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Women's Tennis Sweeps Both Home Matches Friday
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State women's tennis team opened the 2014 season with a 7-0 sweep over in-state rivals Valparaiso and IUPUI Friday in the Muncie YMCA Tennis Center. The win marked the first for first-year head coach Max Norris.
The Cardinals began competition today against the Crusaders, which started off with a dominating doubles performance. Courtney Wild and Ayaka Terashi started Ball State off with a good start, winning a 6-1 match over Valparaiso's No. 6 doubles tandem Megan Paras and Kaitlyn Hamel. After that, Bethany Moore and Kristel Sanders earned a 6-0 win at the No. 1 position to give the Cardinals the 1-0 advantage over the Crusaiders heading into singles action.
Sanders posted a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Megan Barthels at the No. 3 slot to put Ball State up 2-0 over Valparaiso. Toni Ormond, Courtney Earnest, Anna Rozenberg, Wild and Marin Kanii all followed with straight sets victories. Ormond did not give up a point in her win over Paras at No. 5 singles with the 6-0, 6-0 defeat.
In the night cap, the No. 2 doubles tandem of Ormond and Earnest captured a 6-0 win over Abbey Neff and Julie Brockman. Earnest and Sanders paired up at No. 3 to earn a 6-1 win , putting Ball State up 1-0 over IUPUI.
Ball State swept all six of its singles matches, No. 1 thru No. 5 all won in straight sets. Rozenberg won her first set over Brookman at No. 6 singles but would drop the second set before winning the third set tie breaker.
The Ball State women's tennis team will continue action at Kentucky, Saturday at 6 p.m.
Scores are in the order they finished.
Ball State 7 – Valparaiso 0
No. 3 Wild/Terashi (BSU) def. Paras/Hamel (VAL) 6-1
No. 1 Moore/Saunders (BSU) def. Heuer/Barthels (VAL) 6-0
No. 2 Ormond/Earnest (BSU) defeating Goheen/Fredlake (VAL) 5-0 (DNF)
No. 3 Kristel Sanders (BSU) def. Megan Barthels (VAL) 6-1, 6-0
No. 4 Toni Ormond (BSU) def. Michele Fredlak (VAL) 6-1, 6-0
No. 2 Courtney Earnest (BSU) def. Paige Heuer (VAL) 6-3, 6-0
No. 5 Anna Rozenberg (BSU) def. Morgan Paras (VAL) 6-0, 6-0
No. 1 Courtney Wild (BSU) def.Kaitlyn Hamel (VAL) 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 Marin Kanii (BSU) def. Angelina Goheen (VAL) 7-5, 6-3
Ball State 7 – IUPUI 0
No. 2 Ormond/Earnest (BSU) def. Neff/Brockman (IUPUI) 6-0
No. 3 Sanders/Rozenberg (BSU) def. Modesto/Bridegroom (IUPUI) 6-1
No. 1 Moore/Wild (BSU) defeating Whyte and Swartwood (IUPUI) 5-4 (DNF)
No. 2 Courtney Wild (BSU) def. Swartwood (IUPUI) 6-2, 6-0
No. 3 Bethany Moore (BSU) def. Modesto (IUPUI) 6-3, 6-1
No. 4 Kristel Sanders (BSU) def. Bridegroom (IUPUI) 6-2, 6-0
No. 1 Courntey Earnest (BSU) def. Whyle (IUPUI) 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 Toni Ormond (BSU) def. Neff (IUPUI) 6-1, 7-5
No. 6 Anna Rozenberg (BSU) def. Brockman (IUPUI) 6-2, 6-2, 1-0(7)


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Music in PicturesMaestro Istvan Jaray conducts Beethoven's Symphony #6 "Pastoral," and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Also featured will be the JSO's Young Artist Competition winner, pianist Anthony Cornet, now pursuing a Masters Degree in piano performance at Duquesne U.03/09/2013Time: 7:30 pmPasquerilla Performing Arts Center, 450 Schoolhouse Rd., Johnstown, PAwebsite | map
Movie NightFeaturing the winner of the annual collegiate Young Artist Competition. Music Director Matthew Kraemer also leads the orchestra in familiar music from popular recent movies.03/09/2013Time: 7:30 pmButler Intermediate High School, 551 Fairground Hill Rd, Butler, PAwebsite | map
LunasaNamed for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lunasa is indeed a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. Its members have helped formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade.03/09/2013Time: 7:30 pmCarnegie Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PAwebsite | map
Breath and Imagination: The Story of Roland HayesA world premiere by Daniel Beaty (creator of Through the Night). Roland Hayes journeyed from the dirt paths of Georgia to European stages, becoming the first African-American classical vocalist to be heard around the world. With bright yellow shoes given to him by his mother, his Angel Mo', Roland walked the hard road to stardom. This musical features the soul of spirituals and the grace of classical music to portray one man's ambition to be an artist.03/09/2013 - 03/31/20131300 Bingham Street Pittsburgh, PAwebsite | map
Aaronel deRoy Gruber: Art(ist) in Motion This exhibit highlights the Pittsburgh artist's exploration of the medium of sculpture, from welded steel and formed aluminum to vacuum-formed plexiglass pieces, both illuminated and motorized.03/09/2013 - 06/02/20134764 State Route 30, Greensburg, PAwebsite | map
Trouble with a Capital T Join the Pittsburgh School for the Choral Arts in singing along to some favorite tunes from The Music Man! Emcee Anna Singer returns as Marian the Librarian in this fun family feature from the 1960s. The event includes food at the "town social," many activities for children of all ages, a silent auction, live auction, and dessert auction to support the choirs and programs. 03/09/2013Time: 5:00 pmLocation: St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 419 South Dithridge St, Pittsburgh, PAwebsite
Celebrating Wagner's Nordic TalesChatham's Sunday Vocal series presents a concert in honor of the Chatham University Global Focus Program's "Year of Europe: Scandinavia." Featured singers: Anna Singer, Robert Frankenberry, Mary Beth Sederburg, Demareus Cooper, Kelly Lynch, Desiree Soteres, and Jolanta Doherty, with pianist Walter Morales.03/10/2013Time: 3:00 pmLocation: Campbell Memorial Chapel, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PAwebsite
Jackie Evancho - Songs from the Silver ScreenSinger and America's Got Talent alum Jackie Evancho applies her brilliant voice and extraordinary artistry to an entirely new set of classics with the release of her CD, "Songs From the Silver Screen." Director Robert Redford hand-picked Pittsburgh's Jackie Evancho to play his daughter in the 2012 film The Company You Keep.03/12/2013Time: 7:30 pmHeinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PAwebsite | map
The Wizard of OzExperience the classic film The Wizard of Oz as never before – accompanied by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The beloved film received Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Song with "Over the Rainbow." See the film and hear the music that has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations with your PSO at Heinz Hall. Lawrence Loh conducts.03/14/2013 - 03/17/201303/14 - 7:30 pm03/15 - 8:00 pm03/16 - 2:30 pm03/16 - 8:00 pm03/17 - 2:30 pmHeinz Hall, 601 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PAwebsite | map
The Music of The BeatlesDuquesne's Jazz Ensemble (Mike Tomaro, director) presents The Music of The Beatles.03/14/2013Time: 8:00 pmLocation: Pappert Center, website
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on March 6, 2013 - 1:00 AM
Lots of us are concerned about an erosion of rights
While I appreciate the front-page coverage in The Buffalo News of the rally in Albany on Feb. 28 opposing the NY SAFE Act, I am offended that the crowd was characterized as "heavily white, male and from upstate." The crowd at the rally held in Buffalo a few weeks ago was similarly characterized.
This is the type of thing that, although it is subtle, trivializes the fact that people are concerned about the erosion of their Second Amendment rights. It makes it sound like this is just a small, specific group of people concerned with their guns.
This is the type of thing that also splits our country. We are all Americans, no matter what color, age, gender or race we are or where we live, and as Americans we should all be alarmed when politicians think they have more power than the Constitution gives them. When people stand up to defend their rights, they should not be labeled by color, race, age, gender or where they live.
I was at that rally and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration can say there were only 5,000 people at that rally, but they are only kidding themselves.
Linda Kotlarsz


text:
Home > Business Management > Market & Reference Data Management > Data Governance > Analyst Report case studies
Company: SAP
| Category: Data Governance
| Published: December 2012
Poor quality data can have many repercussions, from an erosion of productivity and slow business decision-making through to more serious consequences, such as reputational damage and failure to comply with legally enforced regulations.
Customer data represents the fastest-growing domain, due to the increasing use of sophisticated transactional websites and social media. It also attracts a high level of interest from organisations due to its strategic importance, leading firms to mine the data for business advantage.
"Customer data is twice as likely to suffer from quality and management problems than any other domain"
This paper references a survey that shows that customer data in many organisations is fragmented, duplicated and poorly managed, going on to look at best practice in data governance.
Rating: + 4
eCommerce Services | August 2015 | White Paper
eCommerce Software | August 2015 | White Paper
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | July 2015 | White Paper
E-Commerce Solutions | July 2015 | White Paper
Marketing Management | July 2015 | White Paper
© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited 2016, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 9177174 & 9178013.
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text:
Pay for waves right on the beach, 50 yards from actual surf, in Mission Beach, CA. Their beer selection sucks too. To each their own I suppose. Never has looked as good as the real thing to me, so I've never tried it.
A fool and his money are soon parted.


text: Historic documents and parchments in the archives of Le Pâquier confirm it: the village smithy definitely dates from the second half of the 18th century. Like many houses in the village, it burnt down in 1770. Since the 1980s, the smithy has come to life again, thanks to a generous foundation. There are guided tours and demonstrations of the blacksmith's work (on request).


text:
Welcome to the Twilight Saga Wiki, and thank you for your edit to the User:220.127.116.11 page!
There's a lot to do around here, so I hope you'll stay with us and make many more improvements.
Recent changes
Questions? You can ask at the Help desk or in the comments at the bottom of each article, or post a message on my talk page!
Need help? The Community Portal has an outline of the site, and pages to help you learn how to edit.
I'm really happy to have you here, and look forward to working with you!
-- Charmed-Jay (Talk) 15:36, August 29, 2011
My blog about the Quileute and their actors is Twilightpack.blog.com
Find all the new members info there.
I'm so sorry! I had no idea! I'll give you credit right away, I'm so sorry =)
-- User: GazettE 14:55, November 7, 2011


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Top Definition
A hard turd that is wrapped around the edge of the bowl, complimented with soft pudding (diarrhea) in the center which breaks the water line.
After eating six white castles and washing it down with a Thunderbird, I laid down a St. Wenceslaus's Cap. Now fix me a chicken pot pie!
von shlepkar 16. Januar 2009
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6 Video Game Urban Legends That Are Actually Hoaxes
#3. Naked Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Tomb Raider's heroine, Lara Croft, is an acrobatic, duel-wielding, tomb-raiding ass kicker. She also happens to be comically hot, with breasts so large that they look like they'd interfere with some pretty basic activities.
She'd have serious trouble tying her own shoes, driving and walking through doors sideways. Water slides would also be pretty touch and go.
If you're familiar with video game players or the Internet in general, you should not be surprised that it took about five seconds after this game was released before rumors spread of a "nude code" that could remove Lara's clothes. Even though the in-game graphics engine limited her to looking like this ...
... that was still something people needed to see naked.
How Gullible You'd Have to Be to Buy It
Pretty fucking gullible. By this time, people were getting used to the idea that the Internet was a cesspool of treachery. And when you consider the legal hell a publisher would catch for publishing pornography in a children's game, it becomes even less plausible. Finally, the fact that it plays so blatantly on a horny kid's deep need to see titties should have been another clue that it was gullibility bait.
Interestingly enough, some impossibly lonely hacker did eventually create a "nude patch" for the game, replacing the textures used to display Lara with naked textures. For the boob-hungry reader willing to download sketchy binaries from sketchy websites, their dream of seeing pointy, pixelated boobs was finally at hand:
Ricardo Liberato via Wikimedia Commons
Artistic interpretation.
#2. Clothed Luigi (Super Mario 64)
As you'd expect from its name, Super Mario 64 was a game that featured a character called Mario who was pretty goddamned super, and was the 64th entry in the Mario franchise. Nowhere in the name does it contain the word "Bros." or "And Friends" or, critically, "Luigi." Luigi is not in this game (not the Nintendo 64 version, anyways).
Do you think that stopped people from hunting for him until their thumbs bled? Have you been reading this article?
Wikimedia Commons
Also, the N64 controller making thumbs bleed isn't playful exaggeration.
Many people were convinced that Luigi existed within the game, and with absolutely no evidence to support that, they were forced to make up some of their own. One of the key points in the "Luigi exists" theory was a particular statue in the castle, which, as you can see, had a blurry inscription:
Now, if you're not having this website read to you by your great-grandchild, you'll probably figure out pretty quickly what's happened here. The artists decided that the statue they were making would look better with an inscription plate, even though the game's engine wouldn't be able to render a texture that printed anything legible. So they put in a gibberish texture. This decision, which probably took about 10 seconds to make, managed to waste countless days of countless idiots' lives. You see, for people who've suffered the unlikely but unfortunate fate of being brained by falling space debris, this illegible nonsense clearly read:
"L is real 2401"
Which was proof enough that Luigi could be found within the game, and that "2401" was an important number. They'd later decide that that was the number of coins in the game, because that sounded pretty smart, and that you needed to collect all of them to unlock Luigi, because that sounded like a kind of stupid thing to do.
How Gullible You'd Have to Be to Buy It
Almost impossibly gullible. That was complete gibberish, interpreted by madmen, advocating spending dozens more hours in a game you'd probably already beaten several times over from a company that has never been so dickish toward its players. When Nintendo wants you to drive the lanky Italian, they've always put him front and center.
Even when they probably shouldn't have.
#1. Aeris Lives (Final Fantasy VII)
Aeris was a major character in Final Fantasy VII, and one of the romantic interests for the disinterested, spiky-haired protagonist. About halfway through the game, during a confrontation with the main villain, she's killed (spoilers), a legitimately surprising turn of events for most players, and a shock to our spiky-haired protagonist, ultimately making him marginally less disinterested.
Fuck you, Cloud.
But it turns out that a game that involves butchering thousands of monsters isn't a very fun place to think about death, and players around the world freaked out, convinced that there was some way to save Aeris. Over the next few months and years, message boards and forums filled with ridiculously lengthy and complicated methods of getting Aeris back.
How Gullible You'd Have to Be to Buy It
All the way gullible. Keep in mind that we are talking about trying to restore a character whose death is completely central to every remaining plot point and character development in the game. (And Final Fantasy VII is a very linear game.) Aeris is as fundamentally and completely dead as the narrative can make her.
And when you consider the sheer effort required to investigate any of the 11 possible techniques cited here, almost all of which require either a dedicated playthrough to reach the halfway point of the game (20+ hours) or some ridiculous hunt for ultra rare items after the fact, you realize that we're dealing with epic levels of gullibility. Anyone who tried to do all of these things must have a pretty big gap on their resume. Explaining "Played Final Fantasy for Nine Months Because the Internet Tricked Me" to a potential employer isn't going to make you look very employable, and if you happen to find yourself in that circumstance, I'd suggest coming up with an alternate explanation.
"I ... was ... doing ... needle drugs? Yes. That's it. I was on the shit."
Chris Bucholz is a Cracked columnist and friend to animals. Join him on Facebook or Twitter and win big cash prizes.


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Whenever you change jobs, there's always some vacation days left over that you can either take or cash out (some employers won't give you an option, this is for those who do have a choice). For me, the choice has often been pretty clear: take the days off. You'll be paid for both but by taking vacation you get a few more benefits.
The only argument I can think of in favor of cashing out vacation is one where you want to start work at your new job ASAP and you've signed some sort of non-compete agreement with your former company. In that scenario, you would be in violation of that agreement if you worked for your new employer while still on the payroll of the former one. Outside of that scenario, unless you all can think of one, that's the only argument for cashing out vacation. (There is one more, if you have a lot of vacation and you want to be paid in the current pay cycle rather in the next one… but that's even rarer than the first scenario)
Here are reasons to take the vacation:
Medical Insurance
If you take the vacation days, you still get medical coverage for the time you're on vacation. If you get paid out for those days, your medical insurance ends on your final day. This may not be a big deal if you start your new job immediately. If you want a few days off in between employers, it pays to "take vacation" and have medical coverage.
One thing I never understood was why my medical insurance expired on the last day of employment yet I continued to pay, out of payroll deductions, for medical for the entire month.
Accrued Benefits
Depending on how your benefits math is calculated, you may want to schedule your final day during the beginning of a month. At my last employer, our vacation days were accrued on a monthly basis. When I left on February 28th, I didn't get the vacation days I had accrued for the month of February (ouch). This may be the case for the accrual of other benefits as well, such as pensions, so you might want to take a few vacation days to pull you into the next month.
If you're a few days away from a holiday, it's better to take the vacation and get paid for those holidays (duh). I knew someone who switched jobs around Thanksgiving. Using his vacation from his first employer, he was able to stretch is last day past Thanksgiving. He also started at his new job on the Monday before Thanksgiving. End result was that he was paid by two employers for that nice two day holiday… very clever!
One thing to be aware of is whether you signed any sort of non-compete agreement (as mentioned earlier) while you were employed with your former company. In the case of my Thanksgiving friend, there was no non-compete agreement in place (not that the first employer knew) and so he could technically be employed at the two companies simultaneously so all was okay.
There you have it, some reasons why you should take your vacation rather than taking a straight payout. Of course, this requires some delicate discussion with your HR department or your direct manager. I've found that people are reasonable, will appreciate some forewarning, and won't mind you taking vacation. If your HR or your manager doesn't seem reasonable (and everyone who has an unreasonable HR and/or manager knows they're unreasonable), give the least amount of notice possible. It's all business.
(Photo by Storm Crypt [3])


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Whether your young Athletics fan is cheering on his favorite team or playing catch in the yard, this tee will show off his Oakland devotion. The Ball Glove tee features a printed glove with a baseball bearing the A's logo on the front. This tee will quickly become your youngster's favorite. He'll beam with Oakland pride!
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text:
Source: Bloomberg
quote: I'm yet to hear a compelling argument for it not being a MASSIVE improvement on the positivly antique start menu
quote: i find it worse in multi screen use
quote: i find that i cant right click on a folder anymore and hit 'r' to bring up properties.
quote: i can't click file and hit n to create a new folder anymore.
quote: by althaz on July 4, 2013 at 12:01 AMMetro is an optional extra with Win8. If you don't like Metro apps, don't use them (I don't).


text:
Bouchra Jarrar
blouson jacket
Out of stock
Unfortunately this item is out of stock
Black wool blouson jacket from Bouchra Jarrar featuring a crew neck, an off-centre front zip fastening and an asymmetric hem.
Made in France
Designer Style ID: C9BLOUSE157
Farfetch ID: 10744283
Models Measurements
- Lining Composition:
- Silk 100%
- Composition:
- Wool 100%
Your order will be shipped directly from the boutique to you. Farfetch ships worldwide, and you will be able to track your order at any time. The cost of shipping your order will be calculated at the checkout.
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Delivery duties are included in the item price when shipping to all EU countries plus USA, Canada, China, Australia, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Singapore, Republic Of Korea, Kuwait, Qatar, India, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, U.A.E., Japan.This means all import duties are included in your order, so the price you see is the price you pay. You will not receive an additional duty bill from the courier to receive your shipment. If you are ordering from within your own customs zone or country, import duties will not be applicable anyway, however you may have to pay VAT or local Sales Taxes where applicable (for the UK and USA these are included at the checkout).
Delivery duties are not included in the item price when shipping to all other countries. This means you may be liable to pay import duties on receipt of your order.
Free returns pick-up
You have 14 days from receiving your order to return the item to the boutique using our free returns pick-up service. We strongly recommend that you book your free returns pick-up within 7 days of receiving your order to ensure that it arrives back to the boutique in time. Please note for standard orders we can only collect returns from the same country to which your order was delivered. For click and collect orders we can collect your return from the country your order was delivered to and also the country of the original boutique you ordered from. Click here to read our full returns policy.
Bouchra Jarrar is a celebrated young womenswear designer based in Paris. Her recently launched ready to wear collections are meticulously cut and precisely edited. Jarrar concentrates on beautiful fabrics and masculine-feminine tailoring to critical acclaim.


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Top Definition
To poop at such an angle that the turds hit your scrotum. Such as when a boxer hits a speed bag.
"Damn bro, I was taking a dump when that plane was in a vertical dive and it made me do a tyson five round!"
от 2ShadesOfNas-T 11 февруари 2012
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Man accused of killing cellmate with toilet paper
Florida inmate already facing murder charges in girlfriend's death
A Florida man already facing murder charges is accused of killing his cellmate by stuffing wet toilet paper down the man's throat.
Scott Greenberg, 28, was placed in a cell with Kelly Harding on Saturday night due to aggressive behavior at the Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, according to sheriff's officials.
Several hours after the lights went out, jail officials heard gurgling noises coming from the cell and found Harding unconscious on the floor.
"I did it, it's done," Greenberg was heard saying.
An inmate in a nearby cell asked what he had done, and he replied, "What I'm in here for," according to The Associated Press.
Harding was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Greenberg is already accused of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend at a hotel last year, and now faces first-degree murder charges.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Guánica, Kicked Back on a Saturday
I had previously reported about the Dry Forest of Guánica, but did not make it into town. Now I'm back to fill in some details.
This IS by far the driest, hottest place on the island.
It was a clear day in August so yes, it was hot, but not muggy. There was also a nice breeze too, since we were right on the coast. If you are from the Southern United States, you'll feel right at home. Ya'll got that?
So my goal this time was to hit the Plaza of Guánica, check out the old abandoned Sugar Mill, retrace the point of entry for the US troops landing here in 1898 and check out a couple more places within the Dry Forest Preserve.
I also made it over to Parguera, up the coast, west of Guánica, but I'll save that for me next post… Arrg!
Since we were coming from Ponce, we took Hwy 2, to Hwy 116. Hwy 116 runs right past the Plaza.
This time of year, you will see lots of folks along the highway selling bunches of Quenepas. Quenepa trees grow all over PR. These shots were taken in Salinas last month. I have a Quenepa sprout I started from seed last Fall. The fruit are about the size of big grapes. The first place we stopped wanted $5 bucks for a bunch.. ridiculous. Continue reading
Copyright © 2009~2014 RobertosPuertoRico.com, All Comm. Rights Reserved, CC3, ShareAlike


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Critical thinking practices and education resources
Critical thinking: Why our students need it and resources for teaching it
If you believe in conspiracy theories, enjoy posting political links, or are an apologist for alternative medicine, you probably don't want to be my Facebook friend. You see, I have a rather outspoken inner skeptic that feels compelled to fact-check anything that sounds outlandish or unlikely. I try to squelch it from time to time, for the sake of politeness and decorum, but it's a relentless voice with nagging questions.
"Is that right? That doesn't sound right."
"There has to be a detail missing."
"That's not possible… is it?"
I often make the mistake of thinking that everyone else is just as eager for accurate information. It may come as a shock to my fellow skeptics out there, but replying with a link to the original study and an explanation of why the news article is reporting wrong information, or passing along a link to Science-Based Medicine or Snopes may well get you unfriended. (Ouch.)
Our education system, in all its forms, does a poor job of fostering critical thinking. This is a real problem, because we humans are inclined to embrace ideologies rather than information. There's nothing more troublesome to society than warring ideologies—and there's simply no way to find middle ground with anyone who can't question theirs.
If you've ever felt like you were arguing with a brick wall, you were probably hitting one of these impenetrable ideologies I've been talking about.
Fortunately, the media serves as an excellent place to start teaching critical thinking. I don't mean Fair vs. Balanced, right vs. left, Maddow vs. Beck: I mean any particular story with remarkable claims—or where someone is cast a villain. (Have you ever noticed that there is an overabundance of flat characters on the evening news? There are that many epic battles of good vs. evil, black vs. white, really?) Pick up the average newspaper and spend a little time fact-checking and questioning. If you've never done it before, you'll be astounded at what you find.
Here's one I chose at random from the Washington Post:
Blended families more common, but the 'step' in 'stepmom' still carries a stigma
Call them blended families, bonus families or para-kin. Just don't call them stepfamilies. The term -- seared into our consciousness through fairy tales and Disney movies -- is falling out of favor, even as the ranks of nontraditional families are expanding.
A new poll estimates that at least four in 10 Americans consider themselves part of a stepfamily, but a growing number reject that label, saying it carries a stigma.
Reading the article, you'd likely come away thinking the poll mentioned, which was done by the Pew Center, asked respondents about their feelings toward the term "stepfamily," "stepmother," or the like.
It did not. Yet the average reader is led to believe:
- Fewer people are using the words "stepdad" and "stepmom."
- Many people think those words have a bad stigma to them.
- Most people think of wicked, Disneyfied characters when they hear the prefix "step-".
In fact the "growing number" of Americans who are "rejecting that label" appears to be a handful of the folks interviewed who disliked the term, since none of the experts or studies mentioned in the article have actually undertaken a serious investigation into the matter. Is the number of people rejecting "step-something" actually growing? Do more adults today dislike it than when Cinderella debuted? Who knows.
It's a little detail. But would you have gone to look for the information? (I wouldn't have.) Or would you have come away thinking that the term was falling out of popularity, and this was a legitimate new trend? (I might have.)
And did the journalist prove anywhere—or offer any real evidence—that if the term is falling out of favor, the stigma came from fairy tales? No. All of this conjecture was meant just to make the story more interesting.
I'll stop nitpicking now, I promise. (Imagine if this article were about politics!)
But this little exercise was, on the most superficial level, critical thinking. And I'll wager that most adults don't practice the skill regularly enough to be prepared to use it when it counts.
Signs of a missing skill
Last summer, a high school valedictorian speech made waves on social networks. Erica Goldson gave what appears to have been a rousing kick-in-the-gut speech at the culmination of her high school career:
…This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination…
The media went (predictably) wild. Unschoolers everywhere cheered. Homeschoolers hailed her as a great thinker, gleefully reposting this triumph on Facebook walls everywhere. "This girl gets it," one of my Facebook friends—who has no small grudge against public education—commented on the article.
Eager to read something from a bright young person, I clicked. About four paragraphs in, I shrugged and muttered, "Ten dollars says someone just discovered John Taylor Gatto for the first time." (As I continued to read the speech, sure enough, up he pops.)
Now Gatto, at least, has some excellent points. (Heaven help us all when she finds Grace Llewellyn.) But parroting his ideology thought-for-thought, expression-for-expression doesn't count as critical thinking or "getting it." It's a first and positive step—questioning why something is the way it is—but if it ends there, the "great thinker" has only swallowed a new ideology with minimal thought. I'm not quite ready to call that progress or enlightenment. Sorry.
Ms. Goldson later declares that there's no such thing as critical thinking, only "thinking." All I can say is that this entire example serves as a blaring neon sign that we need more of whatever-you-want-to-call-it in our schools.
Yet this troubling symptom—finding a semi-obscure radical writer and adopting his or her language all while admonishing others to "do your research" on the subject—is one I have seen in many places. And what's so frustrating is that on one level, the anti-mainstream folks are correct: we do need to question the typical and the status quo. Where they go wrong is in embracing the ideology of a reactionary in response, rather than applying the same level of scrutiny to their new ideas.
You'll see this in the anti-vaccine world, among the Holocaust deniers, in both the public education reformers and the defenders. You'll see it in the whole language and phonics feuds (are they still battling?), the back-to-the-basics and progressive education theorists, and on both sides of every debatable issue.
You'll see it within me, despite my inner skeptic.
Every radical or reactionary is right about something—often astoundingly, brilliantly so. (As my favorite college professor used to remind us, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.) That's why critical thinking is so important.
But critical thinking takes practice. And that practice needs to begin in our schools.
Building intellectual curiosity
Legendary magician and skeptic James Randi agrees. In his impassioned (and hilarious) TED talk, Randi blasts everything from psychics to homeopathy and encourages a return to the age of reason—starting in the classroom.
Randi's not one to sit around idly complaining. His foundation has developed a critical training kit for classrooms, and one module "Do you have ESP?" is available as a free download. There are other resources available to teachers, as well. The Critical Thinking Community offers a host of articles on the subject, including tips and examples for "remodeling" lessons to promote critical thinking.
The lesson remodeling is particularly valuable. In some cases, the remodeling actually makes the lesson more engaging for students, like the example cited where the original lesson taught the mechanics of sentence construction by asking students to "think of three questions about pets." (If you're like me, you're drawing a bit of a blank at that request.) The Critical Thinking Community suggests revising that task to think of three questions you might ask a pet seller to determine if a particular animal would be a good pet for you. (Now that is something I can easily do!) Meanwhile the students are still meeting the original learning objective—more easily, since the task isn't as onerous—and they're also learning to think critically on an age-appropriate subject.
Thinking critically for the future
In an educational era where most experts and parents alike agree we're spending too much time on test preparation, critical thinking is a skill that falls by the wayside. Paradoxically, it's high on the list of valued skills for knowledge workers. That's because higher order thinking is essential to innovation, problem-solving, and just about every task that professionals face in the 21st century.
When it comes to open source software, critical thinking drives the movement to excellence. While the typical college student struggles mightily to review a peer's paper, on just about every open source project mailing list you'll see rigorous, critical feedback that would make any English professor cheer. "Nitpicking" literally occurs, in the form of looking for bugs in the code. Linus' Law encourages this, predicting that "with many eyes, all bugs are shallow."
My hope is that we'll put our energy into making critical thinking a central and essential part of classroom pedagogy. Peer review—learning to gracefully give and accept feedback—is a skill that must be taught earlier, and teachers need to make sure that students master it. Questioning and thinking should be encouraged at every age, in every subject.
With a generation of strong critical thinkers, we won't just see improvements in the workplace. We'll see it in public policy and political discourse.
And just maybe, one day, it will be socially acceptable to analyze the accuracy of articles posted on Facebook.
11 Comments
Having worked in an IT program at a university for many years, I can tell you that students are lacking problem solving skills. I don't understand what has happened to students since I was in high school, but they just aren't learning this critical skill. It makes a huge difference when the students have to take programming. Many of them have already had some programming experience, but lack the ability to use simple structures to solve a problem. I have seen many students basically fail a second year bash scripting course after taking a full year of Java. That should almost never happen.
One thing I blame on the current problems is the "No Child Left Behind" program. While it is a noble sentiment, it has been enforced in such a way that it has become the program of the least common denominator. If a child can't keep up there is no point slowing down the rest of the class. In my elementary school and high school students were separated by ability. They all received the same amount of instruction, put tailored to meet their needs.
Good points, but I'm not really a fan of James Randi and self-proclaimed "Skeptics". In my opinion they exhibit exactly the same signs as an ideology or cult, in a way similar to mac evangelists with Steve Jobs, zealot atheists with Richard Dawkins and certain similar guardians of truth. Almost all of these people are intellectual poseurs whose greatest achievement will never be anything more than the paraphrasing of their icons. Of course these pseudo-religions provide answers for all questions, even for the most arcane. Creating new gods and worshiping false prophets can never be the goal for the mind of a truly free individual.
If people want to take the easy way out and have it harm their lives (like taking celebrity advice and not giving their children vaccines as a result) then fine. The problem is that a lot of the people you talk about vote in large numbers and can harm me in that way.
With the direction America is going I don't know if it's possible to reverse the trend of not teaching critical thinking skills more in the classroom. It seems that special interests set the agenda these days. It would take a major crisis for anything to change.
Really made me think now. It's true that student these days lack the 'Real' problem solving skills.
To cite Randi, the fellow who gushed over Emily Rosa and endorsed the most obviously fraudulent article ever published in JAMA shows exactly where your idea of critical thinking lies - crowd mentality among a self-selected group of fellow skeptics.
Where exactly is Emily Rosa these days? Harvard, MIT, Cal Tech? None of the above. She is what she was at the age of 9 - a somewhat dull kid who did not understand what was done in her name.
But Randi and a lot of skeptics got it wrong. They failed to analyze the data on the web site and the article - Hell they even failed to notice that there were two different reports of the number of successes in the same 280 trials.
So, just as you managed to know the source of the Valedictorian's speech - assuming that you are correct and she was parroting what he said, rather than just having reached the same conclusions on her own which led her to his work, you have done the same exact thing.
Wallace Sampson? Wasn't he involved with that old skeptic rag from 2 decades ago? I am surprised Science Based Medicine didn't have Stephen Barrett on the editorial board. Remember him? Quackwatch.com and yet he lent his name to the Rosa article. Now there's a great example of critical thinking.
As an investor in Red Hat and as someone who really things critical thinking is important - I feel really uncomfortable with your brand of it being associated with Red Hat in any way.
Well, as someone who wrote five articles on Emily's article and attempted to get the authors to explain their results, I quickly realized that many self-described skeptics were all too willing to accept their preconceptions - which is precisely my point. In short, most skeptics confuse nay-saying with reason.
"Skeptics" around the world still cite Rosa to support their unreasoned biases, even as they extol the virtues of reason. I think my broader point is that the link you provided and your reference to Randi are part of the irrationality I try to dispel.
The Randi challenge is hogwash. Always has been, always will be. The challenge amounts to nothing other than an effort to trick people into making statements that Randi then uses to create situations in which his "victims" will fail.
One component of the pseudo-science involved is the use of multiple testing trials while claiming alpha and beta values that only apply to single trials.
The general path is at least three tests before Randi would be forced to validate his victim's work. At least one successful trial before you even get to Randi and at least two trials for Randi.
In the end, even if you compelled Randi to pay the money, which is never going happen, what have you accomplished? The next skeptic just moves to the head of the line and says: "Randi was a fool - He's wrong, prove it to me." They would be right - Because the Randi challenge is pseudo-science which is precisely why referring to it in an article on critical thinking is so outrageous.
I think it is fair to say that invoking Randi's parlor tricks and steering readers toward illusory notions of scientific medical practices vs unscientific medical practices is disingenuous in an article on critical thinking.
Yes, if health care providers in the US, Canada and Great Britain were actually applying "scientific medicine" in their day to day activities it might be reasonable - but the reality is that most health care providers in these three countries are not implementing science based medicine practices at all in their day to day activities.
Primary caregivers don't tailor antibiotic prescriptions to lab verified results, they write tens of millions of prescriptions for broad spectrum antibiotics in the hope that they will kill off their patient's infections and keep their patients from coming back.
Some patients suffer unnecessary side effects as a result of allopaths prescribing drugs under conditions that were never replicated in prior clinical trials. In essence, they are experimenting on their patients. But I rarely see fellow skeptics toss out all allopathic medicine and ridicule allopaths even though most allopaths fail to practice in accordance with the results of clinical trials. A dual standard for which I see no justification.
These same uncritical skeptics tend to be all too quick to jump on misstatements by handfuls of alternative health providers and assume they have sufficient grounds to toss out entire categories of alternative health interventions because a few practitioners misspoke or practiced in ways that are inconsistent with accepted practices.
True critical thinkers don't pick favorites - they apply the same critical analysis to all their examples.
Wallace Sampson as best I can recollect, having chatted with him at the time, was a member of the editorial board of the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine - a rightly discredited, fringe precursor to the journal you link to. SRAM gloried in disparaging everything and anything that those who leave their skepticism at the front step of mainstream allopathic medicine distrust.
Do I have to believe every crackpot alternative health provider's claims? No. But I also shouldn't fail to recognize when the virtues claimed by, and for, allopathic medicine are undeserved.
You could do a lot better in picking examples of critical thinking than comparing alternative and complementary health practices to "scientific medicine" and you most certainly ought not highlight Randi as an example of critical thinking.
You chose to write an article on critical thinking. You might have included a critique of the Randi Challenge and I'd have said "Bravo!". I think that opens you up to the observation that the article contains a lot of uncritical thinking that has been recycled by, and between, skeptics for more than two decades.
The current ideology is more about "how do I get people to follow" Critical Thinking slows down Ideological leaders. I question often inferred by many leaders, political, media, and managerial, is more about people following them, than going in the right direction. Current leader often believe they are right based on the fact that they are the leader. Whilst most of them are the leaders only because no one else wanted the job. If we developed more people who will think before they act, instead of act then suffer the consequence, then I believe we would start heading into a more successful future.
The rarest commodities on the planet are rational dialogue and self-doubt.
The articles I have written are, in general, indexed in Pubmed and available through links from there. The most thorough discussion was in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine in 2003.
You will find extensive references to the hocus pocus involved in the Randi Challenge in the Therapeutic Touch group on yahoogroups unless the rabidly nay-saying listserve manager has deleted them.
In general my experience with self-described skeptics is that they would come in, wax on about how sloppy TT practitioners and researchers were, and when I suggested that they analyze the Rosa data for themselves they would tell me that they didn't need to understand statistics to know the article was right.
Over time, they would slowly soften their resistance, but not a one of them ever admitted that they were wrong to have cited Rosa as an example of good research. They would just disappear one day, never to be heard from again. And, of course, in their wake there were always new, unschooled skeptics, to take their place.
I rarely feel as certain as most of them did. I assume I will make a lot of mistakes.
I assume that people will indeed pass through many different stages as they try on different world views. I don't see that as inherently anti-scientific or inherently uncritical. I am also, as a health care practitioner, very much aware that yesterday's dogma often loses out to tomorrow's facts.
Only sustained ignorance and clear efforts to gloss over one's own errors and inconsistencies really offends me.
The Rosa article was scientific misconduct not sloppy statistical analysis. Randi fell for it because, like so many skeptics, he wanted to believe the conclusions and perhaps because he does not understand science and statistics. I have my doubts about that though...
I think Randi is really bright and I think he knows the Challenge is hogwash. Randi relies on the gullibility of uncritical people and statistical misrepresentation is no different than any other parlor trick he might employ. The shame is that so many people confuse his parlor tricks with critical thinking.
The long term editor of JAMA fell for the Rosa article because he wanted to believe it too. He lost his job in part because of the lax standards that allowed the article to be published. Since 1998 the standards for authorship across the biomedical literature have been tightened significantly, in part because of the TT article in JAMA and an equally infamous article on Chiropractic in the New England Journal of Medicine. Yeah, that editor lost his job too. One step forward for critical thinking.
Interestingly enough, JAMA has never withdrawn the article though they certainly aren't citing it as their proudest moment. As a result, new generations of True Believer skeptics continue to cite the article when they should be analyzing the data and rejecting the author's conclusions.
Now, if Randi was running around testing the claims of innocence and ignorance of the people who caused the 2008 economic collapse, I'd be backing him to the hilt. But on the truly important areas in which we might apply critical thinking, he seems unduly silent.
change it. Please see Sr Ken Robinson videos @TED, and you will have the root cause of this problem.
Change the way we instruct kids. Learn the to create, and not to be afraid of mistakes.
Changing Education Paradigms - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U (Ken Robinson)
Thank you for your article.


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I am an east Tennessean, born and raised in and around the
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Meet our summer intern, Kayla Beth Moore
I am an east Tennessean, born and raised in and around the
4 comments:
- Rebecca Tolley-Stokes said...
When I read the blog's reference to you a few posts ago I was excited to learn more about you because I too am from east Tennessee (Johnson City), and I lived in Sitka for a year when I attended Sheldon Jackson. So I love reading what 49 writers are up to and look froward to living vicariously through your internship. Enjoy Alaska, and eat your fill of salmonberries!
- July 13, 2011 at 2:09 AM
- Andromeda Romano-Lax said...
Thank you Kayla, and welcome to Alaska! We hope you have a great experience here!
- July 13, 2011 at 2:12 PM
- Lynn Lovegreen said...
Welcome, Kayla! (Or is it Kayla Beth?) We'll enjoy borrowing your energy and talents for the summer! :-)
- July 13, 2011 at 9:22 PM
- Kayla Beth Moore said...
Thanks so much, everyone!
Rebecca-- That's wonderful! I'm a few hours south of you, Tellico Plains ring any bells? About an hour south of Knoxville.
Andromeda-- Thank you, thank you! I hope we get to meet while I'm here.
Lynn-- It is Kayla Beth (the tricky Southern, double name bit). I'm happy to share all the energy and bits of talent that I can!
- July 15, 2011 at 1:36 PM


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Parent Guide to Bullying
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Bullying is a main source of violence in school. Parents play a vital role in recognizing signs, supporting courage, and helping their child.
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Build confidence and understanding with these stories of strength, courage and acceptance.
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Use these books to start a conversation with your 6th-8th grader about bullies and bullying.
October is Bullying Prevention Month, so pick up one or more of these books now.
Whether you're hanging out or even having it out, there's nothing like friendship. These books explore what it means to be a good friend.
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Get involved to make sure your child knows the risks, as well as the rewards, of the Internet.
Help your child deal with bullies in the virtual world.


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California governor signed two bills for free, openly licensed digital textbooks
California passes groundbreaking open textbook legislation
It's official. In California, Governor Jerry Brown has signed two bills (SB 1052 and SB 1053) that will provide for the creation of free, openly licensed digital textbooks for the 50 most popular lower-division college courses offered by California colleges. The legislation was introduced by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and passed by the California Senate and Assembly in late August.
A crucial component of the California legislation is that the textbooks developed will be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY):
The textbooks and other materials are placed under a creative commons attribution license that allows others to use, distribute, and create derivative works based upon the digital material while still allowing the authors or creators to receive credit for their efforts.
The CC BY license allows teachers to tailor textbook content to students' needs, permits commercial companies to take the resources and build new products with it (such as video tutorials), and opens the doors for collaboration and improvement of the materials.
Access to affordable textbooks is extremely important for students, as textbook costs continue to rise at four times the rate of inflation, sometimes surpassing the cost of tuition at some community colleges. So, in addition to making the digital textbooks available to students free of cost, the legislation requires that print copies of textbooks will cost about $20.
This is a massive win for California, and a most welcome example of open policy that aims to leverage open licensing to save money for California families and support the needs of teachers and students. We'll continue to track this initiative and other Open Education Policies at our OER registry.
Originally published on creativecommons.org and republished using Creative Commons.
9 Comments
In 10 years something similar will happen in Brazil.
very innovative, hope something like that happens in zim
Curious idea to not license it -SA, I thought. That leaves room for quite a lot.
The textbook price inflation is very disturbing. Although books are imperative for school use, but should not be as expensive as the school because the school is the one that gives accreditation. I guess this is not that practical anymore.
It is good to see; but we are years behind the times.
Sounds great for the students but, who will write these texts? Will the state demand that the professors write them as part of their job? Barring that option, what is the incentive to the author to write a new text?
Some texts clearly could get done in roughly the manner that Wikipedia is done, although more specifically focused on particular subject matter. We don't need some rock star professor for a text on Physics 101, for instance. Recycling widely available knowledge is apropos. It is a question of who is willing to shoulder the gruntwork for the common good. State funding, private endowments, requirements of tenure, and simple volunteerism are all worthwhile options. No, the greedy free market that wants to saddle young people with as much debt as possible is not the only way to advance higher education. Many people don't seem to understand the importance of education to our national competitiveness, so Federal funding is reasonable to consider as well. For "commodity" knowledge, which seems to be what the law is primarily aiming at, a little cooperative effort could go a long way, much more efficient than the unrestricted gouging the free market advocates.
Public school texts are not purchased by students, they are usually provided by the school district for free. In that way, there is really no change for students (except that they will need ditigally-based access now). However, for the district, overall costs, updates to text editions, distribution, and storage create savings in processes and personnel that will more than offset in initial investment required by a change of this magnitude. The top 50 selling books for k-12 used in California are already available in digital formats--often with much richer compliment of companion web sites, links, etc. A decision at the state level in CA merely cements what the publishers know already, that fairly soon, if it ain't available as an e-book, it won't sell...
This isn't just about K-12. AFAIK college texts are *far* from free.


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ROCKFORD — SwedishAmerican Hospital has received a top rating for bypass surgery from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
SwedishAmerican Hospital received three stars, the society's highest rating. The STS database maintains a system for rating the quality of cardiac surgery among U.S. hospitals.
For information: swedishamerican.org.
Location, ST | website.com


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Friday, March 15, 2013
Each week, the Moultrie News and Mount Pleasant Recreation Department will feature one local lacrosse athlete. Nathan Kitchens, 10, plays attack for the Juggernauts No. 2 team.
The spotlight series began this past fall with a feature on Mount Pleasant Recreation Department football athletes.
Question: Who is your favorite lacrosse player?
Answer: My favorite lacrosse player is Paul Rabil. He plays for the Boston Cannons.
Question: If you could visit any city or country, where would you go?
Answer: Boston, because there are lots of sports teams there I would like to see.
Question: What is the best moment in your athletic career?
Answer: My best moment was in my first lacrosse game when I got an assist.
Question: What is your favorite Mount Pleasant restaurant?
Answer: Sticky Fingers – I love the ribs.
Question: If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?
Answer: I would be Paul Rabil – he's my role model.
Question: What is the best advice you have gotten from a coach?
Answer: Work hard, play hard and have fun.
Question: What do you look forward to the most about being an adult?
Answer: Having my own car – I want a Lamborghini.
Question: What do you think is the most difficult and most fun position to play in lacrosse?
Answer: Most difficult: midi because you have to run so much. Most fun: attack because you can score goals.
Question: What is your favorite movie and television show?
Answer: Movie: "Batman the Dark Knight." TV Show: "Sponge Bob."
Question: If you could have dinner with any three people, who would you choose?
Answer: Paul Rabil, Kenny Shaw and the guy who plays Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory.
© 2016 Moultrie News an Evening Post Industries company. All Rights Reserved.
Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Parental Consent Form.


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AND WE'VE GOT POSTERS TOO... it's a pop-punk poster riot! Starring Neck Deep, A Day To Remember, All Time Low, Green Day, State Champs and blink-182.
All of that and LOADS more is crushed into this week's issue of Kerrang!, on sale January 8.
Check it out at Kerrang.com :HERE


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The park is divided into three diverse levels of difficulty, one of which presenting tiny tots from four years on an exciting challenge. Making your way throughout the whole of the park requires approximately 2.5 hours.
- Children's Parcour: from 4 years on
- Green Parcour: from 7 years on
- Grand Parcour: from 14 years on
Price reductions for groups (minimum 10 persons) by booking in advance.
SBB RailAway leisure shop
Combined offer: journey using public transport and leisure offer (also for existing tickets) to Suspension Rope Park of the Monte Tamaro


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Discover the adventure of color. Create unique paint color palettes for your home. Keep pace with the latest trends and styles
Let us show you how to incorporate Benjamin Moore colors into your life. The only limit is your imagination.
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To the Editor:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
… Maybe not the world this time, but certainly the grounds of the Tomahawk School District. "A small group of thoughtful, committed" fifth graders have decided to take on the issue of tobacco use on school property. The fifth grade Leadership Team has written to the Department of Public Instruction for a mini-grant to help "get the word out" that tobacco use on school property is illegal. Yes, it is a problem. The students did a preliminary survey/clean-up of cigarette butts in front of the main doors of each of the buildings and they were astounded to find more proof than they needed to verify that people must not realize that tobacco use on school property is illegal. They plan to write letters to the editor over the next few weeks and create in-school publicity to help educate Tomahawk citizens. If they receive the grant they will be adding new signage to the property, and creating ads for the paper and radio. If you believe in their efforts, words of encouragement to the team would let them know that their efforts are appreciated. Perhaps they can make a change in a long, on-going problem. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can …"
Cathleen L. Schmit
LEAP Resource Teacher
Tomahawk Elementary School
(Editor's note: The next letter is the first in a series of student-written pleas to address the issue of tobacco products on the Tomahawk School District grounds. The students appeared before the School Board Tuesday night and received full approval to take the issue to the Common Council. We'll be following the topic and the student campaign closely. Your support and ideas are appreciated.)


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Top Definition
A pun combining the chemistry term Diastereomer and disaster;it is used to describe a person with excessive knowledge in chemistry. A chemistry know-it-all.
"I hear your friend aced that chem exam; for all intensive purposes he's a total disastereomer."
de Scomandy Van Shlervin 07 Martie 2009
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Moving down the access line
Senate Bill 103 would give tax credit to CSX for Brunswick Line's use of tracks in W.Va.
April 3, 2013
MARTINSBURG — Senate Bill 103, the Commuter Rail Access Act, sponsored by state Se....
By NOT driving to Brunswick, we are helping the village. Think of all that pollution we don't have with 600 cars driving to Brunswick and back home again five days out of seven. Don't you have a better argument?
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The senator is trying to help out working families. These people have to commute to work, something you actively choose not to do by claiming to be disabled. If only someone could like your anonymous "Majoritarian" with your actual mug and report you to SSA, because we know you are entirely capable of working.
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Top Definition
An affectionate name for the Nintendo Wii console. It is commonly used as a noun. It is also more commonly used by women than men. It is also mainly used by people in their pre-teens and early teens.
I will go and play my Wiity.
Carmelator tərəfindən 30 İyun 2008
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Top Definition
Attendees of a Mardi Gras parade that collect the dirty beads dropped by other parade go-ers. They are often voracious, nasty, sneaky, and annoying in getting these leftover beads.
Hey! Look at that nasty bead rat hoarding all the beads from the piss-lined street!
por Beat Rat Extraordinaire 03 de Fevereiro de 2013
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on March 26, 2013 - 8:44 PM
LOCKPORT – The past caught up with Keith R. Smith this week.
Smith, 55, of Ganson Street, North Tonawanda, appeared Tuesday in Niagara County Court to answer a warrant for violating probation – in 1988.
He was taken into custody earlier this week after having moved back to North Tonawanda seven months ago. Smith, who said he had been living in Wisconsin, was given until April 4 to hire a lawyer and was held on $1,000 bail in the meantime.
Assistant Public Defender Ryan Hanna, who stood in for the arraignment, said Smith had been working in construction.
He was placed on three years' probation by County Judge Aldo DiFlorio July 9, 1986, after a conviction for fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and menacing. A charge that Smith had absconded was filed Aug. 1, 1988.
Assistant District Attorney Theresa L. Prezioso said she could offer no information about his original crime because the files have long since been destroyed.


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Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan on Wednesday unsealed two memos written by a former city detective implying that top Altoona Police Department officials wanted to cover up a Memorial Day 2010 bar assault by off-duty patrolmen.
Police Chief Janice Freehling on Wednesday afternoon said the memos written by Craig Zahradnik were his "fairy tale version" of what happened.
And Detective Sgt. Ben Jones produced an email on Wednesday from a deputy attorney general in which she stated she believed that Zahradnik had an "axe to grind" and lacked credibility.
Freehling said that within two days of the incident at Pellegrine's Lounge in 2010, she had contacted now state police Maj. Timothy Mercer and asked that state police take over the investigation, which they did.
Cpl. Joseph Cigich of the Rockview barracks was assigned, and after a statewide grand jury investigation, former Altoona officers Duane Eichenlaub and Eric Kriner were charged with assault and with playing a role in getting colleagues to leave their names out of an official police report.
The case took 32 months to resolve; four officers lost their jobs; and the Altoona Police Department received a "black eye" that rankles Freehling, Deputy Chief Robert Seymore, Detective Anthony Alianiello, who is in charge of the city's detective division, and Jones, who did the department's internal investigation.
Kriner entered guilty pleas to simple assault and obstruction of justice in December, and Eichenlaub was found guilty in January of aggravated assault, two counts of simple assault, conspiracy to hinder a police investigation, tampering with public records and obstruction of the administration of justice.
Kriner will be sentenced in March and Eichenlaub in April.
"You don't expect to have officers exhibit this type of behavior on duty or off duty. We put our trust in officers to do the right thing, not assault the public," she said.
But she and the other top police officials said they did not cover up the Pellegrine's brawl, they took action internally and they cooperated with state police.
A July 18, 2011, memo that Zahradnik sent to Cigich contends he was told not to talk to anyone about the bar brawl and police involvement in it and was told if he did, it would be a "career-ender."
He concluded that memo by stating that Freehling stopped him as he entered a room in the police department and told him: "Craig this [the Pellegrine's brawl] is bad enough and it's gonna cost the City enough money, I'm giving the State what I am giving them and that's it, we're not helping them anymore, if they figure it out on there [sic] own then so be it."
"It's absolutely not true " Freehling said, explaining she never made such a statement.
To show that city police continued to cooperate with state police on the investigation, Jones on Wednesday produced an inch-thick packet of emails between he and Cigich and he and the Attorney General's Office.
He then produced a email dated Sept. 7, 2011, two months after the Zahradnik memo, in which he discussed the Pellegrine case with Deputy Attorney General Jonelle H. Eshbach, who was part of the investigation.
Jones commented in his email, "I understand that Craig Zahradnik has been making noise about us as a department being complicit in some type of cover-up as well."
Jones wrote, "I am willing to sit down and talk to you about that if need be, because those assertions are absurd at best!"
While the two were communicating about the details of investigation, which Jones did not want released, he, with Freehling's approval, produced Esbach's assessment of the Zahradnik memo.
Eshbach, who was on the team that prosecuted Jerry Sandusky last year, concluded, "As far as Zahradnik, I don't believe him. I understand he will want to get with whichever camp[s] will listen to him and try to attack your department but obviously he has an axe to grind and I don't give him any credibility at this point. You guys did what you had to do; you were cooperative and on the level. I have nothing that leads me to conclude otherwise."
The "axe to grind" that Eshbach referred to involved Zahradnik's domestic problems and his retirement from the city police department, a subject that police officials would not address Wednesday.
According to Mirror records, Zahradnik had been investigated for terroristic threats in 2010 in connection with reported threats against a male friend of his then estranged wife.
Last September, he was charged with stalking his now former wife, court records show. The stalking incident received a great deal of publicity in October, and Zahradnik is awaiting disposition of the charges in the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.
Kriner's attorney, Roger R. Laguna Jr., discovered the Zahradnik memos as he was preparing for Kriner's trial last year. He indicated to Judge Sullivan he intended to introduce the memos, which include Zahradnik's initial investigation of the Pellegrine case and the communication with Cigich, to show that Kriner was the victim of "selective prosecution" and that others - the police department's top echelon - had covered up also.
Sullivan ruled the memos were not relevant to the charges that the officers had beaten Herman "Bo" Lardieri and Earl P. Eshelman, a man who came to Lardieri's aid in the men's restroom of Pellegrine's.
Lardieri allegedly had touched Eichenlaub's wife inappropriately while in the bar area prior to the restroom brawl.
Lardieri was convicted last year of lying to a statewide grand jury about the incident and is serving a state prison sentence.
Sullivan sealed the memos, he said, to protect the rights of Kriner and Eichenlaub to a fair trial.
At the request of the Altoona Mirror - and after consulting with Kriner's and Eichenlaub's attorneys - he unsealed the memos Wednesday morning.
In the memo to Cigich, Zahradnik related conversations he allegedly he had with Freehling, Seymore, Alianiello, Jones and others.
The implication there was a cover-up in stemmed from several comments:
Freehling said the incident report was not placed in the computer system because within a day of the fracas state police were involved and the reports went to the state.
Alianiello denied Zahradnik's statements attributed to him and said as soon as he found out here might be city police officer involvement, he went to Freehling who called state police.
Freehling said she never made any statements about the financial costs that the city may incur because of the brawl.
"We were concerned about the behavior of off-duty officers and what may have happened, not lawsuits," Freehling said.
The four officers that addressed the Zahradnik memos have 127 years of police experience, Alianiello, 43 years, Freehling, 37, Seymore, 33, and Jones, 14.
The were all angry Wednesday upon reading the unsealed documents for the first time.
Seymore was upset at the damage he said has been done to the department by the Pellegrine situation. Alianiello said he has given his life to the department.
"Everyone in this room is honest, and if someone has done something wrong, we are not going to cover it up," said Freehling.
Zahradnik could not be reached Wednesday. Kriner's attorney was ill Wednesday.
Eichenlaub's attorney, Lawrence Rosen of Harrisburg, said he didn't believe the outcome of his client's case would have been affected even if the memos were available to the defense.
"We did look at it, but we just thought it was not helpful in the long run," he said.
Cigich referred any statements to the Attorney General's Office.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.


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From his invitation to the USA team tryouts to the Cincinnati Reds Area Code team to his invitation to "play up" at a juniors prospect camp at Stanford, Incline sophomore Tommy Dolan is getting into baseball's seldom seen and relatively unknown stratospheres.
Dolan recently was asked to accept a position on the Tampa Bay Rays "scout team."
"It wasn't even a tryout," Dolan explained. "They just said that they wanted me on the team and that they would like me to join them at their new facility in Reno. It's pretty cool because they don't have fees like travel ball because the team is sponsored by the Rays."
Dolan is the youngest player on the team, which is made up of mostly high school seniors and juniors from Northern California and Nevada. Some of the seniors will commit to schools such as LSU, Alabama and other "Top 25" colleges in the country.
The team's manager, Pat Flury, is also the head pitching coach at the University of Nevada, Reno. Upon meeting Dolan, Flury said that he "knows every pitch Tom throws, how fast, and what happens to it on the way to the plate," adding that he'd been given Dolan's profile by a Tampa Bay Rays scout who had seen Dolan at the "Area Codes" in Las Vegas in June.
This past Sunday, the team went to play the Mariners scout team at St. Mary's college in Moraga Calif. — the team plays a doubleheader each Sunday for the next eight weeks. They will also play the Giants scout team, the Dodgers scout team and a college team or two.
Dolan pitched two scoreless innings. In the first game, he was brought in to close an inning and forced a ground out in three pitches. The next inning he had two strikeouts and another throw-out at home.
Dolan worked with and was scouted by the Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks, along with top universities in the West.
"We are going to treat this just like the minors, from warm-up to batting practice, all facets of the game," said Bam Bam, the scout/coach for the Rays scout team.
"Playing against the top players in the nation and talking with and learning from professional scouts is a great experience," Dolan said. "I am trying to learn as much as I can to help me in my future."
At bat, Dolan was welcomed with a 95 mph fastball, a slider and curveball. His next at-bat as the designated hitter, he ripped one back at the pitcher, who sent him back to the pine for a second time.
"It is just exciting to actually stand in the box knowing that what I'm seeing is the closest thing to college and pro ball that there is," Dolan said. "I've got to work hard on my game, but I do have three years before even being eligible."
When asked about Tom's age coach Flury said, "That's what we like," Flury said. "We get three years of Tommy on the team, when normally we only have a kid for one."
The Rays scout team plays the Dodgers scout team at UNR's Peccole Park on Sept. 16, with the first game at 11 a.m.


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The objective of UNCTAD's work on competition and consumer policies is to ensure that partner countries enjoy the benefits of increased competition, open and contestable markets, private sector investment in key sectors and ultimately that consumers achieve improved welfare.
The Competition and Consumer Policies Programme services the Intergovernmental Group of Experts (IGE) on Competition Law and Policy and the Ad-hoc Expert Group meeting on Consumer protection policies annually, undertakes competition policy peer reviews, publishes the UNCTAD Model law on competition and the Handbook on competition legislation and implements sector specific and economy-wide competition and consumer policies reforms that create a level playing field amongst companies and consumers, increasing the effectiveness of antitrust and consumer protection policies.
The highest intergovernmental body is the United Nations review Conferences to Review the Set on Competition policy which is held every five years.
The Research Partnership Platform work stream are circulated and feed into to the IGE and inform their discussions.
This year's meeting of the Working Group on Trade and Competition of Latin America underscored the importance of competition policy to ensure that consumers draw the maximum benefits from trade.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
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The process is one-on-one and includes a private feedback reading which is given from a universal/spiritual viewpoint and is meant to illuminate purpose and direction.
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*Personal Mandala Readings is a trademark of Renate C. Hume.
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The current issue of Catalyst, the newsletter of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, lists several myths regarding priestly sexual abuse, myths that the media repeat ad infinitum:
. . . . . . . . . .
Myth: Children have been the main victims of priestly sexual abuse.
Fact: Since more...


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If you're building a new home, remodeling your kitchen or looking to replace an outdated built-in appliance, an undercounter or built-in wine refrigerator is a fantastic home upgrade.
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Snake Eyes gaming club members lean over a patchy green terrain filled with dozens of painted "Warhammer 40,000" miniatures.
As the scenario unfolds, the technologically superior Tau Empire is attempting to expel the Chaos worshippers from their planet. One player picks up a dozen green dice and rolls to decide whether his next strike will wound or kill his opponents.
Dozens of loyal gamers and cult-movie fanatics gathered Friday night at the second annual Sci-Fi Valley Con at the Jaffa Shrine Center.
Article Photos
Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Tyler Mentzer (right) of Hollidaysburg demonstrated the Warhammer 40,000 table top game with Dr. William Olstein of Huntingdon during the second annual Sci-Fi Valley Con at the Jaffa Shrine Center on Friday. The convention runs through Sunday.
Event promoter Casey Bassett said even though Fridays are usually slower, this year's crowd was bigger than the last and he nearly doubled the number of vendors and artists who signed up to attend.
"A lot of people are even coming in late tonight," Bassett said Friday, and with the weekend and today's costume contest approaching, he's expecting a packed house.
The Hungarian Wand Shop's Greg Laslo, sporting a Dumbledore's Army T-shirt, was selling Harry Potter wands and said even six years after the final book and two years after the last movie installment, the market for all things wizard still is strong.
His handcrafted wooden wands sell for between $18 and $24, although custom orders with exotic wood or more intricate designs sell for more.
"Each one is an original," he said, cut from a wooden block before he sands and paints it.
Compare that with $30 mass-produced plastic wands sold at The Wizard World of Harry Potter park at Universal Studios, he said.
Nearby Rebecca Miller and Allie O'Neal of the Geek Girl project were selling hair accessories, colorful dice bags and starter kits for new Dungeons and Dragons dungeon masters, as well as do-it-yourself zombie kits in miniature cardboard Necronomicon boxes.
Miller said she couldn't be happier with the venue and turnout, saying that last year's wrestling events, which now are being held on the Jaffa's first level, drowned out customers.
The project bills itself as "everything girl, everything geek," Miller said, and the website's editors and writers do everything from videogame and TV reviews to maintaining a Pinterest page for crafty and healthy geeks, she said.
O'Neal, who runs the Pinterest page, said even though the group is only a year old, it is branching out across the country and that the two are the only Geek Girls on the East Coast.
Hungry gamers feasted their eyes and filled their stomachs on treats baked by Toni Illuzzi of Johnstown's Custom Cakes and Cookies.
Donning alien ears and Star Trek T-shirts, Illuzzi's sister, Terry Penna, and friends sold cupcakes decorated to look like brains, peanut butter buckeye eyeballs and UFO gobs, among others.
Penna said her sister attended Sci-Fi Valley Con last year and has since been brainstorming news ways to liven up the desserts and rotate them based on what's new and popular.
Last year there were more Harry Potter and Twilight themed treats, she said, but this year's big seller is Dr. Who.
Bassett said he couldn't be happier with the event and the star appearances, including "Clerks" actor Brian O'Halloran and the 1966 Batmobile.
Bassett said he's already planning for 2014.
"I'm trying to get a DeLorean for next year," he said, smiling.
Mirror Staff Writer Kelly Cernetich is at 946-7520.


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6 Kids Movies Clearly Made by People Who Hate Children
#6. Mac and Me
Synopsis: A family of aliens that resemble Khloe Kardashian after an unhealthy fast run afoul of a NASA probe. They get sucked in by $5 special effects and wind up on Earth, where the youngest escapes and ends up with a family of people who should be ashamed. One of them is in a wheelchair, as presumably his legs and spine gave out under the weight of bullshit he was saddled with in this terrible film.
The remainder of the plot is E.T. devoid of any wit or charm, which was skillfully replaced with something that makes you want to lunge face first at your own television so you can literally bite down on the awful and tear its soul out with your teeth.
Selling Point for Kids: What do kids these days like? Fuckin' McDonald's and Skittles. Oh, and maybe ugly little Progeria Muppets that look like ball sacks.
Hatred on Display: Product placement is standard in films these days, but few movies ever hit the shameless depths of pandering for cash that Mac and Me achieved. Even Castaway didn't suck FedEx's dick as much as this little Mongoloid alien full throats on Coca-Cola's generous shlong. No one made this movie for kids to enjoy, they made it to get money from the most uninspired corporate sponsorship ever. The fact that there isn't a scene when Coca-Cola and a Big Mac literally join forces to thwart the bad guys only means it was probably cut in post production to allow for more shots of Skittles.
There's a scene in this movie in which Ronald McDonald is part of a choreographed dance number inside a McDonald's. It's literally four minutes long.
If you watched that, you just lost a year off of your life.
#5. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
Synopsis: In a sequel to the first movie you never saw, four babies who can talk to each other and have all the worldly knowledge and skill of adults team up with a baby superhero to destroy Jon Voight's career.
Selling Point for Kids: Babies who can talk! Oh my God, it's so novel, why didn't anyone think of it sooner? I mean, anyone who wasn't involved in Look Who's Talking or Look Who's Talking Too. Anytime something talks that isn't supposed to talk, that's great! Ask a talking dildo.
Hatred on Display: I spent 15 minutes staring at the draft of this article in Word trying to think of a way to describe the scene I'm embedding. It features a cameo by Whoopi Goldberg and O-Town. Every time I started to make a joke, I got choked up, like when you see those terrible commercials with the Sarah McLachlan song and all the abused dogs. This scene is the most abused dog in this Sarah McLachlan song. It's so fucking ruined, it doesn't even know what's wrong. It wants to be loved for just a moment, and all you can do is wipe the tears from your eyes while you tell the vet it needs to be put down.
This is how you appeal to kids? I don't give a shit what year this movie was made in, if all you can scrounge up is a cameo by Whoopi Goldberg and O-Town, your movie is bullshit. Wrong, damaged bullshit.
#4. Doogal
Synopsis: A British cartoon series about a dog that looks like an extremely ugly child with mumps is made into a film about the same ugly dog. The dog releases an evil wizard from a merry-go-round and must stop him from preventing my brain from knowing how to finish this sentence because I can't give a shit on a genetic level about how the plot of this turd developed or was resolved.
Selling Point for Kids: What's not to love? The voice talents of Jon Stewart, Chevy Chase, and Whoopi Goldberg, plus fart jokes, a jack in the box, and a merry-go-round? Kids still love toys from 100 years ago, right? Yeah, probably.
If ancient toys and unnecessary fart jokes don't appeal to kids, take solace in the knowledge that the ugliest cartoon designs in recent memory pepper this film and the ensuing nightmares following its viewing. Why does everyone have the swollen face of a guy who watches movies in the back room of an adult theater? No one knows.
Hatred on Display: Inexplicably, this movie performed well in Europe. Well, actually it can be explained. Europe got the original cut. American children, who movie studios traditionally believe are one step up the evolutionary ladder from drunken orangutans, were believed to be unable to handle this movie in its original format, so it was redubbed by American actors and fart jokes that weren't funny were added in. See, because in America, all anyone understands is farting and the nuanced humor of Larry the Cable Guy. It's why Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, because studios are convinced you're one retarded spasm away from flopping into a river and drowning because the mittens pinned to your coat caught on a log at all times.


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Tucker County cruises past Bulldogs, 67-44
February 20, 2013
By Andrew Davis Staff Writer MILL CREEK — Ian Nichols and Tyler Snyder had 20 points each to lead Class A, No. 3 Tucker County past Tygarts Valley 67-44 Tuesday In Potomac Valley Conference action....
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