A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO
Louisville. Conjures up horse racing, mint juleps and baseball bats, doesn't it? A mere six hour drive from Toledo puts you in the heart of the city. Main Street has a number of restaurants and museums. We visited three: Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft and Frazier International History Museum. The first offers a half hour factory tour as well as a museum filled with baseball memorabilia. A highly enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours even if you are like me and not a big baseball fan. The arts and crafts museum, to our surprise, was filled with antique motorcycles. This included a Yale made in Toledo. Lastly, the international history museum turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience. Third floor contains exhibits from the Royal Armouries dating back at least a thousand years to the late 19th century, second floor history of guns and gunmaking, first floor, um, well, we ran out of time. You easily could spend an entire day at the Frazier. While walking between the museums you can view bronze bats and bases describing famous baseball players. These are found at various intervals on Main Street. Also found throughout downtown are horse statues decorated by artists. These are reminiscent of the frog statues Toledo did a few years ago as well as the cow statues found in Chicago. Speaking of horses, the Kentucky Derby Museum is a must see for those traveling the city. Located south of downtown at Churchill Downs, the museum contains not only memorabilia but also exhibits on raising racing horses. A 30 minute tour of the track is included with longer tours available for an extra fee. There are a number of other attractions, such as the zoo and science museum, which we did not have the time to visit. Louisville definitely lived up to its slogan of doing something original. Contributed by Bowling Green, Ohio reader
It was a "beer summit" without apologies in Washington, D.C. on July 30, as Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates sat down for a beer at the White House with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. President Obama released a statement on Thursday night: "I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode." Gates and Crowley were planning future meetings, but did not tip anyone off as to where or when those would occur, saying that the next time the press would not be invited.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Politics/2009/07/31/Beer-summit-behind-them/1249036803.html
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Factsheet
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices Methodology
S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price FAQ
May 26, 2009: S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Values
July 28, 2009: Historical Values
An Orwellian gaffe involving the Kindle e-book reader just won’t go down the memory hole for Amazon.com. On Thursday, a Chicago-based law firm filed a suit in federal court in Seattle against Amazon on behalf of Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old Michigan high school senior. The suit, which seeks class-action status, claims that when the company wirelessly deleted a copy of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” from Gawronski’s Kindle earlier this month, it also deleted the notes he had taken. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/30/lawsuit-amazon-ate-my-homework/
The U.S. Newspaper Industry in Transition, July 8, 2009
"The U.S. newspaper industry is suffering through what could be its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Advertising revenues are plummeting due to the severe economic downturn, while readership habits are changing as consumers turn to the Internet for free news and information. Some major newspaper chains are burdened by heavy debt loads. In the past year, seven major newspaper chains have declared bankruptcy, several big city papers have shut down, and many have laid off reporters and editors, imposed pay reductions, cut the size of the physical newspaper, or turned to Web-only publication. As the problems intensify, there are growing concerns that the rapid decline of the newspaper industry will impact civic and social life. Already there are fewer newspaper reporters covering state capitols and city halls, while the number of states with newspapers covering Congress fulltime has dwindled to 23 from the most recent peak of 35 in 1985."
Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and Their Employees
Council of Economic Advisors: The Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and Their Employees, July 25, 2009
If the forthcoming movie Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams has you curious about the real Julia Child, head to Washington. There you can see the famous chef's actual kitchen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
The display, called "Bon Appetit," first opened in 2002 but is receiving some new items this summer, including memorabilia from the movie and Child's copper pot collection, which was originally loaned to a museum in California. The 14-by-20-foot kitchen—small by the standards of many modern American homes—includes her cabinets, counters, cookbooks, Garland commercial range, and hundreds of well-worn utensils and gadgets. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-07-29-julia-child-kitchen_N.htm
Food in film Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams
A good food stylist will take care of the actors, whether they are demanding or not. Ms. Spungen made huge bowls full of glossy, cooked Swiss meringue for Ms. Streep to whisk during a scene at Le Cordon Bleu. But she didn’t bother to flavor it with vanilla until she saw that the actress would be dipping a finger into the meringue and popping it into her mouth. “I wanted it to taste good,” Ms. Spungen said. (There was so much left that she turned it into tarts for the crew.) Chris Messina, who plays Julie Powell’s husband, had a great appetite and never complained, even on the day he had to enthusiastically eat bruschetta topped with tomatoes 36 times. But Ms. Spungen had mercy on him. In another scene, he has to dump salt into a bowl of navarin of lamb during a fight and then eat it. She made sure he was using an off-the-shelf salt substitute. There are a thousand little ways to make it easy on the actors.. Parsley needs to be used sparingly so it doesn’t get stuck in teeth. Toast can’t be so toasty that it crunches too loudly. Low-fat options like apple slices need to be tucked on top of a high-calorie dish that an actor has to nibble on repeatedly. Food stylists also need to know when they can get by with something from a store or a restaurant and when they can’t, and when they can veer off the script a bit and when they can’t. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/dining/29movie.html
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
There is a lawsuit out of Cook County, Ill., in which a management company filed a $50,000 lawsuit over a tenant's “malicious and defamatory” Twitter tweet. Tweets have a maximum length of 140 characters. And yes, apparently they can lead to defamation lawsuits. The tweet was made by the tenant, Amanda Bonnen, in reference to the state of her apartment to her 20 followers. “You should just come anyway,” it read. “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty thinks it's OK.” Click here for the story, from Chicago Bar-Tender. The complaint notes that because Bonnen's account was public, “anybody in the world can view the account holder's tweets.” The complaint says that because the “statement damaged the plaintiff's reputation in its business, the statement is liable per se.” WSJ Law Blog July 28, 2009
Answers to your health reform questions by Anna Wilde Mathews
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574318132550338334.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The Northeast Kingdom is a term used to describe the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Vermont, comprising—approximately—Essex, Orleans and Caledonia Counties. In Vermont, the written term "NEK" is often used. The term is attributed to the late George D. Aiken, former Governor of Vermont (1937-1941) and a U.S. Senator at the time of a 1949 speech, the first recorded use of the term. The area is often referred to by Vermonters simply as "The Kingdom." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Kingdom
Retronyms (neologism created for an existing object or concept because the exact meaning of the original term used for it has become ambiguous)
Landline phone, snail mail, cloth diapers, push lawnmower
Although the term is new, the practice is old. Before the invasion of Poland in 1939, the global war that took place between 1914 and 1918 was known as “The Great War,” or the “14/18 War.” There had to be a WWII before there could be a WWI. World War I is a retronym. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/whats-a-retronym/
Although perhaps not as jolting as an alarm clock, a cat’s “soliciting purr” can still pry its owner from sleep. And, when sufficiently annoying, the sound may actually coerce them from bed to fill a food bowl. This particular meow mix—an embedding of her cat’s high-frequency natural cry within a more pleasant, low-frequency purr—often awakens Karen McComb, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Sussex in the U.K. and lead author of a paper about that sound published in Current Biology. “Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom,” McComb said in a statement. To understand just how cats vocally manipulate owners, McComb and her team set up a series of experiments. First they recorded the purrs of 10 cats; some were recorded when a cat was actively soliciting food and others in a non-solicitation setting. Fifty people then listened to the sounds at the same volume. Individuals judged pleading purrs as more urgent and less pleasant than normal purrs. When the researchers played the purrs re-synthesized to exclude the hungry cries, leaving all else the same, the volunteers perceived the purrs as far less urgent. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=the-manipulative-meow-cats-learn-to-2009-07-13
Icon: overused but useful noun
An image, picture, or other representation
A religious painting, often done on wooden panels
A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing
A small picture which represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function)
(linguistics): A type of noun whereby the form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoetic words are necessarily all icons
Etymology: From Latin, icon Ancient Greek (polytonic, á) (eikÅn) "likeness, image, portrait". Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982. http://www.allwords.com/query.php?SearchType=3&Keyword=icon&goquery=Find+it%21&Language=ENG
This year's Librarian Book Cart Drill Championships were held recently in Chicago.
Five teams of librarians—dressed in costumes ranging from Vikings to Elvis Presley—competed for the coveted gold book cart. They marched in drill-team formation, equipped with metal book carts.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106561675&sc=nl&cc=es-20090728
I always remember seeing a parade in Detroit when a great roar went up from the spectators. It was not a sports hero, but a drill team of men dressed in suits marching with their briefcases
Answers to your health reform questions by Anna Wilde Mathews
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574318132550338334.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The Northeast Kingdom is a term used to describe the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Vermont, comprising—approximately—Essex, Orleans and Caledonia Counties. In Vermont, the written term "NEK" is often used. The term is attributed to the late George D. Aiken, former Governor of Vermont (1937-1941) and a U.S. Senator at the time of a 1949 speech, the first recorded use of the term. The area is often referred to by Vermonters simply as "The Kingdom." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Kingdom
Retronyms (neologism created for an existing object or concept because the exact meaning of the original term used for it has become ambiguous)
Landline phone, snail mail, cloth diapers, push lawnmower
Although the term is new, the practice is old. Before the invasion of Poland in 1939, the global war that took place between 1914 and 1918 was known as “The Great War,” or the “14/18 War.” There had to be a WWII before there could be a WWI. World War I is a retronym. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/whats-a-retronym/
Although perhaps not as jolting as an alarm clock, a cat’s “soliciting purr” can still pry its owner from sleep. And, when sufficiently annoying, the sound may actually coerce them from bed to fill a food bowl. This particular meow mix—an embedding of her cat’s high-frequency natural cry within a more pleasant, low-frequency purr—often awakens Karen McComb, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Sussex in the U.K. and lead author of a paper about that sound published in Current Biology. “Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom,” McComb said in a statement. To understand just how cats vocally manipulate owners, McComb and her team set up a series of experiments. First they recorded the purrs of 10 cats; some were recorded when a cat was actively soliciting food and others in a non-solicitation setting. Fifty people then listened to the sounds at the same volume. Individuals judged pleading purrs as more urgent and less pleasant than normal purrs. When the researchers played the purrs re-synthesized to exclude the hungry cries, leaving all else the same, the volunteers perceived the purrs as far less urgent. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=the-manipulative-meow-cats-learn-to-2009-07-13
Icon: overused but useful noun
An image, picture, or other representation
A religious painting, often done on wooden panels
A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing
A small picture which represents something (such as an icon on a computer screen which when clicked performs some function)
(linguistics): A type of noun whereby the form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoetic words are necessarily all icons
Etymology: From Latin, icon Ancient Greek (polytonic, á) (eikÅn) "likeness, image, portrait". Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982. http://www.allwords.com/query.php?SearchType=3&Keyword=icon&goquery=Find+it%21&Language=ENG
This year's Librarian Book Cart Drill Championships were held recently in Chicago.
Five teams of librarians—dressed in costumes ranging from Vikings to Elvis Presley—competed for the coveted gold book cart. They marched in drill-team formation, equipped with metal book carts.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106561675&sc=nl&cc=es-20090728
I always remember seeing a parade in Detroit when a great roar went up from the spectators. It was not a sports hero, but a drill team of men dressed in suits marching with their briefcases
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) Program Final Rule Released
"NHTSA has released the final rule for the Car Allowance Rebate System, the $1 billion Federal program that will help consumers purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when they trade in a less fuel-efficient vehicle. Consumers could receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one. CARS will run until Nov. 1, or until the funds are depleted."
"The CAR Allowance Rebate System (CARS) is a $1 billion government program that helps consumers buy or lease a more environmentally-friendly vehicle from a participating dealer when they trade in a less fuel-efficient car or truck. The program is designed to energize the economy; boost auto sales and put safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles on the nation's roadways. Consumers will be able to take advantage of this program and receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one. Consumers you do not need to register anywhere or at anytime for this program. However, to find out eligibility requirements click here."
The government rejiggered gas mileage figures on about 100 older vehicles last week in a way that changed whether they would be eligible for up to $4,500 in sales inducements. The Environmental Protection Agency says the changes resulted from a double-check of its fuel-efficiency ratings on more than 30,000 1984 and newer vehicles in advance of the official start of the clunkers program Monday. About half the 100 suddenly did not qualify because their combined mileage rating was revised upward; others unexpectedly got in. "As a result of the review, roughly an equal number of vehicles became eligible as those found to be not eligible," said the EPA in a statement. "Eligibility for about 100 vehicles was affected." FIND MORE STORIES IN: Edmunds.com Car-shopping website Edmunds.com said Monday that it discovered the switcheroo because potential buyers were complaining on its discussion boards. Some said it made them ineligible at the last minute for car deals they already had on deck. "We had everything lined up. We had a couple car dealers that had verified our car qualified, and we were ready to purchase a new car this weekend," wrote one potential buyer, identified on the site as John1152. "But it will not happen now because at the last second the EPA updated the information at their web page for a 1993 Toyota Camry wagon ... from 18 mpg to 19 mpg."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-07-27-cash-for-clunkers-list-changes_N.htm
New York animal trainer Lyssa Rosenberg has taught her terrier to obey simple written commands. Willow plays dead when she sees the word 'bang', stretches a paw in the air when she sees 'wave' and gets up on her back feet to beg when she sees the words 'sit up'. "She's an unbelievably quick learner," said Ms Rosenberg, who has trained other dogs to appear in TV adverts and pose on photo shoots. "She can do 250 different things and I used to joke that I would teach her how to pour me a martini. Then for a bet I told a friend I would teach her to read.” She won the bet.
http://blogs.dogtime.com/all/by-tag/lyssa%20rosenberg
Featured artist: James Ensor
James Sidney Ensor, Baron Ensor (1860-1949), was a Belgian painter, whose unique portrayals of grotesque humanity made him a principal precursor of 20th-century expressionism and surrealism. Ensor was born April 13, 1860, in Ostend, Belgium, and, except for three years spent at the Brussels Academy, from 1877 to 1880, he lived in Ostend all his life. His early works were of traditional subject landscapes, still lifes, portraits, interiors painted in deep, rich colors and lighted by subdued but vibrant light. In the mid-1880s, influenced by the bright color of the impressionists and the grotesque imagery of earlier Flemish masters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Ensor turned toward avant-garde themes and styles. His work had an important influence on 20th-century painting, his lurid subject matter paving the way for surrealism and Dada, and his techniques particularly his brushwork and his coloristic sense leading directly to expressionism. He died on November 19, 1949, in Ostend, where there is now a museum devoted to his work. In 1994 a new audience was introduced to James Ensor when They Might Be Giants released the song Meet James Ensor, which aptly describes him as "Belgium's famous painter". http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Ensor_James.html
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is exhibiting Ensor’s paintings through September 21.
The New York Times posted a story reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) withheld more than 250 pages of research into the risks of driving while operating a cell phone. The 2003 government report was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pursued by consumer advocacy groups Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen. (The full report can be accessed here as a pdf.) The Times article exposes that the government learned then of the significant dangers associated with combining telephone use with driving, and it accuses the government of suppressing the findings for political reasons. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/07/nhtsa-ny-times-cell-phone-driving-dangers-study.html
Carnivorous jumbo squid have been washing up on San Diego beaches and swarming in Southern California's coastal waters, freaking out scuba divers and bathers this month, but a biologist now says these beasts are not man-eaters, despite concerns expressed in the media. Reports started coming in earlier in July that dozens of the squid, also known as Humboldt squid , were washing ashore and interacting with divers. Jumbo squid can grow up to 7 feet long and usually prefer to live in deeper waters. Lately, off-shore divers have reported seeing large groups of the squid, which can swim as fast as 15 mph. University of Rhode Island biologist Brad Seibel, who has dived with jumbo squid several times, called the reports "alarmist."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32110292/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Q. What is an azimuth?
A. angle of the horizon
http://dictionary.babylon.com/Azimuth
Point Udall at the east end of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is the easternmost point (by travel, not longitude) in the United States including territories and insular areas. It was named for Stewart Udall, United States Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Udall_(U.S._Virgin_Islands)
A sundial known as the Millennium Monument was built above Point Udall for the New Year's celebration in 2000—it marks the azimuth of the first U.S. sunrise of that year.
http://www.stcroixtourism.com/st_croix_pictures/point_udall.htm
Point Udall is the westernmost point (by travel, not longitude) in the territorial United States, located on the Orote Peninsula of Guam. It lies at the mouth of Apra Harbor, on the end of Orote Peninsula, opposite the Glass Breakwater of Cabras Island which forms the northern coast of the harborThe point is named for former Arizona congressman Morris "Mo" Udall. It was called "Orote Point" until it was re-named "Point Udall" in May 1987. In 1987, H.R. 2434, proposed by Denny Smith of Oregon, proposed renaming the point to "to honor the service and accomplishments of Morris Udall."[1] It was referred to the House Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs.[2] In May 1987 it was officially designed Point Udall by the governor of Guam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Udall_(Guam)
Extreme points of the United States including interpretation of easternmost and westernmost and extremes of elevation are at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_the_United_States
expatiate (ek-SPAY-shee-ayt) verb intr.
1. To speak or write at length
2. To move about freely
From Latin exspatiatus, past participle of exspatiari (to wander or digress), from ex- (out) + spatiari (to walk about), from spatium (space) A.Word.A.Day
"NHTSA has released the final rule for the Car Allowance Rebate System, the $1 billion Federal program that will help consumers purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when they trade in a less fuel-efficient vehicle. Consumers could receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one. CARS will run until Nov. 1, or until the funds are depleted."
"The CAR Allowance Rebate System (CARS) is a $1 billion government program that helps consumers buy or lease a more environmentally-friendly vehicle from a participating dealer when they trade in a less fuel-efficient car or truck. The program is designed to energize the economy; boost auto sales and put safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles on the nation's roadways. Consumers will be able to take advantage of this program and receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one. Consumers you do not need to register anywhere or at anytime for this program. However, to find out eligibility requirements click here."
The government rejiggered gas mileage figures on about 100 older vehicles last week in a way that changed whether they would be eligible for up to $4,500 in sales inducements. The Environmental Protection Agency says the changes resulted from a double-check of its fuel-efficiency ratings on more than 30,000 1984 and newer vehicles in advance of the official start of the clunkers program Monday. About half the 100 suddenly did not qualify because their combined mileage rating was revised upward; others unexpectedly got in. "As a result of the review, roughly an equal number of vehicles became eligible as those found to be not eligible," said the EPA in a statement. "Eligibility for about 100 vehicles was affected." FIND MORE STORIES IN: Edmunds.com Car-shopping website Edmunds.com said Monday that it discovered the switcheroo because potential buyers were complaining on its discussion boards. Some said it made them ineligible at the last minute for car deals they already had on deck. "We had everything lined up. We had a couple car dealers that had verified our car qualified, and we were ready to purchase a new car this weekend," wrote one potential buyer, identified on the site as John1152. "But it will not happen now because at the last second the EPA updated the information at their web page for a 1993 Toyota Camry wagon ... from 18 mpg to 19 mpg."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-07-27-cash-for-clunkers-list-changes_N.htm
New York animal trainer Lyssa Rosenberg has taught her terrier to obey simple written commands. Willow plays dead when she sees the word 'bang', stretches a paw in the air when she sees 'wave' and gets up on her back feet to beg when she sees the words 'sit up'. "She's an unbelievably quick learner," said Ms Rosenberg, who has trained other dogs to appear in TV adverts and pose on photo shoots. "She can do 250 different things and I used to joke that I would teach her how to pour me a martini. Then for a bet I told a friend I would teach her to read.” She won the bet.
http://blogs.dogtime.com/all/by-tag/lyssa%20rosenberg
Featured artist: James Ensor
James Sidney Ensor, Baron Ensor (1860-1949), was a Belgian painter, whose unique portrayals of grotesque humanity made him a principal precursor of 20th-century expressionism and surrealism. Ensor was born April 13, 1860, in Ostend, Belgium, and, except for three years spent at the Brussels Academy, from 1877 to 1880, he lived in Ostend all his life. His early works were of traditional subject landscapes, still lifes, portraits, interiors painted in deep, rich colors and lighted by subdued but vibrant light. In the mid-1880s, influenced by the bright color of the impressionists and the grotesque imagery of earlier Flemish masters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Ensor turned toward avant-garde themes and styles. His work had an important influence on 20th-century painting, his lurid subject matter paving the way for surrealism and Dada, and his techniques particularly his brushwork and his coloristic sense leading directly to expressionism. He died on November 19, 1949, in Ostend, where there is now a museum devoted to his work. In 1994 a new audience was introduced to James Ensor when They Might Be Giants released the song Meet James Ensor, which aptly describes him as "Belgium's famous painter". http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Ensor_James.html
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is exhibiting Ensor’s paintings through September 21.
The New York Times posted a story reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) withheld more than 250 pages of research into the risks of driving while operating a cell phone. The 2003 government report was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pursued by consumer advocacy groups Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen. (The full report can be accessed here as a pdf.) The Times article exposes that the government learned then of the significant dangers associated with combining telephone use with driving, and it accuses the government of suppressing the findings for political reasons. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/07/nhtsa-ny-times-cell-phone-driving-dangers-study.html
Carnivorous jumbo squid have been washing up on San Diego beaches and swarming in Southern California's coastal waters, freaking out scuba divers and bathers this month, but a biologist now says these beasts are not man-eaters, despite concerns expressed in the media. Reports started coming in earlier in July that dozens of the squid, also known as Humboldt squid , were washing ashore and interacting with divers. Jumbo squid can grow up to 7 feet long and usually prefer to live in deeper waters. Lately, off-shore divers have reported seeing large groups of the squid, which can swim as fast as 15 mph. University of Rhode Island biologist Brad Seibel, who has dived with jumbo squid several times, called the reports "alarmist."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32110292/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Q. What is an azimuth?
A. angle of the horizon
http://dictionary.babylon.com/Azimuth
Point Udall at the east end of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is the easternmost point (by travel, not longitude) in the United States including territories and insular areas. It was named for Stewart Udall, United States Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Udall_(U.S._Virgin_Islands)
A sundial known as the Millennium Monument was built above Point Udall for the New Year's celebration in 2000—it marks the azimuth of the first U.S. sunrise of that year.
http://www.stcroixtourism.com/st_croix_pictures/point_udall.htm
Point Udall is the westernmost point (by travel, not longitude) in the territorial United States, located on the Orote Peninsula of Guam. It lies at the mouth of Apra Harbor, on the end of Orote Peninsula, opposite the Glass Breakwater of Cabras Island which forms the northern coast of the harborThe point is named for former Arizona congressman Morris "Mo" Udall. It was called "Orote Point" until it was re-named "Point Udall" in May 1987. In 1987, H.R. 2434, proposed by Denny Smith of Oregon, proposed renaming the point to "to honor the service and accomplishments of Morris Udall."[1] It was referred to the House Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs.[2] In May 1987 it was officially designed Point Udall by the governor of Guam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Udall_(Guam)
Extreme points of the United States including interpretation of easternmost and westernmost and extremes of elevation are at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_the_United_States
expatiate (ek-SPAY-shee-ayt) verb intr.
1. To speak or write at length
2. To move about freely
From Latin exspatiatus, past participle of exspatiari (to wander or digress), from ex- (out) + spatiari (to walk about), from spatium (space) A.Word.A.Day
Monday, July 27, 2009
U.S. service sector employees who receive tips have been excluded from the latest hike in the federal minimum wage that kicked in on July 24, leaving the public to cover the cost of their healthcare, according to economists and advocates. The federal minimum wage on Friday rose to $7.25 from $6.55. But only seven states guarantee tipped workers the minimum wage, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project, a New York-based advocacy group for low-income workers. The minimum wage for so-called "tipped" workers has been frozen at $2.13 an hour since 1991, the report found. Waitresses and waiters, who comprise the majority of tip-receiving workers, have nearly three times the poverty rate of the nation's workforce, it said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE56N48E20090724
Lawyers for Fredrick Colting, who wrote a sort-of follow-up book to J.D. Salinger's seminal work “The Catcher in the Rye,” appealed a decision from earlier this month banning the publication of his book, “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.” The judge on the case, Manhattan federal judge Deborah Batts, found that the book impermissibly infringed on Salinger's copyright. Click here for that opinion; here for previous LB coverage of the case. She ruled that the novel, penned by Colting, an American living in Sweden under the pseudonym “J.D. California” did not fit into the fair use exception in copyright law. Specifically, Batts ruled that because the book did not constitute a critical parody that “transformed” the original. The book imagines a grown up Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the original, wandering the streets of New York after having escaped from a retirement home. Not surprisingly, then, Colting's appeal to the Second Circuit (click here to read it), focuses to a large degree on this “transformation” idea, largely by highlighting the degree to which it allegedly comments on Salinger's relationship to the novel and the Holden Caulfield character itself.
“Google Books” project mostly involve copyright issues. Manhattan federal judge Denny Chin (he of the 150-year Bernie Madoff sentence) is currently reviewing a large and complex settlement agreement reached last year between Google and a handful of publishers. The publishers sued the search-engine giant in 2005, claiming the company's Google Books project--an effort to digitize huge volumes of books and ultimately make them publicly available--violated their copyrights. Judge Chin is slated to make a final determination on the proposed settlement, which allows Google ultimately to allow access to preview of books that are still under copyright but are out of print, and to sell access to them, later this year. Click here for a Washington Post article from last fall on the settlement. But regardless of what Judge Chin decides, Google is pushing ahead with the broader project. And according to a Boston Globe article out Friday, Google has already scanned some 10 million books, of which 1.5 million are now available online for free. A growing concern, according to the Globe, deals not with not copyright but antitrust: that Google will end up with monopolistic control of access to millions of scanned digital books. "Google is creating a mega bookstore the likes of which we have never seen,'' said Maura Marx, executive director of Open Knowledge Commons, a Boston nonprofit organization. WSJ Law Blog July 24, 2009
Reprint agreement will make U-M rare books widely available July 23rd, 2009
Source: University of Michigan from the news release:
The University of Michigan will make thousands of books that are no longer in copyright—including rare and one-of-a-kind titles—available as reprints on demand under a new agreement with BookSurge, part of the Amazon.com group of companies.
The agreement gives the public a unique opportunity to buy reprints of a wide range of titles in the U-M Library for as little as a few dollars. As individual copies are sold on Amazon.com, BookSurge will print and bind the books in soft-cover form.
Maria Bonn, director of the U-M Library’s scholarly publishing office, said the reprint program includes both books digitized by the U-M and those digitized through the U-M’s partnership with Google. The initial offering on Amazon will include more than 400,000 titles in more than 200 languages ranging from Acoli to Zulu.
Mick Jones, the Clash’s lead guitarist, has amassed an impressive collection of the paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with.
The guitarist, who was a prominent figure in the punk rock movement of the seventies and eighties, opened his Rock-n-Roll Public Library in London on July 22. Based in an office near Portobello Road, west London, close to where Jones formed The Clash with Joe Stummer in 1976, the "guerrilla library" will include 10,000 items from the guitarist's private collection.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/5894780/Clash-guitarist-Mick-Jones-has-become-a-guerrilla-librarian.html
Spy Memoir Unsealed Twenty-Five Years After Author's Death July 24, 2009
The British Library made public yesterday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, and curator of the Queen's art collection, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.” The NY Times reports on the unsealing of the memoir after twenty five years. Blunt intended it as a testament to family and friends, and it was given to the British Library in 1984 by the executor of Blunt’s will, John Golding, on the condition that it be kept secret for 25 years.
The Sixth Borough
Hoboken, New Jersey is a city of about one square mile sandwiched between the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels. Once the butt of urban renewal jokes ("Hey, if it’s Hoboken, don’t fix it!"), the city has enjoyed a renaissance in the last quarter century as its proximity to Manhattan’s Financial District has attracted more affluent tenants, pumping money into the local economy and reviving what was once a depressed town. The town’s name, according to the Hoboken Historical Museum, is a corruption of the Dutch hoebuck, meaning "high bluff," or the Lenape Indian hopoghan hackigh, meaning, "Land of the Tobacco Pipe."
http://www.cooperator.com/articles/689/1/The-Sixth-Borough/Page1.html
New Jersey is the most crowded state with 1,165 people per square mile, and Alaska is the least crowded with 1.1 persons per square mile.
http://books.google.com/books?id=gqJRq1WGZecC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=%22people+per+square+mile%22+%22new+Jersey%22+illinois&source=bl&ots=tAWXurlOCv&sig=DGtl9ESabhdjVeqNI-KNw7zK0k0&hl=en&ei=6g9rSvfpOIqENMmAlfkG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
Population density, from the 2000 census with 2007 estimates figured in:
New Jersey the highest at 1,171.1 and Alaska the lowest at 1.2 persons per square mile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density
On July 27, 1940 Bugs Bunny made his official debut in an animated film short called A Wild Hare. Even though a slightly different version of the rabbit had been around in some earlier films, A Wild Hare is considered the first official Bugs Bunny film because it's the first one that used his trademark voice and the first time he asked Elmer Fudd, "What's up, Doc?" Bugs Bunny was modeled on Groucho Marx. The Writer’s Almanac
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE56N48E20090724
Lawyers for Fredrick Colting, who wrote a sort-of follow-up book to J.D. Salinger's seminal work “The Catcher in the Rye,” appealed a decision from earlier this month banning the publication of his book, “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.” The judge on the case, Manhattan federal judge Deborah Batts, found that the book impermissibly infringed on Salinger's copyright. Click here for that opinion; here for previous LB coverage of the case. She ruled that the novel, penned by Colting, an American living in Sweden under the pseudonym “J.D. California” did not fit into the fair use exception in copyright law. Specifically, Batts ruled that because the book did not constitute a critical parody that “transformed” the original. The book imagines a grown up Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the original, wandering the streets of New York after having escaped from a retirement home. Not surprisingly, then, Colting's appeal to the Second Circuit (click here to read it), focuses to a large degree on this “transformation” idea, largely by highlighting the degree to which it allegedly comments on Salinger's relationship to the novel and the Holden Caulfield character itself.
“Google Books” project mostly involve copyright issues. Manhattan federal judge Denny Chin (he of the 150-year Bernie Madoff sentence) is currently reviewing a large and complex settlement agreement reached last year between Google and a handful of publishers. The publishers sued the search-engine giant in 2005, claiming the company's Google Books project--an effort to digitize huge volumes of books and ultimately make them publicly available--violated their copyrights. Judge Chin is slated to make a final determination on the proposed settlement, which allows Google ultimately to allow access to preview of books that are still under copyright but are out of print, and to sell access to them, later this year. Click here for a Washington Post article from last fall on the settlement. But regardless of what Judge Chin decides, Google is pushing ahead with the broader project. And according to a Boston Globe article out Friday, Google has already scanned some 10 million books, of which 1.5 million are now available online for free. A growing concern, according to the Globe, deals not with not copyright but antitrust: that Google will end up with monopolistic control of access to millions of scanned digital books. "Google is creating a mega bookstore the likes of which we have never seen,'' said Maura Marx, executive director of Open Knowledge Commons, a Boston nonprofit organization. WSJ Law Blog July 24, 2009
Reprint agreement will make U-M rare books widely available July 23rd, 2009
Source: University of Michigan from the news release:
The University of Michigan will make thousands of books that are no longer in copyright—including rare and one-of-a-kind titles—available as reprints on demand under a new agreement with BookSurge, part of the Amazon.com group of companies.
The agreement gives the public a unique opportunity to buy reprints of a wide range of titles in the U-M Library for as little as a few dollars. As individual copies are sold on Amazon.com, BookSurge will print and bind the books in soft-cover form.
Maria Bonn, director of the U-M Library’s scholarly publishing office, said the reprint program includes both books digitized by the U-M and those digitized through the U-M’s partnership with Google. The initial offering on Amazon will include more than 400,000 titles in more than 200 languages ranging from Acoli to Zulu.
Mick Jones, the Clash’s lead guitarist, has amassed an impressive collection of the paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with.
The guitarist, who was a prominent figure in the punk rock movement of the seventies and eighties, opened his Rock-n-Roll Public Library in London on July 22. Based in an office near Portobello Road, west London, close to where Jones formed The Clash with Joe Stummer in 1976, the "guerrilla library" will include 10,000 items from the guitarist's private collection.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/5894780/Clash-guitarist-Mick-Jones-has-become-a-guerrilla-librarian.html
Spy Memoir Unsealed Twenty-Five Years After Author's Death July 24, 2009
The British Library made public yesterday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, and curator of the Queen's art collection, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.” The NY Times reports on the unsealing of the memoir after twenty five years. Blunt intended it as a testament to family and friends, and it was given to the British Library in 1984 by the executor of Blunt’s will, John Golding, on the condition that it be kept secret for 25 years.
The Sixth Borough
Hoboken, New Jersey is a city of about one square mile sandwiched between the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels. Once the butt of urban renewal jokes ("Hey, if it’s Hoboken, don’t fix it!"), the city has enjoyed a renaissance in the last quarter century as its proximity to Manhattan’s Financial District has attracted more affluent tenants, pumping money into the local economy and reviving what was once a depressed town. The town’s name, according to the Hoboken Historical Museum, is a corruption of the Dutch hoebuck, meaning "high bluff," or the Lenape Indian hopoghan hackigh, meaning, "Land of the Tobacco Pipe."
http://www.cooperator.com/articles/689/1/The-Sixth-Borough/Page1.html
New Jersey is the most crowded state with 1,165 people per square mile, and Alaska is the least crowded with 1.1 persons per square mile.
http://books.google.com/books?id=gqJRq1WGZecC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=%22people+per+square+mile%22+%22new+Jersey%22+illinois&source=bl&ots=tAWXurlOCv&sig=DGtl9ESabhdjVeqNI-KNw7zK0k0&hl=en&ei=6g9rSvfpOIqENMmAlfkG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
Population density, from the 2000 census with 2007 estimates figured in:
New Jersey the highest at 1,171.1 and Alaska the lowest at 1.2 persons per square mile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density
On July 27, 1940 Bugs Bunny made his official debut in an animated film short called A Wild Hare. Even though a slightly different version of the rabbit had been around in some earlier films, A Wild Hare is considered the first official Bugs Bunny film because it's the first one that used his trademark voice and the first time he asked Elmer Fudd, "What's up, Doc?" Bugs Bunny was modeled on Groucho Marx. The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, July 24, 2009
Musings
Newscasters on TV show animation, sometimes even enthusiasm, when introducing tragic stories. Rather than researching facts, they ask bystanders for their reaction. Newspaper columnists routinely introduce their stories, no matter how serious, with humor. When a reporter wrote up a story about a van that crashed through our front door, he said when we came downstairs we didn’t expect to find a van in the house. How lame—and we have a ranch house with bedrooms on the first floor. I didn’t finish reading the story.
Musings
On my recent European vacation, two local guides told mother-in-law jokes. When I returned home, a comedian on TV told a mother-in-law joke. They are in comics on a regular basis. Have you heard any father-in-law jokes? Women seem to be “safe” targets.
BLS County Employment and Wages Summary
News release: From December 2007 to December 2008, employment declined in 285 of the 334 largest U.S. counties, according to preliminary data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Elkhart County, Ind., located about 100 miles east of Chicago, posted the largest percentage decline, with a loss of 17.8 percent over the year, compared with a national job decrease of 2.3 percent. Manufacturing sustained the largest employment losses in Elkhart. Montgomery County, Texas, which is about 20 miles north of Houston, experienced the largest over-the-year percentage increase in employment among the largest counties in the U.S., with a gain of 2.7 percent.
Q. What is the difference between slander and libel?
A. Libel generally refers to statements or visual depictions in written or other permanent form, while slander refers to verbal statements and gestures.
http://www.medialaw.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Public_Resources/Libel_FAQs/Libel_FAQs.htm
Note a memory aid: slander refers to spoken word—libel to written word.
Q. What city’s motto is “Urbs in horto" or "city in a garden."
A. Chicago. http://www.choosechicago.com/microsite/Pages/GreenChicagoACityinaGarden.aspx
What’s up in New Jersey?
For answers, we checked in with a couple scholars who know lots about politics and ethics in the Garden State: Joseph Marbach, a dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, and Brigid Harrison, a professor of politics and law at Montclair State. Marbach calls one of the most “persuasive and pervasive theories” that early immigrants to New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania viewed the role of government differently than did their contemporaries in New England or the southern colonies. “They--collections of Dutch and English settlers--tended to look at government as just another service provider,” he says. In New England, the Puritan belief advocated that government should be a force for good, says Marbach, and in the south, government initially was small and its role was to protect the status quo. “But in this area, people got involved in politics because it was a career option, not necessarily because it was a higher calling. People who couldn't become doctors or lawyers became politicians.”
Marbach says that such an attitude helped create a culture of corruption in two ways. For starters, because politics was a career option and not something one did at the tail end of a successful career in law or business, politicians weren't necessarily wealthy. “So a sense developed that a certain amount of graft was acceptable,” says Marbach. Secondly, the role of a politician simply became to distribute goods and services--not to build a better society or to protect the status quo--adds Marbach, and such goods and services became viewed as products to trade away.
Harrison adds that early attempts to rein in local corruption in other states never really took hold in New Jersey. “You had these counties where party bosses never really relinquished their power,” she says. “These modern corruption stories really have their grounding in those party machines.” Partly as a result of this reluctance to give up or consolidate power, says Marbach, New Jersey stayed incredibly fractured. Today, the state has 566 local municipalities, the second-most in the nation, behind Illinois. “We've got parkway commissions and special districts and each of these has an executive with authority and control over purse strings,” he says. “That's a lot of opportunities for corruption and patronage.” Harrison calls them “mini-fiefdoms.”
More on New Jersey following the unveiling of some 30 criminal complaints and a press release led by New Jersey's acting U.S. attorney, Ralph Mara. Click here for the WSJ story. The arrests and summonses made were made pursuant to a two-tracked investigation that had gone on for 10 years. One track: a public-corruption probe which led to the arrest and summons of 29 politicians and a money-laundering probe allegedly involving 15 others, including 5 rabbis. The list of those arrested (click here) include the 32 year-old Hoboken mayor, Peter Cammarano, a Democrat, Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell, also a Democrat; state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City. The money-laundering scheme allegedly involved Saul Kassin, the Coney Island-based U.S. head of a large Syrian-Jewish congregation. Politicians “willingly put themselves up for sale,” for “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mara during the press conference, saying they took advantage of “huge loopholes” in the state's anticorruption laws.
Amazon.com has reached into customers' Kindle e-readers and deleted some e-books written—ironically--by George Orwell. Amazon, which returned the cost of the e-books, said it made the move when it realized that the publisher didn't have the proper rights to sell the books in the U.S. The move annoyed some consumers. “I love my Kindle, but if they can take back a book after I buy it, that bothers me,” said one. Amazon later promised to change its system and “not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances,” according to a spokesman.
“What this incident shows is that the law gives radically more control to the company than the system ought to,” says Harvard's Lawrence Lessig. Owning an e-book is more akin to licensing a piece of software than it is to owning a bound volume: access comes with fine-print terms of service, and often digital rights management software to ensure that you abide by the rules. The fine print in the company's terms of service gives consumers the “right to keep a permanent copy” of purchased titles, but also reserves Amazon's “right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the service at any time.” U.S. law generally supports the terms of service imposed by companies--so long as they're listed up-front. Real books can be shared with a friend or sold, but e-books with digital rights management software cannot. The number of devices that can play a single e-book license varies from one publisher to the next, and often confuses consumers. WSJ Law Blog July 23, 2009
The Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly known as Cash For Clunkers, takes less fuel efficient vehicles off the road and replaces them with more efficient ones. The National Highway Transportation Administration is expected to issue final rules by Friday that allow consumers to receive up to $4,500 in a voucher to lower the cost of purchasing a vehicle. The vehicle has to be less than 25 years old at time of trade in, with an estimated combined city and highway mileage of 18 miles per gallon or less.
A new $25,000 vehicle that meets the fuel standard would have a $4,500 government incentive. In some cases, new car manufacturers have an additional $4,000 rebate available. The result is the new car owner can purchase a vehicle for $17,500. http://www.abilene-rc.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=A8E703A3-19B9-E2F5-46121AC7E59A8C40
Newscasters on TV show animation, sometimes even enthusiasm, when introducing tragic stories. Rather than researching facts, they ask bystanders for their reaction. Newspaper columnists routinely introduce their stories, no matter how serious, with humor. When a reporter wrote up a story about a van that crashed through our front door, he said when we came downstairs we didn’t expect to find a van in the house. How lame—and we have a ranch house with bedrooms on the first floor. I didn’t finish reading the story.
Musings
On my recent European vacation, two local guides told mother-in-law jokes. When I returned home, a comedian on TV told a mother-in-law joke. They are in comics on a regular basis. Have you heard any father-in-law jokes? Women seem to be “safe” targets.
BLS County Employment and Wages Summary
News release: From December 2007 to December 2008, employment declined in 285 of the 334 largest U.S. counties, according to preliminary data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Elkhart County, Ind., located about 100 miles east of Chicago, posted the largest percentage decline, with a loss of 17.8 percent over the year, compared with a national job decrease of 2.3 percent. Manufacturing sustained the largest employment losses in Elkhart. Montgomery County, Texas, which is about 20 miles north of Houston, experienced the largest over-the-year percentage increase in employment among the largest counties in the U.S., with a gain of 2.7 percent.
Q. What is the difference between slander and libel?
A. Libel generally refers to statements or visual depictions in written or other permanent form, while slander refers to verbal statements and gestures.
http://www.medialaw.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Public_Resources/Libel_FAQs/Libel_FAQs.htm
Note a memory aid: slander refers to spoken word—libel to written word.
Q. What city’s motto is “Urbs in horto" or "city in a garden."
A. Chicago. http://www.choosechicago.com/microsite/Pages/GreenChicagoACityinaGarden.aspx
What’s up in New Jersey?
For answers, we checked in with a couple scholars who know lots about politics and ethics in the Garden State: Joseph Marbach, a dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, and Brigid Harrison, a professor of politics and law at Montclair State. Marbach calls one of the most “persuasive and pervasive theories” that early immigrants to New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania viewed the role of government differently than did their contemporaries in New England or the southern colonies. “They--collections of Dutch and English settlers--tended to look at government as just another service provider,” he says. In New England, the Puritan belief advocated that government should be a force for good, says Marbach, and in the south, government initially was small and its role was to protect the status quo. “But in this area, people got involved in politics because it was a career option, not necessarily because it was a higher calling. People who couldn't become doctors or lawyers became politicians.”
Marbach says that such an attitude helped create a culture of corruption in two ways. For starters, because politics was a career option and not something one did at the tail end of a successful career in law or business, politicians weren't necessarily wealthy. “So a sense developed that a certain amount of graft was acceptable,” says Marbach. Secondly, the role of a politician simply became to distribute goods and services--not to build a better society or to protect the status quo--adds Marbach, and such goods and services became viewed as products to trade away.
Harrison adds that early attempts to rein in local corruption in other states never really took hold in New Jersey. “You had these counties where party bosses never really relinquished their power,” she says. “These modern corruption stories really have their grounding in those party machines.” Partly as a result of this reluctance to give up or consolidate power, says Marbach, New Jersey stayed incredibly fractured. Today, the state has 566 local municipalities, the second-most in the nation, behind Illinois. “We've got parkway commissions and special districts and each of these has an executive with authority and control over purse strings,” he says. “That's a lot of opportunities for corruption and patronage.” Harrison calls them “mini-fiefdoms.”
More on New Jersey following the unveiling of some 30 criminal complaints and a press release led by New Jersey's acting U.S. attorney, Ralph Mara. Click here for the WSJ story. The arrests and summonses made were made pursuant to a two-tracked investigation that had gone on for 10 years. One track: a public-corruption probe which led to the arrest and summons of 29 politicians and a money-laundering probe allegedly involving 15 others, including 5 rabbis. The list of those arrested (click here) include the 32 year-old Hoboken mayor, Peter Cammarano, a Democrat, Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell, also a Democrat; state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City. The money-laundering scheme allegedly involved Saul Kassin, the Coney Island-based U.S. head of a large Syrian-Jewish congregation. Politicians “willingly put themselves up for sale,” for “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mara during the press conference, saying they took advantage of “huge loopholes” in the state's anticorruption laws.
Amazon.com has reached into customers' Kindle e-readers and deleted some e-books written—ironically--by George Orwell. Amazon, which returned the cost of the e-books, said it made the move when it realized that the publisher didn't have the proper rights to sell the books in the U.S. The move annoyed some consumers. “I love my Kindle, but if they can take back a book after I buy it, that bothers me,” said one. Amazon later promised to change its system and “not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances,” according to a spokesman.
“What this incident shows is that the law gives radically more control to the company than the system ought to,” says Harvard's Lawrence Lessig. Owning an e-book is more akin to licensing a piece of software than it is to owning a bound volume: access comes with fine-print terms of service, and often digital rights management software to ensure that you abide by the rules. The fine print in the company's terms of service gives consumers the “right to keep a permanent copy” of purchased titles, but also reserves Amazon's “right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the service at any time.” U.S. law generally supports the terms of service imposed by companies--so long as they're listed up-front. Real books can be shared with a friend or sold, but e-books with digital rights management software cannot. The number of devices that can play a single e-book license varies from one publisher to the next, and often confuses consumers. WSJ Law Blog July 23, 2009
The Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly known as Cash For Clunkers, takes less fuel efficient vehicles off the road and replaces them with more efficient ones. The National Highway Transportation Administration is expected to issue final rules by Friday that allow consumers to receive up to $4,500 in a voucher to lower the cost of purchasing a vehicle. The vehicle has to be less than 25 years old at time of trade in, with an estimated combined city and highway mileage of 18 miles per gallon or less.
A new $25,000 vehicle that meets the fuel standard would have a $4,500 government incentive. In some cases, new car manufacturers have an additional $4,000 rebate available. The result is the new car owner can purchase a vehicle for $17,500. http://www.abilene-rc.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=A8E703A3-19B9-E2F5-46121AC7E59A8C40
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Census Bureau - Voter Turnout Increases by 5 Million in 2008 Presidential Election
News release: "About 131 million people reported voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, an increase of 5 million from 2004, according to a new table package released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase included about 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged. Additionally, voters 18 to 24 were the only age group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent in 2008 compared with 47 percent in 2004. Blacks had the highest turnout rate among 18- to 24-year-old voters—55 percent, an 8 percent increase from 2004. The increased turnout among certain demographic groups was offset by stagnant or decreased turnout among other groups, causing overall 2008 voter turnout to remain statistically unchanged—at 64 percent—from 2004."
The table package, Voting and Registration in the Election of 2008, examines the levels of voting and registration in the November 2008 presidential election, the demographic characteristics of citizens who reported that they were registered for or voted in the election, and the reasons why registered voters did not vote."
Silent letters
Architect, archive, numb, honest
The grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln, also named Abraham Lincoln, was a captain of Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War. http://www.ancestry.com/trees/fft/indiv.aspx?t=1&n=I1&o_iid=831&o_lid=831&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0
Characters from Greek and Roman mythology whose names live on in English
Hector/Hektor
Mentor
Narcissus
Tantalus
Vulcan
http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eponyms.htm
Recommended by Pennsylvania reader:
Miss Zukas mysteries—11 so far in the series about a librarian sleuth
http://www.jodereske.com/
Miss Julia mysteries—9 so far in the series about a proper lady of a certain age
http://www.booksnbytes.com/authors/ross_annb.html
Two major arbitration firms are backing away from the business of resolving disputes between customers and their credit-card and cellphone companies, throwing into disarray a controversial system that prevents unhappy consumers from filing lawsuits. Click here for the WSJ story. The American Arbitration Association said on July 21 it will stop participating in consumer-debt-collection disputes until new guidelines are established. Its decision came two days after another big group, the National Arbitration Forum, said it would stop accepting new cases as of Friday.
Although arbitration long has been controversial, the current situation developed rapidly starting last week when the Minnesota attorney general's office sued the National Arbitration Forum over the way it handled disputes. Among other things, the lawsuit contended that NAF didn't disclose that it has financial ties to the debt-collection industry, violating Minnesota laws against consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising. Click here and here for earlier blog posts.
Opening this morning's LA Times, we were greeted with news of yet another Establishment Clause challenge, this one over congressional efforts to etch the words “In God We Trust” into a $621-million visitors center which opened last year at the U.S. Capitol. According to the story, when the center opened, a number of lawmakers were surprised not to see the four words on the walls of the complex. So Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the complex's walls. A lawsuit followed. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group that describes itself as a national organization of atheists and agnostics, asserts that such an action would violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Jackson Browne/John McCain lawsuit: We figured the dustup--in which Browne sued the McCain campaign for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” in a campaign advertisement without first obtaining permission--would end with a secret settlement in which handshakes and an apology were made, along with an agreement never to make mention of the suit again. The lawsuit has indeed settled. And, courtesy of the Washington Post, we have some details. Under the terms of the settlement, McCain, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party jointly settled the lawsuit. They paid an undisclosed sum, and issued a statement Tuesday saying: “We apologize that a portion of the Jackson Browne song 'Running On Empty' was used without permission. Although Senator McCain had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the creation or distribution of the Web campaign video, Senator McCain does not support or condone any actions taken by anyone involved in his 2008 presidential election campaign that were inconsistent with artists' rights or the various legal protections afforded to intellectual property.”
WSJ Law Blog July 22, 2009
News release: "About 131 million people reported voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, an increase of 5 million from 2004, according to a new table package released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase included about 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged. Additionally, voters 18 to 24 were the only age group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent in 2008 compared with 47 percent in 2004. Blacks had the highest turnout rate among 18- to 24-year-old voters—55 percent, an 8 percent increase from 2004. The increased turnout among certain demographic groups was offset by stagnant or decreased turnout among other groups, causing overall 2008 voter turnout to remain statistically unchanged—at 64 percent—from 2004."
The table package, Voting and Registration in the Election of 2008, examines the levels of voting and registration in the November 2008 presidential election, the demographic characteristics of citizens who reported that they were registered for or voted in the election, and the reasons why registered voters did not vote."
Silent letters
Architect, archive, numb, honest
The grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln, also named Abraham Lincoln, was a captain of Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War. http://www.ancestry.com/trees/fft/indiv.aspx?t=1&n=I1&o_iid=831&o_lid=831&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0
Characters from Greek and Roman mythology whose names live on in English
Hector/Hektor
Mentor
Narcissus
Tantalus
Vulcan
http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eponyms.htm
Recommended by Pennsylvania reader:
Miss Zukas mysteries—11 so far in the series about a librarian sleuth
http://www.jodereske.com/
Miss Julia mysteries—9 so far in the series about a proper lady of a certain age
http://www.booksnbytes.com/authors/ross_annb.html
Two major arbitration firms are backing away from the business of resolving disputes between customers and their credit-card and cellphone companies, throwing into disarray a controversial system that prevents unhappy consumers from filing lawsuits. Click here for the WSJ story. The American Arbitration Association said on July 21 it will stop participating in consumer-debt-collection disputes until new guidelines are established. Its decision came two days after another big group, the National Arbitration Forum, said it would stop accepting new cases as of Friday.
Although arbitration long has been controversial, the current situation developed rapidly starting last week when the Minnesota attorney general's office sued the National Arbitration Forum over the way it handled disputes. Among other things, the lawsuit contended that NAF didn't disclose that it has financial ties to the debt-collection industry, violating Minnesota laws against consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising. Click here and here for earlier blog posts.
Opening this morning's LA Times, we were greeted with news of yet another Establishment Clause challenge, this one over congressional efforts to etch the words “In God We Trust” into a $621-million visitors center which opened last year at the U.S. Capitol. According to the story, when the center opened, a number of lawmakers were surprised not to see the four words on the walls of the complex. So Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), introduced legislation to get the words, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, etched into the complex's walls. A lawsuit followed. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group that describes itself as a national organization of atheists and agnostics, asserts that such an action would violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Jackson Browne/John McCain lawsuit: We figured the dustup--in which Browne sued the McCain campaign for using his 1977 hit “Running on Empty” in a campaign advertisement without first obtaining permission--would end with a secret settlement in which handshakes and an apology were made, along with an agreement never to make mention of the suit again. The lawsuit has indeed settled. And, courtesy of the Washington Post, we have some details. Under the terms of the settlement, McCain, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party jointly settled the lawsuit. They paid an undisclosed sum, and issued a statement Tuesday saying: “We apologize that a portion of the Jackson Browne song 'Running On Empty' was used without permission. Although Senator McCain had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the creation or distribution of the Web campaign video, Senator McCain does not support or condone any actions taken by anyone involved in his 2008 presidential election campaign that were inconsistent with artists' rights or the various legal protections afforded to intellectual property.”
WSJ Law Blog July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips: The Little Red Book of Wine Law: A Case of Legal Issues - Heather A. Phillips recommends this slim volume as it provides an engaging and accessible introduction to American wine law and history that will broaden the reader's appreciation of the wine industry.
Green Files: Green Resources and Sites on the Internet - Marcus P. Zillman provides a comprehensive, wide ranging listing of web based green resources and sites, inclusive of home and business related information.
The seals on the back of a dollar bill include 13 steps on the pyramid, 13 stars above the eagle's head, 13 war arrows in the eagle's claw and 13 leaves on the olive branch. http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/feb/friday021109.html
Tree Museum
About two years ago, Katie Holten was competing for an art commission to commemorate the centennial of the Concourse in the Bronx this year and racking her brain for a way to tell the story of the place and its people. “The light bulb came on: If this is about the whole street, well, then the trees have to be part of it,” she said. “The Concourse has always been tree-lined, even before it was paved.” She has marked out 100 trees along the Concourse, which is about four and a half miles long. Each one will have a sign that gives a phone number and a code to listen to short recordings of people speaking about the Bronx, their lives and their work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/nyregion/07about.html
http://www.treemuseum.org/
Q. What is a basilisk?
A. A basilisk is described as "like a cock with dragon's wings, the beak of an eagle and the tail of a lizard."
http://travelguide.all-about-switzerland.info/basilisk-fable-heraldic-animal.html
Basel, Switzerland has 170 monumental fountains, some of which feature the 'Basilisk': a dragon with a cock's head that has been Basel's emblem since the 15th century. The basilisk about halfway down at the following link is the one we viewed on our recent trip to Europe. http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/search/Datasheet/a705baf6a4e8301be4297a69ba80fa1e/125195
Homage to herring
Herring are among the most important fish groups on the planet. They are the dominant converter of the enormous production of zooplankton, utilizing the biomass of copepods, mysids, and krill in the pelagic zone. Small herring also feed on phytoplankton, and large herrings feed on small fish and fish larvae. On the other side of the food chain, they are a central prey item for higher trophic levels, including seabirds, dolphins, pinnipeds, whales, sharks, swordfish, tuna, cod, salmon, and numerous other large fish. For humans, they also are very important, being harvested for their nutritious meat and eggs. They have been a known staple food source since 3000 B.C.E. In The Netherlands, herring have played a major role in historical and economic development dating back to the fourteenth century.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Category:Art%2C_music%2C_literature%2C_sports_and_leisure
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Herring
Annual herring festivals are held around the world. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22herring+festival%22+annual&aq=f&oq=&aqi= There are herring museums in Iceland and Sweden. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22herring+museum%22+-tia+-ed&hl=en&start=0&sa=N Read about the herring feast held in midtown Manhattan recently at http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/07/20/090720ta_talk_sacks
Feedback to “sculpted by nature” words in A.Word.A.Day
From: Richard Jesse Watson (rjw olympus.net)
Subject: ventifact
My dad was a scientist, and taught geology at Pacific University in his early years. As a child I used to look at various rock samples that he had gathered. One beautiful, sculpted sample was a rock he found in the Mojave desert where I grew up until I was seven. He called it a ventifact. It was very hard and was shaped by the wind on all sides. This rock was the size of a small flat loaf of bread but had obviously flipped from the workings of the wind to have many angles of soft sandblasted angles and curves.
From: Mark Bennett (Mark_Bennett harvard.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--yardang
Def: An elongated ridge formed by wind erosion, often resembling the keel of an upside down ship. Hoodoo or fairy chimney is another erosional feature due to wind. Why these features are not lumped together, under one name, regardless of shape, is unclear to me.
On July 21, 1855 Ralph Waldo Emerson sent Walt Whitman a letter to "greet" him "at the beginning of a great career." Whitman had just self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass earlier in the year. The letter, which Emerson writes from Concord, Massachusetts, begins: "Dear Sir: — I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of 'Leaves of Grass.' I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."
July 21 is the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, (books by this author) born in Oak Park, Illinois (1899), the Nobel- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such books as The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952).
Both U.S. presidential candidates of 2008 cited Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) as one of their favorite books. The Writer’s Almanac
Green Files: Green Resources and Sites on the Internet - Marcus P. Zillman provides a comprehensive, wide ranging listing of web based green resources and sites, inclusive of home and business related information.
The seals on the back of a dollar bill include 13 steps on the pyramid, 13 stars above the eagle's head, 13 war arrows in the eagle's claw and 13 leaves on the olive branch. http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/feb/friday021109.html
Tree Museum
About two years ago, Katie Holten was competing for an art commission to commemorate the centennial of the Concourse in the Bronx this year and racking her brain for a way to tell the story of the place and its people. “The light bulb came on: If this is about the whole street, well, then the trees have to be part of it,” she said. “The Concourse has always been tree-lined, even before it was paved.” She has marked out 100 trees along the Concourse, which is about four and a half miles long. Each one will have a sign that gives a phone number and a code to listen to short recordings of people speaking about the Bronx, their lives and their work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/nyregion/07about.html
http://www.treemuseum.org/
Q. What is a basilisk?
A. A basilisk is described as "like a cock with dragon's wings, the beak of an eagle and the tail of a lizard."
http://travelguide.all-about-switzerland.info/basilisk-fable-heraldic-animal.html
Basel, Switzerland has 170 monumental fountains, some of which feature the 'Basilisk': a dragon with a cock's head that has been Basel's emblem since the 15th century. The basilisk about halfway down at the following link is the one we viewed on our recent trip to Europe. http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/search/Datasheet/a705baf6a4e8301be4297a69ba80fa1e/125195
Homage to herring
Herring are among the most important fish groups on the planet. They are the dominant converter of the enormous production of zooplankton, utilizing the biomass of copepods, mysids, and krill in the pelagic zone. Small herring also feed on phytoplankton, and large herrings feed on small fish and fish larvae. On the other side of the food chain, they are a central prey item for higher trophic levels, including seabirds, dolphins, pinnipeds, whales, sharks, swordfish, tuna, cod, salmon, and numerous other large fish. For humans, they also are very important, being harvested for their nutritious meat and eggs. They have been a known staple food source since 3000 B.C.E. In The Netherlands, herring have played a major role in historical and economic development dating back to the fourteenth century.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Category:Art%2C_music%2C_literature%2C_sports_and_leisure
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Herring
Annual herring festivals are held around the world. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22herring+festival%22+annual&aq=f&oq=&aqi= There are herring museums in Iceland and Sweden. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22herring+museum%22+-tia+-ed&hl=en&start=0&sa=N Read about the herring feast held in midtown Manhattan recently at http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/07/20/090720ta_talk_sacks
Feedback to “sculpted by nature” words in A.Word.A.Day
From: Richard Jesse Watson (rjw olympus.net)
Subject: ventifact
My dad was a scientist, and taught geology at Pacific University in his early years. As a child I used to look at various rock samples that he had gathered. One beautiful, sculpted sample was a rock he found in the Mojave desert where I grew up until I was seven. He called it a ventifact. It was very hard and was shaped by the wind on all sides. This rock was the size of a small flat loaf of bread but had obviously flipped from the workings of the wind to have many angles of soft sandblasted angles and curves.
From: Mark Bennett (Mark_Bennett harvard.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--yardang
Def: An elongated ridge formed by wind erosion, often resembling the keel of an upside down ship. Hoodoo or fairy chimney is another erosional feature due to wind. Why these features are not lumped together, under one name, regardless of shape, is unclear to me.
On July 21, 1855 Ralph Waldo Emerson sent Walt Whitman a letter to "greet" him "at the beginning of a great career." Whitman had just self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass earlier in the year. The letter, which Emerson writes from Concord, Massachusetts, begins: "Dear Sir: — I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of 'Leaves of Grass.' I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."
July 21 is the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, (books by this author) born in Oak Park, Illinois (1899), the Nobel- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such books as The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952).
Both U.S. presidential candidates of 2008 cited Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) as one of their favorite books. The Writer’s Almanac
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