Image credit here (where there are several more similar images). For more information on the NSA conducting domestic spying on Americans, see this Nightline video about an NSA-related whistleblower. Reddit discussion here.

Why Americans are in financial trouble

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Southern Cross (Crosby, Stills, Nash)

From a live performance in 1982. Here are the lyrics, since they often don't come across distinctly in recordings:

Got out of town on a boat gon' to southern islands.
Sailing a reach before a following sea.
She was making for the trades on the outside,
And the downhill run to Papeete.

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas.
We got eighty feet of waterline nicely making way.
In a noisy bar in Avalon, I tried to call you,
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away.

Think about how many times I have fallen.
Spirits are using me; larger voices callin'.
What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten.
I have been around the world, lookin' for that woman-girl
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it will.

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time,
You understand now why you came this way.
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small,
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day.

So I'm sailing for tomorrow. My dreams are a-dying.
And my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain.
I have my ship, and all her flags are a-flying.
She is all that I have left, and music is her name.

Think about how many times I have fallen.
Spirits are using me; larger voices callin'.
What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten.
I have been around the world, lookin' for that woman-girl
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it will.
And you know it will.

So we cheated and we lied and we tested.
And we never failed to fail; it was the easiest thing to do.
You will survive being bested.
Somebody fine will come along make me forget about loving you
In the Southern Cross.

"Etruscan" statue is really medieval

"The statue depicts a she-wolf suckling Remus and his twin brother Romulus - who is said to have founded Rome.

Academics having been arguing about the origins of the statue - known as the Lupa Capitolina - since the 18th Century. Until recently it was widely acknowledged that the statue was an Etruscan work dating from the 5th Century BC.

The Roman statesman, Cicero, who lived in the first century BC, describes a statue of a she-wolf that was damaged by a lightning strike - the Lupa Capitolina has a damaged paw. However, in 2006, an Italian art historian and restorer, Anna Maria Carruba, argued that the statue had been cast in a single piece using a wax mould - a technique unknown in the ancient world. She suggested the damage to the Lupa Capitolina's paw was the result of a mistake in the moulding process.

In a front page article in the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, Rome's former top heritage official, Professor Adriano La Regina, said about 20 tests were carried out on the she-wolf at the University of Salerno. He said the results of the tests gave a very precise indication that the statue was manufactured in the 13th century.

The Lupa Capitolina is the emblem of the Serie A football club, Roma, and was the symbol used for the 1960 Rome olympics. (Image credit here).

Teenager finds baby bat in her bra

Miss Hawkins said she got dressed at 7.30am and arrived for work at the Holiday Inn Norwich North, near Norwich International Airport without noticing anything unusual.

"When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket," she said.

It was not until her lunch break, at midday when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night.

"I plucked up the courage to investigate and I pulled out a little baby bat. I just lost my breath when I saw it and I did not know what it was at first," she said.

The teenager's general manager freed the bat in the hotel garden.

"I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?" Miss Hawkins said. "I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on."

Jaime Eastham, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said they had never heard of a bat being found in a bra before.

But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe.

Stepping onto a zip line

no WAY I would ever do that...

Poorly-worded advertisement

Food at the upcoming Democratic convention

The organizers have specified that there would be no fried foods. "Organic and locally grown foods were mandated, and each plate had to be 50 percent fruits and vegetables." It also mandated that caterers provide food in "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple and white.” Garnishes could not be counted toward the colors. "...caterers are shying away."

Kinetic sculpture

This one at the BMW Museum in Munich. The kinetic work is created by steel balls suspended by wires which moves up and down to create 3-D images and patterns. This is a 6-minute video; the interesting patterns start about one minute into the video.

Defining "enormity"

I was an English major in college, and thus the language has always held a special fascination for me. Recently a friend pointed out in his blog an error made by Senator Obama during a Fourth of July speech, during which he used the phrase "the enormity of the American accomplishment."

In conventional usage, "enormity" is used to mean "wickedness" "atrociousness" or an outrageous offensee. One might speak of the "enormity of Voldemort's deeds," but not the enormity of American accomplishments, which should be described as "enormousness" or "immensity."

The word itself derives from Latin e + norm, indicating something out of the ordinary. The dictionaries tend to give the first definition as implying evil, then offer a second definition suggesting greatness of size or scope ("The enormity of such an act of generosity is staggering" - Random House).

Merriam Webster online has the longest discussion of the word:

1: an outrageous, improper, vicious, or immoral act enormities of state power — Susan Sontag> enormities too juvenile to mention — Richard Freedman>
2: the quality or state of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous; especially : great wickedness enormity of the crimes committed during the Third Reich — G. A. Craig>
3: the quality or state of being huge : immensity enormity of the universe>
4: a quality of momentous importance or impact enormity of the decision>

usage Enormity, some people insist, is improperly used to denote large size. They insist on enormousness for this meaning, and would limit enormity to the meaning “great wickedness.” Those who urge such a limitation may not recognize the subtlety with which enormity is actually used. It regularly denotes a considerable departure from the expected or normal enormity of their situation burst upon them. “How did the fire start?” — John Steinbeck>. When used to denote large size, either literal or figurative, it usually suggests something so large as to seem overwhelming enormity of the desert or the sight of a tiny flower — Paul Theroux> enormity of the task of teachers in slum schools — J. B. Conant> and may even be used to suggest both great size and deviation from morality enormity of existing stockpiles of atomic weapons — New Republic>. It can also emphasize the momentousness of what has happened enormity of the Russian Revolution — George Steiner> or of its consequences enormity of the misfortune — E. L. Doctorow>.

All in all, one would have to say Senator Obama chose an unfortunate turn of phrase for his speech. He perhaps "misunderestimated" the complexity of the word.

Telling it like it is...

TWTFSSM in the Count of Monte Cristo

This weekend while I was playing a game of Scrabble, there was a television on in the background, tuned to a classic movie station (TCM, I think) which was showing The Count of Monte Cristo (there are many versions; this was the 1934 version starring Robert Donat).

I happened to glance at the screen during the scene where Edmond Dantes has crawled from his cell in the Chateau D'If prison to the cell of the Abbe Faria. On the wall of this learned man's cell were chalked a variety of diagrams and teaching tools, including what I believe was a calendar. What puzzled me in the brief moment it was on the screen was that the days of the week were inscribed "T W T F S S M," as though the week "begins" on Tuesday and ends on Monday.

The Wiki entry on first day of the week discusses the use of Sunday vs. Monday, but doesn't mention Tuesday as a possibility, nor could I find such with a Google search. It's possible that I misremembered what I saw, but I doubt it, and now I'm wondering if there's an explanation; is it a real variation on displaying the week, an invention by Dumas for his monk, or an egregious error by the movie set creators?

Our library doesn't have that version of the movie, and I don't have the book here to check the text. Does anyone know, or have any suggestions?

How hot was it today?? It was so hot that...

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"Spend a penny" - get a penny!

"Scores of people queue every day in Musiri, a town in Tamil Nadu, to be paid 10 paise (around 0.8 pence) for each visit [to a public lavatory]. The trips are entered on a “user card” and totalled up once a month, usually earning about 50p.

The government backed scheme... is a response to the common practice of Indians relieving themselves in the open, as sanitation still eludes millions.

And the waste does not go to waste – local authorities are also collecting 250 litres of urine every day to be used as a crop fertiliser, an official from the state’s agricultural university said."

McCain - Feel the excitement