text:
If you have to watch a documentary, watch The House I Live In.
P.S. It's on Netflix!
If you have to watch a documentary, watch The House I Live In.
P.S. It's on Netflix!
Probably the most perfect rock song I've ever heard with a female singer. Just a perfect blend of pop and grungy alt-rock.
(I'm pretty sure this is just a fan-made video. Not official.)
I don't know why I'm doing this. While skimming Vulture.com, I noticed an article mentioning this movie. Apparently they did some kind of review of this movie, but I didn't read it. I thought I'd do one myself!
0.00 Setting of movie: well-to-do though non-descript suburb of California.
0.25 Literally the first thing the audience is confronted with in this film is an up-close of the main character's underwear and his (slightly) bulging crotch. The first lines are a voice-over of him saying "I am so fucked." My expectations for this movie are the same.
1.20 One minute and twenty seconds in and the movie has already revealed a classic movie cliche: the drunk mother.
1.54 Main character discovers his mother unconscious on her couch, surrounded by a bottle of pills and bottles of alcohol. Christ, this is not very wholesome. Isn't Selena Gomez like some Disney foot-soldier?
3.00 After mother is taken away in ambulance (not dead, yay!), main character (the son) discovers written in his mother's suicide note that she is aware that her son has been sleeping with his best friend's mom, who is also a friend of the mother. Can't tell if this is the reason she attempted suicide. But the movie doesn't dwell on it either, and she's carted off without much fanfare. Did I mention that the son is completely non-plussed during this entire thing?
4.00 Main character keeps breaking the fourth wall to explain plot points. My hopes for this film continue to diminish.
4.23 The audience is taken back to two weeks prior before this incident. We're treated to another rather disappointing crotch-shot.
5.00 We discover that the mom's name is Lucy.
5.27 During breakfast at the family's home, we're now introduced to the family, who all solidly flaunt their cliches. The mother is a forgetful alcoholic, the daughter is a sarcastic and slutty partygoer, the older brother (Steven) is a dimwitted ape, and the main character is the whiny misunderstood son.
6.52 The son (still don't know his name) finally encounters the dad sneaking around outside the house. We are told that, apparently, the only reason the dad has not divorced the mom is because he can't afford it. So instead he sneaks around and has affairs with secretaries. In very snarky, fast movie banter, the two discuss how the son has discovered one of his dad's sex tapes with one of these women. Again, none of this makes either character uncomfortable.
6.55 Three thing: 1) The main character does not call his father "dad," but instead by his first name, "Joseph." 2) Maybe this is an indication of how distant or casual their relationship is, because he then politely asks his father please not to leave any semen on the camera tripod again when he's done with it. 3) Every scene in this movie thus far has been packed to the brim with filthy, filthy content, as well as that typical movie dialogue in which everyone has a snarky line loaded in the chamber, and these quips are traded with lightning speed.
7.15 Wow, we now have our first full frontal nudity shot. Did not see that one coming. It's of a girl working a pole in a strip joint. It's also where the sister (Kristen) works. As a stripper.
7.25 More boobs.
7.30 I've lost track of the plot at this point. The main character has been tasked with running an errand for some coke-snorting macho dude at the strip club. He sends the main character to the apartment of a trashy looking woman (named –wait for it- "Cherish"), who promptly offers to blow the main character if he tells her how to get her stomach pumped. To recap: literally every single every woman in this film so far is either 1) an alcoholic; 2) a stripper; 3) an alcoholic stripper; or 4) in the ICU for being an alcoholic.
8.00 Main character does not tell Cherish how to get her stomach pumped, but she proceeds to blow him anyway. To arouse him, she takes off her shirt, revealing her silicone chest. Even more incredibly, the movie shamelessly replays the moment she takes off her shirt over and over, for no apparent reason other than to arouse the audience.
8.07 I remain flaccid.
8.39 I finally discover the main character's name: Ricky. He runs to his best friend Billy's house, and his greeted at the door by Mrs. Bender, Billy's mother. She is wearing a glaringly low-cut black dress and holding (can you guess?!) a glass of wine.
9.00 After an awkward exchange, Ricky asks if Billy is home, and Mrs. Bender indicates that he is probably up in his room masturbating. I am now classifying this movie as science fiction, because none of these characters act or talk like real people. I am also becoming suspicious that this movie was a massive prank by Selena Gomez to punk the several dozen people who watched this film into wasting 90 minutes of their life.
9.02 I realize that the Selena Gomez character has yet to make a genuine appearance, besides as a shimmering, sexual figure of Ricky's fantasies.
9.14 Ricky bursts into Billy's room to discover Billy Bender, pants around his ankles, beating off to a Human Sexuality textbook. Nothing in this film surprises me anymore.
9.15 This reminds me of how my college sophomore year roommate -a fantastically conservative Christian kid from South Korea- had to take a Human Sexuality course. If I remember correctly, I recall being surprised when he told me how much he was enjoying the class, saying it was "very interesting." His grades were always pretty bad, and eventually he left SU and returned to Korea to complete his military service there. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to him. Is he gearing up to defend the homeland from Kim Jong-un? Does he still have a personal relationship with Jesus? Does he cry tears of shame when he yanks it?
9.30 We now know what Billy's o-face looks like, and we have to endure a painfully long scene of him cleaning up. All in all, Ricky takes the whole scene quite well.
10.50 Billy's mom sends Billy off to the store to buy more cigarettes, but forces Ricky to stay, clearly hoping to seduce him.
11.30 Mrs. Bender proceeds to seduce Ricky on the couch. She offers to help Ricky get better with his sexual abilities by offering to be his "teacher" in this area. This all goes off without a hitch.
13.00 Mrs. Bender and Ricky have sex. (Unseen by the viewer.)
13.01 What are California's laws, because I'm pretty sure this would be statutory rape in New York state.
14.00 Ricky, realizing the next day what he has done, imagines how every other character in the movie would react upon discovering his transgression. When we get to Selena Gomez, she says "You're a mother fucker, Ricky Stevens, I will never be your girlfriend."
14.20 I now find Selena Gomez even more wildly unattractive than I did before watching this film.
15.30 At school, Ricky announces to Billy that he's going to ask out Nina (Selena Gomez). This is overheard by another boy, who reminds me of a more sinister version of Brainy from Hey Arnold! This boy, named Karlis, looks like a newsboy from the 1900s, and acts like the kind of person who builds pipebombs and enjoys smelling used panties. He challenges Ricky, on the wager of $1000, that he cannot nail Selena Gomez in two weeks. For reasons beyond anyone, Ricky accepts. I guess this is supposed to pass as the major subplot of the film.
15.41 We learn that Karlis is the son of a mobster. Will they do a spin-off movie featuring Karlis? I would watch that.
17.50 Ricky walks through the hallway of his school and witnesses Selena Gomez as she (for reasons not made clear) promptly breaks up with her slack-jawed boyfriend, Kevin, who shouts "Bitch!" as she stomps off.
18.00 The primary characters (Ricky, Karlis, Billy, Gomez) are sitting in Latin class. Their geriatric teacher tries to get Ricky to conjugate a verb before -and I can still hardly believe it- suddenly having from a heart attack, collapsing, and dying right there in the front of the classroom. From all my deductive reasoning, I have yet for the life of me to understand the purpose of this scene in the film.
19.00 Never mind, the point of his death was to allow classes to be cancelled for the rest of the day, which opens up an opportunity for Ricky to approach Gomez for some flirting. I am glad that old man died with purpose.
20.00 Ricky asks Gomez if she would like to attend the funeral with him. I suppose this is now considered an appropriate place to take a date.
20.05 I have decided that I will now being asking girls to be my +1 to all wakes and/or burials in the future.
21.00 Selena Gomez has a very round face, with puffy cheeks, big wet eyes, and tan skin. Perhaps she is really an Ewok.
25.00 A new sublot emerges in which Ricky, hoping to impress Gomez the Ewok, tells her that he likes Josh Groban. Amazingly, there is a Josh Groban concert the following day, forcing Ricky to scramble about trying to get tickets. Or something. At this point my eyes have mostly glazed over and my testicles have fully retreated back into my body.
20.00 Oh, one more thing: Selena Gomez's character is a highly prude Christian girl who aspires to be a priest (I'm not making this up.) Obviously, this throws a wrench in Ricky's plan to take her to pound-town.
20.35 Selena Gomez is not a very good actor.
32.00 Here's a challenge. See if you can decide which of these are real plot points in this movie:
A) Ricky and Billy discover that their fathers both enjoy engaging in leather-clad BDSM together in a seedy motel room with their neighbors. Ricky and Billy decide to surprise them and photograph them in their BDSM costumes.
B) The actor who played David Puddy in Seinfeld is the principal of the school, and selects a feeble old Catholic nun to replace the dead Latin teacher. This nun also has narcolepsy and falls asleep at her desk. She briefly wakes up before losing consciousness again. However, this time, it's because she has died.
C) Principal Puddy has an extensive collection of photos from the girl's bathroom. Ricky and Billy discover these pictures and blackmail him in order to get out of trouble.
D) Ricky somehow manages to get a crooked car dealer to loan him an Aston Martin. Later, while driving it, Ricky is pulled over, and told by the police officer that the car formerly belonged to an infamous Lithuanian mobster. Then, at the police station, Ricky is questioned by the chief of police, played by Gary Busey, who reveals to Ricky that the aforementioned mobster was discovered tied up and dead in the trunk of the convertible.
E) As Ricky and Billy attempt to turn their house into a makeshift strip-joint/brothel full of strippers in order to make some fast cash, Mrs. Bender promptly crashes the party and attempts to force herself on Ricky. She then proceeds to masturbate with an electric whisk. Then Billy walks in and sees his mother doing this. Then she attempts to seduce Billy -her own son- by licking his face.
F) Ricky's sister is accepted to Stanford University.**
49.47 I learn that Ricky is 17 years old. The age of consent in New York State is 17. So I think we're good on the earlier statutory rape point. Thank goodness, for a second there I almost thought this movie's plot was incoherent and disgusting.
50.01 I realize I have made a mistake. This movie was definitely not filmed in New York. After doing some fact-checking, I learn it was indeed filmed in California. California's penal code defines statutory rape as someone who is not a minor having sex with someone who is a minor (in CA, defined as younger than 18). Therefore, the plot of this film rests on repeated instances of statutory rape (it is implied that Ricky and Mrs. Bender have sex repeatedly in the film). Which, you know, is kinda icky.
50.02 Upon further snooping, I learn that this film took 20 days to complete filming. I then surmise that it took the writers about 20 minutes to establish a working script.
51.34 The only redeeming scene of the movie thus far: M83's "Midnight City" plays while Ricky drives his Aston Martin. This scene is then ruined by Ricky's babbling blonde lawyer (not important) who is riding alongside him in the car, and has swallowed a handful of ecstasy pills, thinking them aspirin.
60.44 Selena Gomez is a horrible actor.
60.57 This movie would have been considerably better if they had replaced Selena Gomez with an actual Ewok.
64.18 I'm going to walk away from the movie as it plays for several minutes and see if it affects how I feel about the film.
67.12 I've returned to witness a scene in which the party/brothel has been broken up and, amid the chaos, a greasy looking Italian man has been struck and killed by a live electrical wire from a telephone pole.
67.35 A profound depression overtakes me, though I try to remain optimistic as I am now two-thirds done with my masochistic experiment.
70.09 For some reason, everyone but Ricky is in jail. Selena is in jail, too. I wish she'd stay there.
73.21 This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen. I feel that I am now mentally prepared, should I have to, to watch Scarlett Johansson in Lucy.
76.22 Most of the men (and some of the women) in this movie are getting crabs.
77.22 I've lost track of the number of prison rape jokes.
79.43 Ricky goes to the hospital to see his mother. Upon getting to her room, a Jamaican nurse tells him that he is too late, and that she has already died. The actor playing Ricky does a horrible attempt at what appears to be crying. Either that, or the writers purposefully wrote for him to act only mildly discomforted by the death of his mother. I think we all know which is more likely.
81.10 We discover that Ricky had went to the wrong hospital bed, and that his mother is in fact still alive. *sigh*
83.45 Ricky meets with his bosomy blonde lawyer (don't worry, it's an irrelevant plot point), who received her degree from Stanford. She then not-subtly implies that butt-sex and chlamydia are rampant at Stanford. Can anyone confirm this?
87.22 We come to what I hope is the conclusion of the film. Ricky leaves the hospital, his family salvaged and now accepting of each others' differences. Out on the street, Ricky walks in front of a truck carrying caged chickens, causing the cages to spill into the street. Selena Gomez then comes out of nowhere. Amid the raining feathers, he then pronounces his love to the Ewok, and they kiss triumphantly. Fin.
90.00 Cut to credits. We learn that this film was based upon the book "While I'm Dead…Feed the Dog". While I've never been a supporter of book burning, I am reconsidering it.
Bonus: After more snooping, I've learned that the author of the original novel as disavowed this film for having gone against the source material of the book. It makes you wonder why the screenwriters of this film didn't just stick to the original plot of the book. In fact, the producers of this film could have just spliced the Ewok scenes from Return of the Jedi with any B-level porno movie and have made something better than this steaming piece of tripe.
*Apparently, Justin Bieber makes a brief cameo in this movie as a prisoner, during the jail scene. However, his scene must have occurred while I had briefly walked away from my computer. Disappointed at not having seen this, I compensated for this by looking at a picture of Justin Bieber's actual mug shot.
**Trick question: these are all actual plot points in the movie.
Week 2 with no distinction between days
Whoa now! First day to register for the Summer Reading Program!
Did you know that libraries throw out books? Like, a lot of books. If a book goes several months without being checked out, it gets withdrawn from the system. Then we'll try to sell it for a buck. And if that doesn't happen, then it's off to recycling!
Another path in the lifecycle of the book is through donation. Lots of people donate their used books to the library. Fun fact: you can actually get a tax-break for doing this. Just ask! However, the sad fact is, if you donate your books to the library, there's a good chance that most of what you give us is headed straight for the trash. But often, this is for good reason. Countless times I've witnessed people carting in these old, water-stained cardboard boxes full of moldy, yellowing, tattered books from their attics and basements. Why do these people think that's okay?!?! People, we don't want your crap! So I smile, thank the patron, and haul the junk into the back office, where my boss picks through for something nice enough to sell. But mostly he says, "Check to see when they're gone, and then take these around back to the dumpster."
Oh man, talk about a downpour today. The parking lot nearly flooded again. This wouldn't be nearly so bad, but the AC in our building doesn't work very well in our Picture Book room. So take an already warm room, add in 100% humidity, and the Picture Book room starts feeling like a jungle. Add in some little toddler walking around obliviously with a loaded diaper to notch up the temperature an extra degree. Something is rotten in the Picture Book Room.
Hey, we have a lizard now! Hanny the Library Lizard is back with us for the summer. Normally he's housed in a classroom at a nearby elementary school. But somehow we have an arrangement to watch him for the summer while school's out.
The kid's seem to get a real kick out of this guy, even though there are days when blinking is about as much as Hanny's willing to move. In fact, he sits so still that an amazing number of kids seriously question whether or not he's alive. (Some people walk right by his tank and don't even notice there's a freaking lizard sitting in the center of the kid's section.) Lazy as Hanny is, should you drop a cricket into his domain, he kinda perks up and his beady little eyes dart around. The poor crickets don't realize their lousy odds upon being dropped into a lizard tank, and most waltz right up to Hanny before they realize that, you know, he's alive. Which is probably the last thing they think before he lunges at them and gobbles them up whole with his little pink tongue. Hunger Games indeed. At this point, some of the other crickets might get wind that one of them has been served for lunch at the other end of the tank, and they do seem to change their behavior. (Or maybe I'm just rooting for them.) Hiding behind Hanny's water bowl seems to be a popular place of refuge. And the craftiest of crickets, if they hang around long enough to figure it out, hide in the crevices of the wooden log that Hanny enjoys basking on. Or they'll sneak under the skull and lie low for as long as fate permits. I know that a cricket has found some temporary refuge in hiding because the children's section is treated with a pulsing chirp. And, sitting at my desk, as long as I hear those organic notes ring out from the tank, I know that there's at least one measured struggle for life in the sandy pit of Hanny's lair. Crickets of PetCo, we salute you!
Heather (other children's librarian) comes in on her day off. With her is Megan, her four year old daughter. Megan sometimes forgets my name, and only knows me as, quote, "the only boy in the library." (This is mostly true, our staff is overwhelming female. As for our patrons: children accompanied with their dads are a rarer sight up in the children's section.) Everyone seems to like this name, and I've decided to make it the title of my future memoir that I have no plans of writing.
Kori (children's librarian, my boss) keeps saying something weird to me. We just finish installing Hanny's tank, and I'm deciding where to place his daytime and nighttime heating lamps. So I'm standing over the tank, placing the main lamp over his favorite log, then changing my mind and putting it over the skull. Kori walks up to me, saying, "Maybe let's not put it over the skull. Last summer he got a little burned because he sat on top of it and was too close to the lamp."
"Oh, okay, no problem!" I say
"Haha, sorry Jake, I'm just being my usual anal self!"
She walks away, and I kinda just sit there for a second, head cocked to the side. Later, I'm sitting at the desk, stuffing folders (aahhrrgg!) and Kori comes up and asks,
"Hey, who folded these recommended-reading pamphlets? They're all misaligned!"
"Uh. I dunno, one of the high school volunteers?"
"Well they've got to learn how to fold!"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Ha, you know how anal I can be!"
Book recommendation: Rules of Summer! I've never seen surrealism in a children's picture book before, but this was fantastic. (But I don't see how any kid would "get it," if that's even the point.) Shaun Tan is the man.
"I'm ignoring you, Rachel. I'm ignoring you. I am ignoring you!" a glitzy mom blares for the whole section to overhear.
A mother (clearly one of those "cool moms" who still dresses young) and her sassy tween daughter are having a tiff about something near the desk. They proceed up to the desk where I'm sitting and ask to register for the summer reading program. They're hunched over the desk together as they fill out their personal information on a registration card. The mom is not happy with her daughter's attitude (pouty), but I can't figure out why. The daughter is trying to fill out her registration card, but the mom keeps yanking it out of her hands, proceeding to erase whatever the daughter wrote, and correct it. I sit back and watch the spectacle.
"Rachel, I swear to god, I am going to stab you with this pencil. I am going to stab you with this pencil."
"We just sharpened them, too!" (It's true, I had literally just finished sharpening them five minutes ago!)
"There, see, Rachel? Nice and sharp."
Week One:
Huh. Well. Back again. Back behind the desk. Here once again to provide my services to the Manlius Library. To throw myself upon the alter and give all I can give to this great public institution until –ay– I can give no more.
What ho! Someone desires to find the fable The Tortoise and the Hare?!
Seek in juvenile non-fiction, call number 398, and ye shall find!
Hark! My son desires to read The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series! Who be the author?
Ay, that would be Kinney in the Ks! Filed in fiction, second shelf from the window, lower right corner!
Pray mercy, good sir, but my wee child has shat his pantaloons before I could whisk him to the changing station!
Seven hells, woman!
Yes indeed it is good to be back at the Manlius Library! What's that, you say? There's an entitled brat shrieking in the Story Time Room? Some googly-eyed toddler is munching on the corners of a picture book? An enraptured little tyke is drooling over the keyboard at one of the public computers? The children's bathroom is out of toilet paper….and now it's flooding? Some liberal suburban mom is breastfeeding quite conspicuously? A senile old man is lost and has wandered in from the Senior Centre down the hall? A pack of one-year-olds are frothing at the mouth and banging on the glass of the fish-tank?
Ease your fears, we've handled it all! Just give me a gallon of Purell and my trusty scanner gun, and all shall be restored!
So, yeah. It's good to be back. Not the ideal place to be, one year out of college. But I happen to really love my job (this will be my…7th year here, I believe), and I work with some fabulous and fantastically quirky people. I had nothing else going on, and they had a position to fill, so why the heck not?
So here's the deal. I'm the….ahem…"Youth Services Circulation Clerk." It's the technical way of saying that I check out books to little kids. And I've done this job every summer for several years now, so I'm pretty good with a scanner gun, if I may say so myself. I have two superiors, Kori and Heather. Two children's librarians who are incredibly down-to-earth, fun, easy-going bosses. I adore them both. We also have a few interns this summer. More on them later.
As far as libraries in Onondaga County go, the Manlius Library is one of the largest. Physically in size, and in circulation numbers. We also have a massive children's summer reading program. I expect we'll register around 1200 kids this year, as we did last year. Each year our program grows, causing me to speculate on the incredible amount of breeding that must go on in this small town. The program has a different theme each year. This is not actually decided by us, but by some official board of librarians at the county level. Or something. Anyway, last year it was "Dig into Reading," sort of an archeology/nature theme. This year it's "Fizz Boom Read!," adopting a science/chemistry-set motif. Hence the name of this blog series.
Every library has control over how they wish to run their program, and the success and size of any program can vary greatly depending on things like budget allowance, local population size, number of staff available, and the competency and enthusiasm of the staff themselves. We have been blessed in each of these categories. Other libraries not so much, sadly. Which is a shame, because while I don't have the statistics on hand, summer reading programs are important. No, really! Kids need to maintain their reading levels while they're off from school in the summer. Kids that spend those few extra months in the summer reading see huge advantages in reading competency and other skills. Reading in the early years is critical, and the sooner a child begins reading, the more it pays off in spades later in life. Children who are behind in reading at an early age often spend the rest of their educational years behind the curve, and it puts them at huge disadvantages. So that's why summer reading programs are critical: they maintain reading rates during the "lost" months over summer, and just as importantly, they get kids to love reading! (Which is a beautiful thing to witness: A kid rushes up to my desk balancing a stack of books up to their chin before heaving it down in front of me, and they're sporting a huge, toothy grin, literally bouncing with excitement and gushing about their favorite stories and characters as I scan the barcodes and place them in a bag for them to take home. It warms the heart.) So, to reaffirm: the second a child exits the birth canal, it should have its face crammed into a book. Trust me, folks, I have a degree.
And finally, to explain how exactly a summer reading program works: well, tis quite simple. Each week, a child comes to the library to show how much reading they've accomplished during that week. As a reward for reading, they receive little prizes, which vary each week. Often, the prizes consist of coupons for free treats/snacks at businesses in the area. (Free slice of pizza at the local pizza shop, or a free small ice-cream cone at the…uh…ice-cream shop. Etcetera, etcetera.) We also have raffles, book clubs for the kids, and free book giveaways. Our biggest draw, though, are our programs, which are structured arts & crafts events, science experiments, and history lessons (way cooler than it sounds). We also bring in animals from the local zoo to show the kids, which is always a big hit. So far we've never had an animal escape, and no parent has ever offered to give up their child to the zoo. I'm still waiting, though, for the day when some lizard gets loose and territorializes the children's biography section, preying upon youngin's who wander back into that area alone. (It wouldn't be the first time a reptile took up residence uninvited in the Manlius Library. Some years ago we found a large snake in the toilet of the men's room. We called the police down to deal with it, and even the officer was too jittery to go near it.) Finally, we also show movies from time to time. Yours truly has the privilege of proctoring The Lego Movie this summer…twice. It's gonna be awesome! I can't believe I get paid to do this.
I've always wanted to write about my experience running a summer reading program. Behind my desk and amidst the stacks I have always taken mental notes about parenting, child behavior and interaction, literacy and literature, and the evolving role of the public library. I hope to convey some of my opinions about these themes throughout these entries.
Day off! I don't work on Tuesdays. (Librarians often have atypical work schedules. At our library, 35 hours a week is considered full time. Without going into excruciating details, this often translates to working four days a week, and with rotating weekends. It also often means having a schedule of working days and nights. My own schedule is a bit mixed. Monday and Wednesday I work 2-9. Tuesday I have off. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I work 10-5. Libraries are often closed on Sunday in the summer (well, at least in our county).
I spent today wandering around Wal-Mart and Wegmans. Then watching PBS documentaries. I'll write about Wal-Mart at another time, because Wal-Mart seriously fascinates me.
Every kid who signs up for the summer reading program gets a folder. Contained in this folder are all the different papers that he or she will need to help keep track of their reading, as well as all the information on our programs and events over the next several weeks. We have to prepare about 1200 folders (at least), and somebody has to put the various sheets of paper into each and every folder, which usually falls on me and our lowly interns. Whenever I'm approached with "collating materials" (a nice euphemism there!), I know I'll have a mountain of papers to sort.
So I'm stuffing folders until the end of time when this 5th grader approaches me. He looks a little bashful. He's rocking two big buck teeth with a nice healthy gap between them, which reminds me of myself in early middle school. There's also something stuck in his left ear, and it takes me a minute to figure out that it's a hearing aid. He has a pretty thick lisp, and I can't determine if it's from his teeth, or his hearing disability, or, you know, just typical speech development issues. Anyway, not important. He's holding a My Little Pony book.
"So, I know thith ith kinda thstupid, but my friend and I were reading thith ath a joke…but I really enjoyed it. Do you guyths have any more of thethe?"
Sweet jesus, this is awesome! I can't believe I'm finally in the presence of a young brony in the making!
I check the system for any more copies in the series, but all our copies are out. So I place several books in the series on hold for him ("Friendship is Magic" volumes 2-4, "Pony Tales" volumes 1 and 2) and send my little brony on his merry way.
If you're not familiar with "bronies," it's a really bizarre and intriguing subculture comprised of adult males who are fans of the My Little Pony franchise. You can read about it here. Feel free to psychoanalyze.
Later that day I was walking back into the children's section, and I was walking behind this one young girl (probably a 7th grader) and her mother when I noticed the text on the back of the girl's hoodie. It said CREATION MUSEUM, and underneath a tagline, "Prepare to Believe."
For those not aware, the Creation Museum is a, uh, "museum" located in -where else?- Kentucky that promotes a young earth creationist view of the world. (Summary: a literal interpretation of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament. For some hard-line Christians, this has become a platform that asserts 1) the Earth is 6000 years old; 2) a skeptical or rejectionist view of evolution; and, famously here at the museum, that 3) humans and dinosaurs depicted as having coexisted at the same time.)
It's run by a Christian apologist group called Answers in Genesis, founded and led by a guy named Ken Ham, who you might recognize as having recently debated Bill Nye about evolution versus creationism.
I don't have the energy to write about all aspects of this pseudo-museum (website here), but check out the link above to its Wikipedia page. Incredibly fascinating.
And it's not to say I was judging this young, impressionable girl…but I was absolutely judging her. Sad, I know. Actually, I would say that the girl's mother was worthy of much more criticism. Congratulations, m'am, your daughter's perceptions of the scientific world is grounded in The Flintstones.
(Side note: if you're interested in religious skepticism, might I recommend one of my favorite podcasts, Reasonable Doubts. This is their website, but you can more easily download their podcasts directly from iTunes. A great group of guys, with lots of humor and hard-hitting facts. They also take Ken Ham and his museum to task in episodes 122 ("A Deluge of Stupidity") and episode 125 ("Nye Smokes Ham"). I've been listening to these guys since I was in high-school. So check them out if you're interested in atheism, religious (mostly Christian) criticism, and critical thinking. Enjoy!)
Much later that day, as I was stuffing folders (ahhrrggh!), Margot, one of our longtime clerks, comes up to the children's section with a clipboard and a set of papers. Alongside me at the desk is Kira (one of our interns), Kori, and Heather. Margot is reviewing our library policy on child safety and parental responsibilities. By "review," she means to say that we don't have any policy, and so we better put our heads together and make some up. I don't really know what to contribute, so I stick to listening and, of course, stuffing folders. This policy is actually pretty important, because having informal policies doesn't cut it- you need rules to be officially written down. In the children's section of a public library, much of this concerns how responsible parents are toward their own children. We frequently gripe that parents often mistake children's librarians as babysitters with master's degrees.
There are all sorts of aggravating scenarios. You have the Preoccupied Parent, who stays with the child up in the children's section, but has their nose buried in their phone or a magazine, and so is totally oblivious to their child yanking books off the shelf for fun or trying to stick their fingers into the fish-tank. You have the Defeated Parent, who has become so exhausted and worn down after years of raising a hyperactive and/or rebellious child that they seem to walk around in a tired stupor while their little monster screams with joy as they turn the fiction shelves into a playground. And then you have the Non-Existant Parent, who isn't even there. There are some cheap apartments near the library, and packs of kids will just show up sometimes and spend all day at the library. These are kids who clearly lack an adult presence in their lives, and you can tell that they come to the library just something else to do. They roam around town all day in the summer, and our library is one of the few public spaces with AC, computers, and bathrooms. Unfortunately, these kids tend also to be the troublemakers who yap too loud and swear and loiter and try to hack the computers and leave trash everywhere. So in between my visions of beating them with a beefy pop-up book, I genuinely feel bad for them, because I know that some of them simply won't make it to even their own high school graduation. The tragic thing about kids is that they can fall behind at such an early age and never recover. Did you ever go to high school with kids that dreaded the classroom, got into fights, skipped class, got heavy into drugs, and -at least one or two of them- would wind up involved with a pregnancy? I get to observe the little-kid version of those teens from behind a desk. And I'm witnessing them grow up, and grow up fast.
And then there's safety. Because, as I've said, some parents just aren't attentive, and we have to ask ourselves at what point do we have to step in and -yes- be the babysitters for the parents. Some 1 year-old is scooting awfully close to the small set of stairs leading down into the Story Time Room, and there parent is checking their email on their iPhone; a toddler is climbing on the railings of the stairs; a little boy is leaning back dangerously far in his chair at the computer; two kids are fighting over a toy with no adult around. Most of these common instances resolve themselves without issue. But what's really infuriating is when we have a kid that's out of control -screaming, running around, getting angry- and we have to tell them to stop/be quiet…and then the parent will show up and reprimand us for stepping in, usually giving us some crap like "you should have referred to me since it was concerning my child." Well, okay, except you were over in the other room gossiping with the other moms or checking your phone or off in a totally other part of the library while Junior decided to lose his shit and go Hulk on everything. You'd be amazed how often this happens. We're either librarians or babysitters depending on when it's convenient for the parents. So should an emergency ever happen (i.e. a child gets hurt- yes it happens now and then), the last thing we need is Mrs. Milf threatening to sic her lawyer husband on us, all because of her negligence. We're a public libary…we don't have an army of lawyers! We might have, like, one. Somewhere. I don't even know where.
Kori, Kira, Margot and Heather toss out a flurry of hypothetical concerns. Heather chimes in:
"What about the footstool in the children's bathroom? Some kid slipped off it last week and hurt himself. Can we get in trouble for that?"
"Oh yeah, that. Yeah I'm not sure about that. They need the footstool to reach the sink! The kids aren't tall enough!"
"Remember when that kid flooded the bathroom?" Kori buries her face into her hands and shakes her head like a Vietnam flashback.
"So are we going to require that all children be accompanied by an adult? What should the sign on the door say?"
"That all children 'should ' be accompanied by an adult?"
" 'Must' be accompanied?"
"By any adult?"
"How about 'by a mature adult' ?"
"Okay, 'by a mature adult'. But what about the age. Children that are how old must be accompanied by someone?"
"What age do we say? Eight? Younger than eight? Seven?"
Kori: "Children begin to develop a sense of morals and consciousness around the age of seven."
"Okay, so they need an adult if they're younger than seven? Or eight?"
"The 'age of reason' is around seven years old. Well, later for boys." They all turn and look at me, grinning.
"Hmph!" I say.
So we have a good laugh and eventually decide on the language of our policy.
If you're curious about what Kori said about the "age of reason," well, I was, too. Later I poked around on the internet to see what she meant. You can read this article about it, if you like. Give or take a year, children apparently begin to actually develop a sense of morals around age seven. Things like pride, shame, existential fears, achievement, self-esteem, and a general mental maturity also begin to take shape at that age. (Read the article, it's really fascinating!) Again, I don't know the established literature on this, or the neuropsychology of it. Certainly worth keeping in mind, though.
We stumble upon weird new items all the time. Today, Heather showed me Dconstructed, an official Disney album comprised of techno remixes inspired by Disney theme songs. Now, you're probably thinking that this is gonna be super lame. BUT IT'S NOT. I mean, Daft Punk and Kaskade contributed to this album. Check it out on Spotify or Youtube. The Dumbo-inspired track by Kaskade is probably my favorite, but I'd also recommend The Circle of Life and You've Got a Friend in Me remixes.
Children's literature is an amazingly creative (and competitive) area of publishing. A perk of my job is that I get to keep somewhat up to date on all the cool books that come out. Here are some books that I seriously can't wait to read to my kids some day!
The front doors, five minutes before opening on a Saturday morning:
But luckily the rush never hit me up in the children's section. In fact, it was a pretty slow day! I was the only one of the desk for the day, which basically means I got to catch up on all my favorite websites and articles all day. Funny, though, one of my old political science professors from SU came in with his son, looking for books. There's a fair number of SU professors who live in the Fayetteville-Manlius area, so I see them (and their kids) on occasion. Today it was my Political Analysis professor, who was born and raised in South Dakota. So we chatted about the PSC department and whatnot. I also asked him if he had ever heard of "The Dakota Effect." Click that link if you're nerdy and curious. The political science professors basically set out to understand why the Dakotas are so incredibly over-represented in Congress. By that, I mean:
If you count a state's congressional delegation not as the number of senators and House members currently representing that state but rather as the number of members of Congress who grew up there, you immediately encounter a striking fact: Easily the two best represented states, in terms of the number of native members of Congress per capita, are North and South Dakota
Because, remember, for example: not every member of Congress in Texas was born in Texas. But every representative in the Dakotas is invariably born in the Dakotas…and then you have a disproportionally large number of congress-members in other states who are native Dakotans. The authors seek to figure out what about the culture/demographics of North/South Dakota might cause this (hint: there's not much to do there!), and what are the real-world consequences of it (hint: the amount of money sent back to the Dakotas!)
Finally, for less stuffy academic political science material, I read a nice article on The Atlantic's site. Titled The Left Right Political Spectrum is Bogus , it's a nice introduction as to why the liberal/conservative dichotomy in political discourse is too narrow to be of any use. And how true this is! Just look at how, for example, libertarians, Christian social conservatives, and neocons are all labeled broadly as "conservatives." Likewise, there are liberals who are extremely distrustful of government action, and those who still put great faith in it. There are wealthy business elite liberals and those who find that lifestyle quite distasteful. And then consider the overlap between the two camps! Like how many progressive liberals and conservative libertarians actually share common values about privacy, drug policy, foreign policy, and corporate capitalism!
This article proposes looking less across the spectrum of left/right, and more at structures of power in society, which are usually framed as vertical/horizontal (that is, when power is concentrated for a few at the top, versus when it is more democratically dispersed across the population.) So, for example, instead of conservatives yelling "Big government is bad!" and liberals shouting "corporate capitalism is bad!" they should both try to notice the terrible reality that points out how both have grown together over the past many decades (by no accident, too), and what we are left with is a kind of revolving door collusion between the corporate and governmental elite who work to keep each other protected, rich, and in power, while leaving the vast majority of the population left behind with stagnant wages, gutted public services, and a sense of political apathy. This is a portion of what Marxist Theory is all about, so if you're even still reading at this point and you find this interesting, go check out Introduction to Marx and Engels or Cultural Hegemony in the United States or just anything about wealth inequality, such as The Price of Inequality.
On my 9th day in Oregon, I remember checking in to our hotel near the airport and promptly collapsing on the bed. Exhausted, sore, sunburned, dehydrated. Our flight Sunday morning (day 10) was at 6:50 in the morning, so we had to say goodbye to our hotel in downtown Portland and stay the night closer to the airport. I had just spent two days walking endlessly around East Portland. The sun had finally come out, it was warm, and the cherry trees were in full bloom. A proper spring! (Poor Syracuse, I had gotten word that it was still snowing over there.) Here's just a sample of photos:
That guy in the photo above is Sam, one of my closest friends from home. Except in high school his family moved to California, and he's been on the West Coast ever since. He lived in Portland for a time, and now lives in Eugene (a really exciting mid-sized city in Oregon). We met up, grabbed some food and drinks, and he showed me some shops in East Portland, including this second-hand stores that made me feel like I was in an episode of Hoarders.
I think what I'll do is talk briefly about East Portland, and then try to reflect more broadly about Seattle and Portland.
Okay, so West Portland is where the downtown retail and restaurants are, along with Chinatown, some swanky boutique shopping strips, and Portland State University. Across the river is East Portland, which I would describe as much more suburban and residential. In the northern part of East Portland, I found a warehouse district, some bland apartment buildings, and a shopping mall that felt very much out of place (apparently the vision of a wealthy Californian developer decades ago). But mom and I kept walking north, and eventually came upon some really picturesque houses. Quaint, idyllic, harmonious. Pick an adjective, it all works. For some of these houses, I would describe them as thus: for those of you familiar with the housing in the SU student neighborhoods, imagine if these houses were given proper love and care, and perhaps a little bit more money. You know, on the smaller side, not gaudy, diverse in style. It was an almost meditative experience to meander through these tightly-knit streets, complete with sidewalks, trees, cats lounging in the sun, and people mowing their lawns. And as I eventually made my way to southeast Portland, I discovered that much of the east side is like this. Just a whole gridwork of pleasant streets and homes.
As charming as this was, I was also a bit puzzled, because I've heard time and time again that southeast Portland is now the cool place to be. (It's very possible I didn't go east or south enough.) Because while there are some main drags lined with cafes and restaurants that cut across southeast Portland, it didn't strike me as very exciting. I didn't see too much retail or cultural venues. Also, unlike West Portland, East Portland is much more suited for car and bike travel, not foot.
So, I walked and walked, all day, until my feet were blistered and sore. In conclusion: East Portland would make for a great place to raise a family. Personally, I prefer west-side, but apparently the reason everyone flocks to the east side of the river is because this is where the affordable housing is. It's a shame I didn't see where the cool kids liked to hang.
A few last things about Portland:
1) A great introduction by Portlandia to the stereotypes about Portland (certainly some truth, though, and certainly worth watching.)
In regards to some of the things mentioned in the video:
-Yes, I did see a lot of guys skateboarding
-Yes, there is a shop that only sells vinyl.
-The hot girls DO wear glasses.
-Flannel is acceptable (I wasn't aware that flannel wasn't cool anymore, though!?)
-I was told that -it is true- "everyone's an artist or in a band."
Unrelated to the video:
-There are very progressive free-speech laws here, so Portland has a ton of strip clubs and sex shops. Like, there are shops in the main downtown area that have really busty mannequins in the windows sporting kinky outfits and whips and all that stuff.
-Like Seattle, Portland has a sizable and visible homeless population. They didn't seem as aggressive as those in Seattle, but it's hard to make such a generalization.
-Lots of coffee shops here. If you like coffee (or beer!), you will not be disappointed.
-Also, can I say one thing about West Coast food vs. East Coast food? The West knows how to do good donuts. I had some amazing donuts in both cities. However, East Coast knows bagels and pizza. I had a hard time finding pizza or bagel places out here, and I'm sure they wouldn't compare to the awesome stuff we got east-side.
-Finally, as someone that has now seen a few more cities, I can say with some confidence how unique NYC is. Seriously, that is a city that doesn't sleep. Especially when it comes to eating. I guess I never really appreciated the perks of the crazy NYC life until I visited some smaller cities. Things do seem to close down and get pretty quiet at night in Seattle and Portland (at least the sections I saw), and I found it hard to find that cheap, grab-n-go food that NYC is so famous for. All I want is a $1 slice of pizza after 9pm!
2) For those interested in urban planning, I highly recommend the blog "The Urbanophile." Here are two articles about Portland from a more academic perspective:
If you don't feel like reading them, here's a summary of points:
-Portland started investing in bikes and public transportation back when most American cities weren't, and it's really paid off. There's a huge bike culture here, and the trolly system here is extensive.
-The city is generally considered a top example of smart urban planning. (If you visit, you'll notice that there are like 3 buildings in the downtown that are tall office buildings. There's an ordinance in the city that keeps building height levels low. Makes for a very pretty city.)
-The main issue with Portland is that it's such a high-quality city without an economy to show for it. The quality of life is so good, and the culture and brand of the city are now so famous, that everyone wants to move here just to live here and experience it. But Portland's economy is not good, and it's unemployment rate is worse than the national average. A lot of people are without a job, or are underemployed.
-The city is having trouble attracting talent, apparently. Lots of musicians and artists willing to (or forced to) take entry-level service jobs, but Portland has not yet become a destination for high-paying jobs (like in tech) that cities like Seattle and San Francisco have well established.
-Portland has more micobreweries per capita than just about any city in the country.
-Statistically, Portland is an incredibly white for a city. Definitely lacking in diversity.
Another thing to add:
I know I gush about Portland, but some critiques worth noting, particularly those echoed by Sam and his girlfriend. I'll paraphrase some of their critiques of Portland: for one, Portland traps you in a different kind of cycle of poverty. People move here and can't find work, so when they finally piece together some part time gigs or a shitty, low-paying service job, they can't actually enjoy the city, because they don't have any money…because of the shitty job they're stuck with.
Also, we discussed the possibility that the brand of Portland is at risk of becoming a caricature of itself. I know I've mentioned this before, but one thing that Sam, his girlfriend, and I discussed was how perspectives of Portland change depend on whether you're from the West Coast or the East Coast. From the East Coast angle, I would say Portland is a funky, eccentric, cool place to move to. But Portland invokes more of an eye-roll for West Coast folks. As Sam said: "When someone tells us that they've just graduated college and are moving to Portland, we think 'Yea, you and everyone else around here.' " It's possible that Sam's view isn't commonly held, I'm not sure. (I do trust his judgements, though!)
I wouldn't say that it's a bad thing that a city has a great reputation that makes everyone want to move there. But like any city right now that's desirable (NYC, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle), it only becomes a problem when the city can't handle the population influx. Rents rise, good jobs become scarce, young creatives are forced out, and the gentrification process fulfills itself.
Alright I'm tired. More later.


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More New and Used
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A History of Future Citiesby BROOK,DAN
Questions About This Book?
Why should I rent this book?
Renting is easy, fast, and cheap! Renting from eCampus.com can save you hundreds of dollars compared to the cost of new or used books each semester. At the end of the semester, simply ship the book back to us with a free UPS shipping label! No need to worry about selling it back.
How do rental returns work?
Returning books is as easy as possible. As your rental due date approaches, we will email you several courtesy reminders. When you are ready to return, you can print a free UPS shipping label from our website at any time. Then, just return the book to your UPS driver or any staffed UPS location. You can even use the same box we shipped it in!
What version or edition is this?
This is the 00 edition with a publication date of 2/17/2013.
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
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On May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded his eponymous capital on a barren Baltic marsh. Modeled on Amsterdam, he believed it would erase Russian backwardness and usher in a modernized, Westernized future. In the nineteenth-century Age of Imperialism, the British rebuilt Bombay as a tropical London, while three Western powers made Shanghai look just like home. And in our own time, the sheikh of Dubai has endeavored to transform his desert city into a Vegas-esque skyscraper-studded global hub. The cultural and historical threads that connect these cities and their conflicted embrace of modernity are brought into relief in Daniel Brook's captivating mix of history and reportage-a story of architects and authoritarians, artists and revolutionaries who take these facsimiles of the West and turn them into crucibles of non-Western modernism. A History of Future Cities is both a crucial reminder of globalization's long march and an inspiring look into the possibilities of our Asian Century.

subset: commoncrawl


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GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — Work to stabilize a landslide that knocked out about 200 feet of U.S. 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park could begin as early as next week.
Work on Smokies landslide could start soon
Park officials and the Federal Highways Administration this week assessed the damage to Newfound Gap Road that occurred when heavy rains caused a landslide on Jan. 16. The park said in a news release on Wednesday that the first phase will include stabilization, removal of debris from the work area and creating a path for construction vehicles to access the slide.
U.S. 441 is the major highway over the mountains between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, N.C. Park officials said a timeline for when the road will be reconstructed cannot be determined until a design has been approved.


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The continuation bet is becoming a very familiar on the poker tables. It is a very effective move may be stemming from its innate simplicity.
A continuation bet is a bet you make if you are a pre-flop raiser. You do a continuation bet even if you did not improve on the cards that you are holding. For example, you have an A-K and then the cards flopped are 4-9-Q, you take advantage of the situation and bet although you did not make a pair or anything.
The strategy of making a continuation bet is very effective since most likely your opponents will not make a pair upon flop in 2 of 3 times. Simply, your opponents will fold their hand every time you make a continuation bet and they didn't make anything out of the flop.
Basics on the continuation bet
When you do a continuation bet, a good size will be 2/3 or ¾ of the pot. You also need to put into mind the reads of everyone around you.
When you make a 2/3 or ¾ continuation bet then you make a very strong and aggressive impression that you have the best hand on the table. You will scare your opponents so they will fold. Betting more than the pot may be risking much than what is needed when a smaller bet will just have the same consequence.


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Smavvy Blog
Blogs abound. Why read this one? What you can expect on Smavvy:
- Commentary/updates on key happenings in Vancouver's marketing, communications and sales communities
- Insights on hiring and engaging marketing, communications and sales professionals
- Observations of the motivations/expectations of the emerging workforce
- Tips on building strong employer brands' to attract and retain employees
- Funny stuff to help brighten your day
How to Host a #StandApart Oscar Party
If there's one great common denominator between us all at the office, it's the movies. We all see them. We all love them (or hate them, which makes for equally good conversation). Some of us might even wish we were in them. Vancouver, with its "Hollywood North" reputation, is the ideal...
Love Monday #49: How to Fail-Forward
Pop quiz: Vancouver's current weather forecast is best represented by which Oscar nominee? If you guessed Disney's big screen comeback "Frozen", then you should definitely be part of our Smart Savvy Oscar Pool Contest. It's open to all, with four top prizes of $100, $75 and $50 movie gift cards up...
Who's Outsourcing their LinkedIn Profile?
Since we launched Smart Savvy's career services, almost one year ago, we've been learning a thing or two about what drives people to tackle their online career brand. As it turns out, the vast majority of people who approach us for a revamp of their resume or LinkedIn profile aren't job-seekers at...
LoveMonday #48: It's Just Art
Last week, we announced our first annual Oscar Pool Contest with $100, $75 and $50 movie gift cards up for grabs for top honours. Spaces are filling up, so please email email@example.com to join in the fun! In the meantime, we've rounded up our top picks for the best "art-...
Announcing the Smart Savvy Oscar Pool Contest
Sure, you're up on industry news but how about pure entertainment? In the spirit of red carpet season, we thought it would be fun to bring together Vancouver's A-list companies and professionals for the first annual Smart Savvy Oscar Pool Contest. That's right, we're pitching...
bright minds. brilliant growth.
We find senior-level marketing, sales, communications, and creative professionals with proven track records for companies who need them.
Giving Your Notice
Resource for Employees
Breaking the news Tips and Pointers You have a fantastic offer in hand, it meets your criteria and you're excited about the new opportunity. Now the moment of truth—the one everyone dreads—...read more resources
"Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great."


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◊ Named to the SEC Community Service team for her numerous off-court contributions.
◊ Came off the bench for the first 18 games of the season before moving into the starting five for 12 of the final 13 outings of the campaign.
◊ Scored in double figures in six contests, upping her career tally to 32 double-digit outputs.
◊ Hit a pair of 3-pointers in an 8-0 run at Mercer that put the Lady Bulldogs up 23-11 midway through the first half.
◊ Missed the Alabama game due to a cut on her foot suffered while removing tape after practice on Jan. 1. Actually cut her foot the day before the SEC opener at Mississippi State and played in Starkville. Could have played against Alabama but did not after UGA jumped out to a 23-7 lead.
◊ Exploded for a season-high 20 points at Ole Miss. Scored 12 points in the final 7:35 of the first half to help turn a 21-11 deficit into a 28-28 tie at the break.
◊ Scored a game-high 14 points against Florida in Athens.
◊ Enjoyed a productive SEC Tournament, averaging a team-high 13.5 ppg against Missouri and Tennessee.
2013-14 Season
◊ Played in all 32 games, with 28 starts.
◊ Averaged 10.9 ppg, leading UGA offensively a team-best 11 times and also posting a team-high four 20-point games.
◊ Among SEC statistical leaders, ranked No. 30 in the league in overall points per game (10.9 ppg) and No. 29 in scoring in SEC outings (11.1 ppg).
◊ Accounted for the Lady Bulldogs' three highest single-game outputs of the season -- 27 vs. Mississippi State and 23 against both Florida (in Gainesville) and S.C. State. FYI, Shacobia Barbee scored 23 points at Alabama.
◊ Also notched Georgia's single-game individual highs for field goals made (10 at Mississippi State), field goals attempted (20 at South Carolina) and 3-pointers made (4 against Saint Joseph's).
◊ Notched was was then a career-high 23 points against S.C. State in almost perfect fashion...connecting on 9-of-10 FGs, 3-of-4 3FGs and 2-of-2 FTs.
◊ Used a career-high rebounding effort against George Washington to record her second career double-double.
◊ After enduring her first scoreless and single-digit minutes game of the season against Arkansas, rebounded with 23 points at Florida in UGA's next outing to equal her point production in UGA's first five SEC games combined.
◊ Exploded for a career-high 27 points at Mississippi State, including 18 in the first half alone.
◊ Scored 16 second-half points against LSU, including 10 in the final 3:58. Hit four jumpshots during the final 3:58 after the Lady Tigers had trimmed UGA's lead to a single possession.
◊ Averaged 15.6 points per game in Georgia's last eight regular-season outings.
◊ Notched her first post-season double-digit scoring output with a team-high 10 points versus South Carolina in the 2014 SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
◊ Led the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points against Saint Joseph's.
2012-13 Season
◊ Played in 34 of 35 games, including a quartet of starts.
◊ Led UGA in rebounding three times (Mercer, Texas A&M and Arkansas) and also scoring once (Mercer).
◊ Posted four double-digit scoring performances, doing so against S.C. State, Furman, Mercer and TCU.
◊ No sophomore slump here, producing much-improved FG and 3FG percentages from her first season at UGA.
◊ A huge spark off the bench in the first two games of the season...so much so that she moved into the starting five for the third contest against S.C. State.
◊ Scored five of her eight points against Rutgers in a second-half span of just 1:18, including an impressive play in which she grabbed a defensive rebound...outlet passed the ball past halfcourt...then raced to the other end to score on a putback just seconds later.
◊ At TCU, scored seven points of a 10-0 UGA surge over just 3:19 midway through the first half.
◊ Chipped in nicely with eight points against Montana in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
2011-12 Season
◊ Named to the SEC's All-Freshman team in balloting of league coaches, Georgia's league-leading 29th honoree since the award's inception in 1987.
◊ Recorded five double-digit scoring performances and one double-figure rebounding effort.
◊ Early in the season, supplied the most energy off the Lady Bulldogs' bench...a trait she displayed on both ends of the floor.
◊ Secured her first career start against Northeastern at the UNLV Lady Rebel Round-up, becoming one of 72 Lady Bulldog freshmen to start for Andy Landers during his first 34 seasons in Athens.
◊ Exploded for team- and career-best tallies of 18 points and seven rebounds against Northeastern in her initial start.
◊ Posted her second straight double-digit outing with 10 points against S.C. State.
◊ Provided excellent on-ball defense and recorded her third double-digit scoring night against Appalachian State.
◊ Grabbed what was then a career-best 10 rebounds en route to her first career double-double versus Furman.
◊ Made an immediate impact when entering the SEC opener against Arkansas. Scored five of the first eight points in a 21-4 run that turned a 16-7 deficit into a 28-20 lead.
◊ Named SEC Freshman of the Week on Jan. 2 after averaging 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in Lady Bulldog victories over Furman and Arkansas.
◊ Played the final 33:58 at Mississippi State after Jasmine James injured her right knee. Scored eight second-half points, collected a team-high three steals and played stellar on-ball defense.
◊ Scored a team-high 17 points and equaled what was then her career high for MP in her initial SEC start against No. 6 Kentucky.
High School
◊ Coached by Eric Herrick at Chattahoochee High.
◊ Rated as the nation's No. 55 overall prospect and the No. 8 guard by the All-Star Girls Report.
◊ A four-year starter but missed the vast majority of her senior season due to a stress fracture in her left leg.
◊ Tabbed second-team All-State for Class AAAAA as a sophomore and honorable mention as a junior.
◊ Selected to play in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association's North-South All-Star game and scored a team-high 14 points for the North in an 85-75 loss.
◊ Scored 18 points in her senior season opener before being diagnosed with a stress fracture.
◊ Out of action for the remainder of the regular season but did return for the final two games of the Region Tourney.
◊ As a sophomore, averaged 24 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game en route to earning Region Player of the Year.
◊ Topped 1,000 career points during her sophomore season, reaching the milestone in just 52 games.
◊ Helped Chattahoochee's volleyball team to a runner-up finish in the 2010 Class AAAAA state tourney.
◊ Born December 3, 1992, Erika is the daughter of Marilyn Ford.
◊ Major: Human Development & Family Science.
◊ Recipient of the Tom and Jeannette Greeson Women's Basketball Scholarship for 2013-14.


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What You Need To Know About The College Football Playoff
Here is what you need to know about the College Football Playoff.
Heisman Watch: Jameis Winston's Repeat Bid Against History
As long as Florida State remains in the College Football Playoff conversation, Jameis Winston will be given plenty of opportunities to create his next Heisman moment.
College Football Spotlight: Conference Perception Key As Big 12 Makes Statement
Conference play will begin picking up this week, but there will also be some key non-conference match-ups as well. Defending SEC champion Auburn heads to Kansas State for a Thursday night match-up. This could be the Big 12's last chance to leave a huge impression on the selection committee.
College Football Spotlight: Battered Big Ten Is Beleaguered, But Not Beaten Just Yet
Unfortunately for the Big Ten, the chance to prove itself on the national stage in 2014 has officially been missed.
Little Leaguer "Sad" To Hear Of NCAA's Reprimand
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A major in athletics, with a minor in acting.
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District Attorney General Tony Clark (left) and Jerome Cochran
Local attorney and former state representative Jerome Cochran confirmed Monday he intends to challenge District Attorney General Tony Clark in next year's general election.
"I've had a lot of encouragement," Cochran said. "I'm in the early stages of getting a campaign together."
He declined to comment further on the issue, including the reason he decided to run.
Cochran, 41, of Carter County, was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2002 when he unseated longtime state Rep. Ralph Cole. Cochran was a member of the Children and Family Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Domestic Relations Committee, the Constitutional Protections Subcommittee and the Civil Practice & Procedure Subcommittee.
In the 2004 Carter County Republican primary, he ran against John B. Holsclaw Sr., a former tax assessor for Carter County, and was re-nominated with 3,942 votes over Holsclaw's 2,089. He ran unopposed in the subsequent 2004 general election.
Cochran lost the August 2006 primary to challenger Kent Williams, who went on to win the general election. He unsuccessfully challenged Williams in the August 2008 primary.
Cochran graduated from Happy Valley High School and completed his undergraduate work at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville before receiving his law degree from Regent School of Law in Virginia Beach, Va.
Clark is in his first term as District Attorney General and has been in office since 2006.
At least two other attorneys have reportedly expressed interest in running for DA, but no one else has confirmed they will launch a campaign against him. Clark said he has all intention of seeking a second term. "Unequivocally and without hesitation, I will be running again for the First Judicial District Attorney. I've never not thought about running. It's always been my intention to seek a second term," Clark said late Monday.
Clark said he considers Cochran a friend and said Cochran or anyone else who qualifies for the position has the right to run.
Clark has received a round of criticism lately after three unsuccessful attempts to convict former Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris of official misconduct as well as an investigation that eventually led to charges against a Johnson City man accused of killing his mother being dismissed.
The problems surrounding the murder charge against Codey Miller being dismissed, however lies with the Johnson City Police Department, according to the ruling from the judge who threw out Miller's coerced confession.
"I'm sure there are people out there who support Kent Harris and were not happy with the charges I presented to the grand jury. I don't have this position to make people happy," Clark said "I make decisions based on the law. That's what I've done since I started."
Clark also said he didn't seek the DA's position just to have a job.
"This is my life," he said. "For me, being the DA is not just a job It's what i wanted to do, it's what I want to continue to do. I want to be the DA and be a prosecutor. It's my life."


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Last week, we asked our Treat fans to share their thoughts on when a Mom should make the transition from low-rise/skinny jeans to the oh-so-comfy mom jeans. The responses were mostly in the never range, yet some moms felt they could indeed rock 'em.
What are your thoughts on mom jeans? Rock 'em or knock 'em? Tell us in the comments below.


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It doesn't look like I'll have time to premiere The Lincolnshire Poacher by the 31st, but I want to get the show rolling, soooooo....
Having recently come across the pilot episode of the science fiction/horror anthology series "The Other Side" that I did 30 years ago when I was in the radio biz, I thought we'd kick off TMOA Radio Theater with that (a story called "The Old One") and the pilot episode of RPOshard's Cerebus the Aardvark (which we previously played on the Sunday Show a couple of months ago). This will get everyone up to speed on Cerebus, and give me another week to get a couple of eps of Lincolnshire Poacher in the can.
The on April 7th, we'll kick off new programming on TMOA Radio Theater with episode 2 of Cerebus and episode 1 of The Lincolnshire Poacher.
More details as we get closer. The show will run immediately before the Sunday Show on the 31st and will be a 1 hour show - so 2 pm Eastern, 1 pm Central, 11 am Pacific and 7 pm GMT. So mark your calendars and be in the chat room to laugh and mock us.


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Thomas E Martin
Office: NATURAL SCIENCES 205
Phone: (406) 243-5372
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: Click Here
Current Position:
Office Hours:
Field Of Study:
Population and evolutionary ecology
Research Interests:
Geographic variation in avian life history traits and parental care behaviors
Life history traits, such as clutch size, renesting rates, developmental rates, age of first reproduction, and adult survival, along with parental care behaviors (incubation, brooding, feeding young), vary extensively in geographic space. This project focuses on measuring these traits and behaviors for coexisting species across a series of geographic sites that differ in adult and nest mortalities (Arizona (current), Malaysia (current), Venezuela (done), South Africa (done), New Zealand (done), Tasmania (done)).
Climate effects on a high elevation riparian ecosystem and bird community
A long-term (since 1985) study of a high elevation riparian ecosystem and bird community demonstrates climate effects on trophic interactions among plants, birds, and nest predation. Key deciduous plants and several bird species have declined strongly in abundance, with one previously common bird species (MacGillivray's Warbler) even going locally extinct. Large herbivores may interact with climate change to cause plant losses (see next project).
Large herbivore exclusion experiment on a riparian ecosystem
Long-term declines in plants, and many bird species that rely on these plants, may reflects of over-browsing by large herbivores, together with climate change (see above project). Herbivory and climate may interact in that drier years may yield lower plant propogation that make them more susceptible to browsing pressures. Large-scale (9 ha) exclosures were erected on three sites in 2004 to examine the separate effects of herbivores versus climate.
Teaching Experience:
Specialized Skills:
Professional Experience:
International Experience:
Selected Publications:
Martin, T. E., P. Lloyd, C. Bosque, D. Barton, L. Biancucci, Y. Cheng, R. Ton, and A. Majewska. In review. Growth rate variation among Passerine species in temperate and tropical sites: An antagonistic interaction between parental food provisioning and nest predation risk.
Biancucci, A. L., and T. E. Martin. 2010. Can selection on nest size from nest predation explain the latitudinal gradient in clutch size? Journal of Animal Ecology 79: 1086-1092.
Chalfoun, A., and T. E. Martin. 2010. Within-season facultative shifts in nest-site selection in response to offspring predation risk: A win-stay, lose-switch strategy. Oecologia 163:885-892.
Martin, T. E. and J. V. Briskie. 2009. Predation on dependent offspring: a review of the consequences for mean expression and phenotypic plasticity in avian life history traits. The Year in Evolutionary Biology 2009: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1168: 201-217.
Martin, T. E. 2008. Egg size variation among tropical and temperate songbirds: An embryonic temperature hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105: 9268-9271.
Martin, T. E., and H. Schwabl. 2008. Variation in maternal effects and embryonic development rates among passerine species. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363: 1663-1674.
Martin, T. E., S. K. Auer, R. D. Bassar, A. Niklison, and P. Lloyd. 2007. Geographic variation in avian incubation periods and parental influences on embryonic temperature. Evolution 61: 2558-2569.
Martin, T. E. 2007. Climate correlates of 20 years of trophic changes in a high elevation riparian system. Ecology 88: 367-380.


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By Alissa Katz
Photo credit: © iStock/mjunsworth
On May 21, U.S. Reps. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) and Matt Cartwright (D-PA) reintroduced the Audiology Patient Choice Act (H.R. 2519), which would add audiologists to the list of physicians recognized by Medicare and eliminate the physician order requirement for audiological evaluations.
The bill, originally introduced July 31, 2014, came out of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA)'s 18x18 initiative, which calls for the amendment of Title XVIII of the Social Security Act by 2018 to allow for the changes included in the legislation.
H.R. 2519 won't expand or add services to the Medicare program or modify an audiologist's scope of practice, but it would authorize Medicare to reimburse audiologists for currently covered services that they are already licensed to provide. The legislation also won't affect state licensure requirements for audiology practice.
"Medicare really has not kept pace with best practices for the delivery of hearing and balance care," said Eric Hagberg, AuD, ADA advocacy chair, in an interview with The Hearing Journal (HJ) when Reps. Jenkins and Cartwright first introduced the bill (HJ October 2014 issue, p. 8).
"The healthcare delivery models of the future are being designed to ensure that every practitioner is working to his or her full scope of practice. It's so important that we do this so we achieve patient-centered care that is also cost-effective."
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery (AAO–HNS) opposed the legislation when it was initially introduced, and the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) did not endorse it.
The Audiology Patient Choice Act has received endorsements from about 30 other state and national organizations representing audiologists and patients, including the American Academy of Audiology (AAA).
The AAA also is committed to the Access to Hearing Healthcare Act (H.R. 4035, S. 2046), which was introduced in February 2014 and would eliminate the physician order requirement for Medicare patients seeing an audiologist. This bill was endorsed by the ADA as well.
"We believe that the reciprocal endorsement of our respective legislative initiatives sends a strong message to our memberships, the audiology community at large, and members of Congress that the two associations have analogous objectives," AAA President Erin Miller, AuD, previously told HJ (HJ January 2015 issue, p. 34).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to cover auditory osseointegrated implants (AOIs) as a Medicare benefit, the agency announced, retreating from its previous proposal to classify the devices as hearing aids, which are excluded from Medicare coverage.
"We believe AOIs that provide focused stimulation to the temporal bone structures, through an implant that is physically integrated into the bone of the skull, to the cochlea are outside the scope of the hearing aid exclusion," CMS said in a final rule released Oct. 31.
Osseointegrated implants have been payable by Medicare as prosthetic devices that replace the function of the middle ear since Jan. 1, 2006. From that time on, 40,000 people have been implanted in the United States, with 20 percent of these procedures covered by Medicare, according to the Hearing Industries Association (HIA).
Given the device's history of coverage, safety, and efficacy for a patient population with no auditory alternative, the hearing healthcare community was surprised and concerned by the CMS proposal published in July, which asserted that osseointegrated implants such as bone-anchored hearing devices are bone-conduction hearing aids that mechanically stimulate the cochlea and, as such, should be classified under the hearing aid exclusion.
"CMS felt that the implanted device did the same function as a bone-conduction hearing aid because they both transmit sound via bone conduction," said Lisa Satterfield, MS, director of healthcare regulatory advocacy for the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA).
"But they were failing to realize the benefits of having it implanted into the mastoid process, which include better attenuation and better sound quality, and the device doesn't need to include amplification like a hearing aid would."
Lisa Satterfield, MS
The proposal not only would have restricted access to auditory osseointegrated implants among future Medicare recipients who need them, such as those who have single-sided deafness or are not able to wear a hearing aid because of congenital conditions like microtia or atresia, but also likely would have affected patients with private insurance, as these payers usually take their cue from CMS. Hearing healthcare professionals were also concerned that such a policy change would have put maintenance and upgrades out of reach for current implant recipients.
In response to the proposal, providers, patients, and members of industry joined to raise awareness and encourage others to voice their support for maintaining coverage of these devices.
Cochlear Americas posted a petition on change.org to continue coverage of its Cochlear Baha Implant System, and representatives from the Academy of Doctors of Audiology, the American Academy of Audiology, the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, ASHA, HIA, and consumer organizations met with CMS to discuss why they objected to the proposal and how its adoption would affect patients.
CMS ultimately received about 2,635 public comments on the proposal that argued these major points:
These comments and the efforts of the hearing healthcare community worked, with CMS deciding not to withdraw coverage.
"Cochlear devices, brainstem implants, and AOIs are invasive devices and are significantly different than the hearing devices in existence at the time the Medicare coverage exclusion for hearing aids was enacted," CMS said in the final rule. "We therefore do not consider them to be the hearing aids or technological refinements of the hearing aids excluded from the program in 1965 and after 1965."
The hearing healthcare community has applauded the final decision.
"We were thrilled to work with our congressional hearing health champions as they urged CMS not to pull coverage for devices and procedures that had been covered for eight years with good reason," said HIA Executive Director Andy Bopp.
Andy Bopp
"We're thrilled to see that CMS gave it another look and, in our opinion, did the right thing."
Nearly a decade after approving coverage for auditory osseointegrated implants, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a reversal that would classify the devices as hearing aids, making them ineligible for Medicare coverage.
"The announcement came as a surprise to many of us," said John Niparko, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "We had felt that the support of this technology by CMS was providing a critical opportunity for a small subpopulation of patients who require this approach in order to restore hearing."
John Niparko, MD
Under current regulations, which have been in place since Jan. 1, 2006, osseointegrated implants are payable by Medicare as prosthetic devices that replace the function of the middle ear.
According to the new proposal published July 11, however, the agency reevaluated the scope of Medicare's hearing aid coverage exclusion after getting requests to consider additional implanted and non-implanted auditory devices as prosthetic devices, and came to this conclusion:
"The hearing aid exclusion encompasses all types of air-conduction and bone-conduction hearing aids (external, internal, or implanted). Osseointegrated devices such as the BAHA [bone-anchored hearing aid] are bone-conduction hearing aids that mechanically stimulate the cochlea; therefore, we believe that the hearing aid exclusion applies to these devices and propose that Medicare should not cover these devices…"
Because osseointegrated implants are surgically inserted, it "defies common sense" to call them hearing aids, said Andy Bopp, executive director of the Hearing Industries Association.
"It does replace a body part—a human function—and it's placed by a doctor."
The American Academy of Audiology (AAA) also disagrees with the proposal, said AAA president Erin Miller, AuD, and that position is shared across the hearing healthcare community, from providers and manufacturers to patients.
"The osseointegrated implant is a prosthetic device," Dr. Miller said, speaking on behalf of the Academy. "It actually does replace the function of the middle ear, and it should continue to be covered."
Erin Miller, AuD
CMS's proposal does not affect brainstem and cochlear implants, which would continue to be covered as devices that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, replacing the function of the inner ear.
A bone-anchored hearing device was first implanted in 1977 in Sweden and received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 1996.
"This isn't a new intervention," Dr. Miller said. "It has a proven track record.
"The current regulation prohibits people from providing this particular device unless it's the only device option available to the patient. These are patients who couldn't receive benefit from any air-conduction and/or other bone-conduction device.
"There would be a population of patients who would not receive the services they need to communicate effectively, so it's very concerning for the consumers whom we treat."
Candidates for osseointegrated implants, such as Cochlear's Baha Implant System and Oticon Medical's Ponto Bone Anchored Hearing System, may not be able to wear a hearing aid because of congenital conditions like microtia or atresia. In patients with single-sided deafness, osseointegrated devices pick up sounds from the deaf side and send them through the bone to the hearing ear.
Currently, Medicare pays for Cochlear's osseointegrated devices in a bundled payment that covers the cost of the device and operating room time, said a Cochlear Americas representative.
The national average bundled rate for hospital outpatient treatment is $9,732, and the national average for an ambulatory surgical center is $7,987. Medicare beneficiaries typically are responsible for a deductible and coinsurance for each service provided, the Cochlear representative added.
According to CMS, the proposal "would not have a significant fiscal impact on the Medicare program because the Medicare program expenditure for BAHA paid under Medicare during the period CY [calendar year] 2005 through CY 2013 was less than 9,000,000 per year."
If approved, however, CMS's classification of osseointegrated implants as hearing aids would likely affect more than Medicare patients, said Shannon Weinberg, senior manager of marketing strategy for Cochlear Americas.
"Private payers typically follow the lead of CMS, so they really are setting the tone across the industry."
In general, a bone-anchored implant surgery costs a patient who does not have insurance coverage for the procedure $15 thousand to $25 thousand, said Alan Raffauf, vice president of marketing for Oticon Medical.
Hearing healthcare providers and patients also have raised concerns about how withdrawal of coverage would affect people who already have an osseointegrated device.
"I would be up a creek if I were not able to continue advancing in the technology," said Dan Nettler, who was diagnosed with single-sided deafness in 1971 and received his first osseointegrated hearing device in 2005. Mr. Nettler is a Cochlear volunteer speaking from his own experience, he noted.
"I would not be able to afford out-of-pocket coverage for this type of device. I would have to constantly seek some sort of repair and, hopefully, not return one day to having single-sided deafness. That scares me more than you could imagine."
Dan Nettler
The hearing healthcare community has been raising awareness about the CMS proposal and encouraging providers and patients alike to show their support for continued coverage of osseointegrated devices.
Cochlear Americas posted a petition to that effect on change.org. Additionally, representatives from the Academy of Doctors of Audiology, the American Academy of Audiology, the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association, and consumer organizations met with CMS Aug. 5.
"It didn't go as well as I'd originally hoped it would," said Lisa Satterfield, MS, the director of healthcare regulatory advocacy for ASHA, speaking on behalf of the association. "We set up our argument to prove that the osseointegrated implant was a prosthetic device because it replaces the function of the outer and middle ear.
"We haven't changed their minds with those arguments. They feel that the device is a hearing aid because it conducts sound mechanically and not electronically like a cochlear implant."
However, the meeting was not the be-all and end-all, Mr. Bopp said, and there's still more to do.
CMS is accepting comments on the proposal through Sept. 2. The feedback submitted as of late-August disapproved of the proposed change.
"I have not heard any argument from outside of CMS in support of this rule change," Dr. Niparko said. "There's a patient population who depends solely on this technology for connectivity to the hearing world, and I think it would be a really, really unfortunate situation if CMS were to change its position and withdraw support for this particular technology."
Dr. Vanneste is principal investigator of the Lab for Auditory & Integrative Neuroscience and an associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Tinnitus remains a clinical enigma, even though much progress has been made. For example, many different tinnitus treatments are offered, but evidence for their efficacy is scarce, and patient satisfaction is low. These treatments mainly improve patients' quality of life and reduce, to some extent, the awareness of and reaction to tinnitus, but they do not directly modify the tinnitus sound.
A study by Navzer D. Engineer, Michael P. Kilgard, and colleagues introduced a potentially new type of treatment that tries to modulate the tinnitus sound directly (Nature 2011;470:101-104).
It is believed that many types of tinnitus are caused by the generation of pathological neural brain changes in response to cochlear trauma or nerve damage. However, repeatedly pairing tones with brief pulses of vagus nerve stimulation completely eliminates the behavioral correlates of tinnitus in noise-exposed animals and drives auditory cortex plasticity in a controlled and therapeutic direction.
Based on these results, Dirk De Ridder, MD, PhD, and I set up a first clinical trial (Neuromodulation 2014;17[2]:170-179). Ten tinnitus patients who showed no benefit from previous audiological, drug, or neurostimulation treatments received a stimulation electrode directly on the vagus nerve.
The study showed that it is safe and feasible to translate this technique from animals to humans, as no complications arose specifically from pairing sound with vagus nerve stimulation. Half of the participants demonstrated large decreases in their tinnitus symptoms that lasted two months after the end of the therapy.
Photo credit: ©iStock/pictore
Unlike the animal study, however, not all patients benefitted from the vagus nerve stimulation paired therapy. It is possible that the clinical efficacy was not as strong because the treatment started late after tinnitus onset or because hearing thresholds are different between the animal and human populations.
It is not known whether the stimulation parameters used to activate the human vagus nerve are optimal. Further, most animals in an animal study are genetically closely related, while there might be more genetic variability among humans who present at a tinnitus clinic, leading to a less pronounced effect.
However, post-hoc analysis of the 10-patient trial also revealed that the participants who did not show significant changes were on medications that might prevent the beneficial effect of the therapy.
It is well-known that drugs can interfere with the acetylcholine and norepinephrine metabolism and release that are important to the promotion of plasticity changes and, therefore, could block the effects of vagus nerve stimulation.
Even though certain patients were intractable to all other treatments, the ability to help 60 percent to 80 percent of drug-free patients who have chronic, severe tinnitus seemed sufficient to warrant further studies tailored to drug-free patients.
Hence, a second placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial is now being conducted to further explore the potential of vagus nerve stimulation as a causal treatment directly targeting the tinnitus sound, with long-term follow-up. More information about the trial is available at tinnitustrial.com.
Time will tell if this approach will bring relief to the millions of tinnitus patients awaiting a solution. Results are expected to be available in the middle of next year.
Dr. Kraus is professor of auditory neuroscience at Northwestern University, investigating the neurobiology underlying speech and music perception and learning-associated brain plasticity.
Awareness of auditory processing disorder (APD) among parents and educational professionals is rising, along with the demand for diagnostic and treatment services. Still, few audiologists perform these evaluations themselves or even refer patients with suspected APD to audiologists who do.
While many reasons exist for this lack of interest or acceptance of APD as part of the audiology profession, the chief reason is that the tests in the available battery do not have good sensitivity or specificity.
But how can a test have good sensitivity or specificity when no gold standard exists? Many of the early APD tests were verified in adults with known lesions. Typically, in children, APD neither is associated with a lesion nor can be verified with neuroimaging or surgery.
APD has similarities with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Some people with ANSD have normal audiometric thresholds but trouble understanding speech, especially in background noise.
If a person with ANSD reports hearing difficulties but has no testing beyond the audiogram and speech perception in quiet, the diagnosis can be missed. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing or electrocochleography (ECochG) is needed to detect the disorder.
Similarly, APD can be missed by the typical audiometric evaluation, but, in this case, the standard ABR or ECochG results are usually normal. The click and tone-burst stimuli used in these tests do not pick up subtler timing deficits that may be present in APD.
In contrast, the auditory brainstem response to complex sounds (cABR) is a more sensitive measure of neural timing. Children with learning disabilities have delayed peak timing compared with children who are typically developing in the cABR, but not in the click-evoked ABR (Audiol Neurotol 2006;11[4]:233-241).
Similarly, children who are poor readers have reduced trial-to-trial response consistency in the cABR compared with children who are good readers, while there are no group differences in their responses to clicks (J Neurosci 2013;33[8]:3500-3504).
Because children with APD often have difficulty understanding speech in noise, it might make sense to evaluate their processing of such speech using an objective method free from the language, memory, and attention demands that can complicate behavioral APD testing.
We and our coauthors recorded responses to the speech syllable /da/ in quiet and in six-talker babble noise (J Neurosci 2010;30[14]:4922-4926) in children who had good and poor scores on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT; J Acoust Soc Am 1994;95[2]:1085-1099).
The normal effects of noise on the ABR include amplitude reduction and peak timing delays, but these effects may vary in individuals. In this study, we found that children with poor scores on the HINT had greater noise-induced peak timing delays than children with good scores.
The delays were found in the consonant-vowel transition peaks—the region of the speech syllable with rapidly changing formants—but not for the peaks in the response region corresponding to the unchanging vowel.
Top panel: The stimulus waveform of the syllable /da/ (first 80 ms) is temporally aligned so that the onset and peaks match the responses in the bottom two panels. Individual responses are displayed for a 10-year-old boy with a good HINT score in quiet (pink) and noise (red), middle panel, and for a 9-year-old boy with a poor HINT score in quiet (gray) and noise (black), bottom panel. The arrows illustrate the delay in noise peaks seen in the responses of the child with the poor score but not in the child with the good score. Note that the peak delays are seen in the transition region but not for the late peaks in the vowel region.
Although the children in the study did not have a diagnosis of APD, one can see how the cABR can inform APD assessment. A positive finding of excessive noise degradation or decreased synchrony in the cABR would provide biological evidence of an auditory processing disorder.
It should be noted that APD may be associated with other factors related to cognitive or executive function. These factors may influence the cABR through top-down connections from the cortex to the brainstem.
Given previous findings showing the benefits of training (Beh Brain Res 2005;156[1]:95-103) and FM system use (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012;109[41]:16731-16736) in children with abnormal cABRs, the inclusion of this test in the APD battery may assist with management. More work should be done to verify the efficacy of using the cABR when evaluating children with suspected APD.
Michelle HoganShe is the editor of Hearing Journal
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Big man Skylar Spencer chooses Aztecs over Huskies
Skylar Spencer, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound forward/center in the class of 2012, will attend San Diego State, picking the Aztecs over the Huskies. Spencer made the commitment over the weekend. He will be a much needed presence on the low post for SDSU coach Steve Fisher, who lost Kawhi Leonard to the NBA draft. [Read More]