Sunday, August 08, 2010
Fw: Sad Health News from Anne Feeney ... can you help?
How much one conversation with a doctor can change your life!
This time last week I thought the next time I'd be writing to you would be with my exciting September news and Labor Day special...
This time last week I thought I'd be in Sweden tonight packing to go to Ireland to meet up with all my wonderful tourmates.
Instead, here I am in Pittsburgh packing to go Shadyside Hospital. On August 3rd, in Sweden, a lung specialist advised me that I have an 11 cm tumor on my lung that is stressing both my heart and lungs in dangerous ways. As terrifying as this diagnosis is, it is in many ways a relief to get an explanation for the several mysterious and troubling symptoms I've had for the past few months... including increasing fatigue, shortness of breath, terrible coughing, and bizarre heart rhythms.
I could have stayed in Sweden for the bronchoscopy, biopsy and surgery ... my health insurance would have covered everything in Sweden that it covers here. But even the best case scenario here will involve a protracted recovery period and probably at least six months out of work. It was also hard to think about being so seriously ill so far away from my children, and my lifelong network of friends in Pittsburgh.
So here I am, at home in Pittsburgh, surrounded by friends and family.
Luckily, Tom Pigott and I have been able to arrange full and wonderful coverage for both the Ireland tours in August. The wonderful Charlie King will be joining the August 10-19th tour, and Tom will be hosting the August 22-31st tour with some of my favorite folks in Ireland. Both tours will continue uninterrupted, but, alas, without me this year.
My friend Jan Boyd has set up a Caring Bridge page for those of you who want regular medical updates on my condition. The URL is http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/annefeeney ... (The only reason you have to log in to the site is to keep spam robots from posting stupid messages...)
I hope to be posting updates on Facebook as well as soon as I feel up to it.
I'm pretty sure it will be difficult for me to talk on the phone for a while. I would love it if you'd post get well wishes, stories & jokes for me on my guestbook... http://annefeeney.com/guestbook.html ... (It's a moderated guestbook, so what you write won't appear on the guestbook until I read it and approve it--- otherwise I'm pretty sure the guestbook would be nothing but ads for viagra and such..)
This diagnosis has wiped out most of my meager folksinger's savings. I've had to cancel a lot of work that I was counting on, and incurred a lot of unexpected travel expenses. Although most of my medical bills will be covered (now that I've come up with the $6000 in deductibles and copay), it seems unlikely that I'll be able to return to my hectic tour schedule, or any full time work, for several months.
If you want to help me out with what are going to be fairly staggering expenses by folksinger's standards... I'm hoping to find 1000 folks who'll pony up $50 ... I really *don't* want any larger donations ... I don't want anyone to dig deep for this... and if $50 is hard for you to come by, PLEASE don't think about sending me a cent. I know I have enough dear friends who are doing okay that those of you who are struggling shouldn't spend a second worrying about my finances.
You could send a check to me:
Anne Feeney
2240 Milligan Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15218
or you can send a donation via Paypal to getwellanne@annefeeney.com. If you're not sure how to do that... there's also a "donate" button you can click about 4 inches down on the right hand side of http://fellow-travelers-advisory.blogspot.com/ ... clicking on that "donate" button will also allow you to make a safely encrypted online donation.
I'll have a lot more to say and share about health care... especially the amazing Swedish health care system, when I'm not so tired.
I hope that you'll spread the word to any of our friends that may not subscribe to the Fellow Travelers' Advisory.
As I'm wandering around the sweet little house I get to spend so little time in, I keep finding boxes and boxes of thank you cards that I have purchased and never mailed. My heart overflows with gratitude to all of you for your daily work for justice, art and truth - for your steadfast support of the many projects I've brought to you in the past... I am so honored to call you my friend.
Many of my oldest and dearest friends are gathering here with me at the house to help me prepare for the coming ordeal. I cherish them, and you, and hope to be in touch with all of you soon.
Anne Feeney
http://annefeeney.com/
http://cdbaby.com/all/unionmaid - Buy CDs!
412-xxx-xxxx (cell)
"Anne Feeney is the greatest labor singer in North America." -- Utah Phillips
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Hundreds vie for spot on "Biggest Loser"
Hundreds vie for spot on "Biggest Loser": "Staff with the show pointed to one man who clearly had that strong desire -- Larry Culley, 58, a lawyer and aspiring voice artist from Staten Island, N.Y., who drove into Pittsburgh and arrived at 11 a.m. yesterday. Mr. Culley, who weighs 366 pounds and wants to get down to about 200 pounds, said this is his fourth audition attempt.I wonder. What was Larry's weight the other three times he auditioned for the show? And, what did he eat as he arrived in Pittsburgh?
He said he wants to be selected for the show because his weight is interfering with his life and his health. He said he believes he has what it takes to connect with the audience."
There is no time like the present, pal.
By the way, I found out in our recent trip to Peoria that one of my friends from the good old days was on a past season of "The Biggest Loser." He was a firefighter who had a vintage firetruck and owned an ACE Hardware Store -- and his kids were swimmers. His son was a very fast swimmer and swam in the Big 10 Conference -- and is now a high school swim coach.
I'll need to go back and look online at hulu at the past seasons to find some of his segments.
The Rauterkus Scholarship: 365 Days on a Budget
FYI, this is the same name -- but remote relative.
365 Days on a Budget: "All proceeds from the book generated by students enrolled in classes at our university will be donated to our department.
The funds that we donate will be restricted to be used only for The Rauterkus Scholarship given in the following semester to a Finance major who meets our criteria.
We will make the final decision on which student(s) will receive the Rauterkus Scholarship."
City Swim Meet: Aug 7, 2010
The 2008 team is above.
This team must be from 2007, or prior.
We have also been watching results from USA Nationals. http://www.star-meets.org/results/Nats/2010/
Sports question pitched to the A+ Schools question sink hole
Sports within a school that ranges from grades 6 to 12 require gyms and athletic spaces for both high school and middle school teams. One gym or one swim pool, even large gyms, can't work for two schools.
The sports teams will not fit into PPS WESTINGHOUSE 6-12, just as they do not work at Schenley / Obama @ Reizenstein (another PPS 6-12 school) and soon to be @ Peabody.
In basketball season, for example, six different teams (Varsity, JV, Middle School for both boys and girls) must practice and play games. Gyms are used for wrestling, dances, Physical Education, spring sport conditioning, intramurals, and hopefully community-club teams with wrap around services.
There have been no plans nor answers on how to fix this serious problem with the schools -- except to drop the ball with athletics.
To combat street gangs, we need sports gangs and school gangs with challenging and high quality enrichment in realms where parents and coaches and educators control.
If sports are a priority, then PPS MUST double the size of its athletic facilities at all 6-12 schools, including locker-rooms.
Does PPS really care about sports and afterschool?
If PPS does care, when and how are the athletic facilities going to double? And, how much does that investment cost?
Friday, August 06, 2010
Our next big trip looks like this
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/seal-commuters/262ttp0n Seal Island Video
Fw: [DW] IdeaHub from the Department of Transportation
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Clift <clift@e-democracy.org>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 14:04:57
To: newswire<newswire@groups.dowire.org>
Reply-To: clift@publicus.net
Subject: [DW] IdeaHub from the Department of Transportation
This caught my eye:
DOT launches IdeaHub (08/03/2010) Transportation launched an online
community where its employees can share and collaborate on new ideas
with their 55,000 colleagues across the country. The online community
will allow the department to post challenges to employees as a way of
getting people to think about specific questions or problems.
http://fastlane.dot.gov/2010/08/ideahub-to-engage-dotemployees-tap-their-expertise.html
I wonder if state and local transportation officials might participate?
A decade plus ago I recall running into a transportation listserv that
sparked my interested in inter-governmental effective practices
exchange. Not sure if it is alive today, but many niche groups are
still out there:
http://www.google.com/search?q=transportation+listserv
Speaking of intergovernmental exchange, I think the UK has some action
worth noting:
http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk
Cheers,
Steven Clift
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
From: <lisa.nelson@gsa.gov>
Date: Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Subject: [MuniGov2.0] August 6 Weekly Research and Best Practices Email
To: munigov@googlegroups.com
Happy Friday,
Here is the August 6 research and best practices email. As always,
feel free to pass the information along to others who might be
interested or refer them to
https://forum.webcontent.gov/?page=research_newsletters.
Last week a few people had difficulty opening the usability links. I
am attaching the article that it came from with the links. The
checklist and 25-minute video links are IN the article and available
to the reader.
Lisa Nelson, GSA
Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies
Research
IT Trends in State Government (07/27/2010) NASCIO/TechAmerica/Grant
Thornton survey finds tough economic times have presented new
opportunities for CIOs. Many have been able to implement new
cost-saving strategies, innovative business models and emerging
technologies. http://www.nascio.org/publications/documents/NASCIO-2010StateCIOSurvey.pdf
Canadas Global Positioning Strategy (06/2010) The Canadian
International Council considers the shift in the global balance of
power. Three "game changers" are identified - the rise of China, India
and other players in the global economy, the entry of the United
States into a period of relative economic decline and the hardening of
the border between our two countries since 9/11. http://bit.ly/aNPgok
News
Federal Agency Social Media Hubs (08/02/2010) Many federal agencies
are creating hubs for their social media connections. Some provide
access to specific media links, such as agency bloggers, others
provide links to policy and training.
http://www.businessofgovernment.org/blog/federal-agency-social-media-hubs
DOT launches IdeaHub (08/03/2010) Transportation launched an online
community where its employees can share and collaborate on new ideas
with their 55,000 colleagues across the country. The online community
will allow the department to post challenges to employees as a way of
getting people to think about specific questions or problems.
http://fastlane.dot.gov/2010/08/ideahub-to-engage-dotemployees-tap-their-expertise.html
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Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire now contains the following file
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Thursday, August 05, 2010
So sad. Really sad.
We must teach our kids to swim.
The other day it was 102-degrees, after the sun went down, in Nashville, TN. It wasn't that hot here, but we've got three rivers.
Finally, splash parks don't cut it in my opinion. You can't learn to swim n a splash park.
On a much more positive and happy note, we had a great water polo practice today, Thursday, at Peabody High School, from 10:30 am to noon.
All of our players are swimmers and the game was well matched. We need more players too. Visit us on Friday or all next week, Monday to Friday, 10:30 am to noon at Peabody High School.
NCAA probe into WVU football - so let's get this straight
NCAA probe into WVU football alleges improprieties
• Exceeding the permissible number of coaches from 2005-09, when non-coaching staff members engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities.
• Graduate assistants, a student assistant, student managers and non-coaching staff members, in the summers between 2005-09, monitored voluntary summer workouts.
• Rodriguez 'failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.'
• Stewart 'failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.'
• The first two violations indicate the West Virginia athletic department failed to sufficiently monitor the football program to assure full compliance.
So, let me get this straight. The players had optional practices in the summers and supervisors were present because the coaches are not permitted. These voluntary practices had supervisors who were a student assistant, grad students, student managers and non-coaches. So, the problem is that the Athletic Department failed to sufficiently monitor the football program. Yet the rules do NOT allow the real experts, the coaches, to be there to help with the students athletes. So, the kids practice on their own. But, getting some helpers for the players from the ranks of the students is not permitted.
How many water boys are they allowed?
The NCAA is punishing WVU for failure to monitor because WVU had too many peers monitoring.
Think again.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Pittsburgh Public Schools settle suit over girl's anorexia, taunting
Pittsburgh Public Schools settle suit over girl's anorexia, taunting: "Pittsburgh Public Schools settle suit over girl's anorexia, taunting"Humm.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Big day in the summer!
AM water polo practice: 10:30 to noon. I coach and we play a cool 3 on 3 game, widths, shooting only after a dry pass.
I teach PPS Summer Dreamers, 12:30 to 3 pm. Kickball until it rains. Then water polo passing in gym.
Erik and running mate, Tobias, bike to Sq. Hill and then to Washington Road's bike oval for some practice.
Eat and rest to 6 pm.
Back to the oval for evening races: Erik's third of the summer and Tobias in his rookie ride. About 22 riders in the junior and women's race. Erik gets 11th and does NOT get dropped by the pack. He wins a lap and is in the hunt pulling the pack up to two break-away riders after 10 laps.
Newsletter text for pre-baseball for the PPS Summer Dreamers field trip to PNC Park for game tomorrow, vs. Reds.
Erik is sleeping on floor -- zonked out -- by 10:15 pm.
Meanwhile Grant played about 5 hours of golf at Schenley with his clinic / tournament play with First Tee. He is hitting par on many holes now.
Donovan is in town and paid us a visit. Sleepover isn't possible as we've got cats.
Summer!
Fw: 6 teens drown in Louisiana river; 7th rescued
From: Swimmer Erik Rauterkus
To: Mark Rauterkus
ReplyTo: Swimmer Erik Rauterkus
Subject: 6 teens drown in Louisiana river; 7th rescued
Sent: Aug 3, 2010 10:22 AM
6 drown story
http://m.usatoday.com/1927979/news/;jsessionid=C95711B12AF68E890B022BA76A3B328F.wap2
Erik
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Monday, August 02, 2010
Pittsburgh day camp mixes learning, dreaming
Pittsburgh day camp mixes learning, dreaming: "In Pittsburgh, Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said the summer camp was specifically designed for middle school students because district academic achievement data shows they tend to do well on proficiency tests, but their performance generally tapers off as they advance into higher grades."
Sunday, August 01, 2010
MGR Foundation Youth Peace Rally
The Summer Dreamer's Academy
Hundreds of people will come together to support and witness Pittsburgh youth express themselves and speak out against violence. In partnership with the Pittsburgh Public School's Summer Dreamers Academy and other community groups, our students will share live performances that promote peace. You will be inspired by their visual art work and creativity. Come and see how our youth are using music, art, drama, and dance to promote peace in our communities! Support Pittsburgh Youth and come see what they have to say at this year's rally.
Peace,
Phil Koch, Executive Director, MGR Foundation
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Newspaper Death Watch and curation
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Newspaper Death Watch |
| Tools to Empower a New Kind of Journalism Posted: 30 Jul 2010 05:12 AM PDT Adapted from an earlier post on paulgillin.com. All of a sudden, "curation" is one of the hottest words in the Web 2.0 world. That’s because it's an idea that addresses a problem humans have never confronted before: too much information. In the process, it’s creating some compelling new ways to derive value from content.  Amount of data published in 2010 depicted as iPads stacked on the playing field of Wembley Stadium Content curation is about filtering the stuff that people really need from out of all the noise around it. In the same way that museum curators choose which items from a collection to put on display, content curators select and publish information that’s of interest to a particular audience. This function is becoming more and more critical as the volume of information on the Internet explodes. It’s projected that the amount of digital information that will be created in 2010 could fill 75 billion 16 GB Apple iPads (fun infographic here). Yet, as influencer relations expert Katie Paine points out, 90% of it is crap. As more and more crappy content pervades the Internet, the value of curation should grow. The problem is that curation is labor-intensive. Someone has to sift through all that source information to decide what to keep and what to throw away, and human decision-making isn’t easy to automate. Keyword filtering has all kinds of shortcomings and RSS feeds, while useful in many contexts, are basically headline services. We’ve recently been working with a startup that's developed an innovative technology that vastly improves the speed and quality of content curation. CIThread has spent the last 15 months building an inference engine that uses artificial intelligence principles to give curators a kind of intelligent assistant. The company is attacking the labor problem by making curators (or you can call them “editors”) more productive rather than trying to replace them. Full disclosure: We have received a small equity stake and a referral incentive from CIThread as compensation for our advice. Other than that, the pay has amounted to a couple of free lunches. We make no money unless this idea is as good as we think it is. CIThread (the name stands for "Collective Intelligence Threading" and yeah, they know they have to change it) essentially learns from choices that an editor or curator makes and applies that learning to delivering better source material. The curator starts by presenting the engine with a basic set of keywords. CIThread scours the Web for relevant content, much like a search engine does. Then the curator combs through the results to make decisions about what to publish, what to promote and what to throw away. As those decisions are made, the engine analyzes the content to identify patterns. It then applies that insight to delivering a better quality of source content. In effect, it learns to “think” like the curator. CIThread can be linked to popular content management systems to make it possible to automatically publish content to a website and even syndicate to Twitter and Facebook without leaving the curation dashboard. That’s what happens on the back end, but there's intelligence on the audience side, too. CIThread can also tie in to Web analytics engines to fold audience behavior into its decision-making. For example, the curator can set the engine to overweight content that generates a lot of views or clicks into its decisions and to deliver more source material just like it to the curator. All of these factors can be controlled via a dashboard. Shhhhh! CIThread is still pretty early stage. It has some test customers, but none can yet be identified. Here’s a general description of what one of them is doing, though. This company owns a portfolio of properties throughout the US and uses localized websites as both a marketing and customer service tool. Each site contains frequently updated news about the region, but the portfolio is administered centrally for cost and quality reasons. Using CIThread, individual editors can now maintain literally dozens of these websites at once. The more the engine learns about their preferences, the more sites they can support. That's one of the coolest features of inference engines: they get smarter the more they’re used. The technical brain behind CIThread is Mike Matchett, an MIT-educated developer with a background in computational linguistics and machine learning. The CEO is Tom Riddle (no relation to Lord Voldemort), a serial entrepreneur with a background in data communications, storage and enterprise software. The two founders started out targeting professional publishers, and that’s a pretty safe bet. But we think the opportunity is much bigger. Nearly any company or organization today can develop unique value for its constituents by delivering curated content. Using tools like CIThread, they can do it more quickly and productively than by training humans. They can also capture the knowledge of their editors so that experience doesn’t walk out the door due to resignation or layoff. If you want to hear more, e-mail curious@cithread.com or visit the website. Since we first wrote this, a couple of other tools have come to our attention that attack this same curation task. Curata has an engine that scours the Web for content and auto-posts it to blogs and social network sites. The company has a shipping product and real customers. Curata is positioning its service as more of a lead generation tool than an editorial productivity aid. See the two-minute video below. CurationStation looks a lot like Curata. It’s a low-cost service that filters content based upon keywords and publishes automatically to multiple destinations. The $2.99 signup incentive is attractive, but set a reminder on your calendar, because it turns into a $279 monthly fee after the first 30 days. If anyone has experience with either of these products, or is aware of other solutions, please comment.
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Fw: Still Time to Apply! - 2010-2011 Education Policy Fellowship Program
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There is still time to apply for the
2010-2011 PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION POLICY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Applications are available now for the 2010-2011 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC).
With nearly 300 graduates in its first eleven years, this Program is a premier professional development opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and community leaders. Act 48 credits are available to individuals holding Pennsylvania teaching or administrative certificates, and State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available to certified public accountants.
Past participants include state policymakers, district superintendents and principals, school business officers, school board members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders, education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows are typically sponsored by their employer or another organization.
The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day retreat on September 16-17, 2010 and continues through June 2011.
Applications are being accepted now. The class is now two-thirds filled, but there is still time to apply!
Click on http://www.eplc.org/fellows.html to see:
· 2010-11 Schedule
· 2010-11 Application
· Past Speakers
· Program Alumni
· More Information
Since space is limited to approximately 30 positions, it is advisable to submit an application as soon as possible. The application may be copied from the EPLC Web Site, but must be submitted by mail with the necessary signatures of applicant and sponsor.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the Fellowship Program and its requirements, please contact Ron Cowell at 717-260-9900 or cowell@eplc.org.
Growing up poor can affect brain development
Growing up poor can affect brain development: "'Why isn't this part of the social fabric, this notion that it takes a village to raise a child? How did we lose sight of that?'"
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, Aug 2 meeting in City Council about the Citizens Police Review Board
Dear friends of justice and accountability,
For several weeks and months now, we've been trying to convince City Council not to replace the Citizen's Police Review Board (CPRB) with new people who are likely to cooperate in the Mayor and Chief of Police's attempts to thwart the CPRB's investigation into the police repression around the G20 in Pittsburgh. Despite our best attempts, and many meetings and letters to the Mayor and Council from the Black-Political Empowerment Project, City Council and the Mayor are now planning on ramming the new nominations in on Monday. The new legislation which clarifies the nomination process still hasn't appeared on the Council web site, and City Council has refused a request to hold off until a public hearing is held so that the public will have a chance to comment.
Our last chance to convince City Council not to cooperate in this cover-up is this MONDAY, AUGUST 2 at 10am at the next City Council meeting, where they plan to (a) pass the secret legislation and (b) make the new nominations.
PLEASE SHOW UP TO THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON MONDAY AT 10AM AND ASK THEM TO AMEND THE LEGISLATION TO SET THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE NEW CPRB BOARD TO SEPT. 28, 2010 - THE DATE OF THE NEXT SCHEDULED CPRB MEETING. THIS WOULD ENSURE THAT THERE IS NO INTERFERENCE IN THE CURRENT INVESTIGATION OF THE G20.
This attempt to thwart the investigation and neutralize the CPRB would set a BAD PRECEDENT for future cases, including Jordan Miles and others.
A fight for one is a fight for all,
--Pete Shell, Anti-Racism Committee, TMC
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