The Reptile Database

This database provides a catalogue of all living reptile species and their classification. The database covers all living snakes, lizards, turtles, amphisbaenians, tuataras, and crocodiles. Currently there are about 9,500 species including another 2,800 subspecies (statistics). The database focuses on taxonomic data, i.e. names and synonyms, distribution and type data and literature references. There is little other information in the database, such as ecological or behavioural information. The database has no commercial interest and therefore depends on contributions from volunteers. It is currently supported by the Systematics working group of the German Herpetological Society (DGHT) and a small grant from the European Union through the Catalogue of Life project.
 What is a reptile? Traditionally reptiles are lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles as well as the less obvious groups of tuataras and amphisbaenians. These groups are also covered by this database. But strictly speaking, reptiles are not that easy to define. Phylogenetically reptiles are not an isolated evolutionary lineage like birds. In fact, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards, so the birds should be part of the reptile class as well. Or the crocodiles should be considered as birds! For a more detailed discussion check out the Tree of Life page on amniotes, the CNAAR page on vertebrate taxonomy, or the Wikipedia page on reptiles. By the way - this database and Wikipedia are quite heavily cross-referenced.
" The database contains about 29,000 literature references, which are quite up-to-date. Most can be found under the individual species listings, with some general references to reptiles listed off the main page. There are links to other web resources for most species, providing access to the species' IUCN Red List status, additional pictures, and general information. This resource is aimed at serious herpetology researchers and could also be useful for beginning students in this discipline." ACRL Choice, July 2012. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals.

Essay mills a coarse lesson on cheating

Excerpts from: Essay mills a coarse lesson on cheating

Published: June 18, 2012
By Dan Ariely - Los Angeles Times

Sometimes as I decide what kind of papers to assign to my students, I worry about essay mills, companies whose sole purpose is to generate essays for high school and college students (in exchange for a fee, of course).
The mills claim that the papers are meant to be used as reference material to help students write their own, original papers. But with names such as echeat.com, it's pretty clear what their real purpose is.

Professors in general are concerned about essay mills and their effect on learning, but not knowing exactly what they provide, I wasn't sure how concerned to be. So together with my lab manager Aline Gruneisen, I decided to check the services out. We ordered a typical college term paper from four different essay mills.

The topic of the paper? Cheating.

Here is the prompt we gave the four essay mills:
"When and why do people cheat? Consider the social circumstances involved in dishonesty, and provide a thoughtful response to the topic of cheating. Address various forms of cheating (personal, at work, etc.) and how each of these can be rationalized by a social culture of cheating."

We requested a term paper for a university-level social psychology class, 12 pages long, using 15 sources (cited and referenced in a bibliography). The paper was to conform to American Psychological Association style guidelines and needed to be completed in the next two weeks. All four of the essay mills agreed to provide such a paper, charging us in advance, between $150 and $216 for the paper.

Right on schedule, the essays came, and I have to say that, to some degree, they allayed my fears that students can rely on the services to get good grades. What we got back from the mills can best be described as gibberish. A few of the papers attempted to mimic APA style, but none achieved it without glaring errors. Citations were sloppy. Reference lists contained outdated and unknown sources, including blog posts. Some of the links to reference material were broken.

And the writing quality? Awful. The authors of all four papers seemed to have a very tenuous grasp of the English language, not to mention how to format an essay . . . .

It's hard to believe that students purchasing such papers would ever do so again . . . . .

ABOUT THE WRITER
Dan Ariely is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University and the author of "The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty." He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

find the complete article here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/06/18/4082117/essay-mills-a-coarse-lesson-on.html

Is College a Waste of Time and Money?

A Special Report, Wall Street Journal

Today's issue of the Wall Street Journal asks six relevant questions concerning education today:

1. Do Too Many Young People Go to College?
   Four education-policy experts debate whether some students would be better off spending their time and money somewhere else.
2.  Should All U.S. Students Meet a Single Set of National Proficiency Standards?
   Yes, says education expert Chester E. Finn Jr., because it will ensure that students have the skills they need to compete globally. No, says Jay Greene of the University of Arkansas, because progress comes from letting schools experiment.
   
3.  Should More College Financial Aid Be Based on Need, Not Merit?
   More aid should be based on need, says Mark Kantrowitz, because it helps those with the most to gain. Greg Forster says need-based aid is middle-class welfare that drives costs higher.
4.  Should Student Test Scores Be Used to Evaluate Teachers?
   Yes, says Thomas Kane of Harvard, because test scores reflect teacher quality. Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford says no, because teaching is too complex.
5.  Should Tenure for College Professors Be Abolished?
   At some point, discussions about the quality of higher education in the U.S. come around to the subject of tenure. And the disagreement could hardly be more stark.
6.  Should Colleges Consider Legacies in the Admissions Process?
   Yes, says Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, because it's good for the schools. No, says Richard D. Kahlenberg (pictured), because it undercuts merit.

Illuminations: the FSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Blog

Visit our Blog

Special Collections and Archives Division of the Florida State University Libraries advances research by acquiring, preserving, and providing access to original primary source materials.
The division includes Special Collections, Heritage Protocol, the Claude Pepper Library, and the Digital Library Center.
Illuminations: Special Collections Blog

Through exhibitions and programs, the division supports active learning and engagement. Collections of unique manuscripts, historic maps, rare books, photographs, and university archives offer abundant opportunities for discovery and scholarship. Strengths of the collections include Napoleon and the French Revolution, poetry, political papers, the history of Florida, Southern business history, and the history of Florida State University.

We invite the university community, scholars, and the public to explore the rich collections found here.
Finding Aids ~ Adopt a Book ~

Boing Boing: for those who want to keep up with Internet culture

Boing Boing is a group blog that is as popular and influential as it is indefinable. Founded by former Wired editor Frauenfelder, the site is also edited by science fiction author Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz, and Xeni Jardin. Entries consist primarily of links to material elsewhere on the web but also feature original content from the editors and others.

Features

Dozens of new posts appear daily on the main page, often reflecting the editors' focus on technology and the special sections of the site (e.g., Features, Reviews, Science, Apps for Kids), but also the quirkier, more eclectic interests of contributors. Entries typically contain links to stories, reviews, videos, and other multimedia content from elsewhere on the web.

Reviews

Main page content might feature (e.g., during one week in March 2012) such diverse topics as TED talks; film trailers and other videos; graphic novels; e-book reviews; LulzSec arrests; a suit against Apple; DRM; privacy; surveillance; copyright; animal stories (e.g., baby sloth, conjoined tortoises); climate change; energy; DIY and how-to stories; and more. Additional sections include Gweek (summaries and links to the eponymous weekly podcast that focuses on comic books, games, gadgets, apps, etc.). Entries, which sometimes appear in multiple sections, are archived back to May 1999. The site employs Google search.

Science

Readers may sign up for an RSS feed or follow the blog on Facebook and Twitter. This site is for those who want to keep up with Internet culture or knit their own superhero costume. Summing Up: Recommended. General audience.  S. Clerc, Southern Connecticut State University ACRL Choice, July 2012

National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults

Digital Vaults, flash version

"Many people know the National Archives as the keeper of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. But we also hold in trust for the public the records of ordinary citizens—for example, military records of the brave men and women who have fought for our country, naturalization records of the immigrants whose dreams have shaped our nation, and even the canceled check from the purchase of Alaska.

In a democracy, records belong to the people, and for more than seven decades, NARA has preserved and provided access to the records of the United States of America. Records help us claim our rights and entitlements, hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, and document our history as a nation. In short, NARA ensures continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their Government" [archives.gov]

Ditigal Vaults, html version

The National Archives has a fascinating site, digitalvaults.org which contains 1,200 documents of historical records of the US.  Included are digitized photos, maps and artwork plus audio files and video clips.   “Shuffle records” is an introduction that provides examples of documents from 1800 to the present.  Keyword or searching by tag results in the fingerprints of Charles Lindbergh and a photo of Sandra Day O’Connor being sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court Justice.  It is also possible to collect “pathways” that show relationships between different types of records. [ALA's Booklist, 6/13/2012]

USPages.com - the best of US Business

US Pages details the corporations that make up the Fortune 500, which include some of the most powerful and influential companies in the world today.
Each of the Fortune 500 corporations is listed on US Pages, organized by industry. You can read an overview of the corporation, a business and financial summary, find contact details and see their current stock price.

Whether you are looking for a list of the Fortune 500 corporations by industry grouping; are simply interested in what makes the biggest corporations in America tick; need to do some background research and find financials; are looking to make a sound investment; or are doing a homework project, US Pages has the information you need.[about us]
"A simple search box is consistent throughout the pages and allows users to search all site content. Five tabs across the top of the page serve as the site's main organizational theme. The Home Page tab links to all the information available in the site; the Business Directory displays all industries with links to companies within specific industries; the Fortune 500 section contains a brief history of the Fortune 500 list. . . . . navigation panel on the left, which is consistent throughout the site, duplicates the top tab links and adds a site map link. It includes three additional sections: USPages Latest Business News; At a Glance, listing the top five Fortune 500 companies; and Business Shortcuts, which provides links by major industry. This site is simple and easy to use and could be a good tool for background research.. . " ACRL Choice, June 2012.

HumanRights.gov

HumanRights.gov is the official United States Government (USG) website for human rights related information. The site’s search function links users directly with news, reports and explanatory information from the State Department, USG agencies and other resources, allowing for easy access to publicly available documents. We provide a one-stop site for researching the USG’s involvement in human rights.

"This subpage of the official human rights section of the US Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/ features some of the same documents found on the parent page (e.g., the Country Reports), but includes more documents and is, in general, a more lively site. It is rich with up-to-the-minute human rights-related official remarks, statements, reports, and press releases of the president, secretary of state, ambassadors, diplomats, and other US government officials and representatives.. . . . important and worthwhile sections--titled News, Reports, and References. 

News includes ten issues from which to choose, and Reports are sorted by types. Users may also initiate queries via the search box that appears on every page, and then narrow their searches using a list of options. Also on each page is a Finder by region, type, and country, but this feature is not very useful: the relevance of the results returned and their sequence are unclear. 

Better sites exist for finding UN charters and other key international documents and information. However, for a US-centric view, the References part of HumanRights.gov offers a good US Human Rights Documents section with relevant speeches by various presidents, and a chronology--though some (especially the oldest) attributions within the latter are debatable. Overall this is a useful site for finding the most up-to-date official positions of the US government on international human rights concerns. Summing Up: Recommended by ACRL's June Choice, .  -- L. E. Lyons, Northwestern University

and check our library collection for resources on Human Rights, ebooks, books, Videos

Cultural diversity, heritage and human rights intersections in theory and practice

The global new deal : economic and social human rights in world politics / William F. Felice.

The last utopia: human rights in history

The a to z of human rights and humanitarian organizations

E - The Environmental Magazine

Since its inception, E - The Environmental Magazine’s mission has remained the same: to provide information about environmental issues and to share ideas and resources so that readers can live more sustainable lives and connect with ongoing efforts for change.
E is independent of any membership organization and has no agenda to promote except that of our very diverse and dynamic environmental movement as a whole. As such, E casts a wide net editorially, covering everything environmental — from the big issues like climate change, renewable energy and toxins and health, to the topics that directly impact our readers' daily lives: how to eat right and stay healthy, where to invest responsibly and how to save energy at home. For a fairly thorough rundown of the major environmental stories and topics we've covered over the past two decades, click here. 
E has been reporting on environmental issues longer than most publications, and with the launch of our newly redesigned website we've been able to expand and enhance that coverage.
Our bloggers—all experienced environmental journalists—provide weekly insight into where to find the best green products, the environmental legal campaigns to watch, the latest in environmental art and eco-documentaries, how to avoid toxins in the home, just-launched renewable energy innovations, the coming impact of electric cars, the adventures of eating locally and much more.
And online, our in-depth print articles will offer not only additional photos, related videos and timely updates, but allow you to share comments and insights that will give E's stories greater depth. We like to think of our new website as a meeting place, welcoming anyone looking for—or looking to share—environmental information. Reviewed in ACRL's Choice, June 2012.