By David Hipschman
June 8, 1998
With material from more than 17 countries on four continents, site DFN’s Web provides a unique electronic resource of human rights material from around the world.
By using the Internet to circumvent local or national restrictions on free speech, DFN attempts to apply pressure on authoritarian regimes that censor material and violate individuals’ rights.
Among the dissident authors on the DFN Web site are Bao Ge, China; Salima Ghezali, Algeria; Raul Rivero, Cuba; Pius Njawe, Cameroon and Koigi wa Wamwere of Kenya.
The DFN is affiliated with, or receives material and information about censorship and human rights from organizations such as:
The Committee to Protect Journalists; Focus on Justice; The Freedom Forum; Index on Censorship; the Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa; Reporters sans Frontičres; China News Digest International; CubaNet; The Free Burma Coalition and Sarangbang, the Korean Center for Human Rights.
Short takes
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum needs no introduction, but among the million-plus images on the Internet from the Museum's Archives Division are a surprising number of pictures of animals in, on, and around aircraft and spacecraft of all sorts.
As the Web site’s text explains it: “Animals were used as test pilots even before people flew. They were once proposed, more or less seriously, as a power source for manned flight. But most often animals have served as mascots, the companions of the men and women who take to the skies.” Photos and text on these semi-aerial fauna are at http://www.nasm.edu/GALLERIES/ARCHIVES/CRITTERS.HTM. Among them are Kiddo, the first cat to almost cross the Atlantic by air. He was the mascot of the airship America, which attempted the crossing in 1910.
A site that has been highly recommended by readers of this column is Live Weather Images, which seems to contain links to just about every weather related site out there. There’s a hurricanes and tropical storms section, an Aviation Corner and live weather cams and Doppler radar from all 50 states. The site’s mission statement says it best: "To provide free, to the general public, a concise and user-friendly weather Web site that pulls together the most valuable and frequently accessed weather data on the Internet."
There are jolly hornpipes and other fine tunes, including the Flogging Reel, Nelson's Victory, the Trafalgar Hornpipe, and many others at Kipp Doolan's Tunebook.
Another excellent venue for the buying of books has appeared on the Web. The Akadine Press has, for the past decade, been issuing each month a mail-order print catalog that gathered titles chosen “with care and presented with personal knowledge and enthusiasm: books we’ve enjoyed and thought others might enjoy ...” The press has put the entire project, called the Common Reader, with an index, on the Internet .
Net news
After 23 years, Byte Magazine will cease publication with the July issue. According to CMP, its new owners it will return as a new magazine in the Fall. Jerry Pournelle’s columnin Byte, variously known as The User’s Column or Chaos Manor - at 20 years the longest-running, continuously published feature in the history of computing journalism - also ceases. To keep yourself up-to-date on the Byte story, with a personal slant from Jerry’s son Alex, see www.jerrypournelle.com/fiasco.html.
The Associated Press reports that a Miami-area high school senior has been suspended and may be prevented from graduating because school authorities discovered that his Web page called the high school "one of the worst schools within a 10-state radius" and said it is "the melting pot of the world's most disgusting people - from the cafeteria to the principal." The case has drawn the interest of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Articles © 1996, 1997 David Hipschman - Design by DigiSys Incorporated