Writing is talking to someone else on paper. Anybody who can think clearly can write
clearly, about any subject at all. [...]
the essence of writing is rewriting.
Good writers know that very few sentences come out right the first time,
or even the third time or the fifth time.
I often find myself reading with interest about a topic I never thought
would interest me--some scientific quest, perhaps. What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer
for his field. Clutter is the disease of
American writing. We are a society
strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and
meaningless jargon. The secret of good
writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every
long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same
meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the
reader unsure of who is doing what--these are the thousand and one adulterants
that weaken the strength of a sentence.
Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by
William Zinsserithttp://books.danielhofstetter.com/on-writing-well/
Metrication (or metrification) is the process of
introducing the International
System of Units (or
SI), commonly known as the metric system,
to replace the traditional or customary units of measurement of a country or
region. Although all U.S.
customary units have
been redefined in terms of SI units, the United States does not commonly mandate the use of SI. This, according to the CIA Factbook, makes
the US one of only three countries, alongside Myanmar (Burma) and Liberia,
that have not adopted the metric system as their official system of weights and
measures. Although the
Constitution gave the authority to dictate standards of measure to Congress, it was not until 1832 that the
customary system of units was formalized. In
the early 19th century, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (the government's surveying and
map-making agency) used meter and kilogram standards brought from France. In 1866, Congress authorized the use of the
metric system and supplied each
state with a set of standard metric weights and measures. In 1875, the United States solidified its
commitment to the development of the internationally recognized metric system
by becoming one of the original seventeen signatory nations to the Metre
Convention or the Treaty of
the Metre. The signing of this
international agreement concluded five years of meetings in which the metric
system was reformulated, refining the accuracy of its standards. The Metre Convention established the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures (Bureau
international des poids et mesures, BIPM) in Sèvres,
France, to provide standards of measurement for worldwide use. Under the Mendenhall
Order in 1893, metric
standards, developed through international cooperation under the auspices of
BIPM, were adopted as the fundamental standards for length and mass in the
United States. The U.S. customary units such as the foot and pound have been
defined in relation to metric units ever since.
The 1895 Constitution of Utah, in Article X, Section
11, originally mandated that: "The
Metric System shall be taught in the public schools of the State." This section was, however, later repealed. The General Conference on
Weights and Measures is the
governing body for the modern metric system and comprises the signing nations of
the Treaty
of the Metre. The General Conference
on Weights and Measures approved an updated version of the metric system in
1960 named Le Système
international d'unités (International System of Units)
and abbreviated SI. On February 10, 1964, the National Bureau of
Standards (former name of National Institute of
Standards and Technology) issued a statement that it will use the metric
system except where this would have an obvious detrimental effect. In 1968, Congress authorized the U.S. Metric Study,
a three-year study of systems of measurement in the U.S., with emphasis on the
feasibility of metrication. The United States Department of
Commerce conducted the
study. A 45-member advisory panel
consulted and took testimony from hundreds of consumers, business
organizations, labor groups, manufacturers, and state and local officials. The final report of the study concluded that
the U.S. would eventually join the rest of the world in the use of the metric
system of measurement. The study found
that metric units were already implemented in many areas and that its use was
increasing. The majority of study
participants believed that conversion to the metric system was in the best
interests of the U.S., particularly in view of the importance of foreign trade
and the increasing influence of technology in the U.S. On December 31, 2012, a petition was created
on the White House's petitioning system, petitioning
the White House to "Make the Metric system the standard in the United
States, instead of the Imperial system."
On January 10, 2013, this petition garnered over 25,000
signatures--exceeding the threshold needed to require the Obama Administration
to officially respond to the petition. Patrick D. Gallagher, director of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, provided the official response stating that
customary units were defined in the metric system, thus making the nation
"bilingual" in terms of measurement systems. Gallagher also said that using the
metric system was a choice to be made by individuals. Early in 2013 a bill was introduced by state
Representative Karl Rhoads of Hawaii that seeks to make the metric system
mandatory within his state. Called
“Relating to the Metric System,” the bill stipulates that the law would go into
effect on January 1, 2018. As of June
2014, bill HB36 didn't gain enough support and was considered dead. If the bill had become law, Hawaii
would have been the first state to introduce the metric system throughout its
state on a broad scale. In January 2015,
Oregon congressman Brian
Boquist at the request of
David Pearl, proposed Oregon Senate Bill 166, which is similar to Hawaii's
bill. The bill would establish the International System of Units as the official measurement of units
within the state of Oregon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
The life and the intention of Eugene
Atget (1857-1927)
are fundamentally unknown to us. He was
born in Libourne, near Bordeaux, and worked as a sailor during his youth; from
the sea he turned to the stage, with no more than minor success; at forty he
quit acting, and after a tentative experiment with painting Atget became a
photographer, and began his true life's work.
Atget's work is unique on two levels.
He was the maker of a great visual catalogue of the fruits of French
culture, as it survived in and near Paris in the first quarter of this
century. He was in addition a
photographer of such authority and originality that his work remains a bench
mark against which much of the most sophisticated contemporary photography
measures itself. Other photographers had
been concerned with describing specific facts (documentation), or with
exploiting their indivisual sensibilities (self-expression). Atget enconpassed and transcended both
approaches when he set himself the task of understanding and interpreting in
visual terms a complex, ancient, and living tradition. See pictures and link to quotes, videos and
references at http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Eugene-Atget.html Atget
was not particularly well known in his lifetime, but in the 1920s the aging
photographer came to the attention of modern art's avant-garde. Man Ray, an
expatriate American photographer and painter who was associated with the Dada
and surrealist movements, met Atget between 1921 and 1924, in all likelihood
because Man Ray's studio was a few steps down the street from Atget's
apartment. Atget's images, which
simultaneously appear real and dreamlike, appealed to Man Ray's surrealist
sympathies, especially his interest in the outmoded; he bought about 50
photographs and in 1926 had four of them reproduced in a surrealist journal, La Révolution Surréaliste. Man Ray encouraged others from his artistic
circle to visit Atget. Julien Levy, an
American filmmaker, bought as many Atget prints as Atget would permit,
eventually exhibiting them at a gallery he would open in New York. When Atget died, his executor and close
friend, André Calmettes, ensured the photographer's legacy by dividing the
negatives and prints between the French government's Commission des monuments
historiques and Berenice Abbott; as Abbott herself became a towering figure of
20th-century photography, she continued to work throughout her career to
promote Atget, even making prints from his negatives.
Bok Choy: 10 Fun Facts by Chloe Thompson
Rovi Corporation and Michigan State University announced on October 19, 2015 that Rovi has donated a
rare and valuable media collection to MSU. This donation establishes the largest media
collection held by a library in the United States. The new “Rovi Media Collection” is comprised
of close to one million CDs, Blu-Rays, DVDs, and video games, and is now
publicly available through the MSU library and interlibrary loan services. “We are honored to be the proprietors of the
largest media archive in the country, which has quickly become the most
requested material in the Michigan inter-library loan system,” said Clifford H.
Haka, director of libraries, Michigan State University. “The ‘Rovi Media Collection’ dramatically
enhances our teaching curriculum and research within the College of Music,
popular culture and film studies, and an emerging gaming program. Assembling a collection of such cultural and
historic importance and overall magnitude would simply not have been feasible
with our current budget. https://secure.marketwatch.com/story/rovi-and-michigan-state-university-establish-largest-us-library-media-collection-2015-10-19
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1367
October 23, 2015 On this date in
1861, Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all
military-related cases. On this date in
1906, Alberto
Santos-Dumont flew an
airplane in the first heavier-than-air
flight in Europe at
Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
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