Another rss to java service...

As a follow up to my posting December 7, 2004 about converting to RSS to javascript and the virtues of streaming feeds directly to a webpage, here's yet another service that does this: http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

(aha - per 02/09/2005 - here's yet another: http://www.rss2html.com/)

Also, here's an example of how you can stream the ircworld rssfeed (ircworld.blogspot.com/ircworld.xml)directly to your website.

New Public Diplomacy Report

The Public Diplomacy Council, a non-profit organization committed to the study, practice and advocacy of public diplomacy, released a report today entitled "A Call for Action on Public Diplomacy"

Following is the media alert released by the Council in connection with this report.

PROFESSIONALS CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


Members of the non-partisan Public Diplomacy Council, in a White Paper
released today, call on the administration and the Congress to undertake a
transformation of American public diplomacy to bring it into the 21st
century. The "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy" notes that U.S. public
diplomacy is in crisis. Reorganized and adequately funded public diplomacy
is vital to a successful foreign policy and the war on terrorism. The
report posits the need for a more robust global communication strategy and
puts forward five action recommendations.

The recommendations include: creation of a new agency within the State
Department to manage civilian international information and exchanges
functions; a 300 percent increase in overseas staffing for public diplomacy;
increases in funding and closer integration of international broadcasting;
the establishment of a cabinet level interagency committee to coordinate and
direct a national public diplomacy strategy; and a public-private sector
partnership to provide permanent funding for international exchanges.

The entire text of the "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy", with
commentaries on the paper, is available on the Council website at
www.pdi.gwu.edu <http://www.pdi.gwu.edu>.


The Public Diplomacy Council, founded in 1988, is a non-profit organization
committed to the academic study, professional practice and responsible
advocacy of public diplomacy. Its fifty members represent practitioners and
observers of public diplomacy past and present. The Council joined with
George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliot
School of International Affairs to establish the Public Diplomacy Institute
in 2001.

A Lawyer in Baghdad

IRCs with international law contacts may be interested in an article recently published in the Green Bag online law journal. Entitled 'A Lawyer in Baghdad,' it is an account of the work of a Washington lawyer who worked for the General Counsel to the Coalition Provisional Authority.
His conclusion? "In sum, to those who say international law does not exist, or who say the occupation of Iraq was somehow extra-legal, I invite them to scrutinize the legal work of my former office, where international law was lived, breathed, and debated, with realworld consequences, twenty-four hours a day."
The eight-page article, originally discovered at the Instapundit web site, can be accessed at:
http://www.greenbag.org/McGurk.pdf

# Posted by Tel Aviv IRC http://194.90.114.5/publish/resource.htm

Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004

This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web - see 2004 list at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBestRef2004.htm

What is RSS?

Zeki Celikbas of Istanbul Technical University provides a clear and concise introduction to RSS in "What is RSS and how can it serve libraries?"

USC Center for Public Diplomacy

The University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy is a useful site for information about public diplomacy, including (in the "library" section) links to government hearings, reports, public opinion surveys, and think tanks and organizations that deal with public diplomacy.

Converting RSS to Javascript

RSS Digest (see September 25 posting) is one of several tools that will create javascript out of an rss feed so that you can direct the feed to any html page. Two similar tools that deserve mention are rss-to-javascript and Feed2JS. Directing an RSS feed to a webpage - as has been done with the feeds on the left side of this page - makes good sense when you'd like users to be able to read newsfeeds without downloading/installing/using an rss aggregator/reader like Amphetadesk orFeedReader. In our environment, where many users are neither inclined nor permitted to download/try out new software, this is particularly useful. Using an RSS to Javascript converter, you can easily direct any RSS feed to your website, intranet, or even to an html page on the shared section of your LAN.

Center for Immigration Studies

(from Scout Report Volume 10, Number 48)
December 3, 2004Center for Immigration Studies [pdf]
http://www.cis.org/
Founded in 1985, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization which happens to be the United States' only think tank devoted "exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States." From the homepage, visitors can peruse a number of common topics in immigration, such as immigration history, statistics on immigrants, and citizenship. The site's homepage also contains links to current news articles addressing various aspects of immigration, and also contains a feature titled "This Day in Immigration", which highlights various important dates in immigration history and policy. Perhaps the most helpful section of the site is the "What's New" area of the site, which highlights various new policy briefs and papers released by the CIS.

Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication

An interesting report with links to a number of Public Diplomacy studies:


This report is a product of the Defense Science Board (DSB). The DSB is a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense. Statements, opinions, conclusions, and recommendations in this report do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of Defense.


The current Strategic Communication Task Force re-examined the purposes of strategic communication and the salience of recommendations in the earlier study. It then considered the following questions:

(1) What are the consequences of changes in the strategic communication environment?
(2) What Presidential direction and strategic communication means are required?
(3) What should be done about public diplomacy and open military information operations?

The Task Force met with representatives from the National Security Council (NSC), White House Office of Global Communications, Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), and the private sector.

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf

ADSURLS 17, FY 2005

Afghanistan: From Presidential to Parliamentary Elections. [Asia Report No. 88] November 23, 2004. Executive Summary:http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=3127&l=1 [Dari version, html format, 5 printed pages]Item# 05AD156 MPP Theme: 12EL
Geo: Asia

Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004. November 2004.http://www.unodc.org/pdf/afg/afghanistan_opium_survey_2004.pdf [pdf format, 125 pages]Item# 05AD163 MPP Theme: 09 Geo: Asia

Braille Literacy: Resources for Instruction, Writing Equipment, and Supplies. Web-posted November 23, 2004.http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/circulars/brailleliteracy.html [html format, 42 printed pages]Item# 05AD157 MPP Theme: 12ED Geo: Global

A Description of the Immigrant Population. November 23, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6019/11-23-Immigrant.pdf [pdf format, 37 pages]Item# 05AD158 MPP Theme: 8A Geo: USA

Disability and Retirement: The Early Exit of Baby Boomers from the Labor Force. November 22, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6018/11-22-LaborForce.pdf [pdf format, 28 pages]Item# 05AD159 MPP Theme: 5I Geo: USA

European Competitiveness Report 2004. Web-posted November 25, 2004.http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/doc/comprep_2004_en.pdf [pdf format, 359 pages]Item# 05AD155 MPP Theme: 4B Geo: Europe

How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America's War on Terror. November 10, 2004.http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb84.pdf [pdf format, 8 pages]Item# 05AD161 MPP Theme: 9C; 11 Geo: Asia

International Trade in GMOs [Genetically Modified Organisms]: Legal Frameworks and Developing Country Concerns. November 8, 2004.http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//ditctncd20041_en.pdf [pdf format, 19 pages]Item# 05AD162 MPP Theme: 5O Geo: LDCs

Resuscitating the Bioweapons Ban: U.S. Industry Experts' Plans for Treaty Monitoring. November 2004.http://www.csis.org/isp/041117_Bioweapons.pdf [pdf format, 114 pages]Item# 05AD164 MPP Theme: 2A; 1I Geo: Global

Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004. Web-posted November 19, 2004.http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005016.pdf [pdf format, 116 pages]Item# 05AD160 MPP Theme: 12ED; 12DIG Geo: USA

Thomas gets a facelift

Thomas will have a new and improved look before the 109th Congress convenes on Jan.5 - for a preview see http://thomas.loc.gov/home/redesign/

NeighborSearch

Here's a useful tool, and and example of the generous spirit of the internet! For a while I'd been looking - unsuccessfully - for a tool that would limit Google searches to the sites that a given page (e.g. a subject portal) links to. I mentioned this to Philipp Lenssen, who is the creator of findforward.com, feeeds.com and the Google Blogoscoped blog. Within 24 hours he came up with the desired tool, and it's called NeighborSearch! Many thanks,Philipp!!

Century Foundation Report: "Defeating the Jihadists"

(excerpted from Century Foundation website:

Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action

Various Authors
Century Foundation Press, 11/16/04

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The international jihadist network of radical Islamic terrorist groups is far more extensive than just al Qaeda, and it has conducted twice as many attacks in the three years since September 11, 2001 as it did in the three years prior to that date. Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action (Century Foundation Press, 2004), assesses the nation's successes and failures on homeland security and calls for a stronger, more effective strategy for dealing with jihadists, including al Qaeda. The report offers a detailed action plan for neutralizing the international movement at the core of worldwide terrorism. The report also describes the nature of the jihadist threat; provides comprehensive profiles of the various jihadist groups; and offers a rationale for the effort and money that would be needed to make the plan a success. The plan presented in the report builds on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and serves as a road map for winning the war against the jihadists.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar appears to be a very interesting new resource - I was looking for perspectives on the effectiveness of the USIA-State consolidation for public diplomacy ("usia and public diplomacy") and found many things that I would have missed with a plain Google search. Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price have written a thorough review of Google Scholar at ResourceShelf, see http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/11/wow-its-google-scholar.html

Public Diplomacy reports 2001-2004

One of the appendices to "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication" (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf) includes a useful list of central PD reports issued 2001-2004

Appendix E: Government and Independent Organization Studies of
Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, September 2001 –
September 2004

Building Public Diplomacy Through a Reformed Structure and Additional Resources, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2002.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/13622.pdf

Changing Minds, Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for U.S. Public
Diplomacy in the Arab & Muslim World, Report of the Advisory Group on Public
Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, Submitted to the Committee on
Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, October 1, 2003.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/24882.pdf

Finding America’s Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy, Report of an Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, September 2003.
http://www.cfr.org/pdf/public_diplomacy.pdf

How to Reinvigorate U.S. Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, April 2003.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/bg1645.cfm

Managed Information Dissemination, Report of a Defense Science Board Task Force sponsored by the Department of Defense and Department of State, September 2001.
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/

Public Diplomacy: A Strategy for Reform, Report of an Independent Task Force
sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, July 2002.
http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=4754.xml

Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century, Report submitted by the Public Diplomacy
Institute and Public Diplomacy Council in response to requests from staffs of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, and Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, May 31, 2002.
http://pdi.gwu.edu/

Reclaiming America’s Voice Overseas, The Heritage Foundation, May 2003.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/wm273.cfm
The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World, The Brookings Institution, Analysis Paper #6, January 2004.
http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/analysis/amr20040101.htm

The New Diplomacy: Utilizing Innovative Communication Concepts that RecognizeResource Constraints, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2003.
http://www.state.gov/r/adcompd/rls/22818.htm

Strengthening U.S.-Muslim Communications, Report of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, July 2003.
http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/US-MuslimCommunications.pdf

The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy, Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, 2003.
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/AspenInstitute/files/CCLIBRARYFILES/FILENAME/000
0000077/netpolitik.pdf

U.S. International Broadcasting: Enhanced Measure of Local Media Conditions Would Facilitate Decisions to Terminate Language Services. Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, February 2004.
http://www.gao.gao/cgi-bin/getrpt?GA0-04-374

U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, July 2003
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03772.pdf

U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Efforts in the Middle East but Face Significant Challenges, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the Subcommittee on National Security,Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10, 2004.
http://www.gao.gov/cgl-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-435T

U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts But Faces Significant Challenges, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2003. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03951.pdf

U.S. International Broadcasting: Challenges Facing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the
Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Committee on Foreign
Relations, U.S. Senate, April 29, 2004.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04627t.pdf

Fagan Finder

Fagan Finder (www.faganfinder.com) provides many useful tools, including a Speed Browse feature (http://www.faganfinder.com/misc/browse.html) that allows you to queue up websites for accelerated browsing (nice for presentations!), a URL info tool http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/ that provides many kinds of kind of information about a website, and bookmarklets, which have many different uses. Well worth a look!

Post Election Poll

Election 2004Source: National Annenberg Election Survey Post-Election Polling Shows Public Coming to Believe United States Is “Generally Going in Right Direction,” Annenberg Data Indicates (PDF; 96 KB)"After the re-election of President George W. Bush, the American public has become more optimistic about the general direction of the country and more supportive of him personally and as president, the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey shows."

Errors in English

Paul Brians of Washington State University has created a useful site devoted to "Common Errors in English," which should be of interest to English teachers everywhere! Another useful site is Stewart Clark's "English Matters" ; Clark is a Brit living in Norway and has developed this site with a Norwegian audience in mind, but his nicely organized collection of language resources will also be useful for a more general audience of teachers and non-native speakers of English.

The American Presidency Project

The American Presidency Project

Terrorism Knowledge Base

The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is a new and important source of information about terrorism, coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the website, the "MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is the one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorism-related court cases, and terrorist groups and leaders. The Terrorism Knowledge Base illuminates the current status of terrorism today. It takes users through the history, affiliations, locations, and tactics of the terrorism entities operating across the world at this moment. The database features interactive maps, biographies on key terrorist personalities, dynamic graphs, and succinct summaries on who is who and what is what inside the shadowy world of terrorism today. "

http://www.tkb.org/

Duelfer Report

The text of the Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction(the "Duelfer Report")

Polling Report

PollingReport.com provides a tidy overview of current opinion polls

New CRS Report on Electoral College

Our colleagues at the FPC have made available the CRS report "The Electoral College: How it Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections" (09/28/2004)

LII theme collection: Elections 2004

Librarians Index to the Internet has assembled an Elections 2004 Theme Collection

Chicago Council on Foreign Relations public opinion study

Here's the latest Chicago Council on Foreign Relations' public opinion study:
American Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

Nice tool for incorporating xml feeds in html pages

The RSS Digest tool by Peter Cooper is very easy to use: 1. enter the url of the xml or atom feed that you would like to add to a webpage. 2.let RSS Digest generate the code for you and 3. paste the code into the html page where you want the feed to appear. For example, the javascript for the 4 feeds on the left (Resource Shelf, Research Buzz, beSpacific, and Library Stuff) was generated in RSS Digest and pasted into the html template for this page.Please let me know if there are other feeds that might usefully be included here!

FRASER

(excerpted from FRASER™website:

The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research is the newest project by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to expand on its mission to provide economic information and data to researchers interested in the U.S. economy. On this web site you will find links to scanned images (in Adobe® Acrobat® PDF format) of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and documents.

When used in connection with data contained in FRED® (Federal Reserve Economic Data), FRASER™ allows the researcher to create uninterrupted data series by accessing sources previously available only in printed form and those currently available electronically (on FRED®). In addition, the ability to retrieve series presented in preliminary, revised, and final releases provides a powerful tool in recreating and evaluating previous economic research and policy.

University of Houston Libraries election 2004 guide

http://info.lib.uh.edu/research/websubs/index.html?id=59&fid=108
A guide to websites in following categories:Analyses/Commentaries,Information Sources for Voters, News Sources, Official Campaign Sites, and Polls and Public Opinion

Electoral Vote Predictor

This appears to be a useful site for monitoring electorate opinion and translating results into electoral college predictions... http://www.electoral-vote.com/

beSpacific

The following is excerpted from Sabrina I Pacifici's weblog at www.bespacific.com , which a colleague recently alerted me to. It appears to be a very useful supplement to other alert services such as the Scout Report, Gary Price's Resource Shelf, ResearchBuzz, and so forth..

"beSpacific focuses on the expanding resources in the public and private sector related to law and technology news. Daily postings provide updates on issues including copyright, privacy, censorship, the Patriot Act, ID theft, and freedom of information.
The weblog was launched to the public January 4, 2003. The archives cover entries back to September 2002.
Sabrina I. Pacifici has been an active member of the online legal community for many years. She created the webzine LLRX.com in 1996 and is the site's owner, editor, publisher and web manager. She created the journal PLL Perspectives in 1989, and served as its only editor and publisher until 1996. Sabrina has authored many articles on legal technology topics delivered numerous presentations at professional conferences nationwide, and has been a law firm librarian in Washington, DC for 25 years, the past 20 with a global 50 law firm. She is the web manager of the firm's cyberlaw site and firmwide research intranet, authors in-house blogs, and provides research and practice technology services. "

Department of State launched a new Spanish-language website

The Bureau of Public Affairs released a new website in Spanish at spanish.state.gov. This site features a selection of information from state.gov, including About the State Department, Secretary of State, Background Notes, International Business Support and Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Foreign Policy Attitudes Now Driven by 9/11 and Iraq

"For the first time since the Vietnam era, foreign affairs and national security issues are looming larger than economic concerns in a presidential election. The Sept. 11 attacks and the two wars that followed not only have raised the stakes for voters as they consider their choice for president, but also have created deep divisions and conflicting sentiments over U.S. foreign policy in a troubled time". This new survey was conducted by the Pew Reseach Center in association with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Reports fron think tanks, NGOs and government agencies

http://www.resourceshelf.com/docuticker/
This subsite of Gary Price's Resource Shelf is a great place to look for "annotated links to reports from think tanks, nonprofits and government agencies worldwide."

Ranking words

www.wordcount.org
This is kind of neat, and will be a boon for answering those pesky questions that we all know and dread, e.g. "what is the rank, in terms of frequency of usage in the English language, of the word 'libraries'?" (answer: 4061, of an archive containing 86800), or, what is the 23,923th most common word in English (answer: photon). Regrettably, many of the words that people might be expected to ask about, like lambent, rhodomontade and balanoid, are not yet included in the word count database.

Election site

The electoral college, political parties, and elections: Sites to help you through the voting process
C&RL News, July/August 2004Vol. 65, No. 7
by Beth Jane Toren
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2004/july04/elections.htm

Yahoo unveils local search

Yahoo has unveiled its local search engine at local.yahoo.com, to give local.google.com some competition. Search guru Chris Sherman gives it a good review in SearchEngineWatch

DNC Links

from http://resourceshelf.freepint.com/

DNC: Selected Lists and Compilations
List of Past Conventions (1832-2000)
List of Keynote Speakers (1900-2000)
Most Notable Convention Speeches of the past
2004 Platform Report (PDF)
Review of Past Conventions

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States released its final report July 22, 2004.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002, is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.

The Commission has released its final report, available at http://www.9-11commission.gov  in PDF format. The report is also available in bookstores nationwide and from the Government Printing Office.

REPORT ON THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S PREWAR INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS ON IRAQ

REPORT ON THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S PREWAR INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS ON IRAQ
Ordered Reported on July 7, 2004
SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
UNITED STATES SENATE
108th CONGRESS

This version of the report is hosted in the MIT's web site, its size is about 16 MB and it is possible to search text using the Acrobat reader.

http://web.mit.edu/simsong/www/iraqreport2-textunder.pdf

The original report is available at http://intelligence.senate.gov/

Cape Town IRC compiles brief overview of how Congress works

Too many reporters in South Africa have been writing stories that indicate their utter ignorance of how Congress works, especially how laws are made.

Many of the websites we found that explain this topic are just too detailed for busy journalists, and we weren't sure how their (usually quite big) egos would react to being referred to a kid's site such as http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/lawmaking/index.html.

In the end, we simply put together our own page on the U.S. Congress. Take a look: http://pretoria.usembassy.gov/wwwhit40.html.

Mark Dobson
IRC Director--South Africa

[Free e-book] Writing Tricksters: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction

Dear IRC Colleagus,

Maybe this e-book can be useful for American Corner or for IRC users.

Best

- IRC Jakarta

Writing Tricksters: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction
by Jeanne Smith
http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7199p0zh/

Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter One— The Trickster Aesthetic: A Cross-Cultural Feminist Theory
Chapter Two— Monkey Business: Maxine Hong Kingston's Transformational Trickster Texts
Chapter Three— Comic Liberators and Word-Healers: The Interwoven Trickster Narratives of Louise Erdrich
Chapter Four— Tar and Feathers: Community and the Outcast in Toni Morrison's Trickster Novels
Chapter Five— Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited

Suggested citation:
Smith, Jeanne Rosier. Writing Tricksters: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997.
http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7199p0zh/

IRC Jakarta, Indonesia
email: irc@usembassyjakarta.org

Some public diplomacy items

Bruce Bawer, an American writer resident in Norway for the past few years, has written an article in the latest issue of the Hudson Review called "Hating America." It is a meditation on what he considers to be a prevailing attitude in Norway and W. Europe of irrational belligerence towards the U.S.

Farish Noor, a political scientist and human rights activist, has written a review of Helena Finn's article in Foreign Affairs last year about the importance of cultural diplomacy (The Case for Cultural Diplomacy: Engaging Foreign Audiences)

Interesting reading from two very different perspectives!

Arab Human Development Report 2004

Arab.pdf

I am very late to post this, but anyway let me do it.
ARAB HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003
Building a Knowledge Society
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
ARAB FUND FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Excerpted from Scout Report, May 14, 2004

Military Campaign Maps
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/milhome.html

Created as part of the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress, this fine digital archive brings together thousands of maps that offer great detail about major military conflicts, including such information as troop movements, defensive structures and groundworks, campsites, local buildings, topography and vegetation. On the site, visitors can also learn about how the maps were digitized, along with specific information about the various technical equipment used to capture the full content of each document. The archive of documents here is not solely historically focused, as there are maps of more contemporary conflict sites, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The entire contents of the archive may be searched in a variety of methods, including through the use of keywords, browsing through a subject list, a creator index, and a geographic location index. From some rather interesting maps of the Brandywine to a Dutch map showing locations of military importance in Pennsylvania and New York, this site will be of interest to historians, cartographers, and many others.

National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism

Excerpted from: Scout Report, May 14, 2004

"...The MIPT is currently funded by a special Congressional appropriation, and is mandated to conduct a host of research programs, including those that examine the social and political causes and effects of terrorism, along with the development of technologies to counter biological, nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Visitors to the site may check out the online virtual library, which includes documents, reports, and public testimony offered on such areas as anthrax, border security, biological weapons, and dozens of other thematic areas. Additionally, there is a conference calendar, a terrorism database, and a special section on publications specifically undertaken by the MIPT."

Firstgov for Kids: The U.S. government interagency Kids' Portal

FirstGov 4 Kids: The U.S. government interagency Kids' Portal
URL:
http://www.kids.gov/

Welcome to the U.S. government interagency Kids' Portal. This site was developed and is maintained by the Federal Citizen Information Center. It provides links to Federal kids' sites along with some of the best kids' sites from other organizations all grouped by subject. Explore, learn, have fun and don't forget to bookmark us!

Warmest Regards,
IRC Jakarta, Indonesia
irc@usembassyjakarta.org

The New Nonprofit Almanac In Brief

This brief overview done by the Independent Sector provides a quick look at the size and scope of the nonprofit sector and the giving and volunteering that support it. You can find facts and figures needed to understand the size, scope, and nature of this sector.

Titles from ADSURLS no.64, 2004

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eGovernment Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value.  May 4, 2004.
http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/government/gove_egov_value.pdf  [pdf format, 112 pages]
Item# 04AD597            MPP Theme: 12DEL                       Geo: Global


Globalizing Cooperative Threat Reduction: A Survey of Options.  [RL32359]  April 15, 2004.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/RL32359.pdf  [pdf format, 47 pages]
Item# 04AD602            MPP Theme: 02                  Geo: Global


Handbook of Federal Librarianship, 2nd Edition.  2004.
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/pubs/federalhandbook.pdf  [pdf format, 74 pages]
Item# 04AD604            MPP Theme: 12ICG                       Geo: USA


Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2001.  May 2, 2004.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/jeeus01.pdf  [pdf format, 10 pages]
Item# 04AD600            MPP Theme: 12LE                        Geo: USA


The Lessons of the Asian and Latin American Financial Crises for Chinese Bond Markets.  Web-posted May 6, 2004.
http://www.rand.org/publications/OP/OP117/OP117.pdf  [pdf format, 15 pages]
Item# 04AD596            MPP Theme: 4K                  Geo: Asia


Living Together: A New Look at Racial and Ethnic Integration in Metropolitan Neighborhoods.  April 2004.
http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040428_fasenfest.pdf  [pdf format, 20 pages]
Item# 04AD603            MPP Theme: 12DID                       Geo: USA


Rebuilding the Supply Chain of Foreign Affairs Leaders.  Web-posted April 29, 2004.
http://www.rand.org/publications/IP/IP244/IP244.pdf  [pdf format, 6 pages]
Item# 04AD601            MPP Theme: 1E                  Geo: USA


Science and Engineering Indicators 2004.  Web-posted May 4, 2004.
Table of Contents:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/start.htm  [sections in html and pdf formats, various pagings]
Full Report, Vol. 1:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/pdf/volume1.pdf  [pdf format, 496 pages]
Full Report, Vol. 2:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind04/pdf/volume2.pdf  [pdf format, 454 pages]
Item# 04AD598            MPP Theme: 14H                 Geo: USA


Situation of Human Rights in the Darfur Region of the Sudan.  Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  [Advance Unedited Version]  May 7, 2004.
http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/chr60/ECN420053.doc  [Microsoft Word format, 24 printed pages]
Item# 04AD595            MPP Theme: 12HR                        Geo: Africa


World's Worst Places to Be a Journalist.  May 3, 2003.
http://www.cpj.org/enemies/worst_places_04/worst_places_04.html  [html format, 4 printed pages]
Item# 04AD599            MPP Theme: 12MJ                        Geo: Global

Excerpted from Resource Shelf:

U.S. Military
Source: DOD
Military Casualty Information
"The Department of Defense site lists United States war casualties from the Revolutionary War up through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also lists all active military deaths from 1980 through 2002. The data for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom includes the names of those killed as well as other personal information."
Other sites with military casualty information:
+ America's Wars (fact sheet from the V.A.)
+ State Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel (NARA)
+ State-level Lists of Casualties from the Korean Conflict (1951-1957) and the Vietnam Conflict (1956-) (NARA)
+ Statistical Information About Casualties of the Vietnam Conflict (NARA)
+ World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing -- Army and Army Air Forces Personnel (NARA)
See also: Military Assistance Program: Casualty and Mortuary Affairs (DoD Directives, links to related resources, etc.)

Trafficking in Humans

The US Embassy Pretoria Information Resource Center has prepared a useful "infopack" on trafficking in humans: http://pretoria.usembassy.gov/wwwhit20.html. The package gives an overview of U.S. legislation and includes a selection of factsheets, reports, journal articles and websites.

Caregiving in the U.S.

(excerpted from http://research.aarp.org/il/us_caregiving.html ) "The purpose of this study – a joint project of the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP and funded by MetLife Foundation – is to update and expand knowledge about the activities caregivers say they perform, the perceived impact of caregiving on their daily lives, and the unmet needs of this population. Its findings are based on a national telephone survey of 1,237 caregivers age 18 or older, including approximately 200 African-American, 200 Hispanic, and 200 Asian-American caregivers. Interviewing was conducted from September 5 through December 22, 2003."

US Public Beliefs on Iraq and the Presidential Election

According to this new survey, conducted by the University of Maryland's Program in International Policy Attitudes, a majority of Americans (57%) continue to believe that before the war Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, including 20% who believe that Iraq was directly involved in the September 11 attacks. Forty-five percent believe that evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found. Sixty percent believe that just before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (38%) or a major program for developing them (22%).

Ms.Lebeau's Homepage

Teacher Sue Lebeau has done an impressive job of compiling web resources for students and teachers - see Ms.Lebeau's homepage.

Nancy Snow's website

Nancy Snow is a former intern at USIA and State, was a Fulbrighter in Germany, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the College of Communications at California State University. She has written extensively about public diplomacy, with a focus on "U.S. foreign policy, American persuasion, influence, and propaganda, entertainment and media culture in American society, communications in the public interest, and the impact of global communications theory and practice on democratic participation and community development" - relevant stuff for our line of work, in other words! Her website, www.nancysnow.com contains much interesting reading.

NAFTA Dossier updated

The Benjamin Franklin Library announces that the electronic compilation NAFTA Dossier has been revamped.

All key policy statements were replaced by newer items, current evaluation papers added, as well as more recent hearings and government reports. It links to the latest versions available for every document, with an abstract for each record and, in addition, it has a new design.

English: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/bfdossier_NAFTA.htm
Spanish: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/bfdossierS_NAFTA.htm

U.S. Blue Pages - USG Phone

(excerpted from the "About" section) "The U.S. Blue Pages project is devoted to helping you connect with your federal government agencies and services. The U.S. Blue Pages are funded by the federal government and administered by the U.S. General Services Administration. The U.S. Blue Pages are a multi-agency effort that establishes a standard, easy-to-use format for acquiring key federal telephone listings. The effort includes gathering, validating and formatting information for publication in local telephone directories and this website."

New FindLaw for the Public Launches

FindLaw, a Thomson business and a provider of client development services for the legal profession, has launched a new version of its “FindLaw for the Public” Web site (http://public.findlaw.com/) with many new features, including a redesigned look-and-feel and state-specific legal content. It also offers users improved access to lawyers through searching the West Legal Directory (with one million lawyers listed) to find and research lawyers in their areas.

The new user interface offers tab-based site navigation and expanded topic-specific navigation for more than 40 legal topics. Other new features include expanded content on legal topics, such as bankruptcy law and criminal law and procedure, as well as links to national and state crime-prevention resources.

Historical newspapers

For the occasional historical/genealogical reference query, www.newspaperarchive.com is impressive...although you have to pay to view the articles themselves, it's a great tool for finding references (a lot of inaccuracies however, as is generally the case with OCR generated datbases)

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."