A Chinese church conundrum: Why did Bishop Ma recant? — National Catholic Register

Lecturer in Chinese Nathan Faries is quoted by the National Catholic Register its analysis of his 2012 criticism of the state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

At his ordination in 2012, Auxiliary Bishop Taddeo Ma Daqin’s words and actions seemed to break ranks with the CPCA. He’s been under house arrest since then.

But in a recent blog post, the bishop praised the CPCA and said he regretted what happened in 2012.

While the “prevailing view among experts may be that Bishop Ma was punished for his defiance, and coerced into recanting,” Faries has a different narrative interpretation, writes Brian Fraga.

Author of The “Inscrutably Chinese” Church, Faries suggests that reports of the bishop’s actions and words in 2012 may have been exaggerated in the first place.

He tells Fraga that “Ma has never been as controversial a figure as some would like to imagine. He wants what is best for the Church. He wants unity and the greater glory of God. Those were the main themes of his [2012] address, not criticism of the government.”

‘Improving upon strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses’ — Maine Magazine

Maine Magazine defines its top 50 Mainers list as people who are “charting the state’s future” by “investing time, energy, and talents to advance the state they love.”

Their list includes Portland restaurateur Andrew Taylor ’03 and Lewiston youth-center founder Julia Sleeper ’08.

Tree Street Youth, an expanding organization that Sleeper co-founded as a �ֲ���ý student, now serves up to 150 children each day and offers a robust college-prep program.

Sleeper tells the magazine that “I do what I do to ensure our youth have as many opportunities to succeed as the future leaders of Maine.”

Taylor, along with Arlin Smith and Mike Wiley, co-owns a “block-long epicurean empire” on Middle Street in Portland — three restaurants that have “picked up numerous accolades,” the magazine notes, including a James Beard nomination as best chef in the Northeast for Taylor and Wiley in 2015 and 2016.

The trio’s restaurant group, employs more than 120 people, “a community of workers that [the owners] say is one of their proudest achievements,” the magazine reports.

Smith and his co-owners are involved in charitable work to fight hunger, “an issue that affects so many people in our community,” says Smith.

A surprising murder trial verdict raises questions about expert-witness opinions — Psychology Today

A story about the in Psychology Today looks at the case of convicted murderer Julian Kurita, who was defended at his 2012 trial by .

Kurita had a troubled psychiatric history, and Williams called upon a well-respected expert witness who supported an insanity defense. Yet the jury found Kurita guilty.

On the other side, William Barr, the prosecution’s go-to expert witness, testified as he usually does when called upon, saying that Kurita was sane and likely exaggerating or faking his symptoms.

But Barr’s specialty is physical brain injury; he’s “not really forensic in the sense of dealing with people who commit a crime,” Williams tells writer Mike Mariani. Yet, he’s ended up being “the darling of the New York County DA’s office.”

And can a “darling” be truly objective? Probably not, Mariani writes.

“In recent years…studies have demonstrated that even among the most presumably objective forensic experts, bias may hold sway.”

Indeed, expert-witness assessments “indicated a strong allegiance to whichever party they thought had retained them.”

How college buddies skipped the GMAT and launched Downeast Cider — Boston.com

A story at Boston.com about Downeast Cider, founded in 2011, includes a funny that explains why it’s not called “Three Idiots Cider” today.

The story also looks at the company’s expansion and how leaders Tyler Mosher ’11, Ross Brockman ’11, and Matt Brockman ’08 — each of whom were named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2014 — try to keep the brand and company culture feeling genuine and down-to-earth.

“New employees sometimes assume there’s some sort of Steve Jobs-type person thinking about every detail, and it’s really not like that,” Ross Brockman tells reporter Justine Hofherr. “None of us are geniuses.”

Re-writing the African story��— AllAfrica

An essay in AllAfrica to “change the negative perception of Africa.”

Mushi, a �ֲ���ý economics major whose looked at three Tanzanian women and their experience with microfinance institutions, recalls for writer Anne Kidmose Jensen how his fellow �ֲ���ý students often bought into negative African stereotypes.

So, he created to tell other stories about African nations.

Desmond Mushi ’13 talks to Associate Professor of English Sanford Freedman at the 2013 Senior-Faculty Dinner. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

While Africa is beset by “wars and poverty and corruption,” the continent “is also a place of stock markets, high-rises, and internet cafes, and this is a part that needs media attention,” Desmond says.

While his initial motivation for the website was to make American audiences more Africa-aware, Mushi sees stereotypes being embraced at home, too.

The media’s portrayal of Africa “has not only affected people in the U.S. and Western Europe, it has also affected Africans themselves.”

Mushi, who lives in Dar es Salaam, is a research assistant with the think tank Economic and Social Research Foundation.

10 months, 45 national parks, 11 rules — The New York Times

While on his 10-month road trip to 45 of the 47 national parks in the contiguous U.S., Jeremy Cronon ’13 says that he “adopted a series of daily practices — I called them my “roadtripology rules” — to force myself to be as deliberate as possible about the trip.”

He recently in The New York Times’ Travel section. Among them:��Drive the speed limit. Use paper maps. And avoid interstates.

You might say “pshaw” to having rules on a roadtrip. But Cronon says that his rules “sought to enhance spontaneity by making sure I noticed it when it happened.”

College courses that ‘give us hope for the next generation’ — Elle

Melinda Plastas

Elle writer Natalie Matthews reports that today’s courses in women and gender studies tackle topics that are far more complex and inclusive than their 1970s forebears.

In that spirit, she offers a list of that “give us hope for the next generation.”

Checking in at No. 21 is “Tobacco: Gender Matters,” taught by �ֲ���ý’ Melinda Plastas, visiting associate professor of women and gender studies.

Plastas’ course teaches students to use “gender to examine the global history of tobacco production, consumption, and control” and to “consider the role of tobacco in shaping ideas about gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class.”

The list also included the one-time �ֲ���ý course “Religion and the Monstrous Feminine,” offered in the 2016 winter semester.

Andy Kageleiry ’12

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported on a campus talk by Andy Kageleiry ’12, a senior analyst with the consulting firm to support the appeal of New England quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension.

The NFL had tried to suspend Brady for allegedly being part of a scheme to use intentionally deflated, and thus easier to handle, footballs last season, specifically in a Jan. 18 playoff game vs. the Indianapolis Colts.

Andy Kageleiry ’12 of Analysis Group gives a talk on Sept. 30 at �ֲ���ý about “Deflategate: Assessing the Quality of the NFL’s Statistical Evidence.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Brady and the NFLPA won the appeal, as we know.

And while U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman’s ruling to vacate the suspension did not address whether or not the balls were tampered with, the experts put onto the case by Analysis Group, according to the Sun Journal story, did offer an answer.

They “were able to demonstrate, through statistical reasoning, that the Patriots balls may have shown less PSI mainly because their balls were tested minutes — and possibly several minutes — before the Colts’ balls were examined.”

The story quotes Kageleiry, a magna cum laude economics major, saying that the whole experience was “kind of a fun case. Kind of an unusual case.”

Analysis Group’s chairman and cofounder is Bruce Stangle ’70, and the talk was sponsored by the Department of Economics.

Michael Lieber ’92

Giving equal time to the other side of the line of scrimmage, Indianapolis native Mike Lieber ’92 has created a line of “.

Michael Lieber ’92 shows off his Deflatriots gear at Back to �ֲ���ý on Oct. 3 as he hangs out with Ira Waldman ’73. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College).

that “plenty of people loathe the New England Patriots. Plenty of them would love to rub DeflateGate in Tom Brady’s face.

“But none, perhaps, have taken it to the extreme that Indy native Mike Lieber has — starting a full-fledged company whose mission statement is, as he puts it, ‘to really tweak the Patriots.'”

Lieber, a lawyer and litigator in Chicago by day, partnered with fellow alumnus Quoc Tran ’95 on the sideline business selling hats, T-shirts, and other gear that mocks the Patriots.

“I’ve been waiting 25 years.”

Reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow reports that the crucible of attending �ֲ���ý also motivated Lieber.

As a �ֲ���ý student, he was razzed by New Englanders “every time the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers or the Patriots beat the Colts.”

Lieber tells her that “I’ve been waiting 25 years for my revenge and it’s finally here.”

Ross Brockman ’11

Brockman, who cofounded Downeast Cider House, as the company grows and as he can’t be as hands-on as he once was.

“It’s weird the first time you have an employee. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I trust someone else to sweep the floor. I do it certain way.”

Still, he and the company want to keep it real.

“The typical picture on social media of, like, a can of cider on the beach — that’s boring. It’s not us,” he tells the Globe. “I’d rather hear an inside story about the company or see something real. I hate lying to people. It feels disgusting to be corny. Sometimes it gets us into trouble, because I’m too honest and I say too much, but that’s just my personality.”

In 2014, the Downeast leadership — Tyler Mosher ’11, Brockman, and his brother Matt ’08�� — were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Food and Wine category. Based in Charlestown, Mass., the company recently announced it would open a new production facility in East Boston.

Rebecca Fraser-Thill

Advice for budding entrepreneurs on how to face criticism includes a tip from psychology faculty member Rebecca Fraser-Thill, director of program design for the Purposeful Work initiative at �ֲ���ý.

Fraser-Thrill tells Huffington Post blogger Kenny Kline that the people who most dread being criticized are often the quickest to judge other people. So if you’re less focused on being critical of others, their criticism will have less impact on you in general.

Nick Mazuroski ’09

Nick Mazuroski and a business partner founded the year-old Rwanda Bean Co., a coffee bean wholesaler.

Portland Press Herald video reporter Susan Kimball says that “by buying coffee beans directly from a farmer’s cooperative in the western Rwandan province of Karora, they cut out the middleman coffee broker and pay the farmers more.”

Kimball notes that Mazuroski and his partner and friend Mike Mwenedata, a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda who came to the U.S. in 2009, have also “pledged to return 50 percent of the company’s profits to the farming community to support local schools, health care, and clean water.”

Jay Hartshorn

Jay Hartshorn is head coach of women’s cross country and track and field. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

, head coach of women’s cross country and track and field. Hartshorn grew up in Lexington, Mass., where her father, Bob Hartshorn, a longtime boys’ soccer coach at Lexington High, is in the Massachusetts High School Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame.

She tells Pave that “I loved watching soccer with my dad when I was little, and he had a unique, fun style of coaching that I definitely inherited.”

James Reuter ’75

The Bethel Citizen writes about two local bicyclists including Jim Reuter ’75, in the 2015 Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur.

The PBP attracts some 6,000 bicyclists, who ride more than 1,230 kilometers over four days. Reuter tells the newspaper that some of the strongest participants were the oldest.

“The oldest finisher was an 80-year-old Frenchman,” he tells the paper, adding that “I think, especially for endurance events, being older is only an asset. You gain so much wisdom as you age, and you come to know your own body better, and what it can do.”

�ֲ���ý and Koru

First Round Review, in an article advising firms to look past traditional markers like GPA in their hiring practices, shares a telling anecdote about a �ֲ���ý graduate who was just OK on paper but turned out to be a great hire.

The article, “,” quotes Kristen Hamilton, the co-founder and CEO of Koru, an immersive business-training program designed for young job seekers that �ֲ���ý partnered with in 2014.

The article’s premise is that promising job candidates often turn out to be paper tigers, so “it’s time to rethink what qualities actually make someone a great employee.”

Hamilton tells the story of the �ֲ���ý alumnus who worked with Koru. A rhetoric major with no business experience, he had lived in the woods on his own wits “but he wouldn’t have known that he could translate that into something that would be exciting for a software company.”

After completing Koru’s training program and learning how those experiences and his liberal arts education can be marketable job skills, he is now in sales at Smartsheet, “and he’s nailing it,” the article says.

Jimmy Lathrop ’94

In a Q&A with the Jimmy Lathrop talks about the joys and pressures of solo practice in the Park Slope neighborhood.

A litigator, his areas include real estate, foreclosure defense, elder law, guardianship proceedings and landlord/tenant issues. He likes the fast pace of his work. “Anywhere else you’d be like a Ferrari stuck in traffic,” he says.

“Here you hit the ground running. There is no shortage of people with problems in Brooklyn so there is never a lack of work. It’s a real thrill because you can spend every day in court on trial going full speed as much as you want.”

Lathrop has been recognized for his pro bono work from the Brooklyn Bar Association and received a Distinguished Service Award from the BBA in 2011.

Jason Castro

Can’t you smell that smell? Maybe not, says a �ֲ���ý neuroscientist.

In 2014, a widely-reported study in Science suggested that the human nose is capable of distinguishing at least 1 trillion odors.

But something smells a bit funny about those findings, according to scientists Jason Castro of �ֲ���ý and Rick Gerkin of Arizona State.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Jason Castro is a neuroscientist who studies the sense of smell, focusing on the neural circuitry involved in odor processing among other areas. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Castro and Gerkin have , and the story has been picked up by a number of media outlets,

“The conclusion in the 2014 paper relies heavily on untested assumptions about smell perception,” says Castro, an assistant professor of psychology.

“And the equation used actually shows that the number of distinguishable smells is fewer than 1 trillion, not more, making the original claim inaccurate, and in fact the exact opposite of what the calculation actually shows.”

Gerkin notes that “the assertion that humans can discriminate between at least 1 trillion odors is based on a fragile mathematical framework…. So the result in question could be tens of orders of magnitude — a factor of one with dozens of zeros after it — larger or smaller than first reported.”

Owen Dodson ’36

Owen Dodson ’36, photographed by Nancy Carrick Holbert, 1969, courtesy of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, copyright Arizona Board of Regents.

, journalist and activist Cliff Boyd looks at the life of mid-20th century author, poet, and playwright Owen Dodson ’36.

Boyd quotes Dodson explaining one chapter of his life, his brief work in Hollywood, where he met with writers and others in an attempt to create movies that wouldn’t have black stereotypes.

“But they didn’t pick up our cause because there were so many things going on in the government — Joseph McCarthy — and they were afraid,” Dodson said.

He continued: “In my time I was a very eloquent and good-looking young man. I should have had rays to pull them into our cause.

“But the commercial world had sucked them in, and they would not let their careers go away with a Black cause, even though they believed in the whole damn thing.”

�ֲ���ý Museum of Art

The �ֲ���ý Museum of Art offers a photography exhibition that is welcome for being unusual, says The Boston Globe.

“We’re so familiar with artists’ self-portraits that it comes as something like revelation to see a major American painter shown over a span of years photographically,” writes the in his review of The Painter of Maine: Photographs of Marsden Hartley at the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art.

Marsden Hartley in Cannes, France, in 1925, in a gelatin silver print made by an unknown photographer. (Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art)

“The �ֲ���ý show is unusual, with its emphasis on the painter-subject rather than the quality of the images or identity of the photographers (all but two are anonymous),” Feeney continues.

“That unusualness makes the show all the more welcome. The fact that Hartley had such an unprepossessing appearance somehow makes the images all the more revealing — and poignant.”

Feeney reviewed both the Hartley exhibition and the exhibition Points of View, both of which continue through Oct. 24

John Jenkins ’74

John Jenkins ’74, who will be inducted into the International Black Belt Hall of Fame in the fall, spoke to about his path from Newark, N.J., to �ֲ���ý, and on to becoming one of Lewiston-Auburn’s leading citizens.

Mills notes that “what matters most to Jenkins is the impact karate has had on his life and how he has used it to make a difference in the world around him.”

Jenkins has been mayor of both Auburn and Lewiston and served as a Maine state senator.

Jenkins said, “I’ve got tons of trophies. They’re all sitting in storage. To have a change of life for folks in a positive way, there’s no better legacy than that.”

Tyler Mosher ’11, Matt Brockman ’08, Ross Brockman ’11

“there was a day not so long ago when this country had squat to offer as far as hard ciders. And for those of us who came of age on this deliciously dryly-sweet boozy beverage, it kind of sucked.”

Enter Boston-based Downeast Cider, produced by Tyler Mosher ’11 and brothers Matt ’08 and Ross Brockman ’11.

“The company produces a deliciously murky cider,” writes AP food editor J.M Hirsch. “Murky isn’t often a term associated with delicious. But roll with this one…. I balked when my first pint was poured. But then I tasted. Clean and crisp, a little sweet, a little dry. Which is to say, a balanced cider. The sort of drink Americans have shown themselves not particularly adept at producing.

Downeast cider, he concludes “is worth hunting for.”

Paul Heroux

In advance of the dedication of newly renovated Theodora Park, highlighted a contribution by Paul Heroux, a ceramicist and a senior lecturer emeritus of art and visual culture at �ֲ���ý.

Adding to his national reputation, Heroux contributed a set of decorative tiles for a park fountain, telling Spence that he’d been working on the commission, designing, glazing, and hand-painting 370 ceramic tiles, for more than a year.

Theodora Park in the Ansonborough neighborhood of Charleston, S.C. (Julia Lynn)

Paul Heroux's tiles in the fountain at Theodora Park in Charleston, S.C. (Julia Lynn)

Paul Heroux's tiles in the fountain at Theodora Park in Charleston, S.C. (Sam Spence/Charleston City Paper)

“My two inspirations for the piece are the formal boxwood hedges I see around town and the wonderful green glazes used on old Italian tiles, jars, and garden ornaments,” Heroux told the