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State Budgets and the Crisis of Historical Infrastructure: The Crisis: An Overview
Bruce Craig, May 2004
From the Professional Division Forum column of the May 2004 Perspectives
A Forum Organized by the AHA Professional Division
in collaboration with the AHA Task Force on Public History
Without a doubt, the last few years have been fiscally challenging for the states. Record budget deficits caused by recession, slow job growth, rising costs in health care, unemployment, changes in the laws relating to the taxing of corporations and capital gains, a crushing federal deficit, the cumulative effects of uncertainty caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11, and a reluctance of politicians to even raise the idea with voters to ante-up tax revenue to cover the costs associated with good government have all conspired to create a crisis in state funding. Particularly hard hit are educational and cultural institutions such as state archives and museums, libraries and arts organizations, historical societies, and park departments. For many cultural institutions, weathering the storm of budget shortfalls has meant everything from mere belt-tightening by cutting hours, programs, and staff, to, in some instances, elimination of entire operations.
The good news is that recent economic projections suggest that, in most states at least, tax revenues are starting to rise slightly for the first time since mid-2001. But the rise is ever so slight: one-half of 1 percent compared to an average for the previous 25 years in which state spending increased an average 6.5 percent a year. While the projection is a hopeful sign, it provides little consolation to those institutions facing yet another round of budget cuts in fiscal 2004–05.
When the federal government faces a budget crisis there is an assortment of tools available to draw from to help stimulate the economy. The feds can cut taxes, lower interest rates, devalue the dollar on international markets to stimulate exports, and even borrow to cover the massive deficit, because the government has the power of the purse. States, however, have only a few of these options.
States cope with a cash crisis in one of three ways: they raise taxes; they institute knee-jerk across-the-board cuts and justify their actions by claiming that they are spreading the impact on state agencies equitably; or they make selective cuts of what are termed "non-essential" government programs and services.
Few states have opted for the first option—increase taxes. In Alabama, governor Bob Riley, a fiscally conservative Republican, boldly proposed a property tax increase only to find even his modest proposal shot down by irate voters. In other states though, legislators are finding that a small sales or special regionalized use tax (often targeted on visitors) is more palatable to voters and easier on their pocketbooks.
In Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, for example, a 1 percent sales tax benefits a Regional Asset District and generates $75 million a year for sports centers, libraries, parks, museums, and other community assets. In Colorado, sales tax revenue generated in a seven-county region generates more than $30 million year—money that is shared by more than 300 institutions.
The second option of implementing across-the-board cuts has proved a favorite: 23 states have opted for this to help address their fiscal woes. In California, for example, a 15 percent cut was implemented that translates into a $535 million savings for the state treasury—a cut that affects not just cultural institutions but welfare and health-related services as well. In Florida, implementation of the last option—to cut "non-essential services"—has meant literally selling the state library to a private educational institution and cutting the Florida Arts Council by 75 percent.
So what are the methods and techniques that are proving most successful in minimizing the impact of the state budget crises on state humanities and arts organizations? In those instances where a governor or state legislature has proposed solving a funding crisis by making across-the-board cuts or selective cuts, the answer is clear: humanities and arts organizations have fared best where advocates mobilized at the grass-roots level and aggressively made their case for continued funding to state governing officials. And those states that did best accomplished their goal by bringing together a large coalition of diverse cultural and arts interests. By uniting humanities and arts-related groups and having them speak with one voice and advance a common agenda, cultural and heritage-related organizations have weathered the storm best. And those states that effectively made the case for their existence on an economic basis—for example, by stressing the importance of heritage tourism on the state's economy—also have fared better.
For example, in New Jersey, the Public Policy Center of New Jersey and the Coalition for the Arts, Tourism, Culture, and History brought together diverse interests and proposed "a new vision" that would catapult New Jersey to the forefront of a national model for funding tourism, history, and the arts, while at the same time providing municipal aid and securing budget savings. After developing a strategic approach in which arts and humanities and tourism interests agreed to work together to make more effective use of the statewide hotel/motel tax (3 percent on hotels/lodging and 2 percent on restaurants, entertainment, and amusements) advocates were able to reduce the threat posed by the budget crisis by convincing the governor and state legislators of the need to "invest, not cut." The result was the creation of a dedicated trust fund. Amending the state constitution and making a new provision in law thus provided for a stable source of funding for tourism, the arts, and history.
Another approach to weathering the state funding crises has been taken up by institutions that do not rely solely on the state for funding. By increasing the share of base operations covered by nongovernmental sources, these organizations have diversified their funding base. Through creative marketing, and attempting to enhance private sector philanthropic funding streams, some institutions have not only met the crisis head-on but also have actually increased total revenue.
Some museums, for example, launched membership drives, while others have expanded their marketing and member recruitment efforts to the Internet. Some others have diversified their "book-store" operations (with a traditional focus on educational materials) to function more as a "gift-store" operation where nonbook sales items appeal to the interests of a more diverse museum visitor population. The revenue generated through such stores is rarely sufficient to cover costs associated with a museum's base operations (as the Smithsonian Institution recently discovered); nevertheless, gift-store revenue can and does help supplement an organization's income flow.
Other organizations have opted to appeal to philanthropists, corporations, and foundation support to shore up their budgetary shortfalls. Their efforts have met with limited success. Recently, charitable giving for the 60 most generous philanthropists dropped by two-thirds and corporate giving fell by 14.5 percent. Foundation support for charities also dropped 26.5 percent (some being unable to cover even existing grant commitments). The decline in revenue available for grant-making is largely due to the declining value of institutionally held stock portfolios. However, nonprofit entities that have begun to build an expanded base of diverse local philanthropic, corporate, and business entities have been able to launch programs that in the long run probably will not only help make ends meet in times of crisis but will also at the same time provide a cash infusion in good times that can be earmarked for expanded programs and activities.
One development of the fiscal crisis affecting governments all levels is the disturbing rise in competition by the federal governmental agencies with private sector organizations for the limited corporate and foundation dollars. The National Park Service (NPS) and the Smithsonian Institution have been especially aggressive in usurping corporate funds that could be going to the support of private nonprofit organizations and causes.
The NPS and Smithsonian have learned what nonprofit entities have long known—that corporations are not inherently "philanthropic." Corporate donations are frequently the result of "cause-related" marketing schemes—where corporate public relations and advertising dollars are "invested" to advance a corporation's public image and concomitantly earn them a federal (and in some jurisdictions, state) charitable donation tax write-off. Congress could put a stop to these practices by properly funding (as they should) these federal institutions and by mandating agency offsets for monies raised by federal entities from corporate and private sector donors. If implemented, charitable giving by corporations to federal agencies would virtually cease overnight. But in light of massive federal deficits and without a mind-set that recognizes the federal government's obligations to fully fund base operations of cultural institutions, legislation seeking to offset agency funds is unlikely to evoke sympathy or support among members of Congress.
The crisis in funding continues to prove challenging for state-funded entities. Solutions do not come easy and there are no simple answers to the ongoing crisis. But in one way, the fiscal challenges have served a positive role—they have forced managers to look to new ways to enhance popular support for their programs and agencies. While cuts may fundamentally change the way agencies operate, they may also force managers to look for more innovative, and perhaps in the long run, better ways to fund arts, humanities, and heritage organizations. But this optimistic long view should not obscure the clear and present danger. Nor should it let us forget that support for history at the local and state level during these critical times is vital for the well-being, not just of public historical activities, but of the entire profession, both in terms of preserving the archival record and of maintaining public interest in, support for, and knowledge of, history.
—Bruce Craig is director of the National Coalition for History.
- Introduction
by William J. Cronon
- Budget Crises and State
Historical Organizations
by Patrick McCormack
- The Crisis and New Jersey
by Clement Alexander Price
- The Virginia Case
by Robert C. Vaughan
- A Tale of Two States: Wisconsin and South Carolina
by George L. Vogt
- For an earlier report on the state budget crisis, please refer to the Perspectives article, State History Programs in Crisis, by David Darlington (Perspectives, 41:4/ April 2003) .


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Let $T=(-\triangle)^{\frac{1}{2}}$,Can we have similar estimates below hold in $L^p$ ? $\| T^{\alpha}(fg)-(T^{\alpha}f)g-f(T^{\alpha}g) \|_p \leq \|T^{\alpha-1}f\|_p \|T^{\alpha-1}g\|_p$, where $\alpha>0$,p>1. If we really have such fractional Leibniz formula holds,we can then estimate the fractional integration by parts also.
Definitively, no. The fractional derivative of a product verifies a generalised Leibniz formula that is defined by a series. I do not know any publication with it in the two-sided derivative case, but it is easy to obtain as I did in the one-sided case. See the paper Magin et al, On the fractional signals and systems, Signal Processing 91 (2011) 350–371 | |||
There is a paper by A. Eduardo Gatto containing $L^p$- estimates for a fractional derivative of a product. | |||
Take a pseudodifferential operator $T$ of order $m$ with symbol $t(x,\xi)$ and $a=a(x)$ a smooth function with bounded derivatives of all orders (then $a$ is a symbol of order 0). Then with $R_{m-2} $ pseudodifferential operator of order $m-2$, $ T(au)=aTu+[T,a]u=aTu+Op(\frac{\partial t}{i\partial \xi}\cdot \frac{\partial a}{\partial x})u+R_{m-2} u, $ so that $$ T(au)=aTu+[T,a]u=aTu+ \frac{\partial a}{\partial x}\cdot [T,x]u+S_{m-2} u, $$ with $S_{m-2} $ pseudodifferential operator of order $m-2$. So somehow the two main terms are $$T(au)\equiv aTu+ \frac{\partial a}{\partial x}\cdot [T,x]u.$$ Note that for $T=\nabla_x$, you recover Leibniz formula. | |||||
Denote by $D^{\alpha}=(-\triangle)^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}$,then we have $$\|D^{\alpha}(f\cdot g)\| \leq C(\|D^{\alpha+s}(f)\|_{p_1}\|D^{-s}(g)\|_{q_1}+\|D^{\alpha+t}(f)\|_{p_2}\|D^{-t}(f)\|_{q_2})$$ where $\alpha$,s,t are positive real numbers,and $\frac{1}{p}=\frac{1}{p_{i}}+\frac{1}{q_{i}}$ with $i=1,2$. The proof can be seen in [Exact smoothing properties of Schrödinger semigroups]( http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/25098514.) | ||||

subset: commoncrawl


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Community Music
The Abbey hosts many community events throughout the year.
Wymondham Symphony Orchestra, Wymondham Choral Society, as well as individual recitals on strings, piano and voice are regular features of our calendar. Regular organ recitals are also held, featuring our resident organists, as well as visiting soloists of local, national, and international repute.
Each year, we are pleased to be a major venue for the Wymondham Music Festival, hosting artists, musicians, and more. Festival fortnight takes place each year at the end of June/beginning of July.
The Abbey is also pleased to be a venue for fundraising concerts for various charities, and has in the past hosted Flower Festivals, 'Abbey-Style' Last Night of the Proms, as well as Children's Musical Theatre Companies, The Wymondham Players, and Internationally-known artists and musicians.
For details of forthcoming events, please see our events page.
If you would like to enquire about booking the Abbey for your own event, please contact Richard Barton-Wood on 01953 600800.


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Online Reservations
I attended the official opening weekend of their new brunch menu and it was great. I had the chicken and waffles, sampled the challah french toast and enjoyed a pitcher of bloody marys with my friends. Everything was delicious. The staff, as usual, was attentive and very friendly. Kudos all around!
I decide to surprise my bestie with a girls brunch. Yes it was a last minute decision but they accepted the reservation for 10 so I assume they were prepared for it. Reservation set for 2:30 pm on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Most of the girls were late (of course they would be because they are girls)....enough said. Once we we ordered we were told it was only 1 chef/cook and they were also hosting a bridal shower so our food "may take some time." About an hour later....we eat! Brucnh turned into dinner. I'm a regular for happy hour but brunch for a group is not their best. I'll stick to happy hour....Our waiter was awesome and he tried to make the best of the situation....Thanks Matt!


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SOURCE Farhad Hamdam
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Hamdam, California pedestrian accident lawyer, is offering free consultations for pedestrian accidents. Pedestrians accidents are among the most serious roadway collisions. Pedestrians, or anyone travelling on foot, have no protection against vehicles, which are often travelling at a comparatively high rate of speed. This means that pedestrians are more likely to suffer catastrophic, painful or debilitating injuries or even fatalities.
Mr. Hamdam, pedestrian accident attorney, works closely with accident victims to help them explore their options. Taking legal action against the negligent party can be a big step, but it can help victims of pedestrian accidents seek and receive justice in the aftermath of the collision. In many cases, pedestrian accidents are associated with drivers who are driving recklessly, negligently, under the influence, failing to yield or speeding.
California law requires drivers to drive safely at all times and follow all rules of the road. Negligence or reckless driving can result in a driver being held liable for damages if a pedestrian is injured or killed as a result of the driver's actions. Victims of pedestrian accidents may be entitled to compensation for their medical costs, costs for rehabilitation, psychological distress, lost wages and other financial hardships that arise as a result of the accidents, and the Los Angeles pedestrian accident statistics are high. Seeking legal advice from a seasoned pedestrian accident lawyer such as Mr. Hamdam can help ensure that pedestrian accident victims are properly protected and able to seek the full amount of compensation to which they are entitled.
Mr. Hamdam is an experienced pedestrian accidents lawyer. He has helped many throughout the Los Angeles area who have been hurt or suffered a loss as a result of a pedestrian accident. He graduated from UWLA in 1997, from which he obtained his Juris Doctorate degree. During his education, his scholarship was recognized with a juris prudence award and inclusion on the Dean's List. He was also a semi-finalist on the brief of distinction and on the moot court. He was admitted to the bar a year after graduation, and he is currently licensed to practice throughout the state and in the U.S. District Court.
Website: http://www.pedestrianaccidentattorney-losangeles.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HamdamLaw
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/farhad-hamdam/15/a17/1b9
Press Release by http://www.avitalweb.com/
Kevin Neman
(818) 205-9300
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.


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- Home >
Achievements in Academics
Faculty, staff recognized
ANGOLA, Ind. — Faculty and staff were treated to the annual commencement breakfast May 7, held before the school's 127th commencement ceremony.
Professors Bill Lipman and Bill SanGiacomo were each given Professor Emeriti status in recognition of their many years of service to the university.
Associate professor Craig William Laker, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, Psychology and Social Sciences, received the most prestigious award, the Gerald H. Moore Overall Excellence in Teaching Award. He received a cash stipend, development grant and plaque for the honor. He also received the Merle J. and Anna Mae McKetta Excellence in Teaching Award in Arts and Sciences.
Civil and environment engineering instructor Timothy James "TJ" Murphy was the recipient of the Frank and Julia Gelet McKetta Excellence in Teach Award in Engineering.
Business and finance instructor Linda Conley received the Charles William, Nelle Paris and Mary Ann McKetta Excellence in Teaching Award in Business.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering assistant professor Pavan Karra, Ph.D., received the Charles and Sue Ragan Gelet Excellence in Teaching in Engineering.
Criminal justice, psychology and social sciences assistant professor John H. Fiandt received the Robert Ewing and Gail Stewart Smith Excellence in Teaching in Arts and Sciences.
Mathematics and informatics assistant professor A.J. Alnaser, Ph.D., received the Robert Andrew and Anne Ewing Smith Excellence in Teaching Award in Arts and Sciences.
Brett Batson, Ph.D., chair of the Wade Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, received the Mary Yacynch McKetta Excellence in Teaching Award in Engineering.
Design engineering technology assistant professor Thomas H. DeAgostino received the John J. and Mary Gelet McKetta Excellence in Teaching Award in Engineering.
Gail Lugo, instructor and director of the English Language Center received the Helen Smith McKetta Excellence in Teaching Award.
Mike McNamara, chair of the Department of English and Communication, received the Barrenbrugge Faculty Excellence Award, for his excellence in teaching, achievement in research or other scholarly endeavors and service to the university.
Kelly Trusty, program director, for the School of Professional Studies Master of Science in Leadership program received the faculty scholarship award.
Sue Van Wagner, Ph.D., dean of the Franks School of Education, received the faculty service award.
Sandra Miles received the outstanding adjunct (School of Professional Studies) award.
Neil Shamberg, Ph.D., adjunct professor in the Jannen School of Arts and Sciences, received the outstanding adjunct (main campus) award.
Civil engineering professor Will Lindquist, Ph.D., received the Jannen Renaissance Scholar Award.
Kellie Lazusky, program manager for the School of Professional Studies, and Dean Orewiler, creative digital multimedia specialist, received the President's Excellence Awards.
To share your news, contact Trine University communication specialist Lindsay Winslow Brown at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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You're watching...
Fox Flash: Dee Snider
Dee Snider discusses his new memoir and his new album
May 9, 2012
You're watching...
Dee Snider discusses his new memoir and his new album
May 9, 2012
Also in this playlist...
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Auto-advanceThis transcript is automatically generated
Hello folks and welcome to the fox -- -- I'm Steve Doocy.
With a mile route from where the wild mane of hair and make -- to have match as well.
Glam metal band Twisted Sister caught everybody's eyes and ears while racking up -- hits like we're not gonna say -- remember.
Didn't sound anything like that.
-- -- Exactly like that.
Rock -- Dee -- joined -- earlier to talk on FOX & Friends about his new memoir.
We'll shuttle beginning -- Mike is -- a cautionary tale.
Because I didn't do drugs I didn't do alcohol clear thinking my manager rip me off my -- my agents my accounts though I did it all myself.
I lost everything.
-- -- bottomed out in the ninety's I was literally slaughtering cars and a parking lots about what you do.
Hair makeup on weekends when X-Men will you back on top and I don't yeah Stevie and I I -- the story -- and Alice Cooper were exchanging phone messages you have Alice Cooper and yet PLC -- -- guy.
And that we started singing show to -- to each other pay well it -- always call me -- both fans of -- I grew up arousal where.
-- -- whistles we've played all talk about now I didn't have to -- it was a regular house all the weeks ago Steve but -- shows it was always a part of my life.
And a couple years ago at the rock of ages and started off Broadway I don't really reconnect me that whole thing -- said let me take Broadway Show -- let's make a rock.
And I think I did with Patti LuPone -- -- -- in the allow lots yes so listen this young looking for a bail out things got tough and you've got tough for you got a CD out he got a book out just did Celebrity Apprentice.
Any album are both out right now you can check him out on line and had brick and mortar stores.
And she's beautiful and brave -- -- -- units.
Credited with saving a guy's life after he suffered violent seizure while working in her how.
Home we're told Judas turned his head to the sides we wouldn't choke -- -- and had somebody call 911 man is now.
That is fast think it.
And that's your fox flash for today and Steve -- start every day -- a little -- a -- of friends we'll be back here at 6 AM eastern Thursday morning right here.
On the fox industry.
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Funnily enough, Love's Labour's Lost isn't the only musical I saw in the past …
Posted August 14th, 2013
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Media Contact:
Colin SullivanUniversity Relations
303 Hofstra Hall
Phone: (516)463-7146
Fax: (516)463-5146
Send an E-mail
Date: Mar 05, 2012
Spring Job and Internship Fair Opens Doors for Hofstra Students and Alumni
Over 100 Employers Seeking Hofstra Talent
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – Hundreds of Hofstra students expected to prepare their resumes, touch up their interview skills, put on their business attire and head over to the Career Center's Spring Job and Internship Fair on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The attendees will have the opportunity to meet with a multitude of employers from a wide range of industries.
The 2012 Spring Job and Internship Fair will be held at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex located on Hofstra's north campus. Students and alumni interested in attending must have a valid Hofstra ID or alumni card. Local, national, and globally based companies will be in attendance at the fair.
Current students are encouraged to meet with staff in the Career Center, prior to the fair, to review resumes and answer quick questions. Quick question walk-in times (no appointment necessary) are held throughout the semester Monday through Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. and Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For additional information please contact the Career Center at (516) 463-6060. For more information on Career Center programs and services visit the Career Center website.
Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from more than 150 undergraduate and 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied health services and honor studies, as well as a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.


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Chicago ComicCon Recap & First-Time Artists Advice
August 9th through 12th, I went to my first comic convention as an artist in Artist's Alley. It was as a result of a free table I won in an art contest back in April. I entered the contest in the amateur category and was almost entirely unprepared to win the pro-category prize of a free table. That said, I spent the intervening 4 months searching for info on what to expect and how best to prepare and found little of use. This journal is intended to fill that void.
My biggest questions after learning I had a table were pretty typical: What do I need to bring? How many prints? Of What? What prices do I charge? What sells? Can I draw copyrighted characters? Can I sell them as prints?
Those last two, almost nobody wanted to give me a straight answer, by the way.
I eventually got a few different answers to ALL these questions, and invariably like anything else in life the best, most accurate answer to all these is also the most frustrating: "Depends…"
So instead of belaboring a series of if/then options with suggestions that would largely be speculation anyway, I'm going to simplify. This is a list of what happened to me at this one con, what I learned from the experience, and in some cases my thoughts on why. Some of it is still speculation, but hey, it's what I got. Read on if you think it might be useful. If not, go your own way, live on in rock n' roll, et cetera.
Also, I invite anyone to reply or link me to your thoughts on this or any other Con experiences from an Artist's or Vendor's side of the table. I'd love to hear how these things go for others. And if you've never played vendor but have suggestions/thoughts on how to do it better, awesome! Let's hear those as well!
Bear in mind that this was the experience of exactly ONE Wizardworld Con in Chicago, Illinois, August 9-12, 2012. Artist's Alley was jammed in the back of the hall, split into 2 sections, and was generally laid out such that we got shafted by being as far away from the entrance as possible. Meaning IF people bothered to walk all the way back to visit, they had had every conceivable opportunity to blow whatever cash they'd brought by the time they got there on swords, towels, T-shirts, comics, motorized cat ears, and flashing sequined hats.
Artists are not Wizard's highest priority at these shows… But that's a different article, and hey, for me this was a free table so complaints would just be ungracious.
So, in the order I was asking the questions, pre-con, let's have some answers!
My Prize – Or – What do you get when you buy a table?
Simplest way to answer this question is a direct quote from our Artist's Alley Welcome email, sent July 18th, roughly 1 month before the show date:
"You receive an 8ft table and two wristbands unless you have more than one table or have purchased additional wristbands.You will have 10 feet of space behind your table as well to set up any displays, as long as it doesn't encroach on another artist's space… Any additional wristbands can be purchased onsite for $25each there is no limit to the amount you can buy, wristbands are valid for the entire weekend."
This proved to be mostly accurate, if somewhat misleading. For the $400 price tag (again, I won mine, but that's the cost as advertised), you get 1 table measuring 96" x 29" as your tabletop, 2 wrist bands valid for the full show, 2 (uncomfortable) plastic chairs, and about 5 feet behind you at best. Where they say 10 feet, that's actually split between 2 tables, each with its own artist of course, and if the guy behind you has a mammoth display, good luck navigating around the interior aisles.
I was booth 3208.
Wizard left us to our own devices regarding any "land disputes", but I personally had none. For my part, the kids behind me were okay and didn't horn in too much, but then I had absolutely no display set up behind me so I had no real need for my 5 feet. The artists directly around me were courteous, very helpful, and very cool. I had some great neighbors, one of which gave great advice on printers, scanners, and running a table. :-)
Re: Prints; Copyrighted Characters? How Many Prints? Etc.
I was stressing about Prints before the show. I was asking all over for ANY info on what sells, what doesn't, basically what's the best way to make prints that will sell and NOT get myself a cease-and-desist letter..?
What I didn't know is this: Prints barely sell. Or at least MY prints barely sold at THIS show. Wizard is a much more kid-friendly con, and half my stuff features warrior women with little clothing with ample chests. Also, dragons, evil jesters, and zombies. So in business-speak, I was probably marketing to the wrong demographic. Moms with kids would round the corner to my table and wince, herding their little ones to the next booth where they could get drawings of Scooby-Doo. More cartoony, kid-friendly stuff… All good things, which I CAN draw, but it's not what I had prepared as my table image.
Basically what I learned is that your prints are your artistic street cred. They're good examples of what you like to draw, that you are capable of drawing, and what any given commission might look like.
I came prepared with 5 different 11"x17" prints, 30 copies of each. Of those, only 1 was an existing character. Those prints were loosely described as an Evil Jester, a Swamp Witch surrounded by Zombies, a Wolf Girl victoriously holding up the heart of a slain dinosaur, a Dragon fighting a medieval knight, and Wonder Woman shattering a Minotaur's battle axe against her bracers. I sold a grand total of 6 11x17 prints during the show. That's right: SIX. In 4 days.
I also brought 4 smaller, post-card-sized prints, 50 copies of each. My Evil Jester, a Poison Ivy, a Mary Marvel, and a silly/joke cartoon of Superman picking on Batman. Of those, my most popular seller was the Superman/Batman one. The funny stuff did a lot better than the badass/cool stuff. Total, I sold 17 postcards.
Nobody came to the table giving me a hard time about copyrighted characters, and nobody so much as blinked twice regarding anything cease-and-desist. Didn't happen, at least at THIS con. Although, again, I'm a noob and I didn't make the $400 table price total so it's not like I'm taking bread from the mouths of Marvel or DC comics.
So what works? What sells? For this crowd, at this one show? Funny stuff. Cartoony stuff. Familiar stuff (ie. Characters with good and RECENT movies behind them). Given the US economy I don't think there was much chance of anyone coming away from this show with a windfall. But! I did make $360… Which, you know, would ALMOST have paid for my table, right?
So where did that $360 come from? Primarily commissions, and a few originals. I had a couple of good ones come in early on. One was a portrait of a girl & a guy, drawn from photographs, another the next day was a request from a friend of the first girl to draw some portraits of her dog. I did a sweet Birds of Prey commission that was so much fun I easily did the $40 job I was paid for, if not more.
Also, I got the impression that other artists did pretty well sketching caricatures of people as superheroes or as the villain in pre-drawn comic pages where just the head needed to be filled in. Pretty clever idea, that, and one I'll probably adopt for future shows.
Also, I sold a few originals from my portfolio. But again, the only originals I sold were of pre-existing characters. I sold a couple of Batman villain pics, and a Doctor Who. LOTS of people got a laugh at a Deadpool I was working on for a friend of mine, but nobody offered to buy it.
Table Survival Kit
If you take nothing else from this journal, copy this list and don't go to a con without filling it. All these items proved incredibly useful in some form or another, most of which are obvious. Get this stuff and bring it to each and every show you attend:
Art Supplies & Paper (whatever you're most comfortable with. I use Smooth Bristol Board, Black India Ink, Sketch n' Wash, white-out pens, Warm & Cool Gray Copic Markers, Letraset Basic Colored Markers, and a handy .5 mechanical pencil & eraser. These will be your Commissions, and you should be familiar with them before putting anything down on paper in front of an audience.)
Portfolio (Obvious, and full of your best finished pieces. I recommend keeping your originals in this, your prints elsewhere. You'll want to keep this on you and safe at all times.)
Drawing Board (because there's no guarantee the table will be smooth or comfortable to draw on for 2-4 days, 8 hours a day)
Tablecloth (I use a black one… Helps you stand out, and looks very professional.)
Print Stand-ups, Back-Drops, Displays (People see very little of what they look at in a crowded space. The bigger, the brighter, the better, so long as it's classy and crisp)
Large Bulldog Clips (three 1-1/2" clips to keep the tablecloth in place, and to keep your garbage bag attached to the table and up off the floor, nice and clean)
Garbage Bags (Duh… Small ones are fine. Again, clean and uncluttered is the idea.)
Water Bottles & Snacks (Again, obvious when you factor in that a bottle of water in these shows can run you 4 bucks a pop, and food is even more expensive. 2 Bottles of water per person per day should be sufficient. If you're a thirstier sort, bring more.)
Paper Towel/Tissues (I often ink with a brush, and inkwash with water. Spilt ink is a nightmare without these essentials)
Rubbing Alcohol (just a smidge for cleaning inks, markers, etc. from your table or your hands)
Masking Tape (Not just for the drawing board, but elsewhere as well. Tape=useful.)
Seat Cushions (Remember way up there where I specified the seats you get are uncomfortable? I wasn't kidding. My wife insisted we spend 12 bucks a piece on foam cushions usually sold in the patio furniture section at Wal Mart. Absolutely invaluable! She's a brilliant and beautiful human, my wife, and my bum and I thank her for her forethought. Get some!)
Carrying Case/Luggage with WHEELS! (It's a looooong walk from your hotel to your table. My Table Setup case has wheels, but my art supply case does not. It weighs about 50 pounds, and while that may not seem like much when you first pick it up, 500 yards later in the summer heat surrounded by crowds and running across the street to get to my hotel? Trust me, I was taking extra showers every day. I wished I'd had wheels on that damn case.)
Your Wife (or husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/most trusted ally in the world. Whatever. But bring a human who's got your back. Because at best you only have 2 eyes, 2 hands, and if you're busy drawing a commission then 3 outta 4 of those will be busy NOT welcoming people to your booth, fetching water, taking money, or making change. And I assure you at some point in 4 days you will need to use the bathroom. Bring a friend.)
Float (Your change for all your sales. $200.00 or so in 10's, 5's, and 1's… I wouldn't worry too much about 20's, since the magic of ATM's will bring those to your table first. I had 10x$10s, 16x$5's, 20x$1's. For small shows, half that should do just fine.)
Other Incidents
There were a few occasions where some of the artists in the row behind me allowed several friends, ALL with cheap $25 Floor Wristbands described above, to camp out behind their table eating pizza and being generally loud and in some cases drunkenly obnoxious. More than once there was yelling, swearing, and a lot of bullshit peacocking in and around aisle 3100.
Obviously, I'm fine with cursing, and I couldn't care less if you drink beer, wine, or Drain-O as long as you control yourself and don't make the lot of us appear as disorganized, childish, and unprofessional. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the entire weekend.
Whether Wizard stepped up and reigned this in I can't say since my wife helped me keep my cool and not pay anyone an angry visit. I can say that there were several helpful T-shirt-clad volunteers who more than once offered us water, assistance, and generally any help or info we might need. I suspect one or more of them sorted out the loudmouths in the row over.
Also, Wizardworld's scheduling of events was wonky. When the con ends at 7pm and you have an Artists' Party scheduled for 7pm, that's not gonna cut it. You have to give people at LEAST half an hour between to get to hotels, get cleaned up, and get back out to the restaurant. In addition, the Drink & Draw had a similar issue where again the show that day ended at 7, the D&D was scheduled for 7pm in one email, and 7:30 in the flyer. These were both official Wizard communications, and even among their own correspondence there was inconsistency.
As a new, unknown artist, no money was made at this show. At least not by me. Hell, I spent nearly $2000 in food, hotels, & gas just to be there. I put 3,000 km on my car in the process. But my wife and I called it a vacation and we had a blast.
So if you're in this to make money? Don't even try it long-distance. Stay local and know your audience, preferably in an area where people have money to spend and don't resent spending it. Artist's Alley is a great place full of creative energy and excitement, but it is also a place where your competition is literally steps away. If profit is your goal, then this is not a game or a lark. It's your job, and you'd best be prepared to work for it.
Call out to people as they walk past, make eye contact, strike up conversations. You have to drop whatever introverted shyness you might have as an artist and play the salesman. And your art is your only product. Even then, I found the largest factor in who stopped by the table, who liked my stuff, who even looked in my direction was all random chance. For a free table, I made back my printing costs and still had enough cash earned to come home and buy a cheap 11x17 scanner, which I've wanted for years. But if I'd paid for the table, I'd have lost money.
That's not to say that this will always be the case. In a few shows, with the proper investment in a backdrop banner, some judicious requests regarding table placement, and a better understanding of what people are looking for in any given city, I think I might be able to make a little profit on this. But for my part I'm actually less interested in profit and more interested in fun. And THAT I definitely had in spades.
If what you're after is a good time and a great way to spend a weekend here and there drawing for people and having them tell you "your stuff is really good and if I had any money left I'd totally buy"… It's loads of fun. I met some great people, had some really great conversations, and I'm psyched to go to the next one.
According to several people I spoke with, the fact that I made back my printing costs is actually quite an accomplishment for my first show. Thankfully I have a regular 9-to-5 job where I make decent money and drawing comics is currently just a really fun hobby. As a whole, this was absolutely the most fun I've had as an artist! And who's to say I won't make a real go of this at future cons? I certainly intend to try. :-)
So I freaking won it..!
While everyone else was off at C2E2, I went to the other comic convention going on this past weekend: Wizard Con Toronto. It's a lot closer to home, and I was pretty keen to try out Tommy Castillo's Wizard Drink & Draw with some comics pros. There were 2 categories: Amateur & Professional. Being unplublished, I entered as an amateur. After seeing what I was working on, they bumped me up to Pro.
And damned if I didn't win the thing! I will have my own table at Artists Alley at the Wizardworld Chicago Comic Con August 9-12, 2012. Catch me there!
As an interesting aside, Amy Acker (of Angel, Dollhouse, etc. fame) happened into the bar where we were doing our Drink & Draw and she came over and sat down with me for a minute, watching me draw. She liked my work, too. She was so nice! Very sweet person, absolutely fantastic. My wife and I stopped in at her booth the next day before leaving the Con and she recognized us, commented on my drawings. It was really great.
Weeeeird night for a small-town Georgia-boy. But a damn good one!


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If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists?
Book by Dr. R.C. Sproul
Why do atheists believe in unbelief? R.C. Sproul demonstrates that atheists have a vested interest in denying the existence of God who claims moral authority over our lives. He turns the arguments of atheism upon itself. He shows how its … Learn More
Overcoming the World: Grace To Win The Daily Battle
Book by Dr. Joel Beeke
We see all around us that the world is on a quest for pleasure, power, profit, and position. Many Christians struggle to live faithfully in such a world and stay true to Christ's command to be in the world, but … Learn More
Religious Affections
Book by Jonathan Edwards
"What are the distinguishing qualifications of those that are in favor with God, and entitled to his eternal rewards? … What is the nature of true religion? And wherein do lie the distinguishing notes of that virtue and holiness that … Learn More
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
Book by John Calvin
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life has inspired readers around the world for more than four centuries.Now in paper, this classic devotional will guide you on how to apply biblical principles to everyday life. Originally part of John Calvin's … Learn More
Book by Francis Turretin
The issue of justification has long been regarded as "the issue on which the church stands or falls." Indeed it is, for if the church does not properly understand or preach the Gospel of salvation, then she ceases to be … Learn More
Jesus the Evangelist
Book by Rev. Richard Phillips
Rev. Richard D. Phillips digs into the early chapters of the Gospel of John to discover principles you can use for Christian outreach that were modeled by witnesses for Jesus and by Jesus Himself. Phillips unfolds biblical principles for evangelism … Learn More
Also available in one other format -
What Is the Christian Worldview?
Book by Dr. Philip Ryken
As we are bombarded by the culture around us, it can be difficult to think according to the Christian worldview. This handy booklet summarizes the basics of the Christian worldview and develops the implications of creation, fall, redemption, and glory … Learn More
Onward Christian Soldiers: Protestants Affirm the Church
Book by Various Authors
This book contains essays on the nature and purpose of the church. Contrary to popular opinion, the authors point out that the church is not an institution created by the religious establishment. According to Scripture, it is a body of … Learn More
The Last Days According to Jesus
Book by Dr. R.C. Sproul
"This generation will by no means pass away," Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, "till all these things are fulfilled." "These things" include "the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven." Critics like Bertrand Russell (author of "Why … Learn More
Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions and Advice to Young Converts
Book by Various Authors
Nichols opens with a brief introduction to Edwards' historical context, the events of his life, and a brief note on the two texts themselves. "Resolutions" paints a picture of a young minister whose strength and trust lie in his God, … Learn More
Reading Between the Lines
Book by Dr. Gene Edward Veith
Here is a guidebook for those who want to learn how to recognize books that are spiritually and aesthetically good—to cultivate good literary taste. Gene Edward Veith presents basic information to help book lovers understand what they read—from the classics … Learn More
The Micah Mandate: Balancing the Christian Life
Book by Dr. George Grant
Micah 6:8 commands the people of God to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord. This book provides guidance for balancing these requirements in the Christian life that we might be more faithful to our heavenly Father. Learn More
The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World
Book by Dr. David Wells
"It takes no courage to sign up as a Protestant."These words begin this bold new work — the culmination of David Wells's long-standing critique of the evangelical landscape. But to live as a true Protestant — well, that's another matter. This … Learn More


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Join us for this engaging session, where we'll share the highlights of the 2013 Horizon Report and discuss today's emerging technologies and instructional innovations against some of …
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Codes & Standards
The number of open source web survey software is surprisingly small. In addition, the existing solutions are relatively limited.
It is somehow unclear why is this area so weakly covered with open source applications, as they are otherwise very much elaborated in much more complex fields (e.g. Content Management Systems, Browsers, Office etc). This is especially surprising, because of the hundreds of commercial solutions for Web surveys.
Nevertheless, the open source solutions do offer some decent and effective tools. It seems, that PhP Surveyor is the leading solution among open source softwares for Web surveys. It enables all basic features and it is also relatively easy to install.
However, even with this software, it is still awkward to perform some basic web survey features (e.g. branching). It also lacks any modern Web 2.0 features.
- Choosing survey software (Kaczmirek L)
- Overview of exsisting software solutions 2005 (Lozar-Manfreda K)
Codes & Standards (13)
- Ethical Issues
- Components of "Total Errors" in traditional surveys
- Inference in Web surveys
- Internet Access Panels
- Security
- Privacy
- Standards in Online Surveys. Sources for Codes of Conduct, Ethical Guidelines and Quality
- Usability and Implementation Issues in Online Surveys
- Incentives in Web-based Studies. What to Consider and How to Decide
- Choosing survey software. How to decide and what to consider
- Sampling
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You're watching...
NY Governor declares state health emergency
Dr. Ernest Patti weighs in
Jan 13, 2013
You're watching...
Dr. Ernest Patti weighs in
Jan 13, 2013
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New York now declaring -- Health emergency.
Thousands of people come down with the flu the order came just one day after federal health officials declared the virus had reached.
Epidemic proportions in this country.
So why isn't important -- go to hospital.
And how can the flu shot help you joining us -- the director of emergency department.
The same part of -- hospital in New York doctor Ernest -- doctor thanks for joining us thanks rob what is it what's that the distinction between.
An emergency in an armored.
-- really most people who have normal immune systems can stay home with it's the flu or flu like illness.
The people that need to worry are the ones who have asthma -- or emphysema diabetes and diseases that decreased -- immune system right or put them at higher risk.
What do they have to look for if they have running a high fever that's not responding to Tylenol Motrin if they have shortness of breath -- -- brief.
Or -- they have a prolonged illness meaning they've tried the symptomatic treatment at home 234 days and they're not getting better actually feeling worse.
Where states show signs of dehydration those patients should become to be -- department not just a normal person who gets the flow.
So New York has declared this an emergency what does that mean.
Well one of the one of the important things that we need to look at with this emergency is in the good thing is the governor has decided to allow pharmacists to give.
Allow them to give flu vaccines to.
Younger children infants and children six months and older in the past pharmacists like you want your local CBS -- you have to be over eighteen to get flu vaccine line.
Well because pharmacists were allowed to give it to anyone younger than eighteen.
And the majority of people who give them at the drugstores and outside locations or pharmacists also other allied health care providers.
So the good thing is now we have a larger country of health care professionals who can give the vaccine.
That's important because it's never too late to get the vaccine the flu season peaks January February.
And it tails until March and April you and further.
So right now if you don't have a vaccine should definitely get out there and get it takes about two weeks for the immunity to build up full potency.
That's definitely a good tool to use and battling flu would you recommend your patience staying out of certain public areas is that we be concerned about one on airplanes for example the subway.
Most definitely anywhere -- a high concentration of other people.
-- summer coughing this flew back a virus gets spread like crazy one sneeze one cough on hand spread to a doorknob things like that.
So I would recommend to limit your exposure out on the public definitely.
And that's why I think this flu flu epidemic it's -- -- it started right before the holidays and people were traveling or.
Congregating at parties and gatherings and what can you do to boost your immune system.
A lot of things you can do to boost your immune system number one you need to rest eat nutritious foods exercise.
Wash your hands frequently and that's what we have to use public transportation in Europe public court you know with a gathering people.
You need to definitely.
Increase sure intake of fruits and vegetables.
Exercise is always an immunity booster.
These are things that we forget around the holiday period -- so stressed -- and you need to get adequate rest and that means turn off the computer in the Smartphones at night when you go to bed.
And actually sleep.
That's good advice.
In any season yes doctor thank you very much -- thanks for him.
Coming up think.
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Guerrilla Ontologist
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When Time Goes Crazy
When Time Goes Crazy
We depend on time to be consistent, but its not always so dependable In the movie Star Trek: Generations, Captains Kirk and Picard join forces to fight Dr. Soran, a madman who viewed time as his enemy. Picard, however, came to see time as a companion that accompanies us on our journeys through life. Throughout the many experiences of our lives, we regard time in both ways: as a kind of enemy when were late for something or eager for something to happen; but on an everyday basis as something we can rely on. One thing follows another, cause and effect, twenty-four hours in a day. Every once in awhile, however, time seems to go haywire, gets fouled up in a glitch, moves impossibly fast or impossibly slow. Is it time itself that gets screwed up? Or is it just our perception of it? Consider these reports from people who suspect that the flow of time (or the flow of their lives through it) went mysteriously wrong. Time Moved too Slowly Don and his wife had their encounter with missing time in the Nevada desert in 1997. They were driving their small, three-cylinder Geo Metro to Laughlin, Nevada from San Diego, California. We took the back way to Laughlin on 8 East through the desert to 95 North, says Don. Around dusk, our windshield had a rather large collection of bugs, so we pulled into the only gas station at Vidal Junction to clean the glass. As they pulled into the mini mart station, Don noticed a seedy looking character at the pumps staring at him and his wife. He had greasy hair, a disco shirt and a leather vest, and was driving a beat up, early 70s Toronado. Don quickly cleaned his windows and got back in his car. The greasy dude was still staring at them. Darkness was quickly approaching as Don pulled back onto 95N, hoping the creepy stranger would not follow them. But he did. Immediately, I had a bad feeling, says Don, knowing that in the lonely desert there are bandits who prey on tourists, nudging their car, then robbing them after they pull over for a fender bender. Don knew his Geo Metro was no match for the strangers aging muscle car, but tried to outrun him anyway. Even managing to reach 80 mph, the stranger stayed on his tail. Don and his wife began to get frightened. I told my wife to get the gun out of our backpack we travel with for protection. But then something weird happened. A split second later, with no turn offs, we were suddenly alone on the highway, Don remembers. No greasy dude, no one but oncoming traffic miles ahead. A few minutes later we were at 95N and Hwy 40 in Needles. But it was 7:00 p.m. when we left Vidal Junction, and Interstate 40 is fifty-five miles north of there. Now it was only 7:20 p.m. Somehow we'd made the entire fifty-five miles in twenty minutes! No Geo Metro can fly like that. We would have had to go at least 130 mph or more on a two-lane that twists through some mountains. The other strange thing was we had a strange floating feeling just as the other car disappeared. Time Moved Too Quickly Two years later, in August 1999, Kim and her husband also had a weird experience near Laughlin, Nevada. Instead of their trip taking a far shorter time than it should have, it took inexplicably longer. I was following my husband home from Las Vegas to Kingman, near Laughlin, Kim says. He was on his Harley and I was following in my car. We had made this trip several times before and knew exactly how long it took to reach home from the Hoover Dam one-and-a-half hours. The weirdness began with their perception of the weather. My husband swears it was raining in the distance and lightning was so close he could almost feel the electricity, Kim says. I swear it was dry as a bone. Also, I had a hard time keeping up as he was going very fast around the corners. I could see him in the distance, and suddenly there were a lot of cars ahead of me and behind him. I thought that was odd since there was a mountain up one side and a sheer cliff down the other. There was nowhere for those cars to have come from. Oddly enough, as soon as I thought that was weird for them to be there, they were gone. It seemed as though the trip was taking forever and I was getting really tired. When we arrived home, I thought it was really late and so did my husband. We looked at the clock and the one-and-a-half hour trip had taken over four hours! We are afraid of what happened to us during that missing time. Missing Time and a Broken Clutch John and his wife also seem to have experienced a serious amount of missing time, and their car was also physically affected. It was about 10 a.m. when my wife and I departed home in our jeep heading toward the local mall, reports John. This was a trip we had undertaken a hundred times before. The entire event would normally take about three hours and we would be back home around 1 p.m. The drive to the mall takes about ten minutes. John parked in their usual area, and he and his wife went into the mall to shop. As we departed the mall, we both looked at each other and we both felt that something was just not right, John says. First, for some unknown reason, I had parked the vehicle in an unfamiliar area of the mall, a parking area that I had never used before. Then when we entered the vehicle, it would not start. Finally, when it did start, the clutch would not engage, like it was loose or broken. We noticed the sun was setting! I looked at my watch and noticed it had stopped. I looked at the clock display on my dashboard and it read 5:30 p.m.! My wife and I still can't figure out how we lost almost five hours of our lives. We did nothing unusual or out of routine. And I don't understand how a brand new vehicle gets a broken clutch while sitting in a parking lot. Out of Time and Place Such instance of missing time can be quite confusing and stressful, especially when it occurs among other people who are unaffected. Consider the case of a young medical student well call Jim. One weekend he was at the beach with several of his friends from medical school. They had arrived together at the hotel where they would stay, and Jim didn't really pay attention to the hotel's name or its location. They left their luggage and went off for some beers, walking. Jim recalls that he was walking behind the others, talking to one of his friends at around 2 p.m. Quite suddenly he found himself at the beach, and it was already very dark. His first reaction was confusion, as he knew he was lost, followed by anger, sure that his mates were playing a joke on him. He tried to figure out where he was, walked a little bit, but the beach was deserted. When he finally made it to the town, he hired a cab. Because he did not know the name of the hotel, it took them two more hours to find it. When Jim went into the room, he was sharing with his friends, he was very upset and said clearly that their joke was not funny. As he demanded them to reimburse him his cab fare, he noticed the puzzled expressions on everyones faces, as if they were seeing a ghost. One of them said, "Where the hell have you been? We have been to the police, to every hospital, and we have looked for you for ages!" They were very upset. Apparently, what for Jim had been a blink of an eye, for the others was actually five hours. To this day, none of them can explain how Jim disappeared while talking to his friends and appeared at a different place... and where he actually was during those five hours. Portal to a Future Society As if such experiences arent weird enough, sometimes they get even weirder. On these occasions, people seem to slip not only through time, but also into other dimensions of reality. One night Ben was walking with a friend on a dirt trail between the closely connected towns of Hurley, Wisconsin and Ironwood, Michigan. We were half way to his house, Ben recalls, when suddenly I was standing outside a huge skyscraper building in what I, for some reason, believe to be Detroit. I entered the building and there was a lady with platinum blonde hair. Her clothes didn't look odd or anything. She told me that I was on time for my appointment, so I followed her to an elevator. We stepped inside and she pushed the button for the fifty-third floor. When we got out of the elevator, I followed her to an office. The walls and the floor were done in a decorative business-like way. We got to the door and she told me to go in and sit down. When I went into the office, it looked huge. I dont think I have ever seen a view so panoramic and beautiful as that one. A man told me to sit. He then started to tell me that they they meaning the company or something were happy that I had joined and I would be a perfect fit. All of a sudden, I was in a good-sized hallway with about fifty other people, standing in a military-type line. We all had the same blue and black uniforms on and were marching toward a big open garage-style door. Suddenly it all ended, and Ben was back in Ironwood, kneeling on the ground by some bushes. My friend asked me what was wrong, Ben says. I asked how long I had been kneeling and he said just for a couple of seconds. Garden of the Fifth Dimension James also believes he glanced into an alternate reality. James loved to garden, and when he moved into a three-bedroom house complete with a 150-ft. garden, he hardly made time for anything else. After planting some new borders, he says, I proceeded to my den for a quick cup of tea and a snack. The den itself was very small and had one window and a small gap near the roof for spying out of. When I proceeded to take a peek out of this hole, I was amazed at what I saw: There was a small pond and beautiful palm trees surrounding it. The dull light green lawn of my garden was replaced with lush, dark green grass, and it was tremendously sunny! The shed was already on the property when I bought it, but the previous owner a middle-aged man who never went in there said he had no need for it, so he left it. It was about 10-20 years old and in great condition. Could it be that this shed is some sort of portal, depicting another place on this earth? The garden itself had not changed when I took a look out the normal window. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to take a look at that paradise-like place even when I look out the gap although I'd be eager to see if people on the other side can see me! Copyright: Paranormal.about.com |
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Welcome to UVM!
UVM is one of the nation's top universities, and we are excited to
welcome you to campus.
We want your transition here to UVM to be as smooth as possible. Take a moment to look over some of the important information we have listed below. And remember, your UVM email is the most frequently used means of communication from the University, so it is imperative that you check it regularly.
Our introduction to Orientation publication Checkpoints is on it's way to you right now - if it hasn't arrived already! Inside you'll find a wealth of useful information regarding what Orientation is about, how students and families can prepare for it, and what to expect when arriving on campus in June.
If you haven't recieved your copy of Checkpoints yet - or you'd simply like to peruse the publication on your computer, feel free to download our online version.
What's Next...
- New first year student for the 2013 fall semester? Read all about what our June Orientation program entails.
- Register for your June Orientation session online!
- Already made your reservation, but need to change it? You can make those changes yourself in the Reservation System.
- New transfer student for the 2013 fall semester? Learn More about transfer orientation dates and options.
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Remember to take care of business!
1. Read your UVM email everyday.2. Pay the bills.
3. Complete all student health forms.
Have a question about Orientation? E-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Accessibility & Accommodation:
Orientation is committed to welcoming all first year students and their families. Participants who need assistance or accommodations to fully enjoy the Orientation program are encouraged to contact ACCESS and the Orientation Office well in advance, as some accommodations take time to implement. In consultation with ACCESS, we will provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations.
Last modified April 09 2013 04:43 PM


text:
The result for the West Indies was a good one, but they will feel slightly down after being so close to beating Australia for the first time in 17 years for a limited overs series.
There were many errors from the side but there were a few things to consider.
This is a team that came into this series right after victory in the Commonwealth Bank series, which sees no shortage of fixtures. A few players were not present and some were rested in the build up to the test series.
It's not about excuses but sometimes these factors do play a part. This shouldn't take away the fight shown by the West Indian players. They made us panic at times, both players and supporters!
Looking at the statistics, the Windies seem to have taken the honours for the series as the better team.
- 1st ODI: Australia won by 64 runs.
- 2nd ODI: West Indies won by 5 wickets.
- 3rd ODI: Match tied (4th tied match in history between West Indies and Australia)
- 4th ODI: West Indies won by 42 runs.
Result: Australia won the 5th ODI by 30 runs (Series drawn 2-2)
Australia: 9-281 from 50 overs. David Warner 69, Shane Watson 66, Peter Forrest 53.
West Indies: 251 all out. Brett Lee 3-42, Shane Watson 2-44, Xavier Doherty 2-40.
Not long ago I had a great chat with an international fast bowler. I asked him when is the pressure, as a both a player and a side, at its most intense level to secure victory?
He said it was plain and simply when playing a weaker or lesser-ranked team, because you're expected to win and to perform beyond your usual standards of achievement.
This makes sense as heading into this ODI series we expected Australia to win, especially after the 1st ODI victory.
However, an inability to rip through the Windies mid to lower order, a concerning struggle for the batsmen to adapt to a slow wicket where three games were held, and a tactical fall out for "death bowling" made the series a hard fought one. The Windies nearly took full advantage of these weaknesses to have a historical series win. Our guys would have felt that pressure no doubt.
Last article I pointed out numerous issues which unfortunately carried into this match. On a positive note, the one thing that was all important was to see the top order batsmen at their best. David Warner and Shane Watson finally managed to find some time in the middle and did so in their trademark style, being naturally aggressive.
I feel the West Indies did make a mistake to put us into bat, just as I think Watto made a huge mistake making us bat first on that slow wicket during two of the first three games. Unfairly, taking the lower order heroics away from Darren Sammy indicates we should have won this match comprehensively and put out the lights on Sammy's defence to bowl first on a beautiful batting track. He did his best to prove otherwise though.
It was mighty good to see the top order come right, which included Peter Forrest who was in need of a decent innings. The fluency at the crease from all the batsmen would have been owed to a better understanding of the conditions and some rather ordinary bowling from the Windies.
It was exciting to see Watto and Warner play their natural games. The value placed on their wickets was also refreshing after the horrible display during the 4th ODI where every batsman threw away his wicket. Some days it pays off, but when it does these two blokes are just epic to watch.
Peter Forrest played his part in the top order to score a half-century to get his early career back on track. George Bailey had a reasonably successful debut ODI series with the bat. His fielding was excellent, especially when taking stance at short extra cover.
I was pleased to see Matt Wade find some time at the crease with some lower order power hitting, although I do think he shouldn't be batting so low down the order in ODIs. He's probably had a forgettable series with the bat in hand but it's his first overseas tour for Australia and every player needs to have that one poor show to know the harsh reality of this game at the elite level. Only gets better from here for Matt.
The batting at the end of the innings was a bit embarrassing come the last over but the top order had done their job to give a really solid foundation to capitalise upon the Windies obvious loss in momentum and a drop in body language. The final over bowled by Andre Russell did seem to spark some kind of momentum though. The Windies have shown a ridiculous ability to rapidly build this wonderful thing called "momentum", game in, game out. It builds pressure in body language and they were able to follow through.
This didn't help their top order though as Brett Lee bowled outstandingly with the new ball, taking two wickets and operating with economic excellence alongside Ben Hilfenhaus.
Binga has had a touch and go series. As excellently as he bowled up front, he still had a torrid time with bowling at the death of the Windies innings. Yorkers which become ideal full tosses and short deliveries which become easily dispatched have made his work load at the end a bit of a concern.
With the younger players coming through the system in the build up to a limited overs series in the United Kingdom in a few months time, he'll need to dig deep into his experience and bring us that all round intensity with the new and old ball.
Our death bowling needs to be addressed. I felt our mix of Nathan Bracken, James Hopes and Shane Watson proved to be a brilliant bowling unit to handle the crucial overs, whose skllis Ricky Ponting was able to execute really well. Suddenly it has become an area of worry as there were many moments during the Commonwealth Bank series as well where we lost control of the games during the last 10 overs or so of the match.
I was admittedly impressed with Watto's courage to bowl Xavier Doherty towards to final stages of the innings. Xavier has gained so much experience this series and did a pretty good job in my opinion. Just needs to work through the blues of being smashed about the park.
Darren Sammy's innings was the defining blow to our chances of a convincing victory and one hell of an awesome innings. Taking out his efforts alongside Andre Russell doesn't paint of a good picture for the Windies, but Sammy's fight was significant to show that we never had this series in our control, we never had the dominant factor. He also opened up a whole can of worms for the death bowling debate.
The final power play saw 0 wickets fall and 60 runs came from it, doubling our efforts for PP3.
Ben Hilfenhaus was the tidiest of the bowlers having delivered economical spells in games four and five. He only managed one wicket but it would have been far more effective had we seen more "pressure building spells" from the other end, as we saw from himself and Binga taking the new ball in yesterday's game. It is a tactic that has worked in the test matches.
I haven't gone into the full discussion and analyses of everything into this game but reading back over previous match reports (all links above) you will see the relevant areas of discussion.
The statistics for the series tell a story as well that we were never in domination of this series.
Statistics for the ODI series against the West Indies:
Top Batting stats:
-Michael Hussey: 5 innings, 174 runs, HS 67, Average 34.80, x1 fifty
-David Warner: 5 innings, 160 runs, HS 69, Average 32.00, x1 fifty
-Shane Watson: 5 innings, 150 runs, HS 66, Average 30.00, x1 fifty
-David Hussey: 5 innings, 109 runs, HS 57, Average 21.80, x1 fifty
-Peter Forrest: 4 innings, 103 runs, HS 53, Average 25.75, x1 fifty
Top Bowling stats:
-Xavier Doherty: 5 matches, 45.2 overs, 11-242, average 22.00, economy rate 5.33
-Shane Watson: 5 matches, 41 overs, 8-170, average 21.25, economy rate 4.14
-Brett Lee: 5 matches, 43.4 overs, 8-278, average 28.50, economy rate 5.22
-Clint McKay: 5 matches, 43.2 overs, 7-213, average 30.42, economy rate 4.91
The Frank Worrell Trophy:
The test series will see a different wave of competition hit the Windies.
I tipped the Windies to have the best chance against us in the ODIs, even though their team wasn't at full strength either. Our test side is excellent in my opinion and they're coming off a 4-0 series win against India. The Windies will lose their big hitters and be in a completely different level of combat for the test series, where their inexperience may show.
Against the Windies the bowling tactics should not change, which saw the downfall of India during the Border-Gavaskar series. The batting will be essential for us as the Windies batting is their strength in the test arena, in my opinion. If our batsmen put the runs on the board, I can see our bowlers working around the clock to deliver something brutal.
I am positive heading into the test series.
The series sees the return of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Peter Siddle, Ed Cowan and Ryan Harris. The bowling is boosted by Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, while two spinners have been selected, meaning Michael Beer returns to try build upon his 1 test.
Here is our Test Squad for the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Michael Clarke (captain), Shane Watson, Ed Cowan, David Warner, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Peter Forrest, Brad Haddin (wk), Matthew Wade (wk), Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Michael Beer, Nathan Lyon.
*The 2008 series in the West Indies was won 2-0 by Australia, and 2-0 in Australia 2009/10 .
Twenty20 matches:
It's the Twenty 20 matches first which will be a nice spectacle to wrap up what has been a very entertaining limited overs series. Fifty over cricket has been given a massive boost by the Australian team over the last few series, dating back to the ODIs against South Africa.
Welcome to The Baggy Green Blog!
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text:
State of the Judiciary Address
State of the Judiciary Address
Chief Justice Christine M. DurhamJanuary 19, 2004
It is a great pleasure to discuss the condition of Utah's Judicial Branch of government. I do so in my capacity as the chair of the Utah Judicial Council, the body constitutionally charged with the power and obligation to make rules for the administration of the courts. Some of you may not be aware of the composition and role of the Council. It is a representative body composed of judges selected by each of the appellate and trial courts for three- to six-year terms, along with a lawyer selected by the Utah State Bar. The Administrative Office of the Courts provides staff support to the Council and, under the Council's direction, administrative support to all of the courts of the state. The Council operates by majority vote, and is responsible for the development of policy and procedure relating to the budget and the operations of the entire judicial branch. It relies upon information and input on priorities that come from governing Boards of Judges for each of the court levels-appellate, district, juvenile, and justice courts. As the chief administrative officer for the system, the Chief Justice has the obligation to preside over the Council's work, to contribute direction to its goals and policies, and to serve as a spokesperson for the judicial branch.
The governance system I have just described is probably the most "representative" or "democratic" system of judicial governance in the United States, in terms of the participation it permits and requires from all court levels, and the degree of cooperation and collaboration it encourages from all parts of the system. The Supreme Court, for example, has a number of constitutional responsibilities that belong solely to it, as opposed to the Council, such as the promulgation of rules of procedure and evidence, the management of the appellate process, the governance of the practice of law, and the power to impose sanctions for judicial misconduct upon recommendation from the Judicial Conduct Commission. In turn, the court relies on the administrative staff of the Council for support in the management of many of its separate constitutional duties such as the rule-making process. In sum, we have in Utah both a highly organized and a very collaborative system of governance for the judiciary.
What I believe to be the excellence of our governance structure is critical to the operation of a court system for the 21st century. Times have changed dramatically for state courts in the last 30 years. As is the case for the rest of the private and public sectors, information management and sophisticated communication systems characterize our everyday business. We rely on professional training and education for our staff and our judges to keep up with always increasing demands for efficiency and effectiveness. In recent years, our people have consistently been asked to do more with less in terms of resources. We have actually had to downsize by 100 people, 8 percent of our non-judicial workforce. I would like to publicly acknowledge the commitment to excellence and to public service that court personnel have shown during hard times.
Another significant development in the work of state courts with which you will be familiar is the still-growing initiative known as problem-solving justice. Far from being a departure from so-called "traditional" adjudication, I see problem-solving justice as a necessary and vital evolution of the core functions of courts; courts exist to provide peaceful and fair places for individuals and society to bring some of their most difficult and painful problems, and resolving problems sometimes requires more than merely disposing of cases. As long ago as 1971, a federal judge made the following observation about what was happening to American courts:
We expect courts to encompass every reach of the law, and we expect law to encircle us in our earthly sphere and to travel with us to the alien vastness of outer space. We want courts to sustain personal liberty, to end our racial tensions, to outlaw war, and to sweep contaminants from the globe. We ask courts to shield us from public wrong and private temptation, to penalize us for our transgressions and to restrain those who would transgress against us, to adjust our private differences, to resuscitate our moribund businesses, to protect us prenatally, to marry us, to divorce us, and, if not to bury us, at least to see to it that our funeral expenses are paid. (Hufstedler, Charles Evans Hughes Address, N.Y. County Bar Association, 1971)
We could all extend that list of expectations with no trouble at all, and it would contain just about every significant public and private problem anyone could identify. That said, however, it is important to remember that state court dockets tend to consist overwhelmingly of the stuff of everyday life-the repeated minor criminal acts of defendants who can't seem to get their lives together for reasons that include things like substance abuse and lack of education and employment skills, landlords and tenants with disagreements over rent and repairs, families that come to court when relationships go bad, and the tragic aftermath of domestic violence, child abuse, and juvenile delinquency. These categories account for a huge percentage, certainly half or more, of the cases in Utah's courts. And Utah's courts do a good job of staying on top of individual cases. Despite crowded dockets, our trial courts meet or exceed most national case-processing guidelines, and we have not seen the frightening delays that have compromised justice in other states. We could probably, in fact, continue to do nothing but fine-tune our case disposition systems, and still call ourselves a well-run court system.
We aspire to do more, however, and we have embraced the concept that behind the thousands of "everyday" cases I described earlier, there are tens of thousands of people in pain and distress, who cannot solve their problems themselves. Conventional case processing may dispose of legal questions connected to those problems, but it does little to address the real difficulties that cause people to return to court again and again. Nor does it adequately account for the increasing numbers of people who lack the resources to obtain meaningful access to the courts in the first place. Utah's courts today are invested not just in the disposition of cases, but also in case outcomes and in ensuring access to justice for everyone in our community.
As my counterpart in New York, Chief Judge Judith Kaye, said in a speech last year: Problem-solving courts are courts. They strive to ensure due process, to engage in neutral fact-finding, and to dispense fair and impartial justice. What's different is that these courts have developed a new architecture-including new technology, new staffing and new linkages-to improve the effectiveness of court sanctions, particularly intermediate sanctions like drug treatment and community restitution. (Kaye, "Delivering Justice Today," Anderson Memorial Lecture, Yale Law School, April 2003)
Nowhere is this focus on outcomes more apparent in Utah's courts than in the juvenile arena. Due to months and years of work by the courts, the legislature, and child welfare advocates, children from non-functioning families, who a decade or two ago could have been expected to grow up in foster care and frequently to graduate from the juvenile to the adult criminal courts, can now be expected to reunite with their parents thanks to services and programs designed to help those parents, or to be permanently placed in loving, stable homes where their chances of success in life will be greatly enhanced. The following is a letter shared with me by the juvenile court judge who received it two years ago from a little boy I will call "Josh." I have also changed the other names in the letter.
Dear Judge:I'm just writing this letter to let you know a few things. I remember the day I was taken away from Sally. I packed one Winnie the Pooh shirt, two toys, a bunny, and an angel teddy bear. I felt sad when I was taken away from Sally. I went to the Christmas Box House for a day, then I left that night. I cried a lot, hugging my bear and bunny. Then I went to Mary Brown's house. She had three children. The oldest was named Jerry, the second oldest was named Matt, and the youngest was named Debra. They were nice because we were close in age. I was sad when I left their house because they were nice. Then I went to Mary and Jack Wilson's. They had one child; his name was Pete. He was one-and-a-half. They were very kind. It was hard for me to say goodbye. I was sad when I left. I went to Susan and Bill Jones' house. They had other foster children. Their names were Jackson and Maddie. They were fun because we were close in age. It was hard to go because they were my friends, so I was sad.Then I went to Kent and Joan Smith's house, my adoptive parents. They're great. I love them a lot more than they think and I feel safe and happy because they're loving and kind, and care about me a lot more than I think they do. I just wanted you to know that.
Love, Josh
The little boy who wrote that letter was seven years old. He is the second youngest child of nine born to a single mother with serious functional deficits, probably related to cognitive impairments. One of the older children in the same family first came into the court system when she was two months old and the subject of a neglect referral. She literally grew up in a long series of foster care homes. Services were not provided to her mother, who was never able to regain custody (and was in fact unable to care for subsequent children), but whose parental rights were never terminated. Every 12- to 18-months a court review would determine there was no change of circumstance and would continue previous orders for foster care. At age 18, this young woman appeared before the court and asked, heartbreakingly, why an adoptive family had never been found for her. Another of the brothers, four years younger, had a similar experience, but his court record begins to show delinquency referrals from age nine, including theft, possession of dangerous weapons, assault, alcohol, tobacco, and truancy violations. If I have read his court records correctly, he was referred for delinquent acts 51 times during a nine-year period during which he was in foster care. I can't help wondering where he is now, and suspecting that his life still brings him regularly to court. These events preceded the Child Welfare Act of 1994 and the present commitment of the courts to provide oversight and leadership in outcomes for children, the kind of outcome that permits Josh to declare, after so many "I was sad's", that he now feels safe and happy.
The courts' role in the process of problem solving is vital: the "Key Principles for Permanency Planning for Children" from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges identifies, among others, the following obligations of judges. I cite them in illustration of my point that courts no longer simply "adjudicate" cases.
-Judges must ensure that the courts they administer provide efficient and timely justice for children and their families.
-Judges must ensure that their juvenile and family court system has the capacity to collect, analyze, and report aggregate data relating to judicial performance, including the timely processing of cases, to ensure the achievement of permanency for children who are under court jurisdiction.
-Judges must convene and engage the community in meaningful partnerships to promote the safety and permanency of children.
-Judges must use their legal authority to ensure that social and protective services are immediately available to families whose children have been placed at risk of abuse or neglect.
-Judges must provide oversight of children and families under court jurisdiction to ensure that these children are safe and have a permanent home in a timely fashion and that the parents/caretakers receive due process of law.
The striking characteristic of these principles is the expansive nature of the responsibilities they place on judges-not just for processing cases, but for protecting and helping people. I am told that research shows that almost everything that happens to move children in custody towards permanent resolution happens in the nine days before the next court hearing-whenever that hearing is-six, three, or one month later. The average length of time a Utah child used to spend in the limbo of foster care was two to three years. Now it is ten and one-half months. That change is in significant part the result of your legislative work and the way judges now treat these cases.
I could talk about problem-solving courts in the adult arena also-drug courts, mental health courts, domestic violence courts-but I think it is very easy for all of us to understand the high stakes nature of what judges do when we think about it in terms we all experience-families and children. I know that child welfare issues will be a significant part of your agenda in this session, and I want to emphasize that the courts have a stake only in the following three things: (1) the safety and welfare of at-risk children; (2) the preservation of fundamental due process rights for parents and family members; and (3) adequate resources for good decision-making (including legal representation for all parties to court proceedings) and good outcomes. The juvenile judge who shared the letter I read to you earlier has been involved with Josh's family for over 20 years now, and tells me that there are children on her docket who represent the third and fourth generations of children from families for whom earlier methods have failed, many of whom literally grew up in foster care. This judge says that Josh's story, and that of two of his other siblings who have been permanently placed under the current scheme, may reflect the beginning of the end of large numbers of children lost in the limbo of foster care. The judge also, and less optimistically, predicts an upcoming "balloon" in the number of delinquency referrals as earlier generations of those children experience the aftermath of the lack of stability in their early lives.
Before I leave the subject of juvenile justice, I want to mention briefly an innovation of recent duration: the pilot program opening juvenile court proceedings to the public. The courts participating in the pilot have worked hard to create public awareness and protocols that have allowed, so far, a smooth transition. We hope the experiment will yield good information for the development of future practices in this area. We all benefit when the work of institutions that serve the public is visible and understandable. We are committed to the idea that the courts must be accountable, and we supported this legislation for that very reason.
I have said a good deal about the outcome focused nature of the ways courts and judges' view cases these days. From an administrative perspective, we are also making efforts to focus on effectiveness and outcomes and to evaluate our use of resources. We need to be certain that we are investing limited time and money in programs that, first of all, work, but also, and more importantly, are in line with our highest priorities and needs. To that end, the Judicial Council has asked each of the court levels, and each programmatic entity within the court system (including the Council itself), to assess all aspects of court operations in terms of importance and effectiveness. We are undertaking this effort partially in response to the significant budget losses we have incurred over the past few years and in view of the likelihood that our state's economic recovery will not be instantaneous. We are also doing it because it seems to us to be good stewardship over our public responsibilities. Once again, our people constitute our most important asset, and the Judicial Council is depending on them to inform policy and budget priorities for today's and tomorrow's courts.
Finally, let me say a word about issues relating to access to justice and the delivery of legal services. We in the courts are well aware of the need to shore up and maintain public trust and confidence in our institutions. We are actively engaged in numerous public outreach and public educational programs designed to explain the courts, our constitutional system, and the importance of the rule of law to the larger community. We are also very sensitive to the changing characteristics of the people who need to use our services. Just as our dockets are filled by the stuff of everyday life, the people behind the cases are everyday people, sometimes without the resources to obtain legal representation. The courts have done much to facilitate access by pro se litigants, and to make information and forms available online to the public. Likewise, there are numerous entities in the private and nonprofit sector that offer discounted or free legal services for persons of limited means, and the Supreme Court and the Utah Bar have encouraged lawyers to perform pro bono services to meet some of the need. The Bar estimates, based on reported pro bono hours and contributions to the And Justice For All fund, that lawyers have donated $10,000,000 in services and cash to provide legal services to the poor in Utah.
There have been and are now many conversations going on in Utah to address the problem of access to civil justice and the delivery of legal services. I believe the time has come for the creation of a broad-based community initiative to assess the need for legal services in Utah and to bring together the many strands of interest in this problem. We have remarkable resources, and admirable collaboration, in our state, including the Community Legal Center, which the legislature helped fund in its inception and which now houses four different legal service entities under one roof, the And Justice for All project, a cooperative fundraising program that supports those entities, the clinical pro bono programs at our two excellent law schools, where students learn to be lawyers and provide valuable services at the same time, the Utah State Bar's projects on pro bono and delivery of legal services, the online court assistance programs, and the self-representation clinics currently being staffed by legal services lawyers, sometimes in the courthouses themselves, and other programs too numerous to mention. It is time to take these efforts to the next level, and to create a network of providers, stakeholders, lawmakers, community leaders, consumers, lawyers, and court leaders who can address the issue of access to justice on a statewide level. Other states have begun this effort. Washington state, for example, has created such a network, known as the Access to Justice Board, whose five founding principles are:
-Access to justice is a fundamental right in a just society.
-Access to justice requires . . . [that] legal issues must be adequately understood, presented, and dealt with in a timely, fair, and impartial manner.
-Access to justice depends on the availability of affordable legal information and services, including assistance and representation when needed.
-Access to justice needs adequate funding, resources and support.
-Equal justice under the law requires that justice be available to all people . . . regardless of the popularity of the cause involved, status, or other considerations or characteristics.
(State of Washington Access to Justice Board Principles, adopted May 8, 2003.)
Let me repeat the first principle: "access to justice is a fundamental right in a just society." The responsibility for guaranteeing and protecting it does not lie only with courts and lawyers. It belongs to all who aspire to live in a just society. I believe, however, that the Judicial Council, our court, and the Utah State Bar, which we supervise, can and should play a significant part in putting this issue on our statewide public policy agenda. I know that many of you also have long-standing concerns about access to justice, and I hope that we will find ways to strengthen the vision of a just society in our state and to form partnerships that work. As we begin to think about how to accomplish this, I look forward to productive conversations with your leadership on these important questions.
In conclusion, may I say how grateful I am, and we in the judicial branch of government are, for your service and for your courtesy in inviting me here today. We wish you success and look forward to working with you in the session ahead.


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