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Part 1- The Ohio State campaign to ban student professor sexual relationships
Prior to Ohio State University (OSU) adopting a policy prohibiting student professor sexual relationships, OSU engaged in a lengthy process of evaluation of such a policy. It appears to the dankprofessor that the OSU evaluation of said policy is probably more detailed than any other university to adopt a prohibition policy. In addition, OSU has made available online key documents relating to this process. The dankprofessor is going to engage in a critique of some this material.
We will begin with the first detailed report from January 11, 2005. My comments will be in the text of the report and will be in bold. This post will be the first of 2 posts on this report. For the sake of accuracy, the text of the report is provided without any editing by the dankprofessor. If one is really interested in this issue, then it is necessary to plod thru this text. The text does reveal the banning agenda at the grass roots level.
Report To The President's Council On Women
From The Work Group Examining The University's Policy On
Consensual Sexual Relations Between Faculty And Students
This workgroup of the President's Council on Women's Issues has been charged by the Council to explore whether the Council should recommend to the President that the university re-examine its policy on consensual sexual relationships between faculty and students. In carrying out this charge, the work group has considered the following: Ohio State's current policy, the AAUP's current policy recommendation, the policies of CIC and benchmark universities, the rationale supporting the policies that strongly discourage but do not prohibit consensual sexual relations between faculty and students, policies of other professions, the climate goals enunciated in both the Academic Plan and the Diversity Action Plan, considerations supporting strict policies on consensual sexual relationships between faculty and students, the human costs for students of such relationships, and the costs for the university, particularly in terms of fulfilling the goals as stated in the Academic Plan.
This workgroup concludes that it is time for the university to re-examine its current policy on consensual sexual relations between faculty and students and recommends that a committee be charged to undertake this task.
Ohio State's Current Policy (Appendix 1)
The Ohio State University's sexual harassment policy currently strongly discourages consensual and romantic relationships between supervisor and employee or between faculty and student, but does not prohibit such relationships. The policy prohibits anyone involved in such a relationship from having direct responsibility for evaluating the employment or academic performance or for making decisions regarding the promotion, tenure, or compensation of the other party to the relationship. The policy does note that "these relationships may be subject to concerns about the validity of consent, conflicts of interest, and unfair treatment of other students or employees." The current policy does not explicitly require the reporting of consensual relationships.
AAUP's Policy Recommendation (Appendix 2)
The American Association of University Professors' suggested policy is similar to Ohio State's current policy-it discourages, but does not prohibit consensual sexual relationships between professors and students. Like Ohio State's policy, the AAUP suggested policy recognizes that consensual relationships between faculty and students "are fraught with the potential for exploitation. The respect and trust accorded a professor by a student, as well as the power exercised by the professor in an academic or evaluative role, make voluntary consent by the student suspect."
Report to The President's Council on Women From the Work Group Examining the University's Policy on Consensual Sexual Relations Between Faculty and Students The Ohio State University, 1/2005 8
Policies Of CIC And Benchmark Institutions (Appendix 3)
The 15 CIC and benchmark institutions take a variety of approaches to the issue of consensual sexual relations between faculty and students:
- . Three prohibit such relationships between faculty and students over whom the faculty has some professional responsibility and discourage such relationships with other students (Iowa, Indiana, and Arizona).
- . Five have policies similar to the OSU and AAUP policies-they strongly discourage but do not prohibit sexual relationships with students (Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin-Madison, Minnesota, and Texas-Austin). However, all five of these institutions, unlike Ohio State, do require that such relationships be reported.
- . Three neither discourage nor prohibit such relationships, but do require that they be reported if the faculty member has evaluative authority over the student so that that authority can be reassigned (Northwestern, Michigan State, and Illinois).
- . Two caution in their policies that such relationships can be problematic but neither discourage nor prohibit them (Illinois-Chicago and Purdue).
- . Two do not address such relationships in any way in their policies (UCLA and Washington).
Rational Supporting Policies That Discourage But Do Not Prohibit
The issue of regulating consensual sexual relations between faculty and students has been controversial throughout the country. Most colleges and universities have policies similar to that suggested by the AAUP and Ohio State's policy-such relationships are strongly discouraged but are not prohibited.
The arguments against stricter prohibitions center on (1) the right of the student as an autonomous adult to engage in a relationship that is not prohibited by law; (2) preserving freedom of association for both sides of the relationship; and (3) implementation problems-how does an institution enforce such a policy? A number of articles summarize the arguments against strict prohibitions on such relationships. For more information see Appendix 4.
Climate Goals Enunciated In The Academic Plan And The Diversity Action Plan Support A Re-Examination Of OSU's Consensual Relations Policy
The last revision of Ohio State's sexual harassment policy occurred prior to the adoption of the Academic Plan and the Diversity Action Plan. Thus, the policy has not been considered within the context of the goals outlined in those plans. Such consideration is now appropriate.
The overarching premise of the Academic Plan is that "The Ohio State University aspires to become one of the world's great public research and teaching universities." The Academic Plan acknowledges that the environment in which we teach, learn, and research is critical to achieving our goal:
Report to The President's Council on Women From the Work Group Examining the University's Policy on Consensual Sexual Relations Between Faculty and Students The Ohio State University, 1/2005 9
Academic excellence will be enriched by an environment that mirrors the diverse world in which we live. Within this environment, we will come to value the differences in one another along with the similarities, and to appreciate that the human condition is best served through understanding, acceptance, and mutual respect.
The Diversity Action Plan (June 2000) also acknowledged the importance of the university environment when it listed as one of its six objectives creating "a supportive environment that is welcoming for all individuals" both in and outside of the classroom.
In considering how to achieve the climate goals specified in these plans, one must be mindful that inequalities of power exist among the individuals who comprise our university community. Unequal power creates vulnerability to abuse of power that can interfere with creating a climate characterized by understanding, acceptance, and mutual respect which is supportive and welcoming for all individuals. This inequality of power inherent with "consensual" sexual relations between faculty, staff, and students jeopardizes the development of our ideal environment.
Of course, power inequalities are intrinsic to university life. One of the greatest power inequalities is between tenured and non-tenured faculty. Such a power differentiation is supported by an array of universities from the elite research universities to the lower status teaching undergraduate colleges and universities. Although there have been attempts to abolish or limit the numbers of tenured positions in any university, these attempts have been almost uniformly opposed by tenured faculty. Unquestionably, abolishing tenure and replacing it with contract lectureships, would radically flatten the faculty playing field in terms of power, but tenured faculty, such as the ones in this Work Group, do not want equality amongst faculty. And, of course, the Work Group does not propose any form of sexual prohibitions between faculty members, no matter how great the power differentiation is between tenured and non-tenured faculty. I mention this at this point since it is clear that the Work Group is not really interested in diminishing extreme power inequalities in the university. It would be hard for them to move on fellow faculty since it is taken for granted that faculty are adults, and one cannot attack the ability of faculty to provide consent.
Considerations supporting strict policies on consensual sexual relationships
One of the key considerations in determining whether The Ohio State University should adopt a stricter policy on consensual sexual relations between faculty and students is the issue of whether such a relationship can truly be consensual. For consent to exist, there must be the ability, the option, to say "no." If a student feels overwhelmed by the rank, prestige, or powerful position of the faculty member, then true consent may not exist.
Of course, in many sexual relationships outside and inside the university, many people feel swept away when they first engage in amour. So being overwhelmed for many is an intrinsic part of romance, love and sex. In fact, this feeling of being overwhelmed may be sought out by the romantically inclined. Are these persons not capable of providing consent? Should the feelings of surrender and ovewhelmingness be prohibited and sanctioned by any institution?
True consent also may not exist in situations where the student is so influenced by the power, status, or prestige of the faculty or staff member that the student consents to the relationship only because of the power, status or prestige, and absent those would not consent.
If absent the power, the person would not consent. An interesting idea, but totally a non-verifiable supposition. In any case, cross-cultural research has demonstrated over and over again that women in general terms are more attracted to men with more resources. Proposing the idea that women should not be attracted to the more powerful would call for a radical overhaul of heterosexuality. The writers appear to be blinded as to the the dynamics of heterosexual attraction. Of course, it may be that the consent may be given by some only if the other has power, prestige and status.
For example, Professor David Archard (2001) examines the notion of "exploited consent". Archard (2001) defines exploited consent as that which is "given because of the unequal nature of the relationship between two people". The less powerful person consents to the relationship willingly and voluntarily, but only because of the position the more powerful person holds. If the more powerful person did not hold that position, the less powerful would not likely have consented. Archard (2001) describes the concept within the context of professional relationships:
I would suggest three characteristics of professional relationships that are relevant. The first is an ethos of intimacy, closeness, trust, openness, and confidence. The second is the relative dependence and vulnerability of the client. The third is the esteem, respect, and admiration that the client has for the professional. All of these dispose the client to be more open and receptive to the proposals of the professional.
If, Archard (2001)asks, the less powerful person would not have consented to the relationship absent the position held by the more powerful person, can this be true consent?
Again, the answer to the question is unknowable for any particular person in said situation. However, given the nature of heterosexual attraction, unquestionably the vast preponderance of persons would consent, some quite enthusiatically. And I can't help but wonder how many would equally give up their right to consent. I do not think that Archard speaks to that situation.
Professors and students, particularly graduate and professional students, share the same three characteristics that Archard (2001) attributes to professional relationships. Thus, one can question whether students truly can consent to a sexual relationship with a faculty or staff member.
One can question in numerous contexts. Questioning is not the issue; prohibition is the issue. I can question the viability of marriage as representing the best interests of men and women; prohibiting marriage is another matter.
And let us not forget the framework that Archard and the writers of this report employ, it is the professional, and in this case the professor, who is proposing, always proposing. The student never proposes. None of the above can entertain this notion. Unquestionably, such appears to be a default assumption for the aforementioned. And interestingly enough, as a professor, I seldom proposed, proposals were almost always initiated by the female student who the aformentioned in essence hold incapable of proposing. In fact, I would go a step further, and state that consensual relationships would not flourish if there were not a significant number of females students who were at one time or the other attracted to one of their professors. The writers could easily get what they want if they were able to reprogram their female students in their own image. They may very well want to do this, but they are unable to do so. So they end up running a power trip on female students.
An imbalance of power is inherent in the teacher-student relationship, as well as the relationship between a student and a staff member. The student may defer to the teacher or staff person as an expert, a respected figure whose authority is unassailable. This power imbalance can be further exacerbated by the existence of other factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, international student/scholar status, command of the English language, and previous sexual victimization.
It's the same old rant; differential power precludes consent. And the ones engaging in the rant want to take away power from others so some university administrators (police) can control students and professors.
The age difference that might be encountered in a faculty/staff and student relationship might also indicate a vast imbalance of power based on the cognitive and psychosocial development level of the student. A number of models of development of students during the college years raise questions about developmental issues that might interface with a traditional undergraduate student's decision to engage in, and the experience of, a consensual relationship with a faculty member (Chickering & Reisser ; Sanford; Perry).
As they say, it is an age difference that might be encountered; of course, they know it might not be encountered. There are older students and younger profs at Ohio State. And they know that there are many older grad students, and they also know that the age difference between TAs and undergrads is minimal. No recognition given to the might nots, and there are many, many might nots.
In Perry's model, for example, most first- and second-year college students are found to be in the Dualism stage. The hallmark of this stage is a deferral to "authorities," who are assumed to know the answers to all questions. It is the role of the authority to teach the student the answers and the role of the student to soak up all the information held by these authorities. The "classic" authority at the university is the professor, who is seen as older, wiser, and the possessor of all knowledge in the field (at least all knowledge that is currently known).
If these students are in this "Dualism" stage, this shows the failure of higher education to facilitate critical thinking and independent thinking. Such should lead to educational reform, not to a sexual prohibition. After all, no matter how widespread education as a form of indoctrination, there are still some who remain or become independent thinkers and automonous adults. And there is simply no justification for taking away their autonomy because others are not autonomous.
For a student who is a Dualist, and who is invited into a consensual relationship with a faculty member, a normal and natural conclusion might be to assume that the faculty member knows best and, thus, that the relationship is desirable and good for the student. Additionally, the Dualistic thinker might believe that such an informed and esteemed professor must see something "special" in the student such that the professor would even initiate such a relationship. A normal and natural Dualistic response would be to defer to the greater wisdom and knowledge of the authority figure. This view of the position of the professor and the role of the student necessarily compromises the student's ability to analyze the situation at the same level as the professor. At this stage, the student is cognitively unable to process information at a higher level, which would allow for the questioning of the authority's position and the testing of various perspectives (Hornsby, 2004).
Again it is authority proposing; this default assumption persists. The student as a person cognitively unable to process information at a higher level could be applied to children but becomes a dangerous stereotype when applied to adult students or adults in general. Such has been in essence the rationale for book banning and censorship since the vulnerable reader cannot deal with this these writings; too vulnerable while the censors suffer, of course, from no such vulnerability.
In addition to relative cognitive development, we must not lose sight of other aspects of the "uneven playing field." We would be naïve to think that characteristics of race/ethnicity, class, gender and sexual orientation do not affect the relative power that individuals bring to any interaction. Many authors and educators have extensively examined how these characteristics affect an individual's ability to influence and be influenced, to exploit and to be exploited (Kivel, 1996; McIntosh, 1988; hooks, 1994).
I am not sure why gender and race is invoked here. Are they concerned with racial solidarity or female faculty and students united in a sisterhood which eradicates the student professor boundaries?
Power, and hence the ability to give uncoerced consent, is also affected by the international status of the parties involved. It seems obvious that a student, coming to the United States from another country, with family and friends perhaps thousands of miles away, might feel less powerful than a United States citizen. Furthermore, student visas are often dependent on academic status and enrollment in specific programs of higher education, creating a strong motivation on the part of the student to try to please those who have the power to permit or deny such academic status. In addition, the ability to communicate clearly and to understand the English language, as well as American cultural customs, can also impact a student's ability to recognize manipulative behavior and respond effectively. Wow! This is stereotyping run amok. And in these nativist times, such could be used as a rationale for banning foreign students who are not proficient in English and lacking in the ability to fend for themselves. Finally, if the student has a history of previous sexual victimization, this can influence the student's ability to recognize and react effectively against sexual exploitation. Lowered self-esteem, feelings of disempowerment and the adoption of faulty coping skills are some of the negative psychological and behavioral outcomes associated with sexual victimization. These outcomes, paired with increases in high risk behaviors are often seen in college students who have survived sexual abuse, and can negatively impact the student's ability to deal with the manipulative behavior of an authority figure (Miller, Moeller, Kaufman, DiVasto, Pathak, Christy, 1978; Finkelhor, 1984).
However, such is not unique for students. Professors can also be in the same category. As well as candidates for higher office. As well as for everyone. Let's bring in the sexual police to solve this problem! But if we bring the police or the sexual police who will protect us from them? Will the writers of the report step in to protect us from the protectors? Throughout the writers never see themselves as being on a power trip, and having a naïve faith in the good university administrators (authority figures) to use their power judiciously. I wonder if they now have faith in our president, President Bush, to use his authority judiciously granted him under the Military Commissions Act to detain whomever he deems an enemy of the state.
Personal Cost to Students and Impact on Educational Experience
In addition to the issue of exploited consent, a strong argument supporting a stricter policy is the cost to students who are involved in such relationships. Archard notes in his article that "what studies there have been suggest that the vast majority of students who enter into affairs with their lecturers suffer as a consequence. They do not subsequently report that they were glad to have had the experience. Quite the contrary" (Archard, 2001).
I will check out Archard's article. And in my next post I will present some citations that don't come up with the same result that Archard came up with. In any case, no one denies that in student professor relationships that there are happy as well as unhappy endings. What the banning advocates never produce are findings that students in these relationships end up unhappier than if they were in other types of relationships, such as in a relationships with fraternity members, or football players. In a weird way, I think by their omissions the writers end up implying that these suffering students would be OK in other sorts of relationships. For some, it may be the case, for others unhappiness may accompany them in all their relationships.
While many faculty and staff know of cases where a faculty/staff/student sexual relationship ended amicably, many of us also know of cases where the relationship ended in disaster with long-lasting negative consequences for the student, department, or institution.
Note that they view all these relationships as ending. I guess it depends on what one means by "ending". The writers must know that student faculty marriages are commonplace but such marriages become unmentionable in this report. And I find it interesting that the writers hold that students suffer from long-lasting negative consequences, no mention of professors suffering from such consequences. Apparently the writers simply cannot imagine a male professor being hurt. No empathy here. For them, professors involved in these relationships are robotic manipulators; they can never be hurt, disappointed in love. The writers consistently dehumanize male professors who are involved in these relationships.
In addition, the offices to which students turn for support are aware of some instances where particular faculty have engaged in a pattern of short-term sexual relationships over the years with a number of students, many of which have ended in disaster for the students. In some of these cases, the relationship did not appear to be the result of spontaneous attraction, but rather the outcome of the premeditated targeting, seduction and exploitation of a vulnerable student. At the end of such relationships, these students often experience severe emotional and psychological consequences, depression, and even suicidal behavior. Students may come to question their own academic accomplishments, wondering if their grades are the result of hard work and talent, or merely the "reward" for their sexual relationship with their professor. They may change majors or drop out of school altogether, sacrificing years of investment in their education and career.
Unquestionably, some instances of this do occur just as they occur in "civilian" life. Such is the nature of freedom. I would love a world where there is no manipulation, no rape, but such is not a rationale for taking away freedom, the freedom to decide who to date, who to marry.
Moreover, it is not just the student in the relationship who is affected. Other students frequently feel negatively impacted by "consensual" sexual relationships between faculty and students: Whether or not there is favoritism in awarding of grades, financial assistance, or special opportunities, there may be the perception or suspicion of favoritism when a consensual relationship is present. This perception or suspicion can impact the extent to which other students in a class or program choose to apply for such opportunities or the level at which they engage in their program or the class (Hornsby, 2004).
Thus, for both the student in the relationship and for other students in the class or program, the quality of the educational experience is negatively impacted by such relationships.
Note how they start out by stating that "other students frequently feel negatively impacted", then they end up with "other students" without any qualification, end up negatively impacted. In any case, even if there were not any student prof romantic relationships, student complaints would continue to be rife in the university re favoritism. I heard from students throughout my professorial career that so and so prof gave me a poor grade because he or she does not like me, he favored the X student and I am a Y. And one of the more frequent charges I heard was that so and so grade was received because my prof was a feminist or the student did not tow the feminist line.
In addition, in cases where the relationship ends badly, the faculty and staff, and even the reputation of entire programs and departments, can be negatively impacted. This can affect the ability of the institution to recruit and retain both students and faculty, as well as the ability of the institution to raise funding, both public and private, that is essential for continuing success.
Give concrete examples. Give specific examples from the history of OSU. If the reputation was effected, such means that this was known by a wider public, but the writers can provide no examples.
Finally, existing research on the prevalence and consequences of consensual sexual relationships supports the assessment, discussed above, of the damage students can suffer as a result. Existing research primarily investigates relationships involving a graduate student and a faculty member, including instructors, advisors, clinical supervisors, and research advisors. There does not appear to be any empirical research regarding consensual relationships between undergraduate students and university faculty or staff, excluding relationships between collegiate athletes and coaches. Almost all existing research focuses on consensual sexual relationships between female students and male faculty or staff members.
Studies by Pope, Levenson, and Schover (1979) and Glaser and Thorpe (1986) had similar findings, indicating that 17% of females with graduate psychology degrees had sexual contact with at least one faculty member during their graduate training. In the study conducted by Pope et al. (1979), one in four women who received a Ph.D. within six years prior to the study had sexual contact with an educator. Glaser and Thorpe found that two-thirds of these sexual contacts occurred before or during an ongoing working relationship between the faculty member and student. In a survey sampling female graduate students across academic disciplines, male faculty members asked 22% of graduate women on dates, and 60% of these women dated the faculty member. In this sample, 13% of the entire sample dated a faculty member at least once during graduate school (Schneider, 1987). Fitzgerald, Weitzman, Gold & Ormerod (1988) found that 26% of male faculty members across academic departments reported sexual involvement with female students.
OSU staff that counsel students who have been involved in such relationships report many disastrous outcomes for the students.
Of course, they find negative outcomes. Counselors do not counsel persons who feel great about their relationships. And here is a major problem with this report and that is that they never attempt to find anyone who feels OK about their relationships. They solicit counselors and others who try to help the grief stricken, but they never bring forward any persons for whom the relationship has made a major positive difference in their lives. Anyone can make a fallacious case by citing only examples in support of their position. The writers see the world through negative tinged lenses. Any positive relationships would simply be an aberration for them
This assessment is supported by research that indicates numerous negative consequences for students who have consensual relationships with university faculty or staff members. Negative consequences include feeling coerced or exploited (Irvine, 1997; Plaut, 1993; Schneider, 1987), feeling that there was a "conflict of interest" or ethical problem with the relationship (Glaser & Thorpe, 1986; Jacobs, 1991; Tabachnick, Keith-Spiegel, & Pope, 1991), emotional and psychological consequences (Plaut, 1993), a compromised ability to get the most out of the learning experience (Conroe & Schank, 1989; Plaut, 1993), negative repercussions for one's academic career after the relationship ended (Irvine, 1997) and in some cases, dropping out of the graduate program or transferring to another program or university, due to the negative impact of the relationship (Schneider, 1987). Other negative impacts on students were dealing with perceptions of favoritism from classmates, having difficulty establishing professional independence, and having disrupted the "ability to acquire those skills that are necessary to become an autonomous professional" (Conroe & Schank, 1989). Women who said "no" to social invitations from professors experienced negative consequences as well, such as receiving fewer opportunities for academic advancement (Conroe & Schank, 1989; Glaser & Thorpe, 1986; Irvine, 1997). Schneider (1987) found that 46% of women who were asked or pressured to date a faculty member "were fearful of jeopardizing their academic futures." Glaser and Thorpe (1986) asked women to evaluate their feelings about the relationship at the time that it happened, and at the time that they were surveyed. While only 28% felt coerced at the time of contact, 51% agreed with this statement later. Likewise, 36% saw an ethical conflict with the relationship at the time, but 55% agreed with this statement later. Ultimately, 30% of women who had intimate relationships with professors felt somewhat or very coerced, and 33% believed that the sexual relationship "greatly hindered" the working relationship.
It is important to note that several important gaps exist in the research. Existing studies sample women with graduate degrees, or women currently enrolled in graduate programs. It is impossible to determine how many women discontinue graduate studies after such a relationship ends. A few articles and chapters give anecdotal or case examples, but few use quantitative research, and those that do rarely look at impact. For example, no study asked women who were in consensual relationships if they received a lower grade, had slower academic progress on thesis or dissertation activities, or had other specific consequences.
In spite of the gaps in the research, however, both the experiences of our Ohio State professionals who counsel students as well as scholarly research that does exist show the costs to students of being involved in sexual relationships with faculty members.
It does not show "the costs to students"; it shows the costs of some students, and systematically avoids dealing with the positives of such relationships. The writers ignore empirical studies that are at odds with their stereotypes. Two studies will be cited in my next post.
And in their report they do not allude to any issue regarding civil liberties, the right to be free from governmental regulation of ones intimate life.
If you wish, you can write to me directly at firstname.lastname@example.com
Guest commentaries should also be submitted for consideration to the same email address.Barry M. Dank aka the dankprofessor™
© Copyright 2007
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|Click pic to go to original forum thread/share.
I still can't ship Crawl!, but I wish. I love the beat-up copy of the DMG, mine looks just like that.
|Click pic to go to original forum thread/share.
This guy started it: http://fightingfantasist.blogspot.com/2012/04/your-blog-is-your-eighties-fanzine.html. I decided to take on the challenge and not just stop at a cover, but make a full on zine using the last several posts from my D&D Blog (which is found here: http://dakdm.straycouches.com. All articles appeared there first.)
Some of the posts were plugs for Crawl!, so I thought I'd get clever and make them ads. I also took a plug for the DCC RPG PDF and made that an ad too. It took me few hours, most of it spent formatting text and re-doing some art so it matches a style that I like. I highly recommend comparing the original posts with the ones found in the zine. No way was I perfect, but the analog version was fun to figure out. As a special bonus, it features new art from Crawl! fanzine and an early version of an article that will be appearing in Crawl! No.2! Best of all, I'm making this available free as a PDF, in both a readable and printable format. I might also release it as an epub ebook, we'll see.
Any way, I present to you REV. DAK D.M., zine no. 8:
PDF for reading This will take you to the box.com site where you read it online or download. (I took down the embed, it was slowing down the site.
PDF for printing The "for printing" version is formatted (impossed) for double-sided (duplex) printing on Letter sized paper (A4 should work fine, too.) Just print double-sided, fold & staple!
If someone wants me to send them a printed version, I can do that! Dwolla, Paypal or Google Wallet $2 ($3 if you're in Canada, and $3.50 overseas) to firstname.lastname@example.com or just email me. Make sure you let me know what you're buying (DAK, D.M. No.8). Keep in mind that this won't be the highest quality paper (Crawl! will be printed on premium paper.) This will be cheap, but cool. Also note that there aren't any back issues. Issues 1 through 7 don't exist!


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A question of guest appearances (trivia)
Actors Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan play cameos in director Zoya Akhtar's debut film Luck By Chance (official website here) releasing this Friday, January 30 (the film also stars (haaye Allah) Juhi Chawla!). It is said that Aamir and Shah Rukh play themselves and do not share screen space. To the right is Aamir's look (source: the link above; thank you Pitu for sharing it).
Question: The two actors have indeed appeared together in a film. In addition to sharing screen space, they had dialogue exchange! Which film was it? (Hint: Read the title to this post.)
Answer: See comments. A warm digital round of applause for Pitu and Shweta! All comments updated 10:15 PM PST.
PS: I'm watching The Story of India on PBS as I write this (it's not the most factually correct, but it does have some remarkable High-definition footage from all over India), and they just played a couple of minutes from Mangal Pandey (2005)!!!
Mangal Ho.
12 comments:
Oooooooooo I think I know the answer! But 'pehle' tell me what is the bakshish for getting it right? Coffee hampers? ;-)
Answer is 'Pehla Nasha'! where Tijori boy was 'hero' (snigger)
Oo and thanks for linking to my blog! :-D
- Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Does "Swades" count? ;-)
- Tuesday, January 27, 2009
- Bhargav Saikia said...
This one's tough, really tough! I thought Aamir Khan has never done a cameo before Luck By Chance? Waiting for the answer to your question!
- Tuesday, January 27, 2009
- Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...
Heeh- the terrible Pehla Nasha- but there was 1 more Khan w/ them there- Saif Ali!
- Tuesday, January 27, 2009
- theBollywoodFan said...
Pitu and Shweta: You've got it, Pehla Nasha (1993) directed by (*drum roll) Ashutosh Gowariker it is! The prize is a loud digital round of applause! (Sorry, no coffee hampers, LOL.) Oh, and yes, Saif was in the mix too.
Ranya: Great try! Shah Rukh and Aamir did share screen space in Swades, but there wasn't an exchange of dialogue. You still got half of it right!
Bhargav: He's done very few, and none since Damini, also in 1993. This should be real fun.
- Tuesday, January 27, 2009
This was getting on nerves. I was thinking of this since morning. Thanks for such great trivia.
I was again surprised while reading about Swades. I was figuring out where did they shared screen space?? Then in a second got it. Great observation :-)
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
lol.. I actually didn't know the answer to this one at all. I knew you didn't mean "Swades", because, duh!, no dialogue exchange, plus a veryyyyy young Aamir probably didn't count.. but hey, don't I atleast get some participation points? 8-D
@Darshit, thanks :-D
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Dude I was watching The Story Of India on PBS too! Not yesterday but last week. Did you see the Somras bit where that firang guy is in Pakistan and they're giving him 'somras' to drink?? It was hilarious because according to most modern Ayurveda texts, nobody knows which genus it is from. The most recent guesses allude to Ephedra and Firang dude was not drinking that :-D I had a good laugh, it reminded me of Bunty aur Babli where they 'sell' the Taj Mahal :D
Oh, and I saw the Mangal clip ;-)
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
- theBollywoodFan said...
Darshit: I wonder why none in the media mention it with the Luck By Chance news. And wasn't that little tribute in Swades cool? I love everything about that movie!
Ranya: Duh is true! ;) Actually, I would've counted it if little Aamir had said something and SRK had responded to it!
Pitu: I didn't catch that bit. From the ones I saw, it was good but it certainly could have been better researched. The easiest one is that China has a bigger population than India, which a five year old in most of the world probably knows! These guys got *that* the other way.
Still, liked the effort. It's always great to catch up on the sights and sounds of humara Bharat. 'Once upon a time outside India', I've seen National Geographic documentaries on the Himalayas multiple times for the purpose, so this was a treat, LOL.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
- ajnabi said...
I had no idea! Yay for adding to my ever-growing brain space taken up by Bolly-trivia.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
- Bhargav Saikia said...
Yeah, I was just thinking about the Swades bit. Good one there!
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009
- theBollywoodFan said...
Ajnabi: Now you know! There's always so much Bollywood trivia to consume, I like your take on how it plays a role in increasing brain space!!!
Bhargav: Truly, a neat tribute. I have a couple of screenshots of it in the Swades review I'd mentioned earlier.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2009


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(Photo by Patti Harbison)
Most of the crowd that was in Gilbert PA on Thursday and Friday showed up today in Macungie PA for the Lehigh Valley Kennel Club's show. The competition has been brutal all week with top ten dogs lurking behind every crate and Barbara Dempsey Alderman's final today was no exception. She saw the Irish Setter, GCH CH Shadagee's Caught Red Handed, the Whippet, GCH CH Sporting Field's Bahama Sands, yesterday's BIS winner, the Boxer, GCH CH Winfall Brookwood Styled dream, the Smooth Fox Terrier, GCH CH Foxlorr Double Dare, Thursday's BIS winner, the Affenpinscher, CH Banana Joe V Tani Kazari, the Keeshond, GCH CH Karolina Bonnyvale Meant To Be, and a Pembroke Welsh Corgi yet to be identified. The Affenpinscher, Joe, continues to play giant killer knocking off another BIS, his ninth since moving to the US from the Netherlands earlier this year.


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IGS2013.pdf (21 MB) 16th IGS conference: 10-13 June 2013, Nara, Japan
Masaki Nakagawa, Marcus Liwicki and Bilan Zhu (Eds.). Recent Progress in Graphonomics: Learn from the Past. Proceedings of IGS 2013. Tokyo: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY PRESS. ISBN 978-4-904309-09-4 (206 pages, 46 extended abstracts).
DOWNLOAD http://forums.graphonomics.org/showthread.php?t=178
Edited by:
Masaki Nakagawa, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Marcus Liwicki, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany
Bilan Zhu, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Published by:
3-5-8 Saiwai-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183-8509, Japan
Phone: +81-42-367-6700
16th Biennial Conference of the International Graphonomics Society (IGS 2013)
Table of Contents
Welcome from the Chairs vii
Conference Committees ix
Reviewers x
Sponsors xi
Program xiii
Invited Presentations
Invited Presentation 1 xvii
Invited Presentation 2 xviii
Invited Presentation 3 xix
Session 1: Forensic Sciences
A feature based comparison of stylus and finger based signature characteristics 1
Joshua ROBERTSON and Richard GUEST
Wavelet Based Representation for Online Signature Verification Automatic Feature Selection vs FHE's Choice 5
Marianela PARODI, Juan Carlos GOMEZ, Marcus LIWICKI and Linda ALEWIJNSE
Man vs Machine: A Comparative Analysis for Signature Verification 9
Muhammad Imran MALIK, Marcus LIWICKI, Andreas DENGEL and Bryan FOUND
A Combined Pseudo-dynamic Approach for Off-line Writer Verification 14
Manabu OKAWA and Kenichi YOSHIDA
An Objective Look into the Effect of Legibility on Signature Simulation Difficulty 18
Avni PEPE and Jodi SITA
Proficiency of Forensic Document Examination Students Examining Static and Dynamic Electronic Signature Data 22
Heidi HARRALSON, Hans-Leo TEULINGS and Larry S MILLER
Session 2: Education
On the Use of the Sigma-Lognormal Model to Study Children Handwriting 26
Thérésa DUVAL, Remi CELINE, Réjean PLAMONDON and Christian O'REILLY
Children with Dyslexia: The Influence of Spelling Ability on Handwriting Execution in Sentence-Copying Tasks 30
Emma SUMNER, Vincent CONNELLY and Anna BARNETT
Handwriting Speed in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: Are They Really Slower? 34
Mellissa PRUNTY, Anna BARNETT, Mandy PLUMB and Kate WILMUT
The Association between Handwriting Practice and Lexical Richness: An Analysis of the Handwritten Output of Children aged 9 - 10 years 38
Annabel MOLYNEAUX, Anna BARNETT, Georgina GLENNY and Robert DAVIES
Development of the Handwriting Legibility Scale (HLS): an examination of Reliability and Validity 42
Anna BARNETT, Sara ROSENBLUM and Mellissa PRUNTY
Session 3: Historical Documents
Classification of Medieval Writings by New Statistical Measures 46
Ikram MOALLA, Adel M ALIMI and Franck LEBOURGEOIS
Combining Single Class Classifiers for Mediaeval Handwriting Analysis: Individual Feature Selection as a Clue to Scribal Hand Distinction 50
Claudio De STEFANO, Francesco FONTANELLA, Marilena MANIACI and Alessandra Scotto Di FRECA
MokkAnnotator – A System for Archiving Mokkan Images 54
Van Truyen PHAN, Masaki NAKAGAWA, Hajime BABA and Akihiro WATANABE
Image processing and shape repairing for historical character pattern retrieval 58
Akihito KITADAI, Keiichi SHIRAI, Satoshi INOUE, Noriko KURUSHIMA, Hajime BABA, Akihiro WATANABE and Masaki NAKAGAWA
Development of Quantitative Assessment for Brush Handwriting Ability 62
Wataru OHYAMA, Tetsushi WAKABAYASHI and Fumitaka KIMURA
Session 4: Handwriting Recognition
Exploring the Ability of Parts on Recognizing Handwriting Characters 66
Takafumi MATSUO, Song WANG, Yaokai FENG and Seiichi UCHIDA
A tool for ground-truthing online handwritten mathematical expressions 70
Anh Duc LE, Masaki NAKAGAWA
Graphical Gesture Commands' learning with the help of Customizable G34esture Menus 74
Peiyu LI and Eric ANQUETIL
Character Recognition and Human Localization with Subspace Classifier 78
Takashi HADA, Keisuke HIGA and Seiji HOTTA
An Efficient Radical-Based Algorithm for Stroke-Order Free and Stroke-Number Free Online Kanji Character Recognition 82
Wenjie CAI, Seiichi UCHIDA and Hiroaki SAKOE
A Proposal of Writing-Life Log and Its Implementation Using a Retrieval-Based Camera-Pen 86
Koichi KISE, Riki KUDO, Masakazu IWAMURA, Seiichi UCHIDA and Shinichiro OMACHI
Session 5: Neuroscience
Effect of Visual Stimuli on Training of Spontaneous ERD 90
Midori SAEKI, Yohei TAKATA and Toshiyuki KONDO
Reconstructing Electromyography from Electroencephalography during Myoelectric Control of a Closed Looped Prosthetic Device 94
Andrew PAEK, Jeremy BROWN, Brent GILLESPIE, Marcia O'MALLEY, Patricia SHEWOKIS and Jose CONTRERAS-VIDAL
Interdependency of vision and proprioception under visuomotor rotation 98
Miya RAND and Herbert HEUER
The extent of transfer following dynamic adaptation from bilateral to unilateral conditions varies as a function of training experience 102
Jinsung WANG
Handwritten CAPTCHA generation based on the Sigma-Lognormal model 105
Chetan RAMAIAH, Réjean PLAMONDON and Venu GOVINDARAJU
Age-related Changes in Regularity Statistics of Loop-writing Kinematics 109
Ida Maria BOSGA-STORK, Jurjen BOSGA and Ruud GJ MEULENBROEK
Session 6: Movement Disorders & Kinematics
Handwriting Features of Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders – Results of Triangular Evaluation 115
Sara ROSENBLUM, Jumana Aassy MARGIEH and Batya ENGEL-YEGER
Using the Sigma-lognormal model to investigate handwriting of individuals with Parkinson's disease 119
Arend Van GEMMERT, Rejean PLAMONDON and Christian O'REILLY
Handwriting sonification for the diagnosis of dysgraphia 123
Jeremy DANNA, Vietminh PAZ-VILLAGRAN, Charles GONDRE, Mitsuko ARAMAKI, Richard KRONLAND-MARTINET, Solvi YSTAD and Jean-Luc VELAY
Effects of Passive Arm Movement on Adaptation to Visuomotor Rotation 127
Takashi SAKAMOTO and Toshiyuki KONDO
Eye Movements During Word Writing: Single Words and Words in Sentences 131
Katelyn TAYLOR and Jodi SITA
Session 7: Signature Verification
Modeling Stability in On-line Signatures 135
Angelo MARCELLI, Salvatore FUSCHETTO and Antonio PARZIALE
Towards Signature Segmentation & Verification in Real World Applications 139
Sheraz AHMED, Muhammad Imran MALIK, Marcus LIWICKI and Andreas DENGEL
Online Signature Verification using Accelerometer and Gyroscope 143
Erika GRIECHISCH, Muhammad Imran MALIK and Marcus LIWICKI
Gender influence on ageing of signature verification systems 147
Joanna PUTZ-LESZCZYNSKA
Optimization of the Beta – Elliptic Model Features Estimation 151
Houcine BOUBAKER, Monji KHERALLAH and Adel M ALIMI
Evaluation of Intra-personal Variations and Interpersonal Differences of Japanese Hiragana Handwritings by Kernel Density Estimation and Earth Mover's Distance 155
Yoshinori AKAO, Atsushi YAMAMOTO and Yoshiyasu HIGASHIKAWA
A Method of Evaluations of Handwritten Lines Based on Qualities of Contours Using Wavelet 159
Takeshi FURUKAWA
Improving Binarization via Sparse Methods 163
Arie SHAUS, Barak SOBER, Eli TURKEL and Eli PIASETZKY
Analysis of eye hand interaction in drawing tasks ~For the development of handwrite-training device controlling visual information~ 167
Yumiko MUTO, Setsu KOMIYAMA and Takeshi MUTO
Where are the Characters? Characters Segmentation in Annotated Cursive Handwriting 171
Rosa SENATORE and Angelo MARCELLI
Linguistic Interpretation for On-line Handwriting using PerTOHS Theory 175
Sourour NJAH, Hala BEZINE and Adel M ALIMI
Manual extraction of primitives and its validation of Devanagari script for handwriting learner 179
Santosh KSHIRSAGAR and Ravi POOVAIAH
An interactive engine for multilingual video browsing using semantic content 183
Mohamed Ben HALIMA, Mohamed HAMROUN, Sami Ben MOUSSA and Adel M ALIMI
Author Index 187
HLT (Reach me by searching: NeuroScript, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA. Tel +1-480-350 9200)
Last edited by Hans-Leo Teulings; 2013-07-12 at 05:35 AM.
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The below document was obtained when I was at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City in Oct. 2008. Horace Adams was my 3rd great-uncle and I decided to transcribe it so a descendant could benefit from it's content.
"In the name of God Amen, I HORACE ADAMS of the town of Stafford County of Genesee and State of New York being of sound mind and memory and considering the uncertainty of life do therefore make, ordain, publish and declare this to be my last will and testament that is to say. First I give and bequest to my beloved wife BETSEY the use of my household furniture and the use of one third of all of my real estate during her natural life to be accepted and received by her in lieu of dower – Second I give and bequest to my niece JANE KING the sum of seventy dollars to be paid to her when she arrives at the age of twenty-one years – Third I give and bequeath to my son AMOS the some of three hundred dollars Fourth – After the payment of all of my just debts, and funeral expenses, I give and bequeath to my children AMOS ADAMS, EMILY BROWN, AMANDA KNAPP, HORACE ADAMS, GEORGE ADAMS, JOHN Q. A. ADAMS, SARAH JANE ADAMS, CHARLES ADAMS, MARY ADAMS and FITCH ADAMS all of my remaining real estate and personal estate to be divided equally between them, it being my express intention that my son AMOS shall receive the above legacy of $300 over and above any of the rest of my said children – It is my further desire and request that my said children shall manage to keep the real estate together as a homestead so long as the same can be done consistently with the intent of the parties. It is my further desire that said real estate shall so long as it remains together as a homestead be cultivated in a husband-like manner. And lastly I make constitute and appoint Leonard Foster to be executer of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills by me made.
In witness whereof I have hereunto all set and subscribed my name and affixed my seal the twentieth day of February the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Five."
Genesee Co., New York Probate records. Record of Wills, 1809-1911, v. 5: 376 (1840-1857). FHL Film #810481.
My blog has been changed to make it more appealing for those who have New England ancestors and want to see the area through photos. Things I'll include are typical white New England churches, libraries showing their genealogical collection, historical societies, cemeteries, war memorials, in general, anything to do with history.
For four years I've blogged mostly about my personal genealogy in New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire), New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. I still will, can't forget my own roots.
Please check out the labels on the right side for articles. The header tabs at the top are a work in progress.
Monday, October 11, 2010
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Kyle Thomas Busch aka:"Rowdy" or "Shrub" (born May 2, 1985) is an American NASCAR driver and team owner. He currently drives the No. 18 Mars/Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series, the No. 18 Z-Line Designs/NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs in the Nationwide Series, and the No. 18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra for his own team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
He currently holds the modern-era record for most race wins in a season across the top three NASCAR series with twenty-four wins, which he accomplished in 2010. On August 21, 2010, Busch became the first driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top three touring series in the same weekend (Bristol). Busch became the first driver in Nationwide series history to lead more than 10,000 laps. Busch also holds the record for the most NASCAR Nationwide Series wins with 50, surpassing Mark Martin's 49.
Busch is also only the second driver to ever win on his birthday, winning the 2009 Crown Royal Presents the Russell Friedman 400 at Richmond International Raceway, which was run on his 24th birthday. Cale Yarborough was the first.


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Kelli O'Hara, Jordin Sparks & More Set for PBS' A CAPITOL FOURTH
This July 4th, America's national Independence Day celebration will kick off the festivities for our country's 238(th) birthday with an all-star salute led by our country's favorite host, two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality Tom Bergeron (DANCING WITH THE STARS).
Broadcast live on PBS from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, the event will feature performances by: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Frankie Valli; Grammy Award-winning music legend Patti LaBelle; multi-platinum recording artist and actress Jordin Sparks; five-time Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Michael McDonald; country music superstar Sara Evans; singer-songwriter Kendall Schmidt from Big Time Rush and HEFFRON DRIVE; and five-time Tony Award nominee and Broadway star Kelli O'Hara; with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly. In celebration of the 200(th) anniversary of our national anthem, five-time Academy Award-winning composer John Williams will conduct a special new arrangement for orchestra and chorus of the "Star Spangled Banner" with the National Symphony Orchestra, The Joint Armed Forces Chorus, the Choral Arts Society of Washington and the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets.The 34th annual broadcast of A CAPITOL FOURTH airs on PBS Friday, July 4, 2014 from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. ET before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, as well as to our troops serving around the world on the American Forces Network. The program can also be heard live in stereo over NPR member stations nationwide. With twenty cameras positioned around the city, including the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument, viewers are front and center for the greatest display of fireworks anywhere in the nation during this top-rated extravaganza. Capping off the show will be a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" complete with live cannon fire provided by the United States Army Presidential Salute Battery, an audience favorite and A CAPITOL FOURTH tradition.
Also participating in the event will be the U.S. Army Ceremonial Band, Members of the Armed Forces carrying the State and Territorial Flags and the Armed Forces Color Guard provided by the Military District of Washington, D.C.The program is a co-production of Jerry Colbert of Capital Concerts and WETA, Washington, D.C. Executive producer Jerry Colbert and producer Michael Colbert have assembled an award-winning production team that features the top Hollywood talent behind some of television's most prestigious entertainment awards shows. This includes: Emmy award-winning producer Walter C. Miller, whose credits include the Grammy Awards and COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS; award-winning director Paul Miller whose credits include THE Country Music Awards and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE; and veteran television writer Jon Macks whose credits include the TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, The Academy Awards and the EMMY AWARDS. About Capital Concerts
Capital Concerts is the production force behind two of television's longest-running and highest-rated live programs commemorating America's most important holidays. THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT, the nation's tribute to our men and women in uniform, and A CAPITOL FOURTH, our country's biggest birthday party, have become American traditions that have consistently ranked among the highest rated programs on PBS over the past decade. The holiday specials have been honored with over 70 awards including the New York Film Festival Award, the Telly Award, the Golden Cine Award, the Videographer Award, the National Education Association Award, the Aurora Award, the Christopher Award, the Communicator's Award, the AXIEM Award, the Omni Award and the Writer's Guild of America Award. Underwriters
A CAPITOL FOURTH is made possible by grants from The Boeing Company, the National Park Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Department of the Army, PBS and public television stations nationwide. Air travel is provided by American Airlines. SOURCE Capital Concerts
Photo courtesy of PBS


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Last time I wrote about a F&SF giveaway issue, I complained about the magazine's nonfiction content, and specifically its datedness. What was the point, I asked, of reviewing Ian McDonald's River of Gods months after it had been nominated for the Hugo as if the magazine's readers had never heard of it? It was pointed out to me, however, that there is a contingent of subscribers who are not online, and for whom F&SF is their only source of genre criticism. These people might very well have been hearing about River of Gods for the first time, as it had only recently been published in the US.
Fair enough, though for the sake of these readers I wish the magazine's book reviews were a little more interesting and thoughtful, but what is to be made of Lucius Shepard's film column? In an issue sent out in August, to be sold in bookstores in the fall, Shepard turns his focus to the summer phenomenon of comic book films, and decides to write about... Iron Man, which he derides for being silly and incoherent. I realize that there are probably lead time issues here that I'm not privy to, but you can't talk about comic book films at the end of the summer of 2008 without talking about The Dark Knight--a fact which is powerfully brought home by Shepard's numerous unfavorable comparisons between Iron Man and The Dark Knight's prequel, Batman Begins. Shepard has nothing to say about Iron Man that hasn't been said countless times already, including in many venues which even offline F&SF readers will have been likely to see, and in addition his review is mean-spirited, trotting out a fanboy caricature who lobs low-ball arguments--you don't get it man, you're out of touch!--about Iron Man's merits for Shepard to knock aside, so that even I, who didn't think much of the film, found myself wishing him off my side. Given F&SF's long lead time I simply don't understand why the magazine bothers to write about current films, especially if its reviewer has so little to add to the discussion.
Still, nonfiction isn't the reason for F&SF's existence, and once I was done puzzling over Shepard's movie column I happily turned to the stories in the October/November issue, only to be puzzled once again. A few of the stories here are exercises in tone, effective but ephemeral. Carol Emshwiller's "Whoever" is narrated by a woman who wakes up with no memory, and spins a story to explain her circumstances, venturing further and further into the realm of the fantastic as she does so. Steven Utley's "Sleepless Years" is narrated by a suicide who is being used as a test subject in experiments in reanimation. Terry Bisson's "Private Eye" is an erotic piece extrapolating from the webcam phenomenon to a world in which one can, for a fee, see through another person's eyes. All are well-written and successfully put us in their characters' heads, but that's really all they amount to. Less impressive are the two humorous pieces in the magazine, Albert E. Cowdrey's "Inside Story" and Scott Bradfield's "Dazzle Joins the Scriptwriter's Guild" (a third piece, a short-short by Laurel Winter titled "
Michael Swanwick and Tim Sullivan are almost unique in the issue for trying to tell actual stories rather than striking a single emotional tone, the former with the short story "The Scarecrow's Boy" and the latter with the novelette "Planetesimal Dawn." Sullivan's story is good old fashioned SF, taking place in a mining colony on an asteroid, and paying great attention to the realities of survival in space. The story kicks off when a scientist and security officer on routine patrol become stranded when their vehicle malfunctions, and have to scramble to avoid the boiling dawn, then complicates when the two fall through a temporal anomaly. I feel a little guilty saying this, since stories of this ilk are, allegedly, not only the meat and potatoes of science fiction its bricks and mortar, the kind of hardcore, scientifically oriented stories that are at the foundation of the genre, but "Planetesimal Dawn" is boring. The characters are crudely drawn--the defeated scientist, the plucky security officer--and Sullivan's focus on mechanics (of the temporal anomaly, of the alien mining facility the characters find once they traverse it, of the alien spacecraft one of them visits) drowns out any urgency or sense of wonder his story might have elicited. It comes off like a mission report rather than a story. Swanwick's story, in which obsolete robot servers put out to pasture rally to save the life of a lost child, might have gone to the other extreme, and been slathered in sentiment, but, perhaps because it's such a short piece and perhaps because the title character is enjoyably down to Earth, he pulls it off, and even makes us care for his characters, who are trying to make moral decisions within the imposed framework of their programming.
I was interested in the October/November issue of F&SF, however, because of four names--King, Reed, Rickert and Ryman. The first is something of a surprise on a F&SF cover. If you look at the publication credits in King's upcoming short story collection, you'll find high-paying, prestigious mainstream markets like The New Yorker and The Paris Review. According to the introduction to King's story, "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates," he was inspired to submit to the magazine after reading it regularly as part of his duties as guest editor of Best American Short Stories 2007 and being impressed with its content, but were I feeling uncharitable I might wonder if he didn't realize that he had a throwaway piece on his hands which Esquire wouldn't bother with. "Bargain Rates" is, as its introduction calls it, a Twilight Zone piece--something weird happens, the end. It's not bad, but not nearly as good as King's short stories can be (and in recent years I've grown more and more convinced that he is at his best in the short form), and in its language in particular feels almost lazy--as if someone were imitating King's folksy, conversational style and falling a little short of the real thing.
More disappointing is M. Rickert's "Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account," but then I expect a great deal from Rickert, who has a knack for combining present day events with SFnal speculation and a possibly unhealthy dollop of cynicism about human nature. She does all that here, imagining a world in which abortion has been made retroactively punishable by death, and in which women are rounded up by the hundreds and thousands to pay for abortions performed years or even decades ago. As the title indicates, the story is narrated by the daughter of one of these condemned women, who has fled rather than face her punishment, to her family's everlasting shame. It's an effective piece, as, indeed, how could it help being? Mass executions! Gross miscarriages of justice! Institutionalized misogyny! Young women brainwashed into a Handmaid's Tale-esque attitude of seeing themselves as nothing but walking wombs! It is also, however, shamelessly manipulative and unsubtle, a piece aimed only at people who agree with its politics, and one which encourages them to sneer rather than think.
Robert Reed has been churning out short stories at the rate of several per year for some time now (which leads me to wonder whether it isn't time for a single-author collection). He's a consistent presence on Hugo and Nebula shortlists, and justifiably so--his novella "A Billion Eves" was one of my favorite short stories last year--but with the sheer bulk of material he produces it stands to reason that there are also plenty of also-rans in the mix. The novelette "Visionaries" is, sadly, one of these. It's also an oddly metafictional piece, narrate by a science fiction author who occasionally produces pieces which don't even seem to be properly stories, but glimpses into the life of a wholly unremarkable man who happens to live several decades in the future. In short order, the writer is contacted by a shadowy group within the SFWA, who pay top dollar for what they believe to be a genuine glimpse of the future. "Visionaries" touches on many of the hot-button topics that regularly crop up in the SF blogosphere--the declining fortunes of SF magazines, the internal politics of the SFWA, associate members of that organization with hardly any publishing credits to their name who nevertheless turn up at every official gathering, resentment of new writers and their media savvy, what may very well be a dig at free online fiction, and, of course, the capacity of science fiction to actually predict the future. Though there is a more accessible sub-plot that runs through the story, in which the narrator tries to affect the life of one of the people he glimpses in his visions, it is overpowered by what feels like a succession of inside jokes with very little substance. That said, I think I'm going to have to give "Visionaries" a little more thought, because I can't help but suspect that it does have a larger point that I'm missing.
Geoff Ryman is less prolific than Robert Reed but a great deal more dependable--I don't think I've ever read a poor or uninteresting piece of short fiction by him. His novelette "Days of Wonder" is no exception, an utterly original take on the post-apocalyptic, post-human future familiar from so many other stories. The narrator is a horse, and yet not a horse--a genetically engineered creature whose species was created just prior to humanity's destruction along with many other altered animals, who possess sentience but are also ruled by their biological nature, at least until the narrator's throwback friend, Leveza, starts questioning the natural order of things--why should the old and sick be sacrificed to predators on migration? Why can't truce be made with those predators? Why can't technology be used to prevent the need for migration at all? The result feels at first like a Tiptree-esque story about intelligence and free will at war with, and ultimately overpowered by, biological determinism, but this is Geoff Ryman, and if there's anything more predictable than that his stories will be good it is that they'll have a happy ending. Fortunately, the ending of "Days of Wonder" feels earned, not least by the clever SFnal mechanism driving the story and its gradual revelation, which are both far too much fun for me to spoil here, but also by Ryman's refusal to draw the kind of stark division between human and animal nature that Tiptree so often did. When Leveza is cast out of the group, animal instinct is mingled with human emotion, and with the all too human tendency to enforce conformity and, when pushed too far, to cast out anyone different or rebellious. "Days of Wonder" ends up asking a lot of questions about both human and animal behavior, pointing out that the two are a great deal more similar than we'd like to think while still holding out the possibility of rising above our worst impulses--whether biological or emotional.
Fantasy & Science Fiction's October/November issue is worth reading for Ryman's story, though you'd probably get as much out of it if you skipped the rest of the issue and just read this one piece. It's clear that the issue was intended to draw in new readers and potential subscribers--it marks the beginning of F&SF's 60th anniversary celebration, and clearly the big guns were trotted out just for this purpose. It's a shame, therefore, that the authors in question seem to have, one by one, failed to live up to the promise of their names and bibliographies.


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2006. ESRI. Nepal World Gazetteer Locations is a point theme representing the locations and proper names for map features in Nepal. The gazetteer includes attr... ESRI.


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Thanks to all that participated in the giveaway. You all had great photos and responses.
And the Winners are::::
1st place............ sharpshooter
2nd place............dutigaf
3rd place............ shoot n scoot
4th place............ gene t
5th place............ fritz
All winners should PM me their addresses to send the prizes to.
Again from the entire Gunco staff thanks to all that participated.


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By the GMD? Later, we'll get to that later.
Zac Efron covers the new issue of Details and it's another great interview and article from the magazine, managing to manage the requisite celebrity asskissing with some citizen speak, like this hilarious line from the writer on Efron's lack of influence with the male movie-goer:
Efron's also aware that although there are scores of young girls who will, for the moment, buy tickets for any project he does regardless of its quality, there are at least as many guys, like my thirtysomething movie-junkie friend, who had a hard time accepting Efron in arguably the best movie he's made, Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, because they found themselves wanting to "punch his pretty f-cking face in."
Now imagine Zac's publicist reading that last line. Or Zac himself.
Well, in all fairness, and to Zac's credit, he actually concedes wholeheartedly that he is not only UNcool, but also tries too hard. His admission of his earnestness is actually rather endearing to me. At least he's not fronting to the readers of Details that he's some kind I don't give a sh-t badass. Nope, Zac owns the fact that his hand will always be the first to shoot up in class when teacher asks a question. Unless of course Taylor Lautner is in the room. Better a boy who wears his earnestness than one who jostles about like he's some kind of melancholy artist without the required soul damage to authenticate it. I guess.
It's a good read, better than the usual star profile, and there's an amazing GMD moment to go along with it. Apparently one day, Tom Cruise, THE Tom Cruise, chased down Zac Efron, little Zac Efron, and, like, practically begged to come over and ride bikes.
I'm telling you.
But Cruise recently flagged Efron down in the lobby of CAA. "You ride motorcycles?" Cruise asked him. Alas, he didn't. "You wanna learn how?" Cruise invited him out to his house, taught him how a motorcycle engine works, showed him the hangar with his dozens of pristine bikes—including the Triumphs he rode in the Mission: Impossible movies. Efron was allowed to ride a pedigree-less dirt bike. "He made so many great movies," Efron says of Cruise. "I get the feeling that he works really, really hard. It didn't come from swagger with him. It came from dedication, hard work. You see it in the way he physicalizes everything. You watch The Last Samurai and that's him! He's really doing that." I ask Efron why he supposes Cruise bothered reaching out to him. "I don't know," he says. "I don't even want to know. It's just so cool that he gave a sh-t, the fact that he cared at all. No one else did that."
I know. I can hear Oprah. Like instead of criticising the freakiness of the moment, I'm supposed to eat my bitch and go off about how kind and gracious the GMD is in his treatment of the new guard, what a magnanimous gesture, what a sweet way to welcome an emerging star.
It's weird. And gross. Tom Cruise is f-cking weird and gross. And And I'm embarrassed for him.
Why does Tom Cruise need to be stalking pretty boy actors and bringing them to his house to play with his toys?
And you'll love the part about Bryan Singer at the end too. This writer is brilliant. Click here for more of Zac from Details. A video of the photoshoot is below too.
Also attached – Vanessa Hudgens performed at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend in a production of Rent. Zac was in the audience.


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Here's the latest article from the Herbs site at BellaOnline.com.
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Safeway to Unveil Latest Design for College Avenue Store
Safeway will unveil the latest design for its College Avenue store April 29 at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, even as neighbors complain that they are being left out in the cold. -more-
Safeway will unveil the latest design for its College Avenue store April 29 at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, even as neighbors complain that they are being left out in the cold. -more-
In 2008, reports Paper Cuts, a weblog that tracks U.S. newspaper closings and staff reductions cost, the country's papers lost at least 15,859 jobs. -more-
The last three suspects in a home-invasion robbery and torture case in the Berkeley hills last month have turned themselves in, Berkeley police spokesman Andrew Frankel said today. -more-
"Determination" was the word-of-the-day at Malcolm X Elementary School Monday, the eve of Cesar Chavez's 82nd birthday. -more-
State budget cuts will force Berkeley Unified School District to cut more than $1 million from its adult education program. -more-
A two-hour power outage dimmed the lights for 7,393 Berkeley residents and businesses Thursday night, starting at 10 p.m. and ending just before midnight. -more-
Citing a sudden rise in accidents involving Berkeley Unified School District students, Superintendent Bill Huyett announced at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday that the district would work with traffic safety groups to educate children about bicycle and pedestrian safety issues. -more-
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced the appointment of Paul D. Seeman of Berkeley to a judgeship on the Alameda County Superior Court bench. -more-
Planning commissioners are scheduled to complete their final revisions to the Downtown Area Plan during their meeting Wednesday night, April 1. -more-
City planning staff have dropped a bombshell on anxious West Berkeley activists: a proposal that would double the height of new buildings and potentially open the area to office complexes. -more-
Magna means "big" in Latin, but the adjective doesn't apply to the value of Magna Entertainment Corporation—which has dropped to pennies a share—nor to its annual financial report. -more-
A letter to the editor in last month's Jacket, Berkeley High's bi-monthly student newspaper, questioning grading practices at the high school, has created much controversy and prompted Berkeley Unified School District officials to look into adopting a consensus for grading procedures. -more-
With almost a complete lack of controversy or public dissent, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a staff recommendation Tuesday night that will raise most parking citation fines $5 across the board, but significantly higher on University of California football game days. -more-
Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz said Tuesday night that his office has asked for the return of more than a quarter of a million dollars Berkeley claims it is owed by office supply giant Office Depot. But to get the money, Kamlarz and the city are going to have to stand in a long line of government officials from around the country. -more-
The Parkway Theater is dark once again. Oakland's beloved neighborhood movie theater shut its doors Sunday, March 22, possibly for good. -more-
A federal judge has ordered a halt to work on a $113 million computer lab at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), saying UC officials may have tried to evade federal environmental law. -more-
The Planning Commission rejected a suggestion from one of its own that would have scaled down Shattuck Avenue development along the thoroughfare's southern stretch in the new downtown planning area. -more-
Berkeley's Washington ties grew stronger with the March 20 announcement in Washington by President Barack Obama that Energy Secretary Steven Chu has picked Steve Koonin as undersecretary for science. -more-
Challenger Sophie Hahn outspent Laurie Capitelli in the battle for the Berkeley City Council's District 5 seat, shelling out $57,896.17 to the incumbent's $43,023.05. -more-
Workers are busy putting the finishing touches on downtown Berkeley's two newest buildings, the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza. -more-
The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce has removed CEO Ted Garrett from office and is seeking a new candidate for the position, chamber officials announced last week. -more-
The Zoning Adjustments Board is asking Berkeley's Thai temple to keep the noise down. -more-
The United States Marine Corps Officer Selection Office in downtown Berkeley came under attack once again last week, when a group of vandals broke the building's windows with sledgehammers and splashed them with red paint. -more-
Oakland Police have arrested two young men who robbed four students at gunpoint at Oakland Technological High School Tuesday morning, March 24. -more-
An Alameda County Superior Court judge raised the bail for Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, charged with murdering UC Berkeley nuclear engineering student Chris Wootton last May, to $2.5 million at a bail motion hearing at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, Tuesday, March 24. -more-
The NASDAQ stock exchange formally announced Wednesday, March 25, that it was delisting the stock of Magna Entertainment Corp. -more-
Jack's cocktail -more-
Dorothy-Ann Sloan, a resident of Berkeley for more than six decades, passed away March 5. She was born in 1925 in the small town of Yale, Oklahoma, and raised there through the economic depression of the 1930s. At the height of World War II, she moved with her parents and brother to the West Coast and eventually Berkeley. Soon after, Dorothy-Ann enrolled at the University of California and went on to receive both an associate arts degree in 1945, and a bachelor of arts degree in 1953. She was also recognized as an honor student. -more-
A Southern lady arrived in Berkeley via Memphis in 1961, with three children, and her first husband, Dr. Marvin Wolff. She still wore hats, donned gloves, and left calling cards when making social visits. She spent several months complaining about Berkeley before she realized that coming here was her own freedom ride. -more-
A fifth suspect in a Berkeley hills home-invasion robbery and torture case from February turned himself in to Richmond police, Berkeley police spokesman Andrew Frankel confirmed Tuesday, March 24. -more-
Eras nearly forgotten, episodes well remembered, the highlights of neighborhoods throughout town, and the coming "green" future are all part of the panoply of history presented by the spring 2009 Berkeley Historical Society walking tour series. -more-
After my March 12 Daily Planet article on spring garden shows, tours, and sales in the Bay Area, readers have suggested a mention of some additional events taking place from this weekend through May. -more-
MARCH 19 EDITORIAL -more-
A few days ago I had the pleasure of taking three Italian men from Parma to view some community gardens and a school garden. They were in Berkeley to see what the Bay Area does with its trash, as they are opposing their city council's desires to build a large incinerator. As fathers of small children, they are concerned about their health, as well as the health of the planet. They were impressed to see our recycling efforts, and learned that our garden trimmings and food scraps are recycled into rich compost, which is then dug into gardens all across town. Although the United States has only 23 incinerators left still working (and none has been built in the past 15 years), Italy has 50 incinerators, and 50 more proposed! Italians have just begun to organize to fight the incinerator owners and the Mafia, who run all the trash collections in Sicily and much of the rest of Italy. -more-
As an Oakland-based preservationist, I've always been amazed by the political savvy of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), of which I'm a member. The organization even defeated the gutting of Berkeley's landmark ordinance in the recent election. -more-
I have been thinking for days about a response to the editorial cartoon featured in the March 5-11 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet about the Skirt Rally that took place on UC Berkeley's campus. -more-
When four Oakland police officers were killed last weekend, Rep. Barbara Lee wasted no time before speaking out. The very next day—on a Sunday, no less—she issued not one but two press releases expressing condolences to the victims' families and support for their colleagues. The following day she took to the floor of the House and for more than six minutes paid tribute to these "fallen heroes," as she put it. The press statements promptly appeared on her official website, and a video clip of her remarks to the House was posted to her YouTube channel. -more-
By Paul Kamen -more-
It wasn't despair, exactly, but it was with a feeling akin to despair that I watched the clueless City Council majority on Tuesday night enthusiastically endorse a program to make loans to wannabe developers who couldn't even come up with the standard city permit fees to get their projects started. -more-
Below the thunder of the upper deep; -more-
I am not one who believes in the phenomenon of "senseless" killings. All killings make "sense," if, by that term, we are separating it from having "justification." A killing makes "sense" when we understand the reasons for it, however rational or irrational those reasons might be. What we usually call "senseless" is merely something we do not have enough information about to make "sense" of. -more-
When I was about 10 years old, something odd began happening in my neighborhood. The houses around the corner on Brisban Street started getting seriously flooded backyards, then basements, when we had serious rains. This was unprecedented enough that many of our neighbors had finished their basements into rec rooms, guest rooms, serious workshops. -more-
In some sort of way, the society is divided up into two groups. Those that can fix things and those that have to negotiate with the first group to get the fixing done. If you're tired of wheedling with false compliments, baking cookies and standing there while forcing an adoring expression as Harold lights the water heater after the gas has gone out, I'm here to help (and I can't see you, so you can stick your tongue out and make a face and finish by burning this paper). -more-
Two local organizations, Oakland PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists), a branch of PEN USA and internationally, and Berkeley's Subterranean Shakespeare, will be presenting staged play readings in the coming week. -more-
Is Berkeley Squeezing Newspapers to Subsidize Developers? 03-25-2009
Letters to the Editor 03-25-2009
Three Gentlemen from Parma Visit 'Green' Berkeley By Beebo Turman 03-25-2009
Churches and Proposition 8 By Robert Brokl 03-25-2009
Responding to Sexual Violence By Betty Green 03-25-2009
Does Barbara Lee Still Speak for You and Me? By Henry Norr 03-25-2009
Can Buses Save the Berkeley Ferry? By Paul Kamen 03-25-2009
Safeway to Unveil Latest Design for College Avenue Store By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-31-2009
Another Month of Media Job Losses By Richard Brenneman 03-31-2009
Last Three Home Invasion Suspects in Custody Bay City News 03-31-2009
Berkeley Students Honor Cesar Chavez By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-27-2009
Berkeley's Adult Education Program Faces Severe Budget Cuts By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-28-2009
Thursday Night Power Outage Darkens Downtown Berkeley By Richard Brenneman 03-27-2009
Spate of Accidents Prompts School District to Launch Traffic Safety Campaign By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-27-2009
Berkeley Man Raised to County Judgeship Bay City News 03-27-2009
Final Downtown Plan Draft, Ferry Hearing Face Planners By Richard Brenneman 03-27-2009
West Berkeley Skyline Could Sprout If Planning Staff Proposal is Approved By Richard Brenneman 03-27-2009
Golden Gate Fields Owner Nixes Annual Report By Richard Brenneman 03-27-2009
Grading Controversy Roils Berkeley High School By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
Council Raises Parking Fees, Puts Developer Fees on Hold By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 03-25-2009
Reimbursement From Office Depot? Get in Line By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 03-25-2009
Final Curtain for the Parkway Theater By Justin DeFreitas 03-25-2009
Judge Halts Construction at National Laboratory Site By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
Planners Refine Area for Tallest Downtown Buildings By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
BP Chief Scientist Named Undersecretary of Energy By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
District 5 City Council Race: Hahn Led Capitelli in Fundraising; Incumbent Led in Developer Dollars By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
Oxford Plaza Opens, Brower Center Near Completion By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
Chamber of Commerce Dismisses CEO By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
Zoning Board to Thai Temple: Keep the Noise Down By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
Vandals Strike Berkeley Marine Recruiting Center By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
Armed Robbers Accost Oakland Tech Students On Campus By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
Judge Hikes UC Murder Suspect's Bail to $2.5 Million By Riya Bhattacharjee 03-25-2009
NASDAQ Issues Formal Order Delisting Magna By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
Fire Department Log By Richard Brenneman 03-25-2009
A Tribute to Dorothy-Ann 'Deede' Sloan By L A Wood 03-25-2009
Lise Blumenfeld, 1931-2009 By Neal Blumenfeld 03-25-2009
Fifth Suspect Surrenders in Home Invasion Robbery, Torture Case Bay City News 03-25-2009
Berkeley Historical Society Spring Walking Tours By Steven Finacom Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
A Few More Local Garden Events By Steven Finacom Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
Dispatches From the Edge: Europe's Crisis: The Kraken Wakes By Conn Hallinan 03-25-2009
UnderCurrents: Trying to Make Sense of the MacArthur Shootings By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 03-25-2009
Green Neighbors: Simple Is Not Always Ideal in the Real World By Ron Sullivan 03-25-2009
About the House: Can You Light Your Water Heater? By Matt Cantor 03-25-2009
Arts Calendar 03-25-2009
'Twobird' a Leisurely, Mesmerizing One-Man Show By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
Pacific Film Archive Shines Light on Depression-Era Cinema By Steven Finacom Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
Gamelan Sekar Jaya Marks 30 Years with Benefit Show By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
Two Staged Play Readings Ready to Draw Back the Curtain in Berkeley By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet 03-25-2009
About the House: Can You Light Your Water Heater? By Matt Cantor 03-25-2009
Community Calendar 03-25-2009


text: On Sunday, my Daddy, Michael, passed away of complications from colon cancer. He fought hard against it from the time he diagnosed over a year ago. This is him and my oldest twin, Spencer on the twins first birthday. As you can see...he wasn't a big picture taker. I could never understand why God had in his plan to move me back to my hometown. But when my Dad got sick a year after I got here, I understood more clearly. We had the common love of movies, reading the newspaper, watching the news, and being dressed to impressed. I will miss him deeply. I love you,Daddy!!!!


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Surprising is probably the word that would best sum up the Packers 2007 season. Even though I shouldn't be surprised because I picked them to be 10-6 this year, I am surprised anyway (which may be an indication that when I made my 10-6 prediction before the season I actually didn't have much faith that it would happen and I was just being a homer).
I've learned that I like the staff that McCarthy has put together. Despite our doubts re Bob Sanders, he has proven this year, that once the players adapted to his system, it can be quite effective. There is still room for improvement, but this defense has kept the Packers in several games this year. And, if you think about the last time Favre was at his best, it wasn't when his offensive line made the offense a machine (during the Sherman years), but it was when his defense could help keep the team in games (1995-1998). I also think Mike Stock deserves credit for bringing excitement back to our return game and ensuring solid coverage – as well as bringing along 2 young kickers. And, though we can't be sure exactly how he's contributing, I suspect Joe Philbin has been a solid assistant for McCarthy, if for no other reason than that he and McCarthy are on the same page when it comes to calling things as they are.
And then, of course, we have Mike McCarthy, possible Coach of the Year. TT took a chance on McCarthy and now it's obvious to the rest of us why he did. McCarthy has a lively offensive mind, a refreshingly aggressive approach and he's not afraid to say what he's thinking. One of the best characteristics Mike McCarthy has is his honesty. He doesn't play the Belichick game of dodging questions and being evasive. When asked before the Dallas/GB game last month why the game was important, he didn't launch into the "one game at a time, we're not looking beyond this game" crap most coaches and players bore us with daily. He said that the game was important because it had possible implications for home-field advantage in the playoffs, something most coaches would never say when there are still 4 games left on the schedule. He was being honest, but he was also being confident. And, McCarthy's confidence in his team is one of the biggest factors behind the Packers' success this year. Going for it on 4th down, trying onside kicks, throwing 70 yard bombs on the first play of overtime, etc – aggressive coaches necessarily have more confidence in their teams and this is a welcome contrast to the previous Packer regime.
I continue to be impressed by the team that Ted Thompson (mostly) has put on the field. There are many high quality players who are young, hungry and talented. Packer fans have reason to be excited not just about this year, but for years to come. That said, the time is now to win a Super Bowl. We're not sure how much longer Favre will be playing and given his experience in the playoffs, we are in the best position we've been in for a long time to win the whole thing. After the Dallas game, some speculated that the Packers tried lots of long passes and trick plays because they felt they were an inferior team going into the game. I disagree, I think this coach and this team are just confident and they had good reason to believe that any play they tried could work out. I expect to see more of this exciting brand of football in the playoffs too, as McCarthy just isn't the kind of guy who will fall back on conventional, boring football to be safe.
While it would be easier to be pessimistic about the playoffs so that I can head off some of my own potential disappointment if things don't go well, I'm having a hard time being genuinely pessimistic right now. I have bought into McCarthy's plan and I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if the Packers get to the Super Bowl. The biggest hurdle in the playoffs will be the first game, but if the Packers handle that, then the pressure will largely be off them and I think there is a good chance they'd get to the Super Bowl. If they get there and win, I'd be a bit surprised, but not shocked because if I've learned one thing about the team this year, it's to expect the unexpected.