ACM President Wendy Hall Appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

TOPIC: topic here in lower-case letters

WENDY HALL, innovative and groundbreaking professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, UK, has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to science and technology." Here's the text of the news release from School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton:

New Years Honours - Dame Wendy Hall

Professor Wendy Hall, CBE, has been appointed DBE in the New Year Honours List for services to science and technology.

One of the world’s leading computer scientists, Wendy Hall is a Professor at the University of Southampton and was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. Her influence on the development of computer science has been fundamental not only in her academic work and the many successful research initiatives in which she has been involved, but also for the large number of prominent roles she has held in the scientific and technological community.

In 2003 Professor Hall was appointed President of the British Computer Society (BCS), the UK’s leading professional body for IT. In 2005 she became the first woman to be elected Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in July 2008 she took up office as President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the first person from outside North America to hold this role in the organization’s 60-year history.

She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, and a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council. In November 2008 she was one of 25 European figures honoured for their contribution to Information, Communication and Technology by the EU. Among the many awards she has won is the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership (2006).

She is known throughout the community for her energy and vision and, in addition to her large number of commitments in areas of policy development, she continues to advance new research directions. In 2006, she was one of the founders of the Web Science Research Initiative, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel Weitzner. They are pioneering the new discipline of Web Science, to develop a better understanding of the architectural principles that led to the Web’s growth and success, and ensure that these support the Web’s future development.

Throughout her career Wendy Hall has been a prominent and vocal advocate of women’s opportunities in science, engineering and technology. In her research and her public life she has sought to ensure that women are equal beneficiaries of technological advance, and her example of achievement and dedication has made her a distinguished and powerful role model for women. ‘I am thrilled to have been honoured in this way,’ said Professor Hall. ‘It is of course exciting for me personally and for my family, but it is also a tribute to all the people I have worked with in my career as a scientist and engineer both at Southampton and in the wider community.’

Professor Dame Wendy Hall took her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Southampton, where she met her husband Peter Chandler. They have been married for nearly 30 years and live in the New Forest.

See coverage of the announcement on BBC Technology, The Guardian, and TechRadar.com

Posted by Joyce Lewis on 31 Dec 2008.

Wendy Hall is also President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), described as "the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society."

RELATED REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Web site at http://www.acm.org/

Lipsett, Anthea (12/31/2008). Visionary computer scientist becomes a dame. guardian.co.uk, accessed Tues 1/6/2008 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/dec/31/new-years-honours-computing

Pioneer of cyberspace honoured. (12/31/2008). BBC online, accessed Tues 1/6/2009 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7806093.stm

Web pioneer honoured by Queen: Professor Wendy Hall becomes a Dame in New Year's Honours. (12/31/2008). techradar.com, accessed Tues 1/6/2008 at http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web-pioneer-honoured-by-queen-497490

Religion: A Force For Self-Control?

TOPICs: religion, evolutionary psychology

Prompted by a recent news release on Science Daily, I had promised myself time to blog about and review McCullough & Willoughby's recent meta-analysis article on Religion and self-regulation, due out in Psychological Bulletin.

As I sat down this evening to organize some thoughts, I was surprised (although in retrospect surely shouldn't have been) to see I'm behind the curve already, with several blogs already responding to the news release and journal article — for example, see: Tim Rees' brief critical response (Improve your self control... with religion?) at the BHA Science Group blog. Since most of the blogs I've seen, however, seem to be responding directly to the news release (or related articles, like John Tierney's of the New York Times) instead of the actual research article, it's clear there's still plenty of opportunity (and need) to look carefully at the research article itself (downloadable in pre-print pdf form from Prof Michael McCullough's University of Miami website.

And that's where I will pick up tomorrow, beginning with McCullough & Willoughby's stimulating introduction and description of half-dozen or so propositions laying out the potential connections between religion and self-regulation.

In the meantime, here are some related video comments from McCullough himself (courtesy of the University of Miami website):

RELATED REFERENCES

McCullough, Michael (2008). Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

See details at Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Revenge-Evolution-Forgiveness-Instinct/dp/078797756X/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product.

McCullough, Michael E. & Willoughby, Brian L. B. (2009). Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: associations, explanations, implications. Psychological Bulletin, in press.

A pre-print pdf of this article is available from the author's web site at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Religion_Research.htm

Rees, Tom (1/1/2009). Improve your self control... with religion? A BHA Science Group Blog entry accessed 1/4/2009 at http://bhascience.blogspot.com/2009/01/improve-your-self-control-with-religion.html?

Religion, Self-control, and Values (1/3/2009). TS-Si News Service, article accessed 1/4/2009 at http://www.ts-si.org/the-discussion/3708-religion-self-control-and-values.html

Religion May Have Evolved Because Of Its Ability To Help People Exercise Self-control (1/1/2009). Accessed 1/1/2009 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081231005355.htm

Tierney, John (12/29/2008). For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It. The New York Times accessed 1/4/2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/science/30tier.html?

Disheartening Censorship

TOPICs: censorship, political correctness

Enfuriating. Political correctness run amok — watch the video below about a university student-employee's brush with his school's political-correctness police, then link over to Ed Brayton's Dispatches From The Culture Wars for stimulating comments and discussion.



We have this snippet from the minutes of the 4/1/2008 Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) meeting:

Agenda Item IV: Updates/Remarks from the Chancellor

Chancellor Bantz gave the following report:

[…]

Affirmative Action: The Chancellor spoke to the recent action by the Affirmative Action Office regarding staff member, Keith Sampson. He stated there was no question there was a mistake in sending the first letter. The second letter sent withdrew the first letter and made clear there was no finding in the case and therefore, nothing placed in the staff member’s file. This is not a matter of litigation. He intended this spring to begin a review of the office procedures. At the end of this month, an external reviewer will look at the office and procedures. He agrees the office needs to be more successful in a number of places. The search continues for the new Director of Equal Opportunity. When the report is received for that office, it will be reviewed by the IFC which will show the number of cases the office reviews each year.

All of which seems reasonable. Later in the same minutes, however, the circumstances are referred to as "the Keith Sampson issue," which unfortunate phrasing suggests a continued institutional mis-apprehension and mis-interpretation of the fiasco entire event.

Moreover, apparently the Affirmative Action Office at IUPUI was reconstituted as the Office of Equal Opportunity (although publicly accessible records are not necessarily clear on this — did the OEO already exist previously?) with director Kim D. Kirkland and now … Assistant Director (!) Marguerite Watkins, who says on her staff directory web page that "My passion includes educating people."

Sadly, a Google-search of the IUPUI website produces only the single page hit for "Keith Sampson" (the IFC minutes quoted above).

RELATED REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Web site at http://www.thefire.org/

Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) Minutes dated April 1, 2008. Accessed Sat 01/03/2008 at http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/minutes/Minutes_IFC_4-1-08.htm

IUPUI: Indiana University - Purdue University, Indiana. Web site at http://www.iupui.edu/

Proposed Resolution for the Review of the Affirmative Action Office, Agenda Item X of the Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) Minutes dated April 1, 2008. Accessed Sat 01/03/2008 at http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/documents/ProposedResolutionAAO2008.htm.

Saha, Abhishek (5/2/2008). Keith Sampson round-up. Accessed Sat 01/03/2009 at http://musefree.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/keith-sampson-round-up/

Watkins, Marguerite. IUPUI Staff Directory Webpage at http://www.iupui.edu/~oeo/directory/watkins.html

Generating Ideas for Research —Post & Discussion on Thus Spake Zuska

TOPIC: research ideas

Check out the stimulating post and discussion at Suzanne Franks' Thus Spake Zuska on the challenges of generating new ideas for research. Thought-provoking and motivating.

And keeping track of ideas … that's a serious challenge as well, requiring (1) some habitual "system," and (2) the regularly available energy to use one's system.

Gay Adoption Ban in Florida: UPDATE?

TOPICs: GLBT, adoption

Some recent articles floating around online implied we might hear/see something in the near future from Florida's State Supreme Court on that state's ban on adoptions by gay couples. But the recent article by Janine Zeitlin and a Law Blog article by Dan Slater appear to just be recycling old news with nothing new to add.

I did find this bit of news, however, on the Martin Gill-related ACLU site:

On December 5, 2008, the ACLU and the children's lawyers filed a request seeking to expedite the appeal by bringing the case directly before the Florida Supreme Court. The request for an expedited appeal was subsequently denied.

An hour of my life lost on various searches has led to no other official information about the continuing court case of Martin Gill and his two adopted sons. (I ended my searches after looking through the Florida Third District Court Of Appeal site . . . if anyone can point me to better/more information, please do! )

Here's a brief youTube video from acluvideos:

RELATED RESOURCES

ACLU website: http://www.aclu.com/

RELATED REFERENCES

A challenge to Florida's ban on adoption by gay parents. ACLU website for miscellaneous information related to the Gill case, including a link to a PodCast featuring Martin Gill. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37875res20081124.html

Slater, Dan (12/29/2008). Same-sex adoption debate rages on in Sunshine State. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog on WJS.com. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/12/29/same-sex-adoption-debate-rages-on-in-sunshine-state/.

Zeitlin, Janine (12/27/2008). Florida high court to rule on same-sex adoption ban: Florida has only ban in U.S. news-press.com. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://www.news-press.com/article/20081227/SS08/812280386/1002/NEWS01.

Festive Medical Myths

TOPIC: medical myths

Do you think that sugar makes kids hyperactive and late-night eating makes people fat?

You're not alone. Those are just two of many medical-related beliefs commonly held by people around the world.

But they're also FALSE, and so are many other commonly-believed health-related assertions, as discussed in the article Festive Medical Myths recently published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), by Rachel C. Vreeman (asst prof of paediatrics) and Aaron E. Carroll (assoc prof of paediatrics), both at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Among the medical myths Vreeman & Carroll address:

• Sugar Causes Hyperactivity in Children? FALSE!
  
  According to Vreeman & Carroll,

  At least 12 double blind randomised controlled trials have examined how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of these studies, not even studies looking specifically at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could detect any differences in behaviour between the children who had sugar and those who did not. [original text contained endnote citations of relevant articles]

  Moreover:

  Scientists have even studied how parents react to the sugar myth. When parents think their children have been given a drink containing sugar (even if it is really sugar-free), they rate their children’s behaviour as more hyperactive. The differences in the children’s behaviour were all in the parents’ minds. [see Hoover & Milch, 1994, referenced below]

• Suicides Increase Over the Holidays? FALSE!
  
  Vreeman & Carroll point out that "While the holidays might, indeed, be a difficult time for some, there is no good scientific evidence to suggest a holiday peak in suicides. [see the Annenburg Public Policy Center references below, as well as Bridges (2004)] … Indeed, people might actually experience increased emotional and social support during holidays. In the US, rates of psychiatric visits decrease before Christmas and increase again afterwards. [see Hillard, Holland, & Ramm, 1981] … Further debunking myths about suicide, people are not more likely to commit suicide during the dark winter months. Around the world, suicides peak in warmer months and are actually lowest in the winter.


• Poinsettias are Toxic/Poisonous? FALSE! Vreeman & Carroll explain:

  In an analysis of 849,575 plant exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, none of the 22,793 cases involving poinsettia resulted in considerable poisoning. No one died from exposure to or ingestion of poinsettia, and most (96%) did not even require medical treatment. In 92 of the cases, children ingested substantial quantities of poinsettias, but none needed medical treatment, and toxicologists concluded that poinsettia exposures and ingestions can be treated without referral to a healthcare facility. Another study, looking at poinsettia ingestion by rats, could not find a toxic amount of poinsettia, even at amounts that would be the equivalent of 500-600 poinsettia leaves or nearly a kilogram of sap. [citations can be found in original text]

Some other beliefs Vreeman & Carroll look at and expose as groundless or outright false involve heat loss from one's head, nocturnal feasting, and curing hangovers.

Makes for entertaining and educational reading, especially when combined with their earlier paper on Medical Myths [see full citation below], in which they discuss commonly-held (but baseless) beliefs involving: drinking 8 glasses of water per day, the sleep-inducing properties of turkey, using only 10% (or some other small fraction) of one's brain, etc.

Perhaps JUST as entertaining, educational, and … sobering (?) are some of the reader responses to the original Vreeman & Carroll article (back in 2007), several of which manage (by example) to illustrate the challenges inherent in communicating scientific findings to the general public …

see e.g. —
"stupid and irresponsible" by david clarke [22 December 2007],
"unbelievable and shameful!" by Mikhail Vinin [23 December 2007],

but also the heartening responses exemplified by responses such as:
"Orders of magnitude?" by Andrew J Rees [24 December 2007]

RELATED REFERENCES

Annenberg Public Policy Center. Media continue to perpetuate myth of winter holiday-suicide link. www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Adolescent_Risk/Suicide/myth_holiday_suicides20011204.PDF.

Annenberg Public Policy Center. Holiday-suicide link: newspapers turn the corner. www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Releases/Release_HolidaySuicide_111907/suicidereleasenov152007final.pdf.

Annenberg Public Policy Center. The Holiday-Suicide Myth: newspapers (and TV shows) return to old ways. Report accessed Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Releases/Release_HolidaySuicide/suiciderelease%202008%20with%20tables.pdf

Bridges, F. S. (2004). Rates of homicide and suicide on major national holidays. Psychol Rep, 94, 723-724.

Hillard, J. R., Holland, J. M., & Ramm, D. (1981). Christmas and psychopathology. Data from a psychiatric emergency room population. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 38, 1377-1381.

Hoover, D. W. & Milich, R. (1994). Effects of sugar ingestion expectancies on mother-child interactions. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 22, 501-15.

Vreeman, R. C. & Carroll, A. E. (2007). Medical myths. BMJ, 335, 1288-1289. Full text accessed Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7633/1288

Vreeman, Rachel C. & Carroll, Aaron E. (2008). Festive medical myths. BMJ (British Medical Journal), 337(7684), doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2769. Full text article accessed online Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769.

UniSudoku: For The Perfect Sudoku Experience

TOPIC: sudoku, logic puzzles

I've intended to post something on this for a long time: for the perfect sudoku puzzle experience on a Mac, try out UniSudoku (just $15 and downloadable at http://www.unisudoku.com/). David Ross is apparently a GUI-programming genius and has produced possibly the most perfect sudoku puzzle software/interface ever.

With a little practice you too can enter the beautiful heightened sudoku flash zone where the world seems to disappear and it's just you racing through an alternative sudoku universe. With a finely-tuned mouse the "flow" experience can be breath-taking and addictive.

Quick screen shot below. Let me know what you think!

KENKEN!If You Like Sudoku &hellip

TOPIC: games

So, I finally clicked on that KENKEN link on NYT's crossword puzzle site and found a great new puzzle. Here's Will Shortz to tell us all about it:



And here's the page to get daily doses at whatever challenge level you crave: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/kenken.html. Seems quite addictive … sudoku with a bit more depth. Try it out and tell me what you think. Seems like a great combination of arithmetic and logic for kids — I'm going to see if my 7-yr-old likes it too. UPDATE [a few minutes later]: OK, this is structurally only superficially like the sudoku, but it is indeed quite addictive!

Relying on SCIENCE & REASON,Judge Rules Against Florida's Ban on Adoptions by Gays

TOPICs: gay rights, adoption

A bit of good news on the civil liberties front: Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman [pictured at right] has ruled as UNCONSTITUTIONAL a strict Florida law blocking gay people from adopting children (see the original USA Today article here):

Miami judge rules against Fla. gay adoption ban

MIAMI (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ruled that a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state's arguments that there is "a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children."

She noted that gay people are allowed to be foster parents in Florida. "There is no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting," she wrote in a 53-page ruling. …

Later in the article, ACLU attorneys are quoted as saying "the case was the first in the nation in which numerous experts in child psychology, social work and other fields testified that there is no science to justify a gay adoption ban." In fact, according to the USA Today article, "Organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association all support permitting same-sex couples to adopt."

The great state of Florida begs to differ, however — and in the form of one Florida Assistant Attorney General Valerie Martin, apparently plans "a swift appeal." Even attorney and same-sex marriage bigot crusader John Stemberger got into the act, being quoted as calling the ruling "classic judicial activism."

Go to the ACLU website and download the PDF doc version of the trial court final decision — makes for great reading: Judge Lederman offers a thorough review of the scientific evidence presented and a firm no-holds-barred dismissal of much of the state's so-called expert testimony. In fact, reading the decision in greater detail has made me feel less dread as the state of Florida "swiftly" files the appeal … the state's case really seems based largely on outdated bigotry and explicitly religion-affiliated dogma. Even if the appeal is eventually heard, the state will have to come up with much, much better support for its stand. And frankly, such support simply doesn't exist. Let's hope Lederman's great example of relying on science and reason inspires courts in any future litigation.

RELATED RESOURCES

ACLU website: http://www.aclu.com/

American Medical Association (AMA) website: http://www.ama-assn.org/

American Psychiatric Association website: http://www.psych.org/

Family Equality Council website: http://www.familyequality.org/index_main.html

Florida Department of Children and Families website: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/ . The adoption program website is: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/adoption/

Stemberger, John: professional website at http://www.orlandolawyer.tv/

RELATED ARTICLES & REFERENCES

A challenge to Florida's ban on adoption by gay parents. ACLU website for miscellaneous information related to the Gill case, including a link to a PodCast featuring Martin Gill. Accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37875res20081124.html

Florida Trial Court Opens Way For Lesbians And Gay Men To Adopt (11/25/2008). ACLU Press Release, accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at web address http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37907prs20081125.html

Hudson, Waymon (10/23/2008). The insanity of John Stemberger: going down the rabbit hole in Florida. Blog commentary accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.bilerico.com/2008/10/the_insanity_of_john_stemberger_going_do.php

Miami judge rules against Fla. gay adoption ban. (11/25/2008). USA Today. Retrieved Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-25-gay-adoption_N.htm.

Trial Court Decision, available as PDF download at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37906lgl20081125.html

Congratulations to Heather Gillman!

TOPIC: free speech

Surfing around looking for recent news/updates on the recent litigation involving Florida's Okeechobee High School and its efforts to suppress student efforts to form a Gay-Straight Alliance club (efforts that eventually failed spectacularly, by the way — see earlier commentary here), and I was reminded of the related events involving Ponce de Leon High School, then-principal David Davis, and Ponce de Leon High School senior Heather Gillman, which then led to this pleasant discovery [for the original, click here]:

Florida High School Student Wins Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award (10/20/2008)

Senior Heather Gillman Honored for Fearlessness In Speaking Out For the Rights of Gay and Lesbian Students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

MIAMI - The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida announces that Heather Gillman has been selected by the Playboy Foundation to receive the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for "her fearlessness in speaking out on behalf of the rights of gay students" at her Ponce de Leon high school, located in Florida's Panhandle.

Gillman sued her school after her high school principal discriminated against her gay and lesbian friends. At trial, the principal testified that he believed clothing or stickers featuring rainbows would make students automatically picture people having sex, and he forbade students from wearing any sort of clothing, stickers, buttons, or symbols to show her support of equal rights for gay people.

"Heather Gillman is a courageous young woman who is most deserving of this very prestigious First Amendment award," said Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida. That her actions have received accolades from the Playboy Foundation demonstrate that her actions go beyond the walls of her rural high school, she has in essence taken a stand for all students in America. She exercised leadership and honesty when she stood up to the school's principal and the school board on behalf of the rights of gay students and we congratulate her."

Tomorrow, Gillman and her Mother Ardena will travel to Washington D.C. to be honored at the October 21 awards ceremony where she will receive her $10,000 award to pursue education.

"I thank the Playboy Foundation for the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment award. With the support of my parents and family I chose to protect the First Amendment rights of my classmates who support equal rights for gay people. Standing up to my school was really hard to do, but I'm so happy that I did, because the First Amendment is a big deal to everyone. I am grateful to the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida for defending me," said Gillman.

The day after being reprimanded for defending a gay student who had been harassed she returned to school wearing symbols of support including the rainbow flag and the initials G P for "gay pride." She was told by her school principal that she was not allowed to express any support for gay rights because it would be "disruptive," and that the symbols were signs of a "secret/illegal organization."

Past recipients of the First Amendment Award include filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Bill Maher, and the late columnist Molly Ivins.

Wow. Way to go, Heather!

The 9/24/2008 press release from the Playboy Foundation notes that the First Amendment Awards were bestowed this year on just three recipients from a record number of 60 nominees,

… ranging from law professors to website creators to student journalists and representing both traditional and digital means of expression. The winners were chosen by a panel of distinguished judges: David M. Rubin, Professor and former Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University; Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at University of Chicago Law School, and Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor of Law at New York Law School.

The Playboy Foundation praised Gillman for her "fearlessness in speaking out on behalf of the rights of gay students."

This puts 17-yr-old high school senior Heather Gillam in quite distinguished company. Former recipients include film-maker and activist Michael Moore and columnist Molly Ivins. This year's recipients also included New-York-based attorney Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), recognized for "his tireless efforts to defend First Amendment rights of students and faculty," and Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, recognized for his courage in speaking out against electronic surveillance of American citizens by our own government.

RELATED REFERENCES

Florida High School Student Wins Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award (10/20/2008): Senior Heather Gillman Honored for Fearlessness In Speaking Out For the Rights of Gay and Lesbian Students. Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/youth/37255prs20081020.html

Hudson, Waymon (10/23/2008). FL Student Heather Gillman Honored for Speaking Out for LGBT Rights. Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://florida.bilerico.com/2008/10/fl_student_heather_gillman_honored_for_s.php

The Playboy Foundation. Web site accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&packet=0007B308-45F5-1C7D-9B578304E50A011A&artTypeID=0007B451-BB99-1C76-8FEA8304E50A010D

Ponce de Leon Senior Wins $10,000 Hugh Hefner Award. (10/16/2008). Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.wtvynews4.com/home/headlines/31126474.html.