Vice President Gore Leads Training Initiatives for the 21^st Century
Who said there is no job security anymore? "Skills will be the new source of security for workers in the 21st Century," said Vice President Al Gore as he convened a day-long National Learning Summit in Washington, DC on January 12, 1999. About 1,000 satellite downlinks locations reached Americans across the nation. An attendant website drew almost 243,000 hits from over the world.

OSHA Unveils Online Hazard Awareness Advisor

In January 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will release the final version of a unique, "intelligent," diagnostic software called the Hazard Awareness Advisor for business owners, managers, and employees. It uses an interactive, expert interview process to identify likely workplace hazards and the OSHA standards that address them. The new release follows a stream of web-based applications that OSHA has introduced in the last few years

Locate Your Neighborhood on World's Largest Online Database
Want an aerial shot of your neighborhood? Don't get on an airplane. Get on the Internet.

Smart Cards Carry All
All of us who use ATM and credit cards know how smart a little plastic card with a magnetic stripe can be. But plastic cards are getting smarter. A smart card contains an integrated circuit chip with a microprocessor and memory. They are portable databases that government workers can use to work better and faster. The General Services Administration, in partnership with Navy, opened a Smart Card Technology Center in Washington, DC, in September 1998. The Center demonstrates one card storing everything from "cash" to fingerprints to medical and dental records.

The Visible Human Project
January 13, 1999--Two human bodies--male and female cadavers--have been digitized in the Visible Human Project commissioned by the National Library of Medicine to support medical research and education. So far, more than 1,000 companies and institutions in more than 41 countries have licenses to use the digital images, according to David Brown's story in washingtonpost.com.