January, 2008

Chicagoans have lots of skills. Some are intriguing: A headline like “Ever get pulled over and have to give away your drivers license,” sort of draws me in. I guess a lot of people are having more fun / DUIs than I am.

In this inaugural edition of the Windy City Roundup, I'll be fracturing the usual spotlight to accommodate a number of different Chicago-area sports stories that I feel are worthy of comment as well as listing a few select national plot lines.

• Bumbling Bulls: Just because they've lost Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Joe Smith to various injuries does not give the Bulls license to lose 83-67 to the worst team in the NBA.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Who would Jesus vote for?

When Christian magazine Relevant asked its young evangelical readers that question, it spawned an interesting response: Barack Obama beat out Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, 28 percent to 24 percent.

The drift from the right highlights the vastly different viewpoints within the so-called evangelical voting bloc.

While Pat Robertson inexplicably threw support behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has dropped out of the campaign, leading evangelicals-Jerry Falwell Jr., "Left Behind" authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Vision America Action's Rick Scarborough-are rallying around Huckabee.

But what are young evangelical voters looking for?

"There's so much more than just the social issues," said Ovi Tisler, a 23-year-old computer engineer for Zebra Technologies in Chicago. Traditional evangelicals, he said, "don't really talk about the economic part and national security."

The concern ranking highest among Relevant readers age 18 to 34 is illegal immigration with 39 percent of the vote, followed by abortion and bioethics. Ranking as the least important issues were gay rights and church and state.

Tisler said he considers himself part of the evangelical vote on issues such as same-sex marriage, "but for different reasons."

"First of all, government shouldn't be involved in marriage," Tisler said, adding that too often the line kind of gets blurred between religion and government.

Tisler grew up Romanian Baptist in Chicago and now attends the non-denominational Moody Church, calling himself a "reformed Baptist." He said he would consider social issues as just part of a host of other things he's looking for in a candidate.

"It's an interesting bag of things that people are starting to bring to the table," said John Kimbrough, a volunteer for the University of Chicago's Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group. He said social justice issues are of great concern for many of the college students in the group.

Kimbrough, 32, said a president's faith is not important for garnering his vote, adding "for me personally, it's a nice thing, but I'm electing a president, not a pastor."

Jenny Cota, a member of Campus Crusade at Northwestern University, said the electability of a candidate is important. Cota, 21, decided to support Mitt Romney over her first choice, Huckabee, because Romney was more likely to be the Republican nominee.

Alan Gitelson, a political science professor at Loyola University Chicago, said the movement over the past couple of years has been for evangelical voters to shift their base of issues.

"In the past several years there is a growing belief [among] young evangelicals that there are other social issues that evangelicals have to deal with from the environment to poverty," Gitelson said.

But he added that it isn't necessarily a shift to the left. Rather, he sees the movement as two polar sides finding more things in common.

Relevant publisher Cameron Strang said that common ground is found because young evangelicals tend to be morally conservative but don't think that morality should be legislated.

"On moral issues, a majority of the respondents label themselves conservative. Only 14 percent identified themselves as conservative on social issues," Strang said. "Barack Obama would fall in line with that appeal."

Strang said if a morally conservative, yet socially progressive candidate emerged, America would have "millions of voters coming out of the woodwork."

About 8,500 readers responded to the survey, which was published this month but conducted in October and November. Strang said if the question-who would Jesus vote for?-was asked today, he believes U.S. Rep. Ron Paul would likely be at the top.

"[Paul] has definitely struck a chord with younger voters across the board, not just evangelicals," said Lisa Wogan, Illinois communications coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign.

Wogan attributed his appeal with evangelical Christians to the fact that many of Paul's policy ideas are based on the Golden Rule, and he "believes our freedoms are granted by God and not by the government."

Of the readers surveyed by Relevant, 71 percent said they vote in every election.

"As more and more of these people come into voting age, the tide's going to shift," Strang said. "It's going to catch the political arena off guard.

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Future engineers gathered at the University of Illinois at Chicago Saturday to compare plans and admire one another's visions for the cities of tomorrow.

Their three-dimensional models offered innovative solutions to the challenges of rapidly depleting resources. In these realistic habitats, the designers said, people could live comfortably in hostile environments such as radioactive wastelands, harsh deserts, Arctic climes and even other planets.

These scenarios don't seem distant or unlikely to these engineers- they could face them in their own lifetimes. Why? Because they're in middle school.

Seventeen teams from Chicago-area middle schools competed in the Chicago Regional Future City Competition, a yearly event at which seventh- and eighth-graders present their work to a panel of judges. Each team has three presenters, and is guided by both a teacher and an engineering mentor.

Eighth-graders Karen Suarez, Jenny Birman, Cole Manschot, Mariel Tader, Kale Hanavan and Susan Bywaters from Franklin Middle School in Wheaton won the competition. They will compete against 39 other teams at the national competition in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17-23.

Because the Franklin team located its winning entry, Qubitersum, in central Australia, the students had to think strategically. "They built their city in the desert," said Dave Manschot, a packaging engineer who mentored the group. "So we talked about, OK, what happens when you build something on sand at the beach?"

To capitalize on Qubitersum's natural resources, the Franklin team's plan called for converting sand into glass to use as building material. The problem of scarce water was met with a sophisticated filtration system for sewage and water pumped in from the Indian Ocean.

Each team spent months researching its project, no easy task to fit in between algebra homework and soccer practice.

Teams used the computer game SimCity to create virtual models of their futuristic cities, down to the nuts and bolts of infrastructure. The game allows users to design a city that meets the needs of its citizens. Each group constructed a three-dimensional scale model of the city using recycled materials, including hair dryers, plastic bottles and soda cans.

SimCity's dynamic interplay between a city's creators and its virtual citizens helped students get a real sense of what makes a city livable. "I learned so much on what you have to do and what makes people happy in their city," said Manschot's son, Cole, a member of Franklin's winning team.

Better living through nanotechnology

This year, students were required to use nanotechnology in their infrastructure, pushing them to learn the nuances of this emerging field, in which materials are manipulated at the molecular level.

"Each year the national organizers pick a topical technology issue," said competition spokesman and structural engineer Bob Johnson. "Nanotechnology is the buzzword right now."

The projects featured a range of nanotechnology applications, from nanosensors programmed to detect structural weaknesses in bridges to nanobots, or microscopically sized machines, some capable of regenerating muscle and bone.

Franklin's Susan Bywaters said she found medical nanotechnology fascinating, particularly a biosensor mechanism known as quantum dots. "They are injected into the arm and they stick to cancerous organs and light up so you can see them in X-rays," she said.

The Science Academy of Chicago's team equipped their Newland project with nanosensors and nanofilters to recognize and remove contaminants in the city's water supply.

"If lead is found, the chemicals released by the RMS [remote monitoring station] will combine with the lead into a larger compound and it won't be able to get through the nanofilters," explained eighth-grader Jeet Patel.

Students found innovative ways to illustrate the nanotechnology applications concretely in their models. The cars and roads of Neoterra, one of Washburne School's two entries, were outfitted with magnets that demonstrated their nano-based safety system.

"Car and road nanosensors would be in constant communication with each other, moving the vehicle in traffic and along the quickest route to its destination," said seventh-grader Kacie Swierk. "The sensors also keep the car centered in its lane and at the safest distance from the vehicles around it."

The magnets achieved both effects, attracting the cars to the road and repelling them from each other.

Preparing the engineers of the future

Chicago is the only city to have hosted a regional competition every year since the Future City Competition began 16 years ago, Johnson said.

The competition tends to attract private and parochial schools in the suburbs, he said, particularly in places such as Wheaton and Naperville, where many parents work in the technology sector. But this year saw more entries from urban schools.

"We're trying to target the magnet schools and then hopefully get more into the community grade schools in the city," Johnson said.

Though the time commitment involved in Future City can be daunting, he said, the payoff is well worth it.

Laura McGovern, a vice president at Chicago engineering firm Alfred Benesch Co., who has been a final round judge for the past three years, agreed.

"Some of the skills you learn in the program don't just apply to engineering, they apply to life," she said, such as teamwork and public speaking.

And, she said, adults have something to learn as well.

"Sometimes you get stuck thinking about how things are instead of how they can be," McGovern said. The students "help us expand our minds and think differently. We look at things like mag cars or hover cars and think, 'that can't happen.' But who knows?"

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

On paper, Chicago is gaining ground in the fight against fires. Chicago Fire Department officials report a steady decrease in the number of fires over the past last three years. Fire-related fatalities are also down: 43 deaths in 2006 compared with 32 in 2007.

The downward trend is continuing into 2008, with 146 fires reported so far this month, down from 161 in January 2007.

But winter in Chicago is always a dangerous season for fires.

"The number of fires has been decreasing," said Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. "This is shown in our fatalities. But in January we always have more."

Space heaters, candles, stoves and electrical cords rank highest among the causes of confirmed fires in residential and commercial buildings this month, said fire officials.

"The colder it gets, the worse it gets for us," said Firefighter Richard Rosado. "When it's extremely cold like this, people turn to alternative forms of heat. And they become careless."

The degree of carelessness varies, according to firefighters.

Chief Joe Roccasalva, who heads Chicago's Fire Prevention Bureau, recalls a family that used a torch to thaw freezing pipes in their home. But space heaters and stoves cause the most problems, he said.

"It's not that we don't like the use of space heaters," Roccasalva said. "It's when people don't use them properly that we have a problem. Then there are those who can't afford space heaters, so they use stoves. That's a no-no."

Roccasalva mentioned the danger of a stove's open flame but also said it could be a source of the silent killer, carbon monoxide poisoning.

The odorless, tasteless substance can be excreted from burners left on for hours at a time. So far this year, there have been no carbon monoxide-related deaths in Chicago, and fire officials have seen an increase of working carbon-monoxide detectors. But the upkeep of smoke detectors has declined.

"Last year we found that more than half of fire fatalities [involved non-working] smoke alarms," Rodriguez said.

Firefighter Michael Anthony Scudieri, who works in Engine 49 in West Town, said that most of the fires his unit has responded to this month were in buildings without working smoke detectors.

"Usually,'' he said, "we find that [batteries are] "inoperable or there's none at all."

The city has had two fire fatalities so far this year--a 72-year-old man and a 22-month-old toddler.

The day care center where the toddler died on Jan. 16 had a working smoke detector. But children are espeically vulnerable because they don't know how to respond when a fire breaks out.

"We really need to teach them things like, what to do in the case of a fire--like not to go into a closet and hide," Rodriguez said.

The toddler who died had hidden in a coat closet to escape the fire.

Officials report cases of children's clothing catching fire because they were too close to open flames or space heaters.

Roccasalva said that parents need to be more careful when there's a space heater in the home.

"You can't leave children around space heaters," he said. "They don't know any better."

Rodriguez said the fire department will continue to visit schools and talk about fire prevention in terms that children can understand. In the meantime, fire officialsare bracing for an end-of-the month surge and working hard to avert infernos caused by carelessness.

"It's going to get colder in the next couple days," Roccasalva said. "So, we're going to see a couple."

Here are tips from fire prevention experts on how to avoid the most common causes of winter fires.

· Make sure that space heaters are at least 36 inches from combustible material.

· Do not place coats, blankets or clothing on space heaters

· Turn space heaters off when leaving the house. Turn them down when sleeping

· Blow out candles before leaving the house or going to bed

· Try hair dryers instead of torches to thaw frozen pipes

· Check your smoke alarm battery at least once a year.

· Check heating units for built-up material that could lead to clogging and explosions

· Make an escape plan for your family and practice it often with your children.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Because of a new Illinois law, business is up 25 percent at a Bensenville elevator service company. But workers are high-priced and not easy to find.

A 2001 statute requires elevator buildings to meet new safety standards by July of this year, and Colley Elevator Co., a family-owned, 30-person company is happy to help them comply.

For property owners, some of whom have spoken against the state law, modernization could be as little as $3,000 to $5,000 for an elevator built in 2007. But for the owners of older buildings, the price could be as high as $100,000. The work could cover elevator hydraulics, electrical systems, door systems and emergency systems, and might require four to six weeks.

Colley Elevator, which installed some of the elevators in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood apartment buildings 60 years ago, is once again adapting to changes in an industry that has become dominated by large multinational service companies, according to Ray Zomchek, 71, president of the company.

"While (compliance with the law) is a real hardship for us, we are very impressed with Colley," stated Dick Higgins, 70, president of a condominium at 100 North Regency Drive in Arlington Heights. "Zomchek seems to be head and shoulders above the others and is very flexible to our needs."

Higgins went on: "We're all seniors in this building. We understand that the elevator will not be available for two to four weeks sometime this year, and we agree with the principle of safety, but that time without the elevator will hamper our movement."

According to Higgins, the 13 condominium owners will split the $90,000 elevator renovation cost but that price could increase. "It's like surgery," Higgins explained. "The doctor will perform a certain task for a set price, but if he discovers other problems while he's in there, he will charge more money for fixing the other problems."

Colley estimates that it has 800 clients - located as far as Indiana and ranging out to Sandwich, Ill., and to Waukegan - generating approximately $4 million in revenue and earning roughly a 10 percent profit margin in 2007. Some clients have been with Colley for more than 40 years. "Our business is based on how comfortable people are with dealing with us," said Zomchek's son Craig, 28, the business manager.

The law requires that only state-certified elevator service firms may perform elevator work. As of Oct. 2, 2007, there were 76 licensed elevator contractors in Illinois, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshall's Web site.

In Illinois there are 20,000 elevators; 14,718 are currently registered under the new law, and the remainder were in the registration process as of Jan. 24, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of the State Fire Marshall. The city of Private residences are exempt from the program, as is the city of Chicago, which is required to enforce standards equal to the state's.

There are different types of elevators: traction or hydraulic. There are different types of projects: modernization, installing emergency phones, replacing door operators, switching power units or the servicing of emergency brake systems. And different types of technology: mechanical components, solid-state electronics and proprietary systems that are restricted to specially qualified personnel.

Obtaining the necessary specialized workers presents a challenge for Colley. "Older, more experienced engineers will likely retire in a few years," said Craig Zomchek. "We're always recruiting at all ages and will work with local colleges and junior colleges to find people to learn the business."

The top 25 percent of Chicago elevator installers and repairers earn approximately $94,000 annually; the top 25 percent in Illinois earn $87, 500 annually. The nationwide average is $74,000 approximately, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity's Web site.

As it seeks to rise to the occasion, Colley Elevator looks beyond, too. The new law will create only a short-term increase in business, observes Craig Zomchek. "There is only a limited amount of work for a limited amount of time," he said.

To secure its position in the market, Colley plans to increase its customer base by servicing homes and townhomes. "As baby boomers get older and have the income to spend," Craig Zomchek explained, "they will be installing more home elevators for convenience and necessity."

"I spend a lot of time talking on the phone and driving to clients," Zomchek emphasized. "Most of the time I'm just catching up with the client. But that time reassures them that they are dealing with a person that knows the topic and that has your best interests in mind."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Jane Addams and porn?

Yes, that's right: The Illinois Humanities Council's Public Square is bringing the topic to the Jane Addams Hull House Museum on Thursday.

Pornography, despite its growth into a multibillion-dollar industry, still makes some people red with embarrassment and others red with outrage.

Alice Kim, director of Public Square, said the organization wanted its two experts to discuss their perspectives on pornography with the public as part of the Artists, Activists and Authors After Hours series because pornography is so complicated and problematic.

"We see sex - pornography - all around us, and we wanted to take advantage of this new book that Robert Jensen wrote that looks at the intersection of pornography and masculinity," she said. "We thought it would be a useful conversation."

Public Square will host that conversation with author Robert Jensen and artist Barbara Degenevieve. They will discuss the issues presented in Jensen's new book, "Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity."

In the book, Jensen argues the feminist viewpoint that pornography encourages the subjugation of women as well as the idea of male dominance. He believes society should discard its concept of masculinity.

"We live in a culture today in which there are widely-held assumptions that differences in sex mean there are fundamentally different moral, intellectual, psychological, emotional states between men and women," Jensen said on Wednesday.

Jensen, a journalism professor at University of Texas, said the pornography industry caters to the image of male dominance in a patriarchal society.

"If an industry that produces graphic, sexually explicit material produces material that sexualizes male dominance, it's not surprising that men consume it," he said. "Not surprisingly, the industry ratchets up the level of dominance, because that is its selling point."

He compared the male desire for pornography to the attraction to McDonald's food.

"I don't think human beings come out of the womb saying, 'Get me high-fat, high-sugar food in large quantities,' but does the food taste good? Yeah," he said. "There's a way in which it's an intense and pleasurable sensation. And the industry is constantly marketing to you. Pornography is much the same way."

Degenevieve, a photography professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who regularly incorporates sexuality into her art, presents an opposing, more positive view on pornography's influence.

"I think there's been a lot of freedom given to people - both men and women - but particularly women who are looking at their sexuality in a very different way," she said.

Degenevieve said pornography is more democratic than most visual forms of media.

"I can't think of any body type or physical attribute that is not somehow fetishized in porn," she said. "I find that really pretty exciting because the rest of the culture pretty much denies that anything outside of the stereotypical feminized image of a woman actually exists."

She criticized Jensen for not considering anything outside of male-dominant heterosexual portrayals in pornography. She also said that women did not need to be protected, explaining that many women enjoy the pornography to which Jensen objects.

"He's doing exactly what he blames this culture for doing, which is to be paternalistic and have this very male way of looking at things," she said of Jensen.

Pornography panel discussion:

6 p.m. Thursday

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

800 S. Halsted Street

Refreshments will be served.

For more information, call 312-413-5353.

“Wait. Girls pick up guys on the CTA? How (often) does this happen?” asked “Anonymous Coward” after Monday’s post. And to that question I say, I guess… I mean I’m a girl and I guess by definition I "picked up" that guy. But believe me, it was no great feat. I mean, my pickup line was directed at his toothbrush. So you see that it is entirely possible, though the more I think about it, I’m not sure how commonplace the Girl on Guy pick-up is around here.

On a night when freezing rains and wind kept much of Chicago inside, a handful of Chicago comedians hit the streets to rally for a bizarre cause: preserving a massive street hole in north Chicago.

Sometimes a building design is so confounding, so out-of-sync with its surroundings, that you have to admire the audacity of its architect. I don't know who designed the hyper-modern rowhouses that stretch from 1801 to 1815 N. Leavitt St. and continue around the corner from 2127 to 2149 W. Churchill St., but whoever it was, here's to your moxie: to your clean lines and abstracted chimneys, to your false balcony railings.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Illinois Democrats have a message for Michigan Democrats: Rules are rules.

In the battle to get bigger states at the beginning of the primary process this year, many states moved up their elections so voters from populous states would have a say in the selection.

Illinois and Michigan Democrats were among those fighting throughout 2007 to get their states into the early primary mix.

The head of the Democratic Party in Illinois, Mike Madigan, and other leaders have said Illinois voters deserve more face-time with presidential candidates.

But when the Democratic National Committee threatened to strip delegates of voting power if the states moved their primaries before February 5, Illinois pumped the brakes. Michigan hit the gas.

All three of the current Democratic presidential candidates promised not to campaign in Michigan or Florida, which was also sanctioned for moving up its primary.

Florida voted Tuesday.

But U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton has now called on her delegates to help reinstate the Michigan and Florida representatives.

Michigan's Democratic Party leader, Mark Brewer, is certain that the delegates will be reinstated and said that Obama and Edwards supporters weren't blocked from voting and were even encouraged to cast their ballots for "uncommitted."

If the battle for the presidential nomination comes to a fight over delegates and the Michigan and Florida delegates are reinstated, experts say, problems could arise.

Clinton was the only remaining Democratic candidate on the ballot in Michigan after Obama and Edwards removed their names in response to the party's decision.

Clinton won 55 percent of the vote in Michigan and "uncommitted" came in second with 40 Percent.

According to Brewer, Clinton would likely receive her 55 percent of Michigan's 156 delegates; the other 40 percent would be free agents who could choose among any of the three candidates.

The possibility of a floor fight leaves Illinois' Democratic leadership feeling queasy.

"Rules are rules and Michigan shouldn't have pushed the issue," said Illinois Democratic Party spokesman Steve Brown. "The candidates set their schedules based on the party's decision in December and I am sure there are people who didn't bother to vote because they thought their votes wouldn't count. Michigan is really making a bad situation worse."

Brewer acknowledged that restoring the delegates could create some short-term problems, but hopes the Democratic nominee will realize Michigan's importance to the general election.

"There is no point to winning the nomination if you can't win the general election." Brewer said.

Brewer said he does not plan to take the dispute to court because it is an intra-party political dispute, not a legal one, and he is confident Michigan's delegates will have a say at the convention.

Historically, banned delegates have always been reinstated to maintain party unity.

It seems extremely likely that the Michigan and Florida candidates will be seated if a clear winner emerges after Feb. 5. But that still leaves questions about the political implications.

During a teleconference tiff, Clinton aides told reporters that the delegate fight was not inspired by Clinton's recent defeat in South Carolina.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused Clinton of pandering and said, "Sen. Clinton's own campaign has repeatedly said that this is a contest for delegates, and Florida is a contest that offers zero."

But that could change depending on the outcome of the Feb. 5 primaries, according to Michigan delegate Debbie Dingell.

"We're going to sit back and see what happens on the 5th, but we're prepared to take it to the floor for a fight."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

For the second time, Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park is in the middle of the immigration debate after offering sanctuary to an illegal immigrant.

Flor Crisostomo, who left her three children in Mexico seven years ago to seek better wages, was arrested in a 2006 raid at IFCO Systems on the Chicago's South Side. She was supposed to report for deportation Monday. Instead, she asked the church for help.

"I am not leaving," Crisostomo said in Spanish at a news conference at the church on Monday.

At a symposium on the immigration issue Tuesday at Loyola University Chicago's law school, some speakers discussed the reasons why churches offer a place for illegal immigrants to escape deportation. The concept of sanctuary is centuries old.

"Faith communities think there are some laws that should not be enforced because they are unjust and broken laws," said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Lawyers Association. "The whole faith-community idea of civil disobedience is reflected in that. Obviously [offering sanctuary] is not a solution, but it highlights the problem."

Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist, said sanctuary is not a political process. Rather, it is a metaphorical and physical place in which Christians bear witness.

"For those who are willing to come forward, the church provides space in which this witness can be made," he said.

But offering sanctuary is not without consequences, according to Butterfield.

"It can invite backlash," she said. "People are accused of being complicit in breaking the law. I think they can be effective in highlighting that the laws are broken, but sanctuary is not a solution."

Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Chicago, said in a statement that the government has given Crisostomo time to return on her own since her arrest in 2006. But she "has chosen to continue to violate our nation's immigration laws and the judge's orders and is currently considered to be an immigration fugitive."

For Coleman and other members of faith communities, offering sanctuary is also a matter of living out a Christian mission.

"It is unacceptable before God that this country should maintain a permanent underclass of 12 million people," Coleman said. ". Where governments fail, then faith must stand apart."

Crisostomo said she has no plans to leave the church.

"I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to make America see what they are doing," said Crisostomo, reading in Spanish from a prepared statement.

Montenegro said Crisostomo will be taken into custody "at an appropriate time and place with consideration given to the safety of all involved."

Crisostomo is the second illegal immigrant the Humboldt Park church has housed. Elvira Arellano and her son, Saul, were granted sanctuary in 2006. Arellano, who was listening on the phone during Crisostomo's statement, was deported in August after traveling to Los Angeles.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE 

Cell phone users say they have another reason to screen their calls.  It's because of pollsters.

In addition to landline calls, more and more research centers are calling  cell phone numbers in their polling surveys.

"I don't think [these calls] should go to cell phone users," said Jenny Kelly, a 20-year-old photographer living in Lincoln Park.  "I don't want to be bothered by random numbers."

But the Pew Research Center and the American Research Group, have been calling cell phones for the past several years The Gallup Poll started the practice on Jan. 1. 

Since there is no database of cell phone numbers, research centers get cell them from companies that specialize in creating samples, according to Scott Keeter, director of survey research at  Pew.

The pollsters argue that they get more accurate results by including the estimated 14 percent of the U.S. population who own cell phones exclusively.

"These kinds of people are quite different," said Keeter. "They tend to be younger, they're  more likely to be racial or ethnic minorities.  The fact that they are not in your sampling frame means that you may be missing certain kinds of opinions that are different from the rest."

However, many cell phone users they would rather not be called, and are not that interested in having their opinions included in the survey.

"They can use the Internet," said Chris Hazel, a 25-year-old resident of River North.  "I think there's other ways they can do surveys."

Hazel does not have a landline but says he reserves his cell phone for private calls only, from his family and friends.  He already screens calls from telemarketers, and said he would do the same if pollsters wanted to ask him questions from his cell phone.

Sure, phone surveys can be annoying but Estaban Munoz, a 24-year-old machine operator, said it wouldn't be different than them calling his landline.

But then he was reminded that being called on his cell phone could mean wasted minutes.

"Oh, then I don't think so," Munoz said.  He said they should stick to calling his landline.

David Baldi, a 19-year-old bike messenger living in Portage Park,  knows what it's like to be the pollster.  He volunteers for Ron Paul, who is seeking the Republican nomination.

"People get pretty ticked off when you call a landline," Baldi said. "I think they'd get even more [upset] if you call their cell phones."

He says pollsters often call his landline and he doesn't mind that too much.  But he said he would rather not be included in the survey if it means using  his cell phone because that number is only reserved for emergencies.

"If it's not important, if you didn't break your legs, don't call [my cell phone]." he said.

Despite what the word is on the street, Keeter said the cooperation rate  between landlines and cell phones numbers are the same.

 "People may be telling you that they don't like doing surveys on their cell phones," Keeter said, "but people also say they don't like doing surveys on their landlines."

There are people who screen their landlines the same way they screen their cell phones, but there are still people who participate in the survey Keeter said.

Perhaps Keeter has a point.

When Katherine Osterholz, a 24-year-old high school teacher at Loyola Academy was asked how she felt about surveys, she  replied  "Well, I guess right now, [we're] doing a survey."

Maybe Osterholz was just caught at a good time because although she says surveys are a hassle, she said she would take them to a certain extent.

That goes for cell phone surveys too.

"If I was asked and I had the free time, I would participate in the survey," Osterholz said. "But not if it was frequent."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Gary Fisher, owner of Chicago-based Wild Blossom Meadery Winery, is among a growing population of Illinois wine producers who make wine in the state and also make a living doing it.

What began in 1994 from a single counter stocked with basic beer- and wine-making supplies, has evolved into a full-scale wine production business, at 10033 S. Western Ave., manufacturing traditional wines as well as honey, or "mead" wines that are distributed to large liquor retailers and restaurants.

Locally-produced honey is what makes Wild Blossom special - there are only two mead wine producers in the Midwest. Its honey is cultivated right here in Chicago by Fisher's city-dwelling bees, many of which spend their summers in hives planted near the lakefront along 41st and 111th streets.

"It's is a niche," Fisher said. "Mead wine has become really popular during the last five years. There are now over 200 honey wines [worldwide]."

The distinctive-tasting wines are what helped Wild Blossom attract its largest buyers including Skokie-based Binny's Beverage Depot and Chicago liquor behemoth Sam's Wines Spirits and reach $300,000 in gross revenues in 2007. Approximately half of those revenues were earned through wine sales. The company's other revenues come from fees it collects for wine-making classes and brokerage fees it charges to local grape buyers. "Sales have been really good," Fisher said.

In addition to his regular wholesale business, Fisher produces special order wines at the request of restaurants wanting to offer customers something unique. Most recently, Fisher created an orange mead, or "Naranjilla," for La Humita, 3466 N. Pulaski Rd., a restaurant specializing in South American cuisine. The minimum special order is one barrel of mead wine, ranging between $2,000 and $3,000.

A 2006 joint survey by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Illinois Dept. of Agriculture and the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association identified 191 combined vineyard and winery operations in Illinois. The study reported an increase of 158 percent between 1999 (91 vineyards) and 2007 (235 vineyards).

Fisher said he is glad to be along for the ride. "The more wineries the better for us, because people are becoming more aware of Illinois wines."

Illinois wine producers stand to benefit further from decreased competition anticipated to result from the passing of House Bill 492, signed into law last year by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The bill, scheduled to go into effect in July 2008, permits in- and out-of-state producers to ship wine directly to Illinois consumers. The measure has come under scrutiny based on its counter component, which bans out-of-state retailers from shipping wine directly to Illinois consumers.

A spokesman for Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association said, "Within the last ten years the industry has really started booming. Ninety percent of Illinois vineyards and 83 percent of Illinois wineries were established in the last ten years."

Although Illinois producers are increasingly growing their own crops, Fisher finds that purchasing grapes from elsewhere better suits his business model. "At first, we started growing grapes in Kankakee but it was too much to take care of."

"Some people do it, but it's hard work. It's quite a bit harder task than growing in California," he said. "It's hard to keep up with weather changes and for me it wasn't feasible to grow my own grapes."

Fisher now uses his five acres of land in Kankakee for raising and storing honey bees. Beekeeping, a craft Fisher learned when he was a boy, is a central component in Wild Blossom's winemaking process. The company's bee hives can be found across Chicago during summer months, some of which are attached to city buildings.

"We have 60 hives right now," Fisher said, "100 percent of which are used for our mead wines." Each hive produces between 50 and 60 pounds of honey per year. Because it is not enough to supply the three to four pounds that goes into each gallon of wine, Wild Blossom supplements its annual production by purchasing honey from other local beekeepers.

"Illinois honeys are some of the best honeys in the world," he said, crediting the honey's quality to the state's perfect balance of rain and humidity and its broad range of local wildflowers. Plus, cultivating honey is inexpensive, he explained. "The bees do most of the labor."

While honey production is not a big expense for the company, buying grapes is. Wild Blossom spends approximately $80,000 to $100,000 of its budget purchasing grapes, each year. "I go out to California and set up contracts at this time of the year to lock in a price," Fisher said. "I set up a minimum of what I need now and usually buy additional grapes in the fall." Fisher said his business benefits from the stable price of grapes. "They don't fluctuate too much."

Keeping expenses down is what Fisher describes as the most challenging part of running a small business. Approximately 30 percent of Wild Blossom's revenue is spent on labor. The company currently staffs three full-time and two part-time employees.

"What's kind of hard about a winery is that you can't sell wine as soon as you get your license." Because the process is slow, Fisher said it can take as long as a year to see profits. But he maintains that Illinois is a great wine market. "Wine sales are strong here and there is a lot of opportunity to increase sales."

Wild Blossom also struggles with its current location designated a "dry" zone and, thus, prohibited from retailing liquor products. "I can't sell out of the winery at all. We can produce wholesale but not retail," Fisher said. "In the future we might consider another location."

In addition to keeping an eye out for a more favorable storefront, Fisher plans to boost sales this year through the introduction of a wine club and through an increased presence on the Internet.

The company is currently selling its 2005 vintage. It plans to issue its 2006 vintage in June.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE 

At the height of the city's industrial boom it was possible to cross the Chicago River by skipping across the barges cramming downtown waterways.

 Later, wags say, you could use the polluted water itself.

 Since then, industrial barge traffic has been greatly reduced, and massive projects like the Deep Tunnel keep most raw sewage from ever reaching the 78-mile-long Chicago Area Waterway System.  Rivers once designated as receptacles for human and industrial wastes now accommodate canoe paddlers, rowing crews and recreational anglers.
        
 At a Monday hearing before the Illinois Pollution Control Board, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency presented a proposal to further tighten Chicago's water quality standards.

 The plan would require water treatment facilities to disinfect wastewater for bacteria before it is released, and would require industries like coal-powered electricity plants to cool their hot-water discharges. But stiff challenges from companies like Midwest Energy suggest the plan faces a battle for board approval.

 "I look forward to much more information being provided," Midwest attorney Susan Franzetti said after questioning the IEPA.
 
 Several other groups are scheduled to appear before the board during the weeklong hearings, but only the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, an organization of companies that must meet pollution standards, was able to finish its questioning on Monday.  Members of the public can attend, but will be able to testify only at a separate set of hearings in March.
   
 Franzetti criticized the agency for not considering the plan's economic effect on area industries.  Midwest would need to build cooling towers or install "closed-cycle" cooling systems at five area plants to comply with the proposals, which the company estimated would cost between $559 million and $790 million, according to the IEPA report.

 Roy Smoger, a stream biologist with the IEPA, said cooling towers are "available and widely used" at power companies throughout the state, though he wasn't aware of any plants that had retrofitted their facilities with the technology.

 Much of Monday's discussion centered on whether use of the Chicago water system and lower Des Plaines River belongs to recreational users or industry, and whether the proposed standards would be enough.  Franzetti argued the temperature changes would still leave the affected waterways short of aquatic standards spelled out in the 1972 federal Clean Water Act. But the agency said native fish tend to avoid artificially warmed areas of the waterways, which are more conducive to invasive species like the Asian carp.

 "The truth is the Clean Water Act says you must keep trying, so we're not stuck in the 1970s," said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of the Friends of the Chicago River.  Frisbie joined other Chicago environmental groups at the hearing in support of the IEPA plan.  

 "I think it's very important that the river environment be as safe as possible," said Chris Parson, a paddler and retiree who volunteers with Friends of the Chicago River.  "That's why I'm in favor of disinfection."

 The hearings will continue through the end of the week, with scheduled questioning from Flint Hills Resources, CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Corn Products International Inc., Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Stepan Company, Environmental Law and Policy Center, and ExxonMobil Oil Corporation.

Chicago's all about preservation this week. Yesterday, Preservation Chicago released its annual list of endangered landmarks. Today, the once-gaping hole in Montrose Avenue has it's own MySpace page and will play host to a "Pro Hole Rally" at 4:45 p.m.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Bill Cosby took center stage yesterday at the 18th annual Martin Luther King Scholarship breakfast in Chicago and blasted parents for not raising responsible children. This has been an ongoing theme of Cosby's appearances in recent years, and the audience of approximately 2,000 in the Sheraton Chicago Htoel Towers responded warmly to his message.

"What is lost in these people who are living and failing is the most simple, most natural part of parenting," said Cosby. "And that isn't there."

The scholarship breakfast was sponsored by PUSH-Excel, a division of the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.'s RainbowPUSH Coalition. Jackson spoke briefly, and Cosby was the keynote speaker at the breakfast that honored more than 150 scholarship recipients. In the past five years, the breakfast has raised $1.8 million, according to officials at Rainbow Coalition.

The focus of the event was educational equality. According to Jackson, a college degree is a burden on many students and their families because of the rising cost of higher education. The MLK scholarship breakfast was established to honor high achievers and help offset college costs. "We must invest in closing the gap," Jackson said.

Cosby agreed, and went on to tackle tough issues facing the black community such as poverty and bad parenting. "People don't know how to parent and they don't care," he said. "Everyone is making excuses for them."

He also touched on the role of community colleges. He said that community colleges are easily accessible to low-income students and that starting somewhere, even at a community college, is one answer o the black education crisis. "We ought to be the champions of graduating from community colleges," he said.

Success was another topic Cosby explored. Defining success as the absence of failure, he said that success stemmed in part from good planning. "From the time [a] young mother finds out that she's pregnant, the two [parents] are already planning your life.that you will go farther than they've ever been," he said. "And they're going to make sure of that because they're going to stay on your case."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

People are being asked to vote twice in selecting a successor to retired U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, but, unlike in some notorious Chicago elections, they're well within their rights to do so.

"Some audiences get a kick out of the idea that they'll be able to vote twice - without moving to Chicago - on the same election day," said state Sen. Chris Lauzen, a Republican candidate for the vacant seat.

The quirky situation arose when Hastert resigned at the end of November. It forced a special primary. The special primary was set for Feb. 5, the same day as the regular primary.

So voters are being asked to nominate someone to run in the March 8 special general election to fill the rest of Hastert's term as well as someone to run in the November general election for the next term.

But here's the catch: The nominee in the March election may not be the nominee for the November election.

There is a separate Feb. 5 ballot that will determine the Democratic and Republican nominees to compete on March 8 to serve the remainder of Hastert's term through January 2009. The regular primary ballot on Feb. 5 will include the candidates hoping to make the November election that will fill the seat for a full two-year term starting January 2009.

Follow?

But wait, it gets more tangled.

Two Republicans and three Democrats are on both the special and regular primary ballots for their respective parties. But, there are two additional candidates on each party's regular primary ballot who are not on the special primary ballot.

Had enough?

There's more: , Voters are not obligated to vote for the same candidate - or even the same party - on the two Feb. 5 ballots, according to Robert Saar, director of the DuPage County Election Commission.

The sense is that won't happen, but the multiple elections create a web of possibilities reminiscent of an NCAA tournament bracket.

"It could be split . but we don't think that's going to happen," said Jim Green, press secretary for Democratic candidate Jotham Stein. "We think that whoever wins the special primary will win the general primary too. If it does get split, it's going to be an even more interesting process."

Michael Dilger, the Republican candidate not on the special primary ballot, does not think his exclusion will hurt his chances to win the nomination and eventually the seat in November.

"So what? I don't get to go early to Washington for nine months," Dilger said via email. "I would rather go to Washington as a fresh face, with fresh ideas and at the start of a fresh term, Janurary of 2009."

In any event, election officials and voters in the 14th district could be in for a difficult day.

"This is going to be quite a job for election judges to explain [on Feb. 5]," said Dan Curry, spokesman for the DuPage County Election Commission. "It's perplexing for anyone trying to figure out how to run the election."

Green and Lauzen both expressed regret about the convoluted nature of the special elections.

"I definitely think this could have been done a lot easier," Green said. "It all depended on when Hastert quit. He quit at a time when it forced the governor to [call] this special election."

Lauzen called the special elections expensive and confusing, and said the two special elections will cost the state more than $1 million.

Hastert resigned Nov. 26. The west suburban district he represented includes parts of DuPage, Kane and DeKalb counties, as well as the city of Aurora.

Sorting out the 14th Congressional District Election Body:

Republican Candidates for Normal Primary Feb. 5
Chris Lauzen
Jim Oberweis
Michael J. Dilger

Democratic Candidates for Normal Primary Feb. 5
John Laesch
Jotham Stein
Bill Foster
Joe Serra

Republican Candidates for Special Primary Feb. 5
Chris Lauzen
Jim Oberweis

Democratic Candidates for Special Primary Feb. 5
John Laesch
Jotham Stein
Bill Foster

Other important information
Voters in the 14th District need to request two ballots, a normal primary ballot and a special primary ballot.
Voters can vote for different candidates, or parties, on the special primary ballot than they did on the normal primary ballot.
A special general election on March 8 will determine who will serve the remainder of retired Rep. Dennis Hastert's term, which ends in January 2009.
The winners of each party's normal primary will be on the November 4 ballot, which will fill the House seat for a full two-year term starting in January 2009.

Hi… you must be, Chicago? So nice to meet you… So! Do you want to sit down? Cool, cool. Umm… ooh I’m good, yeah, and you? Great… oh, sure! I’ll have a vodka tonic. Or ya know what? Make it a whiskey. Neat.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
After working with a refugee resettlement agency in Chicago, University of Chicago graduate Christian Doll said, he decided to pursue his interest in human rights overseas.

So he did what many alumni from his school have done: He joined the Peace Corps.

Doll and is set to leave in February to teach English in Uganda.

"I thought doing the Peace Corps was a way to do cross-cultural work in a way that the classroom wasn't," said Doll, who graduated in 2006 and received a master's degree in 2007.

The University of Chicago, along with Northwestern University and Wheaton College, made the Peace Corps' list, released this week, of top volunteer-producing campuses.

The University of Chicago was first in the small-schools category with 34 current alumni volunteers. Wheaton appeared on the small-schools list for the first time, coming in a seven-way tie for No. 24 with 14.

Northwestern tied for No. 12 among medium-sized schools with 29.

At the University of Chicago, "Most students are coming to the university with a background in service," said Wallace Goode, director of the university's Community Service Center and associate dean of students.

The university has responded by marketing the Peace Corps to students interested in nonprofit work, said Goode, himself a former volunteer.

That field attracted Wheaton graduate Leslie Merzig, a volunteer in northern Cameroon since 2006.

Merzig, who graduated in 2002, is working to encourage better crop production by getting people to plant trees.

"I wanted to try living and working overseas in a development capacity," she said." Peace Corps is a fabulous way to do that. It's a low-cost probe into this life."

She has also learned some personal lessons.

"My Muslim friends are very respectful," Merzig said. "I'm constantly aware of Muslim prayer time [five times a day]. It's been really challenging to me about how I follow my [Christian] faith."

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

As 2008 campaigns heat up in Illinois, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago plans to pin down candidates on funding increases to treat the illness.

In the coming weeks before the Illinois primary Feb. 5, the foundation will be sending out questionnaires to local congressional candidates covering HIV/AIDS topics.

The questionnaire mirrors one already sent to presidential candidates through the national organization AIDSvote.org to commit candidates to increased federal HIV/AIDS funding.

"Those dollars have decreased over the last six years," said David Munar, vice president of policy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

The foundation has joined a host of HIV/AIDS organizations to form AIDSvote.org in an effort to make sure the next president increases federal dollars for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

They have other demands too. They are seeking pledges that candidates, if elected, will propose $50 billion to fight HIV/AIDS overseas, federal funding for needle exchange programs and a comprehensive national AIDS strategy. And they've taken their agenda straight to the candidates.

In the presidential questionnaire, six Democrats and no Republicans responded.

Barack Obama filled out a questionnaire for the AIDS Foundation once before for his ill-fated 2000 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1992 Mike Huckabee, then a candidate for the U.S. Senate, suggested in an Associated Press questionnaire that AIDS patients should be "isolated from the general population" -- a remark that stirred national controversy 15 years later as he makes his bid for president.

Huckabee has since disavowed the remark and has a national AIDS strategy that he has proposed.

For the former Arkansas governor and other GOP candidates, the issue of a national AIDS strategy can conflict with their own electoral strategy in the 2008 election. "They may feel like it will alienate [the GOP's evangelical base]," said Johnathon Briggs, spokesman for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

What groups want

When federal government health officials fight HIV/AIDS at home, they do it through the Ryan White Act, named for an Indiana teenager who died in 1990 after a six-year battle with the disease.

How much money goes into the act - toward community health centers and medications - is up to the president. About 22,000 people are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and living in the city of Chicago and about 85 percent of the government funding for their healthcare comes from Washington, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The added effectiveness of new HIV/AIDS drugs has also increased "exponentially" the number of people who continue to need care, said Fikirte Wagaw, the department's director for community-based services for STDs, HIV and AIDS.

Among of the most effective anti-AIDS programs are needle-exchange programs, Wagaw said. The programs provide free, clean needles to the general public. The Bush administration has restricted federal funds for such programs.

"Access to clean needles does not increase drug use," Wagaw said.

The Bush legacy

President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address provided a surprise to his supporters and detractors alike: a federal program directed at HIV/AIDS care. Bush asked Congress to approve the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to "turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."

More than $15 billion in federal funding later (a number that dwarfs the money bankrolled toward HIV/AIDS by his predecessors), Bush can find a few more friendly faces among HIV/AIDS awareness advocates., And he recently proposed another $30 billion for the program.

It's when HIV/AIDS groups look at Bush's domestic HIV/AIDS programs where many frown upon the current administration.

"It seems we have a lot of focus on Africa, but we also have a domestic problem as well," said Briggs.

PEPFAR funds, according to Munar, are withheld until the receiving countries develop their own national AIDS strategies - something the AIDS Foundation of Chicago wants to see Congress and the administration adopt for the U.S.

"If it worked for third-world countries, it could certainly provide a road map here," Munar said.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Depending on your perspective, the former Wilson Yard at West Montrose Avenue and North Broadway is either a sign of a promising economic future or an eyesore exemplifying urban blight.

For years the yard, adjacent to the Wilson el stop in Uptown, was used as a repair and storage site by the CTA. It now stands empty and vacant.

With the push for development in Uptown, many wonder how businesses that might consider locating in the Wilson Yard will react to a proposed increase in the real estate transfer tax.

The tax is levied on all industrial and commercial property in Chicago. The fate of the proposed increase will determine which vision of the Wilson Yard becomes reality.

The increase in the tax, which would charge buyers of property $10.50 for every $1,000 of sale price, was approved by the Illinois legislature as a way to subsidize the Chicago Transit Authority's underfunded pension system. Because the tax applies only to properties within the city, the city council must approve it.

The current transfer tax, paid by the buyer, is $7.50 per every $1,000 of sale price. Sellers pay the county and state transfer tax of $1.50 for every $1,000. That number would remain unchanged under the proposal.

For years, the Wilson Yard has been a target by developers hoping to gentrify an area that, until recently, had few prosperous businesses. In 2001, the city created a tax increment financing, or TIF, district to help spur economic development. The CTA sold the Wilson Yard property to the city, which has plans to locate a Target or similar "big box" store.

But approving the 40 percent increase in the transfer tax would inhibit economic growth, said Brian Bernardoni, director of government affairs for the Chicago Association of Realtors. Bernardoni said the tax discourages businesses from moving into areas because they must pay it on top of any down payment.

Bernardoni also rejects the rationale for the increase. Instead of going toward operating costs or improved infrastructure, the transfer tax simply puts money into CTA's pension fund.

"Trying to save the CTA's pension plan hardly equates to doomsday," Bernardoni said, referring to the prospect waved by transit officials of drastic cuts in service if the General Assembly didn't increase the agency's funding.

The alderman representing the 46th Ward, in which the Wilson Yard is located, is Helen Shiller. Shiller's office did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The area north of the Wilson Yard now contains an Aldi supermarket, retail shops, ethnic restaurants, and a Dunkin Donuts. Some Uptown residents, including Victor Foley, say the success of these businesses are harbingers of a coming economic boom for the Uptown area.

"Obviously, I wish it were something else," Foley said. "But I think [Target] will be good for the area. Anything will help."

Foley cited the increase in condominiums south of Montrose Avenue and a noticeable increase in foot traffic as signs of development.

But David Rodriguez, another Uptown resident, said he avoids the area around the Wilson Yard. Rodriguez said the area is unappealing to him, pointing to the bar, liquor store, tattoo parlor and two methadone clinics across the street.

"A Target would probably help this place a lot more, because there's not a lot to do here," he said. "There's not really any specific reason to be in this area other than if you live here."

Rodriguez said he thinks Shiller should vote against the increase in the transfer tax.

"That would discourage businesses from coming," he said. "You're paying hundreds of thousands, and then you've got this extra amount. Why would anybody want to take a chance here?"

Whoever views math and computer coding as colorless should check out the rapidly evolving world of digital art.

Black and white circles that seem to spiral into infinity as you pass by and an enormous image of vibrant green, yellow and pink geometric shapes in seemingly random order can be seen in an exhibit documenting the history of applying computers to create art.

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art in Evanston is hosting "Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print" through April 6.

The exhibit features North American and European artists who invented and used computer processes to create art since the 1950s. It "explores the development of computer programming as a medium for artistic expression in creating prints, drawings, photographs and artists' books," notes an exhibit panel.

Museum co-curator Debora Wood hopes the exhibit will break through the prejudice surrounding creativity and this form of art.

People think the computer is doing all the work rather than the artist, she said.

Wood pointed to a piece by artist Joan Truckenbrod, who wrote a trailblazing computer program in the 1970s to generate variable images on an early Apple computer screen. Those images were photocopied onto paper directly from the monitor, heat transferred to a cloth, and finally sewn together into a quilt-like display.

The piece is quite a remarkable achievement for its time, in a field that was dominated by men and industrial applications, said Wood. But the work remains beautiful in our own time.

Computer art innovator, the late Ben F. Laposky, created works from the wave-forms displayed on a cathode-ray oscilloscope screen that he called, "Oscillons."

"Oscillons are, I believe, an excellent example of the possibility of employing modern technology in art and of demonstrating a relationship between science and art. They are also visual manifestations of some of the basic invisible aspects of nature, such as the movement of electrons and energy fields" Laposky wrote of his work.

C. E. B. Reas uses technology as an artistic medium for the purpose of investigating scientific principles. Reas, another artist whose work is featured on exhibit, combines art and science to visualize the interaction of elements in "Image 3" from "Process 6," created in 2005. His interest in artificial intelligence and robotics served as motivation for learning how to write software and build with electronics, according to Reas, .

The Block Museum also showcases "generative art" in which artists create computer-generated patterns of motion inspired by natural semi-random processes like flowing water and animal movements. The exhibit "Space, Color, and Motion" offers a compliment to the main exhibit.

"The next step to all of this is creating live art in motion," said Wood.

For information, click www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu or call 847-491-4000.

Unlike most artwork, Gordon Halloran's paintings melt.

Halloran, who creates three-dimensional ice paintings by freezing colored water, likes that his art is temporary.

"It teaches us a bit about life and the fact that it's not permanent," said Halloran, whose exhibition, "Museum of Modern Ice," opens in Millennium Park on February 1. It will be the Canadian artist's first exhibition in the United States.

For those who think that Craigslist is mostly a flea-market gone awry and without much-needed psychological screenings, I just need to say: Not so. Some things there can warm the cockles of your hearts (assuming you haven’t had them all removed in your last bypass).

The Bulls' playoff position exposes Eastern Conference inferiority

The Bulls have missed the presence of Luol Deng, who enjoyed a breakout season last year.

Because this is a blog about unusually unattractive new buildings in Chicago's residential neighborhoods, I cannot resist inaugurating it with this doozy: Would you spend $1.9 million for this giant, 4-bedroom, 4.5 bathroom single-family mirror?