New research shows economic growth to be main driver of language extinction and reveals global ‘hotspots’ where languages are most under threat.  The study’s authors urge for “immediate attention” to be paid to hotspots in the most developed countries – such as north Australia and the north-western corners of the US and Canada – where conservation efforts should be focused.  They also point to areas of the tropics and Himalayan regions that are undergoing rapid economic growth as future hotspots for language extinction, such as Brazil and Nepal.  The study is published September 2, 2014 in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B.  The researchers used the criteria for defining endangered species to measure rate and prevalence of language loss, as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  The three main risk components are:  small population size (small number of speakers), small geographical habitat range and population change – in this case, the decline in speaker numbers.  By interrogating huge language datasets using these conservation mechanisms, the researchers found that levels of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita correlated with the loss of language diversity:  the more successful economically, the more rapidly language diversity was disappearing.  “As economies develop, one language often comes to dominate a nation’s political and educational spheres.  People are forced to adopt the dominant language or risked being left out in the cold – economically and politically,” said Dr Tatsuya Amato, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140902205228.htm

In April, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany.  In addition to sending troops to fight in Europe, Americans waged war on the language of the enemy at home.  Boycotting German was the first step in the campaign, but legislating against the language quickly followed.  Scribner’s was urged to publish no German titles during the war.  Sheet music dealers refused to handle German songs.  At least one American Berlin was renamed Liberty.  Even German foods were rebranded.  Just as later, during the Iraq War, French fries would become freedom fries, in the America of World War I, German fried potatoes became American fries, sauerkraut morphed into liberty cabbage, and superpatriots even caught the liberty measles.  In addition, new laws regulated the use of foreign languages.  Responding to a growing sentiment that using anything but English gave aid and comfort to the enemy, the Trading with the Enemy Act (50 USC Appendix), passed in June, 1917, suppressed the American foreign-language press and declared non-English printed matter unmailable without a certified English translation.  Across the country, state and local ordinances forbade the use of foreign languages, urged immigrants to switch to English immediately, and punished those who failed to comply.  On May 23, 1918, Iowa Gov. William Harding banned the use of any foreign language in public:  in schools, on the streets, in trains, even over the telephone, a more public instrument then than it is today.  For Harding, the First Amendment “is not a guaranty of the right to use a language other than the language of this country—the English language.”  Harding’s English-only order covered freedom of religion as well:  “Let those who cannot speak or understand the English language conduct their religious worship in their home.”  And he told one reporter, “There is no use in anyone wasting his time praying in other languages than English.  God is listening only to the English tongue.”  Speaking in Des Moines five days later, former president Theodore Roosevelt endorsed Harding’s “Babel Proclamation,” introducing a phrase that would become a refrain of today’s official English movement:  America is a nation—not a polyglot boarding house. . . . There can be but one loyalty—to the Stars and Stripes; one nationality—the American—and therefore only one language—the English language.  Such attitudes had a chilling effect on language use.  18,000 people were charged in the Midwest with violating the various new English-only statutes.  After the war the US Supreme Court threw out laws in Nebraska and Ohio banning foreign-language education (Meyer v. Nebraska [262 US 390] 1923), but the damage was already done.  Before World War I, 25% of American high school students studied German.  By 1922, that figure had plummeted to 0.6%, a level from which it never recovered.   Denis Baron  Read much more at http://illinois.edu/blog/view/25

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A French pastry chef invented the Boston Cream Pie at the city's Parker House Hotel.  It is a cake, not a pie.  Find recipe at http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Boston-Cream-Pie

Parker House Rolls originated in the Parker House Hotel (now the Omni Hotel) in downtown Boston, at the corner of School Street and Tremont.  Originally five stories tall, the hotel was founded in 1855 by a Harvey D. Parker.  The hotel expanded to fourteen stories in 1927, in the same location, without closing.  The rolls appeared by the mid-1870s, a creation of an in-house German baker whose last name was Ward. 

http://www.cooksinfo.com/parker-house-rolls  Find one recipe for Parker House Rolls at http://busycooks.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/parkerhouseroll.htm

German Chocolate Cake is an American creation that contains the key ingredients of sweet baking chocolate, coconut, and pecans.  This cake was not brought to the American Midwest by German immigrants. The cake took its name from an American with the last name of  "German."  In 1852, Sam German created the mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker's Chocolate Company in 1852.  The company name the chocolate in his honor - "Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate."  http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/GermanChocolateCake.htm  On June 3, 1957, a recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" appeared as the "Recipe of the Day" in the Dallas Morning Star.  It was created by Mrs. George Clay from Dallas, Texas.  This recipe used the baking chocolate introduced 105 years prior and became quite popular.  General Foods, which owned the Baker's brand at the time, took notice and distributed the cake recipe to other newspapers in the country.  Sales of Baker's Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73% and the cake would become a national staple. The possessive form (German's) was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the "German Chocolate Cake" identity we know today and giving the false impression of a German origin.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake

At Carnegie Hall, it is the stage that matters, but during the venue’s season-opening gala on October 1, 2014, the roof stole the show.  After a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic, guests walked outside to 57th Street and followed a red carpet around the block to the back of the building.  Then, in an elevator large enough to hold a piano, they were whisked up to the newly renovated upper floors that now contain the Resnick Education Wing and the Weill Terrace, a 10,000-square-foot outdoor space.  An outdoor party needs a tent, of course, and Carnegie Hall now owns the mother of them all.  On the terrace was a 28-foot structure that uses technology developed to help the military build things like airplane hangars, according to Colin Touhey, chief executive of Brooklyn-based Pvilion, which created it.  The tent uses inflatable beams, rather than more cumbersome aluminum ones, and Mr. Touhey said the setup is as simple as unrolling and inflating.  The new party spaces, including the tent, allow Carnegie Hall to have a rentable, income-generating banquet room, said executive and artistic director Clive Gillinson.  In addition to the physical additions, the hall on October 2, 2014 announced a new agreement with Medici.tv, which webcasts live classical-music performances.  Pia Catton  http://online.wsj.com/articles/carnegie-hall-blow-the-roof-off-1412299061

Eight years after it was kicked out of the planetary big boys' club, Pluto is still going through an identity crisis, as the scientific community is still in a heated debate over its status as a dwarf planet.  But Pluto could possibly be re-classified with a planetary status once again, if the folks over at the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is in charge of classifying the heavenly bodies, heed the results of a vote by the general public that says Pluto is a planet.  The vote was held at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where three planetary scientists held a discussion on the classification of Pluto.  Owen Gingerich, a former chair of the IAU planet definition committee, takes the historical viewpoint and says that "a planet is a culturally defined word that changes over time."  His view is countered by Gareth Williams, associate director at the Minor Planet Center, who defended the IAU's decision to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet based on three criteria.  For a celestial body to be considered a planet, it should orbit around the sun, should be round or near-round in shape, and should be the largest object within its neighborhood and must not be anywhere near another body of similar size and shape.  Pluto meets the first two qualifications but fails to satisfy the third as several other dwarf planets lurk just an astronomical stone's throw away.  Pluto was first classified as a planet in 1930, but skeptics surfaced in the 1970s pointing out to the existence of bigger planets in Pluto's surroundings.  Eris, the biggest dwarf planet in our solar system, is 27 percent larger than Pluto, which has a radius of only 750 miles, or just one-fifth of the radius of the Earth.  Nicole Arce

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/17093/20141003/yes-no-harvard-astronomers-kick-up-storm-by-claiming-pluto-is-indeed-a-planet.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1199  October 3, 2014  On this date in 1955, The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC.  On this date in 1964, the first buffalo wings were made at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.