Argentina made history yesterday by electing their first woman president! Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, wife of the current president Nestor Kirchner, and former senator for Buenos Aires won a solid 45% of the vote. She is considered to be center-left, and populist in her politics and is often seen as the new Eva Peron (Evita). Curiously this is the very position Eva Peron worked so hard for more than 50 years ago, but for which she was not allowed to officially run for. She took would have come to office while being married to the current president.

Fernández de Kirchner’s main issues while in office is likely to be the country’s economy. Argentina suffered a major economic crisis in the early 2000, from which it is still recovering. In her acceptance speech she also spoke about the impact women have in the country and who she hope to continue working with them.

Fernández de Kirchner will be joining the only other woman currently in office in Latin America, Michelle Bachelet of Chile. Hopefully these two women are some kind of proof that Latin American is leaving some of its machismo behind and moving in a new era.

You can read more about Mrs. Fernández de Kirchner from an article in the Guardian, or another article from the BBC. You can also visit her official site, or get her basic bio from Wikipedia.

Image from www.cristina.com.ar

I recently ran across a blog by a Puertorican library student titled “Información: Puente hacia el bien social“. Yesenia Hernández is a student at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and her blog discusses a number of interesting issues relating to libraries, education, literacy, and technology, as well as cultural information on the island and its history.

Some of the previous blog posts include one on the International Book Fair in Puerto Rico, “Blackle” a lower energy web browser, technology promotion among poor populations in Brazil, UNESCO’s Information Literacy Resources Directory, and the web portal Rare Books Room, just to name a few. Hernández also offers some specific information on library issues in Puerto Rico and the academic institution where she works.

You can access her blog here, just be aware that it is all in Spanish.

A World Digital Library is coming together after an agreement signed yesterday between Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communications and Information, and James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress in the USA’s Library of Congress. The project was started in 2005 by a $3 million grant from Google.

The project aims is to create digital copies of unique material from libraries around the world and make them available over the internet for free. Some of the libraries participating include the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Egypt, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library.

The prototype for this digital collection is still being worked on, but it is expected to function in all six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish), and Portuguese.

This project also aims at helping develop the capabilities of developing countries to create and promote digital libraries. This way the collection can reflect more of the world’s culture, and hopefully will help promote cross-cultural learning and understanding, while simultaneously preserving some rare objects from these collections.

You can take a look at the prototype here.

You can read more about this initiative from a UN news release, A 2005 Library of Congress news release, and the Book Standard.

The US Postal Service used to mail books internationally for $1 a pound, making it possible for small groups, such as a classroom of students, to donate and ship books around the world. Last spring rates rose to $43.45 for the first 11 pounds, and $3.95 for each additional pound. These new rates will make it hard to help projects such as small school libraries in places where books are inaccessible.

The postal service explains that the M-bags, as they were known, had to be stopped because they simply weren’t paying for themselves. They explain that while people wishing to ship abroad were paying these lower prices, often routing schedules would push these packeges on to airplanes, instead of boats, where the prices would have been higher. Sadly, lots of small initiatives to send books and other educational material abroad have been shut down entierly, or are being drastically reduced.

Domestic rates for mailing books have also gone up.

You can read a couple articles about these rate increases, including stories of individuals who have been affected by it; from The Oregonian, and The Chicago Tribune.

The Russian government aims to convert all school computers to Linux by 2009. The change is an effort to cut cost from licensing fees. Apparently, since Russian became a member of the WTO it felt compelled to abide by the law and stop using illegal copies of Microsoft software.

The change is being done gradually. Initially three regions will switch to Linux, while other regions will have the options of installing it as a second operating system. During the switch there will be an increase in expenses due to training for teachers and other school personnel who will need to learn how to use Linux before they can teach students how to use it, but afterwards schools will likely save millions.

In the long-run, officials believe that students who are trained to use Linux will have no problem adapting to other systems. Linux products are often very similar to their Microsoft counterparts. A number of Russian universities have also made the switch.

Russia is not the only government taking a serious look at Linux. Brazil is also embracing Linux. President Da Silva has been encouraging the usage of Linux for a couple of years now, and all government computers are gradually making the switch. Bitway Computadores, EnebledPeople, and Imtech, three Brazilian companies are currently working to provide the federal government with Linux-powered desktops.

I think slowly but surely many more around the world will also embrace open source software.

You can read more about the Russian initiative in an article by the BBC.

Image info here.

Today is the 40th anniversary of “Che’s” (June 14 1928-Oct 9, 1967) capture and execution (Oct 9th) in the Bolivian mountains. After studying medicine in Argentina, and later traveling throughout Latin America, Ernesto Guevara met his destiny in Mexico and joined a group of young idealist who would come to overthrow the Batista regime in Cuba.

After helping win a revolution “Che” became Cuba’s National Treasurer, a bizarre position for a man who seemed mostly concerned with loftier notions of freedom and equality for all. Still, “Che” has a number of opponents, many of whom had to sufferer through his harsh and often inflexible treatment towards those he felt weren’t helping improve this world.

I’ve read a couple of biographies on “Che,” and while I admire him for having the courage of his convictions, and for being deeply committed to improving this world, I’m also bothered by how he (like many other guerrillas, and revolutionaries) was able to distance himself from the people closest to him in order to help “save” others. “Che” fought for people in distant lands whom he had no direct connections to, like Cuba, the Congo and Bolivia.

You can read more about the celebrations taking place today in places like Cuba, Argentina and Bolivia in an article from the BBC. The BBC has a second article today recounting the story of his capture and execution. There’s a whole wealth of information on him on his Wikipedia entry.

The Guardian has a great set of images of “El Che” from around the globe.

Image info here.

Today is the 50th anniversary since Sputnik soars the skies, making it the first man-made object to orbit the earth. Created in the tense atmosphere surrounding the cold war, the Russians cheered this accomplishment, while for many USA citizens it marked fear.

Sputnik became the catalyst and inspiration for a nation to rally around sciences. President Eisenhower established the position of Presidential Science Adviser, the USA congress incorporated science into much of it’s policy-making, funding for the sciences soared, and NASA was created. This beach sized satellite was also the precursor to Communication satellites, helping bring the world closer.

Sadly today the sciences and space exploration aren’t doing quite as well. Funding has been cut in some of these important organizations, and NASA is often caught up in embarrassing problems. Still Sputnik orbited the earth for three short months, but it’s impact and legacy are still felt today.

You can read more about Sputnik’s impact from articles in the Associated Press, Seattle Post Intelligencer, and the Wikipedia entry.

Image info here.

Being that we can’t go back in time to study previous climate patterns, Prof. Zerefos of the National Observatory of Athens has begun a study of old master pieces to learn more about global weather patterns.

Using impressionist pieces created mostly in the 19th century, scientists are focusing on the differences between the usage of red and green hues to create hypothesis of how much pollution was in the skies specially after the eruption of large volcanoes. The redder the sunsets, the more pollution was in the air.

Impressionist artists of the time did a great job of capturing real scenes to the extent that scientist have been able to see patters between the art and periods of high pollution after major volcanic eruptions. Such is the case when various artists created richer sunsets for three consecutive years after the eruptions of Tambora in 1815, Bubuyan (Philippines) in 1831, Consiguina (Nicaragua) in 1835, and Krakatoa in 1881. Some of the artists being used include J.M.W. Turner, Rubens, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, and Hogarth. Edvard Munch’s red skies in The Scream are thought to be the effect of Krakatoa as seen from Norway.

The scientists involved in this project are already looking into extending their research to include paintings from the 20th century.

You can read more about this from an article in the Guardian, or more specifically about the impact of major volcanic eruptions and their effects world-wide in Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883.

Image info. here.