DECEMBER 5 - 11, 2016
(Teach the Hour of Code in your Classroom!)
Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Monday, December 5, 2016
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
How Many "Happy Genes" Do You Have?
Study finds the genes that affect mood
and why some of us are prone
to depression and neuroticism
--Daily Mail
"Researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how human experience happiness
"They found that three genetic variants for happiness and two for depression
"Study also found eleven that account for varying degrees of neuroticism
"Genetic variants are mainly expressed in the central nervous system"
"For the first time in history, researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how humans experience happiness...These findings are from a large-scale international study in over 298,000 people, conducted by VU Amsterdam professors..."
Read more here!
Speaking for myself, my own "happiness genome" tells me that this article is fun! What do you think you've inherited?
More articles on the subject:
"The Genetic Reason Some of us are Happier" -- Huffington Post
"How Your Genes Make You Happier" -- The Chopra Center
There are even more...search it!
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Loaded with mnemonic devices!
This great poster--and more great science aids--can be purchased and viewed HERE!
* (I stole the link from McFarland Unified School District's own Instructional Tech TOSA, Monica Daniel. Shhhhh...)
Monday, November 7, 2016
Tattoos and Teenagers
--Your MHS Librarian, Mrs. Meier
Mrs. Meier's blessing:
"May you live long enough to regret your tattoos."
Mrs. Meier's OTHER blessing:
"Wishing you 'best regrets'!"
None of us wants to think that we're "not old enough" for something: This implies that we're not smart enough, but that's just not true. To BE smart is to KNOW to NOT make decisions until you're ready. Mrs. Meier's blessing:
"May you live long enough to regret your tattoos."
Mrs. Meier's OTHER blessing:
"Wishing you 'best regrets'!"
The truth of biology is that the teen brain is at the beginning of an amazing growth to maturity. A senior is much more mature and ready for decisions than a freshman, and a twenty-year-old is ahead of a high school senior. In fact, science believes that when you reach about 25 years old, your brain (prefrontal cortex) is usually ready for more serious and life-long decisions. ("Are Teenage Brains Really Different from Adult Brains?") Be the wiser person, and wait for that full, filled-in wisdom.
I doubt that anyone denies that tattoos are a personal decisions--and they're permanent. They're bumper stickers for your body; but bumper stickers go on cars; and when you grow and change, cars come and go. Your ONE body will be with you forever: The message you want on this "vehicle" when you're seventeen is NOT the message you want to display when you're 20, or 30, or 40, or 50.
The rock singer's logo that you advertise on your arm may rocks today, but it may be an embarrassment down the line (People really DID love Justin Bieber and New Kids on the Block!).
And do you really want to embarrass your grandchildren when they have to admit that "grandma has a tattoo."
Certainly, it is now possible to have tattoos removed. It's costly. It's painful. It leaves ugly, permanent scars. This librarian has even seen a YouTube video in which an unstable fellow tried to remove an old girlfriend's name, HIM-SELF. OUCH!! Wise thinking tells us that "I'll just have them removed" is not a good fall-back. One way, or another, tattoos make a permanent statement.
Everyone gets to have their own opinions, and this is mine.
Here are the ideas of others on the subject of tattoos:
"Don't Get One, Stay Unique: A Surprising Piece of Advice From Legendary Tattoo Artist Lyle Tuttle" ("Tattoos are a fading fad...")
This article covers some very interesting history of tattoos. Lyle was featured on the cover of The Rolling Stone Magazine, and he even tattooed Janice Joplin! Don't let the title fool you: It's an article for everyone.
"Who Owns Your Ink? Tattoo Artists Turn to Lawsuits to Protect Intellectual Property" --ABC News, Australia
"Tattoo Prejudice in the Workplace" -- AllBusiness
"How to Avoid STUPID Tattoos" --YouTube Video
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Monday, October 24, 2016
The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA)
Copyright, specially in literary works, is...not an inevitable,
divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute
ownership of their creations. It is designed rather to stimulate
activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment
of the public. Copyright is intended to increase and not to
impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the
creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the
public.
Is this right or wrong? Are written works meant "for the intellectual enrichment of the public" over the fair-rights use of the creator? Should others be able to use your intellectual property without your permission or compensation? How will this change the literary world?
Well, THIS is unique!
They're storing books by SIZE!
It's a more efficient use of space...
They can store more books!
(Can you imagine trying to find a book when "the system is down"?)
-- The Chronicle of Higher Education
...
"Downsizing the stacks and increasing student and faculty reliance on virtual sources limits the silent conversation between people and books, arrests the opportunity for surprising encounters with unexpected materials, and thus dampens synthesis--the very stuff of new ideas."
Monday, October 10, 2016
Fire in Major Russian Library Destroys 1 MILLION Historic Documents
--from The Guardian
A fire which ripped through one of Russia's largest university libraries is believed to have damaged more than 1 [million] historic documents, with some describing the fire as a cultural "Chernobyl."
Horrible!
.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
from The Hindu
This is a surprise--and it's bad news for publishers.
Delhi University photocopy shop allowed to resume business as court dismisses suits initiated by three international publishing giants.
Excerpts:
The Delhi High Court on Friday held that the photocopying of course packs
prepared by Delhi University comprising portions from books published by
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis
did not amount to infringement of copyright.
...
"Copyright, especially in literary works, is thus not an inevitable, divine, or
natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations.
It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the
intellectual enrichment of the public," said Justice Endlaw.
...
"It is unfortunate that the court's decision today would undermine the
availability of original content for the benefit of students and teachers. We
will be considering the full judgement when it is made available, and shall
decide the next course of action after consultation with our legal teams,"
[publishers] said in [a] statement.
Although this is a lawsuit in India, it is a step away from the rights of authors to own their work--a step away from the current perception of who owns the written word.
Does an author's work belong to himself, or do educational institutions have the right to use copyrighted works without compensation to the owner?
What is a copyright law worth in India?
Is India just the first country to rule against authors' rights?
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Sunday, September 18, 2016
from Library Journal; 18 SEP 16
An article about a potential future for libraries...
And, ultimately, that’s the library mission. “As a leader, you’re always looking ahead; you scan the horizon,” says Sandlian Smith. “But I also think that it’s our job to help communicate the vision of the future or provoke that conversation with our community and our staff and our board, to look at trends, to listen, to do an analysis of the patterns, and project what lies ahead…. That vision of what could be translates into the hard work of making something realistically happen.”
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
from the BBC
--by Fiona Mcconald
19 August 2016
 |
| The Vatican's Secret Archives |
"After news emerged about an underground reading room in Damascus, Fiona Macdonald discovers the places where writing has been hidden for centuries."
 |
| "Hidden libraries" were discovered within Medieval book bindings. |
Beneath the streets of a suburb of Damascus, rows of shelves hold books that have been rescued from bombed-out buildings. Over the past four years, during the siege of Darayya, volunteers have collected 14,000 books from shell-damaged homes. They are held in a location kept secret amid fears that [they] would be targeted by government and pro-Assad forces, and visitors have to dodge shells and bullets to reach the underground reading space.
 |
| The Library Cave at Dunhuang, 1908 |
It's been called Syria's secret library, and many view it as a vital resource. "In a sense the library gave me back my life," one regular user, Abdulbaset AAlahmar, told the BBC. "I would say that just like the body needs food, the soul needs books." -- READ MORE
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Maybe Ancient Civilizations Knew More Than We Do
It seems that we are increasingly so casual about our libraries--sometimes, even doubting their worth--that it's difficult for us to understand how important libraries were in the worlds of the ancients. In fact, in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, the sizes and contents of libraries were both indications and sources of a king's power, wealth, and importance. The ancients understood that knowledge really is power.
Competition to have the largest, most inclusive library was fierce, with rulers even "drafting" the most important scholars as assets to increase the competitiveness of their libraries--similar to how our sports stars are drafted to increase a team's standing.
This old librarian finds this interesting! If you do, too, read more about it:
The dark trade of collecting books used to get really messy.
--from AtlasObscura
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
"Facebook Puts Fewer Humans in Charge of Trending Topics."
Will it Reduce Bias?
--Christian Science Monitor
Facebook will rely more heavily on algorithms, rather than humans, to choose trending news topics.
Will it Reduce Bias?
--Christian Science Monitor
Facebook will rely more heavily on algorithms, rather than humans, to choose trending news topics.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
"The Rise of Pirate Libraries"
Shadowy digital libraries want to hold all the world's knowledge and give it away for free.
All around the world, shadow libraries keep growing, filled with banned materials. But no actual papers trade hands: everything is digital, and the internet-accessible content is not banned for shocking content so much as [for] that modern crime, copyright infringement.
But for the people who run the world’s pirate libraries, their goals are no less ambitious for their work’s illicit nature.
“It’s the creation of a universal library of the best stuff,” says Joe Karaganis, who studies media piracy at Columbia University’s policy think tank, American Assembly. “That will not include the latest Danielle Steel novel.”
It does, however, include hundreds of thousands of books and millions of journal articles that otherwise are found only through expensive academic journals. Scanned or downloaded from journal sites, they are available through pirate libraries for free.
Monday, August 22, 2016
--from eSchool News
"The day will soon come when we'll sardonically ask ourselves: 'Remember when we had to visit a website and look around for what we needed?' Now the data comes to us."
What will it do?
1. It will revolutionize the competition.
2. It will provide unprecedented personalization.
3. It will strengthen already lucrative programs.
What does this mean to you?
- How do you feel about this?
- Won't your opinion be shaped by what information you are fed?
- Do you want to lose one more choice in your information sources?
Friday, August 19, 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)