Honor your children in celebration of their birthdays or in recognition of their accomplishments by donating a book through the Williams Book Club. You can support our library by immediately adding a new book to its holdings. Diane Jordan, Williams' Media Specialist, has put together a wish list of books based in part on suggestions from students. Library bound books generally cost $15 or $20. You have the choice to donate either of those amounts. Mrs. Jordan will purchase a book from the list with your monetary donation. Your gift book will have a personalized label inside stating that it was given to Williams Middle School in honor of your child. Your child's name will be mentioned during the morning show's Book Club Highlights and the gift book will be placed in a special section of the Media Center featuring Book Club books. If you have questions about the books, please contact Mrs. Jordan at d.jordan@williamsbookclub.com, or phone at 1-800-456-4959.

Where there's a will with power, there's a way. The way comes after the will with power. You must be hungry enough, strong enough, resilient enough, to desire change and make change happen. You've got the will with power, so now you can define your course. Your course is critical. But there is not any one course for any one journey. A wise person once told me that what's important is not so much the path you're on as the direction you're headed. You may get bumped off your path, pushed this way and that, but if your direction is true, your journey will be true. A roadblock may require a change of path, but your destination remains the same. So what is your way? It is the path you define, day by day, to get you to your dream. It takes will power to define your way.

A planning discussion can be fairly complex and fast-paced, causing us to forget things. Take the time to summarize what's supposed to happen. It could sound something like this: Let me see if I got this right. Bill, you'll get the nine copies of the report, stapled with a standard company cover sheet, for the meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m. Is that right? Bill would probably say, Right, and then you could ask him whether there is anything else that you haven't talked about that might cause a problem. When you ask for the other person's input, it can help bring to light issues that might otherwise cause problems. However, the real power of this question goes far beyond clarifying understanding. You're checking for commitment. When the other person eventually says, I'll do it, that person is much more likely to live up to the agreement. Never walk away from a crucial confrontation satisfied with a vague nod. If you care about gaining genuine commitment, give the other person the opportunity to say yes to a very specific agreement.

People's preferences affect decisions about consumption and trade. Not only is there variation in preference across people, but there also is variation based on how much has already been consumed. For example, you might get a lot of pleasure from drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, and be willing to trade $3 for that coffee. But, after finishing that first cup of coffee, the second cup of coffee might not be quite as valuable to you. At some point, you will have had so much coffee that you're not willing to part with $3 to get another cup. Economists often use the generic term utility to refer to the pleasure, value, or usefulness of something that is consumed or experienced. In this example, then, you are making a decision about whether the utility of another cup of coffee is greater than the utility of having $3 to spend on something else.

It's no coincidence that some people are just like their dogs. Researchers in Bath, England, conducted an online survey of 1,000 dog owners and found that certain human personality traits link to specific canines. The research claims that if you own a German Shepherd, you're most likely outgoing. Got a Golden Retriever? Odds are you're conscientious. A Chihuahua? Research says you're agreeable. It seems likely that personality types are subconsciously drawn to certain breeds, reported study author Lance Workman in a British Psychological Society news release. The study indicates that you may be able to predict someone's personality based on his or her dog of choice. Of course, lifestyle plays a part too. For example, according to Workman, more active individuals are better suited to athletic, pastoral breeds such as Border Collies, while those who are considered emotionally stable might be suited to hound dogs such as Beagles or Greyhounds.

A friend of mine mentioned last week that he once bought a Frankies chicken and he discovered after getting home that it was all dry and nasty. He took it back to the store and got an immediate refund. Then he decided to write to Walter Robinson, the CEO of Frankies Chickens, and tell him that he had bought one of his quality chickens and it was all dry and nasty. By return mail he got a letter from Walter that not only included lengthy apologies and a certificate for a free chicken, but that also asked for his help to make sure it never happened again by asking a whole list of specific questions: Where did he buy it? When? Exactly what was wrong? What did he think had happened? What exactly did the store say when he returned it? Two days later an executive of Frankies Chickens called to make sure he had received the letter, to make sure that all was well, and to ask some more specific questions. My friend will never buy anything but Frankies chicken.

Not many years ago, schoolchildren were taught that carbon dioxide is the naturally occurring lifeblood of plants, just as oxygen is ours. Today, children are more likely to think of carbon dioxide as a poison. That's because the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased substantially over the past one hundred years, from about 280 parts per million to 380. But what people don't know is that the carbon dioxide level some 80 million years ago ― back when our mammalian ancestors were evolving ― was at least 1,000 parts per million. In fact, that is the concentration of carbon dioxide you regularly breathe if you work in a new energy-efficient office building, for that is the level established by the engineering group that sets standards for heating and ventilation systems. So not only is carbon dioxide plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon dioxide levels don't necessarily mirror human activity. Nor has atmospheric carbon dioxide necessarily been the trigger for global warming historically.

Whether an animal can feel anything resembling the loneliness humans feel is hard to say. However, highly social animals, such as certain types of parrot, seem to be adversely affected when kept alone. Some parrots will engage in bizarre behaviors and can severely harm themselves. Some large parrots will even seem to go insane if subjected to long periods of isolation. On the other hand, certain animals that are by nature solitary hardly appear to be affected at all. Some fish, in particular some types of cichlids, will even fight viciously with their own kind if more than one is kept in an aquarium. Guam rails, a kind of flightless bird, are intolerant of their own kind, which has obviously made breeding them in captivity very difficult.

Joseph Bell was a top-class violinist in the world. One day a reporter suggested an experiment to Joseph for a newspaper cover story designed to test Joseph's musical ability to influence people. But there was one condition: people should not know who he was. Joseph was sure of his musical ability to touch others' hearts and accepted his proposal without hesitation. On a Friday morning at rush hour, Joseph took his Stradivarius violin, for which he'd paid more than $3 million, and headed to the L'Enfant plaza subway stop in Washington, D.C. He set up shop between an entrance and an escalator, opened his violin case to take donations, seeded it with $20 of his own, and began to perform several complex classical pieces expecting himself surrounded by many pedestrians in a minute. Over the course of his forty-three-minute performance, more than one thousand people passed within a few feet of him. Among them, only one stopped to listen. As time went by, the violin sound faded and he slowly packed up walking away with only $1 earned.

Despite the conventional wisdom of some management trainers that group brainstorming is an effective way of generating ideas, more objective research has recently suggested otherwise. People working in groups often produce ideas that are fewer in number and lower in quality than the same individuals working for a period alone. When people engaging in group problem-solving share their thoughts and information too quickly, none of them has a chance to develop an independent viewpoint before it is subject to influence by the thoughts and experiences of others. Under such conditions, it has been shown that people tend to converge too rapidly on a solution, or at least on an agreed way of conceptualizing the problem, that may be less than optimal. When you insert periods of more solitary thinking between the discussions, you tend to get higher-quality ideas and solutions.

《26th Annual Buckeye Book Fair》 You Can Meet 100 Ohio Writers and Illustrators and Purchase Autographed Books at a Discount • Date & Time: Saturday, November 1, 2014, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. • Admission Fee: The $2 admission fee will be used to cover the expenses of the Buckeye Book Fair. • Special Event: Kids aged 512 are invited to explore the amazing, up-close worlds of common North American animals. Learn how butterflies drink and why frogs sing. • Parking: Parking is free when you present a ticket for admission. You are not permitted to enter the Book Fair with books brought from home to be signed. Only books sold during the Book Fair will be signed by authors. Thank you for your understanding. 205 West Liberty Street, Wooster, OH 44691 Tel. (330) 262-3244 / www.BuckeyeBookFair.com

In 2004, an eighteen-year-old competitive swimmer, Brian Boyle, had to be brought back to life eight times after a dump truck slammed into his car on his way home from swim practice. The force of the horrific crash damaged every major organ in his body. Doctors predicted he would not survive, let alone walk again. But, miraculously, Brian clawed his way back to the living and gradually recovered. In 2007, Brian Boyle staged what many consider to be one of the greatest comebacks in sports history when he crossed the finish line at the Hawaii Ironman just three years after leaving the Intensive Care Unit. In 2009, he published his first book, Iron Heart, and he was presented the Spokesperson of the Year Award from the American Red Cross for his contributions. In 2010, he graduated Cum Laude from St. Mary's College of Maryland, and also made his very first blood donation at the hospital that brought him back to life. Brian now dedicates his life to competing in triathlons and giving back to the donors who saved him.

The blue sea slug is a strange-looking marine creature found in the temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. With the aid of a gas-filled sac in its stomach, the blue sea slug floats at the surface. Due to the location of the gas sac, the blue sea slug floats upside down. They live a pelagic life ― this means they go where the winds and currents take them. Blue sea slugs feed mainly on hydrozoans although they are also known to eat the flesh of their own kind. One of the specialities of their diet is the highly poisonous Portuguese Man-O-War. The blue sea slug can not only swallow its prey's stinging cells without hurting itself, but also store the swallowed poison inside the up to 84 fingerlike structures sticking out of its body, and then use this poison to defend itself against other predators. The blue sea slug is a hermaphrodite, having both male and female reproductive organs.

This graph shows activity rates for three age groups from five countries in 2010. The activity rate represents the proportion of the labor force population to the population of working age. The age groups consist of 15-24, 25-54, and 55-64, with the core group of 25-54 showing the highest activity rate for each country. The 15-24 group shows the lowest rate in each country. In France and the United Kingdom, the gaps between the 15-24 and 55-64 age groups show just 1%, but the gap between Korea's 15-24 and 55-64 groups shows the greatest contrast. The percentage of Germany's 25-54 age group is 10% higher than that of Korea's. Italy has the smallest percentage among the five countries' 55-64 age groups.

In a penalty situation in soccer, the ball takes less than 0.3 seconds to travel from the player who kicks the ball to the goal. There is not enough time for the goalkeeper to watch the ball's trajectory. He must make a decision before the ball is kicked. Soccer players who take penalty kicks shoot one third of the time at the middle of the goal, one third of the time at the left, and one third of the time at the right. Surely goalkeepers have spotted this, but what do they do? They dive either to the left or to the right. Rarely do they stay standing in the middle ― even though roughly a third of all balls land there. Why would they jeopardize saving these penalties? The simple answer: appearance. It looks more impressive and feels less embarrassing to dive to the wrong side than to freeze on the spot and watch the ball sail past.

Recalling childhood memories can lead people to behave more ethically, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In a series of experiments done by Francesca Gino and Sreedhari Desai of Harvard University, participants were more likely to help the experimenters with an extra task, judge immoral behavior harshly, and donate money to charity when they had actively remembered their childhood. The effect held whether the memories were positive or negative ― although, notably, the study subjects did not have traumatic histories. These recollections seem to summon a heightened sense of moral purity. Youngsters may or may not behave especially ethically, but childhood tends to connote innocence ―a frame of mind that affects behavior. It's promising research in thinking about ways in which people are following their moral compass with very simple interventions, Gino says.

Imagine that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and another pedestrian is approaching from the opposite direction. A collision will occur unless you each move out of the other's way. Which way do you step? The answer is almost certainly to the right. Replay the same scene in many parts of Asia, however, and you would probably move to the left. There is no instruction to head in a specific direction. Mehdi Moussaid says this is a behavior brought about by probabilities. If two opposing people guess each other's intentions correctly, each moving to one side and allowing the other past, then they are likely to choose to move the same way the next time they need to avoid a collision. The chance of a successful maneuver increases as more and more people adopt a bias in one direction, until the tendency sticks. Whether it's right or left does not matter; what does is that it is the unspoken will of the majority.

Even the best journalists can be tricked by lies into presenting misleading news. Sometimes the lies are unconscious. Informants can think they are telling the truth but are really fooling themselves. They may report seeing what they wanted to see. For example, they report seeing a policeman arresting a youth when he was, in fact, giving the youth directions. You must check the facts, both for your own sake and for the sake of your informants, who would not wish to appear foolish. Sometimes, however, the informant is deliberately trying to trick you for his or her own reasons. Perhaps it is to cover up a mistake, perhaps to avoid appearing ignorant, occasionally to give false information for more sinister reasons, such as creating ill-feeling between groups or tricking people into giving money.

Competition can be extremely healthy. It drives us to improve, to reach and stretch. Without it, we would never know how far we could push ourselves. In the business world, it makes our economy prosper. But there is another side to competition that isn't so nice. In the movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker learns about the positive energy shield called the force, which gives life to all things. Later, Luke confronts the evil Darth Vader and learns about the dark side of the force. As Darth puts it, You don't know the power of the dark side. So it is with competition. There is a sunny side and a dark side, and both are powerful. The difference is this: Competition is healthy when you compete against yourself, or when it challenges you to reach and stretch and become your best. Competition becomes dark when you tie your self-worth into winning or when you use it as a way to place yourself above another.

Understanding networks can lead to innovative, nonobvious strategies. Randomly immunizing a population to prevent the spread of infection typically requires that 80 to 100 percent of the population be immunized. To prevent measles epidemics, for example, 95 percent of the population must be immunized. A more efficient alternative is to target the hubs of the network, namely, those people at the center of the network or those with the most contacts. However, it is often not possible to discern network ties in advance in a population when trying to figure out how best to immunize it. A creative alternative is to immunize the acquaintances of randomly selected individuals. This strategy allows us to exploit a property of networks even if we cannot see the whole structure. Acquaintances have more links and are more central to the network than are the randomly chosen people who named them.

Older adults often take longer to make a decision than young adults do. But that does not mean they are any less sharp. According to research at Ohio State University, the slower response time of older adults has more to do with prizing accuracy over speed. In the study, published recently in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, college-age students and adults aged 60 to 90 performed timed tests of word recognition and recall. All participants were equally accurate, but the older group responded more slowly. When the researchers encouraged them to work faster, however, they were able to match the youngsters' speed without significantly sacrificing accuracy. In many simple tasks, the elderly take longer mainly because they decide to require more evidence to make their decision, says coauthor Roger Ratcliff. When an older mind faces a task that requires speed, he says, a conscious effort to work faster can often do the trick.

Whatever the benefit to a virus of a long-lived host, there is no guarantee that hosts have mechanisms for increasing longevity that the virus could exploit. Nor need host longevity be an advantage. The interests of the virus depend on its lifecycle strategy, and some viruses are only released on the death of the host. In fact, many parasites actually force their host to attack other potential hosts or to be killed or eaten so that the parasites are passed on. On the other hand, many of the germs that live in or on the bodies of all animals, including humans, are not simply parasitic, but contribute important protective, stimulant or nutritional effects. In some ways, this can be seen as a form of life extension because removing the germs could have drastic, possibly fatal effects on the host. Extreme examples include endosymbiont root fungi in orchids, or mitochondria in our cells. Without them, orchids and humans would not survive.

One very important factor in the persuasiveness of a communication concerns the credibility of the sender of the message. Kelman and Hovland performed a study in which people heard a talk about juvenile delinquency, given by one of three speakers. One of the speakers claimed to be a juvenile court judge, and therefore was thought to have high credibility; one speaker was described as a random member of the studio audience, whose credibility was thought to be neutral; and one speaker was described as a 'pickpocket', and so was thought to have low credibility. Kelman and Hovland found that the more credible the communicator was, the more influence their talk had exerted on the listeners. However, when they retested the research participants four weeks later, they found that the source effect had entirely disappeared. People remembered what had been said, but not who had said it. So it is possible that the credibility of the source is important only in the short term.

Hector had always been known as a great shoemaker. In fact, customers from such far-off places as France claimed that Hector made the best shoes in the world. Yet for years, he had been frustrated with his small shoemaking business. Although Hector knew he was capable of making hundreds of shoes per week, he was averaging just 30 pairs. When a friend asked him why, Hector explained that while he was great at producing shoes, he was a poor salesman ― and terrible when it came to collecting payments. Yet he spent most of his time working in these areas of weakness. So, Hector's friend introduced him to Sergio, an innate salesman and marketer. Just as Hector was known for his craftsmanship, Sergio could close deals and sell. Given the way their strengths complemented one another, Hector and Sergio decided to work together. A year later, this strengths-based duo was producing, selling, and collecting payment for more than 100 pairs of shoes per week ― a more than threefold increase. While this story may seem simplistic, in many cases, aligning yourself with the right task can be this easy. When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, we can achieve our full potential. So, a revision to the You can be anything you want to be maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be ― but you can be a lot more of who you already are.

My grandfather came from Hungary, and was educated in Germany. He was the only one in his family to come to the United States. He still had relatives living in Europe. When the first World War broke out, he lamented the fact that if my uncle, his only son, had to go, it would mean that he might fight against his cousins. One day, the inevitable happened and my uncle Milton received his draft notice. My grandparents were very upset, but my mother, his little sister was thrilled. She was ten years old and my uncle, realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and all of her friends, went out and bought them all service pins as gifts, which meant that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted. When the day came for him to leave, his whole regiment, in their uniforms, left together from the same train station. The soldiers, all rookies, none of whom had had any training, but who had nevertheless all been issued, wore uniforms and boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. Although no one noticed, I'm sure my grandfather had a tear in his eye for the only son, going off to war. The train groaned as if it knew the destiny to which it was taking its passengers, but it soon began to move. The people still cheering and waving their flags, the band still playing, the train slowly departed the station. It had gone about a thousand yards when it suddenly ground to a halt. The band stopped playing, the crowd stopped cheering. Everyone gazed in wonder as the train slowly backed up and returned to the station. It seemed an eternity until the doors opened and the men started to file out. Someone shouted, It's the armistice. The war is over. For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. My uncle walked down the steps and paraded down the street with other soldiers, as a returning hero, to be welcomed home by the assembled crowd. The next day he returned to his job.