2009 Iconic is now “overused to the point where everything from a fast-food restaurant chain to celebrities is 'iconic’”. And almost all searches reported in the media appear to be desperate, in an apparent attempt to over-dramatise otherwise relatively mundane stories.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4075453/List-of-words-which-should-be-banned-in-2009.html

2011 A Google search on April 25 for the word iconic brought up about 35,500,000 results. A May 5 search brought up about 35,700,000 results.

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From: Jane Hoed Subject: calliopean
I finished a work of art just yesterday that I named "Calliope". Its main focus is a Calliope hummingbird . I superimposed a poem on it that I wrote specifically for it:
sweet colours sing to me of joy
and grace and beauty
I am kaleidoscope; observer of beautiful forms
written to music and cascading melodies
bird song
light as air
here and there
over and through from now to far, far beyond
depths plumbed
rippling waves and ethereal clouds
spun and sung by
Calliope

From: Brian Fahey Subject: clarion
Def: adjective: Loud and clear. noun: An ancient trumpet used as a signal in war. Many of the Greek and some other mythological names have become pipe organ stop names as well.
Stentorian is known as Stentor
Clarion is known as Clarion
Maris is known as Unda Maris
Aeolus or Aeolian is known as Aeolian
The above are just a few, and know that there are exacting definitions for the sounds that each make.

Ruby Falls is a 145-foot high underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain, near Rock City and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The cave which houses Ruby Falls was formed with the formation of Lookout Mountain. About 200 to 240 million years ago (in the Carboniferous period, at the end of the Paleozoic era) the eastern Tennessee area was covered with a shallow sea, the sediments of which eventually formed limestone rock. About 200 million years ago, this area was uplifted and subsequent erosion has created the current topography. The limestone in which the cave is formed is still relatively horizontal, just as it was deposited when it was below sea level. The Lookout Mountain Caverns, which includes Ruby Falls Cave, is a limestone cave. These caves occur when slightly acidic groundwater enters subterranean streams and eats away at the relatively soluble limestone, causing narrow cracks to widen into passages and caves in a process called chemical weathering. The stream which makes up the Falls entered the cave sometime after its formation. Ruby Falls Cave features many of the more well-known types of cave formations (or speleothems) including stalactites and stalagmites, columns, drapery, and flowstone. The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a large vertical shaft. The stream, 1120 feet underground, is fed both by rainwater and natural springs. It collects in a pool in the cave floor and then continues through the mountain until finally joining the Tennessee River at the base of Lookout Mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls

An all-female American indie rock band called Ruby Falls was active during the 1990s. Based in New York City, the group was founded in 1992 and disbanded in 2000. "Ruby Falls" is also the title of a song by the indie rock band Guster, which appears on their 2006 album Ganging Up on the Sun. The hard rock band Mastodon filmed the performance footage of the music video for their song "Colony of Birchmen" from the album Blood Mountain inside Ruby Falls. The waterfall itself can be seen in the background. Ray Stevens performed a song entitled "Ruby Falls". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls

Norio Ohga, who led the development of the first ever compact disc, died April 23 at the age of 81 in his native Tokyo. Ohga was an employee of Sony since 1959, serving as President in the 1980s until 1995, CEO from 1989 to 1999 and Chairman until 2003. Under Ohga's leadership, Sony transitioned from a company that made transistor-radios and tape-recorders to an electronics giant with music, movie and video game products galore. Ohga's storied career began in 1953. Back then, at the age of 23, the company's founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka hired Ohga as a consultant straight out of the Faculty of Music of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music for his expertise in acoustic and electrical engineering. He joined Sony full time six years later and moved up the ladder, with electronic music as his specialty. Ohga's most notable achievement was leading the team that developed the first compact disc. His insight made the CD a 12 centimeter format, which allowed for 75 minutes of music capacity, enough to fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137794/20110425/norio-ohga-compact-disc-sony-sony-president-sony-music-sony-films.htm

The Department of Justice on May 3 came knocking with a very pointed message to the Bowl Championship Series: Tell us why the playoff system the NCAA has set up for college football’s highest level continues to exist. Or, to put it another way, why a playoff system doesn’t exist and why we’re left with this nonsensical bowl system which, year after year after year seems to leave deserving teams out of the national championship conversation. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said he’s confident the BCS complies with the law. “Goodness gracious, with all that’s going on in the world right now and with national and state budgets being what they are, it seems like a waste of taxpayers’ money to have the government looking into how college football games are played,” he said. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/05/04/doj-to-bcs-why-exactly-do-you-exist/