http://www.migrationpolicy.org/

Founded in 2001, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) evolved from a program at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace. Since its inception, the MPI has been dedicated to examining the trends and processes associated with the movement of various people worldwide. The homepage offers a wide array of resources for the general public, journalists, and academicians. Looking at the “In Focus” area on the homepage, visitors can download new working papers and reports with titles such as “The New ‘Boat’ People” and “Immigration Enforcement at the Worksite, Making it Work”. From the homepage, users can also make their way to the Migration Information Source website which contains global migration data, country migration profiles, and a glossary of migration terms. Visitors with specific questions can also view a list of experts in a variety of topics related to migration and email them directly. [KMG]

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/maps/wwii/

Maps have been integral to military conflicts and warfare since time immemorial, and many of these documents are highly prized by collectors and military historians. The American Memory Project at the Library of Congress recently created this fine digital collection of World War II situation maps from the years 1944 and 1945. Beginning with the D-Day Invasion, the maps provide information about troop positions throughout Western Europe, along with important graphical representations of various landmarks within the military landscape. Visitors can browse through the collection by title, creator, subject, place, or date. Perhaps the finest part of the site is an interactive essay that takes users through the Battle of the Bulge with a series of maps and some brief commentaries. [KMG]

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/index.html

With all the increased interest in the world of forensics, high-quality online resources on the subject are in great demand. This wide-ranging survey of forensics and the human body was created by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. As the website so poignantly notes when it comments on forensics: “Its visible proofs testify on behalf of the victims of violent crimes and against the guilty-and console and inspire and amaze us.” Starting with the Exhibition area, visitors can learn about the rise of forensics and proceed to move through sections on forensics laboratories and public perceptions of forensics. The Educational section of the site is also quite worthy of attention, as it contains lesson plans, online games, and a number of archived interviews with forensic scientists. [KMG]

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html

As the world’s largest active archive of weather data, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is truly a force of nature. The organization operates the World Data Center for Meteorology in Asheville, NC as well as the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology in Boulder, CO. The material offered includes data sets that track historical climate data throughout the United States and material on global hazards. The “In the Spotlight” area is a nice place to start as it contains some of their more recent thematic collections, such as information on the weather at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and summaries of the storm meteorology of Hurricane Katrina. The “Climate Monitoring” area is quite broad in its scope, containing the annual “State of the Climate” reports and data on snowfall. [KMG]

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001421/142186e.pdf

From online dating to scholarly collaborations, the web facilitates millions of interactions between distant groups of people every day. One question recently posed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was this: What languages are being used in all of this online activity? A good question to be sure, and this important document is the result of their lengthy inquiry. Published near the end of 2005, this 106-page paper contains a number of important findings about the nature of researching linguistic diversity on the internet. The paper includes sections on the usage of Asian and African languages on the internet, along with an investigation into linguistic bias authored by John Paolillo. The report is rounded out by a very thorough bibliography that will be of great use to those with a detailed interest in this area. [KMG]

http://www.fepproject.org

Founded in 2000, The Free Expression Policy Project has been part of the NYU School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice for the past two years. During that time, the Project has continued to provide research reports and a host of other valuable insights on copyright, free speech, and media democracy issues. The site is fairly easy to navigate, as users can peruse some of the topical headings offered at the top of the homepage. These include areas that deal with media policy, violence in the media, art censorship, and censorship history. Users can also use tabs on the left side of the homepage to look over a number of fact sheets, commentaries, and court and agency briefs. Overall, the site contains a host of materials that will be quite helpful to both legal scholars and those with an interest in these weighty and important issues. [KMG]