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For the first half of this year, I was busy with my day job. Since then, I have been waiting to see what would happen with the Seattle Public Schools K-12 Arts Learning Plan, and wondering where school arts liaisons like myself might fit in.
Recently, the Seattle Office of Arts And Culture (OAC) hosted a Creative Advantage Community Partner Information Meeting at City Hall (Creative Advantage is the new, less-of-a-mouthful title for the plan going forward). Randy Engstrom, Director of the OAC and Carri Campbell, SPS Visual and Performing Arts Manager, were dual emcees.
The plan's development was a two-year process initially funded by a Wallace Foundation grant, but when presented with the draft proposal of the plan, the Wallace Foundation chose not to invest in its implementation. Dang.
What initially drew the Wallace Foundation's attention to Seattle – the unusual partnership between the city, the school district, and local non-profits – turned out to be the plan's saving strength. When Wallace declined, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent José Banda opted to move forward with the arts learning plan as part of the district's existing strategic plan, and Mayor Mike McGinn stepped up with $500,000 to get things rolling. The Little Engine That Thinks It Can. Go Seattle.
The stated goal of the plan is to "reinvest in Seattle's students and our community's economic and creative future by addressing current inequities and restoring arts education to all Seattle classrooms."
If successful, by 2020:
•All K-5 students will receive 120 minutes/week in visual arts and music.*
♦ All middle school students will take a minimum of two semesters of arts.*
♦ All high school students will take a minimum of four semesters of arts.*
♦ K-12 curriculum will be expanded to include and assess for 21st Century Skills.
♦ Every school will use arts integration as a learning tool.
♦ Enhanced arts-based Career & Technical Education opportunities will be available to secondary students (e.g. music production, film production, graphic design).
*For now, the focus is on a continuum of Visual Arts and Music instruction. Except where classes are already in place, Dance and Drama will have to wait.
Input on the plan has come from arts education non-profits (namely Arts Corps, ArtsEd Washington, and the Seattle Art Museum), teachers, parents, community members, students; and it is still being added to and refined. As Engstrom put it, they are "building a train while it's moving, and the train is going faster and faster."
Perhaps Seattle will set an example of how getting the arts back into public education might be achieved – how city, community, and school district officials can work together to improve learning. It's a massive, far-reaching vision.
This Fall, the initial phase of the plan is being launched in the Central Region at fourteen schools that share the same Pathway: Elementary schools Bailey Gatzert, Leschi , Lowell, John Muir, Thurgood Marshall, McGilvra, Montlake, and Stevens; Madrona K-8; Washington Middle School; and high schools Garfield, Franklin, Seattle World School (service), and Nova (option).
So if you are a six-year-old who dreams of being a member of the award-winning Garfield Jazz Band someday, but you don't have access to private saxophone lessons, you should be able to count on two hours a week of music instruction during your primary school years to at least get you started.
Key to the strategies to make this all happen is a cultural shift at the District central office to support a K-12 continuum of learning, including new staffing supports, development of adequate teaching spaces, principal professional development and enhanced resource allocation – a transformation or "reinvention" of the system from the ground up. Arts education will be perceived as part of the structure of education in Seattle, rather than an added dollop of whipped cream.
Reinventing the District central office? It may be like turning an octopus into gazelle … with wheels.
I think I can I think I can I think I can . . .
What's essentially different about this city/schools collaboration is that the city can manage the aspects of the plan that are beyond the scope of the District. Assessment, fundraising, budgeting, governance. A more powerful engine.
Engstrom has brought Lara Davis (former program director at Arts Corps) on board to build a roster of vetted artists and arts organizations to work with schools depending on their needs. These community partnerships will fit into three categories: Integrated Arts, to support non-arts, core curricula; Cultural Bridges, to bring culturally relevant arts into the classroom; and Targeted Partnerships, to support specific arts disciplines. For those of you interested in being on this roster, Davis is the one to look to. At this point, she said she is most interested in finding artists that fit in the Cultural Bridge and Integrated Arts areas. Official applications should available in the beginning of 2014.
The BERC Group will continue its work on developing a longitudinal database to measure the impact and success of the plan in terms of the common core state standards that will be released next year. 21st Century skills will be included in the assessments. Baseline data will be collected next Spring at the fourteen pilot schools.
And The Ostara Group has been enlisted as fundraising partners. The goal for now is to raise $1.7 million to pay for the arts partnerships. Ostara's Ariel Glassman stressed that funding was going to be actively solicited from individual donors, not just corporations and larger organizations. Have an extra million or two? You can expect a call.
After the database is created and the arts partners have signed up, and principals and their teams have decided upon an arts learning plan that works best for them, teachers and staff will be able to attend professional development sessions during the summer break before the Creative Advantage plan hits the classrooms in Fall 2014, one year from now.
If the Creative Advantage plan succeeds, parents will no longer be the ones having to fill in the gaps, figuratively and financially, to make sure their kids get art. Yay.
And the inequity in education between schools that comes as a result of this will be erased. Double Yay.
So, where does this leave the volunteer arts liaison? The only role for parents I heard mentioned at the meeting was as members of principals' arts learning development committees. When the OAC gathers its funds and begins matchmaking, the work of individual arts liaisons will be largely subsumed into the greater picture.
But, I like working as an arts liaison for our public schools. It is the parent volunteer job I feel best suited for, and I know other parents who feel the same. Is there any room for us on this train?
I think there will be. Parents will still want to be involved in making arts happen in their schools, perhaps more than SPS or the OAC have considered. And I have a feeling that parents will still be the ones to fill in the gaps when things really get rolling. In the meantime, I hope to continue to encourage and inspire people to become arts community liaisons in public schools.
I recommend you visit the website, for more details about The Creative Advantage Arts Plan.


text:
Job Requirements
Attitude – fresh, optimistic, enthusiastic, and service-laced, you are here to serve our guests and provide them with an exceptional dining experience.
Aptitude – you need to be able to think quickly on your feet, make smart decisions, and learn our menu inside and out.
Adaptability – you won't be successful flying solo- you will be a functioning member of a team, and you need to be willing to lend a helping hand to any teammate at any time.
Availability – we have a variety of shifts available. Most of our teammates work 25-40 hours per week including some weekends; flexibility is key. Open availability preferred.
Experience– we are seeking candidates with experience serving in a high volume, full service restaurant.
Apply today!
We would love to meet you!
When you work in the front of the house at Fulin's Asian Cuisine, you help make our guest experience truly extraordinary. If you think you can deliver exceptional service, join us and help us let every guest know that "We are truly glad you are here, and we will do everything we can to make you want to come back." It starts with you.
Job Requirements
Must be able to work nights, weekends and holidays
Great Attitude – our jobs aren't easy, but with the right attitude, you can grow your way into a rewarding career
Reliability – if one teammate fails to do their part, the system doesn't work at full capacity
Ownership – we want you to own your role on the team – our guests will continue to come back if everyone on our team owns their responsibility to the team
Ability to succeed in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment
Advancement Opportunities
Fun, Energetic Work Environment
Continued Training
Great Pay
Apply Today!
Fulin's Asian Cuisine is an Equal Opportunity and e-Verify Employer.
At Fulin's Asian Cuisine we know that we can't continue to grow and succeed without people with talent, passion and vision. That's why we're looking for someone like you.When you take charge as a Restaurant Manager you are responsible for the selection, development and performance of the front of house hospitality staff. You will ensure our guests enjoy a memorable experience by demonstrating and empowering our hospitality staff to live up to our company message – "We are truly glad that you are here and will do everything we can to make you want to come back." You'll drive our success and we'll reward you with professional development and ongoing opportunities to build your career with a distinguished partner. Are you ready to take charge?
Job Requirements
Here are some factors that may enable you to jumpstart your success in this position:
A minimum of 3 years restaurant management experience in casual upscale dining preferred.
Customer service focused and oriented
Must be able to work an average of 55 hours work per week
Skillful planner with knowledge of basic business fundamentals
Strong communication skills with the ability to resolve conflict
Outgoing personality with expertise at developing relationships and leading others
Must be able to stand and walk for periods of eight to ten hours in length, each shift
Must be able to reach, bend, balance and transport various objects weighing up to 30 lbs repeatedly during a shift. At times it might be necessary to lift up to 50 lbs
We value our employees' time and efforts. Our commitment to your success is enhanced by our competitive salary and future growth opportunities within the company. Plus, we work to maintain the best possible environment for our employees, where people can learn and grow with the company.
Apply on-line today!
Fulin's Asian Cuisine is an Equal Opportunity and e-Verify Employer.
Job Requirements
2-3 years of experience in a high-volume restaurant
Previous restaurant management preferred
Must work well individually and as a team player
Strong organizational and communication skills
Ability to manage a team and multiple tasks
Must be able to work an average of 55 hours work per week
Must be able to facilitate and effectively execute training
Ability to manage a large team while delegating tasks and ensuring consistent follow up
Ability to handle difficult/challenging situations and conversations
Ability to perform basic math calculations and cost management
Read, write and speak English fluently
Must be able to stand and walk for periods of eight to ten hours in length, each shift
Must be able to reach, bend, balance and transport various objects weighing up to 50 lbs repeatedly during a shift
Fulin's Asian Cuisine is an Equal Opportunity and e-Verify Employer.
G.L Restaurant Management Inc.
We are currently hiring various talents to join our growing company. If interested, please print out our employment application form, fill it out, then email or bring it to your nearest Fulin's Location.
Fulins Employment Application Form

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Xiaoli Wen
Associate Professor
Early Childhood Education
Programs/Classes Taught:
B.A. in Early Childhood Education:
ECE 310: Child, Family, and Community
M.A.T. in Early Childhood Education:
FND503: Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Early Childhood Education
ECE510: Child, Family, and Community
ECE502: Infant and Toddler Preclinical Experience
ESR504: Assessment in Early Childhood Settings: Purpose and Practice
EPS500a: Contemporary Survey in Human Development
Areas of Expertise:
Child social-emotional development, early childhood intervention, child care quality, parent involvement
Dr. Wen is an associate professor of Early Childhood Education. Her research interests focus on the contributions of early childhood programs and families to children's learning. She have done extensive research on evaluation of early childhood intervention programs for children and families from high-risk backgrounds, including both federally funded child care programs, such as Head Start, and community-based home visiting programs, such as the Chicago Doula Project. She is particularly interested in program design, quality, implementation, and processes that lead to favorable child and family outcomes.
Ph.D. Purdue University, Child Development
Contact Information:
Early Childhood Education
National College of Education
National-Louis University
122 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60603-6119


text:
Friday, January 20, 2012
Getting Out of the House
25 comments:
- Chatty Crone said...
I am glad you got out - I enjoy it too. sandie
- January 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM
- Michele Williams said...
So glad you are still able to get out. So true, we do need to get out and enjoy the beauty of God's creation along with the friendships and support He brings along our path. Thank you for the reminder. By His Grace, Michele
- January 20, 2012 at 12:20 PM
- Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...
I've actually noticed it helps my boys too. If they're having a bad morning and we go out to do something (even if it's just going to the grocery store) it breaks up the bad moods.
- January 20, 2012 at 12:22 PM
- Karen said...
Getting out of the house is really important to keep one's sanity! I often make myself go out as well, but today it's -14 outside, so I am staying in!
- January 20, 2012 at 12:25 PM
- Muffy's Marks said...
I could quite easily become a hermit, if my friends and family would let me.
- January 20, 2012 at 12:40 PM
- Ramakrishnan said...
Going out every day for a while is necessary. It refreshes & relaxes mind & body. It rejuvenates you, gives you more energy, greater zeal & enthusiasm. It makes you want to live .
- January 20, 2012 at 12:42 PM
- Sonya @ Under the Desert Sky said...
That is so true. I remember feeling as though I were housebound when I had a new baby, and my husband was deployed. Just taking the baby in a stroller for a five minute walk around the block did wonders.
Even now, if I've been cooped up studying all morning, I'll change the scenery and study at the library for an hour, which helps that "locked up" feeling.
- January 20, 2012 at 12:50 PM
- Wanda said...
While I do enjoy lots of alone time, there are times that getting out is an absolute necessity.
- January 20, 2012 at 1:39 PM
- Debra She Who Seeks said...
Yeah, "cabin fever" is no fun! Get out and mingle!
- January 20, 2012 at 2:08 PM
- Becky Jane said...
I understand you completely! I look forward to just going grocery shopping with my husband...anything to get out and about! Except I do NOT like being out when it's dark and cold...brrrr
- January 20, 2012 at 3:09 PM
- Ginny Hartzler said...
I'm so glad you went! Phil and I were just talking about this yesterday. We all seem to be a mixture of liking to stay inside and nest, but then get cabin fever after awhile and need to get out. I knew someone who couldn't wait to go places, and always got there way early. Then once she was there, she couldn't wait to leave and go home. I do think we need to make ourselves go out and move, while we still can and so we won't lose it. I love this cute picture!!!
- January 20, 2012 at 3:26 PM
- Judy said...
You have the right idea. I too have to remind myself to get out and not become homebound.
- January 20, 2012 at 3:51 PM
- Sandra said...
absolutely great to socialize, and important in our lives. i know two men who are hermits and live alone and never leave home, they are miserable and not doing well. so happy you now have your little go mobile to keep you out and about
- January 20, 2012 at 4:11 PM
- Elephant's Child said...
Getting out is something I have to push myself to do. I do try, even if it is just a wobble around the garden.
- January 20, 2012 at 5:34 PM
- Eat To Live said...
When it gets cold outside, I like to stay home. My Hubs just about has to drag me out.
Glad you got out and enjoyed yourself.
- January 20, 2012 at 6:30 PM
- Debbie said...
I actually DO believe we're meant to be social creatures. God saw that right away and determined it wasn't good for man to be alone/solitary.
Good for you for getting out when you could! I find that I really need just to get out too.
- January 20, 2012 at 7:53 PM
- Sueann said...
I don't know if I am convinced of that one. I enjoy my own company. Ha!!
- January 21, 2012 at 5:50 AM
- Small Kucing said...
ya being in the house too much will makes us think of a lot of no good things. Its good to be out of the house
- January 21, 2012 at 6:50 AM
- Nikki (Sarah) said...
I sometimes fight going out but always feel great when I say yes to invites. It's good to get out and hang with others.
- January 21, 2012 at 9:29 AM
- Rachel Cotterill said...
I understand - sometimes I don't want to go out of the house (especially in winter), but I feel much better when I just get on with it.
- January 21, 2012 at 9:51 AM
- DUTA said...
Going out is a Must. It doesn't neccessarily mean meeting other people, as those can sometimes irritate you with their words or behavior.
Going out to contemplate Nature and its wonders brings you health and serenity.
- January 21, 2012 at 4:49 PM
- Clare said...
I am very much the same and have to force myself at times to get out, then I feel so much better.
We were not designed to be alone. :)
- January 23, 2012 at 3:07 AM
- Flying high in the sky.... said...
love this new fresh feel !! WoW!! and the header!! wow!!..am glad you went out... good!!
- January 23, 2012 at 9:45 AM
- TexWisGirl said...
love the title of your blog - and now i understand where it comes from. you go, kim. GO!
- January 25, 2012 at 7:01 PM
- Aodhnait said...
Totally agree with you Kim. It is so good to get out for a breath of fresh air and meet people for a chat.
I live the pic of the green Smart!
- February 15, 2013 at 1:52 PM


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Year of living disastrously: The best and worst of 2005
Religion and politics have never been suitable topics for dinner parties– and that didn't change in 2005. But the most innocuous of topics, the weather, took a nasty turn, as if it was tired of not being taken seriously all these years.
Simply put, 2005 was a disaster. Literally. With tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, and a hurricane season that wouldn't quit, Mother Nature issued a not-so-gentle reminder that mankind can vie for world domination all it wants, but as far as weapons of mass destruction go, Mother Nature rules.
The December 26 tsunami at the tail end of 2004 foreshadowed the year to come– and how overused the words "worst ever" would become. An earthquake in the Indian Ocean spawned the death wave that took an estimated 275,000 lives in six countries, the worst natural disaster in modern times.
And 2005 was just getting warmed up. The hurricane season was another worst ever, moving beyond the alphabet and heading into Greek territory. The Gulf Coast is still staggering from Hurricane Katrina, which took out our beloved New Orleans, displaced nearly two million people and left hundreds of thousands homeless for the holidays– the worst U.S. natural disaster.
And that's just domestic catastrophe. We've barely been able to absorb that a whopping 7.6 earthquake October 8 in Kashmir killed an estimated 73,000, and that the three million homeless there face death from cold and disease.
The World Wildlife Fund released a report calling 2005 the worst for extreme weather– the hottest, stormiest, and driest. With the Arctic melting, the Atlantic like bath water, and a drought in the Amazon, we have to wonder, is global warming finally catching up with us?
With so many natural disasters taking the headlines, the war in Iraq continued on like a dull, throbbing headache. How many times can we hear about suicide bombers killing X number of people before we start skimming or tuning out the reports of deaths of (usually innocent) Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers– unless, of course, it's your U.S. soldier?
A year after winning reelection, President Bush's approval ratings hit new lows, and even Republicans are trying to remember why we're in Iraq– as are the indignant Democrats who voted to invade.
Second terms are always ripe for scandal, and Bush's is no exception. Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, is under indictment for allegedly lying about leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the media– and Karl Rove may follow.
Plamegate sent former New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail for 85 days for refusing to reveal that Scooter Libby was her source for a story she didn't write. Other reporters testified, creating a queasy feeling about what that means for protection of confidential sources.
Even iconic Bob Woodward got ensnared in Plamegate in the same year the biggest secret of the 20th century– the identity of Deep Throat– was revealed. Would Mark Felt have talked to Woodward in 2005?
Indictments dethroned former House majority leader Tom DeLay, and Rep. Duke Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Mitchell Wade, head of MZM, which has a branch in Albemarle. MZM's nearly $90,000 in donations to Rep. Virgil Goode have his Dem challengers clamoring for him to return the money, and he obliged by donating it to charities December 12.
And although Congress had plenty of weighty matters to legislate, it took time to intervene in the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, sending many citizens scurrying to update their living wills.
Not all disasters were natural. The year continued with more unsavory revelations: The U.S. has secret prisons around the world, and the current administration defends the use of torture as a tool against terrorism. And it's the fourth anniversary for "enemy combatants" held without trial at Guantanamo Bay.
The Supreme Court got a new look when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died and Sandra Day O'Connor announced her intention to retire. John Roberts sailed through confirmation to take the chief justice spot, but the Harriet Miers nomination turned into a judicial disaster, sending Samuel Alito up to the nomination plate.
Disaster had something to do with gas prices soaring to almost $3 a gallon, but we can't even remember: Was it the war, the weather– or maybe just time for some windfall profit-taking for oil companies we wished we owned a piece of?
Disaster was averted for Michael Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges. Jennifer Aniston's disaster– Brad Pitt– became one half of Brangelina, top tabloid fodder of the year.
But 2005 wasn't all bad. On the local front, we were spared natural disasters like the drought of '02 or the following year's Hurricane Isabel.
The first season of the Paramount and the Pavilion suddenly made Charlottesville a viable destination for national music acts.
And of course there was the biggest bang of all when the Rolling Stones rocked our world October 6. "Everyone seemed so happy," remarked one concertgoer. Even a bomb threat couldn't dispel the city's buzz that lasted for days, and the only disaster was experienced by those still kicking themselves for not going.
Five years into the no-longer-quite-so new millennium, it's time for the Hook to weigh in on the best– and worst– of 2005.
Rarest bust: For dog fighting. Pea Ridge Road (off Garth) resident Davey Mundie is arrested New Year's Day and convicted April 20 for organized fighting of dogs, a Class 6 felony. A 2003 law by area legislator Rob Bell had upgraded the charge from misdemeanor status.
Newest freedom: The General Assembly deregulates UVA by approving a bill that would allow it to seek "charter" status. Some worry that worker protections could be compromised.
Biggest slaughterhouse dive: Billionaire Edgar Bronfman's Buffalo Hill abattoir/meat processing plant in Madison County burns early January 20.
Best news for randy singles: The state Supreme Court rules January 14 that a law criminalizing "fornication" between unmarried people is unconstitutional.
Harshest Constitutional tampering: In February, both houses of the General Assembly pass resolutions to Constitutionally ban same-sex marriage.
Worst Valentine's gift: A man asking to see engagement rings snatches three from the counter at Glassner Jewelers February 11. On February 14, his unsuspecting fiancée asks to have two of the purloined rings sized. Two days later, Raymond Rayshawne Carter is charged with grand larceny and returns the third ring.
Harshest employment story: In early February, General Shale– long known to Virginia roadside sign watchers ("Thank you for using famous Webster Brick")– announces it will close its Somerset plant, which employs 50 to 70, after the company loses its bid to open a mine near a residential area in Barboursville.
Last act in the fugitive financier story: Richard Hirschfeld, 57, former Albemarle resident and Muhammad Ali pal, kills himself in a Miami jail January 11, the same day he was told arrangements had been made to move him to Norfolk to stand trial on federal charges. Hirschfeld had been on the lam for nearly nine years and was captured hiding in the closet of a Fort Lauderdale mansion October 1. His former associates included Fernando Marcos, Kenny Rogers, Senator Orrin Hatch, and Robert Bork.
Newest twist for 'Charlotte's-ville': In January, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors renames Whitewood Park in honor of the late Charlotte Humphris, who served as its first female chair.
Newest TV station: Fox affiliate WAHU begins broadcasting in the spring under the Gray Television umbrella, becoming its third station to open here in the past year.
Worst misspeaking: For two decades, his track record as an expert witness won forensic psychiatrist and former UVA law professor Park Dietz acclaim– and plenty of high-profile cases including Jeffrey Dahmer and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. However, his misstatement during the trial of multiple child-drowner Andrea Yates voids her murder conviction in January.
Poshest reopening: On February 10– nearly 15 months after a deadly blaze killed two law school recruiters and injured a third– the luxurious Clifton Inn celebrates its reopening while three lawsuits are still pending. Clifton sued a survivor and a candle-maker, but by August, all suits are settled.
Biggest changing of the guard: Longtime Delegate Mitch Van Yahres retires from the General Assembly after 24 years. In November, former mayor David Toscano handily wins his 57th District seat over challenger Tom McCrystal.
Silliest bill: Virginia achieves national ridicule when the "droopy drawers" bill that would fine those whose low-riding pants reveal underwear passes the House of Delegates. Legislators come to their senses and ultimately drop the drawers bill.
Hottest seat: UVA basketball coach Pete Gillen– finishing another losing season with UVA on the eve of a $35 million fundraising push to finish the John Paul Jones Arena– resigns March 14.
Quickest hire: Just a month after Gillen leaves, the Cavaliers hire former DePaul coach Dave Leitao at a cool $925,000 per year. Published reports say that cash-slinging UVA had to buy out Leitao's DePaul contract for about $1.5 million. That's on top of the $2 million golden parachute UVA reportedly paid Gillen to dribble off the court.
Juiciest speech: In the UVA Rotunda February 2, dean of African-American affairs Rick Turner says embattled Charlottesville school Superintendent Scottie Griffin "is being dragged through the mud because she's black and female," and adds, "I don't think white people in Charlottesville will do anything for black folks," according to the account in the Progress.
Juiciest memo: February 3, a letter by Assistant Superintendent of the Charlottesville schools Laura Purnell slams Griffin as "punitive," "verbally abusive," and "bullying."
Second best golden parachute: The city pays $290,000 to buy out Griffin, who resigns April 21 with three years left on her contract.
Biggest city School Board shift: Following the Griffin debacle, voters decide they want an elected rather than appointed School Board. At press time, the appointed board is still seeking Griffin's successor.
Best loophole closing: The General Assembly gets rid of the LLC tax dodge used successfully to avoid transfer taxes by buyers like convicted thief/former Tyco CFO Mark Swartz on his $17 million purchase of Enniscorthy.
Bundoran Farm
Bundoran Farm
Biggest real estate closings: Enniscorthy's record, set in 2001, as Albemarle's biggest real estate deal, is thrice smashed in '05: first by Castle Hill for $24 million, next by Fred Scott's Bundoran Farm for a reported $33 million, and in November by Hunter Craig, who pays $46.2 million for 1,365-acre Forest Lodge on Old Lynchburg Road.
Sharpest lawsuit: Shirley Presley, the Bland Circle resident who became a household name for stringing razor wire across her property, files a $1.5 million civil suit in U.S. District Court against the City of Charlottesville and the nonprofit Rivanna Trails Foundation in February. A federal judge tosses the suit out in October.
Latest from the serial rapist: The man who's terrorized Charlottesville since 2002, when police revealed he'd committed at least seven rapes since 1997, and who is responsible for hundreds of black males being asked to submit DNA through a buccal swab, strikes January 11 in Belmont, sexually assaulting a 46-year-old woman.
Worst levees: The ones that failed August 29 in New Orleans.
Best largesse: The Pearlington bus, the Grisham, the Dave, the churches, the hair salons, and countless other relief efforts that zoomed supplies and hope to the flooded Gulf Coast.
Biggest Scottsville buzz: The IGA sells the winning $10.3 million lottery ticket in the February 12 drawing. Two months later, Scottsvillians Nancy and William Bentz claim their jackpot.
Biggest Scottsville buzz-kill: On June 1, a year and a half after a mysterious fire, Swissway Market business owner Barbara Corby Martin is arrested by federal agents and charged with arson and insurance fraud.
Hottest market: Albemarle's bi-annual real estate assessments jump 27 percent in January despite the threatened bursting of the bubble. And the area's median house price soars to $273,525 in August, up $40,000 from the previous year.
br>PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO
Moldiest buy: Larry Butler and Judit Szaloki discover their first home is mold-infested– and that local lawyers won't touch their case. The community steps forward to help remediate the mold, but the family faces financial ruin and a gutted house.
Worst legacy of a bucolic agricultural past: Crozet homeowners learn that former orchards bear fruit in the form of arsenic and lead hot spots, and elevated arsenic levels lead to soil remediation in the yard of one Orchard Acres home.
Biggest Ivy Road view-shed change: Over several September days, the huge rusting gas tanks that loomed over Charlottesville Oil head to the scrap heap so that petroleum-soaked soil can be removed.
Largest petroleum plume: Charlottesville Oil is also blamed for the Trading Post spill in North Garden, where 4,200 gallons of petroleum have been recovered, 3.2 million gallons of water treated, and 12 wells contaminated at one time or another.
Biggest illegal dump: Cecil and Doris Gardner allow dumping on their 16 acres in Keswick for more than 30 years, thanks to county gaffes. A January 4 fire and neighbor outrage spark a cleanup.
Brightest lights: Pen Park's 60,000-watt 50-foot lights slip through the city's cracks and violate both city and county dark sky ordinances until Albemarle residents complain.
Biggest upscale school tussle: Word that public school students in Farmington, Bellair, and Ednam (yes, they exist) are going to be redistricted from prestigious Murray Elementary in Ivy to an as-yet un-built southern elementary has the high-end neighborhoods up in arms. At the last minute, more modest Glenaire– the closest neighborhood to Murray– is sent packing to Meriwether Lewis.
Biggest turn-around: After Mary Jane Gentry dies when the drug that may have helped her Lou Gehrig's symptoms is withdrawn, UVA allows Dr. James Bennett to resume his experimental ALS drug trials.
Best revision: UVA changes its policy on sexual assaults to allow the victim to speak about the incident if she wishes, following a Hook cover story, "How UVA turns its back on rape." Annie Hylton, who came forward with her story, sues her alleged assailant, Matthew Hamilton, in Charlottesville Circuit Court for $1.85 million, and is awarded $150,000.
Worst zero tolerance: Waynesboro High principal Mitch Peeling resigns under threat of firing for having three glasses of wine– two one night, one the next– while dining with other adult chaperones on a New York field trip in April, J. Todd Foster reports in the News Virginian.
Worst loss of a Madison Avenue mind: Charlottesville resident Thomas Russell Rogers, 87, who created StarKist's Charlie the Tuna, the Keebler Elves, and 9 Lives' Morris the Cat, dies June 24.
Biggest student-plex: In April, developers Hunter Craig, Lane Bonner, and Dan Veliky propose a 533-bedroom apartment building, Grandmarc at the Corner, for the 300 block of 15th Street.
Loudest autism activism: In June, Albemarle resident (and occasional Hook contributor) Coy Barefoot announces the formation of Dads Against Mercury, a new group touting the belief that mercury causes a host of ills, including autism.
Rarest lionizing: After a late July account in the Hook of an alleged cougar sighting along the Blue Ridge Parkway, many readers offer their own brushes with the rare animals also known as mountain lions.
Biggest fox-hunting surprise: Less than a year after England bans the practice entirely, Humane Society contributor Dave Matthews bans the Farmington Hunt from his sprawling Scottsville-area farms.
Biggest professorial scandal: James Sofka is removed from his position as Echols Scholars dean and told his contract will not be renewed because of numerous complaints of alleged "inappropriate behavior," according to his dismissal letter from College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ed Ayers.
Best Nobel connection: In early September UVA research professor Barry J. Marshall, now based in Australia, shares the Nobel in physiology and medicine for discovering that most peptic and gastric cancers are caused by a common bacterium.
Worst arrest of a UVA prof: Martin Straume, founder of the UVA Center for Biomathematical Technology and its former associate director, is charged with trying to hit a female grad student with his car in front of Gilmer Hall September 13. He's also charged with stalking, making harassing phone calls, and computer invasion of privacy.
Best arrest of a UVA prof: Richard Collins, who challenged David Toscano in the May primary, is charged with trespassing May 7 while campaigning at Whole Foods. Collins is appealing his conviction and suing Shopper's World with the help of the ACLU and the Rutherford Institute.
Most controversial firing: UVA insists that charter critic Dena Bowers was not fired November 22, after 17 years on the payroll, for her outspoken views against UVA's "charter" status. The pink slip was for sending an NAACP report using her work email.
Worst news for train-hoppers: The General Assembly fails to fund additional train connections in Charlottesville, voting instead to funnel funds into a Bristol-Richmond line.
Worst news for train-track hoppers: Charlottesville police ticket dozens of train-track crossers near the Belmont Bridge after Buckingham Branch complains about the time-honored trespassing tradition.
Best day in court for former UVA quarterback Matt Schaub: The Atlanta Falcon is acquitted February 18 of misdemeanor assault and battery charges filed by a second-year student who, witnesses testified, kept saying, "Schwab, get me a job" November 4 on the Corner.
Worst stampede: A dozen UVA football fans are injured when students attempt to rush the field October 15 after the Cavs' victory over Florida State.
Saddest passings: Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad assistant chief Nikki Kielar dies in a DC helicopter crash January 11; 22-year-old UVA student and snowboard team captain Brian Love dies in a February 1 accident at Wintergreen; former city councilor/teacher/author Mary Alice Gunter, 69, dies June 6 from cancer; Buford Middle School community service officer Gary Williams dies in a single-car accident in Ohio June 7; U.S. District Court Judge Harry Michael, 86, dies August 29; writer and PEN/Faulkner Award founder Mary Lee Settle dies September 28 at age 87; Spudnuts owner Richard Wingfield, 75, dies November 5; UVA student Michelle E. Collier, 20, is found dead in her city apartment November 18 with no apparent cause of death; former Albemarle School Board chairman John Baker dies December 7; UVA benefactor Carl Smith dies December 8.
Saddest loss for the Hook newsroom: Sports columnist, recent Albemarle High graduate, and award-winning runner Kelly Watt, 18, succumbs to heat stroke July 30 just weeks before entering William & Mary. On November 19, a race is held in his honor.
Biggest break: In May, Charlottesville's own Hackensaw Boys join Dave Matthews Band, King Wilkie, John McCutcheon, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Corey Harris as major label-signed musicians when the bluegrass band inks a deal with Nettwerk Records.
Loudest wake-up call: In late June, Downtown dwellers learn the hard way that Charlottesville officials had failed to file a "quiet zone" notice with the feds. The result is two months of day and night 96+ decibel blasts from passing trains.
Most emotional sentencing: On February 16, former UVA student and convicted stabber Andrew Alston is formally sentenced to three years for the death of volunteer firefighter Walker Sisk.
Bitterest pill: Friends and family of Sisk are stunned in June to learn that a juror in the trial of his attacker blames alcohol for the killing. In a 3,000-word cover story in the June edition of the Swarthmore College Bulletin, juror Liz Kutchai describes how jurors agreed that the 18 stab wounds Alston delivered were involuntary manslaughter.
Biggest change for Fridays After 5: The Charlottesville Downtown Foundation, which founded the popular event, rides into the sunset after Coran Capshaw is given the go-ahead to build the Charlottesville Pavilion. Fridays temporarily relocates to another Capshaw venue, the old Ivy Industries/ future ACAC building on Garrett Street, while construction is completed on the Pavilion.
Biggest get for the opener: Loretta Lynn and Sissy Spacek engage in a curious concert/conversation as the Pavilion opening event July 30.
Biggest rip: A renegade July 13 storm shreds the fabric of the big tent before installation is complete.
Worst places to try to get a pizza delivered: Hardy Drive, Prospect Avenue, and Friendship Court are on Domino's and Papa John's no-deliver list. After community outcry, the companies resume limited deliveries to those neighborhoods.
Biggest Target: The much-anticipated discount store opens in Hollymead Town Center on August 26.
Best news for Motor City travelers: Over the spring and summer, Northwest Airlines begins two nonstop daily flights from Charlottesville to Detroit.
Best sign hell is freezing over: After 10 years of promising to open soon, Brian Fox opens the Corner Bodo's on June 15.
Worst mistaken identity: When a rape victim IDs him as her assailant September 2, innocent citizen Christopher Matthew is jailed for five days until cleared by DNA. In December, he sues the woman for defamation of character.
Best sign for Dems: The election of Tim Kaine for governor suggests that the conservative Republican stranglehold on the Commonwealth may be loosening. Likewise in Albemarle County, Democrat Dave Slutzky's overwhelming victory over Republican Gary Grant for a Board of Supervisors' seat signals a leftward tilt in the traditionally Republican-leaning county.
Closest race: Republican Bob McDonnell is certified attorney general more than two weeks after the November 8 election with a 327-vote lead over Charlottesville's state senator, Creigh Deeds. A recount may keep the official results in limbo until early 2006.
Biggest directorial debut: On September 16, Charlottesville-bred Jeff Wadlow, son of the late Emily Couric, brings his first film to American screens– 1,789 of them– but brings the debut (and star Lindy Booth) to the Newcomb Hall premiere. Critics consider the picture, Cry Wolf, a reasonable first try, and it ends up grossing $10 million.
Worst return of the Greenleaf grabber: Robert Terrell Haskins, who dodges an attempted rape charge for attacking a mother in Greenleaf Park in late 2002, is arrested again for assaulting a woman in her Little High Street home November 26.
Best painting: Controversy about sprayings on Beta Bridge abounds, but there's no ambiguity surrounding the black and white message that goes up on Wednesday, September 14, as hundreds of UVA students and Charlottesville citizens contribute to painting the Gettysburg Address as a symbolic stand against racist acts on Grounds.
Best reason to wear clean underwear: Citizens claim that Buckingham County sheriff's deputies are strip-searching motorists by the side of the road when the drug dog indicates a hit. Police deny the practice– or claim the two people who talked to the Hook stripped voluntarily.
Most litigious neighborhood: Dogwood Valley in Greene County, where a knock on the door usually means a subpoena.
Biggest mistrial: The three-week U.S. District Court trial of Louis Antonio Bryant, leader of the alleged drug gang Project Crud, aka the Westside Crew and PJC, and associates Claiborne Lemar Maupin, Terrance Suggs, and John Darrelle Bryant crumples when a juror reads a newspaper story and discusses it with two other jurors.
Most Wahoo exposure: UVA fourth-year Amanda Paige is Playboy's Miss October.
Biggest launch: Charlottesville's controversial $6.6 million new computer system, CityLink, goes online in July.
Biggest boutique: In November, high-end paper goods purveyor Caspari opens its second retail shop (the first is in Paris) in the former Woolworth's/Foot Locker space.
Best Lawn gossip: After the big three national networks lose their iconic 6:30pm news anchors (Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and the late Peter Jennings), 1979 UVA graduate and Lawnie Katie Couric becomes the must-have, according to pundits. Couric reportedly earns $15 million annually for anchoring NBC's Today show.
Most tumultuous year for Planned Parenthood: The reproductive rights group staves off a court challenge to the zoning of its new facility on Hydraulic Road in July, but then seems to implode in November when four local members of the regional board resign in protest of CEO David Nova.
Worst disappointment for Albemarle Bank shareholders: Its merger with Millennium Bankshares falls through.
Most controversial hat: The "Swallow Bitch Swallow" baseball cap disappears from the shelves of Spencer's Gifts after a shopper complains.
Best push for the long-awaited (or dreaded) Meadowcreek Parkway: Senator John Warner comes up with $27 million, enough to get things going– finally.
Longest-running John Grisham courtroom drama: Katharine Almy's lawsuit against Grisham, two handwriting experts, and a St. Anne's-Belfield director for intentional infliction of emotional distress is dismissed July 8– just short of its 5th anniversary. Almy's lawyer vows to appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Best year for PVCC: The community college receives a $500,000 donation from Woodrow W. Bolick and his daughter, Cynthia Bolick Stultz, followed by a $1.2 million check from Patricia Kluge and Bill Moses.
Shiniest coin: While the U.S. experiments with a profile of Thomas Jefferson on the nickel and brings back the bison, a brand new coin emerges to honor the Shenandoah Valley's ag heritage. The brainchild of Matt Cauley, the sterling silver "Shen" is available from select businesses for $18.95.
Newest connection: The North Grounds Connector, which will funnel northbound U.S. 29 traffic to and from the new John Paul Jones Arena, is finished five months early and scheduled to open in January.
Best celebrity sightings: Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank and husband Chad Lowe are spotted here in April. Ben Affleck and then-preggers wife Jennifer Garner stroll the Downtown Mall in October amid persistent rumors they're considering this area for raising baby. (An even better rumor fanned by the Washington Post had Affleck challenging George Allen for the U.S. Senate.)


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text:
Haskell Quiz/Posix Pangrams
From HaskellWiki
< Haskell Quiz
RubyQuiz #97: Create pangrams (sentences containing every letter of the alphabet at least once) from the names of the Posix Utilities [1]. From the quiz page: "Pangrams should (1) use the fewest utilities and (2) have the minimum number of repeated letters. In either case, break ties on the other criterion; that is, your first solution should also have as few repeated letters as possible, and your second one should use as few utilities as possible." List of the utilities.
[1] http://www.unix.org/version3/apis/cu.html


text: I don't shoot my M4 Carbine all that often anymore now that I've got a pretty full gun safe with all sorts of other "toys" of various calibers and descriptions, but each time I do I sure enjoy it! It is highly accurate, really fun to shoot and it is a delight each time I pull the trigger. If you have a rifle in the AR15 family, do you feel the same way about yours? What do you like most about it? What do you like least about it? How have you used yours? Would love to hear from you and compare notes. Here's a discussion and shooting demonstration video I made today out at the gun club on a very wet and rainy day! Thank goodness for rifle ranges with roofs over them. HD VIDEO LINK HERE.


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Nice to see some of our students in the local paper this week!
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2010-11 Coursework and Extra-Curricular Activities
2010-11 Affiliated Courses
Movie Showing
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Time: 5:30-8:00PM
Location: 456 FH
Co-sponsored by the Department of History and UM-Flint Historical Society
Based on Alex Haley's best-selling novel about his African ancestors, Roots followed several generations in the lives of a slave family. The saga began with Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), a West African youth captured by slave raiders and shipped to America in the 1700s. The family's saga is depicted up until the Civil War where Kunte Kinte's grandson gained emancipation.
Movie Showing
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Time: 6:00-9:00 PM
Location: 251 French Hall
Co-sponsored by the Department of History and UM-Flint Historical Society
Working in part from firsthand histories filmaker Terrence Malick crafts a spellbinding tale of the Jamestown settlement. Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell), Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher), John Rolfe (Christian Bale): You know the names. But you could never experience the visceral power of the stories behind those names until now.
Movie Showing
Date: Monday, February 21, 2011
Time: 6:00-9:00 PM
Location: 251 French Hall
In this two-hour film, we will embrace and celebrate Thomas Jefferson's complicated life and legacy. He is the most researched, most written about, most referenced, and most quoted of our Founding Fathers. And yet. somehow, he remains the most stubbornly inscrutable. His life is a seemingly impenetrable thicket of contradictions: he enshrined the worlds 'All Men are Created Equal'. and yet was a lifelong slave-owner; he was simultaneously a 'man of the people' and the personification of the Virginia aristocrat; he was a die-hard American revolutionary who was also a dedicated lover of European culture and art; he advocated ruthless fiscal responsibility as President, yet his own finances were mired in debt. He is an American icon who remains, in historian Joseph Ellis' memorable phrase, a Great American Sphinx.


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Sam Allardyce faces fresh questions over his future as West Ham manager as an unrecognisable side were routed by second-tier Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup.
The Sky Bet Championship side's emphatic 5-0 win – courtesy of Djamel Abdoun's cheeky 'Panenka' penalty, Jamie Paterson's second-half hat-trick and Andy Reid's late finish – might go down in some quarters as a cup upset but once the team-sheets were announced the bookmakers had already installed the hosts as favourites.
Allardyce, with injury and suspension problems and a Capital One Cup semi-final in midweek, handed out a total of five debuts, three from the start and two more off the bench, among nine changes to his team.
It was a gamble that backfired horribly as the relegation-battling Hammers simply had their confidence further assaulted by lower-league opposition.
The young rookies – Seb Lletget, Danny Whitehead, Callum Driver, Reece Burke and Blair Turgott – can hardly be blamed for the humbling result, but Allardyce may not be as lucky.
His future may detract slightly from Paterson's efforts, but it should not - with the winger winning his side's spot-kick and then converting three fine goals of his own.
The opener came after just 12 minutes as Paterson beat George Moncur with some neat footwork before being tripped by the midfielder.
Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot but when Abdoun reached for the ball, Forest fans appeared to groan in unison.
They need not have worried, though, as the Algerian dinked the ball down the middle with a supreme confidence not usually associated with a player who had never previously scored for the club.
West Ham's most experienced players were stationed on either wing, with captain-for-the-day Stewart Downing left and Matt Jarvis right.
Their response to the goal was to look for the pair with every attack and in the 23rd minute, the Hammers went close to levelling.
Reid's foul gave Ravel Morrison a chance to test his free-kick skills from 20 yards out and his bending shot would have crept under the crossbar had Karl Darlow not responded with a fine save.
Having survived that, Forest went again – Gonzalo Jara splitting the away defence with a slide-rule pass that former Hammers loanee Henri Lansbury just failed to reach.
There was a big penalty appeal soon after when Driver went in hard on Greg Halford as he looked to convert from close range, but the defender did seem to get a piece of the ball.
Regardless, West Ham were clinging on – goalkeeper Adrian tested first by Jamaal Lascelles' long-ranger and then by Halford's downward header.
A rare counter-attack in the 35th minute almost yielded results but just as Modibo Maiga set himself to shoot, Eric Lichaj made a wonderful blocking tackle.
Three minutes before the break, Forest missed two more chances to double the lead.
Reid's clever through-ball deserved a better finish than Eric Lichaj could provide and, when Adrian's save came back out, Lansbury shot over from an inviting position.
Forest started the second half at a fierce pace but Abdoun, emboldened by his goal, repeatedly made the wrong decision – shooting when he should have passed and almost costing his team dear with a 40-yard cross-field pass directly to Downing.
Allardyce's side could not take advantage of that sloppiness, Downing's shot deflected over and Whitehead following up with a wild attempt of his own.
The manager responded by throwing on more youth, handing two more debuts to Burke and Turgott and also sending on the callow Mathias Fanimo.
The Premier League side might have equalised before the hour mark had it not been for Darlow, who saved low from Lletget while unsighted and stood firm to Morrison's near-post drive.
That was as good as it got, though, with the game ended as a contest on 65 minutes when Halford held the ball up well before teeing up Paterson.
He opened his body and found the bottom corner, despite Adrian's best efforts, to put the result to bed.
Paterson's second came just six minutes later as West Ham's frailties continued to be exposed.
Lansbury played creator this time, squaring the ball for Paterson, who stroked home confidently with a first-time effort.
By now, Forest were all over their opponents – Lansbury, Paterson and Abdoun taking turns to torture their young markers.
Paterson's hat-trick now appeared to be their priority and the Hammers did not look up to the task of denying it.
With 11 minutes to go he raced into the area, shuffled into a shooting position as defenders stood off and deposited neatly into the bottom corner.
There was one final insult when Reid smashed home Abdoun's lay-off in injury time, leaving West Ham thoroughly humbled and with plenty to ponder.


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Kenny Chesney needs something different
Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass., July 2005
By Marilyn McPherson
FOXBORO, MA - Kenny Chesney's "Guitars and Tiki Bars" tour may have a new set and lots of flash, but it's still the same music as last year's tour.
Starting with a huge curtain covering the stage, the music begins, and the band shows as eerie gray shadows. The familiar strains of "Young" start and continue for what seems like several minutes before the disembodied voice starts singing the words. Just as he hits the line, "struck matches just to watch them burn," the curtain comes down dramatically and there's Chesney in the bright lights.
Last year, he appeared up from the floor behind a screen that falls down as he sings. This year, he took the opposite route, seeming to float down from the ceiling on a small suspended platform.
By the time he sets foot on the stage, the crowds, with lots of young women in front, are in a frenzy. The new stage design includes risers across the main stage that resembles the bleachers in a high school football field. He has also added two small tower stages on both sides, giving him the opportunity to run from one end of the stage to the other and stand well above the crowd, sit on the edge of the platform or just clown around with the audience.
Chesney, as usual, has a high energy show. Rarely stopping to talk, he swings from song to song and marches, run and dances up and down the stage with his band, stopping only to ask the audience if they are having fun.
The disappointment was in how little of the new music he played. He did only three songs from his latest album, "When the Sun Goes Down" - the title song, the hit "There Goes My Life" and his next single, "I Go Back."
He stuck with the hits from the "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" album - the album theme song, "Young," "Big Star," "The Good Stuff" and "Live Those Songs."
The remainder of the concert was a medley of other hit songs - his "Greatest Hits" album revisited: "Don't Happen Twice," "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," "Me and You" and "Back Where I Come From," among others.
The only "new material" seemed to be the Jimmy Buffet song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". He even reprised last year's closing number with John Mellencamp's "Jack & Diane" with Keith Urban and opener Dirks Bentley.
Urban has changed dramatically in the last few years. He now appears surer of himself and his music as he strides out on stage and plays most of the songs from his "Golden Road" album with some hits from his first album, including closing with the rocking "Where the Blacktop Ends."
He seems more connected to the audience and the music. For Urban, it's about the music, the guitar playing, the words and the fun. The audience was on its feet for almost the entire set, and as he and the band took a final bow, they looked like they wanted to return to their instruments and keep going, but it just wasn't their show and left most of the crowd wanting more. It's definitely time for Urban to leave the Chesney tour and headline on his own.
For Chesney, its time to take some risks, play some new music - the fans seem to love him no matter what he plays. For those that like the music as well, it maybe time to leave the islands and try something new.
©Country Standard Time • Jeffrey B. Remz, editor & publisher • email@example.com
About • Copyright • Newsletter • Our sister publication Standard Time


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I am an archaeologist.
Right now I am also working toward a PhD at the University of Cenral Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston, United Kingdom. My subject area is the historical archaeology of South Central California, and I am looking at how people create their sense of identity and attachment to place through the process of belonging. This means I am theorizing on what an Archaeology of Belonging is and can do particularly in colonialism.
Originally my husband (who is also an archaeologist) and I came to the UK from the United States for a one year MSc by Research degree. We wanted to get a higher degree because we wanted to have a family at some time in the future. At the time we made the choice of coming to UCLAN, we were working in the field for a CRM company in California. Although we were not completely unhappy, it was time for a change. We had been field technicians for about five years, had not had a home in two as we were in near constant ten day rotations. When not working we would visit and stay with family. While working our house became the contents of two large blue totes and a red roller suitcase of books placed in exactly the same way in every hotel room we lived in. Life was good (we even had annual passes to Disneyland and would work a full day and have dinner and a ride at night) but we wanted to one day have a family as well. So we finally accepted the invitation from a colleague to study at the university he worked for. Equating more education with a more stable position in archaeology.
Why the background story? It's important, as on the 29th of June during the Day of Archaeology, archaeology was but one aspect of my identity (a theme in my PhD).
Almost half way through the MSc and right before I was to start my field work last year, we discovered our future dreams of a family were to happen a whole lot sooner. I gave birth to my son in November, a couple of weeks after I graduated from my Masters. In January I started the PhD.
My Day of Archaeology consisted of:
General email round-up from the school email system to see if I have succeeded through Progression and Registration for my degree with the university. (Can't forget about Facebook as a tool to keep in touch with family, friends, and old colleagues.)
Taking my son to Baby Club at the local Sure Start Centre. See how I include in my day attendance of a social group event, but have completely completely disregarded the countless minutes of my domestic work as a mother including cooking, cleaning, baby care (and those loads of nappies, expressing breast milk, and new baby solids which I made not bought). Maybe as archaeologist we fail to think and look at the mundane as we see it as too everyday, but it is the everyday rituals that show my identity in the archaeological record. Just something to think about, as I think about it more and more every day. What are the mundane things we miss as archaeologist that are / were actually so important to peoples in the past?
While my son takes naps in the afternoon I TRY and read for my literature review. Today it was Vicki Bell's edited volume Performativity and Belonging. I am particularly inspired by Anne-Marie Fortier's article "Re-Membering Places and the Performance of Belonging(s)."
The biggest bit of archaeology today was writing an abstract to present an oral presentation at the Theoretical Archaeological Group (TAG) for the 2012 Liverpool conference, on my work on developing an Archaeology of Belonging. It will be the first major conference in which I will be an oral presenter. I am a mix of excited and very nervous.
As I said: I am an archaeologist. But I am also a PhD researcher, a wife, and a mother.


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|The Pinnacle Satun Wangmai Hotel is located in Satun town, South of Thailand,
The gateway to the island of Langawi, Malaysia, Tarutao Island, and the Thai National Marine Park.
The hotel is a first class accommodation at budget prices with 108 air-conditioned and non air-conditioned rooms.
Satun is a small but attractive province in the South of Thailand. With its many Natural attractions and Marine Life it is ideal for those with and adventurous spirit who wish to explore a part of "Unseen Thailand".
|A First Class Accommodation at budget price with 108 air-condition and non air-conditioned room.
|Standard Room
|Superior Room


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When are a mistrial and retrial double jeopardy?
Although the Fifth Amendment protects criminal defendants from double jeopardy, that protection does not apply when, for a conviction requiring a unanimous verdict, the jurors cannot agree. During oral argument Monday morning in Renico v. Lett (09-338), the Court will consider whether double jeopardy protections apply when the trial judge declares a mistrial based on a certain mix of signals from the jury which, in the court's judgment, indicate they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Respondent Reginald Lett was tried on second-degree murder charges. When jury deliberations began after the four-day trial, the jury quickly sent signals "" in the form of two notes to the judge "" indicating that they might be deadlocked. In the first note, they expressed concern that the volume of their deliberations was disrupting other proceedings in the courthouse; the second note asked what would happen if they could not agree on a verdict. Upon receiving the second note, the judge convened the jury and asked the foreperson whether the jury was going to reach a unanimous verdict. After some hesitation, the foreperson replied simply "no." The trial judge immediately declared a mistrial. Lett subsequently faced a second trial, during which he was convicted and sentenced to sixteen to forty years in prison on the murder charge.
Lett appealed, arguing that the declaration of a mistrial in his first trial violated his right to be free from double jeopardy. The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed the trial judge's decision as an exercise of "sound discretion," explaining that she acted reasonably based on the jury notes and the foreperson's statement. Lett then filed a habeas petition in federal district court, which granted him relief. The trial judge had, in the federal court's view, taken inadequate steps to ensure that the jury was indeed deadlocked when she declared the mistrial. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of habeas relief in an unpublished opinion.
The Arguments
In its merits brief, the state begins with the premise that the double jeopardy bar is not absolute. The controlling Supreme Court precedent is United States v. Perez (1824), which held that a second trial does not violate the defendant's constitutional rights as long as the trial judge has declared a mistrial in the first proceeding based on "manifest necessity." There is no mechanical formula to determine whether a new trial is a "manifest necessity"; rather, in Perez, the Court merely required the trial judge to exercise "sound discretion" in making that decision.
According to the state, the paradigmatic case of "manifest necessity" is a deadlocked jury, but here too there is no consensus on what constitutes a deadlocked jury, and the Court has not addressed this issue before. Indeed, the state contends, the fact that the courts of appeals are split on the question whether a finding of manifest necessity is warranted based on jury deliberation exceeding a given time limit demonstrates the need to defer to the decisions of the trial courts regardless of their exact reasoning.
In the state's view, federal courts should accord two separate kinds of deference to findings of "manifest necessity" by state courts. First, as a general matter, trial courts are better placed than federal courts, acting years after the fact, to determine whether a particular mishap makes a new trial necessary. Second, under AEDPA, federal courts must use a highly deferential standard to review state court judgments on the merits of criminal cases. Unless the trial judge's decision was "contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Supreme Court precedent," the federal court must deny habeas relief. Here, because the Court has never addressed the standards for evaluating the "sound discretion" of a mistrial declaration, no "clearly established" Supreme Court precedent existed for the Michigan Supreme Court to unreasonably apply.
Finally, and in any event, Lett's first trial judge reasonably declared a mistrial. The judge concluded that the jury was deadlocked based on the jury's messages implying a heated disagreement among its members and at least the possibility of a deadlock, as well as her public questioning of the jury foreperson. Additional evidence that the decision was reasonable, the state emphasized, comes from the fact that the second jury unanimously convicted Lett after just a little over three hours of deliberation.
In his brief on the merits, Lett concedes that federal courts owe state courts a high degree of deference in declaring a mistrial, but he counters that such deference is due only when a trial judge uses "sound discretion," as required by Perez. And in particular, there is a presumption against terminating jury deliberations that could potentially return a verdict in the defendant's favor. Here Lett relies on language in Perez indicating that the power to declare a mistrial "ought to be used with the greatest caution, under urgent circumstances, and for very plain and obvious causes." Moreover, even to the extent that the courts of appeals now employ slightly different guideposts to determine when a trial court has exercised "sound discretion," they uniformly require a showing that the judge "[took] steps to assure him or herself that the jury truly cannot agree, that additional deliberations would be fruitless, and that alternatives to a mistrial are not reasonable or viable."
In this case, according to Lett, three actions by the trial judge demonstrated that her decision gave insufficient weight to the presumption against a mistrial. First, the judge did not consult with counsel on either side beforehand, adjourning the court so quickly after her exchange with the jury foreperson that Lett had no opportunity to object. Second, the judge did not explore alternatives short of mistrial to ensure that the jury was truly deadlocked. Third, the judge abruptly declared the mistrial without taking adequate time herself to reflect.
Finally, to the extent that Perez does require a trial judge to seek input from counsel or consider alternatives to a mistrial, no deference is warranted under AEDPA, as Lett's first trial judge was not exercising sound discretion and the Michigan Supreme Court unreasonably applied the precedent by affirming her decision.
One further issue may be worth noting. In response to the state's assertion (albeit in passing) that Lett did not raise his Double Jeopardy Clause objection until after his second trial returned a verdict unfavorable to him, Lett responds that the trial judge allowed no time for a motion before ending the trial, and therefore his silence should not be read as acquiescence in the declaration of mistrial.


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Boston College went after the Beanpot with relentless energy Tuesday night at Conte Forum, controlling the puck and the pace of the game as the seventh-ranked Eagles beat two-time defending champion Northeastern, 3-0, to win their fifth Beanpot title and first since 2011.
"This whole night has been awesome,'' said goalie Corinne Boyles, who made 25 saves to earn the shutout. "The team came to play.
"I watched the team win it my sophomore year and this was the first time I've got the trophy in my hands on the ice. So it's a pretty big night; it's really awesome."
The last shutout in a Beanpot championship was in 2010 when Harvard blanked NU, 1-0.
"I thought our team played great,'' said BC coach Katie King Crowley, "from the beginning of the game right through to the end. They did all the things we asked them to do throughout the year and it came together in this game."
It was the second year in a row that BC (21-5-3) and Northeastern played for the championship and the loss ended a seven-game win streak for Northeastern (14-13-2).
"I felt like it just wasn't our night,'' said Northeastern coach Dave Flint, whose team has had to play with a short bench during its win streak because of injuries. "From the drop of the puck, there were points we lacked energy and gave a lackluster effort. And then there were times when I felt we competed and it might have been more of a game if we could have put 60 minutes together.
"We just didn't have the jump that we've had the last seven games. Part of that, too, is BC is extremely fast and talented and they can make you look like you're not moving as quick as you should be. "
BC dominated the first period, peppering NU goalie Chloe Desjardins. Taylor Wasylk gave BC the lead at 16:02 of the first period, picking off a weak breakout pass and firing at Desjardins from the edge of the right circle. The puck hit the goalie's shoulder and went into the top left corner of the net. The unassisted goal was the 10th of the year for the senior forward, who was named Beanpot MVP.
"It's definitely exciting to make an impact senior year,'' said Wasylk.
Despite its dominance, it was not until Meagan Mangene scored a power-play goal at 10:23 of the third that BC could bump up its lead. Mangene connected with a wrist shot from the edge of the left circle with only 2 seconds remaining in a hooking penalty to Sonia St. Martin. Melissa Bizzari made it 3-0 with another power-play goal at 15:15, this time a sharply angled shot from the bottom of the left circle that skimmed past Desjardins.
BC, which also won the season series between the teams, 2-1, outshot the Huskies, 30-25.
Boyles said watching the men's team defeat Northeastern in the Beanpot Monday night served as inspiration. "We definitely brought that energy into our locker room,'' she said. "Watching them win was huge. So we came in here to do the same thing."
Some of BC's outsized energy seemed to have dissipated early in the second but as the period went on, the Eagles regained their zip. BC went on the power play at 4:20 when Kelly Wallace was called for body checking and immediately set up in the NU zone. Kate Leary got open for a pair of tip-in tries, but both shots went wide.
Northeastern had a pair of power-play opportunities and after failing to register a shot on a first-period man-advantage, this time the Huskies set up and fired. Tori Hickel had the most dangerous shot, a quick wrister from the right point, but Boyles got her left pad on the puck. Their second power play was flat and futile.
. . .
Samantha Reber scored with 10.9 seconds left in overtime to give No. 6 Harvard (19-3-3) a 3-2 victory over Boston University (10-10-1) in the consolation game. The Crimson rallied from a 2-1 third-period deficit on Miye D'Oench's 15th goal of the season . . . There's a shiny new trophy for the Beanpot to replace the old porcelain beanpot, mounted on a wooden base, that has been the tournament prize since 1979, when Beanpot executive director Joe Bertagna found the pot in a North Shore antiques store.


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Christianity Today: Khristians' Khristian RepubliCONs
Wednesday, February 06 2008 @ 11:14 PM CST Views: 210
Bad Boys, Nasty Boys: Out of the GOP's Closet
by Michael Parenti
Republican party politicos espouse an unflagging devotion to old-fashioned morality and family values, inveighing heavily against gay marriage, abortion, homosexuality, adultery, feminism, crime, stem-cell research, secularism, and liberalism-all of which they tend to lump together as different facets of the same evil decadence.
GOP leaders dilate on the need to "put God back into public life." Many of them even claim to be directly guided by their deity's mandate when legislating and governing. Their private deeds, however, frequently betray their words. Consider this incomplete sampling of politically prominent "social conservatives" who preach the conventional virtues to their constituents while practicing something else in their off-hours.
Recently-deceased Representative Henry Hyde, Illinois Republican, played a key role in the impeachment campaign waged against the adulterous president Bill Clinton. The several obituaries I read about Hyde failed to mention that he a six-year liaison with a young married mother of three children. The woman's former husband blamed Hyde for the divorce that followed from the affair, and for the emotional damage inflicted on his children. Hyde dismissed the affair as "a youthful indiscretion"—it having ended when he was just a callow youngster of 43 or so. In 1992, Hyde divorced his wife of 45 years. Soon after that she died and he quickly remarried.
Representative Bob Livingston, Louisiana Republican, married with four children, resigned as House speaker-elect after his marital infidelities made the headlines in 1998.
Speaker of the House, Republican Newt Gingrich, led the charge against the philandering Clinton while himself carrying on an affair with a congressional aide. Gingrich hastened a divorce action against his (second) wife while she was hospitalized with cancer in order that he might marry the aide. At one point Gingrich's ailing ex-wife and children had to get material assistance from their local church, having received insufficient sums from Gingrich himself. In 2007, he claimed to have come to grips with his "personal failures," having sought God's forgiveness.
Republican Baptist minister Bill Randall, who had been aggressively touted by the Republican party as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida, admitted that he had fathered an illegitimate child in the 1980s. After confirming the child's existence, he changed his story the next day during a press interview, suddenly insisting that his teenage son was the father. Sensing that no one would swallow that story, Randall again reversed course and admitted to paternity. He did everybody a favor by dropping out of the 1998 congressional race.
Bob Barr was a Georgia GOP congressman until 2003, after which he became a conservative activist. While still married to his first wife, he was romancing the woman who would become his second wife. Barr was on record as a staunch right-to-lifer, but this did not prevent him from driving wife #2 to a clinic and paying the costs for her abortion. He soon took on a new mistress who became wife #3 shortly after he dumped #2. While in Congress, Barr authored the "Defense of Marriage Act," probably with good reason.
Three leading candidates for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, and Newt Gingrich, had five divorces between them, all involving adultery. On the Democratic side, the three front runners, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, had neither divorces nor infidelities. Yet it was the Republicans who laid claim to being keepers of traditional family values, while damning the liberals for their amorality and profligacy.
In 2007, Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican and family-values man, made the news for having patronized a prostitution ring in Washington, D.C. for several years, and earlier having used the services of a New Orleans brothel over a five-month period. Vitter refused to resign, assuring everyone that "I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife."
Along with the hypocritical philanderers, there are the subterranean gay blades. In 2007, Bob Allen, Florida Republican state legislator, married with one child, was arrested in a public restroom after offering to perform oral sex on an undercover officer for $20.
Another restroom adventurer was Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, an outspoken opponent of gays in the military and gay marriage. Craig was famously arrested for directing sexual advances toward an undercover police officer in a men's toilet at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The police had been monitoring the restroom because of complaints about sexual activities there. Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. A number of other men, including one from Craig's college days, identified the senator as having engaged in sexual activity with them or having made overtures with that intent, including an encounter in the restrooms at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
A few weeks later another GOP politico who consistently voted against gay rights, Washington State representative Richard Curtis, was caught with his panties down. Dressed in women's lingerie he met a man in a local erotic video store, and went with him to a downtown hotel for a night of oral and anal copulation. Once the story broke, Curtis resigned from office. By now, word on the Internet was that GOP stood for "Gay Old Party" or "Greedy Old Perverts," and that Richard Curtis had left public life "so he could spend more time masturbating with his family."
There are the three classic cases of ultraconservative anti-gay gays who go back half a century: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, McCarthyite investigator and Washington lobbyist Roy Cohn, and Cardinal Francis Spellman of the New York Roman Catholic archdiocese. All three of these prominent right-wingers and keepers of American homophobic vigilance were themselves secretly full-blown homosexuals who sometimes partied together in the company of choice male escorts—back in the days when the press dared not touch such stories.
In the above cases, what is deplorable is not only the obviously hypocritical inconsistency between professed beliefs and private behavior, but the professed beliefs themselves; beliefs that advocate discrimination against gays, brand prostitutes as criminals, equate abortion with murder, denounce divorce as a mortal threat to family and nation, and treat sex between unmarried consenting adults (even of the heterosexual variety) as sinful fornication.
Consequently, a noticeable number of conservative politicos face the daunting task of trying to submerge their lascivious desires in order to live up to their puritanical mouthings, trapped as they are in an unyielding cycle of surreptitious sin and furious public denunciations of those same sins.
In recent years, Republican ranks appeared to be riddled not only with sexual hypocrites but, far worse, sexual predators. There was the former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut, Philip Giordano who is now serving a 37-year sentence for sexual abuse in 2001 of two girls, ages 8 and 10.
Jim West, conservative Republican mayor of Spokane, Washington, backed a measure to prohibit gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools on the presumption that they might get too close to their pupils. Meanwhile he was using his city hall computer to troll for sex with high school boys. Two men accused West of molesting them when they were Boy Scouts and he was a troop leader. He was ousted in a recall election in 2005.
A GOP congressman from Florida, Mark Foley, was caught sending sexually explicit emails to teenaged boys who had served as congressional pages. He reportedly invited one page to engage in oral sex with him, an offer the boy refused. Foley chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which introduced stricter legislation for tracking sexual predators. Republican congressional leaders had received complaints about him from congressional pages—which they repeatedly failed to act upon. Foley resigned from Congress in 2006.
At that time, allegations of improper interactions with congressional pages were leveled at another Republican Congressman, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who decided not to run for reelection.
In 2007, a Florida federal prosecutor working for the Bush administration, operating in "one of the most conservative United States attorney's offices in the country," dedicated to a hardline law-and-order approach, was charged with traveling across state lines to have sex with a five-year-old girl. J. D. Roy Atchison, had been chatting online with an undercover officer who posed as a mother offering to let men have sex with her young daughter. When arrested en route to his would-be rendezvous with a five-year-old, Atchison was carrying a doll and petroleum jelly. While detained in a federal prison in Michigan, he committed suicide.
In such instances, the most reprehensible thing is neither the hypocrisy nor the professed beliefs, but the behavior itself, involving the molestation and sexual assault of children and unwilling adolescents. The perpetrators are not merely hypocrites, they are criminals. In these cases, they really are sinners.
So the holy hypocrites-philanderers, homophobic gays, and pedophiles—crow their devotion to traditional morality while pursuing material and emotional plunder more rapaciously than any of us ordinary infidels and libertines. Looking at the above cases, and the many others that one could add if space and patience allowed, we can conclude that professions of religiosity are no guarantee of moral behavior. If anything, the hypocrites use religion as a bludgeon to be brandished against liberal opponents in order that they themselves might better pursue their aggrandizing goals and desires—no matter how selfish and destructive these may be. If this be morality, who needs degeneracy?
Michael Parenti's recent publications include: Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader (City Lights, 2007); Democracy for the Few, 8th ed. (Wadsworth, 2007); The Culture Struggle (Seven Stories, 2006). For further information, visit his website:


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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Veteran George Pulakos of Indian Land, S.C., has many horrific images lodged in his head from the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, but the one he remembers most vividly is that of all the bodies.
Pulakos, 90, couldn't avoid looking, having been given the task of clearing wounded and dead from the English Channel. He was serving as a surgical technician at the time, with the 331st Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division.
"The bodies were stacked like cord wood on the beach," he recalled. "We're talking four or five feet tall."
Such were the sad memories shared during an unusual ceremony Monday at Foundation for the Carolinas that had French officials honoring six World War II vets from the Carolinas with France's highest military award, the Legion of Honor.
Two of the six are from the Charlotte area, Pulakos and 91-year-old Clyde Polk of Charlotte, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served as an armorer with the 507th Fighter Squadron of the 404th Bombardment Group.
Other honorees included: Elbert Davis of Hampstead, Dewitt Wells of Winston-Salem, David Gordon of Cary and John Harmon of Saluda, S.C. A sixth veteran, Frank Pruitt of Spartanburg, S.C., recently died so the award was given to his family.
Denis Barbet, French consul general to the Southeast United States, told the soldiers that their heroism embodies a French-American friendship that dates back to the American Revolution.
"You will be our heroes forever," Babet told the group. "We, the French, will never forget what you did to restore our freedom. And today, we also remember the ultimate sacrifice of so many of your comrades who rest on French soil."
Babet followed his comments by pinning a medal to each of the men's lapels, and reciting in French: "In the name of the president of the French Republic, I now make you Knight in the Legion of Honor."
The Legion of Honor, created two centuries ago by Napoleon Bonaparte, is the highest distinction France can confer on a citizen or a foreigner and recognizes exceptional service to France.
All six soldiers honored Monday came to the attention of French officials through applications sent in by the men themselves or friends and family.
Consulate officials say veterans who served in France during 1944-45 are qualified for the award, as part of an effort to honor all Americans who helped liberate that nation in World War II.
Claire Collobert Angelle, press attache for the consulate, said the push to award this country's aging World War II veterans is also an effort to keep alive the memory of what Americans did "during one of France's darkest times."
Pulakos, who attended the event with his son, Dean Pulakos, said the honor was much appreciated. "But each of us can think of 101 others who should have gotten this, but never got home."
He could easily have been one of those men, having been part of the deadly June 6 D-Day landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy. Pulakos credits his survival to being among the later waves of soldiers to arrive.
"We were supposed to be treating the casualties, but mostly we had to duck and hide in the sand," he said. "The only way to describe the feeling is to say it's like that moment right before you're in a car accident, only it lasts all day.
"Somebody wants to kill you: You don't know him and he doesn't know you."
Polk is another who couldn't help but recall bodies when thinking of France. In his case, it was a battlefield in northern France "and the bodies looked like they'd been there a month or two."
"I will say that the French really treated us nice. They took us into their houses and let us spend the night and they fed us," Polk said. "They didn't have much to begin with, because everything was rationed, but they gave it to us anyway."
Pulakos, who moved to the Charlotte area last year from Erie, Pa., also has fond recollections of the French; in particular, he remembered a Frenchman along the side of the road who handed him what he thought was a glass of water.
"I gulped it down, not realizing it was like pure alcohol and it felt like flames were coming out of my head," he said. "They all laughed. I laughed, too, once I could breathe again."
The soldiers recognized Monday long ago received U.S. medals for their military service, including many Purple Hearts.
But Polk and Pulakos couldn't help but feel the French award was all the more special because it came later -- when old soldiers don't mind remembering and being remembered.
"It's really wonderful. I can't think of anything I'd appreciate more at this point in my life," Polk said. "Who knows, maybe tonight I'll put this under my pillow."


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Opera Software will include anti-malware and drive-by download defenses in version 9.5 of its flagship browser, which is now in beta but close to a final release, the company said Monday.
Part of Opera's "Fraud Protection," which until now has included only anti-phishing tools, the new feature puts up messages that warn users when they're about to visit a site that's a known malware host or has been hacked to serve up Trojan horses, worms and other malicious code. The list of blackballed sites is provided by HauteSecure, said Thomas Ford, an Opera spokesman.
"It's significantly different than Firefox's [anti-malware protection] in a couple of key areas," Ford said. The Haute Secure-delivered list, he said, drills down to the page level and also integrates user-provided information on hacked sites. "Haute Secure also uses a community as a human verification layer," Ford said. "It's a false-positive remediation."
HauteSecure already provides a free toolbar for users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox browsers.
The browser queries the Norwegian company's servers each time a page is requested, Ford said, and retrieves a HauteSecure-created blacklist for any compromised pages in that domain. "The data rarely exceeds 1K," said Ford, "so it's not a performance problem, even for low-bandwidth users, like those on dial-up or mobile users."
By comparison, Firefox's anti-malware tool downloads an updated blacklist generated by Google -- and provided via Stopbadware.org, a group that Google co-founded -- daily, then stores that list locally.
"We don't store the blacklist in the browser itself," Ford said. Instead, Opera's Fraud Protection architecture lets the company pull in security information from any external provider. "We can take any data source," Ford added.
All desktop versions of Opera 9.5 -- for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux -- include the anti-malware protection, but Ford wouldn't confirm that the tool would be rolled into Opera's mobile browser, prominent on smart phones such as those made by Nokia Corp. "All I can say is that [the feature] is in the core of the browser."
The newest beta, which can be downloaded from the Opera site, includes the new anti-malware feature. Opera has not committed to a release date for version 9.5, although Ford said it was "imminent."