Buck Rogers Is Here

The Active Denial system from the Pentagon. Very interesting 60 Minutes video from March 2008.

What a Future

Watch this news program in the KRON television station archives from 1981.  Newspapers costing 20 cents being replaced by in-home computer viewing?  Really? It's pretty fascinating. This 1969 video on YouTube predicts home shopping, albeit a bit cumbersome. And online banking monnitored by poor husbands everywhere. Yikes.

Most Distinguished

Extremely talented artist, Beth Krommes, is the illustrator of The House in the Night. The book has won the 2009 Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
Beth lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire with her family. I was honored to be her two daughters' children's librarian for four years and enjoyed my friendship with Beth during those years. I am more excited for Beth and for her family ... and for children everywhere, than words can say. Here's she is with another award winner, Neil Gaiman, on the Today Show. (Thanks, Beth, for that link!)

No More Rabbit Ears

Here are some websites that will answer your questions about the digital television transition on February 17, 2009.  The US government has a site, The Digital TV Transition: What You Need to Know.  Nielsen Wire addresses the readiness of the nation on a blog.  Want more:  DTV Answers complete with a video  and an information about the converter coupon at DTV2009.

I Thank the Academy . . .

The American Academy of Motion Pictures has posted all of the nominations. Oscar courtesy of the Academy. Read the entire list at Oscar.org. I've got to get to the movies!

Best motion picture of the year

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), A Kennedy/Marshall Production, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Frost/Nixon” (Universal), A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
• “Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
• “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company), A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production, Nominees to be determined
• “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer

The American Academy of Motion Pictures has posted all of the nominations. Read the entire list at Oscars.org. I've got to get to the movies!

Call Home

Kelly Corrigan's The Middle Place explained beautifully by no other than the author. There are many holds on this book ... you won't find it sitting on the library shelf but you good things are worth waiting for. Request it now.
This second video is one to send to girlfriends everywhere.

Magic Threshold

At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, 
to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a
library, we change their lives forever, for the better.
It’s an enormous force for good.

Barack Obama, 2005, Speech to the American Library Association.

Read the entire speech here, courtesy of ALA.  

Cover of American Libraries, August 2005.   Source: ALA Online.

Air and Simple Gifts

Stacking Up

The Wall Street Journal has some great charts of presidential approval ratings.

Risk-takers, Doers, the Makers of Things

The Inaugural Address can be found on the New York Times website.

"It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

We Are The Ones

Yes, We Can

My Country Tis of Thee

Watch the HBO webcast of the We Are One concert on Sunday, January 18, 2009.

Mad Libs Inauguration Speech

For those of you with a sense of humor ... or a cynical side, write your own inauguration speech.

Webcam: Inauguration

Tuesday, you can watch the Inauguration live with Joost. com.  Or the Harris Corporation has a live video from the Inaugural Parade route beginning now.riott hotel

From the Harris Corporation press release:

Harris 3-D visualization technology also will provide broadcast and Internet viewers with a unique 3-D view of the parade route and the downtown Washington D.C. area. The 3-D model movie depicts the city’s major monuments and government buildings with an accurate, photo-realistic 3-D visualization technology that is part of the Harris RealSite(r) product family. The 3-D model movie is available to the public for viewing at the National Press Club and Harris websites.

3-D urban models are built from ground, aerial and satellite imagery using technology developed for government customers and are geospatially accurate to within meters. Harris has developed nearly 500 global 3-D models during the past five years as a prime contractor for the U.S. government. Applications range from operations management and navigation safety to security planning, threat detection, disaster response and environmental planning.

So Far Away

Krispy Kreme is offering a free donut on Inauguration Day. The closest store is in Milford, CT ... or in Uncasville, Ct.

Paths of Understanding

A reading list on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the New York Times blog about books, Paper Cuts.

By the Numbers

Wallet Pop has a great pop culture numbers quiz. I didn't do very well but perhaps you will. Do you know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Rosa Sat

"Rosa sat so Martin could run. Martin ran so Barack could run. Barack ran so that all our children could fly."

From the YouTube description: Written and performed by Amy Dixon-Kolar (c) 2008 Asharta Music/ASCAP. This was written a few days after November 4, 2008 and was inspired by the quote used as the chorus and the celebrations and photos of this historic day. Photographer Bernie Kleina was kind enough to give permission for me to use his photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the murals in the Pilsen area of Chicago. Recorded December, 2008 by John Abbey, New Soup Studio, Chicago, IL

Fact or Fiction?

The National Endowment For the Arts has reported in its 2008 statistics that fiction reading for adults is on the increase.  Read the NY Times article for this interesting reversal in the trend. Could it be that we need to be taken away from the real world? Am I surprised? No. I've been reading more fiction than ever in just the past few months.

Swearing An Oath

Take the Inaugural Quiz offered by the National Archives. Didn't do so well? There are ways to study more about the presidents and inaugurations online if you are interested. The Library of Congress and several other groups have created links of webpages full of inaugural oaths, images and memorabilia from GW (George Washington) to GW (George W. Bush.)

"I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations is a collection of approximately 400 items or 2,000 digital files relating to inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to George W. Bush's inauguration of 2001. This presentation includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music.

 Image of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration 1875 from the LOC website.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA has finished its Humanities Resource Center Online,  

the result of collaboration between humanities organizations, universities, and social scientists, provides the academic community and public at large with an online source of information, including statistical data, about the humanities in the United States.  (From the website)

If you like visual interpretations of data, especially those that relate to literacy and public library use, you'll enjoy the feast.  Most interesting is the data on public library visits and circulation found in these graphs.

Digital Hype

Netflix for books? Did you know 'we have libraries.' Interesting take by Brian Williams of NBC on the digital hype.

Passionate Readers Unite on the Trail

Are your tastes changing and do you want to find more books you'll enjoy?

"Reading Trails is the internet's most innovative social network of passionate readers. Join now to create trails, meet interesting new people and share your thoughts and tastes.

You'll never have to wonder what to read next again."  From the Reading Trail website.

Mashable has a list of 50+ websites for readers.

The Library of Imagination

Jay Walker, curator of the Library of Human Imagination, conducts another of the TED talks. It's a fascinating introduction to his home library complete with photos.

Sing Along

Sing. It's a New Year and you have the words.

Video by RenzoSchroder.

Speed Reads for the Mind

Want to speed read through the great philosphers? Squashed Philosophers by Glyn Hughes has just the site for you.

Their own ideas, in their own words, neatly honed into little half-hour or so reads."Like reading the bible without all the begats" - Jim Curtis

Exponentially Speaking

Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.