Beatty

Beatty is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin. In the Scottish case, some have thought that it is derived from the name Bartholomew, which was often shortened to Bate or Baty. Male descendants were then often called Beatty, or similar derivations like Beattie or Beatey. The name Beatty or Beattie, others think, arose in Ireland from Betagh, a surname meaning hospitaller. A majority of people named Beatty or Beattie in Ireland are the descendants of Scots who came over to Ulster in the seventeenth century. Beattie is common in counties Antrim and Down, whilst Beatty is more common in counties Armagh and Tyrone. In Fermanagh in 1962, Beatty was the fifteenth most common name and was recorded as synonymous with the names Betty and MacCaffrey (or McCaffrey).

It is most likely that the name derives from Mac a'Bhiadhtaigh, from biadhtach, "one who held land on condition of supplying food (biad) to those billeted on him by the chief". In the rest of Ireland, the name Biadhtach (Betagh; "public victualler") was changed to Beatty or Beattie. In Scotland, the Beatties were a reiver clan in the Langholm area of Eskdale. George MacDonald Fraser has written about the reiving clans in "The Steel Bonnets : The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers".

Beatty, Nevada

Beatty (pronounced BAY-dee) is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) along the Amargosa River in Nye County in the U.S. state of Nevada. U.S. Route 95 runs through the CDP, which lies between Tonopah, about 90 miles (140 km) to the north, and Las Vegas, about 120 miles (190 km) to the southeast. State Route 374 connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park, about 8 miles (13 km) to the west.

Before the arrival of non-indigenous people in the 19th century, the region was home to groups of Western Shoshone. Established in 1905, the community was named after Montillus (Montillion) Murray "Old Man" Beatty, who settled on a ranch in the Oasis Valley in 1896 and became Beatty's first postmaster. With the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad in 1905, the CDP became a railway center for the Bullfrog Mining District, including mining towns such as nearby Rhyolite. Starting in the 1940s, Nellis Air Force Base and other federal installations contributed to the town's economy as did tourism related to Death Valley National Park and the rise of Las Vegas as an entertainment center.

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury asserted to be the autoignition temperature of paper. (In reality, scientists place the autoignition temperature of paper anywhere from high 440 degrees Fahrenheit to some 30 degrees hotter, depending on the study and type of paper.)

The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury stated that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he stated his motivation for writing the book in more general terms.

In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal. It has since won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984 and a 1954 "Retro" Hugo Award, one of only four Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004. Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.