Teff (Eragrostis tef), also known as Williams' lovegrass or annual bunch grass, is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to Ethiopia and Eritrea.  It is raised for its edible seeds, also known as teff.  Teff is adapted to environments ranging from drought stress to waterlogged soil conditions.  Maximum teff production occurs at altitudes of 1,800 to 2,100 m (5,900 to 6,900 ft), growing season rainfall of 450 to 550 mm (18 to 22 in), and a temperature range of 10 to 27 °C (50 to 81 °F).  Teff is daylight-sensitive and flowers best with 12 hours of daylight.  Teff is an important food grain in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it is used to make injera or keyta, and less so in India and Australia.  It is now raised in the US, in Idaho and Nevada.  In addition to people from traditional teff-consuming countries, customers include those on gluten-restricted diets.  Because of its small seeds (less than 1 mm diameter), a handful is enough to sow a large area.  This property makes teff particularly suited to a seminomadic lifestyle.  Ethiopia had a long-standing ban in effect on the export of teff grain or flour from the country prompted by increasing grain prices.  In 2015, that ban was lifted after the introduction of farming techniques which improved yields by 40%.  Teff has been widely cultivated and used in Ethiopia and neighboring countries, accounting for about a quarter of total cereal production in Ethiopia.  Teff is a main ingredient for preparing injera, a sourdough-risen flatbread.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eragrostis_tef  Find teff recipes at https://www.thedailymeal.com/best-recipes/teff

Libby Snow's 17 Second Cookies are baked from scratch, frozen, and then popped in the microwave for 17 seconds.  Two of her tips:  Chill cookie dough 4-10 hours before baking.  Always bake cookies on a cookie sheet lined with a baking mat.  Find three of her recipes on page 19A at  https://issuu.com/sylvaniaadvantage/docs/sylvania_advantage_first_aug_2017  

Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1823–1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, and author known for the lively style of his popular books on the lives of insects.  Fabre was a popular teacher, physicist, chemist and botanist.  However, he is probably best known for his findings in the field of entomology, the study of insects, and is considered by many to be the father of modern entomology.  Much of his enduring popularity is due to his marvelous teaching ability and his manner of writing about the lives of insects in biographical form, which he preferred to a clinically detached, journalistic mode of recording.  Fabre wrote:  Others again have reproached me with my style, which has not the solemnity, nay, better, the dryness of the schools.  They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should not always be the expression of the truth.  Were I to take their word for it, we are profound only on condition of being obscure.  His Souvenirs Entomologiques is a series of texts on insects and arachnids  He influenced the later writings of Charles Darwin, who called Fabre "an inimitable observer".  In one of Fabre's most famous experiments, he arranged Pine Processionary caterpillars to form a continuous loop around the edge of a pot.  As each caterpillar instinctively followed the silken trail of the caterpillars in front of it, the group moved around in a circle for seven days.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Henri_Fabre

Henri Fabre (1882-1984)  On the 28^th of March 1910, Henri Marie Léonce Fabre flew his Hydroavian, the first seaplane, at Étang de Berre, a lagoon about 25 kilometers (15½ miles) west of Marseille, on the Mediterranean coast of France.  The airplane, named Le Canard, flew 457 meters (1,499 feet).  The Hydroavian is 8.45 meters (27 feet, 8.67 inches) long with a wingspan of 14 meters (45 feet, 11.18 inches) and height of 3.70 meters (12 feet, 1.67 inches).  It has an empty weight of 380 kilograms (838 pounds) and the gross weight is 475 kilograms (1,047 pounds).  https://www.aerotime.aero/en/did-you-know/17952-history-hour-henri-fabre-flies-first-seaplane-in-1910

Rillettes (slow-cooked pork spread) are an entertainer's godsend.  They're cheap, they're delicious, and they sound fancy.  Most importantly, they seem like the kind of thing that takes a lot of skill and training to make, and yet nothing could be further from the truth.  It's hard to think of an hors d'oeuvre that's easier to make in bulk.  J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT  Find recipe at http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/04/easy-pork-rillettes-recipe.html

Top ten most dense metals from osmium to silver https://www.seriousrankings.com/top-10-most-dense-metals/

Apothecary Scales and Weight Systems Such As Avoirdupois and Troy   The apothecary system is similar to the Troy system of weight measurement.  The former is commonly used to weigh medicinal drugs, while the Troy weights are used to weigh coins and metals, such as gold and silver  They differ from the avoirdupois which is used for more substantial weights.  The avoirdupois measures have 16 ounces in a pound, the Apothecary and Troy system (named after the French town of Troyes) have 12 ounces in a pound, and use lighter weights, such as scruples and grains.  Read more and see graphics at http://samhs.org.au/Virtual%20Museum/Medicine/Apothecary_scales/Apothecary_scales.html

The Cassini spacecraft that has orbited Saturn for the last 13 years would weigh 4,685 pounds on Earth and, at 22 feet high, is somewhat longer and wider than a small moving van tipped on its rear.  Bristling with cameras, antennas and other sensors, it is one of the most complex and sophisticated spy robots ever set loose in interplanetary space.  On September 15, 2017, the whole world will hear it die.  At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the scientists of the Cassini mission will figuratively ride their creation down into oblivion in the clouds of Saturn.  They will be collecting data on the makeup of the planet’s butterscotch clouds until the last bitter moment, when the spacecraft succumbs to the heat and pressure of atmospheric entry and becomes a meteor.  The Cassini-Huygens mission, as it is officially known, was hatched in the 1980s partly to strengthen ties between NASA and the European Space Agency and partly because, well, where else in the solar system would you want to go?  With mysterious, mesmerizing rings and a panoply of strange moons (62 and counting), Saturn was the last outpost of the known planets before the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.  Giovanni Domenico Cassini was a sharp-eyed 17th century astronomer who first discerned a dark gap in Saturn’s enigmatic rings and then discovered four moons.  Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan and recognized Saturn’s rings for what they are.  The orbiter and lander arrived in July 2004 like wide-eyed tourists at Saturn, the realm of mystery and rings.  Shortly thereafter, in December 2004, Huygens departed the mother ship and made the first landing on an alien moon, touching down in the hydrocarbon slushes of Titan three weeks later.  A list of its greatest hits would include movies of the six-sided storm that hugs the planet’s north pole; detailed views of Saturn’s spidery golden rings, woven into warps, braids and knots by the gravity of tiny moonlets; the discovery of plumes that look like snow-making machines shooting from the surface of the moon Enceladus.  NASA, not shy about sharing its accomplishments, recently released a blizzard of numbers summarizing the mission:  4.9 billion miles traveled, 294 orbits of Saturn completed, 2.5 million commands executed, 635 gigabytes of science data collected, 453,048 images taken, 3,948 science papers published, 27 nations participating and two oceans discovered.  Dennis Overbye  Read more and see wonderful pictures at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/science/cassini-saturn-nasa.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

If you’re searching for a new book to lose yourself in, this year’s Man Booker Prize shortlist is the place to look.  The award’s judging panel narrowed this year’s selection down to just six finalists September 13, 2017, with just four weeks to go until the latest winner is announced.  Lincoln in the Bardo, the first novel from acclaimed US short story writer and journalist George Saunders, is joined by Ali Smith’s Autumn, Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1, Fiona Mozley’s Elmet, Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves, and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.  This is only the fourth year that American authors have been eligible for the prize, after organizers opened it up to authors of any nationality writing in English back in 2014.  Saunders is joined on the shortlist by two fellow Americans, Auster and Fridlund.  The winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be revealed on Tuesday October 17th.  Sam Rigby  Read more at https://qz.com/1076259/man-booker-prize-2017-the-six-must-read-novels-on-this-years-shortlist/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1768  September 13, 2017  On  this date in 1788, the Philadelphia Convention set the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City became  the country's temporary capital.  On this date in 1898, Hannibal Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_13