The Scout Report
September 29, 1995
A Service to the Internet Community
Provided by the Info Scout and the InterNIC
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and
newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and
educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However everyone is welcome
to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML) or visit
the Web version of the Scout Report on the InterNIC server:
http://rs.intetnic.net/scout_report-index.html
Additional information and detailed access and subscription instructions
are included at the end of each Scout Report.
Highlights In This Week's Report:
World Wide Web:
- Elementary Science This Month is a free online Magazine for
elementary aged students and the teachers who teach them. It features
science activities with easily obtainable materials, profiles of eminent
scientists and a featured animal of the month. Also a map and description
of the months night sky. It is updated on the 25th of each month. ESTM for
October is ready and online. It features a new, more streamlined
format.
http://lmewww.mankato.msus.edu/ci/elem.sci.html
- ENVIROFACTS contains the public information (FOIA information)
from
several EPA database systems including: FINDS, PCS, TRIS, CERCLIS, and
RCRIS. The Web pages supply a description of each system, information on
the data elements which are part of each system, and an HTML Form query
page allowing the databases to be searched by City or Zipcode for a list
of facilities. New, more flexible, query forms are planned for
incorporation into the Web pages during October 1995. The database was
initially released March 31, 1995 and the capabilities in the new forms
have been based on the public feedback to date.
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/ef_home.html
- Hoover's Online features an accurate and comprehensive database of
company information free on the Web. Called Hoover's MasterList Plus, the
database of more than 8,500 of the largest public and private U.S.
companies provides company name, key personnel, address, sales, number of
employees, ticker symbol and other information for companies meeting the
user's designated search criteria. Hoover's Online also includes the
week's top business news stories, a directory of more than 1,000
corporate Web sites, a synopsis of the 25 top-selling business books and
links to other business information resources on the Web, including stock
quotes and SEC filings. The new List of Lists has dozens of rankings
indicating which companies are the largest, which CEOs made the most
money, which companies are the best employers, and more. Almost all of
Hoover's Online is free, including the content mentioned here.
http://www.hoovers.com
-
The Learning Through Collaborative Visualization Project (CoVis) is
working to enhance science education by making it more like the
collaborative, project-based environment of the scientific community. The
CoVis community includes researchers at Northwestern University, the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Exploratorium, along
with teachers and students at more than 45 high schools throughout the
United States. The CoVis Project has announced the debut of the CoVis
Geosciences Web Server and the UIUC-CoVis Geosciences Web Server. The
purpose of these servers is to provide K-12 teachers and students with
online resources specially designed to support project-based inquiry in
the Geological Sciences. To help support the special needs of different
audiences, the CoVis Geosciences Server has been designed for CoVis
classrooms and the general K-12 community, and the UIUC server is
targeted more towards the needs of the atmospheric sciences and broader
scientific communities. There is an almost complete cross-linkage and
sharing of resources across these two servers, emphasizing the close
relationship that CoVis believes should exist between the K-12 and
scientific communities. Resources include a growing database of classroom
projects and activities in the Geosciences; an extensive collection of
annotated network-resources; a collection of multimedia instructional
modules in the atmospheric sciences; and new web-based visualization
environments to explore both the greenhouse effect and real-time weather
data.
http://www.covis.nwu.edu
http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu/geosciences/geosciences.html
- The National Agricultural Library debuts its Directory of
Agriculture-Related Databases, Datasets, and Information Systems,
otherwise known as AgDB. AgDB presents a collection of metadata records
that describe agriculture-related information systems available through
various means, including: Internet, online services, CD-ROM, and even
diskette and 9-track tape. The full-text of the metadata records is
keyword searchable. For Internet-based systems, links to the actual
resource are included within the metadata record. AgDB is a prototype
project of the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) initiative.
http://www.agnic.nal.usda.gov/agdb/
-
The Nebraska Center for Writers is an on-line resource for poets and
writers, including profiles of contemporary writers and information by
and about writers and writing. Includes writers groups online, tools for
writers, on-line literature, publishing opportunities, arts advocacy,
links to university creative writing programs, literary agents, and more.
http://acm-www.creighton.edu/NCW
-
RealAudio provides audio-on-demand for the Internet. From their Web page
you can download the player for the Mac or PC at no charge. Use it to
listen to audio files from dozens of sites around the Internet. The news
with RealAudio is that you can begin listening to the audio immediately,
while it's downloading, rather than waiting until the entire file has
been loaded to your hard disk. This feature provides a more pleasant
experience for impatient Internauts. Listen to current news, information,
or music files from sites such as ABC, NPR, Metaverse (ex-MTV VJ Adam
Curry's music and entertainment site), CSPAN, ESPN, Fortune Magazine,
Green Peace, Internet Multicasting Service or others from a wide
selection of links on the RealAudio page.
http://www.realaudio.com/
-
The UK Index provides a searchable index of resources in or about the
United Kingdom. The Quick Reference section offers links to News
Resources in the UK such as the BBC, weather information, UK record
charts, and UK related USENET newsgroups. The Foreign & Commonwealth
Office provides good advice for travelers. The search engine allows the
selection of categories such as arts or business to restrict the search
to pages included in one category or a combination of categories.
http://www.ukindex.co.uk/
Electronic Mailing Lists
NetBytes
Weekend Scouting
About the Scout Report
The Scout Report is a weekly publication offered by the InterNIC to the
Internet community as a fast, convenient way to stay informed about
network activities. Its purpose is to combine in one place selected new
(and newly-discovered) Internet resources.
A wide range of topics are included in the Report with an emphasis on
resources thought to be of interest to the InterNIC's primary audience,
the research and education community. Each resource has been verified
for substantial content and accessibility within a day of the release of
the Report.
The Scout Report is provided in multiple formats -- mailing lists for
both a plain text and HTML version, and World Wide Web. The World Wide
Web version of the Report includes links to all listed resources. The
report is released every weekend.
In addition to the plain text version, the Scout Report is distributed
in HTML format allowing sites to post the Scout Report on local
WorldWideWeb servers each week. The result is faster access for local
users. You are welcome and encouraged to re-post and re-distribute the
report. Note that copyright statements appear on all versions of the
Scout Report, and we ask that these be included when re-posting or
re-distributing.
If you haven't yet subscribed or told your friends and colleagues, now
is the time. Spread the news by word-of-net. Join 20,000 of your
colleagues already using the Scout Report as a painless tool for tracking
what's new on the 'Net!
Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be
sent to
scout@internic.net
-- Susan Calcari
InterNIC Info Scout
Scout Report Access Methods
Resource Addressing Conventions
After each resource in the Scout Report one or more network addresses are
listed. Every attempt is made to use the same convention in each listing
for the network address of each resource. It is assumed that users
recognize the type of address and know how to use it. However, for those
users unfamiliar with the Internet we provide here the order in which
addresses are listed (by network tool.) A brief explanation of one tool,
WWW is included below.
The four network tools referenced most often in the Scout Report are
World Wide Web, gopher, email, and FTP. Occasionally WAIS and Telnet
addresses are also listed.
After each resource at least one address is listed, and sometimes more.
This is because some resources are available using multiple network
tools. The network tool addresses are always listed in the same order
after each resource:
- World Wide Web (WWW)
- Gopher
- FTP
- Email
- Telnet
- WAIS
A WWW address is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and always
begins with a string of characters followed by a colon and two forward
slashes. For example:
http://www.internic.net/
gopher://gibbs.oit.unc.edu:70/11/research.d/grants.d
ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/hecker/internet/slip-ppp.txt
To access the resource through the WWW you can use a WWW browser
installed on your desktop computer, or a "command-line" WWW client on
your local Internet host computer. Web browsers are available for all
major computer platforms, including Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. Check with
your local support center or your Internet Service Provider for more
information about Web browsers installed on the Internet host computer or
your desktop computer.
Copyright Susan Calcari, 1995.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout
Report provided the copyright notice, this permission notice, and the two
paragraphs below are preserved on all copies.
The InterNIC provides information about the Internet and the resources on
the Internet to the US research and education community under a
cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742.
The Government has certain rights in this material.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network
Solutions, Inc.