Fidel Castro | Maps PBS | American Experience
Castro took power in a democratic revolution - and avoided real voting (and US attemtps to restore it) for 40 years. All 90 miles from Key West.

ELECTION T.V. COM
Appropriate for this election eve, as Iraqis weep for having never expected to see such a day come.

This one showcases Oddcast's avitar technology to liven up debate coverage.

Liberation of Auschwitz United States Holocaust Museum
Today, sixty years have passed since Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. USHMM offers a map animation with narration, several films, and more.

Sadly, 20 and 60 years after today's "never again's" we'll also be remembering the genocides of Sadaam and Rwanda, neither harried by the intrepid UN.

A number of other animated maps are alos on the site.

American History Resources NY Times
Including almost a score of Crossword Puzzles on topical American history. The interactive puzzles work quite smoothly!

Why Do We Make It So Hard for them to Learn? PARADE Magazine | One Idea (Norman Mailer)
Norm's big idea is that we ban all commercials, as they sabotage attention spans. Maybe Norm has never seen a teen spend 5 hours on Halo2 without a soda&piss break.

Jib Jab's Second Term on Yahoo!
The good folks at Jib-Jab released a new one for the Inauguration. Review their campaign, election and other movies while you're there.

eLECTIONS Cable in the Classroom
This game deserves some thought. Compelling for students, I would think.

Animated Avatars, Text to Speech Software - Oddcast [V]Host
Wow! (We like to say that occaisionally). Awhile back, we listed the Accuweather virtual weatherperson as a model for history storytellers. Behind this is Oddcast. Their list of client apps is already extensive. Try Discovery Channel's Trivia Quiz (questions vary).

Journey of ManNational Geographic
The show traced DNA from tribes in Africa to Australia and India, up through Eurasia, Siberia, and down to the Navajo. Check "The Journey" in the above flash app, and also Build A Face.

Tsunami in South Asia washingtonpost.com
Brings together graphics & pictures. I couldn't bear looking too far, but cheers to the media editors.

3D page of the week - Cortona VRML - ParallelGraphics
Great view of what people are doing with VRML. A few historical renderings.

:: Movie: Hotel Rwanda RogerEbert.com
We can't not mention this movie. As the toll mounts in the Indian Ocean, this tragedy is slightly ahead of where the man-made Rwanda reaping was. But then the Killing in Rwanda would escalate and continure for 85 more days. So would the UN's waffling.

Interactive Scene at the Signing of the Constitution
Identify each person in the famous Christy painting. Also, a nice Map of Historic Philadelphia in the Late 18th Century.

TeachingAmericanHistory.org -- Free Seminars and Summer Institutes for Social Studies Teachers
Still need to give this a better look...this kind of amazing site comes from Ashland University. Includes audio lecures, a historical documents library, and an exhibit on the Constitutional Convention.

Amazon.com: Books / Subjects / Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Historical
Didn't know Amazon classified fiction this way! Very nice. Now to organize it.... Can I exclude "romance novels"? Ick!

The Care and Feeding of FOSS: The Lifecycle of Software Technology
There was also a long slashdot discussion on this piece.