The National Library of Norway is planning to digitize all the books by the mid 2020s.  Yes.  All.  The.  Books.  In Norwegian, at least.  Hundreds of thousands of them.  Every book in the library's holdings.  By law, "all published content, in all media, [must] be deposited with the National Library of Norway," so when the library is finished scanning, the entire record of a people's language and literature will be machine-readable and sitting in whatever we call the cloud in 15 years.  If you happen to be in Norway, as measured by your IP address, you will be able to access all 20th-century works, even those still under copyright.  Non-copyrighted works from all time periods will be available for download.   Alexis C. Madrigal  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/norway-decided-to-digitize-all-the-norwegian-books/282008/ 

blue gold (water or natural gas)
white gold (rubber or cotton)
black gold (oil)

green gold (tea or marijuana)
brown gold (tobacco) 

Paraphrases from The Lonely Polygamist, a novel by Brady Udall

A stalling tactic:  when you don't want to do something, ask a question.  Change the subject when confronted with a question that has no good answer. 

Idaho Writer in Residence  Selection of the writer is made from Idaho applicants whose anonymous writing samples are judged by a panel of three out-of-state writers.  Former writers-in-residence include:  Ron McFarland, Moscow (1984); Robert Wrigley, Lewiston (1986); Eberle Umbach, Indian Valley (1988); Neidy Messer, Boise (1990); Daryl Jones, Boise (1992); Clay Morgan, McCall (1994); Lance Olsen, Moscow (1996); Bill Johnson, Lewiston (1999); Jim Irons, Twin Falls (2001); Kim Barnes, Lewiston (2004); Anthony Doerr, Boise (2007); Brady Udall, Boise (2010).   The 2013 recipient, Diane Raptosh, grew up in Nampa, Idaho, one of three children. A graduate of The College of Idaho, she earned her MFA at the University of Michigan.   Raptosh is now professor of English at The College of Idaho, where she holds the Eyck-Berringer Endowed Chair.  She has published four collections of poems, among them Just West of Now (1992), Labor Songs (1999), and Parents from a Different Alphabet (2008).  Her work has appeared in more than 20 anthologies and 50 journals.  http://www.arts.idaho.gov/writers/current.aspx 

How Plants Secretly Talk to Each Other by Kat McGowan

The evidence for plant communication is only a few decades old, but in that short time it has leapfrogged from electrifying discovery to decisive debunking to resurrection.  Two studies published in 1983 demonstrated that willow trees, poplars and sugar maples can warn each other about insect attacks:  Intact, undamaged trees near ones that are infested with hungry bugs begin pumping out bug-repelling chemicals to ward off attack.  They somehow know what their neighbors are experiencing, and react to it.  The mind-bending implication was that brainless trees could send, receive and interpret messages.  The first few “talking tree” papers quickly were shot down as statistically flawed or too artificial, irrelevant to the real-world war between plants and bugs.  Research ground to a halt. But the science of plant communication is now staging a comeback.  Rigorous, carefully controlled experiments are overcoming those early criticisms with repeated testing in labs, forests and fields.  It’s now well established that when bugs chew leaves, plants respond by releasing volatile organic compounds into the air.  By Karban’s last count, 40 out of 48 studies of plant communication confirm that other plants detect these airborne signals and ramp up their production of chemical weapons or other defense mechanisms in response.  “The evidence that plants release volatiles when damaged by herbivores is as sure as something in science can be,” said Martin Heil, an ecologist at the Mexican research institute Cinvestav Irapuato.  “The evidence that plants can somehow perceive these volatiles and respond with a defense response is also very good.”  Read extensive article at http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants/ 

At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime?  See What If?  "answering your hypothetical questions with physics, every  Tuesday" site at  http://what-if.xkcd.com/76/ 

Welcome to the 2013 edition of Dennis Kennedy’s annual Best of Law-related Blogging Awards, affectionately known as the “Blawggies.”  The Blawggies, which honor the best law-related blogs as determined from my personal and highly-opinionated perspective, were first unleashed on an unsuspecting blogosphere in December 2004 and are an annual tradition here at DennisKennedy.Blog.

1.  Best Overall Law-Related Blog – 3 Geeks and a Law Blog

2.  The “Marty Schwimmer” Best Practice-Specific Legal Blog – Sharon Nelson’s Ride the Lightning
3.  Best Law Practice Management Blog – Adam Smith, Esq.
4.  Best Law-related Blog Category – Law Librarian Blogs
5.  The “Kennedy-Mighell Report” Best Legal Podcast – The Return of the Legal Talk Network
6.  The “Sherry Fowler” Best Writing on a Blawg Award – Sharon Nelson’s Ride the Lightning
7.  Best Law Professor Blog – Legal Skills Prof Blog
8.  The “DennisKennedy.Blog” Best Legal Technology Blog – V. Mary Abraham’s Above and Beyond KM
9.   Best New Blawg – Jerry Lawson’s NetLawTools
10. Best Blawg Aggregator – Tie:  TechnoLawyer’s BlawgWorld; Pinhawk Law Technology Daily Digest 
Find more information at http://denniskennedy.com/blog/2013/12/announcing-the-2013-blawggie-awards-tenth-edition/

Dec. 24, 2013  Merry Christmas!  107 years ago tonight, Americans heard the world’s first radio show.  At 9 p.m. that night in 1906, the Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden set up his violin before the microphone at a studio in Brant Rock, Mass., and proceeded to play "O Holy Night," a live performance that was heard, by some accounts, up to 12 miles away.  Brian Fung  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/24/merry-christmas-107-years-ago-tonight-americans-heard-the-worlds-first-ever-radio-show/?tid=hpModule_88854bf0-8691-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z12