CGHS Library

Insults for the New Year

You can stop worrying that there will be no Insults in 2017.

Hooked from the First Line

First line: "The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do."
FIC Ness

First line: "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."
FIC Smith

First Line: "First the colors, then the humans."
FIC Zusak

First line: "Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number 4 Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
FIC Rowling

First line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
FIC Austen

First line: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
FIC Orwell

First line: "When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold."
FIC Collins

First line: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
FIC Tolkien

Fake News: A Throne of Lies

1. The bias that is the most difficult to detect is your own.
   The two internet hoaxes I fell for the hardest fed into my own bias. SO embarrassing!
   
2. Lies are nothing new.
   Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.”

3. The SPEED of our lies is new.
   If you are getting your news from Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit, you do not have the whole story. As my mother says, “The internet is like a huge gossip circle.”

4. If you get your news from SNL or The Colbert Report, you do not have the whole story.
   Just because it’s funny doesn’t make it true.

5. Even Mainstream Media starts to spin the news before they have all the facts.
   Sometimes what media outlets do not report is more important than what they do. Fitting the whole truth into a sound bite isn’t easy, so if your opinions are based on headlines alone, slogans, or catch phrases, think again.
   
6. Everybody has blind spots and a world view that influences their opinions and reactions to events. 
   

Tips for Detecting the Truth

1. Check Politifact, FactCheck, ProCon, or another reliable site before jumping to conclusions. The unashamedly conservative Townhall points out that Politifact has a liberal bias, so don't be afraid to fact check your fact checkers. 

2. Listen to the people you do not agree with once in awhile. You might not buy what they are saying, but at least you can see that there might be another way of looking at the world.

3. Be willing to revise your opinion based on new information.

4. If the argument is mostly based on name calling and yelling, maybe it’s not much of an argument.

If you are looking for something more, check out A Finder's Guide to Facts.

Sabotage: The Mission to Destroy Hitler's Atomic Bomb (949.5486410948 BAS)

In Sabotage, a small team of average Joes escape out of their native Norway, undergo espionage training in Britain, and parachute into their Nazi-occupied homeland. Their high-risk mission: to destroy a hydroelectric plant in the remote, wintry mountains that produces a vital component, heavy water, for constructing an atomic bomb.  

Is the Source Any Good?

College Essay Examples from Shmoop: What to Say When You Don't Know What to Say

The Lie Tree (FIC Hardinge)

A School Library Journal Best of 2016 book, The Lie Tree creates its own truth-telling magic in this dark and haunting mystery. Faith Sunderly is intensely curious about her famous father's scientific research. When he is suddenly found dead, she is convinced that he was murdered. Faith pieces together clues and uncovered secrets, like the reverend's prized specimen--a tree that thrives on lies and bears a fruit that, when eaten, reveals a hidden truth.