TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A one-two punch of excessive nutrients and ravenous mussels is causing a sharp drop-off in Great Lakes fish populations and the worst outbreak of algae blooms in decades, says a report released October 4. Runoff from farms, city parking lots and other sources is causing a flood of nutrients such as phosphorus in near-shore areas and bays, the National Wildlife Federation said in a report based on government and university studies. Meanwhile, deeper waters are experiencing the opposite problem: Invasive quagga and zebra mussels are gobbling too much food, causing fish higher up the chain to go hungry. "This feast-and-famine dichotomy is unprecedented," said Julie Mida Hinderer, the report's primary author. "Rapid and drastic ecosystem changes are altering the Great Lakes from top to bottom." A group of scientists warned in 2005 that Great Lakes ecosystems were on the verge of collapse because of a dangerous set of problems, including species invasions and degraded water quality. The wildlife federation report said the scientists' predictions are coming true. Toxic algae blooms are on the rise — especially on Lake Erie, the shallowest and warmest of the lakes, where the problem was worse this summer than any time in recorded history, the report said. One gigantic mass of toxic algae, up to 2 feet thick in some spots, stretched across most of Erie's western basin. The blooms are believed to be causing the return of a "dead zone" in the lake's central basin with so little oxygen that fish can't survive. Other significant algae outbreaks were reported on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay and Lake Michigan's Green Bay. Along Lake Michigan's coast, extensive blooms of green algae called Cladophora are believed linked to botulism poisoning of fish and shore birds. Even as algae blooms choke near-shore areas, offshore waters are starved for nutrients because of invasive mussels, which have spread across most of the lakes since their arrival in the ballast water of oceangoing ships in the 1980s. Trillions of quagga mussels, which have mostly displaced the zebra mussels that reached the lakes first, are filtering microscopic plants and animals from the water, leaving too little for competitors that in turn provide food for bigger fish. Foreign mussels also have caused a 94 percent decline of tiny freshwater shrimp at the base of the Lake Michigan food chain, endangering whitefish and other native species. The report calls for stepped-up efforts to reduce near-shore phosphorus overloading — especially programs encouraging farmers to reduce polluted runoff — and tougher policies to prevent species invasions. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP607a6f7dfd5b4131acb1e111c0eac0c1.html

The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later. Together these treaties created Europe's borderless Schengen Area, which operates very much like a single state for international travel with external border controls for travellers travelling in and out of the area, but with no internal border controls. The Schengen Agreements and the rules adopted under them were, for the EU members of the Agreement, entirely separate from the EU structures until the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, which incorporated them into the mainstream of European Union law. The borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreements, the Schengen Area, currently consists of 25 European countries, covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometers (1,664,911 sq mi). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

Schengen Fact Sheet from the U.S. Department of State
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_4361.html

-age Latin: suffix; quality of, act of, process, function, condition, or place; forms nouns that denote an action; a product of an action; a place, an abode
Find four pages of interesting examples, including courage, beverage, dosage at http://wordinfo.info/unit/49/ip:4

Legal definition of surplusage Extraneous matter; impertinent, superfluous, or unnecessary. In pleadings, surplusage refers to allegations that are not relevant to the Cause of Action. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, upon a motion, a court can strike from the pleadings any surplusage, such as an insufficient defense or an immaterial matter. West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/surplusage

Every October, carved pumpkins peer out from porches and doorsteps in the United States and other parts of the world. Gourd-like orange fruits inscribed with ghoulish faces and illuminated by candles are a sure sign of the Halloween season. The practice of decorating “jack-o’-lanterns”—the name comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack—originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as an early canvas. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities. http://www.history.com/topics/jack-olantern-history

For a man who oversees the annual carving of more than 8,000 pumpkins, it should come as little surprise that Michael Natiello, creative director of the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor, likes jack-o'-lanterns. What's interesting, though, is why they appeal to the Garrison artist, who has planned the huge annual event for seven years. "I like that you have a preconceived notion of what it's going to look like, but it changes when you light it," he says. "It's the unexpected." Blaze trailers have come to expect the unexpected each autumn, as Natiello and his band of sculptor-carvers transform a bucolic Croton-on-Hudson farmstead into the Halloween equivalent of a fireworks display, prompting oohs and ahs as groups wind through the 9-acre site. Set against the pitch-black Hudson Valley night, the orange (and sometimes white) orbs glow in all sorts of carved incarnations: bats and butterflies, tombstones and scarecrows, dinosaurs and 90-foot snakes.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20110930/LIFESTYLE01/109300353/Let-Great-Jack-O-Lantern-Blaze-begin-plus-more-Halloween-fun

Halloween patents including three from Toledo Link to fanciful drawings at: http://www.spookshows.com/patents/patents.htm

Semaphore, from Ancient Greek σῆμα (sêma), “‘sign’”, and φωρος (phoros), “‘bearing, bearer’”, may refer to:
Semaphore line, a system of long-distance communication based on towers with moving arms
Flag semaphore system
Railway semaphore signals for railway traffic control
Find other uses of the word at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore

Website of the Day October 12 is the official Columbus Day www.history.com/topics/columbus-day
Daily Quote "A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween." Erma Bombeck http://www.norwichbulletin.com/newsnow/x663896459/Morning-Minutes-Oct-12#axzz1aYx9wwI6