Pi a la mode

from south dakota

Our Friday afternoon meeting was over, a poll question had been set, but as we were walking out, someone asked “What if we were to include pi (3.14) in our weekend question asking our readers’ favorite pie?”
Perfect. Not only are we big fans of math humor (when have you ever seen those two words used in the same sentence), but we had long been looking for a way to tap into that elusive, coveted demographic: geometry teachers.
And, despite its potential obscurity, we have been pleasantly surprised by pi’s showing in the race. Despite still trailing the field, it has more respectable John McCain-type numbers as opposed to Dennis Kucinich-type results. The tally as of 3 p.m. Monday:
Apple (523 Votes, 22%)Cherry (310 Votes, 13%)Lemon meringue (358 Votes, 15%)Pecan (482 Votes, 21%)Pumpkin (425 Votes, 18%)3.14 (249 Votes, 11%)

Way to go PI!!!!!

Used to be a cool guy, but now he is a geezer!

Paul Soglin was once mayor of Wisconsin, some 35 years ago....I think he may have turned into a geezer!Suggesting bicyclists who venture out in winter storms be taken out and shot may not win friends in the two-wheeled world, but the modest proposal is a hit on the Internet.That wasn 't former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin 's main intent when he slipped the suggestion -- which he insists was meant to be subtle and ironic and topical -- into his blog, http://www.madison.com/toolbox/%22http://www.waxingamerica.com/%22. But it has opened a car door of insults onto a coasting commentary."Some people have no sense of humor, " he said Thursday, as the number of hits on the blog, and on him, continued to climb.Links to the blog, which Soglin shares with UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton, were passed around the country and soon the response list was replete with insightful and inciteful commentary.Winter bicyclists from the Yukon were pedaling their insults in response to Soglin 's relatively brief Wednesday commentary: "Bicycling Madison Style: As Dumb as it Gets. ""I was driving home Tuesday at a snail 's pace, and there were these lunatics out there riding their bikes in a snowstorm, which they had been doing over the weekend as well, " Soglin said Thursday."So there was a new five inches of snow on top of the ruts and ice we already had on the streets, and it was the middle of rush hour. And (the bicyclists) were all over the road, not to mention the guy who was on a moped, " he said."As a bicyclist myself, I hold us to higher standards than that. We are supposed to be more rational, more sane, smarter and better looking, " he said.In writing the storm-bikers should be "taken out and shot, " however, he used a phrase he thought would be familiar to the blog 's usual readers.The comment was an oblique reference to a similar comment posted facetiously by a teacher on another blog in mock praise of the Columbine shooters. The suburban Milwaukee teacher was arrested, but Washington County officials said this week he would not be prosecuted.But some in the bicycling community, especially those who bicycle during the winter, were incensed at Soglin 's remark."Fat, grumpy, intolerant ex-mayors ought to be shot. Get some exercise, ------- " was one, posted by "cyclomaniac. ""Maybe I was too subtle, " Soglin mused."There is a certain artistry to writing a post for a blog, and I had carefully woven in (self-effacing) references to calcified hippies, ' and then ... I thought this would be a subtle way of linking together all of us in the cheddarsphere ' who follow Wisconsin news and politics. "Orton thought Soglin was sort of asking for it."Paul deliberately put should be shot ' to echo that controversy, but not overtly, " Orton said. "Looking at it in straight print, it doesn 't always work so well."At the same time, he had a valid point. There are bikers who, in the middle of a storm, take it as a personal challenge to see if they can do it. The problem comes when bikers make that magic transition from biker to invisible being. "Many of the comments were impolite, some profane, and a few seriously discussed winter bicycling. Some savvy bloggers suggested the comment was "link-bait, " and the traffic was up, Orton confirmed. There were 1,600 hits by noon Thursday.A local bicycle listserve not only carried sarcastic reactions to Soglin 's comments but also a discussion on equipment for riding a bicycle in winter. (Tungsten carbide studded tires were recommended.)Soglin, who has defended himself online in a light-hearted, sometimes caustic fashion, notes he has consistently stuck up for bicyclists ' road rights and frequently tweaks the authorities if bicycling conditions are not addressed."As a bicyclist, I felt I had a responsibility to say something (about the snowstorm bikers). That 's probably why they are so upset, because it is coming from another biker. "By mid-day Thursday, Soglin sounded as if he was tiring of the controversy."If these nitwits don 't leave me alone, I 'm going to go after the trail bike riders next, " he threatened, subtly.

Max McGee, RIP

Met him once when he came to our High School is Wisconsin....


Max McGee, the unexpected hero of the first Super Bowl and a long-time challenge for Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, died Saturday after falling from the roof of his home, police confirmed. He was 75.
Police were called to the former Green Bay receiver's Deephaven home around 5:20 p.m., Sgt. Chris Whiteside said. Efforts to resuscitate McGee were unsuccessful.
McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when he fell, according to news reports. A phone message left at a number listed for an M. McGee wasn't immediately returned.
"I just lost my best friend," former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "(His wife) Denise was away from the house. She'd warned him not to get up there. He shouldn't have been up there. He knew better than that."
Inserted into Packers' lineup when Boyd Dowler was sidelined by a shoulder injury, McGee went on to catch the first touchdown pass in Super Bowl history in Green Bay's 35-10 victory over Kansas City in January 1967. Still hung over from a night on the town, McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two TDs.

"Now he'll be the answer to one of the great trivia questions: Who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history?" Hornung said. "Vince knew he could count on him. ... He was a great athlete. He could do anything with his hands."
Though an admirer of Lombardi, McGee time and again pushed the tough-as-nails coach to the breaking point.
McGee -- remembered for saying: "When it's third-and-10, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time." -- put Lombardi to the ultimate test prior to the first Super Bowl.

geezer having fun?

I have met enough 80 year old men fighting over women to not be surprised about this story. I just could never understand why they do not share....


"An 80-year-old man accused of locking his girlfriend in a camper trailer has been sentenced to probation and ordered to attend an anger management class when he returns home to Oregon."
This odd story from the Reuters wire makes you go "hm".
The first thing that caught my attention is that the 80-year-old geezer has a girlfriend. I imagine a Depends-clad octogenarian vegetating in front of a TV, aiming his remote control at the alarm clock as he desperately attempts to change the channel.
But with the advent of Viagra, every old coot imagines himself the stud of the rest home. You go old man, I'm glad you aren't shooting blanks.
The old guy locked his girlfriend in a camper trailer; maybe that's the only way an octogenarian can keep a girlfriend for any length of time.
The idea of an 80-year-old goat taking an anger management class simply does not compute. When you reach the ripe old age of 80, your habits and temperament are set in stone. There is no way in hell that taking a class will make a senior citizen change his pugnacious ways.
I'm glad the old codger wasn't sentenced to a 30-day jail term; at his advanced age he may not have that many days left.

In it for the money?

A group of 60-something men who live in Madrid are peddling something that may sound like it would not have much of a market.
The group, which calls itself the Geezers, is publishing the Nude Geezers calendar featuring nude pictures of themselves.
"There are some people who are offended at naked old men," said Doug Wesley, one of the participants.
"All clothes does is cover up the beauty," chimed in Len Self.
"Well, that's what our theory is, actually," said Wesley.
"If you come out in favor of motherhood and apple pie, somebody in town is going to take exception to it," added Peter Bruso, a third member of the Geezers to be featured in the calendar.
Unlike other beefcake calendars of firemen or police officers, the money raised by selling the Naked Geezers is not going to charity. It's going to the Geezers.
"This summer was my 60th birthday and so I officially became a geezer by our rules," said Wesley. "I gave this project to myself for a birthday present."
The grand unveiling of the Nude Geezers calendar takes place Saturday afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m. at Madrid's old boarding house, and the geezers will be on hand to sign the calendars.
So far, the Geezers say the reaction to their project has been positive.
"Well, the women," said Bruso, "I've gotta fight 'em off. I'm approached on the street every day and it's been a project fighting 'em off."

Geezer sex

THE NEW report from the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the sex lives of the elderly might have a big "ewwww"; factor for some people. Especially those whose image of "elderly" is a doddering, frail 90-year-old with limited, er, faculties.
That's not our image of the elderly, at least not since the AARP started stalking us through the mail a few years ago.
In fact, we're happy about the news that many people between 57 and 85 report having active sex lives, engaging in it at least two to three times a month.
For us, the "ewww"; factor comes after pondering the implications of this news. By that we mean: Geriatric STDs.
For as night follows day, isn't it safe to assume that if more elderly are having sex, more are also suffering from sexually transmitted diseases?
The Center for Disease Control says its data doesn't show an increase in STDs among the elderly, although other health experts are not so sure. Anecdotal evidence suggests that certain sex-transmitted diseases could be on the rise.
So, for all you dirty old men (and women) out there: Have fun. But be careful. *

Father in law used to work at S&S in Viola

Thousands of motorcyclists are expected here when S&S Cycle holds a 50th anniversary celebration in June of 2008.S&S, which has facilities in La Crosse and Viola, plans to sell the first 50 cycle engines it produced to 50 of the top custom cycle builders in the world during the celebration. That sale will be only one event during what organizers believe will be a rally that could attract 2,000 or more cyclists.S&S was founded S&S was “founded on speed,” by world record holder George Smith Sr., in 1958. Now under the leader of Smith's grandson, Brett, S&S remains devoted to producing engines and parts that make motorcycles, ranging from Harleys to custom cycles, go faster. The company employs more than 400 people, ranging from engineers to workers on the assembly line. S&S opened a 170,000 square foot facility in La Crosse in 2005 and has its original plant in Viola.S&S might be best known in Wisconsin for the development, production, marketing and sales of performance parts for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. But the company has more than 6,000 domestic and international customers, primarily dealers, distributors and most recently, American motorcycle manufacturers like Victory Motor Cycles, Indian, Titan and Big Dog. Tens of thousands of riders annually install S&S parts on their bikes. The company's line of Super carburetors, with a distinctive chrome teardrop air cleaner cover, has been the industry's most popular carburetor for years. S&S products also have won numerous awards in competition. Some recent ones include Hot Bike's High Tech Product of the Year for its performance motors, American Rider's Aftermarket Company of the Year, and Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year's Special Award for "Relentless Research & Development."

An environmental friendly Congressman

Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) is a bicycle fanatic who rides his various bikes about 2,300 miles a year.
One of his bikes, a limited-edition Trek, cost $6,800. "Better be quiet about that, my wife may be listening," he said quietly during a telephone interview from his home.
It should be no surprise that Oberstar -- the powerful chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- recently inserted a bicycle provision into a hefty bill dealing with major airport and airplane projects.
On page 13 of the 168-page bill needed to fund the Federal Aviation Administration and its next-generation air traffic control system, Oberstar ensured that bicyclists and their rides were being represented.
The bill would allow airports to use federal funds -- which are usually tapped to build terminals and parking garages -- to construct bicycle storage facilities for passengers.
"Doesn't it make sense?" Oberstar said, noting that the fathers of aviation, Wilbur and Orville Wright, were originally bicycle builders.
Oberstar, 72, said he got the idea to include the bicycle provision in the FAA bill when he read a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about a man who rode his bike to catch a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The man could not find a place to put his bike, so he locked it to a signpost inside the terminal, the newspaper reported.
When the traveler returned from his trip, his classic Raleigh three-speed was gone. It had been cut up and carted away by security, said Oberstar, his voice dripping with equal parts remorse and disgust.
Oberstar quickly enlisted the help of bicycle enthusiasts to reassemble the bike. It was returned it to its owner at a press conference just days before the November elections. The incident got Oberstar thinking: Why were there no storage facilities for people who might want to use pedal power to reach the airport?
He made a pledge to his bicycle friends. "I told them that we are going to change the law," Oberstar said.
If the bicycle language becomes law, serious questions will soon emerge. Who would ever want to ride a bike to the airport? How would you get your luggage there -- in a side car?
"True, you likely wouldn't be going to an airport on a bike with a suitcase," Oberstar concedes, adding that bikes might work better when flying out on short trips.
Even if your airport has bike racks -- Reagan National has them; Dulles International does not -- how do you safely navigate NASCAR-inspired cabbies and other drivers racing to catch a plane?
Oberstar, who has never ridden a bike to take a flight, said he is already thinking of a solution: bike lanes on airport roads.

Geezers Rule

The Geezer Brigade,celebrating its tenth anniversary (http://www.thegeezerbrigade.com) as THEhumor organization for "clever old people and their attorneys," has oncemore proclaimed July to be "Appreciate A Geezer!" with the theme, "EmpowerYour Inner Geezer!" Curmudgeons everywhere are again urged to speak up: "Not only do I wantmy Seniors' Discount, I'd like a little more APPRECIATION around here! Ididn't get to look this way just sitting around waiting for The DenturesFairy ... " (Phyllis Diller, the group's first Honorary Comedian, obviouslyinfected the Geezers early on with her offbeat irreverence for their"Golden Years.") Geezer-in-Chief, Hurricane Katrina survivor -- "It went right over ourintergalactic headquarters with me in them!" and Founder, 73-year-old JohnKernell, a former vice president of Hill and Knowlton International PublicRelations, is now calling on the talents of fellow Geezer, writer-artist-designer Ann Williams, 71, of Traverse City, MI, to remake the Website andhelp take the organization into its second decade online. The Brigade, with over a million visitors to its site since itsinception and 300 dues-paying members still standing (with help), willcontinue to offers its members a reliable dose of offbeat Senior humorevery morning of their fearsomely feisty lives, but plans on even moreinteractivity. A recurring theme continues as part of each morning's "Nooze of the Dayfrom The Geezer Brigade." The Chief always tells members of The Brigadewhat his helper. Babette nee O'Kallikak, of Wiggins, MS, is "doing" whileshe is, in fact, away visiting family. When she returns, she is inevitablyhorrified to discover the fantastical lengths to which he has gone to amuseand delight The Geezership. E.g. Artist Williams is asking visitors (and members) to picture whatthey think Babette will look like once she takes the bag off her head. Key to the future is how the Brigade redefines the word "Geezer" tosuit itself as "A mildly eccentric older person of either sex, who isgenerally fun to be around." "For example," chortles Kernell, "if good ol' eccentric Dick Cheneyonly knew how much fun he could be if he tried, we'd be out of Iraq in, oh,720 days, or so."

I miss you already Mr. Wizard

Don Herbert, 89, who as television's Mr. Wizard was for many years one of the nation's foremost popularizers of science, particularly noted for his ability to attract, inspire and hold the interest of children, died June 11 at his home in the Los Angeles area.
A son-in-law, Tom Nikosey, said Mr. Herbert died of cancer.
'Don Herbert, 89, who as television\'s Mr. Wizard was for many years one of the nation\'s foremost popularizers of science, particularly noted for his ability to attract, inspire and hold the interest of children, died June 11 at his home in the Los Angeles area.
Once an aspiring actor, Mr. Herbert used gifts of showmanship, imagination and manual dexterity to create demonstrations that satisfied the senses, expanded the mind and provided insight into the workings of nature.
People of all ages remained enthralled by his television appearances, which included brief science news flashes for adults, a number of TV science specials and "Watch Mr. Wizard," the long-running children's show that transfixed the baby-boom generation.
His instructional legacy, begun in the days of small-screen black-and-white television, has continued into the computer age, with the Web site http://www.mrwizardstudios.com.
Of all his achievements, his son-in-law said, Mr. Herbert probably considered his most important legacy to be "communicating science to children." Nikosey said thousands, and perhaps millions, were influenced by his TV show.
A significant figure in television history, Mr. Herbert brought his first show to the air on NBC on March 3, 1951. Television was still in its infancy in terms of the number of viewers and the effect it had on American culture.
Mr. Herbert's 30-minute show seemed to symbolize the potential of the new medium to instruct and entertain and to unite a mass audience around a common interest.
Within three years, almost 100 stations carried the show and science clubs inspired by it sprung up around the United States. In contrast with the modern admonition "don't try this at home," Mr. Wizard's viewers were prompted to do just that: that is, to reproduce the experiments and demonstrations they watched on the show.
Mr. Herbert had served in World War II as the pilot of a heavy bomber, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and holding the rank of captain, and was unfazed by the challenges of performing live in the days before the modern TV prompter.
However, he prepared himself with "18 file cabinets full of notes," he once told the New York Times, and kept reminders to himself posted around the studio, out of sight of the camera, for emergency use.
Another of his secrets: "Even when things went wrong, we could always explain why."
With almost 550 live broadcasts, the show ran through 1965, winning praise from scientific organizations and earning Mr. Wizard the image of a permanent ambassador from the world of science.
After being revived on NBC, the show came to life again on the Nickelodeon cable channel from 1983 to 1990.
Donald Jeffrey Herbert was born in Waconia, Minn., on July 10, 1917, and studied at Lacrosse State Teachers College, now a branch of the University of Wisconsin. He studied drama and science in college and once performed in summer theater opposite Nancy Davis, the future wife of President Ronald Reagan.
In Chicago, where Mr. Herbert acted on radio, he presented broadcasters with the idea that combined his interests in theatrical performance and in the hard facts of scientific truth.
His first marriage ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife and three children.
The "wizard" of the title of Mr. Herbert's trademark show might seem to be the antithesis of science, but Mr. Herbert knew its value.
"We thought we needed it to seem like magic to hook the audience," he said, "but then we realized that viewers would be engaged with just a simple scientific question, like, why do birds fly and not humans?"

One tough geezer....

A man cut off his own leg with a pocket knife to free himself after he was pinned beneath a fallen tree for almost 11 hours.
Al Hill, aged 66, from California, was working alone chopping down trees in a remote area of woodland, when one fell on his leg.
Unable to summon help because he could not get a signal on his mobile phone, he cut off his trapped leg. His cries for help were eventually heard by a neighbour, Eric Bockey, who ran for two miles before he was able to get a signal strong enough to call the fire service.
Mr Hill had been working near Iowa Hill, 60 miles from Sacramento, on Friday. The town of 200 people has no electricity and few services. Mr Bockey and another neighbour loaded Mr Hill on to a truck and drove him to an emergency landing site from where a helicopter flew him to hospital. Mr Hill, who had not gone into shock despite, received amputation surgery, said Luana Dowling, Iowa Hill's fire chief. "He's a pretty remarkable person," Mr Dowling said.
"Only me, Al and God were there that day," said Mr Bockey.
In May 2003, 27-year-old climber Aron Ralston, from Colorado, used a penknife to amputate his right arm below the elbow after spending five days trapped beneath a 57-stone boulder.

Burning books in Kansas City

There are segments of this city where you go to an estate sale and find five TVs and three books," Leathem said.
The idea of burning the books horrified Marcia Trayford, who paid $20 Sunday to carry away an armload of tomes on art, education and music.
"I've been trying to adopt as many books as I could," she said.
Dozens of other people took advantage of the book-burning, searching through the books waiting to go into the flames for last-minute bargains.

flying with viagra?

I don't know about you, but I would not want to be on the test flights where they are testing viagra for jet lag....a bunch of horny guys stuck in the aluminum tube could get ungly....worse than snakes on the plane.....maybe we could call it woodies on the plane!

Worried about jet lag? Researchers think they might have just the ticket to perk you up: Viagra.
While it's too early to know if it will work in humans, Argentinean researchers are reporting that the drug sildenafil -- better known by the brand name Viagra -- appears to reduce symptoms of jet lag in hamsters.
Viagra does come with potential side effects, and some men might not appreciate experiencing a temporary respite from erectile dysfunction at 30,000 feet. Still, a sleep specialist called the research promising.
"We do need more effective therapies for jet lag and for sleep difficulties that occur as a consequence of shift work," said Dr. Robert Vorona, an associate professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School who's familiar with the study findings.
In the study, researchers administered small doses of sildenafil to hamsters before adjusting the cycles of light and dark they lived in. This reset their body clocks as if they'd taken a six-hour plane trip to the east.
The hamsters recovered 25 percent to 50 percent more quickly from the equivalent of human jet lag, needing less time to synchronize themselves to the new schedule, said Dr. Diego Golombek, a researcher with the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes in Buenos Aires. He said sildenafil worked at least as well as melatonin, a jet-lag treatment.
But the drug didn't help hamsters who underwent a simulation of westward jet travel.
The findings were published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The drug, originally developed to treat high blood pressure and angina, might alleviate jet lag by interfering with a molecule that sends signals to the hamster brain's body clock mechanism, Golombek said.
But the potential impact on humans isn't clear, and Golombek said people shouldn't rush out to prevent jet lag with doses of Viagra. For one thing, Viagra can cause side effects such as low blood pressure.
As for the next step, Golombek said "a full-scale clinical trial has to be performed in humans, which is indeed quite expensive and time-consuming. Jet-lag trials might involve laboratory simulations, but we also need 'the real thing,' which means testing pharmacological treatments on long-haul air travel."
And that, he added, will take even more time.

quiet, please!

Sam Rozati of Colchester, England, regarding an incident that started when he walked past a nest of geese at a tranquil lake while talking on his cell phone:
"They flew over and started biting my hand until I dropped the phone."
One of the geese made off with the cell phone.

I am glad we did have commencement when I went to this school....

Ellen Foley

Deborah Cureton, dean and CEO of the University of Wisconsin-Richland in Richland Center, invited me to give the commencement address May 11 to the school's 70 or so graduates.
It was a thrill to spend some time with the dedicated faculty at this intimate campus about an hour and a half drive west of Madison and to get to know the stories of the hardworking students, most of whom hail from the Richland Center area and many of whom will attend four-year campuses of the university next year.
I understand that a DVD version of my speech will be coming out next week. For those of you patient enough to read the full speech, you'll understand why that might be rather entertaining.
Here's your editor in her multimedia splendor:
Commencement Address
University of Wisconsin-Richland
It is such a treat for me to drive through the rolling hills of Wisconsin to Richland Center.
I couldn't help pondering on the drive from Madison the very words that name your school and your town: RICH LAND.
I am humbled to have been asked to share a bit of commencement wisdom with the graduates of such a magical place
You are some of our best and our brightest. Many of you are the first person in your family to graduate from college. And we know that it hasn't been an easy pull for most of you.
I sit on an interesting perch as an editor of a newspaper who is becoming the editor of a newspaper AND a website.
Technology is changing my work life dramatically. And because I realize that your lives are about to change dramatically, I feel surprisingly qualified to share with you a few observations about what the world needs from the graduates of this fine school.
You are blessed with at least two great gifts that are going to propel you into leadership roles ---- not only in your home communities --- but most likely in the world.
These two gifts are tools and timing.
We'll take timing first.
Congratulations on choosing the best time since the year 2000 to be looking for a job. The economy is booming for many industries. The stock market keeps setting record highs. There are a lot of business moguls with lots of cash investing in very interesting corners of American life.
A recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal (which you can also see on madison.com/wsj), noted that the hiring of college grads will increase almost 20 percent this year from 2006. That's a 20 percent increase in just one year. The big winners are those studying engineering, business, health care and computer-related fields.
However, recruiters told the State Journal that the job-seekers who will command the highest salaries and the best jobs have one distinguishing trait: They are well rounded.
Employers are looking for graduates who have had jobs during school, who can communicate, who have leadership potential and who can work on a team.
In short, they are looking for the kinds of students who come from this Rich Land.
In addition to your school work, your dean tells me that you have been athletes, newspaper editors, student government leaders, campus ambassadors, musicians, thespians, tutors, work-study students, Road Ralley winners (AND LOSERS. Sorry about that) active members of various clubs ---- and much more.
You are exactly what the nation's employers and universities are looking for.
You also have an historic demographic shift going for you. There are many Baby Boomers, like me, and a lot fewer of you. There will be many more jobs than job seekers in the coming years as the Boomers retire. If you play this right, you will be in the driver's seat when you go to find a job.
So let's move to gift, No. 2.
Tools.
You are THE multimedia generation. You have amazing tools. You watch movies at home via DVDs or TIVOs. And you do this ---- cuddling your laptops so you can IM your friends and keep your eye on the text messages coming in on your cell phones. (Laughter)
I have observed this at my own home.
Most likely every one of you has a cell phone that you will use to take photos tonight. Some of you may even be recording me right now with your Ipods.
Recently a professor at the Madison campus suggested the next wave of change will involve nanotechnology in the wallpaper of our homes. It will sit there quietly monitoring our vital signs ready to call our physicians if we need to go to the emergency room. This astonishes me!
Very soon OUR WALLPAPER IS GOING TO BE CALLING OUR DOCTORS!!!
Yes, I see you're laughing, but I also know that you are a bit relieved, because you don't want to be the ones coming by to check mom's blood pressure every day.
Let the wallpaper do it!
My point here is that the tools will continue to evolve exponentially and in another year or perhaps two, the job you have trained for or the topic you are preparing to study at your next college will be changing and you will need to be nimble enough to change with it. You will need to create the next tool. You will need to build on the technology.
With these two gifts come almost unfathomable challenges. Author Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in his recent bestseller told us that our world is flat. Routine jobs, such as customer service call centers, will be offshored to places, such as India, where the cost is lower and the quality may be better.
You will need to stay one step ahead of these complicated global changes, including the warming of the planet.
Many of you are saddled with debt from student loans. We worry about how you will build a life when starter homes in places like Madison cost $200,000 and health care benefits take increasingly larger bites out of paychecks.
You are coming of age at time of random violence, from Oklahoma City to Columbine to 9/11 to Virginia Tech. These horrific events will define the rest of your lives and keep you ever vigilant.
We are a nation at war, as your colleague Cody can attest to. We look to your leadership so that this conflict will come to an end.
We will look to your skills of diplomacy so our nation can resolve other international tensions without resorting to warfare and the deaths of our brave soldiers.
Yes, you are a lucky group but you will need to use your gifts wisely.
This, of course, is why your administrators invited ME to give this commencement speech.
I have the secret to success.
And I will give you that secret in just one minute after I explain to you how hard this is. You see, the problem with commencement addresses is that no one ever remembers what the speaker says.
I asked our State Journal researchers to help me remember the details of my own commencement from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1974. I was pretty sure it involved Sen. George McGovern and the reading of a poem.
Not only was George McGovern NOT the commencement speaker but there was no poem. (Laughter.)
Our speaker was then-Lt. Gov. Marty Schreiber and he spoke to us passionately about avoiding another Watergate scandal. You'd think I'd remember that.
So graduates, listen up. This is the only thing we expect you to remember after you have long forgotten Ellen Foley or mixed her up with Hillary Clinton. (Hoots.)
If you remember nothing else, remember THIS simple secret to success:
Are you ready?
WALK ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.
Walking on the sunny side of the street is a choice you will have to make every day of your life from now on. And I want to emphasize that word "Choice". It is a daily job.
It is hard work to choose the sunny side.
I am not going to go on and on about this because it's getting late, and we all know you are NOT going to remember much of what I just said. So I'm going to try something that I hope will embed this secret of survival into your reptilian brains. And I'm going to use one of those multimedia tools I referred to --- albeit a low tech one.
I'm going to sing a little song for you.
A capella.
This should be memorable.
I have never done this before in public in my entire life.
GRAB YOUR COAT AND GET YOUR HAT
LEAVE YOUR WORRIES ON THE DOORSTEP
LIFE CAN BE SO SWEET
ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET
CAN'T YOU HEAR THE PITTER PAT
AND THAT HAPPY TUNE IS YOUR STEP
LIFE CAN BE COMPLETE
ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET
I USED TO WALK IN THE SHADE
WITH MY BLUES ON PARADE
BUT I'M NOT AFRAID
THIS ROVER'S CROSSED OVER
YOU'LL BE RICH AS ROCKEFELLER
GOLD DUST AT YOUR FEET
ON THE SUNNY
ON THE SUNNY
ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.
Congratulations, graduates.

A bad time a long time ago....

There is little overt physical evidence now that UW-Madison's Sterling Hall was the site of a horrific act of domestic terrorism.
To date, there has been nothing to mark the fact that a young post-doctoral student in physics, Robert Fassnacht, lost his life there.
That's about to change.

This afternoon, more than 37 years after a truck bomb blasted a crater in Sterling Hall, the UW-Madison physics department will dedicate a plaque in memory of Fassnacht, who was killed in the Aug. 24, 1970, attack.
"I'm personally embarrassed that it's taken so long," said UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, who knew Fassnacht well from his days here as a physics graduate student.
"The department's been trying to do something for a long while," added physics professor Wesley Smith.
The dedication will take place in the courtyard between Sterling and Chamberlin halls, near the bombing site.
Several members of Fassnacht's family -- possibly including wife Stephanie, son Christopher, and twin daughters Heidi and Karin -- are expected to attend.
"I did talk to Stephanie before we did this and got her permission," Wiley said. "We wanted to be respectful of her and she approved it."
The bombing capped a tumultuous time of protest on the UW-Madison campus against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The target was the Army Math Research Center on the upper floors of Sterling Hall, where it was alleged weapons research was being conducted.
The perpetrators hadn't counted on someone like Fassnacht being there at the time. Karl Armstrong, one of four people involved in the plot, said later that they bombed Sterling Hall in the wee hours of the night because they assumed it would be vacant. They hadn't wanted anyone to be hurt.
But Fassnacht, 33, was in his basement lab at Sterling Hall that night trying to finish a project before leaving on vacation with his family the next day for San Diego.
The blast at 3:42 a.m. was so powerful that pieces of the stolen Ford Econoline van containing the ammonium nitrate bomb landed atop an eight-story building three blocks away. Twenty-six buildings in the area sustained damage.
The bombing and Fassnacht's death rocked not only the Madison and university communities but also the anti-war movement.
The plaque commemorating Fassnacht's tragic part in history is simple, stating what happened there that summer morning.
There are lessons in that violent episode worth remembering, Wiley said, and posting a plaque is part of that.
"It's very valuable in a university that honors and respects free speech (to recognize) that there are limits to what's appropriate," Wiley said. "This was way beyond the extreme limits of what's appropriate."

a scared little boy

Shawn Hainstock made no secret of his tears Thursday after a Sauk County Circuit Court hearing for his 16-year-old son, Eric, who is charged with killing the principal of Weston School in September.
"I'm concerned (Eric) might say the wrong thing (in an adult prison) and somebody would hurt him," Shawn Hainstock said, tears in his eyes. "Somebody would kill him, and that would be that."
In his first public interview since the shooting, Shawn Hainstock said he visits his son in the Sauk County Jail every day or two. "He kind of breaks down and cries a lot," he said.
Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart's decision last month that the younger Hainstock be tried as an adult was a "tragedy," Hainstock said. "My heart's been tore out," he said. "That just about killed me."
Eric Hainstock is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of John Klang, who was shot three times with a handgun while Hainstock wrestled with him at the school on Sept. 29.
Shawn Hainstock's comments came after Taggart heard a request from Assistant Public Defenders Jon Helland and Rhoda Ricciardi that the teenager's videotaped confession to police be declared inadmissible at trial.
Ricciardi argued the youth was railroaded into confessing to the shooting by law enforcement officers. She said police didn't make sure Eric Hainstock understood his rights before they questioned him.
"This kid had his rights rammed down his throat," Ricciardi told Taggart.
Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett countered that police were polite and thorough.
When the teenager said he was uncomfortable, police took his handcuffs off, she said. "Very, very quickly this confession occurs," he said.
On Thursday, Shawn Hainstock said Eric was drinking a lot of coffee to help him deal with confinement and sitting through court hearings.
"Nobody knows him like we do," Shawn Hainstock said. "They don't realize how loving a boy he is. He can be saved."
But he said his son is "getting railroaded."
Defense lawyers have argued the youth was abused from the time he was 2, suffered from hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder and had a troubled home life with his father and his adoptive mother.
Shawn Hainstock and his wife, Priscilla, have previously declined requests for interviews, but witnesses have testified that both parents abused him and failed to follow through on getting medication and counseling for the troubled boy when asked by school and social services workers.
Shawn Hainstock did not address those allegations Thursday.

A date to remember

At three minutes and four seconds after 2 a.m., on May 6, the time and date will be 02:03:04 05/06/07.

Get down with math....

Totally geeky, totally cool...

http://blog.syracuse.com/newstracker/2007/04/youtube_hit_what_you_know_abou.html

My hero!

At 101-years-old, Clair Duckham, who co-founded the Dayton Cycling Club in 1961, pedaled his low-riding Whiz-Wheel trike from Vandalia to Troy Sunday morning under ideal bicycling weather in celebration of his recent birthday.
It's a trip that Clair said he has made hundreds of times over the years.
Among those who rode with Clair was former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft. This makes the sixth time that Taft rode in this birthday celebration ride, five times as a governor.
"It's a tradition," said Taft. "I'll be back next year if Clair rides."
The distance from Vandalia to Troy along the rural winding back roads of Montgomery and Miami Counties is 18 miles.

Oops, wrong kind of abstinence....

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Randall Tobias, the former AIDS czar, resigned Friday after admitting he used the services of a Washington escort service.
Tobias -- in his former position as ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief -- was known for advocating sexual abstinence over condom use. More recently, he served as director of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Tobias told ABC News Thursday he had been a customer of Pamela Martin and Associates, an escort service, although he said he received massages, not sex. His cell phone number was given the network by Judith Palfrey, nicknamed the "DC Madam," who faces federal charges for allegedly promoting prostitution.
"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey said in an interview with ABC to be broadcast next week.

15 year old is an adult....

Sue Klang's head dropped to her hands Monday after Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart ruled 16-year-old Eric Hainstock would stand trial as an adult for fatally shooting her husband Sept. 29.
Minutes later, Klang chose her words carefully for the media. "We are satisfied he's staying in adult court," Klang said. "I don't want him out free."
But she wasn't happy, she said - that word wasn't fitting for a tragedy all around.
"There's no good that comes out of this," she said. "There's no 'happy' there."
Monday ended a five-day hearing - a minitrial really - on a defense request that Hainstock be waived from adult to juvenile court, where, if convicted, the state would have been forced to release him at age 25.
Instead, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first- degree intentional homicide.
Klang, widow of Weston School Principal John Klang, said treating Hainstock as a juvenile would have only encouraged those who use the Internet to exhort teenagers to school shootings and violence. "There are people out there to whom Eric Hainstock is a god," Klang said.
Klang said she doesn't blame anyone for the events. "I don't know if there is a blame - the school and social services were identifying problems (with Hainstock), and the family wasn't following through."
Hainstock is accused of shooting Klang three times in the hallway of the school outside Cazenovia as the principal tried to wrestle a handgun away from him. Hainstock was 15 at the time.
When he was arrested, he had a box of 12 shotgun shells and 44 bullets for the handgun in the pouch of his hooded sweatshirt, state Department of Justice special agent Elizabeth Feagles testified Monday.
Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett, who opposed treating Hainstock as a juvenile, said he faces an arraignment and a trial on the charges. But defense attorney Rhoda Ricciardi said Hainstock's defense team would have to decide first whether to appeal Taggart's ruling.
Ricciardi argued Hainstock would not get adequate treatment for his depression, hyperactivity and other personality disorders in Wisconsin's adult prisons.
She also told Taggart that Hainstock's behavior reflected untreated trauma in Hainstock's childhood, including sexual and physical abuse.
Hainstock, she argued, reacted violently to being touched unexpectedly, and defense witnesses testified that the teenager had no ability to carry out a plan to murder the principal.
After he was arrested the day of the shooting, two videos were made of Hainstock in the Sauk County Jail. In the first, the youth said he didn't intend to kill the principal, that he just wanted to talk to Klang about classmates who picked on him and called him a fag.
In the second, much shorter video, Hainstock is shown telling a jailer that he doubts his lawyer will be able to get him out of jail. "I doubt that'll happen since it's attempted (sic) homicide, I guess," the teenager said. "Which really sucks 'cause I can't ever hunt now."
A bit later on the video, Hainstock said to the jailer, "I have a question. Does (sic) felonies go away when you are 18? 'Cause that's what I was told was when you turn 18, your felonies are dropped because you're not a juvenile anymore."
Making the ruling, Taggart agreed that Hainstock probably wouldn't get adequate treatment in adult prisons.
But Taggart said the evidence showed "a level of organization" that demonstrated intent by Hainstock, and the judge said he had to consider whether juvenile court penalties would be severe enough to deter other potential school shooters.
On a police video shown Friday, Hainstock said he wanted to talk to Klang and his teachers about classmates who regularly called him a fag, rubbed up against him and punched him.
He told police he ate breakfast that Friday morning, then waited until his parents, Shawn and Priscilla Hainstock, went to work before getting two of his father's guns from locked cabinets and loading them, getting gasoline out of a lawnmower and putting it in a truck, then driving to school.
That "does show a level of organization toward a goal," Taggart said.
Ricciardi argued Hainstock's plan was to make somebody listen to his complaints.
"His plan was not to kill somebody," she said. "He was grabbed. He freaked out. Please listen to him now."
Sue Klang said she opposed Hainstock's transfer into juvenile court at least partly because she believes that's what her husband would have wanted.
She also said the same people who revile her on Web sites as "a liar" and "a poor excuse for a Christian" would be encouraged if Hainstock faced more limited, juvenile court penalties.
No trial date was set.

Wisconsin to make fuel from pooh!

Making motor fuel from corn comes with a variety of problems, from the amount of energy it takes to produce ethanol to the impact on food prices.
But a report prepared today for a biofuels conference at Monona Terrace says other burnable material such as prairie grass, crop residue, papermaking waste or cow manure holds far greater promise for turning Wisconsin into an energy powerhouse.
Switchgrass grown at Agrecol, a business of agricultural ecological solutions in Evansville.
Wisconsin has almost 15 million tons of potential excess "biomass" that could produce 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol per year, enough to displace half of the 2.6 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the state last year, according to the report from Better Environmental Solutions.
If burned to produce electricity, this same amount of biomaterial could also replace about 15 million tons of coal, roughly 55 percent of the state's entire coal use, the report said.
Tapping into these renewable resources is important because Wisconsin is almost totally dependent on importing its energy sources. Some $12 billion in energy spending leaves the state each year for purchasing coal, gasoline, natural gas or other fuels.
Expanding biofuel production will reduce this job and income drain and create better markets for the state's agricultural and forest production, the report said.
"Wisconsin has major untapped biomass reserves," said report author Brett Hulsey, president of Better Environmental Solutions. "While the state may not be able to match Silicon Valley as a high tech leader, it could be the Cellulose Prairie and Forest for biopower and biofuels."
The report was released today at the Nelson Institute Conference "Sustaining the Wisconsin Landscape: Biofuels Challenges and Opportunities."
Also today, Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, announced formation of a 12-state North Central Bio Economy Consortium.
The effort, which is being helped with a $100,000 grant from the Energy Foundation of San Francisco, is aimed at using perennial crops and crop residues to turn the Midwest into a leader in the next stage of bio-energy development.
Virtually all the biofuel produced in the U.S. comes from corn. Iowa and Illinois are the leading states in producing ethanol from corn. With the opening of United Ethanol in Milton on March 29, Wisconsin now has six operating ethanol facilities compared to more than 50 plants in Iowa.
But the Midwest states also have up to 231 million tons of potential excess biomass each year, according to the report. If converted to ethanol, this could yield 13.9 billion gallons of motor fuel, more than doubling current ethanol production. This excess biomass could also be burned, replacing 154 million tons of coal or about one-third of the coal burned in the 12 Midwest states each year.
"The Midwest is the potential biofuel Saudi Arabia of America," said Hulsey.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has been a big booster of the biofuels industry, proposing $40 million in his budget to promote renewable fuels including $5 million for a cellulosic ethanol plant.
Erin Roth, president of the Wisconsin Petroleum Council, said the oil industry is not opposed to ethanol per se, as long as its use is not mandated. A bill to require ethanol to be added to gasoline in Wisconsin failed to gain passage in the Legislature.
"We feel the market should decide," said Roth.
Roth's group is supporting legislative initiatives being advanced by the Wisconsin Soybean Association designed to develop and enhance Wisconsin's marketplace for biodiesel, Those initiatives include regulations to ensure the quality of biodiesel fuel; tax incentives for wholesalers, retailers and bulk users of biodiesel; and requiring all state motor fleets to increase their use of biodiesel to 20 percent by 2010 and 50 percent by 2015.
Hulsey's report said the state's greatest natural resources are its forests and wood products; corn production and corn stover, a major biomass source; dairy and beef cattle, therefore manure; and prairie grasslands in the Conservation Reserve Program and other conservation programs.
The state also has the largest papermaking facilities in the country, with many mills using wood for energy and looking for new sources of energy and revenue to compete with stiff international competition.
Already there are promising projects in the works. The Flambeau Paper Mill in Park Falls is experimenting with an advanced ethanol project and several Wisconsin ethanol plants are studying advanced biopower projects.
"If we take these steps, we will speed our efforts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, coal and save money while creating jobs and helping family farmers," Hulsey said.

Einstein sighting at University of Arizona

A student was cited and released for minor in possession while attending Spring Fling, 4502 N. First Ave., around 10 p.m. April 12.Police saw a man helping a woman who was bent over a garbage can. The man then held the student in a "baby-lap position," according to reports.The officer approached them to check on the woman. She said she did not have identification but identified herself with her CatCard.The student's eyes were red and watery and her speech was slurred.When she put her CatCard back in her wallet, the officer saw her Arizona driver's license and found the girl was 20 years old.She was cited and released for minor in possession, after telling the officer that citing her was unfair because Albert Einstein was following her.

The saga of Cazenovia continues

It is amazing how these incidents just go from bad to worse.....what to do with this 15 year old?


Eric Hainstock's voice was flat in a video interview with police Sept. 29 as he confessed to shooting Weston School Principal John Klang not even three hours before.
In a grainy video with bad audio, the 15-year-old high school freshman sprawled in a chair in bloodied pants and shirt as he told investigators that he didn't want to kill Klang when he took two loaded guns to school that Friday morning.
Why did he pull the trigger then? police asked. "I just freaked out," the teenager said. At another point, he mumbled, "My adrenaline was going."
Asked whether he fired the gun three times at Klang by accident or on purpose, he responded, "On purpose."
"It was pop, and then a couple of seconds later, pop, and then a couple seconds later, pop," Hainstock said, describing the sequence of shots fired in a school hallway decorated for homecoming.
The video confession was played Friday, the fourth day of a hearing before Sauk County Circuit Judge James Taggart to decide whether Hainstock should be treated as an adult or a juvenile in Klang's murder.
The hearing, sought by defense attorneys, is expected to continue through Tuesday.
On Friday, Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett called witnesses who testified they saw Hainstock after he came through the school's front door with two loaded guns.
Weston guidance counselor Angela Young said she heard Hainstock say, "I'm here to (expletive) kill somebody."
And special education teacher James Nowak testified he saw Hainstock point the handgun at Klang's head, then sweep the gun toward Nowak. "That's when Mr. Klang made his move," Nowak said.
During Hainstock's video confession, he told police Klang started coming closer and closer, and finally caught the boy in a bear hug. "He wrapped his arms around me, and I fired," the boy said.
"I shot him," Hainstock said.
On the video, he demonstrated how he fired the .22-caliber revolver from underneath his left armpit. "Then, when (Klang) fell down and took me down with him, I nailed him in the leg," he told investigators.
At one point during Hainstock's video confession, he loudly cracked his knuckles. At another point, he asked what kind of shoes the jail was going to give him.
A bit later, he asked if jail officers would let him keep wearing a plastic bracelet given him by his girlfriend.
He asked about a phone call to which he was entitled. He told investigators he would use it to call his girlfriend or his best friend, not his parents - he told police he didn't want his parents notified.
On the video, Hainstock said he awakened at 6 a.m. that morning feeling like he couldn't take any more insults from his classmates - classmates who regularly called him a fag, rubbed up against him and punched him, he said.
Hainstock said he wanted to talk to Klang and his teachers about the incidents. He told police he ate breakfast, then waited until his parents, Shawn and Priscilla Hainstock, had gone to work before getting two of his father's guns from locked cabinets and loading them. He said he was going to talk to Klang.
"I was just going to hold it (the gun) out," he said on the video.
After school custodian Dave Thompson wrestled the shotgun away from him at the front door of the school, Hainstock said, "I pulled out the handgun, pulled the cock back and fired" at Klang.
During the video interview, state Justice Department Special Agent Elizabeth Feagles pointed out blood stains on Hainstock's pants and shirt. Hainstock said it was "blood from the principal."
With the interviewing winding down, Feagles asked him how he felt. "Tired," the teenager said.
Do you wish this hadn't happened? Feagles pressed.
"I don't wish nothing," Hainstock said. "I'm just tired."

It is eerie how similar this is to VT and happening this week

Eric Hainstock, who allegedly shot and killed the principal at his rural Sauk County school, was bullied by classmates but bullied other kids himself, a friend and a teacher testified Wednesday.
Hainstock, 16, who is charged with shooting Weston High School Principal John Klang on Sept. 29 at the school, was constantly bullied by "quite a few" kids, said his friend, Morgan Gudenschwager, during the second day of a hearing to determine whether a first-degree intentional homicide charge against Hainstock should remain in adult court or be sent to juvenile court.
Gudenschwager, 15, said Hainstock was bullied and was called names by other students and said he and Hainstock had reported the bullying "about 30 times" to school officials.
He said nothing was ever done about it. Gudenschwager's grandfather, Allen Gudenschwager, also testified he reported the bullying but nothing was ever done.

But on cross-examination by Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett, Morgan Gudenschwager agreed that Hainstock did his share of bullying, too, that it was "kind of a two-way street."
Math and physical education teacher Corey Brunett, who had held Hainstock down after a wounded Klang had already wrestled the alleged shooter to the ground, expressed similar sentiments.
"I would classify him as someone who would more likely give and take than be the victim," Brunett said.
Hainstock's attorneys, public defenders Rhoda Ricciardi and Jon Helland, presented Hainstock in court as the victim of bullying from kids at school and physical and sexual abuse from an extended family member. Hainstock also suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is socially maladjusted, they said.
They want his case removed to juvenile court so that he can receive treatment.
If tried as a juvenile, Hainstock could be kept in a juvenile correctional facility until he is 25 years old. As an adult, he would face life in prison with release on extended supervision possible only after serving 20 years.
Under state law, anyone 15 or older who is charged with first-degree intentional homicide is automatically charged in adult court.
Earlier Wednesday, child psychiatrist Marty Beyer said under cross examination from Barrett that once Hainstock is released at age 25 from a juvenile facility, she could not guarantee that even with a combination of treatments that he would be prepared to face society.
"I can't predict it that specifically," Beyer said. "But likely with a combination of services that meet his needs he won't be acting out from immaturity or trauma."
Shelley Hagan, of the state Division of Juvenile Corrections, said there would be nothing the state could do to keep Hainstock behind bars or on supervision once he's released from a juvenile facility.
Gerald Konitzer, a section chief from the state Department of Corrections Bureau of Offender Classification and Movement, testified that there's a "maybe 10 percent" chance that juveniles sentenced for an adult crime would be sent initially to juvenile facilities during their teen years before being transferred to adult prisons. But Ricciardi said she was told by someone else at the DOC that there's a "99.9 percent chance" that if convicted, Hainstock would be initially assigned to the Green Bay Correctional Institution for its special education program.

Iraq and VT

I have been wondering how the famlies of the war dead feel with all the publicity on VT. In the last 3 weeks, I am sure there have been 33 dead in Iraq.....what a shame all around.....


Wineke: Thousands die while Congress, Bush duck
BILL WINEKE
Just so we don't forget: As of Thursday morning, some 68 American service members have died in Iraq during April.
At least one American has been killed every day of this month. On some days, six have been killed. One day saw the death of nine Americans.


I don't want to take anything away from the horror we're all feeling at the senseless murder of 32 people Monday at Virginia Tech. The idea that students and their teachers can be minding their own business studying in quiet classrooms only to meet a violent death is deeply disturbing.
The students didn't deserve to die.
But neither did the service members who died in Iraq. They, too, had homes and families and friends. They, too, had hopes of bright futures that will now never be.
Sometimes, we can allow statistics to numb us to the horror of what is happening around us.
We are shocked at the Virginia Tech massacre because it involved so many. The situation would have been just as horrifying had only one person been murdered - but it would have been a minor "story" and would have been soon forgotten.
We pay virtually no attention to the daily accumulation of reports of American deaths in Iraq for the opposite reason. So many have died - 3,314 at latest count - that one more American death seems just a blip, one reported only in the community the fallen soldier called home.
The deaths of Iraqis, the people we invaded to help, are newsworthy only when something spectacular happens.
The deaths of 32 at Virginia Tech - 33 when you count the killer, who surely was a victim of his own derangement - shocked us to the core. But the death of 33 Iraqi citizens is a virtually daily occurrence. On Wednesday, more than 230 people were killed or found dead in Iraq.
The Virginia Tech victims had families, friends and futures. The U.S. service members had families, friends and futures. The Iraqis had . . . well, you get the picture.
That's why it was so dismaying to see reports emerge Wednesday from President Bush's meeting with congressional leaders. They all keep posturing. They all keep weaving and ducking. None of them - not the president, not the leaders of Congress of either party - is talking seriously about the situation in Iraq or about how we can end the seemingly endless killing.
Perhaps they have nothing to say.

Richland County, Wisconsin

A couple of weeks ago, we were visiting relatives and drove through Cazenovia. The road sign said the population was 325 and there were a couple of bars and a gas station and maybe a store or two.

This area is becoming very Amish. Very rural wtth residences far, far apart once you get out of the 'metropolis.' I can appreciate feeling abandoned in this situation and the results can only be ugly. Being hated at being called names and picked on. It certainly does not justify the ugly thing he did, but that feeling of bleakness is hard to overcome.

It is ironic that his hearings are during this very dark week at Virginia Tech.


We need to tak better care of the kids.....



Eric Hainstock woke up Friday morning, Sept. 29, feeling desperate.
The 15-year-old wanted someone to recognize how tormented he was in school and how unhappy at home.
He hated being called a "fag," and he wanted school officials to stop upperclassmen from picking on him.
He loaded two guns from his parents' house, took gas out of the lawn mower and put it in his parents' truck, then drove to school.
That's what child psychologist Marty Beyer, a defense witness, testified Tuesday in Sauk County Circuit Court.
"I had no plan," Hainstock told Beyer after the shooting. "I wanted to make people listen. No one would help."
Hainstock is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for allegedly shooting Weston School Principal John Klang three times with a handgun while Klang wrestled with him at the school on Sept. 29.
The testimony Tuesday came during the first of several days of a "reverse waiver" hearing, where Hainstock's public defenders, Jon Helland and Rhoda Ricciardi, are seeking to convince Judge James Taggart that Hainstock should be tried as a juvenile rather than as an adult.
Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett will get her chance to present witnesses later this week.
If Hainstock, who is now 16, is tried and convicted as an adult, he faces a possible life sentence without parole. As a juvenile, he could be released at age 25, said Helland.
"This is very significant," Helland said of the hearing, which is expected to last through Thursday.
Beyer, a Virginia psychologist who interviewed Hainstock for 11 hours in January and reviewed police and social services records, said the records showed the teen-ager had been sexually abused when he was 6 by a 13-year-old stepbrother and physically abused by his father and adoptive mother.
Ruth Willis, wife of the Rev. Paul Willis at Valton Friends Church, which Hainstock attended, said a few years ago she told Mike Ecker, then the Weston principal, that Hainstock could become a school shooter if no one helped him.
"I told him if he didn't find help for this boy, he was going to have another Columbine on his hands," Willis testified. "I could see the signs in Eric - he lived in a house with lots of guns. He needed someone in his corner."
Willis said Hainstock was part of the youth group at the church when she and her husband arrived five years ago, and she took him under her wing, helping him with his homework, buying him clothes, working with his teachers.
But Hainstock's parents, Sean and Priscilla Hainstock, began to resent her involvement, Willis said, and the boy began to take advantage of her. She withdrew from the family, she said.
But she described Hainstock as charming and helpful. "I believe Satan entered that boy, and that's what caused him to do this," Willis testified.
Beyer said Hainstock was diagnosed with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder when he was 4 and was treated, off and on, with Ritalin to calm him.
Every year brought the same school assessment of Hainstock's social and academic difficulties, she said, but plans to help him were inadequate.
He moved seven times in eight years as his parents divorced, then found new partners. At one point, Beyer said, Hainstock didn't see his biological mother for three years.
Willis said the boy would get a little crazy every year around Christmas and his birthday because his biological mother would promise to visit but never did. "He wanted to hear from his biological mother," she said.
'Grandma listened'
Irene Hainstock, the boy's paternal grandmother, was the first to testify on his behalf. She wept at times when she said he had been a loving and affectionate youngster. "He liked to talk, and Grandma listened," she said.
Her grandson frequently arrived at her house after arguing with his parents, she said, and he lived with her for a while. "He was terribly nervous and jumpy and easily flustered," she said.
A pediatrician prescribed Ritalin, and Irene Hainstock said it helped calm the boy. But, she said, Sean Hainstock later decided he didn't want his son to take the medication.
The teenager called her from jail right after the shooting, Irene Hainstock testified. "I said, 'Eric, what have you done?' and he said, 'Grandma, I don't know. Something snapped in my head.' "
Letter confis cated
Beyer revealed the teen-ager wrote a letter to Klang's widow, Sue, from jail, though it was confiscated by officers and never delivered.
In the letter, he wrote, "It's me, Eric. I'm sorry for what happened."
Hainstock wrote that, "I often cry about what happened. I know it will never be the same."
He ended with "I'm so sorry" and a little drawing of a heart.
Beyer said the letter showed Hainstock was out of touch and emotionally immature. "He doesn't seem to realize what it would be for Mrs. Klang to receive such a letter," Beyer said.
Beyer also said Hainstock's behavior at school - talking too much, interrupting conversations, hyperactivity - may have prompted other students to pick on him.
"They picked on him for many years," Beyer testified, "early on because of his learning disabilities - he couldn't keep up in reading and math - and later on because of his body odor, wearing clothes that smelled and wearing some clothes day in and day out."
Most recently, however, Beyer said he was most troubled by being called gay when he was not.
The hearing is expected to continue today.

I hate the "Final Arrangement" ads....

I feel a senior moment coming on
The calendar stares at me in black, white and sepia. Try as I might, I can’t change the reality of dates as they swiftly approach.
In recent months, dates such as April 3 have commanded my attention. That was election day, and it was a big deal to folks like journalists, unethical political consultants and yard-sign makers. In a few weeks, I’ll focus on the date when we publish a special edition. We fondly call it Gradzilla, because gathering the names of all high-school graduates is a monster task.
But for now, I’m zeroing in on two more dates. On those days I will visit schools in Blue Springs and Independence to speak in career-day programs.
I’m comfortable in front of groups, and I’ve addressed kids many times. So why should I feel differently now?
Maybe it’s because I’ve crossed the threshold and actually become what my son started calling me more than a decade ago. Something that’s anathema to the whippersnappers I’ll be addressing: Geezer.
A few months back, I hit 55. When the calendar turned, I became a candidate for age-related safe-driving courses, specialized insurance solicitors and even an occasional senior discount.
I can only pray that Depends remain a long way off.
Of course, my family and friends have poked fun at my gray hair for years. I found my first silver-colored strands while in college. But now, after looking at my hairbrush, I’m just happy to have any gray left on my head.
As they say, it beats the alternative — and I’m not talking about Grecian Formula.
I guess there’s just no denying that I am old. Why, I even remember when the Royals were really good and the Chiefs were really bad.
What more proof do I need?
When I turned 55, I also became eligible for early retirement. Oh, it’s not gonna happen anytime soon. If I surrendered my keyboard now, my pension might be visible with a microscope. In terms of corporate numbers, at least, I’m not so old, after all.
Of course, my son will never believe that. A few years ago, I told him that if he was going to tease me he had to do it right. He had to show some creativity.
I soon started hearing things like: “You’re so old … that Noah gave you your first boat ride.”
Soon his friends, and even my wife, were contributing such day-brighteners.
But I haven’t heard any for quite awhile. I wonder if the calendar has moved too many pages and they want to spare the old guy’s feelings.
Nah.
And neither will the kids at the career-day events. They might think I’m chronologically challenged, but I haven’t lost all of my skills.
In fact, I can still do something that few kids today have ever experienced: Program a VCR.

Bike trouble? Steal a car....

Woman has Bicycle Trouble -- Steals Car

Police in Florida have said that 50-year-old Kathleen Mary Pedemonti stole a car after she was having trouble with the bike she was riding. Ms Pedemonti jumped into a 2006 Chevy on the 26th of March after it was left running.
She will face a grand theft auto charge in court on the 10th of May, according to the paper Florida Today. The car was found because the man who owned the Monte Carlo had GPS installed, and police just followed its signal.

Confesions of an Old Geezer

While resting at a mall on what he calls "husband benches," Richard J. Schwartz Sr. came up with the idea of writing Confessions of an Old Geezer.Schwartz, 86, self-published the 236-page account of his life in November 2005 through AuthorHouse.
"I wrote it for my ego," he said with a chuckle.His wife of 64 years, Vivian, chimed in, "He's an old geezer now. Just teasing. He doesn't act his age."Schwartz, who worked for Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y., for 27 years, said there are some humorous anecdotes in the book, as the title may indicate.But more importantly, he said, within the 10 chapters are thought-provoking stories about the early 1920s, the Great Depression and his late teen years. There also are tales of his days in the military, his family and camping outings and remembrances of Faun Lake, where he and his wife lived in upstate New York.The couple bought a place in Tavares in 1980. They spent the winter months there and have lived there permanently for nearly three years.Schwartz said of the title, "I thought it would catch people's attention."The military years tell of the 39 months from December 1942 to March 1946 he spent in the Army. He went to officer's school and was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base for two years. He later got on a ship and sailed for 40 days to get to Okinawa."I was on a ship longer than my brother," Schwartz said. "He was in the Navy."While in Okinawa, Schwartz began writing a diary to give to his wife when he got home. The first date of entry is June 25, 1945, and the 51 pages were rewritten into the book. Toward the end of the diary it tells of coming home."Some of the men got off the ship and kissed the ground," he said. "We were happy to be back in the United States."After retiring from Eastman Kodak, he and his wife started an RV business in New York state. They operated the business for 22 years. Schwartz, who has three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, sold the business to his son Richard Schwartz Jr.All members of the family have a copy of the book.The younger Schwartz, who has since sold that business and moved to Oregon, said, "The book is a great account of my parents' life back then, and I learned a few things I didn't know before about my dad."It sounds like he's the kind of guy I would have liked to hang around with when I was younger -- he had a lot of fun."The final chapter of the book is called "Reflections," which includes "words of wisdom concerning what an old geezer has learned, or not learned, during his . . . years on Earth."And it's where the term "husband bench" was coined.He said the inspiration to write his memoirs came to him while sitting on a "husband bench" at a mall in Greece, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester: "Husband benches (my own terminology) are the park type benches placed in strategic locations in shopping malls, usually in the center court, or arcade areas," he writes."This is a gathering place, usually for men waiting for their wives to meet them following a shopping spree. . . . I happened to be alone that afternoon on the husband bench so I engaged in people watching. . . . One observation that came to mind was the lack of senior citizens in the octogenarian group such as myself. Then it dawned on me, there aren't too many of us left on the planet. . . . A few days later I fired-up my word processor and started to type."The elder Schwartz designed the cover of the book. He looked at it and said, "You know what is amazing? It's how much I can remember. You think of one thing and it reminds you of something else."After flipping through the pages, he said, "I enjoy reading my own book. I'm going to read it again."Schwartz started writing his second book, Calories are Crumbling, some time ago. His humorous outlook on dieting has about 3,000 words now."I haven't decided to finish it," he said. "I may someday."Confessions of an Old Geezer is $15 in paperback and $20 in hardcover, including shipping and handling. To purchase one, call Schwartz at 352-343-6150 or e-mail him at rch5070@localnet.com.

list of annoying people at the game....

Top 10 Most Annoying Fans At A Game

10. Drunks. OK, being drunk may contribute to this entire list, but let's get rid of them now (if only it were that easy).

9. Any guy over 16 wearing a glove. Come on, dude, look at yourself.

8. Old guy who sits in student section and continually yells "Sit down in front!" Hey, geezer, sit someplace else.

7. Anybody who sits a quarter-mile from the field and yells at players or officials as if they can hear him/her. (Also using the flash on your disposable camera from that distance and figuring it makes a difference.)

6. The guy who waits until fourth down on the goal line to stand and order his hot dog and sixth beer.

5. Anybody who gets hysterical because a TV camera is aimed your way. (You are guilty of this, admit it.)

4. The guy who listens to you and your friends and corrects everything you say about the game. (Shoot him, 'cause no jury will convict you.)

3. The guy with the hairy back who takes off his shirt. (Dennis Salvagio gets a pass -- I guess.)

2. Any fat guy sitting next to you in those 19-inch arena seats. (I can't stand that, but I blame the seats.)

But the most annoying has to be:1. Anyone who blocks your view by leaving early, no matter how close the game may be. (If you don't care about how it ends, stay home and change the channel!)But that's just me.

We were in Viroqua last week at this time

glad we decided to go last week, although it was bitterly cold.....why does that word want to be cod?


More spring-like temperatures are expected in Wisconsin after the snow storm that hit the state yesterday.
Following highs today in the 30s, it is expected to reach the 40s statewide tomorrow and Saturday, the upper 40s to the low 50s Sunday and the 50s Monday.
Most of those who lost power during yesterday's storm have it back today.
Alliant Energy and We Energies reported 30,000 customers each without power at times yesterday.
But they said only about 100 were still out today.
Milwaukee and Madison broke snowfall records for the date yesterday, with seven inches falling in Milwaukee and 5.3 inches in Madison.
Milwaukee got a trace of additional snowfall overnight while Madison had an additional .4".
The weather service says other major accumulations for the storm included Taylor (nine and a half inches), Viroqua (eight), Waupaca (7.1) and Arcadia and Richland Center (seven).

gotta love this geezer

My dad sits in the corner.....I wonder.....



You don't need to be a rock historian to know Rolling Stone Keith Richards has enjoyed the odd narcotic.
But the legendary guitarist and songwriter, whose fondness for drugs has been openly acknowledged for decades, astonished even his hardened fans with his admission in British music bible NME that he once snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.
Richards, 63, told the magazine his unusual experiment with paternally enhanced cocaine came after his father's cremation five years ago.
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father.
"I snorted my father. He was cremated, and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow," Richards said in the interview, which was posted on NME's website. Richards's father, Bert, died in 2002 at the age of 84. "My dad wouldn't have cared," he said, adding: "It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."
An NME spokeswoman said the story was genuine and not a late April Fool's joke. But Richards' long-time manager Jane Rose last night insisted the rocker was joking. "Can't believe anyone took it seriously," Ms Rose told MTV News.
Richards said he was proud of his ability to survive despite the excesses of his lifestyle.
"I was No1 on the 'Who's Likely To Die' list for 10 years. Some doctor told me I had six months to live, and I went to their funeral."
But he admitted his survival was partly the result of luck.

firing overpaid workers

Perhaps Circuit City should reduce executive compensation instead of firing floor employees that make 'too much' money....



Steven Rash, 24, said he was one of 11 workers fired at a Circuit City in Asheville, N.C. The store manager broke the news during a meeting at 8:15 a.m. and escorted them out of the store. Rash said he has worked for the retailer for seven years and was one of the most junior members of the affected group.
He said he earned $11.59 an hour and worked from 15 to 20 hours a week. He received four weeks of severance pay. Though he has a full-time job at Bank of America, he said he needs to find part-time work to help pay his student loans.
"It's not just a part-time job," he said. "It's about paying the bills."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly wage for retail salespeople was $11.14 in May 2005, the latest data available.
Circuit City chief executive Philip J. Schoonover received a salary of $716,346, along with a $704,700 bonus last year. He also has long-term compensation of $3 million in stock awards and $340,000 in underlying options, according to company filings.

You go Grandma!!!

I guess it is ok to steal if you give it back once you are caught?



An Oklahoma City woman forced to fight back after her grandson's bike was stolen.
Ellen Alsup says, "This kid was going around stealing all the kid's bikes."
Alsup says she'd had enough. Her adopted grandson Timmy's bike was one of those taken. She says when she saw the suspected thief down at the end of the block she knew what she had to do.
Oklahoma City Police Sergeant Gary Knight says, "She went up and asked this young man about it, a 13-year-old."
Alsup marched down the street to confront the young man.
She says, "He never took his eyes off me, just like saying come on lady."
Once down the street she grabbed the handlebars on the suspect's bike, refusing to let go.
Alsup says, "I said where is my son's bike? What did you do with my son Timmy's bike? He said, 'It's at my house.'"
She then began shaking the bike telling the teen he'd better bring Timmy's bike back.
Alsup says, "He slapped me on the side of the face."
She was shocked, but managed to tell the boy he would now have to deal with the police.
Alsup says, "He knew the police were coming so he brought the bike back."
She says she's frustrated with the whole situation and will press assault charges. However, she says it's not the 13-year-old that's to blame.
Alsup says, "Where are the parents? What are they doing? Do they just not care about their kids? Do they not care what their kids are doing? Do they want them to end up in jail or prison?"
The teen will likely not end up in jail. However, he is facing misdemeanor charges of assault and battery. Police say he will not be charged for taking the bicycle because he did return the bike.

Damn Wisconsin Banana Police

Rest easy, Madison, the banana cops are on the case.
You don't have to worry about being overcharged on an undersized banana in this town.
Trader Joe's on Monroe Street had its "Welcome to the Banana Republic of Madison" moment earlier this year when it was busted by the city's weights and measures department for illegally selling bananas for 19 cents each.
To be fair, this is actually a "Welcome to Wisconsin" moment, because the law that city weights and measures inspector Cindy Lease was enforcing is a state law.
"I can't change the law. I just tell them what it is," Lease said. "It's been the law for a long time."
Under section 91.03 of Wisconsin Administrative Code, it is illegal to sell bananas any other way than by net weight. Lease told Trader Joe's it had two options: Either install produce scales - like the vast majority of grocery stores - or weigh the bananas and sell them by the bag.
Trader Joe's chose the second option, put up a cute sign about "fruitful" matchmaking in the produce aisle to announce that "bananas are no longer single" and could be purchased by the bag at 49 cents a pound.
This did not warm the heart of single- banana lover Darlene Gakovich.
"Now you have to buy huge clumps of bananas," she said. "I like to buy two, three or four bananas, all at different stages of ripeness."
She has complained, so far, to the store manager, to the city and to state Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison.
Gakovich is not at all mollified that this law is designed to protect her, the consumer.
"They claim the consumer might be shortchanged by buying a small banana at the same price as a big banana," she said. "I'm so angry. I don't even want a bigger banana. I think the small ones taste better."
The folks in charge of these laws say Gakovich should aim her banana elsewhere.
"I don't think the problem is with the law, the problem is with Trader Joe's deciding not to have scales," said Judy Cardin, section chief of regulation and safety for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Cardin, who is chair-elect of the National Conference of Weights and Measures, says Wisconsin's law isn't much different from those in most states. She said the laws are "fundamental consumer protection" because they allow consumers to easily compare prices between stores.
I do appreciate the weights and measures inspectors' work when they're making sure that store scales are correct and that the gas pump at the local station isn't cheating me out of any of that oh-so-expensive gasoline.
But, like Gakovich, I think I'm perfectly capable of judging whether I want to spend 19 cents for a banana.
Lettuce look at those state rules. They allow lettuce and cauliflower to be sold by the head, but not cabbage.
I don't carrot all about how I buy my carrots, but section 91.03 does: Carrots with tops can be sold by the bunch, while topless carrots must be sold by the pound. Can you beet that? Yes. The same rule applies to topless beets.
I know this sounds like sour grapes, but explain why, under state law, you can sell Concord grapes by the quart, but all other grapes must by sold by the pound?
And, someone leeked it to the media that you can buy leeks legally by the bunch, but their cousins, the onions, only by the pound.
How do you like them potatoes? It doesn't matter how you like them. Here in Wisconsin, the potato police have squashed your right to buy them by the piece.
Personally, I think they can kiss my asparagus - after weighing it, of course.

Another enterprise in Richland Center

Gotta love Richland Center....they come up with good enterprises!




A 3-year-old poodle had such long and matted hair that her rescuers at first didn't realize she had only two legs.

Having dealt with three-legged dogs in the past - "tripods" - rescuers had to come up with a new term for the poodle in their care.
"She's a duplex," said Karen Sparapani, community outreach director at the Elmbrook Humane Society.
Acting on a tip, the Elmbrook Humane Society rescued 20 dogs from what they said was a puppy mill in western Wisconsin last week. The poodle, now named China, lost two of her legs when her mother chewed them off, a sign of stress often seen in puppy mills, Sparapani said.
A week later, China is learning to walk for the first time and learning how to behave like a dog, she said.
The dogs were kept in wire pens in a barn in rural western Wisconsin by an Amish farmer.
Elmbrook staff declined to disclose the farmer's name because they want to establish a relationship with him. They are expecting four more dogs as soon as those dogs are done nursing.
The shelter staff is hoping that the farmer turns over all his "cold stock" - dogs too old to breed or deemed unsuitable by the farmer.
The rescuers had to leave behind 150 dogs still being bred twice a year.
Unwitting customers end up buying the product of puppy mills, she said.
"It's never going to end until people stop buying dogs from pet stores and through ads," Sparapani said.
Puppy mills - places where multiple breeds of dogs are frequently bred - are controversial but not illegal in Wisconsin.
The Richland Center puppy mill was cleaner than expected, and the farmer, who gave each dog a number, seemed generally to care about the dogs, said Carol Sumbry, the shelter's volunteer coordinator and humane educator.
Sumbry, who took part in the rescue, said she couldn't look back as she was leaving. She had to concentrate on the ones they could save.
One of those removed was a 4-month-old male Boston terrier. The dog, dubbed Boston by the shelter, severely cut his front paw while the rescuers were in the barn and the farmer didn't want to have to pay the veterinarian bill. Boston is recovering at a Madison hospital and might still lose his leg.
The shelter also rescued a 2-year-old Chihuahua and poodle mix that the farmer said wouldn't breed. Likely under stress at the puppy mill, she has already gone into heat at the shelter.
Two fox terrier and beagle mix puppies were given up because the farmer thought they were ugly.
Some of the dogs have already been adopted, but others remain and are making progress. The first day the dogs were in the shelter, they cowered in the back of their pens, Sparapani said. One week later, they are approaching people and begging for attention.
Anyone adopting the animals will face challenges. The dogs never left their cages, never walked on solid ground and never wore a collar or leash. They will likely be protective of their food, and most are not housebroken. All the dogs will be sterilized before leaving the shelter.
The dogs will learn dog behavior better in a home with another dog, shelter staff say.

Is it cold?

I have decided the midwest has become inhabited by a bunch of pussys. I see most of the schools were closed today to cold wether. In the old days, when I lived there, we kept workig outside until it was at LEAST 20 below zero. Then we only stopped because the instruments froze up. Today, it was around 0 this morning and they closed te schools....


I remember one year, it never got above 0 for 32 days or something. Out working each day...then we moved to Arizona.....


WIMPS!

Local colleges

When I went to Richland Center, many of the students were older - some just coming back from Vietnam - now we have Iraq to bring the coffins home....


When Shawn Cassiman got divorced, she knew it was time to go to college to be better able to support herself and her children.
A high school dropout with an equivalency diploma, she enrolled at UW-Superior at age 40. Commuting from Ashland, she worked at a pizza joint as well as work-study jobs between classes, before gaining her bachelor's degree in 2002.
Now Cassiman has a master's degree and is working toward a Ph.D. in social welfare at the UW-Madison.
She says she was "lucky" to get scholarships and to find the mentors she needed to gain her degrees. But the University of Wisconsin System is launching a new Adult Student Initiative aimed at taking much of the luck out of the equation for older "nontraditional" students such as Cassiman.
"Nontraditional" UW student Shawn Cassiman returned to college nine years ago at age 40 and is now working toward a Ph.D.
The number of students age 24 and older has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years - at the UW-Madison and in the system as a whole. Statewide, nontraditional undergraduate students declined from 27,069 in 1995 to 20,095 in 2005. At UW-Madison, the numbers of undergraduate students age 24 and older dropped from 2,616 in 1997 to 1,661 in 2005.
UW System President Kevin Reilly said the new initiative - proposed as part of the next two-year budget at a cost of $2.6 million - is necessary to close a 5 percent gap in bachelor's degrees that Wisconsin suffers in comparison with Illinois and Minnesota.
That is one reason why the state has a lower average family income and suffers in economic vitality compared to some other states in the region, he said. Creating more high-paying employment opportunities within the state's economy requires an educated population.
"There is a documented need to attract adults with an associate degree or substantial college credit to UW System campuses to complete a bachelor's degree," Reilly said.
The new initiative - to be launched by the UW Colleges and UW-Extension - is in addition to existing programs, and would not mean a cut in funding for traditional students entering college out of high school.
The additional money would be used to identify, recruit and serve potential adult students, expand opportunities for them through distance education and provide more counseling.
Wisconsin has a high level of people with associate degrees who could use UW resources to gain bachelor's degrees, Reilly said. Jobs requiring at least a bachelor's degree include computer system analysts, schoolteachers, physical therapists and graphics designers. The potential market of Wisconsinites age 18 and older who have some college credit or an associate degree is 1.2 million people, and researchers estimate that 60,860 are "extremely or very interested in enrolling in a degree program," UW System officials said.
No one is quite sure why nontraditional students have declined, though the fact that tuition has risen sharply in recent years may be a factor. Sharp competition from private universities offering flexible hours and online courses could also be a factor.
UW System spokesman Dave Giroux added that state budget cuts have forced the system to focus more narrowly on a core mission of traditional-aged on-campus undergraduates. "It has more to do with our internal issues, doing more with less," he said.
But Teri Venker, a spokeswoman for the UW Colleges and UW-Extension, said another major cause is likely a scary university bureaucracy.
"Especially in parts of the state where no UW campus is located, the University of Wisconsin is often perceived as a bureaucracy that some people find intimidating. They don't know where to start," she said.
View from the desks: Rod Perry knew where to start, but he had to get past some obstacles first.
Perry, 63, lost his job as a digitizer in the business outfitters division of Lands' End in Dodgeville in February 2005. He designed digital logos that are embroidered on garments with a computer-assisted sewing machine, but he said he and some 40 others lost their jobs when Lands' End contracted for the work to be done in India and South America.
Perry and others applied for a federal program allowing them to draw unemployment while attending college, but they were denied and had to appeal more than once.
The application was finally approved, and in September Perry started taking classes at UW-Richland in his hometown of Richland Center to get an associate degree in liberal arts, with an emphasis on business.
"The big hang-up is that the program demands that you carry 12 credits. To be 44 years out of the classroom and leap into a 12-credit schedule was at least brutal, but it turned out a little better than I expected," he said.
In fact, Perry ended his first semester with a 3.9 grade point average.
"They want you to finish and then take a job. I said, 'OK, but who would hire me at 65?' "
Perry said he plans to cross that bridge when he comes to it, while Deanna Newlun of Wonewoc has a clear idea of where she wants to go next.
She will graduate from UW-Richland in May with an associate degree in liberal arts and science and intends to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice online through a four-year institution so she can become a probation or parole officer.
Newlun enrolled four years ago at age 28 to find a more interesting career. Married with children ages 8 and 4, she currently works part time as a ticket agent at the Crystal Grand Music Theatre in Wisconsin Dells.
Her husband, Chris, is a truck driver who is often away from home, so it has been a struggle to juggle school, homework, her children and jobs.
"It has gotten easier as my kids have gotten older. At first the classes were difficult because I didn't know what to expect, and some are still difficult," said Newlun, although she has made the Dean's List with high honors every semester.
Both she and Cassiman urged people thinking about going back to school to do so.
"It's never too late, and it's not as bad as you might think," Newlun said. "It has been very rewarding. I've met a lot of new people and I was able to experience college, on a different level but still experience it."
Cassiman said the same, even though, like Newlun, she has also had to take out student loans to get her degrees.
"I ended up with a great adviser in my program. We all need support and help to do anything we do. A big part of support is financial, but encouragement and belief in your ability to succeed are very important," she said.
"It is really important to recognize that because we don't all follow the same type of trajectory doesn't mean that we can't do things. If you didn't do it 20 years ago, that doesn't mean you can't do it. A lot of times people put their dreams on hold."

Where did common sense go?

Why do we need all these laws? If Iwere a lawmaker, I would write laws to get rid of existing laws that do not work! Plenty of those feel good laws out there already.....spike em!

From NJ

After a day of unrelenting ridicule, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick decided yesterday evening to withdraw his bill to ban talking on a cell phone while riding a bike.
"Even my friends didn't like the bill," the Union County Republican said.
A legislative committee on Thursday approved the bill, which would make it illegal for people to use a hand-held telephone while riding a bicycle on a public road. Hands-free devices would still be allowed. Violators would face fines ranging from $100 to $250.
Bramnick said the bill was meant to protect bicyclists and the people they might run into while riding and yakking. He had described the plan as a "common sense proposal."
But the idea crashed harder than a rider flipping over the handlebars.
Criticism came from all angles, from talk radio callers to constituents to casual acquaintances, Bramnick said.
He conceded that even he was having doubts while pitching the bill to fellow lawmakers on Thursday.
"I could feel in my own voice that, as I talked about the bill, I started to have some questions in my mind about my own bill," Bramnick said.
Nonetheless, it was released to the full Assembly, drawing instant media attention followed by a strong dose of mockery, some directed at the bill by fellow lawmakers.
"As my father used to tell me, "You can't legislate common sense,' and that's exactly what this bill tries to do, as the Legislature has already tried to do on so many other occasions," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris.
Pete Garnich, owner of Knapp's Cyclery in Lawrence, was among those who failed to see the need. His shop sponsors weekly group rides, and Garnich said he can't recall anyone talking on a cell phone while riding a bike.
"I wouldn't say it's a problem," he said. "You can't breathe and talk. It's absolutely ridiculous."
All of which contributed to Bramnick's change of heart by yesterday evening.
"The thing is, sometimes you make mistakes, simple as that," Bramnick said.