In January 2004 Lemelson-MIT released results from their annual Invention Index Study, which measures Americans' attitudes towards invention. This news release highlights the study findings, methodology and background about the study. The nationally representative survey found that "the cell phone is the invention they most hate but cannot live without" -- just slightly more hated than the alarm...

Leeds is a city in England that began as a market town in the Middle Ages, and now has an extensive and well-designed website that offers visitors more than a dozen guided virtual tours, a link to over 5,000 playbills from 1781 to the 1990s, and a large photographic archive of the city. Visitors to the online archive have the opportunity to send free webcards of Leeds' images, and they can also...

During a long career, Leslie Jones (a self-described "camera-man") took well over 40,000 photographs documenting the city of Boston and environs. Jones was a staff photographer for the Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956, and he covered everything from a fox stuck in a tree on the Boston Common to Charles Lindbergh's U.S. tour after his historic crossing of the Atlantic. This remarkable...

As the average age of persons in the United States continues to rise, there is a growing need to educate people about various aspects of gerontology. At Ithaca College, the staff members at the Gerontology Institute have worked to create a range of lesson plans that deal explicitly with aging issues. All of these plans have been field tested in the classroom and they were designed to meet rigorous...

In conjunction with the United Nations resolution designating 2004 as the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition, New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture presents this Web exhibit. Making use of Schomburg Center materials, as well as items loaned by other public institutions and private collections, the Web exhibition...

Letters from prominent individuals can yield valuable insights about their relationships and their views on a multitude of important (and, at times, trivial) matters. The University of Vermont recently digitized over 440 letters from three of their former elected officials that provide a number of insights into significant local and national events, traveling to and from Washington, and...

For those who survived the Holocaust, talking about that time can be a difficult, and, sometimes, impossible endeavor. In the early 1990s, Sala Grancraz Kirschner was preparing for a major surgery, and she decided the time was right to tell her daughter about her experiences. She gave her a red cardboard box that contains a wide range of letters written in Polish, German, and Yiddish that...

Established in 1988 with a $5 million endowment from Ralph and Goldy Lewis, the Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies was established "to promote the study, understanding and solution of regional policy issues, with special reference to Southern California." Directed by Paul Ong, the Center works on a variety of programs, including studying the impact of welfare-to-work...

Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1874, Lewis Hine studied at the University of Chicago and went on to teach at the Ethical Culture School in New York City. While in New York Hine took up photography and documented school activities and immigrants arriving at Ellis Island. He also became interested in taking photographs that would document child labor, and his photographs were published in the social...

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has created this rather fine blog to feature insight and analysis from economists working at the intersection of research and Fed policymaking. People working in the fields of public policy, economics, monetary policy, and financial services will find much to enjoy here. Visitors can comment on different posts or follow embedded links that lead to working...