DrWeb's Domain

Microsoft closing the book on Encarta | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft closing the book on Encarta | Beyond Binary - CNET News.

March 30, 2009 1:10 PM PDT
Microsoft closing the book on Encarta
by Ina Fried

Microsoft has quietly confirmed that it is getting out of the encyclopedia business, ending its long-standing Encarta product.

As noted by Ars Technica, the software maker says it will discontinue all its online Encarta products by October, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will run through the end of the year. It will also stop selling Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium, paid software products that included the online encyclopedia.

In a posting on its Web site, Microsoft said that the move reflected the change in the way people use reference material. It didn't mention Wikipedia by name, but I think we all know the biggest change to encyclopedias to come around in recent memory.

"Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years," Microsoft said. "However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft's goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today's consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business."

Earth Hour 2009

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:55:52 -0600 (MDT)
From: Elaine Harger

To: ALA Council List

FYI -- share with others!

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm local time, tens of millions of people will turn off all of their lights for an hour in support of the future of our planet. Earth Hour, an event led by the World Wildlife Fund, is now the largest event of its kind in the world. Already 250 cities in 74 countries have agreed to take part including Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville with more signing up every day.

National 4-H Council has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to address climate change as one of the most serious problems facing our world today. 4-H'ers can participate in Earth Hour too - in their own homes or by organizing and encouraging others to participate.

http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php

Elaine Harger
Councilor-at-Large

Elaine Harger
PO Box 311
Snoqualmie WA 98065
eharger@drizzle.com
425/831-8155 work

"Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of scum on top." Edward Abbey

Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars

Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars.

Academic Earth

"Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.

"As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, we ask ourselves, what are the real barriers to achieving a world class education?  At Academic Earth, we are working to identify these barriers and find innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning.

"We are building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars.  Our goal is to bring the best content together in one place and create an environment in which that content is remarkably easy to use and where user contributions make existing content increasingly valuable.

"We invite those who share our passion to explore our website, participate in our online community, and help us continue to find new ways to make learning easier for everyone."

Source: The site's About Us page

Really amazing site, videos or podcasts (audio) of great universities in the U.S. (so far) like Stanford and Harvard, lectures on general subjects.. there's a fantastic non-classroom education here...

Search EFF's FOIA Documents | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Search EFF's FOIA Documents | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Search EFF's FOIA Documents

EFF's Freedom Of Information Act project has gathered thousands of pages of material. These shed light on controversial government surveillance programs, lobbying practices, and intellectual property initiatives.

You can use the EFF FOIA Search Engine below to search and examine the documents' contents.

If you find something you think is significant, send us an email: foia@eff.org. The search engine is still in 'beta testing,' so results may not yet be complete or error-free.

Jefferson's Monticello: The Grounds: The Vegetable Garden

Jefferson's Monticello: The Grounds: The Vegetable Garden

Home » House, Gardens, Plantation » Gardens and Grounds » The Vegetable Garden

The Site of The Vegetable Garden
The 1,000-foot long garden terrace served as both a source of food and an experimental laboratory.

More »

For Spring, check out Thomas Jefferson's Garden at Monticello...

Swamp Thing, The All-Vegetable Anti-Hero, Returns : NPR

Swamp Thing, The All-Vegetable Anti-Hero, Returns : NPR.

Books We Like
by Laurel Maury

Swamp Thing, The All-Vegetable Anti-Hero, Returns

Saga Of The Swamp Thing, Book One By Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben Hardcover, 173 pages Vertigo List price: $19.99
Check out an excerpt

NPR.org, March 24, 2009 · Alan Moore is best known as the author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but his breakout work in America was the horror title Swamp Thing. In 1984, Moore took an unpopular second-tier comic book character — a superstrong, all-vegetable anti-hero from the bayou — and re-imagined him as a creature that longed for humans and the natural world to coexist in peace. Moore, a famous lefty, mixed his penchant for plumbing the psyche's unholy depths with concepts from the nascent environmental movement, making his revamped Swamp Thing a sensation.

Blockbuster and TiVo Join To Deliver Digital Movies - NYTimes.com

Blockbuster and TiVo Join To Deliver Digital Movies - NYTimes.com.

Blockbuster and TiVo Join to Deliver Digital Movies
By BRAD STONE, Published: March 25, 2009

With its lingering debt problems resolved for now, Blockbuster is pinning some of its hopes on a digital future.

The struggling video rental chain will announce a partnership with TiVo on Wednesday to deliver Blockbuster’s digital movie library over the Internet directly to the televisions of people with TiVo digital video recorders.

As with similar deals TiVo has struck to make digital video services from Amazon and Netflix accessible from its set-top boxes, no money will change hands between the companies. But Blockbuster also said it would sell TiVos at many of its 4,000 stores in the United States, taking a typical retailer’s cut of sales. The two companies plan a joint marketing campaign to promote the new service, which will start in the second half of the year.

I have TiVo Series 2 dual, and will try this out when available; so far, I've used it for Amazon's movies and free content, but not Netflix.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Rare project saves Hemingway papers

BBC NEWS | Americas | Rare project saves Hemingway papers.

Rare project saves Hemingway papers
By Michael Voss BBC News, Havana

A look inside Ernest Hemingway's Cuban home

An important collection of papers belonging to the American writer Ernest Hemingway has been saved for posterity, thanks to a unique joint rescue mission involving communist Cuba and the United States.

The letters, manuscripts and documents offer fresh insights into the man, his work and his colourful life.

For decades they had been gathering mould and dust in the basement of the Nobel Prize winning author's former home on the outskirts of Havana.

"Papa" Hemingway moved to Cuba in 1939 and spent 21 years living at the Finca Vigia or Lookout Farm, with its lush sub-tropical gardens and impressive views of Havana and the sea beyond.

The show goes on at vintage movie theaters - Luxury- msnbc.com

The show goes on at vintage movie theaters - Luxury- msnbc.com.

The show goes on at vintage movie theaters
Experience old-school grandeur and modern technology with the latest flick
By Kathryn O'Shea-Evans, Travel and Leisure
updated 1:14 p.m. PT, Wed., March. 11, 2009

In the 1920s — back when people dressed up to see the latest Hollywood feature — movie palaces resembled cathedrals. They lured moviegoers with polished-marble foyers, ceilings glowing with tiny starlike lights, hand-painted murals, costumed ushers and — the pièce de résistance — dramas unfolding on the screen like a cast spell.

Unfortunately, many of the world’s grandest movie palaces have gone the way of silent films — nobody’s making them anymore, and very few have survived in the era of TiVo and Netflix. Luckily, though, there are still a few operating vintage movie houses scattered around the globe — some in some very unlikely places.

See the slideshow of old theatres... http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/best-vintage-movie-theaters ...and, the Web site noted in the article, Cinema Treasures ...

Officer Krupke, You’re Historically Precise - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Officer Krupke, You’re Historically Precise - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com.

February 26, 2009, 10:30 am
Officer Krupke, You’re Historically Precise
By Ralph Blumenthal

Here’s a real New York detective story — or actually, more of a police officer story. A sergeant story. Sergeant Krupke, to be exact, and the search for his perfect 1950s uniform. You remember Officer Krupke. He’s the hapless foil for the high-spirited gang of teenagers of “West Side Story” and the target of a celebrated quasi-profane lyric that sent us all into conniptions way back before actual profanity got much of a hearing in public.
...
Next, Mr. Zecker headed for the picture collections of the New York Public Library, where he tracked down some photos of New York’s finest in 1950s garb and proudly brought copies back for the costume designer, David C. Woolard. But his boss “wasn’t pleased,” Mr. Zecker recalled. The photos did not make clear enough exactly where the badge had to be worn and the bars on the collar.

Movie Review - Watchmen - For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends) - NYTimes.com

Movie Review - Watchmen - For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends) - NYTimes.com.

Movie Review
Watchmen (2009)

For a Cold War, a Blue Superhero (and Friends)
By A. O. SCOTT Published: March 6, 2009

[Above, screenshot, review in New York Times]

The only character in “Watchmen” who possesses actual superpowers — resulting from an accident at a top-secret government research lab in the late 1950s — is Dr. Manhattan, a blue, bald, naked dude with blank eyes and the voice of Billy Crudup. Dr. Manhattan’s existence is busy and fairly melancholy, but I do envy him his ability to perceive every moment of past and future time as a part of a continuous present.

Aldous Huxley archive finds home at UCLA library | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times

Aldous Huxley archive finds home at UCLA library | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times.

Aldous Huxley archive finds home at UCLA library
8:00 PM | March 5, 2009

The UCLA library has acquired the literary archive of Aldous Huxley, the visionary essayist and novelist who is perhaps best known for his book "Brave New World," which dealt with the dehumanizing effects of scientific progress. The collection contains literary materials Huxley created after his Los Angeles home was destroyed by fire in 1961, as well as correspondence, photographs, audiotapes, type scripts and galley proofs retrieved from publishers after his death in 1963. Also included are the papers of his wife, Laura Huxley, an author and lay therapist.