November 2014

Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book Into the Wild delved into the riveting story of Chris McCandless, a 24-year-old man from an affluent family outside Washington, D.C. who graduated with honors from Emory, then gave away the bulk of his money, burned the rest and severed all ties with his family. After tramping around the country for nearly two years, he headed into the Alaska wilderness in April, 1992. His emaciated body was found a little over four months later.

Krakauer’s book struck a nerve with readers. But he never fully answered what motivated McCandless’s ascetic renunciation, and the book drew scores of letters accusing him of arrogance, ignorance, and selfishness.

In a fascinating 2013 followup article in The New Yorker, Krakauer finally confirmed the cause of McCandless’s death: A toxic amino acid in wild potato seeds, previously thought to be benign. He hoped that the new findings would squelch some of those accusations.

Now Chris’s younger sister, Carine McCandless, 21 at the time of her brother’s death, has come out with The Wild Truth, which tells a story as poisonous as wild potato seeds. Her memoir reveals what Chris was running from — and should lay to rest allegations that her brother’s behavior was cruel to their parents.

Full piece here:
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/11/363120048/behind-the-famous-story-a-difficult-truth

A hip-hop pioneer was stunned to learn that his 1984 song “Roxanne, Roxanne” was at the center of an explosive legal war between a pair of Long Island library staffers.

“Before, we had to worry about mediating hip-hop beefs in the streets,” Kangol Kid told The Post. “Now, we have to worry about them in libraries. That’s crazy.”

Riverhead Free Library director Joy Rankin allegedly told underlings to only hire black and Latino job applicants to right historical wrongs committed against them, according to a lawsuit.

http://nypost.com/2014/11/08/rapper-shocked-his-song-dragged-into-legal-battle-on-li/

Once a sanctuary of silence – modern library has become noisy environment
Librarians accused of encouraging activities in bid to entice more visitors
Campaign has been launched to get UK’s libraries back to intended purpose

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826421/Will-librarian-noise-Anger-silence-libraries-shattered-creches-concerts-dance-classes-held-attract-visitors.html#ixzz3IWmYaOSa

Source XKCD

Of all the school staff cuts announced last spring, the elimination of the Lawrence School’s librarian raised the largest public outcry. At the time, principal Mary W. Gans vowed she and her staff would devise a plan for keeping the library open for student use. “The library is not closing,” she said.

At the start of the school year, a solution was found in moving the in-school suspension assistant Angela T. Woodward into the library. The library is now Ms. Woodward’s office. She sits at the circulation desk while she manages school discipline paperwork and scheduling.

Ms. Woodward was trained in the library’s computer and catalogue system at the start of the year by the librarian from the Morse Pond School. She checks out books, hands out late notices, arranges display books and manages scheduling for teachers to bring classes in for research.

“It’s not ideal, because we don’t have a certified librarian,” Ms. Gans said. “But it’s working well. It’s open all day; kids are checking out books.”

http://www.capenews.net/falmouth/no-librarian-but-lawrence-school-library-still-in-use/article_85f883b8-639c-11e4-9591-bf8d7705f5ed.html

The average internet user who happens upon Survivor Library, a collection of about 7,000 books in PDF format that teach people how to rebuild civilization after the proverbial Collapse, may think it’s just another fear mongering, doomsday prepper site.

“What happens AFTER the Solar Flare that destroys the electrical grid and all electronics?” asked the site’s About Us page. “AFTER the other 90% of the population has died from starvation, dehydration and disease. AFTER the roving gangs and raiders are eliminated and local communities form to provide security and relative peace. What Then?”

It’s easy to imagine that people who use this site are the ones that have homemade bunkers and have stocked enough canned goods to feed a family for weeks. But Survivor Library’s founder and administrator, who calls himself “The Librarian,” doesn’t identify himself that way.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/survivor-library

Via the Washington Post: A yellowing piece of parchment covered in Latin, the Magna Carta now on view at the Library of Congress is as charming as a tax form. Hey, no one ever said cornerstones of constitutional law and civil liberty had to be pretty.

Magna Carta (experts drop the preceding “the”) got off to a rough start. When King John signed the “Great Charter” in 1215, on a field near London, he had no intention of appeasing its authors, barons who chafed at too-high taxes. But because they’d captured London, the king had no choice, says Nathan Dorn, curator of “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor,” a new exhibit at the Library of Congress.

The barons made at least 41 copies and sent them to every county in England. The document on view is one of four surviving copies; the original is lost.

Information wants to be free. At least that’s what Internet activists and many consumers say in support of free online content.

But when we stream a new film online or listen to music on Spotify, we don’t always consider — or care about — the artists who are losing out.

The debates over intellectual property, copyright and traditional ideas of enforcement have been hot topics of late. The fall of Napster in the late ’90s and the current battle between publisher Hachette and Amazon show that copyright law needs to be rewritten to fit digital standards.

In his new book, Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free: Laws For The Internet Age, author Cory Doctorow argues that creators can make money even when their content is available online free of charge. For creators to succeed in the digital age, he says, copyright law must be reformed to reflect an age in which tech platforms control content.

Full piece here: http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/360196476/picking-the-locks-redefining-copyright-law-in-the-digital-age

Note: In addition to additional text there is a 7 minute audio piece at the NPR site.

Sweet ‘N Low has sponsored an ebook. The sugar substitute has been worked into the story line in a few places.

More details here.