Amazon.com is trying to counter a new law aimed at forcing online retailers to collect sales taxes in the state. Hawaii, North Carolina and Rhode Island have enacted similar laws, and California is weighing action. Amazon is also in a court battle with New York over such legislation. The Illinois law, signed by Gov. Pat Quinn March 10, requires online retailers that work with affiliates in the state to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Illinois residents and businesses. Amazon responded to the measure by cutting ties to its Illinois-based affiliates, which are blogs and other websites that refer traffic to Amazon's website and get paid commissions if customers make purchases there. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said that retailers have to collect sales taxes in a state only if they have a substantial physical "nexus" there. The new Illinois law established marketing affiliates as nexuses. Amazon has referred to these affiliates as "advertisers." Amazon's stance against collecting sales tax has drawn the ire of brick-and-mortar retailers, who complain the company has an unfair business advantage over rivals that collect sales taxes. Meanwhile, lawmakers have become more determined to make the online giant collect taxes to help address budget shortfalls that have become big problems for many states.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-severing-ties-with-illinois-affiliates-2011-03-10

Charlie Sheen, just days after being fired from CBS' "Two and a Half Men," has fired back with a $100-million lawsuit against Warner Bros. and Chuck Lorre, the studio and executive producer behind the show. The suit, filed March 10 in Santa Monica Superior Court, charges that Sheen was only fired from the show because he had recently criticized Lorre both on radio and television. Warner Bros., in a letter to Sheen's attorney Martin Singer, had said Sheen was fired because he had become a liability on the show and his erratic off-stage life had started to affect his ability to perform. See copy of suit at: http://documents.latimes.com/charlie-sheen-lawsuit-warner-chuck-lorre/ The suit also says it is pursuing claims for the benefit of the entire cast , crew and actors to be paid for the rest of the current TV season. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/03/charlie-sheen-files-100-million-suit-against-warner-bros-and-chuck-lorre-.html?cid=6a00d8341c630a53ef014e86a37eb4970d

March 14, 2011 marks the septendecennial of Wordsmith.org. On this day, 17 years ago, Anu Garg started what turned into Wordsmith.org. To celebrate, this week features words that are 17 letters long.
predestinarianism (pri-des-tuh-NAR-ee-uh-niz-uhm) noun
Belief in the doctrine of predestination, that the divine will has predetermined the course of events, people's fate, etc. From Latin praedestination, from prae- (before) + destinare (to determine), from stare (to stand). Earliest documented use: 1722. "I have reacquainted myself with the old taste of Scottish predestinarianism. Y'know, damned or saved; nothing to do with free will or good works."
Alexander Linklater; The Tale of the Three Alcoholics; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 11, 2006.

In the past few months, online clubs with such names as BookLending.com and Lendle.me have proliferated. The sites, some of which have gathered thousands of users, allow strangers to borrow and lend e-books for Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook free. The sites are the latest twist in the industry of e-books, which has disrupted the traditional book-publishing industry and changed that business's economics. Public libraries can't lend e-books in the Kindle format, though they can for other e-reading devices. The lending sites have drawbacks. One is limited selection. Most major book publishers haven't made their e-books lendable, and the books can be lent only once and for only 14 days. That means that with every successful loan, the sites' available library shrinks unless new users with books to lend join. BookLending and Lendle users can swap only Kindle titles, while eBook Fling will allow Kindle and Nook borrowing. All three lending sites are free to users. But if books aren't available for borrowing, the sites refer users to Amazon, and they make a commission if users buy a book there. The three sites offer incentives for users to make their books available for lending. Lendle requires users to make at least one book available for loan before starting to borrow, and the site has an algorithm that improves users' chances of getting a book they want if they lend frequently. BookLending has a similar algorithm, though it has no requirement to make books available for loan first.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703726904576192923709743108.html

In a recent assessment, the value of Lake Erie and its tributaries, with respect to sport fishing and related commerce, was estimated to exceed $850 million annually. The study unit contains about 300 public recreational areas and about 90,000 acres of inland waters for public use. Lake Erie supports the largest freshwater fishery in the Great Lakes (an estimated 50-60 million pounds of fish are caught per year) and is widely considered to be the best walleye fishery in the world. Lakes Erie and St. Clair and the St. Clair, Detroit, and Niagara Rivers are vital shipping links that connect the upper Great Lakes to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-036-99/

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Consumer Reports on March 7 announced a new partnership to educate parents, teachers, and teens about the dangers of distracted driving. Consumer Reports released the results of a new poll that shows younger drivers are more likely to use handheld devices while driving--and less likely to view them as a danger. The free brochure “Distracted Driving Shatters Lives” produced by DOT and CR recommends six steps for parents:
• Set a good example by putting down your phone while driving.
• Talk to your teen about the risks and responsibilities of driving and the danger of dividing their attention between a cell phone and the road.
• Establish ground rules for not texting or talking on a handheld device while behind the wheel.
• Have your child sign a pledge to not use a cell phone while driving, agreeing on penalties for violating the pledge.
• Educate yourself about the problem at Distracted.gov and ConsumerReports.org/Distracted.
• Spread the word by communicating with friends and family.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/resources/streaming/PDFs/distracted-driving-brochure.pdf

The tallest luxury residential tower in New York City's history, by Frank Gehry, nears completion: the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen’s CBS building went up 46 years ago. And like that tower, and Philip Johnson’s AT&T (now Sony) building after it, 8 Spruce Street seems to crystallize a particular moment in cultural history, in this case the turning point from the modern to the digital age. The tower, 76 stories high and clad in a rumpled stainless-steel skin, stands at the northern edge of the financial district on a tight lot hemmed in by one-way streets. The Pace University building, a wide, Brutalist-style structure completed in 1970, cuts it off from the rest of the city to the north; just beyond are the spaghettilike access ramps of the Brooklyn Bridge. The building’s exterior is made up of 10,500 individual steel panels, almost all of them different shapes, so that as you move around it, its shape is constantly changing. And by using the same kind of computer modeling that he used for his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, more than a decade ago, he was able to achieve this quality at a close to negligible increase in cost. See images at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/arts/design/10beekman.html

The Pentagon was built in "stripped classical" style, a variation of Greek and Roman classicism popular in the middle of the 20th century and often used for government buildings. On January 15, 1943, just 16 months after construction began, the Pentagon was completed. In April, occupants began moving in. Including outside facilities, the project cost about $83,000,000. Since five roads surrounded the site, builders chose a five-sided building, which is how the Pentagon got its name. The building consists of five concentric rings connected by ten corridors that run, like spokes, from the inner ring to the outer. Interior courtyards that provide light separate the rings. The corridors are a total of 17.5 miles long, while the building provides a gross floor area of 6,500,000 square feet. There are 3,800,000 square feet for offices, concessions, and storage. The five-sided center courtyard covers five acres. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/pentagon1.html