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Ominous, bass-heavy beats rumble the wall speakers inside a two-story house that's been converted into a music recording studio. SpaceGhostPurrp slowly nods along, pausing to sip from a cup of Gatorade mixed with prescription cough syrup and to puff on a blunt stuffed with California dank.
Dressed in a red hoodie, black skullcap, khaki skinny jeans, and suede Air Force Ones, the 22-year-old bobs hypnotically and raps in a drowsy drawl: "A movie, a movie, finna make a movie/I don't chase no pussy, but these bitches wanna do me."
The eight members of Raider Klan, SpaceGhostPurrp's crew, toss back shots of sizzurp and dance around their sleepy-eyed leader. No one is puff-puff-passing because everybody has his own to toke. A fog of chronic smoke envelops the cramped space.
"I'm feeling good about this movement we've started in Miami," SpaceGhostPurrp rhapsodizes between takes. "I'm trying to show everybody that rappers in Miami are lyrical too. Miami rappers need to turn the fuck up and stop worrying about what other motherfuckers say about us."
Haters or not, there's no question people are talking about SpaceGhostPurrp. His debut album last year won critical acclaim from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to MTV, and the rapper moved crowds at Coachella in April. The album he's recording today might just hit the coveted sweet spot of indie acclaim and hip-hop street cred.
Along with another hugely talented and notably temperamental star named Gunplay, he represents the next wave of Magic City rappers set to follow Rick Ross onto the national stage. The three artists share more in common than just a penchant for gangsta parables — they all hail from the same tiny, damaged section of urban Miami known as Carol City.
Over the past decade, the predominantly black Miami Gardens enclave strafed by drive-by shootings and riven by turf wars over dope holes has also become a world-class breeding ground for future hip-hop hall-of-famers. Before they became international icons, native sons Flo Rida and Rick Ross hustled their craft along Miami Gardens Drive, and their success opened doors for a new generation. Their goal: making Carol City what Compton was to N.W.A. and what the Bronx was to Boogie Down Productions.
But for SpaceGhostPurrp and Gunplay, their turf's violent pedigree is more than just a pose. In the past year, Gunplay has narrowly dodged a long prison term for armed robbery, and SpaceGhostPurrp has instigated fights that ended with shootings. Both rappers openly brag about their decadent substance abuse, start beefs with out-of-town rappers, ignite Twitter wars, and alienate collaborators.
There's little question they've got the talent and the backing to follow the Bawse's tracks in etching Carol City onto the hip-hop map — if they don't flame out first, that is.
"Coming out of Carol City is hard," says Kadafi Tunsil, chief executive of SpaceGhostPurrp's Raider Klan label. "We've been overlooked. Rick Ross has been rapping for a long time and just started to make his impact. Purrp wants to show everybody in the music industry that Miami, especially Carol City, has talent. We have rappers who can spit and who can really turn up."
To understand Carol City's up-and-coming stars — and the dangerous, violent line they skirt — dig first into the turbulent neighborhood that created them.
Founded in the '60s as Coral City, the eight-square-mile town was mostly farmland. After some rumblings from Coral Gables that visitors might confuse their names, community leaders agreed to become Carol City. By the early '70s, integration at Carol City Senior High attracted middle-class African-American families who saw an attractive refuge from poverty-ridden blocks in the inner city.
"Carol City was the last place in northern Miami-Dade County where black folk moved to escape places like Liberty City, Brownsville, Overtown, and even neighboring Opa-locka," says Khalil Amani, a hip-hop writer and Carol City native.
Ben Bell and his family moved to Carol City a decade after Amani. "The neighbors in the houses next to ours were rednecks," the 48-year-old founder of M.I. Yayo Music Group recalls. "And Arthur McDuffie and his family lived across the street."
Oddly, it was McDuffie's death at the hands of police — and the vicious riots that followed — that helped cement Carol City's status as a safe place for black families. On December 21, 1979, McDuffie was beaten to death by four white Metro-Dade police officers after a high-speed chase. When a Tampa jury acquitted the officers a year later, race riots tore apart Overtown and Liberty City. But Carol City was unscathed.
As more black households moved in, Miami's homegrown hip-hop culture followed. In the late '70s, when New York kids were starting to bug out to Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, Miami's youths found a rap hybrid known as freestyle, which combined catchy pop lyrics with hard scratches and thunderous bass beats.
One of freestyle's godfathers, Garfield Baker, was born and raised in Carol City. In his late teens, Baker co-wrote the hit "Don't Stop the Rock" for his aptly named group, Freestyle. "The first niggas that was makin' records from Carol City was us," Baker boasts. "The DJs used to come out there, set up the music, they bammin', we high, we drunk, the music just gettin' in you."
Baker's career was cut short when he went to prison, though, and no one in Carol City took his place. "Hip-hop was more of a New York thing," Amani says. "I don't remember any rap groups from Miami outside of 2 Live Crew trying to get things popping."
By the late '80s, Carol City's image as a safe haven for African-American families began to crumble. White flight, an influx of low-income projects, and a growing drug trade sent property tax revenues plummeting to the third lowest in Dade. Then, in 1993, Carol City was torn apart by a turf war between the homegrown Boobie Boys, Liberty City's John Doe Boys, and Vonda's Gang in Overtown. The street battle raged for five years, leaving 61 dead and 36 wounded in shootouts.
The violence, which began with an attempted hit on Boobie Boys leader Kenneth Williams, rivaled the battles tearing up Mexico today. Killers donned ski masks, camouflage, and body armor. Victims were riddled with as many as 99 rounds, while others were shot execution-style. It took the feds until 1998 to stem the bloodshed, when they at last busted up the gangs by leveling mass racketeering, drug conspiracy, and murder indictments.
That's the Carol City that SpaceGhost and Gunplay knew as kids. But amid the carnage, the two musicians also watched a hip-hop renaissance. Long identified by the party anthems made famous by Luther Campbell and 2 Live Crew, Miami by the late '90s saw new artists hailing from Liberty City, such as JT Money, Trina, and Trick Daddy (whose older brother was one of the Boobie Boys' victims), who brought a harder street edge.
A pair of Carol City siblings named Elric "E-Class" Prince and Elvin "Big Chuck" Prince helped put the neighborhood front and center by founding Poe Boy Music Group and launching the careers of Opa-locka's Brisco and Liberty City's Jackie-O. Poe Boy truly caught fire in 2006, when E-Class took a chance on a heavyset Carol City native with a melodic voice and gritty tales of moving bricks of Bolivian marching powder.
William Leonard Roberts II shed his street-cred-killing past as a state correctional officer to become the self-proclaimed Teflon Don of rap, appropriating the name of a legendary Los Angeles cocaine hustler. E-Class takes credit for getting Rick Ross a multimillion-dollar, multialbum record deal with Def Jam that began with the platinum-selling 2006 debut, Port of Miami.
Two years later, Poe Boy ushered in another Carol City success, Flo Rida, whose 2008 record, Mail on Sunday, had three singles spend ten weeks each in the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. "Low" is still among the most successful digital downloaded singles ever. Poe Boy is now pushing another breakout Carol City star, female rapper Brianna Perry.
Ross, meanwhile, conquered the gangsta rap subgenre. Even being outed as a fraud in 2008 — when website MediaTakeout released photos of Ross during his 18-month stint as a Florida prison guard — couldn't stop the Bawse's claim to hip-hop's throne. Last year, he was the first artist signed to Diddy's management company, Circo Entertainment. MTV named Ross the hottest MC in the game.
"It's amazing, as far as hip-hop is concerned, all the talent that is coming out of Carol City," Amani says. "These days, there is a rapper on every corner."
When the gunshots rang out, Markese Rolle was chatting on the phone with his girlfriend and watching BET's hip-hop awards show. It was Father's Day 2009. Suddenly, seven shots popped over the TV set's drone. Peering cautiously out the window of his grandma's Carol City home, Markese watched his neighbor jump a fence, collapse into a heap, and quickly bleed out.
"It was some crazy shit," recalls Markese, better known today as SpaceGhostPurrp. "His body was lying by my window for like five hours. When they went to pick him up, his head hit the concrete. It sounded hard as a rock 'cause he was so cold."
Later that evening, as he lay in bed, SpaceGhostPurrp felt the dead neighbor's presence. "I knew him," he says. "He was a good nigga with a baby girl on the way. When I went to sleep that night, I could feel his spirit floating around my room."
That violence laid the foundation for his metamorphosis into SpaceGhostPurrp, a dark, brooding MC who speaks a semisecret language that substitutes geometric shapes and arcane symbols for letters and numbers. The then-18-year-old began spitting lyrics in his signature low voice that sounds like a poltergeist communicating with the earthly plane. Onstage, he began donning all-black clothes, thick gold chains, and gold caps on his teeth, like a wraith collecting souls on the streets of Carol City.
"Everything I seen growing up," SpaceGhostPurrp says, "the things I been through in my life, mentally and emotionally, I put it all in my music."
Born on April Fool's Day 1991, SpaceGhostPurrp has roots in Carol City that run deep. His mom, Sunnie Morrison, is the youngest of 12 children whose parents bought a house in the neighborhood more than 30 years ago. "We've lived in Carol City since I was in the fifth grade," Morrison says. "We have always been a close family, always doing things together, from making music to doing weekly fish fries."
Morrison moved back in with her mother shortly after Markese was born. She and the baby lived in the garage, which had been converted into a two-bedroom efficiency. When Carol City's gang war exploded, it soon hit close to home. Morrison's ex-boyfriend and Markese's father, Mark Rolle, was a member of Opa-locka's 22nd Avenue Gang. Her brother and nephew were locked up for roles in the Boobie Boys' crimes.
Markese clung to hip-hop, eschewing the bloodshed for beats with his cousin, Kadafi (now the chief exec of Raider Klan's record label), and DoughX2, now an impish rapper in SpaceGhostPurrp's crew.
"I was 7 years old when I started rapping," SpaceGhostPurrp says. "Me and Dough Dough would freestyle for Kadafi and his friends at our grandma's house. We used to spit 1,000 bars in an hour."
Kadafi, now a slender 31-year-old with a bushy beard and dreadlocks, remembers their nonstop rap battles. "It would go on all day," he says. "We could be walking to the corner store and they'd go at it."
When he was a student at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines, though, Markese got into heavy metal, skateboarding, and painting his fingernails black. "A nigga goes through a time in his life when he's not doing what everybody else is doing," he says. "Back then, a nigga riding a skateboard in Carol City or any black neighborhood in Miami was considered lame. But shit, I still blended in with everybody."
His mom at the time was trying to build her own career as a rapper, working with Miami hip-hop artist and producer Disco Rick, who was then cutting tracks for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. "I'd bring Markese with me to the studio," Morrison says. "He'd just sit and watch Disco Rick work the engineering board. It definitely got Markese's attention."
Morrison's musical dreams fizzled because she didn't want to rap about Carol City's street violence. "I tried to go that route, but it wasn't me," she says.
Drifting into the hip-hop scene so early wasn't all positive for Markese, though. He was only 13 when he began experimenting with marijuana and purple drank.
In 2006, when he was 15, Purrp, Kadafi, DoughX2, and another friend, Ladarius Frazer, who went by "Y.M.F. Jitt," established Raider Klan. They holed up in a one-bedroom apartment near Ives Dairy Road where SpaceGhostPurrp made beats on his laptop. At the time, Markese went by his producer name, Muney Jordan, a nod to basketball god Michael Jordan.
The crew was tight and helped Markese develop his unique style. But their world was jolted on March 13, 2010. Frazer was playing dice in Carol City Park when an argument erupted. Someone pulled a gun and shot him dead. "We had a vision. We had a dream," SpaceGhostPurrp says. "But he just ended up on the wrong path."
Six months later, after graduating from Everglades High School, Markese adopted his SpaceGhostPurrp moniker and released his first mixtape, NASA. "He's just like the character from Adult Swim, except he's black instead of white, has golds in his mouth, and a cup of lean in his hand," he says of his new identity.
Between 2010 and 2011, SpaceGhostPurrp released four mixtapes, making beats in his bedroom at grandma's house. Other rappers took note, including California's Kreayshawn, who turned other artists onto him. "She let everybody in Los Angeles hear my shit," SpaceGhostPurrp says. "Then Odd Future heard my shit," he says, referring to the collective led by Tyler the Creator at the vanguard of the indie rap scene.
"[They] started playing it at their shows," he says. "Before I knew it, I had niggas looking for me on Twitter."
His Twitter followers hooked him up with Juicy J, the Memphis rapper and member of Three 6 Mafia. SpaceGhostPurrp also linked up with New York City up-and-comer A$AP Rocky. "Once Purrp did his first show in New York, he really took off," Kadafi says. "People fell in love with his Miami persona — the all-black clothes, the black hoodie, and the golds in his mouth."
By the beginning of 2012, Raider Klan had ballooned from three members to 12 apostles, and SpaceGhostPurrp had signed a deal with British indie label 4AD. In June of that year, he released his full-length Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp to rave reviews. Pitchfork gave it an 8 out of 10, praising it for celebrating the "weirdest, unprecedented mutations of hip-hop."
The rapper and his crew toured Europe and the West Coast. But by last fall, some observers thought the fame was getting to SpaceGhostPurrp's head. He got into a childish squabble with onetime pal A$AP Rocky and accused a member of his crew of jumping Raider Klan homeboy Matt Stoops in New York.
After exchanging threats via dis tracks and interviews with MTV, the animosity came to a head November 8, 2012, when A$AP Rocky performed at the Fillmore Miami Beach. SpaceGhostPurrp and the Raider Klan began shouting insults and heckling A$AP Rocky, who looked out into the crowd and yelled, "Shut the fuck up!"
When the show was over, the crews collided outside. The melee ended when four gunshots rattled the air, scattering the crowd. A Miami Beach Police gang detective then handcuffed SpaceGhostPurrp, but the rapper avoided arrest.
Two months later, on January 26, he found himself in another altercation following a show. After he performed at Grand Central in downtown Miami, two witnesses told Miami Police they saw the rapper aim and fire a gun at a group of people outside. An officer stopped him near North Miami Avenue and Seventh Street and found SpaceGhostPurrp holding a silver pistol. The rapper denied firing it, but he was arrested on two felony counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and discharging a gun in public. The charges were dropped a month later.
Today, SpaceGhostPurrp says he is done acting like a goon. "I feel all this rap beef shit has slowed things down for me," he says. "The shit backfired on me. Kids don't care about that shit. All they care about is the hottest songs and who is putting out good music."
Dragging on a Newport menthol, Gunplay leans forward in a lawn chair in the backyard of a beige house with a red brick portico in west Pembroke Pines. For the past four hours, the menacing rhyme-slayer with long dreads and bloodshot eyes has been locked in a room while cutting and slicing a song for his upcoming debut album, Medellin.
It's been seven months since Miami-Dade prosecutors dropped armed robbery and aggravated assault charges that could have sent the Carol City rapper to jail for the rest of his life. Every day since then, Gunplay has tried to shed some of his thug past. Once poised on the edge of national success and coming so close to losing it, he won't let it slip away again.
"I am in a transition right now from the streets to being in the music industry full-time," he says. "Shit is real hard. A lot of niggas get in the industry but are still stuck in the streets. A lot of people don't make it."
He is on the cusp of becoming the next gangsta rapper to come out of the neighborhood. Mainstream outlets from Rolling Stone to Grantland can't get enough of a bugged-out Gunplay spitting rhymes with a rapid-fire deep baritone that reminds hip-hop heads of Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man.
Gunplay is close to joining Rick Ross on center stage. All he has to do is keep his volatile street persona in check. But "that's extremely hard to do," he concedes.
He was born Richard Welton Morales Jr. on July 18, 1979, in El Paso, Texas. "Nah, man, I'm Rachet," Gunplay jests. "Call me Rachet Morales." His Jamaican mother and Puerto Rican father are New York natives who met while serving in the Army. His parents divorced in 1982, when he was 3.
When he turned 10, he and his mother moved to Miramar. She worked two jobs, making it difficult for her to keep tabs on him. Gunplay was 13 the first time he was arrested, for retaliating against a bunch of white kids who had pelted him using slingshots. He started smoking weed around the same time. Two years later, he dropped out of Miramar Senior High because he was told he had to repeat ninth grade.
"They said I didn't have enough credits because I never went to class my freshman year," he says. "I just hung out in Carol City, hustling in the streets."
At 16, he was selling $5 and $10 baggies of cocaine and marijuana. "I sold a little here and there to pay bills," he says. "Nothing major." He used some of the cash from his drug sales to buy a small voice recorder to tape himself freestyle rapping.
"When I got a little more money, I bought myself a sampler," he says. "I'd sample a beat and write lyrics to that beat all day."
He studied Busta Rhymes and Wu-Tang Clan and mimicked them in his bedroom mirror.
"I did my homework on every aspect of hip-hop," he says, incorporating gritty events he witnessed in real life. "I seen a nigga get his head bashed in with a bat," he growls. "I seen motherfuckers get shot up in their cars on the highway. I seen slimy hos set a nigga up to get robbed. If you really listen to my music, you realize this is what I am rapping about."
As he got deeper into the drug game, though, Gunplay forgot to follow Ice Cube's advice in the N.W.A. classic "Dopeman" about not getting high on your own supply. By the time he turned 18, he was spending $600 to $700 a week on drugs. "All my homies sold it; nobody really did it," he says. "But I didn't give a fuck."
His life changed in 1997 when he met an overweight former state corrections officer named William Leonard Roberts II. "He would just be swerving through the hood, hanging out in Carol City," Gunplay says. "We just clicked. He took me under his wing."
As Roberts transformed into Rick Ross, Gunplay — alongside fellow Carol City rappers Torch and Young Breed — formed the group Triple C's, short for "Carol City Cartel." He supported Ross during the Bawse's lean years, driving with him up and down I-95, hitting strip clubs, and sleeping in $30-a-night hooker motels while hustling mixtapes.
In 2004, Gunplay married a 23-year-old Bahamian woman named Phillippa Tanya McCartney. But the union didn't last long. The couple divorced four years later and share custody of their 8-year-old son, Richard III. (Gunplay also has a daughter with his current squeeze.)
After Ross' breakout 2006 hit, "Hustlin'," Gunplay quit his day job at KB Toys but kept peddling nickel and dime bags. And his own drug use intensified. During a photo shoot for Ozone magazine a year later, he swallowed a Molotov cocktail of Ecstasy, purple drank, yeyo, weed, and Xanax. "That day, I told myself my new name is Five-Drug Minimum," Gunplay says proudly.
His drug-related criminal history is surprisingly bare. He was popped in 2001 on two felony counts of weed possession and tampering with evidence, but one charge was dropped and the other withheld from adjudication; in 2009, he was busted in Pembroke Pines for illegal possession of a firearm and misdemeanor pot possession, which landed him two years of probation.
But onstage he became a caricature. He was the goon in Ross' entourage, the guy responsible for procuring ganja buds and starting beefs. In 2009, a visibly inebriated Gunplay called out 50 Cent in a grainy cell phone video posted on You Tube. During concerts, he often looked like he just cleaned out a Walgreens pharmacy counter.
Yet Gunplay believed he could make his own mark as a rapper and not a character. In 2010, he scored his first commercial hit, "Rollin'," a gangster party anthem with Waka Flocka Flame. In early 2012, he won over critics and mainstream listeners with his bars on Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar's "Cartoon & Cereal."
The rapper also got press for his outlandish ink, including a swastika he unapologetically had etched into his upper back. In an interview with hip-hop blog Pigeons & Planes, he summed up the tat as his "symbol of genocide to the bullshit. Mass murdering the bullshit... I came to Hitler, that motherfucker."
His headline-baiting personality and powerful delivery led Def Jam to sign him.
Then, last spring, it all began unraveling. On April 14, 2012, Gunplay was caught on a security camera pulling a semiautomatic pistol on a North Miami accountant named Turron Woodside and grabbing him by the throat. When the rapper's friend Randy Devon Jones tried to intervene, Gunplay bitch-slapped Woodside in the face with the butt of the gun. Before fleeing, he snatched a diamond necklace off the bean counter's desk.
A month later, in March 2012, Miami-Dade prosecutors viewed that same security tape and filed armed robbery and aggravated assault charges. Even worse, the footage made the rounds on the internet, from TMZ to WorldStarHipHop. Gunplay's side of the story goes like this: Woodside had cheated him out of money. His volatile reaction was exactly what you'd expect from a Carol City rough rider.
Facing serious time in prison, Gunplay did what came naturally: He got out of Dodge. He spent five months shacked up in a flophouse in Atlanta and released a mixtape on the sly featuring his deepest song to date, "Bible on the Dash." The song's hook explains his state of mind: "I got a problem and a plan, revolver in my hand/Trying to keep it cold, but y'all don't understand."
Eventually, though, he took his lawyer's advice and returned to Miami, turning himself in to police October 10. He was released on a $150,000 bond and placed on house arrest, and spent the next three months making new tracks, playing Xbox, and contemplating the life sentence hanging over his head.
His trial was set to begin this past February. But before jury selection, prosecutors dropped the charges. Woodside had left town and refused to continue cooperating.
Gunplay insists he's become a better person through the ordeal. "I've realized I can't deal with niggas like I normally deal with them in the hood," he says. "If you put words in my mouth, I can't punch you in the mouth, break your kneecaps, or do any other stupid shit."
Before he heads back inside to record another track, Gunplay shows off his newest tattoo: a razor blade slicing his left wrist, and blood pouring out of his vein.
"It means the old me is dead," he says. "The stubborn, disrespectful motherfucker who got money one day only to be broke the next is gone. I stopped not giving a fuck all the time. Sometimes, you have to give a fuck."
Ben Bell rides through the parking lot of a dilapidated public apartment complex at NW 185th Street and 29th Avenue. He points at a crumbling façade.
"These apartments used to be called the 'pink and white buildings," the Carol City music producer says. "This is where Flo Rida was born and raised. He shot one of his videos over by the basketball court."
The CD player in Bell's beat-up white Chevrolet Caprice blasts tracks by one of his own artists, Beast Mode. "Carol City was once a thriving middle-class, mixed-race community," he rhapsodizes. "Now we've got countless murders on a daily basis, and the crime rate is at an all-time high."
As its native sons teeter between violence, prison, and rap greatness, the town that birthed them is still fighting its own struggle for stability. More than a decade after its gang wars ended, Carol City has never come close to regaining its distinction as a safe middle-class black neighborhood.
In 2003, Carol City became part of the newly incorporated Miami Gardens. But the killings continued. By 2011, Miami Gardens was second in murders per capita in the county, with 24 killings, trailing only nearby Opa-locka. The next year, Miami Gardens notched 25 more homicides. By comparison, Hialeah, which has roughly double Miami Gardens' population of 110,000, had just four murders in 2011 and seven in 2012.
The crimes are often just as gruesome as the gangland killings of old. In a 32-hour span last month, unknown shooters killed a 12-year-old girl and injured her grandmother near their home on 42nd Avenue. Two other men were critically wounded in a hail of gunfire while they were at a McDonald's drive-thru at NW 27th Avenue and 183rd Street.
Bell wishes Carol City's success stories would do more to build up the community. "You can divert a lot of that negative energy into something positive," he opines.
For now, SpaceGhostPurrp and Gunplay might be too focused on beating their own demons and notching hip-hop success to worry about their hometown's fate.
After his two run-ins with the police this past November and January, SpaceGhostPurrp and his Raider Klan signed with the William Morris talent agency, which booked them for gigs at Ultra Music Festival in downtown Miami in March and Coachella in April.
But SpaceGhost's prospects have taken lumps in recent months. In June, hip-hop blogs buzzed with the news that he'd parted ways with talented Klan artists Denzel Curry, Sky Lex, Chris Travis, and Eddy Jordan. Factmag.com wrote on June 17 that "SpaceGhostPurrp's unpredictable streak is precisely what got people interested in the first place, but it seems like these days it might be bad for business."
Yet SpaceGhostPurrp dismisses the criticism, insisting the remaining eight members of Raider Klan, six of whom hail from Miami, form a strong core. Their recent marathon recording sessions have produced dozens of tracks, which SpaceGhostPurrp and Kadafi will whittle down into Raider Klan's album set to release on Empire Records next year.
"I'm trying to elevate the hip-hop movement in Miami," SpaceGhostPurrp says. "[I need to] stop worrying about what the haters say about us."
Gunplay isn't rushing to put out his debut, which he now expects will hit stores next summer. When he's not shooting videos for the songs on his mixtape Acquitted, he passes the time by taking his son to football practice, posting 15-second videos of himself acting a fool on Instagram, and penning lyrics.
"I've been gone for a minute," he says. "I want to capitalize on the buzz I am generating now. I want to take my time rallying up the troops."
While hip-hop journalists have obsessed over his swastika tattoo, a massive work on his back is the one that really warrants attention. In fact, it speaks louder than lyrics about the musicians' — and their neighborhood's — ongoing struggle. The huge portrait shows Christ holding a six-shooter to the chin of a big-horned Lucifer.
Asked what it means, Gunplay says, "I am a good soul caught in a bad world."


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subset: commoncrawl


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Capitaine Blood (L'Intrepide 28-9-49, "2ième annee" #43)
The twin comic artists Willy and Yves Groux were born in Cannes. They studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1945-46, before they embarked on a career in comics. They cooperated with Paul Winkler's Donald magazine, for which they made an adaptation of Amédée Achard's 'Les Aventures de Monsieur de la Guerche' in 1947. The Groux brothers subsequently joined Éditions Mondiales, where they created 'Capitaine Risque-Tout' with scriptwriter Jean Prado in the Tarzan comic book. They were also present in L'Intrépide with 'Le Briseur des Banquises', and in collections like Hurrah, Almanach d'Intrépide and 34 Caméra.
Le Briseur des Banquises
Yves and Willy Groux were among the main contributors to the Mondial Aventures collection of the S.P.E. in the 1950s. In this French equivalent of the Classics Illustrated, Groux illustrated titles like 'Le Pirate', 'Les Trois Mousquetaires', 'Guillaume Tell', 'David Copperfield', 'La République des Forbans', and 'Les Ave de Sir Arthur Gordon Pym'.
Capitaine Blood (L'Intrepide 28-9-49, "2ième annee" #43)
During the 1950s and 1960s, they were additionally present in magazines like Hurrah, Vaillant, Spirou and J2 Jeunes. In the 1980s, they contributed to erotic publications like Neutron, Bédéadult and Sexbulles. With scriptwriter J.M. Perros, Yves Groux made 'Blanche', an album published by Kesserling in 1986.
Blanche (1986)


text: This is just a note from my heart. With a world in confusion and almost despair it is urgent to know the Heart of God for people everywhere. What is the greatest need on earth? For people to be saved and become followers of Jesus! Simple and clear. This is why Jesus went to the cross. […]Read more


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text:
Last time I gave my three ways of making maths harder - without the useless drudgery:
- Pick subjects that give power.
- Find the subjects where kids can be creative
- Go into history and biography.
So, three more:
4. Enthusiasm
5. Discussion
6. Presentation
|alder trees in the New Forest
…Barry infected us all with his wild enthusiasm.
Although he would modestly deny it, Barry Goater was the instigator of an extraordinary educational experiment. In a quiet corner of the New Forest he established a camp for the detailed study and mapping of the natural history of a stretch of the wild forest woodland, bog and heath surrounding Beaulieu Road by his Biology sixth form. The camp became something of an institution at our school in the relatively treeless Cricklewood. It was traditional for each generation of us sixth form naturalists to return there again and again and taste the intoxicating pleasure of exploration and discovery in the wild for ourselves. Each of us had a particular project, literally a field of inquiry, and the work we were doing was genuinely original. We learnt the scientific disciplines of botany, zoology and ecology, and we kept our eyes open as all-round naturalists. What we discovered was particular to the place, and, best of all, it belonged to us.
Beaulieu Road was our America, we were pioneers, and the map we jointly drew and refined through gradual accretions of personal observation represented not only the complex natural ecology of the place, but also an ambitious and entirely novel cooperation between several generations of the sixth form botanists and zoologists of our school. Through our cumulative endeavours we were charting the relationships between the plants and animals of the place. But the records we kept were also a testament to our own human relationships as naturalists, biologists and zoologists. We were learning at first hand how exploration and scholarship can evolve and progress in time through cooperation and the free exchange of ideas. Small wonder that the experience influenced so many of our lives so profoundly.
There's so much in this description. But isn't it interesting how a teacher's enthusiasm can lead to "the intoxicating pleasure of exploration and discovery in the wild"for themselves, to a world that the students discover that belongs to them?!
4. Discussion: Roger Deakin talks about cooperation and the free exchange of ideas. Ideally, it comes naturally when there's some big project that the class or group is working on. Sometimes it needs to be structured. Lots of teachers naturally use a variant of the think-pair-share strategy: students think about a question on their own a little, then they talk about their ideas with someone else, then they might share what they've arrived at with the bigger group. It gets away from the teacher questions-pupil answers routine (which is useful some of the time) where only at most one student is getting to put their ideas into words at any one time. This is important, because to know something really well, it's best if you can explain it too, and hear other people's explanations of it. And even better if you can modify your understanding as you discuss, refining what you first thought.
5. Presentation - the students that is. As I say, it's important to be able to explain something, and you get to know it more deeply in doing so. When we made factor trees last year we explained our factor forest display to the other classes who would see it. When four girls created a beautiful mathematical square, they explained it the other classes.
To be continued.


text:
(via NatGeo)
(Also on Sb)
Josh, Official SpokesGay says
Glen Davidson says
I've always wanted to hear the slither-slather of little pinks in the house.
F says
Get those mother******* caecilians off the mother******* plane NOW!
Happiestsadist says
Awww! Lookit them all little and pink and awwww.
Therrin says
That would be awesome to stick in a vending machine. Kid puts in a quarter, turns the knob, surprise!
Markita Lynda--Happy Darwin's Birthday! says
Blind, legless amphibians. I saw one from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) when I was in university–something like a fat earthworm but dryer. They have their own order and this is a new family (in the taxonomic sense).
My cats would love them: strings that pull themselves.
Sili says
How do they taste?
theophontes, Hexanitroisowurtzitanverwendendes_Bärtierchen says
Awww, they are all pink and cuddly like itty bitty baby kittehz!
llewelly says
It is a remarkable example of rough parallels in evolution – they look like vermiform invertebrates, but they're tetrapods. (Also, while most caecillians can barely distinguish light from dark, I seem to recall a few do have well-developed eyes, and that was probably the ancestral condition.)
JohnnieCanuck says
Interestingly, as one of the NatGeo slide captions points out; they emerge from the eggs in adult form with no tadpole stage. Another thing that makes these unusual amphibians.
Aratina Cage says
scrawnykayaker says
Well, someone's lost their marbles.
AshPlant says
Gleeaagh! Something about that pushes the 'wrong!' button deep in my soul. I think it's related to my fear of tentacles. They look like they're coiled with massive potential energy, ready to strike like glutinous springs. Yuk.
catdog says
> I think it's related to my fear of tentacles.
I read that as testicles. *facepalm*
That said, bleeuurrgh.
matthewschnetter says
Those things are gross, tell them I hate them.
unbound says
Like every other animal, they look all cute and cuddly now, but wait until they grow up and start eating you out of house and home…
AshPlant says
I read that as testicles.
I have gradually come to terms with my testicles.
w00dview says
These are really unusual amphibians in many ways: blind; legless; no tadpole stage and most species live entirely underground. They seem to be good parents also as the mother grows a layer of skin rich in fats that the young can feed off of. They have small hooked teeth which they use to tear off bits of skin which the mother grows back in three days.
Attenborough covered this strange behaviour here:
David Marjanović says
Look at their gills! :-)
How do they taste?
I don't know, like frog?
These are really unusual amphibians in many ways: blind; legless; no tadpole stage and most species live entirely underground. They seem to be good parents also as the mother grows a layer of skin rich in fats that the young can feed off of. They have small hooked teeth which they use to tear off bits of skin which the mother grows back in three days.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's one species, and not the one shown in the post. There are also species that don't even lay eggs, but the young grow up in the oviduct and eat the oviduct lining; and there are other species that lay eggs which hatch into unspectacular aquatic larvae that later undergo unspectacular metamorphosis.
There are about 200 known species of caecilians.
pyttank says
I've dissected a few and they are truly fascinating.
David Utidjian says
They look like they might taste like bacon if prepared properly. Yummy.
Tualha says
Great lines from an SF novel, Wyrm:
"So, what looks like a worm and acts like a worm, but isn't a worm?"
"A caecilian!"
"No ethnic slurs, please."
ericpaulsen says
Wow. I have never seen a picture of baby Slinkys™ before. Thanks PZ.
w00dview says
@ David Marjanović
Fair enough. I should have checked to see if that behaviour was more widespread or not. Making sweeping generalisations about any group of organisms is a risky move as nature will often prove you wrong. I work with fish for goodness sakes so I should not fall into this trap!
tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says
Who's a cute widdle baby Chthulhu den – cutey-wutey. You is! Dat's who!


text:
Eoin Colfer Series 8 Books Young Adult Collection Paperback Set By Artemis Fowl
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Titles in this set:
- Artemis Fowl
- The Arctic Incident
- The Eternity Code
- The Opal Deception
- The Lost Colony
- The Time Paradox
- The Atlantis Complex
- The Last Guardian
Artemis Fowl
Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!
The Arctic Incident
Someone has been supplying Class A illegal human power sources to the goblins. Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit is sure that her arch-enemy, thirteen-year-old Artemis Fowl, is responsible. But is he? Artemis has his own problems to deal with: his father is being held to ransom and only a miracle will save him. Maybe this time a brilliant plan just won't be enough. Maybe this time Artemis needs help...
The Eternity Code
Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom; but he's taking on more than a bunch of fairies when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the Lep-Recon (lower elements police reconnaissance unit).
The Opal Deception
Evil pixie, Opal Koboi, is back and she's more dangerous than ever. This time she doesn't just want power over the fairy People - this time she wants the humans too. Captain Holly Short is the only fairy with a hope of stopping her, but as Holly knows, it takes one genius criminal mastermind to fight another. But the 14-year-old genius that Holly is thinking of doesn't even remember that fairies exist. How is she going to convince Artemis Fowl to help her stop Opal? Gold usually does the trick, and this time is should be no different. Or is Artemis changing?
The Lost Colony
Ten millennia ago, the fairy People were defeated in a great battle with mankind, forcing them to move underground. Only the eighth family of fairies remained undefeated: the demons. But now one demon has discovered the secrets of the fairy world, and if humans get hold of this information the fairies are in BIG trouble. Only one person can prevent this disaster teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl.
The Time Paradox
Teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl has a new mission and this time it's personal. Artemis's mother is dangerously ill, and the only way to find a cure is for Artemis with Holly Short by his side to go back in time to battle his younger, more evil self . . .
The Atlantis Complex
Artemis has committed his entire fortune to a project he believes will save the planet and its inhabitants, both human and fairy. Can it be true? Has goodness taken hold of the world greatest teenage criminal mastermind Captain Holly Short is unconvinced, and discovers that Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, a psychosis common among guilt-ridden fairies - not humans - and most likely triggered by Artemis dabbling with fairy magic. Symptoms include obsessive-compulsive behaviour, paranoia, multiple personality disorder and, in extreme cases, embarrassing professions of love to a certain feisty Lawperson fairy. Unfortunately, Atlantis Complex has struck at the worst possible time. A deadly foe from Holly past is intent on destroying the actual city of Atlantis. Can Artemis escape the confines of his mind and the grips of a giant squid in time to save the underwater metropolis and its fairy inhabitants.
The Last Guardian
Opal Koboi, power-crazed pixie, is plotting to exterminate mankind and become fairy queen. If she succeeds, the spirits of long-dead fairy warriors will rise from the earth, inhabit the nearest available bodies and wreak mass destruction. But what happens if those nearest bodies include crows, or deer, or badgers - or two curious little boys by the names of Myles and Beckett Fowl Yes, it's true. Criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl's four-year-old brothers could be involved in destroying the human race. Can Artemis and Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police stop Opal and prevent the end of the world?
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text:
Guess what? Megan is in an airplane today. And technology still hasn't figured out a way to let her IM in heaven, so we have a guest host Crapster today, famous DC blogger and former well-remunerated New Republic staffer Spencer Ackerman, now of the Washington Independent! Watch Spencer and me WATCH ELIOT SPITZER RESIGN. Watch us envy Barack Obama for being lucky enough to get to be born a black man in America! Because only a black man could win only 21% of white Democrats in Mississippi and still manage to win the state! Watch us envy comedian Sinbad for these reasons as well. And Spitzer's replacement, he's black and blind. Like Stevie Wonder! Stevie Wonder would have, like, no career if not for all those special qualities, Spencer agrees. Then watch Spencer ask me out on a date four hours away! Come on in! It'll be fun. Sorta?
MOE: Hey yo are you busy right now? And if so, how busy?
Megan's on a plane and I NEED SOMEONE TO IM.
$PENCER: not so busy that i can't
MOE: SRSLY. I got yr text last night btw but I was too drunk to form words.
It was a good night.
$PENCER: you know i am extremely hungover
so that makes me total crappy hour material
MOE: That makes 2 retards!
$PENCER: woo
i feel like the high school kid who catches a long pass by accident outside football practice when the NFL scout coincidentally walks by!
MOE: What were you doing?? Watching the CLIFFHANGER that was the Mississippi primary?
$PENCER: i was plotting the future of blog-domination with matt yglesias
and going to a wizards-bucks game
MOE: Wow, that's quite an agenda! I went to three separate bars. At the first bar, they declared Mississippi for Obama with only 5% of the precincts reporting. And the 5% of the precincts reporting had gone 51%-47% for Hillary!
$PENCER: yglz used his iPhone to get us updates on the primary
is it true that Obama got like 30 percent of the white vote?
because i'm just not going to google that
MOE: I don't know! Maybe I should consult Memeorandum?
OH yup, it's on the front page of the Journal. He won "a third" of white voters.
and 90% of African Americans.
Geraldine Ferrarro should have it so easy.
$PENCER: i understand that this might not be true, but it seems like the whiter you are and the less educated you are, the more vociferous your distaste for obama
christ my head hurts too much to write a sentence like that.
was that english? was that a point?
OK let's talk about Geraldine Ferraro.
you posted about Samantha Power, and very admirably
She was a political novice, and someone who recognized her bluntness would inevitably get Obama in trouble
and she quit/was pushed out on day one-and-a-half of the story
MOE: I don't know if the distaste itself can be vociferous but my friend ryan was telling me that he was at Dunkin Donuts the other night (in Philadelphia) and an old Italian lady was like "you two! Who are you voting for? John McCain, or the black guy?" And him and his boyfriend were like "um, the black guy!" and the old lady got a spooky look in her eye and said "you know he's a COMMUNIST."
$PENCER: Geraldine Ferraro was a MOTHERFUCKING VP candidate
MOE: I didn't know that!
$PENCER: and she said that black people have it so easy in this country
MOE: Well she's also been a racist for at least twenty years
$PENCER: and she doesn't have to seperate herself from HRC's finance committee or whatever the fuck she does?
you know the piece i want to read
this is my assignment for you
or maybe for your friend jessica valenti out in astoria
go through Ferraro's old Queens district
and track anti-Obama sentiment
see if anyone uses the word "moulignan"
MOE: What does that mean? Like a TUMOR???
$PENCER: seriously, the other day i heard a respectable journalist who i never thought of as a racist refer to obama as "a black."
it was so dissonant — people say that? like he's an adjective?
MOE: Oh man I would just assuming he's being, you know, IRONICALLY racist.
$PENCER: moulignan = italian for eggplant; eggplant = the color of a black dude, at least if you're a charming person
MOE: Ahem
I would just "assume"
$PENCER: she! it was a she!!!
see, the problem with this country, as HRC is demonstrating
is white women
send that hate email now!
MOE: WEIRD. Well we have a column by our anonymous model coming soon about how models' moms feel about Obama and let me tell you the "He worships Allah 50 times a day" meme is not dead out there in the stagemom heartland.
$PENCER: well yglz and i were at the verizon center
and we stood for the pledge of allegiance because liberals love america
MOE: But yeah, the thing about Obama is that, mercifully, the race thing is like a side-plot with him. Whereas with Hillary it seems like EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION HAS TO BE ABOUT THE META CONVERSATION ABOUT BLAH BLAH BLAH PANTSUITS.
$PENCER: and then we noted that when obama wins, you won't be able to go to a sporting event without the call to prayer kicking it off
yeah can i ask you about that?
what's the case for pantsuits, moe? i need a woman to explain this to me
MOE: So that when we start talking about race with Obama, I'm like, "Wow, race. Now that is actually an interesting and urgent topic!"
$PENCER: i have this ex-gf whose mom always used the word "flattering" to describe her ideal articles of clothing
are pantsuits flattering?
MOE: I think pantsuits are more comfortable. Personally I hate skirts. But no, pantsuits are indisputably unflattering.
$PENCER: so it's comfort — i can understand that
this being the benefits of the patriarchy
i can come to work in jeans every day
and sneakers
not shoes that break my ankles and awkwardly distribute my weight
oh man you know Crass's song "Bata Motel"? I'm totally putting that on
MOE: Yeah i mean, you know, skirts always make you feel weird and exposed and you sit down and then you're like FUCK some perv is probably looking between my legs, why — I can't even tell you FUCK MEN I'M VOTING FOR THE LADY etc. etc.
$PENCER: Mike Lillis, who's next to me in the Washington Independent news room? WATCH THE FUCK OUT, anarcho peace punk ahoy
MOE: OH man you're at, like, an office!
a blogger!
it's not my couch or Mocha Hut anymore!
(peace to Mocha Hut, best coffee shop in DC)
(13th & U St, ask for Eden, she'll hook you up)
but you raise a serious point
which is
in my experience these last two weeks, the Hillary thing has become a minefield
where my women-journalist friends who don't particularly carry a torch for HRC
MOE: So weird. I'm wearing cutoff jean shorts fashioned out of a pair of Gap jeans my sister used to call her "lesbian jeans" and a gray Costco fleece I stole from my dad. And black ankle socks and high top black Chucks. I think I slept in most of these garments. I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. Maybe because the first email I received this morning was from Robert Morrow. ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE RECORDED BILL AND MONICA HAVING PHONE SEX.
$PENCER: react EXTREMELY strongly to any an all remote suggestions of sexism as motivating the hillary campaign
so my question to you: was Samantha's "Monster" comment sexist?
MOE: It's a good tactic, for them. And I didn't read sexism into "monster" at all. "Monster" is a weird word though. I mean, it could be like "macaca" and I have just not given it too much thought before now. But I think of "monster" and I think...Alistair Cookie.
And trucks.
$PENCER: trucks for sure
MOE: I don't get any feminazi vibes from that word.
$PENCER: howard wolfson should have called obama a Funny Car
in response
MOE: LOL. Wait though
We should talk about...
$PENCER: hear that, my friends? Jezebel officially says 'Monster' isn't sexist!!!
MOE: One of his whores, Sienna, is apparently talking to ABC News and I CANNOT FIND A CLIP OR ANYTHING.
$PENCER: she went on camera????
MOE: She is apparently curvy and blond
$PENCER: see what i didn't get from a lot of the coverage
is the $5500 price tag?
MOE: Well that's the weird thing! LIke, why would you talk to ABC News if not on camera? Do they have a website or something?
$5500, yes.
$PENCER: you're not paying that much for the sex, you're paying that much for the discretion
oh man
my boss (my boss!) told me when the story broke to googleimage 'executive VIP' or whatever the fuck the prostitution ring is called
$PENCER: and as you'd expect some very NSFW pictures emerged
$PENCER: and i was like, are you sure we should be searching for this stuff?
MOE: Oooooh ooooooh he's RESIGNING
$PENCER: the rest of the story i will leave out — oh snap!
$PENCER: there we go
Governor Blind Dude!
you know
on a personal note
what feels GREAT about all this is that one of Spitzer's biggest political fans & promoters is the evil editor-in-chief of the New Republic, Marty Peretz
so take THAT, homie! You sure ain't getting that ambassdorship now! How's that Gore presidency working out for ya? And don't front like you ACTUALLY like Obama, it's so obvs that you're starfucking for influence here plus you hate HRC
MOE: Ummmmm hmmmmmmm! I'm not sure how to respond to this. Also MICHAEL KELLY HATES YOU IN HEAVEN ASSHOLE?
Or is that going overboard?
$PENCER: three weeks ago i officially abandoned coffee for red bull and it SHOWS
hahahahahaha LOLMYGOD
a Kelly joke!
i think we should now try to embarrass Mike Crowley as much as possible
hey i can see his Hair Cuttery apartment from my office!
MOE: Nooooooo no no Crowley will kill me noooooo.
so what's yr take on spitzer
whats — yr take on/ whats — yr take on
MOE: He already hates me over this one time I quoted him saying David Plotz dressed nicely bc he liked Fugazi.
$PENCER: oh man i shat all over david plotz on my blog the other day
MOE: But apparently David Plotz DOESN'T like Fugazi.
$PENCER: and plotz actually doesn't deserve it, it was an unfair attack
MOE: Clearly David Plotz was not sufficiently alienated in high school.
$PENCER: he was collateral damage for my real target of lying liar jeffrey goldberg
i think fugazi fans are pretty well adjusted in high school
MOE: I think this is getting somewhat insidery now though!
But yes, Spitzer.
$PENCER: good SATs without the prep course
now, Embrace fans...
anyway yeah spitzer
MOE: Well Bonnie Fuller is claming it's worse on his daughters than it is on Silda. Which is just total bullshit. You teach a woman not to trust men in their teens, maybe they won't have to learn the hard way like mom. Also, Jessica Grose has a theory that Silda got married for like 24 days in college because she was a Southern Baptist who just wanted to fuck. Neither here nor there though.
$PENCER: what, is she a Shiite?
wait i don't understand
why isn't it worse on his daughters? not that it's not awful for silda
aren't his daughters right now learning not to trust men?
MOE: Because they're TEENAGERS. Nothing that doesn't happen directly to you can be that devastating when you're a teenager. And yes! I'm saying that's a valuable lesson that will pay dividends etc.
$PENCER: isn't this direct enough?
ok i think i misunderstood you
MOE: I'm just saying, WORSE FOR SILDA.
$PENCER: ok yes it's MISERABLE for Silda
didn't the NYT report she was pushing for him not to resign?
MOE: Oh did they? Um, that was probably before she knew he spent EIGHTY GRAND OMFG
$PENCER: if so, do you think that's revenge? Like, "No, honey, stay in office. I want you to be hounded by what you did to me until your last motherfucking day as governor. Let's draw this out! Who wants cookies?"
MOE: That's like, half a college education or something!
$PENCER: hahaha
public corruption ahoy!
you know who's another loser in all this? POOR ALAN HEVESI
MOE: Alan Keyes?
$PENCER: poor bastard has a public limosine ferry him from one place to another like 3 times and he's hounded from office
meanwhile spitzer is boning whores with money from the state treasury while saying, 'Alan, this looks bad...'
MOE: Hahaha wow yeah. I mean, I guess we can learn something from this. There is really nothing to goddamn lose in being completely unequivocally self-righteous and morally superior at all times. Spitzer will rebound.
$PENCER: i just realized i typed 'ahoy' 2x in this IM
i never say ahoy in real life btw just saying
Spitzer comeback! Funded by Marty Peretz
MOE: I mean, Sinbad might call you out on it but no one listens to black guys; they have it so goddamn easy in this country
$PENCER: ahahahaha
MOE: So many of them getting a free ride in the nation's prisons.
$PENCER: actually this points to a weakness in obama's support
Sinbad is the only black comedian he can get to publicly support him?
Sinbad needs to be Shwarzenegger's VP when we change the constitution to let immigrants run for president
MOE: Well Dave Chappelle didn't go to Bosnia with Hillary Clinton.
$PENCER: Arnold-Sinbad 2016: Jingling All The Way To Washington
MOE: Yeah after a brief tenure as Charles Barkley's AG in Alabama
$PENCER: the politics of charles barkley would make for a good piece
MOE: So anyway, you know I should be posting this like TEN MINUTES AGO.
MOE: There is still so much to discuss.
$PENCER: the most important thing of all:
are you going to come to DC this weekend to see my band play?
That's right, Jezebel readers: I am asking Moe out on a date ON HER OWN BLOG
though i suppose you could edit that out, but wouldn't THAT be crappy
MOE: Oh your BAND is playing is your excuse? Does your band play Tenacious D covers?
$PENCER: answer the question!
MOE: Megan dated a guy in DC who played strictly tenacious D and flight of the conchords covers.
$PENCER: you are STALLING
will our hero make it?
i promise there will be no flight of the conchords
nor the D
i don't acutally think they're very funny
MOE: I am in New York. Maybe? What night? I may come! Or I may not get down there. Every time I go down to DC I get stuck for like the entire week because there's no Wifi in the train.
$PENCER: Saturday
MOE: It's a tough journey to make as a blogger.
$PENCER: cmon it'll be fun
MOE: Saturday is easier.
$PENCER: there's a Chinatown bus that has wifi these days
god you really make a guy feel special
MOE: I know, but it's impossible to find.
You have a CAR.
Easy for you to say.
$PENCER: i rented that!
MOE: oh I can't rent cars.
I don't currently have a drivers license.
I should pay off those fines I guess...
$PENCER: i got a summons when i drove back down to DC the other weekend
reckless endangerment
have a court date in NJ & everything
MOE: Maybe next time I'm in PA for the primary I am going to lose.
$PENCER: all i was doing was speeding
MOE: I love it getting a speeding ticket in Maryland. LIKE YEAH I'LL SEE YOU IN ANNAPOLIS SURE BUDDY
$PENCER: crank dat bench warrant
so, seriously? i'm manning up & asking you out, after you said you were coming to DC anyway, and all I get is a maybe?
tumbleweed tumbles
MOE: Hahaha SPENCER. It's DC LIKE FOUR HOURS AWAY
$PENCER: so fucking what?
it's a bus
$PENCER: you nap
t's like $40 roundrip!
MOE: i do not take the bus.
$PENCER: books/magazines/ipods
ohhhhh i see how fancy
MOE: ughhhhhh
$PENCER: it's not like i cost $5500
MOE: I think you don't understand how worthless I am after the blogweek. It is a lot of effort just getting out of my house
$PENCER: live a little
MOE: Wait, hold on. JOHN MCCAIN. Can we discuss John McCain for negative two minutes? LIKE HOW HE'S GOING TO BE PRESIDENT AND NO ONE'S PAYING ATTENTION
$PENCER: there will be a very very good piece coming by Yglesias about what the stakes actually are with McCain
the truest militarist in american politics
now, on his chances, if it turns out to be HRC, then yeah, he wins — the base turns out for him, raises money, blah blah blah
if it's Obama, none of those incentives exist
and since obama's winning in pledged delegates & HRC has to resort to this FL/MI chicanery, it seems like the country can still be spared president mccain
or as a RIGHTWING friend of mine calls him, Senator Tiger Cage
wanna hear the most tasteless joke in DC?
Hey! Everyone who wants to be president! Raise your hand!!!
MOE: ummmm I would laugh at that joke if CHELSEA CLINTON was telling it.
$PENCER: and that's DC
for REAL
don't it make you want to get on an Amtrak
MOE: OMG that was my favorite part of the Spitzer thing. HE DIDN'T EVEN SPLURGE ON THE ACELA.
yeah. Leave it to Milbank to notice the literary details
$PENCER: that's what happens when you can't expense it


text:
Resurrecting Love - an African-American burial ground
This weekend I had the privilege to participate in a special project near Marshall, Texas - the effort to maintain an old slave and African-American burial ground, Love Cemetery. Brought to national attention through a book and an ongoing documentary by Texan, now California-based, China Galland, the the "keepers of Love" continue to struggle to gain access to the grounds for visits and upkeep.
A community cleaning and memorial is held every spring and fall and I joined them this first weekend of April. The grounds tend to be quickly overgrown with weeds and an invasive wisteria that was planted years ago; the job requires strong, energetic people and for that the young men of the East Texas Baptist University football team generously gave of their time for the cleanup efforts.
As much as the grounds appear to need more work, the Keepers of Love had made headways into the clearing of the brush over several years and have re-discovered many graves. Often times only the elders could identify the markers on the grave which in the past could have included items that were significant to the person buried, like sewing machines, pots with certain types of plants, jars, plowing items, and even stones. To keep the graves easily identifiable among the overgrown weeds someone donated tall iron crosses that are now placed in each new grave discovered.
The Keepers of Love, such as Ms. Doris Vittatoe and Ms. Nuthel Britton, are in their 80's and in fragile health, so they need help to ensure that this slave burial ground in Texas is not forgotten to history and to the woods in private mining and hunting lands. Besides China Galland, others traveling from near and far to join the effort included descendants of Della Love, African-American landowner who donated the land for the cemetery, Estrus Tucker, activist and speaker with roots in Harrison County, Archie Rison, community genealogist and cemetery activist of Nacogdoches, and a special visit by Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, composer, author, singer, and community builder.
The cleanup and memorial day included several special moments including the marking of a new found grave, a family finding and their ancestor's grave (Ms. Lizzie Sparks), and Wiley College Choir students finally finding the cemetery after being lost three hours and walking the 1.5 mile road into the cemetery because their cars were too low for the treacherous road! A storm and cold front had blown in the day before, so another heart- and stomach-warming moment was Ms. Doris and her brother, Mr. Jefferson, firing up a grill to serve hot dogs and homemade cupcakes. The day ended with celebratory singing at the chapel of the Scottsville Nazarene Camp.
Again, I'll repeat how privileged I was to join this inspiring community of people and hope to support their efforts. There are plenty of elements of folklife in the preservation of burial grounds which can be quite life-affirming - family gatherings, food, music, and even the creative, vernacular markings of graves. To help or learn more about the effort visit the Resurecting Love website.


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IYA2009 Updates
Indian IYA2009 event attracts record-breaking numbers
4 August 2009
Each year, the Gandhi Corporation organises a theme fair at the Ahmedabad Education Society grounds for 11 days. In honour of IYA2009, this year's theme was space. In total, more than 700,000 visitors were introduced to the wonders of astronomy as part of this massive outreach opportunity of unprecedented scale.
The space theme began right from the entry ticket windows whose interiors were created to mimic the flight deck of the space shuttle, preparing visitors for the trip into orbit! The long passage leading to the main gate was lined with huge posters depicting how the various parts of the space shuttle are transported and assembled.
The spectacle continued inside, with a tall model of a shuttle, complete with fair representatives dressed as astronauts, who the children were very happy to be photographed next to. Vast representations of the Martian and lunar surfaces had also been prepared. In addition, large posters were on display and the roof was lit up with hundreds of stars, immersing visitors.
The fair was open to the public from 22 May to 1 June 2009, during which time more than 700,000 people attended - a new record for India's IYA2009 efforts.
For more photos of the event, please follow these links:
http://tanmayespace.blogspot.com/2009/06/preparation-and-set-up-photos-of.html http://tanmayespace.blogspot.com/2009/06/participation-photos-of-vacation-2009.html
Essay finds that education may boost gender equality
4 August 2009
Called "Lost in darkness and distance: Why girls don't want to be scientists - and how the classroom might fix it", Julie Darbyshire's essay on stereotypes in science delves into the issues surrounding the under-representation of women in science careers. It suggests that different classroom approaches may provide a solution.
Gender equality is the theme of IYA2009 Cornerstone project She Is An Astronomer. Approximately one quarter of all professional astronomers are women. In some countries there are no female astronomers, whilst in others more than half the professional astronomers are female. The drop in numbers towards more senior levels suggests that scientific careers are heavily affected by social and cultural factors, and are not determined solely by ability. This loss, not least in terms of the financial investment in training and then losing women at higher levels, means that it is in the interest of all societies to ensure that these factors are addressed.
Read the full essay here: http://www.lablit.com/article/523
See the She Is An Astronomer website here: http://www.sheisanastronomer.org/
Israeli observatory ready for live deep-sky webcast
4 August 2009
The Bareket Observatory is an educational facility located in Israel. Their mission is to act as an educator's resource for schools and educational institutions. Open to anyone who has an interest in the night sky and wishes to have fun learning about the Universe in a scientific manner, the observatory runs many astronomy courses and classes to inspire curiosity of the night sky.
As part of this effort, and in support of IYA2009, late August will see a live webcast of deep sky objects. Sights such as nebulae, star clusters, planets, and asteroids will all be captured in real-time using the observatory's remote educational telescope system. The event will cover around 1.5 hours, meaning that participants can drop in and out as required. Explanations of the objects being observed will be provided in English. This astro-cast is free and open to all.
For more information, please visit: http://bareket-astro.com/en/telescope_internet.htm
International Light Festival to take place in Poland
2 August 2009
Between 11 and 16 August 2009, the Polish city of Torun will be hosting artists and scientists as part of the Skyway 09 - International Light Festival. The gothic old town buildings will be tastefully lit to represent history, science, and culture going hand-in-hand to educate and inspire.
Torun has a rich history in the field of astronomy, being birthplace of Copernicus and the place where present day scientist Aleksander Wolszczan - who discovered the first extrasolar planers - got his university degree. August has been chosen so that the Festival can take advantage of the annual Perseid meteor shower, a traditional highlight for stargazers.
The event promises to be a spectacular coming-together of disciplines, resulting in an unforgettable experience, and one that IYA2009 is proud to be associated with.
Skyway 09 - International Light Festival's official website: http://www.skyway09.eu/
More information about Torun: http://www.torun.pl/portal/index.php?lang=en
IYA2009 Update in the United States of America
2 August 2009
Puerto Rico celebrates the Moon landings
The Puerto Rican IYA2009 team have successfully organised a discussion panel celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Called "We Came in Peace For All Mankind", it was held at the Ateneo Puertorriqueño in San Juan on 12 July 2009. Panelists included experts in science, journalism, religion, and social sciences. A report on the event has been produced, and is available here: http://www.astronomy2009pr.org/Apollo11.html
Hubble's Diverse Universe Premiere Viewing
10 July at 7pm and 11 July at 2pm at MAAT Science Village, 408-14th St., Oakland, CA Hubble's Diverse Universe, a film by Jarita Holbrook and Romeel Dave, is a 45-minute documentary focused on the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA on the careers of individual astronomers. The film is supported by a NASA Education and Public Outreach Grant and the International Year of Astronomy 2009 USA. After the showing, there will be a question and answer period with team members. A one minute preview can be found here: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~holbrook/HubbleT.wmv and additional clips are at: http://astronomy2009.us/storytelling/hubbles-diverse-universe/
Year of Science
July is the Astronomy Month for the Year of Science. Doug Isbell and Jarita Holbrook are blogging for them, Andy Fraknoi has provided links and materials, and Denise Smith has written a special issue of their newsletter. IYA2009 is prominently mentioned. See: http://www.yearofscience2009.org/themes_astronomy/celebrate/ (and continue by pushing the next button).
ASP Updates
Astronomy Behind the Headlines. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is happy to announce the first episodes of Astronomy Behind the Headlines, a series of podcasts for informal science educators. Each month, we'll give you a look behind the latest headlines in astronomy and space science and provide links to related resources and activities so you can interpret these exciting topics for your audiences! Visit our webpage to listen to the latest episode, access related resource and subscribe via iTunes or XML: http://www.astrosociety.org/abh/
Simple Effective Education and Dissemination (SEED) grants for astronomy researchers available for 2009 from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Thanks to the support of the Planck and Herschel Missions, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is offering SEED Grants for 2009 to active researchers in astronomy, astrophysics, or space science to engage in public outreach, K-14 formal education, or informal education programs or activities. Maximum grants are $2,500; funds may be used to purchase equipment related to the proposed EPO activity, or to defray expenses associated with carrying out the activity. Given the nature of the Planck and Herschel Missions, SEED Grant proposals involving cosmology, galaxy studies, solar system investigations, and space science will be given special consideration. Proposal submission deadline is July 31, 2009, with announcement of awards by September 15, 2009. To learn more and to review the simple guidelines for proposals, go to: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/grants/grants.html
New Higher Scholarship Funding Available for Two Days of Hands-on Astronomy and Earth-science Education Workshops for 4th -12th Grade Teachers and Others near San Francisco, Sept. 12 - 13, 2009. Thanks to generous supporters of astronomy education, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is pleased to announce that scholarships to cover expenses up to $750 are now available for educators who want to attend a weekend of hands-on workshops and exciting science talks offered as part of the 120th anniversary meeting of the non-profit Society at the Westin Hotel near the San Francisco Airport in Millbrae, California. For more information, please go to the meeting web site at: http://www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html or go directly to the workshops page at: http://www.astrosociety.org/events/2009mtg/workshops.html New information and programme details will be posted as available.
Register for the ASP meeting in September. Just a reminder to register for the ASP meeting which will include IYA2009 sessions: http://www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html
IYA2009 Update
31 July 2009
International Astronomical Union celebrates its 90th anniversary during IYA2009
Of the many special anniversaries occurring throughout 2009, one of the most important marks 90 years since the formation of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Read about it here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/388/
IYA2009 Planets & Pictures World Tour
For tour dates of Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition (APE) & Gustav Holst's The Planets (TP), please see: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/395/ and for photos from previous shows, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/josefranciscosalgado/sets/72157611312100860/
The origin of galaxies: lessons from the distant universe
ESF-FWF Conference in Partnership with LFUI in the framework of IYA2009: http://www.esf.org/index.php?id=5261
International UNAWE Workshop
4th International Universe Awareness (UNAWE) workshop taking place in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday and Sunday August 8-9, 2009: http://www.unawe.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=439:4th-international-unawe-workshop-rio-de-janeiro-brazil-august-8-9-2009&catid=211:international-workshops&Itemid=159
How does a country's support for astronomy depend on its economy?
Astronomer John Hearnshaw gives some answers on his Cosmic Diary Blog: http://cosmicdiary.org/blogs/john_hearnshaw/?p=428
Experience the Planets
Sunlight shining through the rings of Saturn. Planet-wide dust storms cloaking Mars in pale obscurity. Images such as these only emphasize nature's ability to amaze and inspire. But what haven't we seen in our own solar neighborhood? What fantastic vistas has science predicted but so far been unable to capture?
More information:http://www.experiencetheplanets.com/
Interview with Carmen A. Pantoja, Puerto Rican Single Point of Contact
Puerto Rico's SPoC is Carmen A. Pantoja, a radio astronomer working at the Department of Physics of the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan campus. The IYA2009 Secretariat caught up with Carmen to ask some questions about IYA2009, Puerto Rico, and the importance of astronomy. Read the interview here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/393/
Experience a virtual journey to the lunar Peak of Eternal Light during IYA2009
The first public showing of 'The Peak of Eternal Light', a new movie created using images taken by ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter, took place on 20 July 2009 at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), Linz, Austria. This movie was shown as part of a special event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, during this International Year of Astronomy. More information: http://astronomy2009.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=45347
Scoping out the Galileoscope: A Gscope review
Check the Galileoscope review on MSNBC Cosmic Log: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/07/22/2004797.aspx
Lunar mosaic earns a Guinness World Record
A team of astronomers in the UK have used specialist cameras and high-end amateur telescopes to produce a professional-quality mosaic of the Moon - earning them a Guinness World Record. For details, please see: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/389/
UNESCO Member States donate Galileoscopes
Galileoscopes are low-cost telescopes designed to let curious eyes peer at the night sky and unveil secrets of the heavens. Member States of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) are ensuring that as many countries as possible will receive some of these instruments. The following countries will each receive a minimum of 100 Galileoscopes: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. To learn more about Galileoscopes, please visit the official website: https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/
Romania boosts IYA2009 with two high-profile events
Romanian IYA2009 enthusiasts are rightfully proud of two initiatives which have proved to be very successful. Learn about them here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/386/
IYA2009 Activities during the IAU GA in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
IYA2009 News Round-up
31 July 2009
With the rest of the world attending the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly in Brazil, one plucky staff writer keeps things ticking over, wielding the news round-up like a mighty sabre. What has it been cutting swathes through this week?
Taiwan News has been promoting an astrophotography exhibition at the National Museum of Natural Science. Over 90 works from professional and amateur astrophotographers across Taiwan are on display, conveying "the impressive beauty of atmospheric phenomena and human's concern about the universe." The article doesn't say how much tickets cost. Atmospheric phenomena seem more impressive when they're free to view.
Congratulations, Steamboat Pilot & Today! Your article has made it into the news round-up! It's a good 'un about the IYA2009 project to observe mysterious star Epsilon Aurigae. Details about the star and why it's so special are given, along with a serving of history and science for good measure. Delicious.
And now, a musical interlude. Of sorts. Times Colonist reports that a classical concert in Canada is bringing out a selection of tunes from Holst's The Planets to act as a crowd-pleaser and to honour IYA2009. The article also provides us with rhetorical question of the week: "Who wants to sit outside on a warm summer evening and sob?"
For space-related snippets, every week German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) is asking one of its experts to answer an astronomy question, to support IYA2009. This week you can learn about colliding galaxies.
Now it's time to sheath the sabre once more, until it is called upon to bring news to the masses again. Which will be next week.
IYA2009 Planets & Pictures World Tour
30 July 2009
IYA2009 Planets & Pictures World Tour
Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition (APE) & Gustav Holst's The Planets(TP)
Photos from presentations available here.
May 11, 2008 - River Forest, IL, USA (APE)
May 12, 2008 - Chicago, IL, USA (APE)
Aug 22, 2008 - Chicago, IL, USA (TP)
Oct 04, 2008 - Wheaton, IL, USA (TP)
Oct 14, 2008 - Wheaton, IL, USA (TP)
Oct 16, 2008 - Wheaton, IL, USA (TP)
Oct 17, 2008 - Piestany, Slovakia (APE, TP)
Dec 11, 2008 - Orange County, CA, USA (TP)
Dec 12, 2008 - Orange County, CA, USA (TP)
Dec 13, 2008 - Orange County, CA, USA (TP)
Dec 14, 2008 - Orange County, CA, USA (TP)
Jan 15, 2009 - Paris, France (APE)
Jan 19, 2009 - Paris, France (TP)
Feb 19, 2008 - Cuenca, Spain (APE)
Feb 28, 2009 - Delaware, OH, USA (TP)
Mar 01, 2009 - Delaware, OH, USA (TP)
Mar 20, 2009 - Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. (TP)
May 03, 2009 - Walnut Creek, CA, USA (APE 3D)
May 05, 2009 - Walnut Creek, CA, USA (APE 3D)
Jun 11, 2009 - Boston, MA, USA (TP)
Jun 12, 2009 - Boston, MA, USA (TP)
Jun 13, 2009 - Boston, MA, USA (TP)
Jun 13, 2009 - Madrid, Spain (TP)
Jun 28, 2009 - Valencia, Spain (TP)
Jul 02, 2009 - Valencia, Spain (APE)
Jul 04, 2009 - San Francisco, CA, USA (TP)
Aug 02, 2009 - Prague, Czech Rep. (TP)
Sep 19, 2009 - Kingston, Canada (APE)
Sep 20, 2009 - Kingston, Canada (APE)
Sep 20, 2009 - Torino, Italy (TP)
Oct 03, 2009 - Manzanares, Spain (APE)
Oct 10, 2009 - Toledo, Spain (APE)
Oct 12, 2009 - Fuentealbilla, Spain (TP)
Oct 18, 2009 - Venice, Italy (TP)
Oct 29, 2009 - Albacete, Spain (TP)
Oct 30, 2009 - Albacete, Spain (APE)
Oct 31, 2009 - Fuentealbilla, Spain (APE)
Nov 01, 2009 - Victoria, Canada (TP)
Nov 02, 2009 - Victoria, Canada (TP)
Nov 06, 2009 - Ciudad Real, Spain (APE)
Nov 07, 2009 - Talavera de la Reina, Spain (APE)
Nov 08, 2009 - Almansa, Spain (APE)
Feb 27, 2010 - Menasha, WI, USA (TP)
How does a country's support for astronomy depend on its economy?
30 July 2009
The astronomer John Hearnshaw gives some answers on his Cosmic Diary Blog: http://cosmicdiary.org/blogs/john_hearnshaw/?p=428
Interview with Carmen A. Pantoja, Puerto Rican Single Point of Contact
29 July 2009
Coordinating and helping with the organisation of IYA2009 on national levels are the Single Points of Contact (SPoC). These individuals manage country-wide astronomy popularisation efforts. They are at the forefront of the IYA2009 strategy, cementing the largest science communication network ever seen. Simply put, without their time and expertise IYA2009 would be an impossible task.
Puerto Rico's SPoC is Carmen A. Pantoja, a radio astronomer working at the Department of Physics of the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan campus. The IYA2009 Secretariat caught up with Carmen to ask some questions about IYA2009, Puerto Rico, and the importance of astronomy.
Why did you decide to get involved in IYA2009?
It was a decision involving the members of the organising committee of the IYA2009-Puerto Rico. The members are astronomers, working at the University of Puerto Rico, and are actively involved in outreach. IYA2009 represented an attractive and challenging opportunity to work together on a project to impact our community.
Could you describe the organisational structure of your IYA2009 Node?
Our node has an organising committee whose members are: Dr. Mayra E. Lebrón Santos, UPR-San Juan, Dr. Daniel R. Altschuler UPR-San Juan, Dr. José L. Alonso, UPR-Cayey and Dr. Carmen A. Pantoja, UPR-San Juan. This committee has invited all members of the NASA Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortium to participate in IYA2009-Puerto Rico. We have established a working group with 25 members. These include the University of Puerto Rico, the Interamerican University, the Polytechnic University, the two principal amateur astronomy groups: "Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe" and "Sociedad de Astronomía de Puerto Rico", the Arecibo Observatory, and the Caribe Girl Scout Council. We are in contact through e-mail and through monthly meetings at the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan campus.
Why do you think astronomy and IYA2009 is important for Puerto Rico?
Astronomy is very attractive to the general public, and it is an exciting way to reach young students and children and encourage them to have a positive attitude towards science and mathematics.
How do you involve the different publics in astronomy and IYA2009 events?
In 2008 the organising committee thought carefully about the goals of IYA2009 and the particular needs of our community in Puerto Rico. An important tool we used as a guide was a study published in 2007 of the
Social Needs of Puerto Rico that was sponsored by the United Way ("Fondos Unidos de Puerto Rico") and the Non Profit Foundations: "Fundación Ángel Ramos", "Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico" and "Fundación Chana Goldstein y Samuel Levis". This study recommended outreach activities developed with the community focused on children, young, and elderly population, strengthening family interactions and values. In addition to the goals of IYA2009, in Puerto Rico we are focussed on the following:
1 - our activities should stress the value of personal effort as a way to achieve goals;
2 - reducing the fear or aversion to mathematics;
3 - showing the importance of science in daily life;
4 - showing how science and technology can help to attain a more just and peaceful society.
What activities have been run in Puerto Rico so far?
IYA2009 in Puerto Rico started with an education workshop in the summer of 2008. The goal of this was to establish a group of volunteers to help with IYA2009 activities. Mostly college-level students, they were named Starry Messengers. Through a NASA Space Grant award these students spent four days at the Arecibo Observatory learning about IYA2009 and working with the general public at the Fundación Ángel Ramos" Visitor Center. This workshop included two blind participants, and materials were used and some were developed for communicating IYA2009 to this audience. We contacted the IYA2009-Jamaica node to help us with an exhibit of poetry with the astronomical theme of poets from the Caribbean. Two poems from members of their amateur society were displayed at an Open House announcing IYA2009 at the Arecibo Observatory in 2008 with the Starry Messengers. The "Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico" sponsored two Starry Messengers to assist with the IYA2009 inauguration in Paris.
The inauguration of IYA2009 in Puerto Rico was in January and was held at the oldest cultural centre on the island: the Ateneo Puertorriqueño. The highlight of the event was a set of 14 images from the From Earth To The Universe (FETTU) collection, and a remote observing session with a telescope in Texas coordinated with Dr. Lucas Macri from the University of Texas.
Each month in 2009 there have been public talks and observing sessions throughout the island. Professors from the University of Puerto Rico have created a poem and a song to honour Galileo. We had the song recorded by one of the most popular groups in Puerto Rico: the Cantores de Bayamón. We have worked with school groups and general audiences. The set of FETTU images is now a travelling collection for schools with the theme of the Life of Stars. We have created a webpage for the Puerto Rico node to inform the public of our events, complete with important links.
For the 100 Hours of Astronomy (100HA) we had the enthusiastic participation of thousands of people. The activity was held at Old San Juan. We had a special exhibit: a replica of the Mars Rover from Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Two JPL engineers: Alfonso Herrera and Carolina Barltrop participated of the event and interacted with the public. We had diverse activities for families during the day and night. In particular we prepared a special adapted exhibit for the visually impaired. We are very proud that the video of the Arecibo Observatory that was presented during the Around the World in 80 Telescopes webcast. Our video was prepared by undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico School of Communication under the guidance of Professor Carlos Malavé. 100HA integrated University professors, professional astronomers, and amateur astronomers in an observing event of a scale never before seen on the island.
We had a graduate student from the University of Puerto Rico, Ms. Gloria Isidro, visit Israel and present the activities of the IYA2009-Puerto Rico at the Science Education Conference Marking the Astronomy Year and the Darwin Theory Bicentennial. During this visit Ms. Isidro presented a workshop at the Hateed College in Afula on adapted materials in astronomy for the visually impaired.
What do you have planned for the near future, and beyond 2009?
To celebrate the Apollo 11 mission we have organised a discussion panel with experts from different fields to discuss the mission from spiritual, scientific, social and media points of view.
Members from the Sociedad del Caribe will visit the Dominican Republic to collaborate with astronomy public talks and observations in this country of the Caribbean.
In October we are looking forward to the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Puerto Rico. Several of the experts attending this professional meeting have offered to give presentations and workshops for schools and the public. During October we will have the theme of the Solar System and planets. The Puerto Rico symphony orchestra will present "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. We are planning to have several family activities during the Galilean Nights Cornerstone project in October.
We will publish an eight-page astronomy newspaper insert in the autumn, funded with a NASA IDEAS award.
We expect our closing event will be the NASA FETTU exhibit travelling to different locations on the island.
The working group for IYA2009-Puerto Rico has expressed interest in continuing the coordinated collaboration for science outreach beyond 2009.
Which challenges have you had to face as the Single Point of Contact for Puerto Rico?
One of the challenges is to manage time efficiently so the working groups can run smoothly, and the other is financial, to be able to provide the necessary materials for volunteers and the public.
Do you have any message for other IYA2009 supporters?
IYA2009 will be memorable for all those who have participated and a great experience. I would congratulate all the persons involved in IYA2009, the organisers, and the public that attend the events and make this effort worthwhile.
Search IYA2009 Updates
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22