Follow-up to “A or AN?” using example of an herb People in England pronounce the H in herb. For some reason, when Americans speak the word, they drop the H. When people learn English as a second language, they probably pronounce the H because it makes sense. Some people may be returning to the English way of pronouncing herb—just as theater and center (American spellings) are being supplanted by English spellings: theatre and centre.

House Passes DTV Delay Act
Follow up to previous postings on digital television transition, "by a vote of 264 to 158, the House of Representatives approved S. 352, the DTV Delay Act, which will postpone the transition to digital television until June 12, 2009.”
See also - Over Two Million Households on DTV Coupon Waiting List: "On February 4, Energy and Commerce Chairman Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Boucher sent a letter to their colleagues with an updated list of households on the waiting list, organized by congressional district."

Report - TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year
"The struggling companies whose freewheeling business practices have contributed to the country's economic woes are getting a lucrative return on at least one of their investments. Beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries have spent a total of $114.2 million on lobbying in the past year and contributions toward the 2008 election, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The companies' political activities have, in part, yielded them $295.2 billion from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Copyright battle over Obama image

No-one disputes that the poster was based on AP's photograph. The Associated Press is claiming compensation for the use of one of its photographs to create the most iconic image of Barack Obama. The red, white and blue portrait by Shepard Fairey appeared on thousands of posters and T-shirts and is now in Washington's National Portrait Gallery. Lawyers for AP and Shepard Fairey are reported to be holding talks. Mr Fairey's attorney says it was a case of "fair use", which allows exceptions to copyright law.
The Los Angeles-based street artist has acknowledged that the image is The Los Angeles-based street artist has acknowledged that the image is based on a photograph taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia, a photographer on assignment for AP. AP's director of media relations Paul Colford says that because it was an AP photograph, its use by Shepard Fairey "required permission" and AP should have been credited.
Fair use considerations:
Purpose of the use: was the image used in a commercial or non-commercial way?
Nature of the copyrighted material: how creative or factual was the original?
Transformation of the work: was the original changed giving it new meaning or value?
Amount copied: how much of the original was copied and was it a central to the original?
Effect on the market of the original: could it supplant demand for the original?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7872253.stm

February 12 this year marks the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. On the same day Charles Darwin was born. The day also marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of his book, The Origin of Species. A.Word.A.Day celebrates the three anniversaries by selecting words from Lincoln's and Darwin's writing and speeches.
propinquity (pro-PING-kwi-tee)
noun: Nearness in space, time or relationship
From Latin propinquitas (nearness), from prope (near).
"I believe that ... propinquity of descent, -- the only known cause of the similarity of organic beings, -- is the bond, hidden as it is by various degrees of modification, which is partially revealed to us by our classifications."
Charles Darwin; On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; 1859.
conduce (kuhn-DOOS, -DYOOS)
verb intr.: To lead to or contribute to a particular result
From Latin conducere (to lead, bring together), from com- (together) + ducere (to lead). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deuk- (to lead) that led to other words such as duke, conduct, educate, duct, wanton, and tug.
"We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us." Abraham Lincoln; Lyceum Address; Jan 27, 1838.
A.Word.A.Day

WSJ Overview Charts on Auto Sales
Wall Street Journal: What's Hot Off the Lots | Top 20 vehicles | The U.S. Market | Sales and Share of Total Market by Manufacturer

On February 6, 1937 John Steinbeck published his novel Of Mice and Men. It was a short book, just 186 pages, the story of two migrant farm workers: George Milton and his simple-minded friend, Lennie Small. He took the title from lines by the Scottish poet Robert Burns: "The best-laid schemes of mice and men / Gang aft a-gley," or, "The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry." Steinbeck was almost finished when his dog tore the manuscript to shreds. But he rewrote the novel, and it was published on this day in 1937 and made into a play later the same year.
On February 6, 1894 lexicographer Eric Partridge, (books by this author) born on a farm near Gisborne, New Zealand. When he fought in WWI, he was fascinated by British soldiers' slang. And since slang wasn't included in dictionaries, he decided that somebody should study it and write it down. He wrote books about the history of slang and clichés, and he even wrote a book about the slang used in Shakespeare's plays.
The Writer’s Almanac