16 year old Surjit Singh wrote a love poem in praise of an older girl. The problem was the girl was an "upper caste girl" and such cross-caste appreciation is taboo in India."When the teacher came to know about the Surjit's love poem, he caned him till he almost dropped dead." said one of Surjit's fellow students. If that wasn't enough the day after he was "thrashed in front of other students by an upper caste teacher" he was beaten to death by members of the girl's family.The schools headmaster pleaded ignorance about the tragedy saying "he was out of...
Summer Reading : F.B.I. Style
The F.B.!. has come with a summer reading list. They are on the lookout for the following books:150 copies of Understanding Terror Networks30 copies of Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times130 copies of The Koran (Penguin Classics version)150 copies of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001180 copies of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill30 copies of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror 30 copies of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us 30 copies of Islam: A Short HistoryThey also...
Her Name Was Book
She came into the world as Joyce Columbia Bernur and when she left it in February of last year she was Joyce Columbia Book. She also left $77,000 to the Berkeley Public Library.Book lived in the Berkeley area for the whole of her adult life and beside her love of reading and libraries she was also an early supporter of animal rights.BPL Community Relations Librarian Alan Bern told the East Bay Express that in her later years "She was once heard to say that she wished she could just move into that library and live there for the rest of...
Barack Obama’s Reading Life
"If Obama is elected, he'll be one of the most literary presidents in recent memory" says Laura Miller in her piece, "Barack by the Books", at Salon.com. Miller takes a "look at some of the formative books in his intellectual and political life to see if we can learn more about the man behind the movement.""Obama the reader blossomed as an undergraduate at Occidental College in California and, especially, during the two monkish years he spent finishing up his degree at Columbia University in New York. "I had tons of books," he told his biographer, David Mendell ("Obama: From Promise...
Book Umbrella
For a mere $7 you can enhance your beach reading experience with The BookShade from Neat-O Concepts. Simply attach to the spine and The BookShade eliminates eye strain and sun glare. It works for both hardbacks and paperbacks and can be rotated into any desired position.Is the Kindle version far behind?Available hereVia