Nuclear bomb Dropped on Hiroshima

Today marks the 54th year since the first time that human beings used a nuclear bomb on other people. On August 6, 1945, A lone B-29 bomber flew to Japan and dropped one bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The Japanese were not afraid of one lone aircraft, but when that one bomb exploded, it killed thousands of people. Read the description of the effects of the blast:

Those closest to the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to black char. Nearby birds burst into flames in mid-air, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly ignited as far away as 6,400 feet from ground zero. The white light acted as a giant flashbulb, burning the dark patterns of clothing onto skin (right) and the shadows of bodies onto walls. Survivors outdoors close to the blast generally describe a literally blinding light combined with a sudden and overwhelming wave of heat. (The effects of radiation are usually not immediately apparent.) The blast wave followed almost instantly for those close-in, often knocking them from their feet. Those that were indoors were usually spared the flash burns, but flying glass from broken windows filled most rooms, and all but the very strongest structures collapsed. One boy was blown through the windows of his house and across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within minutes 9 out of 10 people half a mile or less from ground zero were dead.

People farther from the point of detonation experienced first the flash and heat, followed seconds later by a deafening boom and the blast wave. Nearly every structure within one mile of ground zero was destroyed, and almost every building within three miles was damaged. Less than 10 percent of the buildings in the city survived without any damage, and the blast wave shattered glass in suburbs twelve miles away. The most common first reaction of those that were indoors even miles from ground zero was that their building had just suffered a direct hit by a bomb. Small ad hoc rescue parties soon began to operate, but roughly half of the city's population was dead or injured. In those areas most seriously affected virtually no one escaped serious injury. The numerous small fires that erupted simultaneously all around the city soon merged into one large firestorm, creating extremely strong winds that blew towards the center of the fire. The firestorm eventually engulfed 4.4 square miles of the city, killing anyone who had not escaped in the first minutes after the attack. One postwar study of the victims of Hiroshima found that less than 4.5 percent of survivors suffered leg fractures. Such injuries were not uncommon; it was just that most who could not walk were engulfed by the firestorm.

Read more at the following website: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm

The Top 100 Books Ever Written

Newsweek Magazine published a list of the top 100 books ever written. Whenever someone does things like this, there is always spirited debate about the ones included and left out. You may agree or disagree, but the list was made up of books that have been on other lists, such as the New York Public Library, and Oprah.

The link to the list follows: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204478

Government websites: Weather and Drought

The National Weather Service web site at http://www.weather.gov/ has 8 tabs on top of the web page above the U.S. map. The home page defaults to the first tab, which is Warnings & Forecasts. There are several ways to navigate this site. By clicking on a specific area on the U.S. map, you would be linked to a different National Weather Service Forecast Office. Using the drop down menu below the Warnings & Forecasts tab, you can find warnings for a specific state. You can also find the weather forecast to a specific location on the left hand side of the page in the search box that says Local forecast by “City, St.” You can use the search box by typing the zip code rather than the city and state.

The second tab is the Graphical Forecasts tab. This tab will show graphical forecasts for the current weather, temperature, wind speed and direction, precipitation amount and chance of precipitation. This information comes from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD).

The National Maps tab is where you can find the old fashion maps seen on TV. You can click on the Legend link, which is located right below the map, for information on the different fronts and other symbols that can be found on a map.

Next is the Radar tab which defaults to the continental U.S. You can choose a specific part of the nation as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico and by clicking on Loop of this image you can see the radar in action.

The Water tab contains information about rivers with an emphasis on flooding. This is a joint initiative from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Air Quality tab gives information about ozone. By using the Satellite tab, you will find infrared, visible, and water vapor satellite images.


The drought.gov web site at http://www.drought.gov/ is a clearinghouse of information gathered by several agencies. Some of these agencies include the Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Interior and Transportation departments. The emphasis for this web site is the scarcity of water. This site has several tabs on top of the web page. After the What is NIDIS tab, which stands for the National Integrated Drought Information System, is the Current Drought tab. This tab has links to the U.S. Drought Monitor and the North American Drought Monitor.

By using the Forecasting tab, it shows the latest U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook. The Impacts tab defaults to the National Drought Mitigation Center’s Drought Impact Reporter, which gives an opportunity for citizens to report actual drought impacts. This section also has a gallery of photos related to drought.

The Planning tab has a section called Drought Planning Processes and it provides links on how to plan for a drought. The Education tab has links to educational materials and it’s organized by General Audiences and K-12 and Above.

The 100th Anniversary of the start of classes

Monday, June 14, 1909, was the first day of classes for the new institution that would one day be called Southeastern Oklahoma State University, or just Southeastern. At that time it was one of several state normal schools that had been established to help train teachers. Around 500 teachers registered for this, the first summer semester of the institution. According to David Norris, classes conviened each day at 8:00 AM. Since the first building built at Southeastern was not completed until 1911, classes were held at either the high school or the Presbyterian College. There was a break for lunch and then classes continued for four more hours in the afternoon. At 8 PM there were chapel exercises held at the Methodist Church.

This Sunday, marks 100 years from the start of classes at SOSU. Thus, this is the marks 100 years of Southeastern as an institution. This is the day that all activities that have been done this year in commeration of 100 years have been pointing to. Congraulations to Southeastern for 100 years of building futures!


Source:

David Norris. A History of Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Durant, OK: Mesa Publishing Co, 1986.

D-Day 65 Years Ago

This Saturday marks the 65th anniversary of when the combined Allied forces landed on the shores of Normandy, France in an attempt start a second front to bring down Hitler's Nazi Germany. Wikipedia states that D-Day "was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 160,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944."

Each year, more and more of those who survived the invasion and passing on, making fewer to remember. But we as Americans should always remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice on that day and the days after to bring the war to its end. We should also remember all those who fought bravely on this day.

The Great Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919

The news media have been comparing this current swine flu epidemic to the great flu pandemic of 1918. Here is a government website from the Department of Health and Human Services that contains information about this great pandemic. http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/index.htm. There is information about what life was like in 1918, facts about the pandemic, the pandemic in every state, documents and media, and books about the pandemic.

Buy Indie Day

May 1st has been declared Buy Indie Day. The idea: buy one book—paperback, hardcover, audiobook, whatever you want!—at an independent bookstore near you. See more information at: Indebound

May Day

Tommorrow is the first of May, called May day. Here is what the Infoplease says about May Day: "May 1st, often called May Day, just might have more holidays than any other day of the year. It's a celebration of Spring. It's a day of political protests. It's a neopagan festival, a saint's feast day, and a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday."
"Beltane was a Celtic calendar feast ushering in the start of summer. (It also went by a variety of other spellings and names in assorted dialects of Gaelic.)"

"Bonfires, often created by rubbing sticks together, were common features of Beltane celebrations. Related rituals included driving cattle between two fires, dancing around the fires, and burning witches in effigy. Another tradition was Beltane cakes, which would be broken into several pieces, one of which was blackened. They would be drawn by celebrants at random; the person getting the unlucky blackened piece would face a mock execution."

"In medieval England, people would celebrate the start of spring by going out to the country or woods—"going a-maying"—and gathering greenery and flowers, or "bringing in the may.""

"Another English tradition is the maypole. Some towns had permanent maypoles that would stay up all year; others put up a new one each May. In any event, the pole would be hung with greenery and ribbons, brightly painted, and otherwise decorated, and served as a central point for the festivities."

"May Day was also a time for morris dancing and other dances, often around the maypole. In the 19th century, people began to braid the maypole with ribbons by weaving in and out in the course of a dance. Other later traditions include making garlands for children and the crowning of the May Queen."


"In many countries, May Day is also Labor Day....Labor Day is still celebrated on May 1 in countries around the world, and it is still often a day for protests and rallies. In recent years, these have often been targeted against globalization."

For more information see the Infoplease web site at: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mayday.html

New Government Documents

The Library at Southeastern has recently acquired a number of books about the military from the Department of Defense. Since Southeastern is a government depository, the library has an excellent collection of military history as well as what’s been going on with the war on terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan. A majority of the material published by the Department of Defense including those that are listed below are located in the Government Documents room on Floor 2A. Some of the other titles are located on the second floor.

D 1.2:SCO 8
Scouts out!: The development of reconnaissance units in modern armies by John J. McGrath

D 101.2:AF 3/2
Long hard road: NCO experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq

D 114.2:AR 5
The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare, 1775-2007

D 114.2:T 68/2
Transforming an Army at war: Designing the modular force, 1991-2005 by William M. Donnelly

D 114.2:V 67/3
Field artillery, 1954-1973 by David Ewing Ott

D 208.202:AS 4
Asia eyes America: Regional perspectives on U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy in the twenty-first century by Jonathan D. Pollack

D 214.13:AL 4
U.S. Marines in battle: al-Khafji, 28 January -- 1 February 1991

D 214.13:IR 1/2
U.S. Marines in Iraq, 2003: Basrah, Baghdad and beyond by Nicholas E. Reynolds

D 214.13:IR 1/3
Among the people: U.S. Marines in Iraq by David A. Benhoff

D 221.2:C 88
The world cruise of the Great White Fleet: Honoring 100 years of global partnerships and security by Michael J. Crawford

D 301.26/6:AF 8
Stopping mass killings in Africa: Genocide, airpower, and intervention by Douglas Carl Peifer

D 301.82/7:D 72
General James H. Doolittle : the Air Force's warrior-scholar

D 301.82/7:K 82
Khobar Towers: Tragedy and Response by Perry D. Jamieson

D 301.82/7:L 46
A century of air power leadership: Past, present, and future: Proceedings of a symposium by Jacob Neufeld

D 301.82/7:L 56
United States Air Force 60th anniversary: Lessons learned in airpower throughout the ages

D 301.82/7:R 25/2
Reflections on Air Force independence by Herman S. Wolk

Other titles that have been added to the government documents collection are

HE 1.2:R 53/SPAN.-ENG.
The road to a healthy life: Based on the dietary guidelines for Americans

HE 1.2:W 84/10
The healthy woman: A complete guide for all ages

HE 20.6202:2007
Adolescent health in the United States, 2007

J 1.14/2:C 33/3
The FBI: A centennial history, 1908-2008

LC 1.6/4:AE 8
Aeronautical and astronautical resources of the Library of Congress: A comprehensive guide

NF 3.2: AM 3/8
Picturing America

PREX 3.17:AG 3
The Agency and the Hill: CIA's relationship with Congress, 1946-2004 by L. Britt Snider

Y 1.1/7:108-224
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007

Y 3.N 21/29:2 H 34
The health benefits of volunteering: A review of recent research

Government CD's and DVD's

Within the Government Documents collection, we have CD's and DVD's.
The Census (C), NASA (NAS) and Homeland Security (HS) CD's and DVD's are located in the Government Documents room on Floor 2A. All other CD's and DVD's that pertain to Education (ED), Environment (EP), Health (HE) and so forth are located on the main floor of the Library. Most of them are on top of the Microfiche cabinets. The rest are at the Circulation Desk. Some of them have statistical information. All of these item can be checked out.

April Fools Day

The origin of April Fools' Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced.[2] In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.[citation needed] In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the times of Noah. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when he sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.[3] A possible reference to April Fools' Day can be seen in the Canterbury Tales (ca 1400) in the Nun's Priest's tale, a tale of two fools: Chanticleer and the fox, which took place on March 32nd.[4]

[1] KIDPROJ Multi-Cultural Calendar

[2]April Fools' Day Encyclopaedia Brittanica

[3] Olmert, Michael (1996). Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella: Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History, p.186. Simon & Schuster, New York. ISBN 0-684-80164-7.

[4] thirty-two days since March began

• April Fool's Day-Wikipedia


• Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time


• April Fool's Day--Origin and History--Information Please


• April Fool's Day--History, Traditions and Foolishness


• Snoopes--April Fool's Day Origins

It is Spring

On the Twentieth of March (last Friday) the sun was directly over the equator, and the amount of day and night were equal. When this happens each March of every year, it is known as Spring. So now we are officially in Spring, the time when plants begin to grow again and everything becomes green.

For more information, see the following:

• Equinox
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernal_equinox

Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th, a day considered by many to be unlucky. Why is this day considered so? The following is from Wikipedia:

"According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century.[1][2][3]....

However, some folklore is passed on through oral traditions. In addition, "determining the origins of superstitions is an inexact science, at best. In fact, it's mostly guesswork."[5] Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.[2]
Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales,[6] and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.[3][7] It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. [8]"

The 1930's at Southeastern

The 1930's at Southeastern was a time of change for the campus. It saw its first female President and the wife of the President of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt come to the campus. The library has a display of pictures, programs and events from the 1930's at Southeastern on display at Henry's on the first floor of the Library. Some of the items in the display include:

• An inviation to the Progress Dinner on May 20, 1937 honoring President Kate Galt Zaneis


• A 1931 Savage Football schedule


• SOSU Bulletins from 1930 to 1940


• an aerial view of the Southeastern Campus in the 1930's


• A copy of Kate Galt Zaneis: First Lady of Educationa master's thesis submitted in 1976 by Linda Arlene Beach


• A copy of the program of when Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Southeastern Campus in 1937

Information on External Sources of Funding on Library Website

The Library has a webpage that contains links to websites that contain information about grants, foundations, and charitable giving. This webiste is located at: http://www.se.edu/lib/grants8.htm.
This page has links to many different kinds of fundraising websites, including:

• Links to fundraising databases, which contain lists of organizations invovled in giving to other people or organizations.


• It also contains sources of funding from the Federal government and from the Oklahoma and Texas governments.


• A list of public foundations, of which the American Medical Association Foundation and the Gene and Jerry Jones Family/Dallas Cowboys Charities are two examples.


• Community foundations, of which the Dallas Foundation, and the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Community Foundations are examples.

Links to foundations called Independent foundations, of which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a famous example.

• Many company sponsered foundations, and other foundations located in Texas and Oklahoma listed.


• If you are looking for funding outside of the United States, there are links to websites of funding abroad.


• For those wanting to search the Internet for fundraising websites, there are links on this webpage to search tools that you can use to search


• Links to online fundraising magazines


• Links to sites that teach how to write grants proposals

Charles Darwin-The Father of Evolution

Charles Darwin is the father of the scientific theory of evolution, a theory that has stirred controversy for many years. Today marks the two hundereth anniversiry of his birth on February 12, 1809. The library has many books on Darwin and his theory, including a reference book called All things Darwin : an encyclopedia of Darwin's world

Two Hundred Years Ago A Great President Was Born

Today marks the two hundred year anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in a log cabin in Kentucky. THrough the tradegies and trials on his life he arose to become our Nation's 16th presindent at a time when his leadership was sorely needed. HE saved the country from being split apart and also in the process freed the slaves so that one day a man of color could become the President of the United States.

The library has many books on Abraham Lincoln. A list of links of Internet Sites on Abraham Lincoln are found at the following website: http://www.se.edu/lib/alincoln.htm

Tradegy in the Skies

Sunday , February 1st, marked the sixth anniversary of the tragic Shuttle accident that took the lives of the following:

Commander: Rick D. Husband, a US Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, who piloted a previous shuttle during the first docking with the International Space Station (STS-96)

.

Pilot: William C. McCool, a US Navy commander

Payload Commander: Michael P. Anderson, a US Air Force lieutenant colonel and physicist who was in charge of the science mission.

Payload Specialist: Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and the first Israeli astronaut.

Mission Specialist: Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born aerospace engineer on her second space mission.

Mission Specialist: David M. Brown, a US Navy captain trained as an aviator and flight surgeon. Brown worked on a number of scientific experiments.

Mission Specialist: Laurel Clark, a US Navy captain and flight surgeon. Clark worked on a number of biological experiments.

taken from the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster
Other online resources:

• NASA faults equipment in Columbia shuttle disaster


• Space Shuttle Columbia and her Crew


• NOVA: Space Shuttle Disaster

New Display in Library reflect's University's Past

The Library has put together a display of celebrating the University's past. Included in the display is a copy of the first annual edition of the yearbook, the Holliso (name means book in Choctaw) in 1911, a course of study booklet from 1914, a student handbook from 1929-1930, a picture of the student body taken in front of the Morrison building in July 1917, a copy of the Southeastern newspsper, dated November 27, 1922, and another issue of the same newspaper, dated May 5, 1926, which shows an aerial view of the campus at that time (the library building was not even there yet), and other pictures from early Southeastern history.




The display is located in Henry's. So why don't you come over to the library and see and feel a little of Southeastern's past!

Today's Website: Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts

Today we will look at Alex. This is a database collection of about 14,000 "Classic public domain texts in English which covers American and English literature as well as western philosophy. By public domain is meant those works that the copyright has expired, which are those works publised 75+ years ago, or before 1924. So recent authors will not be included.

History Government Websites

The web sites below are located on the History Subject Guide of the Government Documents home page. The web address for the History Subject Guide is http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/historygov.html.


Next month is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. In honor of this great president, the Library of Congress has a web site called Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide. The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Abraham Lincoln, including the complete Abraham Lincoln Papers from the Manuscript Division. This resource guide compiles links to digital materials related to Lincoln such as manuscripts, letters, government documents, and images that are available throughout the Library of Congress web site. In addition, it provides links to external web sites focusing on Lincoln and a bibliography containing selected works for both general and younger readers. The web address is http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/lincoln/.


Since 1917, when Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman to serve in Congress, a total of 259 women have served as U.S. Representatives or Senators. This Web site, based on the book Women in Congress, 1917-2006 (Y1.1/2:SERIAL 14903), contains biographical profiles of former women who were Members of Congress, links to information about current women Members, essays on the institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of Congresswomen, and images of each woman Member, including rare photos. The web address is http://womenincongress.house.gov/.


Since 1870, when Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first African Americans to serve in Congress, a total of 125 African Americans have served as U.S. Representatives of Senators. This web site, based on the book
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 (Y 1.1/2:SERIAL 14904), contains biographical profiles of former African-American Members of Congress, links to information about current black members, essays on institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of African Americans in Congress, and images of each individual member, supplemented by other historical photos. The web address is http://baic.house.gov/.

Oklahoma Weather Government Websites

The Government Documents web page at http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/govdoc%20home.html has been updated with these additional websites. The links below are located on the Oklahoma & State section of the web page.

Oklahoma Mesonet is a website that has up to date weather information for the state of Oklahoma. You can find out the current conditions (i.e. temperature, wind, and wind gusts). This information is updated every five to ten minutes. You can also find out the amount of rainfall an area has received as far back as 1994. The web address is http://www.mesonet.org.

Agweather is another Oklahoma weather website. It has similar information as the Oklahoma Mesonet website does. You can also find the forecast for a specific area and climate data. The web address is http://agweather.mesonet.org/.

Earthstorm is an educational website for teachers and students. The web address is http://earthstorm.mesonet.org/.

SIP, which stand for Simple Irrigation Plan, is a website about watering. The web address is http://sip.mesonet.org/.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was a great American who deserves to have a national holiday in commeration of his birth and life. He was actually born on January 15, 1929. If he were alive today, he would be eighty years old. The library has many items to offer about his life and writings.

• 323.1196073 B73A  At Canaan's edge : America in the King years, 1965-68New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007.



• Y 1.2 RP:C95.S2/182  Investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. : hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, second session 
  United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations. Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1979-



• 323.092 K53BR   Martin Luther King, Jr. : a biography Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.



• 323.092 K53J   King : the photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr   New York : Viking Studio, 2000.

Today's Website: CQ Researcher

Hi to all the Southeastern community. Today is the day before the start of another semester. This is a good day to talk about CQ Researcher. As the name indicates, this site contains the results of research done by the staff of CQ Press, who publishes many items on politics and the U.S. political system. The researchers at CQ Press do research on topics of current or national interest and then publish a report about them. There is one report published each week, and each weekly topic is different from the previous one. Some of the recent reports were: Limiting Lawsuits, Mexico's Drug War, Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, Declining Birthrates, The National Debt, Juvenile Justice, Gun Rights Debates. CQ Press has been publishing these weekly reports for many years, and all of the reports are in this online database. You can search by topic, by date, and in advanced search you can also search by section of each report. You can even suggest a topic if you have one that interests you. Here is what the website says about where the editors come up with report ideas. "CQ Researcher's editors and staff writers monitor current events through a wide range of media outlets and professional journals while also tracking broad trends across a variety of fields, including civil liberties and criminal justice, social policy, health, foreign policy, education, and the environment. In addition, readers—students as well as librarians and teachers—often provide helpful suggestions for report topics."
This is a great place to begin to do research on many controversial topics.
CQ Researcher is located on the electronic resources page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm. Once on this page, you simply scroll down until you get to Current Issues Resources. The third link under this heading is to CQ Researcher. You can also go to CQ Researcher from home by accessing the Proxy server on the main page http://www.se.edu/lib/.

Today's Site: STATS

Today we will look at STATS, the website that takes a critical look at the statistics that we hear in the media every day. Here is what the main page of STATS says: "Numbers describe our world. Statistics shape our politics and policies. But can they always be trusted? STATS mission is to examine how numbers are distorted and the statistics misunderstood in the media and society." STATS is a nonprofit organation affilated with George Mason University in Virginia.

STATS is located on the Library's Website on the Electronic Resources page, at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm
Just scroll down the page until you come to Current Issues Resources. The link to STATS is towards the bottom of the list.

Today's Website: Polling Report.com

Hi Today's website is Polling Report.com. This website says that it is "an independent, non-partisan resource on trends in American public opinion." It contains the latest polls on the major issues of the day, such as: abortion, disasters, energy, environment, gun laws, health policy, immigration, same-sex marriage, social security, stem cell research, national security, and of course, politics. Polling Report is located on the Library's Electronic Resources webpage, at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm. When you get to this page, simply go down to the Current Issues Resources heading, and the links under this heading are arranged alphabetically by title.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Today I will talk about the Pew Research Center. Here is some information about the Center from the About page on the website:

"The Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. We are best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for our polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes. Formerly, the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press (1990-1995), we are now sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts and are one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

"The Center's purpose is to serve as a forum for ideas on the media and public policy through public opinion research. In this role it serves as an important information resource for political leaders, journalists, scholars, and public interest organizations. All of our current survey results are made available free of charge."

"The research program includes five principal areas of investigation:

• The People & The Press - explores public attitudes about the credibility, social value and salience of the news media.


• The People, The Press & Politics - features a typology which divides the American electorate into distinct voting groups and identifies the basic values and attitudes that animate political behavior.


• The News Interest Index - measures on a regular basis how closely the public follows the major news stories and links this to views about politics and policy issues.


• America's Place in the World - a series of in-depth surveys and analyses of the public and opinion leaders on international policy in the post-Cold War era.


• Media Use - major surveys that measure the public's use of, and attitudes toward, the Internet and traditional news outlets.

"

Open CRS

The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library has hundreds of links to many useful web sites on its webpage. Today one of those web sites will be discussed, called Open CRS. Here is some information about the Open CRS website taken from the about page on the website:

"American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."

"CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report. A number of libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible. Open CRS is a centralized utility that brings together these collections to search."

"Unfortunately, there is no systematic way to obtain all CRS reports. Because of this, not all reports appear on the Open CRS web site. CDT believes that it would be far preferable for Congress to make available to the public all CRS Reports."

The link to the Open CRS website is on the Library's Electronic Resources Page under the topic of Current Issues Resources Just go to the Electronic Resources Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm and scroll down until you see the Current Issues Resources heading.

Valkyrie

It was July 20, 1944. The location was somewhere in East Germany. Adolf Hitler and his top generals are discussing the war in a secret location. Suddenly a bomb goes off in the building.

The war was going badly for Nazi Germany. The Russians were pressing in from the east, while the Americans, French and British were coming from the west. The handwriting was on the wall. Defeat was certain. Adolf Hitler, who began the war in 1939, was determined to fight on until the end. An that end meant burned and bombed out cities, a destroyed economy, many millions killed or wounded. However, there were some German leaders who wanted a different end to the one mentioned above. They thought that if they could only kill the leader of their nation, that they could negotiate a peace with the Allies and save Germany from utter destruction. So they determined to kill Hitler, and on July 20, 1944, they almost succeded. The name of the plan was Valkyrie. This is the name of a motion picture also that is currently playing in theaters. It brings to mind the valiant efforts of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and others to free their country of a tyrant.