WCLS

Please call Stella.  Ask her to bring these things with her from the store:  Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.  She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Hear this same paragraph read aloud by speakers from all over the world thanks to the Speech Accent Archive; a project of the Linguistics Program in the Department of English, George Mason University. Designed as a teaching and research tool, the site explains that everyone speaks with an accent and their research demonstrates that accents are “systematic rather than merely mistaken speech.”

As summer cools, election season heats up.  It can be challenging to listen to politicians and parties and know what is a fact and what isn’t.  The Annenberg Public Policy Center is a respected and trusted source for fact checking, as well as the St. Petersburg (FL) Times’ Politifact.com.

Whether you are canning, drying, or freezing some of the local seasonal bounty, you will find answers to many of your questions at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  Still looking for some vegetables or fruit? Try the 2010 Whatcom Food & Farm Finder brochure available at most libraries for free, along with the new publication Grow Northwest.  Enjoy!

Unfortunately too often unused medicines are thrown or flushed away and the powerful chemicals eventually find their way into our soils and streams.  A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, according to an article in USA Today. Feb. 26, 2010.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA®), its members and partners are offering safe disposal of unwanted consumer medications in local community pharmacies around the country. Right now there are no pharmacies listed in Whatcom County. 

Start using MANGO an online interactive language instruction service available free for all WCLS library cardholders.  There are more than 25 languages with basic instruction for English speakers and another 25 courses for non-English speakers to learn English.   Find the link to MANGO under Research--Language Learning.  The first time you access the program enter your card number and pin number (last 4 numbers in your phone number).

Did you know that there are more than a dozen National Park sites in Washington State? And altogether there are 392 national park sites in the US and its territories. You might have guessed that Yellowstone was the very first National Park established in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Whether you are planning a trip or just curious, the library’s collection has books and dvds on many of the National Parks. Happy trails!

Washington was the first state in the 20th century and the fifth state in the Union to enact women’s suffrage. Washington women’s success in 1910 helped inspire the campaign that culminated in passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, when women won the right to vote nationally.

 You can learn more about this interesting time in our history at the Washington Women’s History Consortium.  

A story on NPR’s morning edition mentioned that the media age of India was about 25 and that made me wonder what is the median age of the United States. 

The median age pinpoints the age at which half of all of the people are older and half are younger.  Developing nations tend to have a low median age (life expectancy is low) and developed nations, like the U.S. tend to have a higher median age—ours is 36 years old.  Or as one website put it—“groaning under the weight of an aging population.”

It may be a surprise as well that one organization that tracks this statistic is the CIA.