Al's Picks |  | by Al Massey |
Flexnews is sponsored by Flex Learning Systems: Distance Learning With a Difference. Flexnews is based on the belief that it takes time for society to discover the unique potential of new technologies. The automobile was understood to be a horseless carriage before it emerged with its own identity. Flexnews promotes the belief that living, learning and working on the Internet, freed from traditional bondage to time and place, but with almost limitless potential for interactivity and connectivity, provides society and individuals with creative opportunities that, as yet, are only dimly understood.
http://sable.ox.ac.uk/~shil0124/phil_index.html
Philosophy around the Web is a comprehensive page of links to all things philosophical. There are links to philosophy departments all over the world, a large selection of annotated and rated (see thumbs ups) links to individual philosophy pages, "living philosophers" pages, and mostly dead philosophers pages from Apollonius of Tyana to Arthur M. Young. Also provided are pointers to philosophy journals, Usenet news groups, discussion lists, IRC's, conference and seminar listings, world wide philosophy job openings, and several of the author's own writings. This is a well done resource, full of nicely designed and well organized content. Philosophy around the Web is produced by Dr Peter J. King, St Hilda's College, Oxford, England.
http://apps.fao.org/lim500/agri_db.pl
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has made available several searchable databases containing extensive agricultural data from many countries. Called the FAOSTAT Database, data is provided for production, trade, commodity supply and demand balances, population, land use, and fisheries. Users can select geographical areas, commodities or products, variables relating to those commodities or products, and an annual time series ranging from as early as 1961 to as late as 1995, depending on the series. Results can be downloaded as text tables, bar or line graphs with user definable axes, or CSV file format text with comma separated values for easy import into spreadsheet or other statistical applications. It is important to carefully read the help files that accompany each database in order to fully exploit the searching system. The FAOSTAT Databases give the user access to an amazing amount of country data. Note that these databases are forms based. Each is a work in progress.
For more information on FAO's World Agricultural Information Center (WAICENT), which provides these databases as well as other information collections: http://www.fao.org/waicent/waicent.htm.
http://www.stsci.edu/
[Text only: http://www.stsci.edu/topNG.html]
The Hubble Space Telescope's photographs of the surface of Pluto are
available on the Web. The photographs were taken during a seven day period in
late June and early July of 1994, but have just recently become available. To
understand the power of the Hubble
Telescope, "viewing surface
detail on Pluto is as difficult as trying to read the printing on a golf ball
located thirty-three miles away!" Along with two resolutions of a surface
map of Pluto, there are three resolutions of an entire planet picture, as well
as PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF illustrations of the planet's orientation
during the picture. Explanatory captions are provided.
http://www.elsevier.nl:80/journals/newast/
Elsevier Science will begin a fully electronic and refereed journal in astronomy and astrophysics later this year. "New Astronomy" will be available via the Web as well as in print. Elsevier states the journal will publish "articles in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics: theoretical, observational and instrumental. `New Astronomy' includes full length research articles and letter articles. The journal covers solar, stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics. It reports on original research in all wavelength bands, ranging from radio to gamma-ray." The journal's Web site provides a listing of receiving editors, as well as a call for papers. It will be a scholarly journal of "rigorously refereed" papers and aims to provide a short publication time, with accepted articles being made immediately available electronically. Detailed instructions on submittal are at the site.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/
The Library of Congress (LOC) has organized its digitized American Memory collection in a way designed to fit the needs of students and educators. The new site is called the LOC Learning Page. Resources to help educators incorporate the Library's primary sources into their curriculum are provided on the "Educator's Page", as well as answers to technical questions about the online materials. The electronic collections are arranged alphabetically by keyword, as well as by media type. The "Pathfinder Pages" arrange the collection by types of events, people, places, and topics. The entire site is searchable, and under "Search Suggestion List" a synonym list for key word searching has been provided. While the American Memory collection has been available for some time, the Learning Page is a significant enhancement for K-12 educators and students, and everyone else.
For more information on LOC's digitized American Memory historical collections: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tl/index.html
The Maricopa County Community College District of Phoenix, Arizona presents Teaching and Learning on the Web. This is a searchable collection of almost 300 sites that use the Internet for teaching and learning. Users can search over 35 subject categories ranging from Anthropology to Writing. Although most resources are college level, a small sampling of K-12 resources is included as well. Do a key word search on k-12, high school, or kid in all categories to retrieve the primary or secondary level resources. Maricopa encourages submissions, which can be made through a form available on the home page.
Al Massey is a HAL-PC member.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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