On March 29, Google darkened its home page in the United States to alert people to Earth Hour http://www10.earthhourus.org/. Earth Hour, created by World Wildlife Fund, urged people to turn off the lights for one hour at 8 p.m. local time to illustrate a commitment to conservation.
NPR: San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban Interests Other Cities
San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban Interests Other Cities, by David Gorn: "In San Francisco, the age-old question "Paper or plastic?" was answered one year ago this week. The city banned hard-to-recycle plastic bags in grocery stores, and so far, that translates into 5 million fewer plastic bags every month. Now, other cities are considering similar bans, and companies are developing alternatives to disposable bags."
About the San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban
San Francisco Plastic Bag Ordinance
Oldest Voice Recording, A French Folksong
A 10-second version of "Au Clair De La Lune," now archived online, is said to predate Thomas Edison's Manhattan railroad sounds. A group of researchers has played what is thought to be the oldest recording of a human voice.
The recording played on March 27 predates Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph (previously thought to have recorded the first sound) by 17 years. It captured about 10 seconds of the French folksong "Au Clair De La Lune" on April 9, 1860.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000451
Can a sound be protected? Yes. The NBC broken chord with chimes was officially registered with the U.S. Patent Office in 1950 as a registered service mark, the first known case of a sound receiving trademark protection. They were last heard regularly on NBC television in 1976, used to mark the 50th anniversary of the network.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/sf/chimes.htm
The middle chime is the shortest indicating that it is the highest note.
Serial Number : 72-349496Type of Mark: SERVICE MARKMark Drawing Code: (6) NO DRAWING
Description of Mark: THE MARK COMPRISES A SEQUENCE OF CHIME-LIKE MUSICAL NOTES WHICH ARE IN THE KEY OF C AND SOUNDED THE NOTES G, E, C, THE "G" BEING THE ONE JUST BELOW MIDDLE C, THE "E" THE ONE JUST ABOVE MIDDLE C, AND THE "C" BEING MIDDLE C, THEREBY TO IDENTIFY APPLICANT'S BROADCAST SERVICE.
Owner Name: NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC., THEOwner Address: 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA NEW YORK NEW YORK10112 CORPORATION DELAWARE 9
http://www.radioremembered.org/chimes.htm
history and sound clips at above link
Authenticated Public and Private Laws
GPO is pleased to announce the release of Authenticated Public and Private Laws for the 110th Congress on GPO Access: "Public and private laws are prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). GPO Access contains the text of public and private laws enacted from the 104th Congress to the present. The database for the current session of Congress is updated when the publication of a slip law is authorized by OFR. Documents are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files."
FTC Announces Settlement of Action Against Data Brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint for Failing to Provide Adequate Security for Consumers' Data
News release: "In the FTC’s action against data brokers Reed Elsevier (REI) and Seisint, the complaint alleges that REI - through its LexisNexis data broker business - and Seisint collect and store in databases information about millions of consumers, including names, current and prior addresses, dates of birth, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers. They obtain information about consumers from credit reporting agencies and other sources, and sell products customers use online to find and retrieve the information from their databases. The companies relied on user IDs and passwords (or “user credentials”) to control customer access to consumer information in their databases."
In the Matter of Reed Elsevier Inc. and Seisint, Inc., FTC File No. 052-3094
Wistful
by Donna Dean
Wherefore art thou, spring aborning?
Thou hast left me sad and mourning.
In the north I suffer longer
Waiting for the cold to flounder
Would thou find your way up North
Spreading warmth and bringing forth
Sunshine, flowers, color plenty
lifting spirits for so many
Bringing hope and giving freedom
From this trap that is not Eden.
On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated in Paris. It was built for the Paris Exposition as part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, and also as a demonstration of the structural capabilities of iron.
The tower elicited strong reactions after its opening. A petition of 300 names, including writers Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola, and Alexandre Dumas the younger, was sent to the city government protesting its construction. The petition read, "We, the writers, painters, sculptors, architects, and lovers of the beauty of Paris, do protest with all our vigor and all our indignation, in the name of French taste and endangered French art and history, against the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower."
On March 31, 1836 Charles Dickens began publishing his first novel, (books by this author) The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.
The Writer’s Almanac
Mezzmerize (419/891-0800), a Mediterranean restaurant specializing in Lebanese food opened last week at the northeast corner of Dussel Drive and Holland Road in Maumee, Ohio. The interior has unusual lighting, glass, stone and marble, with faux finishes by Toledo artist Beth Covert. When you enter, look up to see fantastic Chihuly-like glass pieces suspended high above. Visit a regular bar, a wine bar, or be seated in one of several dining rooms. The food is wonderful with a chef providing the breads and pizza crusts, and you can get small or large portions. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Owner Sam Bazzi and his staff will strive to provide excellent food and service.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
I seriously cleaned my oven this morning for the first time in about 20 years. It went well. It helped that I put a bowl of vinegar and water in the oven overnight to loosen the goop.
The snow is twinkling down—we’ve had close to 60 inches of sparkly stuff this past season. But let’s think about April because
April is National Poetry Month (NPM)
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
see list of events and frequently asked questions
Ways to celebrate
Memorize a poem
Recite a poem to family and friends
Organize a poetry reading
Put a poem in a letter
Eye/visual/sight rhyme looks like it rhymes but doesn’t
love, move height, weight
If the words look different, but actually rhyme, what shall we call it? Ear rhyme?
thyme, rime honey, funny
Near rhyme assonance, the repetition of identical vowel sounds in words
deep green sea
Poetry example: The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe
Eye Rhymes: Visual Art and Manuscripts of Sylvia Plath
another meaning is used for eye rhyme here
http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/092702/text/plath2.html
Symphonic diplomacy http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/asia/27symphony.html
When the New York Philharmonic played the opening notes of “Arirang,” a beloved Korean folk song, a murmur rippled through the audience. Many in the audience perched forward in their seats. The “Arirang” rendition also proved moving for the orchestra’s eight members of Korean origin. “It brought tears to my eyes,” said Michelle Kim, a violinist whose parents moved from the North to Seoul, South Korea, during the Korean War.
Select recordings of Arirang here
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=philharmonic+korea+arirang&spell=1
Jane's Information Services Ranks 50 Most Stable and Prosperous Countries in the World
UK Times Online: "A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations with the US at 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th. Here is the full list..."
Richard Widmark (1914-2008) was born in Sunrise, Minnesota and graduated from high school in Princeton, Illinois as senior class president. On a full scholarship at Lake Forest College in Illinois, he played end on the football team, took third place in a state oratory contest, starred in plays and was, again, senior class president. Graduating in 1936, he spent two years as an instructor in the Lake Forest drama department while acting in stage productions.
Then he headed to New York City, where a classmate was producing 15-minute radio soap operas and cast Mr. Widmark in a variety of roles. After a successful 10 years as a radio actor, Mr. Widmark tried the movies with “Kiss of Death,” which was being filmed in New York. He was originally turned down for the role by the director, Henry Hathaway, who told him that he was too clean cut and intellectual for the part. It was Darryl F. Zanuck, the Fox studio head, who, after watching Mr. Widmark’s screen test, insisted that he be given the part.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27widmark.html?ref=obituaries
Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2008 Update in Perspective
Related to this posting today, Social Security Trustees Release 2008 Annual Report, a new report, Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2008 Update in Perspective, by Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
"The Trustees of the Social Security system have just issued the 2008 projections for the system over the next 75 years. The report contains two surprises. First, the 75-year deficit dropped to 1.70 percent of taxable payrolls from the roughly 2 percent it has been for the last 14 years. The decline was driven primarily by a change in the way Social Security projects immigration. Although the Trustees still project that the trust fund will be exhausted in 2041, the improved outlook enables scheduled payroll taxes to cover more than three-quarters of promised benefits after that point. The second noteworthy difference between this report and earlier ones is that it has not been signed by any public trustees. But this omission reflects a failure with the political process, not with the program itself."
To your health Energy Drink
Cool water that you have cooked vegetables in. Use as a drink or use in sauces, soups, stews, gravies.
Variation: Cool pasta water and water plants or use in soup—especially good with bean soup.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com
The snow is twinkling down—we’ve had close to 60 inches of sparkly stuff this past season. But let’s think about April because
April is National Poetry Month (NPM)
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
see list of events and frequently asked questions
Ways to celebrate
Memorize a poem
Recite a poem to family and friends
Organize a poetry reading
Put a poem in a letter
Eye/visual/sight rhyme looks like it rhymes but doesn’t
love, move height, weight
If the words look different, but actually rhyme, what shall we call it? Ear rhyme?
thyme, rime honey, funny
Near rhyme assonance, the repetition of identical vowel sounds in words
deep green sea
Poetry example: The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe
Eye Rhymes: Visual Art and Manuscripts of Sylvia Plath
another meaning is used for eye rhyme here
http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/092702/text/plath2.html
Symphonic diplomacy http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/asia/27symphony.html
When the New York Philharmonic played the opening notes of “Arirang,” a beloved Korean folk song, a murmur rippled through the audience. Many in the audience perched forward in their seats. The “Arirang” rendition also proved moving for the orchestra’s eight members of Korean origin. “It brought tears to my eyes,” said Michelle Kim, a violinist whose parents moved from the North to Seoul, South Korea, during the Korean War.
Select recordings of Arirang here
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=philharmonic+korea+arirang&spell=1
Jane's Information Services Ranks 50 Most Stable and Prosperous Countries in the World
UK Times Online: "A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations with the US at 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th. Here is the full list..."
Richard Widmark (1914-2008) was born in Sunrise, Minnesota and graduated from high school in Princeton, Illinois as senior class president. On a full scholarship at Lake Forest College in Illinois, he played end on the football team, took third place in a state oratory contest, starred in plays and was, again, senior class president. Graduating in 1936, he spent two years as an instructor in the Lake Forest drama department while acting in stage productions.
Then he headed to New York City, where a classmate was producing 15-minute radio soap operas and cast Mr. Widmark in a variety of roles. After a successful 10 years as a radio actor, Mr. Widmark tried the movies with “Kiss of Death,” which was being filmed in New York. He was originally turned down for the role by the director, Henry Hathaway, who told him that he was too clean cut and intellectual for the part. It was Darryl F. Zanuck, the Fox studio head, who, after watching Mr. Widmark’s screen test, insisted that he be given the part.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27widmark.html?ref=obituaries
Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2008 Update in Perspective
Related to this posting today, Social Security Trustees Release 2008 Annual Report, a new report, Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2008 Update in Perspective, by Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
"The Trustees of the Social Security system have just issued the 2008 projections for the system over the next 75 years. The report contains two surprises. First, the 75-year deficit dropped to 1.70 percent of taxable payrolls from the roughly 2 percent it has been for the last 14 years. The decline was driven primarily by a change in the way Social Security projects immigration. Although the Trustees still project that the trust fund will be exhausted in 2041, the improved outlook enables scheduled payroll taxes to cover more than three-quarters of promised benefits after that point. The second noteworthy difference between this report and earlier ones is that it has not been signed by any public trustees. But this omission reflects a failure with the political process, not with the program itself."
To your health Energy Drink
Cool water that you have cooked vegetables in. Use as a drink or use in sauces, soups, stews, gravies.
Variation: Cool pasta water and water plants or use in soup—especially good with bean soup.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com
Thursday, March 27, 2008
U.S. International Reserve Position
March 26, 2008 U.S. International Reserve Position: "The Treasury Department today released U.S. reserve assets data for the latest week. As indicated in this table, U.S. reserve assets totaled $75,146 million as of the end of that week, compared to $75,366 million as of the end of the prior week."
Morals to a Japanese tale where the stonecutter is granted all his wishes
The grass is not greener on the other side.
There are two sides to every story.
There’s no place like home.
Be careful what you wish for.
Can you think of others?
National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program
"The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have initiated a joint national data center energy efficiency information program. The program coordinates a wide variety of activities from the DOE Industrial Technologies Program Save Energy Now initiative, the DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and the EPA ENERGY STAR program. The following Fact Sheets summarize ongoing efforts at DOE and EPA to provide information, tools, and resources to owners and operators of data centers to assist in their efforts to reduce energy consumption in their buildings. They also provide links to a wide variety of organizations outside of the Federal government that can be of help in your efforts to improve energy efficiency."
Fact Sheet for the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program (10 pages, PDF)
Short fact sheet (2 pages, PDF)
Editing rules
Verbs has to agree with their subjects.Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.One-word sentences? Eliminate.If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.Who needs rhetorical questions?Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. (You will see examples of this in headlines and text of The Blade frequently.)
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
Q. What do lamb, limb and jamb have in common?
A. The last letter in each word is silent.
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
http://www.irazoo.com/InterestingTopics/President's-Council-on-Physical-Fitness-and-Sports.aspx
Click on #4 to register for the President’s Challenge—registration is open through April 3.
History of the fitness program from 1956-2006
http://www.fitness.gov/50thanniversary/The%20First%20Fifty%20Years.pdf
Executive Orders about the President’s Council
CharterNotice of RenewalExecutive Order 13446 Executive Order 13385 Executive Order 13316 Executive Order 13265Executive Order 13225Executive Order 13138Executive Order 12694Executive Order 12539Executive Order 12399Executive Order 12345
Exercise to music as they did in 1961
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chicken+fat&search_type=
Federal Reserve Study Reveals Biggest Share of Checks Are Consumer to Business
News release: "The Federal Reserve’s 2007 study of the composition of the check market released today shows that nearly 50 percent of checks written are consumer-to-business checks. The Check Sample Study reports on the composition of the check market based on responses from nine large financial institutions that together account for about one quarter of total U.S. paid check volume. The study, which categorizes the use of checks by payer, payee, and purpose, is the third component of the 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study. Results of the first two components of the study were released December 10, 2007."
"The 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study is part of an ongoing effort by the Federal Reserve System to measure and analyze trends in noncash payments in the United States. It consists of three individual studies: the Check Sample Study (2007 CS study), the Depository Institutions Payments Study
Saga continues
Yes, our house reconstruction is almost complete. A few setbacks: We forgot to remove a clock from a wall and it fell off and broke during hammering. We ordered a cabinet made to be 8 inches deep .It arrived 13 inches deep. The plastic tube to our ice maker broke and flooded the kitchen and basement. After repair, it broke again and we had a second flood. The ice maker is removed now, and I don’t intend to ever get another. Workers picked up the cabinet and brought a correctly-sized replacement. They said they had no idea why the first cabinet was the wrong size.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com/
March 26, 2008 U.S. International Reserve Position: "The Treasury Department today released U.S. reserve assets data for the latest week. As indicated in this table, U.S. reserve assets totaled $75,146 million as of the end of that week, compared to $75,366 million as of the end of the prior week."
Morals to a Japanese tale where the stonecutter is granted all his wishes
The grass is not greener on the other side.
There are two sides to every story.
There’s no place like home.
Be careful what you wish for.
Can you think of others?
National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program
"The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have initiated a joint national data center energy efficiency information program. The program coordinates a wide variety of activities from the DOE Industrial Technologies Program Save Energy Now initiative, the DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and the EPA ENERGY STAR program. The following Fact Sheets summarize ongoing efforts at DOE and EPA to provide information, tools, and resources to owners and operators of data centers to assist in their efforts to reduce energy consumption in their buildings. They also provide links to a wide variety of organizations outside of the Federal government that can be of help in your efforts to improve energy efficiency."
Fact Sheet for the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program (10 pages, PDF)
Short fact sheet (2 pages, PDF)
Editing rules
Verbs has to agree with their subjects.Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.One-word sentences? Eliminate.If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.Who needs rhetorical questions?Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. (You will see examples of this in headlines and text of The Blade frequently.)
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
Q. What do lamb, limb and jamb have in common?
A. The last letter in each word is silent.
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
http://www.irazoo.com/InterestingTopics/President's-Council-on-Physical-Fitness-and-Sports.aspx
Click on #4 to register for the President’s Challenge—registration is open through April 3.
History of the fitness program from 1956-2006
http://www.fitness.gov/50thanniversary/The%20First%20Fifty%20Years.pdf
Executive Orders about the President’s Council
CharterNotice of RenewalExecutive Order 13446 Executive Order 13385 Executive Order 13316 Executive Order 13265Executive Order 13225Executive Order 13138Executive Order 12694Executive Order 12539Executive Order 12399Executive Order 12345
Exercise to music as they did in 1961
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chicken+fat&search_type=
Federal Reserve Study Reveals Biggest Share of Checks Are Consumer to Business
News release: "The Federal Reserve’s 2007 study of the composition of the check market released today shows that nearly 50 percent of checks written are consumer-to-business checks. The Check Sample Study reports on the composition of the check market based on responses from nine large financial institutions that together account for about one quarter of total U.S. paid check volume. The study, which categorizes the use of checks by payer, payee, and purpose, is the third component of the 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study. Results of the first two components of the study were released December 10, 2007."
"The 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study is part of an ongoing effort by the Federal Reserve System to measure and analyze trends in noncash payments in the United States. It consists of three individual studies: the Check Sample Study (2007 CS study), the Depository Institutions Payments Study
Saga continues
Yes, our house reconstruction is almost complete. A few setbacks: We forgot to remove a clock from a wall and it fell off and broke during hammering. We ordered a cabinet made to be 8 inches deep .It arrived 13 inches deep. The plastic tube to our ice maker broke and flooded the kitchen and basement. After repair, it broke again and we had a second flood. The ice maker is removed now, and I don’t intend to ever get another. Workers picked up the cabinet and brought a correctly-sized replacement. They said they had no idea why the first cabinet was the wrong size.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tiny Plasma Lightbulb Promises Strong Illumination Without Mercury Problems
Follow up to March 20, 2008 posting, Energy Efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Require Proper Disposal Procedures - this interesting news: The lightbulb of the future? Luxim's plasma lightbulb - "Silicon Valley's Luxim has developed a lightbulb the size of a Tic Tac that gives off as much light as a streetlight. News.com's Michael Kanellos talks to the company about its technology and its plans to expand into various markets."
Related postings on energy efficiency
Paperless Existence Still an Illusion - At Work and at Home
Still Seeking a Truly Digital Life - Analysis: "The French call it 'dematerialization' but the search for a paperless existence continues to elude even technophiles." Peter Sayer, IDG News Service.
FDIC State Profiles - Fourth Quarter 2007
FDIC State Profiles - Fourth Quarter 2007, last updated March 21, 2008.
A stonecutter’s wishes area all granted. What is the moral of this tale?
Oh, if only I were a rich man. He became one, but envied a prince.
Oh, if I were only a prince. But the sun was mightier, and scorched his grass.
Oh, if I were only the sun. But the clouds came between him and the earth.
Oh, that I were a cloud. The cloud’s rain destroyed towns and villages, but not rocks.
Oh, if I were only the rock. A stonecutter came and cut off great blocks.
Oh, if I were only a man. He became a man again and toiled mightily, but he was satisfied.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japan.html
For lexophiles and punophiles
A backward poet writes inverse.A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.A calendar's days are numbered.A boiled egg is hard to beat.Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.Acupuncture: a jab well done
To your health Circles Salad
Wheel-shaped pasta, cooked and drained
Vegetables such as radishes, carrots, leeks zucchini and cucumbers, sliced in circles
Salad dressing
Mix ingredients together and serve at room temperature, or refrigerate and serve chilled.
Variation: Circles and Chunks Salad Add chunks of cheese, meat or croutons.
White Easter
If you live in northwest Ohio, you may want to see the massive rabbit sculpted from snow located on the south side of Sylvania Avenue between Centennial and King Roads. The snow rabbit is positioned seated with long human-like legs going forward.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com/
Follow up to March 20, 2008 posting, Energy Efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Require Proper Disposal Procedures - this interesting news: The lightbulb of the future? Luxim's plasma lightbulb - "Silicon Valley's Luxim has developed a lightbulb the size of a Tic Tac that gives off as much light as a streetlight. News.com's Michael Kanellos talks to the company about its technology and its plans to expand into various markets."
Related postings on energy efficiency
Paperless Existence Still an Illusion - At Work and at Home
Still Seeking a Truly Digital Life - Analysis: "The French call it 'dematerialization' but the search for a paperless existence continues to elude even technophiles." Peter Sayer, IDG News Service.
FDIC State Profiles - Fourth Quarter 2007
FDIC State Profiles - Fourth Quarter 2007, last updated March 21, 2008.
A stonecutter’s wishes area all granted. What is the moral of this tale?
Oh, if only I were a rich man. He became one, but envied a prince.
Oh, if I were only a prince. But the sun was mightier, and scorched his grass.
Oh, if I were only the sun. But the clouds came between him and the earth.
Oh, that I were a cloud. The cloud’s rain destroyed towns and villages, but not rocks.
Oh, if I were only the rock. A stonecutter came and cut off great blocks.
Oh, if I were only a man. He became a man again and toiled mightily, but he was satisfied.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japan.html
For lexophiles and punophiles
A backward poet writes inverse.A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.A calendar's days are numbered.A boiled egg is hard to beat.Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.Acupuncture: a jab well done
To your health Circles Salad
Wheel-shaped pasta, cooked and drained
Vegetables such as radishes, carrots, leeks zucchini and cucumbers, sliced in circles
Salad dressing
Mix ingredients together and serve at room temperature, or refrigerate and serve chilled.
Variation: Circles and Chunks Salad Add chunks of cheese, meat or croutons.
White Easter
If you live in northwest Ohio, you may want to see the massive rabbit sculpted from snow located on the south side of Sylvania Avenue between Centennial and King Roads. The snow rabbit is positioned seated with long human-like legs going forward.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 24, 2008
Energy Efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Require Proper Disposal Procedures
Shining a light on fluorescent bulbs - Energy-efficient coils booming, but disposal of mercury poses problems. By Alex Johnson, MSNBC: "Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs' poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought."
EPA: What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks 12 step procedure
Maine Compact Fluorescent Lamp Breakage Study Report, February 2008
Interviews of United States Supreme Court Justices
In Series of Videos, Supreme Court Justices Make Their Case - Justices' candid observations and pet peeves spill forth in legal writing guru Bryan Garner's video interviews. Legal Times, Tony Mauro March 11, 2008.
"...the collection of videos on LawProse.org were shot at the Supreme Court and they star eight of the nine justices speaking passionately, sarcastically, angrily, into the camera as they answer questions about brief writing, oral advocacy and their own love-hate relationships with the written word. Their interviewer, legal writing guru Bryan Garner, quietly posted the eight videos on the Web site in January. Garner has interviewed dozens of judges, lawyers and writers over the years, seeking video clips for use in his profitable legal writing seminars. But he realized the interviews with the justices, conducted a year ago or more, were a unique treasure that he should not profit from, so he put them up without restriction, editing, fee or fanfare."
The phrase it's all greek to me comes from a translation of the Latin Graecum in the medieval phrase Graecum est; non potest legi—literally, "It is Greek; it cannot be read."
M-W Word for the Wise
FTC Issues 2008 Fair Debt Collection Practices Report to CongressSource: Federal Trade Commission
Issuance of Commission report to Congress: The Commission has authorized the staff to release publicly the 30th Annual Report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This report, which is available now on the FTC’s Web site, summarizes the Commission’s administration and enforcement of the FDCPA during 2007. It presents an overview of the types of consumer complaints received by the Commission, descriptions of the Commission’s debt-collection law enforcement actions, and a summary of the Commission’s consumer and industry education initiatives. The FDCPA prohibits deceptive, unfair, and abusive practices by third-party debt collectors. Section 815 of the FDCPA requires the Commission to submit annual reports to Congress. The Commission vote to issue the report was 5-0.
+ Federal Trade Commission Enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The Thirtieth Annual Report to Congress: The Types of Consumer Complaints Received, Commission Debt Collection Enforcement Actions, and Commission Consumer and Industry Education Initiatives In 2007 (PDF; 138 KB)
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Optimizing a Personal Wine CellarSource: Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Center for Hospitality Research
This report takes what we believe to be the first scientific approach to optimizing a personal wine cellar. We identify the key factors related to optimizing a personal cellar: performance metrics, such as drinking the best possible wine; constraints, such as budget and cellar capacity; and decisions, specifically what to buy and when to consume the purchased wines. We describe the Personal Wine Cellar Optimizer, which is a tool designed to identify the optimum cellar management plan. This report is cosponsored by The Vance A. Christian Beverage Management Center, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
+ Full Report (PDF; 862 KB)
Free registration required.
Permalink
Tips for green living
http://www.idealbite.com/
daily e-mails available--example from idealbite:
Except with fish, salt, and water--which can't be organic
· A "100% organic" label means the product is entirely organic.
· An "organic" label means the product ingredients are at least 95% organic.
· A "made with/contains organic ingredients" means the ingredients are at least 70% organic.
· An "all natural" claim means zilch.
March 22 is a big day for birthdays
Two famous musical composers, Stephen Sondheim born in New York City (1930) and Andrew Lloyd Webber born in London (1948).
Poet Billy Collins, (books by this author) born in New York in 1941. Collins is both a critically acclaimed and popular poet, a unique combination in the world of modern poetry
The Writer’s Almanac
If at work while reading this, you may want to forward the article below to your home PC so you can relax and enjoy the puppets and the music in comfort.
2007 YouTube winners announced
Tens of millions voted for their favorite picks in 12 categories, including music, sports, comedy, politics, eyewitness, and adorable. On March 21, the video-sharing site announced their winners.
This year one of the biggest Internet sensations has been the hugely popular amateur video "Chocolate Rain," which won for best music video. "I don't have any formal training as a musician," Tay Zonday, 25, told ABC News. In the past six months, "Chocolate Rain" has been viewed almost 16 million times.
He still won't explain what those convoluted lyrics mean from the song's catchy refrain, "chocolate rain, this is why you feel the pain." "What is chocolate rain? I always say the question is more important than the answer," Zonday said with a straight face.
Click here to watch "Chocolate Rain." Story
Another big win went to The Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" for best comedy award. The man behind the puppets, Neil Cicierega, said he can't believe 20 million people have watched his video, or that he is among the YouTube elite.
Click here to watch Cicierega's Harry Potter puppets.
Click here to see the full list of winners and their videos on YouTube.com
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4500854
Shining a light on fluorescent bulbs - Energy-efficient coils booming, but disposal of mercury poses problems. By Alex Johnson, MSNBC: "Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs' poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought."
EPA: What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks 12 step procedure
Maine Compact Fluorescent Lamp Breakage Study Report, February 2008
Interviews of United States Supreme Court Justices
In Series of Videos, Supreme Court Justices Make Their Case - Justices' candid observations and pet peeves spill forth in legal writing guru Bryan Garner's video interviews. Legal Times, Tony Mauro March 11, 2008.
"...the collection of videos on LawProse.org were shot at the Supreme Court and they star eight of the nine justices speaking passionately, sarcastically, angrily, into the camera as they answer questions about brief writing, oral advocacy and their own love-hate relationships with the written word. Their interviewer, legal writing guru Bryan Garner, quietly posted the eight videos on the Web site in January. Garner has interviewed dozens of judges, lawyers and writers over the years, seeking video clips for use in his profitable legal writing seminars. But he realized the interviews with the justices, conducted a year ago or more, were a unique treasure that he should not profit from, so he put them up without restriction, editing, fee or fanfare."
The phrase it's all greek to me comes from a translation of the Latin Graecum in the medieval phrase Graecum est; non potest legi—literally, "It is Greek; it cannot be read."
M-W Word for the Wise
FTC Issues 2008 Fair Debt Collection Practices Report to CongressSource: Federal Trade Commission
Issuance of Commission report to Congress: The Commission has authorized the staff to release publicly the 30th Annual Report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This report, which is available now on the FTC’s Web site, summarizes the Commission’s administration and enforcement of the FDCPA during 2007. It presents an overview of the types of consumer complaints received by the Commission, descriptions of the Commission’s debt-collection law enforcement actions, and a summary of the Commission’s consumer and industry education initiatives. The FDCPA prohibits deceptive, unfair, and abusive practices by third-party debt collectors. Section 815 of the FDCPA requires the Commission to submit annual reports to Congress. The Commission vote to issue the report was 5-0.
+ Federal Trade Commission Enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: The Thirtieth Annual Report to Congress: The Types of Consumer Complaints Received, Commission Debt Collection Enforcement Actions, and Commission Consumer and Industry Education Initiatives In 2007 (PDF; 138 KB)
Permalink
Optimizing a Personal Wine CellarSource: Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Center for Hospitality Research
This report takes what we believe to be the first scientific approach to optimizing a personal wine cellar. We identify the key factors related to optimizing a personal cellar: performance metrics, such as drinking the best possible wine; constraints, such as budget and cellar capacity; and decisions, specifically what to buy and when to consume the purchased wines. We describe the Personal Wine Cellar Optimizer, which is a tool designed to identify the optimum cellar management plan. This report is cosponsored by The Vance A. Christian Beverage Management Center, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
+ Full Report (PDF; 862 KB)
Free registration required.
Permalink
Tips for green living
http://www.idealbite.com/
daily e-mails available--example from idealbite:
Except with fish, salt, and water--which can't be organic
· A "100% organic" label means the product is entirely organic.
· An "organic" label means the product ingredients are at least 95% organic.
· A "made with/contains organic ingredients" means the ingredients are at least 70% organic.
· An "all natural" claim means zilch.
March 22 is a big day for birthdays
Two famous musical composers, Stephen Sondheim born in New York City (1930) and Andrew Lloyd Webber born in London (1948).
Poet Billy Collins, (books by this author) born in New York in 1941. Collins is both a critically acclaimed and popular poet, a unique combination in the world of modern poetry
The Writer’s Almanac
If at work while reading this, you may want to forward the article below to your home PC so you can relax and enjoy the puppets and the music in comfort.
2007 YouTube winners announced
Tens of millions voted for their favorite picks in 12 categories, including music, sports, comedy, politics, eyewitness, and adorable. On March 21, the video-sharing site announced their winners.
This year one of the biggest Internet sensations has been the hugely popular amateur video "Chocolate Rain," which won for best music video. "I don't have any formal training as a musician," Tay Zonday, 25, told ABC News. In the past six months, "Chocolate Rain" has been viewed almost 16 million times.
He still won't explain what those convoluted lyrics mean from the song's catchy refrain, "chocolate rain, this is why you feel the pain." "What is chocolate rain? I always say the question is more important than the answer," Zonday said with a straight face.
Click here to watch "Chocolate Rain." Story
Another big win went to The Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" for best comedy award. The man behind the puppets, Neil Cicierega, said he can't believe 20 million people have watched his video, or that he is among the YouTube elite.
Click here to watch Cicierega's Harry Potter puppets.
Click here to see the full list of winners and their videos on YouTube.com
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4500854
Friday, March 21, 2008
March 21, 2:40 p.m. EDT — Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22727948/
See dates and times for full moons in 2008 plus the names given them by Native American tribes.
The Borrowers
A secular love song was borrowed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), re-worked by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) at least five times, revived by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) in 1829, and recorded in many ways, including "American Tune" by Paul Simon.
Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator
http://www.irs.gov/app/espc/
Have your 2007 Form 1040, Form 1040EZ, or Form 1040A available. You will be entering information from one of these forms.
IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) are your source for personal tax help when you believe your tax issue cannot be handled online or by phone, and you want face-to-face tax assistance.
http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/index.html
ValueClick to Pay $2.9 Million to Settle FTC ChargesSource: Federal Trade Commission
Online advertiser ValueClick, Inc., will pay a record $2.9 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its advertising claims and e-mails were deceptive and violated federal law. The agency also charged that ValueClick and its subsidiaries, Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon failed to secure consumers’ sensitive financial information, despite their claims to do so. The settlement, filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, requires ValueClick to clearly and conspicuously disclose the costs and obligations consumers must incur to receive the products it touts as “free” and bars future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. The settlement also bars deceptive claims about the security of the consumer information collected at its e-commerce Web sites.
+ United States of America (for the Federal Trade Commission), Plaintiff, v. ValueClick, Inc., Hi-Speed Media, Inc., and E-Babylon, Inc., Defendants
Permalink
Do Payday Loans Cause Bankruptcy? (PDF; 1.28 MB)Source: Paige Marta Skiba, Vanderbilt University Law School and Jeremy Tobacman, University of Oxford
An estimated ten million American households borrow on payday loans each year. Despite the prevalence of these loans, little is known about the effects of access to this form of short- term, high-cost credit. We match individual-level administrative records on payday borrowing to public records on personal bankruptcy, and we exploit a regression discontinuity to estimate the causal impact of access to payday loans on bankruptcy filings. Though the size of the typical payday loan is only $300, we find that loan approval for first-time applicants increases the two-year Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing rate by 2.48 percentage points. There appear to be two components driving this large effect. First, consumers are already financially stressed when they begin borrowing on payday loans. Second, approved applicants borrow repeatedly on payday loans and pawn loans, which carry very high interest rates. For the subsample that identifes our estimates, the cumulative interest burden from payday and pawn loans amounts to roughly 11% of the total liquid debt interest burden at the time of bankruptcy filing.
Permalink
NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., GlobeSource: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.
+ Complete analysis
Permalink
A group of physicists who are going head-to-head with a publisher because it will not allow them to post parts of their work to Wikipedia, blogs and other forums.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19726473.300-physicists-slam-publishers-over-wikipedia-ban.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
The physicists were upset after the American Physical Society withdrew its offer to publish two studies in Physical Review Letters because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia. The APS asks scientists to transfer their copyright to the society before they can publish in an APS journal.
News release <http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm> : "Free and green. Those are the goals of a pilot program launched today by the U.S. Postal Service that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge. The “Mail Back” program helps consumers make more environmentally friendly choices, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Customers use free envelopes found in 1,500 Post Offices to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage.
Postage is paid for by Clover Technologies Group <http://www.corerecycling.com/> , a nationally recognized company that recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics. If the electronic item or cartridges cannot be refurbished and resold, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled. Clover Technologies Group has a “zero waste to landfill” policy: it does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation’s landfills.
karuna (KUH-roo-na) noun
Loving compassion.
[From Sanskrit karuna (compassion).]
A.Word.A.Day
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22727948/
See dates and times for full moons in 2008 plus the names given them by Native American tribes.
The Borrowers
A secular love song was borrowed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), re-worked by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) at least five times, revived by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) in 1829, and recorded in many ways, including "American Tune" by Paul Simon.
Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator
http://www.irs.gov/app/espc/
Have your 2007 Form 1040, Form 1040EZ, or Form 1040A available. You will be entering information from one of these forms.
IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) are your source for personal tax help when you believe your tax issue cannot be handled online or by phone, and you want face-to-face tax assistance.
http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/index.html
ValueClick to Pay $2.9 Million to Settle FTC ChargesSource: Federal Trade Commission
Online advertiser ValueClick, Inc., will pay a record $2.9 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its advertising claims and e-mails were deceptive and violated federal law. The agency also charged that ValueClick and its subsidiaries, Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon failed to secure consumers’ sensitive financial information, despite their claims to do so. The settlement, filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, requires ValueClick to clearly and conspicuously disclose the costs and obligations consumers must incur to receive the products it touts as “free” and bars future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. The settlement also bars deceptive claims about the security of the consumer information collected at its e-commerce Web sites.
+ United States of America (for the Federal Trade Commission), Plaintiff, v. ValueClick, Inc., Hi-Speed Media, Inc., and E-Babylon, Inc., Defendants
Permalink
Do Payday Loans Cause Bankruptcy? (PDF; 1.28 MB)Source: Paige Marta Skiba, Vanderbilt University Law School and Jeremy Tobacman, University of Oxford
An estimated ten million American households borrow on payday loans each year. Despite the prevalence of these loans, little is known about the effects of access to this form of short- term, high-cost credit. We match individual-level administrative records on payday borrowing to public records on personal bankruptcy, and we exploit a regression discontinuity to estimate the causal impact of access to payday loans on bankruptcy filings. Though the size of the typical payday loan is only $300, we find that loan approval for first-time applicants increases the two-year Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing rate by 2.48 percentage points. There appear to be two components driving this large effect. First, consumers are already financially stressed when they begin borrowing on payday loans. Second, approved applicants borrow repeatedly on payday loans and pawn loans, which carry very high interest rates. For the subsample that identifes our estimates, the cumulative interest burden from payday and pawn loans amounts to roughly 11% of the total liquid debt interest burden at the time of bankruptcy filing.
Permalink
NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., GlobeSource: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.
+ Complete analysis
Permalink
A group of physicists who are going head-to-head with a publisher because it will not allow them to post parts of their work to Wikipedia, blogs and other forums.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19726473.300-physicists-slam-publishers-over-wikipedia-ban.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
The physicists were upset after the American Physical Society withdrew its offer to publish two studies in Physical Review Letters because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia. The APS asks scientists to transfer their copyright to the society before they can publish in an APS journal.
News release <http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm> : "Free and green. Those are the goals of a pilot program launched today by the U.S. Postal Service that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge. The “Mail Back” program helps consumers make more environmentally friendly choices, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Customers use free envelopes found in 1,500 Post Offices to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players – without having to pay for postage.
Postage is paid for by Clover Technologies Group <http://www.corerecycling.com/> , a nationally recognized company that recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics. If the electronic item or cartridges cannot be refurbished and resold, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled. Clover Technologies Group has a “zero waste to landfill” policy: it does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation’s landfills.
karuna (KUH-roo-na) noun
Loving compassion.
[From Sanskrit karuna (compassion).]
A.Word.A.Day
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Welcome, sweet springtime
The vernal equinox occurs on March 20 in 2008, marking the beginning of spring in some cultures. The vernal equinox will occur at 5:48 a.m. at Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). However places that are six hours or more behind UTC will observe the vernal equinox as early as March 19.
Twice a year, around March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23, the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal in all parts of the world. These two days are known as the vernal (or spring) equinox and the autumnal equinox.
The word “equinox” derives from the Latin words meaning “equal night” and refers to the time when the sun crosses the equator. The word “vernal” means “spring” in Latin. At such times, day and night are everywhere of nearly equal length everywhere in the world.
While the vernal equinox marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, it is the start of autumn in many parts of the southern hemisphere.
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/holidays/vernal-equinox-2008.html
On March 16, we heard theatre organist Father Andrew Rogers play at the Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo. http://www.collingwoodartscenter.org/public/
Father Andrew is a staff organist at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, a travel agent, a member of the Global Harmony Band and a director of the Global Harmony Foundation. http://www.global-harmony.org/
In addition to lots of peppy organ solos (sometimes using added percussive attractions) he accompanied Buster Keaton’s film, The Goat.
Federal Reserve announces two initiatives designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly market functioning
News release: "The Federal Reserve on Sunday announced two initiatives designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly market functioning. Liquid, well-functioning markets are essential for the promotion of economic growth. First, the Federal Reserve Board voted unanimously to authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to create a lending facility to improve the ability of primary dealers to provide financing to participants in securitization markets. This facility will be available for business on Monday, March 17. It will be in place for at least six months and may be extended as conditions warrant. Credit extended to primary dealers under this facility may be collateralized by a broad range of investment-grade debt securities. The interest rate charged on such credit will be the same as the primary credit rate, or discount rate, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Second, the Federal Reserve Board unanimously approved a request by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to decrease the primary credit rate from 3-1/2 percent to 3-1/4 percent, effective immediately. This step lowers the spread of the primary credit rate over the Federal Open Market Committee’s target federal funds rate to 1/4 percentage point. The Board also approved an increase in the maximum maturity of primary credit loans to 90 days from 30 days."
Primary Dealer Credit Facility
Terms and conditions
Frequently asked questions
Alan Greenspan, Financial Times: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war. It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities."
To your health Grain berries
1/3 cup rye or wheat berries
1 cup water
Cook ingredients to desired consistency, adding liquid if necessary. Twenty minutes will be crunchy if you have soaked the berries overnight. Without soaking, it will take an hour or so. If desired, add one or more of the following:
Butter, salt, honey, slivered nuts, diced fruits
Serves one as a cereal or side dish.
You’ve heard the words sexism, chauvinism, racism, ageism, weightism, heightism. But have you heard of--
speciesism (SPEE-shee-ziz-uhm, -see-ziz-uhm) noun
The assumption of superiority of humans over other animal species,
especially to justify their exploitation.
[Coined by psychologist Richard D. Ryder (born 1940) in 1973. From Latin species (appearance, kind, form), from specere (to look). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is also the ancestor of such words as suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), espionage, despise, telescope, spectator, and spectacles.]
A.Word.A.Day
Although we moderns consider knowledge a noun, back in the days of Middle and Early Modern English, knowledge was a verb. Over time, before it faded from usage in the 1600s, knowledge functioned as a transitive verb meaning both "acknowledge" and "to recognize, admit, or confess the fact or truth of (something)."
M-W Word for the Wise
New GAO Report (PDFs)Source: Government Accountability OfficeIntellectual Property: Federal Enforcement Has Generally Increased, but Assessing Performance Could Strengthen Law Enforcement EffortsHighlights Full Report
Permalink
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1146438/
The Librarian is expected to return to TV in April.
The vernal equinox occurs on March 20 in 2008, marking the beginning of spring in some cultures. The vernal equinox will occur at 5:48 a.m. at Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). However places that are six hours or more behind UTC will observe the vernal equinox as early as March 19.
Twice a year, around March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23, the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal in all parts of the world. These two days are known as the vernal (or spring) equinox and the autumnal equinox.
The word “equinox” derives from the Latin words meaning “equal night” and refers to the time when the sun crosses the equator. The word “vernal” means “spring” in Latin. At such times, day and night are everywhere of nearly equal length everywhere in the world.
While the vernal equinox marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, it is the start of autumn in many parts of the southern hemisphere.
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/holidays/vernal-equinox-2008.html
On March 16, we heard theatre organist Father Andrew Rogers play at the Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo. http://www.collingwoodartscenter.org/public/
Father Andrew is a staff organist at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, a travel agent, a member of the Global Harmony Band and a director of the Global Harmony Foundation. http://www.global-harmony.org/
In addition to lots of peppy organ solos (sometimes using added percussive attractions) he accompanied Buster Keaton’s film, The Goat.
Federal Reserve announces two initiatives designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly market functioning
News release: "The Federal Reserve on Sunday announced two initiatives designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly market functioning. Liquid, well-functioning markets are essential for the promotion of economic growth. First, the Federal Reserve Board voted unanimously to authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to create a lending facility to improve the ability of primary dealers to provide financing to participants in securitization markets. This facility will be available for business on Monday, March 17. It will be in place for at least six months and may be extended as conditions warrant. Credit extended to primary dealers under this facility may be collateralized by a broad range of investment-grade debt securities. The interest rate charged on such credit will be the same as the primary credit rate, or discount rate, at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Second, the Federal Reserve Board unanimously approved a request by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to decrease the primary credit rate from 3-1/2 percent to 3-1/4 percent, effective immediately. This step lowers the spread of the primary credit rate over the Federal Open Market Committee’s target federal funds rate to 1/4 percentage point. The Board also approved an increase in the maximum maturity of primary credit loans to 90 days from 30 days."
Primary Dealer Credit Facility
Terms and conditions
Frequently asked questions
Alan Greenspan, Financial Times: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war. It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities."
To your health Grain berries
1/3 cup rye or wheat berries
1 cup water
Cook ingredients to desired consistency, adding liquid if necessary. Twenty minutes will be crunchy if you have soaked the berries overnight. Without soaking, it will take an hour or so. If desired, add one or more of the following:
Butter, salt, honey, slivered nuts, diced fruits
Serves one as a cereal or side dish.
You’ve heard the words sexism, chauvinism, racism, ageism, weightism, heightism. But have you heard of--
speciesism (SPEE-shee-ziz-uhm, -see-ziz-uhm) noun
The assumption of superiority of humans over other animal species,
especially to justify their exploitation.
[Coined by psychologist Richard D. Ryder (born 1940) in 1973. From Latin species (appearance, kind, form), from specere (to look). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is also the ancestor of such words as suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), espionage, despise, telescope, spectator, and spectacles.]
A.Word.A.Day
Although we moderns consider knowledge a noun, back in the days of Middle and Early Modern English, knowledge was a verb. Over time, before it faded from usage in the 1600s, knowledge functioned as a transitive verb meaning both "acknowledge" and "to recognize, admit, or confess the fact or truth of (something)."
M-W Word for the Wise
New GAO Report (PDFs)Source: Government Accountability OfficeIntellectual Property: Federal Enforcement Has Generally Increased, but Assessing Performance Could Strengthen Law Enforcement EffortsHighlights Full Report
Permalink
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1146438/
The Librarian is expected to return to TV in April.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
When my mother wanted to praise me, she said: “You’re so organized.” I was pleased because organized is a sacred word to librarians. Organization spills over into other facets of my life. For instance, if I see paintings by the same artist in two different rooms at my house, I shift them so that they’re in the same room.
A HALF-DAY AWAY
On March 15, we went to the OMEA (Ohio Music Education Association) 2008 District I Choir Contest held at Archbold High School and heard two Sylvania Northview Choirs along with one choir from Toledo. The three choirs did an excellent job—and, as they sang, frequent freight train horns augmented their sound, blending harmoniously.
Between the first two performances, we went to downtown Archbold for breakfast at The Home Restaurant http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22home+restaurant%22&near=Archbold,+OH&fb=1&view=text&latlng=41522012,-84306296,9701241187365143995 where regular customers table-hop and visit. Then we walked the neat downtown and spotted The Tortilla Factory (Mexican restaurant) http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22tortilla+factory%22&near=Archbold,+OH&fb=1&view=text&latlng=41521849,-84306296,17862695780039611228 housed in a former bank.
After hearing the other two choirs, we took the scenic route home, passing Sauder Village http://www.saudervillage.org/home/default.asp and Das Essen Haus http://www.restaurantica.com/restaurants/314345/
The 2008 Newbery Medal winner is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by librarian Laura Amy Schlitz.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm
The 2008 Caldecott Medal winner is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm
Employer Costs for Employee CompensationSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $28.11 per hour worked in December 2007, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $19.62, accounted for 69.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.49, accounted for the remaining 30.2 percent. (See table 1.) Employers averaged $2.23 or 7.9 percent of total compensation for legally required benefits for every hour worked in December 2007. Legally required benefits — which include Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation — is only one of several benefit categories included in Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, along with wages and salaries. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation is a product of the National Compensation Survey, which measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.
Employer costs for insurance benefits — life, health, and disability — averaged $2.34 per hour (8.3 percent of total compensation). Paid leave benefits (vacations, holidays, sick leave, and other leave) averaged $1.96 (7.0 percent); retirement and savings averaged $1.24 (4.4 percent); and supplemental pay averaged 72 cents (2.6 percent) per hour worked.
Permalink
Gov't Requirements for Banks to Provide Suspicious Activity Reports
Newsweek: Unintended Consequences - Spitzer got snagged by the fine print of the Patriot Act
"The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the Treasury Department authority to demand more information from banks about their customers' financial transactions. Congress wanted to help the Feds identify terrorist money launderers. But Treasury went further. It issued stringent new regulations that required banks themselves to look for unusual transactions (such as odd patterns of cash withdrawals or wire transfers) and submit SARs—Suspicious Activity Reports—to the government. Facing potentially stiff penalties if they didn't comply, banks and other financial institutions installed sophisticated software to detect anomalies among millions of daily transactions. They began ranking the risk levels of their customers—on a scale of zero to 100—based on complex formulas that included the credit rating, assets and profession of the account holder."
A HALF-DAY AWAY
On March 15, we went to the OMEA (Ohio Music Education Association) 2008 District I Choir Contest held at Archbold High School and heard two Sylvania Northview Choirs along with one choir from Toledo. The three choirs did an excellent job—and, as they sang, frequent freight train horns augmented their sound, blending harmoniously.
Between the first two performances, we went to downtown Archbold for breakfast at The Home Restaurant http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22home+restaurant%22&near=Archbold,+OH&fb=1&view=text&latlng=41522012,-84306296,9701241187365143995 where regular customers table-hop and visit. Then we walked the neat downtown and spotted The Tortilla Factory (Mexican restaurant) http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22tortilla+factory%22&near=Archbold,+OH&fb=1&view=text&latlng=41521849,-84306296,17862695780039611228 housed in a former bank.
After hearing the other two choirs, we took the scenic route home, passing Sauder Village http://www.saudervillage.org/home/default.asp and Das Essen Haus http://www.restaurantica.com/restaurants/314345/
The 2008 Newbery Medal winner is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by librarian Laura Amy Schlitz.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm
The 2008 Caldecott Medal winner is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm
Employer Costs for Employee CompensationSource: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $28.11 per hour worked in December 2007, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $19.62, accounted for 69.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.49, accounted for the remaining 30.2 percent. (See table 1.) Employers averaged $2.23 or 7.9 percent of total compensation for legally required benefits for every hour worked in December 2007. Legally required benefits — which include Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation — is only one of several benefit categories included in Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, along with wages and salaries. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation is a product of the National Compensation Survey, which measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.
Employer costs for insurance benefits — life, health, and disability — averaged $2.34 per hour (8.3 percent of total compensation). Paid leave benefits (vacations, holidays, sick leave, and other leave) averaged $1.96 (7.0 percent); retirement and savings averaged $1.24 (4.4 percent); and supplemental pay averaged 72 cents (2.6 percent) per hour worked.
Permalink
Gov't Requirements for Banks to Provide Suspicious Activity Reports
Newsweek: Unintended Consequences - Spitzer got snagged by the fine print of the Patriot Act
"The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the Treasury Department authority to demand more information from banks about their customers' financial transactions. Congress wanted to help the Feds identify terrorist money launderers. But Treasury went further. It issued stringent new regulations that required banks themselves to look for unusual transactions (such as odd patterns of cash withdrawals or wire transfers) and submit SARs—Suspicious Activity Reports—to the government. Facing potentially stiff penalties if they didn't comply, banks and other financial institutions installed sophisticated software to detect anomalies among millions of daily transactions. They began ranking the risk levels of their customers—on a scale of zero to 100—based on complex formulas that included the credit rating, assets and profession of the account holder."
Monday, March 17, 2008
Quotations from nonstopenglish.com
http://www.nonstopenglish.com/reading/quotations/
quote directly below came from this database—you get the quote, the source, birth and death dates, occupation—“one-stop shopping at nonstop English”
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish-born British dramatist
Never put your hand out farther than you can draw it back again.
Irish proverb
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age.
Why is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th.
http://www.st-patricks-day.com/about_saintpatrick.asp
To your computer’s health
Do not open or forward mass messages because sometimes they pick up viruses and you may bring your own system down or that of the people you send to. Viruses can also attack two people who keep up an “e-mail conversation” for a long time.
GAO Report: EPA Needs to Follow Best Practices and Procedures When Reorganizing Its Library Network
Environmental Protection: EPA Needs to Ensure That Best Practices and Procedures Are Followed When Making Further Changes to Its Library Network, GAO-08-304, February 29, 2008.
"Established in 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) library network provides staff and the public with access to environmental information. Its 26 libraries contain a wide range of information and resources and are located at headquarters, regional offices, research centers, and laboratories nationwide. In 2006, EPA issued a plan to reorganize the network beginning in fiscal year 2007. The plan proposed closing libraries and dispersing, disposing of, and digitizing library materials. GAO was asked to assess (1) the status of, and plans for, the network reorganization; (2) EPA's rationale for reorganizing the network; (3) the extent to which EPA has communicated with and solicited the views of EPA staff and external stakeholders in conducting the reorganization; (4) EPA's steps to maintain the quality of library services after the reorganization; and (5) how EPA is funding the network and its reorganization. For this study, GAO reviewed pertinent EPA documents and interviewed EPA officials and staff from each of the libraries. Since 2006, EPA has implemented its reorganization plan to close physical access to 4 libraries. In the same period, 6 other libraries in the network decided to change their operations, while 16 have not changed. Some of these libraries have also digitized, dispersed, or disposed of their materials. Since the reorganization, EPA has begun drafting a common set of agencywide library procedures and has hired a program manager for the network. While these procedures are under development, however, EPA has imposed a moratorium on further changes to the network in response to congressional and other expressions of concern. EPA's primary rationale for the library network reorganization was to generate cost savings by creating a more coordinated library network and increasing the electronic delivery of services. However, EPA did not fully follow procedures recommended in a 2004 EPA study of steps that should be taken to prepare for a reorganization. In particular, EPA did not fully evaluate alternative models, and associated costs and benefits, of library services. EPA officials stated that they needed to act quickly to reorganize the library network in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction. EPA did not develop procedures to inform staff and the public on the final configuration of the library network, and EPA libraries varied considerably and were limited in the extent to which they communicated with and solicited views from stakeholders before and during the reorganization effort. In particular, EPA's plan did not include information that the Chemical Library was to close, and EPA did not inform staff or the public until after the fact. EPA's communication procedures were limited or inconsistent because EPA acted quickly to make changes in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction, and because of the decentralized nature of the library network."
Related postings on EPA Library Closures
Golden bells, silver bells, brazen bell, iron bells, Poe bells
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/venturi-poebells.html
Homicide and verbicide--that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life--are alike forbidden.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1908-1894) poet, novelist, essayist, and physician
http://www.nonstopenglish.com/reading/quotations/
quote directly below came from this database—you get the quote, the source, birth and death dates, occupation—“one-stop shopping at nonstop English”
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish-born British dramatist
Never put your hand out farther than you can draw it back again.
Irish proverb
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age.
Why is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th.
http://www.st-patricks-day.com/about_saintpatrick.asp
To your computer’s health
Do not open or forward mass messages because sometimes they pick up viruses and you may bring your own system down or that of the people you send to. Viruses can also attack two people who keep up an “e-mail conversation” for a long time.
GAO Report: EPA Needs to Follow Best Practices and Procedures When Reorganizing Its Library Network
Environmental Protection: EPA Needs to Ensure That Best Practices and Procedures Are Followed When Making Further Changes to Its Library Network, GAO-08-304, February 29, 2008.
"Established in 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) library network provides staff and the public with access to environmental information. Its 26 libraries contain a wide range of information and resources and are located at headquarters, regional offices, research centers, and laboratories nationwide. In 2006, EPA issued a plan to reorganize the network beginning in fiscal year 2007. The plan proposed closing libraries and dispersing, disposing of, and digitizing library materials. GAO was asked to assess (1) the status of, and plans for, the network reorganization; (2) EPA's rationale for reorganizing the network; (3) the extent to which EPA has communicated with and solicited the views of EPA staff and external stakeholders in conducting the reorganization; (4) EPA's steps to maintain the quality of library services after the reorganization; and (5) how EPA is funding the network and its reorganization. For this study, GAO reviewed pertinent EPA documents and interviewed EPA officials and staff from each of the libraries. Since 2006, EPA has implemented its reorganization plan to close physical access to 4 libraries. In the same period, 6 other libraries in the network decided to change their operations, while 16 have not changed. Some of these libraries have also digitized, dispersed, or disposed of their materials. Since the reorganization, EPA has begun drafting a common set of agencywide library procedures and has hired a program manager for the network. While these procedures are under development, however, EPA has imposed a moratorium on further changes to the network in response to congressional and other expressions of concern. EPA's primary rationale for the library network reorganization was to generate cost savings by creating a more coordinated library network and increasing the electronic delivery of services. However, EPA did not fully follow procedures recommended in a 2004 EPA study of steps that should be taken to prepare for a reorganization. In particular, EPA did not fully evaluate alternative models, and associated costs and benefits, of library services. EPA officials stated that they needed to act quickly to reorganize the library network in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction. EPA did not develop procedures to inform staff and the public on the final configuration of the library network, and EPA libraries varied considerably and were limited in the extent to which they communicated with and solicited views from stakeholders before and during the reorganization effort. In particular, EPA's plan did not include information that the Chemical Library was to close, and EPA did not inform staff or the public until after the fact. EPA's communication procedures were limited or inconsistent because EPA acted quickly to make changes in response to a proposed fiscal year 2007 funding reduction, and because of the decentralized nature of the library network."
Related postings on EPA Library Closures
Golden bells, silver bells, brazen bell, iron bells, Poe bells
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/venturi-poebells.html
Homicide and verbicide--that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life--are alike forbidden.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1908-1894) poet, novelist, essayist, and physician
Friday, March 14, 2008
Coming to Shumaker charity sale in Toledo
Inferno by native Toledoan Karen Harper hardbound 390 pages
http://www.karenharperauthor.com/contemp.html
Fat Ollie’s Book by Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter
http://www.edmcbain.com/
He wrote The Blackboard Jungle as Evan Hunter in 1954 and as Ed McBain received the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 1986, and in 1998 was the first American to receive a Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. hardbound 271 pages
Immoral by Brian Freeman http://www.bfreemanbooks.com/ hardbound 366 pages
Debut thriller won the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel. http://www.mysteryreaders.org/macavity.html
Stripped by Brian Freeman hardbound 354 pages
Another Jonathan Stride mystery
Proof Positive, a legal thriller by attorney Phillip Margolin hardbound 311 pages
http://www.phillipmargolin.com/
Hour Game by David Baldacci hardbound 437 pages
http://www.davidbaldacci.com/web/content/view/39/41/
Anna’s Book by Ruth Rendell (“Queen of Crime”) writing as Barbara Vine
alternative title is Asta’s Book paperbound 394 pages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Rendell
63 diaries written between 1905 and 1967 hide mysteries
FDIC 2007 Summary of Deposits Survey Data
On March 10, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said that it has updated its survey of detailed deposit information for each of the industry's more than 97,000 domestic branches.
"The Summary of Deposits (SOD) contains deposit data for more than 89,000 branches/offices of FDIC-insured institutions. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) collects deposit balances for commercial and savings banks as of June 30 of each year, and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) collects the same data for savings institutions. Data are collected annually. Users can access data by: (1) single institution, (2) institutions within a geographic area, or (3) aggregated within a geographic area. Features include custom market share reports and downloads."
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.") Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The best-known movement is "O Fortuna" that opens and closes the piece.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Carmina+Burana+(Orff)
You have probably heard “O Fortuna” because it is used in ads on TV for football.
Carmina Burana: 13th-century manuscript that contains songs (the Carmina Burana proper) and six religious plays. The contents of the manuscript are attributed to the goliards (q.v.), wandering scholars and students in western Europe during the 10th to the 13th century who were known for their songs and poems in praise of revelry.
The Carmina Burana (“Songs from Bavaria”), the largest and greatest collection of secular lyrics, comes from the Benediktbeuern, a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria. It was put together in the 13th century, though most of the songs are much older, and contains work by many of the finest poets of the age.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-96203/Carmina-Burana
Charlotte city flag and seal
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/us-nccha.html
Columbus city flag and seal
http://gwav.tripod.com/issue_6.htm
Tampa city flag and seal
http://www.tampagov.net/dept_City_Clerk/Information_resources/archives/City_of_Tampa_Flag.asp
Toledo city flag and seal
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-oh-to.html
Three tales heard at a workshop on March 13, 2008
(1) Erik Satie’s Vexations is an unique piece for piano consisting of a simple motif repeated 840 times. The work was found on a single page in his notebook after the composer’s death. Some scholars wonder if Satie ever meant it to be taken seriously at all. The composition was first performed by John Cage and other pianists in 1963 with the performance lasting over 19 hours. You can read a fascinating essay on Vexations here.
http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2006/09/11/satie-pianoless-vexations/
(2) A copy of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words was placed in the map division in the British Library. It was “lost” for a long time, before a librarian realized it belonged in the music division, and that’s where it is today.
(3) Karel Husa, winner of the 1993 Grawemeyer Award and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music, is an internationally known composer and conductor. His wife, who speaks very little English, received notification by phone and hung up more than once saying she didn’t want anyone “pulling a surprise” on her.
13 Toledo area nominees for the Jefferson Awards for public and community service were honored on March 12, 2008:
James Findlay, Sr.Bridget HansonCynthia Huffman (Project Dignity)Thomas IrmenRene Kolby-SharpDr. Clint LongeneckerHelen MartausRobert MaxwellMilford RomanoffCharles StockingSam SzorWoody TrautmanReginald Truss
Inferno by native Toledoan Karen Harper hardbound 390 pages
http://www.karenharperauthor.com/contemp.html
Fat Ollie’s Book by Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter
http://www.edmcbain.com/
He wrote The Blackboard Jungle as Evan Hunter in 1954 and as Ed McBain received the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 1986, and in 1998 was the first American to receive a Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. hardbound 271 pages
Immoral by Brian Freeman http://www.bfreemanbooks.com/ hardbound 366 pages
Debut thriller won the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel. http://www.mysteryreaders.org/macavity.html
Stripped by Brian Freeman hardbound 354 pages
Another Jonathan Stride mystery
Proof Positive, a legal thriller by attorney Phillip Margolin hardbound 311 pages
http://www.phillipmargolin.com/
Hour Game by David Baldacci hardbound 437 pages
http://www.davidbaldacci.com/web/content/view/39/41/
Anna’s Book by Ruth Rendell (“Queen of Crime”) writing as Barbara Vine
alternative title is Asta’s Book paperbound 394 pages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Rendell
63 diaries written between 1905 and 1967 hide mysteries
FDIC 2007 Summary of Deposits Survey Data
On March 10, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said that it has updated its survey of detailed deposit information for each of the industry's more than 97,000 domestic branches.
"The Summary of Deposits (SOD) contains deposit data for more than 89,000 branches/offices of FDIC-insured institutions. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) collects deposit balances for commercial and savings banks as of June 30 of each year, and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) collects the same data for savings institutions. Data are collected annually. Users can access data by: (1) single institution, (2) institutions within a geographic area, or (3) aggregated within a geographic area. Features include custom market share reports and downloads."
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.") Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The best-known movement is "O Fortuna" that opens and closes the piece.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Carmina+Burana+(Orff)
You have probably heard “O Fortuna” because it is used in ads on TV for football.
Carmina Burana: 13th-century manuscript that contains songs (the Carmina Burana proper) and six religious plays. The contents of the manuscript are attributed to the goliards (q.v.), wandering scholars and students in western Europe during the 10th to the 13th century who were known for their songs and poems in praise of revelry.
The Carmina Burana (“Songs from Bavaria”), the largest and greatest collection of secular lyrics, comes from the Benediktbeuern, a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria. It was put together in the 13th century, though most of the songs are much older, and contains work by many of the finest poets of the age.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-96203/Carmina-Burana
Charlotte city flag and seal
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/us-nccha.html
Columbus city flag and seal
http://gwav.tripod.com/issue_6.htm
Tampa city flag and seal
http://www.tampagov.net/dept_City_Clerk/Information_resources/archives/City_of_Tampa_Flag.asp
Toledo city flag and seal
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-oh-to.html
Three tales heard at a workshop on March 13, 2008
(1) Erik Satie’s Vexations is an unique piece for piano consisting of a simple motif repeated 840 times. The work was found on a single page in his notebook after the composer’s death. Some scholars wonder if Satie ever meant it to be taken seriously at all. The composition was first performed by John Cage and other pianists in 1963 with the performance lasting over 19 hours. You can read a fascinating essay on Vexations here.
http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2006/09/11/satie-pianoless-vexations/
(2) A copy of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words was placed in the map division in the British Library. It was “lost” for a long time, before a librarian realized it belonged in the music division, and that’s where it is today.
(3) Karel Husa, winner of the 1993 Grawemeyer Award and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music, is an internationally known composer and conductor. His wife, who speaks very little English, received notification by phone and hung up more than once saying she didn’t want anyone “pulling a surprise” on her.
13 Toledo area nominees for the Jefferson Awards for public and community service were honored on March 12, 2008:
James Findlay, Sr.Bridget HansonCynthia Huffman (Project Dignity)Thomas IrmenRene Kolby-SharpDr. Clint LongeneckerHelen MartausRobert MaxwellMilford RomanoffCharles StockingSam SzorWoody TrautmanReginald Truss
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Don’t mess with the IRS
The rendezvous that established Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with high-priced prostitutes occurred last month in one of Washington’s grandest hotels, but the criminal investigation that discovered the tryst began last year in a nondescript office building opposite a Dunkin’ Donuts on Long Island, according to law enforcement officials.
There, in the Hauppauge offices of the Internal Revenue Service, investigators conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York, several officials said.
The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business. The transactions, officials said, suggested possible financial crimes — maybe bribery, political corruption, or something inappropriate involving campaign finance. Prostitution, they said, was the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators.
Soon, the I.R.S. agents, from the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, were working with F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors from Manhattan who specialize in political corruption.
Because the focus was a high-ranking government official, prosecutors were required to seek the approval of the United States attorney general to proceed. Once they secured that permission, the investigation moved forward.
The investigators learned that the money was being moved to pay for sex and that the transactions were being manipulated to conceal Mr. Spitzer’s connection to payments for meetings with prostitutes, the official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/nyregion/11inquire.html?ref=nyregion
Currency reporting
The Currency Transaction Report (CTR) came into existence with the passage of the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, better known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), in 1970.
http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=113003,00.html
Monitoring of banking transactions
When opening a bank account, the bank will look for your name on lists of suspected terrorists, criminals and powerful political figures. All transactions, big or small, will be monitored to look for patterns.
Interview with a banking software company employee on NPR March 12, 2008
Eliot Spitzer’s status as a prominent government official appears to have opened the door to investigation into the matter. Many banks now examine transactions involving so-called “politically exposed persons” — politicians, judges, prosecutors and their families — to ensure they’re not used to hide ill-gotten gains. At least one bank used by Mr. Spitzer, Capital One Corp.’s North Fork unit, flagged his transactions to federal regulators as a potential sign of corruption, people with knowledge of the transactions said.
Public corruption cases are on the rise. For years, the WSJ writes, the financial industry has complained about the burden of complying with federal rules, adopted post-9/11, that require banks to file reports on transactions exceeding $10,000, or any other suspicious activity that suggests money laundering.
It might be paying off. From 2001 through 2006, public corruption prosecutors in the districts, working in tandem with the 30-lawyer public integrity section in Washington, say they’ve charged 365 defendants and gained 332 convictions, a large increase over the 286 defendants charged and 287 convictions in the eight years from 1993 through 2000.
Wall Street Journal Law Blog March 13, 2008
Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve DistrictSource: Federal Reserve Board (via Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)
Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of the Districts cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow, or modest growth. Retail activity in most Districts was reported to be weak or softening, although tourism generally continued to expand. Services industries in many Districts, including staffing services in Boston, port activity in New York, and truck freight volume in Cleveland, appeared to be slowing, but activity in services provided some positive news in Richmond and Dallas. Manufacturing was said to be sluggish or to have slowed in about half the Districts, while several others indicated manufacturing results were mixed or trends were steady.
Residential real estate markets generally remained weak; reports on commercial real estate markets were somewhat mixed, but also suggest slowing, on balance, in many Districts. Most Districts reporting on banking cite tight or tightening credit standards and stable or weaker loan demand. Districts reporting on the agriculture and energy sectors said activity is generally strong.
Upward pressure on prices from rising materials and energy prices was noted in almost all the District reports, but Philadelphia said increases in input costs and output prices had recently become less prevalent, and San Francisco indicated pressures were limited for products other than food and energy. By contrast, wage and salary pressures were generally said to be modest, as the hiring pace slowed in various sectors and labor markets loosened somewhat in many Districts.
Permalink
How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Days: Deathbed Marriages in AmericaSource: Kentucky Law Journal (via SSRN)
Should you be able to marry someone who has only days to live? If so, should the government award the surviving spouse the many property rights that ordinarily flow from marriage?
In almost every state, the only person allowed to challenge the validity of a marriage (or, by extension, the property consequences thereof) after the death of one of the spouses is the surviving spouse! Seems incredible, does it not? The expectant heirs of a dying man (or woman) who marries on his (or her) deathbed cannot challenge the marriage post-death. Ironically, the one person allowed to challenge is the only person who has absolutely no motivation to do so.
How did this rule come about? What, if anything, should we do to change it?
This article explores these and other related questions, including a proposed theoretical framework for a model act giving heirs and beneficiaries standing to sue in order to negate the property consequences that flow from marriage, depending on the level of mental capacity at the time of the marriage.
Several options available for retrieval of full text (PDF; 309 KB).
Permalink
The skeleton of a 150-pound person weighs only about 23 pounds. Your skin is a flexible, protective organ that covers your body. An adult’s skin is about 16 square feet and weighs about 6 pounds.
http://ewe.springbranchisd.com/academics/science/newsletters/EWEScienceNewsletterNov.2004.pdf
"Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts" is an 86-page summary, printed on 50 percent post-consumer recycled paper and full of charts about fiber, endangered forests and carbon footprints. The news: The book world, which uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year, is steadily, if not entirely, finding ways to make production greener.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/10/arts/Books-How-Green.php
A turning point came in 2006 when Random House, Inc., said that it would dramatically increase its use of recycled paper, saving more than 500,000 trees a year. Virtually all of the major publishers have taken some steps, from Hyperion switching to soy-based ink, to Penguin Group (USA) using wind power, to Scholastic, Inc. printing the deluxe edition of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on 100 percent post-consumer waste fiber.
March 12 is the birthday of the writer and editor Dave Eggers, (books by this author) born in Boston (1970). He grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois, a city that was famous when he was growing up for having been the setting for the movie Ordinary People.
While he was in college at the University of Illinois, his mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Then, just after his mother went through severe stomach surgery, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Six months later, both of his parents were dead. Eggers was just 21 years old.
Of the experience of losing both of his parents so suddenly, Eggers later said, "On the one hand you are so completely bewildered that something so surreal and incomprehensible could happen. At the same time, suddenly the limitations or hesitations that you might have imposed on yourself fall away. There's a weird, optimistic recklessness that could easily be construed as nihilism but is really the opposite. You see that there is a beginning and an end and that you have only a certain amount of time to act. And you want to get started."
Eggers had to drop out of college to become the guardian of his 8-year-old younger brother. They moved to San Francisco, and Eggers used the insurance money from his parents' deaths to start his own magazine with some high school friends. They called their publication Might Magazine, because the liked the fact that the word "might" conveyed both strength and hesitation. The magazine developed a cult following for the way it satirized the magazine format. Each issue included an erroneous table of contents, irrelevant footnotes, and fictional error retractions.
The magazine only lasted for 16 issues, but Eggers used the group of writers he got to know to start a new literary quarterly called Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Eggers wanted to experiment with graphic design and printing techniques, so he changed the format of the journal for every issue. One issue consisted of 14 individually bound pamphlets. Another issue included a music CD with a different piece of music composed specifically to accompany each piece in the journal.
All the while that he was starting up these magazines, Dave Eggers was staying up late at night trying to write a book about the death of his parents and the effect that it had on his life. But as he wrote it, he began to include all his own doubts about whether writing about his parents' deaths was an act of vanity. That book grew into his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a big best seller in 2000.
The Writer’s Almanac
The rendezvous that established Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with high-priced prostitutes occurred last month in one of Washington’s grandest hotels, but the criminal investigation that discovered the tryst began last year in a nondescript office building opposite a Dunkin’ Donuts on Long Island, according to law enforcement officials.
There, in the Hauppauge offices of the Internal Revenue Service, investigators conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York, several officials said.
The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business. The transactions, officials said, suggested possible financial crimes — maybe bribery, political corruption, or something inappropriate involving campaign finance. Prostitution, they said, was the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators.
Soon, the I.R.S. agents, from the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, were working with F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors from Manhattan who specialize in political corruption.
Because the focus was a high-ranking government official, prosecutors were required to seek the approval of the United States attorney general to proceed. Once they secured that permission, the investigation moved forward.
The investigators learned that the money was being moved to pay for sex and that the transactions were being manipulated to conceal Mr. Spitzer’s connection to payments for meetings with prostitutes, the official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/nyregion/11inquire.html?ref=nyregion
Currency reporting
The Currency Transaction Report (CTR) came into existence with the passage of the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, better known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), in 1970.
http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=113003,00.html
Monitoring of banking transactions
When opening a bank account, the bank will look for your name on lists of suspected terrorists, criminals and powerful political figures. All transactions, big or small, will be monitored to look for patterns.
Interview with a banking software company employee on NPR March 12, 2008
Eliot Spitzer’s status as a prominent government official appears to have opened the door to investigation into the matter. Many banks now examine transactions involving so-called “politically exposed persons” — politicians, judges, prosecutors and their families — to ensure they’re not used to hide ill-gotten gains. At least one bank used by Mr. Spitzer, Capital One Corp.’s North Fork unit, flagged his transactions to federal regulators as a potential sign of corruption, people with knowledge of the transactions said.
Public corruption cases are on the rise. For years, the WSJ writes, the financial industry has complained about the burden of complying with federal rules, adopted post-9/11, that require banks to file reports on transactions exceeding $10,000, or any other suspicious activity that suggests money laundering.
It might be paying off. From 2001 through 2006, public corruption prosecutors in the districts, working in tandem with the 30-lawyer public integrity section in Washington, say they’ve charged 365 defendants and gained 332 convictions, a large increase over the 286 defendants charged and 287 convictions in the eight years from 1993 through 2000.
Wall Street Journal Law Blog March 13, 2008
Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve DistrictSource: Federal Reserve Board (via Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)
Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of the Districts cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow, or modest growth. Retail activity in most Districts was reported to be weak or softening, although tourism generally continued to expand. Services industries in many Districts, including staffing services in Boston, port activity in New York, and truck freight volume in Cleveland, appeared to be slowing, but activity in services provided some positive news in Richmond and Dallas. Manufacturing was said to be sluggish or to have slowed in about half the Districts, while several others indicated manufacturing results were mixed or trends were steady.
Residential real estate markets generally remained weak; reports on commercial real estate markets were somewhat mixed, but also suggest slowing, on balance, in many Districts. Most Districts reporting on banking cite tight or tightening credit standards and stable or weaker loan demand. Districts reporting on the agriculture and energy sectors said activity is generally strong.
Upward pressure on prices from rising materials and energy prices was noted in almost all the District reports, but Philadelphia said increases in input costs and output prices had recently become less prevalent, and San Francisco indicated pressures were limited for products other than food and energy. By contrast, wage and salary pressures were generally said to be modest, as the hiring pace slowed in various sectors and labor markets loosened somewhat in many Districts.
Permalink
How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Days: Deathbed Marriages in AmericaSource: Kentucky Law Journal (via SSRN)
Should you be able to marry someone who has only days to live? If so, should the government award the surviving spouse the many property rights that ordinarily flow from marriage?
In almost every state, the only person allowed to challenge the validity of a marriage (or, by extension, the property consequences thereof) after the death of one of the spouses is the surviving spouse! Seems incredible, does it not? The expectant heirs of a dying man (or woman) who marries on his (or her) deathbed cannot challenge the marriage post-death. Ironically, the one person allowed to challenge is the only person who has absolutely no motivation to do so.
How did this rule come about? What, if anything, should we do to change it?
This article explores these and other related questions, including a proposed theoretical framework for a model act giving heirs and beneficiaries standing to sue in order to negate the property consequences that flow from marriage, depending on the level of mental capacity at the time of the marriage.
Several options available for retrieval of full text (PDF; 309 KB).
Permalink
The skeleton of a 150-pound person weighs only about 23 pounds. Your skin is a flexible, protective organ that covers your body. An adult’s skin is about 16 square feet and weighs about 6 pounds.
http://ewe.springbranchisd.com/academics/science/newsletters/EWEScienceNewsletterNov.2004.pdf
"Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts" is an 86-page summary, printed on 50 percent post-consumer recycled paper and full of charts about fiber, endangered forests and carbon footprints. The news: The book world, which uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year, is steadily, if not entirely, finding ways to make production greener.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/10/arts/Books-How-Green.php
A turning point came in 2006 when Random House, Inc., said that it would dramatically increase its use of recycled paper, saving more than 500,000 trees a year. Virtually all of the major publishers have taken some steps, from Hyperion switching to soy-based ink, to Penguin Group (USA) using wind power, to Scholastic, Inc. printing the deluxe edition of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on 100 percent post-consumer waste fiber.
March 12 is the birthday of the writer and editor Dave Eggers, (books by this author) born in Boston (1970). He grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois, a city that was famous when he was growing up for having been the setting for the movie Ordinary People.
While he was in college at the University of Illinois, his mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Then, just after his mother went through severe stomach surgery, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Six months later, both of his parents were dead. Eggers was just 21 years old.
Of the experience of losing both of his parents so suddenly, Eggers later said, "On the one hand you are so completely bewildered that something so surreal and incomprehensible could happen. At the same time, suddenly the limitations or hesitations that you might have imposed on yourself fall away. There's a weird, optimistic recklessness that could easily be construed as nihilism but is really the opposite. You see that there is a beginning and an end and that you have only a certain amount of time to act. And you want to get started."
Eggers had to drop out of college to become the guardian of his 8-year-old younger brother. They moved to San Francisco, and Eggers used the insurance money from his parents' deaths to start his own magazine with some high school friends. They called their publication Might Magazine, because the liked the fact that the word "might" conveyed both strength and hesitation. The magazine developed a cult following for the way it satirized the magazine format. Each issue included an erroneous table of contents, irrelevant footnotes, and fictional error retractions.
The magazine only lasted for 16 issues, but Eggers used the group of writers he got to know to start a new literary quarterly called Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Eggers wanted to experiment with graphic design and printing techniques, so he changed the format of the journal for every issue. One issue consisted of 14 individually bound pamphlets. Another issue included a music CD with a different piece of music composed specifically to accompany each piece in the journal.
All the while that he was starting up these magazines, Dave Eggers was staying up late at night trying to write a book about the death of his parents and the effect that it had on his life. But as he wrote it, he began to include all his own doubts about whether writing about his parents' deaths was an act of vanity. That book grew into his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a big best seller in 2000.
The Writer’s Almanac
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
AP: Pharmaceuticals Found in Watersheds of 28 Major Metro Area
AP Investigation Details Pharmaceuticals Found in Watersheds of 28 Major Metro Area: "A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows...the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe...In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas - from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky."
Request For Public Comment On Proposed Revisions To Code Of Conduct For United States Judges
News release: "The Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States seeks public comments on proposed revisions to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. The proposed revisions are based in large part on revisions adopted by the American Bar Association in February 2007, amending the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct. The proposed revised Code of Conduct for United States Judges is on-line in two versions: proposed new Code of Conduct in its entirety, and the revisions proposed to the current Code of Conduct."
United States WatchList of Birds of Conservation Concern
News release: "The United States WatchList, a joint project between American Bird Conservancy and the National Audubon Society, reflects a comprehensive analysis of all the bird species in the United States. It reveals those in greatest need of immediate conservation attention to survive a convergence of environmental challenges, including habitat loss, invasive species, and global warming. The list builds on the species assessments conducted for many years by Partners in Flight (PIF) on landbirds, using those same PIF standards, but expanded to cover species of all taxa. The list is based on the latest available research and assessments from the bird conservation community, along with data from the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey."
The WatchList 2007 identifies 217 species.
To your health Simple Slaw
Drizzle shredded cabbage with your favorite salad dressing.
The seven ages
From Shakespeare's As You Like It, 1600
JAQUES:All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players:They have their exits and their entrances;And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.And then the whining school-boy, with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon lined,With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/28900.html
On March 11, 1818 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published (books by this author). Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote the novel, and the first edition was published anonymously with a preface written by her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelly. She revised the novel and published it under her name own name in 1823.
The Writer’s Almanac
March 11 is the birthday of writer Douglas Adams, (books by this author) born in Cambridge, England (1952), best known for his five-book "trilogy" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a series of comic science fiction novels that sold more than 14 million copies during his lifetime and inspired a cult-like following.
The Writer’s Almanac
AP Investigation Details Pharmaceuticals Found in Watersheds of 28 Major Metro Area: "A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows...the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe...In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas - from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky."
Request For Public Comment On Proposed Revisions To Code Of Conduct For United States Judges
News release: "The Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States seeks public comments on proposed revisions to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. The proposed revisions are based in large part on revisions adopted by the American Bar Association in February 2007, amending the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct. The proposed revised Code of Conduct for United States Judges is on-line in two versions: proposed new Code of Conduct in its entirety, and the revisions proposed to the current Code of Conduct."
United States WatchList of Birds of Conservation Concern
News release: "The United States WatchList, a joint project between American Bird Conservancy and the National Audubon Society, reflects a comprehensive analysis of all the bird species in the United States. It reveals those in greatest need of immediate conservation attention to survive a convergence of environmental challenges, including habitat loss, invasive species, and global warming. The list builds on the species assessments conducted for many years by Partners in Flight (PIF) on landbirds, using those same PIF standards, but expanded to cover species of all taxa. The list is based on the latest available research and assessments from the bird conservation community, along with data from the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey."
The WatchList 2007 identifies 217 species.
To your health Simple Slaw
Drizzle shredded cabbage with your favorite salad dressing.
The seven ages
From Shakespeare's As You Like It, 1600
JAQUES:All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players:They have their exits and their entrances;And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.And then the whining school-boy, with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon lined,With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/28900.html
On March 11, 1818 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published (books by this author). Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote the novel, and the first edition was published anonymously with a preface written by her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelly. She revised the novel and published it under her name own name in 1823.
The Writer’s Almanac
March 11 is the birthday of writer Douglas Adams, (books by this author) born in Cambridge, England (1952), best known for his five-book "trilogy" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a series of comic science fiction novels that sold more than 14 million copies during his lifetime and inspired a cult-like following.
The Writer’s Almanac
Monday, March 10, 2008
Illegal loggers have chopped their way deep into unique forest reserves in a mountain range in central Mexico where millions of monarch butterflies from eastern North America roost for the winter, according to researchers who posted satellite photographs of the area on a NASA Web site on March 5.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/science/earth/07butterfly.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
Quote
There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)
To your health Easy Devilled Eggs
Slice cold hard-boiled eggs in half and place yolk portions in bowl. Mash and add small amount of liquid from a jar of olives—I use J’Olives, a brand made in Toledo. Place yolk mixture into white halves and dust with paprika.
March 9 is the birthday of crime novelist Mickey Spillane, (books by this author) the pen name of Frank Morrison, born in Brooklyn, New York (1918). As a high school student, he wrote for a local newspaper, and he covered bootlegging scams and other criminal activity. He would make carbon copies of the newspaper stories and turn one copy in as a writing assignment for school and get paid for the other. In 1940, he got a job as a scripter of comic books for Funnies, Inc. Other writers required a week to produce a Captain Marvel story while Spillane could write one in a day.
The Writer’s Almanac
Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates, 1789-2008 (PDF; 67 KB)Source: Congressional Research Service (via senate.gov)
Congress is required by Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution to determine its own pay. Prior to 1969, Congress did so by enacting stand-alone legislation. From 1789 through 1968, Congress raised its pay 22 times using this procedure. Congressional salaries initially were $1,500. By 1968, they had risen to $30,000. Stand-alone legislation may still be used to raise Member pay, as it was most recently in 1982, 1983, 1989, and 1991, but two other methods — including an automatic annual adjustment procedure and a commission process — are now also available.
Under the annual adjustment procedure, Members were scheduled to receive a 2.7% increase in January 2008. The increase was revised to 2.5%, resulting in a salary in 2008 of $169,300, to match the percent increase in the base pay of General Schedule (GS) employees. By law, Members may not receive an increase greater than the increase in the base pay of GS employees. Congress voted to deny the scheduled January 2007 adjustment. Members last received a pay increase (1.9%) in January 2006, increasing their salary to the rate of $165,200.
Permalink
10 great places to find a nook and read a book
NPR book commentator Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust,shares her list of favorite public libraries with Tim Smight for USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-03-06-10great-libraries_N.htm
Literary swindles continue
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRuUON6KTeJi_gewHBVLUplrPcFQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/science/earth/07butterfly.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
Quote
There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)
To your health Easy Devilled Eggs
Slice cold hard-boiled eggs in half and place yolk portions in bowl. Mash and add small amount of liquid from a jar of olives—I use J’Olives, a brand made in Toledo. Place yolk mixture into white halves and dust with paprika.
March 9 is the birthday of crime novelist Mickey Spillane, (books by this author) the pen name of Frank Morrison, born in Brooklyn, New York (1918). As a high school student, he wrote for a local newspaper, and he covered bootlegging scams and other criminal activity. He would make carbon copies of the newspaper stories and turn one copy in as a writing assignment for school and get paid for the other. In 1940, he got a job as a scripter of comic books for Funnies, Inc. Other writers required a week to produce a Captain Marvel story while Spillane could write one in a day.
The Writer’s Almanac
Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates, 1789-2008 (PDF; 67 KB)Source: Congressional Research Service (via senate.gov)
Congress is required by Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution to determine its own pay. Prior to 1969, Congress did so by enacting stand-alone legislation. From 1789 through 1968, Congress raised its pay 22 times using this procedure. Congressional salaries initially were $1,500. By 1968, they had risen to $30,000. Stand-alone legislation may still be used to raise Member pay, as it was most recently in 1982, 1983, 1989, and 1991, but two other methods — including an automatic annual adjustment procedure and a commission process — are now also available.
Under the annual adjustment procedure, Members were scheduled to receive a 2.7% increase in January 2008. The increase was revised to 2.5%, resulting in a salary in 2008 of $169,300, to match the percent increase in the base pay of General Schedule (GS) employees. By law, Members may not receive an increase greater than the increase in the base pay of GS employees. Congress voted to deny the scheduled January 2007 adjustment. Members last received a pay increase (1.9%) in January 2006, increasing their salary to the rate of $165,200.
Permalink
10 great places to find a nook and read a book
NPR book commentator Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust,shares her list of favorite public libraries with Tim Smight for USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-03-06-10great-libraries_N.htm
Literary swindles continue
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRuUON6KTeJi_gewHBVLUplrPcFQ
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Librarian's Muse
March 7, 2008
Quote
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer
On March 7, 1994 the Supreme Court ruled that parody can be protected by the fair use clause of the Copyright Act of 1976. The case arose from a song by the rap group 2 Live Crew, which used elements of the Roy Orbison song from 1964: "Oh Pretty Woman."
The Roy Orbison version of the song is about a man watching a pretty woman walking down the street. The 2 Live Crew version is about the subsequent relationship with that woman, who becomes a hairy woman, a bald-headed woman, and a two-timing woman. The music publishing company Acuff-Rose, which holds the copyright for the Roy Orbison song, sued 2 Live Crew for copyright violation.
Among those who sent "friend of the court" briefs in support of 2 Live Crew were Mad magazine, The Harvard Lampoon, and the Comedy Central TV channel. Among those who argued against 2 Live Crew were Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of 2 Live Crew.
The Writer’s Almanac
EPA: Green Landscaping
"Green Landscaping (beneficial landscaping, environmentally friendly landscaping or sustainable landscaping) Whatever you call it, it's a way of designing and maintaining beautiful yards, gardens, and larger landscapes to: -reduce harm to the environment -save time and $ with lower maintenance -have healthier places to work and play."
Federal Reserve Board Beige Book, March 2008
March 5, 2008: "Prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and based on information collected on or before February 25, 2008. This document summarizes comments received from business and other contacts outside the Federal Reserve and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials. Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of the Districts cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow, or modest growth. Retail activity in most Districts was reported to be weak or softening, although tourism generally continued to expand. Services industries in many Districts, including staffing services in Boston, port activity in New York, and truck freight volume in Cleveland, appeared to be slowing, but activity in services provided some positive news in Richmond and Dallas. Manufacturing was said to be sluggish or to have slowed in about half the Districts, while several others indicated manufacturing results were mixed or trends were steady."
FCC Adopts Digital Television Consumer Education Order
News release: "The Nation’s full-power television stations will transition from analog broadcast television service to digital broadcast television service on February 17, 2009. The Federal Communications Commission (the “Commission”) today released the DTV Consumer Education Order requiring television broadcasters, Multi-Channel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), telecommunications carriers, retailers, and manufacturers to promote awareness of the nation’s transition to digital television. The educational efforts of these diverse groups are intended to provide consumers with clear and correct information about the DTV transition."
Related postings on the onversion to digital television
inhume (in-HYOOM) verb tr.
To bury.
[From Latin inhumare (to bury), from in (in) + humus (earth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth) that also sprouted human, homicide, homage, chameleon, chamomile, and Persian zamindar (landholder).]
A.Word.A.Day
The Grand Canyon began to form at least 17 million years ago, according to a study that comes in the wake of more than a century of debate about the history of this remarkable crack in the Earth.
The "incision history" that carved out a canyon that has 277 miles of river, measures up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, has been disputed in part because some of the more common methods for dating the geological event don't reach back more than about one million to three million years ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/03/06/scicanyon106.xml
First March from Selma
When You Pray,Move Your Feet.-- African Proverb.
"When You Pray, Move Your Feet,"Charles White(?), photographer, Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965.photo courtesy of Representative John Lewis John Lewis (on right in trench coat) and Hosea Williams (on the left) lead marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
On Sunday March 7, 1965, about six hundred people began a fifty-four mile march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. They were demonstrating for African American voting rights and to commemorate the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, shot three weeks earlier by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration.
This Day in History from Library of Congress
Seventh of March speech
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), United States senator from Massachusetts, rose on 7 March 1850 to support a complex series of statutes introduced by Henry Clay (1777-1852) of Kentucky that came to be known as "The Compromise of 1850." This "Seventh of March" speech, which Webster preferred to call his "Constitution and the Union" speech, contained the famous opening lines, "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States."
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28mcc/091%29%29
Quote
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer
On March 7, 1994 the Supreme Court ruled that parody can be protected by the fair use clause of the Copyright Act of 1976. The case arose from a song by the rap group 2 Live Crew, which used elements of the Roy Orbison song from 1964: "Oh Pretty Woman."
The Roy Orbison version of the song is about a man watching a pretty woman walking down the street. The 2 Live Crew version is about the subsequent relationship with that woman, who becomes a hairy woman, a bald-headed woman, and a two-timing woman. The music publishing company Acuff-Rose, which holds the copyright for the Roy Orbison song, sued 2 Live Crew for copyright violation.
Among those who sent "friend of the court" briefs in support of 2 Live Crew were Mad magazine, The Harvard Lampoon, and the Comedy Central TV channel. Among those who argued against 2 Live Crew were Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of 2 Live Crew.
The Writer’s Almanac
EPA: Green Landscaping
"Green Landscaping (beneficial landscaping, environmentally friendly landscaping or sustainable landscaping) Whatever you call it, it's a way of designing and maintaining beautiful yards, gardens, and larger landscapes to: -reduce harm to the environment -save time and $ with lower maintenance -have healthier places to work and play."
Federal Reserve Board Beige Book, March 2008
March 5, 2008: "Prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and based on information collected on or before February 25, 2008. This document summarizes comments received from business and other contacts outside the Federal Reserve and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials. Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of the Districts cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow, or modest growth. Retail activity in most Districts was reported to be weak or softening, although tourism generally continued to expand. Services industries in many Districts, including staffing services in Boston, port activity in New York, and truck freight volume in Cleveland, appeared to be slowing, but activity in services provided some positive news in Richmond and Dallas. Manufacturing was said to be sluggish or to have slowed in about half the Districts, while several others indicated manufacturing results were mixed or trends were steady."
FCC Adopts Digital Television Consumer Education Order
News release: "The Nation’s full-power television stations will transition from analog broadcast television service to digital broadcast television service on February 17, 2009. The Federal Communications Commission (the “Commission”) today released the DTV Consumer Education Order requiring television broadcasters, Multi-Channel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), telecommunications carriers, retailers, and manufacturers to promote awareness of the nation’s transition to digital television. The educational efforts of these diverse groups are intended to provide consumers with clear and correct information about the DTV transition."
Related postings on the onversion to digital television
inhume (in-HYOOM) verb tr.
To bury.
[From Latin inhumare (to bury), from in (in) + humus (earth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth) that also sprouted human, homicide, homage, chameleon, chamomile, and Persian zamindar (landholder).]
A.Word.A.Day
The Grand Canyon began to form at least 17 million years ago, according to a study that comes in the wake of more than a century of debate about the history of this remarkable crack in the Earth.
The "incision history" that carved out a canyon that has 277 miles of river, measures up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, has been disputed in part because some of the more common methods for dating the geological event don't reach back more than about one million to three million years ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/03/06/scicanyon106.xml
First March from Selma
When You Pray,Move Your Feet.-- African Proverb.
"When You Pray, Move Your Feet,"Charles White(?), photographer, Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965.photo courtesy of Representative John Lewis John Lewis (on right in trench coat) and Hosea Williams (on the left) lead marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
On Sunday March 7, 1965, about six hundred people began a fifty-four mile march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. They were demonstrating for African American voting rights and to commemorate the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, shot three weeks earlier by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration.
This Day in History from Library of Congress
Seventh of March speech
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), United States senator from Massachusetts, rose on 7 March 1850 to support a complex series of statutes introduced by Henry Clay (1777-1852) of Kentucky that came to be known as "The Compromise of 1850." This "Seventh of March" speech, which Webster preferred to call his "Constitution and the Union" speech, contained the famous opening lines, "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States."
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28mcc/091%29%29
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