Rare Leopard Escape!

Rare Leopard Escapes from the Durham Zoo

Durham-Fluffy, a 10-year-old Romanian Spotted Leopard, has seemingly escaped from the Durham Zoo. Zoo officials and visitors noticed early this morning that that Fluffy the Leopard wasn’t in her enclosure this morning, starting a panic as scared kids and upset parents fled the zoo.

Durham Zoo officials, local and state police and the state wildlife department have mobilized to find the leopard and bring it back. Authorities hope to shot the leopard with tranquilizers and bring it back alive, but according to Police chief William Blair, “If necessary, we will shoot to kill.” Currently there are no leads on the leopard’s location.

Said Kitty Smith, the chief biologist at the zoo, gave the following safety advice for anyone who may encounter the leopard. “We urge anyone who encounters Fluffy to get slowly to the ground and lay still. Fluffy may do a lot of sniffing and licking, but unless she senses fear she’s not likely to react violently. Be especially careful to avoid eye contact.”

Fluffy is black with white spots, weighs 146 pounds, and can run at 60 miles per hour. Fluffy is one of the five remaining Romanian Spotted leopards in existence, and is the only known female of her species left. The Romanian Spotted Leopard was driven to the brink of extinction because of their appetite for young children.

“I want my money back, and then I’m never coming back here again. This place is out of control.” Said an angry parent as he fled the zoo with his daughter in tow.

The leopard was last seen in her cage when the zoo closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday night, and the enclosure showed no signs of how the leopard escaped. Zoo officials say they noticed that the leopard was missing at 7:30 a.m. However one zoo visitor, James Petronkis of Newmarket, says he noticed right away that Fluffy was missing but the zoo refused to listen to him. “Fluffy usually draws up the straw up into a nest when she sleeps, but there was no nest- there wasn’t even any straw. I told the guard and he said “Mind your own business.’ I couldn’t believe it.” Petronkis then pulled the fire alarm to get the zoo officials’ attention, but the enclosure still wasn’t checked until another half hour had passed.  

Zoo officials were crying during the press release due to their concerns about Fluffy the leopard’s safety.

Books in 3-D

Books in 3-D

Dimond Library hosting a semester long exhibit on pop-up books in its gallery.

By Brian Ward

Durham- The Carel Chapman Movable Book Collection will be on display on the first floor of Dimond Library in the University Museum until Dec. 16. Admission is free, and the exhibit is open till 4p.m.  Mon. to Sat.

Dale Valena, the curator of the University Museum, said that many people have expressed an interest in the gallery since its opening back in Sept. UNH students, faculty members, local high school students and young children have come to see all the books featured in the one-room gallery.

The gallery has pop-up books of different genres and time periods, and features works from famous artists like Robert Sabuda, Andy Warhol and M.C. Escher. Classic children’s stories such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Aladdin” share a wall with “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” pop-up books.  A pop-up Fenway Park is surrounded by books about bicycles, the Beatles, and Brittney Spears meltdowns.  Directly across from large, five sectioned Titanic; Aslan the Lion from the children’s series “The Chronicles of Narnia” attempts to leap out of his case. The exhibit even has a section where visitors can make their own pop-up book.

  

“We thought it would be good to give people a little sample.” Valena said.

Carel Chapman, a NH resident, donated her collection of over 2,000 pop-up books to UNH Special Collections back in 2008. Despite having no previous affiliation with the university, Chapman wanted to give her collection to an in-state school. She went on to say that if the university had rejected her, she would have gone out of state to find a home for her collection.

“I wanted to make sure the pop-up collection would have home where they would be looked after and some of rarer pieces wouldn’t get lost.” She said.

Chapman began her pop-up collection over 20 years ago. “Picked up 2 or 3 copies of pop books for Christmas for around the house, afterwards I started looked at them and at the paper engineering and fell in love with them.” She said. 

Chapman approached Bill Ross, the Head of Special Collections about donating her collection to UNH. Ross is involved in finding ideas for the University Museum, and while the library didn’t originally plan to use the books as the subject of their gallery, he started seeing the books as a “good entertainment source for an exhibit.” Chapman has no regrets about donating her books to UNH and still collects and donates pop-up books to the university on a yearly basis.

“It like it’s still mine, but not.” She said.

The term “Pop-Up” was created by the Blue Ribbon Publishing Company in the early 19th century. Paper engineering, the art of making pop-up and movable art, goes back to the early 13^th century. Due to their high cost throughout much of history, paper engineered books were targeted at older audiences and were used in to scholarly works on subjects such as astronomy and anatomy. It wasn’t until the 19^th century where combinations of factors like higher literacy and cheaper printing methods that people started making paper-engineered books for children. Paper engineered books started gaining popularity in the U.S. during the 1930s, and have still have a wide following today. Most pop-up books are made out of country, and require nearly 60 people to hand assemble a single book.

Work Cited

Chapman, Carel. "UNH Pop-up Exhibit." Telephone interview. 26 Oct. 2011.

Ross, Bill. "UNH Pop-up Exhibit." Personal interview. 20 Oct. 2011.

Valena, Dale. "UNH Pop-up Exhibit." Personal interview. 20 Oct. 2011.

Montanaro, Ann. "Concise History of Pop-up and Movable Books." Rutgers University Libraries. Rutgers. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/montanar/p-intro.htm>.

Briggs, Sarah. "The History of Pop-Up Books: Celebrating the Tradition of Paper Artists and Moveable Designs | Suite101.com." Sarah Briggs | Suite101.com. 19 Mar. 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://s-briggs.suite101.com/the-history-of-pop-up-books-a213183>.

Working with an Editor

Brian Ward

Sandy Marsters

News-Writing 621

Oct. 24, 2011

Working with an editor

I have been working with Travis Harsin on my articles.

Working with an editor is different than I expected. I’ve never worked with an editor before, so the only image I had was Peter Parkers's boss in Spiderman; fast talking, order shouting and generally brusque and condensing. I’ve found that working with an editor is nothing like that. I’ve met with Travis in person a few times and we exchanged a lot of emails, and he has been extremely helpful.

Working with Travis has been more like working with a friend than with a boss. He still gives good feedback of my work and points out areas where I can improve but it’s much more informal and stress-free process than I had feared. He occasionally gives suggestions for ways I can improve upon my story ideas, and has given me some advice on how to do certain things like deal with sources and writing things on time. For the most part however, he leaves me be to find and work on my own stories, which was the biggest surprise for me. I had feared that he would be constantly looking over my shoulder and telling me what to do, but I’m still pretty much free to follow my own leads, except now I have someone who periodically tells me if I’m writing anything decent or not.

The first article of mine that he edited was on the planned third floor renovations at Dimond Library. He pointed out things missing from the article and how I could improve upon them. He point out that there wasn’t much to connect my target audience, UNH students, to the article. There wasn’t anything in the article to make the reader care that the library was adding more tables and installing computers, so the article lost its impact.

He also suggested trying to talk to people with different views on the topic. In my article, both my student interviewees expressed the basically the same views on the renovations. One interviewee didn’t feel like the renovations would affect her at all, and the other thought the renovations were going to waste money and cause problems. Travis pointed out that my article would have been more balanced if I had found another person to interview who had a different view on the topic. In hindsight I can agree, with just the two interviewees I had, the article took a more negative tone when I was trying to be impartial.

He pointed out to me was that in a few cases I didn’t follow up on a few things in the article, or briefly mentioned them without giving any details. In my article I mentioned that the library conducted focus groups and studies to find out what students would want regarding renovations. I didn’t explain what studies were conducted or what their findings were, I just mentioned they happened and didn’t expand upon them.

I’ve taken Travis’s advice into consideration when working on my other articles, and I feel that there’s been a notable improvement in the quality of my work. I’ve worked more on adding more detail and information into my articles and making the article draw in and connect with my readers. So far, I found the journalist-editor system has been very beneficial to me.

Portsmouth- Misbehaving students at Portsmouth High School may soon face a punishment worse than detention; missing Saturday morning cartoons. A proposal raised by the Portsmouth School board calls for having dentitions on Saturdays,  as a way of reducing in house suspensions.

The raised proposal would have a students with disciplinary problems attend special sessions on Saturday mornings, as a way to reduce in-house suspensions. The proposed sessions would go from 8 a.m. to noon and would cost $3,000 a year to pay for staffing.  The measure was raised by school Board member Tim Steele, who tried to placate the other group who would be affected by the proposal. “I know this isn’t good news for parents.” Steele said “But I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules.”

Peggy Bacon, a parent, voiced her disapproval with the plan, and how it will harm the parents as well as the kids. Bacon works six days a week, including Saturday mornings, and says that having to worry about possibly getting her son to the Saturday session will only make her life more difficult. “I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”

Last year 154 students were given in-house suspensions at Portsmouth High School. Students with in-house suspensions are required to spend a school day in an empty classroom with a faculty member observing. Students are not allowed to make up class work they missed while in suspension. One of the proposed benefits of the Saturday sessions would be that students could be punished and not miss class time.

By Brian Ward

Old Orchard Beach- Police officers were alerted this morning about a man who passed out in his car on the railroad tracks.  A police officer at the scene rammed her cruiser into the stopped vehicle, pushing out of the way moments before the train hit.

17-year-old James Laboke, an employee at the Eezy Breezy restaurant in Old Orchard Beach, came across a car stopped on the railroad tracks, with the engine still running and driver seemingly unconscious. After unsuccessfully trying to rouse the driver, Laboke ran 100 yards to the police station to warn them.

 Capt. Janet Paradiso was the first officer to arrive at the crossing. As she was arriving at the scene, she heard the approaching train whistle. Paradiso rammed the pink Cadillac Seville off the tracks with her police cruiser, seconds before the train sped through the crossing at 40 mph. “I knew there was no time. I had to do something.” Paradiso said.  

The man inside the car, 80-year-old Francois Truffaut, is in stable condition at Southern Maine Medical Center. “I don’t remember a thing.” Truffaut said. The police believe that Truffaut, who is diabetic, might have gone into insulin shock on the railroad tracks. Truffaut, a native of Canada, has been coming down to visit Old Orchard Beach since he was a child.