August 2, 2015  The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a scam alert warning government employees, contractors and others affected by hacks to look out for imposters pretending to be from the FTC and offering compensation to data-breach victims.  According to Lisa Weintraub Schifferle, an attorney for the FTC’s Division of Consumer and Business Education, here’s how one scam works:  A man, who identifies himself as Dave Johnson, calls and says he’s from the FTC and the government is offering compensation to people affected by the personnel office breach.  He says he’s from the agency’s Las Vegas office.  But to get the money, you have to provide some personal information.  “Stop,” Schifferle writes in a blog post.  “Don’t tell him anything.  He’s not from the FTC.”  • Say nothing.  You’ve got to develop a blanket policy of not giving out any of your personal information if you have not initiated a call or email. • Do nothing.  If a caller ever asks you to wire money or load money onto a prepaid debit card, don’t.  • Don’t believe what you see.  It’s easy to alter what appears on someone’s caller ID, so don’t trust a number you see that may appear to be from the FTC or any other government agency.  If you get a call or email relating to the personnel office breaches, let the FTC know by going to https://econsumer.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ .  Send any suspicious emails to the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team at phishing-report@us-cert.gov.  Michelle Singletary  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2015/08/02/01-first-comes-hack-then-comes-scam.html

The Inca had two calendars.  One was a solar calendar or day time calendar, and the other one was lunar calendar or night time calendar.  The day time calendar was based on the solar cycle.  They counted approximately 365 days in this calendar.  This calendar was used for economic activities such as agriculture, mining, warfare and construction.  This calendar was very important to Inca people, since they depend on this to fix the days on planting.  The night time calender was based on the moon cycle and had 328 days.  It was used to mark the days of all the festivals.   

http://www.machupicchu-inca.com/inca-calendar.html

Mock-epic, also called mock-heroic, is a form of satire that adapts the elevated heroic style of the classical epic poem to a trivial subject.  The tradition, which originated in classical times with an anonymous burlesque of Homer, the Batrachomyomachia (Battle of the Frogs and the Mice), was honed to a fine art in the late 17th- and early 18th-century Neoclassical period.  A double-edged satirical weapon, the mock-epic was sometimes used by the “moderns” of this period to ridicule contemporary “ancients” (classicists).  More often it was used by “ancients” to point up the unheroic character of the modern age by subjecting thinly disguised contemporary events to a heroic treatment.  The classic example of this is Nicolas Boileau’s Le Lutrin (1674–83; “The Lectern”), which begins with a quarrel between two ecclesiastical dignitaries about where to place a lectern in a chapel and ends with a battle in a bookstore in which champions of either side hurl their favourite “ancient” or “modern” authors at each other.  Jonathan Swift’s “Battle of the Books” (1704) is a variation of this theme in mock-heroic prose.  The outstanding English mock-epic is Alexander Pope’s brilliant tour de force The Rape of the Lock (1712–14), which concerns a society beau’s theft of a lock of hair from a society belle; Pope treated the incident as if it were comparable to events that sparked the Trojan War.  Most mock-epics begin with an invocation to the muse and use the familiar epic devices of set speeches, supernatural interventions, and descents to the underworld, as well as infinitely detailed descriptions of the protagonist’s activities.  Thus, they provide much scope for display of the author’s ingenuity and inventiveness.  An American mock-epic, Joel Barlow’s The Hasty Pudding (written 1793), celebrates in three 400-line cantos his favourite New England dish, cornmeal mush.

http://www.britannica.com/art/mock-epic  An example of a mock-heroic narrative poem is Casey at the Bat.

World’s Top 21 Retirement Destinations Revealed in Annual Index   “For the second year running, Algarve, Portugal, takes top honors, thanks to its low cost of living, low cost of real estate, great weather, established expat community, new retiree residency program, and endless options for how to meaningfully fill your days and evenings.  Rounding out the top five are destinations in Europe and Central America.  Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Developed, luxury-level Pacific Ocean resort town with history and charm  Cayo, Belize – Leave the-world-behind, embrace-the simple-life, off-grid paradise  Languedoc, France – French country living at its best and most affordable  Abruzzo, Italy – Like Tuscany, but at half the cost  Rounding out the 2015 Retire Overseas Index are 16 destinations, grouped by region:  Six in Central America/Caribbean: #10 El Valle, Panama; #12 Granada, Nicaragua; #13 Ambergris Caye, Belize; #14 San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; #15 Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic and #17 City Beaches, Panama  Five in Asia: #7 Hua Hin and #8 Chaing Mai, Thailand; #11 George Town, Malaysia; #20 Cebu, Philippines and #21 Da Nang, Vietnam  Three in South America: #6 Medellin, Colombia; #9 Cuenca, Ecuador and #19 Buenos Aires, Argentina  Two in Europe: #16 Istanbul, Turkey and #18 Barcelona, Spain

http://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/press-release/2015-retire-overseas-index.html

The RedBall Project will appear in 10 different Toledo locations over 10 days, beginning Friday, August 14 at the Glass Pavilion and finishing on the Peristyle Terrace on Sunday, August 23.  The public art project is part of the summer exhibition Play Time.  On Friday, August 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., TV and radio media will be present to cover the RedBall Project and to welcome artist Kurt Perschke.  Performance Locations:

August 14 - Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 15 - Toledo Farmer’s Market | 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
August 16 - Across from Fifth Third Field | 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
August 17 - Toledo Edison Building | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 18 - ProMedica Steam Plant | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 19 - Roulet Jewelers | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 20 - North Erie and Adams Streets | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 21 - Boyd’s Retro Candy Store | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 22 - Side Cut Metropark | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 23 - Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle Terrace | 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

or see http://redballproject.com/cities/toledo/

Ann McGovern, a prolific author for children whose work ranged over women’s history, adaptations of folk tales and her own exploits as a globe-trotting adventurer, died on August 8, 2015 at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.  The author of more than 50 titles that have collectively sold millions of copies, Ms. McGovern was known in particular for “Stone Soup,” her 1986 retelling of the traditional story, with illustrations by Winslow Pinney Pels.  Her books carried artwork by some of the foremost picture-book illustrators of the era, among them “Too Much Noise” (1967), illustrated by Simms Taback; “Zoo, Where Are You?” (1964), illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats; “Nicholas Bentley Stoningpot III” (1982), illustrated by Tomie dePaola; and “Little Wolf” (1965), with pictures by Nola Langner, a friend since grade school who illustrated a half-dozen of Ms. McGovern’s books.  Before turning to writing full time, Ms. McGovern was a children’s book editor in New York.  She also wrote four volumes of poetry for adults.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/books/ann-mcgovern-author-is-dead-at-85-she-made-stone-soup-a-school-staple.html?_r=0

Web traffic to Alphabet.com increased by more than 5000% following Larry Page's announcement that Google would become the largest subsidiary of a new holding company called Alphabet.  The problem is, that domain name is owned by BMW.  A Google search for Alphabet does not bring up that website, which currently has no content besides a landing page, but offers the BMW-owned website as the top result.  Lauren Davidson  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11800672/Alphabet-website-traffic-soars-after-Google-announcement...-but-its-owned-by-BMW.html

Percent vs. per cent   The one-word percent is standard in American English.  Most publications still prefer the two-word per cent.  The older forms per-cent, per cent. (per cent followed by a period), and the original per centum have mostly disappeared from the language (although the latter sometimes appears in legal writing).  There is no difference between percent and per cent. Choosing between them is simply a matter of preference.  http://grammarist.com/spelling/percent-per-cent/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1337  August 13, 2015  On this date in 1820, George Grove, English musicologist and historian, was born.  On this date in 1860, Annie Oakley, American target shooter and performer, was born.