Freckle Report 2021 follows the Freckle Report 2020. It is an analysis of the performance and funding of public libraries in the United States, in Australia and in the United Kingdom It assesses the problems facing the service, the decline in use; the apparent denial of that problem; how library services can sensibly be measured; the pursuit of digital material and the increasingly diverse audiences. The reports contain original research of the most recently available figures about how the public make use of public libraries and how the libraries have responded to the demand for them in recent years In particular it reports how successful the library service in the United States has been in providing digital books, as audio and eBooks, during the Covid 19 Pandemic
This report analyses the historic performance of public library services in the US, UK and Australia. It contains a narrative of the past ten years, showing declines in use and how widely they have occurred. It looks at the performance of different library activities and of different categories of expenditure on libraries It looks at the use of different reading formats that are available and how much they are used in public libraries compared to the wider reading public It identifies the purpose of reading in libraries and what influences people to read their books The report draws conclusions and makes recommendations for improvement.
More than anything in the world, Andrew wants freckles. His classmate Nicky has freckles -- they cover his face, his ears, and the whole back of his neck. (Once sitting behind him in class, Andrew counted eighty-six of them, and that was just a start! One day after school, Andrew screws up enough courage to ask Nicky where he got his freckles. And, as luck would have it, who should overhear him but giggling, teasing Sharon (who makes frog faces at everybody!) Sharon offers Andrew her secret freckle juice recipe -- for fifty cents. That's a lot of money to Andrew -- five whole weeks allowance! He spends a sleepless night, torn between his desire for freckles and his reluctance to part with such a substantial sum of money. Finally, the freckles win, and Andrew decides to accept Sharon's offer. After school, Andrew rushes home (with the recipe tucked into his shoe for safekeeping). He carefully begins to mix the strange combination of ingredients -- and immediately runs into some unforeseen problems. How Andrew finally manages to achieve a temporary set of freckles -- and then isn't sure he really wants them -- makes a warm and hilarious story.
Hope, a white-tailed deer, and her spotted fawn, Freckles, are facing hunger and danger in their forest. Hope decides that they must leave their home and go in search of a better place where they will be safe. When they arrive at a new forest, Hope and Freckles face unexpected challenges that will force them apart. Will they be reunited? After you have read the story of Hope and Freckles, continue to explore the stories of people all over the world who have to leave their homes because of danger or hunger. Let the tale of Hope and Freckles begin to teach you about the millions of people who face the same difficulties that this mother deer and her little boy face as refugees.
This book presents the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computer Visions (AICV 2021) proceeding, which took place in Settat, Morocco, from June 28- to 30, 2021. AICV 2021 is organized by the Scientific Research Group in Egypt (SRGE) and the Computer, Networks, Mobility and Modeling Laboratory (IR2M), Hassan 1st University, Faculty of Sciences Techniques, Settat, Morocco. This international conference highlighted essential research and developments in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer visions. The book is divided into sections, covering the following topics: Deep Learning and Applications; Smart Grid, Internet of Things, and Mobil Applications; Machine Learning and Metaheuristics Optimization; Business Intelligence and Applications; Machine Vision, Robotics, and Speech Recognition; Advanced Machine Learning Technologies; Big Data, Digital Transformation, AI and Network Analysis; Cybersecurity; Feature Selection, Classification, and Applications.
Globalization, trade, and climate change, as well as reduced resilience in production systems due to decades of agricultural intensification, have played roles in the spread of pests. One of the significant threats to sustainable crop production across Eastern African countries is the increasing phenomenon of the introduction and spread of emergent pests. FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa (SFE), in collaboration, with the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) undertook a survey and assessment to review the status of early warning, preparedness, and response capacities of NPPOs and agriculture extension services in the Eastern African countries. The survey involved a desk review of emergent pests, including insects, diseases, nematodes, and weeds. This report describes the status of their distribution in Eastern Africa, biological characteristics, description of hosts and symptoms on hosts as well as their economic importance and associated phytosanitary risks. The Intervention is designed to gather baseline information for developing fit-for-purpose initiatives to safeguard productivity and reduce vulnerabilities to shocks affecting food and nutrition security caused by pests and strengthen the relevant capacities of stakeholders to cope with these threats. The overall output is to develop a roadmap for surveillance, monitoring, and early response to emerging pests in Eastern Africa. Review of the existing plant protection acts and legislation; pest-listing activities for countries to develop lists of quarantine and non-quarantine pests and undertaking national contingency planning for prioritized pests are among the major recommended interventions.
“The wise man knows he doesn’t know. The fool doesn’t know he doesn’t know.” Lao Tzu “In the West they only respect experts. But the expert mind is the closed mind.” Shunryu Suzuki What’s the most important step in fixing a puncture? It isn’t jacking up the car, or taking the wheel off, or finding the puncture. There’s something more fundamental than any of those. Something without which you can’t even begin to fix a puncture. The most important step is finding out you’ve got a puncture. Without that you can’t do anything. Instead of saying, “It’s just a bit bumpy, must be the road,” and carrying on, you must acknowledge that something has changed and you don’t know what that is. If you don’t admit you don’t know what’s happening, you can never find out. If you don’t find out, you can never change it. The most important step, always, is admitting you don’t know. That’s the power of ignorance. In this latest collection of real-life stories, Dave Trott provides lessons about problem solving and creative thinking that can be applied in advertising, business, and the wider world. With his trademark wit, wisdom and critical eye, he shows how great problem solvers and creative thinkers are those who are not afraid to say “I don’t know.”
Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a cemetery in the backyard. If that's not bad enough, Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen and warning Molly and Michael that Helen is coming for them. Molly feels certain Heather is in some kind of danger, but every time she tries to help, Heather twists things around to get her into trouble. It seems as if things can't get any worse. But they do—when Helen comes.
