Partnering with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) launched the first phase of a novel discovery resource for women’s health research (WHR), called DiscoverWHR. This innovative resource simplifies the finding of women’s health information by patients, caregivers, medical professionals, researchers, and the public.

Users can explore the following research areas:

The NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Research on the Health of Women and feedback from NIH users will be used to identify future research areas.

DiscoverWHR resource is a centralized resource for women’s health research and information that helps close the gaps in women’s health across the life course. A goal of the DiscoverWHR portal is to facilitate research discovery by sharing information on NIH-supported grants, intramural research, clinical trials, and literature on issues that uniquely, disproportionately, and/or differently affect women across their lifespan. ORWH and NLM will enhance DiscoverWHR with additional NIH-funded research topics and resources, as well as incorporate data science tools such as artificial intelligence. Over time, users will be able to quickly learn about NIH-funded research and information for specific women’s health-related topics. Try out this new resource and submit your feedback (via the blue “Give Feedback” button on the right-hand side of the page)!

Learn more about the DiscoverWHR Portal.

You can watch the annular solar eclipse live on Oct. 2 with this free livestream. Here's how.

On Oct. 2, the moon and sun will produce a dazzling "ring of fire" in the sky. The annular solar eclipse is going to be a sight to behold. 

However, many of us will be nowhere near the path of annularity — a route that passes across the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina. Instead we must look to the next best thing: livestreams! You'll find some information below about how to watch the event play out virtually, and in fact, you'll also be able to catch the eclipse action unfolding on our solar eclipse live blog. When the time comes, we will bring you views of the eclipse as they appear online as well as some on-the-ground reporting from a lucky few who will be there in person. 

During an annular solar eclipse, the moon appears slightly smaller than the sun. As such, it doesn't block the entire solar disk like it would during a total solar eclipse. Instead, the moon's shadow covers most of the disk, leaving the outer rim, and resulting in a beautiful "ring of fire." On Oct. 2, the moon will cover approximately 93% of the sun's disk at the point of greatest eclipse.

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE LIVESTREAM

LIVE: Annular Solar Eclipse - October 2, 2024 - YouTube

You can watch the annular solar eclipse online and follow along with a livestream news feed courtesy of Timeanddate.com.

The livestream will begin at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT) on the website's YouTube channel. 

Watching in person 

The "ring of fire" will be visible only within a path of annularity that passes across the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina. 

During an annular solar eclipse, it is NEVER safe to look directly at the sun without solar eclipse glasses designed for solar viewing. Read our guide on how to observe the sun safely. 

Notable locations where the "ring of fire" is visible

For an in-depth look at the timings of each stage of the eclipse depending on location, check out these resources on Time and Date.

Notable locations where the partial solar eclipse is visible

For those outside the path of annularity, a partial solar eclipse will be visible during which the moon will appear to take a "bite" out of the sun. 

Here are some notable locations where a partial solar eclipse will be visible (along with the percentage coverage of the sun) on Oct. 2, 2024.

The Clarence Dillion Library will be hosting a Webinar entitled “Garden State Genealogy Records of the NJ State Archives" on October 1, 2024 at 12 PM. 

When conducting genealogy research in the great state of New Jersey, there is no better place than the NJ State Archives.  Whether you are looking for vital records, wills, state census, court records or military records, the NJ State Archives has you covered. 

Please join us for National Family History Month as Jon Bozard from the NJ State Archives talks about their collections and what is available for in-person and mail reference, including new records that are coming in 2025.

Jon Bozard is a Senior Library Assistant with a degree in History from Rutgers University.  He has been working at the New Jersey State Archives for 18 years.  He has represented the Archives over the years at various events and given many presentations around the state.  To expand access to the State Archives collections He has entered thousands of death records for online databases. He is currently working on data entry for a future database of New Jersey Tax Ratables 1772-1822.  A lifelong Civil War enthusiast, he has organized and processed the Civil War Regimental Records and completely reorganized the Muster Rolls by Congressional District, 1863-1865.

Click Here to Register! 

The following announcement was written by the folks at TheGenealogist:

Discover over 18.4 million individuals on historical maps

Leading genealogy research website TheGenealogist has announced the integration of the 1841 census into its cutting-edge MapExplorer^TM tool. This significant addition allows family historians and researchers to delve deeper into their ancestral past with unprecedented geographical context.

[TheGenealogist’s MapExplorer^TM showing households across the streets of London in 1841]

Key Highlights:

• The 1841 census, the first modern census of England, Scotland and Wales, is now on TheGenealogist's MapExplorer^TM

• Locate your ancestors to the parish, street or even house they lived in

• Over 18.4 million individuals are recorded in the 1841 census and you can now explore their neighbourhoods

• Users can visualise their ancestors' locations on historical maps, providing a unique perspective on family history

Mark Bayley, Head of Online Development at TheGenealogist, stated, "We're proud to announce the completion of our project to "map the census". Never before could you pin down your ancestors through each year, from 1841 all the way to the 1939 register. This visual approach to genealogy brings the past to life in ways never before possible."

Found in these records is Surgeon Nurse Eliza Roberts, the forgotten hero of the Crimea, read her story here:https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2024/eliza-roberts-a-forgotten-pioneer-in-nursing-7666/

To celebrate this release, for a limited time you can claim a Diamond Subscription for just £99.45, a saving of £40. You can claim this offer here: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/MGBCEN924

Offer expires 30th December 2024.

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

Today the Tor Project, a global non-profit developing tools for online privacy and anonymity, and Tails, a portable operating system that uses Tor to protect users from digital surveillance, have joined forces and merged operations. Incorporating Tails into the Tor Project's structure allows for easier collaboration, better sustainability, reduced overhead, and expanded training and outreach programs to counter a larger number of digital threats. In short, coming together will strengthen both organizations' ability to protect people worldwide from surveillance and censorship.

Pooling resources to better serve a global community

Countering the threat of global mass surveillance and censorship to a free Internet, Tor and Tails provide essential tools to help people around the world stay safe online. By joining forces, these two privacy advocates will pool their resources to focus on what matters most: ensuring that activists, journalists, other at-risk and everyday users will have access to improved digital security tools.

In late 2023, Tails approached the Tor Project with the idea of merging operations. Tails had outgrown its existing structure. Rather than expanding Tails’s operational capacity on their own and putting more stress on Tails workers, merging with the Tor Project, with its larger and established operational framework, offered a solution. By joining forces, the Tails team can now focus on their core mission of maintaining and improving Tails OS, exploring more and complementary use cases while benefiting from the larger organizational structure of The Tor Project.

This solution is a natural outcome of the Tor Project and Tails' shared history of collaboration and solidarity. 15 years ago, Tails' first release was announced on a Tor mailing list, Tor and Tails developers have been collaborating closely since 2015, and more recently Tails has been a sub-grantee of Tor. For Tails, it felt obvious that if they were to approach a bigger organization with the possibility of merging, it would be the Tor Project.

"Running Tails as an independent project for 15 years has been a huge effort, but not for the reasons you might expect. The toughest part wasn't the tech–it was handling critical tasks like fundraising, finances, and HR. After trying to manage those in different ways, I’m really relieved that Tails is now under the Tor Project’s wing. In a way, it feels like coming home," says intrigeri, Team Lead Tails OS, The Tor Project.

Welcoming new users and partners into our communities

Whether it’s someone seeking access to the open web or facing surveillance, Tor and Tails offer complementary protections. While Tor Browser anonymizes online activity, Tails secures the entire operating system–from files to browsing sessions. For journalists working in repressive regions or covering sensitive topics, Tor and Tails are often used as a set to protect their communications and safeguard their sources. The merger will lead to more robust treatment of these overlapping threat models and offer a comprehensive solution for those who need both network and system-level security in high-risk environments.

It will also open up broader training and outreach opportunities. Until now, Tor’s educational efforts have primarily focused on its browser. With Tails integrated into these programs, we can address a wider range of privacy needs and security scenarios. Lastly, this merger will lead to increased visibility for Tails. Many users familiar with Tor may not yet know about Tails OS. By bringing Tails within the Tor Project umbrella, we can introduce this powerful tool to more individuals and groups needing to remain anonymous while working in hostile environments.

"Joining Tor means we’ll finally have the capacity to reach more people who need Tails. We've known for a long time that we needed to ramp up our outreach, but we just didn’t have the resources to do so," intrigeri.

"By bringing these two organizations together, we’re not just making things easier for our teams, but ensuring the sustainable development and advancement of these vital tools. Working together allows for faster, more efficient collaboration, enabling the quick integration of new features from one tool to the other. This collaboration strengthens our mission and accelerates our ability to respond to evolving threats," says Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director, The Tor Project.

Your support will go a long way to support this merge. Please consider making a donation to the Tor Project. If you'd like to earmark your donation specifically for Tails activities, you can continue to do so through Tails' donation page until further notice. To learn more about how we are integrating our donation infrastructures and how your funds will be used, please refer to our updated Donation FAQ

Cochise College alumni and history enthusiasts can now explore past issues of The Heliograph, a student newspaper, through the Arizona Memory Project (AMP), a statewide digital repository.

Volumes of The Heliograph published between 1960 and 1980 are now accessible online, providing insight into the college’s history and the lives of its students. Readers can browse all issues at azmemory.azlibrary.gov. In addition, The Heliograph is featured as a subcollection on the AMP landing page, making it easy to find and view.

“The digitization of The Heliograph represents a significant step toward preserving the college’s legacy,” said Ashlee Gray, college librarian-archivist. While the AMP files are available at 150 dpi to ensure faster load times and efficient storage, those seeking higher-resolution copies can request them directly from Cochise College Libraries.

“The Heliograph captures student life, community involvement, and Cochise College through the decades,” added Gray. “We’re proud to make this valuable resource available to the public and to archive the college’s history for future generations.”

According to the AMP website, “The Arizona Memory Project helps researchers discover information related to the history and government of Arizona by providing access to primary sources in Arizona archives, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions.” The Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records manages the project and is dedicated to preserving and sharing the state’s historical and cultural heritage.

First published in the 1960s, The Heliograph covers a range of topics from student achievements, athletics and college events with famous performers. The newspaper provides a unique lens on the changing perspectives of students at Cochise College, making it a unique resource for alumni, students, faculty, staff and the general public. 

For more information or to explore The Heliograph, visit the Arizona Memory Project website: azmemory.azlibrary.gov.

Already taken a DNA test with another service? We have great news for you! Starting today, and for a limited time only, you can upload your DNA data to MyHeritage and get full access to all DNA features for free, forever! We support uploads from Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA (Family Finder) and 23andMe. 

For each NEW* DNA file that you upload this week, you’ll receive free access to all advanced DNA features including the Ethnicity Estimate and Genetic Groups, DNA Matches, and all tools to analyze your relationship to your matches, saving you the usual $29 unlock fee per file. This rare offer is valid for the next few days only, until October 6, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. 

Upload your DNA file to MyHeritage 

*This offer is valid for new DNA files that are uploaded to MyHeritage for the first time. It does not apply to DNA files uploaded in the past.

Putting your DNA on MyHeritage can open a whole new world of discoveries, and is a great way for anyone interested in finding new matches and information to “fish in multiple ponds.”

It’s led some MyHeritage users to make life-changing discoveries: Monika Fleming, who learned as an adult that she was adopted, discovered her birth father’s identity and connected with 3 siblings!

Why upload to MyHeritage 

• High-resolution ethnicity reports covering 2,114 geographic regions
• Huge global DNA database
• The best service for European DNA matching
• Innovative tools for tracing your relationship to your DNA Matches
• Full privacy controls: only you can see your data
• MyHeritage is the only DNA company that has committed never to sell or license users’ data to third parties

What’s included in this special offer:

• Ethnicity Estimate and Genetic Groups: Pinpoint where your family came from across 2,114 geographic regions
• Chromosome Browser: Visually explore the DNA segments you share with a DNA Match
• AutoClusters: View your DNA Matches as clusters that likely descended from common ancestors
• Theory of Family Relativity™: Leverage MyHeritage’s powerful technology that uses family trees and historical records to craft theories about relationships between DNA Matches
• All other DNA features available on MyHeritage

These features will remain free forever for the DNA kits you upload during this week. Note that this offer is valid for new DNA files that are uploaded to MyHeritage for the first time. It does not apply to DNA files uploaded in the past.

How to upload your DNA data

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to make the most of your DNA results. Upload your DNA file to MyHeritage today!

David Bintz, 69, and his younger brother, Robert Bintz, 68, were exonerated after advocates had DNA evidence from the case examined.

Two Wisconsin brothers who spent the last 25 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing a woman in 1987 have been released after DNA evidence tied the murder to another suspect, The Wisconsin Innocence Project announced Friday.

David Bintz, 69, and his younger brother, Robert Bintz, 68 were sentenced to life in prison in 2000, after prosecutors say they killed Sandra Lison, 44, a mother of two, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports.

Lison’s body was found near a trail in the Machickanee Forest about 30 miles from Green Bay on Aug. 4, 1987, according to Robert Bintz’s motion to vacate. Detectives noticed Lison’s slip and nylons had been removed and most of the buttons on her dress were undone, and they determined she had been beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted.

Semen was recovered from Lison’s body via vaginal swabs and from her dress, which also had been stained with blood. This DNA evidence did not match the Bintzes, according to the Wisconsin Innocence Project, but after the case went cold for a time, the Brown County District Attorney’s Office in 1998 eventually charged the two brothers with killing her. 

Prosecutors alleged at the Bintzes’ trial that the two killed Lison during a robbery at the Good Times Tavern, a bar she worked at, the night before her body was discovered, according to the motion to vacate. 

Prosecutors also depended on testimony from David Bintz’s cellmate in a jail where he had been serving time for an unrelated crime. The cellmate told guards about nightmares David Bintz was having, claiming he yelled “make sure she’s dead” in his sleep, according to theInvestigative Genetic Genealogy Center. The cellmate also said David Bintz later admitted to helping his brother kill Lison.

You can read more in an article by Pocharapon Neammanee published in the Huffington Post web site at: https://tinyurl.com/bd69vxnj.

This is a Plus Edition piece authored by Dick Eastman under copyright. .

The post-PC world is here, I think. That is, PC computers as we know them are gradually fading and will eventually be found only in museum exhibits within another ten years.

Included among desktop and laptop systems of today are Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Linux, UNIX, BSD, ReactOS, Chromebook, and Chromebox PCs. (For this article, I will not include Apple or Android "smartphones," nor tablet PCs.)

The computing environment following the slowdown in desktop and laptop computer sales is referred to as "post-PC".

Most industry analysts believe that consumers and companies are currently substituting "smart" cell phones, tablet computers, and soon to be developed lightweight computing devices not even invented yet for desktop and laptop computers. Many times, the always expanding, fast wireless networks and cloud computing are enabling small, lightweight devices to replace conventional desktop PCs. Having a strong computer of your own is not necessary; the power can exist either in your own computer or anywhere in the cloud. 

Actually, compared to the average desktop computer of ten years ago, today's tablet PCs have more computing capability and better displays. Better screens than most desktop computers had only a few years ago are found on today's iPad and the newest Android tablets. For instance, contrast the Retina display screen of today's iPad with the standard VGA screens used on desktop computers only a few years ago. Even people with vision issues will find the Retina display easier to use.

Who can project what developments over the next ten years will bring? Twenty years would be even more interesting.

To be sure, desktop and laptop computers are today are most likely always more powerful than any portable device. But I wonder if we should be tracking our forebears, reading and writing emails, playing online games, or accessing our online bank accounts using so much power? 

Whether that capacity lives on our desktop or remotely in the cloud, we all have more computing capability now than we need. Likewise, everyone of us already has more storage than we can ever need. In conventional computers, we can now purchase one terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) disk drives for less than $75 US (see https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-External-Hard-Drive/dp/B07CRG7BBH for one such example) or access essentially infinite storage space securely in the cloud, paying modest prices for just the storage space we really use. 

Other than for some devices that will be used in corporate offices, I think desktop and laptop computers will finally wind up in the trash heap. 

The only thing postponing the change, in my opinion, is that nobody has yet developed a decent substitute for the conventional QWERTY-keyboard. Once a decent, portable keyboard is developed, desktop and laptop computers will vanish from view. (For one fascinating example, check out the Amazon Alexa computer line. A few of them retail for $35.00 U.S. or less; even the least expensive models have dependable voice "keyboards." 

Not one keyboard for iPads or Android tablets matches the clickety-click IBM keyboard I had on my desktop PC 35+ years ago. Still, I see engineers creating decent keyboards for tablet PCs finally. Even my little keyboard connected to the iPad Mini has great "touch and feel" and is simpler to use than the usual "glass keyboard" that is shown on the screen of a tablet computer. Its compact scale, which fits the size of the iPad Mini, is the sole disadvantage—that of a smaller than-average keyboard.

Once a good, portable keyboard becomes accessible, what will happen to vendors of genealogical programs? Will Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Heredis, Reunion, MacFamilyTree, AncestralQuest, Family Historian vanish from sight?

The quick response is: "I doubt if they will vanish. Still, I think lots of cloud-based genealogical tools will augment or replace them.

The longer response starts with the knowledge that long-time computer professionals who regularly monitor the newest trends in the computer sector oversee the companies that created and support these desktop and laptop programs. They will not just stop. Seeing what is happening, these managers and software programmers will change their own products as the years pass. 

Many new "apps" that install in a tablet computer and act as duplicates or clones of the software and data in your former desktop of laptop computer running Windows or Macintosh operating systems marked the first genealogy tool advancement following desktop systems. The Google Play Store and the iPad App Store feature several of them listed here.

Still in great use today, these tablet "apps" are excellent travel companions or visiting relative utility. Still, their limited storage capacity and lesser comping capability define tablet computers. No matter how good a tablet genealogy app gets, it most likely will never match desktop and laptop computer capabilities.

Already upon us is the next development in genealogy software: cloud computing. Powerful servers plus several terabytes or even petabytes of storage space accessible in data centers' "disk farms" can produce data storage space plus computational capability that meets and usually surpasses the most costly personal computers of today. Not only may terabytes of family pictures, movies, maps, and photos of original records be added using cloud technology, but there is also room for many gigabytes of text content. Even better, with a tablet computer any of these can be readily added, changed, handled, and shown.

New features added to Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, and the other applications utilizing the new technologies should reflect changing technology. Some of these might retain their original name ("Family Tree Maker for the Cloud"), or else be given brand-new names ("rootstrust"). Some of the cloud-based applications already have new features added to interact with remote databases in the cloud and to work with other genealogists who have already uploaded images of original source records, pictures of shared ancestors, and even movies. Clearly more utility will show up in the future.

Though we consider most every program available today as either Windows or Macintosh, that limitation is not permanent. There is no reason why any one of these programs—or comparable ones developed from scratch—could not be produced for Android, Apple iOS, or cloud-based languages including perl, PHP, and others. Actually, running a genealogy program on a web server and accessing it from any machine able of running a web browser offers great benefits. Already doing this effectively are the Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (at http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/), Webtrees (at https://wiki.webtrees.net/en/Main_Page), MyHeritage, FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, WikiTrees, and other cloud-based genealogy tools. 

The choice of the operating system by the user is starting to be irrelevant. Windows, Macintosh, or even Android instead? Apple iOS for iOS Linux? Chromebook questions? Who gives a damn? If the program is created as a web-enabled application in the cloud, everyone can use any one program.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13412916.  A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077.