Cornelia Funke

Best known for writing the the Inkheart trilogy, The bestselling German-American children’s author, Cornelia Funke was born, 10 December 1958 in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkheart trilogy, published in the United Kingdom between 2004–2008. Many of her books have now been translated into English. Her work fits mainly into the fantasy and adventure genres. She lives in Beverly Hills, California. Funke has sold over 20 million copies of her books worldwide.

Inkheart concerns an avid 12 year old book reader named Meggie who sees a stranger staring at her outside her window and tells her father, Mortimer who works as a bookbinder. Mortimer invites the stranger in, who introduces himself as Dustfinger and warns Mo that a man named Capricorn is looking for him. Mortimer and Meggie visit Meggie’s Aunt Elinor and are joined en route by Dustfinger and Gwin, Dustfinger’s pet horned marten.

Unfortunately Mortimer is captured at Aunt Elinor’s house and Dustfinger also disappears. So Meggie decides to look for Mortimer. Dustfinger returns, and the three venture to Capricorn’s village to look for Mortimer. Meggie suspects that Mortimer’s disappearance has something to do with a book entitled Inkheart which Mortimer had been reading when he discovered that he had a rather unusual ability which is connected to the appearance of Capricorn, Basta, Flatnose and Dustfinger, and the disappearance of his wife Teresa.

Luckily Dustfinger helps them escape and Dustfinger, Farid, Meggie, and Mortimer visit Fenoglio the author of Inkheart for help. Meanwhile Elinor finds her home has been ransacked by Capricorn and his henchmen. Then , Basta and Flatnose find Fenoglio and Meggie. Fenoglio reveals more about Capricorn’s past. Who thinks his father was a hamster knight and his mother smelt of elderberries was a princess. In fact his father was a blacksmith and his mother, Mortola or the Magpie, was just the head maidservant. Meggie discovers that she has also inherited her father’s unusual ability. Dustfinger meets one of his old maidservant friends, Resa, and Darius, a man with the same talent as Mo and Meggie. Resa and Dustfinger plan to recover Inkheart from Capricorn before he can make use of their talent for his own evil purposes while Fenoglio starts writing a counter curse to banish an evil villain called the Shadow, however this does not go well….

Jane Addams Day

Jane Addams Day is celebrated annually on 10 December to commemorate the birth of Jane Addams on 10 December 1931 who became the first American woman to be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize when she became a co-recipient

Avatar

The epic science fiction film Avatar premiered in London on 10 December 2009. The film was directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver.

It is set in the year 2154, where humans have depleted Earth’s natural resources To such an extent that it has led to a severe energy crisis. Then on a mission to space The Resources Development Administration (RDA) discover a valuable mineral Called unobtanium – a room temperature superconducter on a densely forested habitable moon named Pandora which is orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system and is inhabited by the Na’vi, 10-foot tall (3.0 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids who live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa.

However the atmosphere of Pandora Is toxic to humans, so To explore Pandora’s biosphere, scientists use Na’vi-human hybrids called “avatars”, genetically engineered Na’vi bodies with the mind of a remotely located and genetically matched human which are used to interact with the natives of Pandora. Jake Sully, a paraplegic former Marine, replaces his deceased identical twin brother as an operator of one of the Avatars. Colonel Miles Quaritch, head of RDA’s private security force, wants Jake to secretly gather information about the Na’vi and the clan’s gathering place, a giant tree called Hometree. So Jake joins Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar Program, and fellow scientist Dr. Norm Spellman as they collect biological data. Unfortunately Jake becomes separated in the hostile jungle, Luckily though he is rescued by Neytiri, a female Na’vi. Who after Witnessing an auspicious sign, takes him to her clan, whereupon Neytiri’s mother Mo’at, the clan’s spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society. They discover that Hometree stands on grounds containing the richest deposit of unobtanium in the area.  Gradually Jake grows to sympathize with the natives and Jake changes his allegiance.

Sadly The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of the Na’vi and things come to a head when Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed. Despite Grace’s argument that destroying Hometree could damage the biological neural network native to Pandora, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na’vi to evacuate before commencing the attack. Felling betrayed By Jake, the Na’vi, take Jake and Grace captive. Home tree is destroyed, killing Neytiri’s father (the clan chief) and many others. Mo’at frees Jake and Grace and asks for help. However they are imprisoned by Quaritch’s forces. However Pilot Trudy Chacón, disgusted by Quaritch’s brutality Intervenes

Faced with an uphill struggle to regain the Na’vi’s trust, Jake resorts to desperate measures by taming a fierce dragon-like predator which is both feared and honored by the Na’vi. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and Supported by the new chief Tsu’tey, who acts as Jake’s translator, Jake unites the clans and shows them how to battle against the Resources Development Association and fairly soon all hell breaks loose as the Na’avi try to regain control of Pandora and evict the human invaders.

Ada Lovelace (Enchantress of Numbers)

The Analyst, Metaphysician, and Founder of Scientific Computing, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born on 10th December 1815. Born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, she was the daughter of Lord Byron and is remembered as a mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine. Because of this, she is often considered the world’s first computer programmer and left a legacy as role model for young women entering technology careers.

Ada was the only legitimate child born during a brief marriage between the poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Byron). She had no relationship with her father, who separated from her mother just a month after Ada was born, and four months later he left England forever and died in Greece in 1823 leaving her mother to raise her single-handedly, Her life was an apotheosis of struggle between emotion and reason, subjectivism and objectivism, poetics and mathematics, ill health and bursts of energy. Lady Byron wished her daughter to be unlike her poetical father, and she saw to it that Ada received tutoring in mathematics and music, as disciplines to counter dangerous poetic tendencies. But Ada’s complex inheritance became apparent as early as 1828, when she produced the design for a flying machine. It was mathematics that gave her life its wings.

As a young adult, she took an interest in mathematics, and in particular that of Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, Charles Babbage whom she met met in 1833, when she was just 17, who was One of the gentlemanly scientists of the era and become Ada’s lifelong friend. Babbage, was known as the inventor of the Difference Engine, an elaborate calculating machine that operated by the method of finite differences , and they began a voluminous correspondence on the topics of mathematics, logic, and ultimately all subjects. In 1835, Ada married William King, ten years her senior, and when King inherited a noble title in 1838, they became the Earl and Countess of Lovelace. Ada had three children. The family and its fortunes were very much directed by Lady Byron, whose domineering was rarely opposed by King.Babbage had made plans in 1834 for a new kind of calculating machine (although the Difference Engine was not finished), an Analytical Engine.

His Parliamentary sponsors refused to support a second machine with the first unfinished, but Babbage found sympathy for his new project abroad. In 1842, an Italian mathematician, Louis Menebrea, published a memoir in French on the subject of the Analytical Engine. Babbage enlisted Ada as translator for the memoir, and during a nine-month period in 1842-43, she worked feverishly on the article and a set of Notes she appended to it. These notes contain what is considered the first computer program — that is, an algorithm encoded for processing by a machine. Ada’s notes are important in the early history of computers. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities

Ada called herself an Analyst (& Metaphysician), and the combination was put to use in the Notes. She understood the plans for the device as well as Babbage but was better at articulating its promise. She rightly saw it as what we would call a general-purpose computer. It was suited for “developing and tabulating any function whatever. . . the engine is the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity.” Her Notes anticipate future developments, including computer-generated music. Sadly though Ada passed away on November 27, 1852, in Marylebone at the age of 37, from Cancer and was buried beside the father she never knew. Her contributions to science were resurrected only recently, but many new biographies* attest to the fascination of Babbage’s “Enchantress of Numbers.”

Otis Redding

American singer and songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was tragically killed in a plane crash on December 10 1967. He was Born September 9, 1941 and raised in Georgia, United States. He left school at age 15 to support his family by working with Little Richard’s backing band, the Upsetters and by performing at talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins’ band, the Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a Stax recording session led to a contract and his first single, “These Arms of Mine”, in 1962. Stax released Redding’s debut album, Pain in My Heart, two years later. Redding was initially popular mainly with African Americans, however he later reached the broader American popular music audience. He and his group first played small gigs in the South, then played for the first time in the western United States, at the Whisky a Go Go. Redding later performed in Paris, London and other European cities before he was tragically Killed In a plane crash .

Following Redding’s tragic death (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 andR&B charts after his death in a plane crash. The Dock of the Bay also became the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. His premature death devastated Stax, already on the verge of bankruptcy. The label soon discovered that Atlantic Records owned the rights to Redding’s entire catalog.

Redding received many posthumous accolades, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He received the honorific “King of Soul”. Redding is considered one of the greatest singers in popular music and a major artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. His singing style has been influential among the soul artists of 1960s and helped exemplify the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” with Steve Cropper. In addition to “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Respect” and “Try a Little Tenderness” are among his most well-known songs.

OTIS REDDING JUKEBOX http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL35D7AD9F98DA414C

The Adventurs of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

One of the Great American Novels, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published 10th December 1884. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective) and is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It features colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River and satirizes the Southern antebellum society. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism and has been studied by serious literary critics since its publication. It was criticized upon release because of its coarse language and became even more controversial in the 20th century because of its perceived use of racial stereotypes, despite strong arguments that the protagonist & tenor of the book, is anti-racist & explores notions of race and identity & highlights the hypocrisy required to condone slavery within an ostensibly moral system. However it has Since been adapted for film and Television.

The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the shore of the Mississippi River, sometime between 1835 and 1845 (when the first steamboat sailed down the Mississippi). Two young boys, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Huck has been placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to civilize him. Huck appreciates their efforts, but finds civilized life confining. His spirits are raised somewhat when Tom Sawyer helps him to escape one night past Miss Watson’s slave Jim. However, his shiftless father “Pap”, sudden reappears who is an abusive parent and drunkard. Although Huck is successful in preventing him from acquiring his fortune, Pap forcibly gains custody of him and moves him to his backwoods cabin. Although Huck prefers this to his life with the widow, he resents his father’s drunken violence and his habit of keeping him locked inside the cabin so he escapes, elaborately fakes his own murder, and sets off down the Mississippi River.While living quite comfortably in the wilderness along the Mississippi, Huck encounters Miss Watson’s slave Jim on an island called Jackson’s Island. Huck learns that Jim has also run away & is trying to make his way to Cairo, Illinois, and then to Ohio. At first, Huck is conflicted over whether to tell someone about Jim’s running away, but as they travel together and talk in depth, Huck begins to know more about Jim’s past and his difficult life &, Huck begins to change his opinion about people, slavery, and life in general.

Huck and Jim take residence In a cavern on a hill on Jackson’s Island. When they can, they scrounge around the river looking for food, wood, and other items. One night, they find a raft they will eventually use to travel down the Mississippi. Later, they find an entire house floating down the river and enter it to grab what they can and also find a dead man, shot in the back while apparently trying to ransack the house. Huck find out the latest news in the area, and is worried by what he learns, so he returns quickly to the island where he tells Jim of the impending danger. The two immediately load up the raft and leave the islands. Huck and Jim become separated. Huck is given shelter by the Grangerfords, a prosperous local family & becomes friends with Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and gets involved in the Grangerfords blood feud against another family, the Shepherdsons which comes to a head when Buck’s sister, Sophia Grangerford, elopes with Harney Shepherdson. In the resulting conflict, all the Grangerford males from this branch of the family are shot and killed, and Huck narrowly avoids his own death in the gunfight,

After reuniting with Jim they Sail farther south on the Mississippi River, and rescue two cunning grifters, who join Huck and Jim on the raft. The younger of the two swindlers, a man of about thirty, introduces himself as a son of an English duke (the Duke of Bridgewater) and his father’s rightful successor. The older one, about seventy, then trumps the Duke’s claim by alleging that he is the Lost Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI and rightful King of France. He continually mispronounces the duke’s title as “Bilgewater” in conversation.The Duke and the King then join Jim and Huck on the raft, committing a series of confidence schemes on the way south. To allow for Jim’s presence, they print fake bills for an escaped slave; and later they paint him up entirely in blue and call him the “Sick Arab”. On one occasion they arrive in a town and advertise a three-night engagement of a play which they call “The Royal Nonesuch”. The play turns out to be only a couple of minutes of hysterical cavorting, not worth anywhere near the 50 cents the townsmen were charged to see it. ThenA drunk called Boggs arrives in town and threatens a southern gentleman by the name of Colonel Sherburn. so Sherburn kills him and almost gets lynched. By the third night of “The Royal Nonesuch”, the townspeople are getting fed up but the Duke and the King have already skipped town, and together with Huck and Jim, they continue down the river.

In the next town they decide to impersonate two brothers of Peter Wilks, a recently deceased man of property, and manage to convince nearly all the townspeople that he is one of the brothers, a preacher just arrived from England, while the Duke pretends to be a deaf-mute to match accounts of the other brother. One man in town is certain that they are a fraud and confronts them. Afterwards, the Duke, suggests that they should cut and run. The King boldly states his intention to continue to liquidate Wilks’ estate.However Huck likes Wilks’ daughters, who treat him with kindness and courtesy, so he tries to thwart the grifters’ plans by stealing back the inheritance money. The arrival of two new men who seem to be the real brothers throws everything into confusion when none of their signatures match the one on record. The townspeople devise a test, which requires digging up the coffin to check. When the money is found in Wilks’ coffin, the Duke and the King are able to escape in the confusion. They manage to rejoin Huck and Jim on the raft & Huck resolves to free Jim, who is being held at the plantation of Silas and Sally Phelps. Huck intercepts Tom on the road and tells him everything, Tom joins Huck’s scheme & develops an elaborate plan to free Jim…

Alfred Nobel

Swedish chemist,engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel sadly died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 10 December 1896. in San Remo, Italy. He was born 21st October 1833, in Stockholm. As a boy he was interested in engineering, particularly explosives, learning the basic principles from his father at a young age. Nobel had private tutors and excelled in his studies, particularly in chemistry and languages, achieving fluency in English, French, German, and Russian, Nobel also attended the Jacobs Apologistic School in Stockholm. As a young man, Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin; then, in 1850, went to Paris to further the work; and went to the United States for four years to study chemistry, collaborating for a short period under inventor John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Nobel filed his first patent, for a gas meter, in 1857. The family factory produced armaments for the Crimean War (1853–1856); but, had difficulty switching back to regular domestic production when the fighting ended and they filed for bankruptcy.In 1859, Nobel’s father left his factory in the care of the second son, Ludvig Nobel (1831–1888), who greatly improved the business.

Nobel and his parents returned to Sweden from Russia and Nobel devoted himself to the study of explosives, and especially to the safe manufacture and use of nitroglycerine (discovered in 1847 by Ascanio Sobrero, one of his fellow students under Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the University of Turin). Nobel invented a detonator in 1863 and also designed the blasting cap. On 3 September 1864, Nobel’s younger brother Emila was killed in an explosion at the factory in Stockholm. Dogged by more minor accidents but unfazed, Nobel went on to build further factories, focusing on improving the stability of the explosives he was developing, so he invented dynamite in 1867, a substance easier and safer to handle than the more unstable nitroglycerin. Nobel demonstrated his explosive for the first time that year, at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey, England. In order to help reestablish his name and improve the image of his business from the earlier controversies associated with the dangerous explosives, Nobel had also considered naming the highly powerful substance “Nobel’s Safety Powder”, but settled with Dynamite instead, referring to the Greek word for ‘power’. which is used extensively in mining and the building of transport networks

In 1875 Nobel invented gelignite, which was more stable and powerful than dynamite. He then combined nitroglycerin with various nitrocellulose compounds, similar to collodion, but settled on a more efficient recipe combining another nitrate explosive, and obtained a transparent, jelly-like substance, which produced a more powerful explosive than dynamite. ‘Gelignite’, or blasting gelatin, as it was named, was patented in 1876 and in 1887 he also patented ballistite, a forerunner of cordite, this was modified by the addition of potassium nitrate and various other substances. Gelignite was more stable, transportable and conveniently formed to fit into bored holes, like those used in drilling and mining, An off-shoot of this research resulted in Nobel’s invention of ballistite, the precursor of many modern smokeless powder explosives and still used as a rocket propellant.

Nobel was also elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would later select laureates for two of the Nobel prizes, and he received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in 1893. Concerned that his invention would be used for evil purposes, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality. The first three of these prizes are awarded for eminence in physical science, in chemistry and in medical science or physiology; the fourth is for literary work “in an ideal direction” and the fifth prize is to be given to the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses. There is no prize awarded for mathematics. The formulation for the literary prize being given for a work “in an ideal direction”, is cryptic and has caused much confusion. For many years, the Swedish Academy interpreted “ideal” as “idealistic” (idealistisk) and used it as a reason not to give the prize to important but less Romantic authors, such as Henrik Ibsen and Leo Tolstoy.0

This interpretation has since been revised, and the prize has been awarded to, for example, Dario Fo and José Saramago, who do not belong to the camp of literary idealism. He stipulated that the money go to discoveries or inventions in the physical sciences and to discoveries or improvements in chemistry.In 1891, Nobel moved from Paris to San Remo, Italy. During his life Nobel issued 350 patents internationally and by his death had established 90 armaments factories, despite his belief in pacifism. Unbeknownst to his family, friends or colleagues, he had left most of his wealth in trust, in order to fund the awards that would become known as the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium is also named after him and his name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and Akzo Nobel, which are descendants of the companies Nobel himself established. He is buried in Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.

Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations— General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations. The formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 317th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on 4 December 1950, when the General Assembly declared resolution 423(V), inviting all member states and any other interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fitThe day is normally marked both by high-level political conferences and meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues. In addition, it is traditionally on 10 December that the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize are awarded.

Many governmental and nongovernmental organizations active in the human rights field also schedule special events to commemorate the day, as do many civil and social-cause organizations.The theme for 2006 was the struggle against poverty, taking it as a human rights issue. Several statements were released on that occasion, including the one issued by 37 United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders“Today, poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation andexclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not depend on how rich a country is. By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime… Poverty eradication is an achievable goal.”—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, 10 December 2006

The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights occurred on 10 December 2008, and the UN Secretary-General launched a year-long campaign leading up to this anniversary. Because the UDHR holds the world record as the most translated document, except for the Bible, organizations around the globe used the year to focus on helping people everywhere learn about their rights.

Dewey Decimal Day

Dewey Decimal Day takes place annually on 10 December and commemorates the occasion that the Dewey Decimal System was created by American librarian and self-declared reformer Melvil Dewey. The Dewey Decimal Classification/Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876 it has been expanded to multiple volumes and revised through 23 major editions, the latest printed in 2011. It is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. OCLC, a non-profit cooperative that serves libraries, currently maintains the system and licenses online access to WebDewey, a continuously updated version for catalogers.

The Decimal Classification enables new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Libraries previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to the order of acquisition rather than topic. The classification’s notation makes use of three-digit Arabic numerals for main classes, with fractional decimals allowing expansion for further detail. Using Arabic numerals for symbols, it is flexible to the degree that numbers can be expanded in linear fashion to cover special aspects of general subjects. A library assigns a classification number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a position relative to other books in the library, on the basis of its subject. The number makes it possible to find any book and to return it to its proper place on the library shelves. The classification system is used in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries

Melvil Dewey was a founding member of the American Library Association and developed the ideas for his library classification system in 1873 while working at Amherst College library. He applied the classification to the books in that library, until in 1876 he had a first version of the classification. In 1876, he published the classification in pamphlet form with the title A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library. He used the pamphlet, published in more than one version during the year, to solicit comments from other librarians. He Obtained copyright for the idea in 1876

A second edition of the Dewey Decimal system, was published in 1885 with the title Decimal Classification and Relativ Index for arranging, cataloging, and indexing public and private libraries and for pamflets, clippings, notes, scrap books, index rerums, etc. This comprised 314 pages, with 10,000 index entries. Five hundred copies were produced. Editions 3–14, were published between 1888 and 1942 and Dewey modified and expanded his system considerably for the second edition.

One of the innovations of the Dewey Decimal system was that of positioning books on the shelves in relation to other books on similar topics. When the system was first introduced, most libraries in the US used fixed positioning: each book was assigned a permanent shelf position based on the book’s height and date of acquisition. Library stacks were generally closed to all but the most privileged patrons, so shelf browsing was not commonplace. The use of the Dewey Decimal system increased during the early 20th century as librarians became convinced of the advantages of relative positioning and of open shelf access for patron. New editions were readied as supplies of previously published editions were exhausted, even though some editions provided little change from the previous, as they were primarily needed to fulfill demand the 3rd edition was published in 1888, the 4th in1891 and the 5th in1894. Editions 6 to 11 were published between 1899 and 1922. 7,600 copies of the 6th edition were published. Gradually the size of the volumes grew, and edition 12 swelled to 1243 pages. The first abridged edition of the Dewey Decimal system was produced in 1894, In response to the needs of smaller libraries which were finding the expanded classification schedules cumbersome. By popular request, the Library of Congress began to print Dewey Classification numbers on nearly all of its cards in 1930, making the system immediately available to all libraries making use of the Library of Congress card sets. Dewey’s was not the only library classification available, although it was the most complete. Charles Ammi Cutter published the Expansive Classification in 1882, with initial encouragement from Melvil Dewey. Although Cutter’s system was not adopted by many libraries it became the basis for the Library of Congress Classification system.

In 1895, the International Institute of Bibliography, located in Belgium and led by Paul Otlet, contacted Dewey about the possibility of translating the classification into French, and using the classification system for bibliographies (as opposed to its use for books in libraries). This would have required some changes to the classification, which was under copyright. Dewey gave permission for the creation of a version intended for bibliographies, and also for its translation into French. Dewey did not agree, however, to allow the International Institute of Bibliography to later create an English version of the resulting classification, considering that a violation of their agreement, as well as a violation of Dewey’s copyright. Shortly after Dewey’s death in 1931, however, an agreement was reached between the committee overseeing the development of the Decimal Classification and the developers of the French Classification Decimal. The English version was published as the Universal Decimal Classification and is still in use today.

Following the death of Melvil Dewey in 1931, administration of the classification was under the Decimal Classification Committee of the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation, and the editorial body was the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee with participation of the American Library Association (ALA), Library of Congress, and Forest Press. By the 14th edition in 1942, the Dewey Decimal Classification index was over 1,900 pages in length and was published in two volumes.

The growth of the classification to date had led to significant criticism from medium and large libraries which were too large to use the abridged edition but found the full classification overwhelming. Dewey had intended issuing the classification in three editions: the library edition, which would be the fullest edition; the bibliographic edition, in English and French, which was to be used for the organization of bibliographies rather than of books on the shelf; and the abridged edition. In 1933, the bibliographic edition became the Universal Decimal Classification, which left the library and abridged versions as the formal Dewey Decimal Classification editions. The 15th edition, edited by Milton Ferguson, implemented the growing concept of the “standard edition”, designed for the majority of general libraries. This radical revision reduced the size of the Dewey system by over half, from 1,900 to 700 pages. The 16th and 17th editions, under the editorship of the Library of Congress, grew again to two volumes. However, by now, the Dewey Decimal system had established itself as a classification for general libraries, with the Library of Congress Classification having gained acceptance for large research libraries. The first electronic version of “Dewey” was created in 1993. Hard-copy editions continue to be issued at intervals; the online WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey are updated quarterly.

More Events and holidays occurring on 10 December
Human Rights Day
Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales Day
National Lager Day
Nobel Prize Day

J. Mascis (Dinosaur jr)

Best known as the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr, the American musician, J Mascis (Joseph Donald Mascis Jr) was born December 10, 1965 in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of a dentist. and grew up in the same area together with his sister Patty and an older brother. His family name is Italian, from the province of Foggia, in the region of Apulia in the south of Italy.His mother, Theresa (an avid golfer), died in 1985 while his father, Joseph Sr., died in 1993.

Mascis became a music and drumming fan at the age of 9. He joined the jazz ensemble in school as a drummer, because there was not one of rock or punk. At 17, Mascis joined the short-lived hardcore group Deep Wound with Lou Barlow, Scott Helland, and Charlie Nakajima in the early 1980s. He went on to found Dinosaur Jr. with bassist Barlow and drummer Emmett Jefferson “Patrick” Murphy (aka “Murph”) in 1984, switching to guitar in the process, and they achieved national success. His vocals have been described as “Neil Young-like” and his guitar riffs as “monolithic” Mascis dismissed Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. in 1989 and over the next eight years recorded several more Dinosaur Jr. albums, as well as the 1996 acoustic solo album Martin + Me. In 1989 Kurt Cobain suggested that Mascis join Nirvana.

The manager for Deep Wound was Gerard Cosloy, who then went on to found Homestead Records. Homestead released Dinosaur Jr.’s first record. Mascis says that the reason why Dinosaur Jr.’s sound is not fully formed on that record is that they were more or less automatically signed to Homestead. Megan Jasper, vice president at Sub Pop Records characterises this period as “J had some anger, like any punk rock kid. Usually, though, when a young person is angry, they tend to be really loud. And J wasn’t. He was only loud when he played music”.

As a side project, he was the drummer in Boston doom metal group Upsidedown Cross, who released a self-titled album on Taang! Records in 1991. He wrote songs for the film Gas, Food, Lodging, in which he made a cameo appearance. In 1996, he had a small part in the movie Grace of my Heart and provided a ballad and a Beach Boys-like song for the soundtrack. In 1998, he retired the Dinosaur Jr. name. In April 2005 Mascis, Barlow, and Murph reformed the band for a tour celebrating the re-release of the group’s first three albums. The reunited line-up has since released four new albums: Beyond in 2007, Farm in 2009, I Bet on Sky in 2012, and Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not in 2016.

In 2000 he began producing albums with his new band, J Mascis + The Fog. In 2003, the house and studio he owned burned down. In August 2005 Mascis released J and Friends Sing and Chant For Amma, a solo album under the J Mascis and Friends banner. The album consists of devotional songs dedicated to Hindu religious leader Mata Amritanandamayi, or Ammachi, about whom he had written “Ammaring” on the first J Mascis + The Fog album More Light. The proceeds from the album are being donated to tsunami relief efforts Ammachi’s organization is spearheading. In 2008 the six-track album was made available digitally on his own Baked Goods label.

In 2006 Mascis returned to drumming with his newly formed heavy metal band Witch for their self-titled debut album. Also that year, he collaborated with Evan Dando on a new Lemonheads album. The Lemonheads was released that September, featuring Mascis playing lead guitar. In 2010 Mascis joined with John Petkovic and Tim Parnin of Cobra Verde and Dave Sweetapple of Witch to form Sweet Apple. The self-titled debut album was released on Tee Pee Records. Mascis plays drums, guitar, and sings on the album. Mascis released a mostly acoustic album in March 2011 titled Several Shades of Why on Sub Pop Records. He was joined in the studio by several guest musicians, including Kurt Vile, Ben Bridwell and Sophie Trudeau. Mascis toured North America with Vile as support act to promote the album. In 2013 Richard Ayoade cast J Mascis in a small role, a caretaker, in his film The Double. Mascis’s electric guitar work is featured on the 2014 Strand of Oaks album Heal. In April 2014 he played with reunited Nirvana on a secret gig after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions. He sang the songs School, Pennyroyal Tea and Drain You. In August 2014 he released the solo album Tied to a Star on Sub Pop and toured in support of it. He was ranked number 86 in a Rolling Stone list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists”, and number 5 in a similar list for Spin magazine in 2012