June 5, 2018  Days on Earth are getting longer as the moon moves further away, giving people slightly more time to accomplish their daily tasks.  A new study reconstructed the history of the relationship between the Earth and the moon, showing how the moon has affected the Earth over a period of 1.4 billion years.  Earth days, apparently, will just keep getting longer from here on out.  According to the new study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a day on Earth only lasted just a bit more than 18 hours around 1.4 billion years ago.  Back then, the moon was closer to the Earth, changing the way the planet spun on its axis.  Aaron Mamiit  http://www.techtimes.com/articles/229409/20180605/earth-days-getting-longer-thanks-to-the-moon.htm

The Natural Enemy of the Librarian by Marvin J. Taylor with Andrea Geyer  Uplifting monument or waste of space?  Philip Johnson’s Bobst Library and a conflict between professions, a shift from book warehouses to social hubs.  Photographs by Andrea Geyer.   I have worked in Elmer Holmes Bobst Library and Study Center, New York University’s main research library, on Washington Square Park, for twenty-four years.  I have always found the design of the building beautiful—more so than just about any other library building I have been in.  Every day I walk through the revolving doors and gaze immediately upward toward the series of cascading bronze stairs, which ascend twelve stories.  I stand in the ten-thousand-square-foot chasm, which is encircled with clinical precision by shimmering catwalks.  The pattern of black, white, and gray marble on the ground floor resembles an Escher drawing viewed through the lens of the Italian Renaissance.  The stark simplicity of the railings and the harsh, clean lines remind me of a Mondrian painting.  My chest feels a little lighter and my head swims a bit, as when stepping into a cathedral and being drawn heavenward.  Nearly every day, however, I hear someone complain that the atrium is a “waste of space.”  This complaint goes back to 1965, when a group of head librarians from around the country were invited to review the architect Philip Johnson’s design.  Among the librarians was Ralph Ellsworth, the director of libraries at the University of Colorado, who voiced his objections to Martin Beck, NYU’s director of planning.  The enormous atrium meant that the floors would be U-shaped, which would minimize the amount of storage and inconvenience readers, he asserted.  He called the design “a throwback to the 19th century conditions” and “a fantastic architectural anachronism,” comparable to Boeing putting “buggy whip holders on the front of a B-727.”  Ellsworth’s vitriolic letter set the tone, and librarians continue to vehemently denounce the building to this day.  They allege that Johnson, like so many architects, failed to appreciate the purpose of the building or draw on the knowledge of librarians.  They resent that the needs of researchers, and imperatives of storage and preservation, were deemed to be less important than the desire for grandeur and monumentality.  And, unknowingly, they express an abiding tension between practical design and aesthetics, between librarians and architects, which has a curious history.  To make sense of the persistence of this narrative, I dug into the history of American academic library design and the discourse between architects and librarians.  Read more and see many pictures at https://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/the-natural-enemy-of-the-librarian

With more than 80 albums to his credit, composer/arranger/guitarist/bandleader Frank Zappa demonstrated a mastery of pop idioms ranging from jazz to rock of every conceivable variety, penned electronic and orchestral works, parlayed controversial satire, and testified in Congress against censorship.  Zappa was impatient with any division between popular and high art; he combined scatological humor with political wit, required of his players (among them over the years, Little Feat founder Lowell George, guitarists Adrian Belew and Steve Vai, and drummer Terry Bozzio) an intimidating skill, and displayed consistent innovation in instrumental and studio technology.  In the 2000s, his son Dweezil revived Zappa's music and demanding musicianship with Zappa Plays Zappa, a performance ensemble that transcends being a mere cover band, actually recreating the music and extending the improvisations on stage for new generations.  The eldest of four children of a guitar-playing government scientist, Francis Vincent Zappa Jr., was born December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland.  He moved with his family at age 10 to California, eventually settling in Lancaster.  Playing in school orchestras and bands, he taught himself a variety of instruments, concentrating on guitar.  A collector of Fifties rock & roll and R&B singles, he also listened to modern classical composers like Stravinsky and his avowed favorite, Edgard Varèse.  In high school he formed the Black-Outs and added country blues to his record collection.  https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/frank-zappa/biography

Frank Zappa paintings and drawings  http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/notes/Paintings.html  See also http://www.theconservationcenter.com/article/1982599-a-renewed-appreciation-for-frank-zappa

A boyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Bulgarian, Kievan, Moscovian, Wallachian and Moldavian and later, Romanian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes (in Bulgaria, tsars), from the 10th century to the 17th century.  The rank has lived on as a surname in Russia, Ukraine and Romania, and in Finland, where it is spelled Pajari.  Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen wrote a march entitled "Bojarenes inntogsmarsj" ("Entry March of the Boyars"), known in Norway as the signal tune for the radio programme Ønskekonserten.  Edvard Grieg arranged it for solo piano.  August Strindberg requests that this piece be played during his play The Dance of Death, Part One.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyar  

runcible  adjective  A nonce word used for humorous effect, and perhaps originally to maintain the number of syllables in lines of poems.   English artist and poet Edward Lear, who coined the word in his nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussy-cat, was born in 1812 either on May 12 or May 13.  Wiktionary

The terms attorney and lawyer are often used interchangeably in the United States.  There is very little distinction made between the two.  This difficulty to differentiate is a result of the fact that in the United States, unlike in other countries, this distinction is not made.  However, a slight one does exist.  A lawyer is someone who is learned and trained in  law.  Yet, they may not actually practice law.  They often give legal advice.  By attending law school in the United States, one can be considered a lawyer.  A student of law must pass the bar exam in their particular jurisdiction in order to practice law by providing legal representation.  Otherwise, the opportunities to use their law education are limited.  An attorney at law or attorney-at-law is typically abbreviated to attorney in everyday conversation.  An attorney is considered the official name for a lawyer in the United States.  The first known use of the term attorney-at-law was in 1768.  An attorney-at-law is defined as a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients.  The English word attorney has French origins, meaning “a person acting for another as an agent or deputy.”  An attorney actually practices law in court whereas a lawyer may or may not.  An attorney has passed the bar exam and has been approved to practice law in his jurisdiction.  Although the terms often operate as synonyms, an attorney is a lawyer but a lawyer is not necessarily an attorney.  To the general public, these terms may be used interchangeably but to the American Bar Association, the slight distinction is significant.  https://www.lawyeredu.org/attorney-vs-lawyer.html

Octopuses have three hearts.  Two of the hearts work exclusively to move blood beyond the animal’s gills, while the third keeps circulation flowing for the organs.  The plural of octopus is octopuses.  The world “octopus” comes from the Greek, októpus, meaning “eight foot.”  The word’s Greek roots means it’s pluralized as a Greek word, too, which depends on both a noun’s gender and the last letter it ends with.  Octopuses have blue blood.  To survive in the deep ocean, octopuses evolved a copper rather than iron-based blood called hemocyanin, which turns its blood blue. This copper base is more efficient at transporting oxygen then hemoglobin when water temperature is very low and not much oxygen is around.  Rachel Nuwer  Read more and see pictures at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ten-curious-facts-about-octopuses-7625828/

Delaware became the first state outside of Nevada to legally allow sports betting on June 5, 2018—just three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned a federal law that outlawed the practice.  New Jersey legislators will vote on a measure this week to allow the state to engage in legalized sports betting. Pennsylvania is also expected to follow suit.  https://www.axios.com/delaware-first-new-state-sports-gambling--3a8c1b64-2340-4abc-b3b0-a7026539a4e2.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1898  June 6, 2018