Here is a short video on peer review publications from North Caroline State. Don’t know what peer review is? Well, you should watch the video:
Click here if you can’t see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twogpmM-SfY
History’s not just about dates and people, it’s about beverages. To celebrate St. Patty’s Day, the library has two new cool, refreshing books for your educational and reading pleasure. Let’s start with a history of Cuban independence and the son of the man who made cola even better:
“Bacardi and the long fight for Cuba: the biography of a cause,” by Tom Gjelten
Call number: HD9394 .C94 B334 2008
And for those of you seeking a non-alcoholic option, we present:
“Milk, the surprising story of milk through the ages: with 120 adventurous recipes that explore the riches of our first food,” by Anne Mendelson
Call number: SF251 .M46 2008
Enjoy!
I credit Marie Martino for the question that spurred my latest find. She mentioned that she had been asked to find the biography of a young Egyptian musician. I’ve been interested in World Music for a long time, but never knew how one would find this sort of information.
Then I found World Music Central. This organization’s web homepage provides updates of important events in the “World Music” scene, like concerts, new albums, etc. But the site provides much more than that: you may also search for music by artist, country, genre or instrument.
The web sites has a glossary of world instruments, essays on the history of world music, stores to buy this music, travel itineraries for such music and much, much more.
As the tour guides would say, it’s worth a trip!
The consumer-oriented magazine Popular Science has made its entire 137-year archive available for free online: Search the Popular Science Archive: (http://www.popsci.com/archives). Here is a short explanation for their site:
We’ve partnered with Google to offer our entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. It’s an amazing resource that beautifully encapsulates our ongoing fascination with the future, and science and technology’s incredible potential to improve our lives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Chicago native Dave Eggers is the author of six books, and is also an influential philanthropist, publisher, and screenwriter (Where the Wild Things Are, Away We Go). Among his titles are 2009’s Zeitoun, the nonfiction account of a Syrian-American’s experience surrounding Hurricane Katrina; 2006’s What is the What, the award-winning “approximate” account of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan; and his 2000 debut novel, the simultaneously funny and sad memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. In addition to founding the publishing house McSweeney’s (www.mcsweeneys.net), Eggers co-founded 826 Valencia, a group of writing centers dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 in seven cities across the country. Watch Eggers talk about how 826 Valencia originated in this engaging 2008 TED (Technology, Education, Design) Talk. Then check out the Chicago branch’s site – and its in-house Boring Store – at http://www.826chi.org/. But the writing is the main thing! Eggers’ books are currently on order for the Moraine Valley Library. In the meantime, if you can’t wait to start reading them, try visiting these other local library catalogs: I-Share, SWAN, Chicago Public Library, or Green Hills Public Library at www.morainevalley.edu/Library/research.asp.
A recent Google search on how to properly delete one’s Facebook account yielded some unexpected results! I came across some articles about websites that assist users in committing “Facebook suicide” and/or the self-killing of other social network profiles.
Seppukoo.com is a site created by Les Liens invisibles, the “imaginary” media-art duo Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini. They refer to their creation as a virus ” . . . haunting the busy communication highways of the social networking sphere.” The site name refers to “seppuku,” or the ritual suicide of the Samauri warrior.
You are more than your virtual identity.
«Virtual life» is an - often - abused term used to describe the whole of one person online activities. But as media communications let our second/online/offline identities overflowing into real life - and vice-versa - the distinctions between the real and the virtual are becoming, more and more confused. Which is virtual? And where’s the real? Beyond all those questions only a fact remains: that our privacy, our profiles, our identities, our relationships, they are all - fake and/or real - entirely exploited for a sole purpose: to be sold as a product. But are those lives really worth to be experienced? –from the Seppukoo website
Those who use the site’s services provide Seppukoo with their Facebook log-in information and are then able to send out their last words to friends and customize their own memorial page.
Another site, Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, functions in a similar way and takes it a step further, enabling users to delete not only Facebook, but Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace accounts. As the site’s homepage proclaims,”This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social-networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web2.0 alter ego.”
Recently, Facebook has ordered Seppukoo and Web 2.0 Suicide Machine to cease and desist, citing that their services violate Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Use the link below to access copies of these letters that have been made available on their sites:
http://suicidemachine.org/download/Web_2.0_Suicide_Machine.pdf
http://www.seppukoo.com/docs/seppukoo_cease_desist.pdf
Some folks, like Micah M. White of Adbusters.org, argue that Facebook intentionally makes it difficult to delete an account using the tools they provide. You can go into your Account Settings and Deactivate your account, but your personal information will stay on Facebook’s servers. If it is your private information that you are worried about, not everyone is convinced that using sites like Seppukoo or Web 2.0 Suicide Machine are any better in removing that information. As Rafe Needlemen of CNET has said,”My advice: If you want to remove yourself from a social site, use the end-of-account tools on the site itself. It’s a less painful way to go.”
That said, after going to Facebook’s Help Center and doing a search, one will find this on the subject of deleting an account, permanently:
If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, please keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added. If you would like your account permanently deleted with no option for recovery, log in to your account and then submit your request by clicking here.
http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=12271
There is no doubt that these services are provocative! Some think these sites are playful and fun, while others call them morbid and disturbing. Unarguably, the mere existence of such services points to some interesting questions about online identity and privacy.
Read more about this fascinating, seemingly inevitable phenomenon:
How to Disappear From Facebook and Twitter
Kill Off Your Facebook identity with Seppukoo
Facebook Cuts Off Suicide Machine Access
Fed Up with Facebook Privacy Issues? Here’s How to End It All
Facebook Suicide: The End of a Virtual Life
Quitting Facebook Gets Easier
Ever heard of the DSM IV? If you are in psychology or nursing, you probably have or will. This book is THE book used in diagnosing mental disorders. DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and it is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Well, the APA is going to updating the 4th edition with the 5th edition in the next couple of years. The DSM is very important, and (naturally) it is has also been very controversial over the decades. I wanted to share a couple of pieces about the DSM, its edits, and its uses.
Having been a William Faulkner fan myself for years, I couldn’t resist this NY Times article. Turns out the plots of many of Faulkner’s novels are based upon a particular slave owner’s diary, the ancestor of one of Faulkner’s neighbors. One of the characters based upon that slave owner is Thomas Sutpen, hero of Absalom, Absalom!, described as a man of “valor and strength but without pity or honor.” This novel of rape and incest and murder is based on fact. Truth and fiction closely intertwined, revealed by research.
To see the full story follow the link below: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/books/11faulkner.html?scp=2&sq=faulkner&st=cse
Relax and savor tidbits `in A History of Foods by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat. Visit this link for availability in our library: http://library.morainevalley.edu/record=b254534~S0. Find out about the legends of coffee, sugar, and the peach. Who wouldn’t want to know about the history of breads and cakes? Do you know what the most widely eaten plant in the world is?
Discover little known facts about well known foods –
Wines:
“The ancient world did not see intoxication, whether induced by mead, beers, or diluted wine, as reprehensible. To some extent it was regarded as an act of religion”(p229)
“Rosé wine is not a mixture of red and white wine, but is made from black grapes” (p232)
Fish:
“In Arab tradition, to dream of fish is a very good omen.” (p281)
“Among the 15,000 species of edible sea fish, only about 40, as have seen, are sold in the developed and wasteful societies of Europe.” (p284)
Spices:
The Greeks and Romans first valued cinnamon as “medicine, a cordial and an aphrodisiac.” (p437)
“The scent of vanilla is so intoxicating that in large doses, for instance inhaled by workers who handle large quantities daily, it sometimes has an effect like a drug.” (p473)
Have you ever been rickrolled?
Have you posted or received a demotivational poster?
Have you very nearly suffered a heart attack while trying to complete a scary maze?
If you can answer any of the above questions in the affirmative, then chances are you’ve seen or helped spread an Internet Meme.
What’s a meme? According to the OED Online, a meme is: “A cultural element or behavioral trait whose transmission and consequent persistence in a population, although occurring by non-genetic means (esp. imitation), is considered as analogous to the inheritance of a gene.” (Oxford English Dictionary).
In other words, a meme is an idea which spreads between people through word of mouth or mass communication. The idea for memes is credited to Richard Dawkins, who first mentioned it in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene,” although the notion of ideas being things that are passed down or spread virus-like from person to person is much older. If memes were common enough for Dawkins to notice them in 1976, they’ve become downright pervasive in recent years thanks to the internet. Internet Memes seem to pop up every day and spread rapidly across the networks. You’ve undoubtedly heard of LOLcats, “All Your Base Are Belong to Us,” and Leroy Jenkins. Maybe you’ve even contributed to the spread of these memes yourself. If you’re curious about Internet Memes, you may wish to check out the following resources:
Know Your Meme is a website, where memes are cataloged and studied. A word of warning, not all these memes are work-safe, so be cautious: (knowyourmeme.com).
NPR’s “All Things Considered” program recently aired a segment on Internet Memes as well: (www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=121931675).
Finally, if you’re interested in going back to the source, we carry the 30th anniversary edition of “The Selfish Gene” here at the Moraine Valley Library: (QH437 .D38 2006).
Source cited: “Meme.” Def. N. Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Oxford English Dictionary. Web. 11 Feb 2010. <http://dictionary.oed.com/>
