Electronic Public Inspection Desk
News release "The Office of the Federal Register has created an Electronic Public Inspection Desk to provide free worldwide electronic access to public documents. For the first time in the 72-year existence of the daily Federal Register, the documents on file are available for viewing anytime, anywhere. Every Federal business day, anyone with access to a computer now can read critical documents governing Federal regulations relating to business, health, and safety as soon as the documents are placed on file. To view these documents, go to www.federalregister.gov. See "View Documents on Public Inspection" on the left hand side. This new desk grants the public access to documents that will be published in the next day's Federal Register as early at 8:45 a.m. EST. Previously, such documents could only be seen by viewing the documents physically located at the Office of the Federal Register in Washington, D.C."

NOAA Declares October Second Warmest for Global Temperatures
News release: "The combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for October 2008 was the second warmest since records began in 1880, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center. NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources."
Climate of 2008 - October in Historical Perspective , National Climatic Data Center, 18 November 2008 Related postings on climate change

EPA Action Plan: Looking Toward a More Cost Effective, Energy Efficient Future
News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy are helping states lead the way in an effort to promote low cost energy efficiency. More than 60 energy, environmental and state policy leaders from across the country have come together to produce the updated National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change. The action plan outlines strategies to help lower the growth in energy demand across the country by more than 50 percent, and shows ways to save more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years. These actions may help to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles."

FTC Issues 2008 Report on U.S. Ethanol Market Concentration
News release: "The Commission has issued the report, 2008 Report on Ethanol Market Concentration. This is the Commission’s fourth annual report on the state of ethanol production in the United States, as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The report concludes that the U.S. fuel ethanol market, measured on the basis of production or capacity, remains unconcentrated."

NASA Successfully Tests First Deep Space Internet
News release: "Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth. "This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," said Adrian Hooke, team lead and manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA and Vint Cerf, a vice president at Google Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., partnered 10 years ago to develop this software protocol. The DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed."

The National Republican National Glee Club was organized in 1872 in Columbus, Ohio, to participate in Ulysses S. Grant's presidential campaign
It subsequently took part in his inauguration and entertained at the White House. The organization carried the name of "Grant and Wilson Glee Club," names of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. The club marched in parades and sang at political affairs. In succeeding campaigns the club adopted the names of presidential candidates and continued to sing and march and was invited to inaugurals. On July 25, 1895, the club was incorporated and chartered as: “The National Republican Glee Club", Columbus, Ohio. Tod “spelled like God” B. Galloway, a Club president in the early days of the organization, was one of the writers of The Wiffenpoof Song.
http://nationalrepublicangleeclub.org/index.htm See various names of the club, lyrics and programs at: http://nationalrepublicangleeclub.org/History.htm

Q. What author writes stories about people living on Earth (referred to as groundhogs or groundlubbers)—people who live on the Moon (referred to as colonials or loonies)—space lawyers, space music, and rolling roads?
A. Robert A. Heinlein
Selective bibliography: The Roads Must Roll, “It’s Great to be Back!”, The Green Hills of Earth, “If This Goes On—“, The Menace From Earth

On November 21, 1620 the pilgrims landed in what is now Provincetown, on Cape Cod. The 102 passengers had been onboard the Mayflower for 65 days.
November 21 is the birthday of Voltaire, (books by this author) the man who helped spark the Enlightenment in France, born François-Marie Arouet in Paris (1694). He was a well-known playwright and poet. He spent most of his late life in exile, and he wrote most of his work from England. In the last year of his life, 1778, he was allowed to return home to Paris. More than 300 people came to visit him his first day in the city, including Benjamin Franklin. Voltaire wrote "Let us read and let us dance ... two amusements that will never do any harm to the world." The Writer’s Almanac