IKEA Redesigns Classic Bookshelf, Foreshadows the Demise of Books

Citing a changing climate in the reading world, the furniture authorities are putting a new spin on the old bookshelf – redesigning it to store anything but books.
The storage mavens at IKEA have noticed a shift in what consumers are storing in their bookshelves. After all, a Kindle can hold thousands more books than a wooden tower in the living room. According to The Economist, IKEA will release a new version of its classic BILLY bookshelf next month, one that's focused less on storing books than storing, well, anything and everything else. The company is finding that customers use their shelves increasingly for “ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome,” and less so for reading material.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/10/ikea-redesigns-classic-bookshelf-foreshadows-the-demise-of-books/#ixzz1Xf1eLBPw

Media Infographic: The Rise of E-Readers

More than one in ten Americans now own e-readers. Here, we take a look at what that means for the state of reading in America.

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1109/the-rise-of-e-readers/flash.html

Teacher's iPad Experiment Shows Possibilities for Classroom Technology

School districts across the country are plunking down major cash for iPads—even for kindergarten classrooms—but there hasn't been much research about whether using them actually boosts student achievement. So James Harmon, a veteran English teacher from the Cleveland area, decided to conduct his own experiment (PDF). His finding? His students learned better with the aid of iPads—if used correctly. 

http://www.good.is/post/teacher-s-ipad-experiment-shows-possibilities-for-classroom-technology/ 

Let's raise a glass to China's wine

Chinese wine makers have beaten the French at their own game by winning a coveted Decanter award for best Bordeaux Varietal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/8747202/Lets-raise-a-glass-to-Chinas-wine.html 

For sale: houses with libraries

The beautifully restored library is just one of many typical rooms in this Grade II listed house. The vaulted entrance hall, seven bedrooms and drawing room all have striking original features. Outside there are paddocks and a lake plus a walled garden with outbuildings in 27 acres of land.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/8750467/For-sale-houses-with-libraries.html

Millions of Hotmail users cut off by Microsoft 'cloud' failure

Millions of users of Hotmail and other Microsoft services worldwide were unable to access their online accounts this morning after the firm's "cloud" suffered a major technical failure. 

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8752156/Millions-of-Hotmail-users-cut-off-by-Microsoft-cloud-failure.html

 

The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom died in 1992, but after reading The Closing of the American Mind you'll wonder what he might have thought about universities today. The subtitle, How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students says it all. In his 1987 book, Bloom, then a professor of political science and philosophy at the University of Chicago, issues a scathing critique of how America educates its young people and the decline of intellectuality in national life in general. He critiques the contemporary university, saying it is failing students. A chief point of Bloom's argument is that the "great books" of Western thought — those by philosophers such as Rousseau, Locke and Nietzsche whose names are better known than their theories — have been devalued as a source of wisdom in favor of professors who "simply would not and could not talk about anything important." For anyone who cares about the state of higher education in the U.S., Bloom's insight puts his treatise high on the list of great books.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2088856_2089193,00.html