IBM Patent Application: Platform for Capturing Knowledge, September 10, 2009: A platform used for capturing knowledge. The platform comprises a knowledge recorder, instructional design tool, standardized XML, and gaming engine. The knowledge recorder is configured to capture knowledge of a user, which is transferable using a standardized XML format. The instructional design tool is configured to visually model a gaming scenario in order to expose and define logical situations based on the captured knowledge."
Via Slashdot to Cringley on Technology: "IBM’s proposed Platform for Capturing Knowledge describes how to use an imersive gaming environment to transfer expert knowledge held by employees “aged 50 and older” to 18-25 year-old trainees who find manuals “difficult to read and understand. IBM also discusses how its invention could be made available for customers’ use in return for “payment from the customer(s) under a
subscription and/or fee agreement.

The Internet as a Diversion, September 2009: "Three-quarters of online economic users go online to relax and take their minds off of the recession. Fully 88% of 18-29 year old online economic users look to the internet to relax." Pew Survey
See also: The Internet and the Recession, July 15, 2009

The Art of Written Persuasion: Part V - Improve Your Vocabulary, Improve Your Success: Troy Simpson returns with this fifth article in the series, and investigates the link between having a good vocabulary [lawyers have a speaking acquaintance with around 23,000 words] and being a persuasive lawyer. LLRX.com

Google and On Demand Books Partner to Publish Out of Copyright Books on Demand
eWeek.com: "Google agrees to provide 2 million non-copyrighted book titles for On Demand Books printing and cutting using its high-speed Espresso Book Machine. Google Books titles offered via the Espresso Machine will have a recommended sales price of $8 per copy, though the price is subject to change by retailers. On Demand may have access to sell more works if Google's Book Search deal with authors and publishers passes muster with the New York District Court in October." Wired also has the story.
Related postings on Google Book Search

Free Search Engine for All U.S. Trademarks Filed Since 1870
TradeMarkia - Search for a trademark by: name (here is the result for beSpacific), filing date(s), category, goods & services, company name, status [via Google Blogoscoped]

BLS: Consumer Price Index - August 2009
News release: "On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.4 percent in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. The index has decreased 1.5 percent over the last 12 months on a not seasonally adjusted basis. The 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted increase in the CPI-U was driven by a 9.1 percent rise in the gasoline index. This increase accounted for almost the entire advance in the energy index and over 80 percent of the overall increase. Despite the August increase, the gasoline index has fallen 30.0 percent over the last 12 months."

BLS: Real Earnings August 2009
News release: "Real average hourly earnings fell 0.2 percent from July to August, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. This decline stemmed from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), up by 0.6 percent, outpacing 0.3 percent growth in average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers. Real average weekly earnings fell 0.2 percent over the month, as a result of the decrease in real average hourly earnings and no change in the average work week. Since reaching a recent high point in December 2008, real average weekly earnings have fallen by 1.5 percent."

Fallingwater, part 4 courtesy of a Toledo muse reader
Taliesin apprentice Bob Mosher was on site to observe construction and provide design clarifications and details. He replaced the earlier appointed Abe Dombar, who was also working as assistant art director for Edgar Kaufmann at his big store in downtown Pittsburgh. The Morris Knowles engineers laid out the building foundation on April 16, 1936, and later they laid out the new concrete bridge leading to the house. Wright instructed Mosher to use the large boulder by the falls as the datum point for locating the floor elevations of the house. Mosher was called upon to make changes in Wright’s design to accommodate variations in the site, adding a plunge pool by the stream allegedly as a result of an error in the Knowles’ drawings locating the streambed four feet higher than it actually was. Although Norbert Zeller was initially retained in late 1935 as the contractor, his tenure was cut short by his stint in the local jail. In May he was summarily discharged by Edgar, who continued personally to manage a crew at the quarry. Most of 1936 would pass before a professional contractor was finally retained. http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0918/0918rc_fallingwater.cfm

First International Virtual Bookmark Convention in 2010
http://www.bmcvc.com/

Literary map of San Francisco (contains city-relevant quotes)
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/411-lit-map-of-frisco/

Anagrams from an Illinois muse reader
THE EYES: THEY SEE
THE MORSE CODE: HERE COME DOTS
A DECIMAL POINT: I'M A DOT IN PLACE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO: TWELVE PLUS ONE

$500,000 MacArthur genius grants announced September 22, 2009 http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-09-22-macarthur-genius-grants_N.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092103516.html

On September 22, 1692, two men and six women were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
On September 22, 1896, Queen Victoria became the longest-reigning monarch in English history. One of the country's most successful rulers, Victoria oversaw the expansion of the British Empire to its greatest height of power during her reign of 63 years and 7 months. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/thisday/
On September 22, 1862, five days after Union forces won the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln (books by this author) read to his Cabinet and issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves in rebel states free as of January 1, 1863. Lincoln took this action as commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. Abraham Lincoln said, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
On September 22, 1961 Congress passed the Peace Corps Act. Since the start of Peace Corps, 195,000 volunteers and trainees have served in 139 countries. Currently, there are more than 7,800 volunteers (60 percent of whom are female) serving abroad in 76 countries. The Writer’s Almanac