Ball's Pyramid is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago. Ball's Pyramid is 20 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is 562 metres (1,844 ft) high, while measuring only 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) in length and 300 metres (980 ft) across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world. Ball's Pyramid is part of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park. Ball's Pyramid has a few satellite islets. Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet lie about 800 metres (2,600 ft) west-northwest and west-southwest respectively, of the western extremity of Ball's Pyramid. Southeast Rock is a pinnacle located about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) southeast of Ball's Pyramid. Like Lord Howe Island and the Lord Howe seamount chain, Ball's Pyramid is based on the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia. In 2001, a team of entomologists and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. To their surprise they rediscovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) living in an area of 6 by 30 metres (20 by 98 ft), at a height of 100 metres (330 ft) above the shoreline, under a single Melaleuca howeana shrub. The bush was growing in a small crevice where water was seeping through cracks in the underlying rocks. This moisture supported relatively lush plant growth which had, over time, resulted in a build up of plant debris, several metres deep. The population was extremely small, only 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to two Pacific zoos to breed new populations. On the unsuccessful 1964 climb, Dave Roots had brought back a photograph of the insect, which the Australian Museum told him they thought was extinct. See image of Ball's Pyramid at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball's_Pyramid
See image of Dryococelus australis, commonly known as the Lord Howe Island stick insect or tree lobster at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis
The original Electoral College plan worked successfully for the two times that George Washington was elected president. However, a major flaw became apparent after the election of 1796. According to the Constitution each elector cast only one ballot with two names on it. John Adams, a Federalist, received the largest number of votes. Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic Republican, lost to Adams by three votes and became vice-president. The framers were not in favor of political parties and had made no mention of them in the Constitution. Yet here were a president and vice-president from different parties, and Adams and Jefferson were strongly opposed on many major issues including states' rights, the power and size of the national government, and tariffs. The outcome of the election of 1796 would influence the way electors would be chosen as well as how they would vote in future elections. In the election of 1800 John Adams, the incumbent, again faced Thomas Jefferson. This time the Democratic Republican electors were urged to vote the party ticket, that is, Thomas Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr for vice-president. Seventy-three electors did just that, resulting in a tie for president between Jefferson and Burr. Under the Constitution, the vote moved to the House where Federalists desiring to embarrass Jefferson voted for Burr, forcing the ballot 35 times over six days. Finally, Alexander Hamilton reluctantly supported Jefferson and the tie was broken. The election of 1800 had several lasting effects on the Electoral College system. It was the first time that a two-candidate ticket was promoted by a party, as well as the beginning of the practice of nominating electors who pledged to automatically vote the party ticket. This new development was directly opposed to the framers' original version of the electors as "free agents'" or informed, respectable, independent citizens from each state. By 1804, the 12th Amendment was passed, making up for the weakness in the original Clause 3. Never again would such a tie be possible, as separate ballots would now be cast for president and vice-president. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/electoral-tally/
John Quincy Adams once wrote, "Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I would have made myself a great poet." Although literary fame would escape the sixth president of the United States, throughout his life Adams was a serious reader and writer of poetry. Adams's poetic efforts included secular verse, hymns, and versifications of the Psalms. He also translated poems into English, including Christoph Martin Wieland's fairy-tale epic Oberon (the translation went unpublished until 1940). http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/jqa.html
Presidents as Poets: Poetry Written by United States Presidents Created by Peter Armenti, Digital Reference Specialist Link to selected presidents and to poetry guides such as official state poems, state poet laureates and U.S. poet laureates at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/prespoetry/index.html
New research examining the frequency of words used in books over more than 200 years reveals the rise and demise of various words through time and how social, technological and political change influence language. An international team of scientists investigated word histories using Google’s Ngram project, a database of words in seven languages developed from scanning and digitizing about 4 percent of the world’s texts. The researchers mined books printed in English, Spanish and Hebrew published between 1800 and 2008, a corpus of more than 10 million words. There’s a marked increase in the death rate of words that coincides with the modern print era, the researchers found. That trend intensified with the advent of stricter publishing procedures, and later computerized editing and spell-checking technologies, which led to the extinction of various misspelled words or less-popular synonyms. Incorrect or nonstandard spellings weren’t the only cause of word death. Roentgenogram — which comes from Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays — faced competition from radiogram and X-ray, which ultimately triumphed, Joel Tenenbaum reported February 28 at a meeting of the American Physical Society. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338884/title/Modern_era_brings_death_to_words
The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created by Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876. It consisted of 15 members. The election was contested by the Democratic ticket, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and the Republican ticket, Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. Twenty electoral votes, from the states of Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina, were in dispute; the resolution of these disputes would determine the outcome of the election. Facing a constitutional crisis the likes of which the nation had never seen, Congress passed a law forming the Electoral Commission to settle the result. Tilden had won the popular vote by almost a quarter of a million votes, but he did not have a clear Electoral College majority. He received 184 uncontested electoral votes, while Hayes received 165, with both sides claiming the remaining twenty (4 from Florida, 8 from Louisiana, 7 from South Carolina, and 1 from Oregon). A total of 185 votes constituted an Electoral College majority; hence, Tilden needed only one of the disputed votes, while Hayes needed all twenty. The Commission consisted of fifteen members: five representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices. Eight members were Republicans; seven were Democrats. The Commission ultimately voted along party lines to award all twenty disputed votes to Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the Electoral College by a margin of 185-184. To prevent a repetition of the 1876 debacle, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act in 1887. Under this law, 3 U.S.C. § 5, a state's determination of electoral disputes is conclusive in most circumstances. The President of the Senate opens the electoral certificates in the presence of both houses, and hand them to the tellers, two from each house, who are to read them aloud and record the votes. If the same state sends multiple returns to Congress, then whichever return has been certified by the executive of the state is counted, unless both houses of Congress decide otherwise. The interpretation of this act was the subject of controversy in Bush v. Gore, a case relating to the disputed presidential election of 2000. Read details at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Commission_(United_States)
The latest linguistic curiosity to emerge from the petri dish of girl culture gained a burst of public recognition in December, when researchers from Long Island University published a paper http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892199711000701 about it in The Journal of Voice. Working with what they acknowledged was a very small sample — recorded speech from 34 women ages 18 to 25 — the professors said they had found evidence of a new trend among female college students: a guttural fluttering of the vocal cords they called “vocal fry.” A classic example of vocal fry, best described as a raspy or croaking sound injected (usually) at the end of a sentence, can be heard when Mae West says, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me,” or, more recently on television, when Maya Rudolph mimics Maya Angelou on “Saturday Night Live.” “If women do something like uptalk or vocal fry, it’s immediately interpreted as insecure, emotional or even stupid,” said Carmen Fought, a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. “The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships.” The idea that young women serve as incubators of vocal trends for the culture at large has longstanding roots in linguistics. The use of “like” in a sentence, “apparently without meaning or syntactic function, but possibly as emphasis,” has made its way into the Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition — this newspaper’s reference Bible — where the example given is: “It’s, like, hot.” “Like” and uptalk often go hand in hand. Several studies have shown that uptalk can be used for any number of purposes, even to dominate a listener. Vocal fry, also known as creaky voice, has a long history with English speakers. Dr. Crystal, the British linguist, cited it as far back as 1964 as a way for British men to denote their superior social standing. Douglas Quenqua http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Rhymes with . . .
Grant Achatz (rhymes with jackets) is a Chicago -based chef. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241751742269214.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Satek Winery in Fremont, Indiana rhymes with attic. http://www.satekwinery.com/
Riedel (wine glasses) rhymes with needle. http://vinumvita.com/wine/riedel-wine-glass-seminar/
Q. What can I do with RhymeZone? A. You can use it to help write poetry, song lyrics, greeting cards, term papers, and more. You can use it to explore relationships between words. You can use it to find the correct spelling of a word you're not quite sure of. You can use it as a springboard for finding pictures, documents, and other multimedia items related to a particular concept that you're writing about. Finally, you can use it to see how your word is used in the context of famous quotes, poems, and plays. Some of its features are:
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Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km2)[2] and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. They settled on the Mount Rushmore location, the tallest mountain in the region, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Borglum also decided the sculpture should have a more national focus, and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941. The U.S. National Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933, while it was still under construction, and manages the memorial to the present day. It attracts approximately two million people annually. See images at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore See images and descriptions of Mount Rushmore in popular culture at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore_in_popular_culture
Tektites are small, hard, glassy rocks that vary in shape and may be black, clear, yellow or green. The surfaces of tektites may be smooth or marked and dented. A few types of tektites are translucent, but the majority of these stones are virtually opaque. One form of tektite, known as Moldavite, is sometimes used in jewelry. Tektites either come from the earth or from another source outside of the earth's atmosphere. In the mid-20th century, it was generally thought that tektites came from the moon and developed their unusual shape and form while traveling through the earth's atmosphere at high speeds and striking the earth with great force. Today, however, it is thought that tektites are formed from soil and rock material on the earth when it has been thrown into the air during an impact involving great heat and pressure such as a meteorite crash. The tektites are created as the material travels into the atmosphere and back down to the earth's surface. http://www.ehow.com/info_8273660_tektites.html
Moldavites are green, brownish-green or brown natural glasses (Mohs scale 5.5 - 6.6), in all probability formed by a meteorite (perhaps 1.5 km in diameter) impact in southern Germany (Bavaria). Moldavite got its name from the main strewnfield (of a meteorite impact) in Bohemia, traversed by the river Vltava (German: Moldau).
See images at: http://www.realgems.org/list_of_gemstones/moldavite_info.html
strewn field
1. An area on Earth where tektites are found. The largest strewn field covers the whole of southern Australia and Tasmania (the australites). Other major strewn fields are found in the Czech Republic (the moldavites), Africa (the Libyan Desert glass and Ivory Coast tektites), the USA (the bediasites, georgiaites, and Martha's Vineyard tektites), across Southeast Asia (the billitonites, indochinites, javanites, malaysianites, philippinites, and rizalites), and in central Russia (the irghizites).
2. The area over which pieces of a fragmented meteorite are scattered, also known as a scatter ellipse. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O80-strewnfield.html
The original meaning of military tattoo was a military drum performance, but subsequently it came to mean army displays more generally. It dates from the 17th century when the British Army was fighting in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM). Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning. One of the best known Tattoos is held on the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle each August and forms the centrepiece of the annual Edinburgh Festival. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo was first staged in 1950. Another leading UK Tattoo is the Birmingham Tattoo held annually at the National Indoor Arena in November which has been attracting audiences to Birmingham since 1989. In 2008, the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo was launched, held in the private grounds of Windsor Castle by permission of HM The Queen. The event was held again in 2009. The Norwegian Military Tattoo is internationally famous for its quality and streamlined production. It has been held every second year since 1994 in the capital of Norway, Oslo. The indoor Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is the largest annual indoor tattoo, featuring in 2007 over 2000 performers from around the world, including Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway. There is another military tattoo in Canada: The Quebec City Military Tattoo. The largest tattoo in the United States is the Virginia International Tattoo, held every year in Norfolk, Virginia. The Air Force's largest tattoo is held the last Friday of June each year at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tattoo The Cleveland International Tattoo will be held May 19 at 7:30 p.m. Find more information and purchase tickets at http://tattoocleveland.com/ or call 216-630-0044.
Bob Sherman, half the songwriting team that wrote "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book" and other Disney movie musicals of the 1960s, died March 5 in London at age 86. He collaborated for more than half a century with his brother Dick Sherman on songs for films and shows including "Tom Sawyer," "Charlotte's Web," "Snoopy Come Home" and many others. The Shermans learned about music from their father, Al Sherman, a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley, the New York crucible of American popular music. "Our dad had a saying," Bob Sherman told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. "There are three S's: simplicity, sincerity and sound." The brothers wrote what is often credited as the most-played song on earth, "It's a Small World (After All)," which was created for the 1964 World's Fair in New York and still plays nonstop at Disney theme parks. If their music was so catchy that it could be hard to get it out of your head, their wordplay was memorable, too. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" gave the world such lyrics as: From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success. Dick would sit at the piano as Bob suggested melodies and both played with lyrics, they said, producing classic numbers like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," from "Mary Poppins": Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! For "Mary Poppins," they wrote "Chim Chim Cher-ee," which won an Oscar for best original song. "Feed the Birds," also from "Mary Poppins," was Walt Disney's favorite song, Mr. Sherman said in interviews. Stephen Miller http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265341508392920.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Grant Achatz (rhymes with jackets) is a Chicago -based chef. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241751742269214.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Satek Winery in Fremont, Indiana rhymes with attic. http://www.satekwinery.com/
Riedel (wine glasses) rhymes with needle. http://vinumvita.com/wine/riedel-wine-glass-seminar/
Q. What can I do with RhymeZone? A. You can use it to help write poetry, song lyrics, greeting cards, term papers, and more. You can use it to explore relationships between words. You can use it to find the correct spelling of a word you're not quite sure of. You can use it as a springboard for finding pictures, documents, and other multimedia items related to a particular concept that you're writing about. Finally, you can use it to see how your word is used in the context of famous quotes, poems, and plays. Some of its features are:
Find rhymes: words that rhyme with the word you typed in
Find synonyms: words that are the same or similar in meaning to the word you typed in
Find antonyms: words that can mean the opposite of what you typed in
Find definition: definitions of the word you typed in and also allow you to submit your query to other online dictionaries on the Web.
Find homophones: words that have exactly the same pronunciation as what you typed in but are spelled differently
Find similar sounding words words that have a pronunciation that's similar, but not necessarily the same, as what you typed in
Match consonants: words that have the same pattern of consonant sounds. Phonetic, for example, will return fanatic. http://www.rhymezone.com/help/
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km2)[2] and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. South Dakota historian Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. They settled on the Mount Rushmore location, the tallest mountain in the region, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Borglum also decided the sculpture should have a more national focus, and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941. The U.S. National Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933, while it was still under construction, and manages the memorial to the present day. It attracts approximately two million people annually. See images at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore See images and descriptions of Mount Rushmore in popular culture at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore_in_popular_culture
Tektites are small, hard, glassy rocks that vary in shape and may be black, clear, yellow or green. The surfaces of tektites may be smooth or marked and dented. A few types of tektites are translucent, but the majority of these stones are virtually opaque. One form of tektite, known as Moldavite, is sometimes used in jewelry. Tektites either come from the earth or from another source outside of the earth's atmosphere. In the mid-20th century, it was generally thought that tektites came from the moon and developed their unusual shape and form while traveling through the earth's atmosphere at high speeds and striking the earth with great force. Today, however, it is thought that tektites are formed from soil and rock material on the earth when it has been thrown into the air during an impact involving great heat and pressure such as a meteorite crash. The tektites are created as the material travels into the atmosphere and back down to the earth's surface. http://www.ehow.com/info_8273660_tektites.html
Moldavites are green, brownish-green or brown natural glasses (Mohs scale 5.5 - 6.6), in all probability formed by a meteorite (perhaps 1.5 km in diameter) impact in southern Germany (Bavaria). Moldavite got its name from the main strewnfield (of a meteorite impact) in Bohemia, traversed by the river Vltava (German: Moldau).
See images at: http://www.realgems.org/list_of_gemstones/moldavite_info.html
strewn field
1. An area on Earth where tektites are found. The largest strewn field covers the whole of southern Australia and Tasmania (the australites). Other major strewn fields are found in the Czech Republic (the moldavites), Africa (the Libyan Desert glass and Ivory Coast tektites), the USA (the bediasites, georgiaites, and Martha's Vineyard tektites), across Southeast Asia (the billitonites, indochinites, javanites, malaysianites, philippinites, and rizalites), and in central Russia (the irghizites).
2. The area over which pieces of a fragmented meteorite are scattered, also known as a scatter ellipse. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O80-strewnfield.html
The original meaning of military tattoo was a military drum performance, but subsequently it came to mean army displays more generally. It dates from the 17th century when the British Army was fighting in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM). Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning. One of the best known Tattoos is held on the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle each August and forms the centrepiece of the annual Edinburgh Festival. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo was first staged in 1950. Another leading UK Tattoo is the Birmingham Tattoo held annually at the National Indoor Arena in November which has been attracting audiences to Birmingham since 1989. In 2008, the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo was launched, held in the private grounds of Windsor Castle by permission of HM The Queen. The event was held again in 2009. The Norwegian Military Tattoo is internationally famous for its quality and streamlined production. It has been held every second year since 1994 in the capital of Norway, Oslo. The indoor Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is the largest annual indoor tattoo, featuring in 2007 over 2000 performers from around the world, including Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway. There is another military tattoo in Canada: The Quebec City Military Tattoo. The largest tattoo in the United States is the Virginia International Tattoo, held every year in Norfolk, Virginia. The Air Force's largest tattoo is held the last Friday of June each year at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tattoo The Cleveland International Tattoo will be held May 19 at 7:30 p.m. Find more information and purchase tickets at http://tattoocleveland.com/ or call 216-630-0044.
Bob Sherman, half the songwriting team that wrote "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book" and other Disney movie musicals of the 1960s, died March 5 in London at age 86. He collaborated for more than half a century with his brother Dick Sherman on songs for films and shows including "Tom Sawyer," "Charlotte's Web," "Snoopy Come Home" and many others. The Shermans learned about music from their father, Al Sherman, a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley, the New York crucible of American popular music. "Our dad had a saying," Bob Sherman told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. "There are three S's: simplicity, sincerity and sound." The brothers wrote what is often credited as the most-played song on earth, "It's a Small World (After All)," which was created for the 1964 World's Fair in New York and still plays nonstop at Disney theme parks. If their music was so catchy that it could be hard to get it out of your head, their wordplay was memorable, too. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" gave the world such lyrics as: From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success. Dick would sit at the piano as Bob suggested melodies and both played with lyrics, they said, producing classic numbers like "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," from "Mary Poppins": Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! For "Mary Poppins," they wrote "Chim Chim Cher-ee," which won an Oscar for best original song. "Feed the Birds," also from "Mary Poppins," was Walt Disney's favorite song, Mr. Sherman said in interviews. Stephen Miller http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265341508392920.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Though sometimes attributed to Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) without a citation of source, this is more often cited as merely an anonymous proverb. This quote has been attributed to Gabriel García Márquez, in Spanish: "No llores porque ya se terminó... sonríe, porque sucedió." Find quotes that are sourced, disputed and misattributed at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss
Q: I used to have a TV with a picture on one station and a different, smaller picture from a different station, both on the same screen. I cannot find it on a TV sold today. Why?
A: You described the "picture-in-picture" feature, still found on many new televisions. Use that term when you visit merchants.
Q: Do men or women vote more?
A: In the 2010 congressional elections, 46.2 percent of women and 45 percent of men reported voting. -- U.S. Census Bureau.
Q: Where can I get the precise time?
A: Go to http://www.time.gov.
Q: Why is this month called March?
A: It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and was the first month of the Roman year. -- Various sources.
Q: In whose handwriting is the U.S. Constitution?
A: The handwriting belongs to Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who worked in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. His name does not appear on the document . But, in official papers, there is an entry of $30 for "clerks employed to transcribe & engross." His identity was established in 1937. -- U.S. Archives.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Mar/JU/ar_JU_030512.asp?d=030512,2012,Mar,05&c=c_13
The Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick, is the winner of the PALME D'OR at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Thomas Pavlechko is credited with serving as the Organ/Piano Coach and Hand Double for actor Brad Pitt. The scene at the organ was filmed at the Visser-Rowland organ in St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Austin. The scenes at the piano were filmed on site in Smithville, Texas. http://www.thomaspavlechkomusic.com/News/details.php?id=38
Brad Pitt had never played a musical instrument and did not read music. He quickly memorized what stops to pull, and which fingers played which key without knowing the names of the keys. He caught on right away to note values. He was determined and disciplined, practicing finger independence and maintaining correct posture. Brad was filmed pulling stops for Bach's G-minor Fantasy and moving rhythmically, but not playing, the F-major Toccata. However, neither of these pieces made the cut.
The American Organist magazine March 2012
The Tree of Life was voted best film of 2011 in the annual Sight & Sound critic poll, earning one and a half times as many votes as runner up A Separation. The film was voted the best released film of 2011 by Film Comment, and it also topped the indieWire annual critics survey for 2011, as well as the LA Weekly Film Poll 2011. The film has appeared on over 70 critics' year-end top ten lists, including 15 first place rankings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tree_of_Life_(film)
Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956) Painter, printmaker and illustrator.
Although he was sent to Germany as a teenager to study music, a drawing class at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg instead sparked an interest in art, which led to further training at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and in 1892–3 at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Returning to Berlin, he was a prominent illustrator by the mid-1890s for Ulk, Lustige Blätter and other leading German satirical magazines. His work also appeared in the USA, first for Harper’s Round Table in 1894 and 1895 and in 1906–7 in the comic strips ‘The Kin-der-Kids’ and ‘Wee Willie Winkie’s World’ for the Chicago Sunday Tribune, by which time he was again in Paris. There he was also in contact with Wilhelm Uhde, Jules Pascin and other members of the circle that met at the Café du Dôme and produced a series of drawings for Le Témoin. While often alluding to serious contemporary issues, the style of his illustrations and drawings was fanciful rather than grotesque. Seeking more creative freedom after first-hand exposure to the French avant-garde, Feininger gave up illustration for painting when he returned to Germany in 1908. Most of his early oil paintings, such as Emeute (1910; New York, MOMA), are street scenes with numerous figures, which combine his already sensitive use of line and shape with the spatial exaggeration and bold colours favoured by the Fauves and his fellow Berlin Secessionists (with whom he had first exhibited in 1903–4). In 1925, with Alexei Jawlenski, Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky, Feininger formed the Blue four, which made its début at the Charles Daniel Gallery in New York. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau a year later, Feininger followed as artist-in-residence without teaching responsibilities, so that he was free to concentrate on painting. His architectural landscapes, such as Church of the Minorites II (1926; Minneapolis, MN, Walker A. Cent.), and a growing number of seascapes inspired by the Baltic or memories of the American coast, such as the Glorious Victory of the Sloop ‘Maria’ (1926), assumed a physical and emotional grandeur unprecedented in his work. Important recognition ensued when he was included in MOMA’s inaugural Paintings by 19 Living Americans (1929) and given a large solo exhibition by the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1931). In 1937 Feininger left Germany for California, where he taught for a term at Mills College, Oakland, before resettling permanently in New York. Except for murals designed for two buildings at the World’s Fair in 1938, Marine Transportation and Masterpieces of Modern Art (destr.; sketches, ARTnews, 1939), two years passed before he resumed painting. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=1832
Ohio redistricting means that voters have to ask themselves "Where am I?" With the exception of the Waterville/Whitehouse area, all of Lucas County was represented by Rep. Marcy Kaptur as part of the ninth congressional district under the old map. The lower third of the county was represented by Rep. Bob Latta as part of the fifth congressional district. The map that passed earlier this year placed all of western Lucas County to approximately U.S. 23 within the fifth congressional district. It placed east Toledo, downtown Toledo, and Oregon into the fourth congressional district represented by Rep. Jim Jordan who hails from Urbana -- more than 130 miles south of Toledo. Marcy Kaptur retained north Toledo, a narrow strip of land along Ohio's north shore and a narrow strip of territory spanning all the way over to western Cleveland. The map passed Dec. 14, 2011 simplifies things a little and reduces Lucas County's representation in Congress to two districts -- albeit reshaped. Oregon and east Toledo are back in the ninth district currently represented by Rep. Kaptur. The northern border of Wood County now separates the ninth from the fifth congressional district in eastern Lucas County. Part of western Lucas County is back in the ninth district as well. The area known as the fifth ward between Reynolds Road to the county line is now in the ninth district. Downtown Toledo is also back in the ninth district. However, everything west of Secor Road and north of Bancroft St. to the state line is in the fifth congressional district. http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=697770
Q: I used to have a TV with a picture on one station and a different, smaller picture from a different station, both on the same screen. I cannot find it on a TV sold today. Why?
A: You described the "picture-in-picture" feature, still found on many new televisions. Use that term when you visit merchants.
Q: Do men or women vote more?
A: In the 2010 congressional elections, 46.2 percent of women and 45 percent of men reported voting. -- U.S. Census Bureau.
Q: Where can I get the precise time?
A: Go to http://www.time.gov.
Q: Why is this month called March?
A: It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and was the first month of the Roman year. -- Various sources.
Q: In whose handwriting is the U.S. Constitution?
A: The handwriting belongs to Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who worked in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. His name does not appear on the document . But, in official papers, there is an entry of $30 for "clerks employed to transcribe & engross." His identity was established in 1937. -- U.S. Archives.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Mar/JU/ar_JU_030512.asp?d=030512,2012,Mar,05&c=c_13
The Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrence Malick, is the winner of the PALME D'OR at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Thomas Pavlechko is credited with serving as the Organ/Piano Coach and Hand Double for actor Brad Pitt. The scene at the organ was filmed at the Visser-Rowland organ in St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Austin. The scenes at the piano were filmed on site in Smithville, Texas. http://www.thomaspavlechkomusic.com/News/details.php?id=38
Brad Pitt had never played a musical instrument and did not read music. He quickly memorized what stops to pull, and which fingers played which key without knowing the names of the keys. He caught on right away to note values. He was determined and disciplined, practicing finger independence and maintaining correct posture. Brad was filmed pulling stops for Bach's G-minor Fantasy and moving rhythmically, but not playing, the F-major Toccata. However, neither of these pieces made the cut.
The American Organist magazine March 2012
The Tree of Life was voted best film of 2011 in the annual Sight & Sound critic poll, earning one and a half times as many votes as runner up A Separation. The film was voted the best released film of 2011 by Film Comment, and it also topped the indieWire annual critics survey for 2011, as well as the LA Weekly Film Poll 2011. The film has appeared on over 70 critics' year-end top ten lists, including 15 first place rankings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tree_of_Life_(film)
Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956) Painter, printmaker and illustrator.
Although he was sent to Germany as a teenager to study music, a drawing class at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg instead sparked an interest in art, which led to further training at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and in 1892–3 at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Returning to Berlin, he was a prominent illustrator by the mid-1890s for Ulk, Lustige Blätter and other leading German satirical magazines. His work also appeared in the USA, first for Harper’s Round Table in 1894 and 1895 and in 1906–7 in the comic strips ‘The Kin-der-Kids’ and ‘Wee Willie Winkie’s World’ for the Chicago Sunday Tribune, by which time he was again in Paris. There he was also in contact with Wilhelm Uhde, Jules Pascin and other members of the circle that met at the Café du Dôme and produced a series of drawings for Le Témoin. While often alluding to serious contemporary issues, the style of his illustrations and drawings was fanciful rather than grotesque. Seeking more creative freedom after first-hand exposure to the French avant-garde, Feininger gave up illustration for painting when he returned to Germany in 1908. Most of his early oil paintings, such as Emeute (1910; New York, MOMA), are street scenes with numerous figures, which combine his already sensitive use of line and shape with the spatial exaggeration and bold colours favoured by the Fauves and his fellow Berlin Secessionists (with whom he had first exhibited in 1903–4). In 1925, with Alexei Jawlenski, Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky, Feininger formed the Blue four, which made its début at the Charles Daniel Gallery in New York. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau a year later, Feininger followed as artist-in-residence without teaching responsibilities, so that he was free to concentrate on painting. His architectural landscapes, such as Church of the Minorites II (1926; Minneapolis, MN, Walker A. Cent.), and a growing number of seascapes inspired by the Baltic or memories of the American coast, such as the Glorious Victory of the Sloop ‘Maria’ (1926), assumed a physical and emotional grandeur unprecedented in his work. Important recognition ensued when he was included in MOMA’s inaugural Paintings by 19 Living Americans (1929) and given a large solo exhibition by the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1931). In 1937 Feininger left Germany for California, where he taught for a term at Mills College, Oakland, before resettling permanently in New York. Except for murals designed for two buildings at the World’s Fair in 1938, Marine Transportation and Masterpieces of Modern Art (destr.; sketches, ARTnews, 1939), two years passed before he resumed painting. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=1832
Ohio redistricting means that voters have to ask themselves "Where am I?" With the exception of the Waterville/Whitehouse area, all of Lucas County was represented by Rep. Marcy Kaptur as part of the ninth congressional district under the old map. The lower third of the county was represented by Rep. Bob Latta as part of the fifth congressional district. The map that passed earlier this year placed all of western Lucas County to approximately U.S. 23 within the fifth congressional district. It placed east Toledo, downtown Toledo, and Oregon into the fourth congressional district represented by Rep. Jim Jordan who hails from Urbana -- more than 130 miles south of Toledo. Marcy Kaptur retained north Toledo, a narrow strip of land along Ohio's north shore and a narrow strip of territory spanning all the way over to western Cleveland. The map passed Dec. 14, 2011 simplifies things a little and reduces Lucas County's representation in Congress to two districts -- albeit reshaped. Oregon and east Toledo are back in the ninth district currently represented by Rep. Kaptur. The northern border of Wood County now separates the ninth from the fifth congressional district in eastern Lucas County. Part of western Lucas County is back in the ninth district as well. The area known as the fifth ward between Reynolds Road to the county line is now in the ninth district. Downtown Toledo is also back in the ninth district. However, everything west of Secor Road and north of Bancroft St. to the state line is in the fifth congressional district. http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=697770
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Beige Book, February 29, 2012
Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that overall economic activity continued to increase at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February. Read the rest at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/beigebook/2012/20120229/FullReport.htm
Vitamin D is a nutrient found in some foods that is needed for health and to maintain strong bones. It does so by helping the body absorb calcium (one of bone's main building blocks) from food and supplements. People who get too little vitamin D may develop soft, thin, and brittle bones, a condition known as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D is important to the body in many other ways as well. Muscles need it to move, for example, nerves need it to carry messages between the brain and every body part, and the immune system needs vitamin D to fight off invading bacteria and viruses. Together with calcium, vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis. Vitamin D is found in cells throughout the body. Read much more at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/
UPSELL Suggesting your customer buys the more expensive model of the same product or service; or that they add a feature that would make it more expensive. With upsell you’re suggesting they pay more in exchange for a better product or service.
For example: buying a 42” TV instead of a 40”, upgrading from economy to business class for a flight, adding an extended warranty
CROSS SELL Also called an add on, cross sell is when you suggest your customer buys additional products or services from a category that is different to the product or service they are viewing / purchasing.
For example: purchasing a DVD player to go with your TV, purchasing paper to go with a printer, buying a hands free car kit to go with a mobile phone, adding a vase to your purchase of a bunch of flowers
DOWN SELL Some examples of down sell include: presenting customers with 3 levels of membership but showing the most expensive option first, making the middle but cheaper option more appealing than if you showed then the cheapest level of membership first (which might otherwise make the middle plan seem more expensive), walking onto a car yard hoping to buy a BMW, finding you can’t afford it, and having the salesman show you lower cost cars. http://www.marketinggum.com/cross-sell-and-upsell-%E2%80%93-conversion-techniques-to-boost-your-online-sales/
Sales gimmicks include extremely early renewal offers (I've had them up to 18 months before a long-term subscription expired), repackaging of material into a different format (such as speeches, articles or editorials made into books or reports), appeals for a renewal of something you never ordered, offer for a publication with a slightly different title than you now have disguised as an official renewal.
Phone sales depicted in Blondie comic strip Feb. 29, 2012
I'm calling about the mandolin lessons you requested .... there's no way I requested mandolin lessons . . . Oh, really? I suppose you consider yourself an expert on mandolin . . . Dagwood signs up for lessons.
Reader feedback to story mentioning E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline: I am on my second E85 car and love using ethanol fuel. While it is true you get fewer miles per gallon, the real figure to look for is cost per mile. Typically there is at least a $0.30 difference in the cost per gallon between E85 and regular, with regular being more expensive. When the difference comes to around $0.60/gallon, then there is little, if any, difference in the cost per mile between the two fuels. And of course the bigger the difference after that, then the better the cost per mile is using E85. In other words, if E85 is $3.00 a gallon and regular $3.30 and your car gets 25 mpg on E85 and 30 on regular, then the cost per mile is $0.12 and $0.11 respectively. At $3.00 for E85 and $3.60 for regular, cost per mile changes to $0.12 for regular. If Newt is right and we have $5.00 gas, then cost per mile is $0.17 for regular. Plus there are other benefits like supporting the US economy rather than the Middle East’s. It is easier to grow corn than create oil. E85 burns cleaner than gas. We are not dependent on foreign companies. As you can tell, I am a fan of E85.
Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs. And in what some see as a threat to traditional institutions, several of these courses now come with an informal credential (though that, in most cases, will not be free). Consider Stanford’s experience: Last fall, 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in an Artificial Intelligence course taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, a Google colleague. An additional 200 registered for the course on campus, but a few weeks into the semester, attendance at Stanford dwindled to about 30, as those who had the option of seeing their professors in person decided they preferred the online videos, with their simple views of a hand holding a pen, working through the problems. Mr. Thrun was enraptured by the scale of the course, and how it spawned its own culture, including a Facebook group, online discussions and an army of volunteer translators who made it available in 44 languages. Besides the Artificial Intelligence course, Stanford offered two other MOOCs last semester — Machine Learning (104,000 registered, and 13,000 completed the course), and Introduction to Databases (92,000 registered, 7,000 completed). And this spring, the university will have 13 courses open to the world, including Anatomy, Cryptography, Game Theory and Natural Language Processing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html
Mar. 6 events
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1834 – York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
1836 – Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo – After a thirteen day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
1840 – The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery opens, the first dental school.
1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
Mar. 6 birthdays
1475 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (d. 1564)
1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier, poet (d. 1655)
1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, British poet (d. 1861)
1885 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
1893 – Furry Lewis, American blues guitarist (d. 1981)
1900 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_6
Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that overall economic activity continued to increase at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February. Read the rest at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/beigebook/2012/20120229/FullReport.htm
Vitamin D is a nutrient found in some foods that is needed for health and to maintain strong bones. It does so by helping the body absorb calcium (one of bone's main building blocks) from food and supplements. People who get too little vitamin D may develop soft, thin, and brittle bones, a condition known as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D is important to the body in many other ways as well. Muscles need it to move, for example, nerves need it to carry messages between the brain and every body part, and the immune system needs vitamin D to fight off invading bacteria and viruses. Together with calcium, vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis. Vitamin D is found in cells throughout the body. Read much more at: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/
UPSELL Suggesting your customer buys the more expensive model of the same product or service; or that they add a feature that would make it more expensive. With upsell you’re suggesting they pay more in exchange for a better product or service.
For example: buying a 42” TV instead of a 40”, upgrading from economy to business class for a flight, adding an extended warranty
CROSS SELL Also called an add on, cross sell is when you suggest your customer buys additional products or services from a category that is different to the product or service they are viewing / purchasing.
For example: purchasing a DVD player to go with your TV, purchasing paper to go with a printer, buying a hands free car kit to go with a mobile phone, adding a vase to your purchase of a bunch of flowers
DOWN SELL Some examples of down sell include: presenting customers with 3 levels of membership but showing the most expensive option first, making the middle but cheaper option more appealing than if you showed then the cheapest level of membership first (which might otherwise make the middle plan seem more expensive), walking onto a car yard hoping to buy a BMW, finding you can’t afford it, and having the salesman show you lower cost cars. http://www.marketinggum.com/cross-sell-and-upsell-%E2%80%93-conversion-techniques-to-boost-your-online-sales/
Sales gimmicks include extremely early renewal offers (I've had them up to 18 months before a long-term subscription expired), repackaging of material into a different format (such as speeches, articles or editorials made into books or reports), appeals for a renewal of something you never ordered, offer for a publication with a slightly different title than you now have disguised as an official renewal.
Phone sales depicted in Blondie comic strip Feb. 29, 2012
I'm calling about the mandolin lessons you requested .... there's no way I requested mandolin lessons . . . Oh, really? I suppose you consider yourself an expert on mandolin . . . Dagwood signs up for lessons.
Reader feedback to story mentioning E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline: I am on my second E85 car and love using ethanol fuel. While it is true you get fewer miles per gallon, the real figure to look for is cost per mile. Typically there is at least a $0.30 difference in the cost per gallon between E85 and regular, with regular being more expensive. When the difference comes to around $0.60/gallon, then there is little, if any, difference in the cost per mile between the two fuels. And of course the bigger the difference after that, then the better the cost per mile is using E85. In other words, if E85 is $3.00 a gallon and regular $3.30 and your car gets 25 mpg on E85 and 30 on regular, then the cost per mile is $0.12 and $0.11 respectively. At $3.00 for E85 and $3.60 for regular, cost per mile changes to $0.12 for regular. If Newt is right and we have $5.00 gas, then cost per mile is $0.17 for regular. Plus there are other benefits like supporting the US economy rather than the Middle East’s. It is easier to grow corn than create oil. E85 burns cleaner than gas. We are not dependent on foreign companies. As you can tell, I am a fan of E85.
Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs. And in what some see as a threat to traditional institutions, several of these courses now come with an informal credential (though that, in most cases, will not be free). Consider Stanford’s experience: Last fall, 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in an Artificial Intelligence course taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, a Google colleague. An additional 200 registered for the course on campus, but a few weeks into the semester, attendance at Stanford dwindled to about 30, as those who had the option of seeing their professors in person decided they preferred the online videos, with their simple views of a hand holding a pen, working through the problems. Mr. Thrun was enraptured by the scale of the course, and how it spawned its own culture, including a Facebook group, online discussions and an army of volunteer translators who made it available in 44 languages. Besides the Artificial Intelligence course, Stanford offered two other MOOCs last semester — Machine Learning (104,000 registered, and 13,000 completed the course), and Introduction to Databases (92,000 registered, 7,000 completed). And this spring, the university will have 13 courses open to the world, including Anatomy, Cryptography, Game Theory and Natural Language Processing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html
Mar. 6 events
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1834 – York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
1836 – Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo – After a thirteen day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
1840 – The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery opens, the first dental school.
1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
Mar. 6 birthdays
1475 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (d. 1564)
1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier, poet (d. 1655)
1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, British poet (d. 1861)
1885 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
1893 – Furry Lewis, American blues guitarist (d. 1981)
1900 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_6
Monday, March 5, 2012
Quick acceleration and heavy braking can reduce fuel economy by up to 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent around town. New EPA tests account for faster acceleration rates, but vigorous driving can still lower MPG. Excessive idling decreases MPG. The EPA city test includes idling, but more idling will lower MPG. Driving at higher speeds increases aerodynamic drag (wind resistance), reducing fuel economy. The new EPA tests account for aerodynamic drag up to highway speeds of 80 mph, but some drivers exceed this speed. Cold weather and frequent short trips can reduce fuel economy, since your engine doesn't operate efficiently until it is warmed up. In colder weather, it takes longer for your engine to warm, and on short trips, your vehicle operates a smaller percentage of time at the desired temperature. Note: Letting your car idle to warm-up doesn't help your fuel economy. It actually uses more fuel and creates more pollution. Cargo or cargo racks on top of your vehicle (e.g., cargo boxes, canoes, etc.) increase aerodynamic drag and lower fuel economy. MPG tests do not account for this type of cargo. Towing a trailer or carrying excessive weight decreases fuel economy. Vehicles are assumed to carry only three hundred pounds of passengers and cargo during testing.
Running electrical accessories (e.g., air conditioner) decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on "Max" can reduce MPG by roughly 5–25% compared to not using it. Driving on hilly or mountainous terrain or on unpaved roads can reduce fuel economy. The EPA test assumes vehicles operate on flat ground. Using 4-wheel drive reduces fuel economy. Four-wheel drive vehicles are tested in 2-wheel drive. Engaging all four wheels makes the engine work harder and increases transfer case and differential losses. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml
Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel made by fermenting and distilling starch crops, such as corn. It can also be made from "cellulosic biomass" such as trees and grasses. The use of ethanol can reduce our dependence upon foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. E10 (also called “gasohol”) is a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline sold in many parts of the country. All auto manufacturers approve the use of blends of 10% ethanol or less in their gasoline vehicles. However, vehicles will typically go 3–4% fewer miles per gallon on E10 than on straight gasoline. E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, can be used in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are specially designed to run on gasoline, E85, or any mixture of the two. FFVs are offered by several vehicle manufacturers. To determine if your vehicle can use E85, consult your owner’s manual or check the inside of your car's fuel filler door for an identification sticker. Cost varies regionally. It is cheaper than gasoline in some areas, such as the Midwest, and more expensive in others. Availability. More than two thousand filling stations in the U.S. sell E85, and that number is increasing rapidly. Visit the Alternative Fueling Station Locator for locations of service stations selling E85. Performance. No noticeable difference in vehicle performance when E85 is used. MPG. FFVs operating on E85 usually experience a 25–30% drop in miles per gallon due to ethanol’s lower energy content. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml
Jacques Prévert (1900–1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time. Prévert participated actively in the Surrealist movement. Together with the writer Raymond Queneau and artist Marcel Duchamp, he was a member of the Rue du Château group and Groupe Octobre. Some of Prévert's poems were collected and published in his books: Paroles (Words) (1946), Spectacle (1951), La Pluie et le beau temps (Rain and Good Weather) (1955), Histoires (Stories) (1963), Fatras (1971) and Choses et autres (Things and Others) (1973). His poems are often about life in Paris and life after the Second World War. They are widely taught in schools in France and frequently appear in French language textbooks throughout the world. Some of Prévert's poems, such as "Les Feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), "La grasse matinée" (Sleeping in), "Les bruits de la nuit" (The sounds of the night), and "Chasse à l'enfant" (The hunt for the child) were set to music by Joseph Kosma—and in some cases by Germaine Tailleferre of Les six, Christiane Verger, and Hanns Eisler. They have been sung by prominent 20th century French vocalists, including Marianne Oswald, Yves Montand, and Édith Piaf, as well as by the later American singers Joan Baez and Nat King Cole. In 1961, French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg paid tribute to "Les feuilles mortes" in his own song "La chanson de Prévert." See bibliography and selected films at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pr%C3%A9vert
Q: What's the difference between "II" and "Jr." in a name?
A: The Associated Press Stylebook cautions: "Note that 'II' and '2nd' are not necessarily the equivalent of 'junior.' They often are used by a grandson or nephew." There is no comma between the surname and suffix. Also, a junior may keep or discard the suffix when his father dies. -- Associated Press, emilypost.com.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Feb/JU/ar_JU_022012.asp?d=022012,2012,Feb,20&c=c_13
Athena's Library, The Quirky Pillar Of Providence by Jacki Lyden
With a bit of reverence, librarians carefully wind an antique library clock near the circulation desk in a temple of learning called the Providence Athenaeum. This is one of the oldest libraries in the United States, a 19th-century library with the soul of a 21st-century rave party. In fact, the Rhode Island institution has been called a national model for civic engagement. A hundred and 50 years ago, social libraries like the Athenaeum were all the rage. The concept of the Athenaeum, a member-supported library dedicated to social improvement, predated the modern public library as we know it. The Athenaeum is one of 17 remaining membership libraries.
On the day the library opened in 1838, the citizens of Providence stood willingly for more than two hours to listen to an address by one of its founders, Francis Wayland, the long-winded president of Brown University. Keeping a fragile, 19th-century library in continuous operation for nearly two centuries has been a challenge. Providence, a city of just under 200,000, once surpassed Boston in per capita income. It invested in its cultural gems — theater companies, museums, arts and music organizations and far more. With the recession, several nonprofits have gone under. It was only a decade ago that the Ath underwent its own financial crisis. One of the Athenaeum's antiquities was an original folio of John James Audubon's Birds of America. The board made the painful decision to sell it — which the library did for $5 million in 2005 — to stabilize the Athenaeum's endowment. A small contingent sued, trying to block the sale of the folio. Membership declined during the turbulence. "It was a dark period," says special collections curator Kate Wodehouse. After see-sawing through the recession, membership has rebounded, to about a thousand members and growing, according to Executive Director Alison Maxell. Member or not, anyone can browse or catch a program at the Ath. Devotees of Edgar Allan Poe love the story of his ill-fated romance with a local poet here — and, of course, all the Poe memorabilia. There is a Manet print of Poe's Raven from his famous poem, for example. Children can use their own library or the 19th-century children's books known as "The Old Juveniles." http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/146814120/athenas-library-the-quirky-pillar-of-providence
The Yelp IPO (initial public offering) is well on its way to raising $100 million as the website goes public on the New York stock exchange March 2. IPOs, at least in the tech world, were not popular through the recession. GigaOm says that the average deal size of a tech IPO in the last quarter of 2011 was $292.5 million. That’s nearly triple the amount from just one year prior, when consumer-based IPOs proved more popular. This past year, investors have waited impatiently to grab a piece of the World Wide Web pie.
Facebook IPO The site that single handedly put the term “social networking” into the cultural lexicon, Mark Zuckerberg announced last month he’d be putting his brainchild onto the market in 2012, filing his first Facebook IPO hoped to raise $5 billion. When news broke that Zuckerberg may owe over $2 billion in taxes if the Facebook stock offering is successful, it didn’t faze Facebook much, since their IPO, the fourth largest ever by an American company, valued Zuckerberg’s entity at over $100 billion in assets.
Groupon IPO Arguably the example everyone is following, online coupon and daily deals king Groupon valued itself at nearly $13 billion after an initial public market pop took in $700 million last November. According to Reuters, when the Groupon IPO achieved this, it effectively became the largest successful internet IPO venture since search engine giant Google raised $1.4 billion in stock eight years ago.
The Empire State Building IPO Selling the Brooklyn Bridge apparently wasn’t enough — now investors can have a piece of New York City’s tallest skyscraper. If it was a website, it’d be King Kong’s favorite, especially since handlers of the privately-owned Empire State Building announced last November that they were seeking over $1 billion through its first IPO filing, the New York Times announced. (The building is headquarters to another IPO’d website, professional networker LinkedIn.) The Times reported that the deal, when it goes public, won’t really hand over control of the 102-story landmark to stockholders, but to other property holdings by parent company Empire State Realty—namely, 12 office spaces in New York and Connecticut combining over 7 million square feet of rented space. http://www.gobankingrates.com/investments/pop-goes-ipo-yelps-jump-public-trading-bandwagon-success/
RICHMOND, Calif. — In a wooden warehouse in this industrial suburb, the 20th century is being stored in case of digital disaster. Forty-foot shipping containers stacked two by two are stuffed with the most enduring, as well as some of the most forgettable, books of the era. Every week, 20,000 new volumes arrive, many of them donations from libraries and universities thrilled to unload material that has no place in the Internet Age. “We want to collect one copy of every book,” said Brewster Kahle, who has spent $3 million to buy and operate this repository situated just north of San Francisco. “You can never tell what is going to paint the portrait of a culture.” As society embraces all forms of digital entertainment, this latter-day Noah is looking the other way. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur who made his fortune selling a data-mining company to Amazon.com in 1999, Mr. Kahle founded and runs the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving Web pages — 150 billion so far — and making texts more widely available. But even though he started his archiving in the digital realm, he now wants to save physical texts, too. “We must keep the past even as we’re inventing a new future,” he said. “If the Library of Alexandria had made a copy of every book and sent it to India or China, we’d have the other works of Aristotle, the other plays of Euripides. One copy in one institution is not good enough.” David Streitfeld http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/technology/internet-archives-repository-collects-thousands-of-books.html
Running electrical accessories (e.g., air conditioner) decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on "Max" can reduce MPG by roughly 5–25% compared to not using it. Driving on hilly or mountainous terrain or on unpaved roads can reduce fuel economy. The EPA test assumes vehicles operate on flat ground. Using 4-wheel drive reduces fuel economy. Four-wheel drive vehicles are tested in 2-wheel drive. Engaging all four wheels makes the engine work harder and increases transfer case and differential losses. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml
Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel made by fermenting and distilling starch crops, such as corn. It can also be made from "cellulosic biomass" such as trees and grasses. The use of ethanol can reduce our dependence upon foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. E10 (also called “gasohol”) is a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline sold in many parts of the country. All auto manufacturers approve the use of blends of 10% ethanol or less in their gasoline vehicles. However, vehicles will typically go 3–4% fewer miles per gallon on E10 than on straight gasoline. E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, can be used in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are specially designed to run on gasoline, E85, or any mixture of the two. FFVs are offered by several vehicle manufacturers. To determine if your vehicle can use E85, consult your owner’s manual or check the inside of your car's fuel filler door for an identification sticker. Cost varies regionally. It is cheaper than gasoline in some areas, such as the Midwest, and more expensive in others. Availability. More than two thousand filling stations in the U.S. sell E85, and that number is increasing rapidly. Visit the Alternative Fueling Station Locator for locations of service stations selling E85. Performance. No noticeable difference in vehicle performance when E85 is used. MPG. FFVs operating on E85 usually experience a 25–30% drop in miles per gallon due to ethanol’s lower energy content. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml
Jacques Prévert (1900–1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time. Prévert participated actively in the Surrealist movement. Together with the writer Raymond Queneau and artist Marcel Duchamp, he was a member of the Rue du Château group and Groupe Octobre. Some of Prévert's poems were collected and published in his books: Paroles (Words) (1946), Spectacle (1951), La Pluie et le beau temps (Rain and Good Weather) (1955), Histoires (Stories) (1963), Fatras (1971) and Choses et autres (Things and Others) (1973). His poems are often about life in Paris and life after the Second World War. They are widely taught in schools in France and frequently appear in French language textbooks throughout the world. Some of Prévert's poems, such as "Les Feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), "La grasse matinée" (Sleeping in), "Les bruits de la nuit" (The sounds of the night), and "Chasse à l'enfant" (The hunt for the child) were set to music by Joseph Kosma—and in some cases by Germaine Tailleferre of Les six, Christiane Verger, and Hanns Eisler. They have been sung by prominent 20th century French vocalists, including Marianne Oswald, Yves Montand, and Édith Piaf, as well as by the later American singers Joan Baez and Nat King Cole. In 1961, French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg paid tribute to "Les feuilles mortes" in his own song "La chanson de Prévert." See bibliography and selected films at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pr%C3%A9vert
Q: What's the difference between "II" and "Jr." in a name?
A: The Associated Press Stylebook cautions: "Note that 'II' and '2nd' are not necessarily the equivalent of 'junior.' They often are used by a grandson or nephew." There is no comma between the surname and suffix. Also, a junior may keep or discard the suffix when his father dies. -- Associated Press, emilypost.com.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Feb/JU/ar_JU_022012.asp?d=022012,2012,Feb,20&c=c_13
Athena's Library, The Quirky Pillar Of Providence by Jacki Lyden
With a bit of reverence, librarians carefully wind an antique library clock near the circulation desk in a temple of learning called the Providence Athenaeum. This is one of the oldest libraries in the United States, a 19th-century library with the soul of a 21st-century rave party. In fact, the Rhode Island institution has been called a national model for civic engagement. A hundred and 50 years ago, social libraries like the Athenaeum were all the rage. The concept of the Athenaeum, a member-supported library dedicated to social improvement, predated the modern public library as we know it. The Athenaeum is one of 17 remaining membership libraries.
On the day the library opened in 1838, the citizens of Providence stood willingly for more than two hours to listen to an address by one of its founders, Francis Wayland, the long-winded president of Brown University. Keeping a fragile, 19th-century library in continuous operation for nearly two centuries has been a challenge. Providence, a city of just under 200,000, once surpassed Boston in per capita income. It invested in its cultural gems — theater companies, museums, arts and music organizations and far more. With the recession, several nonprofits have gone under. It was only a decade ago that the Ath underwent its own financial crisis. One of the Athenaeum's antiquities was an original folio of John James Audubon's Birds of America. The board made the painful decision to sell it — which the library did for $5 million in 2005 — to stabilize the Athenaeum's endowment. A small contingent sued, trying to block the sale of the folio. Membership declined during the turbulence. "It was a dark period," says special collections curator Kate Wodehouse. After see-sawing through the recession, membership has rebounded, to about a thousand members and growing, according to Executive Director Alison Maxell. Member or not, anyone can browse or catch a program at the Ath. Devotees of Edgar Allan Poe love the story of his ill-fated romance with a local poet here — and, of course, all the Poe memorabilia. There is a Manet print of Poe's Raven from his famous poem, for example. Children can use their own library or the 19th-century children's books known as "The Old Juveniles." http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/146814120/athenas-library-the-quirky-pillar-of-providence
The Yelp IPO (initial public offering) is well on its way to raising $100 million as the website goes public on the New York stock exchange March 2. IPOs, at least in the tech world, were not popular through the recession. GigaOm says that the average deal size of a tech IPO in the last quarter of 2011 was $292.5 million. That’s nearly triple the amount from just one year prior, when consumer-based IPOs proved more popular. This past year, investors have waited impatiently to grab a piece of the World Wide Web pie.
Facebook IPO The site that single handedly put the term “social networking” into the cultural lexicon, Mark Zuckerberg announced last month he’d be putting his brainchild onto the market in 2012, filing his first Facebook IPO hoped to raise $5 billion. When news broke that Zuckerberg may owe over $2 billion in taxes if the Facebook stock offering is successful, it didn’t faze Facebook much, since their IPO, the fourth largest ever by an American company, valued Zuckerberg’s entity at over $100 billion in assets.
Groupon IPO Arguably the example everyone is following, online coupon and daily deals king Groupon valued itself at nearly $13 billion after an initial public market pop took in $700 million last November. According to Reuters, when the Groupon IPO achieved this, it effectively became the largest successful internet IPO venture since search engine giant Google raised $1.4 billion in stock eight years ago.
The Empire State Building IPO Selling the Brooklyn Bridge apparently wasn’t enough — now investors can have a piece of New York City’s tallest skyscraper. If it was a website, it’d be King Kong’s favorite, especially since handlers of the privately-owned Empire State Building announced last November that they were seeking over $1 billion through its first IPO filing, the New York Times announced. (The building is headquarters to another IPO’d website, professional networker LinkedIn.) The Times reported that the deal, when it goes public, won’t really hand over control of the 102-story landmark to stockholders, but to other property holdings by parent company Empire State Realty—namely, 12 office spaces in New York and Connecticut combining over 7 million square feet of rented space. http://www.gobankingrates.com/investments/pop-goes-ipo-yelps-jump-public-trading-bandwagon-success/
RICHMOND, Calif. — In a wooden warehouse in this industrial suburb, the 20th century is being stored in case of digital disaster. Forty-foot shipping containers stacked two by two are stuffed with the most enduring, as well as some of the most forgettable, books of the era. Every week, 20,000 new volumes arrive, many of them donations from libraries and universities thrilled to unload material that has no place in the Internet Age. “We want to collect one copy of every book,” said Brewster Kahle, who has spent $3 million to buy and operate this repository situated just north of San Francisco. “You can never tell what is going to paint the portrait of a culture.” As society embraces all forms of digital entertainment, this latter-day Noah is looking the other way. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur who made his fortune selling a data-mining company to Amazon.com in 1999, Mr. Kahle founded and runs the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving Web pages — 150 billion so far — and making texts more widely available. But even though he started his archiving in the digital realm, he now wants to save physical texts, too. “We must keep the past even as we’re inventing a new future,” he said. “If the Library of Alexandria had made a copy of every book and sent it to India or China, we’d have the other works of Aristotle, the other plays of Euripides. One copy in one institution is not good enough.” David Streitfeld http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/technology/internet-archives-repository-collects-thousands-of-books.html
Friday, March 2, 2012
On Feb. 29 the Vatican kicked off a six-month exhibit at Rome's Capitoline Museum that will place 100 documents, usually locked away in the pope's personal archive, on display. A papal bull excommunicating Martin Luther from the Catholic Church; the judicial acts of the trial of Galileo Galilei; and a letter from the guillotine-bound Marie Antoinette, are just a few examples of the kind of history-in-the-making documents that rarely are seen by the general public. "We don't want this material to be kept secret," Vatican archivist Enrico Flaiani told a group of reporters this week as he guided them into an underground bunker that houses part of the archive. Mr. Flaiani cast the archive as a mere victim of Latin lost in translation. The decision to call the Archivum Secretum Vaticanum the Vatican's "secret archive" was a mistake, the archivist said, adding that he preferred the translation "personal archive." Stacy Meichtry http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577253623537366572.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Signature Theatre Company, founded in 1991 by James Houghton, exists to honor and celebrate the playwright. Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright’s body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. Signature is the first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including re-examinations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres. Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company. In October 2008, Signature announced the creation of the Signature Center, a permanent home to open in late 2011. Designed by Frank Gehry Architects, the Center will comprise three theatres, two rehearsal studios, a café, bookstore, and offices all on one level—a configuration that allows the company not only the space to expand its programming, but also the proximity for natural interaction between artists and audiences of the different programs. In its new home, Signature will continue its Master Residency and expand the Legacy Program. Signature will also introduce an Emerging Playwrights Residency that will feature early- and mid-career playwrights and guarantee them three full productions over the course of a four-year residency. This groundbreaking facility will offer a vital presence on West 42nd Street and will make it possible for Signature to collaborate with playwrights throughout the entire trajectory of their careers.
Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, eleven Lucille Lortel Awards, fifteen Obie Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, and twenty-two AUDELCO Awards, among many other distinctions. Find season histories and links to Signature sites at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_Theatre_Company_(New_York_City)
See a description and a design model of Frank Gehry's Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, part of the Pershing Square Signature Center on 42nd Street. at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239272399677412.html
Edith Pearlman has published more than 250 works of short fiction and short non-fiction in national magazines, literary journals, anthologies, and on-line publications. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Collection, New Stories from the South, and The Pushcart Prize Collection – Best of the Small Presses. Her first collection of stories, Vaquita, won the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature and was published by the University of Pittsburgh University Press in 1996. Her second, Love Among The Greats (Eastern Washington University Press, 2002) won the Spokane Annual Fiction Prize. Her third collection, How to Fall, was published by Sarabande Press in 2005 and won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. http://www.edithpearlman.com/about/index.htm
Edith Pearlman's "Binocular Vision" turns on three words of offhand dialogue. Each of her efforts takes three or four drafts, and "very little of that first draft will appear in the final draft." She takes away everything that she can until she finds "the statue in the slab." Her penchant for brevity has made her fastidious about her craft. "I love the ellipsis at the end of a line or paragraph to indicate what is happening next is more or less simultaneous with what has just happened," she says between bites. Fond of the semicolon ("I overdo them"), she also wishes the question mark had "a younger sister." The phrases "doesn't it" and "shouldn't we" are not true questions to her ear. "I use a period for the right intonation." A large circle of fellow writers in the Boston area has sustained her for years. She belongs to an essay-writing group and has a "writing partner," Rose Bloom, to whom she shows everything, and vice versa.
Richard B. Woodward http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223151576650584.html
Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull apologized Feb. 29 for sending a racist email about President Obama from his office to a few friends. "To say it's inappropriate and stupid is an extreme understatement," Cebull said in his courthouse chambers in Billings. "There is no doubt it's racist. It wasn't forwarded for that purpose," Cebull said. "If anything, it was political." The judge admitted he forwarded the racially charged email he received to seven friends, including his brother, on Feb. 20 from his office computer. Cebull said he does not remember who sent him the email and said he had deleted it before Wednesday. The judge also said he did not write the introduction. The judge said he was at a loss to explain why he forwarded the message. Cebull said he has emailed the other federal judges in Montana apologizing for his conduct. He said he will never forward or send another email from his office that isn't business related. http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/richard-cebull-says-he-sent-racist-obama-email/article_63df0eef-dd3a-549c-ba11-4729413d044a.html?oCampaign=hottopics
Words with animals hidden in them
capricious from Italian capriccio (caprice), literally head with hair standing on end, from capo (head) + riccio (hedgehog).
bucolic From Greek boukolos (herdsman), from bous (ox).
cuckold From Old French cucu (cuckoo) + -ald (pejorative suffix), from the female cuckoo's habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest.
lyceum From Latin lyceum, from Greek Lykeion, an epithet of Apollo meaning wolf-slayer, from lykos (wolf) which also gave us words such as lupine (like a wolf) and lycanthropy (the delusion of being a wolf).
jubilee Via French, Latin, and Greek from Hebrew yobel (ram, ram's horn trumpet). Traditionally a jubilee year was announced by blowing a ram's horn.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
The real test of a chef doesn't come from elaborate dishes with luxury ingredients such as foie gras and caviar but from how well he uses the most humble foods in the pantry. Consider the egg. I'm fascinated by seemingly simple dishes like an omelet or a crème caramel because they not only showcase the quality of their ingredients, but, more important, they also demonstrate the skill of the cook who prepared them. Thomas Keller http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-master-class-20120301,0,1107254.htmlstory
“The Lifespan of a Fact,” is less a book than a knock-down, drag-out fight between two tenacious combatants, over questions of truth, belief, history, myth, memory and forgetting. In one corner is Jim Fingal, who as an intern for the literary magazine The Believer in 2005 (or it might have been 2003 — sources disagree) signed on for what he must have thought would be a straightforward task: fact-checking a 15-page article. In the other corner is D’Agata, who thought he had made a deal with The Believer to publish not just an article but a work of Art — an essay already rejected by Harper’s Magazine because of “factual inaccuracies” — that would find its way to print unmolested by any challenge to its veracity. Read book review at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/books/review/the-lifespan-of-a-fact-by-john-dagata-and-jim-fingal.html
New Zealand's Anglican church is to demolish a 131-year-old cathedral in earthquake-devastated Christchurch because it is too dangerous and expensive to rebuild, the stricken city's bishop said on March 2. The Victorian-era, Gothic-style cathedral, which dominated the city's central square, was badly damaged in the February 2011 quake. The 6.3 magnitude quake killed 185 people and destroyed large areas of the business centre and more than 6,000 homes. The landmark cathedral was a favourite meeting place and tourist attraction, but any chance of saving it was ended by several strong aftershocks that caused more damage.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/02/uk-newzealand-cathedral-idUSLNE82100E20120302
Signature Theatre Company, founded in 1991 by James Houghton, exists to honor and celebrate the playwright. Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright’s body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. Signature is the first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including re-examinations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres. Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company. In October 2008, Signature announced the creation of the Signature Center, a permanent home to open in late 2011. Designed by Frank Gehry Architects, the Center will comprise three theatres, two rehearsal studios, a café, bookstore, and offices all on one level—a configuration that allows the company not only the space to expand its programming, but also the proximity for natural interaction between artists and audiences of the different programs. In its new home, Signature will continue its Master Residency and expand the Legacy Program. Signature will also introduce an Emerging Playwrights Residency that will feature early- and mid-career playwrights and guarantee them three full productions over the course of a four-year residency. This groundbreaking facility will offer a vital presence on West 42nd Street and will make it possible for Signature to collaborate with playwrights throughout the entire trajectory of their careers.
Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, eleven Lucille Lortel Awards, fifteen Obie Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, and twenty-two AUDELCO Awards, among many other distinctions. Find season histories and links to Signature sites at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_Theatre_Company_(New_York_City)
See a description and a design model of Frank Gehry's Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, part of the Pershing Square Signature Center on 42nd Street. at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239272399677412.html
Edith Pearlman has published more than 250 works of short fiction and short non-fiction in national magazines, literary journals, anthologies, and on-line publications. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Collection, New Stories from the South, and The Pushcart Prize Collection – Best of the Small Presses. Her first collection of stories, Vaquita, won the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature and was published by the University of Pittsburgh University Press in 1996. Her second, Love Among The Greats (Eastern Washington University Press, 2002) won the Spokane Annual Fiction Prize. Her third collection, How to Fall, was published by Sarabande Press in 2005 and won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. http://www.edithpearlman.com/about/index.htm
Edith Pearlman's "Binocular Vision" turns on three words of offhand dialogue. Each of her efforts takes three or four drafts, and "very little of that first draft will appear in the final draft." She takes away everything that she can until she finds "the statue in the slab." Her penchant for brevity has made her fastidious about her craft. "I love the ellipsis at the end of a line or paragraph to indicate what is happening next is more or less simultaneous with what has just happened," she says between bites. Fond of the semicolon ("I overdo them"), she also wishes the question mark had "a younger sister." The phrases "doesn't it" and "shouldn't we" are not true questions to her ear. "I use a period for the right intonation." A large circle of fellow writers in the Boston area has sustained her for years. She belongs to an essay-writing group and has a "writing partner," Rose Bloom, to whom she shows everything, and vice versa.
Richard B. Woodward http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223151576650584.html
Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull apologized Feb. 29 for sending a racist email about President Obama from his office to a few friends. "To say it's inappropriate and stupid is an extreme understatement," Cebull said in his courthouse chambers in Billings. "There is no doubt it's racist. It wasn't forwarded for that purpose," Cebull said. "If anything, it was political." The judge admitted he forwarded the racially charged email he received to seven friends, including his brother, on Feb. 20 from his office computer. Cebull said he does not remember who sent him the email and said he had deleted it before Wednesday. The judge also said he did not write the introduction. The judge said he was at a loss to explain why he forwarded the message. Cebull said he has emailed the other federal judges in Montana apologizing for his conduct. He said he will never forward or send another email from his office that isn't business related. http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/richard-cebull-says-he-sent-racist-obama-email/article_63df0eef-dd3a-549c-ba11-4729413d044a.html?oCampaign=hottopics
Words with animals hidden in them
capricious from Italian capriccio (caprice), literally head with hair standing on end, from capo (head) + riccio (hedgehog).
bucolic From Greek boukolos (herdsman), from bous (ox).
cuckold From Old French cucu (cuckoo) + -ald (pejorative suffix), from the female cuckoo's habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest.
lyceum From Latin lyceum, from Greek Lykeion, an epithet of Apollo meaning wolf-slayer, from lykos (wolf) which also gave us words such as lupine (like a wolf) and lycanthropy (the delusion of being a wolf).
jubilee Via French, Latin, and Greek from Hebrew yobel (ram, ram's horn trumpet). Traditionally a jubilee year was announced by blowing a ram's horn.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
The real test of a chef doesn't come from elaborate dishes with luxury ingredients such as foie gras and caviar but from how well he uses the most humble foods in the pantry. Consider the egg. I'm fascinated by seemingly simple dishes like an omelet or a crème caramel because they not only showcase the quality of their ingredients, but, more important, they also demonstrate the skill of the cook who prepared them. Thomas Keller http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-master-class-20120301,0,1107254.htmlstory
“The Lifespan of a Fact,” is less a book than a knock-down, drag-out fight between two tenacious combatants, over questions of truth, belief, history, myth, memory and forgetting. In one corner is Jim Fingal, who as an intern for the literary magazine The Believer in 2005 (or it might have been 2003 — sources disagree) signed on for what he must have thought would be a straightforward task: fact-checking a 15-page article. In the other corner is D’Agata, who thought he had made a deal with The Believer to publish not just an article but a work of Art — an essay already rejected by Harper’s Magazine because of “factual inaccuracies” — that would find its way to print unmolested by any challenge to its veracity. Read book review at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/books/review/the-lifespan-of-a-fact-by-john-dagata-and-jim-fingal.html
New Zealand's Anglican church is to demolish a 131-year-old cathedral in earthquake-devastated Christchurch because it is too dangerous and expensive to rebuild, the stricken city's bishop said on March 2. The Victorian-era, Gothic-style cathedral, which dominated the city's central square, was badly damaged in the February 2011 quake. The 6.3 magnitude quake killed 185 people and destroyed large areas of the business centre and more than 6,000 homes. The landmark cathedral was a favourite meeting place and tourist attraction, but any chance of saving it was ended by several strong aftershocks that caused more damage.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/02/uk-newzealand-cathedral-idUSLNE82100E20120302
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Q. Who wrote Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all!
A. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Autumn Fires
In the other gardens And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes, The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall! http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/autumn-fires/
After 60 years in retirement, the world's all-time number one graffiti subject, Mr. Chad, has been resurrected in England, while in the United States, where he was known as Kilroy, he may appear on a postage stamp. He's a funny little man with wide-open eyes and a huge U-shaped nose, peering over a wall. During World War II, this comical cartoon figure appeared in the most unlikely places around the world. In Britain and many other Commonwealth countries, Mr. Chad appeared on walls of buildings, on shop windows, and in newspaper cartoons. Below him were the words: WOT - no sugar? (or tea, or cigarettes, or whatever else was in short supply).
Mr. Chad was also known as Mr. Foo, Phoo, Flywheel, Clem, Private Snoops and The Jeep. After researching Mr. Chad's mysterious origin, Michael Quinion wrote in World Wide Words: "It is said that it was the invention of George Chatterton, a British cartoonist, about 1938. Mr. Chatterton’s nickname was Chat and the shift to Chad is easy to imagine." A year or two after Mr. Chad became a popular figure in Commonwealth countries, Americans serving in the armed forces adopted his image, renamed him Kilroy, and took him with them wherever they went. Instead of Wot, no sugar? the caption became Kilroy was here.
http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/chad_kilroy.htm
The Tokyo Sky Tree, completed in February 2012, reaches a height of 634.0 m, making it the tallest tower, and second tallest structure in the world. See list of towers between 100 and 200 m., between 200 and 250 m., and taller than 250 m. at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_towers_in_the_world
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture". Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes; it is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. See list of laureates from 1979-2012 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_Architecture_Prize
March 1 events
1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1781 – The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
1803 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
1845 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1893 – Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1
A. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Autumn Fires
In the other gardens And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes, The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall! http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/autumn-fires/
After 60 years in retirement, the world's all-time number one graffiti subject, Mr. Chad, has been resurrected in England, while in the United States, where he was known as Kilroy, he may appear on a postage stamp. He's a funny little man with wide-open eyes and a huge U-shaped nose, peering over a wall. During World War II, this comical cartoon figure appeared in the most unlikely places around the world. In Britain and many other Commonwealth countries, Mr. Chad appeared on walls of buildings, on shop windows, and in newspaper cartoons. Below him were the words: WOT - no sugar? (or tea, or cigarettes, or whatever else was in short supply).
Mr. Chad was also known as Mr. Foo, Phoo, Flywheel, Clem, Private Snoops and The Jeep. After researching Mr. Chad's mysterious origin, Michael Quinion wrote in World Wide Words: "It is said that it was the invention of George Chatterton, a British cartoonist, about 1938. Mr. Chatterton’s nickname was Chat and the shift to Chad is easy to imagine." A year or two after Mr. Chad became a popular figure in Commonwealth countries, Americans serving in the armed forces adopted his image, renamed him Kilroy, and took him with them wherever they went. Instead of Wot, no sugar? the caption became Kilroy was here.
http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/chad_kilroy.htm
The Tokyo Sky Tree, completed in February 2012, reaches a height of 634.0 m, making it the tallest tower, and second tallest structure in the world. See list of towers between 100 and 200 m., between 200 and 250 m., and taller than 250 m. at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_towers_in_the_world
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture". Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes; it is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. See list of laureates from 1979-2012 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_Architecture_Prize
March 1 events
1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1781 – The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
1803 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
1845 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1893 – Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1
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