Find a consensus cloud using top book lists and
prizes compiled from sources
including Time, the National Review & the Pulitzer Prize. Filter by author, nationality or gender and
click to explore. You can borrow them
all free from your public library. http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/novels-everyone-should-read/
Almost every recipe in every cookbook you've ever read says you must soak dried beans
before you cook them. In almost every
case that advice is wrong. Letting dried
beans sit overnight in a bowl of cold water does nothing to improve their
flavor or their texture. In fact, it
does quite the opposite. While soaking
shortens the unattended cooking time of beans somewhat, the time saved is
marginal and there are no other labor-saving benefits. Finally, soaking does absolutely nothing to
reduce the gas-producing properties of beans.
These may be difficult ideas to get used to, flying as they do in the
face of everything most of us have been taught about cooking beans. One friend, an Arizonan, dismissed the idea
out-of-hand, attributing it to my New Mexican background. "What do they know about beans?"
she said. But cooking unsoaked beans is
not new. No less an authority than noted
Mexican cookbook writer Diana Kennedy has advocated it for years. "If you
want the best-flavored beans, don't soak them overnight, but start cooking in
hot water," she says in "The Cuisines of Mexico" (Harper &
Row: 1972). Russ Parsons
"Discretion is the better part of valor" is a succinct version of the original. Falstaff: To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but
the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit
dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and
perfect image of life indeed. The better
part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my
life. Henry
The Fourth, Part 1 Act 5, scene 4, 115–121
We will visit Barcelona next September, and when I found it was 51 degrees
Fahrenheit at 10 p.m. there on January 7, 2015, wanted to compare their
latitude to that of Toledo, Ohio where it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit at 4 p.m. (Toledo is six hours behind Barcelona.) Barcelona is 41.23 and Toledo is 41.39. Find Barcelona latitude, longitude and time
at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001769.html
Then link to U.S. and Canadian cities to find
Toledo.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER PROGRAM (KIPP)
The mission of KIPP is to
create a respected, influential, and national network of public schools that
are successful in helping students from educationally underserved communities
develop the knowledge, skills, character and habits needed to succeed in
college and the competitive world beyond.
There are currently 162 KIPP schools in 20 states and the District
of Columbia serving 59,000 students.
More than 88 percent of our students are from low-income families and
eligible for the federal free or reduced-price meals program, and 95
percent are African American or Latino.
Nationally, more than 93 percent of KIPP middle school students have
graduated high school, and more than 82 percent of KIPP alumni have gone on to
college. There are 80 KIPP middle
schools (grades 5-8), 60 elementary schools (grades Pre-K-4), and 22 high
schools (grades 9-12). Students are
accepted regardless of prior academic record, conduct or socioeconomic
background. http://www.kipp.org/about-kipp
Jan. 24, 2015 They
walk, perform tai chi, sit when they're told, dance to Michael Jackson's
"Thriller" and speak 19 languages. At just 2 feet tall, these robots are also
apparently the jealous type. Their eyes
turn green when they want attention. Over
the past few months, robots Nancy and Vincent have also made international
headlines as the first humanoid, or human-like, robots to make their home in a
North American public library. Introduced
in October, their purpose at least so far is to demystify robotics, teach
computer programming and, no less important, provide some wonder, said Westport
(Connecticut) Library Executive Director Maxine Bleiweis. "Traditionally, libraries are places
where information is found and taken away. But many people, like us, also believe
libraries are places where information and ideas should be shared and
exchanged," Bleiweis said. "I
see our library as a kitchen, where there's the potential for amazing things to
be created. The robots are our latest ingredients, so now we're learning — and
teaching others — how we can use them."
Currently, Nancy and Vincent are being used to teach Python, one of the
most widely used computer programming languages. Similar in build to Disney's Buzz Lightyear
and made by the French company Aldebaran Robotics, Nancy and Vincent are
equipped with two cameras, four microphones, voice and visual sensors and
several types of programming software. Their
equipment gives them the ability to recognize sounds, tones and faces. And with 24 joints, they can turn their heads,
nod if they agree and stand upright after they've fallen. Yet they're only as human as their programmers
make them. As lifelike as they seem, neither Nancy nor Vincent can function
without commands, Westport Library Digital Experience Manager Alex Giannini
added, although it can be easy to forget it.
And at least for now, the library staff's primary plan is for them and
patrons to discover the robots' abilities together. Several area schools have asked about
arranging science and technology field trips, and Giannini's hoping residents
will rally around the idea of programming the robots to take part in a
library-sponsored poetry competition in the spring. Cindy Wolfe Boynton http://www.courant.com/new-haven-living/upfront/hc-nh-library-robots-20150124-story.html
Just off the coast of Naples and Salerno, between Cape Miseno and Amalfi, a great rock soars
in the cobalt blue sea that surrounds it. This Mediterranean jewel is the island of Capri. According to some scholars, the etymology of
the name Capri may be traced back to the Greek word Kapros (wild boar). Others
believe instead that Capri is derived from the Latin word Capreae (goats). Caesar Augustus was the first to discover the charm of
Capri when he visited the island in 29 BC.
So taken was he with the island's beauty that he traded the nearby fertile Ischia for it with the city of Naples. This marked the beginning of Augustan
rule. He was subsequently followed by
his successor Tiberius who embarked on an intense building program between 27 and 37 A.D., resulting in the construction of 12
villas. Read more and see pictures at http://www.capri.net/en/history
Paraphrases from the novel Faces of the
Gone by Brad Parks
On TV news, controversy is
far better than actual news.
Compositions of newspaper reporters are seldom confused with art.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1247
January 23, 2015 On this date in 1546,
François Rabelais published the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
On this date in 1943, Duke
Ellington played at Carnegie
Hall in New
York City for the first time.
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