Is the Google Books settlement dead in the water? It’s likely too soon to make so dramatic a proclamation, but Second Circuit judge Denny Chin on March 22 dealt it a significant setback when he rejected Google’s settlement with authors and publishers that would allow it to make millions of books available online. The rationale: such a project would give Google the ability to “exploit” books without the permission of copyright owners. The opinion is here: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/032211googlebooksopinion.pdf In his 48-page ruling, Denny Chin, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, denied the 2008 settlement, but he did offer the parties a glimmer of hope with a potential solution. The solution, Judge Chin suggested, is simple: rather than let copyright owners of books to “opt out” of the settlement, which was reached in 2008 between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, copyright owners should be given the choice to “opt in.” “I urge the parties to consider revising the [settlement] accordingly,” Judge Chin wrote. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/03/22/banned-books-judge-chin-shoots-down-google-pact-with-publishers/?p=39652?mod=djemlawblog_h

In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. Both the quantitative meter of classical poetry and the accentual-syllabic meter of most poetry in English use the foot as the fundamental building block. A foot consists of a certain number of syllables forming part of a line of verse. A foot is described by the character and number of syllables it contains: in English, feet are named for the combination of accented and unaccented syllables; in other languages such as Latin and Greek, the duration of the syllable (long or short) is measured. The most common feet in English verse are the iamb, the trochee, the dactyl, and the anapest. See lists describing the feet in terms of vowel length (as in classical languages) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(prosody) Translated into syllable stresses (as in English poetry), 'long' becomes 'stressed' ('accented'), and 'short' becomes 'unstressed' ('unaccented'). For example, an iamb, which is short-long in classical meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the English word "betray."

Studies conducted over the past five years by the University of Technology, Sydney found that small groups of the Janet Craig and Sweet Chico plants placed in offices with high airborne concentrations of volatile organic compounds consistently reduced total VOC levels by up to 75%. Reductions to negligible levels were maintained over the course of five- to 12-week periods studied. "Potted plants can provide an efficient, self-regulating, low-cost, sustainable bioremediation system for indoor air pollution," researchers concluded. In another study at Washington State University, dust was reduced as much as 20% when a number of plants were placed around the perimeter of computer lab and small office for one week. Margaret Burchett, a professor who led the Sydney studies, estimates that six or more plants in a 1,200- to 1,500-square-foot house could achieve noteworthy contaminant reductions. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200423930895948.html

The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson) is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to represent their country in the international competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay despite the fact that they do not compete. In the 1950s, as a war-torn Europe rebuilt itself, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)—based in Switzerland—set up an ad-hoc committee to search for ways of bringing together the countries of the EBU around a "light entertainment programme". At a committee meeting held in Monaco in January 1955, director general of Swiss television and committee chairman Marcel Bezençon conceived the idea of an international song contest where countries would participate in one television programme, to be transmitted simultaneously to all countries of the union. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy, and was also seen as a technological experiment in live television: as in those days, it was a very ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network. Satellite television did not exist, and the so-called Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network. The concept, then known as "Eurovision Grand Prix", was approved by the EBU General Assembly in at a meeting held in Rome on 19 October 1955. The name "Eurovision" was first used in relation to the EBU's network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951. The first Contest was held in the town of Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Seven countries participated—each submitting two songs, for a total of 14. This was the only Contest in which more than one song per country was performed: since 1957 all Contests have allowed one entry per country. See much more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest

Print long runners The printed word (or character, pictogram, what-have-you) is one of the oldest forms of passing information or creating entertainment. This listing honors print media that has reached the state of Long Runner . Print media includes books (and e-books), comics, newspapers, and manga. Long running is considered to be a print run of 20 years or more. Extensive list, including The Epic Of Gilgamesh generally considered to be the first concrete "story" humans have to offer. The first versions were written approximately four thousand years ago (2150-2000 BCE) and the most familiar version was codified about a millennium later (1300-1000 BCE). Even the first modern translation was performed in the 1873; Moby Dick: America's first "epic novel", published 1851, in print since the 1920s; Terry and the Pirates (1934-1973) and Mary Worth (1932-present). The oldest comic strip I found in this list is Mutt and Jeff (1907-1982). http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PrintLongRunners

Steve Roper and Mike Nomad was an American adventure comic strip that ran under various earlier titles (proposed as The Great Gusto, published as Big Chief Wahoo, then Chief Wahoo and Steve Roper, Steve Roper and Wahoo, and then Steve Roper) from November 1936 to December 26, 2004. Initially distributed by Publishers Syndicate (Publishers-Hall Syndicate), and then by Field Enterprises, it ended at King Features Syndicate. Despite the changes in title, characters, themes and authors, the entire 68-year run formed a single evolving story, from an Indian who teamed up with an adventurous young photojournalist to two longtime friends ready to retire after their long, eventful careers. The strip was originally proposed by Elmer Woggon as The Great Gusto, drawn by himself and written by Allen Saunders (who would also write Mary Worth and Kerry Drake), although contrary to some sources (e.g., Toonopedia) it never appeared under that title. J. Mortimer Gusto was a freeloading opportunist based on the film persona of W.C. Fields. In his autobiography, Saunders said Fields was flattered. But the syndicate preferred his sidekick Wahoo, so the proposal was revamped to center on him, and the strip debuted on November 23, 1936 as Big Chief Wahoo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Roper_and_Mike_Nomad

Mary Worth is a newspaper comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate, developed from an earlier Apple Mary strip by writer Allen Saunders and artist Dale Conner in 1939-40, under the pseudonym "Dale Allen". The strip reached its apex under Saunders and artist Ken Ernst. It was also published briefly by Harvey Comics as Love Stories of Mary Worth (1949-50). The title character, a former teacher and widow of a Wall Street tycoon (Jack Worth), formerly lived in New York and later moved to the Charterstone Condominium Complex in fictional Santa Royale, California. Originally titled Mary Worth's Family, its title was shortened in 1942, at which time Ernst succeeded Conner. Most reference sources state it was a continuation of the Depression-era strip Apple Mary, created by Martha Orr in 1932, centering on an old woman who sold apples on the street and offered humble common sense. King Features denies that Mary Worth was a continuation of the earlier strip, disregarding Saunders' own detailed account in his interviews (1971) and autobiography (1983-86) of how he was given Apple Mary in 1939 and developed it into Mary Worth with stories he thought women would enjoy more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Worth