How many small non profit organizations are in cities like Chicago, doing wonderful things to help youth and families, but struggling to find consistent funding, new volunteers, and public attention to support their good work?
How many have a web site, but not much traffic? In the retail business world, that's like having a great store, with fantastic products or services, but no customers, because no one knows you exist.
Most businesses overcome this by buying advertising exposure, or hiring public relations firms to generate public attention. Most small non profits barley have money for rent and service, with few dollars for consistent advertising.
Thus we need different strategies. One is to use blogs to tell your story.
I've been hosting a blog since 2005, as my own way of sharing my ideas and attracting public attention to Cabrini Connections, the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference and to other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. I encourage volunteers and other staff at Cabrini Connections to also use blogs to tell of our work from their different job perspectives, attracting visitors from their different college and family networks.
I've participated with the Non-Profit Blog exchange for the past couple of years because it expands the network of bloggers who I learn from, and who work with me during certain time frames to increase attention for all of us, not just one of us.
This month I'm exchanging blog messages with the Brandywine Counseling Blog. They are Delaware's largest non-profit addiction treatment agency. I think the way they use their blog to introduce the people in their organization is a powerful form of story telling.
If you are a leader of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, in Chicago, or in any other part of the world, I encourage you to review the way this blog personalizes their organization and uses the blog to share daily information, attract donors, and build understanding of what they do.
I also encourage you to look at blogs like this which demonstrates a powerful use of visualization to help draw people together around common goals.
On the left in the links section I have tags to previous articles I've written on strategy, and to articles I've written using geographic maps, and concept maps. I also have links to sections on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site where I aggregate links to blogs that talk about tutoring/mentoring, or some of the issues we're dealing with.
In the Presidential campaign to elect a new US president, we're hearing a lot about change, and many uses of the word GOD. We are hearing people say that in America, anyone should be able to reach his or her dreams, if they just work hard enough.
Maybe this means, GOD helps those who help themselves.
If you lead a small non profit, a blog is a free, low-cost way to help yourself get attention from those who need to help you reach your dreams. If you're already incorporating a blog strategy, please share it.
If you are working with volunteers in tutoring and/or mentoring programs, I hope you'll link to us in your blogs, and add your link to our library of blogs. Good luck to all of you as you move into the 2008-09 school year.
If we believe that youth would benefit from more adult support and extended learning opportunities, how do we make sure comprehensive tutor/mentor programs are available in all of the places where they are most needed?
I held various retail advertising roles in the Montgomery Ward corporation from 1973 to 1990 and learned how the company supported over 400 stores in 40 states with a centralized merchandising, advertising and store support strategy. I've applied this thinking to the strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which is outlined in this pdf.
If you are a retail executive, I encourage you to help other business leaders understand this strategy, through your own perspective and business experience. If business takes the lead in supporting the growth of non-school learning centers, it can influence the thinking and problem solving skills they want youth to bring to the workforce, and they can influence the aspirations kids bring to school with them every day.
One of my mentors is Merri Dee, who is retiring from WGN TV after a long career. When we first met in 1993 she said "If it is to be, it is up to me." I've used that as one of my motivating slogans ever since. If we want the type of country that our presidential candidates are both promising, we need leaders from every sector who take ownership of these goals.
I watched Michelle Obama's speech last night, and was really energized by her presentation and her message. If you work hard, get a good education, you have a chance for the American Dream. "America should be a place where you can make it if you try," she said.
Since I try to deliver that message every day to my own two kids, and to the 7th to 12th grade teens of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago, I really appreciate this message, and the thought that it might be consistently modeled for the next 8 years by the top leaders of our country.
However, there was another inspiring message waiting for me in today's Chicago SunTimes. I read the Rev. Jesse Jackson's column, with the headline that read "Obama can inspire but we must lead."
"Real change only comes as ordinary people are inspired to act in extraordinary ways."
As you listen to the campaign speeches and decide which candidate to vote for, I urge you to consider with person, at the national, state or local level, inspires you most to leave your own comfort zone, or your own personal problems, to do something to help someone else, or to help make this a "world as it should be".
I encourage you to visit http://www.cabriniconnections.net and http://www.tutormentorconnection.org to see how ordinary people have been working to help make the world a better place. I hope you are inspired to help us.
With the national conventions taking place over the next two weeks, millions of people will be focused on the process of electing our next President. However, I found one leader who is focused beyond this, of mobilizing faith communities to "make a difference" where ever they are in the world.
This leader is Rick Warren, who is a mega church leader and hosted a live interview with Obama and McCain, just a couple of weeks ago.
I visited Warren's web site and the headline on the page is "The Church – the greatest force on Earth'. I followed the links, to another web site titled "the P.E.A.C.E. plan" which outlines a strategy for engagement of faith communities in places throughout the world where people need help.
I posted an introduction to Rick Warren on these web sites, and if you're reading this and have a connection, I encourage you to forward this introduction to him, or to leaders of your own congregation.
I have focused some of my blog articles on actions faith leaders can take to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.
I've used maps and concept maps to illustrate ways leaders can use these tools to support the distribution of comprehensive, long-term programs, in more of the places where they are needed.
In this world of more than 6 billion people, I'm just a grain of sand in the ocean of life. However, I use this and other Tutor/Mentor Connection web sites as a resource that people with much greater visibility can use to further their own leadership goals.
While the candidates are outlining the reasons people should vote for them in November, I hope they and others will be pointing to maps, that outline a strategy, and that point to places where members of faith and secular communities can serve as volunteers, leaders and donors to help youth living in poverty get the adult learning supports they need to have greater success in school and in life.
That can happen if you pass this message on.
A School boycott, or not?
You can search Google for "school boycott Chicago" and find 10 articles on the first page talking about how ministers in Chicago are urging a boycott in order to change the funding formula for how Illinois funds public schools.
This makes great news, but does it make sense?
It certainly is important. This map shows that there are a lot more poorly performing schools in low income areas of the city, than in other areas. But what do we get from a boycott?
For instance, if the per student spending for Chicago kids were $1,000 higher, what would we get as a result?
Would that change the poverty surrounding a school? Would it expand the range work and career opportunities modeled by parents and community members in high poverty neighborhoods.
Would it expand the number of businesses with volunteer and philanthropy strategies tied to workforce development goals?
Would it expand the number of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, with technology, arts and college and career support, such as offered by Cabrini Connections to teens in the Cabrini Green area?
Do we really believe that if several thousand CPS students sit in the lobby at New Trier or in downtown businesses for a few days will change the priorities of members of the state legislature who live in the suburbs, or in downstate Illinois? How many votes are needed to change the funding formula anyway?
Is there a strategy to increase the number of people who might vote for such a policy change, because they have become personally involved with kids in these neighborhoods?
What I do know is that school starts in a couple of weeks and kids living in high poverty areas, or near poorly performing schools would befit by being part of a comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor program.
What I do know is that these programs are all recruiting volunteers right now, and most of them are also looking for donors, to cover the increasing expenses of operating a program, or the short fall in funding from other sources caused by the poor economy or the donor attention on the national elections or their own personal health and family issues.
I also know that as a result of becoming a volunteer at Cabrini Connections many years ago, I and several other former volunteers now are leading tutor/mentor programs, or helping to raise money for them. If there were more programs like this throughout the city, perhaps this would increase the number of volunteers who take on such leadership roles, and who help change public policy, while also working to increase private funding for extra learning and mentoring initiatives throughout the city.
With the media writing about the boycott, the conventions, the Olympics, how do the leaders of these neighborhood tutor/mentor programs find new volunteers, or donors to help pay the bills?
You are the answer. Think of yourself as the red dot in this graphic.
If you email five or ten people in your network, and encourage them to look at this Volunteer Recruitment Video, or read articles on this blog and look for ways to be a volunteer or a donor in a Chicago tutor/mentor program, you will be helping to build a bridge between those who live in affluent areas and have the resources to help, and kids in poor neighborhoods, who need good schools, and great networks, but cannot get these without your help.
Don't wait and expect someone else to take this role. While you're reading about the boycott, build your list and send out an invitation to support one or more of the tutor/mentor programs that you can review in the Chicago Program Links section of our web site.
Check back tomorrow and I'll post an article about how churches in the suburbs can help neighborhoods in the city, or in poverty areas of the suburbs.
Read about the Volunteer Recruitment Social being held at ING Direct Cafe, 21 E. Chestnut, in Chicago.
Cabrini Connections, Working in the Schools, Chicago Lights at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Cabrini Green Tutoring, and East Village Youth Program, will all be represented and recruiting volunteers.
If you can't attend, visit the web sites of Chicago programs and shop for a place to volunteer time, talent or money to help kids in Chicago.
I searched Google today to see if any results were found using the word "blogevangelism".
I found 78 listings. Thus, am I part of a new trend?
Read a couple of useful posts using this term, here and here.
I'm not sure that these folks are using the term the way I am, to create attention for a social cause. I first used this term today, in a post on the T/MC forum, where I encouraged others to borrow from ideas that I and others post on T/MC blogs, to create their own outreach and "blog-evangelism" that reaches people in their own networks.
Thus, if you look at the graphic, imagine yourself as the red ball on the world's largest Ping Pong table. Every time you write about tutoring/mentoring, and point to a T/MC blog, you are encouraging the people you know to spread the message you are writing about. If they pass this message on via their own blogs and networking, it can quickly reach around the world.
If you network strategically, talking about things that other people are thinking about, such as volunteer recruitment during the "back-to-school time frame", then your blog can become fuel that propels this movement forward, resulting in more people become involved in volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and other activities that help kids move from poverty to jobs and careers.
The aim of the Tutor/Mentor Connection has always been to create better information about tutoring and/or mentoring programs and where they are needed so that this information could be used by leaders from many sectors to help existing programs constantly improve, while filling voids in neighborhoods with too few.
We use this information to organize volunteer recruitment events, such as the Coffeehouse Recruitment Social being held Thursday, Aug. 21 at ING DIRECT Cafe in Chicago. Read more here.
Organizations who are listed in the Program Locator are asked to fill out a program profile (which you can see here) that provides information for our maps and contact information for potential volunteers.
However, we've been doing a different survey, intended to help us understand the differences between programs, and the common issues most face.
We've had 15 people complete the survey so far and 10 come from beyond the Chicago region. We'd like to have more people from Chicago provide this information, so ask that you take the survey if you're involved with a tutor/mentor program, or pass this on to other people.
Those people who complete the entire survey by September 15, 2008 can be entered into a drawing to win a brand new Sony DCR-DVD405 digital camcorder!!!
What can one person do today to make a difference?
Did you get up this morning inspired to do something special? Did you read the paper, or watch the news, and feel overpowered, not able to have an impact on the big problems of Chicago, or the world?
You don't need to feel this way. There is something you can do EVERYDAY that can help make this a better world.
Use your Whuffie power. What's this? It's a description of the social network and reputation that people accumulate. I just learned about this term over the weekend at this post.
We all have some Whuffie power. If we use it strategically, I think we can change the world. Or at least we can help a lot of the people who are trying to change the world get the resources they need every day to keep doing their work.
Look at the graphic above. Everyone has people in their network who work in business, or are at universities, or in church. Some of these people have more power than others, and more ability to have an impact on a tutor/mentor program.
You can connect the people in your network to information that they can use to become a volunteer, donor, advocate and/or leader of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago, or of other organizations that you can find as you browse the LINKS LIBRARY on our web site.
You can connect them to strategic thinking concept maps, that they can incorporate into their own leadership.
If you, and other people use blogs, email, phone calls, group meetings and other forms of communications to connect one person a day to this network, the number of people helping kids in this city will dramatically increase. Ultimately some of these people will have the wealth and Whuffie to have a quantum impact on the entire tutor/mentor movement, not just one or two programs.
It's really simple. But it can change the world. Look in the mirror at the end of the day and keep score. Who did you connect to the Tutor/Mentor Connection today?
Once you have a light bulb, you need an industry to distribute it.
I've been participating in a Social Edge forum this week and one of the introductory articles was from the Harvard Review, titled Design Thinking.
In this article the author wrote about how "Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire industry around it." He wrote, "Edison's genius lay in his ability to conceive of a fully developed marketplace, not simply a discrete device. He was able to envision how people would want to use what he made, and he engineered toward that insight."
I have used this example in the past (read here) to illustrate how the Tutor/Mentor Connection was created to provide a full range of supports needed by our Cabrini Connections program, so that we could have a greater impact on our 7th grade students reaching jobs and careers by age 25.
In order to build support for a single small program in Chicago, we've had to envision an industry that would support similar programs in every poverty neighborhood of the world.
In order for this vision to be successful, my role is a catalyst. Others need to become the owners and leaders. This concept of decentralized organization supported by a platform of knowledge and collaboration is illustrated in a book titled The Spider and the Starfish. I urge you to read it.
I encourage you to view the concept maps and other articles we've created to illustrate this vision, and to invite our peers, and potential supporters, to incorporate these ideas into their own thinking.
I hope you notice the new format for this blog. Instead of archiving articles by month, I've archived them by topic. Thus, if you want to review articles related to violence, or No Child Left Behind (NCLB), click on the tag, and you can scroll through past articles on this topic.
If you're forming a learning group, these articles can provide a valuable resource for helping your group become a leader in building this Edison-like infrastructure. I hope you'll use it, and contribute to it with your own articles.
On August 5-7, 2008 the Chicago SunTimes devoted nearly 10 full pages to a Special Report, titled Schooled In Fear, which showed the impact of urban violence on the lives of inner-city children.
Using drawings created by kids, reporters illustrated how inner city youth were exposed to constant fear of "getting shot". When asked "How many of you know a friend or relative who has been shot at?" the headline said "A sea of hands flew into the air."
This series was illustrated with colorful photos and eye-catching headlines. It had to attract the attention of a large number of SunTimes readers. My hope is that many want to get involved, or respond to the children's request for more afterschool activities in their neighborhood, which was a request youth made during the final day of this special report.
I first wrote about this a couple of days ago, with a headline of "They are being robbed of their childhood"
In that article I showed maps of universities and hospitals in Chicago, who could be strategically involved in supporting the growth of tutor/mentor programs.
Since then the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) created three maps that we hope volunteers, donors and leaders will use to become strategically involved in helping more and better non-school learning, tutoring and/or mentoring programs become available to youth in these and other urban warfare neighborhoods of Chicago.
This map shows 3 hospitals and several churches in the area, as well as the two expressways (I-290 and I-55) which go through the neighborhood on the North and the South. Thus, thousands of potential volunteers pass through this area every day.
There are a few organizations in the 60623 zip code already offering various forms of tutoring and or mentoring, but more are needed. Use the zip code map to learn about organizations offering volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring in the 60623 zip code.
Sexton Elementary, 6020 S Langley Ave, Chicago, IL 60637.
This map shows very few tutor/mentor programs near the school, yet the school is very close to Hyde Park and the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Hospital. A major expressway brings volunteers from jobs in the city to homes in the suburbs every day.
If teams of students, faculty and alumni from the university begin to use their time, talent and dollars in a long-term strategy aimed at pulling youth through school and into the university, this neighborhood might be filled with the best tutor/mentor programs in the country, not just one of the best universities and hospitals. Use the Zip Code map to learn about the availability (if any) of tutor/mentor organizations in 60637, 60621 and 60619.
Search the zip code map for 60622 and 60612 and you'll find a few organizations in this area offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring, although none are close enough to Talcott School for kids to walk to these sites. This area is the near West side of Chicago and has three major hospitals and major highway access routes that volunteers from the city or suburbs could take to be part of tutor/mentor programs in the area. What's needed is leadership from businesses, universities, media to encourage volunteers and donors to support existing programs, or to form learning and planning teams to help develop and sustain new programs in underserved areas.
Every day there seems to be another act of violence in Chicago. A tutor/mentor program is not a short term fix. However, had leaders began to form tutor/mentor programs 15 years ago when the T/MC began its advocacy campaign, many neighborhoods might have a larger number of mature programs with kids going to college and jobs, rather than jail and funerals.
In five, ten or fifteen years what will the landscape of tutor/mentor programs serving Chicago look like? What will the institutions who own real estate in these neighborhoods have done to help build and sustain such a network of programs?
Anyone reading this message can invite leaders of the various organizations shown on one of these maps to come together to build a tutor/mentor connection strategy for each of these map areas.
If you'd like to know more and have our support, join a discussion group, or use the resources on the T/MC web site to learn where, why, and how you might get involved.
Each year since 1995 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has worked with Chicago Access TV to help recruit volunteers to be part of tutor/mentor programs throughout the city of Chicago. This year a slide show is running on TV27 during August, and it can also be seen as a volunteer recruitment video on blip.tv.
If you're interested in volunteering, you can use the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator web site to shop for pick programs near where you live, or work, and who look like you'd want to join.
As you consider ways to be involved, I encourage you to think of ways you can help Cabrini Connections, the Tutor/Mentor Connection and other volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs, get the operating dollars it takes to offer these services. The T/MC is part of Community Shares of Illinois, which organizes workplace fund raising campaigns in businesses, schools, universities and government offices.
Using payroll giving an employee can make a donation of $1 a week, which is less than the cost of a cup of coffee. Yet this adds up over a year to a $52 donation. If thousands of employees designate small weekly donations to tutor/mentor programs this can have a huge impact on our sustainability and effectiveness.
As your employee if they offer a workplace campaign. Ask if Community Shares of Illinois is included, or if your company allows you to write in non profits of your choice. By doing so you help us support the volunteers who join our programs, and thus help us do more to help kids.
"They are being robbed of their childhood"
Today the Chicago SunTimes concluded a three-day series titled "Schooled in Fear" with an article titled "They are being robbed of their childhood"
In today's article children were quotes as asking parents "to volunteer to lead after-school programs in drawing, painting, handcrafts, dancing, sports, cheerleading and chess."
For such activities to take place in non-school hours, there need to be safe places where kids and volunteers can gather. Such places require structure, staffing, leadership, and someone to pay the bills.
Let's use the Tutor/Mentor Connection's Program Locator and zip code map to see what's available to kids in these areas.
Little Village Academy, is at 2620 S. Lawndale Ave, in the 60623 zip code. Looking at the zip code map you can see that the North part of this zip code has higher levels of poverty than the South part. Click on the 60623 zip code of the map, and you can see that there are 3 Boys and Girls Clubs in the area, plus the Better Boys Foundation. According to the 2000 Census there are 29,011 youth under 18 in the South Lawndale area. That's a lot of kids and too few programs.
Talcott Elementary is at 1840 W. Ohio Street, 60622. Looking at the zip code map, and searching for tutor/mentor programs serving elementary or middle school students, we don't find any within walking distance for kids attending this school. Yet, if you look at the Google Map for this area, the neighborhood is surrounded by Chicago Ave, Grand Ave and Ashland Ave., meaning thousands of potential volunteers are driving past this neighborhood as the leave work every day.
Sexton Elementary is located at 6020 S. Langley Ave, 60637. Looking at the zip code map and searching for tutor/mentor programs serving elementary or middle school students, we don't find any within walking distance for kids attending this school either. Yet we do see the University of Chicago just a few blocks away. I wrote an article recently quoting President Jimmy Carter, wondering why poor neighborhoods surround so many institutions of higher education.
The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been adding new maps to its library for the past few weeks, including this map showing hospitals in Chicago.
We've been writing about these maps here, here and here. If you search Google for the location of the three schools in the SunTimes article, you'll see exactly where these school are located in the city. If you compare this to the Tutor/Mentor Maps, you can see the degree of poverty and poorly performing schools in the area. You can also see locations of hospitals, businesses, churches and universities nearby, who might be a source of volunteers, leaders and donors to organize arts and technology enriched tutor/mentor programs.
We also created maps showing locations of universities.
On both of these maps you can see levels of poverty surrounding the University of Chicago, and University of Chicago Hospital. This has been there for a long time, so when I see TV ads saying the University of Chicago Hospitals rate number 1, I guess this does not mean they rate number one in helping reduce the impacts of poverty and violence, which are public health issues, in the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital. I'd say the same thing about the leaders of the University of Chicago.
The editorial writers are demanding more accountability from educators. I'd like to see them ask leaders of universities and hospitals to be more involved in solving these problems.
Programs where people can volunteer to do arts, crafts or be mentors and tutors don't just "start up". Good programs take a dedicated group of leaders, a consistent source of funding, and many years to grow from an idea to an impact. This means the institutions in the areas around where programs are needed need to make it part of their own strategic missions to build a network of good programs to serve as pipelines to careers for kids in these areas.
It also means that we need to support the programs that are already operating in the city. Right now any business, church, hospital or media station can create an editorial or advertisement that says "Be a volunteer. Be a donor." You can point to the zip code map and Program Locator, to shop for what zip code you want to support, and what program(s) you want to give time, talent and dollars to.
Do it now and you can help a few more kids have a non school support system this fall. Do this all year long and you can help new programs form where there are now voids.
Don't do anything and we can look forward to reading another series by the SunTimes or Tribune every few weeks for the next decade.
Mapping impact of violence on kids. Moving to solutions.
This week the Chicago SunTimes is hosting a series of feature articles to show the impact of violence on inner city kids.
In April a story titled Hidden Wounds of Violence focused on the same issue. I wrote about it here . I included a quote from the article in which a parent said "she has enrolled him in tutoring, mentoring and other programs to give him an outlet for his energy in a safe, indoor environment."
Mike Trakan, who works for the Tutor/Mentor Connection posted an article on his blog showing locations of poorly performing public schools, along with "succeeding schools" which may just be steps away from being on the poorly performing list. He overlayed this list on a poverty map, and then a demographics map, showing high concentrations of African American and Hispanic populations in the city. Mike's questioning some assumptions and asking for feedback, so I encourage you to read the article.
However, Mike's map and the articles in the SunTimes only talk about the problem. They don't talk about the availability of tutor/mentor programs, or lack thereof, or of ways businesses, congregations, media, and others could provide the manpower, dollars, technology and other resources to make comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs available.
Here's some maps that illustrate the problem. This map shows the location of around 140 places where a combination of volunteer based tutoring/mentoring is offered.
These programs vary greatly on size, quality and what age group they serve, but they are a starting point for any volunteer, donor, parent or community leader who wants to help kids have access to this type of support. You can see from the map that many neighborhoods have no programs. Thus, in addition to supporting existing programs, we need to be thinking of ways to start and sustain new programs, borrowing from the experience of those already in existence.
This map shows tutor/mentor programs serving high school youth.
If you compare the two maps, you see an even more critical problem. Not only are there too few tutor/mentor programs in total, but there are even fewer offering positive opportunities and mentor connections to high school youth.
We cannot compete with gangs if we don't offer programs and services in the same areas where the gangs are recruiting.
Thus, as you read the articles in the SunTimes, get together groups within your church, company, alumni network, or civic/social group and talk about ways your group can mobilize volunteers to give time, talent and dollars to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs throughout the city, or in a single neighborhood.
Use the web sites of existing programs to shop and compare and to make your choices. Use the Program Locator Zip Code map to learn what organizations operate in what zip code and to find contact information and web addresses.
Don't wait for someone else to organize such a group. At the end of the day, look in the mirror and give yourself a bit of praise for what YOU do to make this happen.
Connecting Tutor/Mentor Networks. Making a Bigger Impact.
As we enter the month of August, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities will be trying to gain public attention that helps recruit volunteers and donors so that as school starts more inner-city kids have the hope and opportunity that well organized tutor/mentor programs can provide.
However, we're competing against the National Election, the Olympics, local sports teams, and negative news coverage of the violence that is destroying hope in inner city neighborhoods.
Most of us have no dollars to advertise and we don't have celebrity leaders pointing their friends at us.
I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and point to more than 200 different Chicago area organizations who offer various forms of tutoring/mentoring. You can search our database and Program Links on the T/MC web site.
However, I'm a small organization in a huge city.
Chicago's not the only city where there are areas of concentrated poverty, poor schools, high drop out rates. New York City is larger. So is Los Angeles. Houston, Miami, Detroit, San Diego, Boston, Philadelphia and most other major cities have the same problems.
Some also have networks similar to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, working to support the actions of local programs. You can find a list of links to some of these citywide networks, as well as to national support groups, in the T/MC Library. This section even points to mentoring organizations in the UK and India where big cities face similar problems.
I am trying to connect with these network, and build an on-line connection in places like our ning.com connection. If we can share what we're doing, and work together to encourage multi city corporations, alumni from Harvard, Notre Dame and other major universities, and people of faith groups that have branches in every city, we can find leaders in different places who will help us mobilize resources that don't just support one, or two programs, or programs in the headquarters city, but who search the links and support multiple networks, and multiple programs with the same type of advertising they use to draw customers to multiple locations all over the country.
One person trying to make this happen is a grain of sand on the ocean floor. Many people represent a powerful force, like a sandstorm.
Let's try to find a way to connect these networks, not just through national networks, but directly to each other, in on-line networks that draw resources directly to each city, and to each program in each city.


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Regardless, as mentioned on my Instagram, back when I was in Iran last summer, I discovered my now favorite Iranian ensemble, ماه بانو (Mah Banoo) which is composed of a few older men and many (dare I say incredibly beautiful and talented) young women rather than traditional music groups in Iran which are mostly just the former (the old albeit talented men). They sing poetry of you guessed it, Rumi (my personal favorite poet), Hafiz, and other classics to the tune of Iranian traditional instruments. To get a little taste of what this sounds and looks like check out my mini insta video here.
I fell in love with them right as my Aunt's husband introduced them to me, but then when returning to the states their name left me, until a friend yesterday from the ensemble I'm in posted their video on his page and well, I am pretty damn excited to be reunited!
Unfortunately, there are only a few of their pieces on youtube, but I am on the hunt for ways to aquire more of their music (if any of you happen to know I would love you forever), but in the meantime, here are a few of their pieces that will be on repeat that I encourage you to listen to (and watch because omg so beautiful), too!
P.S. Don't forget about the exciting ethical Peruvian camera strap giveaway that you can enter to win, here!
Sounds like a fun halloween! The carved coconuts are cool :) The iranian ensemble on your facebook page is amazing! I have a lot of Persian friends here in India!
That coconut is so cute! Love hearing about experiences from other countries. So cool. Halloween here was crazy as well! It was snowing!! Sounds like you had a lovely halloween!
Carving coconuts sounds rather interesting, haha! Did you eat them afterwards?? :D I love coconuts as well!
Thanks for the introduction to Mah Banoo - I love the instruments the band uses and it is very cool to see/hear these female musicians!
Your Halloween coconut is adorable and your indoor celebration with pumpkin cheesecake sounded fab!
Haha I've never heard of carving coconuts but it sure is a fantastic idea :D How cute!
Gahhh this comment made my day--merci! Aren't they all so beautiful and talented!? I'm obsessed! I wish they could produce more music!
I would have toootally loved to see photos from Halloween in Budapest--that is so neat! I have to admit, I didn't realize it was such a globalized celebration!


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Yasmin Khan
Yasmin Khan covers worker's rights in New Mexico, with a focus on Spanish-speaking residents. She is finishing her Ph.D. in human geography and women & gender studies at the University of Toronto where she studies refugee and humanitarian aid dynamics in Bangladesh. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from UNM. Yasmin was director of The Americas Program, an online U.S. foreign policy magazine based in Mexico City, and was a freelance journalist in Bolivia. She covered culture, immigration, and higher education for the Santa Fe New Mexican and city news for the Albuquerque Journal.
Waiting at a closed border
By: Yasmin Khan - May 17, 2022
The inner courtyard of Casa del Migrante in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, looks like a day care center. Plastic toys are scattered from one end to the other. Tiny baby clothes hang on the chain link fence, drying in the sun. Toddlers throw a ball in the direction of a blue and yellow basket hoop, jumping […]
Title 42 exception helps LGBTQ asylum-seekers
In a red brick house on the south side of El Paso, Texas, Susana Correa sits in front of a wall of five computer monitors, the biggest filled with lists of the names of hundreds of LGBTQ asylum-seekers waiting to cross from Juárez into El Paso. To her left, one monitor features a long string […]
Hundreds gather in Shiprock to call for justice and answers for MMIWR
By: Yasmin Khan - January 31, 2022
When Seraphine Warren couldn't get answers from law enforcement after her aunt Ella Mae Begay, 62, went missing seven months ago, she started walking. "I figured we were the only family that was treated like this, and we needed help," said Warren, who, two weeks after Begay disappeared, walked more than 425 miles from her […]
Refugees in Albuquerque holding out hope for their Afghan family members
By: Yasmin Khan - September 8, 2021
Although resettlement and other migration-related coordination is typically under international and federal jurisdiction, Afghan people living in Albuquerque continue to work with state officials to help their relatives. Still, today, there's no clear path forward. As time ticked down last week in Afghanistan after two decades of war, Mohammad Ismail — the refugee coordinator with […]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Katy Perry Sizzles In Revealing Floral Swimsuit During Sun-Soaked Visit To French Beach
Neilson Barnard / Getty Images
Nathan Francis
Katy Perry was recently taking in the sun and the waves on the beaches of Île de Ré, France, and the internet is enjoying the view of the singer rocking a revealing floral swimsuit as she did so.
Katy was spotted with boyfriend Orlando Bloom on a sun-soaked vacation on Monday, enjoying the waves during a visit to the picturesque French beach. The Daily Mail published photos of the pair's visit, showing Katy rocking a white floral swimsuit while Orlando went shirtless during a dip in the ocean.
"Looking as stylish as ever in her flattering halterneck number, California native Katy wore her bleach blonde locks in a close-cropped style, while accessorizing with large hoop earrings and a pair of fashionable sunglasses," the report noted.
Sources told the outlet that the two were enjoying a getaway from their home in Los Angeles, looking to spend some time in France and to visit with Orlando's family.
The two may also be trying to escape some of the intense spotlight of their high-profile relationship. Katy and Orlando are frequent targets for the tabloids, facing increasing speculation about when they may be getting hitched.
Entertainment Tonight reported last week that the couple is planning a fall wedding, having gotten engaged in February of this year. A source told the outlet that they are both so busy that it's been difficult to set aside time for all of the necessary planning, but added that both are on board with making the wedding "a little different."
That includes some ideas Katy reportedly has about her wedding dress.
"She is leaning away from wearing white and her family is doing their best to encourage her to be more low-key, but that doesn't seem to be her," the source said.
"This is Katy and Orlando's day and they are going to create a special moment that best represents their style, which means a beautiful celebration of their love with the people they most care about."
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Couple look loved up as they relax on French beach https://t.co/3wct7zE939 pic.twitter.com/95o2JiGYkx
— Times of News Europe (@TimesEurope) July 8, 2019
While it may be a low-key affair, the source reported that there could be at least one big celebrity guest — Taylor Swift. She and Katy Perry recently ended their years-long feud, appearing together in the music video for Taylor's "You Need To Calm Down" music video.
Taylor explained in a recent interview that the two had recently crossed paths and realized that they had both grown a lot since the feud started. According to Taylor, the two were no longer "allowing ourselves to be pitted against each other."
More pictures of Katy Perry's trip to the beach — and of her floral swimsuit — can be found in the Daily Mail's report.
Russian Couple Having Sex At Party Falls Out Ninth-Story Window, Woman Dies Instantly And Man Returns To Party July 17, 2019
Carrie Underwood Wows In Tiny White Shorts, Shows Off Killer Post-Baby Legs In Neon Pink Sneakers July 17, 2019
House Of Representatives Votes To Formally Condemn Donald Trump For 'Racist' Tweets July 17, 2019
Donald Trump Wasn't Being Racist Because 'He Didn't Say A Color,' Say Texas Republican Women July 17, 2019


Well, I figured I should give some sort of update to make up for my goal to slow down a little bit on music sharing: another review of one of my synths. Technically, this one is not a synth, but, in fact, an expansion card for a synth: the Roland SR-JV80-01 card.
This first card in the SR-JV80 series, also known as the Pop expansion card, originally was manufactured in 1992, and could be used to add additional sounds to any Roland workstation that could accept them, including all of the JV and XP synths, the XV3080, the XV5080, and the JD990.
Personally, I love many of the sounds on this card. The electric guitar samples, for instance, sound better than those in the factory ROM for my JV2080. The pads, like "Mystic Mountain", are hauntingly beautiful. There's even a techno hit of a patch thrown in, cleverly titled "Blade Runner".
It's a shame that this card was not much of a success when it comes to popular music: I have yet to hear of a well-established '90s musician who used it. It is said that some of the waveforms were recycled for the factory ROM of the XV generation, however, though I have yet to confirm this with my newly-acquired XV3080 (shown in the video).
Overall, a great card, even if it fits best in a retropop setting nowadays.


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Celebrate. Our new EP, Negative Space, is now available to download on iTunes as well as Bandcamp.
It took being locked in a 700-square-foot apartment together for 10 months, but Carrie & Nils have finally produced some new songs. Three, to be exact, available to you on their new EP, Negative Space. Check it out on the "Music" page.
New video out today!!! You can see it here.
We wrote a silly song in about 10 minutes about one of Carrie's favorite fashion designers. We promise to bring you some "real music" sometime soon.
Carrie has always dreamed of playing an art gallery. We are finally doing it, and it's not just any gallery–it's Canada Gallery. Join us and other assorted weirdos for a night of sexy and silly performances curated by the legendary Michael Mahalchick. Friday, August 10.
Yep, that's us, right between Simian Mobile Disco and Nikodemus, sitting at #6 on the NACC Electronic Chart! With the demise of CMJ, the NACC charts are where it's at for college and independent radio. We are so grateful for the support.
We are finally playing live again on Wednesday, June 20. We go on at 9:30. The bands playing before and after us are incredible.
The video for our 3rd single, "Like a Lie," is here.
The wait is over. Our second album, Saturation, is here. Download it on iTunes, or even better, buy a CD at roughtrade.com.
Our latest single is here.


As of 2015, there are a staggering 11.4 million individuals who are over the age of 65. As people are living longer than ever before, it only makes sense that they are able to enjoy life well into their golden years. As opposed to sitting back and letting the world pass you by, why not make your very own over 50 bucket list in order to enrich your own existence and that of those around you? What are some easy and realistic options that will not break the bank while leaving you with lasting memories during your fifty-plus years?
Experiencing life does not necessarily have to equate to skydiving, climbing Mt. Everest or wrestling a bear. Instead, why not learn to play an instrument or to speak a foreign language? Starting a home-based business, participating in charity work and even writing your memoirs are all excellent ways to feel productive and rewarded.
Did you know that 5 million Britons are now living abroad and that a good portion of them represent the fifty-plus category? If you have always had the desire to pick up and leave, what's stopping you? After sorting out a home sale and taking stock of your finances, the balmy beaches of Spain or the mountains of southern France may very well be closer than you think!
While many of us wish that we could simply hit the motorway and tick off one item from our bucket list after another, let us never forget that life's responsibilities will not simply end. So, it is always important to remember that planning ahead is extremely important. From writing a will to obtaining the best prepaid funeral plans, you will be certain to have all of your avenues covered. Get in contact with us and learn how taking care of these fifty-plus concerns now will enable you to live your life to the fullest.


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The top 10 higher-ed tech stories of 2010: No. 4
From staff reports
The Obama administration said technology would be a centerpiece to enrolling more students and boosting completion rates.
The United States used to lead the world in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees; now it ranks 12th among 36 developed nations. That's something the Obama administration hopes to change by focusing heavily in the last year on boosting the nation's college completion rate—and technology has played a key role in many of these efforts.
During a first-ever White House summit on community colleges in October, Obama administration officials and junior college leaders discussed ways to position two-year colleges as training hubs that could be instrumental in the country's economic recovery. And technology, they said, would be a centerpiece to enrolling more students and boosting completion rates.
Ceci Rouse, a White House economic advisor, said colleges that have launched virtual financial aid offices—websites that guide students through the often-tricky application process—have seen spikes in applicants and Pell Grant recipients. And Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spoke to educators and community college officials during the summit's opening session, highlighting two-year schools' use of online classes to make education accessible for non-traditional students.
The Gates Foundation later that month announced a $20 million grant program, called Next Generation Learning Challenges, that aims to help dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States through the use of technology tools.
Goals of the new grant program include increasing the use of blended learning models, which combine face-to-face instruction with online learning activities; deepening students' engagement through the use of interactive applications, such as digital games, interactive video, immersive simulations, and social media; supporting the availability of high-quality open courseware, particularly for high-enrollment introductory classes like math, science, and English, which often have low rates of student success; and helping institutions, instructors, and students benefit from learning analytics, which can monitor student progress in real time and deliver proven interventions.
An example of the latter kind of project can be found at Purdue University, where a tool developed by the school to warn some students that their grades are dropping, offer study-habit suggestions, and provide positive reinforcement to students who are acing quizzes and exams was made available to other schools nationwide this past fall.
"Course Signals" is being made available to higher-education institutions through a joint effort by Purdue and SunGard Higher Education. The program was developed at the university and piloted for three semesters before its 2009 launch.
"We found in our research that this can improve student [achievement] an average of one letter grade for many students," said Gerry McCartney, Purdue's vice president for information technology. "Course Signals is an important step forward for higher education that can be implemented successfully at many universities and community colleges across the nation to improve student retention and success."
Related links:Duncan: Ban NCAA teams with low grad rates
Once a leader, U.S. lags in college degrees
Gates Foundation focuses on college graduation
College dropout rate puts financial strain on governments
Community college grants, prizes to be unveiled at White House summit
Obama: Community colleges central to economic recovery
Gates Foundation launches $20 million program to expand technology use
Purdue's student achievement technology goes national
Poll: Public blames grad rates on college students
Jenna Zwang
Originally from Seattle, Jenna graduated from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. At USC, she studied in the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, where she earned her B.A. in broadcast journalism and minored in peace & conflict studies. Her favorite eSchool stories to cover are those involving personalized learning or social media. In addition to her work at eSchool, Jenna also works with the news team at Citadel Radio.
Latest posts by Jenna Zwang (see all)
Which eReader is right for you? - March 23, 2011
Feds settle case of woman fired over Facebook site - February 9, 2011
Virtual classrooms take over LSAT prep - January 28, 2011
Tags blended learning


The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria has inaugurated its Centre for Insurance and Financial Management Studies.
In a statement obtained from the CIIN on Sunday, the President, CIIN, Bola Temowo, said the massive financial support from individual and corporate donors towards the completion of the existing structures and facilities was a testimony of their belief in the potential of the college to provide world-class human capital development programmes for the insurance and financial services sector.
Temowo said that prior to the inauguration, a lot had been put in place to justify the development of a full-fledged college.
Some of these efforts, he said, included the employment of a rector qualified to deliver the goals of the company; the employment of other key personnel and the movement of all the old employees to the college campus.
The CIIN boss said the firm had registered the college as a subsidiary of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria for a full legal status to operate.
"Today's inauguration follows four years of giant strides in actualising our dream of a college, conceived to change the face of insurance and financial management education in Nigeria," Temowo said.
The immediate Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, said the CIFMS is a value addition to the quest to better position the CIIN inthe industry.
He stressed it would herald a new era of improvement on services rendered by the institute not only for its future growth, but more importantly, for the development of the Nigerian insurance sector practitioners.
As the education arm of the industry, he said this was certainly a step in the right direction towards the attainment of the CIIN mandate, which was to breed and certify insurance professionals in the country.
According to him, it is NAICOM's desire to superintend over an insurance industry that would be financially strong and viable with the right mix of professionals.


A multi-disciplinary designer, Gao examines the interactive quality of clothing in response to different environments. "I would prefer to leave experimental objects in their experimental stateI believe those objects are a part of ourselves," she says. For one of her latest creations, "Incertitudes 2," Gao was inspired by the sounds a dressmaker's pins make when moved on a fitting mannequin. The technology-driven garments were the result of a collaboration with interactive artist Simon Laroche, who came on to design the robotics. The sound-activated garments are comprised of metallic pins that move with a curious sense of fluidity in response to ambient noise or voices.


Michael Gelb wrote a great book called How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci. I can still remember reading it shortly after selling my first business over 15 years ago. It was life-changing for me!
Michael has a bunch of great exercises and distinctions to help us tap into our potential. Here's one of my favorites.


The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the United States. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows 60 miles (97 km) through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. It includes 4 nature trails extending for over seven miles, making it perfect for hikers. The name Hillsborough River first appeared on a British map in 1769. At the time, the Earl of Hillsborough was the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, and thus controlled the pensions of the surveyors working in the American colonies, which included East Florida.
Geological data suggests that the Hillsborough River has been flowing for about 27,000 years. Humans first made their way to this area 12,000 - 15,000 years ago.
In the late 18th century the watershed of the Hillsborough River was a land covered by a rich, old growth forest. Majestic bald cypress, longleaf pine, and sand live oak were hundreds of years old (and in the case of cypress, thousands of years old). In the mid to late 19th century to about 1913 the watershed of this old growth forest began to be logged. As a result of this lumbering activity, most of the trees within the Hillsborough River basin are now less than one hundred years in age. The harvesting of the old growth trees altered the ecosystems they dominated. Trees such as water ash and water locust were able to quickly grow in the sun-lit spaces created when bigger trees were removed. The riverine swamp forest as it exists today has a much different ecology than the ecosystem that had existed along the Hillsborough for the previous ten to fifteen thousand years.
(Pre-Columbian to the 18th century) Tocobaga Native American culture.
(1528) Pánfilo de Narváez, a Spanish explorer, lands near Tampa Bay. He and the four hundred men with him find the Tocobaga culture established in the area.
(1539) Hernando de Soto, another Spaniard, comes to Tampa Bay and lands at what was probably the Hillsborough River. By the early 18th century the Tocobaga people, through disease and slavery, are nearly exterminated.
(1757) A survey of the Hillsborough River is done by Don Francisco Maria Celi, pilot of the Spanish Royal Fleet. He ventures up to the Temple Terrace area in search of longleaf pine to use as masts for his ships. He names the pine forest of the area "El Pinal de la Cruz de Santa Teresa" or "The Pines of the Cross of Saint Teresa". There is a plaque commemorating his exploration at Riverhills Park in Temple Terrace.
(1772) A map drawn and sent to the Earl of Hillsborough, English Governor of West Florida, shows the river named as the Hillsborough. During the mid and late 18th century, Native Americans from the north, mostly Creek (American Indians), begin to migrate to Florida. These immigrants become known as Seminoles.
(1821) Florida becomes a United States territory.
(1824) Construction of Fort Brooke begins at the mouth of the Hillsborough River.
(1828) The Fort King Military Road (now State Road 41) is built to connect Fort King in Ocala with Fort Brooke in what was then the settlement of Tampa. A bridge is built to cross the Hillsborough.
(1830) Congress passes the Indian Removal Act. The American government begins efforts to remove the Seminole from Tampa Bay and relocate them to a reservation west of the Mississippi. Tensions between Seminole and Americans continue.
(1835) Seminoles burn the bridge at the Fort King Road's river crossing. Conflict continues.
(1836) Fort Foster is established at the Hillsborough River crossing to protect this strategically advantageous position.
(1842) The Armed Occupation Act promises one hundred 60 acres (240,000 m2) of land to any man who can bear arms, build a house and cultivate 5 acres (20,000 m2) for five years.
(1843) The Jean Street Shipyard is founded on the Hillsborough River in what will be the neighborhood of Seminole Heights.
(1846) The first ferry crossing on the Hillsborough River is established. This improves transportation and widens the growth of Tampa to both sides of the river.
(1861) During the American Civil War, Tampa Bay is blockaded by federal troops to prevent goods from leaving Tampa or from coming into Tampa.
(1863) Federal troops march upriver to a location near the present day site of Lowry Park Zoo. There they discover a blockade-running steamer and sloop loaded with cotton. The ships are burned. The skirmish that follows is the only Civil War action on the Hillsborough River.
(1891) The Tampa Bay Hotel, now the Henry B. Plant Museum, opens with a grand ball.
(1898) On December 13, 1898 the dam is dynamited by cattle barons angry at the loss of grazing land. They tried three times. The first on January 8, 1897,shortly after construction was completed. When the water is low, remnants of the dynamited dam can be seen.
(1898–99) TECO buys the Consumers Electric Light and Street Railway Company and builds a new electric generating dam downstream of the current site north of Sulphur Springs.
(1899) Tampa's first water plant is built by the private Tampa Waterworks Company. It pumped well water to supply the City of Tampa until March 6, 1923, when the people voted to purchase the Waterworks plant.
(1900) The Sulphur Springs (Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida) property is developed and open to the public.
(1910) Hillsborough Bay is channelized to the mouth of the Hillsborough River with the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. Up to 1913 the Hillsborough River watershed is heavily logged for its valuable cypress, longleaf pine and oak.
(1911–1914) Bertha Potter Palmer (Bertha Palmer) (of Chicago and Sarasota) completes purchases of 19,000 acres (77 km2) bordering the Hillsborough River in present-day Temple Terrace, Temple Crest, Terrace Park, Busch Gardens and the University of South Florida area. She calls her property "Riverhills Ranch", an exclusive hunting preserve where she builds a lodge and guest houses among other structures. She dies in 1918.
(1922) The Temple Terrace Golf and County Club, located on the river in Temple Terrace opens with a Washington Ball.
(1923) The city of Tampa builds a water treatment plant to utilize the water supply from the water above the dam.
(1935) Hillsborough River State Park is opened.
(1933) In a torrential 24-hour rain, floods wash away the Tampa Electric dam. TECO does not rebuild the dam and turns to other locations for electrical generating plants.
(1944) The city of Tampa completes construction on the current dam, to be used for the purpose of containing drinking water for the city, at the site of the old TECO dam. The old Tampa Waterworks Company is abandoned.
(1961) The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) is created.
(1960s-70s) The 14-mile (23 km) long Tampa Bypass Canal is constructed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). It includes a constructed canal and several concrete flood-control structures. During construction of the Tampa Bypass Canal the aquifer is accidentally breached.
(1979) The Hillsborough River is closed to swimming at Hillsborough River State Park and a swimming pool is built for public use.
(1986) The Hillsborough River Interlocal Planning Board & Technical Advisory Council is established.
(1986) Sulphur Springs pool (Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida) is closed.
(1988) The annual Hillsborough River Cleanup begins.
(1991) Canoe Escape is opened and the owners donate canoes and time to bring the Hillsborough River to the public's attention.
(1992) The Hillsborough River Greenways Taskforce is established.
(1995) The Hillsborough River is designated as Outstanding Florida Waters.
(1995) The Hillsborough River is designated as a Florida Recreational Canoe Trail.
(1995) The Hillsborough River is named a Florida Sesquicentennial Greenway.
(1999) "Friends of the River" is created by local residents for the purpose of challenging the SWFWMD minimum flow of 10 cu ft/s (0.28 m3/s) of Sulphur Springs water alone for the river's only freshwater flow.
(2000) On the day after a massive Earth Day celebration at Lowry Park, highlighted by a "Flow-tilla" of dozens of boats from the Rowlett Park dam to Lowry Park, Friends of the River settles its legal challenge with agreement with SWFWMD, City of Tampa and Robert Thomas of Zephyrhills Water to study the river for 5 years to scientifically determine exactly how much freshwater is needed to restore and maintain the river's estuarine function. Friends of the River had maintained that the establishment of the minimum flow of 10 cu ft/s (0.28 m3/s) of Sulphur Springs water was a politically expedient solution with no basis in scientific data. Findings of the 5-year study to be used by SWFWMD as sole basis for modification of minimum flow.
(2006) "The Hillsborough River Task Force", Temple Terrace, is created.
(2007) Alan Wright, "Mr River", dies of cancer, December 21.
(2007) "The Lower Hillsborough River Minimum Flow Recovery Strategy" is adopted, based upon SWFWMD's 5-year study that documented a need for freshwater over twice that provided by its original rule as challenged by Friends of the River. A minimum flow of 20 cu ft/s (0.57 m3/s) is adopted, combining the original 10 cu ft/s (0.28 m3/s) of Sulphur Springs water with 10 cu ft/s (0.28 m3/s) added to the river from water stored in Tampa Bypass Canal. Minimum flow adjusted upwards to 24 cu ft/s (0.68 m3/s) in spring months (April, May, June) when fish spawning activity occurs in restored estuary. Daily minimum flow begins December 31, 2007.
The Hillsborough River is home to many species, and several large bird rookeries exist. When local students reach sixth grade in Hillsborough County, they take a visit to the river for one to three days to learn about the ecosystem, watershed, and native Florida animals at a place called 'Nature's Classroom'. The Hillsborough River dam (originally built in 1895 and since rebuilt) at Rowlett Park creates a lake covering 1,300 acres (5 km2) and containing 1.6 billion US gallons (6,100,000 m3) of water, providing for the supply of water for the City of Tampa. The Hillsborough River was immortalized in 1973 by author Gloria Jahoda in her book River of the Golden Ibis.
With the construction of the dam in 1945, the portion of the River above the dam to approximately Fletcher Avenue is where the City of Tampa is permitted to withdraw water to supply to its citizens and those in Hillsborough County. In addition, Tampa Bay Water is permitted to withdraw water from the River during "high flow" times and under specific conditions. The Southwest Florida Water Management District, the agency required by Florida law to protect and manage the waters in the state, authorizes the permits.
With the establishment of the minimum flow of the upper and middle river by the Southwest Florida Water Management District in 2007 and its supporting Recovery Strategy, the City of Tampa and the District in partnership are implementing measures and projects to achieve the required flow in the lower river, while preserving the pristine nature of the middle and upper rivers.
The river above the dam to roughly the 56th Street bridge passes through the neighborhood of Temple Crest. The river above the 56th Street bridge passes through the City of Temple Terrace and it is one of the many scenic portions of the river. The City has a river cleanup of its river portion twice a year.
Hillsborough River State Park includes 2,990 acres (12 km2) along the Hillsborough River in northeastern Hillsborough County. It supports many Floridian environments such as swamps and oak hammocks and many endangered species. The park's purpose is to preserve the "real Florida". Visitors to the park can participate in picnicking, camping, canoeing, hiking, fishing and swimming in a constructed pool. There is also a designated place to observe the river's class II rapids. It is one of the only rivers in Florida with rapids. The park opened in 1935 making it one of Florida's oldest state parks.
The middle river is the portion of the river north of the dam at 30th Street and is the primary source of water for the City of Tampa. The middle river is located in the middle portion of the river extending from its dam with the water contained back to Fletcher Avenue. The Hillsborough River has its headwaters begins in the Green Swamp and ultimately flows into Tampa Bay.
Water was supplied in Tampa's early days by private wells, cisterns and tanks. Tampa's first water plant went into operation on April 20, 1899, operated by the private Tampa Waterworks Company. It pumped well water to supply the City of Tampa until March 6, 1923, when the people voted to purchase the Waterworks plant for the city. The middle river has been Tampa's official source of water since 1944.
But the middle river is far more than just the source for some of Tampa's drinking water, it is a wonderfully diverse river ecosystem within the larger urban area surrounding it. Orange Lake, in the Temple Crest neighborhood, is an Audubon Society bird nesting and sanctuary, is also a living wetlands.
Upstream along the banks of Temple Terrace's Riverhills Park is a scene from old Florida, with cypress trees dotting the watery landscape.
A 34.5-mile (55.5 km) canoe trail is designated by the State of Florida, starting at Hillsborough River State Park and ending at Rowlett Park in Tampa. Morris Bridge Park, Trout Creek Wilderness Park, Hillsborough River State Park Lettuce Lake Park, Riverfront Park, Riverhills Park, Angel of Hope Park, Rogers Park, Sulphur Springs Water Tower, and Rivercrest Park are all located along the Hillsborough River.
Gunter, Booth. 1990. Hillsborough River. in Marth, Del and Marty Marth, eds. The Rivers of Florida. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press. ISBN 0-910923-70-1.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hillsborough River (Florida).


The creation of a website enabling Customs and Border Protection to collect fines and penalties via credit card is one of the finalists for the annual Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award, launched in 2009 to reward federal employees who develop ideas to make government more efficient and save money.
This year's final four includes a proposal that would allow customs agents and agricultural specialists to collect payments at ports of entry, instead of having them sent by mail when a cashier isn't present.
Buyar Hayrula of CBP, who came up with the idea, would win a chance to discuss the website with President Barack Obama if his idea is chosen as the winner.
The other three finalists are: Kenneth Siehr, for online tracking of veterans mail prescription deliveries; Patrick Mindiola, for using email for electronic passport notifications; and Dirk Renner, for allowing comparable agency certifications to transfer from agency to agency or between departments.
Last year's winner was Frederick Winter, who suggested that all federal employees who get public transit benefits shift from regular fares to reduced senior fares as soon as they are eligible.
Now in its fifth year, voting for the SAVE Award winner will end noon Friday.


Easiphone Sonic Traveller Alarm Clock – Loud Alarm Clock for the Hard of Hearing.
The Easiphone Sonic Traveller is the newest in Easiphone's extensive range of specialised loud phones and alarm clocks.
Ideal for the hard of hearing, heavy sleepers or just to get the kids out of bed in the morning!The Sonic traveller is not only sleek in its design but also compact for travel and loud and clear to make you up in the mornings, whether you are travelling or at home.An ideal companion for those on the go, take the Sonic Traveller with you on your business travels or on holiday and charge your phone at the same time using the USB charging port at the back.
The 75dB will wake even the lightest sleepers, or if you prefer not to wake your sleeping partner, the under pillow vibration pad will wake you without waking others.The bright red display is easy to see and adjustable so you can choose the setting you want.


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Chiefs rule WR Kadarius Toney out for second straight game
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney heads for the end zone after catching a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)(Ed Zurga | AP)
By Gabe Swartz
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Kansas City Chiefs will once again be without one of their playmakers at wide receiver during Sunday's game with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Wide receiver Kadarius Toney will miss his second straight game due to a hamstring injury suffered during the Chiefs' 30-27 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 11. With Sunday's inactive status, Toney will now have been active for just 15 of 29 possible career games after being a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Safety Deon Bush is questionable for the game with an elbow injury.
Running back Jerick McKinnon, who was a non-participant during Wednesday and Thursday's practices due to a hamstring injury, practiced fully and carries no injury designation heading into the AFC Championship Game rematch.
Deon Bush is questionable for Sunday's game. Kadarius Toney is out.
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) December 2, 2022
Kansas City takes on Cincinnati on Sunday at 3:25 p.m. The game will air live on KCTV5.
Copyright 2022 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Chiefs fans line up at Springfield's Academy for Super Bowl gear


Editor's note: This is Part II of a two-part series. Part I was published Sunday, June 22, in Foster's Sunday Citizen.
ROCHESTER — After agreeing to sponsor 12-year-old McKenzie Lowe's treatment for terminal cancer, Dr. Terry Bennett of Rochester is having second thoughts. He still thinks there's a chance that the controversial, experimental and non-FDA approved "antineoplaston therapy" performed by Stanislaw Burzynski might work for Lowe, but he's not happy about the costs of the Burzynski Clinic's treatments.
Supporters claim Burzynski has found a cure for cancer but the medical establishment has been fighting to squelch it for more than three decades to protect conventional cancer treatment profits. They argue that because antineoplaston therapy patients don't purchase traditional medicines, there is little money to be made by anyone other than Burzynski.
He says he heard of a little boy named Noah, who survived for 40 months with DIPG under Burzynski's care.
He tells about Jessica Ressel, whom he says was diagnosed with DIPG as a child, was treated by Burzynski, and grew up to have kids of her own.
And he cites the case of a nine-month-old infant in Missouri whose DIPG tumor shrunk 33 percent after antineoplaston therapy.
But none of these examples of the treatment's effectiveness have been subjected to scientific or clinical verification.
Skeptics say Burzynki's readily available success stories are the result of other variables, such as incorrect initial diagnoses, delayed chemotherapy responses, and naturally occurring shrinkage of tumors following treatment-induced swelling, according to a USA TODAY article published earlier this year.
Still, to people seeking help for a terminally ill loved one, these success stories serve as an undeniably impressive counterweight to the red flag that is Burzynski's battles with the FDA.
At the same time that LaFountain and the Lowe family were researching these Burzynski success stories, oncologists were telling them that accepted treatments had little chance of curing McKenzie's cancer.
The family began to see antineoplaston therapy treatments as a ray of hope and began petitioning the FDA to allow McKenzie to be treated by Burzynski.
They created a Change.org petition, which attracted nearly 70,000 signatures. A Facebook group was created. LaFountain took a trip to Washington, D.C., for a face-to-face meeting with the FDA. New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte wrote a 600-word letter on McKenzie's behalf to the FDA's commissioner.
The family's desperate quest to lobby the FDA attracted national media attention.
Finally in March of this year, after about four months of lobbying by McKenzie's family and supporters, the FDA granted her a compassionate use exception with one condition: A doctor other than Burzynski needed to oversee McKenzie's antineoplaston therapy treatment.
That's when Rochester's Bennett stepped up. He figured there was no harm letting a young girl diagnosed with a terminal illness try for a cure, even if the therapy was controversial.
But there was something Bennett didn't know.
Bennett's decision was based, in part, on a newspaper article that said Burzynski had agreed to donate the medicine required for McKenzie's treatment. But what Bennett didn't know is that Burzynki planned to charge the family for the clinical costs associated with the therapy.
LaFountain said the first month's bill is expected to be $28,000. Every month after that is expected to cost $16,000. The treatment usually lasts eight to 12 months.
And health insurance won't cover a dime of it.
The Lowe family has started a GoFundMe.org (GoFundMe.com/9a4geo) account, which raised over $5,800 as of June 17. And they set up an account with the Digital Federal Credit Union in Hudson that also has been taking donations.
The family is relying completely on these fundraisers to pay for McKenzie's therapy.
Such fundraising apparently is common practice for Burzynski patients.
In 2012, Brylin Sanders' family raised tens of thousands of dollars for treatment. Chiane Cloete's family raised over $50,000 last year. The family of 3-year-old New Zealander Jesse Bessant raised over $70,000. And Canadian mother Nola Bishop's family started a fundraiser last year hoping to raise $100,000 for Burzynski's treatment.
Bennett said he will not withdraw his sponsorship of McKenzie, despite the cost of treatment. But he's extremely upset over what he calls a very disturbing phone call that he received on May 28.
Bennett says a representative of the Burzynski Clinic called him on that date seeking payment for the first month of McKenzie's therapy. Prior to that, Bennett, who is donating his services, thought Burzynski was doing the same.
But he continues to support the initiative to get McKenzie treatment because he believes there is a possibility that Burzynski's therapy works.
The Burzynski clinic did not respond to multiple requests for a detailed breakdown of the costs of McKenzie's treatment.


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Mirage turns fishing boat off Cornwall coast into flying object
The 'floating boats' are back...
Charlotte BecquartContent editor
Fata Morgana - 'floating' boat - off Par beach, Cornwall (Image: Cornwall Live)
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Another mirage was captured on camera off the coast of Cornwall today (Monday) and it is the highest 'floating boat' we have seen so far.
The amazing pictures were taken from Par Beach today.
They show a small dark object which appears to be floating high over the sea. Someone on social media even mistook it for a drone which had been seen in the area.
Read more: TikTok trend blamed after vandals smash up Cornwall public toilets
It was in fact a fishing boat and it definitely was not hovering above the skyline. The optical illusion is called Fata Morgana and is caused by the similar colouring of the sea and sky.
Of course, it's not an uncommon phenomenon, but pictures capturing the mirage are always incredible to see.
You can stay up to date on the top news and events near you with CornwallLive's FREE newsletters – enter your email address at the top of the page or go here
According to Marine Traffic, the F.S.C. Mytilus 1 was in the area at the time the photos were taken.
The picture was taken today (Image: Cornwall Live)
There have been previous recent examples of Fata Morgana off the coast of Cornwall - one near Gillan on the Helford, which you can read about here, and one off Coverack. You can see the photos here.
What is a Fata Morgana?
It is a mirage which normally happens at sea, but can also happen on land - in deserts for example.
Fata Morgana is, in fact, the Italian name for Morgan le Fay, the powerful enchantress from the King Arthur legends, who was said to create optical illusions over bodies of water.
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School was never a laughing matter for children and even less for a class of six graders after their newly appointed homeroom teacher, Ma Yeo Jin, decides to turn their lives into a real live example of how society works and starts bullying one of her students.
Both involve a girl who is put into a desperate situation by society and her situation. She is then bullied by an elder, female teacher. In both, the girl befriends a somewhat strange boy about her age. He becomes her best friend and shares moments of joy and sadness with her.
I didn't like it and I would never recommend it.
I watched all of it just to see how it ends, but I didn't understand the ending anyway.
I was like "I'm gonna get in the computer, find a gun and shoot them all!!!!!" all the time!
, but for god's sake!!
loving their teacher so much.
I'm not giving it 0/5 because I can't and I'm not giving it only 1/5 just because of the kid's marvelous acting. I was surprised by their naturality!!!
It's interesting for me to start this version, because I am a fan of this main actress and of the one of the japanese version.
I was a fan of the heroine of the japanese version, but at times I though her methods could have been considered .. torture. Ever since I watched it I'm a fan of the Devil/ Witch teacher - I hope to see the heroine a bit more soft in this one.. and ..
Most teachers in Korea are worse though. She has good goals with bad method to use, the age range in this drama isn't always strong enough to accept her teachings. But either way, real life is even harder.


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News in Brief Cosmology
Galaxies may be aligned across 1 billion light-years
Distant quasars raise questions about formation of large structures in the universe
GALACTIC LINEUP Quasar jets (white lines) align with one another and the billion-light-year-long rivers of galaxies they inhabit (blue) in this artist's illustration.
ESO/M. Kornmesser
By Christopher Crockett
The cores of several distant galaxies, spread out across roughly 1 billion light-years, appear to mysteriously align with one another. If confirmed, the new observations could be a hint of some unknown mechanism that shapes the largest structures in the universe.
Damien Hutsemékers, an astrophysicist at the University of Liège in Belgium, and colleagues used the Very Large Telescope in northern Chile to measure the orientations of 19 quasars, blazing disks of gas that swirl around supermassive black holes in the centers of some galaxies. Each of the quasars lives in one of four groups that are about 13 billion light-years away and centered on the constellation Leo. Within the groups, powerful jets of charged particles that spew from the quasars seem to point in nearly the same direction, the researchers report November 19 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The conclusions are on shaky ground, says Mike DiPompeo, an astrophysicist at the University of Wyoming. With only 19 quasars, the alignments could be just a coincidence. But even with a small sample, he finds the results intriguing and worthy of further investigation. It would be surprising, he says, if quasars knew how their neighbors were aligned.
A version of this article appears in the December 27, 2014 issue of Science News.
D. Hutsemékers et al. Alignment of quasar polarizations with large-scale structures. Astronomy & Astrophysics. Published online November 19, 2014. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424631.
About Christopher Crockett
Christopher Crockett is an Associate News Editor. He was formerly the astronomy writer from 2014 to 2017, and he has a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Otsuji (written: 尾辻) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:

, Japanese politician
, Japanese politician and activist
, Japanese judoka
, Japanese engineer

Japanese-language surnames

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Celebrating George Crumb at 90
Bridges Hall of Music
150 E. Fourth St
Ten stellar performers will celebrate George Crumb, known as the "American composer [who] continues to explore sonic possibilities in works of surprising and enchanting content," (Gramophone), has received both Grammy and Pulitzer prizes.
The first of two works being performed is Celestial Mechanics (1970), (Makrokosmos IV) for piano four-hands with Genevieve Feiwen Lee and Brian Hsu. Faculty member Lee, a Grammy®-nominated pianist and Pomona College's Everett S. Olive Professor of Music, is a versatile performer of music that spans five centuries. In addition to giving solo recitals, she is a member of the Mojave Trio, and has performed on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Chamber Music Series. Award-winning pianist Hsu has delighted audiences throughout Spain, Italy, Japan, South Africa and the US, appearing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, at numerous music festivals and can be heard on Albany Records Labe with the Pro Arte quartet.
The second work is Ancient Voices of Children (1970), "A Cycle of Songs on Texts by Federico García Lorca," which has been hailed by The New York Times as a "full-blown masterpiece...music that springs to life as a whole." The performers for this celebratory Pomona College performance include Brandon Takahashi (boy soprano), Melissa Givens (soprano), Francisco Castillo (oboe), Joti Rockwell (mandolin), Alison Bjorkedal (harp), Lee (piano), Yuri Inoo, Derek Tywoniuk and Dustin Donahue (percussion).
Takahashi, who made his solo debut with the Los Angeles Opera in The Magic Flute, is a member of the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, and has sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Givens, especially noted for her expressiveness and elegance on the stage, is an assistant professor of music at Pomona College. In addition to her solo appearances she continues to perform with the Grammy®-nominated Ars Lyrica Houston and Grammy® winning Conspirare. Castillo, who teaches oboe at Pomona, is principal oboist with the California Philharmonic Orchestra, the Redlands Symphony and the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, and has performed with numerous Southern California orchestras including the San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and others. Rockwell, associate professor of music at Pomona College, plays roots music, bluegrass and contemporary concert music on the guitar, mandolin, banjo and pedal steel guitar. He also performs in and coordinates Giri Kusuma, Pomona College's Balinese gamelan ensemble. Grammy® award-winning harpist, Bjorkedal has been called by the Los Angeles Times an "excellent player" and "enterprising young harpist." A member of Southwest Chamber Music, she has performed with the San Diego Symphony, Long Beach Symphony and Opera, Opera Santa Barbara and wildUP. Inoo has performed with Yo Yo Ma, John Williams, Evelyn Glennie and others. Tywoniuk has appeared with wildUP, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, The Cleveland, Orchestra and at the Ojai Music Festival. Donahue has played with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and on the Ojai Music Festival, Jacaranda Music and San Diego New Music seasons.
Program and performers subject to change.


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We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013)
January 28, 2014 ·	by srogouski ·	in Film, Male Film Directors	· Leave a comment
To review a documentary is always more difficult than to review a drama or a comedy. A work of fiction is a self-contained world. It stands or falls on its own. The purpose of a documentary, on the other hand, is to convey information that exists outside of the film. What's more, We Steal Secrets is a documentary about a contentious, ongoing debate. Julian Assange and Wikileaks consider it to be so much of an unethical "hit piece" that they've published an annotated transcripts of the film correcting what they claim to be errors, selective editing, and outright fabrications. You can find it here.
http://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/gibney-transcript.html
If the purpose of a documentary is to boil a complex story down into a clear and coherent narrative, I think We Steal Secrets fails. After watching it twice, I find myself more confused them ever. I think this is partly the result of my own shortcomings. I'm not a Wikileaks junkie. I didn't follow the Bradley Manning trial. But I think the director, Alex Gibney, has to share some of the blame. He's very careless about identifying his talking heads. Had it not been for the annotated transcript of the film on the Wikileaks site, I don't think I would have been able to tell who was who. Gibney adds to the confusion by piling minor details onto important milestones and important milestones onto minor details. The transitions are handled poorly. There is no consistent attempt to make distinctions between the opinions of the filmmaker himself and the subjects he interviews. In other words, We Steal Secrets is a mess.
But is it a hit piece?
Alex Gibney is not a right wing hack. In 2007, he made the excellent Taxi to the Dark Side about the murder of an Afghan taxi driver at the hands of United States troops at Bagram Airfield. That film took a clear position against torture. It was a clear, focused, passionate indictment of the United States occupation of Afghanistan. So what went wrong here? How did Alex Gibney manage to direct a film that Chris Hedges has labeled "agitprop for the security and surveillance state?"
The problems with We Steal Secrets begin right at the beginning, with the title. Julian Assange never said "we steal secrets." The quote is from Michael Hayden, direct of the NSA, who told Gibney that the US government was in the business of 'stealing secrets' from other countries, something you can pick up if you watch the documentary closely. Gibney is too clever and a half. He wants to have it both ways. On one hand, he can mislead the public into believing that Julian Assange is an admitted thief. On the other hand, he can point out how he cleverly slipped an indictment of the NSA into the very title of the film itself. It doesn't work. All it does it demonstrate the film maker's unwillingness to take a clear stand on the story he claims to be telling us.
But I don't think Gibney set out to write a hit piece. Rather, I think he set out to make a "serious documentary," and got caught up in the form that "serious documentaries" so often take, a morality play. A better title for We Steal Secrets might have been "The Rise and Fall of Julian Assange." Gibney is more in love with the idea of showing us messy, flawed human beings caught up in a grand historical drama than he is with the idea of throwing light on the story of Wikileaks and on American war crimes. Assange is the rags to riches story, the clever young man from Melbourne who parlayed his skills in hacking and agitprop into worldwide fame, then was brought down by his own hubris. Manning is the sexually confused teenager who rebels against authority because he lacks a clear identity, and, tragically, like Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, winds up driving himself off a cliff.
The film begins in 1989, at the dawn of the Internet age, at the launch of the space shuttle Galileo, and with an attack on NASA's computers that Gibney strongly implies, but never comes out and says involved Julian Assange. Assange, in fact, has denied having anything to do with the "Wank Worm." Fast forward 20 years to the American occupation of Iraq and a young Army intelligence specialist, Chelsea, then named Bradley Manning. We meet a woman named Jihrleah Showman, Manning's supervising NCO in Iraq. On the surface, Showman comes off as sympathetic, but she's a hostile witness. Manning was later disciplined for assaulting her.
It's here that the film wanders perilously close to "hit piece" territory. While we're shown an unflattering photo of Manning clearly intended to make him appear to be emotionally unstable, Showman talks about his sexual confusion, his addiction to soda, his odd sleeping hours, and his lack of self-control. The strapping Showman — she brags about her 15 inch biceps — then tells us how the diminutive Manning punched her in the face, and how she got him in a headlock. What's more, as the annotated transcript at the Wikileaks site points out, the documentary narrates the sequence of events in reverse. By the time he got into his fight with Showman, Manning had already leaked most of his information to Wikileaks. But here it's made to look as if he was acting out of humiliation and revenge over having had his ass kicked by a girl.
Manning's information leaked, we switch to the Julian Assange portion of the story. We're shown a Guardian reporter, a former Wikileaks associate, a documentary film maker, an Australian professor, all relevant to the story, perhaps even ultimately sympathetic, but all presented in a way that conforms to the documentary's overarching morality play. One after another tells us how impressed he was with Assange when they met, but then goes onto to express reservations about his eccentricity and, finally, regret over how his ego and paranoia destroyed Wikileaks and ultimately left him entombed inside the Ecuadorean embassy. There are long interviews with the two women Assange is accused of having sexually assaulted that tell us little about his guilt or innocence. There's a lot of speculation about how how he might have intentionally broke condoms so he could leave his seed in as many places as possible. It's strongly implied that he could be HIV positive, but we're never told whether or not he is, or even if he's been tested during the time he's been under house arrest. We come away no more enlightened than we went in.
In fact, that's just about the only good thing I'll say about We Steal Secrets. It alerted me about my own ignorance. I went in confused, and I came out confused. I guess I have to go educate myself.
Tags: Adrian Lamo, Alex Gibney, Chelsea Manning, Donald Bostom, Gavin MacFadyen, Heather Brooke, Iain Overton, J. William Leonard, James Ball, Jason Edwards, Julian Assange, Mark Davis, Michael Hayden, Nick Davies, Smári McCarthy, Vaughan Smith, We Steal Secrets, Wikleaks
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