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I am very real

I am very real
In October of 1973, Bruce Severy — a 26-year-old English teacher at Drake High School, North Dakota — decided to use Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, as a teaching aid in his classroom. The next month, on November 7th, the head of the school board, Charles McCarthy, demanded that all 32 copies be burned in the school's furnace as a result of its "obscene language." Other books soon met with the same fate. On the 16th of November, Kurt Vonnegut sent McCarthy the following letter. (Source: Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage; Image: Kurt Vonnegut, via Everything was Vonnegut.) November 16, 1973Dear Mr.

The curious tale of the stolen books 24 April 2013Last updated at 19:48 ET By Martin Vennard BBC World Service London's Lambeth Palace, home to the Archbishop of Canterbury, also has a leading historic book collection. The palace's library was the scene of a major crime that stayed undiscovered for decades. A sealed letter that arrived at one of Britain's most historic libraries in February 2011 was to leave its staff stunned. The letter had been written before his death by a former employee of Lambeth Palace Library. Staff had known since the mid-1970s that dozens of its valuable books had been stolen. Continue reading the main story Lambeth's recovered books Key works now back at the Palace include: "We were staggered," says Declan Kelly, director of libraries and archives for the Church of England. They contained some 1,000 volumes, made up of 1,400 publications, many from the collections of three 17th century archbishops of Canterbury - John Whitgift, Richard Bancroft and George Abbot. Continue reading the main story

J. Robert Oppenheimer From Conservapedia J. Robert Oppenheimer Julius[1] Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretical physicist and director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of four laboratories[2] involved in the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb. He was also a secret member of the Communist Party.[3] Early life Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1904,[4] the eldest son of Julius and Ella (née Freedman) Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer's parents were of Jewish descent, but did not observe religious traditions, sending him (via limousine)[11] to New York's elite[12] Ethical Culture[13] Society School.[14] Ethical Culture, a secular humanist religion,[15] is indifferent to the existence of God, replacing the Ten Commandments[16] with a commitment to "social justice Oppenheimer never did embrace Judaism, turning instead to philosophical Hinduism. Education Oppenheimer went to Paris for a rest. In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge for the University of Göttingen in Germany.

When Opium Was For Newborns And Bayer Sold Heroin --- "There was a time when mothers gave their babies opium, people bought hallucinogens at the local bar, and anxious patriots sent hypodermic needles and cocaine to soldiers as a present." Even the Pope d 25 Things I'm Learning From Closing a Bookstore. - jlsathre A while back I wrote "25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore." This is the other bookend. 1. When people ask why you're closing, you can tell them that the economy's poor and people are buying Nooks. But it's more fun to tell them that it's time to move on because you've read everything in the store. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. "You mean the ones that are worth a lot of money?" Yes they do. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. And, once again, that pesky fifth grader shows his face. 24. 25.

Nothing good gets away Steinbeck replied the same day. His beautiful letter of advice can be enjoyed below. (Source: Steinbeck: A Life in Letters; Image: Thom and John Steinbeck with their father in 1954, courtesy of UC Berkeley.) New York November 10, 1958Dear Thom:We had your letter this morning. Tesla at work More Scientific Evidence That Reading Is Good for You - Arit John A growing body of research in the sciences is discovering what bookworms, 9th-grade English teachers and underemployed liberal arts majors have known for ages: reading is really, really good for you. Besides making you an empathetic, sexy, cultured and all around more interesting human being, reading apparently provides definite benefits to your mental health, sharpening the mind as it ages. A study released in Neurology found that reading and similar activities reduced the rate of cognitive decline in dementia patients. Researchers examined the brains of 294 patients post-mortem and found a slower rate of decline in patients who reported more early-life and late-life cognitive activity, such as reading, writing and playing games. "The study showed that mentally active patients — ones who read and wrote regularly — declined at a significantly slower rate than those who had an average amount of activity," notes NPR's Annalisa Quinn. With all that in mind, go forth and read freely.

Hang on, my love, and grow big and strong It took nine months for Iggy Pop to reply to then-21-year-old Laurence's fan letter, but really the timing couldn't have been more perfect as on the morning his thoughtful note did arrive at her home in Paris, Laurence's family were being evicted by bailiffs. Laurence recalls that moment back in 1995: "By the time I finished I was in tears. Not only had Iggy Pop received the letter I had sent him nine months before, and I could have missed his if he'd sent it a day later, but he had read the whole 'fucking' 20 pages, including the bit about my Adidas dress (a semi-innocent allusion on my part), and all the rest, my description of being the child of an acrimonious divorce with the string of social workers, lawyers, greedy estate agents and bailiffs at the door, the fear, the anger, the frustration, the love." Iggy's empathetic, handwritten response addressed Laurence's problems with both grace and eloquence, and really can't be praised enough. Transcript follows. Transcript

Tesla at work : pics Google Is Even Mapping The Fictional World Of Harry Potter Didn't get into Hogwarts when you turned 11? Don't worry. You can still visit the Wizarding World's main drag, Diagon Alley, from the comfort of your desk. Diagon Alley is the main shopping district in the Harry Potter universe, where wizarding students from the book series go to buy schoolbooks, wands, candy, flying brooms and more. It may not be as useful as the Marauder's Map, but Google Street View did an excellent job capturing a big piece of the film franchise's set. To see Diagon Alley and much more Harry Potter paraphernalia in person, head out to London and take the Warner Bros. studio tour. [h/t Mashable] Earlier on HuffPost:

Immortal Beloved After his death in 1827, the following love letter was found amongst the personal papers of Ludwig van Beethoven, penned by the composer over the course of two days in July of 1812 while staying in Teplice. The letter's unnamed recipient — Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved" — remains a mystery, and continues to generate debate. Below are images of the first and last of the letter's ten pages. A full translated transcript follows. 6 July, morningMy angel, my all, my own self — only a few words today, and that too with pencil (with yours) — only till tomorrow is my lodging definitely fixed.

Apple's legal war with Android receives major blow due to a 1994 video It’s hard to believe that someone envisioned tablet PCs 18 years ago, but a dusty video clip from 1994 shows us that there were, in fact, technology visionaries before Steve Jobs (insert “ironic grin” here). The video shows how newspaper company Knight Ridder saw the news of the future and, darn it, I must say that those guys were spot on with their assumptions. However, what they probably didn’t think their little video would do is seriously hurt Apple’s chances of winning the design patent war against Samsung and other Android tablet manufacturers, a war that is heading towards a conclusion these days. How did something like this happen? Well, it’s pretty simple. The design in question is a rectangle with rounded corners and a big glass screen, which, for anyone with some sense, doesn’t sound like an awfully original concept. Without having legal studies of any kind (watching every season of the original “Law and Order” doesn’t count, does it?)

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