A Guide to Rocks & Fossils is great preparation for those summertime hikes and a fun book to browse, offering excellent descriptions and color photos of rock and fossil evidence. It also provides an excellent outline of the evolution of life over eons of time. (Vairo Library QE31.R66 2002) For those of you more into hard places than rocks, the books on stress are in the psychology section (BF575) and medicine section (RC455) Or just take a hike! ;-)
For teachers out there who would like to have their classes design multimedia projects to enhance learning: Vairo Library has acquired the book "Multimedia Projects in Education: designing, producing, and assessing" by Karen S. Ivers and Ann E. Barron. This book has its own model for devloping projects, called the "Decide, Design, Develop, Evaluate (DDDE) method". After several chapters that explain the theory behind this method, the book then leads teachers through each of their steps in their process. At the end are four chapters dedicated to different types of multimedia projects (hypermedia, webpages, video and presentation tools). It gives sample projects and other assorted ideas for how to engage students in multimedia projects.
Call # LB1028.4.I95 2006
Can We Say No?: the challenge of rationing health care is an examination of the problem of affordable health care in the United States. The authors, Henry Aaron (Brookings) and William Schwartz (USC) with Mellisa Cox, examine the high costs of advancing medical technologies and the declining percentage of the U.S. population covered by medical insurance. They analyze the British experience and how it might be extrapolated to the United States. They conclude that we may find it necessary "to squeeze out care that costs more than it is worth." (p. 148) A sobering read.
(Vairo Library RA410.5.A23 2005)
You don't have to be a business major to find fascinating Charles Fishman's The Wal-Mart Effect: how the world's most powerful company really works- and how its transforming the American economy. Fishman discusses the marvel of business logistics which underpins the company, the secrecy with which it handles its data. He also speculates on how the company both reflects and drives American values. Attention Wal-Mart shoppers! (Vairo Library HF5429.215.U6F56 2006)
Lovers of foreign films will find the following three new books of interest:
Maggie Gunsberg's Italian Cinema focuses on gender with a look at domestic melodramas, horror films and spaghetti westers and peplum. (Vairo Library PN1995.9.S47G86 2005)
Latin American Cinema is a collection of essays that look at films in light of gender, globalization, and nationalism. It talks about films from Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico (Vairo Library PN1993.5.L3L28 2005)
Little known Japanese director Gosho Heinosuke is the subject of this lengthy study by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. (Vairo Library PN1998.3.G67N66 2005)
Happy reading and viewing this summer!
Dr. Wayne McMullen suggests the following:
Something Old... The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, as part of a series of programs to inaugurate its new concert hall organ (I'm told it's a magnificent instrument), will show two classic silent films, with accompaniment on the new organ on Sunday, May 21. First will be Buster Keaton's wonderful 'The General,' at 3 p.m. Then, at 7 p.m., the Kimmel will show a Douglas Fairbanks Sr. flick, 'The Mark of Zorro.' If I had to pick just one to see, I'd vote for 'The General.' It's a gem. With either film, you will get a sense of what it was like to see a movie during the silent era, when the "soundtrack" was provided in-house by a musician who could match the music with the on-screen action.
Something New... On a more serious note, Deepa Mehta's last film in her Elements Trilogy, 'Water,' is now in theatrical release. (The first two films were 'Fire' and 'Earth.') 'Water' is a powerful and compelling film about a home for widows in 1938 India. The film has some structural weaknesses, but it captures vividly the plight of women who, because of social and religious strictures, are, in Mehta's words, "relegated to a life of deprivation and indignity." It took Mehta years to get this film made because she encountered so much resistance in India; eventually, she had to shoot the film in Sri Lanka. This film deserves to be seen.
Dr. Wayne McMullen kicks off summer blog suggestions with the following recommendation:
Steven Spielberg's most recent film, Munich, is now out on DVD. When I saw it on the big screen, it was more out of a sense of "staying current" with the so-called prestige movies. I was surprised and impressed with how good it was. This film's success is partly due to Spielberg's keen visual sense combined with strong dialogue-notably by Tony Kushner, the author of Angels in America, who did some major revisions on the script. Munich generated considerable controversy during its theatrical release, as it deals with the morality and consequences of government-sanctioned targeted assassination. (The film is about the murder of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972, and the Israeli government's response.) Part of the controversy stemmed from how the film humanizes the "heroes" and the "villains"-actually, those two terms are hardly relevant here, as the audience is deprived of easy identification with the "good guys." The film addresses troubling questions about the cost of counter-terrorism measures, and about the repetitive cycles spawned by terrorism itself. Not an easy film to watch, but well-worth seeking out. This is probably one of the 2 or 3 best films Spielberg has made in his long career.