TREASURES OF THE RHINE, Part One
On June 20, we traveled to EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located in France, and serving Basel (Switzerland), Mulhouse (France), and Freiburg (Germany). Our cruise ship, Viking Sun, was supposed to be docked in Basel, but due to high water (ship was unable to get under a bridge) was actually waiting for us in Breisach, Germany, about an hour away. I will share stories of our two-week adventure in installments—and today will just relate a few encounters of human interest. We visited a cheese farm near Gouda (pronounced HOW-da in Dutch), a winery in Cochem, Germany (town floods about three times a year) where we could see vines hanging on a steep cliff behind the shop, and enjoyed Dutch singers and dancers one evening on the ship. On most days, we had lectures, demonstrations, and entertainment scheduled in addition to walking tours.
TO BE CONTINUED
Holden Caulfield Stays Young: Salinger Wins Copyright Suit
U.S. District Court judge Deborah Batts followed up on her temporary restraining order from last month, and permanently banned publication of an unauthorized sequel to J.D. Salinger's uber-famous novel, Catcher in the Rye. Click here for the NYT article; here for the opinion; here and here for previous LB coverage of the case. Judge Batts ruled that the novel, penned by an American living in Sweden who used the pseudonym J.D. California, did not fit into the fair use exception in copyright law because the book did not constitute a critical parody that “transformed” the original. The book imagines a grown up Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the original, wandering the streets of New York after having escaped from a retirement home. WSJ Law Blog July 2, 2009
Great buildings: Desert House
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Kaufmann_Desert_House.html
For the best of Architectural History and Current Architecture combined,
search the complete archives of ArchitectureWeek and GreatBuildings.com at once.
Main cloud components
Alto – high
Cirrus – lock of hair
Cumulus – heap
Nimbus – precipitation-bearing (Latin for "raincloud")
Stratus – layer (Latin for "spread out")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cloud_types
On July 6, 1535 Sir Thomas More was beheaded in the Tower of London for refusing to recognize his longtime friend King Henry VIII as the head of the Church. Thomas More was a barrister, a scholar, and a writer. He was the author of Utopia (1516), a controversial novel about an imaginary island named Utopia, where society was based on equality for all people. It is from this novel that we get our word "utopia."
On July 6, 1812 Ludwig van Beethoven wrote two famous love letters to an unknown woman. Beethoven wrote the letters from the Czech resort town of Teplitz, which his physician had recommended for his health, and there he became friends with the poet Goethe. And over the course of two days, he wrote three letters to a mysterious woman who has come to be known as "the Immortal Beloved."
On July 6, 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney met at a church dance in Liverpool, England. John Lennon was almost 17, and Paul McCartney had just turned 15. Lennon had formed a band called the Quarrymen. They were all right, but not great, and they couldn't play at bars because they were all underage. But they got a gig playing at St. Peter's Church for the annual summer garden party, on a stage in a field behind the church, and then again that night in the dance hall at the church. Paul McCartney heard the band and thought they were pretty good—especially John Lennon. Paul went to school with one of the band members, who took him over to the band and introduced him while they were setting up for their second show. Paul said that he played guitar, and also that he knew how to tune one. No one in the band could tune their own guitars—they took them to a specialist—so they were impressed. Paul taught John how to tune, and he sang him a few recent rock songs, including a medley by Little Richard. And about a week later, John asked Paul to join the band. The Writer’s Almanac
Monday, July 6, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Woody Ray Densen, a state district judge in Houston, was indicted on June 18 by a Harris County grand jury on a felony charge of criminal mischief after he was captured on video tampering with his next-door neighbor's car. According to the Houston Chronicle, Densen was recorded on a surveillance camera walking by his neighbor's 2006 Range Rover and making contact with the vehicle twice on May 23. The next-door neighbor, Adam Kleibert, discovered a series of scratches made by a key to the rear door of his vehicle. The damages totaled nearly $3,000, Kliebert said. Click here for the Houston Chronicle story, which includes the surveillance video allegedly showing Densen in the act. Check it out, LB readers; it's really pretty remarkable. (Hat tip: ABA Journal).
Of cities with 500,000 people or more, Baltimore reported the most homicides in 2008. With 234 homicides - 37 per 100,000 city residents - Maryland's largest city outpaced Detroit, which reported 33.8. Or did it? A Detroit News story claims that the Motor City's police department intentionally underreported its number of homicides. The story suggests that was intentional on the part of city officials. The article, which accuses Detroit police of an intentional “chronic undercounting” of homicides, pointed out that police there count murders differently than almost every other major city in the U.S.
Rather than report anything and everything that might classify as a homicide, Detroit police take a wait-and-see approach on killings that they think may have been accidents, suicides or acts of self-defense.
Most other cities--New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia included--simply follow what the medical examiner says and reports them to the FBI as homicides. Detroit police dispute that method. “There's homicide and there's murder,” said Detroit Police Dep. Chief James Tolbert. “Now when the medical examiner still says it's a homicide and we go on about our investigation and (in the course of) our investigation we present documents to the prosecutor's office, they can say it's self-defense. It's ruled medically a homicide. But in the eyes of the prosecutor's office they will not charge anybody with this.” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy disagrees with that approach. “It is very, very clear in the language,” Worthy said. “Lawful self-defense is still a homicide and it still has to be counted as a homicide and it still has to be reported to the FBI.” WSJ Law Blog June 18, 2009
OpenCongress Project Launches Project RaceTracker
"The RaceTracker project on the OpenCongress wiki tracks every election for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and state governor. RaceTracker is a free, open-source, fully-referenced, and non-partisan public resource. It is coordinated by the crew at the SwingStateProject."
Monarchs of Britain—some surprises—there is a Danish Line and three different Plantagenet Lines http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html
Silent letters
Comb, climb, exhibit, hour, light, sign, scene
Q. What does the prefix hemi mean?
A. It is Greek for half. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa052698.htm
There are dozens of words starting with hemi—you know about hemisphere. More unusual words are hemidemisemiquaver, a musical note having the time value of a sixty-fourth of a whole note---and hemistich, half a poetic line of verse.
The music for "On, Wisconsin!" was composed in 1909 by William T. Purdy with the idea of entering it in a Minnesota contest for the creation of a new university football song. Instead, Carl Beck persuaded him to dedicate the song to the University of Wisconsin football team, and Beck collaborated with the composer by writing the lyrics. The song was introduced at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in November 1909. It was later acclaimed by world-famous composer and bandmaster, John Philip Sousa, as the best college song he had ever heard. Lyrics more in keeping with the purposes of a state song were subsequently written in 1913 by J. S. Hubbard, editor of the Beloit Free Press, and Judge Charles D. Rosa. Hubbard and Rosa were among the delegates from many states convened in 1913 to commemorate the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie. Inspired by the occasion, they provided new, more solemn, words to the already well-known university football song. Although "On, Wisconsin!" was widely recognized as Wisconsin's song, the state did not officially adopt it until 1959. Representative Harold W. Clemens discovered that Wisconsin was one of only 10 states without an official song. He introduced a bill to give the song the status he thought it deserved. On discovering that many different lyrics existed, an official text for the first verse was incorporated in Chapter 170, Laws of 1959, and it is contained in Section 1.10 of the statutes. http://www.50states.com/songs/wisconsin.htm
Find your state symbols and songs at: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/
http://www.50states.com/ohio.htm
June 19 is the birthday of novelist Salman Rushdie, (books by this author) born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India (1947). He was born just two months before India gained independence from Great Britain. His family loved literature and oral storytelling. His grandfather was an esteemed poet who wrote in Urdu, the language of Pakistan. His father had studied world literature at Cambridge in England, and his mother, Rushdie says, was "the keeper of the family stories. She has a genius for family trees; forests of family trees grow in her head, and nobody else can possibly understand their complexity." He's never published the first novel he wrote, and calls it a failure. The first to be published was Grimus, in 1975, and though he got a nice advance for it, the book didn't sell well. He decided to use the money from the advance to travel in India, he said, "as cheaply as possible for as long as I could make the money last, and on that journey of fifteen-hour bus rides and humble hostelries [his next novel] Midnight's Children was born." After he completed the manuscript for Midnight's Children in 1979 and sent it to his editor, he learned that the first reader had reported after reading the thick manuscript: "The author should concentrate on short stories until he has mastered the novel form." But the second reader was more enthusiastic, and the book was published in 1981 to great acclaim. It won the Booker Prize and marked Rushdie as one of the most important fiction writers of his generation. The Writer’s Almanac
Of cities with 500,000 people or more, Baltimore reported the most homicides in 2008. With 234 homicides - 37 per 100,000 city residents - Maryland's largest city outpaced Detroit, which reported 33.8. Or did it? A Detroit News story claims that the Motor City's police department intentionally underreported its number of homicides. The story suggests that was intentional on the part of city officials. The article, which accuses Detroit police of an intentional “chronic undercounting” of homicides, pointed out that police there count murders differently than almost every other major city in the U.S.
Rather than report anything and everything that might classify as a homicide, Detroit police take a wait-and-see approach on killings that they think may have been accidents, suicides or acts of self-defense.
Most other cities--New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia included--simply follow what the medical examiner says and reports them to the FBI as homicides. Detroit police dispute that method. “There's homicide and there's murder,” said Detroit Police Dep. Chief James Tolbert. “Now when the medical examiner still says it's a homicide and we go on about our investigation and (in the course of) our investigation we present documents to the prosecutor's office, they can say it's self-defense. It's ruled medically a homicide. But in the eyes of the prosecutor's office they will not charge anybody with this.” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy disagrees with that approach. “It is very, very clear in the language,” Worthy said. “Lawful self-defense is still a homicide and it still has to be counted as a homicide and it still has to be reported to the FBI.” WSJ Law Blog June 18, 2009
OpenCongress Project Launches Project RaceTracker
"The RaceTracker project on the OpenCongress wiki tracks every election for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and state governor. RaceTracker is a free, open-source, fully-referenced, and non-partisan public resource. It is coordinated by the crew at the SwingStateProject."
Monarchs of Britain—some surprises—there is a Danish Line and three different Plantagenet Lines http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html
Silent letters
Comb, climb, exhibit, hour, light, sign, scene
Q. What does the prefix hemi mean?
A. It is Greek for half. http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa052698.htm
There are dozens of words starting with hemi—you know about hemisphere. More unusual words are hemidemisemiquaver, a musical note having the time value of a sixty-fourth of a whole note---and hemistich, half a poetic line of verse.
The music for "On, Wisconsin!" was composed in 1909 by William T. Purdy with the idea of entering it in a Minnesota contest for the creation of a new university football song. Instead, Carl Beck persuaded him to dedicate the song to the University of Wisconsin football team, and Beck collaborated with the composer by writing the lyrics. The song was introduced at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in November 1909. It was later acclaimed by world-famous composer and bandmaster, John Philip Sousa, as the best college song he had ever heard. Lyrics more in keeping with the purposes of a state song were subsequently written in 1913 by J. S. Hubbard, editor of the Beloit Free Press, and Judge Charles D. Rosa. Hubbard and Rosa were among the delegates from many states convened in 1913 to commemorate the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie. Inspired by the occasion, they provided new, more solemn, words to the already well-known university football song. Although "On, Wisconsin!" was widely recognized as Wisconsin's song, the state did not officially adopt it until 1959. Representative Harold W. Clemens discovered that Wisconsin was one of only 10 states without an official song. He introduced a bill to give the song the status he thought it deserved. On discovering that many different lyrics existed, an official text for the first verse was incorporated in Chapter 170, Laws of 1959, and it is contained in Section 1.10 of the statutes. http://www.50states.com/songs/wisconsin.htm
Find your state symbols and songs at: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/
http://www.50states.com/ohio.htm
June 19 is the birthday of novelist Salman Rushdie, (books by this author) born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India (1947). He was born just two months before India gained independence from Great Britain. His family loved literature and oral storytelling. His grandfather was an esteemed poet who wrote in Urdu, the language of Pakistan. His father had studied world literature at Cambridge in England, and his mother, Rushdie says, was "the keeper of the family stories. She has a genius for family trees; forests of family trees grow in her head, and nobody else can possibly understand their complexity." He's never published the first novel he wrote, and calls it a failure. The first to be published was Grimus, in 1975, and though he got a nice advance for it, the book didn't sell well. He decided to use the money from the advance to travel in India, he said, "as cheaply as possible for as long as I could make the money last, and on that journey of fifteen-hour bus rides and humble hostelries [his next novel] Midnight's Children was born." After he completed the manuscript for Midnight's Children in 1979 and sent it to his editor, he learned that the first reader had reported after reading the thick manuscript: "The author should concentrate on short stories until he has mastered the novel form." But the second reader was more enthusiastic, and the book was published in 1981 to great acclaim. It won the Booker Prize and marked Rushdie as one of the most important fiction writers of his generation. The Writer’s Almanac
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Chicago Tribune is suing the University of Illinois in the hope of uncovering information showing the school gave preferential admissions treatment to hundreds of college applicants who had help from insiders. Click here for the news story from the Tribune. WSJ Law Blog June 16, 2009
New on LLRX.com: Bridging the DiGital Divide: Custom Search Engines Put You in Control - Law librarian, legal research expert and blogger John J. DiGilio's new column focuses on technology trends that leverage the web to achieve more efficient and effective results. Here John recommends using customized search engines to manage the sites you search.
NYT: How Trillion-Dollar Deficits Were Created
"To understand the looming deficits, The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office projections of the budget surplus or deficit for the years 2009-12, President Obama’s current term. The budget office has been making estimates for these years for nearly a decade now. The numbers that appear [here] are the average annual deficit or surplus for this four-year period." Related Times article: America’s Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making">How a Sea of Red Ink Spread From a Puddle.
Anatomy of a Crash
A federal district judge in Manhattan ruled on June 17 that Holden Caulfield, the querulous, precocious protagonist of J. D. Salinger’s most famous work, “The Catcher in the Rye,” will exist at least a little longer solely in a state of permanent adolescence, unburdened by the cares and recriminations of age. The judge, Deborah A. Batts, said a new book that contains a 76-year-old version of Caulfield cannot be published in the United States for 10 days while she weighs a copyright infringement.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/judges-delays-publication-of-updated-catcher-in-the-rye/
Frankfurt
In English, this city's name translates into "Frankfurt on the Main" (pronounced like "mine"). A part of early Franconia, the inhabitants were the early Franks. The city is located on an ancient ford on the river Main, which is a shallow crossing. The German word is "Furt". Thus the city's name receives its legacy as being the "ford of the Franks".
Frankfurt is one of only three cities in the European Union that have a significant number of skyscrapers. With 10 skyscrapers (i.e. buildings taller than 150 m (492 ft)) in early 2009, Frankfurt is second behind Paris with 14 skyscrapers, and on par with London which also has 10 skyscrapers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_am_Main
Frankfurter
The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany where sausages in a bun originated, similar to hot dogs, but made of pork. Wieners, refers to Vienna, Austria, whose German name is "Wien", home to a sausage made of a mixture of pork and beef. In German speaking countries, except Austria, hot dog sausages are called Wiener or Wiener Würstchen (Würstchen means "little sausage"). In Swiss German, it is called Wienerli, while in Austria the terms Frankfurter or Frankfurter Würstel are used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog
We will cruise the Rhine, a “mighty mountain child,” June 21 to July 4—see information below:
The Alpine Rhine: Its two headstreams, the Vorderrhein (anterior Rhine) and the Hinterrhein (posterior Rhine) are fed by tributaries from side valleys before meeting at Reichenau. From here to Lake Constance, it is known as the Alpine Rhine.
Lake Constance Rhine: The river travels 43 miles within Lake Constance from its delta in Rheinau to Stam am Rhein. At Konstanz, it leaves the main basin for the Lower Lake and continues to the island of Reichenau. The length of the river is official recorded from the bridge over the Rhine in Konstanz.
The High Rhine: from Stam am Rhine to the Gates of Basel
The Upper Rhine: from Basel to Mainz
The Middle Rhine: from Mainz to Cologne
The Cologne Bay: bordered by Bergisches Land to the east and Eifel foothills to the west
The Lower Rhine and the Delta: It emerges from the highlands on to the plains and to the Dutch border. The Erft flows into it from the left—and the Wupper, Ruhr, Emscher and Lippe from the right. Immediately beyond the Dutch border, the Rhine divides into several branches. Eventually, the arms flow into the North Sea.
“The Rhine: Culture and Landscape at the Heart of Europe” by Roland Recht
Bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Lake Constance is about 42 miles long and 8 miles wide. The Rhine flows through it, and researchers estimate that it takes an average of two months for the river to emerge from the lake.
“The first humans to depend on the Rhine for their livelihood were hunters and gatherers who, around 8000 B.C., built the first permanent settlements on the shores of Lake Constance.” Tribes from the Balkan region moved in around 5000 B.C. and, by 800 B.C., the Rhineland was populated by the Celts, the first major culture to settle there. In the early centuries A.D., German tribes (referred to as barbarians) battled the Romans. “Barbarian” is Greek in origin. When people from northern Europe did not understand classic Greek, they were thought to be illiterate. Greeks thought their speech sounded like “Bar-bar-bar.”
Around the year 253, Germanic tribes known as Franks, or Free Men, began to conquer territory along the Lower and Middle Rhine that had been held by Rome for hundreds of years. Tribes from North Africa and Europe poured in with Franks dominating as Rome lost control. In 768, the Frankish king Charlemagne established his court in Aachen near Cologne. His empire was split into three sections by the Treaty of Verdun in 877. The Rhine was a dividing line between the East Frankish Kingdom (now Germany and Austria) and the West Frankish Kingdom (now France).
Powerful knights built castles along the Rhine and were opposed by traders. Various rulers fought among themselves, and groups of merchants in larger cities formed local governments, declaring independence from outside rule. The bubonic plague (Black Death) followed the Rhine trade route in 1348. Ironically, the plague, anarchy and hysteria loosed feudalism’s grip—leading to increased freedom for the survivors.
“The Rhine” (Rivers of the World Series) by Stuart A. Kallen
New on LLRX.com: Bridging the DiGital Divide: Custom Search Engines Put You in Control - Law librarian, legal research expert and blogger John J. DiGilio's new column focuses on technology trends that leverage the web to achieve more efficient and effective results. Here John recommends using customized search engines to manage the sites you search.
NYT: How Trillion-Dollar Deficits Were Created
"To understand the looming deficits, The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office projections of the budget surplus or deficit for the years 2009-12, President Obama’s current term. The budget office has been making estimates for these years for nearly a decade now. The numbers that appear [here] are the average annual deficit or surplus for this four-year period." Related Times article: America’s Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making">How a Sea of Red Ink Spread From a Puddle.
Anatomy of a Crash
A federal district judge in Manhattan ruled on June 17 that Holden Caulfield, the querulous, precocious protagonist of J. D. Salinger’s most famous work, “The Catcher in the Rye,” will exist at least a little longer solely in a state of permanent adolescence, unburdened by the cares and recriminations of age. The judge, Deborah A. Batts, said a new book that contains a 76-year-old version of Caulfield cannot be published in the United States for 10 days while she weighs a copyright infringement.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/judges-delays-publication-of-updated-catcher-in-the-rye/
Frankfurt
In English, this city's name translates into "Frankfurt on the Main" (pronounced like "mine"). A part of early Franconia, the inhabitants were the early Franks. The city is located on an ancient ford on the river Main, which is a shallow crossing. The German word is "Furt". Thus the city's name receives its legacy as being the "ford of the Franks".
Frankfurt is one of only three cities in the European Union that have a significant number of skyscrapers. With 10 skyscrapers (i.e. buildings taller than 150 m (492 ft)) in early 2009, Frankfurt is second behind Paris with 14 skyscrapers, and on par with London which also has 10 skyscrapers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_am_Main
Frankfurter
The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany where sausages in a bun originated, similar to hot dogs, but made of pork. Wieners, refers to Vienna, Austria, whose German name is "Wien", home to a sausage made of a mixture of pork and beef. In German speaking countries, except Austria, hot dog sausages are called Wiener or Wiener Würstchen (Würstchen means "little sausage"). In Swiss German, it is called Wienerli, while in Austria the terms Frankfurter or Frankfurter Würstel are used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog
We will cruise the Rhine, a “mighty mountain child,” June 21 to July 4—see information below:
The Alpine Rhine: Its two headstreams, the Vorderrhein (anterior Rhine) and the Hinterrhein (posterior Rhine) are fed by tributaries from side valleys before meeting at Reichenau. From here to Lake Constance, it is known as the Alpine Rhine.
Lake Constance Rhine: The river travels 43 miles within Lake Constance from its delta in Rheinau to Stam am Rhein. At Konstanz, it leaves the main basin for the Lower Lake and continues to the island of Reichenau. The length of the river is official recorded from the bridge over the Rhine in Konstanz.
The High Rhine: from Stam am Rhine to the Gates of Basel
The Upper Rhine: from Basel to Mainz
The Middle Rhine: from Mainz to Cologne
The Cologne Bay: bordered by Bergisches Land to the east and Eifel foothills to the west
The Lower Rhine and the Delta: It emerges from the highlands on to the plains and to the Dutch border. The Erft flows into it from the left—and the Wupper, Ruhr, Emscher and Lippe from the right. Immediately beyond the Dutch border, the Rhine divides into several branches. Eventually, the arms flow into the North Sea.
“The Rhine: Culture and Landscape at the Heart of Europe” by Roland Recht
Bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Lake Constance is about 42 miles long and 8 miles wide. The Rhine flows through it, and researchers estimate that it takes an average of two months for the river to emerge from the lake.
“The first humans to depend on the Rhine for their livelihood were hunters and gatherers who, around 8000 B.C., built the first permanent settlements on the shores of Lake Constance.” Tribes from the Balkan region moved in around 5000 B.C. and, by 800 B.C., the Rhineland was populated by the Celts, the first major culture to settle there. In the early centuries A.D., German tribes (referred to as barbarians) battled the Romans. “Barbarian” is Greek in origin. When people from northern Europe did not understand classic Greek, they were thought to be illiterate. Greeks thought their speech sounded like “Bar-bar-bar.”
Around the year 253, Germanic tribes known as Franks, or Free Men, began to conquer territory along the Lower and Middle Rhine that had been held by Rome for hundreds of years. Tribes from North Africa and Europe poured in with Franks dominating as Rome lost control. In 768, the Frankish king Charlemagne established his court in Aachen near Cologne. His empire was split into three sections by the Treaty of Verdun in 877. The Rhine was a dividing line between the East Frankish Kingdom (now Germany and Austria) and the West Frankish Kingdom (now France).
Powerful knights built castles along the Rhine and were opposed by traders. Various rulers fought among themselves, and groups of merchants in larger cities formed local governments, declaring independence from outside rule. The bubonic plague (Black Death) followed the Rhine trade route in 1348. Ironically, the plague, anarchy and hysteria loosed feudalism’s grip—leading to increased freedom for the survivors.
“The Rhine” (Rivers of the World Series) by Stuart A. Kallen
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Who says government doesn’t always know best? And if government says you can’t legally park in your driveway, they must be right. People in Toledo are all upset because they’re receiving parking tickets for doing the unheard of. The criminal act of parking their cars in front of their house. And the acts of criminality have become so rampant that the Mayor has deputized city workers (instead of police officers and the parking division of the city) to roam the hardscrabble streets to issue $25 parking citations to individuals who have committed this heinous crime. Not every citizen is getting a ticket. Only those who don’t have their driveways paved. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who surprisingly is facing a recall, says he stands by the Acting Commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor’s decision to ticket citizens who park in their driveways. “Every law in the city should be enforced and I will defer to the director over the media, that’s for dag-gone sure,” Mayor Finkbeiner said in a press conference last night. “I will not second guess her because more times then not she’s right and the citizens that are criticizing her are not right.” http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/06/16/park-in-your-own-driveway-youre-a-criminal/
Official Google Blog: "...Citizentube, a special YouTube blog devoted to chronicling the way that people are using video to change the world. If you've followed news and politics on YouTube, you might have noticed that we started Citizentube as a video channel on the site a few years back, but we soon realized that keeping track of all the phenomenal uses of YouTube by posting our own videos just wasn't fast enough—so now we're blogging, too. We generally focus on two types of posts: the compelling political and social uses of YouTube that we see the community bubble up every day, and our own programming initiatives and partnerships in the political, news, and nonprofit arenas."
MISQUOTES
Media reports stated that Al Gore claimed he "invented the Internet." — Al Gore [C, M]
During a 9 March 1999 interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Gore stated, "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." [4] See Al Gore's Contributions to the Internet and technology: 1999 CNN Interview for more information.
All that glitters is not gold." – The Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare [C]
Actual quote: "All that glisters is not gold."
"Elementary, my dear Watson." — Sherlock Holmes [C]
The complete phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in any of the 60 Holmes stories written by Doyle. It appears for the first time at the very end of the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
[C] A corruption or mistranslation of the original phrase, possibly accidental, which became better known than the original.
[M] A deliberate misquoting or made-up quote intended to discredit the alleged speaker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations
It’s the third week of June and that means my Juneberries (aka serviceberries) are ready to pick and enjoy. The understory shrub or tree, also called shadbush, grows up to 30 ft. tall in clumps and lives 60 years. The flowers bloom at the same time that shad ascend coastal streams to spawn in the East. http://www.yale.edu/fes505b/shadbush.html
The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is actually 16.2 kilometres (10.1 mi) north of the 45th parallel because the Earth is oblate, that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.[1] In Michigan, the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. When the Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it is possible to walk out to the exact line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_parallel_north
The 45th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. The parallel is the line that marks the theoretical halfway point between the equator and the South Pole. The true halfway point is somewhat south of this parallel because the Earth is not a perfect sphere but bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.[1] Unlike its northern counterpart it passes mostly over open ocean. The exceptions are the southern end of South America where it crosses the Aisén Region of Chile and Chubut Province of Argentina, and southern New Zealand where it crosses the South Island immediately north of Oamaru. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_parallel_south
Shoppers can now buy pasta that's enriched with calcium, ketchup that boasts probiotics for digestive wellness and soda that's host to an array of daily vitamins. Japanese exporter EIWA Confectionery is marketing marshmallows infused with skin-boosting collagen, and Canada Dry has introduced a heart-healthy ginger ale pumped with green tea, thought to reduce the incidence of heart disease. Fortified foods are nothing new. Iodine was first added to salt in Michigan in 1924 in order to help reduce the prevalence of goiter, which had reached an alarming rate of 47% in that state. The measure worked so well that it led to the voluntary iodization of the product for the entire country. It also paved the way for a cascade of similar, mandatory approaches. Brain-and-skin degenerating pellagra was almost completely eradicated within about a decade after breads and grains were enriched with niacin, thiamin, riboflavin and iron in 1943.
In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made it mandatory to add folic acid to enriched grains such as breads and cereals with the goal of reducing neural-tube defects in babies. Between then and 2004, the number of infants born with neural-tube defects went down by 25%, according a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-sponsored study, which concluded that folic acid fortification was at least partially responsible for the drop. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124267976477131801.html
Official Google Blog: "...Citizentube, a special YouTube blog devoted to chronicling the way that people are using video to change the world. If you've followed news and politics on YouTube, you might have noticed that we started Citizentube as a video channel on the site a few years back, but we soon realized that keeping track of all the phenomenal uses of YouTube by posting our own videos just wasn't fast enough—so now we're blogging, too. We generally focus on two types of posts: the compelling political and social uses of YouTube that we see the community bubble up every day, and our own programming initiatives and partnerships in the political, news, and nonprofit arenas."
MISQUOTES
Media reports stated that Al Gore claimed he "invented the Internet." — Al Gore [C, M]
During a 9 March 1999 interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Gore stated, "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." [4] See Al Gore's Contributions to the Internet and technology: 1999 CNN Interview for more information.
All that glitters is not gold." – The Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare [C]
Actual quote: "All that glisters is not gold."
"Elementary, my dear Watson." — Sherlock Holmes [C]
The complete phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in any of the 60 Holmes stories written by Doyle. It appears for the first time at the very end of the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
[C] A corruption or mistranslation of the original phrase, possibly accidental, which became better known than the original.
[M] A deliberate misquoting or made-up quote intended to discredit the alleged speaker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations
It’s the third week of June and that means my Juneberries (aka serviceberries) are ready to pick and enjoy. The understory shrub or tree, also called shadbush, grows up to 30 ft. tall in clumps and lives 60 years. The flowers bloom at the same time that shad ascend coastal streams to spawn in the East. http://www.yale.edu/fes505b/shadbush.html
The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is actually 16.2 kilometres (10.1 mi) north of the 45th parallel because the Earth is oblate, that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.[1] In Michigan, the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. When the Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it is possible to walk out to the exact line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_parallel_north
The 45th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. The parallel is the line that marks the theoretical halfway point between the equator and the South Pole. The true halfway point is somewhat south of this parallel because the Earth is not a perfect sphere but bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.[1] Unlike its northern counterpart it passes mostly over open ocean. The exceptions are the southern end of South America where it crosses the Aisén Region of Chile and Chubut Province of Argentina, and southern New Zealand where it crosses the South Island immediately north of Oamaru. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_parallel_south
Shoppers can now buy pasta that's enriched with calcium, ketchup that boasts probiotics for digestive wellness and soda that's host to an array of daily vitamins. Japanese exporter EIWA Confectionery is marketing marshmallows infused with skin-boosting collagen, and Canada Dry has introduced a heart-healthy ginger ale pumped with green tea, thought to reduce the incidence of heart disease. Fortified foods are nothing new. Iodine was first added to salt in Michigan in 1924 in order to help reduce the prevalence of goiter, which had reached an alarming rate of 47% in that state. The measure worked so well that it led to the voluntary iodization of the product for the entire country. It also paved the way for a cascade of similar, mandatory approaches. Brain-and-skin degenerating pellagra was almost completely eradicated within about a decade after breads and grains were enriched with niacin, thiamin, riboflavin and iron in 1943.
In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made it mandatory to add folic acid to enriched grains such as breads and cereals with the goal of reducing neural-tube defects in babies. Between then and 2004, the number of infants born with neural-tube defects went down by 25%, according a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-sponsored study, which concluded that folic acid fortification was at least partially responsible for the drop. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124267976477131801.html
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
World Trade Organization: Hyperlinked Map of Disputes Between Members
"The World Trade Organization has recently posted on its website an interactive map that depicts disputes between its member states. The top of the webpage shows a list of highlight-able choices among types of member-state involvement in disputes: as complainant, respondent, or either. The accompanying map shows member-state areas of the world in a color range of whitish pink to red, to indicate the range in the number of disputes (0-100), and non-member-state areas in gray; the United States is bright red." [LC, Wendy Zeldin] Map of Disputes Between WTO Members
Pew Survey: The Social Life of Health Information
"This Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network’s volume."
The Social Life of Health Information: American's pursuit of health takes place within a widening network of both online and offline sources, June 2009
Federal Agencies Issue Frequently Asked Questions on Identity Theft Rules
News release: "Six federal agencies issued a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) today to help financial institutions, creditors, users of consumer reports, and issuers of credit cards and debit cards comply with federal regulations on identity theft and discrepancies in changes of address. The “Red Flags and Address Discrepancy Rules,” which implement sections of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, were issued jointly on November 9, 2007, by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)."
Frequently Asked Questions: Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies
HUD and Fair Housing Partners Report Record Number of Housing Discrimination Complaints
News release: "A record 10,552 fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal year 2008, according to a report just released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The State Of Fair Housing FY 2008, Annual Report On Fair Housing, which is produced for Congress each year, shows that a large portion of the complaints, 44 percent, were filed by persons with disabilities. Thirty-five percent, or 3,699, of the complaints alleged discrimination based on race."
The Decline and Fall of the Dominant Paradigm: Trustworthiness of Case Reports in the Digital Age, by William R. Mills, New York Law School Law Review, volume 53, 2008/2009.
"It is axiomatic that our American common law, based in the principle of precedent and the rule of stare decisis, relies on accurate case reports published in authentic sources. But when citing American court opinions as legal authority, authors, for the past century or more, have given little thought to the accuracy of the case reports or the authenticity of the sources wherein the reports were found. This remains true in the digital age, when authors doing research are increasingly likely to have relied on the Internet as their primary or sole source of case law."
“What’s good for GM is good for the country” is a misquote.
Former GM President and Chief Executive Charles E. Wilson never said those words, and what he did say didn't mean that. In his closed hearing as candidate for Secretary of Defense, on Jan. 15, 1953, Wilson defended his investments and his integrity, saying he never could have risen to the top of GM if he had been crooked. Sen. Robert Hendrickson, R-N.J., asked whether, given his investments in GM, he could make a decision that would hurt the company. Because the hearing was closed, reporters relied on secondhand descriptions from senators and staffers of what Wilson said. "His answer, as quoted by one senator, was 'Certainly. What's good for General Motors is good for the country,' Wilson's actual reply, in full: "I cannot conceive of one, because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country." http://www.freep.com/article/20080914/BUSINESS01/809140308/
Markets and Morals 09 Jun 09 Duration: 44 minutes
Professor Michael Sandel begins the 2009 Reith Lectures by exploring Markets and Morality. Are there some things which should not be sold? Do we need to think of ourselves less as consumers and more as citizens? Contributed by Findlay, Ohio muse reader http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith
June 16 is Bloomsday. It is the day on which James Joyce's (books by this author) Ulysses takes place, in 1904. It's named after the main character, Leopold Bloom, and Joyce chose this day for the action of the novel to commemorate the first date he had with his future wife, Nora Barnacle. Today, Joyceans all over the world celebrate with staged readings of Ulysses. Dublin has a long tradition of hosting celebrities, politicians, and international diplomats to do these dramatized readings. In fact, in Dublin, Bloomsday is not just celebrated for a day — it's a weeklong extravaganza. There are Ulysses walking tours, where a person can retrace the steps of the fictional Leopold Bloom, as well as literary-themed pub crawls, musical acts, and museum exhibits. There's also an annual Messenger Biker Rally, where people dressed in Joyce-era clothing ride old bicycles along the route that Leopold Bloom would have walked, and there are large-scale Irish breakfasts and afternoon teas devoted to Ulysses devotees. The Writer’s Almanac
"The World Trade Organization has recently posted on its website an interactive map that depicts disputes between its member states. The top of the webpage shows a list of highlight-able choices among types of member-state involvement in disputes: as complainant, respondent, or either. The accompanying map shows member-state areas of the world in a color range of whitish pink to red, to indicate the range in the number of disputes (0-100), and non-member-state areas in gray; the United States is bright red." [LC, Wendy Zeldin] Map of Disputes Between WTO Members
Pew Survey: The Social Life of Health Information
"This Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network’s volume."
The Social Life of Health Information: American's pursuit of health takes place within a widening network of both online and offline sources, June 2009
Federal Agencies Issue Frequently Asked Questions on Identity Theft Rules
News release: "Six federal agencies issued a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) today to help financial institutions, creditors, users of consumer reports, and issuers of credit cards and debit cards comply with federal regulations on identity theft and discrepancies in changes of address. The “Red Flags and Address Discrepancy Rules,” which implement sections of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, were issued jointly on November 9, 2007, by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)."
Frequently Asked Questions: Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies
HUD and Fair Housing Partners Report Record Number of Housing Discrimination Complaints
News release: "A record 10,552 fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal year 2008, according to a report just released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The State Of Fair Housing FY 2008, Annual Report On Fair Housing, which is produced for Congress each year, shows that a large portion of the complaints, 44 percent, were filed by persons with disabilities. Thirty-five percent, or 3,699, of the complaints alleged discrimination based on race."
The Decline and Fall of the Dominant Paradigm: Trustworthiness of Case Reports in the Digital Age, by William R. Mills, New York Law School Law Review, volume 53, 2008/2009.
"It is axiomatic that our American common law, based in the principle of precedent and the rule of stare decisis, relies on accurate case reports published in authentic sources. But when citing American court opinions as legal authority, authors, for the past century or more, have given little thought to the accuracy of the case reports or the authenticity of the sources wherein the reports were found. This remains true in the digital age, when authors doing research are increasingly likely to have relied on the Internet as their primary or sole source of case law."
“What’s good for GM is good for the country” is a misquote.
Former GM President and Chief Executive Charles E. Wilson never said those words, and what he did say didn't mean that. In his closed hearing as candidate for Secretary of Defense, on Jan. 15, 1953, Wilson defended his investments and his integrity, saying he never could have risen to the top of GM if he had been crooked. Sen. Robert Hendrickson, R-N.J., asked whether, given his investments in GM, he could make a decision that would hurt the company. Because the hearing was closed, reporters relied on secondhand descriptions from senators and staffers of what Wilson said. "His answer, as quoted by one senator, was 'Certainly. What's good for General Motors is good for the country,' Wilson's actual reply, in full: "I cannot conceive of one, because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country." http://www.freep.com/article/20080914/BUSINESS01/809140308/
Markets and Morals 09 Jun 09 Duration: 44 minutes
Professor Michael Sandel begins the 2009 Reith Lectures by exploring Markets and Morality. Are there some things which should not be sold? Do we need to think of ourselves less as consumers and more as citizens? Contributed by Findlay, Ohio muse reader http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith
June 16 is Bloomsday. It is the day on which James Joyce's (books by this author) Ulysses takes place, in 1904. It's named after the main character, Leopold Bloom, and Joyce chose this day for the action of the novel to commemorate the first date he had with his future wife, Nora Barnacle. Today, Joyceans all over the world celebrate with staged readings of Ulysses. Dublin has a long tradition of hosting celebrities, politicians, and international diplomats to do these dramatized readings. In fact, in Dublin, Bloomsday is not just celebrated for a day — it's a weeklong extravaganza. There are Ulysses walking tours, where a person can retrace the steps of the fictional Leopold Bloom, as well as literary-themed pub crawls, musical acts, and museum exhibits. There's also an annual Messenger Biker Rally, where people dressed in Joyce-era clothing ride old bicycles along the route that Leopold Bloom would have walked, and there are large-scale Irish breakfasts and afternoon teas devoted to Ulysses devotees. The Writer’s Almanac
Monday, June 15, 2009
A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO, June 12-13, 2009
We went to Jackson, Michigan to see sculptures by Toledo area sculptors Calvin Babich and Todd Kime. http://www.msisculpture.com/2009-10JacksonOutdoorSculptureExhibit.htm. First we visited the Ella Sharp Museum of Art and History and saw a John James Audubon exhibition that runs through August 29. http://www.ellasharp.org/ Lunch was at Clara’s Lansing Station in Lansing. http://www.claras.com/clsmain.html Then we drove to House on the Hill at Ellsworth http://www.thehouseonthehill.com/, a peaceful bed & breakfast set on 50 acres with mowed paths as hiking trails. Dinner was at Rowe Inn Restaurant. The reason for the trip was to meet our grandson in Traverse City and make sure he was settled in for a two-month project--so the next morning we drove there, first stopping on Old Mission Peninsula to admire landscaping at the home of friends. We saw the new Traverse City District Library http://www.tadl.org/ and ate lunch downtown at Hanna Bistro http://www.hannabistrobar.com/
Christopher R. Beha, who spent a year reading and reflecting on all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics, is presiding over a literary trivia contest: “Each day for the next few weeks I will be giving away a volume of the Harvard Classics from a complete set dating back to 1910.” Beha posts a question relating to the volume that’s up for grabs, and among those who respond correctly, a winner is chosen by “the Randomizer” http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/free-old-books/?hp
Country Analysis Brief: Iraq Source: Energy Information Administration
Iraq was the world’s 13th largest oil producer in 2008, and has the world’s third largest proven petroleum reserves after Saudi Arabia and Canada. Just a fraction of Iraq’s known fields are in development, and Iraq may be one of the few places left where vast reserves, proven and unknown, have barely been exploited. Iraq’s energy sector is heavily based upon oil, with approximately 94 percent of its energy needs met with petroleum. According to the International Monetary Fund, crude oil export revenues represented over 75 percent of GDP and 86 percent of government revenues in 2008.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). http://www.ted.com/ Contributed by Toledo muse reader
Alastair Barnes discovered a seven leaf clover at Coombe Bissett nature reserve, near Salisbury, Wilts, England while out walking his dog with his father Jonathan.
Clovers occasionally have leaves with four leaflets, instead of the usual three - these are considered lucky, while five and six leaf clovers are considered even more unusual.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5481348/Lucky-schoolboy-finds-seven-leaf-clover.html
Q. What’s the difference between St. Martin and St. Maarten?
A. They are separate governments sharing the same island.
Location/Size
The island is in the Caribbean Sea, 18.02 latitude and 63.07 longitude, 150 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. It covers 37 square miles, with Dutch St. Maarten on the South spanning 16 square miles and French Saint Martin on the North covering 21. The island is the smallest landmass to be shared by two separate governments. Capitals - Philipsburg on Great Bay is the capital of St. Maarten. Marigot is the capital of Saint Martin.
Nationalities
As a part of the Netherlands Antilles and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, St. Maarten boasts 140 different nationalities. Saint Martin is a commune of Guadeloupe, an overseas territory of France.
Languages
English is spoken everywhere, but Dutch is the official language of St.Maarten, and French the official language of Saint Martin. On the Dutch side, you can also hear Spanish, Papiamentu, Italian, Hindi, Chinese, and other languages. On the French side, Creole Patois is also spoken
Population
41,000 people live on St.Maarten and 36,000 on Saint Martin
http://www.st-maarten.com/facts.htm
Quote: The drive to achieve had turned into an addiction to praise.
The Lasko Tangent (Christopher Paget series, #1) by Richard North Patterson
We went to Jackson, Michigan to see sculptures by Toledo area sculptors Calvin Babich and Todd Kime. http://www.msisculpture.com/2009-10JacksonOutdoorSculptureExhibit.htm. First we visited the Ella Sharp Museum of Art and History and saw a John James Audubon exhibition that runs through August 29. http://www.ellasharp.org/ Lunch was at Clara’s Lansing Station in Lansing. http://www.claras.com/clsmain.html Then we drove to House on the Hill at Ellsworth http://www.thehouseonthehill.com/, a peaceful bed & breakfast set on 50 acres with mowed paths as hiking trails. Dinner was at Rowe Inn Restaurant. The reason for the trip was to meet our grandson in Traverse City and make sure he was settled in for a two-month project--so the next morning we drove there, first stopping on Old Mission Peninsula to admire landscaping at the home of friends. We saw the new Traverse City District Library http://www.tadl.org/ and ate lunch downtown at Hanna Bistro http://www.hannabistrobar.com/
Christopher R. Beha, who spent a year reading and reflecting on all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics, is presiding over a literary trivia contest: “Each day for the next few weeks I will be giving away a volume of the Harvard Classics from a complete set dating back to 1910.” Beha posts a question relating to the volume that’s up for grabs, and among those who respond correctly, a winner is chosen by “the Randomizer” http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/free-old-books/?hp
Country Analysis Brief: Iraq Source: Energy Information Administration
Iraq was the world’s 13th largest oil producer in 2008, and has the world’s third largest proven petroleum reserves after Saudi Arabia and Canada. Just a fraction of Iraq’s known fields are in development, and Iraq may be one of the few places left where vast reserves, proven and unknown, have barely been exploited. Iraq’s energy sector is heavily based upon oil, with approximately 94 percent of its energy needs met with petroleum. According to the International Monetary Fund, crude oil export revenues represented over 75 percent of GDP and 86 percent of government revenues in 2008.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). http://www.ted.com/ Contributed by Toledo muse reader
Alastair Barnes discovered a seven leaf clover at Coombe Bissett nature reserve, near Salisbury, Wilts, England while out walking his dog with his father Jonathan.
Clovers occasionally have leaves with four leaflets, instead of the usual three - these are considered lucky, while five and six leaf clovers are considered even more unusual.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5481348/Lucky-schoolboy-finds-seven-leaf-clover.html
Q. What’s the difference between St. Martin and St. Maarten?
A. They are separate governments sharing the same island.
Location/Size
The island is in the Caribbean Sea, 18.02 latitude and 63.07 longitude, 150 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. It covers 37 square miles, with Dutch St. Maarten on the South spanning 16 square miles and French Saint Martin on the North covering 21. The island is the smallest landmass to be shared by two separate governments. Capitals - Philipsburg on Great Bay is the capital of St. Maarten. Marigot is the capital of Saint Martin.
Nationalities
As a part of the Netherlands Antilles and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, St. Maarten boasts 140 different nationalities. Saint Martin is a commune of Guadeloupe, an overseas territory of France.
Languages
English is spoken everywhere, but Dutch is the official language of St.Maarten, and French the official language of Saint Martin. On the Dutch side, you can also hear Spanish, Papiamentu, Italian, Hindi, Chinese, and other languages. On the French side, Creole Patois is also spoken
Population
41,000 people live on St.Maarten and 36,000 on Saint Martin
http://www.st-maarten.com/facts.htm
Quote: The drive to achieve had turned into an addiction to praise.
The Lasko Tangent (Christopher Paget series, #1) by Richard North Patterson
Friday, June 12, 2009
CIA World Factbook Launches New Web Site
"On Monday, June 8, the World Factbook team unveiled its thoroughly redesigned Web site. Presenting a cleaner look, improved navigation, and a host of added features, the new site provides visitors with a more user-friendly experience. The CIA first made the Factbook available to the public in 1975 and launched its online presence in 1997. This is the first major redesign of the Factbook site in over a decade. More than 3 million visitors access the online Factbook monthly. The world-renowned Factbook provides visitors with wide-ranging and hard-to-locate information about the background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 countries and other entities."
Special Tax Break on New Car Purchases Available in States With No Sales Tax
The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department has announced that a tax break for the purchase of new motor vehicles is available in states that do not have a state sales tax. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, taxpayers who buy a new motor vehicle this year are entitled to deduct state or local sales or excise taxes paid on the purchase.
Federal Reserve Board Beige Book, June 2009
June 10, 2009 - Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District. Link to reports by Districts.
"Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve District Banks indicate that economic conditions remained weak or deteriorated further during the period from mid-April through May. However, five of the Districts noted that the downward trend is showing signs of moderating. Further, contacts from several Districts said that their expectations have improved, though they do not see a substantial increase in economic activity through the end of the year. Manufacturing activity declined or remained at a low level across most Districts. However, several Districts also reported that the outlook by manufacturers has improved somewhat. Demand for nonfinancial services contracted across Districts reporting on this segment. Retail spending remained soft as consumers focused on purchasing less expensive necessities and shied away from buying luxury goods. New car purchases remained depressed, with several Districts indicating that tight credit conditions were hampering auto sales. Travel and tourism activity also declined. A number of Districts reported an uptick in home sales, and many said that new home construction appeared to have stabilized at very low levels. Vacancy rates for commercial properties were rising in many parts of the country, while developers are finding financing for new commercial projects increasingly difficult to obtain."
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Summary - May 2009:
Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $29.39 per hour worked in March 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Wages and salaries, which averaged $20.49, accounted for 69.7 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.90, accounted for the remaining 30.3 percent. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, based on the National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.
USDA: Emerging Issues in the U.S. Organic Industry, by Catherine Greene, Carolyn Dimitri, Biing-Hwan Lin, William McBride, Lydia Oberholtzer, and Travis Smith. Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-55) 36 pp, June 2009
Consumer demand for organic products has widened over the last decade. While new producers have emerged to help meet demand, market participants report that a supply squeeze is constraining growth for both individual firms and the organic sector overall. Partly in response to shortages in organic supply, Congress in 2008 included provisions in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (2008 Farm Act) that, for the first time, provide direct financial support to farmers to convert to organic production. This report examines recent economic research on the adoption of organic farming systems, organic production costs and returns, and market conditions to gain a better understanding of the organic supply squeeze and other emerging issues in this rapidly changing industry."
Legal, Factual and Other Internet Sites for Attorneys and Legal Professionals.
Timothy L. Coggins, Legal, Factual and Other Internet Sites for Attorneys and Legal Professionals, XV RICH. J.L. & TECH. 13 (2009).
"This listing of Internet sites for legal, factual, and other research presents a variety of sources for attorneys, law students, law librarians, and others who use the Web. Initially developed for an Advanced Legal Research course and a continuing education session for legal assistants and paralegals, the listing includes sites for primary authorities, both federal and state, as well as URLs for other types of information such as names of possible expert witnesses and biographical and background information about individuals."
The 2009 Outlook for Hurricane Production Outages in the Gulf of Mexico (06/09/2009): EIA's projections for hurricane production outages of crude oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico for the 2009 hurricane season.
Short-Term Energy Outlook June 2009 (06/09/2009): "Short-term energy projections for supply, demand, and price for the major fuels through 2010 for the U.S. Global oil forecasts are included."
International Petroleum Monthly - May 2009 (06/09/2009): "This report contains world petroleum production data through March 2009; and OECD country petroleum demand, imports, and stocks data through February 2009. Also included are international oil balance data for 2004-2008 and annual petroleum data series for 1970-2008."
The U.S. flag has changed 27 times in the nation's history with designs that included stars in circles, stars in squares and even stars in the shape of an hourglass. Legally, the flag was born June 14, 1777, after the Continental Congress adopted this resolution: "That the Flag of the united states be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation." The flag of 1818 had 20 stars that formed one great star. The banner of 1876 had 38 stars arranged in an hourglass shape. Other patterns include diamonds, double circles, crosses and even a meteor. Americans were the first to put five-pointed stars on a flag in 1777, said Whitney Smith, executive director of the Flag Research Center in Winchester, Mass.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-11-flagday_N.htm
Eponyms
churrigueresque (choor-ee-guh-RESK)
adjective: baroque; lavish; over-the-top
After José Benito Churriguera (1650-1725), Spanish architect and sculptor, whose family was known for extravagant architectural decorations.
rachmanism (RAK-muh-niz-uhm)
noun: the exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords
After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott (1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.
mausoleum (maw-suh-LEE-uhm)
noun: a large tomb, usually an ornate stone building
After Mausolus, a Persian governor in 4th century BCE. His monumental tomb was considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, after which any grand tomb is now called a mausoleum.
martinet (mar-ti-NET, MAR-ti-net)
noun: a strict disciplinarian.
After Jean Martinet, an army officer during the reign of Louis XIV in France. He was a tough drill master known for his strict adherence to rules and discipline. He was killed by friendly fire during the siege of Duisburg in 1672. A.Word.A.Day
Answer to yesterday’s question: Amsterdam has 90 islands 500 bridges and 50 museums. It’s only naturally flowing waterway is the Amstel River.
"On Monday, June 8, the World Factbook team unveiled its thoroughly redesigned Web site. Presenting a cleaner look, improved navigation, and a host of added features, the new site provides visitors with a more user-friendly experience. The CIA first made the Factbook available to the public in 1975 and launched its online presence in 1997. This is the first major redesign of the Factbook site in over a decade. More than 3 million visitors access the online Factbook monthly. The world-renowned Factbook provides visitors with wide-ranging and hard-to-locate information about the background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 countries and other entities."
Special Tax Break on New Car Purchases Available in States With No Sales Tax
The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department has announced that a tax break for the purchase of new motor vehicles is available in states that do not have a state sales tax. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, taxpayers who buy a new motor vehicle this year are entitled to deduct state or local sales or excise taxes paid on the purchase.
Federal Reserve Board Beige Book, June 2009
June 10, 2009 - Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District. Link to reports by Districts.
"Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve District Banks indicate that economic conditions remained weak or deteriorated further during the period from mid-April through May. However, five of the Districts noted that the downward trend is showing signs of moderating. Further, contacts from several Districts said that their expectations have improved, though they do not see a substantial increase in economic activity through the end of the year. Manufacturing activity declined or remained at a low level across most Districts. However, several Districts also reported that the outlook by manufacturers has improved somewhat. Demand for nonfinancial services contracted across Districts reporting on this segment. Retail spending remained soft as consumers focused on purchasing less expensive necessities and shied away from buying luxury goods. New car purchases remained depressed, with several Districts indicating that tight credit conditions were hampering auto sales. Travel and tourism activity also declined. A number of Districts reported an uptick in home sales, and many said that new home construction appeared to have stabilized at very low levels. Vacancy rates for commercial properties were rising in many parts of the country, while developers are finding financing for new commercial projects increasingly difficult to obtain."
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Summary - May 2009:
Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $29.39 per hour worked in March 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Wages and salaries, which averaged $20.49, accounted for 69.7 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.90, accounted for the remaining 30.3 percent. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, based on the National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.
USDA: Emerging Issues in the U.S. Organic Industry, by Catherine Greene, Carolyn Dimitri, Biing-Hwan Lin, William McBride, Lydia Oberholtzer, and Travis Smith. Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-55) 36 pp, June 2009
Consumer demand for organic products has widened over the last decade. While new producers have emerged to help meet demand, market participants report that a supply squeeze is constraining growth for both individual firms and the organic sector overall. Partly in response to shortages in organic supply, Congress in 2008 included provisions in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (2008 Farm Act) that, for the first time, provide direct financial support to farmers to convert to organic production. This report examines recent economic research on the adoption of organic farming systems, organic production costs and returns, and market conditions to gain a better understanding of the organic supply squeeze and other emerging issues in this rapidly changing industry."
Legal, Factual and Other Internet Sites for Attorneys and Legal Professionals.
Timothy L. Coggins, Legal, Factual and Other Internet Sites for Attorneys and Legal Professionals, XV RICH. J.L. & TECH. 13 (2009).
"This listing of Internet sites for legal, factual, and other research presents a variety of sources for attorneys, law students, law librarians, and others who use the Web. Initially developed for an Advanced Legal Research course and a continuing education session for legal assistants and paralegals, the listing includes sites for primary authorities, both federal and state, as well as URLs for other types of information such as names of possible expert witnesses and biographical and background information about individuals."
The 2009 Outlook for Hurricane Production Outages in the Gulf of Mexico (06/09/2009): EIA's projections for hurricane production outages of crude oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico for the 2009 hurricane season.
Short-Term Energy Outlook June 2009 (06/09/2009): "Short-term energy projections for supply, demand, and price for the major fuels through 2010 for the U.S. Global oil forecasts are included."
International Petroleum Monthly - May 2009 (06/09/2009): "This report contains world petroleum production data through March 2009; and OECD country petroleum demand, imports, and stocks data through February 2009. Also included are international oil balance data for 2004-2008 and annual petroleum data series for 1970-2008."
The U.S. flag has changed 27 times in the nation's history with designs that included stars in circles, stars in squares and even stars in the shape of an hourglass. Legally, the flag was born June 14, 1777, after the Continental Congress adopted this resolution: "That the Flag of the united states be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation." The flag of 1818 had 20 stars that formed one great star. The banner of 1876 had 38 stars arranged in an hourglass shape. Other patterns include diamonds, double circles, crosses and even a meteor. Americans were the first to put five-pointed stars on a flag in 1777, said Whitney Smith, executive director of the Flag Research Center in Winchester, Mass.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-11-flagday_N.htm
Eponyms
churrigueresque (choor-ee-guh-RESK)
adjective: baroque; lavish; over-the-top
After José Benito Churriguera (1650-1725), Spanish architect and sculptor, whose family was known for extravagant architectural decorations.
rachmanism (RAK-muh-niz-uhm)
noun: the exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords
After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott (1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.
mausoleum (maw-suh-LEE-uhm)
noun: a large tomb, usually an ornate stone building
After Mausolus, a Persian governor in 4th century BCE. His monumental tomb was considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, after which any grand tomb is now called a mausoleum.
martinet (mar-ti-NET, MAR-ti-net)
noun: a strict disciplinarian.
After Jean Martinet, an army officer during the reign of Louis XIV in France. He was a tough drill master known for his strict adherence to rules and discipline. He was killed by friendly fire during the siege of Duisburg in 1672. A.Word.A.Day
Answer to yesterday’s question: Amsterdam has 90 islands 500 bridges and 50 museums. It’s only naturally flowing waterway is the Amstel River.
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