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  The Naturalists

  Diane Ackerman, Gerald Lordhal,...

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  This collection of nine performance pieces reflects the inspirational words of Margaret Mead, who said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful individuals can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Together, these performances memorialize the diversity, beauty, and fragility of our planet. Poet Terry Tempest Williams talks about the peregrine falcon; Larry Cox talks about the rainforests; poet Diane Ackerman reads from her work The Whale in Moonlight; scientist Dr. David Suzuki lectures on a sense of place; muralist Wyland talks about whales and art; urban environmentalist Gerald Lordhal talks about community gardens in New York City; author Peter Matthiessen reads from his book Sand Rivers; biologist Sharon Matola talks about the Belize Zoo, and nine-year-old Annie Olson talks about her two little friends.

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  Return to Vienna - The Special...

  Peter Dixon

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  'Captain Charles Kennedy' parachuted into a moonlit Austrian forest and searched frantically for his lost radio set. His real name was Leo Hillman and he was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. He was going home. 
  Men and women of Churchill’s secret Special Operations Executive worked to free Austria from Hitler's grip. Many were themselves Austrians who had fled Nazi persecution. Trained and equipped by SOE, they courageously returned to their homeland. Some died in the attempt. 
  Their moving stories are part of the history of how Austria recovered her sovereignty. 
  'An enthralling tale from a lesser-known part of real Second World War history. ... At its heart, this is a human story brimming with emotion, triumph, heartache, and tragedy. 5-star Readers' Favorite review. 
  'An extraordinary and compelling account of the little-known operations of SOE and Austria in World War Two. Peter Dixon shines a light on the bravery of the agents, in a narrative told with colour and vivacity, yet great sensitivity and meticulous research', Dr Helen Fry, author of Spymaster. 
  'A valuable and well-researched account of a little-known aspect of SOE’s operations’, Paul McCue, Secret World War 2 Learning Network

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  The Idiot Girls'...

  Laurie Notaro

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  Introducing Laurie Notaro, the leader of the Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club. Every day she fearlessly rises from bed to defeat the evil machinations of dolts, dimwits, and creepy boyfriends-and that's before she even puts on a bra.For the past ten years, Notaro has been entertaining Phoenix newspaper readers with her wildly amusing autobiographical exploits and unique life experiences. She writes about a world of hourly-wage jobs that require absolutely no skills, a mother who hands down judgments more forcefully than anyone seated on the Supreme Court, horrific high school reunions, and hangovers that leave her surprised she woke up in the first place.The misadventures of Laurie and her fellow Idiot Girls ("too cool to be in the Smart Group") unfold in a world that everyone will recognize but no one has ever described so hilariously. She delivers the goods: life as we all know it.

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  No More Laughing at the Deaf Boy...

  Geoffrey Ball

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  Hearing loss affects countless millions of people, yet few sufferers even seek help, let alone try to find a cure. This is the story of a man who took on that daunting task and ultimately invented the world's most successful middle ear implant.
  Geoffrey Ball's adventure in technology began in the legendary Silicon Valley of California, the birthplace of so many innovations that have transformed our world, and ultimately led him to the mountains of Austria, where he now lives and continues his work. 
  Ball's deafness was diagnosed early, but even as a child he knew that sign language and conventional hearing aids were not the answer. Despite his proficiency in lipreading, he wanted more - a better fix. Meanwhile, Ball never let his disability stand in his way. He became a kind of modern Renaissance man with interests that ranged from literature to sports to music, all coupled with an undeniable talent for entrepreneurship and invention.
  The author introduces us to family and friends, surfing buddies and lab rats, business partners and fellow inventors, computer and Internet legends, a brilliant, larger-than-life mentor who gave him his start, and the woman who ultimately saved his brainchild. He intersperses insights into technology, funding and business acumen with personal, often humorous anecdotes and fascinating accounts of successes, failures and near misses along the way.
  Today, every hour, somewhere in the world, one of his ground- breaking devices improves the quality of life of a hearing-impaired person. No one is laughing at the deaf boy now, and we haven't heard the last of Geoffrey Ball.

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  The Ice Palace - Author of the...

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
   
  His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
   
  In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
   
  He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
   
  Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
   
  The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack. 
   
  One of Fitzgerald’s short story gems is ‘The Ice Palace’. A Southern girl wants ‘to live where things happen on a grand scale’.  She is engaged to a Yankee but on their visit to The Ice Palace attraction life reveals a very different destiny for her.

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  Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn...

  PBS NewsHour

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  In a New York City classroom, teachers use rap songs to teach complex science. Playlists are used as a metaphor to convey natural selection, and students compose raps songs to reinforce concepts. Ray Suarez reports on the effectiveness of this strategy and interviews hip-hop legend (and science geek) GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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