Bonshō (Buddhist bells), also known as tsurigane (hanging bells) or ōgane (great bells) are large bells found in Buddhist temples throughout Japan, used to summon the monks to prayer and to demarcate periods of time.  Rather than containing a clapper, bonshō are struck from the outside, using either a handheld mallet or a beam suspended on ropes.  The bells are usually made from bronze, using a form of expendable mould casting.  They are typically augmented and ornamented with a variety of bosses, raised bands and inscriptions.  The earliest of these bells in Japan date to around 600 CE, although the general design is of much earlier Chinese origin and shares some of the features seen in ancient Chinese bells.  The bells' penetrating and pervasive tone carries over considerable distances, which led to their use as signals, timekeepers and alarms.  In addition, the sound of the bell is thought to have supernatural properties; it is believed, for example, that it can be heard in the underworld.  The spiritual significance of bonshō means that they play an important role in Buddhist ceremonies, particularly the New Year and Bon festivals.  Throughout Japanese history a number of these bells have become associated with stories and legends, both fictional, such as the Benkei Bell of Mii-dera, and historical, such as the bell of Hōkō-ji.  In modern times, bonshō have become symbols of world peace.  See pictures at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsh%C5%8D

November is Picture Book Month.  Think back and remember your favorite picture books.  One of mine was the Babar series.  Little ones still crave picture books--they point and smile.  Read essays on "Why Picture Books Are Important" by Robin Preiss Glasser, Chris Barton, Linda Joy Singleton, Kelly Bingham and many others at http://picturebookmonth.com/

Gregory "Greg" Rucka is a comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman, Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman:  World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Atticus Kodiak series.  Greg Rucka was born in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, in an area known to the locals as "Steinbeck Country".  He first discovered comics at the Nob Hill Market in Salinas, California, where at age five, he first saw digest-sized black and white reprints of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's work on The Incredible Hulk, which he convinced his mother to buy.  He began writing at a young age, and at age 10, he won a county-wide short story contest.  He graduated from Vassar College with an A.B. in English.  He then enrolled in the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program, graduating with an M.F.A.  He names Douglas Adams as his biggest influence. See Rucka's bibliography and awards at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Rucka

Edible Flowers Chart  How To Safely Choose Edible Flowers (sorted by fruit flowers, herb flowers and vegetable flowers)  http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

The Amazing Pattern Library  A PROJECT BY TIM HOLMAN & CLAUDIO GUGLIERI--COMPILES PATTERNS SHARED BY  DESIGNERS FOR YOU TO USE FREELY IN YOUR DESIGNS  One example:  http://thepatternlibrary.com/#nyc-candy

Originally, the Rainbow Room was so named because an organ was installed that projected colored lights with the music.  Today, the lighting and sound system is comparable to that of a Broadway production.  "It's literally a theater, in terms of its technical capability," says architect Michael Gabellini, pointing out hidden high-tech sub-woofer stereos and ‘gobos’ [templates used to manipulate light] -- a stage manager's dream.  The Rainbow Room is 800 feet up on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.  The architect considers the Rainbow Room the ‘pinnacle’ of his 15-year tenure at Rockefeller Center, which saw such successes as his Top of the Rock observation deck.  And after a years-long restoration process, the city landmark reopened for a private gala October 1st, 2014--then to the public on October 6th, with new owner-operator Tishman Speyer at the helm.  Gabellini cannot, in any way, alter the structure of the dining room since it was given protected status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2012.  Thus much of it -- the dance floor, the ceiling's dome, the staircase -- still dates back to its original architect Wallace K. Harrison, who conceived of it as an elegant club for dining and dancing shortly after the repeal of Prohibition.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-15/the-new-reimagined-rainbow-room-is-high-tech-familiar.html

A first-of-its-kind retailer called Doppelganger Labs is tentatively scheduled to open November 18, 2014 inside the Dayton Ohio Mall, offering customers a 3D body scan that can be used to create life-like figurines.  Doppelganger Labs and its Artec Shapify Booth will utilize 3D scanning equipment and software developed by Artec Group, an international firm that has demonstrated the technology mostly in Europe and Asia.  Customers stand motionless in a booth and are scanned on all sides by a series of digital cameras, creating a 3D file that can be used to make the figurines.  Rather than using lasers, the scanners utilize white light that is the same as light emitted from household light bulbs, and which poses “no safety risk,” Steblev said.  Mark Fisher  See picture at http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/new-dayton-mall-retailer-to-offer-3d-body-scan-dop/nh4ZN/

Thanks, Muse reader.

November 14, 2014  President Obama rattled the internet this week when he unloaded his opinion on net neutrality, the notion that all internet traffic should be treated equally.  But to really understand what’s going on here, you should return to a moment earlier this year, when many American had trouble watching movies and TV shows on Netflix.  U.S. consumers were paying internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for access to online applications like Netflix—which streams its movies and TV shows over the network—but the big ISPs weren’t letting that happen.  Instead, they were allowing back-end connection points—the middle ground between Netflix’s video servers and their customers —to become overwhelmed with data.  This meant that for many Verizon and Comcast customers, internet shows like “House of Cards” weren’t playing very well.  Netflix ended up paying the big internet service providers to solve its problem, but to those who believe in net neutrality, this was a worrying outcome.  It seemed as though the big ISPs were inappropriately flexing their power—charging content providers extra to make sure their programs played properly on the Verizon and Comcast networks, and holding customers hostage to boot.  That dispute, coupled with a January court ruling that forced the FCC to rework its net neutrality rules, set the stage for what’s become an all-out policy brawl over how we plan to regulate the internet here in the U.S., a fight that hit its apogee this week when Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to roll back more than a decade of policy, and treat the Verizons and Comcasts of the world as “telecommunications services” providers—the so-called Title II option, first laid out in the 1934 Telecommunications Act.  This idea freaks the ISPs out.  Since the early 2000s, the FCC has given them a bit of a regulatory pass, treating them as more-lightly regulated “information services” companies.  If they’re regulated under Title II, they’ll have less freedom to do what they want—and, they say, less incentive to continue expanding their networks.  But many believe that Title II is the only way to ensure that they don’t start playing with internet traffic in unfair ways.

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds of the debate, but the question before the FCC can be boiled down to pretty simple terms:  Are we happy with the state of America’s internet service providers and the way they conduct their business?  For consumers, that’s an easy question to answer.  Nobody seems to like the internet service providers.  That’s a big part of the reason why the FCC fielded about 4 million comments on net neutrality over the past six months.  Comcast was recently dubbed the “worst company in America,” by the Consumerist. AT&T is so uncompetitive that it can put the brakes on a 100-city fiber rollout, as it did this week, without feeling much pressure from business rivals.  A decade ago, the FCC said that less regulation would help deliver better consumer internet services, but that hasn’t panned out.  Internet service here is slipping.  Compared with countries such as Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands, we pay too much for not enough bandwidth.  But it all gets murkier when you look inside the internet’s data centers—home to the Netflix-Comcast dispute.  There, things have evolved amazingly well without government regulation.  Moving bits over the internet or caching them in facilities nearer to consumers has become incredibly cheap and effective, and it has paved the way for fast-moving era of innovation that’s made America the envy of the world.  If the big ISPs are messing with this success by gouging Netfilx and Google, then that’s a problem.  But conversely, if the FCC ends up fixing Netflix and Google’s problem with unwieldy regulations that hurt smaller companies, then Obama’s Title II option would backfire.  Robert McMillan  http://www.wired.com/2014/11/net_neutrality/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1217  November 14, 2014  On this date in 1765, Robert Fulton, American engineer and inventor, was born.  On this date in 1805, Fanny Mendelssohn, German pianist and composer, was born.