Anne Bouey

"On a bitterly cold December night, with the start of final exams just hours away, about 75 of Stephens' 766 undergraduates grudgingly piled their cell phones into collection baskets and filed into the school's candlelit chapel, where they did little but sit, silently. For an hour, not an iPod ear bud could be seen. There were no fingers flying on tiny computer keyboards, no chats with unseen intimates. Alexis Dornseif, a senior from suburban St. Louis majoring in fashion marketing and management, said she needed time away from her busy life. "Sometimes it's really overwhelming," she said. "It's good to have time to think, to not worry about what's going on tomorrow."" - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

How does that differ from time management and discipline? In this day and age, electronics should not be confiscated for serenity; it's the individual's responsibility to be cognizant of their needs. Hence, discipline and time management. - Mona Nomura

Merry Christmas, Anne! - MVB (Grinch of FF)

and to you, Anne :) - winckel

"It was blizzard bliss Monday for a pair of polar bears, the San Francisco Zoo's own Andy and Pike. They're among the few creatures that can truly appreciate the holiday gift they received on the first day of winter: 10 tons of ice donated by the San Francisco Ice Co. The zoo had it blown into snow as a special treat for the colossal white bears, which are most comfortable in their native Arctic near the frigid North Pole. Andy and Pike also unwrapped a hefty box of fish and peanut butter. But for the bears, which are on the federal threatened species list due to global warming, nothing compares to ice-bathing and frozen flakes as a way to bring in winter right." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"The Obama administration took aim Monday at tarmac horror stories, ordering airlines to let passengers stuck in stranded airplanes get off the plane after three hours. With its new regulations, the Transportation Department sent an unequivocal message on the eve of the busy holiday travel season: Don't hold travelers hostage to delayed flights. The Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents U.S. airlines, said in a statement that carriers would comply with the new rule even though the group contends it will lead to canceled flights and greater passenger inconvenience. Under the new regulations, airlines operating domestic flights will be able only to keep passengers on board for three hours before they must be allowed to disembark a delayed flight. The regulation provides exceptions only for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

it will lead to greater passenger inconvenience only if the airlines cause it themselves. bastards. - Joe Silence

I already have a 5 hour + sentence under my belt. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

"On a fall morning at a public school in New York City, sixth-graders are called to sit down at their desks. At first glance, it looks like any other middle-school science classroom. There’s an aquarium full of tiny turtles and a harried teacher fumbling with a projector. But then the instructor boots up the day’s lesson: a video game. The students watch as the tiny dolls in PlayStation 3’s LittleBigPlanet (pictured) hop through a maze of contraptions onscreen. The game is being used to introduce them to Newtonian physics, and as part of their coursework, the kids will be required to build devices similar to the ones they’ve just seen. This is the inaugural class of Quest to Learn (Q2L), the first-ever school in the U.S. built on the innovative approach of games-based learning. While many American schools use computers and games, Q2L is the first to follow a curriculum entirely focused on video games. Its 72 sixth-grade students—guided by six teachers—study and explore subjects... more... - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Some educators think the leap is too big and unnecessary. “I’m not hostile to the idea of kids learning with technology, but there’s not much deep thinking behind the hype about gaming,” says Gary Stager, an educational technology expert at Pepperdine University. “Great teachers have reached kids for generations through interesting subject matter and meaningful work.” But what seizes... more... - Anne Bouey

"What are angels? Did we invent them the way we invented Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Boogey Man who frightens little children into being good? Where do angels come from? These days, we see angels everywhere. Gift shops offer gold-and-silver angels as Christmas ornaments and statuettes. Angel faces are featured in beautifully framed paintings and on greeting cards. Angels in plastic or porcelain decorate mantelpieces and dashboards. Countless books on angels, some filled with accounts of visitations, others claiming to know secrets about angels, fill shelves. Some even suggest how to talk to angels and how to hear their voices in return. Almost any schoolchild can describe angels. They are nearly always tall, slender beings with soft shoulder-length hair and graceful flowing robes. They may wear sandals, but they never wear shoes. Most of the time, their toes peek out from beneath their gowns. But what really makes an angel is a pair of huge, spreading, white-feathered wings.... more... - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Today, as readers and audiences obsess over vampires, one can’t help but wonder if those fans aren’t really seeking angels. After all, in the best-selling book (and blockbuster movie) Twilight, Edward the vampire is the protector of the young heroine Bella, saving her from evil humans as well as evil immortals. A good vampire also strives to protect against a bad vampire in the Vampire... more... - Anne Bouey

"Perhaps the whole vampire craze can be related to the age-old yearning for a loving, eloquent supernatural presence that will save us from the perils and disasters of ordinary life. With angels we are most certainly on surer ground. Our oldest religious texts assure us that the Almighty does indeed have such wondrous messengers and helpers, and that He sends them to Earth only to do... more... - Anne Bouey

"Some Christmas trees for sale in the Anchorage area are adorned with something truly different this holiday season — live Pacific Chorus frogs. While the small frogs are very cute, measuring an inch or two with lovely moss-colored green sides and black spots, state officials are asking residents to practice some tough love. If you find a Christmas tree frog, kill it. So far, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has received reports of two amphibious hitchhikers. One of them was hiding out on a holiday tree from Washington state that was sold this week at an Anchorage nursery. The frog ended up in the biology department at the University of Alaska Anchorage." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

Poor little froggies. :( - Anne Bouey

I get the same response from my kids! - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

I'm not ready yet! - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Menlo Park) wanted advertisers to hear her loud and clear. So she introduced the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation -- or CALM -- Act, aimed at lowering the volume on televised sales pitches. "In my 17 years in the House of Representatives, I've never carried a bill which has been received with so much enthusiasm," Eshoo said. "Only the do-not-call list has even come close." Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee, who supports the legislation, said, "All of us have had the experience of enjoying a favorite program only to find ourselves scrambling to locate the remote control when, at the commercial break, the volume of the television seemingly doubles." But the legislation, which recently cleared a House committee, also is generating boisterous criticism." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Even before the legislation gained momentum, he said, officials were working to address the problem. "A lot of people in this industry hear about this issue from their family and friends all the time," he said. And Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of government relations for the Assn. of National Advertisers, said it was in advertisers' self-interest to address complaints -- because "you do not want to be offending those who you're trying to sell to." - Anne Bouey

"Nobody wants to buy them a beer. Even near military bases, female veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t often offered a drink on the house as a welcome home. More than 230,000 American women have fought in those recent wars and at least 120 have died doing so, yet the public still doesn’t completely understand their contributions on the modern battlefield. For some, it’s a lonely transition as they struggle to find their place...The Defense Department bars women from serving in assignments where the primary mission is to engage in direct ground combat. But the nature of the recent conflicts, with no clear front lines, puts women in the middle of the action, in roles such as military police officers, pilots, drivers and gunners on convoys. In addition to the 120-plus deaths, more than 650 women have been wounded. Back home, women face many of the same issues as the men, but the personal stakes may be greater." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

:( I read somewhere about the current risk of sexual assault for females in the service, and was so upset I can't remember any of the details. The apparent failure of support options for things like PTSD is so sad. Even this hippie peacenik would gladly pay for better care for vets. - Lo

"Civil rights investigators will soon begin reviewing admissions data from a sampling of colleges in the Washington region to determine whether, after decades of progress toward sexual equity, female students have become so plentiful in higher education that institutions have entered a new era of discrimination against them. Women apply in greater numbers than men to most colleges in the D.C. area. They make up at least three-fifths of the applicant pool at a number of schools, including the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Goucher and St. Mary's colleges in Maryland and American University in the District. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some schools are favoring men by admitting them at higher rates than women to try to preserve a male-female balance on campus. Conventional admissions-office wisdom dictates that colleges dominated by either sex are less appealing to applicants in general." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

Click daily so that sponsors provide free food for rescued animals. - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Eric Horvitz illustrates the potential dilemmas of living with robots by telling the story of how he once got stuck in an elevator at Stanford Hospital with a droid the size of a washing machine. "I remembered thinking, `Whoa, this is scary,' as it whirled around, almost knocking me down," the Microsoft researcher recalled. "Then, I thought, `What if I were a patient?' There could be big issues here." We're still far from the sci-fi dream of having robots whirring about and catering to our every need. But little by little, we'll be sharing more of our space with robots in the next decade, as prices drop and new technology creates specialized machines that clean up spilled milk or even provide comfort for an elderly parent. Now scientists and legal scholars are exploring the likely effects. What happens if a robot crushes your foot, chases your cat off a ledge or smacks your baby? While experts don't expect a band of Terminators to attack or a "2001: A Space Odyssey" computer that takes control, even simpler, benign robots will have legal, social and ethical consequences." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Finally, there is the gift of humility, which parents need to offer one another. We can fuss and fret and shuttle and shelter, but in the end, what we do may not matter as much as we think...If you embrace this rather humbling reality, it will be easier to follow the advice D.H. Lawrence offered back in 1918: "How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning." Of course, that was easy for him to say. He had no kids." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

My oldest child has made several trips to the E.R. The middle child? Only one (so far.) The youngest has had none, but then, she's a girl. (Girl's really are smarter when it comes to risking bodily injury.) - Mark "DerBingle" J

"When pregnant Cambodian women suffer morning sickness, they often reach for an unlikely source of relief: a wad of chewing tobacco. Many become hooked, and the World Health Organization warned Thursday it is a tradition putting the health of both mothers and babies at risk. The largest tobacco survey ever conducted in Cambodia found that about half of all women older than 48 regularly chew tobacco, and about one in five rural women first took up the habit during pregnancy, to soothe their prenatal nausea. The survey conducted by WHO and other researchers found that midwives are the country's biggest users of smokeless tobacco, with 68 percent chewing it. About half of traditional female healers use it as well. "Chewing tobacco appears to be strongly influenced by beliefs passed on by older relatives," lead author, Dr. Pramil N. Singh from Loma Linda University in California, said in a statement. "The behavior is seen as a rite of passage into womanhood. Further research is needed to find out whether village health workers actively promote its medicinal use."" - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"The rate of Cambodian women using tobacco increased with age. Similar trends have been observed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Palau and China. Dr. Susan Mercado, WHO's tobacco control adviser for the Western-Pacific region, said it's common for women, men and children across the region to chew tobacco with betel nut, especially in the Pacific islands where... more... - Anne Bouey

"The National Football League said on Wednesday that it would impose its most stringent rule to date on managing concussions, requiring a player who exhibits any significant sign of concussion to be removed from a game or practice and not be allowed to return the same day. The league has maintained, despite widespread criticism, that it was safe to allow players to return to the field as soon as their symptoms were gone — even in the same game in which the injury occurred. It is not uncommon for players to sustain serious blows to the head and receive clearance from team doctors to go back into the game...The new rule comes after two months of controversy, including a Congressional hearing and several articles in The New York Times, over the league’s practices and research methods. Last week, the co-chairmen of the league’s committee on concussions resigned under fire, on the same day the league announced that players who sustain concussions could be cleared to return only by independent experts." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"The league’s former practice of allowing players to return when their concussion symptoms subside has been criticized not just for putting its players at increased risk for further injury — symptoms often reappear hours later — but also for its influence on young players, for whom repeat concussions can be serious. The league has already announced that it will soon begin public-service... more... - Anne Bouey

"South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS. President Jacob Zuma - once ridiculed for saying a shower could prevent AIDS - was cheered as he outlined the measures on World AIDS Day. The new policy marks a dramatic shift from former President Thabo Mbeki, whose health minister distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic and beet treatments. Those policies led to more than 300,000 premature deaths, a Harvard study concluded." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

Happy Thanksgiving Anne!!!! - Rachel Lea Fox

Happy Thanksgiving andTurducken Day! XP - Dominic Yang

"A small group of young writers and artists who work out of the back of a stationery shop in the Mission District - and are dedicated to preserving the printed word - have turned their attention to "old" media: the newspaper. On Dec. 8, McSweeney's, an independent publishing house founded in San Francisco by writer Dave Eggers, will release its version of a newspaper, San Francisco Panorama, and selected content will be featured in The Chronicle starting in December. San Francisco Panorama will have more than 300 pages of content, ranging from Stephen King's reporting on the World Series to explanatory graphics on subjects as diverse as the conflict in eastern Congo and how to make the perfect bowl of ramen. There will be contributions from writers as varied as Michael Chabon, William T. Vollmann, Junot Diaz and Robert Hass. "We started this six months ago with an eye to reinventing the form," said best-selling author Eggers, who fell in love with papers and print while working on his... more... - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

"Test preparation has long been a big business catering to students taking SATs and admissions exams for law, medical and other graduate schools. But the new clientele is quite a bit younger: 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents hope that a little assistance — costing upward of $1,000 for several sessions — will help them win coveted spots in the city’s gifted and talented public kindergarten classes. Motivated by a recession putting private schools out of reach and concern about the state of regular public education, parents — some wealthy, some not — are signing up at companies like Bright Kids NYC. Bright Kids, which opened this spring in the financial district, has some 200 students receiving tutoring, most of them for the gifted exams, for up to $145 a session and 80 children on a waiting list for a weekend “boot camp” program." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

Wouldn't turning the TV off and investing in books be cheaper? - Mona Nomura

"Germany's most popular women's magazine, Brigitte, recently announced that starting next year, it would ban professional models from its pages to combat the glorification of ultra-thin women, and use "real" women instead. Also in October, Polo Ralph Lauren sparked international outrage by Photoshopping out the true girth of size 4 model Filippa Hamilton to create an image of an absurdly skinny body. Hamilton, who claims she was fired by Ralph Lauren for being too fat, told the "Today" show that the distorted photo of her could make young women "think that it's normal to look like that, and it's not." Last year fashion officials in Madrid and Milan established a minimum body mass index (BMI) restrictions to prevent underweight models from taking the runways, and France pushed legislation to fine anyone - including magazines, advertisers and Web sites - who publicly promotes extreme thinness. This season the popular "America's Next Top Model" defied the fashion world's height bias by... more... - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet