The Department of Justice's 10-year-old antitrust judgment against Microsoft expired on May 12, marking the end of what is perhaps the most famous U.S. antitrust action against a technology company. The judgment barred Microsoft from anti-competitive practices that regulators said had been choking off competing software on the company's Windows platform. The most oft-cited victim of Microsoft's muscling was the company's one-time rival, Netscape Communications Corp., a company that was acquired by AOL Inc. before its browser product faded largely into obscurity beneath the shadow of Microsoft's competing Explorer browser. In a three-year court battle that began in 1998, the Justice Department and then-Atty. Gen. Janet Reno accused Microsoft of "a broad pattern of anti-competitive conduct designed to eliminate competition, to maintain and strengthen Microsoft's core monopoly over PC operating systems." http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/justice-departments-landmark-judgment-against-microsoft-will-expire.html Department of Justice May 11, 2011 news release: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/May/11-at-601.html

The main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, that stately, marble Beaux-Arts temple of knowledge whose entrance is flanked by two enormous stone lions was renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in 2008, after the financier donated $100 million toward a major renovation. May 23 is the 100th anniversary of the edifice. The library is celebrating with a festival featuring events, an exhibition of some of its most prized items and a kind of writing project cum scavenger hunt devised by game guru Jane McGonigal, in which 500 contestants will spend the night in the building, exploring the collections on various "quests." The New York Public Library commemorated the centennial of its incorporation (in which several smaller public and private libraries were merged) back in 1995; this week's celebration is for the building, the most visible part of a much larger system. Defenders of library funding cutbacks typically ask why, in the age of Google and e-reader devices, anybody needs libraries. Let's set aside the obvious rejoinder that many citizens can't afford e-readers and, furthermore, can only access Google via a library computer. The anniversary of the NYPL's main building is an occasion to talk about why the library needs to be a place as well as an ethereal mass of data residing somewhere in "the cloud." Not everything we need or want to know about the world can be transmitted via a screen, and not every experience can be digitized. Also, not everything a library collects is a scannable book or document. The NYPL's anniversary exhibit includes such treasures of print culture as a Gutenberg Bible, a copy of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's hand, and a first quarto edition of "King Lear." It also features the personal effects of writers, such as Jack Kerouac's.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/05/11/nypl_centennial

GENERAL LEVALLE, Argentina—Pilots often stare in disbelief when they make their first flight over this hamlet on the verdant pampa. There, on the monotonous plain below, is a giant guitar landscaped out of cypress and eucalyptus trees. It is more than two-thirds of a mile long. The green guitar is the handiwork of a farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta, who is now 70. He embedded the design into his farm many years ago, and maintains it to this day, as a tribute to his late wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died in 1977 at the age of 25. His giant guitar is an unusual example of what's known as land art, in which forms are built into the natural environment, said Nancy Somerville, chief executive officer of the American Society of Landscape Architects. One famous example is Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long structure of mud, rocks and salt crystals built by artist Robert Smithson in Utah's Great Salt Lake. Using trees, as Mr. Ureta did, rather than with rocks or shrubbery, is a "pretty tremendous undertaking," Ms. Somerville said, due to the time and care needed to cultivate them. Most of the guitar, including the figure-eight-shaped body and star-shaped sound hole, is formed of cypress trees. For the strings, Mr. Ureta planted six rows of eucalyptus trees, whose bluish tone offers a contrast visible from above. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859304576307251804750800.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1

The Mughal Empire or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in former English usage, was an imperial power in South Asia that ruled a large portion of the Indian subcontinent. It began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of India by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids, a dynasty of Turco-Mongol ancestry, and at the height of their power around 1700, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent—extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million, over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles). The "classic period" of the Empire started in 1556 with the accession of Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, better known as Akbar the Great. It ended with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 by the rising Hindu Maratha Empire, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During the classic period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. Following 1725 the Mughal Empire declined rapidly, weakened by wars of succession, agrarian crises fueling local revolts, the growth of religious intolerance, the rise of the Maratha, Durrani, and Sikh empires and finally British colonialism. The last Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, whose rule was restricted to the city of Delhi, was imprisoned and exiled by the British after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The name Mughal is derived from the original homelands of the Timurids, the Central Asian steppes once conquered by Genghis Khan and hence known as Moghulistan, "Land of Mongols". Although early Mughals spoke the Chagatai language and maintained some Turko-Mongol practices, they became essentially Persianized and transferred the Persian literary and high culture[ to India, thus forming the base for the Indo-Persian culture. A major Mughal contribution to the Indian subcontinent was their unique architecture. Many monuments were built by the Muslim emperors, especially Shahjahan, during the Mughal era including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Taj Mahal, which is known to be one of the finer examples of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites includes the Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Agra Fort, and Lahore Fort. See a list of emperors plus pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire

Jahangir (1569-1627) began his era as a Mughal emperor after the death of his father Akbar in the year 1605. He considered his third son Prince Khurram (future Shah Jahan-born 1592 of Hindu Rajput princess Manmati), his favourite. Rana of Mewar and Prince Khurram had a standoff that resulted in a treaty acceptable to both parties. Khurram was kept busy with several campaigns in Bengal and Kashmir. Jahangir claimed the victories of Khurram – Shah Jahan as his own. He also had unlimited sources of revenue largely due to a systematic organization of the administration by his father, Akbar. The Mughal Empire reached its pinnacle during Jahangir and Shah Jahan’s rule. Jahangir built his famous gardens in Kashmir though the daily administration was delegated to close aides. One such person was Jahangir’s wife, Nur Jahan, whom he married in 1611. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_emperors

The Taj Mahal Trilogy by Indu Sundaresan: The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, Shadow Princess Winter 1577: A young Persian nobleman flees his homeland, headed east toward India and the glittering Mughal court of Emperor Akbar. Ghias Beg isn’t traveling light; he has with him a pregnant wife and three small children. When his family stops at Qandahar—which is today in modern-day Afghanistan, at that time was on the outer fringe of the Mughal Empire—his wife gives birth to a baby girl named Mehrunnisa. Thirty-four years later, this winter child will become an Emperor’s wife and the most powerful woman in that Mughal dynasty. Mehrunnisa is The Twentieth Wife of Emperor Jahangir, Akbar’s son, a woman so beloved of her husband that he grants her most of the powers of sovereignty. She signs on imperial documents called farmans and mints coins in her name and truly comes into power during the sixteen years of her marriage to Jahangir in The Feast of Roses. Mehrunnisa’s niece (her brother’s daughter and Ghias’ granddaughter) marries one of Jahangir’s sons, Prince Khurram who becomes Emperor Shah Jahan after his father’s death. When this niece dies in childbirth in June of 1631, Shah Jahan builds the Taj Mahal in her memory. But it is Mehrunnisa’s grand-niece (and Ghias’ great-granddaughter) Princess Jahanara who takes center stage in the third novel of the trilogy, Shadow Princess. She’s seventeen years old when her mother dies and her father, in his grief, leans upon her to the extent that she’s never allowed to marry. http://www.indusundaresan.com/Trilogy.aspx

Law360, New York (May 12, 2011) -- The Third Circuit's ruling last week that insurers can challenge silica claims provisions of Global Industrial Technologies Inc.'s bankruptcy plan will likely empower insurers fighting certain reorganization plans and reign in mass tort attorneys' aggressive bankruptcy pursuits, lawyers say. The en banc appeals court majority vacated a Pennsylvania district court's ruling that insurers including Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. and Century Indemnity Co. had not shown sufficient injury and lacked standing to raise objections during the 2006 confirmation hearing for GIT's plan. http://www.law360.com/bankruptcy/articles/244735/3rd-circ-git-ruling-may-reduce-tort-claims-attys-say Thanks, David for pointing out that those pesky English homophones have claimed another victim.

Meat-Stuffed Rye Loaf adapted from Woman's Day Kitchen, September 1954
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 carrot, grated
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. chili sauce
1 loaf rye bread, unsliced
Cook onion until lightly browned. Add beef and cook until browned. Add seasonings and cook 5 minutes. Cut slice from one end of bread; take out soft center of loaf and mix with meat mixture. Mix well and stuff into loaf. Put back slice and fasten with toothpicks. Back at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Slice to serve.

Pittsfield, MA May 14, 2011 At a local auction, Colin Twing bid $60 on what he thought were two 19th century railroad tickets, figuring each might be worth that much apiece. As it turns out, the Pittsfield man acquired a pair of baseball tickets that two researchers are calling rare finds for the national pastime. Twing, who has been shopping at auctions for 10 years, is now the owner of what looks like a season ticket from the late 1860s or '70s to the Athletic Club Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and a ticket to the 11th annual National Association of Base-Ball Players convention that took place in Philadelphia on Dec. 11, 1867. The ball club and the association were precursors to the modern organizations. Renowned baseball historian John Thorn discovered Pittsfield's 1791 town bylaw banning "base ball" - currently the earliest known reference to the sport in North America - seven years ago. Thorn says the earliest known ticket having something to do with baseball is a social gathering given by members of the Magnolia Baseball Club on Feb. 9, 1843. Thorn also examined Twing's tickets through pictures, and called them "very rare." Twing, who buys and sells antiques, rare books and musical instruments, said he didn't realize how significant the tickets were until he returned home from Fontaine's Antique Auction Gallery in Pittsfield and examined them in greater detail. He bought them in what's known as a boxed lot, which contains other miscellaneous items up for one sale.
http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/05/14/baseball-tickets-from-1860s-a-rare-find