Abbreviation	Latin	English
cf.	confer	compare
e.g.	exempli gratia	for example
et al.	et alii	and others
etc.	et cetera	and so forth, and so on
i.e.	id est	that is
N.B.	nota bene	note well
P.S.	post scriptum	postscript

Latin abbreviations are appropriate in footnotes, bibliographies, and informal writing.  In formal writing, use the English equivalent of the abbreviation.  http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipsep99b.htm   NOTE: 

I recommend you always use English equivalents except use the abbreviation P.S. for postscript.  

Dennis Lehane (born 1965) is an American author.  He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.  Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film.  His novel Shutter Island was adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2010.   He occasionally makes guest appearances as himself in the ABC comedy/drama TV series Castle.  See his awards and his works at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane

Philip M. Parker, Professor of Marketing at INSEAD Business School, has had a side project for over 10 years.  He’s created a computer system that can write books about specific subjects in about 20 minutes.  The patented algorithm has so far generated hundreds of thousands of books.  In fact, Amazon lists over 100,000 books attributed to Parker, and over 700,000 works listed for his company, ICON Group International, Inc.  This doesn’t include the private works, such as internal reports, created for companies or licensing of the system itself through a separate entity called EdgeMaven Media.  Parker is not so much an author as a compiler, but the end result is the same:  boatloads of written works.  Now these books aren’t your typical reading material.  Common categories include specialized technical and business reports, language dictionaries bearing the “Webster’s” moniker (which is in the public domain), rare disease overviews, and even crossword puzzle books for learning foreign languages, but they all have the same thing in common:  they are automatically generated by software.  Because digital ebooks and print-on-demand services have become commonplace, topics can be listed in Amazon without even being “written” yet.  See abstract for the U.S. patent issued in 2007 at:  http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/

Airplane manufacturer Boeing builds some of the most complicated machines on Earth, but in its efforts to make wireless signals on airplanes better it turned to the produce aisle for help.  Dec. 19 the company announced a "breakthrough" in the procedures it uses to evaluate wireless signals in cabins, saying in a news release the tests make "it possible for passengers to enjoy more reliable connectivity when using networked personal electronic devices in the air."  The new procedures come, in part, thanks to 20,000 pounds of potatoes that were piled in the seats of a decommissioned plane used for the tests.  The tubers mimic the way the human body responds to electronic signals, so engineers at Boeing's Test & Evaluation Laboratory used the spud-filled plane to try out the new methods without requiring hundreds of people to sit in the aircraft.  Once the engineers had the methods down, they were able to replace the starchy veggies and validate the data with humans.  Boeing says the procedures it developed can reduce the time it takes to test wireless signals from two weeks to just 10 hours.  As for the potatoes that were used in the tests, Boeing says they were donated to a food bank.  http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/19/travel/potatoes-wireless/

William the Conquerer's descendants are still doing well out of a land grab that created the unequal England we know today  by Paul Kingsnorth 

Nearly four years ago, I began writing a novel, set in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of 1066. Before I began to write, I spent six months sitting in the Bodleian library poring over books and journals to familiarise myself with the period.  I soon realised that, apart from the story of the Battle of Hastings that everyone learns at school, I knew hardly anything about the impact of the conquest.  I began to understand, too, how much of that impact is still with us.  By the end of the process, I had come to a slightly disquieting conclusion:  we are still being governed by Normans.  Take house prices. According to the author Kevin Cahill, the main driver behind the absurd expense of owning land and property in Britain is that so much of the nation's land is locked up by a tiny elite.  Just 0.3% of the population – 160,000 families – own two thirds of the country.  Less than 1% of the population owns 70% of the land, running Britain a close second to Brazil for the title of the country with the most unequal land distribution on Earth.  Much of this can be traced back to 1066.  The first act of William the Conqueror, in 1067, was to declare that every acre of land in England now belonged to the monarch.  This was unprecedented:  Anglo-Saxon England had been a mosaic of landowners.  Now there was just one.  William then proceeded to parcel much of that land out to those who had fought with him at Hastings.  This was the beginning of feudalism; it was also the beginning of the landowning culture that has plagued England – and Britain – ever since. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans

A non sequitur (Latin for It does not follow) is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes.  It is something said that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what preceded it, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing.  This use of the term is distinct from the non sequitur in logic, where it is a fallacy. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(literary_device)

The Holm Oak is native to Spain where it is called the "Encina".  Another name for this tree in English is "Holly Oak" in reference to the fact that its leaves resemble those of the Holly.  It is also called "Evergreen Oak" because this tree does not drop its leaves like most other oaks.  It is always green with the old leaves falling off shortly after the new ones emerge.   In Spain the "Encina" has several important uses.  One of these is the value of its acorns as a source of food for the "Iberian" pigs that are used to make the famed "Jamon Serrano" (cured ham).  The cured ham from an Iberian pig that has been allowed to graze in the open fields and that has eaten mostly acorns from the Encina has a special flavour that is highly prized in Spain.  Sometimes this ham is referred to as "jamon de bellota" which means "acorn ham".  See pictures of the holm oak at:  http://tree-species.blogspot.com/2008/01/holm-oak-quercus-ilex.html

The full moon on Dec. 28, 2012 is the 13th full moon of the year.  (There were two full moons in August.)  http://www.calendar-365.com/moon/moon-phases.html