Soccer coach arrested

This guy is the son of the Middle School principal, and a well-known soccer coach in town.
--pws

Winchester teacher aide facing child enticement charges involving student

June 30, 2008 02:49 PM

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

A teacher's aide at a Winchester middle school is facing criminal charges of child enticement for allegedly trying to convince a 13-year-old student to have sex with him, using online conversations as the way to deliver his message, authorities said today.

Christopher M. French

The aide was identified by Winchester police as Christopher M. French, who became the target of an investigation last Thursday, Winchester police Lt. Peter MacDonnell said today. He said police searched French's home on Hollywood road in Winchester and obtained evidence leading to his arrest on a charge of child enticement.

"Christopher French is employed as a special education teaching assistant at the McCall Middle School in Winchester,'' said MacDonnell. "And his employment is connected to this investigation.''

French's attorney, David Mortenson, said in a brief telephone conversation that he has instructed French not to discuss the case with anyone and that he expects to see the 28-year-old Winchester resident exonerated.

"As far as we are aware, he has not done anything wrong,'' Mortenson said of French. "We expect to investigate (the allegations) and prove that eventually.''

A spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone, Jr., said that French is charged with trying to coerce a female student at the school. "We are continuing to investigate this matter to determine whether additional charges are appropriate,'' spokesman Corey Welford said in a statement.

MacDonnell said police, armed with a search warrant, searched another location yesterday and obtained additional evidence. He declined to say where the second search was conducted. He said a third search warrant had been issued and will be acted on today.

MacDonnell said French was arraigned today in Woburn District Court where he pleaded not guilty to one count of child enticement and was released on $5,000 cash bail. He is due back in court Aug. 8.

According to his biography on his myspace and facebook pages, French is a graduate of Colby College in Maine and is a lifelong resident of Winchester where he has long been active in town-based soccer teams both as a player and a coach.

don't use exfoliants with plastic beads

excerpts from Scrubbing Out Sea Life: Exfoliating plastic beads feel good—unless you live in the ocean by Hillary Rosner
 Is your exfoliant harming marine life?

• the exfoliating ingredient in Olay's body wash, and in most similar big-brand products (such as Dove Gentle Exfoliating Foaming Facial Cleanser and Clean & Clear Daily Pore Cleanser), is actually made out of plastic: tiny particles of polyethylene that scrub the dirt from your face and then wash straight down the drain and into watersheds and, eventually, oceans.
• It's well-known by now that increasing amounts of plastic are clogging the planet's seas, killing millions of sea creatures every year when they swallow it, choke on it, or get tangled in it and drown.
• Plastic doesn't biodegrade, meaning it doesn't break down into its initial components; every piece of plastic ever made is probably still around somewhere on the planet today. But sunlight disintegrates plastic into smaller pieces of plastic. These can wind up in waterways like rivers and creeks, flowing out to sea.
• The thing about plastic exfoliating beads is that they don't need to break down in order to end up in the stomachs of marine life from otters to octopi.
• sewage treatment systems are not designed to remove microplastic, meaning the particles are likely to remain in the water. "It would appear that considerable quantities of these materials may be entering aquatic habitats; little is known about their persistence or the potential environmental consequences and more work is needed to establish this," Browne says.
• Not all exfoliants contain plastic. Many products are available that use salt, pumice, or ground up seeds to do the same job without the environmental cost—like Burt's Bees Deep Pore Scrub (finely ground peach stones) or St. Ives Apricot Scrub (apricot kernels).
  

Melissa Lin - state champion

Susan Bitetti sweeps to state tennis title

By Mike Farrell  / Girls Tennis
Sunday, June 15, 2008 - Added 1d 17h ago

WORCESTER - If you decided to cruise down to Clark University to enjoy some sun, a cool bottled water and a dramatic, war-of-attrition-style battle to settle the state's individual girls singles and doubles championships, this may not have been the year.

At least, it wasn't until the day's last set.

After Norwell's Susan Bitetti authored a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Longmeadow's Rebecca Kimmel for the state singles crown, Winchester's Melissa Lin and Leslie Signor followed suit and blanked Notre Dame Academy's Kelly Leonard and Lindsay Harrington in the first set 6-0.

The following set provided the day's only clenched fists and bitten fingernails, as Notre Dame fought back valiantly, but ultimately fell 7-5, securing the doubles title for Winchester.

"I think we let it get to our head that we won 6-0, so it's really hard to come back from that," Lin said. "You think you can sail through it, but you can't. Neither of us were too tired."

Photo by Herald file photo

Winchester's Melissa Lin, along with doubles teammate Leslie Signor, captured the state championship yesterday at Clark University.

An Affair To Remember

An interesting, funny, and sad article.
--pws

Some excerpts from http://www.slate.com/id/2192178/

• She was 82. He was 95. They had dementia. They fell in love. And then they started having sex.
• But when Bob's son walked in and saw his dad's 82-year-old girlfriend performing oral sex on his 95-year-old father last December, incredulity turned into full-blown panic.
• Bob's son became determined to keep the two apart and asked the facility's staff to ensure that they were never left alone together.
• After that, Dorothy stopped eating. She lost 21 pounds, was treated for depression, and was hospitalized for dehydration. When Bob was finally moved out of the facility in January, she sat in the window for weeks waiting for him. She doesn't do that anymore, though: "Her Alzheimer's is protecting her at this point," says her doctor, who thinks the loss might have killed her if its memory hadn't faded so mercifully fast.
• Gerontologists highly recommend sex for the elderly because it improves mood and even overall physical function, but the legal issues are enormously complicated, as Daniel Engber explored in his 2007 article "Naughty Nursing Homes": Can someone with dementia give informed consent?
• In the picture, Dorothy is sitting at the piano in the lobby, where she used to play and he used to sing along—with gusto, usually warbling, "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair," no matter what tune she was playing. She is all dolled up, wearing a jangly red bracelet and gold lamé shoes, and they are holding hands and beaming in a way that makes it impossible not to see the 18-year-olds inside them.
• Whenever Bob caught sight of Dorothy, he lit up "like a young stud seeing his lady for the first time." Even at 95, he'd pop out of his chair and straighten his clothes when she walked into the room. She would sit, and then he would sit. And both of them began taking far greater pride in their appearance
• The state did send someone in to try to mediate the situation—but then the mediator was diagnosed with cancer and died just five weeks later.
• Dorothy's son-in-law, who is a doctor, suspects Bob's son of fearing for his inheritance. Bob had repeatedly proposed for all to hear and called Dorothy his wife, but his son called her something else—a "gold digger"—and refused to even discuss her family's offer to sign a prenup.
• Though Dorothy might or might not remember what happened, "there's a sadness in her" that wasn't there before, the manager said. Bob "gave her back something she had long lost—to think she's pretty, to care about her step and her stride."
• And though the doctor never laid eyes on Bob, in general, he said, the fear of sex causing heart attacks is wildly overblown: "If you've made it to age 95, I'm sorry, but having sex is not going to kill you—it's going to prolong your life.

6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World

We need sun-dried shitakes.
--pws

excerpts from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/06/10/6-ways-mushrooms-can-save-the-world.aspx?source=nl

Paul Stamets has the kind of forward-thinking mind that stands to make a real difference for the future of the planet. At first it may seem strange to be as passionate about fungus as Stamets is, but his vision is in many ways parallel to mine: improve the health of the population and the planet using natural means. "There are more species of fungi, bacteria, and protozoa in a single scoop of soil than there are plants and vertebrate animals in all of North America," Stamets writes in his book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (which, by the way, is well worth reading if you find this topic as intriguing as I do). And it seems there is virtually no limit to what these fungal spores -- which Stamets calls "the neurological network of nature" -- can do: Restore habitat that's been devastated by pollution Naturally fight flu viruses and other diseases Kill ants, termites and other insects without using pesticides Create a sustainable fuel known as Econol It's hard to imagine that in one cubic inch of soil, there could be eight miles of mycelium -- or that it can hold 30,000 times its mass. But, then again, the best solutions are often the most obvious -- and the simplest. And as the first organism to come to land -- many thousands of years ago and still going strong -- fungi must be doing something right. Mushrooms for Your Health Just as mushrooms can strengthen the immune system of the environment, they can also strengthen the immune system in your body. Aside from being rich in protein, fiber, vitamin C, B vitamins, calcium and minerals, there are about 50 species of medicinal mushrooms that are so rich in antioxidants they can do everything from boost your immune function to lower your risk of cancer, heart disease and allergies. In ancient times, Egyptians and Asians created longevity tonics from mushrooms -- and even the 5,000-year-old "Ice Man" that was found in Europe a few years back had dried mushrooms with him. Interestingly, if grown and dried in the right way, mushrooms are also one of the few foods that can provide you with vitamin D. As many of you may know, sun exposure is still the best route to make your vitamin D, but one study found that exposure to ultraviolet light could enrich growing, or just-picked mushrooms with a large supply of vitamin D. Stamets' book that I mentioned above also describes this topic in detail, including a study in which shitake mushrooms increased in vitamin D from 110 IU when they were dried indoors to 21,4000 IU when they were dried in the sunlight! Getting Back to Sustaining the Earth … It's always been apparent that the health of your body is intricately tied to the health of the land, but lately it seems the tides are turning in regard to how we view our connection to nature. Increasing numbers of people are choosing to honor the laws of nature and are reverting to the more sustainable practices of long-ago generations. I believe that future health depends on creating sustainable farming practices that will provide pure, nourishing food -- and along the way this requires cleaning up the soil that has been pilfered by industry. And what could be a better start to this than Stamets' "life boxes" -- which are cardboard boxes full of fungi and seeds that can grow food, clean up toxic wastes and even provide a new beginning for old-growth forests? Once again, it seems, the simplest ideas will be the ones that ultimately improve the world.

web site also has video and photo from graduation
--pws

Tassels flipped; introducing the WHS 'Class of 2008'

By Eric Tsetsi/Staff Writer

Mon Jun 09, 2008, 04:45 PM EDT

Winchester, MA -

The Field House at Winchester High School was packed with cheering onlookers Sunday for the WHS class of 2008 commencement.

For anyone who's been to a graduation, it was a traditional affair with the typical music (Pomp and Circumstance), speeches and cap throwing. But for this year's graduates, it signified a turning point in their lives as they move on from the familiarity of home to the excitement of college and elsewhere.

"We all wonder what's ahead," said Peter Stein, Senior Class President. "Right now we're all contemplating the abruptness of the end of high school and our interest in the new worlds we are about to enter. This change may be frightening at first, and I know it will be for me. But in other ways I see it as just the next step … Winchester High School has prepared us well."

About 280 students graduated this year. The majority — more than 90 percent — will be entering college, according to the guidance office's unofficial statistics.

Several students are going to Boston College; others will be attending Yale University, Tulane University, Princeton and Cornell, according to Red and Black, the high school newspaper.

"We have learned to overcome obstacles and face difficult challenges to get to this point today," said Stein, who congratulated his fellow graduates on their achievements and their futures. "All of our experiences both big and small have stimulated our growth. As we grow, however, we also change."

According to Stein, the class of 2008 stood out for several reasons, including for its commitment to helping disadvantaged people across the country, from New Orleans to Boston.

"We've traveled far and wide in order to help others," he said.

Several students spent their vacations volunteering to help rebuild New Orleans and the gulf coast, according to Stein.

The senior class gift was a reflection of their commitment to helping others. They made a donation to every school library in the school district to help in the purchase of new books.

Although the hot and humid weather that dominated the weekend created a stuffy atmosphere in the field house, the celebration went smoothly and within an hour and a half, graduates were off to their various parties and gatherings.

"I think this was a great class. They were a great group, they improved the school unity," said Principal Tom Gwin.

Math teacher Robert Trakimas, who gave the faculty address, urged students to maintain their passion for helping others as they grow older and become consumed by life's travails.

"Don't forget the internal reminders of promoting issues such as tolerance of diversity," he said.

Trakimas, a former trial attorney turned high school teacher, also urged students to follow a path that brings them happiness and enjoyment.

"I hope that all of you can follow your dreams … I hope you can find a job that you love and I hope that you find many other interests that you can enjoy," he said.

Eric Tsetsi can be reached at 781-674-7731 or etsetsi@cnc.com.

Fwd: Fw: Pretty Amazing...

More chalk drawings from Julian Beever.  Incredible!!!!!   Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. Beever gives to his drawings an amazing 3D illusion.     Look Closely, you can see the Bricks through the Chalk on theMonitor Screen   There is no hole in this pavement   People are actually avoiding walking in the 'hole'   Which is the real guy &which beer is real?  < /FONT> Girl in Swimming Pool (Remember, both his feet in reality are flat on the pavement )   Politicians Meeting Their End   World's Biggest Fly-Spray   This drawing of a Rescue was to be viewed using an inverting mirror .   Make Poverty History drawing from the side(40 ft long)             Spiderman to the rescue   Batman and Robin to the rescue(SO COOL)

 

do computers have a negative effect on scholastic achievement?

Oh no!  We just gave Alexa a laptop for her graduation.  We may have jeopardized her college career...
--pws

excerpts from http://www.slate.com/id/2192798/

So will kids use these subsidized computing resources to prepare for the demands of the 21^st-century job market? Or do computers just serve as a 21^st-century substitute for that more venerable time-waster—the television?

New research by economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches provides an answer: For many kids, computers are indeed more of a distraction than a learning opportunity. The two researchers surveyed households that applied to Euro 200, a voucher distribution program in Romania designed to help poor households defray the cost of buying a computer for their children. It turns out that kids in households lucky enough to get computer vouchers spent a lot less time watching TV—but that's where the good news ends. "Vouchered" kids also spent less time doing homework, got lower grades, and reported lower educational aspirations than the "unvouchered" kids.

This is certainly not the first attempt to measure the costs and benefits of giving computers to kids. Some earlier studies also found that computers have a negative effect on scholastic achievement. Others found the opposite.

The Fat Cyclist's Dilemma

I thought you might find The Fat Cyclist's Dilemma interesting.
--pws

Dilemma

06.6.2008 | 9:58 am

A couple days ago, I was riding my road bike down Suncrest, flying at 45-50mph.

Tight tuck. Arms and legs tensed and pulled in close. Eyes in narrow slits. Tears streaming sideways. Teeth bared.

And that is when a bug smacked into my teeth. Full force. I'm pretty sure it exploded on impact.

And so I did exactly what I've done a million times before, and which I'm sure you have done just as many times when a bug flies into your mouth while you're cycling: I began hacking and spitting, desperate to get the insect — or, more accurately, insect parts — out of my mouth. Stat.

And then…well, then…something horrible, yet fascinating happened. Something unexpected. Something I have yet to come to terms with. A realization I still am trying to find ways to deny:

That bug did not taste half-bad.

Yes, you read that right.

That insect that slammed into my teeth, exploding into a million little raw atom-sized bug parts, left a pleasant, nutty aftertaste.

You cannot know how much this distresses me.

I mean: I like the taste of bugs? Raw bugs?! That's not possible, is it?

Except, evidently it is.

So I'm confronted with a host of questions, each equally disturbing.

• What kind of bug was it? Or do I really want to know? Because if I find out, would I dare try another one?
• Do I like the taste of all bugs? Or do I just like the one kind? It seems likely that if one kind of bug is delicious, others are too. I can't believe I just typed that sentence.
• Have I missing out on something really wonderful my whole life by not being an eater of bugs?
• Should I, from this point forward, ride with my mouth open, and crunch thoughtfully and appreciatively on whatever snack happens to find its way into my mouth?

Of course, there's considerable upside to this, potentially. I mean, with as many bugs as I smack into in an average ride, I could easily stop bringing energy food with me on rides. Think of all the money I'd save. And I'm sure my friends wouldn't be grossed out at all.

I am horrified, even as I am intrigued.

Please excuse me while I go brush my teeth and floss. For the thousandth time this week.

couple never more than 15 feet apart

Slate article By David Plotz and Hanna Rosin
Posted Monday, June 2, 2008, at 10:18 AM ET

I posted this article in its entirety, but was warned it was copyright infringement and had to remove it.

car plows into Mexican bike race

1 dead as car plows into Mexican bike race

Police say American driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep at wheel

	A car collides with cyclists participating in a race in Mexico's northern border city of Matamoros on Sunday.  View related photos
Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez / AP

updated 6:11 a.m. ET, Tues., June. 3, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico - A car plowed into a bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others.

The 28-year-old driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed into the race Sunday, police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez said Monday.

A photograph taken by a city official showed bicyclists and equipment being hurled high into the air by the collision.

Rodriguez said Juan Campos was charged with killing 37-year-old Alejandro Alvarez of Monterrey.

Authorities said the wreck happened 15 minutes into the 34-kilometer race Sunday along a highway between Playa Bagdad and Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Campos said he is an American citizen living in Brownsville. The U.S. Consulate could not immediately confirm that.

"We are looking into the incident in terms of whether American citizens were involved,'' consulate spokesman Todd Huizinga said.

Kevin Anglin gives senior address at St Michael's College commencement

Hi Francis,
Congratulations on Kevin's successfully completing college and giving such an excellent commencement speech.  Quite an accomplishment.
--Phillip

Winchester resident gives showstopper senior address at Saint Michael's College Commencement

Winchester Star article, Sun Jun 01, 2008, 08:58 AM EDT

Winchester, MA -

Kevin Eugene Anglin, son of Francis and Eugenia Anglin of Winchester, earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Saint Michael's College at commencement ceremonies May 15, on the campus of the liberal arts residential Catholic college located in the Burlington area of Vermont.

Anglin was selected by his classmates to give the Senior Address at the ceremonies, and he gave a show-stopper speech that held his peers in rapt attention. His principal message was that college should not be the best years of their lives, but that each year into their futures should be better than the last. His speech was characterized by humor, crisp language, and matchless delivery.

Opening with a joke about being the speaker, Anglin said to his classmates, "When you got that e-mail about voting for your commencement speaker, you really should have replied to it."

After a fine rap through a number of jokes, Anglin said, "First: we can't allow these to be the best four years of our lives . . . They were great of course, and while they may have been our best four years to date, they were only in preparation for our best years to come . . . Saint Michael's has instead prepared us so that hopefully each year following this one, will be the best year of our life, creating a wondrous self-reciprocating cycle concluding that when we die, due to medical advancements, at the ripe old age of 227, that will have been the best year of our life."

Saint Michael's College, www.smcvt.edu, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 366 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns, and less than two hours from Montreal.

As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students.

In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last seven years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Record numbers of bicyclists on the roads

article By Steve LeBlanc Associated Press / June 2, 2008

Drivers, clear a lane; bicyclists are taking to the road in record numbers in Massachusetts.

In Cambridge, ridership has soared 70 percent in five years, the MBTA is launching a "Bike Coach" to let riders bring their bicycles to beaches this summer, and across the state bicycle shops are struggling to keep up with demand.

With gas prices now topping $4 a gallon, the surge shows no signs of slowing.

During a recent bike-to-work week, activists hoped to get Massachusetts riders to pledge 50,000 commuter biking miles. Instead they got 125,000 pledged miles - more than half the distance to the moon.

For bicycling enthusiasts - once a subculture of bike messengers, car haters, cash-poor students, and eco-activists - it's beginning to feel like a tipping point.

"People are coming back to the cycle in a big way," said Shane Jordan of the nonprofit Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. "There's a whole lot more people out on the street around this time than there were last year."

Cities and town are adapting in big and small ways.

In Lexington, near the popular 11-mile Minuteman Bikeway, activists installed a half-dozen new bicycle racks in April.

On a recent Saturday every spot was taken, with extra bikes locked to sign posts and parking meters.

"I couldn't believe how many people were out there," said Stewart Kennedy, head of the local bicycle advisory committee. "It's getting into the zeitgeist that it's cool."

Boston is planning to install hundreds of new bicycles racks and create a new "bike map" of the city while one of the Massachusetts' largest planning groups has launched a statewide inventory of ridership on bicycle trails.

Riders are also flocking to sign up for safety and training courses, according to Jordan, the bicycle coalition's director of education and outreach.

The group offers one-hour sessions at companies to help workers learn the ins and outs of bike commuting. Last year the group gave three training sessions. This year they have given about a dozen, Jordan said.

At Ace Wheelworks in Somerville, mechanic and salesman Memet Ozgoren said business is booming.

Sales have been especially good among riders looking for sturdy commuting bikes, according to Ozgoren, who said several customers told him they sold their cars.

"Bike sales have been excellent in general, especially bikes geared toward urban riding - bicycles that are more practical as opposed to pleasure craft," he said.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.