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During his campaign for mayor, Bob Duffy indulged in a good bit of happy talk. "Some choose to focus on our failures," he said when he announced his candidacy. "I choose to focus on our successes and build upon them for the future." There was a bit of that during his inaugural address on Sunday,
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For millions of people suffering with debilitating injuries and serious diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's, stem cell research offers hope. But as promising as the research is, it is also polarizing. And the Bush administration has taken a non-scientific view of stem cell research and turned it into public policy. At the University of Rochester,
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IT'S DUFFY'S TURN We were surprised and confused by Mayor Johnson's comments about the incoming mayor and his transition team ("Troubling Transition at City Hall?" December 14). He probably is struggling with the emotions that confront all of us as we cope with life's passages. Certainly, Mayor Johnson has given much of his life to
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Among all the usual blockbusters depending for their success on the latest in technology, monsters, and publicity, the movie generating the loudest buzz this season, surprisingly, is a relatively small and decidedly unspectacular story of an extended love affair between two cowboys. Most of the commentary surrounding Brokeback Mountain predictably focuses on the fact of
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The totals: 2178 US soldiers, 201 Coalition soldiers, and approximately 27,707 to 31,232 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to January 1. 15,955 American soldiers have been wounded in action between March 2003 and December 2005. www.icasualties.org estimates that 2590 Iraqi police and military were killed in 2005. American soldiers killed
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For most people, there's just so much family you can take before you explode. So 'twas a packed Xmas night at the Bug Jar for the debut of The Isotopes'A Very Special Isotopes Christmas Special: How The Isotopes Saved Christmas. This was a low-budget, low-fidelity nugget of nerd-centric hilarity. Similar in acting quality and tone
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If you've been to a mall recently, you'll be glad to know that the Department of Homeland Security has got your back. Or to be more precise, they've thrown a few bones to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department to do the job. As the holiday shopping season was reaching its peak in mid-December, the CountyLegislature approved accepting
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Most of Rochester's schools --- like MonroeHigh School, above --- are more than 50 years old. (The school district has not released the list of school improvements it wants.) The number of children attending Rochester schools is dropping, a trend that appears likely to continue through the decade. Given that fact, the district will need
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Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installations are anomalies --- art that makes news. But drama grabs headlines: The pair opened 3100 umbrellas in Ibaraki and California, wrapped Paris's Pont Neuf in fabric, and in February of 2005 installed 7500 16-foot-tall, saffron-colored fabric panels --- The Gates --- in Central Park. Photographer Ahron R. Foster, who lives in New
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They've got game Walk into a roomful of tournament chess players and one thing is clear: these guys are serious. | Players hunch over chess boards while nearby several other players watch games and talk in whispers. A few players fidget, but it's hard to tell if it's because they're winning or losing. Their opponents,
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The following email reminds me of an essay I once wrote for second-year French class. The essay was returned to me with a rash of red markings and a single frowny face in the upper right corner. This email comes in on the opposite side of translation, from France to the United States. Pay particular
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Is there any filmmaker making movies today who is as consistently inconsistent as Neil Jordan? The man who proved that it's actually possible to make an abysmal flick despite the participation of Sean Penn, Robert DeNiro, and David Mamet (1989's We're No Angels) also helped usher in the commercial viability of independent cinema when
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Little red houses This fireworks factory sat up the road from my high school about a mile. A series of red wood shingled buildings scattered across the property. Upper classmen reveled in describing how the buildings housed small crews who assembled the various products. The layout was in case something went wrong --- then only
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Chris Beard plays the blues as if his pants were on fire. His fleet fretwork is deadly, often reducing his guitar to five, four, and sometimes three strings before the song is through. His blues have plenty of soul and sweat and show no signs of letting up. Beard is equally relentless. But this past summer
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Wayne Luong, owner of Golden Port and the House of Sushi, left work at 11:15 p.m. on November 26, as he would on any other Saturday. Around 2 a.m., the motor in a laundry machine in his employee bathroom started a fire that destroyed the bathroom and damaged or ruined practically everything in both
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Kids love Chinese food. They're amused by the zodiac. Strengthen their appreciation for Chinese culture by visiting The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Gallery and the University at Buffalo's two ArtGalleries. Before we visited the Albright-Knox, Pink Floyd's was the only wall with which my kids were familiar. After standing in a gallery dominated
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Plastic crack Collectors rarely announce themselves. After all, being a collector requires you to amass ungodly amounts of unpractical stuff. And detailing your unreasonable attachments to earthly surroundings isn't going to get you far in most social settings. [image-1] Sure, certain varieties of the collector are less offensive than others. But they've all got their detractors. If
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City's winter choice: dancing [image-1] There are plenty of ways to raise your body temperature this winter and have some fun doing it (i.e. you don't have to use words like "cardio," "reps," or "ow") That's right, you should be dancing. Many local groups and venues offer dance nights in their genre of choice, often at
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Our inaugural Winter Guide photo contest has been a success. We had great response to our call for photos of winter in the Rochester area. Many of you dug through your collections and sent us snowdrifts and icicles, things buried in snow and things made of snow. (And one guy who looked like
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In this year's guide to the winter season, we've focused on things to do. Much like the government's odd, grammatical anti-obesity campaign ("VERB: It's what you do"), City wants you to get out and get moving. Build an igloo, go to a museum, learn to ski, attend festivals, and absorb as much art, theater, dance,
