The noble gases are a group of chemical elements with very similar properties: under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), and the radioactive radon (Rn). Noble gas is translated from the German noun Edelgas, first used in 1898 by Hugo Erdmann to indicate their extremely low level of reactivity. The name makes an analogy to the term "noble metals", which also have low reactivity. The noble gases have also been referred to as inert gases, but this label is now deprecated as many noble gas compounds are now known. Rare gases is another term that was used, but this is also inaccurate because argon forms a fairly considerable part (0.94% by volume, 1.3% by mass) of the Earth's atmosphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_gas

Legal Upstarts Gain Traction by Paula J. Hane In May, LegalZoom raised $66 million in a new round of funding from Kleiner Perkins and Institutional Venture Partners. In August 2011, Google Ventures announced that it is part of a group that invested $18.5 million into Rocket Lawyer. In June 2010, Rocket Lawyer raised $7 million from Investor Growth Capital and expanded its management team. Rocket Lawyer claims that more than 15 million small businesses and consumers have used its web-based do-it-yourself tools and legal plans. Self-help publisher Nolo was acquired by Internet Brands in May 2011 and combined with its legal-focused division called ExpertHub. Nolo was established in 1971 as the first publisher of do-it-yourself legal books for consumers. It currently has a broader focus than some of the forms sites. Its website features extensive free content, online tools, and a consumer-friendly lawyer directory. Nolo also develops software, online legal forms, and print and ebooks. LawPivot, founded in 2009, is a legal Q&A site where businesses receive crowdsourced legal answers from the right lawyers. Lawyers use LawPivot to market themselves by answering questions and building their reputations. LawPivot aims to ease the burden of matching businesses to lawyers. In January 2011, it announced a $600,000 round of seed funding from Google Ventures, and a handful of angel investors. In August 2011, the startup released a public-facing Q&A platform to allow businesses to also ask questions publicly and receive answers from the LawPivot community of users nationwide. http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/Spotlight/Upstart-Legal-Services-Gain-Traction-77423.asp Thanks, Julie

The Old Farmer's Almanac is a reference book that contains weather forecasts, tide tables, planting charts, astronomical data, recipes, and articles on a number of topics including gardening, sports, astronomy and farming. The book also features anecdotes and a section that predicts trends in fashion, food, home décor, technology and living for the coming year. Released the second Tuesday in September of the year prior to the year printed on its cover, The Old Farmer's Almanac has been published continuously since 1792, making it the oldest continuously published periodical in North America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Farmer's_Almanac

Farmers' Almanac is an annual North American periodical that has been in continuous publication since 1818. Published by the Almanac Publishing Company, of Lewiston, Maine, it is famous for its long-range weather predictions and astronomical data, as well as its trademark blend of humor, trivia, and advice on gardening, cooking, fishing, and human-interest crusades. Conservation, sustainable living, and simplicity are core values of the publication and its editors, and these themes are heavily promoted in every edition. In addition to the popular American version, the Almanac Publishing Company also publishes the Canadian Farmers' Almanac and a promotional version that businesses can personalize and distribute to customers. The total annual distribution of all Farmers' Almanac editions is more than 4 million copies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_Almanac

Leading the Spanish Modernist movement, Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) has been classified with Gothicism (sometimes called warped Gothicism), Art Nouveau, and Surrealism. He was also influenced by Oriental styles, nature, sculpture, and a desire to go beyond anything that had ever been done before. Gaudí was granted the title of Architect and presented his first major project, the Mataró Cooperative (a housing project for factory workers), at the Paris World Fair in 1878. Far ahead of his time, only a small portion of the project was actually built, but Gaudí's name became known and he met Eusebi Güell, who would become a very close friend as well as a patron. In 1882, Gaudí began work on his greatest project, the Sagrada Familia church, taking over from Francisco de Paula del Villar. For nearly 30 years, Gaudí worked on Sagrada Familia and other projects simultaneously, until 1911, when he decided to devote himself exclusively to the church. During the last year of his life, Gaudí lived in his studio at Sagrada Familia. In June, 1926, Gaudí was run over by a tram. He died five days later, and was buried in the crypt of the building to which he had devoted 44 years of his life, the as-yet unfinished Sagrada Familia. During Gaudí's lifetime, official organizations rarely recognized his talent. The City of Barcelona often tried (unsuccessfully) to stop or limit Gaudí's work because it exceeded city regulations, and the only project the City ever assigned him was that of designing streetlights. http://architecture.about.com/od/architectsaz/p/gaudi.htm

The Bing cherry (scientific binomial name: Prunus avium) was developed in the 1870s by Oregon horticulturist Seth Lewelling and his Manchurian Chinese foreman Ah Bing, whom the cherry is named after. Washington is the largest Bing supplier with cherries also grown in Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, and imported from Canada and Chile. Find Bing cherry recipes at: http://www.produceoasis.com/Items_folder/Fruits/Bing.html

Prunus is a genus of plant in the family Rosaceae. Rosaceae is one of the largest families of flowering plants with about 3,400 species, including apples, berries, peaches, plums, cherries, the hawthorn tree, the mountain ash, and many others. The genus Prunus includes the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, and almonds. There are around 430 species of Prunus spread throughout the northern temperate regions of the globe. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Apricot

Reading Revolution: 14 Marvelous Modern Libraries See stunning pictures plus descriptions of these cultural landmarks in Mexico City, London. Denmark. Colombia (2), Belarus, The Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Baton Rouge, Ann Arbor, San Diego, Tokyo and New Haven at: http://weburbanist.com/2011/08/26/reading-revolution-14-marvelous-modern-libraries/