AFI's Top 10 Motion Pictures and TV Programs of 2005

How Well Did You Keep Up With Pop Culture This Year?

"AFI is proud to honor these 20 collaborative teams. As the institute recognizes and celebrates excellence across the century, these honorees will be part of the record that documents America's enduring cultural legacy," AFI director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg said.

Full article, click here.

Top 10 Motion Pictures of 2005

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Good Night, and Good Luck
A History of Violence
King Kong
Munich
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana

Top 10 TV Programs of 2005

24 (Fox)
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Channel)
Deadwood (HBO)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
House (Fox)
Lost (ABC)
Rescue Me (FX)
Sleeper Cell (Showtime)
Sometimes in April (HBO)
Veronica Mars (UPN)

Will You Catch The Flu This Year?

The Centers for Disease Control has a new link titled "What You Should Know" providing key facts about the flu this year (there is only one case in Oklahoma currently). The linked article includes steps you can take to prevent the flu and also comments on Avian Flu. This is an interesting and informative link from Government Documents. To access, click on the above title "Will You Catch The Flu This Year?"

Finals Resting Place Continues Mon.-Tues. 8pm

Students seeking a "Finals Resting Place" to escape exam study stress can find a refuge in the Libray basement on Dec 14-15 and Dec 18-20. During these designated days the library will host the Finals Resting Place from 8 p.m. until midnight in the basement lounge and writing center. The decorations will be a Tim Burton Christmas theme.
This will be a place where no studying is allowed. However students may talk, play games, listen to music, make phone calls, check their e-mail and get a free cup of coffee and a cookie. Taking a break can actually be good for you mentally and physically and help you study more diligently after you're rested. We'll leave the light on for you.

U.S. Census Counts Thanksgiving Consumption

Are you kinda curious as to how much you ate on Thanksgiving?

Never fear! The U.S. Census Bureau can tell you.

• An estimated 256 million turkeys were raised in the United States in 2005.
• U.S. cranberry production in 2005 was approximately 649 million pounds.
• The 2005 total volume of wheat, 2.1 billion bushels, is essential for breads and pies.
• Quantity of turkey consumed by the typical American is 13.7 pounds (annually).
• 3 U.S. locations named after the main course: Turkey, TX, Turkey Creek, LA and Turkey, NC.

For more information, please follow the hyperlink provided.

Oklahoma's school science standards get an "F"

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has published The State of State Science Standards 2005, the Institute's first comprehensive review of state science standards for public schools in five years. The bad news: despite extensive revision of many standards most students receive an education "ungrounded in basic subjects like biology, human physiology and the environment", according to the review's author, Dr. Paul R. Gross. Oklahoma's standards get a "F" for setting low student expectations and their timid treatment of evolution. On the bright side, Oklahoma's failing grade trumps Kansas' "F-" for standards "that make a mockery of the very definition of science." The good news in the review: some states have created excellent standards (New Mexico, South Carolina, and California for example), and problems in many of the poor standards are fixable.

The Bear Bryant Funeral Train

Brad Vice, an English professor from Mississippi State University, has been accused of plagiarizing parts of The Bear Bryant Funeral Train, a winner of the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. After the book’s publication by the University of Georgia Press, Margaret Butler, a librarian at the Tuscaloosa Public Library, was shocked when she looked at its first page. She recognized the first lines as being from Stars Fell on Alabama, published by Carl Carmer in 1934 and reprinted by the University of Alabama Press in 2000. Upon a comparison of the two works, Ms. Butler and another librarian found other examples of identical wording. The publisher has now revoked the award and pulped all remaining copies of the book.

For more information: http://www.nypress.com/18/48/news&columns/RobertClarkYoung.cfm

The Votes Are In...

The Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma book favorite for 2006 was "The Saints and Sinners of Okay County" by Dayna Dunbar. (Call number 813.6 D898s located on 2nd Floor). The story is about a 1970's wife who is expecting her fourth child and her no-good husband has just deserted her. It's all about how she survives in a small Oklahoma town.

The 2005 winner was "Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory" by Tim Tingle. (Call # 398.2089 T588 located on 2nd Floor). Both of these books are available to be checked out from the Al Harris Library. Either one would provide an enjoyable day of reading for pleasure during the holiday break. Be sure to check out book before we close for the holidays. We're open from 8-5 on Thursday and Friday (Dec 22 & 23). The library is closed from Dec 24 through Jan 2.

All of the books being voted on have been popular reading choices. To see other choices, click on the following link: "The Votes Are In".