From a reader after seeing a muse mentioning Lane Cake
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by (Nelle) Harper Lee (b. 1926)
Synopsis: A principled small-town lawyer is called on to defend a black man unfairly accused of raping a white woman; in the course of the trial and its aftermath, his children learn the meaning of courage and understanding. Narrated by the lawyer’s young daughter, the story is also a memoir of growing up in the South in the 30s, in Lee’s words, a “love song” to her father. Though the court case is fictional (but inspired by the 1931 “Scottsboro Trial”) most of the characters can be directly traced to inhabitants of Lee’s hometown; Atticus is modeled on Lee’s father, Scout is Lee, herself, and Dill is based on next-door neighbor, Truman Capote. The surname Finch is Lee’s mother’s maiden name.
Author info: Descended from Robert E. Lee (a genealogical condition she ironically bestows on the novel’s white-trash villain, Bob Ewell) and the daughter of a title attorney, Lee grew up in a Methodist household in Monroeville, AL. An avid reader, she studied law at the University of Alabama and worked as an airline reservation clerk in New York when she went North to launch a literary career; she wrote Mockingbird during a year financed by friends who thought she showed promise.
Movie: Horton Foote’s excellent screenplay and Gregory Peck’s remarkable performance as Atticus combine to make this one powerful film; both men won Oscars for their 1962 work. Elmer Bernstein’s music also catches the mood just right; watch carefully to catch Robert Duvall ‘s screen debut as Boo.
Dessert: Lane Cake According to Scout, Miss Maudie made the best cakes in Maycomb, and her Lane Cake was no exception. Feel free to use any white or yellow cake recipe for its base; this version is formulated specifically not to waste the whites of the 8 eggs that are needed for the filling. Likewise, you can also improvise the filling: a touch less coconut, your choice of candied/dried fruits, etc.
Thanks, Barbara
Nancy Silverstone, founder of LaBrea Bakery and chef and co-owner of Mozza Restaurant, explains how to make focaccia. An installment of the Master Class series:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-masterclass-20110526,0,1188913.htmlstory
Often described as one of the most important American paintings from the 19th-century, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s recent restoration of Thomas Eakins’ ”The Gross Clinic”, was displayed at the Museum July 2010-January, 2011. Capturing Eakins’ characteristic darkness (or at least chiaroscuro), the work is as historically illuminating as it is aesthetic. Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a man once monikered to be ”the Emperor of American Surgery.” Shown originally at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, early critics actually banished the work from display for its rather gross, graphic depiction of the removal of a malignancy from a young lady’s thigh. Painted just blocks from the Museum, in the city where Eakins lived his entire life, “Gross Clinic” celebrates the lives of two men at the peak of their professional powers. http://culturemob.com/philadelphia-museum-of-art-presents-thomas-eakins-restored-gross-clinic
From the 1880s until the 1960s the weekly covers of Journal of the American Medical Association displayed only a table of contents. On April 20th, 1964, the JAMA cover featured an original painting for the first time. Since then, works of art have graced the covers of JAMA each week.
http://www.backfiles.org/ The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association Volumes I and II of The Art of JAMA are widely available for purchase.
You may also be interested in A Piece of My Mind https://catalog.ama-assn.org/Catalog/product/product_detail.jsp?childName=&parentCategoryName=&parentCategory=&productId=OP031700+&categoryName=&prodId=&start=&parentId=
and Soul of the Physician https://catalog.ama-assn.org/Catalog/product/product_detail.jsp?childName=&parentCategoryName=&parentCategory=&productId=OP209701+&categoryName=&prodId=&start=&parentId=
Hymenaea courbaril (Jatobá or Guapinol) is a tree common to the Caribbean, Central, and South America. It is a hardwood that is used for furniture, flooring and decorative purposes. Although Jatoba is sometimes referred to as Brazilian Cherry or South American Cherry, it is not a cherry tree and it is in no way, botanically or otherwise related to the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), a very common North American hardwood. Depending on the locale, Jatoba is also known as Brazilian Copal, South American Locust, the West Indian Locust Tree, or Stinking Toe, Old Man's Toe or Stinktoe (because of the unpleasant odor of the edible pulp inside its seed pods and various other names. Jatoba produces an orange, resinous, sticky gum that converts to amber through a chemical process that requires millions of years. Amber of million year old Hymenaea trees have provided scientists with many clues to its prehistoric presence on Earth as well as to the often extinct insects and plants encased in it, as shown in the Jurassic Park films. Jatoba is a very hard wood measuring 5.6 on the Brinell scale or 2,350 lbf (10,500 N) on the Janka scale, approximate measurements of hardness. For comparison, Douglas Fir measures 660 lbf (2,900 N), White Oak 1,360 lbf (6,000 N), and Brazilian Walnut 3,800 lbf (17,000 N) on the Janka scale. Jatoba wood features a tan/salmon color with black accent stripes that over time turns to a deep rich red color. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenaea_courbaril
The terrine, a loaf of meat, seafood or vegetables, takes its name from the earthenweare mold in which it is traditionally cooked. A terrine mixture enclosed and baked in pastry becomes a pate--literally, a pie. A galantine is contained in a whole boned bird or a large cut of meat, not pastry. It is poached, not baked.
Terrines, Pates & Galantines (The Good Cook Techniques & Recipes Series)
Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. Why is it observed in late May? Look outside. See the roses and lilies of the field? The “decoration” in Decoration Day referred to ornamentation, not to a military medal. This is the time when flowers are blooming in most regions of the United States, and they can be picked and used to decorate the graves of the fallen. Thus in 1868, Gen. John Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization for Union Civil War soldiers, issued a general order setting aside May 30 for the purpose of “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” But that was only a beginning. North and South remained split on many things in the decades following the Civil War, and the day to remember their late soldiers was one of them. Southern observances for the Confederate dead arose independently of Logan’s order, notes Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust in her book on the post-Civil War period, “This Republic of Suffering.” In some locations, they were held on May 10, the anniversary of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s death. In others, they were held on April 26, the day Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William Sherman in 1865, effectively ending the war. A number of Southern states still hold a Confederate Memorial Day on a different date than that used for the national holiday. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2011/0527/Why-is-Memorial-Day-observed-in-May
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Author Dick Wimmer died on May 18 at his home in Agoura Hills, Calif. He was 74. Saying that agents and publishers had spurned him 162 times, Mr. Wimmer laid claim to being the most-rejected published novelist in history. Finally, in 1989, “Irish Wine” was published by Mercury House. The novel tells how, after that epiphany on the tracks, Seamus Boyne resurrects himself and his career and reunites with an old friend, Gene Hagar (a struggling author), who eventually flies to London for the gala celebrating Boyne’s exhibit at the Tate — the start of their joyful antics. In a review for The New York Times, C. D. B. Bryan called it a “taut, finely written, exhaustingly exuberant first novel.” The Los Angeles Times said Mr. Wimmer had encased “the zany saga in an enchanted aura by couching it entirely in the stream-of-consciousness prose hallowed by James Joyce and disciples.” Despite the reviews, “Irish Wine” did not become a best seller and Mr. Wimmer, while continuing to write and edit other works, returned to teaching. Since 1968, he has been an adjunct professor of English and creative writing at more than two dozen colleges. Mr. Wimmer wove his zany strain through two sequels that were published in 2001 as parts of the “Irish Wine Trilogy.” In “Boyne’s Lassie,” Seamus returns to the United States to find his long-lost daughter. In “Hagar’s Dream,” Boyne’s friend falls in love with his buddy’s daughter, now 20 years old. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/arts/dick-wimmer-74-irish-wine-author-is-dead.html
Seafood Watch: 2011 Press Kit from Monterey Bay Aquarium In 1997, an aquarium special exhibition - Fishing for Solutions - prompted an internal review of the aquarium’s own seafood-buying practices, resulting in a list of recommendations for internal use. Visitors began asking for a copy of this list and the Seafood Watch pocket guide was born. Since its debut in 1999, the Seafood Watch program has grown to include six regional pocket guides, with three Spanish-language options, featuring popular seafood found in different regions of the U.S. In 2008, a guide to sustainable sushi was introduced. Guides are updated every six months to reflect ongoing research, resulting in “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives” or items to “Avoid.” In partnership with zoos, aquariums and other institutions across the U.S., the Monterey Bay Aquarium has put over 36.7 million Seafood Watch pocket guides in the hands of consumers; over nine million guides were included in the 2007 DVD release of the animated film Happy Feet. Thousands of guides are also downloaded each year from the aquarium’s website. Increased consumer demand for seafood has had a profound effect on the health of our oceans. Today nearly two thirds of the world’s assessed fish stocks require rebuilding. Bycatch – the unintended capture of marine life in fishing gear – is having a serious impact on ocean wildlife, particularly long-lived animals such as sea turtles, sharks, marine mammals and seabirds. Bycatch is also concern because of the sheer volume of fish and invertebrates that are thrown overboard; it’s estimated that eight percent of global landings are discarded. With the worldwide catch in decline, aquaculture (or fish farming) seeks to fill the gap. In the next year, for the first time, farming will likely overtake wild-caught fish as the leading source of our seafood. While fish farming can help ease pressure on wild fisheries, some aquaculture methods can have their own negative impact. One major concern is the amount of wild-caught fish required to feed carnivorous species of farmed fish, such as salmon and tuna.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/storage/pressroom/presskit/pdf/11-Seafood%20Watch%20Press%20Kit_2.pdf
scrumptious delightful, excellent; especially: delicious perhaps alteration of sumptuous First Known Use: 1830 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrumptious
See UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011 It includes expressions and traditions in art, dance, festivals, processions, tournaments, weaving and food. Created by one Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Alabama, who published her recipe in 1898, Lane cake is popular all over the South. In some versions the cake is frosted with a cooked white icing, but you may coat the sides with more of the delicious filling. This cake improves in flavor as it ages and mellows. Covered and uncut, it may be made two days before serving, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Find recipe for this three-layer cake at: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Lane-Cake
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of honey as its primary sugar source and is often referred to as honey wine. Being made from honey, one would naturally expect it to be very sweet and although it usually is, it can actually range from dry to very sweet. Mead is usually still, though it can be made sparkling and can range from a mild low alcoholic content up to very high. Mead is arguably the oldest alcoholic beverage on the planet with some evidence dating it back approximately 10,000 years. Due to many different cultural and financial reasons, mead has fallen out of favor over the many years and now we call it the 'oldest alcoholic beverage no one has ever heard of.' from Long Island Meadery http://www.limeadery.com/lgm_aboutmead.html
To make mead requires three basic ingredients – honey, water and yeast. In nature, the bees concentrate the sugars in honey in order to preserve the honey. Water must be added to the honey to bring the sugars to an acceptable level for the yeast to ferment them effectively. All meads, or honeywines, are fermented. They are wines. from Sky River Mead http://www.skyriverbrewing.com/Mead/beer-or-wine.html
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun and warm the planet's surface. Of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, 87% are related to energy consumption. From 1990 to 2009, greenhouse gas emissions in the United States have grown by about 0.04% per year. The United States accounts for about 20% of the world's total energy-related carbon dioxide. http://eia.gov/energy_in_brief/greenhouse_gas.cfm
Cities (not state capitals) in the U.S. that share their name with their own state
Alabama City, Alabama
Arizona City, Arizona
Arkansas City, Arkansas
California City, California
Colorado City, Colorado
Delaware City, Delaware
Florida City, Florida
Idaho City, Idaho
Illinois City, Illinois
Iowa City, Iowa
Kansas City, Kansas
Maryland City, Maryland
Minnesota City, Minnesota
Mississippi City, Mississippi
Missouri City, Missouri
Montana City, Montana
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Nevada City, Nevada
New York City, New York
Ohio City, Ohio (Cuyahoga County)
Ohio City, Ohio (Van Wert County)
Oregon City, Oregon
Texas City, Texas
Virginia City, Virginia
Find also Cities in the U.S. that share their name with a different state such as Arkansas City, Kansas and Cities in the U.S. that share their name with another country such as Mexico City, New Mexico. Interesting comments at: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-72285.html
Seafood Watch: 2011 Press Kit from Monterey Bay Aquarium In 1997, an aquarium special exhibition - Fishing for Solutions - prompted an internal review of the aquarium’s own seafood-buying practices, resulting in a list of recommendations for internal use. Visitors began asking for a copy of this list and the Seafood Watch pocket guide was born. Since its debut in 1999, the Seafood Watch program has grown to include six regional pocket guides, with three Spanish-language options, featuring popular seafood found in different regions of the U.S. In 2008, a guide to sustainable sushi was introduced. Guides are updated every six months to reflect ongoing research, resulting in “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives” or items to “Avoid.” In partnership with zoos, aquariums and other institutions across the U.S., the Monterey Bay Aquarium has put over 36.7 million Seafood Watch pocket guides in the hands of consumers; over nine million guides were included in the 2007 DVD release of the animated film Happy Feet. Thousands of guides are also downloaded each year from the aquarium’s website. Increased consumer demand for seafood has had a profound effect on the health of our oceans. Today nearly two thirds of the world’s assessed fish stocks require rebuilding. Bycatch – the unintended capture of marine life in fishing gear – is having a serious impact on ocean wildlife, particularly long-lived animals such as sea turtles, sharks, marine mammals and seabirds. Bycatch is also concern because of the sheer volume of fish and invertebrates that are thrown overboard; it’s estimated that eight percent of global landings are discarded. With the worldwide catch in decline, aquaculture (or fish farming) seeks to fill the gap. In the next year, for the first time, farming will likely overtake wild-caught fish as the leading source of our seafood. While fish farming can help ease pressure on wild fisheries, some aquaculture methods can have their own negative impact. One major concern is the amount of wild-caught fish required to feed carnivorous species of farmed fish, such as salmon and tuna.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/storage/pressroom/presskit/pdf/11-Seafood%20Watch%20Press%20Kit_2.pdf
scrumptious delightful, excellent; especially: delicious perhaps alteration of sumptuous First Known Use: 1830 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrumptious
See UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011 It includes expressions and traditions in art, dance, festivals, processions, tournaments, weaving and food. Created by one Emma Rylander Lane of Clayton, Alabama, who published her recipe in 1898, Lane cake is popular all over the South. In some versions the cake is frosted with a cooked white icing, but you may coat the sides with more of the delicious filling. This cake improves in flavor as it ages and mellows. Covered and uncut, it may be made two days before serving, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Find recipe for this three-layer cake at: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Lane-Cake
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of honey as its primary sugar source and is often referred to as honey wine. Being made from honey, one would naturally expect it to be very sweet and although it usually is, it can actually range from dry to very sweet. Mead is usually still, though it can be made sparkling and can range from a mild low alcoholic content up to very high. Mead is arguably the oldest alcoholic beverage on the planet with some evidence dating it back approximately 10,000 years. Due to many different cultural and financial reasons, mead has fallen out of favor over the many years and now we call it the 'oldest alcoholic beverage no one has ever heard of.' from Long Island Meadery http://www.limeadery.com/lgm_aboutmead.html
To make mead requires three basic ingredients – honey, water and yeast. In nature, the bees concentrate the sugars in honey in order to preserve the honey. Water must be added to the honey to bring the sugars to an acceptable level for the yeast to ferment them effectively. All meads, or honeywines, are fermented. They are wines. from Sky River Mead http://www.skyriverbrewing.com/Mead/beer-or-wine.html
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun and warm the planet's surface. Of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, 87% are related to energy consumption. From 1990 to 2009, greenhouse gas emissions in the United States have grown by about 0.04% per year. The United States accounts for about 20% of the world's total energy-related carbon dioxide. http://eia.gov/energy_in_brief/greenhouse_gas.cfm
Cities (not state capitals) in the U.S. that share their name with their own state
Alabama City, Alabama
Arizona City, Arizona
Arkansas City, Arkansas
California City, California
Colorado City, Colorado
Delaware City, Delaware
Florida City, Florida
Idaho City, Idaho
Illinois City, Illinois
Iowa City, Iowa
Kansas City, Kansas
Maryland City, Maryland
Minnesota City, Minnesota
Mississippi City, Mississippi
Missouri City, Missouri
Montana City, Montana
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Nevada City, Nevada
New York City, New York
Ohio City, Ohio (Cuyahoga County)
Ohio City, Ohio (Van Wert County)
Oregon City, Oregon
Texas City, Texas
Virginia City, Virginia
Find also Cities in the U.S. that share their name with a different state such as Arkansas City, Kansas and Cities in the U.S. that share their name with another country such as Mexico City, New Mexico. Interesting comments at: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-72285.html
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Survey of Current Business May 2011 http://www.bea.gov/scb/index.htm
Quotes
Reading is my greatest luxury.
If you can't return a favor, pass it on.
I used to think about how I was conceived quite a lot when I was about 10 or 11, but I don't think about it at all now that so many other babies have been born in the same way.
Louise Brown (b. 1978) English author, first "test tube" baby
tyro or tiro (TY-roh) noun One who is beginning to learn something.
From Latin tiro (young soldier, recruit). Earliest documented use: 1611. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Q: How many apples does Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay, Ohio give away each year? And when did it start?
A: Candy-stripers from the Blanchard Valley Hospital Auxiliary distribute nearly 55,000 apples a year, or an average of about 150 apples a day. The apple became a hospital fixture in 1986, when it was among the first to ban smoking. Apples replaced ashtrays for those who felt the urge to smoke. Soon, the apple became associated with the hospital and it was incorporated into its logo. Megan A. James, Blanchard Valley Health System.
Q: Was Johnny Appleseed real?
A: Yes. Johnny Appleseed was John Chapman, born Sept. 26, 1774, in Leominster, Mass. He began to plant apple nurseries throughout the Midwest in 1802. According to the Swedenborgian Church, "The record on Johnny Appleseed reveals him to be a careful, organized and strategic businessman who, over a period of several decades, bought and sold many dozen tracts of land in advance of the frontier expansion, and who developed countless thousands of productive apple trees throughout the upper Midwest. "John Chapman didn't simply walk around the countryside planting seeds and communing with nature. He was methodical in the selection of his nursery sites and the planting of his seeds. "By instinct, he (improved)...fruit by seeding rather than by grafting or budding. "He always selected a good, loamy piece of ground in an open place, fenced it in with fallen trees and logs, bushes and vines, sowed his seeds, and returned at regular intervals to repair the fence, to tend the ground, and to sell his trees," according to the church. He wore discarded clothing and would barter apple saplings for them. Chapman eventually owned more than 1,200 acres in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He died at Fort Wayne, Ind., in March 1845. Ohio Historical Society, Swedenborgian Church.
Q: OK, then who was Johnny Apple?
A: R.W. Apple Jr., nicknamed "Johnny Apple," was a highly respected New York Times reporter and editor for more than 40 years. He died Oct. 3, 2006, in Washington at the age of 71. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/May/JU/ar_JU_052311.asp?d=052311,2011,May,23&c=c_13
Mark Twain may have said that: “Golf is a good walk spoiled” but there are millions around the world who say otherwise. While there is some dispute as to who can actually claim to have been the first person ever to have hit something with a stick, what Scotland can prove is that the earliest mention of the sport comes from King James II of Scotland, who, in 1457 banned golf as it was taking his archers away from their practice. And any mention of Scotland and golf can’t get very far without introducing the famous Leith Links. First mentioned in 1552 during a dispute between the rival “cordiners” (cobblers) of the Canongate and the cordiners and “gouff” ball makers of North Leith. This reference not only establishes the playing of golf on the Links in the 16th century, but also suggests that if cobblers were involved, then the equipment used was bespoke, and a long way from random hitting of round stones with sticks. The first open golf championship, on 2nd April 1744 is commonly held to be the first golfing activity of any golf club in the world. (The Royal Burgess maintains it was established first in 1735, but Leith has the first written records to support its claim.) The prize, presented to Edinburgh physician John Rattray, was a silver golf club. Initially the competition was open to anyone, but in 1764 it formalised its arrangements and limited the competition to Leith members. It was from around this time that they became known as the “Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers”. This title was formalised in a charter granted to them by the Lord Provost in 1800. During the early 18th century the game’s popularity declined, as did the coffers of the Honourable Gentlemen. Facing huge debts they sold off the club house, and play ceased for a time. When they next re-grouped it was in 1836 at a new eight-hole golf course inside the racetrack at Musselburgh. With no clubhouse, the gentlemen had to store their golf clubs under the racetrack – which proved highly unsuitable. A decision to build a club house necessitated funding, and so the club started to charge members an annual subscription. Overcrowding forced another move, and in 1891 the Honourable Gentlemen settled at another racetrack, at the East Lothian horse races on the Hundred Acres Park. This became the Muirfield course, designed by Old Tom Morris, originally 16 holes, but quickly built up to 18. Often referred to as Muirfield, the club’s official title remains The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. And its ancient lineage is still important today, according to Alastair Brown, Club Secretary. http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2010/03/07/the-noble-heritage-of-a-good-walk-ruined/00252
Nairobi/Washington DC, May 23, 2011—Against a backdrop of volatile food prices and increasing climate variability, more and more people are paying attention to the relationship between a healthy environment and resilient farmland. From policy makers to private investors, from researchers to smallholder farmers, many are looking for better ways to increase food security in a changing climate. Organizers of a three-day Investment Forum in Nairobi on May 25-27, 2011 are hoping these groups will focus their eyes on trees – trees in productive landscapes that can help achieve the ‘triple win’ of increased productivity, climate resilience and carbon capture, in ways that benefit smallholder farmers. “Feeding the planet in the next 20 years is not simply a quantitative challenge,” said Inger Andersen, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, ahead of the Forum. “Unsustainable practices that degrade soil fertility will depress yields and keep pushing people further into remaining natural forests. We want to encourage agricultural practices that are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.” Agricultural expansion is the main driver of deforestation in many parts of the world, directly challenging conservation efforts. About 100 people representing farms, businesses, investment firms, research centers, NGOs and development organizations will convene in Nairobi for an Investment Forum devoted to Mobilizing Private Investment in Trees and Landscape Restoration in Africa. The event will be hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre, in a unique partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Bank, EcoAgriculture Partners, the Program on Forests (PROFOR) and TerrAfrica.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22921529~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Quotes
Reading is my greatest luxury.
If you can't return a favor, pass it on.
I used to think about how I was conceived quite a lot when I was about 10 or 11, but I don't think about it at all now that so many other babies have been born in the same way.
Louise Brown (b. 1978) English author, first "test tube" baby
tyro or tiro (TY-roh) noun One who is beginning to learn something.
From Latin tiro (young soldier, recruit). Earliest documented use: 1611. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Q: How many apples does Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay, Ohio give away each year? And when did it start?
A: Candy-stripers from the Blanchard Valley Hospital Auxiliary distribute nearly 55,000 apples a year, or an average of about 150 apples a day. The apple became a hospital fixture in 1986, when it was among the first to ban smoking. Apples replaced ashtrays for those who felt the urge to smoke. Soon, the apple became associated with the hospital and it was incorporated into its logo. Megan A. James, Blanchard Valley Health System.
Q: Was Johnny Appleseed real?
A: Yes. Johnny Appleseed was John Chapman, born Sept. 26, 1774, in Leominster, Mass. He began to plant apple nurseries throughout the Midwest in 1802. According to the Swedenborgian Church, "The record on Johnny Appleseed reveals him to be a careful, organized and strategic businessman who, over a period of several decades, bought and sold many dozen tracts of land in advance of the frontier expansion, and who developed countless thousands of productive apple trees throughout the upper Midwest. "John Chapman didn't simply walk around the countryside planting seeds and communing with nature. He was methodical in the selection of his nursery sites and the planting of his seeds. "By instinct, he (improved)...fruit by seeding rather than by grafting or budding. "He always selected a good, loamy piece of ground in an open place, fenced it in with fallen trees and logs, bushes and vines, sowed his seeds, and returned at regular intervals to repair the fence, to tend the ground, and to sell his trees," according to the church. He wore discarded clothing and would barter apple saplings for them. Chapman eventually owned more than 1,200 acres in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He died at Fort Wayne, Ind., in March 1845. Ohio Historical Society, Swedenborgian Church.
Q: OK, then who was Johnny Apple?
A: R.W. Apple Jr., nicknamed "Johnny Apple," was a highly respected New York Times reporter and editor for more than 40 years. He died Oct. 3, 2006, in Washington at the age of 71. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/May/JU/ar_JU_052311.asp?d=052311,2011,May,23&c=c_13
Mark Twain may have said that: “Golf is a good walk spoiled” but there are millions around the world who say otherwise. While there is some dispute as to who can actually claim to have been the first person ever to have hit something with a stick, what Scotland can prove is that the earliest mention of the sport comes from King James II of Scotland, who, in 1457 banned golf as it was taking his archers away from their practice. And any mention of Scotland and golf can’t get very far without introducing the famous Leith Links. First mentioned in 1552 during a dispute between the rival “cordiners” (cobblers) of the Canongate and the cordiners and “gouff” ball makers of North Leith. This reference not only establishes the playing of golf on the Links in the 16th century, but also suggests that if cobblers were involved, then the equipment used was bespoke, and a long way from random hitting of round stones with sticks. The first open golf championship, on 2nd April 1744 is commonly held to be the first golfing activity of any golf club in the world. (The Royal Burgess maintains it was established first in 1735, but Leith has the first written records to support its claim.) The prize, presented to Edinburgh physician John Rattray, was a silver golf club. Initially the competition was open to anyone, but in 1764 it formalised its arrangements and limited the competition to Leith members. It was from around this time that they became known as the “Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers”. This title was formalised in a charter granted to them by the Lord Provost in 1800. During the early 18th century the game’s popularity declined, as did the coffers of the Honourable Gentlemen. Facing huge debts they sold off the club house, and play ceased for a time. When they next re-grouped it was in 1836 at a new eight-hole golf course inside the racetrack at Musselburgh. With no clubhouse, the gentlemen had to store their golf clubs under the racetrack – which proved highly unsuitable. A decision to build a club house necessitated funding, and so the club started to charge members an annual subscription. Overcrowding forced another move, and in 1891 the Honourable Gentlemen settled at another racetrack, at the East Lothian horse races on the Hundred Acres Park. This became the Muirfield course, designed by Old Tom Morris, originally 16 holes, but quickly built up to 18. Often referred to as Muirfield, the club’s official title remains The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. And its ancient lineage is still important today, according to Alastair Brown, Club Secretary. http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2010/03/07/the-noble-heritage-of-a-good-walk-ruined/00252
Nairobi/Washington DC, May 23, 2011—Against a backdrop of volatile food prices and increasing climate variability, more and more people are paying attention to the relationship between a healthy environment and resilient farmland. From policy makers to private investors, from researchers to smallholder farmers, many are looking for better ways to increase food security in a changing climate. Organizers of a three-day Investment Forum in Nairobi on May 25-27, 2011 are hoping these groups will focus their eyes on trees – trees in productive landscapes that can help achieve the ‘triple win’ of increased productivity, climate resilience and carbon capture, in ways that benefit smallholder farmers. “Feeding the planet in the next 20 years is not simply a quantitative challenge,” said Inger Andersen, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, ahead of the Forum. “Unsustainable practices that degrade soil fertility will depress yields and keep pushing people further into remaining natural forests. We want to encourage agricultural practices that are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.” Agricultural expansion is the main driver of deforestation in many parts of the world, directly challenging conservation efforts. About 100 people representing farms, businesses, investment firms, research centers, NGOs and development organizations will convene in Nairobi for an Investment Forum devoted to Mobilizing Private Investment in Trees and Landscape Restoration in Africa. The event will be hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre, in a unique partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Bank, EcoAgriculture Partners, the Program on Forests (PROFOR) and TerrAfrica.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22921529~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The American Bar Association was sued May 24 in a federal case claiming that the LSAT test discriminates against the blind and visually impaired. The alleged problem, according to the suit, is that one-fourth of the test involves “analytical rezoning” questions that require diagramming to answer correctly. Here’s an example of one of the objectionable questions, according to the suit: “A company employee generates a series of five-digit product codes in accordance with the following rules: The codes use the digits 0,1,2,3 and 4 . . .Each digit occurs exactly once in any code; the second digit has a value exactly twice that of the first digit; the value of the third digit is less than the value of the fifth digit.” Test takers are then invited to answer a series of questions about the proper sequencing of the product codes. “A blind or visually impaired applicant is unable to conceive of spatial relationships or diagram answers in the same manner as their sighted peers,” according to the complaint. So, why does the suit target the ABA? Because it allegedly pressures law schools to administer the LSAT; a law school that waives the LSAT exam for a visually impaired applicant could risk losing its status as an ABA-approved school, the suit contends. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/05/24/federal-suit-claims-lsat-discriminatory/ See complaint here: http://www.callsam.com/images/stories/news_docs_pics/Complaint_Benno-vs-ABA_5-24-11.pdf
Celebrating a defining moment for the premier institution of modern and contemporary American art, and a landmark achievement in the public-private revitalization of downtown Manhattan, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the City of New York on May 24 broke ground for the Whitney’s new museum building on Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District. Scheduled to open in 2015, the downtown building will, for the first time, allow for a comprehensive view of the Whitney’s unsurpassed collection of modern and contemporary American art. It will devote equal space to the Museum’s widely influential special exhibitions and artist projects, as well as provide state-of-the-art facilities for enhanced education and performing arts programs, all within one of New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods. The project, which is expected to be New York City’s first certified LEED-Silver art museum, is to be built on a site acquired from the City of New York. To date, the Whitney has raised $508 million of its $720 million project budget, which includes funds for construction and endowment. According to architect Renzo Piano, “The design for the new museum emerges equally from a close study of the Whitney’s needs and from a response to this remarkable site. We wanted to draw on its vitality and at the same time enhance its rich character. The first big gesture, then, is the cantilevered entrance, which transforms the area outside the building into a large, sheltered public space. At this gathering place beneath the High Line, visitors will see through the building entrance and the large windows on the west side to the Hudson River beyond. Here, all at once, you have the water, the park, the powerful industrial structures and the exciting mix of people, brought together and focused by this new building and the experience of art.” The new Whitney building will include more than 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space on a series of rooftops facing the High Line, providing long-awaited opportunities to show more of the Whitney’s collection in tandem with temporary exhibitions. The collection has grown from about 2,000 works at the time of the building’s opening, in 1966, to more than 19,000 works today. An expansive gallery for temporary exhibitions will be approximately 18,000 square feet in area, making it the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City. Gallery space for ground-floor exhibitions (accessible free of charge), two floors for the permanent collection, and contemporary artists’ projects on the top floor will total approximately 32,000 square feet. On Friday, May 27, in celebration of groundbreaking for the Whitney’s future building in the Meatpacking District, the public is invited to enjoy two of the benefits of Whitney membership: free admission to the Museum and a 10% discount at the Whitney store. The Whitney is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street. Friday hours are 1–9 pm. http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=47685
In “The Hangover Part II,” the sequel to the very successful what-happened-last-night comedy, the character played by Ed Helms wakes up with a permanent tattoo bracketing his left eye. The Maori-inspired design is instantly recognizable as the one sported by the boxer Mike Tyson, which is part of the joke. (Mr. Tyson makes an appearance in both films, playing himself.) But S. Victor Whitmill, a tattoo artist formerly of Las Vegas and currently from rural Missouri, doesn’t quite see the humor. Mr. Whitmill designed the tattoo for Mr. Tyson, called it “tribal tattoo,” and claims it as a copyrighted work. He has gone to Federal District Court in St. Louis to ask a judge to stop Warner Brothers Entertainment from using the tattoo in its posters or in the movie, which would amount to stopping the film from being released, as well as to demand monetary damages for what he calls “reckless copyright infringement” by the studio. “Mr. Whitmill has never been asked for permission for, and has never consented to, the use, reproduction or creation of a derivative work based on his original tattoo,” argues the lawsuit, which was filed April 28, and will be taken up the week of May 23. In 2005, Rasheed Wallace and Nike were sued by a tattoo artist, Matthew Reed, over a commercial that outlined a tattoo as he discussed why he had it created; the case was settled. David Beckham and his favorite tattooist, Louis Molloy, had a public dispute that year over his plan to highlight them in an advertisement. The feud culminated in an interview with Mr. Molloy in The Daily Mirror that ran under the headline “I Own Beck’s Tattoo .. and I’ll Sue.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/business/media/21tattoo.html?_r=1&ref=tattoos
In more than 20 years as a professional puzzle designer, Scott Kim has worked on everything from word, number and logic puzzles to toys such as Railroad Rush Hour and computer games such as "Obsidian" and "Escher Interactive," which features interactive puzzles based on M.C. Escher's optical illusions. Lately, he has been developing smartphone game apps and contributing a bimonthly puzzle column to Psychology Today. Growing up in Los Angeles, Mr. Kim was obsessed with magic and mathematics . He began drawing mazes and creating crossword puzzles in the second grade. In the sixth grade, he made his first original puzzle. He began folding letters of the alphabet made out of construction paper to make other letters. He folded the letter F over so that the base covered the shorter horizontal line and formed a U shape. "This excited me to no end," said Mr. Kim, who still uses the puzzle in lectures, asking people to guess the letter underneath. (Most guess L.) He borrows ideas for puzzles from architecture, music, science and art (favorite designers include Milton Glaser and Charles and Ray Eames). See more plus graphics at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576315402235374390.html
Huguette Clark, one of America's wealthiest and most prominent debutantes, spent eight decades in virtual seclusion. Ms. Clark died May 24 at 104 in a New York City hospital where, despite good health, she had taken up residence more than 20 years ago. At the hospital she pursued a passion for antique dolls but rarely saw visitors. Her early life was a whirl of private schools, dance lessons in Paris, and a childhood spent in "Clark's Folly," the 121-room mansion her father built on New York's ritzy Fifth Avenue. But after her brief encounter with high society, Ms. Clark retreated into isolation, living for decades with her mother in 42 art-festooned rooms overlooking Central Park. The apartment—said to be the biggest on Fifth Avenue—was kept in good order, but she never lived there after choosing to enter the hospital. Nor did she spend time at her two other properties, a California mansion valued at $100 million and a Connecticut estate that is on the market for $24 million. It was a solitary ending to the most privileged of lives. Ms. Clark's father, William Clark, was one of the 19th century "copper kings" of Montana, and his United Verde Mining Co. helped vault his fortune alongside those of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. The city of Las Vegas was first established as a maintenance stop for one of his railroads. She leaves a fortune estimated at $500 million, and no descendents. Her lawyer, Wallace Bock, said last September she had signed a will. She once told friends that wealth is a "menace to happiness." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576343781550144232.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
henchman 1 obsolete: a squire or page to a person of high rank 2 a: a trusted follower : a right-hand man b: a political follower whose support is chiefly for personal advantage c: a member of a gang Middle English henshman, hengestman groom, from hengest stallion (from Old English) + man; akin to Old High German hengist gelding First Known Use: 15th century http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/henchmen
From 1 May fans of the cult film "The Third Man" can again tour the film's original location in the Vienna sewer system. The guided tours seven metres underneath Karlsplatz (Girardipark/Esperantopark) will leave you with an unforgettable insight into the world of this film classic as well as provide you with information about the Vienna sewer system and the construction works carried out there. Apart from the guided tour of the sewer, the "Third Man Tour" also offers an above-ground walk in the footsteps of the film’s main characters (organised by "Vienna Walks + Talks"), a visit to the "Third Man Museum" and a screening of the film's original version at Burg Kino. See schedules and prices at: http://www.wien.gv.at/english/environment-leisure/third-man.html
Vienna isn't alone in plumbing the depths of tourism. A local chamber of commerce in Brighton, England, in 2007 voted the city's sewers the "Best Place to Visit." Brussels in 2007 renovated its sewer museum, whose exterior resembles a Greek temple. And the wellspring of sewer tourism, Paris's Musée des Égouts, plans a makeover to handle rising traffic, which surpasses 100,000 visitors a year. Tours of the city's sewers, already famous from Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," began in 1867, when a revolutionary, modernized network collected only rainwater. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576321044058634186.html
Quotes He who praises everybody, praises nobody. What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author and lexicographer
Celebrating a defining moment for the premier institution of modern and contemporary American art, and a landmark achievement in the public-private revitalization of downtown Manhattan, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the City of New York on May 24 broke ground for the Whitney’s new museum building on Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District. Scheduled to open in 2015, the downtown building will, for the first time, allow for a comprehensive view of the Whitney’s unsurpassed collection of modern and contemporary American art. It will devote equal space to the Museum’s widely influential special exhibitions and artist projects, as well as provide state-of-the-art facilities for enhanced education and performing arts programs, all within one of New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods. The project, which is expected to be New York City’s first certified LEED-Silver art museum, is to be built on a site acquired from the City of New York. To date, the Whitney has raised $508 million of its $720 million project budget, which includes funds for construction and endowment. According to architect Renzo Piano, “The design for the new museum emerges equally from a close study of the Whitney’s needs and from a response to this remarkable site. We wanted to draw on its vitality and at the same time enhance its rich character. The first big gesture, then, is the cantilevered entrance, which transforms the area outside the building into a large, sheltered public space. At this gathering place beneath the High Line, visitors will see through the building entrance and the large windows on the west side to the Hudson River beyond. Here, all at once, you have the water, the park, the powerful industrial structures and the exciting mix of people, brought together and focused by this new building and the experience of art.” The new Whitney building will include more than 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space on a series of rooftops facing the High Line, providing long-awaited opportunities to show more of the Whitney’s collection in tandem with temporary exhibitions. The collection has grown from about 2,000 works at the time of the building’s opening, in 1966, to more than 19,000 works today. An expansive gallery for temporary exhibitions will be approximately 18,000 square feet in area, making it the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City. Gallery space for ground-floor exhibitions (accessible free of charge), two floors for the permanent collection, and contemporary artists’ projects on the top floor will total approximately 32,000 square feet. On Friday, May 27, in celebration of groundbreaking for the Whitney’s future building in the Meatpacking District, the public is invited to enjoy two of the benefits of Whitney membership: free admission to the Museum and a 10% discount at the Whitney store. The Whitney is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street. Friday hours are 1–9 pm. http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=47685
In “The Hangover Part II,” the sequel to the very successful what-happened-last-night comedy, the character played by Ed Helms wakes up with a permanent tattoo bracketing his left eye. The Maori-inspired design is instantly recognizable as the one sported by the boxer Mike Tyson, which is part of the joke. (Mr. Tyson makes an appearance in both films, playing himself.) But S. Victor Whitmill, a tattoo artist formerly of Las Vegas and currently from rural Missouri, doesn’t quite see the humor. Mr. Whitmill designed the tattoo for Mr. Tyson, called it “tribal tattoo,” and claims it as a copyrighted work. He has gone to Federal District Court in St. Louis to ask a judge to stop Warner Brothers Entertainment from using the tattoo in its posters or in the movie, which would amount to stopping the film from being released, as well as to demand monetary damages for what he calls “reckless copyright infringement” by the studio. “Mr. Whitmill has never been asked for permission for, and has never consented to, the use, reproduction or creation of a derivative work based on his original tattoo,” argues the lawsuit, which was filed April 28, and will be taken up the week of May 23. In 2005, Rasheed Wallace and Nike were sued by a tattoo artist, Matthew Reed, over a commercial that outlined a tattoo as he discussed why he had it created; the case was settled. David Beckham and his favorite tattooist, Louis Molloy, had a public dispute that year over his plan to highlight them in an advertisement. The feud culminated in an interview with Mr. Molloy in The Daily Mirror that ran under the headline “I Own Beck’s Tattoo .. and I’ll Sue.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/business/media/21tattoo.html?_r=1&ref=tattoos
In more than 20 years as a professional puzzle designer, Scott Kim has worked on everything from word, number and logic puzzles to toys such as Railroad Rush Hour and computer games such as "Obsidian" and "Escher Interactive," which features interactive puzzles based on M.C. Escher's optical illusions. Lately, he has been developing smartphone game apps and contributing a bimonthly puzzle column to Psychology Today. Growing up in Los Angeles, Mr. Kim was obsessed with magic and mathematics . He began drawing mazes and creating crossword puzzles in the second grade. In the sixth grade, he made his first original puzzle. He began folding letters of the alphabet made out of construction paper to make other letters. He folded the letter F over so that the base covered the shorter horizontal line and formed a U shape. "This excited me to no end," said Mr. Kim, who still uses the puzzle in lectures, asking people to guess the letter underneath. (Most guess L.) He borrows ideas for puzzles from architecture, music, science and art (favorite designers include Milton Glaser and Charles and Ray Eames). See more plus graphics at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576315402235374390.html
Huguette Clark, one of America's wealthiest and most prominent debutantes, spent eight decades in virtual seclusion. Ms. Clark died May 24 at 104 in a New York City hospital where, despite good health, she had taken up residence more than 20 years ago. At the hospital she pursued a passion for antique dolls but rarely saw visitors. Her early life was a whirl of private schools, dance lessons in Paris, and a childhood spent in "Clark's Folly," the 121-room mansion her father built on New York's ritzy Fifth Avenue. But after her brief encounter with high society, Ms. Clark retreated into isolation, living for decades with her mother in 42 art-festooned rooms overlooking Central Park. The apartment—said to be the biggest on Fifth Avenue—was kept in good order, but she never lived there after choosing to enter the hospital. Nor did she spend time at her two other properties, a California mansion valued at $100 million and a Connecticut estate that is on the market for $24 million. It was a solitary ending to the most privileged of lives. Ms. Clark's father, William Clark, was one of the 19th century "copper kings" of Montana, and his United Verde Mining Co. helped vault his fortune alongside those of the Rockefellers and Carnegies. The city of Las Vegas was first established as a maintenance stop for one of his railroads. She leaves a fortune estimated at $500 million, and no descendents. Her lawyer, Wallace Bock, said last September she had signed a will. She once told friends that wealth is a "menace to happiness." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576343781550144232.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
henchman 1 obsolete: a squire or page to a person of high rank 2 a: a trusted follower : a right-hand man b: a political follower whose support is chiefly for personal advantage c: a member of a gang Middle English henshman, hengestman groom, from hengest stallion (from Old English) + man; akin to Old High German hengist gelding First Known Use: 15th century http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/henchmen
From 1 May fans of the cult film "The Third Man" can again tour the film's original location in the Vienna sewer system. The guided tours seven metres underneath Karlsplatz (Girardipark/Esperantopark) will leave you with an unforgettable insight into the world of this film classic as well as provide you with information about the Vienna sewer system and the construction works carried out there. Apart from the guided tour of the sewer, the "Third Man Tour" also offers an above-ground walk in the footsteps of the film’s main characters (organised by "Vienna Walks + Talks"), a visit to the "Third Man Museum" and a screening of the film's original version at Burg Kino. See schedules and prices at: http://www.wien.gv.at/english/environment-leisure/third-man.html
Vienna isn't alone in plumbing the depths of tourism. A local chamber of commerce in Brighton, England, in 2007 voted the city's sewers the "Best Place to Visit." Brussels in 2007 renovated its sewer museum, whose exterior resembles a Greek temple. And the wellspring of sewer tourism, Paris's Musée des Égouts, plans a makeover to handle rising traffic, which surpasses 100,000 visitors a year. Tours of the city's sewers, already famous from Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," began in 1867, when a revolutionary, modernized network collected only rainwater. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576321044058634186.html
Quotes He who praises everybody, praises nobody. What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author and lexicographer
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Blinders, also known as blinkers or winkers, are a piece of horse tack that restrict the horse's vision to the rear and, in some cases, to the side. They usually are made of leather or plastic cups that are placed on either side of the eyes, either attached to a bridle or to an independent hood. Blinkers that have a peep hole cut in the back of the cup are known as visors. Many racehorse trainers believe these keep the horse focused on what is in front of him, encouraging him to pay attention to the race rather than other distractions, such as crowds. Additionally, blinkers (then usually known as winkers) are commonly seen on driving horses, to keep them from being distracted or spooked, especially on crowded city streets. A “set of winkers” can refer to the whole bridle, particularly the heavy bridle used on draft horses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinders
A falcon's hood is used in the manning process (acclimatising to humans and the human world) and to keep the raptor in a calm state, both in the early part of its training and throughout its falconry career. Out of all the falconer's aids the hood is the most important piece of equipment. There are various styles and types of hood for raptors within falconry. The hood is hand made, often from kip leather or suitable kangaroo leather. There are two standard types used in American/European Falconry: the Anglo Indian hood (non-blocked) and the Dutch Hood. The Anglo-Indian Hood is made from one piece of leather. The Dutch Hood is a three piece hood blocked on a special mould called a "hood block", which is designed to best represent the shape of the raptor's head, also allowing space for the eyes with an adequate neck width. It is essential that the hood fits the raptor in a comfortable way or the raptor will reject the hood outright, making training very difficult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry_training_and_technique
hoodwink verb (tr) 1. to dupe; trick 2. Obsolete to cover or hide [originally, to cover the eyes with a hood, blindfold]
hoodwinker noun http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hoodwink
CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange network and website with almost 2.7 million members. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchSurfing
CouchSurfing International, Inc. is incorporated as a non-profit, and the following is from their mission statement: "CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding."
couch surfing Slang Sleeping on friends’ sofas while traveling.
New attention is being paid to a class action lawsuit filed in late January in U.S. District Court in Northern California against AT&T. The suit claims that the company's billing system records data use up to three times the actual use, including "phantom" charges that occur when the phone is not in use. AT&T says the issue is just a misunderstanding about how data is used and billed. The complaint cites independent research that tested how data is charged after some iPhone users noted charges that exceeded the 200MB limit of AT&T's $15 per month data plan. In addition to data usage that exceeded expectations, some users also noticed data charges that were recorded at odd hours of the night when the phone was not in active use. The independent tests were conducted with multiple devices over a period of four months, and allegedly show that AT&T's billing system regularly recorded data use that exceeded actual use by 7-14 percent, on average. In some cases, AT&T reportedly recorded data use as much as 300 percent of the actual use. To confirm the "phantom" data charges, a computer engineer hired by the law firms involved in the case took a brand new iPhone, turned off all push notifications and location services, did not set up any e-mail accounts, and made sure no applications were running. After 10 days of sitting idle, AT&T recorded 35 instances of data use totaling over 2MB. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/05/lawsuit-alleges-att-overcharging-smartphone-users-for-data-use.ars
Ohio, the Buckeye State, received its nickname because of the many buckeye trees that once covered its hills and plains. But that's only partly the reason. We have to go back to the feverish presidential campaign of 1840 for the rest of it. William Henry Harrison, a Virginia-born Ohioan and military hero, was a candidate for the White House, but his opponents commented that he was better suited to sit in a log cabin and drink hard cider. Some of Harrison's leading supporters, who were experts in promotional know-how, decided to turn into a positive reference what was supposed to be a negative one. They dubbed him "the log cabin candidate," and chose as his campaign emblem a log cabin made of buckeye timbers, with a long string of buckeyes decorating its walls. Furthermore, in parades, his backers walked with buckeye canes and rolled whisky barrels. The campaign gimmicks were successful. "Old Tippecanoe," as Harrison was often called, beat President Martin Van Buren in the latter's bid for re-election, and thereafter the buckeye was closely associated with the state of Ohio. The name itself is of native origin. Because the markings on the nut resembled the eye of a buck, the Indians called it "hetuck" or "buckeye." The name Ohio, meanwhile, can be traced to an Indian word meaning "great" and was first given to the historic river that borders our state. http://www.lkwdpl.org/buckeye/buck01.htm
See information on the Ohio buckeye tree plus pictures at: http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/buckeye_ohio/buckeye_ohio.html
Did you know that a large percentage of plastic bottle caps are not recycled? The ReCap Co. will re-purpose them into doormats. To date, they have received over 1 million plastic caps. The company is very interested in getting schools, universities, churches, businesses, and other organizations involved in collections. Please feel free to contact us for further information about collecting at your facility. To help us in our quest for caps you may donate any number of bottle caps to: The ReCap Co., 6465 Lewis Rd., Loveland, Ohio 45140 http://www.recapcompany.com/index.html
TripAdvisor.com is the world's largest travel site that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. TripAdvisor.com is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of user-generated content. The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model. TripAdvisor has been criticized for allowing reviews to be posted by anyone about any hotel, without the need for supporting evidence. In September 2010 a group of over 420 hospitality operators considered taking TripAdvisor to court over unfounded and unedited reviews posted by the website’s visitors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripAdvisor
An "exoskeleton" has been designed by Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni and a group of mostly graduate students. In a way, the dream first took root in 2000, when Kazerooni's team got a grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency -- a division of the U.S. Department of Defense -- to make something to allow people to carry heavy loads, according to Berkeley's media relations department. The idea was to allow people to trek across rugged or remote terrain for extended periods, such as when military medics carry an injured soldier or when firefighters trudge up stairs. Four years later, that culminated with the creation of BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton. The contraption, with a backpack frame, is connected to a person's legs, using its own power source to move them without putting undue stress on the muscles of the human attached to it. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/16/california.paraplegic.graduate/
A falcon's hood is used in the manning process (acclimatising to humans and the human world) and to keep the raptor in a calm state, both in the early part of its training and throughout its falconry career. Out of all the falconer's aids the hood is the most important piece of equipment. There are various styles and types of hood for raptors within falconry. The hood is hand made, often from kip leather or suitable kangaroo leather. There are two standard types used in American/European Falconry: the Anglo Indian hood (non-blocked) and the Dutch Hood. The Anglo-Indian Hood is made from one piece of leather. The Dutch Hood is a three piece hood blocked on a special mould called a "hood block", which is designed to best represent the shape of the raptor's head, also allowing space for the eyes with an adequate neck width. It is essential that the hood fits the raptor in a comfortable way or the raptor will reject the hood outright, making training very difficult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry_training_and_technique
hoodwink verb (tr) 1. to dupe; trick 2. Obsolete to cover or hide [originally, to cover the eyes with a hood, blindfold]
hoodwinker noun http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hoodwink
CouchSurfing is a hospitality exchange network and website with almost 2.7 million members. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchSurfing
CouchSurfing International, Inc. is incorporated as a non-profit, and the following is from their mission statement: "CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding."
couch surfing Slang Sleeping on friends’ sofas while traveling.
New attention is being paid to a class action lawsuit filed in late January in U.S. District Court in Northern California against AT&T. The suit claims that the company's billing system records data use up to three times the actual use, including "phantom" charges that occur when the phone is not in use. AT&T says the issue is just a misunderstanding about how data is used and billed. The complaint cites independent research that tested how data is charged after some iPhone users noted charges that exceeded the 200MB limit of AT&T's $15 per month data plan. In addition to data usage that exceeded expectations, some users also noticed data charges that were recorded at odd hours of the night when the phone was not in active use. The independent tests were conducted with multiple devices over a period of four months, and allegedly show that AT&T's billing system regularly recorded data use that exceeded actual use by 7-14 percent, on average. In some cases, AT&T reportedly recorded data use as much as 300 percent of the actual use. To confirm the "phantom" data charges, a computer engineer hired by the law firms involved in the case took a brand new iPhone, turned off all push notifications and location services, did not set up any e-mail accounts, and made sure no applications were running. After 10 days of sitting idle, AT&T recorded 35 instances of data use totaling over 2MB. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/05/lawsuit-alleges-att-overcharging-smartphone-users-for-data-use.ars
Ohio, the Buckeye State, received its nickname because of the many buckeye trees that once covered its hills and plains. But that's only partly the reason. We have to go back to the feverish presidential campaign of 1840 for the rest of it. William Henry Harrison, a Virginia-born Ohioan and military hero, was a candidate for the White House, but his opponents commented that he was better suited to sit in a log cabin and drink hard cider. Some of Harrison's leading supporters, who were experts in promotional know-how, decided to turn into a positive reference what was supposed to be a negative one. They dubbed him "the log cabin candidate," and chose as his campaign emblem a log cabin made of buckeye timbers, with a long string of buckeyes decorating its walls. Furthermore, in parades, his backers walked with buckeye canes and rolled whisky barrels. The campaign gimmicks were successful. "Old Tippecanoe," as Harrison was often called, beat President Martin Van Buren in the latter's bid for re-election, and thereafter the buckeye was closely associated with the state of Ohio. The name itself is of native origin. Because the markings on the nut resembled the eye of a buck, the Indians called it "hetuck" or "buckeye." The name Ohio, meanwhile, can be traced to an Indian word meaning "great" and was first given to the historic river that borders our state. http://www.lkwdpl.org/buckeye/buck01.htm
See information on the Ohio buckeye tree plus pictures at: http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/buckeye_ohio/buckeye_ohio.html
Did you know that a large percentage of plastic bottle caps are not recycled? The ReCap Co. will re-purpose them into doormats. To date, they have received over 1 million plastic caps. The company is very interested in getting schools, universities, churches, businesses, and other organizations involved in collections. Please feel free to contact us for further information about collecting at your facility. To help us in our quest for caps you may donate any number of bottle caps to: The ReCap Co., 6465 Lewis Rd., Loveland, Ohio 45140 http://www.recapcompany.com/index.html
TripAdvisor.com is the world's largest travel site that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. TripAdvisor.com is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of user-generated content. The website services are free to users, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model. TripAdvisor has been criticized for allowing reviews to be posted by anyone about any hotel, without the need for supporting evidence. In September 2010 a group of over 420 hospitality operators considered taking TripAdvisor to court over unfounded and unedited reviews posted by the website’s visitors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripAdvisor
An "exoskeleton" has been designed by Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni and a group of mostly graduate students. In a way, the dream first took root in 2000, when Kazerooni's team got a grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency -- a division of the U.S. Department of Defense -- to make something to allow people to carry heavy loads, according to Berkeley's media relations department. The idea was to allow people to trek across rugged or remote terrain for extended periods, such as when military medics carry an injured soldier or when firefighters trudge up stairs. Four years later, that culminated with the creation of BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton. The contraption, with a backpack frame, is connected to a person's legs, using its own power source to move them without putting undue stress on the muscles of the human attached to it. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/16/california.paraplegic.graduate/
Monday, May 23, 2011
List of predicted dates of the end of the world This article lists 32 dates ranging from 400 to 2240. Pat Robertson predicted 1982, and Harold Camping predicted 1994 and 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predicted_dates_of_the_end_of_the_world
Financially troubled bookseller Barnes & Noble announced it has received a buyout offer of nearly $1 billion from Liberty Media. Barnes & Noble has 705 stores making it the largest brick-and-mortar bookstore in the nation. The buyer is Liberty Media, the parent company of cable network QVC, Starz premium cable network and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Mogul John Malone controls the company. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90049097?Barnes%20%26%20Noble%20considering%20buyout%20offer
Retronymns are terms renamed after something similar but newer has come into being.
Brick-and-mortar store, high street shop As increasing use of the Internet allowed online stores, accessible only through computers, to compete with established retail shops, the latter began to be called "brick-and-mortar stores" or "high street shops" to indicate that customers could (or had to) visit them to examine and purchase their goods.
Landline phone service With the advent of cellular or mobile phone services, traditional hard-wired phone service became popularly known as landline phones. reviously, this term was generally only used by military personnel and amateur radio operators. (In the movie The Matrix a landline phone was also referred to as a "hardline".)
Sit-down restaurant With the rise of fast-food and take-out restaurants, the "standard" restaurant received a new name in the United States. (In the United Kingdom, fast food and takeaway (takeout) outlets are not normally referred to as "restaurants", so the "sit-down" qualifier is not necessary.)
Snail mail (also known as land mail, paper mail, p-mail, and postal mail) Non-electronic mail delivered to physical locations, such as one's home or business. Before email and voice mail, all mail was physical, and much slower by comparison — thus, the dysphemistic "snail" appellation.
Surface mail Traditional mail, delivered by road, rail, and ship, retrospectively named following the development of airmail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retronyms#H.E2.80.93L
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Brady Richards Subject: Anomia There's a terrific Anomia card game that came out last year, made by a guy who has turned forgetfulness into a pretty entertaining competition. My friend who likes to play always calls it "that ammonia game"...because he can't remember the word anomia.
From: Dean M. Laux Subject: poetaster You probably know about the poetaster who, when he arose in the morning, went from bed to verse.
From: Adam Fuqua Subject: poetaster In Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is an alien race known as the Vogons. They are widely known for their bureaucracy and for having the third worst poetry in the universe. The main characters face almost certain death in hearing the poems of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, a true poetaster if ever there was one.
From: Susan Lane Subject: philtrum If you ever suffer from painful cramps in your calf, strongly squeeze the philtrum and in less than 30 seconds the cramp will go away. An amazing phenomenon, but it works.
From: Adam Fuqua Subject: philtrum In Filipino mythology, one can recognize engkanto (enchanted beings similar to the European stories of the sidhe lords and ladies) by their great beauty and the lack of a philtrum.
Disemvoweling, disemvowelling (see doubled L), or disemvowelment of a piece of alphabetic text is rewriting it with all the vowel letters removed. This original sentence: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog would, after being disemvowelled, look like this: Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg
Because disemvoweling makes text legible only through significant cognitive effort, it is used by moderators on internet forums, newsgroups and blogs as a way to limit the effectiveness of unwanted postings or comments, such as internet trolling, rudeness or criticism. Disemvoweling maintains some transparency, both of the act and the underlying word, which would not be the case if the entire offending post is deleted. The word disemvoweling is a pun on vowel and disembowel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
Did you hear about Smrz's horrific crash in practice today? He was disemvowelled. (Yakub Smrz is a Czech motorcycle racer in the World Superbike series.)
International Strategy for Cyberspace May 2011 full report 30 pages http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/international_strategy_for_cyberspace.pdf
fact sheet four pages http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/International_Strategy_Cyberspace_Factsheet.pdf
Is inflation best defined as "rising prices" or "printing money?" The answer depends on which dictionary you use. Inflation hawks say the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies will lead inevitably to an upward spiral in the prices of everything from bread to haircuts. Inflation doves say that if policy makers are careful, that doesn't have to happen. Who's right? From the 19th century up to the Eleventh New Collegiate Dictionary—issued in 2003—Webster's defined inflation as what happens when a country prints too much money, which is exactly what hawks worry the Fed's monetary stimulus is doing now. But in 2003, the definition changed to "a continuing rise in the general price level," which is only "usually attributed" to an abundance of money, suggesting the doves could have a point. Not everyone accepts the update. Michael Pento, an economist with Euro Pacific Capital, keeps a pre-2003 Webster's on his desk. Asked about the newer definition, he scoffs: "I take huge issue with that. They have everything upside down." Most mainstream economists say it's the old definition that was off-base. By the mid-20th century, when people talked about inflation—whether they were economists speaking at conferences or shoppers chatting in line at the grocery store—they were usually talking about higher prices. Along with the evolving meaning, there has been a shift in American thinking of the purpose of dictionaries: Rather than defining words as some experts thought they should be used, dictionaries have moved toward defining words as people actually use them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576319173360183278.html
While marketers have long sought out consumer opinions, opportunities to dive in and earn some extra cash are expanding online. Half of a projected $3.3 billion in spending on market-research surveys this year will be conducted online rather than by traditional email, snail mail or telephone surveys, up from 33% in 2005, says Laurence Gold, editor and publisher of Inside Research, a Barrington, Ill., industry newsletter that has been tracking the market for two decades. Opinionators working from home usually make from less than $1 to $20 in cash, gift cards or other incentives for spending about two to 30 minutes completing surveys or reviews for such websites as SurveyHead.com, SurveySpot.com or Toluna.com. More intensive online focus groups or chats through 2020Research.com and others can take 20 minutes to two hours over two or more days, and pay $25 to $75 or more. Online mock jurors can make $5 to $10 for reading and giving an opinion on a case. Website testers make about $10 for spending 15 to 25 minutes trying out sites and recording their opinions. Online consumer research, of course, may not be totally representative, marketers say. Some also say they worry people try to game the system by answering dozens of surveys, or pretend to be someone they aren't. To address these concerns, companies that assemble the panels don't allow serial surveys from the same person. To guard against bias, participants are paid by the research company rather than the client, and the surveys usually don't identify the client. Also, research companies screen respondents to match the desired demographic profile, and weight results to make them representative of the target population. Prospective opinionators need to watch out for scams. Scam artists may pitch at-home opportunities as a pretext for collecting personal information like Social Security numbers for identity theft. http://online.wsj.com/article/work_and_family.html
Eat YourWay Across America Find 50 festivals described with dates, and links to Web sites. Suggest a food event to be included. Two examples of festivals as of May 22 are:
Bridgeville Apple-Scrapple Festival, Bridgeville, DE The festival honors two of the state's culinary treats: apples and scrapple.
Steinley Cup Official State Microbrewery Competition, Saratoga, WY Sip your way through the sudsy entries in this local brewery showdown. Kids can vote for their fave root beer—and young and old can weigh in on the best red chili, green chili, and salsa.
Click on one of nine regions to get started at: http://www.parade.com/food/festivals/index.html
Quote What's bad for the country is good for us (late-night comedians). Andy Richter May 16, 2011
Financially troubled bookseller Barnes & Noble announced it has received a buyout offer of nearly $1 billion from Liberty Media. Barnes & Noble has 705 stores making it the largest brick-and-mortar bookstore in the nation. The buyer is Liberty Media, the parent company of cable network QVC, Starz premium cable network and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Mogul John Malone controls the company. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90049097?Barnes%20%26%20Noble%20considering%20buyout%20offer
Retronymns are terms renamed after something similar but newer has come into being.
Brick-and-mortar store, high street shop As increasing use of the Internet allowed online stores, accessible only through computers, to compete with established retail shops, the latter began to be called "brick-and-mortar stores" or "high street shops" to indicate that customers could (or had to) visit them to examine and purchase their goods.
Landline phone service With the advent of cellular or mobile phone services, traditional hard-wired phone service became popularly known as landline phones. reviously, this term was generally only used by military personnel and amateur radio operators. (In the movie The Matrix a landline phone was also referred to as a "hardline".)
Sit-down restaurant With the rise of fast-food and take-out restaurants, the "standard" restaurant received a new name in the United States. (In the United Kingdom, fast food and takeaway (takeout) outlets are not normally referred to as "restaurants", so the "sit-down" qualifier is not necessary.)
Snail mail (also known as land mail, paper mail, p-mail, and postal mail) Non-electronic mail delivered to physical locations, such as one's home or business. Before email and voice mail, all mail was physical, and much slower by comparison — thus, the dysphemistic "snail" appellation.
Surface mail Traditional mail, delivered by road, rail, and ship, retrospectively named following the development of airmail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retronyms#H.E2.80.93L
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Brady Richards Subject: Anomia There's a terrific Anomia card game that came out last year, made by a guy who has turned forgetfulness into a pretty entertaining competition. My friend who likes to play always calls it "that ammonia game"...because he can't remember the word anomia.
From: Dean M. Laux Subject: poetaster You probably know about the poetaster who, when he arose in the morning, went from bed to verse.
From: Adam Fuqua Subject: poetaster In Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is an alien race known as the Vogons. They are widely known for their bureaucracy and for having the third worst poetry in the universe. The main characters face almost certain death in hearing the poems of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, a true poetaster if ever there was one.
From: Susan Lane Subject: philtrum If you ever suffer from painful cramps in your calf, strongly squeeze the philtrum and in less than 30 seconds the cramp will go away. An amazing phenomenon, but it works.
From: Adam Fuqua Subject: philtrum In Filipino mythology, one can recognize engkanto (enchanted beings similar to the European stories of the sidhe lords and ladies) by their great beauty and the lack of a philtrum.
Disemvoweling, disemvowelling (see doubled L), or disemvowelment of a piece of alphabetic text is rewriting it with all the vowel letters removed. This original sentence: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog would, after being disemvowelled, look like this: Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg
Because disemvoweling makes text legible only through significant cognitive effort, it is used by moderators on internet forums, newsgroups and blogs as a way to limit the effectiveness of unwanted postings or comments, such as internet trolling, rudeness or criticism. Disemvoweling maintains some transparency, both of the act and the underlying word, which would not be the case if the entire offending post is deleted. The word disemvoweling is a pun on vowel and disembowel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
Did you hear about Smrz's horrific crash in practice today? He was disemvowelled. (Yakub Smrz is a Czech motorcycle racer in the World Superbike series.)
International Strategy for Cyberspace May 2011 full report 30 pages http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/international_strategy_for_cyberspace.pdf
fact sheet four pages http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/International_Strategy_Cyberspace_Factsheet.pdf
Is inflation best defined as "rising prices" or "printing money?" The answer depends on which dictionary you use. Inflation hawks say the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies will lead inevitably to an upward spiral in the prices of everything from bread to haircuts. Inflation doves say that if policy makers are careful, that doesn't have to happen. Who's right? From the 19th century up to the Eleventh New Collegiate Dictionary—issued in 2003—Webster's defined inflation as what happens when a country prints too much money, which is exactly what hawks worry the Fed's monetary stimulus is doing now. But in 2003, the definition changed to "a continuing rise in the general price level," which is only "usually attributed" to an abundance of money, suggesting the doves could have a point. Not everyone accepts the update. Michael Pento, an economist with Euro Pacific Capital, keeps a pre-2003 Webster's on his desk. Asked about the newer definition, he scoffs: "I take huge issue with that. They have everything upside down." Most mainstream economists say it's the old definition that was off-base. By the mid-20th century, when people talked about inflation—whether they were economists speaking at conferences or shoppers chatting in line at the grocery store—they were usually talking about higher prices. Along with the evolving meaning, there has been a shift in American thinking of the purpose of dictionaries: Rather than defining words as some experts thought they should be used, dictionaries have moved toward defining words as people actually use them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576319173360183278.html
While marketers have long sought out consumer opinions, opportunities to dive in and earn some extra cash are expanding online. Half of a projected $3.3 billion in spending on market-research surveys this year will be conducted online rather than by traditional email, snail mail or telephone surveys, up from 33% in 2005, says Laurence Gold, editor and publisher of Inside Research, a Barrington, Ill., industry newsletter that has been tracking the market for two decades. Opinionators working from home usually make from less than $1 to $20 in cash, gift cards or other incentives for spending about two to 30 minutes completing surveys or reviews for such websites as SurveyHead.com, SurveySpot.com or Toluna.com. More intensive online focus groups or chats through 2020Research.com and others can take 20 minutes to two hours over two or more days, and pay $25 to $75 or more. Online mock jurors can make $5 to $10 for reading and giving an opinion on a case. Website testers make about $10 for spending 15 to 25 minutes trying out sites and recording their opinions. Online consumer research, of course, may not be totally representative, marketers say. Some also say they worry people try to game the system by answering dozens of surveys, or pretend to be someone they aren't. To address these concerns, companies that assemble the panels don't allow serial surveys from the same person. To guard against bias, participants are paid by the research company rather than the client, and the surveys usually don't identify the client. Also, research companies screen respondents to match the desired demographic profile, and weight results to make them representative of the target population. Prospective opinionators need to watch out for scams. Scam artists may pitch at-home opportunities as a pretext for collecting personal information like Social Security numbers for identity theft. http://online.wsj.com/article/work_and_family.html
Eat YourWay Across America Find 50 festivals described with dates, and links to Web sites. Suggest a food event to be included. Two examples of festivals as of May 22 are:
Bridgeville Apple-Scrapple Festival, Bridgeville, DE The festival honors two of the state's culinary treats: apples and scrapple.
Steinley Cup Official State Microbrewery Competition, Saratoga, WY Sip your way through the sudsy entries in this local brewery showdown. Kids can vote for their fave root beer—and young and old can weigh in on the best red chili, green chili, and salsa.
Click on one of nine regions to get started at: http://www.parade.com/food/festivals/index.html
Quote What's bad for the country is good for us (late-night comedians). Andy Richter May 16, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
A device that looks like a smartphone is making supermarket shoppers—and stores—happier. Perched on the handle of the shopping cart, it scans grocery items as the customer adds them to the cart. Shoppers like it because it helps avoid an interminable wait at the cashier. Retailers like it because the device encourages shoppers to buy more. With the system called Scan It—in use at about half of Ahold USA's Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets in the Northeast—shoppers scan and bag their own groceries as they navigate the aisles, while a screen keeps a running total of their purchases. About a dozen times per shopping trip, the device lets out a "Ka-ching" as an electronic coupon appears on the screen. "Last week, right after I scanned coffee, I got a coupon for coffee creamer, which I needed," says Patty Emery, a Caldwell, N.J., dental assistant, who estimates she shaves 20 minutes off her weekly grocery shopping trip at Stop & Shop. "It is really cool." Stores have been under siege in recent years, not just from the rise of online shopping but also from the way mobile phones empower people to compare their store's prices, item by item, with a rival store nearby. Now, stores are fighting back with their own mobile technology. Shoppers who use the Scan It system spend about 10% more than the average customer, says Erik Keptner, Ahold's senior vice president for marketing and consumer insights. He attributes this to targeted coupons and the control consumers feel while using the Scan It . Ahold says dedicated self-checkout stations for Scan It users are becoming more common as the devices become more popular. In such cases, wait time, if any, would be short because customers have already done the time-consuming chore of scanning and packing up groceries. Retail experts predict that before long most of these mobile shopping gadgets will be supplanted by customers' own smartphones. Ahold is testing a way for customers to download Scan It software directly into their own iPhones and is exploring ways for customers to use smartphones to pay. Starbucks is already taking steps toward a digital-wallet model. Sam Stovall, a Dallas computer software consultant, bought a Starbucks gift card and entered its number into the Starbucks app on his iPhone. Each morning, after placing his order, he calls up the bar code on his phone and flashes it in front of a scanner. A second later his phone tells him how much is left on his card. "If it was up to me, I would pay for everything with my phone," Mr. Stovall says. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576329253050637400.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_lifestyle
Where does the digital age leave the librarian? The answer: Even when a tool has been built to search this data, whether the tool was a card catalogue, the Dewey Decimal system, or a search tool like Google or Westlaw, you have always needed the expertise of a librarian to teach you and help you to use that tool effectively. These search skills can't be encoded fully into a tool. These skills, instead, are programmed into the librarians who oversee a collection. They come from the years of training and experience a librarian has moving through the very specialized knowledge of a law library. They come from the mind of a librarian. Editor's Note: After 38 years at the Law School, Law Library Director Margaret Leary will retire in July. Her book, Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook & His Michigan Law Quadrangle, is scheduled to be published later this year. Leary will remain in an academic environment after her retirement; she has been accepted to the M.A. program in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University.
http://www.law.umich.edu/quadrangle/spring2011/specialfeatures/Pages/WhithertheLawLibrarian.aspx#5
Claims of connections between media piracy and narcotrafficking, arms smuggling, and other “hard” forms of organized crime have been part of enforcement discourse since the late 1990s, when the IFPI began to raise concerns about the transborder smuggling of pirated CDs. In 2003, the secretary general of Interpol, Ronald Noble, “sound[ed] the alarm that Intellectual Property Crime is becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups”. In 2008, the US attorney general, Michael Mukasey, declared that “criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities”. In 2009, the RAND Corporation published what is to date the most exhaustive statement on this subject: a 150-page, MPAA-funded report on film piracy’s links to organized crime and terrorism. Commercial-scale piracy is illegal, and its clandestine production and supply chains invariably require organization. It meets, in this respect, a minimal definition of organized crime. http://piracy.ssrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Does-Crime-Pay.pdf
Piracy is a war-like act committed by non-state actors (private parties not affiliated with any government) against parties of a different nationality, or against vessels of their own nationality at sea, and especially acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. Piracy should be distinguished from privateering, which was authorized by their national authorities and therefore a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. This form of commerce raiding was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) for signatories to those treaties. A 2011 report published by Geopolicity Inc called The Economics of Piracy, investigated the causes and consequences of international piracy, with a particular focus on piracy emanating from Somalia. The report asserts that piracy is an emerging market in its own right, valued at between US$4.9–8.3 billion in 2010 alone, and it establishes, for the first time, an economic model for assessing the costs and benefits of international piracy. The report states that the number of pirates could double by 2016, increasing by 400 each year. This is being fuelled by attractive financial incentives with Somali pirates earning up to US$79,000/year; equating to almost 150 times their country’s national average wage. Read about piracy from ancient to modern times at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Library Network has been named Federal Library/Information Center of the Year by the Library of Congress. The award recognizes outstanding, innovative, and sustained achievements during fiscal year 2010 by a federal library or information center. EPA’s library network is an essential information partner with EPA staff and the public to support transparency, decision making, environmental awareness, and protection of people’s health and the environment. In FY2010, EPA libraries worked together to digitize 7,500 agency publications, adding to the growing inventory of more than 45,000 digital documents available to the public at no cost. Serving as a point of contact for public inquiries, EPA libraries collectively addressed nearly 9,000 public reference questions and loaned more than 8,000 documents, saving taxpayers an estimated $266,000. The Federal Library and Information Centers Committee (FLICC) of the Library of Congress gives the award to both small libraries/information centers (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees) and large libraries/information centers (with a staff of 11 or more). EPA’s National Library Network is named in the large category. http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/092e65193cf4f13e8525789300531ea0!OpenDocument For information on the EPA National Library network, see: http://www.epa.gov/libraries/
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters, to suppress numbers, files and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks. Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term after the singer and actress, citing privacy violations, unsuccessfully sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for US$50 million in an attempt to have an aerial photograph of her mansion removed from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs. Adelman said that he was photographing beachfront property to document coastal erosion as part of the government sanctioned and commissioned California Coastal Records Project. As a result of the case, public knowledge of the picture increased substantially; more than 420,000 people visited the site over the following month. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
The prehistoric temples of Malta are unique in all the world. They are the oldest standing stone structures which remain to us from ancient times. The temples date from 4000 - 2500 BC. They are older than Stonehenge, older than the Pyramids. Excellently preserved, they were covered with soil from early times and ignored by the long march of history. They were rediscovered and carefully restored by European and native Maltese archaeologists beginning in the 19th century. The major temple complexes are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Little is known about the people who built these megalithic temples. The original inhabitants of the Maltese Islands probably crossed over by sea from Sicily, which lies 58 miles to the north, sometime before 5000 BC. http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/malta/malta.html
The Maltese archipelago, situated in the Mediterranean Sea, consists of mainly three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino. The archipelago is named after Malta which is the largest island of the group. Malta is the smallest country of the European Union in the centre of the Mediterranean and enjoys sunny weather nearly all the year. Influenced in history by many cultures, it has enjoyed its independence since 1964. The Republic of Malta consists of Malta and its smaller sister Gozo and the tiny island of Comino. http://www.seemalta.net/MalteseIslands.aspx
Comino, a small island set between the bigger islands of Malta and Gozo, owes its name to the wild fennel (cumin) which grows in this territory. http://www.malta-turismo.com/web/en/malta/comino_blue_lagoon.html
Easy pie crusts Mix 2 tbsp. melted butter with coconut/wheat germ/ crushed crackers/ground nuts/cookie crumbs
Over the last several years, the prospect that non-lawyers would be able to participate in the ownership of American law firms has emerged from the British Commonwealth. Australia already allows this and it will soon be permitted in England, where the 2007 Legal Services Act authorizing new alternative business structures for solicitor firms has cleared the way for such firms to list on the London Stock Exchange or Alternative Investment Market. Similar changes are happening in the U.S. already. A bill pending in the North Carolina Senate would allow 49-percent non-lawyer ownership. The District of Columbia already permits non-lawyer ownership to the extent of 25-percent interest in a firm, possibly because more large firms are employing non-lawyer lobbyists in Washington. The Washington Post recently called this an "uneasy marriage," because non-lawyer lobbyists can be treated like second-class citizens in law firms, not least because typically they are paid by retainer rather than the standard hourly rate. Allowing such professionals to have an ownership stake could change all that. The use of professional lobbyists illustrates how law firms have expanded and are now very large organizations. In order to grow, they need additional capital, which is best raised in the capital markets, not from individual partners of law firms. Capital market ownership means non-lawyer ownership. With large law firms looking more and more like their corporate clients, is it still a stretch to suggest that law firms should raise outside capital? http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/948079/
Where does the digital age leave the librarian? The answer: Even when a tool has been built to search this data, whether the tool was a card catalogue, the Dewey Decimal system, or a search tool like Google or Westlaw, you have always needed the expertise of a librarian to teach you and help you to use that tool effectively. These search skills can't be encoded fully into a tool. These skills, instead, are programmed into the librarians who oversee a collection. They come from the years of training and experience a librarian has moving through the very specialized knowledge of a law library. They come from the mind of a librarian. Editor's Note: After 38 years at the Law School, Law Library Director Margaret Leary will retire in July. Her book, Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook & His Michigan Law Quadrangle, is scheduled to be published later this year. Leary will remain in an academic environment after her retirement; she has been accepted to the M.A. program in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University.
http://www.law.umich.edu/quadrangle/spring2011/specialfeatures/Pages/WhithertheLawLibrarian.aspx#5
Claims of connections between media piracy and narcotrafficking, arms smuggling, and other “hard” forms of organized crime have been part of enforcement discourse since the late 1990s, when the IFPI began to raise concerns about the transborder smuggling of pirated CDs. In 2003, the secretary general of Interpol, Ronald Noble, “sound[ed] the alarm that Intellectual Property Crime is becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups”. In 2008, the US attorney general, Michael Mukasey, declared that “criminal syndicates, and in some cases even terrorist groups, view IP crime as a lucrative business, and see it as a low-risk way to fund other activities”. In 2009, the RAND Corporation published what is to date the most exhaustive statement on this subject: a 150-page, MPAA-funded report on film piracy’s links to organized crime and terrorism. Commercial-scale piracy is illegal, and its clandestine production and supply chains invariably require organization. It meets, in this respect, a minimal definition of organized crime. http://piracy.ssrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Does-Crime-Pay.pdf
Piracy is a war-like act committed by non-state actors (private parties not affiliated with any government) against parties of a different nationality, or against vessels of their own nationality at sea, and especially acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. Piracy should be distinguished from privateering, which was authorized by their national authorities and therefore a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. This form of commerce raiding was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) for signatories to those treaties. A 2011 report published by Geopolicity Inc called The Economics of Piracy, investigated the causes and consequences of international piracy, with a particular focus on piracy emanating from Somalia. The report asserts that piracy is an emerging market in its own right, valued at between US$4.9–8.3 billion in 2010 alone, and it establishes, for the first time, an economic model for assessing the costs and benefits of international piracy. The report states that the number of pirates could double by 2016, increasing by 400 each year. This is being fuelled by attractive financial incentives with Somali pirates earning up to US$79,000/year; equating to almost 150 times their country’s national average wage. Read about piracy from ancient to modern times at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Library Network has been named Federal Library/Information Center of the Year by the Library of Congress. The award recognizes outstanding, innovative, and sustained achievements during fiscal year 2010 by a federal library or information center. EPA’s library network is an essential information partner with EPA staff and the public to support transparency, decision making, environmental awareness, and protection of people’s health and the environment. In FY2010, EPA libraries worked together to digitize 7,500 agency publications, adding to the growing inventory of more than 45,000 digital documents available to the public at no cost. Serving as a point of contact for public inquiries, EPA libraries collectively addressed nearly 9,000 public reference questions and loaned more than 8,000 documents, saving taxpayers an estimated $266,000. The Federal Library and Information Centers Committee (FLICC) of the Library of Congress gives the award to both small libraries/information centers (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees) and large libraries/information centers (with a staff of 11 or more). EPA’s National Library Network is named in the large category. http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/092e65193cf4f13e8525789300531ea0!OpenDocument For information on the EPA National Library network, see: http://www.epa.gov/libraries/
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters, to suppress numbers, files and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks. Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term after the singer and actress, citing privacy violations, unsuccessfully sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for US$50 million in an attempt to have an aerial photograph of her mansion removed from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs. Adelman said that he was photographing beachfront property to document coastal erosion as part of the government sanctioned and commissioned California Coastal Records Project. As a result of the case, public knowledge of the picture increased substantially; more than 420,000 people visited the site over the following month. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
The prehistoric temples of Malta are unique in all the world. They are the oldest standing stone structures which remain to us from ancient times. The temples date from 4000 - 2500 BC. They are older than Stonehenge, older than the Pyramids. Excellently preserved, they were covered with soil from early times and ignored by the long march of history. They were rediscovered and carefully restored by European and native Maltese archaeologists beginning in the 19th century. The major temple complexes are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Little is known about the people who built these megalithic temples. The original inhabitants of the Maltese Islands probably crossed over by sea from Sicily, which lies 58 miles to the north, sometime before 5000 BC. http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/malta/malta.html
The Maltese archipelago, situated in the Mediterranean Sea, consists of mainly three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino. The archipelago is named after Malta which is the largest island of the group. Malta is the smallest country of the European Union in the centre of the Mediterranean and enjoys sunny weather nearly all the year. Influenced in history by many cultures, it has enjoyed its independence since 1964. The Republic of Malta consists of Malta and its smaller sister Gozo and the tiny island of Comino. http://www.seemalta.net/MalteseIslands.aspx
Comino, a small island set between the bigger islands of Malta and Gozo, owes its name to the wild fennel (cumin) which grows in this territory. http://www.malta-turismo.com/web/en/malta/comino_blue_lagoon.html
Easy pie crusts Mix 2 tbsp. melted butter with coconut/wheat germ/ crushed crackers/ground nuts/cookie crumbs
Over the last several years, the prospect that non-lawyers would be able to participate in the ownership of American law firms has emerged from the British Commonwealth. Australia already allows this and it will soon be permitted in England, where the 2007 Legal Services Act authorizing new alternative business structures for solicitor firms has cleared the way for such firms to list on the London Stock Exchange or Alternative Investment Market. Similar changes are happening in the U.S. already. A bill pending in the North Carolina Senate would allow 49-percent non-lawyer ownership. The District of Columbia already permits non-lawyer ownership to the extent of 25-percent interest in a firm, possibly because more large firms are employing non-lawyer lobbyists in Washington. The Washington Post recently called this an "uneasy marriage," because non-lawyer lobbyists can be treated like second-class citizens in law firms, not least because typically they are paid by retainer rather than the standard hourly rate. Allowing such professionals to have an ownership stake could change all that. The use of professional lobbyists illustrates how law firms have expanded and are now very large organizations. In order to grow, they need additional capital, which is best raised in the capital markets, not from individual partners of law firms. Capital market ownership means non-lawyer ownership. With large law firms looking more and more like their corporate clients, is it still a stretch to suggest that law firms should raise outside capital? http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/948079/
Thursday, May 19, 2011
PORTLAND, Maine—Around here, you can find "Maine Potato Candy"—mashed potatoes rolled in coconut and dipped in chocolate—and potato donuts. A popular county fair offers wrestling matches in a vat of potatoes. In a state where spuds are the top agricultural product, locals can't get enough of them, even at schools. "We've got to have potatoes—our children are used to potatoes," says Louise Bray, food-service director for Caribou, Maine, public schools. She regularly serves hash browns for breakfast, plus mashed potatoes, "Maine fries," a baked potato bar and potato puffs for lunch. But now the federal government wants to all but toss tubers out of school. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to eliminate the "white potato"—defined as any variety but the sweet potato—from federally subsidized school breakfasts and to limit them sharply at lunch. At a March Senate hearing on the USDA budget, Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) hoisted a standard-fare brown-skinned spud in one hand and, in the other, a head of iceberg lettuce, which hasn't come under explicit federal scrutiny. One medium white potato contains nearly twice the vitamin C "as this entire head," she said, asking: "So my question, Mr. Secretary, is what does the department have against potatoes?" The proposed change is part of a push to make school meals healthier, with more nutrient-rich vegetables and fewer French fries. Under the USDA proposal, school cafeterias would have to limit starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas and lima beans to a total of one cup per week for lunch. "Potatoes are really nutritious," says Heidi Kessler, school nutrition project manager for Let's Go!, a Portland, Maine, childhood-obesity prevention program that encourages schools to eliminate fries or serve them once a week. "It's the preparation that causes the problem." Indeed, much is heaped on the potato. At the annual Eastern State Exposition last fall, the state-run "Maine Building" served up 47 tons of baked potatoes, smothered with 10,500 pounds of sour cream, 8,040 pounds of cheddar cheese, 4,670 pounds of butter and 560 pounds of bacon bits over 17 days. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704810504576305250845743700.html
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on May 16 issued tips to help consumers shop for a variety of bank products and services by carefully evaluating their needs, contacting multiple institutions and reading the fine print before making a decision. The advice was published as a special edition of the quarterly FDIC Consumer News (the Spring 2011 issue), which is entitled "Shop and Save...at the Bank: A Buyer's Guide to Finding the Right Loan, Credit Card or Deposit Account." The FDIC publication includes:
* Strategies for choosing a mortgage, credit card, home equity loan, checking account or bank CD (certificate of deposit) that makes sense for the consumer;
* Lower-cost alternatives to traditional -- and potentially expensive -- overdraft programs.
* Information about escrow accounts for mortgage borrowers and the importance of monitoring the accounts for costly mistakes;
* A suggestion to avoid mistakes when additional services are marketed with a loan or a credit card;
* Information about why consumers should be cautious before using a prepaid card for their basic banking needs;
* A reminder that stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities and other non-deposit products sold at banks are not FDIC-insured and that some of these investments can lose money; and
* A basic "to-do" list for shopping at the bank. http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2011/pr11087.html Find Spring 2011 issue at: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnspr11/
big wheel 1 informal big cheese 2 British ferris wheel http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/big-wheel
big wheel 1 a type of tricycle, usually made of plastic, with an oversized front wheel, that rides very low to the ground. Introduced by Louis Marx and Company in 1969, the Big Wheel was a very popular toy in the 1970s in the United States, partly because of its low cost and partly because consumer groups said it was a safer alternative to the traditional tricycle or bicycle. The design was quickly imitated, under a variety of brand names. Although Big Wheel was a registered trademark, it was frequently used as a generic name for any toy whose design resembled that of Marx.
2 An important, influential person: character, dignitary, eminence, leader, lion, nabob, notability, notable, personage. Informal big-timer, heavyweight, somebody, someone, VIP. Slang big shot, bigwig, muckamuck. http://www.answers.com/topic/big-wheel
Quote There's no catalyst for thought like competition. For Better or Worse comic strip May 13, 2011
Dyer's Chop House in Toledo did not admit women for lunch until forced to do so. On February 11, 1972 Charlene Bennett and Carol Nofen entered the restaurant and tried to order lunch. The hostess refused to seat them and, after a ten-minute wait, they went to the bar and were served drinks. After several more minutes, co-owner Joe Dyer informed the women they would neither be served food nor more drinks until after 1:30 p.m. and asked them to leave the restaurant immediately. They complied and, on April 18 filed a federal court lawsuit charging discrimination against women. On October 26 U.S. District Judge Don J. Young ruled that Dyer's could not discriminate against women and refuse to serve them. On October 27 the two women were served lunch. Thanks to Irene Martin at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library for providing copies of pertinent Toledo Blade articles.
A cave with its name translated as “Mountain River Cave”, nicknamed “Vietnam’s Mammoth Cavern” or the “giant of all caves” is seen as one world wonder because it is wider, higher and larger than any other cave on the planet. Part of a network of 150 caves in the Annamite Mountains, this limestone titan has a point measuring three times the height of Niagara Falls and it also features a unique mini jungle in the middle of it. The scientific mystery of this Vietnamese attraction consists in the fact that the cave is continuously growing; the waters of its underground river eroding in an unusually straight line from North to South. Mountain River Cave is located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, in the Bo Trach District of Vietnam’s Quang Bink Province. Close to the border with Laos, this epic cave is believed to have been created 2, 5 million years ago due to the Rao Thung River water eroding the limestone underneath the mountain. Its incredible measurements, more than 650 feet high, approximately 500 feet wide, have proclaimed Hang Son Doong a dangerous, mysterious giant. Not only that Hang Son Doong presented geological elements of great interest like big stalagmites and natural “sculptures” produced by the underground river but also it features dolines. Formed because of the collapse of the cave roof, connecting the darkness of the cave with the light of the upper ground, this exceptional opening is a spot where life thrives. In this lost world, the tropical plants which are usually evergreen have adapted to an extremely isolated environment, surviving with less natural light and humidity and so did the species discovered in the first expedition. http://www.travelnut.me/hang-son-doong Thanks, BH
philtrum (FIL-truhm) noun
The vertical groove below the nose and above the upper lip.
The line of the upper lip is known as Cupid's bow for its resemblance to the shape of a bow. While the ancients thought the groove above the upper lip had something to do with love, modern doctors have found that a smooth philtrum is one of the symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome. From Latin philtrum (love potion, groove under the nose), from Greek philtron (love potion, groove under the nose). Earliest documented use: 1609.
desultory (DES-uhl-tor-ee) adjective
1. Marked by absence of a plan; disconnected; jumping from one thing to another.
2 . Digressing from the main subject; random.
From Latin desultorius (leaping, pertaining to a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), from desilire (to leap down), from salire (to jump). Other words derived from the same Latin root, salire, are sally, somersault, insult, result, saute, salient, and saltant. Earliest documented use: 1581.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Nutrient pollution is the process where too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, are added to bodies of water and can act like fertilizer, causing excessive growth of algae. This process is also known as eutrophication. Excessive amounts of nutrients can lead to more serious problems such as low levels of oxygen dissolved in the water. Severe algal growth blocks light that is needed for plants, such as seagrasses, to grow. When the algae and seagrass die, they decay. In the process of decay, the oxygen in the water is used up and this leads to low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. This, in turn, can kill fish, crabs, oysters, and other aquatic animals. Nutrients come from a variety of different sources. They can occur naturally as a result of weathering of rocks and soil in the watershed and they can also come from the ocean due to mixing of water currents. Because there are increasingly more people living in coastal areas, there are more nutrients entering our coastal waters from wastewater treatment facilities, runoff from land in urban areas during rains, and from farming. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nutpollution.html
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on May 16 issued tips to help consumers shop for a variety of bank products and services by carefully evaluating their needs, contacting multiple institutions and reading the fine print before making a decision. The advice was published as a special edition of the quarterly FDIC Consumer News (the Spring 2011 issue), which is entitled "Shop and Save...at the Bank: A Buyer's Guide to Finding the Right Loan, Credit Card or Deposit Account." The FDIC publication includes:
* Strategies for choosing a mortgage, credit card, home equity loan, checking account or bank CD (certificate of deposit) that makes sense for the consumer;
* Lower-cost alternatives to traditional -- and potentially expensive -- overdraft programs.
* Information about escrow accounts for mortgage borrowers and the importance of monitoring the accounts for costly mistakes;
* A suggestion to avoid mistakes when additional services are marketed with a loan or a credit card;
* Information about why consumers should be cautious before using a prepaid card for their basic banking needs;
* A reminder that stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities and other non-deposit products sold at banks are not FDIC-insured and that some of these investments can lose money; and
* A basic "to-do" list for shopping at the bank. http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2011/pr11087.html Find Spring 2011 issue at: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnspr11/
big wheel 1 informal big cheese 2 British ferris wheel http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/big-wheel
big wheel 1 a type of tricycle, usually made of plastic, with an oversized front wheel, that rides very low to the ground. Introduced by Louis Marx and Company in 1969, the Big Wheel was a very popular toy in the 1970s in the United States, partly because of its low cost and partly because consumer groups said it was a safer alternative to the traditional tricycle or bicycle. The design was quickly imitated, under a variety of brand names. Although Big Wheel was a registered trademark, it was frequently used as a generic name for any toy whose design resembled that of Marx.
2 An important, influential person: character, dignitary, eminence, leader, lion, nabob, notability, notable, personage. Informal big-timer, heavyweight, somebody, someone, VIP. Slang big shot, bigwig, muckamuck. http://www.answers.com/topic/big-wheel
Quote There's no catalyst for thought like competition. For Better or Worse comic strip May 13, 2011
Dyer's Chop House in Toledo did not admit women for lunch until forced to do so. On February 11, 1972 Charlene Bennett and Carol Nofen entered the restaurant and tried to order lunch. The hostess refused to seat them and, after a ten-minute wait, they went to the bar and were served drinks. After several more minutes, co-owner Joe Dyer informed the women they would neither be served food nor more drinks until after 1:30 p.m. and asked them to leave the restaurant immediately. They complied and, on April 18 filed a federal court lawsuit charging discrimination against women. On October 26 U.S. District Judge Don J. Young ruled that Dyer's could not discriminate against women and refuse to serve them. On October 27 the two women were served lunch. Thanks to Irene Martin at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library for providing copies of pertinent Toledo Blade articles.
A cave with its name translated as “Mountain River Cave”, nicknamed “Vietnam’s Mammoth Cavern” or the “giant of all caves” is seen as one world wonder because it is wider, higher and larger than any other cave on the planet. Part of a network of 150 caves in the Annamite Mountains, this limestone titan has a point measuring three times the height of Niagara Falls and it also features a unique mini jungle in the middle of it. The scientific mystery of this Vietnamese attraction consists in the fact that the cave is continuously growing; the waters of its underground river eroding in an unusually straight line from North to South. Mountain River Cave is located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, in the Bo Trach District of Vietnam’s Quang Bink Province. Close to the border with Laos, this epic cave is believed to have been created 2, 5 million years ago due to the Rao Thung River water eroding the limestone underneath the mountain. Its incredible measurements, more than 650 feet high, approximately 500 feet wide, have proclaimed Hang Son Doong a dangerous, mysterious giant. Not only that Hang Son Doong presented geological elements of great interest like big stalagmites and natural “sculptures” produced by the underground river but also it features dolines. Formed because of the collapse of the cave roof, connecting the darkness of the cave with the light of the upper ground, this exceptional opening is a spot where life thrives. In this lost world, the tropical plants which are usually evergreen have adapted to an extremely isolated environment, surviving with less natural light and humidity and so did the species discovered in the first expedition. http://www.travelnut.me/hang-son-doong Thanks, BH
philtrum (FIL-truhm) noun
The vertical groove below the nose and above the upper lip.
The line of the upper lip is known as Cupid's bow for its resemblance to the shape of a bow. While the ancients thought the groove above the upper lip had something to do with love, modern doctors have found that a smooth philtrum is one of the symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome. From Latin philtrum (love potion, groove under the nose), from Greek philtron (love potion, groove under the nose). Earliest documented use: 1609.
desultory (DES-uhl-tor-ee) adjective
1. Marked by absence of a plan; disconnected; jumping from one thing to another.
2 . Digressing from the main subject; random.
From Latin desultorius (leaping, pertaining to a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), from desilire (to leap down), from salire (to jump). Other words derived from the same Latin root, salire, are sally, somersault, insult, result, saute, salient, and saltant. Earliest documented use: 1581.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Nutrient pollution is the process where too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, are added to bodies of water and can act like fertilizer, causing excessive growth of algae. This process is also known as eutrophication. Excessive amounts of nutrients can lead to more serious problems such as low levels of oxygen dissolved in the water. Severe algal growth blocks light that is needed for plants, such as seagrasses, to grow. When the algae and seagrass die, they decay. In the process of decay, the oxygen in the water is used up and this leads to low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. This, in turn, can kill fish, crabs, oysters, and other aquatic animals. Nutrients come from a variety of different sources. They can occur naturally as a result of weathering of rocks and soil in the watershed and they can also come from the ocean due to mixing of water currents. Because there are increasingly more people living in coastal areas, there are more nutrients entering our coastal waters from wastewater treatment facilities, runoff from land in urban areas during rains, and from farming. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nutpollution.html
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A conference program committee (PC) member received a paper for review . He distributed the manuscript to his research group to "solicit their opinions of the paper" and the group embarked on improving the results of the paper under review. The research group then submitted their own paper to another conference, their submission occurring three months before the first paper was to be presented at a conference. When eventually confronted (the short gap between the appearance of the two papers triggered questions), the PC member responded with "Was that wrong? Should I have not done that?" Amazingly, this PC member was not aware that a conference paper submission constitutes privileged communication. In theory, reviewers should immediately "forget" what they have read. For reviewers to use such privileged material for their own work immediately creates a blatant conflict of interest. How did this PC member, a full professor in a respected university, not know such a fundamental rule of scholarly reviewing? To understand how the ethics of program committees has declined, one must review the history of computer science program committees over the last 50 years. Until the mid-1990s, program committees met in face-to-face meetings. This had two significant consequences. First, PC members bore the cost of attending PC meetings, leading them to be careful with accepting PC service commitments. It was rare then for one to serve on more than one PC per year. Second, junior PC members had a chance to interact intensively with senior PC members. There was nontrivial social pressure on junior PC members to demonstrate their competence in PC meetings. Thus, PC service provided important socializing experience, where unwritten norms and customs were learned by observation. With the emergence of the WorldWide Web in the mid-1990s, physical PC meetings suddenly seemed wasteful, as it became possible to conduct virtual meetings without incurring travel expenses and headaches. Conference-management software tools emerged and many communities abandoned physical meetings in favor of virtual ones. Since the "cost" of PC service has dropped with the switch to virtual meetings, "consumption" has gone up. Indeed, it is quite common today to see researchers serving on several PCs per year. Of course, one cannot expect the same level of effort from someone who serves on one PC per year as compared to someone who serves on multiple PCs per year. Indeed, in the 1980s it was typical to see every submission read by five to six PC members, today the norm is often three to four reviewers for submission. Furthermore, these reviewers are often not PC members but "subreviewers." The loss in quality of conference reviewing is just one result of the move to virtual PC meetings. Another outcome is the loss of socialization that took place in PC meetings.
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1950000/1941488/p5-vardi.html?key1=1941488&key2=3749315031&coll=DL&dl=ACM&ip=24.52.64.105&CFID=22381948&CFTOKEN=44676593
POEMS AND SAYINGS
The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap (referring to ground cover perennials).
Grow a large plant in a small pot.
Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will laugh a harvest. http://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2010/12/they-sleep-then-creep-then-leap.html
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln
"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." Claude Monet http://www.northerngardening.com/quotes.htm
Evaporated milk is milk which has had about sixty percent of the water removed via evaporation. It is then homogenized, rapidly chilled, fortified with vitamins and stabilizers, packaged, and finally sterilized. Standards require whole evaporated milk contain at least 7.9 percent milk fat and 25.5 percent milk solids. You'll find skim, low-fat and whole milk varieties of evaporated milk. Low-fat and skim versions are also required to have added vitamin A, while all have added vitamins D and C. Sweetened condensed milk goes through less processing than evaporated milk. Sixty percent of the water has also been removed from condensed milk, but it differs in that sugar has been added. Condensed milk contains 40 to 45 percent sugar, at least 8 percent fat and 28 percent milk solids. Condensed milk is pasteurized during the evaporation procedure, with the added sugar making any further sterilization unnecessary, since the sugar inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Governmental regulations require that vitamin A be added to condensed milk, but no other nutrients are required by law although they may be added. Condensed milk is very high in calories. Unsweetened condensed milk is a redundant term. It is simply evaporated milk. http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqcannedmilk.htm Note: I usually substitute a smaller quantity of regular milk in recipes calling for evaporated milk.
Hector (Ettore) Boiardi was born in Italy, and at the age of 16 found his way to New York City. He quickly became a chef at the Ritz Carlton in New York and worked at The Greenbrier in West Virginia as well. His culinary talents were legendary. Chef Boiardi accepted the job as head chef at the Hotel Winton in 1917 which happened to be a popular hotel in Cleveland. This magnificent hotel was located at 1012 Prospect Avenue. The Hotel Winton was a well-know hotel on a national level and held one of the first radio programs that was broadcast out of the Hotel’s famous Rainbow Room featuring the Rainbow Room Orchestra. (There were even “ice shows” at the Winton – where a large ice rink would be built in a restaurant and as patrons ate there would be a number of ice skaters to entertain.) Today, we know it as the Carter Manor which serves as housing for the elderly. As the Head Chef at the Winton, Boiardi began serving a lot of Italian fare. And his spaghetti dinners were becoming all the rage. Many of his patrons would ask for his recipes (which were not forthcoming from the Chef) and for samples to take home (which he sold in abundance). He would often provide his spaghetti sauce in milk bottles. In 1924, the good chef started his own restaurant the famous Giardino d’Italia. By 1928, take-out orders were so robust that Boiardi started factory production of his products. What was once a local, then regional, delicacy was now a national phenomenon and this prompted the change to the now signature Chef Boy-ar-dee. http://coolhistoryofcleveland.blog.com/2008/01/24/chef-boyardee/
Keep your baby from being bored Talk, sing, play music, change baby's position/scene, have enough light/bright colors/patterns/toys, teach finger play/rhymes/games/sounds, provide other people for interaction. 50 Ways to Entertain Baby, Family Circle Magazine, December 1953
The U.S. Department of the Treasury will pay all federal benefit and non-tax payments electronically. Benefit recipients can choose to receive their payments by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or to a Direct Express® Debit MasterCard® card account. You must choose your preferred electronic payment option when you apply to receive federal benefit payments from the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Personnel Management or Department of Labor (Black Lung) You must make the switch from paper federal benefit checks to electronic payments by March 1, 2013. If you do not choose an electronic payment option by March 1, 2013, or at the time you apply for federal benefits, you will receive your payments via the Direct Express® card so you will not experience any interruption in payment. If you are already receiving your federal benefit payments electronically, this change will not affect you. Get more information at: http://www.godirect.org/
Honey Butter adapted from Family Circle Magazine, December 1953
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. honey
Cream butter. Add honey gradually until spread is smooth. Refrigerate.
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1950000/1941488/p5-vardi.html?key1=1941488&key2=3749315031&coll=DL&dl=ACM&ip=24.52.64.105&CFID=22381948&CFTOKEN=44676593
POEMS AND SAYINGS
The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap (referring to ground cover perennials).
Grow a large plant in a small pot.
Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will laugh a harvest. http://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2010/12/they-sleep-then-creep-then-leap.html
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln
"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." Claude Monet http://www.northerngardening.com/quotes.htm
Evaporated milk is milk which has had about sixty percent of the water removed via evaporation. It is then homogenized, rapidly chilled, fortified with vitamins and stabilizers, packaged, and finally sterilized. Standards require whole evaporated milk contain at least 7.9 percent milk fat and 25.5 percent milk solids. You'll find skim, low-fat and whole milk varieties of evaporated milk. Low-fat and skim versions are also required to have added vitamin A, while all have added vitamins D and C. Sweetened condensed milk goes through less processing than evaporated milk. Sixty percent of the water has also been removed from condensed milk, but it differs in that sugar has been added. Condensed milk contains 40 to 45 percent sugar, at least 8 percent fat and 28 percent milk solids. Condensed milk is pasteurized during the evaporation procedure, with the added sugar making any further sterilization unnecessary, since the sugar inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Governmental regulations require that vitamin A be added to condensed milk, but no other nutrients are required by law although they may be added. Condensed milk is very high in calories. Unsweetened condensed milk is a redundant term. It is simply evaporated milk. http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqcannedmilk.htm Note: I usually substitute a smaller quantity of regular milk in recipes calling for evaporated milk.
Hector (Ettore) Boiardi was born in Italy, and at the age of 16 found his way to New York City. He quickly became a chef at the Ritz Carlton in New York and worked at The Greenbrier in West Virginia as well. His culinary talents were legendary. Chef Boiardi accepted the job as head chef at the Hotel Winton in 1917 which happened to be a popular hotel in Cleveland. This magnificent hotel was located at 1012 Prospect Avenue. The Hotel Winton was a well-know hotel on a national level and held one of the first radio programs that was broadcast out of the Hotel’s famous Rainbow Room featuring the Rainbow Room Orchestra. (There were even “ice shows” at the Winton – where a large ice rink would be built in a restaurant and as patrons ate there would be a number of ice skaters to entertain.) Today, we know it as the Carter Manor which serves as housing for the elderly. As the Head Chef at the Winton, Boiardi began serving a lot of Italian fare. And his spaghetti dinners were becoming all the rage. Many of his patrons would ask for his recipes (which were not forthcoming from the Chef) and for samples to take home (which he sold in abundance). He would often provide his spaghetti sauce in milk bottles. In 1924, the good chef started his own restaurant the famous Giardino d’Italia. By 1928, take-out orders were so robust that Boiardi started factory production of his products. What was once a local, then regional, delicacy was now a national phenomenon and this prompted the change to the now signature Chef Boy-ar-dee. http://coolhistoryofcleveland.blog.com/2008/01/24/chef-boyardee/
Keep your baby from being bored Talk, sing, play music, change baby's position/scene, have enough light/bright colors/patterns/toys, teach finger play/rhymes/games/sounds, provide other people for interaction. 50 Ways to Entertain Baby, Family Circle Magazine, December 1953
The U.S. Department of the Treasury will pay all federal benefit and non-tax payments electronically. Benefit recipients can choose to receive their payments by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or to a Direct Express® Debit MasterCard® card account. You must choose your preferred electronic payment option when you apply to receive federal benefit payments from the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Personnel Management or Department of Labor (Black Lung) You must make the switch from paper federal benefit checks to electronic payments by March 1, 2013. If you do not choose an electronic payment option by March 1, 2013, or at the time you apply for federal benefits, you will receive your payments via the Direct Express® card so you will not experience any interruption in payment. If you are already receiving your federal benefit payments electronically, this change will not affect you. Get more information at: http://www.godirect.org/
Honey Butter adapted from Family Circle Magazine, December 1953
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. honey
Cream butter. Add honey gradually until spread is smooth. Refrigerate.
Monday, May 16, 2011
The Department of Justice's 10-year-old antitrust judgment against Microsoft expired on May 12, marking the end of what is perhaps the most famous U.S. antitrust action against a technology company. The judgment barred Microsoft from anti-competitive practices that regulators said had been choking off competing software on the company's Windows platform. The most oft-cited victim of Microsoft's muscling was the company's one-time rival, Netscape Communications Corp., a company that was acquired by AOL Inc. before its browser product faded largely into obscurity beneath the shadow of Microsoft's competing Explorer browser. In a three-year court battle that began in 1998, the Justice Department and then-Atty. Gen. Janet Reno accused Microsoft of "a broad pattern of anti-competitive conduct designed to eliminate competition, to maintain and strengthen Microsoft's core monopoly over PC operating systems." http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/justice-departments-landmark-judgment-against-microsoft-will-expire.html Department of Justice May 11, 2011 news release: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/May/11-at-601.html
The main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, that stately, marble Beaux-Arts temple of knowledge whose entrance is flanked by two enormous stone lions was renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in 2008, after the financier donated $100 million toward a major renovation. May 23 is the 100th anniversary of the edifice. The library is celebrating with a festival featuring events, an exhibition of some of its most prized items and a kind of writing project cum scavenger hunt devised by game guru Jane McGonigal, in which 500 contestants will spend the night in the building, exploring the collections on various "quests." The New York Public Library commemorated the centennial of its incorporation (in which several smaller public and private libraries were merged) back in 1995; this week's celebration is for the building, the most visible part of a much larger system. Defenders of library funding cutbacks typically ask why, in the age of Google and e-reader devices, anybody needs libraries. Let's set aside the obvious rejoinder that many citizens can't afford e-readers and, furthermore, can only access Google via a library computer. The anniversary of the NYPL's main building is an occasion to talk about why the library needs to be a place as well as an ethereal mass of data residing somewhere in "the cloud." Not everything we need or want to know about the world can be transmitted via a screen, and not every experience can be digitized. Also, not everything a library collects is a scannable book or document. The NYPL's anniversary exhibit includes such treasures of print culture as a Gutenberg Bible, a copy of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's hand, and a first quarto edition of "King Lear." It also features the personal effects of writers, such as Jack Kerouac's.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/05/11/nypl_centennial
GENERAL LEVALLE, Argentina—Pilots often stare in disbelief when they make their first flight over this hamlet on the verdant pampa. There, on the monotonous plain below, is a giant guitar landscaped out of cypress and eucalyptus trees. It is more than two-thirds of a mile long. The green guitar is the handiwork of a farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta, who is now 70. He embedded the design into his farm many years ago, and maintains it to this day, as a tribute to his late wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died in 1977 at the age of 25. His giant guitar is an unusual example of what's known as land art, in which forms are built into the natural environment, said Nancy Somerville, chief executive officer of the American Society of Landscape Architects. One famous example is Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long structure of mud, rocks and salt crystals built by artist Robert Smithson in Utah's Great Salt Lake. Using trees, as Mr. Ureta did, rather than with rocks or shrubbery, is a "pretty tremendous undertaking," Ms. Somerville said, due to the time and care needed to cultivate them. Most of the guitar, including the figure-eight-shaped body and star-shaped sound hole, is formed of cypress trees. For the strings, Mr. Ureta planted six rows of eucalyptus trees, whose bluish tone offers a contrast visible from above. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859304576307251804750800.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1
The Mughal Empire or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in former English usage, was an imperial power in South Asia that ruled a large portion of the Indian subcontinent. It began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of India by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids, a dynasty of Turco-Mongol ancestry, and at the height of their power around 1700, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent—extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million, over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles). The "classic period" of the Empire started in 1556 with the accession of Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, better known as Akbar the Great. It ended with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 by the rising Hindu Maratha Empire, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During the classic period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. Following 1725 the Mughal Empire declined rapidly, weakened by wars of succession, agrarian crises fueling local revolts, the growth of religious intolerance, the rise of the Maratha, Durrani, and Sikh empires and finally British colonialism. The last Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, whose rule was restricted to the city of Delhi, was imprisoned and exiled by the British after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The name Mughal is derived from the original homelands of the Timurids, the Central Asian steppes once conquered by Genghis Khan and hence known as Moghulistan, "Land of Mongols". Although early Mughals spoke the Chagatai language and maintained some Turko-Mongol practices, they became essentially Persianized and transferred the Persian literary and high culture[ to India, thus forming the base for the Indo-Persian culture. A major Mughal contribution to the Indian subcontinent was their unique architecture. Many monuments were built by the Muslim emperors, especially Shahjahan, during the Mughal era including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Taj Mahal, which is known to be one of the finer examples of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites includes the Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Agra Fort, and Lahore Fort. See a list of emperors plus pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
Jahangir (1569-1627) began his era as a Mughal emperor after the death of his father Akbar in the year 1605. He considered his third son Prince Khurram (future Shah Jahan-born 1592 of Hindu Rajput princess Manmati), his favourite. Rana of Mewar and Prince Khurram had a standoff that resulted in a treaty acceptable to both parties. Khurram was kept busy with several campaigns in Bengal and Kashmir. Jahangir claimed the victories of Khurram – Shah Jahan as his own. He also had unlimited sources of revenue largely due to a systematic organization of the administration by his father, Akbar. The Mughal Empire reached its pinnacle during Jahangir and Shah Jahan’s rule. Jahangir built his famous gardens in Kashmir though the daily administration was delegated to close aides. One such person was Jahangir’s wife, Nur Jahan, whom he married in 1611. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_emperors
The Taj Mahal Trilogy by Indu Sundaresan: The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, Shadow Princess Winter 1577: A young Persian nobleman flees his homeland, headed east toward India and the glittering Mughal court of Emperor Akbar. Ghias Beg isn’t traveling light; he has with him a pregnant wife and three small children. When his family stops at Qandahar—which is today in modern-day Afghanistan, at that time was on the outer fringe of the Mughal Empire—his wife gives birth to a baby girl named Mehrunnisa. Thirty-four years later, this winter child will become an Emperor’s wife and the most powerful woman in that Mughal dynasty. Mehrunnisa is The Twentieth Wife of Emperor Jahangir, Akbar’s son, a woman so beloved of her husband that he grants her most of the powers of sovereignty. She signs on imperial documents called farmans and mints coins in her name and truly comes into power during the sixteen years of her marriage to Jahangir in The Feast of Roses. Mehrunnisa’s niece (her brother’s daughter and Ghias’ granddaughter) marries one of Jahangir’s sons, Prince Khurram who becomes Emperor Shah Jahan after his father’s death. When this niece dies in childbirth in June of 1631, Shah Jahan builds the Taj Mahal in her memory. But it is Mehrunnisa’s grand-niece (and Ghias’ great-granddaughter) Princess Jahanara who takes center stage in the third novel of the trilogy, Shadow Princess. She’s seventeen years old when her mother dies and her father, in his grief, leans upon her to the extent that she’s never allowed to marry. http://www.indusundaresan.com/Trilogy.aspx
Law360, New York (May 12, 2011) -- The Third Circuit's ruling last week that insurers can challenge silica claims provisions of Global Industrial Technologies Inc.'s bankruptcy plan will likely empower insurers fighting certain reorganization plans and reign in mass tort attorneys' aggressive bankruptcy pursuits, lawyers say. The en banc appeals court majority vacated a Pennsylvania district court's ruling that insurers including Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. and Century Indemnity Co. had not shown sufficient injury and lacked standing to raise objections during the 2006 confirmation hearing for GIT's plan. http://www.law360.com/bankruptcy/articles/244735/3rd-circ-git-ruling-may-reduce-tort-claims-attys-say Thanks, David for pointing out that those pesky English homophones have claimed another victim.
Meat-Stuffed Rye Loaf adapted from Woman's Day Kitchen, September 1954
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 carrot, grated
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. chili sauce
1 loaf rye bread, unsliced
Cook onion until lightly browned. Add beef and cook until browned. Add seasonings and cook 5 minutes. Cut slice from one end of bread; take out soft center of loaf and mix with meat mixture. Mix well and stuff into loaf. Put back slice and fasten with toothpicks. Back at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Slice to serve.
Pittsfield, MA May 14, 2011 At a local auction, Colin Twing bid $60 on what he thought were two 19th century railroad tickets, figuring each might be worth that much apiece. As it turns out, the Pittsfield man acquired a pair of baseball tickets that two researchers are calling rare finds for the national pastime. Twing, who has been shopping at auctions for 10 years, is now the owner of what looks like a season ticket from the late 1860s or '70s to the Athletic Club Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and a ticket to the 11th annual National Association of Base-Ball Players convention that took place in Philadelphia on Dec. 11, 1867. The ball club and the association were precursors to the modern organizations. Renowned baseball historian John Thorn discovered Pittsfield's 1791 town bylaw banning "base ball" - currently the earliest known reference to the sport in North America - seven years ago. Thorn says the earliest known ticket having something to do with baseball is a social gathering given by members of the Magnolia Baseball Club on Feb. 9, 1843. Thorn also examined Twing's tickets through pictures, and called them "very rare." Twing, who buys and sells antiques, rare books and musical instruments, said he didn't realize how significant the tickets were until he returned home from Fontaine's Antique Auction Gallery in Pittsfield and examined them in greater detail. He bought them in what's known as a boxed lot, which contains other miscellaneous items up for one sale.
http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/05/14/baseball-tickets-from-1860s-a-rare-find
The main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, that stately, marble Beaux-Arts temple of knowledge whose entrance is flanked by two enormous stone lions was renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in 2008, after the financier donated $100 million toward a major renovation. May 23 is the 100th anniversary of the edifice. The library is celebrating with a festival featuring events, an exhibition of some of its most prized items and a kind of writing project cum scavenger hunt devised by game guru Jane McGonigal, in which 500 contestants will spend the night in the building, exploring the collections on various "quests." The New York Public Library commemorated the centennial of its incorporation (in which several smaller public and private libraries were merged) back in 1995; this week's celebration is for the building, the most visible part of a much larger system. Defenders of library funding cutbacks typically ask why, in the age of Google and e-reader devices, anybody needs libraries. Let's set aside the obvious rejoinder that many citizens can't afford e-readers and, furthermore, can only access Google via a library computer. The anniversary of the NYPL's main building is an occasion to talk about why the library needs to be a place as well as an ethereal mass of data residing somewhere in "the cloud." Not everything we need or want to know about the world can be transmitted via a screen, and not every experience can be digitized. Also, not everything a library collects is a scannable book or document. The NYPL's anniversary exhibit includes such treasures of print culture as a Gutenberg Bible, a copy of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's hand, and a first quarto edition of "King Lear." It also features the personal effects of writers, such as Jack Kerouac's.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/05/11/nypl_centennial
GENERAL LEVALLE, Argentina—Pilots often stare in disbelief when they make their first flight over this hamlet on the verdant pampa. There, on the monotonous plain below, is a giant guitar landscaped out of cypress and eucalyptus trees. It is more than two-thirds of a mile long. The green guitar is the handiwork of a farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta, who is now 70. He embedded the design into his farm many years ago, and maintains it to this day, as a tribute to his late wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died in 1977 at the age of 25. His giant guitar is an unusual example of what's known as land art, in which forms are built into the natural environment, said Nancy Somerville, chief executive officer of the American Society of Landscape Architects. One famous example is Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long structure of mud, rocks and salt crystals built by artist Robert Smithson in Utah's Great Salt Lake. Using trees, as Mr. Ureta did, rather than with rocks or shrubbery, is a "pretty tremendous undertaking," Ms. Somerville said, due to the time and care needed to cultivate them. Most of the guitar, including the figure-eight-shaped body and star-shaped sound hole, is formed of cypress trees. For the strings, Mr. Ureta planted six rows of eucalyptus trees, whose bluish tone offers a contrast visible from above. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859304576307251804750800.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1
The Mughal Empire or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in former English usage, was an imperial power in South Asia that ruled a large portion of the Indian subcontinent. It began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of India by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids, a dynasty of Turco-Mongol ancestry, and at the height of their power around 1700, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent—extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million, over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles). The "classic period" of the Empire started in 1556 with the accession of Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, better known as Akbar the Great. It ended with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 by the rising Hindu Maratha Empire, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During the classic period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. Following 1725 the Mughal Empire declined rapidly, weakened by wars of succession, agrarian crises fueling local revolts, the growth of religious intolerance, the rise of the Maratha, Durrani, and Sikh empires and finally British colonialism. The last Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, whose rule was restricted to the city of Delhi, was imprisoned and exiled by the British after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The name Mughal is derived from the original homelands of the Timurids, the Central Asian steppes once conquered by Genghis Khan and hence known as Moghulistan, "Land of Mongols". Although early Mughals spoke the Chagatai language and maintained some Turko-Mongol practices, they became essentially Persianized and transferred the Persian literary and high culture[ to India, thus forming the base for the Indo-Persian culture. A major Mughal contribution to the Indian subcontinent was their unique architecture. Many monuments were built by the Muslim emperors, especially Shahjahan, during the Mughal era including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Taj Mahal, which is known to be one of the finer examples of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites includes the Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Agra Fort, and Lahore Fort. See a list of emperors plus pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
Jahangir (1569-1627) began his era as a Mughal emperor after the death of his father Akbar in the year 1605. He considered his third son Prince Khurram (future Shah Jahan-born 1592 of Hindu Rajput princess Manmati), his favourite. Rana of Mewar and Prince Khurram had a standoff that resulted in a treaty acceptable to both parties. Khurram was kept busy with several campaigns in Bengal and Kashmir. Jahangir claimed the victories of Khurram – Shah Jahan as his own. He also had unlimited sources of revenue largely due to a systematic organization of the administration by his father, Akbar. The Mughal Empire reached its pinnacle during Jahangir and Shah Jahan’s rule. Jahangir built his famous gardens in Kashmir though the daily administration was delegated to close aides. One such person was Jahangir’s wife, Nur Jahan, whom he married in 1611. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_emperors
The Taj Mahal Trilogy by Indu Sundaresan: The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, Shadow Princess Winter 1577: A young Persian nobleman flees his homeland, headed east toward India and the glittering Mughal court of Emperor Akbar. Ghias Beg isn’t traveling light; he has with him a pregnant wife and three small children. When his family stops at Qandahar—which is today in modern-day Afghanistan, at that time was on the outer fringe of the Mughal Empire—his wife gives birth to a baby girl named Mehrunnisa. Thirty-four years later, this winter child will become an Emperor’s wife and the most powerful woman in that Mughal dynasty. Mehrunnisa is The Twentieth Wife of Emperor Jahangir, Akbar’s son, a woman so beloved of her husband that he grants her most of the powers of sovereignty. She signs on imperial documents called farmans and mints coins in her name and truly comes into power during the sixteen years of her marriage to Jahangir in The Feast of Roses. Mehrunnisa’s niece (her brother’s daughter and Ghias’ granddaughter) marries one of Jahangir’s sons, Prince Khurram who becomes Emperor Shah Jahan after his father’s death. When this niece dies in childbirth in June of 1631, Shah Jahan builds the Taj Mahal in her memory. But it is Mehrunnisa’s grand-niece (and Ghias’ great-granddaughter) Princess Jahanara who takes center stage in the third novel of the trilogy, Shadow Princess. She’s seventeen years old when her mother dies and her father, in his grief, leans upon her to the extent that she’s never allowed to marry. http://www.indusundaresan.com/Trilogy.aspx
Law360, New York (May 12, 2011) -- The Third Circuit's ruling last week that insurers can challenge silica claims provisions of Global Industrial Technologies Inc.'s bankruptcy plan will likely empower insurers fighting certain reorganization plans and reign in mass tort attorneys' aggressive bankruptcy pursuits, lawyers say. The en banc appeals court majority vacated a Pennsylvania district court's ruling that insurers including Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. and Century Indemnity Co. had not shown sufficient injury and lacked standing to raise objections during the 2006 confirmation hearing for GIT's plan. http://www.law360.com/bankruptcy/articles/244735/3rd-circ-git-ruling-may-reduce-tort-claims-attys-say Thanks, David for pointing out that those pesky English homophones have claimed another victim.
Meat-Stuffed Rye Loaf adapted from Woman's Day Kitchen, September 1954
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 carrot, grated
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. chili sauce
1 loaf rye bread, unsliced
Cook onion until lightly browned. Add beef and cook until browned. Add seasonings and cook 5 minutes. Cut slice from one end of bread; take out soft center of loaf and mix with meat mixture. Mix well and stuff into loaf. Put back slice and fasten with toothpicks. Back at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Slice to serve.
Pittsfield, MA May 14, 2011 At a local auction, Colin Twing bid $60 on what he thought were two 19th century railroad tickets, figuring each might be worth that much apiece. As it turns out, the Pittsfield man acquired a pair of baseball tickets that two researchers are calling rare finds for the national pastime. Twing, who has been shopping at auctions for 10 years, is now the owner of what looks like a season ticket from the late 1860s or '70s to the Athletic Club Base Ball Club of Philadelphia and a ticket to the 11th annual National Association of Base-Ball Players convention that took place in Philadelphia on Dec. 11, 1867. The ball club and the association were precursors to the modern organizations. Renowned baseball historian John Thorn discovered Pittsfield's 1791 town bylaw banning "base ball" - currently the earliest known reference to the sport in North America - seven years ago. Thorn says the earliest known ticket having something to do with baseball is a social gathering given by members of the Magnolia Baseball Club on Feb. 9, 1843. Thorn also examined Twing's tickets through pictures, and called them "very rare." Twing, who buys and sells antiques, rare books and musical instruments, said he didn't realize how significant the tickets were until he returned home from Fontaine's Antique Auction Gallery in Pittsfield and examined them in greater detail. He bought them in what's known as a boxed lot, which contains other miscellaneous items up for one sale.
http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/05/14/baseball-tickets-from-1860s-a-rare-find
Friday, May 13, 2011
Fast-food companies are asking U.S. state legislators to remove restaurant marketing from local governments' regulatory menu, in the latest industry bid to stay a step ahead of anti-obesity laws. The lobbying push, which has succeeded in Arizona and gained traction in Florida, aims to stop marketing restrictions before they start. The efforts come as food companies face increasing scrutiny from the U.S. government over how they pitch their products to youngsters as obesity rates rise. Last year San Francisco became the first major city to require that McDonald's Happy Meals and other restaurants' meals for children meet certain nutritional standards before they can be sold with toys. Similar proposals have been floated in places ranging from New York City to Nebraska. The $184 billion fast-food industry fiercely opposes the so-called "Happy Meal" ordinances. Michele Simon, a public health attorney and research and policy director for the Marin Institute in Northern California, says the industry is trying to tie the hands of local officials. "It is taking away the right of local government to act," said Simon, author of "Appetite for Profit", a book that attacks the practices of the U.S. food and restaurant industry. Industry lobbyists acknowledge the importance of marketing for restaurant profits, but they cast the latest debate in broader policy terms. "It's not that we're trying to make kids fat -- clearly we're not; it's about how much government intrusion is really necessary," said Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant Association.
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/05_-_May/Fast-food_lobbies_U_S__states_on__Happy_Meal__laws/
"The Internet you see is not the Internet I see." That is the point of a new book coming out called The Filter Bubble. Google, Facebook and many other sites have instituted algorithms that take into account your interests based on past usage. What this means is your search results can differ markedly from others. An example: Two friends who searched Egypt on Google on the same day. Friend two received results regarding travel while friend one received news about the uprising. (The search was conducted during the Egyptian uprising.) Please keep in mind that when searching on the internet, reading an online news source, looking at your Facebook page or undertaking any other online activity, the web site may be using information it has to filter out content it thinks you do not wish to see. While on the surface this may appear to be a way to avoid information overload, it also can mean you or your patron does not locate the information needed.
http://federatedsearchblog.com/2011/05/05/on-the-dangers-of-personalization/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216484/Elgan_How_to_pop_your_Internet_filter_bubble_
Thanks, Julie
When officials at Vienna (Virginia) Presbyterian Church decided to acknowledge the church's failures in handling reports of sexual abuse by a youth ministries director, they thought it might upset some in the congregation. What surprised them was the admonishment from the church's insurance company. And it wasn't the church's lapses in responding to the abuse a half-decade ago that bothered the insurer — it was the church's plan to admit those lapses and apologize to the victims. The insurance company's position was clear: On March 23, a lawyer hired by the company, GuideOne Insurance, sent a warning to church officials:
"Do not make any statements, orally, in writing or in any manner, to acknowledge, admit to or apologize for anything that may be evidence of or interpreted as (a suggestion that) the actions of Vienna Presbyterian Church … caused or contributed to any damages arising from the intentional acts/abuse/misconduct" by the youth director. But in a letter sent to congregants the next day, the church's governing board, known as a Session, took a different course. "This sort of conflict is happening all the time," says Jack McCalmon, a lawyer whose company, the McCalmon Group, is hired by insurers to help churches set up abuse-prevention programs.
"The church is in the business of forgiveness, of being forthright and open and truthful, but that often creates liability in a world that's adversarial, in the judicial world," McCalmon says. Meanwhile, he adds, insurers are in the business of limiting liability. "So, the insurance company has a contract with the church that says, 'If we're going to put our assets on the line, we want you to perform in a way that protects our assets and interests.'"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-05-09-vienna-virginia-church-abuse-case-lawyers-insurers_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip
East Florida was a territory of Great Britain from 1763–1783, of Spain from 1783–1821, and of the United States from 1821-1822 (prior to being merged with the part of West Florida east of the Perdido River to form the organized Florida Territory in 1822). East Florida was established by the British colonial government in 1763; as its name implies it consisted of the eastern part of the region of Florida, with West Florida comprising the western parts. Its capital was St. Augustine, which had been the capital of Spanish Florida. Britain formed East and West Florida out of territory it had received from France and Spain following the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War). Finding its new acquisitions in the southeast too large to administer as a single unit, the British divided them into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River. East Florida comprised the bulk of what had previously been the Spanish territory of Florida. Britain ceded both Floridas back to Spain following the American Revolutionary War, and Spain maintained them as separate colonies, though the majority of West Florida was gradually annexed by the United States. Spain sold East Florida and the remainder of West Florida to the U.S. in the Adams-Onís Treaty; the United States organized them as a single unit, the Florida Territory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Florida
Pepita (from Mexican Spanish: pepita de calabaza, "little seed of squash") is a Spanish culinary term for the pumpkin seed, the edible seed of a pumpkin or other cultivar of squash (genus Cucurbita). The seeds are typically rather flat and asymmetrically oval, and light green in color inside a white hull. The word can refer either to the hulled kernel or unhulled whole seed, and most commonly refers to the roasted end product. As an ingredient in mole dishes, they are known in Spanish as pipián. Lightly roasted, salted, unhulled pumpkin seeds are popular in Greece with the descriptive Italian name, passatempo ("pastime"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepita
Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the virgin queen. In the east it occupies the southern tip of the Delamarva Peninsula and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The most important industries are the service and tourist industries. Virginia's industrial output includes textiles, chemicals, cars, and electrical equipment; agricultural products include tobacco, soybeans, peanuts, and apples. Coal is the most important mineral. One of the Thirteen Colonies, the first permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown in 1607, and in 1619 the colonists established the first representative legislature in America. During the American Civil War, Virginia was the northeastern-most state of the Confederacy. Virginia ratified the US Constitution in 1788, becoming the 10th US state. Virginia lies midway on the Atlantic coast of the USA. The ocean advances deep into the mainland at Chesapeake Bay, whose rugged coastline is indented by the wide estuaries of several rivers. To the west, the landscape merges into the undulating Piedmont Plateau, rising gradually into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Further west are the valleys of Virginia, including the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Virginia can be divided into five main regions: the Appalachian Plateau, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley region, the Piedmont, the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and the Chesapeake Bay area. http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/East+Virginia
1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to explore Samoa.
1899 Germany annexes Western Samoa (now called the Independent State of Samoa, or just Samoa), the US takes over eastern Samoa (American Samoa) and Britain withdraws its claim to the islands in accordance with treaty between Germany, Britain and the US.
1914 New Zealand occupies Western Samoa during World War I and continues to administer it after the war by virtue of a League of Nations mandate (and a United Nations mandate after World War II).
1962 Western Samoa becomes independent, the first Pacific island nation to do so.
1997 Western Samoa changes its name to Samoa, a move which causes some tension with American Samoa.
2007 King Malietoa Tanumafili II dies aged 94, after 45 years on the throne. He was appointed king for life at independence in 1962. He was the world's third-longest reigning monarch.
Samoa becomes republic. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1300819.stm
2011 Samoa plans to leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day and putting a new kink in the Pacific's jagged international date line so that it can be on the same weekday as Australia, New Zealand and eastern Asia.
This offsets a decision it made 119 years ago to stay behind a day and align itself with U.S. traders based in California. That has meant that when it's dawn Sunday in Samoa, it's already dawn Monday in adjacent Tonga and shortly before dawn Monday in nearby New Zealand, Australia and increasingly prominent eastern Asia trade partners such as China. "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia we're losing out on two working days a week," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in a statement. "While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane." Samoa's change will have a cost: The Polynesian nation has long marketed itself as the last place on Earth to see each day's sunset. In 2009, Tuilaepa enacted a law that switched cars to driving on the left side of the road instead of the right, also to bring Samoa in line with Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110509/samoa-dateline-110509/
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/05_-_May/Fast-food_lobbies_U_S__states_on__Happy_Meal__laws/
"The Internet you see is not the Internet I see." That is the point of a new book coming out called The Filter Bubble. Google, Facebook and many other sites have instituted algorithms that take into account your interests based on past usage. What this means is your search results can differ markedly from others. An example: Two friends who searched Egypt on Google on the same day. Friend two received results regarding travel while friend one received news about the uprising. (The search was conducted during the Egyptian uprising.) Please keep in mind that when searching on the internet, reading an online news source, looking at your Facebook page or undertaking any other online activity, the web site may be using information it has to filter out content it thinks you do not wish to see. While on the surface this may appear to be a way to avoid information overload, it also can mean you or your patron does not locate the information needed.
http://federatedsearchblog.com/2011/05/05/on-the-dangers-of-personalization/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216484/Elgan_How_to_pop_your_Internet_filter_bubble_
Thanks, Julie
When officials at Vienna (Virginia) Presbyterian Church decided to acknowledge the church's failures in handling reports of sexual abuse by a youth ministries director, they thought it might upset some in the congregation. What surprised them was the admonishment from the church's insurance company. And it wasn't the church's lapses in responding to the abuse a half-decade ago that bothered the insurer — it was the church's plan to admit those lapses and apologize to the victims. The insurance company's position was clear: On March 23, a lawyer hired by the company, GuideOne Insurance, sent a warning to church officials:
"Do not make any statements, orally, in writing or in any manner, to acknowledge, admit to or apologize for anything that may be evidence of or interpreted as (a suggestion that) the actions of Vienna Presbyterian Church … caused or contributed to any damages arising from the intentional acts/abuse/misconduct" by the youth director. But in a letter sent to congregants the next day, the church's governing board, known as a Session, took a different course. "This sort of conflict is happening all the time," says Jack McCalmon, a lawyer whose company, the McCalmon Group, is hired by insurers to help churches set up abuse-prevention programs.
"The church is in the business of forgiveness, of being forthright and open and truthful, but that often creates liability in a world that's adversarial, in the judicial world," McCalmon says. Meanwhile, he adds, insurers are in the business of limiting liability. "So, the insurance company has a contract with the church that says, 'If we're going to put our assets on the line, we want you to perform in a way that protects our assets and interests.'"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-05-09-vienna-virginia-church-abuse-case-lawyers-insurers_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip
East Florida was a territory of Great Britain from 1763–1783, of Spain from 1783–1821, and of the United States from 1821-1822 (prior to being merged with the part of West Florida east of the Perdido River to form the organized Florida Territory in 1822). East Florida was established by the British colonial government in 1763; as its name implies it consisted of the eastern part of the region of Florida, with West Florida comprising the western parts. Its capital was St. Augustine, which had been the capital of Spanish Florida. Britain formed East and West Florida out of territory it had received from France and Spain following the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War). Finding its new acquisitions in the southeast too large to administer as a single unit, the British divided them into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River. East Florida comprised the bulk of what had previously been the Spanish territory of Florida. Britain ceded both Floridas back to Spain following the American Revolutionary War, and Spain maintained them as separate colonies, though the majority of West Florida was gradually annexed by the United States. Spain sold East Florida and the remainder of West Florida to the U.S. in the Adams-Onís Treaty; the United States organized them as a single unit, the Florida Territory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Florida
Pepita (from Mexican Spanish: pepita de calabaza, "little seed of squash") is a Spanish culinary term for the pumpkin seed, the edible seed of a pumpkin or other cultivar of squash (genus Cucurbita). The seeds are typically rather flat and asymmetrically oval, and light green in color inside a white hull. The word can refer either to the hulled kernel or unhulled whole seed, and most commonly refers to the roasted end product. As an ingredient in mole dishes, they are known in Spanish as pipián. Lightly roasted, salted, unhulled pumpkin seeds are popular in Greece with the descriptive Italian name, passatempo ("pastime"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepita
Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the virgin queen. In the east it occupies the southern tip of the Delamarva Peninsula and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The most important industries are the service and tourist industries. Virginia's industrial output includes textiles, chemicals, cars, and electrical equipment; agricultural products include tobacco, soybeans, peanuts, and apples. Coal is the most important mineral. One of the Thirteen Colonies, the first permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown in 1607, and in 1619 the colonists established the first representative legislature in America. During the American Civil War, Virginia was the northeastern-most state of the Confederacy. Virginia ratified the US Constitution in 1788, becoming the 10th US state. Virginia lies midway on the Atlantic coast of the USA. The ocean advances deep into the mainland at Chesapeake Bay, whose rugged coastline is indented by the wide estuaries of several rivers. To the west, the landscape merges into the undulating Piedmont Plateau, rising gradually into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Further west are the valleys of Virginia, including the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Virginia can be divided into five main regions: the Appalachian Plateau, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley region, the Piedmont, the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and the Chesapeake Bay area. http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/East+Virginia
1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to explore Samoa.
1899 Germany annexes Western Samoa (now called the Independent State of Samoa, or just Samoa), the US takes over eastern Samoa (American Samoa) and Britain withdraws its claim to the islands in accordance with treaty between Germany, Britain and the US.
1914 New Zealand occupies Western Samoa during World War I and continues to administer it after the war by virtue of a League of Nations mandate (and a United Nations mandate after World War II).
1962 Western Samoa becomes independent, the first Pacific island nation to do so.
1997 Western Samoa changes its name to Samoa, a move which causes some tension with American Samoa.
2007 King Malietoa Tanumafili II dies aged 94, after 45 years on the throne. He was appointed king for life at independence in 1962. He was the world's third-longest reigning monarch.
Samoa becomes republic. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1300819.stm
2011 Samoa plans to leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day and putting a new kink in the Pacific's jagged international date line so that it can be on the same weekday as Australia, New Zealand and eastern Asia.
This offsets a decision it made 119 years ago to stay behind a day and align itself with U.S. traders based in California. That has meant that when it's dawn Sunday in Samoa, it's already dawn Monday in adjacent Tonga and shortly before dawn Monday in nearby New Zealand, Australia and increasingly prominent eastern Asia trade partners such as China. "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia we're losing out on two working days a week," Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in a statement. "While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane." Samoa's change will have a cost: The Polynesian nation has long marketed itself as the last place on Earth to see each day's sunset. In 2009, Tuilaepa enacted a law that switched cars to driving on the left side of the road instead of the right, also to bring Samoa in line with Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110509/samoa-dateline-110509/
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