On December 11, two hundred people attended the inaugural Boring Conference in central London. James Ward, who organised the event, explains that the point is to challenge the assumption that certain subjects are inherently boring. "Anything that seems boring on the surface can actually be interesting. You can find there's a hidden depth." Mr. Ward's opening soliloquy was on the minutiae of his tie collection – colour, pattern, fabric, width – and how it has changed in the past six months. Milk Guy – who leads the room through a taste-testing of full-fat milk complete with breakfast cereal pairing – carries the crowd, Car Park Man ends up as the morning's showstopper. Lewis Dryburgh's take on the hidden beauty of multi-storeys is the one talk that truly paints a dry subject in a different light. For him, the most boring thing about car parks is how we use them. Rather than park and scarper, he urges attendees to visit their local multi-storey on foot (apparently the top floor is empty for 89 per cent of the week) and once there to treat it much as they would their local park, making sure to enjoy the view. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/boring-the-number-23-bus-never-2158118.html Boring 2010 sprang to life when Mr. Ward heard that an event called the Interesting Conference had been canceled, and he sent out a joke tweet about the need to have a Boring Conference instead. He was taken aback when dozens of people responded enthusiastically. Soon, he was hatching plans for the first-ever meet-up of the like-mindedly mundane. The first 50 tickets for Boring 2010 sold in seven minutes. The organizers did their best to keep the audience alert. Many viewers brought coffee, and each received a goodie bag containing an energy bar. After a much-needed break, a drawing was held. Some of the winners got a DVD called "Helvetica," a 2007 documentary about typography. To mix things up, Mr. Ward and his colleagues set up a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle depicting British cereal boxes from the 1970s. Each attendee got a few pieces of the puzzle and was asked to help complete it. For all its archness, the conference occasionally veered from the ridiculous to the philosophical. Journalist and author Naomi Alderman spoke about the difficulty of having to observe the Jewish Sabbath as a child. Her talk, "What It's Like to Do Almost Nothing Interesting for 25 Hours a Week," ended on an unexpected, touching note. "When we learn to tolerate boredom," she said, "we find out who we really are." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395904576025482554838642.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel_1

On December 28, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington named 25 motion pictures—Hollywood classics, documentaries and innovative shorts reflecting genres from every era of American filmmaking—to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Spanning the period 1891-1996, the films named to the registry range from a rare glimpse of San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake and the political thriller "All the President’s Men" to George Lucas’ student film in 1967 and his sci-fi special-effects extravaganza "The Empire Strikes Back." Also included in the registry are lesser-known, but culturally vital films such as the black independent film "Cry of Jazz," Luis Valdez’s "I Am Joaquin" and John Huston’s war documentary "Let There Be Light," which was banned by the War Department for 35 years. This year’s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, to be preserved for all time. These films are not selected as the "best" American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring significance to American culture. One of the films named is: Preservation of the Sign Language (1913) Presented without subtitles, "Preservation" is a two-minute film featuring George Veditz, onetime president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) of the United States, demonstrating in sign language the importance of defending the right of deaf people to sign as opposed to verbalizing their communication. See entire list at: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-273.html

American FactFinder First results from Census 2010 will be available on the NEW American FactFinder in February 2011. In the meantime, you will find data compiled from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey.
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

supercilious (soo-puhr-SIL-i-uhs) adjective Showing haughty disdain. The word alludes to someone being disdainful by raising an eyebrow. It's derived from Latin supercilium (eyebrow, pride), from super (above) + cilium (eyelid). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kel- (to cover, conceal, or save) that is also the source of hollow, hole, holster, hell, apocalypse, and eucalyptus. Earliest documented use: 1528.
sinister (SIN-uh-stuhr) adjective 1. Threatening or foreshadowing evil or harm. 2. On the left side. Via French from Latin sinister (left, left hand, unlucky). Earliest documented use: 1411.
charivari (shiv-uh-REE, SHIV-uh-ree, shuh-riv-uh-REE) noun 1. A noisy, mock serenade to a newly married couple, involving the banging of kettles, pots, and pans. 2. A confused, noisy spectacle.
From French charivari (hullabaloo), perhaps from Latin caribaria (headache), from Greek karebaria, from kare/kara (head) + barys (heavy). Earliest documented use: 1735. Also spelled as chivaree, chivari, and shivaree. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

The virtue of juries is that they represent a cross-section of the community; however, the majority of that community is likely to use the Internet and participate in social media. This new form of communication and information sharing becomes especially important as jurors try to stay connected to work and home while performing their civic duty. Even the courts have begun to expedite the jury selection process through web-based applications. But the main concern for the legal system is the power of individual jurors to virtualize a trial by going online. While the lure of tweeting or doing a Google search or updating a Facebook profile seems all but irresistible, these upheavals are reshaping the social dimensions of the trial and breaking down the barriers that channel the flow of information within the courtroom. Online misbehavior by jurors can be reduced to four principle areas: (1) publishing or distributing information about a trial, e.g., tweeting or posting updates on a social media site; (2) uncovering information about the case by searching the Internet, entering social networking sites or visiting virtual crime scenes; (3) contacting parties, witnesses, lawyers or judges via social networking for example; and (4) discussing or deliberating the merits of the litigation prematurely or inviting outside opinions. Judges and court administrators are being tasked with responding to this technological revolution in jury behavior. They have been assigned expanded roles in jury selection and policing misconduct before, during and after trial. Moreover, the role of attorneys in investigating potential jurors through the Internet, social media and online databases is evolving from a strategy to a duty. You may go to substantive articles at: http://www.llrx.com/features/jurorbehavior.htm

Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!!