National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Hi All,

Today is 9/11.  The 16th anniversary of the attacks on the United States.  With that said, here is some information on an educational, historical, relevant and timely website: the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. For some background on 9/11 and the history and some context of the events, click on this link from Wikipedia.

The site has a very well-written 'About Us' page.  Here is some of the page: "Through commemoration, exhibitions and educational programs, The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a nonprofit in New York City, remembers and honors the 2,983 people killed in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, as well as those who risked their lives to save others and all who demonstrated extraordinary compassion in the aftermath of the attacks."

The 9/11 Museum & Memorial site has links for Visitors, a link to the Memorial, a link to the Museum, a link for Teaching/Learning, how to get involved and a link for visitors to the site to Donate
 
Finally, if you want to contact the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center, click on this link. Its the Contact Us page on the website. 

Regards,
Stu

Dinosaurs + Kids + Computers = Fun!

Hi All,

Just a quickie post today to discuss something that's fun, interesting, educational and great for kids!  What am I talking about?  Dinosaurs of course!

Click the following links for fun, adventure, education and some great viewing for pre-schoolers, toddlers and kids about dinsosaurs! How could you NOT love it!

KidsDinos.com - play dinosaur games and read about dinosaurs
Dinosaur Games at PBS - make dinosaurs run, hide, fly and fish with them - some educational games
Kids Sites.com/Dinosaur - has links to other high quality dinosaur related websites including Billy Bear's Land O' Dinosaurs, Curse of T. Rex, DinoBuzz, Dinosaur Galleries, Download-a-Dinosaur, Meet the Dinosaurs, Prehistoric World, and much, much more.

Zoom Dinosaurs is another excellent site that answers a large variety of dinosaur related questions!

Finally,  don't forget to come in to the library and check out our collection of dinosaur books!  Click here to find out more about which dinosaur books we have in the library.  

And, finally, if you really, really want to see some awesome dinosaur bones in real life, click on this link which goes to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City!

Enjoy the links and the bones!

Regards,
Stu

The Global Economy

Hi All,

The title of this post should almost certainly get your attention.  I'm not going to sit on a soapbox and preach about various economic issues...that's not my place.  As a librarian, I like to present the patron - or the blog reader in this case - with the information and let the patron/reader come to his or her own conclusion.  Fair enough - I hope. 

A few weeks ago I found this article from Vox.com - a website that covers major news events. The site covers politics, public policy, world affairs, pop culture, science and more in a modern, easy-to-read manner. The site is unbiased, timely and fun to read...

That said the article I wanted to show today is called, '38 Maps That Explain the Global Economy'.  I like maps 1 (World GDP per capita), 2 (Economic center of gravy map), 5 (Korea at Night), 11 (World's Busiest Container-Shipping Seaports in 2012), 13 (World Shipping routes), 21 (Oil import/export map), 27(Megacities),  and 34 (GDP/Population)...

Awesome use of statistics, maps, graphs and charts!!!!

Enjoy. 
Stu

City Travel Planner - Plnnr.com

 Hi All,

Just found out about this wonderfully odd, interesting travel planner website called Plnnr.com.

So, what does Plannr.com do for you? Plnnr automatically generates your free personalized ready-to-use itinerary in a few short seconds.

Clicking on the 'Get Started Now' icon on the Plnnr.com homepage takes you to the Plannr.com wizard.  There are five steps to get your itinerary:
1. Where to
2. Dates
3. Theme
4. Intensity
5. Luxury Level

Clicking on Where to leads you to a screen with  choices like Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, London, Milan, New York City, Paris, Rome, San Francisco and more.

Clicking on one of the options - I chose Rome - sends you to a page where you choose the date you intend to leave - and an option for you to select how long your trip will be.  Length of trip runs from 2-7 days.  I chose, a four day trip.

Next you come to a screen that asks you to select what your trip is going to be like?  With Kids, Outdoors, The Best of..., or a Culture based trip.  I chose Outdoors.

Users can make choices that vary from Light, Easygoing, Moderate, Vigorous and Extreme.  I chose a Moderate trip.

Users are then brought to a page where you can select the number of stars for your hotel (1-5).  I chose 3 stars for the hotel.

At this point the Plnnr wizard jumps into action and a new screen appears with the trip options that you've chosen.   Users can click on the orange dialog box to view the final results.  And oh, what results! Users can see the itinerary day by day. 

There is a list of sites to visit - and the length of time it should take to view the site.  Specific category of the particular site is listed as well (historic site, panorama, world heritage, history and culture and more). Users have the option to 'rank' the particular sites to either include them in their itinerary or not.

A map of all the sites is available as well.  Users can also book a hotel on Plnnr.com in order to actually make the trip a reality.

Finally, on the right side of the page are a few choices that users can use to further customize their trip. Most importantly is the 'Trip Profile' option which lets users change  the number of adults, the number of rooms, update the mode of preferred transportation and intensity of the trip.

There is also a 'word cloud' in which users can change each category weight to best match their trip preferences.  That is, users can add, delete or enlarge or shrink various categories - which will then be used to further customize the trip experience.

Hope you enjoy the site - Plnnr.com is a great way to get a customized trip if and when you want to go to some of the worlds greatest cities.

Regards,
Stu

One World Trade Center To Become Tallest...

Hi All,

Click on this link from Newsday to see some very interesting photos of One World Trade Center being built - right now.   As a matter of fact, as of today, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in New York City.  And eventually - in about a year or so, One World Trade Center will become the tallest building in the United States.

For more information on 9/11, click on this link from Yale University's Avalon Project - this is the direct link to the 9/11 Commission Report.  Clicking on this link will get you to the 9/11 Memorial homepage - you can visit the site in person.  For an interactive timeline of the events of 9/11, click here.  Finally, click on this link from Youtube for various videos of what happened on 9/11.

Regards - and I hope the links are educational and helpful.
Stu