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Charles E. Hutchinson
Dean of Thayer School, Emeritus
John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor for Emerging Technologies, Emeritus
Dean of Thayer School, Emeritus
"I don't ever intend to 'retire' retire. I've tried it four times—once from U. Mass, twice from Thayer School, and then from GlycoFi in 2006," said Charles Hutchinson ("Hutch," as he is known to the Dartmouth community). After 19 years with the electrical and computer engineering department of the University of Massachusetts, Hutch came to Dartmouth in 1984 at the encouragement of John Strohbehn, a Thayer School professor and classmate of Hutch's at Stanford. "He knew I had not been happy with the confining format of specialization in engineering education. He kept talking about the opportunity to expand Thayer School's interdisciplinary approach." It was a convincing argument, and Hutch came to Thayer School to stay.
Hutch served as dean from 1984 until 1994, and again from 1997 to 1998. While leading the effort to raise $40 million, he oversaw a major facilities renovation in the late 1980s. He also established the Master of Engineering Management (M.E.M.) program, with an innovative curriculum that immerses students in an integrated approach to the engineering design and technology management processes.
From 1998 to 2003, as Dean Emeritus and the John H. Krehbiel Sr. Professor for Emerging Technologies, Hutch directed the M.E.M. program and developed and taught courses in electrical engineering, design, total quality management, and emerging technologies. In 2000, with Professor of Engineering Tillman U. Gerngross, Hutchinson founded the biotechnology company GlycoFi Inc., which quickly became a leader in the field of yeast glycoengineering and optimization of biologic drug molecules. He served as CEO of GlycoFi Inc. until it was acquired by Merck in spring 2006.
Following the sale of GlycoFi, Hutch returned once again to Thayer School and—in collaboration with John Collier—developed a new course in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship for Dartmouth PhD Innovation Program students.
Most recently, he teamed up with three Thayer School PhD graduates—Dax Kepshire, Ben Bollinger, and Troy McBride—to co-found SustainX, a new venture in the cleantech arena.
Entrepreneurship; emerging technologies
- BS, Electrical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology 1957
- MS, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University 1961
- PhD, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University 1963
- GlycoFi, Co-founder and CEO (2000-2006)
- SustainX, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board
Is Renewable Energy Ready for Takeoff?
June 5, 2014
NAE Presents Nation's Top Prize for Engineering Education to Dartmouth
May 14, 2014
School Notes: A More Creative Approach to Engineering
Valley News
January 14, 2014
Dartmouth Engineering Faculty Awarded National Prize for Educational Innovation
January 6, 2014
Compressed Air Energy Storage Makes a Comeback
IEEE Spectrum
September 12, 2013
N.H. firm makes a 'battery' out of air, to power hundreds of homes at once
The Telegraph (Nashua)
September 4, 2013
Who Needs Batteries? Seacoast Firm Stores Energy With Air
March 1, 2013
A Storage Solution Is in the Air
The New York Times
October 1, 2012
SustainX gets 11 new patents for energy storage
Mass High Tech
September 6, 2012
Packing some power
The Economist
March 3, 2012
Energy storage a key to wind, solar backup
The Boston Globe
October 30, 2011
Global Cleantech 100
Cleantech Group
October 18, 2011
SustainX obtains first energy patent
The Dartmouth
October 11, 2011
SustainX moving energy storage HQ to larger NH site
Mass High Tech
July 21, 2011
New Patents Expand SustainX Position
Business Wire
June 29, 2011
SustainX blows open funding round to add $5.6M
Mass High Tech
May 4, 2011
GE Energy Financial Services, Other Investors Fund SustainX
Business Wire
March 16, 2011
GE invests in storage unit innovation
CNET News
March 16, 2011
NH's SustainX brings in $14.4M from GE and others
Mass High Tech
March 16, 2011
Two Dartmouth-Founded Energy Technology Companies Win GE Ecomagination Challenge
November 18, 2010
SustainX Named a 2010 Global Cleantech 100 Company
PR Newswire
October 13, 2010
SustainX obtains first energy patent
The Dartmouth
October 11, 2010
Key Patent Issued to Energy Storage Startup SustainX
PR Newswire
September 29, 2010
SustainX Finalizes $5.4M of Funding From U.S. DOE
PR Newswire
June 22, 2010
VCJ 20 Most Promising Startups
peHUB Reuters Forum
March 30, 2010
Thayer engineers create energy storage system
The Dartmouth
December 1, 2009
Energy-storage Startup SustainX Receives $5.4M from DOE
PR Newswire
November 25, 2009
Start-up compresses air in tanks for energy storage
CNET News
November 13, 2009
NH energy storage startup SustainX lands $4M
Mass High Tech
August 12, 2009
N.H. High Tech Council narrows 'product of the year' field
Mass High Tech
October 25, 2007
Engineering profs chosen as NH "Entrepreneurs of the Year"
Dartmouth News
June 1, 2007
Endowed Chair Honors Former Thayer Dean
VOX of Dartmouth
October 23, 2006
Dartmouth Announces The Charles E. Hutchinson '68A Professorship in Innovation
September 29, 2006
Dartmouth Bioengineers Develop Humanized Yeast
Science Daily
August 29, 2003
Yeast turned into drugs factory
BBC News
August 29, 2003
Dartmouth Bioengineers Develop Humanized Yeast
Dartmouth News
August 28, 2003
Dartmouth Engineers Closer To Mass-producing Therapeutic Proteins
Science Daily
April 18, 2003
Dartmouth engineers closer to mass-producing therapeutic proteins
Dartmouth News
April 17, 2003
Dartmouth Engineering Professors Secure $7 Million
May 20, 2002
In Dartmouth Engineer Magazine
150 Thayer Gifts to the World: Part 1
Web Extra, December 2017
Tribute: Myron Tribus
Web Extra, March 2017
Good Company
Web Extra, August 2016
Exit Interview: CFAO Larry McKinnon Retires
Web Extra, August 2016
Mastering Engineering Management
Fall 2014
Educational Innovation: Faculty Awarded National Prize
Spring 2014
Cool Companies
Winter 2012
The Start-Up Star
Winter 2011
Winter 2011
The Innovator
Winter 2010
Winter 2010
Leading Edge: Nation's First Ph.D. Innovation Program
Winter 2009
Academic Initiatives: New Modified Major and Ph.D. Innovation Program
Winter 2008
Spring/Summer 2007
Innovations: GlycoFi Bought by Merck
Fall 2006
Lab Reports
Spring 2006
From Idea to Invoice
Spring 2005
Minding Their Business
Spring 2005
Spring 2005


text:
"The nuclear secret of child welfare," writes Professor Matthew Fraidin, "is that most children in foster care shouldn't be there." And being there harms most of them more than they're helped by being taken away from their families.
Fraidin has argued in the past that we need to let some sunshine into the now-secretive proceedings that deliver children into the care of many child welfare agencies — the District's Child and Family Services Administration included.
He still advocates for this, but he's turned his attention to the narrative that gives rise to the inordinate number of foster care placements.
Or perhaps it's actually two related narratives.
One is of "brutal, deviant, monstrous parents" whose children have to be rescued from imminent injury or even death. This narrative is "drummed into our heads" by the press, which likes the sensational cases.
Also, I see, by bloggers. Daniel Hiempel, for example, accuses us of allowing "certain children to be abused, even murdered" by ignoring the "empirically true" fact that "cases of abuse and neglect soar in poor neighborhoods."
Note the class bias here.
The other narrative extends beyond parents who get ensnared in the child welfare system. It's the propensity of legal service providers, among others, to view low-income clients as "the sum of their needs" — to focus on weaknesses and ignore strengths.
Start instead, Fraidin says, from the premise that clients are "bundles of assets." Look at what they as individuals can do because then they'll bust through the narrative and emerge as "complicated, three-dimensional, real" people.
Once we change the story in our heads, we can "change the conversation." And, I gather, represent clients differently, since Fraidin links the internal narrative change to limiting foster care entries and speeding exits.
The "we" he exhorts are lawyers — and perhaps judges. The article I'm linking to began as a speech delivered at the University of Michigan's law school.
He refers in passing, however, to anti-poverty programs in general. And surely his message has clear implications for caseworkers and the agencies they work for — nonprofits as well as government entities like CFSA.
David Henderson, who consults for nonprofit service providers, observes that they "too often base their interventions on a presumption of irrationality among the poor" — or he adds in a comment, "assumptions of general incompetence."
Look, he says, at programs that force parenting classes on homeless people. We've got many other examples of this sort.
I'm reminded of a classic — if perhaps mythical — exchange between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
"The rich," said Fitzgerald, echoing a theme from his Great Gatsby, "are different from you and me." "Yes," said Hemingway. "They have more money."
Seems to me that we as a community could purge the narratives in our heads if we started from the premise that the poor are no different from us, except for having less money.
That would change how we advocate and what we advocate for.
UPDATE: Professor Fraidin has written a very thoughtful response to this post. As he explains, his opposition to secret child welfare proceedings and the prevalent narratives are two sides of the same coin. He also tells us some shocking things we'd learn if proceedings were open.

subset: commoncrawl


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A Desert School Blooms
How National Board Certification helped transform a low-income school
One March morning in March of 2009, Julius Corsini Elementary School Principal Kiela Bonelli got a call at 7 am from a teacher at the school who told her, "There's a tank across the street."
Nearly 700 federal, state, county and local police officers from 35 agencies raided houses in the area, in Desert Hot Springs, California, with a Black Hawk helicopter circling overhead. It was called "Operation Fallen Sun" and by the time it ended, 120 people had been arrested and charged with drug offenses and other criminal activity.
But in school, kids were learning. Attendance was down a bit. One girl came to school in tears because one of her relatives had been taken away—but she came anyway. Teacher Barry Wissman remembers his second grade students asked about the helicopter. "I told them it was looking for bad guys, and went on with my normal lessons."
The school kept functioning because of its extraordinary faculty, led by a great principal.
When Bonelli started at Corsini seven years ago, her first job as a principal, she knew it was a tough assignment, but she didn't know how tough. "I figured it out when I was trying to hire new teachers and no one wanted to come in for an interview," she recalls. "Maybe it's a good thing that I didn't know the problems beforehand because it meant I came there with higher expectations."
Several years later, those expectations were justified.
But it took time.
Here's what Bonelli didn't do: Decide what the staff needed to do for children to learn, and make it happen.
Here's what she did instead: Ask teachers what they felt was working and what wasn't, and help them make the changes they decided they needed to make.
"Teachers led the change," says Bonelli.
One of the teacher leaders was Bev Bricker, then a reading coach and now president of the Palm Springs Teachers Association. Desert Hot Springs schools are part of the Palm Springs district.
"Kiela was amazing at helping teachers take charge of their profession," says Bricker. "It paid off for the school."
The Palm Springs school district is marked by extremes, divided into rich and poor by Interstate 10. Corsini Elementary is on the poor side.
"There was a high crime rate, drugs, gangs. Attendance was low. Parent conferences attracted maybe 10 percent. Family mobility was high," says Bonelli. "It was not unusual for us to finish the year with 75 percent different children than we started."
Teachers turned over fast, too. "It was a springboard school," says Bricker. Teachers would start there to get into Palm Springs, and move to another school as fast as they could. The average experience level at Corsini was three years, compared with 12 for the district as a whole.
So what did Bonelli and her faculty colleagues do about it?
They didn't change the curriculum, but they worked to changing their instruction to better meet the needs of the students.
Bonelli had gone through the National Board Certification process and she encouraged the faculty to try it. Every teacher took part, either in the full certification program or an abbreviated version called Take One. In the board certification process, Bonelli notes, educators work on teaching the student, not the curriculum.
At the faculty's request, Bonelli got district administrators to back off from the professional development program they had mandated and let the staff focus on board certification.
Putting the teachers in charge of their professional development was a key element in Corsini's success, says Bricker, the former reading coach. "So often what you get is a consultant who tells you what's wrong and they can magically fix you. That often doesn't work."
Board certification also includes work on parent and community involvement, and Corsini made some of its most dramatic improvements in that area.
Before the change, the first parent conferences were several weeks into the school year. The Corsini staff shifted them to before school started, and had school buses pick up both parents and students on their regular routes, so that parents and children could get familiar with the children's riding experience and have a friendly introduction to Corsini and each child's teachers before the year started.
That was especially important for kindergarten and first grade children, says Bricker: "It was, 'This is my teacher. She's nice. This is what we're doing.'"
The school moved parent conferences from afternoon to evening so more parents could come.
Then there was the "postcard campaign," Bricker recalls, in which each family got a postcard from their child's teacher once every month or so, saying something like "Wow, your child had a great day!" and describing something specific that the child had done in school.
Corsini also added daytime programs for parents who were not working—many of them because they were unemployed. A GED teacher and an ESL teacher taught some 60 parents. Besides making progress toward their degrees and English fluency, these parents also became more comfortable with Corsini and more involved in their children's learning.
And Corsini added the magic ingredient used in so many successful programs for all ages and every social class: food. "Donuts For Dads" and "Muffins For Moms" nourished Corsini's parent connections.
Parent conferences began bringing in as many as 85 percent, not 10.
Student attendance went up, too. So did test scores.
Teacher turnover plummeted to near zero. Now Corsini is a school teachers try to get into, not out of, says Bricker.
Unfortunately, state budget cuts doomed the in-school, daytime parent courses. And a new school opened nearby, causing both a reduction and shift in the student body—even more poor students than before—causing a new dip in test scores. So there's more work to do, and the faculty will be doing it without Bonelli because this year, she was reassigned to Desert Springs Middle School.
Can other schools make the kinds of changes that succeeded so well at Corsini? Bricker says yes, but she adds, "It couldn't happen overnight. Sadly, nothing happens quickly—except mandates."
related feature
The Making of a Master Educator
It takes learning from colleagues, listening to students, and lots of time.


text:
Monitors the Tanium Client service and its subprocesses.
SolarWinds solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base in the THWACK® online community.
More than 150,000 members are here to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly
contribute to our product development process.
Learn more today by joining now.


text:
There are not many things I dislike more than the White Sox giving up a lead in the late innings and losing on a walk-off homer.
So, you can't be surprised when I tell you I got little sleep last night after the Tigers 5-4 triumph.
On our way to the deflating loss, Jake Peavy was magnificent in eight innings of work and Gordon Beckham gave further hope that he's on his way back with a single, double and two-run blast that gave us a 4-2 lead. Just a few days ago, his batting average was well under the .200 mark. He's now at .233. The fact these performances were wasted, made Jhonny Peralta's two-run, game-winning clout that much more disturbing.
New Sox Closer
Chris Sale couldn't have been much better in his first foray as a major league starting pitcher (3-1, 2.81 ERA), but the Sox are moving him into the bullpen as the closer to preserve his career. Evidently, the youngster has had soreness and tightness in his elbow and the club is concerned it could cause problems down the road if he continued to start. It appears that Dylan Axelrod will have the first shot at replacing Sale in the rotation.


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|2011-07-30, 08:59
|Link #42
Disabled By Request
|2011-08-01, 18:35
|Link #43
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: California
It's really how well you can persuade someone to follow your D-mail with the limited space available. Sure, you can fit into a D-Mail not to sell the 5100 IBN, but would it work? Feyris' father mentions that he had no money at the time to pay for the ransom, and the only way he did was when someone offered to buy the IBN 5100 for an exorbitant amount of money. Telling him not to sell it when his daughter's safety was at risk is almost impossible.
On the other hand, telling Ruka's mother to eat more veggies to have a healthy baby is much easier to accomplish in both persuasion and desired outcome.
|2011-08-02, 00:41
|Link #45
Disabled By Request
|2011-08-02, 19:58
|Link #46
Random Object
Join Date: Dec 2007
|2011-08-03, 02:09
|Link #47
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: California
|2011-08-03, 12:14
|Link #48
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Just thougt about something : when Okabe sent that mail saying "Kurisu is dead" he feel the change of the timeline but, it could be possible that someone else sent an D-Mail at the same moment.
Wich means, it's not the mail sent by Okabe that saved Kurisu but another one !
That's something that bother me : it seems that anyone can send a D-Mail if it's at the exact good time, no matter how far they are from the micro-wave.... In other word, all the mail sent when the micro-wave is active are sent to the past !
That would be quite a mess if it's was true and Okabe would have no way of knowing anything about it since his reading steiner tell only one time about changes, even if there is several changes at once.
|2011-08-04, 07:26
|Link #49
Disabled By Request
|2011-08-04, 13:59
|Link #50
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
- Ferrys could send a D-mail with her own phone who isn't connected to the microwave
- Okabe sent the first D-mail before even thinking of connecting it to the microwave
And what you mean connected ? There was lot of time where he wasn't near his lab wich means he can't be connected except maybe via 3G....
|2011-08-09, 16:25
|Link #51
This is just nonsensical speculation but I have this creeping feeling that when Okabe makes it back to the first worldline he will realize that in that worldline Makise Kurisu -is- working for SERN like Suzuha thought (before the divergence changes) and he will have to kill her in order to save Mayuri. It sort of lines up, at least to me. Or even if she's not, I still have this feeling that he'll be the one who ends up doing her in.
If it happens I'll cry, because Kurisu is an awesome heroine and I like her better than Mayuri.
|2011-08-11, 04:32
|Link #52
Part-Time TTK & Master
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Iwakawa base and Chaldea
Age: 40
Someone have dropped a hint about FB meaning (Karl) Ferdinand Braun.
If it is true, the suspects for FB are
My brain is frying from just thinking it out.
If my speculations are confirmed, I have to applaude the writers for using the smallest details to define the game's universe and serve the plot.
|2011-08-12, 12:53
|Link #55
Athletic girls are sugoi!
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Texas
Age: 43
You're right. And that's why we can only speculate about FB's identity - that is, if FB is a real person. I'm not convinced the character I mentioned above is FB; but when you brainstorm, you must consider all the possibilities. After all, the only potential clue available is that person's "given" last name.
|2011-08-12, 18:16
|Link #58
Join Date: Mar 2011
|2011-08-13, 04:38
|Link #59
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 33
|2011-08-16, 15:14
|Link #60
Let's Puppystyle!
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Best Place In The WORLD
Age: 28
I just went back and investigated Episode 1 of Steins Gate.
So I see that Suzuha was dressed up in a "worker's" outfit and gave the "no problem" or nothing to worry about sign I guess up top and Okabe left.
Afterwards, Kurisu from alpha line pulls Okabe from the lecture room and asks why he approached her earlier with a concerned look. Minutes later, we hear a scream, clearly Okabe's anguished scream (I'm assuming as he finds out that Kurisu is stabbed).
^This is where I'm lost/confused. Why are there TWO Okabe's now? When in each world line we've only had ONE Okabe with a transfer of his memories. Secondly, thinking about who WOULD stab Kurisu, the only one I could possibly imagine is Suzuha. Suzuha must've stabbed Kurisu upon landing because that way Kurisu wouldn't help SERN out. However, if the Alpha line is supposed to be the good world, then why is Suzuha even in that Alpha line time-traveling back in the first place?
Someone please explain this to me! I think I might've missed something or I am using a bad assumption.
|Thread Tools


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Discover the ultramodern cityscape of Dubai and the natural wonderland of Western Australia — two seemingly opposite worlds that combine for one spectacular vacation. We can transform your trip to Western Australia into one phenomenal journey with an extended layover in Dubai. Instead of rushing to make your flight connection or spending hours waiting in an airport, let us do the planning and help you make the most out of your valuable vacation time! Take a look at some of our ideas below, and keep in mind that we can tailor every aspect of your journey.
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The state of Western Australia is filled with incredibly diverse climates and landscapes, from beautiful beaches and crystal-clear waters with stunning reefs to majestic forests and premier vineyards ideal for tasting world-class wines. Dive in below and Down Under to discover just a few of the activities we can arrange for you to do and see during your dream vacation in Western Australia.


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Unwind from the Forum and discuss any topic you like, but keep it clean and friendly.
It doesn't matter whether your passion is for football, rugby, tennis, snooker, athletics, or beach volleyball. Discuss any sporting topic here.
4th Aug 2020, 10:17
Television, Music, Movies, etc. Discuss anything here from the world of entertainment, love it or hate it.
8th Feb 2019, 12:47
9th Aug 2019, 17:57


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Meet Kuzya, a stray cat who wondered into Russia's Novorossiysk Library and was so beloved, he was actually hired. Like, to shelve books and shit.
OK, he probably doesn't shelve books, but he does wear a bowtie and most likely shushes people using cat magic when nobody else is looking.
[via Buzzfeed]


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Meat Raffle at The Woods
November 1, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 6:00 pm on Friday, happening 37 times
Jon us every Friday at 6:00 for our Meat Raffle! 3 of the rounds you can choose to have our chefs cook your meat for you!
View more Brainerd MN Events & Activities | Find Brainerd Resorts | Book your Brainerd Hotel


text:
Thankful Thursday
Thankful for the dramatic improvement we've seen in Camden over the 6-8 weeks. He is doing so much better in the self-control department and has been a joy to be around. We are very proud of him!
He's also pretty darn funny.
Exhibit A: An animal got into our trash and when Camden saw the yard he exclaimed, "look at all this litterage!"
Exhibit B: Last night on American Idol when William Hung joined the Pants on the Ground guy, Camden said, "I can't take all this coolness. His hat is the best!" And he was completely serious. Side note: we decided several years ago not to let him watch the audition portion of American Idol because I didn't want him learning how to make fun of people. Apparently, that strategy is working out okay. :)
Thankful for her mischievous smile, infectious giggle, and the twinkle in her eye. She makes life so much fun! I'm also very thankful to hear, "Mama, I willy, willy love you." more times in a day than I can count.
And there's no picture to illustrate this one, but VERY grateful Brian only has one more day of school until August!


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|Home > Florida Then & Now > Famous Floridians > Winslow Homer
Famous Floridians: Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer was a self-taught American painter and illustrator. He spent many of his winters in Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba. While in these tropical places, he painted mostly in watercolor. He painted scenes of the sea, its fishermen, and their families.
Homer was born in 1836, in Boston. He began his career as an illustrator for the popular magazine, Harpers Weekly. His illustrations were mainly engravings. They had a clean outline, simple form, contrast of light and dark, and often included lively groups of people. These qualities were to be found in his art throughout his career.
He recorded the Civil War through art. At the Virginia front he painted his first important oil, Prisoners from the Front. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum.
Following the war, he concentrated on country scenes. After a stay in an English fishing village, his pictures became more dramatic. He began to emphasize marine subjects. In 1873, he began working in watercolor.
Homer made his first trip to Florida in the winter of 1885-1886. He enjoyed the warmer climate and fishing and painting opportunities. In the years following, he made several mid-winter trips by steamer from New York to Florida. He stayed in various locales around Florida and the nearby Caribbean islands. His favorite Florida locations included Jacksonville, Enterprise (on the St. Johns River), Homosassa, Tampa, and Key West.
In 1899, he painted one of his most powerful works, the frightening Gulf Stream. It shows a solitary black sailor in a small, disabled boat. The sailor appears overwhelmed by sharks and alone on the sea. When asked for a description of Gulf Stream, Homer said, I regret very much that I have painted a picture that requires any description.
Homers many watercolor scenes of the tropics were painted in a technique considered advanced for the day. He painted scenes of nature but with a fresh, spontaneous flair.
His 1903 painting, Key West, Hauling Anchor, is simple-lookingblue sea, white boat, a patch or two of red shirt. But the painting beautifully portrays the blue water over a Florida sand bottom.
In 1904, Homer painted at least eleven watercolors during a stay of approximately a month in Homosassa. While there, Homer wrote to his brother Arthur describing Homosassa as, Delightful climate here about as cool as our Septemberfishing the best in America as far as I can find. The Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park has a permanent exhibit highlighting Winslow Homers watercolors of the Homosassa River.
Homer once remarked, You will see, in the future I will live by my watercolors. Today, 150 years later, this appears to be true. Winslow Homer is now considered a master of watercolors and one of the great painters of the sea. A naturalist painter, he is often considered one of the greatest American artists of his time. He made a significant contribution to the works of art that have recorded the beauty of Florida.
|Home > Florida Then & Now > Famous Floridians > Winslow Homer
Florida: A Social Studies Resource for Students and Teachers
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2002.


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NPR – All Tech Considered
Listen to the story
When it comes to technology, Philadelphia is no Silicon Valley. And the organizers of the third annual Philly Tech Week say it's not trying to be.
To kick off the weeklong celebration of the local tech scene, organizers turned a skyscraper into an interactive light display Friday night. The Cira Centre, a 29-story building, became perhaps the world's biggest video game.
Frank Lee is the man behind this gigantic version of Pong. He's a professor at Drexel University and the co-founder of the school's Game Design Program.
Spectators gathered about a half-mile away to watch from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Eyes fixated on what was about a 400-foot-tall "screen," a lattice of LED lights on a wall of mirrored glass serving as the "pixels."
Lee says the vision for his tech-art mashup came when he was driving by the building one day.
"Other times I passed by, I didn't really think too much about it, but this time, in 2008, when I was passing by, I saw Tetris shapes rotating and falling. And that began this long journey to make this game," he says.
Five years later, his vision has morphed into the giant Pong video game.
A few hundred people gathered Friday night to watch gamers actually face off in an arcade classic that was older than most in attendance.
About 1,000 people had entered an online lottery for a chance to play. The first pair of winners stepped up to the joysticks. The game began, complete with vintage sound effects.
The old-school joystick panel was connected to a laptop, which was connected to a 4G hotspot, which was linked wirelessly to the computers that control the building's lights.
Darren Davis, 17, won the friendly match-up. He says playing a video game on a skyscraper was pretty cool.
"To be honest, taking my hands on the joystick, it was pretty amazing. I actually really liked it," says Davis, a high school junior by day, and a game developer by night.
If the idea of Tech Week is to encourage Philadelphians to up the ante, then it worked on Davis.
"It definitely is inspiration to make me want to top this, because I know I can," he says.
Organizer Christopher Wink says inspiration like that is the whole point. Wink runs the local tech blog that's organizing Philly Tech Week — Pong is just the kickoff to a slew of 100-plus tech-related events.
But Wink says the game, which made a static skyline interactive, is also a symbol of the momentum he's hoping to build around Philly's growing tech scene.
After dozens of competitors squared off on the face of the skyscraper, the video game was shut down for the night. But the opportunities for tech-induced wonder aren't done yet. Round 2 of Pong is on for Wednesday.


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UPDATE: spelling, clarity
On June 4th, 2013, a jury found Kelly Soo Park not guilty of the murder of Juliana Redding. Redding was found strangled to death in her Santa Monica apartment on March 16, 2008. Park was arrested for Redding's murder over two years later.
After the trial was over, I promised T&T readers that I would present a synopsis of the trial to help them understand the jury's verdict. Many readers did not understand the verdict when the state presented evidence that Park's DNA was found on several items, including the victim. Criminalists testified at trial that Park's DNA was found around Juliana's neck, on the T-shirt Juliana was wearing at the time of her death, on her cell phone left on a bedside table, as well as on a stove knob in the kitchen.
This is my last post in a four part series, that gave a detailed, post-trial analysis of the case. Part IV covers pre trial motions argued before trial, as to the admissibility of evidence one side or the other, wanted to introduce.
Special thanks and shout-out to my fellow journalist Lonce LaMon of Adjuster.com for her assistance in purchasing motions as well as photographing the evidence once the trial was over. You can see more of the exhibits in the Part III posts. I have purposefully not published a photo of Juliana as she was found out of respect for her family and friends.
Tonight, CBS 48 Hours will profile the murder of Juliana Redding and the trial of Kelly Soo Park who was charged with her murder. All three major networks had producers who attended pretrial hearings and attended most or some of the trial. (T&T was the only source for daily updates on the trial. T&T also reported the verdicts before any other news source. Sprocket) Journalists for NBC and CBS worked together to try to get Judge Kennedy to approve video taping of witness testimony. For the court to agree to that request, Judge Kennedy wanted the network to mount cameras on the wall. The problem is, those cameras are not something the networks readily have at their disposal, and the daily cost of one camera is several thousand a day. Consequently, only opening statements and closing arguments were video taped.
I knew something was in the works when respected LA Times reporter Jack Leonard sent out this tweet:
Leonard is an excellent journalist and that was most kind of him. (It's a good bet that CBS has an arrangement with the LA Times to feature their journalists on cases they profile.) Not long after, former prosecutor Alan Jackson made a post about the upcoming episode on his Facebook Page. The initial prosecutors, Jackson and his co-counsel at the time, Eric Harmon (now Judge Harmon), probably know the case facts as well as DDA Stacy Okun-Wiese, who prosecuted Park.
I will be most interested to see if CBS producers were able to track down any of the jurors and get them to appear on camera. After the verdicts were read in court, the jury asked to be escorted out of the courthouse via a private elevator. Back on June 13th, a T&T reader left a comment with information about the jury's verdict. Since the commenter asked that I not publish the comment, I have honored that request.
Throughout my coverage of the trial, several people who knew Kelly Soo Park over a significant portion of her life, contacted me and shared what they knew about her. Unfortunately, every single person spoke off the record and were not willing to share this information publicly.
Kelly Soo Park Trial Synopsis
Part I Opening Statements
Part II Prosecution Witnesses 1-10
Part II Prosecution Witnesses 11-18
Part II Prosecution Witnesses 19-21
Part II Final Prosecution & Defense Witnesses
Part III Prosecution Opening Argument
Part III Defense & Prosecution Closing Argument
Part III Additional Arguments to Jury
PART IV - NON-ADMITTED EVIDENCE via PRETRIAL MOTIONS
Before the trial even started, both sides presented motions to admit or exclude evidence at trial. Here's brief review of some of the more significant motions.
James Bond Girl - Defense Motion to Exclude
From the moment Park was arrested, news agencies were reporting that Dr. Munir Uwaydah --the only connection between Park and Juliana-- had bragged to Juliana's father, Greg Redding that he had an enforcer, a female "James Bond" who would do his bidding. The public heard about this alleged statement but the jury didn't.
Dr. Uwaydah was not on trial; Kelly Soo Park was. Judge Kennedy ruled that Dr. Uwaydah's statement to Greg Redding could not be admitted because it was hearsay.
1101b Evidence People's Motion to Admit Other Conduct -- Defense Opposition Motion
The people alleged "The defendant has a history of threatening and intimidating individuals who have an ongoing dispute with her employer, Dr. Uwaydah." The people had two instances of this type of conduct they wanted to introduce at trial. This evidence would have supported their theory of the case that Park was acting on the orders of Dr. Uwaydah because of the failed business venture with Juliana's father, Greg Redding.
Judge Kennedy ruled that this evidence was inadmissible. With this ruling, the people lost their ability to present to the jury their theory of Park's true relationship with Dr. Uwaydah. In closing arguments, the defense told the jury that there was no evidence presented that Park had any personal desire to harm Juliana, or that she had the murderous heart, capable to carry out such a violent act.
Dr. Uwaydah's Alleged Criminal Conduct -- Defense Motion to Exclude evidence of Uwaydah's Departure -- Defense Motion to Exclude Evidence of Fraud
The defense filed a motion to excluded references to alleged criminal conduct by Dr. Uwaydah. Dr. Uwaydah was not on trial, so it was not surprising to me that Judge Kennedy ruled this evidence was inadmissible. The defense also argued to exclude references to when Dr. Uwaydah fled the country. Judge Kennedy ruled that there could be more than one reason for why Dr. Uwaydah fled, so that evidence was also excluded.
Drugs Found in Park's Possession During Arrest -- Defense Motion to Exclude
When Park was arrested with Ronnie Case, police "...found several bottles of prescription drugs in the bed of the truck [they were in when arrested], carrying the names of various doctors and various patients." Judge Kennedy ruled for the defense and this evidence was not admitted at trial.
John Glimore's Alleged Conduct & Statements --
Defense Motion to Admit Evidence of Third Party Culpability
The defense tried to present evidence to the jury that John Gilmore could have been the individual who killed Juliana Redding. Gilmore was an on again, off again boyfriend of Juliana. Witnesses allegedly had seen him become violent against objects (furniture, etc.) when he argued with the victim. The defense argued to have another girlfirend of Gilmore's, "M.A." testify about alleged violent conduct against her (choking) and statements he made to her about Juliana. The defense also argued to present evidence of other acts by John Gilmore to show his violent nature. The defense also filed a supplemental statement by defense counsel Mark Kassabian to support the 3rd Party Culpability evidence.
Judge Kennedy ruled that this evidence did not meet the standard of 3rd Party Culpability, and was excluded at trial.


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Suzanne Somers and the Future of Breast Reconstruction
Suzanne Somers is famous for her alternative approach to health. So when she lost most of one breast to cancer 10 years ago, she wasn't about to settle for just any old implant. Here, the story of how she waited for — and got — the breast she'd always wanted.
FRIDAY, Dec. 16, 2011 - Suzanne Somers has never cared much for convention. Given a choice between business as usual and the road not taken, she'll almost always choose the latter - especially where her health is concerned. In 2006, she sparked a much-publicized debate when she spoke out in favor of bioidentical hormone therapy, a controversial treatment for menopause that was the subject of her book Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones. Then, in 2008, she made headlines again when she published another book, Knockout, advocating alternative cancer treatments over traditional methods like chemotherapy and radiation.
"I appreciate health care that gets to the root cause of our symptoms and promotes wellness, rather than the one-size-fits-all drug-based approach to treating disease," explains Somers, 65. "I love maintaining an optimal quality of life - naturally."
Somers first began researching alternative cancer therapies in 2001, after doctors found a tumor in one of her breasts. At the time, she declined chemotherapy but had a lumpectomy and 35 days of radiation, which left the right side of her chest deflated and small. Surgeons offered her two reconstructive options: implants (plural, meaning they would have to also remove her healthy breast) or a TRAM flap, a procedure that uses muscle, fat, and skin from the abdomen to create a new breast. Most women seeking post-treatment reconstruction choose one or the other - but Somers is not most women.
"I said, 'Sew me back up,'" she recalls. "I knew something better would come along."
The Birth of Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer for Breast Reconstruction
A few years later, something did come along. In 2003, Kotaro Yoshimura, MD, a professor and surgeon at the University of Tokyo in Japan, began testing an innovative procedure he called cell-assisted lipotransfer, or CAL, in which autologous adipose-derived stem cells (those extracted from a person's own fat) are injected along with other fat cells to plump up or replace tissue, as in the breast.
Transplanting fat alone is not a particularly novel undertaking - fat transplants were first performed more than a century ago and have been used by cosmetic surgeons in recent years to fill wrinkles, lift buttocks, and enlarge breasts, among other things - but fat transplantation does have a somewhat controversial history. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons deemed it safe only within the last couple of years, and some questions still remain about its long-term risks and viability. Plus, because it takes several days for blood vessels to reach the transplanted fat, some of the cells (as much as 60 percent) die or atrophy after injection, often resulting in the need for follow-up procedures. And while there's little chance of rejection with fat grafts - because they're your body's own tissue - there is a risk of calcification (hardening), which some experts worry could interfere with future breast cancer diagnoses.
To help remedy some of these issues, Dr. Yoshimura came up with the idea to enrich the injected fat with a higher concentration of stem cells. Stem cells are thought to help preserve and even regenerate fat cells by stimulating growth of blood vessels.
Adipose tissue, or body fat, already contains a certain number of stem cells - about one for every four adipocyte fat cells - but Yoshimura and his colleagues believed that increasing the concentration could enhance survival rates of the tissue and reduce post-operative atrophy. To do this, they used liposuction to remove fat from another part of the patient's body (for example, her stomach, hip, or thigh), set aside a portion of it to be reinjected, and then isolated the stem cells from the remaining tissue to be combined with the reserved fat. This stem cell-rich mixture was then used as a kind of natural cosmetic filler.
Initial results were promising, and other trials soon followed. To date, Yoshimura has performed the procedure on more than 400 women.
How Suzanne Somers Got Her Breast Back
Somers first heard about Yoshimura and his work with stem cells while writing her book Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness. As part of her research, she interviewed a variety of doctors and specialists, including one who told her about the cell-assisted lipotransfer trials happening in Japan, which by that point had been going on for a few years. The possibility of natural reconstruction intrigued her, so she set out to learn more about how the procedure was done and whether she might make a good candidate, even meeting twice with Yoshimura in Los Angeles and traveling to Korea to consult with Kwang Yul Cha, MD, a leading stem cell researcher and owner of Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles.
After researching cell-assisted lipotransfer, meeting with the appropriate doctors, and talking it over with her family, Somers decided in 2008 to move forward with the surgery. Shortly after, through Yoshimura and Cha, she met Joel Aronowitz, MD, a plastic surgeon at the Cedars-Sinai Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center in Los Angeles and founder of the Breast Preservation Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating women about their surgical options before and after breast cancer treatment. Dr. Aronowitz had gone to Tokyo to observe Yoshimura in action and was hard at work on setting up the University Stem Cell Center in Santa Monica, Calif., a joint project with his colleague James Watson, MD, to provide similar clinical trials in the United States.
Breaking New Ground in the United States With CAL
At the time, there were no such trials already under way in the United States, which meant that Somers would have to either leave the country to get the surgery or push for a new trial stateside. Wanting other women in America to have the same opportunities she had, she chose the latter - and then set about going through all the appropriate hoops and channels to get a trial going in Los Angeles.
Easier said than done. Once it was determined that Aronowitz and his team would perform the procedure at Hollywood Presbyterian, Somers, her surgeons, and the hospital had to begin the long, complicated process of applying for approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB).
"The purpose of the IRB is to protect the individuals who choose to participate in a scientific study involving medical treatment," Aronowitz explains. "When you want to do any experiment, but especially an experiment that involves human participants, the experiment design has to be reviewed by an outside independent body - in this case, made up of lay people, scientists who know about the subject, and doctors at the hospital or institution."
In order to gain approval for the CAL trial, for example, Aronowitz and his team had to submit a written protocol - background about the procedure, the exact materials and methods they would be using, the consent forms they would give participants, and a listing of possible side effects and complications. The board then reviewed the protocol and responded with questions and suggestions, beginning a lengthy process to revise and perfect the design of the experiment.
"The biggest challenges occurred in the years waiting for approval to go forward," Somers says. "But it was very important to me that this all be done legally and correctly."
Her patience paid off. Earlier this year, after months of back and forth between the board and the researchers, the first official CAL trial in the United States was approved for launch. Somers was its inaugural enrollee - the first of a planned 100 participants.
Suzanne Somers' Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer Success Story
Somers' surgery took place last August, three years after she first decided to have the procedure and more than a decade since she'd lost her right breast to cancer. On the day of, she could barely contain her emotions.
"I had spent so many years working and wishing and waiting for this," she recalls. "I felt like it was an important day for me, but more than that, a significant day for all American women faced with the challenge of breast cancer."
Her family was similarly overwhelmed. "I was extremely emotional," says Alan Hamel, Somers' husband of more than 30 years. "I always feel uneasy anytime I hear the word 'surgery' or anytime anyone goes into the hospital, but I felt confident things would go okay. Still, I had moments when I got very teary, and I couldn't put my finger on why at the time. Now that I am a few months away from it, I realize the reason was that Suzanne had waited so long for this to happen - and it was finally going forward."
Adds Somers' daughter-in-law Caroline, who accompanied her into the operating room: "I couldn't help but think of my own mother, who had a radical mastectomy in the 1970s. Like many women, my mother came home with a concave breast and was so humiliated, she couldn't lift her head out of my dad's shoulder. This procedure is so different from what women have been offered in the past - and yet it looks so simple, so advanced, you can't believe it's ever been done any other way."
Watching the surgery, Caroline adds, was one of the most fascinating experiences of her life. The whole procedure took just a couple of hours from start to finish, and most of that time was spent isolating the stem cells and mixing them with Somers' fat, which had been taken from her hip and abdomen via liposuction. The actual "reconstruction" part of the procedure was relatively quick - but dramatic. "In less than 10 minutes, I watched this sad little breast puff up like a balloon," Caroline recalls. "I couldn't believe my eyes. No cutting, no blood, no implant. Just two or three small entrance holes, and suddenly there were two symmetrical breasts."
The surgery was a success. Somers had some soreness and bruising where the fat had been taken (a normal part of the recovery, Aronowitz says), but she felt great otherwise - and she looked great, too. "I couldn't stop showing people," she says of her new breast. "I had to stop that, but it just amazes me every time I look at it. I came out of the ether to see the most beautiful, soft, unscarred, real breast - all me. No foreign objects, no real down time. It's like a big present, 11 years later."
The Future of Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer
Months after the surgery, Somers is still effusive - not just about her new body but also about the procedure itself. "This is a huge step," she says. "Imagine what this will mean to all those women who have had mastectomies and lumpectomies that involve removing all or most of the breast."
Those women, in fact, are a big part of why Somers pursued the procedure in the first place. "Suzanne insisted on doing this in America so it could be available to American women," Caroline says. "Rather than go the safe route with the doctor in Japan who had much more experience, she waited to do it here. And now the door is open."
The door is, indeed, open - but will other women follow Somers through it?
Aronowitz thinks so. Per his proposal to the IRB, he plans to complete the CAL procedure on 100 patients over the next nine months or so, after which he'll tweak his method based on the trial results and start again.
"I'm sure that this treatment will be continued in our practice," he says. "This is really the hot topic. The push for data is beginning in the United States. I hope that our study and Suzanne's tenacity will empower other women to insist on the best option for their situation, too."
The Pros and Cons of Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer
Whether CAL is the best option remains to be seen. But it does have certain advantages over more traditional methods such as implants.
The most obvious benefit, of course, is that there simply is no implant - and thus none of the associated complications, such as leakage, rupture, removal, deflation, or capsular contracture, which refers to the hardening of scar tissue around the foreign body. "[Capsular contracture] is very common after reconstruction, and especially common after radiation," Dr. Aronowitz explains. "In fact, many plastic surgeons will not even offer an implant if the breast has been treated with radiation. It's not widely appreciated, but radiation's effects on the tissues continue to worsen for years after the initial treatment, which means that complications of placing an implant are much higher."
Using your body's own fat means there's little risk of rejection, and because of the added stem cells, there's also less risk of hardening or atrophying after the procedure. Plus, you get to lose undesirable fat in trouble zones like your stomach or thighs and use it to replace potentially cancerous breast tissue.
There's also a difference in appearance. Both implants and TRAM flaps leave some scarring, which isn't an issue with CAL, since there's no cutting involved - the fat is injected. Aronowitz notes, however, that results are best if the skin and nipple are still intact. He advises that women consult with a plastic surgeon even before they go under the knife for a lumpectomy or mastectomy.
"That's a very important point to make," he notes. "Women should be encouraged to seek out these alternatives before they have disfiguring breast surgery." And that's true regardless of what kind of reconstruction they want.
CAL isn't necessarily a replacement for traditional options, Aronowitz explains - just an alternative to them. "I don't think we're going to replace breast implants anytime soon. Nor should we," he says. "But I do think there are a lot of women who have problems with implants or who just don't like the idea of implants. And for them, a cell-assisted lipo transplant may be ideal."
Of course, as with any procedure, there are still some risks. The main concern with CAL is that we don't know the long-term effects or results. The assumption - or hope - is that the stem cells turn into or regrow fatty tissue, but critics say there's really no way to know whether they'll turn into something else. Some worry that the injected cells could become cancerous themselves. Aronowitz says, however, that this is "not likely, since fat, unlike normal breast tissue, almost never becomes cancerous."
Another concern is that microcalcification may occur over time, making it difficult to read mammograms. But studies of tradition fat injections - with which this is also an issue - show that the calcifications that sometimes result are easily differentiated from the small fleck calcifications that mammographers see in breast cancer cases.
Other issues may arise in the future, but for now, Aronowitz says, "I would expect that this procedure will be welcomed as a very positive development and a viable choice for women."
The key word there is choice. Breast reconstruction is a very personal matter, and what's right for one person may not be right for another. "I understand and respect any decision patients choose to make for themselves regarding their health," Somers says. "We all have to make the decision that is right for us and for our bodies."
Find out more about other research involving adult stem cells, such as procedures to reverse heart disease and improve vision. Plus, watch exclusive video of Suzanne's ground-breaking stem-cell breast reconstruction, including interviews with Alan Hamel and Dr.Aronowitz. (Email registration required.)


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That's the premise of GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, a dark, daring, and hilarious new novel by author/filmmaker Pamela Corkey. Read my interview with her below.
If I had to place your novel in a genre it would be really difficult, so can you tell me, in general, how are people categorizing it? Science fiction? Drama? Fantasy? Dark comedy? Literary fiction, or satire with literary fiction underpinnings. It's not quite "laugh-out-loud funny" enough to be categorized as humor, but it is a comedic satire, not a stark social satire the way you would think of Aldous Huxley or Chuck Paliniuk. It's lighter than those works but darker than Irma Bombeck. By a mile.
Were any of those writers on your mind? Aldous Huxley, in particular? No. Actually, I hadn't read Brave New World when I started working on GDP. I read it while I was writing the book just coincidentally. Now, after reading it, Brave New World had a huge impact on me and my thinking in general, but there's no connection to Gross Domestic Product for me.
Something that everybody who's read the book probably wonders: harvesting human fat to solve the oil crisis — where did that completely outlandish premise come from? I think it was just the natural trajectory of a train of thought. You hear about people adapting their car engines to be able to run on the fat from deep fryers — they go collecting that stuff from fast food chains — and I thought, well, what's the difference between the fat of a peanut, the fat of a chicken, and the fat of a person? Once that thought struck me, I considered the fact that we also have this often-commented upon obesity issue in our country — so it all just unraveled from there.
I think that's one of the brilliant things about the book — it takes these two conundrums that we face in our modern world and they dovetail. Right. I discovered as I was writing the book that it was really all about, "What if we solve all our problems. Then what?" Stories are based on conflicts, but I've often been tempted to push past conflict and see what is there to say once they have been resolved. What about society when it's done addressing its shortcomings? What is the meaning of life if we don't have struggles? What would we do with ourselves? I don't know if I answered that question in the book, but it was constantly at the back of my mind while I was writing. What would happen to the human animal if it didn't have to struggle and strive or exert any effort? What then?
That would bring me to the three main characters: Frannie, Derek, and Treyshawn. Why these specific people? Early on, when I was just sort of playing around with what would happen if we really could use human fat as a fuel, I wondered who would get rich and what problems it might solve. And one of the first things I imagined was that poor communities that have a much higher rate of obesity and who struggle the most, those would instantly make out like bandits. Poverty would be eradicated. American poverty is not generally made up of a lot of emaciated people the way it often is in other countries. It's a lot of big people. So I came up with a character who would recognize the opportunity that existed in his own poor community and have the smarts to exploit it.
And that's Treyshawn. Yes, that's Treyshawn. Because he is naturally skinny, he himself can't participate in the process, but he can see how to exploit it. I didn't want him to be a villain, even though he's taking advantage of the situation — I wanted him to be resourceful and caring. I came up with this character who, at the start of the story, is already taking care of everybody. He was born with his eyes wide open and darting around, looking for trouble and trying to preserve himself and those he loves from danger. And I wanted somebody who was immune to the desire to slack off, who didn't have any impulse to slack off. Treyshawn is just a whirring little engine of industriousness and resolve.
Right. He's an admirable character. Of the three, his story is the one that gives us something we traditionally expect from stories in that he follows an arc where he overcomes challenges and hurdles and become stronger and wiser. You chose him explicitly to be the one to grow and change rather than then the other two. Well, none of them really change dramatically. They all come to an understanding with their world and themselves. I guess you're right though – Treyshawn's circumstances certainly change a great deal.
And he also gains a lot of self-confidence that he doesn't have at the beginning. Yes. Absolutely. That's absolutely true.
Can you talk about the other two central characters? Of course. There's Derek. Derek was actually the first character that coalesced. I wanted somebody who would be in the middle of the media-pop-cultural whirlwind of this initiative — the introduction to the American public of Project People Power, which is the name the government creates for the fat-to-fuel program. So it seemed fitting that he would start out as the fattest man in the world. In the book, Derek starts out completely bedridden, living in a trailer, and then he gets a very extreme and dramatic liposuction that sucks him down to the size of a normal person and he's put in commercials to popularize the program. He's not even remotely ready for it. I have a great tenderness for Derek and deep sympathy for his inept attempts at assuaging his pain and fear in this life.
Yeah, and what I would ask you then is, Derek and Franny — you put these poor guys through hell. They're smart and funny people and they're characters that a lot of your readers might identify with, even though they might have some problems that are extreme and pathetic. What would you say to someone who said, "Oh, I wish that Derek had more agency or some kind of way to get out of this horrible situation he's been put in," or maybe, "Why can't Franny grow or be stronger-minded in the end?" Because that isn't who they are and it wasn't what I wanted to explore. I tried to give those two characters a happy ending because I'm a sucker for that, but I didn't want to be disloyal to them or completely manipulative and unrealistic about the psychological profiles I'd created. These three-dimensional characters came to life in my imagination — it's just not what would happen to them. It would be completely out of character for them to grow in those ways. Franny does a lot of two steps forward, one step back, but in the end I try to reward her. I love her because she's the idealist who can't bear to live in this world.
And she struggles when everybody starts to give into this marketing campaign. Yes, because it's the antithesis of everything she holds dear, philosophically. Even though that philosophy is made up for a fantasy franchise. She's trapped in a very mundane life, so she uses her imagination to try to create a simulation of a different world in pure denial of reality.
The place where Franny and Derek do get to have some fun is The Realm (their online game). It seems as if, when the story goes there, Franny and Derek get to escape from their lives, and we as readers can also have fun and fly a little bit, because it's not so heavy like the rest of the chaos that surrounds them. Which is exactly why fantasy worlds are so popular, why people are so drawn to games. A game is just a conflict with no real consequences. A simulated conflict with simulated danger and simulated triumph. It's a lot more compelling than real-life triumphs like, "Oh, fantastic! I found a good parking spot," or, "There are $212 extra dollars in my monthly paycheck so I'm going to be slightly less pinched." The triumphs in our actual lives don't often reach such heights as they do every single day in games like World of Warcraft or a video game like Grand Theft Auto. Most people want to live full lives and just don't know how. Franny is a person who refuses not to live as full a life as she can, if only in her imagination. Most grown-ups give up on their imaginations. Look at the adults in our lives who are dorks who stay invested in childish dreams of adventure and we look at them with pity or mockery, but there's something to be said for the life force of a person who refuses to give up on their make-believe world. It's both sad and beautiful to me.
So have you or do you participate in online gaming? I don't. It doesn't work for me. I can't get into it enough to for the illusion to take hold. Writing is what I do instead.
There's an aspect in your writing that I love, and that is the level of detail that creates a sense of these places and the characters that inhabit them and always makes me think, "She's been there. She knows folks just like this." Have you been to these places you describe? Do you know people like these. Of course I do, yeah. In parts and pieces. I'm a big Star Trek fan and when I was younger I loved it enough to go to conventions, but I didn't go to conventions like a normal dork. I remember one time I dressed up in an Original Trek sort of 60s mod alien outfit of my own invention and several people at the convention were like, "What episode is that from?"
You'd just made it up? Yeah. It was inspired by those campy alien babes, but the conventioneers couldn't wrap their heads around that — to them it was like I wasn't doing it right…I do love alternate realities. I do love imaginary worlds.
So, back to the online gaming: do you think that the things you describe, like the cybersex stuff — does that actually happen? Yes. That happens a lot. It's not something that I have personal experience with but I do know of people who have. People have gotten divorced over virtual cheating, so having consensual text-based sex or jerking off to somebody else's prompts — that's real.
It's just that combining it with the sci-fi/fantasy stuff seems really over the top, but I'm sure you're right.It happens constantly. Thousands of people are doing it right now. As we speak, thousands of people doing it in the greater Houston area.
In this book, you're pretty fearless about tackling topics that other people would consider unmentionable. Anything from farting to deeper social taboos we've been socialized to stay away from. Why is it that you decide to go there? Because I'm a 12-year-old boy. I find those things funny. I think farting is funny. I also find that the most interesting thing is the stuff that nobody wants to talk about. That just seems so obvious to me. If I were in a situation, in a business meeting, say, and somebody had a booger hanging out, the first thing I would say to the person to my left, if I knew them well enough, would be to point out the booger. I find it endlessly interesting to poke at the invisible boundaries that society puts around us. Because they're so flimsy! They're so easy to breach. Another reason is I'm concerned that perhaps other people aren't noticing these things and some of them are really important. Pretending they're not there is keeping us apart. Because if you say that Bradley has a booger, so what? It humanizes him. If you tell Bradley he has a booger and he laughs and asks how long it's been hanging there, then you become closer to each other as human beings. But if Bradley gets really uptight and gets upset, then you know that his sense of self-worth is very fragile and you know that you've humiliated him and then you're not friends with Bradley anymore or maybe you treat him more gently.
Yeah, but when you're writing a book, nobody's going to get hurt. Well… that's not true, but it's tru-ish. I think that I want to say to Bradley, "Hey, man, don't be so upset about the booger thing. It was hilarious — there was something to pay attention to while we were going through all those dry, boring numbers." I want Bradley to know that I see his booger and I like him anyway. How can we be really be enlightened beings if we don't acknowledge our farts? Or our humanity, our frailty, the little weaknesses that plague all of us from the moment we're born.
I want to take the quote, "How can we be enlightened beings if we don't acknowledge our farts," and crochet that onto something. Be my guest. I do have a copyright on that, but I hereby grant you permission. You have to send me a picture of it though.
What's next for Treyshawn and for the world? And what about you, personally? Are you planning to start a new novel? What's next for Treyshawn is I don't know. I think about it all the time. I envision him coming back with an incredibly brilliant scheme to rescue the planet from itself. But I have no idea. See, that doesn't need to be a book. There's no story there. There's just Treyshawn being awesome. What's next for Treyshawn is greatness.
Do Franny and Derek have a baby? Yes.
And what's next for you? I'm working on a web series right now, but I plan to write another book. I have three different story ideas that I am developing and have notes on and I can't decide which one to devote the next several years to. I think it'll be the one that seems like it would be the most fun world to spend all that time in.
Thank you for writing this delightful novel. You're welcome. And thank you for your time and the thought you put into this.
Click Here to purchase GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT on Kindle for only $3.99.


text:
|This is the article on the character. For chapter 620, head to Hashirama Senju.
|editHashirama Senju [1][2][3][4]
|千手柱間 Senju Hashirama
|Volume #14, Naruto Chapter #118
|Naruto Episode #69
|The Last: Naruto the Movie
|Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2
|Naruto Shippūden: UNSG anime cutscenes
|Appears in
|Anime, Manga, Game, Movie
|Voice Actors
|October 23
|Blood type
|Kekkei Genkai
|Ninja Rank
Hashirama Senju (千手柱間, Senju Hashirama) renowned as the God of Shinobi (忍の神, Shinobi no Kami) was a legendary ninja who hailed from the Senju clan that together with the Uchiha clan, established the first shinobi village: Konohagakure. He would later go on to become the village's First Hokage (初代火影, Shodai Hokage, Literally meaning: First or Founding Fire Shadow).
During Hashirama's time as the leader of the Senju, the clan came to be regarded as one of the two most powerful clans in the world, rivalling the renowned battle-oriented Uchiha clan. Because of this, when someone hired the Senju clan, the opposing side would hire the Uchiha clan and vice-versa, causing frequent battles between the two.[6]
Eventually growing tired of the constant fighting, Hashirama and his clan approached the Uchiha and offered a truce with them. Allied with Madara Uchiha and his clan, the two groups founded Konohagakure. When deciding who should become the leader of Konoha, the villagers selected Hashirama over Madara for the title of First Hokage.[7]
Fearing that Hashirama would oppress the Uchiha, Madara left the village, and challenged Hashirama's rule. After an intense battle that included the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Kurama, Hashirama defeated Madara; and Hashirama's wife Mito became Kurama's first jinchūriki by sealing the beast within herself.[8] In the aftermath of their battle, Madara was believed to have been killed, and the resulting battle created what would come to be known as the "Valley of the End". To commemorate the battle, two statues, one of Madara and the other of Hashirama, were carved into the borders of the valley.[9]
During his time as Hokage, Hashirama came into possession of a scroll filled with, among other skills, various kinjutsu, which he sealed away in order to keep the techniques within it a secret.[10] He also defeated Kakuzu, who had been sent to assassinate him by Takigakure.[11] At some point, Hashirama gained control of several tailed beasts. He spread these beasts to other, newly-formed villages in an attempt to maintain peace and equalise the powers between the nations.[12] Thinking about the future of Konoha, he and his younger brother, Tobirama Senju, trained the young Hiruzen Sarutobi. He also lived long enough to meet his granddaughter, Tsunade, and claimed to have spoiled her and been responsible for her gambling habits.[13] Hashirama died shortly after the founding of Konoha in one of the many wars that were raging during this revolutionary era, but not before passing on the title of Hokage to Tobirama.[1]
Hashirama was shown to be a kind and caring person with a deep sense of loyalty, great charisma, and skill in negotiation. He saw the people of Konoha as a part of his own family, and his legacy took a firm root in the village. He was also shown to be a very wise and insightful man, as he passed on great teachings to Hiruzen. It was he who first believed that all Konoha shinobi should show true loyalty to each other, and that a Kage must be willing to put his life on the line for his village to set an example for all others. This belief of his is known as the "Will of Fire". Hashirama also seemed to have a sense of honour regarding his opponents and, despite their rivalry, possessed great respect for Madara Uchiha.
Hashirama was an idealist by nature and always gave people the benefit of the doubt. This was witnessed through the fact that he considered the Uchiha allies after they had formed an alliance and helped found the village. Even when Madara attacked the village, Hashirama did not allow this to colour his view of the other Uchiha in the village. This put him in odds with his brother, who was more of a brash realist who was still wary of the Uchiha, seeing them as as a threat to Konoha despite the fact that Hashirama told his brother to not discriminate against the Uchiha countless times.[14] Hashirama is modest, and is by no means above praising other shinobi. Hashirama praised Itachi Uchiha when told of his feats by Sasuke, and claimed Itachi to be a better shinobi than himself, despite the considerable title he possesses, "The God of Shinobi".[15]
Contrasting somewhat with the expectations people had built up for the man known as the most powerful shinobi to ever live,[16] Hashirama is shown to be a jovial and exuberant person with an interest in gambling. This was displayed after he was reincarnated a second time with his persona left intact as he was barely able to contain his excitement upon learning that there was a Fourth Hokage, taking it as a sign of his village's longevity.[17] He was later shocked, as well as worried when he learned that Tsunade had become the Fifth Hokage due to the fact he spoiled her as a child, even having taught her how to gamble.[13] The dynamics between him and his brother are also quite intense and inverted as Hashirama sometimes succumbed to his more authoritative younger brother's orders.[18] Although he can be fearsome enough to subdue Tobirama when the situation requires it.[19] Hashirama is also shown to be very considerate as he chose to delay his departure to the battlefield to tell Sasuke the truth he requested despite the fact he easily broke Orochimaru's restraint on him.[20]
Hashirama was a tall man with tanned skin, dark eyes and waist-length black hair typically styled in a centre-parted fringe that framed his face, although sometimes he wore it combed-back with two single locks framing his face instead. In most cases, his attire took the form of the standard shinobi dress of his era, consisting of dark red traditional armour — similar to that of samurai — worn over a simple black suit. This armour was constructed from numerous metal plates, formed into multiple protective guards along his body, in particular: chest, shoulders, thighs and forearms. Each collar of his shoulder guards bore the Senju symbol emblazoned on them. This clothing was accompanied by sandals and his village's forehead protector, after its formation. He often time also carried either a single large scroll strapped to his back or several large ones into battle.
While in the village, Hashirama tended to wear the traditional Kage attire consisting of the customary hat and haori over a full-length gown, along with a simple red headband. Otherwise, he wore a light-brown, short-sleeved, kimono shirt with mesh armour underneath, held closed by a red sash, and navy blue pants.
Hashirama is reputed as the most powerful shinobi of his era, his might being so vast that it earned him the title of "God of Shinobi"[5], and having been called the strongest shinobi even by his enemy Madara Uchiha.[21][22] His strength was so greatly respected by the shinobi world that Madara himself claimed Hashirama was the one person whom he most admired and detested, as well as was the only person capable of stopping him.[23][24] Madara mentioned that fighting all five current Kage was trivial compared to his battle with Hashirama, and that with only one of them alive, the landscape would not change as drastically — a reference to the battle between the two that created an entire valley.[25]
Kabuto Yakushi claimed that Hashirama's might was so vast, that there aren't any living shinobi in the current era that could match his level of power. It was such that many considered his prowess to be a mere fairy tale much like the existence of the Sage of the Six Paths.[26] The most common example was his ability to not only fight on equal footing with Madara despite the latter possessing an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and having control of the Nine-Tails, but even gained victory in, and survived the battle. A testament to Hashirama's might was witnessed though his use of a simple burst of his own chakra to deter his brother from attacking, which made the Naka Shrine nearly crumble. He was also able to break Orochimaru's Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation control with relative ease.[27]
Hashirama has shown a high level of taijutsu with prodigious speed and strength, being able to clash and overwhelm Hiruzen Sarutobi alongside his brother despite Hiruzen's considerable taijutsu mastery. He could also clash and counter with Madara Uchiha in taijutsu and both needing to go to ninjutsu soon after due to their physical abilities being near equal.
Medical Ninjutsu
According to Madara, Hashirama was also able to use medical ninjutsu. His skill with which were such that he could heal himself without forming seals, and from the medical ninjutsu that his descendant Tsunade — who is considered to be the greatest medical-nin in the world as it is — has displayed, Madara surmised that his medical techniques were also on an entirely different level.[28] The fact that he could use medical ninjutsu demonstrates that Hashirama likely had excellent chakra control.[22]
Nature Transformation
He was most famous for his unique Wood Release techniques, a kekkei genkai that is a mixture of earth and water-natured chakra that creates this new element. By converting chakra into the source of life, he was able to create trees, causing them to grow to great sizes and manipulate them to diverse shapes and battle uses at will and in an instant, he could shape the entire battlefield for his own uses. This ability appeared to be exclusively his, as no other known member of his clan has ever displayed its use. Even those who obtained this power through unorthodox means, such as Yamato, stated that his use of Wood Release was much weaker in terms of raw power.[29]
He could create massive forests, gigantic flowering trees whose pollen can render a foe unconscious and even wood clones of himself. Madara later stated that he was the only one who could tell the difference between Hashirama and his wood clones with his ocular powers.[30] In his final fight with Madara, Hashirama created a giant wooden dragon that was capable of restraining Kurama by using its immense serpentine body to constrict and absorb its chakra, while countering Kurama's Tailed Beast Ball by using the Wood Release: Wood God Technique to catch the technique and send it right back.[31]
Along with his kekkei genkai, Orochimaru also coveted Hashirama's unique ability to control tailed beasts.[32] Of all his considerable talents, it was this ability in particular that made Hashirama unparalleled in the shinobi world, so much so that he is regarded as one of the few people capable of completely controlling a tailed beast.[33] At one time, he had many of the beasts in his possession.[12] This ability was greatly amplified by his crystal necklace, which Yamato suggested that he required to control even Naruto's partial lapses into tailed forms.[34][35]
Other Skills
As the leader of the Senju clan, Hashirama held tremendous proficiency in many shinobi skills and possessed a considerable understanding of those he did not. He was well-versed in genjutsu and could perform powerful illusions such as the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.[36] He was also quite skilled in kenjutsu and wielded a myriad of swords, one such had a broad, cleaver-like blade.[37][38] In the anime, he showed proficiency with actual use of fūinjutsu, using the Contract Seal to break Madara's control over Kurama.[39] Hashirama also possessed several large scrolls that were roughly his height, presumably to store his weapons.
Part I
Invasion of Konoha Arc
Both he and Tobirama were reincarnated by Orochimaru using the Impure World Reincarnation technique to fight Hiruzen during the invasion, although it is later revealed that due to Orochimaru's lack of mastery of this technique Hashirama and Tobirama were not reincarnated with their full powers. While fully aware of what was going on, and saddened that he would have to fight his former student, Hashirama and his brother were robbed of their free will as a result of a seal employed by Orochimaru into the back of their heads. Hiruzen quickly resolved to kill his masters and used a very powerful fire technique that was easily countered by one of Tobirama's walls of water. It was then turned into an attack that was stopped by Hiruzen's own earth wall.
During the battle, he demonstrated great teamwork and combination attacks with his brother. He also demonstrated his great Wood Release abilities using the Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees to completely alter the terrain they were sealed within. Before the branches can crush Hiruzen, however, he summoned Enma for assistance, and at the same time showed great taijutsu skills clashing with the Third at close range while the latter used the Adamantine Staff. His soul, along with his brother's, was eventually sealed by Hiruzen when he combined the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and the Shadow Clone Technique to extract both of their souls at the same time. Before his soul was completely removed, he and his brother apologised to their former student for the trouble they had caused him.[40]
Part II
Shinobi World War Arc
During Sasuke Uchiha's quest to find answers, Hashirama's soul was freed from inside the stomach of the Shinigami, and subsequently reincarnated with the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation by Orochimaru along with the three Hokage that succeeded him using Zetsu's spore clones as sacrifices.
Reincarnated once more, Hashirama questions Tobirama as he curses Orochimaru before the two noticed Minato as he formally introduced himself to them. Learning that his granddaughter Tsunade is now the Fifth Hokage, he laughed off his apprehensions over if she is the right person to lead their village. He also learned of his younger brother's actions against the Uchiha Clan after his death and voiced his dismay towards both it and Tobirama's apparent disrespect towards Sasuke. It is not until he was addressed directly did Hashirama face Sasuke, who asked him what was the village and the purpose of shinobi. Mulling over the question, and after hearing Sasuke declare that this would decide whether or not he sought revenge on the village, Hashirama was moved to forcefully stop his brother from attacking them nearly collapsing the Naka Shrine in the process. Laughing off the event, Hashirama apologised before telling Sasuke that his brother was a better shinobi even than himself.
Telling the young man that the story was a long one, Hashirama is exasperated to hear that the world was yet again plunged into another war with Madara leading the opposition. Though Orochimaru used his cells to strengthened his hold over the other reincarnated Hokage, Hashirama easily broke from his bonds while telling the shocked Orochimaru that he first intends to give Sasuke his answer to ensure he would not end up like Madara before entering the battle. Taking a seat on the ground, Hashirama contemplated where to begin his story of his battle with Madara at the Valley of the End and the history of their clans.
Because of the heritage of the Senju — who are direct descendants of the Sage of the Six Paths — and the kekkei genkai that he possessed, Hashirama's DNA is highly coveted. During the battle at the Valley of the End where Madara Uchiha was thought to have died, the latter took the opportunity to collect his adversary's cells, using it to create a mindless living clone that produced the artificial life forms that became the White Zetsu Army. When he was reincarnated by Kabuto, Madara revealed that he had also integrated Hashirama's cells into himself which gained him access to the Wood Release kekkei genkai and the Rinnegan.[41][42]
Orochimaru, desiring Hashirama's unique abilities, exhumed the First Hokage's body for his own experiments where he infused sixty child test subjects with cells harvested from his remains, hoping that one would prove able to use Wood Release. Only Yamato survived the process.[43] This act also provided Orochimaru with a genetic sample that he used to reincarnate Hashirama years later, before Hiruzen sealed his mentor's soul away.
Danzō Shimura, using a similar experiment to Orochimaru's, infused his right arm with Hashirama's cells, and then had ten Sharingan embedded on it. This synthesis not only allowed Danzō to access Wood Release, but also use Izanagi for extended periods, and regenerate Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan after using Kotoamatsukami within a relatively short span of time compared to the decade it would've normally taken.[44] Obito also noted that it afforded Danzō the ability to control the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.[45] Obito Uchiha, having been saved by Madara, was indirectly infused with Hashirama's DNA when the destroyed portion of the young Uchiha's body was replaced with artificial material from the living clone of Hashirama. Taking over for Madara, with the aid of the Akatsuki, Obito used the tailed beast chakra sealed within the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path as well as the DNA of Yamato who was later captured, to enhance the White Zetsu army prior to the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War.[46]
But the most positive aspect of the legacy that Hashirama left behind is an ideal known as the Will of Fire, a belief held by most residents of Konohagakure. Through sharing Madara's disdain for him, Obito — while under the guise of Madara — admitted that he has a begrudging respect and admiration for Hashirama and saw Naruto Uzumaki as the heir to Hashirama's ideology while proclaiming that Sasuke Uchiha inherited their clan's hatred.[47]
Video Games
Hashirama Senju is a playable character in the following video games:
|Game name
|Japanese release
|English release
|Naruto Shippūden: Ninja Destiny 2
|24 April 2008
|15 September 2009
|Naruto Shippūden: Ninja Destiny 3
|28 April 2009
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4
|5 April 2007
|24 March 2009
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 5
|20 December 2007
|27 November 2009
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing
|14 July 2016
|24 August 2016
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
|18 April 2013
|5 March 2013
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
|4 February 2016
|9 February 2016
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations
|23 February 2012
|13 March 2012
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
|11 September 2014
|16 September 2014
|Naruto x Boruto: Ninja Voltage
|22 November 2017
|22 November 2017
|Naruto: Shinobi Collection
|Naruto: Shinobi Collection Shippū Ranbu
|27 July 2015
|Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3
|22 December 2005
|25 March 2008
|Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Online
|14 April 2013
|20 July 2015
He is also featured as a support-only character in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.
- 'Hashirama' (柱間) is a Japanese word referring to the space between two pillars. This might be a play on the word 'pillar' (柱, hashira), as the Hokage is said to be the pillar that supports the village. '柱' is also the counter word for gods and buddhas.
- His face on the Hokage Monument has a crack across the bridge of the nose.[48] However, in flashbacks, no such scar is visible.[49][50] This may be due to simple damage as Hiruzen's face on the monument suffered similar damage.
- In the English dub version of the anime, his Wood Release was called "Secret Earth Jutsu" rather than "Wood Style". This was corrected in Shippūden with Yamato.
- Hashirama is the third person revealed to hold the title of "God of Shinobi" (忍の神, Shinobi no Kami), the others being Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Sage of the Six Paths, and is the second man to have gained the title since the latter's time.
- Hashirama, along with Tobirama, Minato, and the Konoha symbol, had his face appear in the ending omake of Shippūden episode 129 within the fireworks.
- In the chapter 238 a portrait of Hashirama and the other Hokage is seen, showing him using a kerchief.
- According to the databook(s):
- His hobbies were bonsai and wood sculpting.
- His desired opponent was Madara Uchiha.
- His favourite food was mushroom mixed soup.
- His favourite phrases were "The vast lands fertile" (大地豊饒, Daichi Hōjō) and "Heaven's garments are without seams" (天衣無縫, Ten'i Muhō). They refer to perfect beauty without any artificial elements.
- (To Hiruzen) "The fellow countrymen of the Konoha make up each part of my body… those of the village believe in me, and I believe in them. That's what it means to be Hokage!"[51]
- "Whenever you live, there will always be war."[52]
- (To Kurama) "Nine-Tails, your power is too great. I cannot let you roam free any longer!"[53]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 First Databook, page 116
- ↑ Second Databook, page 142
- ↑ Third Databook, pages 160-161
- ↑ Fourth Databook, pages 162-167
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Naruto chapter 619, page 1
- ↑ Naruto chapter 399, pages 1-2
- ↑ Naruto chapter 399, pages 3-8
- ↑ Naruto chapter 500, page 6
- ↑ Naruto chapter 399, pages 9-12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 1, page 22
- ↑ Third Databook, page 57
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Naruto chapter 404, page 14
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Naruto chapter 619, page 4
- ↑ Naruto chapter 619, pages 11, 17
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, pages 1-7
- ↑ Naruto chapter 619, pages 4, 6
- ↑ Naruto chapter 619, pages 1-3
- ↑ Naruto chapter 619, pages 5-6
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, pages 4-5
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, page 11
- ↑ Naruto chapter 398, page 17
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Naruto chapter 576, page 15
- ↑ Naruto chapter 576, pages 13-16
- ↑ Naruto chapter 589, page 2
- ↑ Naruto chapter 589, pages 6-7
- ↑ Naruto chapter 575, pages 3-5
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, page 4
- ↑ Naruto chapter 578, pages 6
- ↑ Naruto chapter 297, page 9
- ↑ Naruto chapter 577, page 13
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, page 16
- ↑ Naruto chapter 291, page 15
- ↑ Naruto chapter 458, page 3
- ↑ Naruto chapter 296, page 15
- ↑ Naruto chapter 297, pages 8-9
- ↑ Naruto chapter 122, page 14
- ↑ Naruto chapter 399, pages 10-11
- ↑ Naruto chapter 620, pages 13-14
- ↑ Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations OVA
- ↑ Naruto chapter 123, pages 11-12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 561, pages 8-9
- ↑ Naruto chapter 606, page 13
- ↑ Naruto chapter 291, pages 14-15
- ↑ Naruto chapter 550, page 12
- ↑ Naruto chapter 478, page 16
- ↑ Naruto chapter 512, pages 10-14
- ↑ Naruto chapter 462, pages 14-17
- ↑ Naruto chapter 1, page 4
- ↑ Naruto chapter 239, page 1
- ↑ Naruto chapter 399, page 8
- ↑ Naruto chapter 123, page 14
- ↑ Naruto chapter 118, page 5
- ↑ Naruto chapter 568, page 8


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The biggest winner of Monday night's ice dancing competition never even laced up her skates for the event.
But viewers may recognize her face. She was the brunette with bangs who greeted America's first gold medal winners in the event, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the moment they stepped off the ice. She sat with them as they awaited their scores, alternatively squeezing their hands and waving at the camera.
She did the same with Canadian silver medal winners Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and again with 9th place American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
It's not just that she's friendly. Marina Zoueva coaches them all.
The 57-year-old, who runs an elite Michigan skating school, could bask in the triumphs of each medal winner of the night — even those of Russian ice dancers Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapo, who clinched the bronze.
Born in St. Petersburg, Zoueva once competed on the Soviet ice dancing team before eventually relocating to Canada and later the U.S. In preparation for her homecoming of sorts, Zoueva planned each routine with Russia in mind.
"It was important for me to do a special programme for my mother land country," Zoueva said, according to Reuters."I chose a Russian story for each programme. I wanted to touch the heart of the people."
Davis and White, you may recall, skated to the Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, the story of a sultan's clever wife. Virtue and Moir skated to music by Alexander Glazunov, while the "Shib Sibs" skated to another artist beloved in Russia — Michael Jackson.
"He's really, really popular for Russians, as well. I learned myself the Thriller movements," Zoueva told USA Today. "All my skaters in Russia, they learned Thriller."
The results couldn't have been better for Zoueva, who never made it to the Olympics during her own competitive skating career. Before a home crowd, her carefully constructed routines and trained skaters rose to the top of the podium with fellow Russians coming in third.
Still, she admitted on the eve of competition, that even the best case scenario — one of her teams place first, another second — she would feel some sorrow for the silver medal-winning pair.
"I always so much enjoy for the team that wins and am very sorry – sometimes cry – for the team that lost," Zoueva said, according to NBC Olympics. "For me they are individuals, I keep in my heart both of them."


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Courtesy: University of Pennsylvania
Release: 11/21/2012
Softball Joins Habitat for Humanity
PHILADELPHIA – The softball team worked with Habitat for Humanity last weekend in Pitman, N.J. The Quakers worked on a project that helps build houses for low-income families that otherwise would not be able to afford them. They spent all day Saturday gutting an old home donated for restoration by Parke Bank.
"We helped demolish a backyard porch, gazebo roof, and gutted the inside in preparation for the home to be completely re-fitted and upgraded," said head coach Leslie King.
Two players who were very involved in the process of getting out and helping were seniors Lindsay Mann and Samantha Erosa. They wanted to focus on two things; most importantly they wanted to feel that they were making a difference and giving back to the community, and second, they wanted to bond as a team.
"It's good to get off the field and do some things with the team that's not softball and be reminded that there are bigger things than just the game," said Mann.
Erosa also believes that they made a difference in some family's life by assisting in the construction of their future home. In addition, she believes that process was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for herself and her teammates.
"I feel like our team is just becoming so much closer with each other and being able to spend eight hours in a closed environment like that – helping out the community and giving back – is a great way to build that dynamic and strengthen our bonds with each other," said Erosa.
Once the home is completed, it will be offered interest-free to a low-income family by Habitat. In addition, the team is itching to donate more time to the property in order to see the project through.
Penn will continue to donate its time during spring training at the beginning of March. They will be working with an organization called Give Kids The World.


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Whitby - Home to Captain James Cook and the trails of Count Dracula: Mention Whitby and "holiday resort and fish and chips" come to mind. To the unsuspecting modern day traveller, Whitby presents as a sleepy Victorian holiday resort and fishing town. But, Whitby has a long history as an … [Read more...]
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