Economist, Jan 16, 2016

choi

(1) The battery era | A Plug for the Battery; Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are not the only technologies to get excited about
("IT IS more than two-and-a-half centuries since Benjamin Franklin grouped a number of electrically charged Leyden jars together and, using a military term, called them a 'battery' ")

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest, which is uninteresting. The plug in the title means a promotion (by talking something up).

(b)
(i) Leyden jar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar
(or Leiden jar; It was the original form of a capacitor)

Quote:  It was invented independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden) in 1745–1746. The invention was named for the city.

(ii) capacitor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor
(section 1 History)

Quote: "all [capacitors] contain at least two electrical conductors (plates) separated by a dielectric (ie an insulator that can store energy by becoming polarized). The conductors can be thin films, foils or sintered beads of metal or conductive electrolyte, etc. The nonconducting dielectric acts to increase the capacitor's charge capacity. A dielectric can be glass, ceramic, plastic film, air, vacuum, paper, mica, oxide layer etc. Capacitors are widely used as parts of electrical circuits in many common electrical devices. Unlike a resistor, an ideal capacitor does not dissipate energy. Instead, a capacitor stores energy in the form of an electrostatic field between its plates.

(iii) "Once the charge is delivered, the jar would hold two equal but opposite charges in equilibrium [in the pair of conductors (outer and inner foils, or human hand and water), where the glass of the bottle is the dielectric] until they were connected with a wire, producing a slight spark or shock.
(iv) Go to images.google.com and search with the term (Leyden jar) (no quotation marks) and you will see a metal rod protruding from a cork (as an insulator) at the bottle mouth, with the metal rod somehow connecting the conductor inside the bottle (immersing in the water, or linked to the inner foil through a metal wire). The electricity will be discharged from the capacitor by somehow connecting the outer and inner conductors (with a human hand, or a metal wand with two arms)

(c)
(i) Leiden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden
(section 1 History: name)
(ii) English and Dutch pronunciations of the first vowel in Leiden differ. See Leiden
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Leiden

choi

(2) Unmarried and ill-informed | The Common-Law Marriage Myth; Many cohabiting couples misunderstand their legal status.
http://www.economist.com/news/in ... n-law-marriage-myth

Quote:

"common-law marriage has not legally existed in England since the 16th century.

"Why so many Americans believe in this seven-year cut-off [of cohabitation turning into a common-law marriage] is mysterious.

Note:
(a) Merle H Weiner, A Parent-Partner Status for American Family Law. Cambridge University Press, at page 41
https://books.google.com/books?i ... england&f=false
(“It was during the sixteenth century, with the influence of the Reformation, that government became a legitimate regulator of marriage. George Elliot Howard, in A History of Matrimonial Institutions, noted that the Reformation marked 'the beginning of social revolution,' as civil society started addressing human needs through the regulation of family types. English regulation included the registration of births and marriages in 1538 and Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act in 1753, which ended common-law marriage and transferred control over marriage law from the Church [of England] courts to the secular courts. Anyone found to have violated Lord Hardwicke's Act could be 'transported to America for fourteen years' as punishment") (footnotes omitted)
(b) Common-law marriage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage

section 4.5.1 England and Wales: "It is sometimes mistakenly claimed[28] that before the Marriage Act 1753 cohabiting couples would enjoy the protection of a "common law marriage". In fact, neither the name nor the concept of "common law marriage" was known at this time.[27] Far from being treated as if they were married, couples known to be cohabiting risked prosecution by the church courts for fornication.[29]

Footnotes:
27 Probert, R [2008] Common Law Marriage: Myths and Misunderstandings, Child & Family Law Quarterly vol 20 issue 1 p 1
28 Barlow, A, Duncan, S, James, G, and Park, A, (2005) Cohabitation, Marriage and the Law: Social Change and Legal Reform in the 21st Century (Oxford, Hart), p 53
29 Probert, R (2012) The Legal Regulation of Cohabitation, 1600–2012: From Fornicators to Family (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), ch 2.

(c) Patty Funaro, Legislative Guide to Marriage Law. Legislative Services Agency, Iowa General Assembly, 2005 at pages 7-8
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/Central/Guides/marriage.pdf
(Council of Trent (held in Trent (Italian: Trento), Italy between 1545 and 1563, by Catholic Church) pronounced in 1563 from then on marriage to be officiated in a ceremony in the presence of a priest and witnesses. However Henry VIII of England had separated Church of England in 1538, so the Trent decree did not apply to England)  

choi

(3) Lotteries | High Stakes; Lotteries pull in punters by making it harder to win.
http://www.economist.com/news/21 ... ericans-have-1-292m

Note:
(a) "Powerball’s website had some advice for its frantic customers: 'Swinging a live chicken above your head while wishing for the future numbers does NOT work.' "

kapparot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapparot
(b) "buying a lottery ticket is fun but financially foolish. A punter buying a Powerball ticket has a 1 in 292m chance of winning the jackpot."

punt (vi): "British : GAMBLE"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punt

(c) "There is a catch: make it too hard to win a lottery, and punters will lose interest. So even as lottery designers have been lowering the chances of winning the jackpot, they have been boosting the chances of winning lesser prizes, notes David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge.
(i) jackpot (n): " 'big prize,' 1944, from slot machine sense (1932) * * *"
Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=jackpot
(ii) progressive jackpot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_jackpot

(d) "the customers who are drawn in by higher jackpots tend to be richer than the average. So while lotteries may be snaffling ever more money for an ever smaller chance of striking it rich, at least the burden is tilting away from the very poorest."

snaffle (vt; origin unknown): "to obtain especially by devious or irregular means"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snaffle