Marine experts are questioning whether there was a design flaw in the Carnival Splendor cruise ship, which lost power after an engine fire and was towed to San Diego on No vember 11 with nearly 4,500 people aboard. A generator for an engine caught fire in the aft engine room 6 a.m. November 8, damaging a switchboard and "preventing the transmission of electricity to other machinery, including the propulsion motors," said Carnival spokeswoman Joyce Oliva. The cause of the fire, which was put out by the crew and the ship's automatic fire-suppression system, Because the majority of passengers aboard the Panama-flagged cruise ship were U.S. citizens, the investigation into the cause of the fire will be conducted by the Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board and Panama, the NTSB said. The 952-foot-long Carnival Splendor has six engines—three in the aft engine room and three in a forward engine room. Electric cables connect each engine's generator to two switchboards, Oliva said.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/2010-11-12-cruise-inside_N.htm

Anton (Tony) Joseph Cermak (1873–1933) was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933. Born in Kladno, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), Cermak emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1874. He began his political career as a precinct captain and in 1902 was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. Seven years later, he would take his place as alderman of the 12th Ward. Cermak was elected president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1922, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party in 1928, and mayor of Chicago in 1931. When Cermak challenged the incumbent "Big Bill" Thompson in the 1931 mayor's race, Thompson, representative of Chicago's existing power structure, responded with ethnic slurs:
I won't take a back seat to that Bohunk, Chairmock, Chermack or whatever his name is. Tony, Tony, where's your pushcart at?
Can you picture a World's Fair mayor? With a name like that?
Cermak's reply, "He doesn't like my name... it's true I didn't come over on the Mayflower, but I came over as soon as I could." Cermak is mentioned in Stephen Sondheim's play Assassins during the song "How I Saved Roosevelt". Cermak and his rise to the mayoralty has also been mentioned in Jeffrey Archer's novel Kane and Abel. Part of the episode Objects in Motion of the television series Babylon 5 is based on the circumstances of Cermak's death. Cermak's son-in-law, Otto Kerner, Jr., was governor of Illinois and a federal circuit judge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Cermak

Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier on the North American continent. It has been thickening and advancing toward the Gulf of Alaska since it was first mapped by the International Boundary Commission in 1895. This is in stark contrast with most glaciers, which have thinned and retreated during the last century. This atypical behavior is an important example of the calving glacier cycle in which glacier advance and retreat is controlled more by the mechanics of terminus calving than by climate fluctuations. If Hubbard Glacier continues to advance, it will close the seaward entrance of Russell Fiord and create the largest glacier-dammed lake on the North American continent in historic times. http://ak.water.usgs.gov/glaciology/hubbard/
Find out about the 11 kinds of glaciers at: http://nsidc.org/glaciers/questions/types.html

By CONOR DOUGHERTY Architecture lectures commonly involve laser pointers and slides. In his, architect Tuomas Toivonen prefers throbbing bass and electronic drums. The 35-year-old Finn was wearing jeans and a blazer, moving his hands like a hip-hop star as he delivered a musical lecture to a bewildered, though dancing, crowd. He rapped about his love for cities and disdain for sprawl. "To heal the festering Metropolis by creation of tabula rasa," the song continued. "Instead the postwar need and greed sparks the big bang of Suburbia." A clash has been playing out for decades between those who champion densely populated cities with lots of public transportation and others who prefer the leafy and car-centric suburbs. "The world has been waiting for architecture and house [music]," said Mr. Toivonen, who lives and works in Helsinki. Mr. Toivonen isn't the first songwriter to deal with city and suburb in music. The 1962 Malvina Reynolds song "Little Boxes" dealt with suburban conformity. Talking Heads mused on the character of places such as London in 1979's "Cities." The 1980s rap group N.W.A. depicted a bleak inner city. These days, Arcade Fire is pooh-poohing "The Suburbs" ("Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains"). Mr. Toivonen runs a four-person architecture firm in Helsinki called NOW. It does a mix of residential and commercial projects, such as 16 row houses that the firm is designing in Espoo, Finland, outside Helsinki. He says for most of his life he has been fascinated with two things: Music and cities. I n the 1990s, Mr. Toivonen sang in a Finnish rock band called Giant Robot, which had a percussive sound and rhythmic music. Over time, architectural themes started worming their way into the lyrics. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635704575604471646475194.html

Once a year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets aside November 15 to remind everyone that recycling plays a dramatic role in reducing pollution. The average American discards about 4.5 pounds of trash, also known as solid waste, every day. This trash goes mostly to landfills, where it is compacted and buried. Thirty-three percent of solid waste, or 83 million tons, is recovered and recycled or composted; and 54 percent, or 135 million tons, is disposed of in landfills. Within your trash are many valuable resources which can be recycled and reused, such as glass bottles and jars, plastic detergent jugs, aluminum cans, paper containers and packaging, yard clippings and even food scraps. During World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25 percent of the waste stream.” America Recycles Day helps to raise awareness of the importance of recycling today. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7 percent of the waste stream in 1960 to 17 percent in 1990 and is currently hovering around 33 percent.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/7c4cda0b525801e2852577d60077f1cb!OpenDocument

Recommended recipe from Illinois reader
Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto (Pesto Alla Trapanese) In Sicily, tomatoes and almonds take center stage. In the Sicilian village of Trapani, there’s a very different kind of pesto—it’s basically pesto crossed with tomato sauce. Almonds replace pine nuts. Watch the video and register at America's Test Kitchen.com to access this and all recipes from the current season. Registration is free. http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=19843&extcode=M**ASCA00