Taralli are toroidal Italian snack foods, common all over the southern half of the Italian Peninsula.  A cracker similar in texture to a breadstick, a pretzel, or a sushka, taralli can be sweet or savory.  Sweet taralli are sometimes glazed with sugar.  Savory taralli may be flavored with onion, garlic,sesame seeds, poppy seeds, fennel, pepper, chili or just salt.  Sweet and plain taralli are often dunked in wine.  Taralli are classically formed into rings or ovals about 10 to 12.5 cm (3.9 to 4.9 in) in circumference.  Smaller taralli, called tarallini, with a circumference of 3.8 to 7.8 cm (1.5 to 3.1 in), are sold commercially.  Similar to bagels, they are briefly boiled before being baked, which gives them a very interesting texture.  Baked taralli can be kept in an airtight container for several months.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taralli  Find recipe for taralli at http://blog.italian-connection.com/italian-food-culture/traditional-taralli-recipe-from-puglia

The White Settlement (TX) city council has voted to remove a cat who has lived in the city’s library for the past six years. Despite an outpouring of support for Browser the cat in the form of children’s petitions and voters’ protests, the city council voted 2-1 to give the feline his papers.  Eight members of the audience also spoke in favor of keeping the cat in the library.  A petition signed by 618 people who wanted to keep Browser in the library was also mentioned, according to the report.  It was argued that he should stay because he helped with pest control and attracted children to the library.  Those against having Browser in the library brought up the issue of people with cat allergies. http://us.tomonews.com/texas-city-council-votes-to-evict-resident-cat-from-city-library-3088328

Cyber enemies become cyber friends and scrub their social media rants when they decide to support a certain candidate they formerly opposed.  For scrubbing negative search results, see http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/us/uc-davis-scrubbing-google.html?_r=0

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tax database provides comparative information on a range of tax statistics--tax revenues, personal income taxes, non-tax compulsory payments, corporate and capital income taxes and taxes on consumption--that are levied in the 34 OECD member countries.  Each country provides detailed information on the data presented within the personal income tax rates, social security contributions, and corporate and capital income tax tables.  This information can be found within explanatory annex documents:  Personal income tax rates - Tables I.1-I.4 (updated May 2016) Corporate and capital income tax - Tables II.1-II.4 (updated May 2016) Social security contributions - Tables III.1–III.3 (updated May 2016) http://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/tax-database.htm

Dave DeChristopher Writes Winning Short for FUSION Theater's Short Works Festival--Local playwright wins national contest by Amanda Schmidt   FUSION, a theater company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, holds a short works contest once a year, inviting playwrights around the world to submit their one act plays.  This year’s theme, strange bedfellows, is a topic likely to inspire comedic moments.  “I really like farce and I also really like short form,” said DeChristopher.  His play, Juno Agonistes, was selected from about 500 submissions from around the world.  Seven plays were deemed winners and put into production during FUSION’s “The Seven” short works festival, which took place June 9 -12, 2016. http://www.toledocitypaper.com/June-Issue-3-2016/Dave-DeChristopher-Writes-Winning-Short-for-FUSION-Theaters-Short-Works-Festival/#Theater

To take a statement with 'a grain of salt' or 'a pinch of salt' means to accept it but to maintain a degree of skepticism about its truth.  The idea comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt.  Pliny the Elder translated an ancient antidote for poison with the words 'be taken fasting, plus a grain of salt'.  Pliny’s Naturalis Historia  translates thus:  After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect:  Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.  The suggestion is that injurious effects can be moderated by the taking of a grain of salt.  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/take-with-a-grain-of-salt.html

Claude Elwood Shannon (1916–2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory".  Shannon is noted for having founded information theory with a landmark paper that he published in 1948.  He is perhaps equally well known for founding digital circuit design theory in 1937, when, as a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he wrote his thesis demonstrating that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical, numerical relationship.  Shannon contributed to the field of cryptanalysis for national defense during World War II, including his basic work on codebreaking and secure telecommunications.  In 1932, Shannon entered the University of Michigan, where he took a course that introduced him to the work of George Boole.  He graduated in 1936 with two bachelor's degrees, in electrical engineering and mathematics.  In 1936, Shannon began his graduate studies in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked on Vannevar Bush's differential analyzer, an early analog computer.  While studying the complicated ad hoc circuits of this analyzer, Shannon designed switching circuits based on Boole's concepts.  In 1937, he wrote his master's degree thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits.  A paper from this thesis was published in 1938.  In this work, Shannon proved that his switching circuits could be used to simplify the arrangement of the electromechanical relays that were used then in telephone call routing switches.  Next, he expanded this concept, proving that these circuits could solve all problems that Boolean algebra could solve.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon

The Claude E. Shannon Award of the IT Society has been institued to honor consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory.  Each Shannon Award winner is expected to present a Shannon Lecture at the following IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory.  Transcripts of some of the lectures are available on-line.  Find list of winners at http://www.itsoc.org/honors/claude-e-shannon-award

The Supreme Court of the United States final SCOTUSblog Stat Pack for October Term 2015 by Kedar Bhatia   This year, the fifty-page Stat Pack includes information about, among other things, the rate of unanimity, the number of opinions written by each Justice, agreement among different Justices, and how opinions were distributed in each sitting.  You can download the Stat Pack in its entirety.  You can also view each section of the Stat Pack individually.  http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/06/final-october-term-2015-stat-pack/  Find articles and opinions analyzed at http://www.scotusblog.com/

A comic strip writer who is a Superman super-fan has donated his collection of about 17,000 pieces for a permanent exhibit dedicated to the Man of Steel at Cleveland's main library.  Seventy-five years' worth of Superman memorabilia was boxed up by Arkansas native Mike Curtis and sent by truck to the Cleveland Public Library, where staff will put together an exhibit honoring the hero's creators.  High school friends Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came up with the character in Cleveland in the 1930s and spent many hours at the public library.  Curtis is in the comic book business himself as the author of a syndicated Dick Tracy strip.  http://www.cantonrep.com/news/20160704/rare-superman-items-donated-to-cleveland-library

PBS edited its live broadcast July 4, 2016 of the fireworks in Washington, D.C. to show fireworks bursting in clear air on a night in which the weather was dominated by fog, low clouds and misting rain.  Viewers in the Washington area quickly noticed the discrepancy and took to Twitter to call PBS' annual A Capitol Fourth show a fake.  While scenes of performers and the audience on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol all seemed live, with a cloudy backdrop, much of the fireworks imagery we saw in a cursory review seems to have been pulled from archives.  The public broadcaster acknowledged intercutting old footage with its live broadcast shortly after the show ended, saying in a tweet, "We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years.  It was the patriotic thing to do."  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/05/484769126/should-pbs-have-shown-old-fireworks-footage-in-its-july-4th-show

News from the Library of Congress  Acting Librarian of Congress David Mao announced on July 5, 2016 that Smokey Robinson is the next recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.  Robinson, whose career has spanned more than 50 years, is considered the poet laureate of soul.  His velvet falsetto and incomparable mastery of lyrical verse have created a tapestry of hits that have transcended generations and become a mainstay in American pop music.  As a producer, record executive and visionary, Robinson helped lead a musical revolution called the Motown sound.  Robinson will receive the prize in Washington, D.C., in November, 2016.  The Gershwin Prize honors a living musical artist’s lifetime achievement in promoting the genre of song as a vehicle of cultural understanding; entertaining and informing audiences; and inspiring new generations.  Previous recipients are Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney, songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and the late Hal David, Carole King, Billy Joel and Willie Nelson.  "As a singer, songwriter, producer and record executive, Smokey Robinson is a musical legend," said Acting Librarian of Congress David S. Mao.  "His rich melodies are works of art—enduring, meaningful and powerful.  And he is a master at crafting lyrics that speak to the heart and soul, expressing ordinary themes in an extraordinary way.  It is that quality in his music that makes him one of the greatest poetic songwriters of our time."  "It gives me such joy and gratitude to be included among the past recipients of this most prestigious songwriting award," Robinson said.  http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-106.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1492  July 6, 2016  On this date in 1854, in Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party was held.  On this date in 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles.  Word of the Day  Eid al-Fitr proper noun  (Islam) The religious celebration at the end of Ramadan, on the first day of the tenth month of the Muslim lunar calendar.  For many Muslims, Eid al-Fitr falls on July 6, 2016.