Universal Records Database (URDB) is an evolution of a Burning Man theme camp created in the summer of 2004. A group of friends, including URDB co-founder Dan Rollman, sat down in San Francisco to brainstorm theme ideas for their camp. Eager for a concept that allowed community participation, Dan suggested a Burning Man Book of Records, in large part due to his lifelong Guinness Book obsession. They called themselves the Playa Book of Records (PBR), an homage to the book they’d been inspired by. They bought yellow suit jackets as a nod to Wide World of Sports, drew up documentation forms, made hand-painted signs and took off for the desert, unsure of what was to come. After just a few days documenting records, they sensed they were onto something. Camp visitors were dreaming up and setting unique, creative and spectacular records. They were taking great pride in their feats. Competition was fierce, with record setters returning daily to make sure their achievements hadn’t been topped. http://urdb.org/about

The Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks, completed in 1963, is part of a Washington, D.C. museum known for its exquisite gardens designed by Edith Wharton's niece Beatrix Farrand. Now owned by Harvard University, the museum was originally the home of philanthropists Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, who filled it with their extensive collection of rare books and Mesoamerican art. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200430308293042.html

In 1959, the Blisses commissioned the architect Philip Johnson to design the pavilion for the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. This building—eight domed circular galleries (having an unroofed fountain area at the center) set within a perfect square—recalls Islamic architectural ideas, and Johnson later credited the design to his interest in the early 16th-century Turkish architect, Mimar Sinan. The pavilion was built in the Bosque (or copse), one of the designed landscapes at Dumbarton Oaks, and Johnson employed curved glass walls to blend the landscape with the building. He later reminisced that his idea was to fit a small pavilion into an existing treescape, to make the building become part of the Bosque. Johnson maintained that he wanted the garden to march right up to the museum displays and become part of them, with the plantings brushing the glass walls and the sound of splashing water audible in the central fountain. http://www.doaks.org/museum/pco_collection/philip_johnson_pavilion.html

See images of the pavilion at: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&biw=1916&bih=874&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=The+Pre-Columbian+Pavilion+at+Dumbarton+Oaks&aq=f&aqi=&aql=f&oq=

AVG Technologies, a provider of consumer security software, has revealed details of a sobering study uncovering new statistics about the data security risks involved in everyday smartphone use. Findings are the result of a recent study conducted by the Ponemon Institute in concert with AVG of 734 random US consumers over age 18 regarding their mobile communications behavior. See AVG white paper at: http://aa-download.avg.com/filedir/other/Smartphone.pdf The study confirmed AVG’s concerns focus on consumers indifference to the many serious security risks associated with the storage and transmission of sensitive personal data on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. Following are three of the most alarming:
(1) 89 percent of respondents were unaware that smartphone applications can transmit confidential payment information such as credit card details without the user’s knowledge or consent.
(2) 91 percent of respondents were unaware that financial applications for smartphones can be infected with specialized malware designed to steal credit card numbers and online banking credentials, yet nearly a third (29 percent) report already storing credit and debit card information on their devices and 35 percent report storing “confidential” work related documents as well.
(3) 56 percent of respondents did not know that failing to properly log off from a social network app could allow an imposter to post malicious details or change personal settings without their knowledge. Of those aware, 37 percent were unsure whether or not their profiles had already been manipulated. http://www.avg.com/us-en/press-releases-news.ndi-1088

The letters y and w spell vowel sounds as part of vowel team spellings when they are immediately after another vowel letter (tray, valley, guy; paw, new, brown).
The letter y by itself can spell three vowel sounds: long e as in happy, short i as in gym, and long i as in try or cyclone. http://www.readsters.com/wp-content/uploads/YandWVowelsConsonants.pdf

National Library Week is April 10-16. The 2011 theme is “Create your own story @ your library..."
Visit libraries online at: http://www.libraryspot.com/libraries/
Visit Crayola's activity page at: http://www.crayola.com/calendar/detail.cfm?event_id=144
Visit Librarians' Index to the Internet at: http://www.ipl.org/
http://www.chiff.com/education/national-library-week.htm

Onion Snow by Bobbi Katz
I wake to heavy quiet this April morning:
a special weighted sound.
Outside my window snowflakes fall
softly, softly feathering the ground—
softly, softly bearding the daffodils.
Grandma always called it onion snow.
Arriving when wild onions have
started to grow,
those foolish fat flakes don’t
seem to know
they are too late for winter
and misfits in spring. Excerpt from poem on a Booklinks bookmark from American Library Association--see full poem at: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklinks/resources/onionsnow.pdf