Chinese scientists have renewed their ongoing attack on the ‘Out of Africa’ theory of the origin of modern humans with the announcement of the discovery of a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China’s Guangxi province. The 110,000 year-old jawbone obviously flies directly in the face of the ‘out-of-Africa’ timeline and provides support for the multi-regional theory of the origin of homo sapiens. The discovery was formally announced in November’s Chinese Science Bulletin by Jin Changzhu and his colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing. The Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Minnesota State University jointly tested the isotopic element detection on the fossil. Wu Xinzhi, an anthropologist of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “The bone shows that the evolution from ancient man to modern man occurred in East Asia, at least in the area of modern Chongzuo city. It indicates that the process of the evolution to modern man took place in various regions around the world.” “[This paper] acts to reject the theory that modern humans are of uniquely African origin and supports the notion that emerging African populations mixed with natives they encountered,” Milford Wolpoff, a proponent of the multiregional hypothesis at the University of Michigan was quoted in the media as saying. http://www.arthurkemp.com/?p=443

The Transportation Department announced a new rule January 26 that prohibits interstate commercial truckers and bus drivers from sending text messages while they are operating moving vehicles. Truckers and bus drivers who violate the rule, which is effective immediately, face civil or criminal fines of up to $2,750.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/technology/27distracted.html

Concert-goers were assured by regulators January 25 that the merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. wouldn't harm consumers and might even provide benefits. After all, two new ticketing companies would be created under the concessions demanded by antitrust regulators, injecting new competition into the market. Critics of the agreement, however, say that regulators were focused on the wrong aspects of the marriage between the concert promoter and the ticketing giant. Indeed, they say, bringing more competition into the ticketing business—as stipulated by the Department of Justice— could end up raising prices for fans instead of lowering them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704905604575027531997592958.html?mod=WSJ_Deals_LEFTTopNews

Muse reader Peter Silverman has a blog featuring franchises, and it's great. You can tell it's being read from the number of comments he gets. Take a look: http://www.bluemaumau.org/blog/peter_silverman_0
P.S. When I started this newsletter in January, 2008, it was Peter who called it Librarian's Muse on the first day.

Southward from New York State the lovely Susquehanna winds its meandering way through the wooded hills of Bradford County, Pennsylvania. At a point about ten miles below Towanda, between Wysox and Wyalusing, it arches eastward into a great horseshoe bend, half encircling a terrace of land that slopes gently backward into the western hills. From the highway that skirts the ridge of Rummerfield Mountain on the opposite side of the river, its 1,600 acres can be seen neatly divided into carefully tilled fields and pasture land. A fringe of trees borders the river's edge and small patches of woods stand near isolated farmhouses and on the bordering heights. A scene of undisturbed pastoral calm banded by a glistening arm of silvery water, this fertile crescent of land was Azilum-or Asylum. Many, many years ago when northern Pennsylvania was Indian country this place was known as Missicum-the "Meadows." The settlers who moved into the valley from Connecticut called it Standing Stone, after the monolithic stone shaft that rises high out of the river bed near the western bank, a landmark from time immemorial. But to a little group of exiles who stepped ashore at this remote spot in the late fall of the year 1793, it was a haven far removed from the dangers of revolution, imprisonment, slave insurrections, and yellow fever. To them it was Azilum-a place of refuge. These refugees, who had come up the Susquehanna from Catawissa and Wilkes-Barre in Durham boats and dugout canoes furnished by the trader Matthias Hollenback, were citizens of France and of her West Indies colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti) . Those from France had fled to Philadelphia to escape the certain imprisonment and probable death for which their loyalty to Louis XVI marked them
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/places/4278/french_asylum_on_the_susquehanna_river/472247

surcease (suhr-SEES)
noun: Stoppage, especially a temporary one.
verb tr., intr.: To bring or come to an end.
From Middle English sursesen/surcesen, via French from Latin supersedere (to refrain from), from super- + sedere (to sit). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sed- (to sit) that is also the source of sit, chair, saddle, assess, assiduous, sediment, soot, cathedral, and tetrahedron. The word cease is unrelated, though its spelling has influenced the word.
precatory (PREK-uh-tor-ee) adjective
1. Expressing a request.
2. Nonbinding: only expressing a wish or giving a suggestion.
From Latin precari (to pray). Ultimately from the Indo-European root prek- (to ask) that is also the source of words such as pray, precarious, deprecate, and postulate.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Q: The Miss America Pageant is Saturday night. Has Miss Ohio ever won?
A: Indeed! Five Miss Ohios have won six crowns, tying our state with California and Oklahoma for most wins. But there's an asterisk with the first winner.
• Mary Katherine Campbell of Columbus won in 1922.
(*) She returned in 1923 to become the pageant's only two-time winner.
Campbell admitted to lying about her age at 15 when she first won.
• Marilyn Meseke of Marion won in 1938.
• Jacquelyn Mayer of Sandusky won in 1963.
• Laurel Lea Schaefer of Bexley, near Columbus, won in 1972.
• Susan Perkins of Columbus won in 1978.

By the way, the pageant began in 1921 as a "bathing beauty" contest on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., which promoted it to extend the summer season one weekend beyond Labor Day. It moved to Las Vegas and January four years ago
Courtesy of Peter Mattiace, editor, The Courier of Findlay, Ohio