Carleton Planet

Erin McKittrick '01: On Book Tour - making our way South

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:12:31 +0000

We’ve been gone from home more than 3 weeks, currently camping out in my mom’s house in rainy Seattle. It’s been a whirlwind of book tour events. We’ve given our presentation 11 times already, so for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, we’ll have it down pat by the time you do. Katmai has been doing great at the presentations too. Here in Seattle, we’ve had helpful grandmas at nearly every talk, but when we don’t, Hig usually wears Katmai - joining in for as much of the presentation as the baby allows. A couple times I’ve even found myself nursing him while answering questions after the talk!

For those of you who missed our 4 Seattle events, there’s still one more on November 18!

I’ve been really happy to see the great response I’ve gotten to the book so far! We’ve had enthusiastic crowds overfilling nearly all of our talks so far, and the people who’ve gotten back to me say they’ve really enjoyed reading the book. Perhaps that’s a biased sample though… If you read the book and would like to let people know what you think, it’d be really helpful to have more reviews on Amazon.

Tomorrow we’re heading down to Portland for a week, then Eugene, Seattle again, Minneapolis, Juneau, and then we’ll finally be back home. Since this trip is going so well, we might well head out on another book tour later this winter to hit California, Colorado, and some more of the western states…

For anyone who’s interested, you can hear our radio interview on KUOW’s Weekday,
buy the book, or see the Book Tour schedule.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: 365 Days of Stormtrooper Photography

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:00:23 +0000

What do stormtroopers do on their days off? Feed bread to gigantic pigeons, jam out on Guitar Hero, catch fish in a toilet and send vaguely insulting emails to Luke Skywalker, according to these photos by Stefan Le Du.

The amateur photographer is shooting daily photos of stormtrooper action figures posed in various scenarios, either performing everyday tasks or recreating famous film scenes, for a project called Stormtroopers 365.

Several miniseries within the series follow themes, like “D’oh!”, wherein one of the stormtroopers repeatedly gets himself into trouble whether getting his head stuck in a bottle or finding himself upside-down in a box. Another, “Not the Droid”, has the stormtroopers running into Wall-E, Calculon and others while searching for C3PO.

But don’t for a second imagine that they don’t have important tasks to get up to, like “Getting rid of swine flu, one pig at a time.”

See the whole series on Stefan’s Flickr page.

Colorfully Creative Monochromatic Photography

Variety in color can be amazing, but pushing a single color can be even more. Here are some eyeopening monochromatic shots in red, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.

Rebekkah Kerner: The best thing I've ever made?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:37:00 +0000

(At least so far.)Here's a reminder of how I started:Greasy corriedale locks, scoured to a creamy white. Creamy white locks hand combed into fluffballs of top. Top spun into 7 bobbins of singles, then plied into several skeins of a 3 ply aran weight yarn. Aran weight yarn sent to Amy for dyeing. Here's where it got me:Manon, designed by Norah Gaughan, knit from a sheep. Whee!I knit the 38"

Carleton Athletics: Men's Swimming and Diving: Knights Drop First Dual Meet of the Year to St. Thomas

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:06:40 +0000

The Carleton College men’s swimming and diving team came up short against the University of St. Thomas in a dual meet on Friday. First-year Mamoru Kanazawa posted the Knights’ lone victories, winning the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races. He also finshed second in the 100-yard butterfly.

Carleton Athletics: Women's Swimming and Diving: Knights Break Pair of Records in Win Over St. Thomas

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:53:49 +0000

The Carleton College women’s swimming and diving team won 14 of 16 events and cruised to victory over the University of St. Thomas in the first dual meet of the season. The Knights won the first seven events of the meet, including a pool record performance in the meet-opening 400-yard medley relay and a new team mark in the 1000-yard freestyle.

Kayla Berger: Making a Difference

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Sometimes I worry that I'm not really making a difference in the world. I often wish that I was better at helping people and that I had more time, money, and wisdom to contribute to solving the world's problems. I'm just an ordinary person with normal skills and a modest resources. I make a lot of mistakes, and they aren't exactly overwhelmed by a plethora of brilliant moments. Does it really matter what I do? Will anyone really notice my modest contributions?

Even though I ask myself these questions, deep down I already know the answers. My choices do matter, and my actions do make a difference. I just have to understand that while most of my efforts have a small impact, they can add up to a pretty big contribution over the span of my lifetime. I can slowly build a mountain with the tiny pebbles of love that I add to the pile each day. In fact, small contributions are the basis of a Christian life. It's great if we have the opportunity to do something big, but that still wouldn't excuse us from the small stuff. One big gift isn't worth more than my everyday efforts to love others. Everything is important, especially the small stuff.

Often it's our everyday conduct that makes the biggest impact on the people around us. Our neighbors will notice if we make a big contribution to the community, but they'll remember even more vividly whether we're inclined to smile at others or to support them in their daily lives. If we are generous but aloof, the impact of our generosity will be less than if it was combined with everyday love. Therefore our small efforts give our big achievements even more meaning. If I live a Christian life every day, then all of the good things I do, both small and great, will combine together for maximum impact on the world. I think consistency is more important than intensity when it comes to Christian living, and that means that small everyday acts of love are very important.

It's true that my contributions are sometimes smaller than I would like them to be. Still, every little act of love does make a difference. Even if my efforts go unnoticed by the people around me, God sees and appreciates everything I do. The opportunity to brighten up my Savior's day is nothing to scoff at. So when I get discouraged about my seeming smallness in the world, I hope I will remember this and be heartened. I do matter, and so do all of you.

Amy Reynaldo '88: Saturday, 11/7/09

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:31:00 +0000

Newsday 8:26
NYT 7:02
LAT 4:05
CS untimed (J)/ 3:57 (A)

Bob Klahn's New York Times crossword

I had just finished drafting my L.A. Crossword Confidential post for Saturday when I checked Twitter and saw this from Rex Parker: "Sat. puzzle = KLAHN! Holy crap. I'd forgotten what it feels like to be brutalized by a puzzle." Bob Klahn does tend to brutalize his NYT solvers. The skewed clues you see in his CrosSynergy puzzles get sharpened to a razor's edge in the Times, and the fill's packed with not-your-usual-stuff, so you get material like this:

• 5D. SPANG means [Squarely], as in "I looked 'im spang in the eye."
• 10A. [Landlocked Muslim land], 4 letters...Iran, Iraq? No, MALI, over in Africa.
• 15A. Only-in-crosswords-now old-time movie cowboy Lash LARUE is clued as [Cheyenne Kid portrayer]. Anyone get this off the clue by knowing it rather than thinking "that sounds like an old Western thing, maybe it's that LARUE guy"?
• 23A. FROTHY like whipped cream? No, [Insubstantial]. You gotta eat a lot of whipped cream for the frothiness to reach the level of substantial.
• 24A. [Appeal from a diplomat] is DÉMARCHE. I have to look this one up in the dictionary..."a political step or initiative." Didn't know that. Also Frenchy: 28A: REGLE, [En ___ (by the rules: Fr.)].
• 26A. The YAZOO is a [Mississippi river named by La Salle]. I tried YAHOO first.
• 27A. [Local operation?] clues UNION SHOP, as in the union local.
• 34A. [Base of a column] isn't architectural, it's the SUM at the bottom of a column of numbers being added. I totally grasped what the clue wanted.
• 37A. [As different as night and day, e.g.] is a CLICHÉ. Hope you didn't spend much time trying to think of a 6-letter word for "opposite."
• 41A. I'd rather have ODALISQUE clued via the Ingres painting than as [Harem slave].
• 43A. [A slew] sounds singular but clues the plural RAFTS.
• 53A. SOFIA, Bulgaria, is the [World capital at the foot of Mount Vitosha]. Never heard of Mount Vitosha before.
• 52A/55A. Good gravy, two entries given over to [lead female role in TV's "Peter Gunn"], which was before my time/aside from my inclination: EDIE HART.
• 2D. [Dancer in a suite] is crosswordese ANITRA. I'll assume this relates to Grieg's Peer Gynt. In a similar category, we have 7D: ARIADNE, [Strauss heroine from classical myth].
• 3D. Israeli writer AMOS OZ wrote Black Box and My Michael years ago. More recently, he's ["A Tale of Love and Darkness" author, 2003].
• 4D. Of all the ways to clue SENATOR, they go with ["Damn Yankees" chorister]?
• 5D. SLATY is an adjective derived from slate. [Dull blue-gray]. Wouldn't you rather call it slate blue than SLATY? Of course you would.
• 6D. PALE is clued as [Cadaverous]. Hey! That's my complexion you're talking about here.
• 8D. [Cores] are NUCLEI. When I had the CLE in place, I was at a loss for what **CLES word meant cores.
• 11D. [Not likely to go with the flow], quite literally: AT ANCHOR.
• 13D. [Doughty] means INTREPID. Got this off the I near the end.
• 21D. [Low finish?] is SHOESHINE. Got this off the first two or three letters. Did anyone watch Parks & Recreation last night, with the shoeshine love triangle?
• 22D. NANCY DREW! She looks terrific in the grid. ["The Bungalow Mystery" solver] is your clue.
• 32D. I briefly wondered if this was about amazon.com: [The first complete navigation of the Amazon was in search of this]. EL DORADO.
• 33D. Trivia! TIA MARIA is a [Liqueur reputedly named for a noblewoman's chambermaid].
• 39D. Why did it take me that long to tease out LUCIFER for ["Doctor Faustus" character]?
• 42A. Wanted TAI CHI and I CHING before the crossings coaxed out QI GONG, the [Chinese meditative practice].
• 44D. [Casting option] in flyfishing is FLY ROD.
• 45D. I totally guessed on the [Four-note chord]. I know there's a triad, so I gambled on TETRAD for four.
• 51D. Holy schnikes, [Flagitious]? It means VILE, criminal, villainous. The word dates back to Late Middle English.

Klahn's puzzles do tend to make solvers gnash their teeth, pull their hair, rend their garments, and curse his name. How was it for you? Was it spang flagitious? I liked it and my teeth, hair, and garments are intact.

Updated Saturday morning (and no, you're not seeing double—yet...):

Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Y Not"—Janie's review

This is a great puzzle to end the solving week with. The familiar drop-a-letter theme (you won't find the letter "Y" where you're used to seeing it) yields fill and cluing of the first order, and the remainder of the grid delights in equal measure. As regular solvers of the CS puzzle know (and regular puzzle-solvers as a group know), our constructor is NO SLOUCH, a far more than [Fairly capable one]. As a result, the SHINE [Twinkle] factor today couldn't be higher. Starting with the theme fill, there's:

• 17A. "ISN'T IT A PIT?" [Guess when asked what one calls where the orchestra plays?]. Whether your taste runs to Gershwin, a non-SITAR-playing Harrison or Clapton (covering Harrison), there's an "Isn't It a Pity?" for you.
• 21A. STAG PART [Antler?]. Did you catch The Hangover? If you think that was an outrageous depiction of the stag party rite, do check out some of the traditions in other parts of the world.
• 33A and 35A. THREE TO / GET READ [...the fine print, the riot act, ad your palm?]. Elvis—whose [...early...albums] appeared in MONO)—explains it all in "Blue Suede Shoes"... Love this one, because of the specificity of the clue and for the way the fill-pair crosses the grid at center.
• 51A. DUCK DECO [Design scheme on display at Donald's domicile?]. That's one very funny concept, but with those "V"-like flight formations, maybe it's not such a stretch. The FAQs of this duck decoy site should clarify your "'why-a-duck-' decoy?" questions.
• 55A. PEACE TREAT [Reward for ending the war?]. While this one doesn't go as amusingly far afield as its theme-mates, a peace treaty really is a peace treat.

A word (or three) about construction elements in the grid before looking at the rest of the puzzle. Note: the way 17A overlaps 21A with three letters (ditto 51A and 55A); the triple columns of eight in the NW and SE corners, and the triples of six in the NE and SW; and the complete absence of the letter "Y" in the grid as a whole. "Y Not" indeed, and in this way, a kissin' cousin to Patrick Blindauer's 10/26 "What's Eating U?"

Bob has also unified the puzzle in his inimitable cluing style. There are some 15 alliterative clues which raise the "wit" level of both lively and everyday fill. Some faves include:

• [Cauldron concoction contributor] for NEWT ( think of "the Scottish play"...);
• [Role for Reeve or Reeves] for KENT (a/k/a "Superman," so that'd be George Reeve or Christopher Reeves);
• [Show shamelessly] for FLAUNT;
• [Priggish pronouncements] for TUTS (which might be heard in response to something RIBALD [Bawdy]); and
• [Banshee's bailiwick] for EIRE, whose first "E" was the last letter to go as I solved. That crossing with EOCENE [Epoch in which modern mammals emerged] was tough for me.

Then, Bob has included seven "sequential" clue pairs—where there's a word in the first that's repeated (usually to different effect) in the second. Again, this tends to up the ante on even familiar three- and four-letter fill. Among the best are:

• [Friendly start?] for the oft-seen ECO- and [Big start?] for BANG. No, not exactly as in the "Big Bang theory," but as in the idiomatic expression "start with a bang." When you want to grab the attention of your audience, it's a good idea to give 'em something they'll remember, so start with a bang. That's the kind of "big start" this clue is talking about. This one's twisty, and I like it!

• [Diamond clubs] for BATS (so that's the baseball "diamond") and [Its birthstone is the diamond (abbr.)] for APR (where "diamond" is literally the gem).

• ["One Piece] AT A [Time" (1976 Johnny Cash hit)] and [50 Cent piece] for RAP SONG. The Cash song makes me laugh; the 50 Cent material doesn't...

Finally, some random fill and clues that are more than pleasing:

• the cross of TRIP [Junket] and TREK [Space odyssey];
• [Drawing room session?]/ART CLASS;
• [Cold Italian coneful]/GELATO;
• [Capital place to talk Turkey]/ANKARA;
• [Blow the suds off (your suds)]/BEHEAD (one superb combo!); and, because it's that time of the year, the colorful
• [Pyramid-shaped ornamentals that turn bright red in autumn]/PIN OAKS (at left...).

See how much more playful Klahn's clues are in a CrosSynergy puzzle?

Weird but true: Last night I had a wee spoonful taste of some sweet corn/honey GELATO with NUBS ([Kernels]) of corn in it. Vegetables in ice cream is...not where I'm at.

Bob Peoples' Los Angeles Times crossword

Full write-up over at L.A. Crossword Confidential. Excerpts:

This puzzle mostly left me cold, though I enjoyed the retro '90s oomph of 42D: EUROPOP clued as [Ace of Base genre]. A few of the answers crossing it are just insane, though:

• 41A: [Tiny white ovum] (ANT EGG). Uh, ick.
• 48A: [Iberian river] (DOURO). Okay, I have been paying attention to our Crosswordese Rivers of Europe my whole life, and this one? Is not ringing a bell.
• 52A: [Noilly __: vermouth brand] (PRAT). Pratfall, yes. Noilly Prat? Not ringing a bell.

Other unusual inclusions:

• 15A: [Bridge bid, briefly] (THREE NO). Three? No. What? I've seen ONENO as desperation fill in other crosswords, but now THREENO is taking up even more space. Is this totally legit bridge-speak or desperation fill?
• 17A: [Old Meccan governors] (SHARIFS). If you're in my generation, you know SHARIF from The Clash's "Rock the Casbah" perhaps even more than via Omar Sharif. Omar would know THREE NO, wouldn't he?
• 32A: [Shrub with clusters of blue flowers] (HYSSOP). A much prettier word than anything that sounds like "hiccup" has a right to be.
• 4D: [Three times, in Rx's] (TER). Meh. Doctors never write this on a prescription. They'll write tid, short for ter in die, Latin for "three times a day." But they're just not going to spell out TER.

Doug Peterson's Newsday "Saturday Stumper"

(PDF solution here.)

Anyone else find this one tougher than the Klahn NYT? My main trouble spots:

• 36D. [Road debut of 1908] is the Ford MODEL T.
• 1A. [Minor mistakes] aren't SLIPUPS or BOOBOOS but BOBBLES.
• 16A. [Screenwriter?] clues E-MAILER. Don't care for E-MAILER as fill. E-MAILED, yes. (See also 14D: TRYSTER, [Romeo or Juliet].)
• 17A. [Rectangular cell] is a NINE-VOLT BATTERY.
• 31A. [Hang over] is MENACE. Not EXTEND, nope. Not even close.
• 32A. [Expedient course] clues POLICY. Not every POLICY is expedient. Some are convoluted or ill-advised or require a tremendous waste of effort.
• 36A. [Makes fast] clues MOORS, as in mooring a boat. Took forever to piece together, even with most of the crossings,
• 41A. ["Canale" crosser] is an Italian bridge, or PONTE.
• 44A. [Western star] is the sheriff's BADGE.
• 8D. [Cats' beats] are BEBOPS. That can be pluralized? I thought of ALLEYS first, and then STOOPS with a few crossings.
• 10D. [Palm product] is a DATE, the fruit from a palm tree. Not the Palm TREO.
• 13D. [Ben Affleck's birthplace] is BERKELEY, California, and not Boston? Who knew?

Pressville.org: On Northfield Tax Hikes, Many Draw a Line at Aid for Businesses

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:47:22 +0000

BY JEFFREY JUUL

On Sept. 30, a new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Bridgewater Commons broke ground just south of downtown Northfield.

The restaurant may be an early sign of recovery, but some members of local government has said the city should offer more tax incentives to businesses in order to attract business to Northfield and thus create new jobs.

Pressville.org: A New Teacher Takes a New Approach to “English as a Second Language” in Northfield

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:20:10 +0000

BY KATE MCDONALD

Like many of the students he teaches, Ruben Alvarez knows what it’s like to move around.

As the child of migrant workers Alvarez’s family moved back and forth from Texas to Minnesota, year after year, following the sugar beet crop. It wasn’t until he was in the 10th grade that Alvarez’s family settled down for good, and Minnesota became his permanent home.

Pressville.org: From Najat El Hachmi, Dispatches from the Border of the Self

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:51:43 +0000

BY MEGHAN KEANE

“Literature is a fundamental element to understanding people,” said Najat El Hachmi, a renowned novelist and college professor, in a talk on Oct. 30 at Carleton College. “It’s vital.”

Library News: SPSS Not Working on Library Computers

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:13:20 +0000

SPSS is currently not working on computers within Gould Library. It is working on computers in the CMC. ITS has been notified and we hope to have SPSS working in the Library soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.

KRLX 88.1 Free Radio Northfield: TONIGHT AT THE CAVE: Local Folk Heroes Will Tear Down The Cave With Rockin' Folk Tunes Only To Afterwards Bring Everyone To Tears With A Beautiful Traditional Ballad

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:00:55 +0000

Doug, bassist for the Bratlanders and Carleton College Employee, provides us with this account of tonight's show:

Johnny Cash died in September, 2003. Two months later, Singer Matt Arthur and a backing band of siblings Doug, Don, and Bev Bratland held a tribute show at Northfield's Contented Cow where they performed 50 Cash covers they'd worked up in the previous 60 days. Six years later, the band has a few new members and dozens of original songs amid their four hour repertoire of rootsy, electrified Americana. The Bratlanders' first full-length, full-band recording, "How Time Passes," will be released in late 2009.

“Singer Matt Arthur has a whacked-out growl like something grown in a petri dish swabbed with cells stolen from the esophagus of Jim Morrison and Boxcar Willie.” - City Pages

Imagine an alternate universe where Patsy Cline met Johnny Cash at a truck stop, then gave birth to a daughter who one day met Journey's Steve Perry at a truck stop and later gave birth to a daughter who grew up to be Jennifer Markey.

Jennifer Markey and the Tennessee Snowpants are a Minneapolis-based five-piece roots country band who play original music, traditional songs, and an impressive number of countrified covers of some decidedly un-country tunes. Their new album "We're All Going To Hell!" will be released this winter.

Find more information about both bands and preview their music on MySpace:

Matt Arthur & The Bratlanders: www.myspace.com/mattdarthur
Jennifer Markey and the Tennessee Snowpants: www.myspace.com/jennifermarkey

Margaret Taylor: A Very Traditional Klingon War Chant

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:08:00 +0000

Klingon War Chant

Oh, the nerdiness ... I love it.

Pressville.org: At ‘Day of the Dead,’ Songs and Skulls for the Departed

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:51:35 +0000

BY HYE MI AHN

It was two days after Halloween, but there were skulls everywhere.

From student-made murals to wax skeletons and professional paintings, skulls were impossible to escape in the Great Hall at Carleton College for the celebration of ‘Dia de los Muertos’ (Day of the Dead).

‘Dia de los Muertos’ is a two-day Mexican holiday, held on Nov. 1 and 2, when families and friends gather to remember and celebrate the lives of the deceased.

Traditionally, an altar is set up with pictures of the dead along with their favorite food and drinks. Gifts as well as personal trinkets are set on the altar, all in order to establish a connection with those who have passed.

This year, a public celebration of ‘Dia de los Muertos’ was organized by the Latin American Student Association (LASO) and sponsored by the Carleton Student Association (CSA), the Carleton College, Spanish Department, Centro Campesino and the Carleton College Chapel.

The event attracted Carleton students, staff and faculty as well as members of Northfield and surrounding communities.

Before the 5:30 p.m. start, people walked around admiring the “calaveras” (skulls) exhibit organized by Latino artist Carlos Rojas with a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Along with his own paintings, a mural painted by students and parents from Owatonna, Faribault and Northfield were on display.

The theme of Mexican heritage wove throughout the paintings among skulls painted in various interpretations, from dark and creepy to colorful and bright.

Chocolates and Candles

Unlike Halloween when skulls are primarily meant to frighten trick-or-treaters, the skulls that decorated the Great Hall represented loved ones that had passed. The event’s opening speaker described the Mexican belief of “a state of permanent interaction” between the living and the dead, especially on the ‘Dia de los Muertos.’ To some, the holiday is a family reunion of sorts.

The people at the Great Hall decorated the makeshift altar with pictures of a U.S. Marine soldier, a man by the name of Shonglue Yang, and Coretta Scott King.

They added personal items and gifts for loved ones who had died: Bazooka gum, Mexican chocolate, candles, painted clay dolls and instant pudding. There were homemade treats and fresh flowers. The altar was overflowing with memories.

After everyone had been seated, the ceremony began with a welcome from two Carleton students, junior Michele Cruz and freshman Estefania Donahue.

Following a narrative dance by Ollin Ayacaxtly, a Northfield-based traditional Aztec dance group, and a reading of a Spanish poem and song, there was an invitation to decorate the altar. Tables emptied as people lined up to light a candle and say a prayer for their loved ones.

Suddenly Eerie

This part of the ceremony highlighted the darker aspects of the holiday, reminding everyone in attendance that death, despite celebrations, can be a hard thing to deal with. One young man lit three candles, for three loved ones who had recently died.

He spoke loudly and clearly: “One is for my aunt who died of leukemia. The second one is for my cousin who died in a car crash.” The last candle was for his friend, someone “like a brother,” a Marine who had died just three weeks earlier in Afghanistan.

The two friends had enlisted together, and the young man wondered aloud, “if I hadn’t been in school, I would have been there, right by his side that morning. Maybe I would have died. Could I have saved him?”

The hall suddenly felt eerie, as if the dead were among us.

On the other hand, some were there to enjoy the lighthearted nature of the holiday.

“I’ve always enjoyed this holiday,” said Rachel Feinberg, a Carleton freshman. “Growing up, we had fun activities in Middle School and High School to celebrate it.”

Tears in Heaven

Zaret Calderon, a student at Northfield High School, also came for interest and fun.

“I usually go to church but here the dancing was really good,” she said.

For some, the Aztec dancing by Ollin Ayacaxtly was the event’s highlight.

Dressed in glittering, feathered costumes, the dancers performed with smoking cups and incense to the beat of a single drummer and a horn.

Jennifer Lompart, a teacher at Northfield High School, brought her two young children to the event. As her children sat entranced by the dance, Lompart remarked, “the dance is just amazing, but I’m also here to support a few of my students and their families who are here.”

Overall, the night was a community celebration, but most in attendance were personally touched. The crowd was intensely still as Jamaal Magee ’10 sang “Tears in Heaven” in dedication to his younger brother who had passed away.

Silently Singing

Jamaal closed his eyes and turned his face to the ceiling, and many members of the audience were singing along silently.

At the “Day of the Dead” celebrations, the pain of losing a loved one lurked beneath the festive atmosphere.

Mariveliz Ortiz, a junior Carleton, sang “Como La Flor” by Selena, whose lyrics resonated long after the festivities had ended:

Yo se perder
Pero aye
Como me duele
Como me duele

Or in English:

I know how
To lose
But oh, how it hurts me,
Oh, how it hurts me

Copyright @ 2009 Pressville

Collin Hazlett '12: Cantor, Whales, and Pumpkin Pie

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:40:31 +0000

Fractional dimensions. Duct-tape whales. Awesome hats. Mysterious charts.

Everything you need for an awesome Halloween-themed post.

Carleton Athletics: Men's Cross Country: St Olaf Powerless to Stop Blake Hansen

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:06:52 +0000

In the annual battle between crosstown rivals, Carleton College senior Blake Hansen ran a season-best time of 27:41 to become the winner of the Great Karhu Shoe Race. The favored Ole harriers came out on top in the team competition, 22-38, as the was contested over a long 8,100-meter course on the edge of the St. Olaf campus.

Avery Palmer '00: Quote of the Day

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:58:12 +0000

"It is what it is, which is the saying we always fall back on when it's not what it's not."

-- Al Gore, in a good interview from Darren Samuelsohn at Greenwire. I appreciate his ironic use of "it is what it is," which is, at the end of the day, the oldest and tiredest expression in the city of Washington.

Media Resources: New at the Library

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:43:59 +0000

Art:21 : art in the twenty-first century. Season five / a production of Art21 Inc. ; series created by Susan Sollins and Susan Dowling.

Clando = Clandestine / Les Films du Raphia ; un film de Jean-Marie Teno.

Death in the garden.

Fados / Duvideo ; Fado Filmes ; Zebra Producciones ; produced by Ivan Dias, Luis Galvão Teles, and António Saura ; directed by Carlos Saura.

The foreign duck, the native duck and God in a coin locker / directed by Yosihiro Nakamura ; produced by Yasushi Utagawa, Hitoshi Endo ; produced by Amuse Soft Entertainment, Inc. ; SKY Perfect Well Think Co., Ltd. ; Yomiko Advertising Inc. ; dub Corporation ; Higashi Nippon Broadcasting Co., Ltd. ; The Kahoku Shimpo ; “2 Ducks” Film Partners.

Homo toxicus / produced by Les Productions ISCA ; producers, Carole Poliquin, Isaac Isitan ; written and directed by Carole Poliquin.

How sweet the sound / Joan Baez.

Inventing LA : the Chandlers and their Times / presented in association with KCET/Los Angeles ; writer/director/producer, Peter Jones.

Kurosing = Crossing / kamdok, Kim T’ae-gyun ; chejak, CampB.

OSS 117 : le Caire, nid d’espions / Gaumont presente ; une coproduction Mandarin Films, Gaumont, M6 Films ; scénario, Jean-François Halin ; produit par Eric et Nicolas Altmayer ; un film reálisé par Michel Hazanavicius.

La otra conquista = The other conquest / Carrasco & Domingo Films en asociación con Placido Domingo, Enrique Gonzalez Torres ; en co-producción con Sedesol ; Co Tabasco Films ; Conaculta / Fonca / Imcine ; Rada Film ; Grupo Funtanet ; Dova Productions ; una producción de Alvaro Domingo ; una película de Salvador Carrasco ; guión, dirección y edición [= written, directed and edited by], Salvador Carrasco.

Paraiso travel / director, Simon Brand.

Paris / un film de Cédric Klapisch ; produit par Bruno Levy ; scenario, Cédric Klapisch ; une coproduction, Ce Qui Me Meut, Studio Canal Image, France 2 Cinema.

Z / the Criterion Collection, Janus Films ; Valoria Films présente ; une co-production Reganne Films (Paris), Office National pour le Commerce et l’Industrie Cinématographique (Alger) ; dialogue de Jorge Semprun ; film de Costa-Gavras.

Carleton Athletics: Follow Saturday Soccer Title Matches, Football, Swimming on Knights Online

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:04:36 +0000

Knights Online is your best source to follow the Knights in action on Saturday, Nov. 7. The swim teams are in action, it's Senior Day as the football team hosts Concordia, with the highlight being both the men's and women's soccer teams battling Macalester College with a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line. The men's game is at Carleton's Bell Field, as Pete Semmer and the Knights' defense looks to lock up its second consecutive MIAC Playoff title.

Carleton Athletics: Volleyball: Lovett Earns Academic Honor

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:50:39 +0000

Carleton College junior Kelly Lovett was named to the 2009 CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Third Team. In her first season as a starter, she showed an impressive all-around game, pacing the Knights in kills and ranking second in digs.

Carleton Athletics: Football: Taylor Named to Academic All-District Team

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:47:56 +0000

Carleton College junior offensive lineman Will Taylor was named to the 2009 CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Second Team. Taylor has anchored the right guard position this year for the Knights, putting Carleton on pace for its top rushing season since 2005.

Carleton Athletics: Knights of the Week

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:06:58 +0000

The Carleton College Student-Athlete Advisory Council announced its Knights of the Week for Oct. 26-Nov.1. The recipients were the Women's Cross Country team and Tyler Palin.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: About Face: Unbelievably Hilarious Face Painting Art

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:03 +0000

Remember going to birthday parties or the carnival as a child and getting your face painted? Face painting is fun and magical, and it lets us temporarily transform ourselves. You can be just about anything, from a fierce animal to a dainty fairy to a weird celebrity look-alike. Unfortunately, most of us stop getting our faces painting when we become adults. James Kuhn, however, picked up the habit as an adult – and ran with it.

James Kuhn has considered him an artist for his whole life, but it wasn’t until he grew up that he began painting his own face with a new theme every single day. He decided to do one new face painting a day for a year, in the vein of the other “365 days of self portraits” projects. He didn’t enjoy other 365 projects, saying they were self-indulgent or silly. So he decided to take another (arguably also silly) route by creating a masterpiece every day.

All of James’ paintings are done on himself, and he usually takes his own pictures as well. These are some of the most unique self-portraits ever, since he looks quite different in every one of them. If additional pieces are needed, he usually cuts them out of cardboard, paints them, and sticks them to his face as needed.

James is always looking for new inspiration for his creations. He has used everything from cartoon characters to his favorite foods to famous duos and groups, and everything in between. Some of the most amazing face portraits are those featuring two or more people. It’s fun to decipher how he divides up his existing facial features to create features for the characters.

His particular form of artistic body painting is just for fun, though his other artwork has been displayed in galleries. He believes that, overall, making money from art shouldn’t be an artist’s top priority; their goal should be to push through their fear and their conventional thinking to create something new and thought-provoking. His incredible face painting has gained him international attention, and he’s been featured on TV shows and in newspapers around the world.

The artist, who lives in Michigan, describes himself as a face paint illusionist, drag queen, performance artist, and full-time Christian. He’s recently been featured in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! picture book, and although the 365 days of self-portraits are over, he continues to create masterpieces on his own face. You can see many of his face paintings come to life on his YouTube channel.

16 3D Graffiti Artists and Street Painters

These amazing artists produce three-dimensional works that trick our sense of perspective and seem 3D despite being painted, drawn or chalked onto flat 2D surfaces.

Dan Schofer '00

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:43:49 +0000

11-6-2009
Mud Road + Bryant Park. 30 minutes. 4 miles.
Slow and easy shakeout run.

Dan Schofer '00

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:43:19 +0000

11-6-2009
Abbe Hills Loop. 74 minutes. >10 miles.
Cool, sunny, and windy. Felt pretty tired and sluggish so ran easy the whole way.

Carleton Athletics: Men's Soccer: Three Knights Receive Academic Award

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:34:45 +0000

Three members of the Carleton College men’s soccer team were named to the 2009 CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Team for their performance on the soccer field and in the classroom. Ross Hamilton was voted to the first team, while Robert Carlton and Tim Wills were second-team seelctions. For the second year in a row, the Knights had the most players honored in the MIAC.

Shout: She's Bought a Completely White Painting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:25:17 +0000

Art, by the French playwright Yasmina Reza, is really about friendship.

Amy Reynaldo '88: Daily Beast, 11/6/09

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Time - 8:46
Hello possums!
You’re late!

You should have been here an hour ago. Didn’t you remember to fall back on November 1? Matt Gaffney remembered, and that’s the 50D: [Crossword puzzle feature] – THEME of this week’s Daily Beast puzzle, "Daylight Savings”.
All the theme answers had to be pushed back one hour. Isn’t that 53D: [Underhanded] – SNEAKY? Not so much to me as I got this on the title and 1 Across, so a very fast solve. Nevertheless, some fun clues and answers as we have come to expect from Marvellous Matt.
1A & 5A: [Gary Cooper Western, as of 11/01/09?] – High Noon gets pushed back to HIGH ELEVEN.
23A: [Facial growth, as of 11/01/09?] – (Five) FOUR O’CLOCK SHADOW.
54A: [Dolly Parton movie, as of 11/01/09?] – Double switch from Nine to Five to EIGHT TO FOUR
71A: [1933 John Barrymore movie, as of 11/01/09?] – DINNER AT SEVEN (Eight).
89A: [Pot smoker’s favourite time, as of 11/01/09?] – (Four) THREE TWENTY. This one needs some explaining. Mr Wiki?
420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis drug subculture. The term originated from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in California in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana. April 20 (4/20) has evolved into a counterculture where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.
It is held in Victoria in a park right by my bus stop home from work. Since I usually leave around four, I arrived last April 20 at the stop to a gathering crowd that clearly didn’t include many crossword solving accountants. I walked to the next bus stop.
122A: [Count Basie classic, as of 11/01/09?] – (One) TWELVE O’CLOCK JUMP.
16D: [1961 #1 hit for Gary “U.S.” Bonds, as of 11/01/09?] – QUARTER TO TWO (Three).
65D: [Best Picture of 1969, as of 11/01/09?] – (Midnight) ELEVEN COWBOY.
Other cool stuff:
21A: [Dame] EDNA. Here “she” is performing in Montreal.
44A: [Whiz] – ACE. Wrong. PEE. There goes Matt again.
60A: [One-third of a WWII movie] – TORA. The other thirds are tora and tora, respectively.
75A: [Moo goo gai pan pan] – WOK. Three-letter word madness!
88A: [Olympic great Ray] – EWRY. Who? Raymond "Ray" Clarence Ewry was an American track and field athlete who won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time. This guy could Jump!
95A: STEELY [Dan]
110A: [Constellation component] – B STAR . Also known as random letter star.
128A: [Belgian beer, for short] – STELLA Artois. Marlon Brando was ordering a beer in “A Streetcar Named Desire"?
129A: [Maker of the Ektorp chair] – IKEA. Four letters, furniture, IKEA.
2D: [“Young Frankenstein” role] – IGOR. What hump?
10D: [Cup Noodles company] – NISSIN. I don’t think we have this in Canada.
41D: [“Into the GROOVE” (Madonna hit].
66D: [Toronto landmark] – CN TOWER. Popular in puzzles lately.
84D: [This clue has four] – SYLLABLES. Were you thinking, “words” won’t fit?
106D: [Fiona’s guy] – SHREK. As in green ogre.
107D: [“A Confederacy of Dunces” author John Kennedy TOOLE].
115D: [“Africa” band] – TOTO.
120D: [Expectorated] – SPAT.
124A: [“Bravissimo!”] – OLE, Matt!

See you next week, possums.

Carleton Athletics: Women's Cross Country: Ricks, Knights Honored by MIAC

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:41 +0000

After a dominating win at the MIAC Championships, several Knights officially received their awards from the MIAC. Donna Ricks was named Coach of the Year, while Simone Childs-Walker, Taylor Ffitch and Laura Roach received their All-MIAC honors. Alison Smyth earned All-MIAC honorable mention and Nikki Reich was selected for the MIAC All-Sportsmanship team.

Carleton Athletics: Volleyball: Eckhoff, Barsness Receive MIAC Awards

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:28 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A pair of Carleton College volleyball players received recognition from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) for their skill on the court this season. Laura Barsness was named Defensive Player of the Year for the second time and middle hitter Annie Eckhoff earned her first All-MIAC selection.

Chet Haase: Little Jokes for Friday

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Do people drink rice wine for old times’ Sake?

Do bootleggers make whiskey still?

Do beer guzzlers drink for what ales them? Should they take Pils instead?

Jaye Lawrence: Prayers for Peace and Sanity

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:45:46 +0000

I am both saddened by the murders at Fort Hood and fearful of backlash against innocent Muslim Americans for the crimes of one madman. On news sites that allow unmoderated user comments, the hatred and bigotry being spewed is ugly beyond belief.

Nobody went around saying "That's a white Christian name, it must be a conspiracy" when George Hennard took out 23 people at a restaurant in the nearby town of Killeen TX back in 1991.

Nobody lashed out at all white men with WASP names when the Oklahoma City bombers murdered 186 (and that was a conspiracy).

I pray for peace and sanity in a world short on both. More, I pray for the victims and families at Fort Hood.

David Schraub: Goldstone Says Gaza Op Legal?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:55:05 +0000

In a debate with former Israeli UN ambassador Dore Gold, Judge Goldstone stated (in response to criticisms that his report neglected Israel's right to defend itself):

"Israel not only has the right to defend its citizens, but the duty to do so according to international law. The military operation is legal. In this context, the committee found that Hamas and other organizations had committed war crimes against civilians in southern Israel. The rockets terrorized women and children every day. This was mentioned in the report in detail," the judge argued.

Emphasis added. It's a little unclear, but Judge Goldstone has persistently sought to distinguish the jus ad bellum aspects of the conflict (the decision to go to war) from the jus in bellum aspects (how the war is prosecuted), claiming his mandate was only to investigate the latter. Of course, he is perhaps the only person who has held to that distinction in the ensuing debate over the controversy. I think the contours of how Goldstone's report was received would have changed dramatically if he had written: a) Israel unambiguously was within its rights to launch a military strike into Gaza in response to rocket attacks, and b) the manner in which the campaign was prosecuted at times amounted to war crimes. Part "b" of that formulation came through quite prominently, part "a" not at all.

But the passage above is still slightly opaque, so I don't want to say with total confidence that Judge Goldstone is endorsing the jus ad bellum legality of Cast Lead.

David Schraub: Non-Goldstone Report

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:32:25 +0000

Ha'aretz reports that Israel was already investigating several human rights allegations regarding Gaza prior to the Goldstone report, but now is leery about continuing lest it be seen as caving to international pressure:

While the IDF is opposed, in principle, to setting up a committee of inquiry into the allegations against Israel made in the Goldstone Report on the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the military advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, has ordered investigations into a number of allegations, currently being carried out by the Military Police.

Mendelblit has ordered investigations into 12 incidents that were, even before the report, the focus of Military Police investigations or part of operational investigations. Two involved civilian deaths, based on Palestinian claims. In the 10 other incidents, Palestinians claimed their property had been destroyed. Coordination of the investigations is being handled by the chief of Military Police in the Southern Command, Lt. Col. Gil Mamon. Mendelblit is part of a team of senior legal experts the government established last week to formulate recommendations on dealing with the report. The findings are to serve as the backbone for a counter-Goldstone report that is expected to be ready in a month.

One of Mendelblit's arguments against creating a committee of inquiry following the Goldstone Report is that such a committee has never been set up as a result of external pressure, and says that surrendering to international pressure will constitute a dangerous precedent.

This is hardly a new problem. Our desire for formal international inquiries often conflicts with pragmatic considerations of what best will protect human rights on the ground. It's a delicate dance, particularly because its undoubtedly true that some amount of international pressure is likely a good thing, but too much and you start to see a backlash from the targeted nation.

I don't think anybody can really be that surprised that one of the net results of a UNHRC investigation was to make it near-impossible, politically speaking, for Israel to conduct a strong investigation of their own -- I honestly think it's less about it being "international pressure" per se and more about it being the UNHRC particularly, a body which Israel (rightfully) feels is entirely disrespectful of the rights of the Jewish state.

Does that mean that international investigations should be off limits? No. But there's a weighing that should be going on here -- between the need for international pressure and the need to account for pragmatic local political behavior -- and I don't think that it's actually being done, because there is little evidence that the policymakers at issue actually care about the on-the-ground effects of their actions on Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, the fingers on the scale press near-entirely on the side of isolating and humiliating Israel. It's like if America's policy towards Iran stopped being about whether they got nuclear weapons, and became solely focused on promoting the idea that Iran is evil and should be shamed (which, to be sure, seems to be a close approximation of what many conservatives want our Iran policy to be). That discourse always claims to be concerned about the human rights and non-proliferation issues, but it actually is quite willing to subordinate them on the altar of moral superiority. What should be a delicate balancing act between ideals and practices falls away, because we don't actually care about the "cash value" of the values we claim to be supporting.

Kayla Berger: Beauty Within

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

We all like beautiful things. We enjoy being in beautiful places, we want beautiful objects in our homes, and we even like to look at beautiful people. God made a wide variety of beautiful creations in this world for us to enjoy, and He's given us the creativity and artistry to make things of beauty ourselves. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My husband thinks I look beautiful, but a lot of people don't. Some people think desert landscapes are lovely and some people don't. Some people are touched by Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, and some people aren't. King Solomon compared his beloved's hair to a flock of goats (Song 4:1), and even though he was using that comparison to express her beauty, a lot of us don't find that appealing at all. There is no set definition of physical or artistic beauty. We all have different aesthetic tastes, and that is why it is marvelous that our world holds such variety.

Physical beauty is enjoyable, but we could enjoy a much deeper and profound kind of beauty if we're willing to seek it out. Every soul made by God is beautiful because He made it in His own image. While there are many different ideas about physical beauty, I think there is an easy way to define inner beauty: likeness to God. God is love, and love is the most beautiful thing there is. Every reflection of God inside our souls—every bit of kindness, generosity, justice, and righteousness—is beautiful. Seeing that kind of beauty in each other is like getting the chance to look at God, even if we only get to see a faint reflection. Inner beauty requires more of us—it's not as flashy or obvious, so we have to pay attention or we won't notice it. Still, I've realized that the beauty within is also much deeper and more powerful than the beauty on the surface. I can feast my eyes on a beautiful sight, but my joy at encountering a beautiful soul transcends my senses.

We can get so distracted by physical beauty that we let it rob us of the chance to enjoy the beauty within. When I meet someone, what am I paying attention to most? Am I looking at their face or their figure or the clothes they're wearing? Or am I listening to what they're saying and looking for their story and discerning their personality? I may find the most beautiful and amazing treasure inside people who repulse me a little on the outside. Am I willing to go search for that treasure, to see what's really there on the inside? As a person who's struggled with my weight my entire life, I've often felt that I couldn't get people to look past my body to see the real me. Now I want to challenge myself not to suffer from that limitation myself. There's so much beauty inside the people who are all around me, and I want to discover it. I really do enjoy being in the mountains and looking at amazing paintings and watching beautiful actresses and handsome actors onscreen, but none of those things can give me the incredible joy that I feel when I see a beautiful soul.

Amy Reynaldo '88: Friday, 11/6/09

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:25:00 +0000

NYT 6:01
BEQ 4:32
CHE 3:42
LAT 3:24
CS untimed
WSJ 8:05

Doug Peterson's New York Times crossword

Aargh! Don't you hate it when you click "done" with 4:46 on the clock but you have a typo in a Down answer and begin scanning all the Across answers so it takes a good long while to see JULEETTE BINOCHE sitting in reproach? Hell, for all I knew, 19A: ["The Ballad of ___," 1967 comedy western] was spelled JOSEE rather than JOSIE because hey, there's The Outlaw Josey Wales. Wales was a '76 movie, whereas The Ballad of Josie "attempted to humorously tackle 1960s themes of feminism in a traditional western setting." The plot: "A young woman living in fictional Arapahoe County, Wyoming accidentally kills her very abusive husband. She is put on trial but acquitted. She then incurs the annoyance of her male neighbors by farming sheep instead of cattle and setting up a woman's suffrage movement." Anyone ever hear of this Doris Day flick?

Okay, the puzzle: 68 words. Two 15s, four 10s, eight 9s, some intermediate-length answers, and only six 3s, which is nice. The highlights:

• Why not cross ALPHA MALE with UN-P.C.? It's a natural pairing. 16A: [Leader of the pack], 3D: [Sexist, say]. Right beside that is OGLE, or [Regard impolitely].
• 1A. I filled in MOUNT FUJI via the crossings, as I was thinking I needed an East Asian equivalent of Mecca for the [Far Eastern pilgrimage destination]. Another mountain: 28A: PIZ [___ Bernina (highest peak in the Eastern Alps]. I like to say PIZ.
• 14A. Love the word IGNORAMUS. [Dull type] doesn't begin to capture it.
• 36A. The title doesn't ring a bell, but [Subject of the 2005 biography "iCon"] is STEVE JOBS. Is that "ooh, he's an icon" or "he'll con you with his iWhatnots"? I'm reading the title as a hatchet-job "I Con."
• 37A. If you [Spotted] me $40, you LENT it to me. Thanks. I'll totally pay you back.
• 46A. [Hamburger's acknowledgment] is DANKE, a Hamburger being someone from Hamburg, Germany.
• 52A. I, CLAUDIUS is a great entry. [John Hurt played Caligula in it].
• 57A. The SERENGETI is [Where some buffalo roam]. Water buffalo?
• 1D. M.I.A.'S are clued with [They're officially honored on the third Friday in Sept. Veterans Day is next Wednesday, Nov. 11—my kid's off school then...and tomorrow too.
• 8D. JULIETTE BINOCHE, ["The English Patient" Oscar winner]. See? Sometimes I can type the right letters.
• 12D. [It often has controls] refers to an EXPERIMENT. I was in a medical study once—I think I was in the control group and man, did that stink. (Though it turns out the active-treatment group didn't fare much better.)
• 25D. [Its bulb is small]—my little Book Owl LED light? That too. But GREEN ONION is what Doug was going for here.
• 29D, 40A. ZESTY, meet CRUSTY. Is this about saltine crackers? Wait, those are crispy Zestas. [Vivacious], [Gruff].
• 31D. [Baseball nickname that's a portmanteau] is A-ROD, short for Alex Rodriguez. No baseball talk here, please. Not 'til opening day, 2010.
• 32D. [Fibula neighbor] down below is the TALUS, the big ankle bone. Did you want it to be TIBIA, 5 letters, starts with T?

OK, I like question-marked clues usually, but [Cabinet member?] for 48D: FILE doesn't do it for me. Your files are in no way "members" of your file cabinet.

Arcane factoids I am likely to forget by morning: PAUL V was the [Pope who met with Galileo], and ACETIC ACID is a [Wood distillation product].

Patrick Berry's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword, "Koined Terms"

From my Mac's widget dictionary: koine means "the common language of the Greeks from the close of the classical period to the Byzantine era; a common language shared by various peoples; a lingua franca." Our "Koined Terms" here begin with adjectives based on Greek names and are phrases of varying familiarity:

• HIPPOCRATIC OATH, check. [What doctors are expected to follow].
• SOCRATIC METHOD, check. [Teaching technique that involves asking questions].
• PYRRHIC VICTORY, check. [Win that wasn't worth it].
• HOMERIC LAUGHTER—huh? [What hilarious jokes induce] but also very bad news, medically: "Uncontrolled spasmodic laughter induced by mirthless stimuli, a symptom of organic brain disease that indicates a poor prognosis; HL may be seen in multiple sclerosis, pseudobulbar palsy, epilepsy, intracranial hemorrhage, frontal lobotomy, and kuru, which causes 'laughing death.'" My goodness.

I like the inclusion of Greek mythology's Athena (in a clue for MINERVA) and THESEUS, the MOHS/OHM'S echo, the SCUM clue ([Dirty film]—no, not that kind of film), and learning a new word in the CELTIC clue ([Like the festival of Beltane]). Beltane ushers in the summery half of the year on May 1 and Samhain closes it out on November 1. Have I seen the name HAUER before, or is [Austrian composer Josef Matthias ___] new to me? I think he's new to me. A 20th-century composer.

Sharon Petersen's Los Angeles Times crossword

The theme centers on words that sound like plurals of letter names:

• 17A. [Nursery rhyme dish?] with a question mark is PP PORRIDGE, with PP pronounced as two "Ps" standing in for "pease."
• 25A. CC THE DAY represents "seize the day," the ["Time is fleeting" philosophy?].
• 38A. "Whys and wherefores" becomes YY AND WHEREFORES, or [Reasons?].
• 49A. ["Good grief!"?] has got too much punctuation. GG LOUISE represents "jeez Louise."
• 61A. Remember that [1999 Kidman/Cruise film?] before she married Keith Urban and he married Katie Holmes? Eyes Wide Shut gives us II WIDE SHUT.

Favorite clues and answers:

• [Brest milk]! Ha! LAIT is milk in French, and Brest is a French city.
• ROSEY [Grier of the Fearsome Foursome] once sang a song, "It's All Right to Cry." He's right, you know.
• DAPPER DAN is a [Well-groomed guy].
• A [Website that users can edit] is a WIKI. If you've never fixed a typo in Wikipedia, you should try it sometime.
• [Verminophobe's fear] is GERMS. Yeesh! Maybe I'll be all better come Monday and can get the H1N1 vaccine with my kid.

Updated Friday morning:

Patrick Jordan's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Natural Defenses"—Janie's review

Yesterday, Ray Hamel's puzzle gave us five man-made items that are worn "for your protection," or man-made defenses. Today, Patrick gives us four of nature's own defenses, each of which appears as the first word of a well-known phrase having nothing to do with defenses—man-made or natural. You may want to don some protection, however, if you find yourself anywhere near these sometimes lethal weapons:

•17A. STINGER COCKTAIL [Brandy concoction]. I suppose drinking too many of these could be mighty dangerous, too, but the defense in question here is the stinger of the apian sort. On the subject of bee stings, all I can say is "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!"
•26A. SCALE MODEL [Proportionate reproduction]. Fish, reptiles, even butterflies have scales. They're not likely to harm you (in the way a stinger might), but they do help keep the species safe from their predators.
•48A. CLAW HAMMER [Carpentry staple] and, depending who's wielding it in a non-functional way..., quite capable of doing a lot of damage/providing a lot of protection. But let's focus instead on the claw component of the avian and ursine variety. Again: OUCH!!! (I feel certain you know this but the claws of the former may also be called "talons.")
•61A. POISON-PEN LETTER [Malicious message]. And you'll find poison everywhere: in spiders, snakes, fruit, plants, mushrooms. What can I tell you? Mother Nature looks out for her own, so be very careful!

If this puzzle isn't a knock-out, a solver could still WARM TO [Grow fond of] it. There's some fun in the cluing: [Result of baby's first spaghetti dinner] for MESS is particularly vivid; ditto [Cluelessness gesture] for SHRUG. Yesterday, we saw verdant and schnoz as fill. Today, [Became verdant] clues GREENED and [Jimmy known as "The Schnoz"] clues DURANTE, whose proboscis was famously immortalized in Cole Porter's "You're the Top":

You're a rose,
You're Inferno's Dante*,
You're the nose
On the great Durante.
I'm just in the way,
As the French would say, "de trop."
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

*Also in yesterday's puzzle. Patrick, were you and Ray in communication when you were constructing these puzzles?

[Beetle Bailey's outfit] is not his UNIFORM but THE ARMY (his meta-outfit, so to speak). Did you know: "Beetle Bailey" was introduced by Mort Walker in 1950, and Walker is still producing the comic strip? Or that Lois, of Walker's "Hi and Lois," is Beetle's sister? I'm just wondering if Otto, Sarge's anthropomorphic dog, has ever said "ARF!" [Comic strip bark].

Myles Callum's Wall Street Journal crossword, "I'm a PC"

For my money, "I'm a PC" is among the more annoying, jejune commerical catchphrases out there. You may use a Windows machine, but it doesn't mean you are one. That's just insipid. The theme phrases have P.C. initials, but they're livened up via the clueing. Each clue defines the P.C. phrase in two ways, one straight and one jokey. For example, PRINCE CHARMING is [Fairy tale guys? Hexing a pop musician? Whatever! I'm a PC], and the really-not-so-familiar phrase PRIVY COUNCILS is clued as [Royal advisers? Outhouse committees? Whatever! I'm a PC]. If you have to do a "phrases with the same initials" theme, you're best off having some fun with the clues to add some pep to the puzzle.

A couple relative obscurities in the fill—CRESSETS are [Metal baskets for burning oil]. I know PONIARD, or [Slim dagger], but it's an old word. I was also stumped, weirdly, by 4D: ["Major Dundee" star] is HESTON, but I started out with the [Hormel product] being SPAM rather than HASH and thinking I needed the name of the Crocodile Dundee star, which I'm still blanking on.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Circular Reasoning"

Am I missing something here? The circled letters spell out IT IS ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW. (Wouldn't "it's" sound more natural?) One of the long answers is WEDDING BAND, which is a circle, but the other is the WAITING GAME of vultures, which touches on the circle of life tangentially. There's an ORBITER in the middle of the grid. The three-way checking of squares nudges the constructor towards some compromises in fill—TLAs, partials, foreign words (Latin IN REM, French ANNEE), REMOP, not much in the way of juicy answers. Is there a theme beyond "look, the circled letters spell out something"?

Hmm. I'll probably like Monday's BEQ better.

Gotta run—busy day!

Benjamin Lenzner: footballing on african cliffs

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:43:00 +0000

between port st. johns and coffee bay, footballing in the eastern cape. may 2004.

love and health to all...

Kyle Kingsbury '09: Yamr: A Linux Yammer Client

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:37:23 +0000

Sometime in the last couple of weeks, the Yammer AIR client stopped fetching new messages. I've grown to really like the service, especially since it delivers a running stream of commits to the Git repos I'm interested in, so I broke down and wrote my own client.

Yamr is a little ruby/gtk app built on top of jstewart's yammer4r and the awesome danlucraft's Ruby Webkit-GTK+ bindings. No seriously, Dan, you rock.

Features

Reads messages
Posts messages
OAUTH support
Notifies you using libnotify, instead of that awful AIR thing.

Anyway, feel free to fork & hack away. You should be able to build ruby-webkit without much trouble on ubuntu; I've included directions in the readme. It's super-basic right now, but most of the core functionality is ready to start adding features. Enjoy!

Elizabeth Tamny '88

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:50:00 +0000

The thing people should point out more about recycling is how satisfying it is. I mean, the actual act, not (exactly) in a larger, do-gooding sense. It is an extremely satisfying activity for the nudgey mind--fabuous fun to send packaging and all its tyranny back to from whence it came. No matter what it is--mayonnaise jars, birth control pill containers, seltzer cans--it all goes back the same way. Collecting like things together ruthlessly, regardless of origin. It's even more satisfying, somehow, with boxes. Not corrugated boxes, but the thin boxes that so much stuff is packaged in--cookies, Bounce sheets, frozen food, medicines, whatever. I love to break them down, take away their power to take up so much room, and send them back on their way. It kind of gives you a little of your own back, as a consumer, feeling like you're decimating all the elaborate attempts to win your attention and turning it back into wood pulp. Lots of immediate gratification.

Elizabeth Tamny '88

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:45:00 +0000

I think I may have found my fav King of the Hill episode, at least for now: the season 8 Christmas episode, when Hank drives furniture out to his mother's in a huge truck. The scene when Dale shoots his way out of the back done bout killed me. Or it was 1:43 a.m. and everything was funny, but more likely both.

Elizabeth Tamny '88

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:18:00 +0000

I wish this blog weren't PG-13, otherwise I could go into detail about a very vivid dream I had about Steve Martin last night. Can't stop snickering! He was newly single. Later in the dream I saw him in a match.com ad--they had snagged him in a celebrity coup--and I thought, how clever. He was banjo-playing and kind of (through the ad) showing how single people are all the same out there, looking, and here's his particular goofy charming skill set. Hah!

Chris Doten: Articles of Confederation, Take Two

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:32:55 +0000

There’s a new international juggernaut on the world scene. Russia? Nah, they’re too busy drinking themselves to death. India? Nah, they’re 34% illiterate. China? Brazil?

Nope, it’s the United States of Europe. After a long journey, the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty has crossed its final hurdle.

This is a truly historic moment. Much as one might laugh about Brussels, the process of “ever closer union” has made a very significant step. Remember that, after a period under the weak Articles of Confederation, we quickly got a much stronger federative document – but even with that the balance of power was in the hands of the states for a long time.

The logic of centralization will continue for a long time. God forbid another Great Power war, but if we have one then things will speed up infinitely.

With a first EU president, Kissinger’s snide question – “If I want to call Europe, who do I call?” finally has an answer. I hope it’s this one.

Dan Schofer '00

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:36:18 +0000

11-5-2009
Bryant Park. 30 minutes. 4 miles.
Easy shakeout run.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: Off the Wall Graffiti: 11 Artists Making Odd Marks

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:00:51 +0000

By now, we’re all used to seeing graffiti and public art in urban and suburban settings. We’re so used to it, in fact, that we typically walk right by without giving it a second glance. But would you be able to ignore graffiti if it were done in a medium or a method you’d never seen before? These 11 innovative artists are stepping up the standards for graffiti and public art by doing it in ways we don’t usually see, but just might notice. Some of them are pure brilliance and sure to catch the attention of even the most jaded city-dweller.

Buff Diss

If you saw Buff Diss‘ work on the street, you might be inclined to think it was paint. But the crisp, clean, bold lines give it away: he works in sticky tape. The Australian artist uses masking tape and electrical tape to lay his images down over streets, walls and windows, making it at once 3D and part of the urban landscape. He’s shown his unusual graffiti style in galleries, but his street art is what’s really amazing. It’s definitely got a graffiti flavor to it, but it also has a decidedly playful feel.

Poster Boy NYC

If you’ve taken the subway in New York in the last couple of years, you’ve probably seen some of Poster Boy’s work. He’s an anti-consumerist guerrilla artist, meaning that he takes the advertisement posters that are so prevalent in subway stations, uses a razor blade to liberate their components, and rearranges them into new messages. He’s been called New York’s answer to Banksy, though his pieces seem more pointed and anti-consumerist than Banksy’s. He’s said that there will be no capitalizing on his newly-found fame; no books or gallery shows are in the works. It’s rumored that Poster Boy isn’t a single person, but rather a subculture movement fueled by the work of many. We may never know the truth, but Poster Boy’s work is inspiring the New Yorkers (and Internet denizens) who see it to think twice about ubiquitous advertising. Visit his Flickr stream to truly appreciate the genius behind his subversive poster reorganizations.

Jim Denevan

Drawing in the sand may not seem to have much in common with graffiti. But Jim Denevan’s intricate and organic sand drawings take hours to complete, require great skill, and are even more impermanent than spray paint on a wall. He may not have to hurry or work in darkness for fear of getting caught, but Denevan’s California sand drawings get back to the heart of public art: creating something for everyone to enjoy and asking for nothing in return. He does his drawings free-hand with a large piece of found driftwood, using no measuring devices of any kind, and they are so large-scale that viewing them effectively from the ground isn’t always possible – almost like sand-based crop circles. He’s been known to walk as much as 30 miles in the production of just one piece.

Benoit Lemoine

With so many street artists taking themselves ever so seriously, it’s good to see one who seems like a prankster at heart. French artist Benoit Lemoine created this zipper tape so that he could add zippers to whatever public spaces were lacking zippers. Imagine what you could do with a big roll of industrial-strength urban zipper. While we’re sure police wouldn’t be thrilled about long strips of tape appearing on every surface imaginable, the tape is presumably removable, making it an impermanent but completely fun form of graffiti.

Posterchild

Posterchild does, as the name implies, work with posters and stencils – but those are nothing new. Some of his most distinctive work has been the planter boxes he built and installed in unused flyer boxes, newspaper boxes, and telephone booths. His unique form of guerrilla gardening uses existing unused structures that are otherwise simply wasted space. He plants flowers and trees in them, turning them into something beautiful and unexpected. His most well-known – and most imitated – project, though, is the Super Mario Brothers Blocks he constructed and hung around Windsor, Ontario in 2005. The Canadian artist has a ton of other public art projects on his website that are definitely worth a look.

Color Me Katie and Googly Eye Cru

Even the staunchest of public art opponents couldn’t argue that these googly eyes do anything but cause smiles. Engineered by the always-adorable photographer and street artist Color Me Katie, these eyes, with a bit of tape on the back, were put onto random objects to give them instant personality and charm.

We don’t know if Color Me Katie is involved with the Googly Eye Cru, but they, like her, work in Brooklyn and enjoy slapping adorable eyes onto otherwise-mundane objects. Their extensive photographs prove that they’ve eyeballed just about everything with a flat surface.

Sam3

Sam3 is a Spanish artist whose gigantic silhouette graffiti has been seen all around Europe and in South America. His incredible graffiti has been well-loved for a long time, but his cardboard sculptures are just as amazing. These installations in London, Sao Paulo and Murcia are all made of cardboard and all use public spaces to illustrate the social problems of over-surveillance and homelessness.

D. Billy

D. Billy’s irreverent art reminds us all to be just a little more playful in our daily lives. His “site interventions” involve putting colorful tape, cardboard and even balloons into the dull urban landscape. Spelling out onomatopoeia or just making something ugly into something fun, his public art is impermanent but definitely draws second looks and laughter all over Brooklyn.

Jeremy Novy

To Milwaukee artist Jeremy Novy, public art is about using public spaces to send a message. He understands that the typical art gallery visitor is educated and wealthy, but the majority of the population may never intentionally seek out art. He creates public works that make his city a better place to live while bringing a bit of the arts to everyone, regardless of income or background. Seeing problems such as abandoned telephone booths and boarded up buildings, he created solutions involving overlaying pictures on the disused objects.

SpY

The streets of Madrid have seen SpY’s graffiti and public art around since the 1980s. His work has run the gamut from simple graffiti to the complicated repurposing (and reinstallation) of street signs and public bike racks. His goal is to break the monotony of urban dwellers and bring a moment of laughter into an otherwise ordinary day.

20 Light Graffiti Artists & Photographers

Light graffiti is uniquely ephemeral and inextricably intertwined with the art of photography, sometimes even invisible to the naked eye and apparent only on film.

David Schraub: Jews Being Jews

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:48:20 +0000

Dan Fleischer has a very good post up regarding the severe discomfort some on the left (including some Jews) have with the prospect of Judaism as an identity (see also). It is personally infuriating to me, this deep, deep refusal to acknowledge Jews as legitimate political subjects. Any Jewish action is seen as some sort of illegitimate external interference, because the basic acceptance of the idea that we have a right to any sort of communal action or agency is denied. Indeed, it is seen as the antithesis of a certain (cheap) cosmopolitan ideal which is superficially hostile to all particularistic action, but particularly so (ironically!) towards the Jews -- I suspect because other communities are too powerful to have their preferred form of social presentation challenged in so frontal a manner. The dreaded Zionist Lobby only seems so visible because the true powerful communities don't need a lobby at all to preserve their legitimacy. Nobody has to stand before the UN and argue that China (or the Chinese, for that matter) has the right to exist.

This all is ironic as well because of the historical tradition within nationalistic ethos' where Jews are often portrayed as irredeemably uprooted and cosmopolitan, thus not full members of the community. Jews are too particular for the cosmopolitans and too universal for the particularists, because ultimately, the problem is with Jews being Jews, and for not having already attained the utopian dream of the speaker (a dream that always transforms from aspiration to demand when applied to the Jews).

Library News: Featured Library Resource: JSTOR

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:21:05 +0000

JSTOR is an online collection of hundreds scholarly journals that spans many disciplines.

Pressville.org: Mohamed Bakri, VISTA’s Man on Campus, Works for Better Health Care for All

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:20:17 +0000

Mohamed Bakri

BY BRIAN GILBERT

After decades of impassioned debate leading to no substantive legislation, the epoch of health reform may finally be ready to reverse that trend.

Or so they say in Washington.

Meanwhile, in Northfield, discussion and planning about how to create a ‘healthy community’ is in full stride and shows no sign of slowing as that potential watershed is reached.

Sit down with Mohamed Bakri and he’ll tell you.

Bakri is Carleton’s representative for HealthCorps VISTA (Volunteer In Service to America), a program established by the AmeriCorps National Service Act and signed into action in 1993 by President Clinton. It was further expanded by President George W. Bush in 2003. At Carleton, Bakri works through the college’s Acting in the Community Together (ACT) program.

As VISTA’s campus representative, Bakri works to increase health care access and literacy at the college and throughout Northfield by creating working programs and relationships between college students, faculty and staff and the local community.

‘Growing Up Healthy’

The cross-interest, multi-focused community interactions are part of a process Bakri calls “expanding the surface.” His hope is to unite specialized, diversified interests to form the “larger picture” of a topic often muddled and divided.

Growing Up Healthy, a local non-profit organization, is one project that Bakri works on. The program’s focus is to improve health care options and services for the children of low income families in Rice County.

Bakri and others at Growing Up Healthy believe that often it is not so much the lack of existing health care services that is the problem, but instead the lack of a connection between existing services and the people who need access to them.

Growing Up Healthy aims to close that gap.

Bakri is also working with Carleton College student Carmen Ross, a Carleton senior and political science major, to set up a local youth discussion panel on health care.

“We need to always be talking about these things,” Ross said.

To contact Mohamed Bakri: mbakri@carleton.edu

To contact Brian Gilbert: gilbertb@carleton.edu

Copyright @ 2009 Pressville

Pressville.org: Eyeing the Big Time, Two Carleton Students Make a Short Feature Film

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:42:33 +0000

BY BRANDI BRANHAM

Listen to this PODCAST of “Nova Roma” filmmakers Alexander Cooney and Max Silver, interviewed by Christopher Mathew Burt and Brandi Branham.

One summer, two talented friends with time on their hands, what comes next?

A short film.

Alexander Cooney and Max Silver, two Carleton juniors, have recently finished four intensive days filming on the Carleton and St. Olaf College campuses and in St. Paul for a 15-minute feature film called “Nova Roma,” about what the world would be like if the Roman Empire had never fallen.

Cooney, fascinated with alternate history, had long expressed his internal fictional worlds through drawings, fiction writing and other media for many years. Last summer he decided the time was right to do it in movie form and teamed up with classmate Silver. Both are majors in Carleton’s Cinema and Media Studies program.

The two are drawing on their own skills as well as those of fellow film majors and actors and other film industry workers in the Twin Cities. Marshalling these resources and finally deploying them for the intensive shoot was one of the most difficult things about working on this film, both the filmmakers said.

“You can prepare as much as you want, but eventually you’re going into battle against the forces of chaos,” Cooney said. “That’s what film making is. It’s this creative battle.”

Silver says he hopes the film will be done some time in Carleton’s spring term, and assures that when it’s done, everyone will know where it can be seen.

Silver and Cooney hope ‘Nova Roma’ will demonstrate their talents to film industry leaders and help them get film careers up and running.

Cooney is all smiles when asked how he feels about having finally turned his alternate history fantasy into real life — almost. “It feels amazing,” he said.

“It’s tough to describe, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet,” Silver said. “We reached a big goal, and we’re about two thirds done with the creative work.”

When he first stepped foot into the room where volunteers had created all the props and costumes for the film, he was overwhelmed, Cooney added.

“When I finally walked in there for the first time, it was like I just had a baby,” he said.

Copyright @ 2009 Pressville

Dan Schofer '00

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:03:58 +0000

11-5-2009
Hoosier Hills Extended. 72 minutes. 10 miles.
Chilly (27 degrees), sunny, and nice. Felt pretty tired so took it easy. First 4 miles in 31 flat partly taking it slow and partly because the footing on Abbe Hills was really rough. Then basically ran 7 flat pace the last 6 miles.

Kayla Berger: Just Do It

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

I have my moments of spontaneity, but I usually like to think things through (at least briefly) before I take action. I want to weigh the pros and cons and make sure I'm not doing something foolish. By and large, that's probably a good habit to have, but I've realized that when the Holy Spirit directs me, it's not usually through my head. God isn't presenting a long list of orderly, logical arguments to convince me to do what He wants me to do. Instead I feel a deep urging inside that says, "Just do it." No reasons, no explanation, no logic. Just do it.

I've let those deep impulses lead me to do all sorts of things. Some were seemingly insignificant and others major. Sometimes I was moved to take immediate action, and sometimes a seed was planted in me that grew over time. Still, all of the gut feelings that I attribute to the Holy Spirit encourage me to move beyond myself, to connect to someone or something else in a way that often puts me a little outside my comfort zone. They might not be downright foolhardy, but these urges often defy logic. There's no good reason why I should take these actions except that there is a very compelling voice deep inside me telling me to do it. That sounds a little crazy, but I think I have to be willing to be a little crazy in order to effectively submit to the Spirit's guidance.

My husband and I were friends for about two years before we started dating each other. Our attraction to each other was so subtle at first that I sometimes think it's amazing that we even got together. As soon as the connection was made, though, everything fell into place. We had agreed to take it slow, but one week into our romantic relationship we were head over heels and I already knew deep down that we would end up married. We didn't tie the knot right away, of course, and I did have my doubts from time to time during our relationship, but my gut was insisting the whole time that we were meant for each other. I still don't necessarily understand why, but I am certain that God intended for the two of us to be together. I've been willing to follow that instinct, even when my brain gets freaked out by some of the challenges in our relationship.

Not all of my divinely inspired moments have been such a big deal. Once I felt led to go and see someone at a particular time. I had something to tell him, but I didn't think he'd be available at that particular time, and it seemed silly to just show up when he wasn't expecting me. Still, a voice inside me urged, "Just do it." Maybe I would be making a trip for nothing, and maybe he would think I was weird for just showing up like that. But I decided to do it. I bumped into him just as he was finishing with something and about to go somewhere else. It was the perfect moment to catch him, a case of perfect serendipity. It wasn't a momentous occasion, but it left a deep mark of joy on me.

On another occasion I was coming home from an appointment and I saw a pair of hitch hikers by the side of the road. As a rule, I never pick up hitch hikers, especially when I'm alone. I continued on my way, but something inside me told me to go back and try to help them. I ended up taking them about an hour out of my way (and then an hour to get me back home). I still wouldn't make it a general practice to pick up hitch hikers, but I just knew deep inside that I was being called to help them. So I just did it. Again, it wasn't that big of deal, but it sure made me feel good to listen to that little voice inside me.

One of the biggest struggles I have with following the Spirit is dealing with money. How much do I spend? How much do I save? How much do I give? Am I being a reckless steward if I don't save for tomorrow and make sure my needs are taken care of? Am I being stingy if I save instead of giving? I do all the math and try to justify my decisions, and I forget to listen to that little voice in my gut. I pray but I don't listen attentively to the Spirit's response. Right now my husband and I are about to pledge to our church for 2010 and to consider our donations to other worthy causes that we support. I've been listening to my head and not my heart, but it's not too late. I want to challenge myself to pray together with my husband and to block out our own worries, fears, and justifications so that we can listen to what the Spirit is calling us to do. Then, I want to just do it. After all, that's worked out for me pretty well so far.

Pressville.org: ‘Trick-or-Charity’ — In Halloween Getups, College Students Sing for Food Shelf Donations

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:47:29 +0000

BY JULIA OLSON

Trick-or-treat, grownup style?

It might seem contradictory but ‘Trick or Treat for Canned Goods,’ organized by the Carleton chapter of Mortar Board, gives a mature and philanthropic twist to the Halloween kids’ classic.

The annual event takes place on Halloween for about two hours during the time that children are out collecting candy. College students, dressed in costumes, trick-or-treat themselves but instead of candy, they collect canned goods for the Northfield food shelf.

“Carleton sends its hoards of volunteers to different locations around town,” said Rose Kantor, a Carleton biology senior and a leader of the event. “We assign each team to a specific set of blocks, provide a map and directions and, if necessary, a campus vehicle.”

Each group competes to collect the most cans by going door-to-door in their designated zones.

The top three teams get prizes, the top one being a dinner with Carleton College President Oden.

Kristen Dooley, Alexandra Price and Rose Cherneff, trick-or-treating in a group of seven, collected 193 cans altogether last Saturday night.

“It’s probably because of the song that we sang,” Cherneff said.

When residents opened their front doors, the group introduced themselves as Carleton students and sang a short jingle about the need for food donations to the food shelf. Dooley was dressed as StarKist tuna; Price as Campbell’s alphabet soup; and Cherneff as Campbell’s tomato soup.

Once the teams finished their trick-or-treating rounds, the donated food was gathered, counted and mixed with other canned goods collected at Carleton athletic events and at the Halloween carnival that Carleton athletic teams hold for Northfield families.

The Northfield food shelf is run by the Northfield Community Action Center, which currently serves 430 families including over 1000 people.

Last year, the food drives raised 4450 lbs of food; this year’s haul is not yet counted.

The event benefits the community, but also benefits students.

“You get free candy,” Dooley laughs. “At the same time, it feels really good to help out the community.”

Copyright @ 2009 Pressville

Amy Reynaldo '88: Thursday, 11/5/09

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:47:00 +0000

NYT 3:41
LAT 2:58
Tausig untimed
CS untimed

Patrick Blindauer's New York Times crossword

I didn't read the Notepad entry for this puzzle, and it's just as well or I would have been sidetracked from the task of answering the clues. I finished the puzzle, then read this: "When this puzzle is completed, one letter of the alphabet will appear 22 times. Shade in its square everywhere it appears. The result will be an image suggested by 36-Across." 36A is INVISIBLE MAN, so there's a hidden drawing somewhere...and look, his torso is at 25D: SSSSSSS, the [1973 horror flick about a doctor who turns his assistant into a cobra]. I should've known SSSSSSS was there for a grander purpose! This now-visible man seems to have a freakishly long torse relative to his limbs. Poor guy. Must be impossible to find jackets that fit.

I'm tired and distracted, so let me resort to a scarcely annotated list:

• 16A. [Canine care grp.?] is ADA, canines being teeth and the ADA being the American Dental Association. I used to freelance for them, you know.
• 18A. ROSES ARE RED is the [Start of a lover's quatrain]. ...Irises are purple. If you're ill-bred, you call it a nurple. Is that how it goes? Looks like a theme entry because it's long, but no. All that's thematic are those symmetrical-in-the-grid Ss.
• 33A. Why isn't this clue [___ wazoo]? UP THE [___ ante] is boring.
• 34A. OSTIA, [Port of ancient Rome], crosswordese, an S where Patrick needed one for the drawing.
• 55A. MONKEES was the [#1 album for 13 weeks in 1966-67, with "The"]. I had BEATLES. Seriously.
• 60A. [Eliminates undesirable parts]...hmm...CIRCUMCISES fits. So does CLEANS HOUSE. "Parts" is a dangerous word.
• 64A. Are you kidding me? [Panties, old-style] were called STEP-INS? Never heard that term before. The Ss are the man's feet.
• 65A. LAE is the [Pacific port where Amelia Earhart was last seen]. I hear Amelia is a boring movie. LAE I know from Kevin Der's record-breaking grid, where it was perhaps the ugliest answer.
• 2D. Robert Randolph and the Family Band miss out here. RANDOLPH is clued as [Air Force base near San Antonio].
• 6D. [19th-century James] is vague. First name? No, last. JESSE James. He should've known better than to rob the Northfield, Minnesota, bank.
• 8D. [Filly] clues LASS. Gag me. "Filly"?
• 21D. RISHI is a [Hindu sage], and the S is the man's hand.
• 38D. ENATE means [Maternally related]. Hoary crosswordese.
• 45D. Showtime at the APOLLO! [New York theater on the National Register of Historic Places, with "the"].
• 51D. MENSA, [Indicator of brightness]. Is there a reason it's not clued [Indicator of social skills]? I don't get Mensa. I liked the newsletter when my mom was a member for a few years in the '70s, but since then? Nah.

Okay, so I lied. That was more than scarce annotation.

Good night!

Updated Thursday morning:

Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "For Your Protection"—Janie's review

For a puzzle that yields theme-fill of a highly industrial nature, this puppy sure has a lot to recommend it. Each of the five theme-phrases is clued identically: [It's worn for your protection]. The five theme-answers are:

•4D. WELDER'S MASK
•18A. HAZMAT SUIT
•25D. KNEE PAD
•27D. CRASH HELMET
•60A. FLAK JACKET

But look how nice and scrabbly the fill is. And there's a lovely assonance thing going when you say the words aloud: mask, hazmat, pad, crash, flak jacket. You can also hear it as well in such non-theme fill as CACKLE [Witch's outburst], AT LAW [Words on a shingle] and the cleverly clued CLARA [Bow on the screen] (so that's a long "o" in "Bow").

I think this may be the first time we've seen E-BOOK clued as a [Kindle download] in a CS puzzle. And it looks like this is the first time ROZ has been clued as [Cartoonist Chast] here. Love Roz Chast's observations on the details of everyday life.

Also love such lively fill as SCHNOZ (with it's lively [Honker] clue), which shares that "Z" with TABRIZ [City in Iran]. Tabriz is Iran's fourth largest city, and Iran sits right across the Persian Gulf from SAUDI Arabia (though today Saudi comes to us by way of the clue [Arabian leader]). Lotta desert land in that part of the world, so thank goodness for the OASES [Places for camels to drink].

Then there's VERDANT [Green] (to keep things fresh) and POOL TOY [Inflatable raft, say] (though I'm not sure a floating raft qualifies as a toy...). When you (or your raft) are [Drifting on the briny], you're ASEA, where "AVAST!" is a [Gob's stopper]. In addition to those two clues, I enjoyed [Not dis] for DAT, [Do a do] for PERM and [All you need, according to the Beatles] for LOVE. (And remember, they're the ones who declared "money can't buy me love!" For guys who sang that they "don't care too much for money," they sure managed to amass quite a bit of it. Ah, well, it was a dirty job and somebody had to do it...)

Xan Vongsathorn's Los Angeles Times crossword

Xan Vongsathorn's debut puzzle was in the New York Times, while his second puzzle (that I know of) comes to us from the West Coast. The theme hovers around four [Non-speaking line?]s, tied together by SILENCE IS GOLDEN, the [Apt adage for this puzzle]. The other four phrases are MY LIPS ARE SEALED, I'M ALL EARS, WORDS ESCAPE ME, and NO COMMENT. Now, they don't all mean exactly the same thing—I won't blab, I'm listening, I can't describe it, I refuse to answer—but they loosely fall under the SILENCE IS GOLDEN rubric. You'll note that although there's a MY, I'M, and ME, there are no repeated words in the theme answers.

TATTLE, or 21A: [Spill the beans], is practically the opposite of MY LIPS ARE SEALED. Any other talking answers in the fill? MEOW is a [Cat call], not a human word. "DUH" and "I'M GONE" are spoken language for people. And OBAMA is clued as [President with a Grammy], for his Spoken Word Book.

Ice cream! [Country where Haagen-Dazs H.Q. is] is, of course, the USA.

I guess we're still in the holding pattern waiting for Thursday L.A. Times puzzles to inch up in difficulty. Or maybe Thursdays will remain Tuesdays and only Friday and Saturday will be tougher? I'm not sure. I'm not finding much to talk about in this puzzle. Well, you know what they say—silence is golden.

Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Silent Treatment"

Ben puts a different spin on silence, adding a silent letter to each of five phrases to change the meaning but not the pronunciation:

• 17A. [Totally sweet depth-checking gadget?] is a SUGAR PLUMB. Have any of you ever had a sugar plum? I have not.
• 26A. [Architectural piece in "Where the Wild Things Are"?] clues MONSTER JAMB. What is Monster Jam, you may wonder. Monster truck derbies. I always call such events "Truckasaurus" after The Simpsons.
• 39A. Freestyle rap yields FREESTYLE WRAP, or [Improvise with some ribbons and bows?].
• 52A. [Olfactory reward for leading a good life?] is HEAVEN SCENT.
• 62A. A latex dental dam becomes DENTAL DAMN, or [The curse of the orthodontist?].

Miscellaneous fill and clues:

• AREPAS are [Some Spanish small-plate items]. I've never had arepas, but Chowhound knows a few places I might try in Chicago. More South American than Spanish, apparently.
• You gotta know your political figures to nail all of Ben Tausig's puzzles. Don NICKLES of Oklahoma was the [Senate Majority Whip before Reid] and after Lott. How would he fare in a battle with Don Rickles?
• [Soul backing band named for their singer] is the JBS, after James Brown. I did not know this one.
• [Bygone TV award] is the CABLE ACE Award. Didn't people joke about those during the Emmys this fall?
• [Macedonian city where Mother Teresa was born] is SKOPJE, Macedonia's capital. It wasn't called Macedonia when she was born. Ben's original clue, [Mother Teresa's birthplace, today] was impossible for me, so if you got this one, you can thank me. I was guessing KOSOVO based on the old clue. Wikipedia tells me that when she was born, it was called Üsküb, Ottoman Empire. Her family was Albanian, and modern-day Albania and Macedonia share a border.
• [Discount travel agency for students] is called STA. I don't think this existed when I was a student.
• [Tries to look bigger than one is, in a way] clues BSS, short for "bullshits."
• [Due times cinquanta] is CENTI. I gather cinquanta is Italian for 50?

Carleton Athletics: Men's Soccer: Knights Blank Tommies, Advance to MIAC Final

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:38:07 +0000

The Carleton College men’s soccer team (15-4) posted a 3-0 victory over visiting University of St. Thomas (10-7-2) in the semifinals of the MIAC Playoffs. Senior Ross Hamilton converted a penalty kick opportunity in the 25th minute. Tim Wills then assisted on second-half insurance goals by Wes Elfman and Ryan Cammarota. The Knights will host Macalester College this Saturday at 1 p.m. with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on the line.

Doug LeMoine '94: Transbay bird swirl

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:17:14 +0000

Perched among the tall buildings in downtown San Francisco, my office can feel like a nest in a tall tree. Yesterday evening, the birds that live atop the Transbay terminal swirled up to, and around, the windows of our conference room, and the aerie-like feeling was stronger than ever. One bird even landed, briefly, on the ledge of the window. I have no idea what kind of birds they are, what brought them to us, or what they hope to achieve. But I am in awe of them.

Library News: Word of the Week: ISBN

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:44:48 +0000

International Standard Book Number. Developed in 1966 and adopted as an international standard in 1970, the ISBN is a unique, ten- or (since January 1, 2007) thirteen-digit number assigned to every published book. Hardcover and paperback editions of the same book are assigned different numbers, and new editions of books are assigned a new ISBN number.

Though it is usually pronounced as individual letters, some people do pronounce it as a word: iz-bun.

Shout: Somebody's Been Doing Genetic Experiments on the Oak Trees Again

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:46:21 +0000

Ever wonder why you hear whump! whump! when you walk past that oak tree outside of Olin? Wonder no longer.

More shots inside.

Dan Schofer '00

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:37:06 +0000

11-4-2009
Mt. Vernon Road + Campus. 30 minutes. 4 miles.
Slow and easy shakeout run.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: Mods: 26 Sexy Steampunk Gadgets & Hi-Tech Hacks

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:08 +0000

Steampunk is the mating of technology and romance, breeding some of the most wickedly cool gadget’s and art you’ve ever seen. It’s cool and brass-clad sexy. With a post apocalyptic type of rebellion, Steampunk enthusiast mod almost everything you can imagine and then some. This amazing urban art movement was birthed on the Internet, so it’s no wonder hi-tech hardware hackers are romancing technology with a Victorian passion, yearning for the aesthetic realm of The Time That Never Happened; Steampunk – where the future meets the past. Here are some of the slickest mods, 26 sexy Steampunk art and hi-tech hacks.

Mouse, USB, RSS Feed

(image credits:ilovecandid,forum modding,geeky gadgets,Steampunk Workshop)

The top two are fully functional modded mice, each is a one of a kind shiny handcrafted brass wonder. The USB drive holds 2GB of storage, but if you take this slick stick to work and someone tries to walk off with it, the vintage look with copper and brass gears, pipes, and bolts will make whoever uses it stand out in a crowd. RSS feeds, are you addicted to them? At one historic time, people were addicted to news coming hot off the telegraph. The shiny yet vintage telegraph machine is reborn as an RSS feed gadget.

Monitor & Keyboard

(image credit:DataMancer)

The Datamancer is an expert in steampunk-style technology. He is a Master of Mod. The 22″ widescreen LCD frame is solid 1/4-inch brass that was sanded and polished to a high shine. The base is a modernized remake of brass and black marble. The keyboard is a mixture of Neo-Victorianism and brass hi-tech.

Steampunk Flat Panel

(image credits:Steampunk Workshop)

Jake von Slatt is another computer mod icon on the steampunk stage. This Steampunk Desktop has a base made to look like marble. His hardware hacks to this flat panel LCD include knobs, gold painted pieces and plenty of brass. For more retro-tech goodness, he added a brass keyboard and kerosene lamp. Jake von Slatt operates the Steampunk Workshop where you can find step-by-step directions to turn your computer into Victorian style and the Age of Scientific Wonders.

Victorian All-in-One PC

(image credits:steampunk workshop)

In this mod, Jake von Slatt researched Victorian era stages and discovered they were approximately 4:3 aspect ratio – the 16:9 wide-screen ratio from the cinema. He coated the 24″ wide screen monitor base with black spray lacquer and topped the supports off with some pieces of a brass chandelier. Then he fashioned monitor curtains for the stage on the frame. Finally, he completed the Victorian All-in-One PC which has Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) installed and is fit for the office of Queen Victoria.

DataMancer’s Steampunk Laptop

The Datamancer reached out to millions over the Internet with this Victorian laptop mod. With this hack, he converted unknown masses to the aesthetic realm of Steampunk. This mod is so cool, yet it’s steamy hot. Who knows? The Datamancer’s next mod might be so hot that the heat wave will hit and crack your hard drive.

More Steampunk Computers

(image credits:portal23,Boston Globe,DataMancer)

More and more people crank out fabulous Steampunk fabrications. At top left, that computer was named Windows Vista 1907. Yet the top right computer is a blend of science fiction and industry in a piece called The ElectriClerk, fashioned from a 1988 Macintosh SE computer, a c.1923 Underwood typewriter, and a fresnel lens by Andrew H. Leman. The Victorian looking jewelry box is another laptop mod by Datamancer.

Cell Phone

(image credits:Slash Gear,Slash Gear,don pezzano,savas place)

Even cell phones have not escaped the aesthetic realm of Steampunk. These are made from recycled materials, vintage gears, old iron and other metals. The top two cells phones are from Russia with love. The workmanship on all four mobile phones make these modded gadgets a hot item. The bottom right phone was created from a Nokia, back when it was boring and not yet a symbol of grandiose invention.

Masks

(image credits:Tom Banwell)

The incredibly talented Tom Banwell dabbled in a variety of media, before his one of kind talents and interests combined the arts of history, costuming, mechanics, and fantasy. He admits to being wildly creative with his leatherwork. On the top left is Banwell’s Pachydermos mask, followed by Sentinel, Underground Explorer on the bottom left, and the Fire Master mask.

Electric Skull

(image credit:Donovan Design 2009)

Known for many Steampunk designs, Art Donovon created The Electric Skull for The Museum of Oxford Steampunk Art Exhibition. Donovan made this 27″ tall, comprised of solid brass, light, glass, and acrylic. The fact he is also handy with the craft of electric skills no doubt helped make this glowing skull gadget an extremely slick mod.

Gadgets & Robots

(image credits:brute force leather,Stephanie Halleux,Molly Friedrich)

The trio above were fashioned for The Museum of Oxford Steampunk Art Exhibition. The large leather robot was created by Stephanie Halleux, only one of her leather robot masterpieces. If you visit the exhibition, going on now at Oxford University, you can view Amanda Scrivener’s Lord Featherstone’s Clockwork Arm up close and personal. The bottom right is a creation from Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich. She states, “I also lavish attention to detail and try to imbue each item with a narrative of some sort so that it feels more like an artifact from another place and time.”

Steampunk Art

(image credit: Kris Kuksi)

Kris Kuksi’s art speaks of a timelessness, of potentiality and motion attempting to reach on forever, and “yet pessimistically delayed; forced into the stillness of death and eternal sleep.” He themes his art to teach us “that although death may pursue us arbitrarily, we should never neglect to mourn the tremendous loss of individual potential.” This art is entitled, Caravan Assault Appearatus.

Steampunk Motorcycle

This is Tom Sepe’s Steampunk Motorcycle on BRINK TV. This electric motorcycle gives off steam like a piece of the past mixing with a moment of time from the future.

1896 Steam Motorcycle

Pete’s Garage presents “1896 Steam Motorcycle.”

If all this retro-futurism has left you yearning for more from the realm of Steampunk, check back next week for sexy as sin Steampunk artistic designs.

25 Hardware Hacks: Old Tech Turned into New Gadgets

Repurposed gadgets let your inner eco-geek blossom. Here are 25 hardware hacks and magnificent manipulations of e-waste repurposed to functional geeky gadgets.

Carleton Athletics: Football: Tyler Palin Earns Weekly Honor

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:57:44 +0000

After a stellar performance against Hamline, Tyler Palin earned a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week. Palin was the Knights leading receiver and set career-highs in receptions (10) and receiving yards (124). He kept the chains moving all day long as five of his catches earned the Knights a first down. His 31-yard reception was also the longest passing play of the day.

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: HIATUS (again)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:20:00 +0000

hi·a·tus /haɪˈeɪtəs/ Pronunciation[hahy-ey-tuhs]
–noun, plural -tus·es, -tus.

a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.
a period of a week or so during which the primary contributor to this blog works busily on other projects (mostly)

If you're looking for teaching ideas, now's the time to get familiar with the Index to the Teaching Comparative blog.

All 1,536 blog entries are cataloged and there are 72 categories. Within each of those categories, you can use the other 71 categories as sub-categories.

You can look at the 205 entries about Russia and narrow that down by choosing to look at the 14 entries about democratization in Russia.

Don't forget What You Need to Know

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: Politics and projection of power

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:12:00 +0000

It's a bit more than soft power, but a bit less than force. And a good question is, "What motivates the actions that look like interference?"

China looks to export censorship

A few days before the start of this year's Melbourne International Film Festival its executive director received an "audacious" telephone call.

An official from China's consulate in the city called him to "urge" the festival to withdraw a film about the Chinese activist Rebiya Kadeer.

Beijing then tried to persuade the organisers of the Frankfurt Book Fair not to allow two Chinese writers to attend an event.

China says it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

But some see these acts as an attempt by China to use abroad the tough censorship measures it constantly employs at home...

The festival decided to ignore the advice and go ahead with the film...

The festival organisation was subjected to an intense campaign of threats, intimidation and disruption, although it is not clear who - if anyone - orchestrated the campaign...

[At] the Frankfurt Book Fair... Chinese officials were angry when they found out writers Dai Qing [right] and Bei Ling had been invited to a symposium connected to the fair...

China often asks foreign governments and organisations not to do something that it perceives to be against its interests. It recently complained to Japan when Tokyo allowed Ms Kadeer to enter the country.

But it says this does not contravene its policy of non-interference...

David Zweig, of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is not so sure the Chinese are doing it from a position of strength.

"Sometimes we cannot tell whether it's confidence or concern," said Mr Zweig, the director of the Centre on China's Transnational Relations, based at his university...

Mr Zweig added that there could also be another reason behind the pressure - the Chinese government and its people are often quick to take offence at opinions they do not like to hear.

And he said ordinary people were sometimes more sensitive than officials - forcing the government to take a tougher stance internationally...

Get your own copy of What You Need to Know

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: E. U. or U. S. E.?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:09:00 +0000

European Union Reform Moves Ahead

A landmark agreement aimed at giving the European Union a global stature on par with major powers like the United States and China cleared its last major hurdle on Tuesday.

The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, signed the document...

Mr. Klaus was the last European Union leader to approve the so-called Treaty of Lisbon, which will try to increase Europe’s clout on foreign policy issues and will streamline the organization’s decision-making...

The treaty aims to give the European Union a bigger role internationally by creating a full-time presidential post with a two-and-a-half-year term and setting up a more powerful foreign policy chief supported by a network of diplomats around the world. It will put in place a new voting system that reflects countries’ population size, while reducing the opportunities for individual countries to block a proposal. It also gives more power to the directly elected European Parliament...

Find out What You Need to Know

David Schraub: Election '09 Recap

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:38:38 +0000

I had a bad feeling about yesterday, and it looks like my intuition was right (when folks start trumpeting a victory in a city ordinance measure in Kalmazoo, Michigan, that's a sign the night isn't going your way).

Obviously, the defeat of Maine's gay marriage law, again by a tantalizing close margin, is the biggest blow of the night. The cycle-to-cycle political jockeying -- a governor's seat here or a house seat there -- pales in comparison to a state's decision to strip a contingent of its citizens of equal rights and human dignity. Andrew Sullivan says to keep hope, and I have no doubt that this is a battle we will win in my lifetime. But I can't say it isn't frustrating when we keep falling right at the crest of the hill.

As for the political fallout from yesterday, I think the conventional wisdom pretty much has it. First and foremost, "an economic catastrophe is not a good time to be an incumbent elected official." Second, obviously, this is a good result for Republicans, flipping two governorships, if only because it shows that their brand is no longer entirely poisonous. Third, mediocre candidates lose elections (Deeds), unless their opponents are widely loathed incumbents (Corzine), in which case its a toss-up of which house voters want to see the pox fall harder on. Fourth, Republicans, it turns out, can't run psychopathic right-wingers in districts Obama won and expect to hold House seats.

The net upshot is this: objectively, little has changed -- Republicans netted two governorships, Democrats bagged a new House seat. Subjectively, Republicans are probably emerging from their nadir, but are going to have to grapple with the fallout from the NY-23 "purge the middle" decision which came close enough to working that it probably is going to cause quite a bit of consternation for the party. As for Democrats -- they're a gun shy bunch to begin with anyway, so last night's events probably won't help. But they need to wake up -- they've been sleepwalking this past year, and that just doesn't work in the political game.

Dan Schofer '00

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:05:35 +0000

11-4-2009
Town + Track + Indoor Track. 75 minutes. 12 miles.
Chilly (37 degrees), sunny, and nice. Warm-up and cool-down around town. Steady 4 miler on the outdoor track in 22:16. Splits: 5:31, 5:36, 5:36, 5:31. Felt extremely relaxed and smooth the whole way. Then moved to the indoor track and ran 3 x 1600 w/ 3:00 jog rest: 5:12, 5:12, 5:07 (avg. 5:10.75). Middle mile was the easiest. Worked hard at the end but overall felt good and strong.

Dan Schofer '00

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:01:12 +0000

11-3-2009
Town + Athletic Fields. 37 minutes. 5 miles.
Easy running before and after practice.

David Ocker '73: Oil and Water Mix

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Click here to listen to Oil and Water Mix right now and avoid all the tedious reading.

Earlier this year I heard a radio broadcast of Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos, although the announcer called it Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand. The Poulenc had been a favorite of mine in college days. I hadn't listened to it in a very long time. I enjoyed hearing it again.

Soon afterwards, inspired by the Poulenc, I decided to compose some simple, melodic music filled with lots of tonics and dominants. I wrote one little passage, then another and another, not bothering much with any sense of structure. I called the piece "Not Dissonant and Not Complex". Catchy, huh?

When "Not Dissonant and Not Complex" reached about four minutes I was forced to confront the fact that it wasn't very interesting. I hatched a new plan: I would interpolate bits of a completely different sort of music - random sounding notes - into what I had already written.

Thus the idea of "oil and water" was born: two radically different musical styles, each in turn ignoring the other, then cavorting with the other, then battling for supremacy. One type of music is "oil", the other is "water". You can decide which is which.

The word "mix" gets a lot of use in music. Mostly it refers to the result of audio manipulation of some already recorded tracks. I'm using the word "mix" in more of an active, verbal sense. Think of the sentence "Listen to me make oil and water mix."

The entire piece, both oil and water, is carefully composed. Certain sections sound random because I tried hard to make them that way. I adjusted each pitch, rhythm and dynamic to produce maximum variety. No Cageian chance methods were employed while composing Oil and Water Mix. None were needed.

It has already been remarked several times by people who have heard Oil and Water Mix that it seems to wander aimlessly, pointlessly. I do understand this reaction. But in fact the piece is divided into sections and certain melodies are repeated several times.

If you think that following this "formal structure" might be helpful as you listen I have added an analysis of Oil and Water Mix. You can find this on the playback page. Just click here and then scroll down a bit.

It's hardly a rigorous analysis, completely unworthy of a doctoral student in musicology. I had different choices about how to name things - for example - Section Two might actually be just a coda to Section One and Section Three might merely be a slow prelude to Section Four. You might want to listen for the short silence at 5'22" between sections two and three.

Mixed Meters' Three Readers may remember long ago, when I started posting my own short pieces, I lumped them together into a category called Thirty Second Spots. Later I started writing longer pieces for which I invented a new category, Three Minute Climaxes. Eventually I needed a third name for even longer pieces. I called these Ten Minute Breaks. (Think of the word "break" in the sense of a "coffee break".) The actual lengths vary above and below the stated time limits; please don't let that bother you.

Oil and Water Mix, at eleven minutes and six seconds, qualifies as a Ten Minute Break.

I now have composed five Ten Minute Breaks: They are

Thinking With Other People's Words (click here to listen, click here to read the related post)
Eating the Desiccant (never posted online because I like it too much)
Poof You're A Pimp (click here to listen, click here to read the post)
Formal Introduction (this one has been "nearly" finished for almost a year)
Oil and Water Mix (click here to listen, you are already reading the related post.)

Of course it should go without saying that I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a doctoral student in musicology.

Oil and Water Tags: Oil and Water Mix. . . David Ocker. . . Francis Poulenc. . . random music

Kayla Berger: Don't Be Afraid

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

We spend more time than we would like to admit being afraid. Fear isn't very useful for a Christian because it often turns us away from love. When we are afraid, we often become the most limited or the most self-centered versions of ourselves. We can find ourselves unable to see the bigger picture or to react to the other needs around us. But God tells us that we don't have to be paralyzed by fear. We can trust in His love instead.

Sometimes we fear for our personal safety. Right now, worries about swine flu are high in the United States. Some people are trying to jostle their way to the top of the vaccination list and others are completely shunning anyone who might be the least bit under the weather. This is only one small example of the survival instinct that makes us shove others out of the way if we think they're between us and safety. Our fear convinces us that our bodily health is the most important thing, but from a Christian standpoint love should be more important. We can't allow ourselves to put fear above the love we feel for God and our neighbors whenever we feel threatened. What's the worst thing that can happen to me if disease, violence, or natural disasters strike? If I die, I will find myself in the arms of a loving and eternal God. What is there to be so afraid of?

I think that on a deeper level, death and injury aren't really what scare me most. What I'm really afraid of is pain. There are so many ways that we can get hurt, and that leaves us with so many things to be afraid of. Although I know that pain is temporary, I still fear it. I'm afraid of unknown physical experiences like surgery and childbirth because I worry they could be very painful experiences. I'm even more afraid of emotional pain. Sometimes I'm afraid to take risks in relationships in case the other person doesn't respond well. I may be unwilling to make an overture out of fear of rejection or afraid to address a problem because an argument might ensue. Some risks may not be worth it, but I need to be able to overcome fear of pain if it's stopping me from reaching out in love. I wasn't created to live alone in a safe little shell. I was designed to be with others, to get hurt but also to heal and to grow.

A certain amount of caution is prudent in some circumstances, but I don't want that fear to stop me from fully living the life God gave me. For example, I'm afraid of falling. I decided that I needed to try to combat this fear so that it didn't become too strong, so I signed myself up for ice skating lessons. The first day I got out on the ice, I could barely move. I had to hold on to someone's hands while I practiced picking up my feet, and my muscles were trembling they were so tense. Slowly I gained confidence, and even though I had to take the basic adult class twice, I am now reasonably comfortable on ice skates. I've fallen a couple of times while skating, and it wasn't too bad. I feel a little more relaxed every time I skate, and I'm slowly becoming willing to try more advanced maneuvers. I don't want to become paralyzed when things come along that scare me. I want to be able to respond as calmly as possible, and challenging my fears in reasonable ways helps make me more able to do that.

I am going to get hurt, and that's a fact. My fear can't protect me from everything. It's true that a little healthy caution keeps me from doing foolhardy or reckless things, but getting carried away with fear is foolhardy in and of itself. I don't want to let fear interfere with my ability to love others or to live a full and rewarding life. God's love changes everything. The things that scare me just aren't as real as I may be tempted to think they are, so I don't have to be afraid.

KRLX 88.1 Free Radio Northfield: Your World Tonight for Tuesday November 3rd, 2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:06:01 +0000

Tonight on "Your World Tonight"
-Results of tonight's gubernatorial race:
(R) Bob McDonnell wins in Virginia
(R) Chris Christie wins in New Jersey

-North Korea completes work on "weapons grade" plutonium fuel rods

-Czech Republic signs European Union's Lisbon Treaty

-U.S. diplomats arrive in Myanmar to discuss release of imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi

ALL THIS AND MORE on Your World Tonight from 10:00-10:15PM

Amy Reynaldo '88: Wednesday, 11/4

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:02:00 +0000

BEQ 5:30
NYT 10:15 (PG)/4:11 (A)
Onion 4:09
LAT 2:43
CS untimed

Hi, everyone. PuzzleGirl here covering for Orange who is not feeling well At All. Poor thing! I'll check in with her in the morning and see how she's doing, but you might be stuck with me all day. Hey, it could be worse. I'm just going to do a quick write-up to get things started and then you all can have at it in the comments.

Ricky Ini Liu's New York Times crossword

I haven't had to work this hard to figure out a theme in a loooong time. I had No Idea what was going on. I solved in AcrossLite and when I was done, I opened up a text document and typed each theme answer out so I could look at all of them together. I noticed the Os, but thought maybe they needed to be dropped? TRI-CEREAL? Is that a thing? MEN COMICS? Maybe you need to add a W to the beginning to make WOMEN COMICS? ??? I also noticed what felt like a ton of Zs in the grid and wondered if that had something to do with the theme. I was really confused is what I'm saying. Turns out the manipulating that needs to be done is for one of the Os in each theme answer to be changed to an X. So TRIO CEREAL in the grid is a nod to that silly rabbit with his Trix Cereal. OENOPHOBIC was changed from xenophobic. (That seems kind of random.) Other theme answers include:

[Foreboding cartoons?] = OMEN (x-men) COMICS
[The way of the government?] = FEDERAL TAO (tax)
[Film that's been speechified?] = ORATED (x-rated) MOVIE
[Shout of disapproval exactly like another?] = BOOING (boxing) MATCH

It all seems so simple now. Sigh.

Updated Wednesday morning:

Will Johnston's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Yard Work—Janie's review

It's autumn. If you live in a northern climate zone, it's time to get your yard ready for winter. If you live in a southern zone, you probably do this all year long. In today's puzzle, Will comes up with four activities to put on your "to do" list (no matter where you live), each of which appears as the first word in the four theme-phrases. Ready to do some work? You're going to:

•17A. Cut the grass, by way of CUT AND DRIED [Formulaic]. Hmm. We just saw this phrase as theme-fill last Wednesday in Paula Gamache's "He's No Gentleman"...
•11D. Trim the hedges, courtesy of TRIM THE TREE [Prepare for Santa, in a way]. This one's confusing. It's the only verbal theme-phrase and the base meaning needs the Christmas context so that we read "trim" as decorate and not tidy/cut. The word tree in the fill is also problematic as there may be trees in the yard. Why not TRIM AND TONE [Popular health-club workout?] or something nautical rather than botanical like "TRIM THE SAIL" [Request of Michael?]? Something that isn't UNCLEAR [Hazy], please.
•25D. Edge the lawn, via EDGE OF NIGHT [Soap opera with 7,420 episodes, with "The"]. Last seen on 12/28/84, it aired for 29 years...
•53A. Prune the bushes, compliments of PRUNE DANISH.

"EGAD!" [Quaint outburst], after all that work, you might want to MUNCH [Chew (on)] something. You might even want a prune danish. Or, depending on the weather, I s'pose, GELATI [Italian desserts] or FLANS [Caramel-topped desserts], and maybe some MINT JULEPS [Derby Day quaffs] to wash 'em all down. Or not...

As was the case with yesterday's puzzle, I found that I enjoyed the non-theme fill considerably more than the theme-fill. To borrow from the puzzle (but not to be SASSY [Impertinent]), it's simply less cut and dried.

Using the fill, I like that I can tie together the idiomatic BAD RAPS [Unjust judgments, slangily] with reasons some folks earn 'em. "She's the SPOTTIEST [Most erratic] employee when it comes to clocking in. Sure, she's always around at TEN A.M. [Coffee break time, for some], but when she goes back to the selling floor, face it: she's [Unambitious to the max] SHIFTLESS! Except for the paycheck, she probably RUES [Regrets] the day she ever walked in here..." I also like the way [...to the max] does not deliver an adjective ending in "-est." Sneaky. Good.

I like the crossing of EGG [It can be scrambled] and EGGAR [Actress Samantha of "Walk, don't Run"]. The "alphabet soup" fill is also nice with T-BARS [Ski tows], MR. T ["I Pity the Fool" star] and B-GIRL [Female hip-hopper]. I almost added A-BEAM to the list, but that word's ABEAM [At right angles to the keel]. Oops... Among today's SIDE ISSUES [Incidental topics] is the B-Girl Scholarship available at St. Paul, MN's McNally Smith College of Music. For some aspiring performer or musicologist, this is very cool and probably GODSENT news [Very timely, as an unexpected blessing].

I'm willing to bet that [Skater Sonja] HENIE wore a LEOTARD [Acrobat's attire] on more than one occasion; and even that a RUSTLER [Range thief] might dare to show up at a RODEO [Cowpoke competition]. Do you suppose there are many yoga-practitioners among the cowboy population? And if so, what are their MANTRAS [Meditation intonations]? Can't say for sure, but I do imagine their favorite song of these yoga-practicing cowpokes would be "Om, Om on the Range"...

Did somebody say "yoga"? I just read this on Twitter: "i've been doing some reading. turns out, the bhagavad gita never mentions yoga pants."

Dan Naddor's Los Angeles Times crossword

I refer you to my L.A. Crossword Confidential post for my thoughts on this puzzle.

Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Themeless Wednesday"

The last square to fall was the D in MONARDA, [Perennial family that includes bee balm and horsemint]. Say what?

Top fill, top clues:

• BABY FAT is [Children's coat?]. Lively entry.
• USED CAR is a Ford [Focus that might be a little off]. My mom bought a Focus about 8 or 9 years ago when there was a new model and regretted it—now she drives a tried-and-true Toyota Corolla with fewer repair needs.
• "RIUNITE on ice, that's nice." Is ["America's All-Time Favorite Italian Wine"] still available, or did it vanish by the '80s?
• ROSIE the Robot? [She works for Mr. J], J for Jetson.
• WOWED 'EM is nice.
• [Cabbage from the Far East] is YEN, "cabbage" being slang for "money."
• "THE TWIST," good song, good fill.
• [Run off] clues XEROX. Wasn't expecting that. Erased ESSEX, in fact, because I figured the beginning X was impossibly wrong for [Run off].
• If you type *headdesk* in an online setting, your readers gather that you're beating your head against your desk, expressing stupidity or, more often, futility. HEADDESK is clued as an [Expression of frustration, in modern day slang]. Just last week, Brendan had FACEPALM in another themeless, and I asked why it wasn't mini-themed with HEADDESK. So here the answer is, a few days later.

Francis Heaney's Onion A.V. Club crossword

Ooh, I love this theme. 63D: ONE is the [Distance forward in the alphabet that each changed letter in the theme entries has moved]. Francis has four pairs of 6-letter words/phrases and two pairs of 5s:

• 18A. [Revealing photos of an old movie actress?] are Fay WRAY'S X-RAYS. One possessive, one hyphenated plural. The X is ONE letter past W.
• 23A. If you ANGLED ANG LEE, you [Set an Oscar-winning director at a slant]. One verb, one full name.
• 32A. [Roasting a blues legend?] clues BAKING B.B. KING, following the structure of the ANG LEE answer. Before I saw that the changed letter was only ONE off, I had BBQING B.B. KING here. (No, I hadn't looked at the crossings.)
• 41A. [Cotton fabric for chadors?] is MUSLIM MUSLIN. Adjective, noun. Muslin takes its name from the French mousseline in turn derived from Mosul, Iraq, where the fabric was made. This pairing may be more apt than I first thought.
• 51A. [Problem for superpowered pickup artists?] is HEROES' HERPES. The square daily newspaper puzzles never seem to have HERPES, do they?
• 60A. BOSOX BOTOX is clued as a [Treatment to keep a ball club looking youthful?]. I wonder if this was the seed entry.

Favorite clues:

• [Gay prostitute customer Haggard] is named TED.
• The [Family name in ___ history] is CURIE for science, FOYT for racing.
• [Trenchcoated antiheroes] are P.I.'S. Wait, antiheroes shouldn't be in a clue when HEROES' HERPES is in the grid.
• [It might require Java] clues an APPLET. Yup.
• [Fought-over leftovers] are an ESTATE.

Miscellaneous points:

• OXO isn't just an [Ergonomic kitchenware brand] anymore—they make office supplies. I have their clipboard.
• ["The world's local bank"] clues HSBC. I have never heard of this.
• [Hip-hop's Das ___] EFX? Never heard of him/her/them. I don't suppose Das EFX is/are German?
• [Matador, e.g.] is a LABEL? Never heard of it.
• XKE is clued as a [Jaguar make]. I think someone recently was saying that nobody ever really referred to it as the XKE, but I just heard Click or Clack, one of the Tappet brothers, invoking the XKE last weekend.
• KAREN O is the vocalist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wikipedia tells me. She's also a ["Where the Wild Things Are" soundtrack artist]. Kosher to have Things in this clue and THINGY as the very next answer?

Carleton Athletics: Women's Soccer: Shootout Success! Knights Advance to Finals

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:53:54 +0000

For the third time in four seasons, the Carleton College women’s soccer team locked up with Concordia College in the MIAC Playoffs and just like in 2006, the score was tied 1-1 sending the contest into a shootout. This time, however, the Knights took care of business, winning in a shootout, 3-1. Carleton will play at Macalester College on Saturday, Nov. 7 with a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line.

Pressville.org: 36 Years Later, Ebony II Dances On

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:29:57 +0000

BY MAKINI ALLWOOD

In a narrow underground hallway last Saturday night, women as young as 17 were seen scantily clad in fishnet stockings and short skirts.

Their outfits paled in comparison however next to those worn by their male counterparts, who pushed the fashion envelope even further with black leather short shorts, S&M chains, ripped shirts and generous gobs of makeup.

This wasn’t a Las Vegas dressing room or behind-the-scenes at a cabaret, though.

It was, rather, the basement of the Sayles-Hill Campus Center at Carleton College, where over one hundred Carleton College student dancers prepared to appear in the Oct. 24 performance of the Ebony II Dance Company.

The student-run presentation featured thirteen student-choreographed dances performed to a soundtrack including “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire, and “Let’s Get Physical” by Olivia Newton John.

The Ebony II Dance Company was founded in 1973 by then-Carleton sophomore Debra R. McCray as a part of the Black History Week Observance Program in Carleton’s Concert Hall. The company then consisted of 20 African-American students who came from Carleton, St. Olaf and Northfield High School.

Creating Bonds

The original company toured venues in Minneapolis, Northfield and around Minnesota. According to McCray, she chose the name “Ebony” for connotations drawn from “a hard, heavy dark, durable wood.”

Meanwhile the somewhat mysterious “II” was in the name from the beginning, deriving from the fact that McCray founded the company during her sophomore year at Carleton.

Now 36 years old, Ebony II has changed greatly from its original small, all-African American, jazz dance-based company.

Today the number of participants has grown tenfold and its members include all races, serving Ebony’s explicit mission to create bonds between Carleton students.

According to one of the four Ebony directors, Claire Brookemeyer, joining the Ebony troupe is a great way for students to make new friends.

“Ebony is a place for networking,” Brookmeyer said. “Seniors meet freshman, humanities majors meet science majors, and sports players meet couch potatoes.”

Pelvic Thrust

Ebony also exposes non-dancers to the world of dance. No auditions are needed as the company accepts anyone who wants to join.

The dances choreographed range in difficulty from the lyrical jazz style that marked Ebony’s early years, to dances where the only skill needed is the pelvic thrust.

The students practice twice a week for each dance they perform. Practice begins from the first week of the term until, sometimes, only hours before the final performance.

“Ebony is a way to get people dancing and to get people on stage who don’t normally get to dance or be on stage,” Brookemeyer said.

Copyright @ 2009 Pressville

Avery Palmer '00: Today's Lepidoptery

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:08:45 +0000

I really should learn how to identify butterflies. This one I found in the Shenandoahs.

A section of moss.

It looks like moss on the trees.

Another hillside.

The Blue Ridge horizon, or at least my photographic approximation of same.

Margaret Taylor: The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:23:00 +0000

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery. It's not exactly deep, but aw, hell, neither is I Can Has Cheezburger.

David Schraub: Quote of the Evening

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:43:51 +0000

From Chicago's own Mary Anne Case:

Law is precisely that which fights against nature. If something were all that natural, a law would not be needed to bring it about. This is clear in almost every area of legal scholarship other than those pertaining to sex and gender. [The] evidence for natural human aggression is far strong than any of the evidence [in] favor of difference between the sexes. No one [would], however, suggest that just because human beings are naturally aggressive there should be no laws of murder and assault.

Mary Anne Case, Of Richard Epstein and Other Radical Feminists, 18 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 369, 375 (1995).

Sort of reminds me of Don Herzog's admonishing anyone who wears glasses from complaining about modifying nature.

Jamie Foehl '99: "It's time for a few small repairs" she said.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Sunny came home with a mission.

Carleton News: Carleton Students Collaborate on New Book Featuring Letters Exchanged Between U.S. and Iraqi Children During the Iraq War

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:25:45 +0000

A group of Carleton College students have joined forces with the non-profit Children’s Culture Connection and the Cannon Falls Public Schools to produce “Dear Friend: U.S./Iraqi Kids Connect,” a new book featuring letters exchanged between U.S. and Iraqi children during the Iraq War. The book will be presented at a special reception on Veteran’s Day, Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. in the Carleton College Gould Library Athenaeum. This event is free and open to the public.

Amy Csizmar Dalal: acdalal

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:00:37 +0000

Fall has traditionally been my toughest term. It’s the term I traditionally teach an overload (of sorts), so I don’t usually have any students working for me, and research is done in bits and snatches whenever I get 20-30 minutes of free time (such as, er, during faculty meetings). That said, research is Still Happening, even if some weeks it’s only happening in my head or as a wistful item on my to-do list.

The big lab news is that I am presenting 2 papers next month at a conference and co-located workshop (QShine and AAA-IDEA, respectively). This is exciting because both papers represent major steps forward in the research agenda of the lab.

The QShine paper is something that came from the work of 2 students in the summer of 2008. (The students are co-authors on the paper, too.) It is a major proof-of-concept of something that our lab has been speculating about and alluding to for, oh, maybe 4-5 years now: is real-time prediction of streaming video quality possible? The students’ work demonstrated that it may in fact be possible, because we can get a pretty accurate idea of video quality from pretty small portions of the video stream (10 seconds). So these results, while preliminary, are pretty significant for our lab.

The AAA-IDEA paper is interesting because it is my first invited paper (yay!), and because it represents a full-circle point for me. Back in 2002-2003, while I was still at HP Labs, I wrote a paper discussing a proposed architecture for a streaming video quality assessment system. This paper became the basis for my subsequent research work. In the position paper, I revisit my design decisions and comment on what I got right and what I had to amend. It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to think deeply about architectural issues, and the act of writing the paper rekindled my interest in some long-abandoned research questions. I’m thinking I’m going to get back to some of these big-picture, system questions as a regular part of my research agenda.

Looking ahead to Winter term, I’m planning on a new round of user experiments for another conference paper, possibly a journal article too. I may also hire one or more students work specifically on the real-time stuff. And I’m thinking ahead to summer and possible projects for our new CBL fellows, as well as trying to figure out how many students I can and want to support in my lab next summer.

Posted in computer science, research

Carleton Athletics: Women's Soccer: Knights Continue Climb Up Regional Rankings

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:44:12 +0000

In the most recent NSCAA regional rankings the Carleton women’s soccer team (9-5-4, 6-2-3 MIAC) moved up another spot to No. 7. This is the third straight week that the Knights have advanced at least one spot in the poll. Last week the Knights took care of both Saint Catherine University (3-1) and St. Olaf College (2-1). The win over St. Olaf clinched the Knight’s second consecutive MIAC playoff berth.

Carleton Athletics: Men's Soccer: Knights Drop Out of National Rankings

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:22:44 +0000

In the most recent NSCAA national rankings the Carleton men’s soccer team (14-4, 8-2 MIAC) dropped out of the national rankings after presiding in the No. 23 spot last week. Last week was the first time that the Knights were nationally ranked since the preseason poll. In the NSCAA regional rankings the Knights also dropped two spots from No. 3 to No. 5.

Chris Doten: Iceland, the rogue state.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:17:51 +0000

Iceland just lost its McDonald’s franchises. As we all know from the MacDonald’s theory of international peace, this means they now are beyond the pale of polite global society, and a risk to the tranquility and stability of the international order.

Of course, the true nuclear-armed rogue state we have to worry about is closer to home.

If you haven’t seen it, this Vanity fair story on the Icelandic financial meltdown is spectacular. Upshot: blame it on the elves.

David Schraub: Congress Passes Anti-Goldstone Commission Resolution

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:16:34 +0000

The final tally was 344 in favor to 36 opposed (22 "present"). Among the nays were three Republicans: Charles Boustany (LA), Geoff Davis (KY), and Ron Paul (TX), with two more GOPers voting present (Walter Jones (NC) and John Duncan (TN)). All the folks who have represented me in Congress (Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), John Kline (R-MN), and Bobby Rush (D-IL) voted aye (full roll call here).

I blogged about the resolution here, but since that time the resolution was altered mildly to clarify Judge Goldstone's efforts to get the mandate expanded, and his relative lack of success in doing so.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: Enthused and Infused: 19 New Directions For Teapot Design

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:00:57 +0000

What could be more welcoming than a pot of tea in the morning? (Coffee drinkers, you are not allowed to answer that). From its humble beginnings in ancient China, the teapot has gone from obscurity to the height of luxury and finally to worldwide ubiquity, embedding itself firmly in the English language (”as useless as a chocolate teapot“) and becoming an object of adoration by millions, particularly the Brits. But now teapots are disappearing – at least the traditional kind are. The next generation of beverage-buckets are here and they couldn’t look more different from the norm, as these 19 examples show.

(Image via: Yanko Design)

Believe it or not, this is a teapot (rather than a model from 2001: A Space Odyssey) – and its curious, gorgeous design addresses the age-old problem of tea leaves. Those of us who insist on a full-blooded brew skip the tea-bags and go for the loose-leafed option…but are forced to faff about with a strainer to get the results into our cups. The Dione Tea Set is the best of both worlds by containing a fine mesh that traps the tea leaves in one hemisphere, and when you are ready for your cuppa, you flip the pot over, straining the tea through the mesh into the pot’s base which becomes your cup!

(Images via: Yanko Design and Gizmodo)

Is that pot still warm? Since there is little nastier than a tepid cup of tea (hot, good; iced, good; tepid, bleargh), modern designers have invented teapots that can tell you at a glance how hot their contents are. The Creativi*tea pot blushes to an appropriately flaming scarlet when it is up to temperature – while the Space Invaders pot lets loose its pesky interstellar critters from behind an innocuous pastoral scene when your tea is piping hot.

(Image via: Clothing Shoes Accessories)

Staying with teapots that should rightly be called tea-carafes, here is the snuggest of them all. The Eva Solo teapot’s winsome curves (because this pot is slightly kinky, let’s be honest here) are hugged by a zipped cozy to trap the heat inside. For those wishing a slightly less naughty-looking version, it also comes in black.

(Images via: Sorapot)

Now for a design that has got tongues wagging. Garnering the enthusiastic attention of Wired, Dwell, New York magazine, Apartment Therapy and many more, the Sorapot is a word-of-mouth marvel. Glance above and you can see why: the body is transparent and allows you to see your tea brewing, all without sacrificing the simply grab’n'pour functionality. Unclip, up-end, pop your leaves in, top up with hot water, reassemble…and enjoy the show.

(Images via: Peter Bo and Design Milk)

And for other teapots that look nothing like teapots? First up, the Maru, a torus of ceramic with a walnut base that wants you to slow down – which you most certainly would, as you struggle to work out what it is and how it works. Then there is the Potter, looking like a cross between a non-stick saucepan and a kettle (so much so that the product page comes with a warning for the unwary).

(Images via: design boom)

You have just woken, and you are blearily making your first cuppa of the day in the hope that it will give you the strength to go on. The Mistea is designed to catch your mood – shaped like a snail, it encourages you to take your unhurried time and enjoy yourself before things get manic. Just don’t get too comfortable.

(Images via: freshome and Yanko Design)

But if getting too comfortable is your guiding principle in life, aim for Lotte Alpert’s Lazy Teapot. Thanks to its rocking action when in dock, you don’t have to lift this pot to pour your tea – and the temperature control means you don’t have to expend a single second’s thought on wondering if it’s hot enough. The Zygo looks like it should do something similar, but in fact this sturdy, fantastically curved design (centred around a stainless steel sphere) is the traditional kind of pick-me-up beverage.

(Images via: TeaPottery and Book Hunter’s Holiday and thisnext and design boom)

Can’t tear yourself away from the computer screen or from your book, even for just one cup of tea? The Computea or Book Teapot might help (or make your problem worse – one of the two, anyway). If you’re feeling distracted or too tired to think, the Gun Teapot waved in your face should refocus your attention nicely…while the T-Pot’s function is obvious even to the fuzziest brain.

(Image via: design boom)

When teapots are having such obvious identity crises, it seems inevitable that many designers will turn to other non-beverage sources of inspiration…such as birds. The Birdy tea set copies the perky shape of our smaller avian friends- but for good practical reasons. The set’s tea-cups and saucers are fixed directly against the pot’s body, heating up as it heats up – so when you’re ready to pour, it is into pre-warmed receptables that won’t cool your tea before it reaches your mouth.

(Images via: Yanko Design and The Boston Globe)

The Cigno’s inspiration is obvious, and the design manages to look stunning and be practical at the same time – the handle is its ribbed-rubber neck. (Now to ruin the elegant vibe: would it be the perfect venue for a spot of teapot-blowing?) On similar lines, the So Fly copies the shape of a nesting black-headed gull (the “head” being a rubber lid).

(Images via: uberreview and designboom)

But the world is far from finished with the traditional teapot shape, as these two designs show. The Toaster Teapot slots in nicely with our current obsession with multifunction gadgetry, firing out slices of toast while your tea is brewing inside. Tropics, on the other hand, isn’t a teapot at all, it’s actually a citrus fruit squeezer…but the teapot shape lends itself so well to the idea that we’re amazed it hasn’t been thought of already. So, while faux-teapots dispense lemon juice, actual teapots are getting harder and harder to identify…all over a hot drink that is supposed to relax us! Ah, modern life.

173 Radical Retrofuturistic Designs & Technologies

From retrocool concept cars to far-out fashion in sci-fi inspired cities of tomorrow, these 131 samples of retrofuturistic design & technology will take you back to the good old days to come!

Amy Reynaldo '88: MGWCC #74

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

crossword 16:08
puzzle 1:15

hell month is over at matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, and i won't say it ended with a whimper, because this was a very cool puzzle, but it was nowhere near as tough a meta as last week's. the puzzle, "65 to Stay Alive" (a reference to speed limits, no?), asks us to find a five-letter common halloween costume. let's have a look at the theme answers:

[1992 biography subtitled "Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance"] is EDGAR A. POE.
[They usually have green eyes] clues BLACK CATS. is this true? i suppose so, but i don't really see why it would be, necessarily.
[F.W. Murnau's masterpiece] is that classic horror film of the 1920's, NOSFERATU.
[Michael Keaton lures a fly with one in "Beetlejuice"]? that would be a ZAGNUT BAR.
and the central 15 is [What you must become to find the costume], or UNLUCKY ALL MONTH.

pretty nifty, eh? all four of this month's earlier contest answers, in order, are theme answers in the grid this week. now what's this about UNLUCKY ALL MONTH? lest you fear that only solvers who have gotten every meta wrong so far are eligible this week (now that would be a dastardly way of making sure nobody got all five right, eh?), it's a relatively straightforward reference to triskaidekaphobia, the belief that the number 13 is somehow unlucky. so all we need to do is go look at the letter in square 13 from all five of this month's crosswords:

13d from MGWCC #70 was [Didn't hit, in poker], or STAYED. i looked askance at this clue four weeks ago, and i'm looking askance at it now. isn't that blackjack? in draw poker, you can "stay," i guess, but "didn't hit" in poker would be chasing a drawing hand unsuccessfully. anyway, that's neither here nor there; we have the S.
13d from MGWCC #71 was [Brick carriers], or HODS.
13a from MGWCC #72 was [Bausch & Lomb brand], or RENU.
13d from MGWCC #73 was [Carve on permanently], or ETCH INTO.
and finally, 13d from this puzzle is [Groups], or KINDS.

well, this is definitely the most meta of any of the metas, what with referencing both contest answers and crossword answers in four previous puzzles (and itself). but it wasn't so hard, was it? there it is, spelled out in order: SHREK. i can't say i've ever seen anybody dressed up as shrek for halloween, but i could certainly imagine it. my son sam dressed up as a cowboy; his friend grace (also going on 2) was a fairy; and we saw a buzz lightyear in their building. but no shrek.

so how about the crossword? it was tough, all right, but i think not quite as tough as last week's. i did have to guess/google two squares, and went 1 for 2:

the very first square. [Carson or Cohen] is BEN, and [Arkansas governor Mike] is BEEBE. i have never heard of any of these three gentlemen, although i do know a guy from arkansas named mike. former bills wide receiver don BEEBE is the only beebe i could name. he's perhaps best remembered for his involvement in one of the memorable plays in super bowl history. anyway, i guessed this one right.
FRANKS is clued as [Needs no stamps], crossing SNARED, or [Got]. i do not know this definition of FRANKS; i guessed FRACKS, since [Got] could just as easily be SCARED.

what else?

[2007 Cooperstown inductee who retired in 2001] is tony GWYNN. the induction of GWYNN and cal ripken, jr is the one and only time i've been to the baseball hall of fame. that was a fun trip; i was there more for cal than for tony, but i met up with my buddy eugene from san diego, who flew all the way out from the west coast to see tony. the museum is pretty spectacular, too.
[Island whose highest peak is the newly-renamed Mount Obama] is a crazy cool clue for ANTIGUA. i've been doing the sporcle geography quizzes over and over, but i never seem to be able to nail every country in the world. i can get up to 190/195, but there's always something.
from the sublime to the ridiculous: adjacent to ANTIGUA is AGRISTIC, the [Fictional California town where "Weeds" is set]. good grief. an 8-letter fictional town on a show that, despite its critical acclaim, nobody watches?
both of those also crossed BERNISE, clued as [___ German (Swiss dialect)]. yikes.
[Clay achin' to be shot] is SKEET. i suppose i've heard of clay aiken, which makes this clue funny, as opposed to just ... absurd.
obscure chess clue of the month: [Paul ___ (chess great on the Estonian 5-krooni note)] is KERES. what's crazier, the fact that they put chess players on their money, or that their money is called krooni?
[Words before dirt] is a tough clue for "I HEAR ...". usually that wording means "words that can precede the word 'dirt' in a phrase."
[Killed spiller] is an almost-incomprehensible-at-first clue for the biblical ONAN, whom god smote for, ahem, spilling his seed. let that be a lesson to you: don't mess with old-testament god. not much smiting going on in the NT, unless you could jesus vs. the fig tree.

okay, that's all for me. i hope everybody else enjoyed hell month as much as i did...

Margaret Taylor: The Tower at Stony Wood

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

In adventurous stories, there often happens to be this character who knows what's going on. They're the one who dribbles out confusing riddles to the hero just as he needs them, and no more. The one who could just tell everybody the big plot secret but won't, because if that happened the characters could just resolve the story's conflict and go home. These characters seem to take a perverse enjoyment of their job, reveling in the "Nyah, nyah, I know something you don't know!" Such a character is the Bard of Skye in Patricia A. McKillip's Tower at Stony Wood.

The Tower at Stony Wood starts out conventionally enough for a fantasy novel. Cyan Dag, knight of the kingdom of Yves, receives a visit from the Bard of Skye on his king's wedding night. The Bard gives him a dire warning: the king has just married a monster in mortal form, and his true bride has been trapped in a tower! The book then proceeds like a strange dream. Cyan Dag has no specific instructions from the Bard (nor did he think to ask), so he wanders the countrysides of Yves and Skye at random, trying the towers that he comes across. He's not the sharpest sword in the scabbard.

Invariably his experiences with towers go something like this: "Thank you! But our princess is in another castle. Please try again."

Meanwhile, the Bard and her sister send Cyan unhelpful dreams, and in two apparently unrelated plotlines, another man in another tower is attempting to tame a dragon, and a baker and her daughter are in yet another tower watching the whole affair – princess, knight, dragon, and Bard – by magic mirror. I think I counted at least six towers in all in this book. Or maybe they were the same tower, all mystically connected? McKillip is never quite clear on this point.

Cyan and I would both like to grab Ms. Bard by the robe and ask her, "What the dickens is going on here?" There is a partial explanation at the end, but it left me feeling like somebody had just played a card trick on me.

David Schraub: Goldberg Interviews ATFP's Ibish

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:32:20 +0000

This is an excellent interview by Jeffrey Goldberg of the American Task Force for Palestine's Hussein Ibish. I've spoken positively about the ATFP before, and interviews like this help demonstrate why. Mr. Ibish is a clear and steadfast supporter of a peaceful, two-state solution, and it really comes through in this interview that he gets the conflict and he, from the position of a Palestinian advocate, gets the contours of the American Jewish community's stance regarding Israel. It's very true that with the exception of the ZOA on the right ~~and JVP on the left~~ [UPDATE: JVP emailed Mr. Ibish to say they are organizationally "agnostic" towards one states versus two states, and Mr. Ibish has corrected himself accordingly], pretty much every Jewish organization of substance is a supporter, in some way, of an end to the occupation and two states. It's also true that this represents a tremendous development in the positioning of the Jewish community compared to even two decades ago. And I particularly like that he aggressively goes after the one-state advocates -- be they Jewish or Palestinian -- as presenting a fundamentally unrealistic and unsustainable worldview.

It's a really good interview. The ATFP is really great organization.

UPDATE: Mr. Ibish sent me a very nice email, which also revealed he has a blog. How exciting! It is now on my blogroll (I briefly perused it -- it's quite good, unsurprisingly).

Ken Wedding's CompGov Blog: One person, one vote (sort of)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:00 +0000

In China, it's been a long time since there was equal representation. Well, perhaps there has never been equal representation. Or even de facto representation. But there is a national legislature.

China's rule by law boosted by equal political rights and equal life compensation in urban and rural areas

Equality has become a catchphrase when Chinese lawmakers mull over two major moves in the history of China's legislative progress.

Chinese rural and urban people are about to get equal representation in lawmaking bodies. It means farmers will have the same say in the country's decision-making process as urbanites...

China's population distribution

A draft amendment to the Electoral Law was tabled [introduced] at the bimonthly meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. It requires that both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies to the people's congresses...

After the last amendment in 1995, the law stipulates that each rural deputy represents a population four times that in urban areas.

That means in China, every 960,000 rural residents and every 240,000 urbanites are represented by one rural and urban NPC deputy respectively.

Critics say this can be interpreted as "farmers only enjoy a quarter of the suffrage of their urban counterparts...

Li Shishi, director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, said such a provision is "in accordance with the country's political system and social conditions of that time" and is "completely necessary" as the rural population is much more than that of cities and an equal ratio of rural and urban representation will mean an excessive number of rural deputies.

Rural population made up almost 90 percent of the country's total in 1949. With the process of urbanization, the ratio of urban and rural residents was about 45.7 to 54.3 last year...

According to the law, the number of deputies to the NPC is limited within 3,000, and the distribution of NPC deputies is decided by the NPC Standing Committee, the top legislature.

The draft amendment says the quotas of NPC deputies are distributed to 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the basis of their population, which ensures equal representation among regions and ethnic groups...

Find out What You Need to Know

EcBlogue: A Classics Blog: Rob

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:57:19 +0000

Novelist Philip Roth recently predicted that within twenty-five years, reading novels will be a “cultic” activity, reserved for an enthusiastic minority who retain the attention span for novel reading and are able to resist the allure of the big and small screens. Roth said:

I think it’s going to be cultic. I think always people will be reading them but it will be a small group of people. Maybe more people than now read Latin poetry, but somewhere in that range.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Dan Schofer '00

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:36:57 +0000

11-3-2009
Green Ridge Loop + Athletic Fields. 86 minutes. 12 miles.
Chilly (27 degrees), sunny, and nice. Relaxed and easy 10 miler, ending at the sports center, then added 2 more miles touching up the spray paint on the grass 800 loop. Hamstring felt really tight but otherwise felt fine. Splits: 7:36, 7:14, 7:09, 7:11, 6:58, 6:59, 7:00, 7:14, 7:02, 6:56, 7:33, 7:36.

Pressville.org: Jerry Bilek Ponders the Future of Books — and his Bookshop

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:05:04 +0000

BY NORA CASSIDY

In the age of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, Jerry Bilek is one of a dying breed of independent booksellers. He is the owner of Monkey See, Monkey Read, an independent new and used bookstore in downtown Northfield.

“I am trying to figure a way to survive,” said Bilek, a bookseller for 17 years. “Books in some form will exist for a long time.”

The question that Bilek is trying to answer is who will survive in terms of booksellers and how will they achieve that.

Last year, Amazon made $19.17 billion dollars in sales and has seen its revenue increase steadily for the past seven years. Already 14 years old, it provides stiff competition for those who try to make it on their own.

Some, including Bilek, have figured out how to adapt by following the motto, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” Bilek lists his entire inventory on multiple online sites including Amazon.com, abebooks.com, barnesandnoble.com and borders.com.

“At the end of every day, I upload all the books I have received and take of the books I sold that day in the store,” Bilek said. Because of his online selling, “today, I shipped maybe a dozen books all over the world although mostly in the U.S.”

Third Space

This works because Bilek found an online niche.

In his store, a lot of sales are popular books such as John Grisham or Dan Brown.

Online, however, most of his revenue is generated through more esoteric books such as Linear Programming and Eco Analysis or Ten Lectures on Wavelets.

“I try to balance the wide variety of books and create competitive prices because I know that I am competing online,” Bilek said. “Convenience vs. price. It is a challenge for everyone.”

There are some things that an independent bookstore can offer that the larger chain or online stores can’t, and that is what Bilek is trying to preserve. It starts at the door as he asks every customer, “Can I help you find something?”

When he can, he calls his customers by name.

“In life,” said Bilek, “we all have three spaces: home, work and then a third place where we go to congregate such as the library, a coffee shop, etc. I try to make my bookstore into a third place.”

Little Return

He brings in local authors for readings when he can.

Last Oct. 23, for instance, Joanna Rawson, a local poet, came in for a reading and signing of her new poetry collection Unrest.

Although Northfielders and tourists are his main in-store customer base, many Northfielders don’t buy books in town. Bilek should know: River City Books, the other bookstore in town just closed, leaving Bilek as the only bookseller in Northfield.

“If brick and mortar bookstores go away, we will lose something,” Bilek said. “There will be no browsing, no place to congregate and less of a tax base.”

Like many other independent stores in town, Bilek is not sure how much longer he can hold on. “I could stumble along for a long time but how long do you want to work 11 hours a day for very little return?”

With any luck, he won’t have to answer that question, and Northfield won’t become the town with two colleges and no bookstores.

Kayla Berger: Just Roll With It

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I forgot to change the clock in my office to reflect the time change. As a result, I showed up for my personal trainer appointment an hour early. I didn't figure out my mistake until my trainer arrived and asked me what I was doing there so early. He thought the whole thing was quite funny, but he very kindly offered to let me join the workout class that meets just before my regular appointment instead of making me wait around.

"Do I get to tell everyone why you're joining our class today?" he asked.

I felt a little stupid about my mistake, but I just laughed. "Sure," I replied. "I can work on my humility today."

I am an intelligent, organized, and capable adult with a degree from a prestigious college, but I'm not immune from stupid mistakes. People at work are used to me being very reliable, but sometimes I drop the ball. I'm very organized, but occasionally I misplace something or miss an appointment. I even do silly things like forgetting to change my clock at work. But when these things happen, I've learned that the best thing I can do is just roll with it.

I have been singing in public since I was in the fourth grade. I had sung before a crowd of more than 1,000 people before I even entered middle school. I made my first mistake in a public performance when I was a freshman in college. I had joined a women's choir that performed pieces that were more technically advanced than any music I'd sung before. Our most challenging selection, a 12-minute marathon of a piece, featured a trio section in the middle. I auditioned for the top part, but it went to a good friend of mine instead. Another friend got the bottom part, so I used to sing the middle part with them when we were just fooling around outside of choir practice. The girl who was supposed to sing the middle part quit the choir a week or two before the performance. The director gave her part to me because I was the only one who'd been practicing it and felt comfortable stepping up at such a late date. In the concert, the director gave an ambiguous cue and the trio came in early. In the panic of that moment when things went wrong, I unwittingly hopped up to the top part because it was the musical line I had auditioned for and therefore knew better. I couldn't find my way back to the middle part, and I ended up doubling the top part the rest of the way through. The crowd didn't really notice what we had done, but I was devastated. After the concert, I didn't want to talk about what happened because the other two girls also felt bad about our botched entrance. I was all freaked out and jittery, and I spent the rest of the night stress-eating. (This was the night I met the man whom I eventually married—it's a good thing he was able to get over this unflattering first impression!)

Luckily my first mistake was rather mild. The more spectacular mess-ups didn't happen until later in my singing career when I was better able to handle them. The year I joined the church that I attend now, I sang "The Lord's Prayer" (a signature piece for me) at services one Sunday. Midway through the piece, the accompanist (a tried and true veteran organist) accidentally turned two pages instead of one and started playing something completely different from what I was singing. I shakily finished the phrase as best I could, and by the next phrase she had figured out what had happened and was back in the right place. We managed to finish with a flourish, and after the service, both the organist and I were nonchalant about the whole thing. I had grown enough as an artist that I realized that these things just happen sometimes. I'm glad I learned that lesson. It helped me get through an experience this year when I was singing a new piece in church and ended up starting it in the wrong key because I was mentally stuck in the key of the song we had just sung. The accompanist had to go through the introduction two more times (adding in the notes I was supposed to sing) before I could get it right. After I got started, I was able to give a beautiful performance. A few years ago, that kind of mistake might have paralyzed me.

So what does coping with mistakes have to do with love? I think that my ability to adapt after things go wrong prevents me from making more mistakes. If I had let my pride get hurt yesterday, I probably would have gotten angry with my personal trainer for laughing about my clock mistake. If I had gotten worked up when my accompanist made a mistake, I probably would have said some things to her that weren't very nice. I don't need to beat myself or others up over mistakes. They're just mistakes. This year when I completely blew the entrance to my piece, I didn't go home and gorge myself or punish myself emotionally like I did when I was 18. I know better now. I don't want to let mistakes (or fear of them) stop me from using the talents that God has given me. Things are going to go wrong sometimes, but that's OK. I can just roll with it.

Elizabeth Tamny '88: weather schmeather

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:55:00 +0000

I find the Weather Channel to be a grave disappointment. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say: "I'm such a nerd! I love watching the Weather Channel!" But I'm not buying it. THERE IS NO NERDY VIRTUE THERE.

The Weather Channel actually misses an opportunity to be a repository of nerdy obsessive fun. As I once heard somebody say at a research conference, any time you need a news story, open up the census report and you will have it. Certainly weather is the same? It is always, by definition, happening. The fun is figuring out what is happening where. There is a whole planet full of weather every day!

The Weather Channel doesn't show that off well. It's very huckstery for a channel devoted to such a previously decided topic. The anchors are jolly and feeb and vague and the graphics don't well serve the data management--it's like bad local news weather segment 24 hours a day. I wish it were smarter. There is so much to know about what's happening in the world and the Weather Channel never makes me curious about it. Not to mention (on the other hand) I can sometimes have a hard time getting local weather on the Weather Channel when I'm on the road, depending on where I am.

The worst part are the one-hour shows, such as When Weather Changed History (the title of which continues to bother me--don't they mean "Affected"?) or It Could Happen Tomorrow. It could happen tomorrow--really? It could? Earthquakes sunamis floods fires? Don't they already happen? It's revealing that the first episode of It Could Happen Tomorrow was about the potential of a hurricane hitting New Orleans and made just before Katrina--and still there is a need for this show. Weren't there 1,000,000 stories from Katrina? Aren't there still? I just don't get the appeal of watching Ends of Days shows on the Weather Channel. It's like 2012 without the expensive CGI when the real news is happening elsewhere unattended.

Maybe I'm missing a corner of real nerdy fun on the Weather Channel, other than drinking games. Maybe I need to play a drinking game to find it.

Pressville.org: In Northfield, Sen. Marty Pushes ‘Minnesota Health Plan’ to Cut Costs, Broaden Coverage

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:30:19 +0000

BY MAIA RODRIGUEZ

Last Thursday night at the Northfield Community Resource Center, DFL state Senator John Marty argued that the current state and federal health care system was simply “not good enough,” and elaborated on the key principles of a new state health care proposal that he said would provide better care and cut costs in the long run.

Marty has been a member of the Senate for 23 years, and is currently running a campaign for Minnesota governor. Also in attendance at the forum were state Representative David Bly and Senator Kevin Dahle, both of whom Marty noted were co-authors of the Minnesota Health Plan in the House and the Senate, respectively.

Marty, who was introduced as the “chief author of the Minnesota Health Plan in the Senate,” spoke of providing “common sense solutions” to the health care crisis, and said that “most people want something that works for them,” regardless of their political stance.

Marty began his speech by noting that many public figures who support “universal” health care actually define “universal” coverage as insuring only about ninety-four percent of the population. Marty, in contrast, says he wants to see truly universal health care coverage.

Single Payer

The proposed plan would be one of single-payer plan coverage, using a mix of private and public care. Marty asserted that although the emphasis would be on “public and preventative care,” Minnesota has “a good mix of public and private care, and we’re going to keep it that way.” He said that individuals ought to be able to choose who their doctor is under the plan.

The Minnesota Health Plan would set premiums based on ability to pay. Despite concerns raised during the question and answer session, Marty said that this plan will ultimately save money “by taking care of people in an orderly, efficient way.”

He cited several studies suggesting that single payer plans could save money in the long run.

Marty also said that negotiating the price of services can greatly reduce costs across the system. Negotiating, Marty said, “can save about forty percent on drug costs.” Marty argued that hospitals should also be allowed to “negotiate a budget.”

In terms of rationing care, Marty said, “I don’t think insurance companies should ration care, and frankly I don’t think government should ration care.” Instead, Marty says, he believes care should be rationed “by doctors and patients.”

Core Principles

He also said that costs could be cut by decreasing overuse or misuse of the health care system. Marty acknowledged that “people do overuse health care under our current system, and people also underuse it and misuse it, but we think we’d overuse it less under the new system.”

In a humorous aside, Marty suggested that generally people don’t want to spend more time in the doctor’s office than they have to, saying “people don’t generally go for an extra colonoscopy on their day off.”

The proposed new plan would be administered by a 15-member board, eight of whom would be elected from county boards. The state would be broken into six regions, five of them rural, and one metro area. Each rural region would send one representative, and the metro area would send three. These would all be paid positions.

Although Marty provided some information on the financing and administration of the proposed plan, he devoted most of his time at the forum to addressing the plan’s core principles.

Universal Coverage

Firstly, Marty said, the Minnesota Health Plan is one of true universal coverage.

“You wouldn’t be fighting to qualify. You’d be covered, period,” he said.

He made a humorous comparison to police and fire services, saying, “when your home is being burglarized” or “you need police protection, you don’t have to qualify.” To Marty, health coverage is just as essential and urgent as universal access to the fire brigade or local police squad.

All “medically needed” care, including dental, optical, mental health, hospice, and long-term care would be covered under the plan.

The only service that Marty said is “explicitly not covered” under the Minnesota Health Plan is “purely cosmetic care,” but reconstructive surgery, he later said, would be covered.

The plan would also not cover drugs that are heavily marketed in Minnesota, via television and internet advertisements because, according to Marty, these ads heavily contribute to overutilization of drugs that people more people “don’t really need.” He cited Lipitor and Viagra as heavily advertised and frequently over-utilized drugs.

Shaking Heads

Although generally a strong supporter of President Obama, Marty criticized the President for deciding that it is “politically unsalable” to include undocumented workers under health care coverage.

Marty provided a dramatic image when he described the child of immigrant parents seriously injuring himself in an accident. Marty turned to the audience and asked, “are we going to let that child bleed to death?”

Many in the audience began visibly shaking their heads. Marty says that it is the “federal government’s responsibility to fix immigration problems,” but “in the meantime, I don’t want my kids going to school with infectious diseases.” He said that it was important that workers in the food industry be treated for infectious diseases as a public health precaution regardless of the workers’ citizenship.

The most important function of the plan, said Marty, would be “to make people healthy. If it saves money, in my mind, that’s a bonus.”

Big Savings

However, according to Marty, the proposed Minnesota Health Plan will also save money in the long run. He said that in Minnesota, the average individual is paying $7,000 annually for health care. That cost, under the proposed plan, is “going to go down,” Marty said.

He imagines an ultimate savings of up to twenty percent of the 35 billion dollar budget for health care in Minnesota.

Marty said the plan could even function to stimulate the economy by ensuring universal coverage, allowing small business owners and entrepreneurs to work independently or from home, rather than working for a given institution simply to ensure that they receive health insurance benefits.

The plan will also save money not by cutting services or coverage, but through “efficiency,” avoiding “excess use of costly equipment,” and minimizing bureaucratic costs.

Currently, according to Marty, bureaucratic spending in the health care system is extremely high. He stated that “31 cents on the dollar” of health care costs are paperwork, and that many nurses complain about spending large parts of their workdays filling out forms. Marty said he believed the Minnesota Health Plan would reduce paperwork costs.

Appropriate Care

“Early and preventative care” emerged as one of the defining themes of Marty’s speech. As an example of the lack of preventative care under the current system, Marty stated that there are “22,000 emergency room visits in Minnesota for dental care each year resulting from basic tooth decay that wasn’t detected or treated.

Furthermore, Marty said, “we want to have appropriate care.” Marty said that services such as an urgent care room and a 24/7 nurse helpline can diminish the numbers of people who crowd emergency rooms.

During the question and answer session following his speech, Marty said that a program that “invests in prevention,” by emphasizing basic lifestyle changes or such as “diet, exercise, and nutrition” will save money over time by “changing behavior.”

Marty argued that “prevention is the biggest thing that brings down the cost of health care.” He said The Minnesota Health Plan promotes “health and good behavior,” and is a plan “that’s charged with looking at the whole picture.”

Life Expectancy

Marty cited new estimates claiming that 45,000 Americans every year are dying because of lack of health care, a figure which Marty exclaimed is “like a third world country!”

Marty then held up several print-outs of charts which demonstrated that among developed nations, Americans generally go to the doctor’s office relatively infrequently each year, but are still spending more on average than individuals in most other countries.

Two other charts also demonstrated that life expectancy and infant mortality rates in the U.S. are fairly poor relative to other developed nations. These kinds of data, according to Marty, demonstrate that “we’re spending a lot more and getting less. We’re not getting the best results.”

Part of the problem, as Marty sees it, are significant shortages in the numbers of general care practitioners in the U.S. “We produce about twice as many specialists as general practitioners,” in large part, Marty said, because many medical school students are graduating with debts as large as $200,000, and specialists generally have higher salaries than general care physicians.

He proposed solutions to this shortage through forgiving student loans, negotiating higher pay for general practitioners, or partially subsidizing medical school costs.

Parents Gamble

Marty also provided several anecdotes about families and individuals who have suffered under the current health care coverage system. He spoke of a family whose income was based on farming, who paid $500 out of pocket for a sick child. They felt that the next time one of their children was sick they would not be able to afford medical care.

Under the current system, Marty said, this type of dilemma is not uncommon: “Parents gamble, they have to make these choices.”

He spoke of meeting a woman whose sister had been a nurse who was 48 years old when she lost her job and the health insurance that had been provided by her employer. This woman was then diagnosed with, and died from, what Marty was told was a “totally treatable thyroid disease.” She was unable to afford the health care that could have saved her life. These kinds of stories, for Marty, demonstrate that the health care system as it now stands is simply “not good enough.”

The Minnesota Health Plan bill, drafted by 71 co-authors, has been a work in progress for the past two years, and Marty imagines it will take between three and four more years to have it enacted.

Political Vision

Ultimately, Marty said, enacting the bill will be a question of willpower and vision. “We’ve lost a lot of our vision in health care. We’ve lost our faith. I think we have to develop a political vision.” The public must answer the larger question, Marty said, of “what kind of society do we want?”

The Minnesota Health Plan is supported by 36 organizations including the League of Women Voters, the Minnesota Nurses’ Association, and the Minnesota Health Care Coalition. Despite this, Marty said when it comes to obtaining the necessary federal permission for the plan to be enacted, “we realize it’s a hard sell.”

More advocacy is needed, particularly on the grassroots level. Local support is key for Marty, who says that if everyone who thinks they like the Minnesota Health Plan supported it, “it would pass overnight.”

Amy Reynaldo '88: Tuesday, 11/3/09

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:26:00 +0000

NYT 4:00
Jonesin' 3:40
LAT 3:04
CS untimed

Barry Boone's New York Times crossword

Chills + malaise + quote theme = "meh." I guess it's a timely electoral theme for New Yorkers, but nobody's going to the polls in Chicago so politics are not much on my mind. It's a quote by MARIO / CUOMO: "YOU CAMPAIGN IN / POETRY. YOU / GOVERN IN PROSE."

One clue really jumped out at me. A couple weeks ago on the Cruciverb-L list, there was a heated discussion regarding nurses, their roles, the way they're clued in crosswords, and whether they have a valid complaint when they don't like a NURSE clue. Well! NURSE is clued as [Surgeon's assistant]. I guess that puts Will Shortz squarely in the camp of nurses = assistants to doctors, though a couple doctors I talked to accord nurses a considerably higher standing.

Lots of longer fill here, balanced by lots of 3-letter answers. Highlights:

• KWANZAA is a [December celebration] that jacks up the grid's interest level with a K, Z, and final double A.
• SNEEZED gets a trivia clue: [What Fred Ott did in the first movie to be copyrighted].

Was 2D: [Flu fighters: Abbr.] supposed to be a tricky clue leading you to enter the incorrect (but technically far more correct) answer, CDC? The AMA's members may treat people with the flu, but the AMA itself, is it doing much on this issue? I haven't heard of anything.

I feel like I haven't seen RAREE in a puzzle in years, though it used to be more commonplace. The clue is [___ show (carnival attraction)]. Dictionary says archaic: "a form of entertainment, esp. one carried in a box, such as a peep show."

Updated Tuesday morning:

Doug Peterson's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Search Party"—Janie's review

The theme of Doug's puzzle today is a pretty straightforward event. The last part of each theme-name or -phrase is also a word that's synonymous with the word search. A choice was apparently made to clue each of the theme entries in a straightforward way as well. Nuthin' twisty goin' on there–which does make this a good puzzle for newbies, or even solvers with more experience who need a "comfort solve" from a master-constructor. What can I say? There's a lot of terrific non-theme fill/cluing, so (as an example) "I'LL BUY THAT" ["Sounds good to me"]. To get the ball rolling, the theme-fill consists of:

•17A. BONNIE HUNT [Daytime talk show host]. Since 2008.
•27A. TRIVIAL PURSUIT [Game in which players collect wedges]. Never played the game, never knew about the wedges. That's a piece of trivia to tuck away.
•47A. CUTS TO THE CHASE [Makes one's points without delay]. This is my fave of the theme fill as it's both active and concise.
•61A. JONNY QUEST [Animated TV adventure series of the '60s]. Nupe. Never heard of it. But with both a "J" and a "Q," what's not to love? And yes, another piece of trivia to tuck away.

More interesting (for my money...) is the aforementioned non-theme fill/cluing. There's the sequential "Down" pair, for starters, opposites GET WORSE [Take a downturn] and SHORE UP [Bolster]. Then, there are those KOPS or ["Keystone" lawmen], who could always be counted on to be part of a MELEE [Free for all]—especially when on a hunt, in pursuit, on a chase or a quest. Did they ever use HOUNDS [Hunting dogs] when trying to nab the PERP [Criminal in copspeak]? I kan't rekall... STEALTH [Cat burglar's asset], however, was never their strong suit. Oh, and from the same early era of film-making, there's The Little Tramp and his CANE [Prop for Chaplin] (who made his first appearance in a Keystone comedy).

[Soup can artist] Andy WARHOL also spoke of everyone's having their "15 minutes of fame." Happily, SARAH [Jazz singer Vaughan] shared considerably more than that with us. I suppose it's all a matter of taste (which is so very subjective) and even context as to whether that's too much time or not enough where the excellent "slacker" actor SETH [Rogen of "Knocked Up"], ARLO [Folk's Guthrie] or [Rock band Mötley ___ ] CRUE are concerned...

HIGH SIERRA [Bogart/Lupino film of 1941] is the one in which Bogart spoke the line: "I wouldn't give you two cents for a dame without a temper." Why does that make me smile so?

But to end on a genuinely "sweet" note, we get "chocolate x 2" today with Roald DAHL [Wonka's creator] (Willie Wonka being the candy-maker in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and (bane of mothers/delight of dentists everywhere) [Count] CHOCULA [(Cereal brand)], making every day Halloween.

David Cromer's Los Angeles Times crossword

The theme is THE OUTER LIMITS, and the other three theme entries have outer "limits": BORDER TERRIERS, MARGIN ACCOUNTS, and FRINGE BENEFITS. I think. Or they just begin with words that mean "limit." Usually an "outer" theme will break up a word more than just plunking an S at the end.

For more on this puzzle, I refer you to PuzzleGirl's L.A. Crossword Confidential post.

Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword, "Uh-Oh, It's Magic"

I don't quite get this theme. 1A/17A spell out ANY / CARD FROM THE DECK—[what you're instructed to pick]. What magician is going to use those words, "Pick any card from the deck"? It's "Pick a card, any card" in standard parlance. SHUFFLE SHUFFLE is the [Sound effect now heard after putting it back]. Wait, SHUFFLE isn't a sound at all. "IS THIS YOUR CARD?" is the [Question I hope to be correct]. Wait, it's not that the question should be correct. The answer to the question should be affirmative. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!?" is the [Response I'm really hoping to get], but "BOO!" is the [Response that, odds are, I'm probably going to get]. Wait, who boos someone if they successfully pull out the right card? Or is the implication that the person doing the card trick has completely failed to pull it off? Hmph.

Time to do some editing before the virus returns me to the sofa.

Avery Palmer '00: Blue Ridge (1)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:23:46 +0000

It's winter already on the top of the Shenandoahs; how very exotic it all felt.

Mountain laurels are still alive.

When you hike a little way down, remnants of fall are there.

A mountain:

Looking down at the river.

Avery Palmer '00: Cradle

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:58:42 +0000

"It's the first thing you see when you wake up, it's the last thing you see at night."

A not-so-comforting observation about cell phones, from an ad for the apparent iphone competitor HTC. (Whatever that is; I'm still an unsophisticated telephone consumer.) If the futurists of 25 years ago tried to imagine our modern communications technology, they easily could have made it sound like a dystopia; they also could have made it sound a lot of fun.

Kurt Kohlstedt '02: Soul Searching: 11 Remarkable Robots Seeking Humanity

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:00:30 +0000

What makes us human? With computer and robotics technology improving every day, we’ve already seen room-sized computers shrink to the size of a dime and cold metal has transformed into an increasingly organic aesthetic. With the current trajectory of technological advances, we’re bound to be faced with a situation in the future where the line between humanity and machine becomes blurred. Here are 11 robots in film faced with a crisis of identity. The obstacles faced by these compelling characters force us to analyze our own humanity. Where is the line between man and machine?

Roy Batty (Blade Runner)

(Images via VoyagerOnline, FilmSquish, SciFiCool, SeanAx)

Roy Batty is the leader of a band of four Nexus 6 model replicants – the most sophisticated bioengineered artificial humans yet created. All replicants have a failsafe, a four year lifespan to protect against gaining emotions, and Roy is obsessed with meeting his maker before he dies. The film follows a “blade runner,” a detective who hunts down and kills replicants, as he tracks Roy down and eventually succeeds in killing him. Roy’s desperation and overwhelming desire to discover his origins reflects our search for meaning in our own lives.

Astro Boy (Astro Boy)

(Images via FirstShowing, OberonPlace, chud.com, SMH)

Astro Boy was a robot designed by Doctor Tenma to replace a deceased son. When Doctor Tenma realized Astro Boy would never grow, or experience any of the changes of a human boy, he abandoned him. With his superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and the ability to translate over 60 languages, Astro Boy’s skills are as varied as the media with which he’s been featured. From manga to movies, Astro Boy’s sad origins and hidden strength have struck a chord with audiences the world over.

Lieutenant Commander Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

(Images via MichaelROConnor, Dr. Mike’s Steak Dinner, FashionFunky, Kindasophical)

As the first, and only, sentient android working in Star Fleet, Lieutenant Commander Data has impressed audiences across seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and four subsequent films. With incredible strength and computational abilities, his logic is in constant battle with his desire to become increasingly human. Data’s attempts to decipher the inconsistent behavior of his human colleagues, and his jilted attempts at impersonating them, are a consistent source of humor. With the addition of an emotion chip Data is able to come closer to humanity than he ever thought possible.

Chip Carson (Not Quite Human)

(Images via SomethingAwful, and RetroJunk)

Dr. Jonas Carson created an android in the form of a 17 year old boy nicknamed “Chip” and adopted him as his own son. Chip struggles to conform to human norms while attending high school, and in so doing, exhibits a more “human” loyalty and honesty than many of the humans around him. Chip’s misadventures were featured in three made for TV movies produced by Disney. The series is filled with the campy humor and awkward situations so common in 1980’s family films.

Daryl (D.A.R.Y.L.)

(Images via Ice Pirate Ship, GeekSix)

D.A.R.Y.L., the story of a “Data-Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform,” comes at us from the 1980’s fascination with emerging technologies. Daryl is found wandering in the road, lacking any memory of who he is or how he got there. Fostered by a nice couple, he soon begins to display superhuman abilities that reveal his true nature. When the Government tracks him down and erases his newly formed memories, the emotions he’d begun to express are initially removed. Daryl’s personality is not easily dissolved and his emotions continue to surface. The military experiment is considered a failure and scientists at the lab help Daryl escape back to his foster family. One of the scientists later justifies aiding Daryl by saying, “General, a machine becomes human … when you can’t tell the difference anymore.”

Ulysses (Making Mr. Right)

(Images via PublisPain, Geebobg, Yum23)

Making Mr. Right is the story of Ulysses, an android created in the image of Jeff Powers, a brilliant and antisocial scientist. Ulysses was designed to go on expeditions deep into space, where a human being would struggle with such lengthy solitude. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Ulysses has the social intuition and emotion that his creator lacks, and Jeff Powers decides to take the trip instead; Ulysses takes over Jeff Power’s life, as he ended up being more “human” than his human creator.

Alsatia Zevo (Toys)

(Images via Aje, Videodetective)

Alsatia Zevo is the eccentric sister of Robin Williams’ character Leslie Zevo, in the film Toys. Alsatia lives inside a gigantic dollhouse and wears unusual clothing that appears fit for a life-size paper doll. The irony of Alsatia’s situation is only made clear after she’s hurt, and revealed to be a machine. Since Alsatia’s true nature is revealed so late in the film, the audience has plenty of time to become emotionally invested in her well-being, and the shock of this discovery throws off one’s conception of humanity. As is often the case in these situations, many of the humans in the film seem to have less of a zest for life than do their robotic counterparts.

Solo (Solo) and Todd (Soldier)

(Images via technovelgy, FreeWebs)

The Science Fiction genre is filled with examples of robots as soldiers, and fiction is equally filled with examples of these soldiers revealing surprising compassion. In the film Solo, Solo is a robotic soldier created to be a killing machine. During his first mission, mistakes in his programming result in the development of a conscience, and he turns the table on his creators by defending the very people he was sent to destroy. Todd, from the film Soldier, is an interesting twist on the genre, as he’s the flip side of the coin: a human brought up from birth to act as nothing but a sociopathic murdering machine. Todd was never shown emotion and has spent an entire lifetime executing commands as if he was a machine, until a unique set of circumstances brings forth an upwelling of humanity.

David (A.I. Artificial Intelligence)

(Images via Chaddiez, SceneStealers, Filmcritic)

Originally created as an emotional replacement to a real son crippled with a debilitating illness, David in Stanley Kubrick’s posthumously released work A.I. Artificial Intelligence, was created to exhibit the same emotional complexity as his human counterparts. David’s design becomes a cruel joke, however, when he’s abandoned by his family and left to fend for himself in a world that sees robots as nothing but tools to be mercilessly used and abused. Kubrick explores the dark side of humanity, and our future, as David becomes frozen and survives in hibernation long enough to see the extinction of the human race.

Sonny (I, Robot)

(Images via EnglishFilms, Calico, CyberPunkReview)

In I, Robot, the film based on Isaac Asimov’s award winning anthology, Sonny does something that should not be possible for a robot: Murder. Sonny and his fellow robots are ostensibly ruled by Asimov’s three rules of robotics, which don’t allow for a robot to harm a human. During the investigation of Sonny’s controversial action, the contradiction between human directives for robots and our own destructive natures is explored at an action-packed pace. Despite the fact that Sonny was the first robot to hurt a human, he risks everything to save humankind from a robotic uprising.

Andrew Martin (Bicentennial Man)

(Images via Our Daily Read, FreeInfoSociety, TheCIA, AllMoviePhoto)

Andrew Martin’s situation is arguably the most compelling example in this collection. Created as a servant and companion for a wealthy family, Robin Williams’ character is given his freedom and spends over one hundred years pursuing the goal of becoming fully human. Andrew falls in love, but is unable to get married because he’s not legally human. In order to fulfill his destiny, he slowly transitions from robotic parts to organic prosthetics, until he is no longer immortal. Andrew is pronounced human as he lies on his deathbed, and his marriage is made legal right before he closes his eyes for the last time. Andrew’s willingness to give up his immortality reveals a deep and unique understanding of what makes life special.

More Unusual And Geek Graffiti

Here are seven more geek graffiti projects that comment on and employ tools of the digital age to reinterpret traditional street art approaches or convey contemporary messages via new media.

Elizabeth Tamny '88: why I love TCM

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Tonight TCM is showing four films that showcase the title sequence work of Saul Bass (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder and Bunny Lake Is Missing). I want to be Saul Bass when I grow up. Period full stop.

Happy Bodies: Becky

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:24:44 +0000

So tck tck tck had a “blog action day” like weeks ago, which I was planning to write this for, but oh well. I hope it’s the same in the United States, but Scandinavia is a-buzzin’ in preparation for COP15 - the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, which will hopefully bring us a new climate change agreement. With the varying viewpoints of the EU, US/Umbrella group, and G77 and China, it’s hard to say what the agreement will be and whether there will be an agreement at all, leading some to question whether no agreement is better than a bad agreement. But obviously, we must remain hopeful that we can make the necessary changes to slow down climate change before the damage is irreversible. For me, motivating myself about this issue is not about the scary numbers, but contextualizing it as one of “Climate Justice” and particularly for me, justice for women.

Johannesburg, South Africa.
Photos from the International Day of Climate Action, sponsored by 350.org

So why is climate change a feminist issue?

1. Discourses of consumption are gendered
I think climate change is often presented, because of it’s universality, as a non-gendered issue. But this is obviously untrue. Even the gendered discourses surrounding consumption impact the actuality of climate change. I found two very interesting articles in a magazine from the Nordic Gender Institute about how we conceive of men and women as consumers. At least in western discourses, women are often presented as materialistic consumers, in contrast to men who work hard to earn what is necessary to provide for their families. Think of the concept of retail therapy and the shopping montages in every “chick flick” you’ll ever see. The qualities are shamed with labels such as “shopaholic” and “golddigger”. In the Norwegian context, Nora in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is the epitome of a spendthrft women relying on her husband’s hard-earned money. Of course, self-sufficiency versus greed has long been a moral divide, but it has gained new and gendered relevance in the context of climate change and the need for reduced consumption.

But masculinity is about consumption too: consumption of cars and meat. While I think I could go on forever about masculinity and the sexualization of meat, I think this ad (via) sums up this discourse I’m describing pretty well:

However, these purchases are not considered over-consumptive in the way that feminine matierialism is displayed, but rather as necessary goods. As the “meat” link above shows, men need meat to be masculine and at least in the United States cars are seen as a necessity, especially for families, while fashion, clothing, and household decorations are frivolous. While ok, I do think a lot of those things are frivolous, what’s interesting is the actual damage caused to the environment. Relatively, meat production and carbon emission from cars are way bigger factors in climate change. In fact the meat industry is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions and 19% of all global energy is spent on transport. And in this case, the gender stereotypes are true: men eat more meat than women, and women are far more likely to take public transport. It seems it may be necessary to dismantle these concepts of masculinity in order to curb western consumption, which is historically responsible for current C02 levels. But unfortunately….

2. Women (particularly in the Global South) are most affected by Climate Change
There are so many reports on this.
So many.
This one’s particularly good.
Seriously, it should be common knowledge by now.
We already know that people in the global south are affected most strongly by environmental issues today. They live in more vulnerable areas, often rely more directly on the natural resources, and do not have the safety net that rich countries do. Women in the South are particularly affected because they are already marginalized and environmental changes make their competition for resources even more difficult. Climate and environmental change displaces refugees, spreads diseases and creates hunger – and it’s affecting women harder. While these issues are tragic on their own, the inequality of who is affected makes climate change not just a fundamental problem in the world today, but a fundamental problem, and source of injustice. What makes this particulary unjust is:

3. No one is held accountable to these women.
In UNIFEM’s (the UN fund for women) recent report on the progress of the world’s women, they ask the question: Who answer’s to women? In this report they argue that “the most powerful constraints on realizing women’s rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals is a deficit of accountability to women.” That question has stuck with me since I read it, and I think it is an incredibly important one to ask in this case. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is made up of representatives from all countries involved and is the highest decision-making authority of the convetion. I don’t have the numbers, but I think we can guess that the proportional representation of women will not be high. Members of the G77 (and many NGOs) are struggling to voice that developing countries may need to increase their emissions in order to continue to develop, and that richer countries should shoulder the majority of the financial burden of climate change. What’s gets lost is the voices of women from the global south, those who are struggling with and marginalized by environmental issues today, not further on down the graph of carbon emissions. This is not an issue for our children it’s for women, mothers, today.

Who is accountable to these women?

Dhaka, Bangladesh

How can we hold our leaders accountable?

Johannesburg, South Africa

How can we, as feminists, hold ourselves accountable?

Girl scouts in El Salvador made a movie about 350 to help educate their fellow students about climate change.

***If you want to make a difference on this issue, almost every link on this page is connected with a campaign. Honestly, I’m not sure what it’s going to take to make our leaders take this issue seriously and think beyond short term economics and reputation, so if you have any campaign that’s got you really hopeful, please share!***

David Schraub: The NAACP's White Chapters

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:22:59 +0000

A neat article about one of the few predominantly White chapters of the NAACP -- the one chartered at a Maine state prison. The article kind of talks about the NAACP's efforts to reach out beyond its African-American base, though it doesn't give many details. And the background of the chapter itself is likewise pretty sketchy -- the White president of the chapter mentioned only that the NAACP seemed to have more outside support than any other prison-allowed organizations, but it is unclear how tied in he is with the group's broader history and ideology.

Still, neat.

Julia Scatliff O'Grady '85: images

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:01:18 +0000

Last November, the citizens of North Carolina elected Beverly Perdue as their first woman governor. If you read our newspapers, however, you will hardly know what she looks like or what she has done. Consistently, our front page stories have been about her predecessor, Mike Easley and his family. On this eve before election day 2009, I’d like to think about what happens when a public figure becomes the center of negative attention.

I have been titillated by the details that concern the unraveling of Mike Easley’s old boy networks here in my home state. What bothers me, however, is there is an old girl network hard at work and we need to stop and pay close attention to Governor Perdue and her endeavors.

There is no doubt our former governor engaged in illegal and ignorant activity. In a recent State Board of Elections Hearing, Easley’s charges included letting his son use a campaign car, accepting free plane trips, getting extra water to his subdivision during a drought, and helping his wife obtain an $800,000 appointment at NC State University. All of these charges will now be put under the scrutiny of legal action. And our newspapers will continue to be filled with the past doings of former Governor Easley and his family.

Kenneth Burke, a rhetorical scholar who lived during the 2oth century, wrote about the constant need in societies for a scape goat, one person or a culture of people who others can blame. In the guilt of the scapegoat, we are all purified.

I do not think our former governor is a scapegoat. I believe he did wrong. And sometimes when the media and individuals engage in a longterm investigation of wrongdoing, their actions mirror those of a scapegoating process. Let’s just say, we can all get just a little too excited about the purification process and lose some critical focus about our own lives.

In a recession, escape can be a good thing. It is easier to think in any tense other than the present. I just think it is time to focus a little more on our own and our Governor’s tasks at hand.

Carleton Planet

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Mouse, USB, RSS Feed

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Steampunk Flat Panel

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