Faculty and staff use the web to explore eclectic interests. Some favorite sites:
MARJORIE PERLOFF, English professor
UbuWeb (www.ubu.com) -- Named for Alfred Jarry's late 19th-century comedy Ubu Roi, this site includes visual and sound poetry from the early 20th century to the present. You can see the beautiful designs of Concrete Poetry from Brazil and hear Gertrude Stein reading her poems or Kurt Schwitters intoning his sonata.
Arts and Letters Daily (www.cybereditions.com/aldaily) -- This site, operated by an Australian philosophy professor, offers a hand-picked selection of humanities-oriented columns, essays, opinion pieces and book excerpts. Look up a review from The New Republic, read Camille Paglia's column on Salon and peruse provocative pieces from political and literary magazines.
MARCELO CLERICI-ARIAS, associate director, Introductory Economics Center
Iowa Electronic Markets (www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem) -- Functions as a real-money futures market based on economic and political events. Check how the market estimates the likelihood of a long-shot candidate being elected president or predicts box-office receipts for the movie The World Is Not Enough.
The Economist (www.economist.com) -- "Best magazine on economics and politics around the world," says Clerici-Arias.
JULIE KENNEDY, senior lecturer, earth systems program
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's El Niño site (www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/elnino/nino-home.html) -- Kennedy uses this site to satisfy her fascination with paleoclimatology, the study of past climates. It includes animations of El Niño/La Niña in the Pacific Basin.
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (www.ciesin.org) -- Chock-full of links related to global climate change.
