Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/
Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy is a three-part, six-hour documentary series and Web site. Providing a comprehensive history of the ideas, events, and values that have shaped the present global economy, the Commanding Heights Web site examines the history of the global economy and demonstrates how key economic theories have evolved in the context of historical events. The three-part television series includes: Part One -- "The Battle of Ideas" -- which aired last Wednesday, April 3rd at 9pm; Part Two -- "The Agony of Reform" -- which airs this Wednesday, April 10th at 9pm; and Part Three -- "The New Rules of the Game" -- which airs Wednesday, April 17th at 9pm. Internet users not able to view the television series will have the opportunity to watch streaming online videos of all three programs. The Commanding Heights Web site is available in both high and low bandwidth versions, offering a time map, an interactive atlas of economic history that allows users to track changes in political boundaries and major shifts in economic policies in more than thirty nations from 1910 to the present, and an online forum for users to discuss contemporary economic issues raised by the broadcast. Forthcoming is an online teachers' guide that will provide suggestions for applications of the Web site in classroom instruction. This guide will be available in versions for both high school and post-secondary educators. [MG]
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The Norwegian Jazz Base [RealPlayer]
http://www.jazzbasen.no/index_eng.html
A product of the Norwegian Jazz Archives and the National Library of Norway, the Norwegian Jazz Base is a catalog of jazz recordings involving Norwegian musicians from 1905 to the present. Accessible in both Norwegian and English, Jazz Base contains an historical overview of Norwegian jazz history, biographies and photographs of Norwegian jazz musicians listed alphabetically by name, sound clips (arranged by recording date), and various links to other related sites. RealPlayer is required for those users interested in listening to the available sound clips. The catalog is searchable by title/keyword, album and track titles, musician's name, and year recorded. [MG]
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Institute of Food Research
http://www.ifr.bbsrc.ac.uk/
A for-profit enterprise, the Institute of Food Research (IFR), based in the United Kingdom, offers a wealth of public access information regarding food, diet, and nutrition on their Web site. Serving as a clearinghouse for information across a broad spectrum of academic, agricultural, and industrial interests, the site is very user-friendly, with numerous lists of popular topics and terms, as well as drop-down menus of searchable subjects and fields. Potentially useful to professionals, students, and lay people, the information available on the IFR site links to services and databases of many kinds and quality. The site serves as a great starting point for anyone interested in studying something the IFR knows a great deal about -- food. [WH]
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The Great Buildings Collection
http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Not just an ordinary architecture site, The Great Buildings Collection is a wide gateway to architecture around the world. This collection documents approximately a thousand buildings, offering 3D models ranging in detail from very simple formal massing models of just a few cuboid blocks, to basic interior/exterior spatial walkthrough models, to detailed interior/exterior models complete with furnishings and landscaping. The site contains sections on buildings and architects (arranged alphabetically by name), as well as architectural places of the world (arranged alphabetically by continent). Furthermore, viewers can glimpse architectural building types -- such as airport terminals, castles, factories, theaters, and villas -- and architectural styles such as Neolithic, Gothic, Renaissance, Prairie, Neo-Vernacular, and many more. Also available are photographic images, architectural drawings, commentaries, bibliographies for famous designers and structures of all kinds, architectural books, updated news articles, and a link to ArchitectureWeek, a new magazine on design and building. Although established in the late 1990s, this site keeps updated information on architectural design and is definitely worth a visit. [MG]
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Visible Human Server
http://visiblehuman.epfl.ch/
This Web site from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology allows users to view three dimensional models of human anatomy. A free registration allows users to log on and fully access the site, but there are some sample demonstrations available without registration. When visiting the site, you can view, rotate, and extract cross sections from the anatomical models, or build your own anatomic model by choosing the structures of interest. The site works best with Internet Explorer 5 and the latest version of Microsoft Java VM. The site provides how-to files that are extremely helpful for new users. This is certainly a site for those studying human anatomy, but it is a cool site that may also appeal to others. This site is also reviewed in the April 5, 2002 NSDL Life Sciences Report. [AL]
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Biology Online
http://www.biology-online.org/default.htm
A solid collection of sites, links, and stand-alone resources, Biology Online seemingly offers all that is biology, at least online. It is an invaluable tool for anyone in need of reliable, authoritative information in the field. Links featured on the site are searchable alphabetically, by specific sub-discipline, or across all sites via Biology Online's search engine. Aside from its extensive and well managed set of recommendations, the site also offers field-specific online tutorials in key areas, as well a 1600 term dictionary. [WH]
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TerraFly
http://www.terrafly.com/
Associated with the School of Computer Science at Florida International University, the High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC) released TerraFly in November 2001, a Web-based application that allows users to view Geographic Information Systems (GIS) images. In agreement with TerraFly, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides the project with many of its satellite images in exchange for a public service: free Web-based access to its application. Through a rather sophisticated Java applet, users have a bird's eye view of the images, much like other Internet services have provided in the past, such as TerraServer (last reviewed in the June 28, 1998 Scout Report). TerraFly, though, improves the still picture delivery of these services by enabling users to view the images continuously and seamlessly, giving the user a feeling of "flying over" the photographed land areas. Different resolutions are available, and the interface is extremely slick though somewhat complicated initially. Users of low bandwidth or active memory should be wary; the applet demands a lot from your computer. Also, even though access to the Web-based application is free through the USGS agreement, users should be aware that the TerraFly Project seems to have mostly commercial motivations. Note: This reviewer had difficulty using Terrafly with Mac Netscape 4.7; however, Mac Internet Explorer functioned properly. This site is also reviewed in the April 5, 2002 NSDL Physical Sciences Report. [TS]
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