The cutting putdown has been a handy weapon of choice for many successful politicians and pundits.

Winston Churchill, considered one of the most cutting in the business, once famously described British Prime Minister Clement Attlee as

A sheep in sheep’s clothing.

Today, with all the high octane partisan rhetoric flying around Washington, there are more jabs being thrown than ever before.

To help us parse the slaps from the sneers, Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein has put together a useful Consumer Guide to Political Snark.

 As a former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein has heard the battlefield of bluster up close.

He describes the 7 tools of the master mocker from Absurdity to Elitism.

It is worth a read… whether you are trying to fathom our partisan political follies or hoping to further refine your personal snark skills.

Her research focuses on the 19th-century Baltimore Quaker philanthropist Joseph Townsend. She works on-campus as an assistant at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Special Collections and she is a member of the UMBC Catholic Retrievers and of the History Student Council and National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

Is this your first independent research project?
No; this project actually grew out of a research position with the Baltimore Equitable Insurance Company, who were looking in the summer of 2012 for students to do research on their early directors, including Joseph Townsend. This translated into an Independent Study course in the Fall of 2012, and I've been continuing this work through the Spring and look to finish compiling my research during the Summer of 2013.

How did you know this was the project you wanted to do?
I had been researching Townsend along with several other Baltimore businessmen for my work with Baltimore Equitable, but I became particularly interested in Townsend once I began learning about his life. He was a key player in several of Baltimore's major historical events, and was even involved in a few scandals, and yet no one seems to know him. I knew once I had learned so much about his life through my BEI research that I could not leave this fascinating subject alone; I wanted to learn more about how he fit into Baltimore society and how he came to leave the legacy that he did.

How did you find your mentor for your research?
Dr. Kars was instrumental in helping me connect with Baltimore Equitable when they were looking for students to research their early history. She has helped me with my research from the beginning, and was my mentor in Fall 2012 when my research became an Independent Study course. She has helped me so much during my time working with Baltimore Equitable, and so it was only natural that I ask her to be my mentor for this project, which has grown out of that work.

What has been the hardest part about your research?
For my research, it has been difficult just to sift through all the information available to me. Living so close to Baltimore and having access to the Baltimore Equitable Collection and other collections at the Maryland Historical Society, as well as the Arnold Maryland History Collection at the UMBC Special Collections, and many of College Park's libraries, there is certainly no dearth of information for me to find! The trouble is finding the most useful or most interesting pieces of information and fitting them together - making an engaging story out of the mountains of facts.

What else are you involved in on campus?
I am a student assistant at our Library's Special Collections, and am very proud member of the UMBC Catholic Retrievers, as well as of the History Student Council and National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?
Trust me - there is room for it! I was worried going into my research that I wouldn't be able to handle it with a full course load and a job, but it has been really fulfilling, and I would encourage any student considering pursuing a research project not to be intimidated with the thought of extra work. It's well worth it, and is a great way to break out of the routine of classes and create new scholarship in addition to studying others!

Read her abstract here...

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 for the purpose of updating the previous Candidate Recommendation. This module replaces two earlier drafts: CSS3 Backgrounds and CSS3 Border. CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. This draft contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to borders and backgrounds. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2, which builds on CSS level 1. The main extensions compared to level 2 are borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners and boxes with shadows. Comments are welcome through 3 March 2014. Learn more about the Style Activity.

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Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? We all have those days -- but even if it seems like nothing is going right, you still have a chance to uncover a few moments of happiness. No matter what kind of day you're having, here's proof that joy can be found in even just a few seconds.”

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