Adopted names  Golda Meir (1898-1978)  Golda Mabovitz was born in Kiev, Russia, and she moved to Wisconsin in 1906.  She married Morris Myerson in 1917 and immigrated to Palestine with him in 1921.  Upon his death, in 1951, she adopted the Hebrew name Meir, which means "to burn brightly."  Lisa Najeeb Halaby (b. 1951) is the widow of King Hussein of Jordan.  She was his fourth spouse and queen consort of Jordan between 1978 and 1999.  Upon marriage, she became known as Noor Al-Hussein ("Light of Hussein").  

Baking soda, otherwise known as bicarbonate of soda, sodium bicarbonate, and, less commonly, saleratus, is a chemical salt with diverse practical uses.  With a chemical formula of NaHCO3, it is a white powder with crystalline grains.  Although it can be produced by artificial means, in its natural form, baking soda is called nahcolite, taking its name from its chemical formula.  Find uses of baking soda at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-baking-soda.htm

Pumice rocks are igneous rocks which were formed when lava cooled quickly above ground. You can see where little pockets of air had been.  This rock is so light, that many pumice rocks will actually float in water.  Pumice is actually a kind of glass and not a mixture of minerals. Because this rock is so light, it is used quite often as a decorative landscape stone. Ground to a powder, it is used as an abrasive.  http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/rocks/expert/pumice.htm

What are your earliest memories of visiting a library?  I remember my mother taking me by the hand and introducing me to a whole new world.  I was amazed and later in life tried to verbalize my reaction.  One thing I can say is:  libraries are liberating. 

Everybody loves to be the best, and zoos are no different.  The Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium touts its No. 1 ranking by USA Travel Guide from 2009.  Other zoos advertise that they, too, are No. 1. Realistically, though, figuring out which zoo is the best is impossible, said Jon Wassner, co-author of the book America’s Best Zoos.  “Different people place different values on what they want in a zoo,” he said.  “There’s so much subjectivity involved.”  Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo calls itself “the best zoo in the U.S.” on its website.  The rating comes from Parents magazine, which has a “10 Best Zoos for Kids” list.  Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium notes in news releases that it has been ranked the No. 1 zoo in the U.S. — by TripAdvisor, a travel website.  And the San Diego Zoo gets top billing from Trekaroo, a travel website that bases its top-10 list on user reviews.  Kathy Lynn Gray   http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/03/31/which-zoo-is-number-1.html

It's not easy to define how long a river is.  If a number of tributaries merge to form a larger river, how would you define where the river actually begins?  River lengths or river-length data are affected not only by natural and artificial causes, but also by the precision of various techniques of measurement, by the scale of available maps or aerial photographs, and by somewhat arbitrary decisions.  For example, the length may be considered to be the distance from the mouth to the most distant headwater source (irrespective of stream name) or from the mouth to the headwaters of the stream commonly identified as the source stream. The names of some rivers, such as the Mississippi River and the Rio Grande, are unchanged from source to mouth.  Top ten longest rivers in the United States: 

 Missouri: 2,540 miles
 Mississippi: 2,340 miles
 Yukon: 1,980 miles
 Rio Grande: 1,900 miles
 St. Lawrence: 1,900 miles
 Arkansas: 1,460 miles
 Colorado: 1,450 miles
 Atchafalaya: 1,420 miles
 Ohio: 1,310 miles
 Red: 1,290 miles

Find more information and a longer list of rivers at https://water.usgs.gov/edu/riversofworld.html

The Redwood Library and Athenæum in Newport, Rhode Island is the oldest lending library in America, and the oldest library building in continuous use in the country.  Founded in 1747 by forty-six proprietors upon the principle of "having nothing in view but the good of mankind," its mission continues over 250 years later.  The Company of the Redwood Library was established in 1747 by Abraham Redwood and a group of his friends and associates.  One of the country's earliest "public" libraries -- that is, open to the public though not "free"--Redwood is the oldest surviving lending library in the country.  Redwood remains a "membership library" (open to the public) supported by Proprietors, who own shares and pay an annual assessment, and Subscribers, who pay fees.  The Original Collection of 751 titles has grown to a collection numbering more than 160,000 volumes.  In 1833, the Library's name was changed to The Company of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum to reflect its expanding role as an educational institution.  Today the Library is open to qualified scholars and researchers and to those making use of the collections.  Lectures, exhibitions, fine arts displays, and other educational activities are part of Redwood Library and Athenaeum's continuous offerings to the community.  Read history and see pictures at http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/history

April 9, 2014  Stanford bioengineer's Manu Prakash wants young students to explore when it comes to science and decided to "reimagine" the chemistry set for the 21^stcentury.  So he looked around for some inspiration and there it was:  a small music box his wife had received as a holiday gift.  According to a Stanford announcement, Prakas played with the music box and got the idea that the rotating pins could be used to pump fluids through tiny channels or to control valves and droplet generators in a programmable fashion.  "Punch-card paper tapes like this have been used to program computers and fabric looms, so why not chemistry?" he said.  The prototype features a hand-cranked wheel and paper tape with periodic holes punched by the user.  When a pin encounters a hole in the tape it flips and activates a pump that releases a single drop from a channel.  In the simplest design, 15 independent pumps, valves and droplet generators can all be controlled simultaneously.  When all was said and developed, the kit ended up costing $5.  His kit won him $50,000 after being entered in the Science Play and Research Kit Competition (SPARK), jointly sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Society for Science & the Public.  http://www.techtimes.com/articles/5402/20140409/small-music-box-lead-21st-century-chemistry-50k-research-prize.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1134  April 11, 2014  On this date in 1965, fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.  In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.