Research and Education
As a part of Britain's Department for Environment and Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Darwin Initiative is designed to help countries that are "rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources." Visitors to this site can learn more about projects funded under the auspices of this laudable venture, learn about their success stories, and also find out more about their partner institutions and organizations. So far, the Darwin Initiative has funded well over 600 projects in various host countries, and visitors to the homepage should make their way to the "Latest News" area to get a sense of their work and current projects. On the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors can also take in the "Darwin News" updates, information about their workshop proceedings, and thematic reviews, briefing notes, and reports. The site is rounded out by the "Project Focus" feature, which takes a close look into projects that include efforts to protect Indonesian songbirds and their quest to protect the largest wetlands in the world, which happen to be in Tomsk Province, Siberia. [KMG]
H-Albion is a part of the H-Net consortium and is hosted by Michigan State University. Its primary purpose is "to enable historians and those interested in academic British studies more easily to discuss research interests, teaching methods and the state of historigraphical and academic debate about the British Isles and the British Empire." In order to accomplish this lofty goal, H-Albion provides a number of valuable resources on their site. Visitors are invited to subscribe to the discussion board to keep up on current events, pose questions to the community, or even put their two cents in on academic debates. In addition to the discussion board, H-Albion provides reviews of recent work covering British Studies. Particularly helpful to instructors of the subject are the course syllabi provided and for students the bibliographies that are also provided can be an invaluable tool. For anyone interested in the history of the British Isles, H-Albion will be a welcome and most useful find. [CMH]
http://knightdigitalmediacenter.org/
Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and created and maintained through a partnership between the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and the University of California - Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, the Knight Digital Media Center is a very nice resource for just about any type of working journalist. Visitors to the site will find tutorials on being a better online journalist and newsroom leader and incorporating new and innovative weblogs into their work. Visitors can also learn about their seminar series and get the latest updates from the multitude of weblogs they sponsor. Additionally, visitors can click on through to some of their partner organizations, including J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the Knight Citizen News Network. [KMG]
http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago houses a world-renowned collection of artifacts from ancient Syria, Israel, Persia, Anatolia, Egypt, Nubia, and Mesopotamia. On this website, visitors can explore some of these artifacts up close while also learning more about the history of this important region. Visitors should first visit "Life in Mesopotamia" to learn more about the cultural importance of the area. Then, they can click on the "Learning Collection", here, visitors can zoom-in on artifacts selected by teachers in order to learn what these artifacts can tell us about ancient Mesopotamia. After browsing the learning collection, visitors should not miss the "Interactives." Here they can view additional artifacts as well as view video clips on various topics including a virtual archaeological dig and how these ancient artifacts are cared for and preserved. In addition, teaching materials are also provided and K-12 teachers can earn graduate credit from an online course also offered here. [CMH]
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/
Many persons are interested in seismic hazard maps, including geologists, everyday citizens, and persons working in the insurance and actuarial fields. This site will be of great interest to all of those persons, as it contains the national seismic hazard maps created by the United States Geological Survey. User can view the latest series of maps via their homepage, and then proceed to look over their on-line web tools that will allow individuals to assess which sources might pose the greatest hazard in a given region of the country. Along the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors will find handy resources that include "Earthquake Hazards 101" and detailed hazard maps of urban areas. Additionally, the site also includes maps which predict the median level of ground shaking from a particular scenario event and a series of maps which forecast the likelihood of an earthquake rupture occurring during an interval of time in the future. [KMG]
http://www.ethnobiomed.com/home/
If you've ever had a yen to learn more about the traditional knowledge of wild edible plants used in Palestine or the medicinal plants of southeastern Ethiopia, then the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine is for you. The Journal an open access, peer-reviewed journal published by BioMed Central, and visitors can browse through all the issues here and also take a gander at the top ten most accessed articles. Visitors can also sign up to receive the journal's RSS feed and email articles directly to friends and associates. The site also contains information on how to submit manuscripts for consideration and details on the editorial board and the editor-in-chief. Given the increased profile and interest as of late in these two intriguing fields, this is certainly a journal worth a look. [KMG]
EurPolCom was initially established in 2000, by Professor Paul Statham, and located at the University of Leeds. In 2007, it was re-launched as a 'network' which advances research in the fields of political communications, the public sphere and social movements and is now located at the University of Bristol. On their website visitors can learn more about this organization and their various research projects. In addition, there are a number of working papers available to the public including "Constitutionalism of the European Public Sphere" and "The Politics of Immigration and Asylum Policy in Western Europe" to name only a few. After getting acquainted, visitors may want to learn more about their grants and awards available as well as upcoming events. Lastly, a set of related links is provided for those interested in a specific aspect of the site. [CMH]
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/exhibits/penalty/
Drawn from the collections in Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this website presents a "digital exhibit of a selection of primary source materials that document many of the controversies surrounding the death penalty in North Carolina." The goal of the collection is to present materials that will enable students, teachers, researchers, and the public to view primary sources that will help them explore the history of the death penalty in North Carolina. In addition to the primary sources provided here, the site also provides accompanying texts, timelines, biographies, and a research guide for those who wish to continue to pursue this controversial and important topic. [CMH]
