The legal age is also known as the age of legal majority.  This is the age at which a person gains the legal status of an adult.  The legal age is set by state law and can differ from state to state.  However, almost all states set the base legal age as 18 years old.  This is the age at which a person gains control over their own actions and affairs and becomes responsible for the decisions they make.  Those past the age of legal majority are usually tried as adults when charged with crimes.  Once this age is reached, any existing parental, guardian, and child support obligations are considered terminated.  However, minors may obtain the status of legal adulthood before reaching the legal age of majority if they are granted a court order for emancipation, or if they meet statutorily defined exceptions such as getting married as a minor or obtaining certain educational degrees.  Once a person reaches the legal age of their state, they may enter into legally enforceable agreements.  Minors do not have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract.  However, an agreement made while a person was a minor may be expressly or impliedly ratified once they reach the age of legal majority so that the agreement becomes valid and binding.  The age of legal majority is separate from legal age of license.  A legal age of license is the minimum age a person must reach in order to legally to participate in certain activities, such as drinking alcohol, voting, or driving.  Legal ages of license vary by the activity and the jurisdiction, and can, but do not have to, match the age of legal majority.  https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/legal_age 

The Galactic Empire is an interstellar empire featured in Isaac Asimov's Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series.  The Empire is spread across the Milky Way galaxy and consists of almost 25 million planets settled exclusively by humans.  For over 12 millennia the seat of imperial authority was located on the ecumenopolis of Trantor, whose population exceeded 40 billion, until it was sacked in the year 12,328.  The official symbol of the empire is the Spaceship-and-Sun.  Cleon II was the last Emperor to hold significant authority.  The fall of the empire, modelled on the fall of the Roman Empire, is the subject of many of Asimov's novels.  Asimov created the fictional Galactic Empire in the early 1940s based upon the Roman Empire, as a proposal to John W. Campbell, after reading Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire when he was working at the Philadelphia Navy Yard with Robert Heinlein.  The concept evolved through short stories and novellas in Astounding Science Fiction magazine during the 1940s, culminating in the publication of the Foundation stories as a trilogy of books in the early 1950s.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Empire_(Isaac_Asimov) 

Foundation is an American science fiction streaming television series created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman for Apple TV+, based on the Foundation series of stories by Isaac Asimov.  It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris and Lee Pace.  Foundation premiered on September 24, 2021.  The series has received a generally positive critical response.  In October 2021, the series was renewed for a second season.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(TV_series) 

The Foundation TV series introduces viewers to the Jump Drive, Isaac Asimov's way of traveling across the galaxy--and here's how it compares to Star Trek and Star Wars.   Foundation was a major influence on Star Wars--viewers will note the similar ideas of a Galactic Empire, as well as stormtrooper-like armor--and it certainly seems to have inspired George Lucas' version of hyperspace.  There, ships jump to hyperspace by traveling faster than light, building up sufficient momentum to break through to a higher dimension.  The key difference is that, in Star Wars, different classes of hyperdrive allow ships to travel through hyperspace at different speeds, whereas Asimov's hyperspace jumps are instantaneous.  Both franchises seem to take the view that hyperspace is disrupted by gravity masses in the real world; in Star Wars this leads to the existence of hyperspace lanes (a major concept in the current Star Wars: The High Republic transmedia initiative), while Asimov imagines a spaceship making multiple (near-instant) Jumps in order to navigate.  Of course, Star Trek's Warp Drive takes a very different approach.  In Star Trek, a matter/antimatter collision--controlled by the mineral dilithium--generates a phenomenal amount of power, allowing a starship to move faster than light.  Even Gene Roddenberry was still influenced by Asimov, though, as can be seen in the fact he originally called the warp drive the "hyperdrive" in the pilot.  All science fiction roads really do lead back Isaac Asimov and the Foundation.  Thomas Bacon  https://screenrant.com/foundation-jump-drive-star-trek-star-wars-comparison/ 

BIBLIBURRO PROGRAM DELIVERS READING MATERIALS TO CHILDREN IN COLUMBIA   Biblioburro started out with just seventy books, all of them Luis Soriano’s own, and only one donkey.  He quickly added a second donkey, affixing wooden bookcases to both of their saddles for ease of transport, and named the two animals Alfa and Beto (alfabeto, alphabet in Spanish).  He started extending and diversifying each day’s route to reach more children in the area.  When Colombian national radio broadcaster Juan Gossaín got wind of the Biblioburro story in 2003 and shared it with his listeners, book donations from around the world started pouring in—today, Luis boasts a collection of more than 7,000 titles.  There is now a network of nearly 20 Biblioburro traveling libraries, each operating separately throughout the Magdalena Department.  In 2000, after his first three years with Alfa and Beto, Luis was able to open La Gloria’s first primary school and permanent public library, now filled with computers and flat-screen televisions, and piled high with books from around the world.  Then he founded a second school, in an outlying village, and a third, and a fourth.  Biblioburro itself has become a department-wide program, planning to roll out two new initiatives, Biblioburro Digital (bringing laptops, tablets, and other technologies to children in rural areas) and Biblioburro Very Well (a Biblioburro that teaches children English).   Jordan Salama  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/biblioburro-colombia 

An architect-designer in southern Finland has returned to a frozen lake with a snow shovel to draw a large animal on the ice for the sixth year in a row, creating an artwork that he hopes will “make people happy and encourage them to go out to hike in a beautiful nature.”  On December 4, 2021, Pasi Widgren drew a fox that measures about 90 meters (295 feet) from on Lake Pitkajarvi, north of Helsinki.  In previous years, he used a shovel to sketch a bear and an owl, always using the same lake as his canvas.  Widgren has drawn animals on local lakes every winter since 2016 near his home in a village not far from Lahti, a town of 120,000.  The drawings disappear when more snow falls or when the ice melts.  Jan M. Olsen  https://apnews.com/article/europe-arts-and-entertainment-environment-and-nature-lakes-denmark-67767afe046c2c4c567d7c24082007ad

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2469  December 15, 2021