Michael Pipe, the Democratic nominee for the 5th Congressional District, announced today that he will be holding a series of 12 town hall meetings across the region, with a stop in State College at the Schlow Memorial Library on August 10 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The full list of meetings and more information is viewable on Pipe's campaign website.
Following news that Webster's Bookstore and Cafe has just three weeks left in a lease of 128 S. Allen St that will not be renewed, concerned members of the community are organizing meetings and petitions to protest the possible closure of a downtown fixture.
Earlier this week, VisitPA, the tourism bureau of our great state, launched a foray into Foursquare, one of the world's most popular location-based social networks. It's not the first such civic endeavor into reputation building, but it is one of the largest, geographically speaking, to date.
Some Penn State locations are highlighted too. The Tavern Restaurant is listed (the state explains "it's crowded because it's so good"), as is the Creamery (but, Pennsylvania, it's Peachy Paterno not Paterno Peach!).
Jay Paterno offered his thoughts this morning on StateCollege.com about the Big Ten expansion. It's no surprise that the two major factors in the decision are "money and television," but he brings up another issue that hasn't been discussed much yet: how the expansion will affect longtime relationships and rivalries.
Paterno explains that by expanding the conference, the frequency of big-time Penn State-Michigan or Penn State-Ohio State games will decrease dramatically.
It has taken nearly two decades to build up the rivalries and the bonds of conference membership. It would be a shame to see some of those bonds loosened as the frequency of football competition against cross-division teams regress to the frequency with which we play non-conference opponents.
The column is definitely worth a read.
The Chronicle of Higher Education had a fascinating feature this morning about what different university presidents think about during commencement. Our very own Graham Basis Spanier shared his thoughts:
At the top of the list is footwear, since we have a number of students who stumble on the stairs to the stage, especially women who lose a high-heel shoe or flip-flop and trip forward. Next on the list is loose bracelets, since one has to beware of those with sharp trinkets that end up between the student's palm and mine. Finally, because I've been a president for a long time and have been inducted as an honorary member of a number of societies, I have to think through the various secret handshakes that may be approaching.
And now we're curious-- what kind of secret handshakes do the societies have? Share it in the comments if you know.
Google posted a offer to college students a few days ago, saying that they would receive Google Voice invitations within 24 hours. All you need is a .edu email address.
Google Voice offers features like voicemail transcriptions to your inbox and free text messaging and claims that it can be used as "one number for life."
Google Voice is best thought of as a lightweight operator for your own personal telephone exchange. Once you've set it up and created a new phone number, you can basically tell the system to direct calls to your various phone numbers (home, work, cell) depending on when they are placed and who they are from.