Reader responds to story about the sinking of the Titanic
My personal thought on the sinking of the Titanic has been that orders were given that worked against each other. The helm was ordered to be put hard over (and there may have been confusion about which way--both the 1953 movie and the 1997 movie took into account Tiller Orders and showed the helmsman spinning the wheel in what a layman would think the wrong direction--but according to Ms. Patton a seaman would conclude it was put over the wrong way), but the order was also given for full reverse on the engines. Titanic had a single small rudder that might have been able to turn the ship had the engines remained at full ahead, but reversing all three propellers while the ship is moving ahead quickly under its momentum would cause very turbulent flow locally at the rudder, which may well have rendered the rudder largely ineffective. To turn to the left quickly, the rudder should have been put hard over to the left, the left propeller stopped (not reversed), and the center and right engines left at full ahead to keep a smooth water flow over the rudder. Just my thoughts as an engineering student majoring in fluid dynamics. I have never heard anyone else discuss this point of the effect of reversing the engines.
David M. Grogan

On September 20, word broke that Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon had won a big First Amendment lawsuit at the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit on Monday shot down two Oregon laws that prohibit making sexually explicit literature available to minors. The court ruled the laws are unconstitutionally broad and infringe on free-speech rights. The lawsuit, brought by Powell’s Books and a host of others, challenged the 2007 legislation, arguing that what might have been “a well-intended effort to target sexual predators” puts parents, publishers, educators and others at risk of fines or jail time. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/09/21/oregon-booksellers-once-again-free-to-peddle-judy-blume-without-fear/?mod=djemlawblog_h
Court opinion authored by Judge Margaret McKeown: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/09/20/09-35153.pdf

Austronesian language: the Maori alphabet has just 20 letters.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/maori.htm

Austronesian language: the Hawaiian alphabet has just 12 letters.
http://www.alternative-hawaii.com/alpha.htm

Austronesian adjective
Of or relating to Austronesia or its peoples, languages, or cultures.
Austronesian noun
A family of languages that includes the Formosan, Indonesian, Malay, Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian subfamilies. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Austronesian

From Anu Garg: As a computer science grad student in 1994 when I started what would become Wordsmith.org, I had no idea that one day I'd be typing this. This month subscribership of A.Word.A.Day has crossed one million (from Italian millione "great thousand", from Latin mille "thousand"). It has been many years, much has changed, but I enjoy exploring words and sharing their stories with you as much as that first day. Number of subscribers: 1,000,749
Number of countries and territories represented: 217

If you are a high school teacher of the English language, or if you are simply someone who cares about the language, chances are textspeak--use of cutesy abbreviations often seen in cell phone messages--grates on your nerves. You especially don't want to see it in a formal setting, for example in a term paper or in a doctor's report. Imagine if your cardiologist emailed you the results of your test with the note: "C me 4 UR <3." Chances are you'd want to fire him for this cordial (from Latin cor: heart) note, no matter how good he may be in fixing problems of the heart. But is there really anything wrong with people using expressions such as "C U L8R" in a friendly email or text message? We may want to blame this on cell phones, but according to an upcoming British Library exhibit, Victorian poets were writing in this manner long before anyone dreamed of mobile devices. And let's not forget that the use of letters to represent words is sometimes used in formal contexts as well. "IOU" for "I Owe You" has been used on promissory notes going back to the 17th century. From Anu Garg
NOTE: Textspeak annoys people because it uses frequent rather than occasional abbreviations with an almost obligatory use of sarcasm or humor. Certain abbreviations are so common, you have to groan: LOL (laughing out loud) and IMHO (in my humble opinion), for instance.

Q: Is there a law against "road rage"?
A: The Ohio State Highway Patrol says the term was created in the media to describe emotion-based reckless, aggressive and intimidating driving. There is no specific offense entitled "Road Rage" in Ohio, but the actions which are labeled "road rage" are specific offenses. Among these are menacing, reckless operation, impeding, and assault, to name a few.
Q: What is a "New York minute"?
A: Dictionary.com defines it as "an extremely short period of time."
The late comedian Johnny Carson once described it as the unmeasurable time between when the traffic light in front of you turns green and the New Yorker behind you hits his car's horn.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Sep/JU/ar_JU_092710.asp?d=092710,2010,Sep,27&c=c_13