On August 3, 1882, Congress passed the first federal law regulating immigration. Under the statute, state-run boards under contract to the US Secretary of the Treasury were to inspect immigrants according to rules that were uniform in all ports. Boards were prohibited from admitting any immigrant found to be a "convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge." http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/thisday/2006/08/us-congress-passed-first-law.php

Beware the snare of shared misinformation
Have you ever played a game whispering a sentence from person to person at a party? The last person in the line has a very different story than the first, and it makes you laugh. Nobody’s laughing about misinformation transmitted electronically around the world today. People report over and over information that is:
• untrue or unsubstantiated
• taken out of context
• missing words or has words added
• missing emphasis or has emphasis added
• filled with conjecture, innuendo, supposition, hyperbole
• outdated and already disproved
• commentary or opinion but not clearly identified as such

Who me? I’m not addicted.
So when I started to add up my daily screen time, I did so with confidence, and—Uncle Stevie admits it—a sense of superiority. That feeling soon melted away. For me, it breaks down like this: 3.5 hours a day writing in front of my desktop Mac; one hour a day writing and answering e-mails; one hour a day visiting my favorite websites; two hours a day watching TV. I'm below the Nielsen average, but still—seven and a half hours per day of computer-related activity? Find out who Uncle Stevie is at: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20293300,00.html

According to the 16th-century art-stargazer Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo’s first painting was a smallish, slightly customized painted copy of a German print. The image of the hermit-saint, St. Anthony, locked in a midair tangle of straining, pulsating figures, created a template that Michelangelo would repeat in sculpture and painting for the rest of his life. Michelangelo makes adventurous use of color. The recent cleaning done by the Met conservator Michael Gallagher removed layers of darkening varnish. And in both the individual colors and combinations revealed, Keith Christiansen, curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discerns a forecast of the palette that would later be used on the Sistine ceiling. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/arts/design/19michelangelo.html
Displayed through September 7, 2009, European Paintings Galleries, 2nd floor
The painting was acquired recently by the Kimbell Art Museum, where it will return this fall for display as part of its permanent collection.
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B9D3C7B4F-B278-4162-8EB1-911A90475DF4%7D
Announcement of purchase by Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas
https://www.kimbellart.org/News/News-Article.aspx?nid=119

Featured author: Tobias Wolff, professor at Stanford University, best known for short stories and memoirs. Wolff's work has found a wider audience through its adaptation to film. This Boy's Life became a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Ellen Barkin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Wolff
Tobias Wolff's older brother is the author and University of California, Irvine professor Geoffrey Wolff. A decade before Wolff wrote This Boy's Life, Geoffrey wrote a memoir of his own about the boys' biological father, entitled The Duke of Deception. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Wolff

Tuennes and Schael: bronze statues we saw in Cologne, Germany See at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tuennes_und_Schael_Denkmal_Koeln2007.jpg
Tuennes--the name is derived from Antonius--is the red-head, dressed in the traditional garb of a cabbage farmer. His huge red nose gives away the fact that he isn´t averse to a drink--or several. He is of a gentle nature and a simple, naive mindset, but not stupid. It´s said to bring good luck to touch Tuennes´ nose.
Schael´s real name is unknown. His nickname means "cross-eyed", but also "not quite respectable". While he is dressed like a gentleman, he has a somewhat sleazy air about him. He is a small-time crook, always trying to outwit others, but he´s not as clever as he thinks himself to be. Tuennes and Schael are reflections of the industrial and rural sides of 19th century Cologne and are popular characters in jokes and anecdotes.
http://www.ningyonomori.de/17.html