Each year some Nazi-like parents in the middle of the country feel that some fantastic book is offensive and should be banned from libraries. Pretty much it depends on the community to decide whether to follow through on this parents request and ban the book or to allow freedom of speech to prevail and make all books available to the masses.
Unfortunately there are a number of books that have been banned from public schools and libraries across the country. Last year the book at the top of the list for banning was “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell about a pair of male penguins that raise a baby penguin.
Why do I bring this up now you ask (and I’m glad you did)? Well, this upcoming week, starting tomorrow (sept. 29th) and going through October 6th, is Banned Book Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. The motto for the week is “Free People Read Freely.” Accoridng to the website:
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2007, marks BBW’s 26th anniversary (September 29 through October 6).
BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
To take part in banned book week all you need to do is pick up a banned or challenged book and read away. Do it in public, don’t be afraid to let people see you reading it, after all, that is the point, isn’t it?
Oh, also related, USA Today reports that the Federal government, after receiving enough pressure has decided to put banned religious books back into prison libraries.
For a list of banned books you can check out the ALA website, the site Banned Books, or just do a quick Google search for them. Or if you are too lazy for any of that you can just pick up Fahrenheit 451 or To Kill a Mocking Bird.or all the Harry Potter books, so, you’ve got some options.
Human social behavior shares much in common with dance. Our speech, as well as the movement of our body, head, and hands, is periodic and rhythmic. The goal of the BeatBots project is to develop robots that can interact with people by synchronizing with these social rhythms. We believe that rhythmic synchrony is as important for establishing engagement, rapport, and comfort between a robot and a person as it is between people.
Finally, I have a hater. A recent comment by “Steven” on my post about a recent Pizza Bar debacle left me pondering the utility of the ad hominem attack. “You need to grow up,” he wrote. “Your behavior was childish, and your blog post underscores your immaturity.”
Sandwiched in between that high praise was Steven’s point: that my gripe was ill-founded for x and y reason. I can agree with Steven’s point, but I do wonder what his real purpose was. If he wanted to change my mind, his method was curious. If he just wanted to make me feel bad, he should probably find a better hobby.
First I would like to thank all of our readers and glancers- Yesterday we passed 200 page views in a single day (219 to be exact)! Yeah, go us. Now let’s see if we hit 300 posts or 300 viewers first.
Next up I am going to post a quick follow up to the Google Maps new Street View function, a couple of folks have been wondering (including myself) how they actually go about getting those photos. Apparently it isn’t a man with a camera and a tripod taking a panoramic photo every 15 feet, but rather a van that does that, Engadget has a photo and a brief write up on it.
Next we have another Graffiti piece (don’t ask how you write a follow up to a piece you posted less then an hour ago, sometimes ti just happens) I am just going to post the original article and the follow up, there was a reason I didn’t really get into this one, but basically a school on the Lower East side had to paint over a wall twice due to Graffiti and posted a note to the writer/community about the damage that writing on walls does to the school it was written on. After learning the meaning of the graffiti, they followed their message up with a second note to the community posted on the wall. Definitely shows a social consciousness and works on building a stronger community up around the school. The original note is here and this is the follow-up from Gothamist
And for those of you looking for Kool-Aid Pickle Recipes I am working on locating one, or just giving it a whirl myself. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we have a real Kool-Aid Pickle recipe up here.
Okay, so since I have posted “Oh By The Way” I have received a number of comments about compact fluorescent lights (CFL) ranging from drying out your eyes, to containing mercury, to not really being more energy efficient then incandescent bulbs because they use so much more power in their start up. Well, I am here to settle some of this. To debunk some of these myths I have hit the web in search of some “trust worthy” sources and also tried to find a second source when possible to back up claims. So, after the jump find out the truth about fluorescents… Read more »
Each year some Nazi-like parents in the middle of the country feel that some fantastic book is offensive and should be banned from libraries. Pretty much it depends on the community to decide whether to follow through on this parents request and ban the book or to allow freedom of speech to prevail and make all books available to the masses.
Finally, I have a hater. A recent comment by “Steven” on my post about a 
First I would like to thank all of our readers and glancers- Yesterday we passed 200 page views in a single day (219 to be exact)! Yeah, go us. Now let’s see if we hit 300 posts or 300 viewers first.
Okay, so since I have posted “