September 8, 2017  FACEBOOK MAY HAVE MORE RUSSIAN TROLL FARMS TO WORRY ABOUT by Issie Lapowsky   When in comes to Russian propaganda, things are seldom what they seem.  Consider the case of the Internet Research Agency.  The shadowy St. Petersburg-based online-influence operation came under fresh scrutiny this week after Facebook disclosed that entities linked to Russia had placed some 5,000 phony political ads on its platform during the 2016 election cycle.  The IRA, which was the subject of a 2015 New York Times Magazine investigation, may have been behind many of the bogus Facebook ads, the company says.  Of course, things aren’t as simple as that. Russian corporate records indicate Internet Research Agency has been inactive since December 2016.  But that doesn’t mean that Russians no longer engage in such activity.  According to Russia researchers at the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress, there’s reason to believe the Internet Research Agency is operating under a new name:  Glavset.  https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-may-have-more-russian-troll-farms-to-worry-about/

CONUS  Continental United States  OCONUS  Outside the continental United States  POTUS  President of the United States--coined by Walter P. Phillips in 1879  FLOTUS  First Lady of the United States

SCOTUS Supreme Court of the United States--coined by Walter P. Phillips in 1879

Walter P. Phillips, born in Grafton, Massachusetts in 1846, was a journalist, telegraph operator, and businessman who invented the Phillips Code.  He later became the head of the United Press.  The most well known remnants of the Phillips Code are the terms POTUSand SCOTUS.   Little is known about his early years, but he did not have much schooling.  He left school at age twelve and went to work on a farm.  Several years later, in 1861, he was hired by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in Providence as a messenger.  Phillips worked his way up in the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and became known as an "expert telegrapher," respected for his speed in sending and receiving messages.  By 1868, he was working for the Western Union Telegraph office in Providence, where his skill caught the attention of Samuel F. B. Morse.  Phillips was the winner of several telegraphy contests; in one contest, he accurately transcribed more than 2700 words in one hour, earning him a personal letter from Morse, along with a gift; the letter praised Phillips for his "dexterity" in the use of Morse code as well as his "faultless manner of recording" messages.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_P._Phillips

“I've got everything I need.  That's the definition of affluence.”  #15 in the Jack Reacher series of novels by Lee Child

Keep Calm and Carry On.  But people haven't kept calm.  This wartime slogan was first resold as a poster in 2001.  Then it made its way on to mugs, T-shirts, tea towels, mouse mats, aprons, and all manner of other items.  It soon started to be parodied.  One of the first--Now Panic and Freak Out--had at least a vague whiff of originality in 2008.  But five years on and the variants are in the thousands.  Keep Calm And Have a Cupcake.  Keep Calm And Have a Beer.  Keep Calm And Do the Dishes.  For Star Wars fans, the Yoda-inspired Calm You Shall Keep and Carry On You Must.  Amazon lists 442,000 items with "Keep Calm and" in the title.  Two-and-a-half million copies of "Keep Calm" were printed, to be distributed in the event of a national catastrophe, but remained in storage throughout the war.  It was all but forgotten until 2000, when a copy was discovered in a box of books bought at auction by Stuart Manley, a bookseller from Northumberland.  Tom Heyden  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21667348

Ricotta is an Italian fresh cheese made from sheep, cow, goat or buffalo’s milk whey left over from the production of cheese.  Since the casein is filtered away from whey during cheese making process, ricotta is suitable for persons with casein intolerance.  Being low in fat and high in protein, ricotta is a dieter’s dream cheese.  Traditional Italian fresh ricotta is smoother than cottage cheese and tastes mildly sweet.  Ricotta is a popular ingredient in many Italian dishes like lasagna, manicotti, cassata, cheesecake, calzone, pizza, and ravioli and dips.  It is also suitable as a sauce thickener.  https://cheese.com/fresh-ricotta/

Surprisingly, it takes half a gallon of milk to get 1 1/2 cups of fresh ricotta. For the moistest, lightest consistency, let the curds drain only as long as specified.  Find recipe for making fresh ricotta cheese at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/fresh-ricotta-cheese-351041

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily.  It sits right next to the French island of Corsica.  I have a strong fondness for Sardinia for many reasons.  I love the natural beauty of the island, from the rugged mountainous interior to the pristine aquamarine beaches.  I love that the island is steeped in a rich history and has 1850 kilometres of coastline.  I’m also interested in the inhabitants because they have a considered way of eating--locally and seasonally.  Sardinia, just like Okinawa in Japan, is a Blue Zone.  A Blue Zone is where there is a concentrated population of permanent residents that have the highest level of centenarians (100 years old) or super centenarians (over 100 years old) in the world.  When I first visited Sardinia in 2004, I found it curious to see very elderly folk physically working.  They were farming, working on the streets and working in kitchens.  Why do Sardinians live so long?  I reckon it has a lot to do with their diet and lifestyle.  Sardinians eat locally grown food, mostly vegetables and not too much.  Generally, they don’t overindulge in alcohol, sweets or processed foods.  Sardinians keep their stress levels in check, and they are usually very calm, kind, generous and healthy folk.  I have developed this recipe with Cassola (Sardinian seafood stew) in mind and I have used our locally available seafood.  However, I have picked up a packet of fregola pasta at a local deli.  This is true Sardinian rolled semolina pasta.  You could use cous cous or the larger Israeli cous cous here instead.  Unlike mainland Italy, Sardinians are known for serving seafood dishes with cheese.  When serving, you may like to finely grate some pecorino or parmesan cheese over the seafood and finish with fennel fronds.  Brenda Fawdon  Find recipe for Sardinian Seafood, Fennel and Fregola at https://realfoodschool.com.au/sardinian-seafood-fennel-and-fregola/

Pane carasau is a traditional Sardinian flat bread, unmistakable for its thin, crispy sheets.  Because it has a long storage life, the bread was used by sheepherders during the long periods they spent taking care of their herds.  Pane carasau is ancient flat bread also known as “carta musica” (sheet music) due to its resemblance to the parchment paper that sacred music was written on.  Traces of the bread were found in the nuraghi (traditional Sardinian stone buildings) and it was therefore already in existence before 1000 BC.  Pane carasau, from the Sardinian “carasare”, which refers to the crush of bread, is without a doubt the most famous Sardinian bread in the world.  After having prepared the dough, it had to be rolled out into very thin sheets that were baked in a very hot oven (840°-930°F) until it puffed up like a ball.  Still today, these disks of bread have to be removed from the oven, and with great skill, cut along their circumference and divided into sheets.  The sheets are then stacked one on top of another with the pourous side facing the outside.  The bread is then baked another time to obtain its crispiness and characteristic color, or carasatura.  In the past, having been prepared for the sheepherders that had to attend their herds, the bread was folded in half during cooking, when the bread was still flexible, to reduce its size and allowing for it to fit in a knap sack.  http://www.academiabarilla.com/the-italian-food-academy/bread-pasta-starchy-foods/pane-carasau.aspx

Carbon dating shows an ancient Indian manuscript has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol.  The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought.  The zero symbol evolved from a dot used in ancient India and can be seen throughout the Bakhshali manuscript.  Other ancient cultures like the Mayans and Babylonians also used zero symbols, but the dot the Bakhshali manuscript developed a hollow centre to become the symbol we use today.  It was also only in India where the zero developed into a number in its own right, the Bodleian Libraries added.  Bodleian Libraries said scholars had previously struggled to date it because it is made of 70 leaves of birch bark and composed of material from three different periods.  The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902.  The creation of zero was one of the "greatest breakthroughs" in mathematics, Prof Marcus Du Sautoy of the University of Oxford said.  See picture of manuscript at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41265057

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1771  September 19, 2017  On this date in 1778, the Continental Congress passed the first United States federal budget.  On this date in 1796, George Washington's Farewell Address was printed across America as an open letter to the public.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_19