text:
skip to main
skip to sidebar
Hudson, NY 12534
the city of good taste & questionable repute
Peering through lace curtains, an irreverent opinionated compendium of what's interesting upstate.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
The Generosity Of Redmond
Posted by
North Fifth Street
Postcards On The Edge
Stamped And Dated
We're Dating Ourselves
No comments:
Post a Comment
Newer Post
Older Post
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Welcome to
"The Friendly City"
HUDSON, THE FRIENDLY CITY, is a veritable trident of true Americana, having sailed through nearly three centuries of revolutionary history. The first leg of this titular tripod is
Hudson, NY,
our city; the second, its namesake, explorer
Captain Hendrik Hudson;
the third leg, the
Hudson River
- the source of pleasure, sustenance, migration, transport, and misdemeanor indecent exposure charges.
...The lands are pleasant with grasse and flowers and goodly trees as every we have seene, and very sweet smells come from them..."
(spellcheck and GPS were invented a few years after Henry Hudson allegedly ran aground here...)
WE ARE TOLD THAT THE 12534 was once a Native American settlement, and that for reasons lost to history, in the lore of the Mohican
tribe the region was known as "territory where old tomahawks, arrowheads, canoes, and papooses are traded, the teepees are cheap, and the comely painted squaws work for beads."
THE DUTCH PURCHASED THE LAND from the Native Americans in 1662 for 500 guilders in
, the first recorded reference to our legendary easy virtue, Hudson's illustrious commerce of ill-repute.
CHRISTENING THE AREA "KLOVER RACK," the Dutch were continuing Hudson's established tradition of gratuitous sexual innuendo, which began with Hendrik's "
" and the gross indecencies that landed with him. Historic
detail that in 1805, Hudson became Columbia's much abused
"County Seat",
and also became an international "
Port of Entry
" in 1790, celebrating that position legally until 1815, and much more frequently illegally. These horrific crimes against nature are now protected locally; in 1980 New York State legalized sodomy under that vague right to privacy alluded to in our Constitution.
FORESIGHTED WHALERS from Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Providence, fearing
invasion of their exposed ports
by the British during the American Revolution, settled the 12534 in 1783 and adopted a civic charter (the U.S.'s first) in 1785; those fearless crossdressing settlers from Provincetown landed just a few years later. Those self-described "Proprietors" laid out a street grid, and the city grew rapidly as a bustling, beautiful upriver seaport, by 1790 the eighth largest city in the United States. Frequented by whaling ships carrying sealskins and sperm oil whose sailors celebrated their leave with a devil-may-care insouciance, Hudson earned a lawless reputation as upstate's emporium of prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging that it enjoyed all the way into the 1950's. You'd think there'd be a grocery store here by now.
WITH THE DECLINE IN POPULARITY of whalebone corset stays, spermaceti candles, Blubber Helper, Avon's Ambergris spray cologne, and whaling in general, the days of Hudson's North and South Bays as international ports of call were numbered. In 1845 the Hudson Whaling Company was abandoned, and our last whaling vessel, the "Martha" was sold. And she still hasn't forgiven our titular insult.
THE 315-MILE LONG HUDSON RIVER, by connecting the Erie Canal to the Atlantic Ocean, was America's first superhighway of interstate commerce. Actually an estuary, the Mohican tribe called the Hudson River "Muhheankantuck" -
The River Which Flows Both Ways.
Originating at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks on the southwestern slope of Mt. Marcy, the Hudson River ends in a canyon 15,000 feet beneath the Atlantic ocean; the river's current changes direction four times each day from Troy to New York Harbor as ocean tides push saltwater upriver. Native Americans were prescient in calling the Hudson "The River Which Flows Both Ways" given the sexual proclivities of 21st century residents.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and the "iron horse" led many other productive businesses to Hudson. One can easily locate the vestiges of factories for successful industries like cannonballs, cement, mushrooms, breetches, lab rats, rope, glue, pocketbooks, bricks, goldfish, shirtwaists, icepicks, matchbooks, corn huskers, dehumidifiers, and Section 8 housing.
ALAS, IN 1951 NEW YORK'S Tom Dewey (our then-governor and yeah, that "Dewey Defeats Truman" guy) instigated raids that lowered the boom on all historic Hudson's famed institutionalized vice. Coming from licentious Albany, this brief moment of moral crusading was a true anomaly.
DIAMOND STREET, HUDSON'S NOTORIOUS red light district, disappeared overnight, bulldozed and renamed Columbia Street. And Main Street, earlier renamed "Warren," was beset by the issues and problems typical of 20th Century America and upstate New York in particular – lamentable educational opportunity, closure of outdated local industries and the loss of their economic
, shortsighted urban redevelopment schemes, an intransigent Republican state administration, lack of access to modern dentistry, enthusiasm for men's combover hairstyles, and a relative lack of the necessary open space for big box stores, strip malls and drive-through fast-food restaurants.
THE WELCOME LATTER-DAY RESURGENCE IN DEPRAVITY (with its related economic stimulus
) began in the 1990's as enterprising newcomers landed ashore: boatloads of antiques-peddling butt pirates, historic-preservation fanatics, underage piercing-enthusiasts, wig-wearing degenerates, self-mutilating performance artists, aesthetically-sensitive Bard youths, stroller-shoving Williamsburgians, nailgun-loving friends of Gertrude, lute-strumming sexaholics, tattooed skateboarding thriftshoppers, and Farrow & Ball-paintchip-wielding-Vuitton-carrying-hybrid-driving-bordeaux-swigging-cement-factory-battling-yoga-enthusiast-tchotchke-shopping-addicted-twelve-steppers.
(yes folks, that's a
fronted the city's gradual renaissance of repute as a salon of commerce. As an antiques destination known for urban ultra-sophistication, Hudson today is nearly as celebrated as the Paris flea market. The antiques dealers were followed by settlers of every creative bent, talent, ability, gender and sexual orientation, and the urban canvas of a few decades ago is being repainted with broad strokes of music, poetry, art, laughter, and just a smidgen of real estate gossip.
THAT MOTLEY CREW has banded together to attack status quo, challenge convention, and restore Hudson's sordid Rococo renown. The Hudson Valley's geographic and conceptual link to Manhattan, the 12534 has the potential to be a model 21st century American community. While preserving and enhancing its natural and built environments, it is also engendering an active participatory civic life that simultaneously nurtures individual and artistic expression.
HARBORING SCENIC BEAUTY, big city immorality & small town conviviality, and a whole lot of architecture galore, the 12534 is New York's showplace of sexy, sustainable new urbanism, Hudson Valley's green Gomorrah, its bucolic urban sensualism posited to be the axis of a new Loire or the next Napa.
1 2 5 3 4
Warren Street's renowned shops generally are open Thursday through Monday
1st Dibs
Hudson Antique Dealers Association
Hudson Under $100
Martha Stewart: Antiquing Towns
Columbia County Lodging Association
Hudson Valley Lodging Association
446 Warren Street
Bungalow Hudson
Country Squire Bed & Breakfast
The Croff House
Guest Cottage at Loomis Creek Nursery
Hudson City Bed & Breakfast
Hudson Honeybee
The Inn at Blue Stores
The Inn at Ca' Mea
The Inn at Green River
The Inn at Hudson
Joslen Motor Lodge
Madalin Hotel
Mount Merino Manor
Rowdy Garden House
Silvanus Lodge
St. Charles Hotel
Stewart House Bed & Breakfast
Thyme In The Country
Union Street Guest House
Vintage East
Warren Inn
Baba Louie's
Blue Plate
Ca' Mea
Culinary Institute of America
Diamond Street Diner
Earth Foods
Food Sing
Gigi Trattoria
Happy Clown Ice Cream
Keeler's Eskimo Bar
Kennedy Fried Chicken
La Mexicana Groceria
Le Gamin
Local 111
Madalin's Table
Mexican Radio
Nolita Bakery & Café
Red Barn
Red Chopstick
Red Dot
Stewart House Restaurant
Swiss Hütte
Swoon Kitchenbar
Turnpike Inn
West Taghkanic Diner
Wunderbar & Bistro
(p.m.) The Wine Bar
Muddy Cup Coffee House
Spotty Dog Books & Ale
Strongtree Coffee Bar
Verdigris Art & Tea
Historic Sites
Cedar Grove
Columbia County Historical Society Museum
Hudson Area Association Library History Room
Hancock Shaker Village
Hudson-Athens Lighthouse
James Vanderpoel House
Locust Grove
Luykas Van Alen House
Montgomery Place
The Mount
Museum of Firefighting
Old Austerlitz Village
Robert Jenkins House
Shaker Museum and Library
Vanderbilt Mansion
National Register of Historic Places: Columbia County, NY
Chatham Film Club
Club Helsinki
Columbia Festival Orchestra
Community Theatre
Fairview Cinema III
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College
Ghent Playhouse
Hudson Movieplex
Hudson Opera House
Jacob's Pillow
Mac-Haydn Theatre
Spencertown Academy
Time & Space Limited
Upstate Films
Walking the dog Theater
Art Omi
Carrie Haddad Gallery
Columbia County Council on the Arts
Carrie Haddad Photographs
David Dew Bruner
Davis Orton Gallery
Deborah Davis Fine Art
Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College
Hudson River Sculpture Trail
Incident Report
J. Damiani Gallery
John Davis Gallery
Leo Fortuna
Limner Gallery
Marianne Courville Gallery
Marina Abramovic Foundation
MASS MoCA
Museum of the Imagination
Nicole Fiacco Gallery
Peter Jung Fine Art
Rose Gallery
Rural Projects
Storm King Art Center
Terenchin Fine Art
Columbia County Farm Stands
Beth's Farm Kitchen
Coach Farm
The Farm at Miller's Crossing
Gigi Market
Grazin' Angus Acres
Guido's Fresh Marketplace
Hawthorne Valley Farm Store
Hudson and Saratoga Local Foods Blog
Hudson Farmers' Market
Hudson Valley Fresh
Local Harvest
Milk Thistle Farm
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
Olde Hudson
Otto's Market
Roxbury Farm
The Valley Table Magazine
Beer, Wine & Distilleries
Brookview Station Winery
Chatham Brewing
Harvest Spirits
Hudson Valley Wine Country
Hudson-Berkshire Experience
Hudson-Chatham Winery
Paperbirch Wine
Tousey Winery
Tuthilltown Spirits
Wine & Liquor Stores
Fairview Wines & Spirits
Hudson Wine Merchants
Key City Wine & Liquor
Book Stores
Blackwood and Brouwer Booksellers
Hudson City Books
Main Street Books
Rodgers Book Barn
Spotty Dog Books & Ale
John Ashbery Resource Center
Hudson Valley Writers Guild
The Hudson Valley Poetry Calendar
Ledig House International Writers Residency
Friends of Edna St.Vincent Millay
Carlsen Gallery
Copake Auction
George Cole Auctions
Stair Galleries
Burger Hill Park
Ferncliff Forest
Poets' Walk
Stockport Flats Conservation Area
Above the Clouds Hot Air Balloon Rides
Atlantic Kayak Tours
Bash Bish Falls
Bike Hudson Valley
Catskill Mountain House Site
Claverack Motocross
Fantasy Balloon Flights
High Falls Conservation Area
Hudson Cruises
Hudson River School Art Trail
Kaaterskill Falls
Lebanon Valley Speedway
Riverview Marine Services
Steiner's Sports
Taconic Hiking Club
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies
Sadhana Center for Yoga and Meditation
Callander's Nursery
Kerns Nursery
Loomis Creek Nursery
Maple Lane Nursery
Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens
Phantom Gardener
Secret Gardener
Story's Nursery
Sycamore Garden Center
Twin Ponds Nursery
Ward's Nursery
The Garden Conservancy's Open Days
Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield
Berkshire Botanical Garden
Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies
Fletcher Steele Garden at Naumkeag
Innisfree Garden
Landis Arboretum
Mountain Top Arboretum
Robert Irwin Garden at DIA:Beacon
Stonecrop Gardens
The Climbery
Wethersfield Gardens
New York Times' slideshow: In Bloom Along the Hudson River
Hudson Valley Seed Library
Real Estate Resources
Columbia County & Northern Dutchess Multiple Listing Service
Casa Cara Old House Blog
Anderson Agency
Arthur Lee of Red Rock
Barns & Farms Realty
Beach & Bartolo Realtors
Berkshire Property Agents
Betty's Properties
Century 21 Lynn M. Strunk
Century 21 Vantage Point
Coldwell Banker Bartolotta Associates
Coldwell Banker Prime Properties
Columbia County Real Estate Company
Copake Lake Realty
Cozzolino Real Estate
Gary DiMauro Real Estate
Gabel Real Estate
Grace A. Post Realty
Gray Rider Real Estate
Greenwood Real Estate Associates
H.W. Guernsey Realtors
Halstead Hudson Valley
Hudson Town & Country Realty
Jason O'Toole
Karen Rosenthal Real Estate
Kingsley Daniels
Manitou Realty
Manor Rock Country Realty
Mark Phillips Realty
Old Ghent Realty
Peggy Lampman
Preferred Country Properties
Prudential Manor Homes
R.H. Blackburn & Associates
Red Apple Realty
Ruth Moser Real Estate
Schoenfeld, French & Lull
Scot Cohen Realty
Tomm Eaton Real Estate
Weichert – Fontaine & Associates
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Local Organizations
Columbia Arts Team
Columbia County Bounty
Columbia County Chamber of Commerce
Columbia County Department of Tourism
Columbia County Film Office
Columbia County Habitat for Humanity
Columbia County Historical Society
Columbia County New York
Columbia County Real Food Network
Columbia County, New York Genealogy & History
Columbia Hudson Partnership
Columbia Land Conservancy
Historic Hudson
Historic Hudson Valley
Hudson Development Corporation
Hudson River Heritage
Hudson River Maritime Museum
Hudson River Valley Greenway
Hudson River Valley Heritage
Hudson River Valley Institute
Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area
Hudson Valley Film Commission
Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center
Hudson Valley Ruins
Hudson-Fulton-Champlain 2009 Quadricentennial
Our Hudson
Philmont Beautification
Save the South Bay
Scenic Hudson
Sustainable Hudson Valley
Walkway Over the Hudson
Useful Information for Hudson Residents
Columbia County Board of Elections Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Forms
Hudson Area Association Library
Community & Sustainability
Chatham Peace Initiative
Friends of Hudson
Hudson Valley Progressive Coalition
Kinderhook Neighbors for Good Growth
The Nature Institute
The Albany Project
Columbia County Board of Elections Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Forms
Alan Chartock
Columbia County Democrats
Conservative Party of Columbia County
David Mixner
Diamond Street
Hudson City Democrats
N.Y. State Assemblymember Marc Molinaro
N.Y. State Senator Steve Saland
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Berkshire Home Style Magazine
C C Scoop
Chronogram Magazine
ePodunk: The Most Historic Small Towns
Here in Hudson
Inside Out Hudson Valley
Little Town Views
New York House Magazine
New York Spaces Magazine
New York Times Corrections
NYT Video: A Tour of Hudson, N.Y.
Preservation League of New York State: Seven to Save 2001, City of Hudson
Register-Star Newspaper
Roll Magazine
Rural Intelligence
The New York Public Library's Hudson River Portfolio
Upstate Magazine
Virtual Hudson Valley
WGXC Newsroom
What's Happening in Columbia County
Wikipedia: Hudson, New York
YouTube: City of Hudson, Volume 1
YouTube: City of Hudson, Volume 2
YouTube: Flag Day Hudson
Articles About The 12534, local people, and the upstate Region
BOSTON GLOBE, 1/27/08, Life On The River Blends Old And New In Hip Little Hudson
BUDGET TRAVEL, 4/06, The Coolest Small Towns In the U.S.A.: Hudson, New York
DWELL, 6/05, Escape From New York
GARDENS ILLUSTRATED, 2/06, Loomis Creek Nursery
THE INDEPENDENT, 5/11/03, The Hamptons? So Last Year, My Dear
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 5/21/01, The Lands That Hype Forgot
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 4/28/03, Into the Wood
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 6/3/02, Cry Them A River
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 7/28/03, Head for the Hills
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 11/3/03, Full Nest
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 4/2/07, I, Citiot
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, 6/4/10, The Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan: Meet Hudson's Emerging Artists and Photographers
NEW YORK SPACES, Vol. 5 #1, Sleight of Hand
NYT, 10/21/94, Hudson Casts New Light on Its Red-Light Past
NYT, 10/10/97, Weekend Excursion; Beside the Hudson, The Lure of Art
NYT, 6/30/01, Good Company; A Town Turns Out With Dinner
NYT, 6/30/01, Town Immortalized by Art Is Divided Over Industry; Can Culture and Factories Coexist on the River?
NYT, 3/21/02, From Cottage to Toolshed, On the March for Takeout
NYT, 6/20/02, At Home With: Mark McDonald; Mr. Modernism Leaves Town
NYT, 8/22/02, In Upstate Hills, Modish Replaces Moo
NYT, 10/3/02, House Proud, "This Weird House": Design School for the Nervy
NYT, 11/1/02, Havens; Weekender: Hudson, N.Y.
NYT, 12/12/02, House Proud; Signs of Wear as Signals of Taste
NYT, 12/26/02, Turf; Sanctuary By Any Name
NYT, 8/14/03, House Proud; In the Upstate Hills, TriBeCa Fields Forever
NYT, 10/17/03, Havens; Weekender: Germantown, N.Y.
NYT, 4/08/04, House Proud; Decorating Dream, Born in the Barn
NYT, 6/25/04, Journeys; Putting the Bloom On the Roses
NYT, 8/1/04, Habitats: Germantown, N.Y.; Real Estate as an Art Form
NYT, 12/19/04, The New Hudson River School
NYT, 2/25/05, Weekender: Hillsdale, N.Y.
NYT, 3/27/05, Life Above Their Store, With a Store of Memories
NYT, 4/8/05, Havens; Country Dinner Parties: Mind Your Manners
NYT, 4/22/05, Havens: Weekender, Catskill, N.Y.
NYT, 9/21/05, An Antiques Haven Updates Itself
NYT, 4/21/06, Away: An Architect's Design for Weekend Living
NYT, 5/21/06, Brooklyn On The Hudson
NYT, 6/21/06, Whiskey's Hudson Valley Revival
NYT, 8/2/06, Columbia County, N.Y.: Welcome to the Country
NYT, 10/13/06, This Old House Has Ghosts
NYT, 10/26/06, New Wave Musicians in an Old-Age Home
NYT, 10/21/06, Saxophone Colossus Strides Into a New Life
NYT, 10/29/06, Art: A Subtle Sense of Place
NYT, 11/3/06, Architectural Gems in an Antique Setting
NYT, 11/19/06, Columbia County, N.Y.: Venerable Fire Trucks and Sheep's Milk Cheeses
NYT, 4/6/07, Houses in River Towns; Going With the Flow
NYT, 7/6/07, Away: The 'Great Love' of a Collector of Old Mansions
NYT, 7/19/07, House Proud: The Classic Box, Well Rounded
NYT, 8/10/07, Escapes: In the Grove
NYT, 8/24/07, Day Trip: Martin Van Buren Slept Here
NYT, 8/31/07, Away: From a Single Plant, a World-Class Garden Grows
NYT, 9/7/07, Escapes: At the Home of F.D.R.'s Secret Friend
NYT, 10/7/07, Flavorful Ingredients, Grown Close to Home
NYT, 2/19/08, Learning From Tijuana: Hudson, N.Y., Considers Different Housing Model
NYT, 4/6/08, Seeking to Create a Timeless Space
NYT, 3/13/08, Now Rated R (for Resale)
NYT, 5/30/08, Travel: Foodies on the Hudson
NYT, 6/19/08, In the Garden: The Country Dream
NYT, 7/3/08, At Midlife, Called to a New Field
NYT, 7/25/08, Hudson Valley Views
NYT, 8/14/08, Away: His Sanctuary From Glamour
NYT, 1/2/09, Winter Weekends: Hudson's Art and Antiques
NYT, 2/13/09, Escapes: On a Sheet of Ice and Under Sail on the Hudson
NYT, 2/26/09, Town of Chatham, N.Y.: Hudson Valley Meets Hollywood
NYT, 6/14/09, Our Towns: Two Rebirths, Miraculous but Unfinished
PLATED, Spring 2008, Dairy King
RURAL INTELLIGENCE, 4/30/08, Playing by the Rules: The Faulkner 14
TRAVEL & LEISURE, 8/07, Hudson's Latest Act
Local Blogs
Way over 100 other local blogs of note.
Search This Blog
Your comments are welcomed.
If you would like to amend, add, contribute, or correct anything here
email The 12534 at


text:
Danville's Music in the Park series will be rocking out from 6-8 p.m. this Saturday as the energetic, fun and free summer concert series tries out a new venue at the Danville Town Green. Bring your blankets, chairs and picnic baskets and enjoy this great summer show with the timeless classic rock of Spinout.
Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, August 1, 2013, 3:45 PM
Town Square
Rock out with Spinout
Original post made on Aug 2, 2013
Like this commentPosted by Bill
a resident of Green Valley Elementary School
on Aug 2, 2013 at 10:48 am
Were is considered the Danville Green. Where?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Volume IV, No. 6
The Education Innovator will publish an abridged issue in July. Please look for the next full issue in August.
What's inside...
History Matters: How Teaching American History Grants Are Helping Teachers and Students
What's New
- From the U.S. Department of Education
- From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
- American History
- Arts Education
- Mathematics and Science
- Raising Student Achievement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Technology
- Charter Schools/ Choice
- Raising Student Achievement
- School Improvement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Technology
History Matters: How Teaching American History Grants Are Helping Teachers and Students
Scholarly resources for studying our nation's history can be found not only in libraries, museums, and architectural sites, but also in the very streets, neighborhoods, and communities where our history once unfolded. Take, for example, the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Years ago, immigrants squeezed into the tall, brick buildings that characterize the neighborhood, with entire families living in one room and making due by sharing beds and floor space. Entrepreneurs sold goods from potato sacks or pushcarts and, eventually, the successful ones opened stores. Today, the area's shops, galleries, and restaurants are very different, but a trip to the vicinity can reveal to scholars the remnants of long ago. Such is the case for teachers participating in the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History (TAH) projects, who visit the island borough and learn the lessons of history by walking in the footsteps of the past.
For students to understand and appreciate our nation's history, their teachers need a strong grounding in American history content and pedagogy. The TAH grant program helps to improve student achievement by enhancing teachers' knowledge of traditional American history through intensive, ongoing professional development in both subject content and research-based teaching strategies. The program began in 2001 and is administered by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement. Grants fund multi-year projects, and grantees must partner with one or more organizations that have extensive resources and expertise in American history, including institutions of higher education, libraries, museums, and nonprofit history or humanities organizations. In total, the Department has awarded over 800 TAH grants to school districts in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands to provide intensive, content-driven professional development to K-12 American history teachers.
A number of TAH grants have incorporated travel to historic sites, such as Manhattan's Lower East Side, into the professional development offered to American history teachers. Thus, teachers are able to harness the power of place and bring meaning to history in ways that energize and inspire students and improve student learning.
History is one of the core academic subjects under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is commonly known as the "Nation's Report Card," shows improvement in history performance in grades four, eight, and 12, the three grades levels to which the test was administered. Yet, less than one-quarter of America's students in these grades are performing at the advanced or proficient levels in American history.
Through the White House's Preserve America initiative the Department of Education and a host of federal agencies are working hard to help Americans understand the importance of preserving our nation's history. Some 600 communities across America have been recognized for their work to create "Preserve America" communities. Communities that receive this designation actively protect and celebrate their heritage. They use their historic assets to spur economic development and community revitalization, and they encourage appreciation of local historic resources through education and tourism programs.
The President also recognizes the classroom teacher's role in promoting heritage education. Since 2003, the White House has recognized an outstanding history educator with the Preserve America History Teacher of the Year award. Award winners are recognized for their abilities to impart an appreciation for historic preservation in the classroom.
TAH Projects that Incorporate Historic Preservation: Savannah's Historic District
Among the TAH projects that have and are continuing to innovate in the area of American history are ones that incorporate historic preservation into their programs. Two districts that have been at the forefront of this approach are the Savannah Chatham Public Schools in Georgia and the West Morris Central High School District in New Jersey. Both districts have received multiple TAH grants and have been recognized at national conferences for their work.
The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System is a five-time recipient of TAH grants. The district's first grant employed a successful local teaching and learning model that utilized Savannah's 2.2-square-mile historic district – which also is a national landmark – as a catalyst for exploring history and architecture. That first grant, "History Is Monumental," provided teachers with unique opportunities to learn American history, using one of the nation's largest historic districts as a laboratory. Project directors Candy Lowe and Leah Colby note that the approach of "linking local monuments to the broader scope of American history fosters a greater appreciation and understanding of the significance and relevance of local history and the connections to American history."
Savannah traces its history to 1733, a year after Georgia became the 13th English colony in North America. Evidence of its past appears virtually everywhere, offering teachers and visitors the opportunity to delve into history and examine its contribution to the American experience. Savannah's historic squares and the monuments that adorn them serve as focal points for a comprehensive study of American history through the use of artifacts and other primary sources.
In addition to its partnership with the Georgia Historical Society, headquartered in Savannah, the school district collaborated with local museums and historic sites to enable teachers to investigate significant issues, episodes, individuals, and turning points in American history. The grant program also utilized Massie Heritage Center, a district-owned teaching museum for history and architecture.
Massie's student programs, which serve 15,000 students each year, use Savannah's historic resources to explore local history. But Massie is an incredible resource itself. Before closing its doors in 1974, Massie served as Savannah's first free public school, educating youth since 1856. The school's rich history includes serving as a Union hospital during the Civil War occupation of Savannah and as a Freedmen's Bureau school for newly-emancipated slaves. The building is an architectural treasure designed by prominent architect John Norris, who planned both luxury homes for the wealthy and functional buildings such as schools, offices, and retail and residential spaces. Subsequent TAH grants in Savannah have incorporated the resources and lessons of this first grant.
In New York City, Students Learn About Immigration
The West Morris Regional High School District in rural Chester, N.J., received TAH grants in 2001 and again in 2005. Both grants have incorporated travel to historic sites into the professional development offered to American history teachers. During the summer of 2003, the project directors took a group of teachers to New York City as part of their professional development training. The topic of study was immigration and the featured historian was Ken Jackson, a professor from Columbia University.
This professional development opportunity not only provided engaging lectures and extensive reading in history, it took teachers out of the classroom and on to the streets and waterways of New York City. Jackson led a walking tour of Manhattan's Lower East Side and guided a journey along the East River to retrace the course taken by German immigrants aboard the General Slocum boat, which tragically caught fire and led to the deaths of many aboard.
Even though the teachers lived in New Jersey, a short distance from New York City, Jackson introduced them to sites that many of them had never seen. Roseanne Lichatin, a teacher from West Morris who went on Jackson's walking tour, used her experiences and learning to plan a field trip and collateral assignments for her class. She noted "Jackson inspired me to think about how I could share these places and experiences with my students." She secured district funds for a trip to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, including taking the train and subway, and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to their destination. Many of Lichatin's students had never been on a train or a subway, and some had never been to that part of Manhattan.
Before the field trip, Lichatin had her students read about life in New York City with a particular focus on late 19th and early 20th century immigration. In order to get a perspective on the early American dream, students studied J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur's famous letter, "What Then is the American?" Students read and discussed several other documents, including Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus," excerpts from immigration laws that impacted the period, political cartoons, and analyzed the engaging photographs of Jacob Riis that vividly illustrate tenement dwellings and the faces of New York City residents at the turn of the century.
Lichatin noted, "Students walked away with a better awareness of the diversity of New York City neighborhoods and a greater appreciation of early tenement life that necessitated legislative action during the early 20th century. They returned from this academic journey with a sense of appreciation of the value of historic places in the study of our nation's past and perhaps, an awareness of how important preservation is to our nation's memory."
There are more outcomes as well. Lichatin recalls, "Students created a museum display on the topic of immigration, some participated in a debate on current immigration policies, others created a family tree that explores [their] own history, and still others contributed to an editorial that argues for the value of historic preservation." Due in part to the TAH grant, Lichatin learned to be a true historian, and she brought this to her students who learned to conduct research and apply it.
Studying the Past Outside the Classroom Walls
Teachers who infuse the curriculum with historic preservation are seeing that students are becoming more deeply engaged with history. During the 2007-2008 school year, 40 students from West Morris Central High School and Frederick Douglass Academy, a high school in Harlem, N.Y., traveled together by bus to visit Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Ala. These students traveled some of the same routes as the original "Freedom Riders" did 47 years earlier. They also studied the civil rights movement through documents, lectures, and films on their own "freedom ride," and their bus became a moving classroom.
Students visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the Voting Rights Museum, the Civil Rights Memorial, and the Rosa Parks Museum. In addition, they heard the very moving and powerful stories of "foot soldiers" who challenged segregation laws during this challenging, yet fascinating period in American history. The highlights of the trip, as noted by students, included a visit with Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a hero of the Civil Rights era in Birmingham, and walking hand in hand across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. This use of historic place to teach the civil rights movement was one that the teachers gained knowledge of through the TAH projects, and students who benefited say that they will never forget it.
In 2005, Lichatin was named the Preserve America History Teacher of the Year. As she has noted, "The value of 'knocking down classroom walls' and taking the study of our past outside where history happened is a powerful way for students to learn. I have always believed that students should see the 'stuff' of history, that is, the documents and primary sources that are part of our nation's legacy. But, they should also see the places that played a pivotal role in our past and walk in the footsteps of ordinary Americans who helped shape our nation's memory."
- OII Teaching American History Program
- Preserve America
- National Assessment of Education Progress, U.S. History Assessment
- Savannah-Chatham Public Schools TAH programs
- Directory of Savannah Museums
- Massie Heritage Center
- Press release on West Morris, NJ students' "Freedom Ride"
What's New
From the U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings visited the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High School in San Diego, Calif., to learn how the school is challenging students with innovative teaching strategies and rigorous curriculum, particularly in the high-demand fields of science and math. She participated in an education policy roundtable discussion with students, teachers and administrators and discussed how the federal government can build on successes such as those at High Tech High School to support academic gains in classrooms nationwide and to prepare every child with grade-level skills or better as called for under NCLB. (June 17)
Secretary Spellings delivered a speech at the opening of the Air Force One Discovery Center at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. She noted, "It was 25 years ago that a report called A Nation At Risk, commissioned by the Reagan Administration, alerted the nation to stark realities facing our education system. That report was one of the things that first hooked me on public policy and education." (June 9)
In a recent syndicated AP editorial, (i.e., Salt Lake Tribune) Secretary Spellings explained how and why the federal Reading First program came about, and what the program means to the 1.6 million students it serves. The program is based on the report of the nonpartisan National Reading Panel, created in 1997, which examined more than two decades of research to determine the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching reading. The Secretary notes that Reading First has been effective in many schools (see below), and concludes, "We need more Reading First, not less." (June 7)
At Alan Shawn Feinstein at Broad Elementary School in Providence, R.I., students are well on their way to achieving No Child Left Behind's goal of having every child reading on grade level by 2014. Thanks to NCLB's Reading First program, Feinstein and schools across the country are using research-based methods to teach reading, and as a result, are seeing big gains in student achievement.
Since 2003, Feinstein has used grant funds to successfully implement a research-based approach to improve reading instruction. Reading First builds on a solid foundation of scientifically based research and provides struggling students in the nation's neediest schools with the necessary resources to make significant progress in reading achievement.
Feinstein enrolls a diverse population of students with over 90 percent qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Just five years ago, most students were not reading on grade level. Reading First has made a huge difference by focusing on what happens in the classroom and using data to drive instruction.
Reading First funds have enabled Feinstein teachers to work with coaches and other professionals to plan and implement the school's 90 minutes of daily reading instruction, which focuses on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Colleen Driscoll, a second grade teacher, finds that the support is very useful. "I feel these professional development hours have been invaluable. I'm a first-year Reading First teacher, so for me, to get all the help I've been getting in the embedded instruction, and the common planning time where other teachers are showing me how to do different aspects of it, it's really influenced my teaching and helped my children to improve."
At Feinstein, in Providence, and all across the country, Reading First is working to improve the quality of reading instruction and helping our youngest students learn to read. Reading scores for America's fourth graders are higher than they have ever been in the history of the Nation's Report Card. In Providence, scores have improved nine points over the past year. And since 2005, Feinstein's reading scores have increased by 21 percentage points.
Secretary Spellings announced new awards under two discretionary grant programs administered by the Department's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. First, she presented $24 million in grants to 92 school districts in 34 states to help enhance and fortify readiness and emergency management plans. Then she made $5.78 million in grants available to 49 districts and other entities in 20 states to develop, implement, or expand school-based drug testing programs for sixth through 12th graders. (June 4)
The Department of Education's Institute of Educational Sciences released a report, "Evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years," which reaffirmed parental satisfaction and academic gains among the scholarship participants. The report said that reading achievement improved for three large subgroups of students, comprising 88 percent of participating students. Their gains put them about two to four months ahead of their peers who did not receive a scholarship. In 2008, families received $14.8 million in scholarships to cover tuition, fees and transportation expenses to attend the participating private elementary or secondary school of their choice. (June 2008)
The final Education News Parents Can Use broadcast of the 2007-2008 season showcased the work of the U.S. Department of Education, the USA Freedom Corps, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and other federal, state, local, private, and philanthropic programs devoted to creating a culture of service and responsible youth citizenship. The broadcast spotlighted notable young volunteers who have shared their time and talents to benefit those in need. The broadcast also featured a special segment on reading during the summer, highlighting the Department's Reading First program. More information about the June broadcast is online. Click here to watch the archived Web cast. (June 2008)
Secretary Spellings and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson discussed a four-part plan designed to improve the functioning of the student loan marketplace and to ensure that all qualified students have access to federally insured loans for the coming school year. The plan includes a loan purchase commitment under which the Department agrees to purchase new federal loans originating in the 2008-2009 school year. (May 21)
The Department's National Center for Education Statistics released its annual report on the condition of education in the United States. The Condition of Education 2008 includes 43 indicators in five major areas. Among the findings: in 2009-2010, public school enrollment is expected to top 50 million students for the first time in history; in 2005-2006, about one-third of African-American students and one-third of Hispanic students attended high-poverty schools, compared with four percent of white students; and, since 1970, women's undergraduate enrollment has increased more than three times as fast as men's. (May 29)
From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
The latest book in the Innovations in Education series, Evaluating Online Learning: Challenges and Strategies for Success, will be released via a live webcast on July 2 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. (CDT), from the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Seven evaluations that address a broad spectrum of online learning options are highlighted in the new book. The webcast will feature a panel of representatives from several featured programs and will be moderated by Tim Magner, director of the Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. Registration for the webcast is online. An archived version of the webcast will also be available for those who miss the live event. (June 2008)
Assistant Deputy Secretary Doug Mesecar and staff from the Parental Options and Information Office of OII participated in the National Charter Schools Conference in New Orleans, La., and presented information on charter school funding and related programs and services from the Department of Education. The eighth-annual conference, which is sponsored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, featured general session addresses from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone. (June 2008)
American History
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies offers "Smithsonian Source," an online resource for teaching American history. The site includes instructional strategies for using primary sources in the classroom, information about various history topics, lesson plans, and primary source materials such as artifacts, documents, and photographs. (June 2008)
Arts Education
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has announced the five "dream teams" that will create strategies to strengthen their state's arts education policies and programs at the next NEA Education Leaders Institute, held from July 15-17. (May 22)
Mathematics and Science
The latest iteration in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's series of reports on secondary school reform and redesign, Rethinking High School PDF (3.47 MB), highlights three high schools that have successfully implemented programs to prepare all students for college mathematics. The profiled schools include Interlake High School in Bellevue, W. Va.; Granby High School in Norfolk, Va.; and Fenway High School in Boston, Mass. (2008)
Raising Student Achievement
An average of 70.6 percent of students who started high school four years earlier graduated nationally in 2005, the year for which the most recent data are available, up slightly from the prior year, according to Education Week's annual Diplomas Count report. The rates, however, vary widely by state with just 45.4 percent of Nevada students earning diplomas while more than 83.3 percent of New Jersey students do so. For the first time, the report also breaks down the graduation rates for each U.S. congressional district and Washington, D.C. (June 5)
The National Geographic School Publishing and Literacy Achievement Research Center will host its 2008 Literacy Institute, aimed at connecting science and literacy to promote student success, on July 9 and 10 at the National Geographic Society Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Registration materials are online. (June 2008)
Contributions collected by the United Way of America – the nation's largest nonprofit organization – will go in part to the organization's new goal of halving the high school dropout rate within the next decade. Brian A. Gallagher, the United Way's president and chief executive, stated, "For years and years and years, folks saw us as a fundraising organization … but the issues we care about weren't getting better. So the change here is to put a stake in the ground on the issues that drive improving social conditions." (May 15)
A new report PDF (294 KB) from the Southern Regional Education Board calls for states to align their career and technical curriculum with college-readiness standards, conduct end-of-course assessments, and establish panels consisting of college faculty, high school teachers, school officials, and employers to create curriculum frameworks and course syllabi. The report also encourages states to provide incentives for districts and high schools to work together with two-year colleges, technology centers, and employers to design coursework. (May 2008)
Raising Graduation Rates in an Era of High Standards: Five Commitments for State Action PDF (458 KB), a report from Jobs For the Future, provides state policymakers with a framework to help all students graduate from high school and thrive in college. The report also highlights states that are successfully raising standards and graduation rates. (2008)
Teacher Quality and Development
Faced with a chronic shortage of mathematics and science teachers, Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut has initiated a three-year recruiting program to hire qualified teachers from India. In keeping with the district's motto, schools are "expecting great things" from these international recruits. (June 2008)
Eighty percent of new teachers report feeling "very prepared" or "somewhat prepared" to head their respective classrooms, according to a new survey PDF (1.03 MB) of first-year teachers from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Public Agenda. The report also finds, however, that many new teachers feel quite under-prepared for dealing with the ethnic and racial diversity in their classrooms. (2008)
"Arcademic Skill Builders" is a nonprofit Web site that features educational activities inspired by arcade games. The site aims to engage students using a new approach for learning basic mathematics, language arts, and vocabulary skills. (June 2008)
Innovations in the News
Charter Schools/ Choice
New Orleans school children entering kindergarten through the third-grade will have a chance to go to private schools at taxpayer expense this fall under a bill given final passage in the state House that marked a major victory for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. According to the AP, Jindal placed $10 million for the voucher program in the proposed state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The program and the price tag are expected to grow as the first-year participants progress in school and others join the program.
A second round of results comparing high school graduation figures for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and a group of private schools in the district's publicly funded scholarship program echoes results from a report released in January. The latest report finds that students who attend participating private schools are more likely to graduate than those who attend MPS. Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee was released and funded by School Choice Wisconsin, a school choice advocacy organization, which is the oldest of its kind in the country. [More—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] (June 7)
A new study PDF (180 KB) from Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes examines the effectiveness of student reward programs in charter schools. Researcher Margaret Raymond surveyed 186 charter schools and collected achievement data from 47 of them to determine whether incentives for academic and behavioral excellence (such as certificates of merit, college fund contributions, and cash) helped to improve student achievement. Although results were mixed, the study finds that incentive systems positively and significantly correlated with student achievement in reading, but not in mathematics. [More—International Business Times] (May 27)
Raising Student Achievement
Concerned about the decline of middle school students' interests in mathematics and science, Raytheon encourages its engineers to volunteer their time in middle schools in the Andover, Mass., area to counter that trend. Volunteers share their passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The effort is centered on an interactive Web site, mathmovesu.com that "features virtual worlds that pertain to students' interests in music, fashion, and sports." Also included is an online resource center called "MathMovesUniversity" that provides both help to students and content for teachers. [More—Boston Globe] (May 29)
As the number of college engineering graduates diminishes, Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Md.-based aerospace company, has partnered with a nonprofit group, Project Lead the Way, to bring professional engineers into eight K-12 schools located near Lockheed Martin facilities. "Essentially you create a pipeline within the public school system," said Jim Knotts, Lockheed Martin's director of corporate social responsibility. "And what we're really doing is sowing the seeds today with these students that we hope to reap in about four or five years." [More—BusinessWeek] (May 20)
When is an "F" not a "D?" In one Las Vegas, Nev., high school, the principal's recent decision that teachers could not issue a failing score of less than 50 met with a protest from the teachers and was overturned. This instance is representative of a current debate in other schools and districts concerning "how and whether to reform grading systems to give failing students a better chance to catch up." Some proponents of "setting a floor" for failing grades, such as 50, indicate that it cannot necessarily be done without other efforts in place "to determine why a student is not doing work and to change that behavior." [More—USA Today] (May 19)
School Improvement
Educators in the Sarasota County School District in Florida are expanding a program that allows high school students who are at risk of not graduating to set their own schedules and take the time needed to comprehend content in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, leading to graduation with their peers. The Performance-Based Diploma (PBD) program also includes a 12-week mentoring component that provides academic credit toward graduation. Begun in a single school in 2005, PBD is now operating in five county high schools. [More—Herald-Tribune (Fla.)] (June 1)
Teacher Quality and Development
New Jersey's alternate route to teaching program, the oldest in the country, is responsible for 40 percent of the new teachers hired annually, and is helping to staff hard-to-fill teaching positions in science, mathematics, and special education according to a state-commissioned study. In place for 23 years, the pioneering program and others like it in 49 states, are responsible for an estimated one-third of all new teachers, according to one of the study's authors. The report also cites areas of the program in need of improvement, such as providing new recruits with adequate preparation before they enter the classroom. [More—New York Times] (June 9)
The latest data (requires Microsoft Excel) on highly qualified teachers under NCLB indicates that 94 percent of the nation's classrooms in the 2006-2007 school year were staffed by teachers meeting the standard in core academic subjects. In high-poverty schools, however, the percentage of highly qualified teachers is lower than in low-poverty schools, a difference of five percent nationally. Overall, "there was an increase of seven percentage points in the total number of highly qualified teachers nationwide …since 2003-04." North Dakota was the only state to meet the 2006-2007 goal of having a highly qualified teacher in every core-subject classroom. [More—Education Week] (June 6) (paid subscription required)
Arizona schools are taking a page from the higher education guidebook with the state's new Adjunct Teachers Initiative, a pilot program that will recruit professionals, such as engineers and scientists, to teach classes in calculus and algebra. The volunteers will receive 36 hours of teacher training before entering classrooms and will spend their first semester paired with a licensed teacher. [More—Associated Press] (Arizona Daily Star) (May 18)
Book study groups, long recognized and used to increase teachers' awareness of the need for change in their practice, is increasing in use as a professional development strategy. Two trends – teachers' obligation to improving their skills and school-based efforts to improve practices that engage teachers as colleagues – are moving book study "far up the list" of how teachers are applying their professional development energies. According to Stephanie Hirsch, executive director of the National Staff Development Council, book study, "promote(s) deeper understanding of concepts and actual transfer of ideas to practice." [More—Education Week] (May 16) (paid subscription required)
To learn more about how technology in schools can raise student achievement and better prepare students for the real world, Secretary Spelling hosted the last of four technology roundtables held nationwide over the past 14 months, at Qualcomm. The roundtables engaged leaders in education, technology and investment on topics ranging from computers and cellular phones to electronic textbooks and teacher training. [More—San Diego Union Tribune] (June 17)
High fuel prices are prompting schools to use virtual field trips as cost-effective ways to broaden students' learning experiences beyond their community, state, and even country. Helping to fuel a rise in these alternatives to leaving the classroom are increases in broadband access, decreases in the costs of acquiring the necessary technology, and a wider array of options for virtual excursions. One "broker" of the trips, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration in Indianapolis, reports that more than 1.1 million students participated in trips organized by the Web site as of last month. The site is home to more than 150 virtual field trip destinations. [More—Christian Science Monitor] (June 6)
All is not lost for 100 students who did not make it into the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). These "runners-up" from across the state in the Durham residential school's annual selection of students are being offered online classes that may eventually lead to a diploma from the school. For some of the students, particularly those from rural and otherwise underserved parts of the state where advanced mathematics and science courses are not offered, the online option is meeting a critical need. NCSSM hopes to enroll a second class of students for the online option next year. [More—News & Observer] (June 5)
As high schools increase efforts to raise graduation rates, online courses that provide missing credits are increasing in popularity. In the past several years, technology-based options to recover credits needed for graduation are "a huge area of growth," according to Susan D. Patrick, president and chief executive officer of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), a trade association for online schools. NACOL is expected to publish a white paper on promising practices in credit recovery later this year. (See Innovator, February 2008, for more information on online learning.) [More—Education Week] (May 20) (paid subscription required)
The University of Central Florida (UCF) has a high-tech twist on the ritual of student teaching: a classroom of virtual students to put prospective teachers through their paces, complete with distinctive personalities that are either programmed by computer or created in real time by a student actor in an adjacent room wearing an electronic bodysuit that allows for speech and movements. The virtual classroom is a product of UCF's Institute of Simulation and Training, which received help from the technology and aeronautics company Lockheed Martin that has its own simulation lab in Orlando, Fla. [More— Orlando Sentinel] (May 15)
The number of K-12 students taking online courses now exceeds 1 million and, according to a new paper by the Hoover Institute, is expected to increase to the point that one-half of all courses in grades nine through 12 will be delivered online by 2019. With this growth come increasing questions about how best to judge and ensure the quality of electronic course taking. Among the issues for which there are calls for increased insight and accountability are interstate credit for advanced course taking and standards for attendance and course completion. [More—Christian Science Monitor] (May 14)
Office of Innovation and Improvement
Douglas B. Mesecar, Assistant Deputy Secretary
Office of Communications and Outreach
Lauren Maddox, Assistant Secretary
John McGrath
Doug Herbert
Executive Editors
Sherry Schweitzer
Christine Miller
June Feature Writer
Cynthia Cabell
Sr. Production Editor
Dramon Turner
Production Editor
Emily Fitzpatrick
Copy Editor
Pamela Allen
Virginia Gentles
Doug Herbert
Stacy Kreppel
Todd May
Christine Miller
Kelly Rhoads
Tiffany Taber
Peggi Zelinko
Issue Reviewers
Doug Herbert
Todd May
Tiffany Taber
Article Submissions
Last Modified: 05/20/2009


text:
|Data Dictionary:
|Census 1960 Tracts Only Set
you are here: choose a survey survey data set table variable details
Survey: Census 1960 Tracts Only Set
|Data Source:
|Social Explorer & U.S. Census Bureau - DUALabs
Data set: Social Explorer Tables (SE)
Universe: Population Age 25+
Variable Details
|Educational Attainment for Population 25 Years and Over
|Universe: Population Age 25+
T044_005 5 to 7 years
Percent base:
Aggregation method:
Formula used to compute this variable:
Return_Value = ORG:T022_005
Relevant Documentation:
|Excerpt from:
|Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Censuses of Population and Housing: 1960. Census Tracts. Final Report PHC(1)-11. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1962.
|Census Tract Data, 1940-1970: Elizabeth Mullen Bogue File -> Census Tracts -> Population Characteristics -> Years of school completed
The data on years of school completed were derived from the answers to the two questions: (a) What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended? and (b) Did he finish this grade (or year)? Enumerators were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest (Note: the text in the original document is not clearly visible) graded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by readers, or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the regular school definition. Persons were to answer NOto the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.


text:
Hi guys, can anyone give me the location and size of the led lights to the top of the range finder, or are they the same as Boba?
Cheers all.
Hi guys, can anyone give me the location and size of the led lights to the top of the range finder, or are they the same as Boba?
Cheers all.
Same as Boba but Blue LEDs.
I heard the LED's weren't used on Jango compared to Boba in the movie.
There aren't real LED's on Jango's RF, just bumps. But if you wanted to use some, they would be blue and probably the same size as Boba's.
Just crafting the bumps! Cheers guys, as I thought but wanted to be sure.
The thing is with having these suits and building them for public appearences, is that they almost have to be better than the screen used costumes, because nothing can be hidden, the film crew can't strategically light where your standing at any given moment and there surely won't be any special effects added afterwards in post production! So in order to help make the suit more believable and help suspend disbelief from your audience, the addition of voice amps, smoking jet pack exhausts, working range finders and RF top LED's all add to the overall impression made!
So with that said man, if you want to go and add some LED's, go ahead and do it, it sure makes it a heck of alot more fun to troop, for both you and your audience!
Last edited by Galactic Hunter; Jan 6, 2009 at 6:27 PM.
working LED on RF..posibilities are endless..


text: good lord its quiet in here. its been almost three days since anyone last replied to anything in here. don't tell me yall are silent like this anytime the g's lose a game? a preseason one at that. I am sure losing to the jets didn't damage yalls ego that much


text:
Town Square
Urban living - Indecent Exposure
Original post made by Neighborhood watch, Pleasanton Valley, on Feb 2, 2009
I, too , had a young man from Urban Living of Missouri knock on my door this last week. The interaction I had with him was relatively uneventful. And then I spoke with another friend this evening to tell her about tonight's incident and she told me that she also had a knock on her door this week. When she answered, there were 2 men from Urban Living of Missouri and when she said that she could not afford to help them out, one of them started verbally abusing her. She shut the door and they left.
The policemen that responded to tonight's indecent exposure incident said that they are well aware of this group's presence in the East Bay. Apparently, there is a large group in town and they literally knock on every door in town before passing on through to the next area. After my friend's experience tonight, I am more wary of this group's presence and just want to pass on a word of caution since it is obvious to me that the presence of this Urban Living group is not harmless. Has anyone else in town had any interactions like this within the last week or two?
Comments (25)
a resident of Birdland
on Feb 2, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Is Urban Living of Missouri even a legitimate non-profit org? I google the name "Urban Living of Missouri" and only found a couple of real estate firms by that name. I think they're a fraud.
Do you have some physical descriptions of these men so I can keep an eye out for them in my neighborhood? If I were you, I won't sign anything for them. Who knows what they intend to do with my signature?!
a resident of Pleasanton Heights
on Feb 3, 2009 at 12:11 am
Solicitors knocking on doors in Pleasanton have been a huge problem for me for some time now. They all have a BS line of introduction, and are trained to act in various dramatic ways when (and if) politely rejected. If you hesitate, they then throw a hook at you.
For example, you say "sorry, I am not interested" and quickly the hurt look and/or disbelief look is delivered. If you don't slam the door shut at this point, they will next try to engage you with some canned line because they now know they now have your attention. That is, you did not slam the door in their face, therefore, they can now play with you.
When I bother to answer the door at all, I do a very quick judge as to who they are, then usually interrupt them mid-sentence as they deliver their first lines. I say something to the effect that I am not interested while I stare back at them and their rehearsed rejection look, and then shut the door before they have a chance to further speak.
The reasons these groups come to Pleasanton are two. The community has many well-off residents who are good targets, and enough of you fall sucker to their frauds to make it worthwhile for them and others to continue coming.
I would like to think that we had anti-solicitor laws here in Pleasanton, but I think that is not the case because calling the police ends up not producing any effect. Anyways, it would be a poor use of police to chase solicitors, unless, of course, they begin to engage in breaking and entering, which may be occurring.
Our most recent experience involved the solicitor rattling the door knob to see if it was open because no one answered the door.
My advice is to just stop being nice to strange people who come to your door, disturb you in your home at all kinds of odd hours, and then try to sell you something or steal something from you.
a resident of Downtown
on Feb 3, 2009 at 7:15 am
Post a sign near the door that says "no solicitors, smile for the camera." No one knocks on my door and the cheap camera tucked in a corner has not worked in years.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 3, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Julie is a registered user.
I did have a strange experience recently. Two men rang my bell and my dogs barked so loudly I couldn't hear what they were saying. I said "No Thanks" and one of them said he wasn't selling anything (yeah, right). I said, "Sorry, it's just too much right now" (the dogs were going crazy). One of them said something and they walked to the street where a white van was waiting. They got in and lingered a couple of seconds, then left. My neighbor called and asked if my kids had been dropped off by a white van. I explained what happened and she told me that the van had only gone to my house and that the woman driving was holding a map and was writing something.
a resident of Downtown
on Feb 3, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I actually had someone knock at my door today -- obviously can't read the sign. I told him I would need to take his photo ID inside while calling the police to verify his license and that there were no complaints about his company. Surprise, surprise, when he realized that I was locked inside with his ID he left. If all of us would run them off and/or call the police to note the names of the solicitors we would have fewer of these predators hanging around.
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Feb 3, 2009 at 9:28 pm
MainStreetDiva is a registered user.
I had a man agressively ring the doorbell today -- I didn't answer, as I recognized him as one of the two solicitors from last week.
I set up my motion-sensor security camera again, and plan to get a "No Solicitors" sign tomorrow. They hung around the neighborhood far too long.
a resident of another community
on Feb 4, 2009 at 8:42 am
Thanks for your comments. I'm in Livermore and often get solicitor's at the door. Never any problems, but thanks to your comments I will be highly aware. Thank you!
a resident of Valley Trails
on Feb 4, 2009 at 8:55 am
My question is...when to call the police? I had a guy knock on my door around 4 oclock in the afternoon. I blew him off. He did look very suspicious (to me). So I kept an eye out. I noticed him walk by my house two times within the hour. My wife said she drove past him on our street at around 5:30. We left for dinner and came home and he was still walking (around the corner from my house) at 7:30pm. I live in a small neighbor hood and he just seemed to be there A LONG time. I saw no other people with him (real solicitors often knock in teams), no 'chase" van...I just saw him walking around aimlessly for over 4 hours. I have already been told by friends that if you call the police with no "real" reason (see him doing something illegal) then you will be accused of some sort of racism (thats only because they really can't do anything and they want to make you feel bad for 'profiling'...I guess thats their job).
I like to stay aware of whats going on in my neighborhood, so I have no problem keeping an eye out. But I can only watch my immediate neighbors. So when do I call the police. I felt I should have yesterday, but knew it would be a waste because technically he didn't do anything wrong?
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 4, 2009 at 9:48 am
Doo Doo: The guy is just trying to make an honest living...give him a break. It's good to be vigilant but being paranoid that anyone who roams around your neighborhood for hours have bad intentions is just pathetic.
Next time, approach him and see if you can offer him any assistance. That way, he'll know that the community is vigilant but also kind in offering people assistance.
a resident of Foxborough Estates
on Feb 4, 2009 at 11:03 am
What are you people doing opening the door to people you DO NOT KNOW or can identify? If you are expecting someone but do not know what they look like ask them to identify themselves BEFORE unlocking and opening your door. If they will not leave another option is to grab your phone and let them see you in the window and that you are home and have a phone to your ear. Shake your head NO! They normally will go away knowing you have just told someone they are there at your door.
a resident of Stoneridge Park
on Feb 4, 2009 at 11:09 am
I answer with one hand holding my dog and the other holding the door. If it's someone I know or recognize from the neighborhood, I listen and usually help them out/buy/whatever. Otherwise I give them about 15 seconds to make their pitch and say "No thank you." and shut the door whether they're finished or not. Pretty much the same with phone "surveyors" too.
a resident of Vineyard Hills
on Feb 4, 2009 at 11:12 am
I agree with Think Again. Why open the door to people you do not know or are not expecting? Don't put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation because you are worried about 'being rude' by not opening the door.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 4, 2009 at 11:13 am
I had a problem with a solicitor in Alamo where I work. It was about 6:30pm on a private street with no street lights in a woodshop on my grandparents land. My uncle and I were approached by a woman selling magazines for urban city children or something. She started out very friendly and talkative. After about 10 minutes of talking with and trying to figure out what her motive was my Uncle decides to by some magazines. He usually doesn't read them and the one he does read he has a lifetime subscription. He chose to magazine, because she said you have to buy more than one for her program to work (which we still don't understand). He pointed out the ones he wanted and a few minutes later after her supposedly figuring out all the math says it's 180$. This is for two magazines for one year. My uncle declines her offer and says no thanks the price is way to high and I don't really read them anyway. She starts to throw a fit and says you are wasting my time. He asks her to adjust the price a little and she does about 20$. Finally he just decides to go ahead with it to be nice. She says cash or check, he tells her that he doesn't have his check book and doesn't have 160$ cash on him at the moment and he thought that he would be billed. She starts yelling at him saying it is never billed and your wasting my time. It was silent for about two minutes and he says what do you want me to do. She says thanks for wasting my time God Bless and walks away back into the dark. No we assume it was a scam and there was no way to say no thanks and slam the door because it was a roll up door. It was very creepy. Being nice isn't always the best thing.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 4, 2009 at 11:37 am
We've been solicited by these 'mag crews' 4 times in the past couple weeks. I'm pretty sure twice by the same guy.
At first it was just annoying but then we had an experience almost identical to the one posted by DooDoo. We only have 100 homes in our neighborhood and the guy had been by at 4pm. At 7:30 he's still hanging around in front of houses, presumably waiting for 'the van'. I know this because I had gone out to move my car from the street and I spotted him, he saw me and awkwardly turned around and ducked into the shadows of a tree a few houses down. I needed to take my dog for a walk so I decided I would use that opportunity to see what he was up to. He came out of his spot and took off.
We have a neighborhood watch sign as you enter our street claiming that we report all suspicious activity to police. I did and I later saw a policeman questioning him. The next day, another guy from the mag crew is walking up our sidewalk and tries his pitch on my fiancee as she's leaving the house. It's approaching a level that I would consider harassing. The same company coming to your door day after day with the same nonsense after you've sent them away. There's a do not call registry but unfortunately we do not have a do not ring or knock registry (around here). I don't want to bother the police with these types of calls and I'm sure they would rather do other things than check solicitors licenses for warrants, but sometimes solicitors use their time to case neighborhoods for later crimes. If repeated soliciting were a crime maybe they would move on after the first round of rejections.
Anyway, if you're not aware of the problems associated with this activity do a google search on 'mag crews'. It an eye opener.
a resident of Castlewood
on Feb 4, 2009 at 12:41 pm
we had them two weeks back, two days in a row. the first time I did open and this young man got quite belligerent when I said no thanks. next day round 4pm two of them came by and I did NOT open. We noticed they knock on a door and then were using a cell phone after - maybe to report "home" or "not home" ? I was about to call police but the cops did arrive and talked to them. It is definitely a scam and I suspect they are casing who is home at what time of day. the down side if you pretend not be home do they put you down as a possible "empty house" ?
Im going to just keep calling police if they show up.
a resident of Pleasanton Meadows
on Feb 4, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Our Neighborhood watch officer said always call the police if someone is suspicious. If you see the white van call then. May keep them from ever visiting your door.
The police will make contact and record the incident -- that way if there is some crime - they know who to look for. 931-5122 is the business number (but it might ring dipatch anyways) I cannot stand the fake magazine solicitors and fake charities.
a resident of West of Foothill
on Feb 4, 2009 at 1:28 pm
The community service officer that recently addressed a meeting I attended said you should NEVER open the door if you can not positively identify the person on the other side. But, you should always let them know you are home. A simple "Yes?" shouted through the door, and then a "No Thanks" once they respond, with no further dialogue lets them know that your house is not empty, but doesn't provide them access to you or the interior of your home.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 4, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Cautious is right. you should never open your door to a stranger or someone claiming to be a solicitor. you can politely tell them no thanks. i had one of the "mag crews" at my door a few weeks ago. i politely told her, "no thanks." and she kept going on about how she was trying to improve herself. i'm all for self-improvement, just not on my porch and not with my money. so i told her we could end the conversation one of two ways, one, "thanks, goodbye" or two, "thanks, i'm calling the police on you, goodbye"
she left.
a resident of Downtown
on Feb 4, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I had three Mag.solicitors last week. One time it was a woman and a man. When I realized it was a solicitor I politely declined to open my door. The woman become very angry and started yelling at me. I will put up a NO SOLICITOR sign,but doubt it will help.
I did call the police to ask if they are licensed to solicite and I was told they are.
I will not open my door to any solicitors because other solicitors in the past have also become insulting and arrogant.
a resident of Birdland
on Feb 4, 2009 at 7:37 pm
These solicitors are in Birdland tonight also. Just had one at my door.
Thank goodness I was too busy with dinner to speak with the young man and told him so. Checking who is on your front porch before opening the door is a good practice to follow more seriously now of days.
a resident of Siena
on Feb 6, 2009 at 12:39 pm
They came knocking at the door at my friend's (a single mother) apartment. Pushed the door open, and commented about the electronics, Wii game,etc that she had. They wouldn't take 'no' for a answer... and she felt that they were making a shopping list of what to come back for later. They were at my house today, and I called our Finest. I encourage everyone else to do the same. I hope that they will be gone from our safe city soon.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Feb 9, 2009 at 10:08 am
You can get free "no soliciting" stickers from www.solicitorfree.com. I put up the sticker after a nasty experience with a door-to-door solicitor and I've noticed that I don't have as many strangers knocking on my door. For those that still do, I don't open the door, just call out that I don't open the door to strangers, but they can leave material about their organization at the door, and after I've verified they're a legitimate charitable organization and have procured a City Of Pleasanton soliciting permit, I'll contact them if I'm interested.
However, now that I've been reading how it appears some of these solicitors may be "casing" homes, I will also start calling the Pleasanton police...even if the police can't come each time someone calls, they can probably come enough that the word will get out that Pleasanton isn't a good place to run soliciting scams.
a resident of Highland Oaks
on Feb 10, 2009 at 4:28 pm
that is rediculous. what a piece of crap. if they knock on my door and dropped his drawers he would have a size 13 turning his outy into a ini. that's sad that people can't feel safe, why did we move here. for a feeling of safety and community. after reading some of these posts today, that doesn't seem present anymore. now a days i will probably be the only one answering the door. it's not worth risking my daughter, wife or anyone else put themselves in that situation. i am a very calm guy, but if some sick perve, dropped his trousers at my porch. he wouldn't be walking away. he would probably be leaving in a ambulace, then going to jail.
this could also be another round of thieves. this economy is tough right now, but i work and work and work. to make sure we are ok. i saw that they had been doing this to castlewood. which makes me think about the murder there last summer. and then the what if's? come to play.
a resident of Foothill High School
on Feb 11, 2009 at 12:10 am
perry is a registered user.
One of these magazine solicitors at my door a few weeks ago from today (02/10/09). I live in the Valley View area and this african american guy in his 20's was very aggressive at the door and would not leave after me repeating "go away". I was ready to call the cops if he was refusing to leave.
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on Feb 17, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I smoked a blunt with two people from this group. They were very nice. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. They were obviously ex-meth-heads, but they were making an attempt to get their lives back on track. The man rolled an exquisitely designed blunt, he had a real talent for it. We smoked, talked, and they went on their way. No solicitor drama, just plain, down-to-earth working people trying to better themselves.
Honestly, you people are far too stuck up for your own good. Try not being so condescending, maybe you'll receive a better response.
Don't miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.
Livermore trustees demonstrating wisdom
By Tim Hunt | 10 comments | 1,197 views
The Great Divide, and What's Next?
By Tom Cushing | 38 comments | 904 views
2017 guide to summer camps
Looking for something for the kids to do this summer, learn something new and have fun? The 2017 Summer Camp Guide features local camps for all ages and interests.


text:
Beautiful studio for 2 near sea
Size20 m²
Floor No.
- Family/child friendly
- Kitchen
- Air conditioning
- Parking available
- Smoking allowed
- Disabled access
- Balcony/terrace
Accommodation summary
|Punta Radman, 23231 Petrcane, Croatia
|Property type
|Property ID
AC, TV SAT and FREE wireless internet (the signal is sometimes weak inside, but always good on the balcony). Towels and bedlinens provided. A lot of shared outside space to relax with grill, table tennis, swings, parking space...It has a luscious garden and many pine trees in the backyard. Few minutes walking from several beaches, the closest one is 150 meters away and it has a beach club and childrens pool.
Located in a beautiful coastal village Petrčane. You can bike or take walks through the olive fields or by the sea. A lot of peace & quiet and nature but also five minutes walking from shops, restaurants, cafes... Rent-a-bike, spa, tennis courts, small in-door pool, gym, mini golf 5 minutes walking away.
Historical city of Zadar is 12 km away, buses (bus stop 2 min walking) and taxi available. Petrčane has very convenient location for excursions to four national parks - Kornati, Krka, Paklenica and Plitvice Lakes, rafting, kayaking, photo safari on the mountain Velebit...
Minimum stay in the summer season is 7 days, rest of the year is flexible. All fees and tourist tax included in the price.
Pets allowed on request.
House rulesNo loud noises after 10 pm. Please help us protect the environment ( no littering, shut down the AC if windows are opened....)
|Check-in after
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews of this property
We had a great time in Petrecane! On the first day we were welcomed very friendly. The apartment was clean, only the mosquitoes were a bit annoying. The housekeeper has even once cooked for us and otherwise every wish from our eyes. Everything very recommendable in everything! We would not hesitate to come back time.
Wir hatten eine super Zeit in Petrecane! Am ersten Tag wurden wir sehr freundlich empfangen. Das Appartement war sauber, nur die Mücken waren etwas nervig. Die Haushälterin hat sogar einmal für uns gekocht und auch sonst jeden Wunsch von den Augen abgelesen. Alles in allem sehr weiterzuempfehlen!wir würden jeder zeit wiederkommen.
We liked the place Petrcane. Small village with some good restaurants bars o o food stores. As for the actual accommodation was very good position. Only one minute to a very nice rocky beach. There was a nice patio at the accommodation. The apartment itself was very small and simple. We would have appreciated if the farm house had had been a little fresher. Our host, Snijezana was very hospitable and friendly
Vi tyckte mycket om orten Petrcane. Liten by med några bra restauranger o barer o livsmedelsaffärer. Vad gäller själva boendet var läget mycket bra. Endast någon minut till en mycket trevlig klippstrand. Det var en trevlig uteplats vid boendet. Själva lägenheten var mycket liten och enkel. Vi hade uppskattat om gården som huset låg på hade varit lite fräschare. Vår värd, Snijezana var dock mycket gästfri och vänlig
For us it was the relaxing holiday we had imagined. We were greeted nice and friendly even at the arrival. Our hostess asked for our needs and concerns. Then they took the whole week for us as we spent unforgettable days. (Only went because season was over) Our apartment was perfect for our needs and was very clean. we can only say "we came as strangers and left as friends." We are looking forward to next year and come back. we can only recommend it. Goodbye to all love and good
Monika and many greetings from Carsten Dalmacija Ingolstadt
Es war für uns der erholsame Urlaub den wir uns vorgestellt hatten. Wir wurden schon bei der Ankunft nett und freundlich begrüßt. Unsere Gastgeberin fragte nach unseren Wünschen und Anliegen. Dann nahm sie sich die ganze Woche Zeit für uns so das wir unvergessliche Tage erlebten.(ging nur weil Saison vorbei war) Unser Apartment war für unsere Ansprüche vollkommen und war sehr sauber. wir können nur sagen "wir kamen als Fremde und gingen als Freunde". Wir freuen uns schon auf nächstes Jahr und kommen wieder. wir können es nur empfehlen. bis zum Wiedersehen alles liebe und gute
viele Grüße Monika und Carsten vom Dalmacija Ingolstadt
Greatly enjoyed our stay - (!) Very quiet area, minimum 50 meters (private) beach, the studio has everything you need (kitchen, large fridge, ..), nice terrace at the studio with garden view , attention to children (swing, small benches, ping pong table), very warm welcome by very friendly hostesses!
Nice village with a few restaurants and a mini supermarket.
Highly recommended for those who love peace and authenticity.
Enorm genoten van ons verblijf - erg rustige omgeving, op 50tal meter van (privé)strand(!), de studio heeft alles wat je nodig hebt (keuken, grote frigo,..), leuk terrasje aan de studio met zicht op de tuin, aandacht voor kinderen (schommel, kleine bankjes, ping pong tafel), erg warm onthaal door zeer vriendelijke gastvrouwen!
Leuk dorp met enkele restaurants en een mini-supermarkt.
Een echte aanrader voor wie houdt van rust & authenticiteit.
Very nice accommodation. Small but nice and clean. The beautiful beach just 2 minutes walk. Everything you need close by (ATM, bakery, grocery store, cafe, bar, restaurants). But the special thing about this holiday was our host Snijezana and her daughter, who made our stay memorable by their hospitality!
Sehr nette Unterkunft. Klein aber fein und sauber. Zum wunderschönen Strand nur 2 Minuten zu Fuß. Alles was man braucht in unmittelbarer Nähe (Bankomat, Bäckerei, Lebensmittelgeschäft, Kaffeehaus, Bar, Restaurants).
Das Besondere an diesem Urlaub waren aber unsere Gastgeber Snijezana und ihre Tochter, die unseren Aufenthalt durch ihre Gastfreundschaft unvergesslich gemacht haben!
Had a beautiful time at Petrcane! Snijezana and her family were very nice and perfect hosts. We would come again! :)
Although a simplistic apartment,I found this to be the perfect venue for peace and tranquility.
Our hosts Snijezena and her daughter were friendly, caring and attentive. They gave us the perfect home from home experience. I learnt so much about Petracane from them.
The surrounding gardens and nearby beaches were majestical. The hotel Pinija is also on the doorstep and willing to let you use their facilities for a small fee.
Highly recommend this venue and hosts. I would use it again.
We didn't get to meet Mihaela, but her mother was such nice host to us. She served us cake and palatschinken, which was delecious. We really enjoied our stay at this wonderful place!!
This is a cosy apartment with big garden and close to the beach and village centre. Nice owners. The beach is not sandy, bring your yogamat or rent a beachchair at the hotel around the corner. Especially on sundays beware of the bus's timeschedule!
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


text:
District Operations
Todd SmithDirector of District OperationsPH: 817-444-3235Fax: 817-444-1465
Department Description
The District Operations department works with Athletics, Fine Arts, Cheerleading, Transportation, Maintenance, Custodians and Textbooks. District Operations also works with parents to help them find the solutions they need. The "vision" of the department is to "Create a First Class, High Quality Learning Environment".
Meshia Neely Assistant to Director of District Operations817-444-3235


text:
Jin Shan's "My dad is Li Gang!" presents a common bike and a spectacular spacecraft that seem to float in Brown University's David Winton Bell Gallery (64 College St, Providence, through November 4). But the 35-year-old Shanghai artist, considered a rising star in the hot Chinese art scene, intends it as a biting critique of Chinese leaders.
The cylindrical spacecraft sits in the middle of the gallery, tilted on one end and reaching to the ceiling. The upper end slowly rotates, with a faint clicking. The craft's shell is covered with mirrored tiles that reflect everything in the room, broken into shards, and radiates light like a disco ball. A mound of puss-like stuff oozes out of the bottom. A bicycle — one of those three-wheeled cart-bikes widely used by Chinese laborers — is suspended above the spacecraft. It's made of waxy-looking glue that dangles off the bottom and onto the spacecraft as if the bike is melting. The rear wheels are missing. Five, disembodied black wooden hands grab at the bike. Four white plaster walls — built out from the room's actual walls — frame it all. They're pocked with handprints that might suggest constellations or people who have desperately tried to claw their way up the walls to escape. The floor, ceiling, and walls are painted white, which tickles your sense of your bearings, and might give you a floating feeling.
For those only vaguely keeping track of happenings in China, it's a striking, absurd, enigmatic bit of showmanship. Why are ghostly hands grasping at this melting bike floating above a glittering spacecraft? As is common in big-time Chinese contemporary art spectacles, Jin Shan has loaded it with symbolism.
At the 2006 Singapore Biennale, he commented on the winners and losers in the Chinese economy by building a traditional Chinese pavilion with a trampoline inside that allowed visitors to leap upward and try to grab consumer goods hanging from the roof. As part of the 2007 Venice Biennale, he installed a sculpture of himself peeing off a bridge into a canal. In It Came From the Sky, his first US show at the University of Kansas last year, he critiqued Chinese leadership and police with an installation featuring a mannequin of a policeman, suspended by wire, repeatedly rising under a projection of a starry cosmos and then crashing to the floor.
In "My dad is Li Gang!," the spacecraft is inspired by China's Tiangong-1 space station, which was launched last fall. The bike is meant to symbolize the common workers behind China's economic boom. The hands represent impoverished workers squabbling over their meager stake in the world, as the government projects its ambitions by pouring money into technology and public works. "For Jin Shan, the bike is powering the space station . . . powering the ambition of China," curator Ian Alden Russell.
Table of Contents
Cover Archive
Masthead | Authors | Contact us
See all articles by:
All Slideshows


text: Flex means you can play anyone (except goalies) in that position when setting your roster. So if you got 3 great Centers, put them all in. Yes on the bench. Actually Woody, in fantasy, the more penalty minutes a guy gets, the better...I think. Kinda dumb, but just draft a goon... Jammer & Roscoe, you two are like an old married couple. Work it out. No wonder Canada can't decide if they want a democracy or a monarchy...OK, England...same difference.:nerd2:


text:
Last night I watched re-runs of Downton Abbey while I took down my Christmas tree — don't judge me, I know how far into January we are. I became addicted to the show in the week before my second son was born. I languished in bed clutching my stomach thanking God for PBS and Amazon Prime. So I, along with the rest of America. have waited patiently for season three. Unlike most of America however, I am choosing to wait an extra day each week.
I have become accustomed to watching shows in my own time, on whatever device I choose, I enjoy being able to pause and make a cup of tea at will. My husband purchased me a Roku HD Streaming Player for Christmas and so has further enabled this perk of mine. I keep up to date on Hulu with the shows that I love, two of which air on Sunday night, Downton Abbey and Once Upon a Time. Each week I wonder what is coming up, and each week I say I can't wait, but I do, one, often two more days.
Continue Reading "Scheduling My Own Life: Amazon, Hulu, and Roku, Oh My!" »


text:
Google has been attacked yet again over its alleged anti-competitive practices, this time by a leading Microsoft executive who accuses the search giant of trying to impede the development of Windows Phone.
In his blog post yesterday, Microsoft's Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner argues that Google's stance is not just hurting Microsoft, but is also harming thousands of consumers and small businesses that "depend on a competitive search marketplace".
Heiner's accusations come at a time when Google is facing intense scrutiny over its anti-competitive practices, with investigations by both the FTC and the European Commission underway. These came about due to dozens of complaints from rival companies over Google's search results, which all too often seem to be biased towards Google's own products and services. In addition, Google has been accused of copying content from other sites without permission, and using its AdWord campaigns to help promote its own products – at the expense of competing firms.
While there's no denying that Google's actions are harming the competition, the search giant maintains that its practices do no harm whatsoever to consumers – something that Heiner strongly disagrees with. In his post, Heiner writes that complaints against Google are more than justified, and that consumers are also being "scroogled" as much as businesses.
"You might think that Google would be on its best behavior given it's under the bright lights of regulatory scrutiny on two continents," continues Heiner. "However, as we enter 2013, that is not the case."
One example that Heinar points to is how Google continues to "dog" Microsoft over its ability to introduce a fully-functional YouTube app for Windows Phone by restricting its access to the site's metadata:
"[I]n 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft's new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It's done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn't offer a competing search service."
"Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft's new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft's YouTube "app" on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube's mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide."
Heinar goes on to accuse Google of deliberately acting in this way, saying that YouTube executives told him they were under orders "not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones".
These are serious accusations by Heinar, but they are also just the tip of the iceberg compared to what the FTC and European Commission are currently investigating. It remains to be seen what the outcome of these investigations will be, but Heinar for one, seems confident that things will not go Google's way.
"Hopefully, Google will wake up to a New Year with a resolution to change its ways and start to conform with the antitrust laws. If not, then 2013 hopefully will be the year when antitrust enforcers display the resolve that Google continues to lack."


text:
I tried to ask this question over on the other bulletin board and it quickly melted down to personal opinions about other stuff.
So, is there any credible idea to raising queens during a waning moon phase (full to new moon) or a waxing moon phase (new moon to full)? Somewhere I read (source unavailable) that more swarms emerge during a waxing moon phase, which means the queen cells originated during the dark of the moon (full to new moon). Any thoughts?
The gardening crowd believes one should plant under ground veggies during the waning phase and above ground veggies during the waxing phase. Didn't know if there was any correlation to queen rearing. I mostly raise queens when I can block out a time frame during the nectar flow.


text:
He's old enough to be your grandfather, but at 75 years old, Superman looks as young as he did when he first appeared way back in 1938. He's still faster than a speeding bullet, still more powerful than a locomotive, and he can still leap onto the big screen in a single bound. His latest film, Man of Steel, opens today.
Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster when they were teenagers, Superman was introduced in Action Comics No. 1. He was the first costumed superhero, and his success soon led to the creation of Batman, Wonder Woman, and many other popular comic-book crime fighters.
In fact, Superman was such a hit that he quickly moved beyond comic books. He went on to star in radio shows, cartoons, television shows, and, of course, movies.
The Legend Retold
Man of Steel retells the story of Superman's origin. Rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton by his parents, baby Kal-El is raised in the United States as Clark Kent. Growing up, he discovers that he has amazing superhuman abilities and must decide how to best use them. In this new version of the story, Clark, played by Henry Cavill, realizes that he must become Earth's protector when other survivors of Krypton arrive and threaten the planet.
A Superhero For the Ages
Man of Steel marks Superman's first big-screen adventure in seven years. But there's been no break in his comic-book exploits since that first story in Action Comics. What's kept him going so strong for so long?
"[He's] a fun character because of all the things he can do," said Dan Jurgens, who has written and drawn Superman comics since 1987. "Other characters in comics might only have one or two powers, like super strength or the ability to fly, while Superman can do a number of things. I also think there's a sense of majesty and nobility [about] Superman . . . that many other characters lack."
Writer Roger Stern, who worked alongside Jurgens on Superman for several years, says the character is a modern-day myth. "He's all the great heroes of history, mythology, and fiction, rolled into one. Like Moses, he was sent off by his parents to live in a new world. Like Hercules, his heritage makes him the strongest among mortal men. Like Zorro, he leads a double life and keeps his true nature a secret. And yet, he's the costumed adventurer who doesn't wear a mask."
Jurgens and Stern think Superman has what it takes to keep thrilling audiences for the next 75 years.
"He is our champion, our hero," said Stern. "He's the one who stands up for the little guy."
Jurgens added, "Superman [represents] that which is best in all of us. That should never fall out of style."
To read about more summer movies for 2013, visit TFK's Summer Movie Guide.


text:
I need some advise on a clearcoat preservative that I can use on my pine garden hive. The wife really likes the natural wood look and I want the look to last as long as possible.
Any input, especially those who have tried and succeeded would be great. Pics would really be cool.
Man.... I can't wait for spring to arrive. Am I the only one Jonesing for spring? I bet not! lol


text: Schema Document SKILLED TECH PERSONNEL xml layout file. Author: Hector Tello - AEM Corporation Version: 6.0 Created: October 2008 Includes: pbdmi-file-xmit-6.xsd Titles of employment, official status, or rank for staff skilled in technology. Codes: ALLTCH - All Teachers LIBSPE - Librarians/Media Specialists SCHADM - School Administrators MISSING An indication of performance on standards-based performance profiles of technology users skills. Codes: TECHACCEPT – Personnel achieved acceptable performance TECHNOTACCEPT – Personnel did not achieve acceptable performance


text:
Amberita is the most beautiful girl in the world. She's gorgeous, sweet, kind, funny, caring, intelligent. Amberita is also artistically gifted. No one can compare to an Amberita. Without a doubt, she's amazing -- never let her go. It'll be the biggest mistake you've ever made. Listen to the dictionary, it knows what it's talking about^.^
I love my Amberita.
by DarkestLightxx April 13, 2013