Recently I watched a young driver smash her van at about 30 mph into the back of a truck on South Main Street – while chatting happily on her cell phone. So I’m glad to see the New York Times article “Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic.” The article quotes David Meyer at U-M saying: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes. Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.” Today I see there is a correction to the article: “A front-page article yesterday about the limits of multitasking misspelled the surname of a cognitive scientist at the University of Michigan, who said that "'Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.'" It is David E. Meyer, not Mayer.” I hope that when this name was misspelled, it wasn't because someone was multi-tasking.

gonzalez

In the days of yore, libraries waited months, years and sometimes forever for newsworthy documents to arrive from federal and state governments. Now, the Internet has made access almost instantaneous. Late last night, the Bush Administration released thousand of additional pages of emails regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. By 9:00 a.m.today, most of those are available for public review at the U.S. House Judiciary web site. For real-time government in action, watch committee hearings and speeches live on C-Span web site.

Janusz Korczak

Parenting advices comes from many sources, but when was the last time that you read advice from a Holocaust hero? Polish author Janusz Korczak wrote parenting guides and children's books before his death in a concentration camp in 1939. A new collection of his writings advocates taking children seriously. This article in NPR has an excerpt from the book, and the library has one of the stories he wrote for children: King Matt the First.

Madonna and her husband apparently are adopting a one-year-old boy from the African country of Malawi, which reportedly does not normally allow international adoption. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt recently adopted a child internationally. With all this controversy and excitement in the news - celebrities! babies! money! - it should be pointed out that for most parents, international adoption is yes, exciting, but it also requires a lot of research. A good place to start is Complete Book of International Adoption or hop to Hands Across the Water adoption agency in Ann Arbor.

According to NPR, researchers will be exploring the remains of the dirigible USS Macon this week. The Macon was 785 feet long and flew from 1933 until 1935, when it crashed off the coast of California during a violent storm. To read more about these amazing blimps, check out our books on the Hindenburg or airships in general.

Porter Goss (image from Wikipedia)

AADL Select Sites : World

The recent resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss has followed a string of a high-profile personnel changes in the Bush administration. Other changes include replacing the Press Secretary Scott McClellan with Fox News and radio pundit Tony Snow and Joshua Bolten stepping in as Chief of Staff, a position previously held by Andrew Card.

With all these changes, it can be dificult to keep the people in power straight here in the U.S., to say nothing of what's occuring worldwide. That's where Rulers.org, one of our handy AADL Select Sites, steps in. This website details how leadership has changed in countries over their histories. For instance, you can see the powerful people in France throughout history, including its kings, emperor, and presidents.

Rulers.org also tracks recent changes in country officials and royalty. May 2006 has seen not only Goss's resignation, but also new cabinets in Israel and Afghanistan and a reshuffling of the British cabinet. Simply click the the month and year in which you're interested from the Rulers.org homepage.