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It's official.
Garth Brooks announced plans for a 2014 world tour on "Good Morning America" this morning.
Brooks initially played coy during his interview with Robin Roberts telling her that "it's still a decision that my family has to make" and joked that at 52 "it could be the wheelchair and walker tour."
When Roberts told him that if he wanted to he could make the announcement right then on the show, Brooks seemed to spontaneously take her up on it.
"We're going on a world tour in 2014," said Brooks, who will be coming out of retirement for the tour. "I can't believe I just did that, but you are a doll. It sure feels good to get to throw your hat back in the ring."
The specifics of the tour, including the cities and dates, were not revealed.
Brooks said the timing was right because his youngest daughter would graduate from high school next year and that after talking to his family about it "all of his babies" were OK with the tour.
"So now I get to do what I love to do, which is play music," he said. "I get to be with the person I want to be with, which is Ms. (Trisha) Yearwood."
Brooks released "Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences," a six-disc set that includes covers, his greatest hits and a DVD of his Las Vegas show, two weeks ago.


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This story was corrected at 6 p.m. April 8, 2013. An explanation follows.
Despite objection from the Montgomery County Council, the Maryland General Assembly on Monday passed a bill that will exempt defense firm Lockheed Martin from $450,000 in county hotel taxes.
The bill exempts corporate training centers from hotel rental tax, if those facilities only rent rooms to employees and are not open to the general public. The only such facility is Lockheed Martin's Center for Leadership Excellence in Bethesda.
The Senate passed the bill, 37-9, three weeks ago. The House vote Monday was 102-35.
Before the House vote was final, 12 members of the Montgomery House delegation were in favor, 11 opposed, and one didn't vote. That was before a few delegates in the House changed their votes; it's not clear if any were from Montgomery.
When the Senate voted last month, five Montgomery senators were in favor, and three were opposed.
The Montgomery County Council opposed the bill. Councilman George Leventhal (D-At Large) said it usurps home rule, preventing county officials from determining which taxes are appropriate to levy on businesses in their jurisdiction. There are costs associated with having businesses and facilities in the county, he said.
In 2010, the General Assembly exempted corporate training centers from state sales tax. This year's local tax bill follows up on that exemption,
County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has attempted twice in the past to reimburse the company for past taxes but was thwarted by the council.
The bill was supported by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, the governor and the Department of Business and Economic Development because they say Maryland will be seen as more business-friendly, and other firms could locate their headquarters in the state.
Other organizations, including some unions and Progressive Maryland, have called the bill corporate welfare.
Montgomery County's 7 percent hotel tax brings in about $19 million each year. About $450,000 of that comes from Lockheed's 180-room facility.
Editor's note: The vote counts of the Montgomery delegation were wrong in the original version.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Spiga collection offers chic, modern lighting style for today's living spaces. This contemporary table lamp features a straight, slender column in rust finish leading up to a beautiful drum shade on top. The two light design features pull chain switches that allow for easy independent light control.
Shipping and Delivery Information - For item EU2F015 if ordered by 1 pm Pacific Time


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Bill Cosby, Activism and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"
Follow There is a theory that power (the notion of what it is and what it represents) is trumped by seduction. Chiefly, that power is weaker than seduction because of its irreversibility. A movement or a leader takes a stand … Read More


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Description:Module (Product) : Modular Smart Array SAN Switch 2/8 - Integrated into the Modular Smart Array 1000 (MSA1000) - Optional for Modular Smart Array 500 (MSA500) - Ships with four 2Gbps short wave Small Form Factor (SFP) transceivers installedPart Number(S)
Hewlett-Packard Part# 288247-B21
Overview:MSA SAN Switch 2/8 is the optional MSA SAN Switch 2/8 which can be installed within the msa1000 cabinet offers 2 Gb full fabric performance at an attractive price. A second MSA SAN Switch 2/8 can be installed for redundancy. There are seven pluggable ports available (four SFPs are included). The eight port is directed internally to the controller.
Part Number288247-B21
Products ID15231
Device TypeSwitch
Form FactorPlug-in Module
Weight2.6 lbs
Data Transfer Rate1.06Gbps
Data Link ProtocolFibre Channel
Empty Slots3 x SFP (mini-GBIC)
Occupied Slots4 x SFP (mini-GBIC)
Remote Management ProtocolSNMP, Telnet
Communication ModeFull-duplex
Device TypeSwitch
Enclosure TypePlug-in Module
Installed Modules Qty (Max)4 (Installed) / 7 (Max)
Expansion Slots Total (Free)7 ( 3 ) x SFP (mini-GBIC)


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If you've always fantasised about creating your very own sleek F1 machine to race around the track in, zoom past the chequered flag and be propelled up onto the winner's podium, then it's time to immerse yourself in the "Grand Prix Interactive Zone".
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is pleased to present a brand new ambient interactive experience open to the public at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne from the 2 - 8 March.
This highly innovative technology exhibit gives fans the ability to participate in a series of specialised F1 interactive activities.
The display includes the use of three amazing Formula 1 "configurators"- where users personalise their own ultimate F1 car, interact with F1 race simulators through virtual driving on the Albert Park street circuit and experience 'augmented reality interactivity' through 3-D TVs- without glasses.
The configurator uses gesture-based interaction where users take a digital photo of themselves inside their custom F1 car creation and print out a copy on the spot. Fans can also use a custom video camera to position their face on the winner's podium as 'the hero' with the digital print available to take home as a souvenir.
The F1 simulator is Daytona meets Formula 1, where fans immerse themselves in true to life F1 race simulators. Users can channel their inner Mark Webber to virtually race around the Albert Park track battling it out for the chance to win tickets to 2011 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix. As the competition heats up, the five contenders with the fastest times throughout the week will be rewarded with the opportunity to witness all the thrilling GP action on and off track on the 27th of March.
Using cutting-edge screen technology and 3D production software, crowds will be amazed as they watch F1 cars spin into the crowd, giving onlookers a close as you can get virtual F1 experience.
"This exciting GP Interactive Zone is a brand new way of using the latest technology to personally engage and interact with fans and visitors of all ages about the incredible word of F1- in their own customised way." said Andrew Westacott-Chief Executive Officer, Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
The GP Interactive Zone also features a Red Bull F1 car in its finest 2011 livery for fans to see up close as well as a Porche GT3 and a Formula 5000.
Launching on the 2nd of March, with free entry, daily giveaways, GP tickets up for grabs and awe-inspiring technology available to everyone, the uniquely- designed Grand Prix Interactive Zone is sure to astound all 30,000 plus visitors travelling through Southern Cross Station every peak hour.
Grand Prix Interactive Zone: Southern Cross Station
2-8 March 2011, 7:30am- 7:30pm, Free


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Boxers, Briefs, Bikinis
Under Armour
Helly Hansen
Priceless than $25
$25 - $49.99
$50 - $99.99
$100 and above
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These might replace every pair of underwear you own. Okay, maybe not at $25 a pair, but they are comfortable, lightweight, incredibly fast at wicking away moisture and quick drying. Yep, they are that good. When I purchased my first pair of these in 2009, I would have said $25 is rather expensive for a pair of underwear and would have listed that as a con. Today, as I see other performance underwear being sold for $30-$50, I realize that $25 is reasonable and well worth the investment. If you're… Full review
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Happy Feet
Animation, Family, Comedy
"Happy Feet" is set deep in Antarctica. Into the land of Emperor Penguins, where each needs a heart song to attract a soul mate, a penguin is born who cannot sing. Our hero Mumble, son of Memphis and Norma Jean, is the worst singer in the world. However, as it happens, he is a brilliant tap dancer!
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Brittany Murphy, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Elijah Wood
Produced by: George Miller, Bill Miller, Doug Mitchell
Directed by: George Miller
Written by: George Miller, John Collee, Judy Morris, Warren Coleman
Running time: 1hr 48min
Opens: Nov 17, 2006 Nationwide
|Theaters for Today
Pick a day
on this day.


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Venue: Valencia
Circuit Length: 5.419 Km
Laps: 57
Lap Record: 1:38.683 = 197.687 km/h - Timo Glock (Toyota) 2009
2011 Results
Pole Position: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault); 1:36.975 = 201.169 km/h
1st: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault) 1:39.36.169
2nd: Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 10.891s behind
3rd: Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault), 27.255s behind
Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault); 1:41.852 = 191.536 km/h on Lap 53
Street circuits may not be 'normal' in Formula 1 but you could be forgiven for thinking so: Valencia takes the teams to their third city-centre venue in as many races, and their second visit to Spain in a month and a half. But with a long lap, 25 corners and high temperatures, the harbourside venue in the city's former America's Cup precinct is a very different proposition from Monaco, Montreal and our own Melbourne track.
Valencia is one of the toughest circuits on the brakes, with 18% of the lap spent trying to slow the car down, sometimes from close to 300 km/h. On the other hand, it has a high average speed of around 200 km/h, it's pretty smooth for an urban circuit, and it is more forgiving than the others because it has good run-off areas and the kerbs are not excessively high.
The man who has won there from pole position on the last two visits, Sebastian Vettel, certainly enjoys it. "It's one of the fastest street circuits in Formula One," says Seb. "Overtaking is possible, but only with some risk. The reason is that the air turbulence created by cars driving closely behind each other doesn't disappear as it normally would due to the high walls around the track; you lose grip and, in some extreme cases, you have to lift the throttle."
Team-mate Mark Webber has started alongside Vettel in Valencia for the last two years but 2011 brought the Aussie his only visit to the podium so far. Mark starts his Spanish weekend in fourth place in the World Championship on 79 points, but only eight points cover the top four: Lewis Hamilton (88), Fernando Alonso (86), Vettel (85) and Webber.
Conspicuous by his absence from the top of the standings is Ferrari's Felipe Massa, down in 14th. But the Brazilian won in Valencia from pole position on the teams' first visit in 2008 and will be desperate to achieve a similar result to quell the persistent rumours of his impending departure from Maranello. Still, as Webber puts it, "the amount of speculation around that Ferrari seat, they need about eight cars next year…"
Championship leader Hamilton has been second here on three occasions and has a clear view of what's important: "The circuit is quite tough – it's a very technical track, with lots of slow- to medium-speed corners that require good traction and set-up as well as lots of precision," says the 27-year-old Englishman. "Towards the end of the lap, the track gathers speed and opens up, the sweepers leading to the pits are actually incredibly fast, and they're all about correct placement of the car to ensure you're well placed for the following corner. That's probably the most satisfying part of the lap."
While Lewis leads, Jenson Button in the other McLaren Mercedes languishes in eighth place, 43 points adrift of his teammate. "The last few races haven't delivered the results I'd like," the Melbourne victor admits, "but there are still 13 races to go. We've had seven different winners and no clear championship leader has emerged, so I'll be looking to get a decent result under my belt next weekend in order to get my title bid back on track. Valencia is a track I really enjoy; I've already won on a street circuit this year so I'm definitely optimistic about having a great weekend and picking up the momentum again in the title fight."
Will another street circuit bring another great result for Lotus and Romain Grosjean? Second in Montreal, the 26-year-old is already a Valencia winner: he took out the GP2 support race there last year. He is concerned by the car's relative lack of qualifying performance but otherwise optimistic: "If we have a strong weekend from the start then I think we are capable of fighting for a podium or even a win," he insists.
At the other end of the field, Marussia's Charles Pic has also done well in Valencia with GP2 pole last year. "I'm optimistic that this will give me a good head-start this weekend despite this being my first time round in an F1 car," says the 22-year-old F1 rookie who is still looking for his maiden World Championship point. "So I should be able to spend less time learning the circuit and more time focusing on fine-tuning the car balance."
Last but not least, it's a second opportunity for Spain's only F1 team, HRT, to put on a show for home fans. Narain Karthikeyan sums Valencia up pretty well: "It is our second visit to Spain in just about five weeks but the circuit is as different as it could be compared to Barcelona," says the Indian driver. "It shares some characteristics with Montreal and Monte Carlo, like emphasis on low-speed traction, so I expect our car to do well here. Apart from that, it is a beautiful place and the weather is pretty hot, just like India, but the track itself isn't a huge challenge. Yes the walls are close but the adrenaline factor isn't close to Monaco or even Montreal."


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Take a guess:
Which of the following people is likely to suffer a heart attack?
- Chris Conway, 54, is thin, eats a healthy diet, takes a baby aspirin every day, and exercises regularly.
- Howard Wainer, 66, has diabetes. Until recently, his blood pressure and blood sugar were too high.
- Naomi Atrubin, 79, has already had two heart attacks.
So who's at risk? Surprise—it's all three of them.
Wainer and Atrubin have obvious risk factors, but Conway has to contend with family history—his father had a heart attack in his mid-40s, and died of one at 66. All these people, however, share a common concern about their health: about 1.1 million Americans will suffer a heart attack this year, and some 500,000 will not survive it.
Despite the risks, most people don't understand what causes a heart attack. The common view is that it's simply a plumbing problem—cholesterol builds up, clogging arteries like sludge in a pipe. When an artery supplying blood to the heart becomes completely obstructed, portions of the heart, deprived of oxygen, die. The result is a heart attack, right?
Not quite, say heart experts. Heart disease involves the gradual buildup of plaque. And plaque is like a pus-filled pimple that grows within the walls of arteries. If one of those lesions pops open, a blood clot forms over the spot to seal it and the clot blocks the artery. Other things can stop your heart, but that's what causes a heart attack.
The bigger issue is how to stop it from happening. There's no way to predict where an artery-blocking clot will originate, so prying open a section of an artery with a stent will not necessarily prevent a heart attack. Stents relieve chest pain, but people who have no symptoms—such as Howard Wainer—are better off adhering to tried-and-true measures to slow plaque growth and prevent the lesions from bursting. Those measures, says Peter Libby, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, "are things no one wants to hear: keep your weight down, make physical activity a part of your life, stop smoking if you smoke." And, of course, keep your blood pressure and cholesterol under control, taking medications if necessary.
Few people are following that advice. Twenty-five percent of Americans over age 50 have at least two risk factors, such as high blood-pressure or cholesterol levels, or an elevated blood-sugar level. Only 10 percent of Americans have every risk factor under control.
"In the majority of cases when someone has a heart attack, at least two or three risk factors might have been avoided," says Valentin Fuster, M.D., a cardiologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
In fact, a 50-year-old man with none of the risk factors has only a 5 percent chance over the next 45 years of ever having a heart attack, according to Daniel Levy, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, a federal study of heart disease in Framingham, Massachusetts. But if that man has even one risk factor, such as high cholesterol, his chance of having a heart attack soars to 50 percent. For a woman with no risk factors, the chance of having a heart attack is 8 percent; with just one risk factor, it goes to 38 percent. (Use this calculator to assess your own ten-year risk.)


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|Full Game Replay: Duke 11, Maryland 9
|Condensed Game: Duke 11, Maryland 9
DURHAM, N.C. – Three times the Blue Devils trailed by two or more runs and three times the Duke baseball rallied to tie the game, ultimately defeating Maryland 11-9 Saturday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Down 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth, Duke tallied five-straight base hits with two outs to turn a one-run deficit into a two-run advantage.
Duke fell behind 2-0 in the first and faced deficits of 7-2 and 9-7 before mounting the eighth-inning comeback. After starter Drew Van Orden was touched for five runs in the first two innings, freshman Michael Matuella, sophomore Sarkis Ohanian and sophomore Andrew Istler (3-3) came on in relief and allowed just two earned runs over seven innings. Istler recorded the final four outs of the ball game to close out the victory and pick up his third win of the season.
Redshirt sophomore Chris Marconcini went 3-for-5 with an RBI, while freshman Kenny Koplove also went 3-for-5, adding two RBI and a run scored. One of three Blue Devils with two hits in the contest, sophomore Andy Perez belted a home run and a triple and added four RBI against the Terrapins.
Eight innings elapsed in the series opener before Maryland (24-21, 7-16 ACC) scored the first run of the set, but it was a different story Saturday as the two teams combined for four runs in the opening frame. Right fielder Jordan Hagel singled and scored on a LaMonte Wade triple before Kevin Martir drove in Maryland's second run with a ground ball to second.
Duke (25-21, 9-14 ACC) answered immediately with Perez sending the first pitch he saw over the Blue Monster in left field for his third home run of the season. Junior Jordan Betts and Marconcini roped back-to-back doubles to tie the score at two before Maryland worked out of the inning.
Maryland kept at it in the second and third innings, sending five runs around to take a 7-2 lead. After a leadoff walk and base hit in the second, Jose Cuas, Charlie White and Hagel drove in a run each. The Terps tacked on two more in the third on a two-run double off the bat of shortstop Blake Schmit.
Sophomore Grant McCabe, who had a pair of hits alongside two runs scored and an RBI, walked to begin the bottom of the fourth and Mark Lumpa followed with a double. Koplove knocked in the first of his two RBI with a single before senior Ryan Munger was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Perez proceeded to send a bases-clearing triple to center field, pulling Duke within one. A Jeff Kremer grounder to short allowed Perez to score from third, knotting the score at seven-all.
Two unearned runs in the sixth once again gave Maryland the advantage. After a Duke error put runners at the corners, Hagel drove in one run on a fielder's choice and Wade knocked in the second with a single.
A Matt Berezo pinch-hit RBI single cut the Terps' lead to 9-8 in the seventh, but Maryland right-hander Kevin Mooney (3-2) appeared to be in control in the eighth, striking out the first two Blue Devil batters. Duke's fortunes changed with a Marconcini base knock, the first of five consecutive singles for the Blue Devils. McCabe, Lumpa and Koplove each had a RBI single to give Duke an 11-9 margin heading into the final frame.
A Matt Berezo pinch-hit RBI single cut the Terps' lead to 9-8 in the seventh, but Maryland right-hander Kevin Mooney (3-2) appeared to be in control in the eighth, striking out the first two Blue Devil batters. Duke's fortunes changed with a Marconcini base knock, the first of five consecutive singles for the Blue Devils. McCabe, Lumpa and Koplove each had a RBI single to give Duke an 11-9 margin heading into the final frame.
Istler retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth before a walk and a double put the tying run in scoring position. The Duke right-hander worked out of it, getting Scmit to ground out to third to close out the contest.
Mooney suffered the loss for the Terps, allowing three runs on five hits in 1.1 innings of work. Four Maryland players had multiple hits in the game, led by Andrew Amaro's 3-for-5 performance.
The series finale is set for a 1 p.m., start Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
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|© 2015 - Duke University All rights reserved.


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The Ladykillers posterCopyright by respective production studio and/or distributor. Intended for editorial use only.
Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Tom Hanks, J.K. Simmons, Irma P. Hall, Tzi Ma, Marlon Wayans, Diane Delano, Ryan Hurst, John McConnell, George Wallace
Links: The Ladykillers movie stills


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Cher Tickets
Since the mid-'70s, Cher has been known more for her acting than for her music, although she has continued to record for numerous labels, including Columbia, and in '98 scored an international chart-topping smash with the club-friendly single "Believe." Check out our great selection of Cher concert tickets and order yours today!
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The Resource Finder has powerful filtering features — check out the tutorial to learn more.
BioLogos Basics Video #8: Genetics
Some of the strongest evidence for the common ancestry of all life forms comes from genetics.
From the Archives: Evolution as a Scientific Theory
In common English usage, "theory" means something like "guess" or "hunch". In science, however, a theory is an idea that has stood the test of time.
What does the fossil record show?
Though the fossil record does not include every plant and animal that ever lived, it provides substantial evidence for the common descent of life via evolution. The fossil record is a remarkable gift for the study of nature.
What is Evolution?
The word evolution can be used in many ways, but in biology, it means descent with modification. In other words, small modifications occur at the genetic level (i.e. in DNA) when a new generation descends from its parents. Over many generations these modifications can result in significant differences from the ancestral population.
"Natural" and "Supernatural" are Modern Categories, Not Biblical Ones
When we make distinctions between natural and supernatural activity in Scripture, not only do we push our modern categories into the Bible, but we also limit God's action.
What is the genetic evidence for human evolution?
The more research that is done on DNA, the more evidence we find that all life is related.
Did Newton's God Vanish with the "Gaps" in His Science?
In none of these cases was Newton inserting God into a "gap" into our knowledge that science would someday fill. Rather, his prior belief in God helped him arrive at attitudes and ideas that have unquestionably advanced our understanding of nature.
If God created the universe, what created God?
Many arguments claiming to prove the existence of God have been proposed throughout the centuries. A popular argument is that, since all effects come from causes, there must have been a "first cause" that is outside the material world—an "uncaused cause". The response to many of these arguments, however, is: "If God created the world, what created God?
The Changing Face of Evolutionary Theory?
Is evolution driven mainly by random genetic variation, or are there other factors at play? Michael Burdett reviews the scientific debate.
What makes BioLogos different from Evolutionism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design?
A short guide to where BioLogos fits in the origins debate.
Series: Reviewing "Darwin's Doubt" (11 entries)
Divine Ingenuity and Divine Hiddenness
Divine Hiddenness is the claim that our public evidence is strong enough to make Christian faith reasonable, but not strong enough to make it compelling.
Series: From the Archives: Miracles and Science (5 entries)
Newton, Leibniz, and the Role of God in Planetary Orbits
In the early 1700s, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz famously disagreed about whether God periodically "corrected" the orbits of the planets. Why their disagreement matters for today's debates about God and evolution.
Saturday Science Links: December 6, 2014
Many of this week's science links happen at the wondrous intersection of mystery and discovery.
Series: Reviewing "Darwinism and the Divine" (3 entries)
Pope Francis on Evolution, Creation, and Magic
Pope Francis is reiterating a basic claim in Catholic Christianity: If one acknowledges that God creates by giving creatures not only their existence but also their natures, one can reconcile an evolutionary worldview with the Christian faith.
An Ancient and Dynamic Universe
While reading about and studying the processes that gave rise to this astonishing world, please don't forget that it is beautiful. It is not merely mechanics, but poetry.
God Decides, We Measure
The former chair of the Harvard University physics department muses on how faith gives meaning to his scientific work.


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'Authority Vested' was one of the stranger episodes of Sons of Anarchy to date. For all intents and purposes, it felt like a season finale, albeit quite a sedate one. And the scene a lot of fans ha More »
A recap of "Sons of Anarchy" Season 5, episode 2 "Authority Vested," featuring more great moments for Jimmy Smits and wedding bells for one couple. http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/monkeys-as-critics/posts More »
This episode of Sons of Anarchy focuses on Jax, Chibs and Tig preparing for their upcoming incarceration. While feeling more like a teaser for next week's prison party, the plot's progressing nicely. More »
Pssst, Chibbs: That was a beautiful speech you gave at Jax and Tara's wedding tonight. But while you're praying for God to not close His hand too tightly around the newlyweds, can you pass the same me More »
At this point in its life, beardy biker Sons of Anarchy is on *ahem* cruise control. It's Season 5, and while the individual plotlines differ and the bad guys are different colors, the formula remains More »
What a way for Jax to begin his rule. Damien Pope determined to exact revenge against the SOA and as a result Jax, Chibs, and Tig on their way to jail, where Pope's inside men will no doubt make quic More »
Sons of Anarchy opened season 5 with several brutal deaths at the hands of Damon Pope. In "Authority Vested" SAMCRO is left to deal with the aftermath. It was not enough retribution for Pope to More »
Sons of Anarchy "Authority Vested" Season 5 Episode 2 airs on Tuesday September 18 2012 at 10pm on FX. Episode Synopsis : Jax and SAMCRO are challenged as past sins resurface. Read More... http://www More »


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(EPCOT agriculture intern shows off specially grown Mickey-shaped pumpkin)
Anyone who's ever been to Florida has probably visited Walt Disney World, and if you have – you've hopefully visited EPCOT center, which is by far the most interesting part of the behemoth theme park that covers Orlando, FL. EPCOT stands for "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" and was originally intended to be a futuristic model community based on utopian modernist ideas of communal living, no cars and no private ownership. Much of the design of the park is lifted straight from Buckminster Fuller's ideas and drawings, including the massive geodesic sphere which now houses theme park rides. Sounds like it would be right up Inhabitat's alley, right?
EPCOT'S trademark Bucky Ball
Today EPCOT is just a shadow of its original ambitions – more theme-park than experimental community with lots of roller-coaster rides, creepily antiquated "visions of the future" exhibits with talking animatronic robots, and a global village tourist trap. However, there is still one area of EPCOT where actual experimentation is still taking place — in agricultural technology. EPCOT has several large greenhouses (2.5 million square feet!) which not only produce much of the food for EPCOT inhabitants (including Mickey Mouse shaped vegetables), but has been at the forefront of experiments with high-tech and high-yield indoor plant growing techniques such as hydroponics for years. Mickey-shaped vegetables are just the beginning of the madness I encountered on a recent visit to check out the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow…
I spent the majority of my time at EPCOT hovering around the LAND exhibit and going on behind-the-scenes tours of EPCOT's greenhouses. The entire agri-tech research center area has been re-branded under the rubric of "sustainability" and now includes a public exhibition on agricultural technology and global ecology called 'Living With Land' – a rousing exhibit on farming and agricultural innovation which takes the very 1950's-esque position that humanity can solve its food shortages and environmental problems by improving agricultural technology. I'm not really sure that I buy this, but the exhibit was certainly a fascinating romp through the history of "the future".
First stop on the "Behind the Seeds Tour" was a look at what you can do with vine plants (like tomatoes) when you remove the constraints of gravity. This amazingly huge "Tomato-tree" below, with thousands of ripening tomatoes all on one plant, was achieved simply by providing a matrix of structural support for the entire plant, enabling it to grow much bigger than it ever could under ordinary circumstances where gravity would be weighing it down. I'm guessing that some crazy fertilizer or genetic engineering might have had something to do with the prodigiousness of the plant as well – our intern guide wasn't very clear on the exact nature of the giant tomato plant.
The amazing giant tomato tree
Endless tomatoes
Hydroponic technology was also used copiously throughout the EPCOT greenhouses – growing lettuce, herbs, and a variety of other plants simply out of water and nutrients. You might be thinking to yourself, "So what? What is the benefit of growing vegetables without soil?" Actually there are a lot of benefits to this high-tech growing method. First of all, soil-less hydroponic systems often give plants more nutrition – allowing them to grow faster – while at the same time consuming less energy and space. They use less water than crops grown the natural way, and also allow growers to stack plants closer together and on top of one another, so they are a more efficient way to produce food. Finally, hydroponic crops like lettuce can often be shipped alive in their water solution to their destination, allowing a higher degree of freshness in produce for consumers.
Hydroponic "Nutrient Film Technique" for growing lettuce
Next stop on the "Living With the Land" tour took us up close and personal with stacked gardens. While we love the idea of maximizing space and efficiency by vertically stacking plants, we can't figure out why on earth a greenhouse preaching sustainability uses STYROFOAM pots for all their plants! A precocious 6-year-old boy on my tour apparently noticed the same thing and asked our intern-guide why there was so much styrofoam, since the foam plastic is not biodegradable and not really a "sustainable" choice for an exhibit on sustainability. Our guide, apparently not understanding the implications of the question, explained glibly that EPCOT uses styrofoam because it is cheap, lightweight and easy to toss out in order to get fresh new pots daily. Huh?
The 6-year-old then asked our guide about genetic experimentation, and pretty quickly we all learn that most of the crops within the "Living With The Land" greenhouses are genetically modified. At this point in the tour I'm starting to think that perhaps EPCOT needs to give media training to their interns – because lots of talk about genetically modified crops and copious use of styrofoam "because its cheap and disposable" doesn't exactly paint the rosiest of pictures for an exhibit supposedly about "Living With The Land"
Apparently Nestle Corporation is the main sponsor of this exhibit at EPCOT, which explains some of the questionable claims and dubious greenwashing on display at "Living with the Land." Nestle is, after all, one of those food companies with an infamous track record – second only to big tobacco in the amount of deaths and illness it has caused through aggressively marketing dangerous practices to the public. (As documented in this great article in the Guardian, Nestle is widely known to have caused the deaths of many babies around the world through aggressively pushing their unsafe and unhealthy baby formula as a "better" alternative than breastfeeding to impoverished mothers in the third world.)
Despite all this, however, one thing that EPCOT's greenhouses seem to do pretty well is to grow Mickey-shaped vegetables. Pumpkins growing in plastic Mickey-head-shaped molds were prominently displayed throughout the greenhouses, churning out pumpkins with visible "ears" on either side of their head. We were also fortunate enough to get a look at Mickey cucumbers as well. (The Mickey shape is extruded throughout the length of the cucumber, so that when you slice the lumpy and odd-looking cucumber, each flat slice resembles Mickey Mouse's head). Yowza!
At the end of the day, these Mickey-head franken-vegetables seemed to be the sole remaining raison d'etre of EPCOT's The Land exhibit. While EPCOT's agricultural experiments with hydroponics and IPM were at one time groundbreaking, today the research has been overtaken by the fiscal need to entertain the public. And, in terms of entertainment, EPCOT succeeds on all levels. Walking through greenhouses tasting cucumbers and playing with ladybugs sure beats "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." In my opinion, however, the best part of EPCOT is the history it evokes: the 1950's obsession with the future and the ability to see the world through the idealistic eyes of a more optimistic era – an era that believed technological innovation could solve social ills. All that remains of that world now is a giant Bucky Ball (with a giant detached Mickey arm) and a lot of genetically modified Mickey-shaped vegetables in styrofoam containers.
+ Living With The Land at EPCOT
9 Comments
December 15, 2010 at 8:34 am
Those particular Styrofoam pots are used because they are extremely durable and lightweight. You could probably stand on one without it breaking. And because they stack very well. That same stack setup is used in the International Space Station, so the overall weight of the planters is a concern.
November 19, 2010 at 10:15 pm
A brilliant idea and very educational experience for the young and old. It\'s great to see a partnership between corporate America and the government.
August 9, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I was impressed by this exhibit and it left me wanting more!!
Thank you very very much.
March 29, 2009 at 2:16 pm
The Nestle Exhibit is a wonderful experience, please share what you are able to, it wil be appreciated. I am interested in growing strawberries. Raymond V. Gutierrez
March 25, 2009 at 3:17 pm
How can i lear to plant the tomato tree? where do i find tomato tree if i a wanna buy it?
Irina Pop
March 21, 2009 at 8:23 pm
How can I learn to plant the tomato tree?
Ernestine Grimes
December 30, 2007 at 2:07 am
I visited the behind the scenes agricultural research area when at Epcot. I received a paper on sources for more information. I have misplaced this and would like to obtain a copy. Can you help Me? This was an incredible thing to see.
Barbara Parshley


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" Pa Make Loa :" Touch of Death This episode marked the first part of the NCIS: Los Angeles/Hawaii Five-0 cross-over event that many fans of both shows have been waiting for. This was also the seco More »
There was an " NCIS: LA " crossover on the latest episode of " Hawaii Five-O " (Mon., 10 p.m. ET on CBS) Monday night. In the first half of a two-parter, Special Agents Callen ( Chris O'Donnell ) More »
After watching tonight's episode of Hawaii Five-0 , called "Pa Make Loa" (which means " Touch of Death") all I can say is – more crossovers please! In fact, the only bad thing that I can say about t More »
Watch a preview and check out photos of the upcoming episode of Hawaii Five-0 "Pa Make Loa" Season 2 Episode 21 which airs Monday April 30 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Epis More »


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|Women's Tennis » News » Schedule » Roster » Coaches » Statistics
Women's tennis sweeps Lipscomb, 7-0
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Sunday, March 13, 2011
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Mar. 12, 2011) - The ETSU women's tennis team closed out its weekend homestand with an impressive 7-0 sweep over Lipscomb, Saturday afternoon at the Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center.
"The last couple of days were exactly what we needed in order to build our confidence," said ETSU Assistant Coach Travis Sandlant.
With the victory, the Bucs move to an 6-5 on the year and 3-1 in A-Sun play, while Lipscomb falls to 2-8 and 1-2 in the A-Sun. The Bucs have now won four matches in a row, their longest winning streak of the season.
The Bucs got out to a quick 1-0 victory after taking each of the three doubles matches on the day.
ETSU remained in control throughout singles play as well by taking each of the six matches in straight sets. Junior Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) earned a quick 6-2, 6-0 victory over Elizabeth Keevil at the No. 1 position. Senior Kelly Holtzhausen (Johannesburg, South Africa) rolled past Kara Jackson at the No. 2 position, 6-1, 6-1. Then, Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) won her second straight match after knocking off Alyssa Bellini, 6-2, 6-4.
Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela), Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine), and Andra Voinea (Brasov, Romania) were also victorious for the Bucs on the afternoon. Kedzo and Voinea have both won five matches in a row in singles play, while Navrostska has won four straight.
"We are looking forward to a tough ACC team in Virginia Tech," added Sandlant. "We are hoping to play hard and be rewarded on the scoreboard."
The Bucs close out the weekend tomorrow afternoon at Virginia Tech. The match is set for 1 p.m.
Women's Tennis Archives
2010-11 Women's Tennis


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The Corydon municipal water utility's current base rates were approved in 1997.
To review orders from the rate case, visit the IURC's Electronic Document System and enter docket number 40591.
Municipal sewer/wastewater rates and charges are exempt from IURC oversight, with jurisdiction at the local government level.


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HARLAN — Creston/Orient-Macksburg knocked a team from the unbeaten ranks with a decisive 52-15 victory over Harlan Thursday night.
Despite a lineup missing two varsity regulars, the Panthers won 11 of the 14 matches, picking up bonus points in eight of them, including falls by Tayler Pettit, Keaton Hulett, Gage Cheers and Zack Peppmeier. The Cyclones forfeited to three-time state champion Jake Marlin at 145 pounds.
Harlan fell out of a share of first place in the Hawkeye 10, dropping to 3-1 in the conference and 8-1 overall. Creston/O-M improved to 4-1 and 7-1. League leaders are Glenwood (5-0) and Lewis Central (2-0).
From the regular Panther lineup, 126-pounder Spencer Wray is out for the season with surgery for thumb ligament damage, and 220-pounder Cole Tanner is sidelined by a lingering knee injury that flared up in the December Kansas City Stampede.
Still, the only winners for Harlan were pins by heavyweight Jordan Siebert and running back Chris Hopkins — down to 113 pounds this year — and a decision by Wil Breach at 106 pounds.
Harlan's only rated wrestler, Broghan Kelly ranked seventh at 120 pounds, was defeated by Kruz Adamson, 2-1, as Adamson scored on a reversal with 10 seconds left.
"I thought it was a good victory," coach Darrell Frain said. "Going in, we thought they were favored in five matches, we were favored in five, and four were tossups. The wins by Pettit and Adamson were upsets for us, and we came out OK in the tossups."
Pettit secured a takedown and locked up Nick Kornischuk in a cradle for a 34-second pin at 160 pounds.
With Tanner out, Seth Maitlen moved up to 220 pounds and earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Tyler Johannsen. Cheers moved down to take Wray's spot at 126 and gained a first-period fall. That allowed Joey Huntington to compete at 132, and he racked up a 16-0 technical fall. Zack Peppmeier closed the night with a pin at 138, as Marlin was in the lineup at 145 for the night.
At 113 pounds, Wyatt Thompson had Hopkins in a nearfall predicament, but the Cyclone wrestler bridged, and turned Thompson to his back for the fall.
Action starts at 11 a.m. in the Panther Invitational Saturday, rather than 10 a.m. as previously published. It will most likely be set up in round-robin format, Frain said, but it's possible with enough entries that they could draw up full eight-man championship brackets in each weight class, with finals slated for late afternoon.
Even in round-robin, pairings would be set up for top seeds to meet each other in the final round of the day.
Creston/O-M 52, Harlan 15
145 — Jake Marlin (Cr) by forfeit.
152 — Gavin Leith (Cr) major dec. Caleb Rihner (H), 16-4.
160 — Tayler Pettit (Cr) pinned Nick Kornischuk (H), :34.
170 — Trevor Frain (Cr) major dec. Adam Zaccone (H), 13-3.
182 — Adam Baker (Cr) dec Dallon Bendorf (H), 3-0.
195 — Keaton Hulett (Cr) pinned Cale Stork (H), 4:33.
220 — Seth Maitlen (Cr) dec. Tyler Johannsen (H), 3-2.
285 — Jordan Siebert (H) pinned Nathan Robinson (Cr), 2:32.
106 — Wil Beach (H) dec. Stone Hammons (Cr), 6-2.
113 — Chris Hopkins (H) pinned Wyatt Thompson (Cr), 1:44.
120 — Kruz Adamson (Cr) dec. Broghan Kelly (H), 2-1.
126 — Gage Cheers (Cr) pinned Levi Preston (H), 1:27.
132 — Joey Huntington (Cr) tech. fall Jacob Priester (H), 3:49.
138 — Zack Peppmeier (Cr) pinned Christian Soll (H), 3:08.
Junior varsity
120 — Alex Fargo (Cr) pinned John Fields (H), :57; 132 — Bryce Briley (Cr) pinned Garrett Etlbacher (H), 1:13; 132 — Garret Taylor (Cr) pinned Kyle Travis (H), 1:15; 152 — Jesse Rathe (Cr) pinned Austin Foss (H), 4:25.


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As you break out your woolly socks and warm boots today, don't forget to protect your pet's feet, too! Cold weather poses several unique dangers to your pet's paws and skin.
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And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? -Jesus
A man should never neglect his family for business. -Walt Disney
What's most important in animation is the emotions and the ideas being portrayed. -Ralph Bakshi
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What's your approach to using pencils?
Share your views on the state of the Animation Industry.
5 posts • Page 1 of 1
What's your approach to using pencils?
Col Erase, mechanical pencil, or something else?
I've been roughing BG/prop/character designs for games with my B/2B mechanical pencil for a few years now.
Since the housemate has a baby in the house, and another young child, I can't risk waking them with the electric sharpener duning a nap or at night.
The drawing may be a bit stiffer, but I've probably saved myself a lot of extra noise as well.
Maybe there are really quiet sharpeneers out there, though.
Side note: the one pencil I have is the one I used when working at Wild Brain 12 years ago & have used to this day. Pentel .5 from a Japan w/a cushion grip. A month ago, I was shocked when it snapped in half. Then realized I'd thrown it in anger a while back, and left it in the sun for years.
Taped it back together & am still using it. I might get another eventually... or switch back to Col Erase & move to where I can use it at will.
Re: What's your approach to using pencils?
Been using Col Erase blue for 17 years...although I've been doing a lot of live art demos at shows and jump into a lot of mediums for spontaneous expression...but when I draw on paper I tend to default to col...although, sometimes I feel like the mechanical pencils give me the proper edge and control at all times...mmmmmmm, maybe its time to hybrid the two!
Re: What's your approach to using pencils?
Here's a sample of my pencils with Col Erase...I'm kinda chunky. I draw like a sculpture...throw down mass scribbles of line, erase more then draw..lol..and then fine tune.
This one I scanned into photoshop and added some effects. back ground texture, half tones, cut out FX etc..
People still appreciate pencils. you don't always need to make it clean.
Re: What's your approach to using pencils?
Cool- thanks for the reply.
Re: What's your approach to using pencils?
Great artwork bro. Here's something I did recently in both Col-erase blue and graphite pencils along with black line pen. Contrary to Jeff's situation I have the luxury of using an electric sharpener. I use soft leads like 2B and 4B to get a tone that can be blended with a tissue paper along with blending the blue. I used line where it's needed on top of the tone. One of many ways to use a variety of pencil techniques in art.
Daily Z
5 posts • Page 1 of 1


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this is such a NON STORY!!!
this is such a NON STORY!!!
Peep the angry, screaming female fans in Orchard Park tomorrow night. They'll be throwing tampons at the Dolphin players.
I know Reggie prefers Slam pigs who become famous after making home videos...
Junk you can stop posting that in every thread. We know hicks inhabit Flordia just like they do any state.. not sure why you're trying to insult with that image. I'm sure most of us here agree, that fan is a ****ing moron.
"Any ideology that fundamentally divides one group from another and prevents them from recognizing their common humanity is a problem" - Sam Harris
Fin fan till' the coffin slams!


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Anna Fenninger put everything into her second run to add Silver to the Gold that she won in the Super G. Fenninger did it the hard way in coming from fourth after the first run and very nearly snatched the Gold. With the weather playing a large part in the event: Heavy snow forced the second run to be delayed before rain came into the equation. Tina Maze took the Gold with Viktoria Rebensburg taking the bronze as she tried to defend her 2010 Olympic Gold.
"I'm really stoked for my second run," she said. "If someone had said to me, 'You can go and win two medals', I would have said, 'That would be nice'. After the first (run), I knew at the start I'd have to take a lot of risks. And I did."
Fenninger now has a really positive attitude about these Olympics, in start contrast to her 2010 experience. And it was so nearly a double Gold for Fenninger. As Fenninger stood in the leaders enclosure, the advantage that Maze had over her from the first run ebbed away at each split time: At the start it was 0.85 the lead held by Maze but by the first split this had been reduced to 0.61. The combination of the weather and the rain on the snow meant that Maze had to rely on all her advantage gained from going number 1 on the first run.
Maze lunged for the line at the end of the run and Fenninger had the silver by just 0.07 seconds.
While Maria Hoefl-Riesch pulled out of the race just before the start to allow her health to improve before the Slalom on Friday, Julia Mancuso completed her 2014 Winter Olympics by admitting that she has been having fun: "Coming back from not a great season, it kind of put things in perspective for me about what skiing is about," said Mancuso. "Coming into these Olympics I really wanted a medal. I got a bronze and I, for sure, still want gold. If I can continue skiing well, especially on the speed side, I can get to a place where I can still be fighting for gold medals. At the beginning of the season, I felt there was no way I could come back, but having that magical day makes me want to keep going. … Who says what's a good age (to retire), just got to go for it."
Gold Medal: Tina Maze (SLO)
Silver Medal: Anna Fenninger (AUT)
Bronze Medal: Viktoria Rebensburg (GER)
11. Lizz Goergl (AUT)
14. Anne Sophie Barthet (FRA)
18. Kajsa Kling (SWE)


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There's hundreds of welding Instructables around, many of them quite good. I'm writing this one here to share a technique I've developed that works quite well, even on copper tabs (for which it was designed).
The theory is simple- I've got a handful of ultra-capacitors (2.5 Volts, 2600 Farads) wired in series, then discharged through the material. The devil is, as always, in the details.
Anyone who's tried will tell you copper is a pain to weld- for many of the same reasons you probably *want* to be using it in your project. It's got about five times the thermal conductivity of iron, which basically means you need to pump in a lot more heat to overcome heatsinking. When it comes to resistance welding (which is how spot welding works, unlike other electric welders, which use arcs), you've got even more pain coming- the conductivity is another 5 or 6 times higher. So your welder needs to output 5 times more current just to create the same amount of heat.
Put all this together, and it means you probably need a welder that's over 20 times more powerful than a typical steel spot welder.
Step 1: Bill of Materials
* 4 ultra capacitors.
-I used Maxwell "Boostcap"'s, rated for 2.5V at 2600F. I believe mine are surplus from electric buses regenerative braking systems. I got mine for about $10 each from the Electronics Goldmine (http://www.goldmine-elec.com/), but it seems they're sold out at the moment. You can find them on eBay, too. Make sure they're rated to have low series resistance (in other words, they should be able to provide a lot of current- mine should do 600 amps).
* 3 lengths of heavy gauge wire, with suitable ring terminals on each end. I used scrap I had around- I think it's about 6 gauge, roughly 2 feet long. Each is a different color in my setup.
* thick copper tubing, about 3/8" ID, 1/2" OD. You need two pieces, each about 3 inches long.
* a graphite block(s), enough to yield two pieces about 0.5"x0.5"x3.0"
* two big hunks of copper. I used a 1/2" plate roughly 5"x5", and a cube about 3" to a side. It's not critical.
* Some sort of DC power supply- I used a standard benchtop variable DC supply. It's limited to 3 amps, so charging takes a long time. You could do much better.
* Some means of clamping your electrodes: I used some G-10 fiberglass stock (not the best choice, but fairly temperature resistant and non-conductive), with holes drilled for the electrodes, and a rudimentary hinge. Again, you could do better than my quick-and-dirty solution.
Kinda like using a carbon arc welder
Just some added thoughts for this idea.
I am planning on building one myself soon. Beem trying to fing a resonable priced capaciator for the project as the 1f caps are NOT cheep. Had thought of trying some older computer caps, but rather use 1 cap.
This is a great idea as i could use one for some of the repair work i get.
The tips are another problem finding, Have seen some use thick copper ground to a point. Still working on some other items to use instead.
Keep up the great work and keep us posted on your progress!!
I'd suggest rereading the hyperphysics and wikipedia articles on capacitors:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/capac.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitors
"Capacitors block DC" is a general rule of thumb that fails in this instance. When your physics book says this, it means that they'll block DC over a suitably long timescale- enough for the cap to charge or discharge (i.e. timescales greater than R*C). see, for instance, http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/capchg.html#c1
However, saying that this makes a AA potentially lethal is akin to claiming that a hunk of steel is a deadly weapon because you might be able to turn it into a gun. This is strictly true, yet absurd. In both cases you must actively take several complicated steps, impossible to perform ignorantly or by accident, in order to create this hazard. My system physically cannot pose more of an electrocution threat than a standard 9V battery.
Now, there's a large risk of accidental heating (e.g. you could badly burn yourself by touching a metal watch band or ring across two terminals), but that's not what you're talking about.
I was simply going to solder wires to replacement cells for a cordless drill but the battery vendor scolded me, saying the heat would hurt the cell chemistry. He said they'd rebuild my pack using spot welds. I learned later that this repair would set me back twice what the whole drill kit was worth.
If so, the negative end shouldn't be too tough but the positive will take a bit of thinking.
Based on this and the other links I surveyed, your machine adaptation is less hard than I thought it might be.
I'd do it the same way they do- my same two electrodes, mounted so they are nearly parallel, i.e. with the tips very close to each-other. . Mount the whole thing to a spring-loaded arm that swings down, pushes the tab against the battery, and switch 'er on. Ideally with some precisely timed pulse triggered via foot pedal.
you might have to copy/paste, or just google gouging rod uses
My only thought is that you need a higher voltage than 2.5 V for some reason...
First, power supplies are generally more capable of handling volts than amps- it's easier and cheaper to source 20V @ 2A than 2V @ 20A.
Second, the switching mechanism is ugly due to all the amps you've got. No normal knife switch would handle this sort of thing- you'd weld the contacts. My impression of spark-gaps is that they work for high voltages, not high currents, so I'm not sure how much use they'd be here.
To make a switched version you'll probably need to make your own switches. You want the contacts to have a large surface area, and grease them with a good, conductive grease to help prevent them from trying to weld themselves together.
You could, of course, simply modify your current connection bars to be easily removable for the discharge half of the switch. The charge half could be standard 20A switches since I'm sure you can keep your charging current under that.
There is another project running around building a spot welder out of a microwave transformer. If you have one of those lying around you might be able to tune it to output the voltage you want, and I'm sure it could probably handle the charging current.
However, that would suggest that HarnessedDevilry is claiming to be able to spot-weld 2 *1-inch-thick pieces of a metal that "has about five times the thermal conductivity of iron" AND "5 or 6 times" the electrical conductivity!
My limited (ie. practically non-existent) knowledge suggests this is not likely, so I plugged '25 {mils}' into Waste Of Space's first formula, above, and got a thickness of 0.635 millimeter(s)...


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- Erik Richardson
- Milwaukee, WI
- United States
Teacher, Richardson Ideaworks, Inc.
This conversation is closed.
How do we re-embody the education system?
We are embodied. We are not just minds but our education system (and the cubicle farm waiting at the end of it) treats us as if we are. Exploration and adventure were once ways that the more restless souls among us could break out and push back our frontiers in one way or another. As many of the talks above show, that particular part of our worldview has been lost-even when talking about explorers. (Wolfe's attempt to compare microbiology research to exploits in Egypt or the rainforest are a good encapsulation of that loss.)
As a teacher, I constantly see students who are restless and brilliant but are stifled by being trapped in a room, in a desk, listening, or scribbling words and numbers down on paper. These restless kids are all too often our best thinkers, our future innovators, our Columbuses and our Florence Nightingales; but we hold down their bodies and that holds down their minds. Ken's talk is great, but it misses it's own best point: it's not creativity that saved the dancer - it's recovering the body.
The question is, besides just adding more physical education classes back into the curriculum, how do we create an education system that is embodied? How do we recover physicality to open up our mind's real potential?
Jul 2 2012: Increased parental involvement and accountability for training children. Supplement lessons at school with experiences, doing things as a family, particularly working together. Life involves a lot of work. The sooner this is realized and learned the better.
Decreased time indoors being entertained by whatever.
Learn proactive thought, planning and to weigh the consequences of decisions made. Chess is good for this. Learn that if you are put in a situation where pre-planning or proactive thought can not or did not occur, that staying calm, working through problems, and acting responsibly is the best course of action.
Participate in activities that increase the breadth of your experiences, such as scouting.
Live below your means and expect to earn what you need and want. Understand and employ deferred gratification rather than credit buying whenever possible.
As children get older, identify the subjects they need to learn and ask them to first try and develop a cirriculum to learn the material. Those that can, will move forward with more gusto. Those that cannot will come ask for help and be much more receptive to the curriculum proposed by others before them.
Find opportunities to learn by doing. Take apart simple objects to show how they work. Go around the house to show how systems work and how science is used to make life more enjoyable. Visit city, state and federal government buildings and organizations so the kids understand what it takes to have a particular service or benefit.
Provide opportunities for collaborative and self-paced learning at school. Use projects to teach group behavior lessons as well as science and math.
Visit construction sites and manufacturing facilities to show how things are made.
Encourage volunteering and mentoring at all levels.
Encourage activities that promote self-discipline, hard work, good health, and good citizenship.
I think much of this needs to start at home.
pat gilbert
Jun 30 2012: First of all just to make you mad, get rid of the teachers unions.
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For the most part I think the question is the answer.
Some people are really done with school at about 16 so let them go to work.
I think the subject of education boils down to a balance of the tangible(hands on) and the intangible (ideas that are not directly related to the objects ). An example is 2 brothers who were contractors one who ran the office (intangible) the other brother ran the field (tangible), the brother who ran the office had a hobby of woodwork (tangible) the brother who ran the field had a hobby of computers and reading (intangible ideas). My accountant loves hands on stuff, the Psychologist at local diner goes on about his exploits in construction (which I find quite amusing)
To me the above is the pertinent subject regarding education. Some students crave the intangible some crave the tangible and they change as well.
Jul 1 2012: Interesting ideas. For the record, I'm not in some posh teachers union, and have mixed views about the good/bad of doing away with them. A lot depends on the context and the alternatives being put in place.
You're certainly right about people having different loves/aptitudes/etc, but I don't think our current system really prepares them to make good, informed judgments in that regard.
Jul 1 2012: So you chose because of a passion? I salute you. In Calif the teachers are one of the highest paid with almost the worst scholastic scores (47th) In this context the teacher union is not good.
My main point was aimed at the balance between tangible and intangible which I think goes unnoticed.
Jul 1 2012: Sorry, no time to talk, Pat. Have to get my hands on a job listing for CA. :-D j/k
I think you're right that in our normal lives people try to find more balance. That's harder to do for kids who are in school all day, though, I think - especially in today's world where "go outside and play" is becoming an archaic term.Jul 1 2012: On the other hand look at people who do not go outside and play compared to those who do? There is a lot to be said for out side this too is an area of the tangible verses the intangible.
Joe Walz
Jul 21 2012: I recently listened to an Audio book on "How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci" it was a little cheesy, but got to the root of creative thinking and a good way to go about it. That along with listening to Sir Ken Robinson prior to that, got me thinking about the internet age and how it can transform paradigms. For those who have used Facebook, Craigslist, Meetup.org, and I especially like Couchsurfing.org. These are all free, and they bring people together for a focus (social, commerce, learning/hobby; traveling) they are all cooperatively lead/developed. So with all the news about the indebtness of our country with school debt, I posed the question on facebook:
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"IN this internet age, why isn't there an accredited alternate to the expensive higher education system that we have, one that is co-operatively lead from the bottom up, and not the top down. Anyone can afford this education, and can be replicated throughout the world, so that poor and rich alight can experience and foster their minds to a greater cause. I wonder if this will ever happen. Something I have been thinking about with the great debate about student debt in this country.
Basically if you can boil down what employers like in a college education and re-spin it so that it can be accomplished by a group that is co-operatively lead? I think the internet could be a huge boon for cooperatives and eduation is one of those focuses that it could revolutionize
What I have been thinking about is groups of like minded thinkers wanting to learn subjects (ex. architechture, sculpture) and having them learn from their peers, the information is out there, they just need to have the will and put the time/effort? Perhaps along the way creating portfolio's of there accomplishments, and distinctions from there peers, along with having a way to accredit their efforts. A group of DaVincian thinkers! I hope I see something develop with the new internet age that helps people around the world like these other website
Fritzie -
Jul 21 2012: Outside of the issue of accreditation of degrees, we do have Harvard and MIT's edX just starting up as well as Stanford's Coursera, which is a collaboration that includes Princeton and perhaps a dozen other great universities.
- +1
We have indeed entered an exciting time in first quality, free online education.
These institutions are accredited, of course, but the open programs do not involve awarding of degrees, in part because a degree usually signifies that the student has demonstrated a "passing" level of understanding of course content. Evaluation of how much students have learned rather that what they enrolled for or their attendance requires someone to make that assessment- to read the essays or lab reports. This is where the challenge lies in terms of open availability of cost-free college credentials.Jul 2 2012: As a child...I was one of these "BAD KIDS" always up and moving about. I always did well in all my classes but my teachers were surprised by this fact. They would say "Ryan, how can you listen when you never sit down". I would dance as I did work. Talk while the teacher was talking...you know a modern day rebel (from K-4) I was never sent to gifted classes because I didn't "fit the gifted mold". The great thing about my education though was that I was a pre "No Child Left Behind Act" student for about 5 years of my education!
At my school, I was taught the love of learning, especially the love of reading and was always pushed to be a PROBLEM SOLVER! They told us at this age (I was only about 8 or 9 I believe....a 2nd grader that "THE WORLD NEEDS PROBLEM SOLVERS! WE WANT YOU ALL TO CHANGE THE WORLD!!! AND YOU CAN DO IT!" I never forgot those messages! I never forgot that "I could change the world through problem solving."
I think that this MUST be an emphasis on education. That we challenge our students as soon as possible. That we play the devil's advocate and make our children think outside the box!
Whenever, I get to speak to an educator I always tell them my story. The story of how I became a thinker. As the bad kid that never sat down. Never stopped talking.....unless it was book reading time! =]
Jul 2 2012: Great story. lol that your picture has you up a tree - that's perfect! Actually, sad story with a happy ending. Your teachers encouraged you to solve problems, but sounds like they were still stuck thinking inside the box - so it's good you turned out well. :-D
The trick is to have kids solve problems that sometimes require more than thinking while sitting in a desk.
Jul 2 2012: Agreed and I know not much changes besides my ability to follow social norms. lol
You seem to be on the right path I'm glad there are critical thinking educators! We need more of you Erik! Good luck!Jul 1 2012: Erik, 1) Go to a competent / non-competent system that allows kids to advance at their own speed and remain with their peers for social development. 2) Up grade to 21st century needs and tools. 3) Get the feds and state out of the education business 4) re-think the funding criteria. 5) Stop the accumulation of knowledge and start the application phase. 6) Unions and tenure are part of the problem and were never part of the solution. 7) Do away with textbooks driving education and testing 8) return the power to the district .. all schools do not fit a preconcieved ideas of needs 9) Stop teaching the answer is the goal when application is the correct goal.
On line for profit schools are encroaching on funding for brick and mortar schools. Public schools have built a nest and are raping the system, if they do no change then they wiill disappear and on line will be what is left ... these are now called diploma mills ..... can you guess what they would be like if there were no altenatives.
Eric, I do not see either on line of brick and mortar schools as the problem. I think that the people have lost faith in all of the systems and fail to want to get involved. As an example the parents that show up for parent teachers night are never the one who you need to talk to. Approximately 10 percent of the people are involved in 90 percent of the activities. That must change.
We need to divide curriculums into college prep and manual trades with some common core necessities. There is much to be done or the feds will take over as Arne Duncan has stated is his goal.
I am passionate about the future of education and also out of space.
All the best. Bob.Jul 1 2012: I'm not just talking about another structured class, like a hand-on intro to engineering principles (an awesome substitute for part of the regular science curriculum at every level, btw), but also about physical expression, outdoor exploration, maybe changing how classroom environments are configured, and hands-on learning.
Why don't/can't we give kids the opportunity to use the shop class tools to build a project for math class?
Why don't/can't we include hiking as a part of gym?
Is it really so hard to require living, breathing, green spaces in our classrooms?
Fill out a moon-journal or weather journal, connect kids to the outside world. Don't pretend they magically teleport from a room in their house/apartment to a room inside the school building.
No, 15 minutes is not a real recess and a parking lot is not a playgroud.
Give me more, 'cause that's just barely getting started. :-D
Jul 1 2012: Me thinks that if you focus on the idea that education be directed to application you will solve a lot of what you are talking about.
I remember in high school when they showed a slide show for construction technology I lit up as this was the promise of something I could get my hands on.
I'm not sure that a prerequisite to education is getting mentally squished? As with the librarian or a bookeeper.Jul 2 2012: I love all of your ideas to get kids thinking!
I think that a way that we can restructure the class room is by finding a new way of holding teachers accountable. I grew up in Florida and although my early childhood education was amazing as I got older a thing called the FCAT's came about. A standardized test that you were forced to pass to graduate. This test was taken from elementary school to high school.
I understand holding teachers accountable to make sure the kids are learning at the right speed but from the teachers I know they are losing the freedom to teach in a way that is creative and it's all about passing these tests.
Find a new way to keep teachers accountable and bring back creative teaching!
Example: my uncle is brilliant. Started out in journalism and is now a 5th grade teacher. He has to follow strict regiment of curriculum that stifles his brilliance and love of learning in his class room. He spends so much time trying to sneak fun creative activities into a mundane curriculum that he's starting to feel like his choice to teach was a bad one. We might lose a GREAT TEACHER!
My suggestions are:
-new way of keeping teachers accountable
-bring creativity back into the teachers hands with open approved curriculum (hopefully by a principle not a bureaucrat)
-Put emphasis on critical thinking and innovation in the classroom!
-(Cliche as it sounds) connect problems in the world to things that we students are experiencing today....show TED videos and let students understand issues that we are facing! Even at a young age I feel like some of the videos can connect to the students. Especially the one's on technology. Younger students are much more tech. savvy than most people would like to think!
Everyone loves space!
I want to see less content and more substance in the classroom! More thinking less calculating but you know like everyone I want them to learn stuff too. =]
Jul 23 2012: Research is showing that a little laughter and happiness can have a big impact on performance across a range of subjects and skill sets. (Anyone who hasn't seen Achor's TEDx presentation on happiness really should!) If we can leverage that a little, and give teachers room to put some of the fun back into the process, we might create a snowball effect.
For that to work, though, we also need teachers who-themselves-see that math can be a lot more ice cream and lot less lima beans than they usually see it. That, too, means giving them some room to play with a project or game, rather than racing to slog through another section of the exit expectations grid. (Don't even get me started on that bureaucratic whale-bone corset!)Jul 23 2012: I moved from teaching in a private high school to teaching in a private middle school and thought that I would be free at last from having to prep my students so much in SAT skills. I was thrilled to get the chance to let my middle school students explore all sorts of mathematical relationships outside of the class room as well as build models for bridges, towers, buildings, catapults, etc.......actually PLAY with math. As it turned out, I found myself having to cover too many skills in too little time in order to prepare my students for the SSAT to get them into competitive high schools....which 70-90 percent of my parents wanted!! Changing entrance requirements by eliminating standardized tests would go a long way toward freeing up teaching/mentoring time.
Jul 23 2012: Yes, I think it's sad that we measure teaching success 100% based on math scores on entrance exams and 0% based on whether the students would ever, say, voluntarily tackle a math puzzle in their free time, or look for a creative new way to explain a concept. There's obviously some room to move between 0 and 100, but there's a bootstrap problem, because - as you point out - there are parents and politicians driving the system. Since they don't love or play with math, they don't see the importance. (We could transpose this same point to other disciplines.)Jul 24 2012: Soooo.....given the political clout of the teacher's unions......why can't they act to educate those parents and politicians, and universities to make a more balanced testing/evaluation process?
Jul 29 2012: Because rebuilding/improving the education system is a long-term project and politicians need to show short-term improvements - especially to their corporate supporters who, in turn, have to show short-term improvements to their stockholders. Hence, the tax money disappears into things like tax breaks for new corporations instead of for upgrading teacher salaries/education. When teachers' unions have anywhere near as much power in the political process as multinational corporations, then we will see some change - like you're suggesting.Jul 24 2012: I'm researching how people inspire others about Space. That's because I believe we need to start early. Really early. Young children should be growing up wanting to go into space. And they should be growing up familiar with the incredible wonders of our universe. I'm creating www.jetpackjourneys.com as a way of doing this and I would love anybody here to get in touch and explore ideas with me. I'm starting with an App but I want it to be so much more. Inspiring children about Space is key.Jul 23 2012: Give our students research and presentation assignments that requires them to learn skills along the way but also allows them to freely move, interview, collaborate, in large part just the way an investigative journalist or research scientist might work. Don't just lock them up in a desk for hours at a time memorizing facts in books.
Jul 25 2012: This view of the status quo in schools is extremely out of date. What you propose- research and presentation assignments as well as opportunities to interview and collaborate- have been standard fair in school for decades.
Joe Walz
Jul 21 2012: Think outside the box (classroom), as these cost money to build/upkeep, the paradigm will not shift unless they are recognized via an accredited system, or review, basically something people will trust. Perhaps peer reviewed or expert reviewed or getting it to TED like popularity where everyone can look at their learnings/portfolio and give credit to their hard learning work or project....Jun 30 2012: I'm 17 years old, i live in poland and i had just finished my another year of education and i'm dissapionted. I think it's global problem that the children don't value thing that they are learning. Looking past in my last 10 months is hard for me to remind knowledge that have propability of being usefull in my future life. I belive that we should be learning things like genius reading or improving our memmory, math sholdn't be about repeatly using formulas, but about improving our capability of counting as it is for example presented in Arthur Benjamin's talk in witch he explain his "mathemagic". Five hundred yers ago one man could be specialized in every path of science, right now we have to spend half of our life learning to become specialized in one branch of many fields of science. This is why we have to learn how learn things faster.
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I belive that future of education system is to improve possibilities of our brain , to improve our inteligence.Jun 29 2012: I have heard of a high school that has partnered with local businesses. They have a warehouse next to the school that houses building skills, carpentry, electrical, HVAC. Students at this school spend only part of their time in a class room then they move to the warehouse. To participate in the warehouse, they have to keep up with their studies. All classes they take relate to the hands on learning in the warehouse. So math, English, even history relate to the psychomotor application in the warehouse.
I heard this very third-hand and do not know if this school actually exists but it would be one way to address the problem you identify. Otherwise those kids will drop out.
Jun 29 2012: That could be a great program. The trick would be to make sure it is part of everyone's education, not just the result of separating out college-bound kids versus "shop-class kids."
Linda Taylor
Jun 29 2012: In my experience we have to stop trying to teach everyone the same things in the same manner. It makes no sense. You end up teaching to the herd and the fringes fall away. Amd in my neighborhood, about 50% fall away. You are talking about fringe here.
- +1
If students want to go to college, they should be able to choose that curriculum - or not. If students have no intention of going to school again ever, they should be prepared to contribute to society. But there is no generic curriculum that is going to do both.
You can't teach everyone everything. At least not in 4 years.
Aja B.
Jun 29 2012: I remember being very frustrated by the separation of classes/schedules between the "college bound" vs. "shop class" kids at my large public high school, as a college-bound student who very much wanted to learn more about working with tools/etc. I suppose they just didn't have the resources to offer everything to everybody.
- +1
I ended up having a similar experience in college, though, where there certainly were enough resources to offer an impressive variety of courses to students. I was again very interested in hands-on practical knowledge... as a film student, I wanted to learn to actually MAKE films. I'll never forget the meeting I had with the faculty of the film department near the end of my senior year, when I was told I would have to drop a production class I was taking and replace it with yet another film analysis class... "If you wanted to make films" they said, "why didn't you just go to a trade school?"
From what I've seen, opening classrooms up to different ways of learning is going to take more resources, definitely, but in many cases it's also going to require leaders in education to take a more open-minded approach to what's educationally valuable. Physical or practical knowledge shouldn't always be second-class to theoretical and academic knowledge.


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I'm starting back in the gym tonight. Getting ready to head out now
I'll be updating this weekly to let yall know about my weight loss and what've i've been eating, and what I do in the gym to help me out. By June, I expect to be back in the 200's.
Starting weight as of Feb 7th- 349
edit: I started at 349, not 344. Sorry


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WILCOX – The Elk County American Legion baseball league playoffs will be settled with one deciding game.
Wilcox won 6-2 over Fox Township Tuesday night at Jones Township Community Park to force a game Wednesday night with the winner leaving as the Elk County League champion.
Both teams will be going to the Region 8 tournament in Albion starting this Saturday no matter the result of Wednesday's game.
After receiving certification from state officials, Elk County commissioners on Tuesday honored members of the Elk County Hazardous Materials Response Team for exemplary service to the region.
WETMORE TWP. – A Wilcox man died Tuesday morning after his vehicle flipped on state Route 6 in Wetmore Township.
Charles T. Stahli, 38, of 162 Lawrence St., Wilcox, died Tuesday morning, July 16, 2013 on Rt. 6 east of Kane as the result of injuries received in an early morning automobile accident.
He was born Sept. 3, 1974, son of Pauline Stahli.
He resided in Wilcox all his life and attended Johnsonburg Area High School.
He was a member of St. Anne's Church. He loved hanging out with friends and family, hunting and fishing. He was a very generous uncle to his several nieces and nephews.
He was employed by Ion Technologies for the past two years. He also worked in construction.
JOHNSONBURG – With the cause of Friday's marathon fire at Domtar paper mill in Johnsonburg still unknown, investigators will have even more hurdles to contend with as the tunnel where the fire reportedly originated is still deemed unsafe.
The Ridgway Armory along North Broad Street and the former Pennsylvania Army National Guard weekend training site at 5509 Grant Road will soon be up for sale.
Raymond L. Romaine, age 79, of Whetstone Road, Brockport, died Sunday, July 14, 2013 at his residence.
He was born June 5, 1934 in Clarksburg, W. Va., son of the late Arthur and Denise Jumet Romain.
On July 30, 1955, he married Patricia Ann Wetzel, she survives.
He was a 1953 graduate of Victory High School. He is a lifetime member of the NRA. He was proud to belong to the Pheasants Forever #640 and to help with the organizations Youth Program.
JOHNSONBURG – Crews left the scene at approximately 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning after battling a large fire at Domtar paper mill in Johnsonburg for nearly 20 hours; the blaze broke out early Friday afternoon in a tunnel beneath the chip yard at the mill.
The 2013 Ridgway Firemen's Carnival begins today in Ridgway at the carnival grounds.
WILCOX – Wilcox will be back in the Region 8 tournament.
Wilcox advanced to the Elk County American Legion Baseball League finals with a 4-2 win over St. Marys Sunday afternoon at Jones Township Community Park, assuring Wilcox a spot in the Region 8 tournament.
The first game of the finals will be Tuesday. If Wilcox wins Tuesday, a league championship game will be played Wednesday. Both games will be at Wilcox.
"We're in now," Wilcox coach Jeff Peterson said. "We're in the tournament, that's all that matters now. We can relax and play ball. That was a tough game. Jack's tough."