I have called Buckeye-express for help because some of you report getting three copies of the same muse. Their first suggestion is to remove people from the list, and then put them back on the list. I have done this with the seven people who reported the problem. If you continue to get extra copies, let me know, and I’ll call Buckeye back.
Google is giving everyone a chance to peek deeper into its database of search requests and discover the things that preoccupy individuals and, in aggregate, entire cities, states or nations, at any one time.
The company is introducing a free service called Insights for Search. The tool is intended for marketers, but it allows anyone to track the popularity of various words and phrases that people type into Google’s search box. The service is an extension of Google Trends, a two-year-old service. The collection of search queries that people type into Google has been called a “database of intentions” since it is a window into what people are interested in and, sometimes, what they are interested in buying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
Commission Orders Comcast to End Discriminatory Network Management Practices (PDF; 137 KB)
Source: Federal Communications Commission
Comcast Corp.’s management of its broadband Internet networks contravenes federal policies that protect the vibrant and open nature of the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission found on August 5.
Ruling on a complaint by Free Press and Public Knowledge as well as a petition for declaratory ruling, the Commission concluded that Comcast has unduly interfered with Internet users’ right to access the lawful Internet content and to use the applications of their choice. Specifically, the Commission found that Comcast had deployed equipment throughout its network to monitor the content of its customers’ Internet connections and selectively block specific types of connections known as peer-to-peer connections.
In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a newspaper deliveryman is alleged to have created thousands of fake New York Times subscribers, recycled the papers, and made about $227,000 on the wily subterfuge. Michael Holtet, a 50 year-old La Crosse man who worked as a local newspaper distributor for the Times in Wisconsin and Minnesota, was arrested in connection with the scheme and presented in Wisconsin federal court. Here’s the criminal complaint, and here’s a press release put out by the SDNY.
WSJ Law Blog August 5, 2008
100 different sites and networks to find bibliophiles
Find networks for book collectors, librarians and online communities of book lovers. Share information, find blogs, learn about authors. Sites for children, teens and adults are included. (Reading does not have to be an individual activity.)
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/100_places_to_connect_with_bibliophiles_online
UK libraries run Book Bag for Life campaign
More than 7,000 plastic carrier bags have been saved from landfill in the last year thanks to Devon Libraries 'Book Bag for Life' campaign. The Library Service is celebrating a successful first anniversary of the jute book bag with sales of 7,224 since August 1, 2007. The jute book bags are available from all Devon libraries. The scheme is supported by the 'Don't let Devon go to waste' partnership which teamed up with library staff in 2007 to find a practical and lasting alternative to plastic bags.
http://www.middevonstar.co.uk/news/devon_news_mix/3257188.Libraries_avoid_bags_more_rubbish/
Right letters, wrong word in newsletter received yesterday
I find it hard to focus, so bare with me.
The Santa Monica Public Library’s new website features the history of the 1935 mural by Stanton Macdonald-Wright, a sliding presentation of its 38 panels depicting 160 historical and mythological figures from primitive man to 1930s Hollywood. Following its conservation in 2005, the mural was re-installed in the new main library, which opened in January 2006. The mural covers nearly 2000 square feet of wall.
Find images, articles and locations of art by Stanton Macdonald-Wright
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/macdonald-wright_stanton.html
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Apollo Group, Inc., owner of the for-profit University of Phoenix, persuaded a judge to throw out a $277 million securities-fraud verdict over the company’s failure to disclose a report criticizing the school’s operations. Here’s the order from U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg in Phoenix. And here’s a Bloomberg report.
Government Fleet Cost to Taxpayers In Excess of 3 Billion for 2007
AP report, July 31, 2008: "While Cabinet and other officials say they need the vehicles to do their jobs, watchdogs say mismanagement of the government fleet is costing millions of dollars a year in wasteful spending."
Federal Fleet Report for Fiscal Year 2007, January 31, 2008 [Word doc.]: "Federal departments, agencies, and their contractors use motor vehicles to perform their missions. These vehicles, totaling more than 642,000 for Fiscal Year 2007, are obtained from three primary sources: agency purchase, lease from the GSA Fleet Program, or commercial lease. This report presents inventory, utilization, costs, and fuel use associated with the Federal motor vehicle fleet." [Note: Congressional vehicle reporting is not included.]
The song of the blue whale, one of the eeriest sounds in the ocean, has mysteriously grown deeper. The calls have been steadily dropping in frequency for seven populations of blue whales around the world over the past 40 years, say researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and WhaleAcoustics, a private research company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29whale.html?ref=science
There isn't one American middle class; there are four. Each is different from the others in its attitudes, outlook and financial circumstance--sometimes in ways that defy traditional stereotypes of the middle class, according to an analysis of a recent national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends Project.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/911/americas-four-middle-classes
Executive Order: Further Amendments to Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities -
"1.1 Goals. The United States intelligence effort shall provide the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council with the necessary information on which to base decisions concerning the development and conduct of foreign, defense, and economic policies, and the protection of United States national interests from foreign security threats. All departments and agencies shall cooperate fully to fulfill this goal.
Background Briefing by Senior Administration Officials on the Revision of Executive Order 12333
"I would say at the outset that this is an exceptionally complex executive order...It's a foundational document for the intelligence community...It has a daily and significant impact on the activities of the intelligence community and the relationships in that important community. At the highest level, of course, the aim here is to create a more effective intelligence community, where these 16 agencies can be better integrated, work more collaboratively with one another, and also share more information freely."
Executive Order 12333: United States Intelligence Activities (as amended)
Statement by the Press Secretary
Fact Sheet: A Lasting Framework for United States Intelligence Activities
Statement by the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Mike McConnell, on Executive Order 12333
Commission Approves Final Consent Order in Matters of The TJX Companies, Inc., Reed Elsevier, Inc. and Seisint, Inc.
Follow up to March 27, 2008 posting, FTC Announces Settlement of Action Against Data Brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint for Failing to Provide Adequate Security for Consumers' Data, this August 1, 2008 FTC news release: "Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved the issuance of a final consent order and authorized the staff to respond to the commenters of record In The Matter of The TJX Companies, Inc...[and] In The Matter of Reed Elsevier Inc. and Seisint, Inc."
Related from EPIC: "The settlements arose from data breaches, which exposed the sensitive personal information of over 500,000 consumers and resulted in millions of dollars in financial fraud. Earlier this year, EPIC filed comments with the FTC urging the Commission to include civil penalties in the settlements. EPIC wrote that civil penalties are necessary to provide incentives for companies to safeguard personal data. EPIC also noted that the FTC imposed $10 million in civil penalties in the Choicepoint case. The final agreements impose security and audit responsibilities, but no financial penalties."
paper tiger (PAY-puhr TY-guhr)
One who is outwardly strong and powerful but is in fact powerless and ineffectual.
A.Word.A.Day
Government Fleet Cost to Taxpayers In Excess of 3 Billion for 2007
AP report, July 31, 2008: "While Cabinet and other officials say they need the vehicles to do their jobs, watchdogs say mismanagement of the government fleet is costing millions of dollars a year in wasteful spending."
Federal Fleet Report for Fiscal Year 2007, January 31, 2008 [Word doc.]: "Federal departments, agencies, and their contractors use motor vehicles to perform their missions. These vehicles, totaling more than 642,000 for Fiscal Year 2007, are obtained from three primary sources: agency purchase, lease from the GSA Fleet Program, or commercial lease. This report presents inventory, utilization, costs, and fuel use associated with the Federal motor vehicle fleet." [Note: Congressional vehicle reporting is not included.]
The song of the blue whale, one of the eeriest sounds in the ocean, has mysteriously grown deeper. The calls have been steadily dropping in frequency for seven populations of blue whales around the world over the past 40 years, say researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and WhaleAcoustics, a private research company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29whale.html?ref=science
There isn't one American middle class; there are four. Each is different from the others in its attitudes, outlook and financial circumstance--sometimes in ways that defy traditional stereotypes of the middle class, according to an analysis of a recent national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends Project.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/911/americas-four-middle-classes
Executive Order: Further Amendments to Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities -
"1.1 Goals. The United States intelligence effort shall provide the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council with the necessary information on which to base decisions concerning the development and conduct of foreign, defense, and economic policies, and the protection of United States national interests from foreign security threats. All departments and agencies shall cooperate fully to fulfill this goal.
Background Briefing by Senior Administration Officials on the Revision of Executive Order 12333
"I would say at the outset that this is an exceptionally complex executive order...It's a foundational document for the intelligence community...It has a daily and significant impact on the activities of the intelligence community and the relationships in that important community. At the highest level, of course, the aim here is to create a more effective intelligence community, where these 16 agencies can be better integrated, work more collaboratively with one another, and also share more information freely."
Executive Order 12333: United States Intelligence Activities (as amended)
Statement by the Press Secretary
Fact Sheet: A Lasting Framework for United States Intelligence Activities
Statement by the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Mike McConnell, on Executive Order 12333
Commission Approves Final Consent Order in Matters of The TJX Companies, Inc., Reed Elsevier, Inc. and Seisint, Inc.
Follow up to March 27, 2008 posting, FTC Announces Settlement of Action Against Data Brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint for Failing to Provide Adequate Security for Consumers' Data, this August 1, 2008 FTC news release: "Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved the issuance of a final consent order and authorized the staff to respond to the commenters of record In The Matter of The TJX Companies, Inc...[and] In The Matter of Reed Elsevier Inc. and Seisint, Inc."
Related from EPIC: "The settlements arose from data breaches, which exposed the sensitive personal information of over 500,000 consumers and resulted in millions of dollars in financial fraud. Earlier this year, EPIC filed comments with the FTC urging the Commission to include civil penalties in the settlements. EPIC wrote that civil penalties are necessary to provide incentives for companies to safeguard personal data. EPIC also noted that the FTC imposed $10 million in civil penalties in the Choicepoint case. The final agreements impose security and audit responsibilities, but no financial penalties."
paper tiger (PAY-puhr TY-guhr)
One who is outwardly strong and powerful but is in fact powerless and ineffectual.
A.Word.A.Day
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Although not recognized as a cause of action in most jurisdictions, "desk rage", abusive or threatening conduct at the workplace—is a growing problem and a growing concern to employers and the lawyers who advise them. At its worst, the occupational violence that can result from stressed and angry employees facing increasing pressures in a difficult economy can be deadly. But even when the problem is relatively minimal, it can result in reduced productivity and increased attrition, according to a New York Law Journal article reprinted by New York Lawyer (registration required).
http://www.abajournal.com/news/beyond_traditional_tort_law_desk_rage_is_now_a_potential_claim/
The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 8-24, 2008
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
“One World, One Dream”: three main themes
http://www.chinaorbit.com/2008-olympics-china.html
The Olympian
Lang Lang, China’s “first for-export pianist,” has so much commercial potential that lawyers are trademarking his name. His signature, which he fashions into the shape of a piano, is protected by Chinese law.
The New Yorker August 4, 2008
Definitions of olympian on the Web
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:olympian&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
boustrophedon
A method of writing in which lines are written alternately in opposite direction. I was first introduced to this word by an exceptionally educated land surveyor, Ted Rollheiser. The USGS Township and Section surveys are numbered boustrophedonically. Within each Township, the first Section is at the northeast, and the last at the southeast, like this:
6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 9 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13
19 20 21 22 23 24
30 29 28 27 26 25
31 32 33 34 35 36
A Township is approximately six miles square, so each Section is approximately one square mile. From Sarah Yardley
You are reading this thanks to the boustrophedonic experience of a 14-year-old boy, Philo T. Farmsworth. While plowing a potato field, he realized that the back-and-forth lines were a good way to make images on a screen, thus inventing television and, from that, the computer monitor. From Mark Chartrand
A.Word.A.Day
Books and other items are flowing out of public libraries in record numbers as the price of gas goes up and the economy sours. Librarians throughout Northeast Ohio report seeing more people coming through their doors and leaving with more books, movies and CDs than ever.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5920609.html
August 5 is the birthday of Wendell Berry, (books by this author) born in Port Royal, Kentucky (1934). He grew up on farmland that had belonged to his family since 1803. As a boy, he was taught by his grandfather how to work a farm with nothing but a plow and a team of mules, no mechanized sprinkler systems or tractors. Berry had an uncle he described as "an inspired tinkerer with broken gadgetry and furniture ... and a teller of wonderful bedtime stories." His uncle kept a ramshackle cabin up in the woods, and Berry often went up there as a kid to get away from everything. It was in that cabin that he first read the work of Henry David Thoreau, and where he first fell in love with poetry.
He lived in California and Italy and New York City. But through all those years, he never stopped thinking about the place where he grew up, and he often went back to his uncle's old cabin. He finally decided to move back to the area permanently. He began farming it the way his grandfather had taught him, without any machines. He grew squash, corn, and tomatoes, and he got a flock of sheep, a milk cow, and some horses. And he wrote about his experiences as a farmer in more than 40 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His collections of poetry include The Farm (1995) and A Timbered Choir (1998). But he's best known for his essays in books such as The Gift of Good Land (1981), What Are People For? (1990), and Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000).
The Writer’s Almanac
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com
http://www.abajournal.com/news/beyond_traditional_tort_law_desk_rage_is_now_a_potential_claim/
The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 8-24, 2008
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
“One World, One Dream”: three main themes
http://www.chinaorbit.com/2008-olympics-china.html
The Olympian
Lang Lang, China’s “first for-export pianist,” has so much commercial potential that lawyers are trademarking his name. His signature, which he fashions into the shape of a piano, is protected by Chinese law.
The New Yorker August 4, 2008
Definitions of olympian on the Web
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:olympian&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
boustrophedon
A method of writing in which lines are written alternately in opposite direction. I was first introduced to this word by an exceptionally educated land surveyor, Ted Rollheiser. The USGS Township and Section surveys are numbered boustrophedonically. Within each Township, the first Section is at the northeast, and the last at the southeast, like this:
6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 9 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13
19 20 21 22 23 24
30 29 28 27 26 25
31 32 33 34 35 36
A Township is approximately six miles square, so each Section is approximately one square mile. From Sarah Yardley
You are reading this thanks to the boustrophedonic experience of a 14-year-old boy, Philo T. Farmsworth. While plowing a potato field, he realized that the back-and-forth lines were a good way to make images on a screen, thus inventing television and, from that, the computer monitor. From Mark Chartrand
A.Word.A.Day
Books and other items are flowing out of public libraries in record numbers as the price of gas goes up and the economy sours. Librarians throughout Northeast Ohio report seeing more people coming through their doors and leaving with more books, movies and CDs than ever.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5920609.html
August 5 is the birthday of Wendell Berry, (books by this author) born in Port Royal, Kentucky (1934). He grew up on farmland that had belonged to his family since 1803. As a boy, he was taught by his grandfather how to work a farm with nothing but a plow and a team of mules, no mechanized sprinkler systems or tractors. Berry had an uncle he described as "an inspired tinkerer with broken gadgetry and furniture ... and a teller of wonderful bedtime stories." His uncle kept a ramshackle cabin up in the woods, and Berry often went up there as a kid to get away from everything. It was in that cabin that he first read the work of Henry David Thoreau, and where he first fell in love with poetry.
He lived in California and Italy and New York City. But through all those years, he never stopped thinking about the place where he grew up, and he often went back to his uncle's old cabin. He finally decided to move back to the area permanently. He began farming it the way his grandfather had taught him, without any machines. He grew squash, corn, and tomatoes, and he got a flock of sheep, a milk cow, and some horses. And he wrote about his experiences as a farmer in more than 40 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His collections of poetry include The Farm (1995) and A Timbered Choir (1998). But he's best known for his essays in books such as The Gift of Good Land (1981), What Are People For? (1990), and Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000).
The Writer’s Almanac
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com
Monday, August 4, 2008
I usually put out the muse on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. If you receive three muses at a time, check the dates. Perhaps you are receiving three different issues rather than three copies of the same issue.
Report: Offshore Aquaculture Would Benefit U.S. Economy
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Aquaculture shows significant economic potential and good prospects for success in the United States, according to a new report commissioned by NOAA. The report by leading fisheries and resource economists and business experts, Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities, examined a range of topics on the industry’s potential and found that a significant domestic offshore aquaculture industry could develop and be successful over the next 20 years with a clear regulatory framework.
A primary barrier to developing an offshore aquaculture industry is the lack of a clear regulatory or permitting process to allow seafood farming in federal waters, three to 200 miles offshore. To address that gap, President George W. Bush proposed legislation to give the Department of Commerce the authority to set regulations for this type of marine aquaculture. The legislation, which is currently pending before Congress, would provide a clear regulatory process for businesses and individuals to develop safe, sustainable aquaculture in U.S. federal waters.
Download in sections (PDFs) or as full report (PDF; 2.7 MB).
Employment Situation Summary: July 2008
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in July (-51,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.
Justice Department officials vetted potential DOJ employees using the awesome power of the Nexis news database. Here's the search string they used:
[first name of a candidate] and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_07/014186.php
Amazon has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks, the British Columbia-based online marketplace that has over 110 million titles for sale through its bookseller network. The purchase, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will strengthen Amazon's already dominate position in the used book field
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6583489.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1192404514
Ten top baby names for 2007 from Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
Square breathing technique from Man Camp by Adrienne Brodeur http://www.gotomancamp.com/
breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four
August 2 is the birthday of the Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, (books by this author) born in Lima, Peru, in 1942. Her father was a diplomat to Peru, and his cousin was Salvador Allende, who later became the first elected socialist president of Chile. During those years of the socialist government, Isabel Allende was a popular TV host. Her two shows weren't directly political, but they were about feminism and about challenging the machismo of Chilean culture.
Then on September 11, 1973, a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte overthrew the government, and Salvador Allende was assassinated. Isabel Allende was put on a wanted list, and she received death threats, so she fled with all her family to Venezuela, where she assumed she could stay for a couple of months and then return. Instead, she remained in exile for 17 years.
While she was in exile in Venezuela, Isabel Allende found out that her beloved grandfather was dying in Chile, and she began to write him a letter. She says that she wrote the letter "to tell him that he could die in peace, because I had all his memories with me and I had not forgotten anything and I began telling him his own anecdotes. And then something happened. I started drifting away from the memory and the past and reality into something that was much richer and fun ... a year later I had a book." And that book was The House of the Spirits (1985). Like all her books, it's rooted in politics and history, but it also uses the techniques of magical realism. She is the author of 17 books.
August 3 is the birthday of the science fiction writer and journalist Clifford Donald Simak, (books by this author) born in 1904 in Millville, Wisconsin. He grew up in rural Wisconsin, and it became the setting for all his science fiction. Simak is called a "pastoral" science fiction writer because instead of alien worlds or epic clashes of technology, he writes about parallel worlds in time and about ordinary farmers and workers living in rural Wisconsin and drinking beer on the porch, who might or might not turn out to be aliens. His most famous work is a collection of short stories called City (1952), in which humans abandon cities for the countryside and eventually abandon Earth, which is left to robots and intelligent dogs.
On August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on his first voyage, the voyage that took him to the Americas. He set off with three ships (Santa María, Pinta, and Niña) and 90 men. In September, the crew restocked in the Canary Islands and on October 12th, they sighted land—an island in the Bahamas
The Writer’s Almanac
Report: Offshore Aquaculture Would Benefit U.S. Economy
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Aquaculture shows significant economic potential and good prospects for success in the United States, according to a new report commissioned by NOAA. The report by leading fisheries and resource economists and business experts, Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities, examined a range of topics on the industry’s potential and found that a significant domestic offshore aquaculture industry could develop and be successful over the next 20 years with a clear regulatory framework.
A primary barrier to developing an offshore aquaculture industry is the lack of a clear regulatory or permitting process to allow seafood farming in federal waters, three to 200 miles offshore. To address that gap, President George W. Bush proposed legislation to give the Department of Commerce the authority to set regulations for this type of marine aquaculture. The legislation, which is currently pending before Congress, would provide a clear regulatory process for businesses and individuals to develop safe, sustainable aquaculture in U.S. federal waters.
Download in sections (PDFs) or as full report (PDF; 2.7 MB).
Employment Situation Summary: July 2008
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in July (-51,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.
Justice Department officials vetted potential DOJ employees using the awesome power of the Nexis news database. Here's the search string they used:
[first name of a candidate] and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_07/014186.php
Amazon has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks, the British Columbia-based online marketplace that has over 110 million titles for sale through its bookseller network. The purchase, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will strengthen Amazon's already dominate position in the used book field
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6583489.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1192404514
Ten top baby names for 2007 from Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
Square breathing technique from Man Camp by Adrienne Brodeur http://www.gotomancamp.com/
breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four
August 2 is the birthday of the Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, (books by this author) born in Lima, Peru, in 1942. Her father was a diplomat to Peru, and his cousin was Salvador Allende, who later became the first elected socialist president of Chile. During those years of the socialist government, Isabel Allende was a popular TV host. Her two shows weren't directly political, but they were about feminism and about challenging the machismo of Chilean culture.
Then on September 11, 1973, a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte overthrew the government, and Salvador Allende was assassinated. Isabel Allende was put on a wanted list, and she received death threats, so she fled with all her family to Venezuela, where she assumed she could stay for a couple of months and then return. Instead, she remained in exile for 17 years.
While she was in exile in Venezuela, Isabel Allende found out that her beloved grandfather was dying in Chile, and she began to write him a letter. She says that she wrote the letter "to tell him that he could die in peace, because I had all his memories with me and I had not forgotten anything and I began telling him his own anecdotes. And then something happened. I started drifting away from the memory and the past and reality into something that was much richer and fun ... a year later I had a book." And that book was The House of the Spirits (1985). Like all her books, it's rooted in politics and history, but it also uses the techniques of magical realism. She is the author of 17 books.
August 3 is the birthday of the science fiction writer and journalist Clifford Donald Simak, (books by this author) born in 1904 in Millville, Wisconsin. He grew up in rural Wisconsin, and it became the setting for all his science fiction. Simak is called a "pastoral" science fiction writer because instead of alien worlds or epic clashes of technology, he writes about parallel worlds in time and about ordinary farmers and workers living in rural Wisconsin and drinking beer on the porch, who might or might not turn out to be aliens. His most famous work is a collection of short stories called City (1952), in which humans abandon cities for the countryside and eventually abandon Earth, which is left to robots and intelligent dogs.
On August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on his first voyage, the voyage that took him to the Americas. He set off with three ships (Santa María, Pinta, and Niña) and 90 men. In September, the crew restocked in the Canary Islands and on October 12th, they sighted land—an island in the Bahamas
The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, August 1, 2008
Coming to Shumaker charity sale in Toledo
The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum ™ hardbound 538 pages
“All footsteps were the same, yet all were different; there were variations in weight and gait, variations in the composition of soles . . . to the trained ear, capable of being distinguished like different voices.”
Robert Ludlum, though deceased, left enough work in progress that his creative legacy continues to build even after his death. This is one of his post-mortem books.
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0312316739.asp
Flesh and Blood by Jonathan Kellerman hardbound 369 pages
Fifteenth novel featuring Alex Delaware, the crime-solving psychologist
http://www.themysteryreader.com/kellerman-flesh.html
The Innocent Man by John Grisham paperbound 377 pages
Bestseller on murder and injustice
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/nonfictionreviews/gr/innocent_man.htm
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel paperbound 368 pages
http://mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/ds_galileodaughter.html
Louis Elzevir , 1540-1617, Dutch printer and bookseller, whose name also appeared as Elsevier or Elzevier
He produced his first book at Leiden in 1583. Under his descendants, the business was continued until 1791. In its best years it was easily the greatest publishing business in the world. The Elzevirs were typically neither printers nor scholars but businessmen. They owned presses and type and employed good editors and printers. Their books were legible and inexpensive. Family owned and operated agencies were established in numerous cities, from Denmark to Italy. The Elzevir types are typically legible and sturdy, rather than elegant, and the books tended to be of small size with narrow margins. Louis's son Bonaventure Elzevir, 1583-1652, and his grandson Abraham Elzevir, 1592-1652, continued and expanded the business. A famous designer of types employed by the Elzevirs was Christopher van Dyck . Roman type such as he designed, known in England and America as "old style" type, is known in Europe as "Elzevir" type.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Elzevir.html
The company’s most dramatic growth at the start of the new millennium was achieved after Harcourt put itself up for sale and most of it was acquired by Reed Elsevier, including an educational publishing group that became a fourth piece in the Reed Elsevier collection (along with Elsevier in science and medicine, LexisNexis in law and Reed Business in trade magazines and exhibitions).
http://www.elsevier.com/framework_aboutus/pdfs/historyofelsevier.pdf
FTC Report Sheds New Light on Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents
News release: The Federal Trade Commission has announced the results of a study on food marketing to children and adolescents. The report, Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation [see also Appendices A-F], finds that 44 major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote their products to children under 12 and adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the United States in 2006. The report finds that the landscape of food advertising to youth is dominated by integrated advertising campaigns that combine traditional media, such as television, with previously unmeasured forms of marketing, such as packaging, in-store advertising, sweepstakes, and Internet. These campaigns often involve cross-promotion with a new movie or popular television program. Analyzing this data, the report calls for all food companies “to adopt and adhere to meaningful, nutrition-based standards for marketing their products to children under 12.”
Whole Foods-Wild Oats Merger
In February, 2007, Whole Foods announced its plan to buy smaller rival, Wild Oats, for $565 million. Five months later, the FTC sued to block the deal, saying it would stifle competition in the market for natural and organic groceries. In August, District Judge Paul Friedman denied the FTC’s request to block the deal, concluding that that it had failed to prove that the merger would hurt competition. On July 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed Friedman, ruling that Judge Friedman “underestimated the FTC’s likelihood of success on the merits” when he denied the agency’s request. Here’s the opinion. Here’s a Reuters report.
WSJ Law Blog July 29, 2008
Testing the Waters 2008: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): "NRDC's annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that pollution caused the number of beach closings and advisories to hit their second-highest level in the 18-year history of the report. The number of 2007 closing and advisory days at ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 for the third consecutive year, confirming that our nation's beaches continue to suffer from serious water pollution that puts swimmers at risk.
Aging and poorly designed sewage and stormwater systems hold much of the blame for beachwater pollution. The number of closing and advisory days due to sewage spills and overflows more than tripled to 4,097 from 2006 to 2007, but the largest known source of pollution continues to be contamination from stormwater, which caused more than 10,000 closing and advisory days in 2007. Unknown sources of pollution caused more than 8,000 closing and advisory days."
Summary of findings
Beach Pollution FAQ
Guide to Finding a Clean Beach
Full Report: Testing the Waters - A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches - Eighteenth Edition, August 2008
Q. What is a Pyrrhic victory?
A. A victory gained at too great a cost--King Pyrrhus of Epirus gained such a victory over the Romans.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297150.html
August 1 is the birthday of the man who wrote "Call me Ishmael," one of the most famous first lines in literature: Herman Melville, (books by this author) born in New York City, in 1819. When he was 20, he worked as a cabin boy on a ship that went to Liverpool and back, the first of his many voyages. In 1841, he joined the crew of the whaler Acushnet, which sailed around Cape Horn and through the South Pacific. After his travels, he wrote the novel Typee (1946). It was rejected by a Boston publisher, so Melville published it in London, where it became an immediate best seller. He wrote a sequel called Omoo (1847), which was also a big success. He continued to write and publish, but he was never as popular again.
Melville got married and had four children, and the family bought a farm in Massachusetts, where Melville became friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville was working on Moby-Dick, his story of Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the great white whale, and Hawthorne encouraged him to make the novel an allegory, not just an account of whaling.
He was elated when he finished his novel (published in 1851) and considered it his greatest work yet. He wrote to Hawthorne, "I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb." Readers didn't like it. His American publisher only printed 3,000 copies, and most of those never even sold; in 1853, a warehouse fire destroyed the plates and the unsold books, and the publisher refused to reset the book or compensate Melville.
He wrote poetry but couldn't find a publisher, so he had to publish it himself. He moved to New York and got a job as a customs inspector on the New York docks. The manuscript of his final work, Billy Budd, was found in his desk after he died. At the time of his death, Melville had been almost completely forgotten, and The New York Times called him "Henry Melville" in his obituary. Moby-Dick is now considered one of the great American novels. He said, "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
The Writer’s Almanac
The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum ™ hardbound 538 pages
“All footsteps were the same, yet all were different; there were variations in weight and gait, variations in the composition of soles . . . to the trained ear, capable of being distinguished like different voices.”
Robert Ludlum, though deceased, left enough work in progress that his creative legacy continues to build even after his death. This is one of his post-mortem books.
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0312316739.asp
Flesh and Blood by Jonathan Kellerman hardbound 369 pages
Fifteenth novel featuring Alex Delaware, the crime-solving psychologist
http://www.themysteryreader.com/kellerman-flesh.html
The Innocent Man by John Grisham paperbound 377 pages
Bestseller on murder and injustice
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/nonfictionreviews/gr/innocent_man.htm
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel paperbound 368 pages
http://mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/ds_galileodaughter.html
Louis Elzevir , 1540-1617, Dutch printer and bookseller, whose name also appeared as Elsevier or Elzevier
He produced his first book at Leiden in 1583. Under his descendants, the business was continued until 1791. In its best years it was easily the greatest publishing business in the world. The Elzevirs were typically neither printers nor scholars but businessmen. They owned presses and type and employed good editors and printers. Their books were legible and inexpensive. Family owned and operated agencies were established in numerous cities, from Denmark to Italy. The Elzevir types are typically legible and sturdy, rather than elegant, and the books tended to be of small size with narrow margins. Louis's son Bonaventure Elzevir, 1583-1652, and his grandson Abraham Elzevir, 1592-1652, continued and expanded the business. A famous designer of types employed by the Elzevirs was Christopher van Dyck . Roman type such as he designed, known in England and America as "old style" type, is known in Europe as "Elzevir" type.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Elzevir.html
The company’s most dramatic growth at the start of the new millennium was achieved after Harcourt put itself up for sale and most of it was acquired by Reed Elsevier, including an educational publishing group that became a fourth piece in the Reed Elsevier collection (along with Elsevier in science and medicine, LexisNexis in law and Reed Business in trade magazines and exhibitions).
http://www.elsevier.com/framework_aboutus/pdfs/historyofelsevier.pdf
FTC Report Sheds New Light on Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents
News release: The Federal Trade Commission has announced the results of a study on food marketing to children and adolescents. The report, Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation [see also Appendices A-F], finds that 44 major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote their products to children under 12 and adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the United States in 2006. The report finds that the landscape of food advertising to youth is dominated by integrated advertising campaigns that combine traditional media, such as television, with previously unmeasured forms of marketing, such as packaging, in-store advertising, sweepstakes, and Internet. These campaigns often involve cross-promotion with a new movie or popular television program. Analyzing this data, the report calls for all food companies “to adopt and adhere to meaningful, nutrition-based standards for marketing their products to children under 12.”
Whole Foods-Wild Oats Merger
In February, 2007, Whole Foods announced its plan to buy smaller rival, Wild Oats, for $565 million. Five months later, the FTC sued to block the deal, saying it would stifle competition in the market for natural and organic groceries. In August, District Judge Paul Friedman denied the FTC’s request to block the deal, concluding that that it had failed to prove that the merger would hurt competition. On July 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed Friedman, ruling that Judge Friedman “underestimated the FTC’s likelihood of success on the merits” when he denied the agency’s request. Here’s the opinion. Here’s a Reuters report.
WSJ Law Blog July 29, 2008
Testing the Waters 2008: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): "NRDC's annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that pollution caused the number of beach closings and advisories to hit their second-highest level in the 18-year history of the report. The number of 2007 closing and advisory days at ocean, bay, and Great Lakes beaches topped 20,000 for the third consecutive year, confirming that our nation's beaches continue to suffer from serious water pollution that puts swimmers at risk.
Aging and poorly designed sewage and stormwater systems hold much of the blame for beachwater pollution. The number of closing and advisory days due to sewage spills and overflows more than tripled to 4,097 from 2006 to 2007, but the largest known source of pollution continues to be contamination from stormwater, which caused more than 10,000 closing and advisory days in 2007. Unknown sources of pollution caused more than 8,000 closing and advisory days."
Summary of findings
Beach Pollution FAQ
Guide to Finding a Clean Beach
Full Report: Testing the Waters - A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches - Eighteenth Edition, August 2008
Q. What is a Pyrrhic victory?
A. A victory gained at too great a cost--King Pyrrhus of Epirus gained such a victory over the Romans.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297150.html
August 1 is the birthday of the man who wrote "Call me Ishmael," one of the most famous first lines in literature: Herman Melville, (books by this author) born in New York City, in 1819. When he was 20, he worked as a cabin boy on a ship that went to Liverpool and back, the first of his many voyages. In 1841, he joined the crew of the whaler Acushnet, which sailed around Cape Horn and through the South Pacific. After his travels, he wrote the novel Typee (1946). It was rejected by a Boston publisher, so Melville published it in London, where it became an immediate best seller. He wrote a sequel called Omoo (1847), which was also a big success. He continued to write and publish, but he was never as popular again.
Melville got married and had four children, and the family bought a farm in Massachusetts, where Melville became friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville was working on Moby-Dick, his story of Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the great white whale, and Hawthorne encouraged him to make the novel an allegory, not just an account of whaling.
He was elated when he finished his novel (published in 1851) and considered it his greatest work yet. He wrote to Hawthorne, "I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb." Readers didn't like it. His American publisher only printed 3,000 copies, and most of those never even sold; in 1853, a warehouse fire destroyed the plates and the unsold books, and the publisher refused to reset the book or compensate Melville.
He wrote poetry but couldn't find a publisher, so he had to publish it himself. He moved to New York and got a job as a customs inspector on the New York docks. The manuscript of his final work, Billy Budd, was found in his desk after he died. At the time of his death, Melville had been almost completely forgotten, and The New York Times called him "Henry Melville" in his obituary. Moby-Dick is now considered one of the great American novels. He said, "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
The Writer’s Almanac
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Business history: Ball Corporation
In 1880 Frank and Edmund Ball established the Wooden Jacket Can Company in Buffalo, New York. The Balls soon developed a better and cheaper method of applying the wooden jackets to the tin cans, and Frank obtained orders from throughout the Midwest. In 1883 Frank and Edmund’s three brothers—George, William, and Lucius—joined the business. As the popularity of tin oilcans declined, the brothers began to manufacture glass oil containers. By 1885 they were producing their own glass, and in February 1886 they incorporated as the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, with Frank as president. In 1884 or 1885 Ball Brothers began manufacturing the threaded-top glass jars for home canning first designed by John Mason.
The Muncie, Indiana natural gas boom began in 1886, and its business leaders, led by James Boyce, raised $120,000 to attract factories to the city. In the summer of 1887 they offered the Ball Brothers company $5,000, free land, free gas, and a private rail link connecting the factory to Muncie’s main rail line. The brothers accepted the offer and opened their plant on Meridian Street in March 1888.
http://www.indianahistory.org/hbr/business_pdf/ball_corp.pdf
Ball Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers of rigid metal and plastic packaging products and services.
http://www.ball.com/page.jsp?page=1
http://www.ballcorporate.com/page.jsp?page=1
Ball State University history
In the late 19th century, Muncie business leaders envisioned a local college to help boost the city’s development. Among the visionaries were Frank C. Ball and his brothers, young New York industrialists who moved to Muncie looking to expand their glass container business. After the community’s efforts to sustain a small teacher-training school failed, the Ball brothers purchased the land and buildings of the defunct institution and donated them to the State of Indiana. This gift became the Indiana State Normal School Eastern Division, which opened in 1918 to meet Indiana’s need for more and better teachers.
In recognition of the Ball family’s generosity, the school was renamed Ball Teachers College in 1922 and then Ball State Teachers College in 1929. The winged statue Beneficence, last commissioned work of Daniel Chester French, stands on the campus as a tribute to the family.
http://cms.bsu.edu/About/HistoryAndMission.aspx
Treasury Releases Best Practices to Encourage Additional Form of Mortgage Finance
News release: The U.S. Treasury Department took steps to encourage additional sources of mortgage finance and strengthen financial institutions by issuing Best Practices for Residential Covered Bonds...A covered bond is secured debt instrument that provides funding to a depository institution, collateralized by high-quality mortgage loans that remain on the issuer's balance sheet. Covered bonds have the potential to increase funding for mortgages and to strengthen our financial institutions by offering them a new funding source that will diversify their overall funding portfolio...Treasury worked with the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Securities and Exchange Commission when developing the guide. The Department also consulted with market participants, including potential issuers, investors, underwriters, ratings agencies as well as international regulators.
Fact Sheet
US Covered Bond Best Practices
Related postings on the mortgage market and foreclosures
New GAO Reports: Tax Expenditures, Electronic Health Records, Bankruptcy Reform, Prescription Drug Oversight, Financial Audit Manual
Telecommunications: Agencies Are Generally Following Sound Transition Planning Practices, and GSA Is Taking Action to Resolve Challenges, GAO-08-759, June 27, 2008
Tax Expenditures: Available Data Are Insufficient to Determine the Use and Impact of Indian Reservation Depreciation, GAO-08-731, June 26, 2008
Electronic Health Records: DOD and VA Have Increased Their Sharing of Health Information, but More Work Remains, GAO-08-954, July 28, 2008
Bankruptcy Reform: Dollar Costs Associated with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, GAO-08-697, June 27, 2008
Prescription Drugs: FDA's Oversight of the Promotion of Drugs for Off-Label Uses, GAO-08-835, July 28, 2008
DOD Business Systems Modernization: Key Marine Corps System Acquisition Needs to Be Better Justified, Defined, and Managed, GAO-08-822, July 28, 2008
Financial Audit Manual: Volume 1, July 2008, GAO-08-585G, July 25, 2008
Financial Audit Manual: Volume 2, July 2008, GAO-08-586G, July 25, 2008
Nearly 10 Billion Fewer Miles Driven in May 2008 than May 2007: Seven-Month Decline in Travel Reflected in Highway Trust Fund
News release: New Federal data showing further steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving is additional proof that the country needs new means - other than the gas tax - to finance the nation's transportation infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said ...Secretary Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. This is the largest drop in VMT for any May, which typically reflects increased traffic due to Memorial Day vacations and the beginning of summer, and is the third-largest monthly drop in the 66 years such data have been recorded. Three of the largest single-month declines - each topping 9 billion miles - have occurred since December."
FHWA's Traffic Volume Trends reports for May 2008 (see also PDF and Excel reports)
A 2,100-year-old bronze and iron computer that predicted eclipses and other astronomical events also showed the cycle of the Greek Olympics and the related games that led up to it, researchers reported on July 31. The Antikythera mechanism, so named because it was found in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, is thought to have been made about 100 BC. Its purpose was a mystery for more than 100 years, but in 2006, researchers used a massive X-ray tomography machine, similar to that used to perform CT scans on humans, to examine the heavily encrusted fragments. They concluded that the device originally contained 37 gears that formed an astronomical computer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-sci-antikythera31-2008jul31,0,7670144.story
July 31 is the birthday of children's fantasy writer J.K. Rowling, (books by this author) born Joanne Rowling in Yate, England, in 1965. She has written seven novels in the Harry Potter series, a series that has sold nearly 400 million copies. Rowling grew up in rural England. She says that the character of Hermione in her series is "a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." One day on a cross-country train trip, the idea of Harry Potter "came fully formed" into her mind. It took J.K. Rowling a while to find a publisher for her novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).
In 1997, Bloomsbury published the first Harry Potter book with a print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which went to libraries. It has now sold about 120 million copies. Her publisher thought young boys were her target audience and was worried that they wouldn't buy a novel by a woman, so they encouraged her to use initials instead. Joanne didn't have a middle name, so she took her grandmother's name, Kathleen, and made herself J.K. Rowling. She is now the highest-earning novelist in history.
The Writer’s Almanac
In 1880 Frank and Edmund Ball established the Wooden Jacket Can Company in Buffalo, New York. The Balls soon developed a better and cheaper method of applying the wooden jackets to the tin cans, and Frank obtained orders from throughout the Midwest. In 1883 Frank and Edmund’s three brothers—George, William, and Lucius—joined the business. As the popularity of tin oilcans declined, the brothers began to manufacture glass oil containers. By 1885 they were producing their own glass, and in February 1886 they incorporated as the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, with Frank as president. In 1884 or 1885 Ball Brothers began manufacturing the threaded-top glass jars for home canning first designed by John Mason.
The Muncie, Indiana natural gas boom began in 1886, and its business leaders, led by James Boyce, raised $120,000 to attract factories to the city. In the summer of 1887 they offered the Ball Brothers company $5,000, free land, free gas, and a private rail link connecting the factory to Muncie’s main rail line. The brothers accepted the offer and opened their plant on Meridian Street in March 1888.
http://www.indianahistory.org/hbr/business_pdf/ball_corp.pdf
Ball Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers of rigid metal and plastic packaging products and services.
http://www.ball.com/page.jsp?page=1
http://www.ballcorporate.com/page.jsp?page=1
Ball State University history
In the late 19th century, Muncie business leaders envisioned a local college to help boost the city’s development. Among the visionaries were Frank C. Ball and his brothers, young New York industrialists who moved to Muncie looking to expand their glass container business. After the community’s efforts to sustain a small teacher-training school failed, the Ball brothers purchased the land and buildings of the defunct institution and donated them to the State of Indiana. This gift became the Indiana State Normal School Eastern Division, which opened in 1918 to meet Indiana’s need for more and better teachers.
In recognition of the Ball family’s generosity, the school was renamed Ball Teachers College in 1922 and then Ball State Teachers College in 1929. The winged statue Beneficence, last commissioned work of Daniel Chester French, stands on the campus as a tribute to the family.
http://cms.bsu.edu/About/HistoryAndMission.aspx
Treasury Releases Best Practices to Encourage Additional Form of Mortgage Finance
News release: The U.S. Treasury Department took steps to encourage additional sources of mortgage finance and strengthen financial institutions by issuing Best Practices for Residential Covered Bonds...A covered bond is secured debt instrument that provides funding to a depository institution, collateralized by high-quality mortgage loans that remain on the issuer's balance sheet. Covered bonds have the potential to increase funding for mortgages and to strengthen our financial institutions by offering them a new funding source that will diversify their overall funding portfolio...Treasury worked with the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Securities and Exchange Commission when developing the guide. The Department also consulted with market participants, including potential issuers, investors, underwriters, ratings agencies as well as international regulators.
Fact Sheet
US Covered Bond Best Practices
Related postings on the mortgage market and foreclosures
New GAO Reports: Tax Expenditures, Electronic Health Records, Bankruptcy Reform, Prescription Drug Oversight, Financial Audit Manual
Telecommunications: Agencies Are Generally Following Sound Transition Planning Practices, and GSA Is Taking Action to Resolve Challenges, GAO-08-759, June 27, 2008
Tax Expenditures: Available Data Are Insufficient to Determine the Use and Impact of Indian Reservation Depreciation, GAO-08-731, June 26, 2008
Electronic Health Records: DOD and VA Have Increased Their Sharing of Health Information, but More Work Remains, GAO-08-954, July 28, 2008
Bankruptcy Reform: Dollar Costs Associated with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, GAO-08-697, June 27, 2008
Prescription Drugs: FDA's Oversight of the Promotion of Drugs for Off-Label Uses, GAO-08-835, July 28, 2008
DOD Business Systems Modernization: Key Marine Corps System Acquisition Needs to Be Better Justified, Defined, and Managed, GAO-08-822, July 28, 2008
Financial Audit Manual: Volume 1, July 2008, GAO-08-585G, July 25, 2008
Financial Audit Manual: Volume 2, July 2008, GAO-08-586G, July 25, 2008
Nearly 10 Billion Fewer Miles Driven in May 2008 than May 2007: Seven-Month Decline in Travel Reflected in Highway Trust Fund
News release: New Federal data showing further steep declines in the number of miles Americans are driving is additional proof that the country needs new means - other than the gas tax - to finance the nation's transportation infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said ...Secretary Peters said that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in May 2008 than in May 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration data. This is the largest drop in VMT for any May, which typically reflects increased traffic due to Memorial Day vacations and the beginning of summer, and is the third-largest monthly drop in the 66 years such data have been recorded. Three of the largest single-month declines - each topping 9 billion miles - have occurred since December."
FHWA's Traffic Volume Trends reports for May 2008 (see also PDF and Excel reports)
A 2,100-year-old bronze and iron computer that predicted eclipses and other astronomical events also showed the cycle of the Greek Olympics and the related games that led up to it, researchers reported on July 31. The Antikythera mechanism, so named because it was found in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, is thought to have been made about 100 BC. Its purpose was a mystery for more than 100 years, but in 2006, researchers used a massive X-ray tomography machine, similar to that used to perform CT scans on humans, to examine the heavily encrusted fragments. They concluded that the device originally contained 37 gears that formed an astronomical computer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-sci-antikythera31-2008jul31,0,7670144.story
July 31 is the birthday of children's fantasy writer J.K. Rowling, (books by this author) born Joanne Rowling in Yate, England, in 1965. She has written seven novels in the Harry Potter series, a series that has sold nearly 400 million copies. Rowling grew up in rural England. She says that the character of Hermione in her series is "a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." One day on a cross-country train trip, the idea of Harry Potter "came fully formed" into her mind. It took J.K. Rowling a while to find a publisher for her novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).
In 1997, Bloomsbury published the first Harry Potter book with a print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which went to libraries. It has now sold about 120 million copies. Her publisher thought young boys were her target audience and was worried that they wouldn't buy a novel by a woman, so they encouraged her to use initials instead. Joanne didn't have a middle name, so she took her grandmother's name, Kathleen, and made herself J.K. Rowling. She is now the highest-earning novelist in history.
The Writer’s Almanac
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Senate Passes American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008
Follow up to July 23, 2008 posting on the House passage of H.R. 3221, on July 26 the Senate passed the bill, which now goes to the President for signature.
CBS/AP: "Congress approved mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners Saturday as part of an election-year housing plan that also aims to calm jittery financial markets and bolster the sagging economy. President Bush said he would sign it promptly, despite reservations."
The bill "establishes the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), an independent agency, to oversee Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Empowers FHFA with broad supervisory and regulatory powers over the operations, activities, corporate governance, safety and soundness, and mission of the GSEs [government-sponsored enterprises]. Provides new and more flexible authority to establish minimum and risk-based capital requirements."
Banks Curtailing Business Loans in Response to Economic Forces
New York Times, July 28, 2008 Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans
Federal Reserve Board Current Survey: "The April 2008 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. Special questions in the survey queried banks about changes in terms on home equity lines of credit and about their student loan programs. This article is based on responses from 56 domestic banks and 21 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.
In the April survey, domestic and foreign institutions reported having further tightened their lending standards and terms on a broad range of loan categories over the previous three months. The net fractions of domestic banks reporting tighter lending standards were close to, or above, historical highs for nearly all loan categories in the survey. Compared with the January survey, the net fractions of banks that tightened lending standards increased significantly for consumer and commercial and industrial (C&I) loans. Demand for bank loans from both businesses and households reportedly weakened further, on net, over the past three months, although by less than had been the case over the previous survey period." Full report | Table 1 | Table 2 | Chart data |
Reading: Online vs Print Debate Reasonates With Educators, Librarians, Employers
New York Times, July 27, 2008: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?: "Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books. But they argue that it is unrealistic to expect all children to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Pride and Prejudice” for fun. And those who prefer staring at a television or mashing buttons on a game console, they say, can still benefit from reading on the Internet. In fact, some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs...Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends." See also this accompanying graphic illustrating online vs. print reading skills
The Changing Nature of the U.S. Balance of Payments
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on July 27 released The Changing Nature of the U.S. Balance of Payments, the latest article in its series Current Issues in Economics and Finance.
Authors Rebecca Hellerstein and Cédric Tille show that earnings on cross-border investments represent an increasingly large share of the gross flows between the United States and other nations. As the authors explain, the value of cross-border financial holdings has soared with the increased integration of world financial markets. Between 1982 and 2006, the value of foreign assets held by U.S. investors tripled from 32 percent of GDP to 106 percent. Similarly, the value of assets held by foreign investors in the United States increased sixfold from 22 percent of GDP to 123 percent.
This rise in cross-border financial holdings has entailed significant increases in dividend and interest earnings. As a share of gross income from the rest of the world, U.S. earnings on foreign assets virtually doubled between 1970 and 2007, rising from 17 percent to 32 percent. Over the same period, earnings by foreign investors in the United States claimed an increasing share of U.S. gross payments to other nations, advancing from 9 percent to 23 percent. Full Report (PDF; 324 KB)
According to the Food and Drug Administration, butter and milk have zero grams of trans fat per serving. Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats. See table of foods: http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2003/503_fats.html
The University of Kentucky paid $1.2 million on July 25 to buy Lexington's Northside public library branch building at auction. The old branch will remain open as a library until about two weeks before the grand opening of the new branch at 11 a.m. on September 12.
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/471170.html
Future of For-Profit Kentucky Law School Hangs on Library Plans
Back in February we covered the improbable tale of the improbably-named American Justice School of Law — a non-ABA-accredited, for-profit law school in Paducah, Kentucky. American Justice had been sued by it students for fraud, resulting in a settlement whereby the owners of the for-profit school transferred ownership to an investor group headed by a physician named Laxmaiah Manchikanti.
At the time, Dr. Manchikanti told the Law Blog that the purchase would prove prescient if he could win the school ABA accreditation. (The main reason behind the students’ lawsuit was the school’s failure to win accreditation. In Kentucky, graduates of non-accredited schools can’t take the bar.) His plan? Professors and books. “There were some deficiencies with the staff, and the law library was inadequate,” said the doctor. “It didn’t have enough books. . .we’re going to invest heavy amounts in the library.”
In the interim, the school has gained a new name, Barkley School of Law, and a new dean, Larry Putt, but not a new library, at least yet, according to the ABA Journal. School spokesman Ray Lane told the Paducah Sun that classes will be canceled if the new $5 million library and the renovation of a classroom building are not completed in the next two months. Classes will resume next year, however, after completion of the construction projects that are planned with the goal of winning ABA accreditation, Lane said.
WSJ Law Blog July 28, 2008
July 29 is the birthday of the poet Stanley Kunitz, (books by this author) born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905. He attended Harvard University, where he wanted to teach in the English department, but he was told that Anglo-Saxon students wouldn't want to be taught by a Jew. He said, "That almost broke my heart. And I think in the end it probably did me a great favor because it prevented me from becoming a completely preoccupied scholar." He went on to work as a farmer, and he served in WWII when his conscientious objector status was denied.
Stanley Kunitz published his first book of poetry when he was 25, called Intellectual Things (1930), and he continued to write and publish for 75 years. In 2000, he published The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz, and that same year he was named poet laureate of the United States, when he was 95 years old. He died at age 100.
Stanley Kunitz said, "Poetry is inseparable from my life force, and that began very early. It was a great gift, and it has sustained me through the years, and the losses that have attended those years." He said, "The poem comes in the form of a blessing, like the rapture breaking through on the mind."
The Writer’s Almanac
Follow up to July 23, 2008 posting on the House passage of H.R. 3221, on July 26 the Senate passed the bill, which now goes to the President for signature.
CBS/AP: "Congress approved mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners Saturday as part of an election-year housing plan that also aims to calm jittery financial markets and bolster the sagging economy. President Bush said he would sign it promptly, despite reservations."
The bill "establishes the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), an independent agency, to oversee Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Empowers FHFA with broad supervisory and regulatory powers over the operations, activities, corporate governance, safety and soundness, and mission of the GSEs [government-sponsored enterprises]. Provides new and more flexible authority to establish minimum and risk-based capital requirements."
Banks Curtailing Business Loans in Response to Economic Forces
New York Times, July 28, 2008 Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans
Federal Reserve Board Current Survey: "The April 2008 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. Special questions in the survey queried banks about changes in terms on home equity lines of credit and about their student loan programs. This article is based on responses from 56 domestic banks and 21 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.
In the April survey, domestic and foreign institutions reported having further tightened their lending standards and terms on a broad range of loan categories over the previous three months. The net fractions of domestic banks reporting tighter lending standards were close to, or above, historical highs for nearly all loan categories in the survey. Compared with the January survey, the net fractions of banks that tightened lending standards increased significantly for consumer and commercial and industrial (C&I) loans. Demand for bank loans from both businesses and households reportedly weakened further, on net, over the past three months, although by less than had been the case over the previous survey period." Full report | Table 1 | Table 2 | Chart data |
Reading: Online vs Print Debate Reasonates With Educators, Librarians, Employers
New York Times, July 27, 2008: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?: "Few who believe in the potential of the Web deny the value of books. But they argue that it is unrealistic to expect all children to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Pride and Prejudice” for fun. And those who prefer staring at a television or mashing buttons on a game console, they say, can still benefit from reading on the Internet. In fact, some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs...Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends." See also this accompanying graphic illustrating online vs. print reading skills
The Changing Nature of the U.S. Balance of Payments
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on July 27 released The Changing Nature of the U.S. Balance of Payments, the latest article in its series Current Issues in Economics and Finance.
Authors Rebecca Hellerstein and Cédric Tille show that earnings on cross-border investments represent an increasingly large share of the gross flows between the United States and other nations. As the authors explain, the value of cross-border financial holdings has soared with the increased integration of world financial markets. Between 1982 and 2006, the value of foreign assets held by U.S. investors tripled from 32 percent of GDP to 106 percent. Similarly, the value of assets held by foreign investors in the United States increased sixfold from 22 percent of GDP to 123 percent.
This rise in cross-border financial holdings has entailed significant increases in dividend and interest earnings. As a share of gross income from the rest of the world, U.S. earnings on foreign assets virtually doubled between 1970 and 2007, rising from 17 percent to 32 percent. Over the same period, earnings by foreign investors in the United States claimed an increasing share of U.S. gross payments to other nations, advancing from 9 percent to 23 percent. Full Report (PDF; 324 KB)
According to the Food and Drug Administration, butter and milk have zero grams of trans fat per serving. Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats. See table of foods: http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2003/503_fats.html
The University of Kentucky paid $1.2 million on July 25 to buy Lexington's Northside public library branch building at auction. The old branch will remain open as a library until about two weeks before the grand opening of the new branch at 11 a.m. on September 12.
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/471170.html
Future of For-Profit Kentucky Law School Hangs on Library Plans
Back in February we covered the improbable tale of the improbably-named American Justice School of Law — a non-ABA-accredited, for-profit law school in Paducah, Kentucky. American Justice had been sued by it students for fraud, resulting in a settlement whereby the owners of the for-profit school transferred ownership to an investor group headed by a physician named Laxmaiah Manchikanti.
At the time, Dr. Manchikanti told the Law Blog that the purchase would prove prescient if he could win the school ABA accreditation. (The main reason behind the students’ lawsuit was the school’s failure to win accreditation. In Kentucky, graduates of non-accredited schools can’t take the bar.) His plan? Professors and books. “There were some deficiencies with the staff, and the law library was inadequate,” said the doctor. “It didn’t have enough books. . .we’re going to invest heavy amounts in the library.”
In the interim, the school has gained a new name, Barkley School of Law, and a new dean, Larry Putt, but not a new library, at least yet, according to the ABA Journal. School spokesman Ray Lane told the Paducah Sun that classes will be canceled if the new $5 million library and the renovation of a classroom building are not completed in the next two months. Classes will resume next year, however, after completion of the construction projects that are planned with the goal of winning ABA accreditation, Lane said.
WSJ Law Blog July 28, 2008
July 29 is the birthday of the poet Stanley Kunitz, (books by this author) born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905. He attended Harvard University, where he wanted to teach in the English department, but he was told that Anglo-Saxon students wouldn't want to be taught by a Jew. He said, "That almost broke my heart. And I think in the end it probably did me a great favor because it prevented me from becoming a completely preoccupied scholar." He went on to work as a farmer, and he served in WWII when his conscientious objector status was denied.
Stanley Kunitz published his first book of poetry when he was 25, called Intellectual Things (1930), and he continued to write and publish for 75 years. In 2000, he published The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz, and that same year he was named poet laureate of the United States, when he was 95 years old. He died at age 100.
Stanley Kunitz said, "Poetry is inseparable from my life force, and that began very early. It was a great gift, and it has sustained me through the years, and the losses that have attended those years." He said, "The poem comes in the form of a blessing, like the rapture breaking through on the mind."
The Writer’s Almanac
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