HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY

Bring in good photos you take over the next day to class. Use digi camera.

Make inital contact: who you talked to, what your progress is. AKA woodcutter.

============

Begin with an anecdote. The example Dan gave me is the woodcutter needing to cut off his leg when a tree fell on him.

Nut graf: (I wrote down "nut grab") Why you should be reading this story. How it relates to more than just one person.

Scene: Sketch a textural picture of poignancy. My woodcutter limps to the forest.

Chronology, AKA background. How he got into woodcutting.

Scene 2: Now my woodcutter is in his truck. He will make 175 dollars.

What lies (we tell) ahead.... Woodcutter dreams of a new leg. Oil industry to crash.

Final Quote. Leave the reader at the end of the story with a quote from the subject/someone involved.

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Bob Bean Profile :Next Tuesday His retirement, etc....

Two Tuesdays from now: How much do people drink on Campus? Jonathan Davis, George Hacking RA's, PEOPLE WHO DRINK, etc.

THURSDAY

Layout Mock-up

Contact woodcutter for article: Michael Moore 754-2378

3050 English

Two or three preferred stories.
Dress professionally on Thursday for meeting with client.

I am apparently the writer for my class of five. Ask Dan for details.

Look up the Charity Walk of the Santa's weekend. Mount Snow in Southern Vermont.

Be careful so that my fellow classmates don't hate me.

Get any necessary books for this class.

CHRISTMAS!

Holidays!

Reader involvement?

*_*


0.0

-_-

0_0

^ ^
0_0

FUN PAGE!!!!!!

See Dan, but not around noon.

PWC

ENG 2710 Final Project Guidelines

Imagine a rich foundation is giving you $100,000 to create a vibrant Web site to serve a community of your choice. What magic could you perform?

“Community” is defined broadly here to represent a geographic location or a group: Lyndonville, the Northeast Kingdom, Littleton; Vermont dog owners, Newport motorcycle riders.

The site needs to meet a few guidelines:

It must be interactive.

It must be updated frequently.

It must include multimedia.

It must display an ability to become self-sustaining.

What bells and whistles would you put on your site?
How many people would work for it?
What would the home page look like?
What would you link to?
How would you attract readers?
Bonus: Are there items you could include on your site that we haven't talked about in class?

Feel free to bounce ideas off me.

Due: May 1
Length: 4 to 5 pages, double spaced.









Eric Downing
2710
Procrastinators Web Community
The perfect web community for people like me. This web page will be updated daily, if we get around to it. Here at the procrastinators of the academic world website, our motto is “Better Tomorrow Than Today.” But seriously, this web page is more about support than encouraging late papers.
Who staffs the PWC? There are two web masters, one who updates the news feeds and works on any bugs, while the other web master's job is content management. Of course, depending on if one job has a lot of work to be done, the two can work together in the constant struggle to get updates on time. There will also be interns as this community grows.
Students will join PWC for its interactivity, its innovation, and its support. Upon joining, a new member is given the opportunity to create an avatar to represent him or her during her or his travels on the site. This avatar is highly customizable and can be altered at any time. A student's unique avatar can reflect his or her mood (an option which can be selected from the user's profile) by pantomiming the feeling. The purpose of the avatar is not only draw users to the site, but also to make the user feel more comfortable and like a part of the community.
A User is also given an academic calender in which he or she can put important test and assignment dates. The user can also activate a system that notifies her or him about upcoming deadlines at varying times before the date comes up (you could select between a few days and a few weeks, for example). A user can also request to receive these notifications through another email service. As assignments get completed, a user can check it off on her or his calender. To make transportation of files easier as well, the PWC would feature limited storage space with easy access that a user could upload a document to.
Using some of the vast (but still limited funding), PWC would get an endorsement by Google so that users could sign in using their Google accounts, and chat while browsing the site. This integration would allow better use of RSS, as well as make checking the deadline calender easier and unavoidable.
Another feature that would be worked toward for PWC would be music to work by. We could feature an online radio station that plays music that's conducive to study. PWC and the radio station could endorse each other effectively as business partners.
A big part of PWC would be the community itself. One could post a soon-due paper in a “peer-review” section to have it proofed by a volunteer before turning it in. Volunteers would be enlisted from Colleges, as students there know the true meaning of procrastination. They could also write columns about procrastination stories as well as methods for coping with stress.
Volunteers wouldn't be the only ones to read a given student's article, however. Over time, the community of PWC would hopefully become self-sustaining as members start to read and review each other's work and offer input.
News featured on PWC would be filtered by the content manager to relate to the community. To aid this process, an occasional survey would be sent out to members, to find out about interests and to give feedback on the site. This would help PWC grow and develop in a way that would suit the community, which is the most important aspect for such a website.
To further make the PWC member-operated, users would be encouraged to send in procrastination stories and stress-coping methods, as well as cramming methodology to be reviewed by the content manager. Users can freely post such content on his or her own profile, but in order for a post to become a featured article, it either has to catch the content manager's eye, or receive much acclaim from the community. Users could also send small videos or podcasts, but a very small number of these would be featured, as they take up so much space.
Although members get much input on the PWC, certain behavior will NOT be tolerated. Any discriminatory language will NOT be accepted. Instances in which a user abuses his or her privilege to use the site by using racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-semitic language will be immediately suspended from the site for a period at the discretion of the web master. Further instances will get a user kicked from the community. The only thing that the PWC will discriminate against is discriminatory behavior. Users can also get warnings from insulting other users' work and otherwise being abusive. We want the PWC to be as friendly as possible so that all can feel welcome to share their work without fear of ridicule.
PWC would feature a few games, but none so addictive that they'd stop work. For example, PWC's version of solitaire would say during each Deal, “Don't you have a paper to do?” Users with more control could set it so that games are disabled until all immediate assignments have been uploaded.
The problem with starting a web community is just that: starting it. PWC will need a flashy homepage. I'm thinking purple with Neon blue writing of the words “Procrastination Web Community”. Below that it could say “come study with us, if you have time.”
The site will have many instances of humor regarding the speedy way in which its users often have to complete their work. There will be links to Google (a great search engine), as well as other sites with academic themes. With luck, PWC will be able to form some partnerships with websites that help instruct users about popular topics such as Shakespeare and Physics.
Because of daily updating, hopefully the PWC could have its own word-processor built right in so that users could just do their work on the site. It could be downloadable too, in case a user didn't have Word at home.
Legal stuff: Firewalls and other anti-hacker junk. Filters to prevent inappropriate content from hitting the site. All that Jazz.

Now I kind of want to make this website for real....

Podcasting

In response to the horrfic shootings at Virginia Tech, LSC held a community meeting to discuss the incident and how LSC would handle such a situation. Residence Hall Director Jonathan Davis assured the campus community that the college would be closed immediately following a crisis like the one at VT. LSC has actually had school safety procedures in the event of a crisis for several years now, and is working on making an even better one, thanks to administrators. Bob Whittaker put it best when he said, "In the last year it's become evident that we need to be prepared for what was just 12 months ago unthinkable. We just hope for the best."

How does one get out of a bad date? That was the question asked to a few LSC students recently. The result was hilarious. One popular excuse was feigning illness. Injury could apparently lead to unwanted sympathy and fear of contagion could easily excuse one from any visits. Other suggestions involved being extremely rude to your date, such as talking over anything she has to say, or becoming very inebriated. Another suggestion was to fake a cell phone call with a reason for leaving. A personal favorite, though, comes from Samantha Guilmette, "Talk about marriage and having a lot of kids right away."

Less Than Brilliant

Author: Trish Pennypacker
Date: March 17, 2007

Title: Less Than Brilliant
Blurb: Columnist Pennypacker Believes that Daylight Savings is a pointless tradition impressed upon Americans by the government.

Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man, but I don't think that Daylight Saving Time was one of his brilliant ideas. Originally developed to increase the amount of daylight that was available to working people, and to decrease energy costs as a “convenience for commerce,” Daylight Saving, or Shifting, as it correctly suggests, has been met with controversy, much like the controversy I am experiencing as my children and I adapt to the time shift.
To say that children need more daylight as they are commuting to and from school is like saying that the parents, the bus drivers and the teachers are all incapable of keeping them safe. What about the kids leaving for daycare in the early morning hours, and those that arrive home well after dark? Society moves beyond the eight-to-five time frame that Shifting might benefit.
As everyone knows, the government decided that it would be beneficial to shift time earlier this spring in an attempt to save more energy. They claim that we spend one percent less energy a day by shifting an hour of daylight. I want to laugh. Do they really think that we all rise and go to bed at the same time? Don't they take into consideration that the decrease in energy consumption might be because the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outdoors and away from their homes? The government also claims that Shifting saves the United States three hundred thousand barrels of oil a year. Is this how they justify disrupting our sleep habits, by taking our focus away from the oil that they are burning as they import and deport cargo, and move U.S. battle ships and submarines?
I can't speak for every American, but I know that I am not saving electricity when I am forced to wake in the night to my daughter singing, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the hundredth time. She has been so tired from waking up an hour early (and she certainly doesn't fall asleep earlier in the evening) that she sleeps an hour longer during her naptime at daycare. This refreshes her enough to make my evenings miserable, and after the umpteenth time of trying to sooth her to sleep, she finally surrenders. But by then I am wide awake. Getting out of bed, I turn on a light so I don't trip over the dog or a pile of Lego's; I turn on the stove, heat up a cup of tea, boot up my computer, set my CD player to shuffle and listen to Dylan until my eyes feel heavy once more. I would imagine that I am not the only parent who goes through this kind of ritual as I try to adjust myself and my children to the time change.
To make matters worst, we have to go through this not once, but twice a year. This year, in an attempt to reduce the hazards for trick-or-treaters, the shift will not go into effect until the first Sunday in November. I'm thinking that this adjustment will just add to the controversy over Halloween, but who am I to say anything? In the Northeast Kingdom, by the time the kids are off the bus and into their costumes, dusk is upon us, regardless of the time change, and no one can possibly tell me that they are adding an hour to my daylight hours when in the winter months there are no hours of daylight to be added, only an extra hour that will have passed unnoticed as I have bustled through my day.
If we could leave Daylight Saving on the spring format, the nation would function just as smoothly. We would have plenty of daylight in the warmer months, and in the winter months, those shuffling home from work at five o'clock might be lucky enough to enjoy the daylight for a half an hour. Maybe that half hour of evening light might be enough light to cure the depression associated with seasonal disorder. It's just a thought.
The way I see it, Daylight Saving is nothing but a rooster call from the government telling us when to rise and shine and when to tuck ourselves in for the night. It does nothing to boost our proficiency, and it demeans our intelligence. If you want more daylight, get out of bed earlier; if you are worried about safety, pay more attention; if energy usage is a concern, do your part to cut back on the energy you expend. Maybe if everybody took responsibility for themselves we wouldn't have to let the government tell us when our day begins.

Articles to Webitize

Some Students at LSC not just 'high on life'
By Caleb Byerly
Critic Staff

Lyndon State College's official motto says, “Experience Makes the Education”. But some students have incorporated this motto to include using illegal drugs such as cocaine.

After interviewing three students who were eager to disclose their drug use, under the condition of anonymity for obvious legal reasons, more than 20 different kinds of illegal drugs (including LSD, cocaine and heroin) were identified by the students as being used on either a regular basis or on an experimental basis.

A senior, nicknamed “Dr. Mario” for this story, proudly listed the numerous prescription drugs he enjoyed that would put a pharmacist to shame, including such as powerful painkillers Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycontin.

“I do acid, shrooms (psychedelic mushrooms), coke, ecstasy, pills.” Dr. Mario said, laughing. “You'd better put a star in your notes next to that one.”

Although there was a long list of prescription drugs, Dr. Mario asserts that the hallucinogenic drug LSD was his preferred method of getting high.

“I do it for the learning experience.” Dr. Mario said. “I get to see the world from a new point of view. It's by far my drug of choice.”

Another student, a sophomore, nicknamed “Smokey McCloud” for the interview, described his drug use as recreational and dismissed the dangers involved with drug use.

“There are a ton of things that kill your brain cells.” McCloud said. “As long as you stay in control, you're okay.”

Another sophomore, nicknamed “Lisa Lush”, talked about doing drugs such as coke, mushrooms and ecstasy as recreation and during parties. While acknowledging the harmful effects these drugs have on the body, Lisa did not see any reason to quit.

“I just do it for fun.” Lush said. “If it gets out of control, I'll stop.”

The belief that a drug user is in control of the drug is very naïve, according to Public Safety Director George Hacking, who has seen the devastating effects of drug abuse first hand.

“Some people don't know if they will become addicted.” Hacking said. “It's naïve to think a person can control a drug. It controls the person.”

The students that were interviewed all admitted to going to their classes under the influence of an illegal substance at least once. English professor Alan Boye is not unfamiliar with this fact.

“There have been numerous occasions where someone seems inebriated and reeks of alcohol.” Boye said. “I have asked them to leave the class.”

Boye annually conducts a casual survey among his students in order to find out what types of drugs that are brought onto the LSC campus.

“I am always shocked by the number of drugs on campus.” Boye said. “I've found as an educator, it's much harder to learn and retain what you've learned when you're stoned.”

None of the students interviewed for this story expressed any desire to stop using illegal drugs in the near future, though two did say they intended to quit eventually.



To: The Critic
Series: Moments Like This
Author: Trish Pennypacker
Title: It Seems Like Yesterday
Date: March 2, 2007



It Seems Like Yesterday



Driving by the old house yesterday, the ghosts of my childhood taunted me. The driveway was plowed and children were building a snowman in the backyard. I watched the children heave and push as they rolled their bodies over wet mounds of snow. I would believe that only a few years had passed since I ran through the halls of the spacious house, skated on the frozen pond in the backyard, and climbed through the rafters of the barn, but the crooked, aged branches of the crabapple tree on the front lawn, told me otherwise.
I was eight years old when Dad brought the crabapple tree home from a local nursery. I was playing in the kitchen with my younger sisters when Mom started laughing in protest. Dad caught her in his arms, blindfolded her, and began twirling her dizzy. Curiously, we followed them onto the lawn, where Dad had the tree and a shovel waiting. When the blindfold was removed, Mom saw the skinny, budded red branches of the tree, and hugged and kissed Dad. She danced as she walked with my father across the lawn, trying to decide the best placement for the tiny tree. I didn't understand her excitement, until I tasted crab-apple jelly.
Only two years after Mom had planted her tree, she was able to make a couple of pints of crabapple jelly. As the years progressed, the jelly-jars began to fill the basement pantry.
My sisters and I eagerly offered to pick the tiny red fruit, in anticipation of the jelly. We were only allowed to pick the fruit that we could reach from the ground, tip-toes were allowed, climbing the tree was not. Mom taught us to twist and pluck gently, removing the crabapples without hurting the tree. We filled our buckets with the smooth, round fruit.
Before simmering the crabapples in a large stainless steel pot, Mom would sift through the twigs, leaves and bugs. As the fruit simmered, the house filled with a sweet, tempting aroma. “Don't touch the hot jars,” Mom would say as she lined them to cool, on rows of white linen. “Listen. Make sure they pop,” she'd say as we peered through the rose colored jars, the sunlight sifting through the glasses, casting a pink glow on our curious faces. “If they don't pop, that means they didn't seal. I'll have to reprocess them in hot water or they will not last.” We laughed as the Pop! Pop! Ping! filled the air.
The best part came when we were finally allowed to taste the jelly. Mom would open a pint. Ping! The seal popped. Our mouths watered as she scooped into the jar, and spread the thick, sweet goop over crunchy, brown slices of toast. Next to maple syrup and strawberry-rhubarb jam, crabapple jelly was my favorite topping.
That was years ago. Now, I long for the taste of Mom's crabapple jelly as I spread store-bought jelly onto my toast. Sometimes I purchase homemade crab-apple jelly during the summer at local farmer's markets or I make my own strawberry jam. This is better than the store-bought jelly, but it holds no comparison to the jelly that my mother made from the crab-apples.

Driving by the old house yesterday, I noticed that much is the same. The house has been re-sided in the same yellow, the barn repainted in the same red. The same colored white curtains hang from my former bedroom window and a tabby cat, much-like my childhood tabby cat, sat on the same stone stoop where my cat used to bask in the sun.
However, the ancient cedar tree that had loomed above the house, its branches startling me during the dark night as it scratched the window pane, has been cut down; a brown cargo van, parked in the driveway, replaces my father's blue pickup; the hammock is gone from the white birch trees, and our name is no longer scrawled on the side of an old, metal mailbox: an unknown name is engraved into the homestead sign that is mounted above the snow bank. These differences sadden me, but the greatness of the old crab-apple tree, with its bare solemn branches, saddens me the most.
Who would have thought that time would move so swiftly?
When we drive by the house, on our way to Littleton, my children sigh melodramatically, “We know, Mom. That's where you grew up.” They tire of hearing me reminisce, but I keep reminding them that I was a child once too, as if to tell myself that it wasn't too long ago. My children know nothing of the ghosts that lie within the old yellow house on the edge of Route 18. They are too busy creating their own ghosts to understand.

Gas Stations in St. J Area

Brochu Citgo Service
47 Mill St 586
Hardwick, VT 05843
(802) 472-8282

Fordhams Mobilmart
Rr 5
Lyndonville, VT 05851
(802) 626-1120

Hays Service Sta
1 Mill St
Hardwick, VT 05843
(802) 472-5922

Maine Lubrication Service
38 Bay St
Saint Johnsbury, VT 05819
(802) 748-5317

Mikes Gas & Redemption
Route 5
West Burke, VT 05871
(802) 467-8502

Perrys Oil Service
Wolcott St
Hardwick, VT 05843
(802) 472-6560


Shel
125 Railroad St
Saint Johnsbury, VT 05819
(802) 748-4000


Western Avenue Station
13 Western Ave
Saint Johnsbury, VT 05819
(802) 748-2339


Thank You Yellow Pages for all the help.

Two teens took pictures of themselves and face child pornography charges

Providence RI- Two girls, one of whom was 19 and one of whom was 16 posted sexually explicit pictures of them together on their respective myspace accounts. The images were discovered by a police officer assigned to monitor the school of the 16-year-old when he went to the website. Both girls face charges, the older one was arraigned for child pornography charges and the younger one "violating a curfew" charge is pending.

Pat Webster: Cataloger

LSC'S OWN RENAISSANCE LIBRARIAN
2/20/07
Blurb: Patricia Webster is a long-time librarian at LSC whom takes on a big responsibility to get books in order and available to students.
By Keith Whitcomb Jr.

The library can go from a quiet, serene atmosphere, to a scene more like a hospital room triage in a matter of moments. Instead of wounded patients, books are being cataloged, meanwhile two students need to find information on alternative energy sources, all while the phone rings as someone asks where the copy machine is.

One of the professionals assigned to help those in need through the chaos is Patricia Webster, cataloger at LSC’s Samuel Read Hall Library. Webster has worked eight different jobs in the library during her 33 years there and has an easy handle on making sure people who come through the library get what they need.

Webster’s title as cataloger is slightly deceiving, as it isn’t the only thing she does. “Everyone wears a million hats,” she said. Webster, like the other librarians, is cross-trained to do everyone else’s job if need be.

What Exactly Does Pat Do?

While cataloging, she sits at the help desk where a “Do no disturb” plaque has been modified to encourage disturbances. There, she helps anyone who comes up to the desk use the computer data bases to find what they are looking for, whether it be books on leadership, educational journals, or simply the location of the nearest stapler.

Working the help desk at a library is very much a people oriented job, Webster said. The job she had before coming to LSC was in a hospital in Waterbury Vermont. There, she spent five summers working with severely autistic children. Although the job was rewarding, Webster found herself feeling burnt out and needed a change. Being a librarian at LSC seemed like a perfect fit.

Personal Life Of A Librarian

Webster loves to read. Being a librarian, that doesn’t come as a shock. What it surprising is how little time Webster actually gets to read. Five to eight in the evening on Saturdays and Sundays, is the only time Webster gets to sit down with a good book. She enjoys reading science fiction and acknowledges one advantage to being a librarian: she can get to a book before anyone else does. “I’m bound and determined to be the first with the new Harry Potter book,” Webster said.

Even though she can get to the new Harry Potter book faster than anyone, Webster makes sure the newest books that students need are capable of being found by cataloging it. When the library gets a new book, it comes with an OCLC sheet, which is a detailed description of the book, from its subject, to the number of pages it has. Webster’s job is to create a call number for it, so it can be found amongst the rows of books in the library.

Using a program called Work Flows, Webster can use a list of suggested call numbers and find something called a cutter number, which is based on the author’s name, in order to better classify the book.

Another part of Webster’s job is to keep an eye on certain sections of the libraries collection. Webster keeps her finger on the pulse of the Psychology, Children’s Literature and Fine and Performing Arts sections of the library. She keeps an eye out for new books coming out in those areas and gets a feel for possible holes in the libraries collection.
This part of her job is something that requires some personal interest to be good at.

Webster thinks of life after the library with an eye towards giving hospice care. Webster had experience caring for an elderly neighbor during his final days and felt that the experience was a rewarding one. “If you can help make someone more comfortable under those circumstances, it helps you too,” Webster said.

http://www.charities.govt.nz/images/board-members/pat-webster.jpg


Email PAT!!!

RSS and Aggregation

Basically folks sign up to receive news feeds online. See last post's comments for links to definitions.

Café De La Pensée Asks, "Do We Need GEU's?" But No One Answers

(See Above For Headline)
Date: 02-13-07
BLURB: Six members of Café club discuss problems with Lyndon State's General Education Unit; how to fix it.
By: Sarah Donaghy (edited for web by OnionFellow)

Disappointing Turn-Out at Pensée Club Meeting

On Friday, February 9th the Office of Student Life and the LSC Philosophy Club held another meeting of what LSC calls “Café de la Pensée”, French for “café of thought”. The topic that they hoped to discuss was the importance, or lack or importance, of the general education units that students take here at LSC.

That was what was supposed to happen but, although the announcement was sent out to everyone at LSC via email, even promising free coffee to those who showed up, only six people met in the Samuel Read Hall Library.
Of the six people, three were students and three were faculty.

Members Criticize Generalized Learning Program

All spoke fairly candidly about what they felt might be wrong with how things are run at the college. Among the things noted was the idea that the bar may be placed too low for most students when it came to GEUs, the thought that college admissions may be too lenient with the need to keep college finances up, that students who want their degree may not care enough about the education they are getting, and that perhaps the core courses need to be more tailor made to each students needs.

“I am actually a very big advocate for making [GEUs] major specific,” Jonathan Flom the Assistant Professor of Theatre at LSC and one of the attendees of the Café de la Pensée said. He also sighted his experience in college where they were asked to pick two choice studies in each of the areas instead of taking one choice and one GEU as students do at LSC.

The topic was hard to pin down among the other issues that the group felt ought to be addressed. Those present had issues with how the college was presenting itself as well as what it was doing for the students.

“It comes up at faculty meetings all the time, are we a [vocational/ technical college] or are we a liberal arts college?” Flom said.

Much is in flux at the college that could affect students’ futures and the path and effectiveness of their education but few students are taking the opportunities that are given to them to voice their opinions.

Ad Suggestion:"Café de la Pensée meeting times are ******* in *******"
Sidebar Name: "GEU's Questioned"

LSC Receives 1 million Dollar Grant from Valade Family Trust

(See Above For headline)
BLURB: At the last State of the College Address, it was announced that LSC has received a $1 Million gift. Students wonder where the money will go.
2/12/07

By Keith Whitcomb Jr. (Edited for the Web by Eric Downing)

Good News At The College Address

Carol Moore, president of Lyndon State College said at the State of the College address last Friday that a donor wished to only be known as the Valade Family Trust donated 1 million dollars to the funding of the college.
“I am pleased to announce that Lyndon has received its first $1 million gift,” said Moore.
The gift came as the result of an after-church meeting between chairwoman of the Board of Visitors, Peggy Thomas-Kezar, and Bob Wilson, an employee of ViaSat. “You never know who you are talking to and what’s going to come out of it,” Moore said.

Moore showed a breakdown of the ways in which the $1 million will be spent. One hundred thousand dollars will go to moving the Academic Support Center to the Samuel Read Hall Library, $200,000 will go to “quality improvements” and “student success”, $100,000 will go to an endowment for “lecture in the arts”, $200,000 will got to “faculty development”, $325,000 will go towards “matching endowments,” and $75,000 will go to architectural models for a new academic center and student center.

Mixed Feelings From Students

“How much of that am I getting?” Jason Cook, a junior Business major said. “I think it’s amazing that a bunch of flatlanders are going to be getting my money.”

“I think that in addition to that, everyone in the school should get an envelope with a dollar in it. Just to make us feel like a part of the process,” Mathew Wojcik, junior TVS major, said.

Moore also announced that the ViaSat company had given $500,000 in computer technology to the college, thus upgrading the college’s system to one gigabit. Richard Baldridge, president and CEO of ViaSat, a San Diego based company, spoke to those assembled about the gift via phone. “I just know that it’s IT equipment and they’re happy,” Moore said.

What Does This Mean For LSC?

The gift means that there is now a relationship between LSC and ViaSat, Chuck Kezar said.

Moore cited the importance of LSC gathering its own funds because financial aid from the state is low.

Among other news that Moore announced was a three percent increase in students for the spring semester, a slight slippage from last semester. Moore also said that LSC is on track with the budget, but the carry-over funds from last semester aren’t as high due to medical claims that were filed.


SIDEBAR version of Headline: "Million Dollar Gift"

Suggested Ads:
"Donate to LSC/The Critic Online"

"ViaSat.Com---Serving Satellite needs for years."

LSC STUDENT ENDS BASKETBALL CAREER FULL OF MEMORIES

-Brent Fowler, a student from LSC, graduates this spring, finishing a successful college basketball career.

A Leader Through Stressful Times

LSC's men's basketball team, the Hornets, has been going through some trying times with the school's switch from NAIA to the USCAA this season. Despite this, LSC senior, Brent Fowler says that, "it's been an awesome four years... I'm going to miss it." Fowler's been a captain for the Hornets during the past two years.

More Phony Lead-ins

Good evening, Lyndonville. Earlier today, a plane returning from New York's Kennedy Airport crashed on lift-off. The plane was carrying 45 passengers, including two Lyndon State College professors, whom escaped injury. In all, five of the TWA's passengers were killed, the rest injured. More details at 11.

West Fairlee's town meeting this morning came to the conclusion of raising the property tax 10%. This means that the average homeowner's rates will go up 200 dollars a year. This huge increase in taxes will go to building up West Fairlee's pathetic park.

Good Morning USA! Breaking News! West Fairlee's city council meeting concluded with a 10% increase in property taxes. Homeowners can expect a 200 dollar increase in taxes each year. This money will go to a project to increase the size of West Fairlee's park.

LSC freshman Randy Wilkinson, found passed out in a residence hall basement is facing charges of underage drinking yesterday at 7:20AM. Wilkinson had apparently fallen four stories down the laundry chute and received a concussion. He was hospitalized with head injuries but isn't in critical condition. Wilkinson's court date will...

Good Afternoon. This morning an LSC freshman was found unconcious in his dorm romm's laundry room. The student, Randy Wilkinson had apparently fallen down his fourth floor laundry chute while drunk. Wilkinson is being hospitalized with a concussion, but his condition is not serious. Wilkinson awoke to being charged with underage drinking....

This Story is NOT Real!!! Do Not Believe....

A horrible plane crash killed 5 and injured many today taking off from KIA. The plane, TWA, was carrying LSC professors John Dumont and George Johnson whom were among the forty passengers whom escaped injury. TWA was scheduled to return to Burlington from NY.

Money in the Online Media

A largely unsuccessful way to make money for a newspaper is putting the paper up on a website. Unfortunately, this is the only way for a newspaper to keep up with the rapidly changing times. People want instant graification in every thing these days, including news. It's much simpler to go onto a news website like CNN.com than to go out to a store and pick up the local daily paper. The problem with a newspaper moving to a website is that websites cost money to own and maintain, while providing little opportunity to make money. Websites have to turn to selling web advertisements to companies in order to support the much needed website. These ads are similar to those in the newspaper, except tha they generally contain less informations in themselves and more often link to a company's website. Unlike Newspaper ads, these online ads can work on a "per-click" payment system, in which the company re-imburses the newspaper based on the number of times someone clicked on the ad to learn more, whereas with a normal newspaper ad, the newspaper could simply sell the ad for a set amount based on position and size, and it was assumed that readers would always see the article and make the judgement to pursue the company or not at home.

Another thing newspaper sites can do is to create an archive (which costs a little more, as this requires online storage space) of back stories and issues of the paper which are only accessable with a form of paid membership or the like. This is still a low income-provider that does little to make the newspaper money. Newspapers have a lot of trouble trying to make money off of the internet to off-set the amount lost by consumers switching to digital media for their needs.

The Caledonian record's website doesn't seem to have a very effective way of making money. It has a decent number of non-invasive ads, but doesn't charge for the archive. I believe they should make the archive showy and impressive and charge membership fees. They need to find a way to reach a broader audience, expand interest, and compete with other online as well as solid newspaper competitors.

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CATS!!!!

Tuesday's Assignment: Mission Impossible!

Reading a chapter in a textbook is simple. Other forms of homework are less simple. Watching the news, for one can be an ordeal. Living on campus, TV is less a ready source and more a lottery draw. As luck would have it, the TV's in the basement were often being used during the hours at which the news ran. On Sunday, the Cable TV was available, but I soon learned why: the cable cord had been pilfered. Luck continued to "favor" me as it turned out that one of the few key items my roommate had forgotten was his cable cord. Seeing my plight, however, he went up stairs declaring he'd see what he could do. He returned after around 10 minutes with a cable cord. No questions asked, I watched WFTV 9. Dominating the news at the time was a strange and controversial story about a woman leaving her baby in the oven after her boyfriend, whom she just a dispute with was going to move out. The baby was not killed, nor seriously harmed. The uncle of the baby (the live-in brother of the baby's father) found the baby in time and rescued her.

The news had a huge debate about whether or not the uncle's story was true, or if he hadn't conspired with the baby's father and put grease on the baby's clothes to supplement the story they told the police. There was also an argument about the mental stability of the suspect. None of these issues appeared on the website (http://www.wftv.com/news/10706729/detail.html) the next day. The only debate I found there was whether or not the mother had turned on the actual oven or had just turned on the top part of the stove. In any case, this story disturbed me about as much as it did the newscasters, whom brought up some other cases, particularly those that didn't turn out so favorably for the baby. Basically, the difference between the television and web media was that reading the article makes it seem as less severe and flat, while the tv gives you the emotions of the newscasters and is that much more real.

The Interwebs

The internet is not older than dirt. It's not even older than Sean Connery. Al Gore invented it. And look how we abuse his creation. He clearly made it so that we wouldn't waste as much paper to help slow our destruction of the planet. America has abused this gift and Gore is, by this time, threatening to take it away. So, help heal the planet, or you lose all your internet.

1958- ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) Formed by US to try to get a boost in the cold war's technology race. The idea was to create a large network, perhaps even one of global proportions.

1969- The first "node" of the internet, called ARPANET, was created, and still contributes to today's internet.

1978- Britain catches on to the network phenomenon and a huge collaborative effort of the BPO, Tymet, and WUI results in IPSS, which covered a large portion of the civilized world by the time 1981 came around.

1983 "Birth of the Internet" NSF creates a network running through TCP/IP, which was available to businesses by 1985.

1989 Tim Berners-Lee, "Father of the Internet" begins work on the first web pages, as well as HTML and HTTP.

1991 World Wide Web project gets public showing.

1993 Browsers for the public are available.

1996 Internet is a household term, although its usage is largely mistakenly used, when World Wide Web would be the appropriate term.

2000 64% of Americans are online.

2004 Highspeed internet is availabe to 77% of Americans.


And to think Vannevar Bush was skeptical of the possibility of creating such a network, not to mention nuclear capabilities (i.e. fitting a bomb into the nose cone of a missile). Bush predicted a giant brain of knowledge whose mechanics would rival the Empire States building in size and require a coolant system equivalent to Niagra falls.


Sources Referenced: Wikipedia.org (not the most credible) and PEW Internet.

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Hail my originality.