The music program at (alma mater) Hobart & William Smith Colleges is thriving and rich with concerts. Here is a list of events, all free, for the next two weeks.

The Mark Olivieri Quartet
Tuesday, April 17, 7:30 P.M.
Geneva Room
[Pianist Mark Olivieri will be joined by Greg Wachala (guitar), Dennis Mariano (drums), and Kyle Vock (bass). The group will play a mix of jazz standards and contemporary rock tunes.]

Colleges Chorale Spring Tour Concerts
Robert Cowles, director
Wednesday, April 18, 8:00 P.M. and
Saturday, April 21, 8:00 P.M.
St. John’s Chapel

Colleges Brass Ensemble
Jim Trowbridge, director
Friday, April 20, 8:00 P.M.
St. John’s Chapel

Colleges Community Chorus
Yunn-Shan Ma, director
Tuesday, April 24, 8:00 P.M.
St. John’s Chapel

Colleges Classical Guitar Ensemble
Kenneth Meyer, director
Wednesday April 25, 8:00 P.M.
St. John’s Chapel

Colleges Jazz Ensemble
Bob Barbuto, director
Thursday, April 26, 10:00 P.M.
Geneva Room

Colleges Percussion and Jazz Guitar Ensembles
Anthony Calabrese and Greg Wachala, directors
Sunday, April 29, 3:00 P.M.
Williams 200

Colleges Woodwind and String Ensembles
Mark Olivieri and Andrew Zaplatynsky, directors
Tuesday, May 1, 8:00 P.M.
St. John’s Chapel

I know I’m a softy, but this just makes me sad to be member of the species that came up with Western Civilization, the Industrial Revolution, Manifest Destiny, and Wal-Mart parking lots.

December 14, 2011 | 6:58 pm

1,500 birds die crashing into Utah parking lot, roads

. . . Utah wildlife officials were cleaning up thousands of dead and surviving migratory birds that crashed into a Wal-Mart parking lot, roads and other land after mistaking them for bodies of water.

Thousands of eared grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird, were migrating toward Mexico when they apparently mistook solid areas around Cedar City and St. George as water. Storm clouds above the city lights probably confused the birds, said Lynn Chamberlain, a spokesman for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. . . .

I suppose there were individual birds who realized that it was reflections on blacktop, not water, and flew on to reproduce another day. But we human beings sure make evolution tough. (See my article “Doctors Thwart Darwin”)

Somebody tell me please (since every Adobe / NYTimes/ Apple HELP service seems unable to) how do I “page-down” when reading the NY Times on my iPhone? My desire is NOT to gently scroll; I want to jump down to see the next “screen’s worth”. On a desktop with a mouse and scroll-bars, it’s built in — you click on the bar part below the thumb.

P.S. I see that OS X Lion is making scroll-bars intermittent. . .so will paging just fade into oblivion?