Fwd: Support School Libraries Now!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:37 AM
From: "Vickie Kline" <vkline@ycp.edu>
This uses the petition area on whitehouse.gov If you register, there are also petitions on copyright and ACTA...
Support School Libraries NOW by signing
the ESEA petition!
Support School Libraries NOW. Sign the new White House petition about requesting funding and recognition for school libraries in the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We know that school libraries make a difference in the lives of students. Now is the time for school librarians to show our strength to gain the support school libraries deserve. Library Media Connection supports Carl Harvey's petition requesting support for school libraries because every child deserves access to a strong school library program. If 25,000 people or more sign the petition, it will reach the Obama administration. Do your part! Stand with LMC and sign the White House petition for strong school libraries at this link: http://wh.gov/Wgd
Use this as a real life advocacy lesson!
Anyone over the age 13 can sign this petition. That means high school and university students, teachers, and parents can show support by signing it. Here are some tools to help you explain it to them.
A Mini-Lecture on Advocacy. LMC's Editor, Gail Dickinson, who is on faculty at Old Dominion University, provides a mini-lecture on advocacy and how the ESEA issue is a real-life example. Share with your colleagues and students. Click here.
Want to know how to sign the petition step-by-step? Joy Millam, from Valencia High School in Placentia, CA, developed this quick tutorial. Click here to learn how or to share with others!
The Team at Library Media Connection
130 Cremona Drive
librarymediaconnection.com
LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION—is the professional magazine for school library media and technology specialists. LMC delivers proven, real-world practical information; professional development; and educator-developed book and technology reviews six times each school year.
Posted by Friends of the Zeiss at 4:14 PM 2 comments:
Breathtaking Cloud Formation Shines Over Rockies
Remy Melina, OurAmazingPlanet Contributing Writer
Date: 31 January 2012 Time: 01:15 PM ET
Richard H. Hahn snapped this stunning picture of a lenticular cloud over Rocky Mountain National Park just after sunset on Jan. 5, 2012.
CREDIT: Richard H. Hahn
This spectacular, multi-hued formation of lenticular clouds was observed soon after the sun set over Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, Colo., on Jan. 5.
Professional photographer Richard H. Hahn was on the south side of the park's Deer Mountain when he noticed the unique cloud formation in the dusk sky. He rushed to find a shooting angle that would place the colorful clouds in the context of the valley and mountains, and he snapped the magnificent view at 5:02 p.m. MST (7:02 EST).
MORE: http://www.livescience.com/18220-lenticular-cloud-formation.html
Posted by Friends of the Zeiss at 3:08 PM 1 comment:
Powerful Sun Storms May Sweep Away Space Junk
by Nola Taylor Redd, SPACE.com Contributor
An artist's illustration of a satellite collision from space debris in orbit. Space traffic accidents only beget more such accidents.
CREDIT: European Space Agency
Violent sun storms that shoot bursts of energy in Earth's direction have the potential to damage satellites and power infrastructures, but they can also clear the skies of dangerous space debris, NASA scientists say.
The energy from these intense solar eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, causes the atmosphere to expand, creating more friction on pieces of space junk in orbit. The resulting drag sends orbital debris plummeting back toward Earth faster than trash from previous years.
MORE: http://www.space.com/14413-solar-storms-cleanup-falling-space-junk.html
Fw: The Launch of PA Forward | Pennsylvania Libraries
Monday, January 30, 2012 7:00 PM
From: "Kathy Silks" <kathy@palibraries.org>
The long-awaited public launch of Pennsylvania Library Association's PA Forward initiative has been confirmed for Monday, February 13, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. at the State Capitol Rotunda. This press conference will highlight the vital role libraries play in improving literacy and the innovative library partnerships that PA Forward represents. Feel free to join us in person if you'd like to be part of the live event.
Much to celebrate: PA Forward has attracted an impressive group of fifteen "founding" partners – corporations, state agencies, and statewide associations with a public commitment to libraries and literacy. More exciting news: a passionate library advocate, best-selling Pennsylvania author Lisa Scottoline, will be PA Forward's honorary chair, and we've recruited an Advisory Board of thirteen equally passionate leaders from various fields to provide strategic guidance, connections, and advocacy. I'll brief you soon on more exciting PA Forward developments, including the upcoming launch of our website, paforward.org.
Your own launch: We encourage you to plan your own "launch" event after February 13 to reinforce the statewide launch of PA Forward and the importance of the "five literacies." Ideally we want the "buzz" to build statewide following the launch and continuing through National Library Week in mid-April. Some libraries are planning their own press conference to announce a new literacy-related program or strategic partnership. Others anticipate celebrating and promoting an ongoing program/service tied to one of the essential literacies. Regardless of the form your launch takes, we encourage you to create your own buzz by showcasing the ways your library helps people build essential literacy skills.
To help you "build buzz": You'll find new PR "toolkit" materials on the PaLA website (http://www.palibraries.org/, click on PA Forward Library Resources) to guide you through the event planning process and give you language to position your library in a new way. Developed by PPO&S and PaLA's PR/Marketing Committee, these documents offer a wealth of event ideas, planning guidelines, and checklists, plus tips for creating partnerships and working with the media. And coming next week: an elevator speech and press release templates for your literacy-related events.
Keep us posted: We want to know your PA Forward plans, so please submit a launch event form, which you'll find among the toolkit materials. It will take just a few minutes to complete.
Many, many thanks: We have much to celebrate as PA Forward prepares to go public, and PaLA is grateful to the libraries, organizations, and individuals whose generous commitment of wise counsel, strategic thinking, and financial support has led us to this point.
On to the launch!
Kathy Silks
Project Manager, PA Forward | Pennsylvania Libraries
Pennsylvania Library Association
220 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 10
kathy@palibraries.org
www.palibraries.org
New Star Discoveries Found in Antique Telescope Plates
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
This variable star system, called DASCH J0757, brightened by a factor of 4 at its peak, for mysterious reasons. It was discovered through the DASCH project to analyze old photographic plates that show how stars alter over a century. The top left shows the star system before its outburst, while the top right shows the system during the outburst. The variable star is marked with a green circle, while a neighboring constant star is marked in magenta. The lower panel shows the 100 year DASCH light curve of J0757.
CREDIT: DASCH/Tang/Grindlay
A century's worth of astronomical photographic plates have revealed a slew of new variable stars, many of which alter on timescales and in ways never before seen.
The discoveries come from a new analysis of the 500,000 plates made by the Harvard College Observatory from the 1880s through the 1980s, covering the whole sky. The trove of old-school data has offered astronomers an unprecedented look at how stars change over long timescales.
"The Harvard College observatory has the most wonderful, best collection [of photographic plates] in the world," said Harvard graduate student Sumin Tang, who works on the plate analysis program. "It's a very unique resource because it's over 100 years. No other data set could do this."
MORE: http://www.space.com/14359-telescope-photographic-plates-dasch-variable-stars.html
Mysterious gelatinous spheres rain down in England
By Tecca | Today in Tech – 4 hrs ago
The discovery of mysterious, blue, gelatinous spheres in an English backyard has captivated the imagination of scientists and the public alike. What the heck are the spheres? And where did they come from?
MORE: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/mysterious-gelatinous-spheres-rain-down-england-181256486.html
Newt Gingrich's Moon Base by 2020: Can It Be Done?
An artist's interpretation of NASA's next crewed lunar lander, the Altair.
CREDIT: NASA.
GOP presidential primary candidate Newt Gingrich has promised a manned moon base by 2020 if he is elected, yet such a plan will face some serious budgetary and practical hurdles, experts say.
Gingrich is in Florida competing for that state's nomination for the Republican candidacy against Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Ambitious plans for America's space program are likely to generate enthusiasm among those in Florida's space industry, hard-hit by the retirement of the space shuttle last year.
MORE: http://www.space.com/14411-newt-gingrich-moon-base-cost.html
Former Buhl Science Center President Dies
Joshua Whetzel Jr
Joshua C. Whetzel, Jr., a chemist who, from 1982 to 1991 was President and Chairman of the Buhl Science Center (updated name for Pittsburgh's original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science), died on 2012 January 24 at the age of 90.
He was the long-time Chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. In that capacity in 1975, he spearheaded development of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail, conversion of the railroad rights-of-way of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and other regional railroads into a walking, hiking, and biking trail between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Maryland. In Cumberland the "GAP" Trail connects with the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal Tow-Path Trail between Cumberland and Washington, DC; at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, this trail connects with the north-south Appalachian Trail.
While some people were skeptical whether the GAP Trail would be successful, Mr. Whetzel was sure it would become a popular trail. Mr. Whetzel was right. As of 2019, after the GAP Trail was completed, it is now visited by people from all 50 states and throughout the world every year!
In the early 1980s, while he was still Chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, he was asked to take charge of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science and help update the Institute's exhibits and image. The name change to Buhl Science Center, in February of 1982, was the beginning of several changes.
A Computer Learning Lab opened in June of 1983, in the Octagon Gallery, where more than 20 Apple IIe computers replaced Buhl's 4 Texas Instruments computers. At the entrance to the Computer Lab was an early touch-screen computer called "Pixel Paint Pots," which the public could use to "paint" different color designs on the screen.
Robotics was also a new program at Buhl Science Center, which included the display of a large industrial robot which etched plastic name tags for visitors' key rings. Students were also taught to build small robots. And, there was a special robot weekend which filled the Buhl Planetarium building with visitors.
Other new exhibits included multi-module displays on topics such as optics and perception ("Image/Imagination"), acoustics ("Sounds Sensational"), and motion ("The Right Moves"). Physics demonstrations for the public were given in a new Discovery Lab.
A new exhibit, of particular interest to Joshua Whetzel, was an Embryology exhibit titled, "The BioCorner," where chicks, and occasionally ducklings, were hatched in front of the public's eyes every weekend. Mr. Whetzel had seen a similar exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and decided Buhl Science Center should also have such an exhibit. Glenn A. Walsh was asked to create such an exhibit, and served as Curator of the exhibit from May of 1983 through May of 1987. After the exhibit opened, it quickly became one of the most popular exhibits in the building, particularly for young children. More info on the BioCorner Embryology Exhibit:
>>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/biocorner/historybiocorner.html
Joshua Whetzel took a keen interest in special events planned for the return of Halley's Comet in 1985-1986, including a special planetarium show and special nights for public telescope viewing of the comet in Buhl Planetarium's Astronomical Observatory. He was also involved in special events for the celebration of Buhl Planetarium's 50th anniversary in 1989.
Joshua Whetzel spearheaded the drive to increase the size of the Science Center. When expansion at the Buhl Planetarium site in Allegheny Center seemed too small, he accepted the City of Pittsburgh's invitation to build a new science center building on the north bank of the Ohio River. After successfully seeking a merger between Buhl Planetarium and Carnegie Institute in 1987, the new Carnegie Science Center opened in 1991. The original Buhl Planetarium building is now used by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
Joshua Whetzel also served in several other Pittsburgh area organizations including the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, and he served on the Board of Directors of Dollar Savings Bank until April of 1996 (elected to the Dollar Bank Board of Directors 1972 February 17; retired from the Board 1996 April 18).
Here are links to obituaries for Joshua Whetzel, published in Pittsburgh's two morning newspapers --
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
>>> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12028/1206623-122-0.stm
Pittsburgh Tribuen-Review:
>>> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_778666.html
Related Blog Post ---
Laserium: 40th Anniversary (2013 Nov. 19) ---
Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh and his family visited Buhl Planetarium on 1984 May 25 to see Laserium. The Governor had been invited that evening by Buhl Science Center President Joshua C. Whetzel, Jr., who was lobbying for state funding for construction of a new science center building on the North Shore of the Ohio River, across from Downtown Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/11/laserium-40th-anniversary.html
Posted by Friends of the Zeiss at 1:35 AM 1 comment:
Solar Eclipse over the USA
Jan. 27, 2012: Mark your calendar. On Sunday, May 20th, the sun is going to turn into a ring of fire. It's an annular solar eclipse--the first one in the USA in almost 18 years.
An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the sun, but the lunar disk is not quite wide enough to cover the entire star. At maximum, the Moon forms a "black hole" in the center of the sun.
"The ring of fire:" Astrophotographer Dennis L. Mammana photographed this annular eclipse behind palm trees in January 1994. Copyright D. L. Mammana. [more] [video]
MORE: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/27jan_annulareclipse/
This Astronomer Quietly Achieved Great Things
Chris Anderson Skywatch | Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 1:15 am | (0) Comments
One of the nice things about astronomy is that it's a small science, in the sense that the number of professional astronomers is pretty few.
Unlike the vast majority of his peers, Charlie Kowal never got a PhD.
Before coming to Hubble, Charlie discovered 81 supernovae, five comets, two moons of Jupiter, and 19 asteroids — including a whole new class of asteroids orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune (the Centaurs).
MORE: http://magicvalley.com/lifestyles/recreation/this-astronomer-quietly-achieved-great-things/article_41990c2d-bcf6-5cad-8e4e-cdf264c76d6a.html
Declassified US Spy Satellites from Cold War Land in Ohio
by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor
Gambit 1 KH-7 is one of three formerly classified reconnaissance satellites that went on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, starting Jan. 26, 2012.
CREDIT: U.S. Air Force
A trio of once-secret U.S. spy satellites built to look down on the Soviet Union were unveiled in Ohio this week in a rare public display by the United States Air Force.
The vintage reconnaissance satellites joined the Cold War Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday (Jan. 26), and will eventually be installed in a new wing for space relics and other aircraft. The satellites — called KH-7 Gambit 1, the KH-8 Gambit 3 and the KH-9 Hexagon — were officially declassified in September by the National Reconnaissance Office and released for public viewing.
MORE: http://www.space.com/14394-declassified-spy-satellites-air-force.html
Lego man in space moves the Web
By Claudine Zap | The Upshot – 10 hrs ago
Two teens from Toronto successfully launched a Lego figure into near space -- and launched a storm of interest on the Web.
Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, 17-year-old classmates at Agincourt Collegiate Institute, took four months, many Saturdays, and $400 to carry a Lego figurine and four cameras miles above the earth, a project that the two did for fun, not for class.
MORE: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/lego-man-space-moves-230122438.html
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
Guest Blog HomeAboutContact
Apollo 1: The Fire That Shocked NASA
By Amy Shira Teitel | January 27, 2012 | 4
The Apollo 1 Command Module after the fire that claimed the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Credit: NASA.
NASA's Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced. A routine prelaunch test turned fatal when a fire ripped through the spacecraft's crew cabin killing all three astronauts. Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, a tragic and preventable accident. There were warning signs, similar accidents that had claimed lives both in the United States and abroad. The Apollo 1 crew could have been saved from a gruesome death.
MORE: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/01/27/apollo-1-the-fire-that-shocked-nasa/
Video: 'UFO' at Bottom of Baltic Sea?
Video: Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea
By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – 59 mins ago
A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden.
"This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we have a UFO here on the bottom," said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the amateur treasure hunters.
Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it's not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have "drag marks" behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet.
"Could this be the Star Wars Millenium Falcon, a plug to an inner world or a marine version of Stonehenge?" asks CNN's Brooke Bowman
MORE: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/video-divers-large-unexplained-object-bottom-baltic-sea-161749619.html
Posted by Friends of the Zeiss at 8:41 PM No comments:
Bus-Size Asteroid to Give Earth Close Shave Friday
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
The newly discovered asteroid 2012 BX34 (whose orbit is represented by the blue line) will come within 0.17 lunar distances of Earth on Jan. 27, 2012, experts say.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A small asteroid will make an extremely close pass by Earth Friday (Jan. 27), coming much nearer than the moon, but the space rock poses no danger of impacting our planet, NASA scientists say.
The newfound asteroid 2012 BX34, which is about the size of a city bus, will pass within 36,750 miles (59,044 kilometers) of Earth at about 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Friday, astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program announced via Twitter.
The space rock is about 36 feet (11 meters) wide, making it much too small to pose a threat to Earth.
"It wouldn't get through our atmosphere intact even if it dared to try," Asteroid Watch scientists tweeted today (Jan. 26). Asteroid Watch is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
MORE: http://www.space.com/14373-asteroid-2012-bx34-earth-flyby.html