Justice Department Reaches Three Settlements Under the Americans with Disabilities Act Regarding the Use of Electronic Book Readers
News release: " The Justice Department today announced separate agreements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Ore., regarding the use in a classroom setting of the electronic book reader, the Kindle DX, a hand-held technological device that simulates the experience of reading a book. Under the agreements reached today, the universities generally will not purchase, recommend or promote use of the Kindle DX, or any other dedicated electronic book reader, unless the devices are fully accessible to students who are blind and have low vision. The universities agree that if they use dedicated electronic book readers, they will ensure that students with vision disabilities are able to access and acquire the same materials and information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use. The agreements that the Justice Department reached with these universities extend beyond the Kindle DX to any dedicated electronic reading device."

"The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data." http://www.data.gov/

Dick Francis CBE (born Richard Stanley Francis on 31 October 1920) is a British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey. Francis was born in Lawrenny, south Wales, in October 1920, the son of a jockey and stable manager.[1] He left school at 15 without any qualifications,[2] with the intention of becoming a jockey and became a trainer in 1938.[3] During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force, piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane.[2] After leaving the RAF in 1946 he became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing.[1] He won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953-54 season.[1] From 1953 to 1957 he was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In 1957 he was forced to retire from racing as the result of a serious fall. His most famous moment as a jockey came while riding the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch, in the 1956 Grand National when the horse inexplicably fell when close to winning the race.[4] Dick Francis has written more than 40 international bestsellers and is widely acclaimed as one of the world's best thriller writers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957) which led to him becoming the racing correspondent for the London Sunday Express, a position he held for 16 years. In 1962 he published his first thriller Dead Cert set in the world of racing. Subsequently he regularly produced a novel a year for the next 38 years, missing only 1998 (during which he published a short-story collection).
Francis is the only three time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come To Grief in 1996. Britain's Crime Writers Association awarded him its Gold Dagger Award for fiction in 1979 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award in 1989. In 1996 he was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, the highest honour bestowed by the MWA. He was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000. In 2003 he was honoured by being awarded the Gumshoe Awards' Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award. Dick Francis' manager (and co-author on recent books) is his son Felix Francis who left his post as teacher of A-Level Physics at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire in order to work for his father and who was the inspiration behind a leading character in the novel Twice Shy. His other son Merrick, formerly a racehorse trainer, later ran his own horse transport business, thus inspiring the novel Driving Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis

Explainer 2010: answers to your questions about the news from slate.com
http://www.slate.com/id/1787/landing/1

Contest results from This Week magazine: We asked you to come up with a name for the “aughts”—or the “oughts” or the “naughts.” You know: The decade that just, mercifully, ended. You rang in with:
FIRST PRIZE: The Uh-Oh's! Jo Choto, Middletown, MD
SECOND PRIZE: The Owes Michael D'Amato, Edison, NJ
THIRD PRIZE: The Dreckade Miles Klein, Frisco, TX
SELECTED HONORABLE MENTIONS:
The Blunder Years Doug Hundley, Willits, CA (and others)
The 0 No's Dee Dunn, Hillsboro, VA (and others)
The Zeroes Constantine Kounelis, Carlsbad, CA (and others)
Reign of Error Tom MacIntosh, Baltimore
Forget Me Aughts Barry Cutler, Palm Desert, CA
The Uncheery-O’s Paul Studebaker, Valparaiso, IN
0 Well Steve White, Boise
The Decade Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken Larry Fish, New York City

A story, appearing in the LAT and elsewhere on January 8, is that the French government is mulling something called a Google tax that it said would, according to the story, “help level the playing field between Internet portals that offer free content and the music, film and publishing industries that lost revenue partly because of it.” The money quote in the story comes from Patrick Zelnick, a music producer who co-led a recent government-commissioned report that outlines programs to encourage buying books, music and films online rather than viewing them for free. Zelnick told the French daily Liberation on Thursday: The world of culture is not only turned upside-down but profoundly threatened by the development of the Internet, and we hope that our action doesn't intervene too late. WSJ Law Blog January 8, 2009

Medicare is a government service that helps provide health care for senior citizens and disabled U.S. citizens. Medicare is part of Social Security and does not provide total health care coverage. It is available to all U.S. citizens at age 65. Medicare coverage is broken into 2 distinct categories: Medicare Part A helps with hospital costs and Medicare Part B requires a monthly fee and is used to pay medical costs. Medicare as we know it today came into existence in July of 1965 during the Johnson Administration. Franklin Roosevelt's administration was the first to address the subject of government assisted health care. During State of the Union speeches in 1943-1945, Roosevelt spoke about universal health care, and Americans being covered from "Cradle to Grave." Bills were introduced to Congress during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations; no bill ever got out of committee. Every Democratic administration from Roosevelt to Johnson lobbied and tried to introduce some sort of government assisted health coverage from 1935 until Medicare's passage in 1965. http://hnn.us/articles/1583.html

Trees New York’s Citizen Pruner Tree Care Course trains New Yorkers in tree care and pruning. The course consists of eight hours of classroom training and four hours of hands-on experience in the field. The comprehensive curriculum covers street tree basics, street tree identification and street tree care. The two-hour long classes meet once a week for four consecutive weeks, and for four hours of field training on a Saturday. Classes are held in the spring and fall of each year. The course fee is $100 and includes a comprehensive manual and other materials. Since the Citizen Tree Pruner Course is offered throughout the city, it attracts people from a wide variety of backgrounds and learning styles. Each class is tailored to those participating. As a result, although a standard curriculum is used, each class moves at its own pace. Following the course, participants take a final exam that certifies them to legally work on trees owned by the City of New York. This includes street trees and most park trees, excluding parks that have their own conservancies such as Central Park and Prospect Park. Certificates are issued by Trees New York and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. http://www.treesny.org/programs.html

wistful adjective date: 1714
blend of wishful and obsolete English wistly intently
1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also : inspiring such yearning
2 : musingly sad PENSIVE
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistful

"Live Well. Learn How." from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services http://www.healthfinder.gov/
As people reach the top, they become more critical of others, less critical of themselves, study finds. http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?docID=634686
Thanks, Beth.

Founded in 1972, the Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey is dedicated to the preservation of the Garden State's distinguished, two-century aviation and space heritage. http://www.njahof.org/

As part of Lincoln Center's renovation, the Revson fountain has been reimagined. Instead of the old, low-walled fountain (designed by Philip Johnson), architects Diller, Scofido + Renfro created a "floating granite ring"—which acts as seating, if you don't mind getting a little wet—around the water. From the press release: The pool of water is lowered and converted to a shallow water surface at Plaza level. New technologies provide automated windspray sensors that adjust water pressure, height, and volume. Special nozzles and lighting systems allow for a multitude of special-effect water and light configurations. In terms of choreography, the fountain can create a wide range of water expressions from slow morphing geometric masses to fast paced chases. At night, the fountain is vibrantly illuminated with white light. The fountain's effects were designed by WET, the design firm behind the fountain at Columbus Circe and the famous fountain at Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel. See pictures at: http://gothamist.com/2009/10/02/lincoln_center_fountain_returns_wit.php

WET (Water Entertainment Technologies), also known as WET Design, is a water feature design firm based in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1983 by former Disney Imagineers Mark Fuller, Melanie Simon, and Alan Robinson. WET is best known for its 9-acre (36,000 m2) Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, but the company has also designed over two hundred fountains and architectural water features in many parts of the world. [1] T he antecedents of WET can be found in Mark Fuller’s undergraduate thesis in Civil Engineering at the University of Utah, for which he developed a large-scale laminar-flow nozzle that went on to be a major element in many of WET’s fountains and water features. After graduating Stanford University in product design, where he refined his laminar-flow nozzle, Fuller was hired by the The Walt Disney Company as an Imagineer. During his time at Disney, he created the “Leapfrog” fountain at Epcot, using laminar technology. [4] In 1983, Fuller and two coworkers left Disney to found WET. The company’s first major commission was Fountain Place (originally Allied Bank Tower) in Dallas, Texas, a collaboration with landscape architects, Peter Ker Walker and Dan Kiley. [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WET_Design If you have been to the Navy Pier in Chicago, EPCOT Center at Disney World, the Detroit Airport, or the Brooklyn Museum of Art, you have probably seen fountains designed by WET.

THOMAS was launched in January of 1995, at the inception of the 104th Congress. The leadership of the 104th Congress directed the Library of Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the public. Since that time THOMAS has expanded the scope of its offerings to include the features and content listed below.
Bills, Resolutions
Activity in Congress
Congressional Record
Schedules, Calendars
Committee Information
Presidential Nominations
Treaties
Government Resources
For Teachers
Help and Contact
http://www.thomas.gov/

All you need to know about FHA loan closing costs
http://www.fha-home-loans.com/closing_costs_of_fha_loans.htm

How did broad come to refer to a woman?
O.E. brad, from P.Gmc. *braithaz (cf. O.Fris. bred, O.N. breiðr, Du. breed, Ger. breit, Goth. brouþs), of unknown origin. Slang extension to meaning "woman" (1911) may be suggestive of broad hips, but it also may trace to Amer.Eng. abroadwife, for a woman away from her husband, often a slave. Earliest use suggests immorality or coarse, low-class women. Because of this negative association, and the rise of women in athletics, the track and field broad jump was changed to the long jump about 1967. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090523120231AAVDvbJ

I wondered what the five counties were in "Penta County" Vocational School in Perrysburg, Ohio. The school's Web site doesn't mention the counties, but a Google search brought up a 1965 article in the Toledo Blade naming Lucas, Wood, Fulton, Ottawa and Sandusky counties.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19650103&id=JgMVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WwEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7083,885013

There are seven places named Middletown in Pennsylvania. http://www.indo.com/cgi-bin/dist?place1=middletown%2C+pa&place2=

Silent letters
wrong, write, brought, bright

buskin (BUS-kin) noun
1. A thick-soled laced boot, reaching to the knee or calf, worn by actors of ancient Greek tragedies. Also known as cothurnus.
2. A tragic drama.
Perhaps from Middle French brousequin.
A thick-soled boot was a distinctive feature of a tragic actor in ancient Greece. It elevated him and raised his stature. Because those big shoes were often worn by tragedians, we came to refer to a tragedy itself as a buskin. A counterpart of buskin is sock (a comedy) after soccus, a lightweight low shoe worn by comic actors.
sock (sawk) noun
A light, low-heeled shoe worn by ancient Greek comic actors, and by extension a comedy.
From Latin soccus (slipper). The term "sock and buskin" refers to the theatrical profession collectively.
quantum (KWON-tuhm) noun
1. A quantity or amount.
2. A portion.
3. A large amount.
4. The smallest amount of something that can exist independently.
adjective: Sudden; major.
From Latin, neuter of quantus (how much or how great). In physics, a quantum jump or quantum leap is usually a small change, while in popular usage the term is used to mean a significant change. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

To your health
This idea of lightening up on the calories can become harder than it has to be. Instead of going the "lite" route—where you end up eating chemical-laden dishes filled with substitutes for real cheese, real bread, real meat, and real sweets—check out cuisines that are naturally healthier and lower in calories. Look at Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Japanese cooking. These are countries where, with the exception of the occasional feast of pork or fried foods, dishes are vegetable-centered, low in fat and intriguingly seasoned. The Splendid Table January 6, 2010

What's New in THOMAS
News release: "Several changes have been made to THOMAS for the second session of the 111th Congress. These changes include: Bookmarking and Sharing Widget; Top Five Bills; New RSS feed: Bills Presented to the President; Contacting Members of Congress; Tip of the Week; Bill Text PDFs."

East Coast readers and travelers: The Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art closes January 17. The exhibition includes more than 125 paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures by O’Keeffe as well as selected examples of Alfred Stieglitz’s famous photographic portrait series of O’Keeffe. http://www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/GeorgiaOKeeffe
In between Chinatown and Little Italy in Manhattan sits almost three thousand square feet of Chile. Puro, Chile is dedicated to promoting high-end Chilean handicrafts, groceries, and wines.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/2010/01/11/100111goav_GOAT_avenue_marx#ixzz0c2xWvWQc

In 1946, RADM Grace Murray Hopper, USN, while as a research fellow in Harvard's Computation Laboratory, worked on the Navy's Mark II and Mark III computers. She coined the term "bug," when she removed a moth from the switching contacts of the Mark II. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/01070.htm The USS Hopper, christened in 1996, is called "Amazing Grace." http://www.hopper.navy.mil/default.aspx Thanks, Linda.

Find a list of U.S. naval ships named for women at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_US_Navy_ships_are_named_after_women

Art Clokey, the creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep January 8 at his home in Los Osos, Calif., after battling repeated bladder infections, his son Joseph said. He was 88. Clokey and his wife, Ruth, invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after Art had finished film school at USC. After a successful debut on "The Howdy Doody Show," Gumby soon became the star of its own hit television show, "The Adventures of Gumby," the first to use clay animation on television. After an initial run in the 1950s, Gumby enjoyed comebacks in the 1960s as a bendable children's toy, in the 1980s after comedian Eddie Murphy parodied the kindly Gumby as a crass, cigar-in-the-mouth character in a skit for "Saturday Night Live" and again in the '90s with the release of "Gumby the Movie." http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-art-clokey9-2010jan09,0,3938052.story

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard[1][2]) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns

Burns Suppers have been held in his honour for over 200 years. This site gives you the complete guide to Robert Burns the man, his poems, his travels, haggis, whisky and much more. http://www.rabbie-burns.com/

Haggis recipe http://www.gumbopages.com/food/scottish/haggis.html
(I swore I would never eat haggis, but when I smelled the peppery sausage in Edinburgh, I ate it anyway. I admit I liked it.)

Burns night: Haggis, Tatties and Neeps recipe
http://britishfood.about.com/od/menu/r/burnssupper.htm

Quotes
I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
Blaise Pascal, French philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)

A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO OR COLUMBUS
December 31, 2009-January 2, 2010
We were part of a group of 18 having New Year's Eve dinner followed by live entertainment at White Oak Inn in Danville, Ohio http://www.bbonline.com/oh/whiteoak/
On January 1, we explored snow-dusted gently rolling hills of central Ohio, and
visited Warsaw, http://www.warsawohio.us/
Dresden, in the 19th century an important trading town on the Ohio and Erie Canal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden,_Ohio
and Coschoton http://www.cityofcoshocton.com/
including Roscoe Village http://www.roscoevillage.com/

ter•rif•ic adjective date: 1667
Etymology: Latin terrificus, from terrēre to frighten
1 a: very bad : FRIGHTFUL b: exciting or fit to excite fear or awe
2: EXTRAORDINARY 3: unusually fine : MAGNIFICENT
http://m-w.com/dictionary/terrific

Bans, boycotts and censorship may be an individual or group decision.
For nearly the entire history of film production, certain films have been either boycotted by political and religious groups or literally banned by a regime for political or moral reasons. Paradoxically, banning a movie often completely fails to achieve its intention of preventing a movie from being seen—the publicity given worldwide to banned films often results in it being given attention it might not otherwise receive.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_banned_films
Banned books and authors http://www.banned-books.com/bblist.html
You will know most of the authors; the books are divided into two sections because of the great number of them.
Banned music, a nine-page article
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/banned-music/

For Christmas, I received The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a first novel about housekeepers in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. The book was rejected 45 times by publishers before being published by G.F. Putnam's Sons and then spending over half of 2009 on best-seller lists. I recommend you read this book, and then read" Kathryn Stockett, in her own words" at the end.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1937562,00.html

Photos of library cats from around the world Thanks, Maria.
http://lovemeow.com/2010/01/library-cats-from-all-over-the-world/
Kings Park, New York and Sylvania, Ohio readers (you know who you are): What cat do you think of when you see the cat from Kansas?

British poet William Ernest Henley is most famous for the poem Invictus. See his 137 poems by doing a Google search such as henley 137 poems.

A possible New Year's resolution would be to memorize short poems or quotes on a periodic basis. You could even keep a list if you were so inclined. I'm not good at memorizing, but this one from a folk tale appeals to me: The swiftest thing in the world is thought. The sweetest thing in the world is sleep. The richest thing in the world is earth, for out of the earth come all the riches of the world.

Quotes
Is not this the true romantic feeling--not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you.
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) American author

When the days are too short chances are you are living at your best.
Earl Nightingale (1921-1989) American radio commentator, personal development and self-help speaker

The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.
Louis L'Amour, born Louis Dearborn LaMoore (1908 -1988) American author

Iceland is part of Europe, and Greenland is part of North America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_continent_(data_file)
Notice that the following list of countries by continent omits Greenland.
http://www.worldatlas.com/cntycont.htm

It's still January, it's still cold, I still live in the north, but it's easy to see that every day there is more daylight. Viva the four seasons.

If a university opens its doors and allows someone to enroll in a special program, does that mean that student has matriculated there and deserves to participate in all aspects of college life? A federal judge in Michigan ruled that it does. U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan of Michigan's Eastern District ruled that Oakland University in Rochester violated federal law by not allowing a learning handicapped student from living in a campus dorm-a battle the man has waged for two years Here's the story, courtesy of the Detroit News, and a longer story by the local Daily Tribune.
A lawsuit on the West Coast is accusing LA's California Science Center of canceling the October screening of the documentary, which promotes the theory of intelligent design - that an intelligent being or “designer” is responsible for shaping life on Earth, rather than natural selection - after being pressured by The Smithsonian and other academics. The suit was filed in October in Los Angeles Superior Court by LA-based American Freedom Alliance, which says it has no official position on intelligent design but says it was concerned that the scientific establishment was stifling debate.
Here's the story from LAT. We also recommend clicking here for Margaret Talbot's fascinating piece about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, in which a federal judge heard the first case to test whether it was constitutional for public-school classes to present the argument of intelligent design. (After a 2005 bench trial, the judge ruled it wasn't because the theory was a form of Creationism.)
WSJ Law Blog December 29, 2009

FTC Approves Two Reports to Congress on the National Do Not Call Registry
News release: "The Federal Trade Commission, as required by The Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007, has approved two reports to Congress: a biennial report focusing on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses, as well as the impact that new technologies have had on the Registry, and a one-time report on enforcement efforts and consumers’ perceptions of the Registry’s effectiveness . As detailed in the first report, the Do Not Call Registry now has more than 191 million active registrations, and more than 18 million new phone numbers were registered in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. During that time, approximately 45,000 sellers, telemarketers, and exempt organizations such as charities subscribed to access the Registry, paying fees totaling more than $15.5 million. In addition, during FY 2009, the FTC implemented a new procedure for tracking disconnected and reassigned phone numbers, which addresses problems that may arise as a result of new telecommunications technologies and the ease of transporting numbers from one telephone service provider to another. According to the second report, since 2003 when the Do Not Call Registry was put in place, research has consistently shown widespread public awareness of the program and a steady increase in the number of phone numbers registered. Together, the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission have collected penalties totaling over $22 million from Registry violators, and due to these enforcement actions and the agencies’ consumer education campaigns, consumers who have joined the Registry have reported dramatic reductions in the number of unwanted calls they receive."

Amtrak Struggles to Get on the Fast Track
Follow up to previous postings on high speed passenger rail transport in the U.S., via New York Times: But faster trains are critical to [Amtrak's] future. So while Amtrak got some desperately needed financing from the federal government this year, its forecasts suggest that speedier rail travel in the United States remains a daunting challenge. For the Northeast corridor alone, Amtrak estimates that it will need almost $700 million annually for the next 15 years to maintain the system and to tackle a backlog of maintenance projects and upgrades. Reducing travel times between New York and Washington to two-and-a-half hours and times between New York and Boston to three hours — goals that were established in the 1970s — will require straighter track, improvements to bridges and tunnels, increased capacity through Manhattan and newer trains, among other investments."
See also CRS Report, December 08, 2009 - High Speed Rail (HSR) in the United States: "There are a handful of routes in the United States where track has been improved to allow service at up to 110 mph, and there are a few places along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor where speeds of up to 150 mph are achieved for a relatively short distance. But there are no dedicated high speed lines in the United States comparable to those in Europe and Asia, on which trains travel at sustained speeds of over 150 mph."

Reader feedback to frequent spelling, pronunciation and writing errors
How about “Febuary” instead of “February”
Many people say libary for library.
It's sherbet, not sherbert.

The slang term "jones" means a strong desire. It first meant an addiction to drugs, and may have originated among addicts who lived in Great Jones Alley, off Great Jones Street, between Broadway and Lafayette Street in Manhattan. See more jargon, slang and niche vocabularies at: http://www.yaelf.com/slang.shtml

In olden days, if the children became restless during the service, grandmother took a handkerchief and tied it into a church baby, a faceless doll made of cloth. I f dropped on the floor, it didn't make noise and disrupt the sermon. A church baby may also refer to a child born on Sunday.

I recommend the movie Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. It gives an uplift similar to More Than a Game with LeBron James. Both are inspiring biographical dramas stressing responsibility, change, teamwork, victory.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/3981

'One Life: Echoes of Elvis' exhibit opens at the National Portrait Gallery
It has been more than 30 years since Elvis Presley's death, and yet his place in pop culture's consciousness has only become deeper. The King's records keep selling, Graceland is still a destination and he continues to be a subject of fascination and interest. In celebration of Presley's 75th birthday (Jan. 8), a collection of portraits ranging from realistic portrayals to mythical, spiritual and earthly images goes on display with works by such artists as Andy Warhol, Ralph Wolfe Cowan and Red Grooms.
Open January 8 through August 29 National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F streets NW. 202-633-5285 http://www.npg.si.edu. Free
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/06/AR2010010601763.html

Imagine your day ending at sunset. Life without music, motion pictures, radio. Life without light itself. Our modern lives began at the turn of the century in West Orange, New Jersey. The Laboratory and home of Thomas Edison, stopped in time, continue to teach a new generation. For directions, pictures, operating hours and other information, see: http://www.nps.gov/edis/index.htm

Blanket of Cold Weather One of Nation's Most Widespread Since January 1985
WSJ.com: "An Arctic blast swept across a large swath of the U.S. on Monday, sending temperatures plunging from Minnesota to Florida and bringing a bone-chilling start to the first workweek of the year...Temperatures fell below zero from the Great Plains to the Northeast, following a weekend of heavy snow. The reading of minus-16 degrees in St. Joseph, Mo., Monday marked the city's coldest Jan. 4 since 1947, while minus-37 in International Falls, Minn., Sunday was the coldest there since 1911, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. Dallas, Jacksonville, Fla., and Little Rock, Ark., fell nearly 20 degrees below their average temperatures for this time of year on Monday, he said. The cold snap is one of the nation's most widespread since January 1985, according to meteorologists at Accuweather.com. While the cold is expected to ease slightly starting Thursday, this winter is on track to be one of the coldest in the past decade or two, said Ken Reeves, director of forecasting operations at Accuweather.com"
• Winter of 2009-2010 Could Be Worst in 25 Years

60 Minutes' Bob Simon Reports On Research To Create An Elephant "Dictionary"
The Secret Language of Elephants: "For two decades, a group of wild African elephants has been watched over, studied and protected by their own guardian angel: an extraordinary American scientist named Andrea Turkalo. Turkalo's own story is pretty amazing, but not nearly as compelling as the insights into elephant behavior her research has revealed, especially when it comes to "the secret language of elephants."

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's BARN AGAIN! Program helps farmers and ranchers find ways to maintain and use historic barns and agricultural buildings as part of modern agricultural production. Created and managed in partnership with Successful Farming magazine, the BARN AGAIN! Program offers publications on technical issues, organizes educational workshops and recognizes good stewardship through an annual Awards Program.
How many historic barns are there? For the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture included a question about historic barns. Information about the number of active farms with barns built before 1960 is now vailable, including a listing of the results by state. A new publication, Historic Barns: Working Assets for Sustainable Farms, is available from the National Trust. Written by Michigan small farmer and author Edward Hoogterp, this publication describes how older and historic barns can provide practical benefits to one of the most exciting and fastest-growing segments of the rural economy – sustainable agriculture. Using several case studies, the publication explains how historic barns can meet important functional, economic and marketing needs of sustainable producers. Download a free copy here. http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/rural-heritage/barn-again/
The preservation of historic barns
http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/pbriefs/pb20.htm

Dutch barns, bank barns, crib barns, round barns, multisided barns, prairie barns
http://www.barnsbuilt.com/about-us/articles/HistoricBarnTypes.php

Barnology: explore Iowa's rural heritage
http://www.wcfcourier.com/features/lifestyles/article_1a6756a5-d88e-57b7-9bec-18c488bb71cd.html

Many people say NUKE-yu-lar. The vowel sounds are wrong and the consonant ‘l’ is in the wrong place. It should be NEW-klee-ar.
athletic [e is often wrongly added- atheletic]
arctic [the first c is often omitted]
boundary [a is often omitted]
candidate [the first d is often omitted]]
history [o is often omitted]
laboratory [o is often omitted]
probably [ba is often omitted]
surprise [the first r is often omitted]
usually [the second u is often omitted]
http://wordspin.dk/wordspin/bloopers/bloopers-articles/article/dont-let-mispronunciation-mangle-your-message/
temperament: looks like four syllables, pronounced as three
quandary: looks like three syllables, usually pronounced as two
interest: looks like three syllables, pronounced as two
Margaret: looks like three syllables, pronounced as two
in other words sometimes pronounced or written as one word (anotherwords)

Marla Weeg moved from Iowa City, Iowa to Dodge Center, Minnesota to Chicago. Now her first short story has been published online:
http://www.tonopahreview.org/leif-ericsson.html
Marla says that "so far 4 people in the world have read it"--you can raise that number if you care to look at it.

2010 Saveur 100 list
Saveur magazine asked readers for ideas, inspirations, and favorite food finds. The list appears in the January-February 2010 issue, and comes from every corner of the world, on every imaginable culinary subject, from family recipes to treasured cookbooks to time-honored tips. Julie, see #1; Brit, see #33; see the six herbs of Provence at #40; Armenian cucumbers at #44, dried lemon zest at #79 on the Web:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/The-2010-SAVEUR-100-List

The world-famous Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park closes on New Year's Eve. It's a beautiful site with a rich history, and the closing has been marked by serious legal tension, as WSJ reports. Tavern is losing its license with the city after more than 30 years. Another local restaurateur will operate an eatery there, instead. That prompted the Tavern owners to declare bankruptcy, which has unleashed a bar fight over the Tavern name. Lawyers for the LeRoy family, which opened the celebrity hangout and tourist haven in 1976, say the family trademarked the name in 1978, using it on the restaurant and later, a bottled salad dressing. The estimated value of the moniker, they say, is $19 million, and the company's biggest asset. But city officials are clearly nervous that the LeRoy family may capitalize on the Tavern brand, starting restaurants in Miami or, perhaps, elsewhere in New York. Lawyers with the city of New York have asserted in federal court that Warner LeRoy never had the city's permission to trademark the name and that he obtained the name fraudulently. WSJ Law Blog December 31, 2009

Census Bureau Projects U.S. Population of 308.4 Million on New Year’s Day
News release: "On the eve of the 2010 Census, as the Census Bureau prepares to conduct an actual count of the nation’s population, the bureau projects that on Jan. 1, 2010 — three months out from Census Day — the total U.S. population will be 308,400,408. This would represent an increase of 2,606,181, or 0.9 percent, from New Year’s Day 2009. In January 2010, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds. Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person every 37 seconds to the U.S. population in January 2010, resulting in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 14 seconds."

2010 (MMX) will be a common year starting on Friday in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It will be the first year of the 2010s decade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010

This is the calendar for any common year starting on Friday (dominical letter C). Examples: Gregorian years 1999, 2010 & 2021 or Julian years 1910 & 1899 (see bottom tables). A common year is a year with 365 days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_year_starting_on_Friday

2010 Daylight Saving Time will be March 14 and November 7 except there will be no DST in Arizona, Hawaii and the Midway Islands. See all countries at:
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2010.html

2010 Phases of the Moon
Universal Time

NEW MOON FIRST QUARTER FULL MOON LAST QUARTER

d h m d h m d h m d h m

JAN. 7 10 39
JAN. 15 7 11 JAN. 23 10 53 JAN. 30 6 18 FEB. 5 23 48
FEB. 14 2 51 FEB. 22 0 42 FEB. 28 16 38 MAR. 7 15 42
MAR. 15 21 01 MAR. 23 11 00 MAR. 30 2 25 APR. 6 9 37
APR. 14 12 29 APR. 21 18 20 APR. 28 12 18 MAY 6 4 15
MAY 14 1 04 MAY 20 23 43 MAY 27 23 07 JUNE 4 22 13
JUNE 12 11 15 JUNE 19 4 29 JUNE 26 11 30 JULY 4 14 35
JULY 11 19 40 JULY 18 10 11 JULY 26 1 37 AUG. 3 4 59
AUG. 10 3 08 AUG. 16 18 14 AUG. 24 17 05 SEPT. 1 17 22
SEPT. 8 10 30 SEPT. 15 5 50 SEPT. 23 9 17 OCT. 1 3 52
OCT. 7 18 44 OCT. 14 21 27 OCT. 23 1 36 OCT. 30 12 46
NOV. 6 4 52 NOV. 13 16 39 NOV. 21 17 27 NOV. 28 20 36
DEC. 5 17 36 DEC. 13 13 59 DEC. 21 8 13 DEC. 28 4 18
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.php

The first month of the year
Deutsch: Januar, Jänner • English: January • Español: Enero • Esperanto: Januaro • Français : Janvier • Italiano: Gennaio • For pictures and other months of the year, see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/January January is Janeiro in Portuguese.

Rio de Janeiro ("River of January", English pronunciation: /ˈriːoʊ deɪ ʒəˈnɛəroʊ/; Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈxiu dʒi ʒaˈneiɾu]) is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America.[1][2][3] The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and from 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation . It is also the former capital of the Portuguese Empire. Commonly known as just Rio, the city is also nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa or "The Marvelous City." Rio is considered a Beta World City.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro

A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city) is a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.
The most complex of these entities is the "global city," whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means.[1] The terminology of "global city", as opposed to megacity, is thought to have been first coined by the sociologist Saskia Sassen in reference to London, New York and Tokyo in her 1991 work The Global City,[2] though the term "world city" to describe cities which control a disproportionate amount of global business dates to at least Patrick Geddes' use of the term in 1915.[3] See a list of alpha, bet and gamma world cities at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city

Palindrome dates in the 21st century
In the MMDDYYYY Date Format (first five (5) of 12 in 21st century):
October 2, 2001 (10022001)
January 2, 2010 (01022010)
November 2, 2011 (11022011)
February 2, 2020 (02022020)
December 2, 2021 (12022021)
In the DDMMYYYY Date Format (first five (5) of 29 in 21st century):
10 February 2001 (10022001)
20 February 2002 (20022002)
1 February 2010 (01022010)
11 February 2011 (11022011)
21 February 2012 (21022012) http://faculty.up.edu/ainan/palindrome.html

The swiftest thing in the world is thought. The sweetest thing in the world is sleep. The richest thing in the world is earth, for out of the earth come all the riches of the world. Clever Manka, Czechoslovakian folk tale