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Three standout individuals who've made Rochester a better place to live will be honored April 26 at St. Bonaventure University's Gaudete Medal and Awards Ceremony at the Riverside Convention Center.
Being awarded the university's highest honor are Dr. Anthony Bannon, SBU class of 1964, director of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film; Thomas Ferraro, executive director of Foodlink; and James E. Hammer, president and CEO of Hammer Packaging.
St. Bonaventure's Gaudete (gow-DAY-tay) Medal honors business and community leaders who exemplify the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi through their joy, hope, positive outlook on life, sincerely compassionate spirit and desire to serve humankind. Recipients of the Gaudete, which means "Rejoice!" in Latin, have inspired, encouraged and enlightened others through their personal and professional lives.
For more information on Gaudete event sponsorships and individual tickets, contact Anne Goergen at email@example.com or 716-375-4085. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m., followed by the medal presentations. The public is invited.
Dr. Anthony Bannon is the seventh director of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y., and has served in that role longer than any previous director. George Eastman House was founded in 1947 and is the world's oldest and largest independent museum of photography and motion pictures.
During his tenure, George Eastman House launched two world-renowned graduate photographic and film preservation schools and a post- graduate school with Rochester Institute of Technology. He directed alliances with museums and collectors in major U.S. cities, in addition to acquiring important collections from photographers and filmmakers. He is working to organize a satellite school in South Korea.
Bannon worked at the Buffalo News from 1969 to 1985 as a critic of art, theater, dance and later film, video and architecture.
Prior to his Eastman House appointment in 1996, Bannon was the director of Cultural Affairs at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and director of its Burchfield Penney Art Center. Bannon will step back into that role at Burchfield Penney in May, while holding the titles of senior scholar and director emeritus at Eastman House.
His book "Photo Pictorialists of Buffalo" won the American Photographic Historical Society's merit award, and his writing on deafness won the Gallaudet University Award. Bannon's recent publications include essays in the catalog on the photographers Steve McCurry, Diane Bush, Hiroshi Watanabe and Roger Eberhard.
Bannon has been recognized by the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester with the Outstanding Achievement Award, and as CEO of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America, Rochester Chapter. He was named Outstanding Arts Administrator of the Year by Buffalo's Chamber of Commerce and Arts Council.
In 2007, Bannon earned the Golden Career Award from the FOTOfusion Festival of Photography & Digital Imaging. He was recognized for his "far-reaching leadership and scholarship in the cultural community" and for having "given unstintingly of his time and effort" to his museum and as a board member for several organizations.
"Most important, he is one of the most efficient and effective museum directors today," noted Arnold H. Drapkin, director of FOTOfusion and former Picture Editor for Time magazine, who presented the award.
Bannon is a board member for the Rochester School for the Deaf, the H.H. Richardson Restoration National Board, and the Rochester International Fringe Festival. Nationally, he served on the Smithsonian Secretary's Council (Washington, D.C.), Santa Fe Center for the Visual Arts (New Mexico), New York Council on the Humanities (Board of Directors and Executive Committee), the Alliance of New York State Art Organizations (Executive Committee), Palm Springs Photo Festival, and the New York State Association of Museums.
Bannon earned a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Bonaventure University, and his master's in media studies and his Ph.D. in cultural studies are from the English Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Thomas Ferraro founded Foodlink 34 years ago when, as an employee of Action for a Better Community, he appeared on a local television station to make a communitywide appeal for food donations to support the emergency food pantries in Rochester.
Ferraro was among the first "food bankers" in the nation. He served on the original Feeding America (known then as Second Harvest) board of directors, working with his peers to develop the concept of food banking nationally. He also assisted in the formation of the other seven New York state food banks, as well as in the creation of the state Department of Health's Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), which provides millions of dollars to hunger relief, food safety and nutrition education programs each year.
Under his direction, Foodlink has grown into a 450-member organization, delivering more than 12 million pounds of food annually to area soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, group homes senior centers and other non-profit organizations in a 10-county area throughout Central and Western New York. Foodlink's full-scale operation includes a 100,000-square-foot warehouse, an industrial kitchen, a fleet of refrigerated trucks, a computerized inventory system and a staff of more than 70 dedicated employees.
Over the past three decades, Ferraro has moved Foodlink's focus beyond the symptom of hunger and toward its root causes by working to build community health and wealth while providing holistic services to those in need. Foodlink goes beyond food banking by focusing on workforce and economic development initiatives, conducting emergency and nonemergency provider trainings to build capacity and ensure safety, emphasizing child nutrition efforts, and offering nutrition, and culinary education throughout our region.
Ferraro has also been an entrepreneur in the nonprofit sector, creating two social enterprises and leading the way in innovative initiatives such as urban agriculture, local value-added processing and converting food waste into fuel and nutrient-rich soil.
He is the recipient of numerous community awards including the Mayor's Charles S. Crimi Pax Humana Award from the City of Rochester in 2000, Rochester Urban League Community Leadership Award for Golden Service and the Greater Rochester Community of Churches Metropolitan Faith-In-Action Award. Foodlink was the recipient of the 2009 Ames-Amzalak Award for NonProfit Excellence (RACF), Heritage Christian's Community Partner Award and edible Finger Lakes' "Local Heroes" Award.
Ferraro and his wife, Regine Calvar, live in Pittsford with their twin 12-year-old sons, Philippe and John. Tom also has an older son, Michael, and two granddaughters.
James E. Hammer serves as president and CEO of Hammer Packaging, a fourth-generation family business founded in 1912. He began his career at then-Hammer Lithograph in 1969 in the sales and customer service department. He was promoted to vice president in 1975, and president and CEO in 1983.
Hammer has grown the company from a $4 million, 60-employee regional firm into a $100 million, 400-employee global organization. He built a culture based on a commitment to six shared values — integrity, respect, trust, passion, credibility and continuous improvement — and a business philosophy of "lead, don't follow."
Success has evolved from Hammer's continued investment in leading-edge technology, hiring the right people and listening to the voice of the customer. The company has won many awards, most notably multiple Best Workplace in America and Rochester's Business Ethics Awards. Hammer has been named to the Inc. 5000 and Rochester Top 100 list of fastest growing privately held companies.
With the exception of Wegmans, Hammer Packaging has been on the Rochester Top 100 listing more times than any other Rochester company. This year will mark the company's 100-year anniversary.
In 2008, Hammer was the receipt of the Lewis Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award, Power of Communications Award and the Herbert Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award from Rochester Institute of Technology. He was also inducted into the Rochester Business Hall of Fame that same year. In 2007, he was inducted into the New York Business Hall of Fame, and, in 2005, he was awarded the Business Person of the Year by the Rochester Small Business Council.
Hammer is a member of the World Presidents Organization and has served as president of the National Label Printing Industries of America. He serves on the board of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at Strong Memorial Hospital, Golisano Children's Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester Business Alliance, and Doyle Security. He also serves as a member of the regional board of directors of JP Morgan Chase.
For more than 20 years, he was on the Board of Directors and served as chairperson of the Governance Committee for Mary Cariola Children's Center.
Hammer actively supports a variety of local, state and national charitable organizations, including United Way of Greater Rochester, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Wilmot Cancer Center, Mary Cariola Children's Center, Golisano Children's Hospital, Junior Achievement, Catholic Family Center, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Camp Good Days and Special Times, and Disabled Children of Monroe County.
Hammer received his bachelor's degree in marketing from Drake College in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He and his wife, Donna, have three children: Lisa, Jason and Ashley.


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REPORTING FROM BETHLEHEM, PA. — "I'd love to go to Germany for Christmas," my mother often said when I was growing up, having visions of Kriss Kringle, the sparkle of candles on tannenbaum, carolers in the street and festive Christmas markets, all in a country where the season is celebrated with gusto. Though we were not a religious family, Christmas was important in our house, and yet we never went. As an adult, I've had the same hankering, with the same result. The anchor of family here is simply too good a reason to stay home.
Then I developed a more modest hankering — to spend a few Christmas-season days in Bethlehem, Pa.'s self-proclaimed "Christmas City" — which my wife, Laurel, and I finally fulfilled last year.
The Hotel Bethlehem, amid the Moravian history of north Bethlehem, is a classic city "anchor" hotel downtown, near everything and a destination in itself, so we headed there on a bright but chilly December afternoon. The hotel opened in 1922 at the behest of and with the support of Bethlehem Steel, whose blast furnaces, across the Lehigh River in south Bethlehem, are closed but once drove the city's economy.
The hotel lobby, lighted by late sun pouring through tall Palladian windows, was a Christmas fantasia: a handful of decorated trees, a crèche over the main entrance and evergreen swags draped from the balcony. Our bedroom looked down on Main Street, where storefronts glittered and the automobile traffic was salted with horse-drawn carriages.
On Christmas Eve in 1741, we learned later, in a cabin where the hotel now stands, Count Zinzendorf and other Moravian settlers from Saxony, Germany, dubbed their new home "Bethlehem," and the city was founded. This cabin is commemorated in a diorama visible to strollers passing by the hotel and also inside, in one of the seven George Gray paintings in the Mural Ballroom.
After checking in we headed for the Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center, a few doors from the hotel at 505 Main St., and signed up for a walking tour (a "Christmas City Stroll") instead of the carriage or bus tours. On the 4 p.m. tour, we figured, dusk would fall and the lights of downtown blink on. Our docent, in a black hooded cape that might have cloaked a Bethlehem Moravian in the 18th century, walked and talked about how Moravian missionaries came to the area and how they lived.
Next to the hotel was a working blacksmith shop that dates from 1750 — operated, like the visitor center and tours, by the Historic Bethlehem Partnership — where a smithy toiled among the embers in the gloom of failing daylight.
"An early settlement wanted three men," he told us, "a blacksmith, a well-known minister and someone who could run a grist mill." Outside again, we walked toward Church Street, where Main dead-ended into a handsome stone building with six-over-six windows that reflected afterglow. This was Brethrens' House, the single men's "choir" building. This introduced us to the choir system that prevailed in the early days, when the Moravians practiced a communal economy and men, women and children lived in segregated housing.
At the perfect, darkening hour, we passed the Central Moravian Church and the lovely buildings, wood, brick or stone, of Moravian College. In every window was a lighted candle (once beeswax, now electric), a tradition Moravians share with their neighbors, the Amish. On a hillside across the Lehigh the Bethlehem Star shone — now LED, not incandescent, a cause of some disgruntlement locally.
We had planned on dining at the hotel's fine restaurant, 1741 on the Terrace, where we would have had views of brightly lighted Main Street, but it had been co-opted for a wedding, which also made the Tap Room (part of the lobby) frenetic. We settled for a drink there and walked to Edge Restaurant, stylish and just a block away, where pan-seared foie gras on toasted banana bread with a honey hazelnut drizzle was the highlight of our meal.
The next morning we headed to the church to see the putz, among the most cherished parts of a Moravian Christmas. Derived from the German putzen, "to decorate," a putz is a crèche, generally under a Christmas tree. With music and narration, this one is more elaborate than most, featuring not just the Nativity but a series of scenes, each individually lighted as the story progresses. They are nestled on a vast carpet of live moss, gathered each November in the Pocono Mountains as a community exercise, and accented with wood and stones. Many of the figures are antiques brought from Germany.
Finally, we crossed Monocacy Creek to the Christkindlmarkt, a vast, tented cornucopia of shops featuring handmade goods, food stands of many ethnicities and entertainment, all in the festive German tradition that dates to the Middle Ages.
O Tannenbaum! We listened to carols, ate bratwurst, shopped. We'll probably never get to Dortmund or Dresden for Christmas, but we were happy with this little slice of Germany in eastern Pennsylvania.
REPORTING FROM BETHLEHEM, PA. — "I'd love to go to Germany for Christmas," my mother often said when I was growing up, having visions of Kriss Kringle, the sparkle of candles on tannenbaum, carolers in the street and festive Christmas markets, all in a country where the season is celebrated with gusto. Though we were not a religious family, Christmas was important in our house, and yet we never went. As an adult, I've had the same hankering, with the same result. The anchor of family here is simply too good a reason to stay home.

subset: commoncrawl


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An updated feature, Undocumented Fact Report, Added option to include only preferred facts.
There has been an Undocumented Fact Report, but users requested that ONLY Preferred Facts be included in this report. We now have that feature.
Publish Workspace, Sources Collection, Undocumented Report. In that screen is a check mark to "Include only Preferred Facts".
Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington


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I've been using spacehi for years. It highlights invisible characters: trailing spaces and tab characters.
Here's how it looks if you toggle it on and off:
In my dotfiles setup, it's turned on by default.
In most cases, whitespace characters do not matter. But sometimes they do. For example, Go and Python are picky about spaces. Also, a mix of spaces and tabs will look different for different people and their editors — because nobody can agree how many spaces at tab character is (4 or 8?!). This is something I've talked about before.
This week, for the second time in a couple of weeks, I lost a bunch of time on another whitespace: character 160, the non-breaking space. To make a long story short, it was a copy and paste from Skype, and the JSON parser I was using choked on it.
It seems spacehi hasn't been touched in (almost exactly) 10 years. I found its mirror on github. But it didn't handle non-breaking spaces, so I forked it.
I'm willing to maintain it, it a very simple Vim plugin. Bug reports and improvements are welcomed.


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Dobrowoda, "Good Water" indeed. Its about 15-16 km from my paternal grandmother (babcia/Busia), Waleria's ancestral village (Biechow). Waleria Leszczynska's (half-)sister, Agnieszka married her 2nd husband, Wladyslaw Fras … somewhere (I am still looking for that marriage). Agnieszka & Waleria (the Leszczynscy) were born in Biechow so you might expect their marriage was there in the bride's village as is custom. But let me start this genealogical story from the beginning.
A few years ago, my family tree on the Internet caused someone to email me about my Leszczynski. For years, other genealogists had emailed about LESZCZYNSKI, so I was used to saying, "Its a popular name and we are not related or are so distantly related that we cannot prove it." But this person had a name, Agnieszka Leszczynski, which I had one too in my tree, but she was born so long ago (1866) that I only had a birth record and nothing more for Agnieszka Leszczynski. But she had a Russian Passport (which she could not read). I had never seen an actual Russian Passport before, so I told her I would look at it and help translate what info I could and perhaps that will tell us whether there is a chance that her ancestor (great-grandfather), Jozef Fras, was son of my Agnieszka Leszczynski or not. Long Story-Short, the passport gave clues to the same area, tantalizingly close to Biechow — so I could neither prove nor disprove the relationship, but it was an avenue for research. So I started researching her Fras/Frass from Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. They were close to where my grandparents and my grand-aunt, Antonina Leszczynska Sobieszczanski lived. Ok that added a very tenuous connection. I found a church baptism where Jozef Fras's wife, BENIGNA (not a common name) was a God Mother to one of my dad's Sobieszczanski cousins. Ok. that is a pretty good connection. Next I found Jozef's ship manifest and that his father was Wladyslaw Fras living in Piersciec, a village in the same parish as my grandmother's family. Ok that is a great connection. Oh, look Jozef went from his father, Wladyslaw, to his uncle Teofil Leszczynski (my grand-uncle) in Depew, Erie County, NY. Ok that is a solid family indicator. So I emailed Mindy to tell her that we were probably related and I added Fras to my family tree.
So Mindy sent me family photos of other Fras family from Poland. So I knew Jozef had two brothers and a sister (maybe) and I had their names. From the passport I had a birthdate / birthplace for Jozef (Zborow – which I initially mistook for Zborowek, but later realized he meant the Zborow near Solec, at any rate both were in Kielce gubernia. So I had Biechow and Solec as possible parishes to research. Eventually GenBaza published images online and I could progress, I did find Jozef's siblings: Teofil & Wincenty(and two sisters born in Piestrzec/Piersciec). But I could not find Jozef and I also could not locate Wladyslaw and Agnieszka's marriage record in Biechow or Solec (nor in Stopnica). I began to research in nearby parishes (cluster genealogy) looking for either the birth or the marriage record. Years went by and no luck.
Did I mention that GenBaza went offline due to technical problems? It did and when it came back I noticed a few new parishes, hence Dobrowoda (which was >= 15km away) and I doubted that a parish at such a distance might yield any new clues. However, earlier I had found a church record in Stopnica of a Fras birth, where a Wladyslaw Fras was God Father. I then found the marriage and alegata for the couple whom Wladyslaw was God Father for. It turned out that Fras was originally from Silesia [Uiejsce, in Wojkowice Koscielne parish, in Piotrkowskiej Gubernia, Poland]. I found this Fras' birth record and now had his parents (possibly Wladyslaw's parents or maybe just uncle/aunt). Using Geneteka as an index, I found other children for Jan Fras & Maryanna Bialas, besides this Stopnica Fras. This family went from Wojkowice Koscielne parish in Piotrkowskiej Gubernia to Holudza village in Chotel Czerwony parish, in Kielce Gubernia. OK now we are getting close. I found Jan Fras' death record in Kikow village in Dobrowoda parish (also Kielce Gubernia). So when Dobrowoda came online, I decided I would look there once GenBaza came back online.
That is where this blog entry starts. There were many years and I was not expecting any Fras really. So I started in Zborowek instead which now had metrical records and not just alegata like before. Some minor advances, but nothing really. So I looked at Dobrowoda. There were many years in Dobrowoda and my eyes went right to a book that ended in 'rejestr'. These 'rejestr' tend to be church censuses, sometimes just an annual census, sometimes a decade, sometimes two-three generations. So I thought I could quickly scan and see if there were any Fras or not in this parish.
It was just an annual census (my hopes were lowered) for 1895 sorted alphabetically with Birth Marriage and Death records indexed together (in a funky Polish handwriting – that I had to train my eyes to read). Ok there was a Fras, a Teofil Fras. But I had already found my Teofil Fras born in 1903, so this Teofil Fras born in 1895 must be for another family. Nonetheless, I wanted the record to see if Wladyslaw or Agnieszka Fras were a God Parent or witness. So I was shocked to find that this Teofil Fras was also a child of Wladyslaw Fras and Agnieszka Leszczynska. This Teofil must have died and thus the second Teofil was born in 1903 (who is the one in my picture with Wincenty). Ok this parish had my Fras. Maybe I can find the birth of Jozef and/or the marriage of Wladyslaw & Agnieszka here. From the passport, I knew that Jozef was born in 1893, so I went to that year. Guess what I found? Yes, I finally found Jozef Fras' birth record and the date matched as well as the parents.
Alas, I still did not find the marriage record of Wladyslaw and Agnieszka, but now I have hope. I hope I can find their marriage and also Wladyslaw's birth (once I confirm that his parents are indeed Jan Fras & Maryanna Bialas). You must persevere. These affiliated families (like Fras) can indicate parishes to research in for your main lines and shorten your cluster genealogy search. But as you saw, Dobrowoda was indeed good water for Stanczyk.
Jozef Fras birth record:


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Item #7609
56 days. This hardworking combination of field peas and hulled oats is a legume and grass cover crop that quickly benefits the soil with nutrients and green matter, while helping suppress weeds. A great cover crop for established gardens, the mix is also perfect for improving areas being turned into gardens such as lawns and vacant lots. Pea plants fix nitrogen and condition the topsoil while the pea flowers attract bees and other beneficial insects. As an added benefit, the young pea shoots and tendrils are edible and can be used in salads or as a soup topping. Oats hold nitrogen, provide green matter, and provide support for the pea vines.
Soil Builder is best grown as a fall cover crop but can also be grown in spring. When sown in the fall, the oats and peas benefit from the cool weather but are killed by the cold temperatures of winter and won't regrow in the spring. The dead plant material provides a wonderful winter mulch that helps prevent soil erosion and is ready to be tilled into the garden as soon as soil can be worked in the spring.
This packet sows 70 square feet (7' x 10' planting area).
Days to Emerge:
Seed Depth:
Seed Spacing:
When to sow outside: Fall: 6 to 8 weeks before first fall frost, and when temperatures are below 80°F. Spring: As soon as soil can be worked and soil temperature is at least 40°F.
When to start inside: Not applicable.
Artist: Donna Clement
Item #7609
65.00 grams
What is Soil?
Soil is a diverse mix of substances, teeming with life and composed of minerals, decayed plant and animal matter, water, and air. It…More…
Cover crops are fast growing plants, usually grains, legumes or grasses, that are utilized by farmers and gardeners for one or more of their beneficial…More…
Provide Diversity
Why do large monoculture farms use so many pesticides? Because, their huge fields of a single crop are like big neon signs to…More…


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Matt Lauer's having a rough week. Not only is his future at Today under close speculation, but now his character is under attack.
On Tuesday, Darren Sweeney, a local Fox reporter in Ohio, quoted former Today intern Mark Zinni criticizing Lauer on Twitter. "I was just a young kid with a bright future ahead of me," Zinni said, adding that the host was "not so nice." Zinni also retweeted Sweeney's tweet.
Is NBC replacing Matt Lauer with Anderson Cooper?The next day, Lauer, who rarely tweets, responded : "huh? Always tried to be nice Mark. Sorry you didn't think so. Hope you're doing well. Matt"Zinni, who interned at Today in 1997 (the same year Lauer became co-host) and is now an anchor at Cleveland's Fox affiliate station, elaborated on his story on Fox 8's website. "If you know me, you probably know that I don't take myself too seriously," Zinni wrote. "So my answer was more of a joke about being young and naïve during my time at Today, but I added that he wasn't nice to me."I didn't slam the guy, I just made an honest comment."Zinni said that he was "shocked" and "flattered" that Lauer bothered responding or remembered him at all."By the way, Katie [Couric] and Ann [Curry] were great," he added.Do you believe Zinni?


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- Library Overview
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Did you know...
Special Collections: Maps and Atlases
Map of the State of Maryland, 1794 [1795] by Dennis Griffith, MdHS.
How to Find Maps
The library has both individual maps and atlases (bound, published collections of maps).
Mapping Maryland Online Exhibit
Finding Maps
Individual maps are part of Special Collections and may be requested in special collections. To identify maps, do all of the following:
1. Check the Combined Map Inventory.
2. Browse our online catalog. Choose "Power Search" and enter maps under the "Collection Group" search field.
3. Check the subject index to maps, a card index which includes many maps not listed in the Combined Map Inventory. This index is in the card cabinet in the Microfilm Reading Area . The index is labeled "Maps A-Z."
4. Check the plat card index for a plat of a specific land tract. The plat index can be found in the card cabinet in the Microfilm Reading Area and is labeled "Plats A-Z."
Finding Atlases
Atlases are part of the collection of the Main Reading Room. To find atlases, do a keyword search in the online catalog for atlas. If you have a call number for an atlas listed in our catalog, but cannot find it, please request it at the reference desk in the main reading room.
In addition to numerous county atlases, the Library owns the following:
Hammond-Harwood Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland (REF MG1270.P3 1982)
Martenet's Map of Maryland: Atlas Edition (MG1270.M39M37)
State of Maryland Historical Atlas (REF MG1271.S1R3)
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1885-1950, 1950-1970 (Microfilm 1252-1265)
The American Revolution, 1775-1783 (G3701.S3G8 )
Atlas of Early American History (REF E209.S3C2)
Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (E464.U62)
Campaigns of the American Revolution (G1201.S3P4)
Historical Atlas of Religion in America (REF G1201.E4G3)
Map Guide to the US Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 (REF HA195.E25 T498)
Township Atlas of the United States (REF G1200.A57)
West Point Atlas of American Wars (G1201.S1U5)
Baltimore City
Atlas of Baltimore and Its Environs, 1876 (Hopkins atlas) is exceptionally useful for Baltimore City north of North Avenue. Sanborn maps (see below) did not cover this area until the 1930s.
Atlas of the City of Baltimore, 1885, 1896, 1906 (Bromley atlases) have much more detailed building information for the city than the earlier Hopkins atlas but less information about surrounding areas. The numbers on the buildings indicate their height, and colors represent building materials.
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and atlases are the best for finding information about buildings. In addition to the microfilm noted above, the library also owns originals of the following print editions for Baltimore City:
1879 edition. 2 vols. These are in the cabinet under the balcony at the back (east) wall of the main reading room.
1902 edition, corrected through 1914. 4 vols. These are in the cabinet under the balcony at the back (east) wall of the main reading room.
1914 edition, corrected through 1937. 9 vols. These must be requested at the reference desk. Please use the microfilm before requesting the print version; it may provide the information you need.


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February 2, 2012 3 Comments
Dear readers, friends, and supporters,
The Dorchester Community Blog will no longer be active, immediate today. We hope that you've enjoyed the content we've created; we can't tell you how much we've enjoyed creating it. We've loved interacting with all of you since the blog's inception in 2010 and look forward to continued interactions with you on our other platforms. We invite you to connect with us on the Dorchester Web site, Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you for your support!
The Dorchester Staff


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(Pocket-lint) - The term Ultrabook becomes more loosely defined with every release under its name. The latest to bend the ultra-slim rules, the Acer Timeline M3 Ultra, despite not being particularly thin has a lot about it worth getting excited about.
Inside is one of Nvidia's new 640m processors, this is fun for many reasons. Most of all because it provides an unparalleled mobile gaming experience, but also because it uses little power and is more compact than previous cards. The result is a laptop which while thicker than most Ultrabooks, more than lives up to the name in the power and battery life department. No bad thing then.
Is this really an Ultrabook?
First up, a gripe or two to get off our chest. We don't want to start on the bad foot - believe us, the M3 is great - it's just not an Ultrabook. Intel defines the genre by essentially copying the standards set by the MacBook Air. Intel requires a 21mm maximum height on anything with 14-inch or larger display. The M3 is 19.8mm thick, so incredibly close to the maximum threshold and thick enough for it to feel nowhere near as portable as some of the other disc-drive-free Ultrabooks.
This is the first Ultrabook to use discrete graphics instead of the Intel integrated system. Again going slightly against the definition of the name, but in the end, no bad thing. On paper the M3 stays just within the lines of Intel's specifications, but the second you hold it against the likes of a MacBook Air or Zenbook, say, it doesn't feel nearly as portable.
More power
All this would cause rather a significant irritation if it weren't for the M3 blowing everything out of the water in power terms, while being about half the size of something like the Alienware M17x.
We've been playing through a copy of Mass Effect 3 on the laptop for a while now. We can ran the game maxed out, with absolutely no sign of slowdown whatsoever. The same applies to Battlefield 3 which hits a smooth FPS on "ultra" with little problems. You might want to keep it on high to ensure a totally fluid experience, but essentially, this laptop is a gaming beast.
Connecting the hardware up to a 1080p monitor via HDMI and then cranking up the in game resolution, we saw a frame rate drop of about 10 fps, enough to do away with any chances of running Battlefield 3 on ultra settings. Still, the game was more than playable on high. Incredibly, despite the huge load something like Battlefield 3 would place on the card, we still managed to get around two hours of playtime from the battery. This is extremely impressive for a laptop of this size.
Aside from the graphics card, the Acer is a bit less fun. The Core i5 processor inside is decent enough, and is clocked at 1.6 GHz. 4GB of RAM is adequate as is the 450 GB hard drive. You do probably want to go for the 256GB solid state option, as it will speed up a lot of conventional Ultrabook tasks such as wake times and boots.
Boot times aren't helped by the horrendous load of software that Acer dumps on to the laptop. We are sure that some will find them useful, but let us decide whether we want them or not, rather than having to clear out the system. It's a gripe we have with most laptops we review.
Looking good-ish
Thank God a manufacturer has finally stopped trying to rip-off the design of the MacBook Air and done something different with the Ultrabook concept. This is a laptop that certainly looks unique, or at least unique in how boring it is. There is not a single thing to get excited about with the M3 other than that it turns on and off and runs games like nothing else. The trackpad is a tad dodgy, but works. The keyboard is nice enough, the whole thing is just acceptable, but in a very unexciting way.
Some may enjoy this, but with a product this premium we want to see something a bit more innovative, particularly given its power capabilities. Instead Acer has gone for a black slab approach. This is a real shame as the internals are so impressive, a decent shell would have had us sold. In the end, if you are just after it for its internals, you won't be disappointed.
One of the main reasons we had Battlefield 3 running so high was partly thanks to the M3's 15-inch display, which runs at 1366 x 768 resolution. This is disappointingly low for such a big screen - again, a shame as we know the 640m could be put to use in 1080p form and still do well enough. Even so, the actual panel is nice, well saturated and bright - just don't expect top notch viewing angles.
Because the M3 is a sort of quasi-ultrabook, it lacks a lot of the connectivity you get with something that has a bit more size to play with. A DVD drive is present as are a trio of USBs, one of which is 3.0 capable. There's HDMI on the back, and an Ethernet port, headphone jack and an SD card reader. That's it. Not hugely comprehensive then.
The M3 does seem to be made from some absurdly fingerprint friendly material. After only a few seconds of having the laptop near our hands, it appeared covered in marks and smudges. You might point the finger at our KFC habit, but this was before our daily bargain bucket. Best keep a micro-fibre cloth nearby if you want it looking swish.
At £600 the M3 offers fairly persuasive value for money. It also makes it one of the cheaper Ultrabooks - funny, given it doesn't really deserve the name. It should fall into a new category altogether, aimed directly at those who want to game on the go. For this, the M3 is the best we have seen. If, however, you are about to consider it as a thin laptop purchase, don't, there is a lot better out there.
What it has told us is what we can expect from this generation of mobile GPUs. Thinner, lighter and less power hungry, they can now very clearly rival the desktop. Lets just wait until someone wraps it all up in a package that looks a bit nicer.


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Parents to OR Lawmakers: We Need Help with Affordable Child Care
SALEM, Ore. - Someone else is "minding the children" for a while this morning so parents and child-care providers can visit their legislators in Salem.
They're asking for more state funding for the Employment-Related Day Care program that pays a portion of child-care costs for working, low-income parents. The program has been trimmed in recent years and could be serving 3,000 more families than it does now.
Renee Cripe of Roseburg, an in-home child-care provider, said it's hard to watch young parents struggle to keep their jobs and keep their toddlers in decent child care.
"We want these people to not have to be on welfare, to contribute to society," she said. "And then, it's the issue of us trying to also make a living by supporting these families."
The system serves about 8,500 of the 12,000 eligible families. One frustration for parents, said Richard Myers, policy director for Children First for Oregon, is that there's a very long waiting list to get ERDC benefits.
"Their job situation often is not quite as reliable," he said, "and one of the problems is, they may lose their job by the time they become eligible for Employment-Related Day Care. We want to get rid of the wait list and say if you meet the criteria of the program, yes, you should get on this."
Ken Dale, executive director of the Peninsula Children's Center in Portland, acknowledges that child-care costs in Oregon are high compared with other states, but adds that most providers do what they can to help families.
"We have a scholarship program and a financial aid program ourselves, but we can't 100 percent subsidize someone because we ourselves are operating on a shoestring, to be able to pay our staff and to give medical benefits to our staff."
The Oregon Business Association has added its voice to the call for more ERDC funding, saying that with quality child care, the workforce is stronger and more productive.
Today's event starts at 9 a.m. in Room 50 at the State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Salem.


text: I'd like to mention how much I enjoyed Mikhail Ryabko's DVD, Wrestling. Several things stood out. First, Mikhail starts by giving the viewer exercises to strengthen the muscles around the two most common injury sites in grappling sports: the knees and shoulders. Unfortunately this approach is still ..read more >>


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Christina Landman
Research Institute for Theology and Religion University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Religious identity links a person to his or her religious beliefs or affiliations. However, in a secularised world, religious identity no longer takes the lead in constructing a person's life. It takes its place among other identities of age, class, (dis)ability, ethnicity, gender, race, sexuality, indigeneity, locality and size (Hopkins 2010:8-9).
Religious identity, like all other identities, is constructed by social discourses. Oral history is not blameless in this regard, supporting social construction by affirming people's life stories. However, oral history research in South Africa is well placed to play another role, that of constructing contra-cultures and deconstructing the discourses that keep interviewees captive in the dominant discourses of ageism, sexism, racism and oppression.]]> Apart from deconstructing identities of failure and captivity and reconstructing them as healthy religious identities, some oral history research in South Africa also strives to heal memories with religious identity as dialogic space and intertext. In this role, oral history research is not uncontested locally. In 2008, Sean Field, Director of the Centre for Popular Memory at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, rejected the need of the interviewer to have counselling skills in an article entitled "What can I do when the interviewee cries?" (Field 2008:15). The aim of oral history interviewing, according to Field, is to gather information, and not to heal. In a later article, "Disappointed remains", he (Field 2011:149) repeats his position that "oral historians generally do not - and should not - have healing or therapeutic aims", since oral history research is defined by research and not by the political aim of reconstructing a happy nation. Philippe Denis from the Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, deviates from this position in his latest book, A journey towards healing (2011) in which the stories of people in KwaZulu-Natal "with multiple woundedness" are told and it demonstrates how their stories were deconstructed in an oral history process towards healing. In the introductory chapter, Denis (2011:14) argues for "story-based interventions" as a means towards the healing of trauma and traumatic memories.
This author views counselling skills as a prerequisite for oral history interviewing in the light of the retraumatisation that occurs when interviewees relate traumatic experiences of the past. However, in terms of social construction theory, healing ultimately lies in the deconstruction of the harmful discourses that keep society captive in the name of religion, and in the reconstruction of healthy religious discourses that are based on human dignity.
Consequently, this paper describes seven oral history projects recently conducted in South Africa in which the deconstruction of harmful religious discourses and the construction of preferred life stories took place, and in which the aim of healing "trauma" - used here in the broad sense of ongoing deprivation and inhumanity - is presupposed. Not on purpose but incidentally, the oral history projects presented here were conducted in predominantly Christian communities. All the projects described here were conducted by the author as research professor at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion at the University of South Africa. The only exception is the memory box project of the Sinomlanda Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (subsection 4).
Religion as a health asset
During the second half of 2010, a project was launched in Dullstroom-Emnotweni in Mpumalanga, the most north-eastern province of South Africa. Interviews were conducted by me with 60 young people in Sakhelwe, the traditionally black suburb ("township") of Dullstroom-Emnotweni.
The aim of the interviews was to determine what unemployed and poor young people expected from their churches in a context where there is nothing but a church, with no social workers, nurses, or doctors in the township - and also no computers. However, this was not the only reason for the research. The aim was also to move away from describing religion as the problem discourse, to viewing religion as an asset to society. Being an asset to society, religion becomes a space in which the youth can move towards fulfilling their needs. The results of this research, then, which made use of oral history methodology, were presented at a meeting of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa under the title of "Co-creating space with township youth" (Landman 2011).
The method of investigation was that of oral history, with the youth first being invited to talk about their journeys with the church. The young people were hesitant to give honest answers in this regard, but several stories of them having experienced the church as irrelevant to their needs and contexts ensued. They perceived the church as dictatorial to their private lives, not understanding that they were not always free to be moral in terms of the church's demands. Thus, during this first part of the interviews, the faces of religion as a problem discourse were revealed. During the interviews, the research population of 60 township youths was introduced to the concept of the church being an asset to society, which seemed to come as a surprise to them. They were used to a church that made financial demands and looked over one's shoulder for moral indiscretions.
For the second part of the interviews, the philosophy driving the research was that of the African Religious Health Assets Programme (http://www.arhap.uct.ac.za) from the University of Cape Town. Religious Health Assets in this programme are regarded as "locally embedded religious images, values, practices, people and organizations that might issue in action to heal and produce through local and translocal agency" (as defined by ARHAP). As beliefs, practices and places, Religious Health Assets (RHAs) can therefore be both tangible and intangible. Examples of tangible RHAs are care groups, FBO (Faith Based Organisations), religious hospitals and clinics, as well as congregational programmes and events. Intangible RHAs include the motivational capacity of religious faith, symbolism, hope and trust (Schmid, Cochrane & Olivier 2010:137152).
The interviewees, taken randomly from the street, were evenly spread in terms of age between 15 and 35, with a majority (33%) between 20 and 25 years of age. A minority (38%) of them were male, which there was a female majority of 62%. All of them belonged to a church; a majority (82%) were mainstream, while the rest worshipped in an African Independent Church. What was most significant about them in terms of this research was that approximately half of them have finished school (Grade 12), but none of them had received tertiary education. Fifty of those interviewed (83%) were unemployed, and have indeed never been employed since leaving school. The 10 that were employed had jobs with an income of between R900 and R3 000 per month ($100-$330).]]> It is therefore not a surprise that, when they identified their needs, it was in terms of opportunities for post-school training, with a focus both on academic and skills training. Secondly, the impoverished youth asked for business opportunities. Thirdly, they asked that the church teach them HIV counselling and home visitation skills. Again, this is not surprising in a community in which the HIV infection rate is estimated to be between 50% and 70%.
In summary, during oral history interviews with young people from Sakhelwe who were poor and unemployed, the history of religion as a problem discourse was deconstructed, with religion being rescoped as a health asset. Whether the churches, themselves impoverished and understaffed, can comply with the demands of a reconstructed discourse is another question. However, the construction of churches as health assets opens an important door to the healing of a poor community who, at the time, was without hope.
From histories of blame to salvation histories
During 2009, oral history research was undertaken in a congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). The congregation of Middelburg Nazareth, a suburb of the town of Middelburg, in Mpumalanga (north-eastern South Africa) consists of mainly coloured people, and was established in 1972 as a result of the Group Areas Act (No. 41 of 1950), which had people forcefully removed to peri-urban areas on the basis of their skin colour.
The aim of oral history interviews with congregants of Nazareth was to produce a book of histories for the 40th anniversary of the congregation in 2012. The oldest surviving members of the congregation were interviewed, as were several young members. There was an interview with Rev Vincent Cloete, a previous minister, as well as with the present one, Prof Nico Botha. Historical facts were substantiated and expanded with information from the cemetery and church council minutes. Many photographs of high historical value were also retrieved from congregants. The focus of the interviews, however, was not on dates of comings and goings and events, but on the value of the journeys travelled by congregants with the church.
When this project started, the congregation and the interviewer agreed, at a congregational meeting, that one of the main aims of the research would be to establish a renewed and unique religious identity. However, the congregation could not agree on its history. During a feedback meeting, some of the congregants were dissatisfied with information revealed by others. As a result, the history of the congregation has not been published yet. The interviewer is still negotiating with the congregation on what type of historical account builds identity, and more specifically religious identity. Will exposing skeletons and hidden agendas achieve the religious identity they long for? Or can the congregation agree on their history as a salvation history? And what is a salvation history, if not one of exclusion and covering up? A salvation history, one that builds religious identity, would be inclusive of all role players in a congregation as vulnerable people who in some way or another contributed to the history of people who have been living in a religious relationship with one another.
This disagreement means that the interviewer will change from innocent, fact-finding questions, to relative influence questions. Some of the ministers in this congregation were very strict, hanging on to old laws. Rev Cloete, for instance, forbade congregants to kick a ball on Sundays. Many of the interviewees expressed a feeling of safety in the light of such laws. Other ministers introduced new practices, such as Rev DF Jacobs who ordered coffins to be placed at the back of the church during a funeral and not in front, much to the disgust of many congregants. The minister whose ties have been severed by the congregation, is seen by some as not having "minister's manners" and by others as a "people's person".
What then, are the relative influence questions that will shift this information towards forming a salvation history and an inclusive religious identity without making the interviewee feel guilty about his or her preferences? These would be questions such as "What would a minister that would be to everybody in the congregation's liking be like? "What were your expectations of the minister when you called him?" "What happened to spoil these expectations for you?" These questions will assist the interviewee in externalising the problem of expectations about and acceptance of a minister. This, too, will empower the interviewee to rise against the problem - together with other congregants, even those of a different opinion - in order to protect the identity of the congregation.
Changing the focus of the congregation's religious identity from "Unheilsgeschichte" to "Heilsgeschichte", that is, from a history of blame to a salvation history, then, may lead to the healing of the congregational memories.]]>
Religious identity: from post-colonial to post-development
In the first subsection of this paper, it was argued that deconstructing religious discourses that spiritualise churches and re-scoping churches as religious health assets can lead to health and healing. In a sense, this reconstructed discourse can be referred to as churches assuming a post-colonial identity. Religious identity that is built in religious communities on the presupposition that religion is a participant in development and that a religious community is an asset to society, does indeed represent a shift from colonialist to post-colonial identification. As was said in subsection 1, in many townships in South Africa, as well as in rural areas, there are - in the absence of nurses, hospitals, clinics, doctors, social workers, efficient local government and the like - no other assets but religious institutions that can contribute to post-colonial development. This, in turn, validates churches' post-colonial identities.
However, strong criticism has been lodged in recent years against post-colonial perspectives on development. These post-development discourses, in criticism of post-colonial identities, find development to be favouring technology above ecology, enhancing consumerism and used in the interest of the Western ideals. Post-development discourse favours locality and anti-capitalism. In addition, it favours social movements above centralised government.
Post-development discourses have not as yet been expressed with reference to religious institutions, but religious institutions may take note of post-developmental concerns that the world cannot afford everybody enjoying a middle-class existence and that such expectations should not be raised in communities. How can this message be conveyed by oral history research in order to lead communities to healing that does not result in neo-consumerism and damage to the ecology?
During December 2012 and January 2013, 42 interviews were held with young people in the four townships of the eMakhazeni local municipality in the north-eastern province of Mpumalanga. These townships are Sakhelwe in Dullstroom-Emnotweni, Emthonyeni (in Machadodorp), Siyathuthuka (in Belfast) and eMgwenya (in Waterval Boven). The aim was to listen to the stories of religious young people about their journeys regarding service delivery protests, and to advise churches on a "post-development stance" towards these protests.
While the oral history research described in subsection 1 can in a way be called "post-colonial" in presenting the churches as religious health assets that can assist in the needs of the youth, the latter project was "post-development" in its aim towards healing a society within the challenges of a world dying because of consumerism and damage to nature.
The research population consisted of young people who have participated previously (and recently) in service delivery protests and were also active in the youth ministries of their churches. They fell within the 18 to 32-year-old age bracket, with a majority (30 out of 42) between the age of 18 and 26. Half were male and half were female. More than half of them (23) did not only have a matric qualification, but were studying at tertiary institutions. Because the interviews were held during the holidays, the interviewees included students from a variety of national - and international - universities who were home for Christmas. The group described in subsection 1 had no access to tertiary education, were mainly unemployed with their needs centring around skills training and HIV counselling. The group presently under discussion was also unemployed but many of them were engaged in training. Their main needs - and the reason for them participating in service delivery protests - were jobs and housing.
The key question during the interviews was how the young church people - all of whom have participated in service delivery protests - saw the church's role and participation in these protests. On the one hand, the research alerted them to the fact that the church could play a mediating role between them and the municipality, as well as a supporting and even a providing role in obtaining what they needed. Most of the interviewees then also indicated that they wanted to see the church in those roles. They needed all the help they could get, and if help would come from the church, they had no problem with the church's participation in these protests in whatever way possible.
On the other hand, then, these results lead to questions on what sound ministerial practices vis-à-vis service delivery challenges would be if demands from the youth became "unrealistic" in terms of consumerism and damage to the environment.]]> The project advises churches - albeit at the moment only in an academic setting (Landman 2013) - to answer the following questions in order to engage in ministerial practices that would place churches within the ideals of a post-development identity. One: does the church look at the outcomes of service delivery protests in a non-reductionist way? Are the outcomes purely material or can there be benefits for the environment? Two: will the ministerial practice of the church be able to establish a multi-dimensional contra-culture? Will this culture oppose both consumerism and poverty that is disempowering? What are the models for envisioning a multidimensional contra-culture? Will it be a participatory post-development and is it possible? Will it be a servanthood leadership model that revitalises the community without turning into a demands model? Three: is the church exploring the dialogical spaces between binaries, or does it polarise? What are the positions between poverty and consumerism, between voiceless, job seeking youth and existing structures of power and exclusion, between agency and victimhood, between the church's political and prophetic roles? Four: with whom is the church partnering? Are they partnering with businesses that have (post)-developmental policies? Are they partnering with ecologically friendly donors? Can the church create a community of care for both the youth and the environment?
Religious identity presupposed: from victim to actor
Brief reference will be made here to oral history research done by Philippe Denis and the Sinomlando Centre that was published in a book Never too small to remember: Memory work and resilience in a time of AIDS (2005). The oral history process entails assisting AIDS orphans in making memory boxes in which they place photographs and other significant items to remember their deceased parents and earlier life as part of a family.
This oral history process is accompanied by incentives to strengthen the resilience of children by constructing identity through memory. Religious identity is thus constructed not by stories of failure and abandonment, but by stories of resilience in the face of loss. Children develop resilience when theirs are not the stories of victims of social isolation and, therefore, social injustice, but as stories of survivors, and actors in their own life stories.
How does this bear on the construction of religious identity? The contra-culture of resilience and agency constructed by Denis through memory boxing presupposes a religious context. It uses religion as an intertext and is done from the Sinomlando Centre that is situated in the School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. There is no concerted effort through the project to encourage religious identification among the participating children. Priests and ministers are trained and used as facilitators in the project, among other professionals such as social workers and nurses. This blends in with the rationale behind all the projects described here; that views religious identity as one of a variety of coexisting, non-competing identities in a person, and religious institutions as spaces of healing among other spaces such as clinics and NGOs.
From moral identity to healing identities
A seven-year project was conducted in Atteridgeville, a township of Pretoria/Tshwane, from 2000 to 2007 in which oral history interviews were conducted with the leaders of 102 churches on their healing practices, and with 1 000 patients reporting for counselling at Kalafong, the local state hospital. The process, stories ensuing and results of this project are presented in the book "Township spiritualities and counseling" (Landman 2008).
The first category of church leaders interviewed, were those leading the "mission churches" established in Atteridgeville during in the 1940s and 1950s. These are churches such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Dutch Reformed (Uniting Reformed), Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, as well as the African Methodist Episcopal, Congregational and other churches. The leadership of these, and all other churches in Atteridgeville, are in the hands of local black people. According to these churches, illness and misfortune are caused by personal sin (that is, immoral behaviour and non-commitment), by original sin (that is, illness is a natural part of life), or Satan, who makes you do immoral things. Healing is effected through supernatural means after the sinner has prayed and believed, as well as through Biblical counselling and moral regeneration. The sinner's participation in his/her healing, then, is through prayer, belief and mending his/her ways (Landman 2008:14-15).]]> The second group of church leaders interviewed were leading the churches that broke away from the mission churches and were well established by the 1960s. They are churches such as the African Catholic Church and the Lutheran Bapedi Church. They too saw illness and misfortune as caused by personal sin (that is, unclean lives). The role of the priest/pastor in healing is prominent here with healing effected through the laying on of hands, anointing and prayer. The sinner participates in his/her healing by believing (Landman 2008:1718).
Thirdly, the Classical Pentecostal churches and their leaders were interviewed. These are churches, previously known as "sects"/"denominations" ("sektes" in Afrikaans) established in the 1960s, such as the Apostolic Faith Mission, the Assemblies of God and the Full Gospel Church of God. Illness and misfortune are caused by Satan ("the devil"), original sin ("born in sin") and/or personal sin. Healing is effected through the pastor laying on hands and driving the demons out, with the sinner contributing through repentance.
The fourth group that was interviewed were leaders from Zion-type churches. These are churches with the word "Zion" or "Apostolic" in their names, excluding the Apostolic Faith Mission mentioned above. They appeared in Atteridgeville during the 1970s and constitute the majority of churches in the township. Some of these churches heal through "indigenous" methods such as cleansing through vomiting and sacrifices, bathing in water with ashes, consuming herbs, and displaying candles and cards. These churches view personal sin, non-adherence to the ancestors and witchcraft as the causes of illness and misfortune. Illness is punishment from God. The priest as healer lays hands on the sinner, prays and drives out demons, while the sinner contributes to his/her healing by submitting to bodily and spiritual cleansing and by making animal sacrifices.
In the fifth category, leaders from conversion churches ("bekeerkerke" in Afrikaans) were interviewed. This is a broad term for churches established in the 1980s and whose members claim that they are "born-again". Again, the priest/pastor takes a central role in the healing process through driving out demons and laying on hands. Illness is viewed as caused by personal sin, witchcraft and demons. It is believed that the Holy Spirit effects healing and not a doctor or traditional healer.
The author leading this research simultaneously worked as a narrative therapist at Kalafong, the state hospital situated on the outskirts of Atteridgeville. Here about a thousand patients reported for counselling, all but four of them1 belonging to one or more of the churches described above.2
The counselling explored the dialogical spaces between the healing of the Western medicine provided by the hospital on the one hand, and the township spiritualities with their emphasis on personal sin (immorality) and original sin as the causes of illness and misfortune - leaving no space for the sinner to actively participate in his/her own healing.
Narrative counselling proved to be helpful in assisting patients to deconstruct religious discourses that held them captive in depression, helplessness and identities of failure. Among these discourses were "illness and misfortune are caused by personal sin" and "the sinner can do nothing for his/her own healing other than repenting, praying, believing and sacrificing". Narrative counselling undermines the internalisation of guilt (personal sin) by externalising the illness and the misfortune, thereby separating the patient from the problem. The patient is then empowered to deal with the problem, the illness, the misfortune and their causes by mapping and revitalising their own indigenous and historical strengths, many of which may be of religious origin.
Thus, alternative religious identities are formed that conform to the patient's preferred way of being and believing. Contributing to the healing of the patient, these religious identities are constructed through discourses on human dignity, identities of care and the agency of those who are ill and struck by misfortune.
The histories of women of faith: from hidden stories to stories of space]]> Religious identity in South Africa has been blatantly constructed in a patriarchal way for centuries. A shift in this regard has been made through the oral history work of historians from the Circle of African Women Theologians. The Circle was formed in 1989 in Accra, Ghana, under the leadership of Prof Mercy Oduyoye, then Deputy Secretary of the World Council of Churches, to assist African women theologians in publishing academically.
Most of their publications, all of which ultimately aim at reconstructing religious identity to be gender-inclusive, contain the stories of women of faith, and their struggle for social justice in the church. One of their publications, Her-stories: Hidden histories of women of faith in Africa (Phiri, Govinden & Nadar 2002), should be mentioned specifically, since it retrieves the previously hidden stories of women's contribution to the reconstruction of religious identity in their faith communities. This book, then, makes a significant contribution to cleansing religious identity from patriarchal priorities and replenishing it with the indigenous wisdoms of both men and women.
Additionally, interviews conducted by the author with rural men and women on the preferred place of women in the church are relevant. Sixty black women and forty black men from rural Dullstroom-Emnotweni were interviewed during the first few months of 2013 on what they viewed as the proper gender roles for men and women, and how they saw women's role in the church.
The women's ages ranged from 19 to 70 and yet there does not seem to be a difference in the way they view gender roles. They all view the man as the head of the family. A substantial number of the women feel that a man may punish his wife if she is disobedient, although the younger women feel it is against the law. By far the majority of women say that a good man is one who supports his family, although at least 80% of the men in the township are unemployed. A good woman in the eyes of the women interviewed is the one that cooks for her husband, respects him and does not drink beer. Although 70% of the women interviewed were unemployed, more women in the township are employed than men.
When asked which woman in the Bible they regarded as a role model and why, a vast majority of women answered that Mary was their role model because she gave birth to Jesus. Interesting enough, some of the older women - albeit a very small minority - looked at Hagar and Ruth as role models because they were strong women.
The men's answers to gender role stereotyping were even more stylised according to traditional views. The man is the head of the household. He leads his family in God's will. A good woman is one who respects her husband and does not drink alcohol. In spite of casting women in their traditional roles as far as the family is concerned, the men gave politically correct answers in affirming women's space in the church as well as their leadership roles in ecclesiastical matters.
What has this project achieved in terms of healing a patriarchal society? Hopefully a new consciousness was raised by the type of questions asked, questions that undermined patriarchal discourses and opened up space for women's leadership roles in the church.
Furthermore, the project placed gender roles in society and in the church on the table, creating space for religious and community leaders for future discussions. Above all, the project points to the reign of a stubborn patriarchal gender identity and how it is being fed by harmful religious discourses on divine manhood on an ongoing basis.
From frozen stories to unfreezing the walking voice]]> A final tendency in constructing religious identity through oral history research is to "unfreeze" the walking voice of the interviewee. Memory is fluid, and so is religious identity. Oral history research should allow space for both memory and religious identity.
An example of oral history research as "unfreezing the walking voice" is research done on the life journey of 77-year-old Lindiwe ("MaLindi") Myeza (born in 1935). She played a prominent role as a layperson in religious resistance movements and institutions such as the South African Council of Churches from 1960 onwards (Landman 2012). In retelling her stories, MaLindi was constantly empowered by the interview situation to reconstruct her memory and liberate her voice from being frozen in one presentation only. During the interviews, MaLindi shifted between a pietist identity of being the mere vessel through which the Divine works, and a liberationist identity of being empowered to bring about change in and liberation to society. In order to enable her to shift and "unfreeze" her religious identities, a threefold method of oral interviewing was used. Ownership of her stories was given to the interviewee on the grounds of the indigenous knowledge she displayed. Simultaneously she was encouraged to show her vulnerability in reliving the stories. While contextual and cultural bridging was deliberately effected between the interviewee and interviewer, the shift between standard and non-standard religious identities was in no way inhibited or corrected by the interviewer. Finally, the reconstruction of religious identities - even when they were not in harmony with one another - were noted and encouraged vis-à-vis their contribution to the healing of society.
The future, too, will honour the fluidity of her memory, and accordingly, the shifting constructions of her religious identities.
This paper has described seven innovations in the ways oral history research constructs religious identity in South African contexts. They are the following: (1) constructing religious identity, not as a problem discourse, but on the presupposition that religion is an asset to the community that places tangible (buildings, meetings) as well as intangible (motivation, hope, spirituality) assets at the disposal of the community; (2) constructing religious identity not through stories of captivity in victimhood, but through the histories of the embodiment of social justice by the community; (3) constructing religious identity not within capitalist ideals, but within post-development discourses that reject consumerism and the technological exploitation of the earth; (4) constructing religious identity not through stories of oppression and failure alone, but as resilient, presenting the victims of social injustice as actors in these contexts and agents in social change towards justice; (5) constructing religious identity not as a passive reception of fate, but as having access and the right to healing; (6) constructing religious identity free from patriarchal identification and in its voicing of women's stories; and (7) constructing religious identity as fluid by unfreezing its walking voices.
These innovative ways of conducting oral history research were illustrated with projects that have been and are currently running in South Africa in rural areas, townships, schools and cities; among children, young people, adults and older people; and among men and women. This paper explains how the reconstruction of religious identity through relative influence oral history research leads to the empowerment of interviewees from victimhood to agency. It furthermore illustrates how religious identity based on patriarchy and globalisation is undermined and reconstructed into healthy identities feeding from the indigenous wisdom of the interviewees.
Methodologies in constructing religious identity outside classism, sexism, ageism and racism are discussed. In addition, the unfrozen stories of people walking from childhood dreams to unemployment, and from suffering to victimhood were told. - And these stories are kept unfrozen to walk towards a new agency and a liberating religious identity.
Works consulted]]>
Denis, Philippe 2005. Never too small to remember. Memory work and resilience in a time of AIDS. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster. [ Links ]
Denis, Philippe, Houser, Scott & Ntsimane, Radikobo (eds.). 2011. A journey towards healing: stories of people with multiple woundedness in KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritsburg: Cluster. [ Links ]
Field, Sean 2006. Beyond 'healing': Trauma, oral history and regeneration. Oral History, 31-42. [ Links ]
Field, Sean 2008. 'What can I do when the interviewee cries?' Oral history strategies for containment and regeneration, in P. Denis and R. Ntsimane (eds.), Oral history in a wounded country: interactive interviewing in South Africa. Durban: KwaZulu-Natal University Press. [ Links ]
Field, Sean 2011. Disappointed remains: trauma, testimony and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa, in D. Ritchie (ed.). The Oral History Handbook. New York: Oxford University Press, 142-158. [ Links ]]]>
Hopkins, Peter E 2010. Young people, place and identity. London & New York: Routledge. [ Links ]
Landman, Christina. 2008. Township spiritualities and counselling. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion. [ Links ]
Landman, Christina 2011. Co-creating space with township youth. Paper delivered at the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa, at a Conference on "Creating space for a local theological voice", on 20 January 2011, at the University of South Africa. [ Links ]
Landman, Christina 2011. The histories of children's futures. Paper delivered at the 8th Oral History Association of South Africa's conference in Mafikeng, South Africa, 11-14 October 2011. [ Links ]
Landman, Christina 2012. MaLindi Myeza: unfreezing the walking voice. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 38(2), 135-158. [ Links ]]]>
Landman, Christina 2013. Ministerial practice and service delivery in the eMakhazeni Municipality. Paper delivered at the Conference of the Society for Practical Theology in South Africa on 24 January 2013 at North West University (Potchefstroom Campus). [ Links ]
Phiri, Isabel et al 2002. Her-stories: hidden histories of women of faith in Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster. [ Links ]
Schmid, Barbara, Cochrane, James & Olivier, Jill. 2010. Understanding religious health assets: health as a lens on religion and development, in Swart, Ignatius et al (eds.), Religion and social development in postapartheid South Africa. Stellenbosch: SUN Press, 137-152. [ Links ]
1 Who said they were not religious.
2 Except two Muslims and one Hindu.


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Dell is offering to fix one of its new laptops after some users complained the computers smelled like cat urine.
Users had been writing to Dell about the odor for months, with some even saying they had to apologize to clients when taking their Dell Latitude 6430u laptops out in front of them.
"If I leave my laptop out over the weekend the smell permeates the whole office," one user wrote in the Texas company's community forum online.
Finally, this week the company offered to fix the stench, saying users can call them to replace the palm rests of affected devices.
The smell appears to be the result of a manufacturing process related to the computer's palm rest, ABC News reported.
"We would like to reassure customers that the odor was not related to biological contamination nor did it present a health hazard," Dell said in a statement online. "The manufacturing process has subsequently been amended and newly purchased Latitude 6430us are not affected by the issue."


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It's finally finally finally FINALLY happened: I've posted a new page. I'm forever in debt to your patience :)
It's finally finally finally FINALLY happened: I've posted a new page. I'm forever in debt to your patience :)
That's all. Just YAY!
Imagine it in Homestar Runner's voice, maybe? Or not. I'm just happy.
You may now return to your most awesome visit home.
Ha ha! I love it. And I love that she knows she's in trouble. :)
(Also, welcome back!)
i totally agree with charlie on this one.
I feel like singing "Hey la, hey la, Dovecote's back!"
Aw, don't worry Bridget! It was definitely worth the wait! And welcome back! :)
I'm glad you are back. I check EVERY DAY because I had faith in you. Plus your work is totally worth any amount of wait. :D
Fantastic return page, I've been checking every couple of days.
Hey, so glad you're back!
I won't be one to complain about infrequent updates, as I'm guilty of that myself. I'm just happy that you're posting more stuff, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
I found your comic during the recent break, and have been checking frequently, eagerly awaiting your return. I can't wait to see where it goes next.
Oh. My. God. It's me when I was in school. Same hairstyle and freaked out classmates and everything.
I frequently got into fights with my history teachers because my dad was a major history buff, and as such I heard a lot of how things REALLY went down, not the watered down pc'ed versions we heard in school, and when they started telling us the watered down version or giving us stories that have been proven to be lies, like the whole chopping down the cherry tree and the way Paul Revere's ride really went, I was the student that was like "THAT'S BULLSHIT." And corrected the teachers quite loudly and vehemently.
I spent a lot of time at the principal's office.
Also, SYBIL LUDINGTON DESERVES MORE RECOGNITION THAN REVERE. He never even COMPLETED his ride, and she was sixteen, riding sidesaddle, in the dark, over fourty miles, ALONE.
Ever since I started reading the Paul Reveres, I can't quite think of him as anything other than an emo guitar player…anyway, you've reminded me of this: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=139. I bet if Sybil Ludington had been there she'd have won.
She would have kicked BOTH their butts. No question. I mean, have you ever ridden sidesaddle? Do you know how HARD that is even at a walk, and how uncomfortable? And she rode sidesaddle fourty miles, in the dark, through hostile territory, probably at a canter at LEAST, if not a full gallop.
I just can't get over how young she was. I mean, these days 16 year olds can barely drive, yet she was able to do something that epic by herself. She really does deserve more credit.
hoooray! and such. I've been checking the site mon-fri forever, I'm glad you're back! <3 <3 <3
So glad that there's a new page! Thank you and welcome back! :D
Oh my GOD that girl in the front's face. HA.
I love the third panel, her hands and face have so much expression, they're beautifully drawn. :)
Huzzah! Such fun!


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Don't forget come back often, there is always something new!
After 2 weeks your items will automatically renewed for another 60 days and $0.23 per item will be added to your billing ledger.
While you were away our TOU was updated,
read the terms of use here.
*No action is required on your part.


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US Ambassador To The UN: Protecting Patents & Copyrights More Important Than Development
from the say-what-now? deptThe US's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Betty E. King, recently gave a press conference in Geneva to talk about a variety of issues. What caught our attention, not surprisingly, was the discussion on intellectual property issues, which seemed to raise a lot more questions than it answered. Towards the end of her talk, she basically complained about WIPO, and how various developing countries are hijacking WIPO to focus on "development," at the expense of things like patents and copyright. She says that she, and the US government, are pro development, but not if it comes at the expense of patents and copyrights.
Of course, that makes no sense. The whole point of patents and copyright is supposed to be to create incentives for development. So development should always be at the core of the discussion. It's not, as King implies, that the two should be in conflict. Instead, if the two are in conflict, it suggests that there's something wrong with the way our intellectual property laws are working. What's really scary is she seems to think that more and longer patents automatically means better results:
Now long before I got here the United States has been stationing its experts around the world to help more countries be better able to apply for patents. We have our patent officers in our Embassy in Egypt as well as in other places around the world, and that has worked because we have seen an increase in the number of patent applications from a broader range of countries. That is good. However, the group in Geneva seems hell-bent on shortening these patents and creating more exceptions.The problem is that she doesn't seem to realize that those exceptions actually have been shown, time and time again, to improve overall development. Which is what she should be in favor of supporting. But, it quickly becomes clear that King is simply unfamiliar with the history of copyright or pretty much any of the details of how intellectual property works, when she makes the laughable claim that exceptions to copyright will mean we'll have no more books:
My point is if you create too many exceptions to a rule, you may as well not have the rule.
While we certainly want access to books for a lot of people around the world, I think denying the authors of these books their rights, or abrogating the rights of these authors, would mean that eventually we will never have a book.Someone should send King a study on the history of copyright in the US, including the fact that, during its developmental stage, the US refused to respect the copyrights of any foreign book... and how, despite that, Charles Dickens made a ton of money in the US by using the cheap copies of his books that were abundant to fund lavish tours of the US which were quite profitable for him. There are ways other than copyright to make money. And there are many reasons, other than copyright, to write books. It's kind of scary when an official so high up in US government policy circles doesn't seem to know that.
Later, in the questions, a reporter goes back to King's statements about WIPO, and references how ACTA was done outside of WIPO. We've actually discussed this before, pointing out that the reason the US and a few other countries went outside of WIPO was because those countries were upset that WIPO was actually listening to countries like India and Brazil, and paying attention to the actual evidence that showed you could actually create more culture and more opportunities by pushing back on copyright expansionism. The reporter asks whether or not ACTA means that WIPO is becoming irrelevant, and she responds that basically if the "Development Agenda Group" keeps pushing that darned "development" angle over intellectual property rights, then it will "kill" WIPO:
I think the people at WIPO are aware that without successful conclusions to these longstanding negotiations the people who apply for patent protection may find ways around WIPO. That is obviously the sort of existential threat to WIPO. I think the Director General understands that very clearly. But we're also in an era where you have emerging economies that want to have their voices heard. It is important to note that the Development Agenda Group is led by Egypt, Brazil, India and Indonesia -- countries that themselves have patents to protect but also have thriving businesses in generic drugs.In other words, if these countries who are concerned about economic development don't get in line and accept draconian US patent and copyright laws that will significantly curtail development in those countries, then the US will move to shut down the venue in which they negotiate such things, and focus instead on agreements like ACTA that shut them out. How nice.
But if we get to a system where the protections of patents are abrogated in the name of development then we certainly will kill that organization.
Filed Under: betty e. king, copyright, development, patents, un, us, wipo


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TripAdvisor Acquires Tiny Post
Mar 22, 2013, 06:00 ET
NEWTON, Mass., March 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor®, Inc., today announced it has acquired Tiny Post (tinypost.co), the highly acclaimed app that lets you write over photos and turn them into stories. The Tiny Post team will be based in TripAdvisor's Palo Alto office.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080902/TRIPADVISORLOGO)
"The Tiny Post team have created a wonderful app that shows the possibilities of combining travel photos with social and mobile," said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc. "We think Tiny Post is a great fit with our continued drive to provide engaging and sharable content and I am happy to welcome this strong team to TripAdvisor."
Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.
About TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 200 million unique monthly visitors**, and over 100 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.
TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 19 other travel media brands: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com, www.whereivebeen.com, and www.kuxun.cn.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, January 2013
**Source: Google Analytics, worldwide data, January 2013
©2013 TripAdvisor, Inc. All rights reserved.
SOURCE TripAdvisor, Inc.


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A Gallery of Fine Watches
Established in 1993 Boston, Massachusetts
Welcome to European Watch Company, home to an exclusive assortment of new, pre-owned and vintage wristwatches. The watches featured in our online catalog are updated daily and are ready to be shipped globally via FedEx. Our boutique is located on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts, where we would love to meet face-to-face.
We take pride in focusing our collection on the most prestigious and timeless watch manufacturers. These brands include Patek Philippe, Breguet, Blancpain, Audemars Piguet, A. Lange & Sohne, Jaeger LeCoultre, FP Journe, IWC, Rolex, Panerai and many more. We highly encourage trade-ins of pre-owned watches, which can be used towards purchasing a new timepiece in our inventory. This way we are able to offer an assortment of horological masterpieces that are rarely seen on other websites, or in stores.
Our boutique incorporates a full restoration and repair department with the latest technology in the industry. With this technology, we are able to provide our watches in "like new" condition, accompanied by a 1 year warranty.
The pictures you see on our website are of the actual watches for sale. We never use stock or repurposed photographs for any of our listings.
We have also launched a European Watch Company mobile application where our entire inventory can be viewed on your iPhone or iPad.
Recently added on our Instagram feed @ EuropeanWatchCo
Visit our Retail Store:
We are located in the historic Back Bay of Boston:
232 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116 USA


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For the guitar enthusiast such as I, there is always something "new" to discover. Yes, the guitar world is extremely conservative and set in its ways, but that doesn't mean there have never been any mavericks. You just have to look a bit harder to find the more unusual stuff.
This French seller currently has this Tantra Surya guitar from 1983 on eBay. It looks for all the world like a very curvy Flying V, and has an almost Sci-Fi/flying saucer feel to it. The pickguard appears to be made from alumunium and has an integral bridge with the saddles attached to an up-turned lip at the rear end of the plate.
Unfortunately I can tell you very little else about this model, and the seller doesn't seem to know much about it either, but mentions a possible connection with French superstar Johnny Hallyday.
As ever, if anyone has any more info, please use the comments below!
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
Tantra Surya from 1983
5:51 AM | Labels: French guitar, Tantra, vintage guitars, Weird guitars


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Michelle Obama kneels in the red, iron-rich soil of a community garden and starts pulling carrots. Beside her are young women from around Africa, all participants in an African Young Women's Forum here in Johannesburg. The first lady chats with them about the importance of volunteer work, nutrition, and community health projects like this one, Nanga Vhuthilo Community Center.
This is good old American retail politics, of course, complete with visuals and worthy causes and value statements. To all appearances, Mrs. Obama seems to genuinely love it. She could, of course, pick one carrot, smile for the camera, and be in the hotel before sundown. But by the time she's done, there's a pile of carrots behind her, and her black slacks will never look the same again.
"This is good for the biceps," she jokes, tossing another carrot into the pile.
Officially, this trip – Obama's first solo travel to Africa – is a chance to show her country's support for the kinds of development projects done here at Nanga Vhuthilo – a community health, nutrition, and education center for the children of AIDS patients – and to promote the development of Africa's women and youths. But coming at a difficult time for US and South African relations, the first lady's trip to South Africa is a chance for the Obama White House to use a bit of what Washington analysts call "soft power," or the power to persuade by focusing on shared positive aspirations and goals.
Rebuilding a relationship
"South Africa has these mixed feelings about the United States on a lot of issues, the unilateralism shown in Iraq, the sense of neocolonialism," says Jennifer Cooke, an analyst on Africa for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "So this is an opportunity for the first lady to build some of that relationship back, to engage the South African people directly. It broadens the basis of the engagement so it's not all focused on the hard questions, and it gives room to bring up a number of those questions as well."
For a generation of Americans who grew up at the peak of the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s and early 1990s, the fight for freedom in South Africa resonates strongly with a similar civil rights struggle back home in the US. Yet in a world where the US wields power almost unchallenged, emerging democratic powers like South Africa have increasingly come to view the US with suspicion.
Obama's visit is one attempt to dispel that suspicion, and to remind the South African people that on many social issues, the US and South Africa are actually on the same side – one key example being the president's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, which pays for antiretroviral drug treatments in AIDS-affected countries.
The centerpiece of Obama's visit was a keynote address to the 76 participants of the first-ever African Young Women's Forum, in the historically important Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto. Obama paid tribute to the older "struggle generation" who organized protests against the hated apartheid system that guaranteed the rule of South Africa's minority white community. And she also paid tribute to today's younger generation, represented by the Women's Forum, who had the skills and passions to make a change in the major issues of today.
Speaking of that older generation, she said, "All of you, the young people of today, are the heirs of this blood, sweat, sacrifice, and love. So the question today is, what will you make of that inheritance?"
"You can be the generation that ends HIV/AIDS in our time, the generation that fights not just the disease, but the stigma of the disease," Obama added. "You can be the generation that holds your leaders accountable for open, honest government at every level, government that stamps out corruption."
Listening intently
Brendah Nyakudya, editor of Afropolitan magazine, was one of the young women in that audience, and she found herself spellbound by Obama's speech.
"For me, for the longest time, I've been thinking 'we're the next generation, when will we have our time to make a difference?' and Mrs. Obama was saying, 'you're the now generation. Don't wait for someone to create a new world. This is your time. You need to do this yourselves," says Ms. Nyakudya. "We all need to just do what we're waiting for others to do. We've got the skills. We've got the passion. We need to do this."
Victor Dlamini, a social commentator from Johannesburg who attended the Regina Mundi speech, says that this is one of those speeches that he will remember for a long time.
"As South Africans, we are used to hearing speeches in the context of the struggle, and you become rather jaded," says Mr. Dlamini. "But she really connected the dots. She said 'You are the freedom generation, and the work is never finished. She spoke with incredible sincerity, she spoke of anecdotes of ordinary people. It was really incredible."
Inside the compound of the Nanga Vhuthilo community center, Obama circulated among the child clients, giving hugs, playing games, and when a young men's chorus broke into a doo-wop song, in Zulu, about the imagined pleasures of driving a Mitsubishi Pajero sports utility vehicle, Obama sauntered into the center of the group and danced.


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The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that University of Maryland Athletic Director Kevin Anderson had interviewed for the same position at Stanford University.
After confirmed reports indicated he was set to take the job Monday afternoon and that "contract details" were being discussed, it looks as if Anderson himself denied that report and said that he is committed to staying at Maryland, via a statement from the school, via ESPN.com
"I am not in discussion nor have I been with Stanford University regarding their open athletic director position as I am committed to being the director of athletics at the University of Maryland. My focus and energy are committed to working to enhance the student-athlete experience and the competitive and financial success at the University of Maryland. We have just begun the transformation of the athletic department and I look forward to seeing this through."
Anderson has been rumored to be of interest to the Cardinal for almost a month but declined he had talked to the school about their opening in a June interview with The Diamondback. Former Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby left Palo Alto to become the new Big 12 commissioner in May. The Chicago Tribune reported over the weekend that Northwestern AD Jim Phillips had been Stanford's favorite to replace Bowlsby but he declined the offer.
Anderson is nearly two years into a five year deal he signed in College Park after serving in the same capacity at the United States Military Academy (Army) since 2004. He replaced polarizing former AD Debbie Yow, who had accepted the same position at North Carolina State University. Anderson is originally from the Bay Area and previously worked as a fund raiser at Stanford. He graduated from San Francisco State University and also worked in the athletic department at the University of California (Berkeley).
Anderson has been scrutinized in College Park for his decision to fire popular football coach Ralph Friedgen in 2010 just months after his arrival and hiring Randy Edsall to replace him instead of popular choice Mike Leach. Anderson was praised for helping former basketball coach Gary Williams through his retirement process, but was scrutinized further for failing to lure University of Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller to the Terrapins, instead hiring former Texas A&M University coach Mark Turgeon.
Most recently Anderson has overseen the process of eliminating seven varsity sports due to budgetary concerns.
Neither school announced the move, and the Chronicle quickly took down the report off the front page of their site.