Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

I'm sick

Sorry there was no Movie Monday but Miss L is one sick puppy. First, we thought she ate something during the softball tournament on Sunday since this breed eats everything. But she just got progressively worse (doggie trots) the further we got from that day. I've been making rice by the ton and she's been wolfing it down. (Now, on one of my many forays into diet land I did some research and rice, even brown rice, is really not a nutritious food.) So here's this poor puppy getting bulk but nothing else. By Monday evening we had decided to give it one more night. That didn't work well since the dawn brought another hosing down of her and her cage. Tuesday we called the Seeing Eye coordinator to get permission for the vet visit and she said bring her in because other puppies were having a similar problem. All of Tuesday it was 1/4 cup of rice every two hours so, by vet walk-in hours in the evening, she was perkier and a day-free of any pooping. Looking at her, I would have thought: She's on the mend, does she really need to see the vet? But dehydration can always be a hidden problem so off to the vet she went. And that was a shocker! She's not dehydrated but she's running a fever! Poor puppy! To top it all off, it's no food for her today. 

 

So look at the above paragraph as the "dog ate my homework" excuse. 

 

On to Website Wednesday:

 

http://websearch.about.com/od/booksandprintedmaterials/tp/Free-Textbooks-Online.htm 

 

OK, I know, it's summer time and the living is easy but I'm leading you to free textbooks on line. Why? Well, because the girl is just starting her AP English summer work with reading Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Can you believe that last year's summer reading for 8th grade Honors English was an Agatha Christie mystery?) and I'm getting the boy ready for some serious reading comprehension in the 6th grade (the 6th grade reading books are puerile but their comp questions are wicked.  It's like trying to pull a rose from a puddle of mud.) So I'm in the learning mode.

 

Free Textbooks-Online has links to 10 different sites. Forget site # 1, Google (Google Books was last week's pick.) and # 3 the MIT one, since they are their general sites and you have to find your way from there. Doable but work.

Site #4, Textbook Revolution, and # 7, Wiki Books, are slightly difficult to navigate but doable. Open Culture, Site #2, is easy to navigate but you'll find some dead links.

Flat World Knowledge, #5, took me three clicks to get to a British Lit book only to be told that it's not just published.

 

Site #6, Online Math Textbooks, is very good.  It looks like you have to register for #8, Free Digital Textbook Initiative and it seems more interested in setting out CA learning standards than books

 

Curriki, #9,touts itself as more than free textbooks but you have to register (free) and I just don't have the time right now.

 

 #10, Scribd (who puts these random letters together?) just takes you to an interesting blog with different articles, but clicking them or the link "books" sends you to a blank page.

OK, I did the math and that's all the ten sites. The referring site (the link above) is an About.com site. If you scroll to the bottom, you'll get more than textbook sites. There are links to the best sites for any free books online. and free educational videos online. About.com has always been a very reliable "workhorse" for reference in the internet community.

Now, I have to admit that my website pick may be quite specialized this week but I find it a lot of fun to click around for treasures and also duds. I have a feeling that the math selections are quite good but that's based on the fact that I have no idea what's written there.

Be sure to click all the links on these pages. For example, Open Culture has a sidebar with a treasure trove of all sorts of free books, films, courses, etc.

Hope you enjoy this pick. Gotta go and scritch the dog.