Save SBPL!

Just today I visited my library's website to renew some materials and I saw a post about Save My Library. I read on and I learned that the governor of my state is planning a 4.5 million dollar cut for library funding. This of course has ramifications for my town, but our library is one of the more fortunate ones. Other libraries barely have an adaquate supply of books or resources. If you are a resident of New Jersey, please help.


http://www.savemynjlibrary.org/

Lit. Poems

In my literature class, I am given a project to write two poems based upon a setting, character, or theme of the novel The Book Thief. Out of the three poem types, I selected the Diamante Poem, and the Character poem.

This is the Diamante:

"The Owner of the Words"

Words

Colorful persuasive

Changing empowering frightening

Bellicose benign ambitious revered

Orchestrating ruling aspiring

Articulate Inventive

Speaker

This poem is the character poem:

"The Life of Death"

Death

Thoughtful, and Frightful

Who loves observing the world for colorful distractions

Who feels intrigued about Liesel Meminger's life

Who needs to collect souls during a time of war

Who shares his thoughts, words, and life

Who fears humans

Who'd like to see how people view death

Who dreams of a day off

Who ends up returning The Book Thief back to Liesel Meminger

So these are the two poems I wrote. If you have not yet read The Book Thief then please do. The intriguing words, paragraphs, and pages are carried to you by Death itself. The point of view is unique, this story is told from the German side of World War Two. If you have already read this excellent novel, please comment on whether these poems are relevant.

Magnatized Subatomicly

As a vacuum draws the air out of a tube, physicist Tim Gay prepares to smash polarized electrons into select molecules at the end of the tube. A Bayard-Alpert Gauge monitors the progress of the vacuum. Tim Gay studies polarized elections, which are electrons spinning in the same direction, at Nebraska-Lincoln University. In Gay's words, he explains it like this,

"The electrons have to move down the tube and hit a target without bumping into air molecules. Pumping out the air gives electrons a good shot at the target."

Gay studies polarized, or magnetized electrons have many uses. Uses such as improving computers and electronics to more energy efficient light bulbs to answering some of life's fundamental questions. Gay, with funding from the National Science Foundation, uses the magnetized electrons to answer some intriguing questions. Questions such as why DNA twists clockwise.

Naturaly, electrons spin is arbitrary directions, canceling out the magnetic energy. This is why most materials are not magnetic. Making the elections spin in the same direction is time consuming. Gay aims to make the process simple, and easy-to-use. A good source of polarized electrons provide new tools for industry and research. During the process of developing this method, the scientist has trained at least 85 undergraduates in his lab.

"I really view the mission of these experiments as half physics and half training tomorrow's high-tech workforce," Gay said.

http://www.livescience.com/researchinaction/ria-100420.html
image from: Craig Chandler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln through Vicki Miller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln