Quick acceleration and heavy braking can reduce fuel economy by up to 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent around town. New EPA tests account for faster acceleration rates, but vigorous driving can still lower MPG. Excessive idling decreases MPG. The EPA city test includes idling, but more idling will lower MPG. Driving at higher speeds increases aerodynamic drag (wind resistance), reducing fuel economy. The new EPA tests account for aerodynamic drag up to highway speeds of 80 mph, but some drivers exceed this speed. Cold weather and frequent short trips can reduce fuel economy, since your engine doesn't operate efficiently until it is warmed up. In colder weather, it takes longer for your engine to warm, and on short trips, your vehicle operates a smaller percentage of time at the desired temperature. Note: Letting your car idle to warm-up doesn't help your fuel economy. It actually uses more fuel and creates more pollution. Cargo or cargo racks on top of your vehicle (e.g., cargo boxes, canoes, etc.) increase aerodynamic drag and lower fuel economy. MPG tests do not account for this type of cargo. Towing a trailer or carrying excessive weight decreases fuel economy. Vehicles are assumed to carry only three hundred pounds of passengers and cargo during testing.
Running electrical accessories (e.g., air conditioner) decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on "Max" can reduce MPG by roughly 5–25% compared to not using it. Driving on hilly or mountainous terrain or on unpaved roads can reduce fuel economy. The EPA test assumes vehicles operate on flat ground. Using 4-wheel drive reduces fuel economy. Four-wheel drive vehicles are tested in 2-wheel drive. Engaging all four wheels makes the engine work harder and increases transfer case and differential losses. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel made by fermenting and distilling starch crops, such as corn. It can also be made from "cellulosic biomass" such as trees and grasses. The use of ethanol can reduce our dependence upon foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. E10 (also called “gasohol”) is a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline sold in many parts of the country. All auto manufacturers approve the use of blends of 10% ethanol or less in their gasoline vehicles. However, vehicles will typically go 3–4% fewer miles per gallon on E10 than on straight gasoline. E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, can be used in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are specially designed to run on gasoline, E85, or any mixture of the two. FFVs are offered by several vehicle manufacturers. To determine if your vehicle can use E85, consult your owner’s manual or check the inside of your car's fuel filler door for an identification sticker. Cost varies regionally. It is cheaper than gasoline in some areas, such as the Midwest, and more expensive in others. Availability. More than two thousand filling stations in the U.S. sell E85, and that number is increasing rapidly. Visit the Alternative Fueling Station Locator for locations of service stations selling E85. Performance. No noticeable difference in vehicle performance when E85 is used. MPG. FFVs operating on E85 usually experience a 25–30% drop in miles per gallon due to ethanol’s lower energy content. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml

Jacques Prévert (1900–1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time. Prévert participated actively in the Surrealist movement. Together with the writer Raymond Queneau and artist Marcel Duchamp, he was a member of the Rue du Château group and Groupe Octobre. Some of Prévert's poems were collected and published in his books: Paroles (Words) (1946), Spectacle (1951), La Pluie et le beau temps (Rain and Good Weather) (1955), Histoires (Stories) (1963), Fatras (1971) and Choses et autres (Things and Others) (1973). His poems are often about life in Paris and life after the Second World War. They are widely taught in schools in France and frequently appear in French language textbooks throughout the world. Some of Prévert's poems, such as "Les Feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), "La grasse matinée" (Sleeping in), "Les bruits de la nuit" (The sounds of the night), and "Chasse à l'enfant" (The hunt for the child) were set to music by Joseph Kosma—and in some cases by Germaine Tailleferre of Les six, Christiane Verger, and Hanns Eisler. They have been sung by prominent 20th century French vocalists, including Marianne Oswald, Yves Montand, and Édith Piaf, as well as by the later American singers Joan Baez and Nat King Cole. In 1961, French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg paid tribute to "Les feuilles mortes" in his own song "La chanson de Prévert." See bibliography and selected films at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pr%C3%A9vert

Q: What's the difference between "II" and "Jr." in a name?
A: The Associated Press Stylebook cautions: "Note that 'II' and '2nd' are not necessarily the equivalent of 'junior.' They often are used by a grandson or nephew." There is no comma between the surname and suffix. Also, a junior may keep or discard the suffix when his father dies. -- Associated Press, emilypost.com.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Feb/JU/ar_JU_022012.asp?d=022012,2012,Feb,20&c=c_13

Athena's Library, The Quirky Pillar Of Providence by Jacki Lyden
With a bit of reverence, librarians carefully wind an antique library clock near the circulation desk in a temple of learning called the Providence Athenaeum. This is one of the oldest libraries in the United States, a 19th-century library with the soul of a 21st-century rave party. In fact, the Rhode Island institution has been called a national model for civic engagement. A hundred and 50 years ago, social libraries like the Athenaeum were all the rage. The concept of the Athenaeum, a member-supported library dedicated to social improvement, predated the modern public library as we know it. The Athenaeum is one of 17 remaining membership libraries.
On the day the library opened in 1838, the citizens of Providence stood willingly for more than two hours to listen to an address by one of its founders, Francis Wayland, the long-winded president of Brown University. Keeping a fragile, 19th-century library in continuous operation for nearly two centuries has been a challenge. Providence, a city of just under 200,000, once surpassed Boston in per capita income. It invested in its cultural gems — theater companies, museums, arts and music organizations and far more. With the recession, several nonprofits have gone under. It was only a decade ago that the Ath underwent its own financial crisis. One of the Athenaeum's antiquities was an original folio of John James Audubon's Birds of America. The board made the painful decision to sell it — which the library did for $5 million in 2005 — to stabilize the Athenaeum's endowment. A small contingent sued, trying to block the sale of the folio. Membership declined during the turbulence. "It was a dark period," says special collections curator Kate Wodehouse. After see-sawing through the recession, membership has rebounded, to about a thousand members and growing, according to Executive Director Alison Maxell. Member or not, anyone can browse or catch a program at the Ath. Devotees of Edgar Allan Poe love the story of his ill-fated romance with a local poet here — and, of course, all the Poe memorabilia. There is a Manet print of Poe's Raven from his famous poem, for example. Children can use their own library or the 19th-century children's books known as "The Old Juveniles." http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/146814120/athenas-library-the-quirky-pillar-of-providence

The Yelp IPO (initial public offering) is well on its way to raising $100 million as the website goes public on the New York stock exchange March 2. IPOs, at least in the tech world, were not popular through the recession. GigaOm says that the average deal size of a tech IPO in the last quarter of 2011 was $292.5 million. That’s nearly triple the amount from just one year prior, when consumer-based IPOs proved more popular. This past year, investors have waited impatiently to grab a piece of the World Wide Web pie.
Facebook IPO The site that single handedly put the term “social networking” into the cultural lexicon, Mark Zuckerberg announced last month he’d be putting his brainchild onto the market in 2012, filing his first Facebook IPO hoped to raise $5 billion. When news broke that Zuckerberg may owe over $2 billion in taxes if the Facebook stock offering is successful, it didn’t faze Facebook much, since their IPO, the fourth largest ever by an American company, valued Zuckerberg’s entity at over $100 billion in assets.
Groupon IPO Arguably the example everyone is following, online coupon and daily deals king Groupon valued itself at nearly $13 billion after an initial public market pop took in $700 million last November. According to Reuters, when the Groupon IPO achieved this, it effectively became the largest successful internet IPO venture since search engine giant Google raised $1.4 billion in stock eight years ago.
The Empire State Building IPO Selling the Brooklyn Bridge apparently wasn’t enough — now investors can have a piece of New York City’s tallest skyscraper. If it was a website, it’d be King Kong’s favorite, especially since handlers of the privately-owned Empire State Building announced last November that they were seeking over $1 billion through its first IPO filing, the New York Times announced. (The building is headquarters to another IPO’d website, professional networker LinkedIn.) The Times reported that the deal, when it goes public, won’t really hand over control of the 102-story landmark to stockholders, but to other property holdings by parent company Empire State Realty—namely, 12 office spaces in New York and Connecticut combining over 7 million square feet of rented space. http://www.gobankingrates.com/investments/pop-goes-ipo-yelps-jump-public-trading-bandwagon-success/

RICHMOND, Calif. — In a wooden warehouse in this industrial suburb, the 20th century is being stored in case of digital disaster. Forty-foot shipping containers stacked two by two are stuffed with the most enduring, as well as some of the most forgettable, books of the era. Every week, 20,000 new volumes arrive, many of them donations from libraries and universities thrilled to unload material that has no place in the Internet Age. “We want to collect one copy of every book,” said Brewster Kahle, who has spent $3 million to buy and operate this repository situated just north of San Francisco. “You can never tell what is going to paint the portrait of a culture.” As society embraces all forms of digital entertainment, this latter-day Noah is looking the other way. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur who made his fortune selling a data-mining company to Amazon.com in 1999, Mr. Kahle founded and runs the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving Web pages — 150 billion so far — and making texts more widely available. But even though he started his archiving in the digital realm, he now wants to save physical texts, too. “We must keep the past even as we’re inventing a new future,” he said. “If the Library of Alexandria had made a copy of every book and sent it to India or China, we’d have the other works of Aristotle, the other plays of Euripides. One copy in one institution is not good enough.” David Streitfeld http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/technology/internet-archives-repository-collects-thousands-of-books.html