Sailing stones, sliding rocks, and moving
rocks all
refer to a geological phenomenon where
rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human
or animal intervention. The stones move
only every two or three years and most tracks develop over three or four
years. Stones with rough bottoms leave
straight striated tracks while those with smooth
bottoms tend to wander. Stones sometimes
turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different track in
the stone's wake. Trails differ in both
direction and length. Rocks that start
next to each other may travel parallel for a time, before one abruptly changes
direction to the left, right, or even back to the direction from which it
came. Trail length also varies – two
similarly sized and shaped rocks may travel uniformly, then one could move
ahead or stop in its track. Tracks of
sliding rocks have been observed and studied in various locations, including
Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada, and most notably Racetrack Playa, Death Valley
National Park, California.
Read more and see pictures at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones
Boulders of natural concrete by Sarah Griffiths
The Māoris explained the presence of
almost perfectly spherical boulders on Koekohe Beach, on the South island of New Zealand, as eel
baskets washed up from an enormous, sunken canoe. But the
science behind the unusual rocks is much stranger. The Moeraki Boulders, measuring up to three metres in
diameter, were in fact formed from ancient sea sediments around 60 million
years ago. Found on New Zealand's Otago
coast in isolation as well as clusters, the formations have been
exposed through shoreline erosion from the coastal cliffs that frame the
beach. Experts say the unusual rocks are
the result of erosion, time and concretion - when a compact mass of sedimentary
rock is formed by the precipitation of natural mineral cement within the spaces
between sediment grains. See about a
dozen pictures at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2385913/The-mysterious-Moeraki-Boulders-Maori-legend-natural-concrete-date-60-MILLION-years.html
The Greek prefix peri
means around or near. Examples: perimeter, periscope, perigee,
perihelion. The Greek suffix ize means to make, to do something
with. Examples: hypothesize, itemize, hospitalize,
winterize. Find a list of Greek prefixes
and suffixes at http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/Wordpower/handouts/gkaffix.pdf
A smoketree (Cotinus coggygriaI)
is a multi-stemmed small tree that turns
a smoky pink color from June through August.
Leaves are showy, turning from medium blue-green to yellow-red-purple in
the fall. http://www.arborday.org/treeguide/treeDetail.cfm?ID=32
"Creosote bush" (Larrea tridentata) is named for its
olfactory similarity to the pungent wood preservative used on fence posts and
telephone poles. "Cheese bush" (Hymenoclea salsola),
another common aromatic shrub, actually smells like cheese. "Cheese-weed"
(Malva parviflora)
produces wheel-shaped fruits composed of one-seeded sections. The sections fit together like a wheel of
cheese.
The first Long Night Against
Procrastination
was held at the European University Viadrina, Germany in 2010 as a way of
supporting students academically. At
the University of Manitoba, they advertised the 2014 event this way: A free, all-night event providing a safe and quiet
study/writing space for students at a critical point in the semester. Reference librarians and writing tutors will
be available to work with students to help them make progress with their
papers. Light refreshments will be
provided at midnight and prizes drawn throughout the night. Greg Landgraf http://umanitoba.ca/longnight/
"Procrastination control" and
"breaking down walls" are just two of many phrases used in articles
about this widespread trend.
German vehicle-maker Daimler has an innovative approach to holiday email, which
many people about to return from holiday may well wish their company would
copy, writes William Kremer. There ought
to be a word - and perhaps there is, in German - for the mix of feelings that
accompanies composing and activating a holiday out-of-office message. There's smugness, of course, and a gratifying
sense of laying down one's virtual tools after a horribly long shift. But for many of us, these nice feelings are
tempered by the knowledge that in two weeks, refreshed but depressed, we will
have to trawl through hundreds of emails, many of which will be conference room
notifications for meetings about crises that have passed. But for employees at Daimler things are a
little different. Email these people
while they are on holiday and you will get a message like this: I am on vacation. I cannot read your email. Your email is being deleted. Please contact Hans or Monika if it's really
important, or resend the email after I'm back in the office. Danke Schoen.
Apparently, people receiving such a notification rarely get angry. "The response is basically 99% positive,
because everybody says, 'That's a real nice thing, I would love to have that
too,'" Daimler spokesman Oliver Wihofszki told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The auto-delete policy - which is optional -
follows a piece of government-funded research on work-life balance, which
Daimler carried out in 2010 and 2011 with psychologists from the University of
Heidelberg. The company now trains
managers to set a good work-life example, and encourages them to set aside time
when no meetings can be scheduled. This
is supposed to be a time when workers can concentrate on their job, or take
time off for any extra hours they have spent in the office. Daimler's move follows Volkswagen's decision
to turn email off after office hours and new guidelines in France ordering
workers in some sectors to ignore work emails when they go home. It's not pure altruism though, as the company explained when the policy was
launched: "The aim of
the project is to maintain the balance between the work and home life of
Daimler employees so as to safeguard their performance in the long
run." http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28786117
Stonehenge secrets revealed by underground map bArchaeologists
have unveiled the most detailed map ever produced of the earth beneath
Stonehenge and its surrounds. They combined different instruments to scan the area to a
depth of three metres, with unprecedented resolution. Early results suggest that the monument was
accompanied by 17 neighbouring shrines.
Among the surprises yielded by the research are traces of up to 60 huge
stones or pillars which formed part of the 1.5km-wide "super henge"
previously identified at nearby Durrington Walls.
Read more and see graphics at http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29126854
Saturday Night Live became an unlikely symbol for one opponent of the proposed campaign
finance amendment, now before the Senate, which is intended to counter the Supreme
Court’s decision in the Citizens United case and limit corporations in engaging
in political speech. Looking to mount a
defense for corporate interests, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said
the amendment might make it a “criminal offense” for “S.N.L.” to engage in
political satire because it is a show owned by NBC, which is a
corporation. Mr. Cruz suggested that
Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” could be jailed for
making fun of any politician if the amendment were to become law.
Barbra Streisand is going to be on the ‘Tonight
Show’ for the first time in more than 50 years by Barbra Streisand will be Jimmy
Fallon’s only guest on Sept. 15, 2014 when she appears to promote her new
album, “Partners,” which comes out Sept. 16. The last time she was on the show, she was
promoting her debut album with Johnny Carson in 1963. Find
the track listing for “Partners” and link to a 2:22 video
of Streisand singing “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” with Josh Groban at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/11/barbra-streisand-is-going-to-be-on-the-tonight-show-for-the-first-time-in-50-years/?tid=hp_mm&hpid=z3
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1190
September 12, 2014 On this date
in 1609, Henry Hudson began his exploration of the Hudson River while
aboard the Halve Maen. On this date in 1910, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich premiered with a chorus of
852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players.
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