Maryland Democrats currently control both of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats and six of eight House seats, “and now they’re looking to make it seven,” writes Thomas Schaller, professor of political science, in his latest Baltimore Sun column. Although the GOP controls the process of drawing Congressional maps across much of the nation, the reverse is true in Maryland.

In the last ten years, the state population has grown 9% to nearly 5.8 million residents. Schaller writes, “That growth was anything but uniform statewide, of course. Continued population shifts away from Baltimore City toward the Baltimore suburbs, Washington suburbs and especially toward the outlying portions of the state are changing the geographic power calculus.” He argues that Democrats undertook a redistricting strategy “in the hope of flipping the 6th District.”

Sign up for the spring course International Field Research. You will learn about field research methods and then spend a week in Switzerland (in June) practicing what you learned and exploring a topic of interest to you. This is open to students in all majors. You can focus on health, ecology, history, or entrepreneurship, depending on your own interests.

To participate, you must apply now and be accepted for the course. Limited to 24 students.

Got Linux? If you've ever wanted to try Linux but didn't know where to start, bring your computer to the Linux Installfest this Friday.

The UMBC Linux Users Group will hold a Linux Install Fest from 10:30am to 4:30pm on Friday 7 October on Main Street in the Commons. Experts from the Linux Users Group will help you install a free copy of Linux on your computer as a multi-boot operating system on your computer. They can help you to ensure that your hardware, including wireless, fingerprint reader, and webcam, is working. At the Fall 2011 installfest, they will be installing Ubuntu version 11.04. If you would like assistance installing a different release or distribution, bring install media.

If you are bringing a laptop, bring the AC adapter or charger. If you are bringing a desktop, then bring power cables, a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, too. If you will be dual-booting with Windows, please defragment your C: drive before attending the installfest. This increases the maximum size of your Linux partition. Finally, back up your data. The LUG will make all attempts to keep your data intact, but there's always the slim chance that something will go wrong.  See the LUG site for more information.