The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 40

In the past several years, scholars have conducted a great deal of valuable research about different aspects of the Civil War, enriching our contemporary understanding of this conflict. This wealth of scholarship can, at times, feel overwhelming to students. The Essential Civil War Curriculum, an ongoing project of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech functions as an easily navigable and highly informative encyclopedia and resource list. Visitors can browse this website by a multitude of topics (e.g. The Civil War in Film; Experience of Battle; Slave Narratives and the Civil War), which are catalogued alphabetically. In each topic, visitors will find a concise yet thorough essay on the topic, authored by a Civil War scholar, that can be easily downloaded for classroom use. In addition, each topic includes an extensive list of related Books, Organizations, and Online Resources. General resources about the Civil War may be found in the Resources section. The clarity and breadth of information on this site will make it a welcome classroom resource and an especially useful tool for helping students select research topics. [MMB]

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JCOM, the Journal of Science Communication, is an open-access journal dedicated to exploring the many sides of science communication. As the editors explain, they are interested in "importance of communicative processes into science's development and the dynamics of contemporary knowledge societies." This includes issues examining how scientists - as well as journalists and government/NGO officials - communicate scientific developments to the public, exploring interdisciplinary work between scientists and experts of other disciplines, and examining how members of the general public engage with science. Published quarterly since 2002, each issue of the journal includes a number of articles relating to a particular theme, accompanied by an editorial. JCOM content also includes Book Reviews, Essays, and shorter Comments. Recent issues have explored the theme of trust in science communication and the rising trend of citizen science projects, where members of the general public are invited to participate in research. [MMB]

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Digital Harrisburg is a collaborative initiative by Messiah College and the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology that aims to explore and exhibit the history and culture of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Authored by students and faculty at these colleges, often as part of digital history or GIS courses, this website features a number of projects that will appeal to urban historians as well as those interested in learning more about the craft of digital history. Perhaps the biggest highlight of this site is the Interactive Map of Harrisburg in 1900. This remarkable map, which was designed using census data, information from Ancestry.com, and the 1901 Harrisburg Title Company Atlas, allows visitors to view a 1900 residential map of Harrisburg overlaid across a contemporary aerial map of the city. By clicking on a 1900 residence - marked on the map by a blue octagon - visitors can learn about who lived in that home. Digital Harrisburg is an ongoing project; readers can learn about the project's progress and recent updates on the site's blog. [MMB]

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Science Speaks: Global ID News is a publication of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) that aims to provide members of the general public with information about infectious diseases around the globe. Regularly updated, Science Speaks provides readers with information about recent research on the nature and treatment of diseases including Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Tuberculosis. Science Speaks also reports on government and transnational organization efforts to combat the spread of infectious disease. The site includes a number of archived features. Readers can explore past interviews in Q&A with Experts or read the publication's extensive 2011 series AIDS at 30, which includes interviews and reflections from science writers, activists, and public health officials. Science Speaks will be of interest to anyone looking to better understand or teach epidemiology and public health. [MMB]

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A strong grounding in probability and statistics can help with the interpretation of research studies in a variety of fields. Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative offers a free, online, four-unit course on Probability & Statistics for anyone looking to learn more about the discipline. This course, intended to be the equivalent of a college semester, is designed to be taken independently or incorporated into a classroom. The course utilizes the university's own StatTutor program to provide interactive feedback and hints to learners as they solve problems. Learners have the choice of selecting two versions of this online course: Probability & Statistics, which includes a more "classical" approach to probability, or Statistical Reasoning, which features an abridged version of the Probability unit with an emphasis on the skills and knowledge needed to understand inference. This course is intended as a beginner course in Statistics and requires prior knowledge in basic algebra. [MMB]

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Walt Whitman fans can peruse a number of of gems - including proofs, engraved images, and a handwritten letter to the poet from Ralph Waldo Emerson - with the University of Illinois Springfield's Walt Whitman Collection. This collection of 33 items, part of the Special Collections and Illinois Regional Archives Depository, contains a number of pieces authored by Whitman himself, including poems and the obituary he penned for his brother Jeff, "An Engineer's Obituary." The collection also includes a number of items that will appeal to those interested in the history of print culture, such as a stereoscopic photograph of Whitman; an image of the engraving of Whitman on the front piece of Leaves of Grass; and an advertisement page for a number of the poet's works. Finally, one can find a number of intriguing odds and ends in the collection, including the program and menu from Whitman's 70th birthday celebration at Morgan Hall in Camden, New Jersey. (The meal was dubbed "The Feast of Reason," and the main entree was broiled chicken with mushrooms.) [MMB]

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Art, like any discipline, comes with its own vocabulary. There are unique terms for artistic techniques, names for important movements and schools, or common words that take on special significance in the context of art. This vocabulary is best illustrated with both words and images. The Tate Galleries of Britain have created an extensive, illustrated Glossary of art terms. Entries range from Abbaye de Creteil (a group of French writers, artists, and composers, formed in 1906, who were partly inspired by the French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais to Zero (Formed in 1950s Germany, a group that believed "their approach to art making which used light and motion opened up new forms of perceptions"). Visitors can peruse the glossary at whim or search alphabetically. This is a useful resource for any art history class, and is also quite enjoyable to browse on its own, thanks to the vivid digitized images provided by the Tate. [MMB]

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The University of Alabama Libraries has compiled this diverse and delightful list of podcasts, blogs, and Wikis that will be of interest to librarians and library science students. This resource list contains professional resources - including a Wiki that highlights best practices in the field and links to Twitter feeds that librarians may want to follow to keep abreast of developments in the library world. Many podcasts and blogs featured here - such as Adventures in Library Instruction and the official podcast of the Young Adult Library Service Association - provide specialized information and advice for specific members of the library profession. On the lighter side, the University of Alabama Libraries also highlights a number of personal and group blogs that provide humor and wry commentary about the library world. [MMB]

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The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago recently curated a powerful exhibit entitled No Home to Go To: The Story of Baltic Displaced Persons, 1944 - 1952. The exhibit is currently on display at the New York Public Library through December 31, 2016. For those unable to visit the exhibit in person, the museum is also in the process of digitizing over 1,000 items relating to the experiences of World War II refugees from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. While this project is still in the works, the museum is keeping its DP Archive page open to the public as it continues to upload items. As of this writing, visitors can explore photographs and documents donated by seven families. Within these collections, one will find family photographs, passports, green cards, medical reports, photographs taken at DP camps (one featuring Eleanor Roosevelt), official letters from the U.S. Displaced Persons commission, and a copy of the U.S. Displaced Persons Act of 1948. Visitors can also watch an interview with an individual about her experiences in the DP camps, watch videos from DP camps and explore archival images from the U.S. War Department. [MMB]

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Quoting Albert Camus, SmokyMountains.com notes: "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." Indeed, what many people love most about the fall are the vibrant colors that mark the transition from summer to winter. Temperature, the amount of sunlight, and precipitation all affect how quickly the foliage will change from green to red, yellow, or orange. This interactive tool illustrates where autumn colors are peaking across the United States. The map uses data from NOAA precipitation forecasts, daylight and temperature forecasts, historical precipitation data for this year, as well as other government and private data sources to visually indicate the foliage change between August and November, noting seven degrees of change. In addition to helping users plan a weekend getaway to enjoy fall's many colors, the site offers some science trivia about what causes leaves to be certain colors and why leaves fall. [CDR]

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Educate, a podcast from APM Reports (formerly American RadioWorks) is a podcast and radio documentary series that explores recent debates, discussions, and developments in education and educational research. Individual episodes range in time from ten minutes to an hour and explore a wide variety of issues in both K-12 and higher education. Recent episodes highlight research out of Dartmouth College that explores how learners process information on screen versus in print; a debate about whether or not students need to learn math beyond beginning algebra; and a story that highlights a new private tutoring program in Chicago and explores how one-on-one programs benefit students. Educate features original reporting, interviews with authors, and a number of stories that personalize educational issues. One poignant recent episode shadows a high school student who is striving to graduate high school while experiencing homelessness. Visitors to the website can listen to all current and past episodes and check out full articles and transcripts of past radio documentaries. Those interested in the podcast can also subscribe on iTunes. [MMB]

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Founded by Khoi Vinh, principal designer at Adobe, Subtraction.com is a blog about design, technology, and culture. Regularly updated, Subtraction.com features posts addressing graphic design, typography, videography, and more. Each post contains links to new projects, tools, news, or opinions, making Subtraction.com a useful one-stop shop for updates from around the web that will be of interest to design fans. One recent post highlights filmmaker Vugar Efendi's short films Film Meets Art, which highlights how popular movies have incorporate famous works of art into the cinematography. Another recent post discusses Graphic Means, a new documentary by Briar Levit about graphic design production. Vihn has been writing and publishing Subtraction.com since 2000, and visitors can easily explore past articles in an (unsurprisingly) extremely well-designed and easy to navigate Archives. [MMB]

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Art history instructor Monica Bowen is the author of Alberti's Window, a blog designed to engage members of the general public, along with art students and art historians, with a number of fascinating and hidden tidbits and stories about art history. Bowen's frequent posts highlight a wide variety of lesser-known anecdotes about famous artists. Her most recent post, for example, explores the contentious relationship between painter Oskar Kokoschka and Adele Astaire - the older sister of Fred and an accomplished dancer in her own right. Kokoschka asked Adele to sit for a portrait that Fred Astaire and Bowen both agree was "a hideous mess." Other recent posts include an examination of Grace Kelly's collages comprised of pressed flowers and exploration of three specific times when paintings by Barnett Newman were slashed. [MMB]

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In 1889, Granta was founded as a student literary magazine at Cambridge University; over the years it has published works by Sylvia Plath and A.A. Milne. In 1979, Granta ceased to be a student publications and became one of the most popular literary journals in the world. Published quarterly in twelve different international editions, Granta features fiction, poetry, essays and memoir, art and photography, and interviews. Visitors to the journal's webpage can explore current and archived publications. While some works are available only to users with a subscription, others are free to the general public. Among the numerous open-access items on this site are works by Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, and Roberto Bolano. In addition to pieces by well-known authors, Granta also features work by emerging writers. Those interested in exploring international editions can find links to these editions through the site's About page. [MMB]

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If you enjoy pondering how philosophy can help us think about quotidian concerns and current events, you may want to add The Partially Examined Life to the list of websites you frequent. Part blog and part podcast, The Partially Examined Life is created by a group of philosophy fans who acknowledge that while they were all once enthusiastic about studying philosophy, each chose paths outside of academe. (That said, the blog also includes a wide variety of contributors, including scholars of a variety of disciplines. Not to mention, The Partially Examined Life podcast at times includes interviews by famous philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum.) Readers will find discussions on a variety of topics, including an examination by Mass Communications scholar James Anderson about Paulo Freire and the philosophy of education; two articles by UK-based writer Ana Sandoiu that explore philosophy and performance art; and a series by graduate student Daniel Halverson about the philosophy of History. Each of these blog posts is engagingly written and accessible to all, regardless of one's background in Philosophy. Those interested in checking out the The Partially Examined Life life podcast should note that it occasionally contains explicit language. [MMB]

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In collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) recently launched a digital archive of select artifacts from its archaeological collections. The database supplements a physical repository that houses hundreds of thousands of artifacts from over 31 sites throughout the city. While the physical holdings are only available to researchers and scholars, this project currently offers the general public access to material from 15 collections. Site visitors may browse the repository using the Archaeological Sites Map or by reviewing a list of excavations in Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx. Thematic Digital Exhibitions are also available and provide insight into the information scholars have gleaned from certain items. Digital Exhibitions of note include Animals Among Us, Food and Drink in Colonial New York, Architecture through Artifacts, and Historic Toys. [CDR]

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Bloggers and web content managers looking for an alternative to current blogging platforms may want to check out Postleaf. This open-source online publishing tool boasts a sleek interface and responsive admin panel, allowing your online publication to be easily read on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone. Free to download, Postleaf utilizes inline editing and allows users to easily add tags. It also allows users to quickly backup material. Postleaf's creator, Cory LaViska, wrote: "I built Postleaf because I wanted to 'thin down' the blogging experience into a minimal, beautiful, installable application." Readers of a similar mindset will want to check out this tool. [MMB]

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For those who work on multiple devices and operating systems or who want to securely access photos and music between devices, Syncthing may appeal. Sycnthing is an open-sourced, encrypted syncing tool that users can download for a variety of operating systems (including Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Solaris to name just a few) or install as an application. To access files on another device or systems, users can simply download their folder of shared items. All shared items are also backed up securely. One unique feature of Syncthing is that it includes File Versioning options, which allow users to save and archive older versions as they continue to work and update a file. [MMB]

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