Do you hate listicles, written articles or themed
pictorial collections presented in the form of a list? If you do, then you are even more of the
moment than the websites – like us! – that proffer the lists insuch a ceaseless,
bulletpointed mega-avalanche these days. The New Yorker just served up a brilliantly cocked-eyebrow dissection
of the listicle http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/08/10-paragraphs-about-lists-you-need-in-your-life-right-now.html
presented as a list when it is
actually just ten consecutive paragraphs arbitrarily broken up by numbers. The technology blogger Anil
Dash, meanwhile, derides listicles as
"geek equivalents of Cosmo coverlines". Find ten reasons to love listicles, with a bonus
one for good measure at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2013/sep/01/11-reasons-why-still-love-listicles Read
about five 5 ways the listicle is changing journalism, feeding an emergent
'news snacking' consumer: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/aug/12/5-ways-listicle-changing-journalism
The first English colonists
arrived in North America in 1584 at Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina. The next year, a group of these settlers
explored southeastern Virginia. The
Roanoke colony found it difficult to survive and ran out of food and supplies. In 1590, when the colony's leader, John White,
returned from England, he found the settlement deserted. The first English colony in North America that managed to survive began at
Jamestown in 1607. Although this
settlement also ran out of supplies and nearly abandoned in 1610, it later grew
as increasing numbers of colonists arrived.
The name “Powhatan” is usually used to refer to the Algonquian-speaking
tribes of the Virginia Coastal Plain (Tidewater) region. When the English arrived in 1607, most of the
tribes in this area had been brought together under the leadership of one
paramount chief or high chief named Wahunsunacock. This leader had taken the name of “Powhatan”,
the name of his birth town, when he became the paramount chief, so that was how
the settlers were first introduced to him, and it is the name by which he is
still referred to today. At the time of
English contact, the native Tidewater population numbered 20,000. Powhatan controlled more than 32 chiefdoms in
more than 150 town and settlements of various sizes. The tribes under his leadership often fought
for him in hostilities with other Indian nations. They also paid regular tributes or taxes in
the form of game and produce. In times
of need, Powhatan fed his people from these stores and provided protection. One of Powhatan’s daughters, known to the
English as Pocahontas, was kidnapped by the colonists in 1613. After a year in captivity and the arrangement
of a treaty between her father and the colonists, she agreed to convert to
Christianity and married an English colonist by the name of John Rolfe in 1614.
The years following that marriage were
peaceful, but difficult for the Indians because of their continual loss of
land. In 1615, Pocahontas and John Rolfe
had a son, Thomas Rolfe. The following
year the three travelled to England with other Indians on behalf of the
Virginia Company who had sponsored the Jamestown colony. While in England Pocahontas became seriously
ill, and she died there in 1617. http://virginiaindians.pwnet.org/history/1600s.php
June 18, 2013 Examining
records and maps left by explorer Captain John Smith, among other primary
sources, in 2003 historians identified the 57 acre site overlooking the York
River in Tidewater, Virginia, as the likely center of Powhatan’s vast
chiefdom. Subsequent archaeological
excavations confirmed the identification, but they’ve barely scraped the
surface. Only 2% of the site has been
explored thus far. Landowners Robert and
Lynn Ripley have generously allowed archaeologists to excavate the site for the
past decade, and now that the easement agreement has been made, their
generosity will extend in perpetuity giving researchers all the time they need
to dig wider and deeper. The
archaeological site of Werowocomoco, Chief Powhatan’s capital city when the
Jamestown colony was founded in 1607, is no longer in danger of development and destruction thanks
to a new agreement between the property owners and the Virginia Department of
Historic Resources. The conservation
easement will protect the site from development and keep it open to future
archaeological exploration. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/25722
San Francisco Sept. 20, 2013 It’s no secret that
some people really don’t like the aggressive way that LinkedIn convinces you to
turn over your email address book to send those pesky invitations to friends to
sign up for the service. Now
four users are suing the professional networking service over it. In a lawsuit filed in federal court this week,
they allege LinkedIn is “hacking” into their email accounts without their
consent and harvesting the email addresses of everyone they have ever swapped
messages with. “The hacking of the
users' email accounts and downloading of all email addresses associated with
that user's account is done without clearly notifying the user or obtaining his
or her consent,” says the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose. They acknowledge LinkedIn asked permission,
but say it never disclosed it would bombard friends with email invitations. he group is asking a federal judge to bar LinkedIn from the
practice and turn over any revenue made through it. “LinkedIn’s own website contains hundreds of
complaints regarding this practice,” the complaint says. The lawsuit is seeking class action status
and unspecified damages. Jessica Guynn http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-linkedin-sued-for-hacking-users-email-accounts-pestering-friends-20130920,0,7883960.story
Mexico City Sept. 20, 2013 Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega is making an expanded push for more territory in
the Caribbean Sea, appealing to international jurisprudence and rankling many
of his neighbors. Colombia was
especially vocal, calling Nicaragua's new claims "excessive" and
reiterating that it would defend itself against "unfounded
pretensions" of the Central American country. Ortega's government formally petitioned the International Court of Justice on Monday
to define the maritime border between Nicaragua and Colombia and to include an
eastward extension of what Nicaragua claims as its continental shelf deep into
the Caribbean. For Nicaragua, that would
be a territorial gain of about 150 nautical miles beyond what the court
established in November. In a statement,
Ortega said Colombia's refusal to recognize the November ruling was in part
what motivated the new petition. "As
a peaceful country and defender of the rule of law," the statement said,
"Nicaragua once again places its trust in the court … without harming the
rights of third nations." But other
nations in the region, notably Panama and Costa Rica, are eyeing Nicaragua's
actions with suspicion. Nicaragua's enhanced
claim of offshore territory follows its announcement in June that it was
partnering with a Chinese firm to build a $40-billion sea-to-sea canal,
expected to be completed in a decade, and compete with the century-old Panama
Canal. All of this is making Panama
nervous. Nicaragua's most recent
Caribbean petition could tread into sea territory that Panama claims. Panamanian Foreign Minister Fernando Nuñez
said this week that his nation "will not cede a single little piece"
of maritime territory. "There is
nothing to discuss" with Nicaragua, Nuñez said. He was echoing Panamanian President Ricardo
Martinelli, who this month accused Nicaragua of trying to "grab"
waters belonging to Panama. Costa Rica,
meanwhile, was already embroiled in spats with Nicaragua. The two countries have been fighting over
access to the San Juan River, which forms their border. Costa Rica on Tuesday accused Nicaragua of
using a dredging vessel to dig two new canals through an island claimed by
Costa Rica to expand Managua's access from the river to the Caribbean. Tracy Wilkinson and Chris Kraul
Sept. 22, 2013 Poet
CJ Allen has withdrawn from the Forward Prize shortlist after admitting to
plagiarism in some of his earlier work. His
poem Explaining the Plot of Blade Runner to My Mother Who Has Alzheimer's was
up for best single poem. The awards take
place on 1 October in London. Fellow
poet Matthew Welton said he noticed last year that Allen had plagiarised some
of his work. Allen said he accepted he
had plagiarised "certain poems".
In an email to the Forward Arts Foundation, Allen wrote: "I accept that I did plagiarise certain
poems (although it was genuinely not my intention to deceive), and that I am
withdrawing from the competition because of the intolerable strain of the
recent, negative publicity surrounding this. "However, I continue to maintain that the
poem submitted to the Forward Prizes is original."
September 16, 2013 Bestselling
author James Patterson wants to support
independent bookstores, and he's putting his money where his heart is. He has pledged to give $1 million to independent
bookstores in the next year. "We’re
making this transition to e-books, and that’s fine and good and terrific and
wonderful, but we’re not doing it in an organized, sane, civilized way. So what’s happening right now is a lot of
bookstores are disappearing," Patterson told CBS'
"This Morning." Patterson
says he hopes the funds will support everything from raises for staff who haven't
gotten them in years to larger projects. What's essential is that the bookstores have a
viable business model and that their shops include a children's section. People interested in learning more can fill
out a form on
Patterson's website. The
perennial bestseller and author of the Alex Cross novels, Patterson has a
number of community-focused projects, including scholarships and the readkiddoread project. While the pledge to give $1 million to
bookstores fits with his other efforts to encourage book culture, it also
dovetails with another author's effort to support independent bookstores. National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie
pledged to spend a day working as a bookseller in his local independent
bookstore. That project is called Indies First; it's being
organized by the American Booksellers Assn. to take place on Small Business Saturday, the Saturday
after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Patterson
is helping out independent bookstores in another way. To go along with the theme of "Treasure
Hunters," his latest book for kids, Patterson has signed five books that,
as of Sept. 17, will be hidden
somewhere at Vroman's, the independent bookstore in Pasadena.
Carolyn Kellogg http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-james-patterson-to-give-1-million-to-independent-bookstores-20130916,0,6869402.story
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