World Wildlife Fund was on the warpath September 1 after a tasteless ad exploiting 9/11 appeared online bearing its famous panda logo. It showed dozens of planes diving at lower Manhattan with the tag line: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it." The ad surfaced--days before the eighth anniversary of the attack--when it won a best of 2009 award from The One Club, a nonprofit that promotes "excellence" in advertising. The image was presented by admen from the agency DDB Brasil to WWF officers in Brazil and quickly rejected. You hear a lot of concepts in meetings, and WWF assumed it was dead and gone. But it appears now that someone submitted it to a competition. Officials at The One Club, the Manhattan-based group that named it the best public service print ad of 2009, did not respond to messages asking them to explain why. See picture at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/09/02/2009-09-02_wwf_appalled_by_911_terror_ad.html

In the 2009 edition of the UNESCO’s Atlas of World Languages in Danger, Manx was listed as effectively dead. Chief Minister Tony Brown wrote to UNESCO claiming the language was still flourishing on the island. The classification will now be changed to 'critically endangered'. Government minister Phil Gawne, who is a fluent Manx speaker, added that as well as Mr Brown's letter there were many others sent by Manx speakers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/isle_of_man/8210192.stm

EPA Announces New Steps to Protect Americans from Lead Poisoning
EPA website on Lead in Paint, Dust, and Soil: News release: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a series of steps to increase protections against and raise awareness of lead-based products in our environment and communities, particularly to prevent lead poisoning in children. EPA announced that it will grant a petition to initiate regulatory action to address lead hazards associated with the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of lead wheel balancing weights ("wheel weights") According to a U.S. Geological Survey study in 2003, 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights were in use in the United States and approximately 2,000 tons of these weights were lost from vehicles into the environment. Voluntary actions on the part of U.S. auto manufactures and an European Union ban on their use has reduced the number of lead wheel weights, but they continue to be the predominate product in the tire replacement market." EPA intends to strengthen requirements it issued in 2008 to protect children from lead-based paint poisoning associated with renovation and repair activities in homes and schools. EPA will propose to expand lead-safe work practices and other protective requirements for renovation and painting work involving lead paint to cover most pre-1978 housing, and after certain renovation, repair, and painting preparation activities are performed to require renovation firms to perform quantitative dust testing to achieve dust-lead levels that comply with EPA's regulatory standards. Renovations on the exteriors of public and commercial buildings will also be proposed to be covered and EPA will evaluate whether renovations in the interior of these buildings create lead-based paint hazards.

Long Island's windmills were called smock mills because settlers thought the skirted towers resembled baker's aprons. Two renowned builders, Nathaniel Dominy and Samuel Schellinger, designed and constructed most of the mills from white oak. Inside, millstones ground grain (one type of millstone imported from France ground baker's flour, and a different stone brought in from New England ground cornmeal and animal feed). Soon, communities sprang up around the essential facilities, and a sort of flour hierarchy developed: Unlike local farmers, magistrates or ministers could grind their grain for free, according to Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society. For decades, a group of villages on Long Island have worked diligently to preserve the 11 mills here—the largest collection of wooden windmills in the United States. Thanks to their efforts, seven have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. "They tell the story of technology in the Wooden Age," says Hefner. "They're irreplaceable." http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/september-october/form-function.html

Richard Neutra (1892-1970) moved to Los Angeles from his native Vienna in 1925 and became one of the foremost proponents of Modernism, a style that embraced simple, rectilinear forms and shared social space. The Modernists broke down the barriers between interior and exterior, taking advantage of a house's natural setting while introducing new, often industrial materials. All this at a price most everyone could afford. http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/september-october/living-with-neutra.html

Ken Wilkinson knew that he wanted to open a chocolate boutique, using recipes and techniques he had learned in Europe, and that his present hometown of Houston wouldn’t support the scenario he envisioned. So when Wilkinson came across a deteriorating 1874 bank building along Main Street in Calvert, Texas, a Victorian town that boasts one of the largest historic districts in the United States, his entrepreneurial wheels started spinning. Calvert, he soon learned, enjoyed great prosperity in the 1870s as a rail link for goods headed to and from Galveston. By the 1950s, though, when the area’s cotton plantations were mechanized and work grew scarce, the town settled into a rhythm of languor. Many of Main Street’s historic buildings lay vacant. Wilkinson, a self-described “exacting bastard with a low tolerance for compromise,” bought the bank building, restored it, and opened CocoaModa. http://www.texashighways.com/index.php/component/content/article/49-dining-a-tastes/5959-th-taste-calverts-cocoamoda

Google "cob" today and you'll find numerous references to a marvelous mix of dirt, water, and straw, which has been used for centuries to build beautiful, comfortable homes--warm in winter, cool in summer--even in cold, wet SE England, where there are tens of thousands of cob homes, some of them 500-700 years old! In Devon, they say "give a cob house good boots (foundation) and a good hat (roof), and it will last forever!"
In the U.S., in the past 15 years, there has been a huge revival of interest in cob and other traditional, earthen materials (like adobe, from the Arabic, Al-toba, meaning "the brick"), rammed earth, light-straw clay, and the modern hybrid straw-bale, which is, at best, straw protected with a thick layer of mud plaster. It makes sense. We all know how to make mud pies, and when you work with mud, architecture reverts to its traditional roots, which are sculpture and playful nest-making. For more info, try digyourhandsinthedirt.net, or look up The Hand Sculpted House, at chelseagreen.com, or just look up "cob" on the web! A mud house won't burn down, the bugs can't eat it, and it's dirt cheap (if you make it yourself)! Mine took just 700 hours, and it cost me less than a thousand bucks. Kiko Denzer (potlatch cmug.com)

On September 2, 1901 at the Minnesota State Fair Teddy Roosevelt (books by this author) gave a speech and uttered his famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." He said that it was a West African proverb that he had always liked. He probably picked it up from his wide reading—he often read a book a day, even after he became president, and he wrote a total of 40 books during his lifetime.
On September 2, 1666, at one o'clock in the morning the Great Fire of London broke out at the king's bakery on Pudding Lane. The king's baker was named Thomas Farynor, and it was his house that caught on fire. There wasn't a centralized method of fire control in London. People usually took care of fires themselves, and if the danger was serious enough, they tore down adjacent buildings to make a fire break. When the Great Fire broke out, people in the neighborhood called in the Lord Mayor of London to ask permission to tear the buildings down. He didn't think it was a big deal—in fact, he said, "A woman might piss it out." A lot of the information we have about the fire comes from Samuel Pepys, who kept detailed diaries about his personal life and the events going on around him. The Writer’s Almanac

The new robocall ban to take effect September 1 is part of amendments to the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, which went into effect a year ago. Calls not covered by the ban include those from charities, banks, insurers, phone companies, survey calls, and certain healthcare messages such as prescription notifications. Other exceptions are calls not trying to sell goods or services, such as informational calls about cancelled airline flights and those from debt collectors. Some are protected as free speech under the First Amendment; others do not fall under FTC jurisdiction. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0829/p02s07-usgn.html

Dana's World Headquarters on Dorr Street in Toledo closed August 28. As of September 8, the Dana Law Department will be moving to 3939 Technology Drive, Maumee, OH 43537. The final auction of Dana’s Art and antique collection will be held September 10-September 12 at 4500 Dorr Street. Details on preview and online bidding at: http://www.pamelaroseauction.com/documents/DanaPostcard-SeptemberAuction.pdf
The supplier started in 1904, when engineer Clarence Spicer developed a universal joint and driveshaft for cars. He moved the business to Toledo, Ohio, in 1929, and the company took on the name of financier Charles Dana in 1946. The company moved in 1970 to the Dorr Street headquarters, with about 160,000 square feet of total space.
In March of 2006, Dana filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after missing a $21 million bond payment. Dana Holding Corp., the maker of car and truck axles, hasn’t made a profit since emerging from bankruptcy last February. Dana has sold its headquarters to Health Care REIT Inc. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aL0TCX7vdmF4&refer=us

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. http://www.geocaching.com/

In a vault beneath the British Library, Jeremy Leighton John grapples with a formidable challenge in digital life. Dr. John, the library's first curator of eManuscripts, is working on ways to archive the deluge of computer data swamping scientists so that future generations can authenticate today's discoveries and better understand the people who made them. His task is only getting harder. Scientists who collaborate via email, Google, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook are leaving fewer paper trails, while the information technologies that do document their accomplishments can be incomprehensible to other researchers and historians trying to read them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125139942345664387.html

Rogue apostrophes ‘Both spellings--martini's and martinis--are correct,' he said firmly.
‘I know this is right because, when I heard what you wanted to know, I checked it on Google.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086832/Apostrophe-catastrophe-The-rogue-apostrophe-spreading-like-measles-Its-time-fight-.html
English reader responds: I blame teachers and greengrocers for much mis-use of apostrophes. It's not that difficult to get it right. We could extend this to other errors such as "Your on CCTV" and a sign I saw at a county court recently "accomadation".

Currywurst is as German as pizza is Italian, hot dogs are American, and fish and chips British. This month, the dish was immortalized in the new Deutsches Currywurst Museum in Berlin, a sausage shrine dedicated to all things currywurst, including sausage sofas, a curry "spice chamber" and a movie montague of all-time currywurst cameos. The museum opened commemorating the dish's 60th birthday. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204884404574364600782551292.html

Q. Where is it and what is its name?
Called Pagganck or Nut Island, then called Noten Eylant or Nutten Island
Lumber from its trees were used to build structures in what is now Lower Manhattan
With added landfill, it has 172 acres
First flight over American waters started there
A. Governors Island off the south tip of Manhattan
See history and how to get there and visit free at:
http://www.govisland.net/PDFs/Facts&History.pdf
http://www.govisland.com/
http://www.governorsislandalliance.org/newsite/2007/11/new_yorks_first.html
http://nyharborparks.org/visit/gois.html

On September 1, 1951, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States signed ANZUS, a mutual defense accord similar to NATO in Europe. The alliance between the U.S. and New Zealand, however, has been suspended since 1985, after the institution of New Zealand's nuclear-free zone prohibited U.S. nuclear warships from entering New Zealand's ports.
On September 1, 1942, a federal judge in Sacramento, California, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals during World War II. Learn more about Japanese-American internment. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/thisday/
On September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began.
The Writer’s Almanac

I mentioned last week that West put out an ad stating that if you know your librarian on a first name basis, you may be spending too much time in the library. Years before, Lexis--West’s arch-rival in the computerized legal research field--put out a full page ad showing a library sinking into water. Electronic research is wonderful, but there are times when your best resource may be a person.

The hard truth about ice in central Virginia
Cold air damming is a frequent feature of winter weather in Central Virginia. Cold air draining down from the north is trapped in by the mountains to the west of the Richmond region, confining that air just west of the I-95 corridor. Warm air then lifts in from the south and overruns the cold air, leading to a wintry mix.
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/weatherpapers/080/index.html

Rita’s Julia story and her salmon story
I was under deadline for this column and the subject was cooking with wine. On a whim, I called Julia and, of course, she was "out" but the secretary said she'd give her the message. About a half hour later the phone rang and when I picked up the phone and said hello, the voice that said hello back was ... Julia's! She was so nice, answered every question, and then just asked about my family and me. We talked for a total of 30 minutes, 10 of which was professional and the rest was personal. And guess what? She even sent me a signed thank you note.

Perfectly grilled salmon
The 70/30 rule applies to any seafood on the grill. Have the grill hot, lightly brush both sides of the fish with oil, and start grilling skin side up with the grill closed as much as possible. (Or just put a disposable pan over the fish). Leave it alone until about 70 percent of the fish is done on the first side. You'll know it by the looks and also if it will release easily. This allows the fish to form a nice crust. Turn it and finish cooking. The rule seven to 10 minutes per inch of thickness works well, too.
http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/20090826/LIFE04/908260304/Mastering+the+art+of+salmon+grilling
Rita’s blog http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blog08

Redundant adjectives:
• advance planning
• close proximity
• end product, result
• first priority
• general rule
• hot-water heater
• integral part
• major breakthrough
• new beginning
• past history
• root cause
• separate entities
• temporary reprieve
• total annihilation, destruction
See redundant nouns, prepositions, adverbs and phrases at:
http://languagerules.wordpress.com/2006/09/16/close-proximity-isnt-close-to-correct/

What is viral marketing?
The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
A technique aiming at reproducing "word of mouth", usually on the internet or by e-mail, for humorous, political or marketing purposes
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/viral_marketing
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Viral+marketing&ei=TVqVSsHzC42GMaPc3PkH&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

A 17-year-old Briton became the youngest person to sail round the globe single-handed on August 26, 2009 after nine months at sea. Mike Perham suffered knockdowns and damage to his yacht during the 24,000-mile (38,700-km) trip and the teenager from Hertfordshire, southern England, said he was now looking forward to a “good meal and a very good night's sleep.” http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE57Q2V220090827

Christopher Bird of Cambridge University and a colleague exposed rooks to a 6-inch-tall clear plastic tube containing water, with a worm on its surface. In a series of tests, the four rooks named Cook, Fry, Connelly and Monroe were offered a tempting treat–a juicy worm floating on the surface of water in a vertical tube. To start with, the worm was out of reach. Videos of the experiments show the birds examining the tube from different angles, appearing to think the problem through. Then the researchers provide a solution in the form of a handful of pebbles. The rooks can be seen picking up the stones and dropping them into the tube to raise the water level and bring the worm within reach.
Cook and Fry succeeded straight away, while Connelly and Monroe took two attempts.
The birds appeared to estimate how many pebbles were needed from the outset. Rather than try for the worm after each stone was dropped, they waited until the time seemed right. They also selected larger stones over smaller ones, for greater effect. In other experiments, the rooks quickly understood that sawdust cannot be displaced in the same way as water. Rooks and crows both belong to the corvid family.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0807/1224252151840.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/06/crow-water-stones.html

smalto noun colored glass or enamel used in mosaic
from Italian smalto (enamel, glaze), related to smelt (to melt)
A.Word.A.Day

August 31 is the birthday of Maria Montessori, (books by this author) born on this day in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She was a bright student, and she wanted to study engineering, so when she was 13, against her father's wishes she entered a technical school, where all her classmates were boys. After a few years, she decided to pursue medicine, and she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. It was so unheard of for a woman to go to medical school that she had to get the approval of the pope in order to study there. The Writer’s Almanac

Beginning September 1, 2009, prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls to consumers–commonly known as robocalls–will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls, the Federal Trade Commission announced on August 27. The new requirement is part of amendments to the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) that were announced a year ago. After September 1, consumers who receive prerecorded telemarketing calls but have not agreed to get them should file a complaint with the Commission, either on the ftc.gov Web site or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/robocalls.shtm

The public playground where Google lets users try out new products or services that aren't yet ready for prime time is Google Squared. It's a demonstration of a search engine trying to provide answers instead of just sites, and at a higher level than the simple "smart answers" you see when you search for "time in Rome" or "area code 909". Rather, Google analyzes the retrieved pages, identifies common elements, and creates a table with the information it has compiled. This is a fascinating tool that helps you compile facts into tables that Google builds on the fly. Go to Google.com/squared and type in a query that will retrieve a number of similar thing --organic farms in Colorado, for example, or women CEOs.
Google Squared generates a table of facts extracted from its index, with the items you are searching for as the left-most column, along with columns for whatever related characteristics are relevant for the topic. For organic farms in Colorado, for example, the table in the search results has columns for the name of the company, an image from the farm's web site, a snippet of description about the farm, and columns for telephone number, location and "season." Note that some of these columns may have few entries in them, depending on what information Google analyzed. For women CEOs, the table includes the CEO's name, a photo, a snippet that indicates what her position is, her date of birth, and her nationality. Interestingly, you can insert your own items in a Google Squared table, and either let Google populate the rest of the row or type in whatever content you want in that row. You can also delete a row or column that isn't relevant to your search. Google Squared is never going to compete with a real human's analysis of a collection of facts, but it can be a great way to start brainstorming, as a quick way to organize the results of your search, and as a starting point for a nicely-presented deliverable for your client. Source: Bates Information Services www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html Thanks, Julie.

Recipe story
A short time ago, I sent the link to a recipe for Welsh Rabbit (also called Welsh Rarebit).
http://cookingfortwo.about.com/od/pastabeansandgrains/r/rarebit.htm
I gave it the taste test, using Fuller’s London Porter for the dark ale. It was easy to make, and the dish came out well, not heavy at all. There was about half of the sauce remaining after we poured it on toasted English muffins, and we saved that and used it with twice baked potatoes. It would be good on noodles, too.

More than 1,200 artists from 24 countries will compete for $450,000 in an unprecedented new art competition next month in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ArtPrize, as it's known, is promoting itself as a "radically open competition" with no juries or any of the usual filters that decide what's art and what's not. The entire town seems to be mobilizing for ArtPrize, which will run Sept. 23 to Oct. 10. The 18-day event will be held at about 160 venues--including the Grand River itself, parks, bridges, businesses, and, of course, galleries--within a 3-square-mile zone. More than 1,200 artists from 24 countries will compete for $450,000 in an unprecedented new art competition next month in Grand Rapids.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009908210392

Grand Rapids is celebrating the 40th anniversary of La Grande Vitesse, a sculpture by Alexander Calder. http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/michigan/grandrapids/calder/vitesse.html

Compare La Grande Vitesse to Stegosaurus at The Toledo Museum of Art. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22toledo%20museum%22%20calder%20stegosaurus&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Downtown Grand Rapids is extremely walkable; most of the cultural sites and a great deal of shopping, dining and entertaining options can be found in the six-by-six-block square bounded by Michigan Street, Fulton Street, Division Avenue and the west bank of the Grand River. More to see there:
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, 1000 E. Beltline Ave. NE, 616-957-1580, meijergardens.org
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, 303 Pearl St., NW, 616-254-0400, fordlibrarymuseum.gov
Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, 616-831-1000, gramonline.org. GRAM is as well known for its building (the world's first LEED Gold-certified Museum, recognizing green building practices) as it is for its collection of modern art.
Farmers Market, Fulton Street near Fuller Avenue. Open four days a week, this market consists of a narrow lane, two blocks long, packed with locally grown produce, baked goods, flowers and more. It pulls in big crowds, especially Saturdays. It's several miles east of downtown but worth the drive.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-trav-grand-rapids-aug0909,0,3666736.story

Looks like I’ll be writing another Tank Away article because I’ve been thinking about going to Grand Rapids, and there’s the incentive that Toledo sculptor Calvin Babich has a piece on exhibit. Calvin's piece is showing at Design Plus Offices, an architectural design firm at 230 East Fulton Street. If you go to the ArtPrize website and search the artist list for Calvin's name, you will see his maquette and a link to the venue. There are 11 other artists at this venue. http://www.artprize.org/

Calvin Babich’s sculpture, The Puzzler, at following link, was inspired by Will Shortz and his love for puzzles. http://www.calvinbabich.com/Image.asp?ImageID=395881&full=1&apid=1&gpid=1&ipid=1&AKey=3SNCJGQS

On August 28, 1913, the Peace Palace was opened in The Hague by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. The Palace was conceived of as a forum to host the international Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). In addition to the PCA, the Palace today hosts the International Court of Justice, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the Peace Palace Library of International Law. Learn more about the creation of the Peace Palace.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to 200,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. Listen to King's speech, courtesy of the History Channel. The March was later credited with helping to achieve passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/thisday/

Federally designated as Women's Equality Day in 1971, Aug. 26 became one of commemoration for the passage of the U.S. Constitution's 19th Amendment, also known as the Woman Suffrage Amendment.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/EastVolusia/evlEAST04082609.htm

History of the 19th Amendment
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm

OCLC announce agreements in Europe to extend coverage in WorldCat
August 25th, 2009 From the News Release: OCLC today announced four new agreements have been signed with European national libraries and affiliated institutions which significantly increase the coverage of records in WorldCat and the visibility of libraries in WorldCat.org within the Europe and Middle East regions. These latest agreements in Denmark, Switzerland, Slovenia and Israel show that libraries from around the globe are responding very positively to the opportunity that WorldCat offers to streamline workflows and increase visibility in WorldCat.org, a global destination web site for libraries, which surfaces to a worldwide community the collections they hold and the services they deliver. Read the rest of this entry »

Online social networks leak personal information to tracking sites, new study shows
August 24th, 2009 From the News Release:
More than a half billion people use online social networks, posting vast amounts of information about themselves to share with online friends and colleagues. A new study co-authored by a researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found that the practices of many popular social networking sites typically make that personal information available to companies that track Web users’ browsing habits and allow them to link anonymous browsing habits to specific people. The study, presented recently in Barcelona at the Workshop on Online Social Networks, part of the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communications, is the first to describe a mechanism that tracking sites could use to directly link browsing habits to specific individuals.
See Also: Read the Complete Study (PDF)

Resource of the Week: Internet Archive’s NASAimages.org
by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy August 24th, 2009
This past week, Internet Archive announced that you can now download high resolution image files directly from the website. The improved download features offer a choice of high or low resolution files for still images, allowing users to select the version best suited for their needs. Many images on the site have a dimension of 3000 pixels or higher, making them suitable for printing at up to 11 x 17 inches on most printers. The website still maintains NASA’s file naming conventions for easy organization.
You can search the archive by keyword or browse various categories:
Universe
Solar System
Earth
Aeronautics
Astronauts
Be sure and check out the interactive Spaceflight Timeline at the bottom of the page. You can click through at any stop along the continuum to bring up relevant images.
Source: The Internet Archive/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Online Database: Encyclopedia of Life to Gather Every Species into a Digital Noah’s Ark August 23rd, 2009 From the Article:
The inventory has grown more quickly than anyone expected. To date, there are pages for more than 150,000 species, with contributions from 250 specialists and 1,200 “citizen scientists”. Members of the public have contributed more than 30,000 images via the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) group page on the photo-sharing website Flickr. Once the identity of the photographed species has been confirmed by an expert, the image is added to the main site. Direct to the Encyclopedia of Life Source: The Guardian

Are you on a first name basis with the librarian? If so, chances are, you’re spending too much time at the library. What you need is fast, reliable research you can access right in your office. And all it takes is West®. This piece of marketing was sent out by the electronic database and news giant Reuters/Thomson/West. http://theliskid.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/apparently-the-library-wastes-time/

A Bit of a Mess in Dallas August 25, 2009
Former President George W. Bush had his heart set on an expansive Presidential Library, but his requirements have been harder to achieve than he thought. No eminent domain for the George W. Bush Presidential Center. A deal that was supposed to end a long-running lawsuit against SMU–and smooth the path for George W. Bush's presidential library–has fallen apart amid charges that both sides broke the terms of a confidential agreement. Report from the Dallas News. Last month, Southern Methodist University and two former condominium owners announced that they had settled the bitter four-year fight over who is the rightful owner of land now slated for the grounds of the Bush library.

August 26 is the birthday of the world's only academically accredited enigmatologist, Will Shortz, (books by this author) born on an Arabian horse farm in Crawfordsville, Indiana (1952). He's the current crossword editor of The New York Times, the puzzle master of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, and the author or editor of dozens of books.
Shortz sold his first puzzle to a magazine when he was 14 years old, and within a couple years, he was a regular contributor to puzzle publications. In college, he designed his own degree program in enigmatology, which he describes: "Literally, it's the study of riddles, but at Indiana I defined it as the study of puzzles." He drew himself up an undergraduate curriculum of classes in English, math, philosophy, journalism, and linguistics, and wrote a thesis on the history of American word puzzles before 1860.
The Writer’s Almanac

London: New National Gallery Website
News release: The re-launched www.nationalgallery.org.uk is the first major gallery website to offer a full-screen zoom facility for its entire collection. Users can now examine every National Gallery masterpiece in outstanding detail, effortlessly sweep across digital canvases and zoom into minute details of their choosing. Also for the first time, users can now check the up-to-date locations of their favorite works of art prior to visiting. Using the Gallery’s own collection database, the new website updates the layout of the collection twice daily. Users can explore the paintings room-by-room using an interactive floorplan, allowing them to follow the narrative of the hang, as well as access new research material for specific works of art. Visitors can now access over 12,000 images, 18 hours of audio and at least 200 videos.

USDA Study Finds Rural Communities Benefit From Greater Broadband Internet Access
News release: "A new USDA economic analysis has found that rural communities with greater broadband Internet access had greater economic growth than areas with less access. The study, Broadband Internet's Value for Rural America by economists at USDA's Economic Research Service, compared counties that had broadband access relatively early-by 2000-with similarly situated counties that had little or no broadband access. Employment growth was higher and non-farm private earnings greater in counties with a longer history of broadband availability."

Iowa Great Lakes region, a chain of eight natural lakes
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/lakesidelab/greatLakes.html

Story of the big bugs http://www.big-bugs.com/
Big bugs at 100th anniversary of Lakeside Lab
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/lakesidelab/News.html

Micropsia, often associated with migraines, means seeing objects smaller than their actual size. It's also known as micropia. The opposite, where objects appear larger than their actual size, is called macropsia (also known as macropia, megalopsia, and megalopia). These distortions in perception are also called Alice in Wonderland syndrome after the little girl in Lewis Carroll's books who enters a hallucinogenic world. Diplopia means double vision. Agnosia is the loss of ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, and is usually caused by brain injury. A.Word.A.Day

Q. What autonomous archipelago within the Kingdom of Denmark lies between Norway and Iceland?
A. The Faroe Islands, settled by Vikings in the 9th century.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fo.html

The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian arcipelago, derived ultimately from Greek arkhon (arkhi-) ("leader") and pelagos ("sea"). Find various definitions at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:archipelago&ei=uLOFStCrIonE-Qackfm6CQ&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Quotes
I call architecture frozen music.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German playwright
Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854) German philosopher

Music of the eye usually refers to architecture (see book below) but some people apply the phrase to dance or paintings.
The music of the eye: or, Essays on the principles of the beauty and perfection of architecture by Peter Legh - 1831 - 262 pages
Printed by Ibotson and Palmer, Savoy-Street, Strand.
books.google.com/books?id=oaAaAAAAYAAJ...

Drawings of cats
Rembrandt, Picasso and Da Vinci drew cats. English artist Louis Wain (1860-1939) drew anthropomorphic cats. http://www.cat-lovers-gifts-guide.com/cat-drawing.html
B. Kliban (1935-1990), was arguably the first to put now outrageously popular cat cartooning in the fore, the artist who opened up doors for the likes of Gary Larsen, Jim Davis, and others of feline-connected fame. Kliban studied painting and design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and later at Cooper Union in New York City. B. Kliban loved cats and usually had several living with him. His first book (called simply, Cat) was published in 1975 and Kliban became an overnight cartoon sensation. This book was followed by seven other cartoon books--in which Cat's appearance was minimal--over the next several years. Colorful Cats followed, decorating a range of merchandise from calendars and t-shirts to magnets, plush, and beach towels. http://pomegranate.stores.yahoo.net/abbklib19.html

Silent letters
Knowledge, chord, tough, foreign

Put I before E except after C, or when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh.
NOTE: What about weird? Caffeine? Foreign?

Hickory, dickory, dock, the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one, adding insult to injury.
Hickory, dickory, dock, two mice ran up the clock.
The clock struck one, and their wedding was delayed.
Hickory, dickory, dock, three mice ran up the clock.
The clock struck one, and the other two escaped without serious injury.

FTC Issues Final Breach Notification Rule for Electronic Health Information
News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has issued a final rule requiring certain Web-based businesses to notify consumers when the security of their electronic health information is breached. Congress directed the FTC to issue the rule as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The rule applies to both vendors of personal health records–which provide online repositories that people can use to keep track of their health information–and entities that offer third-party applications for personal health records. These applications could include, for example, devices such as blood pressure cuffs or pedometers whose readings consumers can upload into their personal health records. Consumers may benefit by using these innovations, but only if they are confident that their health information is secure and confidential."

A pun is a play on words. Examples: http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/punterm.htm

The 40th edition of Gray’s Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice was published in 2008. The title of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy is a pun on the book title.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis was one of the major Victorian-era World's Fairs. The Fair celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. It was delayed from a planned opening in 1903 to 1904 allow for full-scale participation by more states and foreign countries. The Fair opened April 30, 1904, and closed December 1, 1904. Of notable interest is that St. Louis had held an annual Saint Louis Exposition (1884) since the 1880s as agricultural, trade, and scientific exhibitions, but this event was not held in 1904 due to the World's Fair. The Fair's 1,200 acre (4.9 km²) site, designed by George Kessler [1], was located at the present-day grounds of Forest Park and on the campus of Washington University, and was the largest fair to date. There were over 1,500 buildings, connected by some 75 miles (120 km) of roads and walkways. The Palace of Fine Art, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, featured a grand interior sculpture court based on the Roman Baths of Caracalla. Standing at the top of Art Hill, it now serves as the home of the St. Louis Art Museum. The Administration Building is now Brookings Hall, the defining landmark on the campus of Washington University. Some of the mansions from the Exposition's era survive along Lindell Boulevard at the north border of Forest Park. The huge bird cage at the Saint Louis Zoological Park, dates to the fair. Festival Hall contained the largest organ in the world at the time, built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company. After the fair, it was placed into storage, and eventually purchased by John Wanamaker for his new Wanamaker's store in Philadelphia. See Wanamaker Organ for more details. The famous Bronze Eagle in the Wanamaker Store also came from the Fair. It features hundreds of hand-forged bronze feathers and was the centerpiece of one of the many German exhibits at the fair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition

The Wanamaker Organ was originally built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, successors to the Murray M. Harris Organ Co., for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was designed to be the largest organ in the world, an imitation of a full-size orchestra with particularly complete resources of full organ tone including mixtures. In addition to its console, the organ was originally equipped with an automatic player that used punched rolls of paper, according to the Los Angeles Times of 1904.[3] It was designed by renowned organ theorist and architect George Ashdown Audsley. Wild cost overruns plagued the project, with the result that Harris was ousted from his own company. With capital from stockholder Eben Smith, it was reorganized as the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, and finished at a cost of $105,000, $40,000 over budget. The Fair began (in late April, 1904) before the organ was fully installed in its temporary home, Festival Hall. It still was not entirely finished in September of that year, when Alexandre Guilmant, one of the most famous organists of the day, presented 40 very well-attended recitals on the organ. Following the Fair, the organ was intended for permanent installation by the Kansas City Convention Hall. Indeed, the original console had a prominent "K C" on its music rack. This venture failed, bankrupting the L. A. Art Organ Company after the Fair closed. There was a plan to exhibit the organ at Coney Island in New York City, but nothing came of this.
The organ languished in storage at the Handlan warehouse in St. Louis until 1909, when it was bought by John Wanamaker for his new department store at 13th and Market Streets in Center City, Philadelphia. It took thirteen freight cars to move it to its new home, and two years for installation. It was first played on June 6, 1911, at the exact moment when British King George V was crowned. It was also featured later that year when U.S. President William Howard Taft dedicated the store. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ

"Why Women's Rights Are the Cause of Our Time"
New York Times Special Issue: How changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything
"..if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater...in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. That’s why foreign aid is increasingly directed to women. The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution."
See also World Bank: Role of Women, key to South Asia's Development

Bipartisan Policy Center Releases Report on Improving Health Care Quality and Value
News release: "In response to increasing concerns in the health care debate regarding the long-term costs of reform, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) released a report examining various steps for reforming the health care system to one that delivers better care at lower costs. The report, entitled, Improving Quality and Value in the U.S. Health Care System, supports the bipartisan health reform recommendations released earlier this year by Senators Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and Bob Dole in their budget-neutral framework for comprehensive health reform, Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System.
Related postings on health care reform

House Health Care Reform Bill Available on GPO’s Federal Digital System
"As lawmakers and Americans discuss health care reform, The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, in electronic and printed form. The bill was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce. The authentic, electronic version is available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), named by Government Computer News as one of the Government’s best Web sites. GPO authenticated the document by digital signature. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered. A digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document’s integrity and authenticity."

August 22 is the birthday of screenwriter Julius Epstein, (books by this author) born in New York City in 1909. He and his twin brother, Philip, took an unpublished play called Everybody Comes to Rick's and turned it into a screenplay for one of the most-quoted and beloved classic movies: Casablanca. Julius Epstein said that his screenplay for Casablancacontained "a great deal of corn, more corn than in the states of Kansas and Iowa combined."
August 23 is the birthday of Edgar Lee Masters, (books by this author) born in Garnett, Kansas (1868). He grew up in small farming towns in Illinois, and he wanted to write a novel about growing up in Illinois, but he didn't know where to start. Then the editor of a poetry magazine sent him a book of poems called Selected Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, epigrams from classical Greece, many of them about the details of daily life and ordinary people. So Masters took that idea, and he wrote Spoon River Anthology (1915), in which residents of a small Illinois town called Spoon River speak from beyond the grave and tell their life stories, more than 200 characters in all.
The Writer’s Almanac