A Town’s Passion, a Retired Doctor’s Concern - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><nyt_text style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div id="articleBody"><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">DOVER, N.H. — The agenda for the Oct. 1 school board meeting did not call for anything particularly exciting. But during a segment called "Matters of Interest," Paul Butler, a retired doctor and relative newcomer to the board, floated an idea: end the football program at Dover High School.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Speaking in his soothing, deliberative tone, Butler said, "I'm beginning to believe, from what I've read of the literature, that as governors of the school district, we have a moral imperative to at least begin the process of ending this game in Dover."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler is a retired surgeon, with no specialty in neurology. But he had followed the growing evidence of the peril football poses to the brains of the people who play it. Butler had no beef with football, for he had played it in high school and in college.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">He was, he said, just trying to frame the question of the future of football in the most practical of terms, drawing upon the implications of the class-action lawsuit filed in June against the N.F.L. on behalf of more than 2,000 former players alleging that the league did not adequately warn them of the evidence about the dangers of repeated head trauma and concussions.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler warned his fellow board members that if city officials did not end football at Dover High, "the lawyers will do it for us" someday.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The next morning, Butler said, he attended a weekly 7:30 a.m. medical conference at Wentworth-Douglas Hospital, where he was a general surgeon until retiring in June 2011. By the time he and his wife had made the drive down to Arlington, Mass., to baby-sit grandchildren, he was being sought for television interviews. His comments to the board, it turned out, had been reported in the local newspaper, Foster's Daily Democrat.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">By day's end, Dover's school board chairman was forced to issue a statement denying the city had any plans to end football at Dover High. Even so, Peter Wotton, the school's athletic director, had a news truck parked outside his house.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"Our brain is really who we are," Butler said in an interview last week. "In this society, in this time, if your brain has been altered, you have been fundamentally altered."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><strong>Small Town, Big Interest</strong></p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Without exactly meaning to, Butler had inserted Dover — about 70 miles north of Boston, a community of roughly 30,000, and a place with a history dating practically to the Mayflower —into the middle of a 21st century culture war.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Foster's Daily Democrat came out firmly opposed to the notion of ending football. "Here in New Hampshire — as in 38 other states — a law has been passed to mandate precautions be taken any time there is an indication of a head injury in any sport," an editorial in the newspaper read.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The football program at Dover — the team is known as the Green Wave — is big in the community. But so too are soccer, lacrosse and ice hockey — all sports in which players are vulnerable to concussions and other head injuries. Wotton said that 8 of the 68 students who played varsity, junior varsity or freshman football last season sustained concussions. But there were also five concussions in girls' basketball, nine in boys' lacrosse and four in cheerleading, he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I appreciate his concern," Wotton, sitting in his office last week, said of Butler. "This might end up being a good thing in the end. It's just a semipainful way to get there."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler is not the first school board member in the country to risk proposing what for many seems heretical. Last June, a member of the Council Rock School Board near Philadelphia said that it was "no longer appropriate for public institutions to fund gladiators." Rush Limbaugh used the comments as further proof that, as he had said on an earlier broadcast, football's future was under attack from liberal "pantywaists who want to try to take the risk out of everything in life."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler's celebrity, if a bit baffling to him, has not seemed to wound him. He has heard from a producer at HBO's "Real Sports" and a woman who identified herself as part of the N.F.L.'s Health and Safety Improvement program. A caller from Brian Williams's office at NBC seemed mostly to want to know if Butler had grandchildren. And a company sent him a product called the Guardian Cap, a piece of padding fastened by Velcro over a helmet to mitigate the force of head-on collisions.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">More locally, any heat Butler has taken seems to stem more than anything from the notion that he had somehow spoken out of turn about a cherished culture in a tight-knit town. Local officials praise his standing in the community while making it clear they stop far short of siding with him about the need to end football.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><strong>Familiarity With Football</strong></p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler does not fit a stereotype. At his home on the Piscataway River last week, he was wearing a pair of Crocs with the logo of the New England Patriots. He is 6 feet tall, reed thin and broad-shouldered. When he spreads his long fingers, one can see why he was an effective tight end. He gave up rowing the Piscataway, but at 68 is the oldest guy on the ice in a weekly 6 a.m. hockey game.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">He is at once not of the youth football world in Dover but knowledgeable about the sport, having played it at his high school in Wakefield, Mass., and at Amherst College, where he also played hockey. He speaks wistfully of the character-shaping experience and recalls begging his father to let him play. He thinks football probably gave him a leg up when he applied to Amherst.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"The thought of hurting my brain did not occur to me at all," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Now he figures he sustained numerous subclinical concussions.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I don't remember ever getting knocked out," he said, "but I do remember getting up slowly because I was dizzy or couldn't quite see correctly."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Over several long chats, Butler emerged as a thoughtful man with an idiosyncratic streak who, restless in retirement, volunteered for a two-year term on the school board as a gesture aimed at giving back.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I'd just retired and I was trying to get my bearings," he said. Now he jokes that no one will be sorry to see his two-year term end.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"She can see I'm one of these old Yankee cheap guys," Butler said of the schools superintendent, Jean Briggs Badger.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">As much as he sees ending prep football as a moral issue, Butler was also chagrined, he said, that money was spent on reconditioning Dover High's football helmets when the district was haggling over the current budget, in which 10 teaching positions were eliminated. (Briggs Badger said any money spent on helmets could not have carried over into the current fiscal budget, anyway).</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">New Hampshire has no sales or income tax, and Dover has a tax cap that puts a ceiling on how much property tax revenue the city can raise. Butler supported ending school bus service to cut expenses.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"Walk, ride a bicycle, run, jog," he said when asked how children would get to school. "I stood up in front of a crowd of very angry parents and said, 'I think kids should walk to school.' "</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><strong>Sensitivity to Lawsuits</strong></p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">It was around that time that Butler first quietly broached the subject of abandoning football. He e-mailed Wotton and Briggs Badger. More recently, he wrote to the city attorney to ask about the school district's vulnerability to future lawsuits related to brain injuries on the football field. By then, he had been reading up on the science of brain trauma, and the brain-cell-killing protein called tau found in the autopsied brains of retired players in which chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., was diagnosed.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler is perhaps more sensitive than most to a nightmarish hypothetical of a day when a former high school player or his parent sues the district. One of the reasons Butler said he moved his family to Dover in 1977 was because, as a young surgeon opening his first private practice, he could afford the medical malpractice insurance premiums, which in New Hampshire, he said, were considerably lower than in Vermont, where he had done his medical residency.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">In Butler's book group, they're reading Kafka's "The Trial." In a different sort of book group, Butler would have every school official read "Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression and Death," by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a neuropathologist known for diagnosing C.T.E. after studying the brains of Mike Webster, the Hall of Fame center of the 1970s who died of a heart attack at 50, and Andre Waters, a star defensive back who suffered from depression and committed suicide.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Having brought the issue into the spotlight, Butler now concedes he does not have the votes on the school board to win a recommendation to end football at Dover High. But he said he might put the matter to a vote in December anyway.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Told that Wotton, the athletic director, said that contact in practice was limited to 10 to 15 minutes twice a week, Butler said, "To me, limiting contact in practice is equivalent to what the cigarette industry did when they said, 'Well, we put filters on our cigarettes, and so they're safe.' I think it's an improvement, but I don't see how you can take away the danger that I'm concerned about without radically altering the game."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><strong>A Mother's Perspective</strong></p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Christine O'Hara's son Eric, a junior at Dover High, is listed at 5-9 and 220 pounds. He plays middle linebacker and running back.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I think that his concern is very valid," O'Hara, a nurse for Liberty Mutual Insurance, said of Butler. And yet she says she would not want to see football taken away from her son. Eric, she noted, was taught proper tackling technique by his father at an early age and besides, there are far worse things a teenager can get himself into.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">O'Hara said Eric had had two concussions playing high school football. After the first one, she noticed that he was behaving differently on the sideline, but not in a way that would have been obvious to someone who was not his mother. "He always paces," she said, but this time, she noticed that Eric kept putting on and taking off his helmet. That was enough for her to tell the coach to pull him from the game.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"In reality, most of the symptom-watching comes from the parent," she said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Butler's children attended prep schools in the area, and he has never attended a Dover High football game. At the same time, it is not difficult to find people in the stands who are related or have gone to him for a cancer operation, appendectomy or hernia operation.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">On a windblown Friday night in October, when the temperature dipped into the 30s and there was a run on hot chocolate at the concession stands, the 1-5 Green Wave took on 5-1 Bedford, a bigger, deeper team.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The game was close throughout. Sandy Patria sat bundled against the cold. She was at the game to support her grandson, who performs in the marching band. Butler did her mastectomy operation 20 years ago, she said. As she spoke about him, her eyes watered, although the cold weather might have contributed.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"He's just trying to make it safer," she said of Dover football.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Then she let out a groan. Tailback Kyle Seawards had just caught a pass and turned upfield, his shoulders and helmet lowered as a defender from Bedford came in to hit him. It was the sort of battering-ram hit Butler talks about, but it was also just a football play. On the sideline, Dover's trainer gave Seawards what looked like a Breathalyzer test. He did not return to the game. At halftime, children from youth league teams were introduced, each running the length of the field as their name was announced.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Several days later, Wotton, citing nationally established privacy rules that prevent him from speaking publicly about player injuries, would not comment on whether Seawards had a concussion. But Royce Stegman, whose son Derek is the Green Wave's starting quarterback, figured Seawards would be held out of the next game.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Stegman is a burly man of 48. In Stegman's days of high school ball, the game was "three and a half yards and a cloud of dust." Nowadays, Derek accesses game film on his iPhone using an app called Hudl, studying strategies and formations. Dover runs a spread offense, with more receivers involved, and the game is faster. Rather than go with the Riddell helmet issued by the team, Stegman paid $400 to get Derek the Xenith, whose Web site boasts of its "adaptive air-cell shock absorbers." O'Hara, too, has bought helmets for her son Eric.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The focus of some recent research has been on the question of whether children, teenagers or younger, are more vulnerable to injury because their brains are not fully developed.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"Big heads on little necks," Butler called it.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Researchers now use helmets equipped with sensors to measure the force of the trauma absorbed by the brain on otherwise ordinary plays. A study by the Pediatric Brain Trauma Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, published in the October issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery, found that 486,000 combined head impacts had been recorded over a five-year period among players from the football teams at Brown, Dartmouth and Virginia Tech, as well as two men's and two women's hockey teams.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><strong>A Focus on Awareness</strong></p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Dover is one of six high schools in the area that take their cue on sports-related concussions from the Seacoast Center for Athletes in Somersworth, led by Dr. Fred Brennan, the team doctor at the University of New Hampshire and a sports medicine specialist. Brennan's focus is awareness and making sure athletes have cleared various ascending levels of physical activity before being allowed to rejoin a team.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"We stay on the tip of the spear of what's happening in concussions," he said. He was sitting in the athletic trainer's office at Oyster River High in neighboring Durham, where he had addressed a teachers staff meeting. When Brennan asked the teachers how many had a student who had sustained a concussion, most hands went up. Brennan stressed the need for concussed student athletes to receive "cognitive rest," including a reduction in homework until they no longer had symptoms.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Oyster River does not have football; its enrollment will not support it. At Dover High, they have been playing football for more than 100 years. Now realignment is coming; the Green Wave next season are moving into a division with Philips Exeter Academy, one of the local football powerhouses.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Before the game against Bedford, Wotton, checking his BlackBerry for the score of his daughter's volleyball game, ticked off all the other reasons the Green Wave were 1-5. Some youngsters had taken part-time jobs; others did not want to give up several weeks in August to practice. The team's prospective 6-foot-6 starting quarterback transferred to Hampton Prep to play basketball.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Wotton still looks like the tree of a defenseman he was on the U.N.H. hockey team. During home games he stands under the scoreboard behind his team's end zone.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I think the thing that bothers me is, we didn't talk," he said, referring to what he regarded as Butler's ad hoc attack on his football program.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Late in the game, with the score tied, the Green Wave drove down the field, only to fumble on a play in which it was unclear if the ball had crossed the goal line before Bedford's defense recovered it in the end zone. The referees ruled in favor of the visitors, and Bedford then marched down the field for the winning touchdown.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The losing had continued at Dover — at least for the moment. But football looked safe from extinction — at least for the moment.</p><nyt_correction_bottom><div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "></div></nyt_correction_bottom><nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom></div></nyt_text><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none; "></span></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/sports/football/a-towns-passion-for-football-a-retired-doctors-concern.html?&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/sports/football/a-towns-passion-for-football-a-retired-doctors-concern.html?&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

A Town’s Passion, a Retired Doctor’s Concern - NYTimes.com

DOVER, N.H. — The agenda for the Oct. 1 school board meeting did not call for anything particularly exciting. But during a segment called &q...

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PSYOPS

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><h1 class="s1mainStoryHeadline" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: red;">Benghazi killers among terrorists poised to strike US targets, Israel and Egypt</span></span></h1><span class="articleDescription">via DEBKA<em>file</em></span> <span class="articleDescription red italic">Special Report</span><br /><span class="articleDescription red italic"> </span> <br /><div class="articleBodyWrapper"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="articleBody">The counterterrorism forces of Israel, the US, Egypt and Jordan have gone on elevated terror alert ahead of the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al Adha starting Thursday night, Oct. 25, <span class="debka">debka</span><span class="file">file</span> reports.<br />They are acting on word received in the last ten days of preparations by Salafi and al Qaeda cells in Egyptian Sinai to unleash coordinated terrorist attacks on US and Egyptian targets in Sinai and across the border in Israel. The jihadis are bent on revenge for Israel’s targeted killing on Oct. 13 of Hisham Saidni and Abdullah al-Ashqar, two senior commanders of their Sinai-Gaza network, the Majlis Shura Al-Mujahideen<br /> Israel’s IDF Sagi-512 Brigade and Shin Bet units are on guard around the Gaza Strip and Egyptian border; Egypt’s military, Interior Ministry and security forces are on high alert in Sinai; and the Multinational Force of mostly US units are on the ready at both its Sinai bases -  Al-Gora near El Arish in the north and Sharm el-Sheikh in the south.<br /><br /> The US special forces unit posted last month on Jordan’s Syrian border was hurriedly transferred to the Red Sea port of Aqaba with a fleet of helicopters, in case the MFO comes under attack.<br /> The Majlis Shura Al-Mujahideen is a roof organization of some 6,000 Egyptian, local Bedouin, Palestinian, Jordanian, Saudi, Yemeni and Libyan terrorists who subscribe to Al Qaeda’s jihadist philosophy. From their strongholds in central and southern Sinai, they have carried out most of the most recent spate of attacks on Israel and on Egyptian military targets in the peninsula.<br /><br /> After their combined assault of July 18 on Egyptian and Israeli military targets, in the course of which they massacred 18 Egyptian troops, Cairo announced the launch of a major offensive to root the terrorists out of their Sinai lairs. But four months on, the jihadis remain in control of large tracts of the rugged Sinai desert. And last week, they received a large increment from Libya. The Libyan reinforcements were discovered on their arrival in Sinai Oct. 15 with a large quantity of weapons including missiles, ready for the forthcoming Eid offensive.<br /><br /> Among them were some of the perpetrators of the murderous attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11which killed four Americans at the US consulate.<br /> On the day they arrived, Al Qaeda’s Shumoukh Al-Islam website ran a eulogy for Hisham Saidni with a warning: “The blood of the Muslim heroes is not cheap, nor is it shed in vain. The Jews will pay dearly for every drop they spill and Israel should expect a devastating response.”<br /><br /> At the beginning of the week, intelligence watchers picked up the sudden disappearance of thousands of jihadis from their Sinai posts as though the earth had swallowed them up. It is suspected they have regrouped in locations closer to their targets ready to move.<br /> This incoming intelligence prompted the US Statement Department’s travel advisory of Tuesday, Oct. 23, for US citizens visiting Sinai and Israel’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz’s warning that coordinated terrorist attacks may be in store from Sinai and its northern borders with Lebanon and Syria.<br /> </span></span> </div>

PSYOPS

Benghazi killers among terrorists poised to strike US targets, Israel and Egypt via DEBKA file Special Report   The counterterroris...

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Take a hard look at your list today #productivity

I have too much I "have to do."<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/115916382183421477315/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPCp6bK0YDF6gE#5802825401821609538'><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglKX_CFGDHbBs-mIyxen857eVz-ZSncd2OGI4erx7rTn3sFr2ZuG6GJY3GCu7iU1Crbv4JrdknAYnI1AJzxsn_5xo3dEWxBTo1yRvOcBwdoWgSZmab9jvdtZMiangURslmXwnJL79mpc7w/s288/4.jpg" style="margin:5px" width="281"></a></center><br />Really, you have to do all of that? Those 50-100 things on your list, someone is MAKING you do all those things? At the end of your day, if you haven't done all that, a big buzzard of big lists is going to swoop down and whisk you to the nest where people who don't finish their list go at the end of the day?<br /><br />I'm asking and reasking myself about all these things I "have" to do. Overburdened, overwhelmed, and overworked, I'm not the only teacher, parent, or professional in this plight.<br /><br /><b>Begin with 3 wins</b><br />I've begun making an active list of 3 things each day that I want to be my major accomplishments of the day. I write those three things before the day even starts:<br /><br /><br />Things like:<br />- "I will be successfully caught up on all grading, and provide feedback to students so they can improve."<br />- "I will be an excellent National Honor Society advisor today by making sure I've sent out acceptance letters and communicated all details about the poinsettia fundraiser.'<br />- "My family will know I love them today as I cook an excellent meal, get the house organized, and show each person that I love them."<br />- "I plan and have an incredibly fun trip traveling to San Francisco today."<br />- "I will be engaging and exciting speaker for the people at CUE today and will work to be a blessing to each of them as they go back to their schools on Monday."<br />- "I will seek to inspire and encourage teachers who are having a hard time today in ways that will help and inspire them to help and inspire each student in their classroom."<br /><br />Things like that...<br /><br />But when I have these 3 things written out -- my takeaways from the day, it gives me a lens through which to view my list so that I can focus and accomplish the most important things. At the end of my day, I should have something to show for the day besides a bunch of check marks. I should have accomplishments.<br /><br /><b>Questions about that all important list</b><br />We might "have" to do everything on our list but have we thought about WHY we HAVE to do those things? <br />Do they fit in with the big picture of what we want to accomplish in our lives? <br />Do we have weekly and monthly and yearly goals and are we constantly moving towards them? <br />Do our goals also include inhabiting healthy bodies that are rested and well exercised? <br />Do we impose limits on certain areas of our life that will consume all of the goodness out of every other area of our lives?<br /><br />These are hard questions but I am looking clearly into your eyes and telling you (and myself) the hard cold facts of life:<br /><br />YOU CAN CHOOSE.<br /><br />You have choices. Hamsters don't HAVE to run on hamster wheels and you don't have to be slave to some list. My biggest issue with the "getting things done" model is that it is intended to capture EVERYTHING that needs to be done. Everything we think needs to be done, doesn't have to be done. <br /><br />Everything can't be done. The inability to say no is a form of greed - one that wants everyone to be happy and love you. Check and see if you're breathing. Ok, if you made it to this sentence, you're breathing. To everyone out there breathing SOMEONE DOESN'T LIKE THE FACT YOU'RE BREATHING. Get over it. You're not going to please everyone and you can't do everything. <br /><br />There needs to be a system for some things to fall off our list because they just aren't important. Spend your life doing something important and that is not trying to please everyone because that is impossible. Good ideas don't always make a good use of YOUR time. <br /><br />YOU HAVE CHOICES.<br /><br />At the top of Bloom's Taxonomy is Evaluating and creating. I find it interesting that as teachers we are trying to help our students analyze, evaluate, and create and yet we often rarely step back to analyze and evaluate our own systems of work. Should we be analyzing WHAT we are doing and evaluating how we are doing what we are doing so that we are able to create things unique and original in this world.<br /><br />YOU CAN'T DO EVERYTHING.<br /><br />You are a finite resource. There's only one of you and YOU have to choose. It is your job to select the plow to which you will put your hand. There are things we do not choose: cancer, illness in the family, the fact that our child has an LD -- these are things that happen. But we can always choose our attitude and we can always choose our response. <br /><br />MAKE A CHOICE TODAY.<br /><br />So, if, like me, you are facing this day not really sure if you're up to the task. Make choices. <br /><br />For my Christian friends, there is an <a target="_blank" href="http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=QAHfi4jgc3g&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQAHfi4jgc3g">amazing song</a> that I dedicate to you that says, "I will lift my eyes to the Maker of the mountains I can't climb."<br /><br />So, take this day and make choices. This is your day. Unless you are living in a prison today, no one can tell you how you must think about this day and every single detail of what you do. Everyone, even those living in a prison today, can choose their own attitude. <br /><br />THIS IS YOUR DAY. MAKE IT COUNT.<br /><br />You are special. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/115916382183421477315/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPCp6bK0YDF6gE#5802825426611071330'><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXedHxwT2A8o9N3i-FVxWrO39jjc7vs9t0vEZzSeyCrMDVO-1N1_uvoF5SUHOP1D9hovAf4qjjqPGgbjejRwUoZMvPy9dFY46lmyAYo3MhITLVKYo7IfJocCW-SAb1Q6nFGzk2Dias4Zh/s288/5.jpg" style="margin:5px" width="281"></a></center><br />- Written on my iPad using Blog Press by Vicki Davis, author, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds<br />

Take a hard look at your list today #productivity

I have too much I "have to do." Really, you have to do all of that? Those 50-100 things on your list, someone is MAKING you do all...

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Sweet treat!

<span style="font-size: large;">Who doesn't love a good cupcake?!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My family certainly do. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My mother and sister own a cupcake business called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LydiaBCupcakes">"Lydia B Cupcakes"</a>.  Due to this fact, there are always cupcakes in my parents house when I call.  It's cupcake heaven.  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I love nothing more a coffee cupcake with a nice cup of coffee.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Lydia B Cupcakes are freshly made with no added preservatives.  Cupcakes can be supplied for weddings, hen parties, christenings or any other occasion.  If you are having a celebration in Ireland and wish to order cupcakes, please use the contact details on the Lydia B Cupcakes <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LydiaBCupcakes">Facebook</a> page to contact Lydia about flavours and colours.  Cupcakes stands are also available for hire.  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Become a fan on Facebook in order to get updates about special offers and also see lots of lovely pictures of gorgeous cupcakes!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Here is a picture of a recent Cupcake display for a wedding.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCrJbZ8bIebqQp82E8pd5lMYA9z4031PD0Q2BnRvJfPrtQhCAR6eevAkMHyFfuXYR2pqD2SPxKEatD2D4ime7p0ip7gyuxifvTUYIh3R2HoZPvoUdyQY6lYLNOJKbUyRVQ2E-yvdcC-S0B/s1600/Cupcake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCrJbZ8bIebqQp82E8pd5lMYA9z4031PD0Q2BnRvJfPrtQhCAR6eevAkMHyFfuXYR2pqD2SPxKEatD2D4ime7p0ip7gyuxifvTUYIh3R2HoZPvoUdyQY6lYLNOJKbUyRVQ2E-yvdcC-S0B/s320/Cupcake.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Lydia B Cupcakes has lots of cupcake stands for hire including this fun record one!!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOCJrXMIkAYZW9s4Hgk5TMh071TRD8AjjYgXrgB5Pi2KfUkN_YMO_yPtvI3VT8BiAmYGSRkpy-f1d-yyk5JCpx1eSa_6409VWKXUjB5Y7J6cz5Q6AjvAVboN1Xk_I6LbWSCHUKGxbOHTFA/s1600/Record.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOCJrXMIkAYZW9s4Hgk5TMh071TRD8AjjYgXrgB5Pi2KfUkN_YMO_yPtvI3VT8BiAmYGSRkpy-f1d-yyk5JCpx1eSa_6409VWKXUjB5Y7J6cz5Q6AjvAVboN1Xk_I6LbWSCHUKGxbOHTFA/s320/Record.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>

Sweet treat!

Who doesn't love a good cupcake?! My family certainly do.  My mother and sister own a cupcake business called "Lydia B Cupcakes&quo...

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Let's Get This Thing Started!

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line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">On Thursday, the prospect of playing the National League champion felt completely manageable. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On Friday, it got cloudy. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On Sunday, it got scary.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And on Monday, it got scarier.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now I don’t know what to think anymore. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On one hand, the Tigers have dominant pitching and the Triple Crown winner.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, the Giants are riding the most giant wave of momentum there can be, with their aces and shortstop taking them off the cusp of elimination…again…and into the World Series with just a day’s rest. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Tigers will be forced to go against the trend - in the three times where one LCS champion has swept and the other one won in seven, the one that went the distance won the World Series. Including 2006.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I want to believe that the writers and analysts will pick the Giants to win on the basis of which they can’t be eliminated. They’re like the John McClane of baseball right now. The problem is, the media <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t.</i> They are declaring that while the Giants are scary, the Tigers look like the team that will win. But they always mention that the Giants are a threatening team right now and could pull an “upset.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So try to help me with this…when the media declares that the Tigers are the favorites, yet say that the Giants are going to win, doesn’t that mean the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Giants</i> are the favorites? They pick the Giants without actually picking them, and it’s to prove that when the Giants do win, the media can pull out the “I knew it all along” card.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I know that baseball is built on momentum, but let’s remember the regular season here: the Giants finished with a 94-68 record and won the NL West, a division that also had the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks and the well-paid Los Angeles Dodgers. The Tigers went 88-74 and came into the playoffs with the lowest wins of any<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>division-winning team in the postseason. Why do people have to favor us?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I want to fly under the radar. It is entirely possible – it’s happened to opponents of championship favorites all the time. I keep hoping to hear more pro-Giant talk, but I don’t! </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If the Tigers are going to win this series, they are going to have to win in five or less. I have very little hope that the Tigers could go to San Francisco for Games 6 and 7 and pull off a win.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So here’s to you, Justin Verlander. As the starter in Game 1, he has the ability to squash the Giant momentum. At this time, this game is the biggest of his career. He’s thrown for a Game 1 World Series before, and didn’t look that great. He’s thrown for a do-or-die series clincher, and he threw a complete game gem. He’s thrown against one of the biggest payrolls in baseball, and while he didn’t look bad, he was a little shaky, especially in the end.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Verlander needs to do just enough to stop the offensive luck of the Giants, while the defense behind him has to stay sharp, unlike how the Cardinals closed out the NLCS. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We could look at the other starters in upcoming games, but I’ll just dissect one game at a time. Tomorrow is huge – it will show us if the Tigers took the layoff well, or if the Giants are tired, or if the Tigers already wrapped up the season, or if the Giants will just keep rolling. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I think I will feel much better after just one game. I can stop listening to the speculation and finally have some inkling of what’s going to happen in this series. </div>

Let's Get This Thing Started!

On Thursday, the prospect of playing the National League champion felt completely manageable.  On Friday, it got cloudy.  On Sunday, it got...

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Arkansas Moves Backwards at a Fast Pace

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />Hola y’all! Boy howdy things are just crazy these days. Check out some of the things I was just reading about today:<br /><br />A republican over in Jonesboro, AR who has written a book in which he makes the argument that <a href="http://talkbusiness.net/2012/10/rep-jon-hubbard-slavery-a-blessing-in-disguise/" target="_blank">slavery was a blessing for blacks</a> has a HUGE lead in his state senate race over his democratic opponent. He has also asked “when will blacks take responsibility for their own lives?” (Sounds like someone’s 47% video huh?)<br /><br />Another republican over in Northwest AR who has publicly argued for <a href="http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/10/05/god-according-to-charlie-fuqua" target="_blank">stoning of rebellious children in accordance with the Bible</a> is also cruising to victory. Children aren’t the only ones he wants dead though. He claims anyone who is convicted of any crime who isn’t “rehabilitated” in two years should get the death penalty. Oh and that all Muslims should be kicked out of the country.<br /><br />Yet another republican is running in west Arkansas who has written a series of letters to the editor defending slavery and <a href="http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/10/06/loy-mauch-update-the-republican-rep-is-on-record-on-slavery-too" target="_blank">castigating Abraham Lincoln as a “Northern War Criminal.”</a> His money quote was “If slavery was so God-awful, why doesn’t Jesus condemn it?”<br /><br />Right here in Redneck County we have a real live white supremacist<span style="color: red;">*</span> running for a position on the Quorum Court. And we all know he’s going to win, don’t we? Of course we do. His primary concern is that allowing all these immigrants into the country is causing us to lose our “purity” and that whites are a superior race and all that KKK stuff.<br /><br />And finally, I found out today that US Olympic high hurdler and <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/lolo-jones-off-strong-start-214547060--spt.html" target="_blank">hottie Lolo Jones is now a bobsledder</a>! When will it all end???<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWCspsrOwP0wkMr-_4uCXaZj3177gxpIf6xMg8oSqgyERSjNACWFYDaVxMGsaIpi54gYydUwz65u92pqNDIqOIqKeCVMVVDnXwHN2Zg3jY7vPqCswHsQOSHbXLDKKca6N2o1gE92pmNMU/s1600/Lolo+Jones+Bobsledder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWCspsrOwP0wkMr-_4uCXaZj3177gxpIf6xMg8oSqgyERSjNACWFYDaVxMGsaIpi54gYydUwz65u92pqNDIqOIqKeCVMVVDnXwHN2Zg3jY7vPqCswHsQOSHbXLDKKca6N2o1gE92pmNMU/s320/Lolo+Jones+Bobsledder.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>I don’t know how much of this I can take. Okay, I can handle Lolo bobsledding. That doesn’t seem like anything that will hurt us as a society. It just means I have to put up with her <strike>hot</strike> annoying ass much longer than I thought I would have to. Why hasn’t anyone just given her a reality show yet? Sheesh.<br /><br />Anyway, the steady march backwards here in Arkansas has turned into a dead sprint as every kooky weirdo racist freak is looking to get into elected office and the fine folks in these districts, specifically designed to elect such people, appear ready to oblige them. What a state huh?<br /><br />And where is the Republican Party while these guys are heading for victory? Cheering them on and making plans to put them on “relevant” committees and such. Oh sure, publicly they’ve said all the right things and claim to have stopped supporting these guys. But, what a party does publicly and what it does privately are often times two different things.<br /><br />After the initial pretend pearl clutching by the republicans things settled back down and it was business as usual. And of course you have lots of good and decent citizens saying idiotic things like “well, I don’t agree with him on those things, but I support his policies.” What fucking policies?<br /><br />These positions they’re taking on slavery, race and gays ARE their policies. It’s their belief that these are the MOST IMPORTANT things our government should be focusing on. That’s because they truly believe that all of our problems as a nation can be blamed on blacks, immigrants, gays and women. If you get them back in line and suppress them, and just impose “God’s Law” then all our problems go away.<br /><br />And you know what? We’re gonna find out in January when these people take their seats whether the Republican Party has adopted their views and will quietly help them push their agendas or if they will attempt to isolate them and their crazy, dangerous and offensive ideas.<br /><br />I’m not optimistic. Nor should you be because this isn’t an isolated occurrence. It will all be coming to your enlightened,  tolerant community in the years to come too.<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">*</span>Local races are here are technically non-partisan, but you can find all of Mr. White Supremacists campaign materials at the local republican party headquarters.<br /><br />Jayman<br /><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS</a><br /><br /></div>

Arkansas Moves Backwards at a Fast Pace

Hola y’all! Boy howdy things are just crazy these days. Check out some of the things I was just reading about today: A republican over in Jo...

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BISHOP'S EYE VIEW OF CONVENTION 2012

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Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         A Bishop’s review of a diocesan convention is about as well informed as a stage manager’s review of a play. The stage manager is preoccupied with the lighting, the props, etc. – and cannot pay attention to the acting or even the script. I have the worst possible perspective on our Convention. I can report on the feedback I have received and the buzz I have heard.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         The dominant words have been “mellow,” “smooth,” and “conflict free.” People noted the absence of “squabbling,” “bickering,” and “quarrelling.” It seems we experienced some harmony in our relationships. People also noted that the convention was shorter, less expensive, and proceeded at a gentler pace with longer breaks for informal mingling, shopping the vendor area, and catching our breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         All of that sounds pleasant enough, but maybe a little sleepy. It may have been a sleepy convention. If so, that’s ok. We need rest. But I am not sure it was sleepy. During our several table discussion exercises – asset mapping, Bible study, and discussion of my address – and during the special mission group asset mapping exercise, the conversations looked and sounded quite energetic. The sticky notes from the table discussions are imaginative, creative, out of the box. Leaders of special mission groups are making appointments to discuss ideas that came out of their group process. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         What to make of this? Perhaps we had a different kind of energy going in a different kind of process. Maybe there was more imagining of new possibilities instead of haggling over limited options. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at each of those small group conversations. I don’t know what happened, but it sounds like it was good. Note: these were conversations among people from all over the diocese at randomly assigned tables. Could this be a small step in knitting our relationships together? Too soon to say.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         One thing did puzzle me. Of all the things I said in the Bishop’s Address, the one thing I expected to get a response was the goal of reducing the assessment on parishes by 5% over the next 5 years, regardless of what happens at the national level, and by a larger percentage if the national assessment on dioceses goes down. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         I was surprised that reducing the financial burden on parishes met such a ho-hum response. I have been trying to figure out why that should be. First possibility, people don’t believe it will actually happen. Second, meeting this goal depends on congregations engaging in evangelism and stewardship programs – maybe people would rather pay the 25% assessment than do that. Third, maybe each congregation is itself ready and willing to engage in evangelism and stewardship, but they do not believe other congregations will do so.  Fourth, we may have grown accustomed to slaving under and complaining (rightly) about the 25% assessment, and don’t really want to give it up. It is such a familiar, comfortable misery. Fifth, if we had the extra revenue left in the parish coffers, we would then have to imagine and carry out a new mission. That could be threatening <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">But I have no basis whatsoever for any of these ideas – they are pure speculation. Any insights others have on the reduction in the assessment question would be welcome. I announced it as my goal, assuming the diocese would share it, but I could be wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">On the business side of convention, we did not do a lot, but what we did was helpful. First, we cleaned up the new unified board canon defining the make up and role of the Standing Committee, and passed the complex 2-year process of transitioning into a pattern of staggered elections so that each Mission District will elect a member to Standing Committee each year. The main thing accomplished by this year’s amendment is to empower Mission Districts to elect the Standing Committee. This is the first time we have placed actual governance authority in Mission Districts. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Empowering Mission Districts this way does call them to exercise a bit more disciplined process for one or two meetings each year, but should not interfere with their continuing informal ways of doing whatever else they do (which varies widely from District to District). What the Diocese needs from Mission Districts is for the people who will be at convention to: 1. Elect the Standing Committee. 2. Review and comment on the proposed budget, canon revisions, and resolutions. That will enable us to transact the business of the diocese more effectively, in smaller groups, with time to make the changes people recommend. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">         <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">People have pointed out to me that there are various glitches and inconsistencies in our diocesan canons. Cleaning up canons is like housework. Like “a woman’s work” the Canon Committee’s work is never done.” None of these defects is fatal to our common life; so we will work on them a little each year, giving top priority to things like the governing board structure that actually affect our mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We also passed a resolution for a companion relationship with the Diocese of Machakos (Anglican Church of Kenya). That is just a proposal. They would have to accept by a similar resolution at a future convention of their own. We shall send flowers and wait.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally, Grace in the Desert was an excellent host and coordinated a lovely Eucharist. The Bare Bones Blues Band played and sang splendid jazz music. Various suggestions have come in for next year in Fallon – including more opportunities for dancing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

BISHOP'S EYE VIEW OF CONVENTION 2012

         A Bishop’s review of a diocesan convention is about as well informed as a stage manager’s review of a play. The stage ...

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Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

<strong>Library Specialist, Children’s Room</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Avon Free Public Library</strong></span>. 13.5 hours per week. 5-8:30pm, M,T,Th plus 3 hrs per week in Technical Processing Department to be determined. Performs responsible and varied library services in the Children’s Services Department, including assisting children and students in the use of library materials, equipment and resources, and conducting programs for pre-school, elementary and middle school students and young adults. $21.6772 per hr. No benefits associated with this position. Job description and Employment application at <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.town.avonct.us" href="http://www.town.avonct.us/" target="_blank">www.town.avonct.us</a> (under job opportunities). Closes <span style="color: red;">October 31, 2012</span>. EOE.

Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library . 13.5 hours per week. 5-8:30pm, M,T,Th plus 3 hrs per week in Technical P...

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Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

<b>Library Specialist, Children’s Room <b>-</b></b> <span style="color: #48286d;"><b>Avon Free Public Library</b></span>. Alternate Sundays, January - March, 1-5 pm. Library services include assisting children and students in the use of library materials, equipment, resources, and conducting programs for pre-school to young adults. $21.6772 per hr. No benefits associated with this position. Closes <span style="color: red;">October 31, 2012</span>. Job and Employment Application at <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.town.avon.ct.us" href="http://www.town.avon.ct.us/" target="_blank">www.town.avon.ct.us</a> (under job opportunities). $21.6772 (no benefits associated with this position). EOE.

Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

Library Specialist, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library . Alternate Sundays, January - March, 1-5 pm. Library services include ass...

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Library Assistant, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

<b>Library Assistant, Children’s Room -</b> <span style="color: #48286d;"><b>Avon Free Public Library</b></span>. Part-Time (Alternate Sundays, January - March, 1-5 pm) Library Assistants in Children’s Room every other Sunday, 1-5pm January through March. Candidates will also be considered for substitute positions. $18.259 per hr. No benefits associated with this position. Closes <span style="color: red;">October 31, 2012</span>. Job description and Employment Application at <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.town.avon.ct.us" href="http://www.town.avon.ct.us/" target="_blank">www.town.avon.ct.us</a> (under job opportunities) or (860) 409-4301. EOE.

Library Assistant, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library

Library Assistant, Children’s Room - Avon Free Public Library . Part-Time (Alternate Sundays, January - March, 1-5 pm) Library Assistants...

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Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 10/23/2012

<ul class="diigo-linkroll"> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/10/take-your-students-on-virtual-tour-of.html">Take Your Students on a Virtual Tour of the Tundra to Learn About Polar Bears</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">Take your students to the ARCTIC -- starting on October 24. Hat tip to Richard Byrne - head over to his blog to see what Discovery and Polar Bears have in store for you THIS WEEK. "Discovery Education and Polar Bears International have teamed up to offer some fantastic virtual field trips starting later this wee</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/science">science</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/stem">stem</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='http://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 10/23/2012

Take Your Students on a Virtual Tour of the Tundra to Learn About Polar Bears Take your students to ...

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Part Time Teen Librarian - Burlington Public Library

<strong>Part Time Teen Librarian - </strong><strong><span style="color: #48286d;">Burlington Public Library</span></strong> is looking for an energetic individual to take charge of our Young Adult department. Applicant should have experience in initiating, planning, and implementing a variety of programs and activities to encourage the use of the library by young adults between the ages of 12 and 18, including but not limited to films and special events, reading clubs, Teen Advisory Council, school and community outreach. Knowledge of teen collection development, collection maintenance and cataloging of materials helpful. Familiarity with Sirsi and Title Source is a plus. The position is for 12 hours per week; afternoons, nights and rotating Saturdays are required. Pay is $15.50/hour, no benefits. A Master’s Degree in Library Science and previous experience with Teens preferred. For a complete job description see our website <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.burlingtonctlibrary.info" href="http://www.burlingtonctlibrary.info/" target="_blank">www.burlingtonctlibrary.info</a>. Send resume and cover letter no later than <span style="color: red;">November 9, 2012</span> to: Diana Rudzinski, Assistant Director, 34 Library Lane, P. O. Box 1379, Burlington, CT 06013. or by email <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:drudzinski@libraryconnection.info" href="mailto:drudzinski@libraryconnection.info">drudzinski@libraryconnection.info</a>.

Part Time Teen Librarian - Burlington Public Library

Part Time Teen Librarian - Burlington Public Library is looking for an energetic individual to take charge of our Young Adult department....

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Clerk II - North Haven Memorial Library

<strong>Clerk II - </strong><strong><span style="color: #48286d;">North Haven Memorial Library</span></strong>. Part Time,19 hrs/wk. $13.29/hr. The North Haven Memorial Library has an immediate opening for a part time clerical position in the Adult Department. The successful applicant should have the ability to perform a wide variety of clerical tasks. Ability to type accurately; ability to meet the public courteously; capability to perform a wide variety of library tasks. Computer literacy a must. Prior experience in a library will be given preference. Work schedule will include evening and Saturday hours with no exceptions. Apply at the Finance Office, Memorial Town Hall, 18 Church St. weekdays between 8:30 am and 4 pm. or online at <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.town.north-haven.ct.us" href="http://www.town.north-haven.ct.us/" target="_blank">www.town.north-haven.ct.us</a>.

Clerk II - North Haven Memorial Library

Clerk II -  North Haven Memorial Library . Part Time,19 hrs/wk. $13.29/hr. The North Haven Memorial Library has an immediate opening for a...

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Part Time Managing Librarian - Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Branch Library

<strong>Part Time Managing Librarian -</strong> <strong><span style="color: #48286d;">Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Branch Library</span></strong>, Trumbull. Trumbull Library System & Fairchild Nichols Association seek individual to be responsible for operations of the Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Branch Library including building and staff oversight, collection management and program implementation. Qualified candidate must possess highly effective interpersonal skills, be self-motivated and energetic. Excellent computer, organizational and communication skills a must. Interest in new technologies a plus. Minimum Requirements: An MLS from an ALA accredited university and minimum of three years general library experience including a proven record working cooperatively with staff, patrons and other community stakeholders. Send resume and cover letter including your library experience, hours of availability and email address to: Susan Horton, Director, Trumbull Library System, 33 Quality Street, Trumbull, CT 06611 or email to: <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:shorton@trumbull-ct.gov" href="mailto:shorton@trumbull-ct.gov">shorton@trumbull-ct.gov</a>. Deadline: <span style="color: red;">November 19, 2012</span>.

Part Time Managing Librarian - Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Branch Library

Part Time Managing Librarian - Fairchild-Nichols Memorial Branch Library , Trumbull. Trumbull Library System & Fairchild Nichols Assoc...

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Sensor System Design Engineer ( CMOS/CCD sensor | Camera system design)(#108744)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Job Title:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Sensor System Design Engineer<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Location:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Milpitas, CA<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Duration:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Fulltime<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Job description:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Responsibilities:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;"> KLA-Tencor seeks an expert level technologist/engineer to lead the development of a high bandwidth, low noise solid-state sensor.    The candidate will be part of a team of scientists and engineers developing market leading, next generation wafer inspection and metrology systems.  The candidate will be responsible for generating sensor requirements, defining sensor architecture including device design and interfaces, driving the cooperation of manufacturing partners, verifying sensor performance and reliability, and integrating the camera sub-system.  The successful candidate will ideally have a demonstrated record of innovation and implementation of leading-generation CMOS or CCD<b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b>-based sensors, from design through production and release, have the ability to quantify and articulate the merits of sensor technology and <span style="font-size: small;">road maps</span>, and thrive as a part of a team.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="psdropdownlistdisponly" style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Preferred Qualifications</span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">4+ years of sensor design experience, preferably with high bandwidth low noise CMOS or CCD<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Experience and knowledge of state-of-the-art CMOS/CCD sensor manufacturing, packaging, and testing processes<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Project and vendor management skills<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Camera system design and integration experience<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="psdropdownlistdisponly" style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Minimum Qualifications</span></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Doctorate (Academic) with at least 5 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">OR<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Master's Level Degree with at least 6 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">OR<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Bachelor's Level Degree with at least 7 years of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Please send in your resumes to vinod.sanker@kla-tencor.com</span></b><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div></div></div>

Sensor System Design Engineer ( CMOS/CCD sensor | Camera system design)(#108744)

Job Title: Sensor System Design Engineer Location: Milpitas, CA Duration: Fulltime Job description: Responsibilities:  KLA-Tencor seeks a...

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