Month: February 2011

Stay positive with these technology-related doomsday scenarios

In another optimistic entry to the Billington Library Book of the Day catalog, The Technology Trap, examines how super-powerful technology, combined with the unreliable human factor, can wipe out civilization.

Complete with helpful tables to tell readers all about who has (or used to have) nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and histories of accidents and terrorism, this is a pretty bleak book. Not only does it discuss the unreliability to a world covered with nuclear weapon silos prone to mechanical failings, but it also takes the time to examine human factors (depression, discontent, incompetence, etc.) to show how the two make an awful combination for our planet’s safety.

So by all means, check out what the author, Lloyd J. Dumas, thinks about the state of the world, maybe do additional research, and see if you agree.

Don’t let your clone get you!!

Today’s book takes a peak into the future of biotechnology, and aims to prepare us all for dealing with the possibilities of cloning. How to Defeat Your Clone by real-life scientists, Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D. Johnson, takes you on a hypothetical journey through a future where cloning things could become the norm.

It may primarily be a humor book, but the authors don’t deviate beyond the possibilities of science, aiming to make sure readers understand what may or may not be possible. And in the end, it’s best to always be prepared, right?

Have you seen our new Egypt Literature Guide?

So I imagine you’ve heard about this little piece of news to have come out of Egypt recently… Their president Mubarak was in power for 30 years. In that time, there have been many generations of Egyptians who have felt the impact of that regime, and plenty of authors who’ve created works about their experiences.

Leave it to Professor Emeritus and Librarian Andrea Kempf to put together a guide to help you find some of these works. We highly recommend you check out her LibGuide, Egyptian Fiction from in the 20th and Early 21st Century.

The Internet melts your brain in today’s book

If you hear someone talk about being too connected on the web, you’re likely to expect a thesis on the dangers of Twitter or why Facebook is going to ruin us all. Not so, in today’s Book of the Day, OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet by William H. Davidow. Instead of looking at oversharing personal information, Davidow points out larger issues like financial failings, natural disaster, and other events have become larger in how people feel their impact and how professionals react. Remember that Icelandic volcano that erupted last year? Would you have without the Internet constantly reminding you?

It’s an interesting look at how the connections we’re forced to have because of the Internet overload us into not only acting quick, but also perhaps has us sacrificing some caution. This book is good for those interested in social and interactive media, history, science, economics, and sociology.

Inequality Enforced by the Post-Civil War Supreme Court

After the Civil War, the Supreme Court of the United States could have really worked to ensure equal rights for US citizens. Instead, they took things like the Civil Rights Act of 1875 (which garanteed fair treatment in establishments regardless of race, among other things) and declared it unconstitutional. Their interpretations of laws are argued to have set up years of oppression in today’s Book of the Day, Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court. This historical account by author Lawrence Gladstone examines the effects of these early decisions and how they defined policy and its enforcement for years to come.

It’s an embarrassing time for the United States, but an important one to know about. Getting Gladstone’s perspective should be of interest to those interested in US history, law, human rights, civil rights, or politics and government.

Physicists at War

 

Author Jim Baggot explores the creation of the atomic bomb in today’s Book of the Day, The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb, 1939-1949. Instead of looking at how it was done or the wartime events leading up to it, the author is much more curious about how some of the smartest scientists in the world were pulled into working on a tool for destruction.  Looking at the discovery of nuclear fission and the quest for knowledge, readers will see the difficult journey that these physicists were pulled into projects that would eventually lead to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.