Digital Currency and Blockchains Provide Banking Services for Even Those with Flip Phones

Local currency in Kenya is transitioning "from multicolored paper notes to a digital token based on blockchain" supported by a Swiss company, Bancor ("Closing the Cash Gap with Cryptocurrency," Bloomberg Businessweek, November 3, 2018). This project is noteworthy because the use of digital currency is going beyond "speculation or illicit trade" to becoming the "basis for financial inclusion and economic stimulus for the poorest."

Review selected hard copy/online library books related to cryptocurrency and blockchains at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Place Hold" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to request for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more information in the library catalog:

• Bitcoin
• blockchains
• electronic commerce
• electronic funds transfers
• electronic commerce
• mobile commerce

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking by Saifedean Ammous
Wiley, 2018
call number: 332.1 Amm (note: in processing - can place a hold to request it)

"When a pseudonymous programmer introduced "a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party" to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications." - publisher's summary excerpt

Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Is Changing the World by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
Portfolio, 2018
call number: 332.1 Tap (note: in processing - can place a hold to request it)

"Blockchain is the ingeniously simple technology behind Bitcoin. But it is much more than that. It is a public ledger to which everyone has access, but which no single person controls. It enables companies and individuals to collaborate with an unprecedented degree of trust and transparency. It is cryptographically secure, but fundamentally open. And soon it will be everywhere...Don and Alex Tapscott reveal how this game-changing technology will shape the future of the world economy, dramatically improving everything from healthcare records to online voting, and from insurance claims to royalty payments." - publisher's summary excerpt

The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything by Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna
St. Martin's Press, 2018
call number: 332.1 Cas

"Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society's faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping." - publisher's summary excerpt

Killer Flu: Get a Shot to Save Your Life and Others

After a devastating flu season in 2017-18 where 80,000 people died, government health officials are urging the public to get vaccinated ("Return of U.S. Flu Season Brings Worries About a Virulent Replay," Bloomberg/Quint, September 27, 2018). Of the children who died from the flu, around 80 percent did not get the shot. Learn about the historic epidemic of 1918 and how public health officials are trying to prevent deaths one hundred years later.

Review selected hard copy/online library books related to the flu at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Place Hold" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to request for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more information in the library catalog:

• communicable diseases
• epidemics
• influenza

Pandemics, Pills, and Politics: Governing Global Health Security by Stefan Elbe
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018
call number: 362.1 Elb

"Taken by millions of people around the planet in the fight against pandemic flu, Tamiflu has provoked suspicions about undue commercial influence in government decision-making about stockpiles. It even found itself at the center of a prolonged political battle over who should have access to the data about the safety and effectiveness of medicines." - publisher's summary excerpt

More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War by Kenneth C. Davis
Henry Holt, 2018
call number: 614.518 Dav

"This book explores how this vast, global epidemic was intertwined with the horrors of World War I and how it could happen again. Complete with photographs, period documents, modern research, and firsthand reports by medical professionals and survivors, this book provides captivating insight into a catastrophe that transformed America in the early twentieth century." - publisher's summary excerpt

Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History by Catharine Arnold
St. Martin's Press, 2018
call number: 614.518 Arn

"In January 1918, as World War I raged on, a new and terrifying virus began to spread across the globe. In three successive waves, from 1918 to 1919, influenza killed more than 50 million people...Nowhere on earth escaped: the United States recorded 550,000 deaths (five times its total military fatalities in the war) while European deaths totaled over two million...Through primary and archival sources, historian Catharine Arnold gives readers the first truly global account of the terrible epidemic." - publisher's summary excerpt

Solving the World Water Crisis with Icebergs?

An idea to tow icebergs to parts of world that need clean drinking water has surfaced some forty years ago after it was originally conceived ("How Hauling Icebergs Could Help Sustain the World's Thirstiest Regions," NBC News, August 7, 2018). An United Arab Emirates-based company will attempt a test of this technique employing "satellite imagery to scour the Southern Ocean for a suitable iceberg, lasso it with nets and chains, and then use a small flotilla of boats to tow it" later this year.

Review selected hard copy/online library books related to the world's fresh water supply at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Place Hold" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to request for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more information in the library catalog:

• droughts
• groundwater
• water conservation
• water use
• water supply
• water consumption
• water resources development

A Thirsty Land: The Making of an American Water Crisis by Seamus McGraw
University of Texas Press, 2018
call number: 333.91 MacG

"As a changing climate threatens the whole country with deeper droughts and more furious floods that put ever more people and property at risk, Texas has become a bellwether state for water debates. Will there be enough water for everyone? Is there the will to take the steps necessary to defend ourselves against the sea? Is it in the nature of Americans to adapt to nature in flux? The most comprehensive--and comprehensible--book on contemporary water issues, A Thirsty Land delves deep into the challenges faced not just by Texas but by the nation as a whole, as we struggle to find a way to balance the changing forces of nature with our own ever-expanding needs." - publisher's summary excerpt

Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity by Sandra Postel
Island Press, 2017
call number: 551.48 Pos

"We have disrupted the natural water cycle for centuries in an effort to control water for our own prosperity. Yet every year, recovery from droughts and floods costs billions of dollars, and we spend billions more on dams, diversions, levees, and other feats of engineering. These massive projects not only are risky financially and environmentally, they often threaten social and political stability. What if the answer was not further control of the water cycle, but repair and replenishment? Sandra Postel takes readers around the world to explore water projects that work with, rather than against, nature's rhythms. In New Mexico, forest rehabilitation is safeguarding drinking water; along the Mississippi River, farmers are planting cover crops to reduce polluted runoff; and in China, "sponge cities" are capturing rainwater to curb urban flooding." - publisher's summary excerpt

High and Dry: Meeting the Challenges of the World’s Growing Dependence on Groundwater by William M. Alley and Rosemarie Alley
Yale University Press, 2017
call number: 628.1 All

"Groundwater is essential for drinking water and food security. . .But a growing global population, widespread use of industrial chemicals, and climate change threaten this vital resource. Groundwater depletion and contamination has spread from isolated areas to many countries throughout the world. . .Drawing on examples from around the world, including case studies in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa, the authors examine groundwater from key scientific and socioeconomic perspectives. While addressing the serious nature of groundwater problems, the book includes stories of people who are making a difference in protecting this critical resource." - publisher's summary excerpt