Q: How can I have my work copyrighted? A: There are two little-known points about copyright:
• Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine.
• You do not have to register your work for it to be copyrighted.
Copyright is a protection grounded in the Constitution for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium. It covers published and unpublished work. It is different from a patent or a trademark. Copyright protects literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, such as newspapers, poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. But it does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. Generally, registration is voluntary. But many register because they want their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within five years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in court. For more information, see http://www.copyright.gov. -- U.S. Copyright Office, Peter Mattiace.
Q: Where is the farthest spot from a McDonald's in the continental United States? A: There is a very lonely and, presumably, hungry place in the northern Nevada desert that one man says is 115 miles equidistant from McDonald's restaurants in Winnemucca, Nev.; Klamath Falls, Ore.; and Hines, Ore. Stephen Von Worley, a self-described artist and scientist in Santa Cruz, Calif., claims he recently found it using his GPS. He has proclaimed it, "The McFarthest Spot." -- datapointed.net.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Nov/JU/ar_JU_111510.asp?d=111510,2010,Nov,15&c=c_13

The term sniper was first attested in 1824 in the sense of the word "sharpshooter". The verb "to snipe" originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India where a hunter skilled enough to kill the elusive snipe was dubbed a "sniper" During the American Civil War, the common term used in the United States was "skirmisher". Throughout history armies have used skirmishers to break up enemy formations and to thwart the enemy from flanking the main body of their attack force. They were deployed individually on the extremes of the moving army primarily to scout for the possibility of an enemy ambush. Consequently, a "skirmish" denotes a clash of small scope between these forces. The term "sniper" was not in widespread use in the United States until after the American Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper

Every state except New Hampshire has some form of a seatbelt law. Some state laws only mandate seat belts for front seats, while others require seat belt use for all riders, regardless of front or back seat position. Find your state's requirements at: http://dmvanswers.com/questions/2462/Are-seat-belts-required-in-every-state

MissingMoney.com is a database of governmental unclaimed property records. It is officially endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), a non-profit organization affiliated with the National Association of State Treasurers and the Council of State Governments. Searches are free and data is refreshed monthly. Common types of unclaimed property include bank accounts, safe deposit box contents, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, dividends, uncashed checks and wages, insurance policies CDs, trust funds, utility deposits, and escrow accounts. http://www.missingmoney.com/ http://www.unclaimed.org/

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
From: Henry Willis Subject: Vitiate
Def: 1. To impair or spoil the effectiveness of. 2. To corrupt.
The California Legislature enacted a series of legal maxims over a century ago. My favorite has always been Section 3537 of the Civil Code: "Superfluity does not vitiate." This maxim is a jewel: compact and definite, as clear as can be. And it tells us to go out and do just the opposite, using three words where one will do.
From: Kit Powell Subject: vitiate
How good to learn what 'vitiate' means. I've known this word ever since my parents read me Kipling's "Elephant's Child" (reinforced by my own reading of it to our children and grandchildren) without really having known exactly what it meant, although it was clear that it meant something bad: Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant's Child's hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armour-plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career.' That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. ("Just So Stories", Rudyard Kipling)
From: Joni Parman Subject: Majordomo
Def: 1. Someone whose job is to make arrangements or organize things for another. 2. A steward or butler. Here in the southwest, a mayordomo is the manager of the community irrigation ditch or acequia. For a total description of the life of living along the acequias and farming in the southwest, please read Stanley Crawford's Mayordomo, Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico.
From: Lynn Mancini Subject: majordomo A majordomo is also a program that handles email list subscriptions and distributes posts to subscribers.
From: Ian Gordon Subject: Fatuous Def: Foolish or inane, especially in a complacent and smug manner. The Latin origin word for fatuous is still in occasional use -- the swamp phenomenon known as will-o'-the-wisp is also known by the term "ignis fatuus" or foolish fire.