text:
Aspen Heights residents finally moving in
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Five hundred students have been waiting 16 days to move into their apartments.
"Everything else has just been a normal move-in process," said Derek Wimmer, an Aspen Heights new resident.
It's just in time because school starts at Mizzou on Monday.
"I'm here now. I'm done with all of it and I think that I'm done before school, is really the important part," Wimmer said.
Aspen Heights says a wet winter and spring slowed construction on the complex in south Columbia.
Then there were issues with contractors -- a controversy over unpaid workers.
The company says this delay is a first.
"Throughout the winter and the spring we saw some heavy snowfall as well as a large amount of rainfall. We also had some different labor and construction material issues that continually pushed back the project," said Stuart Watkins, spokesman for Aspen Heights.
We've been asking what Aspen Heights is doing to make sure students in other towns don't have to wait like this.
"The organization has developed a task force to really break down what happened and why -- why the construction delayed and they will be assessing that for the next several weeks and months to ensure that this type of event doesn't happen again at any future properties," Watkins said.
Students are working quickly to get their stuff moved in and settled.
"Moving is moving, I'm going to get settled either way," Wimmer said.
While waiting for construction to finish, students chose to live in a hotel or push back their move-in date.
But there are a few dozen Aspen Heights who are still waiting to move in.
"We still have a phase four, we hope to see those individuals within the next couple of weeks," said Watkins.The 80 residents who are still waiting to move in have been set up with temporary housing until their apartments are finished.


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
Forgot Password? | Not a User? Sign up
SHEPHERDSVILLE - When Bullitt Lick Middle School teachers arrive at that moment of the day where they can relax, they go the old science classroom.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Pioneer News, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
If you are new to the award winning The Pioneer News and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
|ZIP Code:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm driving myself crazy trying to decide where and from whom to purchase my first packages from, so I thought I would ask a couple questions. There does not seem to be any local or even remotely close suppliers in the Texas panhandle or surrounding area, so picking up packages or nucs is out.
Do I take into account to choose a supplier that has a similar climate to what we have here? Will California or south Texas bees (or any other mild climate) winter well here where we get snow and ice storms?
I'm sure you all have your favorites regarding suppliers, but are there any I should avoid?
I'm freaking out that I will procrastinate too long and my lonely hives will stay lonely (once they get here, that is).
Thanks all...


text:
Something from writing/fixing others code :
If there is some parameter flags that cause variations of behavior of a subroutine - clearly comment this at the parameter definition and down in the code where trhe different modes take action. (Im not talking about simple subroutines but ones hundreds and thousands of lines long that it may not be productive to have a variant copy customized for each 'mode'.)
Especially if the scope of the differences cause odd side-effects or have important limitations.
Document those (if not anything else) becase of the amount of the time/effort it takes to trace thru the code again to figure out what it does and once you find it (as when fixing other peoples poorly documemnted/commented code) it can save the effort or repeating the detailed logic tracing.
Anything with weird/atypical/convoluted behavior should get priority for comments if there is little time for any done systematically (its just a fact in the real world that you dont always have the resources to do a full commenting/documentation).
And when I make many such comments I make them very plainly stand out so that its hard to miss (indicating that the codes behavior is something to be wary of)


text:
Old Chicken refers to a good looking older woman, and is used in context of "An old chicken makes good soup" meaning she can make for a very satisfying partner despite her years.
Did you get a good look at Lisa over there? Yeah she's quite the old chicken. No kidding but that old chicken would make some good soup.
by Rednoodle July 05, 2012


text:
I'm not a beekeeper, but I did buy a home recently in Joshua, and have a bee problem.
It's a triplewide manufactured home. Hasn't been lived in for 8 or 9 months. There is a colony living there, and they enter through the eves on two sides of of one section of the house.
The bees are not aggressive, I spent some time repairing siding underneath the entrances, and although they make a lot of noise, only one or two would come down to see what was going on. The most I have seen at one time is probably around 40 or 50 bees when something gets them stirred up (mowing, etc), but there's usually only about 10 out at a time, normally.
I do have two small children, and I'm currently doing repairs on the interior before we move in in about a month. I would like the bees removed. And I don't find it necessary to kill them, but they do find their way in the house, and there's a couple good sized honey stains on the ceiling.
I'm just looking for a little education and advice on the subject. If possible, I would like to know what price range I could be looking at. I have read some of the messages here, and understand that there are laws in place.
If someone wants the bees, then by all means, they're yours for the taking.
I have never used any pesticide on them. They haven't bothered me, so I haven't bothered them. But I do have a feeling that they won't be all that thrilled when I build the decks that I have planned that would be placed right beneath the entrances.
I appreciate any help, and if this forum is reserved for professional beekeepers, apologies in advance.


text:
I think he doesn't.
Yo Knicks fans! We open the season against the Bucks.
Full schedule comes out tomorrow I believe.
Mood: WOOF!
i hope the knicks are able to get beno udrih as the 3rd pg. every time i remember seeing him play his mid range jumper (off the dribble) is automatic.
Football has been very, very good to us.
After losing seasons 2013-15, the giants put up 11 wins in 16.. they are on way Back
But for now we can console ourselves with this fact-
# of Super Bowl victories since 1985:
1-Chicago, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Seattle
2-Washington, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore
3-San Francisco, Dallas, Denver
4-New York Giants!!!
Let's make it 5 in 2016 so we can be on a LINE NE again!!!
***Stat provided by "Schloss22"***
I was just on CBS sports and was looking through their offseason reports, when I stumbled across their report from LAST offseason (2012). Much of which was geared towards the Knicks losing Jeremy Lin in FA due to the "poison pill" that Houston put in.
Sooo, since it's pretty much gonna be quiet from now until the start of the season and I thought it would be cool to fill the time by looking back on the Jeremy Lin free agency one year later.
Some knicks fans thought we were giving away a unique talent that was going to be a mega-star, some thought we was a flash in the pan player who was quickly figured out by the league and was very limited (i.e. can't create going left), some thought we would be somewhere in between.
So, what do you guys think? One year later, were the knicks right in letting Lin go? Do you think he could still grow further as a player?
All Hail The New York Giants!!


text:
The office of Maine's secretary of state has been around since we split from Massachusetts in 1820. In the intervening years, the secretariat has been occupied by slugs and sycophants, by the politically ambitious and the politically adept, by up-and-comers and past-their-primers. But until now, they've all had one thing in common.
They understood that as long as they successfully completed a few relatively simple — but important — tasks, no one cared what else they did.
While searching through the Dumpster behind the State Archives Record Center in Hallowell (coincidentally, an agency overseen by the secretary of state), I recently discovered a letter from a possibly mythical 19th-century secretary, who had this to say about his responsibilities:
"Dude, ne'er has there been a sweeter gig than being secretary. As long as you make certain the staff gets its work done, nobody gives a farthing if you spend all day drinking and wenching. Methinks I am totally psyched."
The language may be archaic, but the meaning is clear. To hold this important office, you didn't need to be an organizational genius. Or any sort of genius. All you had to do was hire smart people to make sure the paper that needed to get pushed got pushed. You also took pains to hire a competent assistant to handle requests from influential legislators for low-number license plates. (The secretary is chosen by — and beholden to — the majority party in the Legislature.) And you spent as little time as possible in the office, knowing that your presence had absolutely nothing to do with the efficient operation of the bureaucracy you were nominally charged with overseeing.
This model of secretary-of-stating worked fine for the better part of two centuries, until 2004, when Democrat Matthew Dunlap assumed the post. Dunlap had prepared for the job by serving stints as a bartender (anybody know what goes in a Scotch on the rocks?) and radio-show host (is this thing on?), although his career later faltered, and he was forced to become a state representative.
Nevertheless, he was chosen by the Legislature as the new secretary, after which he set about applying his many skills to the post.
In 2005, Dunlap oversaw the instillation of a new computer system at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that resulted in long lines and delays in processing license renewals. He blamed the problem on too many people showing up at BMV offices all at once.
In 2006, he missed a federal deadline for upgrading the state's voter registration system, a project that cost over $17 million. By early 2007, Dunlap told the Bangor Daily News, "We're a little behind schedule, but not a lot." Prophetic words, as it turned out.
Also in '07, a TV reporter did some Dumpster diving behind the State Archives and came up with documents filled with personal information, including Social Security numbers, that had been improperly disposed of. Dunlap promised to get a shredder.
While fixing that little glitch (Ouch! My fingers!), Dunlap also set out to make the electoral process more efficient and less expensive. He proposed doing away with primary elections. "It's a party concern," he said. "It's not a state concern." Both party and state disagreed.
Table of Contents
Cover Archive
Masthead | Authors | Contact us
See all articles by:
All Slideshows


text:
Article by Rahul Panwar first posted on http://linuxexplore.com/
A chroot on Unix operating systems is an operation that changes the apparent root directory for the current running process and its children. A program that is run in such a modified environment cannot name (and therefore normally not access) files outside the designated directory tree. The term "chroot" may refer to the chroot(2) system call or the chroot(8) wrapper program. The modified environment is called a "chroot jail". From Wikipedia.
Why it is required? If you want to set up your Linux box as a web hosting server for its users, you may need to give SFTP access. But they can get access to whole system Linux tree, just for reading but still very unsecure. So it is mandatory to lock them in their home directory.
There are many other applications, it's just a common example, so lets start its configuration.


text:
The Utah National Guard Profile...Team Chat
Conference: Armed Forces
Want to sponsor Utah NG section? Click here NOW!
Have you located a problem with the data shown? Please go to "Past History", select the appropriate decade, then year and then report it from there.
Web & Fan sites for Utah National Guard
Utah National Guard Conference Changes over the years...
Utah National Guard Championships/Crucial Games won...
The 2016 ScheduleTeam Chat
Opponent Standings for 2016 & 2015
All time records vs. Armed Forces teams
Armed Forces Standings for 2016 & 2015
Utah NG Biography / HistoryTeam Chat
Utah NG Statistics / Other links...Team Chat
All records are in W-L-T format. Please see the Helpful Info tab for important info on stats below.
First Game: 1902-11-01, at Utah (W, 11 - 0)
Overall Record: 1-0-0 (1 Games)
Record at home: 0-0-0 (0 Games)
Highest Scoring Game: at Utah, on 1902-11-01. Total points: 11
Biggest Victory Margin: at Utah, on 1902-11-01. Final Score: 11 - 0 (11 Points)
Biggest Defeat Margin:
Longest Consecutive Winning Streak: 1 Games
Longest Consecutive Losing Streak: Games
Record in Shutout games: 1-0-0 (1 Games)
Games with data that needs clarificationTeam Chat
No discernable issues with schedule.... yet!
Legend Icons and other helpful information...Team Chat


text:
Magnets are a classic way to promote your brand and increase your stickiness factor throughout countless establishments. How many times a day do you go to the office fridge? How about your fridge at home? Magnets provide a stealthy means for keeping your brand name as fresh in the mind of prospects as the food in their fridge. Look through our inventive collection of magnets and clips, or work with our team at ePromos to locate that one design that'll be sure to stick.
Unique custom business card magnet will display your logo on their fridges and cabinets all day!
A combination of two popular items, the promotional magnet and the T-shirt!
Your logo magnet will be visible all day!
A recycling bin shaped corrugated cardboard custom magnet with magnetic backing that really gets your eco message across.
Unique promotional magnet business card will display your logo on their fridges and cabinets all day!
A corrugated cardboard promotional logo magnet business card that will help roll out your eco-friendly message.
Plant your logo on any metal surface with these flexible 30 mil promo magnet.
Your personalized magnet will be visible all day at home or in the office.
This imprinted magnet will kick your promotions up a notch.
Your logo magnet will cover the whole Empire State.
Your logo will be visible all day on the custom imprinted magnet!
Your custom magnet will be visible all day!
Dig up promotional success with this flexible 30 mil promotional magnet.
A personalized magnet or a custom imprinted picture frame? Make things easy on yourself and give both with this product!
Should you give a business card or a personalized magnet? Give both with this flexible personalized magnet custom business card!
Open the door to great and inexpensive promotions with this custom imprinted magnet.
Dial up promotional success with this 30 mil flexible promotional magnet.
It's the number one way of making sure your logo is seen all day with this promo magnet.
Your custom magnet will be visible all day.
This promotional magnet will let your clients see the big picture of your logo all day long.
Make your promotion all better with this flexible custom magnet.
This truck shaped Flexible Custom Magnet is a great way to move product.
Think safety first with your logo sticking on any metal surface with these flexible 30 mil promotional magnet.
Your logo will cover the whole Sunshine State on the custom imprinted magnet.
Your logo magnet will be visible all day!
This promotional magnet is a great gift for church goers to keep your message visible on their fridges 365 days a year.
This promotional magnet is a smart investment for your company logo.
Your business card will be visible all day on this 30 mil imprinted magnet.
Your promo magnet will be visible all day!
Take a bigger slice of the pie with this custom imprinted magnet!


text:
The next WorldCanvass will explore the complicated and controversial issues surrounding the legality and use of tobacco and marijuana with a special focus on the tension between personal liberty and the public good. Host Joan Kjaer will moderate the conversation with guests from the fields of dentistry, psychiatry, pharmacy, public health, and law. The February 3 program begins at 5 p.m. at FilmScene and is free and open to the public
The UI's "Food for Thought" project—its first ever theme semester—offers a platform for engagement on campus and throughout the state around one of life's constants…food. Join host Joan Kjaer at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 20 at FilmScene in downtown Iowa City as she and her guests discuss the ways in which food affects us as individuals and binds us as members of communities.
On Saturday, Dec. 20, the University of Iowa streamed two special commencement ceremonies featuring commentary in Chinese: the Undergraduate Commencement and the College of Engineering commencement. Watch these videos on our website now.
When University of Iowa senior Kayla Cemensky was weighing her options for study abroad destinations, she found herself intrigued by Cuba. Intrigued, and a little nervous. Cemensky is taking a course on art and literature during her stay, but after President Barack Obama announced that the United States is restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than 50 years, Cemensky said she expects to learn about more than just culture.


text:
Despite the progress of neuroscience, I still don't know my own mind
Brian Hayes
Frances Crick, who took up neuroscience after conquering molecular biology, wrote in 1979 about the prospects for understanding the brain: "It is no use asking for the impossible, such as, say, the exact wiring diagram for a cubic millimeter of brain tissue and the way all its neurons are firing." Current brain-mapping projects do exactly what Crick believed impossible.
A goal of the Connectome Project at Harvard is to image the microanatomy of a cubic millimeter of mouse brain in sufficient detail to resolve individual synapses and create a full connectivity map. The first step is to slice the tiny block of tissue into 20,000 sections, each 50 nanometers thick. Each slice is imaged by an electron microscope with a resolution of 5 nanometers. The resulting data set will be about 800 terabytes. The second phase of the project is more difficult: Identifying features of cells in the individual images and correctly aligning the features in successive slices to reconstruct the full three-dimensional geometry. For these tasks to be completed at reasonable speed and cost, both phases of the operation must be automated. A group led by Jeff W. Lichtman and Hanspeter Pfister of Harvard has recently reported on a pilot project with a cube of tissue 30 micrometers on a side.
As for the second part of Crick's impossible request, a manifesto for the Brain Activity Map declares: "We propose to record every action potential from every neuron within a circuit—a task we believe is feasible." Admittedly, the task is not feasible with present instruments, which either average the activity of large ensembles of cells or isolate small numbers of single cells. One approach to bridging the gap would rely on arrays of nanoelectrodes to record simultaneously from many cells. The alternatives are optical techniques, in which molecules or nanoparticles implanted in neurons emit light in response to ion flows or voltage changes.
The new European project, led by Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, seems to go well beyond Crick's impossible dream. Within a decade, Markram proposes to build a computer simulation of the entire human brain at a level of detail fine enough to include structural and physiological features of individual cells. Then he envisions linking the model brain to a virtual body in a virtual environment. He even mentions looking for cognitive abilities like those of a human infant.
Such a model can be built without first having a full wiring diagram of the brain, Markram says; its assembly will be guided by the same genetic and developmental rules that operate in the embryo. And it can be built without first ascertaining the nature of memory or the neural encoding of information; as a matter of fact, the simulation should help resolve those enigmas, according to Markram. Europe is now making a €1 billion bet that these grandiose plans will succeed.
Markram's Human Brain Project is not the first program with that name; the U.S. National Academy of Sciences launched an identically named research effort more than 20 years ago, when President George H. W. Bush declared that the 1990s would be "the decade of the brain." It's a little discouraging to be starting down the same path again, with the big questions still unanswered. But, as the owner of a brain that's still curious about itself, I believe the quest must go on.
Community Guidelines: Disqus Comments
The Art and Science of Communicating Science
American Scientist Classics
Women in Science
Purchase a Back Issue
2014 Annual Index
The Age of Nuclear Weapons
25 Years in North Carolina
Of Possible Interest
Letters to the Editors: Mosquito Vectors of Zika
Feature Article: The Challenge of Survival for Wild Infant Baboons
Feature Article: The Penguin's Palette: More Than Black and White
Other Related Links
The Connectome Project at the Harvard Center for Brain Science
The Human Connectome Project
The Brain Atlas of the Allen Institute for Brain Science
The BRAIN Initiative (Brain Activity Mapping)
The European Commission Human Brain Project
© 2016 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


text:
KING CRIMSON :: Larks' Tongues in Aspic [40th Anniversary Series Limited Edition]:: Discipline US:: $120:: There have been countless expensive multi-disc re-assessments of classic albums (this year alone, T. Rex's The Slider and The Velvet Underground and Nico, for instance)— but this 13-CDs-and-a-Blu-ray examination of Fripp & Co.'s 1972 proto-metal prog-and-skronk-fest is a refreshing over-analysis of an infrequently investigated classic. A battery of mixes, demos, and studio film footage allow the discerning listener to explore the layered insanity of, say, percussionist Jamie Muir's array of recorded mouse screams in the coda of album closer "Larks' Tongues in Aspic pt II."
Table of Contents
Cover Archive
Masthead | Authors | Contact us
See all articles by:
All Slideshows


text:
Some creeps tore apart one of my hives and sprayed RAID in it. Bees are still there, some dead ones out front. I hope they make it, as they are still clustering. But will the RAID contaminate the boxes and frames if hit?
Some creeps tore apart one of my hives and sprayed RAID in it. Bees are still there, some dead ones out front. I hope they make it, as they are still clustering. But will the RAID contaminate the boxes and frames if hit?
First, I hope you called the sheriff and filed a report. I am not sure what the active life is for these chemicals. It probably varies by active ingredient. I think I would try to move the bees to new equipment if you have it and wash/soak the old boxes. If you can smell insecticide on the frames I think I would pitch them. Wax absorbs a lot of chemicals so I would get rid of it.
Like hilreal said, call the sheriff or police. File a formal complaint so you have it on record in case of future incidents. I don't know what to tell you, hilreal pretty much covered what I'd say.
I do have a couple of questions...were the can(s?) of RAID left laying nearby? Were they empty or half full? Half full cans means to me the bees might have got some shots in...maybe. If they maybe got a few shots in then definitely ask around about anybody getting several bee stings recently...maybe even ask the local ER (you never know!). Is there a chance of fingerprints? Smooth cans are nice for fingerprints.
Best wishes, hope the colony pulls through!
Well the can was empty, did file a report. They are not going to waste time on this...I will say it looks like the front porch got the worst of it. I looked in there in the evening and they were clustered, pretty good size of them. I smelled honey coming from the entrance.
Look on the ingredient label. Probably cypermethrin, which does not have a long half life.
If the bees are still alive, probably they will be fine as the active ingredient will only last a couple days at most, and if they are clustered, it will be gone before they contact it.
Do not allow the authorities to ignore this -- I'm quite certain $250 is well above the level at which vandalism mutates into criminal mischief, which is much more involved. If the guy at the desk won't do anything, find out who his boss is and keep going up until you get someone off their ass and at LEAST get fingerprints on file. Never too early to nip criminal activity in the bud.
I would replace the bottom box and bottom board and put a box on top with drawn frames if you have them. Clean your contaminated box and bottom board with soapy water and reuse. Throw away the bottom frames. Did you find the queen?
Yes, I'd be the squeaky wheel with the sheriff department or whoever. How about calling your state agricultural office and state apiary department. Squeak, squeak, squeak....
We have a guy in our club that lost 6 to 12ga slugs last year the "law" has a good idea who but no proof
ralph we all like the idea of picken shot
Ed, KA9CTT profanity is IGNORANCE made audible
you can`t fix stupid not even with duct tape
Mike Gerard is the apiary inspector for NE Illinois including Lake County.
I have to chime in/vent on this. It really makes me boil up to hear some idiots would do this! I have mutliple trails cameras for deer hunting and when I started beekeeping this past Spring I considered putting one up to see if critters or IDIOTS like these would tamper with my costly investment. I thought, naw, there are a lot of jerks out there but no one would really be a complete *****/IDIOT and mess with stinging insects!!! Well sorry to say, I think I will put up one of my cameras by me now, just in case. To all of you, consider looking at buying one of these. For about $150 you can get a motion trail camera that takes pictures and video with sound and the flash is black, so the morans(if they come back again) won't even know that they are going to get busted! You can also get a infrared flash(faint red flash) camera with video as well for about $80. Anyone interested in wanting more info. on these cameras, let me know. I have my eye on a few new models myself.
As for the cops, I agree with the comments about, your beekeeping is quite the investment. Make sure the cops realize this and push to get fairness!
As for the hives, in this case, it is probably better to be safe than sorry. I would replace anything that seems to have gotten the worst of it.
It wouldn't hurt to add a sign by your hives that read, This property protected by Smith&Wesson!
If the police don't think this is significant, have them ask their department psychologist what kinds of behaviors torturing and killing small animals leads to.
Having retired from law enforcement after 24 years I can tell you that police or Sheriff's departments would not place this very high on the priority list without a little media attention. It's not that they don't care, it's the balancing act they have to deal with of investigating other more serious crimes such as murders, rapes, child abuse , etc.
Plumber, if you could contact local media for help in solving this I'm sure you would get a more positive response. Once it's out in the media, police start getting calls wanting to know if there are any leads which puts pressure of them to focus more on their investigation.
From my experience, I can tell you that your probably looking at teenage boys that live close by or a disgruntled neighbor who doesn't like your bees. There are probably fingerprints on the Raid can that could be easily lifted if it hasn't been contaminated by others handling it.
I swapped out boxes. I could see a film on the deeps. I did not see many dead bees. Most likely done by someone with limited knowledge of beehives.
Bees dead. Found the queen, no capped brood. Bummer....


text:
One year later: girl survives two days trapped in car
Family recovers, residents say Highway 55 accident site is safer
JASPER - A year after a crash left a nine-year-old hanging upside down next to her dying father, the family continues to recover and a 100 yard stretch of Highway 55 is now protected by a new guardrail.
The Nov. 11, 2011 crash killed Douglas Landon, 39, but his daughter Jordan survived for two days by eating Pop-Tarts and Gatorade.
In an interview Monday, close family friend Jessica Wilburn said Jordan is excelling in school and carrying on without her devoted father.
"I saw Jordan at a birthday party last month, and I can tell you she's doing great," Wilburn said at her Jasper home. "She was happy-go-lucky, looking at my new-born excited, and I know one day she'll be a great mom and grow up to be a great person."
Jordan's mother, Claudette "Cissy" Leohmann, was devastated to lose Douglas, her boyfriend of 20 years. Wilburn said Leohmann is slowly becoming her old self again.
"She's doing good. She's upset that Doug is gone, but she said he's in a better place now and the Lord is looking after her and her kids."
A guardrail installed Sept. 27 now stretches the length of the crash trajectory. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, four cars ran off the road in the same area between 2007 and 2011.
Jordan and her mother have since moved away from the neighborhood near the accident site. Friends say the two are now living closer to family members in Craven County.
Previous Story: Report - sleep deprivation causes horrific crash
JASPER - After eight months of analysis, investigators concluded that a father was in a chronically sleep deprived state, a condition that caused him to lose control of his car with his daughter inside.
Douglas Landon, 39, was driving along Highway 55 with his 9-year-old daughter Nov. 11, 2011. Based on interviews with family and the last people who saw Douglas alive, investigators said in a 180 page report that the man worked a 10-12 hour day and had restless nights of sleep in the days and weeks before the crash.
Landon and his long time girlfriend, Claudette Leohmann, were taking care of a newborn baby, and slept unusual hours. Troopers noted evidence that showed no attempt by Landon to skid or swerve from the ditch, indicating that the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
Surveillance video was also a critical piece of evidence used to reach the final conclusion that sleep deprivation caused the accident. Landon is shown at least twice appearing to doze off at the Jasper Mini Mart. The clerk who last saw Landon reported to troopers that the father, a regular customer, never appeared to be as tired as he was the night of the crash.
Landon was driving between 51-55 miles per hour, and no alcohol or drugs were involved. An original theory that the back right tire could have blown proved to be incorrect.
Previous Story: ME releases Douglas Landon toxicology report
CHAPEL HILL - The Medical Examiner's office released the toxicology report in the death of Douglas Landon, the man who wrecked with his daughter in the car Highway 55 near Turkey Quarter Creek Road last month.
The report, issued by the state's ME office in Chapel Hill, stated that Landon had no alcohol in his system at the time of the crash.
The report about Landon's cause of death has not yet been completed by the state.
Landon crashed his car off the side of the road on Friday Nov. 11. In that wreck, his daughter Jordan Landon, 9, survived for two days before the car was found.
Investigators found that the girl survived with the help of Pop-Tarts and Gatorade, which she and her father had just bought from the Jasper Mini-Mart before the crash.
Previous Story: 9-year-old survives 2 days in car wreck
CRAVEN COUNTY - A 9-year-old North Carolina girl ate Pop-Tarts and drank Gatorade while trapped for two days in a car wreck that killed her father.
Jordan Landon of Cove City, N.C., was airlifted to a hospital Sunday night after crews cut her out of the vehicle that had been trapped upside down in a culvert since Friday night, the North Carolina Highway Patrol told The Associated Press.
Her father, 39-year-old Douglas Landon, was killed in the crash.
A person walking by saw the car off a state highway and called 911 late Sunday afternoon, more than 40 hours after the pair was believed to have crashed on their way to a store, Sgt. David Clifton told the AP.
Temperatures at night had dropped into the 30s in the area in eastern North Carolina.
The little girl is talkative and is expected to fully recover, Clifton said.
In his final moments, a family friend said Douglas Landon was trying to protect his daughter.
"He was curled up in a ball with his arm right across his chest and his other arm pushed out across Jordan. He was trying to hold her and trying to keep her protected, he was a good father," Kevin Brinson said.


text:
You missed it This great deal for Top Shelf Living is over. But don't despair, we've got more great deals every day.
Related Deals That You May Like
Top Shelf Living
Set of Four Stainless Steel Wine Drops
78% recommendedin LivingSocial customer ratings
When wining and dining your latest paramour, the last thing you want is a watered-down evening. Save your bon mots and your cocktails from a lackluster fate with this deal from Top Shelf Living: a set of four wine drops for $15 (a $30 value). Stow these tiny drops in the freezer for four hours, then drop a few in your favorite drink to chill your glass from the inside out without the waterlog. While you and your love heat things up, the wine drops will hold their chilly temperatures for 45 minutes out of the freezer. With a mirror finish, these stainless steel spheres add sparkle to your drinks -- and hopefully keep the sparks flying, too.
PAID VALUE EXPIRES ON May 24, 2022
PROMOTIONAL VALUE EXPIRES ON May 29, 2013


text:
^^^ same here, a lot of talking but not from Sylva
Any new developments?
Seriously nothing?
Guys, this gun has been sent to the RCMP for classification. This can take a few month to be completed. No sense in getting all excited until an FRT is provided.
The North Sylva Co.
Thanks for the heads-up !
Its so hard not to get excited but thank you.
That's good news, thanks for the update.this gun has been sent to the RCMP for classification.
- Facta Non Verba -
They can 'assess' for years.
Arte et Marte
Arte et Marte


text:
Items in Cart:
At FORA abandoned, abused and lost dogs are assured a warm, dry place to rest in safety while waiting to be adopted.
A donation of R50 will go towards food and blankets which is much needed at this chilly time!
Please see below some of the wonderful chararcters that have been helped by FORA in the past. We currently have ±600 dogs and 200 cats looking for forever homes.
We have moved to new premises (which we still need a lot of financial assistance to complete the purchase of) and the food supplies are running low. Your help will be appreciated more than you can imagine!
FORA is a non-profit organisation caring for rescued and abused dogs and cats in Roodepoort. Thank you for your support!
Visit our website for updates on the fundraising for our new property www.fora.org.za


text:
Town Square
Amazing Grace
Original post made by Daunna, Fairmeadow, on Feb 2, 2007
There is no reason anyone should be reviled for championing an educational program of merit. There is no reason anyone should receive hate mail and phone calls for engaging in educational advocacy. All of us--choice supporters or choice opponents--would do well to take a page from Grace's book, and remind ourselves that each of us deserves respect for advocating for our kids, regardless of our viewpoints.
We all have dreams for our children's education. Let's not denigrate each other's dreams. When a new idea comes along, let's critique the proposal without crucifying the advocate.
Comments (55)
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on Feb 2, 2007 at 1:57 pm
But that is the Palo Alto way--people like to claim that they are different here--all discussions and forums are carried out in a civil manner, with discourse that does not contain insults, personal attacks or comments that my abe construed as not contributing to the high level of discussion. that is until someone says something that people do not agree with or there something that the "special" citiznes of PA do not like. WItness the attacks on Grace Mah, remember how PA residents who do not like certain houses label them as monster homes or taco Bell homes. Think back to the days of the discussion on gas powered leaf-blowers when they were derided as third world backpacks (no racism there considering the ethnicity of the vast majority of gardeners).
Yes, PA residents like to put up a front that they are civil--just don;t cross them-then you will feel their wrath
a resident of Juana Briones School
on Feb 2, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Given the title, I feel it appropriate to add an AMEN to the whole thing!
If Grace got hate mail or phone calls,that is appalling!! If so, that is shameful.
Whoever you are, cut it out!
a resident of Midtown
on Feb 3, 2007 at 1:20 am
I personally did not follow the whole MI controversy closely, and I don't have a strong opinion on any of the personalities involved in the debate.
What surprised me, and yes shocked me, is that a group of private persons with an agenda (whether they are anonymous or not) was allowed to fund the feasibility study for a program that they would like implemented by a public school district. Is that an accepted policy?
This really surprises and me and I find it disquieting. A public school district is there to support a global school population of unequal means and resources. Should such a public entity decide to implement programs on the basis of what group can afford to push and fund feasibity studies for those programs? I don't think this should be the case.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Feb 3, 2007 at 7:09 am
Grace Mah for School Board !?!
a resident of Fairmeadow
on Feb 3, 2007 at 7:24 am
This was done by district policy.
Alternative programs generally involve start-up costs and sometimes ongoing costs that exceed the normal cost of other educational programs. District policy requires parents to pick up excess costs. For example, a technology program is likely to be costly to set up and maintain. An immersion program has start-up costs (acquire foreign language library and teaching materials, develop a curriculum, train teachers in immersion methodology, etc.); once established (6 years for K-5), an immersion program costs the same as regular educational programs.
New this time around was the administration's plan to do a feasibility study, in which administrators traveled to other places to visit other immersion program, see how they were run, what kinds of problems/successes they had, what curriculums they used, etc. The administration estimated that the first phase of this would cost up to $66K, and since it was considered a start-up cost, parents would have to front the money. The $66K estimate was deliberately high, and in fact, only about $51K was used. If an MI program is brough about later, there will be more start-up costs to which the unused funds would apply; if MI never happens, the district made a "profit" of $15K. It's not refundable.
a resident of another community
on Feb 3, 2007 at 8:00 am
I think the Board owes an apology to the people whose money they took, and at least to refund the money that wasn't spent.
Yes, the money was given with "no strings attached", but frankly it is like being given a very expensive "no strings attached" present...the assumption is that if you accept it, there is some degree of reciprocal emotion attached to the acceptance.
I believe that taking donations, anonymous or not, in order to decide whether or not a new program ( or decide which new books, or which computer vendor..you get the idea) should come into the district is unethical, or at the very least opens the door to unintended unethical tones, and should not be done.
This is different from taking private, even anonymous,donations to fund something which has already been decided without any financial influence.
Say the district goes through the next year, then decides to implement Mandarin throughout elementary schools ( just making a story here)...Then picks the curriculum and the equipment on the basis of what is needed for whatever program they choose.
THEN it calls for donations to help pay for the already chosen schoolbooks for all the kids, or for already chosen computer language CDs for kids to use in the library, or already chosen type of language lab at each school, or something like that.
This is different from taking money before any one of the decision steps, which can have an influence, even unintended, on decisions. Especially, and this is where the suspicions of anonymous donations comes in, if there are anonymous donations from a book publisher, and then we end up choosing the book published by that publisher.
Maybe this was the way the District decided to proceed on this MI case, but that doesn't make it right.
a resident of College Terrace
on Feb 3, 2007 at 11:26 am
If Grace was such a stand-up community member, she would have insisted on revealing the 7 names of those who gave 66,000 clams for the MI feasibility study. One fund-matching donor alone gave $33,000.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 3, 2007 at 11:58 am
The rules on anonymous donations is not Grace's responsibility, and it is silly to suggest after the fact that she should now reveal names.
It is up to the district to set a policy, and they have failed to do it. I am in favor of transparency throughout the district, and that should extend to revealing the names of donors for a feasibility study. There should be no anonymous donations whatsoever to the district. In this way, we could avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
The board should get its act together: we need clean government.
a resident of Fairmeadow
on Feb 3, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I don't think anyone can feel good about the way the finances were handled.
I've lived and traveled in countries where the only way anyone could get thiings done was to pay the price. Gates opened with money, stayed closed without. That's kind of how this process felt--except that it was done very publicly, the money didn't go to line any individual's pocket, and the money did fund educational research of a sort. Playing by the rules doesn't mean you have to like them.
Although the new rules for evaluating the merits of a proposed alternative program do not call for a feasibility study, that's what the administration said it would need to do before it could recommend for or against Mandarin Immersion. Some of that work/travel was quite necessary, but I was surprised at how much reinventing of the wheel was done. But what choice do parents have if they want choice?
There were a lot of differences between the situation in 1995 with Spanish Immersion and the way things are now under the new policies. Some of the changes are very good, but the policy was designed for the district to respond to a proposal's potential within a short time, without huge investments of staff time. The district needs to find a way to do limited analysis to determine educational merit, and then let the program go forward as a pilot. The concept of SI was understood when it was approved, but the implementation and start-up were unplanned. That was badly done. MI, in contrast, is been overstudied and overplanned--all without a go-ahead. There needs to be a happy medium--and a cheaper price tag to move forward from the board.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 3, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Agreed. MI played by the rules set out by the district. The district needs to change the rules to make the process transparent.
And the district should have a more straight-forward policy on choice programs. If they don't want them, they should just say so. As an onlooker, I thought they treated you shabbily: they asked you to jump through hoops; you did, and they still said no.
Is this a way to run a school district??? Sooo much time wasted by everyone, and the board is to blame.
a resident of College Terrace
on Feb 3, 2007 at 12:41 pm
[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Barron Park
on Feb 4, 2007 at 12:57 pm
"If Grace got hate mail or phone calls,that is appalling!! If so, that is shameful."
Pauline, I absolutely agree.
"Grace Mah for School Board !?!"
Bored, I sure hope you're kidding. :-)
a resident of Crescent Park
on Mar 3, 2007 at 10:37 am
Grace has been quoted in all the local papers lamenting the fact that PACE has no other choice but to petition for a charter school now that PAUSD has made the decision that MI is not going to be a new choice program at this time. She also claims that PACE means no harm to the district.
I have an interesting suggestion for Grace. How about taking your amazing talents, tenacity, committment, support system and turning them towards Sacramento. I'm specifically speaking of working to help change legislation regarding charter schools and how they may have negative impact on basic aid distircts in certain situations. Once you have helped make those changes to the charter school laws, then you can bring a charter school petition to the district with the certainty of knowing that PACE will be doing no harm. It may mean a sacrifice to your timetable, but I am suggesting that you do indeed have another choice about where to go from here.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 3, 2007 at 10:31 pm
[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 3, 2007 at 11:13 pm
[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 7, 2007 at 12:04 am
If immersion kids outperform their peers how come Escondido kids don't?
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 7, 2007 at 7:12 am
Escondido =not SI.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 7, 2007 at 12:01 pm
A large chunk of Escondido is SI. The immersion effect should pull up the scores by your reasoning. Instead what you get is a drop in the 2/3 grades and some catching up around 5th grade. That's according to Escondido's principal.
The immersion effect is knowledge of a second language, the rest of the benefits are a bit more iffy. There doesn't seem to be a good study on the effects of immersion programs on writing in English.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 7, 2007 at 8:21 pm
"The immersion effect should pull up the scores by your reasoning. Instead what you get is a drop in the 2/3 grades and some catching up around 5th grade. That's according to Escondido's principal. The immersion effect is knowledge of a second language, the rest of the benefits are a bit more iffy."
No, sorry, this is just guesswork by you with no basis in reality.
There are many studies with statistical data showing that immersion raises math and English scores by the end of elementary.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 8, 2007 at 11:02 am
Immersion parent - do you deny what OhlonePar actually said - that scores are first lower in around grades 2 and 3, with catchup occuring toward 5th and 6th? If you are denying this - you may want to refer to previous posts by Grace Mah where she discusses the well known 'second grade panic' effect in immersion programs, where parents need to be encouraged to stick it out because students are behind.
Are you telling us that you have statistics to show that ENGLISH speakers do better in ENGLISH when taught in MANDARIN?
Please provide those.
I believe in fact you will point us to the Lindholm Leary links that show that ESL (Non English Speaking) students do better academically in all subjects when taught in their home language and in English. Those slides are primarily about Spanish Immersion. But not only that, Lindhold Leary being a single source, AND a vocal proponent of MI programs (in fact the only source that is ever provided as evidence on this subject), can not be considered a credible source. Do you have any unbiased sources?
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 8, 2007 at 11:38 am
"Are you telling us that you have statistics to show that ENGLISH speakers do better in ENGLISH when taught in MANDARIN?"
"Please provide those."
See Lindholm-Leary.
"I believe in fact you will point us to the Lindholm Leary links that show that ESL (Non English Speaking) students do better academically in all subjects when taught in their home language and in English. Those slides are primarily about Spanish Immersion."
No, I will point you to Linholm-Leary data showing native ENGLISH speakers and NON-NATIVE English speakers in MANDARIN immersion match or outperform their district peers in English and math.
"Do you have any unbiased sources?"
Lindholm-Leary. If a nutritional researcher told you you to eat your vegetables, would you discount his research because he based his advice on it? Your concern about bias is irrational. LL's research has been published in peer-reviewed journals. It's unassailable.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 8, 2007 at 12:46 pm
1. You just inserted two caveats - changes to your original assertion:
a. "match or" Matching is different than outperforming as in your original statement
b. "their district peers". To give any weight or value to this statement we must be provided with the quality of the performance of the district. Its no big accomplishment to have a bunch of kids from a poor performing district match their district peers when given special attention. In fact, its no accomplishment at all to match an otherwise failing district.
People in PAUSD that are considering MI will be mislead if they think MI will 'match THEIR district peers' in performance.
The studies are done in districts with a high percentage of ELL students, meaning they are struggling districts and students to start with.
2) Please point us to the LL results specifically on MANDARIN, showing Native English speakers (Non-Mandarin speakers), outperforming their district peers in English.
PAUSD isn't even accomplishing this feat with its well established, well respected Spanish Immersion program.
Better yet, why don't you show us the test results from one of the sample schools used in the MI feasibility study?
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 8, 2007 at 2:42 pm
"a. "match or" Matching is different than outperforming as in your original statement"
Sorry, I meant "match or outperform."
"b. "their district peers". To give any weight or value to this statement we must be provided with the quality of the performance of the district. Its no big accomplishment to have a bunch of kids from a poor performing district match their district peers when given special attention. In fact, its no accomplishment at all to match an otherwise failing district."
No, the apples-to-apples comparison is district peers. In any case, one of the programs studied was CLIP, and Cupertino is hardly a failing district. In third grade English, the CLIP kids, both English speakers and Chinese speakers, scored higher than district averages and on par with PAUSD English-only kids. So, if everything remains equal, you can expect PAUSD MI kids to outperform PAUSD English-only kids in English.
"2) Please point us to the LL results specifically on MANDARIN, showing Native English speakers (Non-Mandarin speakers), outperforming their district peers in English."
See the slideshow prepared March 2006 on Chinese Immersion for PAUSD.
"PAUSD isn't even accomplishing this feat with its well established, well respected Spanish Immersion program."
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 8, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Proof of SI performance - see Escondido's SIP presentation from 2006. Hard copies were handed out at the SIP board meetings last fall, I don't know if or where they are online. Probably have to go to the district to get a hard copy. That Escondido file has the following tables in the back:
CSTLEA (California Standar Test English Language Arts)
% Proficient/Advanced
Non-SI SI
2nd 76% 72%
3rd 78% 60%
4th 88% 92%
5th 86% 84%
math results, a little closer...
Star Results CST Math
% Proficient and Advanced
Non-SI SI
2nd 100% 81%
3rd 63% 81%
4th 93% 88%
5th 92% 91%
As a prospective parent, do you feel comfortable in saying PAUSD's Spanish Immersion would give your child an OUTPERFORM result relative to PAUSD standard in English? (More likely a 'match' to slightly below average result) and same with Math. Note this is not a comparison to PAUSD overall, this is just a comparison to Escondido school. Escondido is not one of the higher performing schools.
Prospective MI parents might ask themseleves what this would look like compared to Hoover? or Duveneck?
But more importantly given that MANDARIN is 3-4 times harder language to learn, would you expect to get this result in a Mandarin Class run by PAUSD?
Would you expect to get this result in an independently run start up school district that was managed by ??? (not managed by PAUSD)?
(Charter law defines a charter as an independent school district.)
point b. 'one of the district studied was CLIP'. Funny, during the year long MI Choice debate, when repeatedly asked for CLIP performance results including demographic test scores, attrition and graduation rates, they were not provided. The feasibility study did not provide any performance statistics for any of the programs they used as comparisons.
Where are the Cupertino performance statistics? Web site? Or on file at the PAUSD district offices? Or LL published? Where are they?
The 'apples to apples' comparison to find out if a kid is doing better in immersion than his own district is apples to apples for that purpose only (that kid compared to that district). You can not say from that result that a kid will do better than the California average, or the PAUSD average, unless your study presented that data. It does not. It compares to kids in their own district. This is an exceedlingly low hurdle in districts that are failing or that have a high level of non-english speakers in the achivement gap.
MI prospective parents would do well to be wary of statements that say Immersion kids to better than their peers in their own district.
What MI prospective parents really NEED TO FEEL VERY COMFORTABLE WITH is whether their kids will do better in PACE MI Charter than they will in PAUSD.
If you want to use Cupertino's MI results as proof of how this charter will perform, then perhaps someone needs to show us the Cupertino specific statistics. And by the way, to support your claim, those statistics need to be broken out between Mandarin speakers and English speakers. They also need to be broken out between kids that entered the program from Kinder versus kids that entered later.
Because the Cupertino program tests for Mandarin Proficiency at Grade level to backfill attrition beyond first grade. Therefore, they are backfilling the program with 'proficient' students, and therefore invalidating their own test results.
They end up testing a program that has been backend loaded with kids that were proven to be proficient at grade level, then saying, our kids are all proficient at grade level. (Woopee)
Again, Prospective parents for the MI program should REQUIRE that the MI CHARTER people show you test results for kids that entered the program as Kindergartners for both english and mandarin speakers separately. Results will vary.
The PAUSD BOARD should likewise REQUIRE that the MI Charter Petitioners show all the data proving the educational soundness of this program. So far, no data has been shown.
Where can we find the slideshow for the March 2006 Chinese Immersion for PAUSD? I don't see a slideshow in the March 28 2006 board packet. (I see alot of detailed prose and financial statements in a 249 page board packet, but no slide show.)
"match or outperform". Yes, matching is quite different than outperforming. You said it again - that we can expect PAUSD Mandarin Immersion students to outperform PAUSD regular students in English. That's a wild claim that you can not and have not proven. Again, prospective parents should beware snake oil salesmen.
Clearly anyone who is believing the MI promise is a gambler (with their own kids education!)
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 8, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Once again, we are not differentiating between written English and reading English. Reading comes in two categories. One is reading aloud to an audience. Second is reading non fiction text to educate oneself. Very different animals. Writing English is much harder to test, particularly by "bubbling in" on multiple choice questions. Can these students write a sensible paragraph on an academic subject. I very much doubt that seeing what we are getting out of the average high school student in this age of texting and I M. I would like to see scores in how students test in written English on an academic subject which they have learnt through a second language. e.g. a grade level written report (not picturegraph) of one or two paragraphs about the California missions, or the water cycle, or some other curriculum related topic that they learn in their second language. Then I will believe they learn English better than their non immersion peers.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 8, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Immersion parent,
I think Parent's pretty much said most of it.
Just a couple of things--"no basis in reality". Nope, I heard it from Escondido's principal when I was checking out choice programs. Are you saying that the principal Escondido doesn't know about his school's own test scores?
Second, it's not guesswork, it's information I've acquired since looking into the MI proposal. I began thinking about the English-writing issue because a parent of a kid who'd been through SI mentioned that there was a negative effect on English composition. I then noticed that writing in English seemed to be one of those things that isn't actually tracked. Or at least no one on the pro-immersion side seems to know anything about it. At one point, my quest for information led to a pro-MI poster telling others not to listen to me since I was there sowing doubts. Personally, I don't see education as a question of faith . . .
Writing English is not particularly easy. It's a language with a larger vocabulary and more verbs than any other. Idiom is not obvious. The connotations of words are often subtle. It's not hard to spot an ESL writer, even when they're quite fluent in spoken English.
Look, there are some benefits to studying a second language--learning another grammer gives insight re: one's own--that would help writing in one's first language. However, the notion that MI makes one a better writer in English is akin to arguing that learning french horn makes one a better pianist than someone who's been studying piano.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 9, 2007 at 9:20 am
SI performance: you need to provide stats comparing SI kids to their district peers.
"The 'apples to apples' comparison to find out if a kid is doing better in immersion than his own district is apples to apples for that purpose only (that kid compared to that district). You can not say from that result that a kid will do better than the California average, or the PAUSD average, unless your study presented that data."
The study did. Slide for English language arts in fifth grade: CLIP students "slightly surpass achievement of English speakers in PAUSD." [Slideshow: Kathryn Lindholm-Leary presentation PAUSD_ChinImmMar2006.pdf]
Backfill is not an issue: contrary to myth, CLIP doesn't have much attrition.
"You said it again - that we can expect PAUSD Mandarin Immersion students to outperform PAUSD regular students in English. That's a wild claim that you can not and have not proven. Again, prospective parents should beware snake oil salesmen."
See above for conclusive proof.
With enough time, it is possible to think up wacky challenges to the study as Another Parent has done. Maybe their reading is good but their writing is not. (Of course, maybe their writing is better by an even greater degree.) Maybe their handwriting suffers. Maybe they have poor personal hygiene. But unless we rely on uninformed speculation, we have to conclude that MI can turn out kids whose English skills are better than their district peers.
There is a great deal of similar research on many programs in various languages. All of them show that OhlonePar's claim ("The immersion effect is knowledge of a second language, the rest of the benefits are a bit more iffy.") has no basis in reality and is nothing but guesswork. The immersion effect is: better English and math scores.
It is curious to me why there is so much skepticism (admittedly from a limited group) about hard data. Obviously, the conclusion does not fit with your view of the way children learn. I would guess that it is comforting to think that one is making a trade-off for one's own children: forgoing immersion but gaining better English skills. I would guess it is threatening to think that there is no trade-off for immersion kids, that they learn to read and write another language AND their English and math are better, too.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 9, 2007 at 9:30 am
Immersion Parent
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
Writing skills in English is one of the most important reasons we send our children to school. Yes math and science are very important, but neither compare to the ability of writing the most important language worldwide. If a person has the ability to speak a foreign language, has a perfect SAT score in math, but cannot write a sensible college application essay in their mother tongue, where is it going to get them. To go further, if they cannot write a letter to a prospective employer, write a report on a business project or write a personal recommendation about someone who has requested a reference, they are going to be at a disadvantage for the whole of their lives. Writing English cannot be lumped into a test of multiple choice English language arts. To say that the data says differently may be true, but not prudent.
I would certainly want more than this if it was my child's future I was gambling with.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 9, 2007 at 9:56 am
No disagreement with you on the importance of writing or the impossibility of measuring writing using a multiple -choice test.
But you also claim written English must suffer in an immersion program. You have one anecdote and your own far-fetched reasoning to back up this claim.
I would certainly want more than this if it was my child's future (non-immersion pausd) I was gambling with.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 9, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Immersion Parent - you still did not provide a link to the LL presentation, so I can't read it, just taking your word for it. But if they presented a slide set in March 2006 about 5th grade results, they must have been presenting 5th grade results from a prior year? Kids in 5th in 2005? or 2004? or 2003?
Lets work our way down each year, using the actual Cupertino MI 11th Day enrollment stats...
2003 kids in 5th grade started the program as second graders in 2000. There were 19 that started in that strand as second graders, and by 2003, 6 kids remained in total. So six driven kids scored better than the PAUSD average. How many were Mandarin proficient to start with? High likelihood that all were proficient Mandarin speakers at entrance, because the Cupertino program tests for kids to be proficient at grade level in both languages for entering after Kindergarten (see their website). So far, not very convincing.
2004 kids in 5th grade started the program as first graders in 2000. There were 19 that started in that strand, and 18 remained into 5th grade by 2004 (not bad - looks better.) But again, they started as first graders, so probably a higher likelihood that they started as Mandarin proficient. Still 18 kids tested better than PAUSD average. Looks like an imporvment trend, right? Wrong...
2005 kids in 5th grade started the program as Kindergarteners in 2000. This strand started with 28 kindergarteners in 2000. Let's assume 50/50 mandarin/English speakers as would be the MI conceptual starting point. So 14 Mandarin, 14 English. Then they loaded this strand up to 39 kids by the time this strand entered the 3rd grade, so they loaded the strand with 11 more TESTED Mandarin proficient speakers. They're up to 25 Mandarin proficient, with 11 of those tested for proficiency at entrance. So the program is at this point is 65% loaded with ringers. They end at 34 (By the way, they lose 5 between 3rd and entering 5th. , that's 12% attrition.)
So you are now teaching a class of primarily Mandarin speakers in Mandarin.
And you then test a 5th grade class that's been loaded at 3rd grade, with kids tested as proficient by 3rd grade, and find that they are proficient.
And just in case they were talking about the 5th graders in 2006, that class has even worse results. They started in 2001 Kindergarten with 25, they loaded up to 40 by third grade (proficiency tested), and they ended with 31. They lost 9 ... 25% attrition from 2nd to 5th! And they loaded the strand up to 70% Mandarin/Proficient by 3rd grade and then tout their 5th grade test results. (13+15 = 28, 28/40 = 70%)
And you and LL are using these 5th grade testing results to claim that the MI program is successful not only for native Mandarin speakers, but for students of any language??? They load the program with proficient students in 3rd grade, then test them for proficiency, and they find them to be proficient??? That's a huge surprise? And this is meant to prove to us that the Cupertino MI 5th graders are getting better results than the PAUSD average?
(And keep in mind – the predominance of the kids in this program are likely going to be the highest performers, most driven for differentiation by their parents – so the Cream of the Crop is doing just about 'average' by PAUSD standards. I'm impressed.)
And did the program teach them to speak Mandarin? Or just teach Mandarin speakers in Mandarin?
And you are also claiming the program has low attrition? 68%, 5%, 12%, 25% leave the program between 2/3rd and 5th.
Did LL presentation disclose all this stuff? If not, this proves the point that the LL presentations are biased. If she did, did immersion parent just fail to mention all this fine print?
WHY? What's immersion parents motive for skewing her message?
It's intellectually dishonest to claim this program works as you say it does. I have no doubt the program teaches mandarin speakers in Mandarin effectively. It has not proven even remotely that it teaches anyone else effectively.
The thing is - we can't and won't convince immersion parent and the MI charter supporters, and we don't have to. They are fanatics that have moved out of the realm of what's real, into the realm of obsession. They will not be swayed by holes in their reasoning, or holes in their data. They want,what they want, when they want it, - it's in their gut, not in their head.
The question is - will immersion parent and her charter school convince the average PAUSD parent that she has something REAL to offer????
Not with these statistics (not if they present the real facts).
The real PAUSD parent (in this dimension), is faced with a very simple choice - the reality of the proven quality and competitive PAUSD results, or the empty unproven promises (backed by feather weight, biased, non-evidence) of the PACE MI Charter.
And they're going to look their kid in the eye on the first day of school, and make that very real choice.
I think immersion parent has her work cut out for her.
I'm still really fascinated by the fact that obviously competitive, driven persons such as those driving the PACE MI Charter would actually put their kid in this program which will give their kid at best a great fighting chance achieving average results.
a resident of College Terrace
on Mar 9, 2007 at 12:58 pm
As an interesting side note to this discussion, a local parent recently sent this message about the Mandarin Immersion program at the International School of the Peninsula to the Palo Alto / Menlo Park parents' club:
"We are considering sending our child to ISTP nursey
Chinese program. One of the major concern is the drop
out rate of the chinese program is high. We are
hoping to be in ISTP for long term. By the time, the
child get to grade 3, the class is so small. For
parents who did send your child to ISTP, why did you
pull your child out of the school and what grade did
you pull your child? Did your child be able to
maintain chinese language after you pull the child out
of ISTP? For parents who still have the child in
ISTP, are you happy with the upper grade level school?"
The parents who replied (there weren't many but most agreed there was such a problem) said they'd dropped out because the environment was overly academic / stressful, because they had a hard time keeping up the language at home and because they wanted their children to be involved in sports at a larger school.
I didn't know the International School of the Peninsula had this problem. I think ISTP's enrolment issues are relevant because it serves parents who, presumably, are highly motivated to have their child's MI schooling be a success (they're paying for it, after all). But many are not finding it worth the money.
Does any one else know more about the retention problems of MI at ISTP?
If retention is a serious issue even here, I think this makes it all the more important that supporters of MI share figures for comparison programs that reveal the numbers (and achievement profiles) of students entering with no Mandarin who make it all the way through the program versus those who come into it already fluent either initially or as backfill at later grade levels.
It also raises serious questions about demand for MI – which I had always assumed would be higher than the supply of places. Maybe that wouldn't be the case.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 9, 2007 at 3:25 pm
"And you and LL are using these 5th grade testing results to claim that the MI program is successful not only for native Mandarin speakers, but for students of any language??? They load the program with proficient students in 3rd grade, then test them for proficiency, and they find them to be proficient??? That's a huge surprise? And this is meant to prove to us that the Cupertino MI 5th graders are getting better results than the PAUSD average?"
Your conclusions depend on fabricated numbers (you don't know what the initial mix was in any of these cases), but in any case your reasoning does not hang together. Crucially, you assume that testing kids for Mandarin proficiency weeds out kids who are not good at English.
"And you are also claiming the program has low attrition? 68%, 5%, 12%, 25% leave the program between 2/3rd and 5th."
The most recent attrition was 4% per year, a figure well below PAUSD levels.
No amount of hard data would convince you because you believe in a non-immersion religion. Fortunately for PACE, this is not an issue. Most people do not share your faith and buy the immersion concept. The board and the district were convinced of the program's efficacy, even if they shot it down for narrow political reasons.
CLIP kids, whether English speakers or Mandarin speakers, get top scores in English and math, in particular outperforming PAUSD native English speakers. I guess by your lights pausd is a gamble.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 9, 2007 at 4:07 pm
No, testing kids for Mandarin, means that when you enter them in a class taught 50-80% in Mandarin language that they'll understand what's going on, and be able to achieve academically whatever they're taught.
Whereas kids who speak only ENGLISH, will not be able to pick up as much and struggle more to both pick up Mandarin and keep up in English. Which is why Cupertino actually tests for Mandarin proficiency above Kindergarten - because they know otherwise kids would not be able to keep up with the demands of that class.
That's a fact. If you doubt the difficulty of achieving in a classroom where the language is not first language, take a look at the achievement gap for ELL kids in English classrooms. They struggle.
Regarding attrition:
You cut the attrition numbers in a way that suits your argument, but the fact is, there is another valid mathematical way to look at the attrition - and that is, what happens to a single strand between 3rd and 5th grade? After they load the strand to their highest points in 2nd and 3rd grade, the strand proceeds to lose high numbers of kids.
Do the original kids continue to leave, replaced by the new kids, or do the kids that join late find it too hard? In either case, the program has a retentino issue between 3rd - 5th. The parents that are unhappy with the results pull their kids into normal programs, leaving the best performers, and thereby further loading 5th grade results.
And you're still only 'average' relative to PAUSD. PAUSD doesn't have the luxury of weeding out the low performers, their average counts it all.
The proof is in the pudding. So you take smart and motivated kids and put them in the program, and spend 5 years weeding and sorting out kids based on their results and outcomes, and at the end say, look at all these wonderful results we've baked. (Cooked up is right.)
The parents that will be entering better hope they are in the 'right' category. How they'll know that? Anyone's guess, because their not getting the straight scoop from LL, PACE or CLIP, but I assume they'll figure out that Mandarin language proficiency is a good indicator.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Mar 9, 2007 at 4:43 pm
What I can't comprehend is why people are still slugging off on this. MI was supposed to be a choice program, so those who didn't like it didn't need to apply -- nobody was forcing it on anyone who chose to disbelieve the evidence. Same applies to the possible charter -- don't apply if you don't like it.
Having reasoned discussion is always good, but this thread is anything but reasoned. For those who are google-impaired, here are the 2 top links which describe anything and everything about Lindholm-Leary work.
Web Link and Web Link
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 9, 2007 at 4:46 pm
"No, testing kids for Mandarin, means that when you enter them in a class taught 50-80% in Mandarin language that they'll understand what's going on, and be able to achieve academically whatever they're taught."
If testing for Mandarin proficiency selected for kids with good English--as you suggest--then China would be populated by people with good English. Your theory makes no sense.
"So you take smart and motivated kids and put them in the program, and spend 5 years weeding and sorting out kids based on their results and outcomes, and at the end say, look at all these wonderful results we've baked."
For all you know, CLIP took the dumb demotivated kids and put them in the program and spent 5 years weeding and sorting out the kids with the best outcomes, and despite all that got wonderful results. You've concocted a fantasy scenario.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 9, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Immersion Parent,
How is thinking that proficiency in writing English requires writing in English illogical? Be specific.
Wolf and Immersion Parent,
Can you provide a link to a specific study that deals with the written English skills of MI students? I've asked about this before--and neither of Wolf's links provides that kind of information.
Immersion parent,
I see you backed off re: Escondido's SI score issue.
This has been discussed before, but it comes down to this. MI supporters link to Lindholm-Leary's Web site. Lindholm-Leary has been active in the PAUSD MI debate. My request for info. not from Lindholm-Leary that supports the MIers POV don't come up with much, though SkepticAL gave me a link to something that my lame-o computer couldn't handle--I don't think it was MI specific though.
LL study of CLIP was a limited snapshot. And, again, the unanswered question is if immersion is so amazing how come both Meyerholtz (CLIP) and Escondido (SI) are nowhere near the top of their school districts. Escondido's in the bottom quarter, Meyerholtz in the bottom half. Why is the Asian/White gap at Meyerholtz so huge. So far the only answer I've gotten on that one is that the white kids have single moms, which amuses me in a sick way since it reminds me of the way we blame the white/black achievement gap on single moms.
Maybe everything can be explained and MI is a miracle drug, but the lack of solid answers makes me dubious.
As I've said elsewhere, I'm not a fan of direct instruction, but in terms of scores, it works--the DI soar past the others consistently. We're not seeing that with immersion.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Mar 9, 2007 at 7:43 pm
The SI program at Escondido has a waiting list - but the SI program at Jordan Middle school is far from full, although many Jordan students choose to take a language. Why is that - do the kids get to middle school are realize they are behind their peers?
a resident of Crescent Park
on Mar 9, 2007 at 7:44 pm
And I certainly wouldn't want my child's writing ability to be that of the parent from the ISTP.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 9, 2007 at 8:14 pm
"How is thinking that proficiency in writing English requires writing in English illogical? Be specific."
You've lost the plot completely here.
"I see you backed off re: Escondido's SI score issue."
No, as I said you need to provide an apples-to-apples comparison.
"My request for info. not from Lindholm-Leary that supports the MIers POV don't come up with much"
"LL study of CLIP was a limited snapshot. And, again, the unanswered question is if immersion is so amazing how come both Meyerholtz (CLIP) and Escondido (SI) are nowhere near the top of their school districts."
SI=not Escondido; CLIP=not Meyerholtz.
"Why is the Asian/White gap at Meyerholtz so huge."
Beats me. You're completely off topic now.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 10, 2007 at 12:04 am
Immersion parent,
You claimed my comment about SI's lower 2/3 scores "had no basis in reality", when, in fact, the basis was the principal of Escondido.
LL is cited as "proof" of all sorts of claims about the wonders of MI, but the evidence does not prove many of the claims made. Yes, it would be nice if LL's data was, in fact, more relevant and filled in some missing holes.
SI is at Escondido, CLIP is at Meyerholtz. Both populations are large enough (particularly SI) to affect overall scores. Once again, the principal of Escondido has said there's a 2/3 score drop within SI.
Hmmm, yes, the gap at Meyerholtz "beats you". In other words, it could indeed be an MI effect, but you don't have any idea whether that's the case or not.
Which has really been my point about MI all along--lots and lots of unanswered questions and lots of defensiveness and, frankly, ad hoc swipes when pressed. You're not arguing, you're pronouncing.
When you find *something* about the effect of MI on English composition for native English speakers, let me know. Or at least why it's not being assessed if it's not being assessed.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 10, 2007 at 12:30 am
Ah here we go. This is from Web Link
How will learning everything in a second language affect my child's English language and literacy development?
Many parents are initially fearful that immersion may have a negative impact on their child's English language development. But research consistently finds that the immersion experience actually enhances English language development (Cloud, Genesee, & Hamayan, 2000). It should be noted that full immersion students' English development may lag temporarily in reading, word knowledge, and spelling while instruction is occurring exclusively in the immersion language. However, after a year or two of instruction in English language arts, this discrepancy disappears (Genesee, 1987). It is important for parents to understand that this lag is temporary and to be expected.
In full immersion programs, children develop initial literacy in the immersion language. Many cognitive processes that underlie the ability to read, such as understanding the relationship between the spoken language and the written word, transfer from one language to another (Cloud, Genesee, & Hamayan, 2000). But when the immersion language differs significantly from English (e.g., languages that don't use our alphabet) literacy skills developed in one language will not necessarily transfer to the other language. Immersion students who learn to read first in a language that is markedly different from English, such as Arabic or Japanese, will need to learn and practice literacy skills that are specific to each language (Kanagy, 2001).
It is assumed that immersion students will have consistent exposure to and support for English at home and in the community. Parents need to provide their children with experiences that will enhance their English language and literacy development. For example, they should read to their children every day and involve them in games and activities that complement their classroom learning. Research shows that the stronger the development of the native language, the greater the proficiency in the immersion language, so children who enter an immersion program with a strong base in English will succeed more easily than those whose English skills are not as strong
In other words, Mandarin Immersion DOES NOT help writing in English. It hinders it and parents have to compensate for this lack. And, yes, the affect of immersion in a European language is different than immersion in a more differentiated language.
Furthermore, if the parents aren't highly fluent in English, the child's skills in both languages suffers. (Wasn't expecting that, frankly. Interesting.)
Now, frankly, if the PAUSD makes sure it's not financially hit by an MI charter, I'm okay with it. But, wow--English comp. matters outside anything that's not purely tech.
I'd love to see some research on hybrid short-term immersion/traditional language instruction.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 10, 2007 at 8:50 am
"You claimed my comment about SI's lower 2/3 scores "had no basis in reality", when, in fact, the basis was the principal of Escondido."
No, I said your comment that the benefits of immersion are "iffy" had no basis in reality. Never denied there is a TEMPORARY lag in scores; it is a well-known effect in immersion circles.
"In other words, Mandarin Immersion DOES NOT help writing in English."
No, you didn't read carefully. It says the reading skills "may not transfer" for some languages. A moot point, since we have statistical data showing that in the case of Mandarin, we do see exactly this effect.
"It hinders it and parents have to compensate for this lack."
No, you didn't read carefully. It doesn't say anything remotely like this. It does say that immersion parents--does not specify a language--should read to their kids.
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 10, 2007 at 11:22 am
Immersion parent keeps telling us WE have to prove that MI doesn't work.
Funny, when I go in to a used car lot, I don't usually have to prove to the salesmen that the cars don't work.
The burden of proof sits squarely on the salesman.
Has anybody been satisfied with their excuses and arguing and avoidance of actually offering up proof?
They argue with the assumptions about how many Mandarin vs English speakers were actually served by Cupertino - those were reasonable assumptions - yet do they actually offer anything up to prove the reality of how its working. Not a bit.
So, again, parents looking to sign up..
BUYER BEWARE - The burden of proof (according to immersin parent) is NOW ON YOU.
So take a look at the proven results - hard evidence - coming out of PAUSD, and take a read through PACE MI Charters unsubstatiated claims and immersion parent's opinion work, and you make the decision about where you're going to send your kids.
(Immersino Parent - you don't have to prove it to Ohlone Parent - I can guarantee you, she's not showing up. Its everyone else you're going to have to prove it to. Or you can stand by your position that your CUSTOMER's need to prove it to you. Good luck with that.
Its that simple.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 10, 2007 at 5:20 pm
"Immersino Parent - you don't have to prove it to Ohlone Parent - I can guarantee you, she's not showing up."
Exactly, neither Ohlonepar nor you will show up; you are you interested in the proven educational benefits of immersion. The case has been well made by many researchers, and people around the country and across the world are convinced. You are not. That's ok.
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 10, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Well, are Cupertino Actual enrollment figures disinformation?
Are the PAUSD Spanish Immersion test results disinformation?
Who's spreading disinformation?
Buyer Beware.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 10, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Immersion Parent,
Clearly, if "literacy skills" may not transfer (and this is on a pro-immersion site), then the benefits are iffy. Also, the same site mentions that the various cognitive advantages that supposedly translate into those good math/reading scores only occur after strong proficiency may be obtained.
Now, speaking of reading, you're having a bit of trouble. Please note, the cite says "literacy" not "reading" skills as you claim, Immersion. Literacy includes reading and writing. This is followed by an admonition that the parents will have give extra time to literacy skills. "May not" is a far cry from the oft-heard claim that MI results in higher or even test scores. It doesn't take much to read between the lines here--your kids will NOT get adequate instruction in English through an immersion program. You will have to supplement.
None of the MI supporters here has ever said anything like that. The claim has pretty much been that English literacy takes care of itself.
And, of course, the cite specific mentions languages that do not share an alphabet with English--yes, that certainly includes Mandarin--as having this issue.
Do you really not know the meaning of the word "literacy"? It would seem so.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 10, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Actually, I've taken immersion language and I attended SI meetings. I would love to see summertime immersion programs at the elementary school level.
What I don't like is diverting district space and funds for a small specialty program.
That the claims of MI supporters tend crumple and diminish under any kind of scrutiny is a bit besides the point to me, but sort of entertaining.
However, if I *were* considering MI, I'd be concerned about the lack of hard data behind PACE's claims. There's no one perfect education, there are always trade-offs. Parents should have a realistic sense of what will happen and then make an informed choice. I mean saying that MI results in equal or better reading scores is *very* different than saying that English literacy skills need to be supplemented at home.
Now, I can see a parent saying, yeah, Mandarin's worth it. But she or he should know that ahead of time.
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 10, 2007 at 10:25 pm
It's good to see you've backed off the special claims about Mandarin and now are skeptical about all immersion. Of course, the downside is that you're swimming upstream against an even deeper river of data.
"doesn't take much to read between the lines here--your kids will NOT get adequate instruction in English through an immersion program. You will have to supplement."
Again, you seem to be having a reading comprehension problem. It does not say they will not get adequate instruction or that you will have to supplement.
It does say that immersion parents should--no matter what the target language--"read to their children every day." This does not go beyond what any elementary school teacher will tell you about non-immersion kids.
Again, the site makes a general disclaimer (literacy may not be additive for deeply different languages), but fortunately we have sound research to show that speculation is incorrect.
We know that MI boosts English and math proficiency beyond what English-only kids achieve.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 11, 2007 at 4:00 am
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, is it? You have a pro-immersion site that notes that literacy skills from a language like Mandarin "may not translate" into English literacy. Why do you think they wrote that? Why do you think they suggested supplementing at home? They don't say that about math. They say it specifically about literacy in English.
If the skills don't carry over, then the kids aren't getting what they need in English *unless* it's provided outside the classroom--thus the comment about needing to supplement.
The comments were not "speculative", per se, but in response to a study cited that showed there was an issue with literacy skills in highly differentiated languages translating over to English.
You don't have stats to back up your claim. The CLIP stuff is short-term and didn't deal with writing. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 11, 2007 at 9:50 am
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
You don't seem to understand "may not." It indicates, in this case, a lack of information. Fortunately, we have statistics from other sources showing that MI does boost English and math proficiency beyond what English only kids achieve.
You also seem very fuzzy about statistics. In this case, they are not a guarantee that each MI kid will do better than all his peers. They mean that the kids, on average, out-achieve their peers. I agree that Einstein might have been even greater if he'd been immersed in another language at a young age, but even without it he would have understood the statistical claims made here.
Again, you *misread* the comment about supplementing. It does not say that you need to supplement English skills at home in the case of Mandarin and other languages greatly different from English. It does suggest that you read to your children, but that is no different from non-immersion programs.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 11, 2007 at 1:22 pm
And we come full circle - where ARE your statistics from other sources? A single study, by a single studier who promotes one side of the argument (LL), isn't statistically significant, in fact, its starting to look like it hardly even hold water.
You say they exist - If you had them, you'd be falling over backward right now to show us all this data from Cupertino, San Francisco, Oregon, and all these other places the staff spent $66K studying, to prove us all wrong. So where is it?
If you're going to sell something to hundreds of people (who have a really really good option otherwise in PAUSD), your going to have to come up with something convincing.
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
And here's another relevent statistic we'll never see - how much time and $ do parents of Mandarin Immersion students spend on supplemental private education? Why relevent? Is the program going to be socio-economically available for all? Or is this a program for the elite few?
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 11, 2007 at 2:58 pm
You say you want to see data in support of MI, but you reject all data that supports MI because it supports MI.
That's some catch, that catch 22.
The fact remains that MI kids out-perform English-only kids in English and math. I'm guessing that will prove attractive to non-ideological PA parents interested in their children's education.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Mar 11, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I'd be happy to accept any data you have that shows the performance of demographic groups in a Mandarin program. Do you have any? Where? I've followed the links and don't see any.
a resident of Barron Park
on Mar 11, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Yes, it sounds interesting. We've got a three year old, and this or SI sounds great.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Mar 11, 2007 at 7:05 pm
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.] Skills "not translating" and the advice to not just read to, but practice English skills with your kids are red flags.
You have one short study that doesn't assess writing skills to support your claim from a source with a stake in Palo Alto. It tells us nothing and can tell us nothing about the long-term effects. And yet you insist that there can be no negatives from MI. Fact is, you DON'T know.
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
Cherries and Berries
By Laura Stec | 3 comments | 1,505 views
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength . . .
By Chandrama Anderson | 2 comments | 943 views
Meeting Other New Parents
By Cheryl Bac | 0 comments | 701 views
One more week to vote!
Don't forget to cast your ballot online. Voting ends May 29th. Stay tuned for the results in the July 21st issue of the Palo Alto Weekly.


text:
Study: Bark beetles damage may fuel wildfires
ALBUQUERQUE - New Mexico is still fighting and recovering from two record-breaking fires that burned thousands of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes.
New research suggests tiny bark beetles may have played a role in feeding these fires.
In January, state forest officials worried about thousands upon thousands of acres of trees dying in the Lincoln National Forest because of a bark beetle infestation.
Now it seems dead trees like those may have helped fuel some of the most destructive fires in our state's history.
"Everything's dry. It's like having super dry kindling wood," New Mexico State University Agriculture Agent Jeff Anderson told ABC-7.
Anderson said the dry conditions in the state combined with the masses of trees eaten by bark beetles creates a playground for wildfires.
"With so much of it, once you get a fire going, the flames going in a forest, they're going to just jump around and then they feed on themselves," Anderson said.
The tiny bugs have infested more than 40-million acres of trees across the country.
Some of this year's fires have already burned through areas affected by these bugs.
"Once the bark beetles are in, they're protected underneath the bark. Birds can't get at them. Nothing can get at them. So you've got bark beetles running wild underneath the bark," Anderson said.
A study by the U.S. Forest Service found that the needles of beetle-killed trees have ten times less moisture than healthy trees. That causes the trees to burn three times faster and more intensely.
"It's not like having a dry chunk of timber logs sitting there, which, like I said, is more difficult to get started. You have now kindling wood. A lot of little pieces, little separations, and fire can travel much more quickly through the whole works," Anderson said.
Anderson said there is no easy way to fight these bugs. The proper treatment to kill bark beetles has to be applied to the entire tree from top to bottom.
"You can't do that in a forest situation. It's just too much. It would be millions, probably hundreds of millions of dollars to treat," Anderson said.
The federal government is spending about $100 million a year as part of a five-year strategy to bring down these beetles. The goal is to treat more than 2.5 million acres over the five year span. That's only a fraction of the land that's been devastated by bark beetles in the past few years.


text:
Skip to Content
Special commencement activities will be held by the University of Colorado at Boulder Alumni Association and several schools and colleges in addition to the main commencement exercises on May 16 at 9:30 a.m. in Folsom Stadium.
Graduates of the class of 1947 and earlier will attend the Golden Anniversary Reunion May 15-17, including the main commencement ceremony and luncheon with an address by President John C. Buechner. A banquet, also on May 16, will be addressed by Colorado Supreme Court Justice Luis D. Rovira, a CU graduate in 1948 and 1950. Class of 1947 graduate George Kaub will emcee.
Returning alumni will attend miniclasses taught by Professor Tom Landauer of psychology on The Trouble with Computers, historian Silvia Pettem on the evolution of Boulder, and Professor Dennis Van Gerven of anthropology on life in ancient Sudan.
Following is a schedule of special events in the schools and colleges to honor the graduates, their families and guests.
May 15 at 3 p.m. in Macky Auditorium, School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The speaker will be Bob Palmer, long-time Denver newscaster and a 1960 journalism graduate. Palmer will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree on May 16.
May 15 at 3 p.m. in Grusin Music Hall, College of Music recognitio ceremony for music graduates. The speaker will be Professor Emeritus F. Wayne Scott, a CU alumnus, long-time faculty member, pianist and performer of American popular music.
May 15 at 5 p.m. in the Coors Events/Conference Center, College of Business and Administration. The speaker will be Peter Behrendt, chairman of the board of Exabyte Corp., a Boulder-based company that makes computer data storage products. The title of his talk will be Now What?
May 15 at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium, College of Engineering and Applied Science. The Engineering Recognition Ceremony address will be given by James McAnally, president of Lockheed Martin Astronautics Group and a 1959 electrical engineering graduate.
May 16 at 2 p.m. in Chautauqua Auditorium, School of Law. The Honorary Order of the Coif will be presented to Marvin Wolf, a 1954 law graduate and executive in the oil and gas exploration industry for more than 50 years. The main speaker will be author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, the Shirley Sutton Thomas Visiting Professor of English at the University of Utah.
May 16 in the Education Courtyard following the main commencement exercises, School of Education recognition ceremony for education graduates.
May 16 in Koenig Alumni Center following the main commencement exercises, Graduate School reception for doctoral graduates.
For information on Golden Anniversary Reunion activities call Linda Wolvington at (303) 492-3712. For information on recognition ceremonies call the individual schools and colleges.