3D Printers new rave in technology!

Have you heard about one of the newest raves in technology? This beginning may one day change the way we sell things like replacement parts. It will definitely change the way medical devices are invented and produced.  Our library has just added a 3D printer to its technology offerings. We will have it for the public's use. We have just unpacked it and begun to use it, so we are still in the learning stage.

If you have not heard about 3D printers before, let me tell you of an amazing result using one.  Just in the last few years, Garrett Peterson was born with tracheomalacia. His windpipe was would close down and he’d not be able to breath.  Dr. Glenn Green at the University of Michigan contacted a biomedical engineer with the same university and asked him about his 3-D printing capabilities.  They teamed up and created a device from the 3-Printer to keep the windpipe open (http://goo.gl/UwVTIL).  Below is
the picture of the child saved by the use of a 3D printer 
and the new technology!

You may say, this is an extreme case but what about the hand created for a child (https://goo.gl/0xd2Wh).

Mashable on YouTube tells us that 3D printers are being used as adaptive manufacturing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx0Z6LplaMU). Objects are created by adding materials layer by layer that create complex parts for parts, machines, cars, planes, you name it! It produces prototype examples that are inexpensive yet give the understanding of what the object or material will look like when finished.  Architects, mechanical engineers, clothing and assessory designers, and many other industries are beginning to use 3D printers.  If you have something you’d like to try and create, come and schedule a time for creating and printing. 

I believe that many will begin with just downloading objects to print, but one day I hope creativity will be sparked and our citizens will begin to design materials that benefit others.

(All photos downloaded from Google Images). 

A new book is out by the award winning author of poetry, Sophie Hannah. It is entitled, “Agatha Christie: The Monogram Murders,” by Sophie Hannah. Hercule Poirot is enjoying himself in a little French coffee house called, Pleasant’s Coffee House. He has just been enjoying hot coffee when a rather intense lady enters the restaurant. He notes her discomfort and decides that he will approach her and ask if there is anything he can do to help her.  He introduces himself to her and tells her he is a retired policeman in London.  He tells her he recognizes that she seems to emanate fear at this time. Jennie, the woman in distress does not want help.  In fact she tells Poirot that she just wants the situation to happen.  She has been running too long and is tired of hiding.  She must endure the murder and let things just happen.  Poirot is really Belgium and has come to hibernate in France as a means of a break. However, he cannot resist this damsel in distress.  The dialogue and mystery go on from there.  It is a fast easy, enjoyable read.  Please take some time and enjoy this mystery. 

Hannah also won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Completion for her Novela, “The Octopus Nest”  (http://www.sophiehannah.com/other-writing/the-fantastic-book-of-everybodys-secrets). 

If you have not tried a new author lately, try this writer. You may be pleased by her writing. 

Ebola Virus a pandemic?

The Ebola Virus is killing many in the nations of Guinea, Sierra Leon, and Liberia. It is a pandemic in the regions around these nations in Africa.  It has not become a world wide pandemic health care professionals are trying to make sure this does not happen. 

It is a deadly disease that has no vaccination that is effective.  The only thing that seems to be effective to date for defeating the spread of the disease is cleaning with bleach.  

The CDC tells us the symptoms include:  

Fever                                                   Fatigue                
Severe headache                                 Diarrhea

Muscle pain                                        Vomiting

Weakness                                            Abdominal (stomach) pain

Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising)

Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola, but the average is 8 to 10 days. Recovery from Ebola depends on good supportive clinical care and the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/index.html). 

I realize that many are panicking in America because it would be so easy to transmit this disease to others in our large cities within weeks, but we must move cautiously. I have lived overseas and understand some of the reasons a disease like Ebola takes hold of a population.  Truthfully, many of the poor in third world are still dealing with TB and other communicable diseases.

Because we have no real cure for Ebola, and we know it can be transmitted so easily, but it is not air born.  It is fluid born and I dare say that those who have contracted it were in close contact with a sick person. 

If you want to learn about the treatment of Ebola, please checkout the CDC website page http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/treatment/index.html.

New Westerns for you to enjoy!

If you are a reader of western literature, you probably know that a good

westerns are hard to find. Well, here are a couple to consider reading!

The first is a real whopper of a read!  It is entitled, "Back Lands,” by Michael Mc Garrity. This is book two of the Kerney Family Trilogy. If you have read the Kevin Kerney crime novels by this author you will be ready to read his newest western. This historical fiction novel is set between the Great Depression and World War II. Kerney has moved back to his roots of the New Mexico back lands.  Emma Kerney has experienced sickness that she thought she’d die from.  Eight year old son, Matthew has been the one to do the chores, buy the groceries and keep things going. Emma hated to put this heavy burden on Matthew, but there was no choice. She had been dealing with two losses in her life: divorced from her husband and the death of her son CJ in WWI. These two circumstances would send any one’s life in a tail spin. Neighbors expected the worst, when one day she awoke and her energy and strength were back. She was not a destitute person; she had three rentals, eighty acres of pasture land near a river. She also owned two vacant commercial lots on Griggs Avenue in town. This is why she could survive through her illness. She is currently setting up a trust for her son. This way if anything ever happened to her, he’d be taken care of. She specifically wants her ex-husband to never get his hands on the trust. The story builds about the west and the young man, Matthew as he grows.  It is a true western. This book is a 503 page novel.  You will enjoy it. It reads easily and the story moves quickly.

The next book is a bit slimmer in the number of pages. It is only half the size of the previous one, at 245 pages. Author, John Nesbitt a Spur Award winning author has once again done a great job writing a novel, entitled “Across the Cheyenne River.”  Russ Archer, a native of Kansas, and Boot Beckett from Pueblo, Colorado are riding to the same place. They both hope to be hired on at the Bar M. They decide to ride together until they get there and then see what the circumstances are. Lidge Mercer of Bar M Ranch is hiring men to help him set up his ranch. He doesn’t just want cow hands, but men able to dig postholes, cutting lumber and anything else the boss thinks needs to be done. Things begin to turn dangerous on the ranch.  Archer thought he was hiring onto a safe, enjoyable ranch, but is not above figuring out the mysteries of the problem.  As all westerns have, a young beauty, Archer meets a young gal. Together they consider a life together in the future. 

Thinking about intrigue, suspense and action packed books!

A recently published novel with a whole lot of suspense is entitled, “Red Room,” by Ridley Pearson. This is book three of the Risk Agent series. The first chapter begins with two individuals, Alpha and Beta gaming a Turkish FedEx delivery man in a safe part of Istanbul.  One trips the FedEx man while the other swiftly but quickly enters the delivery van and switches medicine bound for the Florence Nightingale Hospital.  The undercover scam is successful. Protagonist John Knox enters center stage in the next chapter.  He has been summoned by none other than David Dulwich, who he met in Kuwait a few years back. Dulwich works for the very impressive and very capable Brian Primer, owner and president of Rutherford Risk.  Knox and Dulwich meet in Hong Kong. Knox is taken deep into a room thirty flights down where he enters a very secure room enclosed with steel and insulated concrete walls. It is called the Red Room. Here he is handed an envelope to encourage his cooperation with a job Rutherford Risk expects him to take on. Another acquaintance is in Hong Kong as well, Grace Chu. She is also working for Rutherford Risk. She is their high-tech computer guru who examines financials of others through nefarious avenues of entry.  Each has their assignment. Their paths become dangerously crossed and they must re-examine just what each knows about the other.  Who is it in this world of intrigue that they can trust.  Are they foe or friend?

Another great suspenseful mystery is entitled, “The Dead Will Tell,” by Linda Castillo. This is book six of the Kate Burkholder series.  The book starts out with an intense robbery and murder in an Amish home. Disaster ensues and lives are lost. Then Castillo sends the readers ahead to the present.  Someone is demanding a meeting. They know his past and are out to manipulate him because of it. He has just seen a ghost from his past and cannot believe his eyes. After some circumstances, Police Chief, Kate Burkholder is brought to a murder scene. Find out all the wicked trails this mystery takes.

 

Time of reflection

I’m a bit reflective today.  While I attended a funeral today and was listening to what was  shared about the person’s life, I was once again struck how sometimes our talents and abilities that we have performed at work or in earlier years may get put away or buried. Is there a talent, ability, hobby, or task that you use to love to do and could share with others? Today libraries often make space open for hobbies to be done over time.  I have thought of a few hobbies and crafts: wood working, welding, bronzes, decorating with hand-made stamping, scrap-booking, hand quilting, sewing, crochet, knitting, weaving, spinning, tatting, canning, make candles, wood or soap carving, canning, calligraphy, photography, restoring antiques, model making, miniature planes or drones, postage stamp, coin, insect collecting, writing, editing, drawing, painting  or pen and ink, calligraphy.

Can you teach others the art of dog training, riding a horse, gardening, decorating, or even repairing a car, machine sewing? There might be someone hoping to find someone about a specific hobby, ability or talent that you have. Don't let your talents be hidden, share with others in your own sphere of influence, or maybe you could try Pinterest (www.pinterest.com)! Join a group that enjoy the same type of hobby or task. Together you can grow together.
 

Interlude before the rush of school!

Welcome to August and the last few weeks before school begins! I want to share with you about a few books that you might read between now and then.  Let’s call it an interlude. The on-line Merriam-Webster Dictionary tells us that one of three definitions means: “A period of time between events or activities” (An Encyclopedia Britannica Company, found at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interlude).

During your interlude, I might suggest a new book entitled, “The Pearl That Broke Its Shell,” by Nadia Hashimi. Protagonist, Hashimi comes from a family originally from Afghanistan.  She however grew up in the United States. Her parents immigrated in 1970 just before the Russians invaded (back-flap). This book is about a young girl living in Afghanistan. She is forced to apply the bacha posh custom of dressing like a boy so that she can go to school and even go to such mundane things as going to the market.  As she grows older, the question becomes how will she transition to being a young woman in her culture, or even will she.  The author weaves this story in with a woman of an earlier generation who faced the same dilemma.  Read, learn and grow in the cultural difficulties of others around the world face daily.

Another book on this subject is one that is a must read for those who want to understand the time in Afghanistan prior to 9-11.  The citizens of that nation suffered long before we ever were affected by extremists.The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe,” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. The author has a recent graduate with a BA. in teaching tell her  family's story.  The Taliban move into Kabul and take over the city.  Her brother is sent to Pakistan, her father and mother flee to the north in the tribal area of Afghanistan, and her little brother stays with the three young women.  This leaves the ladies without help.  They can not go to the market to purchase food without their little brother, they have no way to earn money. Their savings is running out and they do not know what to do.  Until the most recent graduate decides to learn to sew. This venture changes  the hopes of the family, women in the neighborhood and eventually those in the City.  A must read of strength, stamina and perseverance.