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ExxonMobil links Mines to elementary math, science, energy education
GOLDEN, Colo., July 2, 2009 – Colorado School of Mines will play an active role in improving elementary mathematics and science education and teacher training for the Meeker School District thanks to a $240,000 grant from Exxon Mobil Corporation.
The three-year grant will provide funding to Mines' Center for the Assessment of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to develop a collaboration to improve K-5 mathematics and science in the Meeker district. The program will support elementary school faculty to attend summer workshops at Mines focused on applications related to energy and renewable energy concepts – areas in which Mines has extensive expertise through the Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. The first week of the workshop will focus on traditional sources of energy, such as natural gas, and the second week on renewable sources. Teachers will learn the important, integrated role that each form of energy has in matching our nation's current and future energy needs.
Barb Moskal, Mines mathematical and computer sciences professor and director of the Center for the Assessment of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, noted this partnership will extend opportunities already available to local school districts through the Bechtel K-5 Education Excellence Initiative.
"There is currently a crisis at all levels in mathematics and science education. Students are not reaching the desired level of attainment and few students select to pursue majors that require in-depth knowledge of these subjects. Many students become discouraged before they reach middle school, long before they understand the important applications of these fields," Moskal said.
This grant will allow Meeker teachers the opportunity to receive online educational support and training as well as access to Mines facilities throughout the academic year. In addition, Mines scientists, engineers and graduate students will visit and engage elementary school students via interactive video link.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is also participating in this project through its collaboration with Mines' current K-5 outreach efforts.
Karen Gilbert, Public Relations Specialist / 303-273-3541 / firstname.lastname@example.com
Marsha Williams, Director of Integrated Marketing Communications / 303-273-3326 / email@example.com


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This event is in the past.
Category: Community Service
Location: NA
Cost: Free
Calendars: Main Events Calendar, Featured
Audience: Alumni, Community, Current Graduate Students, Current Undergraduate Students
The President's Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) invites you to create a logo for Take Back the Night 2013. Take Back the Night is a campaign aimed at educating, engaging, and empowering women and the community. All submissions must be received by January 31, 2013.
Click here to obtain more details about the competition.
For more information about this event, please contact Heather Colohan at 313.285.9032 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Earlier this year a Lebanese-Swede on trial for a plot against tourists in Cyprus told a court Hezbollah paid him.
This requires that they effectively reverse-engineer the well-documented al-Qaeda plot to bring down the Twin Towers.
Then I think about how to translate that very real question, about human nature or the world, into a plot.
But then Looking suddenly discovered the life-saving qualities of tension, plot, and the power of a good love triangle.
Like the plot of your film, do you think violent films can promote violence in real life?
George had previously obliged with a brief description of the plot of The Footpills.
And Clif had foiled the plot, and had been Ignacio's deadly enemy ever since.
Then, when that plot completely fails, Sanballat loses his temper.
It was like a plot in one of his own preposterous melodramas!
Discovering subsequently, however, that the strangers were Christians, the shah contrived a plot for their destruction.
Old English plot "small piece of ground," of unknown origin. Sense of "ground plan," and thus "map, chart" is 1550s; that of "a secret, plan, scheme" is 1580s, probably by accidental similarity to complot, from Old French complot "combined plan," of unknown origin, perhaps a back-formation from compeloter "to roll into a ball," from pelote "ball." Meaning "set of events in a story" is from 1640s. Plot-line (n.) attested from 1957.
1580s, "to lay plans for" (usually with evil intent); 1590s in the literal sense of "to make a map or diagram," from plot (n.). Related: Plotted; plotter; plotting.
1580s, "to lay plans for" (usually with evil intent); 1590s in the literal sense of "to make a map or diagram," from plot (n.). Related: Plotted; plotter; plotting.
The organization of events in a work of fiction.


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Lush Life, by Richard Price
"Lush Life," the forthcoming new novel of New York City from Richard Price, the author of "Clockers" and many a script for "The Wire," is superficially a crime mystery but really it's an acidly funny and hugely successful attempt to get everything that's happening in the city today between two covers. The collision between confused, stupid and morally blank housing-project dirtbags on the one hand and, on the other, cosseted suburban-grown product who staff and patronize hot restaurants on the Lower East Side while they await certain celebrity, leads to a homicide and then a runway show of the vanities. Price dryly takes it all down: the way a young screenwriter/bartender-for-the-time-being confronts an armed robber by exclaiming, "Not tonight my man" and pays for his foolish movie behavior with his life. The way the young killer almost inadvertently squeezes off the round because he can't think of anything else to do (then retreats to his unpleasant apartment to write rap lyrics extolling his great secret). The way the well-meaning cops terrrorize the wrong guy with a sneak-attack interrogation intended to wring a confession that instead alienates an innocent man who is the only reliable witness. One felon shakes down a tourist for cash and is instead offered a check; the criminal thinks this a great joke and keeps the check to show off to his friends as an example of humorous folly, never grasping that in doing so he is carrying around evidence against himself. A memorial service for the slain writer/barkeep degenerates into a competitive audition in which his creatively-inclined surviving pals work it for the news cameras on hand. "Lush Life" covers familiar ground without romancing any of it; it's so vivid and real, it's like "Rent" as rewritten by Balzac. The book is coming in March from FSG.
Lush Life, by Richard Price
Must-Reads from Magazine
Trump's Naïveté on Display in Syria
The hen house is secured.
Eric Edelman–a former undersecretary of defense in the Bush administration, an aide to Vice President Cheney, and one of the most respected foreign policy hands in Washington–wrote that the July 7 meeting in Hamburg between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was the most disastrous superpower summit since John F. Kennedy met Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. That Cold War-era summit emboldened the Soviets to put up the Berlin Wall and send missiles to Cuba, thus bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. It's a harsh judgment, but its essential accuracy is being confirmed by what we have learned since July 7.
Trump appears proud of the fact that he actually raised with Putin the issue of Russian meddling in the U.S. election. But the way he did so engenders no confidence. According to Edelman, "Tillerson is reported to have told associates privately that he was stunned that the president opened the discussion by saying 'I'm going to get this out of the way,' in effect signaling his lack of seriousness about the issue."
Trump's own account is hardly more reassuring. On July 12, on his way back to Europe, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: "I said to [Putin], were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling. He said, I was not–absolutely not." Having failed to extract a confession from Putin, Trump then moved on to talking about Syria. What else can you do, he told reporters—"end up in a fist fight"?
What Trump should have done—what any other president would have done—was not ask Putin whether he did something that the U.S. intelligence community knows he did. The president should have said, "We know you did this—and here are the consequences." Only Trump himself won't publicly accept that Russia was the sole hacker, and he's not interested in meting out any consequences. Indeed, his administration is lobbying to water down in the House a Russia-sanctions bill approved by the Senate.
One of the summit achievements that Trump trumpeted initially was an agreement to form with Russia an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, [and] many other negative things, will be guarded and safe." This fox-guarding-the-hen-house proposal was met with such universal derision that within hours Trump disowned the idea, shortly after his Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin had loyally praised it on TV.
But Trump is still standing by the other summit take away, which was the announcement of a limited ceasefire in southwestern Syria. "We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives," Trump tweeted. "Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!"
In point of fact, the agreement between the U.S. and Russia did nothing more than ratify a unilateral truce announced the previous week by the Syrian government in this area so that Bashar Assad could focus his hard-pressed forces on other parts of the country. The truce is unlikely to hold for long, but it is already being met with considerable concern in Israel, since the territory in question borders the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and the land of Israel's ally, Jordan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out in stark terms against the ceasefire on Sunday, breaking with Trump to do so, because the Israeli security establishment is worried that the ceasefire will allow Iran and its Hezbollah proxies to consolidate their control of this strategically important land.
This development highlights the tension between Trump's anti-Iran policy (his national security adviser at the time, Mike Flynn, put Iran "on notice" in February) and his more accommodating stance toward Iran's ally, Russia. Contrary to what Rex Tillerson naively says, Russia does not have the same interests in Syria as the U.S. does. Russia is in Syria to consolidate Bashar Assad's rule—not to fight ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups, except insofar as they pose a danger to Assad's rule.
To achieve its aims in Syria, Russia is working hand-in-glove with Iran, which remains Assad's most important sponsor. Iran's goal is to create a new Iranian sphere of influence stretching from Tehran to Beirut, and it is well on its way toward achieving that objective. The expansion of Iranian power is a mortal threat to Israel and a serious danger for other U.S. allies in the region.
Given the way that Moscow is collaborating with Tehran, Trump cannot be anti-Iran and pro-Russia. It's a package deal—choose one or the other. The worry is that at Hamburg Trump may have chosen Russia.
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The 'Intersectionality' Trap
No more Sister Souljah moments.
Republicans didn't always scoff dismissively at the self-destructive, reactionary, fractious collection of malcontents who call themselves The Resistance. The hundreds of thousands who marched in the streets following Donald Trump's election once honestly unnerved the GOP. This grassroots energy culminated in January's Women's March, a multi-day event in which nearly two million people mobilized peacefully and, most importantly, sympathetically in opposition to the president. It was the perfect antidote to the violent anti-Trump demonstrations that typified Inauguration Day, and it might have formed the nucleus of a politically potent movement. The fall of the Women's March exposes the blight weakening the left and crippling the Democratic Party.
The fever sapping Trump's opposition was evident in microcosm on Monday in the meltdown of the Women's March's social-media presence on Twitter. "Happy birthday to the revolutionary #AssataShakur," the organization wrote, dedicating the day's resistance-related activities in her "honor." Shakur is perhaps better known as Joanne Chesimard, the name that appeared on the court documents in connection with her being tried and convicted of eight felonies, including the execution-style murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She currently resides in communist Cuba, a fugitive from American justice.
The outrage that followed the Women's March's endorsement of a cop-killer, exile, and unrepentant black nationalist was such that the organization was compelled to explain itself. "[T]his is not to say that #AssataShakur has never committed a crime, and not to endorse all of her actions," the group flailed. "We say this to demonstrate the ongoing history of government [and] right-wing attempts to criminalize and discredit political activists." This fanatical display of befuddlement perfectly encapsulates the logic of "intersectionality." It demonstrates why this vogue ideology shackles its devotees to doomed causes and sinking ships.
"Intersectionality," the beast born in liberal hothouses on college campuses, slouches now toward the halls of power. It is a Marxist notion that all discrimination is linked because it is rooted in the unjust power structures that facilitate inequality. Therefore, there are no distinct struggles against prejudice. Class, race, gender, sexual identity; these and other signifiers are bound together by the fact that oppression is institutional and systemic. The problem with this ideology is it compels its adherents to abandon discretion. To sacrifice anyone with a claim to oppression is to forsake every victim of prejudice. So, sure, Assata Shakur robbed, assaulted, incited violence, and killed a cop. But she also hates capitalism and white supremacy. Therefore, she's one of us.
It is this logic that has rendered the "Sister Souljah moment" a relic of the past, and The Resistance is drowning in Sister Souljahs.
One of the March organizers, Linda Sarsour, has enjoyed newfound popularity and legitimacy in the age of Trump. She is a self-styled organizer for civil rights and the Muslim-American community of which she is a part, and she's been acclaimed by organizations like the ACLU and Demos. Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand described Sarsour and her colleagues as "the suffragists of our time." In return for this lavish praise, Sarsour has only forced her defenders into awkward positions.
Sarsour has praised Saudi Arabia's social welfare state as appropriate compensation for stripping women of privileges such as driving a car. "I wish I could take their vaginas away," she wrote of women like the Somali-born Dutch-American activist and genital-mutilation victim Ayaan Hirsi Ali. "You'll know when you're living under Sharia Law if suddenly all your loans [and] credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn't it?" she asked. While delivering the keynote address to a Muslim-American conference, Sarsour advocated "jihad" against Donald Trump, defining the term to mean only speaking truth to power. Rather than admonish their political ally for this obvious indiscretion, the American left went to the mattresses to explain that only they understand the true meaning of the word "jihad."
For some on the left, advocating violence is not only justified but fashionable. Misanthropic so-called "anti-Fascist" activists like Shanta Driver and Yvette Felarca have become a ubiquitous presence in pro-Resistance mythology. People like Driver advocate for "militant actions" while Felarca appears at the head of armed mobs "resisting" the white supremacist alt-right "by any means necessary" (which happens to be the name of the organization to which she belongs). For this "activism," these and other "anti-fa" organizers are feted by left-wing magazines like Mother Jones and The Huffington Post.
Amid the celebration of left-wing political violence, a man who had been radicalized by liberal politics attempted the mass assassination of Republican members of Congress. Far from dwelling on this potentially generation-defining attack, the event passed through the national consciousness like an apparition. We don't talk about that now. Perhaps we don't want to think about what it might portend.
None of these individuals have roots in Democratic politics so deep that they cannot be deracinated relatively painlessly. Indeed, their counterproductive behavior would compel any competent political operation to make an example or two—particularly an operation struggling to demonstrate that it can be trusted again to govern seriously and effectively. Yet the Democratic Party and the liberals who animate it have come under the spell of a philosophy that explicitly forbids the exorcism of its demons.
Republicans have their devils, too. The excision of which may not seem a terribly urgent project today, given the GOP's political dominance. They will confront that crisis soon enough. In the interim, Democrats should be remaking themselves to appeal to the existing electorate; the one that delivered to the GOP near total control of state and federal government over just six years. Instead, Democrats are voluntarily yoking themselves to their most radical elements even as the number of Americans who describe the party as "too extreme" continues to climb.
Republicans may have their troubles, but a competent opposition is not among them.
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Apparently, There Is an Academic Medievalist Far Left
Even "Game of Thrones" has not quite rescued medieval studies from its reputation for stodginess. Yet the organizers of this year's International Medieval Congress must have thought their fellow scholars would think them a teensy bit cool for selecting the theme "otherness."
There were plenty of panels on gender, gendering, ungendering, and various gendered things. There was one devoted to "Hagiography Beyond Gender Essentialism: Trans and Genderqueer Sanctity: Rethinking the Status Quo." There was plenty on ethnicity, a bit on race, and, for those who like their politics unsauced, a panel entitled "The Historical Is Political: Understanding the Backlash against the Study of Race, Gender, and Representation in Medievalism."
I note these titles not to bash the conference, whose program contains many interesting things, or to suggest that medieval studies can cast no light on contemporary problems. I am saying only that the 2,400 scholars from 56 countries who descended on England's University of Leeds earlier this month may have thought they'd gone some way toward appeasing the academic left.
Nope. Some of their fellow medievalists are accusing them of abetting white supremacy.
This remarkable charge, though related to longstanding discontent about the field of medieval studies, is at the moment tied to a panel entitled "The Medieval Concept of Otherness." For the sake of focus, invited panelists were all historians of the early Middle Ages. The idea behind the panel was that whatever the medieval understanding of "us" and "them" or "self" and "other" was, it is was quite different from what ours is today. So the Leeds International Medieval Conference had a white supremacy problem because—no, really—this one panel consisted of "white Europeans" who were not steeped in critical race and postcolonial theory. You cannot have a discussion of how people in the early Middle Ages thought of "the other" without panelists of color versed in highly politicized contemporary theories of oppression.
Don't believe me? Here is one "rant" on the subject by Dorothy Kim, an assistant professor of English at Vassar College. Her politics may be guessed at by her apparently approving retweet of birthday wishes for the convicted (but left-wing, so hurray!) murderer, Assata Shakur and her decision to defend the academic boycott of Israel. Kim begins by being outraged that although the panel in question is about otherness, "the entire panel is filled w/ white Europeans."
She goes on to complain about scholars who are skeptical about the value of explicitly left-wing critical race and postcolonial theory for the study of the Middle Ages. The "other" under discussion in the panel has little to do with the scholars or tradition of scholarship captured under the "critical race theory" umbrella. But never mind. Kim informs us that it's "racist" to neglect critical race theory when you discuss "the other" in the early Middle Ages. And if you are among those who think that critical race theory is too political, Professor Kim has news for you. "The public sees medieval studies as political. It is political."
So there are only two choices for the scholar of the Middle Ages. "Decide if u want to uphold white supremacy or fight it." This ridiculous theme–that the public is somehow aware of medieval studies, that white supremacists sometimes appeal to the Middle Ages, and so the whole field now needs to be reconstituted to reject this appeal–is picked up with great earnestness by the Chronicle of Higher Education here.
Fortunately, for professors who undermine the reputation of academics by recklessly charging others with racism, the public is, I would venture to guess, completely unaware of what scholars of the Middle Ages are up to. If they were aware of it, they might be irritated by Kim's reference to the "free emotional/affective labor" academics like her are compelled to undertake to persuade others, who strangely are surprised and even upset when they are groundlessly charged with serious moral crimes. They might be appalled by Kim's contemptuous dismissal of such others—isn't she supposed to be some kind of expert on "others"—who should quit "having their white feelings."
This is evidently the new thing. Indeed, in the one nuanced piece I read on this subject, Rachel Stone, a medievalist who actually was on and knew something about the panel, made the mistake of quoting Kim's characterization of her own comments as a "rant." In response to those who then accused her of belittling Kim by, you know, reporting exactly what she said, Professor Stone removed the offending word. This was not enough for lily white male medievalist Karl Steel, who complained that Stone's post "still comes off as white fragility." This sounds like "mansplaining" to me, but I admit I am not conversant in these newfangled ways of settling arguments.
In any case, I am glad that Professor Stone spared herself the emotional labor of responding to Steel. If the persistent attempts of Ph.Ds to make themselves look foolish proves one thing, it is that some people never learn.
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Should the U.S. Revive Nuclear Power?
Keeping the lights on.
Progressives, environmentalists, politicians, and even many corporations have dedicated themselves to increasing the amount of alternative energy Americans produce and use. To many Americans, this means foregoing coal and oil in favor of wind, hydroelectric, or solar power. Fights over the Keystone XL pipeline or Dakota Access Pipeline have less to do with fears of spillage or respect for Native American sacred ground and more to do with antipathy toward expanding gas and oil use and encouraging any further development or exploitation of Canadian oil reserves, especially from Alberta's tar sands.
None of these trendy renewable energy sources is a panacea. Wind farms shred migratory birds, and solar farms fry them. Dams can wreak havoc on ecosystems. None produce energy as cheaply as fossil fuels, even after decades of government incentives and subsidies. Too often, however, alternative energy advocates ignore nuclear energy.
Nuclear power plants are shutting down across the United States; the Three Mile Island plant famous for a partial meltdown in 1979 will close completely in 2019. Nuclear plants produce zero emissions, and utilities (and, by extension tax payers), have paid off the capital investment decades ago. Even if many of the arguments against oil are spurious, oil alone won't provide energy security, especially as, history shows, its price rotates between peaks and valleys. As Americans shift toward alternative energy, can the United States meet its energy needs without nuclear power?
A new book being released next month by the Hoover Institution suggests not. Written by Jeremy Carl and David Fedor, two energy experts who respectively have experience making nuclear power plants safer and building them, Keeping the Lights On at America's Nuclear Power Plants argues that, while nuclear power alone is not a panacea to resolve energy problems, the United States won't be able to solve its energy needs without nuclear power playing a major role.
They make a persuasive case: While nuclear power provides about 20 percent of U.S. electricity today, it accounts for two-thirds of carbon and pollution-free power produced. They do not ignore the downside of nuclear power, but nor do they exaggerate it. They note that nuclear power releases less radioactivity into the surrounding environment than burning coal. Nuclear power has also produced less death and injury to humans than any other form of energy production.
Security matters. The U.S. investment in nuclear plants has given the United States unique leverage. "We know that our country's dominance in civilian nuclear power has been a key part of America's ability to set norms and rules not just for power plants in less stable places around the world but also for the control of nuclear weapon proliferation," they write. The nuclear plant building boom in East Asia and the Middle East means that reactor technology will continue to develop and become safer.
The authors are realists. They lament the polemics and "zero-sum mindset" so many activists adopt. Instead, they recognize that "Fans of gas or nuclear, electric cars or oil exports, fracking or rooftop solar—in the end, all are linked by common markets and governments. Each shot fired in anger ricochets through the system, sometimes with unexpected consequences."
The whole monograph is worth reading. The authors are both academics and experts, but write clearly and make the technical and regulatory issues easily digestible. They are environmentalists but do not allow politics or polemics blind them to science. They are policy prescriptive, and make the case that—whether Democrat or Republican and whether at the federal or state levels—nuclear power is not going away. If the United States turns its back on nuclear energy generation, the consequences will be felt environmentally, economically, and in terms of global energy influence. Keeping the Lights On should be on the reading list of any serious executive or legislative branch energy-issue policymaker, and the journalists who cover them.
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The Quiet Tragedy of China's Dissidents
Avenge Liu Xiaobo.
The prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo died last week while still in Chinese government custody, thus becoming the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in prison since Carl von Ossietzky in Nazi Germany in 1938. Liu had been languishing behind bars since 2011—locked up for daring to advocate the principles of self-government contained in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
He had liver cancer, but the Chinese government refused to release him to seek medical treatment abroad that might have prolonged his life. Instead, the regime allowed him to die and then quickly scattered his remains at sea for fear that a gravestone for this martyr might become a rallying point for democracy advocates. His wife, the artist and poet Liu Xia, has been under house arrest while her husband has been in prison, and she has not been heard from since his death.
All of this is shameful enough. What makes it worse is how little the supposedly civilized world has to say about this uncivilized behavior on the part of China's rulers. "I think it's shocking how few heads of state have weighed in on behalf of a Nobel Peace Prize winner," says Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.
This pusillanimity and indifference is not particularly surprising. When Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, China immediately suspended full diplomatic relations with Norway. Beijing only resumed ties late last year.
Yet even nations such as the United States that have much less to fear from Beijing's wrath have not strongly championed Liu's cause or the cause of Chinese dissidents. President Trump's statement on his demise was woefully inadequate. While professing to be "deeply saddened" to learn of Liu's "passing," the president had not one word of condemnation—not one!—for the regime that was incarcerating Liu at the time of his death. Trump is happy to condemn China for allegedly exporting too much cheap steel, but he is silent regarding China's treatment of this brave and principled freedom fighter.
And to think that Liu was the best-known dissident in China. What of all the other prisoners of conscience who are not as famous? The Congressional-Executive Commission on China reported that, as of October 11, 2016, it had information about "8,481 cases of political or religious imprisonment in China. Of those, 1,433 are cases of political and religious prisoners currently known or believed to be detained or imprisoned, and 7,048 are cases of prisoners who are known or believed to have been released, or executed, who died while imprisoned or soon after release, or who escaped." But the commission noted, "there are considerably more than 1,433 cases of current political and religious imprisonment in China."
So why don't other democracies speak up more forcefully in support of these heroes? Because there are always more pressing priorities, whether on trade or security matters. The Communist Party has strengthened its control since 1989, while the economy roared ahead, making China a far more powerful player on the world scene. Democracy in China is seen as a low-priority issue, at best; a pipe dream, at worst.
Yet as writers such as Fred Hiatt and Bret Stephens have pointed out, Beijing's mistreatment of Liu shows that the regime is more brittle than it appears. The People's Republic is actually afraid of a small number of principled individuals who are willing to risk their lives for freedom because the ruling oligarchy knows that its power is fundamentally illegitimate. The Red princes and princesses are looting the state while presiding over rampant corruption, pollution, and inequality. Even China's rate of economic growth, which has been cited to excuse all of its other ills, is slowing down. The Politburo is forced to rely on strict censorship and the promulgation of nationalist propaganda to stay in power.
No one suggests that the U.S. or other Western states should stop dealing with China. By all means, engage, but don't forget human rights. The model here can be U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where Ronald Reagan's championing of dissidents ultimately paid dividends after the USSR's demise. Even if the Communist regime isn't going anywhere anytime soon, we should never forget the plight of its victims. The people of China will thank us some day when the mainland is as free as Taiwan already is.
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Tourists' Swanner delivers big blows
Rockies prospect goes yard twice, drives in career-high seven
By Robert Emrich / Special to MLB.com | April 16, 2012 6:52 PM ET
The Rockies' No. 15 prospect homered twice as Class A Asheville routed West Virginia, 16-0, on Monday.
Swanner's first blast came in the third inning with the bases loaded, giving the Tourists a 7-0 lead. The 20-year-old catcher doubled home a run in the fifth and capped his big night with a two-run homer in the seventh.
"I'm very happy," Swanner said. "I was just feeling fastball. I was getting the counts I wanted to be in, seeing the ball the way I liked and driving the ball."
Swanner, who scored four times, had driven in five runs twice last year with short-season Casper, on June 24 and July 4. While the former 15th-rounder appreciated Monday's night at the plate, he rates it behind his Independence Day effort.
"I think it's probably my second," he said. "Last year on July 4 I hit a walk-off, that's something you don't forget."
Tourists right-hander Vianney Mayo retired the first 12 batters of the game before allowing a leadoff double in the fifth and ended up striking out nine in a complete-game three-hitter.
"His performance was excellent, I've never caught a shutout before," Swanner said. "Everything he wanted to throw, he threw for strikes. I think I'm more happy for my pitcher and catching a shutout. That's more of a team thing. I was so happy for him after the last strikeout, I kept the ball and gave it to him."
Swanner is coming off an All-Star season in the Pioneer League, batting .264 with 10 homers in 43 games for the Ghosts in 2011. He spent the winter working out in preparation for his Class A debut.
"Basically a lot of lifting in the offseason and trying to bulk up since I'm a catcher," Swanner said. "I played a lot of long toss and I did a lot of hitting with my coach and got after it, knowing that Spring Training was going to be huge."
Trevor Story, Colorado's No. 8 prospect, was 3-for-5 with a homer and three runs for Asheville.
Robert Emrich is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.View More


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Get an overview of this hotel3.5-star boutique bed & breakfast near Hollywood Walk of Fame
Popular property highlights
Situated near the airport, this boutique bed & breakfast is within 1 mi (2 km) of Pantages Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Capitol Records Tower. Dolby Theater and TCL Chinese Theatre are also within 2 mi (3 km).
Property Features
Coffee/tea in a common area, massage/treatment rooms, and laundry facilities are available at this bed & breakfast. Free continental breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include express check-in and express check-out.
Room Amenities
All 3 individually decorated rooms provide free WiFi, free wired Internet, and pillowtop beds. For a bit of entertainment, guests will find flat-screen TVs with cable channels and DVD players, and other amenities include premium bedding and coffee makers.
Guest Highlights
- Good location
- Guestroom size
- Overall room comfort
Hollywood Pensione
Bed & Breakfast Amenities
Bed & Breakfast Amenities
A complimentary breakfast is offered each morning. Wireless Internet access is complimentary. This boutique bed & breakfast also offers coffee/tea in a common area, laundry facilities, and express check-in. Onsite self parking is complimentary.
Hollywood Pensione has designated areas for smoking.
- Total number of rooms - 3
- Free breakfast
- Designated smoking areas
- Free self parking
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- Free WiFi
- Laundry facilities
- Spa treatment room(s)
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi , Free wired Internet
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- DVD player
- Premium bedding
- Air conditioning
- Coffee/tea maker
- Daily housekeeping
- Ceiling fan
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free wired Internet
- Cable TV service
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Pillowtop mattress
- Iron/ironing board
- Desk
- Flat-panel TV
- Free WiFi
- Individually furnished
- Individually decorated
Where to Eat
A complimentary continental breakfast is served each morning between 8 AM and 9 AM.
Nearby Things to Do
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Golfing nearby
- Bicycle rentals nearby
- Hiking/biking trails nearby
- Mountain biking nearby
- Scooter/moped rentals nearby
- Golf lessons available nearby
Bed & Breakfast Policies
Check-in time ends at 5 PM
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children 17 and younger are not allowed at this property. All guests older than 17 are welcome.
- Rollaway/extra beds are not available.
- Cribs (infant beds) are not available.
- Pets not allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No rollaway/extra beds available
No cribs (infant beds) available
Bed & Breakfast Name
- Hollywood Pensione
- Hollywood Pensione B&B
We should mention
Children 17 years old and younger are not permitted at this property.


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You get a broad spectrum of 28 certified organic whole food concentrates, each with unique health benefits. They include:
Greens – alfalfa, wheatgrass, barley grass, oat grass
Green Algae – chlorella, spirulina
Vegetables – green bell pepper, carrot, tomato, beet
Cruciferous Vegetables – kale, spinach, cabbage, broccoli
Fruits – apple pomegranate, acerola cherry
Berries – acai, goji, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry
Sea Vegetables – sea kelp, dulse
Each provides an array of alkalizing and detoxifying elements such as chlorophyll, a natural green plant pigment that is known as nature's deodorizer. Plus, you get naturally occurring phytonutrients, carotenoids, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and 2 grams of fiber per serving to help you get healthy and stay healthy.*
Organic Greens & Fruits Plus is easy to mix and perfect to drink when you're pressed for time. Simply add 1 scoop (or 4 teaspoons) to 8 oz of water or juice or mix into smoothies and protein shakes.
--USDA Organic
--Pleasant, Neutral Flavor
--No Artificial Colors or Flavors
--No Artificial Sweeteners
--No Preservatives
Order Organic Greens & Fruits Plus today and give your health and energy levels a boost!


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You are here:
NIAMS Multicultural Outreach News February 2012
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
Anita Linde, M.P.P.
Acting Director
Mimi Lising, M.P.H.
Multicultural Health Educator
Sara Rosario Wilson
Multicultural Outreach
The NIAMS Seeks Summer Interns
The summer program at the NIAMS provides an opportunity for students to spend a summer working side by side with some of the world's leading scientists, in an environment devoted exclusively to biomedical research. Outstanding opportunities exist for high school, undergraduate, graduate and medical students contemplating a career in biomedical research or academic medicine. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2012. Meet our 2011 interns.
Juvenile Arthritis Patients Meet NIAMS Researchers
Armed with test tubes, strawberries and cheek swabs, about 30 juvenile arthritis patients and their family members conducted hands-on experiments alongside NIAMS researchers during a recent visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Campus.
Diversifying the NIH Biomedical Research Workforce
The Advisory Committee to the NIH Director (ACD) Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce has issued a Request for Information seeking comments to "help inform the development of recommendations to present to the ACD and the NIH Director on actions the NIH can take to increase the diversity of the biomedical research workforce." The Working Group has identified a number of specific issues on which it is seeking input. Comments are due by February 24, 2012.
NIAMS 25th Anniversary Video Now Available Online
The NIAMS celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 13, 2011 with a scientific symposium, "Improving Lives Through Discovery," at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Video of the symposium is now available online and contains the presentations and panel discussions of the day's featured speakers, as well as patients, scientists and clinicians from across the NIAMS community who came together for the special day.
The NIAMS Website Gets a Facelift!
You may have noticed that the NIAMS website looks a little different. In December 2011, the NIAMS website was refreshed with a new layout and color scheme. New features include a prominent rotator window for highlights of the Institute's announcements, as well as more prominent links to pages about research that the NIAMS is conducting and funding. Also, the multimedia and social media options are easier to find.
NIAMS Expert Discusses Lupus
Mark Gourley, M.D., Director of the NIAMS Community Research and Care Branch, was featured in an article on lupus in the November 2011 issue of NIH News in Health. Lupus is a disease that can affect many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels and brain. Common symptoms include extreme fatigue, painful or swollen joints (arthritis), unexplained fever, skin rashes and kidney problems.
USA Science & Engineering Festival Returns to Washington, DC
Building on the success of the inaugural festival in 2010, the second USA Science & Engineering Festival will inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers with school programs and nationwide contests throughout the 2011–2012 school year and a finale Expo in Washington, DC, on April 28–29, 2012. The Expo will give hundreds of science and engineering organizations from all over the United States, including the NIH, the opportunity to present hands-on, fun science activities. The event will be free and open to the public. For more information, visit usasciencefestival.org.
Be Active Your Way: New Fact Sheets for Hispanic Adults
In an effort to help Spanish-speaking communities stay active and be healthy, www.health.gov is sharing two new Spanish-language resources based on the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The two new guides are:
- Manténgase activo a su manera: información para adultos (Be Active Your Way: A Fact Sheet for Adults)
- Manténgase activo a su manera: guía para adultos (Be Active Your Way: A Guide for Adults)
MedlinePlus en Español Now on Twitter
The National Library of Medicine is excited to announce a new Twitter feed from MedlinePlus en Español. Follow @MedlinePlusEsp for trusted health information in Spanish. Stay up to date on the latest health news, health observances, seasonal health issues and healthy living tips.
Actionable Health Information for Spanish-Speaking Communities
Check out healthfinder.gov en español! Based on the English-language version, healthfinder.gov en español offers personalized and actionable health information presented in an easy-to-read format. Additional features available at healthfinder.gov en español include "Recursos de salud" ("Health Resources"), "Noticias de salud" ("Health News") and "Busca una clinica cerca de ti" ("Find a Health Center near You").
New Spanish-Language Health Care Tips for Patients
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently posted two brochures in Spanish that give tips to use before, during and after a medical appointment to make sure patients get the best possible care.
The new brochures are:
- Participe más en su atención médica: Consejos para pacientes (Be More Involved in Your Health Care: Tips for Patients)
- Preguntas para mi cita médica (My Questions for This Visit)
New Website Offers Resources on Cultural Competency
Check out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health's enhanced cultural competency web portal, a one-stop shop for all cultural competency resources and training opportunities.
Did you know that atopic dermatitis, often referred to as "eczema," is a long-lasting disease that affects the skin and seems to result from a combination of hereditary and environmental factors? People who live in cities and in dry climates appear more likely to develop this condition. Visit atopic dermatitis for more information.
NIAMS Community Health Center Marks 10th Anniversary
The NIAMS recently marked the 10th anniversary of its Community Health Center (CHC) in a festive and inspiring celebration in its new location, the Cardinal McCarrick Center of the Spanish Catholic Center of Catholic Charities in Silver Spring, Maryland.
In recognition of the CHC's accomplishments, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., gave the keynote address, followed by a lineup of wonderful speakers that included a CHC patient.
Dr. Sarthak Gupta
Meet Sarthak Gupta, New CHC Fellow
Sarthak Gupta, M.D., is a first-year clinical fellow with the NIAMS 2011–2012 Rheumatology Fellowship Program class. This NIAMS program allows students who choose to pursue an academic medical career in rheumatology to obtain hands-on experience through clinical rotations and research activities. Applicants must have completed 2 or more years of Internal Medicine residency training in order to apply to the program.
"I believe that the integration of clinical and laboratory research is of utmost importance to improve patient care and increase the available therapeutic options, and the NIH helps achieve that," said Dr. Gupta.
Dr. Gupta attended school in Delhi, India, and earned his medical degree from Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, India, in 2007. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, New York, in 2011, and worked there with a mouse model of Sjögren's syndrome to try to identify new autoantibodies.
He was active in the American College of Physicians and the New York branch of the American College of Physicians, including presenting posters at the national level. Dr. Gupta also published articles in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment about his work with patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and psoriasis.
The NIAMS exhibit will be traveling to several events in 2012. See the complete schedule of health fairs and exhibits.
The NIAMS can provide health information or staff to help make your community event or health fair successful. Please contact Sara Rosario Wilson by email, email@example.com, for more information.


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In this game you have to answer which you would rather do from the 2 "interesting"scenarios asked in the last post. Once you have answered the question you then need to create the next would you rather for the next person. Here is the first one.
Would you rather date the Incredible Hulk or Hellraiser?


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Oklahoma City • The Jazz lost 106-94 to the Thunder on Friday, but the Jazz played down two key players and rallied from a nearly 20 point deficit to get within striking distance. If you're into moral victories, there were some positives here, which is probably what Al Jefferson meant when he said, "I don't feel bad at all about this loss," which I wrote about extensively for The Tribune.
• Derrick Favors exited the game with 5:08 remaining in the second quarter, seemingly as part of a routine rotation by Tyrone Corbin. However, word shortly came down that Favors had a strained arch in his right foot and would not return.
"It's been hurting for a while," Favors said. "It's been hurting for a couple of games. But tonight it was just too sore."
Favors said he first injured the foot on Nov. 19 against the Houston Rockets. Now, fittingly, he is questionable for the Jazz's game in Houston Saturday night.
• In Favors' absence, Enes Kanter emerged in a big way in the fourt quarter.
He scored 13 of his 18 points in the quarter, and keyed the Jazz push to get back in the game before the Thunder regained control.
"I seen the Big Turkey that I've been looking for since the season started," Jefferson said. "I seen the Big Turkey I seen in preseason. He stepped up big tonight, now that Derrick Favors is going to be out for a little while, we have issues and injuries, he's going to have to step up and play some big minutes."
• November came to an end, with the Jazz going 8-8 in the month. Given the fact 11 of the 16 games in the month were on the road, should the Jazz be happy to escape with a .500 record?
• The Jazz continue to list Marvin Williams as "doubtful" for Saturday, but under the NBA's concussion policy it is essentially impossible for him to return so quickly. Corbin said he would likely start DeMarre Carroll again at small forward, who struggled Friday to defend Kevin Durant which makes him even with just about every other small forward in the league.
• Carroll on guarding Durant, who scored a game-high 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting: "I tried. I think I did decent, a decent job, I think for the most part we just want to minimize his shot opportunities. For the most part I think we did."
• It's time to start watching how Corbin divvies up point guard minutes. Tonight, Mo Williams played 32, and Earl Watson played 13 while Jamaal Tinsley was held to 7. Are we at the point where Corbin slowly phases out Tinsley who has been fantastic early this season in place of Williams and Watson throughout November.
Bill Oram


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Will That Be Paper or Plastic?
...surgery, that is. As we age we have a choice: we can look like a rumpled paper bag, or we can go the plastic surgery route and resemble Joan Rivers. From breast implants and butt implants (yes, butt implants) to Botox and fillers, it seems like every woman, and many men, in Los Angeles have had a little work.
There are women who look like Batman's The Joker—their faces frozen from surgery, fillers, and Botox—who swear they haven't had any work done. This makes me wonder what constitutes "work" and what doesn't? Maybe it's only a touch of lipo to remove those saddlebags that can't be exorcized with exercise and diet, or a shot of synthetic filler in the nasolabial fold to avoid a permanent scowl, but it's still cosmetic surgery. Or doesn't it count if you weren't under general anesthetic?
One woman I know lies about the work she has had done (or hasn't as she prefers to say) as much as she lies about her age. One minute she's 39; the next she's 42. She'll say she hasn't done filler in over a year having forgotten that the week before she wouldn't leave the house, because she had bruises from her Juvederm treatment.


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Discover a selection of top forums zombie101 z-chronicles on the internet. Come to share your passion on forums zombie101 z-chronicles and meet other fans of zombie101 z-chronicles. Then, why don't you create your own forum of zombie101 z-chronicles ?
A forum for the Chronicles of Purn to hold applications and lore.
This is a D20 styled RPG based off of Naruto! Play as your favorite ninja in a balanced setting.
naruto:, hurricane, chronicles, this, styled, based, naruto!, play, your, favorite, ninja, balanced, setting
A forum dedicated to role-playing in the fantasy world of Dragon Age.
dragon, age:, chronicles, forum, dedicated, role-playing, fantasy, world
Free forum : A World of Warcraft alliance guild located in Borean Tundra.
The cumulative efforts of those dedicated authors, as well as casual writers from the White Knight Chronicles Story Teller's Guild. Enjoy!
story, teller's, guild, cumulative, efforts, those, dedicated, authors, well, casual, writers, from, white, knight, chronicles, enjoy!
RPG based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles.
Private Repository for Information & Role play Forum for Players in Our Live Action Vampire the Masquerade Chronicle.
vampire, gehenna, larp, masquerade, role-play, roleplay, players, live, action, chronicle
Chronicles of Justice is a fan-made super hero setting that utilizes the Chronicles of Darkness rules by CCP.
chronicles, justice, darkness, super, hero, rules, white-wolf, white, wolf, role, playing, roleplaying, rople-playing, world, chod, savourn, superhero, marvel
Xenoblade Chronicles X forum role playing game
A place for all discussion or information regarding our personal group's tabletop sessions.
chronicles, darkness, place, discussion, personal, group's, tabletop, sessions
M:tA Chronicles
Crystal Chronicles
Hello everyone I'm Ella and I'm new! I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone. I love the Pj series, HoH, and the Kane chronicles.
hi!!!!, i'm, ella, new!, wanted, introduce, love, series, kane, chronicles
The County of Halvmåne is an MMORPG Gaming Community founded for the upcoming NextGen MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria on the North American West server.
Testing Site
Welcome to Dragonball Chronicles!
a forum to brainstorm a game we'll be playing on roll20.net
shadow, phoenix, chronicles, brainstorm, game, we'll, playing, roll20
Forum for Lor Voskara
voskara, kingdom, apac, chronicles, elyria, alerxius, xakorai


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REPORT: Simon Cowell expecting child with his friend's wife
Us Weekly is reporting that Simon Cowell has fathered a child with his friend's wife.
Yep, you read it right. According to the magazine, Lauren Silverman, who is married to Simon's friend, real estate mogul Andrew Silverman, is pregnant - and Simon is the father.
It's still very early - a source tells Us Weekly, "She's around 10 weeks along."
The source adds, "Lauren and Andrew have been unhappy in their marriage for some time, and their divorce has been in the works for a while... As their marriage deteriorated, she and Simon became close."
Get the full story at UsWeekly.com


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Ever wondered what an Android widget is and just what it does on your Android device? Android by Google, is now the number one portable electronics operating system. At WorldStart, we always keep our readers updated on the latest and most popular tech, so we'll be doing a multi-week series on how to use Android. If you don't own an Android device yet, it's still worth reading. Google gives away the source code to Android. That means it's showing up on more devices every day.
Part 6: Widgets
Widgets are programs which go in the same spot as program icons on the Android Home Screen, but update with live information. An example of a Widget is a calendar which shows upcoming events from your calendar or an analog clock which shows the current time. Widgets are both built-in to the Android operating system and part of certain apps you download from the Google Play Store.
To access the list of widgets on your device, go to your home screen and tap on the app list icon, (this icon is two rows of three small squares) then click on the Widgets Tab. You'll see an alphabetical list of installed widgets. Wwipe right and left to move through the list of widgets. When you install apps from the Google Play Store that include widgets, they will appear in this list.
To load a widget onto one of your Android home screens, simply press and hold on the widget. The widget will pop out and your home screen will appear with a line outline of where the widget will fit on the screen. Continue holding down on the screen and you can drag the widget to the location where you wish to place it. Since widgets can be quite large, some of your app icons may move automatically to accommodate the widget. Let go of the screen to drop the widget in place.
If there is no more room left on your home screen, you will receive an error indicating that. In that case, you'll want to move it to another home screen by dragging on the far left or right side of the screen. You could also remove some of the existing icons or widgets by holding down on the icon. Then drag it to the X or Remove at the top of the screen.


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GNU/Linux and BSD: What a zoo!
I realize that this may be old hat — a fedora of any color — to long-time GNU/Linux users, so please indulge me on this discourse into the animal kingdom.
One of the joys of having my daughter look over my shoulder while dealing with the GNU/Linux learning curve — despite learning a very colorful and spicy vocabulary (okay, that's a joke: She gets enough of that when I bring her to the newspaper) — is that she's enamored by the wide variety of characters that symbolize GNU/Linux (and GNU/Solaris) operating systems, to say nothing of those other-worldly (netherworldly?), but unbearably cute, BSD mascots.
Granted, I've weighed in on my animal of use — the beast of burden on my Macs — in earlier blog postings, but as Mirano points out, there sure are a lot of animals out there (". . . and why no chickens?" since she's partial to chickens). But this observation, courtesy of a 9-year-old who puts together her own Web site with a classmate, started me thinking: Dang, the ethereal world of free software/open source software is full of animals — and we're only talking about the mascots here.
There are the standards
GNU and Tux, the former for GNU's Not Unix, and the latter being the ubiquitous, happy penguin Tux, symbolize GNU/Linux, although in the public mindset, these two animals should be thought of together rather than separately. But there has been an effort, especially around those in the free software movement, to rightfully link the two together, so we have GNU and Tux becoming superheroes battling the multinational corporate software hegemony, as shown below.
As you know, nearly all the wide varieties of GNU/Linux distros have some variation on the theme, but mostly they have Tux as their mascot, without the GNU (pronounced "guh-new") gnu (pronounced "new"). While we find that unfortunate and hope that developers will rightfully put the two together in their own mindset, and that of the public, we all have our favorites. I can't get all of them into this blog, but if you comment on which ones I missed, I could give them a fair shake in a later posting.
Who let the dogs out?
Not all GNU/Linux distro mascots graze on the African plains or waddle and eat herring: Speaking of standard-bearers, one of the Linux-for-Macintosh pioneers was Yellow Dog Linux, which has long since expanded not only all the latest Mac hardware, but they've blazed a trail into the realm of operating systems for Sony's PS3 — that's a good dog, Potter! Despite the fact that I have several distros lined up and waiting to audition to be my GNU/Linux flavor of choice, I currently have Yellow Dog 3.0 on the Old World Macs that I use on a daily basis. Speaking of real dogs, Norway's http://wolvix.org/">Wolfix keeps the canine motif going, with their symbol being a little more direct: a wolf's footprint.
Reptilian GNU/Linux
All jokes about Novell executives being legless reptiles for entering into an agreement with the evil empire of Redmond notwithstanding, SuSE has been represented by the noble reptilian iguana for years. It comes in a couple of flavors, Novell and their Enterprise Linux and the German-based OpenSUSE.
Go Dolphins!
Having grown up in Miami, I know a lot about Dolphins, even the ones that swim in the ocean. So it comes as no surprise that GNU/Linux mascots aren't limited to land animals. In fact two distros distros — Zenwalk and OpenTLE — take to the seas with their mascots. Zenwalk is a French distro that asks the eternal question: Have you ever tried Zen computing? (although we would have asked, "What is the sound of one app clapping?"), and OpenTLE is a Thai distro for Thai users (and if you visit their sites, make sure you have your Thai fonts, because despite clicking on their British flag link, apparently they're not ready for English-language visitors yet).
Back on the savannah . . .
With its mascot coming from the African grasslands, Nexenta, an American distro, brings an interesting twist to the GNU family: GNU/Solaris running on a Sun kernel. According to its Web site, "NexentaOS is a complete GNU-based open source operating system built on top of the OpenSolaris kernel and runtime . . . . NexentaOS is completely open source and free of any charge. It contains Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PHP, Firefox, Evolution, software update manager, Synaptic package manager, Gaim Instant Messenger, abiword, administration & development utilities, editors, graphics, GNOME, interpreters, libraries and many others. All of this is running on the state-of-the-art SunOS kernel." Naturally they get such a long listing here thanks to the length of the giraffe's neck.
The devil made me do it
Continuing on the mascots-from-hot-places theme, FreeBSD is (as they say on their Web site) "an advanced operating system . . . derived from BSD, the version of UNIX developed at the University of California, Berkeley" (which begs the question: Why didn't developers adopt the bear, since UCB are the Golden Bears?). BSD distros tend to be devil-themed (like PC-BSD, although you have to go seaside for the OpenBSD's blowfish), which may or may not lend itself to the suggestion that the devil is in the details, or that they're hell to work with (and I'm on the side that says they're not, so keep those cards and letters).
Lower life forms
Being lower on the food chain does not reflect the quality of http://www.dragonflybsd.org/">DragonFly BSD, an operating system and environment originally based on FreeBSD. Going even further down on the food chain — down to plants — a stylized tree represents gNewSense, one of our favorite distros due to its commitment to free software, and Slax has its four-leaf clover (that I've overlooked before, but not now) as a symbol.
Once again, I know I'm missing some of your favorite distros and their mascots — and if so, please comment below and I'll make sure I get it mentioned in another posting.