LOCAL
Roswell Daily Record
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
A5
Library has movies on DVD available for checkout LORETTA CLARK ROSWELL PUBLIC LIBRARY
Thursday is National Relaxation Day, encouraging people to br eak the cycle of perpetual work for at least one day in the year. The inactivity list could include some non-str essful undertakings, such as taking a nap, reading a book or watching a movie. The Roswell Public Library, 301 N. Pennsylvania Ave., might have just what you need. While napping in the library is discouraged, the CDs of “One Hour of Nature Music” or “Essential Sleep: Music to Help You Rest, Relax and Sleep” contain relaxing music. Reading is fun and fundamental. Fiction and nonfiction books may be enjoyed in a variety of for mats; ranging from printed on paper books to e-books to download to reading devices, iPads, iPhones, etc. to “talking books” on CD. Watching a classic movie on DVD is now an option at the library, as fictional titles have joined the nonfiction subjects available on DVD. These check out for seven days. Some titles, like Stephen King’s “The Shining,” may be enjoyed not only as a book, an e-book or a talking book on CD, but also as a DVD movie.
DVD entertainment
Dramatic entertainment at the library now shares more than 300 feature films, some you may have hear d of and some you may not be familiar with. Amanda Davis, reference librarian, shares in the excitement as she discovers some of her favorite movies and invites patrons to experience the fun of those creations again.
LETTERS
The library has two Stephen King movies, “The Shining” and “Stand By Me.” In “The Shining,” a couple takes a job as hotel caretakers for the winter, however, their young son’s psychic powers bring out the evil in the old hotel. Jack Nicholson stars as the caretaker who ends up being driven mad or possessed by the ghosts that reside there. “Stand By Me” is a coming-ofage tale that follows a group of four young boys who go on an adventure looking for the dead body of a teenager that the older boys claim they found. Encounters with trains, leeches, guard dogs and bullies are just part of the trials these boys face, but it’s not really about the hijinx, it’s just about the camaraderie these boys had as kids, but somehow lost on their way to adulthood. The film is based on the novella ”The Body” and is available on the e-book “Different Seasons.” Dir ector T im Burton is famous for his “Burton-esque” quirky take on horror and fantasy style movies. In his 1988 film “Beetlejuice” a pair of married ghosts end up summoning Beetlejuice for help in ridding their house of the living who have infested it. They quickly end up regretting it when they befriend L ydia, the young girl living ther e. Michael Keaton stars as Beetlejuice, a raunchy and frenetic ghost who is endlessly amusing to watch, while a young Alec Baldwin and Geena
Improbable not the same as impossible
Dear Editor: As the local anti-science brigade has been writing letters full of disinformation again, I need to set a few things straight for those who would prefer to hear the truth. Some letter writers have repeated the tired old arguments to the effect that such things as the human cell could not have arisen by natural processes as the probability of doing so would have been exceedingly low, but these arguments always stem from an inadequate understanding of probability theory. Let me illustrate. Take an ordinary deck of 52 cards, give them a good shuffle, and lay them out in a row face-down on the table, then turn them up to see what particular arrangement (we mathematicians call this a permutation) you obtained. Computed up front before the shuffle, the probability of getting this particular arrangement would roughly have been 1 in a number represented by 8 followed by 67 zeros, i.e. virtually zero probability. Yet the point is that the particular arrangement did happen. It was “improbable” only because its probability was computed so early that not enough information was
Conason
Continued from Page A4
implicate the Senate in an ongoing attempt to mislead the American people, he mocked the concept of legislative oversight — the only real check against intelligence abuses. Clapper’s false testimony echoed some of the worst trespasses against democratic governance of the previous administration. While it is wrong to say that the Obama administration is just as arrogant and authoritarian as was the Bush (and Cheney) regime, that moment in the Capitol encouraged those unflattering comparisons. It violated President Obama’s promises of integrity and transparency, and his oath to uphold the Constitution. A respected nonpartisan watchdog outfit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is urging the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of Clapper. That isn’t a bad idea, although the Senate itself also ought to perform its own probe when a ranking official it has confirmed does what Clapper did. As for the president, he might regain some of the public confidence forfeited on
this issue — as well as some of the international prestige lost in the NSA blowup — if he simply asked Clapper to resign. None of this is meant to exonerate the damaging acts and poor judgment of the two leakers targeted by the government for espionage. Manning in particular has har med innocent people around the world with his indiscriminate exposure of thousands of diplomatic cables. His subsequent mistreatment by the Army was a disgrace, but he — and his dubious sponsors at WikiLeaks — did no favors to the cause they supposedly wanted to advance. Nor is it to say that American officials don’t need to keep secrets and conduct covert operations, which may well include lawful, circumscribed surveillance of American citizens. That will only be tolerated, however, within the system of congressional oversight established four decades ago, after the historic Church committee hearings revealed rampant CIA abuses and crimes. Now Manning has been punished and Snowden exiled. But the damage done at the very core of democracy has not begun to be repaired.
Davis are the married couple and L ydia is played by Winona Ryder. The afterlife that is created here is very different from most other r ealms that the undead reside in, and being told fr om the view of the ghosts doing the haunting is something great to see. When ghosts go on a rampage, only these men can save the world. If you want your spirits raised, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters, who created their own organization in order to rid New York of the spooks that are plaguing it. Ramis’ Egon is a brilliant inventor who has created proton packs and ghost traps to aid in their arsenal against the undead. Gozer, Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man are their most famous antagonists. In “Ghostbusters 2” five years later, the heroes of the hereafter answer the call when an underground river of ghoulish goo threatens to rot the Big Apple to the cor e. “Ghostbusters” has appear ed in numer ous other iterations through the years, but these movies wer e the start of the franchise. If you prefer a special genre, try films ranging from “Vertigo” to “Psycho;” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to “Dirty Harry;” “War of the Worlds” to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial;” “Pride of the Yankees” to “Bad News Bears”;” The Longest Day” to “The Gr eat Dictator” with Charlie Chaplin; “William
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar” to “Indiana Jones;” “Pillow Talk” to “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner;” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” to “Cat From Outer Space;” “Teen Wolf” to “Curly Top” with Shirley Temple; “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to “Little Drummer Boy;” “Sound of Music” to “Cabaret;” “Cleopatra” to “The 10 Commandments” or experience “Treasure Island,” either Disney’s (1950) and starring Orson Welles (1972.) Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the “Master of Suspense” for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience. The library offers three of his films: “The Birds,” “North by Northwest” and “Vertigo.”
What’s happening?
There will be no story times this Wednesday or Saturday. The children’s staff is using this week to reorganize and get ready for our “back to school” season. Story times will r esume on Wednesday, Aug. 21. There will be a class tonight at 6 p.m. related to social networking on the computer. This could featur e facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. On Satur day, Aug. 17, at 10 a.m., there will be an E-Reader Boot Camp highlighting information on the new 3M Cloud selections. Contact the library to register and for more information.
Books Again
Books Again Used Book Stor e, 404 W. Second St., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During
available. For instance, if you turn over all the cards but the last two, then the probability of eventually getting the particular arrangement in question is 50 percent. It all depends on when you assign a probability, and what is known at the time. Virtually everything that happens in your life (the particular combination of people present in a large store at a given time, for instance) would have been “impossible” if the probability had been computed too soon and on the basis of too little information. Similarly, in the gradual development of life on this planet (and very likely on millions of others) over a period of billions of years, at any stage in that process the probability of the next stage is much healthier than it would have appeared if you had calculated its probability too early. One can profitably read Richard Dawkins’ book “Climbing Mount Improbable” to gain an understanding of how such things work. Remember, vast spans of time are involved. Letter writers continually parade other non-arguments in front of us, e.g. the idea that “many” scientists doubt the validity of radiometric dating methods (not true), or believe that the laws of physics (including the speed of light) have changed to accommodate some cherished religious belief system (not true), or that we scientists just don’t understand how things work. For instance, one
TODAY IN HISTORY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 13, the 225th day of 2013. There are 140 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight On Aug. 13, 1913, British metallurgist Harry Brearley developed an alloy that came to be known as “stainless steel.” (Although Brearley is often credited as the “inventor” of stainless steel, he was hardly alone in working to create steel that resisted corrosion.) On this date In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs. In 1624, King Louis XIII of France
Renee Swickard Agent/Owner
Nicole McWilliams Agent/Owner
the special August sale, all science fiction and fantasy titles and all musical CDs ar e $1 each. Other books cost approximately one-fourth of the original price. In addition, video cassettes and paperback books are 25 cents. Children’s hardback books are $3 each. Books Again is by operated by Friends of the Library volunteers and all proceeds are used to benefit the library. Members of the friends organization will receive a 10 percent discount. Parking is located behind the store.
Upcoming speaker
Nationally known antiques and collectibles expert Harry Rinker is coming to Roswell. He has a syndicated radio show, “Whatcha Got,” and is the author of several books, including “Sell, Keep, or Toss?: How to Downsize a Home, Settle an Estate, and Appraise Personal Property.” On Friday, Sept. 13, he will be presenting a free public lecture at 7 p.m. in the Civic Center. No tickets are necessary. Then on Saturday, Sept. 14, Rinker will be doing personal appraisals as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Roswell Public Library organization. For an appraisal, tickets may be purchased for a specific time slot of 15 minutes. One item appraisal is $10 and three items are $25. For your preferred time slot, purchase your ticket early. A very limited number of walkthrough home appraisals will be available for $100. Tickets may be purchased at Books Again or at the r efer ence desk of the library.
writer mentioned the (to use the correct term) nonlinearity of production of carbon-14 in the atmosphere, but this is well understood among real scientists, as opposed to people who get their information at pseudo-science tent meetings. Presumably we’re supposed to believe that humankind just “appeared” in a creative flash a few thousand years ago, but if this were the case, the human genome would clearly reflect that. It does not. Rather, it clearly and unambiguously reflects millions of years of evolution. No one has correctly refuted what I pointed out early about retro-pseudogenes providing powerful evidence for evolution, because no such correct refutation is known. Like it or not, we share common ancestors not only with other primates but with rodents, fish and insects, and this is abundantly demonstrable in the field of genetics. Evolution a “religion masquerading as science”? Don’t make me laugh. Try putting that one across at any respectable science conference and see how far you get. Science only seeks the truth. Unlike groundless belief systems that think they need to distort reality to survive, we have no sinister agendas. Sincerely, Donald R. Burleson, Ph.D. Roswell
appointed Cardinal Richelieu (reeshuh-LYOO’) his first minister. In 1792, French revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family. In 1846, the American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles. In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90. In 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was again elected Speaker of Turkey’s Grand Assembly. In 1934, the satirical comic strip “Li’l Abner,” created by Al Capp, made its debut. In 1942, Walt Disney’s animated feature “Bambi” had its U.S. premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York, five days after its world premiere in London.
In 1960, the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1. The Central African Republic became totally independent of French rule. In 1961, East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors and began building a wall that would stand for the next 28 years. In 1981, in a ceremony at his California ranch, President Ronald Reagan signed a historic package of tax and budget reductions. In 1989, searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, DTexas, and 14 other people — there were no survivors.
MEDICARE OPEN ENROLLMENT 10/15/2013 to 12/07/2013
Medicare Supplemental Plans • Medicare RX Plans • Advantage Plans 400 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Ste 600
624-1379
(Across from the Post Office)
www.swickardagency.com
20 years combined experience in Roswell
Swickard Agency Inc.
“We work for you, the client. We never forget we’re your agent.”
Stephanie Amaro-Agent Hablo Español