Monday, June 6, 2016

Books We Are Thankful For by Lynn Lobash, Manager of Reader Services, New York Public Library  http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/11/03/books-we-are-thankful-for  Thank you, Muse reader!

Global temperature change, 1850-2016   Click on graphic to begin animation at http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2016/spiralling-global-temperatures/#more-4330

By the Numbers:  ALA’s 140th Anniversary by Terra Dankowski  
103:  Number of librarians who attended the “Convention of Librarians” during the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876—what is considered the birth of the American Library Association.  Of these founders, 90 were men and 13 were women.  60,301:  Number of active ALA members, as of March 2016.  Today, women account for about 85% of all librarians in the US.  1905 and 1907:  Years that Booklist and what is today known as American Libraries began publishing, respectively.  119,487:  Number of public, academic, school, special, armed forces, and government libraries located in the US.  1982:  Year that ALA Council endorsed the National Library Symbol.  The image, originally designed by Ralph E. DeVore for use in the Western Maryland Public Libraries, was featured on the cover of AL (Sept. 1982) and adopted three years later by the Federal Highway Administration for inclusion in its manual.  Find a picture of Justin Winsor, ALA's first president, 1876-1885, and a picture of the library symbol at

Aqua vitae  (Latin for "water of life") or aqua vita is an archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol.  The term was in wide use during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, although its origin is likely much earlier.  This Latin term appears in a wide array of dialectical forms throughout all lands and people conquered by ancient Rome.  Generally, the term is a generic name for all types of distillates, and eventually came to refer specifically to distillates of alcoholic beverages (liquors).  Aqua vitae was typically prepared by distilling wine; it was sometimes called "spirits of wine" in English texts, a name for brandy that had been repeatedly distilled.  Aqua vitae was often an etymological source of terms applied to important locally produced distilled spirits.  Examples include whiskey (from the Gaelic uisce beatha), eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia, okowita in Poland, оковита (okovyta) in Ukraine, акавіта (akavita) in Belarus, and яковита (yakovita) in southern Russian dialects.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_vitae

hurricane hole  noun  A port of refuge from powerful Atlantic storms, a safe haven.  Read more, including definitions of other nautical terms at http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nautical-marine-sailing-dictionary/db.cgi?db=db&uid=default&FirstLetter=h&sb=Term&view_records=View&nh=6

Carla Neggers has been spinning stories ever since she climbed a tree with pad and pen at age eleven.  Now she is the New York Times bestselling author of almost 70 novels, with millions of books sold in over 30 countries. Her popular Sharpe & Donovan romantic suspense series featuring FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan launched with Saint’s Gate in 2011.  In 2012, her Swift River Valley series debuted with Secrets of the Lost Summer, which garnered a starred review from Booklist and a Top Pick from RT Book Reviews and shot onto the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.   http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/156523.Carla_Neggers

An antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another.  It comes from the Greek words “anti” for opposite and “onym” for name.  Since language is complex, people may at times, disagree on what words are truly opposite in meaning to other words.  Learn the steps to take when doing antonym research at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-antonyms.html

The word not has no real antonym.  However, you can use so or is.  You can also achieve its opposite by omitting the word not.  

Sholapith or Shola Pith (also referred to as shola and Indian cork) is a dried milky-white spongy plant matter which can be pressed and shaped into delicate and beautiful objects of art.  Shola grows wild in marshy waterlogged areas.  The biological name of shola is Aeschynomene aspera of the bean family.  It is an herbaceous plant, which grows particularly in the marshy areas of Bengal, Assam, Orissa and the Deccan.  The shola (sola)-style pith helmet—also known as the sun helmet, topee, shola topee, salacot or topi, is a lightweight helmet made of shola pith, with a cloth cover and a particular design and thickness designed to shade and insulate the wearer’s head from the sun.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholapith

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. in 1942) died on June 3, 2016.  Ali was known for being an inspiring, controversial and polarizing figure both inside and outside the boxing ring.  He is one of the most recognized sports figures of the past 100 years, crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC.  He also wrote several best-selling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly.  Find more, including his professional boxing record, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
See video and "SI's 100 greatest photos of Ali" at  http://www.si.com/boxing/2016/06/04/muhammad-ali-death-obit

President Obama signed the Agricultural Act of 2014, or the 2014 Farm Bill, which featured Section 7606 allowing for universities and state departments of agriculture to begin cultivating industrial hemp for limited purposes.  Specifically, the law allows universities and state departments of agriculture to grow or cultivate industrial hemp if:  “(1) the industrial hemp is grown or cultivated for purposes of research conducted under an agricultural pilot program or other agricultural or academic research; and  (2) the growing or cultivating of industrial hemp is allowed under the laws of the State in which such institution of higher education or State department of agriculture is located and such research occurs.”  The law also requires that the grow sites be certified by—and registered with—their state.  In 2015, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 which would allow American farmers to produce and cultivate industrial hemp.  The bill would remove hemp from the controlled substances list as long as it contained no more than 0.3 percent THC.  Find map of state laws related to industrial hemp at http://www.ncsl.org/research/agriculture-and-rural-development/state-industrial-hemp-statutes.aspx#map

Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman performed the "Star-Spangled Banner" at Oracle Arena ahead of Game 2 of the NBA finals on June 5, 2016.  Link to the 1:58 performance at
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7393613/carlos-santana-cindy-blackman-nba-national-anthem  The national anthem was played in 4/4 time rather than the usual 3/4 time.  What a surprise.

June 4, 2016  At first glance they appear to be ordinary planks of wood marked with random scratches.  But archeologists say they're some of the oldest handwritten documents ever found in Britain--and they include the first known reference to "London."  More than 400 ancient writing tablets were discovered during the excavation of a London building site, with the findings published by the Museum of London Archeology.  The central London site will soon be home to Bloomberg's new European headquarters, but the construction phase has revealed a treasure trove of Roman relics.  Along with hundreds of writing tablets, archaeologists have also found evidence of more than 50 Roman buildings and 15,000 other artifacts at the site.  Sheena McKenzie  http://kutv.com/news/nation-world/ancient-roman-writing-tablets-discovered-at-london-building-site


http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1480  June 6, 2016  On this date in 1933, the first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.  On this date in 1978, Mariana Popova, Bulgarian singer, was born.

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