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PAGE 2WEEKEND

Happy new Year !

Dr. Andre A. Muelenaer Jr. (right) and graduate student Carlos Guevara prac-tice using the large-screen digital format of the Broselow Tape.

An optician by trade, Judi Ann Ehresman said she has always been a writer. Now retired and living in Vinton with her husband Richard, Ehresman has had the time to write – and then some. Her third novel in the “Hand of God” series is set to be published by OakTara in mid-January. The novels are available on line at venues like christianbook.com and amazon.com, and locally at the Family Christian store on Starkey Road in South-west Roanoke County.

Born in Virginia but raised in Indiana, Ehresman set her Hand of God trilogy in that state as well. Characters from each novel appear in the subsequent book, some-times as secondary players in the preceding novel and ma-jor factors in the next. “They are sort of separate stories [but connected],” said Ehresman. She called the series the Hand of God “because in each of the three books, in different ways, you can see the way the hand of God moves.” It’s a subtle approach, she promises.

The third and final Hand of God novel is entitled “Where Two Agree.” In the first novel a slave es-capes; that character, Dei-dre, becomes the principal player in the new book. Two other novels Ehresman has finished but are not yet published are stand-alone books, not related to the Hand of God trilogy.

“If they could get over the border into Indiana [slaves] were considered free,” notes

Ehresman. “This young woman brings her infant child to Indiana … but her husband was sold away.” The story revolves around the

couple’s desire to be reunited.Ehresman’s husband runs the book-

store at Hollins University now but is a retired minis-ter, making the Christian themes in each book perhaps

more understandable. While freelancing for her local newspaper in Indiana, she wrote “The Long Road Home” which is book one in The Hand of God se-ries.

> CONTINUEDP2: Trilogy

Year Ends With Magical Gift

Photo of South Roanoke United Methodist Church by Stuart Revercomb

Roanokers didn’t have to dream of a white Christmas last Saturday morning as they awoke to a snow-scaped scene that even the old crooner Bing Crosby himself would have appreciated. It hasn’t snowed more than an inch on Christmas Day in Roanoke since 1969 so, after 41 years, many Roanokers (and certainly the sleigh rid-

ing youngsters) felt that the Valley was more than due. The snowfall was followed by temperatures in the 20s and some very strong lower level winds that lasted through Tuesday, causing drifting and the re-covering of some rural roadways. But Old Man Winter is finally planning on loosening his grip a bit on Friday and by Saturday the Roanoke Valley is ex-pected to top out with a high near 60 degrees to start off 2011. But don’t bet that the old year’s final trend will last too long into the new . . . The weather, like life, has a way of changing fast . . . Happy New Year!

VA Tech, Carilion to Create Digital ER Pediatric Response Chart

A well-known paper-based medical chart used by pediatric emergency personnel across America is undergoing a 21st century boost in an collaborative effort between Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, Roanoke-based Carilion Clinic Children’s Hospital and the physician who created the original method some 25 years ago.

The Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape, otherwise known as the Broselow Tape, has been a staple of emergency rooms and child trauma units for nearly three de-cades. Created by Hickory, N.C.-based physician James Broselow, the Broselow Tape is a long, durable tape measure used on the child during a medical emergency. Using a color-coded format, it provides specific medical information to medical caregivers based on the height and weight of the child. This can include amounts of medicines to dispense, or level of shock voltage to emit from a defibrillator, for instance. This information now will be displayed on a large LCD monitor within emergency rooms, for

[Inspirational]

FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules Not So Neutral

On December 21 the Federal Communi-cations Commission voted 3-2 for new rules intended to prevent Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from acting as gatekeepers on the Web. Wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon look to be exempt from the harshest rules. The objection by promoters of net neutrality is the fear of bandwidth con-trol.

Cox Internet customers will receive a notice from Customer Relations tucked in their bill informing them of any changes in their policy.

Cox Communications already has three tiers of Internet service: Essential at 3 megabits per second download speed for $31.99, Preferred at 12 megabits at $45.99 and Premier at 15 megabits for $59.99 per month.

Their policy states that “If your bandwidth usage exceeds the amount included in your Internet package, Cox may suspend the Ser-vice or require you to upgrade the Service to a higher package and/or pay additional fees. In extreme cases, Cox may terminate the Service after providing adequate notice and opportu-nity for you to modify your bandwidth usage.”

ISP (Internet Service Providers) want the option to control the data pipeline and become the traffic cops of the Internet. Those with mus-

[Media]

> CONTINUED P2: FCC

In anticipation of the 2011 General Assembly session in Virginia, the Insti-tute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College conducted a statewide survey of 601 residents. The question-naire covered a variety of issues, but focused primarily on fiscal issues—the budget, taxes, and spending. Because of the timing of the poll not every pos-sibility was covered, such as Governor McDonnell’s budget proposal which was released after the survey was completed.

General Views of the State and Na-tional Governments

A plurality of residents (46%) think sessions of the General Assembly are too short in duration, while about one-third (34%) think they are the right length. Only 9% think they are too long. More than half of the respondents (56%) think that members of the Assembly are com-pensated appropriately, and slightly more think they are paid too much (22%) rather than too little (18%).

A large majority of respondents (83%) trust the state government to do what is right at least some of the time, but they

are split on whether the state is heading in the right direction (45%) or if things have gotten off track (43%). A bare ma-jority (51%) trust the national govern-ment at least some of the time, and by

more than a three-to-one ratio, they think things in the country are off track (72%) rather than moving

in the right direction (21%).Over half of the those interviewed

(57%) approve of the job Bob McDon-nell is doing as Governor, while only 36% approve of the job Barack Obama is

doing as President. A majority of respondents (57%)

think that government (state or national not specified) is trying to do things that should be left to individuals and busi-nesses, while 34% think government should be doing more. In the same vein, residents prefer a government that pro-vides fewer services with lower taxes over a government that provides more services with higher taxes by more than two-to-one (68%-32%).

Public Weighs In on State Issues Via Roanoke College Poll

> CONTINUED P2: Poll

“Hand Of God” Trilogy Created By Vinton Author

[Commonwealth]

> CONTINUED P3: Pediatric

[Winter Wonderland]

Judi Ann Ehresman’s “On the Wings of Grace” - the second book in the trilogy.

No Major Changes Foreseen at Comcast / Cox

Everythingnothing to

P4– Fred First looks from infinitesimally small to infi-nitely big and finds humanity at its best sitting halfway in-between.

Fried Peas!Deep

P5– Our very own Happy Chef offers up some wise words and one mean new Year’s Day “Fried Black Eyed Pea” Recipe!

Hoops!Holiday

P7– Local High Schools pro-vide plenty of hot hardwood tournament action - see Bill Turner’s coverage in Sports.

TVTuned Out

P9– Gene Marrano says that Roanoker Blair Pey-ton’s locally produced (but nY aired) Tv Comedy is well worth the watch.

Fred First

Page 2 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 12/31/10 - 1/6/11 newsRoanoke.com

Sun and clouds and a warm up move in for Friday with temperatures in the mid 50s.Rain is in the forecast as a cold front moves in on Saturday but ahead of the front we will see temperatures approach 60.Dry weather returns for Sunday through Tuesday with temperatures in the low 50s on Sunday and upper 40s on Monday.

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> FCC From page 1

cle (money) can command the green light while the average Internet e-mail checker would be sitting at the yield sign waiting their turn.

It boils down to cable companies and tele-phone companies being viewed separately. The FCC claims it will provide consumers, service providers, device makers, and appli-cation developers clear rules of the road for the Internet.

Network operators of both fixed and wire-less networks will be required to disclose information that will be necessary for them to deploy services. If network management techniques are used that affect certain appli-cations the ISP must transparently disclose the reason for the requirement.

Both fixed wire-line broadband network operators like Cox Communications and wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T are prohibited from blocking traffic on the Internet. But the stipulations for each type are different.

Wired networks operators will not be al-lowed to block any lawful content. Wireless providers are only prohibited from block-ing websites that compete with the carrier’s voice or video services.

The “reasonable network management” blocking rule for wireless and wire-line networks includes allowances to “reason-ably manage” their networks during times of congestion.

Fixed broadband providers like cable companies are prohibited from unreason-ably discriminating against traffic on their network.

The compromise does not satisfy con-sumer advocates for net neutrality. They wanted stricter rules. This compromise could allow broadband providers to impose usage-based charges. ISP customers using more bandwidth would get charged more than customers using less. The FCC will also allow providers to offer special services like better quality for certain applications –

for example home security and medical ser-vice applications.

Managing Director Craig Aaron of the media reform organization “The Free Press” was disappointed in the FCC’s watered-down protection of consumers, calling it “online discrimination.”

In a press release Aaron stated: “These rules don’t do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the Inter-net into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination. No longer can you get to the same Internet via your mobile device as you can via your laptop.”

But only time will tell whether the imple-mentation of the new rules will greatly af-fect the average internet user in Roanoke and beyond.

By valerie [email protected]

> Poll From page 1

Specific IssuesABC storesWhile opinion is split, a slim

majority of respondents would like to see the state get out of the business of selling alcohol. About one-third (33%) think ABC stores should be sold if the Commonwealth can replace the lost revenue, and 18% said that the state simply should not be in the business of selling alcohol. However, a significant plurality (41%) thinks the ABC stores should remain in their current status.

RedistrictingA strong majority (69%) sup-

ports the idea of a non-partisan commission redrawing legisla-tive districts.

ImmigrationVirginia residents support a

variety of measures that would crack down on illegal immi-grants. Strong majorities sup-port allowing police to check a person’s immigration status during routine traffic stops (76%), requiring the govern-ment to verify the legal status of workers (84%), requiring school officials to collect information on students who cannot prove their legal status (68%), and increasing penalties for anyone who hires an illegal, knowingly or unknowingly (71%).

Health careWith regard to health care,

residents are almost evenly split between thinking that it is pure-ly an individual responsibility (38%), a right for all citizens that should be provided by the gov-ernment (34%), and supporting government-provided care for the elderly and the poor (29%). A majority supports some role for the government in health care, but a sizeable minority sees health care as beyond the

purview of government.Most residents (59%) are not

willing to pay higher taxes for universal health care. As for what should happen to those without insurance (private or government-provided) who get sick, a plurality (43%) think that hospitals and doctors should be required to provide care for free or at a greatly reduced rate, and 28% think the government should pay for their care. Just less than one-third (30%), think those without insurance should be responsible for their own care.

Budgeting, taxing, spend-ing

In general, most respondents (72%) preferred a combination of budget cuts and tax increas-es as a means of balancing the budget, but a quarter (25%) pre-ferred budget cuts alone, while only 3% preferred tax increases alone. Of those who supported some form of budget cuts, 82% still supported the cuts even if it was a program that benefitted them or their family. Similarly, 79% supported a tax increase even if it was one that they or their family would have to pay.

Presented with a scenario in which there had to be budget cuts, respondents were offered a choice of areas to cut—educa-tion (27%), health and human services (39%), public safety (29%), “all other items” (83%), and across-the-board cuts (52%). Those who opposed cuts in all those areas chose “other areas” (47%) or across-the-board cuts (41%) when forced to choose one area.

Presented with a scenario in which there had to be tax increases, respondents were offered a choice of taxes to in-crease—the sales tax (58%), per-

sonal income tax (41%), busi-ness income tax (55%), cutting the state’s subsidy for the per-sonal property tax (46%), and the gas tax (42%). Those who opposed all those tax increases chose the sales tax (42%), busi-ness tax (21%), gas tax (19%), and the personal property reim-bursement (11%) when forced to choose one area.

RoadsA question that has been

asked on several polls over sev-eral years was repeated on this questionnaire. As a means of providing additional funding for road improvement, resi-dents remain relatively dead-locked between moving funds from other budget areas (28%), placing tolls on some highways (27%), increase funding only as permitted without any tax in-creases (20%), or increase taxes and designate those funds for roads (17%). These percentages are largely unchanged over the past five years.

“Crosstabs”: Crosstab analy-sis shows that most of the dif-ferences are those one would expect to see. The largest and most consistent differences among subgroups are those found in political ideology and political party. Not surprisingly, Democrats generally adopt the more “liberal” position on most issues while Republicans take the more “conservative” posi-tion. In many instances, these differences are quite large. This is especially true on budget-related questions. There are few differences among those groups in views of Virginia gov-ernment, perhaps because the Commonwealth has a Republi-can governor, but there are very large differences in views of the national government.

We can also see some differ-ences in education subgroups, with those most formally edu-cated staking out more liberal stances. There are significant differences in the expected di-rection between whites and African-Americans on views of the national government and approval of President Obama.

There are virtually no differ-ences in views among different age groups and fewer and small-er gender gap differences than we might expect to see, though they are in the expected direc-tion. There are also relatively few regional differences in the poll. Where there are regional differences, Northern Virginia tends to be slightly more liberal that the rest of the state. In sum-mary, the largest differences be-tween Virginians are based on political ideology and party, not on most demographic charac-teristics, with some exceptions, of course.

Interviewing for The Roanoke College Poll was conducted by The Institute for Opinion and Policy Research at Roanoke Col-lege between November 29 and December 8, 2010. The sample consisted of 601 residents of Vir-ginia and was prepared by Sur-vey Sampling Inc. of Fairfield, Conn. Questions answered by the entire sample of 601 likely voters are subject to a sampling error of plus or minus approxi-mately 4 percent. A copy of the questions and all frequencies may be found on the Roanoke College web site. http://roanoke.edu/News_and_Events/Cam-pus_News/RC_Poll_Va_Gen-eral_Assembly_.htm

“What really sparked the book,” says Eh-resman, commenting on the oaktara.com website, “was seeing how un-forgiveness and grudge-bearing affected people’s lives. I wanted to portray the freedom that comes in letting go of hurts and wrongs.”

The second book in the trilogy, “On the Wings of Grace,” was just released at Thanksgiving. “It takes time to find a pub-lisher,” said Ehresman, who shopped the

Hand of God series for two years before OakTara published them. She’s written two books a year recently, one in the spring and one in the fall, and gardens in the summer.

“I’ve just always written,” said Ehresman, who also dabbled in poetry while working as an optician. “I always knew someday I would write a book.” Now she has written five – three published as of mid-January – and hopes to see the other two in print

soon.“I hope the books can help challenge peo-

ple to help make wise choices in behavioral patterns, to be able to see how God works in our lives – when we let him,” said Ehres-man, who hopes to conduct a book signing at Family Christian store and other local venues after “Where Two Agree” is pub-lished.

> Trilogy From page 1

By Gene [email protected]

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Sheriff Mike Winston has announced that the Roanoke County Sheriff ’s Office has re-ceived accreditation by the Vir-ginia Law Enforcement Profes-sional Standards Commission (VLEPSC).

VLEPSC allows law en-forcement agencies in Virginia (Sheriff ’s Offices and Police De-partments) to voluntarily seek accreditation of their agencies by demonstrating compliance with 187 accepted standards for the efficient and effective operation of their Agencies. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) administers the accreditation program.

The Roanoke County Sher-

iff ’s Office went through an ex-tensive review of their agency’s Administration, Operations, Personnel and Training, policies and procedures, on November 15 – 17, 2010, by commission auditors. Auditors determined that 181 out of 187 standards were in compliance, as written. The Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Com-mission Board awarded the Sheriff ’s Office Accreditation status at a meeting in Botetourt County recently.

There are a total of 123 Sher-iff ’s Offices and 293 Police De-partments in Virginia. The Roa-noke County Sheriff ’s Office joins the ranks as one of 82 ac-

credited agencies; and only one of three Sheriff ’s Offices in the state to be accredited by both the VLEPSC and American Correc-tional Association. After receiv-ing their initial accreditation, agencies must undergo on-site assessments every four years. According to County spokes-person Teresa Hall, achieving this VLEPSC accreditation, "fulfills one of Sheriff Winston’s major goals that he established when he became sheriff."

Roanoke County Sheriff ’s Office Receives Accreditation

At the urging of Congressman Bob Goodlatte, the House Republican Leadership released House Rules for the 112th Congress that recommit the Congress to the text of the U.S. Constitution.

As part of the new Rules for Congress, all Members of the House will be required to submit a formal statement pointing to the exact Consti-tutional provision that authorizes each bill they introduce. In addition, as a further demonstra-tion of its commitment to hold true to the fun-damental principles upon which this country was founded, the new Rules include Rep. Goodlatte's recommendation that the U.S. Constitution will be read aloud on the House Floor during the first week of the 112th Congress.

“One of the resounding themes I have heard from my constituents is that Congress should adhere to the Constitution and the finite list of powers it granted to the federal government,” said Congressman Goodlatte. “I am very pleased

that the Republican Leadership included my rec-ommendation that the U.S. Constitution be read aloud on the House Floor during the first week of session. This historic and symbolic reading is long overdue and shows that the new majority in the House of Representatives truly is dedicated to the U.S. Constitution and the principles for which it stands. Additionally, I would like to thank Vir-ginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for his ef-forts to advance this initiative.”

As the written expression of the consent the American people gave to their government – a consent with restrictions and boundaries – Good-latte hopes the public reading of the Constitution will set the tone for the 112th Congress.

Goodlatte is a senior Member of the House Judi-ciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over Con-stitutional amendments and other issues pertaining to the U.S. Constitution.

Goodlatte Succeeds in Effort to Focus on Constitution

Roanoke County’s Green-way Planner, Janet Scheid, will retire at the end of the year.

Scheid began her career with Roanoke County 22 years ago when she came to work as a Planner in the Planning De-partment. In 2008 she moved to the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department to be-come the County's Greenway Planner. Prior to her work with Roanoke County, Scheid spent nine years with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency.

In retirement, Scheid and her husband plan to spend time hiking, camping, kaya-king and sailing, as well as traveling to visit family and friends in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Bermuda. Scheid has a son who is a sophomore at High Point University, North Carolina.

Lindsay Blankenship, cur-rently a Planner in the Com-munity Development De-partment, will become the new Greenway Planner on January 1.

Roanoke County Greenway Planner to Retire

Many complain that the unemployed get a free ride and have little incentive to seek employment. In the lame-duck session, Congress passed a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits.

Some economists like the idea of extending benefits. They say it will put money into the hands of people who will spend it.

But the Democrat running in the 8th district House of Delegates wants to require benefit re-cipients to perform volunteer work in return for receiving unemployment benefits. “This program will allow people who are unemployed to volun-teer and help their communities while they col-lect benefits and look for new work," said Ginger Mumpower in a press release. "This volunteer work will also allow them to build new skill-sets and establish new contacts for finding a job,”.

Unemployed workers would add their non-profit weekly work hours to the forms they al-ready submit to the unemployment office to re-ceive their check.

Republican governor-elect Rick Scott of Florida has proposed the same concept for the unem-ployed in his state. Scott’s transition team suggests that after 12 weeks, the unemployed must start community service before they can get a check. Scott would start requiring those applying for un-employment benefits to prove they've been look-ing for jobs and stop benefits to those who aren't. The idea has received mixed reactions in Florida.

Some agree that the unemployed should work for their benefit. Others claim it cuts into their job-hunting time. Mumpower sees it as an oppor-tunity for the unemployed to network, develop new skills while providing social interaction to keep a positive outlook.

In Florida the governor-elect sees it as a way to lower taxes on businesses. If the unemployed face circumstances that prevent them from volunteer-ing, the number of people receiving unemploy-ment checks would shrink.

Mumpower proposes legislation that will call for persons receiving state unemployment ben-efits to continue their benefits by volunteering at local non-profit organizations. Mumpower believes that “non-profits can use free labor now more than ever to keep their much needed pro-grams alive and train a new generation of people to give back to the community.”

In Mumpower’s press release: “So many con-cerned citizens complain that we give free ser-vices, without requiring people to give back. This legislation addresses those concerns. Our society cannot work without people helping each other. This is a favorable situation for both entities and will help people get back to work and become functioning members of society instead of falling into the poverty trap.”

Mumpower Proposes Legislation To Require Unemployed To Volunteer

By valerie [email protected]

all personnel to see.“We are converting the existing Bro-

selow Tape into an electronic format to improve resuscitation team communi-cations and patient safety,” said Dr. An-dre A. Muelenaer Jr., an associate pro-fessor of pediatrics at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, adjunct professor at Virginia Tech-Wake For-rest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Science, and director of the Pediatric Medical Device Insti-tute, located in Roanoke.

Additional displayed information will include medicines administered to the patient, including the time of administration and the next scheduled allotment. In the instance of burns, an automated calculation of the affected surface area will be displayed, along with automated calculation of fluid re-suscitation.

A click of a mouse/remote control can move responders from one screen

to another. The software running the newly-dubbed eBroselow software program runs on LabVIEW, owned by National Instruments. Known as TEAM Broselow, the method is being tested at various hospitals, including facilities in Roanoke; Austin, Texas; and Winston-Salem, N.C., and will be fine tuned as additional input comes in from doctors, nurses, and other medi-cal personnel, said Muelenaer.

Many of the new features already include input from medical person-nel around the country, Muelenaer said. One example: The ability to track by barcode-scan the exact types and amounts of medicine administered to the patient. “The idea is to give multi-ple people access to the same info, on a big screen,” said Al Wicks, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, who serves on the Pedi-atric Medical Device Institute’s leader-ship team with Muelenaer.

Much of the work to digitize the Broselow Tape for display on LCD tele-visions was completed by Carlos Gue-vara, a Virginia Tech master’s graduate student in mechanical engineering from El Salvador who recently be-came an American citizen. Emergency medical personnel still will rely on the physical laminated tape to determine the child’s care-need level, before uti-lizing the digital display version.

“Doing this was a rather simple task,” said Guevara. “The challenges arose in an attempt to take advantage of current technology in order to develop a much more enhanced device, such as using the available drug concentration infor-mation to calculate volume to adminis-ter once a drug has been scanned.”

The idea for a digital version of the Broselow Tape came two-fold, hun-dreds of miles apart. In Hickory, Bro-selow was working with a collabora-tor on a Web-based adaptation as far

back as three years ago. Meanwhile, more than a year ago, Stacy Steans, a pediatric physician at Roanoke’s Car-ilion Clinic Children’s Hospital, had his own epiphany about converting the paper-based data to a wireless format displayed on a monitor. Eventually, Steans, and Muelenaer at Carilion, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering and Broselow himself all came together to work on the process.

“We got together, we showed them what we had developed and they showed us what they had developed,” said Broselow, who developed the tape after moving from a private practice set-up to emergency room, and see-ing the need for large medical teams to have set standards for child emergency care response. “The initial content on the large screen was a combination of what their thinking was and the con-tent information we had.”

Funding for the project came from

the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. Rural hospitals, such as those located throughout Southwest Vir-ginia, could benefit most from the soft-ware device, more so than urban hos-pitals with high-capita populations of children. “There are not as many chil-dren, so there are not as many cases,” he said.

The tape itself is designed for chil-dren 12 years old or younger, and having a maximum weight of roughly 80 pounds. Separately, Broselow and his company are continuing work on several digital formats for emergency rooms of all types and additional user formats such as iPhone applications and several publications, plus addi-tional emergency response needs such as wounds sustained from chemical weapons.

> Pediatric From page 1

Janet Scheid, Roanoke County Greenway Planner.

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Find the answers online: NewsRoanoke.com

Have a clue and answer you’d like to see?email: [email protected]

Local Crossword for 12/31/2010

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ACROSS

1 Is 3 Grate 5 Greek god of war 7 Downtown Roanoke's tallest building (2-

words) 11 Major world religion 12 Pull 14 Showerer’s need 15 Bearing 17 Part abbr. 18 Males 19 Movie "Miss __" 24 Video 25 Used bad language 26 Channel 10 around here. 27 On other side of ocean 29 Slue 30 Antlered animal 31 Deciliter

DOWN

1 Composer 2 We smooth the wrinkles out - ---- specialty. 4 Assembly 6 Thailand 7 West southwest 8 Brew 9 California (abbr.)

10 Beasts 11 Tiny amounts 13 Holds 14 Fast movers located in Vinton on Parker

Lane. 16 Compass point 20 The other half of Jima 21 Governor (abbr.) 22 Miner's goal 23 Steeled 24 Tyrant 26 Time period 28 Market

I don’t know about you, but I’m repulsed every Fall when I see Halloween witches, Thanksgiving pilgrims, and Christmas San-

ta’s displayed on merchants’ shelves throughout the region – all at the same time! I really cannot abide the commercialization of sacred moments in the liturgical calendar that blunts the meaning of the season, turning it into a sordid indulgence and stripping it of its historical/religious context.

For this reason, I’ve advocated for a long time a not-very-popular curative: remove all reasons for its commercial-ization. In other words, treat Christmas like we treat Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kip-pur, and Chanukah in the Jewish liturgy. If Christmas occurs on a weekday, then nonbelievers go to work as usual and believers take the day off for their ob-servances, deducted from their vaca-tion bank. Officially, the United States is not a Christian nation and so we should not treat Christmas as a national holiday and, conse-quently, shut down the country. If citizens really need a collective holiday in December, then let’s go for the Winter Solstice instead. Such a cura-tive might help us refocus our attention on the es-sence, not the phony nonsense, of the season. I readily admit, however, that my proposition will not be popular among most of my students!

Or perhaps we could move our obsessive gift-giving to the Twelfth Night where it belongs tra-ditionally. That would liberate most people to observe Christmas as a holy day, a reflective day, a gathering day, a day for song and for light as the cold dark winter blankets the landscape. The date, after all, is not known to be the actual birthday of Jesus and seems instead to have been a contriv-ance by the early Church to supplant pagan winter festivals. Still the day stands for its cosmic sym-bolism of incarnation and fulfillment and has been honored as such for centuries.

Twelfth Night, known as Epiphany, also has a

venerable meaning for its Christian observers. In keeping with ancient religious rites, a liturgical feast begins a new day at sunset so that Twelfth Night (the evening of 5 January) precedes Twelfth Day (6 January). Epiphany recalls the visitation of the Biblical Magi “from the East” to Bethlehem, celebrating the incarnation of Jesus as the Christ. Through the millennia, the feast also commemo-

rated other moments in the life of Jesus: all his childhood events, his baptism, and even his supposed miracle at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. The ear-liest reference to this feast is attributed to St. Epiphanius, metropolitan of Cy-prus, in 361 C.E. Twelfth Night was and, for some Christian traditions, con-tinues to be a time of merrymaking and gift-giving. Once again, if folks wish to celebrate Epiphany, then let them take that evening and the next day as vaca-tion times – just like observers do for

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Chanukah in the Jewish liturgy.

For the moment, sadly, we must endure this sacrilege of Christmas as merchants and Wall Street define the day for society at-large. With all its glitter and contrivances, the celebration has become a tacky throw-away Hallmark card that idolizes a 4th-century saint – St. Nikolaos of Myra in present-day Turkey. When we stop buy-ing into the vulgar consumerism, and recall the deep message of the season, then we may decide to separate the sacred festival of incarnation from its more profane (in the secular or material sense) elements. During this busy, frenzied time of the year, too often we allow our priorities to become whacky and topsy-turvy. Let’s reclaim the sacred and throw Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, the elves, and the whole insufferable lot into the recycle bin. Bah, humbug!

Consider The Twelfth Night

H. Bruce Rinker, PhD

H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D.Ecologist, Educator, and Explorer

[email protected]

January takes its name from Janus, the Roman god of portals, of com-

ings and goings, beginnings and endings—an odd-looking, two-faced deity who looks at once both where he’s been and where he is going.

And here in early January, we stand at just that vantage pointe—at least temporarily resolved to take a fresh look ahead into the uncharted new year, even as we look back at the way we’ve come for landmark lessons learned.

The Leonid Meteor Shower of November is an event as regular as cosmic clock work, a landmark lesson I count on every year to re-calibrate my own measure against the Grand Scale of Things.

Extraterrestrial grains of sand trace luminescent blue dashes across the black velvet sky with a fine-tipped brush. Time spent alone and silent under a cano-py of constellations instructs in the cold-dark revelation of place and proportion in the world. But this year’s event was obscured by clouds, and I came inside disappointed.

Then, as if by accident, I found my landmark lesson. I traversed the expanse of the Cosmos by way of two four-minute videos that together, left me thrilled, pleasantly perplexed, and in awe of what we have been given thus far to know, from the micro-world of a human cell to the edge of space and time.

With hands still cold from my predawn cloud-watching, I first browsed to an Internet link of a new video journey by microscope, a revelation recently made public by scien-tists at Stanford University. The traveler moves ever deeper and at greater and greater magnifi-cation into an immensely com-plex constellation of nerve cells that only mammals possess. It is called the cerebral cortex.

The points of light in this cellular uni-verse are synapses—the communication junctions between nerve cells. Every memory and emo-tion, every idea and every word ever ut-tered has come into being by the work-ings of the memory storage and infor-mation processing

of synapses. These new studies reveal that there are more syn-apses and that they are more complex than we’d ever imag-ined.

Our brains contain 125 tril-lion of them—a number equal to the stars in the Milky Way galaxy, 1500 times over. A sin-gle human brain is “the most complex entity in the known universe” with “more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connec-tions on Earth” the study re-ports.

And then it came to me: I had been on a remarkably sim-ilar visual journey before, but through a telescope, with the lens peering out across light-years of space towards the most

distant objects in the universe. The Hubble Ultra Dark Field

experiment in 2004 studied a view covering a tiny speck of sky equal to a grain of sand at arm’s length. What was re-corded on the camera’s plates after ten nights focused on this narrow but “ultra deep field” were over ten thousand galax-ies, some so distant their light had been traveling for 13 bil-lion years when it reached the Hubble camera. As I drank my second cup of coffee the morn-ing of the obscured Leonids, I watched the four-minute video to the very edge of the uni-verse.

Even while our blue planet is less than a speck against all of time and space, we can wrap our heads around the cosmos. Each one of us is a colossus of living, thinking cells that can grasp some truth from the physical world from micro-scopic to telescopic—realities of the Grand Order that no generation before us has been granted to know. How is it pos-sible we are not struck dumb every minute by the wonder of this place?

We’ve come far in human-kind’s short history, and yet have only just begun to fathom the order and intricacies of the universe and how to live hon-orably and responsibly on our small, solid and hospitable part of it. Like Janus, we stand at the portal of this new cycle around our star, looking ahead and back, from our vantage point half way between the Every-thing and the Nothing.

In the understanding of our proportion to the cosmos mid-way between the neuron and the super-nova, let humility in our smallness make us careful, boldness in our ability to create make us courageous, wonder in our capacity to comprehend the cosmos bring deep rever-ence, and so make us more appreciative and cooperative inhabitants and stewards of this amazing place in the year to come.

Find resource reading and videos at http://bit.ly/gsNM41

Fred First

Fred First / Floyd County VABooks: slowroadhome.com

Blog: fragmentsfromfloyd.com

Between Nothing and Everything: A New Year

How's that? Here's how: It starts with all-American beauty

Esther Williams and Latin lov-er Ricardo Montalban. In the 1940's Hollywood paired them in series of madcap musicals in which she would sing and swim in tight bathing suits, and he would sing and dance in tight pants. In 1949, MGM rolled out "Neptune's Daughter" with Wil-liams playing a bath-ing suit designer (naturally) and Mon-talban an Argentine polo player (claro). Her sister, played by Betty Garrett, mis-takes him for his masseur, played by Red Skelton. Throw in Mel Blanc as dopey sidekick Pancho and Keenan Wynn as a local mobster, and what you get is...a thoroughly forgettable formula flick.

Were it not for THE SONG. It was written by Frank Loesser (of Guys and Dolls fame), and he would sing it with his wife at parties. Much to her chagrin, Loesser sold the rights to MGM for use in the movie. The studio

also convinced Xavier Cugat and his orchestra to temporarily quit their gig as house band at the Waldorf-Astoria and appear in the film. What resulted was a musical masterpiece, with Wil-liams and Montalban perform-ing the song romantically, and

Garrett and Skelton performing it for laughs. The song went on to win an Academy Award.

That was just the beginning. In March and April of 1949, no less than four different ver-sions were recorded

and released, and they ALL reached the top 20 almost

simultaneously. More versions rolled out throughout the 50's. Perhaps the oddest version was a live duet between Rock Hud-son (pretending to be straight) and Mae West (pretending to be young and interested) at the 1958 Oscars.

But the song was still just a song, until Dino nailed it. Dean Martin included it on his 1959 album "A Winter Ro-mance" (bonus trivia: there are

no credits given for the female singers on the track). A year later, the album was re-released as "Holiday Cheer." And THAT turned the song into a holiday standard.

Yep, it's the classic sweet-but-sexy Christmas duet covered by just about everybody. Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, Di-onne Warwick and Ray Charles, K.T. Oslin and Barry Manilow, Ann-Margaret and Al Hirt, Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone, Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart, Bette Milder and James Caan. And no matter the pair-ing - Miss Piggy and Rudolf Nureyev in a steam bath? You bet! - it always works. There's one holiday sentiment everyone agrees upon.

Baby, it's Cold Outside.

Cold indeed. To all our friends, family, colleagues and readers, enjoy your holidays and let's all bid 2010 a fond good riddance! The days grow longer, and 2011 is already warming up. Cheers!

Mike Keeler

Contact Mike [email protected]

It's The Holidays When All Thoughts Turn To South American Polo Players, Bathing Beauties,

Xavier Cugat And Mistaken Identities

The Roanoke Star-Sentinel

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The Happy Chef by Leigh Sackett

Deep Fried Black Eyed PeasLuck, luck, luck! Some days

just seem to come together right before your very eyes and you know that you’ve had very little to do with your good for-tune. It feels as if the stars have aligned and some great power has made all things right for just that perfect moment in time. Could it be the black eyed peas you ate on New Years?

And then there are the other days, where the expression “When it rains it pours” comes to mind. Maybe we should blame those on the peas eaten during the rest of the year . . .

Although we run around in this world as if we are the rulers of the day – in control of every-thing - most of us seem to have some sense that maybe we’re not. In addition to superstitious New Years traditions, we carry around a lucky rabbit’s foot or a lucky coin in our pocket, some read their horoscope and try to connect some meaning from their life to the words on that particular day, while oth-ers find answers inside fortune cookies.

I suppose God can work through just about anything - including black eyed pea tra-ditions to effect His purposes . . . But I find prayer and ongo-ing “divine conversation” to be more in line with the tradi-tional way of staying in touch with Him that I might better understand His purposes and direction for my life. Of course we make a bit of our own good fortune through the paths we choose, but we will encoun-ter wondrous joys and terrible sorrows that were not of our design regardless of how dili-gently we have planned out our lives. (Or how many bowls of peas we have eaten!)

So our job is to trust these things, the good and the bad - to accept them as much a part of our day and our lives as the things we have planned for. In

the New Year we should rejice in the lucky day because it is a surprisingly good gift, but we should also hold on to the “un-lucky day” too, for even if we don’t see it - it is a part of our “blessings” as well.

Although I love fried foods, if you eat too many of these fried black-eyed peas your waist-line luck may change, but one bowl to bring in and celebrate a new year should be just fine! Enjoy and Happy New Year to of all you!

1 pound dried black-eyed peas, sorted and rinsed 1 onion, cut into large dice 2 bay leaves 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced canola oil for frying 2 teaspoons seafood seasoning 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

-Place the black-eyed peas into a large container and cover with several inches of cool wa-ter; let stand 8 hours to over-night.

- Drain and rinse the peas. Pour in enough water to cover the peas by 3-inches, then stir in the onion, bay leaves, and ja-lapeno pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until the peas are tender but not mushy, 40 to 50 minutes. Add more water if needed to keep the peas covered while cook-ing. Drain the peas in a colan-der set in the sink, and spread them onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels or dish tow-els to drain. Discard bay leaves, and refrigerate the peas until ready to fry.

-Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 375 degrees

-Carefully pour about 1 1/2 cups of peas into the hot oil per batch, and fry until crisp, 4 to 7 minutes. Remove the peas, drain on paper towels, and toss the hot peas in a bowl with sea-food seasoning and kosher salt. Serve hot.

I was using my lathe in my outdoor wood shop when McChesney came to call. He sat first here, then there, I

fed him just a bit, but he had not come for food; just to visit. Then, as he has done be-fore, he nestled into the shavings and saw-dust coming off the lathe. He paid no heed to the noise. When the shavings began to accumulate on his back, he would shud-der them off and slightly change position. He visited for an hour and then he left.

McChesney is a Mourning Dove; one we have rehabbed.

He wasn’t there the next day, but my contractor laying stone in the back yard told me McChesney had come to visit him. “Yeah, he just sat on a pile of rock for about four hours watching me.” That’s McChesney.

Mourning Doves are among the most endearing birds to rehab. When very young – just feathered – we keep them in spacious cages on a shelf, and when they see Sabrina coming, they run to her, wings flapping and cooing: Weep, weep, weep. They quickly make the connection: Mommy = food. Ba-sic arithmetic. They seem not to mind that she has neither beak nor feathers; it’s perfor-mance that counts.

Having attained a degree of maturity and

self-sufficiency, the doves are moved to an aviary where they can gain flight-strength and Sabrina can carefully watch them de-velop. Often, wild doves come, alight on branches near the aviary, and courtship be-gins. When we release the rehabbed doves, it is not at all uncommon to see them fly off together.

A more raucous and impatient visitor is Sir Nigel. He’s a Blue Jay, member of the ‘Corvid’ family which includes Magpies, Crows, Ravens, Rooks and Jackdaws. ‘Blues’ are capable of an infinite variety of vocalizations, are very curious and quite insistent. They, like many of our other birds, having been set free, remain around our large backyard. They aren’t pets; they’re also not stupid… they

know where the food is, and they remem-ber who has fed them; so to have them dive-bomb you or land on your shoulder is not unusual. This will continue until they figure out natural sources of food and protection in the nearby forest.

A group of air-conditioning guys came to complain that Sir Nigel was swooping in, picking up small screw drivers and meters, and flying off with them. Of course, he car-ried them in the direction of the feeding area, his way of reminding them there was

a hungry Blue Jay in their midst, a state of affairs not to be long-tolerated.

But for all of that, Sir Nigel is more per-sistent than other jays. It’s nothing for him to fly into the animal room while Sabrina is feeding squirrels, land on her head, and in-struct her in loud and certain terms how to improve her technique. And of course, since the subject is feeding, he sees himself as an expert

Rehabbing is a business of emotional extremes. I watch the new folks train with Sabrina, people with good hearts and won-derful intentions. They want to help but they don’t yet know how heart-breaking this business can be, i.e., the animal or bird you just cannot save even after exhausting effort. Yet I wonder if the old saying is true: That we can be no closer to God than we are to those animals and birds with whom we share His creation. But then, there are the rewards, like McChesney, and – okay, okay – like Sir Nigel.

"Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

Look for Lucky’s books locally and on-line: The Oath of Hippocrates; The Cotillian; A Journey Long Delayed.

"Until One Has Loved an Animal . . ."

Lucky Garvin

Contact Lucky [email protected]

God’s grace often comes in unex-pected, unrecognized ways, and, truth be told, is sometimes un-

welcome. Such was my experience when I learned that my father was coming to the Lutheran home in Roanoke. (This was in the 1970s and the Virginia Lutheran Home was predecessor to the current Brandon Oaks.) My sister informed me that after his third stroke, my mother could no longer care for him at home. Mom was a Lutheran and made arrangements for him to be brought to the home in Roanoke, knowing he would be near me and I could look out for him. Therein lay the problem for me.

I was never close to my father. In fact, I lacked filial affection and often expressed my negative feel-ings. I was the oldest child and resented the way he seemed indifferent or verbally abu-sive to his wife and five children. My father ridiculed education, and showed no inter-est in our school work. He didn’t attend my high school graduation and scoffed at my determination to go to college.

Although a talented tree surgeon, sought after by the wealthiest families in our home-town to care for their trees and shrubs, he failed to manage money well and was always in debt. He would have “brilliant” ideas and invest in them, only to lose interest and pur-

sue another track to a dead end endeavor. I looked forward to leaving home and re-joiced in my independence when I came to Roanoke to teach..

Now, in his old age, I faced the responsi-bility of caring for him. I would have to go each week do his laundry and cheer him up… Impossible! I would feel like a hypo-crite. I resented God for this unwelcome

responsibility. Why would He put me in this position?

But I went because I had to go. I considered it my Christian duty. But there was no joy in the task. Three strokes had left Dad unable to communicate, and speech thera-py did little to correct the problem. Yet his mind was clear and I felt his frustration as he tried to talk. His vision had been failing prior

to the strokes and he was unable to read. A wheelchair allowed him to roam the halls. Eventually, his position of helplessness stirred feelings of sympathy and remorse in my heart. I believe it is impossible to go through the actions of caring for someone without developing such feelings.

Then suddenly I experienced an epipha-ny. I had spent my adult life striving to meet the needs of children with specific learning disabilities, hoping to prevent a dismal fu-ture for them, should they not be remedi-ated. These children are normal or above in

intelligence, but perceptual problems make learning through traditional methods frus-trating and unproductive.

Now I recognized in my father the same symptoms these children displayed – im-pulsiveness, egocentric tendencies, lack of focus and failure to complete tasks, to men-tion a few. My father had dropped out of school when he was a teenager and I could imagine his negative feelings about educa-tion as he recalled the difficulty he must have encountered. He had no special train-ing to overcome these problems, to achieve his potential. Now I realized I had denied him the compassion that I felt so strongly for the children I taught. I was witnessing the results of no remediation at an early age. How many lives it had affected!

I could not use the special techniques with my father that I employed to help chil-dren achieve success. It was too late. But it was not too late to show compassion and understanding. Throughout the remain-der of the two years my father spent in the home, my caring was no longer a burden. I believe he sensed the difference, the forgive-ness and reconciliation, for my mother said on one of her visits just before his death, he managed to utter two words: “Jo good.”

When he died in May 1979, my tears were genuine.

Recognizing God’s Grace

Mary Jo Shannon

Contact Mary Jo [email protected]

Preacher’s Corner - Nothing Puts the Fear of God in You Like . . . by Stuart RevercombQuick! What two words

strike the most fear into both Christian believers and non-believers alike? That’s right! Everybody knows the answer to that one . . .

BIBLE STUDY!And with good reason -

most of us have all encoun-tered at least some form of a less than inspiring, if not out-right “snoozer” of a bible study . . . Whether the cheesy, pre-packaged ones we en-countered as a child or the dull, dry lecture variety we might have experienced from the recently retired lawyer who had nothing else to do with his spare time. (Though we should certainly offer an “A for effort” there.)

But it just doesn’t have to be that way!

I mean really - I happen to know because about 15 years ago I discovered a Bible Study program put together by those wily United Methodists that is “just killer” as my 11 year old son Rob would say.

“Well, how could that pos-sibly be?” you ask.

The name of the program is quite simply, “Disciple,” and while it was originally created some time back it has been massaged and renewed and recreated such that it (like you and I) is a wondrous on-going work in progress. But the three things that make Disciple so uniquely power-ful have remained very much the same:

• Group size is limited to 12 “souls on board” as a target. (About 16 is “absolute maxi-

mum occupancy.”)• The class meetings are

held once a week and are “Conversational” in lieu of being “Instructional.” Stu-dents are able to share per-sonal understandings and experiences and there is a clear emphasis that “it really is OK” to disagree on various interpretations.

• Students tend to start out reading the Word, before re-alizing that somewhere along the way it has begun to “read them.” i.e. the Spirit has plen-ty of room to work in our lives and usually does week in and week out - and often in some rather unexpected ways.

“But why bother reading the Bible? I mean, I’ve heard it all before haven’t I?”

Well, if you’re like most of us you really haven’t - most studies and even scripture based sermons tend to stick to the more familiar texts, but

in the first level of Disciple you’ll read almost 80% of the Bible over an 8 month period. Sound challenging? In some ways, absolutely - but in oth-ers not at all. In fact, most stu-dents have a hard time stop-ping once they begin using the study guide and watching the weekly DVD presentations by leading scholars from all de-nominations and even other faith traditions.

Simply put, every precon-ception you ever had about a “Bible Study” will go right out the window.

Intrigued? Been thinking about doing such a study but “Just never got around to it?” There are plenty of excuses to go around (believe me, I’ve had my own) but when you really get down to it, there is simply no more power-ful, life altering, important, critical, peace-giving thing you will ever do. Ever. Way

big EVER. And that applies whether you’ve never graced the doorstep of a church or never missed a Sunday ser-vice in your life.

Don’t believe me? Give it a try - jump in for 6 weeks and then tell me how much mon-ey it would take to get you to STOP. I mean it - after lead-ing these programs / classes for over 7 years collectively, I have only seen perhaps five

out of over 600 students drop out and I think four of them were pregnant and had other rather “large matters” to at-tend to . . .

The congregation I lead at Peace Presbyterian Church will begin offering Disciple classes the first week of Feb-ruary and groups are forming now. Contemplated meeting times are Monday evening (7 PM), Thursday evening (7

PM) and Sunday mornings (9 AM), but if you have a sug-gestion and some others are seeking the same time slot we can make that work as well. Please contact me at 330-7335 or [email protected] if you’re interested or would just like to learn more.

Here’s to a Joyful and Won-derfully Prosperous NEW year - with many inspired new beginnings!

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Carilion Clinic Hospice has announced a new program, “Pet Peace of Mind,” which recognizes and actively supports the unique bond between hospice patients and their pets. The program be-gan in early December and will provide helping hands and financial assistance to patients with pet care needs.

The “Pet Peace of Mind” program allows pa-tients to complete their end of life journey with-out worrying about their pet’s current or future needs. The initiative provides volunteer pet care services for patients who are unable to care for their pets while on hospice. Services include as-sistance with pet food, medication and groom-ing costs, food and cat litter drop-off, veterinary medical needs, pet’s need within the home, transportation to pet appointments, pet place-ment decisions, and emergency treatment due to accident or life-threatening conditions.

“This new program will allow our patients to keep their pets during a time when they need them the most,” explains Lisa Sprinkel, Senior Director of Carilion Clinic Home Health and Hospice. “Pets offer unconditional love, accep-tance, comfort and companionship. We try and help our patients live fully until they die and we feel that pets should be involved in this process.”

Offering “Pet Peace of Mind” places Carilion Clinic Hospice in a select group of other hospice providers that have joined a national network of hospice providers committed to ensuring this important patient need is met.

The program will launch in Roanoke at first, with hopes of extending into the other Carilion

Clinic service areas. You can help support this ef-fort through a monetary donation or by becom-ing a volunteer.

For more information about the “Pet Peace of Mind” program, please call 540-224-4795 or email [email protected].

“Pet Peace Of Mind” Hospice Program Keeps Pets And Families Together

A Carilion Clinic Hospice Patient receives comfort from a special pet.

Faith Christian School will finish the year having raised an additional $300,000 toward its capital campaign Finish in Faith.

The $8.2 million dollar cam-paign began receiving dona-tions in the fall of 2002. Do-nations from families, friends, and the community have al-lowed the School to move from rented facilities in local churches to its own 68,500 square foot building on Buck Mountain Road in Southwest Roanoke County.

Capital Campaign Com-mittee Chair and parent, Tim Lilley shares, "It is simply mar-velous how the Lord has led us in this endeavor. God contin-ues to provide Faith Christian School with the needed funds year after year even when it has not been clear where the mon-ey would come from - $6.3 million down, $1.9 million to

go! Thanks to all of the par-ents, grandparents and friends who have given and who con-tinue to give to our Finish in Faith Capital Campaign.”

Faith Christian School serves students throughout the Roa-noke region. For more infor-mation visit FaithChristian-School.com.

Faith Christian School Raises $300,000

(From L to R) Director of Development Jay Whitmore, Cam-paign Chair Tim Lilley and Headmaster Sam Cox adjust the number upward.

Is someone spying on you with your own we-bcam? Nowadays that could be possible. Re-cently there have been numerous instances of computer hackers remotely activating webcams – and the victims were completely unaware they were being watched.

Roanoker Jim DeLong, businessman, inven-tor and entrepreneur, has created the “SPY-BLOCKER” to prevent scenarios such as the one in a Pennsylvania school system earlier this year, where an information technology em-ployee activated multiple students’ computers remotely. In this particular case, the FBI recov-ered over 54,000 images that were taken of the students in their own homes.

DeLong’s SPYBLOCKER protects an indi-vidual's privacy from unknown and unwanted use of a laptop webcam. It is a small cover, de-signed to fit any laptop or netbook. Made from flexible plastic, the SPYBLOCKER slides on the computer frame, covering the webcam. It will adjust to fit all computer sizes and is a conve-nient alternative to tape or post-it notes, which can damage the camera lens.

Computer virus experts have identified com-mercial malware and spyware that can run the webcam on a laptop; once a hacker gains ac-cess to a computer remotely, they can activate any application on the computer including the webcam, which is standard equipment on most laptops today.

DeLong, the parent of two children and a netbook user, realized an invention like the Spyblocker would fill a niche that is likely to expand. No one likes the idea of hackers gain-ing access to anyone’s computers. “I think it is important to raise awareness about webcam spying and inform webcam and laptop users of potential dangers,” said DeLong.

“Unfortunately, hacking into someone else's webcam is possible and it is happening all the

time. There are many people out there who know how to hack into webcams and many re-sources for people who want to learn how to do it. This creates a privacy issue -- no one wants to sacrifice their privacy and no one should have to.”

DeLong went on to say that he encourages parents to warn their children about webcam spying so they can protect themselves. “College students’ laptops are always open in their dorm room, and they are not aware they could pos-sibly be spied upon. SPYBLOCKER does not require you to disconnect from anything, deac-tivate anything or download any software. The laptop webcam cover is a simple one-step op-tion to protect yourself from webcam spying,” said DeLong.

Visit www.thespyblocker.com for more infor-mation or to order – a pack of two retails for $3.99

Roanoke Inventor Markets Simple Internet Security Gadget

Roanoker Jim DeLong’s security device.

By Carla [email protected]

Roanoke County Schools will hold registration for up-coming kindergarten chil-dren, and children presently enrolled in private kindergar-ten who will attend first grade in public schools during the 2011-2012 school year.

All children who will be five years old on or before September 30, 2011, are eligi-ble for kindergarten. Parents should register their children at the elementary school in their home area on Thursday, January 20 and Friday, Janu-ary 21 from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Parents should bring the following information when registering their children:

• child’s birth certificate • child’s social security

card • child’s immunization re-

cord • proof of residency (a

mortgage, a pending contract, a copy of a lease, or a property tax statement will be accepted as proof of residency).

A current vehicle registra-tion indicating a Roanoke County address and a current Virginia driver’s license with a Roanoke County address

listed may be accepted if other proof of residency documents are unavailable.

Schools must have the child’s physical and immu-nization record on file prior to the first day of school or students will not be allowed to attend school. Pupils who are presently attending kin-dergarten in Roanoke County Public Schools are not re-quired to register. Children currently enrolled in a Roa-noke County Public Schools preschool program who are eligible for kindergarten must go through the registration process. If the date of the cur-rent physical and immuniza-tion record on file exceeds 12 months prior the first day of school, an updated physical and immunization record is required before the first day of school.

Roanoke County Schools Kindergarten Registration January 20 & 21

The Roanoke County School Board has decided to adopt a 10-point grading scale, begin-ning with the 2011-2012 school year. The new scale will replace the current 6-point scale, which was adopted in 1992 .

Under the 10-point scale, grades will be given as follows:

A: 90-100B: 80-89

C: 70-79D: 60-69F: 59 and below“We want to ensure our stu-

dents can be as competitive as possible when applying for college. There was a concern that the six-point scale put our graduates at a disadvan-tage. The ten-point scale will help our students compete on

a level playing field for college admission,” said Roanoke Co. Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Lange.

“I want to thank our stu-dents, staff and parents for all their input as the school board worked to find the best grading option for our students,” Lange added.

School Board Approves 10-Point Grading ScaleNew Scale To Take Effect With 2011-12 School Year

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A fresh approachto buying a car.

Boys: Heading into the Christmas break, the William Fleming boys basketball team had tallied just one victory and four losses, as the Colonels look to improve on last season's total of just five wins.

"This is a rebuilding year," said head coach Mickey Hardy, who saw his team finish 1-7 in the Western Valley District and 5-12 overall last season. "We are very inexperienced, but the kids are very coachable.

The lone returning starter is Kris Whitfield (Sr, 6-1, G). Oth-er players hitting the hardwood this year are Don Dunnaville (Fr, 5-7 G), Shalik Law (So, 6-0, G), Devin Richardson (Sr, 5-7, G), Raheem Caldwell (So, 6-1, G), Vincent Wyatt (Sr, 6-2, F), Cay-lan Trent (Sr, 5-10, G), Brandon Clay (Sr, 6-4, F), Jalen Pierce (Sr, 6-5, C), Brian Jones (Sr, 6-3, F), Ronald Holliday (Sr, 6-4, F) and Devon Brown (Sr, 6-5, C).

Caldwell, Law and Dun-naville played on the freshman team, which was undefeated last season. "We have some young good players who I hope … can mature," said Hardy, who is in his eighth season at Fleming.

The coach sees his top game of the season being on Jan. 14, when the Colonels travel to cross-town rival Patrick Henry. "I hope we can get better as these young kids gain some experience throughout the sea-son," said Hardy. "We are taking

one game at a time."The Colonels, who played in

the Salem Civic Center Christ-mas tournament this past week, will open Western Valley District play on Tuesday, Jan. 4, when they travel to Rocky Mount to take on Franklin County.

Girls: After opening the sea-son with two straight losses, the William Fleming girls basketball team headed into the Christmas break with a 7-2 mark after win-ning seven consecutive games. They prepare now to defend their Western Valley District title and make another run deep into the playoffs this season.

Suiting it up for the Colonels this season are Antavia Stevens (Fr, 5-2, G), Cheyenne Graves (So, 5-3, G), Antionette McBride (Jr, 5-4, G), Aureon Bannister (Sr, 5-7, W/G), Sharde Harbor (Sr, 5-0, G), India Anderson (Jr, 5-7, W/G), Keshonda Haynes (So, 5-0, G), Ryjae Anderson

(So, 5-8, W/G), Kayla Harvey (Sr, 5-9, P), Kelsi Bailey (So, 5-7, P/W), Erika Coleman (So, 5-10, P), Dateasha Barbour (Jr, 5-10, P) and Lateasha Barbour (Jr, 5-10, P).

"We lost experience in the two most important positions...point guard and center," said head coach Champ Hubbard, whose team finished 17-7 over-all and 7-1 in the WVD. "Both players, Salessa Stovall (Mar-shall) and Ti'Asia McGeorge (American) are now playing Division 1 basketball. But, we gained youth and depth."

The coach expects Stevens, McBride, Lateasha Barbour and Dateasha Barbour to make an impact this season.

"We have speed and depth as far as our strengths go," noted Hubbard. "Our weakness is experience. All district games should be very competitive. The top three in our district will be very competitive as the dynam-ics have changed tremendous-ly."

The Colonels played in the Patrick Henry tournament this past Wednesday and Thursday and will open Western Valley District action on Tuesday, Jan. 4, when they entertain Franklin County.

"Our motto is simple - We intend on coming for the No. 1 spot," said Hubbard.

Fleming Basketball: Boys Look To Rebound, Girls Want Another Title

Colonels coach Mickey Hardy says his boys team is young.

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K-Guard Holiday Classic Brings Big Hoop Surprises

Patriot #2 K.J. Epps muscles his way for a score through two Brooke Point defend-ers in Tuesday night's second round.

William Fleming 6'1" senior #30 Kris Whitfield skies to the rim as Salem's #24 Tyler Treski looks for the block.

Knight junior guard #5 Ryan Gladfelter drops the finger roll as he splits the Brooke Point defense in a first round game.

Photos By Bill Turner

Hidden Valley's #44 Austin Beecher blocks out Salem's Michael Brown to secure a Titan rebound.

We’ve hit the holiday “break” in full speed on the hardwoods as local tournaments have tak-en place around the valley. The K-Guard Classic at the Salem Civic Center gave way to a few surprises as both Cave Spring and Hidden Valley lost first and second round games. At press time the two were set to meet in round three for a pre-view of what is always a key River Ridge rivalry. Interest-ingly, the four AAA schools swept the four AA members into the losers bracket after the first round Monday. Patrick Henry ad-vanced to the champi-onship game and was set to tangle with Gar-Field.

At the North-side Tournament, undefeated Christiansburg advanced to the final to play AAA Franklin County. On the ladies side, Brookville and Heritage were set for the final in the Lady Terrier Classic in Vinton.

There’s still football left in the air as the college bowls are in full swing. Quite frankly, the bowl schedule and qualify-ing have become a little ridicu-lous, but since it’s cold outside, a little more pigskin won’t hurt. Outside the five major BCS bowls, thirty contests dotted the map this year, thus requiring 60 teams. Thirty two of those sixty had five or more losses. With teams only need-ing six wins to be bowl-eligible there’s little wonder why many schedule three non-conference patsies to get themselves half-way to the promised land.

The great predictor is ready for his first BCS pick of the year. Va. Tech will defeat Stan-ford in the Orange Bowl in a classic shootout that would make Buck Jones and John Wayne proud. There’s too much turmoil in Cardinal land as head coach Jim Harbaugh is on everyone’s “A” list, from the

University of Michigan to the San Francisco 49ers and the distractions can be unsettling. Plus, the Cardinal fan base must be ticked to the point of complacency. A perfect fit for the Rose Bowl, or even a reasonable trip to the Ari-zona desert for the Fiesta, #4 Stanford was sent packing to Miami in order to be part of a bad juggling act that needed a place for Big-East, uh-champ,

U-Conn. Let’s hope this farce gives Mark Cuban the energy to get a playoff in place in the near future.

Likewise, hat’s off to Tyrod Tay-lor, who pulled off eleven straight wins

as Tech’s masterful QB. If Tech knocks off Stanford, it will

surely be a case of what-could-have-been had the Hokies not been victimized by some-one (let’s call him Madam X ) scheduling the first two games five days apart.

Congrats on the hardwood to Hidden Valley’s Tyler Ev-ans, who recently broke the all-time girl’s single game scoring record for the Titans, scoring 35.

This week’s unusual game goes to the Floyd County-Radford matchup Tuesday night. Floyd came in averaging over 102 points a game. Ap-parently, Radford coach Rick Cormany knew exactly where to put the Xs and Os - the 102 mark was again hit, but it was Radford that lit up the century bulbs with the 102-58 blowout over Floyd.

With this being the last week of the year, the mailbox will give you a sample of the most unusual questions from 2010, all of which involved rules. Think you know your officiat-ing? Take the test and watch for the answers next week.

#1)Football- A team is trail-ing by 20 points and is on its own one-yard line with two-

seconds left in the game. The coach, resigned to defeat, decides to let his field goal kicker get in the record books with the longest field goal AT-TEMPT in school history. Assuming the normal 7-yard dropback for the placement, can the kick be made with the holder on one knee and the tee placed six-yards deep in the end zone, thus affording the kicker a 116-yard attempt?

#2)Basketball- It’s 40-40 with five seconds left in the first half. A player rebounds a missed shot at the defensive end and throws the ball sky-ward with a hook-shot motion toward the opposite end of the court. A teammate of the shooting player runs under the ball inside the foul line at the opposite end, where the descending ball hits him in the head and goes in the bas-ket before the buzzer. What’s the halftime score?

#3)Ice hockey- If an ice hockey game ends regulation tied, each team is awarded one point for the tie. Then, an overtime period is played and, if still no winner, a shootout is conducted. If a team scores in overtime it gets a second point for the OT win. Likewise, if it goes to a shootout, the team scoring the most goals gets the extra point. A coach, knowing his team is horrible in shoot-outs, tries to win in the initial overtime by pulling his goalie for an extra skater to hopefully score first. The other team gets the puck and shoots it the length of the ice into the un-guarded goal for the win. As-suming the coach’s assessment is right in that they would have lost anyway in a shoot-out, was his strategy flawed in any way?

Send your questions to: info@

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valley BusinessPage 8 | The Roanoke Star-Sentinel | 12/31/10 - 1/6/11 newsRoanoke.com

Warren Buffet once said, “Predicting rain doesn’t count; building arks does.” The Meridian Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney can help you manage risk while planning for the future. We help you identify strategies to achieve the personal and financial goals that are most important to you and help you manage the risks you may encounter along the way.

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Crossword Solutions

Local Crossword for 12/31/2010

Solution:

B E R U B A R E S

W A C H O V I A I S L A M Y A N K

T O W E L S M I E N P T M E N S A I G O N T A P E

S W O R E W S L S O V E R S E A S

V E E R E L K D L

Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley has received $65,000 in funding to help build one house in Roanoke as part of Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity in 2011.

Nationally, Thrivent Finan-cial announced a commitment of $10.4 million to Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Hu-manity and its homebuilding program, continuing its sup-port of Habitat’s mission for a sixth year. This funding will make the construction of 164 additional homes in thirty three states possible.

In 2011, Thrivent Finan-cial for Lutherans, through its unique partnership with Habi-tat for Humanity International called, "Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity," will surpass more than $150 million in its total commitment over six years to create affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley built six homes as part of that effort.

“The Thrivent Builds part-nership has helped Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Val-ley increase the number of fam-ilies served in our community,” said Betsy Whitney, deputy Di-rector. “We are so grateful for Thrivent Financial’s support of our efforts to provide decent, affordable homes in partner-ship with families in need.”

While Thrivent Financial provides at least 55 percent of the funding for each Thrivent Builds home, local volunteers—many of them Thrivent Finan-cial members and members of area Lutheran congregations—assist with construction and help raise additional funds.

Since its inception in 2005, Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity has helped more than 2,500 families in the U.S. and around the world achieve homeownership. Thrivent Fi-nancial for Lutherans is one of the largest non-government supporters of Habitat for Hu-manity International.

Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity is a multi-year, multi-million dollar partner-

ship between Thrivent Finan-cial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity International. Thrivent Builds is designed to involve Thrivent members and Lutherans in helping provide a “hand up” to people who lack decent shelter, offering them a path to greater economic inde-pendence. Excluding govern-ment funding, Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity is Habitat's largest single source of funding, constructing nearly 2,500 homes in the U.S. and around the world since 2005.

For more information, visit ThriventBuilds.com.

Habitat for Humanity in Roanoke Receives Funding from Thrivent Financial

The Virginia Tourism Corpo-ration has released annual fig-ures on the economic impact of tourism statewide for the most recent year of available statistics. Tourism in Virginia generated $17.7 billion in revenue, sup-ported 204,480 jobs and pro-vided more than $1.24 billion in state and local taxes in 2009.

Virginia receives its annual economic impact data from the

U.S. Travel Association. The information is based on visitor spending from per person trips taken 50 miles or more away from home. The data showed that nationally, revenue from domestic visitor spending was down 7.9 percent from 2008.

“In 2009 Virginia’s tourism in-dustry generated nearly $18 bil-lion in revenue for the state and supported more than 204,000

jobs,” said Alisa Bailey, presi-dent and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation. “Even in times of recession, the tour-ism industry remains a strong instant revenue generator for Virginia, with a proven 5:1 re-turn on investment. Now more than ever, it is critical to invest in tourism marketing, to ensure our position in the marketplace and increase the number of visi-tors who contribute to Virginia’s economy.”

“As economic conditions remain challenging, travel de-mand is under pressure both in terms of trip volume and spend per trip,” said Adam Sacks, Managing Director of Tourism Economics. “In this competi-tive and constrained market, destinations must redouble their marketing efforts to succeed.”

The data also highlighted other important figures for the state, including a 16 percent increase in international visita-tion and the fact that Virginia remains eighth in the nation for domestic visitor spending.

For more information about state and local tourism impact, go to www.vatc.org. For infor-mation about Virginia’s travel destinations and trip planning resources, visit www.Virginia.org.

Virginia Reports Tourism Economic Impact Figures for 2009

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Pretty much everybody knows the risks of driving with-out car insurance. So pretty much everybody takes precau-tions – and usually carries at least liability coverage in case the unexpected fender bender takes place and a lawsuit ensues.

But when it comes to protect-ing sensitive data, most people still act like they’re protected even when they're not. They leave their digital assets out in plain sight on their desk tops, laptops, believing that a com-puter password is protection enough. Any half-competent hacker or serious identity thief can get it in minutes. Maybe seconds.

Reality check: what about your digital files? The ones with your personal financial information? Or your medical records? Maybe some critical company data? How well are they protected? How would you feel if they suddenly went viral on the Internet?

It could happen quite eas-ily if you lost your laptop. (FYI: there’s one lost or stolen nearly every minute in the U.S.). And what about files on a flash drive? Who hasn’t lost one of them?

You get the point. Our (your) data is not safe. But it could be, pretty easily. There are dozens and dozens of software and hardware encryption solutions on the market. Some are excel-lent, a lot are adequate and a few are awful. Here’s a rundown on the pros and cons of four pock-et-and-purse sized solutions that offer a range of effective-ness, economy and ease of use.

Top of the heap is the Iron Key Personal S200 solution (www.ironkey.com). Marketed as the world’s most secure flash drive, it’s got built-in hardware encryption chip to protect your

data. That it does really well, but it should for the high price: $80 for 1 gig, $300 for 16 gigs as of this writing. On the downside, it’s also much bigger than most USB flash drives and wouldn’t fit on a key ring. And after 10 incorrect passwords, it fries the USB memory (you lose all your data).

At the other end of the spec-trum is TrueCrypt (www.true-crypt.org). Pluses: it’s free, open source and can encrypt your whole hard drive (that can be good or bad). Minuses: you have to do more than a little set up and formatting, the feature that makes it portable appears to be Windows only, which means that you will need to have True-Crypt installed to use your se-cure volume on a Linux or OS X machine. And the account that you use TrueCrypt on must be administrator level, which could make it hard to use a TrueCrypt protected USB on a library ter-minal or corporate computer. And because the encrypted vol-ume resides as a container file on the unencrypted portion of the USB key, if someone got ac-cess to your drive without your knowing it, or if it were lost, they could copy off this file and subject it to brute-force pass-word guessing methods. Free, yes, but at a price.

The two other solutions re-viewed, SafeHouse (www.safe-housesoftware.com) and En-crypt Stick (www.encryptstick.com), both give you a lot for rel-atively little. Both are very easy to use software solutions, both are fully portable, and both have free trial versions.

SafeHouse, a Windows only solution, makes you buy the more expensive upgrade (Safe-House Professional at $59.95) to get the full strength 448-bit

encryption. Encrypt Stick does Windows and OS X, on the same flash drive, for one price. On the SafeHouse Explorer (their free version) and Personal ($29.95) you get only 256-bit encryption. Nice, but a weaker offer than Encrypt Stick’s 512-bit polymor-phic encryption, even on the free version. Among other ex-tras, Encrypt Stick’s Full version gives you unlimited number of encrypted vaults (or protected folders), unlimited encrypted flash drive storage space, and a user definable timeout feature.

Three other Encrypt Stick features I liked:

• Includes the world's first portable encrypted web brows-er.

• you only have to remember one password because a built-in Password Manager not only stores passwords, but can also automatically generate strong passwords.

• if you lose your flash drive you can access encrypted files on your PC or Mac through a new license via their website.

OK, you’ve got enough data to make a decision. You could have all the protection you need if you got an encryption solu-tion in the next 15 minutes. Or would you rather wait until you see your private pictures on the Internet? Or the bank calls you to ask if you’ve been shopping in Hong Kong?

-By Patrick Cotter

Patrick is a Vancouver, BC based freelance tech writer who specializes in reporting on new & innovative technology.

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Think “The Office” meets “WKRP in Cincinnati,” perhaps: what happens when a small town religious radio station turns Top 40 – with the same staff to boot? That’s the premise behind “Tuned Out TV” created by Blair Peyton, with assistance from Christie Quackenbush and Bryan Hancock, among others. Peyton, the production manager for Fox Radio 910am, owned by his father Ben Peyton, was also a driving force behind the sketch comedy show “Funny Stuff,” which ran for four years on Cox Cable.

Eighteen episodes of Tuned Out TV have been filmed at the Fox Radio 910 studios in south-east Roanoke City; the winter finale aired on TunedOutTV.com this past Sunday. It’s also shown on a cable access televi-sion channel in New York City, where Peyton says three million viewers could potentially see Tuned Out TV.

A message from a woman in Upper Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood thanked them for “bringing something fun-ny” to the cable outlet. Other feedback comes via twitter and Roanoker magazine named it the funniest free show of 2010. “I told everyone to vote for us,” Peyton chuckles.

“The more we started shoot-ing it the more the humor got out there – a little risqué,” said Blair, a wannabe actor who laughs that “nobody has hired me yet.” He did appear as an extra in a movie shot at Explore Park this fall and took a turn on stage during Mill Mountain Theatre’s “Overnight Sensa-tions” project last summer.

He originally wanted to film a pilot episode or two and pitch it to a television outlet like WDRL,

but when that Roanoke inde-pendent station shut down he decided to go viral. “[Then we thought] maybe we should try to build up a following before we try to … sell it,” said Peyton. Tuned Out TV will take a break after the winter finale that aired for the first time last weekend, but it will return.

Tuned Out TV first aired over a year ago. When “Good God FM” is bought out, becom-ing “Pop FM” without a staff change, chaos and comedy en-sues. “People are having a hard time adjusting to it, and it just kind of escalates from there,” notes Peyton, who writes each episode with input from the cast. There’s plenty of improvis-ing as well. “If you have a fun-nier line than [the one written] throw it in there,” Peyton tells cast members.

Peyton, Quackenbush (the two also star in a weekly gabfest on Fox Radio 910), Hancock, Kristen Gainey and Becky May are the current headliners on Tuned Out TV, a half hour show which has also featured roles in story lines for people like Timo-

thy Martin, a reporter/anchor for WFIR 960am. K-92’s Kevin Scott has a recurring role on the show as well.

Quackenbush’s character, De-lores Grace, is a composite of people Peyton went to church with when Ben Peyton was a minister. “It’s nice having a fa-ther that was a pastor [for mate-rial],” said the younger Peyton. “Very religious but she’s kind …of a hypocrite,” he notes of the Delores Grace character.

Peyton plays the station man-ager, who is homosexual - but married to a woman. “Basically everyone on the show is an idi-ot.” Hancock is the station engi-neer “who doesn’t know how to fix a thing.”

Peyton doesn’t know where Tuned Out TV – he calls it a “soap satire,” might wind up taking the characters. “We just started out with a premise and a few story ideas.” The curious will just have to follow the gang on tunedouttv.com. “We just [will see] where it takes us.”

“Tuned Out TV” Details Life at a Fictional Radio Station

L-R Christie Quackenbush, Blair Peyton and Bryan Hancock are “Tuned Out.”

By Gene [email protected]

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Twenty outstanding teachers from across the Blue Ridge re-gion are still in the running for two $25,000 McGlothlin Awards for Teaching Excellence. These teachers, all selected as semi-finalists for the 12th annual Mc-Glothlin Awards, now begin the second phase of the awards pro-gram which will culminate April 12, 2011 at Radford University.

The awards program, now in its 12th year, was established by the McGlothlin Foundation based in Bristol, Va. Blue Ridge PBS administers the McGlothlin Awards. This is the first year Dr. Rose Martin, the station's educa-tion services director, has led the program. Martin has worked in many schools over the past 28 years, as a teacher, principal and superintendent.

"I am extremely impressed with the quality of our appli-cants and the commitment to innovative teaching of this year's McGlothlin Awards semifinal-ists," she said. "The McGlothlin Awards are a great way to cel-ebrate and recognize the best teachers in the Blue Ridge re-gion."

The McGlothlin Awards are

among the largest teaching priz-es in the U.S. They are given an-nually to exceptional educators from public schools in selected portions of Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky. Two teachers, one from grades K-5 and one from grades 6-12, are awarded $25,000 each, with the stipulation that $10,000 be used for international travel to broaden the thinking and expe-rience of the winning teachers. Four finalists will also be recog-nized with a trophy and a check for $1,000.

“Every year I’m amazed at the skills, creativity and profession-alism we find among teachers across the Blue Ridge PBS re-gion,” said Thomas D. McGloth-lin, President of the McGlothlin Foundation.

Adele Morris, the technology director for Craig County Public Schools, has been a McGlothlin Awards judge for many years. “The McGlothlin Awards are a fantastic opportunity for teach-ers to self-evaluate their craft, as they go through the submission process,” she said. “Any teacher making the semi-final round should be very proud of their

accomplishments.” In the next phase of judging,

the semi-finalists must submit a standards-based lesson plan with a 20-minute video of them-selves teaching the lesson in their classrooms. Judges will evaluate the teachers’ classroom instruc-tion, classroom management, interaction with students, and, if possible, use of instructional technology such as computers, video, or digital cameras. Six fi-nalists, three each at the elemen-tary school level and secondary school level, will be notified in January.

Roanoke area 2011 Mc-Glothlin Awards semi-finalists are: Catey Moretz, Oak Grove Elementary, Roanoke County Schools, Lauri Gearhart, Pres-ton Park Elementary, Roanoke City Schools, Debbie Harris, Read Mountain Middle, Bote-tourt County Schools, Susan Montgomery, The Gereau Cen-ter, Franklin County Schools, and; Mary Slone, South Floyd High, Floyd County Schools.

For more information go to

www.BlueRidgePBS.org

Twenty Teachers Vying For $25,000 McGlothlin Awards

The U.S. Department of Ag-riculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded $3.8 million to re-searchers in the College of Ag-riculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech to lead a multi-state effort to further improve grape and wine quality in the eastern United States.

According to Tony Wolf, professor of viticulture and project director, the five-year project seeks to create, re-fine, and encourage industry adoption of grape and wine production practices that in-tegrate research-based recom-mendations with key market drivers to achieve a robust and sustainable grape and wine in-dustry in the region.

“In order to increase wine sales in the eastern United States, including Virginia, wine grapes and wines must be of consistently high quality, and they must be produced on a cost-competitive basis,” said Wolf.

Virginia currently ranks fifth nationally in wine grape production, and its grape and wine industry has a total eco-nomic impact of more than $362 million per year. In ad-dition to strengthening rural communities through em-ployment and spin-off benefits to the service sector, the state’s vineyards and 180 wineries attract tourism and help pre-serve green space.

Wolf, who is also the direc-tor of Virginia Tech’s Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Re-search and Extension Center in Winchester, explained that

the underlying research ad-dresses unique challenges of quality grape and wine pro-duction in the East, including unpredictable but often exces-sive rains during the growing season, frost and winter injury problems, unique grape va-rieties, and the high costs of grape production that result from the relatively small scale of most Eastern vineyards. The research also explores con-sumer buying preferences and perceptions about regional wines relative to other domes-tic and foreign brands.

Research conducted in Vir-ginia will focus on what Wolf describes as vine “balance” — achieving a desirable combi-nation of leaf area and crop to promote optimal grape qual-ity and wine quality potential. “Balance is an elusive goal in environments that have un-predictable, but often surplus moisture,” explained Wolf. The research explores practical means by which growers could

more predictably measure and attain balance, while reducing the amount of labor and other vineyard inputs.

In addition to coordinating a broad research agenda, the grant provides major fund-ing of Extension and outreach tools to ensure that research-based recommendations are adopted by the wine industry. “One of the four objectives in our project is a detailed plan for benchmarking current industry practices and chart-ing adoption and satisfaction of recommendations that are delivered over the life of this project,” said Wolf. A broad range of media and teaching methods will be employed to reach producers, includ-ing Web-based and print me-dia, extension Community of Practices, workshops, and re-gional short courses.

By Lori Greiner [email protected]

Tech Awarded $3.8 Million to Stimulate Eastern Wine Industry

Research vineyard at the Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Re-search and Extension Center in Winchester.


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