Gateway to Education Materials

"The Gateway to Educational Materials is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites." This site, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, will be a valuable resource for teachers teaching about the U.S.

PEW report about older Americans' use of the Internet

New report from the PEW Internet and American Life report: Older Americans and the Internet
From the report: "22% of Americans 65 and older use the Internet.
The percent of seniors who go online has jumped by 47% between 2000 and 2004. In a
February 2004 survey, 22% of Americans age 65 or older reported having access to the
Internet, up from 15% in 2000. That translates to about 8 million Americans age 65 or
older who use the Internet. By contrast, 58% of Americans age 50-64, 75% of 30-49
year-olds, and 77% of 18-29 year-olds currently go online."

Global Corruption Report

The Global Corruption Report 2004 provides an overview of the state of corruption around
the world. It covers national and international developments, institutional and legal
change and activities within both the private sector and civil society for the period from
July 2002 to June 2003. This year the Global Corruption Report focuses on political
corruption. It presents 34 country reports and the latest research on corruption.

American Dream

For school kids writing about that ever popular topic the "American Dream," this LOC Learning Page and the essay (with links) about "What is the American Dream"? will be useful.

The Potential Impact of Iraq on the Election

This is an election analysis from The Gallup Organization on how the issue of Iraq could influence 2004 Elections. "Although a majority of Americans continue to support the war in Iraq, U.S. military involvement in that country is not the highest priority for them when they are asked about the issues they will take into account on Election Day."

Preview of new govt. openness website...

This is what the soon-to-be-launched website OpenTheGovernment.orgsays about itself:
"OpenTheGovernment.org is a coalition of organizations and individuals concerned with growing government secrecy. We're focused on making the federal government a more open place to make us safer, strengthen public trust in government, and support our democratic principles..." more

American Women's History: A Research Guide

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women.html
(excerpted from Scout Report, March 19, 2004)
Greatly revised and expanded since its last Scout Report mention, (March 13, 1999) Ken Middleton's American Women's History: A Research Guide includes over 2100 citations to print and Internet sources and hundreds of links to digitized primary sources, as well as frequent updates and link checking to ensure the currency of cited resources. The Research Guide now consists of 4 main sections: an index to resources by subject, an index to resources by state, and two Tools sections offering guidance on finding primary sources (e.g. archival, manuscript, and museum collections, historical newspapers and periodicals), as well as secondary sources (e.g. books, articles, theses and dissertations). Some print resources listed under Marriage are bibliographies and historical overviews; examples of online materials are digital photo databases at the Los Angeles and Denver Public Libraries, that include images of weddings and marriage. Shortcuts to popular, quickly available, online resources are provided from the home page.

The Middle East Institute at Columbia University

[pdf] http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/regional/mei/
(excerpted from Scout Report, March 19, 2004)
Founded in 1954, the Middle East Institute of Columbia University has offered a multidisciplinary approach to studying the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th century... Alongside detailed information about various public programs for scholars and the general public, the institute's site also provides some helpful educational materials, such as a Research Projects section. Here visitors can download materials on educational outreach for Muslim sensitivity, and peruse other documents on researching Middle East topics on the Internet. The e-Resources section is also worth a look, as it contains a number of archived lectures on very topical themes, including Iran and Israeli and Palestinian nationalism.

The State of the News Media 2004

An Annual Report on American Journalism
Project for Excellence, March 2004
The State of the News Media 2004 provides a comprehensive look each year at the state of American journalism. The study is the work of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an institute affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Covers issues in the major journalism sectors: magazine, newspaper, network, cable and local TV, alternative and ethnic media and radio. Full text available at http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/index.asp

IRAQ: ONE YEAR AFTER

(from EADSURLs no.49)
IRAQ: ONE YEAR AFTER.
Thomas R. Pickering, Eric Schwartz, and James R. Schlesinger.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq. March 9, 2004.

While noting "significant progress" in the post-conflict reconstruction and political transition effort, the Task Force reports that the planned transfer of sovereignty on June 30, combined with U.S. troop reductions from Iraqi cities and uncertainty about long-term U.S. funding, has created doubts about U.S. staying power. To avoid destabilizing the effort and demoralizing Iraqis, the Task Force urges the Bush administration, the Democratic nominee for president, and Congressional leaders to:
* declare that coalition forces will continue to provide essential security in Iraq until the Iraqi security forces can do so on their own;
* emphasize that the transfer of sovereignty does not signal a diminished U.S. commitment to supporting stability, reconstruction and a peaceful political transition;
* affirm that the United States is prepared to sustain a multi-billion dollar commitment to Iraq for at least the next several years; and
* ensure broad involvement of Iraqis, and promote a leading role for the United Nations in the political transition process.
The Task Force report contains a range of recommendations for enhancing the coalition's effort to help Iraqis become more involved in the future management of their country. These include: increasing incentives for U.S. government service in Iraq; improving management of U.S. assistance efforts; moving quickly to structure the administration and staffing of a new U.S. embassy; promoting job creation; advancing the status of women; implementing a more effective public diplomacy effort; and ensuring transparent and accountable monitoring procedures for the oil industry.

A Year After Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists

This is the latest in a series of international surveys by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. It was conducted from late February to early March in nine nations (U.S., UK, Germany, France, Russia, Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan).
"A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished. Opinion of the United States in France and Germany is at least as negative now as at the war’s conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical. Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America’s credibility abroad. Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States. Across Europe, there is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States... In the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed, anger toward the United States remains pervasive, although the level of hatred has eased somewhat and support for the war on terrorism has inched up."

The Vietnam Project

The Vietnam Project

(excerpted from Scout Report, vol.10, no.10)
"A number of online archives exist already to remember major military conflicts (particularly for World War II), so it is fitting that the Vietnam War also have a significant web presence. Designed by a dedicated team at Texas Tech University, the Virtual Vietnam Archive "enables scholars, students and all interested in this remarkable period in our world history to conduct research directly from universities, schools, libraries, and homes."

Elections

Elections 2004

(excerpted from Scout Report, vol.10, no.10)
"Every presidential election in the United States gives rise to greater legions of so-called "spin doctors," and a number of pundits offering their opinions on the chances of each candidate who has thrown their hat in the ring. Fortunately, the University of Michigan Documents Center has developed this helpful and informative website that culls together hundreds of useful websites about the upcoming presidential election of 2004. From the homepage visitors can look through a number of helpful sections devoted to listing sites dedicated to such topics as Policy Issues, Candidates, and Campaign. Within each of these broad thematic areas are contained more specific areas dedicated to links on important subtopics such as campaign finances, media coverage, terrorism, economics, and many others. Scholars will want to take a look at the Academic Research section, which contains links to online periodical databases and some links to sites with recent working papers on the subject."

Source for economic data

(excerpted from Resource Shelf)
EconData.Net
"Place this one in your "must have" file (if it's not already there)! From the site, "1,000 links to socioeconomic data sources, arranged by subject and provider, pointers to the Web's premiere data collections, and our own list of the ten best sites for finding regional economic data." EconData.Net's monthly e-mail update (free) lists new reports and economic resources."

IRAQ: THE INTERIM CONSTITUTION.

(excerpted from EADSURLs no.48)
IRAQ: THE INTERIM CONSTITUTION
Sharon Otterman.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Updated March 8, 2004.

This document reviews the history of the Iraqi Governing Council (ICG) and its attempts to craft a legal framework for the new government of Iraq, slated to begin after June 30, when the U.S-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) turns over power. There is a brief discussion of major provisions in the new constitution and excellent links to related sources, including one to the text of the constitution on the CPA web site.

http://www.cfr.org/background/background_iraq_const.php

News portal

news search portal
This one-page portal lists search engines, toolbars, RSS feeds, alert services and other useful resources for tracking and finding news items.

American Community Survey

The American Community Survey is a new nationwide survey designed to provide communities a fresh look at how they are changing. It is a critical element in the Census Bureau's reengineered 2010 census plan.

Iraqi Coalition casualty count

This site was developed "to provide information that has been
scrupulously culled from government sources and cross-checked
against other existing lists" about the military death toll in
Iraq. It features statistics about fatalities and injuries for
Iraqi Coalition armed forces. Data may be retrieved by month,
name, location of occurrences, cause of death, state residence,
and more. Includes links to sources of information.

http://lunaville.org/

Useful site for military information

(excerpted from Resource Shelf...)
Military Studies
Source: National Defense University (NDU)
Military Education & Research Library Network (MERLN)
MERLN, portal for the international military education library community, is a multilayered resource that is home to a wealth of unique digitized materials and a gateway to other libraries and research centers. Almost everything here is freely accessible to anyone, with the exception of certain proprietary databases that are restricted by license to participating institutions.

AN ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIO AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY.

(excerpted from FY2004 EADSURLS No. 43)
Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall.
[United States Department of Defense. Office of Net Assessment]. October 2003, Web-posted February 2004.

Sunday’s edition of London’s Observer raised a furor with an article about this report, commissioned by the Pentagon last year and written by two futurologists. Subsequent media stories have described the report as a classified document that projects that Britain will soon have a Siberian-type climate, among other scenarios. The futurologists and Pentagon officials stress the report's scary-sounding projections are highly improbable and extremely unlikely. Rather, they stress, the report is typical of many “worst-case” studies, which specifically present low-possibility, high-impact scenarios for defense planners.

[Note: This report was discussed a few weeks in a Fortune magazine article. See: http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,582584,00.html ]

Handy eyedropper tool for working with webpages

-- Inetia.com --This Slovenian freeware tool is very useful for matching colors when editing webpages - very easy to install and use.

Zapmeta

Zapmeta is a metasearch engine with some nice features, including "QuickView" which enables you to preview search results without leaving the hitlist - eliminates a great deal of tedious to and fro!

Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Congressional Research Service
Foreign Terrorist Organizations
PDF; 111 pages

New search engine from Yahoo

Yahoo is rolling out a brand new search engine today. Try it out at search.yahoo.com, read about it at SearchEngineWatch

Knight Ridder Election Blog

This is an election blog edited by Knight Ridder journalists covering the presidential campaign:
Knight Ridder Election 2004

National Governors Association

(from ResearchBuzz #270, Feb.12, 2004)
The National Governors Association has announced a
new site providing information on the governors of
the United States. The site contains information on
both current and historical governors and is
available at http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,C_SEARCH_GO%20V,00.html

Middle East Research and Information Project

(excerpted from Scout Report Volume 10, Number 5
February 6, 2004)
Middle East Research and Information Project
http://www.merip.org

Established 32 years ago, the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Washington, DC. The Project has been quite successful over the past few decades due to its commitment to providing a broad range of perspectives on the Middle East not generally found in some of the mainstream media and press coverage. While the organization's primary publication, the Middle East Report, is not available for free on the site (although some of its editorial pieces are), visitors will want to take a close look at the Middle East Report Online, which is available here. Recent features within the online report deal with the future of Middle East studies in American universities, ethnic unrest in Iraq, and the long-standing dispute over Western Sahara. For visitors interested in a particular subject, there is a subject index of articles, and a feature that allows interested parties to sign up to receive the online reports via email.

African-American History Month: Multimedia

(excerpt from EADSURLs, 38, 2004)African-American History Month: Multimedia
This is a nice site for facts and statistics about African American history. Under the “Radio” section heading, for example, there are links to text scripts and 60-second radio spots that are mini-biographies of some of the most inspiring African-Americans. There is one biography for each day in February. On February 12, the Census Bureau will make available on this site a video on the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education, 50 years after that historic Supreme Court decision.

Portal to European Union Law

(excerpted from the Feb.6 Scout Report )
EUR-Lex: The Portal to European Union Law [pdf]
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/index.html

"Given the enormous complexity of bringing together 12 of continental Europe's countries to form the European Union, it is not surprising that there is a vast body of legal material related to this process. As this is the case, the EUR-Lex website is in fact the "single entry point to the complete collections of EU legal texts in all the official languages." The homepage for the site contains several helpful thematic collections of documents (in a variety of file formats for convenience), such as case-law, parliamentary questions, treaties, and several other categories. Of course, the novice user will want to take a look through the About EU Law section which offers a broad outline of the legal process, a glossary, and an alphabetized section that will answer many questions. To say this site will be of interest to legal scholars and students of the EU legal process would be a vast understatement."

US Presidential Elections 2004 / US Election News and Coverage

US Presidential Elections 2004 / US Election News and CoverageThis UK site provides a nicely concentrated portal to 2004 election sites.

Dipomacymonitor.com

Excellent website that monitors all press releases from various
foreign ministries worldwide. It has a searchable database and can show
nation to nation releases. The site is: diplomacymonitor.com . Try it out
and see what you think. I think it's really helpful. (courtesy of Ian, Stockholm)

Special Summit of the Americas web site developed by IRC Mexico

The Benjamin Franklin Library in coordination with IIP developed a web site with information about the Special Summit of the Americas which is available in English at mexico.usembassy.gov/summit and in Spanish at mexico.usembassy.gov/cumbre

Electronic Advance Documents Service, January 4, 2004

TITLE INDEX
January 4, 2004

Doing it Wrong and Doing it Right: Education in Latin America and Asia.
[Essays in Public Policy No. 110] 2003.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/epp/110/110.pdf [pdf format, 32 pages]
Item# 04AD255 MPP Theme: 12ED Geo: Global


The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s. January 2004.
http://www.pbs.org/theforgetting
[Gateway page, sections in various formats, various file sizes]
Item# 04AD249 MPP Theme: 15A Geo: Global

Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey - 2003. December 2003.
http://www.wymaninstitute.org/denialreport/2003.php [html format, 11 printed pages]
Item# 04AD251 MPP Theme: 12RE Geo: Global

Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Women: The Case of Turkey. Web-posted
December 2003.
http://www.iom.int//DOCUMENTS/PUBLICATION/EN/Irregular_mig_in_turkey.pdf
[pdf format, 88 pages]
Item# 04AD253 MPP Theme: 10F Geo: Europe

Libya and Nonproliferation. December 23, 2003.
http://www.cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/031223.htm [html format, 8 printed pages]
Item# 04AD250 MPP Theme: 2F Geo: Middle East

Making and Remaking America: Immigration into the United States.
[Hoover Essays No. 25] 2003.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/he/25/25.pdf [pdf format, 61 pages]
Item# 04AD256 MPP Theme: 8A Geo: USA


Mexico: Country Profile for 2003. Drug Intelligence Report. November 2003.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/03047/03047.pdf [pdf format, 36 pages]
Item# 04AD254 MPP Theme: 09 Geo: WHA


Talking Cure: A Case Study in Communication for Social Change.
[The Communication for Social Change Working Paper Series: No. 2] December 2003.
http://www.rockfound.org/Documents/614/SocialChange7_30.pdf [pdf format, 18 pages]
Item# 04AD252 MPP Theme: 12CSA Geo: USA

President Bush Proposes New Temporary Worker Program

President Bush on Wednesday proposed a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-3.html

President Bush Proposes New Temporary Worker Program

President Bush on Wednesday proposed a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.

THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION: 2000.

From ADSURLs 23/04
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-34.pdf Nolan Malone, Kaari F. Baluja, Joseph M. Costanzo and Cynthia J. Davis.
United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. December 17, 2003.

The report chronicles the increase of the foreign-born population over the last decade: from 19.8 million in 1990 to 31.1 million in 2000. All regions of the country experienced increases in the foreign-born population - by nearly 90 percent in the South, 65 percent in the Midwest, 50 percent in the West and nearly 40 percent in the Northeast.
Between 1990 and 2000, the foreign-born population grew by 200 percent or more in North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. In 2000, more than half of the nation’s foreign-born population lived in three states: California, New York and Texas.
Foreign-born people constituted the majority in six cities with populations of 100,000 or more population in 2000 - two of them in Florida and four in California, according to this analysis of census results by the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 7-in-10 people in Hialeah, Florida and about 6-in-10 in Miami were foreign-born, according to the census figures. The foreign-born accounted for more than half the population in the California cities of Glendale, Santa Ana, Daly City and El Monte.

Subject: Trio information resources on the net

Dear All :

I would like to share these information with our IRC colleagues. Maybe you can find these information are useful and can use as your resources to answer your reference inquiries. The nice thing is they archives the question and answers so we can use it everytime we need. Happy reading...

ASK CLASSBRAIN
http://www.classbrain.com/artaskcb/publish/

At ClassBrain.com we strive to provide students, teachers, and parents with access to the best possible resources on the world wide web. We have received hundreds of questions and have enjoyed helping out kids, parents, and even some overseas visitors in locating resources and information about a wide variety of topics.
Remember that while we do our best to point students in the right direction, we will not simply answer questions straight out of a textbook. We must stress the need for students to pay attention in class to their lectures, use their study notes, and read the assigned chapters in the textbooks before asking someone else to provide the answers. If students are still having trouble finding answers even after using these resources, then of course we encourage you to send us your questions. We will be more than
happy to locate resources that will help you out.

Here are the sample of topics:
-Voting Rights Act of 1965
-National Parks
-Dairy Products in U.S. States
-Which US state is well-known for its dairy products?
-Voting Rights Act of 1965

INFOPLEASE : ASK THE EDITORS
http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/index.html

Here are the sample of the questions :
If a senator happens to die while in office, what is the succession
procedure?
Who is the representative from our congressional district?
How long does it take to receive a tax refund from the IRS?
How do I find out more about the Americans with Disabilities Act?
When did people start paying federal income tax?
What is the difference between "hard" and "soft" money donations?
When was the first televised debate between two presidential candidates?
How many U.S. presidents were an only child?
Has a president ever been married in the White House?
Where does the vice president live?
George Washington was the first president to use the veto. What was the bill
and why did Washington veto it?
Who was the first president to be voted for by women?
Who was the first president born after World War II?
Who was the first president to appear on color television?
Who was the first president to have electricity in the White House?
Which presidents were left-handed?
How long do former presidents get protection from the U.S. Secret Service?
Who was the only U.S. president to hold a patent on an invention?
What was Rutherford B. Hayes' campaign motto in 1876?
Which 20th century U.S. Presidents did not appoint a Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court?
Who was the president when the White House got its first car?
Which president promised "a chicken in every pot"?
What president won the largest electoral vote total in an election?
Which states don't follow the "winner-take-all" procedure of awarding
electoral college votes?
What does the "S" in Harry S. Truman stand for?
Which U.S. President became a U.S. Senator after leaving office?


HOW FAR IS IT
http://www.indo.com/distance/
If you would like to know the distance between 2 cities -- everywhere around the world -- you can use this tool.
This service uses data from the US Census and a supplementary list of cities around the world to find the latitude and longitude of two places, and then calculates the distance between them (as the crow flies). It also provides a map showing the two places, using the Xerox PARC Map Server.

IRC Jakarta, Indonesia
email: irc@usembassyjakarta.org

Howdy do

Glad to be onboard

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, 2002

(from ADSURLs 22/04)
Capital Punishment, 2002
Thomas P. Bonczar and Tracy L. Snell.
United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). November 17, 2003.

This report presents a statistical overview of persons under sentence of death in the U.S. on December 31, 2002, and of persons executed in 2002. Preliminary data on executions by States during 2003 are included, and the report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2002. Numerical tables present data on offenders' sex, race, Hispanic origin, education, marital status, age at time of arrest for capital offense, legal status at time of capital offense, methods of execution, trends, and time between imposition of death sentence and execution. Historical tables present executions since 1930 and sentencing since 1973.

Anti-Americanism: Causes and Characteristics

Recent Commentary by Andrew Kohut from the Pew Research Center on anti-americanism. Released December 10, 2003. "The numbers paint a depressing picture. Just a quarter of the French approve of U.S. policies, and the situation is only slightly better in Japan and Germany. Majorities in many countries say America’s strong military presence actually increases the chances for war. And most people believe America’s global influence is expanding. The United States has been down this road before, struggling with a battered image and drawing little in the way of support even from close allies. But for a variety of reasons, this time it is different: the anti-Americanism runs broader and deeper than ever before. "

The Troubling Medicare Legislation

This analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examines the new Medicare prescription drug law. Revised December 8, 2003.

In this week's issue of National Journal:

Guide To The Web A Staff Report
In this special report, National Journal highlights hundreds of Web sites, organized by 50
issue areas likely to be topical in 2004. National Journal reporters
selected the Web sites based on interviews with experts in those fields, as
well as their own experience in using the Internet as a resource. The 50
topic areas are arranged alphabetically within broad categories such as
foreign affairs and the economy.
http://nationaljournal.com/members/news/2003/12/1205nj1.htm

The complete Web guide can be downloaded and added to your bookmarks or favorites list.
http://nationaljournal.com/members/news/2003/12/1205nj.links.htm

Public History Resource Center

(excerpt from the Scout Report, Volume 9, Number 48 December 5, 2003) Public History Resource Center... the general public can learn more about what exactly constitutes public history, read reviews of history-focused websites, peruse syllabi on such topics as archival studies and historic preservations, and learn about degree-granting programs in public history. Additionally, the site includes a rather detailed list of related websites, thematically organized into areas such as associations, job resources, listservs, and newsletters. Along with the website reviews, the publications section includes several helpful feature articles, such as how to utilize the historical documents and still images held by the U.S. Mint.

RSS in Government

RSS in Government: News About How RSS is Being Used by
International, Federal, State, and Local Governments.
Find breaking coverage about RSS in local, state, national,
and international governments, as well as in the Department
of Defense and other agencies. (RSS, most commonly known as
Really Simple Syndication, is an Internet tool for tracking
news and updates.) Searchable. The editorial team includes
Ray Matthews, an RSS apostle based at the Utah State
Library. http://www.rssgov.com/

National Election Studies Homepage

The mission of the National Election Studies (NES) is to produce high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation that serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists concerned with the theoretical and empirical foundations of mass politics in a democratic society. Central to this mission is the active involvement of the NES research community in all phases of the project from study planning through data analysis." [Read More...]

audio post powered by audblog

Department Launches Student Web Site

(following excerpted from Department of State website, www.state.gov)"The U.S. Department of State launched future.state.gov this month, a new web site for elementary, middle and high school students designed to increase understanding of international issues and events and encourage students' interest in Civil Service or Foreign Service careers with the State Department.

High school students assisted with the name, design and content for the website, which contains an interactive timeline of diplomatic history, country maps, photo slideshows, and stories from American children overseas. Younger students will find puzzles and games to teach them about international travel and foreign countries. The site also offers content specifically for parents and educators. Teachers can download foreign policy lesson plans and videos designed for integration into existing teaching curricula. Three lessons cover the Vietnam conflict, the Cuban missile crisis, and the war on terrorism."

Researchers for hire at NARA

The National Archives is assembling a list of independent researchers who would be willing, for a fee, to undertake research assignments at the National Archives. This could become a very useful referral resource for the occasional IRC request that requires onsite archival research at NARA. The project seems to be in a preliminary information gathering phase....there is plenty of information about what the list is intended to be, and how to join it, but nothing yet - that I could find - about how to access the list.

uspolicy.be Report Alert, Vol. 3, No 14

Report Alert, Vol. 3, No 14 This page enables you to keep abreast of recent reports, official and non-official. All items are hyperlinked to the full-text documents.

This issue of Report Alert covers the following topics:
Africa � Arms Control/Non-Proliferation � Balkans � Democracy/Human Rights/Religious Freedom � Development � Economy and Trade � Foreign Policy � Global Issues � International Security � Middle East � Terrorism � U.S. Elections

(excerpt) Free Pint Newsletter 149 - Data Protection, Repatriation

Free Pint Newsletter 149 - Data Protection, Repatriation
Tips for returning Fulbrighters, FSOs?

Political Resources on the Net

Political Resources on the Net
A portal providing "Listings of political sites available on the Internet sorted by country, with links to parties, organizations, governments, media and more from all around the world."

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

OneLook Reverse Dictionary
A useful - or at least amusing - tool for when you know the word's definition but not the word!

EVENLY DIVIDED AND INCREASINGLY POLARIZED.

Pew Research Center for People and the Press. November 5, 2003.

This Pew Center poll studying the mood of voters in upcoming national elections suggests that the sense of national unity that followed the Sept. 11 attacks has subsided. The survey finds a rise in political polarity, similar to public sentiment found in the center's 2000 poll. In fact, a year before the presidential election, American voters are once again seeing things largely through partisan eyes. The Republican Party has made significant gains in party affiliation over the past four years, but this remains a country that is almost evenly divided politically ­ yet further apart than ever in its political values.
The Pew Research Center's longitudinal measures of basic political, economic and social values, which date back to 1987, show that political polarization is now as great as it was prior to the 1994 midterm elections that ended four decades of Democratic control in Congress.

http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/196.pdf [pdf format, 152 pages]

Some interesting posts from the Scout Report, 11/14/2003

American Choices: Understanding Foreign Policy Debates
http://americanchoices.org/

Sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and several other organizations, this intriguing site offers individuals the opportunity to determine (in a general fashion) where they stand on the "fundamental trade-offs facing U.S. policymakers." At its essence, the website asks users 12 questions about their views on foreign policy stances in order to construct a nuanced portrait of their individual foreign policy beliefs. Along with this feature, users can also offer their views on four aspects of America's role in foreign affairs: use of military power, sponsorship of democracy and human rights, efforts to expand the global marketplace, and the level of international cooperation. In this feature, users use a sliding scale to offer their opinions on these four elements through questions like "Should we increase emphasis on diplomatic or military means to secure peace?" The site is rounded out by a selection of links to outside resources, thematically organized into areas that allow online users to engage in political discussions, learn about foreign policy debates, and read commentaries from a broad range of ideological perspectives. [KMG]


American Journeys -- Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement: A Digital Library and Learning Center
http://www.americanjourneys.org/

With over 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, the American Journeys Digital Library and Learning Center is the result of a collaboration between the U.S. Institute of Museum & Library Services and by private donors. Much of the work was done at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, and visitors with an interest in digital projects and their creation and management will want to review the section that details how the website was built. Visitors with a limited amount of time will want to peruse the highlights section, which offers a number of noteworthy historical accounts, including the first encounter of Europeans with the Grand Canyon and the arrival of Captain James Cook in Hawaii. The resource section for educators is well-developed and includes suggestions on integrating documents into lesson plans, information on interpreting documents, and addressing sensitive content. As might be expected, the complete contents of the digital library may be searched in any number of ways, including by topic, author name, document type, and by keyword or full text. [KMG]

HomeTownLocator Gazetteer
http://gazetteer.hometownlocator.com/index.cfm

A number of sites provide easy access to Census information and topographical features, but the HomeTownLocator Gazetteer is certainly one of the easiest to use, and quite a bit of fun as well. On this site, users may begin by browsing physical and cultural features of the United States, arranged by individual state. From each state listing, visitors may learn about various physical and cultural attributes within each county, such as hospitals, bays, airports, oilfield, and post offices. After browsing a list of each type of feature, visitors may elect to view an aerial photograph of the feature and its environs as well. Census 2000 information may be browsed by city, town, village, county, or zip code, which is yet another nice feature of the site. Also, visitors can use the My House feature to obtain a photo of the street they live on and use a distance finder to calculate the distance between two cities, towns, or zip codes. [KMG]

Explore National American Indian Heritage Month
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/indian/index.htm

Under the theme Strengthening the Spirit, the National Register of Historic Places (in tandem with the National Park Service) has developed this site to showcase various historic properties listed in the National Register and National Park units that celebrate the achievements of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The site was also produced to draw attention to National American Indian Heritage Month, and to assist educators with the process of incorporating into the curriculum field trips to these places. Some of the featured places on the site include the Campus Center in Alaska, which served as the location of the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in 1971 and the Southwestern Range and Sheep Breeding Laboratory Historic District in New Mexico, which was a part of a New Deal program to improve sheep breeding. Educators will want to look through the Teaching with Historic Places modules available here that profile additional historical landmarks and sites that capture important aspects of American Indian history throughout the country. [KMG]

UNCLASSIFIED REPORT TO CONGRESS ON THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNOLOGY RELATING TO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND ADVANCED CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS

From EADSURLS 14/2003: UNCLASSIFIED REPORT TO CONGRESS ON THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNOLOGY RELATING TO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND ADVANCED CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS, 1 JANUARY THROUGH 30 JUNE 2003.
United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Web-posted November 10, 2003.

In its most recent semiannual unclassified report to Congress on the acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction, the CIA asserts that "Tehran has been pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program, in violation of its obligations as a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). To bolster its efforts to establish domestic nuclear fuel-cycle capabilities, Iran sought technology that can support fissile material production for a nuclear weapons program." This report also covers the attempts of other countries and of non-state organizations to procure WMD. There are also sections on key suppliers such as Russia, China and North Korea.

http://www.odci.gov/cia/reports/721_reports/jan_jun2003.htm [html format, 12 printed pages]

FY2004 EADSURLS No. 13

Hate Crime Statistics

HATE CRIME STATISTICS, 2002.
United States Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Web-posted November 12, 2003.

When Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, lawmakers mandated the collection of information regarding crimes motivated by a bias against race, religion, sexual orientation, and/or ethnicity/national origin. The Attorney General designated the FBI to satisfy that requirement. With the cooperation and assistance of many local and state law enforcement agencies familiar with the investigation of hate crimes and the collection of related information, the UCR [Unified Crime Reports] Program created a data collection system to comply with the congressional mandate. The Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 amended the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include bias against disabilities. The FBI started gathering data for the additional bias motivation on January 1, 1997.
A review of the 7,459 single-bias hate crime incidents reported in 2002 showed that 48.8 percent were racially motivated, 19.1 percent were based on a bias against a religious group, 16.7 percent were motivated by a bias against a sexual orientation, 14.8 percent resulted from an ethnicity/national origin bias, and 0.6 percent were based on a disability bias.
Of the 8,832 hate crime offenses reported in 2002, 67.5 percent were crimes against persons, 32.0 percent were crimes against property, and less than 1 percent were crimes against society. Intimidation was the most frequently reported crime against persons at 52.1 percent. The offense of destruction/damage/vandalism, at 83.1 percent, was the most often reported crime against property.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hatecrime2002.pdf [pdf format, 148 pages]

Item# 04AD112 MPP Theme: 12SIB Geo: USA


2003 JOB SEARCH PRIVACY STUDY. JOB SEARCHING IN THE NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT: CONSUMER PRIVACY BENCHMARKS.
Pam Dixon.
World Privacy Forum. November 11, 2003.

In a little over a decade in the United States and elsewhere, the business of searching for a job has moved primarily from a process based on mailing or carrying a hard-copy resume to an electronic transmission process, whether in the form of a job-bank registry, an emailed resume, or filling out online forms, or some combination of these or other digitized procedures. According to the author of this new report, “This changed applicant process has, overall, not had a beneficial effect on the job seeker.”
Dixon’s research of the privacy policies in the online employment industry is full of very useful data that job-seekers and web designers should look at. Besides the usual caveats related to the potential threats of identity theft and misuse of personal data, Dixon uncovered some interesting information, such as the following: “Researchers have submitted a Freedom of Information Act request regarding USAJOBS.gov and StudentJobs.gov. These two sites are the Federal Government’s official job sites. In the privacy policy posted at these sites, no mention is made that Monster.com is the government contractor that is operating these sites.”
The Consumer Guide provides dozens of job-search site addresses, along with the privacy policies attached to each.

Report:
http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/wpfjobstudy.pdf [pdf format, 82 pages]
Executive Summary:
http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/execsumm.pdf [pdf format, 6 pages]
Consumer Guide:
http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/wpfconsumerguide.pdf [pdf format, 22 pages]

Item# 04AD113 MPP Theme: 12RLG Geo: Global


LOST IN TRANSIT: GLOBAL CFC SMUGGLING TRENDS AND THE NEED FOR FASTER PHASE-OUT.
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). November 10, 2003.

[Note: The Environmental Investigation Agency is a non-profit NGO based in London and Washington DC committed to investigating and exposing environmental crime. EIA has been actively tracking the global illegal trade in ozone depleting substances (ODS) since the mid 1990s to provide information to the Montreal Protocol and other relevant bodies.]

This report analyzes complex chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) smuggling operations spanning three continents and including Singapore, South Africa, and the United States. It reveals the global nature of the illegal trade and exposes CFC smuggling operations coordinated by Singaporean dealers who seek to deceive US authorities and dump illegal CFCs on the American market.
EIA reveals how Singaporean companies offer to sell CFCs to the U.S., mislead the US Environmental Protection Agency, and engineer elaborate international trading schemes to avoid U.S. enforcement efforts. One scam involves the gold mines of South Africa. As used CFCs are legally permitted to import into the U.S., opportunistic traders claim to extract CFCs from refrigeration equipment required in South Africa's goldmines. However, the CFCs are often not genuine used material at all, but a mixture of used and illegal virgin material, or illegal virgin CFCs that have been deliberately contaminated to give the appearance of used chemicals, which fetch a very high price on the lucrative U.S. market. To facilitate this scam, virgin CFCs are smuggled into South Africa through the neighboring countries.

http://www.eia-international.org/cgi/reports/report-files/media65-1.pdf [pdf format, 20 pages]

Item# 04AD114 MPP Theme: 14 Geo: Global


THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE: ENVIRONMENT IN THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS.
Audley, John
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. November 2003.

When they meet this November in Miami, Florida, the 34 trade ministers of the Western Hemisphere will do whatever they can to keep the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations from running aground. The lack of progress in key trade areas such as market access, agriculture, and investment, as well as competing trade negotiations involving other FTAA members, have turned the negotiation's scheduled 2004 completion date into a daunting finish line.
Audley notes that the regulatory enforcement approach to the trade and environment challenge taken by the United States has often been interpreted by its developing country trading partners as an effort to coerce them into enforcing their own environmental laws, or risk trade sanctions. Agreeing to what they see as new environmental conditions for access to the U.S. market taps into a deeply rooted fear among developing countries that the United States is using environmental laws to protect its markets from foreign competition. It also conjures up ghosts of earlier U.S. efforts to coerce Latin American governments to adopt U.S. policy priorities. This approach may be appropriate for countries like Australia or Singapore, who already enjoy the capacity to develop and implement sound environmental laws. It may also be suitable for governments like Chile, Brazil, and perhaps even Mexico. However, according to the author, “this approach is poisonous for countries with little or no capacity to protect their environment, like those in Central America, the Caribbean, and many other parts of the hemisphere. “

Note: The Spanish-language version cited below forms the first 3 pages of a larger publication on trade and sustainable development.

Note: Contains copyrighted material.

http://www.ceip.org/files/pdf/issuebriefnov2003.pdf [English-language, pdf format, 6 pages]
http://www.ictsd.org/monthly/puentes/Puentes4-3.pdf [Spanish-language, pdf format, 3 pages]

Item# 04AD115 MPP Theme: 5O Geo: WHA


FEWER IMMIGRANTS, A WARMER WELCOME: FIXING A BROKEN IMMIGRATION POLICY.
Mark Kriko.
Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). November 2003.

The author takes a firm stand on what he sees as necessary fixes to the current U.S. immigration policies. “To fix immigration’s broken windows the authorities need to start taking immigration violations seriously. To take only one example, people who repeatedly sneak across the border are supposed to be prosecuted and jailed, and the Border Patrol unveiled a new digital fingerprint system in the mid-90s to make tracking of repeat crossers possible. The problem is that short-staffed U.S. Attorney’s offices kept increasing the number of apprehensions needed to trigger prosecution so as to avoid actually having to prosecute anyone.”
He focuses on several specific measures: “The initiative that would yield the most bang for the buck would be enforcement of employer sanctions (the jargon term for the ban on hiring illegal aliens). Ideally, we need a national employment-eligibility verification system, which would allow employers to determine which new hires have the right to work in the United States. The INS developed, and its successor agencies continue to operate, several pilot programs along these lines, and participating employers are generally pleased with them.”

http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/back1503.pdf [pdf format, 8 pages]

Item# 04AD116 MPP Theme: 8A Geo: USA


HOW MUCH INFORMATION? 2003.
Peter Lyman and Hal R. Varian, et al.
University of California, Berkeley. The School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS). Web-posted October 30, 2003.

This study is an attempt to estimate how much new information is created each year. Newly created information is distributed in four storage media – print, film, magnetic, and optical – and seen or heard in four information flows – telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet. This study of information storage and flows analyzes the year 2002 in order to estimate the annual size of the stock of new information contained in storage media, and heard or seen each year in information flows. Where reliable data was available the researchers compared the 2002 findings to those of their 2000 study (which used 1999 data) in order to identify trends – recognizing that 1999-2002 were years of relatively low economic activity. [The 2000 study is located on the Web at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info .]
Among the SIMS team’s finding: “Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media produced about 5 exabytes of new information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of the new information was stored on magnetic media, mostly in hard disks.” For comparison purposes, the authors inform us that five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in half a million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress print collections. Another way they explain it is that five exabytes is equivalent to “all words ever spoken by human beings.”

Note: In addition to the urls provided below, there is a Table of Contents page, with links to data on “Stored Information” and “Information Flows” at: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003 .

Full Report:
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/printable_report.pdf [pdf format, 112 pages]
Executive Summary:
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/execsum.htm [html format, 12 printed pages]

Item# 04AD117 MPP Theme: 12IC Geo: Global


PREVENTING NUCLEAR TERRORISM: A PROGRESS UPDATE.
Matthew Bunn.
Harvard University, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs/ Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). October 22, 2003.

While progress has been made in securing vulnerable nuclear material stockpiles around the world, there remains a dangerous gap between the pace of progress and the scope and urgency of the threat, according to this analysis by Matthew Bunn of Harvard University. Only 41 percent of Russia’s nuclear materials have received U.S.-funded “rapid” security upgrades or more comprehensive upgrades to date, according to official data cited in Bunn’s paper, released by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).
The paper outlines the continuing nuclear threat, summarizes the progress made in the last year and the gaps that remain, and recommends steps to close the gap between the threat and the response. According to the analysis, three elements are essential in reducing these threats:
1) Remove the nuclear materials (highly enriched uranium and plutonium) entirely from the world’s most vulnerable sites;
2) Accelerate and strengthen cooperative efforts with Russia to secure nuclear stockpiles; and
3) Build a fast-paced global partnership of nations working together to improve security for nuclear materials around the world.

http://www.nti.org/c_press/analysis_cnwmupdate_102203.pdf [pdf format, 19 pages]

Item# 04AD118 MPP Theme: 2G Geo: Global


BUILDING REGIONAL SECURITY COOPERATION IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Max G. Manwaring, Wendy Fontela, Mary Grizzard, and Dennis Rempe.
U.S. Army War College. Strategic Studies Institute. October 2003.

Last March a conference entitled “Building Regional Security in the Western Hemisphere” was co-sponsored by the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Southern Command, and University of Miami North- South Center. This document summarizes hours of tapes and reams of notes to clarify the issues and develop actionable recommendations.
The report emphasizes four highly related needs and associated recommendations:
* The need to advance hemispheric understanding of the security concerns of each country, and those that the region as a whole faces (e.g., the internal and external threat(s) to security);
* The need to develop multilateral, civil-military structures and processes to identify and address threats in the contemporary security environment;
* The need to foster expanded dialogue, consultations, and cooperation for building consensus principles and concepts for regional security cooperation;
* The need to adapt U.S. military efficacy to the contemporary threat environment in the hemisphere at the strategic level.

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/2003/building/building.pdf [pdf format, 46 pages]

Item# 04AD119 MPP Theme: 1H Geo: WHA


DEALING WITH INCREASED RISK OF NATURAL DISASTERS: CHALLENGES AND OPTIONS. [IMF Working Paper No. 03/197]
Paul Freeman, Michael J. Keen, and Muthukumara Mani.
International Monetary Fund (IMF). October 2003.

Natural disaster risk is emerging as an increasingly important constraint on economic development and poverty reduction. This paper first sets out the key facts in the topic area - that the costs of disaster have been increasing, seem set to continue to increase, and bear especially heavily on the poorest. It then reviews the key economic issues at stake, focusing in particular on the actual and prospective roles of, and interaction between, market instruments and public interventions in dealing with disaster risk. Key sources of market failure include the difficulty of risk spreading and, perhaps even more fundamental, the Samaritan's dilemma: the underinvestment in protective measures associated with the rational expectation that others will provide support if disaster occurs. Innovations addressing each of these are discussed.
Included as an Appendix is an assessment, by region, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of the probable/possible effects of significant climate change.

Note: Contains copyrighted material.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2003/wp03197.pdf [pdf format, 38 pages]

Item# 04AD120 MPP Theme: 14D Geo: Global

The U.S. Anti-AIDS Program

Q&A page on the status of President Bush's anti-AIDS plan from the Council on Foreign Relations website. Updated on November 6, 2003.

DOJ Report on Capital Punishment 2002

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released the report Capital Punishment 2002. The report "presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2002, and of persons executed in 2002. Preliminary data on executions by States during 2003 are included, and the report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2002. Numerical tables present data on offenders' sex, race, Hispanic origin, education, marital status, age at time of arrest for capital offense, legal status at time of capital offense, methods of execution, trends, and time between imposition of death sentence and execution. Historical tables present executions since 1930 and sentencing since 1973." The 2002 report shows that U.S. executions have increased for the first time in 3 years.