How to pronounce "the" in English

It is important to understand that it is what we say that matters, not what we write.  It is the sound that matters, not the letter used in writing a word.  So we use a long "thee" before a vowel sound, not necessarily before a vowel.  Look at these cases:

<><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><><><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><>

we write	with	we say	with
the house	consonant (h)	thuh house	consonant sound
the hour	consonant (h)	thee our	vowel sound
the university	vowel (u)	thuh youniversity	consonant sound
the umbrella	vowel (u)	thee umbrella	vowel sound

http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/the.htm

U.K. landowners have had rights to natural light from the oft-overcast sky since the 12th century.  In 2012, developers are paying dearly for casting shadows on nearby structures after a 2010 court ruling that the part of a building obstructing a neighbor’s natural light could be torn down.  The right to a candle’s worth of natural light, which should be bright enough to read a newspaper during the day, dates back to 1189.  The present-day standard was set in the 1920s by engineer Percy Waldram, who estimated the English sky in winter still had the lighting power of 500 candles.  Waldram’s calculation means 0.2 percent of the sky must be viewable from at least half of a windowed room.  Less than that and a building owner may have breached what lawyers call the “grumble point” where a light-deprived neighbor could gripe.  To avoid legal wrangling, London developers get advice from lawyers and surveyors even before picking an architect.  The Shard skyscraper, Western Europe’s tallest building, topped out last month at 87 stories and dominates the central London skyline, overshadowing landmarks such as St. Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge.  Before a single shovel could pierce the ground, the developers had to carry out about 300 consultations on the tower’s effect on neighboring buildings, including how much scarce sunshine the Shard would block.  The U.K.’s Law Commission, which is responsible for deleting outdated laws, is reviewing rights to light and is set to publish its initial findings next year.   Ben Moshinksy  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-19/for-london-developers-light-is-a-heavy-burden

The Shard replaces the Southwark Tower, a 1970's building located on London Bridge Street.  The Shard offers high density vertical development at a transport hub and will be the UK's first truly mixed use tower, devised to interface with London on many levels.  The master architect, Renzo Piano, designed the Shard as a 'vertical city' that includes a public piazza, 586,509 sq ft (54, 488 sq m) of world class office space, an exclusive collection of residential apartments which will be the highest residential apartments in the UK and will be serviced by Europe's first 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, retail space, restaurants, and a public viewing gallery.  See images at:  http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/the_shard_london.htm

Q:  I see ads on television for a free cellphone and free minutes if you qualify by being on Medicaid and/or other programs.  One advertised for some time was Assurance.  Who pays for the cost?  How long has it been going on?  Who pays for all the advertising?
A:  The Telecommunications Act of 1996 set up Lifeline Assistance and related telephone- and Internet-assistance programs for low-income people.  They are funded by the telecommunications industry, generally through fees to customers, and are overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.  Eligibility varies by state, but generally one must be receiving one of seven other assistance programs, including Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income.  Assurance Wireless, a Sprint no-contract brand, and its rivals pay for the cellphone, charger, manual, shipping, and account maintenance with help from the federal fund, according to spokesman Jack W. Pflanz.  The companies also pay for their advertising, he said. -- FCC, Assurance Wireless.
Q:  Why do some U.S. coins have grooves on the edges?
A:  Coins down to the dime were once made of gold and silver.  Reeded edges deterred counterfeiting and filing them for slivers.  Pennies and nickels are considered minor coins and have never contained precious metals.  Today, no coins contain precious metals.  But reeded edges are useful to the visually impaired.  For example, the dime and penny are similar in size, but the reeding of the dime makes it easily identifiable by touch. -- U.S. Mint.
Q:  Why do we call this month April?
A:  Tradition has it from the Latin aperire, meaning "to open," possibly a reference to buds beginning to open. -- dictionary.com.  http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Apr/JU/ar_JU_041612.asp?d=041612,2012,Apr,16&c=c_13

First Book provides access to new books for children in need.  To date, First Book has distributed more than 90 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada.  First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education by making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis.  Link to FAQ and find out how to get involved at:  http://www.firstbook.org/first-book-story

An Engineer's Blueprints For Writing by Nick Arvin Steal, Simplify, Allow Ambiguity Writers look for ideas to steal. There's no shame in this. Shakespeare pilfered old stories of princes who feigned madness for characters and plot points in "Hamlet." Modern writers in turn pilfer "Hamlet" for characters and plot points, in works like Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and David Wroblewski's "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." Simplify. Fifteen years ago in a job interview, a friend of mine was asked, "What is your engineering philosophy?" He had never before thought about his "engineering philosophy," but he realized at that moment that he did have one. "Simplify," he said. Moral ambiguities lie at the heart of compelling drama and conflict. So the writer will seek out and enlarge these in ways that an engineer never would. Dostoevski was one of the great masters of this. He developed characters like Dmitri in "The Brothers Karamazov" who are abominable yet sympathetic, and he thrust good characters like Myshkin in "The Idiot" into morally ambiguous situations where no good answer can be found. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577334124203000012.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, the film's story is a modern satire loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey. The title of the film is a reference to the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, in which the protagonist (a director) wants to direct a film about the Great Depression called O Brother, Where Art Thou? The idea of O Brother, Where Art Thou? arose spontaneously. Work on the script began long before the start of production in December 1997 and was at least half-written by May 1998. Despite the fact that Ethan called Odyssey as "one of my favorite storylines schemes" neither of them had read the epic and were familiar with its content only through adaptations and numerous references to the "Odyssey" in the culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F#cite_note-FAQ-3 The title of Lisa Caponigri's delightful guide to Italian family dining takes the form of a question, one that many Americans with no Italian blood but with fond childhood memories of food and fellowship around the family table must often ask themselves: "Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?" Its subtitle—"A Year of Italian Menus With 250 Recipes That Celebrate Family"—succinctly describes the purpose of this well-written and beautifully presented collection of recipes organized into 52 tempting five-course menus for a year of Sunday dinners. Each menu appears with a different appetizer (antipasto), a usually pasta-based first course (occasionally varied with a soup, polenta or risotto selection), a main course of meat, seafood or poultry accompanied by a carefully matched vegetable side dish, and finally an elegant but easy-to-prepare dessert. Although Ms. Caponigri acquired some of her more sophisticated recipes while living and working in Italy as an adult, her core inspiration came from her Sicilian maternal grandmother. Thus many of the book's best recipes are Sicilian in origin, reflecting that island's exposure to Greek, Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Norman and African culinary influences in the course of its long and convoluted history. A good example is Menu 36, an ideal meal for cool-weather months: verdure marinate (marinated vegetables), linguine con vongole alla nonna (grandma's linguine with clam sauce), gamberi marinati alla Siciliana (Sicilian marinated shrimp), caprese al forno (baked tomato and mozzarella salad), and castanaccio (chestnut cake). While most readers will find this elegant, nicely balanced meal tempting enough, they may wonder about their own ability to prepare it. They needn't. Ms. Caponigri's recipes are concise and easy to follow—and, as with so much truly good food, the best dishes are not always the showiest or most elaborate. Aram Bakshian Jr. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577334823250684712.html National Electronics Recycling Infrastructure Clearinghouse Year E-Waste Laws Were Passed: 2003: California; 2004: Maine; 2005: Maryland; 2006: Washington; 2007: Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina 2008: New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Illinois and Michigan; 2009: Indiana, Wisconsin Find current electronic recycling laws at: http://www.ecyclingresource.org/ContentPage.aspx?Pageid=28 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Basic Information about reducing and recycling electronics Where You Live provides information about regional and State eCycling programs Where Can I Donate or Recycle My Old Computer and Other Electronics? lists organizations and retailers with donation and recycling programs Statistics on the Management of Used and End-of-Life Electronics Regulations/Standards for handling electronic equipment Frequent Questions and answers about electronic waste Resources publications and links that offer additional information on the management of electronics http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/ bonanza (buh-NAN-zah, boh-) noun 1. A source of sudden wealth or profits. 2. A very large amount. 3. A rich mine or pocket of ore. From Spanish bonanza (calm sea, hence good luck or prosperity), from Latin bonus (good). Earliest documented use: 1844. countenance (KOUN-tuh-nans) verb tr.: To tolerate or support. noun: 1. Appearance, especially the facial expression. 2. The face. 3. Composure. 4. Approval or support. From Old French contenance (bearing), from Latin continere (to contain), from con- (with) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, pertinacious, and detente. Earliest documented use: around 1290. gloze (glohz) verb tr.: To minimize or to explain away. verb intr.: 1. To use flattery. 2. To make an explanation. 3. To shine brightly. noun: 1. A comment. 2. Flattery. 3. A pretense. From Old French gloser (to explain), from Latin glossa (explanation of a difficult word), from Greek glossa (word needing explanation, language). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghel- (to shine), which is also the source of words such as yellow, gold, glimmer, glimpse, glass, arsenic, melancholy, and cholera. Earliest documented use: around 1290. forte (fort, FOHR-tay) noun: 1. A strong point: something in which a person excels. 2. The stronger, lower part of a sword blade. Used in music direction (FOHR-tay) adjective: 3. Loud. adverb: 4. In a forceful manner. For 1, 2: From French forte (strong), from Latin fortis (strong). Earliest documented use: before 1648. For 3, 4: From Italian forte (strong, loud), from Latin fortis (strong). Earliest documented use: 1724. The noun sense of the word was originally pronounced as a single syllable (fort), as in French, however the two-syllable pronunciation (FOHR-tay) has mostly supplanted it. The word is in that limbo state where no matter how you pronounce it, someone may fault you for it. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg Feedback to A.Word.A.Day From: Debbie Stultz Subject: Doldrums Def: 1. A state or period of stagnation or slump; 2. A region of the ocean near the equator marked by calms and light variable winds. For me, the Doldrums will always be associated with Norton Juster's fantastic book, The Phantom Tollbooth. The Doldrums are where Milo ends up after just driving along not thinking. This website http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/the-phantom-tollbooth/ has a map of the lands beyond the tollbooth, with the Doldrums appearing in the lower left, with S-shaped and spiral roads, designed for getting nowhere. The book defines the Doldrums as "where nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes." Of course, in keeping with the wonderful wordplay of the book, Milo encounters the Lethargarians. From: Michael Sharman Subject: bonanza Def: 1. A source of sudden wealth or profits. 2. A very large amount. 3. A rich mine or pocket of ore. Goethe wrote two poems on the subject of a Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt) The two are not synonymous: a calm (and therefore windless) sea was a cause for alarm in the days of sail, as they could be stuck in the doldrums. Hence there was joy when the mists cleared and a fresh breeze filled the sails. Beethoven was inspired by these two poems to write an orchestral piece called Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Mendelssohn was likewise inspired by Beethoven to do the same. Unknown to most computer users, they could lose Internet connections this summer. The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down. The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-20/internet-woes-infected-pcs/54446044/1

The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) is the largest living species of tortoise and 10th-heaviest living reptile, reaching weights of over 400 kg (880 lb) and lengths of over 1.8 meters (5.9 ft). With life spans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates. The tortoise is native to seven of the Galápagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago about 1,000 km (620 mi) west of the Ecuadorian mainland. Shell size and shape vary between populations. On islands with humid highlands, the tortoises are larger, with domed shells and short necks . On islands with dry lowlands, the tortoises are smaller, with "saddleback" shells and long necks. Charles Darwin's observations of these differences on the second voyage of the Beagle in 1835, contributed to the development of his theory of evolution. Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. The decline was caused their exploitation for meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals such as rats, goats, and pigs. Ten subspecies of the original fifteen survive in the wild. An eleventh subspecies (C. n. abingdoni) has only a single known living individual, in captivity, nicknamed Lonesome George. Conservation efforts beginning in the 20th century have resulted in thousands of captive-bred juveniles being released onto their home islands, and it is estimated that numbers exceeded 19,000 at the start of the 21st century. The Galápagos Islands were discovered in 1535, but first appeared on the maps, of Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, in about 1570. The islands were named "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises) in reference to the giant tortoises found there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_tortoise

Dr. Steven Pratt coined the term superfood in 2004 with his first book, "SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life." According to Pratt, a superfood has three qualifications: It has to be readily available to the public, it has to contain nutrients that are known to enhance longevity, and its health benefits have to be backed by peer-reviewed, scientific studies. Pratt lists salmon, broccoli, spinach, berries and green tea as a few of his favorites. His website, http://www.superfoodsrx.com/superfoods/ gives 20 more examples. http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/10/health/superfoods-weight-loss-diet/

Modern history states that the Golden Gate of Kiev was one of three constructed by Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev, in 1037 (6545 by the Byzantine calendar) about when the Saint Sophia Cathedral was erected. However some sources claim that the gates stood some time before that like for example the painting of Jan Matejko where he depicts both Bolelaw Chrobry and Sviatopolk I entering the city during the Kiev succession crisis in 1018. This version currently is being considered as a legend. Originally named as simply the Southern gates they were one of the three main gates of the city fortification with other being called: Lyadski and Zhydivski (meaning Lechitic and Jewish). The last two gates did not manage to survive. The stone fortifications stretched for only 3.5 km (~2.5 mi). The fortification of the Higher City (Fortress) stretched from the Southern Gates towards where today is the Maidan and where the Lechitic Gates (Polish Gate, Lackie wrota) were located. Then the moat was rising along where the Kostiol Street and "hugging" the St. Michael's Monastery and ran along the today's Zhytomyr Street towards the Zydowski Gates (at Lviv Square). From there the fortification stretched along the Yaroslaviv Val Street back towards the Southern Gates. Later the Southern gates began to be called as the Grand Gates before the construction of the golden-dome Blahovist Church (known as Church of the Annunciation) which was established in the close proximity to the gates and easily seen from the outside of the city. Since that time the gates were known as the Golden Gates of Kiev. The passing part of the gates was about 40 feet high and 20 feet wide. For almost half of millennium they served as the Triumph Arch of the city and were considered the major pride of the city's residents. It was reputedly modeled on the Golden Gate of Constantinople, from which it took its name. In 1832 the ruins were excavated and an initial survey for their conservation was undertaken. Further works in the 1970s added an adjacent pavilion, housing a museum of the gate. In 1982, the gate was completely reconstructed for the 1500th anniversary of Kiev, although there is no solid evidence as to what the original gates looked like. Some art historians called for this reconstruction to be demolished and for the ruins of the original gate to be exposed to public view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate,_Kiev

When Elvis Presley purchased Graceland in 1957, the music gates were not a part of the property. Designed for Elvis by Abe Saucer and custom by John Dillars, Jr., of Memphis Doors, Inc., the custom music gates were delivered and installed on April 22, 1957. See pictures at: http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1957_april_22.html

Mirandize \muh-RAN-dyze\ verb to recite the Miranda warnings to (a person under arrest) "You have the right to remain silent . . . ." These seven words typically begin the notification that police recite during an arrest to inform a suspect of his or her rights while in custody. The law requiring this recitation stemmed from a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision (_Miranda v. Arizona_) in which the court overturned the conviction of Ernesto A. Miranda on charges of rape and kidnapping. The court had determined that Miranda confessed to the crime without being informed that he could remain silent during questioning. The list of rights that must be recited to a suspect during an arrest subsequently became known as "the Miranda warnings." And in the 1980s, the verb "Mirandize" began appearing in print. http://osdir.com/ml/culture.language.word-of-the-day/2003-08/msg00029.html

On February 2, 2012 Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group David M. Rubenstein unveiled the newly restored and encased 1297 Magna Carta, which is on loan to the American people by Mr. Rubenstein. The National Archives partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on the exacting design and fabrication of the encasement. The ten month conservation treatment of the Magna Carta was conducted in three phases. First, the two conservator treatment team examined the document carefully and wrote a treatment proposal of steps to remove old repairs and adhesive and to fill losses with stable materials. With the treatment proposal approved, the conservators applied moisture which allowed for the successful removal of fills, some older repairs, and adhesive residues on the parchment. Then the team removed previous repairs, inserted fills and adhesive residues, and finally filled losses in the parchment and the parchment tag supporting the wax seal. New fills of long-fibered Japanese and Korean papers toned to match the parchment were applied to the losses using a mixture of gelatin and wheat starch paste. Finally, the document was carefully humidified and then dried and flattened for a number of months to ensure that it would remain flat when sealed in the encasement. All the materials used in the conservation treatment are chemically-stable and all of the treatments are reversible. Building on NARA requirements and earlier research and development performed prior to the manufacturing of the Charters of Freedom encasements, the team sealed the new encasement with double O-rings, creating a pressure of 300 pounds per linear inch along the O-ring groove. The encasement is filled with an atmosphere of 99% high-purity argon, 1% high-purity helium, and an initial oxygen concentration of 1 part per million. The interior humidity ranges from ca. 40 to 42% relative humidity, depending on the temperature of the display area. Magna Carta rests in its new encasement on specially made cotton paper produced at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. The unbleached white paper behind the translucent parchment enhances its visual appearance. It also provides a soft acid-free surface between the document and the perforated metal plate below and helps stabilize the humidity within the encasement. http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2012/nr12-56.html

On April 18, the Supreme Court reminded us that diction matters, unanimously ruling that by using the word “individual” rather than “person,” a federal statute limited liability for torture committed overseas to individuals, not to the organizations that employ them. But the opinion http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-88.pdf itself shows that even the most punctilious organizations — say, the Supreme Court — can sometimes err when selecting their words. The ruling referred to one of the defendants as the Palestinian Liberation Organization — although the PLO’s actual name in English, as the briefs and lower court opinion correctly put it, is Palestine Liberation Organization. At least three individuals involved in publishing the opinion made that error: Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the court’s opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer, who filed a concurrence, and the court’s reporter of decisions, Christine Fallon, who prepared the syllabus, all used Palestinian instead of Palestine. The seven other justices all saw the final opinion before adding their names, if regular procedures were followed, as would have dozens of law clerks and other functionaries before the opinion was printed and distributed to the public Wednesday morning. A Supreme Court spokeswoman, when informed of the matter, said it was a typographical error and would be corrected for the record. In an 1857 case, the court inserted an extraneous letter in the name of respondent John F.A. Sanford. Of course, that was the least of the errors in the case that remains on the books as Dred Scott v. Sandford. Jess Bravin http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/04/18/a-supreme-typo/

On April 22, more than one billion people around the globe will participate in Earth Day 2012 and help Mobilize the Earth™. Link to history of Earth Day and Earth Day archives at: http://www.earthday.org/2012

Finding Good Writing Mentors by Bryan A. Garner Marvin Sloman was a painstaking writer. He believed that every word mattered and that there was a right word for every place on the page. Even with his most trusted colleagues—in a firm full of careful legal writers—he would ponder the critical sentences in a brief and change a word or two that could make a tremendous difference. He would change “weak” to “feeble,” “insistent” to “adamant,” “questionable” to “discredited,” and “go back on” to “renege.” He habitually tightened and brightened the texts he would edit. No detail escaped his eye. http://www.michbar.org/journal/pdf/pdf4article2001.pdf

Find Michigan Bar Journal's Plain Language columns indexed from May 1984 to March 2012 at: http://www.michbar.org/generalinfo/plainenglish/columns.cfm

In English, the letter Q is usually 'followed by' the letter U, but there are some exceptions. The majority of these are anglicised from Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Inuktitut, or other languages which do not use the English alphabet, with Q representing a sound not found in English. Find a list of these words at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_containing_Q_not_followed_by_U

Word without vowels that you can use in Scrabble and other word games: http://wordswithoutvowels.com/

Ohio's 9th congressional district has been represented by Representative Marcia C. Kaptur (D) since 1983. This district is in the northern part of the state, bordering Michigan and Ontario, Canada (via Lake Erie), and includes the counties of Erie, Lorain, Lucas, and Ottawa. Following the 2010 state elections, the 9th district absorbed part of Cuyahoga County pitting 10th district Democratic incumbent Dennis Kucinich against Kaptur in the 2012 Democratic primary. The new 9th district has been called "The Mistake by the Lake" and one of the "Top 5 Ugliest Districts" due to gerrymandering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio's_9th_congressional_district

Olefin fiber is a synthetic fiber made from a polyolefin, such as polypropylene or polyethylene. It is used in wallpaper, ropes, and vehicle interiors. Olefin's advantages are its strength, colourfastness and comfort, stain, mildew, abrasion and sunlight resistance, and good bulk and cover. Italy began production of olefin fibers in 1957. The chemist Giulio Natta successfully formulated olefin suitable for more textile applications. U.S. production of olefin fibers began in 1960. Olefin fibers account for 16% of all manufactured fibers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olefin_fiber

Originally, manufactured fibers were created to mimic more expensive natural fibers like wool and silk. Today, manufactured fibers are engineered specifically to have certain properties that natural fibers don’t. Manufactured fibers come in two primary types: cellulosic, which are plant-based, and petroleum-based. So, yes, some manufactured fibers do in fact originate from plants. In the manufacturing process the plants are broken down into chemical solutions which are then forced through tiny holes to make filaments, much like a silkworm extrudes a liquid that hardens into filament. Here are some common cellulosic-based fabrics and their qualities: Viscose is the generic name for Rayon, which is its brand name. Chemically, Viscose resembles cotton, but it can also take on many different qualities depending on how it is manufactured. It is strong, absorbent, soft, comfortable to wear (especially in hot climates, since it doesn’t retain heat), inexpensive, and it drapes nicely. Acetate has excellent drape, feels and looks similar to silk, is comfortable to wear in all seasons, doesn’t shrink much, and resists moths and mildew. Lyocell, more commonly known by its brand name Tencel, is soft and absorbent, strong, takes dyes nicely, drapes well, and is resistant to wrinkles and shrinkage. And you may have guessed by now that bamboo is also a manufactured fiber. There has been quite a bit of controversy over this fiber recently because it was initially touted as an environmentally friendly natural fiber with bacteria-resistance, moisture wicking capabilities, biodegradeability, and sustainable qualities. Unfortunately, however, many of these beneficial qualities are actually lost during the chemical manufacturing process. If you would like to learn more about bamboo fibers and the controversy surrounding them, you can review this FTC Consumer Alert http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt160.shtm Liesl Gibson Read more at: http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/plant-based-or-cellulosic-fibers-used-for-manufacturing-fabric

The two big players in the punctuation field are the period and the comma. I’ll start with the latter because the protocol for comma use is so complicated and contingent. In the 19th century and earlier (when rules were generally more lax than they are today), comma use was pretty much a crapshoot. That is, writers rolled one in when they felt like it, which was usually when a natural pause seemed to occur. So in the first line of “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), Jane Austen wrote: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” By about a century later, comma rules had been codified such that both commas in the sentence (after “acknowledged” and “fortune”) would be dispensed with. You can glimpse a reason for this codification — which emphasized consistency rather than sound — by looking at the opening of the Second Amendment of the Constitution (1789): A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. There are three commas. The one after “state” would be used today; the one after “arms” would not; the one after “militia” is ambiguous; and all three have caused a world of hurt, confusion and argumentation over the last 223 years. As Adam Freedman wrote in this newspaper in 2007, a Federal District Court ruling invalidating the District of Columbia’s gun ban (subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court) held that “the second comma divides the amendment into two clauses: one ‘prefatory’ and the other ‘operative.’ On this reading, the bit about a well-regulated militia is just preliminary throat clearing; the framers don’t really get down to business until they start talking about ‘the right of the people … shall not be infringed.’” More generally, the funky comma protocol muddies the crucial link between the importance of militias and the right of people to bear arms. Ben Yagoda http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/fanfare-for-the-comma-man/

The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is well-known for having a big heart. In a couple of years, it’ll be recognized for its brain, too. The museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has broken ground on a large expansion that will include an exhibit featuring a giant walk-through brain, which will serve as the modern-day foil to the beloved walk-through heart built in the 1950s. The museum expansion — the largest since its founding in 1824 — will also add a conference center, classroom space and new galleries for traveling exhibits, according to Franklin Institute officials. The “Your Brain” exhibit will be the centerpiece of a 53,000-square-foot addition scheduled to open in the summer of 2014. The high-tech brain will be very different from the decidedly low-tech “Giant Heart,” a plaster and papier-mache creation that invites visitors to follow the same path that blood circulates in their own tickers as a recorded heartbeat plays from embedded speakers. Created as a temporary exhibit in 1954, it became a permanent fixture due to its instant and persistent popularity. http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20120407/NEWS01/304070035/Franklin-Institute-has-brainy-idea

As Zach Bodish traced his usual route through the thrift store last week, passing the metal shelves of castaway posters and photographs, one word caught his eye. Picasso. It was on a framed poster, alongside a crudely etched face and a French phrase advertising a 1958 exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work. Bodish, who figured it was a nice reproduction, paid the $14.14 price at the Volunteers of America in Clintonville and went home. But as the 46-year-old University District resident researched the piece online, he noticed a red scribble in the corner of his thrift-store find, the same place where Picasso penned a scarlet signature on some original versions. The print could sell for up to $6,000 at auction, or twice that if sold at a gallery, said Todd Weyman, vice president of Swann Auction Galleries in New York City. After analyzing photos of Bodish’s version, he was confident that both the print and signature are authentic: “It looks right as rain to me.” The work is a linocut, meaning Picasso carved a design into linoleum that then was pressed with ink onto paper. It has all the telltale signs of an artist’s proof, those copies that artists approve before mass production, said Ohio State University history of art professor Lisa Florman, who wrote a 2000 book on Picasso’s prints. Penciled on Bodish’s print is 6/100 and the French phrase meaning original print, signed proof. “It’s one that the artist looked at carefully, not one of the subsequent, in this case, 94 that were just run off by a printer,” Florman said, adding that lower numbers are more valuable. Picasso was asked to create the poster for a 1958 Easter exhibit of his ceramic work in Vallauris, in southern France, Florman said. Collin Binkley http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/03/28/possible-signed-picasso-print-bought-at-thrift-store.html

Words are competing daily in an almost Darwinian struggle for survival, according to new research from scientists in which they analysed more than 10 million words used over the last 200 years. Drawing their material from Google's huge book-digitisation project, an international team of academics tracked the usage of every word recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew over the 209-year period between 1800 and 2008. The scientists, who include Boston University's Joel Tenenbaum and IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies' Alexander Petersen, said their study shows that "words are competing actors in a system of finite resources", and just as financial firms battle for market share, so words compete to be used by writers or speakers, and to then grab the attention of readers or listeners. There has been a "drastic increase in the death rate of words" in the modern print era, the academics discovered. They attributed it to the growing use of automatic spellcheckers, and stricter editing procedures, wiping out misspellings and errors. "Most changes to the vocabulary in the last 10 to 20 years are due to the extinction of misspelled words and nonsensical print errors, and to the decreased birth rate of new misspelled variations and genuinely new words," the scientists write in Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death, February 16, 2012. http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.3707v2.pdf "The words that are dying are those words with low relative use. But it is not only "defective" words that die: sometimes words are driven to extinction by aggressive competitors. The word "Roentgenogram", for example, deriving from the discoverer of the x-ray, William Röntgen, was widely used for several decades in the 20th century, but, challenged by "x-ray" and "radiogram", has now fallen out of use entirely. X-ray had beaten off its synonyms by 1980, speculate the academics, owing to its "efficient short word length" and since the English language is generally used for scientific publication. " Alison Flood http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/21/why-words-are-dying

Federal Reserve Beige Book SUMMARY OF COMMENTARY ON CURRENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS BY FEDERAL RESERVE DISTRICTS APRIL 2012 Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that the economy continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace from mid-February through late March. Activity in the Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco Districts grew at a moderate pace, while Cleveland and St. Louis cited modest growth. New York reported that economic growth picked up somewhat. Philadelphia and Richmond cited improving business conditions. The economy in Minneapolis grew at a solid pace and Kansas City’s economy expanded at a faster pace. Manufacturing continued to expand in most Districts, with gains noted in automotive and high-technology industries. Manufacturers in many Districts expressed optimism about near-term growth prospects, but they are somewhat concerned about rising petroleum prices. Demand for professional business services showed modest to strong growth and freight volume was mainly higher. Reports on retail spending were positive, with the unusually warm weather being credited for boosting sales in several Districts. Read the 61-page report at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/fullreport20120411.pdf

With the recent rise in gasoline and diesel fuel prices, many consumers have questions about what contributes to the price they pay for these products at the retail pump. While crude oil prices, refining costs, and distribution and marketing expenses account for a significant portion of the final retail price, taxes also explain an appreciable portion of that price, accounting for 10-13% of total retail prices in 2011. State-level taxes on motor fuels vary widely, ranging from less than 10 cents per gallon to a high of over 43 cents per gallon. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the average for state excise and sales taxes on gasoline for on-highway use is nearly 25 cents per gallon, as of January 2012. State-level excise and sales taxes are only part of overall gasoline taxation—gasoline is also taxed at the federal level and by localities and districts within states. Federal taxes on gasoline have been unchanged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1997. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=5790

The Lyrid meteor shower is not one of the strongest of the annual meteor showers, but it can be enjoyable to those meteor observers thirsting for something after over three and a half months of weak meteor activity. The Lyrids generally begin on April 16 and end on April 26, with maximum generally occurring during the night of April 21/22. At maximum, hourly rates can reach about 10 meteors per hour. The Lyrids are particularly interesting for two reason. First, observations have been identified back to at least 2600 years, which is longer than any other meteor shower. Second, the meteor shower occasionally experiences an outburst of about 100 meteors per hour and the reason is basically unknown. See location and history of the Lyrids at: http://meteorshowersonline.com/lyrids.html

The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is a 7th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin. It was placed in the tomb of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, probably a few years after he died in 687. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to survive, and both the 94 vellum folios and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of this age. It is thought that after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England by Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, the book passed to collectors. It was eventually given to Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit school in Lancashire. From 1979 it was on long-term loan from the British province of the Jesuit order to the British Library, catalogued as Loan 74. On 14 July 2011 the British Library launched a fundraising campaign to buy the book for £9m (US$14.3m), and on 17 April 2012 announced that the purchase had been completed and the book was now British Library Additional MS 89000. The library plans to display the Gospel for equal amounts of time in London and Durham. They describe the manuscript as "the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world's most significant books". With a page size of only 138 by 92 millimetres (5.4 × 3.6 in) the St Cuthbert Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The essentially undecorated text is the Gospel of John in Latin, written in a script that has been regarded as a model of elegant simplicity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cuthbert_Gospel

A temporary cathedral made from cardboard will be built in Christchurch to replace the historic Anglican building destroyed in last year's earthquakes, Church officials said April 16. The spire of the original cathedral, a symbol of the New Zealand city, collapsed in the February 2011 quake that killed 185 people and the structure was condemned after sustaining more damage during tremors in June and December. The Church unveiled plans Monday to erect a temporary cathedral designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban by the end of the year, describing it as a "symbol of hope" for the shattered city, which is still struggling to rebuild.
Costing NZ$4.5 million ($3.7 million) and capable of seating 700 people, the cathedral will be made from cardboard tubes, timber beams and structural steel on a concrete pad. Ban has previously built cardboard and paper structures following earthquakes in Japan's Kobe, L'Aquila in Italy, and Haiti, although the A-frame cathedral is his largest so far. "The strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material," he said. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGaCBRiY2ktoUP41nsflrsb3Luhw?docId=CNG.00b32a84b8245bf213f6cd8ff1a9e51b.7f1

Inspired by the successful 1987 Year of the Reader program, the 1989 YYR project promoted activities with public service announcements featuring actor LeVar Burton acting as "host/spokesperson" and camera-ready logos with the slogan, "Give Us Books, Give Us Wings." The Library of Congress issued kid-size four-color "Readin' and Rollin' " T-shirts. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-05/books/bk-546_1_young-reader

Evolution of a Logo The Center for the Book's distinctive "Books Give Us Wings" logo was inspired by a statement in Paul Hazard's "Books, Children & Men" (1944). It first appeared on a 1989 refrigerator magnet and was condensed for the 1991 "Lifetime Reader" campaign, and presented two themes simultaneously ("Books Change Lives" and "Explore New Worlds—Read!") in 1992 before it settled into its present form. See four logos at: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0212/cfb2.html

The Library of Congress Gets its Wings It’s quite uplifting, in an Internet kind of way, that one of the most progressive, enriching and engaging content-driven web sites belongs to a 200-year-old American Government institution, the Library of Congress (LOC). In case you have never been, start at the Digital Collections landing page and click, just click — see you back here tomorrow. The LOC, founded in 1800, “is the largest library in the world, with nearly 142 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 32 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 5.6 million pieces of sheet music and 62 million manuscripts.” Housed in Washington, D.C. across three buildings, the LOC is open to the public — 1.6 million annually — making its books available for reading on site only. See "before" and "after" logos at: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/the_librabry_of_congress_gets_its_wings.php

When the Titanic began sending out distress signals, the Californian, rather than the Carpathia, was the closest ship; yet the Californian did not respond until it was much too late to help. At 12:45 a.m. on April 15, 1912, crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky (the distress flares sent up from the Titanic) and woke up their captain to tell him about it. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders. Since the ship's wireless operator had already gone to bed, the Californian was unaware of any distress signals from the Titanic until the morning, but by then the Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/titanicfacts.htm

See chart of Routes Across the Atlantic of Four Ships: Titanic, Carpathia, Californian and Mount Temple at: http://www.glts.org/articles/halpern/1235_ats_carpathia.html

After the Titanic disaster, recommendations were made by both the British and American Boards of Inquiry stating, in part, that ships would carry enough lifeboats for those aboard, mandated lifeboat drills would be implemented, lifeboat inspections would be conducted, etc. Many of these recommendations were incorporated into the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea passed in 1914. The United States government passed the Radio Act of 1912. This act stated that radio communications on passenger ships would be operated 24 hours along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. Also, the Radio Act of 1912 required ships to maintain contact with vessels in their vicinity as well as coastal onshore radio stations. In addition, it was agreed in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea that the firing of red rockets from a ship must be interpreted as a distress signal. The U.S. Navy assigned the Scout Cruisers Chester and USS Birmingham (CL-2) to patrol the Grand Banks for the remainder of 1912. In 1913, the United States Navy could not spare ships for this purpose, so the Revenue Cutter Service (forerunner of the United States Coast Guard) assumed responsibility, assigning the Cutters Seneca and Miami to conduct the patrol. The Titanic disaster led to the convening of the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in London, on 12 November 1913. On 30 January 1914, a treaty was signed by the conference that resulted in the formation and international funding of the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the United States Coast Guard that to the present day monitors and reports on the location of North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could pose a threat to transatlantic sea traffic. Following the Titanic disaster, ships were refitted for increased safety. For example, the double bottoms of many existing ships, including the RMS Olympic, were extended up the sides of their hulls, above their waterlines, to give them double hulls. Another refit that many ships underwent were changes to the height of the bulkheads. The bulkheads on Titanic extended 10 feet (3 m) above the waterline. After the Titanic sank, the bulkheads on other ships were extended higher to make the compartments fully watertight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_in_safety_practices_following_the_RMS_Titanic_disaster

Keith Haring (1958-1990) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Kutztown. During his all-too-brief life, Keith Haring became a sensation in the art world with his bold, cartoon and graffiti influenced works during the 1980s. He spent many hours drawing with his father and was fascinated by the popular cartoon art of Walt Disney and Charles Schultz. In 1982, Haring had his first New York one-man show at the Shafrazi Gallery. Not only did he create paintings and sculptures for the show, he engulfed the entire gallery with his bold color choices and frenetic designs. A critical success, he soon became one of most popular artists of the time with exhibits in Japan, Brazil, and many other countries. Haring collaborated with other artists and performers, including Andy Warhol and William Burroughs. http://www.biography.com/people/keith-haring-246006

No-knead bread--recipe and video: http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/

Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough – Popeye Pizza http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-popeye-pizza/

While an undergraduate at Princeton, John Dabiri spent a summer at the California Institute of Technology, filming jellyfish at a nearby aquarium and trying to write mathematical models to describe their movement. After graduating with degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering, he headed to Caltech for good. Dabiri earned his Ph.D. there in 2005 and became a tenured professor before age 30. Along the way, Dabiri, a native of Toledo, Ohio. unraveled some of the mysteries of the jellyfish and how they propel themselves by creating whirling vortexes in the water. The U.S. Navy is funding development of underwater craft that employ his mathematical models to move using 30 percent less energy than existing options. Dabiri says his goal is “to tap the inexhaustible supply of inspiration found in nature” in the name of innovation. At the moment, he’s applying a lot of his findings to renewable energy. “He was the first person to think of” modeling wind farms on fish schools, says Alexander Smits, one of Dabiri’s engineering professors at Princeton. “It’s a game-changer.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/john-dabiri-unlocks-the-mysteries-of-jellyfish

Epsom salts are made up of a naturally occurring mineral that is found in water. More properly known as magnesium sulfate, Epsom salts derives its popular name from the town of Epsom, England, where the compound was first distilled from water. The chemical formula for Epsom salts is a rather simplistic one: MgS04-7H2O. Epsom salts are easily obtained at any drug store or supermarket. Inexpensive and versatile, the salts can be used for a number of different applications around the home. Many of the applications have to do with expediting healing, as well as improving the quality of the skin and helping with basic grooming. Perhaps the most popular application is the Epsom salts bath used to relieve stress. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-epsom-salts.htm

WHATEVER happened to the “paperless office”? Thirty years ago the rise of computers was hailed as the beginning of the paperless-office era. In a 1980 briefing in The Economist entitled “Towards the paperless office”, we recommended that businesses trying to improve productivity should “reduce the flow of paper, ultimately aiming to abolish it”. Since then, alas, global paper consumption has increased by half. The average American uses the paper equivalent of almost six 40-foot (12-metre) trees a year. In Belgium paper consumption is pushed up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, which must produce its documentation in an array of different languages. See chart showing number of trees "consumed" per person each year at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-0

The man on the front of Quaker Oats, known as Larry to insiders, has gotten a makeover. According to the Wall street Journal, his hair is slightly shorter and he has less of a second chin. They also made him appear younger with a more pronounced jaw line and broader shoulders. PepsiCo, the parent company of Quaker, said they wanted Larry to reinforce the idea that oatmeal is a healthy option, so in addition to the haircut they had its artist give him the appearance of “looking five pounds thinner.” It isn’t the first company to give its logo a health makeover. Morton Salt’s “Umbrella Girl” has gotten noticeably thinner overtime and Betty Crocker looks more youthful than ever.
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/03/quaker-oats-logo-gets-a-makeover/

The following story was sent by longtime reader Jeff Fort, whose great-uncle is Charles Hartman, and whose father, Ted wrote the note at the bottom of the article. In 1912 Charles Hartman, only a few months past his 11th birthday, relayed a wireless message to the editor of the Millville (N.J.) Daily. He told that the Titanic was sinking in the Atlantic and the messages were coming from the Carpathia, the ship that was eventually credited with saving many of the 700 survivors. The wireless was new, and the message he gave could have been a scoop, but the call to the editor was ignored. Hartman busied himself through the years. He had put together a television before RCA. He drew maps and at one time had a collection numbering more than 35,000, which is now at Rutgers University. Excerpt of an article from The Press, Atlantic City, N.J., September 26, 1985 Note at bottom of copy: "Charles Hartman was my mother's older brother. Ted"

On a March evening in Brooklyn, Donatella Madrigal is standing at a Vandercook Universal press, wiping her ink-stained hands on a denim apron. She has just run off several hundred greeting cards, which she’ll sell online and in neighborhood gift shops for up to $5 apiece. By day, the Madrid-born 27-year-old is a graphic artist who designs ads for clients such as Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics, working mostly on a computer. In the evenings, she goes analog, printing cards at The Arm Letterpress, a former garage filled with vintage printing presses rented out by the hour to artisans. In the past decade, letterpress printers have grown into a thriving community. Many of the most devoted members are graphic designers who, like Madrigal, are seeking an alternative to their digital day jobs. “It’s almost like artisanal breadmaking,” says Sarah Schwartz, editor of Stationery Trends magazine, a trade publication. “People are returning to things done by hand, and it’s a very tactile art form.” The market for letterpress items has resisted the downturn in luxury goods that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Kate’s Paperie, an upscale Manhattan stationer, says letterpress products jumped to 44 percent of sales last year from 33 percent in 2010. Etsy, the website that hosts online stores for handmade goods, listed over 22,000 letterpress items in early April, more than triple the number a year earlier. The Arm Letterpress is the creation of Dan Morris, whose great-grandfather was a printer in Ohio. Morris studied art and architecture in Australia before apprenticing to a letterpress printer in Baltimore. Fourteen years ago, he paid $285 for his first Vandercook, a mid-20th century model considered the Cadillac of hand-cranked letterpresses. The same machines sell for $10,000 today. The decline of the letterpress began at the end of the 19th century, when linotype machines allowed printers to set type as fast as they could tap at a keyboard. By the early 1890s, the country’s remaining type manufacturers had consolidated into a single company, American Type Founders, says Morris, whose bookshelves are lined with type catalogs from the early 20th century. Letterpress managed to hold on through the advent of offset printing, the Xerox machine, and the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Canon. “These presses can last 100 years, and some of my best presses were only built in the 1960s,” Morris says. “As long as there are people who know how to use it, there will be letterpress.”
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/the-letterpress-thrives-in-an-ipad-age?section=small-business

As the national economy continues to struggle toward recovery from the Great Recession, 2011 was a year of grim headlines. The federal Library of Congress lost about 9% of its budget and 10% of its workforce. Detroit, a city in fiscal crisis, agonized all year over how many library branches to close. What became clear through it all was that amid the shifting winds of an economic storm, libraries continue to transform lives, adapting to and adopting new and emerging technologies, and experimenting with innovative and transformational ideas to provide services that empower patrons. The public libraries in many major U.S. cities continue to see circulation rise, with Seattle leading the way with a whopping 50% increase in the past six years. The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increased demand for them in libraries. Nationwide, 90% of libraries are making ebooks available to the public, and availability and use are up. But libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by the nation‘s largest publishers. Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster have refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin refused to let libraries lend its new titles at all. Find the 68-page report at: http://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/StateofAmericasLibrariesReport2012.pdf

Libraries are technology hubs that thousands turn to and depend on for resources, including free computer and software workshops, employment databases and free access to digital media. Communities across the U.S. will celebrate the valuable contributions of our nation’s libraries during National library Week, April 8 – 14. This year’s National Library Week theme is “You belong @ your library,” and libraries will offer programs and services that showcase technology and educational resources. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/you-belong-your-library-libraries-transform-lives-through-technological-literacy

Gray hair is cropping up on runways, at work and in an age bias suit pending in Texas federal court. Gray is becoming more fashionable, but 44-year-old Washington, D.C., civil rights lawyer David Scher doesn’t think workplaces will be transformed, the Associated Press reports. "I think women in the workplace are highly pressured to look young. If I were an older working person, the last thing I would do is go gray." The hair color is an issue in an age bias suit pending in Houston federal court. Sandra Rawline, 52, says that she was fired after she refused her boss’s order to dye her gray hair. Rawline, who was working as a branch manager and escrow agent at Capital Title of Texas, claims her boss also ordered her to wear “younger fancy suits” and lots of jewelry. Her replacement was 10 years younger, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. http://www.chron.com/business/sixel/article/Manager-claims-boss-asked-her-to-dye-gray-hair-2080057.php http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/is_gray_ok_on_the_job_civil_rights_lawyer_sees_risks_plaintiff_claims_bias/

Would-be heroes of ancient Greece used harsh soaps and bleaches to lighten and redden their hair to the color that was identified with honor and courage. First-century Romans preferred dark hair, which was made so by a dye concocted from boiled walnuts and leeks. Today, hair color remains hot, with a booming 75 percent of American women reportedly coloring their hair. (In 1950, only about 7 percent of American women colored their hair.) Red is currently the most requested color at beauty salons. Men increasingly cover gray or, following the female lead, completely change their look. http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/hair-coloring.htm

The Law Library of Congress has published TRANSLATION OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION INTO ENGLISH March 2012 Global Legal Research Center LL File No. 2012-007612 for Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and Russia, International Organizations and International Courts. This is a finding tool, an annotated bibliography rather than translations. http://www.loc.gov/law/find/national-legislation/pdfs/2012-007612_RPT_website.pdf

Knowledge wins: public library books are free See the poster created by Dan Smith (1865-1934) at: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc443/

For Memorial Day, a World War I poster from our collection of world war posters: "Knowledge Wins...Public Library Books are Free". This is one of several posters commissioned by the American Library Association. This particular poster was designed by Daniel Stevens, an American illustrator originally from Philadelphia, who was best known for his depiction of Western Americana scenes. http://blogs.libraries.claremont.edu/sc/2009/05/knowledge-winsamerican-library.html Note the different names. Created by Dan Smith and designed by Daniel Stevens.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 10-10038 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 3:08-cr-00237- DAVID NOSAL, MHP-1 Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Marilyn H. Patel, Senior District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted December 15, 2011—San Francisco, California Filed April 10, 2012 KOZINSKI, Chief Judge: Computers have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. We use them for work; we use them for play. Sometimes we use them for play at work. Many employers have adopted policies prohibiting the use of work computers for nonbusiness purposes. Does an employee who violates such a policy commit a federal crime? How about someone who violates the terms of service of a social networking website? This depends on how broadly we read the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. See the 22-page opinion at: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/04/10/10-10038.pdf

A widely held belief, reported as fact in supposedly reliable reference books, is that the original Uncle Sam was one Sam Wilson, a meat packer in Troy, New York, who supplied rations to the U.S. military during the War of 1812. Wilson was a subcontractor to one Elbert Anderson, and the letters "E.A. — U.S." were stamped on all the pair's army-bound grub. On being asked what the letters stood for (the abbreviation U.S. supposedly was unfamiliar at the time), one of Sam's workers joshed that it stood for "Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam," meaning the jovial Wilson himself. The joke was quickly picked up by Wilson's other employees. Many of these men later served in the army during the war, and the story spread from there. This tale appears to have first found its way into print in 1842. Very neat, but is it true? On the surface it might seem so. Researchers have established that Elbert Anderson and Sam Wilson did exist and did supply meat to the government during the War of 1812. What's more, the earliest known reference to Uncle Sam in the sense of the U.S. government appeared in 1813 in the Troy Post. But there are reasons to doubt. For one thing, the Uncle Sam = Sam Wilson story didn't see print until 30 years after the event, which seems suspiciously tardy. Second, the notion that someone in 1812 would have to ask what "U.S." stood for is hard to swallow — the available evidence shows that the initials were then in common use. Third, there's something odd about the newspaper evidence. Sam Wilson was a leading citizen of Troy, New York. Yet none of the newspapers in his hometown seem to have had any knowledge of his connection to Uncle Sam until very late in the day. The 1813 reference in the Troy Post says nothing about Wilson, noting merely that "the letters U.S. on the government waggons, & are supposed to have given rise to [Uncle Sam]." In 1816 the Post reprinted a story from Philadelphia claiming that Uncle Sam originated in the initials USLD, meaning United States Light Dragoons, a regiment of which had been formed in 1807. The account said that on being asked what the USLD on their caps stood for, the soldiers said "Uncle Sam's Lazy Dogs." In 1817 the Post took up the matter again, this time reverting to the original explanation that Uncle Sam was simply a jocular expansion of the letters U.S. When Sam Wilson died in 1854, none of the newspaper obituaries by Troy writers mentioned the Uncle Sam connection. So where did Uncle Sam originate? Nobody knows for sure, but it's likely the original explanation in the Troy Post was correct: there was never an actual Uncle Sam; instead the name was just a wiseguy expansion of the initials U.S. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/621/whats-the-origin-of-uncle-sam

On September 15, 1961, the 87th Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution: The bill saluted the "strength and idealism that characterized the life of Samuel Wilson" and recognized Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of the American national symbol Uncle Sam. The bill was signed by President John F. Kennedy. Also, the New York State legislature passed a resolution recognizing Samuel Wilson as Uncle Sam and Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared his birthday, September 13, Uncle Sam Day. President Ronald Reagan designated September 13 as Uncle Sam Day, and the resolution was passed on November 9th, 1988. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8601

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer

The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit was the territorial capital. Michigan Territory was established by an act of the United States Congress on January 11, 1805, effective June 30 of that year. The act defined the territory as "all that part of the Indiana Territory, which lies North of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan, until it shall intersect lake Erie, and East of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." A historical marker at a roadside park, approximately three miles east of Naubinway at
46°05′50″N 85°23′51″W46.09722°N 85.3975°W commemorates the northernmost point of Lake Michigan, which is located approximately one mile west of the park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Territory

The first wave of migrants into Iowa were the Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox, driven there by the US Army, which was clearing Wisconsin and Illinois of their Indian populations to make way for white farmers . Although President Andrew Jackson had intended that Louisiana Territory lying north of Missouri should forever be Indian land, the occupation of Iowa by the Indians was brief. Following the abortive attempt by an aging Sauk chieftain, Black Hawk, to win his lands in Illinois, the Sauk and Fox were driven westward in 1832 and forced to cede their lands in eastern Iowa to the incoming white settlers. Placed under the territorial jurisdiction of Michigan in 1834, and then two years later under the newly created Territory of Wisconsin, Iowa became a separate territory in 1838. The first territorial governor, Robert Lucas, extended county boundaries and local government westward, planned for a new capital city to be located on the Iowa River, resisted Missouri's attempt to encroach on Iowa territory, and began planning for statehood by drawing boundary lines that included not only the present State of Iowa but also southern Minnesota up to present-day Minneapolis.
http://www.city-data.com/states/Iowa-History.html

Robert Lucas (1781–1853) was the 12th Governor of the U.S. state of Ohio, serving from 1832 to 1836. He served as the first Governor of Iowa Territory from 1838 to 1841. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lucas_(governor)

Free resources from the Federal Trade Commission
Money Matters http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/moneymatters/index.html offers short, practical tips, videos, and links to reliable sources on a variety of topics in English and Spanish, ranging from credit repair, debt collection, job hunting, and job scams to vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments, and avoiding foreclosure rescue scams.
Free Annual Credit Reports http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml offers details about a consumer's right to a free copy of his or her credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies, upon request, once every 12 months. Reviewing one's credit report regularly is an effective way to deter and detect identity theft. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/04/financialmonth.shtm

Rube Goldberg machines make accomplishing a simple task — like putting a stamp on an envelope — an over-engineered marathon of moving parts. This year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held at Purdue University featured one of the most complex contraptions yet: The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers created a machine that blew up and popped a balloon in a winding 300 steps, breaking the team’s own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine. Based on the work of famous American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, there’s no shortage of elaborate Rube Goldberg machines. But none are more complex — in terms of total sequenced steps — than the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers’ latest creation. A 14-person team made up of Purdue undergraduates and one graduate student spent some 5,000 hours over six months designing and building the new record-breaking contraption. Link to more information and the video at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/record-breaking-rube-goldberg-machine-pops-balloon-in-300-steps/

French puisné becomes puny when it crosses the water to land in the English-speaking world. Petit turns petty. That's how words naturalize. They adapt to their new surroundings.
They lose their accent marks. They shed their silent letters. They drop markers of their previous lives when they enter the land of Anglophonia.
alley-oop (al-ee-OOP) Phonetic respelling of French allez-hop or allez-oop, cry of a circus performer about to leap. Earliest documented use: 1923.
kickshaw (KIK-shaw) fancy dish, delicacy, trinket.
From phonetic respelling of French quelque chose (something) as kickshaws which was treated as a plural and turned into the singular kickshaw. Earliest documented use: 1598.
toot sweet (toot sweet) Phonetic respelling of French tout de suite (at once, straight away). Earliest documented use: 1917.
parry (PAR-ee)
From French parez (ward off), imperative of parer (to ward off), from Latin parare (to set or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1655.
Mayday or mayday (MAY-day)
Mayday is an international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft to call for help. It's a phonetic respelling of French m'aidez (help me), from me (me) + aidez, imperative of aider (to help). Earliest documented use: 1927. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Dennis Zickerman Subject: alley-oop Def: interjection: Used as an exhortation or to signal the start of an activity; noun: basketball move. Also, in football, a long pass into the endzone, thrown on a high arc, allowing the receiver to leap higher than the defenders to catch the ball. Made famous by Joe Montana to R.C. Owens.
From: Maireaine Cohen Subject: Alley Oop Does anyone remember the old caveman comic strip? The caveman was named Alley Oop, and he rode on a dinosaur. There was also a novelty song in the early 60s of the same name, about the caveman character.
From: Janet Rizvi Subject: kickshaw Def: 1. A fancy dish; delicacy. 2. A trinket. Way back in the fifties, when perhaps I'd missed a supervision (Cambridge-speak for tutorial) for some reason or other, my supervisor sent me a note: 'Come on [day & time] armed with an essay on a subject of your choice. Knock up a dainty little kickshaw.' I've always cherished that.
From: Barbara Ulman Subject: toot sweet Def: Quickly; immediately.
Claude Bolling wrote a suite for trumpet, piano, and percussion named Toot Suite.
From: Viv Brown Subject: toot sweet Impossible to see this word without thinking of the wonderful song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Some great lyrics in this musical (loosely based on a story by Ian Fleming) from the Sherman Brothers:
"Don't waste your pucker on some all day sucker And don't try a toffee or cream
If you seek perfection in sugar confection Well there's something new on the scene
A mouth full of cheer A sweet without peer A musical morsel supreme!
Toot Sweets! Toot Sweets! The candies you whistle, the whistles you eat. Toot Sweets!
From: Dave Zobel subject: Mayday: Radio distress signals of the ancient Romans Def: A distress signal; a call for help. As a first-year Latin student, I was delighted to realize that the second-declension vocative "mee dee" (pron.: "may day") translates as "O my God!" As a second-year Latin student, I was heartbroken to discover that both "meus" and "deus" are irregular in the vocative, and thus "mee dee" translates as "Me no talking Latin so good."
From: Richard Stallman Subject: m'aidez There is something strange about "m'aidez": it's not the usual way to say "help me" in French. That would be "aidez-moi", the imperative. " M'aidez" is indicative, as in "Vous m'aidez beaucoup"; the subjunctive, which could be used in a command, would be "m'aidez", as in "Je veux que vous m'aidez." So why did "m'aidez" get used there? A number of readers raised this. Thanks to everyone who wrote. The English word mayday is a phonetic respelling not of m'aidez, but m'aider, which is a clipping of venez m'aider (come help me). -Anu Garg

In a potentially costly setback for Google, a federal appeals court on April 5 ruled that its YouTube video site must once again defend itself from a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood giant Viacom. The decision revives one of the most important Internet intellectual property cases of the last decade — a dispute that became a flashpoint in the ongoing struggle over copyright between big content companies and internet giants. The case dates back to March of 2007, less than a year after Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion. In its lawsuit, Viacom argued that YouTube’s explosive growth was based, in part, on users posting videos of Viacom’s programs, including South Park and The Daily Show. In its defense, Google argued that the DMCA protected YouTube from liablity because the site promptly takes down infringing content once it is notified. According to the DMCA, safe harbor protection applies if an Internet service provider like Youtube “responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing.” http://business.time.com/2012/04/06/federal-court-revives-landmark-1-billion-viacom-vs-youtube-case/

Monumental error On April 5, a tractor-trailer rig that turned from U.S. 24 onto River Road in Maumee, Ohio knocked over a monument and dragged it through two communities for 4 miles. "We are very fortunate it wasn't destroyed," Marilyn Wendler, curator of the Maumee Valley Historical Society, said of the monument. The marker at River Road and South Detroit Avenue in Maumee denotes the importance of the Great Trail, made by Native Americans before the French and Indian War, which extended from Detroit to Pittsburgh and was used by the French and British and by Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1812. The trail was regarded as the most important early route of the central west, according to the inscription on the marker that was erected in 1913 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, ¬Ursula Wolcott Chapter. Joe Camp, Maumee's director of public service, said the city has contacted Design Memorial of Maumee to assess the damage to engravings on the back of the marker before it determines how long the restoration would take. The concrete monument was chipped, but the front metal plate was intact. If the driver is cited in the incident, the bill will be turned over to his insurance company, Mr. Camp said. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/04/05/Semi-drags-monument-from-Maumee-to-South-Toledo.html

GOSHEN, N.Y. April 7, 2012— As Modernist buildings reach middle age, many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores. The conflict has come in recent months to this quaint village 60 miles north of New York City — with its historic harness-racing track, picturesque Main Street and Greek Revival, Federal and Victorian houses — where the blocky concrete county government center designed by the celebrated Modernist architect Paul Rudolph has always been something of a misfit. Edward A. Diana, the Orange County executive, wants to demolish it, an idea that has delighted many residents but alarmed preservationists, local and national, who say the building should be saved. The county legislature is expected to decide whether to demolish or renovate it next month. Those who want to save it call it a prime example of an architectural style called Brutalism that rejected efforts to prettify buildings in favor of displaying the raw power of simple forms and undisguised building materials, like the center’s textured facade. “Preservation is not simply about saving the most beautiful things,” said Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. “It’s about saving those objects that are an important part of our history and whose value is always going to be a subject of debate.” Rudolph, who died in 1997, was a prominent Modernist architect who also designed Yale’s Art and Architecture Building, among others. Architectural historians say the Goshen government center, which features protruding cubes and a corrugated concrete facade resembling corduroy, represents Rudolph at his best. But Mr. Benton, the county legislator, called it “a world monument to inefficiency.” Robin Pogrebin http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/arts/design/unloved-building-in-goshen-ny-prompts-debate-on-modernism.html

The Titanic's plunge into the frigid Atlantic was predicted several years before the disaster — not by an oracle or in a conspiracy theory but in seemingly innocuous works of fiction about shipwrecks. The most striking and prophetic example is The Sinking of a Modern Liner, written in 1886 by English journalist W.T. Stead. The story is eerily similar to the actual Titanic's ill-fated demise. In Stead's book, an ocean liner leaves Liverpool and while on a journey to New York City, becomes involved in a collision. In the ensuing panic, many passengers drown because there are too few lifeboats. In a strange twist of fate, Stead inadvertently foretold his own death in the book: he was onboard the Titanic when it sank in April 1912. Stead's book was not the only pseudo-supernatural foretelling of the Titanic tragedy. There was also Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, written in 1898 by American author Morgan Robertson. Here, a ship called the Titan is also deemed "unsinkable" but hits an ice shelf and does just that, sinking off the coast of Newfoundland, much akin to the Titanic. Read of other stories at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/titanic/story/2012/03/30/f-titanic-fiction-predictions.html

Traditionally, the April full moon is known as "the Pink Moon," supposedly as a tribute to the grass pink or wild ground phlox, considered one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other monikers include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and, among coastal Native American tribes, the Full Fish Moon, for when the shad came upstream to spawn. The origins of these names have been traced back to Native America, though they may also have evolved from old England. The first full moon of spring is usually designated as the Paschal Full Moon or the Paschal Term. Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon . If the Paschal Moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. Following these rules, we find that the date of Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Pope Gregory XIII decreed this in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar. Interestingly, these rules also state that the vernal equinox is fixed on March 21, despite the fact that from the years 2008 through 2101, at European longitudes it actually will occur no later than March 20. Adding additional confusion is that there is also an "ecclesiastical" full moon, determined from ecclesiastical tables, whose date does not necessarily coincide with the "astronomical" full moon, which is based solely on astronomical calculations. In 1981, for example, the full moon occurred on Sunday, April 19, so Easter should have occurred on the following Sunday, April 26. But based on the ecclesiastical full moon, it occurred on the same day of the astronomical full moon, April 19. Hence, there can sometimes be discrepancies between the ecclesiastical and astronomical versions for dating Easter. In the year 2038, for instance, the equinox will fall on March 20, with a full moon the next day, so astronomically speaking, Easter should fall on March 28 of that year. So in practice, the date of Easter is determined not from astronomical computations but rather from other formulae such as Golden Numbers. Joe Rao http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-moon-affects-the-date-of-easter

Full Moon Names and Their Meanings http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/