Symmetry

“Symmetry” is one more fundamental scientific concept, which alongside with the “harmony” concept has a relation practically to all frames of the nature, science and art.

The outstanding mathematician Hermann Weil highly evaluated the role of symmetry in modern science:

“Symmetry, as though is wide or narrow we did not perceive this word, there is the idea, with the help of which a man attempted to explain and to create the order, beauty and perfection”.

Radiolab had an episode on Symmetry.
This striking video made by Everynone was inspired by our Desperately Seeking Symmetry episode. Filmmakers Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante, and Julius Metoyer III play with our yearning for balance, and reveal how beautiful imperfect matches can be.

 

Renaming WordPress Folder

Question:
My blog address is toyama-tokanawa.com/wordpress. I want to change it to toyama-tokanawa.com/blog.  I’ve tried changing it several times, but I’m doing something wrong. Need help.

Answer:
WordPress is an open source Content Management System (CMS), often used as a blog publishing application, powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system.

In order to change the name of the WordPress blog from “Wordpress” to “Blog”,  Wordpress has to be installed on your server; in other words, it has to be WordPress.org,  not WordPress.com, which is hosted on the WordPress servers.

1)    Login to your wp-admin and go to your Options
2)    Type in your new path (in your case mydomain.com/blog)

 3) Save it. (you will / should get an error)
4) Go to your CPanel or FTP and rename the folder to match.
5) Go to the new wp-admin url (mydomain.com/blog/wp-admin/). It SHOULD come up now.

Note: If the images on your blog (header,  post images, etc.) are hard-coded, you’ll need to replace “wordpress” with “blog” in the link to each image. You can also use the Search and Replace plug in to do that for you. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search-and-replace/.

Have fun.
 

Ceramic Restoration

Ceramic  restoration, also referred to as “ceramic repair” or “china restoration”  is a process of bringing valuable porcelain or ceramic items back to life. The process consists of gluing and bonding the broken pieces, sculpting additional fragments, filling in cracks and chips, matching and replicating the surface color and pattern/design, first with a paint brush and then with an airbrush, and glazing. Most ceramic restorers specialize in invisible restoration.  

All restored items are for display purposes only. They cannot be submerged in water or cleaned with solvents or detergents. All ceramic, porcelain and chalk ware repairs and restoration are done by hand to preserve the integrity of the item.

View this before and after gallery of restored china, ceramic, porcelain, and terra cotta items. For more information about ceramic restoration, read Andrew Stratton’s article entitled “Ceramic Restoration – How Millenia-Old Pottery Pieces Are Preserved”.

Are Snails Hermaphrodite?

According to Hutchinson Unabridge Encyclopedia, snails are air-breathing gastropod mollusc with a spiral shell. There are thousands of species, on land and in water. The typical snails of the genus Helix have two species in Europe. The common garden snail H. aspersa is very destructive to plants.

Snails are hermaphrodite and, before mating, produce a mucus covered calcerous ‘love dart’ that pierces the skin of their mate. The mucus contains a pheromone that makes the female reproductive canal less hostile to sperm.

Self-fertilization is very common in snails.

The Roman snail H. pomatia is ‘corralled’ for the gourmet food market. Overcollection has depleted the population. The French eat as much as 5 kg/11 lb of snails a head each year.

Smart Words

Hubris (HYOO-briss): Excessive pride
Synonyms: cocky, arrogant, know-it-all.
Example: If it weren’t for his hubris, he could become a good writer some day.

Hoi poloi (HOY puh-LOY): the masses
Example: If you think you’re not part of hoi poloi, you’re out of your mind.
Never use “hoi poloi” with “the”, as “the hoi poloi”; ”hoi” is Greek for “the”.

How To Create a Favicon

Your Question:
How do I create a favicon for my website?

Our Answer:
A favicon (favorite icon) is an image associated with your website.

In Photoshop (or any other image editing software) create an image you want to serve as your favicon. A favicon generator, something like http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/, can convert a .jpg or .gif image into an .ico extension, which is what a favicon uses. It will ask you to upload the image your created and tell you to download the .ico file when it’s done converting it to the proper format.

Drop the downloaded image into your IMAGES folder (or any other folder you keep your website’s images in). Test to make sure the image is in the proper folder: http://yoursite/images/favicon.ico

Insert the bit of code below into the head section  of your site’s index.html page  or the header.php page of your WordPress blog’s THEME FOLDER (if you use  Blogger or TypePad, etc. , the page might be different).

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”images/favicon.ico” />

That’s it. Your site is no longer faviconless.

What is RSS?

Jason Puckett of  Geogria State University Library (http://library.gsu.edu) explains it well:

RSS is a web feature allowing you to get current updates from your favorite websites. You don’t have to individually check each site you like to follow: just set up an RSS reader and updates will appear there automatically. You can also use RSS to notify you of new search results in many library databases.

It’s like creating your own custom newspaper with content from all over the web: headlines from CNN and GSU’s news, a comics page you pick out yourself, music reviews from Rolling Stone and sports from Bob’s Baseball Blog. (You can even turn it into a “real” newspaper if you want, with tools like Feedjournal.)
This video by Common Craft does an excellent job of summarizing how RSS works:

Follow these three steps: 1. Set up a free account on Bloglines or Google Reader. 2. Look for sites featuring RSS icons like these (usually in orange). The URL for new content is called the site’s “feed.” Paste the site’s feed URL into your reader.3. Go to your reader page and read your feeds!Click the “Set Up” and “Subscribe” tabs at the top of this guide for more info.

 

Plasma Screen-to-Netbook Connection

Did you know that you can now watch movies or a work on a group PowerPoint presentations in the study rooms on the 1st floor of the library? Well, now you do. Each study room has a brand-new plasma screened installed. Click on the image to enlarge.

Word of the Week

TRICHOTILLOMANIA

Trichotillomania is a low-incidence disorder (occurring in less than 1 percent of pediatric referrals) of self-injurious behavior that consists of pulling out one’s hair; it is often accompanied by trichophagia, subsequent eating of the hair. The etiology of trichotillomania is unknown, but it has long been held to be of a psychoanalytic or Freudian nature. It occurs most often in conjunction with a major psychological or psychiatric disorder, particularly Schizophrenia and lower levels of Mental Retardation, though it also occurs with narcissistic personality disorders. In special education programs, it is most often encountered among mentally retarded populations. Incidences of Trichotillomania have also been reported in conjunction with episodes of child abuse. Incidence is generally greater in females than males.
A variety of treatment approaches have been attempted with this unusual disorder, including psychoanalysis, traditional psychotherapies, hypnotherapy, and a variety of operant and other behavior modification techniques. Generally, the earlier the age of onset, the greater the likelihood of successful treatment (Sorosky & Sticker, 1980). Behavioral techniques appear to be the most successful methods of treating Trichotillomania and trichophagia, particularly when competing responses can be developed, although success has been reported with a variety of techniques and the role of spontaneous remission is not known. Sources of treatment information include Azrin and Nunn (1973), Bayer (1972), and Mannino and Delgado (1969).
Some recent animal research suggests that a variety of self-injurious behaviors, including Trichotillomania and trichophagia, may, in some cases, be of neurological origin. Relationships to damage of cells around the substantia nigra have been suggested.

Read more about this disease on Credo Reference from SFC Library. Go to the library homepage: http://library.stfranciscollege.edu, click on Databases A-Z, and choose Credo Reference. In the search box simply type trichotillomania. If you have any questions, ask a librarian.

Changes in APA and MLA

“The references of your paper are the foundation on which your work is built. They provide the scientific background that justifies the research you have undertaken and the methods you have used. They provide the context in which your research should be interpreted. They should not be collected as an afterthought when your research project is complete. A literature search and reading of the relevant references should be the starting points of any research project.”
- Howell, Simon. “References.” How to write a paper. Ed. George M. Hall. 3rd ed. London

As you start preparing bibliographies for your final papers, keep in mind that both APA style and MLA style have gone through some revisions last spring. Please visit our
How DO I Cite Sources page http://library.stfranciscollege.edu/citationstyles.htm.
Below are two useful links to files from other universities, which clearly explain the changes made to APA and MLA.

http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/instruction/MLA-changes.pdf

http://www.aug.edu/elcse/2010APAGuidelineChanges.pdfSee More