Dr. Tiller Victim of Culture of Death

Dr. George Tiller,  a Kansas abortion provider was murdered today. His killer, far from being a pro-lifer, was in fact an ambassador for the Culture of Death. The Culture of Death’s chief tenant is that killing is an acceptable solution to problems. It gives rise to abortion, wars of aggression,torture, the death penalty and euthanasia.
You [...]

You Talking to Me?

You Talking to Me?

Originally uploaded by AlaskanLibrarian

This is the third squirrel that I encountered on Juneau’s Brotherhood Bridge trail. The other squirrels were too quick for me, but this one seemed strangely transfixed. Lucky for me.
You can view other pictures I’ve taken on the Brotherhood Bridge Trail since 2006 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskanlibrarian/sets/72157594238885524/

Book Review: Why We Make Mistakes

I have just finished the book:
Hallinan, J. T. (2009). Why we make mistakes: How we look without seeing, forget things in seconds, and are all pretty sure we are way above average. New York: Broadway Books.
This book has a 34 page bibliography. This is important because the author makes extraordinary claims throughout the book. I [...]

War Week: Alaska Natives in the Military

We conclude War Week here at the Alaskan Librarian by examining a site that salutes some of the most patriotic soldiers to serve in World War II:
Alaska Natives in the Military
http://www.alaskool.org/projects/ak_military/akmilitaryindx.htm
I call these soldiers “some of the most patriotic” because at the time, Alaska was guilty of deep, overt racism. It was not uncommon to [...]

War Week: Sitka Military History

This time on War Week, we examine the web site of Gabe Emerson, a former student of Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka. He created the site while a junior in high school. His site is:
Sitka Military History
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~emers089/ww2/
Mr. Emerson seems to have spent a lot of research in compiling this material. Aside from the [...]

War Week: Kodiak Military History

Today we visit the second of two web sites with information about the Aleutians Campaign:
Kodiak Alaska Military History
http://www.kadiak.org/
The main Aleutian-specific resource here is a detailed timeline of the campaign. Here’s a few examples of the details offered in the timeline:

THURSDAY, 28 MAY 1942
A B-17 flies the first armed reconnaissance from the secretly constructed airfield [...]

War Week: Alaska’s Bloodiest Battle

Continuing our exploration of Alaska military history resources during War Week, we turn to the first of two web sites on the Aleutian campaign:
History Channel, “Alaska’s Bloodiest Battle”
http://www.history.com/content/alaska
This is a companion web site to a DVD that is likely available at a library near you. The site contains a study guide, still images and a [...]

War Week at Alaskan Librarian

Full Disclosure: I am Sheri Somerville’s supervisor.
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When I was coming of age in the 1980s, a number of the local TV channels in Los Angeles would happily tout “War Week” the week before or after Memorial Day. War Week would consist of marathons of war movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s.
Because I’m feeling nostalgic [...]

Explore History with Alaska Periodical Index

If you are interested in the history of Alaska and the polar regions, you should make friends with the Alaska & Polar Periodical Index at http://goldmine.uaf.edu/aprindex/. This growing index of over 150,000 articles is produced by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Here is a description of the index from the front page:
The Alaska & [...]

Media Advice: Wait for It

A few months ago, I reviewed the book No Time to Think by Rosenberg and Feldman. The book is about how the 24/7 news cycle is destroying credible journalism and possibly our society as well.
With so many volatile topics in the news these days, I thought I’d share a few key lessons that I learned [...]