So you think politics are rough in Washington DC? Check out Venesuela.

This week when tempers flared, a bare knuckle bar room brawl broke out among politicians on the assembly floor…watch the carnage here. 

For those of you who haven’t been following the recent trajectory of Venezuelan politics here’s a quick recap:

After the recent death of the controversial strongman Hugo Chavez, a snap election was held to fill his seat.

The April 14 contest pitted his chosen successor and former bus driver, Nicolas Maduro,  against opposition leader (and US favorite) Henrique Capriles. The first count tally gave the victory Maduro by 300,000 votes, or 1.8%.

Most nations including the members of several key countries in South America were quick to recognize the new president, however the US did not (of course). It appeared some parts of the electoral process were regarded as, how do we put this, a tad shady.

Capriles demanded a recount. Initially he was denied but eventually the National Electoral Council (CNE) gave in and did a quick recount of about 46% of the votes. Earlier this week the results came in and narrowed Maduro’s victory to less than 225,00 votes, or 1.49%. 

Capriles’ backers were still not satisfied. After his supporters unfurled a banner in the National Assembly protesting a proposed law demanding them to officially recognize the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, the Statehouse brawl broke out.

Yesterday, International Workers Day,  thousands have taken to the streets in Caracas. Pro- Capriles and pro-Maduro supporters marched and battled. There were deaths and injuries, and a US film maker arrested for treason.  Capriles plans to appeal the election results to Venezuela’s High Court before taking the case to the international community. 

Who knows how much longer this election debacle could carry on for? The case is already subject to large amounts of international attention and Capriles shows no sign of slowing down. But if we’ve learned anything from these events it’s that democracy can be a little crazy. 

Spring Closing (Summer Break)

Residence Halls and Apartments close on Wednesday,  May 22nd @ 8 pm.

Checkout
In order to support an environment conducive to study and to stagger check out times across the week, we ask students to move-out of their rooms within 24 hours after their last final or no later than 8 p.m. on May 22nd. All buildings close and residents must be completely moved out of their rooms or apartments by 8 PM on Wednesday, May 22nd.

Staff will provide students with a closing check list. Most students do a great job of preparing their rooms for check out. Since students won't be able to enter their old residence hall or apartment after closing, please check drawers, closets, cabinets, and wardrobes carefully before leaving. Cleaning crews enter buildings immediately following closing and items left behind are discarded by housekeeping staff.

Remember students should schedule an appointment with the RA at least 48 hours before move out. At this appointment, the RA inspects room damages, takes room key and resident ID. Failure to make and keep a scheduled check out appointment is one of the more expensive check out charges ($50.00). Key and ID charges add up, too. Luckily, these are easy charges to avoid as long as students follow the check out instructions.

Summer Mail Service
Don't forget about your mail! You must have a proper mailing address with the Registrars Office (5-3158)in order to have mail forwarded during the summer. Please be aware of the following Residential Life procedures as you plan to receive your mail during the summer.

1. Spring semester mail service will stop on May 21. All mail will be held at the University's Post Office (ground floor of the University Commons) until June 1.
2. First Class mail received after June 1 will be forwarded through June 30, 2013. Beginning July 1, 2013 all First Class mail will be marked returned to sender. Make sure your summer address is correct at the Registrar's Office so mail is forwarded correctly.
3. Magazines and Newspapers (also known as Second Class mail) will not be forwarded. Please contact those companies directly to forward subscriptions to your summer address.
4. Bulk rate and "junk mail" (also known as Third Class mail) will not be forwarded. Please notify anyone sending you bulk rate mail of your summer address.

Mobile network speeds in urban areas could dramatically increase if consumers connected small, public base stations to their home broadband.

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and some U.S. wireless carriers are investigating an idea that would see small cellular base stations installed in homes to serve passing smartphone users. That approach is believed to be a more efficient way of meeting the rising demand for data and fixing patchy coverage than building more traditional cell-phone towers.

It’s rare that you find a typeface with both legibility and character; the latter often obscures the former.

So you’d be wise to take advantage of our sister site MightyDeal.com’s current offer on the beautiful Solomon font family.

The family includes 2 different styles in 6 weights, 12 fonts in total. The first style is a utilitarian san-serif, easy to use for body text and is somewhat reminiscent of Akzidenz Grotesk. The second style, based on the first, has a subtle deco-style twist: terminals spiral to completion, adding an organic feel to the otherwise minimalist design.

Particular highlights are the uppercase ‘S’ and ‘Q’. Lowercase characters extend the theme with pleasing scrolling completion of lowercase bowls.

The flexibility of the family is tremendous and it’s practical too, with both print and web-ready @font-face options. For a very limited time, it’s available at a huge 97% discount; that’s just $9 for this great font family.

Have you used Solomon for commercial work? What uses can you think of for it? Let us know in the comments.

High-Quality iPhone App Template Bundle – 92% off!

It’s rare that you find a typeface with both legibility and character; the latter often obscures the former.

So you’d be wise to take advantage of our sister site MightyDeal.com’s current offer on the beautiful Solomon font family.

The family includes 2 different styles in 6 weights, 12 fonts in total. The first style is a utilitarian san-serif, easy to use for body text and is somewhat reminiscent of Akzidenz Grotesk. The second style, based on the first, has a subtle deco-style twist: terminals spiral to completion, adding an organic feel to the otherwise minimalist design.

Particular highlights are the uppercase ‘S’ and ‘Q’. Lowercase characters extend the theme with pleasing scrolling completion of lowercase bowls.

The flexibility of the family is tremendous and it’s practical too, with both print and web-ready @font-face options. For a very limited time, it’s available at a huge 97% discount; that’s just $9 for this great font family.

Have you used Solomon for commercial work? What uses can you think of for it? Let us know in the comments.

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In this series of videos, I’ll introduce you to several tools that you can add to your arsenal to become a better, more productive, programmer. We’ll begin with virtualenv, which allows you to create isolated development environments for installing and upgrading software, without needing to worry about overrides or dependency issues.

Hoping to dig into Django? Let me teach you in my Tuts+ Premium course: Django Unchained!