Treasure Chest

I watched a rosebud very long

2009-11-21T05:56:00.000-08:00

I watched a rosebud very long
Christina Rossetti, Maude

I watched a rosebud very long
Brought on by dew and sun and shower,
Waiting to see the perfect flower:
Then, when I thought it should be strong,
It opened at the matin hour
And fell at even-song.

I watched a nest from day to day,
A green nest full of pleasant shade,
Wherein three speckled eggs were laid:
But when they should have hatched in May,
The two old birds had grown afraid
Or tired, and flew away.

Then in my wrath I broke the bough
That I had tended so with care,
Hoping its scent should fill the air;
I crushed the eggs, not heeding how
Their ancient promise had been fair:
I would have vengeance now.

But the dead branch spoke from the sod,
And the eggs answered me again:
Because we failed dost thou complain?
Is thy wrath just? And what if God,
Who waiteth for thy fruits in vain,
Should also take the rod?

Jonathan Swift on Writing and Revising

2009-11-16T09:34:00.000-08:00

http://grammar.about.com/b/2009/11/13/jonathan-swift-on-writing-and-revising.htm?nl=1
-

Jonathan Swift on Writing and Revising

Consult yourself, and if you find
A powerful impulse urge your mind,
Impartial judge within your breast
What subject you can manage best;
Whether your genius most inclines
To satire, praise, or hum'rous lines,
To elegies in mournful tone,
Or prologue sent from hand unknown.
Then, rising with Aurora's light,
The Muse invoked, sit down to write;
Blot out, correct, insert, refine,
Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when invention fails,
To scratch your head, and bite your nails.

(Jonathan Swift, "On Poetry: A Rhapsody," published on December 31, 1733)

Undergraduate Study in the US Tips: Reference Letters, SAT Registration & More!

2009-11-10T09:06:00.001-08:00

Undergraduate Study in the US Tips: Reference Letters, SAT Registration & More!

Monday, 9 November, 2009 19:00

From:

"Education"

Add sender to Contacts

To:

"Education"

Greetings from the US-UK Fulbright Commission!

Below you will find our monthly undergraduate updates for November 2009 which includes Advising Tips: Reference Letters & SAT Registration, Scholarship Opportunities and more! We hope you will find this information useful as you consider studying in the US .

Best wishes,

The Fulbright Advising Team

In this edition:

1. Advising Tips: Reference Letters

A required component of your US university applications will likely be two to three letters of reference

. Whilst your chosen universities may give guidelines for selecting referees (visit your prospective universities’ admissions websites or directions provided with the universities’ applications for more details), it will ultimately be your responsibility to choose your referees and to liaise with them about submitting their letters.

Once you have selected your referees, you should liaise with each of them about the details of the process well in advance of the application deadline.

You should inform them of:

§ The deadlines for submission

§ Any additional paperwork to complete alongside the letter

§ Whether the letter should be given to you or sent directly to the universities/programmes to which you are applying

§ Whether there are any specific instructions for the number of copies to submit or way in which to submit them (i.e. in a sealed envelope, signed across the seal with the additional paperwork enclosed)

As a general rule, letters of reference should highlight your ability to positively contribute to the university and to succeed academically within your chosen field of study, and match the selection/admissions criteria. To ensure that each of the letters you request makes a positive contribution to the rest of your application materials, you should ask only teachers or administrators who know you well, both in and out of the classroom.

To help your referees prepare to write your letter, you may also consider providing them:

§ Copy of your application

§ Copy of your transcript

§ List of school/community activities

§ Your reasons for studying in the US or your chosen field, selection criteria for the university and your relevant academic/work experience

§ The Fulbright Advising Team’s ‘Guidelines for Writing Reference Letters for US Undergraduate Study

’ handout

For more information about reference letters, you may wish to consult Fulbright's handouts on choosing a referee

, notes to help guide referees

and notes for students about the reference process

. EducationUSA also provides a downloadable handout 10 Tips for Recommendation Letters

2. Advising Tips: Missed the SAT Registration Deadline?

If you missed the SAT registration deadline, do not worry as you still have several options.

Many US universities may also accept the ACT

, which is a curriculum-based exam. The test is two hours, 55 minutes with an optional 30 minute writing section.

Upcoming test dates are December 12, 2009*, February 6, 2010, April 10, 2010* and June 12, 2010.

*The ACT Plus Writing is offered only on the October, December, and April international test dates in 2009–2010.

The exams are offered at the following locations in the UK : Middlesex, Kingston upon Thames, Thorpe, Surrey and Aberdeen .

You may register and pay the registration fees on the ACT website

. For more information on testing sites, dates and registration, please visit the ACT website or contact the ACT.

Some universities do not require an admissions exam.

Ask the universities you are applying to if they would be willing to accept your application on the condition you will report your exam scores on a later date. If they will allow you to submit your scores past their application deadline, register for a later SAT test date.

If you missed the SAT registration deadline, but you would still like to take the tests on a certain date, an alternative option would be to do standby testing.

To attempt to take the SAT on standby, follow these steps:

1. Well in advance of the test day, pick up a Registration Form at your school office and fill it out or email the Fulbright Advisory Service (education@fulbright.co.uk) and request an SAT registration form.

Bring the completed form with payment of all fees, including the standby fee

, to the test center on test day.
If you are a Sunday tester, or approved for 50 percent extended time, include a copy of your clergy letter or Eligibility Approval Letter.
Check the test day guidelines

to make sure you have everything you need.
Arrive at the test centre no later than 7:45 am. In fact, it is probably best to arrive early!

Please note, standby testing is never guaranteed—the test center may be full or lack the extra test materials to test you. Standby testing cannot be reserved. It is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are in the London area, you may want to travel to a test centre outside of London , as they are likely to be less crowded. (Please do not call test centers about standby testing. Contact Customer Service

with any questions.) See the College Board website

for more details about standby testing

3. News You Can Use

Penn and Southern Cal Top Ranking of Good-Neighbor Colleges

(The Chronicle of Higher Education)
The Alliance of Youth Movements' second annual summit took place in Mexico City from October 14-16, 2009
The Whole Applicant (NY Times)
Bitter Students Join Brain Drain

(Times Online)
New Web Site Compares College Costs, Diversity, and Graduation Rates

(The Chronicle of Higher Education)

4. Scholarships

INSTITUTE OF HUMANE STUDIES JOURNALISM INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

www.TheIHS.org

http://www.theihs.org/ContentDetails.aspx?id=538&utm_source=Prospects%20Jintern&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Prospects%20Jintern%2010-15-09&utm_campaign=Jintern%2010%20Spring

Overview: Their program offers paid internships at media networks, think tanks, and newspapers. You could set up interviews for an experienced broadcast producer. Investigate a government program for a policy organization, or cover the political beat for a local paper.

The program provides a generous stipend and a travel allowance. Plus you will attend their summer journalism workshop. After your internship, our program director will help you strategize your job hunt.

Interns from last summer were recently hired by Fox Business News, the Los Angeles Times, the Jacksonville North Carolina Daily News and The National Post in Toronto .

Spring deadline: Nov 15

Summer deadline: Jan 31

Contact: Keri Anderson

Student Coordinator

Institute for Humane Studies

journalism@theihs.org

UNIVERSITY FILM AND VIDEO ASSOCIATION CAROLE FIELDING STUDENT GRANTS

http://www.ufva.org/content.php?type_id=7&article_id=28

Overview: Award for film, video, or multimedia production or research in film or video.

Field of Study: Arts/Art History, Communications

Award Amount: $1,000 - 5,000

Deadline: 1 January 2010

MARS HILL COLLEGE ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPS

http://www.mhc.edu/administration/finaid/scholarships.asp

Overview: To assist in meeting tuition needs for international students studying at Mars Hill College .

Award Amount: $1,000-$8,400

Deadline: Varies

NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP

http://northcentralcollege.edu/x10818.xml

Overview: Undergraduate international student applicants are considered for academic scholarships, ranging from $1,000 to $8,000 (renewable for three years).

Deadline: Rolling

* * * * *

Fulbright Advisory Service - Education USA

US-UK Fulbright Commission

62 Doughty Street

London WC1N 2JZ

Fax: 020 7404 6874

Email: education@fulbright.co.uk

Website: http://www.fulbright.co.uk/

BNP website - a copy of Obama's?

2009-11-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2009/11/bnp-homepage-is-a-copy-of-obamas.html

-

BNP website - a copy of Obama's?

Remember when the BNP ‘borrowed’ the faces of friendly ‘BNP voters’ from an online image database?

Except they weren’t friendly BNP voters. They were, mostly, Americans. And furious when they found out their image had been used.

Well, it’s happened again.

Take a close look at the two images of websites below. One is the homepage of www.barackobama.com – the website that aims to build “on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering communities across the country to bring about an agenda of change.”

The other is the brand new homepage of bnp.org.uk.

Of course, it could be an extraordinary coincidence. But CentreRight points out that it’s not just the colour scheme that the BNP have filched.

Compare the format of the logo ‘Standing up for Great Britian’ with the arrangement of ‘Organising for America’.

Compare the red ‘Donate’ button to the American ‘Donate Now’ one, the menu bars, the YouTube video in the right hand column…

The irony of a British party that excludes black people from its membership ripping off the website of America’s first black president is so great it defies expression.

British jobs for British people? Not, it appears, in the case of the BNP's graphic designers...

Posted by Hattie Garlick on November 09, 2009 at 11:32 AM in

Lucinda & LyricsFetcer

2009-11-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

Majorly obsessed with Lucinda Williams at the moment, thanks to this article -

http://80music.about.com/b/2009/10/18/this-weeks-forgotten-gem-of-the-80s-lucinda-williams-i-lost-it.htm
-

This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Lucinda Williams' "I Lost It"

Sunday October 18, 2009

Though many listeners probably never heard the tune until its inclusion on the 1998 breakthrough Americana release Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the passionate, melodic "I Lost It" actually dates back to a very early Lucinda Williams album, 1980's Happy Woman Blues. One of the people in the dark on that fact happened to be myself, until a few short moments ago when I realized that this track was nearly 20 years old when I first added it to my collection. The 1980 version features a slightly inflated sense of Louisiana shuffle primitivism than the more rock-flavored recording I know so well, but Williams' songwriting prowess announces itself forcefully years before she drew the acclaim she now receives. Mournful lyrics combined with Williams' raggedly gorgeous vocal delivery prove here that this artist has not merely grown better with age but has always been a rich contributor to American music culture.

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways

----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------

And an awesome software which automatically adds lyrics to the songs in yours iTunes library -

http://lyricsfetcher.sourceforge.net/html/index.html

-

LyricsFetcher - How to use it

Download LyricsFetcher and install it.
The first time you run LyricsFetcher it examines your music library to decide which songs don't have lyrics. This process can take some time, but only needs to happen once.
Once LyricsFetcher has loaded your music library, you select the songs for which you want to find lyrics and click Fetch. LyricsFetcher will queue those songs and try to find lyrics for each of them.

How do you pronounce these Bible names?

2009-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080808103810AAwanxe

-

Yahoo Answer - How do you pronounce these Bible names?

Leviticus
Deuteronomy
Nehemiah
Ecclesiastes
Solomon
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Hosea
Habakkuk
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Ephesians
Colossians
Thessalonians
Philemon

Lime Kitty [Atheati Emperor]
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Leviticus = Lev-it-ih-cuss

Deuteronomy = Doot-er-on-oh-mee

Nehemiah = Neh-heh-my-uh

Ecclesiastes -- Ek-klee-see-as-tease

Solomon - Sahl - oh - mon

Lamentations - Lam - ent-a-shuns

Ezekiel - Ee-zee-kee-el

Hosea - Ho-zay-uh

Habakkuk - Hah-bah-kuk

Haggai - Hah-guy

Zechariah - Zek -uh -ry - uh

Malachi - Mal - uh - k - eye

Ephesians - Eff - eez - ee - ans

Colossians - Kol - oss - ee - ans

Thessalonians - Thes - uh - lone - ee - uns

Philemon - F-eye-lee-mon

* 1 year ago

Ecclesiastes

2009-10-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

http://library.eb.co.uk/eb/article-73323?query=ecclesiastes&ct=

-

Biblical Literature - Ecclesiastes

The book has been described as a sage's notebook of random observations about life. Some interpreters have questioned the unity of authorship, but, given the notebook character of the work, there seems to be little need for questioning its basic integrity.

Although the phrase “vanity of vanities! all is vanity” stressed at both the beginning and the end of the book sums up its theme, it does not convey the variety of tests that the skeptical Qohelet applies to life. He examines everything—material things, wisdom, toil, wealth—and finds them unable to give meaning to life. He repeatedly returns to life's uncertainties, to the hidden and incomprehensible ways of God, and to the stark and final fact of death. The only conclusion to this human condition is to accept gratefully the small day-to-day pleasures that God gives to man.

Qohelet stands in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom schools. He recognizes the relative value of wisdom as against foolishness, but he rejects the oversimplified and optimistic view of wisdom as security for life. He offers a religious skepticism that rejects all facile answers to life's mysteries and God's ways.

Ray Bradbury on the Ambition to Write

2009-10-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

http://grammar.about.com/b/2009/10/23/ray-bradbury-on-the-ambition-to-write.htm

-

Ray Bradbury on the Ambition to Write

To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next.

You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.

I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories.

Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

(Ray Bradbury, "How to Be Madder Than Captain Ahab." Quoted by William Safire and Leonard Safir in Good Advice on Writing. Simon & Schuster, 1992)