“Candidates come forward to fill Mumpower seat - TriCities.com” plus 3 more |
- Candidates come forward to fill Mumpower seat - TriCities.com
- Winnipeg Writer Prevents American Sweep - PR-USA.net
- Candidates for Readington Board of Ed include a ‘team ... - Recorder Community Newspapers
- Hubble hits new heights - MSNBC Cosmiclog
| Candidates come forward to fill Mumpower seat - TriCities.com Posted: 27 Mar 2010 05:49 AM PDT Former Press Secretary LIES to the Press Timothy Hill, who was at center of '07 Wikipedia flap, picks up papers to seek Mumpower's seat By Staff Report BLOUNTVILLE — Timothy Hill, brother of state Rep. Matthew Hill and former press secretary to former U.S. Rep. David Davis, picked up paperwork to run for the 3rd House District seat Thursday, not long after Jason Mumpower announced he will not seek re-election to that seat. Timothy Hill, of Polo Drive in Blountville, served as press secretary to Davis from January 2007 through December 2007, saying then he wanted to pursue other career options. He had worked on Davis' 2006 congressional campaign. In mid-2007, Hill used a congressional computer to delete information in the online Wikipedia biographies of Davis and his brother, state Rep. Matthew Hill. As a result, Timothy Hill was ordered by Davis' chief of staff to take additional ethics training classes conducted by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. House ethics rules ban campaign-style activities in any congressional office, including district offices. Timothy Hill admitted that he "made a mistake" but faced no other disciplinary action. He'd tried to delete references involving Davis' participation in an August 1999 "lobbying airlift" arranged by King Pharmaceuticals to get King's Altace drug onto TennCare's preferred drug list. The attempted changes to the Wikipedia biographies were detailed by a Wikipedia administrator in a July online article for Search Engine Land. None of the edited biographies stayed in Wikipedia's live version for a long time, according to the administrator. At the time, a Wikipedia administrator called the editing of Matthew Hill's and David Davis' online biographies "blanking vandalism." The Wikipedia entries noted that both Matthew Hill and Davis accepted campaign contributions from former King Pharmaceuticals Chairman and CEO John Gregory, who founded the Tennessee Conservative Political Action Committee and supports the anti-abortion group Tennessee Right To Life. Gregory has been a difference-maker in Tennessee politics by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and causes. Matthew Hill is a Jonesborough Republican who won a tough re-election battle in 2006 against former Washington County Sheriff Fred Phillips. Republican Davis, a former Tennessee state representative, was elected Northeast Tennessee's 1st Congressional District representative in 2006. He was defeated by current U.S. Rep. Phil Roe in the GOP primary in 2008. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia project that at times comes under fire from Internet bloggers who question its content about politicians and their records. Wikipedia, created in 2001, is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation (WF). When asked, at the time of the 2007 incident involving Timothy Hill, whether Wikipedia gets more heat from liberal or conservative bloggers, WF Chairman Emeritus Jimmy Wales said: "I wouldn't say there's any difference between the two." Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world, and its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet simply by clicking the "edit this page" link. The administrator traced the changes, which Wikipedia jargon calls a "page diff," to an Internet protocol address of a congressional office computer. "None of those inappropriate edits remained in Wikipedia's live version very long. ... As an administrator I am continually surprised by how often I see edits that serve little purpose except to place the editor at risk for adverse news coverage," the administrator wrote. Timothy Hill described himself as "kind of a hard charger" who wanted to make sure "truthful information" existed about Davis, who had often touted his record as an open government advocate. Timothy Hill said his actions weren't intended to be malicious. Aside from the Wikipedia incident, Timothy Hill was a key to raising Davis' profile in Northeast Tennessee's 1st Congressional District. During his year as press secretary, Davis made himself available regularly for interviews with district media outlets, used an interactive Web site (www.daviddavis.house.gov) and held "tele town hall" phone conferences with constituents. Timothy Hill also put together a monthly e-newsletter for constituents and started a "Davis Capitol Update" program that aired on 18 radio stations in the district. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | ||
| Winnipeg Writer Prevents American Sweep - PR-USA.net Posted: 27 Mar 2010 04:45 AM PDT Bottle Tree Productions has launched its second annual One Act Play Competition for Writers for 2010. It is an International Competition for English-speaking Playwrights with a top prize of $1,000. Bottle Tree Productions Artistic Director; Charles Robertson was quoted as saying that last year, Americans Evan Guilford-Blake who won first prize and Richard Rossi who finished third led a very strong American contingent of writers. "Only Talia Pura from Manitoba with her second place showing prevented the Americans from sweeping the competition." Robertson who organized the contest with company Executive Anne Marie Mortensen went on to say; " As a writer, I wanted to give a voice to other writers. I very much appreciate the struggle most writers have in getting recognition." When asked what Bottle Tree Productions does, Charles said. 'We do a bit of everything. We do a lot of productions; musicals, kid's shows, provocative dramas. We train young people, and we do a lot of work in the community." And what about online services? "Well, we have this competition and we provide free resources for actors. " The company website; www.bottletreeinc.com , has information about the 2010 competition and biographies of last year's winners. | First prize is $1000. Second prize is $250. Third Prize is $100. Entry fee is $25. Email entries are preferred for environmental and storage reasons. For more information about Bottle Tree Productions One Act Play Competition for Writers 2010 you can contact Artistic Director Charles Robertson or President Anne Marie Mortensen at 613-542-0070 or online at www.bottletreeinc.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Candidates for Readington Board of Ed include a ‘team ... - Recorder Community Newspapers Posted: 27 Mar 2010 04:59 AM PDT Among the eight contenders are three incumbents, an independent challenger and four first-time candidates who say they are running together as a "sort of team." The incumbents are Marlene Orlando, John Ducoff and Deborah Labbadia. Orlando and Ducoff are running for three-year terms. Ducoff currently holds a two-year seat, which he was appointed to in January. Deborah Labbadia, former board president, is running for the two-year slot. Ducoff has lived in the township for seven years and currently two of his three young children attend Three Bridges School. He is an independent attorney with degrees in political science and journalism. Ducoff formerly worked in Trenton with the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Human Services, and the Office of the Child Advocate. "With the economy and the proposed state aid cuts," he said, "it's a critical time to serve on the board." Wayne Doran is the independent challenger. He is an AT&T employee and local little league coach. He has lived in Whitehouse Station for the past 10 years and has two children in elementary school here. Doran says his varied career, which has included jobs ranging from cab driver to communications technician, has prepared him to look at problems from multiple angles. He said he also believes that trust and open communication should be key elements in running a school board or any organization. He describes himself as a team player and believes that "the best way to approach any decision is to first listen to input from the people affected and gather facts and opinions from relevant subject matter experts." Bill Goodwin, Laura Simon and Cheryl Filler, who are running for three-year seats and Eric Zwerling who is running for the two-year seat have combined their efforts and created a Web site, savereadingtonschools.com, to promote their efforts. The group's platform calls for greater transparency in their actions, and is critical of condensed meeting minutes that don't reflect the full extent of public comments and other statements. The group also says it will make smarter funding choices and not get sidetracked on "pet projects." Eric Zwerling has lived in Readington for seven years with his wife and two children. He said that his family quickly "put down deep roots here – literally and figuratively" as he is an avid gardener. Zwerling is the director of the Rutgers University Noise Technical Assistance Center and privately runs a business called the Noise Consultancy. Cheryl Filler has lived on a small farm in Readington with her husband for more than 20 years. Her background is in corporate management and she formerly worked as a project manager for AT&T. Since leaving the company, she has been active in the community as a member of the planning board and of the township's Environmental Commission, acting as its chairperson since 2002. Bill Goodwin is a 26-year resident who sent two daughters through the local school system. He has been active in the school district as a member of several facility planning committees and has been a coach for 10 different local softball and soccer teams. Goodwin said his professional background, which includes more than two decades with AT&T, prepares him for the board with skills in finance and project leadership. Laura Simon is an IT security manager for a large pharmaceutical company. She has lived in Readington for 12 years. She and her husband have two children, one of which has already gone through the school system, and a younger one that starts next year. Candidates whose biographies are not included here did not respond to requests for interviews. The proposed budget for the upcoming year is still going through revisions after the board discovered that it was facing not the 15-percent, or $300,000 cut in state aid expected, but a 75-percent cut totaling $1.5 million. The news was the subject of a public meeting Monday, March 22. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | ||
| Hubble hits new heights - MSNBC Cosmiclog Posted: 27 Mar 2010 04:52 AM PDT Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 7:30 PM by Alan BoyleAs the Hubble Space Telescope nears its 20th birthday, its value for research and the public understanding of science is reaching an unprecedented peak. Few celebrities have been the subject of so many biographies and movies by the time they turn 20. The best of the bunch, in print and on the big screen, is arguably hitting the market right now, less than a year after a major upgrade left Hubble in the best shape it's ever been. Hubble at the movies The movie ranked No. 20 on the box-office list last weekend, grossing about $411,000 in just 39 theaters. We're not just talking here about No. 20 for movies that usually play at science centers and museums. We're talking about the big-time list: "Hubble 3D" nearly beat out "The Hurt Locker," which won the best-picture Oscar earlier this month. It made more money per screen than that other 3-D movie, the top-grossing "Alice in Wonderland." It's not difficult to see why "Hubble 3D" is such a crowd-pleaser: The hardest-to-get shots were the 3-D panoramas showing the four-story-high telescope towering up from the shuttle Discovery's payload bay, with a fish-eye view of Earth's disk looming behind it. Last year, producer Toni Myers told me she could get only eight minutes' worth of film from that vantage point during each of the mission's five marathon spacewalks. During one of the panoramic scenes, astronaut Drew Feustel floats right across the screen, guiding a corrective-optics package to its storage slot. "You can see every stitch in his suit," Myers said. But I was too busy marveling over the zero-G, 3-D effect to count the stitches. Some of the shots (including helmet-cam video views as well as archival film footage) were originally captured in 2-D and reprocessed to add 3-D perspective. The prime example of that is a scene documenting one of the mission's climactic moments, when spacewalker Mike Massimino pulls off a stuck handrail with his gloved hand. You have to expect an ear-rattling shuttle launch when you go to an Imax movie with a space theme. "Hubble 3D" doubles your expectations by providing two: file footage of the liftoff on April 24, 1990, when Hubble was sent off into space; and a true 3-D view of last year's launch for the servicing mission. It was an unexpected pleasure to see the astronauts at work and at leisure in 3-D, on Earth as well as in space. When "Hubble 3D" shows spacewalkers training in Johnson Space Center's practice pool, you feel as if you're right in the water with them. The funniest scene, at least during the showing I attended, came when Feustel fumbled with a tortilla spinning in zero-gravity and virtually dripping with what looked like chicken or tuna spread. Hubble on the Web Of course you'll want to check out the Hubble sites maintained by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency as well. And don't forget our own roundup of "Hubble's Latest, Greatest Hits," plus our audio slideshow featuring Hubble repairman Story Musgrave. Hubble in print The 144-page volume is touted as "NASA's first book on the Hubble Space Telescope." The main text is written by Ed Weiler, who served as Hubble's chief scientist for almost 20 years (yes, since long before it was launched) and is now associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate. Space agency chief Charles Bolden, who commanded the space shuttle mission for Hubble's deployment in 1990, contributes a foreword. (He also plays a cameo role in "Hubble 3-D.") Astronauts from each of the Hubble missions recap their contributions.
Weiler succinctly retraces the story of Hubble's ups and downs - including the mirror flaw that turned Weiler's dream into a nightmare 20 years ago. "To me this compared to being on top of Mount Everest then tumbling down to Death Valley," he writes. Clever engineering compensated for the imperfection, however, and Hubble's triumph over adversity became a hallmark of the telescope's history. Last year's servicing mission - which almost didn't happen, by the way - serves as the final chapter of the book. But the final chapter of Hubble's story is still far from being written. Thanks to the upgrades in its instruments, batteries and gyroscopes, the telescope is in peak condition and could keep working well into the decade ahead. The James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch in 2014, may be portrayed as "Hubble's successor" - but it's hard to imagine anything taking Hubble's place in the hearts of its fans. Then again, who knows what the next generation of great observatories will find? "After 20 years of phenomenal discoveries from Hubble and other space observatories, or view of the universe and our place within it has changed forever," Weiler writes. "These observations have taught us that there is still much to discover. I predict that we could very well, before the end of this century, prove definitively that there is life elsewhere." Hubble and much, much more
Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto." The book promotion schedule includes a "Science on Tap" talk in Seattle on Monday.
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