Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Bobby - dear brother

The true underlying secret to dying well is living well – including being ever-present to the reciousness of our days and “attending well and faithfully to at least a few worthy things.”

Kalidasa, a third-century Hindu poet:

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the
verities and realities
of our existence:

The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendor of beauty;
For yesterday is but a
dream
And tomorrow is only a
vision;
But today, well lived,
makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow
a vision of hope.
Let us look well, therefore,
to this day.
Though I am not a Christian, I've always felt something for this prayer:
A Psalm as Salve for the Modern World (NPR and Rabbi Harold Kushner )

The Twenty-third Psalm
A Psalm of David
The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Valley of the Shadow of Death

Roger Fenton
British, Ukraine, 1855
Salt print
10 7/8 x 13 3/4 in.
84.XM.504.23
valley of the shadow of death

An expression from the Twenty-third Psalm (“The Lord is my shepherd”).
Figuratively, the “valley of the shadow of death” stands for the perils of life, from which God protects believers.
Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.
The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.
When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

Monday, December 19, 2005


To: MOMO
From: Bobo
Remember the lemurs?


To: Mummy Roberts
From: Bobo the Clown Roberts

Message:
I WOVE YOU MUMMY

Friday, December 16, 2005

Old American Century




My Dad

http://www.uwp.edu/departments/university.relations/annualreport/03annualreport/value.pdf
The second show was a memorial retrospective of the work of Steve Vasy, a
retired tool and die maker who attended UW-Parkside for 22 years and was
made an honorary member of the Art Department faculty. The show included
his work, plus work done about Vasy by a host of alumni and faculty members.



Vasy found elements everywhere for his art
BY SHERRI L. JACKSON, Nov. 21, 2001
RACINE -- Your trash and junk could very well have landed in Stephen Vasy's house.

He combed the streets in search of stone, wood and metal that he could use to make sculptures. "He picked up anything he thought he could make something out of," said Marjorie Vasy, Stephen's wife of 55 years.Stephen, 83, died Monday at his home that is filled with the art he's created since 1980.

Vasy, a sculptor and printmaker, had been creating art since retiring from tool-and-die making in 1980. The first art class he took was sculpture. It was sort of like tool making, where you shape the material.

"He retired and wanted to do something. He had never done art before. He tried until he found something he could do," Marjorie Vasy said.

Besides Vasy's love of art, he was a longtime member of the YMCA and an art student at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from 1979 to 2001.

In May 1998, he was made an honorary professor in the university's art department, which has established a scholarship in his name.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at Draeger-Langendorf Funeral Home, 1910 Taylor Ave. Relatives and friends are invited to meet with the family from 2 p.m. until the time of the services.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Parkside's art department for the Vasy scholarship.

UW-Parkside hosts renown print show
BY JEFF WILFORD, January 27, 2000

Compared to the art museums and universities of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside appears outclassed. That is, unless, your art is printmaking. Parkside hosts one of the year's most prestigious print exhibitions, this weekend, attracting nearly 100 artists to its campus.

What started out as a way to attract national attention to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has blossomed into a prestigious annual event.

The National Print Show displays artwork by some of the biggest names in American printmaking. It is the only juried print show in Wisconsin and one of only a few in the United States.

"I think that I've found the people throughout the United States, if I tell them I teach at UW-Parkside, they say, 'Oh, I know your print show,'" says Doug DeVinny, an art professor and the person responsible for organizing the exhibit.

The show highlights all types of print media -- lithographs, etchings, screen prints and digital prints to name a few, DeVinny says.

The exhibition started years ago after university administrators solicited ideas for projects that would bring national attention to the school. DeVinny had experience working with prints, so he put together the initial funding and started the show.

That was 14 years ago. The first print show was by invitation. The 13 since then have been juried.

This year's show features 116 works by 99 artists from 47 states. Artists were selected by a judge from a field of about 800 prints by almost 300 artists, DeVinny says.

The works are an eclectic blend of surrealism and realism, of hope and despair, of bright and dark colors. A pageful of fake billion-dollar bills. A print of a man, daughter and dog all wearing gas masks. A graphic depiction of a man and woman contemplating a sexual encounter.
It's entirely possible that some of the biggest names in the print medium have works hanging next to works by college undergraduates, hanging next to works by UW-Parkside faculty, DeVinny says.

Among the artists in the show are five Racine artists:

Margaret Suchland, print-maker.
This is not Suchland's first appearnce in the National Print Show. She has been juried in several times before.

"I've been very fortunate," she says. "But it doesn't matter. Each time is a wonderful feeling."
Maybe a little more wonderful since her print, "Alphabet," won a purchase award this year.
"Alphabet" is a collage. Each letter is represented three times, in different fonts, giving it the appearance of a ransom note assembled from letters cut out of magazines. Suchland designed the letters on computer then printed them on oriental paper.

Suchland also etched the pattern in the background of "Alphabet" and layered it to give the effect of multiple images. The work was inspired by her fascination with the alphabet -- with the different forms, symbolism and personalities of each letter.

"The pattern on the piece that's combined with the alphabet is based on ancient civilization and the symbolism attached to mark-making and the alphabet," she says. "I'm not trying to express anything profound. It's oftentimes an element of design. And a lot of times, it's strictly experimentation ... And I thought it was kind of exciting to take a traditional medium, like etching, and combine it with something digitally."

Alan Goldsmith, assistant art professor, UW-Parkside.
It wasn't until a few weeks before the entry deadline that Goldsmith settled on what print he would make.

Goldsmith, who has a degree in Russian, started by developing a print of the czar of Russia. The print would use tiny double-headed eagles instead of dots to form the image.
Too obscure, he thought. Nobody would get it. He needed something more contemporary, more recognizable.

The result: "Monopoly Money: A Page of Bills."
The work consists of a series of billion dollar bills, front and back. On the front, instead of the face of a president, is the face of Microsoft founder and president Bill Gates. Above him are the words "In Greed We Trust." On the back is a picture of Gates' mansion.
"I guess I always thought of Bill Gates as being more a money man and marketer than an innovator," Goldsmith explains.

He studied a typical dollar for features to incorporate, and researched Microsoft and Gates online. He designed the work on and printed it from his computer.

"Not a Windows machine," Goldsmith points out.

James S. Adams, United States Postal Service letter carrier.
Adams came upon the idea for his print, "Digital Encounter," by accident. It happened while he was scanning some of his art -- usually cast paper and plaster molds -- onto his computer to document them.

"I was just kind of playing around one day, inverting the colors, and I thought 'Wow, look at that," he says. "I like to experiment with color, yes. I would say those were deliberate colors. I wanted something positive."

Thus the surreal scheme of bright colors in "Digital Encounter," which appears as a handprint on a circuit board. Adams took his inspiration for the subject matter from a magazine article he read about surgically attaching mechanical hands to amputees.

To make the print, Adams scanned in images of his hand and a computer board on a computer. He also used images of an old Journal Times printing plate and some of his molds, although those may be difficult to spot.

Making prints on a computer is more flexible than making molds and has a wider variety of outcomes, he says.

"With the other process, it's kind of straight forward , start to finish, and once you get there, you're done," Adams says. "And there's nothing to do except major surgery to change it.
"With the computer, it's completely different ... There are so many possibilities with a computer that you can get lost."

Stephen Vasy, retired tool & dye maker

Vasy makes his first appearance in the National Print Show, although he has been making prints and sculpting since 1980. That's when he retired and took an art class to fill his time.

Vasy didn't limit himself to just one technique when creating his print, "I Think I Need This."
"It's a little bit of everything," he says. "Some dry point ... also cut-out sections and overlay."
The print depicts a police officer and three other people, including one with a pipe raised over his head. A razor wire fence occupies the bottom corner of the print.

The subject? "I guess violence, more than anything" Vasy says. "Things get out of hand."
The idea for the image came from a magazine or newspaper picture. Vasy can't remember exactly what the photo was or where he saw it. But it left an impression of violence, of one person beating another.

Vasy came up with the colors part by chance, part by design.
"Most of the time, I use red, blue and yellow and white. I use them almost always," he says. "In that particular print, I thinned out the ink with thinner... and that way the inks would flow together, blend."

David Holmes, professor of art, UW-Parkside.
"Rhinoceros" is a three-dimensional linocut sculpted in the shape of, well, a rhinoceros. The print is made of 10 pieces of paper, all tabbed and glued together.

"I don't want to say it's like a paper doll," Holmes says. "But it's like one of those turn-of-the-century paper models where you put tab A into tab B."

Each piece of paper bears a relief print. The work was inspired by 16th century artist and print maker Albrecht Durer, whom Holmes admires.

"Mine is a little bit more funky," Holmes says. "His is certainly much more academic."
He worked on the project for three weeks. The most difficult part was putting the paper together to resemble a rhinoceros.

Holmes came up with the idea because of work he is doing as part of a fellowship for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Center of 20th Century Studies. The theme of the fellowship is "Representing Animals."

This is the third year that Holmes' work has been accepted into the show.
"It's always a thrill," he says. "I think it's important, no matter how big a cheese you get to be, you exhibit locally."

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

SABCS












Photos From: Jamie Elizabeth Lang
Blog: http://www.jamieq.blogspot.com//
Regular: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieq/

Bush's Bubble


From Interview with Brian Williams (NBC News):

"Williams: This says you're in a bubble. You have a very small circle of advisors now. Is that true? Do you feel in a bubble?

President Bush: No, I don't feel in a bubble. I mean, you feel in a bubble in the sense that I can't go walking out the front gate and, you know, go shopping, like I'd love to do for my wife. Although I may, I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to buy her.

Look, I feel like I'm getting really good advice from very capable people and that people from all walks of life have informed me and informed those who advise me. And I feel very comfortable that I'm very aware of what's going on.

I just talked to the president-elect of Honduras. A lot of my job is foreign policy. and I spend an enormous amount of time with leaders from other countries. And they come right here in the Oval Office and tell me what's on their mind and I tell them what's on my mind. This is the first time I'm seeing this magazine. "

Newsweek online is @ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10417159/site/newsweek/

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Cody



Cody
Sponsored by: LindaR
Sponsored: December 7, 2005

I'm a ten-year-old border collie, but I still have spunk aplenty. I am intelligent, devoted, handsome....and modest!

Thanks to my angel, Linda, for recognizing all the wonderful qualities older dogs possess.

4 TUG

Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures - ah, the days of Ackermann's Fxn and the Traveling Salesman Problem....

and TUG, from the FOLDOC (Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing)

algorithm
<algorithm, programming> A detailed sequence of actions to perform to accomplish some task. Named after an Iranian mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi.

Technically, an algorithm must reach a result after a finite number of steps, thus ruling out brute force search methods for certain problems, though some might claim that brute force search was also a valid (generic) algorithm. The term is also used loosely for any sequence of actions (which may or may not terminate).

Jack Benny

Hazard Rate

Hazard function(instantaneous failure rate, conditional failure, intensity, or force of mortality function):

The function that describes the probability of failure during a very small time increment (assuming that no failures have occurred prior to that time). Hazard is the slope of the survival curve – a measure of how rapidly subjects are having the event (dying, developing an outcome etc).

Hazard Rate:

It is a time-to-failure function used in survival analysis. It is defined as the probability per time unit that a case that has survived to the beginning of the respective interval will fail in that interval. Specifically, it is computed as the number of failures per time units in the respective interval, divided by the average number of surviving cases at the mid-point of the interval.

Hazard Ratio (Relative Hazard):

Hazard ratio compares two groups differing in treatments or prognostic variables etc. If the hazard ratio is 2.0, then the rate of failure in one group is twice the rate in the other group. The computation of the hazard ratio assumes that the ratio is consistent over time, and that any differences are due to random sampling. Before performing any tests of hypotheses to compare survival curves, the proportionality of hazards assumption should be checked (and should hold for the validity of Cox's proportional hazard models). (See also Log-rank test).

American Stroke Association

Stem Cell Research
AHA Policy


The American Heart Association funds meritorious research involving human adult stem cells as part of our scientific research grant program.

We do not fund any research involving stem cells derived from human embryos or fetal tissue.

The American Heart Association recognizes the value of all types of stem cell research and supports federal funding of this research. We are committed to supporting medical and scientific research to help us pursue our mission to reduce death and disability from cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

The New Medicare Law

American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Join Call to Protect Impoverished Americans from Going without Medications When Transitioned to Medicare Drug Coverage

Check out MRR's brief: http://www.medicarerights.org/12-05-05_Declaration_of%20Melinda_Roberts.pdf

Give Bush a Brain Game

Click the link, turn on your sound, and have fun.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Childhood


LI’L JINX
Medium: Comic Books
Published by: Archie Comics
First Appeared: 1947
Creator: Joe Edwards

Not sure I ever met her, but I think she is my kind of gal.






Jinx represented the "high-spirited" end of the spectrum (with Iodine at the opposite end).
Jinx was about six or so years old, born on Halloween (just like Edwards's own son). Her best friend was a boy named Charley. She was the only child of Hap and Merry Holliday, who were typical of comic book parents except for one thing. Hap was a comic book collector. No big point was ever made of the fact, but in one story, he pulled out some ancient back issues to show to Jinx.

Jinx's series continued for years, not just in the back pages of Pep but as fillers in other comics as well. She had her own title 1956-57, but after a half-dozen issues it was replaced.

Semper Canum


NUMBER: 1433
AUTHOR: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
QUOTATION: Eye of
newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog.
ATTRIBUTION:
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1. [text]

Only human






Plastic Surgery