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From: Gregory Carothers Subject: combining forms
You can think of them as the Legos of language. Isn't it more like the Legos of logos?
From: Tim Eaton Subject: Tautology
One of my favorite tautologies comes from Lewis Carroll:
'You are sad,' the Knight said in an anxious tone: 'Let me sing you a song to comfort you.'
'Is it very long?' Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.
'It's long,' said the Knight, 'but very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it -- either it brings the tears into their eyes, or else -- '
'Or else what?' said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
'Or else it doesn't, you know.
From: Fran Gillespie Subject: ventifact
Def: A stone shaped, polished, or faceted by windblown sand.
I live in Qatar, where large areas in the centre of the peninsula are covered in ventifacts: three-sided pyramidal-shaped wind-polished pebbles in many colours; the remains of stones carried by a river 30 million years ago, and rolled for aeons by the dry desert winds. They are known to geologists as dreikanters: the German for 'three sides'.

A number of Southern towns and counties are hoping to attract retirees by making an unusual claim: They are certified. Some 83 towns and counties in five Southern states have been designated as Certified Retirement Communities by various state agencies, and more certifications are on the way. Now found in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, CRCs have roughly doubled in four years, and more states and municipalities are expected to start programs, says Diana O'Toole, manager of Mississippi's CRC initiative. Local governments and businesses started pursuing certified status in the early 1990s as a way to attract retirees (and their wallets). The thinking: Retirees are an attractive growth alternative to the creation of new jobs. Often criteria such as low crime rates, low taxes and quality medical care must be met. But requirements tend to differ in each state. Texas guidelines, for example, call for festivals, entertainment events and "sports at all levels." In Mississippi, towns must describe intangibles such as "appearances or curb appeal" of the entrances and exits to downtown areas. Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, a nonprofit institute in San Francisco funded in part by Transamerica Life Insurance Co., cautions that interested adults need to look past the promotions and consider such things as the quality of local long-term care. "Most of us see ourselves in retirement activities such as parties and then passing away in our sleep after telling everyone we love them," she says. "That just isn't usually the reality." John Migliaccio, director of research at the MetLife Mature Market Institute in Westport, Conn., says CRC efforts are "looking at retirees almost as a commodity. The marketing message is like a vacation ad." He advises spending more than a few days visiting a prospective new community, and perhaps in different seasons.
http://topics.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704865704575610664047097530.html

Quote
Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.
Billings Learned Hand (1872-1961) United States judge and judicial philosopher

The Curious Evolution of Holiday Lights by Dave Mosher
In 1882, the look of the holiday season changed forever. Instead of decorating a Christmas tree with candles, Edward H. Johnson, inventor and vice president of Thomas Edison’s booming electric company, strung 80 red, white and blue light bulbs on his scrawny evergreen. The whole thing rotated six times per minute on an electric crank. “I need not tell you that the scintillating evergreen was a pretty sight — one can hardly imagine anything prettier,” wrote a reporter for the Detroit Post and Tribune. See history and images at:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/holiday-light-history/

Unveiled at 9 a.m. eastern time December 23, Google's 2010 holiday doodle has 17 interactive images that approximate the logo's letters and colors. It will remain on the site for 2½ days. For Micheal Lopez, creating this year's holiday card came down to the wire. The design took five artists about 250 hours. It will be opened by hundreds of millions of people. You're on the list. Mr. Lopez is in charge of what Google Inc. calls its "doodles," the illustrations that occasionally adorn the search engine's logo in the U.S. and abroad. Doodles appear throughout the year to commemorate holidays, pop-culture touchstones, civic milestones and scientific achievements. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704774604576035500936272100.html