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DVDs - Home Sweet Home Cinema - NYTimes.com

DVDs - Home Sweet Home Cinema - NYTimes.com.

DVDs
Home Sweet Home Cinema
By DAVE KEHR, Published: November 27, 2008

DVD sales might have slumped recently, but you’d never know it from the super-duper collectors’ editions and cunningly packaged boxed sets coming out this season, each seemingly more lavish than the last. And with Blu-ray players starting to come down in price, this may be the moment to add high definition to your home theater setup.

Here are some of the most notable film-on-DVD releases, ranging from seasonal favorites through discs for the most dedicated cinephile. The prices given are the manufacturers’ suggested retail; substantial discounts can be found with a bit of shopping around.

UNESCO designates Iowa City as the world's third City of Literature

UNESCO designates Iowa City as the world's third City of Literature.

University of Iowa News Release
Nov. 20, 2008

Update: For more information on the Nov. 25 event, click here.

UNESCO designates Iowa City as the world's third City of Literature

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. "This is at once a celebration of the literary riches and resources of Iowa City and a spur to action," said University of Iowa International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill, who led the UI Writing University committee that submitted the city's proposal. "We look forward to working with our new partners in the Creative Cities network -- to forging dynamic relationships with writers, artists and others committed to the life of discovery. This is a great day for Iowa City."

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture - The Scout Report -- Volume 14, Number 47

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture - The Scout Report -- Volume 14, Number 47.

As cafés close in France, some grow concerned about the vibrancy of café culture

Café where immigrant culture and mainstream Paris meet
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/1121/1227137525761.html

Across France, Café Owners Are Suffering [Free registration may be required] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/world/europe/23cafe.html?ref=todayspaper

Society-Parisian cafes and terraces
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france_159/discovering-france_2005/france-from-to-z_1978/society_1987/parisian-cafes-and-terraces_6836.html

The Tradition of Coffee and Coffeehouses Among Turks
http://www.turkishculture.org/pages.php?ChildID=204&ParentID=12&ID=56&ChildID1=204

Smart City Radio: An Authentic Sense of Place [Real Player] http://www.smartcityconsulting.com/smartcityradi/past_shows.cfm?showsmartcityID=327&PageNum_getsmartshows=9

10 Hottest Coffeehouses
http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/americas-best-coffee-houses-story.html

In France, a country known for its outdoor philosophizing and café culture, there are a few ominous changes as of late that have many lovers of Gallic culture and pastimes rather worried. This past week, the New York Times reported that France now has fewer than 41,500 cafes, down from 200,000 in 1960. It is estimated that two cafes close every day in France. There are many suspected reasons for the closings, including the downturn in the economy, changing habits, and a time crunch among working professionals and just about everyone else. More and more French people consider the very ritual of having a cigarette, an espresso, and an aperitif unhealthy, and most can hardly afford the time to commit to such a leisurely paced activity. Some café owners are quick to blame the smoking ban that was instituted by the French government this past January. Others feel that the café is an essential part of French culture, particularly one Daniel Perry, who remarked, "We need the café to have an equilibrium between the village and the world outside. Without the café, you lose the conviviality. You lose your mates. Business agreements are made behind the zinc." [KMG]

Copyright 2008 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

CA State Librarian Hildreth To Head Seattle Public Library - 11/25/2008 10:45:00 AM - Library Journal

CA State Librarian Hildreth To Head Seattle Public Library - 11/25/2008 10:45:00 AM - Library Journal.

CA State Librarian Hildreth To Head Seattle Public Library
Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 11/25/2008 10:45:00 AM

* Currently California State Librarian
* Was San Francisco city librarian
* Former PLA president

Susan Hildreth, currently state librarian of California, has been selected to lead the Seattle Public Library. Seattle’s five-member board made a unanimous decision November 24 after a nationwide search.

Known in the field as an excellent administrator, as city librarian/CEO, Hildreth will oversee a $50 million budget, 710 employees, and facilities that include the central library, 26 recently replaced or renovated branches, and a mobile services division. She will report to the library board, who are citizen volunteers appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. Hildreth is expected to begin her new position in early 2009. She succeeds Deborah Jacobs, who left the post in July.

Smart Phone OS Smackdown - PC World

Smart Phone OS Smackdown - PC World.

* PC World * »Phones * »Smart Phones
Smart Phone OS Smackdown
The 'smart' in smart phones comes from the software they run. Which operating system--iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Symbian--packs the most power, usability, and potential? Harry McCracken, PC World Nov 20, 2008 5:00 pm

Remember when a phone was just a phone? You'd no more give thought to its operating system than you would to the one that your microwave oven ran. Boy, have times changed.

Today's smart phones are pocketable, Net-connected personal computers, and the OSs they use have a huge impact on their power and their personality. Buy a phone, and you're committing to a platform just as surely as you are when you choose a PC or a Mac.

To see how today's smart phone OSs stack up, I spent time with five leading ones as experienced on phones that show them to good advantage: Apple's iPhone OS (which I tried on the iPhone 3G, using AT&T's network), Google's Android (on T-Mobile's G1), Microsoft's Windows Mobile (on HTC's Touch Diamond, using Sprint), Nokia's S60 3rd Edition on Symbian (on the company's N96, sold only in unlocked form), and RIM's BlackBerry OS (on the company's own BlackBerry Bold, using AT&T).

BBC NEWS | Europe | European online library launches

BBC NEWS | Europe | European online library launches.
The British Library is among many institutions contributing

The British Library in London is among more than 1,000 cultural organisations making contributions to a European online library. The free multimedia venture, Europeana, will also see input from the European Commission and the Louvre Museum. Internet users will be able to access more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films. These will be sourced from institutions across the EU's member states. Further expansion for the project, which was created by the European Commission and is run by the European Digital Library Foundation, is planned for 2010.

Paging Through History's Beautiful Science : NPR

Paging Through History's Beautiful Science : NPR.

Health & Science
Paging Through History's Beautiful Science
by Joe Palca
Listen Now [6 min 13 sec]

Saturday, November 15, 2008

What makes something beautiful?Is it exquisite colors? Elegant form or striking style? Or can something be beautiful simply for the ideas it contains?

The answer to that last question is a resounding "yes," according Dan Lewis, Dibner senior curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. He's the man responsible for a new exhibition at the library called "Beautiful Science: Ideas That Changed the World."

Enjoy the audio and images.. there's also a video on some works from the exhibit on the site...

Duke Magazine-Brave New World by Jacob Dagger-September/October 2008

Duke Magazine-Brave New World by Jacob Dagger-September/October 2008.

Volume 94, No.5, September-October 2008
Brave New World by Jacob Dagger
Reference librarians in the age of Google

At a symposium hosted last year by Columbia University's library system, Steven Bell, a librarian from Temple University, took a controversial stand.

In a public debate before an audience made up almost entirely of reference librarians, Bell argued for the abolition of the reference desk by the year 2012.

His position wasn't as radical as it might sound. He wasn't advocating that his listeners retire or find new jobs. To the contrary, he said he believes that their services are more important than ever. But with the Internet changing not only the ways that people—students, scholars, and even librarians—conduct research, but also how they communicate, he believes the old model of a desk staffed by highly trained reference librarians is well on its way to becoming outdated, perhaps even extinct.

Stealing Your Library: The OCLC Powergrab (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)

Stealing Your Library: The OCLC Powergrab (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought).

Raw Thought: Stealing Your Library: The OCLC Powergrab

This is the story of a monster, a sorcerer's apprentice, a nice little thing that's grown and grown until it's gotten out of hand and turned on its creators. It's the story of a little-known organization called OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center) that is -- no joke -- trying to steal your library, all of our libraries, for itself.

OCLC was founded in 1967 by Fred Kilgour, a pioneering Ohio librarian, with a simple idea: Instead of having every library in the country separately catalog a book -- laboriously entering its title, author, and subjects in just the right format -- why not have one person enter the cataloging information, upload it to a central computer, and then let everyone else download a copy from there?

It was called WorldCat, for World Catalog, and it's been a resounding success. Today it has around 50 million book records. But OCLC, the group that owns and operates it, has been a different story. It started small -- a little office in Ohio, a set of membership dues to share the cost of running the servers. But OCLC's control passed from librarians and academics to business people (its senior executive comes from consulting firm Deloitte & Touche). They realized they had a monopoly on their hands and as costs for running servers have gone down, their prices have gone up. They charge you once to get your records added to WorldCat and charge you again to get them back out and charge you a third time for a whole series of additional fees and services.

And these prices are high. A friend who runs a small public library with around 5000 cardholders was asked to pay $5400 to contribute his records and $700 to get records out, plus a whole series of "User Support" and "New Member Implementation" fees -- all far more than he could afford.

Be sure and check out the additional information on the Code4Lib wiki here.. stay tuned, this isn't quite a done deal yet, and it's patently unfair. Contributors don't even get to "own" their own submissions, AFAIK...

Slashdot | Non-Profit Org Claims Rights In Library Catalog Data

Slashdot | Non-Profit Org Claims Rights In Library Catalog Data.

Non-Profit Org Claims Rights In Library Catalog Data
Posted by timothy on Thursday November 13, @02:48PM
from the paging-dr-gracenote dept. Books The Almighty Buck

lamona writes
"The main source of the bibliographic records that are carried in library databases is a non-profit organization called OCLC. Over the weekend OCLC 'leaked' its new policy that claims contractual rights in the subsequent uses of the data, uses such as downloading book information into Zotero or other bibliographic software. The policy explicitly forbids any use that would compete with OCLC. This would essentially rule out the creation of free and open databases of library content, such as the Open Library and LibraryThing. The library blogosphere is up in arms . But can our right to say: "Twain, Mark. The adventures of Tom Sawyer" be saved?"

dBusinessNews :: A North Carolina Frasier Fir Tree Selected for the White House Christmas

dBusinessNews :: A North Carolina Frasier Fir Tree Selected for the White House Christmas.

A North Carolina Frasier Fir Tree Selected for the White House Christmas

Triangle - For the 11th year, a Christmas tree from North Carolina’s High Country is White House-bound. The state has provided the White House tree nearly twice as many times as any other state. Experience the magic by choosing a North Carolina Christmas tree for your house.

Raleigh - The 2008 White House Christmas tree has been chosen from the tiny town of Crumpler, N.C. Jesse Davis of River Ridge Tree Farm grew the tree in Ashe County’s Blue Ridge Mountains just a few hours drive north of Charlotte or west of Raleigh.

The Frasier Fir tree will be cut on Saturday, November 29 and travel to the White House; the next day, it will be placed in the Blue Room. This is North Carolina's 11th year to supply a White House tree and the second consecutive year an Ashe County tree has been selected. ((MEDIA ARE INVITED TO THE TREE CUTTING. DETAILS FORTHCOMING.))

In August, River Ridge Tree Farms won the right to supply the White House tree by being named 2008 Grand Champion at the National Christmas Tree Association meeting in Des Moines, Iowa. Their farms are located throughout the northwest region of North Carolina and southwest Virginia. www.riverridgetreefarms.com

The Associated Press: First fuzzy photos of planets outside solar system

The Associated Press: First fuzzy photos of planets outside solar system.

The Associated Press
First fuzzy photos of planets outside solar system
By SETH BORENSTEIN – 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system, images captured by two teams of astronomers. The pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white, nearly indecipherable except to the most eagle-eyed experts. All are trillions of miles away — three of them orbiting the same star, and the fourth circling a different star.

None of the four giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable or remotely like Earth. But they raise the possibility of others more hospitable.

It's only a matter of time before "we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike," said astronomer Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. He led one of the two teams of photographers. "It is a step on that road to understand if there are other planets like Earth and potentially life out there," he said. Macintosh's team used two ground-based telescopes, while the second team relied on photos from the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to gather images of the exoplanets — planets that don't circle our sun. The research from both teams was published in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

MacArthur Grant for Librarians to add to Web search [OCLC]

MacArthur Grant for Librarians to add to Web search [OCLC].

News releases
OCLC, Syracuse University and University of Washington to help develop a new Web search experience based on expertise from librarians

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 7 November 2008—Researchers and developers from OCLC, the world's largest library cooperative, and the information schools of Syracuse University and the University of Washington today announced their participation in a new international effort to explore the creation of a more credible Web search experience based on input from librarians around the globe. Called the "Reference Extract," the planning phase of this project is funded through a $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

"Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the most powerful," said Dr. Mike Eisenberg, Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Information School of the University of Washington and a lead on the project. "The best search engines are great for basic search, but sometimes the Web site results lack credibility in terms of trust, accuracy and reliability. So, who can help? Librarians. If a librarian recommends a Web site, you can be pretty sure that it's credible. RefEx will take hundreds of thousands of librarian recommendations and use them in a full-scale search engine."
...
The Reference Extract project will hold a series of meetings and consultations over the coming months. The team is eager to build a business plan and technology architecture to benefit users and the library community alike. Those interested in providing input on the project and learning more can visit the project Web site at http://digref.org.

TamCam - a blog of videos about Campaign 2008 by Tammy Haddad : Chevy Chase and His Presidential Memories

TamCam - a blog of videos about Campaign 2008 by Tammy Haddad : Chevy Chase and His Presidential Memories.

Posted Tuesday, November 04, 2008 11:09 AM
Chevy Chase and His Presidential Memories
Tammy Haddad

Chevy Chase didn't want Gerald Ford to be elected. In 1976 when he began portraying the stumbling, bumbling president on Saturday Night Live, Ford's pubic face and political fate was sealed. "I didn't want him to be president again, I wanted Jimmy Carter."

After writing political satire for the Smothers Brothers and other comedy shows, Chevy Chase came to Saturday Night Live as a writer and ended up on-air playing Ford. "It was more about getting laughs and a way to reach millions of people."

Chase reminded Newsweek that he called it for Sarah Palin this year. "We were all sitting around the Democratic Convention in Denver with a bunch of reporters and someone mentioned that a jet just left Anchorage. I said, it was going to be her and everyone laughed."

Essay - How to Read Like a President - NYTimes.com

Essay - How to Read Like a President - NYTimes.com.

Essay
How to Read Like a President
By JON MEACHAM, Published: October 31, 2008

Andrew Jackson was, to put it kindly, no scholar. When Harvard voted to give him an honorary degree in 1833, a Massachusetts newspaper wrote that he deserved an “A.S.S.” along with his “L.L.D.” From afar, the man Jackson had defeated for the White House, John Quincy Adams, was horrified his alma mater was recognizing a barbarian who could barely spell his own name.

As usual, though, the press and Jackson’s enemies did not have the man exactly right. I just finished five years of work on Jackson and his White House years, and I found that the reconstruction of his literary interests, from youth to old age, illuminated much about the arrangement of his intellectual furniture. His heroic sense of possibility? He loved Jane Porter’s novel “The Scottish Chiefs.” His thunderous rhetorical habit of posing a question and then answering it? He grew up memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church. His provincial obsession with manners, bearing and etiquette? He was a fan of Lord Chesterfield’s letters. His reflexive characterization of enemies like Henry Clay as “Judases” and his dependence on imagery from the Old Testament? He cherished the Bible and his late wife’s copy of Isaac Watts’s translation of the Psalms. His shrewd political sense? He was an unlikely admirer of the French philosopher Fénelon’s “Telemachus,” a kind of Machiavellian guide to ruling wisely.