Therefore I Am - Digital Science Fiction Anthology 2 (56,298 words; about 190 pages in print),is an anthology of original science fiction short stories from professional writers. We are pleased to present in our second anthology edition an exciting collection of stories from established authors. Therefore I Am includes science fiction short stories by Tomas L. Martin, Shawn Howard, Bruce Golden, James C. Bassett, Tab Earley, Dustin Monk, Martin L. Shoemaker, David Steffen, Tom Barlow, and Annie Bellet Our second edition of the Digital Science Fiction anthology series developed a theme all on its own - a theme of what consciousness is and what it means to be human and live a fully human life. Therefore I Am features excellent character studies of uniquely human emotions and traits as well as stories that give us an outsider's view of human consciousness and behavior. Whatever your point of view, this edition chronicles the concept of humanity as it evolves into the future. Digital Science Fiction Anthology 2 welcomes Christine Clukey as editor. We thank you for your continued support, and we invite you to leap forward into the ten stories contained in this work. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have.
segunda-feira, 5 de setembro de 2011
Seven Dirty Words: The Life And Crimes Of George Carlin - James Sullivan
In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred.
A critical biography, Seven Dirty Words is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to the cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as a more-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation into the subversive comedic voice of the emerging counterculture. Sullivan also chronicles Carlin's struggles with censorship and drugs, as well as the full-blown renaissance he experienced in the 1990s, both personally and professionally, when he became an elder statesman to a younger generation of comics who revered him.
Seven Dirty Words is nothing less than the definitive biography of an American master who changed the world and also a work of cultural commentary that frames George Carlin's extraordinary legacy.
DOWNLOAD SEVEN DIRTY WORDS: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF GEORGE CARLIN - JAMES SULLIVAN
Easy Kindle Homepage - J. Stallard
Are you tired of trying to check email, browse the web, and get your news using the difficult to use built in Kindle Browser and the tiny and awkward Kindle keyboard?
Have you tried in vain to navigate around your favorite web pages from your Kindle, and wish there was an easier option? Are you frustrated that pages that pull up on Kindle are not optimized for mobile users and are difficult to navigate?
Well, imagine if there was something for your Kindle that would make pulling up your favorite sites a breeze. What if there was something you could have that took you quickly and easily to your favorite news, sports, weather, and social networking sites, without having to navigate Kindle’s keyboard, or play around with the scroll pad to take you where you want to go?
Now, you can make the most out of your Kindle with the Easy Kindle Homepage!
This is a Kindle “Book” that when opened like a normal book, has a list of links that take you directly to your favorite sites for:
~News
~Email
~Sports
~Weather
~Newspapers
~Social Networking
~Entertainment
~Banking
And more!
This Book will
~Save you Time
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~Let you use your Kindle as a backup for checking email and news when you’re away from your computer
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Open this book like any other Kindle book, and you’ll get instant access to all of the web’s most popular destinations such as:
CNN, NPR, FOX News, ABC News, BBC News, Yahoo!, TIME, The Weather Channel, ESPN, FOX Sports, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, E! News, IMDb, MTV, Food Network, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Windows Live!, Flight Tracker, Mapquest, Google, Bing, Paypal, Lottery Results & too many more to list!
All the links are organized by category for easy navigation, and the best part, is they are OPTIMIZED for mobile browsing! This means that they take you to the mobile versions of all the web’s best sites, making the navigation on your Kindle even easier!
When browsing from a phone, mobile sites come up automatically. Not on your Kindle! Even Amazon.com is hard to use on a Kindle! Easy Kindle Homepage finds the mobile optimized sites for you!
Also, makes a great gift for anyone with a Kindle!
Just click “Buy Now with One Click” and have Easy Kindle Homepage sent wirelessly right to your Kindle library!
domingo, 4 de setembro de 2011
sábado, 3 de setembro de 2011
Aboard the Alexander Henry
Aboard the Alexander Henry
At the marine museum of the great lakes; Kingston, Ontario.
Tags
CCGS Alexander Henry
mypics
marine museum of the great lakes
great lakes
kingston
ontario
canada
canadiancoastguard
icebreaker
alexander henry
ship
docked
museum
the great lakes
depthmarkers
kingston ontario, marine museum, great lakes, alexander
sexta-feira, 2 de setembro de 2011
Protesters Aim to Teach Chile Lessons
SANTIAGO, Chile—During one of the massive student protests that have rocked Chile in recent months, 23-year-old activist Camila Vallejo was hit squarely in the face with spray from a water cannon.
Although drenched and disheveled, she stayed right on message, lambasting a higher-education system she says is too intent on profit rather than learning.
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Associated Press
Surrounded by media members, student leader Camila Vallejo, center, uses the remains of tear gas canisters to depict a peace sign on the floor during a demonstration outside the government palace in Santiago.
"Education isn't a business," she said, "but a basic right."
Ms. Vallejo, a geography major who is a member of the Chilean Communist Party, is the unlikely leader of the biggest demonstrations to hit Chile since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in 1990.
The students are demanding the government spend more to subsidize hefty college-tuition costs and ease the debt burden of graduates struggling to pay student loans. The protesters also want changes in a primary- and secondary-education voucher system, which they say favors youths from wealthier families. Polls show that the protests have won broad sympathy among older Chileans frustrated by income inequalities in a country long seen as a model of economic stability in Latin America.
The students argue that Chile's educational system reinforces disparities in a country where the richest 20% of households earn half of national income, while the poorest 20% earn just 5%.
"Trickle down hasn't worked," Ms. Vallejo said in a phone interview.
Unable to mollify the students since the protests started in May, billionaire President Sebastian Piñera has seen his approval rating wither to 26%, according to conservative think tank CEP. It is the lowest level any president has obtained since the return to democracy. Mr. Piñera has invited Ms. Vallejo and other student leaders to a personal meeting Saturday, to try to once and for all iron out the differences.
"Chile is a profoundly unequal country," said Patricio Navia, a Chilean political scientist at New York University, who voted for Mr. Piñera. "The opportunities people have depend on what position their parents have in society. The student movement seeks to level the playing field and expand the opportunities."
Ms. Vallejo, known for her nose ring and her telenovela-star good looks, grew up in a lower-middle-class suburb to parents who were active in the Communist Party. Leading protests as head of the student federation at the massive University of Chile, she now has more than 210,000 Twitter followers. A guitar-playing admirer uploaded a serenade he had written to her. The demonstrations have attracted tens of thousands of protesters, at times leading to rock-throwing battles with police, which paralyzed Santiago.
Ms. Vallejo also has virulent enemies. A Facebook page sprung up announcing an event "to kill Camila Vallejo." Even some analysts who agree with her critiques of the system have differences with the remedies she proposes.
Prior to the 1973 coup by Mr. Pinochet, Chile's two main public universities, as well as private religious schools, were heavily subsidized by the government. Mr. Pinochet reduced public funding and spurred the creation of private universities and technical schools.
Mr. Pinochet also transferred public primary and secondary schools from federal to municipal hands and offered parents vouchers which they could use at private schools. The theory was that competition would compel schools to improve quality.
The changes have left a mixed legacy. Chilean 15-year-olds rated highest among their Latin American peers in 2009 academic tests administered by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though they scored below the average of the wealthier countries comprising the OECD.
Chile made marked advances in boosting reading-comprehension skills over the past decade, the OECD found. Meanwhile, at the college level, enrollments are way up, and seven out of 10 university students are the first in their family to go to college.
But at the primary and secondary level, the system prompted a flight by the middle class out of public schools, whose enrollment fell to 43% of the student population in 2008 from 63% in 1986, according to the OECD. Chilean students coming from public schools have substantially lower test scores than those who attend private schools and are often unable to pass rigorous entrance exams at prestigious public universities, the OECD noted. Poorer students are often forced to attend private universities, which can be more expensive and of uneven quality.
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Reuters
Demonstrators attacked a police vehicle at a Santiago rally last month.
One study showed that Chilean tuition costs had increased about 60% in real terms from 1997 to 2009. To pay off student loans, some graduates have to set aside as much as 18% of their salaries over 15 years, one of the highest payback rates in the world, the World Bank said.
Still, Gregory Elacqua, director of the Public Policy Institute at Diego Portales University in Santiago, said Chilean authorities have already instituted policies to help poorer students in recent years, and what is needed are further efforts in that direction targeted at areas such as student debt. Many experts also differ with the protesters' focus on prioritizing the higher-education system. They say Chile could get more bang for its education buck directing spending on preschool, elementary and secondary education.
The government has offered to reduce interest rates on student loans, create an education regulator, increase the education budget by $4 billion over the next four years and grant more scholarships for teacher training. Mr. Piñera also chastened the demonstrators that "nothing is free in this life."
Ms. Vallejo says the government's offer is inadequate. She says the younger generation is different from stoical older Chileans who instinctively held their tongues about their grievances because of harsh memories of Mr. Pinochet's rule.
"We don't have the fear our parents did because we never lived in the dictatorship," she said.
Write to Matt Moffett at matthew.moffett@wsj.com and Carolina Pica at carolina.pica@dowjones.com
college tuition costs, chilean communist party, higher education system, gas canisters, income inequalities, augusto pinochet, voucher system, water cannon, student protests, santiago chile, trickle down, government palace, peace sign, conservative think tank, chileans, media members, debt burden, economic stability, student leader, approval rating