St. Stanislaus School benefit, 9 to 4 in Kolbe Hall, Adams. Bake sale, snack bar, games, Chinese auctions, money raffle, crafts, and pierogi.
Blackinton Union Church, 1373 Massachusetts Ave., North Adams; 10 to 2. Crafts table, bake sale, Chinese auction, the Christmas table, and kid's grab bag. Lunch $4, $2 kids.
First Congregational Church, North Adams, 9-2.
Nov. 28 Becket Federated Church, Route 8, holiday bazaar from 9-3. Lunch, crafts, baked goods, holiday and other items. Information: Mary Peltier, Parish House, 413-623-5217.
Dec. 5
Holiday Fair at First Congregational Church, 25 Park Place, Lee, from 10 to 3; handcrafted items, raffles, children's shop, bake sale, cut Christmas trees and lunch from 11 to 1. Includes angel-themed goods from SERRV. Information, 413-243-1033 or www.ucc-lee.org.
Dec. 12-13
North Adams Country Club, crafts 9-4; food from That's a Wrap from 11-2. Information: Sheryl Morehouse at 413-822-3329.
Planning a bazaar this season? Submit information to info@iberkshires.com to have it listed here.
We're trying out blogs to offer shorter, easy-to-find news. Let us know what you think.
Send press releases and announcements to info@iberkshires.com. Need to contact someone at iBerkshires? Here's how.
Mammography Dispute The government's issued controversial new guidelines stating that women shouldn't get annual mammograms until age 50, rather than age 40.
iBerkshires will be meeting with local medical experts Monday. Have a question you'd like answered on this issue? Send it info@iberkshires.com with "mammogram" in the subject line.
Blue Highways: Anne Skinner Leading Williams College Winter Study to Ethiopia
10:48AM / Thursday, October 15, 2009
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - In January, Anne Skinner, senior lecturer in Chemistry at Williams College, along with six Williams students, will visit the headwaters of the Blue Nile to conduct archeological research. The project is part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
The three-year $330,000 NSF grant, under the direction of Professor John Kappelman of the University of Texas-Austin, is supporting research on "Blue Highways: Evaluating Middle Stone Age Riverine-Based Foraging, Mobility, and Technology Along the Trunk Tributaries of the Blue Nile."
As part of this research, Skinner and her students will test the idea that the lifestyle of humans living near the Nile tributaries during the Middle Stone Age was centered on food and water resources concentrated near the riverbanks during the seasonal dry period.
Water holes holding fresh water would have attracted mammals and contained other food sources in one place. Previous research in the area has revealed the presence of human occupation in the form of tools.
Williams College students participating in the Winter Study course Archaeology in Ethiopia will spend two weeks at John Kappelman's excavation site in northwest Ethiopia, which evidence has suggested may have been a refuge during times of climate stress.
Kappelman, a paleontologist, recently completed the first high-resolution CT scan of "Lucy," the 3.2 MYR-old and best preserved Australopithecine.
"Dating the occupation would indicate whether the site might have been one of the essential ones in human development," said Skinner. The oldest hominid, Ardipithecus, recently reconstructed, was found in Ethiopia and the oldest fossils of modern human aspect have all come from there as well.
Skinner's interdisciplinary research focuses on overlaps between chemistry, geology, and archaeology. She has conducted work on electron spin resonance, a technique that dates materials by looking at damage to fossils from environmental radiation.
Her research has been conducted at sites across the globe, including Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Mesmaiskaya Cave in Russia, the Narmada River in India, and Sao Raimundo in Brazil.
Her work has appeared in numerous scientific journals, including Nature, The Journal of Human Evolution, The Journal of Coastal Research, and Applied Radiation and Isotopes. In 2005, her work on burnt bones from South Africa was featured in Discover Magazine as one of the top 100 scientific stories.
Skinner received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College, and her doctorate from Yale University. She joined the Williams faculty in 1967.
