National Book Award Winners

The 2009 National Book Award winners were announced on November 18 at the 60th National Book Award Ceremony and Dinner in New York City. Sponsored by the National Book Foundation, the NBA winners are selected in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. For more information on the awards, go to http://www.nationalbook.org/. Also, come and check out the National Book Award winners and finalists display at the Al Harris Library!

Come and check out the National Book Award winners and finalists display at the Al Harris Library!

New Study: Lack of Health Insurance Has Led to 17,000 Child Deaths Since 1988

Lack of health insurance might have led or contributed to nearly 17,000 deaths among hospitalized children in the United States in the span of less than two decades, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "If you are a child without insurance, if you're seriously ill and end up in the hospital, you are 60 percent more likely to die than the sick child in the next room who has insurance," says lead investigator Fizan Abdullah, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Read the summary and the full article (pdf).

Pushing Tin.

Specialty license plates are money makers. California has raised $10 Million dollars with Yosemite National Park plates since 1993. Tennessee raises about $550,000 a year selling Friends of the Smokies plates.

Click on the blue title above to link to the Oklahoma Specialty License Plates website created by the Oklahoma Tax Commission. A rough count of their list revealed 159 different plates available for sale. The plate listing includes: universities, fraternities, military branches, firefighters, police, and even one for physically disabled motorcycle. (Plate pictures and 2009 prices included.)

Take a quick look; I promise you'll find one you've never seen before.

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture

The 46th state, Oklahoma, presents our unusual history with the online version of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. The Encyclopedia was prepared by over 500 "university-based scholars and independent historians and scholars," and was a joint effort by The Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma State University Library Electronic Publishing Center

Children and Secondhand Smoke Exposure.

Click on the blue title above to read the U.S. Surgeon General's report on how smoking effects children.

Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, lower respiratory infections, middle ear disease, more severe asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth. The California Environmental Protection Agency recently estimated that 430 infants die from sudden infant death syndrome in the United States every year as a result of secondhand smoke exposure.

To see how beautiful cigarette advertisements hooked people during the last 100 years, go to http://lane.stanford.edu/tobacco/index.html (hosted by the Stanford School of Medicine.) (Copy and paste into your Internet browser.)

Early ads featured babies, athletes, doctors, brides, and young people.
One early Camel slogan was: Give your throat a vacation..." An advertisement featuring Babe Ruth (above) had the slogan "Not a cough in a carload".

"Hidden" Website Unearthed.

OK, maybe you really have heard about this website, but many have not. Click on the blue title above for link.

Topics found in USA.gov include: Benefits and Grants, Consumer Guides, Defense, Environment & Energy, Family Home & Community, Health, History Arts & Culture, Jobs & Education, Money & Taxes, Public Safety & Law, Reference & General Government, Science & Technology, Travel & Recreation, Voting & Elections. I promise there will be at least one area in which you have an interest.

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