Friday, October 14, 2016

Its scientific name is Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Latin:  Haliaeetus or "sea eagle"; leucocephalus or "white head").  Its common name, bald eagle, may be from the old English word balde (white), or may be a derivation of piebald, which describes the eagle's white head and tail feathers and dark body feathers.  Read more and see pictures at http://www.hornbyeagles.com/eaglefaq.htm  See also http://www.joeygreen.com/blog-myfavoritefalsefacts.html

Paraphrases from The Gods of Guilt, fifth novel by Michael Connelly to feature criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer)  The law is like soft lead--it can be bent and molded.  If I'm working for you, don't lie to me--if you lie, I fly.

Mecha Justice:  When Machines Think Like Lawyers by Ken Strutin   The term “Mecha” envisions a futuristic artificial intelligence wrapped in human likeness and seamlessly woven into the activities of society.  It represents a time when the aggrandizement of our species will depend on technology that looks and thinks like us.  Today, the prototype of attorney mechas are emerging from advances in computer reasoning and big data.  In this age of super-surveillance, multimedia communications and limitless accumulation of data, the information science of law necessitates the investment of cognitive computing.  One by one human modes of thinking are being supplemented by artificial intelligences that can search and analyze billions of gigabytes of information.  At the same time, the ongoing computerization of people is reducing their legal problems and disputes into datasets solvable by finely tuned algorithms.  Still, the soul of legal rights resides in human authorship.  This compilation of notable news articles, scientific studies and legal scholarship highlights the progress of rights, responsibilities and roles of legal professionals and thinking machines.  http://www.llrx.com/author/strutin-ken/

The fifty U.S. states have taken their names from a wide variety of languages.  The names of 24 states derive from indigenous languages of the Americas and one from Hawaiian:  eight come from Algonquian languages, seven from Siouan languages (one of those by way of Illinois, an Algonquian language), three from Iroquoian languages, one from a Uto-Aztecan language, and five from other Native American languages.  Twenty-two other state names derive from European languages:  seven come from Latin (mostly from Latinate forms of English personal names, one coming from Welsh), five come from English, five come from Spanish (and one more from an Indigenous language by way of Spanish), and four come from French (one of these by way of English).  The etymologies of six states are disputed or unclear:  Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Oregon, and Rhode Island.  Of the fifty states, eleven are named after an individual person.  Of those eleven, seven are named in honor of European monarchs:  the two Carolinas, the two Virginias, Maryland, Louisiana and Georgia.  Over the years, several attempts have been made to name a state after one of the Founding fathers or other great statesmen of US history:  the State of Franklin, the State of Jefferson (three separate attempts), the State of Lincoln (two separate attempts), and the State of Washington; in the end, only Washington materialized (ironically, Washington Territory was carved out of the Columbia District, and was renamed "Washington" in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, which contains the city of Washington.  Several of the states that derive their names from (corrupted) names used for Native peoples, have retained the plural ending of "s":  Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts and Texas

Absence makes the heart grow fonder; prolonged absence makes the heart grow cold.  Visitors, a novel by Anita Brookner

Anita Brookner, novelist and art historian, born 16 July 1928; died 10 March 2016, observed of Emile Zola, “One marvels at his ability to start another book almost as soon as one was finished.”  Much the same could be said of Brookner herself, since from 1981, when she turned to fiction with A Start in Life, she published at the rate of a novel a year, easing up only at the end of the century.  Her feelings about being so prolific were mixed:  “I don’t like writing fiction much; it’s like being on the end of a bad telephone line--but it’s addictive.”  All the same, and although she wrote much else, it was for her fiction that Brookner was best known.  One of her earliest novels, and still the bestselling one, is Hotel du Lac (1984),which won the Booker prize from under the nose of JG Ballard, whose Empire of the Sun had been tipped as the winner.  A television version came in 1986.  Until the novels started, Brookner had practised purely as an art historian.  She was the first woman to hold the Slade chair of fine art at Cambridge University (1967-68), and was based principally at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.  Michael McNay  Read extensive article at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/15/anita-brookner-obituary

Digitized collection from the Law Library of Congress

The pel in compel, impel, and propel derives from the Latin verb pellere, “to drive,” as in the way one drives sheep, forcing them to go in a certain direction.  compel:  transitive verb.  To urge irresistibly, oblige, force.  impel:  transitive verb.  To drive, force, or constrain a person to some action by acting upon her mind or feelings; to urge on, incite.  In a literal sense, impel means to cause something to move onward.  propel:  transitive verb.  To drive away or out. to drive or push forwards, onwards, or in a specified direction; to cause to move along.  Figuratively, propel means “to encourage or promote an enterprise or activity.”  Three other pellere verbs in English are: dispel:  to drive asunder, scatter; expel:  to drive out; repel:  to push or thrust away  Maeve Maddox  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/compel-impel-and-propel/

What would happen in 2016 if a candidate for President or Vice President were to die or leave the ticket any time between the national party conventions and the November 8 election day?  What would happen if this occurred during presidential transition, either between election day and the December 19, 2016, meeting of the electoral college; or between December 19 and the inauguration of the President and Vice President on January 20, 2017?  Procedures to fill these vacancies differ depending on when they occur.  Find three scenarios discussed:  (1)  During the Election  Campaign—Between the National Party Nominating Conventions and the Election  (2)  Between the Election and the Electoral College Meeting  (3)  Between the Electoral College Meeting and Inauguration  Read Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R44648 paper by Thomas H. Neale at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44648.pdf

5 must-see new features at the renovated Nixon Library by Denisse Salazar 


http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1537  October 14, 2016  On this date in 1656, Massachusetts enacted the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).  They regarded the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.  On this date in 1926, the children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published.  Quote of the Day  To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry. - Vilhelm Ekelund, Swedish poet, aphorist, and essayist (14 Oct 1880-1949)  Find biography at http://www.enotes.com/topics/vilhelm-ekelund

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