Wednesday, March 20, 2019


The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in BostonMassachusetts.  Established on April 23, 1635, it is the oldest and first public school in the United States.  The Public Latin School was a bastion for educating the sons of the Boston "Brahmin" elite, resulting in the school claiming many prominent Bostonians, Massachusetts citizens and New Englanders as alumni.  Its curriculum follows that of the 18th century Latin-school movement, which holds the "classics" to be the basis of an educated mind.  Four years of Latin are mandatory for all pupils who enter the School in the 7th grade, three years for those who enter in the 9th.  In 2007, the school was named one of the top twenty high schools in the United States by U.S. News & World Report magazine.  It is a part of Boston Public Schools (BPS).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Latin_School  See also

Boston Latin School’s (BLS) students founded a Youth Climate Action Network (YouthCAN) that now has 30 member-groups at schools across Massachusetts.  Students host a free Annual Climate Summit at MIT serving hundreds of students and educators.  Students run an Environmental Mentoring Program for elementary students.  The energy audit assessment is a unit project where they study electricity and then use their new understanding to conduct an electrical analysis of their home, writing a report for their family detailing how their family can save money.  The Boston Latin School Annual Teach-In on Sustainability has tripled demand for environmental courses.  The Zero-Sort Recycling Program cut Boston Latin School’s trash in half, and was replicated in 50 additional schools.  Read more at https://www.bls.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=203746&type=d&pREC_ID=404291 

In the United States, an 1885 agricultural report listed no fewer than 87 varieties of lettuce.  Today, there are four basic types of lettuce:  butterhead, iceberg, loose leaf, and romaine.  Butterhead lettuce includes Boston and Bibb lettuces, which are characterized by a loose head and grass-green leaves.  Both have a soft “buttery” texture and a sweet, mild flavor.  A head of Boston lettuce resembles a flowering rose.  Bibb lettuce—also called limestone—forms a smaller, cup-shaped head.  http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/article/types-lettuce   John Bibb developed Bibb lettuce from Boston lettuce.  
https://cals.arizona.edu/fps/sites/cals.arizona.edu.fps/files/cotw/Butter_Lettuce.pdf  See also Lettuce Varieties by Molly Watson with interesting text (did you know you can eat young chrysanthemum
leaves?) and beautiful pictures at https://www.thespruceeats.com/varieties-of-lettuce-4065606 

New York Times best-selling author Lewis Perdue’s twenty published books have sold more than 4 million copies and have been translated into every major language in the world along with more than a dozen other tongues.  Of his twenty published books, fifteen are thrillers and the remaining five cover wine, technology, and how porn has driven the technology and business model of the World Wide Web.  Perdue studied physics and biology in college and usually works those into his books.  He received his B.S. (1972) with distinction from Cornell University.  He has served on the faculties at UCLA and Cornell University, founded four companies including two technology firms, a wine company and a magazine, and been a top aide to a U.S. Senator and a state governor.  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12699.Lewis_Perdue  See also https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/lewis-perdue

US supreme court throws out Da Vinci suit  The Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown, and his publisher Random House on November 13, 2006 won a legal victory against an author who claimed that parts of Brown's global bestseller were lifted from his own thriller.  Lewis Perdue, whose book Daughter of God was published in 2000, had claimed in a May 2003 letter to Brown's publisher that there were similarities between the two books. The publisher then filed a lawsuit against Perdue, seeking a "declaratory judgment" that no copyright infringement had taken place.  In response, Perdue filed a countersuit and asked for $150m in damages.  The U.S. Supreme Court denied his writ without comment and declined to hear the case.  Perdue will not, however, have to pay Random House's legal fees.  On The Da Vinci Crock, his blog dedicated to the case, Perdue asserts that the plot, pacing and structure of the two books are remarkably similar: both books open with an American mysteriously summoned to Europe to meet with the owner of a priceless collection of art; both feature clues hidden in artworks which lead the protagonists on their frantic, dangerous searches; and result in the simultaneous unfolding of two storylines.  However, lawyers for Random House asserted that the two works were radically different.  Perdue's work, said Brown's legal team, "is a 'shoot-em-up' thriller involving Nazis and Russian mafia, where husband and wife protagonists battle an ultranationalist Russian leader and a megalomaniacal cardinal seeking to depose the pope".  In the wake of the decision, Perdue defended his allegations on his blog but added that "one part of me is a little disappointed, but overall I am relieved to have this part of things over".  Michelle Pauli  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/nov/14/danbrown.michellepauli

The spring equinox, which marks the beginning of spring, and the final "supermoon" of the year will both occur on Wednesday, March 20, 2019.  The equinox, which means "equal night" will mark one of two times during the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes, according to the National Weather Service.  The equinox will occur at 5:58 p.m. EDT and a second astronomical delight, the full moon/supermoon, will occur less than four hours later at 9:43 p.m. according to USA TODAY.  The supermoon will be the third and final of its kind in 2019.  Supermoons happen when the moon is a few thousand miles closer to Earth than usual.  On Wednesday, the moon will be about 14,000 miles closer to Earth than average, USA TODAY said.  The moon's closeness to Earth, naturally, makes it look extra close and extra bright--up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a full moon at its farthest point from Earth, NASA said.

After much social media derision that was not likely to become part of any Hudson Yards marketing, the development said on March 18, 2019 it would be “refining the language to be more clear.”  In its terms of service, which are not posted on the property but are available online, Hudson Yards said that it had the right to use any picture taken in the vicinity of the art installation for commercial purposes, with no royalty fees and no restrictions, forever.  And it did.  Now visitors “retain ownership of any photographs, text, audio recordings or video footage depicting or relating to the Vessel” that they create.  But if you want to send that photo out to your Instagram fans, you still “hereby grant to Company and its affiliates the right to repost, share, publish, promote and distribute the Vessel Media via such social media channel and via websites associated with the Vessel or Hudson Yards (including my name, voice and likeness and any other aspects of my persona as depicted in the Vessel Media), in perpetuity.”  It was a slight tweak—but one that was more similar to what most museums and other public venues currently have.  “It’s the difference between use and owning the underlying right exclusively,” New York lawyer Domenic Romano said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/arts/design/hudson-yards-vessel-instagram.html

March 20, 2019  This year’s inductees for the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry include a speech from Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the educational music of “Schoolhouse Rock!,” Jay-Z’s seminal album “The Blueprint,” soul, pop and disco songs that became anthems for underrepresented groups, and a number of other unique recordings.  Every year, the registry preserves 25 “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” American recordings that are at least 10 years old.  The selection process begins with public input followed by recommendations from the board and ends with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden making the final cut.  Travis M. Andrews  Read more, see pictures and find the complete list of inductees at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jay-z-a-speech-by-sen-robert-f-kennedy-and-schoolhouse-rock-among-recordings-deemed-classics-by-library-of-congress/2019/03/19/f7eb08ea-4a58-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?utm_term=.de438d17a5b2

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2066  March 20, 2019 

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