Found A Literature Resource

I was talking to a student at Reality Changers last night and she mentioned that she writes poetry. I started looking and found a site that has some literature online for free -BiblioMania.com.

I also happened across the Ace Quiz Bowl Camp site.

Cutting Edge Research In Engineering

Research From The College Of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

I receive a fuller version of this by subscribing through email and you can follow the link at the end of this post to subscribe. Do you know someone interested in Engineering?

Friends of Berkeley Engineering,

In a study published last month in Science Express, mechanical engineering professor Arun Majumdar and colleagues report that they successfully generated electricity directly from heat using organic thermoelectric materials. Although thermoelectric conversion has been studied for about 50 years, researchers have focused on expensive inorganic alloys. Organic-based thermoelectric converters bring the exciting promise of much cheaper ways to capture waste heat from power generation and other activities.

Wouldn't it be nice, for example, if we could cool our computer processors with thermoelectric refrigerators and make them compute faster? In fact, microelectronic companies such as Intel are exploring thermoelectric refrigeration for spot cooling of hot spots on their chips.
Computing is just one possible application. An estimated 90 percent of the world's electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels in an indirect method that wastes huge amounts of heat and fuel. Saving even a fraction of that lost heat could amount to an enormous savings of fuel and reduced carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere.

Throughout the College, engineers like Majumdar are thinking in novel ways about our energy problem, a problem so massive that we must approach it as broadly and as globally as possible. Berkeley's new Energy Biosciences Institute, announced last month, truly puts Berkeley on the world map of energy research. But it also attests to the work in transformative technologies that has been going on for quite some time, research in areas such as biofuels; nuclear power and nuclear waste storage; renewable power sources like hydro, thermal, solar and wind; smart buildings; optimal combustion methods; light-emitting diodes and other novel modes of lighting; energy storage and battery disposal solutions.

In these and other areas we have yet to imagine, engineering will have a major role in setting us on a new course of clean, renewable and sustainable energy self-sufficiency. It is indeed an exciting time to be an engineer!

Fiona Doyle
Acting Dean, College of Engineering
------------------------
BERKELEY ENGINEERING LAB NOTES
Volume 7, No 2
March/April 2007
Read the full version of Lab Notes at: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes

Green Aluminum
http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0307/aluminum.html

Container Strategy
http://lists.coe.berkeley.edu/t/65747/138698/576/0/+

Defending Immigrant's Rights
http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0307/immigrant.html


Tell a friend about Lab Notes. Subscribers receive a fuller version of what appears on this blog. He or she can subscribe here: http://lists.coe.berkeley.edu/t/65747/138698/85/0/

Yale Links

Yale and Harvard are Ivy League. Is one of them for you? To confuse things a little, Yale University has a college within it called Berkeley College.

Berkeley College, eighth in the line of residential colleges to be built, was completed in 1934 with a gift of money from Edward S. Harkness. The college is named in honor of the Reverend George Berkeley (1685-1753), Dean of Derry and later Bishop of Cloyne, who endowed Yale with a gift of land and books in the 18th century. There have been eight Masters of Berkeley College. The first, Charles Seymour, was an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson at Versailles, a Professor of History. The sentences in this paragraph are taken from the Berkeley College website.

In case you're wondering, this is different from the University of California at Berkeley, whose curriculum was modeled after that of Yale and Harvard according to the UC Berkeley website.


Yale Home
http://www.yale.edu/

Undergraduate Admissions with Yale College Virtual Tour
http://www.yale.edu/admit/index.html

Prospective Students Gateway
http://www.yale.edu/gateways/prosp_students.html

Financial Aid
http://www.yale.edu/admit/freshmen/financial_aid/index.html

Transfer Students
http://www.yale.edu/admit/other/transfer/index.html

About Yale History
http://www.yale.edu/about/history.html

The Yale University School of Medicine
http://info.med.yale.edu/viewbook/main.html

Health and Medicine at Yale - Patient Care
http://www.yale.edu/medicine/care.html

Yale Divinity School
http://www.yale.edu/divinity/

Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
http://www.yale.edu/envirocenter/index.htm

Yale Environmental Poll March 2007
http://www.yale.edu/envirocenter/environmentalpoll.htm

Who's Running For President? Part II

Below are sites pertaining to Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Click on the title of today's post to see who I think has the best chance between these two choices.


Politics1.com Newt Gingrich
http://www.politics1.com/p2008-gingrich.htm

Newt.org
http://www.newt.org/

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich

Draftnewt.org
http://www.draftnewt.org/

PBS on Gingrich
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/

NY Times articles pertaining to Gingrich
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/newt_gingrich/index.html?inline=nyt-per

United States Congress Gingrich Bio
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000225

RonPaul2008.com
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Articles by Ron Paul
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul-arch.html

Ron Paul United States Representative Biographical Information
http://www.house.gov/paul/bio.shtml

Ron Paul United States Representative Home
http://www.house.gov/paul/

Politics1.com Ron Paul Bio
http://www.politics1.com/p2008-paul.htm

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul

RonPaul.org
http://www.ronpaul.org/

A Degree In Physical Education?

Click on the title of today's post to see one of the most famous physical education majors in the U.S.A. and maybe the world.

WorldWideLearn says that "a physical education and health major prepares undergraduate and graduate students for a career in teaching and coaching classes related to:

general exercise,

recreation,

games,

sports,

fitness,

nutrition, and

hygiene."

Universities.com lists different states and the universities that have a

"Bachelor degree in Physical Education Teaching and Coaching: A program that prepares individuals to teach physical education programs and/or to coach sports at various educational levels."



WorldWideLearn.com

Universities.com

Biola.Edu

Biola Physical Education

Nobel Prize Winner John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is one of the major writers of the 20th century. You may have heard of "The Grapes of Wrath" or "Of Mice and Men", but have you heard of "In Dubious Battle"? Steinbeck mostly wrote of laborers and migrant farm workers and other common people. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. Check out the links below to find out a lot more about John Steinbeck. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California and died in 1968.

Click on the title of today's post to visit The Library of America's John Steinbeck page. The Library of America is a non-profit organization that makes great literature available in quality hardback editions. The Library of America is interested in great literature whether or not it has been commercially successful.

Answers.com In Dubious Battle section

The Martha Heasley Cox Center For Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University

The National Steinbeck Center

Steinbeck Biograpy

Steinbeck's California Novels

Steinbeck Wikipedia Entry

Steinbeck Nobelprize.org Page

Chronology of Published Works


Library of America

NobelPrize.org

Two Writers You Want To Know

You may have seen or heard of the movie, Like Water For Chocolate, but have you read the book written by Laura Esquivel? Perhaps not as famous in movies circles, but important in the literary arena, Rudolfo Anaya is a trailblazer who not only writes literature aimed at adults, but saw the necessity and importance of literacy skills for hispanic children decades ago. Read the NEA interview below!

About Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water For Chocolate

(In Spanish)
http://www.epdlp.com/escritor.php?id=2484

About Rudolfo Anaya

Gale.com calls Anaya an acclaimed Chicano writer who has become best known for his award- winning novels, such as Bless Me, Ultima (1972), Tortuga (1979), and Alburquerque (1992).

National Education Association article

http://www.nea.org/readacross/multi/ranaya.html


Other sites pertaining to Rudolfa Anaya

http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/portales/anaya.htm

http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/anaya.html

http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/45/936/critical_praise.html

http://www.britannica.com/hispanic_heritage/article-9002785




Click here or on the title of this post for two different Spanish-English dictionaries.

http://www.tomisimo.org/


For Teachers
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/rona/ronatg.html

Large Amounts Of Financial Aid At Harvard

Have you ever thought about going to Harvard? I believe more and more young people are realizing that they have what it takes to succeed at Harvard and other top schools.

Harvard's website says that "about 70% of Harvard students receive some form of financial aid-grants, loans and/or part-time work."

Below are links to Harvard's Financial Aid FAQs, A "Watch A Lecture" page and The College Experience: A Blueprint For Success.


http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/faq/international/financial/index.html

http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/experience/lectures/index.html


The College Experience: A Blueprint For Success

http://athome.harvard.edu/dh/light.html

On another subject...

Are you looking for reliable academic information? You DO know that Wikipedia can be edited by almost anyone, right?

Thomson Scientific has some solid information and some of it's free. Check out these links and click on the title of today's post to subscribe to their newsletter. Don't forget to check out their Biology Browser!


http://scientific.thomson.com/aboutus/

Free Resources

http://scientific.thomson.com/free/

Biology Browser!

http://www.biologybrowser.com/

Science Watch

http://www.sciencewatch.com/

Who's Running For President? Part I

This is the first of several posts with links to sites by or about presidential candidates or their interests. Some of you will be old enough to vote in the next presidential election, which is both your right and privilege as a U.S. citizen. In 1980 I was only 17 and couldn't vote for president. Ronald Reagan was running against the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter, and an independent candidate, John Anderson. At that time if I could have voted, I would have voted for John Anderson. I'll bet a lot of people my age can't even remember his name or that Ted Kennedy gave Jimmy Carter a good challenge in the Democratic primaries. And the guy who gave Ronald Reagan a good challenge in the Republican primaries went on to become his Vice-President and then President. Who was that? He's father of our current president and his name is George Herbert Walker Bush. He famously called Ronald Reagan's economic position, based on the Laffer Curve, Voodoo Economics.

I don't know if you'll remember these guys below when you're my age, although I assume you will if one of them actually becomes our next president! The first five links are about Mike Gravel, former Senator from Alaska. The second group is Bill Richardson links. He's the current New Mexico Governor. Click on the title of today's post to see who I think has a better chance between them. Remember to register to vote!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1851783

http://www.gravel2008.us/national_initiative

http://www.nationalinitiative.us/

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000388

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel



http://www.governor.state.nm.us/index2.php

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Newsweek/2006/08/07/1728129?extID=10037&oliID=229

http://www.billrichardsonblog.com/

Thinking About Star Trek, Stock, And Science

I just posted about Star Trek and a stock called Candela to my blog for small business owners, BusinessOwnerInvestment.blogspot.com, and that gave me the idea to blog here about Star Trek and science. (If you write often, you'll find that you keep getting ideas that lead to other ideas. Writing expands your creativity, if you let it.)

Plausibility is one reason that science fiction fans find it enjoyable. Maybe we're not there yet, but some of the ideas look like we could actually achieve them. Consider mobile phones. I understand that the original creators of what we usually call cell phones were inspired by the communicators in the original Star Trek series [the one with Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy].

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, even has Star Trek type science on their site:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/ideachev.html#alcub

One of the scientifically controversial ideas that is central to Star Trek is the faster than light space travel that they refer to as Warp speed. One man who argues that speeds faster than the speed of light may be possible is Miguel Alcubierre, who proposed the Alcubierre drive, mentioned at the NASA site. Alcubierre was born in Mexico City and achieved his Ph.D at the University of Wales, Cardiff in 1994. Read more at the Answers.com link below or Google Miguel Alcubierre. He worked for the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics for a time, too. That's the other link below.

http://www.answers.com/topic/miguel-alcubierre


http://www.aei.mpg.de/english/contemporaryIssues/home/index.html

Click on the title of today's post to read another Star Trek article in National Geographic News.

In more recent Star Trek news [this is entertainment news, not scientific], find out what they're beaming, er, cooking up.


http://www.hollywood.com/news/Star_Trek_Captains_to_Team_Up/3472202

One of my favorite "captains" of Star Trek is Patrick Stewart who was a Shakespearean actor before he joined Star Trek: The Next Generation in the role of Captain Picard. Here are a few links about Stewart and some science thrown in:

http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/Patrick_Stewart/1113871

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vpkjn

Don't forget the Science Channel!
http://science.discovery.com/

Public Speaking For Young People

Toastmasters is a great place to practice public speaking.

Today is my Toastmasters day. My club is #4130, Expressions Unlimited, and we meet at Noon in Carlsbad. If you ever visit, be sure to arrive at 11:45 or 11:50 so you can talk with members before the start of the formal meeting. At one hour, we have a short meeting compared to most clubs. Visit Expressions Unlimited's blog at:
http://Expressions-Unlimited.blogspot.com

Oh, almost forgot, if you are under 18, you should definitely call before you visit as membership is restricted to those 18 and over and that means that the subject matter may have to be adjusted once in a while. There are scheduled speakers and just in case they need to alter their content or switch places with another speaker, you give them that opportunity by calling. For the record, MOST Toastmasters speeches and banter are suitable for those under 18.

Each club is different, so be sure to visit more than one. I first visited my friend's pastor's Toastmaster club in my late teens or early twenties and did not realize that each club has it's own style. I was intimidated after two visits and didn't go back for 17 years or so. A business mentor recommended that I go to Expressions Unlimited and I loved it the very first meeting.

You can find out more about Toastmasters by visiting Expressions Unlimited's blog and by clicking on the title of today's post to visit the Toastmasters International site. Toastmasters is all over the world.

I recommend a book called Be Heard Now by Lee Glickstein. He is founder of Speaking Circles, which is another place to learn public speaking. His approach is a little different than Toastmasters and you can receive a free email newsletter on Speaking Mastery by visiting his site:

http://www.speakingcircles.org/

Link below is the Encarta dictionary definition of banter.

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/banter.html

Be Sure To Check Your Sources

I ran across an interesting and perhaps entertaining article about the facts or lack of them behind a website. Always remember to ask yourself if you can trust the veracity of what you read on the internet. The article link is below. I also included a link to the Harvard Gazette and a link to the dictionary definition of veracity. AND, you can click on the title of today's post to visit a very informative site - TheWorld.org.


http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/tentacled-tree-hugger-gets-legs-up-on-twelve-year-olds/


http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/03.08/01-chimp.html

http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/veracity

Welcome Young Friends!

I was listening to KPBS after picking my son up from Escondido Charter High School's Independent Learning Program and heard part of an interview with Juan Felipe Herrera. He sounds like an interesting author who has written books for children, teens and adults. I have just started looking into his stuff and you can click on the title of today's post to visit his UC Riverside page. Below are links to KPBS, two of his children's books and Reality Changers. I have read to my son extensively in his life and he has a love of reading. I hope you will read or continue to read to your siblings and cousins and later, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.


http://www.kpbs.org/radio/listen

http://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Boy-nino-cabeza/dp/0892392177/ref=sr_1_2/103-9592862-8456664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173897581&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Calling-Doves-canto-las-palomas/dp/0892391669/ref=sr_1_1/103-9592862-8456664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173894913&sr=1-1

http://www.realitychangers.org/team.html

---

Please add my blog to your favorites and tell your friends. I wish you the best and hope you get results out of links and articles I share. Have a wonderful [be filled with wonder!] day!

May God Bless You Mightily So You May Be A Mighty Blessing To Others.