Khan Academy

Thought this site, Khan Academy, could be helpful for students, it says k-12 but it is way beyond that, check it out, here is the bit from the web site itself: With a library of over 2,700 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 253 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

The Grilled Cheese Academy, good stuff.

Tax Season

Tax season is in full swing, and again this year, the Internal Revenue Service is offering a program that allows many U.S. taxpayers to electronically file their tax returns for free:

The Free File program provides free federal income tax preparation and electronic filing for eligible taxpayers through a partnership between the Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance LLC, a group of private sector tax software companies. Many companies offer free or paid state tax preparation and efiling services. Some companies may not offer state tax preparation and e-file services for all states.

I’ve shared this service with GRS readers in the past, though I forgot to do so last year. This year, I wanted to remind folks early so that they could use it if they qualified.

• For the 2009 tax year, you can use Traditional Free File (where you use tax software with step-by-step help) if your adjusted gross income is $57,000 or less. By using software, you don’t have to do the math, and the programs check your inputs for accuracy. (Note that not every partner company provides state tax preparation.)
• This year there’s also a version of Free File with no income limits. This option doesn’t include any sort of fancy software or step-by-step help; instead, you fill out online versions of blank IRS forms 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ. (The forms do have basic calculation abilities.) There’s no state option with these free fillable forms.

Free File is a great deal for many people. Check into it if you haven’t done your taxes yet. For more info, read the Free File FAQ at the IRS website. (The IRS website is actually awesome. You can find tons of tax info there. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve spent many hours digging through their resources.) From Get Rich Slowly blog

M State Moorhead Library Closed January 23

Due to the severe storm approaching the Fargo-Moorhead area, the M-State Moorhead campus library will be closed on Saturday, January 23.

It's one of our favorite times of the year, here at M State Moorhead Library...National Gaming Day @ your library! Come join in the gaming fun tomorrow at the Moorhead campus library from 9am-1pm.

If you have any questions, please give us a call 218.299.6530.

We hope to see you there!

Herta Mueller wins Nobel Prize for literature

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

Author Herta Mueller, who was censored and threatened in her native Romania, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the $1.4 million prize, honored Mueller, 56, for work that, "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

Before immigrating to Germany in 1987, Mueller received death threats in Romania after refusing to become an informant for its secret police when it was still a communist dictatorship.

Several of her novels that have been translated into English — including The Passport, The Land of Green Plums and Traveling on One Leg— explore life in a dictatorship and as a member of a minority.

Mueller's parents were members of the German-speaking minority in Romania. Her father served in the Waffen SS during World War II.

After the war, many German Romanians were deported to the Soviet Union in 1945, including her mother, who spent five years in a work camp in what is now Ukraine.

The last American to win the Nobel Prize in literature was Toni Morrison in 1993. Mueller is the 12th woman to win the prize in its 108 years.

NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY AWARENESS MONTH, 2009

NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY AWARENESS MONTH, 2009
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information. A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication
technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decisionmaking. National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age. To read more click this link

Free University Classes Online

Free University Classes Online

• MIT Open Courseware: free videos of lectures, lecture notes, and exams in dozens of disciplines
• University of California – Berkeley: webcasts of lectures for a couple dozen classes
• Stanford University’s iTunes U: dozens of classes of free lectures, through the popular “iTunes U,” used by other universities too
• Harvard@home: a selection of lectures, events, and talks at Harvard
• Open Yale Courses: a few dozen classes’ worth of free lectures