Groundbreaking report details status of US secondary Earth science education

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

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Contact: Ann Benbow
aeb@agiweb.org
703-379-2480
American Geosciences Institute

Alexandria, VA - The Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding at the American Geosciences Institute has released a landmark report on the status of Earth Science education in U.S. middle and high schools, describing in detail significant gaps between identified priorities and lagging practice.

The report, "Earth and Space Sciences Education in U.S. Secondary Schools: Key Indicators and Trends," offers baseline data on indicators of the subject's status since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in April 2013. Establishing clear aims for the subject, the NGSS state that the Earth and Space Sciences should have equal status with the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Technology, and Engineering. However, the report shows that school districts and other organizations fail to assign the Earth Sciences this status.

Only one of the nation's 50 states requires a year-long Earth/Environmental Science course for high school graduation, whereas 32 states require a Life Science course, and 27 require a Physical Science course, according to the report. Only six states require that students are taught Earth Science concepts as part of their graduation requirements. Detailed and analyzed are key indicators including:

• presence of Earth Science topics in state and national standards;
  
• consideration of Earth Science as a graduation requirement;
  
• evaluation of Earth Science concepts on high-stakes assessments; and
  
• acceptance of Earth Science courses for college admission.

Recommendations for better treatment of Earth Science subject matter include changes in the subject's relevance to graduation requirements, the discipline's presence on assessments, designation of Earth Science courses as laboratory courses, and establishment of an Advanced Placement Earth Science program.

###

The 2013 report is the first original offering of the Center, which launched an online hub of geoscience education and outreach resources on October 16, 2013. The site can be found at http://www.geocntr.org, and the report at http://bit.ly/19UBQMt.

The report is being launched as part of Earth Science Week, the international celebration of the Earth Sciences that is organized by AGI and reaches over 50 million people with geoscience resources and information each year. Updated editions of the report are planned to be released annually during Earth Science Week, each October, to gauge changes in the status of Earth science nationwide.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geosciences education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

[


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| Share

]

Contact: Ann Benbow
aeb@agiweb.org
703-379-2480
American Geosciences Institute

Alexandria, VA - The Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding at the American Geosciences Institute has released a landmark report on the status of Earth Science education in U.S. middle and high schools, describing in detail significant gaps between identified priorities and lagging practice.

The report, "Earth and Space Sciences Education in U.S. Secondary Schools: Key Indicators and Trends," offers baseline data on indicators of the subject's status since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in April 2013. Establishing clear aims for the subject, the NGSS state that the Earth and Space Sciences should have equal status with the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Technology, and Engineering. However, the report shows that school districts and other organizations fail to assign the Earth Sciences this status.

Only one of the nation's 50 states requires a year-long Earth/Environmental Science course for high school graduation, whereas 32 states require a Life Science course, and 27 require a Physical Science course, according to the report. Only six states require that students are taught Earth Science concepts as part of their graduation requirements. Detailed and analyzed are key indicators including:

• presence of Earth Science topics in state and national standards;
  
• consideration of Earth Science as a graduation requirement;
  
• evaluation of Earth Science concepts on high-stakes assessments; and
  
• acceptance of Earth Science courses for college admission.

Recommendations for better treatment of Earth Science subject matter include changes in the subject's relevance to graduation requirements, the discipline's presence on assessments, designation of Earth Science courses as laboratory courses, and establishment of an Advanced Placement Earth Science program.

###

The 2013 report is the first original offering of the Center, which launched an online hub of geoscience education and outreach resources on October 16, 2013. The site can be found at http://www.geocntr.org, and the report at http://bit.ly/19UBQMt.

The report is being launched as part of Earth Science Week, the international celebration of the Earth Sciences that is organized by AGI and reaches over 50 million people with geoscience resources and information each year. Updated editions of the report are planned to be released annually during Earth Science Week, each October, to gauge changes in the status of Earth science nationwide.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geosciences education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/agi-grd101713.php
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Kids Should Hack Their School-Provided iPads

This article originally appeared in Zócalo Public Square and the New America Foundation’s Weekly Wonk. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University; Zócalo Public Square is a partnership of NAF and Arizona State.

Last year, 40 tablet computers were delivered to the children of two remote Ethiopian villages. The villagers were 100 percent illiterate—the kids had never seen road signs, product labels, or printed material of any kind.

Technicians from the One Laptop Per Child program dropped off a stack of boxes, showed a couple of adults how to use the solar chargers, and then walked away. Within minutes, the kids had cracked the packaging open and figured out how to turn the tablets on. Within weeks, they were singing their ABCs, picked up from the English-language learning software installed on the tablets. Within five months, some kid figured out that the tablets had built-in cameras—they had been disabled for ethical reasons—and hacked the Android operating system to activate them.

So, frankly, it shouldn’t have come as much of a shock when a few hundred of the tech-drenched children of Los Angeles figured out how to “hack” the $678 iPads they were given by their school district, just one month into the new school year.

In recent weeks, Los Angeles distributed iPads to 50,000 students in the public school system as part of a pilot for a $1 billion citywide initiative. Kids at Westchester High, one of the few schools that allowed students to take their tablets home, quickly noted that they could bypass the district-installed security filter with two clicks, allowing them to access banned sites like YouTube and Facebook.

One of the student hackers—if two clicks can be called “hacking”—was Westchester High valedictorian candidate Brian Young, who was hauled into the principal’s office for a dressing-down. “He wasn’t threatening me, but he told me millions of dollars of technology had been compromised because of me,” Young told the Los Angeles Times. Young said he fiddled with the security settings innocently, after having trouble getting online at home. Apparently, the iPads are configured to work well only on the limited in-school network. Young said he’d hoped to download some apps that the school’s network couldn’t handle or didn’t permit. We don’t know whether young Young was looking to download something to help with his math homework or whether he was pursuing … other extracurricular activities. But that didn’t stop school administrators and local media from panicking.

L.A. Unified School District Police Chief Steven Zipperman fretted in a confidential memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times that students would share their “hacks” via social media. “I’m guessing this is just a sample of what will likely occur on other campuses once this hits Twitter, YouTube, or other social media sites explaining to our students how to breach or compromise the security of these devices,” Zipperman wrote. “I want to prevent a ‘runaway train’ scenario when we may have the ability to put a hold on the roll-out.”

But why would students gaining mastery over their digital devices be considered a “runaway train” at all? The iPads were loaded with software from the textbook giant Pearson, so perhaps the fantasy was that high school students would be content paging through glowing versions of their textbooks.

But the whole point of introducing current technology into the classroom is to help education catch up with the rest of the world, which has been utterly transformed by fast computers with fast Internet access.

Unfortunately, when it comes to technology in education, traditional schools tend to use fuzzy math. Give ’em iPads, the thinking goes, and the test scores will soar. The intended mechanism isn’t always clear, and the vision becomes even more muddled when the inevitable committees, unions, and concerned parents get involved. The result too often is restricted access to semi-useless tech crippled by proprietary software deals and censored Internet.

Implementing bold ideas like “flipping the classroom”—having students watch lectures at home and spending their classroom hours doing problem sets, engaging in group discussions, or getting one-on-one tutorials—means letting kids use the relevant tech on their own time and in their own way. It means trusting them with access to devices like the ones they might someday use at work.

Schools are supposed to be places of free inquiry, where kids seek knowledge and debate ideas in a safe space. Limiting access to such basic sites like YouTube signals that kids can’t be trusted to make their own decisions—about information sources or time management.

One of the most famous innovations in online learning to date is Khan Academy, which offers thousands of tutorials on subjects from A to Z. What site does Khan use to host those lessons? YouTube. Sorry, L.A. school kids!

One Laptop Per Child considered the Ethiopian kids’ hack a success. “The kids had completely customized the desktop—so every kids’ [sic] tablet looked different. We had installed software to prevent them from doing that,” a contrite Ed McNierney, OLPC’s chief technology officer, told the MIT Technology Review. “And the fact that they worked around it was clearly the kind of creativity, the kind of inquiry, the kind of discovery that we think is essential to learning.”

On Oct. 1, LAUSD pronounced its ed tech experiment temporarily out of control and admitted that several schools were in the process of attempting to pry the new tablets from their students’ clammy hands.

Los Angeles should take a page from OLPC’s lesson book. School officials say the project has not been halted and that schools are still on track to distribute another 300,000 tablets next fall. But unless administrators are willing to radically rethink their goals for the billion-dollar tech initiative in the coming months, a few hundred kids figuring out how to customize their iPads may just be the most beneficial result.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/l_a_school_ipad_program_students_should_hack_their_tablets.html
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Booker wins N.J. Senate race, but what does it mean for his future?

Cory Booker won his bid for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat Wednesday, defeating Republican Steve Lonegan in a whirlwind special election race that gave the ambitious Newark mayor an official entry to the national political stage.

Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party, had been the heavy favorite to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in June. He’s expected to be sworn into the Senate as early as Thursday—giving Democrats an extra vote in what has been a tumultuous political period in Washington.

But it’s still unknown what kind of lawmaker Booker will be in the nation’s capital—or what damage, if any, his Senate campaign did to his stratospheric rise within the Democratic Party.

As mayor of Newark, Booker has been a larger-than-life political presence, a man as famous for rushing into a burning building to save a neighbor as he is for his savvy embrace of Twitter to communicate directly with his constituents.But the Senate is a different, stuffier place—where lawmakers deal more with each other than with the people they serve.

It’s unclear what kind of impact Booker’s celebrity might play in his profile in the Senate. On one hand, he could chart a path as the Democratic alternative to visible Republican stars like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas or Rand Paul of Kentucky. Or he could follow in the footsteps of former Sen. Hillary Clinton, who pointedly worked with Republicans as she sought to build up her own legislative profile in advance of her 2008 presidential run.

Booker, who has made no secret of his desire for higher office, has suggested he’s willing to work with Republicans—pointing to his friendly relationship with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Yet Booker’s time in the Senate could also serve to repair the damage done to his political reputation by his Senate bid. While it was never seriously suggested that Booker would lose the race, the Newark mayor struggled to pull away from the little-known Lonegan, a tea party candidate whose support of abortion and the federal government shutdown put him at odds with the majority of New Jersey voters.

Booker’s path to victory was largely complicated by his own missteps--including odd scandals involving his Twitter messages to a vegan stripper and revelations that he’d profited off being one of the most famous young mayors in the country.

Many Democrats were frustrated that Booker did not campaign more aggressively—as he spent days at a time off the trail and largely ignored Lonegan until the final days when polls suddenly showed him within 10 points of the mayor.

On Wednesday, Politico reported Booker had spent less than $1 million on television ads—a surprisingly low number for a candidate who had outraised his Republican opponent by nearly $10 million.

Perhaps Booker was saving his cash for the longer race. His win in Wednesday’s special election allows him to serve out the rest of Lautenberg’s term—which runs until November 2014.

If Booker wants to serve a full six-year Senate term, he’ll have to file to run again—a race that officially kicks off Thursday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/booker-new-jersey-senate-race-win-024859656.html
Tags: Joseph Gordon-Levitt   iOS 7   jadeveon clowney   Harry Styles   Olivia Nuzzi  

Yoga accessible for the blind with new Microsoft Kinect-based program

Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

In a typical yoga class, students watch an instructor to learn how to properly hold a position. But for people who are blind or can't see well, it can be frustrating to participate in these types of exercises.

Now, a team of University of Washington computer scientists has created a software program that watches a user's movements and gives spoken feedback on what to change to accurately complete a yoga pose.

"My hope for this technology is for people who are blind or low-vision to be able to try it out, and help give a basic understanding of yoga in a more comfortable setting," said project lead Kyle Rector, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering.

The program, called Eyes-Free Yoga, uses Microsoft Kinect software to track body movements and offer auditory feedback in real time for six yoga poses, including Warrior I and II, Tree and Chair poses. Rector and her collaborators published their methodology in the conference proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery's SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility in Bellevue, Wash., Oct. 21-23.

Rector wrote programming code that instructs the Kinect to read a user's body angles, then gives verbal feedback on how to adjust his or her arms, legs, neck or back to complete the pose. For example, the program might say: "Rotate your shoulders left," or "Lean sideways toward your left."

The result is an accessible yoga "exergame" a video game used for exercise that allows people without sight to interact verbally with a simulated yoga instructor. Rector and collaborators Julie Kientz, a UW assistant professor in Computer Science & Engineering and in Human Centered Design & Engineering, and Cynthia Bennett, a research assistant in computer science and engineering, believe this can transform a typically visual activity into something that blind people can also enjoy.

"I see this as a good way of helping people who may not know much about yoga to try something on their own and feel comfortable and confident doing it," Kientz said. "We hope this acts as a gateway to encouraging people with visual impairments to try exercise on a broader scale."

Each of the six poses has about 30 different commands for improvement based on a dozen rules deemed essential for each yoga position. Rector worked with a number of yoga instructors to put together the criteria for reaching the correct alignment in each pose. The Kinect first checks a person's core and suggests alignment changes, then moves to the head and neck area, and finally the arms and legs. It also gives positive feedback when a person is holding a pose correctly.

Rector practiced a lot of yoga as she developed this technology. She tested and tweaked each aspect by deliberately making mistakes while performing the exercises. The result is a program that she believes is robust and useful for people who are blind.

"I tested it all on myself so I felt comfortable having someone else try it," she said.

Rector worked with 16 blind and low-vision people around Washington to test the program and get feedback. Several of the participants had never done yoga before, while others had tried it a few times or took yoga classes regularly. Thirteen of the 16 people said they would recommend the program and nearly everyone would use it again.

The technology uses simple geometry and the law of cosines to calculate angles created during yoga. For example, in some poses a bent leg must be at a 90-degree angle, while the arm spread must form a 160-degree angle. The Kinect reads the angle of the pose using cameras and skeletal-tracking technology, then tells the user how to move to reach the desired angle.

Rector opted to use Kinect software because it's open source and easily accessible on the market, but she said it does have some limitations in the level of detail with which it tracks movement.

Rector and collaborators plan to make this technology available online so users could download the program, plug in their Kinect and start doing yoga. The team also is pursuing other projects that help with fitness.

###

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, a Kynamatrix Innovation through Collaboration grant and the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation.

For more information, contact Rector at rectorky@cs.washington.edu or 503-449-1736.

Posted with video and photos: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/10/17/yoga-accessible-for-the-blind-with-new-microsoft-kinect-based-program/

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Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

In a typical yoga class, students watch an instructor to learn how to properly hold a position. But for people who are blind or can't see well, it can be frustrating to participate in these types of exercises.

Now, a team of University of Washington computer scientists has created a software program that watches a user's movements and gives spoken feedback on what to change to accurately complete a yoga pose.

"My hope for this technology is for people who are blind or low-vision to be able to try it out, and help give a basic understanding of yoga in a more comfortable setting," said project lead Kyle Rector, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering.

The program, called Eyes-Free Yoga, uses Microsoft Kinect software to track body movements and offer auditory feedback in real time for six yoga poses, including Warrior I and II, Tree and Chair poses. Rector and her collaborators published their methodology in the conference proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery's SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility in Bellevue, Wash., Oct. 21-23.

Rector wrote programming code that instructs the Kinect to read a user's body angles, then gives verbal feedback on how to adjust his or her arms, legs, neck or back to complete the pose. For example, the program might say: "Rotate your shoulders left," or "Lean sideways toward your left."

The result is an accessible yoga "exergame" a video game used for exercise that allows people without sight to interact verbally with a simulated yoga instructor. Rector and collaborators Julie Kientz, a UW assistant professor in Computer Science & Engineering and in Human Centered Design & Engineering, and Cynthia Bennett, a research assistant in computer science and engineering, believe this can transform a typically visual activity into something that blind people can also enjoy.

"I see this as a good way of helping people who may not know much about yoga to try something on their own and feel comfortable and confident doing it," Kientz said. "We hope this acts as a gateway to encouraging people with visual impairments to try exercise on a broader scale."

Each of the six poses has about 30 different commands for improvement based on a dozen rules deemed essential for each yoga position. Rector worked with a number of yoga instructors to put together the criteria for reaching the correct alignment in each pose. The Kinect first checks a person's core and suggests alignment changes, then moves to the head and neck area, and finally the arms and legs. It also gives positive feedback when a person is holding a pose correctly.

Rector practiced a lot of yoga as she developed this technology. She tested and tweaked each aspect by deliberately making mistakes while performing the exercises. The result is a program that she believes is robust and useful for people who are blind.

"I tested it all on myself so I felt comfortable having someone else try it," she said.

Rector worked with 16 blind and low-vision people around Washington to test the program and get feedback. Several of the participants had never done yoga before, while others had tried it a few times or took yoga classes regularly. Thirteen of the 16 people said they would recommend the program and nearly everyone would use it again.

The technology uses simple geometry and the law of cosines to calculate angles created during yoga. For example, in some poses a bent leg must be at a 90-degree angle, while the arm spread must form a 160-degree angle. The Kinect reads the angle of the pose using cameras and skeletal-tracking technology, then tells the user how to move to reach the desired angle.

Rector opted to use Kinect software because it's open source and easily accessible on the market, but she said it does have some limitations in the level of detail with which it tracks movement.

Rector and collaborators plan to make this technology available online so users could download the program, plug in their Kinect and start doing yoga. The team also is pursuing other projects that help with fitness.

###

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, a Kynamatrix Innovation through Collaboration grant and the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation.

For more information, contact Rector at rectorky@cs.washington.edu or 503-449-1736.

Posted with video and photos: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/10/17/yoga-accessible-for-the-blind-with-new-microsoft-kinect-based-program/

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uow-yaf101713.php
Related Topics: big bang theory   Jonathan Ferrell   nbc sports   Kendrick Lamar Control   mumford and sons  

Lara Flynn Boyle Looks Unrecognizable Without Makeup Out in Bel Air With Mom: Picture

My, how things have changed! Lara Flynn Boyle stepped out in Bel Air, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 16, looking unrecognizable without makeup and with puffy lips and cheeks. The 43-year-old actress was photographed shopping with her mom at the Beverly Glen Market.

PHOTOS: Plastic surgery nightmares

The Hansel & Gretel Get Baked actress dressed casually for the outing, wearing a blue-and-white striped long-sleeve shirt, tight-fitted blue jeans, a messenger bag and sunglasses. The star -- most known for her television work in Twin Peaks and The Practice in the '90s and early aughts -- also was photographed smoking a cigarette and holding on to a brown shopping bag.

PHOTOS: Stars without makeup!

This isn't the first time Jack Nicholson's ex has stepped out looking drastically different. In April, the Lucky Dog star made another rare appearance (with the same messenger bag) in Beverly Hills.

PHOTOS: '90s TV stars

Two weeks after, the brunette star attended the Wayne's World reunion in Beverly Hills for an Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences screening 21 years after playing Stacy in the cult classic in 1992.

Boyle has never publicly discussed the drastic change to her appearance, but it has been rumored for years that she's undergone cosmetic procedures.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-beauty/news/lara-flynn-boyle-looks-unrecognizable-without-makeup-out-in-bel-air-with-mom-picture-20131710
Category: kim kardashian   george zimmerman   chargers   nytimes   Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 10  

2 killers escape Fla. prison with bogus documents

This undated photo provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins. Jenkins and Charles Walker were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department of Corrections)

This undated photo provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins. Jenkins and Charles Walker were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department of Corrections)

This undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Dept. of Corrections,HO)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A prosecutor says he learned from a murder victim's family that a convicted killer had escaped from prison.

Orlando State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton said Thursday a relative of Roscoe Pugh notified his office this week that Joseph Jenkins was out of prison.

Authorities say Jenkins was released after he fooled the court system and Department of Corrections with forged court documents. The prosecutor's office says they then discovered a second convicted murder, Charles Walker, was also released based on bogus documents.

Jenkins and Walker were serving life sentences.

The prosecutor's office says another man serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a law enforcement officer was also scheduled to be released using forge documents, but an investigator discovered the scheme in the spring before he was freed.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-17-Prison-Mistaken%20Release/id-48f557ef7998497e929baa3ea6b9d877
Related Topics: kris jenner   calvin johnson   fox news   Romain Dauriac   Sonic  

The Word E-Book Should Be Replaced With CodeX

E-reading is a fundamentally different experience than curling up with a paper book.

Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

When's the last time you sat down to read a book for several hours? Or even one hour? We are both card-carrying humanities scholars, but even we can barely scrape 15 minutes together for sustained engagement with a text. And yet humans are reading now more than ever when you think about the billions of hours we collectively spend on email, Facebook, Twitter, texting, sexting, and reading illicit things online. This is more than just information overload: When we change how we read, we are changing our brains. Researchers have proposed that we play out literary scenarios with mirror neurons and fire up complex, full-brain patterns of activity when asked to practice “close reading,” in contrast to the patterns associated with reading for pleasure.

Neurological effects, different types of media, totally new reading habits—just a few reasons why e-reading is a fundamentally different experience than curling up with a dead-tree book. Print books are a highly refined technology that isn't going anywhere soon, but there are ways in which the digital is superior to the old-fangled, and vice versa: They’re horses of different colors.

And yet publishers keep trying to re-create the print experience online, with the faux wood of the iOS bookstore and the fake page-turning animations on many e-readers. It’s time for that to end. We need to embrace digital reading as its own medium, not just a book under glass. That means imagining a new language for reading as an experience, starting with a new word to use instead of book.

It’s still no easy trick to figure out a name for this thing, though. At the Frankfurt Book Fair last week, we acted as ringmasters for a crack team of novelists, journalists, and publishers conducting a gonzo experiment in the future of publishing. Our project, Sprint Beyond the Book, aimed to upend the publishing industry’s centuries-old model for book production. We wrote in public, on the crowded and noisy floor of the fair. We moved from concept to final product in just 72 hours. We crowdsourced the writing, featuring dozens of contributions collected through our website. We shot and embedded videos throughout. We’re even giving the thing away for free. But despite our pretensions to renegade chic, we couldn’t stop returning to the word book to talk about what we were building. (Disclosure: We work for Arizona State University; ASU is a partner with Slate and the New America Foundation in Future Tense. Sprint Beyond the Book is part of a research project funded by Intel Labs.)

The fact is that every other name we came up with sounded boring or silly. Text was a strong early contender—after all, it’s used by humanities geeks like us to refer to everything from political speeches and Hungarian rap lyrics to recipes for gumbo. Sadly, it’s totally misleading: We’re hurtling toward a future in which reading means making decisions, watching videos, writing back, and getting lost in vast virtual spaces. Book system is too stodgy (as are reading system, platform, and service) and doesn’t even get rid of the word book. We gleefully entertained and discarded many bad ideas like graphies. Some of us liked plat, a shortening of platform that sounds like something out of a Golden Age science fiction story, but the more we said it, the more it sounded like a comic book sound effect for something gross.

Rather than grope forward, we decided to look back. With some trepidation, we would like to nominate codex, a word with a rich history that most of us don’t know anything about. Codex, derived from the Latin caudex (meaning “trunk of a tree”) even happens to contain the English word code, which will be central to the future of reading in a variety of ways. The things we’ll be reading in the future will not only involve a lot of programming; they’ll also require readers to decode complex, multilayered experiences and encode their own ideas as contributions in a variety of creative ways. Since standard printed books are technically codices, we propose (with significantly more trepidation) to distinguish our variant with one of those annoying midword capitals: codeX, to remind us that these new things involve experience, experimentation, expostulation … you know, all those X things.

This also works nicely because it reminds us of the X-Men and the X Games: We see the future of reading as an arena with the social dynamics of competition and play, scoring points and showing off, rather than a LeVar Burton rainbow of love and generosity. (Twitter works like this now, as a performance space where we’re all more or less openly vying for the award for “most clever person on the Internet this minute.”) Books have always been potent weapons in the cultural battlefield for prestige and distinction, and they won’t magically turn into utopian spaces anytime soon. At the risk of sounding too academic, we think the X highlights the jousting and (hopefully friendly) conflict inherent to digital reading.

From social reading platforms like Medium to digital pop-up books like 2012’s Between Page and Screen, we’re already building the future of reading, and there’s no going back. So let’s agree on a new term and stop pretending these utterly new ways of reading are anything like the singular and lovely experience of thumbing through a printed book.

This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the Future Tense blog and the Future Tense home page. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/we_need_a_new_word_for_e_book_here_s_one_idea_beyondthebook.html
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Gov't reopens after Congress ends 16-day shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks with reporters after voting on a measure to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., listen. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks with reporters after voting on a measure to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., listen. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to the chamber for the vote on a Senate-passed bill that would avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The end to the rancorous standoff between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House was hastened by the imminent deadline to extend the debt ceiling to avoid a national default. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Barack Obama walks out to make a statement to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The Senate voted to avoid a financial default and reopen the government after a 16-day partial shutdown and the measure now heads to the House, which is expected to back the bill before day's end. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government reopened its doors Thursday after a battle-weary Congress approved a bipartisan measure to end a 16-day partial shutdown and avert the possibility of an economy-jarring default on U.S. obligations.

Early Thursday, President Barack Obama signed the measure, which the House and Senate passed late Wednesday, ending a brawl with Republicans who tried to use the must-pass legislation to mount a last-ditch effort to derail the president's landmark health care law and demand concessions on the budget.

The White House directed all agencies to reopen promptly and in an orderly fashion. Furloughed federal employees across the country are expected to return to work Thursday.

The impasse had shuttered national parks and monuments, and mostly closed down NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. Critical functions of government went on as usual and most federal employees won't see their paychecks delayed, but the closure and potential default weighed on the economy and spooked the financial markets.

There were signs early Thursday that the federal government was slowly coming back to life. "We're back from the #shutdown!" the Smithsonian Institution crowed on Twitter, announcing that museums would reopen Thursday and the National Zoo in Washington on Friday.

Standard & Poor's estimated the shutdown has taken $24 billion out of the economy, and the Fitch credit rating agency warned Tuesday that it was reviewing its AAA rating on U.S. government debt for a possible downgrade.

Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill were the decisive winners in the fight, which was sparked by tea party Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who prevailed upon skeptical GOP leaders to use a normally routine short-term funding bill to "defund" the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare.

"We fought the good fight. We just didn't win," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, conceded in a radio interview. He was given positive reviews from Republicans for his handling of the crisis, though it again exposed the tenuous grasp he holds over the fractious House GOP conference.

Yet Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said the American people clearly disapprove of how Republicans, and also Democrats and the president, handled the budget gridlock.

"Hopefully, the lesson is to stop this foolish childishness," McCain said Thursday on CNN.

The shutdown sent GOP approval ratings numbers reeling in public opinion polls and exasperated veteran lawmakers who saw it and the possibility of default as folly.

"After two long weeks, it is time to end this government shutdown. It's time to take the threat of default off the table," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said before the vote. "It's time to restore some sanity to this place."

The agreement was brokered by the Senate's top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and its Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. They stepped in after the House was unable to coalesce around a Republican-only approach Tuesday.

McConnell is up for re-election next year, and his tea party primary opponent issued a statement blasting his role.

"When the stakes are highest, Mitch McConnell can always be counted on to sell out conservatives," Matt Bevin said. In the House, conservatives praised Boehner for tenacity.

The Senate approved the legislation by an 81-18 vote; the House followed suit by a tally of 285-144, with 87 Republicans in favor and 144 against, breaking an informal rule that a majority of the majority party is supposed to carry legislation. Democrats unanimously supported the bill, even though it locks in funding at levels required by across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration.

The legislation would fund the government through Jan. 15 and permit it to borrow normally through Feb. 7, though Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew retains the capacity to employ accounting maneuvers to create wiggle room on the debt limit into mid-March or so.

Most House Republicans opposed the compromise bill for failing to do anything about deficits and debt.

"All this does is delay this fight four months," Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said. "We need to get to the underlying cause of the problem, which is our out-of-control spending and deficits, and fix it before it's too late and we go down the toilet to bankruptcy because that's where America is headed."

The bill's passage was only a temporary truce that sets up another collision between Obama and Republicans over spending and borrowing early next year. It's the second time this year that Congress has passed legislation to increase the government's borrowing cap with few if any conditions on the president, reversing a 2011 precedent in which the threat of default was used to extract $2.1 trillion in spending cuts from a politically wounded Obama.

"With the shutdown behind us," Obama said after the Senate vote, "we now have an opportunity to focus on a sensible budget that is responsible, that is fair and that helps hardworking people all across this country."

At the same time, House-Senate talks will begin on a broader budget pact in hopes of curbing deficits and easing across-the-board budget cuts that have slammed the Pentagon and domestic agencies alike. Such agreements have proven elusive in the current era of divided government.

"No one thinks this will be easy" Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of budget negotiations. Murray and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., along with their ranking minority members, immediately scheduled a breakfast meeting for Thursday to break the ice.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-17-Budget%20Battle/id-1c88eff78fd245ab9c14ea45787a0180
Category: msnbc   iTunes   Namaste   Zayn Malik   Maia Mitchell  

Just ask the animals!

Public release date: 16-Oct-2013
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Contact: Dr. Martin Wikelski
martin@orn.mpg.de
49-773-215-0162
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Using animal behavior data to better inform mathematical models of animal movements

This news release is available in German.

Many animals are adapting to human encroachment of their natural habitats. Carnivores in particular require territories of sufficient size and so are often forced to move between numerous small habitat patches. To date, scientists often use mathematical models to predict these important routes, but fishers fitted with GPS sensors are now showing that their calculations may be missing the mark if they ignore animal behaviour.

Corridors are spaces that receive too little attention and yet are vitally important. How else would we get from the bedroom to the bath or from the couch to the kitchen? Without the hallway in between, we would starve on the sofa, unable to reach our food. In the wild the areas that connect animals' living spaces are known as corridors. It is vital for the conservation of many species that animals can move freely and safely from their hunting grounds to their mating areas, for example. If a new road is built through the middle of an important corridor, it may put an entire population at risk.

In general, calculations predict which routes the animals will use. Working with colleagues from the USA, Martin Wikelski and his doctoral student Scott LaPoint from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell and the University of Konstanz have let the animals define their own routes. They fitted fishers (mammals of the marten family) with GPS sensors and then observed their movements over the course of three winters near the city of Albany in the US state of New York. In doing so, they discovered that the fishers selected completely different routes from those predicted by the models.

"I was really astonished at how bad the models were", says Wikelski, who heads the Department of Migration and Immunoecology at Radolfzell. The two mathematical models together managed to correctly predict only 5 out of 23 corridors. The "Least-Cost Path Analysis" model, with only one correct prediction, fared worse than the "Circuit Theory" model, which at least managed five hits.

The equations mainly use information about the habitat preferences of the animals. Since fishers spend most of their time within forests and avoid open spaces, it was assumed that this rule would also apply to their corridors. "That assumption was not true, as the animals were much more flexible in their willingness to use corridors composed of a variety of habitat types, not just forests", notes Scott LaPoint. They scampered through alluvial and deciduous woods, over meadows, fields and even man-made landscapes such as golf courses and cemeteries, to get from one place to another.

They didn't even draw the line at crossing streets. However, instead of exposing themselves to the dangers of trying to cross over six-lane motorways, the clever creatures instead passed beneath the motorways through old drainage pipes. "I would never have thought it, because with all we know about these shy animals, it didn't seem possible that they would use such potentially dangerous structures" says an amazed Martin Wikelski.

Landscape planners and environmentalists are interested in wildlife corridors because they are considered worthy of special protection. Corridors facilitate a healthy spread of the animals, maintain gene flow between populations, and thereby reduce the risk of extinction. They can also be very expensive, so it is important that our corridor model predictions are accurate and that we make sure that animals are indeed using them. "To do so we should ask the animals what they need," explains Wikelski, "and by monitoring their movements, in effect we have actually created a way for the animals to communicate with us humans."

Scott LaPoint and Martin Wikelski's work suggests we should just ask the animal: "What do you think? What do you want?" This could make landscape planning simpler and more transparent, and we could even learn something along the way.

###

Scott LaPoint, Paul Gallery, Martin Wikelski, Roland Kays

Animal behavior, cost-based corridor models, and real corridors

Landscape Ecology October 2013, Volume 28, pp 1615-1630

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Oct-2013
[


| E-mail



| Share

]

Contact: Dr. Martin Wikelski
martin@orn.mpg.de
49-773-215-0162
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Using animal behavior data to better inform mathematical models of animal movements

This news release is available in German.

Many animals are adapting to human encroachment of their natural habitats. Carnivores in particular require territories of sufficient size and so are often forced to move between numerous small habitat patches. To date, scientists often use mathematical models to predict these important routes, but fishers fitted with GPS sensors are now showing that their calculations may be missing the mark if they ignore animal behaviour.

Corridors are spaces that receive too little attention and yet are vitally important. How else would we get from the bedroom to the bath or from the couch to the kitchen? Without the hallway in between, we would starve on the sofa, unable to reach our food. In the wild the areas that connect animals' living spaces are known as corridors. It is vital for the conservation of many species that animals can move freely and safely from their hunting grounds to their mating areas, for example. If a new road is built through the middle of an important corridor, it may put an entire population at risk.

In general, calculations predict which routes the animals will use. Working with colleagues from the USA, Martin Wikelski and his doctoral student Scott LaPoint from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell and the University of Konstanz have let the animals define their own routes. They fitted fishers (mammals of the marten family) with GPS sensors and then observed their movements over the course of three winters near the city of Albany in the US state of New York. In doing so, they discovered that the fishers selected completely different routes from those predicted by the models.

"I was really astonished at how bad the models were", says Wikelski, who heads the Department of Migration and Immunoecology at Radolfzell. The two mathematical models together managed to correctly predict only 5 out of 23 corridors. The "Least-Cost Path Analysis" model, with only one correct prediction, fared worse than the "Circuit Theory" model, which at least managed five hits.

The equations mainly use information about the habitat preferences of the animals. Since fishers spend most of their time within forests and avoid open spaces, it was assumed that this rule would also apply to their corridors. "That assumption was not true, as the animals were much more flexible in their willingness to use corridors composed of a variety of habitat types, not just forests", notes Scott LaPoint. They scampered through alluvial and deciduous woods, over meadows, fields and even man-made landscapes such as golf courses and cemeteries, to get from one place to another.

They didn't even draw the line at crossing streets. However, instead of exposing themselves to the dangers of trying to cross over six-lane motorways, the clever creatures instead passed beneath the motorways through old drainage pipes. "I would never have thought it, because with all we know about these shy animals, it didn't seem possible that they would use such potentially dangerous structures" says an amazed Martin Wikelski.

Landscape planners and environmentalists are interested in wildlife corridors because they are considered worthy of special protection. Corridors facilitate a healthy spread of the animals, maintain gene flow between populations, and thereby reduce the risk of extinction. They can also be very expensive, so it is important that our corridor model predictions are accurate and that we make sure that animals are indeed using them. "To do so we should ask the animals what they need," explains Wikelski, "and by monitoring their movements, in effect we have actually created a way for the animals to communicate with us humans."

Scott LaPoint and Martin Wikelski's work suggests we should just ask the animal: "What do you think? What do you want?" This could make landscape planning simpler and more transparent, and we could even learn something along the way.

###

Scott LaPoint, Paul Gallery, Martin Wikelski, Roland Kays

Animal behavior, cost-based corridor models, and real corridors

Landscape Ecology October 2013, Volume 28, pp 1615-1630

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-013-9910-0

---

[


| E-mail



| Share

]

 

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/m-jat101613.php
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10 Things to Know for Thursday

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., arrives for a meeting with House Republicans in the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington, after Senate leaders reached last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., arrives for a meeting with House Republicans in the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington, after Senate leaders reached last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton briefs the media after two days of closed-door nuclear talks on Iran during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Talks between Iran and six world powers have ended an upbeat note, with the European Union's top diplomat Ashton calling them "very important," in efforts to end international tensions over Tehran's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)

FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2011 file photo released by the United Nations Foundation, Ronan Farrow, Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues, speaks during the Social Good Summit in New York. Farrow's mother, actress and activist Mia Farrow says in an interview with Vanity Fair that it’s possible her son with Woody Allen is instead Frank Sinatra’s. Farrow told the magazine that she and Sinatra “never really split up” and when asked if Ronan Farrow might actually be Sinatra’s son, she answered, “Possibly.” (AP Photo/United Nations Foundation, Gary He)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday:

1. TRI-CORNERED COALITION LED TO BUDGET DEAL

The measure won support from the White House, most Democrats in Congress and many Republicans fearful of the economic impact of a default.

2. WHICH SENATOR COULD BE CALLED THE 'TEFLON TEA PARTYER'

Sen. Ted Cruz, a main player in precipitating the government budget and credit crises, is still winning over conservatives.

3. QUALIFIED PRAISE FOR TEHRAN AS NUCLEAR TALKS CLOSE

High-stakes talks between Iran and six world powers adjourn on an upbeat note with an agreement to meet again in three weeks — and with much work still to do.

4. MEMO OBTAINED BY THE AP REVEALS HEALTH CARE GOALS

In the first month, the Obama administration had hoped that nearly 500,000 people would sign up for insurance. But that was before a cascade of computer problems.

5. NEW BLOW TO WESTERN-BACKED SYRIAN OPPOSITION

A rebel commander announces that dozens of factions fighting in southern Syria no longer recognize the largely exile-based political group.

6. FACEBOOK RELAXES PRIVACY SETTINGS FOR TEENS

The social network is now allowing users ages 13-17 to share their posts with anyone on the Internet.

7. WHERE WOMEN SCIENTISTS ARE EARNING THEIR DUE

An effort is underway to add information to Wikipedia about the scientific and technological achievements of women.

8. HAGEL APOLOGIZES TO MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT

The Army initially lost the relevant paperwork, causing a long wait before William Swenson's heroism in Afghanistan was recognized.

9. WHO'S GETTING HIS OWN TV SHOW

Mia Farrow's son Ronan — who until recently hadn't been in the public eye — will host a weekday program on MSNBC.

10. SHORT, SHOELESS — AND SUCCESSFUL — ON BASKETBALL COURT

A team of Mexican Indian boys sweeps through a hoops tournament despite their generally short stature and the fact that most play barefoot.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-16-10-Things-to-Know-Thursday/id-17b489041432439c8825017dd5be9315
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Open for business: Government shutdown, default averted (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334591751?client_source=feed&format=rss
Tags: What Does Government Shutdown Mean   What Does the Fox Say   kim zolciak   vanessa hudgens   ryan braun  

Ahead of UFC 166, Junior dos Santos required stitches on facial cut

HOUSTON, TX -- The UFC apparently dodged a bullet.

Ahead of his UFC 166 rubber match against Cain Velasquez, former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos showed up at Wednesday's open workouts sporting a small vertical scar above his right eyebrow.

According to dos Santos, he suffered a cut three weeks ago which required stitches.

"It was in the training (camp), and it was accidental," dos Santos admitted. "But not too [bad]. I'm okay already."

UFC officials encountered a similar situation earlier this year when Alexander Gustafsson suffered a facial cut late in training camp, which ultimately led to his last-second withdrawal from a UFC on FUEL TV 9 slot within his native Sweden. With virtually no time to scrounge up a replacement, the UFC signed then-unknown light heavyweight Ilir Latifi to fight Gegard Mousasi.

Luckily for UFC officials, this time around dos Santos' cut occurred early enough for the healing process to begin working its magic.

Still, while dos Santos claims to be "100-percent," the scar appeared fresh enough to where it could become a potential wild card if Velasquez targets and reopens it during the pair's trilogy match, which takes place October 19, 2013, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/16/4846724/ahead-of-ufc-166-junior-dos-santos-required-stitches-on-facial-cut
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'Quiet Dell' Revives A Depression-Era Murder Story

Crowds gather on Aug. 30, 1931, at the site of the Quiet Dell murders. Evidence of the killings was found in and around murderer Harry Powers' garage (center).

AP

Crowds gather on Aug. 30, 1931, at the site of the Quiet Dell murders. Evidence of the killings was found in and around murderer Harry Powers' garage (center).

AP

The Quiet Dell murders were among the first big, sensational crime stories of the Depression: A serial killer corresponded with vulnerable widows he met through lonely hearts clubs, then lured them to their deaths.

As a child, writer Jayne Anne Phillips learned about the murders from her mother, who was a child in 1931, when the murders took place. Phillips says she didn't talk a lot about the tragedy, but whenever they drove close to where the crime occurred — near Clarksburg, W.Va. — her mother would say, "There's the road to Quiet Dell."

Phillips' new novel, Quiet Dell, revisits the murders. She says that after hearing her mother's recollections, she developed a strong connection to the sensory details of the story.

"The long, dusty road; the heat of August; cars lined up as far as she could see; being very small and huge crowds of people; hearing the sound of them taking apart the murder garage for souvenirs — the whole experience was something that stayed with me," she says.

Writing The Eichers Back To Life

Murderer Harry Powers killed two women — Dorothy Lemke and Asta Eicher — at Quiet Dell, along with Eicher's three children. Phillips opens the book with a vivid portrait of the Eicher family, imagining what their lives might have been like in the weeks before they were killed. She says she felt a responsibility to the children.

"The tragedy of their loss was somehow answered for me in the process of writing them," Phillips says. "They became real to me and alive and saved, in a sense."

Phillips uses the character of Emily Thornhill to fill in the details of the investigation into the murders and the trial that follows. Emily, a young woman from Chicago, is one of hundreds of reporters who descend on Quiet Dell in the weeks after the murders. She is determined to find out as much as she can about the children and the man who killed them.

"She wants justice for the family," Phillips says. "She wants it known what happened to them. And in her own life, which is rather separate from her job, she remembers them. And of course the reader comes to see that having been involved in this case changes her life forever in ways that she could not have expected or predicted."

What Comes After A Sudden Death

Perhaps the most vividly drawn character in the book is Annabel, the youngest member of the Eicher family. A fanciful child who lives in her imagination, Annabel bursts with energy and ideas. She remains a presence in the book even after her death. In this passage, she hovers over the site where she and her family were held captive before they were killed:

"Quiet Dell is beautiful, the trees at once gently riffling their great canopies, leading like stair steps up the sides of densely scented hills, ridge over ridge, as far as she can see. She looks back to find the others, but the garage building is a black hole. She hovers there and sees grasses and roots grow toward it at lightning speed, rushing and meeting and growing up, a fountain of green, for years are passing and the urgent land hums and flows, erasing the harrowing dark."

When Annabel enters the picture, Phillips' writing becomes lyrical; the child's spirit is felt, but not seen. Even so, Phillips says, Annabel is not a ghost

Jayne Anne Phillips' previous novel, Lark and Termite, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2009.

Elena Seibet/Courtesy of Scribner

Jayne Anne Phillips' previous novel, Lark and Termite, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2009.

Elena Seibet/Courtesy of Scribner

"She doesn't appear to anyone," she says. "She can turn in the breath of a thought, she can move in and out of time. She sees things that may be, or things that will be, so it's more almost a physics problem, you know: Where does all this energy go, especially in the case of very sudden deaths?"

But it's Emily's story that dominates the narrative. Through her involvement in the case, her world expands: She finds new friends and new people to love — people who help in her quest for justice for a family she never even knew.

"We do know that in desperate circumstances people are bound together so deeply," Phillips says. "And, in a sense, all these lives that are sort of pulled together by the tragedy are a testament to these children, because everything going forward for all of these characters is marked by the goodness of these children and the fact that these characters protected and defended them when they could not do that for themselves."

Asta Eicher and her children could not be saved, but Phillips hopes that by remembering them, by imagining the lives they lived and the people who were their champions, she has played her own small part in shedding light on a dark corner of history.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/15/234681427/quiet-dell-revives-a-depression-era-murder-story?ft=1&f=1008
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