Venus in Transit Event

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 5:45 p.m., the Washington Twp. Public Library, 37 E. Springtown Rd., Long Valley, offers a last chance for anyone on Earth to observe a transit of Venus.  A transit of Venus will not be visible again for more than a century. Special eye protection is needed to safely view this event. Mr. John Andrews, and other members of the New Jersey Astronomical Association, will have their telescopes set up at the football fields in front of the Senior Center on June 5, equipped with safe sun filters, for our use in observing this once-in-a-lifetime event. Mr. Andrews will also discuss the history and significance of the transit of Venus.  In case of clouds, Mr. Andrews will have a 30 minute power point on the Venus transit phenomenon.. Stop by the Senior Center at (or after) 5:45 p.m. on June 5th for an opportunity to see Venus as it transits the Sun and learn more about it. (For example, the transit of Venus was of great importance to astronomers in the 18th century because it allowed them to determine the distance between the Earth and Sun; Mason and Dixon led an expedition to observe the transit in 1761, a few years before they established their famous boundary line in America.)

Call the Library at 908-876-3596 or go to www.wtpl.org to register for this event or just come by!

Meet Jon Gertner, Author of The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

Jon Gertner, the author of a new bestselling book from Penguin called The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation will appear at the Washington Twp. Public Library, 37 E. Springtown Rd, Long Valley, NJ on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 7 p.m.

This book looks at the history of where most of American innovation came from in the era before Silicon Valley.  Bell Labs was THE place for innovation from lasers and the transistor to digital communications and cellular telephony. 

Bell Laboratories, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, was the most innovative and productive institution of the twentieth century. Long before America's brightest scientific minds began migrating west to Silicon Valley, they flocked to this sylvan campus in the New Jersey suburbs built and funded by AT&T. At its peak, Bell Labs employed nearly fifteen thousand people, twelve hundred of whom had PhDs. Thirteen would go on to win Nobel prizes. It was a citadel of science and scholarship as well as a hotbed of creative thinking. It was, in effect, a factory of ideas whose workings have remained largely hidden until now.

Jon Gertner grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey—just a few hundred yards away from Bell Labs. He has been a writer for the New York Times Magazine since 2004 where he writes about business, technology, and society and is currently an editor at Fast Company magazine. He has also served as a senior editor for Money and The American Lawyer.

 Call the Library at 908-876-3596 or go to www.wtpl.org to sign up for this program!

Lunch n Learn - Medicines, Alcohol and Aging

~Lunch N’ Learn~ “Medicines, Alcohol and Aging” presented by Susan Zolandz, Morristown Medical Center at the Washington Twp. Public Library, 37 E. Springtown Rd., Long Valley, NJ from noon to 2 p.m. on Monday, May 21, 2012.

A large percentage of older adults misuse alcohol and medications

Are you one of them?

Improper use of medications and/or alcohol is estimated to be a factor is more than 25% of emergency room visits. This lecture will help you identify your personal risk factors, and answer your questions:

How much is too much?

How do I know if I have a problem?

Learn the warning signs of a problem and how to get help. What steps can you take to stay safe? Understand how medications work and if drinking interferes with them.

FREE! ~ Complimentary luncheon is served.

MUST REGISTER  by calling the library at 908-876-3596  or register at www.wtpl.org

-Seating is limited-

Sponsored by the Senior Resource Center

50 Route 24, Chester, NJ 07930   908-879-2202

www.SeniorResourceCenter.org