The Senate on December 11 abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12auto.html?_r=1&ref=business

December 11, 2008 was the 100th birthday of composer Elliott Carter Carter's early musical ambitions were fostered in the 1930s and '40s by his friend and mentor Charles Ives, who sold insurance to Carter's parents. Carter emerged as part of a milieu that brought forth choreographer George Balanchine, artist Alexander Calder, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum and Museum of Modern Art as centers of agitation for modernism in the arts in America. The Pulitzer Prize first went to Carter in 1960 in recognition of his works for string quartet. As America's senior composer, Carter has been exceptionally active in recent years, with 30 of his 130 works written in the last 10 years, and nine of them composed in 2007 alone. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22elliott+carter%22+100+birthday+2008&aq=f&oq=

Google has finally released the full version of Google Chrome browser and yanked the 'beta' label off it. Google Chrome 1.0 is available for download and installation on Windows. Meanwhile, Google is reportedly working for Chrome support on Mac OSX and Linux platform. Dell is reportedly in talks with Google for pre-installed components. According to Google UK's managing director Dennis Woodside, Chrome would definitely come pre-installed with a leading maker in early 2009, reports Financial Times. http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Google_Chrome_Beta_No_More/551-96448-643.html

Official Google Search Blog: We're announcing an initiative to help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles from titles as diverse as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony...You can search for magazines through Google Book Search...you'll find magazine articles alongside books results. Magazine articles are tagged with the keyword "Magazine" on the search snippet.

The Tiber, on whose banks Rome was founded, is expected to overflow its banks on December 11, officials said. The area around a historic pedestrian bridge across the river was sealed off, with evacuations of neighboring areas expected later. The river used to flood regularly until high stone embankments were built in the 19th century.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BB2J720081212

"The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women. The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.
All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops®."

Toyland, Toyland,
Little girl and boy land
While you dwell within it
You are ever happy then.

Childhood's Joy land,
Mystic, merry Toyland,
Once you pass its borders
You can never return again.
Babes in Toyland
Book and lyrics by Glen MacDonough,
Music by Victor Herbert (1903)
a fantasy inspired by Frank L. Baum's popular The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Oz Series
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Marvelous Land of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
The Road to Oz
The Emerald City of Oz
The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Little Wizard Stories of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz
The Scarecrow of Oz
Rinkitink In Oz
The Lost Princess Of Oz
The Tin Woodman Of Oz
The Magic of Oz
Glinda Of Oz
http://www.literature.org/authors/baum-l-frank/