Al Capone was convicted on October 17, 1931 on five counts of income tax evasion.  He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and while doing time in Alcatraz, Capone lobbied the warden to allow him and his prisoners musical instruments.  Upon permission being granted, Capone learned how to play the banjo and formed a prison band, The Rock Islanders, which included another famous criminal George 'Machine Gun' Kelly on the drums.  While doing time in Alcatraz prison Capone also transcribed music and lyrics to various songs including "Humoresque" the mobster's take on a 1894 piano piece by Czech composer Antonín Dvorák.  In 2017 Jack White purchased a musical manuscript written by Al Capone of "Humoresque".  Moved by the idea that an infamous gangster had a weakness for such "a gentle, beautiful song," White recorded it as the closing track on Boarding House Reach.  http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=44983

Tic-Tac-Toe was called "Terni Lapilli" and dates back to the first century BC.  In this game players only had three pieces each and had to keep moving them around until they got three in a row.  Grids for the game have been found chalked all over the city's ancient ruins.  The game resurfaced in England as a child's game called "Noughts and Crosses" around 1864.  The word "Tic" is kind of an Americanization.  In the 1800s, the game also had the name in England of "Tit-Tat-Toe".  A "tit" was another word for a slap.  "Tat" meant retribution, such as "going tit-for-tat".  "Toe" was the name for a third thing in a row.  So, "Tit-Tat-Toe" was just a name for the three Xs or Os in a row.  In 1952, the EDSAC computer had a program called "OXO" which was a crude Tic-Tac-Toe game.  This became the world's first video game.  Computer Tic-Tac-Toe was famously used in the 80s movie, War Games, to showcase the futility of fighting.  http://www.realclear.com/living/2016/03/28/the_history_of_tictactoe_is_pretty_fascinating_stuff_13106.html

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was originally built in in the Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory by a team lead by the late Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes immediately following the Second World War.  It is generally accepted that the EDSAC was the first practical general purpose stored program electronic computer.  Other, earlier machines were either dedicated to a single task (e.g. Colossus and code breaking) or were purely experimental (e.g. the Manchester University "Baby" Small Scale Experimental Machine).  As head of the Mathematical Laboratory, Wilkes’ brief was to provide 'mechanical' aids that would assist mathematicians, scientists and engineers at the university to perform complex and time-consuming calculations.  He had observed research workers doing laborious computations with the aid of mechanical desk calculators and mathematical tables.  His prime motive in building EDSAC was to provide them with faster and better facilities.  Wilkes’ vision was to create a computer which, unlike earlier machines, could be used by a wide range of researchers in the university instead of the few highly specialised ‘acolytes’ who tended the other early electronic computers.  He wanted to create a computer that was accessible and practical, rather than to push the boundaries of technology.  To reach that goal, he adopted very conservative design principles and the result was a reliable machine that did useful and significant work through its life.  It typically operated for 35 hours a week.  During the day there were engineers on hand to deal with problems that arose.  Approved users could work on the computer overnight, but if it broke down they had to wait until morning before it would be investigated.  Like all computers of its time, EDSAC was based on thermionic valves which Wilkes knew well from his wartime work on advanced radar systems.  He sketched out the main elements of the design during a five day voyage from the USA to the UK while returning from a seminal conference of American computing pioneers at Princeton University.  Construction was led by Bill Renwick, appointed by Wilkes as Chief Engineer.  A team quickly grew around Wilkes and Renwick as they refined the design and gradually brought EDSAC to life.  Another important contributor at this stage was David Wheeler, Wilkes' research student, who was responsible for many of the features that made the machine practical for ordinary users.  EDSAC ran its first program on 6th May 1949 and was soon pressed into service to support research in the university.  It provided a computing service for over nine years, until it was superseded by EDSAC 2, built by the same team.  Read more and see graphics at http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac/edsac-history  See also an ACM Digital Library bibliography for Maurice V. Wilkes at https://dl.acm.org/author_page.cfm?id=81100297470

There are about 2 million people who work in the federal government.  Quasi-independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were created by Congress to be independent, their work subject only to court challenge.  Most have five commissioners appointed by presidents from both parties and confirmed by the Senate with both fixed and staggered terms.  The sitting president gets to pick the chairman, but, by law, no more than three commissioners can come from one party.  The idea of independent commissions was challenged in the 1930s when President Roosevelt tried to fire a Federal Trade commissioner, William Humphrey, appointed by his Republican predecessor.  Roosevelt didn't have any quarrel with Humphrey's job performance, but he fired him over policy disagreements.  So Humphrey challenged the firing in court.  In a landmark, unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Humphrey, to the great consternation of Roosevelt.  In the 1980s, it was conservative Republicans who sought to rein in the idea of independent officers, but they lost.  What are administrative law judges and what do they do?  There are 1,900 ALJs in independent agencies and executive departments.  They hear cases involving everything from Social Security to stock fraud claims.  There are thousands more who hold similar positions, administrative judges within the executive branch who preside over everything from immigration hearings to benefit claims for black lung disease.  Nina Totenberg  Read more at https://www.npr.org/2018/08/07/636108610/is-trump-about-to-be-able-to-say-you-re-fired-to-a-lot-more-people

Roundnet, a two-on-two game similar to doubles volleyball in which participants begin play by serving a ball into a ground-based net (like a mini trampoline) and score points after three touches when the ball hits the rim of the net or ground, has been around for decades.  Scott Palmer, a marketer and operations pro dedicated himself full-time to Spikeball, which sells equipment and apparel to people who play Roundnet--a sport described as a cross between volleyball and four square.  The company’s founder, Chris Ruder, had been running Spikeball as a side business out of his living room for several years.  It was during a vacation to Hawaii where, despite the equipment’s rough edges, others noticed Ruder and his family playing and became curious.  “They were all dying to know what sport Chris was playing,” Palmer says.  The idea for Spikeball was born right there on the sand in Hawaii.  Nick Winkler  Link to "How to Play Spikeball" video at https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/how-the-next-great-american-sport-is-attracting-new-players-growing-2-700-with-generous-surprises-on-demand-shipping  See also https://spikeballroundnet.com/

August 7, 2018  The Perseid meteor shower—named after the Perseus constellation, where the meteors originate—occurs every August when the Earth passes through a path of debris left by the Swift-Tuttle comet.  This comet orbits the Sun once every 133 years, and in doing so, the intense heat and tidal forces cause parts of the comet to break off, creating a floating field of debris.  The dust and particles left behind compose a comet's two tails:  the ion tail and the dust tail."  The Moon is very favorable for the Perseids this year, and that'll make the Perseids probably the best shower of 2018 for people who want to go out and view it,” NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke tells Space.com.  You’ll probably be able to see 60 to 70 meteors per hour at its peak.  The most important consideration is to head somewhere with dark skies and little light pollution.  For guidance, you can check out this online map of artificial sky brightness.  Once you arrive at your preferred viewing spot, wait for the sky to get completely dark—about 2 to 3 hours after sunset.  Emily Petsko  http://mentalfloss.com/article/553642/perseid-meteor-shower-going-be-amazing-weekend

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1931  August 8, 2018  Word of the Day  pack journalism  noun  A tendency of reporting to become homogeneous due to the reporters' habit of relying on one another for news tips, or being dependent on a single source for information.  Wiktionary