A temporary cathedral made from cardboard will be built in Christchurch to replace the historic Anglican building destroyed in last year's earthquakes, Church officials said April 16. The spire of the original cathedral, a symbol of the New Zealand city, collapsed in the February 2011 quake that killed 185 people and the structure was condemned after sustaining more damage during tremors in June and December. The Church unveiled plans Monday to erect a temporary cathedral designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban by the end of the year, describing it as a "symbol of hope" for the shattered city, which is still struggling to rebuild.
Costing NZ$4.5 million ($3.7 million) and capable of seating 700 people, the cathedral will be made from cardboard tubes, timber beams and structural steel on a concrete pad. Ban has previously built cardboard and paper structures following earthquakes in Japan's Kobe, L'Aquila in Italy, and Haiti, although the A-frame cathedral is his largest so far. "The strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material," he said. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGaCBRiY2ktoUP41nsflrsb3Luhw?docId=CNG.00b32a84b8245bf213f6cd8ff1a9e51b.7f1
Inspired by the successful 1987 Year of the Reader program, the 1989 YYR project promoted activities with public service announcements featuring actor LeVar Burton acting as "host/spokesperson" and camera-ready logos with the slogan, "Give Us Books, Give Us Wings." The Library of Congress issued kid-size four-color "Readin' and Rollin' " T-shirts. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-05/books/bk-546_1_young-reader
Evolution of a Logo The Center for the Book's distinctive "Books Give Us Wings" logo was inspired by a statement in Paul Hazard's "Books, Children & Men" (1944). It first appeared on a 1989 refrigerator magnet and was condensed for the 1991 "Lifetime Reader" campaign, and presented two themes simultaneously ("Books Change Lives" and "Explore New Worlds—Read!") in 1992 before it settled into its present form. See four logos at: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0212/cfb2.html
The Library of Congress Gets its Wings It’s quite uplifting, in an Internet kind of way, that one of the most progressive, enriching and engaging content-driven web sites belongs to a 200-year-old American Government institution, the Library of Congress (LOC). In case you have never been, start at the Digital Collections landing page and click, just click — see you back here tomorrow. The LOC, founded in 1800, “is the largest library in the world, with nearly 142 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 32 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 5.6 million pieces of sheet music and 62 million manuscripts.” Housed in Washington, D.C. across three buildings, the LOC is open to the public — 1.6 million annually — making its books available for reading on site only. See "before" and "after" logos at: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/the_librabry_of_congress_gets_its_wings.php
When the Titanic began sending out distress signals, the Californian, rather than the Carpathia, was the closest ship; yet the Californian did not respond until it was much too late to help. At 12:45 a.m. on April 15, 1912, crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky (the distress flares sent up from the Titanic) and woke up their captain to tell him about it. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders. Since the ship's wireless operator had already gone to bed, the Californian was unaware of any distress signals from the Titanic until the morning, but by then the Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/titanicfacts.htm
See chart of Routes Across the Atlantic of Four Ships: Titanic, Carpathia, Californian and Mount Temple at: http://www.glts.org/articles/halpern/1235_ats_carpathia.html
After the Titanic disaster, recommendations were made by both the British and American Boards of Inquiry stating, in part, that ships would carry enough lifeboats for those aboard, mandated lifeboat drills would be implemented, lifeboat inspections would be conducted, etc. Many of these recommendations were incorporated into the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea passed in 1914. The United States government passed the Radio Act of 1912. This act stated that radio communications on passenger ships would be operated 24 hours along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. Also, the Radio Act of 1912 required ships to maintain contact with vessels in their vicinity as well as coastal onshore radio stations. In addition, it was agreed in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea that the firing of red rockets from a ship must be interpreted as a distress signal. The U.S. Navy assigned the Scout Cruisers Chester and USS Birmingham (CL-2) to patrol the Grand Banks for the remainder of 1912. In 1913, the United States Navy could not spare ships for this purpose, so the Revenue Cutter Service (forerunner of the United States Coast Guard) assumed responsibility, assigning the Cutters Seneca and Miami to conduct the patrol. The Titanic disaster led to the convening of the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in London, on 12 November 1913. On 30 January 1914, a treaty was signed by the conference that resulted in the formation and international funding of the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the United States Coast Guard that to the present day monitors and reports on the location of North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could pose a threat to transatlantic sea traffic. Following the Titanic disaster, ships were refitted for increased safety. For example, the double bottoms of many existing ships, including the RMS Olympic, were extended up the sides of their hulls, above their waterlines, to give them double hulls. Another refit that many ships underwent were changes to the height of the bulkheads. The bulkheads on Titanic extended 10 feet (3 m) above the waterline. After the Titanic sank, the bulkheads on other ships were extended higher to make the compartments fully watertight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_in_safety_practices_following_the_RMS_Titanic_disaster
Monday, April 16, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Keith Haring (1958-1990) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Kutztown. During his all-too-brief life, Keith Haring became a sensation in the art world with his bold, cartoon and graffiti influenced works during the 1980s. He spent many hours drawing with his father and was fascinated by the popular cartoon art of Walt Disney and Charles Schultz. In 1982, Haring had his first New York one-man show at the Shafrazi Gallery. Not only did he create paintings and sculptures for the show, he engulfed the entire gallery with his bold color choices and frenetic designs. A critical success, he soon became one of most popular artists of the time with exhibits in Japan, Brazil, and many other countries. Haring collaborated with other artists and performers, including Andy Warhol and William Burroughs. http://www.biography.com/people/keith-haring-246006
No-knead bread--recipe and video: http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/
Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough – Popeye Pizza http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-popeye-pizza/
While an undergraduate at Princeton, John Dabiri spent a summer at the California Institute of Technology, filming jellyfish at a nearby aquarium and trying to write mathematical models to describe their movement. After graduating with degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering, he headed to Caltech for good. Dabiri earned his Ph.D. there in 2005 and became a tenured professor before age 30. Along the way, Dabiri, a native of Toledo, Ohio. unraveled some of the mysteries of the jellyfish and how they propel themselves by creating whirling vortexes in the water. The U.S. Navy is funding development of underwater craft that employ his mathematical models to move using 30 percent less energy than existing options. Dabiri says his goal is “to tap the inexhaustible supply of inspiration found in nature” in the name of innovation. At the moment, he’s applying a lot of his findings to renewable energy. “He was the first person to think of” modeling wind farms on fish schools, says Alexander Smits, one of Dabiri’s engineering professors at Princeton. “It’s a game-changer.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/john-dabiri-unlocks-the-mysteries-of-jellyfish
Epsom salts are made up of a naturally occurring mineral that is found in water. More properly known as magnesium sulfate, Epsom salts derives its popular name from the town of Epsom, England, where the compound was first distilled from water. The chemical formula for Epsom salts is a rather simplistic one: MgS04-7H2O. Epsom salts are easily obtained at any drug store or supermarket. Inexpensive and versatile, the salts can be used for a number of different applications around the home. Many of the applications have to do with expediting healing, as well as improving the quality of the skin and helping with basic grooming. Perhaps the most popular application is the Epsom salts bath used to relieve stress. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-epsom-salts.htm
WHATEVER happened to the “paperless office”? Thirty years ago the rise of computers was hailed as the beginning of the paperless-office era. In a 1980 briefing in The Economist entitled “Towards the paperless office”, we recommended that businesses trying to improve productivity should “reduce the flow of paper, ultimately aiming to abolish it”. Since then, alas, global paper consumption has increased by half. The average American uses the paper equivalent of almost six 40-foot (12-metre) trees a year. In Belgium paper consumption is pushed up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, which must produce its documentation in an array of different languages. See chart showing number of trees "consumed" per person each year at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-0
The man on the front of Quaker Oats, known as Larry to insiders, has gotten a makeover. According to the Wall street Journal, his hair is slightly shorter and he has less of a second chin. They also made him appear younger with a more pronounced jaw line and broader shoulders. PepsiCo, the parent company of Quaker, said they wanted Larry to reinforce the idea that oatmeal is a healthy option, so in addition to the haircut they had its artist give him the appearance of “looking five pounds thinner.” It isn’t the first company to give its logo a health makeover. Morton Salt’s “Umbrella Girl” has gotten noticeably thinner overtime and Betty Crocker looks more youthful than ever.
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/03/quaker-oats-logo-gets-a-makeover/
The following story was sent by longtime reader Jeff Fort, whose great-uncle is Charles Hartman, and whose father, Ted wrote the note at the bottom of the article. In 1912 Charles Hartman, only a few months past his 11th birthday, relayed a wireless message to the editor of the Millville (N.J.) Daily. He told that the Titanic was sinking in the Atlantic and the messages were coming from the Carpathia, the ship that was eventually credited with saving many of the 700 survivors. The wireless was new, and the message he gave could have been a scoop, but the call to the editor was ignored. Hartman busied himself through the years. He had put together a television before RCA. He drew maps and at one time had a collection numbering more than 35,000, which is now at Rutgers University. Excerpt of an article from The Press, Atlantic City, N.J., September 26, 1985 Note at bottom of copy: "Charles Hartman was my mother's older brother. Ted"
No-knead bread--recipe and video: http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/
Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough – Popeye Pizza http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-popeye-pizza/
While an undergraduate at Princeton, John Dabiri spent a summer at the California Institute of Technology, filming jellyfish at a nearby aquarium and trying to write mathematical models to describe their movement. After graduating with degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering, he headed to Caltech for good. Dabiri earned his Ph.D. there in 2005 and became a tenured professor before age 30. Along the way, Dabiri, a native of Toledo, Ohio. unraveled some of the mysteries of the jellyfish and how they propel themselves by creating whirling vortexes in the water. The U.S. Navy is funding development of underwater craft that employ his mathematical models to move using 30 percent less energy than existing options. Dabiri says his goal is “to tap the inexhaustible supply of inspiration found in nature” in the name of innovation. At the moment, he’s applying a lot of his findings to renewable energy. “He was the first person to think of” modeling wind farms on fish schools, says Alexander Smits, one of Dabiri’s engineering professors at Princeton. “It’s a game-changer.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/john-dabiri-unlocks-the-mysteries-of-jellyfish
Epsom salts are made up of a naturally occurring mineral that is found in water. More properly known as magnesium sulfate, Epsom salts derives its popular name from the town of Epsom, England, where the compound was first distilled from water. The chemical formula for Epsom salts is a rather simplistic one: MgS04-7H2O. Epsom salts are easily obtained at any drug store or supermarket. Inexpensive and versatile, the salts can be used for a number of different applications around the home. Many of the applications have to do with expediting healing, as well as improving the quality of the skin and helping with basic grooming. Perhaps the most popular application is the Epsom salts bath used to relieve stress. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-epsom-salts.htm
WHATEVER happened to the “paperless office”? Thirty years ago the rise of computers was hailed as the beginning of the paperless-office era. In a 1980 briefing in The Economist entitled “Towards the paperless office”, we recommended that businesses trying to improve productivity should “reduce the flow of paper, ultimately aiming to abolish it”. Since then, alas, global paper consumption has increased by half. The average American uses the paper equivalent of almost six 40-foot (12-metre) trees a year. In Belgium paper consumption is pushed up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, which must produce its documentation in an array of different languages. See chart showing number of trees "consumed" per person each year at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-0
The man on the front of Quaker Oats, known as Larry to insiders, has gotten a makeover. According to the Wall street Journal, his hair is slightly shorter and he has less of a second chin. They also made him appear younger with a more pronounced jaw line and broader shoulders. PepsiCo, the parent company of Quaker, said they wanted Larry to reinforce the idea that oatmeal is a healthy option, so in addition to the haircut they had its artist give him the appearance of “looking five pounds thinner.” It isn’t the first company to give its logo a health makeover. Morton Salt’s “Umbrella Girl” has gotten noticeably thinner overtime and Betty Crocker looks more youthful than ever.
http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/03/quaker-oats-logo-gets-a-makeover/
The following story was sent by longtime reader Jeff Fort, whose great-uncle is Charles Hartman, and whose father, Ted wrote the note at the bottom of the article. In 1912 Charles Hartman, only a few months past his 11th birthday, relayed a wireless message to the editor of the Millville (N.J.) Daily. He told that the Titanic was sinking in the Atlantic and the messages were coming from the Carpathia, the ship that was eventually credited with saving many of the 700 survivors. The wireless was new, and the message he gave could have been a scoop, but the call to the editor was ignored. Hartman busied himself through the years. He had put together a television before RCA. He drew maps and at one time had a collection numbering more than 35,000, which is now at Rutgers University. Excerpt of an article from The Press, Atlantic City, N.J., September 26, 1985 Note at bottom of copy: "Charles Hartman was my mother's older brother. Ted"
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
On a March evening in Brooklyn, Donatella Madrigal is standing at a Vandercook Universal press, wiping her ink-stained hands on a denim apron. She has just run off several hundred greeting cards, which she’ll sell online and in neighborhood gift shops for up to $5 apiece. By day, the Madrid-born 27-year-old is a graphic artist who designs ads for clients such as Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics, working mostly on a computer. In the evenings, she goes analog, printing cards at The Arm Letterpress, a former garage filled with vintage printing presses rented out by the hour to artisans. In the past decade, letterpress printers have grown into a thriving community. Many of the most devoted members are graphic designers who, like Madrigal, are seeking an alternative to their digital day jobs. “It’s almost like artisanal breadmaking,” says Sarah Schwartz, editor of Stationery Trends magazine, a trade publication. “People are returning to things done by hand, and it’s a very tactile art form.” The market for letterpress items has resisted the downturn in luxury goods that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Kate’s Paperie, an upscale Manhattan stationer, says letterpress products jumped to 44 percent of sales last year from 33 percent in 2010. Etsy, the website that hosts online stores for handmade goods, listed over 22,000 letterpress items in early April, more than triple the number a year earlier. The Arm Letterpress is the creation of Dan Morris, whose great-grandfather was a printer in Ohio. Morris studied art and architecture in Australia before apprenticing to a letterpress printer in Baltimore. Fourteen years ago, he paid $285 for his first Vandercook, a mid-20th century model considered the Cadillac of hand-cranked letterpresses. The same machines sell for $10,000 today. The decline of the letterpress began at the end of the 19th century, when linotype machines allowed printers to set type as fast as they could tap at a keyboard. By the early 1890s, the country’s remaining type manufacturers had consolidated into a single company, American Type Founders, says Morris, whose bookshelves are lined with type catalogs from the early 20th century. Letterpress managed to hold on through the advent of offset printing, the Xerox machine, and the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Canon. “These presses can last 100 years, and some of my best presses were only built in the 1960s,” Morris says. “As long as there are people who know how to use it, there will be letterpress.”
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/the-letterpress-thrives-in-an-ipad-age?section=small-business
As the national economy continues to struggle toward recovery from the Great Recession, 2011 was a year of grim headlines. The federal Library of Congress lost about 9% of its budget and 10% of its workforce. Detroit, a city in fiscal crisis, agonized all year over how many library branches to close. What became clear through it all was that amid the shifting winds of an economic storm, libraries continue to transform lives, adapting to and adopting new and emerging technologies, and experimenting with innovative and transformational ideas to provide services that empower patrons. The public libraries in many major U.S. cities continue to see circulation rise, with Seattle leading the way with a whopping 50% increase in the past six years. The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increased demand for them in libraries. Nationwide, 90% of libraries are making ebooks available to the public, and availability and use are up. But libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by the nation‘s largest publishers. Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster have refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin refused to let libraries lend its new titles at all. Find the 68-page report at: http://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/StateofAmericasLibrariesReport2012.pdf
Libraries are technology hubs that thousands turn to and depend on for resources, including free computer and software workshops, employment databases and free access to digital media. Communities across the U.S. will celebrate the valuable contributions of our nation’s libraries during National library Week, April 8 – 14. This year’s National Library Week theme is “You belong @ your library,” and libraries will offer programs and services that showcase technology and educational resources. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/you-belong-your-library-libraries-transform-lives-through-technological-literacy
Gray hair is cropping up on runways, at work and in an age bias suit pending in Texas federal court. Gray is becoming more fashionable, but 44-year-old Washington, D.C., civil rights lawyer David Scher doesn’t think workplaces will be transformed, the Associated Press reports. "I think women in the workplace are highly pressured to look young. If I were an older working person, the last thing I would do is go gray." The hair color is an issue in an age bias suit pending in Houston federal court. Sandra Rawline, 52, says that she was fired after she refused her boss’s order to dye her gray hair. Rawline, who was working as a branch manager and escrow agent at Capital Title of Texas, claims her boss also ordered her to wear “younger fancy suits” and lots of jewelry. Her replacement was 10 years younger, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. http://www.chron.com/business/sixel/article/Manager-claims-boss-asked-her-to-dye-gray-hair-2080057.php http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/is_gray_ok_on_the_job_civil_rights_lawyer_sees_risks_plaintiff_claims_bias/
Would-be heroes of ancient Greece used harsh soaps and bleaches to lighten and redden their hair to the color that was identified with honor and courage. First-century Romans preferred dark hair, which was made so by a dye concocted from boiled walnuts and leeks. Today, hair color remains hot, with a booming 75 percent of American women reportedly coloring their hair. (In 1950, only about 7 percent of American women colored their hair.) Red is currently the most requested color at beauty salons. Men increasingly cover gray or, following the female lead, completely change their look. http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/hair-coloring.htm
The Law Library of Congress has published TRANSLATION OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION INTO ENGLISH March 2012 Global Legal Research Center LL File No. 2012-007612 for Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and Russia, International Organizations and International Courts. This is a finding tool, an annotated bibliography rather than translations. http://www.loc.gov/law/find/national-legislation/pdfs/2012-007612_RPT_website.pdf
Knowledge wins: public library books are free See the poster created by Dan Smith (1865-1934) at: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc443/
For Memorial Day, a World War I poster from our collection of world war posters: "Knowledge Wins...Public Library Books are Free". This is one of several posters commissioned by the American Library Association. This particular poster was designed by Daniel Stevens, an American illustrator originally from Philadelphia, who was best known for his depiction of Western Americana scenes. http://blogs.libraries.claremont.edu/sc/2009/05/knowledge-winsamerican-library.html Note the different names. Created by Dan Smith and designed by Daniel Stevens.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 10-10038 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 3:08-cr-00237- DAVID NOSAL, MHP-1 Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Marilyn H. Patel, Senior District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted December 15, 2011—San Francisco, California Filed April 10, 2012 KOZINSKI, Chief Judge: Computers have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. We use them for work; we use them for play. Sometimes we use them for play at work. Many employers have adopted policies prohibiting the use of work computers for nonbusiness purposes. Does an employee who violates such a policy commit a federal crime? How about someone who violates the terms of service of a social networking website? This depends on how broadly we read the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. See the 22-page opinion at: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/04/10/10-10038.pdf
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-05/the-letterpress-thrives-in-an-ipad-age?section=small-business
As the national economy continues to struggle toward recovery from the Great Recession, 2011 was a year of grim headlines. The federal Library of Congress lost about 9% of its budget and 10% of its workforce. Detroit, a city in fiscal crisis, agonized all year over how many library branches to close. What became clear through it all was that amid the shifting winds of an economic storm, libraries continue to transform lives, adapting to and adopting new and emerging technologies, and experimenting with innovative and transformational ideas to provide services that empower patrons. The public libraries in many major U.S. cities continue to see circulation rise, with Seattle leading the way with a whopping 50% increase in the past six years. The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increased demand for them in libraries. Nationwide, 90% of libraries are making ebooks available to the public, and availability and use are up. But libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by the nation‘s largest publishers. Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster have refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin refused to let libraries lend its new titles at all. Find the 68-page report at: http://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/StateofAmericasLibrariesReport2012.pdf
Libraries are technology hubs that thousands turn to and depend on for resources, including free computer and software workshops, employment databases and free access to digital media. Communities across the U.S. will celebrate the valuable contributions of our nation’s libraries during National library Week, April 8 – 14. This year’s National Library Week theme is “You belong @ your library,” and libraries will offer programs and services that showcase technology and educational resources. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/you-belong-your-library-libraries-transform-lives-through-technological-literacy
Gray hair is cropping up on runways, at work and in an age bias suit pending in Texas federal court. Gray is becoming more fashionable, but 44-year-old Washington, D.C., civil rights lawyer David Scher doesn’t think workplaces will be transformed, the Associated Press reports. "I think women in the workplace are highly pressured to look young. If I were an older working person, the last thing I would do is go gray." The hair color is an issue in an age bias suit pending in Houston federal court. Sandra Rawline, 52, says that she was fired after she refused her boss’s order to dye her gray hair. Rawline, who was working as a branch manager and escrow agent at Capital Title of Texas, claims her boss also ordered her to wear “younger fancy suits” and lots of jewelry. Her replacement was 10 years younger, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. http://www.chron.com/business/sixel/article/Manager-claims-boss-asked-her-to-dye-gray-hair-2080057.php http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/is_gray_ok_on_the_job_civil_rights_lawyer_sees_risks_plaintiff_claims_bias/
Would-be heroes of ancient Greece used harsh soaps and bleaches to lighten and redden their hair to the color that was identified with honor and courage. First-century Romans preferred dark hair, which was made so by a dye concocted from boiled walnuts and leeks. Today, hair color remains hot, with a booming 75 percent of American women reportedly coloring their hair. (In 1950, only about 7 percent of American women colored their hair.) Red is currently the most requested color at beauty salons. Men increasingly cover gray or, following the female lead, completely change their look. http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/hair-coloring.htm
The Law Library of Congress has published TRANSLATION OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION INTO ENGLISH March 2012 Global Legal Research Center LL File No. 2012-007612 for Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and Russia, International Organizations and International Courts. This is a finding tool, an annotated bibliography rather than translations. http://www.loc.gov/law/find/national-legislation/pdfs/2012-007612_RPT_website.pdf
Knowledge wins: public library books are free See the poster created by Dan Smith (1865-1934) at: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc443/
For Memorial Day, a World War I poster from our collection of world war posters: "Knowledge Wins...Public Library Books are Free". This is one of several posters commissioned by the American Library Association. This particular poster was designed by Daniel Stevens, an American illustrator originally from Philadelphia, who was best known for his depiction of Western Americana scenes. http://blogs.libraries.claremont.edu/sc/2009/05/knowledge-winsamerican-library.html Note the different names. Created by Dan Smith and designed by Daniel Stevens.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 10-10038 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 3:08-cr-00237- DAVID NOSAL, MHP-1 Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Marilyn H. Patel, Senior District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted December 15, 2011—San Francisco, California Filed April 10, 2012 KOZINSKI, Chief Judge: Computers have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. We use them for work; we use them for play. Sometimes we use them for play at work. Many employers have adopted policies prohibiting the use of work computers for nonbusiness purposes. Does an employee who violates such a policy commit a federal crime? How about someone who violates the terms of service of a social networking website? This depends on how broadly we read the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. See the 22-page opinion at: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/04/10/10-10038.pdf
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A widely held belief, reported as fact in supposedly reliable reference books, is that the original Uncle Sam was one Sam Wilson, a meat packer in Troy, New York, who supplied rations to the U.S. military during the War of 1812. Wilson was a subcontractor to one Elbert Anderson, and the letters "E.A. — U.S." were stamped on all the pair's army-bound grub. On being asked what the letters stood for (the abbreviation U.S. supposedly was unfamiliar at the time), one of Sam's workers joshed that it stood for "Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam," meaning the jovial Wilson himself. The joke was quickly picked up by Wilson's other employees. Many of these men later served in the army during the war, and the story spread from there. This tale appears to have first found its way into print in 1842. Very neat, but is it true? On the surface it might seem so. Researchers have established that Elbert Anderson and Sam Wilson did exist and did supply meat to the government during the War of 1812. What's more, the earliest known reference to Uncle Sam in the sense of the U.S. government appeared in 1813 in the Troy Post. But there are reasons to doubt. For one thing, the Uncle Sam = Sam Wilson story didn't see print until 30 years after the event, which seems suspiciously tardy. Second, the notion that someone in 1812 would have to ask what "U.S." stood for is hard to swallow — the available evidence shows that the initials were then in common use. Third, there's something odd about the newspaper evidence. Sam Wilson was a leading citizen of Troy, New York. Yet none of the newspapers in his hometown seem to have had any knowledge of his connection to Uncle Sam until very late in the day. The 1813 reference in the Troy Post says nothing about Wilson, noting merely that "the letters U.S. on the government waggons, & are supposed to have given rise to [Uncle Sam]." In 1816 the Post reprinted a story from Philadelphia claiming that Uncle Sam originated in the initials USLD, meaning United States Light Dragoons, a regiment of which had been formed in 1807. The account said that on being asked what the USLD on their caps stood for, the soldiers said "Uncle Sam's Lazy Dogs." In 1817 the Post took up the matter again, this time reverting to the original explanation that Uncle Sam was simply a jocular expansion of the letters U.S. When Sam Wilson died in 1854, none of the newspaper obituaries by Troy writers mentioned the Uncle Sam connection. So where did Uncle Sam originate? Nobody knows for sure, but it's likely the original explanation in the Troy Post was correct: there was never an actual Uncle Sam; instead the name was just a wiseguy expansion of the initials U.S. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/621/whats-the-origin-of-uncle-sam
On September 15, 1961, the 87th Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution: The bill saluted the "strength and idealism that characterized the life of Samuel Wilson" and recognized Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of the American national symbol Uncle Sam. The bill was signed by President John F. Kennedy. Also, the New York State legislature passed a resolution recognizing Samuel Wilson as Uncle Sam and Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared his birthday, September 13, Uncle Sam Day. President Ronald Reagan designated September 13 as Uncle Sam Day, and the resolution was passed on November 9th, 1988. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8601
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit was the territorial capital. Michigan Territory was established by an act of the United States Congress on January 11, 1805, effective June 30 of that year. The act defined the territory as "all that part of the Indiana Territory, which lies North of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan, until it shall intersect lake Erie, and East of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." A historical marker at a roadside park, approximately three miles east of Naubinway at
46°05′50″N 85°23′51″W46.09722°N 85.3975°W commemorates the northernmost point of Lake Michigan, which is located approximately one mile west of the park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Territory
The first wave of migrants into Iowa were the Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox, driven there by the US Army, which was clearing Wisconsin and Illinois of their Indian populations to make way for white farmers . Although President Andrew Jackson had intended that Louisiana Territory lying north of Missouri should forever be Indian land, the occupation of Iowa by the Indians was brief. Following the abortive attempt by an aging Sauk chieftain, Black Hawk, to win his lands in Illinois, the Sauk and Fox were driven westward in 1832 and forced to cede their lands in eastern Iowa to the incoming white settlers. Placed under the territorial jurisdiction of Michigan in 1834, and then two years later under the newly created Territory of Wisconsin, Iowa became a separate territory in 1838. The first territorial governor, Robert Lucas, extended county boundaries and local government westward, planned for a new capital city to be located on the Iowa River, resisted Missouri's attempt to encroach on Iowa territory, and began planning for statehood by drawing boundary lines that included not only the present State of Iowa but also southern Minnesota up to present-day Minneapolis.
http://www.city-data.com/states/Iowa-History.html
Robert Lucas (1781–1853) was the 12th Governor of the U.S. state of Ohio, serving from 1832 to 1836. He served as the first Governor of Iowa Territory from 1838 to 1841. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lucas_(governor)
Free resources from the Federal Trade Commission
Money Matters http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/moneymatters/index.html offers short, practical tips, videos, and links to reliable sources on a variety of topics in English and Spanish, ranging from credit repair, debt collection, job hunting, and job scams to vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments, and avoiding foreclosure rescue scams.
Free Annual Credit Reports http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml offers details about a consumer's right to a free copy of his or her credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies, upon request, once every 12 months. Reviewing one's credit report regularly is an effective way to deter and detect identity theft. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/04/financialmonth.shtm
Rube Goldberg machines make accomplishing a simple task — like putting a stamp on an envelope — an over-engineered marathon of moving parts. This year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held at Purdue University featured one of the most complex contraptions yet: The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers created a machine that blew up and popped a balloon in a winding 300 steps, breaking the team’s own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine. Based on the work of famous American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, there’s no shortage of elaborate Rube Goldberg machines. But none are more complex — in terms of total sequenced steps — than the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers’ latest creation. A 14-person team made up of Purdue undergraduates and one graduate student spent some 5,000 hours over six months designing and building the new record-breaking contraption. Link to more information and the video at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/record-breaking-rube-goldberg-machine-pops-balloon-in-300-steps/
On September 15, 1961, the 87th Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution: The bill saluted the "strength and idealism that characterized the life of Samuel Wilson" and recognized Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of the American national symbol Uncle Sam. The bill was signed by President John F. Kennedy. Also, the New York State legislature passed a resolution recognizing Samuel Wilson as Uncle Sam and Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared his birthday, September 13, Uncle Sam Day. President Ronald Reagan designated September 13 as Uncle Sam Day, and the resolution was passed on November 9th, 1988. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8601
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit was the territorial capital. Michigan Territory was established by an act of the United States Congress on January 11, 1805, effective June 30 of that year. The act defined the territory as "all that part of the Indiana Territory, which lies North of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan, until it shall intersect lake Erie, and East of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." A historical marker at a roadside park, approximately three miles east of Naubinway at
46°05′50″N 85°23′51″W46.09722°N 85.3975°W commemorates the northernmost point of Lake Michigan, which is located approximately one mile west of the park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Territory
The first wave of migrants into Iowa were the Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox, driven there by the US Army, which was clearing Wisconsin and Illinois of their Indian populations to make way for white farmers . Although President Andrew Jackson had intended that Louisiana Territory lying north of Missouri should forever be Indian land, the occupation of Iowa by the Indians was brief. Following the abortive attempt by an aging Sauk chieftain, Black Hawk, to win his lands in Illinois, the Sauk and Fox were driven westward in 1832 and forced to cede their lands in eastern Iowa to the incoming white settlers. Placed under the territorial jurisdiction of Michigan in 1834, and then two years later under the newly created Territory of Wisconsin, Iowa became a separate territory in 1838. The first territorial governor, Robert Lucas, extended county boundaries and local government westward, planned for a new capital city to be located on the Iowa River, resisted Missouri's attempt to encroach on Iowa territory, and began planning for statehood by drawing boundary lines that included not only the present State of Iowa but also southern Minnesota up to present-day Minneapolis.
http://www.city-data.com/states/Iowa-History.html
Robert Lucas (1781–1853) was the 12th Governor of the U.S. state of Ohio, serving from 1832 to 1836. He served as the first Governor of Iowa Territory from 1838 to 1841. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lucas_(governor)
Free resources from the Federal Trade Commission
Money Matters http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/moneymatters/index.html offers short, practical tips, videos, and links to reliable sources on a variety of topics in English and Spanish, ranging from credit repair, debt collection, job hunting, and job scams to vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments, and avoiding foreclosure rescue scams.
Free Annual Credit Reports http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml offers details about a consumer's right to a free copy of his or her credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies, upon request, once every 12 months. Reviewing one's credit report regularly is an effective way to deter and detect identity theft. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/04/financialmonth.shtm
Rube Goldberg machines make accomplishing a simple task — like putting a stamp on an envelope — an over-engineered marathon of moving parts. This year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held at Purdue University featured one of the most complex contraptions yet: The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers created a machine that blew up and popped a balloon in a winding 300 steps, breaking the team’s own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine. Based on the work of famous American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, there’s no shortage of elaborate Rube Goldberg machines. But none are more complex — in terms of total sequenced steps — than the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers’ latest creation. A 14-person team made up of Purdue undergraduates and one graduate student spent some 5,000 hours over six months designing and building the new record-breaking contraption. Link to more information and the video at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/record-breaking-rube-goldberg-machine-pops-balloon-in-300-steps/
Monday, April 9, 2012
French puisné becomes puny when it crosses the water to land in the English-speaking world. Petit turns petty. That's how words naturalize. They adapt to their new surroundings.
They lose their accent marks. They shed their silent letters. They drop markers of their previous lives when they enter the land of Anglophonia.
alley-oop (al-ee-OOP) Phonetic respelling of French allez-hop or allez-oop, cry of a circus performer about to leap. Earliest documented use: 1923.
kickshaw (KIK-shaw) fancy dish, delicacy, trinket.
From phonetic respelling of French quelque chose (something) as kickshaws which was treated as a plural and turned into the singular kickshaw. Earliest documented use: 1598.
toot sweet (toot sweet) Phonetic respelling of French tout de suite (at once, straight away). Earliest documented use: 1917.
parry (PAR-ee)
From French parez (ward off), imperative of parer (to ward off), from Latin parare (to set or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1655.
Mayday or mayday (MAY-day)
Mayday is an international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft to call for help. It's a phonetic respelling of French m'aidez (help me), from me (me) + aidez, imperative of aider (to help). Earliest documented use: 1927. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Dennis Zickerman Subject: alley-oop Def: interjection: Used as an exhortation or to signal the start of an activity; noun: basketball move. Also, in football, a long pass into the endzone, thrown on a high arc, allowing the receiver to leap higher than the defenders to catch the ball. Made famous by Joe Montana to R.C. Owens.
From: Maireaine Cohen Subject: Alley Oop Does anyone remember the old caveman comic strip? The caveman was named Alley Oop, and he rode on a dinosaur. There was also a novelty song in the early 60s of the same name, about the caveman character.
From: Janet Rizvi Subject: kickshaw Def: 1. A fancy dish; delicacy. 2. A trinket. Way back in the fifties, when perhaps I'd missed a supervision (Cambridge-speak for tutorial) for some reason or other, my supervisor sent me a note: 'Come on [day & time] armed with an essay on a subject of your choice. Knock up a dainty little kickshaw.' I've always cherished that.
From: Barbara Ulman Subject: toot sweet Def: Quickly; immediately.
Claude Bolling wrote a suite for trumpet, piano, and percussion named Toot Suite.
From: Viv Brown Subject: toot sweet Impossible to see this word without thinking of the wonderful song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Some great lyrics in this musical (loosely based on a story by Ian Fleming) from the Sherman Brothers:
"Don't waste your pucker on some all day sucker And don't try a toffee or cream
If you seek perfection in sugar confection Well there's something new on the scene
A mouth full of cheer A sweet without peer A musical morsel supreme!
Toot Sweets! Toot Sweets! The candies you whistle, the whistles you eat. Toot Sweets!
From: Dave Zobel subject: Mayday: Radio distress signals of the ancient Romans Def: A distress signal; a call for help. As a first-year Latin student, I was delighted to realize that the second-declension vocative "mee dee" (pron.: "may day") translates as "O my God!" As a second-year Latin student, I was heartbroken to discover that both "meus" and "deus" are irregular in the vocative, and thus "mee dee" translates as "Me no talking Latin so good."
From: Richard Stallman Subject: m'aidez There is something strange about "m'aidez": it's not the usual way to say "help me" in French. That would be "aidez-moi", the imperative. " M'aidez" is indicative, as in "Vous m'aidez beaucoup"; the subjunctive, which could be used in a command, would be "m'aidez", as in "Je veux que vous m'aidez." So why did "m'aidez" get used there? A number of readers raised this. Thanks to everyone who wrote. The English word mayday is a phonetic respelling not of m'aidez, but m'aider, which is a clipping of venez m'aider (come help me). -Anu Garg
In a potentially costly setback for Google, a federal appeals court on April 5 ruled that its YouTube video site must once again defend itself from a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood giant Viacom. The decision revives one of the most important Internet intellectual property cases of the last decade — a dispute that became a flashpoint in the ongoing struggle over copyright between big content companies and internet giants. The case dates back to March of 2007, less than a year after Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion. In its lawsuit, Viacom argued that YouTube’s explosive growth was based, in part, on users posting videos of Viacom’s programs, including South Park and The Daily Show. In its defense, Google argued that the DMCA protected YouTube from liablity because the site promptly takes down infringing content once it is notified. According to the DMCA, safe harbor protection applies if an Internet service provider like Youtube “responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing.” http://business.time.com/2012/04/06/federal-court-revives-landmark-1-billion-viacom-vs-youtube-case/
Monumental error On April 5, a tractor-trailer rig that turned from U.S. 24 onto River Road in Maumee, Ohio knocked over a monument and dragged it through two communities for 4 miles. "We are very fortunate it wasn't destroyed," Marilyn Wendler, curator of the Maumee Valley Historical Society, said of the monument. The marker at River Road and South Detroit Avenue in Maumee denotes the importance of the Great Trail, made by Native Americans before the French and Indian War, which extended from Detroit to Pittsburgh and was used by the French and British and by Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1812. The trail was regarded as the most important early route of the central west, according to the inscription on the marker that was erected in 1913 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, ¬Ursula Wolcott Chapter. Joe Camp, Maumee's director of public service, said the city has contacted Design Memorial of Maumee to assess the damage to engravings on the back of the marker before it determines how long the restoration would take. The concrete monument was chipped, but the front metal plate was intact. If the driver is cited in the incident, the bill will be turned over to his insurance company, Mr. Camp said. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/04/05/Semi-drags-monument-from-Maumee-to-South-Toledo.html
GOSHEN, N.Y. April 7, 2012— As Modernist buildings reach middle age, many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores. The conflict has come in recent months to this quaint village 60 miles north of New York City — with its historic harness-racing track, picturesque Main Street and Greek Revival, Federal and Victorian houses — where the blocky concrete county government center designed by the celebrated Modernist architect Paul Rudolph has always been something of a misfit. Edward A. Diana, the Orange County executive, wants to demolish it, an idea that has delighted many residents but alarmed preservationists, local and national, who say the building should be saved. The county legislature is expected to decide whether to demolish or renovate it next month. Those who want to save it call it a prime example of an architectural style called Brutalism that rejected efforts to prettify buildings in favor of displaying the raw power of simple forms and undisguised building materials, like the center’s textured facade. “Preservation is not simply about saving the most beautiful things,” said Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. “It’s about saving those objects that are an important part of our history and whose value is always going to be a subject of debate.” Rudolph, who died in 1997, was a prominent Modernist architect who also designed Yale’s Art and Architecture Building, among others. Architectural historians say the Goshen government center, which features protruding cubes and a corrugated concrete facade resembling corduroy, represents Rudolph at his best. But Mr. Benton, the county legislator, called it “a world monument to inefficiency.” Robin Pogrebin http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/arts/design/unloved-building-in-goshen-ny-prompts-debate-on-modernism.html
The Titanic's plunge into the frigid Atlantic was predicted several years before the disaster — not by an oracle or in a conspiracy theory but in seemingly innocuous works of fiction about shipwrecks. The most striking and prophetic example is The Sinking of a Modern Liner, written in 1886 by English journalist W.T. Stead. The story is eerily similar to the actual Titanic's ill-fated demise. In Stead's book, an ocean liner leaves Liverpool and while on a journey to New York City, becomes involved in a collision. In the ensuing panic, many passengers drown because there are too few lifeboats. In a strange twist of fate, Stead inadvertently foretold his own death in the book: he was onboard the Titanic when it sank in April 1912. Stead's book was not the only pseudo-supernatural foretelling of the Titanic tragedy. There was also Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, written in 1898 by American author Morgan Robertson. Here, a ship called the Titan is also deemed "unsinkable" but hits an ice shelf and does just that, sinking off the coast of Newfoundland, much akin to the Titanic. Read of other stories at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/titanic/story/2012/03/30/f-titanic-fiction-predictions.html
Traditionally, the April full moon is known as "the Pink Moon," supposedly as a tribute to the grass pink or wild ground phlox, considered one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other monikers include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and, among coastal Native American tribes, the Full Fish Moon, for when the shad came upstream to spawn. The origins of these names have been traced back to Native America, though they may also have evolved from old England. The first full moon of spring is usually designated as the Paschal Full Moon or the Paschal Term. Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon . If the Paschal Moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. Following these rules, we find that the date of Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Pope Gregory XIII decreed this in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar. Interestingly, these rules also state that the vernal equinox is fixed on March 21, despite the fact that from the years 2008 through 2101, at European longitudes it actually will occur no later than March 20. Adding additional confusion is that there is also an "ecclesiastical" full moon, determined from ecclesiastical tables, whose date does not necessarily coincide with the "astronomical" full moon, which is based solely on astronomical calculations. In 1981, for example, the full moon occurred on Sunday, April 19, so Easter should have occurred on the following Sunday, April 26. But based on the ecclesiastical full moon, it occurred on the same day of the astronomical full moon, April 19. Hence, there can sometimes be discrepancies between the ecclesiastical and astronomical versions for dating Easter. In the year 2038, for instance, the equinox will fall on March 20, with a full moon the next day, so astronomically speaking, Easter should fall on March 28 of that year. So in practice, the date of Easter is determined not from astronomical computations but rather from other formulae such as Golden Numbers. Joe Rao http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-moon-affects-the-date-of-easter
Full Moon Names and Their Meanings http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/
They lose their accent marks. They shed their silent letters. They drop markers of their previous lives when they enter the land of Anglophonia.
alley-oop (al-ee-OOP) Phonetic respelling of French allez-hop or allez-oop, cry of a circus performer about to leap. Earliest documented use: 1923.
kickshaw (KIK-shaw) fancy dish, delicacy, trinket.
From phonetic respelling of French quelque chose (something) as kickshaws which was treated as a plural and turned into the singular kickshaw. Earliest documented use: 1598.
toot sweet (toot sweet) Phonetic respelling of French tout de suite (at once, straight away). Earliest documented use: 1917.
parry (PAR-ee)
From French parez (ward off), imperative of parer (to ward off), from Latin parare (to set or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1655.
Mayday or mayday (MAY-day)
Mayday is an international radio distress signal used by ships and aircraft to call for help. It's a phonetic respelling of French m'aidez (help me), from me (me) + aidez, imperative of aider (to help). Earliest documented use: 1927. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Dennis Zickerman Subject: alley-oop Def: interjection: Used as an exhortation or to signal the start of an activity; noun: basketball move. Also, in football, a long pass into the endzone, thrown on a high arc, allowing the receiver to leap higher than the defenders to catch the ball. Made famous by Joe Montana to R.C. Owens.
From: Maireaine Cohen Subject: Alley Oop Does anyone remember the old caveman comic strip? The caveman was named Alley Oop, and he rode on a dinosaur. There was also a novelty song in the early 60s of the same name, about the caveman character.
From: Janet Rizvi Subject: kickshaw Def: 1. A fancy dish; delicacy. 2. A trinket. Way back in the fifties, when perhaps I'd missed a supervision (Cambridge-speak for tutorial) for some reason or other, my supervisor sent me a note: 'Come on [day & time] armed with an essay on a subject of your choice. Knock up a dainty little kickshaw.' I've always cherished that.
From: Barbara Ulman Subject: toot sweet Def: Quickly; immediately.
Claude Bolling wrote a suite for trumpet, piano, and percussion named Toot Suite.
From: Viv Brown Subject: toot sweet Impossible to see this word without thinking of the wonderful song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Some great lyrics in this musical (loosely based on a story by Ian Fleming) from the Sherman Brothers:
"Don't waste your pucker on some all day sucker And don't try a toffee or cream
If you seek perfection in sugar confection Well there's something new on the scene
A mouth full of cheer A sweet without peer A musical morsel supreme!
Toot Sweets! Toot Sweets! The candies you whistle, the whistles you eat. Toot Sweets!
From: Dave Zobel subject: Mayday: Radio distress signals of the ancient Romans Def: A distress signal; a call for help. As a first-year Latin student, I was delighted to realize that the second-declension vocative "mee dee" (pron.: "may day") translates as "O my God!" As a second-year Latin student, I was heartbroken to discover that both "meus" and "deus" are irregular in the vocative, and thus "mee dee" translates as "Me no talking Latin so good."
From: Richard Stallman Subject: m'aidez There is something strange about "m'aidez": it's not the usual way to say "help me" in French. That would be "aidez-moi", the imperative. " M'aidez" is indicative, as in "Vous m'aidez beaucoup"; the subjunctive, which could be used in a command, would be "m'aidez", as in "Je veux que vous m'aidez." So why did "m'aidez" get used there? A number of readers raised this. Thanks to everyone who wrote. The English word mayday is a phonetic respelling not of m'aidez, but m'aider, which is a clipping of venez m'aider (come help me). -Anu Garg
In a potentially costly setback for Google, a federal appeals court on April 5 ruled that its YouTube video site must once again defend itself from a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood giant Viacom. The decision revives one of the most important Internet intellectual property cases of the last decade — a dispute that became a flashpoint in the ongoing struggle over copyright between big content companies and internet giants. The case dates back to March of 2007, less than a year after Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion. In its lawsuit, Viacom argued that YouTube’s explosive growth was based, in part, on users posting videos of Viacom’s programs, including South Park and The Daily Show. In its defense, Google argued that the DMCA protected YouTube from liablity because the site promptly takes down infringing content once it is notified. According to the DMCA, safe harbor protection applies if an Internet service provider like Youtube “responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing.” http://business.time.com/2012/04/06/federal-court-revives-landmark-1-billion-viacom-vs-youtube-case/
Monumental error On April 5, a tractor-trailer rig that turned from U.S. 24 onto River Road in Maumee, Ohio knocked over a monument and dragged it through two communities for 4 miles. "We are very fortunate it wasn't destroyed," Marilyn Wendler, curator of the Maumee Valley Historical Society, said of the monument. The marker at River Road and South Detroit Avenue in Maumee denotes the importance of the Great Trail, made by Native Americans before the French and Indian War, which extended from Detroit to Pittsburgh and was used by the French and British and by Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1812. The trail was regarded as the most important early route of the central west, according to the inscription on the marker that was erected in 1913 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, ¬Ursula Wolcott Chapter. Joe Camp, Maumee's director of public service, said the city has contacted Design Memorial of Maumee to assess the damage to engravings on the back of the marker before it determines how long the restoration would take. The concrete monument was chipped, but the front metal plate was intact. If the driver is cited in the incident, the bill will be turned over to his insurance company, Mr. Camp said. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/04/05/Semi-drags-monument-from-Maumee-to-South-Toledo.html
GOSHEN, N.Y. April 7, 2012— As Modernist buildings reach middle age, many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores. The conflict has come in recent months to this quaint village 60 miles north of New York City — with its historic harness-racing track, picturesque Main Street and Greek Revival, Federal and Victorian houses — where the blocky concrete county government center designed by the celebrated Modernist architect Paul Rudolph has always been something of a misfit. Edward A. Diana, the Orange County executive, wants to demolish it, an idea that has delighted many residents but alarmed preservationists, local and national, who say the building should be saved. The county legislature is expected to decide whether to demolish or renovate it next month. Those who want to save it call it a prime example of an architectural style called Brutalism that rejected efforts to prettify buildings in favor of displaying the raw power of simple forms and undisguised building materials, like the center’s textured facade. “Preservation is not simply about saving the most beautiful things,” said Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. “It’s about saving those objects that are an important part of our history and whose value is always going to be a subject of debate.” Rudolph, who died in 1997, was a prominent Modernist architect who also designed Yale’s Art and Architecture Building, among others. Architectural historians say the Goshen government center, which features protruding cubes and a corrugated concrete facade resembling corduroy, represents Rudolph at his best. But Mr. Benton, the county legislator, called it “a world monument to inefficiency.” Robin Pogrebin http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/arts/design/unloved-building-in-goshen-ny-prompts-debate-on-modernism.html
The Titanic's plunge into the frigid Atlantic was predicted several years before the disaster — not by an oracle or in a conspiracy theory but in seemingly innocuous works of fiction about shipwrecks. The most striking and prophetic example is The Sinking of a Modern Liner, written in 1886 by English journalist W.T. Stead. The story is eerily similar to the actual Titanic's ill-fated demise. In Stead's book, an ocean liner leaves Liverpool and while on a journey to New York City, becomes involved in a collision. In the ensuing panic, many passengers drown because there are too few lifeboats. In a strange twist of fate, Stead inadvertently foretold his own death in the book: he was onboard the Titanic when it sank in April 1912. Stead's book was not the only pseudo-supernatural foretelling of the Titanic tragedy. There was also Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, written in 1898 by American author Morgan Robertson. Here, a ship called the Titan is also deemed "unsinkable" but hits an ice shelf and does just that, sinking off the coast of Newfoundland, much akin to the Titanic. Read of other stories at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/titanic/story/2012/03/30/f-titanic-fiction-predictions.html
Traditionally, the April full moon is known as "the Pink Moon," supposedly as a tribute to the grass pink or wild ground phlox, considered one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other monikers include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and, among coastal Native American tribes, the Full Fish Moon, for when the shad came upstream to spawn. The origins of these names have been traced back to Native America, though they may also have evolved from old England. The first full moon of spring is usually designated as the Paschal Full Moon or the Paschal Term. Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon . If the Paschal Moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. Following these rules, we find that the date of Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. Pope Gregory XIII decreed this in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar. Interestingly, these rules also state that the vernal equinox is fixed on March 21, despite the fact that from the years 2008 through 2101, at European longitudes it actually will occur no later than March 20. Adding additional confusion is that there is also an "ecclesiastical" full moon, determined from ecclesiastical tables, whose date does not necessarily coincide with the "astronomical" full moon, which is based solely on astronomical calculations. In 1981, for example, the full moon occurred on Sunday, April 19, so Easter should have occurred on the following Sunday, April 26. But based on the ecclesiastical full moon, it occurred on the same day of the astronomical full moon, April 19. Hence, there can sometimes be discrepancies between the ecclesiastical and astronomical versions for dating Easter. In the year 2038, for instance, the equinox will fall on March 20, with a full moon the next day, so astronomically speaking, Easter should fall on March 28 of that year. So in practice, the date of Easter is determined not from astronomical computations but rather from other formulae such as Golden Numbers. Joe Rao http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-the-moon-affects-the-date-of-easter
Full Moon Names and Their Meanings http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/
Friday, April 6, 2012
TURNER, Mont.—April 5 marks the 137th Opening Day of Major League Baseball and no fans in the lower 48 states are farther from the roar of the crowd than the 61 residents here. This summer will be Turner's centennial. As part of the celebration, the town will try to round up enough players for pickup games at the old ball field on the edge of town, which has views of wheat fields and the two-lane road to Canada. The town tries to stitch together summer games, recruiting players as young as five years old and people well into their 60s. It requires some accommodation. Young kids, for instance, use a tee at bat. Parents and children sometimes man their positions together. The rule is, only adults get adults out; vice versa for kids. They tried a game of adults versus children. To even the playing field, right-handed grown-ups had to bat lefty and left-handed adults went righty. Adults had to run bases backward, facing home plate while running to first, for example. Conor Dougherty http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304750404577321971975948212.html
Home of the Turner Tornadoes http://www.turnermontana.us/
Federal Reserve Policy Statement on Rental of Residential Other Real Estate Owned Properties April 5, 2012 In light of the large volume of distressed residential properties and the indications of higher demand for rental housing in many markets, some banking organizations may choose to make greater use of rental activities in their disposition strategies than in the past. This policy statement reminds banking organizations and examiners that the Federal Reserve’s regulations and policies permit the rental of residential other real estate owned (OREO) properties to third party tenants as part of an orderly disposition strategy within statutory and regulatory limits. Read the six-page statement at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/bcreg20120405a1.pdf
Google Art Project is an online compilation of high-resolution images of artworks from galleries worldwide, as well as a virtual tour of the galleries in which they are housed. The project was launched on 1 February 2011 by Google, and includes works in the Tate Gallery, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; and the Uffizi, Florence. The "walk-through" feature of the project uses Google's Street View technology. Seventeen galleries and museums were included in the launch of the project. The 1,061 high-resolution images (by 486 different artists) are shown in 385 virtual gallery rooms, with 6,000 Street View-style panoramas. Each institute contributed one item of gigapixel artwork.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Art_Project
The Toledo Museum of Art has contributed digital images of 135 pieces it owns to the Google Art Project. The project announced an expansion April 3, in which Toledo joins 150 other museums and galleries that have submitted more than 30,000 high-resolution images to Google's virtual collection. You may link to Toledo's contribution at: http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2012/04/03/Toledo-Museum-of-Art-contributes-to-Google-project.html You will need Chrome Frame in order to see Google Art Project. Google Chrome Frame is a free plug-in with access to Google Chrome's open web technologies and the JavaScript engine for Internet Explorer.
Google Chrome Frame FAQ http://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/chrome-frame-getting-started/chrome-frame-faq
The Web is cool, but the library is magic. Where else can the spirit of generations of writers stir your soul? So many writers talk about libraries setting them on their magical paths, it's almost a groaner. But we know it's true. Wander through the stacks and you can feel the dreams, the unique worlds bubbling within each volume. The magic enters you as if by osmosis. On the Web, you may feel clever, lucky and driven to download--but rarely inspired to dream and to write. Arthur Plotnik "Who Loves You Like the Library?" The Writer November 2003
Quotes on moderation
Sourced
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.
Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Book III. Of Moderation.
It is the sign of a great spirit to be moderate in prosperity.
Seneca the Elder , Suasoriae, ch. 1, sect. 3; translation from Michael Winterbottom (trans.) Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 2, p. 489
Be moderate, be moderate. Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act IV, scene 4, line 1.
Unsourced
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." Thomas Paine
"Moderation in all things, including moderation." Petronius
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
True happiness springs from moderation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Naturliche Tochter, II. 5. 79.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from the poverty of a tenement, is free from the envy of a palace. Horace, Carmina, II. 10. 5.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers. François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims. No. 18.
Safety lies in the middle course. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book II, line 136. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moderation
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman orator, lawyer, politician, and philosopher
How a bill becomes a law http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101183.html
I'm Just a Bill with link to video http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Bill.html
Celebrate National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012 See what bestselling author and Honorary Chair of National Library Week, Brad Meltzer, has to say about the impact of libraries on his life in 1.42 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZSqeYdV_tf8
Frequently challenged books of the 21st century http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged Check your nearest public library for NLW activities.
Home of the Turner Tornadoes http://www.turnermontana.us/
Federal Reserve Policy Statement on Rental of Residential Other Real Estate Owned Properties April 5, 2012 In light of the large volume of distressed residential properties and the indications of higher demand for rental housing in many markets, some banking organizations may choose to make greater use of rental activities in their disposition strategies than in the past. This policy statement reminds banking organizations and examiners that the Federal Reserve’s regulations and policies permit the rental of residential other real estate owned (OREO) properties to third party tenants as part of an orderly disposition strategy within statutory and regulatory limits. Read the six-page statement at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/bcreg20120405a1.pdf
Google Art Project is an online compilation of high-resolution images of artworks from galleries worldwide, as well as a virtual tour of the galleries in which they are housed. The project was launched on 1 February 2011 by Google, and includes works in the Tate Gallery, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; and the Uffizi, Florence. The "walk-through" feature of the project uses Google's Street View technology. Seventeen galleries and museums were included in the launch of the project. The 1,061 high-resolution images (by 486 different artists) are shown in 385 virtual gallery rooms, with 6,000 Street View-style panoramas. Each institute contributed one item of gigapixel artwork.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Art_Project
The Toledo Museum of Art has contributed digital images of 135 pieces it owns to the Google Art Project. The project announced an expansion April 3, in which Toledo joins 150 other museums and galleries that have submitted more than 30,000 high-resolution images to Google's virtual collection. You may link to Toledo's contribution at: http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2012/04/03/Toledo-Museum-of-Art-contributes-to-Google-project.html You will need Chrome Frame in order to see Google Art Project. Google Chrome Frame is a free plug-in with access to Google Chrome's open web technologies and the JavaScript engine for Internet Explorer.
Google Chrome Frame FAQ http://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/chrome-frame-getting-started/chrome-frame-faq
The Web is cool, but the library is magic. Where else can the spirit of generations of writers stir your soul? So many writers talk about libraries setting them on their magical paths, it's almost a groaner. But we know it's true. Wander through the stacks and you can feel the dreams, the unique worlds bubbling within each volume. The magic enters you as if by osmosis. On the Web, you may feel clever, lucky and driven to download--but rarely inspired to dream and to write. Arthur Plotnik "Who Loves You Like the Library?" The Writer November 2003
Quotes on moderation
Sourced
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.
Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Book III. Of Moderation.
It is the sign of a great spirit to be moderate in prosperity.
Seneca the Elder , Suasoriae, ch. 1, sect. 3; translation from Michael Winterbottom (trans.) Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 2, p. 489
Be moderate, be moderate. Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act IV, scene 4, line 1.
Unsourced
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." Thomas Paine
"Moderation in all things, including moderation." Petronius
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
True happiness springs from moderation.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Naturliche Tochter, II. 5. 79.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from the poverty of a tenement, is free from the envy of a palace. Horace, Carmina, II. 10. 5.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers. François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims. No. 18.
Safety lies in the middle course. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book II, line 136. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moderation
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman orator, lawyer, politician, and philosopher
How a bill becomes a law http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101183.html
I'm Just a Bill with link to video http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Bill.html
Celebrate National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012 See what bestselling author and Honorary Chair of National Library Week, Brad Meltzer, has to say about the impact of libraries on his life in 1.42 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZSqeYdV_tf8
Frequently challenged books of the 21st century http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged Check your nearest public library for NLW activities.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The 50 States That Rhyme Song Tune: Turkey in the Straw See words and link to a class singing it at: http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/50states.html
The 50 State Capitals Song Tune: Turkey in the Straw http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/50capitals.html
A library provides a transformative environment.
Stephen Ferguson Assistant University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “the Bureau”) is pleased to
submit to Congress its first annual report summarizing its activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA” or “the Act”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 et seq., during the past year. See the FDCPA ANNUAL REPORT 2012 at: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201203_cfpb_FDCPA_annual_report.pdf
The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American author
The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. An important wrinkle to understand about public domain material is that, while each work belongs to the public, collections of public domain works may be protected by copyright. If, for example, someone has collected public domain images in a book or on a website, the collection as a whole may be protectible even though individual images are not. You are free to copy and use individual images but copying and distributing the complete collection may infringe what is known as the “collective works” copyright. Collections of public domain material will be protected if the person who created it has used creativity in the choices and organization of the public domain material. Copyright has expired for all works published in the United States before 1923. In other words, if the work was published in the U.S. before January 1, 1923, you are free to use it in the U.S. without permission. Because of legislation passed in 1998, no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019, when works published in 1923 will expire. In 2020, works published in 1924 will expire, and so on. For works published after 1977, if the work was written by a single author, the copyright will not expire until 70 years after the author’s death. If a work was written by several authors and published after 1977, it will not expire until 70 years after the last surviving author dies. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/8-a.html
The curious art of diagramming sentences was invented 165 years ago by S.W. Clark, a schoolmaster in Homer, N.Y. His book, published in 1847, was called “A Practical Grammar: In which Words, Phrases, and Sentences Are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relations to One Another.” His goal was to simplify the teaching of English grammar. It was more than 300 pages long, contained information on such things as unipersonal verbs and “rhetorico-grammatical figures,” and provided a long section on Prosody, which he defined as “that part of the Science of Language which treats of utterance.” It may have been unwieldy, but this formidable tome was also quite revolutionary: out of the general murk of its tiny print, incessant repetitions, maze of definitions and uplifting examples emerged the profoundly innovative, dazzlingly ingenious and rather whimsical idea of analyzing sentences by turning them into pictures. “A Practical Grammar” was a reaction against the way the subject had been taught in America since it began to be taught at all. Before diagramming, grammar was taught by means of its drabber older sibling, parsing. Parsing is a venerable method for teaching inflected languages like Latin; the word itself is schoolboy slang derived from pars orationis, Latin for “a part of speech.” Kitty Burns Florey See pictures at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/a-picture-of-language/
The Wooden Bridge in Cambridge, England was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722-1784) to the design of William Etheridge (1709-1776). It has subsequently been rebuilt to the same design in 1866 and 1905. For those who have fallen prey to the baseless stories told by unscrupulous guides to gullible tourists, it is necessary to point out that Isaac Newton died in 1727 (biography), and therefore cannot possibly have had anything to do with this bridge. The joints of the present bridge are fastened by nuts and bolts. Earlier versions of the bridge used iron pins or screws at the joints, driven in from the outer elevation. http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/queens/images/WinBridg.html
When in doubt, go the library.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J. K. Rowling 1999
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit alphabetical shelves,
Giovani Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low gigantic chord of language.
Billy Collins "Books" in The Apple That Astonished Paris. 1988
The 50 State Capitals Song Tune: Turkey in the Straw http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/50capitals.html
A library provides a transformative environment.
Stephen Ferguson Assistant University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “the Bureau”) is pleased to
submit to Congress its first annual report summarizing its activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA” or “the Act”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 et seq., during the past year. See the FDCPA ANNUAL REPORT 2012 at: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201203_cfpb_FDCPA_annual_report.pdf
The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American author
The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. An important wrinkle to understand about public domain material is that, while each work belongs to the public, collections of public domain works may be protected by copyright. If, for example, someone has collected public domain images in a book or on a website, the collection as a whole may be protectible even though individual images are not. You are free to copy and use individual images but copying and distributing the complete collection may infringe what is known as the “collective works” copyright. Collections of public domain material will be protected if the person who created it has used creativity in the choices and organization of the public domain material. Copyright has expired for all works published in the United States before 1923. In other words, if the work was published in the U.S. before January 1, 1923, you are free to use it in the U.S. without permission. Because of legislation passed in 1998, no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019, when works published in 1923 will expire. In 2020, works published in 1924 will expire, and so on. For works published after 1977, if the work was written by a single author, the copyright will not expire until 70 years after the author’s death. If a work was written by several authors and published after 1977, it will not expire until 70 years after the last surviving author dies. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/8-a.html
The curious art of diagramming sentences was invented 165 years ago by S.W. Clark, a schoolmaster in Homer, N.Y. His book, published in 1847, was called “A Practical Grammar: In which Words, Phrases, and Sentences Are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relations to One Another.” His goal was to simplify the teaching of English grammar. It was more than 300 pages long, contained information on such things as unipersonal verbs and “rhetorico-grammatical figures,” and provided a long section on Prosody, which he defined as “that part of the Science of Language which treats of utterance.” It may have been unwieldy, but this formidable tome was also quite revolutionary: out of the general murk of its tiny print, incessant repetitions, maze of definitions and uplifting examples emerged the profoundly innovative, dazzlingly ingenious and rather whimsical idea of analyzing sentences by turning them into pictures. “A Practical Grammar” was a reaction against the way the subject had been taught in America since it began to be taught at all. Before diagramming, grammar was taught by means of its drabber older sibling, parsing. Parsing is a venerable method for teaching inflected languages like Latin; the word itself is schoolboy slang derived from pars orationis, Latin for “a part of speech.” Kitty Burns Florey See pictures at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/a-picture-of-language/
The Wooden Bridge in Cambridge, England was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722-1784) to the design of William Etheridge (1709-1776). It has subsequently been rebuilt to the same design in 1866 and 1905. For those who have fallen prey to the baseless stories told by unscrupulous guides to gullible tourists, it is necessary to point out that Isaac Newton died in 1727 (biography), and therefore cannot possibly have had anything to do with this bridge. The joints of the present bridge are fastened by nuts and bolts. Earlier versions of the bridge used iron pins or screws at the joints, driven in from the outer elevation. http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/queens/images/WinBridg.html
When in doubt, go the library.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J. K. Rowling 1999
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit alphabetical shelves,
Giovani Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low gigantic chord of language.
Billy Collins "Books" in The Apple That Astonished Paris. 1988
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