Posted on November 3rd, 2009 by Dana
Congratulations to this week’s Reward for Reading winner, Lawrence Kennedy!
Lawrence read Souls of the Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois
From the Product Description via Amazon.com:
“Originally published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a classic study of race, culture, and education at the turn of the twentieth century. With its singular combination of essays, memoir, and fiction, this book vaulted Du Bois to the forefront of American political commentary and civil rights activism. It is an impassioned, at times searing account of the situation of African Americans in the United States, making a forceful case for the access of African Americans to higher education and extolling the achievements of black culture. Du Bois advances the provocative and influential argument that due to the inequalities and pressures of the “race problem,” African American identity is characterized by “double consciousness.” This edition includes a valuable appendix of other writings by Du Bois, which sheds light on his motivation and his goals.”
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Posted on October 30th, 2009 by Dana
The winner of the Second Annual Halloween Candy Counting Contest with a guess of 193 is Jonathan French!Jonathan was one number shy of the exact count of 194 pieces. Jonathan used excellent mathematical reasoning to try to better his odds of a correct answer. Good job!
Also, congratulations to our two runners-up: Josh Goller guessed 188 and Eric Andersen guessed 187.
Thank you to everyone who participated. We had over 75 entries!
Our next candy counting contest will be in February for Valentine’s day.
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Posted on October 28th, 2009 by Elizabeth
“What do you stand for? Who do you stand with? And what are you going to do about it?” –Paul Kivel
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Posted on October 27th, 2009 by Dana
Congratulations to this week’s Reward for Reading winner, Jon Hager!
Jon read The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.
From the Inside Flap via Amazon.com:
“One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as “a work of fiction,” defying the conscientious reader’s need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O’Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.
With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America’s most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.”
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Posted on October 21st, 2009 by Elizabeth
A new tool – Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE)
JANE helps you to identify journals that have published on specific topics. In addition to listing journals that publish articles on these topics, JANE also lists the Article Influence (AI).
Based on Eigen Factor Analysis, AI measures “how often the articles in the journal are cited within the first five years after its publication.”
Search by just the proposed article title or also include the abstract.
JANE pulls its data from MEDLINE and gives information about the 50 articles that are most similar to your article.
JANE was developed by the Netherlands Bioinformatics Group, an organization that has developed other finding tools.
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