Employer Health Benefits 2008 Annual Survey
Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose to $12,680 annually for family coverage this year–with employees on average paying $3,354 out of their paychecks to cover their share of the cost–and the scope of that coverage has changed, with many more workers now enrolled in high-deductible plans, according to the 2008 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET). Key findings from the benchmark annual survey of small and large employers were also published as a Web Exclusive in the journal Health Affairs.
Premiums rose a modest 5 percent this year, but they have more than doubled since 1999 when total family premiums stood at $5,791 (of which workers paid $1,543). During the same nine-year period, workers’ wages increased 34 percent and general inflation rose 29 percent.
This year many workers are also facing higher deductibles in their plans, including a growing number with general plan deductibles of at least $1,000 – 18 percent of all covered workers in 2008, up from 12 percent last year. This is partly, but not entirely, driven by growth in consumer-directed plans such as those that qualify for a tax-preferred Health Savings Account.
The shift has been most dramatic for workers in small businesses with three to 199 workers, where more than one in three (35 percent) covered workers must pay at least $1,000 out of pocket before their plan generally will start to pay a share of their health-care bills – rising from 21 percent last year. For workers facing deductibles in Preferred Provider Organizations, the most common type of plan, the average deductible rose to $560 in 2008, up nearly $100 from 2007. Kaiser Family Foundation
New GAO Report
Elections: States, Territories, and the District Are Taking a Range of Important Steps to Manage Their Varied Voting System Environments
+ Related Product:
Elections: 2007 Survey of State Voting System Programs (GAO-08-1147SP, September 2008), an E-Supplement to GAO-08-874. (Internet only)
Government Accountability Office
Aaron's Book Corner in Lititz, PA, has announced that it's teaming up with the Lititz Public Library to sponsor the first "Lititz Loves Reading" week. Events from October 20 - 26 include author appearances, library fundraisers, and an all-night "Read-a-Thon."
Happenings at Aaron's include a discussion of the Lititz One Book One Community selection, The Grace That Keeps This World by Tom Bailey (Three Rivers), and an appearance by local author Jill Althouse-Wood (Summers at Blue Lake, Algonquin). The weeklong celebration culminates in a Read-a-Thon on October 25.
"Lititz Loves Reading" week is inspired by a national program, Great Expectations 2008, founded by RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. For the week, Aaron's customers will be able to support the mission of Lititz Public Library in two ways. First, for any customer presenting a Lititz library card while shopping at Aaron's Books, 10 percent of the purchase price will be donated to the library. Second, the library is supplying Aaron's Books with a "wish list" of most wanted books, and supporters can buy a book for the library through Aaron's Books at 25 percent below retail price.
Bookweb has the story.
Nebraska recently enacted a Safe Haven law, allowing parents to surrender infants anonymously at hospitals without legal consequence. Though Nebraska is the last state in the nation to permit such a law, it is also the first state to permit parents to abandon children up to age 19. Other states have set a much lower age limit for children to be abandoned--only babies under a year old apply.
http://media.www.thehilltoponline.com/media/storage/paper590/news/2008/09/03/NationWorld/Safe-Haven.Law.Reaches.Nebraska.Allows.Abandonment-3413006.shtml
col (kol, rhymes with doll) noun A mountain pass
From French col (neck), from Latin collum (neck). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kwel- (to revolve) that is also the source of words such as colony, cult, culture, cycle, cyclone, chakra, and collar. A.Word.A.Day
New Zealand coins On March 31st, 1989 the issue of 1 cent (2.07 grams, bronze) and 2 cent (4.14 grams, bronze) pieces ceased. http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/currency/money/0094086.html
It might cause a riot, but we could eliminate pennies in the United States—saving on weight, natural resources and money (it costs over a penny to make a penny). As an example of simplification, we could charge $4.00 rather than $3.99 for an item. A price of $4.02 would be rounded down to $4.00—price of $4.08 would be rounded up to $4.10.
Google Offers Up to $10-Million for Innovative Ideas
Google has committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by their advisory board. If you could suggest a unique idea that would help as many people as possible, what would it be? Full details at the official Google blog.
Novel of the Week The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
“best-selling Cinderella tale from France” The Week October 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
September 28 marks the first anniversary of my retirement from Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick after serving 30 years as law librarian. In October, 2007 we celebrated the event by traveling to the fragile, magical land of New Zealand. Then, each day seemed like an eternity even though I work part-time. When I resumed a newsletter in January, 2008 the routine became natural and interesting.
Swiss airline pilot Yves Rossy became the first person to fly between France and England on Friday with a jetpack strapped to his back. The pilot, who normally flies an Airbus airliner, swapped the plane's controls for four jets attached to a wing on his back to get across the Channel. The simple kerosene-burning jet turbines propelled him the 22 miles between Calais and Dover at speeds of up to 120 mph. The journey took just under 10 minutes. With no steering controls, the only way to change direction was like a bird, moving his head and back. Rossy traced the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the Channel in an aircraft in 1909.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE48P4CE20080926
"Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report...will be released in five consecutive daily segments. Since 2004, our annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, we resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. For the first time, we surveyed bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially."
Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008: Medical journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes, rankings, images--all can be found on the Net, and much of it is available free. Sources include publishers, government agencies, professional organizations, health libraries and commercial entities. Gloria Miccioli's completely updated and revised topical guide expertly focuses on what she identifies as the best, content-rich databases and services for researchers.
William Billings (1746-1800), is considered by many to be the foremost representative of early American music. Billings was born in Boston on October 7, 1746. Largely self-trained in music, he was a tanner by trade and a friend of such figures of the American Revolution as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Billings's New England Psalm-Singer (1770), engraved by Revere, was the first collection of music entirely by an American. In the recent HBO miniseries about John Adams, in episode 1, there is a scene where the Boston patriots are meeting and at the end of the meeting, they sing a verse of the anthem Chester by William Billings. This may well be the first widespread recognition of the music of William Billings and the fact that Chester was the original National Anthem.
http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/billings.htm
Google has created an interesting tool comparing McCain's and Obama's statements reported in the press on numerous topics from abortion to taxes. Only five topics are shown on the Web page at one time. To change topics shown click a new topic in the list at the top of the page.
The average premium that seniors will pay for Medicare drug coverage in 2009 will rise, with the average for the 10 most-popular plans increasing 31%, according to an analysis of new government data.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122239167851577569.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
To act at leisure or to dally are words we get from the French. Old French leisir was based on Latin licere, "be allowed" — and is the basis for the word license as well. The Old French word dalier meant "to chat" and was a word used commonly in Anglo-Norman in the years just after the invasion, when a sort of bilingual society existed — with nobles chatting in French and common folk in English. The word dalliance actually started out in English meaning "conversation" but has since come to take on the meaning of "amorous flirtation."
Music and sport also derive from French. In Middle English, sport meant broadly "hobby" or "entertainment"; it came from the French word disport. English music is from Old French musique via Latin from Greek for the "art of the Muses." The root is also the basis for amuse, bemuse, mosaic, and museum.
On September 28, 1066 William the Conqueror of Normandy arrived on British soil. He defeated the British in the Battle of Hastings on October 14, and on Christmas Day, he was crowned King of England in Westminster Abby. The Norman invasion had a larger and more pronounced effect on the development of the English language than any other event in history. Within the course of a few centuries, English went from being a strictly Germanic language to one infused with a large Latinate vocabulary, which came via French. At the time, the British were speaking a combination of Saxon and Old Norse. The Normans spoke French. Over time, the languages blended, and the result was that English became a language incredibly rich in synonyms. Because the French speakers were aristocrats, the French words often became t he fancy words for things. The Normans gave us "mansion"; the Saxons gave us "house." The Normans gave us "beef"; the Saxons gave us, "cow." The English language has gone on accepting additions to its vocabulary ever since the Norman invasion, and it now contains more than a million words, making it one of the most diverse languages on Earth. The Writer’s Almanac
Swiss airline pilot Yves Rossy became the first person to fly between France and England on Friday with a jetpack strapped to his back. The pilot, who normally flies an Airbus airliner, swapped the plane's controls for four jets attached to a wing on his back to get across the Channel. The simple kerosene-burning jet turbines propelled him the 22 miles between Calais and Dover at speeds of up to 120 mph. The journey took just under 10 minutes. With no steering controls, the only way to change direction was like a bird, moving his head and back. Rossy traced the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the Channel in an aircraft in 1909.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE48P4CE20080926
"Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report...will be released in five consecutive daily segments. Since 2004, our annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, we resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. For the first time, we surveyed bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially."
Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008: Medical journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes, rankings, images--all can be found on the Net, and much of it is available free. Sources include publishers, government agencies, professional organizations, health libraries and commercial entities. Gloria Miccioli's completely updated and revised topical guide expertly focuses on what she identifies as the best, content-rich databases and services for researchers.
William Billings (1746-1800), is considered by many to be the foremost representative of early American music. Billings was born in Boston on October 7, 1746. Largely self-trained in music, he was a tanner by trade and a friend of such figures of the American Revolution as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Billings's New England Psalm-Singer (1770), engraved by Revere, was the first collection of music entirely by an American. In the recent HBO miniseries about John Adams, in episode 1, there is a scene where the Boston patriots are meeting and at the end of the meeting, they sing a verse of the anthem Chester by William Billings. This may well be the first widespread recognition of the music of William Billings and the fact that Chester was the original National Anthem.
http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/billings.htm
Google has created an interesting tool comparing McCain's and Obama's statements reported in the press on numerous topics from abortion to taxes. Only five topics are shown on the Web page at one time. To change topics shown click a new topic in the list at the top of the page.
The average premium that seniors will pay for Medicare drug coverage in 2009 will rise, with the average for the 10 most-popular plans increasing 31%, according to an analysis of new government data.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122239167851577569.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
To act at leisure or to dally are words we get from the French. Old French leisir was based on Latin licere, "be allowed" — and is the basis for the word license as well. The Old French word dalier meant "to chat" and was a word used commonly in Anglo-Norman in the years just after the invasion, when a sort of bilingual society existed — with nobles chatting in French and common folk in English. The word dalliance actually started out in English meaning "conversation" but has since come to take on the meaning of "amorous flirtation."
Music and sport also derive from French. In Middle English, sport meant broadly "hobby" or "entertainment"; it came from the French word disport. English music is from Old French musique via Latin from Greek for the "art of the Muses." The root is also the basis for amuse, bemuse, mosaic, and museum.
On September 28, 1066 William the Conqueror of Normandy arrived on British soil. He defeated the British in the Battle of Hastings on October 14, and on Christmas Day, he was crowned King of England in Westminster Abby. The Norman invasion had a larger and more pronounced effect on the development of the English language than any other event in history. Within the course of a few centuries, English went from being a strictly Germanic language to one infused with a large Latinate vocabulary, which came via French. At the time, the British were speaking a combination of Saxon and Old Norse. The Normans spoke French. Over time, the languages blended, and the result was that English became a language incredibly rich in synonyms. Because the French speakers were aristocrats, the French words often became t he fancy words for things. The Normans gave us "mansion"; the Saxons gave us "house." The Normans gave us "beef"; the Saxons gave us, "cow." The English language has gone on accepting additions to its vocabulary ever since the Norman invasion, and it now contains more than a million words, making it one of the most diverse languages on Earth. The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, September 26, 2008
Contrary to what some of the e-mail campaigns are saying, the federal government does not maintain and is not establishing a separate Do-Not-Call list for wireless phone numbers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established the national Do-Not-Call list to enable consumers to reduce the number of unwanted telemarketing calls to their residential or personal wireless phones. Wireless phone subscribers have always been able to add their personal wireless phone numbers to the national Do-Not-Call list, either online at www.donotcall.gov, or by calling toll-free to 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number they wish to register. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/truthaboutcellphones.html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will prohibit California drivers from text messaging beginning January 1. He signed Senate Bill 28, authored by Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, that bans the use of an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while driving a motor vehicle. There will be a fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/09/22/daily78.html
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1876
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/cent.htm
World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/colum.htm
Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/pan.htm
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm
Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1926
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/sesqui.htm
Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933-1934
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/progres.htm
New York World’s Fair, 1939
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/york.htm
Exposition fiction list, 1851-1992
http://www.csufresno.edu/library/subjectresources/specialcollections/Expofictionlist.pdf
What’s in a name? Born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), at the age of 17, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, after securing a nomination through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer. Hamer erroneously nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio," knowing Grant's mother's maiden name was Simpson and forgetting that Grant was referred to in his youth as "H. Ulysses Grant" or "Lyss." Grant wrote his name in the entrance register as "Ulysses Hiram Grant" (concerned that he would otherwise become known by his initials, H.U.G.), but the school administration refused to accept any name other than the nominated form. Grant adopted the form of his new name with middle initial only. Because "U.S." also stands for "Uncle Sam," Grant's nickname became "Sam" among his army colleagues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant
Words from the Anglo-Norman legal system form the primary basis for the vocabulary of our modern legal system. A defendant is summoned to court, from the Old French cort, from the Latin word for yard. If it's a civil affair, one might hope that all people "present at court" (the original meaning of courtier) will be courteous, which originally meant "having manners fit for a royal court." A complaint is filed by the plaintiff, from the Old French word plaintive — a "lamentation" — which is itself derived from a Latin word, planctus, meaning "beating of the breast." During the course of a trial, both sides usually introduce evidence, from Old French meaning "obvious to the eye or mind." It's a word composed of the French prefix e ("out" as in evict) and videre "to see." Evidence is laid out for everyone to see. Perhaps the defendant is in fact a felon, from the Old French word felon, which meant "wicked" or "a wicked person."
During a court hearing and in other legal matters, attorneys advocate and provide advocacy, words that came into Middle English from Old French, from a verb that meant "to call to one's aid." The voc root is also part of words like vocabulary, vocalize, vocation, vociferous, voice, vouch, voucher, vowel, equivocate, evocatory, provoke, and revoke. A verdict could be made by a group of peers, a jury, from the Old French juree, an oath or inquiry. Or perhaps the judge will enter a judgment in the final stages of the judicial process and justice will have been served. These are words that came into English through French, and all revolve around the Latin root jus — "law" and also "right." The Writer’s Almanac
Imagine this: No six-week LSAT review course. No struggling with those blasted “logic” problems. A world of LSAT-free law school admission is coming to Michigan law school, according to a report on its Web site announcing the Wolverine Scholars Program. Here’s how it works: UM undergrads who have at least completed their junior year and at most are scheduled to graduate in Winter or Spring 2009 and who have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.80 are eligible to apply to the law school without taking the LSAT. WSJ Law Blog September 25, 2008
September 26 is the birthday of T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot, (books by this author) born in Saint Louis (1888), who is the author of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) and "The Waste Land" (1922). The Writer’s Almanac
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will prohibit California drivers from text messaging beginning January 1. He signed Senate Bill 28, authored by Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, that bans the use of an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while driving a motor vehicle. There will be a fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 for each subsequent offense. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/09/22/daily78.html
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1876
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/cent.htm
World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/colum.htm
Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/pan.htm
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm
Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1926
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/sesqui.htm
Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933-1934
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/progres.htm
New York World’s Fair, 1939
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/york.htm
Exposition fiction list, 1851-1992
http://www.csufresno.edu/library/subjectresources/specialcollections/Expofictionlist.pdf
What’s in a name? Born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), at the age of 17, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, after securing a nomination through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer. Hamer erroneously nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio," knowing Grant's mother's maiden name was Simpson and forgetting that Grant was referred to in his youth as "H. Ulysses Grant" or "Lyss." Grant wrote his name in the entrance register as "Ulysses Hiram Grant" (concerned that he would otherwise become known by his initials, H.U.G.), but the school administration refused to accept any name other than the nominated form. Grant adopted the form of his new name with middle initial only. Because "U.S." also stands for "Uncle Sam," Grant's nickname became "Sam" among his army colleagues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant
Words from the Anglo-Norman legal system form the primary basis for the vocabulary of our modern legal system. A defendant is summoned to court, from the Old French cort, from the Latin word for yard. If it's a civil affair, one might hope that all people "present at court" (the original meaning of courtier) will be courteous, which originally meant "having manners fit for a royal court." A complaint is filed by the plaintiff, from the Old French word plaintive — a "lamentation" — which is itself derived from a Latin word, planctus, meaning "beating of the breast." During the course of a trial, both sides usually introduce evidence, from Old French meaning "obvious to the eye or mind." It's a word composed of the French prefix e ("out" as in evict) and videre "to see." Evidence is laid out for everyone to see. Perhaps the defendant is in fact a felon, from the Old French word felon, which meant "wicked" or "a wicked person."
During a court hearing and in other legal matters, attorneys advocate and provide advocacy, words that came into Middle English from Old French, from a verb that meant "to call to one's aid." The voc root is also part of words like vocabulary, vocalize, vocation, vociferous, voice, vouch, voucher, vowel, equivocate, evocatory, provoke, and revoke. A verdict could be made by a group of peers, a jury, from the Old French juree, an oath or inquiry. Or perhaps the judge will enter a judgment in the final stages of the judicial process and justice will have been served. These are words that came into English through French, and all revolve around the Latin root jus — "law" and also "right." The Writer’s Almanac
Imagine this: No six-week LSAT review course. No struggling with those blasted “logic” problems. A world of LSAT-free law school admission is coming to Michigan law school, according to a report on its Web site announcing the Wolverine Scholars Program. Here’s how it works: UM undergrads who have at least completed their junior year and at most are scheduled to graduate in Winter or Spring 2009 and who have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.80 are eligible to apply to the law school without taking the LSAT. WSJ Law Blog September 25, 2008
September 26 is the birthday of T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot, (books by this author) born in Saint Louis (1888), who is the author of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) and "The Waste Land" (1922). The Writer’s Almanac
Thursday, September 25, 2008
To use semaphore code, an operator holds a flag or lighted wand in each hand. The operator extends their arms to the correct position and pauses for each letter of the message. "Attention" is the only signal that involves movement and the "rest" position is the only time when the flags should cross.
http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/semaphore.php
George Eastman (1854-1932) created a lightweight, rollable film by coating paper with emulsion This paper film fit into another invention---a roll holder that attached to the back of a camera. Photographers would no longer have to take pictures one glass plate at a time. The pictures taken by the new camera also had an unusual name: "snapshots"-- a hunting term meaning to shoot a gun without aiming. In fact, the Kodak had no viewfinder and couldn't be aimed accurately. Eastman said: "I devised the name myself. A trademark should be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled.... It must mean nothing. If the name has no dictionary definition, it must be associated only with your product...." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html
News or drama?
“Mrs. Ann Windsor succeeds the late Mr. Stevens as Organist of St. Michael’s Church.” South Carolina Gazette. June 11, 1772
“Mrs. Windsor does not succeed Mr. Stevens, as Organist of St. Michael’s Church as mentioned in out last. We were misinformed. She is only on trial; there being another candidate in the son of Mr. Stevens.” South Carolina Gazette, June 18, 1772
“A church squabble of ten years’ standing at Wallpack Centre, N.J. has developed a very singular phase . . . a part of the congregation wanted the organist and singers of their choice, while others were opposed to them . . . the feelings had been getting more and more bitter . . . on gathering at the church, the congregation was amazed to find that someone had entered the building and after daubing the organ inside and out with tar, had sprinkled on a bountiful supply of feathers . . . “ The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C. October 26, 1883
The American Organist October 2008
Generally the Eastern Hemisphere includes most of Africa, about half of Antarctica, all of Asia and Australia/Oceania, and most of Europe. The Western Hemisphere includes about half of Antarctica and all of North and South America which includes the Caribbean, Central America and Greenland. The Northern Hemisphere includes all of North America, the northern reaches of South America, about two-thirds of Africa, all of Asia excluding (parts of Indonesia) and all of Europe. The Southern Hemisphere includes of most of South America, one-third of Africa, all of Antarctica, a small sliver of Asia (parts of Indonesia) and all of Australia/Oceania.
Find the exceptions and maps and lists of countries at the following site: http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/hemispheres.htm
archipelago (ahr-kuh-PEL-uh-go) noun: A large group of islands
From Italian arcipelago (the Aegean Sea), from Latin Egeopelagus, from arkhi- (chief) + pelagos (sea). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to be flat) which is also the source of words such as flake, flaw, placate, plead, please, and plank. Originally the term referred to the Aegean Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Turkey) that has numerous islands.
Used as metaphor: "'The Hungry Tide' is an archipelago of stories braided by the tidal channels that weave among them." Richard Eder; In the Mouth of the Ganges; Los Angeles Times; May 22, 2005. A.Word.A.Day
The ancient Greeks sailed into the dazzling turquoise bays of Corsica and declared the island Kalliste: the Most Beautiful Henri Matisse strode down a gangplank many centuries later and found a “marvelous land,” where “all is color, all is light.” The island is part of France, but the ancient Corsican language is still spoken and sung.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/travel/31corsica.html
Paisley, a material of brightly colored abstract design featuring teardrop-shaped swirls, is named for a 19th-century textile center in Scotland.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/eponyms/eponym_list_pq.html
Y as a vowel—some examples are gypsy, pygmy, rhythm—see others at following link:
http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/wordlists/closed/closedywords.asp
http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/semaphore.php
George Eastman (1854-1932) created a lightweight, rollable film by coating paper with emulsion This paper film fit into another invention---a roll holder that attached to the back of a camera. Photographers would no longer have to take pictures one glass plate at a time. The pictures taken by the new camera also had an unusual name: "snapshots"-- a hunting term meaning to shoot a gun without aiming. In fact, the Kodak had no viewfinder and couldn't be aimed accurately. Eastman said: "I devised the name myself. A trademark should be short, vigorous, incapable of being misspelled.... It must mean nothing. If the name has no dictionary definition, it must be associated only with your product...." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html
News or drama?
“Mrs. Ann Windsor succeeds the late Mr. Stevens as Organist of St. Michael’s Church.” South Carolina Gazette. June 11, 1772
“Mrs. Windsor does not succeed Mr. Stevens, as Organist of St. Michael’s Church as mentioned in out last. We were misinformed. She is only on trial; there being another candidate in the son of Mr. Stevens.” South Carolina Gazette, June 18, 1772
“A church squabble of ten years’ standing at Wallpack Centre, N.J. has developed a very singular phase . . . a part of the congregation wanted the organist and singers of their choice, while others were opposed to them . . . the feelings had been getting more and more bitter . . . on gathering at the church, the congregation was amazed to find that someone had entered the building and after daubing the organ inside and out with tar, had sprinkled on a bountiful supply of feathers . . . “ The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C. October 26, 1883
The American Organist October 2008
Generally the Eastern Hemisphere includes most of Africa, about half of Antarctica, all of Asia and Australia/Oceania, and most of Europe. The Western Hemisphere includes about half of Antarctica and all of North and South America which includes the Caribbean, Central America and Greenland. The Northern Hemisphere includes all of North America, the northern reaches of South America, about two-thirds of Africa, all of Asia excluding (parts of Indonesia) and all of Europe. The Southern Hemisphere includes of most of South America, one-third of Africa, all of Antarctica, a small sliver of Asia (parts of Indonesia) and all of Australia/Oceania.
Find the exceptions and maps and lists of countries at the following site: http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/hemispheres.htm
archipelago (ahr-kuh-PEL-uh-go) noun: A large group of islands
From Italian arcipelago (the Aegean Sea), from Latin Egeopelagus, from arkhi- (chief) + pelagos (sea). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plak- (to be flat) which is also the source of words such as flake, flaw, placate, plead, please, and plank. Originally the term referred to the Aegean Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Turkey) that has numerous islands.
Used as metaphor: "'The Hungry Tide' is an archipelago of stories braided by the tidal channels that weave among them." Richard Eder; In the Mouth of the Ganges; Los Angeles Times; May 22, 2005. A.Word.A.Day
The ancient Greeks sailed into the dazzling turquoise bays of Corsica and declared the island Kalliste: the Most Beautiful Henri Matisse strode down a gangplank many centuries later and found a “marvelous land,” where “all is color, all is light.” The island is part of France, but the ancient Corsican language is still spoken and sung.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/travel/31corsica.html
Paisley, a material of brightly colored abstract design featuring teardrop-shaped swirls, is named for a 19th-century textile center in Scotland.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/eponyms/eponym_list_pq.html
Y as a vowel—some examples are gypsy, pygmy, rhythm—see others at following link:
http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/wordlists/closed/closedywords.asp
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Check your local listings for the first presidential debate—see discrepancies below.
First presidential debate on Friday, September 26 on foreign policy and national security will be at 8 p.m. EDT.
http://www.olemiss.edu/debate/
First presidential debate will focus on domestic policy and start at 9 p.m. EDT.
Vice presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday, October 2 at Washington University, St. Louis. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/19/473817.aspx
Equinox
A time at which the days and nights are the same length around the world.
Occurs around March 21 and September 21 (but not necessarily on those dates).
Occurs when the Sun is directly over the equator.
Is either vernal (in the spring) or autumnal (in the fall).
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/sun/sun3.html
Twenty-two percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a nationwide survey of more than 3,100 employers from CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 percent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?id=pr459&sd=9/10/2008&ed=12/31/2008&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=cd92a2aa6a8b4743ba3795cb9e5eaf7c-275237070-KE-5&ns_siteid=ns_us_g_22_potential_profiles_
A penny minted before 1982 is ninety-five per cent copper—which, at recent prices, is approximately two and a half cents’ worth. Ohioan Walter Luhrman, who had previously owned a company that refined gold and silver, devised a method of rapidly separating pre-1982 pennies from more recent ones, which are ninety-seven and a half per cent zinc, a less valuable commodity. His new company, Jackson Metals, bought truckloads of pennies from the Federal Reserve, turned the copper ones into ingots, and returned the zinc ones to circulation in cities where pennies were scarce. “Doing that prevented the U.S. Mint from having to make more pennies,” Luhrman told me recently. “Isn’t that neat?” The Mint didn’t think so; it issued a rule prohibiting the melting or exportation of one-cent and five-cent coins. (Nickels, despite their silvery appearance, are seventy-five per cent copper.)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_owen/
It is no longer really a penny for your thoughts. To be precise, a thought is now worth 1.67 cents. And when someone offers you their 2 cents, they are really giving you 3.34 cents' worth of advice. That is because the government shells out 1.67 cents to manufacture one penny, up from 0.93 cents in 2004, according to The United States Mint. Every five-cent piece costs almost a dime (9.5 cents) to make. That means last year, more than $120 million was spent to produce about $65 million worth of nickels.
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/REG/988309947/1008
New design for penny
The 2009 Bicentennial Lincoln penny reverse sides mark stages in Abraham Lincoln’s life. The coins’ face won’t change. Due to the rising cost of copper and zinc — today’s pennies are 97.5 percent zinc coated with 2.5 percent copper — production and distribution costs hit 1.7 cents per coin in 2007, U.S. Mint spokesman Greg Hernandez said. That figure has dropped to 1.4 cents per coin today.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/stories/2008/09/23/penny_new_design.html
What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?
I don’t know and I don’t care, and I’m too lazy to find out.
First presidential debate on Friday, September 26 on foreign policy and national security will be at 8 p.m. EDT.
http://www.olemiss.edu/debate/
First presidential debate will focus on domestic policy and start at 9 p.m. EDT.
Vice presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday, October 2 at Washington University, St. Louis. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/19/473817.aspx
Equinox
A time at which the days and nights are the same length around the world.
Occurs around March 21 and September 21 (but not necessarily on those dates).
Occurs when the Sun is directly over the equator.
Is either vernal (in the spring) or autumnal (in the fall).
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/sun/sun3.html
Twenty-two percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a nationwide survey of more than 3,100 employers from CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 percent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?id=pr459&sd=9/10/2008&ed=12/31/2008&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=cd92a2aa6a8b4743ba3795cb9e5eaf7c-275237070-KE-5&ns_siteid=ns_us_g_22_potential_profiles_
A penny minted before 1982 is ninety-five per cent copper—which, at recent prices, is approximately two and a half cents’ worth. Ohioan Walter Luhrman, who had previously owned a company that refined gold and silver, devised a method of rapidly separating pre-1982 pennies from more recent ones, which are ninety-seven and a half per cent zinc, a less valuable commodity. His new company, Jackson Metals, bought truckloads of pennies from the Federal Reserve, turned the copper ones into ingots, and returned the zinc ones to circulation in cities where pennies were scarce. “Doing that prevented the U.S. Mint from having to make more pennies,” Luhrman told me recently. “Isn’t that neat?” The Mint didn’t think so; it issued a rule prohibiting the melting or exportation of one-cent and five-cent coins. (Nickels, despite their silvery appearance, are seventy-five per cent copper.)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_owen/
It is no longer really a penny for your thoughts. To be precise, a thought is now worth 1.67 cents. And when someone offers you their 2 cents, they are really giving you 3.34 cents' worth of advice. That is because the government shells out 1.67 cents to manufacture one penny, up from 0.93 cents in 2004, according to The United States Mint. Every five-cent piece costs almost a dime (9.5 cents) to make. That means last year, more than $120 million was spent to produce about $65 million worth of nickels.
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/REG/988309947/1008
New design for penny
The 2009 Bicentennial Lincoln penny reverse sides mark stages in Abraham Lincoln’s life. The coins’ face won’t change. Due to the rising cost of copper and zinc — today’s pennies are 97.5 percent zinc coated with 2.5 percent copper — production and distribution costs hit 1.7 cents per coin in 2007, U.S. Mint spokesman Greg Hernandez said. That figure has dropped to 1.4 cents per coin today.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/stories/2008/09/23/penny_new_design.html
What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?
I don’t know and I don’t care, and I’m too lazy to find out.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Federal Reserve Board Approves Applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Become Bank Holding Companies
News release: The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies. To provide increased liquidity support to these firms as they transition to managing their funding within a bank holding company structure, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley against all types of collateral that may be pledged at the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility for depository institutions or at the existing Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Federal Reserve has also made these collateral arrangements available to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch. In addition, the Board also authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch against collateral that would be eligible to be pledged at the PDCF."
• Related postings on financial system
Novel of the week: Indignation by Philip Roth
An “electric tale” from a talented writer
Author of the week: Sherry Jones
Her first novel, The Jewel of Medina, was yanked by U.S. publishers for fear it would incite violence. The novel has been picked up by European publishers and will be released in the U.S. The Week, September 26, 2008
Facts about $1 dollar bills They make up about 45% of currency production, and their
life span is 21 months. http://www.moneyfactory.gov/document.cfm/18/2230
On the dollar, the number thirteen, symbolizing the 13 original colonies, shows up 13 times:
13 total letters/digits in both 1776 (4) and its Roman Numeral equivalent MDCCLXXVI (9)
13 stars above the eagle
13 steps on the Pyramid
13 letters in ANNUIT COEPTIS
13 letters in E PLURIBUS UNUM
13 vertical bars on the shield
13 horizontal stripes at the top of the shield
13 leaves on the olive branch
13 berries on the olive branch
13 arrows
13 instances of the letter N
13 berries on the front of bill
13 elements on either side of the base of Washington's portrait (8 leaves, 5 berries)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-dollar_bill
Official Heraldry of the United States
The Great Seal of the United States
History of the Great Seal
US Heraldic Legislation
Arms of US Agencies
The US Army's Institute of Heraldry
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/usa/usheroff.htm
The two Michigan men who lost a lawsuit against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. haven't given up on publishing a book version of the popular Harry Potter Lexicon Web site.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080915/NEWS05/809150374/1007/news
A Federal Perspective on Health Care Policy and Costs
CBO: Presentation to the Center for Public Health, Stanford University: A Federal Perspective on Health Care Policy and Costs, Peter Orszag Director, September 16, 2008.
Tulane Law School is facing an awkward scenario. A professor-written law review article suggesting that the Louisiana Supreme Court justices tend to decide cases in favor of litigants and lawyers who contribute to their campaigns contained “numerous errors,” according to a recent letter of apology sent to the Louisiana Supremes by Tulane Dean Lawrence Ponoroff. WSJ Law Blog September 18, 2008
Sanction can mean either approval or disapproval.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanction
To your health
Steam vegetables all or some of the cooking time—see recipe for fingerling potatoes at following link: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/food/recipessides/food_20020916_potatoes
On September 21, 1937 The Hobbit was published with a printing of 1,500 copies. A few years earlier, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a man named J.R.R. Tolkien, was grading papers and he turned one of those papers over and wrote, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." He didn't really know what that meant, or what a hobbit was. But in the next few years, he drew a map of the sort of world he thought a hobbit would live in, and then he started to write a story about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Tolkien only managed to finish the story because he was encouraged by friends. It was passed around and eventually got to the publishing house of Allen & Unwin. Mr. Unwin gave it to his 10-year-old son, told him he would pay him a few pennies in exchange for reading it and giving him a report, and the boy was so enthusiastic that Allen & Unwin agreed to publish it
On September 21, 1970 the first modern op-ed page appeared in The New York Times. People sometimes think that "op-ed" stands for "opinion-editorial," but it actually stands for "opposite the editorial page." Op-eds began in the 1920s, but they were forums for newspapers' columnists, not for outside writers. The modern op-ed was created by New York Times journalist John Bertram Oakes. Oakes received a commentary letter that he thought was excellent, but it was too long to print as a letter to the editor, and it couldn't be published in the op-ed page since it wasn't by a columnist. So he got the idea for an op-ed page that would include outside opinions.
On September 22, 1862 President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important executive orders in American history. It announced that slaves in rebel states were free as of January 1, 1863.
On September 22, 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the bill that created the Peace Corps.
The Writer’s Almanac
News release: The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies. To provide increased liquidity support to these firms as they transition to managing their funding within a bank holding company structure, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley against all types of collateral that may be pledged at the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility for depository institutions or at the existing Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Federal Reserve has also made these collateral arrangements available to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch. In addition, the Board also authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch against collateral that would be eligible to be pledged at the PDCF."
• Related postings on financial system
Novel of the week: Indignation by Philip Roth
An “electric tale” from a talented writer
Author of the week: Sherry Jones
Her first novel, The Jewel of Medina, was yanked by U.S. publishers for fear it would incite violence. The novel has been picked up by European publishers and will be released in the U.S. The Week, September 26, 2008
Facts about $1 dollar bills They make up about 45% of currency production, and their
life span is 21 months. http://www.moneyfactory.gov/document.cfm/18/2230
On the dollar, the number thirteen, symbolizing the 13 original colonies, shows up 13 times:
13 total letters/digits in both 1776 (4) and its Roman Numeral equivalent MDCCLXXVI (9)
13 stars above the eagle
13 steps on the Pyramid
13 letters in ANNUIT COEPTIS
13 letters in E PLURIBUS UNUM
13 vertical bars on the shield
13 horizontal stripes at the top of the shield
13 leaves on the olive branch
13 berries on the olive branch
13 arrows
13 instances of the letter N
13 berries on the front of bill
13 elements on either side of the base of Washington's portrait (8 leaves, 5 berries)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-dollar_bill
Official Heraldry of the United States
The Great Seal of the United States
History of the Great Seal
US Heraldic Legislation
Arms of US Agencies
The US Army's Institute of Heraldry
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/usa/usheroff.htm
The two Michigan men who lost a lawsuit against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. haven't given up on publishing a book version of the popular Harry Potter Lexicon Web site.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080915/NEWS05/809150374/1007/news
A Federal Perspective on Health Care Policy and Costs
CBO: Presentation to the Center for Public Health, Stanford University: A Federal Perspective on Health Care Policy and Costs, Peter Orszag Director, September 16, 2008.
Tulane Law School is facing an awkward scenario. A professor-written law review article suggesting that the Louisiana Supreme Court justices tend to decide cases in favor of litigants and lawyers who contribute to their campaigns contained “numerous errors,” according to a recent letter of apology sent to the Louisiana Supremes by Tulane Dean Lawrence Ponoroff. WSJ Law Blog September 18, 2008
Sanction can mean either approval or disapproval.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanction
To your health
Steam vegetables all or some of the cooking time—see recipe for fingerling potatoes at following link: http://www.oprah.com/recipe/food/recipessides/food_20020916_potatoes
On September 21, 1937 The Hobbit was published with a printing of 1,500 copies. A few years earlier, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a man named J.R.R. Tolkien, was grading papers and he turned one of those papers over and wrote, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." He didn't really know what that meant, or what a hobbit was. But in the next few years, he drew a map of the sort of world he thought a hobbit would live in, and then he started to write a story about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Tolkien only managed to finish the story because he was encouraged by friends. It was passed around and eventually got to the publishing house of Allen & Unwin. Mr. Unwin gave it to his 10-year-old son, told him he would pay him a few pennies in exchange for reading it and giving him a report, and the boy was so enthusiastic that Allen & Unwin agreed to publish it
On September 21, 1970 the first modern op-ed page appeared in The New York Times. People sometimes think that "op-ed" stands for "opinion-editorial," but it actually stands for "opposite the editorial page." Op-eds began in the 1920s, but they were forums for newspapers' columnists, not for outside writers. The modern op-ed was created by New York Times journalist John Bertram Oakes. Oakes received a commentary letter that he thought was excellent, but it was too long to print as a letter to the editor, and it couldn't be published in the op-ed page since it wasn't by a columnist. So he got the idea for an op-ed page that would include outside opinions.
On September 22, 1862 President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important executive orders in American history. It announced that slaves in rebel states were free as of January 1, 1863.
On September 22, 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the bill that created the Peace Corps.
The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, September 19, 2008
U.S. District Judge Ronald White, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against best-selling author John Grisham and two other writers over books they wrote about the wrongful conviction of two men in a 1982 murder. See the story at following link.
http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2008/09/18/john-grisham-libel-suit-results/
New GAO Reports (PDFs)
Source: Government Accountability Office 17 September 2008
1. Electronic Waste: EPA Needs to Better Control Harmful U.S. Exports through Stronger Enforcement and More Comprehensive Regulation
2. Digital Television Transition: Implementation of the Converter Box Subsidy Program Is Under Way, but Preparedness to Manage an Increase in Subsidy Demand Is Unclear
3. Health Information Technology: HHS Has Taken Important Steps to Address Privacy Principles and Challenges, Although More Work Remains
4. Federal Pensions: Judicial Survivors’ Annuities System Costs
5. Defense Infrastructure: Opportunity to Improve the Timeliness of Future Overseas Planning Reports and Factors Affecting the Master Planning Effort for the Military Buildup on Guam
Congress Passes ADA Amendments Act
From the CRS summary of S. 3406, passed by the Senate on September 11, 2008: "ADA Amendments Act of 2008 - (Sec. 4) Amends the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) to redefine the term "disability," including by defining "major life activities" and "being regarded as having such an impairment."
Sets forth rules of construction regarding the definition of "disability," including that: (1) such term shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals under the Act; (2) an impairment that substantially limits one major life activity need not limit other major life activities in order to be a disability; (3) an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active; and (4) the determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be made without regard to the ameliorative effects of specified mitigating measures.
(Sec. 5) Prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual on the basis of disability. (Current law prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability.)..."
SEC Investor Alert - 401(k) Debit Cards: What You Might Not Know
SEC Fact Sheet: "A number of companies are beginning to offer a “401(k) debit card” to employees who invest in 401(k) retirement programs. A 401(k) debit card allows you to borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of the value of your retirement plan, whichever is less, through use of a debit card. Unlike a debit card that deducts money from your checking or savings account, a 401(k) debit card withdrawal is a loan you make to yourself out of your retirement savings. More akin to a traditional credit card, you must repay the money you withdraw using the card, along with fees and interest –- or you may incur substantial penalties.”
Phrases from Rex Libris, born in ancient Greece (or was it Rome?)—a public librarian who fights evil and perfidy and goes on book retrieval missions through time and space.
Issue 7, Monster Merry-Go-Round:
“delusions of significance”
“We’ve been stuck on the side of a mountain in sub-zero temperatures for three weeks in a blizzard with no books . . . “
Issue 8, Escape from the Book of Monsters
“down with zombie chic”
“I’m a librarian, I’m going to get you out of here, safe and sound.”
A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as an important find. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer.
http://daily.iflove.com/world/2008-09/19/content_7041307.htm
hack•er noun Date: 14th century
1. one that hacks 2. a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity 3. an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer 4. a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker
Notice that before hacker referred to a criminal, it was a positive word for a computer expert who solved problems. The second and third meanings conflict, the second meaning unskilled and the third skilled.
http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2008/09/18/john-grisham-libel-suit-results/
New GAO Reports (PDFs)
Source: Government Accountability Office 17 September 2008
1. Electronic Waste: EPA Needs to Better Control Harmful U.S. Exports through Stronger Enforcement and More Comprehensive Regulation
2. Digital Television Transition: Implementation of the Converter Box Subsidy Program Is Under Way, but Preparedness to Manage an Increase in Subsidy Demand Is Unclear
3. Health Information Technology: HHS Has Taken Important Steps to Address Privacy Principles and Challenges, Although More Work Remains
4. Federal Pensions: Judicial Survivors’ Annuities System Costs
5. Defense Infrastructure: Opportunity to Improve the Timeliness of Future Overseas Planning Reports and Factors Affecting the Master Planning Effort for the Military Buildup on Guam
Congress Passes ADA Amendments Act
From the CRS summary of S. 3406, passed by the Senate on September 11, 2008: "ADA Amendments Act of 2008 - (Sec. 4) Amends the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) to redefine the term "disability," including by defining "major life activities" and "being regarded as having such an impairment."
Sets forth rules of construction regarding the definition of "disability," including that: (1) such term shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals under the Act; (2) an impairment that substantially limits one major life activity need not limit other major life activities in order to be a disability; (3) an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active; and (4) the determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be made without regard to the ameliorative effects of specified mitigating measures.
(Sec. 5) Prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual on the basis of disability. (Current law prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability.)..."
SEC Investor Alert - 401(k) Debit Cards: What You Might Not Know
SEC Fact Sheet: "A number of companies are beginning to offer a “401(k) debit card” to employees who invest in 401(k) retirement programs. A 401(k) debit card allows you to borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of the value of your retirement plan, whichever is less, through use of a debit card. Unlike a debit card that deducts money from your checking or savings account, a 401(k) debit card withdrawal is a loan you make to yourself out of your retirement savings. More akin to a traditional credit card, you must repay the money you withdraw using the card, along with fees and interest –- or you may incur substantial penalties.”
Phrases from Rex Libris, born in ancient Greece (or was it Rome?)—a public librarian who fights evil and perfidy and goes on book retrieval missions through time and space.
Issue 7, Monster Merry-Go-Round:
“delusions of significance”
“We’ve been stuck on the side of a mountain in sub-zero temperatures for three weeks in a blizzard with no books . . . “
Issue 8, Escape from the Book of Monsters
“down with zombie chic”
“I’m a librarian, I’m going to get you out of here, safe and sound.”
A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as an important find. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer.
http://daily.iflove.com/world/2008-09/19/content_7041307.htm
hack•er noun Date: 14th century
1. one that hacks 2. a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity 3. an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer 4. a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker
Notice that before hacker referred to a criminal, it was a positive word for a computer expert who solved problems. The second and third meanings conflict, the second meaning unskilled and the third skilled.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
See all presidential pardons ranked by date and by number at following link. Two presidents granted no pardons, and one granted 3687. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardonspres1.htm
William Henry Harrison, 1841, our ninth president and James Abram Garfield, 1881, our 20th president, were in office less than one year.
http://www.potus.com/
Bryology is the study of mosses and lichens and in the mid-1800s Columbus, Ohio was the national center of this field. Scientists were studying peat moss, instrumental in the formation of coal, the main energy source during the Industrial Revolution.
Echoes, membership newsletter of the Ohio Historical Society September 2008
mainstay (MAYN-stay)
noun: A chief support or main part
On a sailing ship, the mainstay is a strong rope that secures the mainmast. The noun stay (a heavy rope) is from Old English.
A.Word.A.Day
Iris Kievernagel has been told by an appellate court in California that she can’t use her deceased husband’s frozen sperm to inseminate herself. Here’s the story from the San Francisco Chronicle, and here’s the opinion. Citing precedent for the proposition that the right of procreational autonomy is composed of two rights of equal significance–the right to procreate and the right to avoid procreation, the court writes:
In this case we must decide whether a widow has the right to use her late husband’s frozen sperm to attempt to conceive a child where her late husband signed an agreement with the company storing the frozen sperm providing that the frozen sperm was to be discarded upon his death. We conclude that in determining the disposition of gamete material, to which no other party has contributed and thus another party’s right to procreational autonomy is not implicated, the intent of the donor must control.
Interestingly, the court said the situation would be different, the court said, if the dispute involved frozen embryos--fertilized eggs--which would require that both spouses’ wishes be considered.
WSJ Law Blog September 15, 2008
Despite settling a fraud lawsuit filed brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by agreeing to buy back $19 billion of auction-rate securities from clients who got stuck with them, UBS continues to fend off litigation.
Today, a federal judge in Albany, N.Y., ruled that a fraud suit filed by a New York energy company that got stuck with more than $60 million of auction-rate securities could move forward, denying UBS’s motion to dismiss. The company, Plug Power Inc., said UBS lied to its CFO last year by saying the ARS were safe and liquid, despite spikes in their interest rates that suggested otherwise.
Here’s the WSJ story , the amended complaint, and a transcript of today’s hearing.
WSJ Law Blog September 17, 2008
For coaster connoisseurs, there's no place like Cedar Point. Cedar Point, a mile-long, 364-acre, 138-year-old amusement park on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie in northern Ohio has 17 roller coasters. The park also has lovely landscaped grounds, kiddie rides, live shows, a variety of restaurants and even a nod to the area's history, with a cluster of transplanted log cabins hauled in from various parts of frontier-era Ohio, plus a barn full of old-fashioned farm tools and a petting zoo.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/LIVING05/808240334/1015/48HOURS
On September 18, 1851 The New York Times published its first issue. It was founded by George Jones, a banker, and Henry Jarvis Raymond, who was a politician and then worked for the New York Tribune before he got fired. Raymond was so bitter about being fired that he hoped to make a newspaper that was successful enough to drive the Tribune out of business. They set up their office in a decrepit brownstone, and they didn't have lamps yet so they had to put the paper together by candlelight. But the windows didn't have glass yet, so the candles kept blowing out. The paper reached a circulation of 10,000 within 10 days. The first issue proclaimed, "We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come." It's now been in print for 157 years.
The Writer’s Almanac
William Henry Harrison, 1841, our ninth president and James Abram Garfield, 1881, our 20th president, were in office less than one year.
http://www.potus.com/
Bryology is the study of mosses and lichens and in the mid-1800s Columbus, Ohio was the national center of this field. Scientists were studying peat moss, instrumental in the formation of coal, the main energy source during the Industrial Revolution.
Echoes, membership newsletter of the Ohio Historical Society September 2008
mainstay (MAYN-stay)
noun: A chief support or main part
On a sailing ship, the mainstay is a strong rope that secures the mainmast. The noun stay (a heavy rope) is from Old English.
A.Word.A.Day
Iris Kievernagel has been told by an appellate court in California that she can’t use her deceased husband’s frozen sperm to inseminate herself. Here’s the story from the San Francisco Chronicle, and here’s the opinion. Citing precedent for the proposition that the right of procreational autonomy is composed of two rights of equal significance–the right to procreate and the right to avoid procreation, the court writes:
In this case we must decide whether a widow has the right to use her late husband’s frozen sperm to attempt to conceive a child where her late husband signed an agreement with the company storing the frozen sperm providing that the frozen sperm was to be discarded upon his death. We conclude that in determining the disposition of gamete material, to which no other party has contributed and thus another party’s right to procreational autonomy is not implicated, the intent of the donor must control.
Interestingly, the court said the situation would be different, the court said, if the dispute involved frozen embryos--fertilized eggs--which would require that both spouses’ wishes be considered.
WSJ Law Blog September 15, 2008
Despite settling a fraud lawsuit filed brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by agreeing to buy back $19 billion of auction-rate securities from clients who got stuck with them, UBS continues to fend off litigation.
Today, a federal judge in Albany, N.Y., ruled that a fraud suit filed by a New York energy company that got stuck with more than $60 million of auction-rate securities could move forward, denying UBS’s motion to dismiss. The company, Plug Power Inc., said UBS lied to its CFO last year by saying the ARS were safe and liquid, despite spikes in their interest rates that suggested otherwise.
Here’s the WSJ story , the amended complaint, and a transcript of today’s hearing.
WSJ Law Blog September 17, 2008
For coaster connoisseurs, there's no place like Cedar Point. Cedar Point, a mile-long, 364-acre, 138-year-old amusement park on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie in northern Ohio has 17 roller coasters. The park also has lovely landscaped grounds, kiddie rides, live shows, a variety of restaurants and even a nod to the area's history, with a cluster of transplanted log cabins hauled in from various parts of frontier-era Ohio, plus a barn full of old-fashioned farm tools and a petting zoo.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/LIVING05/808240334/1015/48HOURS
On September 18, 1851 The New York Times published its first issue. It was founded by George Jones, a banker, and Henry Jarvis Raymond, who was a politician and then worked for the New York Tribune before he got fired. Raymond was so bitter about being fired that he hoped to make a newspaper that was successful enough to drive the Tribune out of business. They set up their office in a decrepit brownstone, and they didn't have lamps yet so they had to put the paper together by candlelight. But the windows didn't have glass yet, so the candles kept blowing out. The paper reached a circulation of 10,000 within 10 days. The first issue proclaimed, "We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come." It's now been in print for 157 years.
The Writer’s Almanac
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Schedule of Presidential Debates and Debate History Resources
Via State Department: "The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates."
Dates and Locations
September 26, 2008 - First Presidential Debate - Domestic Policy - University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
October 2, 2008 - Vice Presidential Debate - Washington University, St. Louis, MO
October 7, 2008 - Second Presidential Debate - Town Meeting - Belmont University, Nashville, TN
October 15, 2008 - Third Presidential Debate - Foreign Policy - Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Background Information
Many Debates in Variety of Venues Would Enliven Race - AEI
Overview of the Presidential Debates - FPC Briefing with Janet Brown of the CPD
Presidential Debate History and Resources - Poynteronline
Presidential Debates 1960-2008 - The American Presidency Project
Televised Presidential Debates - Democracy in Action, George Washington U.
Some interesting statistics from The Economist:
• The average Wyoming resident checked out nine books in 2005-06, compared with an average of five in California and two in Washington, DC.
• Three-quarters of Laramie county’s 86,000 residents hold library cards.
The Economist says: "The land of mountains and cattle boasts some of America’s best public libraries." They cite examples of both large and small libraries in Wyoming and "the conservative rural heartlands," Laramie, Cheyenne and Burns in southern Wyoming.
Amazon.com Inc. struck a deal with a midsize publisher to offer separate biographies of the two potential first ladies on an exclusive basis to users of Amazon's Kindle electronic-book reader. The two titles, "Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America," by Alicia Colon, and "Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change," by Elizabeth Lightfoot, are being published as e-books by Lyons Press, an imprint owned by Morris Communications Co.'s Globe Pequot Press publishing unit, based in Guilford, Conn. Only the title of the winning candidate's wife will be published as a traditional, $14.95 paperback. Full article here.
Comcast, the nation’s second-largest Internet provider, announced that beginning October 1, it will limit residential customers to downloading and uploading 250 gigabytes of data per month. The company said 250 GB equals downloading about 62,500 songs, 125 standard-definition movies or 25,000 high-resolution photos. The limit, which does not affect business service plans, far exceeds 2 to 3 GB, the median amount used by Comcast customers. Comcast says curbing the top users is necessary to keep the network fast for other users. The company in the past has had policies against “excessive” use, but this is the first time a specific limit has been set. Users who chronically exceed 250 GB may be notified and eventually cut off.
http://www.sj-r.com/news/x392054845/Talk-to-Us-Comcast-planning-download-limits
Harry S. Truman's Middle Initial from Jeanette Ertel (jeanertel gmail.com)
I do believe I have the final word on whether the S initial should have a period or not in Truman's middle name. In 1958 my husband James Ertel wrote to Truman to ask him about that S. Here is a quotation from the response: "Each of my grandfathers had a name beginning with S and because my parents could not agree on which name I should have, they gave me only the S, followed by a period, to stand for both." That says to me there should be the period after the S if we want to take Truman's word about his name. The letter has been framed and I am pleased to have it as a reminder of a president who talked straight when straight talk must have had a deeper meaning than it does today.
A.Word.A.Day
When Rich Robell moved his son to Michigan State University for his freshman year, he was in utter disbelief that out of the 8,000 or so rooms on campus, his 18-year-old, Mike, was assigned to Emmons Hall, room B310, the same room Rich had lived in. Robell's wife wondered if his memory was playing tricks on him after 30 long years. But if the same broken window latch from 1978 wasn't evidence enough, Robell sought solid proof. A helpful records' archivist on Michigan State's campus offered the confirmation in a matter of minutes: the 1978 student directory, and sure enough Robell lived in B310 Emmons.
http://detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080908/SCHOOLS/809080347
A Portland family racked up nearly $20,000 on their AT&T bill, local station KPTV reported. The Terry family said they wished they would have received some kind of warning before receiving their 200-page bill in the mail for $19,370. In July, their son headed north to Vancouver, Canada, and used a laptop with an AirCard to send photos and e-mails back home. The bill showed he used the service 21 times, but because he was out of the country, the activity added up to thousands of dollars in charges.
http://www.wftv.com/money/17390103/detail.html
Novel of the week according to The Week, September 19, 2008
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Robinson spent time at the University of Washington, and her breakout novel, 1980's "Housekeeping," was set in a small Idaho town. When Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for her deeply spiritual novel, 2004's "Gilead," it was a pleasure and a vindication for readers who had championed "Housekeeping" as one of the best novels of the 20th century. Now Robinson has written "Home," which tells the story of "Gilead" in a different voice.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2008171597_home14.html?syndication=rss
September 16 is the birthday of the children's author and illustrator H.A. Rey, (books by this author) born Hans Augusto Reyersbach in Hamburg, Germany, in 1898. When Hans was a boy in Hamburg, he lived near a zoo, and he loved visiting the animals there — he would imitate their noises and paint them. Hans and his wife, Margret Rey settled in Paris in 1935. Hans drew some cartoons of a giraffe for a newspaper, and a French publisher liked them and he asked Hans to do some more work like that. The Reys were happy to be living in Paris, happy to be working on more children's books and translations of nursery rhymes, but in June of 1940, they discovered that Hitler was about to take control of Paris and that they were in huge danger. As fast as he could, Hans constructed two bicycles from spare parts he found, and on the morning of June 14, the Reys biked out of the city with some food, warm coats, and five manuscripts. One of those manuscripts was Curious George. The Nazis took control of Paris that afternoon, but the Reys were safely out of the city. Over the next few months, they made it from Lisbon to Brazil, and then eventually to New York City. Curious George was published in 1941, and the Reys wrote and illustrated six more stories about him — stories like Curious George Rides a Bike (1952) and Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966).
On September 16, 1620 the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England. The ship carried the crew plus 102 passengers. After the first winter in the New World, only 53 people were left, about half the original group.
The Writer’s Almanac
Via State Department: "The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates."
Dates and Locations
September 26, 2008 - First Presidential Debate - Domestic Policy - University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
October 2, 2008 - Vice Presidential Debate - Washington University, St. Louis, MO
October 7, 2008 - Second Presidential Debate - Town Meeting - Belmont University, Nashville, TN
October 15, 2008 - Third Presidential Debate - Foreign Policy - Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Background Information
Many Debates in Variety of Venues Would Enliven Race - AEI
Overview of the Presidential Debates - FPC Briefing with Janet Brown of the CPD
Presidential Debate History and Resources - Poynteronline
Presidential Debates 1960-2008 - The American Presidency Project
Televised Presidential Debates - Democracy in Action, George Washington U.
Some interesting statistics from The Economist:
• The average Wyoming resident checked out nine books in 2005-06, compared with an average of five in California and two in Washington, DC.
• Three-quarters of Laramie county’s 86,000 residents hold library cards.
The Economist says: "The land of mountains and cattle boasts some of America’s best public libraries." They cite examples of both large and small libraries in Wyoming and "the conservative rural heartlands," Laramie, Cheyenne and Burns in southern Wyoming.
Amazon.com Inc. struck a deal with a midsize publisher to offer separate biographies of the two potential first ladies on an exclusive basis to users of Amazon's Kindle electronic-book reader. The two titles, "Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America," by Alicia Colon, and "Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change," by Elizabeth Lightfoot, are being published as e-books by Lyons Press, an imprint owned by Morris Communications Co.'s Globe Pequot Press publishing unit, based in Guilford, Conn. Only the title of the winning candidate's wife will be published as a traditional, $14.95 paperback. Full article here.
Comcast, the nation’s second-largest Internet provider, announced that beginning October 1, it will limit residential customers to downloading and uploading 250 gigabytes of data per month. The company said 250 GB equals downloading about 62,500 songs, 125 standard-definition movies or 25,000 high-resolution photos. The limit, which does not affect business service plans, far exceeds 2 to 3 GB, the median amount used by Comcast customers. Comcast says curbing the top users is necessary to keep the network fast for other users. The company in the past has had policies against “excessive” use, but this is the first time a specific limit has been set. Users who chronically exceed 250 GB may be notified and eventually cut off.
http://www.sj-r.com/news/x392054845/Talk-to-Us-Comcast-planning-download-limits
Harry S. Truman's Middle Initial from Jeanette Ertel (jeanertel gmail.com)
I do believe I have the final word on whether the S initial should have a period or not in Truman's middle name. In 1958 my husband James Ertel wrote to Truman to ask him about that S. Here is a quotation from the response: "Each of my grandfathers had a name beginning with S and because my parents could not agree on which name I should have, they gave me only the S, followed by a period, to stand for both." That says to me there should be the period after the S if we want to take Truman's word about his name. The letter has been framed and I am pleased to have it as a reminder of a president who talked straight when straight talk must have had a deeper meaning than it does today.
A.Word.A.Day
When Rich Robell moved his son to Michigan State University for his freshman year, he was in utter disbelief that out of the 8,000 or so rooms on campus, his 18-year-old, Mike, was assigned to Emmons Hall, room B310, the same room Rich had lived in. Robell's wife wondered if his memory was playing tricks on him after 30 long years. But if the same broken window latch from 1978 wasn't evidence enough, Robell sought solid proof. A helpful records' archivist on Michigan State's campus offered the confirmation in a matter of minutes: the 1978 student directory, and sure enough Robell lived in B310 Emmons.
http://detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080908/SCHOOLS/809080347
A Portland family racked up nearly $20,000 on their AT&T bill, local station KPTV reported. The Terry family said they wished they would have received some kind of warning before receiving their 200-page bill in the mail for $19,370. In July, their son headed north to Vancouver, Canada, and used a laptop with an AirCard to send photos and e-mails back home. The bill showed he used the service 21 times, but because he was out of the country, the activity added up to thousands of dollars in charges.
http://www.wftv.com/money/17390103/detail.html
Novel of the week according to The Week, September 19, 2008
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Robinson spent time at the University of Washington, and her breakout novel, 1980's "Housekeeping," was set in a small Idaho town. When Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for her deeply spiritual novel, 2004's "Gilead," it was a pleasure and a vindication for readers who had championed "Housekeeping" as one of the best novels of the 20th century. Now Robinson has written "Home," which tells the story of "Gilead" in a different voice.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2008171597_home14.html?syndication=rss
September 16 is the birthday of the children's author and illustrator H.A. Rey, (books by this author) born Hans Augusto Reyersbach in Hamburg, Germany, in 1898. When Hans was a boy in Hamburg, he lived near a zoo, and he loved visiting the animals there — he would imitate their noises and paint them. Hans and his wife, Margret Rey settled in Paris in 1935. Hans drew some cartoons of a giraffe for a newspaper, and a French publisher liked them and he asked Hans to do some more work like that. The Reys were happy to be living in Paris, happy to be working on more children's books and translations of nursery rhymes, but in June of 1940, they discovered that Hitler was about to take control of Paris and that they were in huge danger. As fast as he could, Hans constructed two bicycles from spare parts he found, and on the morning of June 14, the Reys biked out of the city with some food, warm coats, and five manuscripts. One of those manuscripts was Curious George. The Nazis took control of Paris that afternoon, but the Reys were safely out of the city. Over the next few months, they made it from Lisbon to Brazil, and then eventually to New York City. Curious George was published in 1941, and the Reys wrote and illustrated six more stories about him — stories like Curious George Rides a Bike (1952) and Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966).
On September 16, 1620 the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England. The ship carried the crew plus 102 passengers. After the first winter in the New World, only 53 people were left, about half the original group.
The Writer’s Almanac
Monday, September 15, 2008
One of the most popular rooms in big new houses is a library. Rather than being about books, their appeal is often about creating a certain ambiance—a “memory” room or a “TV-free room.” Jeani Ziering, an interior designer in Manhasset, N.Y., says the newfound popularity of libraries is part of a general movement toward traditional design and décor. "When the economy turns bad, people turn to the classics," she says. Libraries are especially appealing during anxious times because they project coziness and comfort, she adds.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB122117550854125707.html?mod=2_1578_leftbox
Doing Business 2009: Comparing Regulation in 181 Countries
World Bank Doing Business Project: "For the fifth year in a row Eastern Europe and Central Asia led the world in Doing Business reforms. Twenty-six of the region’s 28 economies implemented a total of 69 reforms. Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying business regulations, strengthening property rights, opening up access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets. Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact on these indicators have been captured. Eastern Europe and Central Asia has accounted for a third of them."
Learn more about reform trends and download country-by-country reform summaries
Download report overview
New GAO Reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Aviation Security, DCAA Audits, Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Federal Real Property
Assessment of the Explanation That Immigration and Customs Enforcement Provided for Its Subsequent Transfer from the Spectrum Relocation Fund, GAO-08-846R, September 9, 2008
Aviation Security: TSA Is Enhancing Its Oversight of Air Carrier Efforts to Identify Passengers on the No Fly and Selectee Lists, but Expects Ultimate Solution to Be Implementation of Secure Flight, GAO-08-992, September 9, 2008
DCAA Audits: Allegations That Certain Audits at Three Locations Did Not Meet Professional Standards Were Substantiated, GAO-08-993T, September 10, 2008
Defined Benefit Pension Plans: Guidance Needed to Better Inform Plans of the Challenges and Risks of Investing in Hedge Funds and Private Equity, GAO-08-692, August 14, 2008
Federal Real Property: Progress Made in Reducing Unneeded Property, but VA Needs Better Information to Make Further Reductions, GAO-08-939, September 10, 2008
Duke Lawyers Fire Back at Andrew Giuliani, Move to Dismiss Golf Suit
This is the legal saga of Andrew Giuliani, who sued Duke in July, alleging that he’d been improperly dismissed from the golf team. Now, the Duke Chronicle reports that Donald Cowan and Jim Cooney — the attorneys for the University and head golf coach O.D. Vincent — have filed an answer and a motion for judgment on the pleadings. “Andrew Giuliani is entitled to no more privileges than any other member of the Duke University student body,” the motion says. “Like every other member of the student body, Andrew Giuliani is responsible for both his actions and their consequences.”
WSJ Law Blog September 11, 2008
Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida teamed with the local Kuikuro people in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to uncover 28 towns, villages and hamlets that may have supported as many as 50,000 people within roughly 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) of forest—an area slightly smaller than New Jersey. The remains of houses and ceramic cooking utensils show that humans occupied these cities for around 1,000 years, from roughly 1,500 years to as recently as 400 years ago. Satellite pictures reveal that during that time, the inhabitants carved roads through the jungle; all plaza villages had a major road that ran northeast to southwest along the summer solstice axis and linked to other settlements as much as three miles (five kilometers) away. There were bridges on some of the roads and others had canoe canals running alongside them. The remains of the settlements (“garden cities”) also hint at surrounding large fields of manioc, or cassava (a starchy root that is still a staple part of the Brazilian diet) as well as the earthen dams and artificial ponds of fish farming, still practiced by people who may be the present-day descendants of the Kuikuro. But, ultimately, these cities died; most likely a victim of the diseases brought by European explorers in the early 16th century, according to Heckenberger. Two thirds or more of the original human inhabitants of Brazil are believed to have been killed by such disease, and the forest quickly swallowed the cities they left behind.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=lost-amazon-cities
What do gardenia and hector have in common? They are both eponyms (words based on a person’s or character’s name).
http://www.myspellit.com/lang_eponyms.html
Thousands of glass art objects by Dale Chihuly—strange, striking, beautiful, and combined in fantastic arrangements—currently populate the special exhibit galleries of San Francisco’s De Young Museum. They range from palm-of-your-hand pieces to gigantic supernovas of glittering glass tentacles, singular, vivid, bowls big enough to float baby Moses down the Nile, and hallucinogenically hued “marbles” blown as big as sofa hassocks. This is the first comprehensive Chihuly exhibit in a major museum, and will remain open until September 28. See fantastic pictures at following link. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-08-28/article/30975?headline=DeYoung-s-Chihuly-Glass-Exhibit-a-Dazzling-Array-of-Color-and-Form
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois readers may want to see royal sculptures and regalia from the West African Kingdom of Benin on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibition, open through September 21, and representing six centuries of Benin's artistic heritage, brings together more than 220 of these masterworks from collections around the world and makes its sole North American stop at the Art Institute of Chicago. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/benin/index
September 13 is the birthday of Roald Dahl, (books by this author) born in Llandaff, South Wales (1916). He was sent off to private boarding schools as a kid, which he hated except for the chocolates, Cadbury chocolates. The Cadbury chocolate company had chosen his school as a focus group for new candies they were developing. Every so often, a plain gray cardboard box was issued to each child, filled with 11 chocolate bars. It was the children's task to rate the candy, and Dahl took his job very seriously. About one of the sample candy bars, he wrote, "Too subtle for the common palate." He later said that the experience got him thinking about candy as something manufactured in a factory, and he spent a lot of time imagining what a candy factory might be like. Today, he's best known for his children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
September 14 is the birthday of novelist Hamlin Garland, (books by this author) born in West Salem, Wisconsin (1860). Garland thought he would support himself as a farmer in South Dakota, but after three of the harshest winters of his life, he decided to give up the farm and move east. He wound up in Boston where he began to write for the newspapers, and he eventually decided that he wanted to write fiction about the life of pioneers that he had left behind. At that time, almost no one had written authentically about pioneer life. People in the East believed that farmers lived in the beautiful countryside and that their lives were simple and noble. Hamlin Garland said, "There is no gilding of setting sun or glamour of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmer's [life]." In 1891, he published his first collection of stories, Main-Travelled Roads, and within a few years he was famous. He went on to become one of the most respected novelists of his generation, best known for his autobiographical trilogy, A Son of the Middle Border (1917), A Daughter of the Middle Border (1921), and Back-Trailers from the Middle Border (1928).
September 15 is the birthday of Robert McCloskey, (books by this author) the author and illustrator of children's books, born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914. He grew up loving music, especially the harmonica. He said, "The musician's life was the life for me — that is, until I became interested in things electrical and mechanical. … The inventor's life was the life for me — that is, until I started making drawings for the high school annual." He got a scholarship to art school in Boston, and he did well there. One day, he went to visit an editor of children's books in New York City, and he brought along his portfolio. It was filled with fantasy scenes, with magic and strange beasts. He took the images and the characters and the stories from life there, and he wrote and illustrated a picture book about a regular boy in a regular Midwestern town. The boy can't whistle, so he learns to play the harmonica, and the boy and his harmonica save the day when the mayor's homecoming celebration is almost ruined. This book was called Lentil (1940), and the next year he published Make Way for Ducklings (1941), which won a Caldecott. In 1987, bronze sculptures of Mrs. Mallard and the ducklings from the book were installed in the Boston Public Garden. McCloskey also wrote Blueberries for Sal (1948) and Time of Wonder (1957).
September 15 is the birthday of James Fenimore Cooper, (books by this author) born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789, the 11th of 12 children. One day, he was reading aloud to his wife, a book about English social life, and he said, "I believe I could write a better book myself." His wife told him to prove it, so James Fenimore Cooper began his first novel. It became the novel Precaution (1820). He also wrote The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground (1821), The Pioneers (1823), and The Last of the Mohicans (1826).
The Writer’s Almanac
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB122117550854125707.html?mod=2_1578_leftbox
Doing Business 2009: Comparing Regulation in 181 Countries
World Bank Doing Business Project: "For the fifth year in a row Eastern Europe and Central Asia led the world in Doing Business reforms. Twenty-six of the region’s 28 economies implemented a total of 69 reforms. Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying business regulations, strengthening property rights, opening up access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets. Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact on these indicators have been captured. Eastern Europe and Central Asia has accounted for a third of them."
Learn more about reform trends and download country-by-country reform summaries
Download report overview
New GAO Reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Aviation Security, DCAA Audits, Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Federal Real Property
Assessment of the Explanation That Immigration and Customs Enforcement Provided for Its Subsequent Transfer from the Spectrum Relocation Fund, GAO-08-846R, September 9, 2008
Aviation Security: TSA Is Enhancing Its Oversight of Air Carrier Efforts to Identify Passengers on the No Fly and Selectee Lists, but Expects Ultimate Solution to Be Implementation of Secure Flight, GAO-08-992, September 9, 2008
DCAA Audits: Allegations That Certain Audits at Three Locations Did Not Meet Professional Standards Were Substantiated, GAO-08-993T, September 10, 2008
Defined Benefit Pension Plans: Guidance Needed to Better Inform Plans of the Challenges and Risks of Investing in Hedge Funds and Private Equity, GAO-08-692, August 14, 2008
Federal Real Property: Progress Made in Reducing Unneeded Property, but VA Needs Better Information to Make Further Reductions, GAO-08-939, September 10, 2008
Duke Lawyers Fire Back at Andrew Giuliani, Move to Dismiss Golf Suit
This is the legal saga of Andrew Giuliani, who sued Duke in July, alleging that he’d been improperly dismissed from the golf team. Now, the Duke Chronicle reports that Donald Cowan and Jim Cooney — the attorneys for the University and head golf coach O.D. Vincent — have filed an answer and a motion for judgment on the pleadings. “Andrew Giuliani is entitled to no more privileges than any other member of the Duke University student body,” the motion says. “Like every other member of the student body, Andrew Giuliani is responsible for both his actions and their consequences.”
WSJ Law Blog September 11, 2008
Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida teamed with the local Kuikuro people in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to uncover 28 towns, villages and hamlets that may have supported as many as 50,000 people within roughly 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) of forest—an area slightly smaller than New Jersey. The remains of houses and ceramic cooking utensils show that humans occupied these cities for around 1,000 years, from roughly 1,500 years to as recently as 400 years ago. Satellite pictures reveal that during that time, the inhabitants carved roads through the jungle; all plaza villages had a major road that ran northeast to southwest along the summer solstice axis and linked to other settlements as much as three miles (five kilometers) away. There were bridges on some of the roads and others had canoe canals running alongside them. The remains of the settlements (“garden cities”) also hint at surrounding large fields of manioc, or cassava (a starchy root that is still a staple part of the Brazilian diet) as well as the earthen dams and artificial ponds of fish farming, still practiced by people who may be the present-day descendants of the Kuikuro. But, ultimately, these cities died; most likely a victim of the diseases brought by European explorers in the early 16th century, according to Heckenberger. Two thirds or more of the original human inhabitants of Brazil are believed to have been killed by such disease, and the forest quickly swallowed the cities they left behind.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=lost-amazon-cities
What do gardenia and hector have in common? They are both eponyms (words based on a person’s or character’s name).
http://www.myspellit.com/lang_eponyms.html
Thousands of glass art objects by Dale Chihuly—strange, striking, beautiful, and combined in fantastic arrangements—currently populate the special exhibit galleries of San Francisco’s De Young Museum. They range from palm-of-your-hand pieces to gigantic supernovas of glittering glass tentacles, singular, vivid, bowls big enough to float baby Moses down the Nile, and hallucinogenically hued “marbles” blown as big as sofa hassocks. This is the first comprehensive Chihuly exhibit in a major museum, and will remain open until September 28. See fantastic pictures at following link. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-08-28/article/30975?headline=DeYoung-s-Chihuly-Glass-Exhibit-a-Dazzling-Array-of-Color-and-Form
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois readers may want to see royal sculptures and regalia from the West African Kingdom of Benin on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibition, open through September 21, and representing six centuries of Benin's artistic heritage, brings together more than 220 of these masterworks from collections around the world and makes its sole North American stop at the Art Institute of Chicago. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/benin/index
September 13 is the birthday of Roald Dahl, (books by this author) born in Llandaff, South Wales (1916). He was sent off to private boarding schools as a kid, which he hated except for the chocolates, Cadbury chocolates. The Cadbury chocolate company had chosen his school as a focus group for new candies they were developing. Every so often, a plain gray cardboard box was issued to each child, filled with 11 chocolate bars. It was the children's task to rate the candy, and Dahl took his job very seriously. About one of the sample candy bars, he wrote, "Too subtle for the common palate." He later said that the experience got him thinking about candy as something manufactured in a factory, and he spent a lot of time imagining what a candy factory might be like. Today, he's best known for his children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
September 14 is the birthday of novelist Hamlin Garland, (books by this author) born in West Salem, Wisconsin (1860). Garland thought he would support himself as a farmer in South Dakota, but after three of the harshest winters of his life, he decided to give up the farm and move east. He wound up in Boston where he began to write for the newspapers, and he eventually decided that he wanted to write fiction about the life of pioneers that he had left behind. At that time, almost no one had written authentically about pioneer life. People in the East believed that farmers lived in the beautiful countryside and that their lives were simple and noble. Hamlin Garland said, "There is no gilding of setting sun or glamour of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmer's [life]." In 1891, he published his first collection of stories, Main-Travelled Roads, and within a few years he was famous. He went on to become one of the most respected novelists of his generation, best known for his autobiographical trilogy, A Son of the Middle Border (1917), A Daughter of the Middle Border (1921), and Back-Trailers from the Middle Border (1928).
September 15 is the birthday of Robert McCloskey, (books by this author) the author and illustrator of children's books, born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914. He grew up loving music, especially the harmonica. He said, "The musician's life was the life for me — that is, until I became interested in things electrical and mechanical. … The inventor's life was the life for me — that is, until I started making drawings for the high school annual." He got a scholarship to art school in Boston, and he did well there. One day, he went to visit an editor of children's books in New York City, and he brought along his portfolio. It was filled with fantasy scenes, with magic and strange beasts. He took the images and the characters and the stories from life there, and he wrote and illustrated a picture book about a regular boy in a regular Midwestern town. The boy can't whistle, so he learns to play the harmonica, and the boy and his harmonica save the day when the mayor's homecoming celebration is almost ruined. This book was called Lentil (1940), and the next year he published Make Way for Ducklings (1941), which won a Caldecott. In 1987, bronze sculptures of Mrs. Mallard and the ducklings from the book were installed in the Boston Public Garden. McCloskey also wrote Blueberries for Sal (1948) and Time of Wonder (1957).
September 15 is the birthday of James Fenimore Cooper, (books by this author) born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789, the 11th of 12 children. One day, he was reading aloud to his wife, a book about English social life, and he said, "I believe I could write a better book myself." His wife told him to prove it, so James Fenimore Cooper began his first novel. It became the novel Precaution (1820). He also wrote The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground (1821), The Pioneers (1823), and The Last of the Mohicans (1826).
The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, September 12, 2008
9/11 Remembrance
• Library of Congress WiseGuide: Remembering 9/11
• Related postings on 9/11
• Pentagon Memorial Dedication - September 11, 2008
• Pentagon Memorial Fund
• AP: "An island of peace amid the bustle of Logan International Airport was dedicated Tuesday to honor the 147 passengers and crew killed when terrorists flew two planes from here into New York City's World Trade Center."
NOAA Historical Hurricane Tracks Web Site Helps Users Prepare for Big Storms
News release: As the U.S. coastal population continues to grow, so do the hazards when big storms approach. An on-line tool, Historical Hurricane Tracks, helps users get a quick picture of coastal areas with the greatest frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms — and that historical “snapshot” can help community members and local emergency managers develop better plans for storm preparation and recovery. NOAA’s Historical Hurricane Tracks includes data on storm strikes through 2007. Current hurricane activity can be followed at the National Hurricane Center Web site.
Get information on car safety, ratings, tests and recalls from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
http://www.safercar.gov/portal/site/safercar/menuitem.13dd5c887c7e1358fefe0a2f35a67789/?vgnextoid=eb5c56192d8c9110VgnVCM1000002fd17898RCRD
The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update, September 2008 - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the deficit for 2008 will be substantially higher than it was in 2007, rising from $161 billion last year to $407 billion this year. Furthermore, CBO’s projections indicate that if current laws and policies remain in place, deficits for the next two years will remain above $400 billion, or about 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Over the longer term, the fiscal outlook continues to depend mostly on the future course of health care costs as well as on the effects of a growing elderly population.
Economic Projections Tables
Budget Projections Tables
CBO's Year-by-Year Forecast and Projections for Calendar Years 2008 to 2018
Key Assumptions in CBO's Projection of Potential Output
Supplemental Data on Mandatory Outlays (As of March 2008)
National Security Archive and Historians Secure Long Secret Rosenberg Grand Jury Testimony
News release: "More than 50 years after the historic but controversial execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were convicted of atomic espionage, the U.S. government this Thursday, September 11, is expected to make public long shrouded grand jury testimony from its prosecution of the Rosenbergs, which will be the subject of a press briefing on September 11, 2008. Several noted Cold War scholars will provide expert analysis of the newly public documents at the briefing, organized by the National Security Archive, the independent nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University, which successfully led a coalition of historians in demands that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) unseal Rosenberg trial grand-jury records. The Archive, along with the American Historical Association, the American Society for Legal History, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, and New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, filed a petition in January 2008 seeking the release of grand jury records from the 1951 indictment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, arguing that public interest outweighed privacy and national security concerns.
"The new online edition of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law went live in August 2008. The initial upload included over 450 articles including over 120 that relate to judicial decisions and dispute settlement, and a set of articles covering the history of international law since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Of particularly topical interest are the articles on the fragmentation of international law, the position of heads of state and heads of government, Genocide, and the Taliban. The next upload will take place in October 2008."
Google Announces Revised User Record Retention Policy
Official Google Blog: "we're announcing a new logs retention policy: we'll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months. We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users."
Related: Google Response to the [EU] Article 29 Working Party Opinion On Data Protection Issues Related to Search Engines
The Digital Television Transition: No Need to Trash Your TV
News release: "For consumers who choose to buy a new TV, EPA recommends purchasing Energy Star-qualified sets. EPA also encourages consumers to recycle their unwanted TVs, which recovers valuable materials from the circuit boards, metal wiring, leaded glass, and plastics. Last year Americans disposed of more than 20 million TVs, which represents a lost opportunity to conserve natural resources such as copper and iron.
Consumers who are interested in recycling their old TVs can contact their local household hazardous waste collection and recycling program to find out whether they will be sponsoring an upcoming recycling event. EPA is working through its Plug-In To eCycling program to promote the environmental benefits of recycling and provide the public with information on safely reusing and recycling obsolete electronics products, including computers, cell phones, and televisions. Related postings on e-waste
Sabot (wooden shoe)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabot
Sabotage (comes from workers throwing shoes at equipment)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabotage
kvell • \KVEL\ • verb : to be extraordinarily proud : rejoice
The word "kvell" is derived from Yiddish "kveln," meaning "to be delighted," which, in turn, comes from the Middle High German word "quellen," meaning "to well, gush, or swell." Yiddish has been a wellspring of creativity for English, giving us such delightful words as "meister" ("one who is knowledgeable about something"), "maven" ("expert"), and "shtick" ("one's special activity"), just to name a few.
M-W Word of the Day
• Library of Congress WiseGuide: Remembering 9/11
• Related postings on 9/11
• Pentagon Memorial Dedication - September 11, 2008
• Pentagon Memorial Fund
• AP: "An island of peace amid the bustle of Logan International Airport was dedicated Tuesday to honor the 147 passengers and crew killed when terrorists flew two planes from here into New York City's World Trade Center."
NOAA Historical Hurricane Tracks Web Site Helps Users Prepare for Big Storms
News release: As the U.S. coastal population continues to grow, so do the hazards when big storms approach. An on-line tool, Historical Hurricane Tracks, helps users get a quick picture of coastal areas with the greatest frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms — and that historical “snapshot” can help community members and local emergency managers develop better plans for storm preparation and recovery. NOAA’s Historical Hurricane Tracks includes data on storm strikes through 2007. Current hurricane activity can be followed at the National Hurricane Center Web site.
Get information on car safety, ratings, tests and recalls from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
http://www.safercar.gov/portal/site/safercar/menuitem.13dd5c887c7e1358fefe0a2f35a67789/?vgnextoid=eb5c56192d8c9110VgnVCM1000002fd17898RCRD
The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update, September 2008 - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the deficit for 2008 will be substantially higher than it was in 2007, rising from $161 billion last year to $407 billion this year. Furthermore, CBO’s projections indicate that if current laws and policies remain in place, deficits for the next two years will remain above $400 billion, or about 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Over the longer term, the fiscal outlook continues to depend mostly on the future course of health care costs as well as on the effects of a growing elderly population.
Economic Projections Tables
Budget Projections Tables
CBO's Year-by-Year Forecast and Projections for Calendar Years 2008 to 2018
Key Assumptions in CBO's Projection of Potential Output
Supplemental Data on Mandatory Outlays (As of March 2008)
National Security Archive and Historians Secure Long Secret Rosenberg Grand Jury Testimony
News release: "More than 50 years after the historic but controversial execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were convicted of atomic espionage, the U.S. government this Thursday, September 11, is expected to make public long shrouded grand jury testimony from its prosecution of the Rosenbergs, which will be the subject of a press briefing on September 11, 2008. Several noted Cold War scholars will provide expert analysis of the newly public documents at the briefing, organized by the National Security Archive, the independent nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University, which successfully led a coalition of historians in demands that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) unseal Rosenberg trial grand-jury records. The Archive, along with the American Historical Association, the American Society for Legal History, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, and New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, filed a petition in January 2008 seeking the release of grand jury records from the 1951 indictment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, arguing that public interest outweighed privacy and national security concerns.
"The new online edition of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law went live in August 2008. The initial upload included over 450 articles including over 120 that relate to judicial decisions and dispute settlement, and a set of articles covering the history of international law since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Of particularly topical interest are the articles on the fragmentation of international law, the position of heads of state and heads of government, Genocide, and the Taliban. The next upload will take place in October 2008."
Google Announces Revised User Record Retention Policy
Official Google Blog: "we're announcing a new logs retention policy: we'll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months. We're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users."
Related: Google Response to the [EU] Article 29 Working Party Opinion On Data Protection Issues Related to Search Engines
The Digital Television Transition: No Need to Trash Your TV
News release: "For consumers who choose to buy a new TV, EPA recommends purchasing Energy Star-qualified sets. EPA also encourages consumers to recycle their unwanted TVs, which recovers valuable materials from the circuit boards, metal wiring, leaded glass, and plastics. Last year Americans disposed of more than 20 million TVs, which represents a lost opportunity to conserve natural resources such as copper and iron.
Consumers who are interested in recycling their old TVs can contact their local household hazardous waste collection and recycling program to find out whether they will be sponsoring an upcoming recycling event. EPA is working through its Plug-In To eCycling program to promote the environmental benefits of recycling and provide the public with information on safely reusing and recycling obsolete electronics products, including computers, cell phones, and televisions. Related postings on e-waste
Sabot (wooden shoe)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabot
Sabotage (comes from workers throwing shoes at equipment)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabotage
kvell • \KVEL\ • verb : to be extraordinarily proud : rejoice
The word "kvell" is derived from Yiddish "kveln," meaning "to be delighted," which, in turn, comes from the Middle High German word "quellen," meaning "to well, gush, or swell." Yiddish has been a wellspring of creativity for English, giving us such delightful words as "meister" ("one who is knowledgeable about something"), "maven" ("expert"), and "shtick" ("one's special activity"), just to name a few.
M-W Word of the Day
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Follow-up on place names
The name Ohio was of Indian origin and was given to the river which had its beginning trickle at Pittsburgh and became the highway to the west for thousands of pioneers. http://www.co.warren.oh.us/genealogy/placenames.htm
The name Ohio is derived from the Seneca word ohi:yo’, which has been interpreted to mean "beautiful river" (French mistranslation) or "large creek". The name was originally applied to both the Ohio River and Allegheny River.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio
List of U.S. state etymologies (slightly different than the last one I sent)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_name_etymologies
Thirteen sculptures, including one by Toledoan Calvin Babich, are on exhibit along the Maumee River in historic downtown Perrysburg. The exhibition will be on display until August 2009. It's all on Front Street and can be viewed on foot, in a car or by boat. The sculptures displayed in "Art on the River" are for sale. The commission generated from the sales will benefit the Perrysburg Area Arts Council's Public Art Fund.
Justice Department Issues Report on Antitrust Monopoly Law
News release: The Department has issued a report informing consumers, businesses and policy makers about issues relating to monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws. The report, Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, September 2008, U.S. Department of Justice (215 pages, PDF) examines whether and when specific types of single-firm conduct may or may not violate Section 2 of the Sherman Act by harming competition and consumer welfare. The report draws extensively on a series of joint hearings, involving more than 100 participants, that the Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held from June 2006 to May 2007 to explore in depth the antitrust treatment of single-firm conduct. The 213-page report also incorporates commentary found in scholarly literature and the jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts. Section 2 of the Sherman Act prohibits a firm from illegally acquiring or maintaining a monopoly, meaning the ability to exclude competitors and profitably raise price significantly above competitive levels for a sustained period of time. Unlike antitrust laws that prohibit anticompetitive mergers or other agreements among firms, Section 2 particularly targets single-firm conduct, such as decisions regarding whether and on what terms to sell to or buy from others. Although possessing monopoly power is not unlawful, using an improper means to seek or maintain monopoly power is unlawful where it can harm competition and consumers.
A 60-page ruling from a unanimous three-judge panel of the Third Circuit sided with the estate of sports announcer John Facenda, whose voice was known as the “Voice of God.” The court ruled that NFL Films violated Pennsylvania’s “right of publicity” statute by using Facenda’s voice in a promotional film for a John Madden video game. Here’s past Wall Street Journal Law Blog coverage of the case, and here’s the ruling, authored by Judge Thomas L. Ambro. The panel, writes the Legal Intelligencer, rejected NFL Films’s argument that the “standard release” contract Facenda signed was a “complete defense,” noting that while the release gave the NFL the right to use Facenda’s voice in future film projects, it also explicitly prohibited any use that would “constitute an endorsement” of any product. The panel also partially overturned Facenda’s lower-court victory, finding that U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart erred when he ruled that NFL Films had also violated the federal Lanham Act. On that claim, the panel concluded that a jury must decide the factual question of whether viewers of the Madden video game promotional film would likely be confused about whether Facenda was “endorsing” the product. Now the only issue left to be decided on that claim is how much Facenda’s estate should be awarded in damages. That question will require discovery and a jury trial.
WSJ Law Blog September 10, 2008
Google Announces Plans to Digitize Millions of Pages of News Archives
Official Google Blog: We're launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives...Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you'll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed -- photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all...You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News. Not every search will trigger this new content.
Film Noir Festival at Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo
Friday, September 12
7:30 p.m. "D.O.A." (1949) Edmond O'Brien stars as a hapless accountant thrust into a nightmare of having to track down his own murderer on the streets of San Francisco and L.A.
9:00 p.m. "Too Late For Tears" (1949) Lizabeth Scott plays a wife who stops at nothing to hold on to some found loot. Don Defore and Dan Duryea deal with the results.
Saturday, September 13
7:30 p.m. "He Walked By Night" (1948) Richard Basehart plays a brilliant and clever killer who baffles police until there's a break in the case-handled by none other than Jack Webb, who was inspired to create "Dragnet" after this film was made.
9:00 p.m. "Impact" (1949) Ella Raines and veteran actor Brian Donlevy in an ironic tale of a wife and her lover's ill-fated plot to do away with her wealthy husband.
Sunday, September 14
"Terror by Night" (1946)
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Theatre Pipe Organ Mini-Concert begins at 2:30 p.m.
Movie begins at 3 p.m.
A stolen rare jewel mystery aboard a train draws Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to the case.
The name Ohio was of Indian origin and was given to the river which had its beginning trickle at Pittsburgh and became the highway to the west for thousands of pioneers. http://www.co.warren.oh.us/genealogy/placenames.htm
The name Ohio is derived from the Seneca word ohi:yo’, which has been interpreted to mean "beautiful river" (French mistranslation) or "large creek". The name was originally applied to both the Ohio River and Allegheny River.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio
List of U.S. state etymologies (slightly different than the last one I sent)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_name_etymologies
Thirteen sculptures, including one by Toledoan Calvin Babich, are on exhibit along the Maumee River in historic downtown Perrysburg. The exhibition will be on display until August 2009. It's all on Front Street and can be viewed on foot, in a car or by boat. The sculptures displayed in "Art on the River" are for sale. The commission generated from the sales will benefit the Perrysburg Area Arts Council's Public Art Fund.
Justice Department Issues Report on Antitrust Monopoly Law
News release: The Department has issued a report informing consumers, businesses and policy makers about issues relating to monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws. The report, Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, September 2008, U.S. Department of Justice (215 pages, PDF) examines whether and when specific types of single-firm conduct may or may not violate Section 2 of the Sherman Act by harming competition and consumer welfare. The report draws extensively on a series of joint hearings, involving more than 100 participants, that the Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held from June 2006 to May 2007 to explore in depth the antitrust treatment of single-firm conduct. The 213-page report also incorporates commentary found in scholarly literature and the jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts. Section 2 of the Sherman Act prohibits a firm from illegally acquiring or maintaining a monopoly, meaning the ability to exclude competitors and profitably raise price significantly above competitive levels for a sustained period of time. Unlike antitrust laws that prohibit anticompetitive mergers or other agreements among firms, Section 2 particularly targets single-firm conduct, such as decisions regarding whether and on what terms to sell to or buy from others. Although possessing monopoly power is not unlawful, using an improper means to seek or maintain monopoly power is unlawful where it can harm competition and consumers.
A 60-page ruling from a unanimous three-judge panel of the Third Circuit sided with the estate of sports announcer John Facenda, whose voice was known as the “Voice of God.” The court ruled that NFL Films violated Pennsylvania’s “right of publicity” statute by using Facenda’s voice in a promotional film for a John Madden video game. Here’s past Wall Street Journal Law Blog coverage of the case, and here’s the ruling, authored by Judge Thomas L. Ambro. The panel, writes the Legal Intelligencer, rejected NFL Films’s argument that the “standard release” contract Facenda signed was a “complete defense,” noting that while the release gave the NFL the right to use Facenda’s voice in future film projects, it also explicitly prohibited any use that would “constitute an endorsement” of any product. The panel also partially overturned Facenda’s lower-court victory, finding that U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart erred when he ruled that NFL Films had also violated the federal Lanham Act. On that claim, the panel concluded that a jury must decide the factual question of whether viewers of the Madden video game promotional film would likely be confused about whether Facenda was “endorsing” the product. Now the only issue left to be decided on that claim is how much Facenda’s estate should be awarded in damages. That question will require discovery and a jury trial.
WSJ Law Blog September 10, 2008
Google Announces Plans to Digitize Millions of Pages of News Archives
Official Google Blog: We're launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives...Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you'll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed -- photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all...You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News. Not every search will trigger this new content.
Film Noir Festival at Collingwood Arts Center in Toledo
Friday, September 12
7:30 p.m. "D.O.A." (1949) Edmond O'Brien stars as a hapless accountant thrust into a nightmare of having to track down his own murderer on the streets of San Francisco and L.A.
9:00 p.m. "Too Late For Tears" (1949) Lizabeth Scott plays a wife who stops at nothing to hold on to some found loot. Don Defore and Dan Duryea deal with the results.
Saturday, September 13
7:30 p.m. "He Walked By Night" (1948) Richard Basehart plays a brilliant and clever killer who baffles police until there's a break in the case-handled by none other than Jack Webb, who was inspired to create "Dragnet" after this film was made.
9:00 p.m. "Impact" (1949) Ella Raines and veteran actor Brian Donlevy in an ironic tale of a wife and her lover's ill-fated plot to do away with her wealthy husband.
Sunday, September 14
"Terror by Night" (1946)
Doors open at 2 p.m.
Theatre Pipe Organ Mini-Concert begins at 2:30 p.m.
Movie begins at 3 p.m.
A stolen rare jewel mystery aboard a train draws Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to the case.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Ten years ago, two young graduate students at Stanford University incorporated Google Today, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are billionaires, and the company name is used as a verb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7597599.stm
'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Wins Copyright-Infringement Lawsuit
Judge blocks publication of proposed reference book, awards $6,750 in damages.
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1594367/story.jhtml
Bureau of Labor Statistics - Employment Situation Summary
Employment Situation Summary, August 2008: "The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. In August, employment fell in manufacturing and employment services, while mining and health care continued to add jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 7 cents, or 0.4 percent, over the month."[Table of Contents]
Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, the highest level since September of 2003. The establishment survey showed the economy losing another 84,000 jobs in August. With downward revisions to data for the prior two months, the economy has lost an average of 81,000 jobs over the last three months. Virtually all the data in the household survey indicates that the labor market is weakening at a rapid pace. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate is only 0.2 percentage points below the 6.3 percent peak reached in June of 2003. The employment to population ratio (EPOP) ratio fell to 62.1 percent, only slightly above the 62.0 percent low hit in September of 2003. Unemployment rose among almost all demographic groups, but women were hit hardest, with a rise of 0.7 pp to 5.3 percent. This is equal to the high for the last downturn in September of 2003. Black women saw their unemployment rate jump by 1.6 percentage points to 9.1 percent. The unemployment rate for blacks overall rose by 0.9 pp to 10.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Hispanics jumped by 0.6 pp to 8.0 percent, the highest level since reaching 8.1 percent in July of 2003."
Dennice Alexander is the first full-time administrator to oversee the libraries within Arkansas state prison system, which holds more than 14,000 inmates spread among 20 locations. "They're trying to rehabilitate themselves," Alexander said. "We have (prisoners) leaving everyday and some of them have been in since they were 17, 16, and now they're 35 and 40. The world has changed, so they don't know about Internet or banking." Alexander receives only $20,000 a year to purchase books, magazines and newspapers for inmates. And she's working to create late fees for overdue books, possibly charging an inmate's commissary account if a borrowed book stays out past two weeks. As much as 90 per cent of all books in circulation at the prison units come from donations.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVtuEINxI_hW5q8hiuQ5Y8uu937g
"Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers" benefited from a late surge in public support to win the title of oddest book title of the past 30 years, The Bookseller magazine said. The book--a comprehensive record of Greek postal routes by Derek Willan--grabbed 13 percent of the 1,000 international public votes cast to chose the oddest title from the winners of the annual competition that began in 1978. It beat "People Who Don't Know They're Dead" and "How To Avoid Huge Ships" into second and third places with 11 and 10 percent respectively.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080905/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_book;_ylt=AkU5kZTQWOXk85tnKTbeMrMEtbAF
Keepers (books I would read again)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
What does your state name mean?
Readers of the muse come from these eight states:
Florida: flowers
Illinois: warriors
Indiana: land of the Indians
Michigan: large body of water
New York: New plus the name of an English duke--after York, England, to honor the then Duke of York (later King James II of England).
North Carolina: North plus Charles--from the name Carolus, in honor of King Charles I of England.
Ohio: large creek
Pennsylvania: Penn’s Woods
See all states: http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/StateNames.htm
Coming to Shumaker charity sale in Toledo
Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge hardbound 390 pages
Legal thriller set in the Hamptons
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0316159786.asp
Reflex by Dick Francis paperbound 346 pages
“When life kicks you in the teeth, get caps.”
http://members.aol.com/dfbooks/reflex.html
Peacock Pie, 75th anniversary edition by Walter de la Mare hardbound 111 pages
Rhymes for children, revised and expanded with illustrations by Louise Brierley
S is for Silence by Sue Grafton hardbound 374 pages
http://www.suegrafton.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=0399152970
The Cold Moon, a Lincoln Rhyme novel by Jefferey Deaver hardbound 400 pages
Deaver is a former journalist, folksinger and attorney, and yes—he played a corrupt reporter on a soap opera
www.jeffereydeaver.com
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg paperbound 467 pages
Life in a small Missouri town, life in New York City, mystery, manipulation by the press
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7597599.stm
'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Wins Copyright-Infringement Lawsuit
Judge blocks publication of proposed reference book, awards $6,750 in damages.
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1594367/story.jhtml
Bureau of Labor Statistics - Employment Situation Summary
Employment Situation Summary, August 2008: "The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. In August, employment fell in manufacturing and employment services, while mining and health care continued to add jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 7 cents, or 0.4 percent, over the month."[Table of Contents]
Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, the highest level since September of 2003. The establishment survey showed the economy losing another 84,000 jobs in August. With downward revisions to data for the prior two months, the economy has lost an average of 81,000 jobs over the last three months. Virtually all the data in the household survey indicates that the labor market is weakening at a rapid pace. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate is only 0.2 percentage points below the 6.3 percent peak reached in June of 2003. The employment to population ratio (EPOP) ratio fell to 62.1 percent, only slightly above the 62.0 percent low hit in September of 2003. Unemployment rose among almost all demographic groups, but women were hit hardest, with a rise of 0.7 pp to 5.3 percent. This is equal to the high for the last downturn in September of 2003. Black women saw their unemployment rate jump by 1.6 percentage points to 9.1 percent. The unemployment rate for blacks overall rose by 0.9 pp to 10.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Hispanics jumped by 0.6 pp to 8.0 percent, the highest level since reaching 8.1 percent in July of 2003."
Dennice Alexander is the first full-time administrator to oversee the libraries within Arkansas state prison system, which holds more than 14,000 inmates spread among 20 locations. "They're trying to rehabilitate themselves," Alexander said. "We have (prisoners) leaving everyday and some of them have been in since they were 17, 16, and now they're 35 and 40. The world has changed, so they don't know about Internet or banking." Alexander receives only $20,000 a year to purchase books, magazines and newspapers for inmates. And she's working to create late fees for overdue books, possibly charging an inmate's commissary account if a borrowed book stays out past two weeks. As much as 90 per cent of all books in circulation at the prison units come from donations.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVtuEINxI_hW5q8hiuQ5Y8uu937g
"Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers" benefited from a late surge in public support to win the title of oddest book title of the past 30 years, The Bookseller magazine said. The book--a comprehensive record of Greek postal routes by Derek Willan--grabbed 13 percent of the 1,000 international public votes cast to chose the oddest title from the winners of the annual competition that began in 1978. It beat "People Who Don't Know They're Dead" and "How To Avoid Huge Ships" into second and third places with 11 and 10 percent respectively.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080905/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_book;_ylt=AkU5kZTQWOXk85tnKTbeMrMEtbAF
Keepers (books I would read again)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
What does your state name mean?
Readers of the muse come from these eight states:
Florida: flowers
Illinois: warriors
Indiana: land of the Indians
Michigan: large body of water
New York: New plus the name of an English duke--after York, England, to honor the then Duke of York (later King James II of England).
North Carolina: North plus Charles--from the name Carolus, in honor of King Charles I of England.
Ohio: large creek
Pennsylvania: Penn’s Woods
See all states: http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/StateNames.htm
Coming to Shumaker charity sale in Toledo
Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge hardbound 390 pages
Legal thriller set in the Hamptons
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0316159786.asp
Reflex by Dick Francis paperbound 346 pages
“When life kicks you in the teeth, get caps.”
http://members.aol.com/dfbooks/reflex.html
Peacock Pie, 75th anniversary edition by Walter de la Mare hardbound 111 pages
Rhymes for children, revised and expanded with illustrations by Louise Brierley
S is for Silence by Sue Grafton hardbound 374 pages
http://www.suegrafton.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=0399152970
The Cold Moon, a Lincoln Rhyme novel by Jefferey Deaver hardbound 400 pages
Deaver is a former journalist, folksinger and attorney, and yes—he played a corrupt reporter on a soap opera
www.jeffereydeaver.com
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg paperbound 467 pages
Life in a small Missouri town, life in New York City, mystery, manipulation by the press
Monday, September 8, 2008
New on LLRX.com - E-Discovery Update: Producing Spreadsheets in Discovery
E-Discovery Update: Producing Spreadsheets in Discovery – 2008
In spite of great financial investment to produce these documents in a way that satisfies competing litigation needs of authenticity and full native functionality, litigants continue to disagree on a production format for these documents, according to Conrad J. Jacoby.
Addressing Misconceptions About The Consumer Price Index
"The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Federal Government’s principal measure of inflation at the retail level, is one of the most-watched economic statistics in the world. Its prominence means that it receives a high level of scrutiny and analysis. Some questions that have been asked recently by journalists and other commentators about the index are:
Does the CPI include food and energy prices?
Does the current method of measuring home prices in the CPI serve to lower the official inflation rate?
When the costs of food rises, does the CPI assume that consumers switch to less expensive and less desired foods, such as substituting hamburger for steak?
The lead article in the August issue of Monthly Labor Review attempts to answer these and related questions."
From 2015, deaths projected to outnumber births in the EU27
"The EU27 population is projected to increase from 495 million on 1 January 2008 to 521 million in 2035, and thereafter gradually decline to 506 million in 2060. The annual number of births is projected to fall over the period 2008-2060, while at the same time the annual number of deaths is projected to continue rising. From 2015 onwards deaths would outnumber births, and hence population growth due to natural increase would cease. From this point onwards, positive net migration would be the only population growth factor. However, from 2035 this positive net migration would no longer counterbalance the negative natural change, and the population is projected to begin to fall.
The EU27 population is also projected to continue to grow older, with the share of the population aged 65 years and over rising from 17.1% in 2008 to 30.0% in 2060, and those aged 80 and over rising from 4.4% to 12.1% over the same period."
Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2008 – City Ranking
"Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer. Tokyo is in second position climbing two places since last year, where as London drops one place to rank third. Oslo climbs six places to 4th place and is followed by Seoul in 5th. Asunción in Paraguay is the least expensive city in the ranking for the sixth year running.
With New York as the base city scoring 100 points, Moscow scores 142.4 and is close to three times costlier than Asunción which has an index of 52.5. Contrary to the trend observed last year the gap between the world’s most and least expensive cities now seems to be widening. Mercer’s survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.”
therefor (ther-FOR)
adverb: For that; in return or exchange for something, e.g. "placing an order and sending payment therefor".
From Middle English therefor, from there + for. The word 'therefore' arose as a variant spelling of this word.
A.Word.A.Day
Five Laws of Librarians from I, Librarian
1. Books are to be read.
2. Every person his or her book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader
5. The library is a growing organism.
I, Librarian is one of the graphic novels featuring Rex Libris. Rex is part of Ordo Bibliotheca, the International Order of Librarians. He survived the burning of the Alexandrian Library in Egypt, and today is librarian at Middleton Public Library in North America. He fights the forces of evil and, if necessary, will travel to outer space to retrieve overdue books from patrons.
http://www.slgpublishing.com/prev_rex/prev_rex.html
The Burning of the Library of Alexandria
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=9
The formal invention of high heels as fashion is typically attributed to the rather short-statured Catherine de Medici (1519-1589). At the age of 14, Catherine de Medici was engaged to the powerful Duke of Orleans, later the King of France. She was small (not quite five feet) relative to the Duke and hardly considered a beauty. She felt insecure in the arranged marriage knowing she would be the Queen of the French Court and in competition with the Duke’s favorite (and significantly taller) mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Looking for a way to dazzle the French nation and compensate for her perceived lack of aesthetic appeal, she donned heels two inches high that gave her a more towering physique and an alluring sway when she walked. Her heels were a wild success and soon high heels were associated with privilege. Mary Tudor, or “Bloody Mary,” another monarch seeking to appear larger than life, wore heels as high possible (McDowell 1989). By 1580, fashionable heels were popular for both sexes, and a person who had authority or wealth was often referred to as “well-heeled.”
In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV (The Sun King) would often wear intricate heels decorated with miniature battle scenes. Called “Louis heels,” they were often as tall as five inches. The king decreed that only nobility could wear heels that were colored red (les talons rogue) and that no one's heels could be higher than his own.
http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html
On September 8, 1892 an early version of the Pledge of Allegiance appeared in a magazine called The Youth's Companion. It read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all."
On September 8, 1664 the Dutch surrendered the city of New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.
On September 8, 1565 a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at St. Augustine, in northeastern Florida, making it the oldest continuously settled city in the United States.
The Writer’s Almanac
E-Discovery Update: Producing Spreadsheets in Discovery – 2008
In spite of great financial investment to produce these documents in a way that satisfies competing litigation needs of authenticity and full native functionality, litigants continue to disagree on a production format for these documents, according to Conrad J. Jacoby.
Addressing Misconceptions About The Consumer Price Index
"The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Federal Government’s principal measure of inflation at the retail level, is one of the most-watched economic statistics in the world. Its prominence means that it receives a high level of scrutiny and analysis. Some questions that have been asked recently by journalists and other commentators about the index are:
Does the CPI include food and energy prices?
Does the current method of measuring home prices in the CPI serve to lower the official inflation rate?
When the costs of food rises, does the CPI assume that consumers switch to less expensive and less desired foods, such as substituting hamburger for steak?
The lead article in the August issue of Monthly Labor Review attempts to answer these and related questions."
From 2015, deaths projected to outnumber births in the EU27
"The EU27 population is projected to increase from 495 million on 1 January 2008 to 521 million in 2035, and thereafter gradually decline to 506 million in 2060. The annual number of births is projected to fall over the period 2008-2060, while at the same time the annual number of deaths is projected to continue rising. From 2015 onwards deaths would outnumber births, and hence population growth due to natural increase would cease. From this point onwards, positive net migration would be the only population growth factor. However, from 2035 this positive net migration would no longer counterbalance the negative natural change, and the population is projected to begin to fall.
The EU27 population is also projected to continue to grow older, with the share of the population aged 65 years and over rising from 17.1% in 2008 to 30.0% in 2060, and those aged 80 and over rising from 4.4% to 12.1% over the same period."
Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2008 – City Ranking
"Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer. Tokyo is in second position climbing two places since last year, where as London drops one place to rank third. Oslo climbs six places to 4th place and is followed by Seoul in 5th. Asunción in Paraguay is the least expensive city in the ranking for the sixth year running.
With New York as the base city scoring 100 points, Moscow scores 142.4 and is close to three times costlier than Asunción which has an index of 52.5. Contrary to the trend observed last year the gap between the world’s most and least expensive cities now seems to be widening. Mercer’s survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.”
therefor (ther-FOR)
adverb: For that; in return or exchange for something, e.g. "placing an order and sending payment therefor".
From Middle English therefor, from there + for. The word 'therefore' arose as a variant spelling of this word.
A.Word.A.Day
Five Laws of Librarians from I, Librarian
1. Books are to be read.
2. Every person his or her book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader
5. The library is a growing organism.
I, Librarian is one of the graphic novels featuring Rex Libris. Rex is part of Ordo Bibliotheca, the International Order of Librarians. He survived the burning of the Alexandrian Library in Egypt, and today is librarian at Middleton Public Library in North America. He fights the forces of evil and, if necessary, will travel to outer space to retrieve overdue books from patrons.
http://www.slgpublishing.com/prev_rex/prev_rex.html
The Burning of the Library of Alexandria
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=9
The formal invention of high heels as fashion is typically attributed to the rather short-statured Catherine de Medici (1519-1589). At the age of 14, Catherine de Medici was engaged to the powerful Duke of Orleans, later the King of France. She was small (not quite five feet) relative to the Duke and hardly considered a beauty. She felt insecure in the arranged marriage knowing she would be the Queen of the French Court and in competition with the Duke’s favorite (and significantly taller) mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Looking for a way to dazzle the French nation and compensate for her perceived lack of aesthetic appeal, she donned heels two inches high that gave her a more towering physique and an alluring sway when she walked. Her heels were a wild success and soon high heels were associated with privilege. Mary Tudor, or “Bloody Mary,” another monarch seeking to appear larger than life, wore heels as high possible (McDowell 1989). By 1580, fashionable heels were popular for both sexes, and a person who had authority or wealth was often referred to as “well-heeled.”
In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV (The Sun King) would often wear intricate heels decorated with miniature battle scenes. Called “Louis heels,” they were often as tall as five inches. The king decreed that only nobility could wear heels that were colored red (les talons rogue) and that no one's heels could be higher than his own.
http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html
On September 8, 1892 an early version of the Pledge of Allegiance appeared in a magazine called The Youth's Companion. It read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all."
On September 8, 1664 the Dutch surrendered the city of New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.
On September 8, 1565 a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at St. Augustine, in northeastern Florida, making it the oldest continuously settled city in the United States.
The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, September 5, 2008
Federal Reserve Beige Book, September 3, 2008
Summary: Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicate that the pace of economic activity has been slow in most Districts. Many described business conditions as "weak," "soft," or "subdued." Consumer spending was reported to be slow in most Districts, with purchasing concentrated on necessary items and retrenchment in discretionary spending. Districts reporting on auto sales described them as falling or steady at low levels. Tourism activity was mixed but received support from international visitors in several Districts, and the demand for services eased in most Districts. The transportation industry was also adversely affected by rising fuel costs. Manufacturing activity declined in most Districts but improved somewhat in Minneapolis and Kansas City. Most Districts reported that residential real estate markets remained soft. Commercial real estate activity was slow in most Districts, and some reported further slackening in demand for office and retail space.
Full Report, Federal Reserve Beige Book, September 3, 2008
Public/private partnership to build first sustained petascale system for open scientific research
News release: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has announced that they have finalized their contract with IBM to build the world's first sustained petascale computational system dedicated to open scientific research. This project, called Blue Waters, is supported by a $208 million grant from the National Science Foundation and will come online in 2011...The system will deliver sustained performance of more than one petaflop on many real-world scientific and engineering applications. A petaflop is computing parlance for 1 quadrillion calculations per second...More than 200,000 processor cores will make that performance possible. They will be coupled to more than a petabyte of memory and more than 10 petabytes of disk storage. All of that memory and storage will be globally addressable, meaning that processors will be able to share data from a single pool.
Italy has sent 14 works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for an exhibition at the John Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles--the first major loan since Italy and the Getty made peace after a long and bitter battle over contested antiquities. The Getty’s show features 60 works by the 17th-century Baroque master including paintings, drawings and sculptures from museums including Rome’s Galleria Borghese and Palazzo Barberini as well as Florence’s Bargello Museum. Bernini and the Birth of Portrait Sculpture runs at the Getty until October 26 before moving to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from November 28 to March 8, 2009.
http://www.livinginitaly.co.uk/italian-news/bernini-exhibition-los-angeles/
Film Flam is Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry's funny and penetrating look at the movie industry Take a look at this book and see why—if you are both reading a book and seeing the movie made from it—you should see the movie first. In these essays he illuminates the plight of the screenwriter, cuts a clean, often hilarious path through the excesses of film reviewing, and takes on some of the worst trends in the industry.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Film-Flam/Larry-McMurtry/e/9780743216241
Keepers (books I would read again)
French Lessons by Peter Mayle
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
The idea of making fuller use of the hours of daylight over the summer months, usually by putting clocks forward one hour, was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin, and later by William Willett, an English builder.
Time Zone Standard Time Daylight Saving
USA Eastern -5 hours (09:41) -4 hours
USA Central -6 hours (08:41) -5 hours
USA Mountain -7 hours (07:41) -6 hours
USA Arizona -7 hours (07:41)
USA Pacific -8 hours (06:41) -7 hours
USA Alaska -9 hours (05:41) -8 hours
USA Aleutian -10 hours (04:41)
USA Hawaii -10 hours (04:41)
Arizona did observe DST in 1967 under the Uniform Time Act when the state legislature did not enact an exemption statute that year. In March 1968, the DST exemption statute was enacted and the state of Arizona has not observed DST since 1967 (however, the large Navajo Indian Reservation, which extends from Arizona into two adjacent states, does).
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/5632/Daylight-Saving-Time.html
Daylight Saving Time has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. At that time, in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria took time by the forelock, and began saving daylight at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. Other countries immediately adopted this 1916 action: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. Nova Scotia and Manitoba adopted it as well, with Britain following suit three weeks later, on May 21, 1916. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland began saving daylight. The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. [See law]
During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called "War Time," from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. [See law] From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time, so states and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time and could choose when it began and ended.
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html
In time for Constitution Day on September 17, Montpelier, the 26-room Virginia home of James Madison, has been reborn. The home was largely concealed behind 20th century alterations and additions. In 1983 the then-Madison estate-owner Marion duPont Scott donated the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. James Madison was immortalized in American history when, at the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1787, he was named by the other 43 signatories of the document as "The Father of the Constitution." James Madison was a reticent person and not a dynamic public speaker, judging by most historical accounts. Nevertheless, it was he who did the most talking at the Constitutional Convention as he debated, countered arguments against the document and promoted it toward adoption and ultimately tried to convince the 13 former Colonies that they, as members of a loose confederation, should become part of something to be called "The United States of America." http://www.jmu.edu/montpelier/issues/spring97/madison.html
The duPont family purchased Montpelier in 1900 and turned it into a 55-room mansion with wings. A top-to-bottom restoration started in 2003, funded mostly by the estate of Paul Mellon. http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/september-october/montpelier.html
Big tree lists
See lists of the largest trees in practically every state with Michigan featured first.
http://www.michbotclub.org/big_trees/champion_list.htm
Summary: Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicate that the pace of economic activity has been slow in most Districts. Many described business conditions as "weak," "soft," or "subdued." Consumer spending was reported to be slow in most Districts, with purchasing concentrated on necessary items and retrenchment in discretionary spending. Districts reporting on auto sales described them as falling or steady at low levels. Tourism activity was mixed but received support from international visitors in several Districts, and the demand for services eased in most Districts. The transportation industry was also adversely affected by rising fuel costs. Manufacturing activity declined in most Districts but improved somewhat in Minneapolis and Kansas City. Most Districts reported that residential real estate markets remained soft. Commercial real estate activity was slow in most Districts, and some reported further slackening in demand for office and retail space.
Full Report, Federal Reserve Beige Book, September 3, 2008
Public/private partnership to build first sustained petascale system for open scientific research
News release: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has announced that they have finalized their contract with IBM to build the world's first sustained petascale computational system dedicated to open scientific research. This project, called Blue Waters, is supported by a $208 million grant from the National Science Foundation and will come online in 2011...The system will deliver sustained performance of more than one petaflop on many real-world scientific and engineering applications. A petaflop is computing parlance for 1 quadrillion calculations per second...More than 200,000 processor cores will make that performance possible. They will be coupled to more than a petabyte of memory and more than 10 petabytes of disk storage. All of that memory and storage will be globally addressable, meaning that processors will be able to share data from a single pool.
Italy has sent 14 works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for an exhibition at the John Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles--the first major loan since Italy and the Getty made peace after a long and bitter battle over contested antiquities. The Getty’s show features 60 works by the 17th-century Baroque master including paintings, drawings and sculptures from museums including Rome’s Galleria Borghese and Palazzo Barberini as well as Florence’s Bargello Museum. Bernini and the Birth of Portrait Sculpture runs at the Getty until October 26 before moving to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from November 28 to March 8, 2009.
http://www.livinginitaly.co.uk/italian-news/bernini-exhibition-los-angeles/
Film Flam is Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry's funny and penetrating look at the movie industry Take a look at this book and see why—if you are both reading a book and seeing the movie made from it—you should see the movie first. In these essays he illuminates the plight of the screenwriter, cuts a clean, often hilarious path through the excesses of film reviewing, and takes on some of the worst trends in the industry.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Film-Flam/Larry-McMurtry/e/9780743216241
Keepers (books I would read again)
French Lessons by Peter Mayle
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Salt by Mark Kurlansky
The idea of making fuller use of the hours of daylight over the summer months, usually by putting clocks forward one hour, was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin, and later by William Willett, an English builder.
Time Zone Standard Time Daylight Saving
USA Eastern -5 hours (09:41) -4 hours
USA Central -6 hours (08:41) -5 hours
USA Mountain -7 hours (07:41) -6 hours
USA Arizona -7 hours (07:41)
USA Pacific -8 hours (06:41) -7 hours
USA Alaska -9 hours (05:41) -8 hours
USA Aleutian -10 hours (04:41)
USA Hawaii -10 hours (04:41)
Arizona did observe DST in 1967 under the Uniform Time Act when the state legislature did not enact an exemption statute that year. In March 1968, the DST exemption statute was enacted and the state of Arizona has not observed DST since 1967 (however, the large Navajo Indian Reservation, which extends from Arizona into two adjacent states, does).
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/5632/Daylight-Saving-Time.html
Daylight Saving Time has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. At that time, in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria took time by the forelock, and began saving daylight at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. Other countries immediately adopted this 1916 action: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. Nova Scotia and Manitoba adopted it as well, with Britain following suit three weeks later, on May 21, 1916. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland began saving daylight. The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. [See law]
During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called "War Time," from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. [See law] From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time, so states and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time and could choose when it began and ended.
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html
In time for Constitution Day on September 17, Montpelier, the 26-room Virginia home of James Madison, has been reborn. The home was largely concealed behind 20th century alterations and additions. In 1983 the then-Madison estate-owner Marion duPont Scott donated the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. James Madison was immortalized in American history when, at the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1787, he was named by the other 43 signatories of the document as "The Father of the Constitution." James Madison was a reticent person and not a dynamic public speaker, judging by most historical accounts. Nevertheless, it was he who did the most talking at the Constitutional Convention as he debated, countered arguments against the document and promoted it toward adoption and ultimately tried to convince the 13 former Colonies that they, as members of a loose confederation, should become part of something to be called "The United States of America." http://www.jmu.edu/montpelier/issues/spring97/madison.html
The duPont family purchased Montpelier in 1900 and turned it into a 55-room mansion with wings. A top-to-bottom restoration started in 2003, funded mostly by the estate of Paul Mellon. http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/september-october/montpelier.html
Big tree lists
See lists of the largest trees in practically every state with Michigan featured first.
http://www.michbotclub.org/big_trees/champion_list.htm
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Three of the largest deer I ever saw walked in a row down the street this morning. When a car approached they galloped across our front lawn at amazing speed. They come from a nearby Metropark and find abundant vegetation in the neighborhoods, so they thrive as our flowers disappear.
New on LLRX.com: Why and What Lawyers Should Consider Outsourcing
Why and What Lawyers Should Consider Outsourcing: This article by Ron Friedmann reviews the history of and logic behind legal outsourcing. It then outlines some of the current legal outsourcing options. A detailed discussion of each option is not possible in one article. Instead, the final section takes a close look at one, outsourcing secretarial and word processing tasks.
ABA Ethics Committee Opinion Detailing Lawyer Responsibilities When Outsourcing Legal Work Domestically or Internationally
News release: "U.S. lawyers are free to outsource legal work, including to lawyers or nonlawyers outside the country, if they adhere to ethics rules requiring competence, supervision, protection of confidential information, reasonable fees and not assisting unauthorized practice of law. Those are the conclusions of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, which describes outsourcing as a salutary trend in a global economy. Many lawyers do outsource work, using lawyers or nonlawyers as independent contractors, hiring them directly or through intermediaries and on temporary or ongoing bases, says the committee.
Ethics Opinion 08-451 details ethics obligations of lawyers and firms that do elect to outsource legal work.
New on LLRX.com: The Art of Written Persuasion: The Problem with the Case Method and the Case for the Problem Method
The Art of Written Persuasion: The Problem with the Case Method and the Case for the Problem Method: In this second article in the series, Troy Simpson suggests that the ‘case method’ of teaching law may help to explain why lawyers write badly. He then outlines some of the advantages of the ‘problem method’ of teaching law.
Google Launches New Beta Browser for Windows
The Official Google Blog: As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available--you can find it here.
New EEOC Publication Aimed at Increasing Opportunities for People with Disabilities in Federal Employment
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new question-and-answer guide aimed at promoting the hiring and advancement of individuals with disabilities in federal government employment. The new publication is available here.
UK Telegraph Reports Arctic becomes an island as ice melts
"The North Pole has become an island for the first time in human history as climate change has made it possible to circumnavigate the Arctic ice cap. The historic development was revealed by satellite images taken last week showing that both the north-west and north-east passages have been opened by melting ice. Prof Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US said the images suggested the Arctic may have entered a "death spiral" caused by global warming."
Retailers lose between and two per cent of sales each year to shoplifters. The thieves may operate singly or in teams. Some use bad checks or stolen credit cards, and may sell the stolen merchandise to flea markets or online. Sophisticated teams know how to clean and repackage material, sometimes selling it back to the very store victimized. In 2006, employees stole about nineteen billion dollars’ worth of merchandise from their employers. One employee raised a red flag when he got about five non-receipt returns in a day—when everyone else in his department was getting about three returns a week.
The New Yorker September 1, 2008
Barcelona’s emblematic, yet incomplete monument, La Sagrada Familia will soon receive a roof
It has been 125 years since architectural genius Antoni Gaudà took on the project in 1883 (though 126 years since the first stone was laid). Welcoming over two million visitors annually, the Cathedral of La Sagrada Familia is now expected to be completely roofed by 2010, when work on the vaults of the transepts and apse will be concluded. Though not quite the finishing touch, this will mark an important milestone in the life of the Cathedral, as it will finally be able to welcome religious observances and cultural events within its walls.
Gaudà is the most renowned exponent of the architectural and artistic movement known as Modernisme, or Catalan Art Nouveau, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. UNESCO first recognized GaudÒs accomplishments in 1984 when it declared several of his structures as World Heritage Sites. Subsequently in 2005, that was expanded to include portions of the Sagrada Familia completed during his lifetime.
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=15003_0_1_0_M
Surreal unfinished church, begun in 1883, may be completed by 2025
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/travel/24COMgaudi.html?ref=todayspaper
New on LLRX.com: Why and What Lawyers Should Consider Outsourcing
Why and What Lawyers Should Consider Outsourcing: This article by Ron Friedmann reviews the history of and logic behind legal outsourcing. It then outlines some of the current legal outsourcing options. A detailed discussion of each option is not possible in one article. Instead, the final section takes a close look at one, outsourcing secretarial and word processing tasks.
ABA Ethics Committee Opinion Detailing Lawyer Responsibilities When Outsourcing Legal Work Domestically or Internationally
News release: "U.S. lawyers are free to outsource legal work, including to lawyers or nonlawyers outside the country, if they adhere to ethics rules requiring competence, supervision, protection of confidential information, reasonable fees and not assisting unauthorized practice of law. Those are the conclusions of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, which describes outsourcing as a salutary trend in a global economy. Many lawyers do outsource work, using lawyers or nonlawyers as independent contractors, hiring them directly or through intermediaries and on temporary or ongoing bases, says the committee.
Ethics Opinion 08-451 details ethics obligations of lawyers and firms that do elect to outsource legal work.
New on LLRX.com: The Art of Written Persuasion: The Problem with the Case Method and the Case for the Problem Method
The Art of Written Persuasion: The Problem with the Case Method and the Case for the Problem Method: In this second article in the series, Troy Simpson suggests that the ‘case method’ of teaching law may help to explain why lawyers write badly. He then outlines some of the advantages of the ‘problem method’ of teaching law.
Google Launches New Beta Browser for Windows
The Official Google Blog: As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available--you can find it here.
New EEOC Publication Aimed at Increasing Opportunities for People with Disabilities in Federal Employment
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new question-and-answer guide aimed at promoting the hiring and advancement of individuals with disabilities in federal government employment. The new publication is available here.
UK Telegraph Reports Arctic becomes an island as ice melts
"The North Pole has become an island for the first time in human history as climate change has made it possible to circumnavigate the Arctic ice cap. The historic development was revealed by satellite images taken last week showing that both the north-west and north-east passages have been opened by melting ice. Prof Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US said the images suggested the Arctic may have entered a "death spiral" caused by global warming."
Retailers lose between and two per cent of sales each year to shoplifters. The thieves may operate singly or in teams. Some use bad checks or stolen credit cards, and may sell the stolen merchandise to flea markets or online. Sophisticated teams know how to clean and repackage material, sometimes selling it back to the very store victimized. In 2006, employees stole about nineteen billion dollars’ worth of merchandise from their employers. One employee raised a red flag when he got about five non-receipt returns in a day—when everyone else in his department was getting about three returns a week.
The New Yorker September 1, 2008
Barcelona’s emblematic, yet incomplete monument, La Sagrada Familia will soon receive a roof
It has been 125 years since architectural genius Antoni Gaudà took on the project in 1883 (though 126 years since the first stone was laid). Welcoming over two million visitors annually, the Cathedral of La Sagrada Familia is now expected to be completely roofed by 2010, when work on the vaults of the transepts and apse will be concluded. Though not quite the finishing touch, this will mark an important milestone in the life of the Cathedral, as it will finally be able to welcome religious observances and cultural events within its walls.
Gaudà is the most renowned exponent of the architectural and artistic movement known as Modernisme, or Catalan Art Nouveau, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. UNESCO first recognized GaudÒs accomplishments in 1984 when it declared several of his structures as World Heritage Sites. Subsequently in 2005, that was expanded to include portions of the Sagrada Familia completed during his lifetime.
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=15003_0_1_0_M
Surreal unfinished church, begun in 1883, may be completed by 2025
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/travel/24COMgaudi.html?ref=todayspaper
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Follow-up to Tecumseh, Michigan story
Tecumseh is having an Art Birdhouse Festival with work by over 60 local artists on display at area businesses through September 10. You may pick up a location guide at Tecumseh Center for the Arts at 400 North Maumee Street. All pieces will be auctioned on September 13 at the Tecumseh Country Club (2000 Milwaukee Road, 517/423-2070) or online http://www.thetca.org/flight_of_fancy/default.htm
Steady Increase in ID Thefts Recorded So Far For 2008
News release: The total number of breaches in the Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) 2008 breach list has surpassed the final total of 446 reported in 2007, more than 4 months before the end of 2008. As of 9:30 a.m. August 22nd, the number of confirmed data breaches in 2008 stood at 449. The actual number of breaches is most likely higher, due to under-reporting and the fact that some of the breaches reported, which affect multiple businesses, are listed as single events.
ITRC 2008 Breach List
2008 ITRC Breach report
2008 ITRC Breach Stats Report broken down by categories
The federal government established Fannie Mae in 1938 to expand the flow of mortgage funds across the nation and to help lower the costs to buy a home. Thirty years later, it was reconstituted by Congress as a shareholder-owned company. In 1970, the federal government created Freddie Mac to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the housing market. Freddie Mac, a stockholder-owned company, makes loans and loan guarantees.
Wall Street has been buzzing the last few days about a possible takeover by the federal government of beleaguered mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together hold or guarantee half the mortgage debt in the United States. In the wake of having gobbled up mortgage loans that went into default, the government-sponsored companies have seen a combined $3.1-billion loss from April to June.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzmort225811388aug22,0,6961630.story
Dashes function in some ways like parentheses (used in pairs to set off a comment within a larger sentence) and in some ways like colons (used to introduce material illustrating or emphasizing the immediately preceding statement). Comments set off with a pair of dashes appear less subordinate to the main sentence than do comments in parentheses. Material introduced after a single dash may be more emphatic and may serve a greater variety of rhetorical purposes than material introduced with a colon.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_overvw.html
Chicago’s “Marble Palace” has been turned into a stunning new downtown museum
Richard H. Driehaus lavished upon the storied Nickerson Mansion resulted in a remarkable new museum that has just opened. Driehaus first saw the inside of the sprawling 1883 sandstone house at the corner of Erie and Wabash when he visited an art gallery there, hunting for a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The consultant who accompanied him said, "You don't want to buy the statue . . . you should buy the house." With multimillion-dollar restoration efforts complete, M. Kirby Talley Jr, implemented Driehaus' vision for the museum. Downstairs he restored and re-covered original pieces of furniture (which had miraculously stayed in the house), and returned as many chairs and sofas to their original settings as possible. Period objects from Driehaus' collection—including museum-quality works of art—completed the rooms.
Upstairs, he created galleries to display additional objects from the collection. One room is devoted to Tiffany lamps. Another displays historical photographs of the mansion.
Today, with the antique furnishings back in place and chandeliers glowing in nearly every room, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum stands ready for visitors.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/september-october/nickerson.html
The SS United States was one of the greatest—if not the greatest—ocean liners of the 20th century. To cut such a trail in the water a ship has to be fast, and there was no ocean liner faster than the one known to enthusiasts as the "Big U." Although four city blocks long and 17 stories high, the United States could slice through water at 44 knots, or more than 50 mph—14 knots faster than today's largest cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2. During her maiden voyage in 1952, the ship set records on both the east and westbound crossings; the latter, three days, 12 hours and 12 minutes at an average speed of 34.5 knots, has never been broken. Because the ship was heavily compartmentalized, she could remain afloat even if half of the hull filled with water. With the exception of a grand piano and some butcher's blocks, not a single item aboard was made of wood. The largest passenger ship ever built in America is languishing at Pier 82, on a bend in the Delaware River, just north of downtown Philadelphia.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4263478.html
'Fantasia On A Theme of Thomas Tallis' by Ralph Vaughan Williams was first performed at the Gloucester Festival in 1910.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A398937
In the audience at the first performance was the composer Herbert Howells, then aged eighteen. He, like many others, had gone to Gloucester to hear Edward Elgar conduct The Dream of Gerontius. But interposed between the audience and its Elgar was a new work, to be conducted by its composer, a tall, handsome, black-haired young man from Chelsea. From the very first chords of the Tallis Fantasia, Howells was spellbound and afterwards he and his friend Ivor Gurney walked the streets of Gloucester unable to sleep.
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/_downloads/File/Vaughan%20Williams%20notes/vaughan_williams_tallis_fantasia_formatted.pdf?PHPSESSID=pf74fnqnv263gd70
“The land without music”—that is how nineteenth-century European musicians referred to England. They did not mean that there was no performance, nor that there was no love of music, but rather that English composers were inferior to their contemporaries on the continent. The greatest British composers prior to the twentieth century were Henry Purcell (1659–1695), John Bull (1563–1628), John Dowland (1563–1626), Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), William Byrd (1543–1623), Thomas Morley (1557–1603), and Thomas Tallis (1505–1585). There were virtually no British composers of international importance for a period of nearly 200 years. This eclipse of talent came to an end as several young English composers showed exceptional gifts toward the end of the nineteenth century. They included Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Frederick Delius (1862–1934), and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958).
http://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/PDF/ProgramNotes/CSO15_0506.pdf
To your health Before corn came to Europe, there was polenta and before polenta, there was puls and pulmentum. Roman armies had a porridge that was similar to polenta, made with millet, chestnut flour, chickpea flour, roasted barley, buckwheat and other grains. Polenta is coarse cornmeal.
http://www.istrianet.org/istria/gastronomy/articles/polenta1.htm
August 30 is the birthday of Warren Buffet, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1930). In February 2008, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, worth about $62 billion. Despite his massive wealth, he lives relatively frugally, still residing in the home he bought in 1958 for $31,500, driving his own car, and allotting himself an annual salary from his investment company of about $100,000. In 1988, he said: "There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die." In 2006, he announced his plans to give 83 percent of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and he began transferring stocks from his company to their foundation. He also said, "If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians."
September 1 is the birthday of one of the most popular pulp fiction writers in American history, Edgar Rice Burroughs, (books by this author) born in Chicago (1875). He had read Darwin's book Descent of Man back in 1899, and he was fascinated by the idea that human beings were related to apes. He began to wonder what might happen if a child from an excessively noble, well-bred family were somehow left in the jungle to be raised by apes. The result was his story "Tarzan of the Apes," which filled an entire issue of All-Story magazine in October of 1912.
On September 2, 1666, a small fire broke out in a baker's shop on Puddling Lane in London. The flames soon spread, and within hours all of London was ablaze. When it was all over the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 80 percent of the city, including over thirteen thousand houses. The diarist Samuel Pepys watched the fire from across the Thames River, after burying his wine and Parmesan cheese to keep them safe from the fire. After the fire was over, the architect Christopher Wren was hired to rebuild the more than eighty churches destroyed by the blaze, including St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Writer’s Almanac
Tecumseh is having an Art Birdhouse Festival with work by over 60 local artists on display at area businesses through September 10. You may pick up a location guide at Tecumseh Center for the Arts at 400 North Maumee Street. All pieces will be auctioned on September 13 at the Tecumseh Country Club (2000 Milwaukee Road, 517/423-2070) or online http://www.thetca.org/flight_of_fancy/default.htm
Steady Increase in ID Thefts Recorded So Far For 2008
News release: The total number of breaches in the Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) 2008 breach list has surpassed the final total of 446 reported in 2007, more than 4 months before the end of 2008. As of 9:30 a.m. August 22nd, the number of confirmed data breaches in 2008 stood at 449. The actual number of breaches is most likely higher, due to under-reporting and the fact that some of the breaches reported, which affect multiple businesses, are listed as single events.
ITRC 2008 Breach List
2008 ITRC Breach report
2008 ITRC Breach Stats Report broken down by categories
The federal government established Fannie Mae in 1938 to expand the flow of mortgage funds across the nation and to help lower the costs to buy a home. Thirty years later, it was reconstituted by Congress as a shareholder-owned company. In 1970, the federal government created Freddie Mac to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the housing market. Freddie Mac, a stockholder-owned company, makes loans and loan guarantees.
Wall Street has been buzzing the last few days about a possible takeover by the federal government of beleaguered mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together hold or guarantee half the mortgage debt in the United States. In the wake of having gobbled up mortgage loans that went into default, the government-sponsored companies have seen a combined $3.1-billion loss from April to June.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzmort225811388aug22,0,6961630.story
Dashes function in some ways like parentheses (used in pairs to set off a comment within a larger sentence) and in some ways like colons (used to introduce material illustrating or emphasizing the immediately preceding statement). Comments set off with a pair of dashes appear less subordinate to the main sentence than do comments in parentheses. Material introduced after a single dash may be more emphatic and may serve a greater variety of rhetorical purposes than material introduced with a colon.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_overvw.html
Chicago’s “Marble Palace” has been turned into a stunning new downtown museum
Richard H. Driehaus lavished upon the storied Nickerson Mansion resulted in a remarkable new museum that has just opened. Driehaus first saw the inside of the sprawling 1883 sandstone house at the corner of Erie and Wabash when he visited an art gallery there, hunting for a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The consultant who accompanied him said, "You don't want to buy the statue . . . you should buy the house." With multimillion-dollar restoration efforts complete, M. Kirby Talley Jr, implemented Driehaus' vision for the museum. Downstairs he restored and re-covered original pieces of furniture (which had miraculously stayed in the house), and returned as many chairs and sofas to their original settings as possible. Period objects from Driehaus' collection—including museum-quality works of art—completed the rooms.
Upstairs, he created galleries to display additional objects from the collection. One room is devoted to Tiffany lamps. Another displays historical photographs of the mansion.
Today, with the antique furnishings back in place and chandeliers glowing in nearly every room, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum stands ready for visitors.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/september-october/nickerson.html
The SS United States was one of the greatest—if not the greatest—ocean liners of the 20th century. To cut such a trail in the water a ship has to be fast, and there was no ocean liner faster than the one known to enthusiasts as the "Big U." Although four city blocks long and 17 stories high, the United States could slice through water at 44 knots, or more than 50 mph—14 knots faster than today's largest cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2. During her maiden voyage in 1952, the ship set records on both the east and westbound crossings; the latter, three days, 12 hours and 12 minutes at an average speed of 34.5 knots, has never been broken. Because the ship was heavily compartmentalized, she could remain afloat even if half of the hull filled with water. With the exception of a grand piano and some butcher's blocks, not a single item aboard was made of wood. The largest passenger ship ever built in America is languishing at Pier 82, on a bend in the Delaware River, just north of downtown Philadelphia.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4263478.html
'Fantasia On A Theme of Thomas Tallis' by Ralph Vaughan Williams was first performed at the Gloucester Festival in 1910.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A398937
In the audience at the first performance was the composer Herbert Howells, then aged eighteen. He, like many others, had gone to Gloucester to hear Edward Elgar conduct The Dream of Gerontius. But interposed between the audience and its Elgar was a new work, to be conducted by its composer, a tall, handsome, black-haired young man from Chelsea. From the very first chords of the Tallis Fantasia, Howells was spellbound and afterwards he and his friend Ivor Gurney walked the streets of Gloucester unable to sleep.
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/_downloads/File/Vaughan%20Williams%20notes/vaughan_williams_tallis_fantasia_formatted.pdf?PHPSESSID=pf74fnqnv263gd70
“The land without music”—that is how nineteenth-century European musicians referred to England. They did not mean that there was no performance, nor that there was no love of music, but rather that English composers were inferior to their contemporaries on the continent. The greatest British composers prior to the twentieth century were Henry Purcell (1659–1695), John Bull (1563–1628), John Dowland (1563–1626), Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), William Byrd (1543–1623), Thomas Morley (1557–1603), and Thomas Tallis (1505–1585). There were virtually no British composers of international importance for a period of nearly 200 years. This eclipse of talent came to an end as several young English composers showed exceptional gifts toward the end of the nineteenth century. They included Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Frederick Delius (1862–1934), and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958).
http://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/PDF/ProgramNotes/CSO15_0506.pdf
To your health Before corn came to Europe, there was polenta and before polenta, there was puls and pulmentum. Roman armies had a porridge that was similar to polenta, made with millet, chestnut flour, chickpea flour, roasted barley, buckwheat and other grains. Polenta is coarse cornmeal.
http://www.istrianet.org/istria/gastronomy/articles/polenta1.htm
August 30 is the birthday of Warren Buffet, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1930). In February 2008, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, worth about $62 billion. Despite his massive wealth, he lives relatively frugally, still residing in the home he bought in 1958 for $31,500, driving his own car, and allotting himself an annual salary from his investment company of about $100,000. In 1988, he said: "There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die." In 2006, he announced his plans to give 83 percent of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and he began transferring stocks from his company to their foundation. He also said, "If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians."
September 1 is the birthday of one of the most popular pulp fiction writers in American history, Edgar Rice Burroughs, (books by this author) born in Chicago (1875). He had read Darwin's book Descent of Man back in 1899, and he was fascinated by the idea that human beings were related to apes. He began to wonder what might happen if a child from an excessively noble, well-bred family were somehow left in the jungle to be raised by apes. The result was his story "Tarzan of the Apes," which filled an entire issue of All-Story magazine in October of 1912.
On September 2, 1666, a small fire broke out in a baker's shop on Puddling Lane in London. The flames soon spread, and within hours all of London was ablaze. When it was all over the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 80 percent of the city, including over thirteen thousand houses. The diarist Samuel Pepys watched the fire from across the Thames River, after burying his wine and Parmesan cheese to keep them safe from the fire. After the fire was over, the architect Christopher Wren was hired to rebuild the more than eighty churches destroyed by the blaze, including St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Writer’s Almanac
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