Evan Hunter (1926-2005) was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952. While successful and well-known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956. Lombino served in the Navy in World War II, writing several short stories while serving aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. However, none of these stories were published until after he had established himself as an author in the 1950s. After the war, Lombino returned to New York and attended Hunter College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in English and Psychology, with minors in dramatics and education. He published a weekly column in the Hunter College newspaper as "S.A. Lombino". In 1981, Hunter was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame where he was honored for outstanding professional achievement. While looking to start a career as a writer, Lombino took a variety of jobs, including 17 days as a teacher at Bronx Vocational High School in September 1950. This experience would later form the basis for his 1954 novel The Blackboard Jungle. In 1951, Lombino took a job as an Executive Editor for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, working with authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, P.G. Wodehouse, Lester del Rey, Poul Anderson, and Richard S. Prather, among others. He made his first professional short-story sale that same year, a science-fiction tale entitled "Welcome Martians", credited to S.A. Lombino. Soon after his initial sale, Lombino sold stories under the pen names "Evan Hunter" and "Hunt Collins". The name "Evan Hunter" is generally believed to have been derived from two schools he attended, Evander Childs High School and Hunter College, although the author himself would never confirm that. (He did confirm that the name "Hunt Collins" was derived from Hunter College.) Lombino legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in May 1952, after an editor told him that a novel he wrote would sell more copies if credited to "Evan Hunter" than it would if it were credited to "S.A. Lombino". Thereafter, he used the name Evan Hunter both personally and professionally. As Evan Hunter, he gained fame with his 1954 novel The Blackboard Jungle, which dealt with juvenile crime and the New York City public school system. In 1955, the book was made into a movie. He was advised by his agents that publishing too much fiction under the Hunter byline, or publishing any crime fiction as Evan Hunter, might weaken his literary reputation. As a consequence, during the 1950s Hunter used the pseudonyms Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, and Richard Marsten for much of his crime fiction. A prolific author in several genres, Hunter also published approximately two dozen science fiction stories and four SF novels between 1951 and 1956 under the names S.A. Lombino, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, D.A. Addams and Ted Taine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Hunter
A table listing Evan Hunter's bibliography can be sorted to show the novels in chronological order, or arranged alphabetically by title, or by author credit, or by series at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_Evan_Hunter
Following the table is a list of his collections, plays, screenplays, teleplays, works as editor, film adaptations, and one uncompleted novel, Becca in Jeopardy.
“Golf is an inherently complicated game, and the concepts of simplicity and fairness very often pull in diametrically opposed directions,” said David Rickman, the director for rules and equipment for the R&A, formerly the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the sport’s ruling body in much of the world. The R&A, along with the United States Golf Association, which administers the game in this country, amended nine principal regulations from the Rules of Golf http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2011/October/Rules-of-Golf.aspx, the bible of the game. No longer will a player be penalized a stroke if the wind moves his ball while his club is near it. And if he or she smoothes the sand before playing a shot from a bunker, and in doing so does not gain an advantage, well, that’s O.K., too. For serious golfers, the changes may as well have come inscribed on a pair of tablets delivered from a mountaintop. They will affect everyone, from tour professionals competing for millions to municipal golfers with a $2 bet on the line. The game’s officials insist the changes — at least one 267 years in the making — were not influenced by recent events, but it probably did not hurt that in recent years a few professionals lost lots of money and a chance at a title or two after violating these very rules. What began as 13 rules authored by a Scottish golf club in 1744 are now 34 regulations and procedures. The 155-page book resembles a car manual, and probably gets as much use.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/sports/golf/golf-adjusts-some-penalties-and-it-only-took-centuries.html
Kentucky can continue giving official credit for its homeland security to Almighty God, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled October 28 in a decision overturning a lower-court ruling. A three-judge panel, in a split decision, rejected the 2009 ruling of Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate, who declared legislation requiring credit to the Almighty to have “created an official government position on God.” Judge Laurance B. VanMeter wrote in his majority opinion that the appeals court disagrees with Wingate’s “assertion that the legislation seeks to place an affirmative duty upon the Commonwealth’s citizenry to rely on ‘Almighty God’ for protection of the Commonwealth.” “The legislation merely pays lip service to a commonly held belief in the puissance (power) of God,” VanMeter said in an opinion joined by Judge Thomas Wine. “The legislation complained of here does not seek to advance religion, nor does it have the effect of advancing religion, but instead seeks to recognize the historical reliance on God for protection.” Such a reference couldn’t be unconstitutional, the opinion added, because “that rationale would place this section at odds with the (Kentucky) Constitution’s Preamble,” which itself thanks “Almighty God” for the welfare and freedom of the commonwealth. At issue are two related laws passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A 2002 “legislative finding” said the “safety and security of the commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.” And a 2006 act creating the state’s Office of Homeland Security requires its executive director to publicize this “dependence on Almighty God” in agency training and educational materials and through a plaque at the entrance to its emergency operations center. Senior Judge Ann O’Malley Shake dissented from her colleagues, saying that Wingate was correct in saying the legislation has an “impermissible effect of endorsing religion because it was enacted for a predominantly religious purpose and conveyed a message of mandatory religious belief.” The majority compared the case to that of an Ohio law, upheld by a federal appeals court in 2001, establishing a state motto, “With God, All Things Are Possible.” That ruling, the Kentucky appeals court said, harmonized with a long history of “all three government branches recognizing the role of religion in American life.” But Shake said the Ohio motto is a “passive aphorism that places a duty upon no one,” while the Kentucky legislation requires requires the Homeland Security director to be “stressing to the public that dependence upon Almighty God is vital.” The laws, she said, are a “direct affront” to religious freedom. “I’m a little stunned by the move toward a theocracy,” said Kagin, of Union, Ky. “The reasoning of Judge Shake was so accurate and so compelling.”
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111028/NEWS01/310280054/Court-Appeals-Kentucky-can-credit-Almighty-God-homeland-security?odyssey=nav%7Chead
Feedback from muse reader: My favorite song rhyme, which is one of your imperfect rhymes, comes from Cry Me a River. Who would have thought you could rhyme plebeian, even imperfectly?
You told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me and
Facebook is to build a multi-million 'mini town' on the edge of the Arctic circle to house all its computer servers, which would us as much electricity as a town of 50,000 people. The enormous server farm facility in Luleå, northern Sweden, is the first time that the social networking giant has chosen to locate a server farm outside the US. "The climate will allow them to just use only air for cooling the servers," said Mats Engman, chief executive of the Aurorum Science Park, which is leading the push to turn the city into a 'Node Pole', luring in other international computing giants. "If you take the statistics, the temperature has not been above 30C [86F] for more than 24 hours since 1961. If you take the average temperature, it's around 2C [35.6F]." Luleå is situated at the northern tip of the Baltic Sea, just over 62 miles South of the Arctic Circle. Taking advantage of the rock bottom temperatures, Facebook plans to build three giant server halls covering an area the size of 11 football fields. Even though they will rely on air cooling, keeping the servers humming will still require 120MW of power, enough to supply 16,000 detached homes, and costing some £45m a year. These power needs will be met by renewable electricity generated by dams on the nearby Luleå river. "The Luleå river produces twice as much electricity as the Hoover Dam does, so 50 per cent is exported from our region. There is a surplus of energy, and we can supply more data centres in this area easily," Engman said. He said Facebook's engineers had also been attracted by the reliability of the local power grid, which has been built to supply the area's thriving iron, steel and paper industries, and also by Sweden's dense fibre-optic network.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8850575/Facebook-to-build-server-farm-on-edge-of-Arctic-Circle.html
Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)". The name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and celts in the British Isles which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
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
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Glossary of rhymes
imperfect rhyme, slant rhyme, half rhyme, approximate rhyme, near rhyme, off rhyme, oblique rhyme: These are all general terms referring to rhymes that are close but not exact: lap/shape, glorious/nefarious.
light rhyme: Rhyming of a stressed syllable with a secondary stress: frog/dialog, live/prohibitive.
wrenched rhyme: Rhyming of a stressed syllable with an unstressed syllable. This often occurs in ballads and folk poetry, often on conventional words like lady/a bee.
apocopated rhyme: Rhyming a line end with a penultimate syllable.
See many more kinds of rhyme at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/furtherreading/page2.html
Today’s Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture
What Fallingwater Means to You
Edgar Kaufmann, jr. On Fallingwater
The Owner and the Architect
See the above listed articles and more in the special Frank Lloyd Wright issue in AIArchitect: http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/2011/0923/landingpage/index.html
In three federal class actions, Chuck Close and other artists accuse New York-based Sotheby's and Christie's, and Internet auctioneer eBay, of "willful and systematic violation" of their obligation to pay royalties on artworks sold in California or at auction by California residents. The artists say the auctioneers "affirmatively engaged in a pattern of conduct intended to conceal" the sales, and the money due to the artists. Close, of New York, L.A. artist Laddie John Dill and the estate of L.A. sculptor Robert Graham claim the auction houses and eBay violated the California Resale Royalties Act of 1977, which entitles visual artists or their estates to 5 percent of the proceeds from resale of their artwork in California or out of state by a California resident. The law, which defines fine art as "an original painting, sculpture, or drawing, or an original work of art in glass," applies to works by artists who are alive or who have been dead for less than 20 years. The foundation of California painter Sam Francis, who died in 1994, is a plaintiff in the lawsuits against Christie's and eBay. The artists say the defendants sold their artwork at California auctions and on behalf of California sellers, but failed to withhold royalties due.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/20/40779.htm
Mercerized cotton is sometimes referred to in the crafts as pearl or pearle cotton. It is cotton yarn or fabric which has been put through a series of processes, primarily to increase luster. The added desirable water handling properties gained are a secondary bonus. In 1851, John Mercer was granted a British Patent for work he had done pertaining to cotton, linen and other vegetable fibrous materials that in effect caused certain changes in the character of the fiber when subjected to caustic soda, sulfuric acid, and/or other chemicals, etc. He went on to list a number of these changes, one of which was that caustic soda caused the fiber to swell, become round and straighten out (but it did not impart any change in luster). At the time Mercer introduced these processes, the British cotton trade showed no interest in any of it and it all sat in obscurity for about forty years. In 1890 Horace Lowe was granted a British patent in which he claimed that by applying Mercer's caustic soda process to cotton yarn or fabric under tension a resultant high luster (a result of the light reflection off the smooth, round surface) was imparted to the fiber. It became an overnight success and revolutionized the cotton industry. http://fiberarts.org/design/articles/mercerized.html
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
From: Gill Collingwood Subject: Miasma Def: 1. Noxious emissions: smoke, vapors, etc., especially those from decaying organic matter. 2. An oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere. The word miasma reminded me of what is probably the only time a song was rewritten in the light of new scientific knowledge: They Might be Giants rewrote their song Why Does The Sun Really Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) -- it became Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma, with new lyrics to match.
From: Kiko Denzer Subject: miasma For a stunning story about the scientific footwork that went into finally disproving the theory that cholera was due to miasma, see The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, by Stephen Johnson, about the Broad St. Cholera epidemic of 1854.
Find Top 10 lists, Most Popular, Hot Topics, Research, Local Events, Healthy Eating Tips and Recipes at Fruit & Veggies More Matters from Produce for Better Health. See more plus sign up for a free newsletter at: http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/
Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) consumer education foundation whose purpose is to motivate people to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve public health. The foundation is responsible for a variety of nutrition education and marketing programs, including the new Fruits & Veggies—More Matters™ health initiative. PBH also achieves success through nutrition policy efforts and industry and government collaboration. Link to online resources at: http://www.healthfinder.gov/orgs/HR3799.htm
This Day in History: October 28
The Statue of Liberty marks its 125th anniversary. The idea for the monument is thought to have been first conceived at a 19th century dinner party among French aristocrats, historians say, who sought to pay tribute to American liberty.
And while the French gift is also widely believed to have at least in part catered to domestic politics, for many it quickly became a symbol of hope and promise in America's post- Civil War period.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/28/us/new-york-statue-liberty/
U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act in 1919 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/newsnow/x984140441/Morning-Minutes-Oct-28#axzz1c4jl9GXU
imperfect rhyme, slant rhyme, half rhyme, approximate rhyme, near rhyme, off rhyme, oblique rhyme: These are all general terms referring to rhymes that are close but not exact: lap/shape, glorious/nefarious.
light rhyme: Rhyming of a stressed syllable with a secondary stress: frog/dialog, live/prohibitive.
wrenched rhyme: Rhyming of a stressed syllable with an unstressed syllable. This often occurs in ballads and folk poetry, often on conventional words like lady/a bee.
apocopated rhyme: Rhyming a line end with a penultimate syllable.
See many more kinds of rhyme at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/furtherreading/page2.html
Today’s Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture
What Fallingwater Means to You
Edgar Kaufmann, jr. On Fallingwater
The Owner and the Architect
See the above listed articles and more in the special Frank Lloyd Wright issue in AIArchitect: http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/2011/0923/landingpage/index.html
In three federal class actions, Chuck Close and other artists accuse New York-based Sotheby's and Christie's, and Internet auctioneer eBay, of "willful and systematic violation" of their obligation to pay royalties on artworks sold in California or at auction by California residents. The artists say the auctioneers "affirmatively engaged in a pattern of conduct intended to conceal" the sales, and the money due to the artists. Close, of New York, L.A. artist Laddie John Dill and the estate of L.A. sculptor Robert Graham claim the auction houses and eBay violated the California Resale Royalties Act of 1977, which entitles visual artists or their estates to 5 percent of the proceeds from resale of their artwork in California or out of state by a California resident. The law, which defines fine art as "an original painting, sculpture, or drawing, or an original work of art in glass," applies to works by artists who are alive or who have been dead for less than 20 years. The foundation of California painter Sam Francis, who died in 1994, is a plaintiff in the lawsuits against Christie's and eBay. The artists say the defendants sold their artwork at California auctions and on behalf of California sellers, but failed to withhold royalties due.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/20/40779.htm
Mercerized cotton is sometimes referred to in the crafts as pearl or pearle cotton. It is cotton yarn or fabric which has been put through a series of processes, primarily to increase luster. The added desirable water handling properties gained are a secondary bonus. In 1851, John Mercer was granted a British Patent for work he had done pertaining to cotton, linen and other vegetable fibrous materials that in effect caused certain changes in the character of the fiber when subjected to caustic soda, sulfuric acid, and/or other chemicals, etc. He went on to list a number of these changes, one of which was that caustic soda caused the fiber to swell, become round and straighten out (but it did not impart any change in luster). At the time Mercer introduced these processes, the British cotton trade showed no interest in any of it and it all sat in obscurity for about forty years. In 1890 Horace Lowe was granted a British patent in which he claimed that by applying Mercer's caustic soda process to cotton yarn or fabric under tension a resultant high luster (a result of the light reflection off the smooth, round surface) was imparted to the fiber. It became an overnight success and revolutionized the cotton industry. http://fiberarts.org/design/articles/mercerized.html
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
From: Gill Collingwood Subject: Miasma Def: 1. Noxious emissions: smoke, vapors, etc., especially those from decaying organic matter. 2. An oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere. The word miasma reminded me of what is probably the only time a song was rewritten in the light of new scientific knowledge: They Might be Giants rewrote their song Why Does The Sun Really Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) -- it became Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma, with new lyrics to match.
From: Kiko Denzer Subject: miasma For a stunning story about the scientific footwork that went into finally disproving the theory that cholera was due to miasma, see The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, by Stephen Johnson, about the Broad St. Cholera epidemic of 1854.
Find Top 10 lists, Most Popular, Hot Topics, Research, Local Events, Healthy Eating Tips and Recipes at Fruit & Veggies More Matters from Produce for Better Health. See more plus sign up for a free newsletter at: http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/
Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) consumer education foundation whose purpose is to motivate people to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve public health. The foundation is responsible for a variety of nutrition education and marketing programs, including the new Fruits & Veggies—More Matters™ health initiative. PBH also achieves success through nutrition policy efforts and industry and government collaboration. Link to online resources at: http://www.healthfinder.gov/orgs/HR3799.htm
This Day in History: October 28
The Statue of Liberty marks its 125th anniversary. The idea for the monument is thought to have been first conceived at a 19th century dinner party among French aristocrats, historians say, who sought to pay tribute to American liberty.
And while the French gift is also widely believed to have at least in part catered to domestic politics, for many it quickly became a symbol of hope and promise in America's post- Civil War period.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/28/us/new-york-statue-liberty/
U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act in 1919 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/newsnow/x984140441/Morning-Minutes-Oct-28#axzz1c4jl9GXU
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Celebrating chickens During a recent mini-vacation, we ate fresh local eggs in Traverse City, and then walked next door to see the layers: eight ISA Browns, a hybrid resulting from crossing Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites. As we approached, the chickens courteously beckoned with musical clucking and chuckling. All moved in harmony, reminding me how sheep, cows and goats sometimes do the same thing. I picked up one chicken to pet and, when I put it down, it tried to jump back up but didn't make it all the way. Chickens are sociable, and are celebrated in songs, stories, jokes and phrases, such as found here: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/chicken
These are all possible word orders for the subject, verb, and object in the order of most common to rarest (the examples use "I" as the subject, "see" as the verb, and "him" as the object): SOV is the order used by the largest number of distinct languages; languages using it include the prototypical Japanese, Mongolian, Basque, Turkish, Korean, the Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages. Some, like Persian, Latin and Quechua, have SOV normal word order but conform less to the general tendencies of other such languages. A sentence glossing as "I him see" would be grammatically correct in these languages.
SVO languages include English, the Romance languages, Bulgarian, Chinese and Swahili, among others. "I see him."
VSO languages include Classical Arabic, the Insular Celtic languages, and Hawaiian. "See I him" is grammatically correct in these languages.
VOS languages include Fijian and Malagasy. "See him I."
OVS languages include Hixkaryana. "Him see I."
OSV languages include Xavante and Warao. "Him I see."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_order
Lewis Carroll coined chortle in "Through the Looking Glass." It is probably a blend of chuckle and snort and connotes a good-natured, restrained gesture of humor. http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/chortle.php
John McCarthy, the inventor of programming language Lisp and a pioneer in “artificial intelligence” technology, died at the age of 84 on October 24. He served on the faculty at Stanford University for almost four decades. While there, McCarthy’s became the first to use the term “artificial intelligence,” in 1956. His programming language, Lisp, is the language used for artificial intelligence applications. Mashable reports that McCarthy was also one of the first people to propose “selling computing power through a utility business model,” in 1961. While the idea didn’t gain much traction at the time, it’s now coming back in a big way with the use of grid and cloud computing. McCarthy’s Web site
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/ also has a wide following. There the scientist published his Stanford lectures, thoughts on the future of robots, and science fiction writing. But McCarthy’s most widely-read work is likely his proposal for artificial intelligence, presented at Dartmouth in 1955
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html, in which he wrote that “every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/john-mccarty-artificial-intelligence-pioneer-dies-at-84/2011/10/25/gIQALnwpFM_blog.html
Words you don't hear often: Sunup, moonrise, moonset.
The Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park is a natural park in Italy, which was established in 1991. It has an area of 2,014 square kilometres. The terrain is predominantly mountainous. The park is one of the largest protected areas in Europe, the show-piece being the massif of Gran Sasso, which dominates the surrounding landscape; it rises vertically on the immense pastures of Campo Imperatore. On the east side, from Teramo, there is the majestic "Paretone" which is a part of the central Adriatic landscape. It is the kingdom of perennial snow, rocks and wind. On the north there is the profile of Monti della Laga chain, where thousands of migratory birds stop on the shores of Lake Campotosto. This area is completely covered by woods of beeches, firs, turkey oaks and chestnuts. The park contains one of the most biologically diverse areas of Europe. The climate is borderline between that of the Mediterranean and that of Europe. The park contains more than two thousand plant and vegetable species, some of which are found exclusively in this area, such as Abruzzo Edelweiss, as well as fauna which are equally precious. See pictures and map at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Sasso_e_Monti_della_Laga_National_Park
Swindle, donate, and brainwash. Can there be anything common among those three actions? What unites these verb forms is that all of them are coined by a process known as back-formation. It's a reverse process in which words are formed by subtraction of an affix. That means the previously mentioned verbs were derived from the nouns swindler, donation, and brainwashing, respectively (unlike the usual way: nouns forming from verbs, such as lover from the verb love). Back-formations are often the result of erroneous usage. In Middle English, the original word for pea was pease. It was mistakenly considered a plural and thus people started using the supposedly singular form pea.
euthanize (YOO-thuh-nyz) verb tr.
Ending life for humane reasons, such as to avoid pain from an incurable condition. Back-formation from euthanasia (mercy killing), from Greek eu- (good) + thanatos (death). Earliest documented use: 1931
picaresque (pik-uh-RESK) adjective
1. Of or relating to humorous or satiric fiction describing, in a series of episodes, the adventures of a roguish hero.
2. Of or relating to rogues or scoundrels.
Via French, from Spanish pícaro (rogue). Picaresque fiction was popularized in Spain. Earliest documented use: 1827.
dogsbody (DOGZ-bod-ee) noun
A menial worker; drudge.
In the British navy, dogsbody was the term sailors used for the unpalatable food given to them, boiled peas (officially known as pease pudding) and biscuits soaked in water. With time the term began to be applied to low-ranked sailors and eventually to anyone who is forced to do menial jobs that no one else wants to do. Why a dog? Probably from the general poor reputation of a dog, as evident in terms such as a dog's life and a dog's chance. Earliest documented use: 1818. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
These are all possible word orders for the subject, verb, and object in the order of most common to rarest (the examples use "I" as the subject, "see" as the verb, and "him" as the object): SOV is the order used by the largest number of distinct languages; languages using it include the prototypical Japanese, Mongolian, Basque, Turkish, Korean, the Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages. Some, like Persian, Latin and Quechua, have SOV normal word order but conform less to the general tendencies of other such languages. A sentence glossing as "I him see" would be grammatically correct in these languages.
SVO languages include English, the Romance languages, Bulgarian, Chinese and Swahili, among others. "I see him."
VSO languages include Classical Arabic, the Insular Celtic languages, and Hawaiian. "See I him" is grammatically correct in these languages.
VOS languages include Fijian and Malagasy. "See him I."
OVS languages include Hixkaryana. "Him see I."
OSV languages include Xavante and Warao. "Him I see."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_order
Lewis Carroll coined chortle in "Through the Looking Glass." It is probably a blend of chuckle and snort and connotes a good-natured, restrained gesture of humor. http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/chortle.php
John McCarthy, the inventor of programming language Lisp and a pioneer in “artificial intelligence” technology, died at the age of 84 on October 24. He served on the faculty at Stanford University for almost four decades. While there, McCarthy’s became the first to use the term “artificial intelligence,” in 1956. His programming language, Lisp, is the language used for artificial intelligence applications. Mashable reports that McCarthy was also one of the first people to propose “selling computing power through a utility business model,” in 1961. While the idea didn’t gain much traction at the time, it’s now coming back in a big way with the use of grid and cloud computing. McCarthy’s Web site
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/ also has a wide following. There the scientist published his Stanford lectures, thoughts on the future of robots, and science fiction writing. But McCarthy’s most widely-read work is likely his proposal for artificial intelligence, presented at Dartmouth in 1955
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html, in which he wrote that “every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/john-mccarty-artificial-intelligence-pioneer-dies-at-84/2011/10/25/gIQALnwpFM_blog.html
Words you don't hear often: Sunup, moonrise, moonset.
The Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park is a natural park in Italy, which was established in 1991. It has an area of 2,014 square kilometres. The terrain is predominantly mountainous. The park is one of the largest protected areas in Europe, the show-piece being the massif of Gran Sasso, which dominates the surrounding landscape; it rises vertically on the immense pastures of Campo Imperatore. On the east side, from Teramo, there is the majestic "Paretone" which is a part of the central Adriatic landscape. It is the kingdom of perennial snow, rocks and wind. On the north there is the profile of Monti della Laga chain, where thousands of migratory birds stop on the shores of Lake Campotosto. This area is completely covered by woods of beeches, firs, turkey oaks and chestnuts. The park contains one of the most biologically diverse areas of Europe. The climate is borderline between that of the Mediterranean and that of Europe. The park contains more than two thousand plant and vegetable species, some of which are found exclusively in this area, such as Abruzzo Edelweiss, as well as fauna which are equally precious. See pictures and map at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Sasso_e_Monti_della_Laga_National_Park
Swindle, donate, and brainwash. Can there be anything common among those three actions? What unites these verb forms is that all of them are coined by a process known as back-formation. It's a reverse process in which words are formed by subtraction of an affix. That means the previously mentioned verbs were derived from the nouns swindler, donation, and brainwashing, respectively (unlike the usual way: nouns forming from verbs, such as lover from the verb love). Back-formations are often the result of erroneous usage. In Middle English, the original word for pea was pease. It was mistakenly considered a plural and thus people started using the supposedly singular form pea.
euthanize (YOO-thuh-nyz) verb tr.
Ending life for humane reasons, such as to avoid pain from an incurable condition. Back-formation from euthanasia (mercy killing), from Greek eu- (good) + thanatos (death). Earliest documented use: 1931
picaresque (pik-uh-RESK) adjective
1. Of or relating to humorous or satiric fiction describing, in a series of episodes, the adventures of a roguish hero.
2. Of or relating to rogues or scoundrels.
Via French, from Spanish pícaro (rogue). Picaresque fiction was popularized in Spain. Earliest documented use: 1827.
dogsbody (DOGZ-bod-ee) noun
A menial worker; drudge.
In the British navy, dogsbody was the term sailors used for the unpalatable food given to them, boiled peas (officially known as pease pudding) and biscuits soaked in water. With time the term began to be applied to low-ranked sailors and eventually to anyone who is forced to do menial jobs that no one else wants to do. Why a dog? Probably from the general poor reputation of a dog, as evident in terms such as a dog's life and a dog's chance. Earliest documented use: 1818. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo. Led by John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder professor of engineering at the University of Illinois, the researchers described their novel skin-mounted electronics in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Science. The circuit bends, wrinkles and stretches with the mechanical properties of skin. Skin-mounted electronics have many biomedical applications, including EEG and EMG sensors to monitor nerve and muscle activity. One major advantage of skin-like circuits is that they don’t require conductive gel, tape, skin-penetrating pins or bulky wires, which can be uncomfortable for the user and limit coupling efficiency. They are much more comfortable and less cumbersome than traditional electrodes and give the wearers complete freedom of movement. In addition to gathering data, skin-mounted electronics could provide the wearers with added capabilities. For example, patients with muscular or neurological disorders, such as ALS, could use them to communicate or to interface with computers. The researchers found that, when applied to the skin of the throat, the sensors could distinguish muscle movement for simple speech.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/0811skin_electronics_JohnRogers.html
The Berbers have lived in North Africa since the earliest recorded time. References to them date from about 3000 B.C. and occur frequently in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources. For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. They continued to inhabit the region until the 7th century AD, when the Arabs conquered North Africa and drove many Berber tribes inland to the Atlas Mountains and to areas in and near the Sahara. After the Arab conquest, the Berbers embraced the Muslim faith of their new rulers. Succeeding centuries were marked by almost continuous struggles for power in North Africa among the various Berber tribes, between the Berbers and the Arabs, and between both these peoples and Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish invaders. During the same period the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the name of which is derived from the word Berber, became famous as the principal base of Arab and Berber pirates, who preyed on Mediterranean shipping. http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/berbers.htm
Berbers are not a homogenous ethnic group and encompass a range of phenotypes, cultures and ancestries. The one unifying force is the Berber language and an identification with the Berber heritage and history. Many Berbers call themselves some variant of the word Imazighen (singular: Amazigh), possibly meaning "free people" or "free and noble men" (the word has probably an ancient parallel in the Roman name for some of the Berbers, "Mazices"). The best known of the ancient Berbers are the Numidian king Masinissa, the Berber-Roman author Apuleius, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and the Roman general Lusius Quietus, who was instrumental in defeating the major wave of Jewish revolts of 115–117. Famous Berbers of the Middle Ages include Tariq ibn Ziyad, a general who conquered Hispania; Abbas Ibn Firnas, a prolific inventor and early pioneer in aviation; Ibn Battuta, a medieval explorer who traveled the longest known distances in pre-modern times; and Estevanico, an early explorer of the Americas. Well-known modern Berbers in Europe include Zinedine Zidane, a French-born international football star of Algerian Kabyle descent, and Ibrahim Afellay, a Dutch-born footballer of Moroccan Riffian descent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_people
Arab proverbs
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
A book that remains shut, is but a block.
All sunshine makes the desert.
Diligence is a great teacher.
from "472 Arab Proverbs"
http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/source/a/arab_proverb/
Like other transformational technologies, the growth of digital information technologies has posed new challenges for our traditional interpretations of individual rights and protections. The World Wide Web, for example, brings a wealth of information and material directly to your home, office, or lab. In legal circles, content is called "intellectual property." The point is that this content is provided by somebody and is likewise created by somebody. And, protecting the rights of creators and producers is one of the hallmarks of our society. Traditionally the creators of intellectual property are protected by a broad assortment of laws. There are laws protecting trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, and logos normally used in commerce. Patents protect the rights of individuals who make discoveries or inventions. Trade secrets cover information, designs, and devices that companies wish to keep secret in order to retain commercial advantages from their creations. Copyrights are another form of protecting intellectual property. Copyrights protect authors of original works from damages caused by others who might improperly reproduce or use materials without their permission. Copyrighted materials include
literary works, musical pieces, dramatic works, dance and pantomime works, pictorial, graphic, or sculptured pieces, motion pictures and video, sound recordings, and architectural designs . These laws are not extended to intellectual ideas or discoveries, to concepts and principles, nor to a process or procedure. In short, copyrights protect the expression of an idea and not the idea itself. Read an extensive essy on copyright in the digital domain at:
http://cs.furman.edu/digitaldomain/themes/copyrights/copyright.html
In 2010, ACM published about 18,000 articles in its digital library. Each author signed an agreement to transfer copyright to ACM. Authors retain rights to reuse any potion of the work, without fee, in future works of the author's own, to revise the work, to retain copyright on embedded images, to post author-prepared versions in a personal collection on their own home page, on a publicly accessible server of their employer, or a repository legally mandated by the agency funding the research on which the work is based. Communications of the ACM October 2010
See ACM copyright policy here: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy
The Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), Syria. It has been used by scholars of the Old Testament to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which ancient Israelite culture finds parallels in the neighboring cultures. Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform". The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels), used from around 15th century BCE. The Ugaritic language is attested in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BCE. The city was destroyed in 1180–1170 BCE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_language
http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/0811skin_electronics_JohnRogers.html
The Berbers have lived in North Africa since the earliest recorded time. References to them date from about 3000 B.C. and occur frequently in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources. For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. They continued to inhabit the region until the 7th century AD, when the Arabs conquered North Africa and drove many Berber tribes inland to the Atlas Mountains and to areas in and near the Sahara. After the Arab conquest, the Berbers embraced the Muslim faith of their new rulers. Succeeding centuries were marked by almost continuous struggles for power in North Africa among the various Berber tribes, between the Berbers and the Arabs, and between both these peoples and Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish invaders. During the same period the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the name of which is derived from the word Berber, became famous as the principal base of Arab and Berber pirates, who preyed on Mediterranean shipping. http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/berbers.htm
Berbers are not a homogenous ethnic group and encompass a range of phenotypes, cultures and ancestries. The one unifying force is the Berber language and an identification with the Berber heritage and history. Many Berbers call themselves some variant of the word Imazighen (singular: Amazigh), possibly meaning "free people" or "free and noble men" (the word has probably an ancient parallel in the Roman name for some of the Berbers, "Mazices"). The best known of the ancient Berbers are the Numidian king Masinissa, the Berber-Roman author Apuleius, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and the Roman general Lusius Quietus, who was instrumental in defeating the major wave of Jewish revolts of 115–117. Famous Berbers of the Middle Ages include Tariq ibn Ziyad, a general who conquered Hispania; Abbas Ibn Firnas, a prolific inventor and early pioneer in aviation; Ibn Battuta, a medieval explorer who traveled the longest known distances in pre-modern times; and Estevanico, an early explorer of the Americas. Well-known modern Berbers in Europe include Zinedine Zidane, a French-born international football star of Algerian Kabyle descent, and Ibrahim Afellay, a Dutch-born footballer of Moroccan Riffian descent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_people
Arab proverbs
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
A book that remains shut, is but a block.
All sunshine makes the desert.
Diligence is a great teacher.
from "472 Arab Proverbs"
http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/source/a/arab_proverb/
Like other transformational technologies, the growth of digital information technologies has posed new challenges for our traditional interpretations of individual rights and protections. The World Wide Web, for example, brings a wealth of information and material directly to your home, office, or lab. In legal circles, content is called "intellectual property." The point is that this content is provided by somebody and is likewise created by somebody. And, protecting the rights of creators and producers is one of the hallmarks of our society. Traditionally the creators of intellectual property are protected by a broad assortment of laws. There are laws protecting trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, and logos normally used in commerce. Patents protect the rights of individuals who make discoveries or inventions. Trade secrets cover information, designs, and devices that companies wish to keep secret in order to retain commercial advantages from their creations. Copyrights are another form of protecting intellectual property. Copyrights protect authors of original works from damages caused by others who might improperly reproduce or use materials without their permission. Copyrighted materials include
literary works, musical pieces, dramatic works, dance and pantomime works, pictorial, graphic, or sculptured pieces, motion pictures and video, sound recordings, and architectural designs . These laws are not extended to intellectual ideas or discoveries, to concepts and principles, nor to a process or procedure. In short, copyrights protect the expression of an idea and not the idea itself. Read an extensive essy on copyright in the digital domain at:
http://cs.furman.edu/digitaldomain/themes/copyrights/copyright.html
In 2010, ACM published about 18,000 articles in its digital library. Each author signed an agreement to transfer copyright to ACM. Authors retain rights to reuse any potion of the work, without fee, in future works of the author's own, to revise the work, to retain copyright on embedded images, to post author-prepared versions in a personal collection on their own home page, on a publicly accessible server of their employer, or a repository legally mandated by the agency funding the research on which the work is based. Communications of the ACM October 2010
See ACM copyright policy here: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy
The Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), Syria. It has been used by scholars of the Old Testament to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which ancient Israelite culture finds parallels in the neighboring cultures. Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform". The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels), used from around 15th century BCE. The Ugaritic language is attested in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BCE. The city was destroyed in 1180–1170 BCE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_language
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Napoleonic Code — or Code napoléon (originally, the Code civil des français) — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified. It was drafted rapidly by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on March 21, 1804. The Napoleonic Code was not the first legal code to be established in a European country with a civil legal system — it was preceded by the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis (Bavaria, 1756), the Allgemeines Landrecht (Prussia, 1794) and the West Galician Code (Galicia, then part of Austria, 1797). It was, however, the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope and it strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws. Historian Robert Holtman regards it as one of the few documents that have influenced the whole world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_code
The first modern organized body of law governing France, also known as the Code Napoleon or Code Civil, enacted by Napoléon I in 1804. The Napoleonic Code assimilated the private law of France, which was the law governing transactions and relationships between individuals. The Code, which is regarded by some commentators as the first modern counterpart to Roman Law, is currently in effect in France in an amended form. The Napoleonic Code is a revised version of the Roman law or Civil Law, which predominated in Europe, with numerous French modifications, some of which were based on the Germanic law that had been in effect in northern France. The code draws upon the Institutes of the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis for its categories of the civil law: property rights, such as licenses; the acquisition of property, such as trusts; and personal status, such as legitimacy of birth. Napoléon applied the code to the territories he governed—namely, some of the German states, the low countries, and northern Italy. It was extremely influential in Spain and, eventually, in Latin America as well as in all other European nations except England, where the Common Law prevailed. It was the harbinger, in France and abroad, of codifications of other areas of law, such as Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and Commercial Law. The Napoleonic Code served as the prototype for subsequent codes during the nineteenth century in twenty-four countries; the province of Québec and the state of Louisiana have derived a substantial portion of their laws from it. Napoléon also promulgated four other codes: the Code of Civil Procedure (1807), the Commercial Code (1808), the Code of Criminal Procedure (1811), and the Penal Code (1811). West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Napoleonic+Code
Q: How durable is U.S. paper currency?
A: It takes about 4,000 double folds before a note tears. U.S. Treasury Department.
Q: What are the largest and smallest national parks?
A: The largest is the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Copper Center, Alaska, 13.2 million acres.
The smallest is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Third and Pine streets, Philadelphia, 871 square feet. National Park Service. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Oct/JU/ar_JU_101711.asp?d=101711,2011,Oct,17&c=c_13
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería. Its capital and largest city is Seville. The Spanish toponym (place name) Andalucía (immediate source of the American English Andalusia) was introduced into the Spanish language in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the adjectival form of the Arabic language al-Andalus, the name of the Iberian territories under the Muslim rule from 711 to 1492. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated but it entered the Arabic language even before such time as this area came under Muslim rule. The Arabic name is traditionally considered a corruption of an earlier Vandalusia or the land of the Vandals, the Germanic tribe that invaded Spain after the fall of the Roman Empire and set up various kingdoms in Southern Spain and North Africa. Andalusia was the center of power in medieval Muslim-dominated Iberia. Find extensive information plus pictures and maps at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusia
Andalusia, located 13 miles north of Philadelphia in Bucks County, PA, is a National Historic Landmark and one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in America. The main building was built in 1795, enlarged in 1806, and the imposing colonnade facing the Delaware River was added as part of the 1835-36 Greek Revival style addition. Andalusia is still maintained today and is surrounded by spectacular landscape, lush gardens and romantic out-buildings. Visitors enjoy Andalusia's history, serene environment and spectacular views of the Delaware River. http://www.andalusiapa.org/
Andalusia was the home of American author Flannery O'Connor from 1951 until her death in 1964. This where O'Connor was living when she completed her two novels and two collections of short stories. Andalusia is open for self-guided "walk-in" tours on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. All other visits are by advance appointment only by calling 478-454-4029. Andalusia is located in Baldwin County, Georgia about four miles northwest of Milledgeville, on the west side of U.S. Highway 441.
http://www.andalusiafarm.org/andalusia/andalusia.htm
"There is an epidemic of private ownership of dangerous exotic animals in the United States," Wayne Pacelle, head of The Humane Society of the United States, said October 19. "It's a bit of a free-for-all in states like Ohio." "These animals really fall into a kind of regulatory limbo where they go unregulated and are freely allowed," Pacelle said. As a result, he said, there are "thousands of exotic animal menageries across the nation." The Humane Society has documented 22 incidents with dangerous exotic animals in Ohio since 2003, demonstrating risks to public health and safety and animal welfare. Conservation biologist Luke Dollar of Duke University says some estimates speculate that 6,000 tigers live in private hands in the USA and "it may be higher. We don't really know. That's an alarming thing."
Federal laws don't cover possession of tigers, wolves or grizzly bears, relying on state and local laws instead. Such "exotic animals" require a permit from the Agriculture Department, commonly issued to zoos and circuses, for their exhibition, sale or breeding. Two federal laws, the Endangered Species Act, which covers tigers and grizzly bears, and the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which covers big cats such as lions, prohibit the sale and interstate transport of endangered animals. "But federal law does not regulate mere possession," says Sandra Cleva of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-10-19-exotic-animal-state-regulation.htm
EXECUTIVE ORDER 2011-24K ON DANGEROUS WILD ANIMALS Existing, Underused Legal Powers Tapped While Longer-Term Legal Solution Finalized Fact Sheet
John R. Kasich, Governor of Ohio October 21, 2011 Link to the actual order at: http://governor.ohio.gov/
Eight states have no laws regulating the private ownership of exotic animals. See a summary of such state laws at: http://www.bornfreeusa.org/b4a2_exotic_animals_summary.php
The first modern organized body of law governing France, also known as the Code Napoleon or Code Civil, enacted by Napoléon I in 1804. The Napoleonic Code assimilated the private law of France, which was the law governing transactions and relationships between individuals. The Code, which is regarded by some commentators as the first modern counterpart to Roman Law, is currently in effect in France in an amended form. The Napoleonic Code is a revised version of the Roman law or Civil Law, which predominated in Europe, with numerous French modifications, some of which were based on the Germanic law that had been in effect in northern France. The code draws upon the Institutes of the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis for its categories of the civil law: property rights, such as licenses; the acquisition of property, such as trusts; and personal status, such as legitimacy of birth. Napoléon applied the code to the territories he governed—namely, some of the German states, the low countries, and northern Italy. It was extremely influential in Spain and, eventually, in Latin America as well as in all other European nations except England, where the Common Law prevailed. It was the harbinger, in France and abroad, of codifications of other areas of law, such as Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and Commercial Law. The Napoleonic Code served as the prototype for subsequent codes during the nineteenth century in twenty-four countries; the province of Québec and the state of Louisiana have derived a substantial portion of their laws from it. Napoléon also promulgated four other codes: the Code of Civil Procedure (1807), the Commercial Code (1808), the Code of Criminal Procedure (1811), and the Penal Code (1811). West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Napoleonic+Code
Q: How durable is U.S. paper currency?
A: It takes about 4,000 double folds before a note tears. U.S. Treasury Department.
Q: What are the largest and smallest national parks?
A: The largest is the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Copper Center, Alaska, 13.2 million acres.
The smallest is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Third and Pine streets, Philadelphia, 871 square feet. National Park Service. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Oct/JU/ar_JU_101711.asp?d=101711,2011,Oct,17&c=c_13
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería. Its capital and largest city is Seville. The Spanish toponym (place name) Andalucía (immediate source of the American English Andalusia) was introduced into the Spanish language in the 13th century under the form el Andalucía. This was a Castilianization of Al-Andalusiya, the adjectival form of the Arabic language al-Andalus, the name of the Iberian territories under the Muslim rule from 711 to 1492. The etymology of al-Andalus is itself somewhat debated but it entered the Arabic language even before such time as this area came under Muslim rule. The Arabic name is traditionally considered a corruption of an earlier Vandalusia or the land of the Vandals, the Germanic tribe that invaded Spain after the fall of the Roman Empire and set up various kingdoms in Southern Spain and North Africa. Andalusia was the center of power in medieval Muslim-dominated Iberia. Find extensive information plus pictures and maps at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusia
Andalusia, located 13 miles north of Philadelphia in Bucks County, PA, is a National Historic Landmark and one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in America. The main building was built in 1795, enlarged in 1806, and the imposing colonnade facing the Delaware River was added as part of the 1835-36 Greek Revival style addition. Andalusia is still maintained today and is surrounded by spectacular landscape, lush gardens and romantic out-buildings. Visitors enjoy Andalusia's history, serene environment and spectacular views of the Delaware River. http://www.andalusiapa.org/
Andalusia was the home of American author Flannery O'Connor from 1951 until her death in 1964. This where O'Connor was living when she completed her two novels and two collections of short stories. Andalusia is open for self-guided "walk-in" tours on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. All other visits are by advance appointment only by calling 478-454-4029. Andalusia is located in Baldwin County, Georgia about four miles northwest of Milledgeville, on the west side of U.S. Highway 441.
http://www.andalusiafarm.org/andalusia/andalusia.htm
"There is an epidemic of private ownership of dangerous exotic animals in the United States," Wayne Pacelle, head of The Humane Society of the United States, said October 19. "It's a bit of a free-for-all in states like Ohio." "These animals really fall into a kind of regulatory limbo where they go unregulated and are freely allowed," Pacelle said. As a result, he said, there are "thousands of exotic animal menageries across the nation." The Humane Society has documented 22 incidents with dangerous exotic animals in Ohio since 2003, demonstrating risks to public health and safety and animal welfare. Conservation biologist Luke Dollar of Duke University says some estimates speculate that 6,000 tigers live in private hands in the USA and "it may be higher. We don't really know. That's an alarming thing."
Federal laws don't cover possession of tigers, wolves or grizzly bears, relying on state and local laws instead. Such "exotic animals" require a permit from the Agriculture Department, commonly issued to zoos and circuses, for their exhibition, sale or breeding. Two federal laws, the Endangered Species Act, which covers tigers and grizzly bears, and the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which covers big cats such as lions, prohibit the sale and interstate transport of endangered animals. "But federal law does not regulate mere possession," says Sandra Cleva of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-10-19-exotic-animal-state-regulation.htm
EXECUTIVE ORDER 2011-24K ON DANGEROUS WILD ANIMALS Existing, Underused Legal Powers Tapped While Longer-Term Legal Solution Finalized Fact Sheet
John R. Kasich, Governor of Ohio October 21, 2011 Link to the actual order at: http://governor.ohio.gov/
Eight states have no laws regulating the private ownership of exotic animals. See a summary of such state laws at: http://www.bornfreeusa.org/b4a2_exotic_animals_summary.php
Friday, October 21, 2011
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
1. The supplementation or replacement of natural speech and/or writing using aided or unaided symbols. Blissymbols, pictographs, Sigsymbols, tangible symbols, and electronically produced speech are examples of aided symbols. Manual signs, gestures, and fingerspelling are examples of unaided symbols. The use of aided symbols requires a transmission device, whereas the use of unaided symbols requires only the body.
2. The field or area of clinical/educational practice to improve the communication skills of individuals with little or no functional speech. http://www.edst.purdue.edu/aac/
A soft keyboard (sometimes called an onscreen keyboard or software keyboard ) is a system that replaces the hardware keyboard on a computing device with an on-screen image map . Soft keyboards are typically used to enable input on a handheld device so that a keyboard doesn't have to be carried with it, and to allow people with disabilities or special needs to use computers. The displayed keyboard can usually be moved and resized, and generally can allow any input that the hardware version does. Other features, such as speech synthesis or word completion or prediction, may be included. A soft keyboard is perhaps the most common type of virtual keyboard (a term that encompasses all types of software keyboards). Some soft keyboards include programs that recognize the likelihood of certain keystrokes in context, so that they can choose the most likely choice when a keystroke is ambiguous. For people who are unable to use a regular keyboard, soft keyboards allow input through a variety of means, including mouse or trackball control, touch screen , and head-pointing devices.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci841791,00.html
ACM presented six Special Awards to finalists in the 2011 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) , the world's largest high school science research competition, held in May in Los Angeles, CA. More than 1,500 young entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists competed to reach the finals from the 443 affiliate fairs in 65 countries, regions and territories. ACM presents awards of $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $300 for third place, and $200 for honorable mention. All winners receive complimentary ACM Student Memberships for the duration of their undergraduate education. In addition, all Computer Science contestants are offered a complimentary one-year ACM Student Membership.
First Award of $1,000
"Optimizing Keyboards for People with Disabilities"
Natalie Janet Nash, 16, Vincentian Academy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
See all award winners at: http://librarians.acm.org/acm-presents-special-awards-2011-intel-science-fair-finalists
The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to take up a grisly case that may be of interest to exurban land developers, hinterlands business owners and anyone else who dwells in what is known as the "wildland urban interface"; that is, the place where nature and development meet. In October 2007, 83-year-old Gwyneth Williams was house-sitting for her daughter and son-in-law in their Savannah-area suburb while the couple were in Europe. Neighbors found Williams floating dead in one of the many lagoons that dot the swampy coastal development, known as The Landings. A medical examiner determined that an alligator had bitten off Williams' forearms, her hands and her right foot. A trapper eventually found an 8-foot alligator, killed it and found Williams' body parts inside the creature's stomach. The family sued the subdivision's homeowners association, arguing that it should have done a better job ensuring the safety of visitors to a place where alligators are common. A key issue the Georgia court will address is whether the homeowners' association should be shielded from the lawsuit under a doctrine known as "animals ferae naturae." A ferae naturae animal is a wild one, as opposed to a domesticated one. Walter W. Ballew III, the attorney for the homeowners' association, cited a Texas appellate court decision in arguing that the doctrine means that a "landowner cannot be liable for the acts of animals ferae naturae, that is indigenous wild animals, occurring on his or her property unless the landowner has actually reduced the wild animals to possession or control, or introduced a non-indigenous animal to the area." There is no question that alligators are indigenous to coastal Georgia. Attorneys for Williams' family argue that the alligator had been in the lagoon for a long time and "could have, and should have, been easily discovered and removed by a responsible maintenance program," the Morris News Service's Walter C. Jones reported October 18. http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-10-18/supreme-court-hear-case-gator-ate-woman
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in February. Its decision, of course, will only apply to Georgia.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/georgia_alligator_death.html
International textbooks controversy--one comment: My son purchased an international edition of a textbook that he needed for one of his college classes. He purchased it over the internet and it was considerably cheaper than the edition that the book store at the college carried. When he got the book, he found that it was not exactly identical to the book needed for his course. The pagination of the book did not match up with the required text and there were some other differences between the books that made it practically useless for the course that he was taking. So from his experience, I would have to conclude that even though the International editions of books may appear to be the same thing, they may in fact not always be identical to the US books. My son said that he has shifted away from buying his texts over the internet, which he did for a while to save on costs. He now gets most of his books from the college bookstore because he is assured of purchasing the right book that goes with his course.
About 200 National Lawyers Guild members are volunteering as legal observers on the scene at Occupy Wall Street. A national nonprofit composed of lawyers, legal workers, and law students, the guild is encouraging its members to monitor events at the Zuccotti Park encampment and to trail protesters when they march to locations elsewhere in the city. The guild's mission, says Gideon Oliver, a solo practitioner and member of the executive committee of the group's New York City chapter, is to ensure that demonstrators are able to exercise their First Amendment rights. Guild observers attempt to identify everyone who is arrested, record the arresting officer's badge number, and obtain contact information for potential witnesses. Following those steps makes it easier to coordinate jail support services and legal representation, says Jane Moison, a guild member and associate at criminal defense and civil rights firm Rankin & Taylor. http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/10/meet-occupy-wall-streets-legal-team.html
To maintain their youthful bright appearance, old stars called blue stragglers eat up the outer envelope of giant-star companions, stripping them down to their white dwarf core in a process called mass transfer. Several theories have attempted to explain why blue stragglers appear younger than they actually are, but, until now, scientists have lacked the crucial observations with which to test each hypothesis. Armed with such observational data, two astronomers report in the journal Nature that this mechanism of mass transfer explains the origins of blue stragglers. The majority of blue stragglers in the study are binaries—they have a companion star. “It’s really the companion star that helped us determine where the blue straggler comes from,” says Aaron M. Geller, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and first author of a new study. “The companion stars orbit at periods of about 1,000 days, and we have evidence that the companions are white dwarfs. Both point directly to an origin from mass transfer.” For the study, Geller and Robert Mathieu, professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studied the NGC 188 open cluster, which is in the constellation Cepheus, situated in the sky near Polaris, the North Star. The cluster is one of the most ancient open star clusters, yet it features the mysterious young blue stragglers. The cluster has around 3,000 stars, all about the same age, and has 21 blue stragglers. You may link to the original study at:
http://www.futurity.org/science-technology/how-blue-stragglers-stay-forever-young/
1. The supplementation or replacement of natural speech and/or writing using aided or unaided symbols. Blissymbols, pictographs, Sigsymbols, tangible symbols, and electronically produced speech are examples of aided symbols. Manual signs, gestures, and fingerspelling are examples of unaided symbols. The use of aided symbols requires a transmission device, whereas the use of unaided symbols requires only the body.
2. The field or area of clinical/educational practice to improve the communication skills of individuals with little or no functional speech. http://www.edst.purdue.edu/aac/
A soft keyboard (sometimes called an onscreen keyboard or software keyboard ) is a system that replaces the hardware keyboard on a computing device with an on-screen image map . Soft keyboards are typically used to enable input on a handheld device so that a keyboard doesn't have to be carried with it, and to allow people with disabilities or special needs to use computers. The displayed keyboard can usually be moved and resized, and generally can allow any input that the hardware version does. Other features, such as speech synthesis or word completion or prediction, may be included. A soft keyboard is perhaps the most common type of virtual keyboard (a term that encompasses all types of software keyboards). Some soft keyboards include programs that recognize the likelihood of certain keystrokes in context, so that they can choose the most likely choice when a keystroke is ambiguous. For people who are unable to use a regular keyboard, soft keyboards allow input through a variety of means, including mouse or trackball control, touch screen , and head-pointing devices.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci841791,00.html
ACM presented six Special Awards to finalists in the 2011 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) , the world's largest high school science research competition, held in May in Los Angeles, CA. More than 1,500 young entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists competed to reach the finals from the 443 affiliate fairs in 65 countries, regions and territories. ACM presents awards of $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $300 for third place, and $200 for honorable mention. All winners receive complimentary ACM Student Memberships for the duration of their undergraduate education. In addition, all Computer Science contestants are offered a complimentary one-year ACM Student Membership.
First Award of $1,000
"Optimizing Keyboards for People with Disabilities"
Natalie Janet Nash, 16, Vincentian Academy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
See all award winners at: http://librarians.acm.org/acm-presents-special-awards-2011-intel-science-fair-finalists
The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to take up a grisly case that may be of interest to exurban land developers, hinterlands business owners and anyone else who dwells in what is known as the "wildland urban interface"; that is, the place where nature and development meet. In October 2007, 83-year-old Gwyneth Williams was house-sitting for her daughter and son-in-law in their Savannah-area suburb while the couple were in Europe. Neighbors found Williams floating dead in one of the many lagoons that dot the swampy coastal development, known as The Landings. A medical examiner determined that an alligator had bitten off Williams' forearms, her hands and her right foot. A trapper eventually found an 8-foot alligator, killed it and found Williams' body parts inside the creature's stomach. The family sued the subdivision's homeowners association, arguing that it should have done a better job ensuring the safety of visitors to a place where alligators are common. A key issue the Georgia court will address is whether the homeowners' association should be shielded from the lawsuit under a doctrine known as "animals ferae naturae." A ferae naturae animal is a wild one, as opposed to a domesticated one. Walter W. Ballew III, the attorney for the homeowners' association, cited a Texas appellate court decision in arguing that the doctrine means that a "landowner cannot be liable for the acts of animals ferae naturae, that is indigenous wild animals, occurring on his or her property unless the landowner has actually reduced the wild animals to possession or control, or introduced a non-indigenous animal to the area." There is no question that alligators are indigenous to coastal Georgia. Attorneys for Williams' family argue that the alligator had been in the lagoon for a long time and "could have, and should have, been easily discovered and removed by a responsible maintenance program," the Morris News Service's Walter C. Jones reported October 18. http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-10-18/supreme-court-hear-case-gator-ate-woman
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in February. Its decision, of course, will only apply to Georgia.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/georgia_alligator_death.html
International textbooks controversy--one comment: My son purchased an international edition of a textbook that he needed for one of his college classes. He purchased it over the internet and it was considerably cheaper than the edition that the book store at the college carried. When he got the book, he found that it was not exactly identical to the book needed for his course. The pagination of the book did not match up with the required text and there were some other differences between the books that made it practically useless for the course that he was taking. So from his experience, I would have to conclude that even though the International editions of books may appear to be the same thing, they may in fact not always be identical to the US books. My son said that he has shifted away from buying his texts over the internet, which he did for a while to save on costs. He now gets most of his books from the college bookstore because he is assured of purchasing the right book that goes with his course.
About 200 National Lawyers Guild members are volunteering as legal observers on the scene at Occupy Wall Street. A national nonprofit composed of lawyers, legal workers, and law students, the guild is encouraging its members to monitor events at the Zuccotti Park encampment and to trail protesters when they march to locations elsewhere in the city. The guild's mission, says Gideon Oliver, a solo practitioner and member of the executive committee of the group's New York City chapter, is to ensure that demonstrators are able to exercise their First Amendment rights. Guild observers attempt to identify everyone who is arrested, record the arresting officer's badge number, and obtain contact information for potential witnesses. Following those steps makes it easier to coordinate jail support services and legal representation, says Jane Moison, a guild member and associate at criminal defense and civil rights firm Rankin & Taylor. http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/10/meet-occupy-wall-streets-legal-team.html
To maintain their youthful bright appearance, old stars called blue stragglers eat up the outer envelope of giant-star companions, stripping them down to their white dwarf core in a process called mass transfer. Several theories have attempted to explain why blue stragglers appear younger than they actually are, but, until now, scientists have lacked the crucial observations with which to test each hypothesis. Armed with such observational data, two astronomers report in the journal Nature that this mechanism of mass transfer explains the origins of blue stragglers. The majority of blue stragglers in the study are binaries—they have a companion star. “It’s really the companion star that helped us determine where the blue straggler comes from,” says Aaron M. Geller, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and first author of a new study. “The companion stars orbit at periods of about 1,000 days, and we have evidence that the companions are white dwarfs. Both point directly to an origin from mass transfer.” For the study, Geller and Robert Mathieu, professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studied the NGC 188 open cluster, which is in the constellation Cepheus, situated in the sky near Polaris, the North Star. The cluster is one of the most ancient open star clusters, yet it features the mysterious young blue stragglers. The cluster has around 3,000 stars, all about the same age, and has 21 blue stragglers. You may link to the original study at:
http://www.futurity.org/science-technology/how-blue-stragglers-stay-forever-young/
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Quotes
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children
Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1918)
Chefs are raiding ancient Roman texts, Renaissance manuscripts and 19th-century American cookbooks in search of authentic old recipes with which to tempt jaded foodies. Many of the recipes call for unfamiliar—and somewhat unappetizing—ingredients like songbirds, veal brains, the ancient herb hyssop and "preboggin" (pray-bo-ZHAWN), a fancy name for wild greens, also known as "weeds." Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, open since January in the Mandarin Oriental in London, specializes in dishes from Britain's past: Rice and Flesh (c. 1390), Savoury Porridge (c. 1660), Roast Marrowbone (c. 1720) and Spiced Pigeon (c. 1780). At Next, a creation of Alinea's Grant Achatz that launched earlier this year in Chicago, a rotating prix fixe menu features dishes such as Duck with Blood Sauce, in which duck parts are put through an antique duck press. The dish is based on a 1906 Paris preparation inspired by August Escoffier's 1903 text Le Guide Culinaire. At Pensiero, a modern Italian restaurant in Evanston, Ill., chef Brandon Baltzley is putting together an historic menu for a 10-course, $140-a-person dinner later this month. The inspiration is the 10 tomes of Apicius, a collection of Roman recipes believed to date from 4th and 5th centuries. "[People] are bored," says Mr. Baltzley who found the books in a university library. If some old recipes sound less than scrumptious, here's why. People "ate more parts of the animal and more parts of a plant that today we'd throw away," says Francine Segan, author of "Shakespeare's Kitchen," a 2003 book of updated Renaissance recipes. The idea that cinnamon and nutmeg hid the taste of old meat isn't true, she says. "They wouldn't put expensive spices on top of rotten meat."
Alina Dizik See stories about Bastas Trattoria in Portland, Chicago's Spiaggia restaurant, and America Eats Tavern, a pop-up restaurant in Washington, D.C., whose profits go to the Foundation for the National Archives at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203499704576624851086404190.html
A computional journalism reading list by Jonathan Stray
I’d like to propose a working definition of computational journalism as the application of computer science to the problems of public information, knowledge, and belief, by practitioners who see their mission as outside of both commerce and government. This includes the journalistic mainstay of “reporting” — because information not published is information not known — but my definition is intentionally much broader than that. To succeed, this young discipline will need to draw heavily from social science, computer science, public communications, cognitive psychology and other fields, as well as the traditional values and practices of the journalism profession. “Computational journalism” has no textbooks yet. In fact the term barely is barely recognized. The phrase seems to have emerged at Georgia Tech in 2006 or 2007. This helpful reading list covers, among other things, communications technology and free speech, tracking spread of information and misinformation, linguistics and visualization.
http://jonathanstray.com/a-computational-journalism-reading-list
Muscovites’ usual transportation routes will soon be blocked – all for the sake of theatrical art. The Moscow Metro has announced that the central section of the green line will be temporarily closed in November. All the stations between Belorusskaya and Novokuznetskaya will be affected. The reason for the closure is the need to insulate the Bolshoi Theater from the noise of the subway. The specialists found out that the vibrations caused by passing trains interfere with the theater’s acoustics. No wonder: the distance between the theater’s hall and the Teatralnaya metro station is around 40 meters. To tackle the problem, the theater hired German acoustics pros who came up with a special insulation scheme for the Bolshoi. http://rt.com/news/prime-time/bolshoi-acoustics-moscow-metro-589/
Find a table with roots, con + roots, and variants based on other prefixes at: http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs10s/conplaya.php
An example at 1.2 is root: -vers; con + root: converse; and variants: adverse, averse, controverse, diverse, everse, inverse, obverse, perverse, reverse, subverse, transverse, traverse, underverse, universe.
The four-day Circleville (Ohio) Pumpkin Show, beginning October 19, is in its 105th year, has a $300,000 budget, a constitution and its own anthem, "The Punkin Show," for years performed a cappella at the opening ceremony by a quartet of Kiwanis members, most of whom have passed away. Now the high school choir sings, "Take my hand and off we'll go, we're on our way to the Punkin Show." Pumpkin festivals are sprouting across the country this time of year, from South Jersey to Half Moon Bay, Calif., many holding giant pumpkin weigh-offs and vying to host the next world record, which now belongs to a Wisconsin man who produced an 1,810-pounder last year. The Keene Pumpkin Festival, in New Hampshire, goes for quantity of another sort, with 25,000 lit jack-o'-lanterns on its main street, while the Pumpkin Chuckin Festival in Millsboro, Del., goes for distance with its airborne pumpkins. For Circleville, population 14,000, it's the biggest event of the year. City schools are closed most of the week, as are many businesses, since the show occupies eight downtown blocks. Lindsey's Bakery, however, adds two shifts and staffs the kitchen 24 hours a day to make nearly 100,000 pumpkin doughnuts. "We get about 25% of our sales then," says owner Katie Miller, whose parents came up with the recipe in the 1950s. The Rotary sells Pumpkin chili and the Presbyterian Church rents its parking lot. "There's no other fund-raising opportunity bigger than the Pumpkin Show," says Barry Keller, the Pumpkin Show vice president. A recent survey found the show drew visitors from 34 states and 13 foreign countries. Locals trace the show's roots to 1903 when the mayor put pumpkins in front of his home. Decades later, the city's water tower was painted orange and topped with a green metal stem. It was incorporated in 1946 as the nonprofit Circleville Pumpkin Show Inc. Article three of its constitution stipulates the show benefit locals, which is why contestants for all competitions, from top gourd display to best white radishes, must live within a 21-mile radius of Circleville. Clare Ansberry
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203914304576629520379947448.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_10_1
Bon Jovi is opening a new "pay-what-you-can" restaurant, hoping to give low-income families an alternative to unhealthy fast food. The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen opened on Wednesday in Red Bank, New Jersey, near the singer's hometown of Sayreville. After two years of serving meals in various locations, the "community kitchen" has set up a permanent location in a 1,100 sq ft former garage. While customers are welcome to pay for their meals, those who are, er, living on a prayer may instead work as volunteers. "Picture the coolest brasserie in your hometown, that's what this is," Bon Jovi told New York magazine. "It's the hottest-looking restaurant in this town." Indeed, this is hardly a soup kitchen. The bistro's opening menu includes rainbow beet salad, pork chops with fig and apple chutney, and homemade carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. Everything is "organic, healthy, good-for-you food", Bon Jovi said, but don't expect to find him behind the stove. "I'm an expert at washing dishes, but I can cook less than zero." http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/20/jon-bon-jovi-restaurant?newsfeed=true
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children
Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1918)
Chefs are raiding ancient Roman texts, Renaissance manuscripts and 19th-century American cookbooks in search of authentic old recipes with which to tempt jaded foodies. Many of the recipes call for unfamiliar—and somewhat unappetizing—ingredients like songbirds, veal brains, the ancient herb hyssop and "preboggin" (pray-bo-ZHAWN), a fancy name for wild greens, also known as "weeds." Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, open since January in the Mandarin Oriental in London, specializes in dishes from Britain's past: Rice and Flesh (c. 1390), Savoury Porridge (c. 1660), Roast Marrowbone (c. 1720) and Spiced Pigeon (c. 1780). At Next, a creation of Alinea's Grant Achatz that launched earlier this year in Chicago, a rotating prix fixe menu features dishes such as Duck with Blood Sauce, in which duck parts are put through an antique duck press. The dish is based on a 1906 Paris preparation inspired by August Escoffier's 1903 text Le Guide Culinaire. At Pensiero, a modern Italian restaurant in Evanston, Ill., chef Brandon Baltzley is putting together an historic menu for a 10-course, $140-a-person dinner later this month. The inspiration is the 10 tomes of Apicius, a collection of Roman recipes believed to date from 4th and 5th centuries. "[People] are bored," says Mr. Baltzley who found the books in a university library. If some old recipes sound less than scrumptious, here's why. People "ate more parts of the animal and more parts of a plant that today we'd throw away," says Francine Segan, author of "Shakespeare's Kitchen," a 2003 book of updated Renaissance recipes. The idea that cinnamon and nutmeg hid the taste of old meat isn't true, she says. "They wouldn't put expensive spices on top of rotten meat."
Alina Dizik See stories about Bastas Trattoria in Portland, Chicago's Spiaggia restaurant, and America Eats Tavern, a pop-up restaurant in Washington, D.C., whose profits go to the Foundation for the National Archives at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203499704576624851086404190.html
A computional journalism reading list by Jonathan Stray
I’d like to propose a working definition of computational journalism as the application of computer science to the problems of public information, knowledge, and belief, by practitioners who see their mission as outside of both commerce and government. This includes the journalistic mainstay of “reporting” — because information not published is information not known — but my definition is intentionally much broader than that. To succeed, this young discipline will need to draw heavily from social science, computer science, public communications, cognitive psychology and other fields, as well as the traditional values and practices of the journalism profession. “Computational journalism” has no textbooks yet. In fact the term barely is barely recognized. The phrase seems to have emerged at Georgia Tech in 2006 or 2007. This helpful reading list covers, among other things, communications technology and free speech, tracking spread of information and misinformation, linguistics and visualization.
http://jonathanstray.com/a-computational-journalism-reading-list
Muscovites’ usual transportation routes will soon be blocked – all for the sake of theatrical art. The Moscow Metro has announced that the central section of the green line will be temporarily closed in November. All the stations between Belorusskaya and Novokuznetskaya will be affected. The reason for the closure is the need to insulate the Bolshoi Theater from the noise of the subway. The specialists found out that the vibrations caused by passing trains interfere with the theater’s acoustics. No wonder: the distance between the theater’s hall and the Teatralnaya metro station is around 40 meters. To tackle the problem, the theater hired German acoustics pros who came up with a special insulation scheme for the Bolshoi. http://rt.com/news/prime-time/bolshoi-acoustics-moscow-metro-589/
Find a table with roots, con + roots, and variants based on other prefixes at: http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs10s/conplaya.php
An example at 1.2 is root: -vers; con + root: converse; and variants: adverse, averse, controverse, diverse, everse, inverse, obverse, perverse, reverse, subverse, transverse, traverse, underverse, universe.
The four-day Circleville (Ohio) Pumpkin Show, beginning October 19, is in its 105th year, has a $300,000 budget, a constitution and its own anthem, "The Punkin Show," for years performed a cappella at the opening ceremony by a quartet of Kiwanis members, most of whom have passed away. Now the high school choir sings, "Take my hand and off we'll go, we're on our way to the Punkin Show." Pumpkin festivals are sprouting across the country this time of year, from South Jersey to Half Moon Bay, Calif., many holding giant pumpkin weigh-offs and vying to host the next world record, which now belongs to a Wisconsin man who produced an 1,810-pounder last year. The Keene Pumpkin Festival, in New Hampshire, goes for quantity of another sort, with 25,000 lit jack-o'-lanterns on its main street, while the Pumpkin Chuckin Festival in Millsboro, Del., goes for distance with its airborne pumpkins. For Circleville, population 14,000, it's the biggest event of the year. City schools are closed most of the week, as are many businesses, since the show occupies eight downtown blocks. Lindsey's Bakery, however, adds two shifts and staffs the kitchen 24 hours a day to make nearly 100,000 pumpkin doughnuts. "We get about 25% of our sales then," says owner Katie Miller, whose parents came up with the recipe in the 1950s. The Rotary sells Pumpkin chili and the Presbyterian Church rents its parking lot. "There's no other fund-raising opportunity bigger than the Pumpkin Show," says Barry Keller, the Pumpkin Show vice president. A recent survey found the show drew visitors from 34 states and 13 foreign countries. Locals trace the show's roots to 1903 when the mayor put pumpkins in front of his home. Decades later, the city's water tower was painted orange and topped with a green metal stem. It was incorporated in 1946 as the nonprofit Circleville Pumpkin Show Inc. Article three of its constitution stipulates the show benefit locals, which is why contestants for all competitions, from top gourd display to best white radishes, must live within a 21-mile radius of Circleville. Clare Ansberry
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203914304576629520379947448.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_10_1
Bon Jovi is opening a new "pay-what-you-can" restaurant, hoping to give low-income families an alternative to unhealthy fast food. The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen opened on Wednesday in Red Bank, New Jersey, near the singer's hometown of Sayreville. After two years of serving meals in various locations, the "community kitchen" has set up a permanent location in a 1,100 sq ft former garage. While customers are welcome to pay for their meals, those who are, er, living on a prayer may instead work as volunteers. "Picture the coolest brasserie in your hometown, that's what this is," Bon Jovi told New York magazine. "It's the hottest-looking restaurant in this town." Indeed, this is hardly a soup kitchen. The bistro's opening menu includes rainbow beet salad, pork chops with fig and apple chutney, and homemade carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. Everything is "organic, healthy, good-for-you food", Bon Jovi said, but don't expect to find him behind the stove. "I'm an expert at washing dishes, but I can cook less than zero." http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/20/jon-bon-jovi-restaurant?newsfeed=true
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Who are the Masons? The history of Freemasonry studies the development, evolution and events of the fraternal organization known as Freemasonry. This history is generally separated into two time periods: before and after the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717. Before this time, the facts and origins of Freemasonry are not absolutely known and are therefore frequently explained by theories or legends. After the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, the history of Freemasonry is extremely well documented and can be traced through the creation of hundreds of Grand Lodges that spread rapidly worldwide. A great schism in Freemasonry occurred in the years following 1877, when the Grand Orient de France (GOdF) started unreservedly accepting atheists, and recognized Women's Masonry and Co-Masonry. The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) deemed this to be irregular and a violation of the ancient landmarks of the Fraternity. UGLE withdrew its recognition of GOdF. The majority of Grand Lodges around the world, especially those in the English speaking world, followed UGLE's lead. However, a minority, mostly in Europe and South America chose to follow GOdF's example. Thus Freemasonry was split between the Anglo-American concept of Freemasonry and the Continental concept of Freemasonry. Adding to the tensions between these to systems, French Masons tended to be more willing to discuss religion and politics in their Lodges; unlike the English who banned such discussions outright. The schism between the two branches was occasionally, (unofficially or partially) breached, especially during the First World War when American Masons overseas wished to visit French Lodges. Between the years 1885 and 1897, Léo Taxil maintained a hoax against both Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church, by making increasingly outlandish claims regarding Freemasonry. On 19 April 1897, Taxil called a press conference at which he claimed he would introduce the "author" of his books to the press. He instead announced that his revelations about the Freemasons were fictitious. Nevertheless, the material is still used on some anti-Masonic websites today. See origin theories of freemasonry and name origin theories at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Freemasonry
Search for images of Masonic symbols in your favorite search engine.
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”) originally compounded from πάλιν (palin, “again”) and ψάω (psao, “I scrape”) literally meaning “scraped clean and used again”. Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice. The term has come to be used in similar context in a variety of disciplines, notably architectural archaeology. A number of ancient works have survived only as palimpsests. Vellum manuscripts were over-written on purpose mostly due to the dearth or cost of the material. In the case of Greek manuscripts, the consumption of old codices for the sake of the material was so great that a synodal decree of the year 691 forbade the destruction of manuscripts of the Scriptures or the church fathers, except for imperfect or injured volumes. Such a decree put added pressure on retrieving the vellum on which secular manuscripts were written. The decline of the vellum trade with the introduction of paper exacerbated the scarcity, increasing pressure to reuse material. The best-known palimpsest in the legal world was discovered in 1816 by Niebuhr and Savigny in the library of Verona cathedral. Underneath letters by St. Jerome and Gennadius was the almost complete text of The Institutes of Gaius, probably the first student's textbook on Roman law. See other famous examples includinging the Archimedes Palimpsest (a work of the great Syracusan mathematician copied onto parchment in the tenth century and overwritten by a liturgical text in the twelfth century) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest#cite_note-2
Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes, an exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, running from October 16, 2011-January 1, 2012, reveals texts from the ancient world discovered by conserving and imaging the palimpsest. The Archimedes Palimpsest contains the remains of seven erased books, including the only surviving copy of two treatises by Archimedes—The Method of Mechanical Theorems and Stomachion.
Read extensive description at: http://thewalters.org/news/releases/pressdetail.aspx?e_id=279
Beet and Red Cabbage Salad with Lentils and Blue Cheese
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/beet-and-red-cabbage-salad-with-lentils-and-blue-cheese
Skillet Corn Bread with Figs, Feta and Rosemary
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/skillet-corn-bread-with-figs-feta-and-rosemary
Grilled Shrimp with Apple and Charred Scallions
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-shrimp-with-apple-and-charred-scallions Recipes from Food and Wine Magazine November 2011
Dickens and Shakespeare, the two biggest beasts in the English literary jungle, are to be celebrated as never before during the next 12 months. Last week, the British Council announced an unprecedented global program of Charles Dickens-themed films, art exhibitions, discussions, public readings, theatre experiences and educational events for next year. It stretches across more than 50 countries, embracing Iran, Burma and Zimbabwe along the way. Highlights include a touring festival of classic Dickens films; Claire Tomalin, David Nicholls and other leading writers travelling to literary festivals; and the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk mounting a production in Pakistan. The British Council project supplements a battery of Dickens-related book publications, museum shows and new film adaptations timed to mark the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth in Portsmouth in 1812. Tomalin's monumental biography Charles Dickens: A Life was published in early October, one of four new biographical works out in the next few months. The Museum of London has Dickens and London running for a year from December, while the Charles Dickens Museum reopens in November after a pound stg. 3.1 million ($4.9m) restoration project. The BBC is also serialising Great Expectations for Christmas, with David Suchet and Gillian Anderson, and has filmed The Mystery of Edwin Drood, an adaptation of the author's last, unfinished book. It would all amount to a unique investigation of a single writer were it not for the even greater focus looming on Shakespeare, to coincide with the London Olympics. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/dead-literary-lions-set-to-roar-next-year/story-e6frg8n6-1226162475099
Julian Barnes described the Booker Prize as “posh bingo”. October 18, at the fourth time of trying, Barnes’s numbers finally came up. The 65-year-old writer won for The Sense of an Ending, a 150-page novella about a middle-aged man looking back on his younger days. The former head of MI5, now a spy novelist, said: “I’ve had a long life in varied, different careers and I’ve been through many crises of one kind or another, against which this one pales.” Accepting the award, Barnes said: “I would like to thank the judges – who I won’t hear a word against – for their wisdom, and the sponsors for their cheque.” He declared himself “as much relieved as I am delighted” and likened himself to Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian writer who was considered by the Nobel Prize committee year after year but always overlooked. Barnes said: “When asked, as he continually was, why he had never won the Nobel Prize, Borges used to reply that there was a cottage industry devoted to not giving Borges the Nobel Prize. Over the last years, in occasional moments of mild paranoia, I have wondered whether there wasn’t some similar, sinister organisation operating over here.” Barnes triumphed 27 years after his first Booker nomination. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/8834464/Julian-Barnes-wins-the-2011-Man-Booker-Prize.html
Search for images of Masonic symbols in your favorite search engine.
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”) originally compounded from πάλιν (palin, “again”) and ψάω (psao, “I scrape”) literally meaning “scraped clean and used again”. Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice. The term has come to be used in similar context in a variety of disciplines, notably architectural archaeology. A number of ancient works have survived only as palimpsests. Vellum manuscripts were over-written on purpose mostly due to the dearth or cost of the material. In the case of Greek manuscripts, the consumption of old codices for the sake of the material was so great that a synodal decree of the year 691 forbade the destruction of manuscripts of the Scriptures or the church fathers, except for imperfect or injured volumes. Such a decree put added pressure on retrieving the vellum on which secular manuscripts were written. The decline of the vellum trade with the introduction of paper exacerbated the scarcity, increasing pressure to reuse material. The best-known palimpsest in the legal world was discovered in 1816 by Niebuhr and Savigny in the library of Verona cathedral. Underneath letters by St. Jerome and Gennadius was the almost complete text of The Institutes of Gaius, probably the first student's textbook on Roman law. See other famous examples includinging the Archimedes Palimpsest (a work of the great Syracusan mathematician copied onto parchment in the tenth century and overwritten by a liturgical text in the twelfth century) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest#cite_note-2
Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes, an exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, running from October 16, 2011-January 1, 2012, reveals texts from the ancient world discovered by conserving and imaging the palimpsest. The Archimedes Palimpsest contains the remains of seven erased books, including the only surviving copy of two treatises by Archimedes—The Method of Mechanical Theorems and Stomachion.
Read extensive description at: http://thewalters.org/news/releases/pressdetail.aspx?e_id=279
Beet and Red Cabbage Salad with Lentils and Blue Cheese
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/beet-and-red-cabbage-salad-with-lentils-and-blue-cheese
Skillet Corn Bread with Figs, Feta and Rosemary
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/skillet-corn-bread-with-figs-feta-and-rosemary
Grilled Shrimp with Apple and Charred Scallions
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-shrimp-with-apple-and-charred-scallions Recipes from Food and Wine Magazine November 2011
Dickens and Shakespeare, the two biggest beasts in the English literary jungle, are to be celebrated as never before during the next 12 months. Last week, the British Council announced an unprecedented global program of Charles Dickens-themed films, art exhibitions, discussions, public readings, theatre experiences and educational events for next year. It stretches across more than 50 countries, embracing Iran, Burma and Zimbabwe along the way. Highlights include a touring festival of classic Dickens films; Claire Tomalin, David Nicholls and other leading writers travelling to literary festivals; and the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk mounting a production in Pakistan. The British Council project supplements a battery of Dickens-related book publications, museum shows and new film adaptations timed to mark the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth in Portsmouth in 1812. Tomalin's monumental biography Charles Dickens: A Life was published in early October, one of four new biographical works out in the next few months. The Museum of London has Dickens and London running for a year from December, while the Charles Dickens Museum reopens in November after a pound stg. 3.1 million ($4.9m) restoration project. The BBC is also serialising Great Expectations for Christmas, with David Suchet and Gillian Anderson, and has filmed The Mystery of Edwin Drood, an adaptation of the author's last, unfinished book. It would all amount to a unique investigation of a single writer were it not for the even greater focus looming on Shakespeare, to coincide with the London Olympics. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/dead-literary-lions-set-to-roar-next-year/story-e6frg8n6-1226162475099
Julian Barnes described the Booker Prize as “posh bingo”. October 18, at the fourth time of trying, Barnes’s numbers finally came up. The 65-year-old writer won for The Sense of an Ending, a 150-page novella about a middle-aged man looking back on his younger days. The former head of MI5, now a spy novelist, said: “I’ve had a long life in varied, different careers and I’ve been through many crises of one kind or another, against which this one pales.” Accepting the award, Barnes said: “I would like to thank the judges – who I won’t hear a word against – for their wisdom, and the sponsors for their cheque.” He declared himself “as much relieved as I am delighted” and likened himself to Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian writer who was considered by the Nobel Prize committee year after year but always overlooked. Barnes said: “When asked, as he continually was, why he had never won the Nobel Prize, Borges used to reply that there was a cottage industry devoted to not giving Borges the Nobel Prize. Over the last years, in occasional moments of mild paranoia, I have wondered whether there wasn’t some similar, sinister organisation operating over here.” Barnes triumphed 27 years after his first Booker nomination. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/8834464/Julian-Barnes-wins-the-2011-Man-Booker-Prize.html
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
What was Chautauqua? Theodore Roosevelt called it "the most American thing in America," Woodrow Wilson described it during World War I as an "integral part of the national defense," and William Jennings Bryan deemed it a "potent human factor in molding the mind of the nation." Conversely, Sinclair Lewis derided it as "nothing but wind and chaff and...the laughter of yokels," William James found it "depressing from its mediocrity," and critic Gregory Mason dismissed it as "infinitely easier than trying to think." However Chautauqua was characterized, it elicited strong reactions and emotions. Founded in 1874 by businessman Lewis Miller and Methodist minister, later Bishop, John Heyl Vincent, Chautauqua's initial incarnation was in western New York state on Lake Chautauqua. The programming first focused on training Sunday school teachers but quickly expanded its range and was the first to offer correspondence degrees in the United States. This summer camp for families that promised "education and uplift" was too popular not to be copied and in less than a decade independent Chautauquas, often called assemblies, sprang up across the country beside lakes and in groves of trees. As with the early lyceum movements and Chautauqua assemblies, the goal of the Circuit Chautauquas was to offer challenging, informational, and inspirational stimulation to rural and small-town America. Once the Circuits were established there was nothing during their heyday that evoked the excitement and promise of summer more than the coming of the brown tent. One manager remembered them as "the essence of an Americanism in days gone by." The Great Depression brought an end to most Circuits, although a few continued until World War II. Their arrival brought people together to improve their minds and renew their ties to one another. As a sort of diverting, wholesome, and morally respectable vaudeville the Circuit Chautauqua was an early form of mass culture. Despite the criticisms leveled by Sinclair Lewis and others, for many the Circuit Chautauqua was a welcome sight providing entertainment and enlightenment. As one spectator concluded, "[our] town was never the same after Chautauqua started coming.... It broadened our lives in many ways." Charlotte Canning
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm
Chautauqua today--see the 2012 schedule at: http://www.ciweb.org/
Quotes
You make 'em, I amuse 'em. (statement about children)
Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age.
You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991), better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss
More quotes at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss
Going live on January 1, 2012, Project MUSE book collections will feature over 14,000 electronic titles from 66 respected university press and scholarly publishers. The collections will provide libraries, researchers, and students access to a wealth of high quality book-length scholarship, including both new and classic titles, fully integrated with the over 500 journal titles in MUSE's electronic journal collections. http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/65215
"Gunga Din" (1892), a poem by Rudyard Kipling, from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer (a "Bhishti") who saves the soldier's life but dies himself. The poem was published as one of the set of martial poems called the Barrack-Room Ballads. The poem inspired a 1939 adventure film of the same name from RKO Radio Pictures starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Fontaine, and Sam Jaffe in the title role. The movie was remade in 1961 as Sergeants 3, starring the Rat Pack. The locale was moved from British-colonial India to the old West. The Gunga Din character was played in this film by Sammy Davis, Jr. A much shorter animated version of the poem and film was made as an episode of The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, with the ultra-myopic character in the title role. He was voiced by Jim Backus. In 1962, Sonny Gianotta recorded a novelty song "The Last Blast Of The Blasted Bugler" based on Gunga Din. In 1966, Jim Croce adapted the poem into a song for his album Facets. Find link to the poem at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunga_Din
Gung Ho, unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps, is an abbreviation for the Mandarin Gongye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term was used in China, starting in 1938, to refer to small, industrial operations that were being established in rural China to replace the industrial centers that had been captured by the Japanese. The phrase was clipped to the initial characters of the two words, gung ho (or gung he, as it would be transliterated today), which means "work together." http://www.chinapage.com/word/gungho.html
Two Pennsylvania men have been charged with cutting up a steel bridge and selling it for scrap. How - and why - did they do it? When the two men showed up at the scrap yard with chopped-up steel beams and grating, nothing seemed initially suspicious. After all, it is not unusual for men to show up with hundreds of pounds of metal in the back of a pick-up truck, an employee of the yard tells the BBC. But the following month, police determined the men had stolen the steel from a bridge in an isolated wood in rural Pennsylvania, and people familiar with the scrap metal business and theft cases say it may be the first reported case of a bridge being cut down, stolen and sold for scrap. With scrap metal prices at or near historic highs, police across the country and people in the scrap metal recycling business say the US is suffering what is almost an epidemic of metal theft. The case in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small town about 50 miles (80.5km) north-east of Pittsburgh, unfolded earlier this month when staff at the New Castle Development Corporation, noticed an entire steel bridge had been removed from a wood, where it spanned a creek on an access road. Remnants of the 40ft (12.2m) long and 15ft (4.57m) wide bridge indicated it had been sheared from its moorings with a blow torch, say police. According to police and an employee of the scrap yard, the thieves cut the pieces into three-foot sections and hauled them out of the woods in a pick-up truck. Investigators with the Pennsylvania State Police put the word out, and two days later, employees at a nearby industrial metal recycling yard, Ferrotech Corporation, reported they had bought 31,000lbs (14 tons) of steel matching the missing bridge for $5,179 (£3,287), in several transactions in September. No national agency keeps definitive statistics on scrap metal theft, but the Institute for Recycling Industries says reports of thefts to its online tracking service were up 94% in 2010 from the year before. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15344442
When the National Book Foundation announced its nominees last week for the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards, they accidentally picked a book called Shine when they really meant to pick one called Chime. Instead of honoring Franny Billingsley’s young adult novel about a teenage witch, they found themselves praising Lauren Myracle’s young adult novel about a teenage sleuth who investigates a hate crime. Billingsley’s Chime was belatedly nominated and Myracle announced that she had been asked drop out of the awards. At least one good thing came out of the mix-up: because Shine deals with a gay-related hate crime, Myracle asked the Foundation to donate $5,000 to the Matthew Shepherd Foundation, which advocates acceptance of gay youths. Had she remained a finalist, Myracle would have received $1,000, a medal, and a “citation” from the jury. The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 16. http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/18/shine-not-chime-the-national-book-awards-gets-it-wrong/
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm
Chautauqua today--see the 2012 schedule at: http://www.ciweb.org/
Quotes
You make 'em, I amuse 'em. (statement about children)
Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age.
You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991), better known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss
More quotes at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss
Going live on January 1, 2012, Project MUSE book collections will feature over 14,000 electronic titles from 66 respected university press and scholarly publishers. The collections will provide libraries, researchers, and students access to a wealth of high quality book-length scholarship, including both new and classic titles, fully integrated with the over 500 journal titles in MUSE's electronic journal collections. http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/65215
"Gunga Din" (1892), a poem by Rudyard Kipling, from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer (a "Bhishti") who saves the soldier's life but dies himself. The poem was published as one of the set of martial poems called the Barrack-Room Ballads. The poem inspired a 1939 adventure film of the same name from RKO Radio Pictures starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Fontaine, and Sam Jaffe in the title role. The movie was remade in 1961 as Sergeants 3, starring the Rat Pack. The locale was moved from British-colonial India to the old West. The Gunga Din character was played in this film by Sammy Davis, Jr. A much shorter animated version of the poem and film was made as an episode of The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, with the ultra-myopic character in the title role. He was voiced by Jim Backus. In 1962, Sonny Gianotta recorded a novelty song "The Last Blast Of The Blasted Bugler" based on Gunga Din. In 1966, Jim Croce adapted the poem into a song for his album Facets. Find link to the poem at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunga_Din
Gung Ho, unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps, is an abbreviation for the Mandarin Gongye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term was used in China, starting in 1938, to refer to small, industrial operations that were being established in rural China to replace the industrial centers that had been captured by the Japanese. The phrase was clipped to the initial characters of the two words, gung ho (or gung he, as it would be transliterated today), which means "work together." http://www.chinapage.com/word/gungho.html
Two Pennsylvania men have been charged with cutting up a steel bridge and selling it for scrap. How - and why - did they do it? When the two men showed up at the scrap yard with chopped-up steel beams and grating, nothing seemed initially suspicious. After all, it is not unusual for men to show up with hundreds of pounds of metal in the back of a pick-up truck, an employee of the yard tells the BBC. But the following month, police determined the men had stolen the steel from a bridge in an isolated wood in rural Pennsylvania, and people familiar with the scrap metal business and theft cases say it may be the first reported case of a bridge being cut down, stolen and sold for scrap. With scrap metal prices at or near historic highs, police across the country and people in the scrap metal recycling business say the US is suffering what is almost an epidemic of metal theft. The case in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small town about 50 miles (80.5km) north-east of Pittsburgh, unfolded earlier this month when staff at the New Castle Development Corporation, noticed an entire steel bridge had been removed from a wood, where it spanned a creek on an access road. Remnants of the 40ft (12.2m) long and 15ft (4.57m) wide bridge indicated it had been sheared from its moorings with a blow torch, say police. According to police and an employee of the scrap yard, the thieves cut the pieces into three-foot sections and hauled them out of the woods in a pick-up truck. Investigators with the Pennsylvania State Police put the word out, and two days later, employees at a nearby industrial metal recycling yard, Ferrotech Corporation, reported they had bought 31,000lbs (14 tons) of steel matching the missing bridge for $5,179 (£3,287), in several transactions in September. No national agency keeps definitive statistics on scrap metal theft, but the Institute for Recycling Industries says reports of thefts to its online tracking service were up 94% in 2010 from the year before. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15344442
When the National Book Foundation announced its nominees last week for the Young People’s Literature category of the National Book Awards, they accidentally picked a book called Shine when they really meant to pick one called Chime. Instead of honoring Franny Billingsley’s young adult novel about a teenage witch, they found themselves praising Lauren Myracle’s young adult novel about a teenage sleuth who investigates a hate crime. Billingsley’s Chime was belatedly nominated and Myracle announced that she had been asked drop out of the awards. At least one good thing came out of the mix-up: because Shine deals with a gay-related hate crime, Myracle asked the Foundation to donate $5,000 to the Matthew Shepherd Foundation, which advocates acceptance of gay youths. Had she remained a finalist, Myracle would have received $1,000, a medal, and a “citation” from the jury. The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 16. http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/18/shine-not-chime-the-national-book-awards-gets-it-wrong/
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Longitude Prize was a reward offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. The prize, established through an Act of Parliament (the Longitude Act) in 1714, was administered by the Board of Longitude. As a result of the disputes and changes in the rules (legislated or otherwise) for the prize, no one was deemed qualified for any of the official prizes. None of the major prizes were ever awarded. However, many persons benefited from awards offered by the Board. In total, over £100,000 was given in the form of encouragements and awards. Read more including significant recipients of the awards at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_prize
The first X PRIZE – the Ansari X PRIZE – was inspired by the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 by French hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. In 1927, underdog Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis. In total, nine teams spent $400,000 in pursuit of the Orteig Prize. In 1996, entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offered a $10 million prize to the first privately financed team that could build and fly a three-passenger vehicle 100 kilometers into space twice within two weeks. The contest, later titled the Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight, motivated 26 teams from seven nations to invest more than $100 million in pursuit of the $10 million purse. On October 4, 2004, the Ansari X PRIZE was won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who successfully completed the contest in their spacecraft SpaceShipOne. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Prize_Foundation
Countdown to City Center reopening On West 55th Street in New York, with the renovation and restoration of its landmark building with a neo-Moorish facade to be unveiled on Oct. 25, City Center hopes to have addressed imperfections and 88 years of wear and tear. City Center has spent $57 million of a $75 million capital campaign in the hope that people will now notice it. A new glass marquee (with heat lamps) shines lights on the exterior as well as on the sidewalk. Protruding signs are now visible from both Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue. And new glass doors allow passers-by to look into the building at six large high-definition plasma screens. The New Museum is acting as curator for three installations for those monitors in the first year, beginning with a series of video works by Rashaad Newsome, a New York artist. City Center was not originally meant to be a theater. It was built in 1923 as a meeting hall for the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners, and did not become City Center until 20 years later. At the opening, on Dec. 11, 1943, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia conducted the New York Philharmonic in the national anthem. In an evocation of that moment, the center’s reopening gala on Oct. 25 features Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as a guest conductor. The renovation project, designed by Ennead Architects — formerly Polshek Partnership — aims to make the theater feel more contemporary and welcoming. The lobby and patrons’ lounge have been expanded. Restroom capacity has increased by 50 percent. The project also deliberately returns the theater to some of its former decorative glory. The painted ceiling on the mezzanine lobby has been restored, as have that level’s desert-scene murals. The original light fixtures have been refurbished and cleaned. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/arts/design/city-center-gears-up-for-its-grand-reopening.html
A 1,685-pound pumpkin took first prize October 1 at the Great Pumpkin Contest in Elk Grove, Calif. It's not just the pumpkins grown by Leonardo Ureña that are super-size. The corn reaches 25 feet high. Sunflowers have faces 2 feet wide. And the gourds! "It was a really ugly area right there," said Mr. Ureña, pointing, so he built a 70-foot long trellis and planted his giant-breed seeds. "Now we call it the Gourd Tunnel." This stuff isn't edible. The seeds, like the ones for the "991 Ureña" pumpkin, have been cross-bred for shape, not taste. Some of the produce may be sold to restaurants for decoration, some rented to pumpkin patches. People are just delighted by it. But why? Is it the colors: gourds the green of bubble-bath and pumpkins that are pink? I suspect something else. Gourds can grow 4 to 6 inches a day, pumpkins many pounds. Holly Finn Learn the seven lessons from the pumpkin patch at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576616821015503708.html
In Chapter 51 of Perec's masterpiece, "Life A User's Manual" (1978), the character Valène imagines a painting of the apartment house in which he lives with its façade removed, showing all its street-side rooms with their contents and the characters who lived there. The project is laid out as an inventory of items numbered from 1 through 179, and each "item" is a summary of a story told elsewhere in Perec's 99-chapter novel. I was translating the novel, so I had to locate the stories to which the lines referred. But in doing so I noticed (thanks to some prompting) that each line of the inventory was exactly the same length. Exactly 60 keystrokes. On top of that, the inventory is separated into three blocks, two of them consisting of 60 lines and the last one of just 59. The "great compendium," as Perec called it, thus consists of three squares, the last one slightly defective. The muscles that I grew to translate Perec's "great compendium" have gone on helping me to meet challenges I face in translating other texts—and in writing my own. David Bellos http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576609021510407778.html
Life a User's Manual, parts 1-3 inspired by a group read of the book at one Web site: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/?s=tag&t=georges-perec
Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers. It has set up a flagship line run by a publishing veteran, Laurence Kirshbaum, to bring out brand-name fiction and nonfiction. It signed its first deal with the self-help author Tim Ferriss. Last week it announced a memoir by the actress and director Penny Marshall, for which it paid $800,000, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said. Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?_r=1&hp
Oct. 17 Word of the Day
Farrago fuh-RAH-goh (noun) A confused mixture; hodgepodge
Number to Know
2: Today is all about second chances, as it’s Mulligan Day! mulligan is a golf term for a do-over that doesn’t count against you.
This Day in History
Oct. 17, 1933: Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the U.S.
http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/newsnow/x1827971538/Morning-Minutes-Oct-17
The first X PRIZE – the Ansari X PRIZE – was inspired by the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 by French hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. In 1927, underdog Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis. In total, nine teams spent $400,000 in pursuit of the Orteig Prize. In 1996, entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offered a $10 million prize to the first privately financed team that could build and fly a three-passenger vehicle 100 kilometers into space twice within two weeks. The contest, later titled the Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight, motivated 26 teams from seven nations to invest more than $100 million in pursuit of the $10 million purse. On October 4, 2004, the Ansari X PRIZE was won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who successfully completed the contest in their spacecraft SpaceShipOne. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Prize_Foundation
Countdown to City Center reopening On West 55th Street in New York, with the renovation and restoration of its landmark building with a neo-Moorish facade to be unveiled on Oct. 25, City Center hopes to have addressed imperfections and 88 years of wear and tear. City Center has spent $57 million of a $75 million capital campaign in the hope that people will now notice it. A new glass marquee (with heat lamps) shines lights on the exterior as well as on the sidewalk. Protruding signs are now visible from both Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue. And new glass doors allow passers-by to look into the building at six large high-definition plasma screens. The New Museum is acting as curator for three installations for those monitors in the first year, beginning with a series of video works by Rashaad Newsome, a New York artist. City Center was not originally meant to be a theater. It was built in 1923 as a meeting hall for the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners, and did not become City Center until 20 years later. At the opening, on Dec. 11, 1943, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia conducted the New York Philharmonic in the national anthem. In an evocation of that moment, the center’s reopening gala on Oct. 25 features Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as a guest conductor. The renovation project, designed by Ennead Architects — formerly Polshek Partnership — aims to make the theater feel more contemporary and welcoming. The lobby and patrons’ lounge have been expanded. Restroom capacity has increased by 50 percent. The project also deliberately returns the theater to some of its former decorative glory. The painted ceiling on the mezzanine lobby has been restored, as have that level’s desert-scene murals. The original light fixtures have been refurbished and cleaned. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/arts/design/city-center-gears-up-for-its-grand-reopening.html
A 1,685-pound pumpkin took first prize October 1 at the Great Pumpkin Contest in Elk Grove, Calif. It's not just the pumpkins grown by Leonardo Ureña that are super-size. The corn reaches 25 feet high. Sunflowers have faces 2 feet wide. And the gourds! "It was a really ugly area right there," said Mr. Ureña, pointing, so he built a 70-foot long trellis and planted his giant-breed seeds. "Now we call it the Gourd Tunnel." This stuff isn't edible. The seeds, like the ones for the "991 Ureña" pumpkin, have been cross-bred for shape, not taste. Some of the produce may be sold to restaurants for decoration, some rented to pumpkin patches. People are just delighted by it. But why? Is it the colors: gourds the green of bubble-bath and pumpkins that are pink? I suspect something else. Gourds can grow 4 to 6 inches a day, pumpkins many pounds. Holly Finn Learn the seven lessons from the pumpkin patch at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576616821015503708.html
In Chapter 51 of Perec's masterpiece, "Life A User's Manual" (1978), the character Valène imagines a painting of the apartment house in which he lives with its façade removed, showing all its street-side rooms with their contents and the characters who lived there. The project is laid out as an inventory of items numbered from 1 through 179, and each "item" is a summary of a story told elsewhere in Perec's 99-chapter novel. I was translating the novel, so I had to locate the stories to which the lines referred. But in doing so I noticed (thanks to some prompting) that each line of the inventory was exactly the same length. Exactly 60 keystrokes. On top of that, the inventory is separated into three blocks, two of them consisting of 60 lines and the last one of just 59. The "great compendium," as Perec called it, thus consists of three squares, the last one slightly defective. The muscles that I grew to translate Perec's "great compendium" have gone on helping me to meet challenges I face in translating other texts—and in writing my own. David Bellos http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576609021510407778.html
Life a User's Manual, parts 1-3 inspired by a group read of the book at one Web site: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/?s=tag&t=georges-perec
Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers. It has set up a flagship line run by a publishing veteran, Laurence Kirshbaum, to bring out brand-name fiction and nonfiction. It signed its first deal with the self-help author Tim Ferriss. Last week it announced a memoir by the actress and director Penny Marshall, for which it paid $800,000, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said. Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?_r=1&hp
Oct. 17 Word of the Day
Farrago fuh-RAH-goh (noun) A confused mixture; hodgepodge
Number to Know
2: Today is all about second chances, as it’s Mulligan Day! mulligan is a golf term for a do-over that doesn’t count against you.
This Day in History
Oct. 17, 1933: Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the U.S.
http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/newsnow/x1827971538/Morning-Minutes-Oct-17
Friday, October 14, 2011
Who are these people? Well...they are builders, stewards, book donors, borrowers, neighbors and friends in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and maybe your state very soon. They are "us," and that's the idea. The originators of Little Free Library are Todd Bol and Rick Brooks http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/about-us.html
Brooks, who had helped organize the building of 12 village libraries in Sri Lanka through his work with Sarvodaya USA, understood what a difference a small investment can make in a neighborhood. "We have many individual families who just bought them and put them in their yard," Brooks said. "We like neighborhoods to get together and develop a sense of ownership." Brooks also knew, like many, that he had books at home that he didn't need. "I thought, 'What are they doing on my bookshelves? Why don't we share them,'" he said. "Everybody asks, 'Aren't they going to steal the books?' But you can't steal a free book." Each library has a steward who signs a contract to oversee and maintain the book collection, and one of the first stewards was Megan Blake-Horst, the owner of Absolutely Art Gallery in Madison, who, about a year and a half ago, installed a little library on a bike trail that runs next to her gallery. "I really love the idea of sharing books," she said. "Instantly, we had people stopping and looking at it and using it." Bol initially built 20 libraries, and Brooks marketed them, and as the idea gained traction, the duo enlisted help from an Amish carpenter in Cashton who supplied wood from a barn that had been knocked down in a tornado as well as assistance from WDI, a local woodworking firm. They now have installed about 50 libraries (more than 20 in the Madison area), and 30 more are being built (a July 31 article in the Wisconsin State Journal has provided a spur). To date, Brooks and company have installed all the libraries, but this may no longer be practical as the project has gained momentum across Wisconsin and in other states. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891507-264/in_pursuit_of_andrew_carnegie.html.csp
Rocinante has few of the expected attributes of prize literary horses. He does not possess the qualities bestiaries list as desirable in terms of figure, beauty, merit and color. Cervantes skirts the issue of Rocinante’s aesthetic worth by stating that Rocinante was a rocin, a work horse, rather than some noble steed. Clearly, Don Quixote has his own standards for evaluating desirability in horses which run counter to usual knightly criteria. Throughout the novel, the reader is aware of Rocinante’s presence and becomes convinced of his fidelity and durability. Rocinante may not come up to the physical criteria set forth in tradition, but more than proves his worth by qualities of temperament and soul. Don Quixote does not value Rocinante for his athletic abilities or his potential on the battlefield, but rather looks on him as a chosen companion. In the epics and romances Cervantes mentions—El Cid, La Chanson de Roland and Orlando Furioso, horses figure as flamboyant players in dramatic scenes of competition and battle. They complement and enhance their masters’ bravery in scenes of danger and death. In Don Quixote, something markedly diffferent takes place; Rocinante along with Sancho’s Dapple figures importantly as an enduring friend to the knight on the road. Rocinante is used to establish a level of moderate and civilized reality and daily life lived. For purposes of burlesque, Cervantes compares Rocinante to glittering mythic horses. This spirit of banter and parody dictates the introductory verses which present Rocinante as alternately the great-grandson and then the friend, of El Cid’s horse Babieca. In Part II of the novel, the Countess Trifaldi lists a whole catalogue of famous horses before presenting Clavileño the wooden horse, and Sancho professes that Rocinante is better named than all of them.
http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/1990/Spanish-html/POWER,MARY.htm
Horses in mythology and literature
http://petcaretips.net/famous-horses-mythology-literature.html
Quote So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) born in Prague, major German-language writer of the 20th century
Master class on salads First, it should start with quality, fresh ingredients. Many lettuces are available year-round, but other fresh ingredients, such as green beans and tomatoes, are so bad when out of season that using them will ruin anything you add them to. A good salad should also have the right choice of vinaigrette or dressing for the greens, and the right amount — underdressing a salad is as much an offense as overdressing one. A salad should have some crunch, either from the crispy lettuce with which it's made or from the addition of croutons or toasted nuts. The ingredients in a salad should be cut or torn or crumbled to the appropriate size. For instance, a chopped salad is all about having same-size ingredients. See more plus pictures at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-master-class-nancy-silverton-20111006,0,2766363.htmlstory
Q: How do you pronounce “dour”? Does it have an OO or an OW sound?
A: These days, “dour” can properly be pronounced either way, to rhyme with “tour” or “tower.” But it wasn’t always so. At one time, this adjective meaning stern, obstinate, or gloomy had only one pronunciation, the one with the OO sound. A usage note in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.) says “dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour.” “The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour is, however, widely used and must be considered acceptable,” American Heritage adds.
http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/04/dour.html
Check out grammarphobia.com http://www.grammarphobia.com/index.html for grammar myths, writing tips, daily blog, language links and more.
Website of the Day The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
www.eisenhower.archives.gov
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was born October 14, 1890, so today head to the site of his presidential library to learn more about the military leader and politician. If you want to visit the actual museum in Abilene, Kan., you’ll find visitors’ information as well.
Number to Know 34: Number president that Dwight D. Eisenhower was.
Daily Quote
One need not be a chamber to be haunted; one need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing material place. Emily Dickinson
http://www.wickedlocal.com/norwell/newsnow/x83585813/Morning-Minutes-Oct-14#axzz1akjiOv6h
Brooks, who had helped organize the building of 12 village libraries in Sri Lanka through his work with Sarvodaya USA, understood what a difference a small investment can make in a neighborhood. "We have many individual families who just bought them and put them in their yard," Brooks said. "We like neighborhoods to get together and develop a sense of ownership." Brooks also knew, like many, that he had books at home that he didn't need. "I thought, 'What are they doing on my bookshelves? Why don't we share them,'" he said. "Everybody asks, 'Aren't they going to steal the books?' But you can't steal a free book." Each library has a steward who signs a contract to oversee and maintain the book collection, and one of the first stewards was Megan Blake-Horst, the owner of Absolutely Art Gallery in Madison, who, about a year and a half ago, installed a little library on a bike trail that runs next to her gallery. "I really love the idea of sharing books," she said. "Instantly, we had people stopping and looking at it and using it." Bol initially built 20 libraries, and Brooks marketed them, and as the idea gained traction, the duo enlisted help from an Amish carpenter in Cashton who supplied wood from a barn that had been knocked down in a tornado as well as assistance from WDI, a local woodworking firm. They now have installed about 50 libraries (more than 20 in the Madison area), and 30 more are being built (a July 31 article in the Wisconsin State Journal has provided a spur). To date, Brooks and company have installed all the libraries, but this may no longer be practical as the project has gained momentum across Wisconsin and in other states. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891507-264/in_pursuit_of_andrew_carnegie.html.csp
Rocinante has few of the expected attributes of prize literary horses. He does not possess the qualities bestiaries list as desirable in terms of figure, beauty, merit and color. Cervantes skirts the issue of Rocinante’s aesthetic worth by stating that Rocinante was a rocin, a work horse, rather than some noble steed. Clearly, Don Quixote has his own standards for evaluating desirability in horses which run counter to usual knightly criteria. Throughout the novel, the reader is aware of Rocinante’s presence and becomes convinced of his fidelity and durability. Rocinante may not come up to the physical criteria set forth in tradition, but more than proves his worth by qualities of temperament and soul. Don Quixote does not value Rocinante for his athletic abilities or his potential on the battlefield, but rather looks on him as a chosen companion. In the epics and romances Cervantes mentions—El Cid, La Chanson de Roland and Orlando Furioso, horses figure as flamboyant players in dramatic scenes of competition and battle. They complement and enhance their masters’ bravery in scenes of danger and death. In Don Quixote, something markedly diffferent takes place; Rocinante along with Sancho’s Dapple figures importantly as an enduring friend to the knight on the road. Rocinante is used to establish a level of moderate and civilized reality and daily life lived. For purposes of burlesque, Cervantes compares Rocinante to glittering mythic horses. This spirit of banter and parody dictates the introductory verses which present Rocinante as alternately the great-grandson and then the friend, of El Cid’s horse Babieca. In Part II of the novel, the Countess Trifaldi lists a whole catalogue of famous horses before presenting Clavileño the wooden horse, and Sancho professes that Rocinante is better named than all of them.
http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/1990/Spanish-html/POWER,MARY.htm
Horses in mythology and literature
http://petcaretips.net/famous-horses-mythology-literature.html
Quote So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) born in Prague, major German-language writer of the 20th century
Master class on salads First, it should start with quality, fresh ingredients. Many lettuces are available year-round, but other fresh ingredients, such as green beans and tomatoes, are so bad when out of season that using them will ruin anything you add them to. A good salad should also have the right choice of vinaigrette or dressing for the greens, and the right amount — underdressing a salad is as much an offense as overdressing one. A salad should have some crunch, either from the crispy lettuce with which it's made or from the addition of croutons or toasted nuts. The ingredients in a salad should be cut or torn or crumbled to the appropriate size. For instance, a chopped salad is all about having same-size ingredients. See more plus pictures at:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-master-class-nancy-silverton-20111006,0,2766363.htmlstory
Q: How do you pronounce “dour”? Does it have an OO or an OW sound?
A: These days, “dour” can properly be pronounced either way, to rhyme with “tour” or “tower.” But it wasn’t always so. At one time, this adjective meaning stern, obstinate, or gloomy had only one pronunciation, the one with the OO sound. A usage note in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.) says “dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour.” “The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour is, however, widely used and must be considered acceptable,” American Heritage adds.
http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/04/dour.html
Check out grammarphobia.com http://www.grammarphobia.com/index.html for grammar myths, writing tips, daily blog, language links and more.
Website of the Day The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
www.eisenhower.archives.gov
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was born October 14, 1890, so today head to the site of his presidential library to learn more about the military leader and politician. If you want to visit the actual museum in Abilene, Kan., you’ll find visitors’ information as well.
Number to Know 34: Number president that Dwight D. Eisenhower was.
Daily Quote
One need not be a chamber to be haunted; one need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing material place. Emily Dickinson
http://www.wickedlocal.com/norwell/newsnow/x83585813/Morning-Minutes-Oct-14#axzz1akjiOv6h
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Early this year, the editors of a Canadian anti-establishment magazine watched Egyptians demanding democracy in Cairo, and young Spaniards camping out in city centers to protest high unemployment, and wondered, "Why isn't this happening in America?" So in an Internet posting in mid-July, Adbusters suggested a time — Sept. 17 — and a place — Wall Street — for people to make a stand. The editors didn't organize any activists, or even visit New York, but thousands of people took their idea and made it real. "All of us had this feeling that there was this powerful wave of rage rising up in America that hadn't found its expression yet," said magazine co-founder Kalle Lasn, who came up with the idea for the demonstration with Adbusters editor Micah White. The Vancouver-based magazine audaciously called for 20,000 "redeemers, rebels and radicals" to occupy Wall Street for a few months. The people who turned Adbusters' idea into a real protest were a combination of veterans of New York City's activist scene and newcomers who saw the magazine's call circulating on Twitter and other social media. They didn't share any particular political goal, but they held a unifying belief that the country's economic and political systems are rigged to benefit big corporations and the very rich. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP1ae187116a7047bca6a9c5e22c87e5e8.html
Cookbooks have been late bloomers in the e-book revolution, lagging behind other categories, like fiction, that have been widely embraced in digital form. Yet cookbooks have recently begun to show signs of strength in the digital book market, bolstered by publishers who are releasing e-book editions of new titles simultaneously with the print versions and converting older, classic cookbooks into digital form. On Wednesday Alfred A. Knopf will release the e-book edition of one of the most famous cookbooks: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” by Julia Child, immortalized in the best seller “Julie & Julia” and its film counterpart, starring Meryl Streep. he introduction of “Mastering” to the e-book library is not just a testament to the book’s venerable status and enduring popularity, but also to the publishing industry’s willingness to embrace digital publishing with all its quirks, including, for cookbooks, shorthand measurements like “2 tbsp finely minced shallots,” which appear in smaller type.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/books/julia-childs-mastering-the-art-of-french-cooking-joins-e-book-revolution.html?_r=1
Q: What is the average lifespan of our paper money?
A: The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing says it depends on the note:
• 42 months for the $1 bill.
• 16 months for the $5 bill.
• 18 months for the $10 bill.
• 24 months for the $20 bill.
• 55 months for the $50 bill.
• 89 months for the $100 bill.
Q: What did others say about Yogi Berra?
A: "He'd fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch." Casey Stengel.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Oct/JU/ar_JU_101011.asp?d=101011,2011,Oct,10&c=c_13
A Möbius Strip or Möbius Band is named after August Ferdinand Möbius, a nineteenth century German mathematician and astronomer, who was a pioneer in the field of topology. Möbius, along with his better known contemporaries, Riemann, Lobachevsky and Bolyai, created a non-Euclidean revolution in geometry. Giant Möbius Strips have been used as conveyor belts (to make them last longer, since "each side" gets the same amount of wear) and as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time). In the 1960's Sandia Laboratories used Möbius Strips in the design of versatile electronic resistors. Free-style skiers have christened one of their acrobatic stunts the Möbius Flip. The famous artist, M.C. Escher, used mathematical themes in some of his work, including a Möbius parade of ants.
See more plus pictures at: http://scidiv.bellevuecollege.edu/math/mobius.html
WHAT'S IN IT
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand. Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savoury. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." Other similar products are the Australian Vegemite and the Swiss Cenovis. The distinctive product was originally British, but a version with a different flavour has been manufactured in New Zealand since 1919, and this is the dominant version in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The image on the front of the British jar shows a "marmite" (French: [maʁmit]), a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite
Gefilte fish is a loaf of chopped up fish, usually white-fleshed freshwater fish such as carp or pike. The chopped fish is generally mixed with onions, carrots and parsley. Eggs and matzah meal hold the mixture together.
Find recipe at: http://kosherfood.about.com/od/howtokeepkosher/ss/gefilte.htm
Haggis is leftover lamb or beef, seasoning, oats and onions cooked. The haggis is traditionally served at Burns Suppers on 25th January each year to commemorate Scottish poet Robert (Rabbie) Burns, and ceremoniously brought to the table with bagpipes playing. Rabbie wrote the poem “Address to a Haggis” During Burns' lifetime haggis was a popular dish as it was very cheap.
See recipe at: http://www.scotlands-enchanting-kingdom.com/haggis-ingredients.html
Phrases from The Likeness by Tana French
. . . one of those content, absorbed silences that go with good food.
. . . the kind of tangle that buys lawyers new Porsches . . .
. . . a frantic, limitless ability to octopus herself onto anyone who might be useful . . .
Exhibits of interest--click links for stories and pictures
From Archimedes to Buzz Lightyear, scientists and superheroes alike have yearned to grasp infinity. "Beyond the Infinity," an art installment by the French artist and architect Serge Salat, explores the same territory—with endless reflections. The installation, traveling through cities in China through the beginning of November, is like a high-tech hall of mirrors, blending sculpture, light, music and reflective panels to alter viewers' perceptions of space. Shifting colors of light, from red and gold to blue, are meant to evoke the cycle of day to night.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576615631080924132.html
Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper Collaboration of the Milwaukee Art Museum and Vienna's Albertina --over 100 watercolors, drawings and pastels http://mam.org/impressionism/
Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters With more than 100 world-famous works assembled exclusively for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, this exhibition features fourteen key 20th-century artists, seen together for the first time in the Southeast. http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Picasso-to-Warhol.aspx
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design Furniture, ceramics, jewelry, painting and more from over 160 artists and designers. Displays 1940s, 50s and 60s objects-- at Museum of Arts and Design in New York
http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=advsearch&rawsearch=exhibitionid/%2C/is/%2C/479/%2C/true/%2C/false&profile=exhibitions
Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through March 4, 2012 The exhibition explores caricature and satire in its many forms from the Italian Renaissance to the present, drawn primarily from the rich collection of this material in the Museum's Department of Drawings and Prints. The show includes drawings and prints by Leonardo da Vinci, Eugène Delacroix, Francisco de Goya, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Enrique Chagoya alongside works by artists more often associated with humor, such as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, Honoré Daumier, Al Hirschfeld, and David Levine. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/infinite-jest--caricature-and-satire-from-leonardo-to-levine
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Current and ongoing exhibits http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events
Eunoia is the shortest English word containing all five main vowel graphemes. It comes from the Greek word εὔνοια, meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking." It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself and his audience, a condition of receptivity. In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life. Cicero translates eunoia with the Latin word benevolentia. Eunoia (book) is a work by poet Christian Bök consisting of five chapters, each one using only one vowel. In the science-fiction television series Earth: Final Conflict, Eunoia is the name of the native language of the Taelon race. Bök was a consultant on that series and helped develop the language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunoia
Cookbooks have been late bloomers in the e-book revolution, lagging behind other categories, like fiction, that have been widely embraced in digital form. Yet cookbooks have recently begun to show signs of strength in the digital book market, bolstered by publishers who are releasing e-book editions of new titles simultaneously with the print versions and converting older, classic cookbooks into digital form. On Wednesday Alfred A. Knopf will release the e-book edition of one of the most famous cookbooks: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” by Julia Child, immortalized in the best seller “Julie & Julia” and its film counterpart, starring Meryl Streep. he introduction of “Mastering” to the e-book library is not just a testament to the book’s venerable status and enduring popularity, but also to the publishing industry’s willingness to embrace digital publishing with all its quirks, including, for cookbooks, shorthand measurements like “2 tbsp finely minced shallots,” which appear in smaller type.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/books/julia-childs-mastering-the-art-of-french-cooking-joins-e-book-revolution.html?_r=1
Q: What is the average lifespan of our paper money?
A: The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing says it depends on the note:
• 42 months for the $1 bill.
• 16 months for the $5 bill.
• 18 months for the $10 bill.
• 24 months for the $20 bill.
• 55 months for the $50 bill.
• 89 months for the $100 bill.
Q: What did others say about Yogi Berra?
A: "He'd fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch." Casey Stengel.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Oct/JU/ar_JU_101011.asp?d=101011,2011,Oct,10&c=c_13
A Möbius Strip or Möbius Band is named after August Ferdinand Möbius, a nineteenth century German mathematician and astronomer, who was a pioneer in the field of topology. Möbius, along with his better known contemporaries, Riemann, Lobachevsky and Bolyai, created a non-Euclidean revolution in geometry. Giant Möbius Strips have been used as conveyor belts (to make them last longer, since "each side" gets the same amount of wear) and as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time). In the 1960's Sandia Laboratories used Möbius Strips in the design of versatile electronic resistors. Free-style skiers have christened one of their acrobatic stunts the Möbius Flip. The famous artist, M.C. Escher, used mathematical themes in some of his work, including a Möbius parade of ants.
See more plus pictures at: http://scidiv.bellevuecollege.edu/math/mobius.html
WHAT'S IN IT
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand. Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savoury. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." Other similar products are the Australian Vegemite and the Swiss Cenovis. The distinctive product was originally British, but a version with a different flavour has been manufactured in New Zealand since 1919, and this is the dominant version in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The image on the front of the British jar shows a "marmite" (French: [maʁmit]), a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite
Gefilte fish is a loaf of chopped up fish, usually white-fleshed freshwater fish such as carp or pike. The chopped fish is generally mixed with onions, carrots and parsley. Eggs and matzah meal hold the mixture together.
Find recipe at: http://kosherfood.about.com/od/howtokeepkosher/ss/gefilte.htm
Haggis is leftover lamb or beef, seasoning, oats and onions cooked. The haggis is traditionally served at Burns Suppers on 25th January each year to commemorate Scottish poet Robert (Rabbie) Burns, and ceremoniously brought to the table with bagpipes playing. Rabbie wrote the poem “Address to a Haggis” During Burns' lifetime haggis was a popular dish as it was very cheap.
See recipe at: http://www.scotlands-enchanting-kingdom.com/haggis-ingredients.html
Phrases from The Likeness by Tana French
. . . one of those content, absorbed silences that go with good food.
. . . the kind of tangle that buys lawyers new Porsches . . .
. . . a frantic, limitless ability to octopus herself onto anyone who might be useful . . .
Exhibits of interest--click links for stories and pictures
From Archimedes to Buzz Lightyear, scientists and superheroes alike have yearned to grasp infinity. "Beyond the Infinity," an art installment by the French artist and architect Serge Salat, explores the same territory—with endless reflections. The installation, traveling through cities in China through the beginning of November, is like a high-tech hall of mirrors, blending sculpture, light, music and reflective panels to alter viewers' perceptions of space. Shifting colors of light, from red and gold to blue, are meant to evoke the cycle of day to night.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576615631080924132.html
Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper Collaboration of the Milwaukee Art Museum and Vienna's Albertina --over 100 watercolors, drawings and pastels http://mam.org/impressionism/
Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters With more than 100 world-famous works assembled exclusively for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, this exhibition features fourteen key 20th-century artists, seen together for the first time in the Southeast. http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Picasso-to-Warhol.aspx
Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design Furniture, ceramics, jewelry, painting and more from over 160 artists and designers. Displays 1940s, 50s and 60s objects-- at Museum of Arts and Design in New York
http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=advsearch&rawsearch=exhibitionid/%2C/is/%2C/479/%2C/true/%2C/false&profile=exhibitions
Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through March 4, 2012 The exhibition explores caricature and satire in its many forms from the Italian Renaissance to the present, drawn primarily from the rich collection of this material in the Museum's Department of Drawings and Prints. The show includes drawings and prints by Leonardo da Vinci, Eugène Delacroix, Francisco de Goya, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Enrique Chagoya alongside works by artists more often associated with humor, such as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, Honoré Daumier, Al Hirschfeld, and David Levine. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/infinite-jest--caricature-and-satire-from-leonardo-to-levine
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Current and ongoing exhibits http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events
Eunoia is the shortest English word containing all five main vowel graphemes. It comes from the Greek word εὔνοια, meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking." It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself and his audience, a condition of receptivity. In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life. Cicero translates eunoia with the Latin word benevolentia. Eunoia (book) is a work by poet Christian Bök consisting of five chapters, each one using only one vowel. In the science-fiction television series Earth: Final Conflict, Eunoia is the name of the native language of the Taelon race. Bök was a consultant on that series and helped develop the language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunoia
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)