April 2005 New Web Sites

The following list of New Web Sites was generated during April 2005.

Table of Contents

Current Week

• Religion & Public Life: A Faith-Based Partisan Divide
  There was a great deal of discussion during the 2004 US presidential election about the so-called "faith-based" partisan divide. This insightful publication from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life takes a closer look at this divide in its 18-pages and provides a number of observations.Drawing on a number of polls and other surveys, the report also looks at other galvanizing issues such as opposition to gay marriage and attitudes towards stem cell research. The report also offers some interesting tables that look at how persons holding a variety of religious beliefs feel about the role of government and corporate welfare.

• IPI Global Journalist
  The University of Missouri's School of Journalism is one of the most respected journalism schools in the United States, so it comes as no surprise to know that it sponsors the International Press Institute's (IPI) Global Journalist magazine. The publication comes out quarterly, and on this site visitors can read the latest edition, or browse issues from 1999 to the present day. Each issues contains feature articles, a calendar of events, letters to the editor, and reports from the IPI.

• Virtual Hospital: Student Survival Guidelines
  The site was developed by the Student Health Service at the University of Iowa and provides brief advice about dealing with such acute ailments as sore throats, sprains, colds, influenza, burns, insect stings, and more. The site also addresses potentially persistent issues like depression, eating disorders, stress, and sleeping problems.

• The Wilderness Act Handbook
  The Handbook "sets forth the relevant laws, regulations, and policies that govern the creation, expansion, and management of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Wilderness Act is printed out in its entirety, along with interpretation and excerpts from and analysis of subsequent legislation that has influenced the designation or management of wilderness." The 90-page pdf document contains sections on Designating New Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Management and Stewardship, National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness, National Forest Wilderness, Wilderness Myths, and more.

• The Wave that Shook the World
  This NOVA website addresses the tsunami disaster that occurred in December 2004 in the Indian Ocean. Users can learn about the warning system in place in the Pacific Ocean and both the need for and difficulties of setting up a similar system in the Indian Ocean. Through an animated module, visitors can discover the tsunami's path, speed, wave height, and its changes in characteristics once it collided with land. The website presents summaries of past, disastrous tsunamis as well as locations of predicted future occurrences.

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Three Online Versions of the Atomic Spectra Database
  At this website, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers the new Atomic Spectra Database Version 3.0, which "contains critically evaluated NIST data for radiative transitions and energy levels in atoms and atomic ions." Researchers can view the data by wavelengths or energy levels. Individuals can find articles summarizing the data and explaining the ground levels and ionization energies of neutral atoms.

• Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
  From this homepage, visitors can look through some of the group's latest offerings, which include brief articles, working papers, and details about upcoming books. For the most up-to-date material, users will want to peruse the Institute's quarterly newsletter, which contains information on the events it sponsors, along with full-text articles based on its research.

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Week 2

• Canada Gazette
  The Canada Gazette serves Canadians by giving them access to the laws and regulations that govern their daily lives. Essentially, what appears in the Gazette are new statutes and regulations, proposed regulations, and an assortment of other government notices. Visitors can view all of the latest publications from the Gazette and may also browse back issues dating back to 1998. Overall, this site will be a great find for those who are seeking to keep track on pending Canadian legislation and other related items, either for personal or scholarly reasons.

• PBS: The Meaning of Food
  What we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who's at the table, and who eats first is a form of communication that is rich with meaning." The site shares stories, recipes, beautiful images, and more under the headings: Food & Life, Food & Family, and Food & Culture. The website addresses such subjects as kosher food, the Slow Food Movement, pet food, and heirloom seeds, to name a few. In addition, the site provides a bibliography; a simple, downloadable lesson plan for educators; and broadcast times for the Meaning of Food documentary series.

• Journal of Online Behavior
  The Journal of Online Behavior (JOB) "is concerned with the empirical study of human behavior in the online environment, and with the impact of evolving communication and information technology upon individuals, groups, organizations, and society." The peer-reviewed articles cross science and social science disciplinary boundaries as well as geographical boundaries.

• World War I Sheet Music
  The site is focused on providing access to hundreds of instances of sheet music that addresses various aspects of World War I. In this area, it is a definite success as the material is perfect for historians, musicians, or others who may be studying material and visual culture in the early 20th century. Users may browse through the sheet music by title, publisher, subject, and creator. Additionally, a historical essay and general introduction should be forthcoming on the site in the near future.

• Animation Magazine
  This online magazine is all about animation and features regular articles, reviews of films and books, and profiles about people in the industry and tutorials. The tutorials cover topics such as how to make 3-D characters come to life and making molds. Past issues are also available and can be searched by key word or sorted by category. Numerous other links are listed for more information on animation, resources for education, and listings of upcoming events and contests.

• CAD Resources Library
  The website provides links to "important CAD resources associated with the CAD industry." The resources are organized into the following sections: Organizations Associated with CAD; CAD Research and Artificial Intelligence Links; CAD Directories, Gateways and News Centers; Important CAD Review Resources; CAD Magazines, Journals and Newsletters; and CAD Software Programs. Visitors are invited to make recommendations for additions to the library.

• Carnegie Mellon: Alan and Danny's Puzzle Page
  Alan Frieze and Danny Sleator, professors from Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, are the hosts of this website of puzzles. Every few weeks, they post a new puzzle and a few weeks later, they post the solution and related references. The fairly advanced puzzles generally involve constructing an algorithm or a proof, and some also involve writing a computer program to solve them. Previously posted puzzles and their solutions are also available here.

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• TimeLeft 3.04
  A number of computer users will find this small application a helpful way to manage their own time. Timeleft effectively acts as an alarm clock, a stopwatch, a timer and time synchronization utility. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Timeleft is that it can remind users before a specified event occurs so that they may plan accordingly. This version is compatible with Windows 95 or newer.

• Natural History Museum's Microbiology Video Collection
  From the Natural History Museum in London, this captivating website offers visitors a plethora of brief video clips featuring living protists. Not all of the 1,464 "clips are of protistan taxa, but they all contain protists, often as epicommensals." Free-living ciliates are well-represented in the video collection. Site visitors can browse the entire collection in list and gallery formats; or choose to display only videos of species belonging to a particular genus. Genera represented in the collection include Acineta, Cothurnia, Epiclintes, Tokophrya, and many more.

• National Wetlands Research Center: Library Digital Collection
  The National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) "is a source and clearinghouse of science information about wetlands in the United States and the world." The NWRC Library Digital Collection contains an abundance of technical reports in pdf format spanning the last couple decades from such institutions as the US Fish and Wildlife Service; the USGS Biological Resources Division; and the National Biological Service. The site also contains an archived Species Profiles collection from the US Fish and Wildlife Service with 126 downloadable profiles.

• Searchable Ornithological Research Archive
  The "archive provides access to an extensive Ornithological literature of international scope, and detailed material documenting the history of Ornithology in North America over the last 120 years." At present, SORA contains the following journals: The Condor (1899-2000), The Auk (1884-1999), The Wilson Bulletin (1889-1999), The Journal of Field Ornithology (1930-1999), Studies in Avian Biology (1978-1999), Pacific Coast Avifauna (1900-1974), and the North American Bird Bander (1976-2000). A multitude of downloadable articles can be located by browsing the contents of different journals, or by using a search engine with fields for Keyword/Subject, Title, Author, and Years.

• Daylight Savings Time
  The California Energy Commission summaries the history of daylight savings and why we use it at this website. Users can discover where and how other areas of the world change the time to deal with the varying sunlight throughout the year. The website summarizes Benjamin Franklin's and William Willett's ideas for saving energy. Individuals can discover how daylight savings can save energy, save lives, prevent traffic accidents, and prevent crime. Visitors can find a chart of the dates of daylight savings from 1990 to 2010.

• World Year of Physics 2005
  Because of the decreasing numbers of physics students and declining general interests in the subject, the World Year of Physics 2005 was created during the World Congress of Physical Societies in 2000 by 40 physical societies from around the world. Educators can learn about international physics activities and projects and get ideas about how they can stimulate their students' interests in physics. The website features presentations of European events, meetings about the World Year of Physics 2005, and contacts for the coordinators throughout the world.

• Tackling Nurse Shortages in OECD Countries
  Among its members, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) includes such nations as Italy, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Within these countries (and the numerous other members of the OECD) there has been great concern over the lack of skilled health-care professionals, and in particular, nurses. This 58-page report on the nature of such nurse shortages, released to the public in early 2005, notes that current nurse shortages exist in almost all OECD countries and that current nurse shortages seem "to be caused by fewer young people entering the workforce, a greater range of professional opportunities open to young people, the low social value given to nursing, negative perceptions of nurse working conditions and an ageing nurse workforce." The report concludes with some helpful policy suggestions.

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Week 4

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization
  The World Health Organization (WHO) is well-regarded for its numerous public health studies that span the globe and its extensive publication series, which includes working papers, reports, factsheets, and its _Bulletin of the World Health Organization_(BLT). From this webpage, visitors can peruse the current issue of the Bulletin, or browse the complete run of the Bulletin all the way back to the first issue, which was published in 1947. Persons looking for the Bulletin in other languages can peruse Volumes 77 through 80 in both Spanish and French.

• The Walt Whitman Archive
  From this website, users can access numerous versions of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, his other diverse poetry manuscripts, and an integrated guide to the aforementioned manuscripts. This is far from all the site offers, as visitors can go on to read a detailed biography of Whitman, information about his writing disciples (such as John Burroughs), and a rather comprehensive bibliography of articles, books, chapters of books and poems about Whitman published from 1975 to the present.

• National Information Standards Organization
  Founded in 1939, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is the premier contact organization responsible for identifying, developing, maintaining, and publishing technical standards "to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment". Their standards apply to both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information needs, such as storage, metadata, and preservation, to name but a few. On their site, visitors can read their monthly newsletter, peruse their annual report, and take a look at their various standards, including those that are still being developed.

• Educational Software Directory
  Educational Software Directory.net is an online directory that provides information on various software programs used in education. The collection of programs and related websites can be searched using keywords or browsed by topic areas, which are: Children's, Games, Language Arts, Math, Multimedia, Music, Reference, Science, Social Studies, Special Needs, Teacher's, and Training. Other sections of the website provide links to organizations that offer online reviews of educational software, publishers of educational software, educational organizations involved in educational software, and online magazines, news sources, and related resources.

• Houghton Mifflin: Beyond the Book
  Offered by the educational publisher Houghton Mifflin, the Beyond the Book website is meant to be "an online leadership forum for superintendents and educators nationwide, dedicated to helping every child learn and every child succeed." The website is divided into sections where visitors can read about case studies written by "inspiring superintendents and teachers from across the country," insights on best practices, strategies and management methods, commentary and opinions on current events, issues, or trends in education. All of the articles address a variety of topics in education, including mathematics education and the use of technology in education.

• Palaeography Tutorial
  Here visitors can learn about where to start in terms of reading and transcribing handwritten documents written in English between 1500 and 1800 and also peruse a quick reference section of historic terms that may be referenced in such documents. Appropriately enough, there are ten documents on which visitors may test their mettle, and as an additional bonus, each document also has a glossary, notes on the palaeography and a full transcript.

• Mozilla Firefox 1.0.2
  Many people enjoy utilizing a variety of Web browsers, and this latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser will be of interest to those persons and others as well. This release contains a number of interesting features, including the ability to create customized toolbars, integrated Google searching, and a tab-browsing mode. This version of Firefox is compatible with Windows 95 or newer.