Be A Voice Not An Echo

Published: July 22, 2014 ~ 0

Kettle Moraine is a large moraine in the state of Wisconsin, United States. It stretches from Walworth County in the south to Kewaunee County in the north. It has also been referred to as the Kettle Range and, in geological texts, as the Kettle Interlobate Moraine.

The moraine was created when the Green Bay Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, on the west, collided with the Lake Michigan Lobe of the glacier, on the east, depositing sediment. The western glacier formed Green Bay, Lake Winnebago and the Horicon Marsh. The major part of the Kettle Moraine area is considered interlobate moraine, though other types of moraine features, and other glacial features are common.

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Lakefront Community Areas

Published: July 21, 2014 ~ 0

Edgewater is a lakefront community area on the North Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois seven miles north of the Loop. As one of Chicago’s 77 official community areas, Edgewater is bounded by Foster Avenue on the south, Devon Avenue on the north, Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the east. Edgewater contains several beaches that residents enjoy in the late spring, summer, and early autumn. Chicago’s largest park, Lincoln Park, stretches south from Edgewater for seven miles along the waterfront, almost to downtown.

Historically, Edgewater was the northeastern corner of Lake View Township, an independent suburb which was annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889. Today, the Uptown community is to Edgewater’s south, Lincoln Square to its west, West Ridge to its northwest and Rogers Park to its north.

Edgewater was first developed around the 1880s as a summer home for Chicago’s elite. Today, it provides the northern terminus of both Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive. With the exception of pockets acknowledged as historic districts (like the Bryn Mawr Historic District), east-Edgewater (Edgewater Beach) boasts a skyline of high-rise apartment buildings, condominium complexes, and mid-rise homes. To the west, Edgewater is characterized by commercial businesses; single-family homes; and two-, three-, or four-story flats, including the historic neighborhood of Andersonville.

All You Need Is Love

Published: July 21, 2014 ~ 0

The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool, in 1960. With John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era.[1] Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several genres, ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as “Beatlemania”, but as their songwriting grew in sophistication they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era’s sociocultural revolutions.

From 1960, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. They acquired the nickname “the Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market.

From 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced what many critics consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (commonly known as the White Album, 1968) and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr, the surviving members, remain musically active.

Once In A Lifetime, Break Rules

Published: July 21, 2014 ~ 0

Lake View, or Lakeview, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located on the city’s North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and the shore of Lake Michigan on the east. The Uptown community area is to Lake View’s north, Lincoln Square to its northwest, North Center to its west and Lincoln Park to its south.

The 2010 population of Lake View was 94,368 residents, making it the second largest of the Chicago community areas by population, following Austin which has 98,514 residents. Lake View, though, has a higher population density than the larger-in-area Austin neighborhood.

Lake View is unofficially divided into smaller neighborhood enclaves: Lakeview East, West Lakeview and Wrigleyville. Lakeview East contains the district known as Boystown, famous for its large LGBT population and the pride parade held each June of every year. Wrigleyville, another popular district, surrounds Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. New Town, a name for the area centered at the intersection of North Clark Street and West Diversey Parkway, was a commonly encountered appellation in the 1970s and 1980s but has fallen into disuse.

The Northalsted Merchants Association is centered on the North Halsted Street strip between West Belmont Avenue and West Irving Park Road on Halsted. In 2013 Money Magazine named Lake View as number 3 of its top 10 Big-city neighborhoods for its selection of Best Places to Live.

Dance Like There’s Nobody There

Published: July 19, 2014 ~ 0

Dance is a type of art that generally involves movement of the body, often rhythmic and to music. It is performed in many cultures as a form of emotional expression, social interaction, or exercise, in a spiritual or performance setting, and is sometimes used to express ideas or tell a story. Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans or other animals, as in bee dances and behaviour patterns such as a mating dances.

Definitions of what constitutes dance can depend on social and cultural norms and aesthetic, artistic and moral sensibilities. Definitions may range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Martial arts kata are often compared to dances, and sports such as gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are generally thought to incorporate dance.

There are many styles and genres of dance. African dance is interpretative. Ballet, ballroom and tango are classical dance styles. Square dance and electric slide are forms of step dance, and breakdancing is a type of street dance. Dance can be participatory, social, or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary or symbolic meaning as in some Asian dances.

Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.

National Public Radio Media

Published: July 16, 2014 ~ 0

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States.

They produce and distribute news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs that are produced. Most public radio stations broadcast a mixture of NPR programs, content from rival providers American Public Media, Public Radio International and Public Radio Exchange, and locally produced programs.

Their flagships are two drive time news broadcasts, Morning Edition and the afternoon All Things Considered; both are carried by most NPR member stations, and are two of the most popular radio programs in the country.

NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, which distributes NPR programs and other programming from independent producers and networks such as American Public Media and Public Radio International. Its content is also available on-demand via the web, mobile, and podcasts.

We Become What We Think About

Published: July 15, 2014 ~ 0

A community is a social unit of any size that shares common values. Although embodied or face-to-face communities are usually small, larger or more extended communities such as a national community, international community and virtual community are also studied.

In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.

Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of community has less geographical limitation, as people can now gather virtually in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. Prior to the internet, virtual communities (like social or academic organizations) were far more limited by the constraints of available communication and transportation technologies.

The word “community” is derived from the Old French comunete which is derived from the Latin communitas (from Latin communis, things held in common), a broad term for fellowship or organized society. One broad definition which incorporates all the different forms of community is

a group or network of persons who are connected (objectively) to each other by relatively durable social relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties, and who mutually define that relationship (subjectively) as important to their social identity and social practice

Definitions of community as “organisms inhabiting a common environment and interacting with one another,” while scientifically accurate, do not convey the richness, diversity and complexity of human communities. Their classification, likewise is almost never precise. Untidy as it may be, community is vital for humans. M. Scott Peck expresses this in the following way: “There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.”

Voting Takes A Stand

Published: February 21, 2014 ~ 0

FairVote (formerly the Citizens for Proportional Representation and the Center for Voting and Democracy) is a 501(c)(3) organization that advocates electoral reform in the United States. Founded in 1992 as the Citizens for Proportional Representation (CPR) to support the implementation of proportional representation in local elections, the organization has since changed its name to FairVote to emphasize its support of such platforms as instant-runoff voting for single-winner elections, a national popular vote for president, a right to vote amendment to the Constitution, and universal voter registration.

FairVote also releases regular publications, including Dubious Democracy and Monopoly Politics, that report on the state of the U.S. electoral system. Other projects, such as Representation 2020, aim for voter outreach and increased voter participation.

The organization influences and supports other groups that advocate alternative electoral practices, including FairVote Minnesota and FairVote Canada. Notable members of FairVote’s Board of Directors include John Anderson, a former Congressman who ran as an independent candidate for President in 1980, and Krist Novoselic, the bassist for Nirvana.

Wide Diversity of NPOs

Published: December 8, 2013 ~ 0

A nonprofit organization (NPO) is an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals rather than distributing them as profit or dividends.

While not-for-profit organizations are permitted to generate surplus revenues, they must be retained by the organization for its self-preservation, expansion, or plans. NPOs have controlling members or a board of directors. Many have paid staff including management, while others employ unpaid volunteers and even executives who work with or without compensation (occasionally nominal). Where there is a token fee, in general, it is used to meet legal requirements for establishing a contract between the executive and the organization.

Designation as a nonprofit does not mean that the organization does not intend to make a profit, but rather that the organization has no owners and that the funds realized in the operation of the organization will not be used to benefit any owners. The extent to which an NPO can generate surplus revenues may be constrained or use of surplus revenues may be restricted.

Wide Diversity of NPOs

Published: December 8, 2013 ~ 0

A nonprofit organization (NPO) is an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals rather than distributing them as profit or dividends.