Bestlaw for Chrome Adds the Features Westlaw Forgot by Sam Glover Joe Mornin, a 3L at UC Berkeley School of Law
(Boalt Hall), built Bestlaw,
a free browser extension for Google Chrome that adds a bunch of useful features
to WestlawNext. See a list of the features at http://lawyerist.com/77143/bestlaw-chrome-adds-features-westlaw-forgot/
Thank you, Muse reader.
The root of the word "passion" is found in the Latin word "passio" which means "suffering.” The word
is more often used for romantic feelings today.
Paraphrase from The
Shadow Box by John R. Maxim (b. 1937)
Notoriety is one thing--popularity is another.
What is your favorite season of the
year? Find results of one poll and reasons for
liking certain seasons at http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/37929-what-is-your-favorite-season-of-the-year-why-please-specify-in-commen
Ancient civilizations are known to have engaged in a practice similar to modern
Daylight Saving Time where they would adjust their daily schedules in
accordance to the Sun. For example, the
Roman water clocks used different scales for different months of the year.
Benjamin Franklin is often
credited with being the inventor of DST. In his 1784 essay “An Economical Project for
Diminishing the Cost of Light” he proposed to economize the use of candles by
rising earlier in the morning to make use of the morning sunlight. Another major contributor to the invention of
DST was New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson. In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the
Wellington Philosophical Society that proposed a two-hour shift forward in
October and a two-hour shift back in March.
He followed up his proposal with an article in 1898, and although there
was interest in the idea, it was never followed through. Independently from Hudson, British builder
William Willett proposed the introduction of DST in 1905. He suggested moving the clocks forward by 20
minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the
same amount on each of four Sundays in September, a total of eight DST switches
per year. Willett’s Daylight Saving plan
caught the attention of Robert Pearce who introduced a bill to the House of
Commons in February 1908. The first
Daylight Saving Bill was drafted in 1909, presented to Parliament several times
and examined by a select committee.
However, the idea was opposed by many, especially farmers, and thus the
bill was never made into a law. Willett died
in 1915 without getting the chance to see his idea come to life. Germany was the first country to implement
DST. Clocks there were first turned
forward at 11:00 p.m. (23:00) on April 30, 1916. The rationale was to minimize the use of
artificial lighting in order to save fuel for the war effort during World War
I. The idea was quickly followed by
Britain and many other countries, including the United States. Many countries reverted back to standard time
post-World War I. It wasn’t until the next World War that DST made its return
in many countries in order to save vital energy resources for the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted
year-round DST in the United States, called “War Time” during World War II from
February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. The
law was enforced 40 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and during this
time, the U.S. time zones were called “Eastern War Time”, “Central War Time”,
and “Pacific War Time”. After the
surrender of Japan in mid-August 1945, the time zones were relabeled “Peace
Time”. Britain applied “Double
Summer Time” during World War II by moving the clocks two hours ahead of GMT
during the summer and one hour ahead of GMT during the winter. In the United States, DST caused widespread
confusion from 1945 to 1966 for trains, buses and the broadcasting industry
because states and localities were free to choose when and if they would
observe DST. Congress decided to end the
confusion and establish the Uniform
Time Act of 1966 that
stated DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday
of October. However, states still had
the ability to be exempt from DST by passing a local ordinance. The U.S. Congress extended DST to a period of
ten months in 1974 and eight months in 1975, in hopes to save energy following
the 1973 oil embargo. The trial period
showed that DST saved the energy equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil each day,
but DST still proved to be controversial. Many complained that the dark winter
mornings endangered the lives of children going to school. After the energy crisis was over in 1976, the
U.S. changed their DST schedule again to begin on the last Sunday in April. DST was amended again to begin on the first
Sunday in April in 1987. Further changes
were made after the introduction of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Daylight saving time is now implemented in
over seventy countries worldwide and affects over a billion people each
year. The beginning and end dates vary
from one country to another. The
European Union adopted the “Summer Time” period that was used in the United
Kingdom for many years, where DST begins on the last Sunday in March and ends
on the last Sunday in October. The DST
schedule in the U.S. was revised several times throughout the years. From 1987 to 2006, the country observed DST
for about seven months each year. The
current schedule was introduced in 2007 and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended the period by
about one month. Today, DST starts on
the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Currently, most of the United States observes
DST except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, as well as the U.S. insular areas of
Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam. http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html
READER FEEDBACK about the Oval Office being in a
room formerly used as a presidential library.
I beg to differ with Mr. Granger: Q: Did George Washington design the Oval Office? A: Architect Nathan C. Wyeth designed it by order
of President William Howard Taft in 1909.
From the Muser: I find no mention
of George Washington in The November Man, a novel by Bill Granger. George Washington never occupied the White
House. Architect James Hoban was named winner of the design
competition for The White House in 1792. The "elliptic salon" at the center
of the White House was the outstanding feature of Hoban's original plan. In November 1800, John Adams became the first President to occupy
the White House. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oval_Office
I believe the Oval Office
was the idea of Theodore Roosevelt, and there have been at least two locations
of the Oval Office.
When the West Wing caught fire in 1929, the original Oval Office was gutted along with
most of the rest of the building. It was
rebuilt by Hoover to the same design.
Franklin Roosevelt chose to renovate and further expand the West Wing to
accommodate additional staff in 1933. He
moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner in place of the laundry drying
yard. The new location had better light
and provided easier travel back and forth to the Residence.
READER FEEDBACK
to November Man Quotes shows an illustration of the couple from American Gothic
with the words "Trite is often true
and banal doesn't mean wrong"
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1196
September 26, 2014 On this date
in 1580, Sir Francis
Drake finished his
circumnavigation of the Earth. On this
date in 1789, Thomas
Jefferson was appointed the
first United States Secretary of State, John Jay was appointed the first Chief Justice of the United
States, Samuel
Osgood was appointed the
first United States Postmaster General,
and Edmund
Randolph was appointed the
first United States Attorney General.
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