Low-Cost Options for Adults Learning Music | Arts & Entertainment - TheJambar.com

While music is an integral part of the human experience, there are many adults who never learned to play music in their youth by Jambar Contributor.

Adults, especially college students, are often burdened by limited funds. They may not know where to start learning music without spending a lot of money, but there are several low-cost opportunities.  

Randall Goldberg, professor and director of the Dana School of Music, provided a few options for 
people who are new to music. 

Goldberg said people should begin with their voice by joining a choir or other vocal ensemble with a low audition threshold...  

Cicilia Yudha, associate professor of piano, teaches a class called Keyboard Musicianship for Non-Music Majors that any student can take for one credit. In this class, students learn the fundamentals of how to read music and play the keyboard in a low-pressure environment.

“The students in the past have been students who are majoring in biology, math and criminal justice — they do something completely different,” Yudha said. “The piano becomes a way for them to kind of release stress and challenge a different part of their brains.”
Read more...

Source: TheJambar.com

What is machine learning, and what does it mean for music? | Tech - MusicRadar

As the name implies, machine learning is a form of AI whereby a computer algorithm analyses and stores data over time, then uses this data to make decisions and predict future outcomes by Future Music.

Photo: Future

Deep learning is the next evolution of this: instead of requiring human ‘supervision’, algorithms can autonomously use ‘neural networks’ analogous to the human brain. Put simply, lines of computer code can now, to some extent, be programmed to learn for themselves, then use those learnings to perform complex operations on a scale that far surpasses human abilities.  

Considered the single biggest advancement in software development over the past few years, this technology is possible thanks to revolutionary advancements in computing power and data storage, and is now an integral part of day-to-day life, like how Siri or Alexa intelligently store data to predict future actions. Ever wondered why Facebook’s ‘People You May Know’ and those pesky suggested ads on social media are always so accurate? Spooky, huh? That’s before we even mention face recognition software, email spam filtering, image classification, fraud detection… 

Yep, machine learning algorithms are everywhere, and the field of music is no exception. For us everyday music listeners here in 2019, streaming services’ algorithms drive those lists of suggestions that help you hunt down new songs and artists you’d never normally discover. Last year, Google’s Magenta research division developed the open-source NSynth Super, a synthesiser powered by their NSynth algorithm designed to create entirely new sounds by learning the acoustic qualities of existing ones...

How can musicians harness this technology while retaining creativity?
“There are a couple of different research camps. One from the world of musicology, focused on algorithmic musical composition. In this space you have Amper Music, who have a product that can create generative music examples for your content, like your YouTube video or ad. Others focus on applications like auto-accompaniment. So some groups are trying to automate creativity, and others are trying to enhance it.
Read more...

Source: MusicRadar

Five Easy Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning | YEC - Forbes

Engaging in lifelong learning isn't difficult, but it does take dedication by John Turner, Founder of SeedProd.

Photo: Getty

The only way to grow as a person is to continue learning. 

So, learning shouldn’t stop when you finish high school or graduate college — it should be a part of your everyday life. At the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is self-actualization, which is defined as “a desire to become everything one is capable of becoming.” This can be achieved by learning. 

Whether you want to master subjects that will help you grow your business or career, or you just enjoy learning about topics that interest you, it’s important to make room in your life to study. That can be difficult, especially when life is so busy these days.

Don’t worry, though; instead, check out these five easy ways to engage in lifelong learning.
Read more...

Source: Forbes

HKBU's e-learning tech to help visually impaired students | Digital Transformation - OpenGov Asia

Students with print disabilities often face extra challenges in the process of pursuing their education. Fortunately, information technology has gradually improved this situation, explains Alita Sharon, writer at OpenGov Asia.

Photo: OpenGov Asia

The Hong Kong Blind Union (HKBU) launched the Jockey Club E-Learning For All (ELFA) Project. The project aims to minimise the learning gap between students with reading impairment and typical students by making the best use of e-learning in their academic pursuit.

In 2017, HKBU cooperated with the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and conducted a two-year longitudinal study about the effectiveness of e-learning.

Recently, the research findings were disseminated. The President of HKBU said that persons with visual impairment will be able to broaden their learning horizon and stay close to the ever-changing society via assistive technology...

Students have expressed that e-learning facilitated them to search for academic literature and produce suitable learning materials. It also helps them keep pace teachers during lessons.

E-learning was also an essential tool in helping students to complete their degrees. Even after graduation, one student still uses the service under the ELFA Project and produced e-books for job-related purpose.

Read more... 

Source: OpenGov Asia

Virtual learning oversight: ‘Riding a donkey into the space age’ | Education - NonDoc

Earlier this month, I met with three administrators at the Oklahoma State Department of Education  who have been wrestling with accountability issues for virtual and blended schools, especially for-profit charters like Epic Charter Schools, notes Dr. John Thompson, award-winning historian.

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister conducts an interview with KFOR on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019.
Photo: Tres Savage

As spokesperson Steffie Corcoran told me, devising oversight systems for these schools is complex because “there is a physical world and a virtual world.”

The OSDE has earned a reputation for professionalism, but changes in education models are outpacing legislation and policy. In terms of monitoring a rapidly emerging landscape of online instruction, Deputy Superintendent Monty Guthrie said, “We’re riding a donkey into the space age.”...

Online learning is not going away, nor should it. To minimize the harm that can be done in the virtual world, we should thoughtfully build on what has worked in brick and mortar schools while ensuring meaningful oversight.
Read more...

Source: NonDoc 

Encouragement for Online Learners | Online Education - Faculty Focus

Prior to every course, faculty should consider how they can connect with their students, Dr. Jeremiah E. Shipp, adjunct professor in the John Wesley School of Leadership at Piedmont International University in Winston-Salem, NC. recommends.

Photo: Faculty Focus

Building rapport with students must be intentional and consistent (Glazier, 2016). Merely copying and pasting the course content into a learning management system cannot be the extent of online course development.

Our role as faculty must extend beyond grading assignments but include verbal and written encouragement, which is vital for the academic and personal development of students (Lowe, 2005). Encouragement can come in many forms such as positive feedback on assignments, emails, phone calls, and video messages.

To encourage online learners, faculty can utilize a video technique called “Midweek Motivation,” which consists of creating short videos that can be used to help students persevere through any academic and personal challenge they may be experiencing. The video topics are unlimited, but in my experience I have shared professional challenges I have overcome and funny stories...

Sharing stories with students can help create a bridge that often doesn’t develop automatically because of the geographical distance between the instructor and students. The level of transparency may vary among faculty, but a midweek video can open a door for fruitful conversations during virtual office hours. In addition, the lessons shared in the videos can create opportunities to mentor students as they juggle their academic and personal responsibilities. I have found that the midweek motivation videos help foster authenticity, creativity, and community in my online courses. 
Read more...

Source: Faculty Focus

ENMU Faculty Publish Book about Mathematicians | Book - ENMU News

Ann Varela, Mathematics Instructor at Eastern New Mexico University suggest, Eastern New Mexico University faculty members Mrs. Ann F. Varela, instructor of mathematics, and Dr. Michael F. Shaughnessy, professor of education, have published a book together about prominent mathematicians. 

Mrs. Ann F. Varela and Dr. Michael F. Shaughnessy
Photo: Dillon Korte

The title of the new book, released by Nova Science Publishers, a New York-based publisher, is "The Life and Times of the World's Most Famous Mathematicians." The new book is part of a series dedicated to distinguished men and women of science, medicine and the arts. The book is also part of a book series dealing with mathematics research developments.

The book is formatted as a unique interview style in its presentation. Dr. Shaughnessy, a curious investigator, posed questions pertaining to the lives, education, and science of mathematicians and invited Mrs. Varela to address each of these areas using her repertoire of expertise. The topics ranged between simple math to complex calculus and many mathematical topics in between. The release features pictures of the men and women who discovered the concepts as well many diagrams conveying the topics in an understandable manner. The book also deals with the personal lives of each of the famous mathematicians.

According to Mrs. Varela, the project "was a lot of work, but I’m glad to have finally finished the book. I was also happy to see that our new library carries the book on its shelves. I think readers of our book will be really surprised to learn what became of these famous mathematicians." Dr. Shaughnessy said that he had "been curious to know where the various mathematical fields of study originated."...

Mrs. Varela has been teaching over 25 years in secondary and higher education. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and she has been at ENMU for 20 years. Dr. Shaughnessy has been a faculty member at ENMU since 1983. He is a member of editorial boards for several major education-based journals.
Read more...

Source: ENMU News

Corporation school in Tiruchi gets Robotics Lab | Tiruchirapalli - The Hindu

Students would be prepared to take part in robotics competitions soon, inform Staff Reporter at The Hindu.
 

Students watch as trainers demonstrate the working of robots at a school at Palakkarai in Tiruchi on Wednesday.

Students of the Corporation Middle School in Palakkarai will learn robotics thanks to the efforts of Tiruchi Thillainagar Lions Club and a robotics training institute in the city.

A facility for training was inaugurated on the school campus on Wednesday to conduct robotics classes by Systech Hardware & Networking Academy. In association with the academy, Tiruchi Thillainagar Lions Club donated robotics kits to the children...

The classes will be conducted once a week under the leadership of Tony Reagan, Director, Systech Hardware & Networking Academy and his team. The course plan includes introduction to basic concepts, types of switches and sensors, motors and motor drivers, programming, assembling and programming of robots, sensor-based robots, computer-controlled robots, and wireless robots. 
Read more...

Source: The Hindu

How high schools can foster 'deeper learning' | Education - Phys.Org

Jal Mehta, professor of education at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), and Sarah Fine, Ed.M. '13, Ed.D. '17, visited 30 innovative public high schools across the country to examine where students were experiencing what the two call deeper learning, says Liz Mineo, Staff Writer at Harvard Gazette. 

Jal Mehta and “In Search of Deeper Learning" co-author Sarah Fine visited dozens of high schools across the country.
Photo: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

What they found was surprising: Even in the most celebrated schools, the learning that allows students to grow as thinkers and critical and creative learners is more often the exception than the rule. The Gazette sat down with Mehta to talk about the book he recently published with Fine, "In Search of Deeper Learning," the role of teachers in leading students to deeper learning, and what it takes to remake the American high school. 
Read more... 

Recommended Reading

In Search of Deeper Learning:
The Quest to Remake the American High School

Source: Phys.Org

5 Amazing Deep Learning Projects In 2019 | Deep Learning - Robots.net

Machine learning and deep learning are still in the experimental stage of development, continues Robots.

Photo: Robots.net

However, machine learning capabilities are already routinely incorporated in software for both personal and business use. You can find good machine learning projects everywhere – from home and office automation tools through industrial equipment to mobile devices.

Machine learning ideas drive mostly projects aimed at the development of smart algorithms like artificial intelligence. Even so, do not make the mistake of referring to a machine learning project as “artificial intelligence”. Machine learning algorithms are mainly about the application of logical operators of the type “if…then,” which does not make them less amazing or challenging to implement in practice.

Deep Learning Projects You Can Try Out 
Read more...

Source: Robots.net

Memphis teacher develops app to help students with math | FOX13 Memphis

This year’s TNReady tests showed a little more than 27 percent of Shelby County students are proficient in math. The state’s average is about 40 percent, as FOX13 Memphis reports. 

Photo: FOX13 Memphis

One Memphis teacher is working to get those numbers up.
Robin Cianchoso developed an app that will help students remember math concepts.

Cianchoso teaches middle school students with learning disabilities at St. Francis of Asissi Catholic High School...

Cianchoso told FOX13 there is one reason she started teaching.
“The kids. Watching them go, ‘Oh yeah, I got it,’” she said.
In order to get students to that ‘a-ha moment’, her family developed Moore’s Reminders for Math flashcards, and now all that information is in an app as well...

For more information on the app and how to sign up, click here.
Read more...

Source: FOX13 Memphis

Aspects of Machine Learning on the Edge | Machine Learning - DevOps.com

John Fogarty, advisory software engineer at Base2 Solutions says, Machine learning (ML) is hard. 

Photo: DevOps.com

Making it work within the confined environment of an embedded device can easily become a quagmire unless we consider, and frequently revisit, the design and deployment aspects crucially affected by ML requirements. A bit of upfront planning makes the difference between project success and failure.

For this article, our focus is on building commercial-grade applications with significant, or even dominant, ML components. Edge devices, especially ML enabled ones, don’t operate in isolation; they form just one element of a complex automated pipeline.

You have a device, or better yet, an idea for one which will perform complex analytics, usually in something close to real time and deliver results as network traffic, user data displays, machine control or all three. The earlier you are in the design process, the better positioned you’ll be to adjust your hardware and software stack to match the ML requirements. The available tools (especially at the edge) are neither mature, nor general purpose. The more flexible you are, the better your odds of building a viable product.

Let’s start by describing a hypothetical device and we’ll work through some ML considerations of the design. As we discuss the design, we’ll visit and revisit DevOps automations that go hand in hand with these other engineering processes...

Conclusions 
What else will affect our choices here? The nature of the inputs can really matter. If our camera visualizes traffic on a busy roadway, or people in an airport terminal, we can expect almost every frame will contain something of interest; if we’re monitoring the bottom floor of a parking garage–not so much.
Read more...

Source: DevOps.com

Machine Learning Overview: Everything You Need to Know | IT Infrastructure - TechDecisions

Everything you need to know about putting artificial intelligence into practice is right here in this machine learning overview.

Photo: AdobeStock

In recent years machine learning is gaining more and more popularity, but what exactly is it? summarizes guest author Joe Zulick, Technical SEO Strategist at TheeDigital.

Evolution of Machine Learning 
The name “machine learning” initially originated from famous gaming researcher Arthur Lee Samuel. Samuel is the first person to bring self-learning programs into society.

This remarkable discovery shortly laid the foundation for machine learning algorithms. In later years, rising popularity in artificial intelligence give birth to many innovations in the field of Computers and Automation...

Actually, it is a subfield of AI, the picture below clearly explains what I mean:

Read more... 

Source: TechDecisions

Best of arXiv.org for AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning – July 2019 | insideBIGDATA

In this recurring monthly feature, we filter recent research papers appearing on the arXiv.org preprint server for compelling subjects relating to AI, machine learning and deep learning – from disciplines including statistics, mathematics and computer science – and provide you with a useful “best of” list for the past month. 

Researchers from all over the world contribute to this repository as a prelude to the peer review process for publication in traditional journals. arXiv contains a veritable treasure trove of learning methods you may use one day in the solution of data science problems. We hope to save you some time by picking out articles that represent the most promise for the typical data scientist. The articles listed below represent a fraction of all articles appearing on the preprint server. They are listed in no particular order with a link to each paper along with a brief overview. Especially relevant articles are marked with a “thumbs up” icon. Consider that these are academic research papers, typically geared toward graduate students, post docs, and seasoned professionals. They generally contain a high degree of mathematics so be prepared.
Read more...

Enjoy and take a cup of ☕️coffee! 

Source: insideBIGDATA  

LCC first community college to charter Gamma Iota Sigma | YES - WSYM-TV

This fall LCC will become the first community college to charter the insurance fraternity Gamma Iota Sigma by FOX 47 News.

Photo: Gamma Iota Sigma

Gamma Iota Sigma is a college academic fraternity that was founded in 1966 at The Ohio State University. It is an international professional fraternity organized to promote, encourage and sustain student interest in insurance, risk management and actuarial science as professions.

LCC began offering an associate degree in Insurance and Risk Management in 2018. The insurance industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country, and is experiencing a robust hiring climate based in part on the significant number of experienced and qualified workers who are retiring in record numbers...

To learn more about LCC’s Insurance and Risk Management program visit 
lcc.edu/insurance [lcc.edu]

Related link
Gamma Iota Sigma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: WSYM-TV 

26 New Skills for Every Generation Now on LinkedIn Learning | New Courses - The Learning Blog

Each week presents a new opportunity for you and your team to learn the skills necessary to take on the next big challenge, according to Zoë Kelsey, Learning Supporter at LinkedIn.

Photo:  Learning Blog - LinkedIn Learning

At LinkedIn Learning, we want to do everything we can to help make that happen. Each week, we add to our 14,000+ course library. This week we added 26 courses. What can you expect from the new additions to the library? 

Whether you identify as Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, or Boomer, we have a new course for you to check out. 

How do we know?
Read more... 

Additional resources 
Want to see what else we offer?
View all of LinkedIn Learning's 14,000+ courses today. 

Source: LinkedIn Learning

Kids Are Becoming Emotionally Attached to Robots | Robots & Machines - Futurism/The Byte

Today’s toddlers and preschoolers are growing up surrounded by friendly-looking, sometimes humanlike robotic devices and educational tools — a phenomenon that scientists warn could be confusing by Dan Robitzski, Writer at Futurism.

Photo: imjanuary/Victor Tangermann

While young children tend to understand that the robotic helpers all around them aren’t truly alive, The Wall Street Journal reports that toddlers tend to think that the robots’ artificial intelligence is capable of far more than it is — and may even form emotional ties with the bots — a phenomenon that has some researchers concerned...

Breazeal told the WSJ that parents should also be careful not to ascribe genders to robots, no matter how humanlike they look, to remind impressionable children that their toys are merely machines — and to communicate that, regardless of how impressive the AI seems, a mountain of human effort went into developing it.
Read more...

Source: Futurism/The Byte

Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot ‘It’ | Work & Family - The Wall Street Journal

Sue Shellenbarger, writes The Wall Street Journal's "Work & Family" Column reports, As a new generation grows up surrounded by artificial intelligence, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots’ role.

 Dash by Wonder Workshop is a popular educational robot that teaches coding to children 6 and up. It can dance and sing and responds to voices and sounds.
Photo: Wonder Workshop

If you want your preschooler to grow up with a healthy attitude toward artificial intelligence, here’s a tip: Don’t call that cute talking robot “he” or “she.”

Call the robot “it.”

Today’s small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a booming education-tech industry can speed children’s learning, but they also can be confusing to them, research shows. Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers.

The long-term consequences of growing up surrounded by AI-driven devices won’t be clear for a while. But an expanding body of research is lending new impetus to efforts to expand technology education beyond learning to code, to understanding how AI works. Children need help drawing boundaries between themselves and the technology, and gaining confidence in their own ability to control and master it, researchers say...

Dr. Jipson at Cal Poly advises parents to help their children design, program or build the AI devices they use. ”Help children figure out that they can control these tools—that we’re the ones who created that ability, and we can also make the best use of it,” she says. Invite them to question the credibility of the information generated by AI-powered tools, she says. “They need to know that there’s the potential for error or, unfortunately, for deliberate manipulation.”  

And watch your language. Dr. Jipson says has made a point with her two daughters, now 10 and 13, of calling robots “it” rather than “he” or “she.” 
Read more...

Source: The Wall Street Journal 

Using artificial intelligence to address contract cheating in universities | Universities - Study International News

The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) can be felt across every aspect of life, and higher education is no exception by Study International Staff.

Artificial intelligence can help universities uphold academic honesty policies.
Photo: Shutterstock

AI is making education increasingly accessible and easier for students with disabilities, providing support for those who need additional help. But it can also help universities uphold academic honesty policies.

Georgia Tech University in the US has developed “an AI agent” named Jack Watson to pose as a contractor and help the university identify students guilty of contract cheating. 

Contract cheating is a serious academic dishonesty that involves students getting an external party to contribute to or complete their assignments or assessments. Regardless of whether the third party – which could be a friend, family member or even an editing service – is paid or not, it’s still considered contract cheating, according to the University of Sydney...

A research paper notes that Jack Watson is being used to monitor auction sites, identify posted homework assignments and provide students with watermarked solutions that can be automatically identified upon submission of the assignment.
Read more...

Source: Study International News

The Three Types of Artificial Intelligence: Understanding AI | AI - Interesting Engineering

Susan Fourtané, versatile science and technology journalist explains, AI is rapidly evolving. Artificial Super Intelligence could be here sooner than expected.

Photo: PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock 

According to a Gartner Survey of over 3,000 CIOs, Artificial intelligence (AI) was by far the most mentioned technology and takes the spot as the top game-changer technology away from data and analytics, which is now occupying a second place. 

AI is set to become the core of everything humans are going to be interacting with in the forthcoming years and beyond...

What is AI?: The three types of Artificial Intelligence 

First of all, to be able to participate in today's discussions about Artificial Intelligence and to understand the changes it will bring to the future of humanity we need to be knowledgeable of the basics. 

The different types of AI depend on the level of intelligence embedded into a robot. We can clearly categorize AI into three types: 

Read more...

Source: Interesting Engineering

There are a number of reasons why maths is good | Education - The Age

If you want to put the brakes on global warming, cure disease, explore the secrets of space, animate your favourite story or build a robot, you need to start understanding maths and statistics, argues Janine Sprakel, schools program manager at the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and the project director for CHOOSEMATHS.

Photo: Janine Sprakel

Students all over Australia are mulling over subject selection about now. It is a daunting decision-making process.

Will it be university or a trade, or will they head straight into work? Year 10 students have the option to keep or drop mathematics. Those in year 11 might be studying maths now, but are wobbly in their commitment for next year. Year 12 students are thinking about where they will head. University students begin semester two with an eye on the future. It is a confusing time.

But let's have a look at what the world will look like as these students leave the education system...

Australia needs to rewrite the conversations we have with our students, our children and each other.

Here are some of the common excuses that we hear for not pursuing maths:
Read more... 

Source: The Age

Science history: The simple brilliance of Venn diagrams | Mathematics - Cosmos

British mathematician also had a love for cricket. Jeff Glorfeld, freelance journalist based in California, US. reports.
 

 John Venn made a contribution to maths and cricket.
Photo: Unknown (Maull & Fox. studio). Via Wikimedia

In late July 2019, Britain’s Evening Standard newspaper reported on how soon-to-be prime minister Boris Johnson had planned his Cabinet appointments by drawing a Venn diagram. In one circle were “the people who believed in Brexit”. In the other were “the people capable of running the country”.

In discussing Johnson’s planning scheme, The Guardian newspaper’s mathematics columnist, Alex Bellos, described the Venn diagram as “a brilliantly simple visual aid to understanding logical relations”, and “one of the few concepts from abstract mathematics that is easily understood, and regularly used, by non-mathematicians”.

The Venn diagram takes its name from British mathematician and logician John Venn, who was born in 1834 in Yorkshire. His father Henry Venn and grandfather John Venn were both Evangelical Anglican priests.

In 1853 he went to Cambridge to study mathematics, receiving a first-class degree in mathematics in 1857...

An online educational services provider, Lofoya.com, explains that a Venn diagram consists of closed shapes, generally circles, which represents sets. The various operations of sets are represented by partial or complete overlap of these closed figures. Regions of overlap represent elements that are shared by sets.  
Read more... 

Source: Cosmos

Second-hand books: Passing on the magic | Books and Publishing - BusinessLine

Bought at a steal or stumbled upon in a trash heap, second-hand books are storehouses of personal histories, often captured in a forgotten bookmark or a fading inscription by Lalita Iyer, The Hindu BusinessLine.  

Many uses: Long after a book you owned has left your shelf and travelled to someone else’s — handed down, stolen, lost or sold — a part of you lives in it
Photo:  KAMAL NARANG

I don’t remember exactly when my love for second-hand books began, but I do remember scouring the footpaths of King’s Circle in Mumbai, where my aunt lived, to make my birthday money stretch — I was looking to see just how many Agatha Christies I could buy for the ₹100 or so I got each year. Sometimes, I came back with at least five or six; they would last me the summer vacation. I remember calculating that I could have bought just one new book with that money, and feeling smug at my smart thinking.

Like me, there are many who find joy in browsing the remnants of other people’s collections — and often accidentally discovering writing of the kind you never knew existed. This is precisely why second-hand bookshops came into being, I think. At least, that’s how I found George Mikes, John Berendt, Bruce Chatwin and Penelope Lively.

Long after a book you owned has left your shelf and travelled to someone else’s — handed down, stolen, lost or sold — a part of you lives in it.

Stand-ins for a bookmark — bus or train tickets, newspaper cuttings, leaves, pocket combs, movie tickets, twigs, hair pins (I once even found a grocery list) — lie there, cocooned, waiting to be discovered by the new owner...

My hardbound copy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland (my super efficient mother gave away my childhood copy when I moved out) came from Literati Bookshop in Goa — a charming old villa for all things old and wonderful. It was also here that I picked up Ursula Sedgwick’s My Learn-to-Cook Book, my son Re’s first cookbook, which had been originally gifted to a Sherry in 1973 by Aunty Banso, Uncle Keki and (perhaps their children) Ketayun and Minso. Perhaps Sherry (or her mother) had further inscribed it with “Sherry’s first cooking book”, which makes me believe they had a lot of fun cooking from this book, as did Re and I, although it was more about baking — cheesy baked potatoes, zoo biscuits, fruit crumble, tartlets and fairy cakes.  
Read more...

Source: BusinessLine

Mother Foucault's Bookshop | Willamette Week

For literary romantics, a visit to Mother Foucault's is like falling in love with the written word all over again.

Mother Foucault's Bookshop
Photo: Will Spray

Located on the border of Portland’s inner southeast industrial district, Mother Foucault’s specializes in used, rare, and vintage books, spoken-word vinyl, and Not Going On The Internet.

Filled with classic titles, avant-garde poetry, and philosophy, the cozy, multilevel shop transports you to 1910s Paris, and though the shop does purchase used books, don't even think about bringing by a tattered copy of Frankenstein—unless it's in Italian.
Read more...

Source: Willamette Week

It’s time to revisit Fahrenheit 451 | Opinion - Washington Examiner

One of the most commonly assigned books in American high school literature, Fahrenheit 451, hasn’t always been treated fairly by Madeline Fry, commentary writer for the Washington Examiner

First edition cover (clothbound)
Photo: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Critic Damon Knight once wrote of author Ray Bradbury that “his imagination is mediocre; he borrows nearly all his backgrounds and props, and distorts them badly.”
But the book, while easy to read, is rich with metaphor and meaning. I first read Fahrenheit 451 in high school, and I still have my annotated copy nestled amid other books in my collection. 

I would not have understood it well on my own, but thanks to my English teacher at the time, it became one of my favorite novels. Approaching age 17, I remember one line especially resonating with me...

As historian Russell Kirk put it, Bradbury wrote “mythopoeic literature, normative truth acquired through wonder.” Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t simply ring true in a way that has stood the test of time, though. It also has pores. While he’s explaining the nature of literature to Montag, Faber asks, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores.”
Read more...    

Related link  
Fahrenheit 451 by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 
PublishedOctober 19, 1953 (Ballantine Books)^[3]   

Source: Washington Examiner