If there's a hot-button item among travelers (other than airline
fees), it's whether to allow cellphone voice calls on airplanes. The Department of Transportation and the
Federal Communications Commission seem to be at odds over whether to change the
current rules prohibiting such calls. The DOT is asking fliers for their opinions,
even though the agency won't be making the decision, at least not on technical
grounds. The FCC last
year started the process of considering changing its rule that prohibits such
on-board phone calls above 10,000 feet. DOT concedes
that the FCC has the authority to decide "whether cellphones or other
mobile devices used during flight would interfere with cellular networks on the
ground and should continue to be banned."
But the DOT, which oversees the Federal Aviation Administration,
says it has the authority to decide whether permitting voice calls on an
airplane is "an unfair practice to consumers." From its website: "Allowing voice calls
on passenger aircraft may be harmful because people tend to talk louder on
cellphones than when they're having face-to-face conversations. They are also likely to talk more and further
increase the noise on a flight, as passengers would not be simply talking to
the persons sitting next to them but can call whomever they like. An Associated Press-GfK poll last fall found that 48% of Americans
oppose allowing cellphones to be used for voice while flying, compared with 19%
who support it. Since then, only Delta
Air Lines has said up front it won't allow voice calls. Meanwhile, the FCC points out that even if
the agency changes the rules, it would be up to airlines to decide whether to
allow voice phone calls in flight. They
would have to install an access system (similar to Wi-Fi), but they wouldn't be
required to do so. Back to the DOT. The agency wants to know what you think about
the potential rule change. It's collecting comments until March 26. http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=DOT-OST-2014-0002-0018
Mary Forgione
As mountain streamlets freely
flow with
water cool and clear, from towering grandeur, snow adorned, a source of
strength all year. Dosia Carlson
The Alps are
the youngest and highest mountain system in Europe. They stretch across the western and southern part of the continent
in a broad arc. The mountain
range starts near the Mediterranean Sea
on the border between France and Italy. Then it curves north and eastward through
northern Italy, Switzerland Liechtenstein, southern Germany, Austria and
Slovenia. The Alps are about 1,000 km
long, the broadest section over 260 km wide. During the Ice Age, which started
about a million years ago, the Alps were covered
with a thick blanket of snow. Glaciers moved down valleys and made them wider
and deeper. As they moved they took rock
and other material with them, creating
moraines. When glaciers started
to melt water filled up behind these natural dams and created the alpine lakes we know today. The largest of these glaciers is the Aletsch in Switzerland which reaches a length of about 25 km. The longest glacier of the eastern
Alps is the 8 km long Pasterze, at the foot of the Großglockner. The ice and snow of the alpine regions helped create the
large rivers of today: the Rhine, Rhone,
Danube and the Po. http://www.english-online.at/geography/alps/alps-tallest-mountain-range-in-europe.htm The
Swiss Alps are often called 'Europe's water tower'. Nearly 60 billion cubic metres of water are
stored in its glaciers. Even though
their ice is called 'eternal', many alpine glaciers' lives may come to an end
within this century. For 150 years, most
of them have been more or less constantly retreating, and since the eighties,
their shrinkage has visibly increased. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jul/22/glacier-europe-water-crisis
The “Cthulhu Mythos” is a name given to the superficial
elements of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales: the
fictional New England towns; the extraterrestrial “gods”, and the magical
grimoires (see “His
Creations”). However, Lovecraft never used the term
“Cthulhu Mythos” himself, on rare occasions referring to his series of
connected stories as his “Arkham cycle.” Instead, the term “Cthulhu Mythos” was coined
by August Derleth after Lovecraft’s death. As such, one could easily make the argument
that Lovecraft never wrote any Mythos
stories. These elements have been used
by a multitude of writers, several of them members of the “Lovecraft Circle.” The Mythos has so captured the imaginations of
readers that it is perhaps better known (and more widely read) than Lovecraft’s
own work. Many horror authors began their careers writing Mythos
fiction, eventually moving on and finding their own voices. Some of the members of the Lovecraft Circle
that incorporated elements of the Mythos into their own work included Robert
Bloch, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, Frank Belknap Long, and
Clark Ashton Smith. Later authors who
also continued this tradition include Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Stephen
King, T.E.D. Klein, Brian Lumley, and Colin Wilson. http://www.hplovecraft.com/popcult/mythos.aspx
Shadows Over Baker Street--"Sherlock Holmes enters
the nightmare world of H.P. Lovecraft"-- is a collection of short stories
with Sherlock and Dr. Watson as principal characters in horror stories. In A Case of Royal Blood, Holmes and H.G. Wells
join forces. In The Mystery of the
Hanged Man's Puzzle, Holmes says:
"Goodly intentions are no use without goodly sums of money,
Watson"
Mast Brothers Chocolate This artisanal chocolate factory creates
bean-to-bar handmade candy in small batches and sophisticated flavors. Founders Michael Mast and his older brother
Rick—two bearded Iowa boys—came to New York to pursue careers in film and
cooking, respectively. The pair discovered a flair for chocolate-making at
Brooklyn dinner parties (finding later success at local farmers' markets and boutiques), and
turned their creative focus to cacao instead, sourced from small farms in
Ecuador, Madagascar, and Venezuela. The
brothers produce around ten flavors, from a blend of almond and sea salt to the
popular salt-and-pepper bar. Each is
wrapped in gold foil and thick Italian paper in vintage-inspired floral,
paisley, and patterned prints. Visitors
congregate around the long kitchen table to taste their spoils and watch the
unhusked chocolate nibs be ground with a stone granite roller.
Ecce in Latin means behold. Ecce Panis, an artisan bread making company
based in New Jersey, means Behold the Bread.
In Latin Phrases and Quotes, the meaning for ecce signum is listed as: behold the sign; here is the proof. http://latin-phrases.co.uk/dictionary/e/
Who was Dick Donovan? by Bruce Durie 'Dick
Donovan' was the pseudonym used by Joyce Emmerson Preston Muddock (1843-1934)
for almost 300 detective and mystery stories and 28 novels written between 1889
and 1922. Muddock also had a long but
financially disastrous career as a journalist and wrote: novels; historical fact and fiction; guide
books and a rather self-aggrandising autobiography. Far from being an imitator of Conan Doyle and
Sherlock Holmes, Muddock’s fictional detective predated the Baker Street sleuth
in the public’s ken and was, for a time, equally or more popular. Intriguingly, “Joyce Emmerson Preston
Muddock” was itself a pseudonym. Muddock was named at birth, much more
prosaically, “James Edward Muddock”.
His characters included not
only Dick Donovan, the Glasgow Detective, but also Russian Secret Service agent
Michael Danevitch, Vincent Trill of the Detective Service, private detective
Tyler Tatlock and early forensic criminologist Fabian Field among others. Today, his horror tales are better known than
his detective fiction, thanks to frequent reprints, and what he considered his
“serious” fiction and historical writings have been completely consigned to the
remainder bin of literary history. One
of his historical novels, “Young Lochinvar” was an early silent film, made by
Stoll and starring Owen Nares. Muddock
did not start the tradition of using a pen name the same as that of the
detective - Honeyman’s “James McGovan” stories did likewise, and everyone was
cashing in on the earlier publishing success of the real-life James M’Levy, The
Edinburgh Detective - but Muddock may well have embedded it as a technique for
the genre. It was later adopted by his
American counterparts such as Ellery Queen and Hank Jansen. He may also be responsible for the term
“Dick” as applied to a private detective in America, where his works were
hugely popular. This one-man industry makes Conan Doyle's 60 Sherlock Holmes stories
look thin by comparison. The first Dick
Donovan story – “The Saltmarket Murder Case” (Jan 1888) – is one of the
earliest locked-room mysteries. Find
bibliography at http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930475/Donovan,%20Dick
