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LEGO Shop Home Categories Exclusives Exclusives LEGO® Easter
LEGO® Easter
- Item: 40086
- Ages:7+
- VIP Points: 0
- Pieces:106
- Retired product
Celebrate with the festive LEGO® Easter bunny with movable ears, arms and legs and a big orange carrot!
Get into the festive spirit with the Easter bunny!
Enjoy festive fun with the LEGO® Easter bunny! Adjust the flapping ears for a variety of cheeky expressions. Move the arms and legs and pick up the huge carrot. This cute little bunny is bound to bring festive cheer this Easter.
- Features movable ears, arms and legs and a big orange carrot
- Pose the bunny's ears to create cute expressions
- Move the arms and legs
- Grab the giant carrot
- Fire your imagination with the fun cartoon on the box
- A perfect Easter gift for LEGO® fans
- Stands over 4" (11cm) tall
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subset: commoncrawl


text: A bulky tree trunk lies on the Bachmann family's workbench. You would hardly believe that one day expert musicians would be able to coax beautiful tones from this piece of timber. But the transformation begins as the alphorn makers Walter and Hansruedi Bachmann start shaving off wood, layer by layer. With lathes and planes they shape and polish the log until it has the perfect curve of an alphorn. Only then do they hollow out the interior, working for many slow, painstaking hours until the floor is covered with wood shavings. Special guided tours provide an insight into the alphorn makers' art. At the end, visitors can even try blowing a freshly made alphorn themselves.


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What you don't really know, by revelation knowledge, about the kingdom of God can hurt you!
Isaiah 5:13 and Hosea 4:6 tell us, "Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
You need to know that you know that which you need to know!
What do you know about the kingdom of God?
The written truths found in God's Word, the Holy Bible, become living truths in you when you are born again. They don't become real to you and realized by you without you permitting the Holy Spirit to reveal them to you, in spirit (by the Spirit), and in truth (revealed to you).
Whatever part of the Word of God that you reject by ignoring or not releasing your trust in is still real, still vital, but not necessarily in you. You may have believed that salvation comes in a number of ways, but the truth is found in John 3:3,7 when Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ... Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'"
So you not believing in it in days past didn't cancel it out as a truth, but kept that truth from being alive in you. But once you called upon Jesus, his truth became your truth!
You may not have believed in speaking in tongues, the divine authority of the believer, healing is a foundational aspect of salvation, or security and assurance of salvation, but they are all clearly and repeatedly taught in the Word of God, and they are true, whether you yet comprehend and grasp them, or not. The benefits of comprehending them won't change the truths, but the truths will change you, forever!
Though you're "born of incorruptible seed by the Word of God which lives and abides in you forever" (1 Peter 1:23), the benefits and realities of eternal life won't all sovereignly manifest on their own, and that's where the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit becomes vital for you, to you, in you, and through you!
Do you know by experience, the unconditional love of the Father for you? For as he spoke about Israel, in the book of Jeremiah 31:3, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you."
Are you convinced that the Father in Heaven totally loves you, because of who you are and in whose you have become? Romans 5:5 informs us that, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Do you know, by revelation knowledge, the truth in the words of Jesus in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you"?
Do you know without question that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble?" Psalm 46:1. Do you know from personal encounters that "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life", according to Jesus in John 6:63?
How well do you have awareness of the spiritual reality, "He that began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it" as found in Philippians 1:6?
How real (revealed) to you is the divine truth concerning healing belonging to you, as told in Matthew 8:16,17? "They brought to him many who were demon-possessed. And he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.'"
Saints of God, what you don't know about the kingdom of God and God's will for you will hinder you, by keeping divine truths hidden to your understanding, and will quench your expectations, for you don't believe for something from God that you don't know he has for you!
Jesus declared, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" in Luke 12:32.
He also stated, in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
So, in conclusion, you need to know that you know what you know! You need to know the written truths of God as living truths in your understanding!
You need to take the written word of God, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you in spirit and truth, and then pray in the Spirit (in tongues, in your prayer language, 'in the Holy Ghost,' all interchangeable terms meaning the same thing), as you meditate upon biblical truths.
The Holy Spirit is the teacher, and he wants to take that which abides in your recreated spirit and reveal it to your mental understanding, so that you can recognize, realize and utilize the kingdom of God in you, around you and through you!
He is the one that takes the foundational truths of salvation from Heaven and manifests them in the Earth. He is the one that puts the life and truth of God into you and then continually flows in revealing Heaven and eternal life to you, in you and through you!
Christopher Longgrear (D.Min., Ph.D.) of Fresh Fire Ministries International is senior pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Marietta, Parkersburg and Athens. Thoughts of Faith is a weekly column written by various ministers and lay people. Those interested in scheduling a date for writing a Thoughts of Faith column should contact Claire Heiby at 376-5445 or email@example.com.
Or, if a Thoughts of Faith column is written at the writer's convenience and sent to The Times, it will run the first available date.


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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Tennis Express at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
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Youll be sure to turn heads as you walk on court with this Life is Tennis Midnight Romance Tennis Trolley Bag With this fashionable rolling tennis trolley you will never strain your shoulders again by carrying a heavy tennis bag Featuring a durable and stylish design with a subtle heart print this bag has a large inside compartment and multiple smaller compartments that will fit all your racquets and tennis gear with ease ThisDimensions 22L X 1375W X 8D. Price: $138.00
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Every two Separate Stays* and 1,000 Rewards Points
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De Blasio Meets with Mark-Viverito Supporters in Council Race
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio met Monday with New York City Council members who are supporting Melissa Mark-Viverito in her bid for speaker, voicing his strong support for her election as head of the 51-member municipal legislature.
"He talked broadly about the progressive agenda and this being a progressive moment. He talked about looking forward to working with Melissa," said one person, recounting the mayor-elect's remarks. "He said, 'You all have made your choice, and I think you've made an excellent choice.' "
The event, held at City Hall Restaurant in Lower Manhattan, was designed to rally support for Ms. Mark-Viverito's bid to become the council's first Latina speaker. The crowd included a majority of the newly elected council, labor leaders and other elected officials.
Earlier this month, Ms. Mark-Viverito announced that she had accrued the support of 30 of her colleagues, more than the 26 needed to become speaker. The vote is slated for the council's first meeting on Jan. 8.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal published a report chronicling Council Member Dan Garodnick's effort to persuade some of Ms. Mark-Viverito's supporters to vote for him instead. Some of Mr. Garodnick's supporters said some of Ms. Mark-Viverito's supporters are wavering.
Several of Ms. Mark-Viverito's backers said Monday they believe Mr. Garodnick's backers are bluffing. "There is a rock solid majority for her," one of Ms. Mark-Viverito's supporters said.
Mr. Garodnick said, "We will continue to present our case to the City Council and feel confident that we will have the votes on Jan. 8."


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Surf the Web, block pop-ups, and keep spyware at bay with this lean and fast open-source browser
Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser. Firefox includes pop-up blocking, tab-browsing, integrated Google search, simplified privacy controls, a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.
Firefox 3.5 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past year. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use, and adding new features for users: It is now available in more than 70 languages, includes a Private Browsing mode, better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, the ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation, support for native JSON, and web worker threads, support for new web technologies such as: HTML5 < video > and < audio > elements, downloadable fonts and other new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data storage for applications, and SVG transforms.
Required OS: not specified
Tags: internet , web , browser , mozilla , xul , opensource
88 Opinions
My main browser because of the plugins & extensions available but many websites' video simply fails to load.
I love this browser yes it doesn't inherit the great mac theme but I used a grapple skin and their chrome file and gif file plus uno to get it match the osx theme perfectly. I do not know what I would do with out this browser, I mean safari is good and all but firefox is so much better in my opinion. The only thing that I find that I like better in safari is that it will automatically dock a dmg file when you download, but other than that this is a great browser
Such a great browser.. if only it were written in Cocoa.
cant stand firefox, i recommend opera 9. extremely useful and amazingly fast, not like firefox.
that being said, safari is still useful in rss feeds and being able to view youtube videos on my iMac. they show up fine on my PowerBook, but refuse to load at all on the iMac
I would switch to this, but I just don't like the Windows way of rendering buttons. I like Camino since the developers are always listening to us and are trying very hard to put new features in. The 2nd most requested feature is to have support for Firefox Plugins, and since the 1st one is spell check, which is almost in the nightly (it shows the word is wrong, but you can't open a window to check it)
I repeatedly try to switch to Camino, but I always find my way back to Firefox. I have yet to find a way to make Camino block ads and scripts as well as Noscript and Adblock do.
So I use Firefox and Safari cooperatively.
I am a long time mac user and in my opinion this is the only browser to use on the mac, just the range and depth of extensions makes this a must have.
I like the original FF so much better than Camino. The extensions are what make this app - and now with built-in spell checking in the 2.0 beta, there's no reason for me to fire up Safari again!
I love Firefox for my PC, but for my Mac I use Camino and love every second of it. I had forgotten how many ads there are on the internet until I used Safari the other day.
Camino beats them both about the head and neck.
Quite honestly, I have some issues with this app... it's not nearly as fast as Safari, and tends to be a memory hog (I opened up Activity Monitor and it was hogging 2GB of virtual memory - no joke). But, what can I say... I've gotten so used to all the features and extensions that I simply cannot do without them at this point. If they ever manage to integrate more features and extensions into Camino, I'll probably switch (since its based on the same Mozilla-Gecko engine)... but until then, this is my default browser.
Page 8 of 9. 88 entries.


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rogerfederer.com - A dream come true
Navigation mit Access Keys
- [Alt + 0] - Startseite
- [Alt + 1] - Navigation
- [Alt + 2] - Inhalt
- [Alt + 3] - Kontakt
- [Alt + 4] - Sitemap
- [Alt + 5] - Suche
A dream come true
Dear fans,
As you can see I have had the privilege of meeting and playing some tennis with one of the greatest legends of our sport: Björn Borg! I have always been interested in the history of the game and his is certainly a name you come across very often in this regard. So it was a dream come true for me to spend around an hour on the court with Björn.
Upon my stay in Dubai on my way to Shanghai, I saw that a senior exhibition called 'The legends rock Dubai' was being held. Björn Borg was there along with John McEnroe, Mansour Bahrami and others. I asked him if he would like to play some tennis with me and it was terrific!
The tournament in Shanghai is moving closer rather rapidly. It's great to have prepared for the Masters Cup quietly in Dubai. I'm looking forward to this year's final challenge!
Speak to you soon,
thank you for letting us know about your meeting with Borg. It's great that you were able to meet your idol and play with him. Did he mention if he regrets not to competete against you on the tour? ;)
Kind regards,
Its such a nice and awesome news. I am happy that you got to meet him (your dream came true) and had a terrific time with him and others.
I hope you have a wonderful time at the Master Cup. Wish you all the best!
Take care
I can't believe it. My two very favorite players together. What a thrill. Bjorn was the reason I first started to watch tennis about 30 years ago. I was laid up in bed after a very severe car accident and I started watching tennis. He was the best
Glad you met up with another tennis great.
All the best in yr matches in Shanghai. Thankfully this year you are fit ,


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Brought to you by and the .Vail official report: 6" new snowVail Daily field report: 8-10" freshWeather: Dumping snow. Not too cold.Liftline status: Surprisingly not badRun of the day: ForeverBreakdown: It's slopestyle finals at the Burton US Open, but something tells us these guys would rather be out riding powder. This storm snuck up on us a little and absolutely dumped snow over the last 12 hours, there's a foot of brand new snow in places. The freeway was clogged up in both directions at 8:30 due to a Coca-cola truck that went off the road, taking commuters 45 minutes to get one mile through Dow Junction. That led to lesser lift lines this morning.Snowcast: Looks like it should persist!
On the Hill is shot with a GoPro HERO3 Silver Edition.


text: We're still not all sure what's going on at Bauer Publishing out in the wilds of New Jersey. But what has happened is that the editor of In Touch is now also the editor of Life & Style. Which is nutty? But what that means for the staff or the mag (if anything!) we don't yet know. [Mediaweek]


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Pack For A Purpose
At my college, students are not just encouraged but required to hold at least one internship their junior or senior year. What you do is up to you as long as it captures your personal interests and takes advantage of your skills.
Which is why I feel extremely lucky: I get to intern with a program that involves international affairs and does a great deal of good for the world by taking advantage of the extra space in a traveler's suitcase to send much needed school supplies to children in need. The organization, the non-profit Pack for a Purpose, is helping to spread the word about responsible tourism and how small things can make a big difference in the developing world.
Created in December of 2009 by Rebecca and Scott Rothney, Pack for a Purpose provides travelers with information on how they can use a small amount of space in their luggage to carry a wide variety of items to community-based projects in over 100 destinations around the world.
Here's how it works: Travelers log on to PackforaPurpose.org and select a destination to see what programs and drop-off points are nearby. The website even includes lists of needed items so that you know just what to bring.
Rothney thought of the idea for the organization after she and her husband made their first trip to Africa.
"On our first trip, Scott and I learned that while we were limited to 40 pounds of luggage on safari, the airline itself had an allowance of 140 pounds for luggage," Rothney says. "So, for our second trip, we looked into visiting a school near the lodge we would visit in Botswana and contacted our safari company, Wilderness Safaris, to see if there were things the school needed that we might be able to provide." Armed with that information, the couple was able to deliver 140 pounds of classroom supplies to the school. "It was enormously rewarding," says Rothney, "to be able to help the people in the community that had given us such a life-enriching experience. "
While the idea of packing with others in mind is great, it's something most people don't think of until it's too late.
"I asked our travel agent why other travelers didn't use their luggage allowances in this way." Rothney explains. His answer was 'Because nobody thinks about it.' That was our aha moment."
Learn more about Pack for a Purpose by heading to the website or visiting the site's Facebook and Twitter pages. Then you, too, will be ready to help change the world – one bag at a time!
By Guest Blogger Brittany Goodman I PEACE COLLEGE: Creative. Well-connected. Has interned with non-profits in Germany, England, and South Korea. Believes in social media as a form of communication that's every bit as important and meaningful as any other channel (we agree!).


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Kerry, Lew to Face Pro-Israel Lobby
The Obama administration and the U.S.'s most powerful pro-Israel lobby will square off next week on issues ranging from Iran to the Middle East peace process.
Beginning Sunday, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee hosts its annual policy conference in Washington where a slew of senior U.S. and Israeli officials are scheduled to speak to thousands of AIPAC activists.
Among those officials confirmed to appear: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, and Tzipi Livni, Israel's labor minister and a lead negotiator with the Palestinians.
AIPAC has traditionally sought to maintain cordial relations with sitting U.S. administrations. But the lobbying group has aggressively pressed Congress in recent months – against the White House's wishes – to pass new sanctions against Iran, so far unsuccessfully.
AIPAC is also seeking to set terms for international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program that are more stringent than ones Obama administration diplomats have outlined.
More In John Kerry
- John Kerry: Clinton Victory Is 'Truly Historic Moment' for U.S.
- Kerry Pulls Strings in Mongolia Ahead of Taut Talks in China
- In Call With Russia's Lavrov, John Kerry Protests Warplane Maneuvers
- John Kerry: Foreign Leaders 'Shocked' By GOP Campaign Trail Talk
- John Kerry Jokes He Is 'Concerned' State Department One Day Led By Someone Else
- Three Flawed Assumptions Driving U.S. Policy Toward Syria
These divisions are expected to boil to the surface during the speeches and roundtables scheduled for March 2-4 at the Washington Convention Center.
Ahead of the conference, AIPAC distributed a position paper to congressional offices that demands a dismantling of virtually all of Iran's nuclear sites in order for an agreement to be reached and sanctions lifted. Mr. Netanyahu has promoted a similar line.
The AIPAC memo reads: "[The administration] must hold out for an agreement under which Iran: dismantles its nuclear infrastructure, including enrichment and reprocessing capabilities and the heavy water reactor and production plant."
The Obama administration has been telling Jewish-American and Israeli leaders in recent weeks that such an absolutist position is no longer realistic.
"I would like there to be zero enrichment. I would like there to be no facilities…But that does not mean I will always get them," Wendy Sherman, the Obama administration's chief nuclear negotiator, told Israeli journalists last week in Jerusalem. "That is not necessarily the only path to ensuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon."
Ms. Sherman also urged AIPAC's members not to continue lobbying for new sanctions on Iran while the diplomacy with Tehran takes place. "We need to give this diplomacy a chance," she said. "I would urge AIPAC to create this space."
The Israeli government and AIPAC have also been wary of the aggressive approach the Obama administration has taken toward the Mideast peace process.
Mr. Kerry has been working with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in recent weeks to try and draft a "framework" agreement to guide the peace talks over the coming year.
But members of Mr. Netanyahu's government and Israel's Knesset have publicly voiced concern that the U.S. is angling to force the final terms of a peace deal on the Jewish state. State Department officials have repeatedly denied this.
Follow @wsjwashington on Twitter.


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Knitter's Review
August 25, 2005
Last week I showed how you can use a niddy noddy to determine how much yarn is in your leftover skeins.
But this technique requires that you unwind the entire skein in the process. What if you don't want to go to all that trouble?
There's another tool you can try. It's a little plastic device called a McMorran Yarn Balance, and
we review it this week
More Cheap Yarn Finds
Back in 2000 I published an article about where to find inexpensive yarns online. So much has changed since then that I decided to revisit—and completely update—the article. Learn
where and how to find good yarns online today
without breaking the bank.
In the Forums: Ugly Knits?
OK admit it.
What's the ugliest thing you've ever knit
Forgot your forum username or password?
As always, I thank you for your readership and support. Happy knitting, and I'll see you in the forums,
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I know its still winter time, but I have been trying to plan a great Midsummer's Night Dream for (duh) this summer. If you have ever read the Shakespearen play or seen the beautiful movie, you know why this type of party has to be scheduled during the summer. It is a sensual movie about four complicated people that get caught up in the fairy kings feud and tricked with a magical potion to fall in love with the first person they see. After a few mistakes, the people begin to see the person that they truly love. This story includes fantasy, mystery and most of all the quest for love. All these elements make for a very beautiful and sensual summer party.
The theme for this party definitly calls for fairy costumes! Some costumes that would be perfect for this


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0.6 Micron Modular Mixed Signal Technology
The CX06 Series is X-FAB's 0.6 micrometer Modular Mixed Signal Technology. Main target applications are standard cell, semi-custom and full custom designs for industrial, automotive and telecommunication products.
Based on a state-of-the-art single poly double metal 0.6 μm drawn gate length N-well process for digital applications, process modules are available for triple metal and double poly high performance analog circuits.


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Monroe County public defenders and assistant district attorneys will receive 2 percent annual raises, while making health insurance concessions under a delayed three-year contract.
The 16-member bargaining unit of Teamsters Local 773 and the county reached an agreement more than a year, after the old contract expired on Dec. 31, 2011.
The 2 percent raises for 2012 will be paid retroactively, with additional 2 percent raises for this year and 2014.
A full-time public defender or assistant district attorney with less than two years on the job will be paid $25.72 per hour this year, or $46,813 annually in 2013.
Someone with more than 61 months on the job will be paid $52,664, or $28.94 per hour.
A part-time attorney with less than two years on the job — employed by the county no more than 30 hours per week — will be paid $21.86 per hour and earn about $39,790 this year.
The most experienced part-timer will make $44,764 based on an hourly wage of $24.60.
The union agreed to concessions in health insurance that the county commissioners announced last year and hope to apply to all workers as contracts expire.
This includes higher co-pays and deductibles for health services than in the past.
"That was a major contention," Monroe County Commissioners Chairman John Moyer said of negotiations.
The county did agree to continue health coverage for part-time attorneys, he added.
Officials at the Allentown-based Local 773 didn't immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.
Location, ST | website.com


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Yikes. A sad, strange story today from El Paso. El Paso exists! That's the sad, strange story. No, no, just kidding. The story is that a female tiger at the El Paso Zoo killed her mate for some reason.
From the El Paso Times:
Seri, a female Malayan tiger, killed her mate, Wzui, at about 4 p.m. in the zoo exhibit. Officials said the tigers had been observed playing and being affectionate while on exhibit Thursday morning prior to the killing.
Gah. The really sad thing here is that Wzui had been brought to the zoo in the hopes that he might breed with Seri, thus creating at least one more member of a seriously endangered species. But instead Seri killed the poor guy for god knows what reason. Talk about a bad breakup! (Sorry.)
But seriously guys, this tiger on tiger violence has got to stop.
[El Paso Times; image of the late Wzui via AP]


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Camp Sunny Patch honor counselor Rachelle puts a cool twist on our Session 8 activity, Splat-Painted Earth!
Hi! I'm Rachelle from Tinkerlab. My home is currently buzzing with Olympic spirit, which is why we were excited to try the Camp Sunny Patch Splat-Painted Earth activity with our own Olympic twist on it. Click here for a printable set of instructions from Melissa & Doug and Camp Counselor Allie McDonald.
We started with a set of inexpensive cellulose sponges, scissors, and twist ties. I cut each sponge into long strips, tied two twist ties together, and then spun the ties around the middle of the sponge strips. I fluffed them out to turn it into a ball shape.
For the project, you'll need poster paint in the colors of the Olympic rings: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and Black. I poured paint on paper plates and covered an area of the driveway with a piece of poster board. I placed a sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper on top of the poster board, and the paint splatting was underway.
My 4-year-old has turned into a tabletop painter and was hesitant at first, but once the first splat landed she was lost in paint-splat happiness. Lots of laughing.
We didn't have any black paint, which presented itself as a learning opportunity in how black paint is made. I shared that black is a mixture of all the colors, and we had a color-mixing exercise to find just the right mixture of color to give us black. My daughter loved the process of mixing and testing, and I'd recommend it as its own stand-alone activity in "making black paint."
Once we had splatted papers for each of the Olympic ring colors, we taped them up to dry. Once dry, I folded each sheet of paper in half, drew a half circle on the back (I traced a bowl), and invited my daughter to cut them out. Her cutting is less than accurate, which made for a wobbly set of rings, but she was so proud to do this herself.
After she cut the circles out, I made one more half circle cut inside of her cuts to create ring shapes. I invited her to cut a slit into each ring so we could loop the rings together. Once assembled, we used clear tape to connect the rings.
And now we have a homemade set of Olympic rings to set the stage for all of the summer game festivities!
Rachelle Doorley is an artist and mother of two. She publishes the popular children's creativity blog TinkerLab.com, which has been featured in Real Simple Magazine, PBS, Craft Gossip, and Kiwi Crate. She holds a master's degree in arts education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lectures on visual literacy at Stanford and the San Jose Museum of Art.


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FREE SHIPPING for all online orders. U.S. Orders Only
FREE SHIPPING for all online orders. U.S. Orders Only
Carry this color and show your support for breast cancer research. Learn more about the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer.
This style can be Personalized!
Learn more about Personalization
Carrying your everyday necessities has never been more stylish! The Tote boasts three inside pockets in additional to the main compartment and a tortoise toggle closure.
11 ¾" W x 13 ½" H x 4" D - 12 ½" strap drop
Machine wash cold, gentle cycle, only non-chlorine bleach as needed, line dry


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PALO ALTO -- In a sophisticated and revealing package of stories, Palo Alto High's Verde magazine staff has examined what it calls the "rape culture" on campus and in the broader community.
High-profile rape cases from Ohio to India prompted senior Lisie Sabbag to look into local cases. The resulting stories and opinion pieces, published last week, just days before a story emerged about an alleged incident of sexual battery involving Saratoga High students, have grabbed national attention. It's not only the topic. The package is being hailed as thoughtful, sensitive -- and disturbing. Students don't clearly understand what constitutes rape, Sabbag's story makes clear. Yet rape is not so rare, and sometimes the response of victims' friends and families turns into a second assault.
"They did an exceptional job," said Deirdre Stoelzle Graves of the Ochberg Society for Trauma Journalism, which consulted with Verde on the stories. "Those students did a huge feat in trying to report with such an emphasis on compassion and empathy."
Sabbag heard the stories of 10 student survivors of date rape and profiled two. The story expanded into a wider 12-week project of multiple pieces involving 10 staff members.
"A lot of people on our staff were really passionate about it," said senior Sharon Tseng, one of Verde's three co-editors-in-chief.
The stories not only explored the damage and drama of rape, but also illustrated that teens and adults understand rape differently. That's partly because teens don't understand rape, Sabbag said, even though many experience rape: "It's something that's real and happens to friends at parties," she told the Ochberg Society.
But worse than the assaults recounted, in a park and in a car, were the reactions of friends. Instead of sympathy, the victims found blame. A victim who reported her assault wishes she hadn't.
The magazine polled 250 students and found that more than one-quarter said that if a woman willingly gets drunk, she's responsible for what happens. "That's what stupid girls do at that age -- they dress up slutty and get drunk and accidentally have sex because that's what people do; that's what they've been told fun is,'" one survivor said. "'It happens, so it's not necessarily a big deal.'"
Nearly two-thirds of those polled agreed that women who flirt, tease or behave promiscuously are more likely to get raped.
The package has generated discussion among students, which Tseng said was the staff's goal. An introductory editor's note warned that the content might pull an emotional trigger for some readers, and that the focus was on rape culture, not on particular individuals.
Before publication, journalism adviser Paul Kandell notified administrators, counselors and fellow teachers about the stories, and asked that they check in with students who may be sensitive to the topic.
"I'm proud of what the students did," said Palo Alto school board President Dana Tom. "I'm disappointed that it was necessary."
Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12.


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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill its sponsor says would overhaul how charter schools are authorized.
Sen. Clark Jolley, also the committee's chairman, says the bill is meant to improve the quality of the state's charter schools. Charter schools are public schools contracted with local districts that can be more flexible in their teaching styles and curriculum.
The committee approved the bill 16-4, sending it to the full Senate.
If approved, Jolley's bill would form a Public Charter School Commission that would authorize the state's charter schools and act separately from the Education Department. Jolley says the commission would provide consistent and rigorous standards across Oklahoma.
Several committee members questioned whether the focus on charter schools would hurt traditional public schools.
Location, ST | website.com


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November 09, 2012
EDF offers "New Start" for small businesses
EDF Energy has launched a dedicated SME electricity contract for start-ups and businesses that have moved into new premises. New Start provides short-term contracts (6-9 months), freedom to leave any point, low standing charges and no automatic contract roll-over. Richard Hughes, director of SME at EDF Energy, said: "Last year alone more than 200,000 people started a new business. We estimate around 40% of them took on premises, and we want to play our part in helping them succeed."
Government consultation aims to give consumers new powers
Consumer affairs minister Jo Swinson has announced a new consultation that could see consumers getting new powers from the courts when their rights are breached. The Civil Enforcement Remedies consultation could give authorities such as Trading Standards a range of new powers to use in civil courts, to ensure that businesses abide by consumer law and consumers are reimbursed for money lost. Proposals include giving courts the option of making a business designate a point person who will look at how well that business complies with consumer law.
iZettle allows small traders to take credit cards
A new card-reader that plugs into iPhones, iPads and some Android smartphones and tablets has been launched in the UK after a successful roll-out in other markets. With iZettle, customers can hand their card to a supplier, such as a market stallholder, the card is swiped and they can then sign through the device it is plugged into. The merchant has to pay a commission of 2.75% per transaction. Big names are backing iZettle including EE, Mastercard and American Express. Visa, meanwhile, is an investor in another mobile payments product, Square, started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Women losing out as pay gap widens
The pay gap between men and women is at risk of widening for the first time on record, warns the Fawcett Society. Women still earn 14.9% less on average than men for the same job. And this gap could widen as public sector cuts push women into the private sector, where the gap is wider. The warning comes as the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) 2012 Gender Salary Survey suggests that a woman can earn £423,000 less than a man over the course of her career.
Skype launches online platform for small firms
Skype in the workspace (SITW) has been launched by Skype as a place for small businesses to connect with potential customers, partners and suppliers. The free-to-use tool allows small firms to promote their products and services to new and existing networks. Skype in the workspace will provide a central hub for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses to connect with experts, coaches and consultants who can help them develop their business.


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News 12 at 11 o'clock / Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013
EVANS, Ga. (WRDW) -- A new playground in Columbia County is making a lot more kids smile.
The park is next to the main library off of Evans Town Center Boulevard, and the one thing that makes the park different is that all kinds of kids can enjoy it.
Justin Salter's life has been surrounded with modifications. A modified van, a modified wheelchair and a special computer to help him communicate. Now, Justin has a modified playground, with a swing set and a sway fun, which is a see-saw, where he can play with his friends.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was Tuesday afternoon. However, kids started using it almost a week ago.
Justin isn't the only one excited about the playground -- 13-year-old Abbey Huges thinks it's pretty awesome!
"I like it! There's monkey bars we can actually use!" she said.
Monkey bars aren't the only accommodation at this playground. Swing sets, padded pathways, and yes, the sway fun can be used by both kids with abilities and disabilities and that's what is most important to Abbey.
"Because we can actually play on it now," she said.
Heloise Salter, Justin's mother, says this playground helps Justin feel like he's part of the gang.
"For them to be able to come swing and play with the other kids, with no disabilities, typical children, it means the world to them," Salter said.
The Columbia County School System has 1,500 special needs students, 400 of them with physical disabilities. In other words, those swings are going to make a lot of kids happy!


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The recent, senseless shooting at a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie in Aurora along with this past weekend's massacre at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin have prompted countless questions.
"Why did the suspects do it?" is probably the biggest, most-asked question. Any answer we come up with at this point would be pure speculation, other than to say that these are yet more examples of the downward spiral the human race has been in since the fall into sin.
But another question many are asking is, "Why were some spared while others weren't?" Seventy people were shot at the Aurora theater. Of those 70, 12 died. But there were hundreds of other movie-goers and employees in the theater that night who were unharmed. Why? Was there a plan involved, or was everything just random chance that night?
Those who have been blessed by God with the gift of faith have the confidence of knowing that the events in our world and in our lives are not merely the products of random chance. We believe that there is a plan and there is a Planner. But that doesn't necessarily answer our questions of why some and not others.
When it comes to questions of why things happen to us or others, it would be wrong to think that everything that happens has been pre-ordained by God, so that we're little more than puppets on strings or mindless robots. Such a fatalistic view of life is not backed by scripture. While God knows everything, we must not mistake his knowledge with his will. Did God cause the shooters to open fire in the crowded theater or at the Sikh temple? Absolutely not! What happened was evil, and God never causes or authors evil.
But if God is all-powerful (and he is), and knows all things (and he does), then why did he allow such a horrible event to occur? Why did he allow some to die, while protecting others?
Two thousand years ago, Jesus was posed with a similar question. Several Galilean worshipers in the temple in Jerusalem had been killed by Roman soldiers, apparently for no good reason. Jesus was asked, "Why?" Jesus' answer was to point out that those slain worshipers hadn't brought their death upon themselves by their sins. If that were the case, there wouldn't be a soul left on earth, "for all have sinned."
That still didn't answer the question of why they were killed, or the unasked question, why were others spared. But rather than give a detailed, specific answer to that very tough question, Jesus turned the focus toward those who were asking the questions. He told them, "Unless you repent, you will perish." In other words, Jesus was urging them (and us) to take the opportunity sad and senseless deaths afford to ask a question of ourselves: "Am I ready to die? Do I recognize my sins and unworthiness to stand before God? Do I trust in Christ for full and free forgiveness? Do I believe his promise of an eternal home in heaven?" May the recent horrible, senseless shootings prompt all of us to ask those same questions today.
We may never understand why they happened, or why some were spared while others weren't. But we can be sure of this: We have a heavenly Father who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. His will may not always be clear to us, but it is always in our best interest.
- Brent Merten is pastor of Mountain Valley Lutheran Church, 802 Brush Creek Terrace, Eagle.


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McAlister's Deli announced its latest digital promotion that will bring one lucky winner and a guest to New York City for the 34th Annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park.
"McAlister's was founded in Mississippi, so we are thrilled to return to the Mississippi Picnic in the Park event for the eighth year to serve our Famous Sweet Tea," says McAlister's president and CEO Frank Paci. "We are also excited to bring a lucky winner and their guest along with us for a fun weekend in New York City."
Through May 17, 2013, guests can visit McAlister's Facebook page or website to enter for a chance to win. The prize package includes a weekend trip for two to New York City to attend the Mississippi Picnic in Central Park on June 8, a two-night hotel stay, round-trip airfare for two, tickets to a Broadway show, dinner in the city, and $500 spending money.
Over the past two years, McAlister's has undertaken initiatives to strengthen its brand, including upgrading menu offerings and improving speed of service.
Technomic recently recognized McAlister's as the top chain in the fast-casual industry for food and beverage, and as one of consumers' Top 5 Favorite Chains in the country.


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This is not wallpaper. This is a painted wall mural by Anita Rolls Murals, a professional painter based in Atlanta. An enterprising DIY-er could do this by taping off the pattern, and painting around the tape. View original post.
addressLocation, ST | website.com
Wayne Independent - Honesdale, PA | wayneindependent.com
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Auskin Longwool Cube
The distinctive Auskin Longwool Cube by Auskin Fibre is a brilliant fusion of luxurious comfort, everyday practicality, and creative, contemporary style. This modern ottoman features an aesthetic, cube-shaped design that's enriched with high quality, long wool sheepskin with a minimum wool length of 2.5� for soft, luxurious comfort. A plush, comfortable body makes this unique cube perfect for resting your feet on or using as extra seating. To accommodate a variety of tastes and complement any modern d�cor, the Auskin Longwool Cube is available in your choice of color, from neutral, landscape-inspired tones like elegant cream and rich toffee to eye-catching rouge tints like flame red and vibrant orchid.
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Copyright 2003-2015 by Evofurniture, LLC. All rights reserved.


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While many dispute when the observance of Memorial Day began exactly –– 1864, 1866 or 1868 –– most official opinions at least agree on why it is observed.
A well-known Shawnee man who was confirmed on Wednesday to be a fugitive of justice from Washington state remains jailed in the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center, but he is expected to be extradited to that state to face rape charges from the...
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series fast facts, and MRN's social media timeline for today's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It's official: Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee this fall. He crested the crucial 1,237-delegate threshold earlier this week in North Dakota, taking what was a near-certainty and turning it into an absolute-certainty.
This morning President Obama is in Vietna , and while there he will authorize our defense industry to sell them advanced military weapons to protect themselves from Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Similarly, Russian aircraft are buzzing...
Norman author Robbie Lamberson will be signing copies of her second book, "The Queen of Cuss and Her Redheaded Treasure," from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 4, at the Living Word Christian Bookstore in the Shawnee Mall.
A novel, "A Promise to Break: Love, Faith and Politics in the 1930s," written by Kathryn Spurgeon, will be released at the Shawnee Block Party on June 18. A pre-launch will be June 17 downtown at the Arts @ 317 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, at 7...
Greetings! How many of you Savvy Seniors could sleep amidst crashing sounds of thunder? Or, with bright streaks of lightning flashing across the room? And pounding rain? It was a scary sound to wake up to, as it was all so loud, with such crashing...
Daniel Aaron Gilbert and Sara Renee Gilbert of Chicago, Illinois, announce the birth of their son, Haiden Arthur Gilbert.
Shawnee Directory
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One son sits at Napa State Hospital accused of killing a man during a psychotic episode -- not two months after he was released from John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro over his parents' and a psychiatrist's objections. The other son had been living on the street until last month. He's now at John George, where he has been involuntarily committed by authorities four times in the past six weeks.
Candy DeWitt and Patricia Fontana-Narell share a common heartbreak. Both are mothers with adult sons who suffer from severe mental illness. They have been fighting the mental health care system for years trying in vain to get treatment for their sons -- only to be told that under current laws the men could not be compelled to get help because they are adults, that unless they presented a clear and imminent danger to themselves or someone else -- or were gravely disabled -- there was nothing the mothers could do except watch their sons spiral.
DeWitt's son, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, eventually snapped. On Feb. 12, 2012, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, then 23, wandered onto the Berkeley Hills property of Peter Cukor in search of an imaginary fiancee. He has been charged with killing the 67-year-old but was found incompetent to stand trial. Authorities have committed him to a long-term psychiatric hospital -- as his parents had been desperately seeking for years. But now, it's too late.
After reading about the case, Fontana-Narell contacted DeWitt. Her son, 28, suffers from bipolar disorder and has been living on the streets for five years -- cycling in and out of John George -- since he ran away from home.
The two mothers have joined forces in an effort to reform Alameda County's mental health laws -- driven by their desperation to get help for their sons.
"You're a parent, you're frantic and their behavior is getting more worrisome," Fontana-Narell said. "But you get told that there is nothing you can do until they hit rock bottom. That's like looking at someone who has cancer, and you go to the doctor and they say, "we can't treat you until it hits stage 5."
She and DeWitt believe that Laura's Law -- if it were adopted in Alameda County -- would give family members a way to intervene on behalf of severely mentally ill loved ones who refuse voluntary treatment.
Laura's Law was passed by the Legislature in 2002. It is named after 19-year-old Laura Wilcox, who was shot to death in Nevada County by a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia who refused to get treatment for his mental illness -- despite his family's efforts.
The law allows family members and partners to request a mental health assessment of a loved one. The court can order potentially violent mentally ill people into outpatient treatment.
The state left it up to each county to decide whether to implement the law. It also stipulated that no funds could be taken away from voluntary treatment programs to do so. Nevada County is the only county in the state to enact Laura's Law. Officials there credit the law with helping keep violent, mentally ill individuals from harming others, while protecting the rights of the mentally ill and controlling public costs.
DeWitt and Fontana-Narell want Alameda County to follow suit.
They met with Supervisor Wilma Chan, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors' Health Committee, and asked her to recommend that the county adopt Laura's Law. After a public hearing in March, Chan ordered a report from the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. There will be a 30-day public comment period after its release.
There are those who oppose the law on the grounds that it stigmatizes the mentally ill, that it infringes upon people's rights and that voluntary treatment programs have been proven to be most effective.
Yet what of people with repeated psychiatric hospitalizations who have been arrested numerous times or have been violent -- potentially dangerous people who refuse voluntary treatment?
Can you really expect someone who thinks a black helicopter is circling overhead trying to get him and his mother is going to make a rational decision about his health?
One symptom of certain types of mental illness is that the people who are ill don't think they are, which is why they often refuse to seek treatment or stay on their medications. Voluntary treatment programs only work for people who admit they have a problem.
Alameda County must find some way to deal with severely mentally ill people who fall through the cracks with tragic implications for themselves and others.
Tammerlin Drummond is a columnist for the Bay Area News Group. Reach her at email@example.com or follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin.


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Tag: seizure
Good Job Mozilla
by Dude-Suit on May.05, 2011, under News
Many may have heard about I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and their love of seizing domains without warrants. Recently they have contacted Mozilla with a request that they remove the MafiaaFire add-on from the Firefox addon site. The government is claiming that the add-on has violated the seizure orders it has obtained over the last year against a few hundred domain names accused of copyright and trademark infringement.
Because the government has seized only the domain names and not the actual servers, it's very simple for the server owners to register a new domain name with a non-US registrar and be back online. The MafiaaFire add-on for Firefox redirects users who type in the old site names to the new site names, making the government's seizure process ineffective.


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Definición de assegai en inglés:
(also assagai)
sustantivo (plural assegais)
1A slender, iron-tipped, hardwood spear used chiefly by southern African peoples.
Oraciones de ejemplo
- Inside the village, park visitors could divide their attention, and their spare change, between a fortune-telling 'bone thrower' and a neutered 'warrior,' harmlessly gyrating with his assegai and shield.
- Their assailants were armed with knobkierries, assegais and machetes.
- Police recovered five rifles, 18 sidearms, 84 bullets, and 700 assegais in follow-up house-to-house searches.
2 (also assegai wood) A South African tree of the dogwood family that yields hard timber.
- Curtisia dentata, family Cornaceae.
Oraciones de ejemplo
- They surveyed the forest and studied the trees, identifying yellow wood, stinkwood, assegai wood, pear, alder and half a dozen other varieties.
- Other common trees of the forests read like nature's picnic basket: wild pear, wild peach, African holly, assegai wood, forest olive or ironwood, white stinkwood… the list goes on.
verbo (assegais, assegaing, assegaied)[with object]
Wound or kill with an assegai.
Oraciones de ejemplo
- We retired well, but I shall never forget the Kaffirs getting in amongst us and assegaing our poor fellows.
- Many of the soldiers indeed were assegaied before they could leave their tents, most were slaughtered at once, but a few managed to swim across the river.
- One determined Zulu even jumped over the barricade and assegaied a disoriented patient to death, though he himself was quickly picked off by a British rifleman.
Early 17th century: from obsolete French azagaie or Portuguese azagaia, from Arabic az-zaġāyah, from az, al 'the' + Berber zaġāyah 'spear'.
For editors and proofreaders
División en sílabas: as·se·gai
Definición de assegai en:
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Muy popular en Australia
= de moda


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Lady Gaga doesn't care if California dies of thirst.
Well ... OK, maybe that's not true. Maybe.
But there are conflicting stories as to whether Gaga, making her video for "G.U.Y.", at Hearst Castle, ended up wasting 356,000 gallons of water during California's worst drought of the past 119 years, which was reported by Radar Online.
Richard Stapler, the Deputy Secretary for Communications for the California Natural Resources Agency, called the Radar story "wildly misleading at best."
"Because the water from the Neptune pool comes from a treated reservoir, it is chlorinated at very low levels that meet health standards for drinking water," Stapler wrote in an email. "This means that for the video shoot, the water was able to be used for irrigation immediately afterward, and no water was wasted.
Gaga's video apparently required continuous filling of the iconic Neptune Pool at the National and California Historical Landmark mansion, located on the Central Coast of San Simeon. Radar said its sources said the pool leaked 5,000 gallons a day.
A source who works at Hearst Castle also reportedly told Radar that because Gaga decided to jump into the pool with synchronized swimmers, they had to add chlorine.
"Since the water was chlorinated, it couldn't be used for any of the irrigation or landscaping at the Castle," the insider told Radar. "The water was simply drained and disposed of. It was a huge waste of water, which is such a precious resource in California at the moment because of the drought."
So, according to Radar, Lady Gaga was trying to kill us all.
But Stapler said the water wasn't wasted.
"The water system up at the Castle is actually part of the Hearst Ranch and is completely closed, so they refilled it from on-site sources, then let it drain down afterward," Stapler wrote. "Two months later, yes the pool is empty because the water has been used and stored in reservoirs that don't leak."
Radar purported to have photographic evidence of its claims, which Stapler also took issue with.
"The photo montage they have is misleading as well -- the pool was only down a few feet in January when it was refilled to shoot the video," he wrote. There you go.
A source reportedly told Radar that Gaga agreed to donate $250,000 to the Hearst Castle Foundation, whose mission it is to help preserve and restore the Hearst Castle's 25,000 artifacts, in order to have the pool filled with water from the on-site irrigation plant. She also reportedly agreed to film a public service announcement about water conservation.
According to the Hearst Castle website, the pool holds 345,000 gallons and is no longer regularly filled because of the leaks.
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


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News and Events
Public Relations & Marketing
In this season of bounty and thankfulness, the University celebrated its first harvest from the outdoor classroom vegetable garden.
Over the summer, the garden segment of the outdoor classroom between the Merion Science Center and the Schmucker link was created and began producing a variety of herbs and vegetables. It was tended and harvested primarily by students, including Honors 314 graduates who helped plan, design, build and plant the garden, as well as EARTH group and geography and planning undergraduates.
Joan Welch, co-chair of the Sustainability Advisory Council and geography and planning chair, reports that the garden produced "snow peas galore, broccoli, basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, lettuce (deer tongue and romaine), cucumbers, scallions, onions, yellow zucchini, eggplant, green peppers, bush green beans, potatoes (russet, yellow and red), turnips, yellow pear tomatoes, Brandywine slicing tomatoes, and Roma tomatoes."
Students and faculty created vegetable and herb stir frys, added sautéed vegetables to pasta and made many salads with herbs and steamed snow peas.
Students and faculty also used plants with natural insect repellent properties to help keep pests away and others with scent and visual attractants to entice pest controllers to the garden. Among those flowers were morning glory, calendula, marigold and sunflowers.
The garden was also the site of Paul Morgan's "Sustainability in Education" summer courses. Those students planned and built an additional raised bed garden that yielded hot peppers, zinnias and broom corn.
Although the garden has now been bedded down for the winter, some of the bounty was still being harvested until recent weeks. Sustainability intern Jessica Copeland continues to keep the bird feeders filled, says Welch, adding that as plants died back and were pulled, they were composted.
Welch notes that Joy Fritschle, who team taught Honors 314 with her this past spring, "was integral to creation of the garden this year." The garden will also probably figure in more courses, she says, including Fritschle's Sustainable Living course and additional Sustainability in Education classes.


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Looking for serious players wanting to play in college exposures and top USSSA and ASA tournaments. All teams will play to qualify for Nationals. Our winter workouts will be at All American Softball Academy. Any questions please email Dwayne or Patrice at firstname.lastname@example.com call 630-926-3633
*Xplosion teams will play 'A' schedules including college exposure tournaments
ACTIVE is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.


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Anter Handbags
Red and Crimson Geometric Design Cloth Shoulder HandbagA beautiful red and crimson with a wild selection of design pattern makes this a beautiful shoulder bag. An authentic Druze woven handbag approximately 15" in width and 8" in length with 20" shoulder Strap. The handbag has zippers with tassels, and an inside pocket for purse/cell. Learn More$59.50


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10 Sided Dice, D10
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House bill addresses land swap deals
Legislation would require governments to announce land sales
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 15, 2013 at 11:45 p.m.
A bill pending in the state House of Representatives proposes to require any government-to-government sale of land be advertised in the local newspaper.
Rep. Alan Harper, R-Northport, wants to ensure that residents are made aware when a government or governmental agency intends to transfer land to another government or governmental agency.
"We felt like this was a way to add some transparency to these type of governmental transactions," Harper said, especially if a transaction is for the benefit of a landfill.
Now, any intergovernmental land sale requires no official notification, which is why the Black Warrior Solid Waste Disposal Authority made no announcement last year when it bought 529 acres from the Alabama Department of Mental Health in order to expand the landfill off U.S. Highway 82 near Mount Olive Road.
The $4.23 million land sale was approved by the authority in February 2012 and finalized a month later, but news reports of the transaction didn't surface until September.
At the time, mental health department spokesman Jeff Shackelford said the department did not announce the sale because it was a government-to-government agency transaction and was not subject to bid laws.
This sale came as a surprise — and drew the ire — of many Northport residents, and some raised concerns about how the transaction would affect their own property values.
While the state mental health department and solid waste authority were within their legal rights, some citizens said it was wrong to hide the sale until it was over.
"Legally, they may be OK," said Northport property owner Frank Thompson last year, "but morally, I don't think they were OK with doing it that way."
Gov. Robert Bentley's office defended the sale in September, but Harper said the governor voiced no concerns with the bill he introduced soon after the 2013 legislative session began.
"The governor is in full support," Harper said, "and I'm hoping our Legislature is too."
Harper said he hopes the bill, HB 121, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton; and Rep. April Weaver, R-Pelham, will make it to a committee calendar within the next two weeks and then to the House floor for a vote.
"I think the people deserve to know what their tax dollars are being spent on," Harper said.
Reach Jason Morton at firstname.lastname@example.com or 205-722-0200.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service
1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
The objective of this cooperative research project is to test and further develop a novel incubator for use in commercial channel catfish hatcheries.
1b.Approach (from AD-416)
Catfish incubators have been largely unimproved since first developed in 1929. Egg masses are held in baskets made with ¼" mesh hardware cloth. Paddles held on a rotating shaft turn through the water between baskets, moving water through the baskets, aerating the eggs. As the eggs hatch, the sac fry pass through the mesh of the basket and sink to the bottom of the trough, where they are siphoned up. Farmers often experience problems (fungus and/or bacteria on eggs, resulting in poor hatch rates) during the peak of the spawning season when hatchery space is limited and egg masses are often crowded in the baskets at higher than desired densities. Recent research conducted by ARS has demonstrated that the oxygen requirements of catfish egg masses are higher than previously thought. This research has led to a preliminary design for a new hatchery system.
3.Progress Report


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Thursday, March 1, 2012
A miraculous world
This morning, K struck a defiant stance as we explored a boulder area, hoping to find animal tracks. Although the chemotherapy makes K very sleepy when we're hanging around the house, she's always full of spunk for our hikes.
You can see the leg in the photo below. Fur is growing back very slowly on most of the leg (7 weeks post-radiation), except the pink area that received the highest dose of radiation. We don't know if she'll regrow fur in that burned area but it's no big deal.
Sticks are a favorite toy for K. Alas, finding sticks is difficult when there is a deep snow covering all the fallen sticks. So, K has certain sticks that she plays with on almost every hike. She tries to hide them when she's finished playing.
39 comments:
- Nancy J said...
Your wonderful photos and accompanying words tell us all a huge story of love,choices made, time together, and devotion to each-other.I'm sure that with warmer days coming,healing will progress faster,and I look forward to springtime photos. Fond greetings from Jean.
- March 1, 2012 at 8:35 PM
- ~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...
I've missed your blog this week and have so enjoyed looking at your pictures and reading what you've written. All of it is a true testament to the bond you and K share, and of your connection to her and where you live--Thanks for ending my day on such a good note and a smile! Take care! :-)
- March 1, 2012 at 8:40 PM
- houndstooth said...
There's that question answered again about the choices we make! :) K looks fabulous yet again today. I never get tired of your pictures!
- March 1, 2012 at 8:45 PM
- Nola said...
She IS a miracle!
Dachshund Nola
- March 1, 2012 at 8:45 PM
- STELLA and RORY from Down Under said...
Hi KB, great post and I love your honesty. I think our beloved pets may feel ill but don't know they should worry about it. They leave all that silly business to us peeps!! That's why they have such an amazing outlook on life. Its like "oh, we're going for a run, beauty, let's go". Live for the moment. It what we should all strive for, as difficult as it can be at times. K is an inspiration to us all. Hugs to all. No worries and love, Carol (and Stella and Rory)
- March 1, 2012 at 8:48 PM
- GOOSE said...
You know what I'm about to say...I LOVE ME A STICK! Know what I love more???? K with a stick. She sure is smart to hide hers. I have lost many a stick because I just laid them down thinking it would be there when I get back.
Great photos once again. And beautiful words.
- March 1, 2012 at 8:57 PM
- Berts Blog said...
Both you and K inspire me to try to make more of my time here on earth. I get lazy in the winter and this is not the time to be lazy. Like K getting sleepy when she is around the house, getting out in the fresh air and experiencing our beautiful world wakes up the body and the soul.
- March 1, 2012 at 9:00 PM
- greygirl25 said...
Your photos are so amazing. they truly tell a story of mutual love and devotion.
- March 1, 2012 at 9:18 PM
- Nubbin' Tails said...
So glad to see K having such a marvelous time romping! We love the hole she got to dig. Mom yells at us if we dig in the back yard. :-( Boring/no fun mom!
Mr. Nubbin'
- March 1, 2012 at 9:22 PM
- Jo's World said...
A long time ago, I read an article about sick dogs. One line said something like this: Dogs seldom die from the disease they have, they die when they don't know where the magic has gone and depression takes over. I feel like K is gonna keep her magic for a long, long time!
Jo, Stella and Zkhat
- March 1, 2012 at 9:51 PM
- 24 Paws of Love said...
Your words are so true.
- March 1, 2012 at 9:52 PM
- Tweedles -- that's me said...
I love the photo of K digging to the other end of the earth! And love seeing her with those sticks!
K is a miracle dog, and we celebrate her and you every day!
Its not easy for you-
but you push yourself to keep up with K's bravery and ethusiasm for life!
Yes - the bond between the two of you- there may not be words for it.
- March 1, 2012 at 10:02 PM
- Siku Marie, White Dog said...
Ride for K. Live with no regrets. And KNOW what you have IS a miracle, a wonderous soul-filling life-altering miracle.
- March 1, 2012 at 10:07 PM
- Faith Shen said...
wow, K were so happy for you! I'm glad that your doing great and you look so energetic, stay strong K, were always here for you! :)
Dog Shock Collar
- March 1, 2012 at 11:24 PM
- The Thuglets said...
K is a miracle. Living life to the full. What a team you and K are. An inspiration to us all.
Wonderful shots.
Big Nose Pokes
The Thugletsx
- March 1, 2012 at 11:29 PM
- Lindsjö taxar said...
Lovely photos again!! You live in a beautiful area. K and R are so lucky. K is doing well i think and will fight through this...Vilja and Trym was yesterday at the vets and got the 1 year shoot. And also rabies shoots for EU passport. We will go for some days in April to Åland. The island between Sweden and Finland. There I was in Dec with Tyra on hunting trail.
- March 2, 2012 at 12:14 AM
- Jed and Abby in MerryLand said...
That's one of the best definitions of love: even if you knew at the beginning what the end would be, you'd do it all over again anyway.
Jed & Abby
- March 2, 2012 at 12:54 AM
- Tom, Tama-Chan, Sei-Chan, Bibi-Chan, Gen-Chan, Vidock said...
The hole photo is quite excellent, K! You are such an inspiration to all of us to truly live by the tenet CARPE DIEM!
- March 2, 2012 at 1:58 AM
- DianeTaylor said...
Hi KB, a great post as always. Can I ask a huge favor of you and your readers? I got the most devastating news a parent can hear a few hours ago. My 24 year old son Jonathan died in a tragic fire in his apartment. My husband and I are numb right now. My poor lab Indy is feeling our shock and grief as wel. You see, Jonathan picked Indy out of a litter of pups, He was the first to hold him. Indy completely adores him. I am asking for prayers for all of us and for Indy during this horriffic time in our lives. I do not blog but I am a lover of many dog related blogs. I will be out of the loop for awhile, if any of your readers could send up a prayer to heaven where my son is now, it would be a blessing to us. I wont be at work, if anyone wishes to get in touch with me, my personal email is firstname.lastname@example.com
Many thanks, take care of K and R.
- March 2, 2012 at 2:40 AM
- Mitch and angel Maggie said...
K is truly a miracle. Enjoy every single day to the fullest! I just love your photos!
- March 2, 2012 at 3:00 AM
- Bassetmomma said...
What great contrast in that first picture; K looks so strong and vibrant! I love the way she plays with and then hides her sticks, in China. BOL! I think we can all learn something from K's zest for life. She truly is your miracle!
- March 2, 2012 at 3:43 AM
- kks said...
beautiful images! what is the name of the cancer center you go to? I may just know some of the docs!?
K is looking great!
- March 2, 2012 at 3:44 AM
- ~ Kirra ~ said...
May I say such emotions expressed so beautifully written in this post alongside amazing photo's of K - is from the heart and one in which we can all understand.
Every moment shared with our loyal companion is heartfelt - what ever the weather or how we are feeling within ourselves.
Paws and hands in prayers across the pond.
- March 2, 2012 at 4:04 AM
- Lovable Lily said...
Another love filled day! Keep diggin' those holes K.
Lily Belle
- March 2, 2012 at 5:10 AM
- Amber DaWeenie said...
You and K are a inspiration to all. I think of you guys when I'm at a low point.
- March 2, 2012 at 5:48 AM
- Mr. Pip said...
K is definitely a miracle and I know she is riding/running along with you in spirit.
Your pal, Pip
- March 2, 2012 at 8:28 AM
- Brenda's Arizona said...
Great lead photo. Matches the leaping one from your last post. K is an inspiration.
- March 2, 2012 at 8:36 AM
- 3 doxies said...
You wouldn't be hooman if you had hard days thinkin' bouts K's future, it would makes you a robot, I guess. You still has emotions regardless of how strong you is. Besides, us doggies can makes hoomans turn to putty.
- March 2, 2012 at 9:39 AM
- MAXMOM IN SOUTH AFRICA said...
Wow KB... you guys continue to amaze me with your tenacious love for dear K. Those are such happy pictures - enjoying every moment she has. An apt example to us all.
Sending lotsaluv
- March 2, 2012 at 11:15 AM
- ♥♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥♥ said...
We just knew that R was quite safe, but couldn't resist commenting on the thrill of danger:) We know you would never endanger your pups.
K is an inspiration to so many of us, her courage and love of life is amazing.
- March 2, 2012 at 12:42 PM
- Barb said...
I especially love that top photo with K contrasted in front of the rocks. She IS a miracle - what spunk! PS I figured R was barely off the ground in that photo - I know you're not going to let him hang out on the edge of a cliff. Have a great weekend, KB. We've had 4 days of snow, and I've been playing in it!
- March 2, 2012 at 4:36 PM
- sophie...^5 said...
Miracle of miracles I`d say..K was brought into your life and ours to teach a lesson...a lesson of love and dogged determination...chocolates and sticks...great combo! PS Sophie found her stick today after a dusting of snow last night...much love from us all!
- March 2, 2012 at 5:15 PM
- Val said...
Hi KB, catching up from a busy week. I am so glad you clarified that R was not high on a cliff...I would be having a heart attack, since I am so afraid of heights!! My hubby likes to tease me by standing on the edge!!
Admire the devotion and love you have for your K...I can so relate!!
- March 2, 2012 at 5:35 PM
- Angela J. said...
Every day is a blessing but I imagine that sometimes, late at night, or when you are alone your fears do come to light. Just looking at K, she looks so happy and carefree, it's hard to imagine that she has that dreadful disease. We humans need to follow our dogs lead and just live for the moment. Take care!
- March 2, 2012 at 5:50 PM
- browndogcbr said...
Hi Y'all!
Love the silhouette! Y'all take care and have a wonderful weekend!
Y'all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
- March 2, 2012 at 7:36 PM
- A Wonderful Dogs Life said...
We followed the link from the Power of the Paw widget on Roo's blog.
Our prayers are with you.
- March 4, 2012 at 4:58 PM
- Maery Rose said...
Thank goodness for miracles and dogs that remind us of the things we need to be reminded of.
- March 4, 2012 at 7:04 PM
- Brenda said...
Wonderful. Love that digging to China photo - it actually made me laugh out loud when I scrolled to it!
One of your readers lost her son in a fire?? (:-( Is that true?? If so, good heavens, that's horrible, dreadful. It sounds real, but the email address looked a bit odd, and I noticed there were no follow up comments that made mention of it, so just wanted to check before I email. Don't want to type in an email address that somehow zaps my computer with a virus. Is that a real person, someone who follows your blog?
- March 4, 2012 at 8:25 PM
- Chester said...
I've never met a more focused dog than Chester and I think he and K live on common ground when it comes to that. When he is outside - nothing gets in the way of living life to it's maximum enjoyment, whatever that may be (a stick or a hole to dig, a critter to track etc.) We've always said that boy has 2 speeds - 0 and 100. I don't think he knows pain unless he has nothing else to focus on and I am constantly pulling large thorns out of his fur because he plows thru thorn bushes and thickets. I guess we should all learn to plow thru life's rough patches also and focus on what's ahead instead of the pain at the moment.
As always - your pics are incredible!
Chester's Mom ;0-)
- March 5, 2012 at 1:45 PM


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OAKLAND -- Warriors center Andrew Bogut is relieved that he might need only the next few days receiving treatment on a bone bruise in the pelvic/groin area in order to get back on the court.
"I think it's a five-, six-, seven-day thing, and I think once I get the swelling out, I'll be OK," Bogut said on his weekly radio show on KNBR on Monday, three days after taking a knee in the midsection. "Thankfully, it's nothing structural, no bone chip, nothing like that."
While the Warriors' top rebounder and shot blocker will remain home for therapy, the rest of the depleted team heads to Texas for a big back-to-back in the schedule that has it playing at Dallas and San Antonio.
The Warriors are also expected to have forward David Lee miss Tuesday's game against Dallas as he spends a third game sitting out due to a right hamstring strain, according to coach Mark Jackson, who added Lee would at least make the trip.
Without their injury-riddled starting frontcourt, the Warriors lost at home to New York. The setback left them 1½ games ahead of Dallas, Memphis and Phoenix, which are tied for the No. 7 seed in a bunched-up Western Conference race.
"It's going to be a tough task, but it's gut-check time at this point in the season," guard Klay Thompson said of the back-to-back. "You really want to go in there with the goal of getting two wins. I think this (trip) could be good for us to get our swag back."
Golden State needs a win at Dallas to provide itself more of a cushion in the standings with only nine games left in the regular season and six Western Conference teams legitimately competing for five remaining playoff spots. The game also takes on great importance for the Warriors because the following night they'll play at San Antonio, which has the NBA's best record and will enter the game with an 18-game winning streak.
"Great opportunity to go and get two on the road against two good teams both still playing for something obviously at this point in the season, so we've got to get our mojo back for Tuesday and Wednesday," guard Stephen Curry said.
Said Thompson of the Western Conference race: "It's been tough. You feel like you can get some breathing room. You have one slip-up, teams are right on your heels."
Jackson said he wasn't so much concerned about the standings as he was getting wins and having his team play "great basketball."
To do so, it will help the Warriors when Bogut and Lee return. Bogut said he could be back as early as Friday when the team returns home to face Sacramento or Sunday against Utah.
"But I'm leaning more toward Sunday the way it's responding kind of slow right now," Bogut said.
"We need him to play at a high level," Jackson said. "There's no secret he hasn't played the way we or he expects him to, but I believe in him and I believe that he's going to play huge for us and win games for us.
"He's a guy that works extremely hard. He's a true professional. He cares, and I believe it's going to pay off. He'd be the first to tell you he's not playing up to par."
Follow Diamond Leung on Twitter at twitter.com/diamond83.
Tuesday's game
Warriors (45-28) at Dallas (44-30), 5:30 p.m. CSNBA


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There are lots of things that worry tabloids, current affairs programs, and talkback radio shock jocks. Some of these things are immigration, neighbours from hell, love-rat rip-off merchants, termites, crash diets, dole-bludging playstation addicts, the utter degeneration of civilisation as we know it BEFORE OUR VERY EYES... the list goes on. But one of the perpetual flavours of the month for these harbingers of doom and global devastation is the future of our children. And one of the big recurring themes is about the deterioration of education, the substandard ability of teachers, and the (usually negative) impact of technology on the classical education of our little angels.
In the last couple of weeks, there have been some stories that have come to my attention along the theme of technology and kids. Here in my home state of Western Australia, the press swooped on our much maligned minister for education who suggested that maybe the important thing about history was the context, and that the dates were secondary and far less engaging. In fact, she remarked, kids could get dates from google. "Don't learn it, just google it: Ravlich" was the mature contribution by our state's newspaper. As though, somehow, computer literacy is a poor second to being able to rattle off a whole load of dates by memory. So one big black mark against technology. On the other hand, some people are pretty into technology for our kids: firstly, a story about engaging kiddies in learning in Goa using FOSS educational games at the local telecentres. Secondly, also about India, a story about RMS visiting the state of Kerala, who are now set to migrate all their highschool students to GNU/Linux within three years. (The New York Times were pretty focused on the fact that Kerala are COMMUNISTS. And we all know how we should feel about COMMUNISTS...) Back to the good old U. S. of A., and there was a back to school seminar held for some primary school kids in Arizona about how to be net safe and avoid internet predators. Excellent work.
Now while this looks like us in the West of Australia are a backwards lot and India and America are sailing joyously towards a techno-friendly future, I assure you this is not the case. Many people in the western world share this view. One of the things I find really disturbing about education at this point in time is the emphasis on a very narrow form of education - headlines that scream about children not being able to spell, not being educated 'properly' - because they use phones and computers too much. It's like denying that there might be something good about using technology - and thereby educating children to become technology-literate as one of our priorities. I'm not sure why this is - I'm pretty sure most of these kids are going to be using computers in their future careers, not hanging out at the printing press or using a quill and ink to work out graphs. My analogy is who kicks up a fuss now about using graphics calculators in maths? Who says 'no, that's not REAL maths, you have to work out everything by hand!' The emphasis about learning now should be about HOW we can learn, and how to be discerning learners. On this note, I am so glad that companies are taking it upon themselves to educate children about net safety. I am also glad that people are seeing FLOSS as a viable educational tool. And I hope that FLOSS developers maintain an awareness of how important the technological education of children is, and that they continue to develop educational programs for students. Because I might live in a backwater town, but it would be nice if computer literacy could become as common as using a graphics calculator.
It has a wider scope than that
Just yesterday I was commeting with my SO how you keep hearing that "technology" brings us closer. For example mobile phones. Before mobile phones became a sort of commodity everyone used to answer the phone in a very polite fashion. I remember that as a kid I would pick up the phone, say "hello?" and the other person would politely say "good morning, is your father home?" Now, with mobile phones, I have to think of myself as lucky if upon answering the phone I get something as simple as "hi". It's more like "I need this ...", "go there", "where are you?!"
Is "technology" bringing us closer? No, I don't think so. It's making us more localizable, but it's also bringing us farther appart. Go have dinner with someone, if your party's phone rings, you don't even get a "excuse me, I'd like to take this". Phones have become some sort of NMI nowadays.
Phones in the classroom are even worse. I teach a class twice a week, and it's not uncommon for phones to ring wildy during class and students not even bothering to go outside to take the call. They just start talking at the spot. Once during a written test a student's phone rang and he was about to answer it, when I interrupted and asked what he was doing. She replied that the phone was ringing. "Yes, I can hear that, and I can also see that you are still writing your test." She couldn't grasp what the problem was.
So, yes, it's important to educate our children with respect to technology. It's also important to remind them that there's a world outside the digital one.
As with all changes, there are pros and cons
As a technologist and an early adopter, I have generally allowed my kids access to technology at a very young age. There are pros and cons to this.
Video games are a great example of the technological yo-yo: first of all, as Roberta Williams (the woman who started Sierra Games back in the 1980s) noted, interactive computer games are a big improvement over vegetating in front of TV shows, because they encourage active thought. However, video games also tend to be more violent and contain less meaningful moral context than (even) TV shows (and both are worse about that than most books). However, studies (sorry, I'm not looking that up now—take my word or not) have suggested that video games improve hand-eye-coordination, the rapid processing of visual information (TV helped with that, too!), and reasoning ability.
And you know there's going to be another "however� coming...
It seems plausible to me that too much time with computers and video games contributes to a short attention span and also to this kind of poor memory development. Of course, it's not the fact of the computer, but rather how we use it that does this—basically, we're letting them get over-stimulated too often. I've been trying to think about better activities for them to counter this effect (you can't just say "no� to what they're doing, there have to be alternatives available!). Fortunately, my kids do also like to read. Getting them to "play outside� is a bit more of a challenge (that's probably due to bad parental examples, I'm afraid).
On the other hand, the social reality of the Internet is an incredible thing. I'm part of an older group of moderators at an anime fan site which is also a social hang-out for a lot of adolescents and young adults in the 13-25 yr old range. Not only do I find them to have remarkable online interaction skills at such a young age, but I also am impressed with the friendships that are happening on these sites.
Even though this is just an English-language site, we have a remarkably global userbase, with kids from many different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. Internet communications tend to mask trivial distinctions of appearance, and emphasize matters of interest, so people will tend to talk to people they likely wouldn't in real life. For many, this is the first introduction to people who simply don't think the way they've been brought up to, and I've seen remarkable changes in understanding over the last 5-6 years that I've been participating in this site.
The result is that the coming generation has a global social cohesion unlike anything that existed in my youth. When tropical storms caused massive flood damage in SE Asia and the Pacific, we didn't just think "oh, those poor people in that far corner of the world�, we heard about a user who lost her goldfish. When you form personal bonds with people from different nations and cultures, like that, you have the basis for globally shared culture and a grass-roots support for social justice on a global scale. When these kids inherit the world, there are going to be positive changes.
What the real question in my mind is, is do we as parents understand the pros and cons of the technology to get the most benefit and least hazard from it? Rapid change requires us to stay on our feet, and it can be a real challenge to know what the right response to each new development is.
Technology is just like the
Technology is just like the guy in a relationship. The bad things about it are always noticed, whereas the good go unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is but fleeting. But the bad, alas, those are the ones that stick in people's heads. I for one think that the future is bright for our kids where technology is concerned.
It's not all bad...
You start your blog by mentioning the "deterioration of education, the substandard ability of teachers, and the (usually negative) impact of technology on the classical education" of children today. As a college student myself who grew up using technology more and more in conjunction with normal classroom schoolwork, I completely disagree that technology has had a mostly negative impact on the education of children.
The staggering amount of information that is now available to the children in schools now is undeniable. Whether this can be seen as too much information is debatable. Granted, a lot of what is out on the internet is pure nonsense and could be disregarded, with the proper instruction and supervision, using online resources has given students of all ages access to some otherwise unattainable information. You reference a seminar for primary school children in Arizona that teaches safe internet use. I think that this is definitely a perfect example of how the internet can be used safely with proper education.
You refer to your minister for education suggesting that "maybe the important thing about history was the context, and that the dates were secondary and far less engaging" and you say that she remarked "kids could get the dates from google." While technology should play a key role in children's education, I could not disagree more with these ideas about how to teach our children. Just because children, or anyone for that matter, has the ability to look up bits of knowledge on the internet, does not mean that classical teaching and learning methods should simply be discarded. It is my belief that the current teaching environment must be maintained, but perhaps with a few modifications to the curriculum. While I do think technology must now be integrated, if students rely too heavily upon the internet as a source of knowledge, the whole educational experience will become far too impersonal.
You say that "most of these kids are going to be using computers in their future careers, not hanging out at a printing press or using a quill and ink to work out graphs." I completely agree and would like to stress that technology absolutely needs to be integrated into the education of children, as new technology is what their future in the world will be all about. The world is a constantly changing place, and I feel that it is paramount that we prepare today's youth as early as possible for what they are without a doubt going to face after their formal education is complete.
I think the educational system is on the right track concerning the integration on technology into education, at least from my own experiences. As a student in college now, I am glad that I was able to experience and use technology throughout my previous educational experiences. It has affected me so much that now, I find computer science as my major, and I know that would never have come to be if it weren't for the use of technology and the internet in my schooling. I think this trend needs to continue and I can't wait to see what amazing things the next generation of children raised with technology will offer to society.
-Andrew Walker