Summer Sizzles!

Wow, it�s been a great summer so far! This week the BRAIN_blog celebrates the season of heat with the power of suggestion! That�s right, we�ve got suggestions galore including some choice music picks, exciting summer reading and an update on the �have Palm books will travel� project! Feel the sizzle!

1) Music that fits your style
Summer is such a great time for tunes � driving up to the cottage tunes, hanging out on the deck or patio tunes, lying by the pool tunes�ok, you get the idea. If you�re finding that the same old same old just isn�t working for you anymore, take a look at a couple of websites that can help you mix it up, while not moving you too far from your comfort level � unless of course you want some extreme comfort level adjusting. Intrigued? Read on�

Liveplasma is a nifty site that lets you find and compare bands and artists (and movies and directors as well!) by basing new choices on what you already listen to/watch. For example, say you�re a big fan of the Rolling Stones. You�re a little tired of that worn copy of Beggar�s Banquet, but you�re not sure where to look to find music that�s maybe a similar style, yet different. Or maybe you�ve got a 14-year old nephew who�s into Green Day big time, and you want to give him something for his birthday that�s different yet still cool, something you think he�ll really like � and you�ll seem like the coolest aunt/uncle in the world! Head to liveplasma.com, type the name of the band in the search box, and almost instantly you�ll be given a �map� with your band in the centre, and bands/artists that you might like at different points around the screen. The closer in proximity the name of the other band is to your original band, the more chances you�ll enjoy their music as well. So what comes up when you search the Rolling Stones? Well, with the Stones at the epicentre, they are surrounded by Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. And as for our Green Day lad, liveplasma suggests Offspring and Blink 182 as the closest matches, with The Flaming Lips and Weezer a little further out. Now of course, there is no guarantee that you�re going to absolutely love the suggested bands, but it�s an interesting place to start. Of course you can drill down even further by clicking on one of the suggested bands and see where that takes you too! Liveplasma also includes a discography of the bands and artists in the database, so once you�ve got your suggestions, you can take a look at where to begin listening. Music-Map is another music matching site that works the same way. Enter the name of a band and Music-Map jumps into action to give you some suggestions as to what else you might like. Continue along by clicking on any of the surrounding bands, to find more matches and get more suggestions. I like to use both Music-Map and liveplasma together just to be sure I don�t miss anything! Give either or both a try � but do allow for plenty of time � I find it kind of addictive � so much music, so little time!

2) Sassy Summer Reading Lists
Last time the BRAIN_blog brought you some reading material, it was all e-based (more on that in a bit!) This time, we�re browsing the more traditional shelves to bring you some great summer reading lists. Take a walk through any bookstore this summer and the choices are endless. But where do you begin? Displays can help, but having taken several walks through several different bookstores, I�m finding that no matter where you go (and, loyal BRAIN_blog readers, feel free to correct me on this) a lot of the displays display the same books � so if you want to think beyond Harry Potter, to go further than the Da Vinci Code, and basically try to avoid the various pink-bound incarnations of �Chick Lit� (why ARE they pink anyway?!?) it can be a bit of a struggle. So, with a nod to some of the titles that might get lost in the shuffle, the BRAIN_blog brings you three stellar summer reading book lists that will definitely help broaden your horizons!

NPR Summer Reading 2005
Actually more like several reading lists, NPR offers some great summer reading picks from their staff and listeners. There are also lists and suggestions from independent booksellers, and book reviewers offer their choices as well. Definitely not your average book list, the NPR summer reading site has a bit of everything � from cookbooks and memoirs and collections of poetry and essays, to kids� picks and much more, the NPR summer reading also includes excerpts from many of the selections reviewed, and even some of the recipes from the cookbooks � yum! You can also access the lists and suggestions from previous years in case you�ve missed anything relevant in the last year or so!

UC Berkeley Summer Reading List
This just in from the �what a fantastic idea!� department! Each summer, UC Berkeley sends a reading list out to new students with specific direction that it is not actually a �must read before they can come to school in the fall� list, nor is it a list of textbooks they will be required to purchase, but rather a list of interesting books that they might want to consider adding to their own summer reading pile. Every year has a specific theme � 2005 is �Great Discoveries, Voyages and Adventures!� and UC Berkeley faculty, staff and students are asked to provide a pick for the list. Links to previous themed summer reading lists are also accessible from the site. A great concept, and we get to benefit too!

Guardian Unlimited � Summer Reading
Lastly on our tour of summer reading lists, is this one from Guardian Unlimited, a UK newspaper. Some great recommendations from authors, Guardian contributors and readers, musicians and people on the street! �Essential Summer Reading 2005� has an enormous variety of books for you to consider, and there are also books and audiobooks for kids � the latter especially perfect for squirmy kids on long car rides.

3) So manybooks � so littletime!
Ah, glad you asked. The project is going pretty well, thanks! To date, e-L has downloaded and read two (count �em!) two ebooks from the great manybooks site! First, Anthem by Ayn Rand � I like Ayn Rand, and I always enjoy her books. (although one often thinks ought we really to �enjoy� Rand�s books? But that�s a whole other kettle of blogging…) Next I settled in with P.G. Wodehouse�s My Man Jeeves � loads and loads of LOL funniness. So there you have it � two VERY different types of books, both making the transition from print to Palm successfully � for me anyway! The screen is a little smallish, but I really had no trouble reading (maybe the new glasses are working after all!) So what�s next for e-L and her Palm? We�re not too sure, but as we are headed to the cottage for the weekend and there is a whole category on manybooks.net dedicated to �Pulp�, that might be a good place to start…

All Over The Map

I�m not even going to try to come up with a common theme for this week�s issue. We�re all over the map� in fact, we feature a few map tools! Oh! and look to the left…a satellite image map! We just can’t help but be thematic! Tune in this week for: 1) Wowsers!: Google Earth! 2) More new stuff at the Library: Access Science and Library FAQ, 3) RSS feeds for the health sciences folks, 4) Nifty news tools, 5) Shameless self promotion.

1) Find your inner computer geek with Google Earth
The latest offering from Google got me way more excited than computer stuff should. There, I�ve admitted it.
Google Earth is a free, downloadable application that displays 3D digital satellite images. The photos were taken �sometime in the last 3 years� and are updated on a �rolling basis� according to Google. Imagery is available for the whole world with high-resolution (with details of individual buildings) available for most of the major cities in the US, Western Europe, Canada, and the UK. 3D buildings are represented in 38 US cities (the major urban areas). Detailed road maps are available for the US, Canada, the UK, and Western Europe. Google Local search is available for the US, Canada, and the UK.
Ok, straight to the goods: First, you�ll need to download the Google Earth software here. You will need a newish computer with a 3D graphics card and either Windows 2000 or XP (no support for Macs yet.) Once downloaded, here are some of the neat-o things you can do:
1) The Fly To feature allows you to type in a place name, address or latitude/longitude coordinates and then the application flies you to that location. Seeing the earth whiz by as you fly through the air to your location is exciting enough but seeing the place where you live from 3000 feet up is downright flabbergasting!
2) The Local Search allows you to search for local businesses within an area. Icons display on the satellite image with pop-up balloons that have links to display driving directions, more information about the business, etc.
3) The Directions feature is similar to Google Maps in that you type in a starting and ending point and directions are displayed. Text directions are displayed in the left hand window and an image of the route displays on the satellite image. And here�s the fun part: once your driving directions are displayed in the left side panel, highlight the first direction, and click the �play tour� arrow button in the bottom right of the window. Your entire route is then shown like a movie in the satellite image window. It�s truly giddy, I tell you!
There are many, many other spectacular features (I�m running out of superlatives). For example, a �Layers� feature displays hotels, coffee shops, volcanoes, etc. on the currently displayed map. You can set placemarks, save the placemarks in folders, save map images, send images by email, and lots more. I�ll leave you to uncover the excitement for yourself. More details can be found at Search Engine Watch. See the satellite photo of the e-Library and Library @ Fennell above for an example of the wonder that awaits you! (Click to enlarge.)

2) More New Stuff at the Library: Access Science
Yet another new database added to the Library�s database collections, Access Science contains the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology as well as Research Updates from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks, and the latest Science News. It works pretty much like other online encyclopedias in that you can search for a topic or browse a list of subjects but check out the nifty study guides, suggested essay topics, Q&A�s, bibliographies and tables! Oh yes, there are tables! Tables galore! Most articles include a citation so that students can cite articles in their bibliographies without going through the rigamaroll of figuring out how to do a properly formatted bibliography (where was this when I was in school?) All this and more at the Library�s Databases page.

3) And another thing: Library FAQs
All of those questions you�ve been dying to ask about the Library @ Mohawk are finally answered here at our FAQ page! Are we missing a question you�d like to see answered? Just let us know!

4) For the health sciences folks
From the blog MedPDA.net (where they blend �Tech & Medicine�On The Go�), a convenient list of links to RSS feeds for prominent journals in the health field. The RSS feeds alert you to new issues of the journals and include a table of contents. Add these to your RSS reader and say good-bye to email overload! Some of the journals included are Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, and British Medical Journal. See also the handy tutorial on how to create these feeds yourself in PubMed.

5) Nifty News Tools
If you like to see exactly where in the world news is happening, you need World66�s Mapsonomy. Using BBC�s RSS feed of late-breaking news, the map displays news stories on a world map. Click on a news headline and you are linked to a BBC news article. Last I checked there were no news items in Canada�not sure what that could possibly mean.
NewsNow out of the U.K. scans over 20,000 news sources every 5 minutes and posts them to this site. From the left panel you can select a current news item and view the latest stories on that topic. All kinds of neat stuff for the newsoholic.

6) Shameless Self-Promotion
We couldn�t let another BRAIN_blog issue go by without mentioning that the BRAIN_blog is the winner of this year�s Community and Technical College Libraries Innovation Achievement Award! We here at the BRAIN_blog are truly honoured and thrilled (not to mention ecstatic)! Thank you to all of our loyal readers�.without you we�d have a hard time justifying having all this fun posting here every 2 weeks!

7) And now for something completely different
On a completely different and unrelated note, wanted to say a big “way to go, guys!” to the Mohawk College Dragon Boat Team (team name: We’re Mohawk Water You!) for their great showing on Saturday at the Dragon Boat Races in Hamilton! One out of three ain’t shabby – awesome job, team!