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EIG:Remote Services Admin
Since ECF 3.3/Helios release in June 2010, ECF has provided a full implementation of the OSGi Remote Services specification. This specification is in the OSGi 4.2 compendium, chapter 13. You can download the compendium specification here.
As of our 3.5 release (March 2011), we now also support the Remote Services Admin specification. This is chapter 122 from the OSGi enterprise specification, and you can download this specification here.
- 1 What's Remote Services Admin?
- 2 ECF's RSA Implementation
- 3 Bug Reporting and Support
- 4 Architecture
What's Remote Services Admin?
Remote Services Admin (RSA) is the specification of a management agent for remote services. The Remote Services spec (chapter 13), defines the programmer-specified service properties for exporting an OSGi service as a remote service, but does not say anything about the mechanism or implementation of the two major subsystems involved: discovery (for knowing that a remote service is available on some network), and distribution (for accessing and using that remote service). For those that need to control and/or customize the actual discovery and distribution of an OSGi service over a network, the management agent specified by RSA allows them to have a much greater degree of control...i.e. to allow them to more easily secure remote services, to optionally use multiple/alternative communications protocols for both discovery and distribution, to customize and extend the behavior of both discovery and distribution as needed for more complex/enterprise use cases. The RSA specification defines the API for this remote services management agent, and ECF 3.5 provides a complete/spec-compliant, small, easily customizable and extensible, cross-framework implementation.
ECF's RSA Implementation
The RSA implementation uses ECF's discovery API and ECF's Remote Service API to implement the management agent's discovery and distribution subsystems. ECF's RSA implementation is complete and fully compliant with the specfication. We are in the process of getting access to the OSGi Test Compatibility Kit (TCK), and will verify full compliance with the specification through use of that TCK as soon as possible.
Unique ECF-provided Features
Transport Independence
Since both the discovery and remote services apis are transport independent, and the ECF RSA implementation only uses these APIs themselves, the ECF RSA impl is also transport independent, allowing remote services to 'mix and match' discovery and distribution systems. For example, ECF currently has discovery providers based upon the following network discovery protocols:
- Apache Zookeeper
- Bonjour/Zeroconf
- Service Locator Protocol/SLP
- DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery)
- Others
and the following distribution providers
- R-osgi
- ECF Generic
- REST-based protocols
- SOAP-based protocols
- JMS-based protocols
- JavaGroups
- Others
Discovery and distribution providers...implemented as OSGi modules...may be mixed and matched in order to satisfy development-time and/or deployment-time requirements...for remote service security, for scalability, and/or for interoperability and integration with existing systems.
As well, new (proprietary or open) discovery providers and/or distribution providers can be easily created and used as specification-compliant implementations of both RS and RSA...without any changes to the applications that export remote services or use RSA specification-defined programmatic API. This is possible because of ECF's transport-independent, open, community-tested APIs (discovery and remote services).
Further, ECF's transport independence makes it extremely convenient to develop and test remote services using one discovery provider (e.g. Bonjour/Zeroconf) and deploy with another (e.g. Zookeeper).
Asynchronous Remote Services
In addition to fully supporting the OSGi-specified synchronous remote services, ECF provides the means to easily define and use asynchronous remote services. This capability is described with code examples here.
ECF's RSA implementation is written to OSGi specifications, and so can/does run on multiple OSGi frameworks. We have some (small) amount of cross-framework testing, but are looking to do much more. Equinox is currently our primary framework (for development and testing), and Felix has been minimally tested. We would be very interested in working with anyone willing to help us test more thoroughly on Felix or other OSGi frameworks.
Source Code
ECF has moved to git for source code control, and the ECF repo can be found here.
The main bundles for the RSA are in osgi/bundles in the following projects:
- org.eclipse.ecf.osgi.remoteserviceadmin: OSGi-provided specified API classes
- org.eclipse.ecf.osgi.services.remoteserviceadmin: The ECF RSA implementation
- org.eclipse.ecf.osgi.services.remoteserviceadmin.proxy
Bug Reporting and Support
For support in use of ECF's RSA implementation, see the ecf-dev mailing list.
To report bugs for the ECF RSA implementation open a bug with the component=ecf.remoteservices and subject line containing [remoteserviceadmin] here.
From the RSA specification, here is a high-level diagram of the RSA Architecture
There are two roles that use these system entities:
- Service Host. This is the OSGi framework that exports an OSGi service, making it available for remote access and optionally publishing it for network discovery. The entities from the architecture diagram involved in host export are the Topology Manager Impl (for deciding when/what services to export), the Remote Service Admin impl (for actually performing the export), and the Discovery Impl (for publishing the remote service for automatic discovery.
- Service Consumer. This is the OSGi framework that imports an OSGi service, creating a proxy for the remote service, and then registering the proxy in the local OSGi service registry. The entities from the architecture diagram involved in consumer import are the Topology Manager Impl (for deciding when/what services to import), the Remote Service Admin impl (for actually performing the import as described above), and the Discovery Impl (for discovering the remote service via some discovery mechanism).
Topology Managers
Part of the flexibility provided by the RSA specification is that there can be many different impls of Topology Managers. This allows those that wish to control the export (on service host), or import (on service consumer) to do so simply by creating their own Topology Manager. ECF's implementation of the RSA specification supports creating custom Topology Managers...either by customizing the ECF BasicTopologyManager src,extending the ECF AbstractTopologyManager javadoc,src, or by creating one's own TopologyManager implementation entirely, and accessing the ECF impl of the Remote Service Admin service (via ServiceTracker, declarative services, or other mechanism for accessing an OSGi service). Note that the TopologyManagers that come with ECF's RSA impl can also be used as examples for creating one's own Topology Manager.
For a more complete description of the role for Topology Managers in RSA, see section 122.3 of the OSGi enterprise specification.
Remote Service Admin
ECF's impl of the RSA spec includes a full implementation of the Remote Service Admin service. This service is specified by the OSGi service type org.osgi.service.remoteserviceadmin.RemoteServiceAdmin. See section 122.10.10 for a detailed description of this service. The RemoteServiceAdmin has the two key methods for exporting and importing a remote service:
public Collection<ExportRegistration> exportService(ServiceReference reference, Map<String, Object> properties) and public ImportRegistration importService(EndpointDescription endpoint)
For a complete description of the role of RemoteServiceAdmin, see section 122.5 of the OSGi enterprise specification.
Notification of Remote Service Admin Events
The Remote Service Admin service will generate events...e.g. upon remote service export and upon remote service import. These events are defined as instances of org.osgi.service.remoteserviceadmin.RemoteServiceAdminEvent. See section 122.10.11 for a description of these event types.
RemoteServiceAdminListener for Synchronous Notification
For applications that wish to be synchronously notified of remote service exports and imports, there is the org.osgi.service.remoteserviceadmin.RemoteServiceAdminListener interface. To receive RemoteServiceAdmin events, all that's necessary is to implement the RemoteServiceAdminListener interface, and register this implementation as an OSGi service using the whiteboard pattern...e.g.:
bundleContext.registerService(RemoteServiceAdminListener.class.getName(),new MyRemoteServiceAdminListener(),null);
Where MyRemoteServiceAdminListener implements the standard org.osgi.service.remoteserviceadmin.RemoteServiceAdminListener interface.
For details on doing receiving events, see section 122.7 of the OSGi enterprise specification.
EventHandler for Asynchronous Notification
For applications that wish to be asynchronously notified of remote service exports and imports, the specification defines an Event Admin topic to which RemoteServiceAdminEvents are asynchronously delivered. The topic for EventHandlers to be asynchronously notified of RemoteServiceAdmin events is org/osgi/service/remoteserviceadmin/<type>, where <type> is one of the enumerated types on the RemoteServiceAdminEvent class...documented in secion 122.10.11 of the OSGi 4.2 enterprise specification. Example: org/osgi/service/remoteserviceadmin/EXPORT_REGISTRATION.


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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Fishing with Charles Harper
It has been stated–this is probably more of a guess than a statistic–that Americans depend on their motor cars for 80 per cent of their outdoor recreation.
In any event, it can hardly be denied that over the past fifty years the automobile has given us an increasingly greater participation in outdoor activities.
It is a fact that nowadays every trout in America is in danger for its life.
This, then, is a tourist's-eye view of America outdoors, made up of selected articles which appeared during the past few years in the Ford Times and Lincoln-Mercury Times, periodicals which are distributed by Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury dealers as a courtesy to their neighbours and customers.
Modest in purpose, the book may perhaps suggest a concept which stands simple, clear, and understandable ina confused world–the concept of a young, vigorous people at play in a great land.
From "Ford Treasury of the Outdoors", published by Simon and Schuster, New York. Copyright 1952 by Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan.
*All of these images have been added to my Fishing Flickr set and my Charles Harper Flickr set.
11 comments:
Beautiful illustrations! (They really are an inspiration for me today, since I'm currently designing a cover with fish as a theme.)ReplyDelete
Thanks, Leif! :)
- Neil H.9:43 PM
Hi Leif,ReplyDelete
Leaving a comment here because I don't have your email address. I love your blog and mid-century illustration. Tonight I posted a set of modest illustrations from a 1957 free-bee cookbook called "Metropolitan Cook Book" (Met Life Insurance marketing ephemera). If you've already seen these, apologies. Again, they are modest in aim and scope, but true to the era. If you want to make any sort of use of them, please be my guest.
Neil, NC, USA
- Neil H.9:53 PM
God I'm a complete idiot. For the third time, I'll try to post a link to my flickr set. I'm sorry.ReplyDelete
I posted them under the username spiroagnewisdead
Email me at spiroagnewisdead at yahoo if you need to.
Hey thanks Neil! And sorry for all the trouble you went through to get that info out so we could enjoy those cool images ;-)ReplyDelete
As it tuns out, I have a copy of that little booklet too - and so do quite a few other Flickrites, I discovered when i added some scans from it a while back. Its been republished in several editions over the years --- but that doesn't take anything away from the art, which is SO worth looking at again.
For those who want a quick hyperlink to Neil's scans, click here
I came across your site looking for Charley Harper. What a gorgeous site this is! Also, if anyone wants it, there are full colour scans of the whole of "Ford treasury of the Outdoors" and also of "Ford treasury of Station Wagon living" (equally quirky illustrations) at the American libraries internet archive here:ReplyDelete
and here:

subset: commoncrawl


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Carrowmena is ideal for exploring the Causeway Coast to Derry City & local areas in between.
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Main Site - :: Why Won't God Heal Amputees? ::
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
This is clearly a sign from the creator, indicating that we are to worship penguins. I'm planning a trip to those little islands off of Argentina immediately, in order to ensure that my daughter learns the way of the penguin, so that she may transform into a blessed penguin in the afterlife.
What you're seeing there is the cosmic illustration of Memphis dropping the egg as told in The Gospel of Happy Feet (1)
So do we need to nail one to a cross in order to forgive our sins? Also, fish must be holy food now. Church of Red Lobster.
That's it; I am *so* making a pilgrimage to the penguin exhibit at the zoo. I've adored those dapper little guys since I was a kid.


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Drumming 'grandma' a hit with 2M YouTube views
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — A white-haired, bespectacled drummer from Wisconsin whose spontaneous solo jam session at a local music shop was caught on video has become a hit online, with more than 2 million views so far of her drumstick-twirling performance so far.
The video was posted on YouTube by the Coalition Drum Shop in La Crosse. The clip is called Grandma Drummer, and although 63-year-old Mary Hvizda really isn't a grandma, she's humbling embracing the celebrity status.
"I guess I just wanted to play music and have fun," Hvizda said. "Thank you for making me feel important."
Hvizda started drumming when she was 15, inspired by her brother, and has played in nearly a dozen bands. She joined the first all-female rock band in La Crosse, the "Chantells," which she described as pioneers in a male-dominated industry.
"It really took a lot of tolerance with the customers, or other male musicians, to hang in there and to just keep going if they laughed at us or made fun of us," Hvizda said.
Hvizda ended her playing career when the band "On the Road Again" broke up in 1990.
"I couldn't find no other bands to play with, and then I did quit," said Hvizda, who sold her last drum set soon after.
Although she has hung up her performing drumsticks, she said she still enjoys stopping by the drum store to satisfy her musical urge. She still plays her old cassette tapes from time to time, as a reminder of her days in the bands and hasn't lost her love for the drums.
And she's proud so many people have taken an interest in her drumming. She'd never heard of YouTube until a few days ago, but as of Monday morning, the video had attracted 2.4 million YouTube views.
"I was having a lot of fun," Hvizda said. "I really was."
Information from: WKBT-TV, http://www.wkbt.com


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house pool design. Monday , February 19th , 2018 - 17:57:10 PM
Aesthetics: The swimming pool shapes are no longer restricted to the boring rectangles. They come in many shapes like circles, oval, oblong, figure of eight, or just any fancy shape. The colour of the tiles being used too includes a myriad hue of blues and greens. Some artists have lent their creativity and made breath taking murals and mosaics based on related subjects like mermaids, the underwater scenery, fishes and other aquatic animals, or simply the waves of the seas.
When visiting potential swimming pool contractors ask them for the various designs of swimming pools they′ve completed. Find out from the local code officer what the setbacks are for property lines for the construction of your swimming pool. Once you have that information in hand, measure your backyard and sketch on some graph paper the proposed pool layout. Envision the type of accessories you want in your pool. Will you want a shallow end? Tanning ledges? A hot tub? Waterfall? Wading pool? If you have a large enough yard you can consider adding a wave pool or lazy river feature.
If you′re going to spend time pool-side sunbathing, be sure to leave the space for it. And if you opt for the above-ground pool variety, the addition of a sizable pool level deck makes great sense.
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Let us help you with your professional development
The new Kansas History, Government and Social Studies standards are closely connected to the Kansas College and Career Readiness ELA standards. Our educational staff can help your elementary and/or secondary teachers make the transition from the previous standards which emphasized memorization to today's standards that encourage students to not only read, write and speak but also make connections to today's world.
The free professional development sessions offered by our Museum and Education Division emphasize the connection of Social Studies and KCCRS. Participants will become familiar with effective instructional techniques and the use of primary sources and artifacts in their classrooms. We can also explain the new assessments and provide ideas of how to implement similar assessments in the classroom.
Our trained presenter has worked directly with the development of the new Kansas HGSS standards and is a certified KSDE trainer. The sessions are designed for K-12 social studies, gifted, reading, and Language Arts educators. Districts can choose the date, time, and place.
The sessions will include grade appropriate materials:
- Read Kansas! – a model for teaching history with primary sources, making students active participants in interpreting history.
- Kansas Memory – a digital archives of primary sources with special features especially for teachers' use in the classrooms (Hands-on sessions require access to a computer lab and internet.)
Contact Marcia Fox, curriculum specialist, 785-272-8681, ext. 416; email@example.com.


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Mark Hayward's City Matters: Vietnam War images stir ghostsBY MARK HAYWARD
New Hampshire Union Leader
June 19. 2013 8:46PM
What is art?
Who can best tell history?
Does our country's psyche still suffer from a collective PTSD over Vietnam?
Those are some of the questions raging behind the scenes between veterans and the Currier Museum of Art, which is putting finishing touches on an exhibit of news photographs from the Vietnam War.
It features many — but not all — of the black-and-white images seered into the minds of anyone who lived through the Vietnam era. The naked, sobbing girl fleeing a napalm attack of her village. A Viet Cong soldier-assassin a trigger-pull away from execution. A panicky helicopter door gunner shouting as a wounded pilot dies at his feet.
To the Currier, the exhibit of 32 news photographs represents a pivotal time in American history. Vietnam was the first war ever where the U.S. military granted working journalists free access to a war zone, said Kurt Sundstrom, the curator of "Visual Dispatches from the Vietnam War."
They captured the horrible aspects of the war, and the photographs contradicted the optimistic statements from leaders who said America was winning the war, he said. To Sundstrom, the exhibit honors the soldiers who fought in the war.
"The only way to explain what they've gone through is to show images of these horrible events," he said.
Caution to Sundstrom. To discuss Vietnam, even 40 years after the Paris peace accords were signed, is to enter a muddy river delta of suspicion and criticism.
Howie Howe, a Marine who spent two years in Vietnam, doesn't want to give journalists another crack at Vietnam. Just look what happened the first time, he said. The country and Congress turned against the war, South Vietnam fell to communists, and returning soldiers were shunned or demonized, the object of the country's disgust over a war gone bad.
"The entire representation of who we Vietnam veterans are is what the journalists said about us," said Howe, an activist in veteran circles. Just as insulting, the exhibit honors news photographers who made money taking senational photographs while American troops protected them, he said.
"What we did, we did for God and Country. What they did, they did for money," Howe wrote in an exchange of emails that both he and Sundstrum shared with me.
In veteran circles, some dismiss Howe for his blunt talk. But his voluneer work with parades and ceremonies — and his advocacy for returning vets — has earned him the grudging respect of veterans.
"He's done some outrageously great work," said Peter Burdett, a retired Navy commander and chairman of the state Veterans Advisory Council. He said Howe's forceful advocacy keeps veteran-affairs bureaucrats on their toes, but he cautioned that Howe can be quick to make judgments and sometimes he gets in front of himself.
"He's kind of a bit on a rant here," said Burdett, who acknowldged that the exhibit has irked a Vietnam veteran on his Council. Burdett, who joined the military at the tail end of Vietnam and did not fight there, said he's reserving judgment until he sees the exhibit.
In fact, his Council, and anyone for that matter, gets a peek at the exhibit on July 10, when the Currier will host a meeting of the Veteran Advisory Council and give a PowerPoint presentation of the exhibit.
Sundstrom said the Currier has gone to great lengths to make the exhibit acceptable.
The Currier took advice from an ad-hoc panel of Vietnam veterans, one of who works at the museum. They suggested the narratives attached to the photos be stripped of any politics and just explain the events taking place in the photograph.
The museum will put aside a "response hall'' — half the space of the exhibit — for veterans to display their own photographs and narratives.
Howe dismisses the response hall as a bulletin board, where veteran contributions will be seen as the work of amateurs alongside the works of the exhibit.
"Most of their award winning pictures were photos of opportunity, not attempts at art, while we were busy protecting their butts, as best we could, and the public deserves to know that," Howe said.
Actually, several of the news photographers died covering the war, and one of the exhibit photos includes an Army chaplain giving Last Rites to photographer Dickey Chapelle, the first woman war correspondent killed in the war.
As of this writing, Burdett is trying to get Vietnam veterans to submit material for the response hall, and Howe talks about a totally separate exhibit with veteran-generated material, something Sundstrom encourages.
Howe said Burdett is being too politically correct on the issue.
"Unless you were there in Nam you have no idea of the emotions us Vietnam Vets go through on a regular basis, and have for over 35 years," he wrote Burdett.
For his part, Howe fears the exhibit will focus on "limited information" — the anti-war aspects of the photographs that turned the country against Vietnam (and its soldiers) decades ago.
Of course, when he speaks of limited information, Howe wants to see more information about his fellow soldiers and how hard they fought for the Vietnamese and protected them. (In fact, some of the photos show that.)
But limited information cuts both ways, and if the exhibit can be faulted for anything, it is for a big blank page it leaves in its history book of Vietnam.
That missing page, as painful as it is, is My Lai, the village where 26 soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in 1968. Sundstrom said the most incriminiating My Lai photos — including one of dead women and children in a ditch — were taken by an Army photographer, not a news photographer. (However, the photographer later sold the photos to Life magazine.)
The fact is hundreds of thousands of Americans saw combat in Vietnam —— one count says 1.5 million — while those who took part in atrocities is a scant fraction of the total. That shows the humanity of our soldiers, not their inhumanity.
But Sundstrom said My Lai photos would be inappropriate and hurtful.
"I don't think," he said, "it's an accurate depiction of a typical soldier's experience."
The exhibit runs Aug. 3 through Veterans Day.
Mark Hayward's City Matters runs Thursdays in the New Hampshire Union Leader and on UnionLeader.com. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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ATLANTA - Gov. Nathan Deal endorsed a plan Wednesday that would allow environmental officials to restrict farmers from taking water from the Flint River basin during droughts, though opponents say that legal power could be used to send more water to Florida and are backing a different plan.
In a speech, Deal gave personal support to legislation allowing the Environmental Protection Division to stop farmers in the region from taking water if state authorities put it into waterways to prevent wildlife from perishing during droughts. Those restrictions would stay in place while farmers appealed such an order.
The Republican governor said that authority is needed to prevent federal environmental officials from imposing even tougher restrictions on water use if a drought threatens wildlife.
"The greatest thing that could put Georgia farmers' water use at significant risk is an EPD unable to respond in such a common-sense way for fear of having to litigate" the state-imposed water restrictions, Deal told a gathering of water officials.
Opponents are worried that the bill isn't really about protecting wildlife.
Instead, they think it's an attempt to allow developers to build expensive infrastructure capable of getting more water to Florida that could help ease a long-running water dispute with that state. Florida has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to divide up water rights because it claims that Georgia uses too much water upstream, harming downstream wildlife and communities.
A team of lobbyists and developers previously sought state funding to test whether pumps could store water in underground aquifers when waterways are flush, then pump it to the surface during droughts. The lobbyists proposed that if such a system could guarantee more water would flow south and reach Florida, Georgia could seek the release of more water from Lake Lanier for the use of metro Atlanta and to improve downstream water quality.
Supporters of that water-swapping plan said Georgia's government would need a way to prevent people from using the extra water before it reached Florida.
The developer and lobbyists who backed the original pumping plan have since left the project. Deal's administration is proceeding with a scaled-back test to determine whether the technology works. Deal said Wednesday that the legislation he supported was not connected to the proposal for a pumping network.
Environmental groups critical of the bill are supporting a rival bill from state Rep. Delvis Dutton, R-Glennville. The last-minute legislation would allow state officials to scale back water withdrawals, but contains no mention about projects that add water to local streams.
Chris Manganiello, policy director for the Georgia River Network, said he believed that Deal's administration wants to preserve the option of pursuing the pumping plan if the technology works, even if the original proposal from lobbyists did not win immediate financial or political support.
"It's a long-term game," he said.


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Artist description:
For my Dearest Friend...this isn't tuna..but..a relative i think..? 8D for Tina..aka Inori
Flash Draw Created Nov 24, 2012 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2012 Yuumoko Izumi.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
i thought you were just kidding about this xD it's cute! i like it, thank you! :3
lulz xD i did mean it~ muahaha..you're welcomos~ =3
pretty drawing!


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"Purple Haze all in my brain, lately things don't seem the same."
Jimi Hendrix
"Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong, my own beliefs are in my song."
Sly Stone
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality."
Freddie Mercury
"I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie. I have my freedom but I don't have much time."
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
"Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see."
John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Bringing music to life.One lyric at a time.


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Creating a fairer and more inclusive work environment where everyone is valued will require the involvement and support of many people, at many levels, including men. This First Step provides an overview of the importance of men as gender champions, and includes a look at many issues including male privilege and leadership, gender bias as well as ways organizations and individuals can make change. It is aimed at both HR/D&I practitioners and individuals who are interested in learning more about this topic.
Topics: Engaging Men
Date: November 29, 2012


text: I've had no time to blog lately, but decided to belatedly post a link to my sweet potato post from last year. This year I have it pretty easy. I am only fixing a ham, a salad and sweet potato casserole because my mom and sister are doing the rest. Happy Thanksgiving!


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This past Jan. 24 Army Sgt. Michael Carlson (above) was killed in Iraq. As a high school senior at St. Paul's (parochial) Cretin-Derham High School, Carlson wrote the moving credo that the Wall Street Journal published on its editorial page earlier this week. Today the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells the story of Carlson and his credo: "His words are his legacy." Here are four paragraphs of Carlson's credo:
I admire my father more than any other person on this planet, not for being a mechanic or a tough guy but for his ambition. For 30 years, he has gone to work every day, come home, gone to the garage and worked more hours. I don't know how he does it but I do know why. He does it for us. He wants my brother and me to have everything we need and most of what we want. Lots of people say that the best way to learn is by the example of others. Well, then I have one of the best teachers on how to be a man [and] how to treat others. I mean, he is not perfect by any means, but is anyone really perfect? I think that he is pretty close.
Sometimes I wonder if my dad ever thought of college. I wonder if he is happy. I sometimes even feel sorry for him. What I mean by that is that I look at him and I see a guy who has spent his entire life working. That is what he does. He works. If my mom never brought up the idea of a vacation, he would never think [about taking one]. He would work to the day he died. I love hard work, but how do you go to the same dead-end job every day knowing that you will be doing it forever?
Every now and then, someone who had my dad fix his car will stop by and need something, and every time I talk to them they always start talking about my dad's work. They compliment him on paint jobs he did 20 years ago that still look like they are brand new. That reminds me of another trait I have taken from my dad, besides my hard work ethic. "If you are going to do a job, do it right the first time, because a job not done well is a job not worth doing," so the saying goes. I take that personally. If someone has an honest complaint about my workmanship, I will bend over backwards to make it right. If people are going to pay you good money to do something, you had better do a darn good job. That is why I usually work alone. Then, if there is a problem, I know whom I can blame.
My dad hasn't taught me everything, though. A lot of it I have learned on my own. I've still got a lot to learn, but I have figured out things like how to deal with people I don't like and those who don't like me. I've also learned why, when cutting a frozen bagel, you cut away from yourself. I have the scar to prove it. My dad calls this type of learning "the school of hard knocks." Some of the knocks are harder than others.
Below is the photo of Carlson's parents by Jeff Wheeler that the Star Tribune runs with the story by Chuck Haga.
The Star Tribune caption reads: "Michael Carlson's parents, Daniel and Merrilee Carlson, find comfort in the high school assignment left by their son. The paper included a heartfelt tribute to his father, and has been widely published since being read at his funeral. 'He always took care of his friends,' Daniel said of his son. The flag that draped Michael


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Retailers, apparel makers negotiate who absorbs markdowns
Who's going to absorb all those markdowns that retailers offered this holiday season?
Clothing manufacturers like Liz Claiborne and HMS Productions are saying "Not I."
As Randy Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Retail Federation, told me in a phone interview today, "Because of the deep discounts retailers offered, merchandise may have moved this season, but profit margin is way, way down."
So who picks up the slack?
According to a story on Forbes, "Clothing manufacturers, irked by the deep holiday discounts offered by retailers, may force department stores to absorb a larger chunk of the markdowns."
The story said U.S. apparel makers will meet with department stores before the year ends to negotiate concessions on how to deal with the prices that retailers slashed.


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FHSU president and former president Mirta Martin and Ed Hammond spoke about some of the most persistent questions surrounding the proposed merger.
Many of the largest questions that have complicated the first open discussions about merging Dodge City Community College into Fort Hays State University will be addressed through the legislation that will be required to make the plan work, FHSU president Mirta Martin and former president Ed Hammond said, Tuesday.
The other questions, especially regarding the viability of an exit plan and the continued accreditation of DCCC in the case of calamity is being discussed with both school's accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission, they said.
While the duo said they did not like the idea of entering the "marriage" with thoughts of divorce, they understood the concerns and believe the issue has been all but solved through discussions with the Higher Learning Commission.
One ongoing concern is if the merger took place and failed is the fate of the college's ability to provide accredited degrees and take advantage of the medley of private, non-profit and federal grants that help fund the school. Restarting accreditation, a guarantee by a third party that the school is worthy, could take several years if it is disrupted.
"The accreditation issue is a red herring," Hammond said. "I've discussed it with the Higher Learning Commission and am in the process of getting a letter for them that says 'This is exactly how you manage this transition so we keep all the accreditations.' We're as worried about accreditation as Dodge City is. … What they're telling us though is there are more than one way to do it, we'll have choices."
"We will safeguard accreditation to the core," Martin added. "We cannot jeopardize our accreditation."
"And the HLC has guaranteed that won't happen," Hammond said.
One option would be for FHSU and DCCC to maintain two institutional identification numbers, similar to Washburn University and Washburn Tech, while being parts of a single university, Hammond said.
Martin and Hammond also addressed the $960,000 shortfall projected by DCCC Finance Director Vada Hermon, primarily due to academic scholarships, a major contributor to the residential student population.
Under current law Hermon's numbers are correct, Hammond said, as colleges are prevented from spending property tax revenues on scholarships for out-of-county students. One goal of the enabling legislation would be to change that law.
Unlike earlier statements by proponents that the $5 million in recurring state funds the merger will be spent solely on the new technical institute, that money is now seen more generally in support of the merger as a whole with its three academic units.
"This is a point we want to make sure the citizens of Dodge City hear," Martin said. "There have been concerns circulating about property tax increases resulting from this merger. That could not be further way from the fact, quite the opposite."
Hammond added: "That's been a point where we drew the line in the sand. If the state's not going to invest $5 million, I took the position a year ago this wouldn't work — there's no merger — and the reason we needed the $5 million is to have some property tax buy down here, we needed the $5 million to fund the new entity we're creating. Those resources can be used in any way; they are a general fund allocation to Fort Hays for Dodge City. It can be used any way we want them for any specific purpose. It doesn't come with a line item."
By their analysis, the local property tax burden should be able to be decreased by $1 million, DCCC board willing.
As for the wide variance in enrollment numbers that have been thrown out since the plan was first made public in March, most of that will be determined by whether the DCCC board decides to stay in a two-year athletics conference or move to a four-year program, Hammond said.
A four-year athletics program would draw more of the four year students, perhaps as many as 500, he said.
"If the decision is to stay at a two-year athletic program, they're probably would not as many students. There are many decisions that have not been made yet — many are local decisions — that will determine that number," Hammond said.
The FHSU leaders also said that programming in the upper division college, the portion awarding baccalaureate degrees, will largely depend on demand as measured from the "pipeline" of students going through the college. FHSU will not know what four-year programs it should place in Dodge City without having that information, but once it does, it should be able to create a fairly accurate response to that demand.
Another big question is whether the technical college will be able to find the 10 corporate partners spelled out in the "white paper," the initial, broad-strokes framework for the merger.
Since the proposed merger has emerged, there has been significant interest from companies in the state, Hammond said, far more than he originally guessed. Those companies will likely get the first shot and a meeting is planned in the near future with state Commerce Secretary Pat George.
The Legislature is going to want to have some certainty before it approves the merger, Hammond said, and a more definite idea of willing companies and trade sectors will be put together before the legislative session starts in January.
The interest from trade associations has been a surprise, Hammond said. Originally he believed the target companies would be fairly large with a need to fill 100 jobs per year. Instead, he has gotten interest from groups of companies that alone may not fit the bill, but together do.
"I had not given any thought of that at all. At first when it came up our answer was 'Well, we'll look at it.' I think we'll look harder at it, now," Hammond said. "With that new additional thinking, there's no problem getting 10 players."
Martin and Hammond came to Dodge City to speak to residents in a town hall-style meeting, and to dispel "misinformation" and rumors about the merger, they said.
Martin, five weeks on the job, said she is fully dedicated to the merger, a position that was strengthened during an earlier visit to Dodge City when she met an FHSU student who started at Dodge City before earning his Bachelor's degree in Hays. He was with his sisters who said they would not be able to follow the same path because their parents would not allow the daughters to leave the community.
As a Hispanic woman, Martin said she understood the family pressures and dynamics, and that when she was younger was expected to leave the family home "in a white dress."
The merger will give those residents of Dodge City an option for earning a Bachelor's degree in a college setting, Martin said.
"You've got to have the same set of values (for the merger) to succeed. You've got to be community-centered. Those are our values. That's why this marriage is just that. And that's why I'm asking people to look into this union with an open mind."


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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A woman who jumped from the third level of the Oakland Raiders' stadium survived after a man tried to catch her and broke her fall, police said.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A woman who jumped from the third level of the Oakland Raiders' stadium survived after a man tried to catch her and broke her fall, police said.
The woman, who was not identified, was critically injured Sunday after plunging about 45 feet at O.co Coliseum. She jumped shortly after the Raiders' 23-19 loss to the Tennessee Titans, as fans filed out of the stadium.
The good Samaritan was seriously injured but was conscious and talking at the hospital, police said.
"He saved her life quite honestly, at his own expense," Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson told the Oakland Tribune. "This guy 100 percent saved her life. She'd be dead now."
Nelson said the woman went to a seating area that was covered by a tarp and appeared to be alone when she jumped. The man on the concourse level saw her and repeatedly shouted, "Don't do it," Nelson said.
Nelson told KTVU-TV he lunged toward the woman as she dropped and was knocked down as he tried to catch her.
Nelson visited the man in the hospital Sunday evening.
"He just couldn't imagine having people see that," Nelson said. "He said it was a reaction. Even now, at the hospital he's very concerned about her. He's a real compassionate person."
The 61-year-old man's name was not released. Nelson told the TV station he was from Stockton, had served as a Marine and is a Raiders season ticket holder.
On the NFL's opening day this year, a fan died from a fall off a pedestrian overpass outside Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and two others were injured when a railing collapsed at the Colts game against the Raiders in Indianapolis.


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Last week in Berlin, at a location close to both the Holocaust memorial and the former Nazi center of power, the Third Transatlantic Conference took place. Its stated purpose was to address "common solutions" in the Middle East. During the conference, Iran's former deputy minister of foreign Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani, stated that "the Zionist project" should be "cancelled" because it "has failed miserably and has only caused terrible damage to the region." According to the Jerusalem Post, representatives from Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia also attended, and contributed their own harsh anti-Israeli statements.
Naturally, the conference also featured denial of the Holocaust, which is a crime in Germany. Larijani, whose brother Ali was Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator and is its current parliament speaker, helpfully explained that "denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world has nothing to do with anti-Semitism."
In response to rumors of government financial support for the conference, a spokeswoman for that ministry said that "the Foreign Ministry did not financially support the event." (emphasis added) Subsequently, the spokewoman did not deny that her ministry had played a role in supporting the anti-Israel conference. She also stated that the Federal Ministry of Economics had funded the conference. In short, the German taxpayer helped pay for the event, and the Foreign Ministry helped pave the way for it.
In Israel earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the security of Israel to be part of Germany's overall national interests. However, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has come under criticism from supporters of Israel over his policy towards Iran.
Reasonable people can disagree over what the German Foreign Ministry's Iran policy should be. One would have thought it beyond dispute, however, that the German Foreign Ministry should not be sponsoring, supporting, or faciltating a conference whose goal is to "cancel" Israel, and that the Federal Economic Ministry should not be financing such a conference.
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for the seventh grade boy and girl
The following blog has content meant for parents and children 12 years of age and older. If you are younger than 12, do not read on without your parents' consent. (Of course, now that I said DO NOT READ ON, you might be tempted even more to do so...!)
Here are a few highlights of how the week unfolded.
Day One: Reproduction and Relationships
Humankind's experience of sexuality is truly of a dual nature. I pointed out to the students that the cycle of life has two complementary turning circles: reproduction and relationships, or biology and biography. And it starts with the duality of genes and jeans!
On the biological side, our genes, our DNA, are key to the passing on of the human design. On the biographical side, our jeans, which I used to represent the social aspect of ATTRACTION, are key to the turning on of human desire.
Attraction leads to HOPE. On the reproduction side is the male SPERM, and its complementary symbol on the relationship side is a STAR, which I used to represent the wish (wishing upon a star!) or hope for partnership, after attraction.
Hope leads to LOVE. The female EGG, the reproductive side, complements the EARTH, representing oneness, the love formed in partnerships.
Love leads to FAMILY. On the reproduction side, FERTILIZATION. The concept here is that our reproductive capacity to create Life is complemented by the relationships needed to nurture Life.
This dual concept of reproduction and relationship I believe is so important in laying the foundation for the seventh grader in making happy, healthy choices (which is the umbrella theme for the entire physio block). As they undergo puberty, knowing what is going on with their reproductive organs is obviously important. But at 12 and 13 years of age, even though they are capable of having children biologically-speaking, are they ready for the relationship side, for nurturing offspring? I made it clear that creating life is one miraculous human achievement, but nurturing life, having the maturity to be in a partnership with another human, to dedicate oneself to taking care of a child, requires many more years of growth. (My anti-teen pregnancy talk!)
Day Two: The Parts and Counterparts
The second day, I introduced the reproductive organs to the students. (A sidebar: as a teacher, I was sensitive to the delivery of the material. When we talked about digestion, I showed huge drawings on the board. With reproduction, I sensed that the material needed to be delivered on a more intimate scale, so our discussion occured in a small circle of chairs, with no board work. I instead made drawings on handouts.) I had the students make observations on the male and femal parts that I had drawn side by side, and they also labeled the parts. The students could easily see that parts had counterparts, such as with the male testes and female ovaries. I would point to the part and say it, such as PENIS, or VAGINA. Delivered in this way, they got used to hearing the words objectively, removing some of the giggle factor!
Day Three: Puberty and the Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle allowed us to talk about female puberty. The signal for reproductive maturity in females is the period, along with other changes to the female body. In the 28-day cycle, we talked about the developing egg, the endometrium, and the hormones invovled.
I wrote a song (sung to Jingle Bells, since 'tis the season):
In the ovary,
The follicle does grow,
Inside there is an egg,
And soon it will explode.
If unfertilized it stays,
The egg it travels on,
Through the tube and uterus,
And with the blood it's gone!
FSH, estrogen, LH, progesterone,
FSH, estrogen, LH, progesterone,
FSH, estrogen, LH, progesterone,
FSH, estrogen, LH, progesterone!
Day Four: Puberty and Spermatogenesis
Our circle of chairs became the lining of the testes. Using bean bags, I described the maturation of the sperm as it traveled from the edges to the center on the testes to become mature sperm. Spermatogonia to spermatocyctes to spermatids to spermatozoa. They then moved to the epididymis for storage, and mixed with seminal fluid from the glands and prostate, and ejaculated upon stimulation of the penis.
If you are wondering, the mechanism of bringing egg and sperm together was in fact briefly discussed. I simply said that the act of intercourse, when the male penis is erect and stimulated, releases the seminal fluid into the vagina where the sperm, all 500 million of them, needs to travel to the Fallopian tubes, and just ONE sperm fertilizes the egg, quite a journey!
The Guy Talk
On the fourth day, we had a break out session, I spoke with the boys, and Mrs. Nelson, my partner teacher, spoke with the girls. I was really impressed that the boys were very open and candid with the guy topics!
The week went very well, and I was glad to have been involved with this crucial stage in the lives of these dear children.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
reproductive system
Posted by Rick Tan III
1 comment:
- Kris said...
This is fabulous! As a home educator and having to work on this block this year, 2011, I greatly appreciate the insight.
- June 17, 2011 at 7:21 AM
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(Reuters) - Apple Inc has rejected the U.S. Justice Department's allegations that it colluded with publishers over electronic book pricing, calling the charges "simply not true."
The U.S. government had sued Apple and five publishers, saying they conspired to fix the prices of electronic books. It has reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers.
In an email to Reuters, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr confirmed the company's position, which earlier appeared in a Wall Street Journal article.
"The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told the Journal.
Kerris defended the current pricing structure as parallel to Apple's mobile software store.
"Just as we have allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore," she told newspaper.
Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Ron Popeski and Lisa Von Ahn


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Trying to stay my distance -- respect the Amish rules ..200mm lens from a cross the fields .. early 100 film
I'm sure poorly processed film back in the early 80's > doesn't help the noise problem . I worked several hours on this one , just trying to remove specs/dust. The color aberrations ,etc were really difficult to try and diminish. Have you ever tried scanning 100 color film --yikes. I was pretty far away ( since you can't approach /photograph this group of Amish) zoomed out max. Had a chance for just one shot --before I was detected .
I understand the issues in the difficulty of scanning. No problem. I just didn't want to make that the center of my opinion. I've never had too much luck with scanning either. It is tedious, to be sure.
Digital is such a different world -- Besides being able to shoot 100 images for every 1 image you take with a 12 exposure camera ..a 20+meg chip just looks good ..& no noise /grain if properly exposed.
They're out of the picture Dean but I'm sure that the baler is pulled by horses too.Later,Johnny
It may be pulled by horses, but what's that contraption at the top right of the baler? Sure looks like a gasoline engine to me.


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Open Meeting Law violation upholds '07 action to layoff crossing guards
It's been years, but the city's action to layoff its crossing guards in the winter of 2007, thereby ending their health care and pensions for an estimated savings of $60,000 and rehiring them on a per diem basis, has been upheld on the basis, of all things, by the state's Open Meetings Law.
In a ruling filed March 12, Superior Court Justice Jeffery Lanphear found that the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board violated the law on Aug. 8, 2008, when it broke a 3-to-3 deadlock by calling member Joseph Mulvey. Mulvey concurred with the Rhode Island Laborers' District Council, Local 1033 that the city's action constituted an unfair labor practice.
The city's action came after the administration and the union reached an agreement. The contract, which was set to expire in June 2006, was extended to June 30, 2010. That agreement went to the City Council for ratification and no further, however. The union claimed it repeatedly sought to return to the bargaining table without success. And the administration believed it was at an impasse. On Dec. 28, 2007, the city announced its intention to permanently replace the crossing guards, yet gave the existing guards the opportunity to apply for the per diem posts, which most of them did.
It was then that the union brought its complaint to the labor board.
At the hearing, the six members of the board present split on a motion to dismiss the charge. That left the board in a dead heat with three votes in favor and three opposed. The board then considered whether to uphold the union's charge and, again, the vote was three to three.
According to court documents, in order to break the tie, the staff reached Mulvey, who did not participate in the meeting, for his vote. He favored upholding the charge.
On the basis of that action, the city argued that the board had violated the Open Meetings Law and that Mulvey's vote should be deemed null and void.
In his ruling, Judge Lanphear found that under the law, electronic communication should be permitted only to schedule a meeting. Further, he found that electronic or telephone communications are permissible in situations where a member has a disability or is incapable of attending a meeting in person. Yet, Judge Lanphear found no evidence that Mulvey met the disabled provision; that he had not requested a waiver allowing him to participate by electronic communication and that even if granted a waiver, there was no evidence that Mulvey participated in the meeting.
"The tie break resulted from a clear violation of the Open Meetings Act and therefore the Board acted improperly by rendering a decision based on Mr. Mulvey's vote," Judge Lanphear ruled.
Assistant City Solicitor Diana Pearson, who represented the city, said the ruling is the first in her practice where the labor board's action was reversed on the basis of a technicality.
The judge found there was an opportunity for a full hearing after Mulvey's vote, as there was a complete record. But it didn't come before the board again at that time.
"A remand does not further the interests of justice," writes Judge Lanphear, "it merely delays and offers a second bite at a very aged apple. This second hearing and second vote is unnecessary and inherently unfair."
This brings up an interesting point. The City Council considers a tied vote to be a vote in favor of a bill. That practice needs to end. Is there a city council rep out there willing to introduce that legislation?
these crossing guards are only part time they should recieve no benifits in the private sector unless you work fourty hours you do not receive benifits the same should be for tempory teachers
Richard, a tie vote on an City Council legislation indicates a rejection of the legislation. The Council must have a majority vote to pass any legislation.


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Elaine Goodner watched Gem swim into a stiff Alabama wind, worried that her black Labrador would drift off her course and end her quest at becoming a hunting dog champion.
"Dogs hate wind," Goodner says.
Sure enough, the 20 mph gusts started pushing Gem far off her path toward the downed duck. But a quick burst of Goodner's whistle sent Gem spinning backward, treading water while awaiting for her master's order.
Goodner thrust her left arm at a 45-degree angle, and Gem responded by getting back on course, just like she's done thousands of times.
"She took (the command), picked up the bird, came back and we were good," Goodner says.
Good enough to become top dog among Southern Oregon's retrievers in hunting trial competitions.
That little correction helped the Medford duo earn a rare feat, their second AKC Hunt Test qualifier from the Master National Retriever Club during the club's qualifying Master National Event held Oct. 18-28 in Demopolis, Ala.
The pair earned their first such national distinction two years ago in an identical competition in California. They were the only local combo among the 268 retrievers and trainers to pass muster this year. In all, 690 dogs took part in the five series of retriever tests stretched across 10 days of the hot and humid Alabama fall.
The pair plan to try for a trifecta next fall in Kansas. If they earn their third Master Nationals qualification, it would ensure the 9-year-old Gem lives up to her name among retrieving's elite animal-athletes.
"One more time and she goes into (the club's) Hall of Fame, and she'll probably get retired," says Goodner, 60.
The 21-year-old club represents the upper echelon of retrievers trained to do all that dogs do in the field to assist upland game-bird and waterfowl hunters.
The tests imitate the finding and retrieving of pheasants and ducks either shot live or thrown dead into fields and ponds as if they were taken in real hunting scenarios. They are graded based on their abilities to perform these tasks as close to perfect as possible.
In most cases, the dog sees three birds drop in a series, then the animal must retrieve all three in succession. Handlers such as Goodner can assist their dogs only a handful of times throughout the event, and then only with no more than a few whistle bursts and arm movements.
Goodner and Gem are unique in their field. They are amateurs at a venue dominated by professional trainers, and they're in rarified air as two-time qualifiers.
"I tell them that just being here means they're running with the big dogs," says Janet Wood, a club board member from Port Costa, Calif., and head marshal at this year's event. "Just to be qualified to go multiple years is an accomplishment. To pass is even well above that."
The dogs compete against the scorecard and not each other, but the work is nerve-wracking.
Gem could have knocked herself out of the event simply by getting momentarily confused by competing bird smells and following her nose instead of Goodner's commands.
"Dogs will argue with you if they don't trust you," Goodner says. "They get out there and they can think they know more than you."
But Gem trusts Goodner, who has trained retrievers for field tests since the 1980s.
In fact, Gem trusts Goodner more at times than she trusts herself.
"I was nervous, extremely nervous," Goodner says of their test days in Alabama. "I was afraid I was going to be the one to make a mistake and get her dropped."
Their road to American Kennel Club mastery is much like the path violinists take to Carnegie Hall.
The pair practice and practice their craft regularly during Goodner's lunch breaks from her work managing a physicians laboratory in Medford and on weekends at the Denman Wildlife Area in White City.
They work intensely on what Goodner calls a five-point drill. She tosses five retriever decoys in a field at Medford's Howard Park, with Gem watching intently were they land. On Goodner's command, she takes off, then stops abruptly at Goodner's whistle blast.
The dog turns and sits, waiting for instructions. Goodner lifts her right arm skyward and Gem pivots and bolts straight behind her toward the dummy bird.
"She knows what I'm talking about," Goodner says.
It paid off in spades that day on the Alabama pond, when the wind pushed Gem off her path toward the last bird in that fateful three-bird series and toward the location where she retrieved an earlier bird.
"To go back to an old fall, you're done," Goodner says.
That whistle blast and single arm point resonated just as well that day as any on the grass of Howard Park or the ponds at Denman.
"Dogs really have a hard time in the wind, but I knew what I wanted her to do and she knew what I wanted her to do," Goodner says.
Gem — whose AKC registered name is "Good Time Ruby Tuesday" but goes by Gem because it's a good name to bark in the field — will take a few months off from serious training before she goes back on the local field-test circuit next spring. Then it's back at work for one more shot at retriever stardom and a Hall of Fame induction as a three-time qualifier.
And Gem doesn't know how close she came to losing her path to retrieving mastery had she not listened to that single whistle blast in the Alabama wind on that last day of the test.
"This was kind of a do-or-die," Goodner says. "Either we made it this time or I was going to retire her. She's 9 years old. If she failed, asking her to go back two more times and do this would have been too much.
"She's very important to me."
Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarkCFreeman
Top dog
Elaine Goodner watched Gem swim into a stiff Alabama wind, worried that her black Labrador would drift off her course and end her quest at becoming a hunting dog champion.


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While R&B star Chris Brown came to ABC's "Good Morning America" this morning, ready to move on from his past — he pled guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna two years ago; the restraining order was just "relaxed," as his interviewer Robin Roberts put it — it was clear that the world hasn't quite forgiven all his sins. The 22-year-old was on GMA to promote his new album, "F.A.M.E." (Forgiving All My Enemies), but Roberts kicked off the interview (below) by asking Brown about the easement on the restraining order, claiming it was in response to the Tweets flooding in.
Although Brown managed to keep his cool during this segment, things took a surprising turn after his first scheduled musical performance. According to insiders, once the song finished, he "stormed into his dressing room and started screaming and tearing the room apart." By the time security arrived, a window in Brown's dressing room was smashed, and Brown stormed out of the building — with no shirt on.
Following the incident, Brown reportedly posted the following on Twitter: "I'm so over people bringing this past s**t up!!! Yet we praise Charlie Sheen and other celebs for there [sic] bulls**t." The post was later removed from Twitter, replaced with a message for his Team Breezy fans: "… This album is for you and only you!!! I'm tired of everyone else!! …"
Brown is still scheduled to perform in the elimination round of "Dancing with the Stars" next week — for now — but it's more than likely DWTS host Tom Bergeron will skip the probing questions for the live show. Still, Brown's behavior today left us wondering: has Brown truly moved on from the past? And are we ready to, as well?


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The IMF and the world: Unsteady as she goes
If you knew nothing of what had happened in the global economy over the past five years you would have found Christine Lagarde's opening press conference at the World Bank and IMF meetings in Tokyo on Thursday morning distinctly peculiar.
Why? Because she was saying some quite scary things about the outlook for the world, but she didn't sound like she wanted to raise the alarm. She sounded like it was pretty much business as usual.
A good example was financial sector reform, which came top of her list of policy priorities for governments. She said: "if you ask... supervisors around the world whether the financial sector is safer than it was five years ago, many will say: 'no, not yet'. And we tend to concur with that."
When you think about it, that's quite alarming. After all, five years ago the financial sector turned out to be less safe than it has been since at least the 1920s, maybe ever.
Since then, trillions of dollars have been ploughed into the global financial system and thousands of pages of new regulations and supervisory requirements have been drawn up to make the financial system stronger.
But Madame Managing Director is saying that the Fund doesn't think we're any safer than we were five years ago. And nor, apparently, do many regulators.
Top priorities
Funnily enough, no-one in the room thought this judgement was worth exploring further in the question and answer session.
The many international journalists present seemed equally untroubled by her other three priorities, which were: governments establishing credible programmes to bring down some of the biggest sovereign debt piles we have ever seen; creating jobs for the 48 million plus unemployed in the advanced economies, many of which have seen joblessness rise higher, for longer, than anyone expected; and, finally, that old favourite, tackling global imbalances.
On this last point, Madame Lagarde said the massive current account surpluses and deficits that we saw in the lead-up to the crisis had receded lately, but that was only because of the "conjunctural state of things".
In other words, deficits and surpluses had gone down, but mainly because people in the big deficit countries had less money now to buy stuff from abroad and the big surplus countries are having to pay a lot for their commodity imports.
Imbalances have probably also been helped by the drying up of global trade flows in the past few months, due to worries about the eurozone and the US economy, which could end up hitting the world's banks. These are not very encouraging reasons.
When growth picks up, the managing director said, "imbalances are likely to widen again".
This, too, might be considered worrying. After all, hasn't Sir Mervyn King told us, again and again, that those same high imbalances were the ultimate cause of the crisis and our economy won't properly recover until this big international problem is addressed?
Perhaps. But we didn't get any more on that subject either. None of the journalists present asked a question about it.
Big uncertainties
None of this is to berate the people sitting in that conference hall. If I were in Tokyo, I might not have asked about these things either; not because they aren't important, but because (a) we have heard them so many times before and (b) it is even less obvious than usual that these IMF and World Bank meetings can do anything about them.
Everyone agrees that the biggest short-term uncertainties hanging over the global economy are US fiscal policy and the crisis in the eurozone.
One month before a presidential election, neither the IMF nor anyone else can have much influence on US policy. And in discussing the rest of the world, US officials in Tokyo are likely to be somewhat distracted, at best.
What about Europe? Surely the IMF still has plenty to play for in Europe? Except, the limited influence the Fund might have had in the eurozone is in danger of ebbing away. True, the European Central Bank (ECB) has asked it to advise on any Spanish support programme going forward, but it is not expected to make a financial contribution to any future bailout.
If you're sitting in Spain - or Greece - the Fund's influence in Europe matters because its view on matters fiscal has now moved quite far from Germany, the European Commission and the ECB.
As I have mentioned several times before, Fund officials have been privately lobbying for a slower pace of fiscal adjustment in the periphery countries for well over a year. But that came more fully into the open this week with the release of the chief economist's new research on the economic impact of fiscal austerity programmes since 2009. I reported on the UK implications of this research into the 'fiscal multiplier' for Radio 4 and BBC1 on 9 October.
Money-wise, the Fund has been a minority partner in eurozone bailout programmes to date. By and large, it has simply gone along with what the rest of the Troika wanted. If it is now to move to a more advisory role, some say that will embolden its officials to speak more openly about what they would call a more growth-friendly solution to the eurozone crisis, with more expansionary policies in the core countries and a slower pace of adjustment in Spain and the rest.
Others inside the Fund take exactly the opposite view: with less "skin in the game", they say, the Fund will have even less capacity to make its voice heard.
Here's what we do know: it is hard to envisage any long-term resolution to the eurozone crisis that does not include a moderate level of growth in the periphery economies, and the Fund now takes a rather different view on how to achieve that growth than the powers-that-be in Brussels or Frankfurt.
The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook has some of the same disconnect between scary content and hum-drum tone that we saw in Christine Lagarde's press conference. Nearly every growth forecast for this year and next was revised down, financial vulnerabilities were "even higher than in the spring" and the downside risks to the forecast were "much higher" as well.
Yet, for all that, Olivier Blanchard allowed himself to suggest, in the foreword, that the "worst might be behind us".
The world is still a scary place, but for the Fund - and for governments - scary is becoming all too normal. The more normal it seems, the less scope there may be for the IMF to make much of a difference.


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|Burlington, Ont.
|High School:
Freshman • 2012-13
Named to the All-Ivy second team ... Finished the spring 12-4 in dual matches and 4-3 in conference ... Teamed with Kristin Norton to win the Crimson Doubles Flight of the Harvard Fall Tournament, toppling NJIT's Ksenia Kuzmenko and Hannelore MacDonald, 8-2 ... Went 4-5 in singles play and 7-4 in doubles play in the fall ... Went 8-1 in singles and 2-8 in doubles during non-conference play … Compiled a record of 2-2 in singles and 0-1 in doubles during Ivy League play … Defeated Ryann Young of Cornell, 6-4, 6-4 (April 6) … Knocked off Stephanie Do of Penn, 6-4, 6-2 (April 14) ... Outlasted Madeleine Hamilton of Yale 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(7) in singles (April 21).
Before Harvard
Played tennis at Nelson High School and served as team captain in 2008 … Member of the Canadian Junior Fed Cup team and helped squad capture the North American title and gold and silver medals at the Canada Games … Under-16 Canadian Junior national champion … Third-place finisher at under-18 Canadian Junior nationals … Under-14, U16 and U18 Ontario Provincial singles champion … Under-18 Ontario doubles champion … Ranked within the top five in Canada and top two in Ontario during high school career … Achieved honor roll status and had a top-five grade-point average all four years of high school … Earned Grade B Royal Conservatory for piano in 2008 … Assisted with Halton's Children's Aid Foundation fundraiser in 2011 and 2012 … Worked at Appleby Place retirement residence in 2008 … Enjoys singing, music and reading.


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Banner readers share their views on amendments in the city charter, motorcycles, correction officers, and the affordable care act.
Special election runoff
I was really glad to see the article in the Star-Banner by Susan Latham Carr about proposed changes to the Ocala City Charter.
I plan to vote yes on the proposed amendment titled "Qualifications and Elections of City Officials." The amendment proposes that runoff elections be eliminated for special elections only. Then the candidate with the greatest number of votes is named the winner.
Here are some additional facts that helped me and might help others to vote yes. Since 1954 there have been 10 special elections with six of those requiring a runoff. In all six of the runoffs, the candidate who had the most votes in the initial special election also received the most votes in the runoff. If this proposed change to the charter was in place for these six special election runoffs, all results would have been the same.
Additionally, our city would have avoided a present-day cost of $55,000 for each of the six runoffs. That is quite a large sum.
So I ask that our city residents vote yes for this amendment and know that they will not be changing anything except avoiding a substantial unnecessary cost.
Kay Epstein
You better watch out
"Watch out for Motorcycles" is a bumper sticker I see frequently. So, I've been watching them.
Last week, while coming across State Road 40, two were behind me, both with passengers. The first passed me while I was doing 2 miles over the speed limit and zoomed off into the distance. Soon we all had to stop for the light at State Road 19 where both roads are two-lane. As I started across, the other one PASSED ME ON THE RIGHT while we were crossing the two lanes of SR 19, and had I not heard him and not slowed down, I probably would have hit him when he swerved back into my lane — and I might have killed two people.
At night, I'm frequently blinded by motorcycle triple high-beam headlights, which they never dim and are at my windshield height. Most 18-wheelers don't do this. How does blinding motorists with these lights make the motorcyclist safer?
Also, I frequently see bicyclists at night "jay-crossing" busy streets, wearing dark clothes and with inadequate or no lights.
One thing I've never seen is a motorcycle pulled over by police. Are they not subject to the same laws as other vehicles?
And more importantly, how can a motorist prove she or he was NOT at fault when the cyclist causes an accident, like the one I was able to avoid last week?
Mignon Craig
Time to compensate
Safe for another year? I can best describe the past months as shenanigans as usual. Why is it that some agencies are "taken care" of regularly each year and the Sheriff's Office is given over for decay? I understand the past six years have been lean, but the SO has been sacrificing each year with the hope of a light at the end of the tunnel.
I don't mean to slight my fellow officers in law enforcement, but I want to address those officers in corrections, the portion of service I know best.
Those corrections officers start each day with a large, loud steel door slamming behind them; then they are in jail for 12 hours dealing with inmates and their various needs. One minute they could be handing them a roll of toilet tissue and five minutes later that same officer may be called on to perform CPR on an inmate. Over the years these officers have missed holidays and various other functions at home. They work nights. They are often times managing inmates with a 150-1 ratio.
You may say that goes with the job, and that is true. However, with that job also came a commitment to them for a fair wage, fair benefits, and if you are loyal and work hard, a pension after many years of service.
The County Commission should be thankful there are people willing to go in and do the job of keeping those individuals off of the street. Those officers have seen and heard things no one should see and hear.
I know the commission is working under a monetary constraint, but it may be time to tax for more revenue to compensate these officers to the degree they deserve. Remember, you get what you pay for.
Mike Forte
The pain of Obamacare
Mr. President, this is the reality of your health care law (by the way, I voted for you twice):
To avoid having to provide health insurance to its employees, my employer no longer offers full-time employment. I now work about 25-28 hours per week, whereas before Obamacare I often worked 40-45 hours per week.
So, because of your health care law, not only am I working fewer hours per week and earning less money, but now I have to pay the full cost of my health insurance or pay a tax penalty. As far as I am concerned, Obamacare is a perfect example of hubris: the Democrats passed this law, not because it was a good law, not because it would help anybody, but because they could.
Mr. President, if you truly care about more Americans realizing the American dream, repeal Obamacare!
If you fail to do so, you will be responsible for the demise of the middle class.
Stephen Robertson


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Two months after a Texas energy company announced plans to drill horizontal shale-oil wells in southwestern La Plata County, residents have hardly reached a consensus about the practice.
More than 30 Fort Lewis Mesa residents presented a range of opinions about oil and gas development near their homes at the La Plata County Commissioners first On the Road meeting of the year at the Marvel Grange.
The meetings are meant to be an open format to address issues residents may have, and it was clear from Mondays meeting that the impending shale development is at the top of most residents minds.
Attendees voiced concerns ranging from the over-regulation of the natural-gas and oil industry to the potential that under-regulation could fail to protect residents water, air, property and roads.
Several attendees also acknowledged the natural-gas and oil industrys major contribution to the countys economy and its necessity if Americans are to continue driving their cars and heating their homes.
The Fort Lewis Mesa area has seen a limited degree of oil development since the 1950s, but this type of drilling differs because the wells extend horizontally for thousands of feet and require multiple stages of fracturing.
Swift Energy, the company that plans to drill two exploratory wells in the area, intends to drill to a vertical depth of 2,500 feet, then continue horizontally for another 3,000 feet. Those plans will make its wells some of the shallowest shale wells drilled in the United States, said Dan Randolph, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance.
Jeff Brame, a local petroleum geologist who has worked for oil and gas companies in several Rocky Mountain states, said that Swifts planned wells would be the shallowest he has ever seen.
How horizontal wells drilled at such shallow depths affect water quality is not yet known, Randolph said.
Discussion also turned to hazardous materials and the countys ability to respond to emergencies related to oil and gas activities.
The Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District has limited resources to respond to major spills or emergencies, said Butch Knowlton, director of the La Plata County Office of Emergency Management. As a result, the county and the fire protection district have met with Swift officials to discuss additional emergency-management resources that will be needed in relation to shale development, Knowlton said.
But without knowing what kinds of chemicals and processes Swift will be using, its hard for the fire protection district to know what resources it may need, said Debbie Lee, the districts president.
If it does become a boom state, whats the plan? Lee asked. There are things that need to be fettered out to conclusion before we say go.
She urged commissioners to take a measured approach with energy development going forward.
We all know oil and gas is important, but there is a way of doing it right, she said. We dont have to have industry at the detriment of citizens.
In response to concerns about road impacts, Swift is about to begin a traffic study to get an estimate of how many trucks it will use to drill and complete its wells and how that will affect county roads. The county must sign off on the study and negotiate road-improvement fees before it issues land-use permits for the two exploratory wells.
Residents left county commissioners with a request for a more expansive and thorough public notification process as they proceed with decisions about shale-oil development in the area.
The commissioners already have discussed how they could improve the communication process, Commissioner Gwen Lachelt said.
I did see that as a problem that I dont want to see happen again, she said.


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When I met Mark Ruffalo on the set on Now You See Me last April, it was only a matter of weeks before he would blow everyone away as The Hulk and Bruce Banner in The Avengers, a movie that marked a major transition for the actor previously known for indie dramas and comedies like You Can Count On Me and The Kids Are All Right. Sitting down with Ruffalo on one of the higher floors of 5 Pointz, the iconic graffiti hub in Long Island City, New York, it was tough not to ask Avengers questions-- and of course, it's a little embarrassing a year later to look back and see all these sly questions about a movie nobody had yet seen.
Lucky for us, Ruffalo was on point in sharing what he could about Now You See Me, a heist film about a group of four magicians-- played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson and Isla Fisher-- whose most fantastic trick involves robbing banks and sharing the profits with their audiences. As an FBI agent, Ruffalo is dispatched to catch the thieves in the act, and teams up with an Interpol agent played by Melanie Laurent to get the job done. But when you're hunting down magicians they're bound to always be a few steps ahead, and Ruffalo spends most of the film behind them… until the scene he shot that night in Queens, perhaps.
For more on what I saw on the set of Now You See Me you can catch up with the full set report, and read below for Ruffalo's confessions of magician envy, his delight in taking part in a big action film (that didn't require a motion-capture suit), and how he made changes to the story alongside director Louis Leterrier.
What was it about this project that made you sign on and get involved?
Um — Jesse Eisenberg. I read it and I thought it was a really fun thing. It's something I'd never done. I got to do some action stuff in it and I thought it was really kind of a clever script. It had a clever twist in it. And I just thought it would be one of those movies that is just a fun ride.
Do you have magician envy?
I'm a little bummed out that I don't get to do any tricks, but I got something up my sleeve.
You used to work in a bar as a bartender. Did you see a lot of guys pulling magic tricks on women and stuff?
Magicians, just a general note, don't get laid. I hate to say that.
Do you think David Copperfield got his ass kicked as a kid?
I don't know, but he's not doing so badly right now I don't think.
If you're a really good magician, I would imagine you could…
You know, we were at a party once and there's these street magicians that I've seen perform. David Blaine, I was at a party and he was doing some stuff and I thought my wife was gonna run off with him. And then Keith Barry who's one of our consultants on this, who's actually Woody Harrelson's consultant who's a great hypnotist and a great street magician, could be very, very seductive as well.
? Is that a Dave Franco-inflicted wound you have on your cheek there?
This is a Dave Franco special. He whipped a card at me.
A couple of them.
A couple of them, yeah.
You've played a police officer before, but what's different about Dylan?
He's kind of a rogue, he's kind of mangy and a little sassy. Most of the cops I've played are pretty straightforward cops. He's much more kind of an outsider, you know? They call it a street agent, you know. There's desk agents and street agents basically in the FBI. He's kind of unorthodox and he loves being on the street and he's tough and he doesn't shave, he doesn't really follow the rules. He's something of a lummox. He's always screwing things up, but does it with a lot of authority.
And the relationship with Melanie, is there a chemistry between the two of them or is this strictly a professional thing?
No, there's definitely something happening there, but he would like to keep it professional, but it's outside of his control in that way.
You said you wanted to do this because of action and you've got a big action movie coming out with The Avengers. Is this really different from that?
Well, a lot of the action stuff that I did on Avengers was on green screen or CGI at ILM in a suit and a lot of it was — I was playing with smaller things, you know? People were smaller so I didn't get to really interact with them.
You didn't get to punch someone?
No. I got to mess Loki up, but it was actually just a foam roller.
Now about this movie, we heard that you might have been hypnotized and perhaps that there's a word that someone could say to you and you would either bark or you would do something. Is this actually true or is it a made-up rumor on the set?
Woody got very proficient at hypnotizing people and we were out one night and I don't know if something was dropped in my drink or Woody actually hypnotized me, but something did happen to me. I don't want to talk about it much.
Does Melanie know the word?
I'm not telling you the word! No, no, no. It wasn't a word. It was, I wouldn't be able to remember the number three.
An actor usually wants to play somebody somewhat empathetic on screen. In a movie like this, and it seems society in general, you want those people to get away with it. We want the people that you're chasing, while we know societal-wise they should get caught, we want them to get away. What is that syndrome that we have?
Well, when it's sort of done in a way that you get to know the people. But this has a Robin Hood flair to it and right now there's definitely a populist sort of view of the world that, you know, people are being taken advantage of and the big people are taking advantage of them, and so the idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor seems to resonate quite a bit right now, and that's always been a great story. We like that story. There's a great quote, "Behind every great fortune, there's a great crime" and so this kind of turns that on its head. I don't know why, but, you know, filmmaking could direct you to have sympathy for people that you normally, as a society, wouldn't have sympathy for.


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Paul George and Lance Stephenson combined for 43 points and the Indiana Pacers remained unbeaten in the young season with an 89-74 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.
Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel had plenty of praise for Paul George and Lance Stephenson after Saturday night's 89-74 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Then he went a big leap further about Stephenson.
"Paul George and Lance Stephenson are guys who easily drove the ship tonight," Vogel said of the players who combined for 43 points for the unbeaten Pacers.
"Lance has been our most efficient offensive player this year.
"He has taken a giant step. I want to see him keep it going. It's in his DNA to be aggressive."
Stephenson scored 22 points, including 10 in a 14-4 run midway through the fourth quarter that gave the Pacers a 79-61 lead with 7:46 to play.
George, who had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and scored all the points in a key third-quarter run for Indiana (3-0).
"We came out with a good, solid defensive job," George said. "Our guards were boxing out, making it easier for our bigger guys. We are still learning. We must still improve."
Dion Waiters scored 17 points, Kyrie Irving had 15 and Anderson Varejao 14 for Cleveland (1-2), which dropped both ends of a two-night road trip after beginning the season with a homecourt win.
Stephenson began the final surge by hitting a 3-pointer from the left side, scored on a layup, drove the lane, then finished the run by knocking down a 28-footer from the left side. That pushed Indiana's lead to 18 points, and both coaches substituted liberally.
Roy Hibbert added 11 points for the Pacers, who played without guard George Hill, who sat out with a sore left hip. Replacing Hill, who scored 19 points in the Pacers' opener, was C.J. Watson, who scored seven points and dished out a team-high six assists.
"A solid 'W' for our guys," Vogel said. "Kudos to C.J. and Donald Sloan for stepping up for George Hill."
Cleveland, which had scored the last six points of the third quarter to pull within 62-55, trailed 65-57 early in the fourth quarter.
Stephenson was 7 of 13 from the field, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. George was 8 of 17 from the field, including 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.
George fueled the only real run of the first half, starting with a monster jam with 4:06 to go in the first quarter and finishing the 8-2 surge with two free throws as the Pacers took a 21-16 lead after one quarter.
Varejao started out fast for the Cavs, scoring eight points in the first 4:42, but the Pacers began to defend him at the free throw line and he did not score again in the half.
The Pacers shot 42 percent (16 of 38) in the first half to Cleveland's 31 percent (13 of 42) and outrebounded the Cavs 30-25.
Cleveland, which shot 29.2 percent (7 of 24) in the first quarter, improved to 34.9 percent (29 of 83) for the game, their lowest effort since shooting 33.3 percent at Indiana on Dec. 12, 2012.
"I'm happy with the defense," Vogel said. "We're off to a strong start. We have to keep it going. These guys, when the game's on the line, they tighten the screws. I'm happy with the way they handled their business tonight."
The Pacers shot 41.6 percent (32 of 77) and outrebounded Cleveland 51-37.
Cavs coach Mike Brown was able to see a silver lining in it all.
"As crazy as this sounds, I thought tonight was our best offensive night, from the standpoint that the ball moved and bodies moved," he said. "Just watching the game, I thought we tried to play with some flow.
"I thought we tried to move the basketball. We had weak-side shots open. We had more of those today than any other time, whether it's Brooklyn or Charlotte, even in preseason, they just didn't go down.
"Having said that, you have to give the Pacers credit. They're a playoff team. They're an Eastern Conference finals team. Every time we made a mistake, they made us pay for it."
Waiters said it was easy to find the difference between the teams.
"They made shots," he said. "They got to the foul line and we didn't.
"It just didn't fall, shots that we normally make. There are going to be nights like this."
NOTES: Indiana has won seven straight and 14 of 15 against Cleveland. . With six rebounds, Varejao ran his total to 3,565, surpassing Larry Nance (3,561) as the Cavs' No. 6 all-time rebounder. . The Pacers blocked six shots, bringing their NBA-leading total to 36.


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Berkshires heighten focus on STEM programs
STEM will be springing up all over Berkshire County in the coming months.
The acronym for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM is increasingly used to refer to movements promoting education, workforce development and careers relating to these fields.
Christopher Himes, STEM program manager for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, said in Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray are strong proponents of developing STEM careers in the commonwealth.
"They've decided to start funding regional programs to increase STEM education, from pre-K through Grade 16, what they consider into college," Himes said.
This week the state also announced that Massachusetts has been selected as a leading state and partner in the "100Kin10" movement (www.100kin10.org). The organization's mission is to respond to President Barack Obama's goal of providing 100,000 new, highly qualified STEM teachers over 10 years as outlined in his 2011 State of the Union address.
Locally, schools, businesses and organizations have been working together through what is known as the Berkshire STEM Pipeline Network, one of six similar regional networks of people in the state working to create programs, curricula and other opportunities for the improvement and promotion of STEM education for students and teachers.
One such opportunity that has been continuously well-attended is the Massachusetts Region 1 High School Science and Engineering Fair. It will take place on Friday in the Amsler Campus Center gymnasium, on the MCLA campus. The public is invited to view approximately 55 projects created by about 80 students from nine schools between the Western Massachusetts region of Berkshire, Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties.
"It's important to see what these students can do. Some projects can lead to the development of patents or really significant findings," said Himes.
"Participation in the science fair is one way to engage students in sciences, and an opportunity for students to connect with experts in their field of study and to learn about career opportunities in the STEM fields," said Monica Joslin, MCLA dean of academic affairs. She said that 60 volunteers, all experts in their fields, will serve as judges for the event.
The Region I high school fair is just one of several STEM-related opportunities for students and teachers happening this spring and summer.
On Saturday, March 23, with support from the Berkshire Applied Technology Council, the annual Berkshire County Robotics Challenge will be held at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School. This year's theme is "Senior Solutions." Thirty-five teams of elementary and middle school students will be using Lego robotics systems to demonstrate ways to aid the lives of senior citizens.
Also happening this spring will be a Western Massachusetts region middle school science fair, a teacher training program with educators from the Boston Museum of Science, and also some programs for parents about how to engage and find resources for students interested in STEM fields.
Himes said MCLA will also be rolling out a new STEM Academy program in August. The weeklong specialized summer orientation program will be offered to incoming MCLA freshmen who are interested in pursuing a degree in a STEM field.
"We want to influence the success of college students, as well as those in the K-12 grades," Himes said.
More about STEM ...
New STEM terms
Also on the horizon are three other terms that are becoming more commonly used:
DIGITS is a program that pairs STEM professionals with sixth-grade classrooms throughout the state to introduce students to STEM subjects, career opportunities and attributes and benefits of working in a STEM career.
STEAM evolves from STEM and stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math. The idea is to incorporate STEM into the arts field and the arts into STEM instruction and programs.
"Next Generation Science Standards" are akin to the Common Core standards for English language arts and math being implemented in Massachusetts schools this year. The Next Generation Science Standards are currently being developed by educators to improve and raise the bar on how states in the U.S. teach science subjects. The new standards are expected to be completed this month.
STEM events in Berkshire County:
A public viewing of the Massachusetts Region 1 High School Science and Engineering Fair projects and keynote address by Pat Muraca, president and CEO of Nuclea Biotechnologies in Pittsfield, will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. The event will be held in the Amsler Campus Center gymnasium at MCLA in North Adams.
Forty finalists from this fair will be selected to advance to the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair, to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), May 2 through 4. There, students will have an opportunity to advance to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 13 through 18.
On March 23, the annual Berkshire County Robotics Challenge will be held at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School, beginning at 9 a.m.
Bridging Engineering, Science, & Technology (BEST) for elementary educators will be hosting a professional developments session at MCLA on April 25, from 9:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Western Mass Regional Middle School Science and Engineering Fair will be held April 27 at MCLA.
Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair's Educator Day at MIT will be held May 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Learn more at www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/Community/stempipeline.
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.