Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the first broadcast of Sesame Street. The PBS show is the longest running children’s show on US television. It has been widely praised from the start, and is considered to be a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard.

In honor of this celebration, I’d like to bring you back to your youth. Here’s a little Sesame Street classic for your enjoyment:

Congratulations Sesame Street!

Sesame Street – Wikipedia
SesameStreet.org 
PBS Kids: Official Site

For the first time in its 18 year history, an undergraduate student won the Collegiate Inventors Competition. Industrial Design Senior Stephen Diebold, 21, of Rolling Meadows shared the grand prize award. He was recognized for his invention of the Drop Point, a device that helps quadriplegics with everyday tasks.

When Diebold’s name was announced, “it took me a while to stand up.” He received a gold medal and a check for $25,000, then made an acceptance speech, mindful that professional inventors and future inventors were in the audience.

He told them to remember the people for whom they design their products.

“For you, it may be only a tool, but for other people, it could be a way of life,” he said.

The Drop Point made improvements on pointing sticks quadriplegics use for tasks such as typing, operating cell phones and manipulating objects. Some sticks are held by the teeth; other are mounted on the user’s head.

Using Diebold’s invention, quadriplegics can use the pointing stick by simply shrugging their chin. The stick is attached to a cup on a strap hung around the neck.

Sitting in the front row with Diebold was Jonathon Ko, the former UI law student for whom Diebold designed the device. Diebold, an industrial design major, came up with the idea in a design class where students were paired with people with disabilities.

Congratulations to Stephen!

UI student shares grand prize, nets $27,000 – News-Gazette
Collegiate Inventors Competition – Official Website

The Illini Volleyball Team is looking to set an NCAA record for attendance at their game vs. Minnesota on Friday. The game will be held in Assembly Hall in conjunction with this year’s Illini Madness. Illini Madness marks the start of the 2009-2010 basketball season and will also take place on Friday at Assembly Hall.

Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber and volleyball coach Kevin Hambly are combining forces for what promises to be an historic event – “Spike the Record at Illini Madness.” Both coaches have been extremely supportive of each other’s programs through their times at Illinois. Each year Weber plays a visible role during the Illini’s Annual “Stuff Huff” event, for example.

Illinois volleyball will be making its second appearance at Assembly Hall. The Illini and Gophers, both ranking in the top 10, will square off at 6:30 pm. Under the direction of former Olympic Assistant Coach Hambly, Illinois returns six starters from the 2008 NCAA Sweet 16 team, including second-team All-American Laura DeBruler. The Gophers, under former Illini and legendary coach Mike Hebert, join Illinois as potential contenders to dethrone two-time NCAA titlist Penn State as Big Ten champions.

Current Regular Season Attendance Record:
13,412–Nebraska (3) vs. LSU (0), Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, Nebraska, September 12, 2008.

TV: Friday’s match will be shown tape delayed on the Big Ten Network Sunday at 5 p.m. CDT with Randy Rhinehart (play-by-play) and Jim Stone (analysis) providing the call.

Radio: The match will be heard live on fightingillini.com and WDWS (AM 1400) with Dave Loane (play-by-play) and Mike Trame (analysis) providing the call.

Tickets for the event are free, and doors open at 5:30pm. Admission will be denied once the building is full. The volleyball game will begin at 6:30pm.  

Go Illini!

UPDATE: The statue has been placed in its permenant home. Check out the photos >

Illinois’ most revered football player, Red Grange will be honored this week in a number of ways. After being labeled as the Greatest College Football Player of All Time last year, there is a lot to be said about Red Grange.

The Illini have chosen to honor the player with an eternal monument, a statue on the west side of Memorial Stadium. The Red Grange statue is expected to be installed today in its permanent home looking over the west lawn. The statue is made of bronze with an estimated cost of $350,000 paid by an anonymous donor. It will sit high upon a 14- to 18-foot base made from the same brick and limestone used at Memorial Stadium. It was built by UI Fine Arts alum George Lundeen and has a height of 12 foot, twice that of Grange’s.

In the statue, Grange will be standing on one leg, ball in hand, “hellbent for the goal line,” Lundeen said. “That’s not the title. We’re just going to call it ‘Harold “Red” Grange.’ ”

At first, Illinois officials discussed a lifesize statue. Lundeen wanted something bigger.

“Even 12 feet isn’t going to look real big outside,” Lundeen said. “It’s amazing how small something looks when you get it scaled up against something like the stadium.”

The new feature is part of the Memorial Stadium Renaissance project. Saturday’s game is the dedication of the statue. Read more about the statue and its designer here.

Some other ways to honor the Galloping Ghost include the Grange Rock,  which was unveiled by the University last year as a timeless symbol of Illinois’ storied history. Additionally, WILL TV will air never before seen footage of a 1982 interview with Red Grange at 7pm tonight as part of a special “Illini Night” production. 

Don’t miss it!

Photo Credit: The News-Gazette, Inc.

The UIUC’s WWI memorial is planned to be moved out of it’s current location and be renovated as part of a $65 billion project. The final location of the memorial is still unknown.

The Lincoln Hall Memorial Court was a gift from the classes of 1918 and 1919 and dedicated in 1969. The centerpiece sculpture is by former U of I landscape architect Donald Molnar.

University archivist William Maher says he found the area when he came to the school in 1978. He says the loss of the space would be a shame.

I don’t know about you, but I had no idea that there was a WWI memorial. Hopefully they can refurbish it to its full glory so we can all enjoy it in the future.

U of Ill. WWI memorial’s future in question – Chicago Tribune

Forty years ago today, a Saturn V rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida and started a three day journey to the moon. The mission’s sole objective was to land a human on the moon. That objective was met on July 20th, 1969 when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface. Buzz Aldrin later followed Neil and the two of them performed multiple activities on the surface during their two hour and 46 minute spacewalk.

The astronauts left a plaque at the landing site that read: “Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.”

This event ended what was known as the Space Race between the U.S. and the then called Soviet Union. It also accomplished the challenge set by former President John F. Kennedy: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

This event had a huge significance in the political world, showing in a time of great turmoil, that the U.S. had outstanding technological capabilities and a superior power in space. The significance in science and technology is beyond definition. Spin-offs of all sorts were produced in the development of the Apollo vehicles and countless discoveries have been made following the lunar surface experiments conducted throughout the program.

To celebrate the anniversary, NASA has created a number of interactive features on their website to explore the landing site, look through vintage photographs, and listen to real-time mission audio to name a few. They have even released newly reformatted video and photos from the mission. The JFK library has also produced a website for the anniversary that allows you to follow along in real-time with the mission as if it were 1969.

The importance and significance of the Apollo 11 mission cannot be fully grasp by this article. I encourage you to check out these links, read more, and relive the excitement of this monumental mission.

NASA – Apollo 11 40th Anniversary

JFK Presidential Library – Apollo 11 Site

Boston Globe – Apollo Photos

NASA – Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal

Today, March 17th, is the real St. Patrick’s Day. Although we may celebrate this day with green beer and clever shirits, what do you actually know about St. Patrick?

“Well he was not a leprechaun who drank green beer or had a blarney stone or a pot of gold,” explains historian William Federer, who wrote St. Patrick: The Real History of His Life, From Tragedy to Triumph. “He was actually a missionary and he converted 120,000 druids from paganism to Christianity.”

In fact, Federer contends that in the fifth century A.D., Patrick did more than perhaps anyone in history to spread this new religion through Europe.

“He started over 300 churches and used the three-leafed clover to teach the [Holy] Trinity,” Federer says, noting that this teaching tool is now the symbol of St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland itself.

Patrick himself, though, was actually born in nearby Wales.

“Different Viking tribes began attacking and carrying away slaves, and Patrick was one of those carried away as a slave to Ireland,” says Federer. “He was there from 16 years old to 22 years old, when he had a dream in which he heard the Lord tell him to escape. So he did.”

“He went to the shore and, sure enough, there was a boat. He hopped aboard and hitchhiked his way across Europe and made his way back to Britain. His life was pretty uneventful until he was 40 years old, when he had another dream. That’s when things started to get interesting.”

That was when Patrick returned to Ireland as a missionary.

“His style was evangelism was to walk right into the smoky dens of these chieftans. The druids knew that this new religion was going to displace them, and so they tried killing him at least a dozen times. Once he was held for two weeks, and [the druid ruler] was holding him to kill him.”

But the chieftan instead spared Patrick and even gave him money to build his first church. For the rest of his life, Patrick preached about Jesus Christ, spread Christianity across the British Isles, and spoke out against slavery. Some historians even call him the world’s first abolitionist!

The Roman Catholic Church made him a saint in 664 A.D.

“It wasn’t until 1846, when there was a potato famine in Ireland, and millions of Irish Catholics came to America,” Federer says. “The Irish population went from two percent to 20 percent in just a decade. Half of New York City was now Roman Catholic Irish! The same thing happened in Boston, and there was an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish backlash.”

“When they had their first parade, it was more of a political statement. In Ireland, it didn’t matter how many of them there were, they didn’t have a voice in Parliament. But in America, when they had their first parade and 15,000 of them showed up, politicians in New York City said, ‘wait a minute, they haven’t decided who to vote for yet,’ so they decided to march with them.”

From those early parades, St. Patrick’s Day gained popularity as the Irish immigrants who celebrated it gained acceptance until finally both became the indispensible parts of American culture that they are today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The History of St. Patrick’s Day – MSNBC

It’s the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. In this “Land of Lincoln” we should be proud of our honest leader. That quality itself is something hard to find in Illinois politics. In honor of Abe’s b-day, I’d like to share a story. No, it’s not about when I went to see Lincoln’s tomb, or the Lincoln log cabin, or the bronze bust in Lincoln hall, or the time we left my little brother in Ford’s theatre. I am going to tell you about something that happened way back in 1862.

In 1862, Lincoln signed the College Land Grant Act. For those of you who don’t know, this legislature became the initial funding for the University of Illinois.

I hope that one day the University of Illinois is recognized as Mr. Lincoln’s University (just as the University of Pennsylvania is known as Mr. Franklin’ University and the University of Virginia is known as Mr. Jefferson’s University). Land-grant colleges were called people’s colleges or farmers’ colleges, and they were also known as democracy’s colleges, a title I love and one that describes what the University of Illinois is all about. - Dr. Vernon Burton, a professor emeritus of history, sociology, and African American studies at U of I and is the author of Age of Lincoln.

It’s important to understand history and to know that President Abraham Lincoln was an important player in the creation of the U of I. Lincoln once said about the state of Illinois: ” To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”

There are a number of bi-centennial celebrations all across the country. A large celebration will take place in Illinois’ capital city, Springfield that includes a speech by President Obama.  Check out the following links for event calendars and fun resources about the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln Remembered – College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Lincoln – Illinois Bicentennial Commission
Lincoln Bicentennial – Library of Congress

Have you ever wondered how the Altgeld Bells work? At one point I assumed they were electronically programmed and played. This is a very interesting video about the history of the bells and how they are played.

These bells will not be replaced by the new McFarland Bell Tower as reported earlier. There is some question, however, as to how the two towers will work together to provide the best musical enjoyment for Quad-goers.

Before NASA begins manned missions to the moon, they will first send the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to scout out particular features on the surface. The LRO is scheduled to launch later this year, but NASA has invited people of all ages to take part in the mission now. You can visit the LRO website to submit your name to be brought aboard the spacecraft. The collected names will be stored in a database on a microchip inside the LRO. Participants are encouraged to submit their information at http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/, print a certificate and have their name entered into a database. The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008.

“Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I’m doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers,” said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The LRO mission is the first step in NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?”

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter