Saturday, January 2, 2010

Biographies “24/7 access to downloadable audiobooks and e-books at Robbins Library - Abington Mariner” plus 3 more

Biographies “24/7 access to downloadable audiobooks and e-books at Robbins Library - Abington Mariner” plus 3 more

24/7 access to downloadable audiobooks and e-books at Robbins Library - Abington Mariner

Posted: 02 Jan 2010 03:23 AM PST

Robbins Library is now offering access to popular downloadable audiobooks and e-books at any time through the library's Web site at www.RobbinsLibrary.org.

Arlington residents can select audiobooks and e-books from either Digital Media Catalog or Recorded Books.

From popular fiction novels by Nora Roberts and James Patterson, to classic works from Mark Twain and William Shakespeare, our digital library spans nearly every genre. You can download bestselling fiction novels, popular biographies, self-improvement guides and more.

Getting started is easy. Visit www.RobbinsLibrary.org and select "Online Databases." Then select either Digital Media Catalog or Recorded Books, install the free media software, browse the collection and select titles to download. Enter your library card. Check out and download books to enjoy on a computer, iPod®, or MP3 player and some audio titles can be burned to CD.

For further information, contact the reference desk at 781-316-3233.

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Cracking the Majorana code - New Scientist

Posted: 02 Jan 2010 03:52 AM PST

The simple explanation is that he killed himself, but Magueijo doesn't believe that - or he doesn't want to believe it.


"I want to make the case that the Nobel prize for physics should be given to Ettore Majorana," he says. The prize cannot be awarded posthumously, but it can be given in absentia.


Majorana's work is certainly worthy of such recognition. He was the first to derive a theory describing the interactions of nucleons, the precursor to the strong force and quantum chromodynamics. He refused to publish his ideas, however, and expressed delight and relief when Werner Heisenberg published his independently derived version of the theory a few months later.


It wasn't the only time he relinquished the chance to stamp his name on history. He made other breakthroughs but burned the notebooks or cigarette packets on which he had written them.


brilliant_darkness.jpgOne of the few breakthroughs that does bear his name is the proposal that a particle, now known as the Majorana neutrino, should exist. Yet it is another of his creations that Magueijo most admires. "Relativistic theory of elementary particles with arbitrary spin" might not sound like much, but Magueijo thinks it could be the undoing of modern physics.


"Seventy-five years on, I sometimes have the impression that physics is all wrong - and that the contents of that paper hold the key to our errors," he says.


A Brilliant Darkness interweaves explanations of Majorana's physics with his life story, and the result is an enlightening and strangely gripping journey into the heart of science and the minds of scientists.


It's not without its weaknesses, though. Magueijo's fondness for swear words is soon tiresome, and he seems to stumble easily between professorial insight and uncalled for puerility. But too many scientific biographies are little more than hagiography, and this book is certainly not that.


Magueijo is well aware of the way science really happens. He deftly demonstrates the influence of personality and colleagues - in Majorana's case, a group of people twisted by strange and tragic childhoods. "Between the priests and his parents, his basic humanity was destroyed," he says. "He was brought up by outcasts and grew monstrously distorted."


Alas, Magueijo is unable to solve the mystery. Perhaps Majorana saw that physicists were bringing nuclear fission over the horizon and wanted nothing to do with it. Or he could have been abducted by the Sicilian mafia, fled to Argentina, joined a monastery or become a tramp known as "The Dog-Man", who lived in a cave and could do cube roots in his head.


Majorana's main contribution to physics remains inconclusive, too. "This book could not be more open-ended," Magueijo admits. "We don't know what happened to Ettore, and we don't know if the neutrino is Majorana." It doesn't matter, though. This tale is about the journey, not the destination, and a trip through Majorana's life is a journey well worth taking.


Image: E.Recami and F Majorana/Jr. Collection/AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archive


Read more: Eight scientists who became their own guinea pigs and Scientists who put their lives on the line

Book Information:
A Brilliant Darkness: The extraordinary life and mysterious disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the troubled genius of the nuclear age by João Magueijo
Basic Books, $27.50/£15.99

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St. Adalard - Catholic Online

Posted: 02 Jan 2010 12:02 AM PST

Feastday: January 2
January 2, 827

Patron of French churches and towns. A nephew of Charles Martel, he was raised as a nobleman at the court of his cousin Charlemagne. At age twenty Adalard entered the monastery of Cordie in Picardy, but then went to Monte Cassino, staying there in seclusion until Charlemagne insisted he return to court. At Corbie, Adalard was elected abbot and then named Prime Minister to Pepin, Charlemagne's son, the King of Italy. He became involved in the political struggles of the royal family and in 814 he was banished to Hermoutier. After seven years of exile, Adalard was cleared of all charges and returned to the court of Louis the Pious. Adelard died on January 2, 827

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Starting a contest? Remember rules - Democrat and Chronicle

Posted: 02 Jan 2010 01:57 AM PST

A few months ago, I asked readers to send me the names of people, living or dead, who helped define Rochester over the years.

My goal was to create a list of 175 movers and shakers in honor of the city's 175th birthday.

"I think my 'Mount Rushmore' of Rochesterians would be Nathaniel Rochester, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and George Eastman," e-mailed Karl Matzky, one of many people who wrote. "The rest of the list will be much harder."

He was right. It turned out my contest was heavy on submissions, but light on, well, rules.

Seeking guidance, I turned to Ted Curtis, who led the city's sesquicentennial efforts in 1984 and had been involved in a successful list-making effort that grew into the book, 4 Score and 4 Rochester Portraits.

In the introduction to the book, authors Joseph W. Barnes and Mary Lynn Stevens Heininger stated that their goal was not to name the 84 "most significant" people in Rochester history. Rather, they picked figures whose biographies represented themes in the city's history.

But Ted stressed that there was at least one standard of admission: Only the dead were named in the list of 84.

Include living people and you're asking for trouble from those who don't make the cut, he said, pounding the table for emphasis.

But several alive-and-well sons and daughters of Rochester — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Abby Wambach, etc. — have already been nominated for admission on my list. Can I boot them for breathing?

Another problem: Should I have a residency rule?

Some people grew up here, went away, got famous, and didn't even come back for the Lilac Festival.

Silent film star Louise Brooks did it the other way.

She came here in 1960, having made all the films she would ever make. She pretty much stayed in her apartment until her death in 1985, becoming, in effect, Rochester's best-known recluse.

At least Brooks was in Rochester longer than nominee Sam Patch, who did the ultimate cameo by arriving and quickly jumping to his death off the High Falls.

Alas, like Patch, I may have leapt before I looked by starting this contest. But I'll survive.

Let's consider it a work in progress.

Each first Saturday of each month for the rest of the year, I'll highlight the names and achievements of two or three deserving Rochesterians, as suggested by readers.

By the end of the year, we'll have a core group of praiseworthy people.

Living, dead, here, there, Rochesterians all.

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