Publix “At Season’s Peak” Recipe Contest

Enter your best original recipe using apples in the Publix “At Season’s Peak” contest (http://www.meredith.com/publix/recipe/) for a chance to win 52 $100 Publix gift cards. Three runner-up winners will each receive a $100 Public gift card. All entrants must be 21 years old and legal residents of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, or South Carolina at the time of entry. (You do not have to be a culinary or baking and pastry student, or a professional, to enter.) The deadline for entering your recipe is 11:59 p.m., December 2, 2009.

Go to http://www.meredith.com/publix/recipe/rules.html for the complete list of contest rules.

If you would simply like to try some recipes using apples, the following are just a few of the items are available for checkout from the Library:

The Apple Cookbook: More Than Sixty Easy, Imaginative Recipes
An Apple Harvest: Recipes and Orchard Lore
Apple Pie: an American Story

Use the Library Databases to Prepare for the Fall Career Expo

An excellent way to prepare for the Fall Career Expo that will be held Thursday, November 5th, in the University Center, is to research the industries and companies you are especially interested in. Your research will give you knowledgeable “talking points” as well as help you formulate important questions to ask the on-campus representatives

Business Resource Center, Business & Company Resource Center, and Business Source Complete are just three databases containing important sources of information. Going the extra step of doing your research may put you ahead of the competition.

The Positive No

William Ury is the author of several books on the topic of negotiation and is recognized worldwide for his negotiation and mediation skills. He is currently the director of Harvard’s Global Negotiation Project. His most recent book, The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes, provides a three step process (Yes! No. Yes?) that allows the user to more effectively get what is desired through negotiation.

Step one of a Positive No creates the understanding that saying “No” is actually saying “Yes!” to yourself. The second step of a Positive No conveys the reality that saying “No” states what it is that you do not agree to. The third step of a Positive No bridges to a point of agreement and respect. Ury also explains the process as: the first step expresses your interests, the second step asserts your power, and the third step furthers your relationship.

The effectiveness of a Positive No allows one to stand on ones own two feet, create what is wanted, protect what is valued, and change what does not work. The key to using this technique is respect. Although this may sound like common sense, Ury contends that it is uncommon, as so often the Nos used in negotiation and life do not follow this pattern, and the results are far from productive.

The Power of a Positive No is a fairly quick read and may provide you with an effective life long communication and negation tool. Can you recommend other self-help type books that you have found to be helpful? Posting your thoughts to these blog entries is always appreciated. We invite you to share your thoughts with other blog readers.

The Green Revolution

“Student by student, school by school, teacher by teacher, neighborhood by neighborhood, the American Re-Generation is growing and changing the culture around green, making it not only “hip” but also more central to our lives.” So states New York Times writer Thomas L. Friedman in his latest book: Hot, Flat and Crowded.

The warming of the planet, the “flattening” effect of technology on the global marketplace, and the spiraling world population growth, especially in nations that can least sustain overpopulation, are the trends Friedman identifies as the driving forces of the new Energy-Climate Era. It is in coping with and developing solutions for the problems generated by this hot, flat, crowded world, that Friedman sees America coming again to its role as the world leader. Furthermore, it is in the process of American leadership taking on the challenges of energy efficiency and environmental preservation, that America will renew its identity and self-confidence.

Each chapter reminds the reader of the importance of the topic and the necessity for change and leadership. In conclusion, Friedman uses the analogy of all of us sailing as pilgrims on the Mayflower, and arriving at a place where we have not been before. The nature of the decisions we make about sustainable development will define who we are as Americans, and, in a very real way, define a moment in history as a true turning point where the nations that develop the big solutions to the big problems will lead the new era.

What are your ideas for sustainable living and development?

Librarian’s Pick: Web 2.0, The Business Model

The book Web 2.0: The Business Model is an edited collection of works discussing the implications and applications offered by the Internet’s second generation of services.  The editors are: Dr. Miltiadis D. Lytras, President and founder of Open Research Society; Professor Ernesto Damiani, Department of Information Technology, University of Milan; and Professor Patricia Ordonez De Pablos, Department of Business Administration and Accountability, University of Oviedo, Spain. The research contained in this book focuses on discussing the state of the art of Web 2.0, analyzing successful cases of Web 2.0 with a business model perspective, and understanding the potential of Web 2.0 for business in different domains.

Various chapters refer to knowledge sharing, marketing free services, social networks, knowledge management, wikis, learning support, open tagging, Enterprise 2.0, and strategies in learning and teaching,

The volume is designed for managers and executives, students in management and IT/CS programs, politicians, government officers and policy makers, and professors in academia. 

Along with the scholarly studies, the editors encourage the reader to be aware of “the 2^nd Athens World Summit on the Knowledge Society” being held September 16-19, 2009.  The conference brings together stakeholders of the Knowledge Society development worldwide “to look at the impact and prospects of the Information Technology, and the knowledge-based era it is creating, on key facets of living, working, learning, innovating and collaborating in today’s hyper-complex world.”

Google Labs

Wondering what the next big thing will be in popular Internet applications? Google is offering the opportunity to “test drive” products that are in the development stage and even give feedback to the engineers who are working on them. The on-ramp to what is described as the “not quite ready for prime time” section of the super highway is Google Labs. These are prototype products that may, or may not, result in solid, functional applications running on Google, Gmail, or iGoogle. Your comments are welcome and strongly encouraged as Google tries to gage what consumers want and will use and what the current technology can make accessible.

Summer Games

If you are ready to play a computer game, stimulate a learning curve, and donate to a good cause, then it is time to go to http://www.freerice.com. This web site is educational in nature and a player can definitely learn something new by choosing to increase the difficulty of the questions. It is a charitable learning game that donates ten grains of rice for each correct answer through the United Nations World Food Program. (http://www.wfp.org/content/freerice-web-phenomenon-games-new-school-term

FreeRice is the creation of American computer programmer John Breen, and has the stated goals of providing education for everyone for free and helping end world hunger by providing free rice to hungry people for free. It has partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu). English vocabulary was the first online game at FreeRice, and started in October, 2007. Game content has expanded to include questions about English grammar, art, chemistry, geography, languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish), and math. Mr. Breen donated the site to the UN World Food Program in March, 2009.

As of today, 65,698,293,580 grains of rice have been donated to help solve the problem of world hunger. This is a game that definitely emphasizes the win-win concept.

National Parks – Free Admission Days This Summer

The National Parks Service (http://www.recreation.gov) will offer free admission to all 391 national parks on June 20-21, July 18-19, and August 15-16. You can search the site by location and/or park name, and/or usage type such as Day Use, RV sites, Cabins or Lookouts, Boat sites, etc. Or you can plan your trip around an activity such as biking, boating, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, or any of the nineteen recreational categories listed.

Can’t log into the databases off campus???

If you are having trouble logging into the databases when you are off campus, it may be that the system does not recognize your barcode number. It is possible that your student ID information has not been added to the user database. If you are experiencing this type of error when logging in, check with the Library (305-892-7043) to be sure that your student ID can access the system off campus. Or, stop by the Reference Desk the next time you visit the Library, and we will be sure you have access.

Google presents: Public Data

Google has launched a new search feature that locates and compares public data by presenting the information in interactive graph form. The examples featured by Google include unemployment rates and population. The first search result for “unemployment rate Florida” is the graph of Florida’s unemployment rate from 1990 to recent data. Rolling the mouse over the graph will open windows containing the percentage number being represented by the specific data point, along with the month and year. Comparing data for various states and/or the entire U.S. is possible by simply making selections from the list presented on the left side of the graph. Clicking on the “more info” link on the top of the chart takes you to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the source of the data presented.

Searching for “population Florida” presents data in graph form from 1980 to July, 2008. The graph is interactive and reveals the population number, month and year, for each data point activated by rolling the mouse over the graph. The format for comparing data is the same and makes creating customized charts as simple as clicking various states, or the entire U.S.  The “More info” link on the population chart takes you to the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates web site.