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(07/31/11 11:39pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Frogs croaking, bees dancing and butterflies taking to the air were just a few of the sights and sounds found at the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology on Saturday.Children and adults alike engaged in hands-on activities with scientists at Adventures in Animal Behavior: A Real Live Science Festival. The exhibits represented a small percentage of the research presented by scientists at Behavior 2011 — the joint meeting between the Animal Behavior Society and the International Ethological Conference which took place on IU’s campus from July 25 to July 30.The scientists’ displays covered the behavior of a wide variety of animals from dogs to swordtail fish to different types of beetles and birds. Nine-year-old Isabel Boston said she enjoyed participating in the activities. “I liked the bee exhibit with the honey tasting,” she said after learning how honeybees communicate by “dancing.” Her mother, Hannah Boston, said they had visited the WonderLab before and came specifically for the animal behavior exhibits.Visitors learned about different kinds of frog sounds by producing their own frog calls with household items. Another display about sage-grouse mating habits allowed them to operate a robot look-a-like of the bird. University of Nebraska scientist Angelica Kallenberg said the joint conference involved people from all over the world, including Japan, South Africa, Australia and several European countries. “You get to see people you read about but never think you’ll meet,” she said. “It’s kind of like seeing superstars.”Kris Descovich came from the University of Queensland in Australia to present her research on wombats.Anyone from undergraduate students to professors presented on a specific research topic or theory, or an experiment they did, said Descovich, who had never visited Indiana before coming to IU this week.“The people here are so friendly,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m not really looking forward to leaving now.”Emilie Snell-Rood, a scientist from the University of Minnesota, helped organize Adventures in Animal Behavior.“I contacted WonderLab about a year ago with the idea,” she said. “I did my post-doctoral studies here in Bloomington, and I knew the space was perfect.”Snell-Rood’s display in the WonderLab gardens taught visitors about butterflies. “I caught them in a community garden here this week, and we’re setting them free at the end of today,” she said.Snell-Rood asked each child at her display to pick a number, which she carefully wrote on the wings of cabbage white butterflies. This week, they will watch for their numbered butterflies around Bloomington.“This is the first time there has been something like this,” Snell-Rood said about the festival. “I hope it will occur again in the future.”
(06/15/11 11:50pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Jaclyn Fenwick’s parents divorced when she was in middle school. Since then she has wanted to reach out to other kids who share similar pasts. Now, years later, she has found a platform to do that — the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant.“It gave me a megaphone,” Fenwick said.On Wednesday, June 22, she and senior Charnette Batey will compete against 29 other young women for the crown at the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant in Zionsville, Ind. “Miss Indiana is part of Miss America,” said Marni Lemons, director of public relations and social media for the pageant. “We don’t consider ourselves to be a beauty pageant.”Lemons said the greatest percentage of a contestant’s score comes from the talent competition and an interview with the judges.Before competing at Miss Indiana, the women must win a crown at one of 31 local pageants. Batey won the title of Miss Harvest Homecoming last fall in New Albany, and Fenwick is Miss Indiana University.“I’m very excited to see more from them at Miss Indiana,” Lemons said. “I think they’ll both be great contenders.”Fenwick, who is studying public relations and psychology, will be taking the stage for her third Miss Indiana pageant.“I look at each opportunity not as a failure, but as a chance to grow, and each time I take on a new challenge,” Fenwick said. Each contestant also has a platform to promote. Fenwick’s platform, “Broken Homes: Don’t Let Them Break You,” aims to help children with divorced parents, like herself.“I had a great support team and because of that I was able to not let my parents’ divorce weigh me down,” she said.While Fenwick is a veteran of Miss Indiana pageants, Batey is a relative newcomer. However, she said she has enjoyed the process so far.“I haven’t been doing pageants for a long time, so I had an outsider’s perspective of what a pageant was,” she said. “It’s so refreshing to hear that it’s not about the prettiest dress or biggest hair.”Lemons said scholarships are offered at each level of competition. Awards are given not only to overall winners, but also for individual events, such as the talent competition.“I got involved in the pageant because of the scholarship opportunity,” Batey said. “Being able to go all four years of college without debt is really important to me.”IU senior and Miss Indiana 2010 Gabrielle Reed said she entered pageants for the same reason.“I really didn’t grow up with the ambition to be Miss America,” she said. “My first year, when I won Miss IU, I was in a really tough spot financially. If I wouldn’t have won, I would have had to take time off.”Reed said almost all of her undergraduate studies in the Jacobs School of Music have been funded by Miss Indiana scholarships.After a year of television appearances, the Miss America pageant and promoting her platform of domestic violence awareness in schools, Reed will pass on her crown next week, as well as the demanding job that comes with it.“They want to see somebody ready to step into the job the next day,” she said. “Once you go through this experience, you come out prepared for any job.”Lemons said she has judged pageants in the past and has an idea of what judges look for in Miss Indiana contestants.“I think the girls who do well are young women who know themselves, know their own minds, and have strong, developed opinions about important issues,” she said. “That’s what makes strong contributors to thecommunity.”
(05/31/11 4:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite its small town feel, Bloomington has a lively music scene. Check out this sampling of its music venues for a variety of musical acts and styles almost every night of the week. Indiana University Auditorium1211 E. Seventh St.Types of Music:In the past, the Auditorium has hosted Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit, Feist, Flight of the Conchords and The Flaming Lips.Atmosphere:The 70-year-old art-decor style venue may seem too “classy” for a rock concert, but a new sound system and 3,200-seat setup make every seat in the house a good one.Before you go, you should know:“There has always been a student discount offered for at least one price level,” Events Manager Maria Talbert said. Rachael’s Café300 E. Third St.Types of Music:“We try to have an eclectic mix of music and bring acts that aren’t accessible elsewhere,” Events Coordinator Ricky Peden said. “We do everything here, from hip-hop to metal to singer-songwriters. We’re very open-minded and try to accommodate what people want.”Atmosphere:“We have a salsa band that creates a big dance party and we push back the tables. At other shows, people sit back and relax,” Peden said.Before you go, you should know:“About 80 percent of shows are fundraisers tied to a cause, so we just ask for donations,” Peden said.The Bishop123 S. Walnut St.Types of Music:“There’s nothing we don’t do,” owner Stephen Westrich said. “It’s mostly a rock and indie-rock venue, but we’ve also had acoustic, alternative country and hip-hop. It’s about half national, half local bands.”Toro y Moi, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, Tortoise and Cursive have performed at The Bishop.Atmosphere:“We try to create an intimate, professional experience,” Westrich said. “You’ll be able to see the stage.”Before you go, you should know:“The venue is 18+ almost always,” Westrich said.However, since The Bishop is also a bar, be sure to check for select events that are 21+ only.Rhino’s331 S. Walnut St.Types of Music:“We have national and local bands, usually metal, hip-hop, ska, alternative or punk,” Director Brad Wilhelm said. “We pride ourselves as being the only venue that books strictly original music.”Popular recent Rhino’s shows included Against Me! and Modest Mouse.Atmosphere:“It’s low key, not rowdy,” Wilhelm said. “And because it’s an all-ages club, there’s no alcohol.”Before you go, you should know:“The people who come here have a hand in booking and running the club,” Wilhelm said. Weekly meetings involve listening to demos to choose future performers.Many shows are free, but national acts can cost from $5 to $15.Other Places to Explore:Max’s Place108 W. Sixth St.Buskirk-Chumley Theater114 E. Kirkwood Ave.Bluebird Nightclub (21+)216 N. Walnut St.
(05/22/11 11:27pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Powering the IU campus is no small feat. The Utilities Division brings electricity, heat, air-conditioning and water to approximately 15 million square feet of campus building space. “We have a lot of buildings,” Hank Hewetson, assistant vice president for Facility Operations, said. “Just like your home, a lot of buildings have electricity and natural gas. We also use coal for steam for heating. Those are the three basic sources of energy we use.”The electricity for the IU campus is purchased from Duke Energy. However, IU has its own system for natural gas and steam heat. The steam is made and distributed at the central heating plant located on the corner of 11th Street and Fee Lane.“IU has had a central heating plant since the campus was built,” Hewetson said. “We’re on our fifth plant, originally constructed in 1955 and added onto throughout the years.”Indiana coal is brought to the plant and burned to heat water in boilers, which produces the steam. The steam is distributed through pipes throughout campus. Each year, the central heating plant burns approximately 68,000 tons of coal.Student environmental groups have petitioned to eliminate the coal system on the IU campus and instead rely on a more environmentally friendly natural gas system. However, Hewetson said that a change at this time would be impractical.“If we were to switch from coal to natural gas, we’re talking about an increase of four to eight million dollars for the University,” Hewetson said. “Natural gas is a much more expensive fuel.”Instead, Hewetson said the Utilities Division has focused on improving the efficiency of the current system.After the steam is used to heat the buildings, the condensate is pumped back to the central heating plant. Because it is already hot, the recycled water does not take as much energy to turn back into steam.“We’ve replaced pipes to get 70 and 80 percent condensate back,” Hewetson said. “We’ve seen a drop in the amount of fuel we’ve used and coal we’ve burned to create the steam.”Other renovations include improving boiler efficiency and installing equipment to reduce emissions.
(05/16/11 12:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>How much should tuition increase next year? No more than 3.5 percent, according to the Commission for Higher Education.The Commission set target tuition increase rates for public universities Friday.For IU-Bloomington, the target is a 3.5 percent increase; for IUPUI and IU’s other campuses, the target rate is 2.5 percent.However, this does not necessarily mean tuition will increase at that rate for each campus for the 2011-2012 school year.“What happened on Friday was that the Commission for Higher Education adopted recommendations and said that each school should not raise tuition more than these suggested percentages,” said Larry MacIntyre, associate vice president of University Communications. The IU Board of Trustees is responsible for setting tuition for IU-Bloomington, IUPUI and IU’s regional campuses.“The Board of Trustees will get a recommendation from President McRobbie, probably in about a week,” MacIntyre said. By law, the Board of Trustees is then required to hold a public hearing before it sets tuition by vote. The vote will set tuition for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years.This hearing will allow the public to voice their opinions on the proposed tuition rates before the Board of Trustees. MacIntyre said the meeting is tentatively expected to occur on May 31. President McRobbie addressed the higher target increase for the Bloomington campus.“We must remember that IUPUI is a core campus for IU and has experienced significant growth in recent years in both the number of students and the research done on that campus,” McRobbie said in a press release. “Regional campuses also have experienced significant growth and these factors must also be weighed. In setting tuition rates, our Trustees will be considering all of these important needs for the University while balancing the equally important issue of affordability,” he said. MacIntyre said this kind of growth on each campus is a factor in determining the new costs of tuition, as well as the state budget’s funding to each university.“Every campus has a unique situation,” he said. “Some have rapidly growing enrollments, some don’t. Most regional campuses will not lose anywhere near as much money in the state budget as the Bloomington campus. Some regional campuses will see increases. All of those factors go into the decision.”
(05/02/11 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Erika Brown, an IU senior and anthropology major, opened her exhibit “Blended Harmonies: Music and Religion in Nepal” at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures on Friday.“I took interest to museum studies and was intrigued by the curating process,” Brown said.Her exhibit is the result of a semester-long project for a museum practicum course in the IU anthropology department. “It offers students a chance to work in museums,” said Geoff Conrad, director of the Mathers Museum.Undergraduate and graduate students may enroll in the class during both semester and summer sessions, Conrad said. The Virgil T. DeVault Gallery is reserved specifically for student exhibits.Conrad said the class attracts many anthropology majors as well as students studying history, education, art history, folklore and others. Not all members of the class create their own exhibit.“Some do exhibits, some do research,” he said.Brown first volunteered at the museum and worked on another exhibit. Her contributions prompted exhibit staff to suggest she create an exhibit of her own. “We don’t tell them what to do,” Conrad said. “It’s really their project. We said, ‘Find something that interests you.’” Brown said she explored the museum’s collection and was intrigued by several instruments. She chose her topic when she realized they were all from the same part of the world.“I didn’t know anything about Nepal before I started this project,” Brown said.As a curator, Brown researched, designed, wrote and installed all aspects of the exhibit.“The exhibit is about the mixture of religions in Nepal and how that is played out in music and the festival culture,” she said.Because Nepal is known as the birthplace of Buddha, the country is historically associated with Buddhism. However, many Nepalese practice Hinduism. As time passed, traditions of the two religions have blended to create a unique culture of mixed religions called syncretism. This culture is showcased with musical instruments, photographs and other artifacts from Nepal, many of which were given to the museum by different donors in the 1970s.“It’s a very strong collection we have for both that part of the world and for musical instruments,” Conrad said.Brown’s exhibit will be on display in the Mathers Museum until a new student exhibit is installed in November.“It’s a really rare opportunity to get to make use of a museum’s entire collection,” she said. “I’m really thrilled that IU offers this.”
(04/28/11 7:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students in the South American Performance and Culture folklore class brought Afro-Peruvian music to the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology Performance and Lecture Hall on Wednesday. “This is basically the final exam for the class,” said Javier Leon, the class’s professor.Approximately 14 students sang, played instruments and gave brief overviews of different styles of Afro-Peruvian music during the performance.“This semester we studied the music of coastal Peru with an emphasis on the country’s capital, Lima,” said student and singer Melody Barham.Barham said the class was a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students. Half of each class session was dedicated to lecture and learning through readings, videos and listening to songs. The other half consisted of learning and playing the music.According to the students’ presentation, Afro-Peruvian culture originated from slaves taken to Peru by Spanish colonists. The class focused on criollo culture, which includes music influenced by European and indigenous Peruvians while retaining traditions of Afro-Peruvians, or Peruvians of African decent. One genre of criollo music is the jarana. Working-class families who lived in the same neighborhoods would gather together to sing the jarana style. As time passed, upper and middle-classes embraced the jarana, and it became a widespread tradition of Peruvian culture. The students also performed a “potpourri de polkas.”“This does not mean ‘nice-smelling polka,’” said Philip Lipton, Jacobs School of Music graduate student.He explained the Peruvian medley of polkas the class played is different from traditional European polkas because the instrumentation includes Spanish castanets and guitar. Lipton also played clarinet in place of a singer.“The original is several different vocalists,” Lipton said. “What I did was listen to it and try to make it interesting.”Throughout the performance, members of the class played guitars, electric bass, keyboard and a variety of percussion instruments. Barham, who sang on several songs, said she had to audition and learn to play an instrument for the class.Other song and dance styles the group performed were the marinera, which is considered the national dance of Peru, as well as the festejo and zamacueca. The festejo includes heavy percussion and call and response lyrics, and the zamacueca is a couples’ song and dance, often referred to as the “handkerchief dance.”To conclude the concert, several class members played a unique version of Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Combining the jazz and Afro-Peruvian styles, they demonstrated the Afro-Peruvian revival style that is popular today. After the invention of the phonograph, the Afro-Peruvian genre changed due to influence of records from Mexico and the United States. The new styles such as jazz were incorporated to form the modern Afro-Peruvian revival style. “Everyone in the group has some natural talent,” Lipton said.
(04/25/11 1:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU professor Christine Ogan presented results of a study titled “European Kids Online: Their Skills, Activities and Risks” on Friday.Co-funded by the European Union and the London School of Economics and Political Science, research was conducted in 25 European countries in spring and summer 2010. Ogan, along with former IU associate professor Kursat Cagiltay and three graduate students, worked on the study in Turkey.Data gathered through in-home interviews with 25,142 children ages 9 to 16 and their parents reflected the usage, activities and risk factors of children using the Internet.“We also looked at how parents were mediating, what role the school had, as well as their peers,” Ogan said.Ogan said the main purpose of the study was to gather statistics to promote a safer online environment for children. “My big interest is in privacy,” she said. The study showed that many European children were not knowledgeable about online skills such as how to change privacy settings in social networks, block messages and set filters.Ogan said due to this lack of user knowledge, the government has censored many websites in Turkey. “They censor right and left,” she said. YouTube was censored for two years.“My view is that it’s much better to educate children than to censor information,” Ogan said.In addition to privacy, researchers reviewed the types of online content children were experiencing, including aggressive and sexual communication, pornographic material, bullying and racist hate speech.Currently, the research teams are collaboratively writing a book about the results.“The Turkish team’s chapter of the book is on cognitive interviewing and cognitive development,” she said. According to the interviewers’ assessment, only 52.3 percent of children understood questions “very well.”“There’s a lot we don’t know about how kids read and answer questions,” Ogan said. Due to the nature of the interviews, Ogan suggested that results could be flawed because children were uncomfortable with the face-to-face interviews or misunderstood certain questions. Additionally, questions about sensitive topics such as sexual images seen online could produce false answers.However, even with its flaws, Ogan said she believes the study was worthwhile.“We have enough standardization of procedures that inter-country comparisons will show up,” she said. The 25 countries involved can compare rates of issues such as online bullying and underage social networking usage. After this research was conducted, Australia and other countries have begun similar studies.The study has also had policy implications. Countries have created workshops in schools about safe Internet practices and have written informative pamphlets.
(04/21/11 4:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Spring is a season of accomplishments for IU students. For senior Jessica Falkenthal, success came in the form of a hidden box in Tennessee when she found her 2,000th geocache.“Geocaching is a treasure hunting hobby for adventure-seekers,” Falkenthal said. To experience geocaching, people must have a GPS unit or GPS capabilities on their cell phone. After registering on www.geocaching.com, they may receive coordinates for a geocache and use their device to lead them to it. “It kind of makes you feel like you’re on a secret mission,” Falkenthal said. “You try to make sure nobody sees you when you find it.”Many geocaches can be walked or hiked to, but some require canoeing, climbing and even scuba diving before they are found. Once within 100 to 200 feet of the cache, the geocacher must use clues about size and terrain to locate it. “There’s usually a logbook that has the history of everyone who’s ever found it,” Falkenthal said. Geocachers sign the logbook with the date they found it and their name or geocaching screen name. There are often other small items inside, such as a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy. One campus geocache includes a Dora the Explorer playhouse. If you want to take the item, the rule is to trade something of equal or greater value. Falkenthal started geocaching six years ago in California when a roommate introduced her to the hobby. She said her favorite experience occurred in New York City when she found a geocache in Times Square.“You’re standing there and there’s 100,000 people walking all over when you pull it out,” she said. “There’s this sign in it that says, ‘I found it!’ and you go hold it over a webcam and have someone remotely take a photo of you.” When Falkenthal came to Bloomington two years ago, she started Bloomington Geocachers so that residents with the same hobby could experience geocaching together.“Nobody had ever met each other,” she said. “We hid these things and recognized each other’s screen names and made assumptions about who we thought we would be.”Stu Baggerly, Monroe County deputy public defender and Bloomington geocacher, goes by the screen name “monstercatambush.” Fellow geocachers simply call him “Monster Cat.” “When I’m taking a break from defending murders and drug deals, it’s nice to get out and play the game,” he said. Baggerly has hidden 140 geocaches in the Bloomington area.According to Falkenthal, a few of Baggerly’s creative geocaches include spring-loaded mouse toys that launch when opened and a geocache that plays a song like a music box. Baggerly also enjoys geocaches that are “hidden in plain sight.”“Never assume a light fixture is a light fixture or a pipe is a pipe,” he said. “There’s a really good one behind Yogi’s called ‘Piper’s Piping.’”He said geocachers come to Bloomington from Tennessee and Kentucky because of the ideal environment and interesting geocaches. For example, a geocache near the Monroe County Historical Society leads seekers on a 20-question trivia scavenger hunt in the museum before they can sign the geocache log.In January 2010, Falkenthal formed another group, the Geocaching Club at IU. The club meets about twice a month for geocaching on campus, and anyone with or without a GPS unit may attend. The group has geocaching kits that include GPS units available for checkout in the Herman B Wells Library so any IU student or faculty member can have access to geocaching.During “Caching After Class,” a weekly event that teaches geocaching, freshman Dillon Daniel said he tries to be inconspicuous when looking for caches. Falkenthal said this also protects the geocaches from being stolen. “This is a heavily muggled area,” Daniel said while the club looked for a geocache near the Kelley School of Business. Muggles are non-geocachers. The group also plans special events to introduce students to geocaching. After the Nearly Naked Mile last fall, the club had a Nearly Naked Nightcache. Participants used flashlights to follow trails of reflectors that led them to the geocaches. They also participated in 10/10/10, a world record-breaking event during which about 72,000 people worldwide found geocaches in one day.Between Third and 10th streets on campus, Falkenthal said there are 45 geocaches, or approximately one every 528 feet, which is the closest that geocaches may be planted. More than 250 geocaches are hidden within a five-mile radius of campus, and more than 450 can be found within 10 miles. With nearby Lake Monroe, Yellowwood State Forest and Brown County, Geocaching Club at IU also has trips for camping, hiking and geocaching enthusiasts. Last September, the group had a pirate-themed trip. Wearing pirate hats, members canoed to the islands on Lake Monroe and found treasure-themed caches. Although different people attend each event, Falkenthal said Geocaching Club at IU is great for socializing and forming friendships.“We’ve become a close-knit family of sorts because once you spend a few hours doing crazy things like searching for Tupperware in the woods, you become instantly bonded,” she said. “There’s a lot of us really hooked on this.” To try geocaching firsthand, meet the geocachers at the School of Informatics and Computing building from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday. Geocaching Club at IU is co-sponsoring a game day with the Informatics and Computing Student Association, which will include a barbecue, indoor and outdoor games and 30-minute geocaching adventures. On April 30, they are also hosting a night-caching event on the B-Line Trail.
(04/18/11 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The words of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson headlined the itinerary for middle school students attending the Youth Empowerment Workshop at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center on Saturday.“Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day,” Jackson’s words read.The workshop, titled “Learn Today, Lead Tomorrow,” was organized for seventh through ninth-grade students in the Bloomington area and especially targeted minorities, the organizers said.Graduate student Malliron Hodge facilitated the programs with other graduate assistants and Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center staff. “We’re preparing them with skills to be leaders of the 21st century,” Hodge said.The workshop consisted of three different sessions designed to develop a specific leadership skill or tool. A trip to the Herman B Wells Library allowed students to use computers to create a digital self-portrait collage depicting their traits and possible career goals.“You can use this to talk about any career you want to pursue,” Wells librarian Chanitra Bishop told the students.Another session, “My TYPE of Future,” gave the students the opportunity to determine their Myers-Briggs personality type. The personality inventory consists of four opposing traits, such as introversion versus extroversion, to create a four-letter personality code that can point students to particular career paths.Graduate student Muhammad Saahir explained the 16 possible results of the Myers-Briggs survey and said the students could agree or disagree with their results.Throughout the day, participants were encouraged to be open-minded and to formulate their own opinions. While hesitant and shy in the morning, each student was readily participating shortly after the sessions began.The third session, titled “The Roof is on Fire! Extinguishing Self Doubt,” ended the workshop. The passionate instructors created a welcoming and engaging environment for veteran students of the workshop as well as new participants.
(04/13/11 1:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Song and dance from Greece filled the auditorium of the John Waldron Arts Center on Monday as Rebetiki Istoria entertained the crowd.Rebetiki Istoria, meaning “rebetika history,” is the oldest and most famous rebetika musical group in Athens, Greece, according to the event’s program. Rebetika is a genre of music developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the working classes in urban areas of Greece.Frank Hess, coordinator of the modern Greek program at IU, helped arrange the performance after hearing the group members play at the University of Michigan two years ago. Performing in Bloomington was part of their second visit to the United States.“They play almost exclusively at a club owned by the lead singer Pavlos Vassiliou,” Hess said. Although the music was sung entirely in Greek, audience members received both the Greek lyrics and English translations. Rebetika songs tell the stories of the people who wrote them and their struggles with unemployment and poverty, love and loss and historical events.Another element of rebetika music is the instrumentation. The six-member group consists of violin, guitar and bouzoukis, which are six-stringed chordophones. Violinist and bouzouki player Yona Stamatis is the only American member of Rebetiki Istoria. “I came across these musicians as part of my ethnomusicology studies at the University of Michigan,” Stamatis said.A Ph.D. candidate, Stamatis studied abroad in Athens for three years to find musicians who knew the old style of rebetika, which has unique scales.She came to Vassiliou’s club every night to hear Rebetiki Istoria play until they invited her to join them and learn the traditional songs.“It was the best education I ever had,” she said. Many rebetika songs are composed in dance rhythms, which caused audience members to nod their heads and tap their feet to the beat. Several dancers began traditional Greek line dances and invited audience members to join until the stage filled with more than 30 people of all ages.Anelia Hanes was an eager audience participant.“It’s an adaptable dance from the Balkans,” she said. Hanes participates in a folk dance group in Indianapolis and came to Bloomington for the performance.As the rhythmic songs progressed and moved faster, the dancers jumped and kicked their legs higher. Remaining audience members clapped and several shouted “opa” at the conclusion of the upbeat songs.Although it has no specific definition, opa is a Greek expression of joy, and an ideal reflection of the well-received performance.
(04/12/11 3:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In a new book, “Habeas for the Twenty-First Century,” law professor Joseph Hoffmann and co-author Nancy King discuss how habeas corpus has been misused in the United States.Habeas corpus is a legal procedure through which a prisoner can petition a judge to be released from unlawful imprisonment.“Other than maybe executing someone, there’s nothing government can do to you that’s worse than just locking you up and throwing away the key,” Hoffman said. “Habeas corpus is the protection against that.”Hoffman said when a federal dilemma is occurring, problems with habeas corpus emerge. “During times of political or social crisis, the government goes into panic mode and starts locking up whoever they think is dangerous,” he said.Victims of this include Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, accused Communists during the Red Scare throughout the early 20th century, Japanese Americans during World War II and Cubans involved in the Mariel boatlift in 1980. The prison at Guantanamo Bay exemplifies the issue of imprisoned people who are denied habeas corpus. After Sept. 11, 2001, fear of terrorism led to the imprisonment of people thought to be potential threats to the U.S., and many were taken to Guantanamo.“Guantanamo is an interesting place because it’s not on American soil,” Hoffman said. “It’s technically outside the legal jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts.”As part of the law that authorized the internments at Guantanamo, Congress barred prisoners from having access to the U.S. civilian courts. They could not issue a writ of habeas corpus.The framers of the Constitution referred to habeas corpus as “The Great Writ.” The Constitution states that habeas corpus cannot be suspended unless the president does so during times of war or civil insurrection. Based on these facts, the Supreme Court found the Guantanamo practices unconstitutional in the case Boumediene v. Bush. Boumediene was a Bosnian man who was captured based on having connections to a member of Al-Qaeda. “He spent more than seven years locked up in Guantanamo for no reason other than that we were in panic mode,” Hoffman said. “The only thing that saved him was habeas corpus.”However, problems with habeas corpus remain. “If you’re a state prisoner and you’ve been sentenced to some lengthy prison term, what else are you going to do?” he said. “You might as well file a habeas corpus petition. If nothing else, it will be interesting.”Hoffman said 17,000 state prisoners file for habeas corpus every year, of which merely 70 are granted any kind of relief, such as another trial. This creates a larger issue than wasting time and money, Hoffman said.“Abusing habeas corpus is dangerous because it will make the writ itself less respected,” he said.Undermining its value could lead to restrictions that would make it harder for judges to use it when needed.The book proposes a solution. Prisoners wishing to petition for habeas corpus must either have a death sentence or prove their innocence with newfound evidence. “Our specific proposal in the book is that we need a new amendment to that statute of Congress,” Hoffman said.
(03/30/11 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU’s University Information Technology Services received the 2011 Excellence in Geographic Information Systems Award. The Indiana Geographic Information Council recognized UITS’ Indiana Spatial Data Portal, which has made 20 terabytes of digital data readily available and accessible.“The Indiana Spatial Data Portal is a gateway to imagery for the state of Indiana,” said Anna Radue, who became the president of IGIC after the award was given. Radue has also worked at UITS since 2000.Radue said the UITS improvements in the ISDP have made information accessible to everyone, not only those with GIS software.“You can actually use a smartphone and access all 20 terabytes,” she said. “They are OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) compliant, which makes them available to more people.”The accessibility of the portal has proved to be beneficial, as there are approximately 2,500 IDSP users. Radue said about 20 percent of users are outside of IU and include state agencies, engineering firms and insurance companies, as well as private citizens.One ISDP service in particular, IndianaMap, supports 200 times its own worth in operations. IndianaMap is a geological map with framework data layers for the state. It is made up of reference data sets for information such as county boundaries, demographics, geology and infrastructure for all of Indiana.Radue said the information could be used for purposes such as emergency management in the event of a flood.The Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the Indiana Office of Technology and the U.S. Army are all users and have acknowledged the improvements in the UITS portal, according to a press release.