A Plethora of Plenty

ReShining

2007-10-16T09:21:00.000-04:00

Yes - I'm back. Lord knows long it will last, but I'm back for the time being.

Enough of the Complaining

2006-11-04T14:41:00.000-05:00

Let's see...where was I? Oh yah, hives. Lotsa lotsa hives. Well, at this point the hives are gone, but the cold I developed at the same time the hives were coming in is still in force. I've managed to get 2 more shards of bone out of the molar hole, and it seems to finally be healing nicely. I've just about had it with the ill health. On the other hand, compared to what a lot of people on the planet have to deal with, I've had it relatively easy.

Let's see....what else can I write about. I can't write about my students, for obvious reasons. I did, however, get a question about my dating history during 1 class and in another class, a student started to describe how he relaxes at home. That had to be stopped because there are just some things that shouldn't be explored in a general psychology course. I can't write about a lot of what happens at work, for political reasons. I did, however, get roped into yet another hiring committee and am horribly behind on my duties in another hiring committee. At home, the jack-o-lanterns only lasted about 3 days, which I think is an all time low for me. I am anxiously and feverishly awaiting this next week to end, so that I can finally have a weekend where I am home for 2 whole days. Perhaps I'll be able to finally waterproof that basement wall.

Hives?

2006-10-14T11:41:00.000-04:00

So - to end the update that began with the dentist and continued with the dog. I started getting itchy on Saturday - and noticed I had some red areas. No big deal, but I did wonder what was starting. Well, Sunday came and there were some really noticeable areas of redness, but again, not a huge deal. Monday came and now my arms are suddenly covered in red spots. I know it's not chicken pox, as I already had that and it's not pimply like pox is. Instead, it's kind of like blisters. So, of course, I show my co-workers in order to disturb them. Everyone has a different idea as to what it is, from chicken pox to shingles to poison ivy to scabies. Fortunately, I can get to see the doctor on Tuesday, but Monday night was horrible, with my arms swelling up so much that there wasn't any hive-less skin visible. Of course, by the morning, the swelling was gone, and so when I got to the doctor, there were only a very few minor spots. I'm also starting a cold at this point. A cold that wipes me out on Wednesday, resulting in classes being cancelled again. Arrrgh. This is in addition to the hives which come and go according to their own schedule. And I have people asking about the dog. And the molar-hole still hurts. Ah, it's a heck of a week.

In regards to the dog, I've decided to put Sam up on the adoption block. Though it pains me to do so, the thought of having a pet that almost took out a child's eye is too much to bear. I'm looking for a nice farm for him, one that will allow him to hunt squirrel and mice to his little hearts content.

Now, a week later, the cold is almost gone, though sniffles remain. The dog situation is still unresolved, though I have a lead on a farm that might take him. The molar-hole is doing much better, though a small piece of bone worked it's way out yesterday while I was talking to a coworker. That's just a bit weird, listening to someone, feeling the hole with my tongue and having part of my skeletal structure come loose. The dentist had warned me of it, but c'mon.

Contest

2006-10-09T12:11:00.000-04:00

Much as the last contest, I need movie entries from y'all. This time, we're talking movies for a general psychology class. It looks as if I'll be teaching an Honors class in general psych, and we'll be using movies as the basis for class discussion. Basically, we cover 6 main topic areas in the class, and we'll show a movie at the beginning of each topic area and spend the rest of the time discussion how class material and the movie material correspond and/or how the movie got it right/wrong. So, I need a good number of movies to pick from for each of five categories. I have already decided on the movie for the category of “Historical and Current Psychology”. We’ll be using the movie “Requiem for a Dream”. For the remaining five, I'll pick the best (in terms of the class) from each category. The winners from each category get a prize. What that prize is, I'm not sure yet. However, the categories are listed below, along with a more detailed explanation. Contest ends December 1st. Good luck!

Biology (or the brain, neurons, nervous system, and endocrine system) It appears that Amanda has the lock on this. She found a research article devoted to this very question (Wiertelak, E. (2002). And the winner is: Inviting Hollywood into the neuroscience classroom. The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, A4-A17.

There are almost 100 movies in the list, and I'll be spending the next couple of days looking at and choosing from that list. In addition, many may work for the remaining categories, so if you are going to submit, do it fast.

Behaviorism (or learning through reward and punishment)

Cognitive (or thinking, problem solving, creativity, memory)

Developmental (Changes across the lifespan)

Personality (unconsciousness, Freudian concepts, Jung, why happy people stay happy)

After the Dog

2006-10-09T11:50:00.000-04:00

Well, let's see....what happened after that Sunday? Murray basically was shy for the next week, Sam was under quarantine (he had to stay in the house and not have contact with other animals or with people for 2 weeks), and Bob got better. Much better. As it turns out, he had to get 4 stitches under his eye, but that was it. Bob's off to the right there. No, his eyes typically don't look like that, but I wanted to show that he's fine but preserve anonymity as well. He's apparently healed up, had the stitches out, and is doing well. Still, I feel horribly guilty about the whole thing.

So, I spent that next week trying to catch up at work and things went back to normalcy until that Sunday, when Sam had a reaction to something and had a series of unfortunate emissions. More specifically, he threw up, walked off, and then came back and threw up again. I got him out of the house, so he could do his thing, and called Helen to give her an update on the whole situation. As I walk around to the back of the house to get something, I open the door and see where Sam had gone on his little between-barf walk. He had used the porch as a toilet. First time he's done that in over a year. So, Helen got to hear me swear.

And then on Monday came the hives.

The Thing with the Dog

2006-10-07T10:32:00.000-04:00

So - to continue the update from before, the Saturday after getting the molar pulled was pretty much spent puttering about the house and trying not to bleed too much. Sunday came and I was feeling a lot better, so I decided to grab the dogs and go to visit my old neighbors and their dog Dotty. I should point out that I reference them as such, not because of their age, but because they were my neighbors a year and a half ago, when I first moved into Ohio. Well, they had other visitors as well, their son and 2 of their grandchildren and their son's dog Oreo. Dotty and Oreo are Newfoundlands, absolutely great dogs. Dotty plays with Sam and Murray all the time, even though she finds it hard to keep up with them.

Well, the grandson - we'll call him Bob, wanted to play with the dogs, which is understandable. Us adults basically said that wasn't a good idea. With 400 lbs of dog, 50 of those being Sam, it makes sense. Sam is basically a good dog, he's just, um, special. I think I'll do an update post on just him sometime later. Sam hasn't figured out how to deal with people very well, and his reactions to most things are pretty exaggerated. Well, Bob (who I'm guessing is in first grade) sort of went around the building to where the dogs were playing with a huge ball, the adults went around the building yelling at him to get away from the dogs, and then Sam bit Bob. As I later learned, Sam bit him three times. Once under the eye, once on the lip, and once on the arm. At the time, all I saw was blood coming out from under his eye after his dad scooped him up and ran past us to get Bob to the hospital. Everything happened so fast, it was incredible. Bob has to be one of the fastest children on earth to get to where the dogs were before we got around the building. I grabbed Sam and Murray to prevent them from getting in the way, and Murray was noticeably subdued. Sam, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had just happened. My guess is that if he was capable of speech (and cognition), he'd say that nothing out of the ordinary happened.

So - on Sunday night, I'm left with the guilt of nearly causing an eye injury to a kid, a dog that bit a child 3 times, a dog that didn't bite a child but is hiding under the bed, and a molar-hole that has taken to bleeding again.

Ah, good times.

The South Dakota Trip

2006-10-06T10:49:00.000-04:00

I'll have a detailed description of what happened during this trip at some point in the near future. Yes, I mean it. However, here's the 'official' version (from the Wright State website).

September 8, 2006

A Journey of A Lifetime: 17 Students Head West for a Field Study Course

Trekking across the Badlands of South Dakota… exploring Mammoth Hot Springs… meeting “Stan,” the Tyrannosaurus Rex… combing through Como Bluffs… getting pounded by a wicked hail storm…

When seventeen willing, able and excited students registered for an eleven-day field study with Wright State University-Lake Campus Associate Professor of Geology Dr. Chuck Ciampaglio, no preliminary course description could have prepared them for these experiences and much more as they traveled throughout the Western states, examining geology and learning much more than they might from a text book.

“This course was a once in a lifetime experience, and I am thrilled to have been part of it,” says Jennifer Burnett, a senior criminal justice major from Celina. “I had a wonderful time, and I learned a great deal.”

Ciampaglio is a strong advocate of field study courses, particularly in science, in which students can learn through experience rather than from a textbook. “Putting your hands on something that’s 250 million years old, there’s no way to teach that in a classroom,” he passionately states. “You’re touching an antiquity, and you just can’t get that in a book.”

Based on this philosophy, Dr. Ciampaglio worked more than 8 months planning this field study that would expose his class to a vast array of Western geology and paleontology. After choosing the field sites he wanted to include, he planned an itinerary that would give the students the most bang for their proverbial buck – in eleven days, the group went 4500 miles and saw more than 20 historic, scientific and geological wonders.

After leaving the Lake Campus in the early morning hours in late August, the group loaded their gear into four vehicles and headed toward their first stop, Albertlee, Minnesota. Here they looked at the The Dells of the Wisconsin River, where the group studied and rock formations carved into Cambrian sandstone that were formed between 510-520 million years ago.

This stop was just the tip of the iceberg, however, in terms of what the students would be discovering on their journey. The next stop would be at a ranch on the outskirts of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Here the group would experience their first dig, where Ciampaglio says they “collected ammonites and crabs and snails... all things from the Cretaceous seaway.”

As they collected from this area, including “The Breaks”, which are areas of exposed rock in the hills, the students found iridescent mother-of-pearl specimens. “The fossils we saw were really cool,” smiles Ciampaglio. “You had these pearly ammonites and you were finding them by looking for these round nodules. You’d hit the nodule with a hammer, break it open, and there would be the fossil.”

This was certainly not the delicate work one might think of when you envision the careful excavation of a paleontologist. Digging these particular fossils was something that Ciampaglio heard about from a colleague, Tad Rust, whom he met at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. After spending the night at the breathtaking Badlands Monument, the group traveled to Rust’s shop in Rapid City. There they examined the various fossils that Rust prepped and sells.

Ryan Steinbrunner, a senior middle childhood education major from Ft. Recovery, learned a great deal from the ranch dig and the tour of the shop. “The most valuable learning experience was when we met with Tad and got to dig on his land,” he says. “He knew what he was doing and really helped us out. It was very educational to go to his shop and see his collection and how he works.”

Exposing the students to this type of work was certainly one of the objectives that Ciampaglio set out to achieve. “Some of these students had never been west of the Mississippi, nor did they understand what this type of work all involves,” he says. “Showing [the students] things they might never see, and then seeing the reaction, that’s definitely something to watch.”

The next stops, at Edgemont, South Dakota, where they worked on 2-foot diameter boulders containing dozens of ammonites during a tremendous lightning storm, and at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, were definitely something extraordinary for the students to have the opportunity to see. A couple million years ago, two dozen mammoths died at a sinkhole in the Hot Springs, where the belief is that the beasts slipped and died as they fell. Scientists who found the mammoths excavated around them, and a museum was built so the mammoths could be viewed right where they fell.

From the Hot Springs, the group trekked to Custer State Park for camping and a view of the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore. As they camped, the group saw buffalo and other wildlife in the state park. “I loved seeing the wildlife of the West,” says Steinbrunner. “I got to get up real close to a wild buffalo and get some pictures of it, what a thrill!!”

The wildlife the students saw in the state park would not compare to the animal they would see next on their journey. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota, is a personal favorite of Ciampaglio’s. Founded by the Larson brothers, this museum was the base for their work on “Sue,” the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever assembled. Although Sue no longer lives at the Black Hills Institute — she’s in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago —another T-Rex called “Stan” resides in the museum. Stan is the second-most complete, and an awesome sight.

“There is no one better than this group for prep,” says Ciampaglio. “Neal Larson [one of the founding brothers] gave a few of us a tour of his prep shop and it’s incomparable to any other.”

“They’re prepping a T-Rex that has skin impressions,” he adds. “It’s incredible.”

Seeing the prep shop was the right incentive for the next stop on the journey, where the students explored and excavated Como Bluffs in Wyoming. Here were the “Bone Wars” of the 1880s, where E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh competed for dinosaurs in a land rich with fossil remains. In the 1900s a museum built from actual dinosaur bones was erected and the area became known as the “home of the American dinosaurs.”

“We collected in the back of the Bluffs, where we had permission to dig in the marine area that was covered by the Sundance Sea at one time,” says Ciampaglio.

More extensive marine collection would take place at Ulrich’s Fish Gallery, “the fossil fish capital of the world.” Here, Carl Ulrich, who owns the quarry perched 7800 ft. above sea level, allows groups to chisel in the limestone and search for fossils.

“We spent about 4 hours there,” says Ciampaglio. “You can really feel that elevation when you’re working that hard.”

Steinbrunner adds Ulrich’s Fish Gallery was phenomenal. “The guides there were very knowledgeable and fun and I was able to find some really cool fish fossils.”

After driving through the Flaming Gorge in Utah, where the Colorado River has cut through and exposed amazing red rocks, the group visited another museum and Dinosaur National Monument. Although they were scheduled to then dig in Delta, Utah, a tremendous hailstorm derailed the drive.

“You could see the storm coming,” says Ciampaglio, who captured the clouds on camera. “We were heading to Delta on Route 10, getting close to Route 70, when this hit. Here we are, in the canyon lands of Utah, and there’s no where to go.”

Fifteen minutes later, three of the vehicles had shattered windshields and all of the cars sustained major damage from the tennis ball-sized hail. Unfortunately, this same storm was headed to Delta, where Ciampaglio and the students had hoped to dig for trilobites. Instead, they traveled to Salina, Utah, to re-group, and to find someone to fix the windshields.

“We were all pretty rattled. We got to Salina, made calls, and found someone in Grand Rapids, Colorado, about 220 miles away, who could fix the cars on a Saturday,” Ciampaglio says. “We missed the trilobites, but that was the only thing we had scheduled that we didn’t get to do.”

With three new windshields, the refreshed group loaded back into the cars and headed to the Rocky Mountains. Stops here included the Red Rock Concert Hall, which was built into the red Arkosic mountain rocks, and Dinosaur Ridge. These big platforms are naturally exposed rock with embedded dinosaur footprints.

“You can actually see where a big dinosaur walked next to a little dinosaur,” says Ciampaglio. The students really enjoyed this portion of the tour, where it made the dinosaurs much more real creatures.”

Burnett agrees as she adds, “I really enjoyed the dinosaur trackways.”

Following another museum stop, the group started the trek back to Ohio, but even this drive was not without an educational adventure. Ciampaglio chose six spots along the way that he referred to as “road cuts,” where the students collected fossils such as shark teeth and clams from the Cretaceous period. They also gathered specimens from the Permian and Pennsylvanian periods as they traveled home, stopping along the highway to dig through the rock.

Arriving back in Ohio, the group unloaded their gear, over five thousand photos and over six thousand specimens. In addition, many acquired a new-found appreciation for geology and the arduous work that the scientists dedicate themselves to in order to uncover the mysteries of the past.

“This course really spiked my interest in geology. My original intention was go on this trip as a vacation to get away for awhile,” Steinbrunner reveals. “But I really enjoyed the geology learning experience and plan on going on a lot more of Dr. Ciampaglio’s geology trips each quarter. I am even thinking about choosing a minor in Geology now!”

Hearing this, Ciampaglio knows that the goals he set to achieve with the carefully planned field course were met.

“I wanted to teach about the geology of the west and give these students the experience of a lifetime,” he says. “I can talk about the Badlands, but letting them see how beautiful and majestic everything out there is, from the Black Hills to the buffalo, to the national monuments to the dinosaur trackways… I just wanted them to experience that for themselves.”

For more information, contact Sandi Holdheide, 419 586-0359.

An update

2006-10-06T10:16:00.000-04:00

It's been one of those months. On the 28th, I had a molar pulled. Nasty little thing. Here's the saga of the molar. First though, a piece of advise. Despite what your gorgeous roommate who's incredibly intelligent tells you, don't go to a dentist who sidelines as an acupuncturist and whose most redeeming feature is his low cost. Yes, I should have known this, but I was in graduate school at the time and money was tight. So, I had gone to him several years ago because the filling in a molar had cracked and had to be replaced. As I recall, my jaw hurt for at least a week after that, as he really dug in deep. Well, fast forward to a year ago, when surprise, surprise, the filling popped out, leaving a hole big enough to hide a cyanide capsule in. The dentist here (Hurray dental coverage!) warned me that although he could fill it again, half of the tooth was gone and there might not be enough left to provide a foundation for the filling. Well, he was right. About 3 months ago, the new rebuilt molar split and fell out. It's weird finding a half-a-tooth in your mouth when you wake up. Enough back story.

So - I finally put on my big boy pants and get it pulled. The dentist says it'll be quick and painless, because it's the last molar in the line. I laugh at him. I look at the attendant and ask her to be a witness to the fact that the dentist said this. As it turns out, I was right. While it was painless, it surely wasn't easy. Apparently, every time he grabbed onto it, the tooth flaked. In addition, the sucker cracked so that he had to go in and take out each of the roots. Poor guy, he should have known better than to say it would be easy. The attendant, after all was said and done, grinned at me.

Driving to the pharmacy afterward, I grinned in the mirror and noticed that there was so much numbing agent in my face that only half of my grin appeared. I hadn't realized that it affected muscle control. Odd seeing what I'll look like when I have my eventual stroke.

At the pharmacy, I got Vicodan, which I've never had before and probably will never have again. I thought that since I could take some every 6 hours, the effects wore off after 6 hours. This was incorrect. Horribly incorrect. I took a dose before bed and was loopy for most of Friday. While I kept it together during my first class, I cancelled the second because I just wasn't going to be able to do it. Thus, we get to the weekend, where things went from run-of-the-mill-bad to wow-that’s-bad. You’ll have to wait for that update though.

2006-06-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

It's been quite some time since the last post - but you should probably expect that. Found some lovely geodes and fossils this weekend, though I almost got heatstroke as a result. Now, however, it's back to writing encyclopedia articles! Woo!

The final word is Hooray!

2006-03-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

I love quotes. I dislike the way the media operates. What happens when these tastes run into each other? That's right, tragicomedy! The following comes from Fair.org, and is basically a collection of what I consider to be the choicest quotes from a page detailing the most notable media comments from the early days of the Iraq War.

First, the reason for the quotes -

". . . syndicated columnist Cal Thomas declared (4/16/03): "All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent. Otherwise, they will return to us in another situation where their expertise will be acknowledged, or taken for granted, but their credibility will be lacking." "

And now, the quotes themselves. Note that at least 2 come from sources considered to be part of the 'liberal media'.

"Congress returns to Washington this week to a world very different from the one members left two weeks ago. The war in Iraq is essentially over and domestic issues are regaining attention."
(NPR's Bob Edwards, 4/28/03)

"The war was the hard part. The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war."
(Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, 4/10/03)

"Why don't the damn Democrats give the president his day? He won today. He did well today."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 4/9/03)

"What's he going to talk about a year from now, the fact that the war went too well and it's over? I mean, don't these things sort of lose their--Isn't there a fresh date on some of these debate points?"
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, speaking about Howard Dean--4/9/03)

"It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose--cannot oppose him politically."
(Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum-- Fox News Channel, 5/2/03)

"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"
(Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, 4/25/03)

"I doubt that the journalists at the New York Times and NPR or at ABC or at CNN are going to ever admit just how wrong their negative pronouncements were over the past four weeks."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/9/03)

"I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians and Hollywood types.... I just wonder, who's going to be the first elitist to show the character to say: 'Hey, America, guess what? I was wrong'? Maybe the White House will get an apology, first, from the New York Times' Maureen Dowd. Now, Ms. Dowd mocked the morality of this war....

"Do you all remember Scott Ritter, you know, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector who played chief stooge for Saddam Hussein? Well, Mr. Ritter actually told a French radio network that -- quote, 'The United States is going to leave Baghdad with its tail between its legs, defeated.' Sorry, Scott. I think you've been chasing the wrong tail, again.

"Maybe disgraced commentators and politicians alike, like Daschle, Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinich, and all those others, will step forward tonight and show the content of their character by simply admitting what we know already: that their wartime predictions were arrogant, they were misguided and they were dead wrong. Maybe, just maybe, these self-anointed critics will learn from their mistakes. But I doubt it. After all, we don't call them 'elitists' for nothing."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/10/03)

"Well, the hot story of the week is victory.... The Tommy Franks-Don Rumsfeld battle plan, war plan, worked brilliantly, a three-week war with mercifully few American deaths or Iraqi civilian deaths.... There is a lot of work yet to do, but all the naysayers have been humiliated so far.... The final word on this is, hooray."
(Fox News Channel's Morton Kondracke, 4/12/03)

"Sean Penn is at it again. The Hollywood star takes out a full-page ad out in the New York Times bashing George Bush. Apparently he still hasn't figured out we won the war."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 5/30/03)

"This will be no war -- there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention.... The president will give an order. [The attack] will be rapid, accurate and dazzling.... It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on."
(Christopher Hitchens, in a 1/28/03 debate-- cited in the Observer, 3/30/03)

"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?"
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 1/29/03)

"It won't take weeks. You know that, professor. Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no question that it will."
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 2/10/03)

"There's no way. There's absolutely no way. They may bomb for a matter of weeks, try to soften them up as they did in Afghanistan. But once the United States and Britain unleash, it's maybe hours. They're going to fold like that."
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 2/10/03)

"He [Saddam Hussein] actually thought that he could stop us and win the debate worldwide. But he didn't--he didn't bargain on a two- or three week war. I actually thought it would be less than two weeks."
(NBC reporter Fred Francis, Chris Matthews Show, 4/13/03)

Mr. O'Reilly - I'd like mine medium-rare please.

What's Your Dangerous Idea?

2006-02-25T10:39:00.000-05:00

"The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?"

This is the question asked by Edge magazine to "a "who's who" of third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers." The link to their responses is here.

Not that anyone actually reads this thing, but does anyone have any dangerous ideas of their own?

We have a Winner

2006-02-21T16:11:00.000-05:00

Justin has 26 movies!

The Odyssey Faust (b&w) Rosemary's Baby
The Prophecy Ghost South Park the movie
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Ghostbusters S
Spawn Brimstone Hellboy
Stay Tuned Constantine Hellraiser Movies
The Frighteners Dante's Inferno Howard the Duck
The Ninth Gate Devil's Advocate
Justin The Omen. Dogma
Legend What Dreams May Come
Event Horizon Little Nicky

Christina has 21 movies!

All Dogs Go to Heaven	Doom	Spawn
Alone In The Dark	Ghost	The Final Friday
Bleach (2004)	Hellraiser	Twin Angels
Brimstone (2004)	Jason Goes to Hell	Twin Dolls
Constantine	La Blue Girl	Urotsukidoji
Darker Half	Scrooge (1970)	What Dreams may Come

Jennifer B has 20 movies!

Bedazzled Hercules (Disney) Prophesy 2 Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Highway to Hell South Park Movie Constantine
In the Mouth of Madness Spawn Dark Angel: The Ascent
Jacob's Ladder Demon City La Blue Girl
The Snow Queen (Hallmark Entertainment movie: had a small portion with Hell) The Witch's Curse Hellraiser 2 Legend Wicked City
Hellraiser 5 Little Nicky

Amy has 15 movies!

Army of Darkness? Devils Advocate Hellraiser movies
Bedazzled Event Horizon South Park the Movie
Beyond the Limits Heaven and Hell: Biblical Images of the Afterlife
Burning Paradise HELL: The Movie Spawn
Constantine Hellboy The Devil in Miss Jones III

Laura has 14 movies!

beetlejuice constantine dante's inferno (1924)
deconstructing harry devil and ms jones Hellboy
hercules (animated) inferno, L' (1911) jacob's ladder
odyssey Old Harry's Game (BBC)
orpheus and the underworld
the burning hell by Esus Pirkle the other side (by gregg bishop)

Jackie has 5 movies!

Beetlejuice! Constantine! Ghost!
Monkeybone! South Park:The Movie!

Note: Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent does not count as it was never actually made.

Adam has 5 movies!

Little Nicky South Park The Movie

That one with Keanu Reeves as a lawyer and Al Pacino as the head guy. I think it's a Grisham novel redone.

The Golden Child The Preacher's Wife
(Please note - Brokeback Mountain does not count, Mr. I Wanna Be a Cowboy)

Mike has 4 movies!

SouthPark the Movie Blade Friday the 13th movies
Nightmare on Elm Street movies

Nova has 3 movies!

Constantine Little Nicky Ninth Gate

Denise has 2 movies!

Constantine SouthPark

Georgie has 1 movie! What Dreams May Come

Nate has 0 movies. Bad Nate. Bad.

A Hellish Contest

2006-01-24T13:52:00.000-05:00

Ok – I have a potential publication opportunity, but I’m having a bit of difficulty with the initial research. Thus, I am asking for your assistance. Please send me the names of movies that have a literal representation of Hell. So, "Hamburger Hill "is out but “What Dreams May Come” works. The top 10 name lists will be posted here. In addition, the person who has the longest list will get a prize of a movie from your list (or – a substitute if you don’t like any of the movies on your list).

So – get to work you slackers! Contest ends Groundhog’s Day

Pictures at an Exhibition

2006-01-23T14:26:00.000-05:00

Greetings

2006-01-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well - I've finally gone and done it and joined the blogging craze. I think this means blogging has officially jumped the shark.

2006-01-21T12:41:00.000-05:00

January 5, 2006

WSU Students Unearth a “Whale” of a Find

As students at Wright State University (WSU)-Lake Campus returned from their winter holiday, the usual question resonated through the hallways: “What did you do over break?”

For the students in Dr. Chuck Ciampaglio’s Paleontology of the Mississippi Coastal Plain course, the response to the typical query was altogether different than the usual description of holiday merriment. Those 13 students were able to tell fellow classmates that they unearthed a fossilized whale, one that could be an entirely new species, and explored a region rich in fossil remains.

“We started to plan this expedition in December of 2004,” says Ciampaglio, assistant professor of geology at the Lake Campus. Ciampaglio regularly does field work in the Mississippi area, and had talked with George Phillips, curator of paleontology from the Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, MS., and James Starnes, a state geologist with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, about the need to excavate the remains of a 55 million-year-old whale. The idea to use this dig as a learning experience began to take place, and the three men collaborated for a year on how to make it happen.

Ciampaglio worked with WSU to create the course, which needed to take place in December because the weather would be most conducive to a successful dig. Also, the students would have the time needed to travel. When WSU decided to move forward with a pilot program of December course offerings, which would take advantage of the break between fall and winter quarters, this dig fit perfectly into that concept.

So, early on December 12, Ciampaglio and a combination of Lake and Dayton campus students, as well as Dr. Dave Hochstein, assistant professor of psychology at the Lake Campus, set out for the drive south. The week-long trip was educational in every aspect – on the way the group stopped in Birmingham, Ala., where they studied cyclothems, which is a series of coal-bearing strata from the Pennsylvanian period. The group also collected plants from this site for study in another course.

Once in Mississippi, Ciampaglio made the most of the trip by dividing the class into 2 groups. He called on another colleague, Matt Forir, executive director of the Museum of the Ozarks in Springfield, Mo., to lead one group of students on the whale dig. Forir, along with Hochstein, and the students traveled to a field owned by Danny Fleming and went to work excavating the torso and portions of the animal’s back. The 34-ft. specimen took the students, working ten hour days, about 3 days to uncover. Informally called the “Fleming Whale” because of the location, the “Basilosaurus cetoides” whale will be examined in Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri to determine the whale’s species, and learn more about what the whales ate and how they lived. More study needs to be done to classify the whale’s species, and students will aid in that examination. Ultimately, the Fleming Whale will reside in Mississippi.

The second group of students spent the week traveling the coastal plain with Ciampaglio as their guide. Covering close to 1500 miles in 4 days, Ciampaglio took students to the Chickasawhay River where the group hiked north-to-south, working fossil locations. At Dobys Bluff, another location in the area, the students trekked the “Iron Ladder,” a steep rock formation where many gastropods are available for study.

“Looking at these gastropods is amazing,” says Ciampaglio. “ You can actually see the evolutionary beginning of many marine creatures that you see today.”

The group also traveled to St. Stephens, Ala., where there were an abundance of sea urchins and sand dollars for study; in fact, the students were delighted to see dozens of these species barely covered with dirt and prime for examination.

“Overall, the Mississippi trip was outstanding”, says Keshia Froning, a first-year student from St. Henry, Ohio, who is a pre-education major at the Lake Campus. “The best part for me was actually doing the digging and plastering. It was cool digging, and knowing that no human has ever seen what we uncovered. I cannot wait for the next dig.”

Ciampaglio adds that the success of this dig will pave the way for future excursions. “It’s ideal,” says Ciampaglio, “to allow these students to learn in this way, making it more than just a dig and more than just a course.”

With the help of the Van Wert Wal-Mart store, many of the supplies for the December trip were donated. The students were able earn credit, have assistance in the cost of materials, and to have the paleontological experience of a lifetime – certainly a memorable way to spend the holiday break.

Pictured, Keshia Froning, center, works diligently on excavating a 34-ft. fossilized “Basilosaurus cetoides” whale from the Mississippi earth. Froning, a first-year student from St. Henry, Ohio, and a pre-education major at the Lake Campus, traveled to the Mississippi Coastal Plain and worked on the dig as part of a course she took over the winter break.