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Stadium High School students, staff embrace college classes taught on their campus
Writing one college-quality paper a week in a high school English class might seem like a daunting task for many students.
But a group of Stadium High School students who've tackled that and similar tasks say the challenge is worth it — especially when there's college credit waiting at the end of a demanding high school course.
Through a pair of programs that offer dual high school and college credit, hundreds of students at Stadium are getting a taste of what university work will be like.
Those who pass these courses — taught by Stadium teachers, in Stadium classrooms — are awarded college credits either from the University of Washington or from Central Washington University.
Similar programs are in place at other high schools in Tacoma, the South Sound and throughout the state.
Stadium senior Jonathan Dawes said the first-semester UW English course he took this year was "eye-opening."
"It shows you how fast-paced college is," said Dawes, who's considering a career as a fish and wildlife officer. "But that's not a bad thing."
Unlike students in the Advanced Placement program taught in many high schools around the country, students enrolled in either the CWU or UW programs don't have to pass a rigorous end-of-course AP exam to earn college credits.
Nor do they need to leave campus to attend classes at a community college, the way local students in the popular Running Start program do.
They just have to pass the class.
One advantage for students is that they can take college level curriculum in a smaller, familiar setting.
"It's a great opportunity," said Doug Hostetter, director of secondary education for Tacoma Public Schools. "You get exposure to college rigor, but in a smaller environment, where the teacher has more time for you."
One difference between the UW and CWU programs at Stadium is cost.
Due to differences in funding sources, the CWU classes are free to students, while the UW credits cost more than $300 (about a fifth of what they would pay if they were enrolled as full-time college students).
Stadium helps some students whose families can't afford it by drawing on a regional scholarship fund.
A bill now in the state Legislature could level the playing field, making state funding for dual-credit high school classes more equitable and uniform.
The courses use university curriculum. Universities screen the high school teachers, looking at their credentials, degrees and other criteria. Teachers also receive university-developed training.
"It is an actual college course," Stadium Principal Kevin Ikeda said. "Teachers have to be certified by the universities."
Stadium offers dual-credit English, science and math classes, and next year it will add computer science.
John Grevstad chairs Stadium's English department, which launched a major initiative this school year to encourage more students to enroll in university-sponsored English courses.
Grevstad said several dual credit options have been offered by Washington universities and colleges for more than a decade. He said his department embraced the UW and CWU programs this year as a way to bring college rigor — and credits — to more students.
In the first semester this year, 111 of 116 Stadium students earned college English credit while enrolled in either a UW or CWU class. They did it by getting a C-minus or higher in the CWU class, or a C or higher in the UW class.
Included in the numbers are 29 minority students, 27 of whom earned college credit.
"We have virtually eliminated the equity gap in having kids earn college credit while in high school," Grevstad said. "It's a way to bring college credits to all students."
Senior Danielle Pascual took UW English at Stadium and is thinking about majoring in journalism and communications.
"At first I didn't really like it," she said of the higher-level class. "But I knew I wanted the credit. By the end, I felt like I learned a lot."
Junior Tony Martin said his sophomore English teacher encouraged him to give the classes a try. He's enrolled this semester in a UW English class at Stadium.
"Writing has always been a passion of mine," said Tony, who wants to be an English teacher.
Elitania Espinoza, a senior considering law or medicine as a career, said she struggled at first with the vocabulary in a course from Central.
"But after a while, I got the hang of it," she said. "Mr. Grevstad explains things well."
Grevstad said university faculty observe teachers in Stadium classrooms periodically. Faculty also sample portfolios of student writing to ensure it's up to college standards.
"We are not 'dumbing down' the curriculum," Grevstad said. "We are not cutting corners."
Explains Ikeda: "A big focus is getting kids college and career ready. We've taken the philosophy that every kid is going to be a great writer."


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Stable Length Estimates of Tube-like Shapes
February 13, 2013
Mathematical objects can be measured unambiguously, but not so objects from our physical world. Even the total length of tube-like shapes has its difficulties. We introduce a combination of geometric, probabilistic, and topological methods to design a stable length estimate for tube-like shapes; that is: one that is insensitive to small shape changes.
Joint work with Florian Pausinger.
Joint work with Florian Pausinger.

subset: commoncrawl


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When Tom Flanagan appeared on CBC, he was usually as frisky as an Ikea meatball.
Lots of horseplay: the monkey suit, looking into his coffee in a spoof of Chief Theresa Spence seeking enlightenment in her fish broth, the dagger smile after a droll put-down.
Now the man behind Stephen Harper's rise to power has blown himself up over stupefying comments about child pornography. CBC's Power and Politics has dumped Flanagan. The PM's communications director, Andrew MacDougall, tweeted out the death sentence on the PM's former confidante, describing his views on child pornography as "repugnant, ignorant and appalling".
Tom is toast — and this is a big deal for the Conservative party.
For a variety of reasons, Stephen Harper has seen a bevy of people close to him implode recently, from senior advisor Bruce Carson to his personal pick for the oversight job at Canada's domestic spy service, Arthur Porter. Now this.
It will be remembered that Flanagan re-invented conservatism for Stephen Harper. He steered the ship for the first four years of the transition period, managed two leadership campaigns, was chief of staff during a critical part of the Canadian Alliance period, ran the Conservative national campaign in 2004, raised money, hired staff, contracted pollsters and recruited people like Ian Brodie to the Harper team.
Now he has incurred the wrath of millions of people on Twitter. Millions more in print will soon be gagging as well. Someone has edited Flanagan's Wikipedia profile and added "Supports Child Pornography." As for Canada's aboriginals, their disgust over remarks made at the University of Lethbridge by the PM's former mentor is bottomless.
In a bizarre exchange with a student caught on video, Flanagan said that he didn't think people should go to jail for possessing child pornography. You could hear Vic Toews choking all the way to Vancouver. Here are the main points Flanagan made:
"A lot of people on my side of the spectrum, the conservative side of the spectrum, are on a kind of jihad against child pornography. I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures.
"I got put on the mailing list of the National Man Boy Love Association and I started getting their mailing for a couple of years. That's as close as I came to child pornography."
The student who confronted Flanagan also made reference to a quote attributed to Canada's answer to Karl Rove when the Manitoba government was hurrying through tough new legislation on child pornography. At the time, Flanagan suggested the whole subject was debatable: "What's wrong with pornography in the sense that it's just pictures?"
The synapse meltdown here is jaw-dropping. How can you be against child pornography but then reduce its products to "taste in pictures"? Where was Flanagan when the personal misery of aboriginal children was laid bare during the residential school expose?
This is the man who laughed at a request from the government's own Truth and Reconciliation Commission for documents dealing with what happened over those dark decades to real children behind the school walls. The issue for Flanagan clearly was not getting at the truth, but the number of documents being requested — 8 million. He seemed to forget about the number of lives ruined.
Where was Flanagan when Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey recently went to jail for possession of child pornography that he was caught bringing in from the United States? The bishop's taste in pictures, which included images of naked boys in scenes of bondage and torture, was hardly the issue.
The issue then, and now, is law-breaking, runaway hypocrisy, and child abuse. Where does Flanagan think child pornography comes from — a computer screen, or the criminal abuse of children too young to protect themselves, the flesh and blood behind the images?
When I wrote Unholy Orders, the story of mass child abuse at a church-run orphanage in Newfoundland, I got a close-up look at both the kind of people who sexually abuse kids and the long term effects of such abuse. I learned two things. Abusers have no remorse (unless you count getting caught) and victims suffer for life. I met one victim who sleeps in a nest of blankets and pillows in his closet — because all the terrible things that have happened to him, happened in a bed at Mount Cashel. He is in his fifties.
During the Royal Commission into the tragedy at Mount Cashel, it was pointed out by the lead counsel for the commission, David Day, that the church had secured treatment for the admitted child molesters in the Irish Christian Brothers.
Day asked the worldwide head of the Christian Brothers if the boys who had been sexually abused had also been given treatment. The answer was no. This is what Brother Gabriel McHugh said and it says it all: "I sincerely was not aware of the terrible impact this kind of abuse has on individuals, the victims …"
Rehabilitation for the perpetrators, but nothing for the kids they ruined? McHugh's staggering ignorance is like Flanagan's breathlessly stupid view that child pornography is "only pictures". That same catastrophic failure of emotional intelligence explains how casually the Mount Cashel boys, some of them under the age of seven, were assaulted. Here is the direct testimony of one of them at the Hughes Commission:
"He told me to come into the kitchen and he picked me up and sat me up on the counter and poured me some Pepsi. I drank a bit of it. And he grabbed me by the face and he kissed me full on the mouth. Then he lifted me down off the counter and he took me by the wrist and dragged me into the bedroom and closed the bedroom door and he raped me."
It is nice to hear that Tom Flanagan is firmly against that kind of child abuse. But one Mount Cashel boy spoke to me about a subject Flanagan (astoundingly) doesn't understand.
The victim, now a man, described going to a priest's house to escape forced sex at the hands of the Irish Christian Brothers. While waiting for the priest to come home, he found hundreds of pictures featuring children involved in sex acts with adults. That boy's intended sanctuary suddenly became as threatening as the orphanage he was trying to escape. He understood exactly what the pictures were about — and it wasn't a personal expression of 'taste'.
Tom Flanagan has a lot of questions to answer. If "jihad" means an all-out war against child pornography, is he really against that? Is child pornography just pictures? And how was it that he received material from the National Man Love Association? Anyone in this topsy-turvy age can find themselves on an embarrassing mailing list, but for a "couple of years"?
In the meantime, everybody should take a page from the police officers charged with investigating these matters. They don't like the term "child pornography" because pornography involving consenting adults is a mainstream, booming global business. It comes with the cable package and the hotel amenities. Whether it is lewd or erotic is a matter of personal taste.
Calling the forced sexual abuse of children "kiddie porn" associates it with the normalization of adult pornography. Investigators prefer a different term: child exploitation material, or CEM.
As one investigator said, the people who have to deal with the crushing impact of this global assault on children don't see pornography in the images Flanagan suggests represent personal taste. Those images are not mere pictures. They are crime scenes.
I note that Flanagan has unreservedly apologized for his monstrous "theoretical" ruminations in Lethbridge. My suggestion is to save the hot air, and go and volunteer to work for free on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission until they get to the bottom of something Flanagan doesn't know a thing about.
How better to learn that crimes against children are not a matter of aesthetics?
Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his "unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us." His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.
Readers can reach the author at [email protected]. Click here to view other columns by Michael Harris.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.


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John Burke: Help with hearing aids
To the editor:
In November 2009, a boy in the Moffat County School District received a hearing test at school, which determined that he has an educationally significant hearing loss.
His parents said his hearing loss affects him in many ways at home and at school.
At times, he cannot hear what instruction his teachers and/or parents give him and, in turn, he is unable to comply and follow through.
Hearing loss has been found to impact a student's academics at school. These students will most often need accommodations at school that may include preferential seating, best ear toward the teacher, limited background noise and repetition of directions from his/her instructors.
In this young boy's case, because of the extent of hearing loss, even with these accommodations he is having a difficult time and needs further assistance with hearing aids.
He is having difficulty with asking the teachers to repeat information due to embarrassment, and noticing that his peers are aware that he is having to ask his teachers to repeat information.
These types of hearing losses can cause social difficulties that could lead to low self-esteem. At times, his hearing loss causes frustration that can be seen in the home.
As an audiologist who has worked many years with students in school who have temporary and permanent hearing loss such as this student, I understand how they can be impacted.
I have had the opportunity to assist this student since November 2009 and believe that hearing aids would greatly benefit him in school, at home and all social situations he would encounter.
The hearing aids that would need to be purchased for this student are 100-percent digital and would cost approximately $4,800.
The parents have worked diligently on trying to find alternative funding and have obtained a portion of that which is needed.
In order to purchase these aids, they need an additional $2,800. If anyone would be willing to contribute money to help reach their goal, you may send your donation to:
Northwest Hearing Services
Child in Need of Hearing Aid Fund, 940 Central Park Drive, Suite #208, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487.
In advance, I would like to thank you for your kindness and if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact my office at 1-800-724-5803.
John Burke
Audiologist, Northwest Hearing Services
Northwest Colorado rodeo athletes move into final day of state finals
After two days of competition at the Colorado State High School Rodeo Association State Finals, riders and ropers from Moffat and Routt counties are making their way into the home stretch.


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A Japanese Christmas
Source: "Lifestyle"-The Star- 10 July 2005
From the peninsula, Revisiting WWII moves over to Sarawak to find out how people there fared during the Occupation. In this first of a series of articles, OOI KEAT GIN recounts when simple, peaceful lives were subject to a scary new order.
AT 4.30pm on Christmas Eve, 1941, the Hinomaru (Japanese flag) fluttered from the flagpole of Fort Margherita in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak.
The Land of the White Rajah had become part of the Imperial Japanese Empire that would shortly stretch from the Japanese home islands westward as far as the Indo-Burmese border, southward to New Guinea, and eastward to the southwest Pacific.
The unfolding Rising Sun against the blue skies of Kuching signalled the beginning of a new era, a new world.
Earlier, eight Japanese troop ships with an equal number of escort vessels carrying some 4,000 troops had made their way up the Sarawak River. Their landing was unopposed, there was no "Battle of Kuching".
Their voyage had begun on Dec 13, when a Japanese convoy left Cam Ranh Bay in French Vietnam.
Major General Kawaguchi Kiyotake (hence the Kawaguchi Detachment) headed this task force, whose mission it was to seize the oilfields of north-west Borneo and the airfield outside Kuching. Two days later, this flotilla was off the coast of Miri, the centre of Sarawak's oil industry.
The Japanese invasion and occupation of Sarawak went off like clockwork. Miri fell on Dec 16, and Japanese forces rapidly moved towards Sarawak's administrative capital, Kuching.
In the absence of the promised anti-aircraft guns, Kuching was undefended when the town experienced its first aerial bombing on Dec 19, which claimed25 lives and 80 wounded, all civilians.
To Japanese military planners, Sarawak was of strategic importance. The Miri oilfield was a prime prize.
Japan needed oil to advance its imperial designs, hence the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) on the Chinese mainland. An American embargo on oil sales to Japan was one reason for Yamamoto's decision to strike Pearl Harbour.
The southward thrust towards South-East Asia was an attempt to secure strategic materials – oil, rubber and tin – to sustain the China campaign.
Sarawak's other consideration was an airstrip located 11km to the south-east of Kuching. The Bukit Stabar or 7th Mile Airfield was one of two aerodromes on Borneo necessary for the invasion of Dutch Java. (The other was at Singkawang, some 95km from Kuching, in south-west Dutch Borneo).
Sarawak's defence was in the hands of Britain. In 1888, Rajah Charles Brooke (1829-1917), the second White Rajah, had reluctantly penned a protectorate agreement under whichBritain would oversee Sarawak's foreign relations and defence; internal administration remained the purview of the Brookes.
When war became imminent in the late 1930s, the defence of Sarawak came under the British Malaya command based at Singapore under Lieutenant General A. E. Percival, who made a hurried visit to Kuching in November 1941.
By then, the earlier plan of a mobile defensive strategy was replaced with a static form of defence. An Anglo-Dutch military conference in September had agreed that only the Bukit Stabar Airfield should be defended.
Subsequently, the 1,000-strong 2nd Battalion/15th Punjab Regiment under the command of Colonel C. M. Lane was redeployed with orders to defend the aerodrome and to act in the best interest of Dutch West Borneo.
A contingent of 100 men from 2/15 Punjab was at Miri to protect and assist employees of Sarawak Oilfields Limited in carrying out demolition of the oil installations.
On Dec 10, 1941, when news came of the sinking of HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales off Kuantan, the oil installations at Miri and Lutong (and Seria in Brunei) were destroyed, as planned earlier.
The demolition party, together with other European civilians, evacuated on Dec 14 to Singapore. Members of the 2/15 Punjab returned to Kuching.
The defence of Sarawak was entrusted to Sarfor, or Sarawak Force, which comprised the Iban-dominated Sarawak Rangers (the Brooke regime's regular army), the Sarawak Volunteers (European civil officers), the Malay-dominated police, and the 2/15 Punjab.
Colonel Lane headed the 2,500 men Sarfor to defend a territory of almost three-quarter the size of the Malay Peninsula.
Much of the territory lay under thick jungle, with vast stretches of coastline drowned in mangrove swamps.
Failing to return to Kuching, Rajah Vyner Brooke (1874-1963), the then reigning ruler of Sarawak, headed a government-in-exile in Australia. When hostilities broke out, Rajah Vyner's wife, Ranee Sylvia was in New York. In February 1942 she was in London, and later she joined the Rajah in Australia.
In the absence of the Rajah, the Chief Secretary and Officer Administrating the Government, Cyril Le Gros Clark instructed all Brooke officers to remain at their post to ensure a smooth transition of authority in the event of a Japanese victory. Most abided by the ruling.
Individually and in groups, officers of the Brooke government and their families, together with members of the small European community were rounded up and subsequently brought to the Batu Lintang, an internment camp on the outskirts of Kuching.
Despite the occasional heroic stand by squads of the 2/15 Punjab, poor communication that retarded co-ordination of SARFOR, coupled with the suddenness of the Japanese offensive, led to chaos in the defence of Sarawak.
While Japanese troops were on the streets of Kuching on Christmas day, the port town of Sibu in the Lower Rejang was bombed.
Within a week the Japanese occupied the north-eastern districts of Limbang and Lawas neighbouring Brunei. Towards the close of January 1942, Sibu and Kapit fell to the Japanese without resistance.
After deciding that their stance at Bukit Stabar aerodrome was untenable, remnants of the 2/15 Punjab crossed into West Borneo and finally surrendered in early April 1942.
The Sarawak Chinese community, having followed developments in the long-running Sino-Japanese War, feared a Japanese backlash but the indigenous people appeared to be more baffled than afraid of the invaders. Many of the upriver native communities were unaware of what was happening in the world beyond their longhouses and rivers.
All those in Kuching who looked on as members of the Imperial Japanese Forces marched along Gambier Road felt fear and uncertainty.
It seemed like only yesterday that Rajah Vyner had granted a constitution to the peoples of Sarawak to commemorate the centenary of Brooke rule. Back in 1841, a swashbuckling English gentleman-adventurer, James Brooke (1803-1868), was honoured by the Sultan of Brunei with a small fiefdom and the exotic title, "Rajah of Sarawak".
Now, it was going to be a Japanese Christmas.
Ooi Keat Gin is associate professor in the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is author of 'Rising Sun Over Borneo: The Japanese Occupation of Sarawak, 1941-1945' (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1999). He is currently working on the Pacific War in southern Borneo (Kalimantan).


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Alimony in Minnesota is legally known as Spousal Maintenance. Alimony in Minnesota refers to one party providing income to another party during or after a divorce or legal separation.
Judges determine spousal maintenance on a case-by-case basis, and there tends to be a great deal of judicial discretion when it comes to awarding alimony in Minnesota. In addition, spousal maintenance cases in Minnesota are often hotly-contested and fact-intensive so you need to be well-prepared.
To help you better understand alimony in Minnesota, we'll cover the following frequently asked questions, in this article:
- When Can a Claim be Made for Alimony in Minnesota?
- How is Alimony in Minnesota Determined?
- What Happens If the Parties Disagree on Alimony in Minnesota?
- How Much is Alimony in Minnesota?
- How Long Can the Court Order Alimony in Minnesota?
- What's the Most Typical Situation for Awarding Alimony in Minnesota?
- How Does Alimony in Minnesota Play Out in Court Today?
NOTE: Spousal maintenance is also sometimes called Spousal Support, or simply Maintenance. Therefore, the terms: Spousal Maintenance, Spousal Support, Maintenance, and Alimony in Minnesota are used interchangeable throughout this article.
When Can a Claim be Made for Alimony in Minnesota?
In certain circumstances during or after a divorce or legal separation, either spouse may ask for alimony from the other spouse.
In Minnesota, a court may order one spouse to pay alimony to the other spouse if it finds that the spouse seeking alimony:
- A). Lacks sufficient property to meet reasonable needs/standard of living maintained during the marriage, or
- B). Is unable to support him/herself through employment.
(Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 518.552, Subdivision 1).
To determine if there may be grounds for a spousal maintenance claim in your divorce or legal separation, ask:
"Will one spouse be significantly better off financially than the other spouse, while the other spouse is unable to meet reasonable needs based on the standard of living set during the marriage?"
Therefore, when it comes to alimony in Minnesota, one party's need for spousal support and the other party's ability to provide spousal support are key issues in a case.
How is Alimony in Minnesota Decided?
During a divorce or legal separation in Minnesota, spousal maintenance should be addressed. The divorcing or separating couple voices their beliefs regarding the necessity of spousal support and if so, the amount and duration. When the parties reach an agreement, they need to seek an Order for Spousal Maintenance from the court. In addition to following proper procedures, this entails drafting and submitting the correct documents to the court. If both parties have a divorce attorney and the maintenance settlement looks fair, the judge may sign off on the order and it can be included in the divorce decree.
NOTE: It's important to understand that the only way that alimony in Minnesota is enforceable during, or after a divorce or legal separation is by obtaining a spousal maintenance order from the court that has been signed by a judge.
What Happens When Parties Disagree on Alimony in Minnesota?
However, if the divorcing or legally separating couple disagree or can't agree on spousal maintenance, the couple may try alternative dispute resolution methods, such as, Mediation or Financial Early Neutral Evaluation (FENE).
If such alternative dispute methods don't resolve the issue of alimony, the legally separating or divorcing couple may turn to a judge. In Minnesota, a judge can determine if alimony should be awarded, and if so, how much and for how long. In this case, the court would be tasked with the responsibility to determine an amount and a period of time that is fair, and without regard to the marital conduct of either parties.
How Much is Alimony in Minnesota?
Unlike child support in Minnesota, there isn't a guideline calculator used to estimate spousal maintenance payments. Instead, when it comes to alimony, Minnesota courts are tasked with the responsibility to determine an amount and a period of time that is fair, and without regard to the marital conduct of either parties. (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 518.552, Subdivision 2).
When considering the amount and duration of a spousal maintenance order, a judge must consider certain factors. In a spousal maintenance case, a judge will consider things, such as, the following:
- Length of marriage,
- Income and/or financial resources of both parties,
- Standard of living during the marriage,
- Age of each party,
- Education, job history, training and work experience/skills of the party seeking maintenance,
- Property acquired by each spouse in the divorce or legal separation,
- Living expenses of each party,
- Physical and emotional health and abilities of the spouse seeking maintenance, etc…
In fact, by law, the judge must (at least) consider the following 8 factors listed in the infographic below.
How Long Can the Court Order Alimony in Minnesota?
As mentioned previously, when determining the duration of an alimony order in Minnesota, a judge will evaluate specific factors. Minnesota courts can make a temporary or permanent order for spousal maintenance.
Temporary Spousal Maintenance Order
A spousal maintenance order may be granted temporarily, during the divorce or only while the case is pending in Minnesota. (Minnesota Statutes, Section 518.62).
The court can also grant a temporary spousal maintenance order, in which one party would receive maintenance from the other party for a limited amount of time or under certain circumstances. For example, a court may order one party to pay alimony to the other party after a divorce or legal separation, while the other party acquires necessary job training and/or further education for employment. Sometimes this is referred to as, Rehabilitative Maintenance. With a temporary spousal maintenance award, it's very important that both parties understand when spousal maintenance will start and when payments will end.
Permanent Spousal Maintenance Order
In certain circumstances, the judge may order the other party to pay permanent spousal maintenance. For example, a judge may order permanent spousal maintenance if the marriage lasted a long time (say, 25 years) and there is a significant disparity between the parties' incomes after the divorce or legal separation.
If there is uncertainty in the court regarding the necessity of a permanent maintenance order, the court can order a permanent maintenance order with the option of modifying the order in the future. (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 518.552, Subdivision 3).
Unless otherwise agreed to in writing or expressed in the divorce decree, future payments of spousal maintenance will end upon the death of either party or the remarriage of the party receiving spousal maintenance. (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 518A.39, Subdivision 3).
What's the Most Typical Situation for Awarding Alimony?
The most typical scenario when alimony is ordered is after a long-term marriage, where the wife stayed home to raise the children, while the husband worked full-time outside of the house.
Presumably, the wife contributed much to the relationship in terms of raising the children and household care, and gave up opportunities for economic gain and employment to do so. Therefore, in this situation, it would be grossly unfair to allow one party to be financially well-off after a divorce or legal separation, while the other party struggled to make ends meet and had limited job skills and experience.
How Does it Play Out in Court Today?
Today, two-income households, more balanced incomes, and more balance with shared parental responsibilities has decreased the need for court-ordered alimony payments. However, this is not to say that spousal maintenance is not awarded in the courts, just that spousal maintenance orders are less common today, and tend to be temporary, rather than permanent.


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Living room is one of the most important rooms from a house. There you must have a perfect design because when friends are coming to visit you, they must see a perfect decorated room. By watching the design in the living room will characterize our style of life and they will know what type of person we are. It doesn't have to be eccentric or large as long as it reflects the passion that we have for decoration.
What if I don't have large space for living room?
Don't despair if your living room space is short because we have some small living room ideas. One thing is important; you don't need to have a large room as long as it has an amazing design. This is all that matters. Living room designs varies from dark and white rooms, colored walls, having a traditional or modern style. Creating a corner living room will be the best example for small space. Add a sofa in the corner and paint stripes on the walls for a better design. Place a bright carpet on hardwood floor and a small soft table should complete the room. For even smaller places use a black sofa with two little black tables and a white lamp. These are the most important things that can be used for a small living room. Modern living rooms can have lots of colors on the walls, a white sofa with two other white armchairs and a black upholstered seat that serves as a table. If you have room enough you can add a fireplace too. This will be the icing on the cake.
Having a house with low spaces doesn't mean that you can't have a living room. Create s simple place with perfect design where you can welcome your friends.


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Night in a Haunted Hostel
This story of inexplicable terror happened at a haunted hostel in Northern Ontario on our drive across Canada.
It is worth mentioning right upfront that neither of us is paranormally inclined. We don't receive visitations from the other side nor do we discover messages from beyond on burned pieces of toast. However, on this particular night we were put through our paces by either a poltergeist or someone pulling the ultimate prank.
We were en-route from Toronto to Calgary with a plan to camp along the way. It had been raining nonstop that day and the idea of setting up camp in the downpour seemed plain miserable. So, a swift online search later we were heading to a hostel some 20 miles away, getting a little drunk on the promise of a comfortable – and dry! – room.
The hostel was situated by a remote forest road off the Trans-Canada Highway.
On arrival we were greeted by a kid of indeterminate age and gender, who rushed off to find his grandparents who ran the place. The pair turned out to be wonderfully welcoming, informing us that we could pick the room of our liking as only one of the rooms was occupied by a young German couple. They recommended, however, a snug lime green room called The Green Palace.
After settling in, we prepared ourselves dinner in the shared kitchen and met the Germans. They had been staying at the hostel for a week, waiting for their VW van re-registration documents to arrive so that they could continue their journey eastbound. Wishing them luck, we finished our meal and called it a night.
Hours later I woke up to a funny sensation: as if someone or something was shaking the bed sideways. I had read up on sinkholes just a few days prior and in my sleepy stupor wondered whether a giant sinkhole had formed underneath the hostel and the building was about to cave in. In the end I decided to ignore it hoping that the next morning I'd just have a weird anecdote to tell.
Not so lucky.
This is when the knocking on the walls began. What made it more troubling was that the sound echoed from opposite walls – at the same time.
A moment later I heard the doorknob click. I watched it turn slowly before the door opened. Then, it was pulled shut again. It was as if something had slipped into the room.
At this point I decided that enough freaky shit had happened and gave Justin a nudge to wake him up.
I was about to relay the events when the room's fire alarm went off. Not only was it eardrum-shatteringly loud, the alarm also came fitted with a strobe light.
We clambered up in a state of groggy panic and ran through the flashing darkness out into the hallway — only to discover the rest of the house completely pitch black and quiet, with no sign of emergency whatsoever. Or people for that matter. Only our room had turned into a block-rocking pop-up disco.
We waited for a moment for something to happen, for someone to run up the hallway to investigate the noise. But when nothing came of it, I went back into the room and pulled the battery out of the alarm.
We sat down to catch our breath and wait for the owners to turn up (the siren was so loud, it would've been audible a hundred yards away). I started describing the events leading to the alarm going off. Justin wasn't entirely convinced by the story and thought I must've dreamt most of it. Coincidental, he said.
We then made a creepy realisation: The clock on the wall that hadn't worked in the first place pointed at 3:35am, which was the moment the alarm had gone off. Perhaps back in the day something sinister had happened in the room at 3:35am, I argued.
When the owners didn't turn up, we decided to try and go back to sleep. This time we made sure the door was locked. But it wasn't all over yet.
Soon enough the knocking began again and now we both heard it. It echoed from the two walls opposite each other, as it had done before. Knock, knock, pause, knock, knock. We sat in nervous silence for what must've been a good 10-15 minutes before it stopped. And then the show was over.
Eventually, completely wiped out, we fell asleep and only woke up when the alarm clock went off in the morning.
I'm a tourist, get me outta here!
The first thing on our minds was to hit the road – fast. When we met the owners in the hallway, both dressed in almost ritualistic white and golden robes (they were on their way to a wedding, allegedly), we decided not to bring the night up. Instead, we bid our hasty goodbyes and stepped on the gas.
With enough miles between us and the hostel, we stopped to hash it all out over a coffee. Was it an elaborate prank, a series of freak coincidences or something genuinely supernatural? We thought the latter but who knows.
In hindsight we did wonder what happened to the German couple as we never saw them – or their van – in the morning. Whether they ever received their registration documents or were forever left languishing at the haunted hostel…
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Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho's new music video featuring Grant Lee Phillips, directed by Tani Ikeda. "Asian Adjacent" is from Margaret's comedy music album, "Cho Dependent."
Get the song: itunes.apple.com/us/album/cho-dependent/id381330648
Get it on CD or Vinyl with automatic download of the whole album: jsrdirect.com/webstores/margaretcho/cddvds.html
A short film by Clownery Productions
Directed by Tani Ikeda
Produced by Frances E. Chang
Executive Producers: Margaret Cho and Keri Smith Esguia
Choreographer: Marshall Bang
1st AD: Huy Chau
Second Assistant Director: Daniel Eduvijes Carrera
Director of Photography: Daniel Zhao
1st AC: Little John Kim
2nd AC: Li Lu
Second Camera Assistant: Minna Brown
DIT: Willis Chung
Editor: Brian Davis
Assistant Editor: Ji Zhao
Gaffer: Jordan Harriman
Key Grip: Kimberly Culotta
G&E: Zakaman Wu
Best Boy G&E: Jean Kim
G&E: Rob Richards, Jonathan Wong, Cameron Dutra, Ursula Loscalzo
G&E Swing: Matt Garza
Additional Electric: Kunle Bagot
Playback Operator: Hans Crump
Production Designer: Laura Yilmaz
Art Director: Rae Deslich
Art Production Assistant (PA): Sylvia Raskin, Mel Mel Mooring, Simone Andrews
Costume Designer: Jennifer Austin
Wardrobe Assistant: Fernando Suncin, Ashanti Mozelle, Tamira Wells
Make-Up Artist: Shine Blackhawk
Additional Make-Up Artist: Jessica Solorzano
Hair Stylist: Tessla Walters
Additional Hair Stylist: Heather Donahue, Rochanda Romero
Key Production Assistant (PA): Jing Marshall
Production Assistant (PA): Angela Ortner, Rubin Rodriguez, Philip Moon, Sarah Martin, Reina Salinas
Set Medic: Mark-Anthony Johnson
Behind-the-Scenes Videographer & Photographer: Ian Roth
Still Photographer: Dustin Hamano
Starring: Margaret Cho and Grant Lee Phillips
Dancers: Marshall Bang, Kayce Aea, Amy Lee, April Rodriguez, Asami Hoshi, Brian Nguyen, Esther Park, Gabe de Dios, Janice Kang, Jenn Lee, Jennifer Tang, Kim Bisnar, Lori Itagaki, Rae Toledo, Rina Chae, Simon Twu, Sorah Yang, Valerie Albania, Analisa Salomonis
"Asian Adjacent - featuring Grant Lee Phillips" - Margaret Cho
Written by Margaret Cho and Grant Lee Phillips
Published by Da Funky Doo Doo Collective (ASCAP) and Storm Hymnal Music (BMI)
Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd. for the World
Produced by Grant Lee Phillips
Recorded and Mixed by Carmen Rizzo
Programming by Carmen Rizzo and Grant Lee Phillips
Margaret Cho – Vocals
Grant Lee Phillips - Keyboards, Guitars, Bass and Backing Vocals
Carmen Rizzo - Additional Keyboards
Recorded and Mixed at Suite 775, Hollywood, CA
Grant Lee Phillips appears courtesy of Magnetic Field Recordings
(c) 2010 Clownery Productions
Cho Dependent LP is Manufactured and Distributed by RedEye Distribution


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Summer time is my favorite. My earliest childhood memories tie to beach and vacations; endless fun building sand castles and staying in the water until the lips turn purple; running after "the ice cream man" and picking out juiciest peaches from the fruit stands; eating watermelons for dinner and strolling for hours in the evenings by the water, admiring the moonlight and the milky way.
Life put me on the opposite side of the world from where I was born and raised, and although there is no Black Sea anywhere within the close proximity of where my kids are growing up, the Pacific Ocean is just as fantastic of a summer friend to them , as the Black Sea was to me.
Work and life don't always cooperate with how as a child I envisioned my summers to be, and for many years in a row our "vacations" always collided with some sort of a business trip. Although kids always had fun ( naturally), we kind of missed playing in the sand too, and since we live in such close proximity to the ocean and there are so many great beaches within just about 2 driving hours of a radius, a day or two away but more often then not, became a perfect solution to recharge, replenish and enjoy the beauty California has to offer.
I often hear that the water is freezing in Northern California. Well, while it's definitely not a luke-warm treat Florida or Hawaii have to offer, maybe because the beach waters I was used to were freezing too, I actually find it quite enjoyable and refreshing. And the kids... Well, the kids would find the Arctic waters warm if they were allowed to play in them, so that's not even an issue here.
We made our way to Santa Cruz on a late Sunday afternoon. If there is one thing I learned about these little getaways, is that season or not - weekends are always crowded here and weekdays is the way to go. We stayed at a hidden little B&B gem just minutes away from the beach. With the first rays of the sun the crew was up and much too excited to sit still, which translated into an early "check-in" at the beach. Can't blame them though: +75, no wind and sunny is a treat.
** a perfect sand castle placement is the fundamentals of sand architecture. so I was told by "pros" **
** too hot to walk on, it really was **
** i couldn't believe that despite of the VERY hot sand this little man dug right in **
** totally my face expression all day long **
** too tired to play - must sit down to chill. when does THAT ever happen?! **
** the sandy hands, the sandy bum , the sandy everything. i must not belong to the "normal mom club" because i totally loved everything about it **
** my usual photographer was too busy building bricks for the sand tower and I didn't want to bother him, so the substitute took about 50 pics, and only one came out in semi-focus :) but the bump and i needed some sort of a record of being at the beach too, so it gets a place here too. also, guess who slathered everyone with suns screen and forgot about her own self and now sitting with cucumber mast on legs that sport a nice shade of maroon? oh, pregnancy hormones...**
** the weekend traditional "mommy-on-duty" **
** and a very popular one too. also, note a little dude inside of the "foundation hole". about 10 minutes later he got into the one that was practically his height and I had a pleasure of viewing the little red hat move back and worth as if alive on its own **
** i absolutely cannot believe that my little baby boy - feels like - yesterday is turning two this weekend! a little patriot too - 4th of July, he's got America's favorite holiday to have a double special meaning for all of us too **
** after my failed attempts to convince the little guy to take a nap, daddy-on-duty made it simple : he just strapped him in the stroller, smiled and said "sleep". 10 minutes later i had peacefully snoozing dude. i think i'll be turning for assistance more often then not from now on **
** the team of architects. they were discussing all day what to build. dug about 10 different foundation holes. when we left the beach 6 hours later, they still didn't agree on WHAT exactly they were building. go figure. **
** sisterhood is all about having fun! who's with me?!**
** five pairs of shoes hidden under the stroller. on my question "why" the answer was "so they don't get too hot and sweaty!". i LOVE having children.**
FAQs: girls swimming suits - gap kids ( there is an amaaazing summer sale going on now too!) ; boys swimming trunks - target couture; i am wearing an Anthropologie one piece ( regular kind, but fits the bump perfectly! the swimsuit is also from a great sale that's going on now); girls headbands are *mint and arrows; the stroller is Bugaboo Buffalo Escape; the bag is Petunia Pickle Bottom and the purple shoes are little Birkenstocks. if anything is missed that you want to know about - let me know here or on Instagram! **


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"[Gaga Stigmata has] very modern, edgy photography to free flowing, urban narratives without censure to analytical essays, et cetera—like Gaga, imagination without ... limits. And the beauty is that anyone can submit work to the site, so artists and writers from all over the [world] have joined this experiment." -The Declaration.org
-Yale's The American Scholar
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Trajectory of the Monster: Some Musings on the Ascendance of a Myth and the Decay of the Female Celebrity
2 comments:
Some may scoff at using a psychoanalytic lens, but I absolutely loved this article! This provided one the most spot-on interpretations of the Manifesto(s) I have read thus far.ReplyDelete
One spot you have noted I don't lie well with (pun intended) is that zombieGaga is symbolic of death. Her monstrously grotesque facade is meant as a reflection, not just of suave zombiePal Rico, but one that cuts looks inwardly. Rico's anatomy is forever changed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQb4bMIG2IY) by his tattoos, but what the tux doesn't show is that beyond a skeletal image, his body is inked with images that ooze his identity. That postulated 'ideal' which always fails to appear in the reflections of ourselves, does so because it itself is not tangible. In etching a permanent art installation between himself and the man in the mirror he has brought their union ever closer to consummation. The inclination to alienate our own image—to lie about who we perceive ourselves to be is dampened whenever we succeed in projecting our spectral selves outward for the world (and for ourselves to see).
As mentioned in the first Manifesto, Little Monsters are eternally striving to unite the people we hope to be in the future with the self they see today, but I believe the Manifesto of Mother Monster, is meant not just to reflect this struggle you have highlighted so well, but to perform it. This is why I believe zombieGaga, Rico's X-to-his-Y clone, was terrifyingly born this way—she is the expression of identity, but more importantly an identity that has been (societally, and quite possibly internally) rejected, marked as 'EVIL' (as Rico's left hand reads), forced to conceal itself, closet itself, deny itself. Born this way as a song and as a video is meant to be the reversal of all those impositions, serve as utter liberation, and as zombieGaga boogies and sings freely, her appearance reflects the freedom it affords her. The skeletons literally come dancing out of a very stylish closet (last pun I swear) and an identity that was as concealed as the very bones and tissues that we are made is suddenly written all over her face (so I lied).
Thank you: You have allowed me to see the postmodern play in the video I was looking for!ReplyDelete


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Having long since hit her stride, Steff Mahan's third CD successfully captures her witty, charming and soul-wrenching gifts. Steff needs no overproduction. This CD was taken into the studio and recorded live, and it emotionally delivers the cathartic moods of the songs. The listener is taken on a soulful journey mirroring the ups and downs of life. Narrated by the beautiful singing voice that so eloquently composes life's most important moments, this CD is bound to move any listener.
Steff tells her stories like noone else. Before you know it, you are so immersed in the words of each song that you find that you have been in those situations yourself at one time or another. She can make you laugh one minute and tear up the next, but her songs come from her heart and you can tell with each one. This CD is not different. You will love each cut and be able to relate to everyone of them.


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I'm about to purchase a property that has WBC FTTP (no FTTC available through the phone line from what I understand).
Therefore, it looks like my only options are BT or Zen for a service.
I'm looking at the Infinity 2 package with BT. When I go through to purchase, will their system be aware that the address is FTTP only and push through on that basis? I don't want them trying to enable the connection over the phone line...
Also, I'm not sure if the current owner will be removing the ONT equipment when they vacate (I imagine not, but need to confirm). If they take it with them, will BT re-supply the necessary kit in addition to the router to get set up?
I'm tempted by Plusnet's FTTP trial, but it looks like a semi-convoluted way of getting it set up (order standard broadband through them, which would have to be through the phone line at first - at v. low speeds. Then apply for the FTTP trial at which point I would switch over to the ONT equipment in the property)


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Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Season 1 Episode 4: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (Guest Personal Trainer)
O-M-G! We just love episode 4 of The Cook Book. My dear friend Monique Bell is guest hosting for my education segment. You guys DO NOT want to miss her demo exercises that will whip you into shape! We encourage all of you to stay fit and healthy. Please support her show by clicking on the video and sharing! Don't forget to subscribe for FREE to our YouTube channel as well. We appreciate your support! #TheCookBook #Fitness #Health #Education
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Thursday, September 10, 2015
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A couple of days ago, Kim Kardashian shocked everyone with her nude photo shoot and now it's Sofia Hayat, who has also gone a similar route.
Joining the Break The Internet Club, Sofia Hayat, decided to give India and the rest of the world a special treat to celebrate cricketer Rohit Sharma's record-breaking double century by posting pictures from her recent nude photo shoot.
In all of this, former Bigg Boss contestant Sofia Hayat had her own special way to congratulate the cricketer as she posting nudes of herself on her social media. Wow!!
Sofia Hayat took to Twitter to dedicate the racy photos to the cricketer, Rohit Sharma (her ex-lover) for his mind-blowing innings of 264 runs.
"Dedicating my nude shoot to Rohit Sharma for his historic score! Well done! This one is for you! Proud day for India!" read Sofia's tweet.
The British-Indian model was in a relationship with the cricketer in the year 2012. She put all rumours to rest and opened up about her relationship with Rohit on Twitter.
In 2012 she posted, "Yes, we met a year ago. It was going well till the time press found out and he freaked out. He responded by saying I was a fan. This behavior disappointed me for he had no decency to even call me before saying so."
Well it would not be wrong if we say the actress was in search of such an opportunity where she could do such a publicity stunt. Way to go girl.
However, this unique way of showing support is not new. Back in 2011, model Poonam Pandey had promised to strip for India, if the team won against Sri Lanka in World Cup finals.
However this madness is global. Paraguay's Larissa Riquelme and Argentinian Luciane Salazar had earlier promised to strip if their football teams won the FIFA World Cup.
A couple of days ago, Kim Kardashian shocked everyone with her nude photo shoot and now it's Sofia Hayat, who has also gone a similar route. Joinin...3.5


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- Research
- Open Access
Heterogeneity within the Asian American community
© Sadler et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2003
- Received: 07 December 2002
- Accepted: 29 December 2003
- Published: 29 December 2003
Educational interventions are grounded on scientific data and assumptions about the community to be served. While the Pan Asian community is composed of multiple, ethnic subgroups, it is often treated as a single group for which one health promotion program will be applicable for all of its cultural subgroups. Compounding this stereotypical view of the Pan Asian community, there is sparse data about the cultural subgroups' similarities and dissimilarities. The Asian Grocery Store based cancer education program evaluation data provided an opportunity to compare data collected under identical circumstances from members of six Asian American cultural groups.
A convenience sample of 1,202 Asian American women evaluated the cultural alignment of a cancer education program, completing baseline and follow-up surveys that included questions about their breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors. Participants took part in a brief education program that facilitated adherence to recommended screening guidelines.
Unique recruitment methods were needed to attract participants from each ethnic group. Impressions gained from the aggregate data revealed different insights than the disaggregate data. Statistically significant variations existed among the subgroups' breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors that could contribute to health disparities among the subgroups and within the aggregate Pan Asian community.
Health promotion efforts of providers, educators, and policy makers can be enhanced if cultural differences are identified and taken into account when developing strategies to reduce health disparities and promote health equity.
- Asian American
- Breast Cancer
- Cancer Education
- Early Detection
- Mammography
The cultural groups that make up the Pacific Islander and Asian American communities are often grouped together and considered as a single homogeneous entity. In reality, these communities are diverse in language, culture, and history. Such differences can influence access to health information, health maintenance opportunities, health care, and health outcomes. Public health educators are urged to create health promotion programs that recognize and take these differences into account. However, few examples can be found in the scientific literature with side-by-side comparisons of how knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors can vary among cultural subgroups who are to become the focus of behavioral interventions. This manuscript is offered to raise awareness of the similarities and differences that can exist within seemingly similar cultural subgroups in the same community and the importance of incorporating that knowledge into the educational program to customize the intervention appropriately.
As part of the evaluation of the Asian Grocery Store-Based Cancer Education Program, Asian American women were surveyed regarding their breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors before and after participating in the brief educational intervention [1]. This large and ethnically diverse sample created the opportunity to make a comparison among the participating cultural subgroups [2–8]. The authors hypothesized that there would be no statistically significant differences in breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors found among the cultural subgroups.
This paper compares and contrasts data collected from the 1,202 women from San Diego County who took part in the evaluation of the Asian grocery store-based program. While some of the data presented in this manuscript have previously been reported, this paper uses that and other data to demonstrate differences among cultural subgroups and how awareness of such differences can help health educators, promoters, and policy makers tailor health promotion programs for specific population subgroups.
The Asian Grocery Store-Based Cancer Education Program was established to reach Asian and Pacific Islander women of diverse cultures, languages, ages, and levels of acculturation, literacy and socioeconomic status [1]. Incorporating the educational program into women's routine shopping activities was anticipated to help overcome commonly reported barriers to health education, screening, and care, such as problems with transportation and lack of time [9–11].
Bilingual, bicultural community health educators helped to overcome the barriers associated with language and culture. The educators offered breast cancer information in the safe, culturally and gender aligned environment offered by the Asian grocery store. Verbal and written education materials were provided in multiple languages and dialects to help explain the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute's breast cancer screening guidelines. The educators also promoted access to California's Breast Cancer Early Detection Program's free breast cancer screening and treatment services for low-income women. They used multiple visual teaching aids, including a string of beads simulating the sizes of breast cancer lumps that can be found by various detection methods and synthetic breast models with imbedded breast abnormalities.
Of the several thousand women who took part in the brief cancer education program, 1,202 agreed to help evaluate the program. The participants in this convenience sample signed Human Research Protections Program-approved consent documents, completed baseline surveys, and took part in the cancer education program. Two weeks post baseline, telephone calls were initiated to conduct a follow-up survey. For women who could not be reached after 10 telephone attempts, the follow-up survey was mailed with a hand-written cover letter of explanation and a stamped self-addressed envelope. Letters and surveys were provided in the language the participant preferred to use at baseline. The baseline survey collected women's socio-demographic characteristics including age, ethnicity, and primary language, plus their baseline breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors. For the follow-up telephone survey, women reported their screening behaviors, barriers to screening, and suggestions to improve screening access. Since screening guidelines begin at age 20, only the data for the women 20 years and older (1,190) are reported here. The majority of the women in this age group (1,131) belonged to one of six cultural groups. This paper compares the data for those six groups.
Effectiveness of the Asian Grocery Stores to Attract a Diverse Sample of Pacific Asians
An excellent example of the importance of recognizing that Asian and Pacific Islander sub-communities have unique characteristics emerged during the midpoint evaluation of the sample's socio-demographic data. A comparison of the proportion of each group represented in the sample disclosed an under-representation of Japanese, Asian Indian, Korean, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, and all Pacific Islander communities. Expanding the number of participating Asian grocery stores resolved the under representation of only the Japanese, Asian Indian, and Korean communities. Further study is required to understand if the remaining groups were present, but reluctant to participate in the research study, or if they actually conducted their shopping chores in other, as yet, unidentified Asian or mainstream grocery stores.
Variation in Baseline Screening Adherence Rates
Adherence to Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines by Age and Ethnicity at Baseline
Ethnic Group
over age 20 (includes unspecified ages)
Annual Clinical Breast Exam
age 40 and over
Annual Mammography
age 40 and over
Annual Mammography N = 219*
age 50 and over
Asian Indian N = 125
Full Sample
Knowing where similarities exist in a field of contrasting data is equally important in the creation of health promotion strategies. In addition to the lower-than-optimal rates of annual CBE for all subgroups, the subgroups all reported higher CBE adherence rates than breast self-examination (BSE) rates, and all but Korean women had equal or higher mammography rates than BSE rates (Table 1). While a higher adherence to the guidelines for annual mammogram is preferred since it has been shown effectively to reduce mortality rates, the trio of screening options is recommended as a means of finding those breast cancers that will predictably be missed in a proportion of mammograms and clinical breast exams.
Women Who Reported Never Having Had a Mammogram by Age and Ethnicity
Ethnic Group
Women age 40–49 N = 271
Women age 50 and over N = 219
Asian Indian
Full sample
BSE Screening Adherence Rates by Age and Ethnicity
Ethnic Group
N = 449* Age 20 to 39
N = 271 *Age 40 to 49
N = 219* Age 50 and over
Asian Indian N = 125
Chinese N = 302
Filipino N = 248
Japanese N = 47
Korean N = 123
Vietnamese N = 275
Full Sample N = 1190
Variation in English as a Native Language
Differences in Retention, Knowledge Preferences, Perceptions, and Primary Language by Cultural Sub-groups.
Asian Indian1
Chi-square significance
Retained in study through follow up
Breast cancer knowledge reported sufficient
Willing to share breast cancer knowledge with family and friends
Perceived receptivity of family and friends to breast cancer knowledge
Prefer to get knowledge from classroom setting
Prefer to get new health knowledge by mail
Prefer to get new health knowledge by telephone
Receive free information in the future to keep family healthy
Willing to receive information of personal nature
English as a Native Language
Variation in Study Retention Rates
With so many women reporting English as a second language, the overall study retention rate (67%) was likely to have been facilitated by having same language data collectors conduct the follow-up telephone surveys as the baseline surveys. Significant differences in retention rates were noted (p < .02), with Korean women having the highest rate of follow-up survey participation (76%) and Asian Indian women, the lowest (56%) (Table 4).
Variation in Adequacy of Knowledge
Overall, while 38% of the women felt that they had sufficient information about breast cancer, there were significant differences in the women's perceived adequacy of their knowledge by ethnic subgroup (Table 4). Vietnamese women (45%) were the most likely to report that they had sufficient knowledge and Korean women least likely (17%), thereby demonstrating the absence of a correlation between women's perceptions of the adequacy of their knowledge and their reported screening behaviors.
Variation in Women's Sharing of Information
Lending support to the value of "word-of-mouth" campaigns," such as the American Cancer Society's "Tell-a-Friend" program, 92% of all women reported that they were willing to share their knowledge with their family and friends. However, there was significant variation in women's willingness to share their knowledge among the subgroups, ranging from 84% for Korean women to 97% for Filipinas (Table 4). Women's perception of their family and friends' willingness to receive information also showed significant variation, ranging from 65% for Asian Indian women to 86% for Korean women (Table 4).
Variation in Preferences for Receiving Health Information
Several options were offered for women to receive future health information: by mail, telephone, or in a classroom setting. Interest in attending a class to receive health information was low in all groups (23%), but showed significant variation among the subgroups, with Korean women showing the most interest (36%) and Chinese women showing the least interest (18%) (Table 3). Interest in receiving information by mail was greater in general (68%) but varied significantly among the subgroups, with a large proportion of Asian Indian women interested (81%) in this method versus 52% of Vietnamese women. While women were less interested in receiving information by phone than by mail, interest levels varied significantly. Vietnamese women were most interested in receiving information by phone (38%) in contrast to Chinese women who were least likely (19%). Although most women reported a willingness to receive free information that could help keep their families healthy, there were significant differences among the subgroups (Table 4). Vietnamese (95%) and Chinese women (95%) were most receptive; Japanese women, least receptive (72%). Equally encouraging, most women were willing to receive health information of a personal nature, but again, there were significant differences among the groups. (Table 4)
Variation in Adherence to Screening Guidelines at Follow-up
Adherence to Screening Guidelines at Follow-Up among Women Who Were Non-Adherent by Age and Ethnicity.
Ethnic Group
BSE in past month among women age over 20
Women age 40 and over who were screened or set up screening appointment
Women age 50 and over who were screened or set up screening appointment
Asian Indian
Women were also asked if they set up an appointment for breast cancer screening or actually been screened during the interval since baseline. While follow up telephone calls were initiated at two weeks post intervention, reaching the women and actually completing the follow up survey usually took several additional weeks, leaving ample time for women to schedule or undergo screening if the intervention had prompted them to engage in that activity. Among women aged 40 and older and 50 and older, there was a positive shift toward screening uptake, but one that varied significantly among the ethnic groups (p < .02 and .009, respectively) (Table 5). Sixty percent of Chinese and 52% of Vietnamese American aged 50 and older who were non-adherent at baseline, reported that they had, or had scheduled, a mammogram in the interval. By contrast, the groups of Asian Indian and Japanese American women over 50 showed no change in adherence to screening guidelines at follow up. Given that the women in these two groups had reported the highest baseline mammography screening rate (81% and 74%, respectively), the non-adherent women in these two ethnic groups may represent a subgroup of women who are resistant to adopting the Western screening methods even though the screening methods are widely used within their own cultural groups [18].
While Asian and Pacific Islander women have one of the lowest rates of breast cancer, it has been shown that the longer Asian women live in the United States, the greater their risk of developing breast cancer. This pattern of increasing risk makes the promotion of early detection options of great importance [19–27]. Previous reports claimed that Asian and Pacific Islander women have the lowest breast cancer screening rates [28–30]. In spite of the recent controversy regarding the efficacy of breast cancer screening guidelines in reducing breast cancer mortality rates, the consensus of opinion is that breast cancer screening rates predict stage of detection, and that in turn, influences the odds of survival. Thus promotion of adherence to screening guidelines remains an important cancer control strategy [31–33].
The participants in this study do not constitute a representative sample for each of the population subgroups being studied and thereby reduces the confidence that can be placed on any generalizations that are made from these data. However, with communities where the denominator and location of the constituent group is unknown, it is virtually impossible to recruit a sample that will be representative of the national cultural community. Thus while generalizations from this data must be drawn with caution, the data can still be used to illustrate the importance of gaining a better understanding of the make up of the specific community to be served. This data collection is an essential component of planning for program development and policy making. Indeed it is the experiences of the women who came forward to be served by this educational program that must be taken into account when planning future interventions, not the experiences of women at large. It is the personal experiences of the participants that can be used to help to foreshadow and avert future health disparities among sub-cultural groups within a specific community. Thus the data collected in this study demonstrate the very significant differences that can exist among women who share many cultural attributes.
This study's hypothesis that there would be no statistically significant differences in attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors among the cultural subgroups taking part in the cancer education program was proven false. This suggests that breast cancer screening promotion efforts could have greater efficacy in reducing health disparities if they were focused on the specific attributes of the Asian subgroup to be served. Insight into baseline behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes enables health care providers, public health educators, and health policy makers to create programs that are format and content specific to the communities where health disparities are greatest. Awareness of baseline differences also help educators to focus their attention to the possible underlying causes of these observed disparities in knowledge, practices and attitudes and to explore whether these differences translate into worse breast cancer outcomes. In San Diego County, for example, a randomized trial is subsequently evaluating a new, more intensive breast cancer screening promotion program that is focused specifically on the four Asian communities shown to be the least adherent to the recommended breast cancer screening guidelines. In another subsequent study, health activists from San Diego's Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network suggested the creation of the telephone-based breast cancer screening promotion program that is currently underway among the region's Chamorro women after this study and subsequent focus groups confirmed that Chamorros only occasionally shop at Asian grocery stores.
Once the baseline, needs assessment data is available for a diverse cohort, focus groups can help to identify the optimal message content and program positioning within each Asian subgroup [34]. Subtle differences can increase the effectiveness of a particular strategy. For example, focus interviews suggested that among Southern California's Japanese and Asian Indian women, screening campaigns might be more effective if they positioned screening as the cultural norm to encourage women in those groups to get screened and help encourage others to do so. In contrast, intervention strategies developed from focus interviews for groups with low frequency screening rates might emphasize the higher screening rates of other Asian subgroups as a community-wide motivator. Focus groups and focus interviews will be essential to getting the call-to-action message precisely honed for each health promotion outcome goal.
Screening recommendations from health professionals have been demonstrated to facilitate screening uptake [35–45]. The two groups with the highest screening rates in this study were drawn from cultural groups with greater overall socioeconomic capacity and hence include women who were more likely to have greater access to health care. Clinic-based education programs, one-on-one screening encouragement, and help scheduling screening appointments, particularly where language is a barrier, can all facilitate screening. Every time health care providers talk with patients who are following positive health promoting behaviors, they have the opportunity to launch a mini "Tell a Friend" campaign by encouraging their patients to encourage others to follow their example. Better than anyone else, their patients will understand the nuances of how to reach out to the individual members within their social group.
While health care providers can play a key role in increasing women's adherence to screening guidelines, the literature suggests that Asian American women may not visit their health care providers as often as women from other ethnic groups [23, 46]. Further, culture and lack of English language proficiency pose barriers to forms of Western health care [20, 47–50]. For those women, other intervention strategies, such as the Asian Grocery Store-Based Cancer Education Program, will continue to be important since they can be honed to deliver culturally and linguistically competent messages to each specific audience at relatively low cost.
The women's high willingness to share breast cancer knowledge with family and friends and their overall perceived need for more breast cancer information suggest that the facilitation of community discussion could be an effective tool in a cancer control strategy. The more discussion about breast cancer screening, the more likely that the associated health promoting behaviors will become a social norm, thereby positively impacting not only women's actions, but also men's understanding of why these screening actions warrant their full endorsement [51]. Recruiting formal and informal community health educators and advocates who are: 1) knowledgeable about community members, norms, and cultural values; 2) early adopters of health promoting behaviors themselves; and 3) willing to initiate well informed discussions about health promoting behaviors in routine conversations, are also likely to help reduce health disparities [52].
The use of multiple intervention strategies simultaneously can increase the community's discussion of cancer screening and thereby elevate its visibility more rapidly. The Asian Grocery Store-Based Cancer Education Program and other highly visible outreach programs, media and "word-of-mouth" campaigns, and recommendations from health care providers can work synergistically to encourage breast cancer screening via frequent, repeat cueing. The shibboleth of marketing is that it requires between seven and 21 messages to be delivered in relatively close succession and in multiple modalities before the health promotion message will achieve top-of-mind awareness. Repeat cueing is critical. Finally, as was discovered in this study, periodic evaluations of the sociodemographic characteristics of the population being served are warranted to assure that the intended socio-cultural audience is, in fact, being reached and that the messages continue to be appropriately honed for each cultural subgroup.
The Pan Asian community is often mistakenly viewed as a homogeneous group. This study's comparison of breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors among the diverse sub-populations in one geographic region underscores the importance of recognizing both the similarities and differences that can exist within aggregated cultural groups. By recognizing these similarities and differences, health care providers, educators, and policy makers will be better able to understand the community they serve and identify the most efficient strategies toward achieving a reduction in health disparities.
Authors Contributions
Georgia Robins Sadler, Ph.D. is the principal investigator, designed the study methodology, directed the data collection and data analysis, and led the manuscript preparation
Lisa Ryujin – Assisted with the literature search, the data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation
Tammy Nguyen – Assisted with the literature search, the data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation
Gia Oh – Assisted with the literature search, the data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation
Grace Paik – Assisted with the literature search, the data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation
Brenda Kustin – Assisted with the data analysis and manuscript preparation
This project was funded by a grant from the San Diego and Imperial County Regional Partnership of the California Breast Cancer Early Detection Program, a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Special Populations Grant, a National Cancer Institute Grant 5R25-CA65745, and a National Cancer Institute Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network Grant U01CA86073. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official beliefs of the funding agencies.
The authors also wish to thank the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the San Diego Union of Pacific Asian Communities for their guidance and generous contribution of printed educational materials and videotapes. The following companies are also recognized for their generous contribution of the sunscreen product samples distributed during the cancer education program: Almay; Arizona Sun; Banana Boat; Blistex; Bristol Myers Squibb; Bullfrog; Clinique; Coppertone; Doak; Mary Kay; Merle Norman; Physician's Formula; and Schering Plough.
Finally, the authors wish to thank the hundreds of UCSD undergraduate students who participated in the realization of this project and the following owners and managers of the Asian grocery stores who shared the common vision of enhancing their community's health: Diwali Festival, First Market, Hing Long Market, India Sweets and Spices, Manila Seafood Market, Neema's Sari Palace, Nijaya Market, Philippine-American Expo, San Diego Supermarket, Seafood City, National City, Seafood City, Chula Vista, Vien Dong, San Diego, Vien Dong III, San Diego, Vien Dong IV, San Diego, Zion Oriental Market, San Diego, 99 Ranch Market, San Diego, 66 Ranch Market, San Diego, 79 Supermarket, El Cajon, 79 Supermarket, Mira Mesa, 79 Super Market, San Diego, Yaohan Mitsuwa.
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Nelson Mandela in hospital for sixth day
April 2 - South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela spends a sixth day in hospital for a recurrence of pneumonia. Jessica Gray reports.
Nelson Mandela is spending a sixth day in hospital, after doctors reported an improvement in his condition over the weekend. The former South African president is being treated for pneumonia. Concerned over his health, Johannesburg residents said Mandela's fight for racial equality in the country would never be forgotten. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOWETO RESIDENT, SBU MOLOI, SAYING: "I want to wish him a speedy recovery and that he gets better very soon because this nation wouldn't be this nation today without his work, his dedication and everything." This is the third hospital visit in fourth months for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The 94-year-old has a history of lung problems, after contracting tuberculosis during his 27 years in jail as a political prisoner. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHANNESBURG RESIDENT, JOEL REGENBAUM, SAYING: "I just wish him well, I just wish him a speedy recovery, yeah I just think a man who's been through so much hardship in his life, surely he doesn't deserve this towards the end." He is best known for leading the struggle against white minority rule as well as for his efforts towards racial reconciliation while in power. Mandela left office in 1999 and has not been politically active for over a decade.


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I have several books that have been sitting on my "need-to-review" list for quite awhile now and rather than writing full reviews for all of them I thought I'd write shorter, mini-reviews to give a brief overview of my thoughts on the books. This first set of mini-reviews will focus on Where It Began and Incarnate.
Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler
Sometimes the end is just the beginning.
Gabby Gardiner wakes up in a hospital bed looking like a cautionary ad for drunk driving—and without a single memory of the accident that landed her there. But what she can recall, in frank and sardonic detail, is the year leading up to the crash.
As Gabby describes her transformation from Invisible Girl to Trendy Girl Who Dates Billy Nash (aka Most Desirable Boy Ever), she is left wondering: Why is Billy suddenly distancing himself from her? What do her classmates know that Gabby does not? Who exactly was in the car that night? And why has Gabby been left to take the fall?
As she peels back the layers of her life, Gabby begins to realize that her climb up the status ladder has been as intoxicating as it has been morally complex... and that nothing about her life is what she has imagined it to be.
Have you ever read a book where you just couldn't find the words to describe it? This was the case for me and Where It Began. I read it quite awhile ago and kept struggling to figure out what to say in my review. So, I'm going to stick with a mini-review. Where It Began is a beautifully written young adult debut that will definitely appeal to fans of contemporary fiction and possibly bring new fans to the genre. I loved the way Ann wrote this book, from the short chapters to the three sections, it made the book more intriguing to read and added to the overall affect of the story. Going into this book, I wasn't sure what to expect, but was hooked immediately. Where It Began begins with a bang and immediately draws the reader in. I loved the mystery angle and the ending was one of those that makes your mouth drop open with surprise. The plot was very original and captivating and Gabby's narration made the book that much better. I didn't always connect with her and of course she frustrated me at times, but she was a real teenager and I felt for her because of all she had been through. All in all, I really enjoyed this YA debut and am looking forward to seeing what's next for Ann Redisch Stampler.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
March 6, 2012/Simon Pulse/369 Pages/Young Adult
Source: Publisher/Author (ARC)
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
New soul
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
No soul
Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?
Another book that I read a little while ago and never wrote a full review for! Anyway, Incarnate was a book I was anticipating for a long time and I was thrilled to receive a review copy. While I was a little disappointed in it, I think the concept was very original and compelling. In a sea of dystopian novels, Incarnate was a unique look at a utopian future. The idea of reincarnation and souls was something that really drew me to the book; I wanted to see just how Jodi was going to tackle it. I never fully got the answers to all of my questions, but I have to say I was always anxious to learn more about the world Ana lives in. Ana, the main character, was someone I liked, but was often frustrated with. I understand her confusion and felt for her, but I also wish she was more independent. Going into this, I was expecting much more complicated plot twists and action, but Incarnate focused more on the romance. Ana and Sam had a slow-moving relationship that really allowed the reader to get to know Sam and understand his past. Although sometimes I wondered how exactly the reincarnation thing worked, I think this book focused more on providing a foundation for the two main characters and hopefully the next book will provide more answers. I took a little longer to read this than I would have hoped because certain parts got a little slow, but I did enjoy the book and am interested in seeing what will happen in the sequel. Jodi Meadows certainly has a creative imagination and her writing style is great. While this might not have been exactly what I was anticipating, it was still a book that showed promise and I am looking forward to checking out Asunder when it comes out in January.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
January 31, 2012/Katherine Tegen Books/374 Pages/Young Adult/Book One
Source: Publisher (ARC)
Other books in this series: Asunder (2013)
Look for more Mini-Reviews soon!


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The Folly Fellowship was founded in 1988 as a pressure group to protect, preserve, and promote follies, grottoes & garden buildings. At this time, many follies were in a ruinous condition (although some were built that way) and the genre was largely an historic one that we felt worth preserving. However, since that time, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of these buildings to our landscapes. Many have been restored, and several have been completely rebuilt with local support. Better still, some individuals with imagination and the tenacity to fight the planning process, have begun to build new follies. The rise in popularity of television building programmes has encouraged people to try and squeeze something a little unusual in their back gardens. Follies are no longer the preserve of architectural historians and the very rich. If you'd like to find out more, join us, and be part of this group who celebrate this particular branch of architecture that loves to break the rules of what is normal in buildings.
Note that apart from encouraging you to join the Folly Fellowship, this site is not about selling you anything – it is intended as a resource to enable you to find out more about the fascinating subject. So if you are writing a thesis on garden architecture, looking for an architect to design you a folly, or looking for ideas to build your own folly, dig in, there's plenty of inspiration here.
An update on Temple Works Leeds including a chance to look round on 20th March.
An article appeared in the Telegraph last year entitled 'Add a little joy to your house: put a folly in the garden.
The Forbidden Corner is in trouble again as planning permission for their new tower is refused and they may have to take it down. See this article from Stray.fm
Gwrych Castle has been sold yet again -but this time to the Gwrych Preservation Trust!
An article from Cornwall Live about a previously unknown 35ft obelisk
Interesting recent article entitled "Europe was once obsessed with fake delapidated buildings"
An article entitled "It's not bonkers to be fond of a folly" appeared in the Times on Jan 26th


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Susan Mains Art School
Ok, I know the title is ambitious, but after years of people asking for art lessons, I think I have found a way to do it. I have started a video demonstration of how I paint, and all I ask is that you give me feedback.
That means helpful comments, not necessarily about the quality of the video. This is a beta version, and what I am interested in knowing is if I am communicating well enough that you can follow the instructions.
So, watch the You tube video, subscribe, and follow the playlist. Let me know what you think!
Happy painting. By the way, you can get materials at Art and Soul at Spiceland Mall.