Quotes
Marine reserves are like libraries. New Zealand tour guide
People are our treasures. Maori storyteller
The swiftest thing in the world is thought. The sweetest thing in the world is sleep. The richest thing in the world is earth, for out of the earth come all the riches of the world. Clever Manka, Czechoslovakian folk tale

A nonpartisan map of all 435 congressional districts in the nation has never been drawn. The widespread diffusion of redistricting technology and data and the training of a group of students dedicated to that purpose has made such a map possible for the first time. DrawCongress.org represents the first attempt to create an internet depository for nonpartisan congressional maps for the entire country. DrawCongress.org is an outgrowth of the “Redistricting and Gerrymandering” course at Columbia Law School. At this website you will find a series of student-drawn nonpartisan redistricting plans, which will culminate in a complete map of all 435 congressional districts. The students used Caliper Corporation's Maptitude for Redistricting software to draw their plans. http://www.law.columbia.edu/redistricting

The Poughkeepsie Bridge (sometimes known as the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, the High Bridge, or, since October 3, 2009, the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park) is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York on the east bank and Highland, New York on the west bank. Built as a double-track railroad bridge, it was completed on January 1, 1889, and went out of service on May 8, 1974. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, updated in 2008. It was opened to the public on October 3, 2009, as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge and New York State Park. The bridge was considered an engineering marvel of the day and has seven main spans. The total length is 6,767 feet (2082.15 meters), including approaches, and the deck is 212 feet (65.23 meters) above water. It is a multispan cantilever and truss bridge, having two river-crossing cantilever spans of 548 feet each (168.62 meters), one center span of 546 feet (168 meters), two anchor (connecting) spans of 525 feet each (161.53 meters), two shore spans of 201 feet each (61.85 meters), a 2,640-foot (812.31 meters) approach viaduct on the eastern bank and a 1,033-foot (317.85 meters) approach viaduct on the western bank. The bridge remained as the only Hudson River crossing south of Albany until the construction of the Bear Mountain (road) Bridge in 1924, and was advertised as a way to avoid New York City car floats and railroad passenger ferries. During World War II, the bridge was a vital link for war freight traffic, and was guarded by U.S. Army soldiers 24 hours a day. See pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poughkeepsie_Bridge

There are three elements that make up a bowl of Vietnamese pho: the broth, the rice noodles and the meat. How long should it take for beef bones to simmer in order to come up with a good pho broth? Mai Pham and Andrea Nguyen both recommend at least three hours to simmer the broth, but there are other recipes that state that the beef bones must be boiled gently for six to eight hours. For restaurant-quality pho, the time required to simmer the broth can take up to 12 hours or more. Find recipe links at: http://www.lovingpho.com/pho-corner-everything-pho/pho-broth-soup-stock-vietnamese-pho/

Semolina (sem oh LEEN ah) [Alteration of Italian semolino, diminutive of semola, bran, from Latin simila, fine flour, ultimately of Semitic origin.]
1. a hot breakfast cereal made of the endosperm of soft wheat
2. a wheat product cooked and used primarily for baby food and the elderly
3. any coarse ground grain, i.e. rice semolina, corn semolina
4. gritty by-product the flour made from durum wheat used primarily in making pasta

Couscous (KOOS-koos) [French, from Arabic kuskus, from kaskasa, to pulverize; Berber, k'seksu, of Semitic roots.]
1. a hand rolled pasta made of semolina popular in the Maghreb countries (Morrocco, Tunisia, Algeria)
2. a dish of the same name in which couscous is prepared and steamed over a soup or stew primarily of chicken or lamb with vegetables (Sources from various dictionaries and encyclopedias.) http://www.epicureantable.com/articles/agrainsemolina.htm

Some people are only glad when they're mad. If they're not mad, they feel bad.

One of the earliest examples of Mies van der Rohe's brand of modernism in New York City is Philip Johnson's Rockefeller Guest House. In the late 1940's and early 1950's, Johnson had built only single-story structures, and thus when faced with the dilemma of how to design a façade with a second floor, he turns to Mies van der Rohe's sketches, and places a second floor almost entirely of glass. The home is one room wide, and upon entering, the living room stretches far back until it is book-ended by floor to ceiling windows that closely mimic the façade's layout. The home was sold at auction for $11 million. Previous to being sold at auction, The Rockefeller Guest House was donated by the Rockefellers to the Museum of Modern Art in 1955, after which it had its share of owners. Johnson himself rented the home and lived there from 1971 to 1979. The home was given landmark status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in December 2000. See more plus location, how to get there, and images at: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/rockefellerguest/index.htm The house is not open to the public.