2009 Space Elevator Conference – August 13-16

The 2009 Space Elevator Conference is being held August 13-16 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Building 33. On Wednesday, August 12 at 7:00, the public is invited to a free overview presentation on the space elevator initiative. For more info, see 2009 Space Elevator Overview Presentation.

A space elevator is a structure designed to transport material from Earth into space. Many variants have been proposed, all of which involve traveling along a fixed structure (such as a cable) instead of using rocket powered space launch. The concept most often refers to a structure that reaches from the surface of the Earth to geostationary orbit (GSO) and a counter-mass beyond.

How a space elevator works

A space elevator would consist of a cable anchored to the Earth’s surface, reaching into space. By attaching a counterweight at the end, inertia ensures that the cable remains stretched taut, countering the gravitational pull on the lower sections. This allows the elevator to remain in geostationary orbit. Most cable designs call for the "elevator" to climb up a stationary cable.

One concept for the space elevator has it tethered to a mobile seagoing platform:

Space Elevator Games
The 2009 Space Elevator Games are taking place in July at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in California’s Mojave Desert. This year, to be eligible for the $2,000,000 prize, the competitors will be required to race their laser-powered vehicles up the 1 kilometer vertical steel cable at an average speed of 5 meters/second. The technology demonstrated at these games showcase the core technical solutions needed to implement the space elevator.

Derby Days Just Around the Corner

Mark your calendars for Redmond's 69th annual community celebration and criterium - Derby Days Summer Festival! This year's festivities will be held on Friday, July 10th and Saturday, July 11th.


(The carnival at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse will be operating Thursday - Sunday.)

Redmond's Bicycle Criterium is America's longest running bicycle race - if you haven't yet witnessed the awesome speed and bike handling that is showcased in a closed course event such as this one, you'll be in for a treat!

The Kids Parade and Grand Parade on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. is one of the few sanctioned Seafair events on the Eastside. Look for the Redmond Regional Library entry in the parade! Arrive early for the parade and enjoy breakfast at the Firefighers Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Redmond Firefighters Benevolent Fund. You are never too old to try on the turnout gear!

New this year is Friday Night Live featuring the Beatniks. Enjoy live music, a beer and wine garden with food, followed by a movie - all conveniently located on the City Hall campus.

Hope to see you there!

The Worst Hard Time: A Look Back at Even Tougher Times

Timothy Egan’s new book, “The Worst Hard Time”, tells an extraordinary tale of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague: "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains" in what became known as the Dust Bowl.

The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other techniques to prevent erosion.

The following photo shows a dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas in 1935:

The next photo shows a farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936:

Millions of acres of farmland became useless, and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. Many of these families (often known as "Okies", since so many came from Oklahoma) traveled to California and other states. There they found economic conditions little better than those they had left. Owning no land, many traveled from farm to farm picking fruit and other crops at starvation wages.

The next photo, which has become known as "Migrant Mother", is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in Nipomo, California in 1936. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration.

In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience:

I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).

More About the Dust Bowl
Surviving the Dust Bowl is the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease―even death―for nearly a decade. This episode is part of the PBS American Experience series, which provides an in-depth look at the epic stories that have shaped America.

Library Advisory Board Forums

On June 20th and June 27th, the King County Library System hosted members from all of its participating city library advisory boards. Like the overall KCLS mission, the purpose of the forums is to Inform, Connect, and Share knowledge across each of the communities in which the library operates.

INFORM

Bill Ptacek, KCLS Director, began the forum with highlights and political background of the system. Did you know that King County Library System is an independent entity operated by the state? While King County Council appoints the KCLS Board of Directors, the relationship with King County government ends at this responsibility. Next, Linda Glenicki presented the financial picture of KCLS. Nearly all of the General Fund for the system is collected from property taxes and a recent performance audit conducted by the state auditor generally found that KCLS manages its construction projects with appropriate controls.

CONNECT

Become a fan of KCLS on Facebook! Read what has KCLS all a-twitter! In this segment of the forum, Jennifer Wiseman, Public Services Project Manager, discussed social media tools available for use to connect to the community. KCLS actively engages its community on various sites (see all the ways you can connect with KCLS on their website) and encourages Library Advisory Boards to engage their communities with these free tools too. Training is also provided at the Library's public Learning 2.0 site. The Redmond Library Board of Trustees offered a handout with quick tips on maintaining an active and engaging blog (Thanks to Lorin!)

SHARE

Finally, before and after the forums, board members from different cities discuss how they are engaging their communities with their library. There is opportunity to discuss what is and isn't working and offer suggestions for further training from KCLS to assist the advisory boards in their missions. Redmond's Library Board of Trustees "purpose is to consider library policy, promote interest in the library and to inform Redmond citizens of library needs."

Cat Capers & Dog Days: The Faces of Books

On a weekend trip to Langley earlier this year, I passed by Moonraker Books on 1st Street. Looking out of the bookstore window were a pair of animal faces staring at me. I couldn’t resist photographing them:

Moonraker Books
Nancy Wells and Josh Hauser, who call themselves the book ladies, run “a more fun bookstore”. “We like to find the things that people won’t see other places. Things they didn’t know they wanted til they got here.”

Here’s a video of their eclectic collection at Moonraker Books:

Be Creative @ Your Library: 2009 Summer Reading Program

Beginning June 15, all 44 KCLS community libraries will host summer reading programs with the theme, Be Creative @ Your Library. There will be activities, books, and adventures targeting three age groups:

	Babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers can participate with their parents in special pre-reading activity games.
	Kids in elementary school have a full array of programs and events to accompany their reading, with prizes for reaching their reading goal.
	For teens, KCLS has a Summer version of the popular Read Three, Get One Free reading program with books for prizes.

To learn more about this KCLS program, see Summer Reading Program. For info on reading activities at the Redmond library, see Schedule of Events.

About the Be Creative Artwork
The whimsical, creative kids and critters are the innovations of illustrator and cartoonist David Catrow. He has illustrated more than thirty books and one film, Horton Hears a Who. He was a long time cartoonist for the Springfield News Sun (Ohio). He now focuses entirely on books for children and movies. For an entertaining visit to this gifted artist’s world, see Catrow.com.

Read. Flip. Win.

More proof that good books make good "TV". . .the King County Library System is again hosting its summer contest for teens - Video Book Reviews. The King County Library System Foundation sponsors this event. Middle/junior high to high school students are invited to read a great book and then create and post a short (up to 3 minutes) review or trailer to the book. Grand prize winning teens will take home Flip Video Cameras!

A selection of recent entries are posted as they are submitted in June and July - check out the 2008 winners! KCLS embraces Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook and YouTube to host this event - a great way to "partner" with other free services to make participation in this event as easy as possible.

Complete rules for entry are on the KCLS website.