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The second annual Miami Dolphins Dade vs. Broward All-Star Football Game presented by Under Armour and hosted by the Greater Miami Athletic Conference (GMAC) and the Broward County Athletic Association (BCAA) will be held at Sun Life Stadium located at 347 Don Shula Dr., Miami Gardens Fl 33056 on Friday, January 13th at 7:30pm. The game will feature stand-out student athletes from Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Proceeds from the game will be distributed between both counties to help support the funding of their football athletic programs. Admission to the game will be $12. Advanced ticket sales are available through your local high school in Dade and Broward County. The game is endorsed by the Broward and Dade County School Boards, as well as the Miami Dolphins.

“This game is about two things, helping athletes showcase their talents to have an opportunity to get to college and raise dollars for the BCAA and the GMAC to ensure schools have the resources they need to compete equally, “ said Twan Russell, Director of Youth Programs for the Miami Dolphins. “Proceeds will benefit the counties directly which is a great boost for the community and in line with the organization’s efforts to make a positive impact with youth programs in South Florida.”

Fans will have the opportunity to meet and receive autographs from Miami Dolphins players and Cheerleaders before kickoff.

“They [athletes] are not playing against their local high school teams – they are playing against the best,” said Broward coach Don Simon, “they will be able to be seen playing on a highly competitive level”

Don Simon added, “A game like this not only will showcase those kids but it will help us [Dade and Broward County Athletics] financially, we need people to come out and watch it, and it should be a great one”

Under Armour is the title sponsor of the Dade vs. Broward All- Star Game and will supply both teams with uniforms for the game. Fans will have the opportunity to win over $10,000 in prizes from Under Armour throughout the course of the game.

“Under Armour’s commitment to high school football is an integral part of our mission, said Leon Duncan, Under Armour’s director of Retail Media. “South Florida is one of the most important football environments in the United States. We want to do our part to make sure athletes have the ability to compete and they have the resources needed to do so at a high level.”

Prior to the game, the Miami Dolphins will be hosting a Drills and Skills Competition, where spectators can register to compete for the opportunity to win a $1,000 shopping spree with Under Armour. The competition will be divided into three age divisions, U10, U18, and 18+. The competition will begin at 4:30 pm, and last until 6:30, where registrants can participate on a first come first serve basis. All registration must be done prior to the event at www.DolphinsAcademy.com.

The counties will battle for the bragging rights for a year and the coveted Superintendants trophy. The annual game will be hosted at Sun Life Stadium.

“This game is an extension of the commitment we have to our student athletes, giving them opportunities to showcase their talents to colleges,” said Damian Huttenhoff, Director of Activities and Athletics for the BCAA. “We pride ourselves in helping all athletes reach their maximum potential.”

“We are excited about making this an annual event,” added Cheryl A. Golden, Instructional Supervisor for the GMAC. “We feel anytime you can positively impact our communities by raising dollars for sports and giving kids opportunities to better themselves is the right thing to do.”

Following the game, spectators are invited to participate in a Gatorade Junior Training Camp on the field, and have their photo taken. Fans will have the opportunity to win $1,000 Under Armour shopping sprees through promotional field goal kicks at the quarter breaks, random seat selections throughout the game, and the Drills and Skills competition before kickoff.

It is immediately apparent upon entering Die Bierstube that Shultzy’s does not possess a monopoly on the U-District’s supply of German beer and food. This bar, located in the far-northwestern reaches of the U-District at 6106 Roosevelt Way NE, possesses something approaching Old World charm — in addition to its fine Bavarian fare — that is disappointingly absent from the other “pubs” in its neighborhood. The pub ambience manifests itself in Die Bierstube’s dark, wood-paneled walls, worn, wooden tables, German-style tap fonts, and a clientele with an average age well above their mid-twenties. This bar, in short, begs you to pull up a chair and order a beer.

Die Bierstube’s strong suit is, unsurprisingly, its beer. Like Shultzy’s, Die Bierstube features a lengthy selection of imported German draught beers from centuries-old breweries like Spaten, Maisel, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr. The dozen-odd beers are each sold in volumes of .3, .5 and one liter, and cost around $4.25, $5.25 and $9.75, respectively. Each beer is also served in a glass made by its respective brewery, which serves to greatly enhance the authentic German feel of the establishment.

For beer-lovers brave or foolish enough to give it a go, Die Bierstube proudly offers a two-liter chugging challenge featuring a giant drinking glass called “The Boot.” For around $20, a minimum of three people can fill up “The Boot” with beer and, once it is picked up, must drain the massive vessel before it is placed back down. German tradition states that the second-to-last person to drink from “The Boot” must pay for the next round, so challengers are given the incentive to drink as much as possible as the volume of beer in “The Boot” gets low.

The beer menu has a brew for everyone. The light Hacker-Pschorr Weisse is a good beginner’s beer with a light, though not anemic, body and a spiced aftertaste reminiscent of Hoegaarden. The Spaten Oktoberfest is perfect for a light-beer drinker who wants to try a darker variety that won’t offend his or her inexperienced palate. Hacker-Pschorr’s Dunkel Alt, an appetizing dark lager, tastes vaguely like a mocha porter without bitter coffee flavors. The mighty Paulaner Salvator was originally brewed by German monks as a replacement for bread during Lent and weighs in at 7.5-percent alcohol by volume. The Salvator, or “Savior,” has a thick, malty taste comparable to liquid bread, yet features a swirl of other flavors that even moderate-beer drinkers may appreciate.

Those who would rather sip a mixed drink than quaff an ale are able to do so: Die Bierstube features an abbreviated list of German interpretations of popular American mixed drinks, such as the Honig Dropf (Honey Drop). Mixed drinks cost between $6.50 and $7.50, a range that sharply contrasts those offered by lower-priced bars on the Ave.

Die Bierstube’s food menu is surprisingly authentic. Even simple and inexpensive menu items like the landjaeger, a thick, traditional German beef-and-pork jerky served with marbled rye bread, impress with their German taste. Perhaps the best part about Die Bierstube’s German fare is the prices. A light meal of currywurst or a bratwurst sandwich cost patrons around $7.

Die Bierstube’s inviting Old World-pub interior is complemented by one of the U-District’s strongest selections of beers and a solid menu of fairly-priced German grub, strengths that more than negate the distant location.

The verdict: Die Bierstube is a bar for beer lovers, plain and simple, and certainly one that every UW student should visit at least once.

The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, edited by Hilary Ballon, recounts the history of the planning, implementation, and impact of the grid on New York City.

Conceived as a plan that was both logical and a reflection of the democratic values of the American republic, the grid has stood the test of time thanks to both its rigidity and its flexibility and has allowed for the citys geographical and economic expansion. As the book and the accompanying exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York reveal, the grid is a reflection of and has shaped the citys political, economic, and cultural character for more than two hundred years.

* The commissioners of the 1811 plan noted rather scornfully that they had eschewed the “circles, ovals and stars which certainly embellish a plan” in favor of “convenience and utility.”

* New York’s grid plan was to first to eliminate named streets altogether (the names came later). The rationality behind Manhattan’s street numbering system—Cartesian analytical geometry—also underpins early modern conceptions of space more generally.

* The key to the greatness of the grid is variety. It is not made up of evenly spaced, similarly sized blocks. The blocks, which are all 200 feet wide (north to south), vary in length (east to west) from less than 250 feet to more than 900 feet. Most east-west streets are 60 feet wide. However, seventeen of them are 100 feet wide. Most, but not all north-south avenues are 100 feet wide. Madison and Lexington Avenues (each 80 feet wide) were introduced after the 1811 plan to accommodate additional traffic.

* The original surveyors were regularly obstructed, attacked, and sued for damages for cutting branches to complete their work.

* The 1811 commissioners who laid out the grid had assumed that it would take several centuries for urban growth to reach above 155th Street.

* To early visitors, the grid was disorienting; the streets looked alike and offered no landmarks or mnemonic devices to distinguish one from the next.

* The commissioners’ original plan has undergone several changes demonstrating that although Manhattan’s grid may look rigid, it actually proved flexible. The grid provided the city with an organizing principle—orthogonality—which could absorb modifications within its rectilinear structure.

* In 1807, the assessed value of New York City real estate was $25 million. In 1887 the assessed value reached $1.255 billion.

* As the city opened, built, and paved streets through the East Side, it broke up the old country estates owned by prosperous New York families: the Beekmans, Schermerhorns, Lenoxes, and Rhinelanders. Some heirs unsuccessfully tried to hold the city at bay and maintain the integrity of their ancestral land, while others, such as James Beekman, divided their property into lots and increased their family’s wealth in the real estate market.

* In the 1840s Park Avenue consisted of squatter homes; in the 1860s breweries and factories dominated what was then 4th Avenue

* Boss Tweeds improvements to the city led to great (and illicits) profits for himself by skimming dollars and investing in the grid himself. For better or for worse, the mark of Tweed endures in the built environment of the city that we know today.

* Robert Moses pursued a decades-long program of slum clearance, replacing entire neighborhoods with superblocks under the banner of urban renewal. Although the housing superblocks fit neatly into the orthogonal street system, they completely changed the grain of the city. The oversize blocks did not have the grid’s walkable character, and because they were generally reserved for only one building type—residential—they lost the mixed-use quality of the building-lined street wall. In changing the scale and density of the grid, the superblocks destroyed what made it unique.

* Walking at a comfortable pace and factoring in some time spent waiting for traffic lights to change, a New Yorker can expect to cover a block a minute on foot.

* The term gridlock made its first appearance in public discourse in the New York Times during the crippling 1980 transit strike.

Love this video. Here is a link to the person who created it.

The WIAA plans to explore possible changes to the high-school state volleyball tournaments, both in terms of format and sites.

Cindy Adsit, WIAA assistant executive director in charge of volleyball, touched on some of the possibilties today (Wednesday) while giving an overview of the 2011 tournaments at meeting of the media advisory committee.

“There were issues at every site,” Adsit said.

The 1A, 2B and 1B tournaments were at the Yakima Sundome as in the past, but were spread over just two days instead of three (the past few years, one classification would play Thursday-Friday and the other two Friday-Saturday). A sixth court was added and Adsit said it was a tight fit.

But those tourneys likely will remain in the Sundome, she said.

The 4A, 3A and 2A tourneys moved this past season from the Toyota Center in Kennewick, where they had also been on a Thursday-Friday, Friday-Saturday rotation. The 4A and 3A tournaments were at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey Friday-Saturday (with Friday consolation play at Timberline High School). The 2A tournament was at Evergreen State College in Olympia, also on Friday-Saturday.

Seating was a bit of a problem at both venues, particularly at Evergreen, but attendance was up.

“Having it crowded at state volleyball was great,” Adsit said. “It hadn’t been crowded for a long time….some things can be fixed.”

She said Evergreen would have to make several changes to be considered again. The two courts were side by side this year and need to be end to end in the future. A lack concessions and poor outdoor lighting were also a problem.

One of the biggest issues at Saint Martin’s was the schedule, with matches set just an hour and 45 minutes apart on the three courts. The tournament got way behind on both days. The last quarterfinal on Friday didn’t end until well after midnight and the 4A championship match went well past 11 p.m. on Saturday.

Adsit said the WIAA is committed to trying to start matches no earlier than 8 a.m. and would like all finished by 10 p.m.

Among the options would be to find a venue with four courts or changing the format, which could mean going to a regional setup similar to basketball and then a tournament for the final eight. Another possibility would be matches consisting of the best two-out-of-three sets instead of three-out-of-five.

As far as sites go, Adsit said Saint Martin’s is still in consideration for 4A and 3A and that the Toyota Center also has shown interest in having the tournaments back. She mentioned the Clark County Events Center in Vancouver as a possibility. The facility could fit six courts, but has aluminum bleachers for seating.

The Tacoma Dome apparently is not financially viable.

Adsit said she is in the process of sending surveys out to high-school volleyball coaches around the state, seeking their input. She intends to present some options to the WIAA Executive Board next month, but said major changes might not come until the 2013 season.

I will continue to follow any developments and keep you posted here.

Money doesnt grow on trees, right? As graduate students, we are more aware than most of the value of dollar, or of a dime for that matter! We need to take every opportunity we can to find funding. So dont forget about the list of scholarship, fellowship, and grant opportunities that we have listed on the Graduate School website at .

Deadlines are approaching for some of the applications, so be sure to check them out and see if any apply to your area of interest. We continually update these opportunities, so remember to check back to see what new opportunities are available!