04/19/06
NOTE: To subscribe to the SciTech Library Newsletter list, simply send an email message to “lyris@lists.nsf.gov”. In the text of your message, put the phrase “subscribe sci-tech_lib_news”. Do not add a signature to your message. Or contact sbianchi@nsf.gov.
“I’m happy to report that the NSF external web site (an OLPA/DAS collaboration) is a finalist in the government category for the 10th Annual Webby Awards. This best-of-the-web competition, often called the “Oscars of the Internet,” drew more than 5,500 entries. Five nominees were named in each of about 65 categories on Tuesday.
The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
NSF contractor S2N Media, one of our partners in redesigning our web presence, nominated the NSF site for a Webby. Members of the Web Implementation Group (WIG), Web Advisory Group (WAG), OIRM and OLPA worked closely with S2N and others in that extraordinary effort. Our site reflects our hard work, imagination and dedication to informing the research community and the public about NSF. Now we have one more thing to celebrate.
But before the celebration begins, there’s one thing we should do.
As a Webby Award nominee, NSF is also eligible to win a People’s Voice Award. Please visit the Webby’s People’s Voice voting site and vote for NSF. You will have to register in order to vote. Voting for the People’s Voice award ends at midnight on May 5.
Winners of the Webby and People’s Voice awards will be announced on May 9 and presented at a ceremony in New York City on June 12.
The Webbys are well covered by the news media. Mainstream and Web outlets (including the San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer and MarketWatch’s Internet Daily) reported on the nominations. Last year, CNN, BBC and Fox News aired segments of the ceremony.
The Webby Awards give us an unparalleled opportunity to garner attention for NSF and the work we do. Watch for more information on how to help us get the word out. (From Mary Lou Higgs)
It was a hit! Standing room only! If you missed the first DC area Café Scientifique, you really missed something. However, it is not too late. Another Café Scientifique is coming up soon. Please join us at The Top of the Hill (aka Pour House), 319 Pennsylvania Ave. SE on Tues., May 2, 6:00–8:00pm for good food, drink, and a little lighthearted conversation about … oh, say, our shared Martian beginnings?
Stay tuned for more details … or join the DC area Café Scientifique e-mail list. To subscribe to the cafesci list, simply send an email message to “lyris@lists.nsf.gov”. In the text of your message, put the phrase “subscribe cafesci”. Do not add a signature to your message.
If you don’t live in the Washington, DC area, there are Café Scientifiques sprouting up all across the world. A place where for the price of a beer or a cup of coffee you can get a stimulating evening of science discussion … Go to the Café Scientifique website. Or start up a Café Scientifique in your own community!
Microsoft’s Windows Live Academic Beta
http://academic.live.com/
Search Help
http://help.live.com/(cHJvamVjdD1BY2FkZW1pY19TZWFyY2hfSGVscCZtYXJrZXQ9ZW4tdXM=)/Help.aspx?querytype=
Available in beta version is Windows Live Academic, a new competitor to
Google Scholar. “We currently index content related to computer science,
physics, electrical engineering, and related subject areas. Academic search
enables you to search for peer reviewed journal articles contained in journal
publisher portals and on the web in locations like citeseer.” Included
are journal articles, preprint archives, conference proceedings, etc. For a
list of the journal sources, check
Content Sources (http://academic.live.com/journals)
(Such a list is something Google Scholar does NOT provide for their service).
The results interface is very different from a standard search engine results page. These features are offered:
Relevancy is determined by two factors:
However, if a reliable method of citation ranking is developed, that may be added as a relevance factor at a later date.
What I don’t find is any advanced search screen. Search help is not available from the search page, but is from the results page, which seems a bit odd. However not when you read the search help and discover that it really isn’t talking about searching at all … Does this database do phrase searching? What Boolean operators does it use? Nor do I find information about what parts of the article are being searched. Google Scholar searches full text, regardless of whether you actually have access to that full text. I suspect that Windows Live Academic does not search full text, since I had little luck searching on the phrase “funded by the National Science Foundation” or variants of the funding attribution statement, something I can do with Google Scholar.
Not everything advertised by Windows Live Academic is really true at this point — Gary Price from ResourceShelf points out the following: “Confusing? We’ve seen several articles quoting MS officials saying that material comes only from free and fee-based peer-reviewed journals. Note this banner from a results page (are we interpreting it incorrectly)? However, documentation also points out (see the home page) that material also comes from repositories like ArXiv.org with more repositories on the way. For example, note the citation in this screen cap. It doesn’t list a journal and the article itself sits on a server at San Jose State. It’s also not a peer-reviewed article. We have NO problem at all with this type of content being included, but MS needs to be clearer about what is and is not available. Also confusing is that many articles are not available without a site license or fee. Articles in this category should have a notation that only the abstract is available for free. We ran a search for the term Ethernet and then sorted to see ‘Conference’ results. However, many of the results we reviewed were not from conference proceedings.”
Many questions are as yet unanswered. How often is the database updated? How much of each journal, and what time range, is covered? What other sources are covered? When will other subject areas and features be available?
Still, when all is said and done, this cannot help but be a valuable search tool, and it is just in its infancy.
New Tools for Science Policy: Theory & Method
http://www.cspo.org/projects/newtools.htm
“As incredible as it may seem, science policy has few useful theories and
no rigorous methods for assessing and improving the societal value of
research. Public investments in science are almost always justified on the
basis of desired social outcomes, yet we cannot even begin to answer
questions about why one particular type or level of investment might be
better than another for achieving a particular outcome. We cannot, that
is, make even a rudimentary stab at determining whether our current
research portfolio is anywhere close to optimal in terms of achieving the
outcomes that society expects from it.”
Here is a collection of papers from the members of The Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes.
Senate Commerce to Hold Hearing on Fostering Innovation in Math and Science Education
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1784
The Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Technology, Innovation, and
Competitiveness has scheduled a hearing on Fostering Innovation in Math and
Science Education for Wednesday, April 26 at 10:00 am. This hearing will
focus on the importance of science and mathematics education from
kindergarten through graduate school in fueling future developments in the
21st Century’s high-tech innovation economy. Witnesses and hearing room
location will be announced when available. Check the website for additional
information and a webcast. (From IEEE-USA Eye on Congress)
USPTO Releases List of Top 13 Universities Receiving Most Patents in 2005
For the 12th consecutive year, the University of California tops all
universities for the most patents for inventions, according to a list
recently released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The preliminary
list reveals the top 13 U.S. universities receiving the most utility
patents during calendar year 2005. All campuses are included in each
school’s total.
While the University of California’s 390 patents in 2005 earned it top honors again, the figure reflects an 8 percent decline from the institution’s 424 total in 2004 and 11 percent less than 2003. The California Institute of Technology experienced an even greater drop in patent activity between 2004 and 2005, slipping 25 percent to third overall with 101 patents. Massachusetts Institute of Technology moved into second with 136, a 3 percent increase over 2004.
The University of Florida showed the most marked improvement with 64 patents in 2004, an increase of 56 percent for the number of patents awarded. All other institutions on the list posted increases as well:
Declines in 2005 patent activity among the top schools occurred at the University of Texas with 90 patents (11 percent decrease from 2004) and Johns Hopkins University with 71 (24 percent decrease from 2004). The University of Illinois fell off the list from 2004, posting 58 patents in 2004 but apparently less than 41 in 2005 — the lowest figure on the Patent Office list for 2005. (From IEEE-USA Eye on Washington)
Industrial R&D Intensity by State: 2003
http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/040306t.htm
Using statistics from the National Science Foundation’s report Science
& Engineering Indicators 2006, the non-profit SSTI, has prepared a table
presenting 2003 state rankings for industrial R&D intensity — the
ratio of industry R&D to gross state product (GSP).
The national average in industrial R&D intensity for 2003 was 1.81 percent. Among the 14 states that placed above the national average, Michigan held the highest rank at 4.24 percent followed by Washington (3.76 percent), Massachusetts (3.73 percent), Connecticut (3.35 percent) and California (3.28 percent). Conversely, Alaska ranked the lowest in the nation at 0.11 percent, with South Dakota (0.27 percent), Montana (0.25 percent), Louisiana (0.20 percent), and Wyoming (0.17 percent) rounding off the final five. (From IEEE-USA Eye on Washington)
Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 is available online (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/).
Senate Climate Conference
http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/stc/index.shtml#Montreal
Issue items
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=IssueItems.View&IssueItem_ID=38
Senate climate conference “is our starting point.”
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a
standing-room-only, all-day climate conference on April 4 on key issues
surrounding the structure of a greenhouse gas regulatory program.
Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) called the conference “our
starting point” for a mandatory system. Domenici’s statements held
true, as a consensus emerged among the vast majority of participants,
including many from the electric industry and other industrial sectors,
for a mandatory, economy-wide system that would take effect soon. (From AAAS
Science and Technology in Congress)
Innovation: An Education Focus
http://www.aaas.org/spp/cstc/stc/index.shtml#Innovation
“A number of bills designed to improve science education and increase
U.S. competitiveness were introduced in March, and more are expected in
the coming months. Although the bills address familiar themes — K–12
education, teacher training, college funding, and workforce preparation
— each includes novel proposals.” (From AAAS Science and Technology in
Congress)
Climate and Global Change Assessments 4/20
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/meetingview.aspx?meetingid=802
Thursday, April 20
Climate and Global Change Assessments
National Academies Building
2100 C St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
Symposium on Globalization of Innovation 4/21
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/meetingview.aspx?meetingid=1282
Friday, April 21
Symposium on Globalization of Innovation
National Academies’ Keck Building
500 Fifth St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences’ 143rd Annual Meeting 4/25–4/25
http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Annual_Meeting_Public_Program
National Academies Building
2100 C St., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
The Academy’s annual meeting will be held from April 22 to April 25 in Washington, DC. The following symposia held in conjunction with the annual meeting are open to the public and free of charge; register online to attend. The symposia will be held in the Auditorium of the National Academy of Sciences Building, located at 2100 C Street, NW. For more information, contact the Academy at NAS-symposia@nas.edu or call 202.334.2444.
Monday, April 24 — Kavli Frontiers of Science: Robot Learning
Tuesday, April 25 — Legal/Forensic Evidence and Its Scientific Basis
Saving Grace — Resurrecting American History 4/26
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/arts/Other_Events_Saving_Grace_Details.html
Documentary film and discussion with:
Wednesday, April 26, 6 – 8 p.m.
500 Fifth St NW, Room Keck 100
Free
This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition Cheryl Goldsleger: utopia
On Wednesday, April 26, the National Academy of Sciences will feature the DC premier of Saving Grace: Resurrecting American History, a documentary produced by the Historic Richmond Foundation, that details how state-of-the-art imaging and sculpting technologies were employed to replicate the Richmond Theatre Fire Monument at Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia. Project advisors Alfonso Narvaez, architectural conservator, Michael Raphael, 3D imaging engineer, and Mimi Sadler, historical architect, will lead a discussion after the screening.
“The Origin of Species: What do we really know?” 4/20
Thursday April 20, 2006,
Reception 5:15 PM,
Lecture and Discussion 6:00–8:00 PM,
sponsored by Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER),
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
1200 New York Ave. NW, 2nd floor auditorium
Washington DC 20005 (1 block from Metro Center on blue/orange/red lines)
Anti-evolutionists sometimes argue that, although they can accept the occurrence of microevolution within species (such as the evolution of antibiotic resistance), they don’t see how the same set of rules could lead to new species or to the large differences seen between current organisms. Dr. Via will review current understanding of how the process of speciation by natural selection can occur, and will illustrate that there is little need to regard speciation as some type of special phenomenon that requires rules other than those of microevolution. Classical evolutionary models of speciation will be briefly summarized, and recent genetic findings about how reproductive isolation evolves will be discussed. She will conclude her talk by mentioning how results from evolutionary developmental biology may provide mechanisms for large morphological changes during evolution that seem hard to explain with “normal” mutation and natural selection.
Lecturer,
Sara Via, Ph.D.,
Professor,
Departments of Biology & Entomology,
University of Maryland College Park
Respondent,
Emmett Holman, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Philosophy,
George Mason University
RFF Seminar: Natural Disasters and Policymaking
http://www.rff.org/rff/Events/Natural-Disasters-and-Policy-Making.cfm
On April 5th, speakers at this First Wednesday Seminar discussed historical
and contemporary experiences with natural disasters ranging from the
Mississippi Flood of 1927 to Hurricane Katrina. They also compared and
contrasted approaches in the United States and in the Netherlands to the
challenge of hydrology — its science, engineering, risk assessment, and
public response.
Electricity-Generation Technologies
http://www.rff.org/rff/Events/Steve-Specker.cfm
Policy Leadership Forum Showcases Steve Specker on Electricity-Generation
Technologies
On March 30, Dr. Steve Specker, president and CEO of Electric Power Research Institute, discussed electricity-generation technologies and investment decisions in light of ongoing efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. Specker compared the costs of various options, including such technologies as wind, nuclear, biomass, pulverized coal, and gasification. He also addressed key uncertainties affecting near-term decisions on new electricity generation.
DoSER Lectures
http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/
Audio of past DoSER lectures is now available online!
AAAS DoSER brings scientists, ethicists, and theologians together in public
lectures that increase understanding of the cultural context in which
science operates. Now, the content of past lectures can be accessed online.
Listen to lively discussions of a second genesis of life in our solar
system, the evolution of biological complexity, solving Alzheimer’s
disease, and other important topics from 2005 and 2004.
View a New Geometric Art Exhibit at AAAS
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/0405art.shtml
From 4 April to 16 June, acclaimed artist and geometry enthusiast Tony
Robbin shows works influenced by space-time, the theory of relativity and
hypercubes. See these intriguing works in the AAAS headquarters gallery in
Washington, D.C., and read about the artist.
Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2004.
NSF, 2006.
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf04317
Status of Technology and Digitization in the Nation’s Museums and Libraries.
Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2006.
http://www.imls.gov/publications/TechDig05/Technology%2BDigitization.pdf
Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
NAP, 2006. (Fully downloadable pdf available)
http://fermat.nap.edu/catalog/11278.html?onpi_newsdoc04262005
Water, a Shared Responsibility: the Second World Water Development Report.
UNESCO, 2006. (summary)
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001444/144409E.pdf
Calhoun, Karen.
The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools.
Library of Congress, 2006.
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf
Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA.
EFF, 2006.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/DMCA_unintended_v4.pdf
Measure By Measure: Advancing commercialisation, collaboration and coordination in Australia’s science industry: The strategic Plan of the Science Industry Action Agenda.
Australian Dept. of Education, Science, and Training, 2006.
http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/A8A2EEE7-CEC3-471C-81F6-369A0F7DE179/9023/91717_Final_Combined20050902105934.pdf
The Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program: Funding Issues and Activities.
Report Number: IB10130, CRS Issue Brief, February 22, 2006
http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs//data/2006/upl-meta-crs-8451/IB10130_2006Feb22.pdf
Zinth, Kyle.
A Synthesis of Recommendations for Improving U.S. Science and Mathematics Education.
Education Commission of the States, 2006.
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/67/64/6764.pdf
TIMSS 1999 Video Study of Eighth-Grade Science Teaching.
NCES, 2006.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006017
Technology Transfer: Use of Federally Funded Research and Development.
Report Number: IB85031, CRS Issue Brief, February 10, 2006
http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs//data/2006/upl-meta-crs-8454/IB85031_2006Feb10.pdf
C4ISR for Future Naval Strike Groups (prepublication).
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11605.html
Principal-Investigator-Led Missions in the Space Sciences.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11530.html
Priorities in Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11432.html
Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11381.html
A Risk Reduction Strategy for Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA’s Bioastronautics Roadmap.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11467.html
State and Federal Standards for Mobile Source Emissions (prepublication).
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11586.html
Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11617.html
Tires and Passenger Vehicle Fuel Economy: Informing Consumers, Improving Performance — Special Report 286.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11620.html
Review of NASA Plans for the International Space Station.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11512.html
Review of Goals and Plans for NASA’s Space and Earth Sciences.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11416.html
The Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster: Implications for U.S. and Global Disaster Reduction and Preparedness — Summary of the June 21, 2005 Workshop of the Disasters Roundtable.
NAP, 2006.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11619.html
Source: EIROforum
Science in School
http://www.scienceinschool.org/
“Science in School is a journal for teachers, scientists, and all
stakeholders in European science teaching.”
LabLit.com: The Culture of Science in Fiction & Fact
http://www.lablit.com/
This site “is dedicated to real laboratory culture and to the
portrayal and perceptions of that culture … in fiction, the media
and across popular culture.” Features interviews, articles, a message
board, and a list of novels (and other media) that depict “realistic
scientists as central characters and portray fairly realistic
scientific practice or concepts, typically taking place in a realistic
— as opposed to speculative or future — world.“ Edited by a scientist.
(From Librarian’s Index to the Internet) A varied and interesting website.
MuslimHeritage.com
http://www.muslimheritage.com/
“This website is a community effort to provide an educational forum to
present and discuss Muslim heritage” in the areas of science,
technology, arts, and civilization. Find a timeline (0–2002), feature
articles (on topics such as architecture, education, engineering, and
law), material about Muslim scholars, and details about significant
individuals, cities, institutions, discoveries, and monuments. From
the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (FSTC), London. (From
Librarian’s Index to the Internet)
BBC’s Planet Earth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/
This website has a lot of goodies on offer. You can get screensavers,
wallpaper, video clips to watch or the an “Easy Edit Suite” (UK only) to
make your own video postcard …
AmphibiaWeb [Real Player, Quick Time]
http://amphibiaweb.org/
In a previous time, it was a bit more tedious and difficult to keep track of
the world’s species, and international collaboration was less than
instantaneous. This recent endeavor, presented by the Digital Library
Project at Berkeley and a host of supporting organizations, aims to provide
the general public and scientists with a place to retrieve information
related to amphibian biology and conservation. Currently, AmphibiaWeb
contains material on 1265 species, along with 1173 distribution maps, 3449
literature references, 140 sound files, and 7188 photographs. With all this
information, it helps to have a well thought out search engine, and a
finding aid is available here as well. The database can be searched by
genus, species, vernacular name, family, order, country, reason for
population decline, and so on. The more casual visitor will also want to
visit the more general “About Amphibians” section, then glide on over to the
“Calls and Video” area. Here, one can look and listen to a number of
creatures, including the call of the Aplastodiscus leucopygius, a type of
Brazilian tree frog which sounds a bit like the warning signal emitted by a
service vehicle backing into a dock. [KMG] (From the Scout Report)
The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 [pdf]
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/
The history of human civilizations is rife with disastrous epidemics and
plagues, a fact that is sometimes lost on modern-day pundits and
commentators. Fortunately, the National Archives hasn’t forgotten about one
of history’s more recent tragedies, namely the influenza epidemic of 1918.
They recently created this engaging and fascinating collection of documents
and photographs that offer a first-hand perspective on this epidemic. All
told, the collection offered here contains several dozen primary source
materials, including a directive from the Navy in order to educate sailors
about the health risks of the disease and a photograph of Seattle police
officers clad in protective face masks. One special feature of the site is
that visitors can also order copies of the documents, if they are so
inclined. Overall, this is a well-designed site that offers a glimpse of the
American perspective on this rampant epidemic which eventually killed 20
million people across the world. [KMG] (From the Scout Report)
Squid
http://squid.us/
“Remember all those news stories about the giant squid? Of course you do,
and maybe you were one of those types who couldn’t get enough. Today’s Pick
brims over with more squid than you can possibly handle. Whether they’re
attempting to attack and eat grown men, emitting an ‘eerie blue glow’ in
Japan’s Toyama Bay, ruining vacations, or hauling huge pouches of eggs, the
tentacled monsters seem to have us surrounded — and not just in the water.
They’re appearing on squid T-shirts, knitted replicas, and even weirdly
homoerotic paintings. So come join the cephalopod celebration, because by
the looks of things, they’re our masters now.”
(From Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)
Darwin
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/?src=e_f
“While many may know that Charles Darwin was quite happy to keep company
with his notebooks and his telescopes, there are many more fascinating things to
learn about this remarkable scientist on this engaging and visually
appealing website created by the American Museum of Natural History.
Designed to function as an online counterpart to a recent in situ
exhibition, the site is divided into small sections that contain information
on some of his activities, including his voyage on the HMS Beagle and his
initial thoughts about a theory of natural selection. What is truly
remarkable about this site are the audio and visual features that are woven
seamlessly into the essays and photographs. Visitors can listen to a
simulated soundscape from the HMS Beagle voyage, and then view a tortoise
cam in another section (appropriately titled ‘Tortoise Cam’).
[KMG]” (From the Scout Report)
ACL Anthology: A Digital Archive of Research Papers in Computational Linguistics
http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/
More than 10,000 papers on computational linguistics from 1965-present.
Publications come from journals, conferences, meetings, workshops, and
research institutes. Papers are listed by year and source. (From InfoMine)
IT Conversations
http://www.itconversations.com/
“For those who might see the words ‘IT Conversations’, and think: ‘Oh no. A
website dedicated to conversations about IT’, think again. This delightful
website started life in June 2003, under the careful direction of Doug Kaye
and it currently contains dozens of compelling interviews, discussions, and
heated debates with a number of fascinating individuals. The first-time
visitor might want to begin by looking through some of the series listed on
the homepage. Some of the themes addressed by these sessions include social
innovation, technology development, and global security. Each interview can
also be rated, so visitors may want to listen to some of the highest rated
programs first, depending on their faith in such ratings. Of course, users
may also wish to use the search engine offered here, as they can use this
application to quickly locate different programs of interest. [KMG]” (From
the Scout Report)
Virtual Vaudeville [Shockwave, QuickTime]
http://www.virtualvaudeville.com/
“Vaudeville lives and breathes again on this tremendously interesting
website created with the support of the University of Georgia Research Foundation
and the National Science Foundation. Utilizing a team of researchers and
computer visualization experts, the project has created 3D simulation of a
complete act by the vaudeville-era comedian Frank Bush. Of course, visitors
should first watch this remarkable act, then proceed to other sections where
they can learn about the technology used to develop this recreation, and of
course, about the age of vaudeville itself. On the site, visitors can also
learn about the ‘Live Performance Simulation System’, which is the prototype
used to create this immersive experience. Given all of the fascinating
material on the site, many visitors will want to make a few return visits to
soak up the whole experience. [KMG]” (From the Scout Report)
Blue Planet Games
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/games.shtml
Thirteen games — seven big challenges and six “Just for fun” games —
brought to you by the BBC and designed to teach children about our planet.
Games include:
and more …
NOVA: “The Great Robot Race”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa/
Join NOVA for an exclusive backstage pass to the DARPA Grand
Challenge — a raucous race for robotic, driverless vehicles sponsored
by the Pentagon, which awards a $2 million purse to the winning
team. Armed with artificial intelligence, laser-guided vision, GPS
navigation, and 3-D mapping systems, the contenders are some of the
world’s most advanced robots. Yet even their formidable technology
and mechanical prowess may not be enough to overcome the grueling
130-mile course through Nevada’s desert terrain. From concept to
construction to the final competition, “The Great Robot Race”
delivers the absorbing inside story of clever engineers and their
unyielding drive to create a champion, capturing the only aerial
footage that exists of the Grand Challenge.
How Products Are Made
http://www.madehow.com/
We love to tear things apart to see how they work. Trouble is, we often
can’t get them back together, and there’s so much stuff we’ll never get our
dirty mitts on — like an EKG machine, a nuclear submarine, or, well, a
guillotine. However, today’s Pick goes a long way toward satisfying our
curiosity by walking us through the assembly of hundreds of objects.
Explore all seven extensive, searchable volumes here, covering items as
diverse as the humble hot dog and the majestic concrete beam bridge. If
you’ve ever been curious about how things really work, how they the heck
they get made, or what exactly artificial blood is, simply point your mouse
in the direction of this site. (From Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)
Perfect Disaster
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/perfectdisaster/perfectdisaster.html?dcitc=w99-530-ah-0003
Super tornadoes. “Supercell” solar squalls. Megafloods. They sound like
Jerry Bruckheimer’s next effects-drenched blockbusters. But dip into this
Discovery Channel companion site and scare yourself silly with how real —
and really nasty — Mother Nature can be. The site offers a severe weather
tracker, a hazard quiz (“Would you survive?”), an interactive explanation
of how we measure a twister’s strength, and spectacular videos. One clip
traces the anatomy of a twister on a rampage. Another follows the formation
of magnetic storms on the Sun’s surface, coolly illustrating how “coronal
mass ejections” can wipe out airplane radar, stir up radiation storms, and
spark blackouts throughout power grids. How can they be so calm? And who
needs sci-fi flicks when we’ve got all of this barreling toward us? (From
Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)
100 Years Since the Great Quake
http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/
This April 18 marks one hundred years since the great San Francisco
earthquake and fire of 1906, an event that virtually leveled the City by
the Bay-and set the stage for its amazing growth in the 20th century. Not
surprisingly, the Exploratorium has a great website on earthquakes …
Dimming the Sun
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/
“‘Dimming the Sun’ investigates the discovery that the sunlight
reaching Earth has been growing dimmer, which may seem surprising
given all the international concern over global warming. At first
glance, less sunlight might hardly seem to matter when our planet is
stewing in greenhouse gases. But the discovery of global dimming has
led several scientists to revise their models of the climate and how
fast it’s changing. According to one recent and highly controversial
model, the worst-case warming scenario could be worse than anyone
has predicted. ‘Dimming the Sun’ unravels this baffling climate
conundrum and the implications for Earth’s future.” (From NOVA)
Fossil Evidence
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/Ifossil_ev.shtml
The fossil record provides snapshots of the past that, when assembled,
illustrate a panorama of evolutionary change over the past four billion
years. Learn the questions that may be answered by fossil evidence. A
plain vanilla website, but very well organized, succinct and interesting.
Includes lesson plan materials.
“Voyage to the Mystery Moon”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/titan/
“Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery — the Cassini/Huygens
mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan — NOVA’s ‘Voyage to
the Mystery Moon’ delivers striking images of these fascinating
planetary bodies nearly a billion miles from Earth. Saturn’s broad
rings hold myriad mysteries, and Titan, whose soupy atmosphere is
similar to the one that enshrouded our planet billions of years ago,
may hold clues to the origins of life. In hopes of answering some
long-standing astrophysical questions, teams from NASA and the
European Space Agency gamble years of effort to both ease the
Cassini spacecraft into a workable orbit around Saturn and land the
Huygens probe on Titan’s never-before-seen surface.” (From NOVA)
ESA Science & Technology: Venus Express
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=64
“Background and updates about this 2005–2006 European Space Agency (ESA)
mission to Venus ‘to study the atmosphere, the plasma environment, and the
surface of Venus in great detail.’ In addition to fact sheets and status
reports, the site features images and video clips, a 3-D model of the Venus
Express spacecraft, and a glossary. From the European Space Agency.” (From
Librarian’s Index to the Internet)
Ice Breaker
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/ends/flash/main_game.shtml
Your challenge:
To investigate the Antarctic and discover the natural forces that drive the
poles. You will be sent south aboard the icebreaker ship, the Ice Queen, to
gather facts about the icy Southern Ocean. Brought to you by BBC Blue
Planet.
Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/
The story of the explosion and the subsequent archaeological digs in
the area is the focus on this interactive online exhibit created by
the Field Museum. A good place to start is the interactive timeline
which allows users to move through the events of that fateful day to
learn about the progression of the volcanic activity and the reaction
by local residents. (From Blue Web’N)
The Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy [pdf]
http://brie.berkeley.edu/~briewww/index.html
Created in 1982, The Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
is an interdisciplinary research project that focuses on “…international
economic competition and the development and application of advanced
technologies”. Moving between the worlds of the private sector to
interactions with fellow scholars and policymakers, BRIE has created a
number of thought-provoking documents for the web-browsing public and placed
them on this site. Visitors who require a bit more background material may
want to first visit the “About BRIE” area which includes information on
their objectives and research mission. After taking a look at the materials
there, interested parties should proceed to the “Publications” area, which
contains a very nice working papers area. Here visitors can download such
intriguing titles as “Transforming Politics in a Digital Era” and “Boom
Boxes: Shipping Containers and Terrorists”. [KMG] (From the Scout Report)
Economic History Services
http://eh.net/
“Despite its reputation as ‘the dismal science’, economics continues to
attract new scholars in great numbers every year, and a number of websites
provide high-quality materials for those interested in the subject. The
Economic History Services website began life in 1994 as a mere discussion
list, and since then has grown to include numerous resources that include
book reviews, a collection of course syllabi, a directory of economic
historians, along with the ever-popular ‘How Much is That?’ service. The
‘How Much is That?’ area is quite useful, as visitors can use it to
determine historical prices for goods and services, interest rates, wage
rates, and inflation rates. Budding economic historians will want to check
out the ‘Ask The Professor’ feature, which allows users to submit queries
related to the subject. The section also contains an archive of answered
questions, which include such enigmas as ‘Is deflation bad for the economy?’
The site also includes a calendar of events for persons interested in
learning about upcoming lectures, conferences, workshops, and the like.
[KMG]” (From the Scout Report)
Anansi, Tekoma, and the Cow’s Belly Folktale
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Culdesac/bhm/tekomastory.html
A folktale collected in 1923 in the Virgin Islands, rendered in both
standard English and Dutch Creole, both written and spoken. You can switch
between listening in one language to the other by movement of your mouse.
The following items are from Edupage. To subscribe to Edupage: send mail to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe edupage Anonymous (if your name is Anonymous; otherwise, substitute your own name). To unsubscribe send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu with the message: unsubscribe edupage. (If you have subscription problems, send mail to: manager@educom.unc.edu.)
MIT RESEARCHERS BUILD MICRO BATTERIES
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6058703.html
A team of researchers led by a group at MIT have put viruses — the
biological kind — to work in the manufacture of nanowires, which the
researchers said can be used to make extremely small batteries. The
project involved modifying the genes of the virus such that its outer
surface would bind to certain metal ions. Researchers then bred the
virus in a cobalt chloride solution, which resulted in the production
of cobalt nanowires just 6 nanometers wide by 880 nanometers long. The
wires, which also included small amounts of gold so they could
adequately transmit electricity, were then used as positive electrodes
for batteries. The researchers hope that with this technology they can
create batteries as small as a grain of rice.
ZDNet, 6 April 2006 (via Edupage)
U.K. TO DEVELOP EUROPE’S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4866258.stm
The British government is investing 52 million British pounds in a new
supercomputer that will replace two other high-speed systems, one at
the University of Manchester and the other run by a consortium led by
the University of Edinburgh. The new computer, known as the High-End
Computing Terascale Resource (Hector), will be capable of 100 teraflops
of computing speed, a far cry from the 280 teraflops of IBM’s Blue
Gene/L installation at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California but nonetheless fast enough to top the list of supercomputer
speeds in Europe. The system at the University of Manchester will be
decommissioned this year; the one run by the University of Edinburgh
will operate until December 2008. Science Minister Lord Sainsbury said
the new system is needed because current systems are reaching their
capacity. Jennifer Houghton, project manager of Hector, said one of the
challenges of the new system will be designing programs that can fully
exploit its potential.
BBC, 2 April 2006 (via Edupage)
PRACTICING MEDICINE ON ROBOTS
http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70672-0.html
Computerized mannequins are finding a home in medical training programs
in an effort “to engineer out some of the errors,” according to Paul
Preston, an anesthesiologist at Kaiser Permanente. The errors he is
referring to are the preventable medical mistakes that lead to 98,000
deaths annually, according to the National Academy of Sciences’s
Institute of Medicine. Preston heads a training program for Kaiser
hospitals where mannequins are used to simulate childbirth. The
mannequins in the Kaiser program are made by Gaumard Scientific and can
present trainees with a wide range of situations, ranging from fairly
standard births to those complicated by various factors, some
life-threatening. The mannequin gives birth to a plastic doll that
simulates a real infant. It exhibits vital signs and can demonstrate
oxygen deficiency and a number of other conditions that affect
newborns.
Wired News, 16 April 2006 (via Edupage)
MICROSOFT DEBUTS ACADEMIC SEARCH SERVICE
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/04/2006041201t.htm
Microsoft has introduced a new service called Windows Live Academic
Search to compete directly with Google’s similar service, Google
Scholar. Danielle Tiedt, general manager of content acquisition for
Microsoft, noted that the academic search market exceeds the market for
nonacademic users by a factor of six, and some analysts have predicted
that the academic search market will grow to $10 billion by 2010.
Microsoft’s new service was launched with limited content — only
resources from computer science, electrical engineering, and physics
are included because these fields provide “the most highly structured
metadata,” according to Tiedt. Microsoft has partnered with a number of
leading academic organizations and publishers and plans to add to the
content included in the service. Tiedt also said the new service fits
with Microsoft’s efforts to cultivate relationships with academics
generally.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 April 2006 (sub. req’d) (via Edupage)
INITIATIVE AIMS TO HELP FIND TRUSTWORTHY INFORMATION ONLINE
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/03/2006032901t.htm
A new Web site being developed by researchers at Syracuse University
and the University of Washington (UW) will provide users with tools and
tips for separating good online information from the vast amounts of
unreliable material. R. David Lankes, associate professor of
information studies at Syracuse, and Michael Eisenberg, professor in
the Information School at UW, are codirectors of the Credibility
Commons, which is funded by a $250,000 grant from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Lankes said that many users assess
the credibility of online information based on what a site looks like
or whether it tells users what they want to hear. The Credibility
Commons will gather computer programs — written by others and by the
organizers of the new site — that can help users find credible
information on the Web. The site will also solicit feedback from users
for how best to locate reliable, accurate information. The tools
developed by the Credibility Commons will be available as open source
applications, which users may download and modify provided they share
those changes with the site.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 March 2006 (sub. req’d) (via Edupage)
MIT ILABS EXPAND ACCESS TO AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/24/ilab
A program at MIT that offers remote access to instrumentation in its
labs has grown to include universities in Africa. The iLab initiative
began in 1998 when Jesus del Alamo, professor of electrical engineering
and computer science, started developing tools that allow users to
prepare experiments separate from lab equipment and then submit their
tests to the equipment. In this way, experiments that take 20 minutes
to set up but only 10 seconds to run, for example, only occupy the lab
equipment for 10 seconds. As a result of del Alamo’s work, MIT’s lab
resources became available to students working from dorms and to users
in other countries. A grant from the Carnegie Corporation has led to
the expansion of the program to several universities in Africa, which
suffer from very high costs for Internet access. The iLabs model
requires researchers to be connected to — and paying for — the Internet
only while data is being transferred, not during the set up of their
tests. Organizers of the project hope that it can serve as a model for
other institutions. Steven Lerman, director of MIT’s Center for
Educational Computing Initiatives, described a scenario in which
institutions would purchase unique laboratory equipment, rather than
buying what another school already has, and share access to the various
unique resources.
Inside Higher Ed, 24 March 2006 (via Edupage)
GEORGIA RESEARCHERS DEVELOP HYBRID NETWORK
http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5640
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a
network technology that promises increased access to high-speed
Internet service. The technology would carry both wired and wireless
signals on the same fiber-optic cable, allowing both kinds of service
in facilities such as conference centers and offices with just one set
of wiring. The signal would be split to accommodate connections through
wall outlets as well as through wireless access points. Users could
connect through either channel and achieve access speeds of up to 2.5
Gbps. The network would also allow so-called wave division
multiplexing, which would divide the connection into as many as 32
channels, each capable of the same 2.5 Gbps speed.
TechWorld, 24 March 2006 (via Edupage)
CHINA LOOKS TO HP FOR GRID
The government of China has recruited HP to help it build and develop
the ChinaGrid, which will be used by thousands of researchers in the
country as well as more than 290 million Chinese college students. The
facility that houses the grid opened in late February, and researchers
from HP Labs and from the ChinaGrid are working on technologies to
support the grid, including a monitoring system to minimize human
intervention and tools to increase security of the grid. When finished,
the grid is expected to be one of the most powerful in the world, with
a capacity of 15 teraflops of computing power. The grid will be used
for a language-instruction program at a university in Hong Kong, for
various bioinformatics applications, and to support a videoconferencing
system. The grid is overseen by the China Ministry of Education.
Yahoo, 6 March 2006 (via Edupage)
GOOGLE, GRADUATE STUDENT DEVISE NEW SEARCH
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6059395.html
Google is working to develop a new approach to Web searching that
displays not just the topic searched but resources for related topics.
The approach is the brainchild of Ori Allon, a doctoral student at the
University of New South Wales. In describing his idea, known as the
Orion search engine, Allon said a search for the term “American
Revolution,” for example, would return Web pages with that phrase as
well as Web resources on terms such as “American history,” “George
Washington,” and “Declaration of Independence.” “The results to the
query are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts,”
Allon said, “giving you the relevant information without having to go
to the Web site.” A spokesperson from the University of New South Wales
noted that Google has hired Allon, making him an employee of the
company, but that the search technology he is working on “is still a
university project.”
CNET, 10 April 2006 (via Edupage)
IBM ADDS SECURITY TO HARDWARE
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6059276.html
IBM has developed technology that adds hardware-level encryption to
data on a range of electronic devices. Researchers at the company said
that the technology, called Secure Blue, encrypts and decrypts data as
it passes through a processor. Data are encrypted in RAM, as well,
resulting in a high level of security for devices such as personal
computers, cell phones, digital media players, and electronic
organizers. The flip side to the protection that Secure Blue provides
to users is a new level of control offered to other owners of content,
such as media companies. Digital rights management (DRM), which
dictates how content may be used, could be bolstered by IBM’s new
technology, allowing music producers, for example, another tool to
restrict unauthorized usage of their intellectual property. Secure Blue
has been demonstrated with IBM’s PowerPC processor and is said to be
compatible with processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices,
though IBM said it is not currently in talks with those companies to
add the technology to their chips.
ZDNet, 9 April 2006 (via Edupage)
LIBRARY GROUP WINS DISPUTE WITH FBI
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/nyregion/13library.html
Following a recent change in terms of the Patriot Act, federal
authorities said they will end their efforts to prevent a library
organization from identifying itself as a part of an antiterrorism
investigation. Last year, the FBI sent a so-called national security
letter to the Library Connection, an organization of 26 libraries in
Connecticut, seeking patron records and e-mail messages. As it was
originally enacted, the Patriot Act authorized the letters and forbade
recipients from disclosing that they had been sent the letter. The
group protested, saying the gag order violated their First Amendment
rights, and last September a federal judge agreed. Ironically, it was
during those proceedings that the government inadvertently identified
the group in question as the Library Connection when attorneys for the
government filed court documents with the group’s name not redacted.
Congress has since revised the Patriot Act, which now grants the
government discretion to allow some recipients of national security
letters to identify themselves. Kevin O’Connor, the United States
attorney in Connecticut, said that in light of the changed legislation,
the government would end its appeal of the decision to allow the
Library Connection to come forward.
New York Times, 13 April 2006 (registration req’d)(via Edupage)
PROGRAMMING CONTEST CROWNS RUSSIAN STUDENTS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060413/ap_on_hi_te/battle_of_the_brains
A team of students from Saratov State University in Russia won the 2006
Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate
Programming Contest. Working in teams of three, contestants had five
hours to answer as many of 10 complex problems as possible. The winning
team, which correctly answered six of the problems, won a $10,000
scholarship and computer equipment from IBM, sponsor of the event.
Runners-up were from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, Altai
State Technical University in Russia, and Jagiellonian University of
Krakow, Poland. Doug Heintzman, director of IBM’s Lotus division,
noted that over the years, IBM has hired 80 winners of the contest. The
questions in the contest were similar to problems that programmers
would typically take months to puzzle out. Bill Poucher, executive
director of the contest, described the difficulty of the contest by
asking, “When was the last time you heard someone say ‘I need a piece
of software in 10 minutes’?”
Associated Press, 13 April 2006 (via Edupage)
EFF LISTS CONSEQUENCES OF DMCA
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3599026
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has issued a report detailing
what it said are the unintended effects of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). The law was enacted seven years ago to address
intellectual property issues that arose with the development of the
Internet and other technologies. Among other provisions, the law
includes a prohibition on circumventing antipiracy measures, even if
such circumvention was done for reasons that reasonable people would
see as legitimate, according to the EFF. In a number of cases, the DMCA
has been invoked to suppress information obtained by researchers about
security weaknesses. The EFF’s report said that the law has been used
not so much to limit piracy as to “threaten and sue legitimate
consumers, scientists, publishers, and competitors.” The Cato Institute
recently released a report on the DMCA with similar findings.
Internet News, 14 April 2006 (via Edupage)
USACM ADDS A BALANCED VOICE TO THE COPYRIGHT WARS
The battles over copyright policy in Washington D.C. are nothing new, but
the digitizing of copyrighted works and the ability to quickly and widely
distribute protected works has raised the stakes on this debate. A large
part of this debate, and ultimately the most interesting to USACM, is that
those holding copyrighted works are increasingly turning toward technology
to protect their works in the digital age. Often called “Digital Rights
Management,” these technologies present two interesting questions to policy
makers. One, how does technology help or undermine existing copyright
policies? Two, if technologies employed in the marketplace cannot adequately
protect works or undermine existing fair uses of works, what role should
policymakers have in steeping into this area and mandating how technology
should perform?
To help guide policymakers thinking on this subject, USACM has adopted six principles for Digital Rights Management (DRM) policy: competition, copyright balance, consumer protection, privacy and consent, research and public discourse, and targeted policies. Each is too long to summarize in the newsletter; the entire statement can be found at USACM Policy Recommendations on Digital Rights Management (http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/DRM.htm). The statement reflects USACM’s belief that DRM systems have a role in protecting against wide-spread infringement; however, it also reflects the community’s belief that long-standing legal uses of copyrighted works and consumer rights should be respect by policymakers wrestling with this issue.
Clearly theses principles can be used to educate Congress on at least four bills it is currently reviewing. First, the so-called “analog hole” bill, which creates a federal technology mandate that prevents transferring digital content to analog and back to digital without whatever DRM is attached to the original work. Second, the “broadcast flag” bill (all we have is a draft proposal on this), which would mandate that digital receivers recognize a flag embedded in video signals with DRM. Third, the “audio flag” bill, which is similar to the broadcast flag bill but deals with digital audio broadcasts. Fourth, Representative Boucher’s (D-VA) Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act of 2005, which among other things amends the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to allow for research into technological protection measures and circumvention of technology copy protection for “fair use” purposes, both of which are illegal today. USACM will now look to educate policymakers on how the principles below apply to their efforts. (From USACM Washington Upate)
Bytes by the Quintillion For Today and Tomorrow
http://edge.cs.drexel.edu/LTKR/
“Engineers and information specialists from government, industry and
academia agreed at a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
workshop that immediate action is needed to keep vast amounts of digital
knowledge from disappearing into cyberspace or becoming in 200, or even 20
years, as incomprehensible as the markings on Babylonian cuneiform
tablets…According to estimates offered at the conference, the world
churns out new digital information equivalent to the entire collection of
the U.S. Library of Congress every 15 minutes. Such a proliferation of
information in digital format, occurring almost 100 times a day, adds up to
approximately five exabytes (five quintillion bytes or five billion
gigabytes) a year.”
(From ResourceShelf)
Harri Kallio
http://www.harrikallio.com/
Wander through the galleries of Finnish artist Harri Kallio’s work and find
yourself eyeball-to-eyeball with long-extinct birds or delicate, pink-tinged moths.
In “The Dodo and Mauritius Island, Imaginary Encounters,” Kallio
creates two life-size models of the ancient, flightless bird, and then sets the duo
loose in the Dodo’s real, one-time haunt. He poses his creations milling in
the woods, stuffing their beaks with fruit, and canoodling by the stream. You can
practically hear their squawking and flapping in these lush, weird photos. In
another gallery, Kallio creates delicate, creepy, greatly magnified portraits of
butterflies and moths. Looking through the creatures’ “facial
expressions and emotions,” it’s tempting to think that this is how
aliens might look. (From Yahoo’s Picks of the Week)
All items from the Scout Report are copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-2006. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.
Blue Web’n is a searchable library of Blue-Ribbon Web sites categorized by grade level, content area, and type. Visit Blue Web’n online at http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this newsletter are those of the participants (authors), and do not necessarily represent the official views, opinions, or policy of the National Science Foundation.
