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How do YOU design nature? Whether we like it or not, nature evolves, following its own path towards the future. But is it really its own path? It's probably fair to say that most people agree that Darwinian evolution is still happening today – natural evolution, survival of the fittest, species evolving to best fit their ever-changing environments. But what about the kind of evolution that some may consider, not so "natural"? Man-made species, genetically modified organisms, test-tube body parts, and creatures that have been forever tweaked by human interference.
These "things", neither purely natural nor artificial, represent a new frontier – prototypes of future nature. Glimpses at what the future holds for natural organisms. A sort of engendered snapshot of a prediction of evolution, and in some cases, even a seemingly forced evolutionary process. It should come as no surprise that designers have taken an interest in this burgeoning arena of change. Proposing innovative lenses through which to view our inevitably prototype nature-filled future, designers shape this very future in their own way. Adopting the languages and materials of science, designers are beginning to understand the role "of design in a world in which humans have surpassed their Enlightenment roles as neutral observers and have become actors on the very forces of nature." The merging of science and design is depicted heroically in Paola Antonelli's 2008 MOMA exhibition, Design and the Elastic Mind and in the accompanying book. In the book's preface, Barry Bergdoll says, "While the show's viewpoint is largely optimistic, embracing science and design as agents of progress, there is also a clear undertone of urgency. Together, design and science must deal with the consequences of our ability to engineer natural phenomena." In a future where it is difficult to differentiate between natural and unnatural, these prototypes of future nature, culled from the merging worlds of science and design, may be what people look to as the source.
An important takeaway from Antonelli's MOMA show
is that it "is not concerned only with designers who have an interest in the latest scientific achievements, but also with scientists who are (unconsciously or otherwise) engaged in the act of design." It's hard to imagine a more striking example of this kind of science/design blend than Craig Venter's project, partially funded by the US Department of Energy, to design new microbes. The idea of man-made species is not a new one, however, it would seem that the idea is now a reality. Venter's heavily funded experiments are "part of an effort to create designer bugs to manufacture hydrogen and biofuels, as well as absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases." This brings us to a vital question: What will a future be like where the things that used to be nature, are instead, designed things? Where will society draw the line? I suppose to some, the possible benefits to engineering natural things to be better than they could have been naturally, outweigh the drawbacks. Microscopic bugs that create biofuel may be the beginning, or maybe genetically modified beef was the beginning years ago, (or maybe still it was the domestication of dogs centuries ago). Either way, what might the middle of this story look like? The end? Imagine if every single natural thing is now engineered to outperform its own natural abilities. One such orange tree grows more, larger, and vitamin boosted superfruits, for more months out of the year. Hypo-allergenic pet dogs are engineered to be more loving, easier to train, and live 3 times longer. And of course, humans will be different to – pick your future body from any number of science fiction movies from the past 50 years.
As you may have expected, it's about the money.
There's simply more money in "better" things: wine grapes modified to yield great tasting wine for more months out of the year earn their vineyard more money. Although the business case for Venter's "designer bugs" may not be as clear-cut, it is an economically driven industry, "…a high-stakes commercial race to synthesize and privatize synthetic life forms." Wondering where the "materials" for these synthetic organisms and printed body parts come from? Well, there's a business for that. Emeryville, California's BioFab "plans to churn out thousands of free standard DNA parts that academic and private biotech labs can use to create new designer microbes that can make everything from new drugs to fuel." The mass production of such materials is expected to massively drive down costs of biotechnology work worldwide. Keeping the opensource wetware movement churning on the east coast is BioBricks, an MIT-based non-profit. According to their website, "Using BioBrick standard biological parts, a synthetic biologist or biological engineer can already, to some extent, program living organisms in the same way a computer scientist can program a computer." Long live garage bio-hacking.
At a recent TED talk, Craig Venter spoke about his budding abilities to create prototype nature: "…this is software that lets us design species…Changing the evolutionary tree…Speeding up evolution with synthetic bacteria. We're a ways away from improving people…Our goal is just to make sure that we have a chance to survive long enough to maybe do that." And Venter isn't the only scientist on the block looking to progress humanity to a point where people like you and me are benefiting from this same kind of bioengineering work to make us healthier, stronger, and live longer. While Venter's San Diego lab is cranking out fresh organisms, just down the street, aptly named startup Organovo is showing off its 3-D "bio-printer" capable of building human blood vessels and organs. Yes, dear reader, they are printing out fully functional body parts. For designers it's probably not hard to grasp the value of creating from scratch – livers, kidneys, and other vital organs that are usually in short supply for patients in need of organ transplants, but making the mental connection to rapid prototyping machines used in the design industry is unavoidable and downright eerie.
Modelmaker at Product Development Company A: "Let me just get this plastic product model out of the machine here, Steve, then you can go ahead and print out that live kidney you were working on…"
It would seem that scientists now have the ability to "grow" almost every part of a human body in the lab. How far away can we be from growing superior versions of these parts and selling them as commodities? Dr. Anthony Atala, one of the pioneers of human bio-engineering and director of the Wake Forrest Institute for Regenerative Medicine proposes a deep future scenario: "I don't know how long it will take, but I do foresee a future when organs will be available off-the-shelf, ready to "plug in" and replace injured or diseased organs. I believe we'll have a boutique of technologies that will include tissue engineering and cell therapies and doctors will select the ideal treatment based on the patient's needs."
Concerned about the scarring involved with getting cut open to swap in a pair of lungs that will give you 10 times the breathing power? Don't worry, old-fashioned surgery involving cutting people open won't be around forever. A team of scientists at the University of Michigan "plans to recreate jaw bones within the human body itself. It will create its bone scaffolding based on a printer laser system and CT scan, and then fill the scaffolding with cells taken from the patient who requires the bone replacement. Once implanted, the scaffolding would get absorbed by the body."
Horrifying or terrifyingly appealing? Regardless of your moral stance, this work is happening. Scientists are orchestrating a massive shift in our understanding of nature; engaging in acts of design on the natural world and on the human body itself. Designers who imagine this future alongside them have a unique opportunity to apply much needed design thinking to the future of nature.
In the design process, there can often be an element of surprise,
an unexpected result, or even a total accident leading to an interesting outcome. The same applies in nature. Not every case of prototype future nature is as intentional as using software to design new species or growing body parts in the lab. Nature constantly generates things that could be perceived as "accidents" all on its own. That said, there is no doubt that humans have had a profound (and in most cases, damaging effect) on Earth. We have made certain decisions that have forever changed the evolutionary path of almost every other species we have come into contact with. To be more specific, animals that live near our nuclear power plants have a tendency to mutate far more often than their non-nuclear neighborhood inhabiting brothers and sisters. "Scientific illustrator (and coiner of the term "prototypes of a future nature") Cornelia Hesse-Honegger details these minute mutations in the so-called "true bugs" she collects near nuclear facilities and areas of chemical contamination. True bugs don't travel far, and they suck the liquid from the plants they live on," she says. "So if the plant is contaminated, they take a lot of radioactivity into their bodies.'" She "discovered mutations — curtailed feelers, misshapen legs, asymmetrical wings — in as many as 30 percent of the bugs she gathered." Her illustrations are a beautiful artistic representation of these creatures that are forever changed by human technology, for better or for worse.
Illustration and science have long been intertwined,
as have design and engineering. Practically since the Enlightenment, scientists have relied on artists to visually depict their discoveries, experiments, and theories. Not until much later though, did artists and designers look to science for visual, physical, and conceptual inspiration.
Christopher Dresser, widely regarded as one of the grandfathers of industrial design was an expert in botany, and his plant studies not only revealed crucial scientific knowledge but also directly inspired his product designs.
Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, was the first artist to look at nature under water with microscopes and recorded a massive array of forms that influenced every designer living at the time. His book, Art Forms in Nature consists of over a hundred semi-fictional illustrations of the ocean creatures he discovered. As with Dresser's plant illustrations, Haekel's fantastical forms influenced almost every designer working at the time. Art Nouveau from the ocean depths to your table top.
You know you're respected by the scientific community when they name a molecule after you. Such is the case with the prolific architect, designer, inventor, and futurist, Buckminster Fuller, after whom fullerenes were named for their resemblance to his best-known invention, the geodesic dome. But Fuller wasn't just a designer who scientists respected; he used scientific methods to arrive at his groundbreaking designs. Having decided to focus on the problem of shelter, he resolutely looked to technology to provide the solution. "To Fuller, a great technology had already been at work for millions of years – Nature. To look at the way 'she' designs the universe was to unlock the most useful direction one could take in designing the artifacts that would make the world work for humanity. Nature's design was fluid, ephemeral, beautifully patterned. Nature's technology was dynamic, lightweight, and driven by a functional imperative – optimum efficiency." Fuller borrowed from nature for his projects because he believed it was perfectly designed and could guide him towards a better solution.
The likes of Dresser, Haeckel, and Fuller no doubt led the way for today's scientifically inclined designers, yet the vigor with which the design community has leapt into the realms of bioengineering, genetics, and other cutting edge sciences, has no precedent in history. While scientists lead the crusade towards our bioengineered future, designers pose provocative questions about the implications of that future, develop fictional scenarios of behavior, and design objects that match this imagined evolutionary curve.
Part of his "Biotypography" series, "Typosperma" is Oded Ezer's project to create cloned sperm designed to each have unique typographical information implanted in their DNA. Ezer's fantastical creatures literally blur the line between science and design; between Craig Venter's species designs and the Eameses' mid-century modernist graphic designs.
Would you catch a virus for fun? Mikeal Metthey thinks future people will. In a future where all disease has been eradicated by medical technology, Metthey says, "the anxiety associated with disease will be replaced with a recreational approach to illness in which potential patients will check into a 'counter-spa' where they will be infected by engineered viruses designed to mimic the [physical and psychological] experience of having a particular malady." So proposes Metthey's 2006 thesis project at the Royal College of Art in London, "The Minutine Space". The project is meant to emphasize the social aspects of being sick and how, in this utopian future, people will actually miss being ill.
"Scientists at the University of Western Australia have coined the term 'disembodied cuisine' to refer to a new tissue engineering technique that makes it possible to grow edible meat in a laboratory from sample cells." But what would this in vitro-cultured meat look like, taste like? Interaction designer, James King offers a solution with his "Dressing the Meat of Tomorrow" project: "A mobile animal MRI unit scours the countryside looking for the most beautiful examples of livestock. The selected specimen is scanned from head to toe and accurate cross-sectional images of its inner organs are generated. The most aesthetically pleasing examples of anatomy will be used as templates to create molds for the in vitro meat. We wouldn't necessarily choose to eat the same parts that we eat today. However, we might still want to recreate a familiar shape to better remind us where the 'artificial' meat came from."
Is that real animal hide you're wearing? No way man, this is that new stuff – "Victimless Leather". A small scale prototype of a leather jacket grown in vitro, "Victimless Leather" is a project by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of SymbioticA, a self-described "artistic research lab. "The grown garment confronts people with the moral implications of wearing parts of dead animals for protection, aesthetics, or expression of identity and social class." "Victimless Leather, on the other hand, offers the possibility of wearing leather without directly killing an animal as 'a starting point for cultural debate.'"
We are living in a time of square fruit, palm-shaped islands, snow control, and engineered microbes.
"An age in which the 'made' and the 'born' are fusing." There can be no doubt that our relationship with nature is in flux. Disregarding any potential moral guidelines around interfering with natural things, scientists and designers are increasingly governing our notion of nature – trees, plants, animals, atoms, climate. Where technology and evolution collide, we arrive at prototypes of future nature, things that we are not yet comfortable relating to. Is this deer natural or robotic? Is my cell phone breathing? During these moments of confusion and adjustment, we may fall back on richer connections to purely industrially manufactured items; things that we can associate with an origin, a natural habitat (be it a Chinese factory or a Walmart).
The blog NextNature "explores our changing notion of nature. How nature™ has become one of the most successful products of our time, yet much of what we perceive as nature is actually a simulation: a romanticized idea of a balanced, harmonic, inherently good and threatened entity. How evolution continues nonetheless. How technology – traditionally created to protect us from the forces of nature – gives rise to a next nature, that is just as wild, cruel, unpredictable and threatening as ever. How we are playing with fire again and again. How we should be careful in doing so, yet how this is also what makes us human."
Humans are evolution catalysts. Yet we rarely discuss the responsibilities of this job description. We understand product evolution – how one generation of iPhone evolves into the next. And we understand Darwinian evolution in the traditional sense. But is that enough? Do we not also need to dive deeper into the nature designed, prototyped, and built, by people?
If the upcoming movie Splice can serve as an answer, then it does so with a resounding YES. Enjoy:


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Best of
the Twin Cities
For too long now, it's been easy to rag on St. Paul and its perceived lack of cool. (Has anyone coined "The City That Always Sleeps" yet?) But at long last, that could be changing: The recent opening of the lavish Union Depot renovation, the pending arrival of the light rail this June, and, hell, the whole thriving arts scene in Lowertown all suggest a cultural rebirth underway. And then there's a place like Eclipse Records. A mainstay of the local record-buying community for over a decade, Eclipse appeared to have gone the way of the dodo when it closed its doors back in 2010. But the store bounced back with a new Wabasha location a few years ago, nestled in between Amsterdam Bar and Big Table Studio. Boasting an array of vinyl-only albums and 45s, Eclipse's compact space packs a mean punch: You can match your used ABBA record with some Bill Cosby standup, then throw in a brand-new copy of Reflektor, all of which are available to check out first at a listening station. There are collectibles, from rare vinyl to old-school copies of Rolling Stone and even vintage turntable equipment. Plus, like any record store worth its salt, Eclipse is staffed with knowledgeable folks who are often musicians themselves. With newcomers Barely Brothers Records and Agharta Records also opening up shop in St. Paul recently, Eclipse could be more than just an outpost; it may be leading the new vanguard.

subset: commoncrawl


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Robyn Davis and Ted Williams are the hosts of the Haunted Galena Tour Company (Tour Company link), and if you haven't heard of Galena, you're about to get a deep dive into all of the amazing history, spooky ghost stories, and how their tour company is different than most. They're also gearing up for a fun paranormal conference that features great speakers and the opportunity to do paranormal investigations at some usually off-limits locations. Whether they're talking about the tour or the conference (Conference link), you really get a feel for how magical this locked-in-time town is for Ted and Robyn.
And in one of our favorite ghost stories yet, Robyn and Ted tell the sad and true story of Maryanne Miller, one of Galena's resident ghosts…and she isn't too happy about how things ended for her (and she probably doesn't realize things ever did end).
Let's all take a deep breath, relax, listen to some fun stories, and we'll make our way through 2020 successfully, smoothly, and with good health.
As for our Society, if you haven't already, you can look for and find us on Twitter @FantasticGhosty, and we're always sharing stories, news, and more on our Facebook page at facebook.com/FantasticStorySociety/
Remember, there are stories everywhere, you just need to look for them…and when you find them, give a little knock on our door and you may just be welcomed into The Fantastic Story Society. Click the image below to listen:


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Metal Finishing LLC
Supplier Terms & Conditions
Aerospace Quality Systems
Chemical processing
New requirement from PRI
When you require the optimum in metal plating, call AOTCO. 1-888-275-0880
Since 1975 AOTCO Metal Finishing LLC stands out in a field that demands strict adherence to customer requirements in metal plating.
AOTCO offers its customers a broad range of metal finishes.
We take pride in being able to plate today's materials as well as materials for the world's future use. No one goes further to meet your needs than AOTCO.
Supplier General Terms & Conditions
Career Opportunities at AOTCO
AOTCO Metal Finishing LLC
11 Suburban Park Drive
Billerica, MA 01821
Phone: 978-667-8298
Fax: 978-670-2441


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Albert Einstein's Declaration to Become a U.S. Citizen
Do you have ancestors who became naturalized citizens? A great place to hunt for information are in the pages of your ancestor's naturalization records. Information such as birth date, birth place, physical description, race, residence, relative's names and birth dates, port of entry and even a picture can be found all in one place. Below is Albert Einstein's declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, submitted January 15, 1936. Read on to check out some of the rich data genealogists can gather from these naturalization records.
Dr. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. Einstein listed "Professor" as his occupation. He describes himself as a white male with fair complexion, brown eyes and grey hair, 5 feet 7 inches and 175 pounds. He lists his race as Hebrew and nationality as German.
At the time he submitted his declaration of intention, he was married to his wife, Elsa. The couple were married on April 6, 1917 in Berlin, Germany. Elsa was born in Hechingen, Germany (misspelled as Hechingey ) on January 18, 1877. She entered the United States via New York on June 3, 1935. The couple were living at 112 Mercer St. in Princeton, New Jersey. He had two children from his first marriage, Albert (born May 14, 1905) and Eduard (born June 28, 1910); both lived in Switzerland.
Einstein emigrated to the United States from Bermuda in Great Britain. He entered the country through New York on June 3, 1935 on the SS Queen of Bermuda. Also included is Einstein's signature and photo.
View this document on Albert Einstein's Geni profile.
Einstein finally became an American citizen in 1940.
You can track down these records at the National Archives. You never know what great information you might find. Make sure to upload these records to your relative's Geni profile to share it with all of your family!
If you have a relative who has changed citizenship, let us know in the comments below!


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Unknown Pleasures 09: McMillen's Myriad Marvels
Continuing our irregular series of previews for the year ahead's more offbeat games, we now turn to uber-independent developer/artist Edmund Mcmillen. You'll know him best either for his work on gleeful, gooey physics-platformer Gish, which scooped the IGF grand prize in 2005, or for last year's naughty-naughty headline-maker C**t . He's an outspoken, uncensored fellow – as you'll tell from his remarkably candid comments about the Independent Games Festival further down this post.
Edmund's also a massively prolific game-maker, as evidenced by his stuffed Newgrounds page and his recent anthology of 10 years of his output, This Is A Cry For Help. Hence, it'd be wrong to focus on only one of his many upcoming games…
In the pipeline is a slew of Flash projects, an ultra-mysterious sequel to Gish, and another anthology – this time a bespoke one – in the form of No Quarter, a collection of retroesque games that mash-up well-known titles – both of which are co-developed with Alex Austin as part of their Cryptic Sea project. No Quarter will include the likes of Gun (just a temporary name for now). Which you'll want to play because of this:
Hitler survived and relocated to a remote island where he cloned himself 1000s of times to form a small society of Hitlers hell bent on world domination. You play as Vinko, a Russian secret agent sent to save the world. The Hitler clones come in varying forms of degradative states ranging from the mentally retarded and horribly mutated to the super elite.
Here's a very early video:
I'd be interested to know how even the most judgemental right-wing newspaper would react to a game in which you kill Hitler thousands of times. Is a 'murder simulator' still the world's greatest evil when it's about destroying the world's greatest evil?
Anyway. Note the interface at the bottom of the screen – very Wolfenstein 3D. No Quarter will be heavily referential to videogames of times gone by. The idea is it's like a compilation CD, but with mini-games. It even has a tracklisting:
1."gun" (Mario + N + Wolfenstein)
2.Trivium (Tetris + Physics)
3."epic flail" (Missile Command + Rampage)
4.Hext (Scrabble + Hex board)
5."tree" (Art game + Sim)
6.Odyssey ( Lunar Lander + Awesome )
More on No Quarter soon, I suspect. Until then, we had a chat to Edmund about his other projects, both future and past.
So what's new in Gish 2? Are we in for major changes or a more traditional sequel?
Nothing is new in Gish 2 right now. We put Gish 2 on hold about 2 months ago to start on our next big release, No Quarter. We ran into a few walls in Gish 2, mostly due to the amount of time it would take to finish it. So we decided to start on a game we'd be inspired by making and something we could finish in about 6 months and bring to console.
You're credited as the artist on the Gish games – presumably your involvement runs deeper than that?
Well, creatively there have only been 2 people involved in Gish and Gish 2, Alex and myself. The core of the game play and over all design is a marriage of ideas from the both of us. I do all the art, animation, character design, story and most of the level design, Alex does all the physics, programming and engine.
To what extent are your games led by art first and foremost? A lot of them seem to hinge on a strong visual idea, with the game mechanics constructed around that…
My more recent games are usually based on a feeling or basic idea I'm interested in experimenting with. I'll take something like my childhood for example, and see how I could design a game around it to make the player feel how I did when I was a child. The final product of that was Aether. Coil (IGF finalist) was also approached this same way.
With games like Triachnid and Meat Boy I'm presented with a basic engine and asked to help design a game around the engine, but with games like Grey Matter and Blast Miner, first came the mechanic then the game was wrapped around that.
I guess with Gish and Cunt I started out with a basic visual and tried to design a game around that. I like to experiment with different approaches to game design, I get bored easily.
Presumably Gish 2 will be a commercial offering like the first game. Is it these games that pay the bills so you can create your more esoteric projects?
It's games like Gish 2 and No Quarter that will hopefully give me my big break, but I'm able to make a living off my more experimental flash work. Regardless of my income I'll always prototype my ideas in flash because it's easier to do and I can make ok money out of it. I can also gauge how people respond to an idea, like Meat Boy for instance. It's by far my more popular flash game of all time, and now Tommy Refenes and I are working on a console worthy full version we hope to bring to Wii Ware later this year.
What else is on your plate this year? Presumably This Is A Cry For Help didn't signal any plans to wrap things up?
Heh, yeah I'm actually going to be reprinting This Is A Cry For Help with new content in about 3 months. It will also feature a new cover for people who are into collecting stuff (that means my current stock is very, very limited – that version will never be reprinted again! BUY NOW.
Right now I'm working on 2 new flash games. One is a social experiment I'm doing with Florian Himsl (Triachnid, Coil) and one with Eli (Stranded) that's a kind of action puzzle game that I'm really loving working on right now. In late Feb I'll start on Onion with Tommy (Grey Matter and Goo) and another personal art project called Huck with Tyler Glaiel (Aether). The rest of the year will probably be spent on No Quarter and Meat Boy.
Cunt kinda made headlines last year – has its infamy been any kind of problem for you? And, in a nutshell, what's your defense of it?
No, not a problem at all. I think most people see it for what it really is, a tasteless joke showing being independent means you can make or do anything without being censored. If people want to use it as an example of misogony in games, then kudos to them for wanting to fight for something they feel passionately about. I know what my intentions were when I made it, and I'm glad I did it.
Big congratulations on Coil making the IGF finalist list. Excited? And what d'you reckon your chances are of becoming a two-time holder of the Innovation trophy?
Who knows.. I'm a bit torn by my feeling on the state of the IGF at this point. Their judging setup is very flawed and something they should really look into fixing. At this point it almost seems to be a role of the dice..
As it stands right now each game gets judged by around 2-6 people and not a combined score of all, or even a majority of judges. when only a few people are judging a game often times your running into very polarized opinions and personal taste of the people involved. If you have 3 people judging your turn-based strategy game, and 2 of those judges aren't fans of that genre.. then you're fucked. Judging something by its average score is only valid when its a consensus of all involved. Now I realize that having 200+ games and only 20 judges working on them is a big reach.. but it doesn't mean keeping the way it's setup now is the best.. because it's obviously not.
That said, of course im happy with being a finalist, I just think Aether was a far superior game to coil and was basically doing the same thing. I think that most people would agree hands down. It also sucks to see a lot of very well-made games not make it over ones that are clearly not as good, but I think this is the fault of the way the games are judged. If 20+ people voted all these games into the finals I'd have no room to bitch, but that just isn't the case.
I wonder if saying this will lesson my chances of winning for innovation :)
What kind of trends are you expecting from indie development this year? Do you think the success of stuff like Audiosurf and World of Goo is a sign of things to come?
Yeah, I do. I don't see many stand-out games currently on the horizon, but I'm sure there will be some awesome ones coming out later this year – and who knows, maybe the next big indie game will be something I did.
There's much more from Edmund on his oft-updated, reliably uncensored development blog.


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The objective of the Knowledge & Innovation Transfer Support Programme (KITS) is to provide competitive funding to public research institutions in Luxembourg that will allow them to attract and integrate highly skilled professionals in the area of knowledge transfer.
The programme will contribute to the reinforcement of institutional units that endeavour to engage in the strategic integration and operational implementation of knowledge transfer activities, with the ultimate goal of generating economic and societal value through their research programmes.
Projects will be supported for 24 months.
- Up to 350,000 EUR can be awarded per successful application.
Costs that can be covered:
- Personnel – salary or consultancy costs for newly hired experts
- Travel costs (justification to be provided)
- Further costs, including organization of training, seminars, mentorship programs, pitch days, preparation of technical reports, market assessments, etc. (justification to be provided).
- All applications must be submitted via the FNR Online Grant Management System.
- The proposal must be supported by the relevant public research institution in Luxembourg.
- The application proposal must be submitted by the person responsible for knowledge transfer on the institutional or unit level, who will also act as Principal Coordinator (PC).


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Volunteering is not as simple as signing up for community service or in social good opportunities. It has its own set of challenges that may be unique to the individual. Factors like personal preferences and time to sustain involvement are some of the things you need to consider before setting out to volunteer. Here are some self-assessment questions to find the right volunteer work for you.
1. How much time do I devote to volunteering?
Volunteering is a commitment that requires a percentage of your time. Find time to reflect on how much time you can dedicate to volunteering and stick to it. The last thing you want is to over-promise and under-deliver when other people and projects depend on you.
2. What is it that I can contribute?
What is it that you hope to do or contribute for volunteering? Do you have specific skill sets that you think will benefit the community or program you wish to help? How or where can you make the most impact? While helping others do not require talent or skill, they can be quite useful when you want to serve with a specific purpose in mind.
3. What do I want to get from it?
What people say about volunteering being a thankless job is generally true. But the experiences are priceless. What learning and experiences do you want to get from giving back to your community? Are there specific skill sets you want to develop? Define your experiential goal and start from there when picking which project or program you wish to volunteer.
4. What are my minimum requirements or expectations?
Volunteering may take you out of your comfort zone. And if you are on a volunteer trip abroad, it may even mean giving up some of the familiar comforts that you are used to at home. You may want to ask yourself how much you are willing to give up in terms of comfort before you volunteer
5. Do I have the resources to pay for the expenses involved?
Volunteer work is not a costly endeavor. But it may entail some expenses on your part, especially if you are planning to volunteer or intern abroad. How much money do you want to set aside to fund whatever miscellaneous expense your volunteering requires?
6. Am I prepared to cope with the emotional and psychological aspects of volunteering?
Giving back to the community, paying it forward, or doing whatever you can for social good is not about solving big problems in the world. But it may expose you to things like hunger, extreme poverty, and other issues that seem too complicated and difficult to solve. On a personal level you may even find yourself in situations when you feel helpless to do anything for others. You have to ask yourself if you are prepared to deal with the emotional and psychological challenges you may experience while volunteering.


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"Your body is a temple". That's what she said to him.
"Your body is a temple but you must go down the gym."
"Your body is a temple and it used to be quite thin."
"Your body is a temple, but its roof has fallen in."
"Your body is a temple". That's what she said to him.
"Your body is a temple but you must go down the gym."
"Your body is a temple and it used to be quite thin."
"Your body is a temple, but its roof has fallen in."
It was unbearable, watching the boy,
wearily wearing his stripes.
Furtive, frightened, despairing.
Watching him, his friend and his brief ray of hope,
extinguished in an instant by an incomprehensible evil.
It cut so deep.
It left such a mark.
Indelible. Insistently shocking.
Laid bare the obvious and timeless truth.
It's the Children who really matter.
We owe them their childhood.
We owe them their innocence.
We owe them our protection.
Always. No questions. No excuses.
Two fingers to the lot of you.
You looking for a fight?
Two fingers to the lot of you.
I bring my kid up right.
He stands up on his own two feet
and argues with his teachers.
He knows I'll always back him up
by threatening those preachers.
I let him play on X Box
with the really violent games
and if the coppers come around
I help him call them names.
My grandfather fought two world wars
so I could have the right
to lie here on the sofa
whilst my kid runs wild at night.
Two fingers to the lot of you.
My kid is not a yob.
I have no brain but you can see
I have a lethal gob.
My kid is a survivor
and I've taught him all the tricks.
He's swearing like a trooper
even though he's only six.
My legacy will live through him
when you are all long gone.
Two fingers to the lot of you.
Why don't you just "jog on"?
Eddie Spade loved sandcastles. He built them all the time.
He entered competitions whilst young, and in his prime.
He cruised the beach-art circuit, Skegness to St Malo.
He revelled in a contest. He always had a go.
He won rosettes and trophies, had accolades galore.
In sand-based architecture, his skills were to the fore.
But then as he grew older, he started slowing down.
He was no longer happy, and sculpted with a frown.
He noticed as he shoveled, his joints were giving pain.
His work was less than perfect and it went against the grain.
Although he kept on trying, his labours were less fecund,
and though his standards were still high he hated coming second.
At last, one day at Brighton, he muttered "what's the use",
set off towards the sunset and lived as a recluse.
They missed him on the circuit. His "Venus" was superb.
His "Sleeping Dragon's" body formed a really lifelike curve.
No one could match his "Triton" or his "Elephants at Bay".
And nobody could understand just why he'd gone away.
And so they tried to find him, and pulled out all the stops.
They looked for him on Facebook and put notices in shops.
But this was all to no avail, he'd simply disappeared.
Lost and gone forever, at least that's what they feared.
Until that day in Cleethorpes. The mightiest of tussles,
was scheduled to be taking place (organized through Brussels),
against our continental friends, the Germans, French and Spanish,
but because of a catastrophe, our hopes just seemed to vanish.
Our plucky star performer, a Whitby lad called Shaun,
just couldn't go, he'd been laid low. He ate a "dodgy prawn".
The gun went off to start the dig, the foreign types got going,
but suddenly there came a cry, a hubbub that was growing.
A ragged man had quietly appeared upon the beach.
"It's Ed" They cried. "Our hero, Ed, he has returned to teach…
'em all how sculpting should be done and save our reputation".
Though he was twenty minutes late they gave him an ovation.
The French worked on a giant snail, the Germans on an Audi.
The Spaniards simply cheated with imported sand from Saudi.
Their chap was in the lead with an enormous sand paella,
which really was remarkable for such a little feller.
But Ed worked like a Trojan, and soon there could be seen
a mighty towering statue of her Majesty the Queen.
But suddenly a vicious squall caused widespread perturbation.
The others fled but Ed stood firm and worked on his creation.
He knew he had to finish it to win within the rules.
"On, on "he cried above the din, "flee, flee, you gutless fools"!
"Leave it Ed!" spectators cried, "don't be a King Canute,
The waves are high, look at the sky, the sea can be a brute".
Their words were lost upon the gale and fearless Ed worked on.
The giant snail, the Audi, the paella, all were gone.
At last he placed the final touch – a crab shell on the crown.
But, roaring in, a giant wave just knocked the whole thing down.
And Ed was gone, this time for good. He had not been afraid.
His mates, bereft, found what was left. A crab shell and his spade.
They kept these precious artifacts, exhibited with pride,
for Ed, who for his country's sake, committed suseaside.
Old Albert was a fairground man.
He had it in his blood.
He always chose the fastest rides
to go on if he could.
But then one day he passed away
whilst whirling on the waltzer,
but if you thought that was the end,
that surmise would be false, sir.
We found a crumpled, grubby note
in Albert's inside pocket.
A message from beyond the grave,
it was designed to shock. It….
said "When I am dead and gorn,
though I want to be cremated,
that scattering of ashes stuff
is greatly over-rated.
I don't want chucking off a cliff
On a wet and windy day.
I've always been a drifter
and I'd simply blow away.
Just drop my ashes on my rug,
then clean up with my Dyson.
I just want one last Cyclone ride.
No need to ask me why, son".
And so we did what he had asked,
And it somehow seemed to me,
That out there in the ether,
Old Albert's voice went "WHEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeee…….!"
Life begins at that magical moment in time,
when you know that you've peaked, and the whole pantomime
of pushing and shoving you did to get on
is no longer needed, it's over, it's gone.
It's that moment of freedom, you sense in your soul
That you just can't be bothered with work's greasy pole.
You no longer strive for promotion and medals.
Sat up in the saddle, your feet off the pedals,
you start to look over those high thorny hedges
that gave your horizons such myopic edges.
You're still in the race, but not bothered by winning.
You can take it more slowly than at the beginning.
As others sprint past you they're paying the price,
and you're suddenly happy to give them advice.
You've nothing to prove and it somehow feels right.
For the first time in years you sleep soundly at night.
Then something remarkable happens to you.
The person you were just begins to shine through……
the mask you adopted to match your work culture.
All of a sudden that virtual vulture
of failure that always perched on your shoulder
is no longer there. You are suddenly bolder.
Unfettered by doubt you can talk common sense,
and you no longer feel you must sit on the fence.
You're prepared to take risks, make drastic suggestions.
You're never afraid just to ask those hard questions
that everyone else had been wanting to ask.
They're grateful to you that you took on the task.
But the best bit by far, is that is that now you're relaxed,
the family and friends whose patience you taxed
when driven by forces much stronger than you,
can all welcome home the soul they once knew.
At last you're the person you knew you could be.
You can stand up and shout " This is me!"…………" This is ME!"
No need to be afraid of the dark.
Without it, how can you really feel the light?
No need to be afraid of the dark.
Under its velvet cloak, you're safe from scrutiny, secure in silence.
No need to be afraid of the dark.
In your head, you can float in space, or on a silver sea, or just be in bed.
No need to be afraid of the dark.
Just shelter there, knowing that the light will come.
A glass of brandy perks you up,
And whisky makes a warming cup
in coffee. And when you've got the gang over,
Vodka's good (there's not much hangover).
Whilst Crème de Menthe's green mint entices,
Drambuie with its secret spices
makes a change from most liqueurs.
When glum, a rum your spirit stirs.
But, if on romance you should ponder,
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
Little Larry Lightfoot
Was slightly round the bend.
One night he went out dancing
With Emily, his friend.
But Larry was compulsive
And once the dancing started,
It seemed that Larry and his dance
Could simply not be parted.
He quickly put his left leg in
And then he took it out.
And then he put it in again
And shook it all about.
And as he got the hang of it
Old Larry danced much faster.
With flailing limbs and mighty leaps
He courted a disaster.
On and on he danced for hours,
A little jumping Gnome
Poor Emily was quite distraught.
The band had all gone home.
Although, from his exertions,
He was so pale and thin,
He still attempted one more time
To put his whole self in.
The effort was too much for him.
The outcome was no joke – he
Simply danced himself away…..
….committed Hokey-Cokey.


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Olympia Fields Country Club is a Private 36 hole golf facility located in Olympia Fields, Illinois. The facility has two championship 18 -hole golf courses. The are The North Course and The South Course.
The South Course at Olympia Fields Country Club opened for play in 1915. The course was designed by Tom Bendelow. The South Course underwent a major restoration by Steve Smyers in 2008.
Olympia Fields Country Club has been selected by the United States Golf Association as the site of the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship, to be played Aug. 24-30. The U.S. Amateur will be contested over the North and South Courses.
Par for the course is 72. From the back tees the course plays to 6,594 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 5,842 yards. The longest hole on the course is # 7, a par-5 that plays to 534 yards. The shortest hole on the course is # 14, a par-3 that plays to 138 yards from the back tees.
Watch out for # 1, a 435 yard par-4 challenge and the #1 handicap hole on the course. The easiest hole at The South Course at Olympia Fields Country Club is # 18, a 506 yard par-5.
Guest (cart included), played on Saturday, October 2011 at 10am
I was a guest, so have no idea what this private club would cost to play. It was a very nice course.
Latest Golf Course Reviews


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Hello friends! As many of you know, I have been participating in a 30 day painting challenge, inspired by a blog post by Judy Wise, introduced to me by a good friend. We did it together last year in December, and decided to spend our month doing it together again, with a few other friends that jumped in to the challenge this year! Basically, you start a canvas, and you work on it, doing something to it every day for 30 days, whether you feel the need to change it or not, whether you do a small touch or a total overhaul, you do something to it every day, to get you into a free flowing habit, and to see where the journey takes you.
Why do this challenge? To have a reason to paint every day…to stop the excuses. Now, I will admit, I did miss a few days over the month, but not many. And I found it to be an eye opening experience for a few reasons.
Firstly, and likely the most important thing that I learned about myself is that I don't have a fear of the blank, white canvas staring at me, and a hesitation as to where to start. I can very easily put colour onto a blank canvas. What I struggle with, is continuing and doing something on a canvas that already has something. When I only have a few minutes and I'm coming to it cold, not in an art zone, I'm afraid to make a move, afraid of messing it up. It takes me time to "get into" my groove in order to not worry about what I'm going to do next. To get out of my thinking head, and into my "just do it" mindset.
It takes courage to get over the preciousness of a piece…to persevere when you like it and take risks to see what else can happen.
I also learned that trusting my heart and listening to the whispers creates new art for me. For instance, the bold colours aren't new, they are my favourite to work with. However, recently with doing faces and whimsical portraits, I've tamed my colour palette. So this was my opportinity to play and be bold and not worry about what colours "GO" together. Also, I found that although my initial inkling was to make a face, it didn't fit in, and I created an abstract butterfly in a flower garden. I have been wanting to paint flowers for literally months, and felt the need to finish faces I have begun already.
So this painting was very freeing. I used my fingers, I splashed around colours into blobs that became flowers. I stenciled. I had FUN. And I shared my process, even the scary ugly stages. And through my vulnerability I gained encouragement and hope and confidence. I am on the right path.
This piece, although not my favourite painting technically, is very dear to my heart. I love the words that came to me for it, and I believe them with all of my heart and soul. For me, art IS the perfect birthplace for self awareness, the messy raw kind of self awareness that you don't want others to know about. And that awareness transforms the negative emotions and beliefs into something beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing in this journey with me. All the best to you in the New Year. Good bye 2016! It has been a year of awareness and radical acceptance for me. I am interested to see what 2017 will bring. Cheers!
(My word for 2016 was "acceptance". I believe my word for 2017 is "trust". Do you choose a word of the year? What will it be?)


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My Pointless Friend
"It's like Family Fortunes. In reverse" – not the most promising tagline for a quiz show, and I do admit I have some difficulty explaining the peculiar magic of my current, indeed probably all-time, favourite quiz show, 'Pointless', to people. But it is clearly a show with a burgeoning fanbase, after its switch from BBC2 to a later slot on BBC1.
It's not my intention to compare other shows unfavourably to 'Pointless' – different people want different things from quizzes. I know my colleague is a big fan of its ITV rival 'The Chase', a show on which you get plenty of questions for your money, and having watched it in full for the first time recently, I agree it's a pretty good format. Since the end of '15 to 1′ I've shared the feeling that a lot of the big shows don't give a real quiz fan enough questions to get their teeth into, so why then am I so enamoured of 'Pointless', which really only has four questions all show?
Well, for starters, I think it's a very nice premise and a very nice format. Obscure knowledge is rewarded, which appeals to the quizzy quizzer, but there is a sliding scale of reward, so just knowing something about the given category can be good enough. There is right and wrong, but not just one right answer (or one wrong answer). The knowledge starts off very general, but becomes more and more specific as it moves on, so that you tend to actually have to be pretty smart AND lucky to win the jackpot, which is just what you want.
But who am I kidding? Why is 'Pointless' great? Because of the banter. I may be wrong, but Alexander Armstrong is one of those genially funny men who is thoroughly undivisive. Who could hold it in their heart to loathe him? He's funny, of course, and very charming to the contestants, albeit sometimes in an ever so slightly bemused, superior way.
But he's not even the star of the show. In the standard role of quiz sidekick, we have "my pointless friend" Richard Osman (brother of Mat Osman from Suede, fact fans) who, unless i'm very much mistaken, is a genuinely hilarious man. Ben Miller needs to watch out, as this is a great double act – both are clever and prepared to mock the contestants, but always in a gentle, good-natured way.
Add to that the fact that the show provides great opportunities for viewer participation, as you're not in a race against the contestants – there's plenty of time to think about your answers, and to feel pleased and smug if you better them.
I haven't been this excited about a teatime TV show since 'Home and Away' returned to our screens on Channel 5!!!
Have you seen 'Pointless'? Any flaws? Not a fan of Armstrong? Or Osman? And are there any other quiz show gems out there I'm missing?


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22 Plinkster lined up five used car tires (10 layers of steel-belted radials) and then took aim with his .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum. Do you think the most powerful handgun cartridge on the planet will bull its way all the way through to the backstop, or will it come up short?
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4.3 Evaluation Criteria
4.3.1 Objectives
a) Program is consistent with the institution's mission and academic plans.
b) Program requirements and learning outcomes are clear, appropriate and align with the institution's statement of the undergraduate and/or graduate Degree Level Expectations.
4.3.2 Admission requirements
Admission requirements are appropriately aligned with the learning outcomes established for completion of the program.
4.3.3 Curriculum
a) The curriculum reflects the current state of the discipline or area of study.
b) Evidence of any significant innovation or creativity in the content and/or delivery of the program relative to other such programs.
c) Mode(s) of delivery to meet the program's identified learning outcomes are appropriate and effective.
4.3.4 Teaching and assessment
a) Methods for assessing student achievement of the defined learning outcomes and degree learning expectations are appropriate and effective.
b) Appropriateness and effectiveness of the means of assessment, especially in the students' final year of the program, in clearly demonstrating achievement of the program learning objectives and the institution's (or the program's own) statement of Degree Level Expectations.
4.3.5 Resources
Appropriateness and effectiveness of the academic unit's use of existing human, physical and financial resources in delivering its program(s). In making this assessment, reviewers must recognize the institution's autonomy to determine priorities for funding, space, and faculty allocation.
4.3.6 Quality indicators
While there are several widely used quality indicators or proxies for reflecting program quality, institutions are encouraged to include available measures of their own which they see as best achieving that goal. Outcome measures of student performance and achievement are of particular interest, but there are also important input and process measures which are known to have a strong association with quality outcomes. It is expected that many of the following listed examples will be widely used. The Guide makes reference to further sources and measures that might be considered.
a) Faculty: qualifications, research and scholarly record; class sizes; percentage of classes taught by permanent or non-permanent (contractual) faculty; numbers, assignments and qualifications of part-time or temporary faculty;
b) Students: applications and registrations; attrition rates; time-to-completion; final-year academic achievement; graduation rates; academic awards; student in-course reports on teaching; and
c) Graduates: rates of graduation, employment six months and two years after graduation, postgraduate study, "skills match" and alumni reports on program quality when available and when permitted by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). Auditors will be instructed that these items may not be available and applicable to all programs.
4.3.7 Quality enhancement
Initiatives taken to enhance the quality of the program and the associated learning and teaching environment.
4.3.8 Additional graduate program criteria
a) Evidence that students' time-to-completion is both monitored and managed in relation to the program's defined length and program requirements.
b) Quality and availability of graduate supervision.
c) Definition and application of indicators that provide evidence of faculty, student and program quality, for example:
- Faculty: funding, honours and awards, and commitment to student mentoring;
- Students: grade level for admission, scholarly output, success rates in provincial and national scholarships, competitions, awards and commitment to professional and transferable skills;
- Program:evidence of a program structure and faculty research that will ensure the intellectual quality of the student experience;
- Sufficient graduate-level courses that students will be able to meet the requirement that two-thirds of their course requirements be met through courses at this level (see Guide.)


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Week of 03/11/2007
Dear EarthTalk: My local recycler won't take my old phonebooks. What should I do with them?
—Jake, Westport, CT
Many recyclers won't accept telephone books because the fibers used to make the books" lightweight pages are too short to be reformulated into new paper. In fact, mixing old phonebooks in with other waste paper can even contaminate the batch, hindering the recyclability of the other paper fibers.
Nonetheless, phonebook papers are 100 percent recyclable and are used primarily to—you guessed it—make new phonebooks! In fact, most phonebooks distributed today are made from re-fabricated old phonebook pages mixed with some scrap wood to strengthen the fibers for re-use. Old phonebooks are also sometimes recycled into insulation materials, ceiling tiles and roofing surfaces, as well as paper towels, grocery bags, cereal boxes and office papers. In fact, in a gesture both symbolic and practical, Pacific Bell/SBC now includes payment envelopes in its bills created from old Smart Yellow Pages phonebooks.
According to Los Gatos, California's Green Valley Recycling, if all Americans recycled their phonebooks for a year, we would save 650,000 tons of paper and free up two million cubic yards of landfill space. Modesto, California's Parks, Recreation & Neighborhoods Department, which lets city residents include phonebooks with their regular curbside pickup, says that for each 500 books recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, 17 to 31 trees and 4,100 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power an average home for six months.
Consumers trying to do the right thing should find out when and how their town or phone company will accept phonebooks for recycling. Some will only take phonebooks back at certain times of year, often when new books are being distributed. Some schools, echoing the "newspaper drives" of bygone days, run contests in which students bring old phonebooks to school where they are then collected and sent off to recyclers.
But those whose towns won't accept phonebooks at all and who can't find anywhere else to drop them need not fret. Old phonebooks have many practical uses. Their pages make excellent fire starters in a wood-burning fireplace or outdoor fire pit. Balled up or shredded phonebook pages also make nice packaging filler in place of problematic polystyrene "peanuts."
Phonebook pages can also be shredded and used as mulch to keep weeds down in your garden. The paper is biodegradable and will eventually return back to the soil. Those with an artistic bent can use old phonebooks to make flipbook style animated drawings, as described by animator Robert Truscio on his "Drawings That Move" instructional website.
There are also a number of telephone book collectors; some who make money selling their stock to those with a historical interest or who are researching family genealogies. Lifelong collector Gwillim Law sells old phonebooks from all 50 U.S. states as well as from most Canadian and Australian provinces.
CONTACTS: Drawings That Move; Gwillim Law's Old Telephone Books website
Dear EarthTalk: I'm "pro-solar" all the way for the sake of the environment, but solar power has not historically been very cost-effective. What innovations are coming down the pike that will bring costs down to make solar competitive with other energy sources?
—Will Proctor, Richmond, VA
The prospect of generating pollution-free power from the sun's rays is appealing, but to-date the low price of oil combined with the high costs of developing new technology have prevented the widespread adoption of solar power in the U.S. and beyond. At a current cost of 25 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, solar power costs as much as five times more than conventional fossil fuel based electricity. And dwindling supplies of polysilicon, the element found in traditional photovoltaic cells, are not helping.
According to Gary Gerber of the Berkeley, California-based Sun Light & Power, not long after Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1980 and removed the solar collectors from the roof that Jimmy Carter had installed, tax credits for solar development disappeared and the industry plunged "over a cliff."
Federal spending on solar energy picked up under the Clinton administration, but trailed off again once George W. Bush took office. But growing climate change worries and high oil prices have forced the Bush administration to reconsider its stance on alternatives like solar, and the White House has proposed $148 million for solar energy development in 2007, up almost 80 percent from what it invested in 2006.
In the realm of research and development, enterprising engineers are working hard to get solar power's costs down, and expect it to be price-competitive with fossil fuels within 20 years. One technological innovator is California-based Nanosolar, which replaces the silicon used to absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity with a thin film of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS). Says Nanosolar's Martin Roscheisen, CIGS-based cells are flexible and more durable, making them easier to install in a wide range of applications. Roscheisen expects he will be able to build a 400-megawatt electricity plant for about a tenth of the price of a comparable silicon-based plant. Other companies making waves with CIGS-based solar cells include New York's DayStar Technologies and California's Miasolé.
Another recent innovation in solar power is the co-called "spray-on" cell, such as those made by Massachusetts" Konarka. Like paint, the composite can be sprayed on to other materials, where it can harness the sun's infrared rays to power cell phones and other portable or wireless devices. Some analysts think spray-on cells could become five times more efficient than the current photovoltaic standard.
Environmentalists and mechanical engineers aren't the only ones bullish on solar these days. According to the Cleantech Venture Network, a forum of investors interested in clean renewable energy, venture capitalists poured some $100 million into solar start-ups of all sizes in 2006 alone, and expect to commit even more money in 2007. Given the venture capital community's interest in relatively short-term returns, it's a good bet that some of today's promising solar start-ups will be tomorrow's energy behemoths.
CONTACTS: Sun Light & Power; Nanosolar; DayStar Technologies; Miasolé; PowerFilm; Konarka


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Comprehensive Work-Based
Learning Experiences for Students
Muskegon Made is a county-wide comprehensive work-based learning system for students in grades 4-12. All students in Muskegon County will have access to the same career exposure opportunities. Elements of employability skills are taught to students throughout the system to ensure successful work-based placements which capstone the overall program. What makes Muskegon Made unique? Growth, Innovation and Software….
Muskegon Made grows with each and every student. As the students move through grade levels, opportunities for career fairs, job shadows, and talent tours are arranged.
Muskegon Made is innovative and compelling and is the first comprehensive, county-wide approach to work-based learning, with every participating school system.
Muskegon Made uses Career Cruising software as the springboard from which students engage in career planning activities. Additionally, Michigan's Talent Investment Agency has recently introduced pathfinder! Pathfinder is a one of a kind exploration tool that works in collaboration with Career Cruising providing real time current Michigan labor market information for students, their parents, schools and job seekers. For more information on the new pathfinder tool, please visit the website here!
For more information on the Muskegon Made initiative, please visit Muskegon Made's webpage here!
As we educate and expose our young students… Its imperative we tell them what kind of credentials are needed! Recently, MCAN, along with the Michigan Post-secondary Attainment Workgroup – a coalition of K-12 and higher education groups, foundations, business leaders, the governor's office and legislators – participated in the release of a new report with crucial insight to boosting post-secondary credentials in Michigan to 60 percent by 2025. The report, Reaching for Opportunity: An Action Plan to Increase Michigan's Postsecondary Credential Attainment, outlines the challenges and opportunities along with recommendations for strategic actions and policies to increase credential attainment, necessary to succeed in Michigan's growing economy.
The report lays out a series of challenges that must be overcome to achieve its goals – and solutions to those challenges. Among them:
1) Too many students are receiving inadequate advice during high school and college that reporst are shared and taken care by greenstarscleaning.com official website, the report proposes increasing the number of school counselors and college advisers while also providing them high-quality professional development.
2) Michigan students are less likely to obtain college credits while in high school than the national average (just 11 percent), the report calls for high schools and higher education institutions to adjust the policies and increase financial incentives to boost that number.
3) Many low-income and minority students fail to complete their credential due to financial difficulties, the report calls for an increase in state-provided need-based financial aid.
4) More students should have the opportunity to move from community colleges to four year universities and colleges, the report calls for additional work to streamline credit transfer.


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Kate Shrewsday
A thousand thousand stories
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Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts is proud to partner with individuals and families in the community who wish to volunteer their services on behalf of our organization and facility. Thalian Hall volunteers are a vital part of our operation through the valuable contribution of their time and commitment.
The primary volunteer opportunity available at Thalian Hall is the Usher Corps. In many ways, ushers are the public face of Thalian Hall, ensuring that every patron has the best possible experience. The Usher Corps assists house management by collecting tickets, serving concessions, assisting in seating location and handicap access, providing information and assisting with hospitality services for visiting artists.
Usher training is typically held on the first Monday of each month at 5pm. This 30 minute orientation provides the basic introduction to volunteering at Thalian Hall. New ushers are partnered with experienced volunteers to allow them to become more familiar with procedures and policies. Volunteers are allowed to register to work any events of their choosing and are able to view those performances free of charge. There is no minimum number of events required to remain a member of the Usher Corps.
The only skill necessary is the willingness to assist in providing a positive experience for theatre patrons at Thalian Hall. Volunteers are asked to wear black slacks or skirt and white blouse for ladies and black trousers, white dress shirt and solid color tie for gentlemen. This is very helpful to patrons in recognizing those who can provide them with assistance.
For more about becoming an usher at Thalian Hall, please call Mike Morelli, Facilities Manager, at 910.632.2281 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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by Luke Wayne
We do not know exactly when the magi (or "wise men") arrived at Bethlehem to worship Jesus, but it is unlikely that they were there the night of Jesus' birth. In fact, the evidence in Matthew's gospel suggests that Jesus was probably around two years old when they arrived. Matthew explains that:
"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him,'" (Matthew 2:1-2).
The passage does not say that this happened the night of Jesus birth. It only tells us that it happened sometime after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Was it moments later? Days? Months? The Bible does not plainly say. However, the passage does go on to give us some solid clues. It explains:
"Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him,'" (Mathew 2:7-8).
It later recounts:
"Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi," (Matthew 2:16)
The "time which he determined from the magi" was apparently about two years. In other words, the star seems to have appeared around two years before the magi arrived. Herod (and probably the magi) assumed that the star appeared right at Jesus' birth. The fact that star is a sign announcing Jesus' birth seems to fit with their assumption, and the text certainly does nothing to contradict it. The word used for Jesus during this passage is not "baby," but rather "child," and was a word generally used for any child before puberty. The use of this word is not enough to prove that Jesus was no longer a newborn baby, but it is certainly consistent with that idea. The most obvious reading of this chapter is that Mary and Joseph lived in Bethlehem for the first two years or so of Jesus' life and that the magi finally arrived at that time. Some early Church Fathers affirm this understanding, such as Origen1 and Taitian,2 though Justin Martyr describes the magi arriving at the manger scene,3 so even back then there was not a universal consensus.
What is most important is that we know that the magi did indeed come, worship Jesus, and join their voices with the stars of heaven in declaring Jesus to be the promised King. Exactly when they came is less urgent, though it seems most likely that it was while Jesus was a young child rather than a newborn in a manger.


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The Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation will be carrying out renovation works at the Ward Theatre, downtown Kingston, on Labour Day, May 23, at a cost of $40 million.
Chairman of the Corporation, Mayor Delroy Williams, said part of the funds, provided by the Ward Theatre Foundation, will go towards the acquisition of an air-conditioning system.
The remainder will be used for the upgrading of bathrooms; renovation of changing rooms, including the installation of powder tables; electrical and plumbing works; refurbishing of seating and other works.
Mayor Williams said the project is part of the ongoing rehabilitation of the building. "It's just that, on that day, we want to achieve more," he added.
The Ward Theatre, which is a landmark showcasing the country's culture, is one of two major Labour Day projects for Kingston and St. Andrew. The other is the refurbishing of the Central Police Station.
Mayor Williams said a number of other activities will be carried out on the day, in keeping with the theme 'Restore…Preserve…Beautify'.
Among them is the beautification of St. William Grant Park. "We want to include the children. We want them to come out and plant flowers, do a little painting and help beautify the park," he told JIS News.
Mayor Williams said there has been a great deal of public interest in the Labour Day activities for the municipality, and a number of persons have already registered to work on the day.
At the launch of Labour Day on May 9, Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, announced that each Municipal Corporation will receive $250,000 to undertake activities.
"This year's theme urges us to look again at some of the landmarks in our residential, business and professional spaces that we may pass every day without a second thought, or take for granted," he said.
He called for persons to partner with the Government as "we give new life, civic and personal meaning to national and local monuments".


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"I saw myself inside his begging body. I realized at this moment that we human beings are fundamentally forbidden to shield ourselves from events outside our comfort zones. This unknown, unnamed boy, born into the lowest caste and purposefully made to warrant sympathy, rests inside all of us… I accepted my identity as a mystery larger than I could ever imagine but enriched through the experience of love and acceptance" (Shah, par. 13).
During her time abroad with her parents, Ria Shah found herself walking the streets of Mumbai, when she witnessed this young boy her own age begging on the street. She understood that personal identification is more than just oneself---it lies within the people whom one shares a connection with, no matter how small. As I transition from high school into my young adult life, I am beginning to understand this now, too. From reading the words of Shah to famous writers like Walt Whitman and Alan Watts activists like Martin Luther King Jr., my personal narrative is becoming clearer. By learning to shrink the distance between the people in my life and myself, I realize that the connection I share with people is my greatest source for self-identification.
The high school career I experienced was unlike most. In the context of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), where I majored in dance, was my escape into the light from the deep cave of the public education system in my town. At Daniel Hand High School, where I took my core classes each morning, my teachers kept me chained and forced me to look at assignments through the specific lens of the rubrics they provided. They lit a fire and cast the shadows for my peers and I to absorb. I witnessed how teachers "filed [us] away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system" (Freire 244). Paulo Freire, education philosopher, warned his readers in "The Banking Concept of Education" that students are not containers to fill but are unique minds to inspire. Each day when I left Daniel Hand to attend ECA, I felt released into a more freeing atmosphere. Nevertheless, my dance teachers in my freshman year told me that I was playing it too safely, but the freedom I had been given with movement assignments took time for me to grow into. Reflecting on my years at ECA, I see how it enabled my transition from cave dwelling to discovering a world where I found comfort in creativity and dared to make my own choices. By introducing me to my closest friends and providing a haven for me to explore my art form and find a voice through movement, ECA shaped me into the artist, student and person I am today. Like Plato's escapee enlarging his perception of all that he believed to be true and returning to his fellow prisoners to share his experiences, dance has been my outlet to escape those cave conformities. It offered me emotional support and helped me cope with the passing of my grandparents. Most importantly, dance is not a judge, and therefore this discipline has encouraged innovation and risk taking. If I can offer even a handful of people the joy I experienced while learning at ECA, then opening my own dance studio will have been worthwhile.
Although Plato helped me to better understand my high school struggles, Walt Whitman brought to the surface of my consciousness emotions I felt when first experiencing racism. My host brother, Ryan Daniels, was born and raised in Harlem. When he was thirteen years old, he applied to A Better Chance, a high school program to attend Daniel Hand High School in Madison, Connecticut. In his freshman year at Hand, he met my older brother, Nick, in his geometry class. Their friendship quickly grew and my family decided to host Ryan for the remaining three and a half years he would attend my town's high school. More than just a friend, Ryan became a part of my family. By living at my house, he opened my eyes to how privileged of an upbringing I had. He made me appreciate the things I took for granted, like how my family was lucky to know there would be food on the table each night. Ryan also taught me how injustice is everywhere, even in my picturesque suburban town. Witnessing his experiences, I have seen how deep racism is within a community and how detrimental are its effects.
Ryan became acclimated to life in Madison and meshed into the friend group that Nick had been a part of since middle school. When Nick and Ryan became extremely close, many of the boys took notice and began making ultimatums with my brother, saying he could only join if Ryan did not come along. This culminated in a Saturday night party during their junior year when the group forced them to leave. They were led out of the house through the garage and there, spray painted on the wall for them to see, read "nigger." I was twelve years old at the time and I had never seen my older brother cry, but that night sent Nick into a whirlwind of emotions, as he discovered racism present in the group of friends he thought he knew so well. Ryan tried his best to seem unaffected by it, but we could tell how hurt and betrayed he felt. My whole family felt the pain; I was upset to see how sad it made my brother, and I was enraged at his alleged friends for being so dismissive and discriminatory towards Ryan. The mass of emotions I felt during this time became clearer when I read Section One of "Song of Myself": "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you" (Whitman, para. 1). This appreciation of our interdependence is also representative of the post-conventional stages of Lawrence Kohlberg's moral development model. What was felt by my family was the understanding of "abstract ideas of equality, dignity and respect" (Kohlberg). Ryan had become a part of my family, so when his dignity was disrespected, so was my family's.
Just as Whitman revealed these strong emotions connected with Ryan and social injustice, Alan Watts helped me resolve issues in my religious life. Growing up in a Roman Catholic family, spoon-fed stories of Jesus and God through attending mass and catechism classes for years, I learned that He is the divine being from which all things come, there to provide love and guidance for me, so I must fully accept and believe in His presence and power. My grandmother had been the most prominent source of religious faith in my family. Her faith was more than an aspect of her life; it shone in her lifestyle. Even in casual conversation, if I were to mention to her that I misplaced something, she would remind me to pray to Saint Anthony for guidance. However, I never truly prayed to God on my own, only when in the presence of my family at Mass, nor had I much confidence in the idea of God as an actual entity. This past spring, however, when I lost both of my grandparents within the span of five weeks, I began to pray on my own. This act made much more sense to me after reading, "Inside Information," the first chapter of The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. Watts states, "Of course, you must remember that God isn't shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins" (Watts 9). Now I'm finding greater meaning in the idea of God not as the judge of a competition for His approval, but rather as the ground of my being most fully expressed in the act of love. After years of listening to sermons and hymns about the Lord, I feel most connected to the divine via the loving relationship I shared with my grandparents. This feeling mirrors Watts's closing thought, "that the less I preach, the more likely I am to be heard" (Watts 14). I am finding a deeper sense of faith now and am beginning to see the true simplicity in religion. Personally, its value is not found in long hours of prayer and reading of the scriptures but felt in my daily relationships through loving, serving, remembering, and cherishing.
In the wake of this year's presidential election, loving relationships that cherish our differences in mutual support seems more valuable than ever. This year was my first opportunity to vote, and I was confident for a particular outcome. Unfortunately, the candidate I supported did not win, and I struggle to accept the bigotry and ignorance of our president-elect. As an eighteen-year-old college student, I must be aware of how the current politics will shape my future, from the type of workforce I will be entering after graduation to my ability to obtain health care as a young adult. Not only do I disagree with much of what creates Mr. Trump's political platform, I have issues with his lack of awareness and feelings for people that do not look or act like him. As I grow up, I feel a larger purpose for civic duty, that if my government is not protecting and supporting the rights of all people, it is my responsibility to stand up and do my part. I am already witnessing the fear of my homosexual and Mexican friends, as they are unsure of how their communities will be treated during a Trump presidency. A close friend of mine from ECA, who prefers to be unnamed, came out to his friends and family during his sophomore year. As he watched the election results on November 8th, he reposted on his Facebook page:
"Hey Trump supporters: There's something I'd like you to understand about people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, and every other marginalized group. We're afraid. We're not just upset our candidate isn't winning…. When over half the country votes for a candidate who wants to strip you of your rights, who incites violence against you, who believes your existence is a threat, it's fucking scary. Don't pretend our fear isn't on you. It is" (Anonymous).
Millions of Americans, including myself, feel the way my friend does in response to the outcome of this election. However, perhaps this is an opportunity for our country to become more unified, to band together, to stand for the right of justice. As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in 1963, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny" (King, para. 4). This statement challenges those who disagree with my friend's values of acceptance and equality. It inspires me to not live idling by, as injustice occurs to our fellow citizens, who all deserve to live in a country that takes pride in its freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition.
By reading the works of such noteworthy writers, I have been able to grasp a clearer sense of my identity. Reflecting on the past, I have a begun to connect the dots of my experiences to gain a further scope of my personal narrative: what I value and cherish, and what I aspire to be in the future. Just as Ria Shah accepted her identity as something larger than herself, I am realizing this for myself through reading such noteworthy philosophers, poets, and activists.
Works Cited
Anonymous. Facebook post. 8 Nov. 2015. Web. 6 Dec. 2016.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. "The Banking Concept of Education "(1970): 242-55. Print.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." N.p.: n.p., 1963. 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
"Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" - Alex Gendler. TED-ed, 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
Shah, Ria. "Has the University Stolen the Fire in Our Bellies? A Proposal to Activate & Celebrate Student Responsiveness." Taking Giant Steps. N.p., 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
Watts, Alan. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. (1969): 11-28. Menantol. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.
Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself (1892 Version)." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.


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The global neurostimulation devices market is poised to grow at double-digit CAGR by the end of 2025. The growing awareness regarding mental health acts as a primary growth factor. Technological innovations implementing better patient management are expected to drive growth in the market. Novel technologies for restoring vision and aiding movement in paralysis are projected to escalate the adoption rate of these devices in the market.
COVID-19 pandemic is expected to decrease the demand for these devices, creating a depression in the market revenue. The market is expected to regain its growth rate with the relaxations in movement across different nations.
The neurostimulation devices market in Europe is expected to grow at an impressive rate during the forecast period owing to the growing preference for advanced technologies and innovations. The Asia Pacific is projected to generate lucrative growth opportunities in the companies.
The market players are adopting strategies such as collaborations and product innovations. They are using the latest technologies to develop advanced products to populate their product portfolio. Established players in the market include NeuroSigma, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, NDI Medical, LLC., and Medtronic plc, St. Jude Medical, Inc.
Neurostimulation devices are commonly used for diagnosing and treating disorders of autonomic nerves system (ANS), central nerves system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). Neurostimulation devices are used for stimulation of brain cells and for administering medication. Diseases that do not react or respond to systematic drug therapies need advanced stimulation devices for treating them. Demand for such devices are growing, especially for managing chronic neurological conditions such as nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain, epilepsy, depression and parkinson's disease. In addition, higher cases of nociceptive pain arising from diseases such as cancer, arthritis and diabetes is compelling healthcare experts and manufacturers to jointly work on developing enhanced models of neurostimulation devices. In 2014, the global neurostimulation devices market was valued at US$ 5,088.9 Million. PMR forecast that the global neurostimulation devices market will register a CAGR of above 12% to reach US$ 10,445.7 Million by 2020.
Key Market Dynamics
PMR indicates that the global neurostimulation devices market will primarily be driven by increasing incidences of neurological diseases and higher occurrence of associated chronic pain and discomfort. On contrary, factors such as increasing geriatric population, growing awareness on better neurological treatment and advancement in functionality of neurostimulation devices are expected to equally influence the overall growth of market during the forecast period. In contrast, side-effects and risks associated with neurostimulation therapy and availability of other options of treatment for neurological disorders are some of the negative factors likely to hinder the market growth.
Segment Analysis
The global neurostimulation devices market has been classified into device type, by application and by region.
On the basis of device type, the market is segmented into implantable device and external device. In addition, the implantable device segment is further sub-segmented into, cochlear implants (CI), sacral nerve stimulation (SNS), gastric electric stimulation (GES), deep brain stimulation (DBS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and spinal cord stimulation (SCS). The external device segment is bifurcated into transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). Based on application, the market is segmented into parkinson's disease, epilepsy, urinary and fecal incontinence, gastroparesis, pain management, hearing loss and depression.
Regional Analysis
Based on geography, the global neurostimulation devices market is segmented into four key regions namely North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and rest of the world (RoW). North America is in pole position of the global neurostimulation devices market, which is largely attributed to the growing prevalence of neurological disorders in the region. In addition, various private and government organizations in the region are frequently running awareness campaigns on neurological disorders and associated health impediments. Likewise, availability of advanced neurological treatments is also adding up significantly to the market growth in the region. The neurostimulation devices market in Europe, is largely expanding due to several healthcare initiatives taken by various public organizations to improve the healthcare sector in the region. Further, the market in Asia Pacific is expected to register the fastest growth rate during the forecast period primarily due to the increasing incidences of neurological disorders such as arthritis and osteoporosis in countries such as Japan and China.
Key Market Participants
Key participants identified in the global neurostimulation devices market include Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Cochlear, Ltd., Medtronic, Plc, NDI Medical, LLC, MED-EL., Cyberonics, Inc., NeuroSigma, Inc., and NeuroPace, Inc.,
Persistence Market Research (PMR) provides key insights on the global neurostimulation devices market over the forecast period (2014-2020). The primary objective of the report is to provide in-depth analysis and future market estimations, including growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, trends, key segments, status of the regional markets and key market participants operating in the global scar treatment market. Along with the provision of quality insights quantification of data has been considered through discussions with market experts, clinicians and product managers.
To understand and assess opportunities in the global marketplace, the report is categorically split into four sections in terms of market value (US$ Mn), namely market analysis by device type, by application and by geography. The report further provides comprehensive data on forecast values, global market estimations, and competitive landscape. The aforementioned segments have been analyzed in terms of Basis Point (BPS) to understand each segment's relative contribution to the overall market growth.
The geographical analysis studies the market on the basis of the regional opportunities and estimates the market value for each region during the forecast period. The report also considers a year-on-year growth based on regional market analysis, in order to identify right opportunities in each of the regions and to understand predictability of the market.
The last part of the report provides an exhaustive analysis on the global competitive landscape including leading market participants and a dashboard view. Market strategies of prominent players and their key developments have also been included in the report.
Research Methodology
To deduce the global neurostimulation devices market, the report considers various aspects based on secondary research. Furthermore, key data points such as region-wise split and market split by device type, by application and qualitative inputs from primary respondents have been incorporated to arrive at appropriate market estimates. The forecast presented in the report assesses the total revenue generated and expected revenue contribution in the global neurostimulation devices market.
The report begins with sizing the market in terms of value and volume for the base year, which forms the basis for forecasting how the market is anticipated to take shape in the near future. Given the characteristics of the market, gathered data is triangulated via different analysis based on the supply side and demand side drivers and other key dynamics of the global global neurostimulation devices market. To develop the market forecast, Persistence Market Research has also conducted a factor analysis to understand the impact of various forces/factors on the target market. The report provides forecasts not only in terms of CAGR but also presents a detailed analysis based on key parameters such as Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth to understand market predictability and to identify the right opportunities.
Another key feature of this report is an analysis of the global neurostimulation devices market and the corresponding revenue forecast in terms of absolute dollar opportunity, usually overlooked while forecasting the market. However, absolute dollar opportunity is critical in assessing the level of opportunity that a provider can look to achieve, as well as to identify potential resources from a sales perspective in the global neurostimulation devices market. Further, to understand key segments in terms of their growth and overall global neurostimulation devices market performance, Persistence Market Research has developed a market attractiveness index to help providers identify existing market opportunities in the global neurostimulation devices market.
Some of the major players in the neurostimulation devices market:
These key market players have been profiled on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, sustainability, and financial overview.
Neurostimulation Devices Market


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I just love fun flavored cakes and cupcakes, don't you?
I have a friend whose children always request off the wall cake flavors. It is so much fun to research and experiment to find the perfect flavor combination!
Today's cake flavor is root beer float! These cupcakes are so yummy and they're dairy free, so they're perfect for people with special diets!


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Price Equilibrium, Efficiency, and Decentralizability in Insurance Markets
NBER Working Paper No. 3642
In this paper, we investigate the descriptive and normative properties of competitive equilibrium with moral hazard when firms offer "price contracts" which allow clients to purchase as much insurance as they wish at the quoted prices. We show that a price equilibrium always exists and is one of three types: i) zero profit price equilibrium - zero profit, zero effort, full insurance ii) positive profit price equilibrium - positive profit, positive effort, partial insurance iii) zero insurance price equilibrium - zero insurance, zero profit, positive effort. We also demonstrate circumstances under which the linear taxation of price insurance allows decentralization of the social optimum (conditional on the unobservability of effort), and when it, does not, whether it is at least utility-improving.
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w3642
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