Winners and Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/83/nominees.html

The connection between handedness and speech runs deep. Speech is controlled by the left side of the brain and so is motor control of the usually dominant right hand. It is possible that this connection says something about the evolutionary origin of language, if language was first expressed through gestures rather than speech. Curiously, stuttering is not really a speech disorder. Some deaf people stutter in sign language, too. This is just one of the ways that sign language shares all the characteristics of spoken language. For example, in Britain and many other countries—less so in America—sign language has wildly different dialects in different regions. Most hearing people wonder why sign language is not internationally standardized. Answer: for the same reason spoken language is not standardized. Language is an evolved, not an ordained, order. by Matt Ridley
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160363317261804.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Muse reader responds to Black Swamp story: Along Route 20 between Perrysburg and Fremont there were hotels a day's journey apart-often just a few miles. The wagon wheel repair people "owned" the potholes and didn't repair the roads, thus assuring business. Corduroy Road in Oregon gets its name from the continual addition of trees laid across it as previous layers disappeared into the mud. Thanks, Beth.

Muse reader responds to Maxx story: Therapy dogs don't get the special privileges that service dogs do--they are very different "things." Service dogs are specially trained to assist the disabled with certain tasks. Therapy dogs are tested/certified to be friendly, well behaved, etc., to let people pet and hug them, provide comfort, etc. Therapy dogs visit hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, etc. They have no special skills other than to make people feel warm and fuzzy. Thanks, Sue.

The producer of Yellow Tail, the nation's best-selling imported wine, is suing the maker of Little Roo for trademark infringement. At issue: whether the kangaroo on Little Roo's label is a knockoff of the wallaby on Yellow Tail's. Casella Wines Pty. Ltd., the Australian maker of Yellow Tail, says in papers filed in a New York federal court that the kangaroo on its competitor's label is portrayed in profile, is leaping, and is "oriented [in] the same direction" as the yellow-footed rock wallaby on Yellow Tail bottles. Wallabies, Casella Wines contends, are "indistinguishable to most people" from kangaroos. The Wine Group LLC, which makes Little Roo, "denies that the Australian wallaby is interchangeably referred to as a kangaroo," it said in a December court filing. For years, labels were dominated by inanimate objects, like chateaus in France, and gobs of text. Yellow Tail, introduced in the U.S. a decade ago, popularized the living-creature label, although there were others before, like the ducks from California's Duckhorn Vineyards. by David Kesmodel http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703951704576092343480682946.html

Tamil people, also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 19th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Canada, Réunion (France) and the UK. Tamil people have a recorded history going back over two millennia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamils

Dravidian peoples also Dravidians is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers are found mostly in southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The most populous Dravidian peoples (30-70 million each) are the Telugus, Tamils, Kannadigas and the Malayalis. Smaller Dravidian communities with 1-5 million speakers are the Tuluvas, Gonds and Brahui. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples

In January 2011, archivist Jane Kenealy at the San Diego History Center was exploring a batch of unprocessed material when she saw an unfamiliar container, about three feet across and three inches deep. “I opened the box,” she said, still sounding awed, “and there it was.” “It” was a framed parchment, with “The President of the United States” printed across the top. The document had been pre-printed, with blanks for someone’s name (in this case, Lewis C. Gunn) and appointment (here, Assessor of Internal Revenue for the First Collection Division of California). There was also a space for a signature. The name flows in black ink: “Abraham Lincoln.” Like every American, Kenealy had seen the name countless times. But she was sure that she had once seen that same handwriting, marching across the center’s two-page handwritten 1841 court document from Logan & Lincoln, an Illinois law firm where Lincoln was a junior partner. The letter, though, was unsigned. Kenealy e-mailed digital copies of the 1841 letter and the 1865 appointment to Daniel Stowell, director and editor of “The Papers of Abraham Lincoln,” a project of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. About two weeks ago, he verified Kenealy’s suspicions—both were authentic, and the entire letter was in Lincoln’s hand. The Lincoln library and museum has a transcript of the 1841 letter, but didn’t know the original’s location. Lincoln was writing on behalf of clients, trying to collect an overdue and, in his time, sizable debt: $137.50. http://www.sandiegohistory.org/press/5156

Cleopatra's Needle is the popular name for each of three Ancient Egyptian obelisks re-erected in London, Paris, and New York City during the nineteenth century. The London and New York ones are a pair, while the Paris one comes from a different original site where its twin remains. Although the needles are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks, they are somewhat misnamed as they have no particular connection with Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and were already over a thousand years old in her lifetime. The Paris "needle" was the first to be moved and re-erected, and the first to acquire the nickname. See much more including pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra's_Needle

Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Egypt, a key ally in the Middle East, took a frosty turn recently--and it was all over a 3,500-year-old stone sculpture that's lived in Central Park since 1880. The secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council on Antiquities, archeologist Zahi Hawass, blasted the city's care and maintenance of the priceless Egyptian obelisk- fancifully dubbed Cleopatra's Needle- in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Central Park Conservancy. http://www.examiner.com/historic-places-in-new-york/cleopatra-s-needle-controversy-stings-new-york-could-paris-or-london-be-next