To an upland village in the State of Virginia, the first Tuesday in every month, there comes a truckload of books. The traveling library has many friends among these remote farming people. The free book service provides them with a much needed link to the world beyond their hills. The librarian has her friends too. They want to know whether the story has a sad ending, or they need her help with a strange word now and then. Copyright? That's not very strange, Tim. You'll find it in most any book you open. It means that for 28 years, no one but the book's author or publisher can copy anything from it. It means, well, let's see, have you ever heard of the Library of Congress, Tim? This book tells all about it. It's the most important library in the country. And one of the things it does nowadays is keep records and proofs of all the copyrights that are issued by the United States. Two copies of almost every book that is published are sent to the library at Washington. At Washington, directly opposite the capital in which Congress meets, stands the grandiose building that is America's citadel of the written word. An arsenal in the battle against ignorance. A monument to the ideals of free expression and free thought. The way of Congress was first established for the exclusive use of the men who made America's laws. But it has since become the nation's reading room, open to every man. Surrounding the main reading room are the stacks of general reference books, to which the reader can come directly for the volumes he wants. But in a library containing nearly six million books and pamphlets, only a small proportion can be kept at arm's length. The rest are stored in great stack rooms, where modern air conditioning has eliminated the traditional must and dust. The housing of a great and diverse collection of the materials of scholarship presents many technical problems. The Library of Congress must have files for its million and a half maps. Portfolios must be provided for more than half a million prints. And cases are needed for the changing display of selected groups of pictures. The Oriental Division requires still other special facilities. Students come from all over the world to use this collection, which is the largest of its kind outside of Asia. But naturally the library is richest in the source materials of American history. A history that is unique in having been lived entirely within a period for which there are written records. A history that is first told in many languages. The history of New Indies, New France, New Holland, New England. A history of many races, including one that was nearly extinguished in the writing of the history. For in the 16th century it was a history of conquest, of new lands that were taken in the name of God but plundered in the interests of men. It was to take another 200 years to bring forth a nation in this new world, conceived in strife and bloodshed but born in the image of men's dreams. The library has the words by which the dreams were made realities and pictures of the dreamers who are later called statesmen. Jefferson, Franklin, George Washington. These are the records of a nation in labor, its progenitors, its heroes. And this the fruit of their struggle. The Articles of Confederation was a blueprint for a republic. The Bill of Rights, a set of rules by which the people of the new nation might live in peace and personal freedom. A freedom enjoyed today by millions whose grandfathers were not even born when this ink was wet. The Union was once bitterly attacked and had to be defended. Men like Abraham Lincoln arose from the people to lead the fight with inspired courage and great wisdom. They too are authors. By their words and deeds they wrote the history today preserved by the library. New methods of recording history brought new media to the library's collections. These are prints of the earliest newsreels. In this old sequence we see a parade in North Africa honoring Mr. Roosevelt. But this Roosevelt is Theodore Roosevelt and the occasion his goodwill voyage in 1910. Here are preserved the personalities of the men who have guided the destiny of the nation and who represented the United States in the councils that shaped the modern world. The mementos of leaders like Wilson will be of interest to students of all countries as long as history is written and read. A parade of Congress is more than a mere treasure house. Recognizing the fact that the use of the books is more important than the possession of them is sought to provide every facility that might ease the task of the trained researcher or the ordinary reader. Key to the entire system is the main catalog, a complete detailed listing of the millions of books. In these trays there are over 16 million signposts to help the reader find exactly what he's looking for. In recent years there have been many visitors from distant countries where the right to read has been denied to men because of their politics, their religion, or their race. And in these files they've been able to find the books that tyrants have tried to burn and bomb and banish from the face of the earth. Here the heritage of our culture is available to anyone who would reach for it. Where they print the reference cards not only for its own catalogs, but also to send to other cities and other countries where depository libraries are located. Most countries take advantage of this system.  And so the work of the library is carried beyond its walls. In the very process of organizing knowledge it functions as a creative force. A strange treasure house whose guardians feel most successful when they are sharing the treasure with the whole world. Consulting the cards is the first step in the process of getting a particular book from the 414 miles of shelves. After the request form is filled out, the rest is almost automatic. Grooms properly identified experts may touch and turn the pages of volumes lettered by hand in the Middle Ages. Or scrutinize rare examples of the earliest printing. The Gutenberg Bible has become a symbol of the technical developments that eventually made reading possible for the common man. Five centuries later other developments gave reading to those who so badly need the opening vistas of books, but who could not see the printed page. I lost a world the other day. As anybody found, you will know it by the row of stars around its crowded bound. A rich man might not notice it. Yet to my frugal eye of more esteem than duckets. Today the library provides talking books for the blind readers. And the library puts sound recording to many other uses. Musicians and sociologists can now study American folk songs that have never been transcribed and would otherwise be lost if the library officials did not go into the field to record unknown primitive singers. The roots of music in America go deep into the past and twist across oceans and continents. The music division of the library can furnish the student with all kinds of materials, including priceless old manuscripts. This is the original score of a Bach cantata and this Samoza quintet. Even the handwriting of a composer like Beethoven is of interest to scholars. More important are the pen scratches by which he conveyed his immortal inspiration to the world. This is a manuscript of one of his string quartets. What music that cannot be heard is dead. The library with the help of a few generous patrons gives life to its music collections by presenting eminent artists in regular series of concerts. Typical of such occasions is this Sunday afternoon performance of the Budapest string quartet. Playing on the library's collection of Stradivarius instruments. United States that today honors the cultures of all nations in these halls of learning have not been founded. This fact gives a special significance to the manuscript that Americans prize above all others in the library's collection. The Declaration of Independence and Shrine and a Wall where it can be seen by all who enter this sanctuary of freedom is the earliest statement of American purpose. These people know much of it by heart. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson who wrote those phrases 169 years ago and who pledged his life to give them meaning was one of the founders of the Library of Congress. He knew that democracy must eventually be based on the foundation of an enlightened people. That is why placing facts within reach of the citizen becomes the business of a government. And that is why the first Tuesday in every month is so important to our young friend and the farmers in the hills of Virginia.


This study examined the effects of prenatal cannabis consumption on the epigenetic profile of the placenta and fetus. It found that prenatal cannabis consumption was associated with differential methylation of 581 CPG sites in the placenta, with 573 of these sites being linked to genes related to autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, the placenta showed the highest enrichment of genes related to autism spectrum disorders compared to other tissues. This suggests that prenatal cannabis consumption could be associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in offspring. This article was authored by Lindsay Eshoi-Kendrick, Victoria H.J. Roberts, Rahul J.D. Mello, and others.


So yesterday, I got back from a work exchange program in the Highlands of Scotland and I'm gonna tell you all about it. So this is something that I've never really talked about on my channel, but before I was coming to plan like my study abroad year, I knew that I really wanted to try like a work exchange program when I came abroad. I had seen other YouTubers talk about these work exchange programs and I thought that it was just a really cool way to travel, meet new people, meet locals, and have just a really kind of interesting experience rather than just, you know, going on like a normal weekend trip, which those are really fun too. However, I just thought that it would be like a really cool experience. So basically in these programs, you exchange some of your time in a select location, basically just like for a place to stay for like accommodation. I do want to say that I did partner with World Packers work exchange company to make this video and do this experience. I thought this would be like a really cool thing to share with you guys because I know that my audience has a lot of people who are looking to study abroad or students and I think that this company offers just a great experience for anybody who is looking to number one, build your resume, to see the world and three, travel for pretty cheap. Before I heard about this from YouTube, I would have been super scared to do something like this just because it's sort of like an unknown. Like I don't really know many people in America who do these kinds of things, but the more that I looked into it and researched it and then now I actually have done an experience, I really like at the bottom of my heart, like I recommend that you try and pursue this if you go abroad. All right, so I'm gonna like talk about my experience now, but if this is something that like sounds interesting to you, I do have a discount code for $10 off if you want to join World Packers, but I'll talk about that more later. So I went on this trip with my good friend Liv from school. Give us a smile, Liv. You are. And she's from Finland, so this was her first time into the Highlands and this was like my first sort of long extended stay in the Highlands. I've been a couple times, but it was like for little day trips, like a weekend trip. I think we were there for about 10 days.  There's like one bus because it's a small town, right? So we instead had dinner in this cute little pub and we just sort of like ran around it till the late bus came a few hours later. On day two, we got settled into our accommodation. We were staying at a guest house in the Highlands for hikers that are doing the West Highland way. And one of the stops on this way is this little town of Kinloch, Leven. We had a full kitchen to use and a private room just for ourselves in a shared flat. So the first day we just sort of like bought some student groceries and Liv wanted to make beans on toast, which I have never eaten before. I don't, I feel like I'm just going to know what this tastes like. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's so sucky. Mm-hmm. It just tastes like, it just tastes like baked beans on a piece of toast. We arrived on Thursday night, but we didn't actually start work until Monday. So we had full three days to do whatever we wanted. The first day we went to one of the filming locations for Harry Potter. You can see here. It's actually where like Hagrid's hut is supposed to be in the movies. It used to be there like on the hill, but they took it down after filming, which is so sad. And then on Saturday, our fellow traveler, Megan, who was such a lovely person, drove us out to a hike near Ben Nevis, where we saw this really cool waterfall. The views were really spectacular. And we did this like rope bridge thing, which in the video, it doesn't look that scary, but it was like 10 to 15 feet like above water. It was very cold that day. So I was, I was feeling spicy. I was feeling like an adventurous queen. So yeah, thanks again, Megan, for taking us. We started work on Monday for our host, Lewis, who was super nice. And we only worked about 16 hours a week at the guesthouse. So we had a lot of time to just like hang out, read, do schoolwork. Exams are coming up for us. So we did have enough time to like do some work, explore. And our work consisted of cleaning the rooms and also running check-in one day. And here I am on Monday exploring Kinloch Leven by myself. I hiked up to Graymere's waterfall and then sort of further up the hill. And I got this just incredible view of the water and the lock. And then one night, our host, Lewis, made us this awesome dinner and lunch one day too. He was a super chill boss. And we had a really fun time getting to know him as well as Megan. And on our last night, we went to the pub for a drink which had this incredible view again of the lock. It was such like an odd and funny week of my life. And honestly, I would do it, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think that after COVID, this was such a cool way to get to connect with people. Like we really got to know Megan. We like went out with her a couple of times and we ate dinner together. Got to learn about like her life and her future plans. And the week before, she had met like another traveler who came and we sort of like replaced that traveler. So if this sounds like something that you would want to do, let me just tell you a little bit about World Packers and how they sort of like helped me through this awesome experience. So World Packers is a platform for travelers and hosts to connect for work exchanges. So some of the things that I really liked about World Packers is that they have a verification system. So basically they verify all of the hosts before they even get put on the platform. And then after that, travelers who have been there get to like rate and review each host area. On the site, it's really, really helpful. You can see like where exactly you're going to be staying. You know, whether that be like a hostel, a shared flat, like we were doing a private room, anything in between. It'll tell you if you get meals included, ours did not include any meals, but Lewis did end up making us dinner and lunch a couple of times, which was really, really nice. They'll tell you like how many hours you're going to work a week and then you can read other reviews from travelers. Lewis's place was really highly recommended. So it was super helpful to know that like we were going somewhere that was like safe and people had a good time. So that was like the reviews really, you know, lined up. And I also found it really reassuring that 60% of the World Packers community is made up of female travelers and many of them are solo travelers and they also offer a support team that can assist you with anything you need before, after or during your stay. So like I felt very safe the whole entire time. Like there was never this sort of like, oh, are we going to get there and this is going to fall through or you know, it was just very seamless. It all worked out. So a World Packers membership is about 49 US dollars for an entire year access to volunteer experiences. So yes, membership is paid once and is valid for one whole year, meaning that you can apply for as many volunteer opportunities as you wish anywhere in the world. So if you are interested in doing one of these experiences, you can use the code Kati Blake, all in caps for 10% off when you're going to get your membership. And I know a lot of you guys like also sort of found my channel through gap year stuff. And if you see like other gap year channel, you know, these work exchanges are a very common thing for people to do on a gap year. And now that I have done it, I did it only for 10 days. I can imagine that going somewhere for like a month or two months or like really settling in somewhere can be a really life-changing experience to just like truly immerse yourself in like a local culture or somewhere else and honestly just to have fun. Like we were just laughing the whole week, you know, we got into nature. Anyway, I hope this video was helpful and comment down below if you've ever done one of these experiences or you know, if you have any questions for me. Yeah, I post new videos every Friday so make sure you're subscribed if you aren't already and thank you so much for watching.