Bookless libraires

 I was googling to find other types of "free libraries" and found this. Still searching for little libraries that have other things than books. It will be posted if I have sucess.

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This article is about physical libraries without books. For digital libraries, see digital library.

Entrance to the National Digital Library of Korea/Dibrary.

Bookless libraries are public, academic and school libraries that do not have any printed books. Instead they offer all-digital collections of literary works, reading material and scientific and academic research material. A bookless library typically uses the space that would have once been used for books to offer public computers, e-readers and other technology used to consume and produce digital media. Over the last decade, driven by changes in scholarly communication, several major research libraries have successfully become bookless.^[1]

A great idea for beer lovers

 

"Beer lovers will want to see this.

A B.C. woman surprised her brewery-loving boyfriend with the sweetest birthday gift: a custom passport with all the breweries in the province.

Ahnika Genge, who runs a blog called Everything Ahnika, shared a video on TikTok showing how she made the passport. The result was nearly 100 pages long and listed around 180 B.C. breweries."

We haven't visited a lot of breweries but we have visited a lot of wineries in various places around the world. It would have been fun to have a passport to remind us of where we've been. 

Wonderful evening at Linda and Cec's place

It was so much fun to see everyone...Carol and Dave, Donna and Earl, and of course Linda and Cec. We went to  C-Lovers and had great fish and chips and shrimp and Jim and I even had mushy peas. Jim and I are the only fans of these but it really is fun to be able to get them.

Then back to Linda and Cec's for dessert and were treated to wonderful piano playing from Earl and Cec.

Thanks, guys!

 

Fun facts about Scotland

I did find this quite fun to read. A few examples to whet your appetite.

6. The shortest commercial flight in the world is in Scotland

The journey from Westray to Papa Westray in Orkney is approximately 1.5 miles long and takes just 47 seconds.

7. Scotland has approximately 790 islands

Around 660 of them are uninhabited.

8. Football was originally banned by King James I

The Football Act 1424 was passed by the Parliament of Scotland in the reign of James I, it stated: "it is statut and the king forbiddis that na man play at the fut ball" – thankfully, it was eventually scrapped.

And the rest here:

 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/35-fun-facts-you-probably-27804211?utm_source=daily_record_newsletter&utm_campaign=scotland_now_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

Going grey

I wonder if going grey for women will ever be like it is for men.  

"Wendy’s mascot goes grey, joining chorus of support for Lisa LaFlamme

Wendy’s Canada is the latest brand showing its support for Lisa LaFlamme in the wake of CTV News ousting the host after 35 years with the network."

Photo via @globeandmail

VR (Virtual Reality) for learning a second language

As a former teacher of a second language I am always interested in new techniques. Now this sounds pretty amazing and I can see how it could be so effective and how much kids would love it. I found it interesting that one of the women said it helped her to explain what she wanted to say in another way. I was always saying to my students to explain things in a different way if you don't have the words you need. Not all students were good at this but I can see VR helping more students to be successful using this technique.

 Oakville’s Manar Mustafa, a computer engineer who fled war in Syria and came here in 2016, said she attended a regular English program at a newcomer settlement service agency but nothing can compare to VR learning.

“This is a perfect experience. I never used VR but everything feels so real in the VR world. I have not visited the Niagara Falls but now I have. It was right in front of me in the classroom and I didn’t even get wet,” the 36-year-old mother of four said with a chuckle.

“Initially, I felt dizzy (with motion sickness), but now I really love it. I feel very comfortable with it.” 

Her classmate, Afghan journalist Abdul Mujib Ebrahimi, who only arrived in Canada last November, said he hopes to quickly translate what he has learned from the virtual world to the real world.

“The VR experience pushes you in a real situation. You are a character and you use your imagination to communicate with others. If I don’t know a word or how to say something, I just explain it in a different way for people to understand me,” said the 27-year-old from Badakhshan. 

“I’m still trying to learn English and work with English, but I am more confident when I talk to real people.” 

Alexander cautions that it’s too early to determine the effectiveness of VR in language learning.

“We have to be careful of the novelty effect of VR. Our students are enjoying the experience maybe because they’re trying VR for the first time and they can tell their friends and family about it,” he explained.

The VR class this summer is part of a series of projects that also include participants in traditional classrooms and artificial-intelligence-assisted learning in front of a computer. The AI session will be launched in winter.

Lunch at BierCraft

 We were having lunch yesterday in the Westbrook Mall area at BierCraft and ran into Liz Payne. Great to see her and catch up on news. We do enjoy the food there and it was just perfect sitting outside in the shade.  Earlier we had been to Brock House and played some table tennis. I was pleased to see I played quite well. 

Forecasting the weather

I knew weather forecasters have it tough but this seems beyond ridiculous.

 "The Hungarian government sacked the head of the country's weather forecasting service and her deputy on Monday, two days after a major holiday fireworks display planned for Budapest was postponed due to fears of bad weather that never materialised.

Kornelia Radics and Gyula Horvath of the National Meteorological Agency (NMS) were dismissed from their posts by the technology and industry minister Laszlo Palkovics.

The ministry gave no explanation. Contacted by AFP, the government did not react immediately.

The announcement came a day after pro-government media criticised the weather agency, whose forecast of thunderstorms and gusts of wind led to the cancellation of the fireworks on Saturday.

"They gave misleading information about the extent of the bad weather, which misled the operational team responsible for safety," wrote the online newspaper Origo.

In 2006, the festivities were plunged into mourning by a violent storm that killed five people and injured several hundred, spreading panic among more than a million people massed to watch the show on the Danube.

The NMS agency apologised on Sunday, citing "an uncertainty factor inherent in the meteorology profession".

 "They couldn't produce the desired weather, they were fired. No, this is not a dictatorship in Central Asia; this is the Hungary of Fidesz,"  Andras Fekete-Györ of the opposition Momentum Movement said ironically on Facebook, referring to the ruling party.

The fireworks display, billed as "the biggest in Europe" to celebrate "the thousand-year-old Hungarian state", has been rescheduled for next Saturday (August 27).

In July the opposition called for the event to be cancelled, denouncing it as "a useless waste of money" at a time when Viktor Orban's nationalist government is demanding sacrifices from people at a time of economic hardship."

Roundabouts....who knew?

The first roundabout we encountered was in 1972 in England. We had done our first transatlantic flight and had spent two nights in an airport hotel as our flight was delayed 45 hours. It was a charter the BCTF had put on for teachers wanting to get to Europe. "Charters" were a cheap way to get to Europe but you  had to be part of a group that chartered a plane. The BCTF had chartered a plane from a company called Donaldson Airlines. They had two planes and one broke down. 

We had rented a car at the airport and since we no longer had a hotel booking in London we decided to drive to the coast. So, we were very jet lagged and then we encountered our first roundabout ever. We thought we were never going to be able to take our turnoff as cars kept cutting us off. So, jet lagged and going round and round for what seemed like forever, but we survived to tell the tale.

From: Nice News

How Roundabouts Can Improve Road Safety and Help the Environment

Carmel, Indiana, has 142 roundabouts on its roads, and it’s planning to add even more. That may sound like a headache to the everyday car owner, but Mayor James Brainard has assured residents there’s a method to the (winding) madness that will help pedestrians, bikers, drivers, and the environment. Roundabouts slow traffic while still maintaining a flow of cars, and they don’t require electricity like traffic lights, meaning they still work during blackouts and severe storms. According to former city engineer Michael McBride, getting rid of idling at stop lights removes 5,000 cars’ worth of carbon dioxide and saves drivers $14 million in gas annually. And according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Carmel’s decrease in lights and increase in roundabouts cut injury crashes by nearly half overall, and by 84% at busy intersections. “We’re talking about human lives being saved by roundabout intersections,” McBride told CBS News. “Once the world embraces that, roundabouts will be everywhere.”

Lunch at D.I.C.E.D.

 We had a lovely lunch and visit with Richard and Grace yesterday.

Great to see you  guys!

And perhaps one (well, quite a few words) on little free libraries

I was rather surprised to read about this family feud.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/that-little-free-library-on-your-corner-is-at-the-center-of-a-feud-over-a-family-legacy-and-a-trademark/2019/12/18/586d01c6-1aa3-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html

Stick libraries

 We know about the little free libraries that delight us booklovers. Now there is something for dogs...free stick libraries. What a great idea! Dogs just love sticks. This dog looked like he found the perfect one. 

The idea for this blog post came from "The Sneaky Art Post"

Great photos from Linda

 Linda is about the only person I know travelling at the moment...good on her!

Some great photos of Niagra Falls. I remember how amazed we were to see this wonder of the world.

Thunderstorms in France

From Euronews: 

"There are warnings of thunderstorms in many parts of France on Wednesday, in an abrupt interruption to the heatwave the country has been experiencing for weeks.

Violent storms and flooding was forecast for much of southern France, where an "orange" alert — the second highest level — was issued in five Mediterranean departments.

Paris was already struck by intense storms on Tuesday evening, dumping a large proportion of the French capital's average monthly rainfall in an hour and a half. "

I think it was 1971 when we were in Paris when there was a huge thunder and lightning storm. We had been out to the Champagne area and been doing tastings and had bought a very expensive bottle (forget the actual price) of Champagne called Rene Lalou which we were going to save for our first born. We got soaking wet running to our hotel room from the Metro so took off our wet clothes, dried off, and opened the bottle and drank it. At the time, it did seem miraculous we survived the lightning strikes and felt a celebration was in order. 

We did keep the bottle for many years but I think it has now been lost in the shuffle.

https://www.vivino.com/CA/en/g-h-mumm-champagne-rene-lalou/w/2130209

I've always wondered where those socks went...

 

"The Cross" by Alexander Calder

 Always find his work interesting. This came up for sale at Heather James Fine Art. No price listed as usual but you can be sure it will be a lot of money.

Fun paintings selling for mega dollars

**Can't seem to upload the images but worth googling for a look** 

Piro Flamingos (2021) is a playful acrylic painting of a red flamingo in a top hat with exaggerated eyes that coyly look out at the audience. The towering six-and-half-foot-tall piece sold for HK$1.008 million (US$128,433)—more than double its high estimate of HK$500,000 (US$63,692)—at Sotheby’s “Contemporary Curated” sale in Hong Kong last month, the second-most expensive sale at auction of a work by the emerging artist. 

Born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1992, the London-based Bozó has made a splash in both the primary and secondary markets, with his lively figurative paintings commanding strong interest from both emerging and established collectors over the past two years. Impressive in both size and color, Bozó’s work evokes the vivid shapes and creatures featured in cartoons and children’s books, specifically those of Hungarian nursery rhymes that were read to him in his youth.

Resale royalties for artwork

I found this to be an interesting idea and it does make sense although I can also see the other side of how it could create a bit of a nightmare for everyone.

 https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/08/12/canada-artists-resale-rights-royalties?utm_source=The+Art+Newspaper+Newsletters&utm_campaign=1546c6a276-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_08_12_03_45&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c459f924d0-1546c6a276-62269122

Time for ice cream

 It would be fun to do a tasting of these unusual flavours!

Paris, mon amour

 I didn't' know this about why it's called "The City of Light"

"This one isn't just literal. Paris was indeed among the first major cities in Europe to use street lighting, in an effort to deter crime, but its evocative moniker is more metaphorical than you might expect. France’s capital was also an unofficial capital of the Age of Enlightenment, which in France is considered to have begun in 1715 and ended in 1789 — a period bookended by the death of Louis XIV and the French Revolution, respectively.

Also known as the Age of Reason, this movement was hardly limited to Paris. Still, it was there that philosophers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau espoused many of their most influential ideas; where the Montgolfier Brothers launched the first human-powered flight of a hot-air balloon; and where the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 (ending the American Revolution), among myriad other historic achievements. Next time you swoon over an image of the city lit up at night, keep in mind that light bulbs also represent ideas."

This smoggy view seems appropriate.The last time we were in Paris they were having a big smog incident and we had to get to the airport. It was quite a ride through the smog. I knew there was something wrong when I got up and looked out our hotel window to look at my beloved Eiffel tower and couldn't see it.

Yikes....I think I'll need more than a minute

 

Paris is a wonderful city to visit but....!

 I guess even whales have heard of the beauties of Paris. I love beluga whales and hope this one survives and gets back to its natural environment.

"Environmentalists will attempt to save the life of a dangerously thin beluga whale that is stranded in the Seine River west of Paris.

They will on Tuesday try and move the four-metre mammal to a nearby saltwater basin so that it can be given urgent medical care. 

If the whale does not die during the transfer -- and then responds well to treatment -- it could be released back into the open sea.

Conservationists were hoping to spare it the fate of another, an orca, that strayed into and then died in the Seine in May. "

Update: Sadly, the whale didn't survive.

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Football kits in the UK

 Manchester City release third kit ahead of 2022/23 season.

Inspired by street art and a tribute to the Manchester bee, Man City's new third kit features a lime green colour with black hoops.

Photo via @ManCityMEN

I have mentioned how important "football kits" are for kids in the UK and what a burden it is on many parents. So, along with all the "back to school" expenses there is a new kit for them to buy. This one is pretty cool looking.
I had to look up what the "Manchester Bee" is all about. Read more here:https://www.visitmanchester.com/ideas-and-inspiration/blog/read/2020/03/the-story-behind-the-manchester-bee-and-why-its-used-everywhere-in-the-city-b1121