Anniversary of flight

This Wednesday marks the 105th anniversary of an important day in the history of the world, the day when the first flight took place with a machine that was heavier than air. On December 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur brought their aircraft out on the sandy beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and started the motor and flew several flights that day. The world did not know the impact of those few flights would have on the course of world history. To find more information about this event, see the following:

• The Wright Brothers and the invention of the aerial age


• The Time 100: The Wright Brothers


• The Wright Brothers National Memorial


• The Wright Brothers Flying Machine

New Web site: Encyclopedia of Life

This post is about the Encyclopedia of Life website at: http://www.eol.org. The organizations responsible for this website are: The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library. They joined together to initiate the project, in May of 2007. And it says on the press release page that: "The effort is spurred by a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and will ultimately serve as a global beacon for biodiversity and conservation."
"The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth. At its heart lies a series of Web sites—one for each of the approximately 1.8 million known species. Each site is constantly evolving and features dynamically synthesized content ranging from historical literature and biological descriptions to stunning images, videos and distribution maps. Join us as we explore the richness of Earth’s biodiversity!"

Sunday-A Day that has lived in Infamy

The words rang out in the Capital of the United States: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy...." The words were spoken by President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt, and he was referring about the recent suprise attack of the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor, a United States Naval base in the Pacific Islands of Hawaii, which were owned by the United States. This Sunday marks the 67th anniversary of that attack. Some feel that the attack was a setup, that Roosevelt knew that the Japanese would attack. Others feel that it truly was a suprise attack. Whatever the viewpoint, that attack changed the United States forever. At the end of World War II, the United States stood as as the supreme protector of democracy and freedom in the world, one of only two superpowers in the community of nations, a role that it still has. Those who did not survive the attack on Perl Harbor should be honored, and those who survived it should be regarded as heroes. In fact, all those who participated in World War II should be rightly regarded as Tom Brokow put it, as the "greatest generation".

New Website on Terrorism

There is a great website on the Internet about terrorism. It is called the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT). It is located at: http://www.mipt.org. It is located in Oklahoma City and is was created by those who were involved in the Oklahoma City Federal Bombing in 1995. Those people “believed it important to create an Institute to actively engage in research and study, programs and reporting, to help policymakers and leaders have the best and most complete information in their hands to avert terrorism and/or lessen the impact of a terror event.”

It contains an information portal for those who are first responders to a terror event, and information for all citizens, and a information for researchers and academics. In this area, there is a large collection of documents about terrorism that has been collected and are available to the public. Also there is the Lawson Terrorism Information Center, in which you can access many ebooks from the Gale War and Terrorism collection and the Gale Virtual Reference Library about terrorism by registering (it is free to do so) with the Lawson Terrorism Information Center.

So come and take a look at this free website on terrorism. There are more resources being added to this collection all the time. A link will be added to this site under terrorism on the Social Issues Page, which is located as a link on the Internet Resources By Subject Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/search2.htm.

The Red ribbon is a symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS. Source graphics by Niki K. Date 14/12/2006 Author Gary van der Merwe

"The 1st of December, World AIDS Day, is the day when individuals and organisations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Whilst we have come a long ways since 1988, there is still much more to be done."

See World AIDS Campaign for more details.