.edu/
If you'd like to know how the Internet Scout team selects resources for
inclusion in the Scout Report, visit our Selection Criteria page at:
http://scout.wisc.edu/About/criteria.php
The Scout Report on the Web:
Current issue: http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Current/
This issue: http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2005/scout-
051216.php
Visit the Internet Scout Weblog at:
http://scout.wisc.edu/Weblog/
Feedback is always welcome: scout@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
====== A Note to our Readers ====
1. Scout Holiday Publishing Schedule
The Scout Report will be on vacation December 23rd and 30th. We will return
with the January 6th, 2006 report. [CMH]
Best Holiday Wishes and see you next year,
Chanda Halderman
Managing Editor
====== Research and Education ====
2. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
Telling the story of the American Civil War can be a rather fractious and
divisive process, but this website brings together a number of unique
perspectives for general consideration. The Valley of the Shadow site
details life in and around Augusta County, Virginia, and Frankly County,
Pennsylvania from the time of John Brown?s Raid through the era of
Reconstruction. Visitors will find within the site hundreds of relevant and
compelling documents, including church records, maps, personal diaries,
soldiers? records, and census materials. Some of the documents (such as
census records) can be viewed side-by-side for comparative purposes. The
?Memory of the War? area is particularly moving as it contains first-hand
recollections of the period after the war concluded in 1865. Within this
area, the primary documents offered here are divided into sections that
include reunions, politics, and obituaries. Overall, the site makes a fine
educational resource for both young and old. [KMG]
3. Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo [Macromedia Flash
Player]
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/congojournal/
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has done a fine job of providing
online materials and exhibitions about various genocides throughout history,
and this latest offering provides a sobering and honest look at such a
situation in the eastern Congo. This highly interactive site draws on the
impressions and contributions of four people who visited the region in 2003
and 2004. These people include a number of journalists and activists,
including Angelina Jolie and John Prendergast. Visitors can proceed through
an outstanding virtual journal, which contains numerous photographs from the
region, audio narration, and a number of collages. Along with this visually
and aurally arresting material, the site also contains a link to a new
report on the current situation in the Congo from the International Rescue
Committee. [KMG]
4. FDA Consumer Magazine
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/
Some readers may find the thought of reading the average government
publication less than riveting, but fortunately the Food and Drug
Administration?s in-house publication, FDA Consumer, is both well-written
and informative. Intended for both a general audience and those concerned
with the ongoing work of the FDA, the magazine offers broad coverage on both
how to stay healthy and the regulatory work that is part of their mission.
Every issue features a consumer quiz, commentary on recent regulatory
activities, and a column from the magazine?s editor. On their site, visitors
can read the complete contents of recent issues and also take a look at
special issues on drug development and food labeling. The online archive is
quite impressive, as it stretches back to 1989, although the contents of the
entire magazine are not available for earlier years. [KMG]
5. Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings & Prints [Macromedia
Flash Player]
http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/japanesepaintings/index.stm
Beginning with the curious and quick-moving beetle that moves across the
screen, visitors will appreciate the visual appeal of this online exhibit
offered by the Pacific Asia Museum. The site explores the depiction of
animals in Japanese paintings and prints, and does so through three sections
titled, ?Tradition?, ?Reality?, and ?Imagination?. Each section contains six
high-quality digital renderings of various artworks, complete with an
extended essay on the work?s importance, and the use of animals within each
work. One work that is particularly lovely is the 1848 scroll painting,
?Sparrows and Bamboo? by Tsubaki Chinzan. An animated timeline provides
additional context for each work and the broader artistic milieu throughout
Japan, and a games section offers a host of fun activities, such as a random
monster generator. [KMG]
6. Business Plan Archive [pdf]
http://www.businessplanarchive.org/
Documenting the recent past can present a number of challenges for academics
and archivists for any number of reasons, and documenting business history
can have some unique challenges. This recent partnership between the Library
of Congress, the Center for History and New Media, and the University of
Maryland Libraries brings together business plans and related planning
documents from the early days of the ?dot com? boom and subsequent bust.
The homepage contains information about recent additions to the site and the
?research corner? provides guidelines and recommendations for studying
companies. Visitors will need to register (at no charge) to use the archive
and they can search the materials through a fine online search engine
provided here. Finally, users will want to definitely take a look at video
coverage from 2004 where thirteen dot com ?survivors? provided some insights
into their business operations during this heady period. [KMG]
7. Poetic Waves: Angel Island [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.poeticwaves.net/
While many visitors to San Francisco may be familiar with Alcatraz Island,
they may be less familiar with the story of Angel Island, which is also
located nearby. From 1910 to 1940, the island served as immigration station
for newly arrived Asian American immigrants to the United States. While
here, these people began to bond over their shared experiences, and also
started to learn about the difficult time that they would face in this new
land. This multimedia website pays tribute to their experiences through
offering compelling information about this place through audio narration and
music. As the title of the site suggests, visitors can read some of the
poetry the immigrants carved into the barracks where they lived when they
were being processed upon arrival. The website accurately suggests that
??there is no direct connection between them except for the languages, the
time period, and place.? Of course, visitors may wish to continue their
visit to the site, by taking the online tour of the facility, which includes
the hospital building, the pier, and the barracks. [KMG]
====== General Interest ====
8. Delta Society
http://www.deltasociety.org
The connective tissue between animals and humans has been developed over
millennia, both through living in close proximity with each other, and
through the complex ways in which they interact. The Delta Foundation was
established in 1977 in order to expand awareness of ?the positive effect
animals can have on human health and development?. Since that time, they
have worked to remove barriers that prevent involvement of animals in
everyday life and towards expanding the role of animals in service and
education. On their website, visitors can learn about service animals and
their various uses, and read about the nature of pet loss and bereavement.
Visitors may be happy to learn that they can also learn about volunteer
opportunities which they can take part in with their favorite pet or animal.
[KMG]
9. the Warhol: Time Capsule 21 [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.warhol.org/tc21/
Sometime in the 1970s, Andy Warhol began making "time capsules", brown
cardboard boxes into which he would drop all kinds of objects from his daily
life: letters, clippings from magazines and newspapers, gifts, photographs,
business records, and his own and other artists' work. By the time of his
death in 1987, Warhol had filled over 600 boxes that were all moved to the
Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in 1994. The Museum has been systematically
opening the Time Capsules, and this Web exhibition of Time Capsule 21 allows
users to tour selected contents. Dating from the 1950s to the 1970s, this
particular capsule contains a great deal of Warhol's work, and the online
exhibition allows linking to contextual material. For example, the caption
to a Polaroid portrait of YoYo Bischofberger, the wife of a Swiss art
dealer, explains how Warhol used Polaroids as part of his portrait-making
process, and links to a collage of Warhol portraits, a portrait of Debbie
Harry, and a video of Warhol taking photographs of Harry in preparation for
making her portrait. There is also a 7-page inventory of the complete
contents of Time Capsule 21. [DS]
10. Science Cinematheque [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.movingimage.us/science/
Frequently, art imitates life, and at times, the foreshadowing power of art
can shape debates about critical issues facing human kind. The Museum of the
Moving Image continues this tradition with their Sloan Science Cinematheque
website, which is intended to serve as a general forum that will enhance the
public understanding of science and technology. The site is divided into
three primary sections, including one that contains short student films,
lively scholarly articles, and ?Dialogues?. This last section contains video
coverage of panel discussion about science and film held at the Museum?s
headquarters. The student films are well worth taking a look at, as they
address a wide range of themes, including urban ornithology and a city-
dweller obsessed with botany. The site concludes with the articles section,
which features commentary from the Museum?s curators on the recent
documentary ?Grizzly Man?, and the complex depiction of the late Alfred
Kinsey in the film ?Kinsey?. [KMG]
11. Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait [Macromedia Flash Player]
http://www.revealingchicago.org/
Patterns of human use (and misuse) of the land can be provocatively revealed
through aerial photography, a fact that is not lost on artists, raconteurs,
and perhaps most surprisingly, elected officials. This delightful online
exhibit brings together the photographic acumen of Terry Evans, working in
tandem with two regional organizations in Chicago, the Openlands Project and
Chicago Metropolis 2020. The exhibit begins with the contention that the
photographs offer perspectives on the past, present, future of the Chicago
region, and fortunately, it follows up on this promise quite well. With a
nice interactive feature, visitors can scan through a map of the Chicagoland
region to view photographs of old industrial factories, suburban sprawl, and
protected wetlands. Visitors can also view the photographs thematically,
which includes such areas as farming, infrastructure, and perhaps more
leisurely, ?chilling out?. Overall, this is a lovely site and it should be
of great interest to urbanologists and those with a penchant for planning or
the built environment. [KMG]
12. The New Yorker [Real Player]
http://www.newyorker.com/
With its urbane and cosmopolitan commentaries on everything from cross-
country truck drivers to the latest geo-political imbroglios, the New Yorker
has been delighting readers for eight decades. Despite the fact that it
costs a few dollars to actually subscribe to the magazine, their website has
a great deal of free content for the interested web-browsing individual.
Visitors may wish to start by looking at some old chestnuts in their ?From
the Archive? area. In recent weeks, it has contained such gems as a 1962
interview with the author of the ?Mary Poppins? books and poetry from Ezra
Pound. Of course, one will also find some of the same sections as the print
magazine, including ?The Talk of the Town? and ?Shouts and Murmurs?. [KMG]
13. American Press Institute [pdf]
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/
The American Press Institute has been providing high-quality resources for
practicing journalists for years, and now visitors with a penchant for the
field can find out about some of these helpful materials on this site. While
their homepage can be a bit visually hard to follow, the resources here are
top-notch, and include some first-rate publications, such as ?Reaching
Latino Audiences? and ?Women, Men and Newsroom Leadership?. The
?Journalist?s Toolbox? is a real find, as it contains a number of easy-to-
use resources on such materials as copyediting, Iraq, and reporting on
technology affairs. Additionally, there is a fine area dedicated to business
journalism, including helpful hints on how best to deploy statistics in such
pieces of writing. Overall, the site is extremely useful, and it is worth
visiting several times. [KMG]
====== Network Tools ====
14. FireTune for Fire Fox 1.x
http://www.totalidea.com/freestuff4.htm
Sometimes the best product is just a slight improvement on an existing
product. This is certainly the case with FireTune for Fire Fox. Designed to
optimize the browsing experience for those who utilize the popular browser,
the application improves a number of key aspects of the browser. These
features include the streamlining of actually setting the computer
preferences and the like, and they can be used quickly and more efficiently.
This version is compatible with computers running Windows 98 and newer.
[KMG]
15. GeoQuiz 1.1
http://www.handmap.net/
If one can?t go around the world in a jet or on a cruise ship, it?s not a
bad idea to learn about world geography via this handy application. With
GeoQuiz 1.1, visitors can zoom in around a map of the world to learn the
answers to such basic questions as ?What country is that?? Of course, they
will have to guess from a list of options, as it is a quiz of sorts. The
program also contains a number of new modules, such as those for the United
States, which is designed to help users learn the location of each state.
This version is compatible with all computers running Windows 98 and newer.
[KMG]
====== In The News ====
16. Pollution reporting requirements may change shortly
EPA would ease pollution reporting
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20051214-0029-toxicpollutants.html
Poor put at risk by pollution
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002682401_air14.html
Still dusted: Clinton, Nadler call for investigation of EPA response to 9-11
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0550,lombardi,70936,2.html
Environmental Protection Agency: Superfund [pdf]
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/health/index.htm
State of the Air 2005: Best and Worst Cities
http://lungaction.org/reports/sota05_cities.html
Urban air pollution and health inequities: a workshop report [pdf]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11427385&dopt=Abstract
Pollution and the environment have recently been on the minds of both the
public and policymakers alike, particularly given the recent talks regarding
the Kyoto Protocol and a number of other international policy measures.
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it wanted
to ease some of the Clean Air Act regulations that require factories and
other industrial polluters to report small releases of toxic pollutants. The
program that first made industry responsible for reporting such releases was
initiated in 1986, and a number of persons have begun to criticize the EPA
for considering such an action. The EPA has countered by stating that
communities affected by such releases will be able to know what types of
materials are released, but that the details about how each chemical was
released will not be made public. All of these announcements come on the
heels of a recently released analysis of industrial air pollution in the
United States, conducted by the Associated Press, which shows that African-
Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods
where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health
danger. Overall, the results of this analysis also suggest that poor people
are much more likely to live in areas with much higher levels of industrial
pollution. [KMG]
The first link will take users to a recent news piece that appeared in the
San Diego Union-Tribune that addresses the potential action that the EPA may
take. The second link will whisk users away to an interesting piece from the
Seattle Times that discusses the results of the Associated Press?s analysis
of the patterns of industrial pollution across the country. The third link
will take visitors to an article in this week?s Village Voice, which
addresses concerns with the way the EPA responded to the toxic cleanup in
the area around the World Trade Center disaster site. The fourth link leads
to the EPA?s homepage for information about Superfund sites and cleanup
efforts over the past twenty-five years. The fifth site leads to the
American Lung Association?s list of the ?best and worst? cities in terms of
a number of metrics, including ozone pollution and year-round particle
pollution. The final link leads to a compelling workshop report created by
the American Lung Association on the nature of urban air pollution and
health inequities. [KMG]
====== ======
== Index for December 16, 2005 ==
====== ======
1. Scout Holiday Publishing Schedule
The Scout Report will be on vacation December 23rd and 30th. We will return
with the January 6th, 2006 report. [CMH]
2. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
3. Ripples of Genocide: Journey Through Eastern Congo [Macromedia Flash
Player]
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/congojournal/
4. FDA Consumer Magazine
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/
5. Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings & Prints [Macromedia
Flash Player]
http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/japanesepaintings/index.stm
6. Business Plan Archive [pdf]
http://www.businessplanarchive.org/
7. Poetic Waves: Angel Island [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.poeticwaves.net/
8. Delta Society
http://www.deltasociety.org
9. the Warhol: Time Capsule 21 [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.warhol.org/tc21/
10. Science Cinematheque [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf]
http://www.movingimage.us/science/
11. Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait [Macromedia Flash Player]
http://www.revealingchicago.org/
12. The New Yorker [Real Player]
http://www.newyorker.com/
13. American Press Institute [pdf]
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/
14. FireTune for Fire Fox 1.x
http://www.totalidea.com/freestuff4.htm
15. GeoQuiz 1.1
http://www.handmap.net/
16. Pollution reporting requirements may change shortly
EPA would ease pollution reporting
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20051214-0029-toxicpollutants.html
Copyright Internet Scout Project, 1994-2005. The Internet Scout Project
(http://scout.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.
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Other related posts:
The Scout Report -- December 16, 2005
