Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day...a must for anyone in communication or who wants to improve their communication skills...

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl

The Word of the Day for August 14, 2007 is :

refluent • \REH-floo-unt\ • adjective
: flowing back

Example Sentence:There are some lakes in Louisiana that appear to be formed by the refluent waters of the Mississippi River.

Did you know?"Refluent" was first documented in English during the 15th century, and it can be traced back to the Latin verb "refluere," meaning "to flow back." "Refluere," in turn, was formed from the prefix "re-" and the verb "fluere" ("to flow"). Other "fluere" descendants in English include "confluent" ("flowing together"), "fluent" and "fluid" (both of which share the earliest sense of "flowing easily"), "circumfluent" ("flowing around"), and even "affluent" (which first meant "flowing abundantly"). "Refluent" even has an antonym derived from "fluere" -- "effluent," meaning "flowing out."

2007 National Book Festival

The Library of Congress celebrates the Joy of Reading

The 2007 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush will be held on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Gennady Spirin - Magical Illustrator / Artist

Gennady Spirin was born in the small town of Orekhove-Zuyevo, near Moscow, on December 25, 1948. His artistic talent was identified at an early age. He graduated from Surikov School of Fine Art at the Academy of Arts in Moscow and Moscow Stroganov Institute of Art. Over the years he developed his own unique style, combining traditional Russian contemporary art technique with the great traditions of the Renaissance.
In all of Spirin’s work, his sense of design and artistic skill elevate his illustration to the level of fine art, which showcase his fantasy characters in a lovely and lush environment.

In 1997 and 1998, Saks Fifth Avenue, the exclusive department store, has chosen Spirin’s depiction of the "Nutcracker" character from the classic tale by E.T.A. Hoffman recently republished by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, as the centerpiece of their famous holiday promotions in New York and Chicago, respectively.

His watercolor illustrations for children’s books have won critical praise and numerous awards for their vision of fairy-tale worlds extensively researched and exquisitely painted. The illustrator of 30 story books, Spirin was awarded the Golden Apple Award at the Biennale of Illustrations in Bratislava 1983 for "Marissa and Gnomes".

Since 1992 he has won four gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York for "Boots and the Glass Mountain" (1992), "The Children of Lir" (1993), "The Frog Princess" (1994) and "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1996). Four of his other books—"The Fool and the Fish" (1990), "Gulliver’s Travels in Lilliput" (1993), "Kashtanka" (1995) and "The Sea King’s Daughter" (1997) were named the best illustrated book of the year by the New York Times. In 1991 Spirin received the first prize "Fierra di Bologna" for his work in the book "Sorotchintzy Fair". His illustrations for "Kashtanka" were also bestowed with first prize in the 1994 "Premi International Catalonia D’illustracio" in Barcelona, Spain and a "Parent’s Choice Honor.

Mr. Spirin’s art is in public, private, and corporate collections including those of the Museum of Art, Milan, Italy, Cotsen Collection of Children’s Art at the Firestone Library of Princeton University, the Museum of the Franklin Mint and others.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Very cool!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

The Trifid Nebula in Stars and Dust

passion

As defined by the Visual Thesaurus.

I Like Books

Authors that I think are worth the brain cells...

David Sedaris

http://www.barclayagency.com/sedaris.html

Augusten Burroughs

http://www.augusten.com/

Jincy Willett

http://www.jincywillett.com/

JK Toole

Haven Kimmel

http://www.havenkimmel.com/

Alice Sebold

Carson McCullers

http://www.carson-mccullers.com/

Dale Chihuly - An American Glass Sculptor

Dale Chihuly is most frequently lauded for revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement by expanding its original premise of the solitary artist working in a studio environment to encompass the notion of collaborative teams and a division of labor within the creative process. However, Chihuly's contribution extends well beyond the boundaries both of this movement and even the field of glass: his achievements have influenced contemporary art in general. Chihuly’s practice of using teams has led to the development of complex, multipart sculptures of dramatic beauty that place him in the leadership role of moving blown glass out of the confines of the small, precious object and into the realm of large-scale contemporary sculpture. In fact, Chihuly deserves credit for establishing the blown glass form as an accepted vehicle for installation and environmental art beginning in the late twentieth century and continuing today.

http://www.chihuly.com/

A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, 11 years after the author's suicide. The book was published through the efforts of the writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a revealing foreword) and Toole's mother, quickly becoming a cult classic. Toole posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1981. It is an important part of the 'modern canon' of Southern literature.

The title derives from the book's epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."


The story is set in the city of New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. (Jacques) Reilly, an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in Uptown New Orleans, who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.
(source : Wikipedia)

Symbiosis - The Intersection of Pilobolus & TED

Pilobolus dance company members Otis Cook and Jennifer Macavinta perform the sensuous duet "Symbiosis." Does it trace the birth of a human relationship, or the co-evolution of a pair of symbiotic species? That's left for you to decide. Gorgeous, organic choreography blurs the boundaries between the two performers, who use the body's own geometry to lift, move and combine. The music, recorded by the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch Records, is a compilation of works: "God Music" from Black Angels by George Crumb, "Fratres" by Arvo Pärt, and "Morango ... Almost a Tango" by Thomas Oboe Lee.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/24

TED - Not the Airline

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

The TED site makes the best talks and performances available to the public, for free. More than 100 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

http://www.ted.com/

What is Pilobolus?

Pilobolus (crystallinus) is a phototropic zygomycete - a sun-loving fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures. It grows on a stalk as a small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap filled with spores. When time and Pilobolus are ripe, this entire sporangium is blasted off with incredible force and the little spore bags can shoot over a cow like clowns out of a cannon. It's reported that the acceleration - from 0-45 mph in the first mm of flight - is the second fastest in nature.

http://www.pilobolus.com/