How to use a paper towel - just one
Joe Smith demonstrates - it works! One paper towel is all you need. Try it!
Oxford-Style Debate "Libraries are Obsolete" from Harvard
April 18, 2012 - 3:00pm
In favor: Dr. James Tracy, R. David Lankes
Opposed: Susan Hildreth, John G. Palfrey
11/22/63 by Stephen King
I am a big fan of time travel stories, and wasn’t disappointed by this lengthy novel by Stephen King. Jake is a high school English teacher in Maine in 2011. His friend Al, who runs the greasy spoon diner, involves Jake in an amazing adventure - there is a portal in his dinner that lets out in September, 1958. Al has discovered that he can visit the past and make changes that have important impacts, so Al and Jake become obsessed with going back through the portal and changing the events of 11/22/63. Convinced that the world would be a better place if Kennedy had survived that day, Jake does battle with the forces of fate, learning that “the past is obdurate”.
Set against the backdrop of all the conspiracy theories that have surrounded that event with perplexing questions, the story is less about the conspiracy issue but focuses more on how people are effected by disastrous events. Every time travel author uniquely defines the rules that govern time travel, and King contributes some excellent plot devices in the time travel rules he has created for his characters.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book. The reader, Craig Wasson, is excellent; however his voice reminded me of Wes Cowan of PBS’s History Detectives, so I had trouble picturing the protagonist of this story the way King has described him.
I especially appreciated the author’s afterward. King pays homage to Jack Finney, and credits him with writing the best-ever time travel novel, Time and Again. I quite agree, it is one of my favorites.
The Till Family Rock Band
This picture appeared in this week’s issue of the Cazenovia Republican.125 years ago, on March 24, 1887 the Rock Band Concert Company performed in Cazenovia. The performance was described as “different than anything ever before presented in this place.” The group played the Rock Harmonicon, composed of 60 pieces of rock, with a complete chromatic scale of 5 octaves.
Surely this was the worlds first rock band!
New library card designs coming to Liverpool Public library! Which design will you pick when you become a member? These new cards will be valid at all Onondaga County public libraries.
Source: liverpoollibrary
The Hunger Games Trilogy
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The trilogy includes:
This is a real page-turner of a series. I was eager to finish it before the movie comes out later this month, and it was not hard to stick with this series. Katniss lives in a dystopian world, where she is forced to compete in a televised death-match in which only one teen can emerge alive. Reality TV gone to the a really bad extreme.
We watch Katniss come of age through the 3 books, as she struggles to not only survive, but to care for her family, sort out her feelings for the two young men in her life, and live out the expectations her society has thrust upon her. She finds herself in an unwanted and overly-managed leadership role.
When I started reading this series, I was worried that it was going to be a Lord of the Flies in a new century. The first two books offered much more than that; I was disappointed in the tone and resolution of the third and final installment.
I would not give this an unqualified recommendation for young adult readers. Brutally violent, it is a disturbing read. It does make one spend some time reflecting on our acceptance of the programming that we consume, often without question, in today’s society.
From EFF, removing your Google Search History
In this article from Electronic Frontier Foundation, find out why you might want to turn off Web History on your Google accounts.
