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211 N. East Street | Mason, Ohio 45040 |(513) 398-0474
Mason City Schools
English as a Second Language (ESL) Program
City Schools proudly welcome families from all over the world. We
currently enroll students from more than 35 countries, and our students
speak 65 languages. Our students and teachers appreciate the rich
cultural mix that our international families bring to our community and
schools. Our staff enjoys helping new students adjust academically and
socially through Mason's English as a Second Language Program.
Milena Varbanova, ESL Supervisor


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Mike & Molly Showrunner Steps Down for Season 4
TV Guide
Mike & Molly will be back for a fourth season, but its showrunner won't.
Creator Mike Roberts is stepping down as showrunner for the CBS comedy after three seasons, Deadline reports.
Never miss an episode again! Add new fall shows to your Watchlist
Chuck Lorre will remain executive producer, and co-executive producer Alan J. Higgins ('Til Death, Malcolm in the Middle) will replace Roberts.
Mike & Molly will return as a midseason show on CBS' fall schedule, it was announced last week.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by a joint venture between Lionsgate and CBS.)
View original Mike & Molly Showrunner Steps Down for Season 4 at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com

subset: commoncrawl


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17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, January 22, 1913: We had a surprise party tonight. Had quite a good time. It was a surprise for Ruth, and she didn't know the least of it.
Her middle-aged granddaughter's comments 100 years later:
It probably was a birthday party for Grandma's sister Ruth. I bet it was a really big surprise since Ruth turned 21 three days earlier on January 19.
What was a 21st birthday party like a hundred years ago?
Did Grandma pull Ruth's ears 21 times on her birthday? People used to pull the birthday person's ear lobes one time for each year. On January 19, 1911 Grandma wrote:
Pulled Miss Muffly's ears first thing this morning, whether she liked it or not. . .
And, on January 19, 1912, she wrote:
. . . I pulled Ruthie's ears. I tell her she is getting to be an old maid but really don't mean it. . . .


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IndyCar driver and total badass Simona de Silvestro has signed on with Sauber F1 as an "affiliated driver." Here's what that means, for her and the sport.
At the moment it means that "The Swiss Missile" de Silvestro won't immediately race for Sauber, particularly since she doesn't have then FIA Super License, which is required for racing F1 cars.
What it does mean is that Sauber will be training her so she can get her Super License and maybe, possibly, a race seat in the 2015 season.
Sauber's team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said that she fully supports Simona's goal of racing in F1.
After four years in IndyCar, Simona's ambition is to enter Formula one in 2015. We regard her as a very talented race driver, and we, therefore, decided to take her on board as an 'affiliated driver' and support her on her way to the pinnacle of motorsport.
Dewalt 20V Max Cordless Drill & Driver Kit
#1 Best-seller
Comes equipped with an LED which goes on when the trigger is pulled. You'll a clear view of whatever you are drilling or screwing with minimal shadows.
De Silvestro, who once qualified for the Indy 500 with second-degree burns on her hands after a fiery crash and was named IndyCar rookie of the year back in 2010, told RACER that F1 is her "ultimate goal" and that going to F1 is "a big jump, but I'm ready to do this."
De Silvestro running full F1 races would be huge news, because while women have tested for F1 recently, such as Susie Wolff and the late Maria de Villota, a woman hasn't occupied a race seat in a Formula One car since 1992.
(Hat tip to Maxyenko!)
Photo Credit: AP


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DB Schenker moves luxury fashion around the world with its new white glove La Conciergerie service.
The world's leading European luxury brands must truly be "handled with care" as they make their way across the supply chain and into the hands of their loyal customers. To say that these shipments deserve the white glove treatment would be an understatement. Worth thousands (if not millions) of dollars, they should only be handled using a concierge-like process that always puts the brand's value and reputation first.
Focused on reducing friction for luxury fashion brands at the manufacturing and retail level, DB Schenker's La Conciergerie service offers the consistent brand experience that companies have come to expect from their supply chain partners. Conscientious and thorough, this tailor-made, on-demand logistics solution includes fashion show deliveries, delivery of stock, and other specialized high-end white glove services.
An internationally recognized brand that was created more than 80 years ago, Lacoste's reach spans 120 countries, 1,200 stores, and 10,000 employees. Known for its very recognizable alligator logo, this French company also has 19 different online stores and 10,600 points of sale. In a recent exclusive interview with Lacoste's Pascal Huoi, Logistics and Transport Manager, said that the brand is repositioning its products in the premium segment between luxury and fast fashion. "As a premium brand, our goal is to also have a premium supply chain," he said.
For Lacoste's supply chain teams, the real challenge lies in finding ways to prepare and deliver orders according to everyone's needs. Knowing that its customers come back for its high-quality products, Lacoste puts much effort into controlling its brand image — a commitment that extends across its end-to-end supply chain. Whether they're shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, when shopping online, or when receiving a delivery at home, for example, users must feel that consistent brand image and experience.
"We want to tell the same story all over the world in the same way at the same time," Huoi said, "and especially through the windows of our 1,200 stores." To make that happen, Lacoste surrounds itself with supply chain and logistics partners that offer the same high level of service. La Conciergerie by DB Schenker is the perfect example of the type of premium service that Lacoste wants to offer its own customers.
Here at DB Schenker, we understand that each individual luxury client has its own unique requirements when it comes to moving high-end fashion and retail around the world. Just as one would expect from a high-end hotelier service, DB Schenker's La Conciergerie provides a differentiated, personalized concierge service to the world's leading luxury brands.
With services that include store openings and remodels; fashion shows; press events; exhibitions and roadshows; and book and press distribution, our international concierge managers handle it all. Other services include:
By exceeding standard expectations for shipping, delivery, and transport, DB Schenker's La Conciergerie service is also applicable for high-end online retailers that want to elevate their customer service and satisfaction levels. Working with DB Schenker, luxury brands can consistently meet and exceed their loyal customers' expectations every time.
Torben Kock
Vice President – Global Head of Consumer & Retail
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
DB Schenker has expanded its product portfolio with its new La Conciergerie service and is now the first logistics provider to offer a personalized white-glove treatment for the world's leading luxury fashion brands.DB Schenker launches La Conciergerie service Read more


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Welcome to the official website of Douglas Allen, principle anthem singer for the Buffalo Sabres
Where I'm from.
Born on a dairy farm in Cattaraugus County of Western New York, I grew up pulling weeds, picking beans, eating fresh corn on the cob, doing chores, and swimming in the farm pond.
And one more thing, singing. I was always singing. Every Saturday my family would gather around the piano and learn a new song for Sunday at church. About the only times I didn't sing was when I was fishing or hunting, then the songs stayed in my head, cause you had to be quiet.
I graduated from Gowanda High School in "82". An average student, I had a few good friends, and thick hair. (with pictures to prove it) :) I went to Houghton College and studied to be a music teacher. I wanted to be qualified to do something when I graduated in "86". I minored in pool, foosball, ping pong, and weightlifting. I graduated an average student with a few friends, a few muscles, and much less hair!!
I started teaching right out of school. I also poured myself into Community Theater. I had leading roles in H.M.S. Pinafore, Glass Menagerie, Once upon a mattress, West Side Story, and several smaller parts in My Fair Lady. I stopped teaching. (loved the kids, hated the process of teaching) I spent some time in the fitness industry until I moved to Buffalo to work towards a Masters of Music Theater at U.B. I started working for City Mission Soc. Inc. of Buffalo. It was around 1992-93 that I sent an audition tape to the appropriate person at the Buffalo Sabres Organization, and began singing occasionally at hockey games. I also sang at a Bison's game, Bandit's games, Destroyer's game- still waiting for a Bills game. hint hint!! I lucked out and married a gorgeous blonde. We have 3 kids, a mortgage payment, good neighbors, and most important- Jesus.
I attend Fellowship Wesleyan Church in West Seneca, New York. I feel very strongly that if God gives you a talent, you better use it for Him. He gave His life for me out of love. I am compelled by gratefullness to serve Him, and share His love with people who don't know Him.
I have been known to sing at weddings, funerals, church camps, fourth of July Celebrations, and places too numerous to mention. Cue the music... I am Douglas Allen, Anthem Guy. Just your average nut. Some assembly required, batteries not needed, just my morning Orange juice. Lots of Orange Juice.
Why the point? I'm asking you a question. Oh say, does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?????
Hat- $2.50 at the thrift store. Tux- Marty's formal wear. Boots bought in Utah. Bed sheet hanging behind--- Photo op!!!
If you wish to contact me about an appearance, please fill out the form below.
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Currently, I fear, the digital humanities are not ready to take up their full responsibility because the field does not yet possess an adequate critical awareness of the larger social, economic, and cultural issues at stake. The side of the digital humanities that descends from humanities computing lacks almost all cultural–critical awareness, and the side that descends from new media studies is indiscriminately critical of society and global informational 'empire' without sufficient focus on the specifically institutional – in this case, higher education – issues at stake. (Liu, "State of the Digital Humanities" 11)
It would be difficult to deny that the Humanities are in some distress at this particular juncture of their history, and face an imposing and worrisome array of challenges — economic, political, and cultural — if they are to survive in some recognizable form into the next decade or so. The Humanities have not faced this threat quietly or complacently, but have also, I think, not been terribly effective in formulating a response. Reactions have varied, from ideologically-driven (and utterly unrealistic) demands for a simple turn-around in government funding policies and attitudes, to enthusiastically naive (or perhaps exceedingly cynical) calls for techno-utopian solutions such as MOOCs.
The most promising response, I think, has been one that steers something of a middle course, and imagines ways in which a dynamic collaboration of the Public Humanities with the Digital Humanities can both revitalize our fields while at the same time answer in an effective manner the strident critiques being levelled against the Humanities from outside the academy. There a number of obstacles to be overcome if such as an approach is to succeed, as the epigraph citing Alan Liu at the head of his post suggests. But there have also been some imaginative and thoughtful attempts to negotiate such an approach, by such scholars as Liu, Julia Flanders, and others. (I've listed just a few in "References," below.) This post, and a few that will follow on it, are an attempt to make a modest contribution to this task.
If the Humanities are in some disarray at the moment, this in part because we have been forced onto the defensive. We have become reactive and, perhaps inevitably in that context, somewhat conservative. And having conceded the initiative, our responses have also become confused, ineffective, and often contradictory or counterproductive. Part of the problem is that I think that this is an unnatural place for the Humanities to be: ours has, historically, been an evangelical and outward-looking movement, and I don't think we are as effective when we are instead circling the wagons. So, I am not going to deny the facts of the criticisms being levelled against the Humanities, but I am, for the most part, not going to address them directly. I do so for strategic reasons, and not because I am in denial.
Another reason the Humanities are having such a difficult time marshalling an effective defence is that this assault from without coincides with the turmoil instigated by a powerful new force that is reshaping (some might say distorting) our disciplines from within. I refer, of course, to the so-called "digital turn" that is profoundly transforming not merely our fields, but our entire educational system, and indeed our very culture. To many Humanists, the advent of new computational approaches within our traditional fields seems profoundly "anti-humanist." Others may be unable to clearly distinguish the upheaval that digital technology and approaches are bring about from the damage being done the Humanities by external forces. And indeed, we are wise to be vigilant that the digital turn, or at least its rhetoric, is not co-opted by the besiegers.
From a historical perspective, this fear within the Humanities of the change wrought by technology is an aberration. In fact, historically, the Humanities have been the beneficiaries, and not the victims, of new communication technologies. The volumen and the marvellously versatile codex were both technological innovations that helped preserve and disseminate the products of humanistic endeavour. This is even more true, of course, of the printing press: one of the most successful early exploiters of this new technology was Desiderius Erasmus, who actively engaged with the technical aspects of printing:
Erasmus was acutely aware of the role that the printer played in the success of a volume. Throughout his career he gave close attention to the production process, seeking out the best printers and working closely with them to ensure that the text was both elegant and accurate. (Pettigrew 83)
Had Erasmus lived today, he might perhaps have become a Digital Humanist. He would certainly have been eager to make use of these new ways of disseminating knowledge and ideas. It would be odd, therefore, if the Humanities did not choose to exploit the power of a new technology to engage with our society, just as the Renaissance Humanists did before us.
And engaging with our society, rather than with the politicians, bureaucrats, and corporatists who have taken aim against the Humanities, is precisely what I propose to do. Personally, I am tired of feeling defensive, and of fighting this battle on grounds of the enemy's choosing. It is time to take the offensive, and, moreover, to do so by engaging directly with those who are not being consulted in this debate, the "public." It is time to resuscitate what I have called a militant Humanities, one that proves its cultural value not merely by force of argument, but by our choice of weapons. The best response to those who claim that the Humanities have become valueless is to demonstrate how vital and important a component of our culture they actually are. We can best prove that we are dynamic and relevant by actually being dynamic and relevant, and to show that we are a vital and positive cultural force by impacting, in positive ways, upon our culture.
In other words, I'm less interested in "advocating" for the Humanities per se (as important a task as this is) than I am in weaving it back into the fabric of our public culture in a way that makes it, ultimately, inextricable from the whole. I want to see the the Humanities made public, but that is only half of the equation: it is more important, ultimately, to make the Public humanist.*
What I am talking about is, of course, a particular version of what we have come to know as the "Public Humanities." While, as I have suggested, my own interest is in the intersections and possible collaborations of Public Humanities with Digital Humanities, I will actually have relatively little to say about the latter below. This is because I want first to establish the nature and scope of the challenges that a Public Humanities faces, in order to better identify the role that I think the Digital Humanities can play in overcoming those. I have therefore begun by asking a series of questions about our field. These can be thought of as a series of reference points on a sort of conceptual map of the Humanities: taken together, I hope that they provide a useful (if of course limited) perspective on where the Humanities are now — "what we have wrought" — while gesturing towards what we might become — "Whither We Go."
In a few future posts, I will build on these questions, and the answers that I think they demand, to discuss in more detail the actual role that DH might come to play in a "militant Humanities."
Whom do we think we mean when we talk about about a "public" for the Humanities?
By and large, academics live, I think, an existence that produces a rather odd perspective on "public." On the one hand, our on-campus jobs, in our classrooms, seminar rooms, and offices, are in some regards already very public. We are in some sense performing before a kind of public, albeit a rarefied one, every time we teach.
On the other hand, the work/personal time distinction for academics tends to be rather fuzzy: we don't generally work 9 to 5 hours, but we also usually do a great deal of work outside of those times: in the evenings and on weekends, for instance. (I wrote most of this blog post on a Sunday morning.) So, just as the public sphere tends to intrude upon our working time on campus, so too does our working time intrude upon the lives that we lead at large, "in the public."
What this may mean is that we do not, perhaps, always have a very clear sense of what we mean by "public." Understandably, we tend to think of the public, or at least our "public," as comprised of people like ourselves, or like our students, except not quite so. Our public tends to look a bit like our classrooms, except that it congregates in museums and libraries and art galleries. It is generally pretty well educated, and reads a lot. And, most importantly, it is already interested in what we have to say. It likes and admires us, and is quiet and respectful when we speak. It asks intelligent questions when given the opportunity (at a time of our choosing), and doesn't need to be told that what we are telling them is terribly, terribly important.
This all sounds very cosy and intimate, and this is a good thing. Unfortunately, however, this sense of cosiness and intimacy may largely be an effect of the fact that "our" public is also terribly, terribly small.
There is nothing at all wrong with reaching out to those who already wish to engage with us. But if we truly wish to communicate the values represented by the arts and humanities to those who don't already share those values with us, we need to find new venues for engagement. And to do that, we have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone more than just a little.
So we must identify new publics, and in so doing, make note of what it is that makes each distinct. We must learn how each sees itself with the context of the larger cultural matrix, and how it might see itself in relation to the Humanities. And, in order to engage with and serve each of these new publics, we must accommodate ourselves to them in a manner that is both sensitive to them, and true to our own values.
Where is "the public" to be found?
This question relates in fairly obvious ways to the one above, because there is an obvious correlation between whom we address and where we find them. Or, more pertinently, where we look for them, because the size and nature of the publics we address will be a function of where we seek them out.
So, where do we look for our public?
There is a book, a collection of short essays, by Canadian writer Sheila Heti (with Misha Glouberman) entitled The Chairs Are Where the People Go. I'm not actually a particular fan of the book, but the title essay (which is, in fact, about arranging audiences for public lectures) might almost have been written for most academics. We tend to look for our "public" where the chairs are. And the chairs are mostly on campuses, or in libraries, or at museums.
Where do the people mostly go? Well, actually, most of them don't congregate in such places, in chairs or otherwise. They are instead in a great many other places. And an awful lot of them are, as we know, online. Social media is very often where the people go.
Are we in the Humanities online, in social media, too? Well, yes, some of us, some of the time. But are we really employing the digital public sphere to engage a public, or do we mostly use it to network among ourselves? To answer that question, we all might glance over our Facebook "friends" list, or the lists of those we follow, and those who follow us, on Twitter. How many of these constitute our "public" . . . and how many are really "us"?
What is it, exactly, within the Humanities that we want to "make public"?
When faced with criticisms of the utility of the Humanities from the public media, it has become a reflex to speak about the importance of "critical thinking." We tend to say this as though critical thinking was self-evidently at the heart of what we actually research about and teach (is it, really?), and also as though critical thinking were the exclusive preserve of the Humanities — a claim that I know that those in other fields would challenge.
One of our tasks then should be to interrogate what we mean by "critical thinking," and to analyze the ways in which the particular flavour of such thinking in the Humanities differs (if indeed it does) from that offered by other fields in the sciences and social sciences. What, in other words, do we have to offer that is unique to our disciplines?
Stepping back from that fundamental question, we also need to ask ourselves what it is that we actually deliver to "our" public. When we give public lectures, place our research in the public domain, or blog and tweet about what we are doing in a publicly available venue, are we really offering insights into critical thinking?
Well, sometimes perhaps we do. My own perception, however, is that most often what we offer up is not an insight into humanistic modes of perception and thought, but rather what I will call, for want of a better word, "content." By content, I mean something rather like "facts." We lecture on the life and oeuvre of a particular poet, or talk about the evolution of an artist's aesthetic vision, or we discuss the philosophical and ethical implications of a particular public policy.
This is all good stuff, I believe, but it is for the most part communicating the fruit of our own critical thinking and research, rather than demonstrating how we think and research. It tends to be built around a narrative that we have already constructed, rather than around the power and implications of building narratives.
So the question is this: if we believe (as most of us do) that it is more important that our students learn how to read (in all the multivalent senses of that word) and think critically than that they remember the dates of such and such an author or work of art, then why do we not think that this same set of intellectual priorities should apply to our non-academic public as well? If we believe (as most of us probably do) that the Humanities have a transformative power, and that they are of inestimable value to the thinking citizen of a democratic society, why do we think that we are performing an especially valuable service by lecturing on materials that we would probably relegate to secondary status in evaluation of student progress?
Do we believe that our broader public is less capable of, or less interested in, learning how to think in humanistic ways than our students?
Do we apply what we have come to know about teaching to our engagement with the broader public(s)?
This question in some ways follows naturally upon the one immediately above. We have, as a profession, expended a fair amount of thought over the last decade or more on learning and teaching strategies. The advent of digital teaching tools and resources over that time, ranging from the homely Powerpoint slideshow to the might MOOC, has done much to change the way that we approach pedagogy, and these new resources have become, to greater or lesser degrees, an accepted part of our arsenal of teaching tools.
And, because tools change what we do, and how we think about it, as much as they transform the way in which we do things, our pedagogy has changed in interesting and (mostly) positive ways. Blended learning, peer-to-peer teaching, visualizations and project-based learning are among the more important new strategies we employ because we have come to believe that they are effective ways of communicating and instilling the skills and information that we wish to impart to our students.
But how many of us employ these when interacting with a public not comprised of our peers or our students? The Powerpoint (or Prezi, or Keynote) has certainly become ubiquitous, but what other tools do we use to engage with a broader public?
More importantly than the technology, have we sought to introduce new and innovative strategies for engaging with such publics? Have we thought about how blended or collaborative learning, or project-based interactions might assist us in such engagements? Have we tried to empower our public, to treat them as equals in dialogue with the Academy, to learn from them as they (we hope) will learn from us?
Do we listen to our public?
For whom do we build?
Looking beyond, for a moment, the perpetual debates within Digital Humanities about who is "in," and what constitutes "building," we can say truthfully that all academics "create" things, whether those things are monographs, articles, works of fiction or art, or digital tools. We create all of these things for particular audiences or communities of potential users. The classic scholarly monograph or peer-reviewed article, for instance, are invariably written for those who are like ourselves: for specialists in this or that field. Books and articles written for a popular audience — the latter might include, for instance, guest columns in a newspaper or a magazine article — are obviously produced for a larger audience, while a novel, poem, performance, or work of visual art is intended to appeal more broadly still.
All of these, whether of broad or narrow focus, seem to me to one degree or another to be cases of preaching to the choir. This is not to say that they are not useful, or valuable, or relevant, or even that they are not, sometimes, "public humanities." But, because the forms that they take delimit the intended audience, they are all, by generic definition, addressing those who are already engaged with the humanities. Volumes of poetry, for instance, tend to be purchased or borrowed, and read, by lovers of poetry. Art exhibits are viewed by art lovers. Popular histories attract people who are interested in, yes, history. (The sole exceptions here might be newspaper articles. Or maybe not.)
As for digital tools — well, I can imagine the occasional non-academic having some fun playing around with a tool like Voyant, or Orbis, for a short while. But the vast majority of our digital resources, be they research tools, or electronic editions, are produced for a highly specialized use by people who closely resemble us.
Can we imagine what we might build for a different kind of audience? What sorts of tools might engage with those whom we have not already narrowly defined as peers or allies?
Who, exactly, are "we"?
Throughout this post, I have been writing as an academic, with a presumed audience of other academics (which I would take to include graduate students and librarians at least). Perhaps this is telling? Possibly the tendency of academics (including, evidently, myself) to think of ourselves as a very distinct group, rather than as a part of a larger community, is symptomatic of the reasons why all Humanities are not yet Public Humanities?
Definitions of the Humanities abound of course, but I particularly like this one from the 4Humanities project because of its focus upon the notion of community and contribution:
[T]he humanities contribute the needed perspective, training in complex human phenomena, and communication skills needed to spark, understand, and make "human" the new discoveries. In the process, they themselves discover new, and also very old, ways to be human. They do so through their unique contribution of the wisdom of the past, awareness of other cultures in the present, and imagination of innovative and fair futures. ("Mission," 4Humanities)
The Humanities are a very broad and (ideally) inclusive community. We "do" the Humanities in universities and colleges, but surely we should acknowledge that we are not the sole custodians of and advocates for the many and diverse range of intellectual and creative activities that are denoted by that term. Public librarians, K-12 teachers of all sorts, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and writers, community leaders, fundraisers, and members of an enormous variety of creative, artistic, or generally humanistic ventures in the public sphere: these are all more than merely potential allies. They are, in a sense, another important facet of who we are.
And establishing who we are is a vital first step in communicating the values for which we stand. Acknowledging our membership within a much larger community of practitioners of the Humanities is important for that reason if for no other.
* I am aware, of course, of the dangers potentially inherent in conflating "the Humanities" with older and frankly problematic forms of "Humanism," and I use the term "humanist" somewhat guardedly for that reason. It is possible, however, to envision a newer, more diverse and nuanced form of "Humanism" that takes into account new understanding of globalism, sexuality, identity, and the other issues that now make the older ideology seem so out-of-date and untenable. See for instance Diana Brydon's call for a more expansive humanism in "Do The Humanities Need a New Humanism?" Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, Winnipeg: U of Manitoba, 2013.
4Humanities: Advocating for the Humanities. Web. Accessed 5 May, 2013.
Brydon, Diana. "Do The Humanities Need a New Humanism?" Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, Winnipeg: U of Manitoba, 2013. Web. Accessed 5 May, 2013.
Draxkler, Bridget, Jentery Sayers, Edmond Y. Chang, Peter Likarish, et al. "Democratizing Knowledge,"HASTAC, Forums, 2009.
Flanders, Julia. "The Literary, the Humanistic, the Digital: Toward a Research Agenda for Digital Literary Studies." Literary Studies in the Digital Age: An Evolving Anthology. Ed. Kenneth M. Price and Ray Siemens. MLA Commons. New York: Modern Language Association, n.d. Web. Accessed 6 May, 2013.
Heti, Sheila, with Misha Glouberman. The Chairs Are Where the People Go: How To Live, Work, and Play in the City. Faber & Faber, 2011.
Liu, Alan. "The State of the Digital Humanities: A Report and a Critique." Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 11.1 (2012): 1-34.
Marcotte, Sophie, Ichiro Fujinaga, Susan Brown, John Unsworth, Laura Mandell, Bênoit Habert, and Ray Siemens, "Public Digital Humanities," Digital Humanities McGill, McGill University. 30 April, 2012. [Podcast]
Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance. New Haven and London: Yale, 2011.
Image Credit: Ambrosius Holbein. Utopiae Insulae Tabula, from Thomas More, Utopia (Basel, 1518). Wikimedia Commons.


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American held in Iran claims 'miserable prison conditions' in letter to John Kerry
DETROIT – A former U.S. Marine held in Iran for two years said in a letter to the U.S. secretary of state that he has endured "miserable prison conditions" and believes Tehran is holding him hostage for use in a possible prisoner exchange.
Amir Hekmati's letter, handwritten and dated Sept. 1, was addressed to John Kerry and first published Wednesday by Britain's Guardian newspaper.
Hekmati, 30, wrote that he has been "held on false charges based solely on confessions obtained by force, threats, miserable prison conditions and prolonged periods of solitary confinement.
"This is part of a propaganda and hostage-taking effort by Iranian intelligence to secure the release of Iranians abroad being held on security-related charges," he wrote in the letter that the Guardian said was smuggled from the prison.
Family spokesman Greg Romano told The Associated Press that Hekmati's sister, Sarah Hekmati, authenticated the letter, confirming that the handwriting is her brother's as is the letter's tone. Romano provided the AP with a copy of the letter.
The U.S. State Department said it had received the letter.
"We have asked ... Iranian authorities to permit a visit by officials of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to determine the well-being of Mr. Hekmati and, of course, to release him," department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
Switzerland represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran.
Hekmati has been detained in Iran on what the U.S. says are false espionage charges since his 2011 arrest. Hekmati's family says he traveled to Iran to visit his grandmothers.
The letter goes on to say that while Hekmati and his family "have suffered greatly," he "will accept nothing but" an unconditional release.
The U.S. previously has requested assistance from new President Hasan Rouhani, who has stressed a more diplomatic approach to foreign affairs than did his hard-line predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The new president is scheduled to visit the United Nations later this month.
"It's time for Amir to be released. It's time for him to come home to Michigan, to his family. My brother has committed no crime," Sarah Hekmati said in a written statement. "More than two years in detention, much of which was spent in solitary confinement, is far too long. He has never been a spy for any country or entity or person. They have punished him enough. We hope Iran's new President Rouhani and his new government recognize this point."
Hekmati was born in Arizona and grew up in Michigan. He carries U.S. and Iranian passports.
Iran accused him of being a CIA spy, then tried, convicted and sentenced him to death. Iran's Supreme Court ordered a retrial last year, but he remains imprisoned.


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BeagleBoard/DSP Clarification
This article tries to explain all the different Linux DSP systems for OMAP chips, how they are similar and different.
DSP Gateway was developed by Nokia for the Maemo Internet Tablets. It's the oldest and more open of the implementations. The open code consists not only of the linux kernel side, but also the DSP operating system. Unfortunately the development is essentially halted.
It works on OMAP1 and OMAP2, it's production ready, used on the Nokia N800 and N810, it follows linux standards and it's close to upstream acceptance. There's code for OMAP3 but it has been thoroughly tested.
It is maintained by Hiroshi DOYU.
There are a few user-space applications that use it. Essentially GStreamer Nokia DSP plugins and a few others developed by the Maemo community.
tidspbridge originally developed by TI, but after being released as open source it has received many contributions, predominantly by Nokia.
It's probably not production ready (at least I don't know of any released product using it), and it still doesn't meet linux standards although there has been a lot of progress. Only the ARM side is available as open source, unlike the dsp-bridge, the DSP side is completely closed.
Unfortunately there's a disagreement between TI and the community as how power management must be handled, so there are two forks: linux-omap, and omapzoom.
It's under heavy development, originally maintained by Hiroshi DOYU, but now Ameya Palande took over.
There is plans to share the mailbox and iommu that the dsp-gateway uses, but it's independent from it, as well as to move parts of it to user-space.
There are slightly more user-space applications using it, including gst-openmax through TI's OpenMAX IL implementation which is also open source. and gst-goo.
A slimmer version of the dsp-bridge targeted for the DaVinci platform also developed by TI. It supports a wider variety of chips, not only OMAP.
It is the one farther from meeting linux standards, the code hasn't even been submitted for reviewing nor is planned to to be merged at any time.
It's tightly tied to codecengine and dmai and there are GStreamer plug-ins provided by TI to use the algorithms.


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Here are the 2013 Best Places to Work in Maine, arranged alphabetically by category.
Each winning company in both the Small/Medium and Large categories will find out how it ranked at an awards banquet Oct. 10 at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland.
Small/Medium Businesses
Albin, Randall & Bennett, CPAs, Portland
Allagash Brewing Company, Portland
Allen Insurance and Financial, Camden
Androscoggin Bank, Lewiston
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Bar Harbor
Bernstein Shur , Portland
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay
BlueTarp Financial, Inc., Portland
BONNEY Staffing Center, Portland
CashStar Inc., Portland
Connectivity Point Design and Installation, LLC, Auburn
CUSO Mortgage Corp, Hampden
Day One, South Portland
FISC Solutions, Lewiston
Franklin Savings Bank, Farmington
GreenPages Technology Solutions, Kittery
Hall Internet Marketing, Scarborough
Holden Agency Insurance, Portland
Hydro International, Portland
Infinity Federal Credit Union, Westbrook
Kepware Technologies, Portland
Kleinschmidt, Pittsfield
Legacy Publishing Company, Westbrook
Liquid Wireless, Portland
Machias Savings Bank, Machias
Maine Center for Cancer Medicine, Scarborough
Maine Community Foundation, Ellsworth
Maine Community Health Options, Lewiston
Maine Credit Union League/Synergent, Portland
Maine Savings Federal Credit Union, Hampden
Maine State Credit Union, Augusta
Mechanics Savings Bank, Auburn
MMG Insurance Company, Presque Isle
MOUNTAIN, LTD., New Gloucester
Nurse Anesthesia of Maine, Brewer
Oxford Federal Credit Union, Mexico
Patriot Subaru, Saco
PeoplesChoice Credit Union, Saco
Plixer, Kennebunk
Portland Webworks, Inc., Portland
Putney Inc., Portland
Sage Data Security, LLC, Portland
SeniorsPlus, Lewiston
Skowhegan Savings Bank, Skowhegan
Town & Country Federal Credit Union, South Portland
TruChoice Federal Credit Union, South Portland
Winxnet, Portland
Large Businesses
athenahealth Inc., Belfast
Bangor Savings Bank, Bangor
Barclays, Wilton
CIANBRO, Pittsfield
Cintas Corporation, Westbrook
Consigli Construction Co. Inc., Portland
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Brewer
Edward Jones, Belfast
InterMed P.A., South Portland
L.L. Bean Inc., Freeport
T-Mobile USA, Oakland
Tyler Technologies Inc., Yarmouth
Unum, Portland
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Another day, another misleading Daily Caller JournoList article
This is becoming rote. Once again, the Daily Caller is flogging the JournoList archives, and once again they've attached a salacious headline to the story that is not supported by the evidence they present.
Today's piece is headlined: "Political operatives on Journolist worked to shape news coverage." It fits in nicely with the overall theme of the Daily Caller's JournoList coverage, which is that the now-defunct listserv was the epicenter of the liberal media conspiracy (a theme that they've pretty effectively undermined themselves). The actual story, though, contains just two examples of political operatives working to "shape news coverage," and even the Caller acknowledges that the efforts weren't very successful.
After listing all the JournoList members who quit when they took government positions, the Caller notes that Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden's chief economic adviser, wrote a message for JournoList founder Ezra Klein to pass along to the listserv's members:
"Calling all Journos," Bernstein wrote in a message relayed by Klein. "I thought we got too little love from progressive types re our tax changes targeted at businesses with overseas operations. We're maybe going for another bite at the apple this Monday," he wrote. Bernstein invited members of the list to join him on a conference call on the issue a few days later.
As the Caller notes, a bunch of JournoListers panned Bernstein's message, but some of them signed on for the conference call. That's when the story falls apart:
In the end, 14 journalists expressed interest in the conference call with Bernstein, including Donmoyer and Washington Post reporter Alec MacGillis. The effort appeared to be wasted on Donmoyer, who in the coming weeks wrote a couple of stories for Bloomberg expressing skepticism about the idea.
Bernstein's effort did appear to bear fruit elsewhere, however. "I've heard that there's some disappointment in the administration that they haven't gotten the level of progressive love they feel they deserve for their ambitious proposals to curb abusive corporate tax loopholes," wrote influential liberal blogger Matt Yglesias the next day. Yglesias went on to attack opponents of the plan, noting "how absurd some of the abuses the administration is trying to curb are."
That's it. Bloomberg's writer was unswayed, but Bernstein found success with liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias, who is not a journalist. Unmentioned by the Daily Caller is that Yglesias had voiced his support for the Obama administration's corporate tax proposals before Bernstein's conference call reportedly took place. So, by the Caller's own reckoning, all Bernstein managed to do was gain the support of a blogger who already supported him. This constitutes "shaping news coverage"?
Then they move on to an email posted by "professional political operative" Jeff Hauser, in which he "straightforwardly asked working journalists on the list to skew their coverage" of the first McCain-Obama debate "in order to help the Democratic candidate." Notably absent from the article is any indication whatsoever that Hauser's email had an impact on coverage. Instead they offer this:
In the conversation that followed Hauser's post, not one Journolister expressed surprise or disapproval. No one rebuked Hauser for telling journalists how to carry water for a politician. Despite the group's supposedly "very strict" ban on political operatives and explicit partisan coordination, Hauser remained a member of Journolist for almost two more years.
It would have been instructive had the Daily Caller actually provided the emails that followed Hauser's missive, instead of just writing: "No one rebuked Hauser for telling journalists how to carry water for a politician." Okay, did they ignore him? Did they disagree with him? Did they politely change the subject? The Daily Caller tells us what they didn't do -- how about telling us what they did do?
Or better yet, how about just publishing the emails themselves instead of an endless series of misleading write-ups?


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The Norton bench and pedestal wheel line consists of all popular wheel diameters and arbor sizes, abrasive types and grit sizes to answer all yNorton metal removal, deburring, shaping and sharpening needs. Premium white aluminum oxide for high speed tool steels, gray aluminum oxide for carbon steel, and silicon carbide for nonferrous metals and carbide tooling.
- Quality, gray aluminum oxide for general purpose applications on steel
- Vitrified bonded for superb shape holding and resistance to wear
- Telescoping bushings to fit popular arbor hole sizes
- Coarse grit for medium stock to light stock removal
- Speed rated for standard RPM bench & pedestal grinders


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1692 Dining Table with 1685 Chairs
This Dining Set offers a contemporary approach in design. Durable wooden construction combined with rich high gloss finish give this set its ultra modern exterior while the white color of the set adds a touch of the elegance. The Dining Set consists of: Dining Table & 6 Side Chairs
Chairs - white fabric
Collection: ESF Extravaganza Collection
Stock status: Stock Product


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This year, for the first time, Tourism Ireland can assess the value of that engagement and compare it to the investment we have made in creating branded messaging.
Tourism Ireland is currently ranked the third largest national tourist board on Facebook, with approximately 700,000 fans across 20 markets in eight languages. In the absence of an accepted industry standard to assess the value of this beyond simply counting fan numbers, we developed the concept of Social Equivalent Advertising Value (SEAV).
Just as the PR sector has traditionally measured its impact by the cost of buying advertising to cover the equivalent column inches, so a similar approach can be applied to social media. The more a brand message is shared, the more "column inches" are gained and the value of this can be compared to the cost of equivalent online advertising.
We identified four levels of consumer engagement with brands in social media:
- Post Impressions: viewing a brand post.
- Page Impressions: viewing a brand owner's social platform.
- Personal Actions: consuming brand content such as photos, videos or links.
- Public Actions: sharing brand content with their network.
We then categorized the actions that consumers can take across the major social platforms into each of these groupings, and attributed a financial value to the cost of delivering a comparable consumer engagement online. This allowed us to quantify the value of our social engagement in Facebook at the end of last year at an annualized level of €1.7 million.
We have adopted SEAV as a corporate KPI and set organization-wide growth targets. These objectives drive our local marketing teams to continue to not only grow the reach of our social activity in their geographies but also to focus on deepening the level of audience engagement with our messaging.
We all know that it's no longer the size of your social media audience that matters but rather how those people engage with you. Finally, we can place a value on the return.
Read more about how the SEAV model works and how you can apply it in your organization at http://www.scribd.com/TourismIreland
Mark Henry is the Central Marketing Director of Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for promoting tourism to the island of Ireland from across the globe.


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Zurbarán, Francisco de
Zurbarán, Francisco de fränthēs´kō ᵺā tho͝orbärän´ [key], 1598–1664, Spanish baroque painter, active mainly at Llerena, Madrid, and Seville. One of the finest painters of 17th-century Spain, surpassed only by the great Velázquez, Zurbarán worked mostly for ecclesiastical patrons. His early paintings, including Crucifixion (1627; Art Inst., Chicago), St. Michael (Metropolitan Mus.), and St. Francis (City Art Mus., St. Louis), often suggest the austere simplicity of wooden sculpture. The figures, placed close to the picture surface, are strongly modeled in dramatic light against dark backgrounds, indicating the influence of Caravaggio. They were clearly painted as altarpieces or devotional objects. In the 1630s the realistic style seen in his famous Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas (1631; Seville) yields to a more mystical expression in works such as the Adoration of the Shepherds (1638; Grenoble); in this decade he was influenced by Ribera's figural types and rapid brushwork. While in Seville, Zurburán was clearly influenced by Velázquez. After c.1640 the simple power of Zurbarán's work lessened as Murillo's influence on his painting increased (e.g., Virgin and Child with St. John, Fine Arts Gall., San Diego, Calif.). There are works by Zurbarán in the Hispanic Society of America, New York City; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
See study by M. S. Soria (repr. 1955).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies


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Finally! After owning this for more than a year, I got around to trying it and now reviewing it. 😛
Although this particular palette is no longer available, I hope my review of the products will help get a sense of bareMinerals pressed products in general.
I'm most familiar with bareMinerals from their loose makeup, especially the mineral foundation. However, I've heard that their pressed products are great quality so I put this item on my Christmas wish list for 2015 and received it as a gift.
The palette is made of a sturdy cardboard that's fairly compact (13 x 8 x 1.7cm / 5¼ x 3½ x ¾") when closed, although the cardboard does add some bulk. It folds up like a folder:
There's a good sized mirror which makes it ideal for travel.
A nit: why aren't the eye shadows in the first portion of the palette when it's unfolded rather than the second portion? I do my eye makeup first and then blush / bronzer / highlight – I need to access the eye shadow first! 😛
The palette contains 8 eye sahdows, 2 blushes, 1 highlighter and 1 bronzer.
Each individual eye shadow is 1.3g / 0.04oz of product, which is slightly less than the typical of a full size single refill pan (ie MAC, MUG etc).
The eye shadows contained are in their "Ready Eyeshadow" formula (ie. pressed eye shadows), and the official colour descriptions are as follows (I added the finish in brackets):
• Natural – light buttery peach (matte)
• Cognac – gilded bronze (metallic)
• Namaste – sandy brown (matte)
• Treasure Hunt – shimmering taupe (shimmer)
• 500 Thread Count – airy pink (matte)
• Romp – iridescent lilac (metallic)
• Flash – matte purple clay (matte)
• Regal – velvet plum (shimmer)
The 8 eye shadows are evenly divided into 4 mattes and 4 shimmers, with the top row being warmer-toned and bottom row more cool-toned. Out of the 8 shades, 4 are limited edition; these shades can be found elsewhere: 500 Thread Count and Romp (both were part of The Dream Sequence quad), Cognac (part of The Top Shelf duo), and Namaste (part of The Enlightenment duo).
I've been using this palette since January (on and off, not daily – are you nuts? 😛 ) – these eye shadows are outstanding! They're smooth, pigmented and last incredibly well through a full work day and then some (I estimate around 12 hours!) without fading or creasing.
The colours coordinate well with each other – I typically use the top row and bottom row separately to do different eye looks. The only slight issue I experienced was that some shades are slightly more difficult to blend, especially the deeper matte shades like Namaste and Flash.
It should come as no surprise that the taupes were my favourites – Cognac and Romp are amazing! For me, the 2 light matte colours are repetitive – I would have loved to have seen a matte transition colour instead. After playing around with the palette, I realized that I can use the included bronzer as my transitional shade.
Which brings me to the face products, included are:
• Ready Blush in The Summer Fling – creamy peach (matte) (2g / 0.07oz)
• Ready Bronzer in The Skinny Dip – light tan (matte) (3g / 0.1oz)
• Ready Luminizer in The Brilliant Sunset (shimmer) (2.8g / 0.09oz)
• Ready Blush in The Love Letter – warm mauve (matte) (2g / 0.07oz)
The Skinny Dip is a permanent product that's available as a compact, which retails for C$32 for 8.5g. The other face products are limited edition. For me, the blushes are a bit disappointing – I would consider myself somewhat of a blush connoisseur and these blushes are quite powdery and they don't last well on the skin.
The bronzer is nice for an all over warmth but I mostly use it as a transitional eye colour. The highlighter is great and subtle enough to wear on the daily basis. As an added bonus, the highlighter can be used as a brow bone / inner corner highlight since both of the included eye shadow highlight shades are matte.
Interestingly, the blushes and highlighter are made in Canada and the rest of the products are made in the USA (yay NAFTA!). This palette retailed for C$56 / $39 USD bareMinerals claim this has a value of $126 USD.
Besides this palette, I do also own the bareMinerals duo in The Phenomenon – which was a Black Friday set from 2014. I thought I'd throw in a quick comparison to see how the quality of the holiday palette compares to a regular duo:
The eye shadow pan sizes are the same:
The Phenomenon contains:
• Azure Isis – prismatic lavender (shimmer)
• Golden Iris – illuminating amber (shimmer)
I'd say the quality are pretty comparable – they are pigmented, blend well and last a long time on the lids. These 2 shades are more of companion / accent colours – I'm not able to do a complete eye look with just these 2 colours. They remind me a bit of how Nars duos are – the odd pairing of colours.
But, good job bareMinerals on keeping the quality of your seasonal limited edition product quality on par with your regular products. And not made in China. 😉
Here's how I rate the bareMinerals The Regal Wardrobe Palette:
• Eye shadows are pigmented, smooth, blendable formula
• Highlighter and bronzer are good
• Can create complete eye / cheek look
• Compact palette size
• Good value
• Made in Canada / US
• Inconsistency between finishes
• Blushes not as good as eye shadows
• Packaging a little cumbersome
Stash worthiness: 8/10 (eye shadows are 9/10 but the face products brought down the overall rating)
I do like this palette as a travel option – it's nice to have eye and face products all together. I actually don't think I own a palette that contains eye shadows, blushes, bronzer and highlighter in one (I do have the Carli Bybel palette which contains eye shadows but highlighters only – and the palette is too large to travel in my opinion). What about you? Do you have a go-to all-inclusive palette? Have you tried bareMinerals' pressed makeup?


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Yesterday I took a trip over to my local Kohls.com. Armed with a $100 gift card, I went to town! As I say in my video, it always amazes me how many great sales they have going at any given time when you walk in. Check out my video to see everything I scored for just around $100.
But in the meantime, this campaign is to generate buzz about a great giveaway Kohl's has going on their Facebook page right now. They're calling it the "Hauls of Fame," and basically they are giving away several gift cards each week to inspiring photos and videos of customers fashion haul's from their own local Kohl's. Think you have what it takes to win? Give it a shot and upload a video or some photos! I was actually kind of amazed there weren't more entires so go for it guys – just head on over to the Kohls Facebook Fan page, like it and check out some of the other videos that have been posted by other users!
And in the meantime, I have a giveaway right here on Mommies with Style for a $100 Kohls.com gift card.
Giveaway: One lucky Mommies with Style reader will win a $100 gift card to Kohl's. To enter:
1) Comment below.
Additional entries:
2) Like Mommies with Style on Facebook (comment here to let me know you did so)
3.) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter & follow me on Twitter @WhitneyMWS
I entered to win a $100 gift card to @Kohls from Mommies with Style via @WhitneyMWS #giveaways http://bit.ly/aatNRf
Legal Disclaimer: By providing this gift card and / or any other material in the future, Kohl's does not assume any responsibility with respect to contests, giveaways or any other activities, or postings you may choose to run or incorporate as part of your blog. In addition, to the extent your blog includes any comments about Kohl's and / or its products, please be sure the postings comply with applicable law,including the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials which require bloggers to "disclose material connections" forproduct or service endorsements. You can access the current guidelines on theFTC web site located at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm.


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From Jennifer Grotz's "Listening," in the current issue:
Water turns everything into a jewel
then puts a metal taste in the mouth
slowly replaced by dust. Which is why standing
in the rainy street you feel much richer than you are. Or, aware that everything will dry, much poorer.
You feel that way anyway in New York, and a little lost,
but let's be honest, that's what you want, to hide,
and like an owl, you've retreated not to high branches
but an anonymous skyrise.


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May 23, 2014 -- Prostate cancer might be a sexually transmitted disease caused by a common infection, according to a study.
Experts say the research has limitations and is not proof, though.
Scientists at the University of California found evidence of a link between prostate cancer and the STD trichomoniasis, in which a common parasite is passed on during unprotected sexual contact.
The parasite is believed to infect around 275 million people worldwide. Furthermore, over three-quarters of men harboring it have no symptoms and may not seek treatment, resulting in chronic inflammation of the prostate.
Cancer Growth
Working in the laboratory, the researchers found that the parasite makes a protein similar to a human protein needed by the immune system. The human protein has also been shown to be involved in the growth of cancers, as it causes inflammation.
The scientists conclude that infection with the parasite, along with other factors, might trigger inflammation that could lead to cancer growth.
More research is needed though, they say.
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
'No Clear Link'
Commenting in a statement, Nicola Smith, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, says: "This study suggests a possible way the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis could encourage prostate cancer cells to grow and develop more quickly. But the research was only done in the lab, and previous evidence in patients failed to show a clear link between prostate cancer and this common sexually transmitted infection.
"There's been a lot of research into prostate cancer risk, and we're working hard to piece together the puzzle. But there are still no lifestyle factors that seem to affect the risk of developing the disease – and no convincing evidence for a link with infection. The risk of prostate cancer is known to increase with age."
This latest research is not the first to link the infection with prostate cancer. A 2009 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that 23% of men with prostate cancer showed signs of trichomoniasis.


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Sick Again
I couldn't sleep last night so I moved to the couch to watch some late night TV. In the process of doing this I found some leftover prescription pills I had from my last bout of misery. Miracle from God? I'm thinking yes.
So I took the pills which said they would make my nose stop running. I then began watching CMT Giants: Reba - if you are not familiar with this, it is a special presentation CMT did for Reba McEntire honoring her for all of her greatness.
I was in tears the whole time. So now I don't know if the medicine worked.
I don't know if my nose was still running from my cold, or if it was now simply running because of my love for the amazing Reba.
Usually my Sunday night posts are titled "Weekly Weekend Update" Friends, I have no update for you, unless you count sitting on the couch moaning about my congested nose and achy body an update.
I also could update you about our lovely apartment heater, and how much it is determined to suck all of the happiness out of my life.
It has been malfunctioning for about a week now, which causes me to go craaaazy.
It becomes my obsession to figure out what is causing the problem and then get angry.
Our heater will not shut off, which stresses me out because I don't want to pay an $800 bill, BUT to make it worse, not only does it not shut off, when it reaches the desired temperature instead of shutting off like a normal heater, it starts to blow FREEZING cold air out.
So I called the one source that I knew would help me solve this problem, good ole Dad. It turns out he was suffering from a cold also, and unfortunately is a bigger baby than me when it come to colds.
My Dad's advice: It is broken, call the apartment maintenance people.
He also, matter of factly informed me (over the phone) that it was not freezing cold air that was blowing out, but instead room temperature air.
Um.. you are not here Daddio, it is FREEZING.
SO I have made it my one goal to worry about my heater. Last night after Giants: Reba was over, I picked my self up off the floor, dried my tears, and realized that the heater had not shut off in approximentaly 5 hours. I then started freaking out and woke Luke up and said our heating bill is going to be $1000!
Let just say, at 4:00 in the morning, Luke is not really concerned with the heating bill.
I on the other hand was a mess.
So I started watching "Adventure in Babysitting" to clear my mind. Good movie.
Fast-Forward to present time:
I have now taken the prescription pills again, I plan on laying on the couch and watching anything on TV that won't make me cry.
I guess my DVR'd Lifetime Christmas movies will have to wait until tomorrow.
Oh. My. Gosh. Our heater just started blowing Iceberg Cold Air again. I think I just had a nervous breakdown.
Luke didn't even acknowledge my breakdown. Sometimes he gets on my nerves.
P.S. I think the medicine makes me a bit crazy, and I need sleep.
27 comments:
Your dad is like all men when sick; big babies.ReplyDelete
What kind of pills are you taking LOL
I hope you feel better soon!
PS Don't forget to let us know how much the heating bill ends up being!
I hope you feel better soon :(ReplyDelete
You crack me up!! I have nervous breakdowns when things are jacked up, too. Hope you feel better and your heating bill is not too high!ReplyDelete
at exactly what time did you write this blog?ReplyDelete
I'm so sorry you are sick and that your heater is suddenly trying to be it's alter-ego air conditioning self ~~ boo, oh boo!!!
Hope you feel better soon,
Dang it! My parents have been fighting the same cold for quite awhile too... you'd think your body would make the antibodies to keep it away again... stupid germs!ReplyDelete
Hope you feel better soon!
And LOVE Adventures in Babysitting... love the "babysitters Blues"!!!
i would be calling the apt people first thing this morning... i HATE to be cold!ReplyDelete
hope it gets fixed soon & you're feeling better quickly!
- AnonymousDecember 22, 2008 at 5:36 AM
Oh no...heating issues are not cool!ReplyDelete
And I laughed out loud when I saw you called your dad "daddio." I totally call my dad that too!
Stop by my blog sometime! :) I found yours through Newlywed Stilettos! :)
Bless your heart.ReplyDelete
And men don't care about any problems at 4:00 in the morning. I'm just saying.;)
I LOVE Adventures in Babysitting! You could use a line from that movie when your maintenance guy finally comes to fix the heater..."Nobody gets out of here without singing the blues...." ;)
Feel free to just ignore me.;)
Merry Christmas, Megan!
I hope that your cold goes away; your heater gets fixed, and you are able to watch all of your DVR'd Christmas movies.
God Bless,
I hope you get to feeling better! And I hope your heating bill isn't ridiculously expensive!ReplyDelete
Feel better soon! Sounds like you had a pretty terrible weekend. Hope you got some sleep and are feeling better! :)ReplyDelete
I am dying laughing!!! Not at you, I swear... really. I do hope you get to feeling better. Maybe I'll ship my hubby's no-fail stock of "never get sick" pills. Echinacea, Vitamin C, and oh, I don't know what else he takes, but he is NEVER sick. I, on the other hand, just hate to take pills... so you know where that leaves me.ReplyDelete
Awww friend, I hope you feel better and that your heater gets fixed soon!ReplyDelete
I'm sorry you're not feeling well again.ReplyDelete
I hate to say it, but I agree with your dad about calling the maintenance people at the apt.
My son has a landlord. His oven hasn't worked...ever since he moved in and then he'll tell me something else that's not working right. My words are "call the landlord..." :)
I think they are responsible to fix it. You shouldn't have to pay a high heating bill b/c they have a faulty heat and air unit. Just do it....:)
Get well soon!!!
No wonder you have been sick so much. It's that wretched heater! It must be fixed or you must move! Your health depends on it. Feel better quickly friend! Maybe Luke should go get you some orange juice. I'm always told to down the Vitamin C.ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
Hey I hope you are feeling better. I also wanted to let you know that this summer our AC did the same thing but instead of cool air it blew hot air all the time and never cut off (yeah that ran up our power bill by 25 dollars and I had them fix it after only one day). I would cut the heat off until the temperature gage read below your desired temperature and then cut it back on. (or call a repair man).ReplyDelete
Also, I tagged you on my blog.
Merry Christmas
You crack me up!! Sorry you aren't feeling well...again! I am having the same symptoms and it has lasted for over a week now. I HATE soar/scratchy throats!! And why are guys never concerned about things when we are freaking out???? HAReplyDelete
Hope you are feeling better soon! And, I sure hope that heater mess get's fixed...that would aggravate me too!ReplyDelete
Even in your sickness you still make me laugh! I don't worry about our heater, but my hubby does. Although your worrying sounds justified. He gets up to check on it when it has been running for 10 minutes because he thinks that is too long at night! I hope you feel better. I need to watch my Christmas movies at home too. Anyway, I left you a little surprise on my blog!ReplyDelete
Oh no!! I am so sorry Megan.. that just sounds miserable.. I hope you feel better soon!! Good luck with the heater.. XOReplyDelete
Hope you have felt better today my friend!!!!ReplyDelete
Im sorry you don't feel well but now with meds you can feel better. I think that my fiance' Mozart would do the same if I came in that early and talked about the bill. He would have just rolled over after patting my head. LOL Just thinking about it makes me annoyed.ReplyDelete
I hope you are feeling better soon...I had the stomach flu yesterday...at least it only lasts 24hrs!! Check out my blog...I left you an award!ReplyDelete
I think our heaters must be part of the same evil conspiracy. We bought space heaters for our room and Colton's to try and avoid freezing to death or going to the poor house.ReplyDelete
Uh oh! I am so sorry to hear that you are sick again! We have had so much sickness at my work and I have been loading up on Ultra-Zinc tablets hoping to fight it off!ReplyDelete
I hope you get that heater straightened out and that you feel MUCH better very soon!
You poor thing!! I hope you feel better soon and that your heater does too! :)ReplyDelete
Merry Christmas!!
Thank you for leaving a comment. I try my best to respond to all comments but don't always succeed. I do love reading each and every comment though!


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Here's a sexy bit of kit. Logitech's latest Harmony 1000 universal remote does the usual song and dance— an Irish Jig, really— that previous Harmony remotes do. We're talking about access to an online user-grown database with codes for 150k devices. But it also has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, control of RF devices through some extender box, and Z-Wave. Z-Wave, you know. No? It's a wireless home automation standard that can be used to control lights, door locks, window shades, and appliances. Or, think about it like this. With one click, you can turn on the DVD player, dim the lights, and start the laundry.
More photos after the jump.
Logitech Harmony 1000 [Logitech]


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Travel Communications
We started our work in 2008, when we opened our office in Prague (Czech Republic).
From the very beginning we specialise on everything connected to information in tourism. We use modern technology to help tourists in learning about the city or exhibition and gaining as much experience as they can from their trip. In order to do so, we use audio-guides, mobile platforms and our own experience in creating informational content for tours and exhibitions.
For several years, we have been official distributors of the following companies:
- RSF (France): audio-guides, tour-guides, light, sound and content for tours and exhibitions www.rsf-int.com. This Company is the world leader and innovator in the field of informational solutions for museums, tours and exhibitions
- VOX Network (Italy): a company that provides radio equipment for tourist groups www.voxtours.cz. It is very progressive and easy-to-use service for guided tourist groups. VOXtours holds leading position in this market all around the world
- IZI.travel, where we provide the whole cycle of content creation for tours, from preparing an interesting text through the final step - tour creation.
We offer a professional approach, organised work and qualitative results both for our partners and their clients.
We are ready to cooperate with those who are interested in information technologies in tourism.
See you soon!


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KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN – The 2013 Scientific Assembly of IAVCEI, the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, has officially started in Kagoshima, Japan.
The conference is a volcanologist's dream, with sessions focused on every aspect of volcanology and a mid-conference field trip to Kagoshima's own volcano, Sakurajima (currently at alert level 3). Day #1 didn't disappoint. I've already co-chaired a session on Lava Flows with a fantastic group of international scientists and gave a talk on the dynamics of pillow-dominated subglacial eruptions recorded in Undirhlithar quarry on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland. You may remember that Lindsey Bowman ('12) and Becky Alcorn ('11) completed I.S. theses in Undirhlithar. Here are some highlights from our presentation:


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Teen still hospitalized after being hit by car outside Harlem MS
LOVES PARK – Two students were injured — one critically — Tuesday afternoon when they were hit by a car outside of Harlem Middle School.
Thirteen-year-old Justice Hankins, who remained in the hospital Thursday, is being credited with saving a classmate from a more serious injury when he pushed her from the direct path of the oncoming car and took the brunt of the impact himself.
The accident happened shortly before 4 p.m. in the 900 block of Windsor Road. Heather Roach, 34, of Machesney Park, was driving east on the road when her car struck the students.
She's been issued a citation for having an expired driver's license, and the investigation into the accident is ongoing, said Loves Park Deputy Chief Rodney Scott. It is not clear, according to Scott, whether the crash happened in the designated crosswalk.
Scott said he could not release the names of the students involved.
Jody Weber of Machesney Park said it's her 13-year-old son, Justice Hankins, who sustained the brunt of the injuries from Tuesday's accident. He was in the middle of the intersection another student when he saw the car coming and, at the last moment, helped push his classmate, a 13-year-old girl, out of harm's way.
"He tried to get her out of the way and he got hit," Weber said. "He dragged her coat and pulled her out of the way. … She would have gotten the brunt of it."
Hankins has been in the intensive care unit at Rockford Memorial Hospital since Tuesday, but Weber said he's being sent to the regular children's floor there today. His injuries included a ruptured spleen, a cut on his kidney, a broken knee and possibly a broken ankle.
"He's got road rash from his back all the way up to the top of his head," Weber said.
While it's been heart wrenching to sit by his hospital bedside this week, Weber said she's also amazed by his actions.
"I think it's pretty amazing my kid put his life in danger to save another classmate," she said. "There aren't many other kids out there like that.
"It's overwhelming to see your kid's got that kind of heart. He's a hero."
Scott said a complete reconstruction investigation of the accident is underway, but it could take weeks.
Weber hopes this incident raises safety awareness about the crossing near the school on Windsor Road.
"My kid was in the middle of the road when this woman hit him. It wasn't like he just stepped off the curb," she said. "I just think they need to do more with ... the crossing for the middle school."
A call seeking comment from the Harlem district office was not immediately returned Thursday.
Dorothy Schneider: 815-987-1244; email@example.com; @dotschneider


text: Now in its 15th year, Austin Film Festival's annual Film & Food Fundraising Party is one of the most highly anticipated events in Austin! The glamorous and historic Driskill Hotel hosts this fantastic evening of flowing cocktails and inventive culinary treats, presented by 20 of Austin's hottest restaurants. Read More


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Of all the ice cream truck's frozen treats, nothing is more iconic than the Good Humor bar. At its simplest, that means vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate and propped on a stick. But these days the franchise includes crumbs and crunchies, layers of ice creams, fudge ripples, and a pink substance that everyone calls "strawberry" but I swear is some kind of alternative bubble gum.
As it happens, ice cream bars are also the most difficult novelty to make at home. But the results are well worth it.
If you're making ice cream bars in a factory, you have the advantage of better ice cream machines, better molds, and better freezers, all of which let you get perfectly uniform shapes with perfectly even chocolate dips.
Now try taking your homemade or store-bought ice cream and stuffing it into popsicle molds. Let them freeze a few hours, even overnight, and see if you can pull them out all clean and pretty like Good Humor's. No? I thought not.
The problem is that home freezers don't get cold enough to freeze ice cream bars completely solid, so you're left with soft ice cream that gets even softer the moment it leaves the freezer, and flops around like a fish instead of keeping its rigid bar shape. The solution? Ice cream pops don't have to be made with popsicle molds.
My mold of choice is the 3 ounce Dixie cup, the little paper kind you get your pills in at the hospital. A pack of 50 will cost you just a few bucks at the grocery store and they're the perfect size for an ice cream pop. Here's how to use them:
If you're making your own ice cream you can transfer it straight from the churn into the cups before hardening them in the freezer. (This recipe works very well.) Going with store-bought? Let it soften enough that you can easily spoon it into the cups.
Then shove a popsicle stick halfway down each cup and let the ice cream harden in the freezer for at least two or three hours, but ideally overnight.
Now to coat the pops. Have a pint of your chocolate dip at the ready; if you made your dip ahead of time, be sure to give it a quick stir to reincorporate any separated oil.
With a knife or clean pair of scissors, cut the paper cup away from the frozen ice cream.
Hey, look at how clean and pop-like it looks!
Then dunk the pops in the chocolate dip one by one.
And twirl them over the dip so the excess drains away. The shell needs a good 30 seconds to completely harden—it'll go from glossy to fudgy-looking to completely matte.
Now it's time to customize. As long as your chocolate shell is still glossy you can use it to pick up a crunchy coating. Some suggestions:
- Mini chocolate chips
- Cake crumbs
- Graham cracker crumbs
- Finely chopped nuts
- Sprinkles
- Cacao nibs
In this case we're using sprinkles because sprinkles never need permission to join an ice cream party. But whatever your crunchy/crumbly choice, think small—the finer you chop your nuts or crumble your cake, the better.
Roll your pop around the sprinkles in one or two sweeps and let the shell harden completely. You can either return your pops to the freezer or eat them right away.
What, not enough for you? Okay, I get it—you don't only want ice cream pops, you want stuffed ice cream pops. Fine—that's easy enough when you have your Dixie cup molds.
Feel free to layer two different ice cream flavors when filling your cups. Or line the bottom of the cups with some hot fudge sauce. Want a surprise in the center? Cut some yellow cake or brownies into small cubes and fill your Dixie cups halfway with ice cream. Put in the cubes and add more ice cream to cover. Voila: now you have a fleet of ice cream pops just as varied—and even tastier—than Good Humor's.
And that's just the beginning. But, sadly, it's also where Novelty Ice Cream Week comes to an end. Have any creations of your own that you want to share? Let me know in the comments.


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California plans to drop warrants for some parole violators
SACRAMENTO — State corrections officials are poised to drop the arrest warrants of thousands of parole violators, releasing them from state supervision at a time when their detention would complicate efforts to ease crowding in state and county lockups.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation intends to begin a massive review next week of more than 9,200 outstanding warrants, starting with individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes and absconded from supervision. Over the next eight months, parole field offices across the state will be given lists of missing felons, 200 at a time, to review and determine if retaining them on parole "would not be in the interest of justice."
The mass purge is an attempt to ease the burden on counties in July, when the state hands off responsibility for parole revocations to local courts, said agency spokesman Jeffrey Callison. Weeding out cases that are years old, or of parolees nobody is looking for, will make it easier to focus on those who pose a threat, he said.
It will not, Callison said, "allow some paroles to 'get off the hook.' "
"I have been told that discharging people is not the point of the exercise," he said Friday.
Which is exactly the claim of some victims' advocates who are infuriated by the state's so-called warrant review project.
"It's mass amnesty for felons," said Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), a vocal opponent of Gov. Jerry Brown's plans to ease state prison crowding by shifting responsibility for low-level offenders to counties.
When inmates are released from state prison, they are required to report to a parole officer. When a felon does not appear, or disappears later, an arrest warrant is issued. With low-level offenders now serving time in county jails, the state's parole population is shrinking dramatically because those released from jail go to county probation, not state parole.
But the same law that shifted responsibility for low-level offenders also requires county courts to take over most revocation hearings for parole violators. The warrant review will remove many of those potential cases.
The plan calls for parole agents to review about 7,000 warrants against low-level offenders to determine if those parolees have violent offenses or multiple felonies, belong to gangs or committed new crimes. Agents will then decide whether to drop the warrant and release the felon from parole.
Once that review is completed, the agency may undertake a similar study of outstanding warrants against missing parolees who committed serious or violent offenses, indicating that they too might be released from state supervision.
Sexual offenders are excluded from the reviews.
Callison said the state has no idea how many parolees may be released from supervision. Nielsen, former chairman of the Board of Prison Terms, estimated it would be 70%.
"This is as close as just letting people go as we've come," said Todd Gillam, a Northern California parole agent and vice president of the Parole Agent Assn. of California.
Gillam said the mass reviews overlook the value of leaving outstanding warrants in law enforcement computer systems, especially for routine matters such as traffic stops. "The warrant is a warning, to alert the officer that this guy is a problem," he said.
Gillam and others said parole agents are under pressure to release felons from state supervision as soon as possible.
Those criticisms come as the corrections department reacted to a report in the Fresno Bee on Friday that the man who killed two people at a chicken processing plant in Fresno earlier this week, then killed himself, was released from parole over the objections of his parole agent. The gunman, Lawrence Jones, was freed from prison in June 2011 and discharged from parole in May, even though his parole agent deemed him a danger.
The state corrections department "greatly regrets the tragedy," spokesman Luis Patino said, "but it must be noted that Jones had been out in the community for almost a full year and a half when he apparently committed this heinous crime.... Neither CDCR, nor any other law enforcement agency, can guarantee that someone will not commit a crime out in the community once they have been released from prison."
The newspaper's report also came on the same day that the governor named a new state parole chief: Daniel Stone, a longtime agency employee and former parole officer. Stone's appointment over the Division of Adult Parole requires state Senate confirmation.
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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures marched higher ahead of the opening bell, however they trimmed gains slightly after housing data showed home prices declined for the third month in a row, reflecting the cold weather this winter.
Home prices dropped in 12 of 20 tracked cities, while longer-term trends show that price growth is slowing down, according to S&P/Case-Shiller's 20-city composite index released Tuesday.
Tech stocks could be a particular focus for investors after a sharp selloff the prior day, driven by biotech and Internet stocks.
Adding to earlier gains, futures for the S&P 500 index US:SPM4 rose 8 points, or 0.4%, to 1,857.40, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average US:DJM4 gained 82 points, or 0.5%, to 16,284. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 US:NDM4 rose 14.25 points, or 0.4%, to 3,625.25.
Ahead of data, the Fed's Plosser said in an interview with CNBC that short-term interest rates should hit 3% at the end of 2016. He also said the market reaction to Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen's comments after last week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting was "puzzling." He said her timetable of a rate hike six months after the end of bond buying "wasn't a wildly unexpected timeframe." Her comments sparked a selloff for stock markets on Wednesday.
Plosser, who is a voting member of the Fed's policy committee, said the rate forecast isn't aggressive. The Philadelphia Fed chief is due to speak again at 7 p.m. Eastern. Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart will speak as the market closes at 4 p.m. Eastern.
More data on house sales could confirm what has been seen so far — a not-so-upbeat start to the year. Economists expect year-over-year growth in new-home sales to slow to an annualized 440,000 pace in February, from 468,000 in January. That data is expected at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Also at 10 a.m. Eastern, consumer-confidence data for March will be released.
Investors may also spend some time considering Monday's session, which saw the S&P 500
Henrik Drusebjerg, senior strategist at Nordea, said the push higher for biotechs has been a concern for some time now, with the market value on that sector doubling from 2012 to 2013. "A lot of investors have been forced into equities more than they actually wanted to. It is fair to suggest that if you as an investor have been forced into equities, you would prefer the most stable part ... healthcare is one of those sectors, and biotech has been leveraged on that," he said.
The sector rotation from here could likely move toward cyclicals, such as financials and industrials, Drusebjerg said. But he added that that likely won't happen too soon, as investors are still waiting to see how U.S. growth pans out.
Drusebjerg said Nordea still suggests an overweight on equities in general, but with a preference for Europe over the U.S. because the former is coming from a less-attractive level. "It is easy [for Europe] to do a positive surprise, more than it will be for the U.S. equity market," he said.
Stocks in Asia showed a modest pullback, as investors continued to mull downbeat China manufacturing data from the weekend and a slightly disappointing Markit preliminary U.S. purchasing managers index. European stocks pushed higher, shrugging off soft German business-confidence data.
Gold prices
Shares of Sonic Corp. US:SONC rallied 7% premarket after the company posted a 15% profit gain.
Carnival Corp.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
How Janet Yellen's gamble screwed up gold


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Ethan A. Lang, - Deputy Recorder
555 Bay Rd Dover, DE 19901
(302) 744-2314 / Fax: (302) 736-2035
Email: email@example.com
Office Hours: 8:00am-5:00pm Mon.-Fri.
Recording Hours: 8:00am - 3:00 Mon.-Fri
Deeds Office
Deeds Web Service
Meet the Recorder
Schedule of Fees
Recording Standards
Realty Transfer Tax Rates
Welcome to the Kent County, Delaware Recorder of Deeds public access web service. Kent County Recorder of Deeds and participating agencies are working hard to better serve you through internet access to recorded documents.
While it is our intent to provide complete and accurate documents, please be advised back scanning of documents and quality control remains in progress. The cost of constructing and maintaining this site, with the vast amount of records stored with the office historically, as well as those added on a daily basis, and to provide the necessary protective devices to insure the accuracy and security of the data would be prohibitive for this office. Consequently, it is advisable to verify the data in the Kent County Record of Deeds office free of charge.
An introduction fee for unlimited internet access to Recorder of Deeds indexes and images has been established at a rate of $50.00 effective 10-1-2009 for a 30 day period, which starts upon receipt of payment. It is anticipated that, the user fee will increase substantially once quality control and back scanning are complete.
In no event shall Kent County, Kent County Recorder of Deeds and participating agencies be liable to users for data or services obtained through internet access. The Kent County Recorder of Deeds Office presents the information on this web site as a service. We have endeavored to ensure the information contained in this electronic search system is accurate. However, assessing accuracy and reliable information is the responsibility of the user. The user is advised to search all possible spelling variations of proper names, in order to maximize search results. The Recorder of Deeds and Kent County make no warranty or guarantee concerning the accuracy or reliability of the content at this site or other sites to which we link.
Click to enter Kent County Deeds portal


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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa teacher's aide was fired Tuesday after school officials recently learned she was the member of an Indianapolis family who tortured and killed a girl in the basement of their home in 1965.
Paula Pace had worked for the BCLUW consolidated school district based in the central Iowa town of Conrad since 1998. She was a teacher's aide at the district's high school.
Superintendent Ben Petty said the school board fired Pace for providing false information on her application. Petty said he could not comment further about the case. The board made the decision after meeting in special session to discuss the matter.
The district was notified by Grundy County Sheriff Rick Penning, who said his office received an anonymous telephone call last Wednesday informing him that Pace was Paula Baniszewski, formerly of Indianapolis, who had been convicted of manslaughter for participating in the torture and murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens in 1965.
"They wanted to make us aware of it because of the crime that was involved and because she was in the school system," Penning said. "We turned it over to the school and we're kind of out of it because there's no criminal offense per se."
He said the caller indicated they had picked up on Pace's previous identity from a Facebook posting.
"Whether it was somebody on a vendetta or somebody just in the public interest started putting it on Facebook, people just started picking up on it," the sheriff said.
Penning said his officers investigated the case and found that Pace had completed her prison sentence and was released on parole.
The case has been referred to as one of the most notorious crimes in Indianapolis. The story has generated fiction and nonfiction books, a play and movies including the 2007 dramas "An American Crime" and "The Girl Next Door."
The case begins when Sylvia Likens and her sister, Jenny, were left by their parents with Gertrude Baniszewski and her seven children in the summer of 1965. In the following months, Sylvia was beaten, burned with cigarettes, branded with a hot needle, and suffered other abuse. Her malnourished body was found in the basement of the home Baniszewski rented on Oct. 26, 1965. The cause of death was brain swelling and internal bleeding of the brain.
A trial later revealed the torture came at the hands of Gertrude Baniszewski; her daughter Paula, who was 17 at the time; her son Johnny, then 13; and other neighbor children who would watch and at times participate.
In 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder and Paula was found guilty of second-degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in prison in Indianapolis. Johnny Baniszewski and two other boys aged 16 and 15 were convicted of manslaughter. They were released on parole in 1968.
In 1971, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the convictions of the two women, saying jurors had been prejudiced by publicity and that the trials should have been held separately.
The mother was convicted of first-degree murder again at a second trial. She was paroled in 1985, changed her name to Nadine Van Fossan and moved to Iowa. She died in 1990.
Paula Baniszewski, however, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter to avoid another trial.
The Indiana Department of Corrections records indicate she was sentenced in August 1971 to a sentence of two to 21 years. She escaped in 1971 but was recaptured. Her prison records show an escape charge was added in December 1971.
Baniszewski, who is now 64, was released from prison on Dec. 6, 1972, and discharged from parole in March 1974.
It is unclear when she moved to Iowa and when she changed her name to Paula Pace. She lives in Marshalltown, and telephone numbers listed in her name have been disconnected. She did not immediately respond to an email address listed for her.
She began working for the BCLUW school district in 1998, said the district's attorney, Mike Smith.
He said he could not discuss personnel issues and could only confirm she was employed by the district as a teacher's aide. It was not immediately clear if the district did a background check when she was hired.


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My new project involves interviewing my classmates from nursing school. We "older nurses" are dying off. Who will be around to tell our stories?
As I gear up to start this project, I'm educating myself in the art of interviewing. In the meantime, a serendipitous thing happened. Lynn Dow, RN, wrote about her long career in nursing in a new book: Nightingale Tales: Stories from My Life as a Nurse.
Lynn Dow entered nursing school in 1956, three years before I did. She attended the diploma program at the University of Rochester, which like my diploma program at Saint Peter's School of Nursing in New Brunswick, New Jersey was three years long without any summer vacation breaks. The stories she shares of her nursing school days entertained me the most since my experiences so mirrored hers.
In her book, she reminded me that after a patient went home we had to strip the bed and then wash it. Yes, the plastic coated mattress and exposed metal coil springs were washed by hand. When the bed dried, we made it up for the next patient. There were no housekeepers at this time. Two cranks at the foot of the bed were used to raise up the head or to "gatch" the knees so the patient wouldn't slide down. Later, a third crank was added that raised or lowered the bed. I remember having black and blue marks on my shins from hitting the cranks that were left on the bed instead of taken off and stored somewhere, like on a window sill.
Lynn recalls when cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was still in its infancy, a surgeon might bypass this effort and "crack the chest." This rarely was successful. Once when I worked in the recovery room my patient went into cardiac arrest. Her surgeon dragged her off the stretcher to the floor, cut her open and pumped her heart with his bare hands. She was an old woman and I felt at the time he did this for the experience rather than to revive her.
Commonly, student nurses staffed the hospitals because there was a shortage of registered nurses, and students were a cheap substitute. In the third year of school, students were put in charge of a ward on the evening or night shifts. Lynn reminds the reader that the student nurses were "teenagers, too green to realize the extent of our responsibilities." Sometimes the students worked a "split shift," covering baths and meds in the a.m. and returning to help with dinner trays and get the patients ready for bed in the evening. Before I graduated from nursing school this "abuse" of student nurses was no longer allowed.
Nightingale Tales goes on to cover Lynn's long nursing career and is filled with educational information and surprising vignettes. While I am especially glad she shows us nursing in the "olden days," her book also depicts the advancements in current nursing practice. But she feels that possibly "the nurturing aspect of nursing has given way to technology."
Read her book and decide for yourself.