The Scout Report -- May 3, 2002

Internet Scout Project Fri, 03 May 2002 12:48:11 -0700

========  The Scout Report                                            ==
========  May 3, 2002                                               ====
========  Volume 8, Number 16                                     ======
======                                   Internet Scout Project ========
====                                    University of Wisconsin ========
==                              Department of Computer Sciences ========

== I N T H E S C O U T R E P O R T T H I S W E E K ========

====== NSDL Scout Reports ====
1. NSDL Scout Reports for the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences

====== Research and Education ====
2. Revalidating External Prison Classifications Systems: The Experience of
Ten States and Model for Classification Reform
3. Factiva 2002 White Paper Series: Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added
Information Services
4. Feminist Perspectives on TANF Reauthorization: An Introduction to Key
Issues for the Future of Welfare Reform
5. Black Drama: 1850-Present
6. Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America
7. Classics of American Colonial History
8. National Geographic Inca Mummies: Secrets of a Lost World
9. Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line

====== General Interest ====
10. Mines and Mineral Occurrences of Afghanistan
11. theclearances.org
12. Voices of the Colorado Plateau
13. NOVA Online: Fire Wars
14. A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius
15. Population and Reproductive Health
16. Museums Online

====== Network Tools ====
17. ETB Thesaurus
18. GNU wget

====== In The News ====
19. Rat Robot

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====== NSDL Scout Reports ====

1. NSDL Scout Reports for the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences
The eighth issues of the first volumes of the Life Sciences Report and
Physical Sciences Report are available. The Topic in Depth section of Life
Sciences Report annotates sites on biological remediation. The Physical
Sciences Report's Topic in Depth section offers Web sites and comments about
telescopes.

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

2. Revalidating External Prison Classifications Systems: The Experience of
Ten States and Model for Classification Reform [.pdf]
http://www.nicic.org/pubs/2002/017382.pdf

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) funded projects to assist ten
states with the revalidation of their external objective classification
systems that determine which facility an inmate should be housed. The ten
participating states included Delaware, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode
Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Written by
Patricia L. Hardyman, James Austin, and Owan C. Tulloch, this 146-page
report reveals the work undertaken by the participating states, provides an
overall outline of the essential tasks required for revalidation, and
summarizes external classification trends along with the lessons learned
from these reforms. The report also includes copies of classification
instruments and statistical tables to describe options for other states
faced with similar problems. [MG]

3. Factiva 2002 White Paper Series: Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added
Information Services [.pdf]
http://factiva.com/collateral/files/whitepaper_feevsfree_032002.pdf

While promotional, the Factiva 2002 White Paper, entitled "Free, Fee-Based
and Value-Added Information Services," raises some issues worth considering
by anyone relying on Web information. Primarily aimed at those working in
knowledge-based enterprises, the report argues that, while the majority of
"knowledge professionals" believe they can find everything they need online,
most are inefficient at doing so, wasting much of their time wading through
all of the "hits" that a random search generally yields. It is this
imprecision and basic inefficiency (in the free Web world) that leads
Factiva to maintain that information professionals would do better to rely
on value-added services such as those they provide, services tailored to
granting access to a broad spectrum of authoritative, proprietary, and
professionally-maintained resources. Rightly, the Factiva report points to
two critical problems or needs confronting all information professionals
and, beyond them, everyone else seeking reliable factual content on the Web:
authority and efficiency. Noting that search time is money, and that not
everything available online is free, Factiva contends that those in need of
fast, accurate information would do best to turn to value-added services,
especially those operating under tight time constraints. [WH]

4. Feminist Perspectives on TANF Reauthorization: An Introduction to Key
Issues for the Future of Welfare Reform
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/e511.html

In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
(PRWORA) replaced the federal cash public assistance program Aid to Families
with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the state-level block grant Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. By September 30, 2002, the TANF
program has to receive congressional reauthorization, and it is expected
that Congress will consider making changes to this program during the
reauthorization debates. As a result, some feminist scholars and advocates
are adamant that the realities of poor women's lives are not ignored during
the upcoming TANF discussions. Written by Janice Peterson, this paper
identifies "some of the key issues and goals that are emerging in TANF
reauthorization discussions," and considers a feminist agenda for a TANF
reauthorization program. The report, which is in HTML format, includes a
brief introduction, a summary of key elements and impacts of the TANF
program, a discussion of critical TANF reauthorization issues, and a
feminist agenda for TANF reauthorization. [MG]

5. Black Drama: 1850-Present
http://alexanderstreet.com/PSBLDR.htm

Sponsored by the Alexander Street Press, Black Drama is an ongoing database
that plans to integrate approximately 1,200 "rare and hard-to-find plays
written from the 1850s to the present by playwrights from North America,
English speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African Diaspora
countries." The collection will include previously unpublished plays by
writers such as Ed Bullins, Randolph Edmonds, Femi Euba, Zora Neale Hurston,
Langston Hughes, Willis Richardson, and many others. The collection
currently contains 207 plays by 64 playwrights. Quarterly releases will be
issued until the collection reaches its targeted goal. Searchable by actor,
author, character, play, scene, or performance, plays are accompanied by
reference materials, ancillary information, and a database of notable
performances. A list of the collection's contents are freely accessible to
the public; however, the actual database must be purchased and can be
downloaded on a server via magnetic tape or CD-ROM. The first of its kind,
this research collection of black theatre highlights and gives voice to the
often unacknowledged variations of black life, culture, and creativity. [MG]

6. Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America
http://www.asian-nation.org/index.html

Feeling an overwhelming need for Asian Americans to represent themselves
within mainstream American society, as well as to educate the public about
Asian American experiences, Cuong Nguyen Le, a Vietnamese PhD candidate in
sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, decided to create a gateway
into the Asian American community. Asian-Nation allows viewers the
opportunity to take a peak into the Asian American world through the lens of
an Asian American. Contents of the site includes old and new elements of
Asian American culture (which features religion, spirituality, and faith); a
section on Asian American history; and a separate section on Vietnam
history. The site also contains an extensive list of related links divided
by category, and a section on current events and issues affecting the Asian
American community. Although much of the information presented is
referenced, the site does contain opinionated editorials written from the
author's perspective. [MG]

7. Classics of American Colonial History
http://www.dinsdoc.com/colonial-1.htm

Presented by Dinsmore Documentation, Classics of American Colonial History
is a research database consisting of scholarly books and articles on
American colonial history that, according to the creators, "appear to be of
continuing interest." The collection currently offers 22 source materials by
15 different authors. Browseable by author or subject, the collection
contains subject categories including Administration, African Americans and
Slavery, Economics and Trade, Immigration from Europe, Law, Native
Americans, Politics, Religion, and Wars. [MG]

8. National Geographic Inca Mummies: Secrets of a Lost World
http://crater.nationalgeographic.com/inca/

Hosted by National Geographic, the Inca Mummies Web site is an accompaniment
to the television special airing on PBS Wednesday, May 15, at 9pm Eastern
Time. Inca Mummies is about the excavation of over 2,000 mummies at the pre-
Hispanic site known to archaeologists as Puruchuco-Huaquerones, located in
Peru. Since 1999, scientists have been removing, examining, and
photographing mummies of all ages and ranks buried within the Puruchuco
cemetery. At 20 acres, the cemetery consisted of bodies buried in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is the second largest cemetery ever
excavated in Peru (after Ancon) and the largest from a single time period.
Viewers may find out more information regarding the Inca mummies and the
television special at the Web site, which contains photo galleries, press
releases, exhibition information, and an abstract of an article presented in
the May 2002 edition of the National Geographic magazine. In addition,
users can view a fascinating online documentary regarding the excavations,
and explore the layers of the Cotton King mummy bundle. Archaeologists,
scientists, and historians, as well as anyone interested in the ancient
world, may find the Web site and the television special intriguing and
useful. [MG]

9. Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line
http://www.phillipscollection.org/lawrence/

An accompaniment to the special exhibition entitled _Over the Line: The Art
and Life of Jacob Lawrence_, the Over the Line Web site features the
paintings of Jacob Lawrence, along with photographs and a brief synopsis of
his life. The site is divided into three sections -- Beginnings, Young
Artist, and Over the Line -- and covers the period between 1917 (the year of
his birth) to 2000 (the year of his death). The site also contains suggested
classroom activities, discussion questions, teaching strategies, and
recommended books in the areas of social studies, language arts, math,
science, and visual arts. It also includes a collection of paintings by
secondary students in the Washington, DC area. Users can choose to view the
exhibit in Flash (which requires a Flash 4.0 plug-in) or HTML (which has
been optimized for low bandwidth computers). A part of the Phillips
Collection located in Washington, DC, this is an excellent online exhibit
that delves into the life of painter and educator Jacob Lawrence. [MG]

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

10. Mines and Mineral Occurrences of Afghanistan [.pdf]
http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-110/of02-110.pdf

The USGS has recently released the report Mines and Mineral Occurrences of
Afghanistan in .pdf format. The 95-page open file report is an inventory of
more than 1000 mines and mineral occurrences in the country that includes
metals, industrial minerals, coal, and peat. The data were compiled from
published literature and digital files of the members of the National
Industrial Minerals project and are presented in tables which include
mineral showings, deposits, and pegmatite fields. This site is also reviewed
in the May 3, 2002 _NSDL Physical Sciences Report_. [JAB]

11. theclearances.org
http://www.theclearances.org/clearances/main.php

A work in progress and a labor of love, theclearances.org offers stories and
reminiscences about a two hundred year old blight on the Scottish
Highlanders. Beginning in the eighteenth century, a concerted effort was
made, for a variety of reasons, to move the Scots off their ancestral
Highlands. That effort and the places in which it has occurred have come to
be known as the Clearances. A sore legacy, thousands were made to flee and
thousands more to die in struggle or famine over the course of the years.
This site is dedicated to all who have suffered the impact of the
Clearances, to their families, and especially to the fallen and the lost.
As the site claims, much of the history of the Clearances are currently and
readily available online via other sites. This resource, then, looks to
fill in the gaps by offering more personal testimonies of the curse of the
Clearances. Thus, it actively solicits visitors to share what they know.
At the same time, it serves as an archive to those searching to glean news
of their kin and what might have happened to them. Users can search, for
instance, ship, port, and parish registries for glimpses of the past.
Similarly, they can also contribute anecdotes of their own, drawn from
family histories. Beyond the above, visitors to the site can also browse
through a collection of historical resources and links offered by the site.
[WH]

12. Voices of the Colorado Plateau [Flash]
http://archive.li.suu.edu/voices/voices.html

Voices of the Colorado Plateau presents first person oral history interviews
of twelve Plateau residents, describing life in this part of Utah, Colorado,
Arizona, and New Mexico. Some stories are illustrated with historical
images. Listen to Elizabeth Mayes, who came to Page, Arizona to teach the
children of workers building the Glen Canyon Dam, or Margarita Gomez, who
came to Flagstaff from Spain in 1920. Hear Marvin Litton talk about naming
his boats after natural places, Heber Hall tell how his father bought a
homestead for $14.90 before World War II, or David Estrella watching his
mother make "Ten Tortillas at Once." The site is organized into People,
Places, and Topics, but selecting the Archive link gives a list of all
twelve interviewees and the subjects they speak about. The interviews were
collected from the 1970s through the 1990s by eight cultural heritage
institutions, including universities, museums, state parks, and an
historical society. The complete list is under the About Us section. [DS]

13. NOVA Online: Fire Wars
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fire/

Although wildfires can be quite destructive, some plants and animals become
adapted to and even require this disturbance for their survival. This
companion Web site to the new PBS NOVA program, Fire Wars, focuses on
wildfires, the people who fight them, and the impact that the fires have on
natural ecosystems. A teacher's guide accompanies the site, offering ideas
for discussion and activities that can be used alone or with the television
program. One particularly interesting section is entitled On Fire. This
sequence of interactive features walks the user through the chemical
reactions involved in combustion. This site is also reviewed in the May 3,
2002 _NSDL Life Sciences Report_.[AL]

14. A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius
http://www.wildlifeart.org/Rungius/

For those of us who have no idea what makes a good painting, let alone where
to begin to create one of our own, this site offers several invaluable
lessons. For starters, visitors are taught the basics, including the
essentials of composition and thematic selection, as illustrated in the work
of renowned wildlife artist Carl Rungius (1869-1959). The first tutorial is
Flash-animated and presents geometric concepts, followed by actual artistic
representations. Next up is a unique opportunity to put the principles to
the test, rendering a work of one's own using pre-selected building blocks
borrowed from Rungius. Thus, users select elements from Rungius' work and
rearranges them to suit personal tastes. Ultimately, students are afforded
the opportunity to offer their work for the consideration of their peers --
other visitors to the site. A great pedagogical tool, this last feature
really sets this site apart as it calls attention to artists in the making.
[WH]

15. Population and Reproductive Health
http://www.developmentgateway.org/pop

A new portal sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the
Development Gateway Foundation, this Web site is an Internet initiative that
provides a community-built database of information regarding population and
reproductive health. The site offers research; projects; a news service; a
bulletin board; an events calendar; and population/ reproductive health
project information from a shared database that includes activities by donor
agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development, the
World Bank, and the UNFPA. In addition, the site provides a discussion forum
on reproductive health and population topics, and promotes innovative
knowledge-sharing arrangements among expert organizations in the field. For
researchers and book lovers, this site also contains a development bookstore
where users can shop for publications on development issues from a range of
publishers worldwide. Visitors to the Web site are able to sign up for free
membership, which entitles them to receive regular updates on added
resources. [MG]

16. Museums Online
http://www.museumstuff.com/

MuseumStuff.com is the one-stop shop for museum information, where Internet
users can discover and explore thousands of museums and related resources
around the country. This search engine, which features a "broad range of
museum 'stuff,'" offers links to various museums, virtual exhibitions,
museum events, fun and game sites for secondary and post-secondary students,
and educational links. The museum links are arranged in three separate
categories -- art, history, and science -- and can be accessed from the main
page. The virtual exhibition section offers 55 topics ranging from African
American, to ceramics, to evolution, to motorcycles, to religion, to zoos/
animals. Viewers can search for museum events by organization name, month,
and specific day, or perform an advanced search using a combination of
selections. On the whole, this gateway to museum stuff provides enough
resources to pique the interest of persons in many different areas. [MG]

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

17. ETB Thesaurus
http://www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/etb/content.cfm?lang=en&ov=7208

The European Treasury Browser (ETB) Project has recently released a
multilingual thesaurus available in eight languages: Danish, English,
French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. The thesaurus is
"aimed at indexing educational resources" and building an "interoperable
infrastructure to exchange and network metadata on educational resources for
schools in Europe." The project seeks to add value to national resource
collections by allowing teachers and students to locate Europe resources.
The thesaurus gives users access to all resources, regardless of the
indexing method used. Users have a choice of downloading the thesaurus
between three different displays -- alphabetical, rotated, or systematic.
Potential users of the ETB thesaurus are indexers working in education
documentation services, publishers, libraries, teachers, students,
administrators, scholars, and researchers. Interested users may find
downloading the thesaurus a bit difficult; the first download yields a URL
from which users can download the actual file. [MG]

18. GNU wget
http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

GNU Wget is a free software package that allows users to retrieve files
using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP, the most widely used Internet protocols. It is a
non-interactive command line tool; therefore, it may easily be called from
scripts, cron jobs, and terminals without Xsupport. Some of its many
features include resuming aborted downloads using REST and RANGE, using
filename wild cards and recursively mirror directories, converting absolute
links in downloaded documents to relative so downloaded documents can link
to each other locally, and using local file timestamps to determine whether
documents need to be redownloaded when mirroring. This software runs on most
UNIX-like operating systems, as well as Microsoft Windows. [MG]

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

19. Rat Robot
Boston Globe: Scientists Produce 'Ratbot' - First Radio-Controlled Animal
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/122/nation/Scientists_produce_ratbot_first_radio_controlled_animal+.shtml
New Zealand Herald: New York Scientists Unveil Robo-rat
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/worldnews/../storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1843131&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
Considerations for the 2002 Farm Bill
http://www.fb-net.org/FB/
Farm Bill Network Information on Use of USDA Conservation Programs
http://www.fb-net.org/
Intro to Jose Delgado
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/implant/
Dr. Jose M. R. Delgado
http://earthops.net/klaatu/delgado.html

Scientist have created the world's first radio-controlled animal by wiring a
computer chip directly into the brain of a living rat. The rats, each wired
with three hair-fine electrical probes to their brains, can be directed by
remote control by an operator typing commands on a computer up to 500 meters
(1,640 feet) away. Developed by Sanjiv Talwar at the State University of New
York and colleagues, this latest discovery in machine-based mind control not
only responds to a user's commands, but also transmits a sense of touch.
"The animal is not only doing something -- it's feeling something," said
Talwar, who also suggests the rats might be used as scouts for sniffing out
hidden land mines or for search and rescue teams that look for survivors
amid rubble. Unlike clunky machines, Talwar reveals that rats have the
ability to travel adeptly over rough terrain and, therefore, might be more
easily deployed in chaotic environments. Last year, the US Department of
Agriculture adopted regulations that might someday limit such experiments if
they're shown to cause unnecessary harm or stress to laboratory rats and
mice. However, an amendment to the Farm Bill, now pending in Congress, would
repeal these protections. Sen. Jess Helms (R-SC) inserted the amendment in
February that would scuttle any protections for laboratory rodents or birds.
Helms asserted the regulations would only lead to cumbersome paperwork.
"Isn't it far better for the mouse to be fed and watered in a clean
laboratory than to end up as a tiny bulge being digested inside an enormous
snake?"

Mind control research projects is nothing new to the scientific world. In
the 1960s, Yale physiologist Jose Delgado proved he could influence the mood
and actions of animals through remote control. In one famous demonstration,
Delgado stood, unarmed, in front of a charging bull. As the bull bore down
on him, Delgado flicked a switch on a small radio transmitter that sent
charges to electrodes implanted inside the bull's brain, causing the animal
to immediately brake to a halt and meekly walk away. Delgado also
experimented with monkeys and cats, and generated horror when he suggested
the technology could be used to limit obsessive and criminal behavior in
human societies. For recent press releases on the rat robot phenomenon,
viewers may access the first two links listed above. The third link gives
information on the status of the 2002 Farm Bill, as well as other major
bills. The fourth link provides information from the US Department of
Agriculture Farm Bill on use of USDA conservation programs. Finally, the
last two links provide information on Jose Delgado's research and practices.
[MG]

====== ======
== Index for May 3, 2002 ==
====== ======