New on LLRX.com: 60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes, Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide
FOIA Facts: My Proposals for the FOIA: Following up on the passage earlier this year of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes make two proposals absent from the law, but which would help FOIA requesters. — Published June 29, 2008
60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes - Three techie gurus (Barbara Fullerton, Ed Vawter, and Dina Dreifuerst) take you on a whirlwind, freewheeling virtual trip of the latest, greatest, fun, fanciful, must have gadgets available now and in the near future. — Published June 24, 2008
Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Sabrina I. Pacifici's revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web and database products, services and tools, as well links to reliable sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers. — Published June 1, 2008

Blogger Howard Bashman and Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are debating an issue, but it doesn’t involve a weighty legal question. Instead it concerns a grammar question. Now a linguistics professor is weighing in on the dispute, and he’s supporting Bashman’s view, Bashman writes on his blog How Appealing.
The dispute concerns this passage from a Posner opinion about whether an “ostrich” jury instruction was appropriate: “The reference of course is to the legend that ostriches when frightened bury their head in the sand. It is pure legend and a canard on a very distinguished bird.” Is the correct word “head” or “heads”?
Bashman politely questioned the use of the singular “head” in a post on June 25. Posner noticed, and sent an equally polite e-mail, saying, “Dear Prof. Bashman, to say ‘ostriches hide their heads in the sand’ would imply that each ostrich had more than one head.”
Now Bashman notes a blog entry on Language Log by linguistics professor Mark Liberman of the University of Pennsylvania. Liberman concludes that the plural “heads” is more widely used and clearer. Another jurist who used the plural construction is Justice Antonin Scalia, Liberman writes. In Lee v. Weisman, Scalia referred to President Bush’s request that those attending his inauguration “bow their heads” and pray.
Bashman and Posner agree on another issue: Posner’s reference to the “canard” about ostriches burying their heads is a humorous play on the word, which is derived from the French word for "duck." Posner added a P.S. in his note to Bashman, saying, “And yes, canards fly--glad you caught the pun.”
http://www.abajournal.com/news/blogger_and_posner_differ_over_grammar_question_agree_on_pun/

devil's advocate (DEV-uhlz AD-vuh-kayt) noun
One who argues against something for the sake of argument, for example, to provoke discussion and subject a plan to thorough examination. From Latin advocatus diaboli (devil's advocate).
The Roman Catholic Church used to have a person appointed as a devil's advocate to argue against elevating someone to sainthood. The person arguing for the proposition was known as God's advocate (Latin advocatus dei).
A.Word.A.Day

From June 22 to 26th, I attended the 49th national convention of the American Guild of Organists http://www.ago2008.org/ in the Twin Cities with concerts, competitions, commissioned works and workshops attended by people from every state of the union plus 70 people from other countries. The schedule went from 8:30 a.m. to about 10 p.m. with exhibits open until midnight. One highlight was Pebble Beach Sojourn, performed by organist and University of Michigan graduate James Diaz with winds and percussion. There was so much firepower at the end that I imagined giants with golf bags marching in precision. I’ve suggested this piece as a possibility to the Toledo Symphony. Click on title to hear it here: http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2007/0713/

The organ at Bethel University, where the piece was played, depicts a story saying that Jacob had a dream, and in his dream was a stairway reaching to heaven from earth. On the stairway were angels ascending and descending. After Jacob awoke, he built an altar and called the place where he had been Bethel. The pipes in the middle of the chamber of the organ depict the angels ascending and descending the stairway.

Recommended restaurants in Minneapolis:
Hell’s Kitchen http://www.hellskitcheninc.com/HellsKitchenWelcome.html
Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant http://www.dakotacooks.com/

Misuse of apostrophes http://www.apostropheabuse.com/

For the first time I can remember, we are taking “back to back” trips. We returned from our Wisconsin and Minnesota adventure on June 28 and will leave on July 3 to go to Long Island, and from there to Massachusetts. Don’t forget me—will get back to you upon my return.

It was on July 1, 1858 that a paper by Charles Darwin about his theory of evolution was first presented to a public audience. Darwin had actually come up with the theory 20 years before that, in 1837. Back then, he drafted a 35-page sketch of his ideas and arranged with his wife to publish the sketch after his death. Then, for the next 20 years, he told almost no one about the theory. He practically went into hiding, moving to a small town and living like a monk, with specific times each day for walking, napping, reading, and backgammon. He was so reclusive that he even had the road lowered outside his house, to prevent passersby from looking in the window.
July 1 is the birthday of grammarian and professor William Strunk, Jr., born in Cincinnati, Ohio (1869). He's best known for his work The Elements of Style, which he wrote in 1918, while he was an English professor at Cornell University, in order "to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention ... on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated." The original edition of 1918, printed privately, was only 43 pages long. It became a classic when E. B. White, who was once a student of his, published a revised 1959 edition, about a decade after Strunk's death.
The Writer’s Almanac