Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink, The Power of Thinking without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell is a very interesting book. It explains the wonders of the subconscious mind. Many people think their subconscious mind doesn’t play a role in their every day functions but it is actually just as important as our conscious brain; it is often smarter and quicker to think than our conscious brain! This book teaches a great deal about human psychology. It points out subtle things about your thought process about which you are conscious but about which you are not aware.

Eric G.

Blink

Blink, The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell is a very interesting book. It explains about the wonders of the subconscious mind. Many people think their subconscious mind doesn’t play a role in their every day functions but it is actually just as important as our conscious brain; it is often smarter and quicker to think than our conscious brain! This book teaches a great deal about human psychology. It points out subtle things about your thought process about which you are conscious but about which you are not aware.

Eric G.

The Animal Farm by: George Orwell

The Animal Farm by George Orwell is a very interesting book. The book is about how animals at this one farm overthrew the owner of the farm by force. Eventually the animals overcome and defeat their masters in one quick and epic battle. Old Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He tells them of a dream he had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. He tells the animals they must work toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called Beasts of England, in which his dream vision is lyrically described.

The animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm. When he dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger pigs, Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer, formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. Late one night, the animals manage to defeat the farmer, Mr. Jones, in a battle and run him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves to achieving Major’s dream. The cart-horse, Boxer, devotes himself to the cause with particular zeal and commits his great strength to the prosperity of the farm. As a personal maxim, Boxer adopts the affirmation I will work harder.

Ultimately, Old Major dies and two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, start to lead the farm. Napoleon betrays Snowball, exiles him from the farm and forms his own totalitarianism rule on the farm. It’s a pretty good book. I recommend reading it.

Manuel G.

Science Videos and News

Science360 is a great resource for Science and Math videos and news. From the description on their website:

"Science360 Knowledge Network immerses visitors in the latest wonders of science, engineering, technology and math. We gather the latest science videos provided by scientists, colleges and universities, science and engineering centers, the National Science Foundation and more. Each video is embeddable to put on your own personal websites, blogs and social networking pages. Science360 engages the general public, science junkies and students alike in the cutting-edge discoveries and big science stories of the day."

The site includes The Science of NFL Football (also hosted on NBC Learn).

Science360 Videos
http://science360.gov/files/

Science360 News Service
http://news.science360.gov/files/

Two cool Math resources

Yeah, I said it! Cool. Math. Resources.

PLUS Magazine
http://plus.maths.org/content/
Here is part of the description from the website:

"Plus is an internet magazine which aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics...Plus provides feature articles, which describe applications of maths to real-world problems, games, and puzzles; reviews of popular maths books and events; a news section, showing how recent news stories were often based on some underlying piece of maths that never made it to the newspapers; a puzzle for you to sharpen your wits against; a lucky dip of mathematical curiosities; and opinions on various maths-related topics and news stories. We have a regular interview with someone in a maths-related career, showing the wide range of uses maths gets put to in the real world."

The Math Dude
http://mathdude.quickanddirtytips.com/
A podcast that is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips website, episodes on The Math Dude, covers various topics in Mathematics. Each episode includes download links and the transcript for the episode. Good stuff.

Study: E-reading is a appealing.

From the NY Times:

"Many children want to read books on digital devices and would read for fun more frequently if they could obtain e-books. But even if they had that access, two-thirds of them would not want to give up their traditional print books."


This and more interesting findings from a study by Scholastic, the folks who published the Harry Potter series.

Two cool Map sites for seeing the world as it really is...

Here are two sites for showing leading indicators and their relative amount to countries. In other words, if you want to see which parts of the world have the largest proportion of refugees or the highest rate of illiteracy, check out these sites.


Show World
http://show.mappingworlds.com//world/
Pick an indicator on the map (e.g. oil production, illiteracy) and the countries on the map will change size relative to their share of the total.

World Mapper
http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html
Similar to the Show World site, but not as flashy. It has a ton of maps, downloadable data, and some animated and pdf versions of the maps for printing. As of this writing, they have over 700 maps.

Improve your typing skills with these sites.

The Free Technology for Teachers blog highlighted 5 sites that you can use to help improve your typing skills.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/five-free-resources-for-developing.html

Get your grammar on with these two podcasts...

Grammar Girl

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

She tells it like it is in her podcast. At least as it relates to grammar and word usage, that is. The podcasts are short and useful. There is an extensive archive as well.

Grammar Grater

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/grammar_grater/

Another podcast, this one from  Minnesota Public Radio, explores the same territory, but with a little more drama (literally) and flair. Plus, the episodes run a little longer. They are taking a hiatus for the next few months, but you can look through the archives. 

Three Vocab-ulous Resources

Vocabulary + Fabulous, get it? Never mind. Check these out.


Merriam Webster's Visual Dictionary Online
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/index.php
Find the image for the word that you don't know.

IdiomDictionary.com
http://www.idiomdictionary.com/
Don't know how to define that odd culturally specific phrase. Then here you go.

Word Stash
http://www.wordstash.com/
Described as "half vocabulary builder, half dictionary, and full awesome," Word Stash provides contextual examples for definitions, audio pronunciation and tools for studying the words. Swwweeeeettt!

Banned Books #5

Today is our last day for celebrating Banned Books Week this year. We will leave our books display up for another week or so, though.

Check out this cool graphic from Good magazine. It is a great visual for communicating a lot of information about why these were the most targeted books for censorship. Click on the graphic to zoom in for a closer look.

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1005/targeted-books/flash.html

Twitter has had a big role in helping authors defend their books against challenges this year. Laurie Halse Anderson defended her book Speak against charges that it was "soft pornography" by using Twitter. Sherman Alexie (Absolutely True Diary...) and Ellen Hopkins (Crank) fought back on Twitter as well.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/twitter-banned-books-new-best-friend/

This video is from last year, but it's awsome!



Check out our other 2010 Banned Books Week Posts: #1 , #2, #3, #4.

Banned Books Week #3

Here are some pictures of our Banned Books Week 2010 display in the LRC. Please stop on by and check it out. Or check out one of the books and read it.

Stiff by Mary Roach

I really liked this book because it was unlike any other book. It was sort of gross in the beginning because of all the intricate details of dissecting DEAD PEOPLE. But, after reading it for a while, I sort of got used to it and thought of the dead people not as dead people but as wax figures or cadavers. I first got into this book because I am in Human Anatomy & Physiology. My teacher recommended this book to our class so I decided to check it out. I enjoyed this book myself but I definitely do not think it is for everyone. People with queasy stomachs and people who cannot stand the sight, or even thought, of dead people should not read it. If you do decide to read this book, as mentioned before, I would advise you to think of the dead bodies as wax figures, cadavers or even as science experiments (which they are in most cases).

Katrina T.

Introducing 5 (because 6 would be ridiculous)

Looking for something to read? Our new occasional feature 5 (because 6 would be ridiculous) is here to help. We are going to provide themed lists of books or websites on a semi-regular basis. But wait, that's not all! A printable list is attached that you can share with your class or your friends. Sweeeeet...

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Five Stories About Fighting Back.

F D637L Little Brother. Doctorow, Cory.

Immediately after being attacked by terrorists, San Francisco is turned into a police state run by the Department of Homeland Security. When a group of teenage hackers are falsely accused of aiding the terrorists, they fight to take back their city by creating a network called the Xnet, a movement that threatens to take down the Department of Homeland Security itself.

F M364t Tomorrow, when the war began. Marsden, John
Seven teenagers return from a camping trip to discover that their country has been invaded by a foreign power. Do they turn themselves in so they can be with their families? Go back to the woods and hide? Or do they stay and fight using guerilla warfare? Seven against an army seems like unlikely odds. Or are they?

F O79n 1984. Orwell, George.
1984 is set in an imaginary future world that is dominated by three nations that are constantly at war. Disagree with the government or have an independent thought and prepare to be re-educated by the Thought Police. Winston Smith decides to take on the government (otherwise known as Big Brother.) Will he survive or will he conform?

F P153f Fight Club. Palahniuk, Chuck.
Life is meaningless for the unhappy narrator until he meets Tyler Durden. Together they start a club designed to help its members relieve their frustration and disconnection by having bare fisted fights. Soon, similar clubs begin sprouting up around the nation. Tyler seems to have started a revolution and things are about to get a whole lot more dangerous.

F W526u Uglies. Westerfeld, Scott.
Want to have peace and harmony? Make everyone beautiful like movie stars. In this imagined future, when you reach the age of 16, you undergo plastic surgery to change your appearance so that you will match an ideal standard of beauty. Tally Youngblood can’t wait to turn 16 until she meets a group of people who refuse the operation. But would anyone not want to look perfect?

The Printable Handout Version (PDF)

What are you reading this summer?

Come check out our new summer reading display, Passport to the World, in the LRC. Edie did a great job putting it together. Please come by and tell us what you think.

Prom Advice

Prom is here at the end of the month (4/25). Haven't picked out your dress? Rented the limo? Here are two sites with advice and links :

Prom Advice
Prom Spot