In the first full week of May, Burson-Marsteller, a top-five public relations firm, stepped up a whisper campaign to get top-tier media outlets, including USA TODAY, to run news stories and editorials about how an obscure Google Gmail feature — Social Circle — ostensibly tramples the privacy of millions of Americans and violates federal fair trade rules. Google said that Social Circle in fact allows Gmail users to make social connections based on public information and private connections across its products in ways that don't skirt privacy. Yet the PR stunt played out during a week in which Google was responding to a raid of its Seoul office by South Korean privacy regulators and was preparing for a U.S. Senate hearing today over the location-tracking feature in Android smartphones. Pushed by two high-profile media figures — former CNBC news anchor Jim Goldman and former political columnist John Mercurio, both of whom recently joined Burson — the whisper campaign illustrates how privacy has become a lightning-rod issue. Goldman pitched the Social Circle issue as a huge privacy breach to Google users and an important story for consumers. Burson's efforts, on behalf of an unnamed client, also highlight the delicate balancing act Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple face as they rush to profit from cutting-edge Internet services that tap into consumer data. In a May 3 e-mail to former FTC researcher and blogger Christopher Soghoian, Burson's Mercurio offered to ghost write an op-ed column to that effect for Soghoian. Mercurio even offered in a widely circulated e-mail to help Soghoian get it published in The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, Roll Call and The Huffington Post. Meanwhile, Goldman connected with USA TODAY and outlined a news story critical of Social Circle. However, Soghoian derailed Burson's efforts by posting the full e-mail text of Mercurio's pitch — along with his rejection — on the Internet. After Goldman's pitch proved largely untrue, he subsequently declined USA TODAY's requests for comment. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-06-google_n.htm
anomia (uh-NOH-mee-uh) noun The inability to recall names of people or objects. From Latin a- (without) + nom (name). Earliest documented use: 1900.
subitize (SOO-bi-tyz) verb tr., intr. To perceive, without counting, the number of objects in a small group. From Latin subitus (sudden), from past participle of subire (to appear suddenly), from sub- (under) + ire (to go). Earliest documented use: 1949. When you throw a die, you don't count the number of pips to determine the value of the throw. You subitize. Estimates of the upper limit of humans' subitizing capability range from four to seven. Subitizing also depends on the arrangement of the objects. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Cate Tiernan (born July 24, 1961) is the pen name of Gabrielle Charbonnet, an American author. Writing as Cate Tiernan, she is best known for her Sweep series, which follows the Wiccan adventures of a cast of high school students. The stories are sold as the Wicca series in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Australia, and as White Magic (Magie Blanche) in Italy and France. Under her own name, she is chiefly known for children's books in the Princess, American Gold Gymnasts, and Disney Girls series. In 2008 and 2009, Charbonnet collaborated with author James Patterson on two "young adult" novels, Sundays at Tiffany'sand Witch & Wizard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Tiernan
Charcuterie (French from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked') is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes. The Romans may be the first to have regulated the trade of charcuterie as they wrote laws regulating the proper production of pork joints; but the French have also had some influence. In 15th century France, local guilds regulated tradesmen in the food production industry in each city. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only "raw" meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcuterie
Bill Wharton (Sauce Boss) has cooked gumbo on stage for over 175,000 for free. He mixes his own spicy original music--Florida Slide Guitar Blues--and adds his famous Liquid Summer hot sauce right into every night's cooking demonstration of his own gumbo recipe. It's a multi-sensory soul shouting picnic of rock and roll brotherhood. And at the end of the night, everybody eats. Hear Sauce Boss tunes and find out about the non-profit Planet Gumbo Foundation at: http://www.sauceboss.com/
Architecture rarely goes viral on the Internet, but a video of Toyo Ito's Mediatheque in Sendai taken at the height of the Japanese earthquake has had an extraordinary run as an eyewitness and vertigo-inducing account of what it was like to be inside a building during the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=heh5ITmYbRs) The video was shot by someone who had taken refuge under one of the tables in the audio-visual library on the sixth floor. The building shook and swayed violently; everything cascaded from shelves and desks onto the floor. Ceiling panels appeared to swing drunkenly overhead. But the Mediatheque did not collapse. It stood firm against the massive seismic forces that were tearing other buildings apart; the basic structure did not fail. Mr. Ito is one of Japan's, and the world's, best-known architects, and the Mediatheque has been celebrated internationally for its visual elegance and radical structural solution. Completed in 2001, it was the winning design in a competition for an interactive multimedia center with a wide range of cultural activities, from the visual and performing arts to computers with free Internet access. See a photograph and a sketch of the lattice columns at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859304576305243667119026.html
"Spring for Music," continuing at Carnegie Hall through Saturday, May 14 shows what can happen when industry insiders act creatively. The festival is presenting seven North American orchestras chosen, from 25 applicants, for their imaginative programming habits. Participants range from the Albany Symphony Orchestra, with 76 mostly part-time members and an annual budget of about $2 million, to the 89-member Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which has annual expenditures of $28 million, an extensive discography and a world-class concert hall. Most of the concert offerings assembled by the orchestras are truly inventive, forging intriguing thematic links or presenting works considered dicey at the box office. On May 11: Dallas Symphony in the New York premiere of "August 4, 1964" for chorus, soloists and orchestra, a 70-minute concert drama by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky. The piece revisits two fateful events during the Lyndon Johnson presidency—one affecting the civil-rights movement, the other, the Vietnam War. On May 12: the 76-member Oregon Symphony Orchestra with an intelligently conceived, war-themed program of John Adams, Benjamin Britten, Charles Ives and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Subsequent performances by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the 92-member Montreal Symphony Orchestra should prove equally stimulating. So far, the results have been instructive. The superbly played opening-night concert May 6: Orpheus, the renowned conductorless chamber orchestra with six commissioned "Brandenburg" concertos inspired by Bach's originals. On May 7: Toledo Symphony Orchestra with a program that was ingenious. Self-produced symphonic concerts at Carnegie, a traditional rite of passage for regional orchestras, now cost an untenable $400,000 to $500,000. "Spring for Music" mitigates some of the risk involved in such outings. Each orchestra is responsible for trip expenses and production "extras." And each shares equally in the box office proceeds, with a guaranteed minimum of $50,000. Toledo Symphony president Kathleen Carroll said she expects to see a "positive benefit" from the festival appearance. Next year, festival organizers will showcase one less orchestra, enabling them to raise the guarantee to a more attractive $65,000.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576312931035466752.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
An Arizona restaurant's trademark case against the 2nd Ave Deli's "Instant Heart Attack Sandwich" is full of baloney, according to a federal lawsuit filed May 10. The Heart Attack Grill, which "proudly serves unhealthy and overly caloric fare such as hamburgers, fries cooked in lard," claims in a letter that the famed New York deli stole its idea for the sandwich and for a planned "Triple Bypass Sandwich." The 2nd Ave Deli, fought back with a lawsuit asking a federal judge to declare that there is no copyright infringement. The New York deli says it has been selling its version of the sandwich - of two large potato pancakes (latkes) served with a choice of corned beef, pastrami, turkey, or salami piled high - since 2004, while the Arizona eatery has only been open since 2005. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/05/10/2011-05-10_heart_attack_grills_trademark_case_against_2nd_ave_deli_over_sandwich_name_is_ba.html
"Potting Pretty" 67 pots, of four different styles, will go on public display in Sylvania, Ohio May 16. Although many of the distinctively decorated "Potting Pretty in Sylvania" vessels have been purchased by sponsors, a few may be available for auction during a gala unveiling May 19 during which the results of "best of show" artistic-merit judging will be announced. Among the more distinctive entries are two by artist Todd Kime: a round pot dressed up like a milkshake for Sonic Drive-In and a square one inverted and mounted on a pole to resemble a reading lamp for Pinnacle Eye Care. Mr. Kime won the "Sittin' Pretty" best in show with the bench he created for Pinnacle. Seventeen of the planters were decorated by students in various Sylvania schools, and others were done by professional artists, collegiate art students, and the Shared Lives Studio at Lott Industries. The artwork is in styles ranging from whimsical drawings to mosaics to tributes to classic masterpieces and ancient cultures. http://toledoblade.com/West/2011/05/11/Chamber-hopes-Sylvania-has-pot-luck.html
May 16-23 Pots on display in downtown Sylvania
May 19, 4-8 p.m. Grand unveiling and Best of Show Awards
May 19 Entertainment, refreshments, auction of pots and Sylvania Sprouts Flower Sale
Collingwood Arts Center 2413 Collingwood Boulevard, Toledo
JOHN WALZ PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT- OPENING 5/13 This exhibit will feature selected works by the high regarded Owens Community College instructor and owner of Waterville’s John Walz Photo. Mr. Walz is a graduate of Huntington University and also received a Masters degree in photography from the Savannah College of Art. He has exhibited extensively around our region at galleries like Space 237 and abroad. Runs until the end of May.
LOL COMEDY GROUP: PRESENTS LOL LIVE-5-21-11 Six of Toledo’s hottest up and coming comedians take center stage at the Lois M. Nelson Theater. Produced by Keith Cook and Glenn Kynard. This is being planned as a monthly showcase.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
On May 10, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate, top executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon and others convened at the World Trade Center site to announce PLAN--the Personal Localized Alerting Network. PLAN is a free service that will allow customers with an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. This service will be available in New York City by the end of 2011, at least two calendar quarters before the rest of the nation. When PLAN is operational, customers in an area affected by an emergency who have a PLAN-capable mobile device will receive an alert of ninety characters or less. Consumers will receive three types of alerts from PLAN: (1) alerts issued by the President; (2) alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life; and (3) Amber Alerts. Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but Presidential alerts. In 2006, Congress passed the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act, requiring carriers that choose to participate to activate PLAN technology by a deadline determined by the FCC, which is April 2012. Participants that will offer PLAN at least two calendar quarters ahead of schedule in New York City are AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Ninety percent of New York subscribers who have a PLAN-capable mobile device in these cities will be able to receive PLAN alerts by the end of 2011. For more information on PLAN (Personal Localized Alerting Network), visit the Federal Communications Commission website at www.fcc.gov
Mason Locke Weems (1759 –1825), generally known as Parson Weems, was an American book agent and author. He is best known as the source of some of the apocryphal stories about George Washington. The famous tale of the cherry tree ("I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet") is included in The Life of Washington (1800), Weems' most famous work. This nineteenth-century bestseller depicted Washington's virtues and provided an entertaining and morally instructive tale for the youth of the young nation. The New York Times has described Weems as one of the "early hagiographers" of American literature "who elevated the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, into the American pantheon and helped secure a place there for George Washington". Weems' name would probably be forgotten today, had it not been for the tension between the liveliness of his narratives, contrasted with the "...charge of a want of veracity [that] is brought against all Weems's writings". The cherry-tree anecdote illustrates this point. Another dubious anecdote found in the Weems biography is that of Washington's prayer during the winter at Valley Forge. The exalted esteem in which the "founding fathers", and especially George Washington, were held by 19th century Americans seems quaintly exaggerated to their 21st century counterparts; but that Washington was so regarded is undisputed. The acme of this esteem is found on the ceiling of the United States Capitol Building in the form of Brumidi's fresco The Apotheosis of Washington. Weems' A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington, was a biography written in this spirit, amplified by the florid, rollicksome style which was Weems' trademark. According to this account, publicly his subject was "...Washington, the HERO,and the Demigod...;" furthermore, at a level above that "...what he really was, [was] 'the Jupiter Conservator,' the friend and benefactor of men." With this hyperbole, Weems elevated Washington to the Augustan level of the god "Jupiter Conservator [Orbis]" (that is, "Jupiter, Conservator of the Empire", later rendered "Jupiter, Savior of the World"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems
The New York Public Library has teamed up with Coney Island Brewing Company in Brooklyn to create a beer fit for a Founding Father – a porter based on George Washington’s handwritten “small beer” recipe, which can be found in the Library’s extensive collections. The two institutions are brewing a very limited amount of “Fortitude’s Founding Father Brew” to toast the 100th birthday of the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. The brewery – maker of such craft beer favorites as Coney Island Lager, Sword Swallower and Freaktoberfest and a part of Shmaltz Brewing Company, the “Best American Craft Brewer” according to Beverage World Magazine – is creating the beer in collaboration with two local brewers, Pete Taylor and Josh Knowlton, using Washington’s own instructions, which he wrote on a small piece of paper. “To Make Small Beer,” reads Washington’s recipe. “Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses (sic) into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask — leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.” The recipe sits along with Washington’s Farewell Address and other items belonging to him and his family in the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. Tastings of the beer will be served to guests at the Library’s Centennial gala on May 23 — exactly 100 years after “The People’s Palace” opened in 1911. The press will have an opportunity to taste the beer at an event on Wednesday, May 18 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Rattle N Hum, located at 14 East 33rd Street in Manhattan. The public will have a chance to get a free tasting of the special brew as part of an event by Shmaltz Brewing Company at 7 p.m.
http://beernews.org/2011/05/coney-island-brewing-company-creates-george-washington-beer/
It is the image that has come to define a pivotal point in history, capturing the moment the deadly raid on Osama Bin Laden's lair was watched in awe by the White House elite. Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper Der Zeitung printed a story this week with a subtly manipulated version of the historic image - all the men in the photograph remain untouched but the two women in the picture have been Photoshopped out. It is thought the newspaper, which is written in Yiddish and serves a small part of the area's ultra-orthodox Jewish community, removed the women because of religious issues regarding female modesty. While Mrs Clinton is dressed in the picture in a full jacket, wearing a top beneath that covers her almost right up to her neck, the newspaper never intentionally prints any images of women at all in case they could be considered sexually suggestive. More critical observers suggest the women have been edited by Der Zeitung, which translates as 'The Time', because of an ideological objection to women holding positions of power. The Situation Room photograph shows President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and various other members of their inner circle watching Sunday night's Navy SEAL operation, which ended with Bin Laden being killed. See pictures with and without the two women at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384847/Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-Newspaper-edits-Hillary-Clinton-Situation-Room-photo.html
Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue, exhibits sound-oriented work of 2010 Turner Prize Susan Philipsz winner through June 12.
Her installations feature strategically placed audio speakers within a given space that transmit a cappella versions of songs sung by the artist. Philipsz deliberately selects particular pieces of music to reinterpret vocally and then separates the multiple audio tracks so that the "viewer" experiences different voices as they move through a space. Both works in this exhibition—The Internationale (1999) in the second floor atrium and the MCA Chicago commission We Shall Be All (2011) - feature songs that relate to the history of workers' collectives and their struggles for proper working conditions and sufficient wages. In The Internationale Philipsz sings the famous workers' rights anthem of the same name, popularized in the 1890s. The title of We Shall Be All is taken from the American version of "The Internationale," adapted by Charles H. Kerr (American, 1860–1944) for the Industrial Workers of the World songbook. Philipsz's 2002 sound installation Pledge is featured in a related presentation at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum through June 12. http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=254
The Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio, founded in 1929 by Beman and Bertie Dawes, now covers nearly 1,800 acres and includes eight miles of hiking trails and a four-mile Auto Tour. More than 15,000 living plants, Japanese Garden, Dutch Fork Wetlands, Observation Tower. The Dawes Arboretum is a private, non-profit organization. The grounds are open 7a.m. until dusk year-round. Closed on New Year's, Thanksgiving and Christmas days. Free admission. http://www.dawesarb.org/
William Dawes, Jr. (1745 –1799) was one of several men and a woman who alerted colonial minutemen of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at the outset of the American Revolution. His great-great-grandson, Charles Gates Dawes, would serve as Vice President of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes (1865 –1951) was an American banker and politician who was the 30th Vice President of the United States (1925-1929). For his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served in the First World War, was U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and, in later life, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Dawes was a self-taught pianist and composer and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music. His 1912 composition, "Melody in A Major," became a well-known piano and violin piece, and was played at many official functions as his signature tune. It was transformed into the pop song, "It's All In The Game", in 1951 when Carl Sigman added lyrics. Tommy Edwards' recording of "It's All in the Game" was a number one hit on the American Billboard record chart for six weeks in the fall of 1958. Edwards' version of the song also hit number one on the UK chart that year. Since then, it has since become a pop standard recorded hundreds of times by artists including Cliff Richard, The Four Tops, Isaac Hayes, Jackie DeShannon, Van Morrison, Nat "King" Cole, Brook Benton, Elton John, Mel Carter, Barry Manilow, and Keith Jarrett. Dawes is the only Vice-President credited with a #1 pop hit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gates_Dawes
Quotes by Annie Dillard
Spend the afternoon – we can’t take it with us.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I believed them
The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart.
A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.
Dillard, born Meta Ann Doak on 30 April 1945 in Pittsburgh, writes primarily narrative nonfiction essays, but her literary contributions include a memoir, poems, and a novel. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) won her a Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1975.
Mason Locke Weems (1759 –1825), generally known as Parson Weems, was an American book agent and author. He is best known as the source of some of the apocryphal stories about George Washington. The famous tale of the cherry tree ("I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet") is included in The Life of Washington (1800), Weems' most famous work. This nineteenth-century bestseller depicted Washington's virtues and provided an entertaining and morally instructive tale for the youth of the young nation. The New York Times has described Weems as one of the "early hagiographers" of American literature "who elevated the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, into the American pantheon and helped secure a place there for George Washington". Weems' name would probably be forgotten today, had it not been for the tension between the liveliness of his narratives, contrasted with the "...charge of a want of veracity [that] is brought against all Weems's writings". The cherry-tree anecdote illustrates this point. Another dubious anecdote found in the Weems biography is that of Washington's prayer during the winter at Valley Forge. The exalted esteem in which the "founding fathers", and especially George Washington, were held by 19th century Americans seems quaintly exaggerated to their 21st century counterparts; but that Washington was so regarded is undisputed. The acme of this esteem is found on the ceiling of the United States Capitol Building in the form of Brumidi's fresco The Apotheosis of Washington. Weems' A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington, was a biography written in this spirit, amplified by the florid, rollicksome style which was Weems' trademark. According to this account, publicly his subject was "...Washington, the HERO,and the Demigod...;" furthermore, at a level above that "...what he really was, [was] 'the Jupiter Conservator,' the friend and benefactor of men." With this hyperbole, Weems elevated Washington to the Augustan level of the god "Jupiter Conservator [Orbis]" (that is, "Jupiter, Conservator of the Empire", later rendered "Jupiter, Savior of the World"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems
The New York Public Library has teamed up with Coney Island Brewing Company in Brooklyn to create a beer fit for a Founding Father – a porter based on George Washington’s handwritten “small beer” recipe, which can be found in the Library’s extensive collections. The two institutions are brewing a very limited amount of “Fortitude’s Founding Father Brew” to toast the 100th birthday of the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. The brewery – maker of such craft beer favorites as Coney Island Lager, Sword Swallower and Freaktoberfest and a part of Shmaltz Brewing Company, the “Best American Craft Brewer” according to Beverage World Magazine – is creating the beer in collaboration with two local brewers, Pete Taylor and Josh Knowlton, using Washington’s own instructions, which he wrote on a small piece of paper. “To Make Small Beer,” reads Washington’s recipe. “Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses (sic) into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask — leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.” The recipe sits along with Washington’s Farewell Address and other items belonging to him and his family in the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. Tastings of the beer will be served to guests at the Library’s Centennial gala on May 23 — exactly 100 years after “The People’s Palace” opened in 1911. The press will have an opportunity to taste the beer at an event on Wednesday, May 18 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Rattle N Hum, located at 14 East 33rd Street in Manhattan. The public will have a chance to get a free tasting of the special brew as part of an event by Shmaltz Brewing Company at 7 p.m.
http://beernews.org/2011/05/coney-island-brewing-company-creates-george-washington-beer/
It is the image that has come to define a pivotal point in history, capturing the moment the deadly raid on Osama Bin Laden's lair was watched in awe by the White House elite. Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper Der Zeitung printed a story this week with a subtly manipulated version of the historic image - all the men in the photograph remain untouched but the two women in the picture have been Photoshopped out. It is thought the newspaper, which is written in Yiddish and serves a small part of the area's ultra-orthodox Jewish community, removed the women because of religious issues regarding female modesty. While Mrs Clinton is dressed in the picture in a full jacket, wearing a top beneath that covers her almost right up to her neck, the newspaper never intentionally prints any images of women at all in case they could be considered sexually suggestive. More critical observers suggest the women have been edited by Der Zeitung, which translates as 'The Time', because of an ideological objection to women holding positions of power. The Situation Room photograph shows President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and various other members of their inner circle watching Sunday night's Navy SEAL operation, which ended with Bin Laden being killed. See pictures with and without the two women at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384847/Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-Newspaper-edits-Hillary-Clinton-Situation-Room-photo.html
Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue, exhibits sound-oriented work of 2010 Turner Prize Susan Philipsz winner through June 12.
Her installations feature strategically placed audio speakers within a given space that transmit a cappella versions of songs sung by the artist. Philipsz deliberately selects particular pieces of music to reinterpret vocally and then separates the multiple audio tracks so that the "viewer" experiences different voices as they move through a space. Both works in this exhibition—The Internationale (1999) in the second floor atrium and the MCA Chicago commission We Shall Be All (2011) - feature songs that relate to the history of workers' collectives and their struggles for proper working conditions and sufficient wages. In The Internationale Philipsz sings the famous workers' rights anthem of the same name, popularized in the 1890s. The title of We Shall Be All is taken from the American version of "The Internationale," adapted by Charles H. Kerr (American, 1860–1944) for the Industrial Workers of the World songbook. Philipsz's 2002 sound installation Pledge is featured in a related presentation at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum through June 12. http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=254
The Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio, founded in 1929 by Beman and Bertie Dawes, now covers nearly 1,800 acres and includes eight miles of hiking trails and a four-mile Auto Tour. More than 15,000 living plants, Japanese Garden, Dutch Fork Wetlands, Observation Tower. The Dawes Arboretum is a private, non-profit organization. The grounds are open 7a.m. until dusk year-round. Closed on New Year's, Thanksgiving and Christmas days. Free admission. http://www.dawesarb.org/
William Dawes, Jr. (1745 –1799) was one of several men and a woman who alerted colonial minutemen of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at the outset of the American Revolution. His great-great-grandson, Charles Gates Dawes, would serve as Vice President of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes (1865 –1951) was an American banker and politician who was the 30th Vice President of the United States (1925-1929). For his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served in the First World War, was U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and, in later life, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Dawes was a self-taught pianist and composer and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music. His 1912 composition, "Melody in A Major," became a well-known piano and violin piece, and was played at many official functions as his signature tune. It was transformed into the pop song, "It's All In The Game", in 1951 when Carl Sigman added lyrics. Tommy Edwards' recording of "It's All in the Game" was a number one hit on the American Billboard record chart for six weeks in the fall of 1958. Edwards' version of the song also hit number one on the UK chart that year. Since then, it has since become a pop standard recorded hundreds of times by artists including Cliff Richard, The Four Tops, Isaac Hayes, Jackie DeShannon, Van Morrison, Nat "King" Cole, Brook Benton, Elton John, Mel Carter, Barry Manilow, and Keith Jarrett. Dawes is the only Vice-President credited with a #1 pop hit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gates_Dawes
Quotes by Annie Dillard
Spend the afternoon – we can’t take it with us.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Books swept me away, this way and that, one after the other; I made endless vows according to their lights for I believed them
The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart.
A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.
Dillard, born Meta Ann Doak on 30 April 1945 in Pittsburgh, writes primarily narrative nonfiction essays, but her literary contributions include a memoir, poems, and a novel. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) won her a Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1975.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Where can an uninsured artist go in New York City to get affordable health care? Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center has announced an initiative called the Artist Access program that allows artists to exchange patient services for health care credits. The Artist Access program, which launched in May, allows artists, through performances or interactive programs for patients, to exchange their art for health care credits. These credits are accrued in the artist’s personal account, 40 credits for each hour of work, and can be used in lieu of dollars to cover sliding scale fees in Woodhull’s HHC Options program. So, for example, an artist who performs one hour every week for patients at Woodhull will accrue credits worth $160 in a month’s time. Credits can then be used as needed toward fees incurred at Woodhull for health care services. The hospital’s Creative Arts Department reviews proposals for art programs to determine if they are appropriate for hospitalized patients and matches programs with departments such as the Pediatric, Geriatric, or Rehabilitation Units. The hospital has expressed an initial preference for performance programs, but an artist brought in to test Artist Access is currently teaching drawing in the Pediatric Unit in exchange for treatment. Mural projects for the many walls and stairwells in the hospital buildings could also be considered. At this point, Woodhull is the only hospital in New York City that has initiated a trade program such as Artist Access. But all of the city’s public hospitals offer the sliding scale program called HHC Options, along with financial counseling to help patients determine what insurance coverage may be available to them. Uninsured patients who are ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare, or one of the New York State insurance programs (such as Family Health Plus) can be enrolled in HHC Options, which establishes a fee scale based on income. It ranges from $15-$60 per visit. Residents of the five New York City boroughs who earn an annual income up to 400% of the federal poverty level—about $36,000 to $37,000 for an individual—are eligible.
http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=377&fid=6&sid=17
Legal educators, law students and politicians gathered in Washington in April to discuss filling that gap by creating a congressional clerkship program. The idea is that young lawyers would spend a year researching and drafting laws before moving on to other legal endeavors. The idea isn't exactly new. Stanford University Law School Law Dean Larry Kramer floated the concept among his fellow deans in 2005, and legislation to create the clerkships has twice cleared the House of Representatives only to die in the Senate. The Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act of 2011, a bill introduced in April by U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), would create a pilot program with 12 clerks. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the House Committee on House Administration would select clerks from a centralized pool. Each chamber would get six clerks, to be divided between the parties. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202493152192&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20110506nlj&kw=Educators%3A%20Congress%20needs%20law%20clerks&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine. Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk. They have considerable influence on each other and share a similar fan base, but steampunk developed as a separate movement. Apart from time period and level of technology, the main difference is that steampunk settings tend to be less dystopian. Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk. See pictures and read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
I have received a gift of magazines covering the years 1949-1954 with prices ranging from 5 cents to 15 cents. There are stories, recipes, patterns and many ads depicting glamorous tiny-waisted women wearing dresses, jewelry and high heels while doing domestic tasks. A recipe adapted from the October 1949 issue of Household is below. (More recipes will follow.)
Baked Onions and Carrots
6 large onions, sliced
6 medium carrots, sliced
salt, pepper, butter
1 c. milk
buttered bread crumbs
Alternate onions and carrots in greased casserole. Season each layer with salt and pepper. Dot with butter, pour milk over, and cover with buttered crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees 1 hour or until tender.
Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. Retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, CA brainstormed the event in his "Big Picture" column in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine. Free Comic Book Day started in 2002 and is coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. Free Comic Book Day is scheduled on the first Saturday of May. It has often been tied to the release of a major theatrical film adaptation of a well known superhero property, in order to take advantage of the film's heavy promotion and related press about the comic book medium. On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book store retailers give away specially printed copies of free comic books, and some offer cheaper back issues and other items to anyone who visits their establishments. Retailers do not receive the issues for free; they pay 12-50 cents per copy for the comics they give away during the event. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Comic_Book_Day
Rendville, population 36 by the latest census count, is the smallest village in Ohio, but one with a rich legacy in the civil-rights and labor movements. The quiet of Rendville’s block-long downtown in the hills of southeastern Perry County is broken only by the whistle of the coal trains that still travel alongside Rt. 13.
With a population of about 1,000 people at its height during the boom years of the 1880s, Rendville was home to black miners who lived and worked alongside white immigrant miners who were newly arrived from central and eastern Europe. The town was named for William P. Rend, a Chicago industrialist who operated a coal mine here and paid black and white miners the same wages. The town was filled with saloons and gambling, and stores and churches. It hosted a big Emancipation Day celebration every year to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s ending of slavery in the South. Rendville is among the former coal-mining communities in Perry, Athens, Hocking and Morgan counties known collectively as the Little Cities of Black Diamonds. http://www.cfra.org/ruralmonitor/2011/05/04/ohio%E2%80%99s-smallest-town-rendville-was-ahead-its-time-racial-equality-fostering-
New York Times review Spring for Music, the new festival of North American symphony and chamber orchestras at Carnegie Hall, started on a relatively subdued note on May 6 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, but caught fire on May 7 with the Toledo Symphony. The Toledo Symphony stormed Carnegie, with 1,400 Ohio citizens in tow (in an audience of more than 2,000), and its program, dwelling on the plight of the individual in an oppressive society, proved a masterstroke. It opened with Shostakovich’s slightly eccentric Symphony No. 6, written in 1939, after a serious strain in the composer’s relations with the Soviet regime.
Stefan Sanderling — the orchestra’s principal conductor, who described a personal relationship with the work in the program notes — conducted a brilliant performance. The orchestra may not always have shown the overall sheen of its more famous neighbors in Ohio, and the performance was not flawless, with an occasional false entrance or loose attack. But the playing pondered deeply or surged with energy, as appropriate to the moment, and on this occasion the orchestra fully measured up to high Carnegie standards. “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” — the Tom Stoppard playlet with music by André Previn, directed by Cornel Gabara — filled out the program in high style. Mr. Stoppard toys with levels of reality, delusion and deception. The three main characters are either father, antagonist and son, or simply different manifestations of a single person, and the conceit includes an orchestra, real and imagined. Mr. Stoppard does not bring Shostakovich directly into the picture, but Mr. Previn does, with uncanny takeoffs on the master’s music woven into more generic writing. The orchestra had less to do here than in the symphony, but it did it equally well, right down to silent miming when the music existed only in a character’s head. In all, the evening was a genuine coup for the orchestra and its gifted conductor. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/arts/music/orpheus-and-toledo-symphony-at-carnegie-hall-review.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22toledo%20symphony%22&st=cse
Old West End Festival Toledo, Ohio June 4 & 5, 2011
Festival and Race Information at www.toledooldwestend.com and http://www.toledosymphony.com/news/news/Stampede.html
http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=377&fid=6&sid=17
Legal educators, law students and politicians gathered in Washington in April to discuss filling that gap by creating a congressional clerkship program. The idea is that young lawyers would spend a year researching and drafting laws before moving on to other legal endeavors. The idea isn't exactly new. Stanford University Law School Law Dean Larry Kramer floated the concept among his fellow deans in 2005, and legislation to create the clerkships has twice cleared the House of Representatives only to die in the Senate. The Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act of 2011, a bill introduced in April by U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), would create a pilot program with 12 clerks. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the House Committee on House Administration would select clerks from a centralized pool. Each chamber would get six clerks, to be divided between the parties. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202493152192&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20110506nlj&kw=Educators%3A%20Congress%20needs%20law%20clerks&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine. Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk. They have considerable influence on each other and share a similar fan base, but steampunk developed as a separate movement. Apart from time period and level of technology, the main difference is that steampunk settings tend to be less dystopian. Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk. See pictures and read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
I have received a gift of magazines covering the years 1949-1954 with prices ranging from 5 cents to 15 cents. There are stories, recipes, patterns and many ads depicting glamorous tiny-waisted women wearing dresses, jewelry and high heels while doing domestic tasks. A recipe adapted from the October 1949 issue of Household is below. (More recipes will follow.)
Baked Onions and Carrots
6 large onions, sliced
6 medium carrots, sliced
salt, pepper, butter
1 c. milk
buttered bread crumbs
Alternate onions and carrots in greased casserole. Season each layer with salt and pepper. Dot with butter, pour milk over, and cover with buttered crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees 1 hour or until tender.
Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. Retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, CA brainstormed the event in his "Big Picture" column in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine. Free Comic Book Day started in 2002 and is coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. Free Comic Book Day is scheduled on the first Saturday of May. It has often been tied to the release of a major theatrical film adaptation of a well known superhero property, in order to take advantage of the film's heavy promotion and related press about the comic book medium. On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book store retailers give away specially printed copies of free comic books, and some offer cheaper back issues and other items to anyone who visits their establishments. Retailers do not receive the issues for free; they pay 12-50 cents per copy for the comics they give away during the event. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Comic_Book_Day
Rendville, population 36 by the latest census count, is the smallest village in Ohio, but one with a rich legacy in the civil-rights and labor movements. The quiet of Rendville’s block-long downtown in the hills of southeastern Perry County is broken only by the whistle of the coal trains that still travel alongside Rt. 13.
With a population of about 1,000 people at its height during the boom years of the 1880s, Rendville was home to black miners who lived and worked alongside white immigrant miners who were newly arrived from central and eastern Europe. The town was named for William P. Rend, a Chicago industrialist who operated a coal mine here and paid black and white miners the same wages. The town was filled with saloons and gambling, and stores and churches. It hosted a big Emancipation Day celebration every year to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s ending of slavery in the South. Rendville is among the former coal-mining communities in Perry, Athens, Hocking and Morgan counties known collectively as the Little Cities of Black Diamonds. http://www.cfra.org/ruralmonitor/2011/05/04/ohio%E2%80%99s-smallest-town-rendville-was-ahead-its-time-racial-equality-fostering-
New York Times review Spring for Music, the new festival of North American symphony and chamber orchestras at Carnegie Hall, started on a relatively subdued note on May 6 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, but caught fire on May 7 with the Toledo Symphony. The Toledo Symphony stormed Carnegie, with 1,400 Ohio citizens in tow (in an audience of more than 2,000), and its program, dwelling on the plight of the individual in an oppressive society, proved a masterstroke. It opened with Shostakovich’s slightly eccentric Symphony No. 6, written in 1939, after a serious strain in the composer’s relations with the Soviet regime.
Stefan Sanderling — the orchestra’s principal conductor, who described a personal relationship with the work in the program notes — conducted a brilliant performance. The orchestra may not always have shown the overall sheen of its more famous neighbors in Ohio, and the performance was not flawless, with an occasional false entrance or loose attack. But the playing pondered deeply or surged with energy, as appropriate to the moment, and on this occasion the orchestra fully measured up to high Carnegie standards. “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” — the Tom Stoppard playlet with music by André Previn, directed by Cornel Gabara — filled out the program in high style. Mr. Stoppard toys with levels of reality, delusion and deception. The three main characters are either father, antagonist and son, or simply different manifestations of a single person, and the conceit includes an orchestra, real and imagined. Mr. Stoppard does not bring Shostakovich directly into the picture, but Mr. Previn does, with uncanny takeoffs on the master’s music woven into more generic writing. The orchestra had less to do here than in the symphony, but it did it equally well, right down to silent miming when the music existed only in a character’s head. In all, the evening was a genuine coup for the orchestra and its gifted conductor. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/arts/music/orpheus-and-toledo-symphony-at-carnegie-hall-review.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22toledo%20symphony%22&st=cse
Old West End Festival Toledo, Ohio June 4 & 5, 2011
Festival and Race Information at www.toledooldwestend.com and http://www.toledosymphony.com/news/news/Stampede.html
Monday, May 9, 2011
Quote To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799)
On May 5, two Montana residents filed a lawsuit against “Three Cups of Tea” author Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute for alleged fabrications in his book.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MONTANA, MISSOULA DIVISION Case 9:11-cv-00072-DWM MICHELE REINHART and JEAN PRICE v. GREG MORTENSON and CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE COMPLAINT FOR CLASS ACTION WITH DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL See the complaint at following link.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/050611mortensonlawsuit.pdf
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra made its debut in Carnegie Hall on May 7. “It’s electric,” exclaimed Ashley Mirakian, director of marketing and public relations for the Toledo Symphony, on Friday as the orchestra, precious instruments, and its many generous angels prepared to board a charter flight at Toledo Express Airport bound for LaGuardia Airport. “It will be surreal. All the people we know and love — our family — will be together, but in Manhattan.” After 67 years of getting its act together, the symphony has taken it on the road, straight to this legendary 119-year-old venue where gilded, cream-colored walls frame an enormous stage where, as principal flutist Joel Tse put it, gesturing enthusiastically to a high balcony, “The sound just goes out.” Saturday night, more than half the 2,804 seats were claimed by hometown fans who enthusiastically waved scarlet flags before the concert began. See more plus pictures at: http://toledoblade.com/Music-Theater-Dance/2011/05/08/Orchestra-s-night-in-N-Y-spotlight-arrives.html
The public library is a singularly American invention. Europeans had subscription libraries for 100 years before the United States was born. But on a chilly day in April 1833 the good citizens of Peterborough, New Hampshire created a radical new concept—a truly PUBLIC library. All town residents, regardless of income, had the right to freely share the community’s stored knowledge. Their only obligation was to return the information on time and in good condition, allowing others to exercise that same right. By the 1870s 11 states boasted 188 public libraries. By 1910 all states had them. Today 9,000 central buildings plus about 7500 branches have made public libraries one of the most ubiquitous of all American institutions, exceeding Starbucks and McDonalds. Since its inception the American public library’s prime directive has been to protect the public’s access to information. In 1894, the right to know led Denver’s public library to pioneer the concept of open stacks. For the first time patrons had the freedom to browse. In the 1930s, the right to know led Kentucky’s librarians to ride pack horses and mules with saddle-bags filled with books into remote sections of the state. In 1872, the right to know led the Worcester Massachusetts Public Library to open its doors on Sunday. Many viewed that as sacrilege. More than 125 years later Sundays remain the busiest day of the week for public libraries and Sunday closings are the first sign of fiscal distress. All things public are under attack. The Fort Worth rebranding is an indication of how effective this attack has been. The city explained that it was dropping the word “public” because of its “potentially negative connotation”. The Founding Fathers would be disconsolate. John Adams wrote in 1776, “There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest…established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.” Thomas Jefferson agreed, “I profess… that to be false pride which postpones the public good to any private or personal considerations.” An increasing number of library systems have gone beyond name changing to actual privatization of ever-larger parts of their library operations. The biggest player in the library privatization game is Library Systems & Services (LSSI), founded in 1981 to take advantage of President Reagan’s initiative to privatize government services. LSSI now privately manages more than 60 public libraries nationwide and now trails only Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City as an operator of library branches. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/03 Thanks, Julie.
Chicken four times Buy or prepare your own rotisserie chicken
first serving--legs and thighs
second serving--sliced in sandwiches
third serving--chunks in salad
fourth serving--make broth or soup Thanks, ALE and GBE
NASA's six-year Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two major predictions from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The four ultra-precise gyroscopes used by GP-B measured the hypothesized geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, which is the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B was a joint effort between NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Stanford University, and Lockheed Martin, which designed the space vehicle.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384948,00.asp
Rabindranath Tagore was born 150 years ago May 7. Festivities and seminars are being held in his honour across the world. In London, the BFI is hosting a season of films inspired by his work; last night his fellow Bengali (and fellow Nobel laureate) Amartya Sen gave a talk at the British Museum; a two-day conference at the University of London will, among other things, examine his legacy in the Netherlands, Poland and Germany. Tagore's collected works include 28 thick books with his 2,500 songs published separately. Every Bengali will know some Tagore, even if they can't read or write and the words come from a popular song or the national anthem (those of both India and Bangladesh use his verse). "His translations into English are like embroidery seen from the back." In 1913 he won the Nobel prize for literature, the first non-European to win a Nobel. In 1912 he sailed from India to England with a collection of English translations – the 100 or so poems that became the anthology Gitanjali, or "song offerings". He lost the manuscript on the London tube. Famously, it was found in a left luggage office. Then – decisively – W.B. Yeats met Tagore, read his poems and became his passionate advocate (while pencilling in suggestions for improvements). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/07/rabindranath-tagore-why-was-he-neglected
On May 5, two Montana residents filed a lawsuit against “Three Cups of Tea” author Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute for alleged fabrications in his book.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MONTANA, MISSOULA DIVISION Case 9:11-cv-00072-DWM MICHELE REINHART and JEAN PRICE v. GREG MORTENSON and CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE COMPLAINT FOR CLASS ACTION WITH DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL See the complaint at following link.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/050611mortensonlawsuit.pdf
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra made its debut in Carnegie Hall on May 7. “It’s electric,” exclaimed Ashley Mirakian, director of marketing and public relations for the Toledo Symphony, on Friday as the orchestra, precious instruments, and its many generous angels prepared to board a charter flight at Toledo Express Airport bound for LaGuardia Airport. “It will be surreal. All the people we know and love — our family — will be together, but in Manhattan.” After 67 years of getting its act together, the symphony has taken it on the road, straight to this legendary 119-year-old venue where gilded, cream-colored walls frame an enormous stage where, as principal flutist Joel Tse put it, gesturing enthusiastically to a high balcony, “The sound just goes out.” Saturday night, more than half the 2,804 seats were claimed by hometown fans who enthusiastically waved scarlet flags before the concert began. See more plus pictures at: http://toledoblade.com/Music-Theater-Dance/2011/05/08/Orchestra-s-night-in-N-Y-spotlight-arrives.html
The public library is a singularly American invention. Europeans had subscription libraries for 100 years before the United States was born. But on a chilly day in April 1833 the good citizens of Peterborough, New Hampshire created a radical new concept—a truly PUBLIC library. All town residents, regardless of income, had the right to freely share the community’s stored knowledge. Their only obligation was to return the information on time and in good condition, allowing others to exercise that same right. By the 1870s 11 states boasted 188 public libraries. By 1910 all states had them. Today 9,000 central buildings plus about 7500 branches have made public libraries one of the most ubiquitous of all American institutions, exceeding Starbucks and McDonalds. Since its inception the American public library’s prime directive has been to protect the public’s access to information. In 1894, the right to know led Denver’s public library to pioneer the concept of open stacks. For the first time patrons had the freedom to browse. In the 1930s, the right to know led Kentucky’s librarians to ride pack horses and mules with saddle-bags filled with books into remote sections of the state. In 1872, the right to know led the Worcester Massachusetts Public Library to open its doors on Sunday. Many viewed that as sacrilege. More than 125 years later Sundays remain the busiest day of the week for public libraries and Sunday closings are the first sign of fiscal distress. All things public are under attack. The Fort Worth rebranding is an indication of how effective this attack has been. The city explained that it was dropping the word “public” because of its “potentially negative connotation”. The Founding Fathers would be disconsolate. John Adams wrote in 1776, “There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest…established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.” Thomas Jefferson agreed, “I profess… that to be false pride which postpones the public good to any private or personal considerations.” An increasing number of library systems have gone beyond name changing to actual privatization of ever-larger parts of their library operations. The biggest player in the library privatization game is Library Systems & Services (LSSI), founded in 1981 to take advantage of President Reagan’s initiative to privatize government services. LSSI now privately manages more than 60 public libraries nationwide and now trails only Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City as an operator of library branches. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/03 Thanks, Julie.
Chicken four times Buy or prepare your own rotisserie chicken
first serving--legs and thighs
second serving--sliced in sandwiches
third serving--chunks in salad
fourth serving--make broth or soup Thanks, ALE and GBE
NASA's six-year Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two major predictions from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The four ultra-precise gyroscopes used by GP-B measured the hypothesized geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, which is the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B was a joint effort between NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Stanford University, and Lockheed Martin, which designed the space vehicle.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384948,00.asp
Rabindranath Tagore was born 150 years ago May 7. Festivities and seminars are being held in his honour across the world. In London, the BFI is hosting a season of films inspired by his work; last night his fellow Bengali (and fellow Nobel laureate) Amartya Sen gave a talk at the British Museum; a two-day conference at the University of London will, among other things, examine his legacy in the Netherlands, Poland and Germany. Tagore's collected works include 28 thick books with his 2,500 songs published separately. Every Bengali will know some Tagore, even if they can't read or write and the words come from a popular song or the national anthem (those of both India and Bangladesh use his verse). "His translations into English are like embroidery seen from the back." In 1913 he won the Nobel prize for literature, the first non-European to win a Nobel. In 1912 he sailed from India to England with a collection of English translations – the 100 or so poems that became the anthology Gitanjali, or "song offerings". He lost the manuscript on the London tube. Famously, it was found in a left luggage office. Then – decisively – W.B. Yeats met Tagore, read his poems and became his passionate advocate (while pencilling in suggestions for improvements). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/07/rabindranath-tagore-why-was-he-neglected
Friday, May 6, 2011
Many people on dating websites tell little white lies—putting a positive spin on their age, weight, income or the reason their last relationship broke up. Some profiles are fakes, created by scammers looking to defraud individuals. Take Keith Samuels. After breaking up with his long-time girlfriend last year, the Washington, D.C.-based senior manager at an import-export company says he decided to try his chances on dating site eHarmony. Before long, he connected with a woman he says looked like a model. She said she was 28 and worked for a British travel company. "I was very flattered that a younger, attractive woman started paying me attention," recalls Mr. Samuels, 45. jobs and interests. They never met in person. Then one day, she wrote and said her mother was very sick and she was trying to raise money to pay the hospital bill. She asked for $5,000. Mr. Samuels wired it to her. "I thought I was being the protector," he says. Almost immediately, the woman's profile disappeared from the site. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it gets thousands of complaints a year from people who have been fleeced by people they met on dating sites. At the FBI, one Cyber Division section chief, Tim Gallagher, says most scammers operate from abroad, especially West Africa and the former Soviet republics. In a typical scenario, the scammer creates a fake profile using photos of an attractive individual, in many cases lifted off social-networking sites. Often, the written part of the profile is copied verbatim from a real profile or a recycled template. Almost always, it is designed to tug at the heartstrings, the FBI says. Scammers want to make an emotional connection. At first, they flatter and fawn. Once you are hooked, they hit you with some variation of several well-worn sob stories, Mr. Gallagher says. Sometimes they say they live abroad and desperately want to visit you, but their country's banking system is broken. Or they're at the airport and their credit card has been declined. Some scammers even pretend to be U.S. military service members trying to get back home and low on cash. Their stories all end in same place: Please wire money, and they will pay you back. Read the whole story by Elizabeth Bernstein at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576300973195520918.html
When we travel, we look for libraries, museums, and local restaurants.
On our recent trip to Michigan, we found:
Lobdell's, a teaching restaurant--operated by students in the Great Lakes Culinary Institute of Northwestern Michigan College--open to the public
715 East Front Street, second floor Traverse City http://www.nmc.edu/resources/lobdells/index.html
Soul Hole eclectic Southern food 408 S. Union Traverse City
http://www.soulhole1.com/
Alden Bar & Grille a social hub 9149 Helena Road Alden http://www.visitalden.com/restaurants/aldenbargrill.html
Elk Rapids District Library 300 Isle of Pines Elk Rapids
The charming library is located in the Island House, an 1860s country home built by Edwin S. Noble (1838-1922). Noble leveled off two hills, and built a single-story home, adding rooms until it measured 112 feet long with a basement of the same size. In 1949, a portion of the Island House became the Elk Rapids Library. The library is cozy, comfortable and well-lit with each room serving a different purpose. Librarians invite you to try the glassed-in porch with books, rocking chairs, tables and puzzles. http://elkrapids.lib.mi.us/
Peninsula Community Library (PCL) is a township library located on the beautiful Old Mission Peninsula in Northern Michigan. The library is open to the public as a dual-use library within Old Mission Peninsula School. The library's mission is to serve all segments of a diverse rural community by providing access to information and support for personal enrichment in a friendly, welcoming environment. Wonderful natural lighting and helpful librarians make this a destination rather than a place.
http://www.peninsulacommunitylibrary.org/
Humpback whales not only sing, they imitate the singing of other whales. And some of their tunes turn into worldwide hits, with whales all over the Pacific Ocean picking them up. Several genetically different groups of humpbacks, separate populations with little interchange among them, live in the South Pacific. Researchers recorded 11 different song types in the region from 1998 to 2008. The study, produced in 21 Current Biology 687,26 April 2011, found that each year, songs spread from one group to another, moving east from Australia to French Polynesia. They believe that this is the first observation of a cultural change transmitted repeatedly on such a large geographic scale. Why this happens is unclear, but the lead author, Ellen C. Garland, a doctoral student at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the reasons probably have to do with sex. Only male humpbacks sing, and each group of whales sings its own tune If you change your song, you stand out,” she said. “We could speculate that that could be more attractive to the females.” The consistent eastward movement of the songs is another puzzle, but the scientists speculate that the larger population near eastern Australia might have greater influence. Although sounds travel only a few miles, it is possible that some individuals get close enough to be heard. This minimal contact could be enough for males from another group to pick up the new melody.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/19obwhale.html
Amsterdam's favorite folk singers, the pearls of the Jordaan district: Willy Alberti, Johnny Jordaan ("Better broke in Amsterdam than a millionaire in Paris"), Tante Leen, Manke Nelis and Johnny Meijer
See links to history, things to do, music in Amsterdam and more at: http://www.amsterdamtourism.net/amsterdam_townhall.html
All about Amsterdam's special vibe, a spirit of contented contradiction at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279133547139122.html
Invisible Cities (Le città invisibili) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. It can be considered an example of the magical realism style. The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by the narrator, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of Polo's descriptions (1-3 pages each) of 55 cities. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics including linguistics and human nature. The book is probably based on The Travels of Marco Polo, his travelogue of the Mongol Empire written in the 13th century, which shares with Invisible Cities the brief, often fantastic accounts of the cities he visits, accompanied by descriptions of the city's inhabitants, notable imports and exports, and whatever interesting tales Polo had heard about the region. The book was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975. http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Invisible_Cities
Note that Calvino's restaurant in Toledo is named for Italo Calvino.
A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) American author
Named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the United States
http://www.dcfaward.org/Biography/index.htm
Q: Who started Mother's Day?
A: Anna Jarvis of Grafton, W.Va., organized Mother's Day observances in Grafton and in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day in 1914. U.S. Census Bureau
Q: Where is the nation's oldest lighthouse?
A: It is at Sandy Hook, N.J., south of New York Harbor. It was built in 1764 and stands 103 feet.
U.S. Coast Guard
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/May/JU/ar_JU_050211.asp?d=050211,2011,May,02&c=c_13
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576300973195520918.html
When we travel, we look for libraries, museums, and local restaurants.
On our recent trip to Michigan, we found:
Lobdell's, a teaching restaurant--operated by students in the Great Lakes Culinary Institute of Northwestern Michigan College--open to the public
715 East Front Street, second floor Traverse City http://www.nmc.edu/resources/lobdells/index.html
Soul Hole eclectic Southern food 408 S. Union Traverse City
http://www.soulhole1.com/
Alden Bar & Grille a social hub 9149 Helena Road Alden http://www.visitalden.com/restaurants/aldenbargrill.html
Elk Rapids District Library 300 Isle of Pines Elk Rapids
The charming library is located in the Island House, an 1860s country home built by Edwin S. Noble (1838-1922). Noble leveled off two hills, and built a single-story home, adding rooms until it measured 112 feet long with a basement of the same size. In 1949, a portion of the Island House became the Elk Rapids Library. The library is cozy, comfortable and well-lit with each room serving a different purpose. Librarians invite you to try the glassed-in porch with books, rocking chairs, tables and puzzles. http://elkrapids.lib.mi.us/
Peninsula Community Library (PCL) is a township library located on the beautiful Old Mission Peninsula in Northern Michigan. The library is open to the public as a dual-use library within Old Mission Peninsula School. The library's mission is to serve all segments of a diverse rural community by providing access to information and support for personal enrichment in a friendly, welcoming environment. Wonderful natural lighting and helpful librarians make this a destination rather than a place.
http://www.peninsulacommunitylibrary.org/
Humpback whales not only sing, they imitate the singing of other whales. And some of their tunes turn into worldwide hits, with whales all over the Pacific Ocean picking them up. Several genetically different groups of humpbacks, separate populations with little interchange among them, live in the South Pacific. Researchers recorded 11 different song types in the region from 1998 to 2008. The study, produced in 21 Current Biology 687,26 April 2011, found that each year, songs spread from one group to another, moving east from Australia to French Polynesia. They believe that this is the first observation of a cultural change transmitted repeatedly on such a large geographic scale. Why this happens is unclear, but the lead author, Ellen C. Garland, a doctoral student at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the reasons probably have to do with sex. Only male humpbacks sing, and each group of whales sings its own tune If you change your song, you stand out,” she said. “We could speculate that that could be more attractive to the females.” The consistent eastward movement of the songs is another puzzle, but the scientists speculate that the larger population near eastern Australia might have greater influence. Although sounds travel only a few miles, it is possible that some individuals get close enough to be heard. This minimal contact could be enough for males from another group to pick up the new melody.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/19obwhale.html
Amsterdam's favorite folk singers, the pearls of the Jordaan district: Willy Alberti, Johnny Jordaan ("Better broke in Amsterdam than a millionaire in Paris"), Tante Leen, Manke Nelis and Johnny Meijer
See links to history, things to do, music in Amsterdam and more at: http://www.amsterdamtourism.net/amsterdam_townhall.html
All about Amsterdam's special vibe, a spirit of contented contradiction at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279133547139122.html
Invisible Cities (Le città invisibili) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. It can be considered an example of the magical realism style. The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by the narrator, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of Polo's descriptions (1-3 pages each) of 55 cities. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics including linguistics and human nature. The book is probably based on The Travels of Marco Polo, his travelogue of the Mongol Empire written in the 13th century, which shares with Invisible Cities the brief, often fantastic accounts of the cities he visits, accompanied by descriptions of the city's inhabitants, notable imports and exports, and whatever interesting tales Polo had heard about the region. The book was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975. http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Invisible_Cities
Note that Calvino's restaurant in Toledo is named for Italo Calvino.
A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) American author
Named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the United States
http://www.dcfaward.org/Biography/index.htm
Q: Who started Mother's Day?
A: Anna Jarvis of Grafton, W.Va., organized Mother's Day observances in Grafton and in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day in 1914. U.S. Census Bureau
Q: Where is the nation's oldest lighthouse?
A: It is at Sandy Hook, N.J., south of New York Harbor. It was built in 1764 and stands 103 feet.
U.S. Coast Guard
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/May/JU/ar_JU_050211.asp?d=050211,2011,May,02&c=c_13
Thursday, May 5, 2011
2009 Iconic is now “overused to the point where everything from a fast-food restaurant chain to celebrities is 'iconic’”. And almost all searches reported in the media appear to be desperate, in an apparent attempt to over-dramatise otherwise relatively mundane stories.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4075453/List-of-words-which-should-be-banned-in-2009.html
2011 A Google search on April 25 for the word iconic brought up about 35,500,000 results. A May 5 search brought up about 35,700,000 results.
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Jane Hoed Subject: calliopean
I finished a work of art just yesterday that I named "Calliope". Its main focus is a Calliope hummingbird . I superimposed a poem on it that I wrote specifically for it:
sweet colours sing to me of joy
and grace and beauty
I am kaleidoscope; observer of beautiful forms
written to music and cascading melodies
bird song
light as air
here and there
over and through from now to far, far beyond
depths plumbed
rippling waves and ethereal clouds
spun and sung by
Calliope
From: Brian Fahey Subject: clarion
Def: adjective: Loud and clear. noun: An ancient trumpet used as a signal in war. Many of the Greek and some other mythological names have become pipe organ stop names as well.
Stentorian is known as Stentor
Clarion is known as Clarion
Maris is known as Unda Maris
Aeolus or Aeolian is known as Aeolian
The above are just a few, and know that there are exacting definitions for the sounds that each make.
Ruby Falls is a 145-foot high underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain, near Rock City and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The cave which houses Ruby Falls was formed with the formation of Lookout Mountain. About 200 to 240 million years ago (in the Carboniferous period, at the end of the Paleozoic era) the eastern Tennessee area was covered with a shallow sea, the sediments of which eventually formed limestone rock. About 200 million years ago, this area was uplifted and subsequent erosion has created the current topography. The limestone in which the cave is formed is still relatively horizontal, just as it was deposited when it was below sea level. The Lookout Mountain Caverns, which includes Ruby Falls Cave, is a limestone cave. These caves occur when slightly acidic groundwater enters subterranean streams and eats away at the relatively soluble limestone, causing narrow cracks to widen into passages and caves in a process called chemical weathering. The stream which makes up the Falls entered the cave sometime after its formation. Ruby Falls Cave features many of the more well-known types of cave formations (or speleothems) including stalactites and stalagmites, columns, drapery, and flowstone. The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a large vertical shaft. The stream, 1120 feet underground, is fed both by rainwater and natural springs. It collects in a pool in the cave floor and then continues through the mountain until finally joining the Tennessee River at the base of Lookout Mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls
An all-female American indie rock band called Ruby Falls was active during the 1990s. Based in New York City, the group was founded in 1992 and disbanded in 2000. "Ruby Falls" is also the title of a song by the indie rock band Guster, which appears on their 2006 album Ganging Up on the Sun. The hard rock band Mastodon filmed the performance footage of the music video for their song "Colony of Birchmen" from the album Blood Mountain inside Ruby Falls. The waterfall itself can be seen in the background. Ray Stevens performed a song entitled "Ruby Falls". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls
Norio Ohga, who led the development of the first ever compact disc, died April 23 at the age of 81 in his native Tokyo. Ohga was an employee of Sony since 1959, serving as President in the 1980s until 1995, CEO from 1989 to 1999 and Chairman until 2003. Under Ohga's leadership, Sony transitioned from a company that made transistor-radios and tape-recorders to an electronics giant with music, movie and video game products galore. Ohga's storied career began in 1953. Back then, at the age of 23, the company's founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka hired Ohga as a consultant straight out of the Faculty of Music of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music for his expertise in acoustic and electrical engineering. He joined Sony full time six years later and moved up the ladder, with electronic music as his specialty. Ohga's most notable achievement was leading the team that developed the first compact disc. His insight made the CD a 12 centimeter format, which allowed for 75 minutes of music capacity, enough to fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137794/20110425/norio-ohga-compact-disc-sony-sony-president-sony-music-sony-films.htm
The Department of Justice on May 3 came knocking with a very pointed message to the Bowl Championship Series: Tell us why the playoff system the NCAA has set up for college football’s highest level continues to exist. Or, to put it another way, why a playoff system doesn’t exist and why we’re left with this nonsensical bowl system which, year after year after year seems to leave deserving teams out of the national championship conversation. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said he’s confident the BCS complies with the law. “Goodness gracious, with all that’s going on in the world right now and with national and state budgets being what they are, it seems like a waste of taxpayers’ money to have the government looking into how college football games are played,” he said. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/05/04/doj-to-bcs-why-exactly-do-you-exist/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4075453/List-of-words-which-should-be-banned-in-2009.html
2011 A Google search on April 25 for the word iconic brought up about 35,500,000 results. A May 5 search brought up about 35,700,000 results.
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Jane Hoed Subject: calliopean
I finished a work of art just yesterday that I named "Calliope". Its main focus is a Calliope hummingbird . I superimposed a poem on it that I wrote specifically for it:
sweet colours sing to me of joy
and grace and beauty
I am kaleidoscope; observer of beautiful forms
written to music and cascading melodies
bird song
light as air
here and there
over and through from now to far, far beyond
depths plumbed
rippling waves and ethereal clouds
spun and sung by
Calliope
From: Brian Fahey Subject: clarion
Def: adjective: Loud and clear. noun: An ancient trumpet used as a signal in war. Many of the Greek and some other mythological names have become pipe organ stop names as well.
Stentorian is known as Stentor
Clarion is known as Clarion
Maris is known as Unda Maris
Aeolus or Aeolian is known as Aeolian
The above are just a few, and know that there are exacting definitions for the sounds that each make.
Ruby Falls is a 145-foot high underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain, near Rock City and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The cave which houses Ruby Falls was formed with the formation of Lookout Mountain. About 200 to 240 million years ago (in the Carboniferous period, at the end of the Paleozoic era) the eastern Tennessee area was covered with a shallow sea, the sediments of which eventually formed limestone rock. About 200 million years ago, this area was uplifted and subsequent erosion has created the current topography. The limestone in which the cave is formed is still relatively horizontal, just as it was deposited when it was below sea level. The Lookout Mountain Caverns, which includes Ruby Falls Cave, is a limestone cave. These caves occur when slightly acidic groundwater enters subterranean streams and eats away at the relatively soluble limestone, causing narrow cracks to widen into passages and caves in a process called chemical weathering. The stream which makes up the Falls entered the cave sometime after its formation. Ruby Falls Cave features many of the more well-known types of cave formations (or speleothems) including stalactites and stalagmites, columns, drapery, and flowstone. The Falls are located at the end of the main passage of Ruby Falls Cave, in a large vertical shaft. The stream, 1120 feet underground, is fed both by rainwater and natural springs. It collects in a pool in the cave floor and then continues through the mountain until finally joining the Tennessee River at the base of Lookout Mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls
An all-female American indie rock band called Ruby Falls was active during the 1990s. Based in New York City, the group was founded in 1992 and disbanded in 2000. "Ruby Falls" is also the title of a song by the indie rock band Guster, which appears on their 2006 album Ganging Up on the Sun. The hard rock band Mastodon filmed the performance footage of the music video for their song "Colony of Birchmen" from the album Blood Mountain inside Ruby Falls. The waterfall itself can be seen in the background. Ray Stevens performed a song entitled "Ruby Falls". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Falls
Norio Ohga, who led the development of the first ever compact disc, died April 23 at the age of 81 in his native Tokyo. Ohga was an employee of Sony since 1959, serving as President in the 1980s until 1995, CEO from 1989 to 1999 and Chairman until 2003. Under Ohga's leadership, Sony transitioned from a company that made transistor-radios and tape-recorders to an electronics giant with music, movie and video game products galore. Ohga's storied career began in 1953. Back then, at the age of 23, the company's founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka hired Ohga as a consultant straight out of the Faculty of Music of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music for his expertise in acoustic and electrical engineering. He joined Sony full time six years later and moved up the ladder, with electronic music as his specialty. Ohga's most notable achievement was leading the team that developed the first compact disc. His insight made the CD a 12 centimeter format, which allowed for 75 minutes of music capacity, enough to fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137794/20110425/norio-ohga-compact-disc-sony-sony-president-sony-music-sony-films.htm
The Department of Justice on May 3 came knocking with a very pointed message to the Bowl Championship Series: Tell us why the playoff system the NCAA has set up for college football’s highest level continues to exist. Or, to put it another way, why a playoff system doesn’t exist and why we’re left with this nonsensical bowl system which, year after year after year seems to leave deserving teams out of the national championship conversation. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said he’s confident the BCS complies with the law. “Goodness gracious, with all that’s going on in the world right now and with national and state budgets being what they are, it seems like a waste of taxpayers’ money to have the government looking into how college football games are played,” he said. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/05/04/doj-to-bcs-why-exactly-do-you-exist/
Saturday, April 30, 2011
David Crystal made two discoveries when searching the Bible for idioms. First, there are not as many as some people think: he found only 257. And second, most of the idioms don't originate in the King James translation at all. Rather they are to be found in one of the translations that appeared in the preceding 130 years - by Wycliffe (1388), Tyndale (1526-30), the Bishops' Bible (1568), the Geneva Bible (1560), or the DouaiRheims (1582, 1609-10). By his count, only 18 expressions are stylistically unique to the King James version:
east of Eden--know for a certainty--how are the mighty fallen--a still small voice-the root of the matter--to every thing there is a season--much study is a weariness of the flesh--beat their swords into plowshares--set thine (your) house in order--be horribly afraid--lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven--get thee behind me--suffer little children--no small stir--turned the world upside down--a thorn in the flesh--unto the pure all things are pure--let us now praise famous men
Every other idiomatic expression is shared with at least one earlier translation. In many cases, an idiom is found in all of them - such as "milk and honey" or "salt of the earth." http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/24/2821651/the-king-james-bible-and-the-english.html
The Danish Bible Society published a revised translation of the Bible on April 14. "Blissful" is now "happy," "meek" is now "shy," and "blessed" is now "lucky." http://concordiaandkoinonia.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/denmark-the-bible-doesnt-have-to-be-easy-by-jakob-holm-in-kristeligt-dagblad/
A comparison of translations in "parallel versions" of the Bible for I Corinthians 13:13 finds faith, hope and love 13 times, and faith, hope and charity 4 times. http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-13.htm
Bible versions http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.lxiv.htm
Bible translations by language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_by_language
A Paris hotel, Pavillon des Lettres, combines the art of writing and the aesthetics of the decoration to pay homage to the known and hidden talents of both French and international literature. In the image of the 26 letters of the alphabet, the rooms and suites of the Pavillon des Lettres reveal the beauty and poetry of the various authors. Behind each door hides the spirit of a poet, a writer, an impassioned virtuoso, a genius, which will give a special atmosphere to the room, with the help in particular of extracts chosen and printed on the walls. The authors are: Andersen, Baudelaire, Calderon, Diderot, Eschyle, Flaubert, Goethe, Hugo, Ibsen, James, Kafka, La Fontaine, Musset, Nerval, Ovid, Proust, Queiroz, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Urfe, Voltaire, Woolf, Xenophon, Yeats, and Zola. http://www.pavillondeslettres.com/uk/index.php
Other literary-themed hotels, such as Library Hotel in Midtown Manhattan (organized using the Dewey Decimal System), Inn BoonsBoro (owned by author Nora Roberts) a small B & B in Boonsboro, Maryland with themed bedrooms based on famous literary couples, and Hobbit Motel in Woodlyn, New Zealand are listed at: http://www.examiner.com/books-in-minneapolis/hobbit-holes-for-humans-literary-lodgings-part-1
Outer Banks (also known as OBX) is a 200-mile (320-km) long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, beginning in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach on the east coast of the United States. They cover approximately half the northern North Carolina coastline, separating the Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks is a major tourist destination and is known for its temperate climate and wide expanse of open beachfront. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore has four campgrounds where visitors may camp. The Wright brothers' first flight in a powered, heavier-than-air vehicle took place on the Outer Banks on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near the seafront town of Kitty Hawk. The Wright Brothers National Monument commemorates the historic flights, and First Flight Airport is a small, general-aviation airfield located there. The English Roanoke Colony—where the first person of English descent, Virginia Dare, was born on American soil—vanished from Roanoke Island in 1587. The Lost Colony, written and performed to commemorate the original colonists, is the longest running outdoor drama in the United States and its theater acts as a cultural focal point for much of the Outer Banks. The treacherous seas off the Outer Banks and the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred there have given these seas the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is located in Hatteras Village near the United States Coast Guard facility and Hatteras ferry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Banks
What exactly is the National Register? It is the National Register of Historic Places. One official government website employs an impressive skein of nouns to describe it as a compilation of "districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture." Another describes the Register more succinctly as "the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation." The process by which a property gets listed begins with an exercise in straight-up democracy: Anyone can nominate anything to the National Register. All it takes is basic research and a few required forms. The nomination forms are reviewed and submitted to the Register by the state historic preservation officer (SHPO) in the state where the property is located. Generally speaking, properties must be at least 50 years old to be added to the National Register. (Properties that have achieved significance in the last 50 years may qualify if they are of exceptional importance.) Owners of some types of Register-listed properties are eligible for generous tax credits that can help offset the costs of rehabilitation.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2011/may-june/what-is-the-national-register.html
east of Eden--know for a certainty--how are the mighty fallen--a still small voice-the root of the matter--to every thing there is a season--much study is a weariness of the flesh--beat their swords into plowshares--set thine (your) house in order--be horribly afraid--lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven--get thee behind me--suffer little children--no small stir--turned the world upside down--a thorn in the flesh--unto the pure all things are pure--let us now praise famous men
Every other idiomatic expression is shared with at least one earlier translation. In many cases, an idiom is found in all of them - such as "milk and honey" or "salt of the earth." http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/24/2821651/the-king-james-bible-and-the-english.html
The Danish Bible Society published a revised translation of the Bible on April 14. "Blissful" is now "happy," "meek" is now "shy," and "blessed" is now "lucky." http://concordiaandkoinonia.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/denmark-the-bible-doesnt-have-to-be-easy-by-jakob-holm-in-kristeligt-dagblad/
A comparison of translations in "parallel versions" of the Bible for I Corinthians 13:13 finds faith, hope and love 13 times, and faith, hope and charity 4 times. http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-13.htm
Bible versions http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.lxiv.htm
Bible translations by language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_by_language
A Paris hotel, Pavillon des Lettres, combines the art of writing and the aesthetics of the decoration to pay homage to the known and hidden talents of both French and international literature. In the image of the 26 letters of the alphabet, the rooms and suites of the Pavillon des Lettres reveal the beauty and poetry of the various authors. Behind each door hides the spirit of a poet, a writer, an impassioned virtuoso, a genius, which will give a special atmosphere to the room, with the help in particular of extracts chosen and printed on the walls. The authors are: Andersen, Baudelaire, Calderon, Diderot, Eschyle, Flaubert, Goethe, Hugo, Ibsen, James, Kafka, La Fontaine, Musset, Nerval, Ovid, Proust, Queiroz, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Urfe, Voltaire, Woolf, Xenophon, Yeats, and Zola. http://www.pavillondeslettres.com/uk/index.php
Other literary-themed hotels, such as Library Hotel in Midtown Manhattan (organized using the Dewey Decimal System), Inn BoonsBoro (owned by author Nora Roberts) a small B & B in Boonsboro, Maryland with themed bedrooms based on famous literary couples, and Hobbit Motel in Woodlyn, New Zealand are listed at: http://www.examiner.com/books-in-minneapolis/hobbit-holes-for-humans-literary-lodgings-part-1
Outer Banks (also known as OBX) is a 200-mile (320-km) long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, beginning in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach on the east coast of the United States. They cover approximately half the northern North Carolina coastline, separating the Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks is a major tourist destination and is known for its temperate climate and wide expanse of open beachfront. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore has four campgrounds where visitors may camp. The Wright brothers' first flight in a powered, heavier-than-air vehicle took place on the Outer Banks on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near the seafront town of Kitty Hawk. The Wright Brothers National Monument commemorates the historic flights, and First Flight Airport is a small, general-aviation airfield located there. The English Roanoke Colony—where the first person of English descent, Virginia Dare, was born on American soil—vanished from Roanoke Island in 1587. The Lost Colony, written and performed to commemorate the original colonists, is the longest running outdoor drama in the United States and its theater acts as a cultural focal point for much of the Outer Banks. The treacherous seas off the Outer Banks and the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred there have given these seas the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is located in Hatteras Village near the United States Coast Guard facility and Hatteras ferry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Banks
What exactly is the National Register? It is the National Register of Historic Places. One official government website employs an impressive skein of nouns to describe it as a compilation of "districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture." Another describes the Register more succinctly as "the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation." The process by which a property gets listed begins with an exercise in straight-up democracy: Anyone can nominate anything to the National Register. All it takes is basic research and a few required forms. The nomination forms are reviewed and submitted to the Register by the state historic preservation officer (SHPO) in the state where the property is located. Generally speaking, properties must be at least 50 years old to be added to the National Register. (Properties that have achieved significance in the last 50 years may qualify if they are of exceptional importance.) Owners of some types of Register-listed properties are eligible for generous tax credits that can help offset the costs of rehabilitation.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2011/may-june/what-is-the-national-register.html
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