TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S): Portraits of Grief / More Country Information

Howdy, y'all, and greetings once again from deep behind the Orange Curtain in the beautiful city of Irvine, California, a small, ring- shaped cake made of rich, light dough that is fried in deep fat. ["Mmmm ... Irvine!"] :P

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that your fearless bus driver is no longer an unemployed bum. Starting Monday, I'll be an EMPLOYED bum -- an Academic Technology Consultant at Cal State Fullerton's Faculty Development Center, to be exact. YAY!

My job is to "collaborate with faculty, university technology support staff, and other individuals and groups to provide guidance in the systematic development of technology-based learning/instruction materials." I have no idea what that means, but that sure does sound important! [I'M KIDDING! With a masters degree in educational technology from Pepperdine, this is a DREAM job for me. I could not be more excited.]

Now for the bad news. I am sorry to report that squirrels have, once again, struck the University of Alabama. According to The Crimson White, the student newspaper of the University of Alabama,

University administrators cancelled afternoon classes and closed 21 buildings after a squirrel wreaked havoc on a Campus Drive power substation Tuesday morning. ... Repercussions from the bushy-tailed rodent's misfortune extended into cyberspace ... after the Seebeck Computer Center servers lost power and were inaccessible late Tuesday night.

You can read The Crimson White's complete story at

http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/01/30/3c577dda251ee?in_archive=1 .

Tourbus extends the deepest sympathies to the family of the squirrel.

TOURBUS is supported by our wonderful sponsors. Please visit today's sponsors, do some post-Groundhog Day shopping, and say thanks for keeping the Bus rolling!

On with the show ...

Portraits of Grief

Shortly following the September 11 attacks upon the World Trade Center, the New York Times began publishing biographical portraits of many of the victims. Beginning on September 15 and ending on December 31, The New York Times published a daily "Portraits of Grief" column that, cumulatively, provided more than 1,800 brief portraits of the lives that were lost. According to The Times,

The portraits were never meant to be obituaries in any traditional sense. They were brief, informal and impressionistic, often centered on a single story or idiosyncratic detail. They were not intended to recount a person's resume, but rather to give a snapshot of each victim's personality, of a life lived. And they were democratic; executive vice presidents and battalion chiefs appeared alongside food handlers and janitors. Each profile was roughly 200 words.

[ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/31/national/portraits/31PORT.html ]

The Times adds that while December 31 brought the final daily edition of Portraits of Grief, additional profiles will be published from time to time. And, all profiles will remain on The New York Times' Web site indefinitely.

You can find The New York Times' Portraits of Grief archive on the Web at

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/portraits/ .

The page shows pictures of, and links to profiles of, over a dozen victims of the September 11 attacks. Information about additional victims can be found by either:

1. Searching by name, company, city, or keyword for profiles of
the victims; or

2. Clicking on any of the calendar dates on the right side of the
page to see the profiles that were published on that day.

As I was writing this piece, I picked both a date and a name at random and came across the portrait of Gerard Barbara, assistant chief and 31 year veteran of the New York Fire Department. The portrait included a quote from Mr. Barbara's daughter Caren that I thought I'd share with you:

If the terrorists think they have won, they haven't. This whole thing just drove my dad deeper into our hearts. He died doing one of the things he liked best, trying to save people.

The New York Times' Portraits of Grief site is a living memorial to the 1,800+ victims who have been profiled and to the hundreds of others who will be profiled in the weeks and months to come. If you want to put faces to the numbers, you really need to visit http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/portraits/ often.

[And on behalf of our little bus of Internet happiness, thank you Mr. Barbara.]

More Country Information

According to fellow TOURBUS rider Valas Gyorgy in Hungary, if you liked our recent stops at the CIA's World Factbook

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

and the Library of Congress' Portals to the World

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html .

you're going to LOVE the following:

A+ Country Reports, for countries around the world! http://www.countryreports.org/

E-Conflict World Encyclopedia http://www.emulateme.com/

Infonation http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm

IMF Staff Country Reports in Full Text http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/CAT/scr.cfm .

Thank you, Valas! If that last link doesn't work for you, try

http://www.imf.org/external/country/index.htm

instead. [Oh, and does anyone want to bet on how long it will take for someone to flame for mentioning an International Monetary Fund site on our little bus of Internet happiness?] :P

That's it for today. Have a safe and happy week, and we'll talk again soon!

TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S): Portraits of Grief / More Country Information

TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK

TARD (adjective). Exhausted. BAY-UHD (noun). A place of rest.

Usage: "I'm tard. I'm gonna bay-uhd"

[Special thanks to Carol Harlow for today's wurds]

            .~~~.  ))
  (\__/)  .'     )  ))       Patrick Douglas Crispen
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{o_,    \    {              crispen@netsquirrel.com
   / ,  , )    \            http://www.netsquirrel.com/ 
   `~  '-' \    } ))    AOL Instant Messenger: Squirrel2K
  _(    (   )_.'
'---..{____}                  Warning: squirrels.