philly

PAFA Takes in Students

I read this story in the Inky on how the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts has been taking in students from Philadelphia schools since 1994.

The Cooperative Studio Program was designed to give them a chance to nurture their skills even as their schools cut back on arts education.

"This is a way for us to reach out to the community and really try to do something beneficial," said Al Gury, associate professor and chairman of the academy's painting department.

The program accepts 80 students each year from public, parochial and charter schools. It has taken some from outside Philadelphia but now wants to focus on the city, Gury said.

He wants more city schools to start recommending students.

As spending on education is cut from the President's desk on down, it's refreshing to see an institution, especially one as revered as PAFA [the oldest art school and museum in the U.S.] take in children and teach them art and let them express themselves through art.

Giving kids two hours after school to dive into something they love is an incredible and priceless gift. I cannot imagine how I would've turned out if I didn't grow up where I did and had access to wonderful after school programs in art and science and as I got older, a community which encouraged athletics and had the money to keep the fields in good working order.

Dems v. Chickenhawks

Just read over on Skaroff Blog an email he received and posted. An excerpt:

I got this via email today and thought it was pretty interesting. We hate America, right?
DEMOCRATS:
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
...
REPUBLICANS — and these are the guys SENDING PEOPLE TO WAR:
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.

Yes, the list is biased, but it does list some pretty big wigs from inside the Beltway.

Click over to see the longer list.

Commander in Chief: The Show

I watched Commander in Chief last night on ABC for the first time. Who knew that Natasha Henstrige has left her Species days behind her? Aaaaand Saved by the Bell's own Mark-Paul Gosselaar is now going to be a regular on the show! Will Tiffani-Amber Thiessen make an apperance in the Lincoln Bedroom?

I like Donald Sutherland's character. Kinda frumpy power guy.

Geena Davis is very tall.

A Plan?!

A plan strategy for withdrawal victory?! [.pdf].

Will read through this ASAP.

There will be a speech later this morning.

Chris Bowers: Committeeperson Ward 27, Division 23

Activist Chris Bowers of MyDD.com was just appointed as committeeperson in his Ward/Division. He wrote about the possibility of running back in July and four months later, he was appointed. Democracy in action.

Congrats to you Chris.

Diebold in North Carolina

Diebold, the leading supplier of e-voting machines in the U.S. may have just decided to shut itself out of North Carolina, reports Wired News.

Diebold Inc., which makes automated teller machines and security and voting equipment, is worried it could be charged with a felony if officials determine the company failed to make all of its code — some of which is owned by third-party software firms, including Microsoft — available for examination by election officials in case of a voting mishap.

It is required by law to turn over the code. Currently, twenty of N.C.'s 100 counties already use Diebold machines, but the Board of Elections will announce that the suppliers will have to meet the new standards.

The response from evil Diebold?

"We will obviously have no alternative but withdraw from the process," said Doug Hanna, a Raleigh-based lawyer representing Diebold.

David Bear, a Diebold spokesman, said the company was reviewing several options after Monday's ruling. "We're going to do what is necessary to provide what is best for our existing clients" in North Carolina, he said.

Check out that language. no alternative and our existing clients. The alternatives? Have a paper trail. They make ATM machines, they do posess the technology to do so and on a very large scale, scalability should not be a problem for them. They could also hand over the code and make arrangements with their third party coders. And they don't think about the public here, only about their clients. No need to do the public any good, they just want to screw the public over.

North Carolina went to W in 2004 by 400,000 votes. Interestingly, CNN reports that 21% of N.C. voters registered as Independents and 56% of them voted for W.

More Black Box Voting info.

Drinking Liberally - 6p - Tangier

If it's Tuesday, it's Drinking Liberally

The post-Thanksgiving Day Drinking Liberally gathering. Everyone will be 10lbs. fatter from the feasting I suppose. What did the gang give thanks for? I dunno. I'm thankful I'm not dead. I think. No, yes, I am thankful, I don't think I'd be better off dead.

I'm sure there will be drinks hoisted for Noz's birthday which was yesterday and for the last DL for two cogs of the machine that is The All Spin Zone as soemgirl and Richard Cranium depart for Venezuela.

Don't think I'll be there though for a combination of reasons the foremost being that I don't have the energy to go out drinking in the rain tonight. But that won't stop the $1 off drinks from 6p-9p and free wings from flowing. Tangier - 1801 Lombard St.

2005 BLSP Awards

Just got an email from True Majority about a cool event right here in Philly next week. The 2005 Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities with Ben Cohen [Ben of Ben & Jerry's], Admiral Stansfield Turner, and the People's Paper's own Signe Wilkinson.

The event will be held at the Down Town Club of Philadelphia [6th/Chestnut Sts] at 6p on Monday the 5th.

From the site:

Admiral Turner, CIA Director under President Jimmy Carter and a member of the BLSP Military Advisory Committee, will receive the BLSP Global Security Award. He will discuss his book BURN BEFORE READING: Presidents, CIA Directors and Secret Intelligence. Because this dynamic is so crucial to government policy, Admiral Turner will focus on the CIA and non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and discuss a blueprint for reorganizing the intelligence community.

Signe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and editorial board member of the Philadelphia Daily News, will receive our 2005 Media Excellence Award. Signe will inform and entertain us with a slide show of her incisive cartoons, caricature, and commentary.

They suggest a $20 donation. With Ben at the helm, I'm guessing a casual affair.

RSVP here.

Thanks for the Dime, SEPTA

This morning, the SEPTA token machine at Lombard-South spit out a dime. I had put in two $1 bills and had just put in a quarter and out popped a dime. The full quarter amount registered. I plunked in the dime and another quarter and hit vend. Out popped two tokens. After giving me grief in not taking my $10 bill yesterday, the same machine gave me a dime for my troubles. Thanks machine.

I normally buy the plastic passes, but the first of the month is in two days so I opted to go for the monthly and buy tokens for this half of the week.

Laurel Hill Cemetery Photos: Graves 2

I've used some new touch up techniques after reading a bit of advice from luminous landscape. Some different methods of USM and curves adjustment.

The third set of photos from Laurel Hill Cemetery are up on my photoblog. Three more graves.

My initial edit in a flickr set.

I've also started to streamline my archives. I've finally gotten my lazy ass around to resizing the thumbnails in the archive pages so that instead of reading and then resizing 100kb+ files, a straight shot thumbnail is now in place, at least for the November 2005 archive. I have to get working on the rest starting tomorrow. This should have been done a long time ago and should've been how I started doing the archives.