This Week's Facts:
-
Catch Indiana's Autumn Colors
on Leaf Cam
-
FYI: Find Your IT Acronym
Glossary ASAP on the WWW
-
Online Resources
Outline the Meaning of Columbus Day
-
Indiana Awarded Grant to
Improve Hoosiers' Health
Ten
More Ways We Rely
on the
U.S. Census (11-20)
-
Planning health and education for
people with disabilities
-
Forecasting future housing needs
-
Forecasting population trends
-
Directing funds to services for
people living in poverty
-
Directing services to children and
adults with limited English skills
-
Designing public safety strategies
-
Urban planning
-
Rural development
-
Land use planning
-
Charting local demographic changes
Please see
Indiana’s Census 2010 website
for the complete list of 50 ways we rely on the U.S. Census.
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Friday Facts is a production of the Indiana State Library
Friday Facts Editorial Team:
Katharine Springer
State Data
Center Coordinator
Elisabeth
O’Donnell
Federal Documents Librarian
&
Kim Brown-Harden
State
Documents Coordinator
-------------------------------------
Join the
FDLP-IN
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  |
 They’re
baaaack! What better way to enjoy the beautiful, vibrant
colors of fall than your own computer? This is the time of year
when the trees seem to come alive with brilliant shades of
orange, red, and yellow; and maybe you don’t have time to get
away to enjoy them in person.
The Indiana Office of
Tourism Development has a solution for you with Leaf
Cams around the State. You can catch a different colorful
explosion every fifteen minutes by
selecting your
leaf cam. Leaf Cams are available for Brown County;
French Lick, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Corydon, and Spring Mill
State Park. If you are lucky enough to view this colorful
masterpiece in person, you are encouraged to take photos and
share them on the
Visit
Indiana Flickr group. Finally, you also have a
chance to
win a $200.00 Indiana State Park Inn Certificate at one
of seven beautiful, historic locations to capture those memories
and come back refreshed!
FYI: Find
Your IT Acronym Glossary ASAP on the
WWW
 The
National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a
glossary of acronyms used in the Information Technology field.
While many of us know that GPS stands for Global Positioning
System, what about a GUI (pronounced “gooey”) which most of us
use every day? Though this is not a glossary of meanings, you
can use the
System and Network Security Acronyms and Abbreviations
as a good starting place to make sense of IT acronyms.
Supplement your knowledge of technology by looking up the full
spelling of an acronym you’ve heard of, but never quite knew
what it stood for.
Online Resources
Outline the Meaning of Columbus Day
 Monday,
October 12 is Columbus Day. It is designed to commemorate the
first viewing of land by Christopher Columbus’s crew early on
October 12, 1492. Celebrated by Italian-Americans since the
nineteenth century, it was first declared a national holiday by
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937.
While there were already indigenous people in the Western
hemisphere, and Vikings and possibly other explorers had been
here before, Columbus’s “discovery” was important because it
established the lasting relationship that existed between Europe
and the Americas. It is well-known that Columbus’s crew set
sale for India with three ships – the Nina, the Pinta and the
Santa Maria. This whole voyage rested on the idea that the
world was round, not flat. Columbus was not the first or only
person to believe in a round Earth. However, he was the first
to persuade a monarch to finance such an unusual journey.
The United States is not the only country to commemorate this
day. Spain celebrates it as Dia de la Hispanidad (Hispanic Day)
and much of the Bahamas acknowledges Discovery Day. Even within
the United States, there is some discrepancy. For example, in
Berkeley, California, the day is known as “Indigenous Peoples
Day.” South Dakota celebrates “Native American Day.” Many
places around the country still hold parades on Columbus Day,
including New York City and Denver, Colorado.
For more information on Columbus Day, be sure to check out the
America.gov
profile on the holiday. The Library of Congress has a
variety of sources on Columbus himself, including two displays:
1942: an ongoing voyage and their
Today in
History. They also have an interesting timeline in
America’s Library. Finally, don’t forget to look at
this
exhibit from NASA for more information on the rationale
behind Columbus’s journey.
Indiana
Awarded Grant to Improve Hoosiers' Health
 Indiana
is on track to becoming a healthier State thanks to a five-year
grant awarded by the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) to improve healthy eating and
physical
activity to prevent and control obesity and other
chronic
diseases.
The Indiana
Healthy Weight Initiative was developed to get Indiana
citizens healthy and active and to improve our quality of life
regardless of weight status (overweight, underweight, normal
weight, and obese). The Initiative’s activities include, but
are not limited to: plan, implement, and evaluate a state plan
for encouraging healthy weight; organize and maintain a task
force of statewide partners; and build and sustain statewide
capacity for addressing overweight and obesity. Using the
tools
and
resources from the Initiative, we can become a healthier
State and reduce many illnesses and diseases. |
