Saturday, October 31, 2009

Almanacs “Man collects barn star photos - Reporter” plus 4 more

Almanacs “Man collects barn star photos - Reporter” plus 4 more

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Man collects barn star photos - Reporter

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 05:45 AM PDT

By: Bruce R. Posten, Reading Eagle via AP

KUTZTOWN — Stars. Not hex signs, but stars.

Patrick Donmoyer, 23, has spent more than a year documenting and photographing 400 examples of such celestial iconography, a form of folk art painted on Pennsylvania barns over the last three centuries.

To Donmoyer, these stars matter as emblems of Pennsylvania German cultural identity.

He is a true fan, albeit an academic one, who also believes that what these artistic creations are actually called matters for reasons of historical accuracy and meaning.

Donmoyer is originally from Lebanon County, about 20 miles east of Harrisburg. He now lives about 10 miles northeast of Reading, near Fleetwood in Rockland Township, Berks County, just over 50 miles east of Harrisburg and just under 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Donmoyer works at the nearby Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, about five miles north of his new home.

A 2009 graduate of Kutztown University, majoring in studio art and fine craft and minoring in Pennsylvania German studies, he has received a $5,000 research scholarship from the Peter Wentz Farmstead Society, based in Worcester, less than 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

While his current focus is the Berks County area that surrounds Reading, he hopes to eventually expand his study of barn stars into neighboring counties and publish a book that could be easily enjoyed by the public.

Standing on the academic shoulders of earlier Pennsylvania German scholars, Alfred Shoemaker and Don Yoder, in particular, Donmoyer credits them as figures who inspired him on a mission to catalog barn stars.

"In Pennsylvania, we are experiencing enormous shifts in our local landscape, and many historical and culturally significant features are rapidly disappearing," Donmoyer said. "As our landscape shifts, so does our cultural heritage and beliefs. The most threatened aspects of the landscape are the historic farms because of development."

Through his work, Donmoyer hopes to help preserve and share the artistic beauty of barn stars and educate others about a type of folk art that often has been clouded by controversy.

"The problem is we don't have primary sources on the true meaning and content of these elaborate designs that were painted on barns," Donmoyer said, sitting outside at a picnic table and in front of the Sharidan family barn (circa 1855), boasting a stone foundation and timber-framed, red-painted walls adorned with stars. The barn is located near Kutztown University, in Maxatawny Township.

Popularized as hex signs in the early 20th century, the barn stars were associated with the idea of protecting barns from witchcraft and became a commercial commodity in promoting the geographic area for tourists, according to Donmoyer.

"Meanings were invented to attract customers, and this invented lore assigned a specific meaning to each design such as 'protection,' 'fertility,' 'love and romance' etc.," Donmoyer said. "This perception has tainted the genuine lore of the designs and their true implications."

To counteract the invented history of the so-called hex signs, Pennsylvania German scholars promoted the idea that the folk art was done "just for nice" and served as purely decorative with no particular meaning, glossing over, in Donmoyer's view, the celestial and religious iconography on barn stars that would often date back to the late 18th century.

"I attempt to answer the question of why an agricultural society, such as the Pennsylvania Germans, favored symbols and icons which feature celestial images such as suns, moons and stars that could also be embellished with flowers or crosses," Donmoyer said.

For Donmoyer, the barn stars are actually an artistic reflection of early Pennsylvania German beliefs, a complex mixture of mystical Christianity accompanied by a practical folk-religious orientation that governed daily living.

"The stars were seen as beacons of celestial order, which allow us an understanding of the passage of time and the progression of human activities which are governed by the stars," Donmoyer said. "It is well-documented that the Pennsylvania Germans orchestrated their planting, harvesting and tilling to the phase of the moon and the astrological signs.

"Almanacs informed farmers which times were best for all manner of agricultural activities such as planting, cutting wood, driving fence posts, building houses and storing food."

Donmoyer said use of the stars not only applied to outdoor agricultural activity, but also domestic and interpersonal affairs — everything from the best timing to bake bread and make vinegar to the opportune period to get married and have children.

One can imagine Pennsylvania Germans transfixed by a nighttime heaven of twinkling light as opposed to modern day families mesmerized by those so-called human stars on television and movie screens.

Countless times they may have looked upward seeing the geometry of stars reflected accurately in the shapes of flowers on Earth.

"These ideas were so prevalent that the almanac was the second most common book in the Pennsylvania German household; second only to the Bible," Donmoyer said.

By painting stars, Pennsylvania Germans displayed beliefs that were reflected and transformed by artistry. Such folk art was found on the outsides and even insides of barns in a variety of Berks County locations.

What does all this say about hex signs and witchcraft?

What does it say about Pennsylvania German self-consciousness about beliefs, and even later intentional suppression of those views, especially in changing times of anti-German sentiment in the 20th-century?

It could say quite a lot. Donmoyer will continue to investigate. He will endeavor to interpret.

But he does believe barn stars speak for themselves, powerfully and symmetrically, in what he termed a "visual vibration and rotation of their beauty."

They have contributed mightily to Berks County's agrarian aesthetic, he said.

————

On the Net:

Patrick Donmoyer's Web site: http://www.paedrigdesign.com/

Pa. German Cultural Heritage Center: http://www.kutztown.edu/community/pgchc/

Peter Wentz Farmstead Society: http://peterwentzfarmsteadsociety.org/scholarship.html

Information from: http://www.readingeagle.com/

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RBI's data services triumph at DPA Awards  - pressreleasepoint.com

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 05:23 AM PDT

XpertHR and Bankers Almanac won a trio of awards and the recognition of the data publishing industry at last night's prestigious DPA Awards in Brighton.


XpertHR's Job Pricing triumphed in two categories: Product Development of the Year and the ultimate and unexpected accolade of Outstanding Achievement of the Year.


Their Job Pricing service, which launched in autumn 2008, just six months after salary survey specialists CELRE became part of the XpertHR Group, was a runaway winner with the judging panel:


"The judges said that the Job Pricing interface was so good it gave them goose-bumps!" said group editor David Shepherd. "What a tribute to our web development team, above all, who took just five months to build a system that never fails to provide a wow factor for users."


Also taking a home a trophy at last night's awards was BankersAlmanac.com who won Subscription Sales Team of the Year for the third consecutive year, beating strong competition from the likes of Yell and Thomson Local. The judges were won over by the phenomenal effort of the sales team who managed to grow subscription revenues by a substantial 18%:


"Winning this award is a fantastic achievement from the whole sales team," said sales manager Simon Lemos. "The fact we have won the award three years running makes it even more pleasing as every year the competition increases."



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Director: Ski Area got work - Idaho State Journal

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 03:43 AM PDT

Do not use usernames or passwords from your financial accounts!

Note: Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required!

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The Almanac - OfficialWire

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 02:39 AM PDT

This is Halloween.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Dutch painter Jan Vermeer in 1632; English poet John Keats in 1795; Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low in 1860; Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, the first leader of Nationalist China, in 1887; actress/singer Ethel Waters in 1896; actresses Dale Evans in 1912 and Barbara Bel Geddes in 1922; astronaut Michael Collins in 1930 (age 79); former TV news anchorman Dan Rather in 1931 (age 78); actor/producer Michael Landon in 1936; folk singer/songwriter Tom Paxton in 1937 (age 72); actors David Ogden Stiers in 1942 (age 67) and Stephen Rea in 1946 (age 63); actress Deidre Hall in 1947 (age 62); comic actor John Candy in 1950; broadcaster Jane Pauley also in 1950 (age 59); comic actor Rob Schneider in 1963 (age 46); and rapper Vanilla Ice in 1967 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1517, Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation by nailing a proclamation to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.

In 1864, Nevada was admitted to the Union as the 36th state.

In 1926, magician, illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital following a blow to the abdomen.

In 1931, with the Great Depression in full swing, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that 827 banks had failed during the previous two months.

In 1941, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota -- consisting of the sculpted heads of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt -- was completed.

In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam.

In 1984, India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh guards. Her son, Rajiv, succeeded her.

In 1985, salvage divers located the remains of the booty-laden pirate ship Whydah, which sank Feb. 17, 1717, off Cape Cod, Mass.

In 1988, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos pleaded innocent to charges that she and her husband, deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, embezzled more than $100 million from the Philippine government.

In 1992, more than 300 people were killed in renewed fighting as Angola slid back into civil war.

In 2001, U.S.-led forces resumed air strikes in Afghanistan, hitting Taliban positions in the northern part of the country and outside the capital, Kabul. The Taliban claimed 1,500 people were killed.

In 2002, Andrew Fastow, former Enron chief financial officer, was indicted on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in the collapse of the Houston energy trading company.

In 2003, a rebel group known to kidnap children and sell them in Sudan as slaves struck a village in northern Uganda, killing 18 and abducting many more.

In 2004, Iranian lawmakers chanted, "Death to America!" after a unanimous vote to allow their government to resume uranium enrichment activities.

Also in 2004, Japan confirmed a Japanese man taken hostage in Baghdad had been beheaded. The kidnappers had demanded Japan pull its troops out of Iraq.

In 2005, Samuel Alito, a 55-year-old conservative federal appeals judge, was nominated by U.S. President George Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor.

In 2006, a U.S. congressional report claimed China helped North Korea develop its nuclear program within the past year.

Also in 2006, former South African President and Prime Minister P.W. Botha, one of his country's most powerful and feared leaders, died of a stroke. He was 90.

In 2007, three men were found guilty in the 2004 bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid. They were convicted of killing 191 people and wounding 1,800 others.

In 2008, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus took over as head of Central Command. He was put in comment of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran and other countries.

Also in 2008, the International Red Cross says fighting between government forces and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo produced a humanitarian catastrophe.

And, author-actor and activist Louis "Studs" Terkel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "The Good War" and pioneer "Chicago school" broadcaster, died at 96.

 

A thought for the day: English poet John Keats wrote, "If I should die, I have left no immortal work behind me -- nothing to make my friends proud of my memory -- but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered."

 

Daily almanac - Columbus Dispatch

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 12:51 AM PDT

Today is Saturday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2009. There are

61 days left in the year. This is Halloween. Daylight-saving time ends Sunday at 2 a.m. Turn clocks back one hour.

Highlights in History

• On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, launching the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

• In 1926, magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis from a burst appendix.

• In 1941, the Navy destroyer USS Reuben James was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland with the loss of about 100 lives.

• In 1959, a former Marine showed up at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to declare he was renouncing his U.S. citizenship to live in the Soviet Union. His name: Lee Harvey Oswald.

• In 1968, President Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace talks.

• In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards.

• In 1998, a genetic study was released suggesting that President Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings.

• Ten years ago: EgyptAir Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 aboard.

• Five years ago: President George W. Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry campaigned in Ohio and Florida.

• One year ago: President George W. Bush signed an executive order restoring Libya's immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases.

Thought for Today

"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them." -- Andre Gide, French author and critic (1869-1951)

Source: Associated Press

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Friday, October 30, 2009

Almanacs “Sen. Yee proposes 'opt-in' phone books - The Almanac Online” plus 4 more

Almanacs “Sen. Yee proposes 'opt-in' phone books - The Almanac Online” plus 4 more

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Sen. Yee proposes 'opt-in' phone books - The Almanac Online

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 07:41 AM PDT

By Bay City News Service

Piles of unwanted phone books littered throughout the Bay Area and the state could soon be reduced under legislation proposed Thursday by state Sen. Leland Yee, whose district includes Portola Valley and Woodside.

At a news conference on the steps of Millbrae City Hall, Sen. Yee announced that he will introduce in January a bill that would allow California residents to request a copy of the phone book each year instead of automatically receiving them from phone companies.

If adopted by the state Assembly and Senate, and signed into law by the governor, the law would take effect in January 2011.

Currently, a phone book is sent out for every phone line in each household unless the resident chooses to "opt out" of receiving one, Sen. Yee said.

The new law would instead have residents "opt in" to receive a phone book.

"This is more about saving our natural resources than anything else," Sen. Yee said in a phone interview after the news conference. "The bottom line is that we're going to save natural resources and save money. It's a win-win for everyone."

Each year, roughly 147 million phone books are made nationwide by cutting down about 5 million trees, with California accounting for 10 percent of that, said Millbrae Councilwoman Gina Papan, who announced the legislation with Sen. Yee.

"Only about 16 percent are getting recycled," Ms. Papan said. "The rest get dumped into landfills."

Sen. Yee emphasized that the white pages are accessible on the Internet, and that residents who request a phone book would still be able to get one every year.

"It's not about preventing people from getting information," he said. "It's about how to do it efficiently and smartly."

Hébert: Different situation for Donolo this time - Toronto Star

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 07:26 AM PDT

There comes a time in the life of a beleaguered opposition leader when he or she becomes a magnet for party knives rather than talent. The fact that Michael Ignatieff still has enough drawing power to attract a chief of staff of Peter Donolo's calibre is the strongest signal in weeks that his leadership has not yet reached the point of no return.

Donolo's return to Parliament Hill will not cause the Liberals to lay down their election sabres. They had already set them aside some weeks ago. But his reputation, combined with his close ties with Jean Chrétien, should ensure that those unsheathed sabres are not turned upon the leader. It is from the Chrétien side of the Liberal family that recent leadership hopefuls such as Bob Rae and future ones such as Martin Cauchon draw their primary support.

But Ignatieff would be naive to think that a reprieve on the front of Liberal unity amounts to a token of establishment loyalty to his person. It mostly stems from the cold realization that the survival of the party commands it put its energies into trying to shore up the leader it already has rather than divide itself further in the quest for yet another potential saviour.

This fall, the Liberal Ontario red line has been becoming thinner by the week. And this week, the first CROP poll on Quebec voting intentions since the Denis Coderre episode had the Liberals down to 23 per cent, one point below their score in the last election.

That dismal picture will not be changed by a mere shuffling of the top deck. When all is said and done, Donolo's arrival in Ignatieff's office will likely register as weakly with the public at large as it resonates loudly within the bubble of Parliament Hill.

But it should at least ensure that the Liberals use the time between now and the next federal campaign more productively than in plotting to unseat yet another leader.

For that to happen, though, Donolo's first order of business will have to be to fend off a new attack of magic thinking on the part of the Liberals.

The formula that worked the last time he helped bring a leader of the opposition back from behind will not be replicated. Too many key ingredients are missing.

In 1990, Chrétien became Liberal leader on the very day where the seeds of the future destruction of the Mulroney alliance were decisively dug into the Conservative soil by the failure of the Meech Lake accord.

The Liberals cannot expect a similar gift from Stephen Harper, a prime minister whose government is largely sheltered from its most dangerous instincts by its minority status.

Chrétien also brought more political experience to the fore than Ignatieff can ever expect to accumulate. In particular, no one in his palace guard was more Quebec streetwise than the leader himself.

Some of that savvy has rubbed off on Donolo. This week, the media reaction to his appointment was positive on both sides of the language barrier. It is a rare occurrence for a federal political operator to be in such good standing in and outside Quebec.

But that should not obscure the fact that much has changed since Donolo fought the last unity war under Chrétien.

The Liberal playbook on Quebec is as out of date as last year's Farmers' Almanac. Ignatieff has so far demonstrated no capacity to rewrite it on his own. Filling the Quebec intellectual vacuum at the top of the Liberal pyramid should be an absolute priority.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Movies - Review - The Almanac Online

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 07:41 AM PDT

A Serious Man

The camera pulls back from the wall-sized blackboard that college physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbar) has covered with numbers."Even if you can't figure anything out, you're still responsible for it on the midterm," the professor says to the stunned class.

In Ethan and Joel Coen's latest film, "A Serious Man," it's not only the students who are baffled.So is Larry, who's like the schlemiel -- the guy to whom everything happens -- in a thousand Jewish jokes. His wife wants a divorce so she can marry smarmy family "friend" Sy Ableman; Larry's bar-mitzvah-boy son Danny is smoking dope; his daughter Sarah steals money from his wallet to save up for a nose job. One of his students is trying to bribe him to change a failing grade.And on it goes.

Larry consults three rabbis, one of whom advises that "you have to see these things as God's will." The other two aren't any better help. Since God gives the questions, wonders Larry, why doesn't he give the answers too?

Set in an arid, practically treeless Minneapolis suburb in 1967 -- the kids listen to transistor radios, a doctor smokes in his office -- "A Serious Man" is based much more closely than the Coens' other films on their own childhoods, and many of the actors are local talent. But the subjects it deals with are far from provincial. In their unique blend of black comedy and existential bafflement, the Coen brothers pose no less than the ultimate question: What is the meaning of life? (Without, of course, making it seem as portentous as that.) "A Serious Man" is a serious film that makes you squirm, laugh and ponder all at the same time.

Rating: R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence. 1 hours, 45 minutes.

--Renata Polt

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These days, does the Old Farmer’s Almanac really matter? - Journal Times

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 06:58 AM PDT

Here are three words you might expect to cause instant seizure with an Internet search engine: Old. Farmer's. Almanac.

And yet, those canny New England Yankees who publish the annual Old Farmer's Almanac have just put out No. 218 in seeming blithe indifference to the seismic shifts that have rocked traditional print media in the digital age.

The almanac ($5.99 at http://www.almanac.com), as it happens, predicts earthquakes and a lot of other natural phenomena, and describes how we should live with them, advising on such things as the moment to start a diet and the best day to slaughter a pig (for you, presumably, not the hog). It all has to do with the alignment of the firmament, or something like that.

Its philosophy is a bit weird and wacky, but it reaches deep into the agrarian roots and folkloric traditions of America, and it still resonates with more than 3 million readers.

An almanac is an astronomic and astrological calendar of the heavens. That was the core of the first almanac, published by Robert B. Thomas in 1792, and remains the heart of the current one. The look is still old - cheap paper, black ink and lots of charts and symbols - though I wish the editors would go back to styling the letter "s" as "f." Mr. Thomas admonished that May "is a very bufy month with farmerf and gardnerf (sic). Uncover your afparaguf bed. Turn your young cattle into the wood landf, fo af to fave your pafturef." Mr. Thomas was one fmart cookie.

And what of the pastures of our weather? Long-range weather prediction is the stock in trade of almanacs, and though the Old Farmer's Almanac claims with a straight face 80 percent accuracy, and its rival, the Farmers' Almanac, 80 to 85 percent, their forecasts for the coastal mid-Atlantic region this winter are quite different. The Old Farmer's Almanac, published in Dublin, N.H., predicts a cold and snowy season; the Farmers' Almanac, based in Lewiston, Maine, forecasts one of normal temperatures and precipitation.

Janice Stillman, editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac, said that "we use satellite data, state-of-the-art information. It's just the interpretation of that information and the inclusion of activity of the sun into our forecast that distinguishes us from just about everybody else." Did we mention the ace in the hole? "We have a secret formula," she said, "the calculations of which even I don't know."

The Farmers' Almanac ($5.99 at store.farmersalmanac.com), which uses its own top-secret formula, mentions that in 2007 its winter forecast was even more accurate than Punxsutawney Phil's, contradicting the Pennsylvania groundhog in forecasting six more weeks of winter.

I agreed to meet Stillman, wondering if she would arrive looking like Betsy Ross, but her hair was close-cropped and she wore a chartreuse designer leather jacket. She gave me copies of the 2010 almanac, but the one I was salivating for was the 2009 edition, so I could check its accuracy.

I have figured out that the key to weather forecasting in general and the almanacs in particular is to hedge your bets. The Old Farmer's Almanac lumps the country into 16 regions.

"Anybody can put out a forecast, but the issue is the track record of verification," said Antonio Busalacchi, a professor in the University of Maryland's department of atmospheric and oceanic science.

The forecasts and long-range outlooks of the National Weather Service, for example, have improved in recent years through new skills and technology. "They are certainly not ironclad, but they do have a documented track record," he said. One of the basics of science is that you give your experimental data to others, Busalacchi said, so they can reproduce the results. "That's not the case," he said, when you have "a secret formula."

Perhaps I'm missing the point. "It's about the belief that nature has its ways," Stillman said. "If you think it's going to rain because the cows lie down."

What's important about the almanac, apart from its place in American culture, is that it continues to transport us back to a time when we were much closer to the cycles of nature; our ability to feed ourselves depended on that. That's also the enduring value of gardening, of being in sync with the seasonal cycles. The closer we look, the more we see, for example, next April's viburnum flowers now in nascent bud or the young raspberry canes, which will bear the fruit of June, among the spent ones.

I am not guided by folklore, being more willing to consider soil moisture and temperature before sowing beans, for example, than the phase of the moon. But for those who do embrace that, more power to them. Plants have their magic; that's what makes them so alluring.

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HDTV Almanac - Fall Back — Bah, Humbug! - HDTV Magazine

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 06:00 AM PDT


And now for a public service announcement: Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Saturday night (unless you live in one of those areas that does not observe Daylight Savings Time).

And now for my semi-annual rant: Why should I have to reset the clock on anything? It seems that I have more and more devices in my home and office that have clocks of some sort. Some of them — like my computers — have finally figured out how to keep track of the correct time on their own. A few — like my clock radio — don't know what the time is for sure, but still are able to change an hour automatically when Daylight Savings Time begins and ends. But far too many of them don't have a clue and have to be reset twice a year.

Here is Alfred's Rule for Clocks: No clock should ever have to be reset if:

1. It is in a device that is connected to the Internet.
2. It is in a device that receives television signals.
3. It receives cell phone signals.
4. It receives GPS signals.
5. It is in a device that is connected directly to any device covered by points 1. through 4.
6. It has a network connection – wired or wireless — to any device covered by points 1. through 5.

While I'm at it, there should be a powerline network device that gets time and date information from one of the above sources, and then makes it available to any device that plugs into the home electrical system.

With so many technology systems depending on accurate time these days, it just makes no sense that we have to run around the house resetting all the clocks, and then trying to figure out how to change the time on our car clocks since we only have to do that twice a year. It's a colossal waste of time, and these devices all are smart enough to know better. That's something to keep in mind as you wander around your home with your cell phone (my most accurate portable source of time information) this year as you reset your clocks.

At least we get an extra hour of sleep this time.

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Almanacs “November 2010 election could include vote on state constitutional ... - The Almanac Online” plus 4 more

Almanacs “November 2010 election could include vote on state constitutional ... - The Almanac Online” plus 4 more

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November 2010 election could include vote on state constitutional ... - The Almanac Online

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 11:06 PM PDT

By Bay City News Service

A group advocating an overhaul of the state constitution submitted ballot language in Sacramento Wednesday (Oct. 28) that would allow Californians to vote on a constitutional convention next year.

The group, known as Repair California, must secure 1.2 million signatures of registered voters by April to ensure the measures' place on the November 2010 ballot.

One measure would authorize voters to request a convention, and a second would actually call for the event. Under existing state law, the only means to a convention is a two-thirds vote of the state Legislature.

Repair California spokesman John Grubb said a large legal team, including former California Supreme Court justices, drafted the language.

"There are lots of legal challenges we could potentially face and we'll probably face them all," he said.

The legal team predicts a 90 percent chance of success, according to Grubb.

The ballot language calls for a convention to take place in 2011. Any proposals coming out of the gathering would be voted on by 2012. Delegates would include local government appointees, representatives from federally recognized Native American tribes, and three representatives from each Assembly district.

A constitutional convention would address topics such as the state budget process, elections and ballot initiatives, and the balance of authority between state and local entities, Grubb said. As written, the ballot measure prohibits addressing topics such as taxes or social issues like same-sex marriage or the death penalty.

The organization has done polling that suggests 70 percent of Californians would vote for a convention.

Repair California is an offshoot of the Bay Area Council, a coalition of local business and civic groups.

Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of both organizations, said in a statement, "California has become the laughing stock of the country, but the damage our state government is causing to our education system, prisons, water, budgeting, local government and economy isn't funny, it's tragic."

Discussion of a constitutional convention is often connected to the state's requirement that budgets be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature. However, Grubb said issues such term limit reform and the balance of state and local power come up more in voter polls.

"There's lots of ways to get there without getting at the two-thirds requirement," he said.

According to Repair California, the state constitution contains 75,000 words, compared with only 4,500 in the U.S. Constitution.

California possesses the third-longest governing document in the world, after India and Alabama, Grubb said.

"We live in one of the most diverse states in the union, culturally, ideologically and geographically," he said. "It makes little sense to run so much from a top-down approach."

The almanac - United Press International

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 12:25 AM PDT

Today is Thursday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2009 with 63 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Scottish biographer James Boswell in 1740; singer/composer Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the words and music for "Dixie," in 1815; comedian/singer Fanny Brice in 1891; Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in 1897; political cartoonist Bill Mauldin in 1921; singer Melba Moore in 1945 (age 64); actor Richard Dreyfuss in 1947 (age 62); and actresses Kate Jackson in 1948 (age 61), Finola Hughes in 1960 (age 49), Joely Fisher in 1967 (age 42) and Winona Ryder in 1971 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded in London. He had been charged with plotting against King James I.

In 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley.

In 1923, the musical "Runnin' Wild," which introduced the Charleston, opened on Broadway.

In 1929, the sale of 16 million shares marked the collapse of the stock market, setting the stage for the Great Depression.

In 1969, the first connection on what would become the Internet was made when bits of data flowed between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. This was the beginning of ARPANET, the forerunner to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense.

In 1991, in a first meeting between Soviet and Israeli heads of state, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Israeli Prime Minister Yizhak Shamir conferred at the Soviet Embassy.

In 1992, Alger Hiss said Russia had cleared him of the charge of being a Communist spy that sent him to prison for four years and helped propel Richard Nixon's political career.

In 1994, a Colorado man was arrested after he sprayed the White House with bullets from an assault rifle. U.S. President Bill Clinton was inside at the time but no one was injured.

In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who in 1962 became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery. At 77, he was the oldest person to travel in space.

In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush, elected in a chaotic tableau of ballot mishaps and court challenges, signed legislation said to help reduce ballot-counting errors and ensure greater citizen participation in the election process.

In 2003, digging through more than 164 feet of rock, rescuers liberated 11 of 13 Russian miners trapped underground for six days after a methane gas explosion.

Also in 2003, the third-largest recorded solar blast slammed into the Earth causing a severe but short-lived geomagnetic storm.

In 2004, Osama bin Laden, in a videotape to the American people, admitted publicly that he ordered the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Also in 2004, EU leaders signed the European Union's first constitution.

In 2005, three explosions in New Delhi hit a bus and markets crowded with holiday shoppers, killing at least 65 people.

Also in 2005, a reported 102 people died in a train wreck in southern India, where heavy rains caused major flooding.

In 2006, a Boeing 737 crashed near Nigeria's Abuja airport killing 96 of the 104 people aboard. Officials said the pilot took off after disobeying an air traffic controller and crashed moments later.

Also in 2006, 17 instructors and two translators were gunned down at a British-run police academy at Basra, Iraq.

In 2007, a suicide bomber attacked a police brigade in Iraq, killing 29 people, including 26 police officers.

In 2008, U.S. forces are struggling to deal with an intensified Taliban insurgency and need about 20,000 additional troops in Afghanistan to counter it, officials say. U.S. troop casualties at their highest levels since the conflict began.

Also in 2008, the death toll from a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan topped 200, officials said, as hundreds of people were hurt and more than 20,000 were left homeless.

And, as nations around the world worked on ways to avoid severe economic woes, the International Monetary Fund announced it would allocate $100 billion to countries with basically healthy economies but short-term problems.

A thought for the day: Scottish biographer James Boswell wrote, "I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation."

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On Native Ground - American Reporter

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 11:06 PM PDT

 On Native Ground
MY BACK PAGES: WATCHING MY CRAFT CHANGE OVER 30 YEARS
by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
Dummerston, Vt.

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Printable version of this story

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I got my first job in journalism at the age of 18 in the spring of 1980. I was a freshman in college and landed a night shift gig at WSPR, a radio station in Springfield, Mass.

News came over an Associated Press teletype machine at 65 words a minute. Changing the heavily inked ribbons was always a chore, not to mention making sure the paper didn't run out.

Stories were typed on battered old manual typewriters that dated back to the 1940s.

Computers? Still a new-fangled technology that hadn't yet seeped down to this level of the business.

The Internet? There were only a few hundred people using it. If you needed to look up an address, you got a phone book or a city directory. If you needed to confirm a stray fact, you pulled out The World Almanac.

They were still using reel-to-reel tape recorders, and a razor blade and Scotch tape were your tools for editing audio. It was still an analog world, with dials and meters and black telephones with dials.

In the fall of 1985, when I started working in newspapers, video display terminals were cutting edge technology. Two years later, I went out and got my first computer - a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 laptop. With its built-in 300 baud modem, I could file a story anyplace I could find a pay phone.

Cellphones? That was as futuristic as the communicators they used on "Star Trek."

There were still a few smokers in the first city room I worked in. The barroom downstairs was still a place where you could find reporters between shifts. The building also shuddered just a little from the giant presses when they fired up, and the stairwells were coated with a thin film of ink.

That first newspaper company I worked for - the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and Evening Gazette - had four morning and six afternoon editions and a dozen bureaus in the county it published in. There were two separate news staffs, and even though they worked for the same company, the competition was still fierce.

One of my several jobs was working in the morgue - the newspaper's library - where we still clipped stories out of each day's edition and filed them away in envelopes. When a reporter or editor needed background on a subject, my job was to retrieve the right folders with the right clippings in a room filled with hundreds of cabinets with files that went back decades.

Pneumatic tubes brought pictures up to the composing room, and page proofs came down to the copy desk the same way. The darkroom was just that, a dark room filled with a dozen photo enlargers and photographers rushing make prints on deadline. I eventually learned how to do darkroom work and how to go from taking the film out of the camera to producing a finished print in under 30 minutes. The photos from the AP came one at a time from a LaserPhoto printer, in 8 minute intervals. Waiting for photos was a constant hassle.

The old photographers I encountered then were old enough to have used Speed Graphics - the bulky, hard-to-focus 4 x 5 inch cameras that were the newspaper standard from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The old compositors I encountered then were old enough to remember linotypes and the smell of melting lead.

The old editors I encountered then were old enough to remember pastepots and black pencils and making and remaking a newspaper on the fly with a few written instructions and a lot of teamwork in the mechanical departments.

Pagination - making a pages on a computer - was just starting to creep into use. I remember the first such unit - a Mac Plus - which was used to make graphic. Within 10 years of seeing that Mac for the first time, I would be making pages on a computer. The compositors - the wizards with Exacto knifes that could do just about anything you asked, just don't touch the type, please - were out of a job.

Automation changed lots of things. I was replaced by a computer terminal in the paper's morgue. Indexing was now done with a few keystrokes, not with a heavy steel straight edge tearing pages. Digital photography made the darkroom obsolete. The teletype printers disappeared, and wire service news came flying into the mainframe computers at thousands of words a minute.

And now I feel as ancient as the people I met when I started out, the tribe that started out in the 1940s and 1950s, when newspapers were king and the work that reporters did was the stuff of movies.

Twenty years ago this month, I went through my first buyout. The T & G had been sold two years before, and changes were in the works. Being a junior member of the staff who lashed three part-time jobs into something of a living, I was thrown overboard immediately. But I was struck by how many people, the elders of the paper that I looked up to and learned from, chose to take a buyout and leave than stick around and face an uncertain future. Most of that generation left, and I got my first education on the harshness of the newspaper business.

The morning and evening papers merged the following year. The T & G's bureaus started to disappear. The presses moved out of the hulking old building on Franklin Street and went to a remote site a few miles away. The papers were sold again, this time to The New York Times Co. They eliminated zoned editions this year and the paper is struggling to survive.

Since that bleak Yuletide two decades ago, I've been through three more newspaper sales. I've become an elder, talking about the old days of afternoon papers, pasting-up pages, teletypes and darkrooms to a generation that Googles phone numbers and needs MapQuest to find an address. And I've watched my profession go from fat and sassy to threadbare and dying in one generation.

I'm still young enough to be a bridge between the analog and digital eras, and still looking forward to the shape of journalism to come. The tools we have now to tell stories were barely dreamed of when I started out, but I recognize how important they are and working to master them. We just have to remember that the need to tell stories is primal, and that storytellers will always be needed.

What will the young reporters I work with now be saying when they look back at their careers 20 years from now? Will they be talking about that gruff and crabby gray-bearded editor they had as their first mentor? The rickety first-generation iMacs that they have to use to write their stories on? The lack of reliable Internet and cellphone service? Or will they talk about working in newspapers at a time when they became quaint relics of a bygone age?

My love for the printed page is still abiding, but it's hard to remember what it was like before the Internet, before desktop computers, before digital cameras and voice recorders, before the avalanche of data that pours from the Web each day, before the 24-hour news cycle, before all the changes that I have seen in nearly three decades of broadcast, print and online journalism. The past is a nice place to visit, but the future is still the place I hope to see.

Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for nearly 30 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2009 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.

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Music, reading highlight event - Daily Item

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 10:38 PM PDT

Published October 29, 2009 01:41 am - Priestley Chapel Associates presents an informal program of words and music from 9:30 to 10 a.m. on Sunday at Joseph Priestley Memorial Chapel, 380 Front St., Northumberland. The music portion of the program includes Charles Phelps playing piano and the historic John Wind organ.

Music, reading highlight event

NORTHUMBERLAND — Priestley Chapel Associates presents an informal program of words and music from 9:30 to 10 a.m. on Sunday at Joseph Priestley Memorial Chapel, 380 Front St., Northumberland. The music portion of the program includes Charles Phelps playing piano and the historic John Wind organ.

This Sunday continues a year-long reading of "A Sand County Almanac" by naturalist Aldo Leopold with a reading of "November" by Ben Olena. He and others will then read several of Olena's own poems. Olena is a retired industrial arts teacher and now lives in Sullivan County near Forksville. Priestley Chapel Associates is a secular, non-profit 501 3 corporation established in 1977 to care for and manage the Joseph Priestley Memorial Chapel, the beautiful memorial garden and the historic 1811 John Wind organ located in the chapel. This country chapel was built in 1834 by descendants of Joseph Priestley and members of the Unitarian congregation in Northumberland. Currently, the chapel is open to the public the first Sunday of each month for a program of words and music. For more information, visit www.priestleychapelassociates.org.

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From the Editor : - Cricket365.com

Posted: 29 Oct 2009 12:39 AM PDT

From the Editor :

We've barely had a chance to breathe out after the Champions League and we're already in the middle of a couple of one-day series. For heaven's sake, we haven't even had time to talk about our Team of the Tournament. We'd like your opinions on the players who made the list and the general views of the competition.

Okay, now we are ready to move on to the spicy India against Australia one-day series. Perhaps the build-up hasn't been the most controversial, but if the first match is anything to go by then it will be an exciting affair. The second game takes place on Wednesday, but the Aussies are in a spot of bother as their players - especially bowlers - are dropping like flies. Sorry to say it, but Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus just won't frighten the Indian batsmen. Hope they prove us wrong.

Back in Blighty, a couple of players have thrown their hats into the ring for the England captaincy for next year's trip to Bangladesh. With Andrew Strauss set to be rested, Alastair Cook (!) and James Anderson (!!!) say they are willing to step in. Cook has barely set the world alight in the England team and he wants to be skipper. He is the obvious choice, but you can't make someone who doesn't deserves a place in the starting XI skipper. Anderson is a certainty in the England team, but he hardly comes across as someone with captaincy material. Who are we to judge though?

From captaincy discussions to coaching decisions. The Kiwis will tackle Pakistan in Abu Dhabi without a coach. Super Dan Vettori will not only skipper the side, but he will be doing some coaching - something which he has apparently been doing for quite some time now. Is this a recipe for disaster? Not only is he filling the captaincy-coaching role, but he is also a selector, his team's premier bowler and most of the times their best batsman.

Finally, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are going head to head in a five-match ODI series. The Zimbos impressed during the recent series against Kenya, but the Tigers are a different kettle of fish. Can they win this one?

That'll do us for now, so it's over to you. Get bantering and we will stick your posts up as soon as possible.

Cheers,

The C365 Team

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Almanacs “Helping Your Child With Homework - WATE” plus 4 more

Almanacs “Helping Your Child With Homework - WATE” plus 4 more

Helping Your Child With Homework - WATE

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 06:03 AM PDT

Children need to know that their parents and adults close to them think homework is important. If they know their parents care, children have a good reason to complete assignments and turn them in on time. There is a lot that you can do to show that you value education and homework.

Set a Regular Time.
Finding a regular time for homework helps children finish assignments. The best schedule is one that works for your child and your family. What works well in one household may not work in another. Of course, a good schedule depends in part on your child's age, as well as individual needs. For instance, one youngster may work best in the afternoon after an hour of play, and another may be more efficient after dinner (although late at night, when children are tired, is seldom a good time).

Outside activities, such as sports or music lessons, may mean that you need a flexible schedule. Your child may study after school on some days and in the evening on others. If there isn't enough time to finish homework, your child may need to drop some outside activity. Homework must be a high priority.

You'll need to work with your elementary school child to develop a schedule. An older student can probably make up a schedule independently, although you'll want to make sure it's a good one. It may help to write out the schedule and put it in a place where you'll see it often, such as the refrigerator door.

Some families have a required amount of time that children must devote to homework or some other learning activity each school night (the length of time can vary depending upon the child's age). For instance, if your seventh-grader knows she's expected to spend an hour doing homework, reading, or visiting the library, she may be less likely to rush through assignments so that she can watch television. A required amount of time may also discourage her from "forgetting" to bring home assignments and help her adjust to a routine.

Pick a Place.
A study area should have lots of light, supplies close by, and be fairly quiet.
A study area doesn't have to be fancy. A desk in the bedroom is nice, but for many youngsters the kitchen table or a corner of the living room works just fine.

Your child may enjoy decorating a special study corner. A plant, a brightly colored container to hold pencils, and some favorite artwork taped to the walls can make study time more pleasant.

Remove Distractions.
Turn off the television and discourage social telephone calls during homework time. (A call to a classmate about an assignment may, however, be helpful.)

Some youngsters work well with quiet background music, but loud noise from the stereo or radio is not OK. One Virginia junior high school history teacher laments, "I've actually had a kid turn in an assignment that had written in the middle, `And George Washington said, "Ohhhhh, I love you."' The kid was so plugged into the music that he wasn't concentrating."

If you live in a small or noisy household, try having all family members take part in a quiet activity during homework time. You may need to take a noisy toddler outside or into another room to play. If distractions can't be avoided, your child may want to complete assignments in a nearby library.

Provide Supplies and Identify Resources.
For starters, collect pencils, pens, erasers, writing paper, an assignment book, and a dictionary. Other things that might be helpful include glue, a stapler, paper clips, maps, a calculator, a pencil sharpener, tape, scissors, a ruler, index cards, a thesaurus, and an almanac. Keep these items together in one place if possible. If you can't provide your child with needed supplies, check with the teacher, school guidance counselor, or principal about possible sources of assistance.
For books and other information resources, check with the school library or local public library. Some libraries have homework centers designed especially to assist children with school assignments (there may even be tutors and other kinds of individual assistance).

These days many schools have computers in classrooms, and many households have personal computers. However, you don't have to have a computer in your home in order for your child to complete homework assignments successfully.

You may want to ask the teacher to explain school policy about the use of computers--or typewriters or any special equipment--for homework. Certainly, computers can be a great learning tool and helpful for some assignments. They can be used for word processing and on-line reference resources, as well as educational programs and games to sharpen skills. Some schools may offer after-school programs where your child can use the school computers. And many public libraries make computers available to children.

Set a Good Example.
Children are more likely to study if they see you reading, writing, and doing things that require thought and effort on your part. Talk with your child about what you're reading and writing even if it's something as simple as making the grocery list. Tell them about what you do at work. Encourage activities that support learning--for example, educational games, library visits, walks in the neighborhood, trips to the zoo or museums, and chores that teach a sense of responsibility.

Show an Interest.
Make time to take your child to the library to check out materials needed for homework (and for fun too), and read with your child as often as you can. Talk about school and learning activities in family conversations. Ask your child what was discussed in class that day. If he doesn't have much to say, try another approach. For example, ask your child to read aloud a story he wrote or discuss the results of a science experiment.

Another good way to show your interest is to attend school activities, such as parent-teacher meetings, shows, and sports events. If you can, volunteer to help in the classroom or at special events. Getting to know some classmates and other parents not only shows you're interested but helps build a network of support for you and your child.

(This information is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.)

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Almanac Goulash - Daily Gazette

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 06:31 AM PDT

With autumn upon us and winter right around the corner, it's time to think about adding hearty dishes to the family menu. The 2010 Old Farmer's Almanac is here to help with a robust take on traditional goulash.

GOULASH

1 cup flour
2 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons sweet paprika, divided
3 pounds beef stew meat, oxtails, bone-in shanks, or short ribs
4 tablespoons butter, lard, or a combination of the two, plus more if necessary
6 onions, sliced thin
1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
1 quart stock or broth (any kind)
2 tablespoons orange zest
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups sour cream
egg noodles
butter (optional)
2 teaspoons caraway seeds

Combine the flour, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of sweet paprika. Dredge the meat in the mixture, then sauté in the butter over medium heat in a nonreactive Dutch oven until browned, working in batches if necessary. Use more butter or lard if your pan becomes dry.

Return all of the beef back to the pan, and then add the onions. Stir in the Hungarian paprika, remaining sweet paprika, stock, orange zest, and wine. Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly and incorporating any browned bits into the sauce. Cover and simmer over low heat for 2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender.

Check occasionally for liquid, adding more white wine, water, or stock, if necessary. When the meat is cooked, stir in the sour cream and heat through, but do not boil. Prepare the noodles according to the package directions. Serve the goulash over buttered noodles and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

(Recipe reprinted with permission from the 2010 Old Farmer's Almanac.)

Have a favorite autumn recipe? Email foodforum@dailygazette.net.

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Andrea Lopez - News 4

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 06:38 AM PDT

News

Andrea Lopez

CBS4 reporter Andrea Lopez has a reputation for working hard and she has extensive experience shooting and editing her own news stories.

Many of her reports have won awards from Colorado Broadcasters Association, Colorado Associated Press and Colorado Ski Country USA.  Andrea received the 2002 Gordon Yoder Scholarship to attend the National Press Photographers Association TV NewsVideo Workshop.  She won an Emmy at the 2003 Heartland Regional Annual Emmy Awards for "The Terry Barton Interview," an exclusive interview with the woman who lit Colorado's largest wildfire.

Prior to joining the CBS4 team, Andrea served as a weekend producer, back-up anchor, and reporter at KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs.  She got her start in TV journalism as the News Bureau Chief at KREY-TV, a CBS affiliate in Montrose, Colorado, where she shot, edited and anchored a four-minute nightly newscast.

Andrea holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley and a graduate degree in journalism from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Since graduating from Berkeley in 1993, she has worked as a freelance print journalist publishing articles in magazines such as Bird Watcher's Digest, American Careers, Backhome Magazine and the 2003 Almanac for Farmers & City Folk.  Her first book, "When Raccoons Fall Through Your Ceiling", was published in November of 2002 by the University of North Texas Press.  It focuses on how people can co-exist with wildlife and solve wildlife-related problems.

Before becoming a journalist, Andrea served as a refuge manager at Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, Inc. in San Antonio, Texas.

Andrea rides horses for a hobby.  She also holds a black belt in Taekwondo, was a member of the Berkeley Taekwondo team for four years, and once trained under former Olympic team coach Sang Lee in Colorado Springs.

During her time in Montrose, Andrea also entered the Montrose Fire Protection District's fire academy and became a state-certified volunteer firefighter.

Some of the best advice she has encountered over the course of her career came from Casey Kasem during the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon in August of 2000.  He said: "Do all that you can do, do as much as you can, it will only give you more options." CBS4 reporter Andrea Lopez has taken that advice to heart!


See the entire news team

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TU: From the blogs - Tulsa World

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 04:37 AM PDT

Eric Bailey: Moving on

What else did a midweek game for Tulsa's football team do for the program?

It's allowed a disappointed fan base to stew for a few extra days.

Like the coaches and players say, it's time to move on. There's still plenty of football to play and a Conference USA championship is still within grasp.

But one final thought (I promise) on the TU meltdown.

Why did this one hurt so much for Tulsa fans? Co-worker Barry Lewis, who has an amazing sports almanac in his brain, researched and said it's only the second time in at least 40 years that the Golden Hurricane has given up a double-digit, fourth-quarter lead in the final seven minutes.

Against UTEP, it was a 24-13 lead surrendered in last week's 28-24 defeat. In John Cooper's finale in 1984, Tulsa led visiting Southwestern Louisiana 17-7 with four minutes left and lost 18-17 on a 45-yard field goal as time expired.

Tulsa fans no doubt hope that this never happens again for another 25 years.

The Picker: TU's unfortunate turn at UTEP

Here's the way you might think football would work. You find out what you do best.

You have all spring to find out what makes the best sense based on talents. Then the players in individual workouts have all summer to perfect their most skillful maneuvers. Then you have all fall as a team to further your abilities so that you give yourself a fighting chance when a game is on the line.

Third-and-3 with victory to be had

versus UTEP.

What does TU do? Run into the middle of a stacked line.

TU scared the big time with multiple formation wide open football, a highly intelligent course of action because when you lack numbers, you can't play it straight and succeed.

Against UTEP, third-and-3, game on: failed rush into an over-populated line.

Read more online at tulsaworld.com/sportsextra

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Canon-McMillan's upset win over Bethel Park in the first-round of the ... - Pennsylvania Almanac

Posted: 28 Oct 2009 05:34 AM PDT


Canon-McMillan's upset win over Bethel Park in the first-round of the WPIAL girls' soccer playoffs

Canon-McMillan upended Bethel Park, 2-0, in a WPIAL Class AAA girls' soccer playoff game on Tuesday evening, Oct. 27, at Bethel Park Stadium.

After a scoreless first half, the Lady Macs exploded for two tallies.

Four minutes and eight seconds into the second half, Taylor Schram dished off to Veronica Rothka. The freshman slipped a goal past Claire LoPresti.

With 11:19 to play, Schram again combined with Rothka for an insurance tally.

Ashley Hull recorded the shutout in the nets for the Lady Macs.

In other soccer action, the Peters Township boys blanked Penn-Trafford, 3-0.

Fourteen minutes into the contest, Thaddeus Piscatelli scored off an assist from Nate Troscinski.

Matt Venanzi, off a dish from Jesse Scheirer, made it 2-0 PT at the half with his tally in the 34th minute.

In the 52nd minute, Corey Wilcox tacked on the third tally. Zach Partyka assisted.

Parker Ulrich earned the shutout in goal. He made eight saves.

Earlier in the evening, the Lady Indians blanked Mars, 2-0

Dani Hume and Olivia Robison racked up the goals.

Megan Junker had six saves.


Home

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Almanacs “The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle” plus 3 more

Almanacs “The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle” plus 3 more

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The Almanac - Oct.27 - Post Chronicle

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 04:52 AM PDT

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 27, the 300th of 2009 with 65 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in 1466; English explorer Capt. James Cook in 1728; Italian violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini in 1782; Isaac Singer, developer of the first practical home sewing machine, in 1811; Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, in 1858; etiquette arbiter Emily Post in 1872; longtime "Tonight Show" producer/director Fred De Cordova in 1910; Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in 1914; actresses Nanette Fabray in 1920 (age 89) and Ruby Dee in 1924 (age 85); pop artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1923; former Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1925 (age 84); pop pianist Floyd Cramer in 1933; comedian John Cleese in 1939 (age 70); filmmaker Ivan Reitman in 1946 (age 63); actors Carrie Snodgress in 1946, Roberto Benigni ("Life Is Beautiful") in 1952 (age 57), and Robert Picardo ("Star Trek: Voyager") in 1953 (age 56) and singer Simon Le Bon in 1958 (age 51).

On this date in history:

In 1659, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who left England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their outlawed religious beliefs.

In 1787, a New York newspaper published the first of 77 essays explaining the new Constitution and urging its ratification, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay and later combined as "The Federalist Papers."

In 1795, a treaty with Spain settled Florida's northern boundary and gave navigation rights on the Mississippi River to the United States.

In 1904, the first rapid transit subway system in America opened in New York City.

In 1946, the travel show "Geographically Speaking," sponsored by Bristol-Myers, became the first television program with a commercial sponsor.

In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio divorced, reportedly after a blowup over her famous scene in "The Seven Year Itch," in which a blast of air lifts her skirt.

In 1981, the National Labor Relations Board withdrew recognition of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for an illegal strike by its members.

In 1990, CBS founder William S. Paley died at age 89 and band leader/rumba king Xavier Cugat died at 90.

In 1991, Poland had its first fully free parliamentary elections.

In 1992, Israeli tanks rolled into Lebanon as air force jets staged renewed raids in an effort to crush Muslim fundamentalist guerrillas.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton presented Congress with the administration's plan for healthcare reform in a ceremony at the Capitol.

Also in 1993, Southern California was hit by dozens of brush fires -- the worst in six years. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and thousands of people were forced to flee the flames.

In 1994, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the U.S. prison population topped the 1 million mark.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch, one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded, began its four-day siege of Central America, causing at least 10,000 deaths.

In 2003, as many as 40 civilians and U.S. soldiers were killed in a flurry of terrorist bombings in Baghdad. Among the targets was the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In 2006, a former General Services Administration official was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for helping lobbyist Jack Abramoff. David Safavian told the judge he didn't realize that passing on inside information about properties controlled by the GSA was wrong.

In 2007, Russian observers predicted Vladimir Putin would seek the post of prime minister when he steps down from the presidency. Putin said earlier he wouldn't seek a third term as president.

In 2008, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was found guilty of seven federal felony charges related to unreported gifts and renovation work on his home. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history, was convicted of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from friends. The convictions were later vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct.

A thought for the day: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt said, "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." (c) UPI

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Crisp: Part-timers face long odds - MetroWest Daily News

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 05:07 AM PDT

If I imagined a grand reunion of all of the students who have enrolled in my college classes during some 25 years of teaching, I would also go to the trouble of imagining the commodious lecture hall that would accommodate all 5,000 or 6,000 of them at the same time.

But as I imagine this bank of faces - some of them well into middle age - I might be reluctant to ask for a show of hands to indicate how many had finished their degrees and moved into a job worthy of their college educations.

After all, mostly I've taught freshman composition, a demanding make-or-break course that challenges students who may not be fully committed to the rigors of college work. Not every student makes it through the first semester or comes back for a second.

Furthermore, because I've taught in an exclusive private university, in a large public university, and in a large public community college, my students have ranged across a broad spectrum of abilities and academic preparedness. Some were highly intelligent and talented; some should probably not have been in college at all.

Some came from a long line of university graduates; many others were the first in their families to even imagine going to college. Some were recent high school graduates themselves; many had been out of school long enough to raise a family.

Some were just plain smarter than others, and some were more motivated.

But when I ponder why some of these students succeeded in college while others didn't, I note a two-year-old study from the National Center for Education Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Education. While controlling for other factors like gender and family income, researchers identified a single factor with a very significant correlation to success in college: part-time versus full-time attendance.

The difference is staggering: in a representative sample of students who began college in 1995 and attended on a part-time basis, only 15 percent achieved a degree or certificate of any kind after six years. And none achieved a bachelor's degree.

Among full-time students, on the other hand, 64 percent earned either a degree or a certificate within six years, and 44 percent earned a bachelor's degree.

So, while many factors influence a student's chances of success in college, a prime predictor is simply the number of hours for which the student enrolls. According to this study, a student who takes 12 or 15 hours per semester is much more likely to stay in school and to eventually succeed than the student who takes only three or six hours.

Statistics aren't destiny, of course, but considering that - according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's current Almanac Issue - nearly 50 percent of all college students attend part-time during all or part of the year, one wonders if the deck isn't stacked against some students just by the nature of their enrollment.

Of course, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to attend college part-time. But many of the part-time students at the community college where I work - around 70 percent attend part-time - don't register for a full load because of the simple economic necessity of having to put in close to a 40-hour workweek to attend college at all.

There's a lot to be said for the virtues of "working your way through college." But it's one thing to put in a few on-campus work-study hours per week while attending an expensive university on someone else's dime. It's another to pull an overnight shift at a convenience store and then rush to your freshman comp class, which you can barely pay for.

Yet these hard workers are precisely the ones whose success in college would strengthen both our economy and our nation. Unfortunately, trends in our culture and in higher education are working against their full-time attendance and, therefore, undermining rather than enhancing their chances of success.

John M. Crisp teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. E-mail him at jcrisp@delmar.edu.

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Are Phillies of today Phila.'s best team ever? - Philadelphia Daily News

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 01:25 AM PDT

But are the 2009 Phils the best team ever to play baseball in Philadelphia?

From 1901 through 1954, Philadelphia was home to two major-league franchises, the Phillies and the Athletics, now the Oakland A's.

The A's were easily the better of the two. Before the old A's left the city, they won, in just over 50 years, nine American League pennants and five World Series.

Twice, the A's won back-to-back World Series, in 1910 and 1911, and in 1929 and 1930. They also won in 1913.

(Three of the A's World Series were against the New York Giants, making the 2009 Series the fifth time that teams from Philadelphia and New York have faced off in the Fall Classic, including the Yanks-Phillies 1950 matchup.)

The first A's dynasty was unique in a city where hitters have dominated the headlines. The club, a powerhouse from 1910 to 1914, had unparalleled pitching. These A's boasted Chief Bender and Eddie Plank, both Hall of Famers. Plank finished with 326 victories.

The hitters were also impressive. Infielder Stuffy McInnis had a career average of .307, according to the Baseball Almanac. Eddie Collins, the best second baseman ever (Chase Utley notwithstanding), had a lifetime batting average of .333. The team, however, was best defined by its slugger, third baseman Frank Baker.

"Home Run" Baker, also an RBI leader, won the American League home-run title in four consecutive seasons, 1911 through 1914. But his numbers were 11, 10, 12, and 9 home runs. This was the middle of the dead-ball era. It's hard to compare teams from this period with modern-day teams.

You can make a much better set of comparisons with the Athletics teams that won back-to-back championships in 1929 and 1930, and the American League pennant in 1931. This team had one monumentally good pitcher, Lefty Grove, who was even better than Steve Carlton.

In those three seasons, Grove was 20-6, 28-5, and a remarkable 31-4. A noted wag said he could "throw a lamb chop past a wolf." Grove was unhittable at a time when sluggers batting over .300 were not uncommon.

The 1929-31 A's had their share of sluggers who could hit for high average. Outfielder Al Simmons hit .365 in 1929, .381 in 1930, and .390 in 1931. Mickey Cochrane is considered one of the greatest catchers ever, largely because of his hitting.

The really big stick belonged to first baseman Jimmie Foxx. Experts today argue whether Ryan Howard is better than Mike Schmidt. Here, I think, Howard is the winner. The harder question might be: Is Howard the equal of Foxx, who also had a 58-home-run season (in 1932).

Like Howard, "Double X" had tremendous power, amazing folks at the ballpark with his colossal home runs. Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez reportedly said about him, "He has muscles in his hair."

New York fans do know about their best team, the 1927 Yankees with its famed "Murderers' Row," anchored by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The 1929 or 1930 A's may have been better: Foxx and Simmons were equal to Ruth and Gehrig, and had a better supporting cast of characters, with players such as Cochrane.

Here, the Phillies' dynasty of 2007-09 looks much like those old A's. In the middle of the lineup, you have Utley, Howard, and Werth, and around them Rollins, Victorino, and Ibanez. Not too shabby. Both the 1929-31 A's and the 2009 Phillies relied on the long ball.

Both teams are also notable for their dogged determination. In Game 4 of the 1929 Series, the A's, down by 8-0 in the seventh against the Chicago Cubs, came up with 10 runs in the inning to take the heart out of their opponent. In their own way, the Phillies have already done this twice in the playoffs, against the Rockies and then the Dodgers.

But while the 21st-century Phillies may be the equal of those of 1980, and comparable to the 1929-31 A's, no memorable Phillies team has been rich in pitching.

There have been great pitchers in Robin Roberts and Carlton. But the franchise has never enjoyed the luxury of a couple of aces on the mound over several seasons. The club has had to patch together effective staffs from year to year.

Pitching is always decisive, right? Yes, but that doesn't mean that only the aces can perform in money games. One interesting characteristic of the two Phillies dynasties - and the A's of 1929-1931 - is that they have often gotten extraordinary gems of games from a group of just everyday pitchers.

We'll see.

 

Bruce Kuklick is the author of "To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban America."

 

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Banning smoking in apartments, condos? - The Almanac Online

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 12:13 AM PDT

Uploaded: Monday, October 26, 2009, 11:19 AM
Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 12:17 AM

Banning smoking in apartments, condos?  
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