Global radio. From the ringing of the Appalachian banjo to Haitian meringue piano, Scottish ballads, Comanche flute, protest songs and the Uruguayan accordion, with a few clicks of a computer mouse, Smithsonian Global Sound will send to your computer a continuous stream of music from every corner of the world -- at no charge. All audio tracks are selections from the eclectic and respected library of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. As a selection plays, listeners can click the "Recording Info" button on their computer screen to learn more about the track and the CD--available for purchase online--on which it is featured. Listeners can choose from an index of genres, such as Silk Road Radio, Songs of Protest, Music of Appalachia, Fiddle Radio, Radio Latino, Radio Haiti and even a channel featuring the favorite Folkways tracks of Greatful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Online video performances and interviews round out this cyber-age wellspring of the music that the world is listening to.

www.smithsonianglobalsound.org

'Women of Our Time.' Aviator Amelia Earhart, Actress Mae West and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt are among the 36 memorable faces gracing the online exhibition "Women of Our Time: 20th-Century Photographs From the National Portrait Gallery." Each portrait selected for this exhibition captures a significant moment in its sitter’s life. Taken together, the stylistic diversity of these images is a testament to the depth and breadth of creativity in photographic portraiture in the 20th century. From the soft-focus pictorialism used in the early 1900s, such as Arnold Genthe’s 1916 silver print of dancer Isadora Duncan, to contrived portraits of Hollywood stars--Nickolas Muray’s colorful photograph of actress Anna May Wong, for instance--these images chart the evolution of photographic portraiture in the 1900s. Short biographies accompany each portrait, as does a brief summary of the circumstances surrounding how each image came to be taken.

www.npg.si.edu/cexh/woot