In this issue:

• Note from Judy
• Grammar, Usage, and Style - More on Numbers from Chicago 16
• Recommendations
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Grammar
  • Health
  • History
  • References
  • Science/Technology
  • Writing/Journalism
  • Judy's Photo Gallery
  
  

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NOTE FROM JUDY

How different Christmas celebrations are in various parts of the world. I grew up in Washington State, where Christmas was celebrated in a rather traditional way. Many of the people in the area had European ties. We always had a fir tree, which we decorated with items mostly saved from year to year. We often had snow at that time of year, which we children loved. We prayed that school would close. Often. I mean we prayed often that school would close often. And it happened. Occasionally.

During the holiday season, we sang Christmas carols at school, church, and home. And most Christian churches held separate Christmas pageants, which were, without exception, hilarious. Since children played most of the parts, you can imagine what they were like. They still are. Hilarious. Adorable. Refreshing.

When I lived in Hawaii, I laughed out loud (with joy) at Christmas decorations. Palm trees rather than evergreens. The weather was so warm. People wearing shorts and t-shirts running around shopping for Christmas presents. Possibly turkey for dinner, but more likely an outdoor event. On the lanai. Such fun and color. And there are Christmas pageants.

Arizona is similar to Hawaii, but a bit cooler in the winter. Still, the setting for Christmas is so different and delightful. Cactus, palm trees, and so much more. Including Christmas pageants.

What is your Christmas culture? The setting? The activities? Let me know and I'll publish in the next issue. A blessed Christmas and a very special New Year!

I also want to mention a just-published book by my friend, attorney Maria Speth. In this practical guide, Protect Your Writings: A Legal Guide for Authors, Speth provides a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand description of the applicable laws that affect authors and their works. Illustrated with examples from real cases and real situations, Protect Your Writings covers four main areas of intellectual property law and the interplay between these areas as they relate to authors. In this practical guide, Speth provides a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand description of the applicable laws that affect authors and their works. Illustrated with examples from real cases and real situations, Protect Your Writings covers four main areas of intellectual property law and the interplay between these areas as they relate to authors.

GRAMMAR, USAGE and STYLE -More on Numbers from Chicago 16

Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition (9.2) talks about its general rule for zero through 100 and certain round multiples of those numbers. Let's start talking about exceptions.

Example: Twenty-two cats from twelve families were packed into one room.

9.3 In scientific/journalistic contexts, many publications spell out only single-digit numbers and use numerals for almost all others.

9.4 Any of the whole numbers mentioned in 9.2 followed by 100, 1,000 or 100,000 are usually spelled out (except in the sciences), both in approximation or exactly.

Example: Some forty-eight thousand persons attended the exhibit. --but-- The official attendance at this year's exhibit was 48,126.

EDUCATION

THE CENTRE FOR TEACHING CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Located at the University of Oxford in the Institute for Chinese Studies in
Walton Street, Oxford.

The Centre is funded for its initial phase from 1998 to 2001 by the Jessie and Thomas Tam Charitable Foundation of Hong Kong. Workshops and research projects run by the British Chinese Language Teaching Society are supported by CTCFL. At the present, the centre focuses on the development of online and multimedia language teaching.
http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/

ESL TEST PREPOSITIONS
http://tinyurl.com/98pyun

EVALUATING TEACHERS: THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF VALUE-ADDED
Paper by The Brookings Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality.
http://tinyurl.com/27yb3x5

LEARNING CHOCOLATE
Helps students memorize vocabulary in an easy and efficient way, by using
pictures, sounds and games.
http://www.learningchocolate.com/node/333?st_lang=en

MY DOG ATE MY BLOG
The creation of editors, writers, and marketers in the education industry
looking for an outlet for their general creativity and immaturity.
http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/blog/

TEACHING EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
An online, peer-refereed journal devoted to increasing our shared knowledge base about the teaching of educational psychology to a variety of educational constituencies, including pre-service and in-service teachers, administrators, policy-makers, parents, and the public.

Readers of the journal include researchers, college faculty, students,
and practitioners in educational psychology, teacher education and educational policy.
http://www.teachingeducpsych.org/

WRITING CENTER HANDOUTS
For college and university students.
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/

HISTORY

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD: THE BRITISH MUSEUM:
Follow the ancient Egyptians’ journey from death to the afterlife in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition focusing on the Book of the Dead.
http://tinyurl.com/37vdhb3

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
Slave. Student. Researcher. Scholar. Teacher. Inventor. Icon. After
receiving his education at Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State
University),

Dr. Carver gained an international reputation during his
career at Tuskegee University. His research resulted in the creation of
325 products from peanuts, more than 100 products from sweet potatoes,
and hundreds more from a dozen other plants native to the South.
http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/gwc/home.html

THE HAWAII WAR RECORDS DEPOSITORY
An extensive collection of archival materials that document life in
Hawaii during World War II.
http://tinyurl.com/32xm7k5

THE INTERNATIONAL DUNHUANG PROJECT:
THE SILK ROAD ONLINE
A ground-breaking international collaboration to make information and
imagesof all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang
and archaeological sites of the Eastern Silk Road freely available on the
Internetand to encourage their use through educational and research
programmes.
http://idp.bl.uk/

SEARCH 50 ISSUES OF BACK ISSUES ONLINE
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oktoday/index.html

ARTS

BARBARA ANN CONLOGUE COLLECTION OF
ELEANOR STEBER PHOTOGRAPHS CIRCA 1935-1977
Contains 373 images of soprano Eleanor Steber. The collection includes
stock publicity photographs, but is special for the many informal
snapshots of Steber at various functions throughout her career. The
snapshots include photographs of a television screen during broadcasts
of Steber performances.
http://tinyurl.com/26hkfn8

THE HOAGY CARMICHAEL COLLECTION
There are three separate sources of information for the Hoagy Carmichael
collection that use three different markup languages and document type
definitions: (1) The finding aid for the manuscript collection. (2) MARC
records for the sound recordings. (3) Full-text transcriptions for the
correspondence.
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/hoagy/

IRISH LIGHTHOUSES BY JOHN EAGLE
http://indigo.ie/~eaglejr/

THE LEGACY OF JULIEN BRYAN
In the 1930s, the American filmmaker Julien Bryan chronicled life in Poland and Nazi Germany.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Bryan risked his life to record the ferocious siege of Warsaw, "People might not believe my story if I told it in words when I returned to America. Everyone would believe my pictures." Bryan embraced this philosophy throughout his career by aiming to further world understanding through documentary films..
http://tinyurl.com/2cpltp9

SCIENCE

THE HABITABLE PLANET: ECOLOGY LAB
Annenberg Media's mission is to advance excellent teaching in American
schools through the development and distribution of multimedia resources
for teaching and learning.
http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/interactives/ecology/

THE KIWI CONSERVATION CLUB
For over 20 years (KCC) has been teaching Kiwi kids about New Zealand’s
wildlife and wild places.
http://www.kcc.org.nz/

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY
Strengthens national capacity and regional solidarity so its members can
manage, control and develop their tuna fisheries now and in the future.

Based in Honiara, Solomon Islands, FFA's 17 Pacific Island members are
Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati,
Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
http://www.ffa.int/

PRAYING MANTIS
http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2005/09/29/praying-mantis/

SCIENCE 360
Immerses visitors in the latest wonders of science, engineering, technology and math.

We gather the latest science videos provided by scientists, colleges and universities, science and engineering centers, the National Science Foundation and more. Each video is embeddable to put on your own personal websites, blogs and social networking pages. Science360 engages the general public, science unkies and students alike in the cutting-edge discoveries and big science stories of the day.
http://www.science360.gov/files/

GRAMMAR

COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH:
PROFESSOR PAUL BRIANS' SITE
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

DAILY GRAMMAR
Check your grammar knowledge. Quizzes take four minutes.
http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml

GUIDE TO GRAMMAR AND STYLE: JACK LYNCH
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/contents.html

MRS. BLUEZETTE'S GRAMMAR CORNER
"A PBS mind in an MTV world."
Delightful, highly educational articles by a wonderful English language wizard (umm...wizette).
http://www.newsblues.com/grammar.htm

PROFESSOR CHARLES DARLING'S GRAMMAR SITE
Outstanding as a quick reference for your grammar questions.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

USINGENGLISH.COM
A large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools and resources for students, teachers, learners, and academics.
http://www.usingenglish.com/

WEB ENGLISH TEACHER
Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/

REFERENCES

4 PAWS FOR ABILITY
Setting the pace internationally for training service dogs for people with many disabilities.
http://www.4pawsforability.org

7 GUIDELINES FOR BETTER FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY
http://www.lightstalking.com/flower-photography-tutorial

FRONTIERS
More than just an open-access publisher of scholarly articles: it is a
pioneering approach to the world of academia, radically improving the
way scholarly research is managed.
http://www.frontiersin.org/

GET LEGAL, FREE PHOTOS FOR YOUR BLOG,
WEBSITE, OR EBOOKS
http://tinyurl.com/2bjdd83

THE MAYAN CALENDAR
http://www.pauahtun.org/Calendar/Default.htm

ONLINE SHOPPING TERMS
http://www.http://www.bradsdeals.com/help/glossary

PAPERLESS POST
Invitations, Holiday, Note Cards, Save the Dates, Announcements.
Send fine stationery via email.
http://www.paperlesspost.com/cards/all

REHABILITATION ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTER
FOR WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES
Funded since 2001, the Wireless RERC has become a recognized leader on issues and solutions related to the accessibility and usability of mobile wireless products and services by people with disabilities.

The Wireless RERC's mission is to promote equitable access to and use of wireless technologies by people with disabilities and encourage the adoption of Universal Design in future generations of wireless devices
and applications.
http://www.wirelessrerc.org/

VALLEY VIEW HEALTH CENTER
Setting the pace for nonprofit healthcare clinics in the
Pacific Northwest.
http://www.vvhc.org

VIETNAMESE PRONUNCIATION: TONES, VOWELS AND CONSONANTS
http://www.pauahtun.org/Viet/viet-tones.html

HEALTH

AVIAN INFLUENZA AND WILD BIRDS IN AFRICA:
ECOLOGY & MONITORING
http://wildbirds-ai.cirad.fr/index.php

CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION:
CENTER FOR HEALTH REPORTING
The foundation partners with news organizations across the state to
produce in-depth reporting on health-care issues of importance to
consumers and policymakers.
http://www.centerforhealthreporting.org/

THE HISTORY OF VACCINES
An informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest professional society in the United States. A group of prominent Philadelphia physicians, including Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Rush, established the College in 1787 "to advance the science of medicine and to thereby lessen human misery."
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/

WRITING/JOURNALISM

GREAT EXAMPLES OF TYPOGRAPHIC HUMOR
http://tinyurl.com/38ndzaa

INTERNATIONAL PROOFING CONSORTIUM
Writer - Editor/Proofreader - Paralegal Desktop Publisher - Researcher -
Translator German/French). Specialties: law, politics, women's issues,
sports, health, cats, needlework
https://www.IntlProofingConsortium.com

THE MEDIA INSTITUTE
A nonprofit research foundation specializing in communications
policy issues. The Institute exists to foster three goals: freedom of
speech, a competitive media and communications industry, and excellence in journalism.
http://www.mediainstitute.org/about.html

NOTES FROM A WRITING COACH
John Rains, North Carolina, has been a reporter, copy editor, features editor, city editor, news editor, editorial page editor and writing coach at newspapers in North Carolina. I have self-published four books.
http://writing-coach.blogspot.com/

POYNTER
Website relaunch. We’re also introducing a new feature called "How To’s," which will help you apply journalism's latest tools and techniques to your own work – everything from how to crowdsource to how to improve comments on your website.
http://www.poynter.org/

PUTTING STYLE IN ITS PROPER PLACE
When AP announced at the American Copy Editors Society convention that it was switching from "Web site" to "website," it touched off such a flurry of digital messages that for a while it became a Twitter trending topic.
http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/csj/CSJMay10.html

THIS I BELIEVE
Founded in 2004 as a not-for-profit organization that engages youth
and adults from allwalks of life in writing, sharing, and discussing brief essays about the core values that guide their daily lives. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.
http://thisibelieve.org/

Read the intro to this ezine to learn about "Protect Your Writings: A Legal Guide for Authors," a valuable resource for writers in any stage of their careers. It succinctly and completely covers the legal information that authors need to safeguard their creative works. It answers the questions writers may have as well as the questions they might not know to ask.

COPYWRITING TIPS FROM THE HOMELESS
Pity works sometimes, says Becky Blanton, but humor goes a lot farther in separating people from their money - especially if you're homeless and desperate. There are dozens of great signs out there, but here are some great examples and some tips I've prepared so you each learn the secrets of some of the best headline writers I've seen in a while. I have been homeless (see my TED Global 2009 talk) and I can honestly say the homeless have some of the best sense of humor I've seen anywhere - and the best copywriting skills too!
http://www.ossweb.com/CopywritingTips.pdf