baseball and football times of action

By Wall Street Journal calculations, a baseball fan will see 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action over the course of a three-hour game.  This is roughly the equivalent of a TED Talk, a Broadway intermission or the missing section of the Watergate tapes.  A similar WSJ study on NFL games in January 2010 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html found that the average action time for a football game was 11 minutes.  Steve Moyer 

Read the  methods used for calculating actual playing time at:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323740804578597932341903720.html 

By combining the concepts of bookmobile and food truck, book-publisher Penguin Group (USA) recently introduced its first mobile bookstore.  The first bookmobiles were horse-drawn wagons.  Later, buses and delivery vans were converted into mobile libraries.  Food trucks have a long history in some communities, and recently have enjoyed more widespread popularity.  “We’re always looking for new ways to bring writers to readers, and this is one of those ways,” Glass said.  The truck is 27 feet long and contains 96 linear feet of display shelving.  Awnings, LED lighting, cafe tables and chairs provide sheltered browsing day or night.  The pushcart was inspired by the classic New York hotdog cart.  It also carries and displays books, and is covered with a pop-up umbrella.  The truck and pushcart made their debut at the recent Book Expo America, the annual convention of publishers, book store owners, authors and libraries in New York City.  Their next stop was “Tom Sawyer Day” at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., and then the American Library Association conference in Chicago.  The pushcart also will be at the Delecort Theater in New York’s Central Park for the 2013 season of Shakespeare in the Park.  In October, the truck and cart will help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” by traveling old Route 66 from Sallisaw, Okla., to Bakersfield, Calif., with several stops along the way.  Larry Edsall  http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130711/AUTO03/307110040 

Sending postcards did not appear out of thin air.  A number of innovations in the postal system in the preceding quarter of a century helped create this new postal age.  One such innovation was the introduction of uniform penny postage in Great Britain in 1840 that made mail delivery easy and affordable.  Previously, prices for shipping letters was based on the distance the mailman had to travel.  Fees were not collected up-front from the sender, but instead a surprised recipient would find a mailman on his or her doorstep, demanding payment.  Post offices had been hemorrhaging money through this system, for recipients would often refuse their mail and the postman would be sent away unpaid.  In 1837 Rowland Hill proposed that letters be charged by weight, not distance, and the fee be collected in advance from the sender.  This new procedure transformed the postal system.  Austria was the first country to publish the postcard, but not the first to conceive of it.  A few years earlier, German postal official Dr. Heinrich von Stephan submitted a proposal for such an object, which was fiercely debated and not executed in North Germany until July 1870, a year after Austria introduced the card to their country.  Within two years, the postcard had quickly spread across Europe.  The United States did not introduce officially issued postcards until 1873, two years after Canada and three years after most European countries, but unlike these countries, stamped cards had been allowed in American mail since 1861.  http://blog.library.si.edu/2009/09/the-history-of-postcards/ 

U.S. Postcard Postage Rate Changes from May 1, 1873 (1 cent) to January 22, 2012  (32 cents).   http://www.chicagopostcardmuseum.org/postage_rate_history.html 

The Phantom of the Opera, 1911, by Gaston Leroux is based on a vague folktale.  A fluke eleven years later set it on the road to immortality.  Leroux gave the book to the president of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle, who read it through in a single night.  He bought the rights, offered Lon Chaney the phantom part, and built a replica of the Paris Opera House.  The replica still stands today, and has been reused many times.  The actual Paris Opera House has an underground lake, where every two years the level is lowered.  It covers almost three acres of space, and is seventeen stories from deepest cellar to pinnacle of roof.  Ten stories are aboveground and seven stories underground.  The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth 

The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 British film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical of the same name,   Earlier films were made in 1925, 1943, 1962, 1974, 1983 and 1984.

The Web site I sent recently for historic photos at the Library of Congress no longer works.  You will find photos at:  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ 

More on 3D printers Feb. 20, 2013  3-D printing builds objects by piling up successive layers of material, hence its more technical moniker, “additive manufacturing.”  You start by designing your product on a computer screen with drafting software.  That design then goes through a program that slices it up, translating it into a stack of two-dimensional layers.  The printer constructs the object by depositing the first layer of material — such as molten plastic that hardens — and then another and another, gradually creating the desired shape.  As the printer head moves back and forth, your 3-D vision becomes reality.  While makers are leading the pack, some major companies, including Airbus, have also embraced the technology.  Because 3-D printing often eliminates the need for things like fasteners, printed products often weigh less than their traditionally manufactured counterparts.  Airbus has started printing some components of its cabins, and by 2050, the company hopes to print entire planes.  Governments have also taken note.  Last August, the Obama administration announced the launch of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, part of a larger effort to create a “manufacturing belt” in the nation.  The pilot institute, designated for Youngstown, Ohio, is funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the departments of Defense, Energy and Commerce.  It will support bringing additive manufacturing technologies into industrial and academic labs, as well as training programs for manufacturers to try out 3-D printing materials and machines.   Last year, engineers created a robotic exoskeleton for a 2-year-old girl with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a condition that makes it difficult for her to move on her own.  Now she can play with her toys and hug her mom.  Another engineer created a prosthetic beak for a bald eagle named Beauty, whose own beak was mangled when she was shot in the face.  Doctors and engineers are even experimenting with 3-D printing to create artificial cartilage, livers and kidneys.  Wohlers notes that more than 80,000 custom titanium parts for replacement hips have been printed.  A number of people have already printed gun parts; the collective Defense Distributed, led by University of Texas at Austin law student Cody Wilson, aims to create blueprints for a fully printable firearm and make those files widely available.  When MakerBot’s website Thingiverse removed weapon-related designs from its site last year, Defense Distributed created DEFCAD, where people can upload (and download) files for printing gun parts, such as a 30-round gun magazine and a grip for an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.  Guns aren’t the only printed items raising eyebrows:  At a hackers’ workshop last summer, a German security consultant unlocked two widely-used brands of police handcuffs with keys that he had made multiple copies of using a 3-D printer.  And scientists recently reported using a 3-D printer for making “reactionware,” customized polymer containers that make particular chemical reactions run with ease.  Rachel Ehrenberg   Read extensive article at:  http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/348429/description/The_3-D_Printing_Revolution

numbers and numerals

A number is an abstract concept while a numeral is a symbol used to express that number. 

See 10 rules for writing numbers and numerals at:  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-rules-for-writing-numbers-and-numerals/ 

A music score is the graphic representation of a work of musical art.  Notation itself is static, and a musical performance can be different depending on the artist's interpretation.  Brian Avey 

See how to write music scores at:  http://www.ehow.com/how_8175508_write-music-scores.html

If you read The Final Solution, a Story of Detection by Michael Chabon, it will help to know how to say one through ten in German.  See at:  http://www.wikihow.com/Count-to-10-in-German

Founded in Paris by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton in 1953, The Paris Review began with a simple editorial mission:  “Dear reader,” William Styron wrote in a letter in the inaugural issue, “The Paris Review hopes to emphasize creative work—fiction and poetry—not to the exclusion of criticism, but with the aim in mind of merely removing criticism from the dominating place it holds in most literary magazines and putting it pretty much where it belongs, i.e., somewhere near the back of the book.  I think The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders.  So long as they're good.”  Decade after decade, the Review has introduced the important writers of the day.  Adrienne Rich was first published in its pages, as were Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Mona Simpson, Edward P. Jones, and Rick Moody.   http://www.theparisreview.org/about/  
NOTE that Michael Chabon's novella, The Final Solution, appeared in the Paris Review in the Summer 2003 issue.   

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs provides services directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts to 564 federally recognized tribes with a service population of about 1.9 million American Indian and Alaska Natives.  http://www.doi.gov/governments/tribalgovernments.cfm

According to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, there are roughly 1,371,564 Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders who reside within the United States.  This group represents about 0.4 percent of the U.S. population.  Out of that number, about 341,000 Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders reside in Hawaii.  Some other states that have a significant Native Hawaiian/Pacific islander population are:  California, Washington, Texas, New York, Florida, and Utah. It is also significant to note that 35 percent of this group is under the age 18.  Read more at:  http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=71 

A faction is a blending of fact and fiction (as is the word itself).  The term is problematic because readers want to know which category a book falls into, and “faction” doesn’t provide that.  Of course, blending fact and fiction in literature isn’t all that uncommon, and authors often signal to readers very clearly what the book’s leanings are by sorting it out it in the preface, or by choosing a more precise label.  An historical novel, for example, is a fictional account of real events or real people.  Both literary nonfiction and the nonfiction novel dramatize real events and real people, but—in theory, at least—stick close to reality.  Still, even these attempts to clarify can create questions and, at times, controversy, the root of which is found in the ambiguity of where the work departs from reality.  Brandi Reissenweber  Find examples at:  http://www.writingclasses.com/WritersResources/AskTheWriterDetail.php?ID=93 

Historic photos restored  See pictures plus find links to the Library of Congress collection and their Today in History feature at:   http://photosilke.blogspot.com/2013/03/historic-pictures-restored.html  Thanks, Bruce.

Pronunciation help  Type emmasaying in your browser and hear tutorials in English.  Each word is pronounced three times.  Proper names are included. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Anne Tyler has never liked "The Taming of the Shrew."  "I have no favorite moments in this play," Tyler said.  "I first read it in college and disliked it intensely, and I can't say my attitude toward it softened any when I read it again just recently."  Very soon, Tyler is going to get a chance to reimagine and make sense of "The Taming of the Shrew."  She's writing a novel based on the play as part of a project by the publishing house Hogarth to commission novels based on all 37 of Shakespeare's plays.  Shakespeare lived and died four centuries ago, and has since been adapted into all sorts of media that didn't exist when he was alive, including film, television and radio.  Joss Whedon's acclaimed film "Much Ado About Nothing," released last month — was shot at his Santa Monica home with actors in modern dress.  This month, Ian Doescher released a book that retells the "Star Wars" saga in Shakespearean verse.  Asking novelists to adapt Shakespeare's oeuvre — with complete artistic freedom, the publishers say — is a tribute to the Bard's enduring power and influence.  As for "The Taming of the Shrew," it's a play many readers over the centuries have found troubling and downright misogynistic.  It begins with a feisty Katherine telling one man she will "comb your noddle with a three-legged stool and paint your face and use you like a fool."  But by the play's end, she's literally under her husband's heel.  "The Taming of the Shrew" is believed to be the Bard's first or second play.  It's a work that's been subject to all sorts of interpretations since its original run at the Globe Theatre ended circa 1591.  At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, artistic director Bill Rauch is running "The Taming of the Shrew" in a production set on a beach boardwalk with a tattooed Kate and Petruchio, her mercurial suitor, reimagined as a rockabilly musician.  "By placing it on a boardwalk you give it this spirit of joy and comedy, despite its grim themes," Rauch said.  "It's a story of love at first sight, and the actors have carefully charted who's dominant in the relationship at various moments."  Even in theater, Shakespeare's works are extremely pliable, Rauch said.  In recent years, the festival has produced a "Julius Caesar" in which the doomed Roman emperor is a woman, and a "Measure for Measure" in which one of the characters speaks in Spanish with a social worker translating her words to the other actors.  Perhaps the most successful recent adaptation of Shakespeare into the form of a novel is Jane Smiley's 1991, Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Thousand Acres," which reimagines "King Lear" on an Iowa farm.  Hector Tobar  http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-rewriting-shakespeare-20130713,0,777208.story

Jackie Mitchell

Jackie Mitchell (1914-1987)   In the spring of 1931, Joe Engel, owner of the Southern Association's AA Chattanooga Lookouts, signed 17-year-old pitcher Jackie Mitchell.  The Chattanooga papers were full of stories about the first woman to ever play in the minor leagues. (Jackie Mitchell was actually the second woman to sign a minor-league contract.  In 1898, Lizzie Arlington played one game, pitching for Reading (PA) against Allentown.)  On April 2 of that year, the New York Yankees stopped in Chattanooga for an exhibition game, on their way home from spring training down south.  Manager Bert Niehoff started the game with Clyde Barfoot, but after Barfoot gave up a double and a single, the manager signaled for Jackie Mitchell.  The first batter she faced was Babe Ruth.   Jackie only had one pitch, a wicked, dropping curve ball. Ruth took ball one, and then swung at -- and missed -- the next two pitches. Jackie's fourth pitch caught the corner of the plate, the umpire called it a strike, and Babe Ruth "kicked the dirt, called the umpire a few dirty names, gave his bat a wild heave, and stomped out to the Yank's dugout."  The next batter was Lou Gehrig.  He stepped up to the plate and swung at the first sinker -- strike one!  He swung twice more, hitting nothing but air.  Jackie Mitchell had fanned the "Sultan of Swat" AND the "Iron Horse," back-to-back.  After a standing ovation that lasted several minutes, Jackie pitched to Tony Lazzari, who drew a walk.  At that point, Niehoff pulled her and put Barfoot back in. The Yankees won the game 14-4.  A few days after the exhibition game, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided Jackie Mitchell's contract, claiming that baseball was "too strenuous" for a woman.  http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html 

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting".  The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.  Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted shakes, malt vinegar, confections such as Maltesers and Whoppers, flavored drinks such as Horlicks, Ovaltine and Milo, and some baked goods, such as malt loaf, bagels and rich tea biscuits.  Malted grain that has been ground into a coarse meal is known as "sweet meal".  Various cereals are malted, though barley is the most common.  A high-protein form of malted barley is often a label-listed ingredient in blended flours typically used in the manufacture of yeast breads and other baked goods.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt 

The night sky was always important to the Miami people.  They recognized a constellation in the shape of a fisher, a minklike mammal that populated their Midwestern homelands.  They called the Milky Way the “Spirit Trail” and believed its stars were the campfires of the dead.  In 1846, after ceding much of their land to the U.S. government, the Miami were barged south, first to Kansas, then to northeast Oklahoma, where many Miami and members of other displaced tribes remain today.  (The name of Miami, Florida, comes from the language of the unrelated Calusa Indians.)  Their variety of white corn didn’t grow well in the arid prairie soil, nor did their language, Myaamia, fit the landscape—they had no word for “armadillo,” for instance.  Gradually they stopped planting their staple crop and, as their children learned English in government-run schools, neglected their native tongue.  By the 1960s, the last fluent speaker was dead, and Tim McCoy grew up without knowing a single word.  “My family knew of our heritage, but we weren’t enrolled in a community,” says McCoy, 48, a Miami Indian and Museum of Natural History geologist.  His ancestors had stayed in Kansas after the first removal, and he grew up in Illinois and eventually settled in Northern Virginia.  He roams even farther afield professionally:  A meteorite expert, he helps direct NASA’s Mars rovers, among other extraterrestrial pursuits.  After McCoy named a prominent pile of Mars rocks “Miami” in 2005, he learned that another Miami was working on the Mars rovers:  Scott Doudrick, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  Over the next year or so, the two developed a summer-camp curriculum on the heavens and the earth for Miami children, and in 2007 they traveled to Miami, Oklahoma, and taught it to tribe members of elementary-school age.  But “the style of teaching didn’t match the culture,” McCoy says.  The children, he felt, needed more opportunities to explore on their own.  Perhaps most of all, “we needed the language” to make the lessons come alive.  Myaamia had slowly been reviving, thanks to the Miami tribe and scholars who translated hundreds of records from 18th-century Jesuit missionaries’ efforts to document it.  McCoy began to teach the language to himself and his two sons.  “It’s a polysynthetic language, so it has very long words that intimidate a lot of people,” he says, “but if you get the flow of the language, you get used to it fairly quickly.”  Gradually he introduced Myaamia words in his summer-camp curriculum.  Abigail Tucker  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/smithsonian-institution/Rediscovering-a-Lost-Native-American-Language-213881651.html 

The history of Gibraltar, a small peninsula on the southern Iberian coast near the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, spans over 2,900 years.  Gibraltar's location has given it an outsized significance in the history of Europe and its fortified town, established in medieval times, has hosted garrisons that sustained numerous sieges and battles over the centuries.  Gibraltar was first inhabited over 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals and may have been one of their last places of habitation before they died out around 24,000 years ago.  Gibraltar's recorded history began around 950 BC with the Phoenicians, who lived nearby.  The Carthaginians and Romans later worshipped Hercules in shrines said to have been built on the Rock of Gibraltar, which they called Mons Calpe, the "Hollow Mountain", and which they regarded as one of the twin Pillars of Hercules.  Gibraltar became part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania following the collapse of the Roman Empire and came under Muslim Moorish rule in 711 AD.  It was permanently settled for the first time by the Moors and was renamed Jebel al-Tariq – the Mount of Tariq, later corrupted into Gibraltar.  The Christian Kingdom of Castile annexed it in 1309, lost it again to the Moors in 1333 and finally regained it in 1462. Gibraltar became part of the unified Kingdom of Spain and remained under Spanish rule until 1704.  It was captured during the War of the Spanish Succession by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in the name of Charles VI of Austria, the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne.  At the war's end, Spain ceded the territory to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar 

Our eyes are sensitive to light which lies in a very small region of the electromagnetic spectrum labeled "visible light".  This "visible light" corresponds to a wavelength range of 400 - 700 nanometers (nm) and a color range of violet through red.  The human eye is not capable of "seeing" radiation with wavelengths outside the visible spectrum.  The visible colors from shortest to longest wavelength are: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.  Ultraviolet radiation has a shorter wavelength than the visible violet light.  Infrared radiation has a longer wavelength than visible red light.  The white light is a mixture of the colors of the visible spectrum.  Black is a total absence of light.  Read more at:  http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors.html 

Liverpool (N.Y.)  Public Library has put together eight OnSafari Geocaching Kits, including a Garmin eTrex 20 handheld GPS device, a getting-started guide and The Geocaching Handbook, all tucked neatly away into a small, red shoulder bag.  Not only are adults permitted to borrow the equipment for up to one week using their Onondaga County Public Library card, but a contest provides a greater incentive for adventurers to go out and locate all five geocaches hidden at Onondaga Lake Park.  After you enter coordinates, a GPS system will lead you to 30 feet or so away from the hidden geocache.  From there, you must rely on the clues provided on geocaching.com to close in on your find. Upon locating your desired geocache, a barter-and-trade system takes place.  The container is filled with a number of small trinkets that other geocachers leave behind. You must then trade something of your own for one of the trinkets provided.  While some people leave behind impersonal nonperishable items like pens or small flashlights, there are others who leave travel bugs and coins that have designated adventure paths.  It’s then up to geocachers to send them on their way.  Liverpool Public Library is the first library in New York state loaning out geocaching kits, and one of the few nationally that’s doing this.  The idea first sprang up after observing the popularity of their Eagle Watching kit, including a pair of binoculars and a map of where to spot eagles in the area.  Having heard about the Onondaga Partnership grants, which seek to attract positive attention to Onondaga Lake, the library began to gather a proposal asking for more money to afford other kits, specifically the geocaching kit.  Amanda Galster  http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/newyork/article-5928-geocaching-in-onondaga-lake-park.html

There are many mnemonics for remembering the order of the planets in our solar system - one of the most popular being My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, but the demise of Pluto as a planet has changed the picture.  We now have a plethora of mneumonics for the eight remaining planets such as:  My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nothing and My Very Easy Method Just Stop Using Nine.  Find statistics and graphics on the eight planets at:  http://www.astronomyknowhow.com/solar-system.htm

3D printing

Book review  FABRICATED: The New World of 3D Printing is a text that works to illuminate 3D printing’s role in undermining the rigidity of manufacturing.  This is accomplished by providing an on-demand production tool that product designers, students, doctors, and others can benefit from. Authors Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman convey a level-headedness and cautious enthusiasm that is refreshing.  Instead of pushing the idea that every home will have a 3D printer in the future, they spend considerable time envisioning alternative scenarios by analyzing different types of enthusiast communities, how and why they’re gaining market traction.  In their book you will find coverage of various science experiments, educational initiatives, the creative thinking of large companies like 3D Systems, and more consumer-facing platforms like Makerbot and Shapeways.  The book explains the world of 3D printing in all its technologies, design tools, and downstream implications, covering corporate R&D labs to the DIY initiatives we see in the DIY and Maker communities.  FABRICATED does a great job in explaining how the technology has gained traction in industries including electronics, automotive, aerospace and the medical community.  It also dedicates a good portion of the book to explaining more conceptual areas such as 3D printed food.  See the book's takeaway points at:  http://www.psfk.com/2013/05/3d-printing-fabricated-book-review.html 

STATUTORY DAMAGES IN COPYRIGHT LAW:  A REMEDY IN NEED OF REFORM by Pamela Samuelson and Tara Wheatland   51 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 441 2009-2010

The United States is an outlier in the global copyright community in giving plaintiffs in copyright cases the ability to elect, at any time before final judgment, to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work.  See main points of the article at:  http://www.techpolicy.com/Articles/Copyright-Statutory-Damages--A-Remedy-in-Need-of-R.aspx  Search by title to see the entire article.   

Kilo is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand.  It has been used in the International System of Units where it has the unit symbol k, in lower case.  Kilo is derived from the Greek word χίλιοι (chilioi), meaning "thousand".  It was originally adopted by Antoine Lavoisier's research group in 1795, and introduced into the metric system in France with its establishment in 1799.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilo- 

How to convert kilograms into pounds:  http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/conversion/kg2lbs.htm 

Kilometers conversion table:  http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/kilometers-conversion-table.htm 

Bus is a clipped form of the Latin word Omnibus.  It appeared in Paris in 1819–20 as (voiture) omnibus meaning (carriage) for all, and appeared in London in 1829.  One etymology holds that "omnibus" is derived from a hatter's shop which was situated in front of one of the first bus stations in Nantes, France in 1823.  "Omnes Omnibus" was a pun on the Latin sounding name of that hatter Omnès:  omnes meaning "all" and omnibus means "for all" in Latin.  Nantes citizens soon gave the nickname of Omnibus to the vehicle.  When motorized transport replaced horse-drawn transport starting 1905, a motorized omnibus was called an autobus, a term still used.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus 

July 9, 2013  Independent legal publishers William S. Hein & Co. and Fastcase today announced a new partnership in which the companies will share complementary strengths for the benefit of their members.  Under the agreement, Hein will provide federal and state case law to HeinOnline subscribers via inline hyperlinks powered by Fastcase.  In addition, Fastcase will completely integrate HeinOnline’s extensive law review and historical state statute collection in search results, with full access available to Fastcase subscribers who additionally subscribe to Hein's law review database.  The integrated libraries will be available on both services at the end of the summer.  About HeinOnline:  Produced by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., HeinOnline includes nearly 100 million pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format.  HeinOnline bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 1,800 law and law-related periodicals.  In addition to its vast collection of law journals, HeinOnline also contains the Congressional Record Bound volumes in their entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, famous world trials dating back to the early 1700′s, legal classics from the 16th to the 20th centuries, the United Nations and League of Nations Treaty Series, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from inception in 1936, the CFR from inception in 1938, and much more.  For more information about HeinOnline, please visit http://home.heinonline.org/   About Fastcase:  Using patented software that combines the best of legal research with the best of Web search, Fastcase helps busy users sift through the clutter, ranking the best cases first and enabling the re-sorting of results to find answers fast.  Founded in 1999, Fastcase has more than 500,000 subscribers from around the world.  Thanks, Julie 

July 21, 2013  Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) fees – what agencies collect – is under the purview of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  OMB hasn’t issued guidance in this area since Ronald Reagan was President, despite the fact that media fee status was a topic amended in the last FOIA amendments passed in 2006.  Further, the issue of FOIA fee waivers – when agencies don’t have to collect fees (in part or full) is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice.  When there is overlap of the two issues, it seems to be anybody’s (or in reality nobody’s) game.  And then there is the constant confusion between fee waivers and fee status.  Requesters are provided a fee status – i.e commercial, education, media when a request is made.  Based on the fee status, certain things can and can’t be charged for.  Requesters can also ask for a fee waiver (mainly requesters ask when they believe the request is in the public interest).  The two items are completely separate; however both requesters and FOIA professionals often get them mixed up and provide a rationale for a certain status in a waiver request and vice-versa.  All involved in seeking fee waivers or a specific fee status level should make sure they are invoking the proper criteria and language for their requests.  Scott A. Hodes  http://www.llrx.com/features/foiafacts/foia70.htm

Feedback to Magic tricks  Too-Perfect Theory is not an empirical theory, but a philosophical notion that a trick possibly can be "too" perfect and thus lead the audience directly to the method or to a wrong solution which gives the magician no credit.  This notion was first published by Rick Johnsson in Hierophant in 1970, expanding on an idea attributed to Dai Vernon.  Rick Johnsson suggested that magicians should consciously construct their routines to lead the audience away from the actual method by allowing room for "red herrings."  Also, since spectators will try to settle upon some solution (right or wrong), whenever possible, the magicians should lead them down a path where they receive the credit for the effect.  The "Too-Perfect Theory" article was republished in Genii 2001 August along with numerous articles debating the topic.  Thanks, Paul.

four-flush and standpat

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

four-flush  (FOHR-flush)  verb intr.  To bluff or act in a fraudulent manner.

In a game of poker, a full flush is five cards of the same suit.  A four-flush, only four cards of the same suit, is almost worthless.  A player pretending to have a full flush while holding only a four-flush, is said to be four-flushing.  Earliest documented use:  1896.
standpat  (STAND-pat)  adjective:  Refusing to consider change in one's beliefs and opinions, especially in politics.  noun:  One who refuses to consider change.   In a game of poker, to stand pat is to play one's hand as dealt, without drawing other cards.  From pat (apt).  Earliest documented use: 1910.   

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From:  Gearoid O'Brien  Subject:  sconce  The word sconce is also a slang term for a 'quick look' in Ireland, as in "Give us a sconce at that" is equivalent to "Give me a look at that".

From:  Doug Bodley   Subject:  mortify   Finally the (English) title of one of Bach's chorales makes sense:  it is the second meaning of the word "mortify " (to discipline by self-denial)  that really works in this instance:  "Mortify us by Thy grace."  

If a magician invents a device that allows him to, say, teleport across the stage in the blink of an eye, he can patent the device.  But the patents themselves are open to the public.  Anyone can see them.  When an R.J. Reynolds tobacco newspaper ad revealed Horace Goldin’s “Sawing a Lady in Half” illusion and Golden sued for “unfair competition,” the court sided with Reynolds, essentially arguing something like “if you wanted to keep it a secret you shouldn’t have patented it.”  Patents don’t protect secrets; they reveal them.  Plus, many magicians’ tricks don’t use special devices; they use misdirection and sleight-of-hand.  What about trade secret law?  (This is different than trademark law, which only lets you protect the name or logo of your trick.)  Liability is found against only those who share secrets “improperly.”  That means you can’t score a job as Copperfield’s assistant, promise to keep his secrets, and then turn around and start performing his tricks yourself.  However, if you figure out one of his illusions while sitting in the audience, trade secret law won’t stop you from copying it and performing it.  Prolific magic creator Andre Kole sued the “Masked Magician” and FOX for exposing his “Table of Death” illusion.  It didn’t go well.  The court said the trick was too similar to a trick that had been published in several magic books the 1800s, and that under trade secret law, the courts must consider the “ease or difficulty with which the information could be properly acquired or duplicated by others.”  Because if a trick is published in several books, it’s easy to acquire the information.  Rick Lax  See much more at:  http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/07/the-tricky-business-of-innovation-can-you-patent-a-magic-trick/all/1 

The word supersede is currently the only English word that ends with -sede.  This word is a verb meaning “to take the place of” – and it’s possible that over time the spelling supercede may supersede the current spelling (some dictionaries now show both versions.  Why is there this difference in spelling?  The answer is in the history of the words.  Supersede comes from the Latin prefix super- (“above”) and root word sedere (“to sit”).  Traditionally, someone who “sits above” someone else replaces them in authority or position.  All of the other words that end in -cede derive from the Latin root word cedere instead, which means “to go.”  Therefore, adding prefixes to this root we get “to go before” (pre-), “to go apart” (se-), “to go back” (re-), and so on.  In general, other than the word supersede as discussed above, any word that ends in the sound SEED is spelled with -cede.  Of course, since this is the English language there are exceptions to this rule. These three words are spelled -ceed instead:   proceed, exceed, succeed.  Although these three words also come from the Latin root word cedere (proceed = “to go forward” / exceed = “to go above” / succeed = “to go after”) their spellings are different.  This is due to the fact that they became part of the English language at about the same time, in the 14th century, and so were all governed by the rules of spelling in Old French.  Words such as precede were later added to the English language from Middle French, which had different spelling rules. 

http://www.ultimatespelling.com/spelling-tips-cede-vs-sede-vs-ceed 

Abbreviations

WOO:  Wizard of Oz

EC:  Emerald City
A Lion Among Men, Volume Three in the Wicked Years

May 25, 2013  A new survey of charter schools in 10 states highlights what charters face in terms of facilities – and why, perhaps, charter advocates in states like Florida are seeking recurring sources of money for those needs.  Put together by the Charter School Facilities Initiative, a joint effort by the Colorado League of Charter Schools and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the survey did not include Florida.  In each of the surveyed states, at least 60 percent of the charter classrooms were considerably smaller than those in district schools.  Fewer than 50 percent have a kitchen that allows the school to prepare meals on site and qualify for free, federally-funded meal programs.  Many middle and high school charters don’t have access to gyms.  In Tennessee, 53.3 percent of them don’t have access.  In Indiana, it’s 50 percent.  In almost every state, a majority of charter schools don’t have at least one specialized instructional place, such as a library, computer lab or music classroom.  In Indiana, 71.4 percent of charters lack a library.  In New Jersey, 60.6 percent don’t have a computer lab.  In Texas, 56.2 percent don’t have an art or music room.  The report offers some ideas for states to help charter schools with capital funding, including creating a state grant program and/or loan program for charter school facilities.  Connecticut has provided public charter schools with $20 million in bond financing for facilities.  Sherrie Ackermann  http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/05/charter-schools-dont-look-like-the-taj-mahal  The 40-page April 2013 "Initial Findings from Ten States" report is at:  http://www.facilitiesinitiative.org/media/3080/csfinationalsummary-fnl_april2013_.pdf 

Libraries Without borders (LWB)  LWB establishes libraries, reading centers, and bookmobiles around the world for children, university students, and adults.  LWB works to reduce inequality in access to technology and information in more than 20 countries.  LWB's projects in emergency zones provide disaster victims with relief from trauma and the ability to look forward to the future.  Learn about work in different countries, how to volunteer, how to donate and more at:  http://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/ 

Bell bottom trousers may refer to:  the commercial song composed and recorded by Moe Jaffe,

the folksong from which the Moe Jaffe song was adapted, and the article of clothing.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Bottom_Trousers 

Bellbottom trousers  noun 

trousers with legs that flare; worn by sailors; absurdly wide hems were fashionable in the 1960s  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/bellbottom_trousers#word=bellbottom%20trousers 

With bells on, in its most common current use, is an informal expression that means 'eagerly; ready to enjoy oneself', and your response was sure to please your host.  There's the added connotation that you're not only looking forward to the occasion (usually some sort of party) but that you're all set to contribute to the festivities and add to everyone else's enjoyment.  There are special variations, of course. F. Scott Fitzgerald left the final preposition off in his 1922 Beautiful & Damned, where we see, "All-ll-ll righty. I'll be there with bells."  And there is an occasional use of with bells on as a more general intensifier, something to add a little punch.  As for origins, various sources postulate a rather vague association between bells and gala gatherings ("rings on her fingers and bells on her toes," and all that). 

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000519  NOTE that other sources think "with bells on" refers to a horse-drawn cart with bells and a festive arrival.

Public Libraries and E-Books

From 2011 to 2012, the percentage of Americans who owned an e-book reader leapt from 18 to 33 percent, a rapid climb from 6 percent in 2010.  Attempting to accommodate this shift, more than three-quarters of U.S. libraries allow their customers to check out digital books, but they’ve encountered fierce resistance in access and pricing from the major publishers.  Some won’t even sell e-books to libraries.  If libraries are able to obtain mainstream e-books at all, those sales almost always come with onerous conditions and high prices, especially compared to the traditional discounted rates libraries pay for hardcover copies.  The situation has left libraries looking desperately for a way to make e-borrowing sustainable for customers in the future.  But they have little negotiating power other than an altruistic appeal to the established relationship between library and publisher, both working toward the goal of a more literate nation.  The bottom line is that libraries need to have e-books for their readers to check out, because that’s how people are going to read in the future.  If they don’t have the goods, then what will a library be useful for a decade from now?  Enter Jamie LaRue, who oversees seven libraries in what is now a suburban county of 285,000 people, but is building a nationwide movement based on his principles.  He talks about bypassing the “Big Six” New York publishers, or at least leaving them behind and setting his sights on the next publishing wave: smaller, digitally based presses and self-publishing authors.  He wants to transform the library from a place where you go to find a New York Times bestseller to a local incubator fostering homegrown writing talent.  If the big publishers want to cut libraries out, that’s fine, he says.  He’s going straight to the people.  LaRue’s ideas have inspired an upheaval in the library and publishing worlds.  Libraries from California to Massachusetts are fitting his design to their own systems.  Mere mention of his name attracts audible sighs and knowing nods from top executives at some of the biggest publishers in the world.  Whether he and his philosophy succeed or not could determine the public library’s future.  That’s how many librarians view the stakes, anyway.  If he’s wrong, the library could fade into obscurity, a relic of the pre-digital age.  But if he’s right, and a growing number of acolytes believe he is, it could still thrive in an era when hardback books have gone the way of illuminated manuscripts.  Not every major publisher is selling its products to any library that wants them.  Several, including Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Penguin, either don’t sell e-books to libraries at all or have only begun to do so through pilot projects that work with select libraries, usually concentrated in New York.  This leaves out the nearly 9,000 other libraries spread throughout the rest of the country.  Even if publishers do sell to libraries, they’ve restructured the rules.  HarperCollins, for example, sets a limit of 26 loans on each e-copy; after that limit is reached, the library has to purchase a new copy license.  Random House hasn’t established such restrictive conditions and makes its full e-catalog of 46,000 titles available to libraries, but the price for each copy is often four or five times ($85 is the upper limit) what the company charges for physical copies.  While their business model is being upended, libraries, along with the rest of the public sector, are enduring the aftershocks of the Great Recession.  Library spending in the U.S. dropped 8 percent in 2013, largely a result of government funding cuts, continuing a decline that started with the economic downturn.   Dylan Scott  http://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-can-libraries-survive-ebook-revolution.html  Thanks, Julie 

Book review by Lewis L. Gould about two patriotic songs that influence us

GOD BLESS AMERICA  The Surprising History of an Iconic Song by Sheryl Kaskowitz

Oxford Univ. 210 pp. $29.95
THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC  A Biography of the Song That Marches On
by John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis  Oxford Univ. 380 pp. $29.95
Interpreting the meaning of songs in our lives has generated probing and insightful studies, such as these books on two classic American melodies.  These examinations of “God Bless America” and the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” not only reflect the growing interest in how songs have affected U.S. politics and culture, they are also lively narratives in their own right.  Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” has the shorter chronological arc.  Written for a patriotic show in 1918 and then put aside, the tune reemerged from Berlin’s trunk in 1938 and began a journey that has never ended.  Sheryl Kaskowitz, an independent scholar, has constructed an engaging portrait of how the song infiltrated patriotism, business and sports.  Berlin did not write the song for Kate Smith, but he and the tune benefited from the publicity she gave it on her radio show.  In fact, Berlin and Smith’s manager, Ted Collins, vied to get credit for allocating the royalties from “God Bless America” to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.  The song also figured in the debate over American involvement in World War II.  At first, Berlin’s lyrics spoke to disillusionment over the nation’s participation in World War I.  As the threat of Nazi Germany mounted in 1939 and ’40, “God Bless America” took on new meaning, especially for its Jewish composer — who faced anti-Semitic criticism, including from the future chaplain of the Senate, Peter Marshall of Washington.  As the threat of war intensified, Berlin’s words seemed to become an argument for greater U.S. involvement n the fight against totalitarianism.  Telling the story of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” provides complex intellectual challenges for two authors, John Stauffer of Harvard University and Benjamin Soskis of George Mason.  The familiar melody was first heard as a hymn called “Say, Brothers” and went through several other versions before becoming “John Brown’s Body” (about the death of the famed abolitionist) and then, with Julia Ward Howe’s lyrics in the 1860s, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  The authors have traced this intricate process with wide-ranging scholarship that lays out the many ways in which the melody evoked strong passions among Union soldiers during the Civil War. In time, the harder edge of “John Brown’s Body” gave way to the millennial sentiments of the “Battle Hymn.”  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/review-histories-of-god-bless-america-and-the-battle-hymn-of-the-republic/2013/07/03/d8fbc2ae-be26-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html?hpid=z5  

The Madrean Sky Islands are enclaves of Madrean pine-oak woodlands, found at higher elevations in a complex of small mountain ranges in southern and southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico.  The sky islands are surrounded at lower elevations by the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts.  The northern west-east perimeter of the sky island region merges into the higher elevation eastern Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains of eastern Arizona (southern Anasazi region).  The sky islands are the northernmost of the Madrean pine-oak woodlands, and are classified as part of the Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests ecoregion, of the tropical and subtropical coniferous forests biome.  The sky islands were isolated from one another and from the pine-oak woodlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental to the south by the warming and drying of the climate since the ice ages.  There are approximately 27 Madrean sky islands in the United States, and 15 in northern Mexico.  The major Madrean sky island ranges in the United States are the Baboquivari Mountains, Whetstone Mountains, Chiricahua Mountains, Huachuca Mountains, Pinaleño Mountains, Santa Catalina Mountains, and Santa Rita Mountains.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrean_sky_islands 

The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.  The FISA court once focused on case-by-case wiretapping orders, but has become the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues.  Created by Congress in 1978, the court hears only one side of the case--that of the government.  All 11 judges have been appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.  Read extensive article at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

makebate  (MAYK-bayt)  noun  One who incites quarrels.  From make, from Old English macian (to make) + bate (contention), from Latin battuere (to beat) which also gave us abate, debate, and rebate. Earliest documented use:  1529.

sconce  (skons)  noun

1.  An ornamental bracket for holding candles or lights.
2.  The head or skull.
3.  Sense or wit.
4.  A small fort or defensive earthwork to defend a bridge, castle-gate, etc.

For 1:  From Latin abscondere (to conceal).  Earliest documented use:  1392.
For 2, 3:  Of uncertain origin.  Earliest documented use:  1567.
For 4:  From Dutch schans (entrenchment).  Earliest documented use:  1587.  

There are nearly two-dozen types of Cypress trees in the world, though the heartiest versions grow in North America.  The Cypress tree produces some of the world's most prized wood.  It is lightweight and durable which makes it an ideal building material.  Adding to the wood's popularity is the fact that it doesn't generate sap and therefore doesn't bleed.  This unique characteristic also means the tree's wood takes well to stains, paint and sealers.  What's more, the Cypress's attractive light to dark honey color is a quality carpenters and artists find highly appealing.  Cypress trees are also valued for their firewood and oil. The wood is easy to split, dries quickly and burns clean, so you don't have to worry about excessive tar and soot residue.  In addition, oil from the tree is used for shampoo and other beauty products.  The Cypress tree has a fascinating history that dates back to the ancient Egyptians who used the durable trees to build mummy cases.  The Greeks were also fans of the tree and used its wood to create urns to store the ashes of those who died in battle.  Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Plato's code of laws was etched into Cypress wood because it was thought to outlast brass.  See pictures at: http://www.2020site.org/trees/cypress.html 

There’s a new dinosaur in southern Utah--a relative of the triceratops called nasutoceratops (“big-nose horned-face”) and noted for its large nose and big horns.  Find three poems marking the discovery--a double dactyl, haiku and short verse--at:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/07/17/three-horned-poems-for-the-new-dinosaur-nasutoceratops-relative-of-the-triceratops/?hpid=z8 

July 19 is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  There are 165 days remaining until the end of the year.  Events: 

64 – Great Fire of Rome: a fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control.  According to a popular, but untrue legend, Nero fiddled as the city burned.

1848 – Women's rights: a two-day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.
1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
1903 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_19