The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand rugby union team that toured Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889.  It mostly comprised players of Māori ancestry, and also included some Pākehā (white New Zealanders).  A wholly private endeavour, the tour was not under the auspices of any official rugby authority; it was organised by New Zealand international player Joseph Warbrick, promoted by civil servant Thomas Eyton, and managed by James Scott, a publican.  The Natives were the first New Zealand team to perform a haka, and also the first to wear all black.  They played 107 rugby matches during the tour, as well as a small number of Victorian Rules football and association football matches in Australia.  Having made a significant impact on the development of New Zealand rugby, the Natives were inducted into the International Rugby Board Hall of Fame in 2008.  The tour had a significant impact on the development of rugby within New Zealand. It was the first tour of the British Isles by a team from the Southern Hemisphere, and the longest in the history of the sport.  By the time the Natives returned to New Zealand, they had developed into a side superior to any in the country, and introduced a number of tactical innovations.  The tour also prompted the eventual formation of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU, later renamed New Zealand Rugby Union) in 1892; one reason for its formation was to ensure greater control over any future touring New Zealand sides.  The Natives are also the forefathers of the Māori All Blacks, a representative team organised by the NZRFU, that first played in 1910.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1888%E2%80%9389_New_Zealand_Native_football_team

How the financial sector has evolved over the periods both before and after the financial crisis of 2007-8.  This paper is the first in a series, examining the balance sheets of the four largest banks; it will be followed by papers on the regional banks, the smaller banks and the shadow financial sector.  The assets and liabilities of the big four banks grew very rapidly for years prior to the financial crisis as a result of deregulation, particularly through the Riegle-Neal Act in 1994, but also from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.  These laws gave banks the ability to consolidate and expand both across geographic and service lines, and they continued to do until the crisis hit years later.  Paired with generally robust economic growth, the deregulation of the financial sector enabled the largest banks to post double-digit growth rates right up to the onset of the crisis.  The theme of consolidation continued, in a way, into 2008 as the U.S. government encouraged acquisitions of troubled financial institutions by stronger ones during the worst moments of the crisis.  With no clear precedents or protocols for managing the failures of such large and interconnected institutions like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns before the crisis, the U.S. government took was forced to take an ad hoc approach, pushing  these major investment banks into mergers with or acquisitions by other, stronger private institutions.  Likewise, to deal with failing depository institutions, the U.S. government encouraged mergers with stronger banks or dispositions of bank subsidiaries by troubled institutions to other banks, with support provided by the FDIC as required.  As a result, today, the four biggest banks (“Big Four”) are JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.  http://www.bespacific.com/the-big-four-banks-the-evolution-of-the-financial-sector-part-i/

More than a quarter of Americans cannot go online at home to check their children’s grades at school, apply for jobs, pay bills or research health issues.  They don’t have what has become a crucial service for participation in modern society:  Internet service at home.  The proportion of households with Internet service had been rising steadily for decades, according to the Pew Research Center, until the past few years when the adoption rate slowed.  One reason?  The high cost of broadband and the lack of competition that leads to those high prices.  A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internet prices in five U.S. cities and five comparable French cities found that prices in the U.S. were as much as 3 1/2 times higher than those in France for similar service.  The analysis shows that consumers in France have a choice between a far greater number of providers—seven on average—than those in the U.S., where most residents can get service from no more than two companies.  Allan Holmes  http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/01/16998/us-internet-users-pay-more-and-have-fewer-choices-europeans

Q.  If the is pronounced thee before vowels, why do we say thee hour and thuh one?  A. Thee is used before vowels and vowel sounds.  The h in hour is silent.  The o in one is pronounced w.

The United States presidential election of 1788–89 was the first quadrennial presidential election.  It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788 to Saturday, January 10, 1789.  It was the first presidential election in the United States of America under the new United States Constitution, which was adopted on September 17, 1787, and the only election to ever take place partially in a year that is not a multiple of four.  In this election, George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president, and John Adams became the first vice-president.  Before this election, the United States had no chief executive.  Under the previous system agreed to under Articles of Confederation, the national government was headed by the Confederation Congress, which had a ceremonial presiding officer and several executive departments, but no independent executive branch.  The enormously popular Washington essentially ran unopposed.  The only real issue to be decided was who would be chosen as vice-president.  Under the system then in place, each elector cast votes for two persons; if a person received a vote from a majority of the electors, that person became president, and the runner-up became vice-president. All 69 electors cast one vote each for Washington. Their other votes were divided among eleven other candidates; John Adams received the most, becoming vice-president. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, would change this procedure, requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice-president.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1788%E2%80%9389

Thank you, Muse reader! 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg    What happens when you remove the letter ‘a’ from the front of the alphabet?  You b-head it.  Each of this week’s words sprouts another word when you behead it. 

scop   (shop, skop)  noun  A poet or minstrel.  From Old English scop (poet, minstrel).  Earliest documented use:  888.

junto  (JUHN-to)  noun   A small, usually secret group of people united for a common purpose.  Alteration of Spanish/Portuguese junta (committee, association), from Latin jungere (to join).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root yeug- (to join), which also gave us yoke, junction, jugular, adjust, syzygy, subjugate, rejoinder, jugulate, and yoga.  Earliest documented use:  1641.

Feedback from the Muser:  Remove the first letter from either place or lace, and find a remaining word.  Remove the last letter from either beep or bee, and find a remaining word.

Based on a thorough review of the scientific evidence, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on June 16, 2015 finalized its determination that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS for use in human food.  Food manufacturers will have three years to remove PHOs from products.  Since 2006, manufacturers have been required to include trans fat content information on the Nutrition Facts label of foods.  Between 2003 and 2012, the FDA estimates that consumer trans fat consumption decreased about 78 percent and that the labeling rule and industry reformulation of foods were key factors in informing healthier consumer choices and reducing trans fat in foods.  http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm451237.htm

Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo  18-19-20-21 June 2015   Link to history at https://www.waterloo2015.org/en

Kings and commoners gather at Waterloo this week to mark the battle's bicentenary in a show of European unity not seen for a major anniversary at the site since history changed course there on June 18, 1815.  Days of official ceremony, a music-and-fireworks spectacular and re-enactments of the bloody summer day that finally ended Napoleon's French domination of the continent have been heralded by a flurry of academic reassessment of the conflict and renewed debate, and discomfort, over its meaning for Europe today.  Alistair MacDonald  http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/15/us-waterloo-anniversary-idUSKBN0OV1QR20150615  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1312  June 17, 2015  On this date in 1818, Charles Gounod, French composer, was born.  On this date in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.

From a Muse reader:  A friend just told me that there were eight Presidents of the United States before Washington.  Apparently, he was right.  After the Revolutionary War but before the U.S. Constitution was ratified (i.e., when the Articles of Confederation ruled the land), eight men served in an unpaid, mostly procedural role.  http://www.constitution.org/hist/first8pres.htm   

This begs another question:  Once the Constitution was ratified, was George Washington appointed President or elected?  Neither of us can remember hearing anything about the first presidential election or whom Washington would've beat out for the office.  Can you shed any light on this?  

From the Muser:   I used this search in Google:  "george washington" elected appointed.  There were 589,000 results in 0.65 seconds , and here is the first one:  On February 4, 1789, 69 members of Congress cast their ballots to elect George Washington the first president of the United States.  As the former leader of the Continental Army and chairman of the Continental Congress, Washington possessed the necessary credentials for the presidency, if not the enthusiasm.  After months of appearing to sidestep, and even outright rejecting the idea of assuming the presidency, Washington reluctantly accepted Congress’ decision.  Runner-up John Adams became Washington’s vice president.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-washington-is-elected-president  NOTE that using the search "george washington" elected gave about 8,520,000 results in 0.58 seconds, and the same answer came up first. 

Countries and their flags by Mark Rogers  Thailand and Costa Rica are on opposite sides of the world, yet their flags are the same—with reversed colours.  The flag of Poland is the reverse of Indonesia and Monaco, which are identical.  Singapore is also the same except that it has a moon and stars.  The flags of Italy and Mexico are almost the same except Mexico has a decoration in the middle.  Ireland is also close except that it ends with orange instead of red.  Côte d’Ivoire is the reverse of Ireland.  Read more and see pictures of the flags at  http://www.newsonaut.com/countries-with-almost-nothing-in-common-but-their-flags

What's the Difference Between Jail and Prison? by Deanne Katz   The terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a difference.  Whether a criminal is being held in jail or prison says something about the crime committed and the stage in the process.  The way inmates are treated also differs between the two.  Despite the differences, people confuse the terms all the time because they don't realize what each one means.  Do you know how to tell them apart?  The major difference between whether a convict stays in jail or prison is the length of the sentence.  A jail is a temporary holding facility.  It's used to hold people who have been recently arrested or people who are charged with a crime and unable to pay bond or bail.  It can also house people who are given short sentences, generally one year or less.  By contrast a prison is designed for long-term confinement.  The majority of convicted criminals serve their sentences in a prison.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2012/12/whats-the-difference-between-jail-and-prison.html

SPOX is an acronym that can mean spokesperson or smallpox.  http://www.acronymfinder.com/SPOX.html

digit  noun  1.  (a)  any of the Arabic numerals 1 to 9 and usually the symbol 0   (b)  one of the elements that combine to form numbers in a system other than the decimal system   2.  a unit of length based on the breadth of a finger and equal in English measure to ³⁄₄ inch  3.  any of the divisions in which the limbs of most vertebrates terminate, which are typically five in number but may be reduced (as in the horse), and which typically have a series of phalanges bearing a nail, claw, or hoof at the tip   

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/digit

A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of data in a computer.  A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1.  Although computers usually provide instructions that can test and manipulate bits, they generally are designed to store data and execute instructions in bit multiples called bytes.  In most computer systems, there are eight bits in a byte.  The value of a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a single capacitor within a memory device.  Half a byte (four bits) is called a nibble.  In some systems, the term octet is used for an eight-bit unit instead of byte.  In many systems, four eight-bit bytes or octets form a 32-bit word.  In such systems, instruction lengths are sometimes expressed as full-word (32 bits in length) or half-word (16 bits in length).  In telecommunication, the bit rate is the number of bits that are transmitted in a given time period, usually a second.  http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bit-binary-digit

"Goth Girl" author and illustrator Chris Riddell was named Britain's new Children's Laureate on June 9, 2015 and said he would like to use to the post to encourage children to draw as well as read.  Riddell, whose books feature finely detailed, humorous illustrations bursting with life, said he wanted to unleash children's imagination.  "I want to put the joy of creativity, of drawing every day, of having a go and being surprised at what one can achieve with just a pencil and an idea at the heart of my term as Laureate," he said in a statement.  His "Goth Girl the Ghost of a Mouse" is a parody of a gothic novel and won the 2013 Costa Book Awards in the children's category.  Riddell said he wanted to use his two years as Children's Laureate, run by the charity Book Trust, to explore ways of bringing words and pictures together.  "I'm interested in illustration in all its forms... as a way of drawing people into books and stories," he said.  Like previous laureates such as Michael Rosen and "Gruffalo" author Julia Donaldson, Riddell said he would champion the role of reading in schools.  "I want to help and encourage every school to do more for readers: if they have nowhere to read, create a space with a few books; if they have a bookshelf, have two; if they have a reading room, aim for a library."  Simon Falush 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/us-books-britain-childrenslaureate-idUSKBN0OP1DL20150609

Magna Carta at 800 Part 4:  http://www.toledoblade.com/British-Royalty/2015/06/16/Music-speeches-highlight-festivities.html

Bloomsday is named in honor of Leopold Bloom, whose adventures on June 16, 1904, are immortalized in Irish author James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysses.  This complicated and legendary classic, published in 1922 was named the best English-language novel of the 20th century by the board of the Modern Library publishing house.  It covers the itinerary of the day:  a trip to the butcher shop and lunch at Davy Byrne’s pub, and the rest of Bloom’s various meanderings and interactions.  The myriad details and minutiae of a life are all provided, and elevated, as we follow Leopold Bloom on his odyssey through Dublin.  Bloomsday activities in that city are particularly sought out by devotees of Ulysses, who can take tours that retrace Bloom’s path.  In Hungary, too, where the character’s father was born, there are celebrations.  Trieste, Italy, also hosts events; Joyce and his family used to live there, and the city is home to a museum honoring the author.  The Toledo Museum of Art is hosting a public reading of Ulysses beginning at noon June 16 and continuing through June 21.  (For more information, including the schedule, go to toledomuseum.org/calendar or call 419-255-8000.)  Museum director Brian Kennedy will lead off the marathon, with many others scheduled to read aloud in 30-minute blocks over the course of the 32 hours.  Find recipes including Gorgonzola sandwich,  Irish peas with mint, soda bread, and Banbury cakes at http://www.toledoblade.com/Food/2015/06/16/A-Bloomsday-feast.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1311  June 16, 2015  On this date in 1903, Roald Amundsen began the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage, leaving Oslo, Norway.  On this date in 1904, Irish author James Joyce began a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".

The Capital Crimes series by Margaret Truman  Margaret Truman died in 2008; however, Monument to Murder, #25, was published in 2011; Experiment in Murder, #26 was published in 2012; Undiplomatic Murder, #27 was published in 2014; and Internship in Murder, #28 is expected to be published in 2015.  https://www.goodreads.com/series/40428-capital-crimes   Margaret Truman’s Capital Crimes series is now carried on by Donald Bain, a longtime friend of Margaret Truman who worked closely with her on her novels.   http://us.macmillan.com/series/capitalcrimes   

See also http://www.donaldbain.com/

The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.  Covering a total of 10 acres (40,000 m²), the buildings include:  Watergate West (2700 Virginia Avenue NW), cooperative apartments; Watergate Hotel and Office Building (2600 Virginia Avenue NW), offices and a hotel at 2650 Virginia Avenue NW; Watergate East (2500 Virginia Avenue NW), cooperative apartments; Watergate South (700 New Hampshire Avenue NW), cooperative apartments; Watergate Office Building (600 New Hampshire Avenue NW), offices.  Built between 1963 and 1971, the Watergate is considered one of Washington's most desirable living spaces, popular with members of Congress and political appointees in the executive branch.  The complex has been sold several times since the 1980s.  In the 1990s, it was split up and its component buildings and parts of buildings were sold to various owners.  In 1972, the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, then located on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel and Office Building, were burglarized, documents were photographed, and telephones were wiretapped.  The investigation into the burglary revealed that high officials in the Nixon administration had ordered the break-in and then tried to cover up their involvement.  Additional crimes were also uncovered.  The ensuing Watergate Scandal, named for the complex, led to Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.  The name "Watergate" and the suffix "-gate" have since become synonymous with political scandals in the United States and elsewhere.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_complex

June 11, 2015  In its first case involving crowdfunding, the Federal Trade Commission has taken legal action against the deceptive tactics of a project creator who raised money from consumers to produce a board game through a Kickstarter campaign, but instead used most of the funds on himself.  The defendant has agreed to a settlement that prohibits him from deceptive representations related to any crowdfunding campaigns in the future and requires him to honor any stated refund policy.  Crowdfunding involves individuals and businesses funding a project or venture by raising funds from numerous people, often via dedicated online platforms.  According to the FTC’s complaint, Erik Chevalier, also doing business as The Forking Path Co., sought money from consumers to produce a board game called The Doom That Came to Atlantic City that had been created by two prominent board game artists.  “Many consumers enjoy the opportunity to take part in the development of a product or service through crowdfunding, and they generally know there’s some uncertainty involved in helping start something new,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  “But consumers should be able to trust their money will actually be spent on the project they funded.”  According to the FTC’s complaint, Chevalier represented in his Doom campaign on Kickstarter.com that if he raised $35,000, backers would get certain rewards, such as a copy of the game or specially designed pewter game figurines.   He raised more than $122,000 from 1,246 backers, most of whom pledged $75 or more in the hopes of getting the highly prized figurines.  He represented in a number of updates that he was making progress on the game.  But after 14 months, Chevalier announced that he was cancelling the project and refunding his backers’ money.  Despite Chevalier’s promises he did not provide the rewards, nor did he provide refunds to his backers.  In fact, according to the FTC’s complaint, Chevalier spent most of the money on unrelated personal expenses such as rent, moving himself to Oregon, personal equipment, and licenses for a different project.  https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2015/06/crowdfunding-project-creator-settles-ftc-charges-deception

Recommended by muse reader:  Novel Interiors:  Living in Enchanted Rooms Inspired by Literature by Lisa Giramonti  "For those who have ever lost themselves in the stylish worlds of novels like Sense and Sensibility, The Age of Innocence, Wuthering Heights, The Picture of Dorian Gray and countless others, this design book embraces the fantasy of time and place, showing you how to bring some of those elements into your own home."  With photographs by World of Interiors photographer Ivan Terestchenko, aspirational quotes, and tailored reading lists, Novel Interiors reveals the essence and details of interiors mentioned in great literary works.  http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Interiors-Enchanted-Inspired-Literature/dp/0385345992/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432731814&sr=1-1&keywords=novel+interior+design

Ultimate  (last, final), unique (one of a kind) and perfect (without flaw) are words that have changed to mean whatever you want them to mean--usually good or special.

Perle Reid Mesta born Pearl Skirvin in Sturgis, Michigan (1889–1975) was an American socialite, political hostess, and U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg (1949–1953).   Mesta was known as the "hostess with the mostest" for her lavish parties featuring the brightest stars of Washington, D.C., society, including artists, entertainers and many top-level national political figures.  She was the inspiration for Irving Berlin's musical Call Me Madam, which starred Ethel Merman as the character based on Mesta in both the Broadway play and the movie.  Mesta has also been considered a model for the character Dolly Harrison in Allen Drury's 1959 novel Advise and Consent, in a 2009 essay.  She was active in the National Woman's Party and was an early supporter of an Equal Rights Amendment.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perle_Mesta

Magna Carta at 800  “In 1215, Magna Carta was a failure.”  Such was the startling judgment of Sir James Holt in his classic study of the document, published in 1965, a judgment shared by virtually all specialists in the history of the period.  Today, Magna Carta is revered as the basis of representative government, even of democracy.  It began, however, as a problematic peace treaty hammered out by an inept king and angry barons in a futile attempt to end a civil war.  Since baronial families were the ones with the money, the kings targeted them.  For instance, rulers customarily had a say in the marriage of the heiresses and widows of dead barons, since in this sexist society husbands controlled their wives’ lands and the king demanded loyal husbands.  Kings often exploited such rights to sell the marriage of widows and heiresses to the highest bidder.  Such tactics were politically dangerous and John’s shortcomings made the situation far worse.  John’s father, Henry II, and his brother, the warrior Richard the Lionhearted, controlled far more of France than the king of France did.  Within five years of becoming king, John had lost most of these lands.  His efforts to recover them and to simultaneously reinforce his overlordship over Wales, Ireland and Scotland meant that he had to tighten the financial screws far more than his predecessors had done.  In 1215 a large number of barons revolted and forced John into negotiations at Runnymede in June of that year.  There they created Magna Carta, which was designed to bring two sides, divided by deep distrust, into agreement.  Among other terms was an agreement that if John failed to carry out his end of the deal, a committee of 25 barons was allowed to move forcibly against him.  This worked about as well as one might imagine, and by September the two sides were at war again.  The barons, having given up on Magna Carta, offered the crown to the son and heir of the king of France, who soon captured much English territory.  Magna Carta only survived because, after John greatly improved royalist chances by dying in 1216, the regents of his young son, Henry III, proclaimed a new and far less radical version of it to win support.  Today only three clauses and parts of a fourth are officially part of English law.  Modern readers who read the text in English translation still find themselves confronted with a plethora of strange, untranslatable terms:  scutage, novel disseisin, amercement.  Some aspects of Magna Carta will even seem repugnant to modern audiences.  Most notably, the document perpetuated the class structure of the time.  Indeed, a century ago, some historians dismissed Magna Carta as a reactionary document of little benefit to anyone but barons.  The views of most historians today are more nuanced, but there is no doubt that barons benefitted most and made sure that others did not benefit too much at their expense.  Hugh Thomas  See pictures, including English Liberties, or, The Free-Born Subject's Inheritance Containing Magna Carta, printed by James Franklin (Benjamin Franklin's older brother) in Boston in 1721.  http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2015/06/13/The-great-charter-that-grew-in-greatness.html  Part 2:   http://www.toledoblade.com/Nation/2015/06/14/A-historic-document-helps-shape-America.html  Part 3:  http://www.toledoblade.com/British-Royalty/2015/06/15/Charter-of-liberty-powered-by-ideals.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1310  June 15, 2015  On this date in 1215, King John of England put his seal to the Magna Carta.  On this date in 1502, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.

A leap second will be added on June 30, 2015 23:59:60 UTC.  A leap second is a second which is added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to synchronize atomic clocks with astronomical time to within 0.9 seconds.  The reason we have to add a second every now and then, is that Earth's rotation around its own axis, is gradually slowing down, although very slowly.  Atomic clocks however, are programmed to tick away at pretty much the same speed over millions of years.  The last leap second was added at 23:59:60 UTC on June 30, 2012.  Since 1972, a total of 25 seconds have been added.  This means that the Earth has slowed down 25 seconds compared to atomic time since then.  http://www.timeanddate.com/time/leapseconds.html  See also http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html

P is not always pronounced P  Ph=F (phone)  Ps=S (psalm)  Pt=T (pterosaur)

Pterosaurs first appeared in the late Triassic period and roamed the skies until the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago), according to an article published in 2008 in the German scientific journal Zitteliana.  Pterosaurs lived among the dinosaurs and became extinct around the same time, but they were not dinosaurs.  Rather, pterosaurs were flying reptiles.  Modern birds didn't descend from pterosaurs; their ancestors were small, feathered, terrestrial dinosaurs.  The first pterosaur discovered was Pterodactylus, identified in 1784 by Italian scientist Cosimo Collini, who thought he had discovered a marine creature that used its wings as paddles.  A French naturalist, Georges Cuvier, proposed that the creatures could fly in 1801, and then later coined the term "Ptero-dactyle" in 1809 after the discovery of a fossil skeleton in Bavaria, Germany.  This was the term used until scientists realized they were finding different genera of flying reptiles.  However, "pterodactyl" stuck as the popular term.  Pterodactylus comes from the Greek word pterodaktulos, meaning "winged finger," which is an apt description of its flying apparatus.  The primary component of the wings of Pterodactylus and other pterosaurs were made up of a skin and muscle membrane that stretched from the animals' highly elongated fourth fingers of the hands to the hind limbs.

http://www.livescience.com/24071-pterodactyl-pteranodon-flying-dinosaurs.html

A child’s listening level is usually 2-3 grade levels above their reading level.  Reading together is a great time for parents to bond with their children and will provide opportunities for meaningful discussion.  It will become a time you and your child look forward to each night.  Don’t restrict your child’s reading material to only books.  Provide the chance to read other types of materials (magazines, comics, newspapers, atlases, recipes, game instructions, etc.).  This will allow them to discover several reading materials of interest.  For more leveled books, see http://orgs.bloomu.edu/americareads/leveledbooks/leveledbooks.html and www.reallygoodstuffreading.com.  Find a guided reading level list at http://hanover.k12.va.us/rpes/reading/Leveled%20Book%20List%20_summer_.pdf

Author James Patterson is primarily known for his lengthy list of bestselling thrillers, but he has recently been making a name for himself as a philanthropist.  In March 2015, Patterson announced he would give $1.5 million to school libraries around the nation through small $1,000–$10,000 grants that can be used for any kind of repair or improvement.  Read interview with James Patterson by Megan Cottrell at http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/06/04/newsmaker-james-patterson/

June 6, 2015  Dan Roberts – The Guardian UK – “In the hours before US senators voted to take on the might of the National Security Agency this week, their inboxes were deluged with more than 2,200 supportive emails from a most unlikely group of revolutionaries:  America’s librarians. The first politician to discover the danger of underestimating what happens when you have thousands of librarians on your case was attorney general John Ashcroft who, in 2003, accused the American Library Association of “baseless hysteria” and ridiculed their protests against the Patriot Act.  US libraries were once protected from blanket requests for records of what their patrons were reading or viewing online, but the legislation rushed through after after 9/11 threatened to wreck this tradition of confidentiality in ways that presaged later discoveries of bulk telephone and internet record collection.  In 2005, four librarians from Connecticut also successfully fought a FBI request to use national security letters to seize reading records and hard-drives, forcing the government to drop the case and back off.  http://www.bespacific.com/nsa-surveillance-how-librarians-have-been-on-the-front-line-to-protect-privacy/

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced June 10, 2015 the appointment of Juan Felipe Herrera as the Library’s 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, for 2015-2016.  Herrera will take up his duties in the fall, participating in the Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday, September 5 and opening the Library’s annual literary season with a reading of his work at the Coolidge Auditorium on Tuesday, September 15.  "I see in Herrera’s poems the work of an American original—work that takes the sublimity and largesse of "Leaves of Grass" and expands upon it," Billington said.  "His poems engage in a serious sense of play—in language and in image—that I feel gives them enduring power.  I see how they champion voices, traditions and histories, as well as a cultural perspective, which is a vital part of our larger American identity."  Herrera, who succeeds Charles Wright as Poet Laureate, is the first Hispanic poet to serve in the position.  He said, "This is a mega-honor for me, for my family and my parents who came up north before and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910—the honor is bigger than me.  I want to take everything I have in me, weave it, merge it with the beauty that is in the Library of Congress, all the resources, the guidance of the staff and departments, and launch it with the heart-shaped dreams of the people.  It is a miracle of many of us coming together."  Herrera joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, W. S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.  The new Poet Laureate is the author of 28 books of poetry, novels for young adults and collections for children, most recently "Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes" (2014), a picture book showcasing inspirational Hispanic and Latino Americans.  His most recent book of poems is "Senegal Taxi" (2013).

https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2015/15-096.html

June 11, 2015  About 15 years ago, the late crime novelist Elmore Leonard drew up a list of 10 rules for writing.  They were characteristically succinct, and included such maxims as “Never open a book with weather” and “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.”  They were slyly funny as well:  “Never use an adverb to modify the verb ‘said’…he admonished gravely,” read one.  Half a century earlier, however, as a young writer and father of four in a suburb of Detroit, the author was breaking his own rules left and right.  A new collection, “Charlie Martz and Other Stories: The Unpublished Stories,” out from William Morrow next week, brings together 15 short stories, 11 previously unpublished, from Mr. Leonard’s early career.  Written in the mid-1950s through the early 1960s, when the author was in his early 30s, the short works show a writer struggling to refine his voice—what he called his “sound.”  This is “Elmore unfiltered, warts and all,” said the author’s son Peter Leonard, who helped put the collection together.  Anna Russell  http://www.wsj.com/articles/when-elmore-leonard-broke-his-own-rules-1434042233

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1309  June 12, 2015  On this date in 1550, the city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) was founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.  On this date in 1665, England installed a municipal government in New York City (the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).

FIN & FINIS are root words meaning END.  Find a list including finial, affinity, confine, define and financial at http://www.english-for-students.com/fin.html

June 9, 2015  Over the weekend, 24 teams from around the world converged in Pomona, California to compete for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, and PCMag was there.  After a difficult assault course, designed around a hazardous environment, which required robots to drill through a wall, release a mounted valve, climb stairs and drive an off-road utility vehicle, Team KAIST from Korea walked away with the $2 million first prize.  DARPA launched the competition in response to the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami when, if robots been among the first responder teams, human lives could have been saved.  

Sophia Stuart    Read article and see pictures at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485620,00.asp

World's longest marked trail proposed around Great Lakes by Keith Matheny  It's a big idea — a 10,900-mile-long one.  Melissa Scanlan, an associate professor, associate dean and director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School, seeks to establish a hikers version of Mt. Everes—the Great Lakes Trail on the shores of the Great Lakes.  All of the Great Lakes.  And all of their shoreline.  It would span at least eight states and two Canadian provinces, and would be the longest continuous marked trail in the world—f ive times larger than the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, and more than four times bigger than the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from the U.S. border with Canada to its border with Mexico.  It was while hiking a National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin—the Ice Age Trail—that Scanlan said the idea came to her.  "I was thinking of all the people who had to donate easements to allow that trail to happen across private property," she said.  "And I realized we already have this public trust easement along the shoreline of the Great Lakes."  As the Great Lakes states were admitted into the Union, the federal government granted them the lake beds and waters of the Great Lakes up to the ordinary high-water mark—from the point on the bank or shore where continuous wave action has made a distinct mark, to the water.  This was affirmed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1894, in the Shively v. Bowlby case.  The justices found that lands below the high-water mark were "for the benefit of the whole people."  (This may come as news to owners of $750,000 lakefront homes whose deed tells them the shoreline is theirs.)   A 2005 Michigan state Supreme Court case, Glass v. Goeckel, found "the public trust doctrine does protect (the) right to walk along the shores of the Great Lakes," and that "the state lacks the power to diminish those rights when conveying (shoreline) property to private parties."  New York has ruled similarly on the issue.  It's this principle, Scanlan says, that makes the Great Lakes Trail a real possibility.  The North Country Trail is a National Scenic Trail running from eastern New York to central North Dakota.  Established in 1980, less than 60% of the trail was completed as of last year.  The Great Lakes Trail, to become a National Scenic Trail, would require an act of Congress enabling a likely years-long feasibility study by the National Park Service.  After that mapping and evaluation, Congress would take up the trail again and determine whether to create it.  Scanlan encourages those interested in the trail concept to contact their member of Congress and ask for a feasibility study for it.  Buy-in from local governments and organizations throughout the region also would be necessary.  And some could view the potential conflicts between hikers and Great Lakes shoreline homeowners as something they wish to avoid.  But Scanlan is undaunted.  "I think a lot of the conflicts arise from people not being clear on where the property boundary is," she said.  "The benefit of having a National Scenic Trail in this area is there would be a demarcation of where the ordinary high-water mark is.  I think it could settle some conflicts that could exist right now.  Another benefit, she said, is that a shoreline trail designation limits what activities can take place:  "It's for walking, not for camping, having bonfires or hanging out on the shorelines for the day."  "The Appalachian Trail has 2 million to 3 million hikers on it every year," she said.  "Other National Scenic Trails are somewhat remote, hard to get to.  But something that would go around the Great Lakes, go through so many industrial cities and small towns, would allow so many people to access it.  But the full benefit of the trail as a tourist attraction really doesn't happen until you have it designated as a whole."  http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/05/23/great-lakes-trail-michigan-coastline-hikers/27848439/

Red roses for young lovers.  French beans for longstanding relationships.  

Ruskin Bond's Book of Nature, 2004

Food idioms:  http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-food-idioms.html

A Dutch team has developed a potato crop through traditional breeding methods that is tolerant to salt water.  Their project beat more than 500 competitors from 90 countries to win an award sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  Inspired by sea kale, Dutch farmer Marc van Rijsselberghe set up Salt Farm Texel in the north of the Netherlands and collaborated with Dr Arjen de Vos from the Free University in Amsterdam to look at the possibility of cultivating crops using non-fresh water.  “The world’s water is 89% salinated, 50% of agricultural land is threatened by salt water, and there are millions of people living in salt-contaminated areas.  Up until now everyone has been concentrating on how to turn the salt water into fresh water; we are looking at what nature has already provided us with”, van Rijsselberghe told the Guardian.  The process of desalination is expensive and requires much energy.  The salt-tolerant potato plants, however, were watered with diluted sea water.  The variety is four times more salt tolerant than regular potato varieties.  The project used a trial and error approach and then screened different potato cultivars of which only two showed increased salt tolerance and were used for further development of the saline potato.  Some of the Texel seed potatoes are already on their way to Pakistan where 4.2 million hectares of land is salt affected and farmers are often forced to use brackish groundwater to water their crops, which reduces yields and the quality of the crops.  If the potatoes adapt to the Asian climate, they could transform the lives of farmers not only in Pakistan.  According to Dutch team, there is no risk of overdosing on salt when eating crops fed by sea water.  “What we find is that, if you tease a plant with salt, it compensates with more sugar,” said de Vos.  The salt is mostly retained in the leaves of the plant.  http://www.saveourseeds.org/en/news/international/news/en/29893.html

See also  http://tribune.com.pk/story/870626/agricultural-breakthrough-saline-land-yields-perfect-potatoes/

In the spring of 2014, representatives of the Alabama Center for the Book and the Alabama Writers’ Forum with a committee of readers, writers, and scholars met to decide how best to honor the rich legacy of native Alabamians who earned their reputations in the literary arts.  From these initial meetings, came the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.

The inaugural class of twelve writers represents internationally celebrated Alabama authors whose work spans the nineteent,twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. These initial inductees include Johnson Jones Hooper (1815-1862), Augusta Jane Evans Wilson (1835-1909), Helen Keller (1880-1968), Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), William March (1894-1954), Albert Murray (1916-2013), Helen Norris Bell (1916-2013), Andrew Glaze (b. 1920), Harper Lee (b. 1926), Sonia Sanchez (b. 1934), Sena Jeter Naslund (b. 1942), and Rick Bragg (b. 1959).  For further information about the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame, contact the Alabama Writers’ Forum at 334-265-7728 or writersforum@bellsouth.net.  http://www.writersforum.org/hall-of-fame/about.html  

NOTE that Harper Lee's second book, Go Set a Watchman, is being released July 14, 2015.  It was written before the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, but takes place 20 years later.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1308  June 10, 2015  On this date in 1944, in baseball, 15-year old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds became the youngest player ever in a major-league game.  On this date in 1947, Saab produced its first automobile.

It is generally agreed that the first jigsaw puzzle was produced around 1760 by John Spilsbury, a London engraver and mapmaker.  Spilsbury mounted one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cut around the borders of the countries using a fine-bladed marquetry saw.  The end product was an educational pastime, designed as an aid in teaching British children their geography.  The idea caught on and, until about 1820, jigsaw puzzles remained primarily educational tools.  In 1880, with the introduction of the treadle saw, what had previously been known as dissections came to be known as jigsaw puzzles, although they were actually cut by a fretsaw, not a true jigsaw.  Towards the end of the century plywood came to be used.   With illustrations glued or painted on the front of the wood, pencil tracings of where to cut were made on the back.  These pencil tracings can still be found on some of these older puzzles.  Cardboard puzzles were first introduced in the late 1800's, and were primarily used for children's puzzles.  It was not until the 20th century that cardboard puzzles came to be die-cut, a process whereby thin strips of metal with sharpened edges--rather like a giant cookie-cutter--are twisted into intricate patterns and fastened to a plate.   The "die" (which refers to this assembly of twisted metal on the plate) is placed in a press, which is pressed down on the cardboard to make the cut.  The Golden Age of jigsaw puzzles came in the 1920s and 1930s with companies like Chad Valley and Victory in Great Britain and Einson-Freeman, Viking and others in the United States producing a wide range of puzzles reflecting both the desire for sentimental scenes, enthusiasm for the new technologies in rail and shipping and, last but not least, new marketing strategies.  Daniel McAdam  http://www.jigsaw-puzzle.org/jigsaw-puzzle-history.html  If you are a jigsaw puzzle person, try http://www.jigidi.com/

James Palfrey, in his new book BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google, gives some truly bummer statistics on what’s happening to this beloved institution.  A government report showed that while the nation’s public libraries served 298 million people in 2010 (that’s 96 percent of the U.S. population), states had cut funding by 38 percent and the federal government by 19 percent between 2000 and 2010.  “It seems extraordinary that a public service with such reach should be, in effect, punished despite its success,” writes Palfrey.  Of necessity, he cites these tough economic times as a reason for this “punishment.”  But according to Palfrey, one of the greatest threats to libraries is nostalgia—the way that we, the loving public, associate libraries with the pleasures of a bygone era, and assume that the growth of the Internet is slowly draining libraries of their usefulness.  Read more at http://www.bespacific.com/why-libraries-matter-more-than-ever-in-the-age-of-google/

Before there was Lisbeth Salander or Stephanie Plum, there was V.I. Warshawski.  Sara Paretsky revolutionized the mystery world in 1982 when she introduced V I in Indemnity Only.  By creating a believable investigator with the grit and the smarts to tackle problems on the mean streets, Paretsky challenged a genre in which women typically were either vamps or victims.  Hailed by critics and readers, Indemnity Only was followed by fifteen more best-selling Warshawski novels.  Called “passionate” and “electrifying,” V.I. reflects her creator’s own passion for social justice.  As a contributor to the New York Times and the Guardian newspapers, and a speaker at such venues as the Library of Congress and Oxford University, Paretsky is an impassioned advocate for those on society’s margins.  After chairing the school’s first Commission on the Status of Women as a Kansas undergraduate, Paretsky worked as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side during the turbulent race riots of 1966.  She has mentored teens in Chicago’s most troubled schools, and works closely with literacy and reproductive rights groups.  http://www.saraparetsky.com/biography/  See Sara Paretsky's blog at http://www.saraparetsky.com/blog/  Paretsky's advice on getting published:  The best guide is How to Get Happily Published by Judith Applebaum.  The advice is good and broad based.  For a simple list of accredited agents—that is, they are members of the Association of Author’s Representatives, which has a canon of ethics, etc.—a person can go to the AAR website, and get a list and some useful advice.  Most agents work with e-requests these days.  If you choose to write a printed letter,  you should send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with a query letter.  However you make your initial pitch, don’t send more than a 2-page summary of your book.  No agent wants to see a book, either in paper or e form, until he or she has decided whether or not to pursue the relationship.  The query letter should include no more than two pages of double spaced text with wide margins, describing the novel.  A number of websites have great advice for writing query letters.  My personal favorite is The Query Shark.  http://www.saraparetsky.com/faqs/

What’s the difference between a salad and a composed salad?  From the French “salade composée,” a composed salad is simply salad arranged on a plate rather than tossed in a bowl.  In summer, it shows off the intense, irresistible vegetables, herbs and fruits of the season—but can also have rich components like cheese, eggs, toasted nuts and smoked fish or meat.  With a loaf of (preferably grilled) bread, it is a meal in itself.  Lay them out on one vast platter (the prettier choice) or on individual plates (faster).  Ingredients can be arranged in loose stripes or wedges, or be artfully distributed around the platter.  Julia Moskin   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/19/dining/composed-salad-recipes-and-ideas.html

Peter Lovesey (b. 1936), also known by his pen name Peter Lear, is a British crime fiction writer.  His first novel Wobble to Death (1970) featured Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London.  His other series feature Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath, Bertie (Prince of Wales), and Inspector Hen Mallin.  Read an interview with Peter Lovesey at http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-interview-with-peter-lovesey.html  See also http://peterlovesey.com/

Lists of beach books  http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/beach-books  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106983620

2015 Summer Reading List from the Association for Library Service to Children  http://www.ala.org/alsc/2015-summer-reading-list 

Sapper was the pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile (1888-1937).   McNeile was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1907.  He went to France in 1914 when World War I broke out and he saw action at both the First and the Second Battle of Ypres where he displayed considerable bravery, was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches.  His first known published work was a series of short war stories based on his own experiences, and published under the name 'Sapper' in the Daily Mail and in the magazine 'The War Illustrated'.  These stories were immediately successful and later sold over 200,000 copies within a year when subsequently republished in book-form.  He began the series for which he now best remembered, that of Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond in 1920 and thereafter he wrote 10 novels featuring his eponymous hero.  The public took to Drummond and McNeile had great financial success.  The first book was adapted for the stage and produced, to great success, at Wyndham's Theatre during the 1921-1922 season with Gerald du Maurier playing the main character.  There were 26 films made of his books.  As well as Drummond, he wrote about Ronald Standish but the majority of his work was short stories that were published in various popular monthly magazines and continued to earn him good money.  See a list of Sapper's books at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/370972.Sapper

The Oxford English Dictionary announced on May 3, 2015 it is going to include the gender-neutral honorific "Mx."--pronounced "mix"--to represent transgender people and people who don't want to be identified by gender, reports the Sunday Times of London.  Although the idea of replacing the traditional honorifics "Mr.," "Mrs." and "Miss," and the later "Ms.," with the gender-neutral "Mx." seems a wholly contemporary development, OED assistant editor Jonathan Dent in the announcement Sunday said the first recorded use of Mx. was discovered in a 1977 issue of "Single Parent," an American magazine.  “The early proponents of the term seem to have had gender politics as their central concern [and] saw the title as one which could sidestep the perceived sexism of the traditional ‘Mr.,' ‘Mrs.’ and ‘Miss,'” Dent told the Sunday Times.  Perhaps more surprising than the idea that single parents were proponents of an honorific associated with gender activists like trans performer Mx. Justin V. Bond, who's been using "Mx." for years, is the fact that U.K. banks and government agencies are already giving customers the "Mx." option.  Barbara Herman  http://www.ibtimes.com/mr-mrs-or-mx-oxford-english-dictionary-adopts-gender-neutral-honorific-1907977

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1307  June 8, 2015  On this date in 1789, James Madison introduced twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in the House of Representatives; by 1791, ten of them were ratified by the state legislatures and became the Bill of Rights; another was eventually ratified in 1992 to become the 27th Amendment.  On this date in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.