Closure in Seattle!

The Seattle Public Library will be closed for this week. Yep the whole lot, even the website, because of budget cuts. Ouch.

 “The Seattle Public Library system will be closed Aug. 31 through Sept. 7

All Library locations will be closed Monday, Aug. 31 through Sunday, Sept. 6 due to citywide budget cuts.

Please note: Monday, Sept. 7 is the Labor Day holiday and all libraries will be closed. Regular Library operations will resume Tuesday, Sept. 8.

No Library services will be available during the one-week closure. Learn more…

No Library computers will be available. See a list of north, south and central Seattle locations with free Internet access.

The systemwide closure, along with other cuts, will help the Library meet a 2 percent budget reduction – about $1 million. The closure will save approximately $655,000.

To leave a comment for the city librarian or the Library board, call 206-233-3905.”

Author of The Week: 31 August – 6 September

Robert Winston [The Right Honourable Professor Lord Winston]

Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston, FMedSci, FRSA, FRCP, FRCOG (born 15 July 1940) is a British medical doctor, scientist, television presenter, and also a politician who sits on the Labour Party benches in the House of Lords and takes the government whip.

Lord Winston, Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, runs a research programme in the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, on improvements in transgenic technology in animal models, with a long-term aim of improving human transplantation.  He has around 300 scientific publications in peer-review journals on reproduction and embryology. He is also Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, Chairman of the Royal College of Music, and was voted “Peer of the Year” by his fellow Parliamentarians in June 2008 for his expertise and work on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Electorate Profiles

One of the things I think our civil service does well is make available screeds of information, either about ourselves or government. Takes for example Statistics New Zealand which should be your first portal to any sort of statistic you could want.

Another is from those busy workers in Parliamentary Services,who produce many a useful document online and make freely available to all. The one I am highlighting today is the Electorate Profiles.

From their site:

“Electorate profiles for each of the seven Māori electorates and 63 general electorates in New Zealand are published here. Electorate profiles are produced by the Parliamentary Library. Each profile includes election results, statistics about people, households and industries, and maps.”

Here is the profile for the Wairarapa whichincludes the Tararua district.

Severe Weather Warning

It looks like a wet and wild Sunday coming up!

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING

ISSUED BY MetService AT 10:40 am 28-Aug-2009

HEAVY RAIN FOR WESTLAND AND FIORDLAND TODAY AND NORTHWEST GALES FOR CANTERBURY..

A LULL ON SATURDAY THEN A VERY STORMY DAY ON SUNDAY FOR MUCH OF NEW ZEALAND.

An active front is expected to move over Fiordland this afternoon and into Westland this evening. The strong northwest flow ahead of this front is expected to bring further heavy rain to the west of the South Island and gales in parts of Canterbury. Wind and rain in these areas should ease this evening and no severe weather is expected on Saturday.

On Sunday a deep low should pass just south of New Zealand and a very active front cross much of the South Island.  A period of intense rain is expected for all western areas of the South Island from Fiordland to northwest Nelson.

During Sunday, an unusually strong northwest flow ahead of this front should spread across much of New Zealand. North or northwest gales are expected in many areas. Severe gales are likely in Canterbury, Marlborough, Wellington and Wairarapa. It is also possible that winds may reach severe gale in Southland and Otago and in all southern and eastern North Island areas.

MetService would like to give plenty of advance notice of severe weather conditions on Sunday. People planning outdoor activities, particularly in the mountain areas of both islands, should consider alternative plans.

Heavy rain in the west of the South Island may well cause flooding and disrupt transport. Severe gales in Wellington, Wairarapa, Marlborough and Canterbury may damage trees and powerlines and disrupt transport.

In the time leading up to Sunday it is likely other areas will be added to the warnings for heavy rain and severe gales, and people are advised to keep up to date with new warning bulletins.

SciFi? Or Emerging Reality?

I geeked out when reading this, which comes from being a science fiction fan. Could be scary, or creepy or exciting depending on your point of view!

Google ‘evangelist’ sees web, brain implant link [Source Stuff]

The man regarded as one of the founding fathers of the internet is in the country – and he says the future of the web is in our bodies and in outer space.

Vint Cerf, vice-president and “chief internet evangelist” of tech giant Google, foresees the introduction of internet capability to existing neural interface technology such as cochlear implants, allowing, as an example, web radio played direct from computer to brain.

He is also involved in work to send internet infrastructure into space to create “a communications backbone between space-faring nations”.

Cerf predicts the falling cost and rising sophistication of programmable devices will allow the internet to be widely embedded in inanimate objects, leading to revolutions in automated shipping and inventory control.

Some of these capabilities are already starting to be realised: Cerf’s wine cellar is internet- enabled, sending him a text message when temperature and humidity levels become unfavourable.

Another Ebook Reader Enters the Fray

I just want to see them here! They keep being mentioned in our press, but none seem to be for sale in good old Kiwi land.

Sony’s new e-book goes wireless [Source Stuff]

“Sony has unveiled its first wireless electronic reader, a move to challenge Amazon.com’s momentum in the growing digital book market.

At US$399 (about NZ$580), the “Daily Edition,” features a 7-inch touch screen, and an aluminium body, and will go on sale in the US in December. US telco AT&T will provide its 3G wireless internet service.

There is no release date or price set yet for Sony’s e-readers in New Zealand.

After a year of headlines dominated by Amazon’s Kindle reader, Sony has taken the offensive, with the wireless model joining previously announced lower-priced units.

It’s unclear which consumers prefer. Amazon does not provide sales figures. In January, Sony disclosed that it had sold 400,000 readers.

Sony previously introduced the “Pocket Edition” for US$199 and the “Touch Edition” for US$299. But Kindle has generated the lion’s share of buzz, even though its 2007 introduction came a year later than Sony’s first reader.

New Look

I thought you might have been a bit tired with the look and feel of the blog, and with next Friday being our first birthday, I thought I would change things up a bit and refresh the blog with a new look. I hope you like it. 

You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to contribute anything to the blog, such as a review of a library book, or an upcoming local event drop us a line.

Thanks for reading folks!

Guest Review: Love Letters by Katie Fforde

Love Letters by Katie Fforde

Sigh.  Don’t you just love a book that makes you smile and clasp it to your chest…

While I’m a long-term reader of Katie Ffordes gentle modern romances, I have felt that some of her more recent offerings have been sadly average.  Love Letters brings a very welcome return to form.  A well read heroine, a suitably brooding hero and a cast of amusing authors.

Her portrayal of the publishing world and its characters is funny and biting.  I’m grateful that I don’t write either literary fiction or sci -fi…. At the heart of the story though is an appealing romance from an author at the top of her field. I liked it so much I’m going to buy it.

Kylie.

Author of the Week: August 24 – August 31

Lynley Hood

Hood, Lynley (1942 –) is a freelance writer and biographer.

Lynley Hood was born in Hamilton. In 1961 she moved to Dunedin where she completed an MSc in Physiology. Hood worked in medical research until the birth of her first child. In 1979 she became a freelance writer.

Hood’s first book, Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1990) won first prize at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Award in 1989, the PEN Best First Book of Prose Award in 1989 and the Talking Book of the Year in 1990.

Writing in Metro, Michael King celebrates the biography as, ‘Like all first-rate biographies, Sylvia! tells us a great deal more than Ashton-Warner – about the business of life itself, its promises, its anxieties, its ultimate disappointment. I cannot recommend it too highly.’

Hood’s next two books were Who is Sylvia? The Diary of a Biography (1990) and Minnie Dean: Her Life & Crimes (1994). The latter was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards in 1995.

In 2001 Hood published the popular, controversial and award-winning A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Crèche Case. A City Possessed was the History Winner, Readers’ Choice Award and won the Montana Medal for Non-fiction at the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The book also won the Skeptic New Zealand Bravo Award in 2002.

In the New Zealand Law Journal Ian Freckelton writes, ‘A City Possessed is a gripping and controversial analysis of a legal and social phenomenon that has the potential to confront us all … Hood’s courage in robustly presenting her version of the tale and in seeking to learn from it should inspire all of us to reflect soberly and thoughtfully about how child protection, criminal investigation and legal procedures can be improved.’ Writing in New Zealand Books Greg Newbold declares, ‘The result is nothing less than outstanding; an encyclopaedic work of professorial quality … deep, detailed, insightful and comprehensive.’

In 2003 Hood earned a LittD from Otago University. The degree was not honorary; instead it was earned for ‘published contributions of special excellence in linguistic, literary, social or historical knowledge’. When recommending that the degree be conferred an external examiner described A City Possessed as, ‘unquestionably an outstanding piece of research work of substantial national significance’.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Review Links

Sometimes I love the Internet. I love its collaborative nature and the way people all over the world can cooperate and work together. Sometimes I even start to believe the meme that the Internet will be a socially transforming media that will led to the breakdown of national barriers. But then my natural cynicism kicks in . The following is an example of someone sharing a lot of hard work, and encouraging others to participate.  It is a list of people reviewing Science Fiction and Fantasy books on the net.

[Hat Tip SciFicGuy, Grasping for the Wind]

SF/F/H Reviewer Linkup Meme, 2nd Edition

Welcome to the second edition of the book reviewer linkup meme. Here you will find a list of many of the best speculative fiction review blogs on the internet.