American Revolutionary War Era Maps

·http://maps.bpl.org/highlights/ar/american-revolutionary-war-era

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library boasts an impressive collection of American Revolutionary War Era Maps. All told, there are nearly 2,000 hand-drawn maps currently available in the Portal, all produced between the years 1750 and 1800. Locations mapped include Boston, wider New England, the rest of Eastern North America, and the West Indies. The collection, which has been called "the most outstanding, expansive, and renowned of the Boston Library's collections," can be viewed in full on the site. Each map is accompanied by a brief description, including the map's author, the date of its completion, the location the map represents, and the map's dimensions. In addition, readers may zoom in and out and download printer-friendly and full-size versions. All maps are searchable by keyword and filtered for a narrow examination by Subject, by Publisher, and by other categories.

·http://freakonomics.com/radio/

The Freakonomics empire was born of reluctance — a journalist on assignment, an economist resistant to being profiled. But Steven D. Levitt (the journalist) and Stephen J. Dubner (the economist) hit it off, cowrote two bestsellers, started a blog, made a documentary, and founded a radio show. Readers will find much to titillate their imaginations in these weekly radio broadcasts. Recent hour-long episodes have focused on the ideas of behavioral economist Katherine Milkman, a breakdown of ideas that "must die," and the suggestion to think like a child. Readers may also like to sign up for the Freakonomics email newsletter or explore other sections on the Freakonomics site, including the blog, videos, and lectures. 

·http://www.edn.com/

The EDN Network, which functions as an "electronics community for engineers, by engineers," seeks to provide resources that professional engineers might need to expand their knowledge and to succeed in their careers. The site is organized into a few basic categories (Design Centers, Tools & Learning, Community, and EDN Vault). Within those categories, subcategories direct readers to the projects, articles, and community events that most interest them. For instance, Analog, Automotive, Consumer, and half a dozen other subcategories can be navigated to from the Design Centers tab. Each of these, in turn, opens up to detailed articles on the latest in engineering. The site also features EDN TV, where readers can find short videos on a variety of engineering topics, and EDN Blogs such as Brian's Brain and Eye on the IoT. For readers who are fairly well-versed in engineering, this site is a fantastic resource. 

·http://www.hamiltonproject.org/

The Brookings Institute launched the Hamilton Project in 2006 in order to advocate for a vision of broad-based economic growth, enhanced individual economic security, and the effective use of government. The project’s website is loaded with information, including blogs, papers, links to media coverage, and much more. Readers might like to start with the Charts tab, where they can find dozens of visual representations of a range of subjects, from state-by-state employment evaluations to rates of food insecurity to freshwater use in California by sector and crop. The Multimedia tab features videos, audio, and photo galleries related to various Hamilton Project events, such as The Future of Work in the Age of the Machine and New Directions for U.S. Water Policy. Full Papers and Policy Briefs are also available on a variety of topics, and the site's search function makes finding information on education, tax policy, or employment and wages an easy endeavor. 

·https://www.aspenartmuseum.org/

The Aspen Art Museum is a "non-collecting institution presenting the newest, most important evolutions in international contemporary art." The layout of the museum's website is clean and beautiful, and finding one’s way around is easy. The wonderful resources here will stimulate and engage audiences interested in art, culture, and society. For instance, readers may select any exhibition to view an artist’s work, and the photographs themselves are extraordinarily well lit and well framed. Many of the exhibitions include supplementary Educator Notes, which can be helpful to teachers or anyone who would like more information about the art and the artist. The Online Resources section, located under Learning, lets readers access Exhibition Activity Guides and other inspiring notes.

·https://plot.ly/

Plotly, an online service for creating and sharing data visualizations, wants to make graphics easy. Users can import data from Excel, CSV, TSV, MATLAB, ACCESS, and Goggle Drive spreadsheets. From there, they can easily visualize data as a line graph, scatter plot, area chart, bar chart, histogram, box plot, or heat map. Personalization is also largely intuitive, including changing colors, moving X and Y axes, and many other possibilities. Since the service is online, sharing with other team members is as simple as clicking a tab. Interestingly, Plotly also provides some relatively powerful statistical analysis software that allows readers to do everything from descriptive statistics up to ANOVAs, T-tests, and Chi-squared tests. Sign up for the site is free and easy. For readers who are looking for new, simple, beautiful ways to visualize data, Plotly might be just the thing. 

·http://www.wix.com/

These days, almost anyone can use a template service to put up an attractive, if relatively basic, website for their business, educational project, or personal use. Wix.com is one of the most popular website builders on the market. Its basic service is free, unless users need professional features such as their own domain name (in which case they can choose from one of five premium plans). There are a number of beautiful templates offered here; layouts are modern, animations are impressive, and it's easy to add photo galleries and other extras. To get started, simply click Start Now, enter your email address and a password, and then Wix.com will lead you through a customization process in order to select and personalize the ideal template for your particular needs. 

B. B. King, Defining Bluesman for Generations, Dies at 89
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/arts/music/b-b-king-blues-singer-dies-at-89.html?_r=0

B.B. King And The Majesty Of The Blues
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/05/15/406969376/b-b-king-and-the-majesty-of-the-blues

B.B. King Dead at 89: How He Defined the Blues
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/the-legend-of-bb-king/393383/

BB King, the King of Blues, dies at 89
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32747861

Blues is King: A Tribute to B.B. King
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=bbking&pageid=icb.page319966

The Official Website of the King of the Blues, B.B. King
http://www.bbking.com

When people today talk about the blues, B.B. King undeniably comes to mind. An icon of American music, King’s world-weary voice and soulful, responsive guitar playing carried him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to the world stage. This week, fans, friends, and loved ones mourned the loss of the King of Blues, who died last Thursday at the age of 89. King meant many things to many people, but is perhaps most noted for his ability to blend country blues with big-city rhythms, creating a sound instantly recognizable to millions. "I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions," King said in his 1996 autobiography, Blues All Around Me. Born in 1925, Riley B. King spent his early years sharecropping in the Mississippi Delta. At the age of 22, he hitch-hiked to Memphis where he picked up the nick name 'Blues Boy,' later shortened to B.B. Three O’Clock Blues was his first big hit in 1952. From there his music career took off, spanning decades, garnering dozens of honors and awards including 15 Grammys, and inspiring generations of guitarists and musicians across multiple genres. 

The first link will take interested readers to an obituary of King written by Tim Weiner of The New York Times. From there, a tribute to King as the Majesty of the Blues is featured, courtesy of Mark Anthony Neal and NPR's The Record. The third link, from The Atlantic, shares the legend behind King's guitar, Lucille, while the fourth link, from the BBC, reports on King's passing and the response from fellow musicians. Next up, is a wonderful site from Harvard University Professor Charles Sawyer. Originally created to supplement a 2007 tribute concert to King, the website features concert & interview videos, a collection photographs, and a timeline of B.B. King's life through 2008. Finally, readers will enjoy exploring the Official Website of the King of the Blues at bbking.com. In addition to a full discography of King's music, a gallery, and a section paying tribute to Lucille, fans can compose and submit their own thoughts in memoriam of the blues legend.