Ever since the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, killing 1,517 people, researchers have puzzled over Capt. Edward Smith's seeming disregard of warnings that icebergs were in the area where the ship was sailing. Greenland icebergs of the type that the Titanic struck generally become stuck in the shallow waters off Labrador and Newfoundland, and cannot resume moving southward until they have melted enough to refloat or a high tide frees them, Olson said. So how was it that such a large number of icebergs had floated so far south that they were in the shipping lanes well south of Newfoundland that night? The team investigated speculation by the late oceanographer Fergus Wood that an unusually close approach by the moon in January 1912 may have produced such high tides that far more icebergs than usual managed to separate from Greenland, and floated, still fully grown, into shipping lanes that had been moved south that spring because of reports of icebergs. Olson said a "once-in-many lifetimes" event occurred on Jan. 4, 1912, when the moon and sun lined up in such a way that their gravitational pulls enhanced each other. At the same time, the moon's closest approach to Earth that January was the closest in 1,400 years, and the point of closest approach occurred within six minutes of the full moon. On top of that, the Earth's closest approach to the sun in a year had happened just the previous day. "This configuration maximized the moon's tide-raising forces on the Earth's oceans," Olson said. "That's remarkable." His research determined that to reach the shipping lanes by mid-April, the iceberg that the Titanic struck must have broken off from Greenland in January 1912. The high tide caused by the bizarre combination of astronomical events would have been enough to dislodge icebergs and give them enough buoyancy to reach the shipping lanes by April, he said. The research will appear in the April issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. http://www.timescolonist.com/Moon+blame+Titanic+sinking+scientists+believe/6284857/story.html

Number sign is a name for the symbol #, which is used for a variety of purposes including, in some countries, the designation of a number (for example, "#1" stands for "number one"). The symbol is in Unicode as code point U+0023 # NUMBER SIGN (HTML: #); it is also present in ASCII with the same value. In Commonwealth English, the symbol is usually called the hash and the corresponding telephone key is called the hash key. In American English, the symbol is usually called the pound sign (outside the US, this term often describes instead the British currency symbol "£") and the telephone key is called the pound key. In Canadian English, this key is most frequently called the pound key but also in some circumstances the number sign key. Beginning in the 1960s, telephone engineers have attempted to coin a special name for this symbol, with variant spellings including octothorp, octothorpe, octathorp, octotherp, octathorpe, and octatherp, none of which has become widely accepted. On social networking sites such as Twitter, # is used to denote a metadata tag, or "hashtag". See uses in mathematics, computing and other ways at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign

The Once and Future Library, an architect’s perspective on designing for changing constituencies by Charles G. Mueller In what history may well mark as an important milestone in how we live and learn, Amazon and the Association of American Publishers reported in spring 2011 that ebook sales had surpassed print for the first time. The former grew by triple-digit percentages from February 2010 to the same month this past year; the latter declined 25% in the same period. Besides librarians, architects are among the people most concerned about how, and how rapidly, such trends play out. Plans made a year ago for library additions or even modest renovations—never mind an entirely new building—are probably out of date. Longstanding formulas to calculate the space required for stacks, seating, and even computer stations no longer apply. The library standards codified in many states, often a criterion for funding, would probably result in a library design that is larger than necessary, or certainly too big or too small in all the wrong places. Change may be inevitable, but it will not be uniform. For example, a public library I am working with reports its current monthly ebook circulation at a few hundred—versus 5,000+ paper editions. That’s less than 5% of the total. At the other end of the spectrum, Stanford University’s new Engineering Library made headlines in 2010 when officials proclaimed their intent to go “largely bookless” within the decade. Pared down by nearly two-thirds from the old facility’s size to a mere 6,000 square feet, the new library contains 16,500 physical books, a whopping decrease of more than 80%, while it holds 40,000 ebooks. Still, the culled books and periodicals didn’t disappear: They were carted off to a central university repository, which can provide any requested materials in less than a day. What are we looking at? In general terms, there will be more, varied spaces but probably less overall square footage, fewer physical books, and more services. Compact, efficient libraries can be a good thing for patrons as users and taxpayers. A public library addition that I am working on has shrunk from more than 40,000 square feet (based on a nearly decade-old plan that projected the book and VHS tape collections would continue to grow linearly) to less than 20,000 square feet—most of which is dedicated to children and young people. The best libraries today—old, new, or in design—are a cross between a modern community center, an old-fashioned YMCA, and a town center. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/03062012/once-and-future-library

Quick Ten: ten famous people who once worked in libraries: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/24574

Reader feedback to chalk letterer: Put together a PowerPoint presentation on Tanamachi for my graphics class, thanks. In one of her videos, she says she references "Ghost Signs" as her inspiration.

A ghost sign is an old hand-painted advertising signage that has been preserved on a building for an extended period of time. They are found across the world with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada having many surviving examples. Ghost signs are also called fading ads and brickads. In many cases these are advertisements painted on brick that remained over time. Old painted advertisements are occasionally discovered upon demolition of later-built adjoining structures. Many ghost signs still visible are from the 1890s to 1960s. Such signs were most commonly used in the decades before the Great Depression. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_sign

On a foray into the wilds of Staten Island in 2009, Jeremy A. Feinberg, a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolution at Rutgers University, heard something strange as he listened for the distinctive mating call of the southern leopard frog — usually a repetitive chuckle. But this was a single cluck. “I started hearing these calls, and I realized they were really distinct,” Mr. Feinberg said. Three years later, Mr. Feinberg and four other scientists who joined him in multiple field and laboratory studies, are finally comfortable making their declaration: a new species of leopard frog — as yet unnamed — has been identified in New York City and a number of surrounding counties. The find is surprising on a number of fronts, not least of which is that the new frog was hiding in plain sight in one of the most populated centers in the world. (Most new species are found in remote areas. There are more than a dozen leopard frogs, ranging from Canada to Central America. Medium in size, with dark spots on a tan, olive or green background, they gravitate toward grassy meadows and breed in ponds or pools. The researchers say that the new frog species was confused for a long time with the southern leopard frog, which it closely resembles. Its known range is limited, more or less, to commuting distance from Midtown Manhattan, stretching from around Trenton, N.J., in the south, to Putnam County, N.Y., to the north. The findings are to be published in an issue of the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, but are currently available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790312000383 Lisa W. Foderaro http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/nyregion/new-leopard-frog-species-is-discovered-in-nyc.html

President Obama unjustly criticized a dead Republican president — Rutherford B. Hayes — by putting words in Hayes’ mouth that he never uttered. Obama, speaking about his energy policies at Prince George’s Community College March 15 in Largo, Md., said: There always have been folks who are the naysayers and don’t believe in the future, and don’t believe in trying to do things differently. One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?” (Laughter.) That’s why he’s not on Mt. Rushmore — (laughter and applause) — because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking forwards. (Applause.) Actually, as New York Magazine‘s Daily Intel blog and others were quick to point out, Hayes never said that. In fact, Hayes was the first president to have a telephone in the White House. It was one of the earliest telephones anywhere in the nation’s capital. For the record, Hayes was also the first president to use a typewriter. And he invited Thomas Edison into the White House to demonstrate the phonograph. http://factcheck.org/2012/03/obamas-fake-hayes-quote/