text:
As I sit down to write a recap of everything you may have missed in the chaotic slate of Week 6 Sunday action, I can't get the image of t
he worst play in football history the Colts' failed trickeration out of my brain, so let's just start there and move backwards.
Considering the prevailing thought that the Patriots would drop a 60-burger on the Colts in revenge for tattling on them in the DeflateGate controversy, the Sunday night matchup ended up being a pretty good game. Tom Brady and Andrew Luck both put on excellent displays of quarterbacking, the lead changed hands five times, and there was even a sprinkling of a mangled Julian Edelman finger and a blocked extra point where Jamie Collins jumped completely over Indy's offensive line.
With the win, the Patriots move to 5-0 and, as Al Michaels said in the broadcast, "It's too early to talk about the Patriots going undefeated ... but let's talk about it anyway."
New England's 36.6 points per game through five games is nearly on pace with their rate (36.8) in the historic 16-0 2007 season, and their 183 points through five is more than where they sat at this time in '07 (182). They don't show many signs of weakness. Credit the Colts for giving New England a run for their money in this one, but this Patriots team, with the way that Brady is playing, does have a bit of an aura of invincibility. We'll just leave it at that for now and check back later.
The Bengals remain unbeaten and look like the truest test to the Patriots right now in the AFC, while the Broncos offense again struggled even as Denver sneaked out a win over the Browns in overtime. Elsewhere the Packers beat the Chargers in a barn burner, and the Panthers upset the Seahawks in their place to stay perfect.
On the other hand, the Lions got their first win by beating the Bears in overtime, thanks in part to a Golden Tate "touchdown catch" and a Megatron overtime score. The Dolphins got an infusion of energy following the firing of Joe Philbin and rolled the Titans, the Jets are looking really solid with another win and the Niners got back in the win column by knocking off the hapless Ravens. Meanwhile, the Steelers just keep winning even without Big Ben.
Win the Water Cooler
Arm yourself with a few interesting tidbits from Sunday's action so you can impress your coworkers around the water cooler.
A few quarterback notes...
Philip Rivers joins the 500 Club
Philip Rivers went into Lambeau and passed for 503 yards against what had been a very, very strong Packers pass defense. For context on Rivers' big day, the Packers had gone into this week a top-10 pass defense, to that point allowing just 931 yards over five games, or just 186.2 per game. Obviously, total yards isn't an all-encompassing stat, but ... holy crap, Phil.
Rivers became one of just 15 quarterbacks in the NFL's history to pass for 500 yards in a game and was the first in Chargers history to do so. His total of 43 completions was two off of the NFL record set by Drew Bledsoe in 1994.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain, as the Chargers fell to the Packers when Rivers' fourth-and-goal attempt from the Packers' 3-yard line was batted away by Demarious Randall with three seconds remaining, preserving Green Bay's seven-point lead. Regardless, Rivers' spectacular accomplishment should not be overlooked.
Palmer's big day also for naught
Now, it's worth noting that despite Rivers' 500-plus yards passing, his team only scored 20 points. So, clearly total yards can be misleading at best, meaningless at worst, and another case of that popped up this week: Carson Palmer threw for 421 yards in Pittsburgh -- a high for his time with Arizona -- and the Cardinals could only put 13 points on the board. Palmer's two picks helped seal the Steelers victory, especially the one that came at the 2:25 mark when Arizona was driving to re-take the lead.
Colin Kaepernick thumbs his nose at his critics
It had been a tough start to the season for Colin Kaepernick, and the question of how San Francisco can safely get out of their team-friendly contract after this year has been broached a few times in the media. Now, Kap's had two very solid passing games in a row and has given new life to an offense many had left for dead.
In his last two outings, Kaepernick has thrown for 9.7 yards per attempt while going 39 of 62 (63 percent) for 602 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
He gets another nationally televised game this Thursday against the struggling Seahawks, and while Seattle's been Kaepernick Kryptonite thus far in his career (53 percent completion rate for 5.82 YPA, three TDs and nine INTs in seven games, five of which were losses) it is a huge chance to continue righting the ship and restoring his rep as a playmaker. Oh and by the way, a win this week would also put the Niners ahead of Seattle in the NFC West.
Meanwhile, one more noteworthy quarterback stat worth mentioning...
Marcus Mariota's ball security
Second overall pick Marcus Mariota came out of Oregon known for his ball security. He tossed 105 touchdowns to just 14 picks in three years for the Ducks, and his precision and care with the football was apparent in training camp and was such a big deal that Adam Schefter kept a running update on Twitter of Mariota's camp exploits.
At the same time, while clearly talented, first overall pick Jameis Winston came into the league known for his 28 interceptions in two years for Florida State. He did nothing to dispel that rep early on this season and he's hilariously (tragically?) thrown pick-sixes on the first pass attempt of the game on more than one occasion. He's thrown seven picks in five games and has lost one fumble. Not terribly surprising.
Mariota turned the ball over four times, two picks and two fumbles, this week against the Dolphins. He now has more turnovers than Winston in his first five games as a pro -- he's thrown five picks and lost four fumbles. Go figure.
All Martavis Bryant does is score touchdowns
Martavis Bryant was active for the first time this season and what better way to get it started than to score two touchdowns on six catches, moving his career total in touchdowns to 10 on just 32 catches. Yes, one in three of Bryant's career catches has been for pay dirt. Gotta like that efficiency.
Oh, and Bryant is averaging 21.4 yards per catch so far in his career. Bryant's 88-yard, meandering touchdown run with 2:15 remaining vs. Arizona covered a real distance of 131 yards as he traversed the field several times, just for fun.
DeAndre Hopkins is on a bad team but doing some amazing things
The Texans haven't made the playoffs in couple of years, but at least they've had a ridiculously amazing superstar in J.J. Watt to call their own, right? Well, J.J. Watt is still amazing and they're still bad this season, but you can add another ridiculous budding superstar to the list of silver linings. DeAndre Hopkins is straight balling out.
Hopkins is now leading the NFL in receptions (52) and yards (726), and is on pace for 138 and 1,936. He's also caught five touchdowns, putting him on pace for 13 on the year. Oh, and by the way, he made one catch this week where he just pinned the ball on his dome instead of using his other hand.
Marshawn Lynch really enjoyed his assist
The Seahawks blew yet another fourth quarter lead to fall to 2-4, but it wasn't all bad for Seattle fans this week, and a slick little flea flicker with Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson and Ricardo Lockette was one of the most fun plays on the year thus far.
I don't remember seeing it on the TV copy, but Beast Mode's reaction to the assist was an all-timer.
Best play of the day for @Seahawks. @MarshawnLynch24 was happy with his part. @KOMO4Sports @komonews pic.twitter.com/Fz4QvDpZpg— Doug Pigsley (@DougPigsleyKOMO) October 19, 2015
Look, football is supposed to be fun. That is such a fun play, all around.
The Broncos defense is on record pace in defensive touchdowns
Peyton Manning tossed two more picks this week to move his interception total to 10 on the year (worst in the NFL), and it's gotten to the point where many are legitimately wondering if it's time to move on to the Brock Osweiler Era in Denver. I don't know if I can get on board with that quite yet -- and Manning's coach and fellow players rallied behind him after the game in support -- but it's that bad right now for the future Hall of Famer, who broke a streak of 27 straight drives without a touchdown when he hit Emmanuel Sanders up the sideline for 75 yards and a score early in the fourth quarter.
Now, the Broncos may be 6-0, but that perfect record rests squarely on the shoulders of their top-echelon defense, which keeps providing Denver with ways to win even when the offense has failed to score a touchdown in two games. When Aqib Talib intercepted Josh McCown for a 63-yard pick-six early in the second quarter -- his third pick of the season -- it marked Denver's fourth defensive touchdown of the year.
This puts Denver on pace for 10.666 on the year -- and yes, I realize that's not a whole number -- but at this pace, they'd at least tie the record for a season with 10 (set by the 1998 Seahawks), and getting them to 11 would set a new standard.
They say that defense wins championships -- and while I do not think the Broncos can do that with the league-worst offense it has right now -- if Manning can acclimate to the new system and improve as the season goes on, even a shell of his former self may be good enough for Denver to contend for a Super Bowl. Their defense is that good, and that deep.
Here are your scores from this week so far:
Saints 31, Falcons 21 (Thursday)
Vikings 16, Chiefs 10
Bengals 34, Bills 21
Steelers 25, Cardinals 13
Broncos 26, Browns 23 (OT)
Lions 37, Bears 34 (OT)
Texans 31, Jaguars 20
Dolphins 38, Titans 10
Jets, 34, Washington 20
Panthers 27, Seahawks 23
49ers 25, Ravens 20
Packers 27, Chargers 20
Patriots 34, Colts 27
Another week, another example of the NFL not knowing what a touchdown is. Golden Tate isn't complaining.
SB Nation presents: The NFL still doesn't know what a catch is
The refs might have blown a fourth-down call against the Chiefs.
The Dolphins scored a nifty end-around touchdown and dominated in their interim head coach's first game.
Matt Forte recovered his own fumble in highly entertaining fashion.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Marvin Jones!
Fines be damned, Cam Heyward continued to pay tribute to his late father.
Martavis Bryant showed off his moves on an 88-yard touchdown from ... Landry Jones?
The Titans are calling BS over a hit the Dolphins delivered on Marcus Mariota, who struggled to hold on to the ball the rest of the game. It was a chippy game all around.
Way to use your head, DeAndre Hopkins.
We tried to figure out what happened at the end of regulation between the Broncos and Browns.
Peyton Manning is Jekyll and Hyde right now.
The Lions won in part because of Megatron's mega-catch in OT.
Aaron Rodgers reached 30,000 career passing yards.
The Panthers stunned the Seahawks with a huge go-ahead touchdown late.
San Francisco's field is so terrible it tried to eat Justin Tucker's foot.
Steve Smith wasn't supposed to play on Sunday, but it's a good thing that he did.
Seahawks flea flicker!
The Colts ran one of the worst trick plays in NFL history.
Mike Vick left the game against the Cardinals twice: First for an "eye" injury and then with a hamstring injury.
After scoring a touchdown against the Bengals, Sammy Watkins left the game with a sprained ankle.
Jeremy Maclin had to be evaluated for a concussion and exited the game against the Vikings.
Melvin Gordon left early against the Packers with foot injury, but returned to the game in the second quarter.


This is a new single that has been released in the USA by Banner Records with their artist Magdalena Tul using one of our songs Rediscovered You
Banner Records “Keeping It Soulful”
“Magdalena Tul” The Voice / The Soul / The Class / The Perfection
The label has released the Soulful new single of the impeccable “Magdalena Tul”.The first of many is the track titled “Rediscovered You” written by Hit songwriter Tim Jones. Radio Stations can listen and download it at Play MPE the label main radio distributor. The track is available at all online stores.
The Video is now at You Tube.
The new voice in R&B Soul has arrived..
Joel Kessler Director Of Publicity BRG


text:
Red Twig Dogwood
Common Name: Red Twig Dogwood
Scientific Name: Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ and Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’
Garden Location: Carell Dogwood Garden
These two species are both referred to as the red twig dogwood. Their culture is similar with both growing best in rich soils with moderate to wet conditions. Both prefer full sun to develop best twig color during the winter. Both grow to approximately 5-7 feet.

domain: biology


text:
EVENT AT THE SORBONNE
On Saturday, January 21st, 2006, at 10am, the ERCLA research centre will be pleased to welcome Martin Stannard, Professor at the University of Leicester and editor of the Norton edition of The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, which is on the syllabus of the CAPES and Agrégation.
Martin Stannard's lecture, entitled "What did Dowell Know? The Good Soldier and its narrator" will focus on the innovative narrative techniques of the novel with links to those of Henry James, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. The lecture will be followed by a debate with the public.
This event is organised by François Gallix and Vanessa Guignery. Free entrance to all.
Thursday, January 26 from 7pm-9pm
Delirious Milton, The Fate of the Poet in Modernity
Book Launch with Gordon Teskey
Composed after the collapse of his political hopes, Milton's great poems Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes are an effort to understand what it means to be a poet on the threshold of a post-theological world. The argument of Delirious Milton, inspired in part by the architectural theorist Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York, is that Milton's creative power is drawn from a rift at the center of his consciousness over the question of creation itself. This rift forces the poet to oscillate deliriously between two incompatible perspectives, at once affirming and denying the presence of spirit in what he creates.
From one perspective the act of creation is centered in God and the purpose of art is to imitate and praise the Creator. From the other perspective the act of creation is centered in the human, in the built environment of the modern world. The oscillation itself, continually affirming and negating the presence of spirit, of a force beyond the human, is what Gordon Teskey means by delirium. He concludes that the modern artist, far from being characterized by what Benjamin (after Baudelaire) called "loss of the aura," is invested, as never before, with a shamanistic spiritual power that is mediated through art.
Saturday, February 4 at 7pm
Lee Miller, A Life
Reading by Carolyn Burke
A trenchant yet sympathetic portrait of Lee Miller, one of the iconic faces and careers of the twentieth century.
Carolyn Burke reveals Miller as a multifaceted woman: both model and photographer, muse and reporter, sexual adventurer and mother, and, in later years, gourmet cook—the last of the many dramatic transformations she underwent during her lifetime. A sleek blond bombshell, Miller was part of a glamorous circle in New York and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s as a leading Vogue model, close to Edward Steichen, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Cocteau, and Pablo Picasso. Then, during World War II, she became a war correspondent—one of the first women to do so—shooting harrowing images of a devastated Europe, entering Dachau with the Allied troops, posing in Hitler’s bathtub.
Burke examines Miller’s troubled personal life, from the unsettling photo sessions during which Miller, both as a child and as a young woman, posed nude for her father, to her crucial affair with artist-photographer Man Ray, to her unconventional marriages. And through Miller’s body of work, Burke explores the photographer’s journey from object to subject; her eye for form, pattern, and light; and the powerful emotion behind each of her images.
A lushly illustrated story of art and beauty, sex and power, Modernism and Surrealism, independence and collaboration, Lee Miller: A Life is an astute study of a fascinating, yet enigmatic, cultural figure. Read the review from the New York Times.
Wednesday, February 15 at 7pm
An Evening of Poetry
Pansy Maurer-Alvarez and Mandy Pannett
British poet Mandy Pannett and Paris
based American poet Pansy Maurer-Alvarez will read a selection from their
latest collections plus new work. A glass of wine follows.
Mandy Pannett (UK) has written song lyrics for folk and theatre groups and for children's television but her main love is poetry. Her poems have been widely published in the UK and she is regularly invited to read at poetry venues. Her first collection, BOY'S STORY, was issued on CD with music by Phil Gravett; BEE PURPLE appeared in 2002 from Oversteps Books (South Devon) and another collection is forthcoming. Her poems have been described as "stimulating and refreshing" and as "oh-so-easy on the ear while also often being oblique and hinted-at narratives." Hers is writing "which makes you think as well as allowing you to experience the surface patterns of sound and imagery." She is involved in poetry and storytelling groups, organises poetry events in her local community and runs creative writing workshops for young people and adults.
Pansy Maurer-Alvarez (US) has lived in Europe, mainly France and Switzerland, since 1973, as a student, a teacher and translator before turning to poetry full time. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Europe and the US. She occasionally gives workshops and critique sessions. Her collections are: DOLORES: THE ALPINE YEARS (1996) and WHEN THE BODY SAYS
IT'S LEAVING (2004) both from Hanging Loose Press, New York; and LOVERS ETERNALLY NEARING, a collaboration with the artist Walter Ehrismann, with German translations (Editions Thomas Howeg, Zurich). Her poetry has been called "breathtakingly inviting" -- "original, energetic and moving" -- "intelligent and passionate ... Perhaps paradoxically, as a poet she is both distant and painfully close, chilly and burning."
Wednesday, February 22 at 7 pm
The Time of Our Singing
Reading by Richard Powers
A National Book Critics Circle Nominee
A New York Times Notable Book
A Chicago Tribune Best Book
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
On Easter Day, 1939, at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a concert singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and—against all odds, advice, and better judgment—they marry. They vow to raise their offspring beyond time, beyond race, beyond belonging, steeped in song. But their three children, the unwitting subjects of this experiment, must survive America's brutal here and now.
Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the early Civil Rights era, come of age in the riot-torn 1960s, and live out their adulthoods through the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, "whose voice could make heads of state repent," pursues a life devoted to his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, chooses a path of militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this far-ranging, multigenerational tale, struggles to remain loyal to both siblings. As a polarized America threatens to tear the family apart, only their deep, shared love of song stands any hope of preserving them.
Set against the sweeping backdrop of contemporary American history, The Time of Our Singing is nevertheless deeply personal and intimate. In telling the story of his quintessentially American family, Joseph Strom spins a heartrending tale of self-invention, allegiance, race, hope, the power of music, and the tangled loops of time that rewrite all identity. From the Publisher.
Wednesday, March 1 from 2pm- 4pm
Booksigning by Kate Muir
In this fun new novel by Kate Muir, everything seems perfect, if a touch pretentious, right up until the moment a new English nanny, Anna, appears at the imposing doors of Olivier and Madison Malin's Rue du Bac apartment. Gamine and artless, Anna unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will gravely endanger the Malins' daughter, and their charmed lives.
Sunday, March 12 from 3pm- 5pm
A Not-to-Miss Children's Event!!
Reading & Booksigning by Jack Prelutsky and Doug Cushman
Jack Prelutsky's poetry is recited, laughed over, and memorized by children across the country who love his inventive wordplay and unpredictable nonsense rhymes. He has written more than 40 books of verse, including the immensely popular It's Raining Pigs & Noodles, A Pizza the Size of the Sun, Something Big Has Been Here, and The New Kid on the Block. His poetry books for younger readers include Beneath a Blue Umbrella and The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders. In addition to being a master poet, Jack is a gifted children's poet and a great live performer for kids of all ages.
Jack will be joined at this event by Doug Cushman. Doug has illustrated and/or written over 100 books for children and collected a number of honors including a Reuben Award for Book Illustration from the National Cartoonists Society, New York Times Children's Books Best Sellers, and the New York Public Library's Best 100 Books of 2000. He is the author of the Inspector Hopper series, Aunt Eater series,
Mystery at the Club Sandwich, and the forthcoming Space Cat series. Doug and Jack have a produced a collaborative book (Jack's rhymes, Doug's drawings) coming out in June called What A Day it Was at School.
Download and print the flyer by Doug Cushman
for your friends and neighbors!
Wednesday, March 22 at 7pm
The Place at the End of the World
Reading & Booksigning by Janine Di Giovanni
Award-winning author and journalist Janine di Giovanni has been covering global conflict since the 1980s, and is considered one of Europe's most respected journalists. In her latest book, The Place at the End of the World: Stories from the Frontline, as with all her writing, Giovanni covers the human cost of war - working often in conflict zones that the world's press has forgotten.
Janine di Giovanni is a senior foreign correspondent for The Times and contributing editor for Vanity Fair. She has won Granada Television’s Foreign Correspondent of the Year Award (2000), the National Magazine Award and two Amnesty International Media Awards. She is the author of Madness Visible: A Memoir of War, an account of her years covering the crisis in the Balkans; Against the Stranger; and The Quick and the Dead. She also wrote the introduction to the bestselling Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. Janine di Giovanni lives in Paris.
Janine di Giovanni at the Red Wheelbarrow
March 22 2006
At left: Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni,
author of Con Man of the Cinema Sam Speigel (Simon & Schuster 2003)
Background: Gwen Edelman, author of the novel War Story (Penguin 2001)
Thursday, March 23 at 7pm
Reading & Booksigning by Cara Black
"I always wondered why I used to quicken my step in Montmartre. After reading Cara Black's wonderful book, now I know. As atmospheric as anything by John Le Carre."
—Philip Kerr, Berlin Noir
The Red Wheelbarrow is pleased to welcome back Cara Black, author of Paris-based murder mysteries. In this latest book in the Aimée Leduc series, a childhood friend of Aimée's, now a policewoman, is accused of shooting her partner. In order to clear her friend of the charges against her, Aimée must confront Corsican Separatist terrorists, Montmartre prostitutes, a Surrealist painter's stepdaughter, the French Security Services and the Parisian police. But in so doing Aimée comes one step closer to identifying the culprit in her own father's death, a death that still haunts her.
at the Red Wheelbarrow
March 23 2006
Friday, March 24
Drinks and booksigning party at Red Wheelbarrow for Jean-Paul Rocchi's conference on TEXTUAL DISSENSIONS AND POLITICAL DISSIDENCE: DISSENT IN RACIAL, SEXUAL, GENDER-RELATED AND NATIONAL IDENTITY FORMATIONS held at Paris VII (UFR Charles V) March 23-25, 2006.
Jean-Paul Rocchi of Charles V, Paris VII. Rocchi pictured next to Rozena Maart's book Talk about
It! From District Six to Lavender Hill (Awomandla! Publishers Canada)
Lewis R. Gordon, one of the editors of Not only the Master's tools: African-American Studies in Theory and Practice
Tuesday, April 25 at 7pm
A Castle in the Backyard: The Dream of a House in France
Reading by Michael Hinden & Betsy Draine
"A charming account of village life in the Dordogne valley."
A Castle in the Backyard chronicles the French adventures of American couple Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden, who in 1985 embarked upon a dream. After falling in love with a small stone house set beneath a medieval castle in Périgord, they bought the tranquil getaway located in one of the most beautiful river valleys in Europe.
In this delightful memoir Betsy and Michael offer an intimate glimpse of a region little known to Americansthe Dordogne valley, its castles and prehistoric art, its walking trails and earthy cuisine, its people and traditionsand describe the charms and mishaps of setting up housekeeping thousands of miles from home. nsightful and poignant, this memoir chronicles the transformation of Périgord as development poses a challenge to its graceful way of life, and evokes the personal exuberance of starting over, even in mid-life.
Photos above by Michael Hinden. All rights reserved.
Friday, May 19, 7:00 p.m./19h00
Fiction Reading by Maristella de Panizza Lorch
Presented by Reid Hall & The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore
Event at Grande Salle, Reid Hall
4, rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris
Phone: 01 43 20 33 07
Download the Flyer in PDF (49KB)
Reid Hall & The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore present a reading by Maristella de Panizza Lorch, author of Mamma in her Village, the first volume in a trilogy entitled, "Beyond Gibraltar."
Set in Tajo, an Italian village in the Central Alps during the years leading to World War I, Mamma in her Village traces the life of a girl as she passes from childhood in a humble home to motherhood as part of a family of nobility in decline. The world around her changes as well, as the forces of industrialization and the gathering political storm create upheaval.
Ms. de Panizza Lorch, a native of Bolzano, Italy, was educated in a classical school in the Alto Adige–Sudtirol between the two world wars, and earned a doctorate in classical philology in 1942 at the University of Rome with the Accademico d’Italia Professor Vincenzo Ussani, Sr. She is now a Professor Emerita of Italian and Medival and Renaissance studies at Barnard and Columbia and is the Founding Director Emerita of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, where she teaches courses for adults on Dante, Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.
Among her books: the critical edition of Lorenzo Valla’s De Voluptate (1431-44), its English translation On Pleasure, the edition of Ziliolo Zilioli’s Michaelida (1431), A Defense of Life (a study of Renaissance Epicureanism) and, with the philosopher Ernesto Grassi, Folly and Insanity in Renaissance Literature.
Wednesday, May 10, 7 p.m./19h00
Fiction Reading & Book Launch
Sharon Mesmer & Matthew Rose
Download the Flyer in PDF (137KB)
L'écriture insolite de Sharon Mesmer, poétesse américaine, a de quoi surprendre. Autant que les thèmes troublants qu'elle aborde.
Sharon Mesmer, author of 2 short fiction collections, THE EMPTY QUARTER and IN ORDINARY TIME, both from Hanging Loose Press, 2 poetry collections, VERTIGO SEEKS AFFINITIES (Belladonna, 2006) and HALF ANGEL, HALF LUNCH (Hard Press, 1998), and the chapbook, CROSSING 2nd AVENUE, is in France to launch her French translated novel: Ma Vie à Yonago (Hachette Litteratures, France).
Mesmer is the previous co-founder and –editor of the publications B City and letter eX. She has received a MacArthur Scholarship from Brooklyn College, and residency fellowships at MacDowell Colony (USA) and Hawthornden Castle, Scotland. She was a featured performer in "Words In Your Face," the 1991 season premiere of the public television series Live From Off Center. She teaches fiction writing and literature at the New School in Manhattan, is a member of the miscreant collective Unbearables, and is English language editor of the Japanese lit mag American Book Jam. Her former band, Mellow Freakin' Woodies, released a tape in 1994, "In A Mellow Freakin' Mood." She does regular music writing and has a seasonal column in PURPLE.
Matthew Rose, American writer and artist living in Paris, has written for The New York Times Magazine, Art & Antiques, The NYT, Premiere, etc. His fiction has appeared in French and English in publications such as Les Episodes, Edwin Torres's review Peop!, Rat Mort, and Gutter Poodles. At the Affordable Art Fair in NYC in June 2006 he will show collages from his book/series A Perfect Friend. At Capsule Gallery in Denver in October 2006 he will exhibit an installation of 999 works in "How to Speak French" (in violent times).
Matthew will read from a selection of short stories and his novel, Plan B, which concerns the strange life of suicidal day-trader, Von Spatzl and the search for meaning with the Austrian Girl at his side. Plan B is available on the net for free download (PDF file): http://homepage.mac.com/mistahcoughdrop/FileSharing11.html.
Tuesday, June 13, 7:00 p.m./19h00
Poetry Reading by Eva Salzman & Mary Baine Campbell
Double Crossing: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and earned Eva Salzman a Cholmondelely Award from the Society of Authors. Her residencies include Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Ruskin College, Oxford and Warwick University, and a two year Arts Council stint in a prison, though not as a prisoner! Her fiction and poetry are frequently broadcast on BBC radio and, alone with her non-fiction, have been widely published in journals and newspapers, such as the Guardian, Independent, TLS, London Magazine, New Yorker and Poetry Review. Her libretti Cassandra, written for her composer father, Eric Salzman, has been performed all over Europe, and her lyrics appear on Christine Tobin's latest CD Romance and Revolution (Babel). Currently, Daniel Leuwers is translating her poems into French. Other ongoing projects include an anthology for Seren Press and a novel, which she's writing at Villa Mont Noir. A New Yorker, she studied with Derek Walcott, Joseph Brodsky and Jorie Graham at Columbia University's MFA programme, and now lives in London, except when she's in Brooklyn.
Mary Baine Campbell
Mary Baine Campbell is the author of The World, the Flesh, and Angels
(Barnard New Women Poets Prize, 1989) and Trouble (2003). She's in Paris
this year on sabbatical from Brandeis University, where she teaches medieval
and Renaissance literature, utopia, women's studies and writing workshops.
She's at work here on a history of dreams before the Enlightenment, as well
as new poems, a utopian novella, and a libretto for an opera of Marie de
France's werewolf lai, Bisclavret. Alternative worlds (and their monstrous
and angelic inhabitants) have been her topic for 25 years: her scholarly
works include "The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel
Writing, 400-1600" (1988 and 1992) and "Wonder and Science: Imagining Worlds
in Early Modern Europe" (1999 and 2004). She is currently thinking and
writing about how to make a better one, now.
Eva Salzman and Mary Baine Campbell at The Red Wheelbarrow
Red Wheelbarrow is located at 22, rue St Paul, 75004 Paris. Nearest
metro station St Paul (Bastille and Sully-Morland are also close);
buses 67, 96, 69, 76, and Balabus. Go here
for a map.
Phone: 01 48 04 75 08, Fax: 01 44 59 60 23

domain: artistic


text:
Whether treating critical limb ischemia, embolizing an uterine fibroid, or performing a biopsy or Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) procedure, speed, clarity, and efficient dose management are key. Our multimodality Live Image Guidance solutions deliver critical information to optimize real-time guidance through complex vasculature and visualize tissue perfusion to identify treatment end-point in peripheral vascular interventions.
At the same time, our AlluraClarity family with ClarityIQ technology enables physicians to deliver fast, effective, and simplified procedures with an efficient clinical workflow. All while delivering equivalent image quality at a fraction of the dose
Sign up to receive exclusive updates on Live Image Guidance.

domain: medical


text:
Senate Republicans released their relief bill this week, the HEALS act, which proposes to steer the bulk of education aid to schools that open for in-person instruction. This is triggering angry reactions from most of the education establishment. Here's a less controversial and more constructive suggestion: Return federal education policy to its roots and require schools to provide “targeted assistance” to their disadvantaged, low-achieving students.
After months of anticipation, Senate Republicans finally released their bid for the next big Covid-19 relief bill this week, dubbed the HEALS act. The headline news for K–12 education is the proposal to steer the bulk of education aid to schools that open for in-person instruction, which is triggering angry reactions from most of the education establishment.
It’s hard to imagine that idea surviving negotiations with House Democrats. But if members of Congress are looking for less controversial and more constructive strings to attach to Uncle Sam’s help, here’s a suggestion: Return federal education policy to its roots and require schools to provide “targeted assistance” to their disadvantaged, low-achieving students. Rather than just letting schools dump their federal funds into a general pot that can be used for almost anything, make them steer Washington’s dollars into customized help for the kids who need it most. In other words, roll back the clock to 1965, when Congress birthed Title I with the goal of providing extra help for disadvantaged students, not schools.
Let’s recall a bit of history.
The question of whether federal aid would actually help kids learn more has been top of mind for policymakers ever since Senator Robert F. Kennedy famously asked if there was a way to make sure that money wouldn’t “just be completely wasted.” He was right to be concerned: The first wave of Title I funds was spent on all manner of nonsense, football uniforms included.
But the policy response to that problem created new headaches, as Congress demanded a clear audit trail showing Title I dollars being spent on the children who were the intended beneficiaries. Districts followed orders and soon were setting up separate and unequal Title I “programs” that often pulled kids away from qualified teachers to get low-quality remedial help instead. Guess what? That didn’t work, either.
So a quarter-century ago policymakers hit upon a new formula: Don’t micromanage how schools spend the money—and in fact, allow high-poverty schools to spend the money on everyone, via core “schoolwide” programs—but hold them accountable for results. This was simpatico with the standards-and-accountability movement that was then getting off the ground.
Judging by outcomes, that strategy worked reasonably well, at least for a time, both in terms of academic progress for the lowest-performing kids, and in higher graduation rates. But the backlash was fierce, and the politics could not hold, especially as parents and educators railed against “too much testing,” which came with few tangible benefits for individual kids. So the Every Student Succeeds Act all but obliterated the consequences part of “consequential accountability,” instead allowing states to do almost nothing when faced with chronically low-performing schools, and not even requiring them to issue school ratings anymore. To their credit, most states kept school ratings anyway, and about a dozen even had praiseworthy A–F systems. And then the pandemic struck.
Now we’re facing the start of a school year unlike any other in history, one that will feature “remote learning” for virtually all public school students. The only question is whether it will be three days a week or five. And given the high number of cases, and the lengthy delays in coronavirus test results, in-person instruction looks to be the exception rather than the rule, especially in metropolitan America. Meanwhile, state accountability systems are sure to be suspended, even if testing returns in spring 2021. So we won’t really have “schools” as we typically picture them, and we won’t have results-based accountability, either.
So here’s the big idea: At least for as long as the pandemic lasts, let’s return to the notion that districts should be held accountable for helping individual kids who are falling behind. Let’s get back to targeted programs for struggling students.
I know what some of you middle-aged policy wonks are thinking: Mike’s about to propose bringing back Supplemental Educational Services! This was perhaps the least successful aspect of NCLB, a Frankenstein destined to fall on its face from the moment it was born. The idea was that low-income students in low-performing Title I schools would enjoy the ability to access extra services of their own choosing—after school or on the weekends—to help them catch up. And these services could be offered by a panoply of non-profit and for-profit providers, along with the school systems themselves. In fact, originally the school systems were not allowed to provide the services if they themselves were considered to be “in need of improvement.”
It was a mess. States were supposed to set up systems to vet potential providers; most did a terrible job. Districts were supposed to give providers classroom space and let parents know that these services were available—but they had every incentive to play games and hide the ball because the payments came straight from their Title I allotments. A few vendors were sincere about offering good tutoring and such, but plenty just chased the money. Eventually it was allowed to quietly disappear.
So that didn’t work. But there was something to the underlying notion: get extra help to the kids who need it most, especially in the form of tutoring.
In the current context, there are couple of ways that Congress could immediately shift federal funding back to a focus on individual students. First, lawmakers could disallow “schoolwide” Title I programs for the current year. To tap Title I, and maybe new stimulus funds, schools would identify eligible Title I students (i.e., those disadvantaged students who are “identified by the school as failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the challenging State academic standards,” according to ESSA) and then spend these dollars on services designed to address their needs.
Second, Congress could funnel money into ESSA’s “direct student services” provision, which is a bit like the old Supplemental Services program, but run by districts instead of outsourced. This would likely go down easier with districts, given that it wouldn’t upend their spending plans and accounting systems in the same way that eliminating “schoolwide” Title I programs would. Either approach could mean more individualized attention, especially in the form of much-needed online tutoring, for the kids most at risk of falling even further behind. That would be an important contribution.
As a side benefit, it might also help to restore a constituency for assessments, as parents would see a clear benefit resulting from diagnostic testing. Shifting the accountability conversation from “identifying and intervening in struggling schools” to “identifying and providing extra help to struggling students” would be a win for ed reform advocates, now and in the future.
Let’s not fool ourselves: No school in the country is going to engage in serious “improvement” efforts this year. Nor will there be any “schoolwide” initiatives to help students reach high standards, given that there won’t really be “schools.” Rather than keep up the pretense of normalcy, federal policy should embrace the chance to focus on individual students instead.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise, Colorado’s two largest school districts, Denver and Jeffco, recently announced their intention to start the school year remotely. The sudden shift represents the third back to school plan for both districts in as many months: Back in May, both came out of the gate with a hybrid model, but switched to in-person learning in response to parent demands. With classes set to resume in a matter of weeks, the tortuous affair has students and families strapped into an emotional rollercoaster, careening from reopening plan to reopening plan, and wondering when the ride is supposed to stop.
What’s transpiring here in Colorado is a microcosm of what’s happening nationally. From coast to coast, school districts have been tasked with the unenviable job of restarting schools during a raging pandemic, when even a few months ago they could safely assume that the healthcare crisis would be more under control. With districts running into reopening roadblocks, a growing number of them—including ten of the nation’s fifteen largest—have not only elected to continue with fully remote learning, they’ve decided to do so at least through the first semester, which is really astonishing if you consider schools have been in virtual learning mode since mid-March. I recently spoke with a superintendent who told me his district was going to stay all virtual through January 2021, the rationale being this would get them past flu season too. To be sure, flu season usually lasts through April, but these are trying times.
Last April, my colleague Robert Pondiscio wrote, “It is a fantasy to believe that we can stem the effects of months without real school by ginning up instructional capacity on the fly in unfamiliar forms in the midst of a public health crisis.” The evidence is pretty clear that remote instruction is a poor substitute for in-person learning; it’s “education theater,” akin to the type of “security theater” we became accustomed to post 9/11—reassuring, yet falsely so. To wit, a recent study by McKinsey & Company estimated that if students remain entirely virtual through January 2021, students could lose up to eleven months of learning versus twelve to fourteen months with no instruction at all. If this is the case, why go through the histrionics? If districts have decided they just can’t open, shouldn’t they stay closed? Lay everyone off, bank the money (or give some of it to parents), and wait for a vaccine?
Of course, no one would seriously advocate for blanket layoffs during a three-headed crisis, so these questions are deliberately tendentious. It’s difficult to overstate the complexities involved in the safe reopening of schools, but landing on fully remote instruction as an answer for the coming semester reflects a widespread failure of imagination and creativity. To be fair, thirty-three states currently have infection positivity rates above what’s recommended for reopening, but what about the seventeen states that are below the threshold? Why aren’t schools there trying harder to make in-person learning work? If they can’t, why not provide direct educational assistance to parents?
Without getting into all of the back-and-forth on the merits and inequities of “pandemic pods,” why can’t schools formally create their own version of them? With the system’s support, pod creation wouldn’t be limited to those with the means and wherewithal to self-organize on social media. What’s more, schools and districts are uniquely positioned to connect interested parents with one another, especially those who might be struggling, but they’ve been sitting on their hands when it comes to helping out with pods or creating something analogous that would allow more students to return to school.
Another way to safely reopen schools would be to move as much learning as possible outdoors, something that most districts seem hesitant to do. Even though schools beat earlier plagues with outdoor classes, that lesson appears to have been lost upon today’s state and district officials. Some of the overheated media coverage on the risks posed by the virus has likely had a chilling effect. Yes, there will be inclement weather and students and teachers will have to bundle up when it gets cold, but this is still infinitely better than learning through the keyhole of Zoom. If anything, virtual learning should be the rainy-day backup to outdoor learning.
In online forums, many parents say they fear virtual learning will be a disaster. Despite this, we continue to tell ourselves that educationally effective virtual learning—an oxymoronic phrase—is the least bad option in light of the virus’s resurgence. It’s an understandable sentiment, and one that most teachers now ostensibly support. But no matter how many entreaties we make about the necessity for schools to step up and to get better at virtual learning quickly, our shared desperation and misplaced optimism won’t make it so.
To be clear, there’s a difference between the involuntary version of virtual learning many schools will be returning to and full-time online learning as delivered by those with expertise. By virtue of time, training, and infrastructure, the latter are far better positioned to offer robust and meaningful learning experiences than the school systems that were suddenly and haphazardly thrust into uncharted territory. Indeed, there’s a glaring shortage of out-of-the box thinking when it comes to the conundrum of school reopening, but it’s not too late for us to reframe the way schools are looking at returning and redefine what it will take to educate every student during this extraordinary moment.
Almost exactly twenty years ago, in August 2000, CBS News’s 60 Minutes aired a segment about a pair of charter schools—one in the South Bronx; another in Houston, Texas—founded by a duo of twenty-something White male teachers. To see it now is to catch a time capsule glimpse of a more earnest and hopeful time. Mike Wallace described the Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, as “a public school unlike just about any you have seen before.” He took tens of millions of Americans inside schools proving that with “hard work” poor minority children can perform “every bit as well as the most privileged middle schools students across America.”
KIPP co-founder David Levin described going door-to-door to persuade parents to take a chance on their unproven model. “We sat in their living rooms. We explained what we were trying to do and what we thought they'd get out of it. And they believed,” he told Wallace. “They believed.”
Today, Levin believes something quite different: That the institution he built, which has grown to 242 schools in twenty states serving more than 100,000 students, was built on white supremacism and anti-Blackness. KIPP recently announced it was retiring its slogan, “Work Hard. Be Nice” because its trademark phrase “supports the illusion of meritocracy…ignores the significant effort required to dismantle systemic racism” and places a value on “being compliant and submissive.”
If there’s any institution in America that could rightly claim to have made a significant effort to dismantle systemic racism, it’s KIPP. Far from “compliant and submissive,” the network has served as an emphatic rebuke to a complacent public education establishment that impotently accepts as inevitable that low-income Black and Brown children cannot perform as well as well-off white kids. Thousands of its alumni have been admitted to more than 200 colleges and universities, results that are hard to square with a view of meritocracy as “an illusion.”
The abandoned slogan and tortured rationale are a jarring reversal for both KIPP and the charter school movement, which was once defined by its refusal to accept poverty as an excuse for poor academic outcomes, but now seems bent on enshrining race as determinative. At the very least, they have been unusually reluctant to defend themselves or their record of student achievement, which stands in sharp contrast to the mediocre results of traditional public schools. A recent letter from Levin to KIPP alumni reads like the product of a struggle session. “As a white man, I did not do enough as we built KIPP to fully understand how systemic and interpersonal racism, and specifically anti-Blackness, impacts you and your families—both inside of KIPP and beyond,” he wrote. “It is clear that I, and others, came up short in fully acknowledging the ways in which the school and organizational culture we built and how some of our practices perpetuated white supremacy and anti-Blackness.”
KIPP is not alone. In recent weeks, mobs have aimed to tear down schools as well as statues. Instagram sites with names like “Survivors of Success Academy,” “Black at Uncommon” and “Black and Brown at DP” (Democracy Prep) have popped up, aimed at nearly every major charter school network in New York City. Disaffected staff and alumni posting anonymously have taken aim at every aspect of these schools’ curricula and cultures. One Black charter school advocate describes the social media site aimed at the network where he is a board member as “the workplace equivalent of revenge porn.”
The voices truly “silenced” and “marginalized” in New York’s high-performing charter schools are Black and Brown parents who continue to swell charter school admissions lotteries and waiting lists. A May 2020 survey of 15,000 parents at New York’s Success Academy, for example, showed 93 percent agreed they would recommend their child’s school to friends and neighbors; a mere 1 percent “strongly disagreed.” A similar survey at Uncommon Schools showed nearly identical results, with 91 percent parent satisfaction. A veteran Black charter school administrator takes seriously that some people of color—staff and parents alike—may feel “traumatized” by these schools, but also notes that the most vocal dissenters tend to be privileged young teachers who don't have children of their own and lack the perspective of their students’ parents. “The notion that my kids are safer in failing public schools than schools like Success Academy is beyond absurd,” he said.
Even more absurd: the notion that the parents whose living rooms Levin sat in, who believed him enough to entrust KIPP with their children, were embracing a system of “white supremacism” and endorsing “anti-Blackness.” They had hoped to find a refuge for their kids from unsafe schools and the soft bigotry of low expectations. Those hopes are no less valid today than they were twenty years ago.
Editor’s note: A shorter version of this article was first published by the New York Daily News.
One of the starkest differences between charter and traditional district schools is in the area of facilities funding. While districts nationwide raise tens of billions of dollars annually via state and local taxpayers for building and renovating schools, classroom, gyms, and labs—funding that is entirely separate from further billions spent on maintaining, outfitting, and staffing those facilities—charter schools began with no dedicated facilities funding or taxing authority and remain far behind their district peers today. But things are taking a turn for the better, as a new report from the Charter School Facility Center spells out.
The report takes a deeper look at charter facilities funding in the eighteen states that provide it, building off a previous snapshot of funding laws published by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools back in September. What we can see from this analysis is incremental progress amidst a complex array of funding plans.
The authors start by noting the three basic types of funding structures: eleven states and the District of Columbia fund charter facilities via payments supplemental to basic per-pupil aid; five states embed facilities funding in the per-pupil aid formula; and one state—New York—has a hybrid model that requires districts to provide space for charters as co-locations within district buildings or via rent payments in another building. (This unique and complex model is not analyzed further within the report.)
The funding amounts and formulas used to calculate them vary across states but are generally tied to student population and are varying fractions of the amounts provided to districts in those states—some more generous than others. In Idaho, that proportional relationship is clearly spelled out in state statute and has been followed over the years. In California, Indiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, the authors write, funding amounts “do not seem to be tied to anything and the rationale for choosing the amount is not specified” in law. The difference between statutory amounts and actuals in supplemental-funding states is shown via an eye-opening chart. Spoiler alert: Schools don’t always get what the law indicates that they should. There is less variation, it appears, in embedded-funding states, and the amounts provided in all states range from approximately $200 per charter student in Pennsylvania and Texas to over $2,100 per charter student for high schools in Arizona.
The next complicating factor is school eligibility for aid. These are generally statutorily-mandated and range from grade levels served, to school quality, to building ownership status, to student demographics. For example, Minnesota provides different amounts for elementary and high schools, five states will only provide funding to high academic performers, and several states provide different funds (or no funds at all) to renters versus schools who own their buildings outright. Florida and Arizona rely the most on eligibility factors; seven and five different hoops to jump through, respectively.
Finally, the report looks at use restrictions for facilities funding. Four states limit facilities funding to lease reimbursement only, four other states include mortgage payments and maintenance expenditures, and two states allow charters to spend it on transportation expenses…with restrictions. One state and the District of Columbia do not specify any use restrictions in their statutes.
Despite all of these complexities, the general trend for charter facilities funding amounts is upward. Every one of the supplemental aid states has increased its total appropriation in the years since adopting a per-pupil aid program with California, Florida, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia experiencing the largest increases. Overall increases have occurred in Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico, and Ohio, as well, but the trend has not always been a straight line. Ditto for per-pupil funding amounts, with a different roster of states experiencing some downturns, several flat years, and some upticks. Overall, however, per-pupil amounts for all states are heading upward. That has accelerated in recent years, the authors note, although analysis stops well before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
The report concludes with peripheral discussion of what these trends might mean, largely informed by other research reports far beyond the scope of this one. The overriding impression left is one of intense locality. That is, the structure of facilities funding in a state coupled with eligibility requirements matter strongly in how much any given charter school will receive—with uncertainty and swings from year to year baked in. Student populations also matter. But there are other unknowns which are unique and hyperlocal, such as a school whose building is paid for and in good shape. Eligibility for mortgage and maintenance funding would matter little for that school, but a lab or a new gym might be top of mind yet inaccessible. No district school would need to make these sorts of calculations due to the breadth and depth of their facilities funding, and charters have a long way to go before they are in that enviable position.
SOURCE: Jim Griffin and Brooke Quisenberry, “State Policy Analysis: Per-pupil facility funding,” Charter School Facility Center (July 2020).
2020 brings the decennial national census, and with that comes a whole host of challenges and changes brought on by the redistricting that follows—or as it’s sometimes known in its more questionable forms, gerrymandering. A new report from the Center for American Progress, authored by Alex Tausanovitch, Steven Jessen-Howard, Jessica Yin, and Justin Schweitzer, explores the ways partisan gerrymandering in four states affects children, their families, and their education.
On its face, redistricting is simply meant to ensure that state electoral districts comply with federal apportionment laws and are made up of equal populations. But it’s often used as a much more unsavory political strategy, in which case it’s referred to as gerrymandering. This involves drawing district lines to favor one political party—something both Republicans and Democrats have done—usually by “packing” (consolidating opposing voters into one district) or “cracking” (spreading opposing voters across many districts, thereby diluting their vote). This leads to strangely shaped districts that don’t necessarily represent the political views or affiliations of the people in a given community.
And according to CAP, it can also mean even less funding for schools. The authors use four states—Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—to make its case that gerrymandering affects school funding. In each, Democrats won the governorship and the popular vote in legislative elections, but Republicans still ended up with more seats. Governors then proposed certain budget increases for childcare and K–12 education, but these were cut or blocked by lawmakers. For example, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan proposed a $84 million increase for Michigan’s preschool program, but only $5 million was approved (however, it’s worth noting that Whitmer herself cut funding for public charter schools that same year). In Pennsylvania, inequitable local funding for school districts prompted Governor Tom Wolf to propose increasing state funding for low-income districts, which was shut down by the legislature. And in North Carolina, right and left polling firms found significant support among residents for increased funding for both early childhood and K–12 education, but funding increases proposed by the Democratic Governor Roy Cooper were cut in half by legislators.
There was indeed voter support for increased preK-12 funding in North Carolina, but in other states it may have simply been a debate over allocation of funds, and it’s not clear that the proposals in Michigan or Pennsylvania had support from a majority of voters. It seems the real clash of wills was between Democrats and Republicans, and not necessarily that Republicans wanted to slash school budgets against their constituents’ will. It’s also reductive to think that increased or decreased school funding is the sole proprietor of quality education.
A more poignant and persuasive problem, and one that the CAP report only addresses in part, is about whom is typically most affected by gerrymandering—minorities and low-income families. Racially dividing neighborhoods and voting districts politically disempowers disadvantaged families and contributes to low-income students being confined to underperforming, underfunded schools (the report only discusses this last effect). The issue is embroiled in so many others—racial disparities, income disparities, and poor allocation of funding. And while both parties are guilty of redrawing district lines to their favor, it’s true that right now Republicans are the most advantaged by it. And sadly, weakening the Democratic voting base means that these already underrepresented communities are even more underrepresented, as these communities typically vote Democrat.
The disparity between popular vote and number of seats won is certainly an issue to consider, but the solution to this problem is not so simple. CAP recommends voter-determined districts, which tie popular vote to the number of seats a party receives. Some states have opted for independent commissions to redraw lines, and others have placed varying levels of restrictions on who can serve on redistricting commissions.
The authors are right when they point out how gerrymandering “turns [our election system] on its head, allowing the politicians to choose their voters.... It’s not just an outrage to core principles of fairness; gerrymandering has real-world consequences across all the issues that voters care about.” One of these consequences could be an inadequate education for all students, especially low-income students. Yet another is evident right now as districts try to decide how to safely reopen for the 2020 school year—and what supplies they’ll need to purchase to do so—while many states consider cutting funding for education.
If gerrymandering really has filled state legislatures with representatives who aren’t acting in the interest of their constituents, then all students and teachers—especially those who may not have the option to attend virtually—are going to be put at risk. So as states across the country prepare to redistrict, it may be a good time for you to see what shape your district is and why it may have been drawn like that.
SOURCE: Alex Tausanovitch, Steven Jessen-Howard, Jessica Yin, and Justin Schweitzer, “How Partisan Gerrymandering Hurts Kids,” Center for American Progress (May 2020).
On this week’s podcast, Rob Kremer, director of government relations at Pearson, owner of Connections Academy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether school districts should be trying to build online schools on their own or should outsource the role to companies like his. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how charter school growth has affected local teacher quality and student composition.
Amber's Research Minute
Lucy C. Sorenson and Stephen B. Holt, “Charter School Growth and the Evolution of Local Teacher Labor Markets,” retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University (July 2020).

domain: sociology


text:
Roast Turkey & Cranberry Sauce
- 1 cup (120g) cranberries
- 1 tbsp orange or lemon zest
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 turkey breasts
- ½ tsp thyme
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 medium sweet potato cubed
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Season the turkey breasts with thyme, rosemary, salt and black pepper.
Put the turkey in a roasting pan/ tray in the oven and cook for 1 hour
Meanwhile, add ½ cup of cranberries, orange or lemon zest, maple syrup and 2 tbsp of water to a saucepan and cook on low heat for 10 minutes, and stir.
After 10 minutes, increase heat and cook until the cranberries burst. Add remaining cranberries and cook for further 2-3 minutes.
Once turkey has cooked for an hour, remove from oven and pour cranberry sauce on or around the turkey breasts. Place back in the oven for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, add sweet potatoes to a separate roasting tray. Drizzle coconut oil, sprinkle 1 tsp of cinnamon, add pinch of salt and pepper then cook for 25 - 30 minutes.
Remove turkey and sweet potatoes from the oven once they are cooked. Slice turkey before serving with the cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. Serve with your favourite veggies.

domain: food


text:
This one is a part of the challenge put forth by Sammi Cox . Here are the parameters:
This one was easy, lol. I love alliteration and assonance and employ them liberally in the longforms that I write. When I first saw this challenge i immediately thought of a poem I wrote before, which I will post later because per my usual, the word count was nearly double that which was required.
Here’s my take on sibilance. Enjoy.
So smooth as to seem creamy
His stare both ice and steamy
Silky sounds assuring dreamy
She declines no hesitation
Smiling, “Shug, I ain’t that easy.”


text:
Artist Bio: I was born and raised in Russia, in a family of artists. And can’t imagine my life without art, without creative process. From early childhood I saw as my father, the sculptor, cuts marble, wood, metal. In addition to sculpture, my father loved to draw sketches and outline with soft materials and draw graphics. My mother is also a professional artist and also a teacher of painting and art history. I appreciate this invaluable knowledge and experience that they gave me.
Motorcycle is for me a very interesting nature, an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Drawing of the motorcycle I’m primarily trying to convey his impression of the exterior motorcycle, it attracts me with its personality, unbridled energy and history. With the help of color and texture with oil paints – I convey the atmosphere of the city, the state of nature and the nature of each of my bike. I was particularly attracted by the old (old-school) motorcycles, they have a special charm, personality and energy, but on my paintings can be seen and modern models. I like that new and old (old school) coexist side by side in the modern world. Thereby maintaining a connection of times and generations.
I’m not a biker. I’m an artist, and using paint I try to reflect those emotions that are “deep inside”, and inspire me – a thirst for adventure, speed, adrenaline, drive.
"I am fortunate to have two of Ksenia's works displayed in my home. They truly capture the excitement of the riding lifestyle and are a constant source of conversation and complement." - Brian
Works in Process
The paintings below are currently being completed and will soon be available for sale through this site.
Contact us for pricing and availability.
Visit the Fueled Store for more of Ksenia's art work that is available for purchase.

domain: hobby


text:
3 solid tips from the word expert to influence and engage audiences.
Words are Currency. But if you’ve written a book and can’t understand why it’s not a bestseller, ask yourself if it’s time for a revision. When we write books or coach people through speeches I always say that selling – begins with the first word. In books and building speaker brands, the marketing occurs on the inside. In the content!
I approach book sales and marketing from the first sentence and how we ENGAGE, pull, lure in, romance, and sell the reader. We can tell a good story, sure. But can we get them to actually “do” something? The best books ignite the reader to buy into you, your company and your brand for a long time! Way beyond just one book.
Here’s a few tips and secrets I’ve perfected over the years!
Secret #1. A letter to the reader
With a book, you’ve got the chance to win buyers for life. That’s because reading a book is intimate.
Your reader is going to read your book in 1 of 3 places. The bed, the bathtub and the airplane seat. Which means they’re either naked or in pajamas or alone. Your reader is alone in an airplane seat in their own little cocoon above the clouds. Reading a book is unique. Your reader wants to know you.
Write a letter to the reader. I first did this in my book The Compass and the letters I received from all over the world were heartwarming.
TIP: Branding is about human psychology.
Don’t get too fancy in your letter to the reader. The point is to talk to him or her like a best friend by the fire. Tell them why you wrote the book. This creates an instant bond.
Secret #2. Begin with the end in mind!
If you want to market and sell books you’ve got to think ahead. Most ghostwriters view a book from a story or grammar perspective. I view it through the lens of salability and building your legacy. Any editor will fix misspellings. That’s minute compared to reader engagement and finding ways to sell your story.
Where will you sell the books? If you plan to create a massive wildfire of interest, you may want to plant books in popular places. For example: If you wrote a book about a road trip, I’d coach you to think of two or three tourist spots or restaurants along the way that you’d place the book in. Once you’ve identified them strategically – we ask that you mention them.
You can then send a case of books to the store or restaurant owner and ask them to place them for sale on the counter! Any small business owner is excited about being featured in a book.
Product placement is a long time well known strategy for success in building a business. It works.
Secret #3. Ignite! Ask the Reader to DO something
(And let the reader or audience know you want to hear from them)
Don’t just leave the reader hanging. Don’t just leave an information page at the back of your book with your website.
Tell them what to do!
“Send me an email right now! Before you put this book down, grab your phone and send me an email to tell me what you learned from it! ”
And then provide your email. Promote audience engagement by staying personal and connected!
TIP: Another fantastic way to boost reader engagement and attraction is through a contest. People love contests! Give them a call to action attached to a chance to win something.
Send them to your website or to your email. But give the reader an activity that binds them to you for life!
Let them know you’re available for hire, coaching, or whatever it is you’d like to sell. You may want them to pass the book on to someone else.
After a decade of creating great books, these tips work! Call or email us if you need help writing, editing or publishing yours!
To your legacy,

domain: literature


Something Good for Your Head [Import]
Reissue of previously unreleased 1966 album of West Coast, boy-girl & folk rock tracks by contemporaries of the Byrds & Jefferson Airplane, with members of Country Joe & TheFish, Grass Roots and Ventures/ Monkees session guitarist Jerry McGhee backing. 20 tracks, including the single 'Stranger in a Strange Land', plus 'Post-War Baby' & 'Pass This Way' (Backing Track) added as bonus tracks. 1999 release.
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your version of Flash Player.


text:
In Support of Professional Composers and Music Education
Composers and Schools in Concert is hosting a Holiday Benefit Concert on Saturday, December 1, in support of composers in schools programs. CSIC invites everyone to come enjoy an eclectic program of music performed by award-winning CSIC board members, student composers, and special guests from the Bay Area music scene. CSIC invites music teachers and professional composers to learn about their programs and discover how composers and schools are working together in support of music education.
Created by csicpress
1977 in Uruguay and internationally. Mariana has recorded dozens of records of songs, music for children and instrumental music. She has composed music for theatre presentations as well as for many educational videos of Uruguay, Brazil, the United States and Spain, receiving various prizes in recognition of her work....
Friction Quartet, recipient of the 2012 Berkeley Piano Club Emerging Artist Award, has established a reputation for edgy programming and exhilarating performance. Ever since their performance at the 2012 Hot Air Music Festival, Friction has been inundated with requests from composers to perform their new works for the string quartet medium....
1455 E. Francisco Blvd.
San Rafael, CA 94901


text:
After widespread implementation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among gay and bisexual men in Australia, population-level incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhea stabilized, allaying fears that PrEP would lead to a rise in STIs, a recent study found.
Rates of bacterial sexually transmissible infections stabilized among gay and bisexual men in Australia who received HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, according to a recent analysis of sentinel surveillance data.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, included 22,730 gay and bisexual men who had been prescribed PrEP between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2019, and were tested for sexually transmitted infections at least twice during that time. Data were from a network of clinics that make up the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood Borne Viruses (ACCESS) system.
“This study represents the largest group of PrEP users monitored for STIs over time globally, and gives us a unique opportunity to explore the impact of large-scale PrEP implementation on STIs in the community,” lead author Michael Traeger, a research assistant at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia, told Contagion.
During the observation period, the incidence rate of chlamydia was 43.7 cases per 100 person-years, the incidence rate of gonorrhea was 37.8 cases per 100 person-years, and the incidence rate of syphilis was 9.4 cases per 100 person-years.
Incidence of chlamydia fell from 48.7 cases per 100 person-years in July-December, 2016, to 42 cases per 100 person-years in July-December, 2019. Incidence of gonorrhea fell from 45.5 to 37.2 cases per 100 person-years. The declines were most pronounced in the first 18 months of the study period before stabilizing as PrEP uptake became more widespread. Incidence of syphilis increased from 6.2 to 9.8 cases per 100 person-years.
“Our analysis shows that over four years of PrEP implementation in Australia, rates of STIs such as chlamydia and gonorrhea have mostly stabilized among people who use PrEP,” Traeger said. “Importantly, the data highlight that PrEP implementation in Australia has not led to exponentially increasing STI rates, and that PrEP users are tested for STIs frequently.”
Overall, 44.5% of study participants were diagnosed with any STI during the study period. More than a third of all infections were among 5.7% of participants who were diagnosed with five or more STIs.
The study authors said the decline and then stabilization of chlamydia and gonorrhea could have been influenced by changes in the cohort population, with those at a lower risk of STIs initiating PrEP later in the study period. Criteria for prescribing PrEP also changed during the period, and high testing frequency also may have played a role.
“HIV PrEP is a highly effective intervention for reducing risk of HIV, and should be offered to anyone who is at risk of HIV or would like to be prescribed PrEP,” Traeger said. “Our data highlight that PrEP users are engaged in frequent STI testing, and fears about increasing rates of STIs following PrEP prescription should not stop patients being offered PrEP.”
Strengths of the study include that it captured an estimated 70% of all those dispensed publicly funded PrEP in Australia during the study period, long follow-up and frequent testing.
Limitations included that the ACCESS network may not be representative of all gay and bisexual men in Australia, individuals may have been diagnosed with an STI outside of the network, some patients may have been misclassified based on a system that inferred status of gay and bisexual men, and it is possible that some men may have received a PrEP prescription without initiating treatment, the study didn’t include behavioral or symptom data, and it didn’t include data on STI treatment.
“It will be important to continue to monitor STIs among gay and bisexual men in the context of further PrEP uptake, as well as undertake more research into new interventions for preventing STIs,” Traeger said.

domain: news


|1.||Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Hepatoma)
|2.||Neoplasm Metastasis (Metastasis)
07/01/1998 - "To evaluate the detection of experimental hepatic metastases at CT with the hepatocyte-specific contrast medium FP 736-03. "
07/01/1998 - "Detecting experimental liver metastases at CT with the hepatocyte-specific contrast medium FP 736-03."
11/01/1994 - "A hepatocyte-specific iodinated lipid emulsion, NRI 757, was used for detection of experimental hepatic metastases. "
01/01/1997 - "However, FP 736-03 proved superior to both native and iohexol-enhanced CT for detection of hepatic metastases. "
|3.||Experimental Liver Neoplasms
|4.||Body Weight (Weight, Body)


text:
- Verizon to install new macrocell tower
- Questioning Quinnipiac’s sustainability
- 2015 student commencement speakers selected
- University won’t increase security for May weekend
- A survivor’s story
- Breaking the silence
- One for the history books
- Drame: ‘high level’ of NBA interest after showcase
- A lasting impact
- Students to strut in sustainable dresses
Field hockey falls to Monmouth in NEC semifinals
Bobcats unable to score as they fall 1-0
The Bobcats were unable to take advantage of some key opportunities in the first half, as they outshot the Hawks 4-3 and held the advantage in penalty corners, 6-2. However, they remained scoreless at halftime.
Monmouth opened the second half on O’Dwyer’s goal just over a minute into the half. The Hawks continued to pressure Lewis, outshooting the Bobcats 13-8 in the final half and eventually winning, 1-0.
The Bobcats had one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory, playing in eight one-goal games, including a memorable 3-2 win against rival Yale that was decided in a stroke-off, a game-winning goal off a corner opportunity conversion with no time remaining against Lehigh, and a last-second goal scored to beat Harvard.
On Thursday at the NEC Awards Banquet held at Rider University, Quinnipiac’s Kaitlyn Notarianni was named to the All NEC Second Team. Megan McCreedy and Kim Cunniff were both named to the All NEC First Team. Kim Cunniff received the biggest honor for the Bobcats as she was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Year.


text:
CME’s August volumes were up by a quarter from the previous year as the US exchange continues to post record numbers in 2015.
Average daily trading activity in the final week of August reached 23 million contracts, an all-time high for the Chicago-based exchange.
Trading volumes have surged this year, and in August in particular off the back of a highly volatile month which saw US and European markets plunge.
As a result, CME’s Eurodollar segment surged with a 124% rise in options and 7% uptick in futures trading.
The interest segment was up 8% in total, with FX also rising 33% year-on-year.