‘Great Decisions’ world affairs education series runs through March

One of the com­mu­nity pro­grams that the Delaware County Dis­trict Library has been involved with for many years is the “Great Deci­sions” pro­gram, a free dis­cus­sion series devel­oped in 1954 by the For­eign Pol­icy Association.

“Great Deci­sions 2012” focuses on cur­rent U.S. For­eign Pol­icy, and you can learn more about the areas up for dis­cus­sion this year by read­ing the accom­pa­ny­ing book­let at the Main Library, 84 E. Win­ter St. or the Orange Branch, 7171 Good­ing Blvd. This short book­let is shelved behind the Infor­ma­tion Desks and con­tains chap­ters on the Mid­dle East, cyber­se­cu­rity, Afghanistan, the oceans, Indone­sia and energy geopol­i­tics. There are fliers with details of the series includ­ing dates, speak­ers and top­ics for dis­cus­sion avail­able, too.

To fur­ther your under­stand­ing of these com­plex top­ics, there will be a series of pro­grams pre­sented from noon to 1 p.m. each Fri­day in the par­lor of the William Street United Methodist Church, 28 W. William. On Fri­day, Feb. 17, Alam Payind, the direc­tor of the Mid­dle East Stud­ies at Ohio State Uni­ver­sity will dis­cuss “Exit from Afghanistan and Iraq.” Other pre­sen­ta­tions include Ohio Wes­leyan Pro­fes­sor Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Eco­nom­ics at OWU Andrew Meyer dis­cussing energy pol­icy; Tim­o­thy Howard, Chief Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer for the city of Delaware talk­ing about cyber­se­cu­rity; and “Indone­sia: Prospects for Pros­per­ity” pre­sented by William Lid­dle, pro­fes­sor of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence at OSU. You are wel­come to bring a brown-bag lunch to the pro­grams; cof­fee and tea are provided.

The “Great Deci­sions Dis­cus­sion Pro­gram” is the longest-standing and largest grass­roots world affairs edu­ca­tion pro­gram of its kind, and the Delaware County Dis­trict Library is happy to be part of this effort that brings mil­lions of Amer­i­cans together in com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try to dis­cover, dis­cuss and decide their opin­ions on for­eign policy.

Locally, the Great Deci­sions Pro­gram is spon­sored by the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Uni­ver­sity Women, Kiwa­nis, League of Women Vot­ers, Inter­na­tional Stud­ies Pro­gram OWU, Senior Cit­i­zens, William Street United Methodist Church and Wil­low Brook Chris­t­ian Communities.

How did Scotch tape gets its name?

Accord­ing to the web­site scotchbrand.com, Richard Drew, a young 3M engi­neer, invented Scotch Cel­lu­lose Tape in 1930. Later to be renamed Cel­lo­phane Tape, it was an attrac­tive, moisture-proof way for gro­cers and bak­ers to seal pack­ages. Use of the term “Scotch” in the name has a pejo­ra­tive ori­gin. A cus­tomer com­plained that 3M was man­u­fac­tur­ing its mask­ing tape too cheaply and allegedly told com­pany engi­neer Richard Drew to, “take this tape back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhe­sive on it.”

Was direc­tor John Lan­dis con­victed of mur­der dur­ing the film­ing of “Twi­light Zone?”

On July 23, 1982, dur­ing the film­ing of Twi­light Zone, actor Vic Mor­row and child extras Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in an acci­dent involv­ing an out-of-control heli­copter. Accord­ing to Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide, direc­tor John Lan­dis and sev­eral crew mem­bers were sub­se­quently charged with invol­un­tary manslaugh­ter and child endan­ger­ment. After an extended jury trial, Lan­dis and other crew mem­bers were acquit­ted of the charges. This tragedy resulted in stricter safety mea­sures and enforce­ment of child labor laws, in the State of Cal­i­for­nia. The par­ents of the chil­dren sued, and would later set­tle out of court for $2 mil­lion per fam­ily. Morrow’s chil­dren, one of whom is actress Jen­nifer Jason Leigh who was 20 at the time, also set­tled out of court for an undis­closed sum.

What does ZEG stand for?

The Acronyms, Ini­tialisms and Abbre­vi­a­tions Dic­tio­nary defines ZEG as “Zero Eco­nomic Growth” as well as “Zero Energy Growth.”

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org.

Posted by Mary Santos on Feb 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.