Highbrow, Lowbrow, Middlebrow — Do These Kinds of Cultural Categories Mean Anything Anymore? by Thomas Mallon and Pankaj Mishra   According to the world’s No. 1 unibrow reference tool, Wikipedia, the term “highbrow” was popularized in 1902 by Will Irvin, a reporter for the New York newspaper The Sun, who “adhered to the phrenological notion of more intelligent people having high foreheads.”  “Highbrow” spawned “lowbrow” and “middlebrow,” the last of these standing for something blandly conventional, lacking either refined distinction or raw energy.  Read more and link to comments at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/books/review/highbrow-lowbrow-middlebrow-do-these-kinds-of-cultural-categories-mean-anything-anymore.html

MyPlate replaces MyPyramid as the government's primary food group symbol.  Link to many resources including the five food groups that make up MyPlate and a history of USDA food guides beginning in 1916 at http://www.nutrition.gov/smart-nutrition-101/myplate-food-pyramid-resources

Names for Large Numbers  The English names for large numbers are coined from the Latin names for small numbers n by adding the ending -illion suggested by the name "million."  In the American system for naming large numbers, the name coined from the Latin number n applies to the number 10³ⁿ⁺³.  In a system traditional in many European countries, the same name applies to the number 10⁶ⁿ.  In particular, a billion is 10⁹ = 1 000 000 000 in the American system and 10¹² = 1 000 000 000 000 in the European system.  For 10⁹, Europeans say "thousand million" or "milliard."  Although we describe the two systems today as American or European, both systems are actually of French origin.  The French physician and mathematician Nicolas Chuquet (1445-1488) apparently coined the words byllion and tryllion and used them to represent 10¹² and 10¹⁸, respectively, thus establishing what we now think of as the "European" system.  However, it was also French mathematicians of the 1600's who used billion and trillion for 10⁹ and 10¹², respectively.  This usage became common in France and in America, while the original Chuquet nomenclature remained in use in Britain and Germany.  The French decided in 1948 to revert to the Chuquet ("European") system, leaving the U.S. as the chief standard bearer for what then became clearly an American system.  In recent years, American usage has eroded the European system, particularly in Britain and to a lesser extent in other countries.  This is primarily due to American finance, because Americans insist that $1 000 000 000 be called a billion dollars.  In 1974, the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that henceforth "billion" would mean 10⁹ and not 10¹² in official British reports and statistics.  The Times of London style guide now defines "billion" as "one thousand million, not a million million."  In science, the names of large numbers are usually avoided completely by using the appropriate SI prefixes.  http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/prefixes.html  The result of all this is widespread confusion.  Find a chart with American names, European names and proposed Greek-based names at http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html

The International System of Units (SI)

All systems of weights and measures, metric and non-metric, are linked through a network of international agreements supporting the International System of Units.  The International System is called the SI, using the first two initials of its French name Système International d' Unités.   The key agreement is the Treaty of the Meter signed in Paris on May 20, 1875.  Forty-eight  nations have now signed this treaty, including all the major industrialized countries.  The United States is a charter member of this metric club, having signed the original document.  http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html

The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema--the greatest films not in the English language, a countdown  http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/

RCA's first experimental television transmissions began in 1928 by station W2XBS  New York in Van Cortlandt Park and then moved to the New Amsterdam Theater Building, transmitting 60 line pictures in the new 2-3 mHz band allocated to television.  A 13" Felix the Cat figure placed on a record player turntable and was broadcast using a mechanical scanning disk to a scanning disk receiver.  The image received was only 2 inches tall, and the broadcasts lasted about 2 hours per day.  By 1931 the station became part of NBC and began to transmit from 42nd St.  These early broadcasts consisted of objects like Felix the Cat http://www.earlytelevision.org/felix.html or early test patterns and photographs.  Read much more and see many graphics at http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_field_trls.html

The word “icon” refers to many different things today.  For example, we use this word to refer to the small graphic symbols in our software and to powerful cultural figures.  Nevertheless, these different meanings retain a connection to the word's original meaning.  “Icon” is Greek for “image” or “painting” and during the medieval era, this meant a religious image on a wooden panel used for prayer and devotion.  More specifically, icons came to typify the art of the Orthodox Christian Church.   “Iconoclasm” refers to the destruction of images or hostility toward visual representations in general. 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/byzantine1/beginners-guide-byzantine/a/iconoclastic-controversies

300 Cultural Icons:  Great Artists, Writers & Thinkers in Their Own Words  Link to audios and videos at http://www.openculture.com/cultural_icons

Use of the word iconic (meaning whatever you want it to mean) is increasing.  Two examples:  "MOCA Cleveland's iconic new home is open in Cleveland's emerging Uptown district."  An ad by McDonald's showed signs outside their restaurants, including messages of support after devastating events.  Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA, thought the ad was effective because it used the "iconic imagery" of the Golden Arches.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, better known by its acronym, MOCA, is a contemporary art museum located in Cleveland, Ohio.  Founded in 1968 by Marjorie Talalay, Agnes Gund, and Nina Castelli Sundell as The New Gallery, the museum was renamed the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art in 1984.  In order to expand its exhibition space, in 1990 the museum moved to a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) former Sears store on Carnegie Avenue that is now part of the Cleveland Play House complex which was renovated by Richard Fleischman + Partners Architects, Inc. to retrofit the space.  In 2002, CCCA changed its name to Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.  On October 8, 2012 the new $27.2 million home for MOCA opened to the public at the corner of Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue  The new building was designed by world-famous London architect Farshid Moussavi.  The museum's new location, adjacent to Little Italy in University Circle, places it in the city's cultural hub.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art_Cleveland

Another fake apology:  "I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet."  http://thehill.com/homenews/house/229368-republican-apologies-for-hitler-tweet

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1243  January 14, 2015  On this date in 1973, Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii was broadcast live via satellite, and set the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.  On this date in 2005, the Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan.