At a high school in Uganda, disobedient students sit under a punishment tree. In Taiwan, students can join the gift-wrapping club, which meets after school. In Yemen, high school students can take dentistry classes as part of a vocational program.

Weathermen are not the only ones confused by this year’s unseasonably warm winter weather. Off the Cape and Islands, this winter more than 100 sea turtles, tempted to linger in the balmy waters, have met a cold and sandy end.

“This year I’ve seen more turtle strandings than I’ve ever seen in my 12 years here,” Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary director Suzan Bellincampi said on Thursday.

After more than five years of efforts to restore Island medical care for Vineyard veterans, good news came this week: A new contract for services is expected by the end of February.

Following a meeting between the Cape and Islands legislative delegation and Comcast executives in Boston yesterday, cable television service for Chappaquiddick and other remote areas on the Vineyard inched a little closer to reality.

“They heard from us clearly that it’s very important for underserved communities on the Island to get Internet,” Seth Rolbein, senior advisor to state Sen. Dan Wolf, told the Gazette yesterday afternoon.

After a year in Washington representing the 10th congressional district, Cong. William Keating came to Martha’s Vineyard Monday with a message: Like most Americans, he’s angry. Angry about the dysfunction he sees in Congress, he said, and threats to what he calls core American values, opportunities for education and advancement.

When it comes to athletic opportunities, students at Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School face some tough barriers: too few charter school students to field a team of their own, and a host of logistical issues that largely prevent charter would-be athletes from playing for Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School teams.

The issue resurfaced this week when high school principal Steve Nixon reiterated his previous decision to turn down a request from a charter student to play for the regional high school girls’ ice hockey team.

The Nan Rheault Invitational tournament takes place this weekend at the MV Arena, spotlighting the girls’ hockey teams. Boys’ hockey and boys’ basketball also have home games.

Two teams from the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Hockey League received a late holiday gift last week, as the Squirt 1 and 2 travel teams made their most monumental journey yet. The 9- and 10-year olds played a friendly game at frozen Fenway Park on Jan. 3.

Hello Payton

Holly and Wayne Lawyer of Chilmark announce the birth of a daughter, Payton Sydney Lawyer, born on Dec. 28, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Payton weighed 8 pounds at birth.

The Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living may be closer to finding a permanent home.

The West Tisbury selectmen pledged their support this week for the center’s $400,000 state grant application to build a facility on a piece of land at the airport business park. The State Community Innovation Challenge Grant will be submitted through the town of Edgartown.