Category Archives: Memories & History

Memories & History

Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Memories & History, Science & Health

This 25-year-old sci-fi disaster movie is still lauded by scientists — here’s why | Salon.com

Salon spoke with scientists who praised “Deep Impact” — and with others who helped make it

By Matthew Rozsa, Staff Writer, Published May 6, 2023 10:00AM (EDT)

Morgan Freeman giving a speech at The White House in a scene from the film ‘Deep Impact’, 1998. (Paramount Pictures/Getty Images)

In anticipation of the 25-year-anniversary of “Deep Impact,” Dr. Clark R. Chapman and his wife Y Chapman decided to rewatch the classic sci-fi disaster flick. Dr. Chapman is uniquely qualified to assess the movie’s merits: “Deep Impact” is about a comet the size of Mount Everest that is heading on a collision course with Earth, and Chapman is a planetary scientist for the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit which protects Earth from comets, asteroids and other near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

Perhaps unusual for a big-budget sci-fi flick, Dr. Chapman strongly approved of the film’s science, and both he and Y — an environmental activist and artist who donates to the B612 Foundation — said that as a work of art they “highly rate the movie’s production and creativity. It treats a number of characters in sufficiently intimate detail that viewers get to ‘know’ them.”

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item...

Source: This 25-year-old sci-fi disaster movie is still lauded by scientists — here’s why | Salon.com

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing, Web & Technology

Republicans are trying to defund public libraries in addition to book bans – Vox

By Fabiola Cineas, May 5, 2023, 5:05pm EDT

A library in Missouri, where state lawmakers in 2022 made it illegal to provide students with “sexually explicit” material and later tried to eliminate state funding for public libraries.
Shane Keyser/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Fabiola Cineas covers race and policy as a reporter for Vox. Before that, she was an editor and writer at Philadelphia magazine, where she covered business, tech, and the local economy.

When Missouri’s House voted in late March to approve a state budget that would eliminate $4.5 million in funding for public libraries, local and national free speech advocates went into panic mode.

The Missouri Senate later restored the funding to the budget proposal in April. But full funding for the state’s libraries is still not guaranteed, and librarians and patrons are concerned that libraries across the state are still under attack and subject to the whims of Republican lawmakers.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item...

Source: Republicans are trying to defund public libraries in addition to book bans – Vox

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Web & Technology

The book battle is escalating, with library funds on the line : NPR

May 4, 20235:02 AM ET, Heard on All Things Considered By Tovia Smith

Otter Bowman is one of many library staffers around Missouri scrambling to enact new policies around books selected for young readers. Libraries that don’t comply risk losing state funding.
Anna Huffman/Anna Huffman

The decibel level is climbing as some 20 preschoolers sprawl out on an alphabet-pattern carpet for story hour.

One toddler, who’s new to the group, is having a bit of a meltdown, so Otter Bowman, a library associate at the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, Mo., goes for the surest trick she has and starts talking about “Junior,” the library’s bookmobile.

As usual, it gets the kids’ attention and the gaggle settles down so Bowman can begin story hour. “Hello! I’m Ducky Duckling,” she reads. “When I feel happy, I say, ‘Quack! Quack!’ ” The kids cackle and quack back.

Source: The book battle is escalating, with library funds on the line : NPR

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Web & Technology

How to Protect Your Local Library From Book Ban Campaigns – Bloomberg

Library boards, school boards and legislatures are becoming battlegrounds in a push to censor books. Communities are fighting back.

By Ariel Aberg-Riger, April 26, 2023 at 6:12 AM PDT

Illustration by Ariel Aberg-Riger

National Library Week in the US comes amid a period of turmoil for libraries, as efforts to censor books intensify.

Visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger explores the threats libraries face, their historical context and how activists are mobilizing to protect a diversity of thought.

For more on how libraries came to be a critical piece of social infrastructure, read her History of the American Public Library.

Editor’s Note: For free tools for National Library Week 2023, go here.

Source: How to Protect Your Local Library From Book Ban Campaigns – Bloomberg

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics

War of words: The fight over banning books – CBS News

By Martha Teichner, April 23, 2023 / 9:32 AM / CBS News

ARVE

Sunday Morning
War of words: The fight over banning books

“Catch-22,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” “The Great Gatsby,” Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” “Lord of the Flies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” … classics, and every one of them banned in some places. Said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, “There was somebody who objected to the profanity, or the challenge to the status quo.”

The Chicago Public Library put them on display, in defiance of efforts nationwide to ban books.

Source: War of words: The fight over banning books – CBS News

Arts & Humanities, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Las Vegas, Memories & History, Nevada, Pleasures

Nicolas Cage is all in: From his acting, to his home life, to his new Lamborghini | 60 Minutes – CBS News

By Sharyn Alfonsi, April 23, 2023 / 7:00 PM / CBS News

ARVE

60 Minutes’ video interview above…

It’s no secret big Hollywood studios like a sure bet, and there’s no shortage of predictable movies to prove it.

Which is probably why Nicolas Cage left Los Angeles for Las Vegas a long time ago.  At 59, the Academy Award winner owns one of the most eclectic lists of film credits in the business.

He’s been at it for more than 40 years – pivoting from leading man to action-hero to a slew of lesser features and back again. But we learned, behind that kaleidoscope of characters is a unique imagination and an encyclopedic knowledge of film… that seems to motivate everything Nicolas Cage does… his work, his life, and even this.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nicolas-cage-60-minutes-transcript-2023-04-23/