Terror Vision

The Genealogy Group at the Library is for people interested in learning about genealogy and family history. Genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in America. The group is intended for both beginning and experienced genealogists. 
Thursday, October 13 at 7 pm
 
Storytimes: half-hour program featuring stories, fingerplays, songs, and a short movie. Each week an early literacy skill will be highlighted.  There are 6 early literacy skills: print awareness, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, print motivation, and narrative skills. No registration is needed for these programs   
          Tuesday 1:30 pm for 3 – 6 years
          Wednesday 10:30 am for 18 months through 35 months 
          Thursday 10:30 am for all ages
          Thursday 6:30 pm for all ages
The theme for Oct 11-13 is fall leaves
The theme for Oct. 18-20 is dinosaurs
The theme for Oct 24-27 is Halloween
Family Halloween storytime is Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 pm  Please register for this special storytime so that we have enough goodie bags.  Space is limited.

A Mother Goose program for babies is held on Wednesdays at 11:30 am No registration is needed for this series of programs.       
 
Playtime – Friday 10 am to noon – Drop in – no registration.  Weekly throughout the year.  Opportunity for babies, toddlers and preschoolers to play and socialize together with parents in the large meeting room of the library.  
 
Tails of Joy – Read to me dogs
Saturday – Sat. Oct. 15 from 1 to 2:30 pm – Children in grades 1-5. Register begins Oct. 3. The “Tails of Joy” organization provides Reading Education Assistance Dogs to help improve the literacy skills of children. Dogs are patient, non-judgmental listeners, and allow an opportunity for children to practice their reading skills. Bring your favorite book or choose one from the library collection!  Registration required.

Posted at 05:50 PM ET, 09/28/2011
Chris Christie: The home, family, hobbies of your favorite non-candidate of the moment
By The Reliable Source

GALLERY: Click the image above to view more photos of Gov. Chris Christie.

You know that Chris Christie is this week’s golden boy, the so-called salvation for the 2012 GOP ticket — even though the New Jersey governor says over and over that he’s not running. You know that he’s, um,
hefty because every late-night comedian has a fat joke about him. What else? Here’s everything else about Christie you need to know:

• Christie, 49, has been married to college sweetheart Mary Pat Foster for 25 years. They met at the University of Delaware, where she succeeded him as student government president. Mary Pat, now 48, was an investment banker at Cantor Fitzgerald until shortly after the 9/11 attacks (she worked two blocks away from the Twin Towers), and recently went back to the firm part-time.

Chris and Mary Pat Christie on the campaign trail in 2009.
(Stephen Chernin/ Getty Images)

• They have four children: Andrew, 18; Sarah, 15; Patrick, 11; and Bridget, 8. The governor took some heat in June, when he took a state helicopter from Trenton to see Andrew’s baseball game. (Christie then flew to Princeton for dinner with a group of rich Iowa donors who want him to run for president.) Big sports household, we’re told: Sarah plays softball and soccer, Patrick is into baseball and hockey, Bridget likes gymnastics and softball. No pets.

• After he took office in January 2010, Christie decided not to move his family into Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton, because it would uproot his kids. The family lives in Mendham, a town about 35 miles away.

Christie brandishes his tickets arriving at a Springsteen concert at Giants Stadium in 2009.
(Bill Kostroun/AP)
• He’s a huge Bruce Springsteen fan since his teen years; boasts he’s been to 125 shows. Favorite song: “Thunder Road,” not “Born to Run,” haha. You’d think the two Jersey boys would be likethis . . . but no. Springsteen declined Christie’s request to play at the inauguration and has criticized the governor’s policies. Christie shrugged it off: “Bruce is liberal,” he told Diane Sawyer. “Doesn’t mean I like him any less. But you know, Bruce believes that we should be raising taxes all the time on everyone to do all the things that he’d like to see government do.”

Christie and his family at a 9/11 memorial this month.
(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
• But Christie rather dislikes “Jersey Shore.” “Take them back. We don’t want them,” he said earlier this year. On Monday, he vetoed the “Snooki Subsidy” — $420,000 in tax credits for MTV. “As chief executive, I am duty-bound to ensure that taxpayers are not footing a $420,000 bill for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the state and its citizens,” he wrote to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Big blow to the state’s tan-and-drink lobby.

• Christie is a Mets fan (baseball is the former catcher’s favorite sport); he also watches Jets and Giants games. (Andrew and Sarah root for the Jets; Patrick is a Giants fan, we’re told.) As a family, they like to watch “American Idol.”

• Exactly how much does he weigh? Don’t go there — the governor’s office doesn’t.

RELATED

Dan Balz: Is Christie ready to be president?

The Fix: Christie knows what he is doing

By The Reliable Source
 | 
05:50 PM ET, 09/28/2011

Categories: 
Politics

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When I got my iPad, one of the things I was most excited about was combining my new favorite toy with one of my favorite hobbies (procrastinating on Facebook). However I soon discovered what every other iPad user most likely already knew. There was no Facebook iPad app. Instead of a full-size app that made use of the space offered by the iPad?s large screen, those of us who wanted to do our social networking on the go with our Apple tablet had to get by with the iPhone app. A first world problem, if ever there was one, but still, by comparison to the other apps tailor-made for the iPad, the magnified version of the iPhone Facebook app fell noticeably short.

Using Facebook through Safari on the iPad was just as underwhelming. As the New York Times so eloquently put it, ?Until now, navigating Facebook.com on an iPad felt like trying to write an e-mail on a calculator.?

Here are some of the enhanced features offered in the Facebook iPad app:

Enjoy bigger, better photos: Your photos are high-res and easy to flip through, like a real photo album
- Navigate anywhere, fast: Just tap, slide or pinch to move from one screen to another
- Play games on the go: Access your favorite Facebook apps and games, wherever you are
- Focus on what matters: Zoom in on your friends photos, updates and stories
- Never lose your place: Share a photo, update your status or send a message without leaving News Feed
See whos nearby: Check out the Nearby map to see what your friends are up to

You can view more details on the app?s capabilities here.

Also included in the features is the ability to take HD videos and photos right through the app and post them instantly. As the Times points out, the photo albums featured through Facebook are set up to function similarly to how the iPad?s built-in photo app works, allowing users to easily swipe through photos in albums. This feature demonstrates what a lot of us have been waiting for in this app. The iPhone app felt like it was made for a small, compact device, because it was.

From what I can tell so far, this new app seems built around the way we use the iPad for other things, which makes it feel a lot more intuitive, allowing us to swipe left to right to return to our wall after visiting a friend?s page, for example, and creating a stationary side-menu with various options, including our favorited games and pages, rather than forcing us to go to a dedicated menu page to move around Facebook. The stationary vertical menu on the side, and the ability to swipe through pages left to right in addition to viewing by scrolling up and down is similar to how the iPad Twitter app works.

As a Words with Friends addict, I was pleased to see that clicking the game from Facebook toggled me to the Words with Friends iPad app I already had installed on my iPad. A feature like that, which incorporates other Facebook-compatible apps could prove to be really useful.

So far it looks like the Facebook iPad app is turning out to be well worth the wait. In fact, if it turns out to be as good as it looks at first glance, I may actually start using Facebook regularly from my iPad.

Ever since that squirrel ran across home plate just as Philadelphia’s Roy Oswalt was delivering a pitch in Game 4 of the NLDS between the Phillies and Cardinals (a game which St. Louis went on to win), people in St. Louis have been going nuts for the Busch Stadium Rally Squirrel. It’s become a symbol ofwell, I’m not quite sure what. But people like it, and last night at Game 3 of the NLCS, the St. Louis Cardinals gave every fan in attendance a rally towel with the Rally Squirrel’s likeness.

But this isn’t the first time an animal has intervened, for better or for worse, in a pro sporting event. Hell, it’s not even the first time an animal has become a good luck charm for a team.

Here are 9 instances of critters getting in on the fun at pro sporting events.

12. Anaheim Angels Rally Monkey

As far as I know, the Anaheim California Angels of Los Angeles, or whatever that team is called now, was the first to introduce a rally animal.

Back in 2000, two video board operators for the Angels just thought it would be funny to take a clip of a jumping capuchin monkey from Ace Ventura and put it up on the jumbotron with the words “Rally Monkey!” written above it. After the Angels did indeed rally for a win, the monkey became a star. By the time the 2002 World Series came around, the Angels had hired their own official rally monkey (Katie) to incite rallies live an in person. Said rally monkey became an international superstar when the Angels came back from a 5-0 deficit to win Game 6 of the World Series.

Today, the Angels still use the rally monkey. They produce a series of videos that play on the jumbotron when the Angels are behind late in games. Here’s another:

11. Shea Stadium Black Cat Curses Cubs

The Chicago Cubs had a 9 1/2 game lead over the New York Mets on August 14, 1969. But in 3-game series between the two at Shea Stadium that August, a black cat crossed in front of Cubs legend Ron Santo while he stood in the warmup circle. Obviously, this cursed the Cubs, who went on to lose the division to the mets by 8 games. It was a late-season collapse for the ages, and it was all thanks to a frisky feline.

10. Moth Attack

Just a couple of months ago, on Monday, August 22, 2011, St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday had to leave a game against the Dodgers after a moth flew into and got lodged in his ear. Team trainers tried to coax the little creature out of the ear humanely by shining a flashlight in there. When that didn’t work they just reach in with tweezers and removed it by force. The moth did not survive.

9. The Great Gnat Attack

In the 8th inning of Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians, a swarm of bugs enveloped the field at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field (yes, it was still called “Jacobs Field” then). They were so bad that they distracted rookie phenom Joba Chamberlain, who walked Grady Sizemore who later scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Cleveland eventually won the game in the 11th, and the Yankees cried themselves to sleep.

8. The Cleveland Seagulls

More animal interference from Cleveland! This time, it was the damned seagulls.

Apparently, given Cleveland’s location on Lake Eerie, the seagulls have a habit of flocking into the ballpark after games and scarfing up all the goodies left there by the fans. It happens like clockwork. But when the games run late, the seagulls still show up for their evening snack and have been known to get in the way. Like in 2009, in a game between the Royals and Indians, when one of the hungry birds flew into the path of a bloop single, interfering with centerfielder Coco Crisp’s effort to play the ball. A run scored and the Indians won the game because, unfortunately, there’s no section on “Seagull Interference” in the official MLB rulebook. Bummer.

7. Raiders’ Secret Weapon (Hint: It’s a Pigeon)

I like the idea of a special teams pigeon an all, but I thought pirates were supposed to have parrots for pets. But hey, whatever works, right?

6. Wimbledon Ducks

Wimbledon is classy. There’s a dress code, and they serve snacks like strawberries and cream. (Ooh la la.) So of course, when birds get in the way of the action at the All England Tennis Club, it’s not nasty scavengers like seagulls or pigeons. It’s fancy birds. Like ducks.

On June 29, 2007, play was halted when a mother duck and her little ducklings paraded across the grass court right as they were about to begin playing.

Awwwwwe!

5. The Wrigley Cat

When a ferrel cat got onto the field at Wrigley in 2009, animal rights people went apeshit when a groundskeeper picked the kitty up by its tail to remove it. Luckily, before an angry mob was able to tar and feather the poor guy, Chicago’s WGN News cranked out this (video above) hart-hitting piece of journalism exonerating him.

On a related note, what is it with the Cubs and ferrel cats? (See #11.)

4. Dog Takes Dump on Diamond

You know why minor league baseball is so awesome? Because stuff like this can happen.

In 2010, the Double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals got themselves a lovable little pooch for a mascot. He’d hang with the team in the dugout for a while, they’d parade him out onto the field for a bit, and then he’d go and get petted by the kiddies up in the stands. Cute as hell, right?

Well, one game, the little rascal manages to get loose, and so of course he runs out onto the fieldand takes a dump.

Is that not awesome?

3. Manu Ginobili: Bat Assassin

If the animals rights folks didn’t like the Wrigley guy picking a cat up by its tail (isn’t that what tails are for?), I’m sure they must have fainted when they saw this replay of San Antonia Spurs guard Manu Ginobili smack a bat out of the air with his bare hands.

The bat had interrupted play a couple of times, and I guess Manu had had enough. I like how, after he swats the little flying mammal out of the air, he picks it up himself and runs it off the court.

Also, did you notice how one of his teammates turns away in horror when the bat comes near him? Classic.

2. Seagull Steals Golf Ball

The official rules of golf differentiate between natural and manmade obstructions in the field of play. If the ball lands on a sprinkler head or something, you get to move it. If it lands under a bush, you’re screwed. But what does the rule book say about birds stealing your ball from the green and dropping it in the lake?

1. Randy Johnson’s One-in-a-Billion Bird-Obliterating Pitch

This incident from the 7th inning of a spring training game on March 24, 2001, has to be #1, doesn’t it? It is probably the most incredible thing that has ever happened or will happen on a baseball diamond. In fact, according to my calculations, the chances of anything like this happening at all, let alone again, are 8.43 billion to 1. (I’m not going to bother explaining how I reached this mathematical precise figure. You probably wouldn’t understand.)

LONDON — Like most business school students, Gui Deng Say didn’t set out to change the world. After graduating from the National University of Singapore with a degree in environmental engineering, the 27-year-old decided to stay on and take a master’s degree in international management.

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Because Singapore is a member of CEMS, a global alliance of business schools, Mr. Say was able to divide his second year of study between two other CEMS campuses, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris, or H.E.C., and the London School of Economics. At H.E.C., Mr. Say studied for a Real Estate certificate, and seemed destined for a fast-track career in international property development. But thanks to a chance encounter at the CEMS graduation ceremony he is now working for the Grameen Bank, the microfinance community development bank which, along with its founder, Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

“I realized that I will have my whole life to pursue my career,” Mr. Say said in an interview. “I thought I should try something really different. And what I’ve learned from my work here is a very different approach to what we were taught in business school. It’s a far more simple and down-to-earth way of doing things. And it’s very effective.”

According to Thomas Bieger, chairman of CEMS and president of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, business schools and the nonprofit sector have much to teach each other.

“In the aftermath of the world financial crisis, business schools came in for a lot of criticism,” he said. “Some people argued we were co-responsible for the crisis, because we had been teaching the wrong methods, and not paying enough attention to questions of ethics and sustainability.”

“Actually our faculty have always been interested in corporate social responsibility,” Dr. Bieger said. “And we have always encouraged our students to pay attention to what happens to the employees of a company, and to what happens to the local communities. But we felt that we had to improve our efforts — and to give those efforts more visibility.”

So at the end of last year, CEMS, which had already forged partnerships with more than 70 corporations from the pharmaceutical giant Astra-Zeneca and Google to Shell and Statoil and Zurich insurance, inaugurated its first “social partnerships.”

Like the corporate partners, social partners will be involved in shaping the curriculum, advising on admissions and in some cases actually teaching or developing courses.

“We don’t want passive partners,” said Kevin Titman, a spokesman for the CEMS head office based at H.E.C. It was CEMS students who first came up with, and pushed for, the idea of social partnerships, he said.

Although the group hopes to eventually include a dozen social partners, so far they have formalized relationships with three: CARE, the international aid organization; Fairtrade International, which campaigns for the rights of producers and farmers; and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, which aims to improve cross-cultural understanding. A fourth partnership, with Transparency International, the anti-corruption organization, is expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

The new social partners will all be given seats on the CEMS governing body, and, like their corporate counterparts, have privileged access to recruiting CEMS students for internships and as graduates. But while the corporate partners pay €23,000, or $31,000, a year for membership, the social partners will not be charged.

Founded in 1988 as the Community of European Management Schools, CEMS began with just four members: H.E.C. Paris, the Bocconi University in Milan, ESADE in Barcelona, and the University of Cologne. But in recent years the group has expanded far beyond the boundaries of Europe, now comprising 26 member schools including Tsinghua University in China, Keio in Japan, the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg University, the Koc University Graduate School of Business in Turkey and the Fundação Getulio Vargas-EAESP in Brazil.

Consistently ranked in the top three programs of its kind, the CEMS Masters in International Management typically attracts students with little or no business experience.

“Our students tend to come to us straight after their undergraduate degrees,” Mr. Titman said.

Students pay no tuition for their second year, he said, and are required to spend at least one term of that year as a student in another CEMS school (though some, like Mr. Say, choose to spend both terms of their second year abroad.) Graduates are awarded two degrees, one from their home university and one from CEMS.

“By the time they finish, all CEMS graduates need to be trilingual, so they usually spend at least one term at a school where they can also work on a language,” he said.

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