The UT Knoxville School of Information Sciences (SIS) will host a forum with former SIS Director Ann Prentice on “The Public Library in the 21st Century,” noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, in the Scripps Convergence Lab, 402 Communications Building. A reception with refreshments will be held from 11:30 a.m. to noon.
The lecture will take a look at all aspects of the information revolution and provide insight into how libraries play a keystone role in this change.
Prentice is a professor emerita and former dean of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. She became director of the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences (now SIS) in 1978 and served as director until 1988.
Free and open to the public, the presentation also will be webcast.
In 2011, SIS will celebrate 40 years as an American Library Association-accredited program, and this lecture will be the first in a series that looks back to honor the school’s directors.
Several former SIS directors have been invited to lecture at future research forums. The list includes:
Gary Purcell, named director of the independent Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences (GSLIS) in 1971;
Jose Marie Griffiths, named GSLIS director in 1992;
Listen up, music stars: Rihanna has something to say about singers who agree to lucrative cash bonuses for littering their music videos with product placement. Just last week, handlers for former Destiny’s Child star Kelly Rowland sent out a mass email seeking commercial sponsors to pay to have their products strategically placed in the star’s forthcoming comeback vid. Rihanna, on the other hand, loathes artists who sell out to be “commercial.”
“I don’t like things to be so commercial. I hate product placement in my videos. Videos should just tell the story of the song. With product placement it becomes this big ad campaign. I just don’t like that. Sometimes we have to, for whatever polit-ical reason, but it’s never my first choice,” says Rihanna, who launched her fourth album Rated R with help from communication giant Nokia.
Guess we know what she thought of the “Telephone” video!
Up until recently, Palm’s ads haven’t exactly been anything we’d consider “embraced.” They also haven’t been anything we’d consider, you know, “good.”
Expect the ads to get more consistently good from here on out — or at least more consistently not featuring a creepy chick being creepy*. Palm has just cut their ties with Modernista, the ad agency responsible for those not-so-sales-friendly ads.
The story broke via AdvertisingAge, who points out that this is likely a part of Palm’s move to stronger point-of-sales ads over general brand advertising. Hopefully that doesn’t mean Palm’s moving away from the airwaves altogether; webOS’ biggest strengths are things that can be encapsulated in video in a matter seconds, and lawd knows that Palm needs more people knowing about (and more importantly, wanting) webOS.
* To the creepy chick referred to in this post, be it that she ever reads this: We don’t think you, personally, are creepy. In fact, you’re pretty cute. These ads just made you seem creepy. Sort of like when a puppy sleeps with its eyes open. Good luck in your future gigs!
A floating underwater hotel, created by a Swedish artist
The Utter Inn has what could be called at best very limited accommodations. It has only one available room houses only two single beds, but those lucky enough to occupy those two beds get a singular experience.
Created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, the Utter in is a hotel room / art piece / and marine life observation station all at once. Divided in two parts, part one floats above the water looking like a small cabin, in the design of a Swedish red house and contains a toilet, and a small cooker. But crawl through a hatch on the floor of part one, and you enter the real selling point of the Utter Inn, a bedroom three meters under the water, (essentially an watertight box) with windows on all four sides looking out into the Swedish Lake Malaren.
Located miles from the shore, to get to this small man-made “island” guests are picked up by an inflatable boat at the port, driven out to the hotel and left on their own until the next day. Other than the row boat which is provided (for exploring nearby natural islands) there is no way back.
Guests spend their time, watching the sunset, passing boats and birds overhead and sipping wine… provided they were smart enough to remember to bring some along. In the morning they awake to the sight of fishes feeding just feet away from their bedroom windows.
Remember however, this isn’t the tropics so don’t expect rainbow fish, more like pike and perch doing what they do naturally completely oblivious to the strange visitors peering at them from within a very unusual hotel.
“Today we are facing the consequences of the city’s failure to enact the
necessary rate increases with Fitch Ratings, a major credit rating
agency, withdrawing the DWP’s AA- bond rating, thereby costing the
ratepayers more in the long run.” — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on blaming the City Council for possible downgrading of DWP bonds..
“It seems they are holding the whole city of Los Angeles hostage because
of their inability to hold up to their word.” — Council President Eric
Garcetti on DWP’s refusal to turn over $73 million in surplus power revenue to the general fund.
“We have two weeks to address this crisis, which is why you must act
immediately. I cannot be more clear that urgent action is needed.” — Controller Wendy Greuel on discovering the city will run out of cash May 5.
Leave it to our city leaders to point fingers at each other and act like they suddenly awakened to find that thieves had looted the city treasury and left it broke.
They are all to blame. They are the thieves who looted the treasury and bankrupted the city. They must be held accountable or our collective guilt over having elected them in the first place will become our collective responsibility for the destruction of our city.
This is an artificial crisis over the $73 million the DWP promised the city. It was engineered by the mayor more than month ago as part of his strategy to win approval for an endless series of huge electricity rate hikes to force the City Council to approve his green energy scheme to enrich his friends, appease IBEW boss Brian D’Arcy and fund a “job buying” plan.
The real crisis occurred 18 months ago when the mayor and Council were told by city financial analysts that they were on the road to bankruptcy and must act urgently.
A year ago, they were told the city’s financial situation had gotten worse and this year and every year after for the foreseeable future would be even worse. They did nothing.
Six months ago, they knew they would run out of cash by May unless they took drastic action. What little they did was worse than doing nothing. They papered over the problem by transferring money and workers from one fund to another, approving plans to borrow to the hilt and sell off valuable revenue-generating assets.
Most of all, they talked about laying off 4,000 workers and slashing services and imposing backdoor taxes but it was all just talk that achieved nothing except to expose how badly they had managed the city, how little they knew about the havoc and inefficiency their policies had caused in virtually every department.
This is no longer a political machine feeding itself and special interests at the public’s expense. It is a chaos machine cannibalizing itself and the lives of the four million people who call it home.
The mayor has conducted a pogrom against our democratic institutions, politicizing every member of every commission, people who are supposed to be citizen watchdogs protecting the public interest, and every top manager of every department, people who are supposed to be the public’s servants.
It’s clear that commissioners and bureaucrats alike will be fired for even the slightest hint of disobedience to mayoral orders that are ill-conceived or even corrupt.
It’s easier to understand why people who are paid will knuckle under than to understand why reputable people with private lives and incomes would be part of this, yet only Nick Patsaouras and Jane Usher showed the moral courage to resign in protest.
It is going to take a massive uprising by the public to turn LA around. It won’t be done by the politicians or civic leaders, by the business community or by labor.
To do nothing now is to be the moral equivalent of a ‘good German,’ complicit by passivity. There is no time to waste.
Today, the DWP Commission will approve spending hundreds of millions of dollars despite its fantasy financial crisis, some of which will be payback to AECON Corp. for helping to fund Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner’s “job-buying” program, the greatest achievement of which is giving away $6 million to buy 30 sweatshop jobs. The DWP can do afford to spend so casually because it has $1 billion in cash lying around.
Today, the Council will take steps to eliminate virtually all of the public’s protections against destructive development projects and will give final approval to massive expansion of Playa Vista to enrich Goldman Sachs in gratitude for its help in funding Beutner’s efforts.
And they will sit around the horseshoe at City Council as they run through their agenda and blame the mayor for all that has gone wrong even as they put the bureaucrats once again through the fires of inquisition over why they have to cut services just because they are losing 30 or 40 percent of their staffs.
This would all be the stuff of comedy and farce if the consequences to kids and families, to businesses and workers, to health and public safety, to the future of the city were not so great.
We need new leadership. LA needs you. We need to fight them on every destructive act they attempt to make. We need credible new leaders to step forward and run for the seven Council seats on the ballot next March
If the mayor or Council members had a shred of common decency left, they would call together civic, business, labor and community leaders from across the city and start to go to work on how to rebuild LA together.
It’s not a mystery. It means real power sharing, complete transparency and accountability, a balance of competing interests and a commitment to the greater good of the greatest number.
If you won’t do the right thing now, it won’t make any difference later.
Ele sempre foi respeitado como uma das maiores lendas da marca de carros esportivos. Valentino Balboni, um piloto de testes extraordinário, é o homenageado pela Automobili Lamborghini com o modelo Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni. O superesportivo de luxo é um dos destaques do revendedor oficial Lamborghini São Paulo, sendo comercializado pelo valor de R$ 1.500.000,00.
A última versão do Gallardo, modelo de maior sucesso de todos os tempos da Lamborghini – com mais de 900 unidades produzidas no total – ostenta não somente seu próprio design e equipamento exclusivo, mas também uma tecnologia exclusiva. No emblema, o 550 representa a potência HP e o número 2 sua tração nas rodas traseiras.
Por muitas décadas, Valentino Balboni teve uma importante influência nos carros superesportivos que carregam a marca do touro. Com seu trabalho de regulagem fina e de testes, ele ajudou a moldar muitas lendas, partindo do Lamborghini Miura da década de 60 até os atuais Gallardo e Murciélago. Balboni foi contratado em 1957 por Ferrucio Lamborghini – o fundador da marca – e desde o início era evidente a sensibilidade que o jovem tinha com os carros: o mais especial instinto que conecta ao “sangue da vida” de um veículo e define a alma de um corredor de testes.
“Uma Lamborghini deve sempre combinar a precisão de um carro de corrida com a confiabilidade que teria um grande amigo”, diz Balboni. Desde 1973, ele sentou-se em frente ao volante de todos os protótipos construídos pela marca, e também, muitos outros carros produzidos passaram por suas mãos antes de serem entregues aos clientes. Isto tornou Balboni um dos mais importantes representantes da marca, com uma excepcional reputação entre os fãs e clientes da marca no mundo inteiro.
Limitada a 250 unidades
Depois de 40 anos com a Lamborghini, Balboni está oficialmente aposentado, mas continua viajando para muitos países ao redor do mundo como o embaixador da marca.
A exclusividade do Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni está assegurada e limitada em apenas 250 unidades.
Pisando leve: extremamente seguro
Com esta última versão do Gallardo, a Lamborghini homenageia aquele que foi seu piloto de testes por muitos anos de uma maneira muito especial. O LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni foi concebido em alinhamento ao próprio pensamento do piloto, satisfazendo os desejos de muitos clientes por um modelo de caráter exclusivo, que oferece um tipo ativo de dirigir com prazer. O modelo Balboni é atualmente o único Lamborghini com tração somente no eixo traseiro.
Garantia de uma performance notável
O motor de 5,2 litros e 10 cilindros, coração do Gallardo, também passou por ajustes: uma síntese perfeita do prazer de alta rotação, potência de saída, um temperamento constantemente exuberante e uma sinfonia poderosa em todos os detalhes. No Valentino Balboni, o compacto e leve motor gera 550hp. Pesando somente 1380 quilos, garante uma ótima performance: o LP 550-2 atinge de 0 a 100 km/h em 3,9 segundos, enquanto a velocidade máxima de 320 km/h garante seu espaço entre os carros superesportivos de destaque.
Elegância poderosa em um design particular
O Valentino Balboni não é apenas tecnologicamente exclusivo. Seu design e equipamentos reforçam sua unicidade. O caráter esportivo clássico é realçado por uma faixa nas cores branco e dourado passando pelo capô, teto e parte da cobertura do motor até o spoiler traseiro, com inspiração nos clássicos carros esportivos dos anos 70. Este tratamento de pintura destaca a elegância do Gallardo e realça o DNA do design exclusivo da Lamborghini. A edição especial estará disponível em 8 cores: do branco Bianco Monocerus ao Verde Ithaca, ou do laranja Arancio Borealis ao preto Nero Noctis. As rodas Scorpius mantêm seu acabamento cinza escuro enquanto as pinças de freio dependerão da cor externa, podendo ser preta, laranja ou amarela.
Clássica aparência esportiva também para o interior
A combinação de cores características é repetida no interior. A cor básica do estofamento de couro é preta e ambos os assentos apresentam a faixa na cor branca. O console central é totalmente revestido com couro Branco Polar para criar um eficaz destaque. Abaixo da janela esquerda há um emblema com a assinatura de Valentino Balboni e o número de produção do carro.
A exclusividade do Valentino Balboni é aumentada por seu extenso equipamento. Além das diversas novas características na parte interior, há também a transparente cobertura do motor, a câmera para visão traseira, o sistema de navegação com Bluetooth e o sistema de elevação do eixo dianteiro que facilita a passagem sobre obstáculos. Adicionalmente ao extenso equipamento standard, uma lista de opcionais também está disponível, incluindo transmissão e-gear e freios carbo-cerâmicos.
Vicenzo Lancia foi um engenheiro inovador e os seus automóveis são a sua imagem. Em 1922 surpreendeu o mundo com o Lambda (produzido até 1931), o primeiro automóvel equipado com uma suspensão dianteira independente e um châssis monobloco. Em 1937, num período conturbado, que culminou com a II Guerra Mundial, Gianni Lancia herdou a empresa do pai. Durante o conflito, o engenheiro Vittorio Jano (que mais tarde viria a estar intimamente ligado ao sucesso da Ferrari) desenvolveu em segredo vários projetos em colaboração com o jovem Francesco de Virgilio.
No final da Guerra, Gianni Lancia pretendeu desenvolver um automóvel equipado com um motor V6, mas o estreito châssis monobloco da Lancia não permitia montar esse tipo de motor. Francesco de Virgílio concluiu que a única solução seria criar um bloco compacto, com um ângulo de 60°. Foi este o motor que equipou o Aurelia apresentado no Salão de Turim de 1950, modelo radicalmente diferente do Aprilia que veio substituir.
O motor V6 de 1,75 litros de capacidade despejava 56 cv de potência, mas o Aurelia pesava mais de uma tonelada e as performances não estavam à altura do seu vanguardismo tecnológico. Mesmo assim, o modelo foi adotado com sucesso , o que incentivou a Lancia a aumentar a cilindrada para 2,0 litros e a potência subiu para os 70 cv. A Nardi colocou no mercado uma versão ainda mais potente, equipada com dois carburadores.
Em 1951 surgiu o Aurelia GT que veio a vencer a sua classe em provas de prestígio como as 24 Horas de Le Mans e as Mille Miglia. No entanto, os sucessos desportivos e a paixão pela competição, que levaram a marca a apostar também na Fórmula 1, ultrapassaram os desígnios comerciais e a Lancia entrou em falência em 1955, vindo posteriormente a ser adquirida pela Fiat.
This is Gina. Now trust that our favorite internet Auntie would manage to hunt down a single frame of Malia appearing to yawn during the Annual Easter Egg Roll:
I realize he’s not a celebrity, but Barack Obama’s kids, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, couldn’t contain their boredom at the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House yesterday (April 5) in Washington, DC. About 30,000 people attended the 132-year-old tradition of rolling colored eggs down the South Lawn of the White House. SandraRose.com
You can go to Sandra’s to see the photo. Yawning does not necessarily equal boredom.
In defense of Malia, Horton Hatches an Egg was an extremely long story. I checked out when Horton got captured and sold to the circus and then got into a custody battle with a mama bird. I kid you not Horton had some serious legal issues in that children’s story. Later on the crowd perked up when the wiggles started performing. At least I think it was the Wiggles. No one appeared to be having more fun than First Lady Michelle Obama.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot recently filed a lawsuit against the federal government regarding global warming a subject that is much discussed when people get together here in Wichita Falls it seems. How does global warming affect people in Wichita Falls? How will any changes in the government’s plans of reducing global warming affect jobs in Wichita Falls if it is determined that it is not man-made?
The national news media has headlined Abbott’s lawsuit as the first of its kind.
What is the basis for this lawsuit?
Abbott is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that gases blamed for global warming threaten public safety.
More than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting the current man-made global warming scare, according to a new analysis of peer-reviewed literature by the Hudson Institute.
Dennis Avery, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, said, “Of the 500 scientists who have refuted at least one element of the global warming theory, more than 300 have found evidence that a natural moderate 1,500 climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to the current circumstances since the last Ice Age and that such warnings are linked to variations in the sun’s irradiance.”
Dehydrated? Feel the heat biting through your skin? Need an ice-cream? Well here’s a great way to spread the ice in scorching summers. Powered up using solar energy, the IceKart irks the sun by using its resources to spread cool treats. The IceKart is fitted with solar panels on the top that soak in the heat and generate electricity. This electricity is used to power up the cart’s refrigerators that store your favorite iced delight.
Its eco-friendly efficient qualities and design make the IceKart great for use during seasons like these when the sun tries to prove its heated point. Its two huge rear wheels and jolly design will also grab a whole lot of attention, from kids and adults alike. Freeze the heat with the IceKart!
I breastfed all three of my boys for 11-16 mths. I did this because it was the best thing for them, but it seems that under Obamacare the tax payers will also benefit from my three years and five months of nursing…
“…900 lives, in addition to billions of dollars, can be saved if 90 percent of babies born in the United States were breastfed, even if they are nursed for only six months. This conclusion is the result of a recent study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
The findings suggest that breastfeeding can help prevent hundreds of deaths and many costly illnesses each year, including stomach viruses, each infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden infant Death Syndrome and even some cancers like childhood leukemia.
In the United States, an estimated 43 percent of U.S. mothers breast feed their babies for six months, but not exclusively. Only 12 percent of babies received breast milk exclusively for six months.
The low breastfeeding rate is estimated to cost $13 billion. ” (Read the entire story)
Left to right: Kathy Sierra (World Bank), Carlos Perez del Castillo (CGIAR), Rudy Rabbinge (CGIAR) and Busani Bafana.
Zimbabwean journalist Busani Bafana is the 2009 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Agricultural Science Journalism, described by CGIAR as”[a] professional who has put his way with words at the service of Africa’s agriculture”.
In a story entitled “A Better Banana for Africa,” which Bafana wrote for Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa, he reports on efforts in Kenya to improve banana yields and health, which are keys to “Africa’s potential banana boom.”
Bafana’s article offers a close-up view of the research, allowing readers to look over scientists’ shoulders, as it were, while they work with skill and commitment to provide farmers with more productive, disease-free plants.
The panelists were impressed by the nominee’s coverage of banana tissue culture to combat the crop’s diseases and improve its yields in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the background information and opinions sought to effectively highlight this issue to the public.
In a letter endorsing Bafana’s nomination, Terna Gyuse, regional editor for IPS Africa, lauded the reporter for his sustained effort to “portray the realities of the agricultural sector, with a particular emphasis on the voices and experiences of the small farmers who are the backbone of the continent’s food security.”
Bafana received the award at a conferment ceremony on March 29, 2010 at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2010) in Montpellier, France.
A disappointment to the green community in India, solar-powered rickshaws have been pulled off the road. These rickshaws were unveiled last year by the Municipal Corporation, to whom they have been dolefully returned. Besides the already overweight passengers, the solar panels act as an added weight to the rickshaw pullers, increasing their workload.
Ironically, this project, costing the authorities Rs. 1,500,000, was undertaken to reduce the labor involved. Rickshaw-pullers have complained that the batteries drained after 40 kilometers, after which man power was required. The pullers were also required to pay the Municipal Corporation Rs. 500 every month, an act that fell heavy on their pockets. Using lightweight solar modules available nowadays might help reduce the load and the backache of rickshaw-pullers in India.
The SuperNES emulator for iPad is extremely fast and, according to Snes4iphone developer ZodTTD, “it looks, sounds, and plays great.” The best thing: It’s just a quick port of the iPhone version. The worst thing: It’s not an official app. More »
Sean Penn has been sued over his violent clash with a photograper last October. The Oscar winner is facing a lawsuit from the snapper who alleges he suffered serious injuries when Penn kicked and threatened to kill him in a bust-up last fall.
The actor has already been charged with two misdemeanour counts of criminal battery and vandalism after reportedly attacking paparazzo Jordan Dawes and damaging his camera, but Dawes claims being “kicked and punched” by the Milk actor has left him in need of surgery on his knee.
According to legal papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, Dawes accuses Penn of breaking his camera before threatening his life, vowing: “The next time I see you, you will be in a box.”
Dawes is seeking an unspecified sum in monetary compensation for the alleged attack. The criminal case against the star is still pending.
If these are successful, you can bet on more just like them. So get out there, everyone, and show Old Spice that we want to pay them to bombard our Xboxes with advergames.
All over your BlackBerry, in nearly every native application, you can navigate quicker using shortcut keys. We’ve gone over plenty of these in our previous BlackBerry quick tips. There are home screen shortcuts, browser shortcuts, message screen shortcuts, and many more. In fact, I find it a bit frustrating, sometimes, when I try a new application that seems like it should have shortcuts but does not (including some Twitter apps). I noticed that in the message screen tips, we didn’t cover shortcuts within the message. So we’ll go over that, and then add to the message screen shortcuts.
It’s a good thing that Toyota’s March sales were up 41% over March of 2009, because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking a $16.4 million fine against the automaker. Under federal law, automakers have five days to notify the NHTSA that a safety defect has been found; documents obtained from Toyota identify the sticky accelerator pedal issue as early as September 2009, months before the NHTSA was notified.
The $16.4 million fine is the maximum allowable per violation, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is looking for additional violations from Toyota. If any are found, rest assured that Toyota will be slapped with more fines.
The previous record fine was $1 million, levied against GM in 2004 for failing to disclose an issue with windshield wipers. The original amount of that fine was $3 million, but GM was able to negotiate a lower settlement. It will be interesting to see if Toyota has any luck doing the same; given the current political climate, I’d be guessing no.
When we first heard about this gingery beer from Left Hand Brewing, we were a little…leery. Beer and ginger makes us think of those overly-spiced winter warmer beers that flood the shelves around the holidays, and we couldn’t imagine the flavor translating to springtime. Oh, how we love to be proven wrong!
You already know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You also know that you are what you eat. So chances are you tend to save greasy bacon-and-eggs breakfast binges for special occasions, opting instead to start your days with some … Read more
