One reason that Eurasian civilizations dominated the globe is because they came from a continent that was broader in an east–west direction than north–south, claimed geographer Jared Diamond in his famous 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel.  Now, a modelling study has found evidence to support this 'continental axis theory'.  Continents that span narrower bands of latitude have less variation in climate, which means a set of plants and animals that are adapted to more similar conditions.  That is an advantage, says Diamond, because it means that agricultural innovations are able to diffuse more easily, with culture and ideas following suit.  As a result, Diamond's hypothesis predicts, along lines of latitude there will be more cultural homogeneity than along lines of longitude.  To test that prediction, researchers at Stanford University in California used language persistence as a proxy for cultural diversity, and analysed the percentage of historically indigenous languages that remain in use in 147 countries today relative to their shape.  For example, the team looked at the difference between Chile, which has a long north–south axis, and Turkey, which has a wider axis running east to west.  The researchers found that if a country had a greater east–west axis than a north–south one, the less likely it was for its indigenous languages to persist.  The relationship isn't straightforward, but the model suggests that Mongolia, which is about twice as wide as it is tall, would have 5% fewer indigenous languages than Angola, which is roughly square.  Meanwhile, Peru — about twice as tall as it is wide — would be predicted to have 5% more persistent languages than Angola.  The result, say the authors, supports Diamond's theory because it indicates that east–west countries have more homogeneous cultures.  Read more at:  http://www.nature.com/news/how-geography-shapes-cultural-diversity-1.10808 

perdure   (puhr-DOOR, -DYOOR)   verb intr.  To continue to exist; endure.

From Latin per- (through) + durare (to last), from durus (hard).  Earliest documented use:  1475.

esthesia or aesthesia  (es-THEES-zhuh)  noun:  The capacity for sensation.

Back formation from anesthesia (loss of sensation), from Greek an- (not) + aisthesis (sensation). Earliest documented use:  1829; anesthesia is from 1721.  
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

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Börje Forssell  Subject:  Position of verbs
You wrote:  'In English the verb goes in the middle of a sentence (I love you), while some languages relegate it to the end (I you love).  This may sound preposterous to those not familiar with such a language (German, Hindi, Japanese, among others), but it's quite common.'  For German, however, this is only partly true, i.e. in subordinate clauses.  In a main clause as 'I love you', the order of the words is the same as in English ("ich liebe dich").

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.  He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub.  Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry.  Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously.  Find Swift's poems at:  http://www.poemhunter.com/jonathan-swift/ 

Bookcases are in transition, just like the people who own them.  The printed word no longer needs paper, and paper no longer needs stiffened linen or leather to contain it and be a … book.

Rows of decorative spines with titles stamped in gold or black — those advertisements of a household’s taste and personality lined up in view — might actually start looking a bit too 20th century for people hurtling themselves into a paperless future.  Or not.  Current magazines still recommend buying hardbacks for almost nothing at garage sales to fill shelves to make a person seem well-read.  As recently as March 2012, Dwight Garner, after taking a dig at the limitations of e-books in The New York Times, thought it relevant to quote bibliophile and novelist Anna Quindlen:  “I would be most content if my children grew to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building bookshelves.”  And Benjamin Sundermeier, designer at Space Planning + Design in the Northeast area of Kansas City, said his clients don’t seem motivated to “shift away from shelves” housing books.  Sundermeier has recently noticed a trend toward repurposing bookshelves for imaginative uses in the home.  “We used antique bookshelves in a closet for shoes and sweaters and boxes,” he said of a recent design project.  Another client, he said, has an iron and wood bookshelf “displaying her collection of beautiful cookware and her kitchen TV.”  In another house, a Chinese pot rack has found its function as a place to stack books.  Laura K. Lloyd  http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/14/3654875/books-are-competing-for-shelf.html 

A good many of the  pigeons of Paris make annual visits to the French Open where they have attacked tennis balls and decorated the court with their droppings.  This year the Open uses a team of five falcons and three hawks to provide air surveillance for the tournament.   Kennedy Airport has used falcons to keep birds away from jet engines, and Wimbledon has done the same to protect its grass seed from hungry pigeons.  The New Yorker  June 18, 2012

A Delta flight headed for Los Angeles made a safe emergency landing at JFK International Airport in New York on April 19 after a bird strike.  A flock of birds hit the Delta plane’s right engine causing it to malfunction and burn.  Bird strikes are fairly common.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports there were 2,586 bird strikes at JFK alone since 1990 and most are not considered to pose any risk to aircraft or passengers.  However, this Delta flight bird strike was different.  It struck the plane’s engines while on take-off, a critical part of the flight wherein the engines were on full thrust.  Passengers on Delta Flight 1063 reported hearing a loud grinding noise when the flock of birds struck the plane, then some shaking.  Moments later, the cabin started filling with smoke – an indication that the engine that was struck had started burning.  One passenger said he thought it was the end for him and his fellow passengers. Fortunately, Delta Flight 1063 made it safely to JFK.

http://manila-paper.net/bird-strike-sends-delta-flight-on-emergency-landing-at-jfk-video/32189

June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  There are 193 days remaining until the end of the year.  On non-leap years (until 2039), this day marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, and is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere and the least hours of daylight in the southern hemisphere. 

217 BC – The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.

1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.

1529 – French forces were driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.
1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.
1788 – New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.  See more events at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_21

New SLIM Comic Takes Librarians into Metaspace
"SLIM is proud to unveil a marketing resource aimed at generating newfound excitement for librarianship and increasing the awareness of the many opportunities that an MLS degree can provide.  From the same team that created Library of the Living Dead and Monster Clash, Supreme Librarians in Metaspace is a promotional comic that highlights the many facets of librarianship in a quirky, tongue-in-cheek manner.  We hope that this resource will encourage prospective and current SLIM students, alumni, and librarians around the world to take a look at the profession in a new light.  And maybe have a laugh or two while doing it."  You can view the comic from Emporia State University School of Library and Information Management at:  http://slim.emporia.edu/docs/slim_comic.pdf 

The story of Swan Lake, the classic tale of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse, has been interpreted in countless ways since Pyotr Tchaikovsky first composed the ballet score in 1875.  Who could forget Natalie Portman’s haunting performance in the 2010 psychological thriller, Black Swan.  And now there is a new twist on the ballet.   But, forget dancers pretending to be swans.  A French dance company, is putting on a show in Paris involving live swans, sharing the stage with human performers.  It is called simply, “Swan“.  “The idea behind ‘Swan’ is to recreate a new world where communication could (be) possible between living creatures,” said Luc Petton, the choreographer.  “And specially, birds and dancers are like cousins for me because both of them are dealing with movement, with migration and with international language and they are both very fragile.  It is the dancers becoming wild – maybe as wild as the swan.”  The production has been in the works for two years.  A zoo offered the dance company some swan eggs and when the swans hatched, the dancers and swans began to bond.  “They adapt to us of course but we also try to adapt to them,” said a dancer.  “We have done a lot of imitation process – like spending hours imitating them and just being there and listening and looking at them – and they look at us.  We just spend time with them, feeding, sleeping, playing, swimming, some of us – also slept with them.” 

http://www.theworld.org/2012/06/french-dance-company-swan/

Elphaba Thropp is a fictional character in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, as well as in the Broadway and West End adaptations, Wicked.  In the original L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is unnamed and little is explained about her life.  Elphaba is modeled after the Witch portrayed by Margaret Hamilton in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz:  Green-skinned, clad entirely in black, and wearing a tall peaked hat.  Maguire formulated the name "Elphaba" out of L. Frank Baum's name, taking the phonetic pronunciation of his initials:  hence, L.F.B became El-pha-ba.  In both adaptations, Elphaba is also called by several nicknames including Elphie, Fabala, Sister (Saint) Aelphaba, Auntie Witch, and Fae.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elphaba

In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, Oz explains that his real name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.  To shorten this name, he used only his initials (O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D.), but since they spell out the word pinhead, he shortened his name further and called himself "Oz".  The film Zardoz draws its title from the character and the book.  See other cultural references at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_(character)

Enter the glorious Rose Reading Room on the third floor of the New York Public Library on a weekday afternoon, and you'll find almost every chair filled.  Scholars and researchers still submit their book requests on slips of paper and wait for their numbers to appear on two large boards.  The stacks, filled with some 3 million volumes, are closed to the public, so books are retrieved from seven floors of shelving below.  Still other volumes are stored off-site.  "It's very hot and still in these stacks," says Victoria Steele, the library's head of collections.  "It's not good for the books.  And actually, if you take a little whiff, that's the smell of books dying."  If the library has its way, this Beaux Arts-style building on Manhattan's 42nd Street — the one with the giant lions out front — will soon see some changes.  A hotly debated renovation plan would demolish the seven stuffy floors of stacks.  Some of the books would be stored under nearby Bryant Park, and up to 2 million books would be moved to climate-controlled storage in Princeton, N.J.  The proposed project, called the Central Library Plan, would also consolidate the functions of two other facilities under one roof.  The library would sell the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library, considered one of the largest circulating library branches in the world, and the building housing the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) about 10 blocks away.  http://www.npr.org/2012/06/12/154786855/loud-debate-rages-over-n-y-librarys-quiet-stacks 

The World’s Shortest War

The Anglo-Zanzibar war, also known as the world’s shortest war, was over in under 45 minutes.  The exact length of time is actually debatable--some had put it as short as 38 minutes.  The whole thing started when the Sultan of Zanzibar, who had willingly cooperated with the British, died on August 25, 1896, and his nephew Khalid bin Bargash seized power in a coup.  Thinking that another candidate would be easier to deal with, the British delivered an ultimatum to force the Bargash to abdicate.  Bargash refused the ultimatum and assembled a navy in form of the ex-Sultan’s yacht, the HHS Glasgow and fortified the palace.  The British, on the other hand, assembled 5 modern warships in the harbor in front of the palace and landed two battalions of army.  Bargash tried a last-ditch negotiation effort through the US Embassy, but time soon ran out.  At 9:02 AM on August 27, 1896, when the ultimatum ran out, the British navy sank the Sultan’s fleet (yes, that one yacht), shelled and destroyed the palace completely.  About 500 people, mostly Bargash’s soliders, died.  Bargash ran and hid at the German Embassy, where he was later granted asylum. 

The World’s Longest War

The world’s longest war, on the other hand, spanned 335 years without a single shot fired.  That war, between the United Provinces of Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, got started in 1651 and the story goes as follows:  During the English Civil War (1642-1651), the Parliamentarians beat the Royalists further and further away from London, until it was forced to retreat to the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast.  The Netherlands, which sided with the Parliamentarians, sent the Dutch Navy to fight the Royalist fleet.  The Dutch Navy was so badly beaten that the Netherlands decided to declare war.  However, they couldn’t blame England, since it was the Royalists in Scilly that caused them so much problem--so they declared war on the Isles in 1651 instead.  http://www.neatorama.com/2007/02/21/the-worlds-shortest-and-longest-wars/

U.S. coastal areas

Coastal areas are home to a wealth of natural and economic resources and are the most developed areas in the nation.  The narrow fringe comprising 17 percent of the contiguous U.S. land area is home to more than half of the nation's population.  Between the years 1980 and 2003, population in coastal counties increased by 33 million people or by 28 percent.  The largest gain was seen in the Pacific region.  Additionally, in 2003, 23 of the 25 most densely populated counties were in coastal areas.  http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

Australian coastal areas

Since European settlement, most Australians have congregated along the thin strip of the coastline.  Only a small proportion have inhabited the sparse inland. The proportion of the population living in the country has declined since World War II and will probably continue to do so.  Around, 85 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast. 

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/publications/coastline/~/media/publications/coastline/1-Chapter-1.pdf

In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift satirizes party politics, religious differences, and Western Culture in ways still relevant to today's world.  During Swift's life the English political scene was dominated by two major political parties, the Whigs and the Tories.  Just as in Swift's England, Lilliput is dominated by two rival factions, the high heels and the low heels.  Swift writes that "that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves."  Swift makes the differences between the high heels and low heels seem trivial to satirize what Swift considered were really trivial differences between the Whigs an Tories.  Another target of Swift's sharp pen is religion, particularly the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics.  Lilliput has long been plagued by internal religious problems the difference between the two sects is where they cut their hard boiled eggs.  The Lilliputians cut their eggs at the little end, and are Little-endians, while the Blefuscians cut their eggs at the big end and are Big-endians.  The damage of the wars has been, "That our Histories tell us there have been six Rebellions raised on that account; wherein one Emperor lost his Life, and another his Crown.  These civil Commotions were constantly fomented by the Monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the Exiles always fled for Refuge to that Empire.  It is computed, that eleven thousand Persons have, at several times, suffered Death, rather than submit to break their Eggs at the smaller End."  The split between the big and little endians is a satire of the split of Protestantism from Catholicism, which Swift believes was a matter of small differences. However, these small differences led to many wars between Catholics and Protestants, particularly during the 30 Years War. 

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-look-satire-gullivers-travels-304134.html

June 15 is Flag Day in Denmark.  It is the anniversary of the Battle of Valdemar in 1219 in Lyndanisse, Estonia, where according to legend, the ("Dannebrog") fell from the sky.  It is also the anniversary of the return of North Slesvig in 1920 to Denmark following the post-World War I plebiscite.  Other June flag days are listed for the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 14th, 20th and 26th at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day 

Oregon health officials believe a man in a Bend hospital has been infected with the "black death" plague, a bacterial infection that affects the blood stream.  According to The Oregonian, the man became ill with the bubonic plague - the cause of the "black death" - after he was bitten on the hand by a stray cat while trying to get a mouse out of its mouth.  He marks the fifth case discovered in Oregon since 1995.  Often transmitted by fleas that are infected with the Yersinia pestis bacteria, people often get black plague through a bite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  During the "Black Death" period starting in the late 1340s and lasting for centuries, 25 million lives were claimed, according to National Geographic.  . On average, 10 to 20 people are diagnosed with the disease each year in the U.S., with worldwide rates reported at 1,000 to 3,000 cases a year.  While four people have died from the plague since 1934, the last four cases - one in 1995, two in 2010 and one in 2011 - all survived, according to the Oregonian.  While a plague vaccine exists, it is no longer sold in the U.S.  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57452519-10391704/oregon-man-diagnosed-with-black-death-plague/ 

June 18th, 1812, President James Madison and the United States Congress declared war on Great Britain.  Battles raged throughout the continent for over two years before peace was negotiated.  http://www.visit1812.com/ 

Maryland—whose governor has participated in 1812 re-enactments—has issued War of 1812 license plates, and an official bicentennial commission has plans for a three-year, $25 million commemoration.  The bicentennial also is being promoted by the U.S. Navy, which traces many traditions to the war and hopes to use it to remind Americans, in a time of military budget cuts, of its own importance.  Canadians have their uses for the bicentennial, to which the federal government has committed $28 million.  Plans include a new war memorial in Ottawa; more than 100 events, including re-enactments; commemorative stamps and coins; renovation of historic sites; and a phone app for battlefield tours.  The war killed the idea of America as an agrarian nation with a weak military, static borders and a quasi-isolationist foreign policy. President Jefferson had tried to withdraw the nation from European trade to avoid war, and he was notoriously suspicious of manufacturing and its attendant "wage slavery."  When the war was over, Winfield Scott and other veterans reformed the Army to avoid a repetition of the mistakes they'd seen.  The war established that the United States would not expand into Canada and would grow west and south.  The defeat of Britain's Creek Indian allies cleared the way for the spread of slave-based cotton planting into Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and set the stage for the Civil War.  It was the end of Federalists, the party of Washington and John Adams, who bitterly opposed the war and looked foolish after Jackson's victory.  Although there is much debate over who won the War of 1812, it's clear who lost it:  Native Americans east of the Mississippi.  The Indians in the Great Lakes states hoped for British support for a sort of buffer state against American expansion.  With the end of the war, they lost any hope of independence from, or equality with, the settlers.   By repulsing the American invasion, the Canadian colony began its march toward self-rule in 1867 and created a pantheon of national heroes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-14/war-of-1812-bicentennial/55603666/1

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture depicting Russian and French armies colliding at the Battle of Borodino has an American companion piece on the June 17 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program.  It's "Overture for 2012," newly written by Baltimore-born Philip Glass, a major figure in the genre known as minimalism.  His 12-minute orchestral work will not be quite as noisy as Tchaikovsky's.  "No cannons," said Matthew Spivey, the BSO's vice president of artistic operations.  "It does have an anvil, though.  And there's some martial-sounding percussion, with snare drum, and some fanfare-ish brass writing.  It's unmistakably by Philip Glass."  The piece is the result of an effort to add extra spice to this year's anniversary.  The effort to generate a new work involved two bicentennial organizations, two countries, two cities and two orchestras.  "Overture for 2012" receives simultaneous premieres by the BSO and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-06-06/news/bs-ae-glass-overture-20120616_1_tchaikovsky-borodino-overture

Google search on recycled leather

The process of recycling leather involves treating and recycling leather residues that are discarded by tanneries and other leather product industries and using it in the production of composite materials.  To recycle leather, first the leather residues and scraps must be shredded.  Next, the resulting blend of shredded leather material is glued together with resin and catalysers.   This product is then pressed between metallic molds of various shapes and sizes, or directly on sublayers to form plywoods, and then structured into the desired item.  The final product has a very polished appearance and there is no need for any additional finishing.  Recycled leather products are esthetically pleasing, soundproof and even have heat insulation properties. They can be used in a variety of ways, from furniture to floor tiles to car interiors and have the look of natural leather.  http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/91891.aspx

Million Short search on recycled leather

"Imagine a search engine that simply removed the top 1 million most popular web sites from its index.  What would you discover?"  Basically the results for recycled leather were ads, so in this instance a better search would be from one of the following choices: 
100k Sites

10k Sites

1k Sites

100 Sites

Go Long - Don't Remove Any Sites

Start your search at:  http://www.millionshort.com/  Million Short is an experimental web search engine (really, more of a discovery engine) that allows you to REMOVE the top million (or top 100k, 10k, 1k, 100) sites from the results set.  Thanks, Julie.

cull  (kuhl) verb tr.
1.  To select the best.
2.  To select inferior items for removing.
3.  To reduce the size of a herd.

From Old French cuillir (to pick), from Latin colligere (to collect).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg- (to collect), which is also the source of lexicon, legal, dialog, lecture, logic, legend, logarithm, intelligent, diligent, sacrilege, elect, and loyal.  Earliest documented use:  1330.  
redound  (ri-DOUND)  verb intr.
1.  To contribute to (someone's credit, honor, etc.).
2.  To come back upon.
From Old French redonder (to overflow), from Latin redundare (to overflow), from red-/re- (back) + undare (to surge).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root wed- (water, wet), which also gave us water, winter, hydrant, redundant, otter, and vodka.  Earliest documented use:  before 1382.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

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From:  Tony Augarde   Subject:  Words with opposing meanings

Words with opposing meanings are also known as autantonyms, antagonyms or even Janus words (from the notoriously two-faced deity of Roman myth).  For example, cleave can mean to split apart as well as to knit together, while quite can mean moderately as well as completely, and sanction can indicate allowing something as well as refusing to countenance it (the latter sense being clear in the Peace Pledge Union's historic pledge: "I renounce war, and will never support or sanction another").  In his Spoonerisms, Sycophants, and Sops (1988), D.C. Black listed several other contronyms, such as scan, let, moot, wound up, and commencement.  If you lease or rent a house, are you occupying it or letting someone else occupy it?  If you trip, have you stumbled or are you walking gracefully?  If you screen a film, you show it, but if you screen a garden shed, you hide it.  If the stars are out, you can see them, but if lights are out, you cannot see them.  Does literally mean precisely or is it being used merely for emphasis without being literally true (as in "They were literally killing themselves laughing")?  Phrases, too, can have opposite senses.  First-degree murder is the most serious kind of slaughter, but first-degree burns are the least serious.  The opposing senses of dispense with were presumably not noticed by the pharmacist who advertised that he "dispensed with accuracy".  Nowadays, if you say you are going to take care of somebody, it may suggest that you are going to kill them rather than care for them.  The phrase 'waste no time' can mean that you are eager to start something, but that was not the intention when someone (was it Disraeli?) wrote:  "Thank you for your manuscript.  I shall waste no time in reading it".  My favourite such phrase is with respect, which is often used in conversation or interviews to imply that the speaker has little or no respect for the person addressed!  This is an extract from my new book, Wordplay.  

Elinor Ostrom, an Indiana University political economist who in 2009 became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics by demonstrating that local communities can manage imperiled natural resources as well as or better than the government or private business interests, died June 12.  She was 78.  Ostrom, a Los Angeles native who taught at Indiana University for nearly five decades, made her reputation by challenging a concept in the social sciences called the "tragedy of the commons."  Ecologist Garrett Hardin coined the phrase in a famous 1968 paper that argued that the depletion or pollution of shared resources such as forests and streams could be avoided only through top-down government regulation.  By studying diverse groups around the world, including Japanese fishermen and Swiss cheese makers, Ostrom showed that it was wrong-headed and often counterproductive to assume that those who used the resources could not set their own conservation plan.  She stressed the importance of working on multiple levels to solve complex problems such as global warming.  Ostrom wrote several influential books, including "Governing the Commons" (1990), which Whole Earth magazine called "the intellectual field guide" for conservationists involved with small communities.  Ostrom shared the $1.4-million Nobel Prize for economics with Oliver Williamson of UC Berkeley.  Working independently, they each showed how economics could be expanded beyond the conventional analysis of market prices.  The Ostroms donated millions of dollars to Indiana University, including her Nobel Prize funds.  In 1973 they founded the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.  Elaine Woo  http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-elinor-ostrom-20120613,0,2391643.story

Flag Day is celebrated on June 14.  It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.  The United States Army also celebrates the Army Birthday on this date; Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole on June 14, 1775.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.  Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday, beginning in the town of Rennerdale.   See picture of 1917 Flag Day poster at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)

Flag timeline including picture of flag with 20 stars and 13 stripes (it remains at 13 hereafter) honoring admission of Tennessee (June 1, 1796), Ohio (March 1, 1803), Louisiana (April 30, 1812), Indiana (December 11, 1816), Mississippi (December 10, 1817) at:  http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagfact.html

Uncle Henry is a fictional character from The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum.  He is the uncle of orphan Dorothy Gale and husband of Aunt Em, and lived with them on a farm in Kansas.  After their house was famously carried off to the land of Oz by a tornado in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Henry mortgaged his farm in order to rebuild. This crisis, combined with the stress of Dorothy's prolonged disappearance and sudden reappearance, took a toll on his health, and his doctor ordered him to take a vacation.  He took Dorothy with him on an ocean voyage to Australia, where he had relatives, but during this trip (in Ozma of Oz) Dorothy was lost again during a storm, and for several weeks a despondent Henry believed she had drowned, until she suddenly returned again, courtesy of the Nome King's Magic Belt.  In The Emerald City of Oz, Henry and Em finally confessed to Dorothy the extent of their financial problems, and revealed to her that their farm was on the verge of foreclosure.  Dorothy solved this problem for them by bringing them to live with her in the Emerald City, as permanent guests of Princess Ozma.  Henry was given the job of being Keeper of the Jewels in Ozma's treasure hoard for the purpose of keeping him occupied.  Unlike Aunt Em, who is questioning everything about the Land of Oz, Uncle Henry accepts his new life and home with surprising ease, having traveled and seen the world a lot more than his wife had.  By Glinda of Oz, he has become one of Ozma's closest advisers, having taught his agricultural abilities to Ozite farmers, getting them producing surplus for the Emerald City storehouses.  Uncle Henry has been featured slightly more than Aunt Em in the Oz books, despite being less featured than Auntie Em in the film, The Wizard of Oz (1939).  In MGM's musical adaptation The Wizard of Oz, Uncle Henry is played by Charley Grapewin.  The name "Gale" appears on his mailbox and Miss Almira Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) addresses him as "Gale".  Baum never gave the character's surname nor made whether Henry or his wife Em is Dorothy's blood relative.  (It is also possible that "Aunt" and "Uncle" are affectionate terms of a foster family and that Dorothy is not related to either of them).  Henry ends up losing his hat as he tells Em to seek shelter when the tornado approaches their farm.  Hickory (Jack Haley) and Hunk (Ray Bolger) also lose their hats as they struggle to pry open the cellar.  In this film, Uncle Henry is the only character whose role is limited to the Kansas sequence and does not make an appearance in the Oz sequence. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Henry_(The_Oz_Books)

Before he wrote the Oz books, L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) wrote Mother Goose in Prose which was the best selling book of 1897.  Taking 22 beloved nursery rhymes, he explains their meaning and fascinating history. 

Link to the text and to articles at:  http://librivox.org/mother-goose-in-prose-by-l-frank-baum-2/

Mother Goose in Prose was L. Frank Baum's first literary work.  It was also the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.  It was published in 1897 by Way & Williams.  The book contained 22 prose fables based on famous nursery rhymes.  Twelve of the stories are complemented with black-and-white illustrations by Parrish.  Parrish's illustrations were also issued separately in portfolio; Parrish is known to have signed 27 sets.  The stories in the collection were also published individually as part of a promotional effort:  Pettijohn's Breakfast Food offered the stories to its customers in return for mailed-in labels.  Way & Williams, the book's publisher, went out of business in 1898.  The rights to Mother Goose in Prose were acquired by Baum's new publisher the George M. Hill Co.  That firm released the second edition of the book in 1901, which included Baum's Introduction to the volume.  Baum's next publisher, Bobbs-Merrill, issued a third edition in 1905.  http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Mother_Goose_in_Prose

A fifth (21%) of American adults have read an e-book in the past year and the number of e-book readers grew after a major increase in ownership of e-book reading devices and tablet computers during the holiday gift-giving season.  The average reader of e-books says she has read 24 books (the mean number) in the past 12 months, compared with an average of 15 books by a non-e-book consumer.  30% of those who read e-content say they now spend more time reading, and owners of tablets and e-book readers particularly stand out as reading more now.  Find more information in "The Rise of E-Reading" by the Pew Internet & American Life Project at:  http://libraries.pewinternet.org/files/legacy-pdf/The%20rise%20of%20e-reading%204.5.12.pdf

Cites & Insights 12:5 (June 2012) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i5.pdf  A single-column 6x9 version, suitable for ereaders, is available at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i5on.pdf  The 24-page issue (43 pages in the single-column version) is PDF as usual.  The individual essays are also available in HTML form at http://citesandinsights.info or use the essay name links below.  This issue includes:  The Front (pp. 1-4), Give Us a Dollar and We'll Give You Back Four, a study of public library benefits and funding designed to help libraries see where they stand and work to improve funding.  Also noting "the books your library needs"--two recent books published by  professional library-oriented publishers, The Middle: Forecasts (pp. 4-12) Following up the May essay on futurism with a whole bunch of specific forecasts--the one-year kind that can be tested and usually found wanting.  Policy: Copyright: Fair Use, Part 1 (pp. 12-24)  Two discussions of fair use in action (or, rather, in court).  First, the concluding steps in a farce that has effectively broadened fair use and the recognition that it's not a defense, it's the law. Second, earlier steps in a situation more directly relevant to academic libraries, the Georgia State lawsuit--but not the outcome. http://lisnews.org/cites_insights_125_june_2012_available 

In a 2009 study, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that many first-generation students, intimidated by the scale and complexity of the campus library, did their research at their more familiar, but less resourceful, local public libraries during the first year of college.  Some librarians were concerned that such habits could arrest the development of students' information literacy -- a skill set that is difficult to cultivate in most college students, let alone first-generation ones.  But an encouraging new study, The Research Process and the Library: First-generation College Seniors vs. Freshmen,  http://crl.acrl.org/content/early/2012/05/07/crl-348.full.pdf out of Illinois-Chicago suggests that first-generation students do in fact improve their information literacy skills over their college careers.  “[T]he study showed that regardless of the disadvantages with which students arrive at college, at some point before they graduate, college appears to provide them with the tools they need to compete with their peers,” said Firouzeh Logan and Elizabeth Pickard, assistant professors at Illinois-Chicago, who co-wrote the study.  The new study, which is associated with the Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) project, used a mixture of surveys and open-ended interviews with Illinois-Chicago seniors.  Thanks, Julie.  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/01/studies-shed-more-light-student-research-skills

Bananas grow on plants, not trees.  They are the largest plants in the world that do not have woody stem.  Bananas are actually perennial herbs related to ginger, turmeric and cardamom.  A banana plant does not grow from seeds, as the tiny dark seeds found in most banana varieties are incapable of germination, but from a rhizome or bulb.  Ugandans hold the record for highest per capita banana consumption with an amazing 500 pounds of bananas or more consumed in Uganda, per person, per year.  Over 100 billion bananas are eaten each year throughout the world.  This makes bananas the fourth most important agricultural crop after wheat, rice and corn.  An entire banana stalk is known as a bunch, while the individual clusters on the stalk, which may have anywhere from 10 to 20 bananas, are called hands.  Single bananas are known as fingers.  Interestingly, the Arabic word ‘banan’ means finger.  http://www.infobarrel.com/10_Facts_About_Bananas 

Underneath the thick, virgin rainforest cover in the Mosquitia region of Honduras, archaeologists have discovered ruins they think may be the lost city of Ciudad Blanca.  Legends say the "White City" is full of gold, which is why conquistador Hernando Cortes was among the first Ciudad Blanca seekers in the 1500s.  But the method the modern researchers used was a little different from previous explorers' techniques.  The modern-day researchers flew over the area in a small plane and shot billions of laser pulses at the ground, creating a 3D digital map of the topology underneath the trees.  This is one of the first times this technique, called light detection and ranging (LiDAR), has been used to map ancient ruins. 

http://www.hondurasweekly.com/lost-city-found-in-honduras-with-lasers-201206075264/

As usual, the Supreme Court, although less than three weeks away from the end of its term, is in no hurry to decide its big cases.  Among the remaining cases to be decided in the 2011-12 term:

• Broadcast indecency: The court is weighing whether fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission against broadcasts it considered indecent violate First Amendment free-speech rights.  The cases at issue include awards shows where celebrities such as Cher uttered expletives.  WSJ coverage of the January arguments is here.
• Juvenile sentences: The justices will decide on life sentences without parole for juveniles convicted of homicide. It’s the latest case in which the court is considering whether harsh sentences for people under 18 violate the Eight Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments . More details in this WSJ article on the arguments in March.
• Stolen valor:  The Stolen Valor Act, enacted in 2006, makes it a federal crime for a person to claim falsely to have received a U.S. military medal.  A California man admits he lied when he said he won the Medal of Honor but says his statements were protected by the First Amendment. WSJ coverage here.

• Arizona immigration:  The court’s final argument of the term, on April 25, involved Arizona’s tough anti-immigration law.  The justices suggested they were ready to uphold at least one part of the law—a provision directing police to check the immigration status of people they stop—but the fate of other provisions was less clear. WSJ argument story here.

• And, lest we forget, there’s one other matter before the Supreme Court that has gained some attention. The fate of President Barack Obama’s health-care law—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—is expected to be decided in the last week of June.  Our coverage from March 27, the pivotal day of arguments, is here. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/06/11/supreme-court-saves-best-for-last/?mod=djemlawblog_h