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Sample Postings: 6 of the most recent entries ordered by date
[ Saturday, November 26, 2005 15:58 PDT ]
Pride & Prejudice
Section:
Theater
Summary:
If you are a born again romantic who likes dialog with a bit of British spice delivered by a 20 year old with dazzling professional polish, then the latest Pride & Prejudice from Working Title Films may be just your cup of tea as the perfect adult Holiday film choice. If you are a Jane Austen fan, you already know the plot-line—manners and match making in the classic 18th century English upper-middle class mode.
Main:
Now, sprightly young Keira Knightley, whom we last recall as a teen soccer jock in the right-on, cross-cultural-clash film export, Bend it Like Beckum, plays the modernized, but culture challenging, role of Elizabeth Bennet to perfection. What serves as a backdrop to the serious business of finding true love through self-discovery, chance and personal selflessness is the English countryside, earthy rides and walks in the mud and even some rustic barnyard humor.
Supporting roles are humorously and skillful played by Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench and Tom Hollander.
In the end, there is happiness after redemption, reward in prudent risk taking and the triumph of character over chance. Courtship rituals have many a pitfall and this screen play adapation retains enough of the original’s twin perils of Pride and blind Prejudice to satisfy even the most ardent Austin reader.
The post-thanksgiving theater crowd in Davis was mature, appreciative, moved and respectful. One hopes college kids will be dragging there newest best friend to the movies to experience this film. If not, a Tracy/Hepburn rental would not be a bad second choice for a break from reading Shakespeare or writing up a lab report.
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[ Sunday, November 20, 2005 15:38 PDT ]
Reasons for Thanksgiving: A View from the Heartland
Section:
Sons and Daughters
Summary:
Thanksgiving is the quintessential American day for families members to gather,celebrate the harvest, the bounty of the good earth and one another.
Main:
Today, in the sunny bossom of the Great Central Valley, one can not fail to sense the sights, sounds and flavors of the season. Geese are in the air, the leaves are aflutter with color, and the spring plant is mostly out of the fields. People are in the high spirited motion of preparation and anticipation. Thanksgivings in the west, beginning somewhere in Nebraska, seem to have a particularly earthy quality that is palpable and close at hand.
* The corn and the cows are just outside the window or down the lane. The garden goods are in the cellar and cream is in the cooler.
* Perhaps is all a bit of premature nostalgia driven optimism, but even what used to be known as vocational agriculture and home economics programs in high schools like Davis, California are enjoying an increased enrollement after years of decline.
* Many women, and men seem to unafraid to say they enjoy cooking. Some are making a good living and giving Martha Stewart a run for here money with unpretentious cook books and popular cooking channel shows.
* Community feeding programs at the Davis Senior Center and local churches have diverse and multigenerational volunteers cheerfully manning the kitchens.
* UCDavis students in apartments and using the campus dining hall meal cards gather to share in food gathering, preparation and eating.
* Food and gathering are clearly the water fountain topics of the week. And so it was 200 years ago when Lewis and Clark celebrated with some “poor elk” at foggy Fort Clatsop, Oregon on the Pacific edge.
* The day in question was special at the Little home in west Davis. The granddaughters were in high spirits and on the usual charming best behavior. Jon and Erika were the perfect hosts and chefs. The traditional afternoon post-prandial walk to the neighborhood was luminous and fun. Cell phone calls from Damon in Seville and Tiff, Tanya and Janet in Hawaii were among the blessings adding to the feeling of gratitute shared during this most special of Holidays.
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[ Thursday, November 17, 2005 16:23 PDT ]
The University of California: Perks and Privileges in the Golden State’s “Crown Jewel”: Cashing In.
Section:
Campus
Summary:
Trust and credibility are the coin of the realm in the educational public policy arena. The light of investigative reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle has recently brought the its reader’s attention the recently resignation of MRC Greenwood, PhD,UC Provost, the number two administrative position in the UC System. Apparently, compensation and hiring practices are at the heart of the issue. The scent of money is in the air and the red tint of possible discretionary abuse of power and/or conflict of interest is in the water. Professor Greenwood’s state of health has reportedly taken a setback recently and she has not be available to members of the press.
Main:
Part of the context for the evolving story are the following reports and perspectives:
* According to a Monday, November 28, 2005 AP California Aggie story, Dr. Greenwood has been granted a one year sabbatical leave with the continuation of her $25,153 monthy salary. One can fairly assume that many of her non-salary tenured professor benefits, like health insurance, will also be continued. The traditional purpose of sabbatical leaves has been to prepare academics for future teaching and research in their area of expertise.
Dr. Greenwood’s published works are reported to have included the genetics of obesity. One exercise is known to be effective in preventing the affliction——- pushing back from the public feeding trough.
When her sabbatical ends, Greenwood appears to be planning a return to UC Davis, where she once was a professor, dean of graduate studies and vice provost for academic outreach. In recent weeks, she set up a new e-mail address at UC Davis. And UC promised her the right to return to teaching at UC Davis as a professor of nutrition and internal medicine, according to the “terms and conditions’’ document. In addition, the document says, she will receive university funding for “research assistance” for two years at UC Davis. It did not contain a dollar amount for the research funding. Dan Simmons, a tax specialist and faculty member at the UCDavis School of Law is quoted as stating that the arrangement is not “unusual”. Meanwhile, not to worry?
* Meanwhile, “competetive” UC faculty salary increases recently approved by the Board of Regents were also announced today.
* The UC Board of Regents has announced its most recent in annual student fee increases, A basic UC undergraduate education is now projected to cost in excess of $100,000 over four years without adjustments for interest on loans and missed economic opportunities in both time and treasure. This places the UC System at a relative economic disadvantage with respect to quality out-of state institutions, the CSU System and the 120 member California Community College system.
* The recent quality of University’s long term stewardship and the terms of tenue at the National Reseach Laboratories of Livermore and Las Alamos have been called into question at the highest levels of ultimate responsiblility and funding.
* California housing costs have put student and faculty recruitment, retention and support under strain.
Therefore, the presumed broad public trust, faith, confidence and support for the UC system is threated by both the facts and tarnished reputations of key leaders including some campus Chancellors. according to Hoover Fellow, Fresno Statue University,Classics Professor, Valley farmer and author, Victor Davis Hanson. In his September 2005 WSJ article titled the Ivory Cower Professor Hanson illustrates the scope of the campus gender & diversity wars.
Specifically he uses the case of recently appointed UCSC Chancellor Denice Denton who entered the fray with an aggressive, high-profile, no holds barred compaign within the lofty liberal jet set academic circles of Northern California, Cambridge, Mass, and Washington, D.C. She contributed to the downfall of Harvard President, Economist Larry Summers. However, at the end of the annual San Francisco version of Gay and Lesbian Pride weekend Denton died of an apparent suicide after jumping from the 43d floor of a down town 3d & Missiion high rent high rise pied a terre. She was in The City after taking a medical leave and missing the UCSC spring commencement ceremony.
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[ Wednesday, November 16, 2005 15:15 PDT ]
Google Base: A Davis experiment for Seniors: Skill and Talent Swapping online
Section:
Advice
Summary:
Davis California is known as a creative community. It is particularly rich in the collective creative energy of its retired Senior Ciizens. Community Service, Volunteerism, Advocacy and a wide variety active Life Styles are the palpable result.
Main:
Recently, Google has put Base online and legacyjournal.net has started a Davis Senior Person to Person Talent Swap notification opportunity there. The basic idea is to use online service like Google Base to match needs with available resources. For example:
* Do you have extra tickets to the Sunday, 2:00 P.M., 4 December public lecture by Astronaut and UCDavis Grad, Steve Robinson?
* Do you need a ride for an event in Sacramento? Do you have a computer that needs recylcing?
* Did your cat wander off into the neighborhood?
* Are you new to town and need a personal recommendation for a new dentist or shoe repair shop?
Or whatever. Make your needs, interests and your exchangable talents known.
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[ Monday, November 14, 2005 13:40 PDT ]
Nelson, B.C. : The Heartland looks North to the Columbia Headwaters
Section:
Politics
Summary:
Peaceful Nelson, B.C. in the west Kootenay Lake region of Cananda just north of Spokane WA and Coeur de Alene ID, has recently reemerged into the American newsscene. There, a 2 day July 2006 celebration is planned for Americans who moving north of the border during the antiwar, antidraft, antiestablishment era of the late 60s and early 70s. Some groups claiming to represent more than 24 millions US veterans have reacted strongly. It is reported that 125,000 young men relocated to Canada as an act of conscience to protest War and avoid the draft. Half applied for, were granted and accepted unconditional amnesty by the Carter administation. Others chose to remain in friendly places like Nelson.
Main:
According to some reports from that community Canadian hospitalilty includes the following:
* A history of tolerance to immigrant dissident groups the includes the Russian religious community of Doukhobors.
* Any easy integration of interned Japanese and other minority groups into the mining, agricultural and tourist economy of the region.
* An relatively tolerate legal enviroment regarding the growing, possession, use and sale of marijuana.
The bar room story told, but not confirmed or corroborated, by a retired, USMC Recon platoon Viet Nam veteran living in Nelson is illustrative, if true. He reportedly is married to a Canadian citizen and is a long time resident of Nelson. He says that hard drug use in the area is widespread and included one of his sons who died or was killed as a result of drug use or a drug deal gone bad. The case has allegedly been investigated by the appropriate local legal authories. He also reports that trafficing is open and flourishing across a relatively porous north- south border and on the all weather, east-west provincial highways.
Meanwhile, Lake Kootenay, at the headwaters of Columbia is reported to be a great place for Kamloop fishing, subsistence farming, wood handcrafting and communal living.
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[ Sunday, November 13, 2005 13:59 PDT ]
Health and Exercise: Association or Cause and Effect
Section:
Briefs
Summary:
Much of the confusion and conflict that is frequently ascribed to faulty communication skills, gender and generational differences, educational shortcoming, cultural influences or just plain bad manners is frequentlyconfusion as the significant difference between assoociation and cause and effect. In addition, some crafty professionals use well practiced rhetorical devices to exploit that difference to score debating points. Some politicans seem to be in constant rhetorical mode.
Main:
For example, some of the usual Sunday Morning TV news talking heads seemed to be asserting that the President, because of acts of omission or comission, must take the blame for and explain____ _____, the results of Tuesday elections, the future price of natural gas, the weather in___, etc. And so it is with the more personal matter of using regular exercise as achieve healthy aging. However, there is good evidence that natural and inherent physical vigor allows some folks to more of than others at any given age. Most do not will themselves to become healthy by exercise: they exercise, move and work because they are granted the enabling attributes of good luck, a good neuromuscular system and a well functioning legacy of DNA.
In fact, the most powerful metaphor at work today in the study of complex systems is that of DNA coding.
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