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Scientists from the University of Toronto have discovered a human-made chemical lurking in the atmosphere that's an exceptionally long-lived greenhouse gas. Called perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), it's a record-setting molecule that if left unchecked could have a profound impact on climate.
Perfluorotributylamine, which has been in use by the electrical industry since the mid-2oth century, is the most radiatively efficient chemical known to science — a measure of how effectively a molecule can influence climate. The value of radiative efficiency is multiplied by its atmospheric concentration to determine total climate impact.
The industrial chemical is used in various electrical equipment, such as transistors and capacitors. The researchers aren't sure how widespread its use is today.
According to the new study, which now appears in the journal Geophysical Letters, PFTBA is 7,100 times more powerful at warming the Earth over a 100-year time span than CO2.
Thankfully, current concentrations are low. In the Toronto area, it's at 0.18 parts per trillion. That compares to 400 parts per million for CO2. So despite the finding, PFTBA doesn't trump the burning of fossil fuels as the main driver of climate change.
But that doesn't mean we should be complascent about it. As reported in Mother Jones:
Dr Drew Shindell, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said:
"This is a warning to us that this gas could have a very very large impact on climate change – if there were a lot of it. Since there is not a lot of it now, we don't have to worry about it at present, but we have to make sure it doesn't grow and become a very large contributor to global warming."
He said a number of recent studies had drawn attention to other potential new greenhouse gases which, like PFTBA, pack a lot of warming potential in each molecule but are not very prevalent in the atmosphere.
Such studies were a warning against increasing uses of such compounds without first understanding their impact on climate change, he added.
Again, the trouble with PFTBA is is long-lived nature. It can sit in the atmosphere for about 500 years, and unlike CO2, it has no known natural "sinks" on Earth to absorb it, like forests and oceans.
Read the entire study at Geophysical Research Letters: "Perfluorotributylamine: A novel long-lived greenhouse gas".
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There are three types of Asian rhinos: the greater one-horned rhino, the Javan rhino, and the Sumatran rhino. These rhinos are very different from rhinos that live in Africa.
Greater one-horned and Javan rhinos have only one horn, and they have the bumpy armored skin that most people think of when they think of rhinos. This is very unlike the smoother-skinned African rhinos. The Sumatran rhino has two horns like African rhinos, but the horns are very small.
All of the Asian rhinos are browsers. But they live in different kinds of places and eat different kinds of plants.
Of the Asian rhinos, the greater one-horned is the largest, the Javan is second in size, and the Sumatran is smallest. The Javan looks like a smaller version of the greater one-horned, but the Sumatran doesn’t look like any other rhino. For one thing, it is the only rhino that has hair on its body. Scientists think that the Sumatran may be the most primitive of all living rhinos.
The rhinos of Asia do not live on open plains. Javan and Sumatran rhinos live in wooded areas. They spend most of their time in such dense forests that they are seldom seen. As you might expect, they are leaf-eaters.
The greater one-horned rhino is one of several animals that could have inspired the unicorn myth. In medieval Europe, people were fascinated by the idea of an animal with only one horn. They didn’t know what a rhino looked like, and their imaginations may have painted a unicorn picture.
All rhinos like to go into the water, but the Asian rhinos like it best of all. They are excellent swimmers. Greater one-horned and Sumatran rhinos can swim across wide rivers with no trouble at all.
Greater one-horned rhinos prefer swampy areas, where there is a lot of water to drink and a lot of lush vegetation to eat.
In Asia, tigers sometimes try to catch baby rhinos. But they seldom get the chance to eat one, because rhino mothers put up such a fierce fight. The huge horn and large, sharp teeth of a greater one-horned rhino will make a tiger think twice!
Newborn rhinos are not helpless like human babies. Within an hour after they are born, they are up on their feet and trotting around after their mothers. Greater one-horned rhinos have the biggest babies. They may be 2 feet tall at birth and weigh between 80 and 125 pounds.
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Antitrust Law Part 1
If you’re in the construction industry, Florida’s Antitrust Law is a law you should become familiar with. Competition in the construction is intense. Healthy competition is the key to sustainability in the marketplace. Unfair industry practices can make it difficult for businesses to make a profit and affects consumers purchasing power. This is why antitrust laws were created. In this first article, we’ll introduce you to antitrust laws and the three core laws that make up this law. In Part 2 we’ll inform you of typical antitrust violations and the penalties associated with them.
What are Antitrust Laws?
The Florida Antitrust Act of 1980 was created to regulate unlawful business practices, encourage competition, and protect consumers against illegal business acts in the marketplace. Antitrust laws seek to prevent unlawful practices in mergers and acquisitions, advertising, territory selections, and terms of trade, to name a few. Florida construction lawyers understand the intricacies of federal and state statutory laws that make up antitrust laws. We urge you to seek further legal assistance when approaching these laws to ensure your business doesn’t fall victim to antitrust disputes.
1.The Sherman Act
The Sherman Act forbids “every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade” and “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize.” The act prohibits intentionally eliminating competition through price fixing, dividing the market, or bid rigging. Willful violation of the Sherman Act is a criminal offense and can result in prosecution by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Department of Justice.
2. The Federal Trade Commission Act
Under the FTC, all unjust methods of competition, acts, or practices are prohibited. The FTC investigates violations of antitrust laws, pass regulations, and issue cease-and-desist orders to violators.
3. The Clayton Act
The Clayton Act is an amendment to the Sherman Act addressing illegal acts such as:
- tying and exclusive dealing contracts that prevent buyers from interacting with competition
- mergers and acquisitions that create monopolies or weaken competition
- price discrimination
- interlocking directorates where the same members participate on the boards of competitors.
How the Acts Converge
The FTC and Department of Justice enforce antitrust laws and consult with one another regarding investigations. The antitrust laws are interconnected in that every violation of one act also violates another act. Businesses must alert the FTC prior to pursuing large mergers and acquisitions. In addition to these federal statutes, most states have antitrust laws that are based on federal antitrust laws and are strictly enforced.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.
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Most family photos aren’t worth $80,000.
A portrait belonging to the family of Fulton woman Sylvia Rummel might be, however. The portrait dates to the mid-1800s and shows abolitionists Levi Coffin and Jonathan Cable (Rummel’s ancestor) posing with a large family of escaped slaves en route along the Underground Railroad.
The only other known original print, which is in much rougher shape than the Rummel copy, sold at auction this month for $81,250.
“When I heard the price, at first I couldn’t take it in,” Rummel said. “I was truly gobsmacked. … It just looks awful compared to ours.”
Cowan’s Auctions, which handled the sale, estimated the portrait would sell for $8,000-$12,000. Rummel doesn’t know, and Cowan’s did not disclose where the copy was found.
According to Eric Duncan, director of marketing for Cowan’s Auctions, the photo was consigned by a private collector and sold to an institution.
“We had four absentee bids left on the lot before the auction began, the largest being $20,000; and three bidders bid live on the phone for the lot on the day of the auction driving it to its ultimate sales price of $81,250,” he added.
The Rummel copy has been in her family for generations, though no one realized its potential historical importance until relatively recently. It was part of a photo album in the possession of Rummel’s great-aunt, Joyce Cable Miller, who died in 2011 at age 104. Miller had told family members about Cable and Coffin.
“She was the family historian,” Rummel said.
Rummel began reading up on Coffin and learned he was known for aiding escaped slaves in their flight toward freedom. He was nicknamed the “president of the Underground Railroad.” In 1947, Coffin moved to Cincinnati, Ohio — Cable’s hometown. In fact, Cable is mentioned several times in Coffin’s memoir as helping with the abolitionists’ efforts.
Most notably, in 1853, Cable played a major role in the “Escape of the 28.” A group of 28 escaped slaves from Boone County, Kentucky, were passing along the Underground Railroad on their way to Canada. When they arrived in Ohio in February, Cable knew he’d need help hiding such a large group. He reached out to Coffin and John Hatfield, a local black barber.
Hatfield and Coffin managed to get hold of a pair of coaches, and instructed the fugitives to pose as mourners in a funeral possession. The ploy succeeded; the group entered Cincinnati without rousing suspicion. The fugitives were split up among several local safehouses, including Cable’s. Cable helped provide shoes and clothing for the fugitives as they braved the winter weather up north.
“A lot of them just didn’t have shoes,” Rummel said.
The fugitives successfully made it to Ontario in April 1853.
Due to the necessarily secretive nature of the Underground Railroad’s operations, photo documentation is rare.
“I just thought, well, somebody’s got to be interested in it,” Rummel said.
She sent a copy to the Levi Coffin House Association, an organization that operates the Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City, Indiana. She also reached out to the Indiana State Historical Society.
Interest in the portrait didn’t really take off until she reached out to the Fulton Sun. In February 2011, the Sun published an article about the Coffin/Cable photograph. That article caught the eye of Betty Ann Smiddy, a historian with the College Hill (Ohio) Historical Society.
“It’s been amazing since then,” Rummel said. “She’s such a historian. She digs and digs and digs.”
Smiddy believes the photo documents part of the “Escape of the 28” group, Rummel said.
Another historian, Dr. Robert Wallace of Northern Kentucky University, has a theory about the photographer’s identity. Rummel said he believes the portrait may have been taken by James Presley Ball, a black Cincinnati daguerotypist who had previously photographed Coffin.
Rummel has heard from graduate students, other historians and even a teacher.
“A school teacher from Minnesota called me — he wanted me to talk (via video call) to his students,” Rummel said.
The photo might still hold secrets. Rummel’s family’s copy is still glued in to the photo album page; its back may hold information about the identities of others in the photo, or confirmation of where it was taken.
That copy now resides with a second cousin of hers in Arizona. Rummel said she suspects the cousin will sell it now that its value is clear.
The process of researching the photo has brought Rummel closer to her own past, she said. She grew up in poverty above her father’s tire shop and hasn’t always felt so proud of her family history.
“My past is really important,” she said. “This was a kind of revelation to me. I want people to appreciate their heritage.”
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Species Detail - Parakiefferiella bathophila - Species information displayed is based on all datasets.
Terrestrial Map - 10kmDistribution of the number of records recorded within each 10km grid square (ITM).
Marine Map - 50kmDistribution of the number of records recorded within each 50km grid square (WGS84).
Dactylocladius bathophila, Parakiefferiella cheethami, Spaniotoma cheethami
insect - true fly (Diptera)
31 March (recorded in 2009)
23 September (recorded in 2009)
National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland, Parakiefferiella bathophila, accessed 23 March 2023, <https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Species/89819>
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What is Project Learning Tree
Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for teachers and other educators working with students in pre-K through grade 12. Since its inception in 1976, Project Learning Tree has emerged as one of the country’s leading and most widely-used environmental programs in the U.S. and abroad. PLT is people. It is a network of 3,000 grassroots volunteers and over 100 state coordinators that work in conjunction with teachers, schools, state agencies, foresters, businesses as well as civic organizations, museums, nature centers, and youth groups to provide workshops and in-service programs. Over 500,000 educators have been trained to use PLT materials, and more than 25 million students have been reached in the United States, the Trust Territories, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Brazil and Mexico
PLT uses the forest as a "window" into natural and built environments, helping students gain an awareness and knowledge of the world around them, as well as their place in it. PLT focuses on the total environment: land, air and water and is local, national and global in scope. PLT works in the city, suburbs, and country and both in the classroom and outdoors.
PLT is a source of interdisciplinary instructional activities and provides workshops and in-service training for teachers and other educators. During the workshop, participants are introduced to the PLT activity guide and learn how to use it in their own particular setting.
Project Learning Tree continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence at the elementary, middle and secondary levels. PLT increases students' understanding of our complex environment. PLT is designed to teach students how to think, not what to think about environmental issues.
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Women who are light smokers—light smoking defined as one or more cigarettes per day—are twice as likely to perish of sudden heart death than their non-smoking counterparts, says a study published in the journal of the American Heart Association (December 10).
The study, which surveyed 100,000 women over a 30 year period, found that those who smoked lightly (1-14) or moderately (15-24) showed a nearly 2.5 greater risk of sudden cardiac death, while those who smoked 25 or more cigs per day showed a 3.3-fold increased risk. After quitting 15 to 20 years later, the risk declined.
"Sudden cardiac death is often the first sign of heart disease among women, so lifestyle changes that reduce that risk are particularly important," Dr. Roopinder Sandhu, the study's lead author, said in a statement. "Quitting smoking before heart disease develops is critical."
Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of natural death in the United States.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: email@example.com
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The Marcel Benoist Prize – the “Swiss Nobel Prize” for science – is to get a new look ahead of its centenary. The aim is to draw more attention to Swiss scientific achievement.
The prizeexternal link has been awarded since 1920 for excellence in research. The changes will be made to the Marcel Benoist Foundation to better equip it for the future, according to a government statement on Tuesdayexternal link.
“Our country relies on top performance in research and innovation. With the Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize we want to draw attention to excellence and highlight its importance for our society and our economy,” said Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, whose department is in charge of education and research.
The selection procedure is now in the hands of the Swiss National Science Foundationexternal link (SNSF) to ensure “a broad-based selection procedure according to excellence criteria, and take into account the various scientific disciplines on a rotating basis”. There will be an open nomination procedure in which the research community in Switzerland can make proposals.
Bern will be fixed as the location for the prize-giving ceremony, rather than, as previously, the recipient’s work location. This should continue to raise the profile of the ceremony, the statement continued.
This year sees both locations coincide as the prize goes to environmental researcher Thomas Stocker for his ground-breaking work on establishing the consequences of climate change. The University of Bern professor will receive his award on Wednesday.
The government will still contribute financially to the prize via an existing agreement with the SNSF. In addition, the prize money has been raised to CHF250,000 ($250,000) – up from CHF50,000. This is thanks to the foundation having raised more than CHF10 million privately, with fundraising efforts continuing.
Also planned by 2020 is a Swiss Science Day, the statement said.
The Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize is awarded to scientists based in Switzerland whose work has had a beneficial impact on society. Ten prize winners have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Prize.
Switzerland itself is renowned for its science and innovation prowessexternal link, and the international nature of its research institutions. Earlier this month the renowned journal Nature ran a spotlight featureexternal link calling the country “something of a United Nations of science” which was “never far from the top of international league tables of academic publications per researcher, research impact, innovation of patents per capita”.
“The country’s science is a foundation of the economy – making its growth and protection a major priority for policymakers,” it concluded.
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Charles Wiltens Andree Hayward may not be a name on the tip of today’s literary tongues, but the English-born poet who arrived in Australia in 1894 holds the record for greatest number of poems by a single author on AustLit. Of Hayward’s 2,939 poems, largely published in the Bulletin, eight relate to the Olympic Games.
In 1924, Hayward (using the pseudonym ‘T. the R.’) addressed the issue of funding for Australia’s Olympic team after the team’s manager said: ‘They had as much as they wanted – or, at any rate, as much as was good for them’. Hayward began his poem ‘Ballade of Sufficient Boodle’ with the following stanza:
They went for their lives and laughed at odds,
Won or were walloped, fair and square,
Charlton and Carr and the Murray ‘Cods,’
Eve and Winter and Beaurepaire;
Gathered – or reached for – over there
Laurel and bay for a diadem,
Who was it hinted at pockets bare?
They’d all the dough that was good for them.
Twenty-four years later, during the 1948 London Olympic Games, Hayward (writing as ‘Iford’) cast his mind back to the origins of the Olympics in ‘Then and Now’. Referring to the earliest Games, Hayward concluded:
They ran their miles, their hundreds and their quarters,
Propelled their javelins and hurled their weights,
Heartened no doubt by clamorous exhorters,
Those tough antagonists from Hellene States.
Lastly, they got along without reporters
And none collected money at the gates,
Which, when those old Olympics you recall,
May well appear the strangest of them all.
We can only guess what Hayward would have made of the media and financing arrangements for the Games of the XXXth Olympiad.
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Biographical Statement: Penny Chisholm holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Biology and Civil and Environmental Engineering. She recently served as Director of the MIT Earth System Initiative, and was formerly Director of the MIT/Woods Hole Joint Program in Oceanography and Oceanographic Engineering. She is a key participant of The Darwin Project. The general goal of Professor Chisholm's research is to advance our understanding of microbial ecology and evolution in the oceans. In recent years her lab group has focused attention on a single group, the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, which is the smallest and most abundant microbe in ocean ecosystems — sometimes accounting for half of the total chlorophyll. They investigate this creature, which can convert CO2, sunlight, and inorganic nutrients into a living cell with as few as 1700 genes, as a model system to study marine microbial ecology at all levels of organization — from the genome level to the whole ocean. Prof. Chisholm's approach to this problem involves both laboratory and field studies, as well as modeling, and the use of tools of genomics and systems biology.
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History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/2/Preface
|←List of Illustrations||History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/Volume 2 by
THE history of the important part taken by Iowa statesmen, volunteer soldiers and citizens in the great Civil War of 1861-5, has been told in many excellent publications and the elaborate records of the Adjutant-General’s Office. The dramatic story has been well written by Stuart, Ingersoll and Byers, in addition to the numerous regimental histories. The complete history of the patriotism, devotion to country, sacrifices and heroic endurance of mothers, wives, sisters and near friends of the men who marched to southern battle-fields can never be written.
The names of a few officers who were prominent in the great conflict, of the regiments organized, the battles fought, find a place in history. The names and deeds of more than 75,000 common soldiers, like the nameless graves of wars’ victims, scattered over the hills, valleys and plains of the South, are recorded only in the memory of friends or comrades who survive.
This volume embraces but a brief history of the events connected with that most momentous war of modern times and the more important acts of the higher officials in civil and military affairs. No State in the restored Union is richer in noble men and women whose devotion to duty in camp, hospital and battle-field has never been excelled in any war or country. No State developed more brilliant officers or braver soldiers.
Iowa has always honored the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic, its survivors have filled the highest positions in civil life. Our people have no sympathy with the mercenary spirit which for years, has sought to impeach the integrity of veterans on the pension roll. Itis a record of honor that the people of Iowa will ever regard with grateful hearts and sustain with unswerving fidelity. It is little enough that money can do to compensate, in any degree, the men who offered their lives in defense of their country, and for years endured sacrifices and sufferings that entitle them to the lasting gratitude of their countrymen. There are no more sacred pages in Iowa history than those which record the brilliant deeds of Iowa soldiers.
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Washington, Aug 7 (ANI): A breakthrough technique enabled UCSF researchers to successfully and rapidly purifying one type of embryonic stem cell from a mix of many different types of embryonic stem cells in the culture dish.
The technique, which avoids the need to genetically alter the cells to distinguish them, is a key advance for obtaining the appropriate cells for repairing specific damaged tissues, said the researchers.
The new strategy links two existing technologies for the first time- the ability to identify specific embryonic stem cell types in a culture of different embryonic stem cells, and a way to efficiently sort them at a very high rate, a procedure known as "high throughput" processing.
"Before stem cell therapy can become routine, clinicians will need a plentiful and certain supply of pure stem cells that is capable of forming the particular tissue to be repaired, and is free of contamination by other cell types. But the goal of rapidly and safely harvesting vast numbers of a single stem cell type without altering the cell's genome has been challenging," said Dr. Harold Bernstein.
"Here we were able to purify one specific cell type without resorting to genetically engineering the stem cells themselves, a process that can introduce unwanted traits into the cells," he added.
While embryonic stem cell cultures are made up primarily of cells that have begun to differentiate, they also include cells that remain unspecialized, and thus have the capacity to form tumours, called teratomas.
Scientists have attempted to purify stem cells-whether to eliminate those with the potential to form teratomas or to isolate specific embryonic stem cell types-by using viruses to insert DNA into the stem cells' genes.
This technique allows researchers to distinguish one type of cell from another, but this genetic engineering approach carries the risk of altering the natural makeup of the stem cells.
The UCSF scientists used a different strategy-they identified cells that can form teratomas by searching for a telltale snippet of DNA in the tumour cells' genes.
They chemically tagged these cells without altering them, and the cells were then removed on the basis of this temporary molecular tag.
They reported separating out the desired stem cells from the teratoma-forming cells at a rate of about 25,000 cells per second.
The researchers say they expect the same approach could be used to separate and purify different types of cells as they advance from the stem cell state into neurons, heart cells or any other type of tissue needed for future stem cell therapy.
"Stem cell therapy requires us to select the cells we need, to eliminate teratoma-forming cells from the desired stem cells, and to accomplish this in a high-throughput manner so that we can obtain enough cells. We show how all three goals can be accomplished at once," said Bernstein.
"We envision this as a tool that ultimately could rapidly identify and purify many different kinds of differentiating cells on their way to becoming heart muscle or pancreas or skin cells. This approach could quickly build up a large reservoir of desired cells," he added.
The study has been published online in the journal Stem Cells and Development. (ANI)
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A castrato (Italian, plural: castrati) is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.
- 1 What was a castrato and what did they sound like?
- 2 Did castrati have high speaking voices?
- 3 Did castrati marry?
- 4 What two voice types usually sing the role of a castrato today?
- 5 What is castrato music?
- 6 Is Philippe Jaroussky castrated?
- 7 Do countertenors use falsetto?
- 8 Do eunuchs have everything cut off?
- 9 Can a castrato grow a beard?
- 10 Are there any castrato left?
- 11 What is difference between castrato and falsetto?
What was a castrato and what did they sound like?
The golden age of the castrati One contemporary account says: “He had a powerful, clear, equal and sweet contralto voice, with a perfect intonation and an excellent shake.
Did castrati have high speaking voices?
The true chest voice of a castrato was in the soprano or alto range, just as it is for a woman, and he would have had a high speaking voice, unlike falsetto singers. The best castrati were capable of extraordinarily agile coloratura and ornamentation.
Did castrati marry?
Marriage with castrati was normally forbidden by the Church, but two singers in Germany did acquire special legal dispensation to remain in wedlock. Male opera fans, meanwhile, sought out castrati for their androgynous qualities. She had taken up the disguise to circumvent the ban on female singers in Italy.
What two voice types usually sing the role of a castrato today?
Most castrati favored one range or another: either what we would call mezzo-soprano or alto, and that tends to be true of most countertenors today.
What is castrato music?
Castrato, also called Evirato, male soprano or contralto voice of great range, flexibility, and power, produced as a result of castration before puberty. The castrato voice was introduced in the 16th century, when women were banned from church choirs and the stage.
Is Philippe Jaroussky castrated?
The arias the French opera singer performs on this release were written in the 18th century for a castrato — a boy singer castrated to retain his high singing voice through adulthood. Jaroussky is still intact, as they say. It’s the reason, he says, that he’ll never sound exactly like a real castrato.
Do countertenors use falsetto?
In actual practice, it is generally acknowledged that a majority of countertenors sing with a falsetto vocal production for at least the upper half of this range, although most use some form of “chest voice” (akin to the range of their speaking voice) for the lower notes.
Do eunuchs have everything cut off?
Within Roman society, eunuchs continued to be associated with the east, though there were some in Rome. It is important to note that most eunuchs are castrated simply by removing their testicles, not the entirety of their penis.
Can a castrato grow a beard?
Castrati could, in their younger years, pass for women. They didn’t grow beards and they often were shaped like women, developing the ‘secondary sexual characteristics of women’.
Are there any castrato left?
The last official castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, retired from the Sistine Chapel in 1913, though some historians suspect that Domenico Mancini, who sang in the papal choir until 1959, was a secret castrato.
What is difference between castrato and falsetto?
is that castrato is a male who has been castrated, especially a male whose testicles have been removed before puberty in order to retain his boyish voice while falsetto is (countable or uncountable) the “false” (singing) voice in any human, usually airy and lacking a purity of vowels; created by utilizing the next
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Image is from TheHealthSite.com
World Sickle Cell Day is acknowledged on June 19th each year to bring awareness to this widespread blood disorder. Sickle Cell Disease is the most frequent genetic disease worldwide and is present on four continents. The United Nations estimates that over 500,000 people are born with this condition each year and that 50% of those affected could die before the age of 5.
What is Sickle Cell Disease?
Sickle Cell Disease is a red blood cell disease that is inherited, meaning it is not contagious but a genetic event that people are born with. The affected red blood cells contain mostly hemoglobin S, considered an abnormal type of hemoglobin.
This abnormality causes many of the cells to form an abnormal sickle, or crescent-like, shape. Abnormally shaped blood cells are not able to travel the body as typical round cells, getting stuck or slowing down blood flow to affected areas, and causing further problems.
In addition to affecting blood flow, these crescent-shaped cells are also less hearty than traditional blood cells and are destroyed faster within the body. Patients frequent suffer from anemia, gallstones, and jaundice. Serious illness can be caused by limited blood flow to the lungs and limbs, including stroke and organ damage. Patients are also highly susceptible to bacteria and infection.
How is Sickle Cell Treated?
There is no universal cure for Sickle Cell Disease. Affected patients are divided into three primary groups including Sickle Cell Anemia, Sickle-Hemoglobin C Disease, and Sickle Beta Thalassemia. Treatments for each disease subgroup will vary.
Treatment of symptoms is common, using antibiotics for infection, blood transfusion for blood clots, and medication for pain. Frequent blood transfusion can cause their own problems too, increasing iron in the blood too much, so this is not an ideal solution. Current treatments focus on maintaining patient overall health, and treating symptoms as they arise.
Droxia, the manufacturer name for a drug called hydroxyurea, has been used with some success since FDA approval in 1998, but further research and treatment is still needed.
How Can I find out more about World Sickle Cell Day?
This specific day of awareness was created by a United Nations resolution and features worldwide activities, many of which can be found on the World Sickle Cell Day’s Facebook page.
While different areas may have additional Sickle Cell Awareness events, including Sickle Cell Awareness month in the United States, June 19th represents the united global event. World Sickle Cell Day online provides many resources about this global awareness event including history, the text of the United Nations resolution and involved organizations, and event listing of years past.
Contact these groups to join Sickle Cell awareness and fundraising events in your area.
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Getting Kids to Eat Leafy Greens Essential for Later Heart Health
For most kids, it is a struggle to get them to like most vegetables, but leafy greens can be especially hard to enjoy for young taste buds. But here is why it is important to start developing that habit early.
As we get older, we do develop a taste for many things we hated as kids. For me, bitter foods such as kale and broccoli certainly were at the top of the list of foods I’d rather sneak to the dog than eat at dinner. Over time, I have learned not only to tolerate them, but to actually seek them out when creating a healthy meal for my family.
Plant-based eaters already know how important it is to get in a variety of vegetables and most of us are well aware of how essential it is to incorporate leafy greens into our meals. Green vegetables are nutrient dense – full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants we need for good health. (They are also really low in calories and high in fiber for those of us watching our weight.)
One nutrient in particular stands out – Vitamin K.
You probably already know that vitamin K is essential for proper blood clotting. But it also has other essential roles in the body as well. A recent study has found that not eating enough foods rich in vitamin K during the adolescent years led to an increase in heart enlargement, even at such a young age.
The part of the heart studied is the left ventricle. This chamber can sometimes enlarge, especially in adults with chronic high blood pressure. Hearts that become bigger are less efficient and less effective at pumping blood.
The study, conducted at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, found that among teens aged 14 to 18 years, only 25% had even an adequate intake of vitamin K. This age group needs 75 mcg per day, less than what would be found in a ½ cup of cooked broccoli. (Adults need 90-120 mcg/day, which would easily be provided in a cup of raw spinach.)
So, as you can see, it doesn’t take much to meet daily needs – we just need to find a way to get kids to actually eat vitamin K-rich leafy greens.
As I mentioned earlier, kids seem more picky about the foods that they eat, and for good reason. The average young person has about 10,000 taste buds that are replaced every 2 weeks or so. As you age, the number of working taste buds are significantly reduced - therefore younger people are more sensitive to taste than we are as adults.
So it may be best to get kids to eat their veggies by creating ways to make them more palatable. Cheese sauce over broccoli is not a bad thing if it gets a kid to actually eat something green! Here are some other ways to sneak veggies into a kids (or a veggie-hating adult) diet:
• Add frozen spinach or kale to a smoothie. It will likely change the color, but not the taste.
• Try “zoodles”, or zucchini noodles. Mix it into your regular pasta dish and it gives a nice complement to something you are already eating. Alternative, puree vegetables and mix directly into the spaghetti sauce.
• Mix veggies into casseroles or hide it in a homemade veggie burger.
• Do you like guacamole? It’s already green – so make a kale or spinach puree and stir it in. You can do that to other sauces as well.
• Pureed vegetables also can work well when baked into muffins or breads.
Phylloquinone Intake Is Associated with Cardiac Structure and Function in Adolescents, The Journal of Nutrition, October 1, 2017.
Office of Dietary Supplements (National Institutes of Health)
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Eating two rashers of bacon a day can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 19% and the risk goes up if a person eats more, experts have said.
Eating 50g of processed meat every day – the equivalent to one sausage or two rashers of bacon – increases the risk by 19%, compared to people who do not eat processed meat at all.
For people consuming double this amount of processed meat (100g), the increased risk jumps to 38%, and is 57% for those eating 150g a day. But experts cautioned that the overall risk of pancreatic cancer was relatively low – in the UK, the lifetime risk of developing the disease is one in 77 for men and one in 79 for women.
Nevertheless, the disease is deadly – it is frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage and kills 80% of people in under a year. Only 5% of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.
The latest study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is from researchers at the respected Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. They examined data from 11 studies, including 6,643 cases of pancreatic cancer. They found inconclusive evidence on the risks of eating red meat overall, compared to eating no red meat.
They found a 29% increase in pancreatic cancer risk for men eating 120g per day of red meat but no increased risk among women. This may be because men in the study tended to eat more red meat than women.
They concluded: "Findings from this meta-analysis indicate that processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk.
"Red meat consumption was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in men.
"Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings."
The study adds to understanding about the risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer. Overall, smoking is thought to account for around a third of all cases of the disease, and smokers have a 74% increased risk of developing it compared to non-smokers.
Associate Professor Susanna Larsson, author on the study, said: "Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. So as well as diagnosing it early, it's important to understand what can increase the risk of this disease.
"If diet does affect pancreatic cancer then this could influence public health campaigns to help reduce the number of cases of this disease developing in the first place."
Around 8,090 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK in 2008 – 3% of all cancer cases – and around 7,780 people died from it. Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, said: "The jury is still out as to whether meat is a definite risk factor for pancreatic cancer and more large studies are needed to confirm this. But this new analysis suggests processed meat may be playing a role.
"We do know that, among lifestyle factors, smoking significantly ramps up the risk of pancreatic cancer.
"Stopping smoking is the best way to reduce your chances of developing many types of cancer and other diseases as well."
Dr Rachel Thompson, deputy head of science at World Cancer Research Fund, said: "There is strong evidence that being overweight or obese increases the risk of pancreatic cancer and this study may be an early indication of another factor behind the disease.
"Regardless of this latest research, we have already established a strong link between eating red and processed meat and your chances of developing bowel cancer, which is why WCRF [World Cancer Research Fund] recommends limiting intake of red meat to 500g cooked weight a week and avoiding processed meat altogether."
Alex Ford, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: "Pancreatic Cancer UK is keen to see more research like this that helps improve our understanding about which aspects of diet and lifestyle may have a bearing on the risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
"These findings, if confirmed by further studies, could help inform people on which lifestyle factors could play a role in limiting their chances of developing the disease."
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Diarrhea’s diverse causes
Despite a horse’s apparently sturdy exterior, his various internal body systems are delicate—particularly his gastrointestinal (GI) system. The normal GI tract is populated with various “good” bacteria and protozoa—referred to as a horse’s normal flora—that serve one main purpose: to prevent the growth of other microbes, particularly pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria such as Salmonella spp and Clostridium spp. This is achieved by two mechanisms. One is the physical presence of the “good” microbes that physically block the growth of pathogens, and the second is related to the natural flora’s production of short-chain fatty acids and other metabolites that inhibit the growth of potential pathogens.
“Any factor that alters the normal population of bacteria that inhabit the GI tract can potentially result in a fatal diarrhea,” explained Dr. Rodney Belgrave, an internal medicine clinician at Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center, located in Ringoes, N.J.
While horse owners are likely aware of some of the more common causes of diarrhea, some other factors contributing to the development of diarrhea in horses continue to be overlooked. One of these is proliferative enteropathy, a thickening of the inner lining of the small and large intestines, caused by the bacterium Lawsonia intracellularis. Antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be used judiciously in horses, as these can also cause diarrhea.
Another potential trigger is infection with various common internal parasites. Generally, it is a chronic diarrhea, but acute colitis (inflammation of the colon) can occur, particularly in horses infected with small strongyles (cyathostomes).
While a variety of anthelmintics are available for deworming horses and foals, these drugs are not generally effective against the encysted larvae of small strongyles. (Small strongyles hibernate, lurking encysted in the walls of the intestine.)
“Cyathostomes are known to cause an acute and potentially fatal colitis when very large numbers of the encysted cyathostome larvae emerge from the wall of the large intestine,” explained Dr. Martin Krarup Nielsen, an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. “However, this is extremely rare. We see only a few cases of this every year.”
While the worms are small, they certainly do have a large impact: Death rates due to acute colitis secondary to small strongyles can be as high as 60%.
Interestingly, one of the risk factors for the development of cyathostome-associated diarrhea is the recent administration of an adulticidal anthelmintic.
Nielsen said the best way to avoid cyathostome-associated diarrhea is to develop a parasite control program based on surveillance of parasite burdens and drug efficacy. It has become imperative to screen the efficacy of a farm’s deworming program on a yearly basis by fecal analysis, he says. Horses with high fecal egg counts (for strongyles) can be treated more aggressively than horses with low counts.
Nielsen adds, “It is important that owners realize that diarrhea caused by cyathostome larvae is extremely rare and should not be the main worry on a well-managed farm. The main causes of acute diarrhea are Salmonella and Clostridium infections. Owners need to keep this in perspective.”
A congressional committee recently held a hearing on a bill that proposes severe restrictions on the use of antibiotics in food animals. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 would ban “non-therapeutic” uses of antibiotics that are also used in humans. It is hoped that this would prevent antibiotic resistance and preserve these drugs to treat human infections.
However, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) said there is no scientific proof that this ban would have any effect on resistance in human medicine.
The AVMA said the bill currently affects food animals only and will not impact horses.
“As defined within the text of the legislation, elimination of ‘non-therapeutic’ uses of antimicrobials would disallow disease prevention and potentially control uses,” the association noted. “This type of broad-based ban is contrary to the practice of veterinary medicine.”
Excerpted from The Horse: Your Guide to Equine Health Care. Free weekly newsletters at TheHorse.com.
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Best Treatment For Headaches And Migraines
Common triggers of tension headaches include:
The exact cause of cluster headaches is unknown and there don’t seem to be specific triggers. Triggers often start migraines and tension headaches, but not cluster headaches. Cluster headaches often occur at the same time each day. One headache will last anywhere between 15 minutes to 3 hours. You can have one or many headaches in a single day.
The name suits because they occur in clusters. At least one daily headache occurs for several weeks or months in a row. Usually, these headache groupings last 6 to 12 weeks.
Symptoms of cluster headaches can include:
Other characteristics of cluster headaches:
Other risk factors that can’t be changed include:
You are at higher risk for migraines if your family has a history of migraines, if you have a sleep disorder, or if you have a mood disorder, such as bipolar disorder or depression.
Women are three times more likely to develop migraines than men.
Hormones involved in menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause all come into play. Hormones in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapies can also be triggers.
Women often get migraines just before or during menstruation. These episodes usually subside during pregnancy and after menopause begins.
Sometimes a headache is a sign of a serious medical problem.If you experience a sudden intense headache different from any you’ve experienced before, or have accompanying fever, vomiting, confusion, weakness, stiff neck, seizures, or other symptoms, seek out immediate medical care.
The migraine episode
Phase One — The Prodrome Phase (Preheadache)
The prodrome phase has nothing to do with headache pain or auras.
In the past, you may not have even associated these symptoms with your headache. It occurs immediately preceding or days before the headache phase.
Symptoms of the prodrome phase can include:
– Mood swings
– Food cravings
– Unexplained yawning
– Unusual sensitivity to light, sound, or smell
– A stiff neck
– Difficulty focusing
– Frequent need to urinate
Symptoms of the prodrome phase vary from individual to individual. Some patients find relaxation therapy or meditation to be helpful.
Phase Two — The Aura Phase
An aura is a sensory disturbance. Auras occur before or during the headache phase.
But these sensory disturbances only occur in one-third of migraine episodes. Some people never experience auras at all. Auras can be quite unusual and unnerving. They affect vision, touch, or speech.
One of the most vivid visual disturbances is when zig-zag lines suddenly appear in your vision. It’s harmless but can be very frightening.
Auras can affect both eyes, but not always. Other visual disturbances include:
– Blurred vision
– Flashing lights
– Blind spots that expand over time
Some people feel numbness or tingling in the arms during the aura phase. Disturbing motor auras can impair your ability to speak or even think clearly. You can experience slurred or jumbled speech and cognitive confusion.
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If you see any of your teeth turning black, or any black teeth in your mouth, it is a sure sign that something needs to be done immediately, and you absolutely must go to the dentist. It can be because of three things, tooth decay, a dead tooth or a very virulent sort of plaque, but both absolutely need immediate investigation. Here is a breakdown of what must be done to counteract the negative effects of black teeth.
Certain kinds of plaque are black. If your teeth are “merely” colonised by black plaque and tartar, then you can consider yourself lucky, as this means that you got the better deal. This si still pretty awful, as this kind of plaque is very likely to cause demineralisation of your tooth enamel, and tooth decay pretty soon. It is also usually a result of tar, and is thus carcinogenic, causes periodontitis, and most of all, is very unsightly. Your teeth will appear black and festering, even if they are not, so we highly recommend getting the plaque and tartar removed, as otherwise you risk your social standing.
Black teeth are traditionally associated with tooth decay, and this is an association that stands. Black teeth are usually the result of tooth decay, meaning that the enamel has been so damaged that the bacterial life living in it has turned the walls of the tooth black. This means the tooth is unstable, and most likely will need to be removed, if the teeth are black, although sometimes the roots may keep good for a surprisingly long amount of time.
Black teeth after root canal treatment
Sometimes a tooth that is not decaying can turn black. If a tooth dies and blood gets into the tooth chamber, the blood starts to decompose and colours the tooth black. This only happens to teeth that have no internal structures, so ones that have been root canaled already. These teeth frequently change from pink to black.
Prevention is the best medicine
You should not let your teeth turn black in your mouth. There are so many signs before things get this serious, that it is hard to believe that patients do not notice them beforehand. Don’t be one of those people who let their fear of the dentist control them and let their teeth rot out of their heads, and do not idle away and put it off: even if it does not hurt black teeth are a very serious problem and need attention immediately!
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“WHAT BUSINESS DO YOU HAVE to comment on festivals that belong to other people’s religion? And that too on the very day that it is being celebrated?” People can very well ask. Well, in the times we live in, it would be sheer folly not to do so. There are numerous reasons for this. The festival in question is celebrated by adherents of the world’s largest faith, while we are the second largest – if ticking of census forms is any measure. Christianity is estimated to be the world’s largest religion, and Islam occupies second place. In view of this, the relationships between two of the greatest religions of the world are certainly of importance to the planet.
Secondly, Islam and Christianity have a special relationship with each other. The central figure in Christianity also happens to be one of the mightiest messengers of God in Islam. The Qur’an happens to be the only non Christian religious scripture that contains narratives on the birth, message and finale of Christ, his mother as well as his disciples. In view of this, it would not be wrong to suggest that Christians do not have a monopoly on Christ. We Muslims have equal right to comment on any commemorations in his name.
Therefore, any religious perspective coming from the Muslims on Christmas should not necessarily be seen as a critique of the common Christian version but an expression of their own religious beliefs. It is very important to understand this.
The Nature Of Inter-Religious Expression
People upon hearing views that are different from their own, on themes that they believe in, sometimes feel that their version is being criticised. As all religions do not say one and the same thing and do not promote the same ideas on the divine, and because one encounters diversity in its full form during the course of religious dialogue, therefore, the expression of divergent religious belief from one group is not necessarily a critique of the other, but simply an expression of what one in his or her own tradition believes in.
So when a Muslim perspective on Christmas is being conveyed, it is what it is, i.e. what Muslims believe about Christmas, and nothing more and nothing less. So no need to worry too much on this one!
The Season For The Birth Of Jesus
On to the subject. Why Christmas matters? It matters to majority of Christians, as they believe that it is the day that Christ was born (although there is a minority that doesn’t). And the day for this is the twenty fifth of December every year. According to them, Christ came into the world during a winter in Bethlehem.
Well, on the other hand Muslims allude to both Qur’anic as well as Biblical narratives on the subject, to say that this is not the case. In the Qur’an, we read about the birth of Jesus:
The pains of labor drove her (Mary) to the trunk of a date-palm. She exclaimed: “Oh, if only I had died before this time and was something discarded and forgotten!” A voice called out to her from under her: “Do not grieve. Your Lord has placed a small stream at your feet. Shake the trunk of the palm toward you, and fresh, ripe dates will drop down to you. Eat and drink, and delight your eyes. ‘” 19:23-25
Important indicator about the season for Jesus’ birth is given in the expression, fresh, ripe dates will drop down to you. When do we have the season for fruiting of dates ? Is it the winter of December? Not at all. It is in the heat of summer. So according to the Qur’an, Jesus was born not in winter, but in summer!
Biblical evidence also points to the fact that Jesus was born when the climate was warmer, and not at the peak of december’s wintery season:
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” Luke 2:7-8
The shepherds were in the fields watching their flocks at the time of Jesus’ birth. Late December in the middle of the night is not a comfortable time for the sheep to be out and about in the freezing cold, don’t you think?
In the same chapter, it can be seen that Jesus’ parents travelled to Bethlehem to register in a Roman census:
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed….. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:). To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” Luke 2:1-6
It is very unlikely that they made their Journey during winter when temperatures were below freezing and roads were poor condition.
All this leads to the fact that the time period of Jesus’ birth was not December, but according to the Qur’an it was certainly summer, as this is when dates are ripened, and according to the Bible it was much warmer. So here it is. The Muslim viewpoint. Jesus was not born in December, which means that Christmas day is not Christ’s birthday!
“Listen mate, are you telling me that I got it all wrong?” Our Christian friend asks. “Well, I am not saying you got it wrong. I am merely saying what I believe, just that you know where I’m coming from, so we know each other’s positions and can learn to live together!”. “Does that means you’re not gonna come to my Christmas party?”, he asks again. The Muslim replies, “Now I didn’t say that! I may very well be there, but make sure you have some non alcoholic cola and halaal pie there. And I certainly won’t stand under a mistle toe, when your granny is around!”
Participating In Christmas Festivities
Humour apart, I was once asked by a college manager in England who was organising a Christmas event for her students it is alright to invite Muslim students? This is a very important question. Especially for communities that are mixed, diverse and multifaith.
Whether people of different faiths can join in the celebrations of faiths that are different from their own?
My reply to her was in a yes and a no.
Yes, they can in the sense as observers, to learn about communities, to understand what people believe in and why they do so.
The answer would be a no, if the organisers expect students of other faiths to join and participate in religious ceremonies or to partake in activities that go against their own traditions.
But I would strongly recommend that in faith celebrations people of other faiths and beliefs are invited as well, because not doing so will isolate communities from each other.
When Muslims celebrate Eid, they too should invite people of other faiths to their celebrations, but it would certainly not be expected of their Christian, Hindu, Sikh or Jewish friends to do the ablution and perform the prayer as they do. Non Muslims are simply there to share pleasantries and as observers. Also it should be ensured that food that meets the religious dietary needs of the guests is served. It wouldn’t go down very well if one were to invite Hindus or Buddhists who are vegetarians and serve them halal beef kebabs!
So a very strong yes to the invitation, a yes to careful pre-event preparations, but definitely a no to the religious participation bit.
There we are. It’s Christmas. We say to all who are celebrating it: have a good time. Spend time with your family. Think of the poor, and share with them too.
And remember, go easy on the dessert as it’s a tough job to loose those extra pounds gained during the festivities!
We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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HTML Tutorial Tips
These HTML Tips will help you create effective website and guide
you about what is a must and what should be avoided.
- For learning HTML, simple text editor like notepad works best. Other software may
help you create your webpages quickly, but you will not have the full command over
- If you do not want to use text editor, try our
HTML Code Tester.
- Use lowercase for writing tags. Although Uppercase will work fine in web browsers,
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase in HTML 4 and XHTML.
- Standardize font-color, font-size, background color, etc. and keep it same for all
pages of your website.
- Strandardize the structure of your webpages. This will help you to add and edit
- Bright colors, flashing pictures, moving texts, etc. should be better avoided. These
will distract your visitor from your website
- Keep good quality content in your webpages. If your website does not have good information,
visitors will not return back to your website.
- Keep the font-size of your paragraph at least 12px.
- For viewing the HTML code of any webpage, right click on it and select 'View Source',
'View Page Source' or similar.
- You may add comments anywhere in your HTML code between comment tags (<!-- Comments
-->). The comments between comment tags will not be displayed in webpage.
- Close all tags. Although most browsers will show your webpage correctly even if
you forget closing tags, W3C recommend to close all tags properly. Add forward slash
'/' to the tags which have only start tag (e.g. </br>)
- Avoid using depreciated tags and attributes like <font>, <center> and
- Unless it is absolutely required, I do not recommend to use framesets.
- Although you may use tables for your webpage layout, I recommend using CSS for this
purpose. After completing HTML lessons, must go through CSS tutorial also.
- You may use ready made templates, search for 'free website template'.
- I recommend to use doctype declaration for your webpages
- Spend time on selecting proper title for your webpage. This decides how your webpage
will be index by search engines.
- Must use meta description tag for all your webpages. It increases the visibility
of your website in search result.
- Meta keywords tag is no more important. However, you may like to add one in your
- View your webpage with all popular web browsers as some browsers may display your
- Use images on your webpage carefully. Reduce the size of images with image optimizers.
Putting bigger images will increase the time taken to load your webpage.
- Define width and height for images. In case the image does not load correctly, the
page-layout will remain unchanaged.
- Last but not the least - Keep practicing with HTML.
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FORT SAM HOUSTON
FORT SAM HOUSTON. Fort Sam Houston is a major military installation in the northeast section of San Antonio. As early as 1846 the city was attempting to secure the establishment of a permanent United States military installation. During the Mexican War the United States Army established a quartermaster depot at San Antonio and a training camp at San Pedro Springs. In 1849 San Antonio was named headquarters of the United States Army Eighth Military District with forces at Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción Mission and San Pedro Springs. The Alamo was taken on lease from the Catholic Church and used for storage. The Vance house, a two-story stone house where the Gunter Hotel now stands, was leased for army headquarters. The city made several offers of free land, but all were refused except for a small parcel on Flores Street, which was used for an arsenal.
A formal proposal for a permanent army post was made in 1870, but it met with political opposition in Washington. Secretary of War W. W. Belknap illegally held up funding until 1875. He resigned in 1876 rather than face impeachment, partly over his refusal to fund congressional appropriations for the San Antonio base. On June 7, 1876, construction was finally begun on ninety-three acres of city-donated land known as Government Hill. The contract was with the Edward Braden Construction Company for $83,900 and $15,247 for extras. Construction of the quadrangle included a one-story north wall 624 feet long, east and west walls 499½ feet long, and a two-story south wall with the only entry gate. Work was completed in February 1878.
In 1870 the Texas Department of the United States Army had moved to San Antonio. In 1879 the depot that had been occupying space in the Alamo moved to the new post. Almost immediately expansion began with the construction of officers' quarters, a 10,830-square-foot commander's home later named the Pershing House, and a tent hospital, which was replaced by a permanent post hospital in 1885. Between 1885 and 1891 forty-three acres and sixty buildings were added to what was to become the infantry post. In 1890 the military post at San Antonio was designated Fort Sam Houston, in honor of Gen. Sam Houston, by President Benjamin Harrison. Prominent visitors to the post included Chief Geronimo, who was held there in 1886 before his exile to Florida, and Theodore Roosevelt, who stopped with his men at the base to receive provisions before leaving for Cuba in 1898 (see FIRST UNITED STATES VOLUNTEER CAVALRY).
In 1907 the first chapel was built, with donated funds; it was nicknamed "Gift Chapel." In 1908 a new hospital was built at the artillery post. It was enlarged in 1910 and again in 1915 to provide 1,000 beds. On February 15, 1910, Lt. Benjamin Foulois brought the army's first airplane to Fort Sam Houston. There he learned to fly with instruction through correspondence with the Wright brothers. He instigated the first experimental flights in United States military aviation and gave the first public demonstration flights on March 2. There were four flights that day, and the last one crashed during landing. After the crash, experimental flights and the aviation program were temporarily suspended at the post. Foulois's airplane, United States Army Aeroplane Number One, is in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
By 1912 the military units at Fort Sam Houston included an infantry regiment, a regiment of cavalry, each with a headquarters and band, two batteries of field artillery, and signal and engineer troops. By 1917 the installation had been raised to general depot status and was supplying the Mexican frontier, including Gen. John J. Pershing's pursuit of Francisco (Pancho) Villa. The First Aero Squadron, consisting of nine airplanes and fifteen pilots, was ordered from Fort Sam to Columbus, New Mexico, to support Pershing.
During World War I an addition of 1,280 acres northeast of the fort was called Camp Travis. More than 208,000 soldiers passed through this new addition, where the epidemic of 1918 claimed 11,372 cases of influenza, resulting in 201 deaths. By the early 1920s Camp Travis was deserted and dilapidated. Most of the buildings were torn down by 1928. That year $6 million was appropriated for some 500 permanent buildings at the fort. They were built in Spanish Colonial style and still provided a Moorish atmosphere in the 1990s. By 1933 Fort Sam Houston was supporting the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1937 the largest maneuvers since World War I were held, and many of the tactical principles used during World War II were developed, including the "Triangular Division." The Eighth Corps and the Eighth Service Command were organized at Fort Sam Houston. It was headquarters for the Southern Defense Command. In 1940 the fort was the largest army post in the United States. The post served as a major internment center for prisoners of war during World War II. By 1949 Fort Sam Houston had 1,500 buildings on more than 3,300 acres of land and was headquarters for the Fourth United States Army.
Some of the great military strategists and commanders of World War II came from Fort Sam Houston. Among them were Lt. Gen Walter Krueger, United States Third Army; Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges, who took the Third Army to England; Lt. Gen. William Simpson, United States Fourth Army; and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who became the commander of Allied Forces in Europe and later president of the United States. After the war Gen. Jonathan Wainwright commanded the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston.
In the mid-1930s $3 million was appropriated to build a new base hospital. It opened in 1938 and was named for Gen. Roger Brooke. It had 425 beds, and an additional wing of 200 beds was added soon after. In 1946 the Institute of Surgical Research was moved to Fort Sam from Halloran General Hospital in New York. The institute specialized in trauma surgery. The Burn Center was established in 1949. During the Korean conflict Fort Sam Houston became a major training center with its Medical Field Service School. In 1973 the fort acquired a major military command devoted to medical service, known as the Health Services Command.
In 1991 Fort Sam Houston comprised the headquarters of the Fifth United States Army, the Health Services Command, the Academy of Health Services, Brooke Army Medical Center, the Institute of Surgical Research, the United States Army Dental Laboratory, the 902nd Military Intelligence Group, and the Joint Military Readiness Center, among other organizations. In addition the fort hosts the real estate projects office of the Fort Worth District, United States Army Corps of Engineers, the West Point Admissions Office, and the United States Army Medical Department Museum and Fort Sam Houston Museum. The fort is the site of Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. It also supports all of the National Guard and Army Reserve units in Texas, as well as the Texas high school and college reserve officer training corps units.
Eldon Cagle, Jr., Quadrangle: The History of Fort Sam Houston (Austin: Eakin Press, 1985). Paul Ebers, San Antonio: The Metropolis and Garden Spot of Texas and Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, 1909). Robert W. Frazer, Forts of the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965). Mary Olivia Handy, History of Sam Houston (San Antonio: Naylor, 1951). San Antonio Express, November 26, 1940. Nevin Otto Winter, Texas the Marvellous: The State of Six Flags (Boston: Page, 1916; centennial ed., Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, 1936).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Art Leatherwood, "FORT SAM HOUSTON," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf43), accessed May 23, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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In Greek Mythology, Nike was the Goddess of speed, strength and victory. Also known as Winged Goddess, Nike is most often pictured as having wings. She was the child of Pallas (Titan) and Styx In most beliefs, Styx is the name of the river that separates Planet Earth from the Gates of Hell (Hades). The River Styx was named for Nike’s grandfather Tethys. Nike and her three sisters, Zelus (Zeal/power), Bic(Force) and Kralas (Strength) were brought by Styx to Zeus to assist him in the great Titan battle whose ultimate goal was to gain control of Mount Olympus.
Ancient Greeks worshiped Nike because they believed she could make them never to die and was able to grant to humans strength and the speed needed to be victorious in any task they undertook.
Although Pluto is no longer considered a planet by some planetary experts, in 2013 Styx was recognized as a moon of Pluto.
Nike allied herself with the Chief Greek God Zeus during the great Titanomachy conflict. During this event, she functioned as his chief charioteer. Nike’s reward for doing this was that Zeus promised to keep her near him and to protect her forever. She is often seen seated beside Zeus on Mount Olympus.
In Roman Mythology, Nike was known as Victoria, after Greece fell to the Roman Empire. She appears with Zeus on statues in places such as the Temple of Zeus in Attica and on the west portico of the Temple of Athena in Athens.
When Nike appeared alone, she always had wings and sported a palm branch in her right hand. If she was seen with another god, Nike was always wingless. According to many accounts, Nike is portrayed without wings in Athens so that she could never fly away from their city.
A sculpture dating back to 424 to 203 BC known as “Nike of Samothrace” that was unearthed in 1863 may be seen at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The oldest Nike sculpture known to exist believed to date back to 550 BCE and is located on the Greek island of Delos.
Most sculptures of Nike were made from the core of a piece of wood encased in ivory and gold. One is estimated to be 29 feet tall. Many sculptures of Zeus and/or Athena hold a smaller Nike in their right hand.
Nike’s typical attire in paintings, sculptures and other art media was a flowing gown of gold and wings symbolizing her right to grant victory or to remove it later should the victor not remain worthy. She always carried a palm branch in her right hand as a symbol of peace. Another very important thing she carried was a wreath, always ready to crown a victor in battle or games of challenge. When she is pictured with the Staff of Hermes, this means that one of Nike’s roles was to serve as a messenger from the gods.
Nike being depicted holding wreath reminds us that as the Goddess of Victory she was always ready to encase a winner’s neck and shoulders in a garland of victory. She was also often seen with a cup or pitcher and a bowl from which a victory toast was consumed.
Nike is often seen with a shield upon which it was said that she inscribed the name of each victor of a battle.
How Nike Relates to the Modern World
- Regardless of whether it is 2017 or 250BC, mankind has equated success and triumph with being regarded as #1 in some pursuit whether it be a sport or in our career.
- Since 1928, the Olympics Medal has sported Nike on the obverse side bearing her wreath of victory and the shield upon which the victor’s name is inscribed.
- A portion of the hood ornament on all Rolls-Royce vehicles includes a depiction of Nike.
- Honda motorcycles use a symbol of Nike as part of the company’s logo.
- Nike has been the symbol used since 1945 by America’s Anti Aircraft Missile System.
- Statues of her often include a lyre or kithara used to celebrate a victory with song and dance.
- In keeping with Zeus’s promise to make Nike to live forever as the Goddess of speed, strength and victory, people of all ages have the opportunity to wear Nike shoes. As proof of the power of Nike, many sports stars maintain they owe their success to Nike shoes. Thirty per cent of sports footwear sales belong to Nike. For example, Michael Jordan is said to have made more money from his Nike endorsements than all of its manufacturing labor force.
- Headquartered in Oregon, Nike has been the leader in the world of sports equipment and apparel since 1978 and is estimated to employ 44,000 workers around the globe. The name Nike was chosen by company founders because of her attributes of speed and victory.
- For the swoosh symbol that appears on the side of each Nike shoe, Nike employee Carolyn Davis was paid $35 for the design. Rumor has it she later received an undisclosed amount of stock options as well.
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If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.
Link will appear as Nike: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net - Greek Gods & Goddesses, February 9, 2017
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Not knowing what your natural resources are is a risk for any country, and not all resources can be found on land. 96% of all New Zealand territory is under water, and only 13% of that is mapped. The Ocean Survey 20/20 (OS 20/20) programme is a whole of Government initiative, which aims to provide New Zealand with better knowledge of its ocean territory, including our exclusive economic zone, Continental Shelf and the Ross Sea Region.
SilverStripe Ltd were contracted by NIWA to build a web-portal to help everyone be able to access the data that’s being gathered. The web portal allows end users to get full access to a vast array of information stored in distributed databases. This information is presented in an easy to understand way, based primarily on a powerful mapping application that puts data into a geographical context.
From there, users can filter out the type of information they're looking for, learn more about the processes involved in gathering the different types of data or access extremely high resolution images of the sea floor (and whatever treasures it might contain!).
The web interface is not only intuitive, it's also built to allow later enhancement so that future projects (which the portal already supports) can add in additional elements which may be needed. Data is presented using layers on maps that can be individually enabled or disabled, allowing the viewer to define the context themselves, eliminating or enabling datasets at will.
The data isn't just a couple of lists. There are a whopping four terabytes of data involved because datasets include:
- bacterial biomass and activity
- benthic and attached algae
- meiofauna, macro-fauna and epifauna
- benthic and demersal fish rocky reef assemblages
- sediment accumulation rates (coring, forensics, sources and analysis)
- physical oceanography data (tidal and wind driven changes in sea level, salinity measures to determine the timing of freshwater inputs, variability of Bay of Island currents)
- water quality data (eg chlorophyll a, salinity, oxygen, metals, pollutants, suspended sediment, etc)
- opportunistic data (wild life such as seabirds, cetaceans, cartilaginous (e.g. white sharks), breeding colonies, marine mammal sighting or aggregation areas, biogenic reefs etc)
- 20,000 seabed and specimen photographs.
There were a number of other challenges for us in building the site beyond just the sheer size of the data. Content includes images, geospatial station data, PDFs, and zip files. The integration of HD video is possible. The map has multiple layers, and to complicate matters even further, some datasets crosses the dateline.
The web mapping client within the portal was developed specifically for the portal, integrating OpenLayers with the SilverStripe CMS as a web mapping module, and will be available as a standard module. What's particularly exciting about the mapping is that you can view it at nearly any size - the map is not constrained by anything other than the user's browser; it can be extremely large if the user desires it - something most mapping applications completely fail at. Atlas, an image server to deliver high quality photography and videos and ESRI ArcServer, licenced to NIWA, are the two proprietary applications used. The portal uses other open source solutions to provide storage and web-service capabilities, supporting Open-Geospatial Consortium standards. Most of the Open Source components are supported by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.
Alongside with the mapping component, NIWA and SilverStripe Ltd have developed an catalogue service, enabling the website user to search for the raw data, reports or download datasets directly. It provides access to data, reports, maps, photographs & presentations thus providing both data as well as interpretations and information from experts explaining the data. The portal also enables website users to stream the data into other applications via the OGC web-services which are discoverable via the catalogue.
Ocean Survey 20/20 is a finalist in the government category of the New Zealand Open Source Awards. We're really thrilled to have been involved in such groundbreaking work, and we look forward to what is yet to be discovered lurking under the water.
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Historic Horseback Ride Commemorating Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 Departs on June 1
On June 1, a 1,391-mile journey across seven states begins for eight riders who will set out from Fort Reno, Oklahoma to remember the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878.
After Custer was defeated at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the United States government removed the Northern Cheyenne from their traditional homelands in Montana to a reservation in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. What came to be known as their “exodus” was the “bloody but futile attempt to return to their homeland in Montana,” says the description of In Dull Knife’s Wake: The True Story of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878 by Vernon R. Maddux and Albert Glenn Maddux.
The journey was set in motion by Margaret Behan of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and Cheyenne Elders Council, who will join the riders at locations along the way.
“My prayer is to bring spirit back to my people. So much has been lost,” Behan said in a release. “We need to bring our Cheyenne identity and pride back to the young people, teach them the traditional ceremonies and language.”
That trek may be a dangerous one according to Jesus Garza, the 21-year-old Texas A&M University-Kingsville junior history and political science major who created the map the riders will follow. He said the ride will cut through tornado alley during peak season, but as the expedition’s chief navigator and historian he will is prepared and has plotted the course on paper maps as well as using GPS technology.
Garza became involved with the ride after organizer Juan Villareal, Texas Lipan Apache, came to speak with his historic methods and research class. Villareal had never ridden a horse before the idea for this ride came up. He has been training with Suzi Landoplhi from Red Horse Nation, a Native American Horse program of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue to prepare for the ride. Lifesavers is supplying all the horses for the ride.
At sacred sites along the way, Earth skill educators will share wisdom of caring for the planet through storytelling, land stewardship and wilderness survival training for families. There will be hands-on trainings and teachings of traditional skills like fire making, shelter building, animal tracking, and flint knapping.
Garza is honored to be a part of the ride and ceremonies. “I’m even more grateful that I’m in a leadership position for this ride, that I’ll be able to see sites and ceremonies,” Garza told ICTMN. “The fact that I get [to join] in… is nothing short of amazing.”
He’s also hoping the ride itself will bring attention to the history of Native Americans, something he is now learning about himself.
“I’m very proud to be providing some of the foundation for this ride,” Garza said in a release. “My hope is that the ride itself will help to increase people’s knowledge of what this group of Native Americans suffered.”
“The Cheyennes’ flight,” write James Leiker and Ramon Powers in The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory, “had left white and Indian bones alike scattered along its route from Oklahoma to Montana.”
A film crew will be documenting the journey with Native filmmaker Chris Eyre acting as key advisor.
To follow the ride, visit GrandmothersHorses.com.
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A child is a 'child in need of services' if, before the child becomes age 18, the child's physical or mental health is seriously endangered due to injury by the act or omission of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian.
Evidence that the illegal manufacture of a drug or controlled substance is occurring on property where a child resides creates a rebuttable presumption that the child's physical or mental health is seriously endangered.
Neglect: Citation: Ann. Code §§ 31-34-1-1; 31-34-1-9; 31-34-1-10; 31-34-1-11
A child is a 'child in need of services' if, before the child becomes age 18:
- The child's physical or mental condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision.
- The child is born with fetal alcohol syndrome, or any amount, including a trace amount, of a controlled substance or a legend drug in the child's body.
- The child has an injury, abnormal physical or psychological development, or is at a substantial risk of a life-threatening condition that arises or is substantially aggravated because the child's mother used alcohol, a controlled substance, or a legend drug during pregnancy.
The term 'child in need of services' includes a child with a disability who is deprived of nutrition that is necessary to sustain life, or is deprived of medical or surgical intervention that is necessary to remedy or ameliorate a life-threatening medical condition if the nutritional, medical, or surgical intervention is generally provided to similarly situated children with or without disabilities.
Sexual Abuse/Exploitation: Citation: Ann. Code §§ 31-34-1-3; 31-34-1-4; 31-34-1-5
A child is a 'child in need of services' if, before the child becomes age 18, the child is the victim, lives in the same household as another child who was the victim, or lives in the same household as the adult who was convicted of a sex offense, as defined in the criminal statutes, pertaining to:
- Criminal deviate conduct
- Child molesting
- Child exploitation or possession of child pornography
- Child seduction
- Sexual misconduct with a minor
- Indecent exposure
A child is a child in need of services if, before the child becomes age 18, the child's parent, guardian, or custodian allows the child:
- To participate in an obscene performance
- To commit a sex offense prohibited by criminal statute
Emotional Abuse: Citation: Ann. Code § 31-34-1-2
A child is a 'child in need of services' if the child's mental health is seriously endangered by an act or omission of the child's parent, guardian, or custodian.
Abandonment: Citation: Ann. Code § 31-9-2-0.5
'Abandoned infant' means:
- A child who is younger than 12 months old and whose parent, guardian, or custodian has knowingly or intentionally left the child in an environment that endangers the child's life or health or in a hospital or medical facility and has no reasonable plan to assume the care, custody, and control of the child
- A child who is or appears to be no more than 45 days old and whose parent has knowingly and intentionally left the child with an emergency medical services provider and did not express an intent to return for the child
Standards for Reporting: Citation: Ann. Code § 31-33-5-1
A report is required when an individual has reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect.
Persons Responsible for the Child: Citation: Ann. Code §§ 31-9-2-0.5; 31-34-1-1 through 31-34-1-5
Responsible persons include the child's parent, guardian, or custodian.
Exceptions: Citation: Ann. Code §§ 31-34-1-12; 31-34-1-14; 31-34-1-15
A child is not a child in need of services if:
- The presence of a controlled substance was a result of a valid medical prescription.
- A parent fails to provide specific medical treatment for a child because of legitimate and genuine religious beliefs. This presumption does not do any of the following:
- Prevent a court from ordering medical services when the health of the child requires it
- Apply to situations in which the child's life or health is in serious danger
This chapter does not limit:
- The right of the parent to use reasonable corporal punishment to discipline the child
- The lawful practice or teaching of religious beliefs
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Drug allergies can be defined as a group of symptoms caused by an allergic reaction to a drug.
Adverse reactions to drugs are actually quite common. Just about every single drug can cause an adverse reaction. The person’s immune system’s response that causes an allergic reaction most closely resembles the response that causes hay fever. These reactions range from irritating or mild, such as nausea and vomiting to life-threatening anaphylaxis.
In most people, a severe allergic reaction will occur within only seconds or minutes after exposure to the allergen. However, there are a few reactions that can occur after several hours. This could happen if the allergen causes a reaction after it has been ingested. And in some extremely rare cases, reactions develop after 24 hours.
Penicillin and related antibiotics the most common drug allergy causes. Some of the other allergy-causing drugs include, sulfa drugs, anticonvulsants, insulin preparations and iodinated (drugs containing iodine) X-ray contrast dyes, which can cause allergy-like anaphylactoid reactions.
Most medicinal side effects are due to something other than an allergic reaction. For instance, aspirin can trigger asthma or cause non-allergic hives. Some drug reactions are idiosyncratic, meaning that the reaction is an unusual and unpredictable effect of the medication. Often a person will mistake an uncomfortable, but not serious, side effect of a medicine with a true drug allergy, which can be life threatening.
Symptoms of drug allergies include, anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, hives (type of skin rash), itching of the skin or eyes, other types of skin rashes, swelling of the lips, tongue, or face and wheezing.
Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that affects a person’s entire body. This is caused by the person’s immune system becoming sensitized to an allergen like bee sting venom to which he or she was previously exposed. When exposed to this substance again, he or she might experience an allergic reaction. This reaction is sudden, severe, and in many cases life-threatening.
Treatments of drug allergies attempt to relieve symptoms and prevent a severe reaction. Common treatments include antihistamines for relief of mild symptoms like rash, hives, and itching; bronchodilators like albuterol to reduce moderate wheezing or cough, corticosteroids applied to the skin, given by mouth, or given intravenously and epinephrine.
In order to make sure that the offending medication is avoided in the future, a person should alert all of their health care providers, including dentists and hospital personnel, about drug allergies.
While most drug allergies will respond favorably to treatment, there are some cases that can cause life-threatening anaphylaxis, severe asthma or even death.
There is no method of preventing the development of a drug allergy. A person with a known drug allergy should simply avoid the using the medication. Also, a person with a drug allergy might be told to avoid similar medicines. For example, it is recommended that a person who happens to be allergic to penicillin should also avoid amoxicillin or ampicillin.
In some people’s case, his or her family doctor might approve the use of a drug that causes an allergy if he or she is pre-treated with corticosteroids, like prednisone, and antihistamines, like diphenhydramine. Under no circumstances should a person try this without a doctor’s supervision.
While it’s important to know what to do if a person suffers a drug allergy, it’s just as important to know what not to do. Do not make the assumption that any allergy shots the person has been given will provide complete protection. If he or she is having trouble breathing, do not place a pillow under his or her head because this can lead to blockage of the airways. And, if the sufferer is having trouble breathing, do not give him or her anything by mouth.
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KARACHI: A United Nations expert on Monday expressed concern over increasing risks to privacy emanating from state surveillance and lack of digital security, including Pakistan’s “vague criminal prohibitions” on encryption.
In a report prepared for the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council — that began on Monday and will end on Sept 28 — the special rapporteur wrote that many governments, including in Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran and Turkey, were neglecting or ignoring their duty to protect online encryption that helped ensure freedom of expression and privacy.
The report highlighted that the right to privacy was a fundamental human right that was recognised in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in other international and regional instruments.
Pakistan among nations unable to protect online encryption that helps ensure freedom of expression and privacy
However, it noted that many governments had adopted laws or proposed legislation that increased their surveillance powers, often in ways that fell short of applicable international human rights standards.
The report that addressed some of the pressing challenges that the right to privacy faced globally in the digital age, observed that many states had adopted criminal laws banning the use and dissemination of encryption technologies. In Pakistan, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca) established “vague criminal prohibitions” on the supply of computer software and the programming of computer systems, which could be broadly interpreted to crack down on the use of encryption tools and networks that provide anonymity (such as Tor and VPNs).
“A state’s obligations to respect and ensure the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to privacy include the responsibility to protect encryption,” the report said.
Earlier in 2015, the UN had criticised the vagueness of Peca’s provisions that could have a chilling effect on media activities in Pakistan, and would pose a serious threat to the ability of journalists to work freely, especially investigative journalists, whose work precisely consists of accessing information they are not authorised to access. These provisions could also seriously deter whistleblowers who, by definition, reveal information of general interest by transmitting data they are not authorised to access, copy or transmit, it had said.
Encryption and anonymity tools are widely used around the world, including by human rights defenders, civil society, journalists, whistleblowers and political dissidents facing persecution and harassment. The UN report warned that weakening them jeopardised the privacy of all users and exposes them to unlawful interferences not only by states, but also by non-state actors, including criminal networks.
The government of Pakistan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on June 23, 2010. The Covenant, in particular Article 19, protects everyone from interferences with the maintaining of opinions and protects the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers and through any media. Any restriction, the UN pointed out, on the right to freedom of expression should be narrowly defined and clearly provided by law and be necessary and proportionate to achieve one or more of the legitimate objectives of protecting the rights or reputations of others, national security, public order, or public health and morals, as provided in Article 19(3) of the Covenant.
Surveillance for security
The report regretted that many states continued to engage in secret mass surveillance and communications interception, collecting, storing and analysing the data of all users relating to a broad range of means of communication (for example, emails, telephone and video calls, text messages and websites visited). While some states claimed that such indiscriminate mass surveillance is necessary to protect national security, this practice was “not permissible under international human rights law, as an individualised necessity and proportionality analysis would not be possible in the context of such measures,” it noted.
Quoting the European Court of Human Rights, the report stated: “A system of secret surveillance set up to protect national security may undermine or even destroy democracy under the cloak of defending it.”
In its report submitted to the HCR session, the UN stressed that there was an urgent need for states to fully implement their obligations to respect the right to privacy, as well as their duty to protect the right to privacy, including vis-à-vis corporate abuses. To accomplish that objective, it added, states needed to establish an appropriate legal and policy framework, including adequate privacy protection legislation and regulation.
It called for establishing independent authorities with powers to monitor state and private sector data privacy practices, investigate abuses, receive complaints from individuals and organisations, and issue fines and other effective penalties for unlawful processing of personal data by private and public bodies. It recommended that states pass laws spelling out permissible restrictions on encryption and anonymity.
The UN also asked the countries to ensure, through appropriate legislation and other means that any interference with the right to privacy including by communications surveillance and intelligence-sharing, complies with international human rights law, including the principles of legality, legitimate aim, necessity and proportionality, regardless of the nationality or location of the individuals affected, and clarify that authorisation of surveillance measures requires reasonable suspicion that a particular individual has committed or is committing a criminal offence or is engaged in acts amounting to a specific threat to national security.
Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2018
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.
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Reviewing Your Goal Worksheet
Now let’s look at how the goal example was put together.
1 – General review
Go through each of the SMART characteristics and see if they fit with the example plan.
1) Is it Specific? – Yes, the goal relates to a specific race.
2) Is it Measurable? – Yes, and have selected the measurement system and a range of
3) Is it Achievable? – Yes, I have run marathons before and have a reasonable personal best time, and am confident I can achieve it again.
4) Is it Relevant? – Yes, it motivates me to go out and train regularly, keeping me fit and providing relaxation.
5) Is it Time-bound? – Yes, the actual race date is included and each task has been scheduled to fit into the run-up to the date.
2 - Self assessment of tasks and link to personal development plan
I have assessed each task to establish if I am high or low skill or will, and will use this information to create a supporting personal development plan to close any gaps in ability (skill) or enthusiasm (will). Let’s look at each task and self
assessment in turn.
Write up training schedule. I previously made up my own training plans and recognise I am not an expert in this field, therefore I have low skill. I am hugely motivated to get this plan right, therefore I have high will. To address the skills gap, I will get help from a local athletics team to plan my training.
Follow training schedule. I have followed training plans before and understand their importance, therefore I am high skill. I am nervous about running on my own, especially in the winter, so I am low will. Need to do something that will increase my confidence.
Get diet advice and re-stock kitchen cupboards with appropriate food. I have never thought about my diet and running before and don’t know where to start, therefore am low skill. I love all kinds of food and suspect I may have to stop eating some of my favourites, therefore am low will.
Run half marathon. I have run this race before, therefore high skill. I know it’s a great course and my race time will be a good indication of how well my training is going, so am high will. No worries!
Enrol in the London marathon. I have done this before and know I am good at organising myself so am high skill and will. I have included the task as a reminder, as not enrolling would mean I couldn’t run and the whole goal would be affected. In business terms this would be called a “milestone”.
Run the London marathon. I have not assessed this task, as it is the main goal.
Next, Personal Development Requirements
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Disability Services - The Law
Federal law states that . . .
"No otherwise qualified person with a disability in the United States ... shall, solely by reason of ... disability, be denied the benefits of, be excluded from participation in, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
A person with a disability includes . . .
"any person who (1) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities, (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment." A "qualified person with a disability" is defined as one . . .
"who meets the academic and technical standards requisite to admission or participation in the educational program or activity."
Federal law protects the rights of qualified individuals who have disabilities generally
- Blindness/visual impairment
- Cerebral palsy
- Deafness/hearing impairment
- Epilepsy or seizure disorder
- Orthopedic/mobility impairment
- Cardiac disease
- Specific learning disability
- Speech and language disorder
- Multiple sclerosis
- Spinal cord injury
- Muscular dystrophy
- Tourettes syndrome
- Psychiatric disability
- Traumatic brain injury
Under the provisions of Federal law . . .
Adams State University may not discriminate in the recruitment, admission, educational process, or treatment of students. Students who have self-identified, provided satisfactory documentation of disability, and requested reasonable accommodations are entitled to receive reasonable accommodations, appropriate academic adjustments, or auxiliary aids and services that enable them to participate in and benefit from all educational programs and activities.
Federal law specifies that colleges and universities may not . . .
limit the number of students with disabilities admitted, make preadmission inquiries as to whether or not an applicant has a disability, use admission tests or criteria that inadequately measure the academic qualifications of qualified students with disabilities because required accommodations were not made, exclude a qualified student with a disability from any course of study, or establish rules and policies that may adversely affect qualified students with disabilities.
Modifications and accommodations for students with disabilities generally include, but ar
- removal of architectural barriers
- provision of services such as readers for students with blindness, visual impairments, or learning disabilities; scribes for students with orthopedic impairments; and note-takers for students with hearing impairments, learning disabilities, or orthopedic impairments
- provision of modifications, substitutions, or waivers of courses in major fields of study or degree requirements on a case-by-case basis (such an accommodation need not be made if the institution can demonstrate that the changes requested would substantially alter essential elements of the course or program)
- allowing extra time to complete exams
- permitting exams to be individually proctored, read orally, dictated, or typed
- use of alternative forms of tests for students to demonstrate course mastery
- permitting the use of computer software programs or other assistive technological devices to assist in test taking and study skills
(Note: Federal law referred to in this handbook includes Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.)
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Johann Christoph Erhard
Among the most famous German landscape painters of Romanticism, Johann Christoph Erhard occupies one of the front ranks. To Johann Christoph Erhard landscapes, which he depicted with great eagerness and in eloquent manner, were a means of expression of deep inner sensation, entirely in line with Romanticism and detached from the classicist ideal. Johann Christoph Erhard found particular inspiration on his numerous journeys , among others, to various parts of Austria and Italy, which he captured in picturesque impressions. Johann Christoph Erhard's landscape painting captivates the observer with its clear arrangement, its emotional atmosphere, the delicate palette and its soft and fine stroke of the brush. The same can be said about his filigree drawings and graphic works. Ill with depression, the artist, who was born in Nuremberg in 1795, tragically ended his life in Rome in 1822. Works by the gifted painter and graphic artist are sought-after collector's items today.
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1 O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you!
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast.
I will praise you with songs of joy. NLT
For years of his life, David was on the run. The ancient textual note associated with this psalm was written during a time when he was running for his life in the desert. Look at verse 1. Imagine being thirsty in a land that is parched. What would your body feel like? What would your mind be thinking?
With this in mind, why does David use this analogy for how he feels about God in this moment of his life?
Read verse 2. How does a prior experience with God give you a deepened thirst for God?
How is it possible for God's "unfailing love" to be better than life?
Look at David's words in verse 4. Give some examples of how a person could honor God as long as they live.
David was thirsty for God in verse 1. What analogy does he use in verse 5… and what does he mean by it?
::::: APPLICATION CHALLENGE :::::
At the end of verse 5 David responds to his soul's satisfaction with songs of praise. Take a moment to praise God (either through songs or another way that is on your heart).
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SOLVOMET/SIM2 KU Leuven and VITO researchers developed a process to selectively recover copper from dilute ammoniacal leachates of microwave-roasted Cu-Zn-Pb sulphidic tailings of the Iberian Pyrite Belt. The work, which was published in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, was performed in the framework of the H2020 MSCA-ETN SULTAN project for the remediation and reprocessing of sulphidic mining waste sites.
Sulphidic copper–lead–zinc tailings can pose a significant environmental threat, ranging from generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) to dam failures. On the other hand, they can also be considered as low-grade ore resources for zinc and copper provided that novel economically-feasible metal extraction and metal recovery techniques are developed.
Due to the low metal concentrations in these resources, the leaching will generate dilute leachates from which metal recovery is a challenge. Ion flotation is a foam separation technique capable of recovering metal ions from dilute aqueous leachates. Under dilute conditions it can be considered as an alternative hydrometallurgical technique to recover metals.
Nevertheless, the majority of the studies on the recovery of metal values by ion flotation were caried out under simulated conditions. Unlike literature studies, solutions generated from hydrometallurgical processes have complex chemical compositions and contain several metal ions. In most cases, one is interested to selectively separate one metal ion over the others.
Using real leachates instead of synthetic ones
The present work makes a step forward, towards the application of such separation technique from real leachates. The leachates were generated after ammoniacal leaching of microwave-roasted Cu-Zn-Pb sulphidic tailings of the Neves-Corvo mine area (Portugal), in the so-called Iberian Pyrite Belt.
The sulphidic tailings were first roasted at 550 °C for 60 min in the microwave-assisted oven. At this temperature, pyrite was oxidised to hematite and the metal sulphide phases were converted to more soluble metal sulfates.
The microwave-roasted material was then leached with a mixed solution of ammonia and ammonium carbonate. Under optimised conditions 86% of Zn and 75% copper were extracted from the microwave-roasted material.
From the generated pregnant leach solution, it was possible to selectively separate 85% of copper to the foam phase by ion flotation, with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, as colloidal copper(II) tetraamine dodecyl sulfate.
The zinc that remained in the solution after ion flotation was recovered by precipitation (95%) as basic zinc carbonate. The results were found to be very promising for recovering copper from dilute aqueous ammoniacal leachates of low-grade sulphidic copper–lead–zinc tailings by ion flotation.
Full reference paper
Xanthopoulos, P., Kalebić, D., Kamariah, N. et al. Recovery of Copper from Ammoniacal Leachates by Ion Flotation. J. Sustain. Metall. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-021-00363-1.
This project has received funding from the European Union's EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation H2020 under Grant Agreement No 812580.
Want to know more about re-mining extractive waste?
Watch the video of the on-line zoom event “Can the recycling of mining waste become a new business?” (H2020 NEMO project, April 27, 2021). Cases from historical and present day mining sites were presented by Anders Sand (Boliden) and Dirk Musser (CRONIMET), while Christian Wimmer (DG ENV) presented the views of the European Commission with respect to remining of extractive waste.
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Latin Name: Salix alba
Encapsulated White Willow bark, carefully peeled in small sections from wild trees, the tree is not harmed in the process.
Usage: White Willow was the basis of the synthesis of aspirin. It contains salicin and related compounds. It has been used for more than 2,00 years to relieve aches and pains of all sorts.*
Recommended Daily Dosage: Take one to two capsules three times daily with water as needed or prepared as a tea.
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A neuroscientist investigates how the architecture of the human brain shapes our understanding of the nature of time.
"Time" is the most common noun in the English language yet philosophers and scientists don’t agree about what time actually is or how to define it. Perhaps this is because the brain tells, represents and perceives time in multiple ways.
Dean Buonomano investigates the relationship between the brain and time, looking at what time is, why it seems to speed up or slow down and whether our sense that time flows is an illusion. Buonomano presents his theory of how the brain tells time, and illuminates such concepts as free will, consciousness, space-time and relativity from the perspective of a neuroscientist. Drawing on physics, evolutionary biology and philosophy, he reveals that the brain’s ultimate purpose may be to predict the future–and thus that your brain is a time machine.
“Our experience of time is not the same as time itself; the former is largely our creation. French philosopher Henri Bergson once publicly debated this point with Einstein – and lost. If only he’d had recourse to this book, written by one of the first neuroscientists to ask how the human brain encodes time. Take that, Albert!” — Science books we’re keen to read in 2017, New Scientist
“... a readable exploration of how the architecture of the human brain shapes our understanding of the nature of time.” — The Bookseller
“Apparently elastic and possibly illusory, time is a puzzle to physicists and neuroscientists alike. Dean Buonomano straddles the divide, invoking cutting-edge theory and research as he wrestles with the often glaring mismatch between physical and 'felt' time. The result is immensely engaging...” — Nature
“Buonomano’s ambition is inspiring and his writing is rich, combining a readable style with illustrative examples... it [Your Brain is a Time Machine] hits the ambitious target of being both thorough and accessible.” — Chemistry World
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|Additional Physical Format:||Print version:
Cullinane, John J., 1942-
Maintaining and repairing old and historic buildings
Hoboken : Wiley, 2012
|Material Type:||Document, Internet resource|
|Document Type:||Internet Resource, Computer File|
|All Authors / Contributors:||
John J Cullinane
|ISBN:||9781118332788 1118332784 9781118330036 111833003X 9781118334461 1118334469 6613977446 9786613977441 047076757X 9780470767573 9781283664943 1283664941|
|Description:||1 online resource.|
|Contents:||Introduction v Chapter 1 The Approach to Historic Buildings, Building Systems, and Historic Materials 1 What Is Historic and Why 2 Building Systems 5 Windows and Doors 24 Lead-Based Paint 34 Materials 36 Chapter 2 What You Need to Know 45 Is the Building Historic, and Why? 45 Functional Aesthetic 60 What Is a Contributing Element of the Building, and Why Is It important to Know? 63 What Are the Treatment Approaches? 83 How to Develop and Undertake a Treatment Plan 84 Developing the Plan 86 Treatment Principles 87 How to Identify Sources of Failure and Corrective Actions 91 How to Maintain Old and Historic Buildings 100 Chapter 3 T he Standards, Guidelines, and Other Guidance Material 111 Preservation 115 Restoration 115 Reconstruction 117 Rehabilitation 120 Applying the Standards for Rehabilitation 120 Guidelines for the Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring, and Reconstructing Historic Buildings 196 Preservation Briefs 199 "How To" 202 Chapter 4 Meeting Treatment Goals While Conserving Energy 209 Measuring the Energy Efficiency of Historic Properties 212 "Embodied Energy" 212 Preservation and Reuse of Old Buildings Maximizes Energy Conservation 213 Integrating Sustainable Design into Treatment Decisions 214 How to Conserve Energy in a Historic Building 216 Chapter 5 Making Old and Historic Buildings Accessible 219 Compliance with the 2010 Standards 220 Disability = Handicap 223 Fire Safety in an Old Building 237 2010 Standards Checklist 239 Index 245|
The book includes background, rationale for treatment, annotated standards and guidelines for the treatment of historic buildings, building systems, and materials. It includes information on energy conservation, and meeting LEED as well as ADA requirements.
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A General History of Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s history as an organized and independent polity dates back to about 100 BC with a kingdom at Axum in the Northern Regional state (Killil) of Tigray.
But the Axumite kingdom as a state, emerged at about the beginning of the Christian era, i.e.,4th A.D and flourished during the succeeding six or seven centuries. It then underwent prolonged decline from the eighth to the twelfth century A.D. Axum’s period of greatest power lasted from the 4th through the 6th centuries .Its core area lay in the highlands of what’s today southern Eritrea, Tigray, Lasta (in the present-day Wallo), and Angot (also in Wallo); its major centers were at Axum and Adulis. Earlier centers, such as Yeha, also contributed to its growth. At the kingdom's height, its rulers over the Red sea coast from Sawak in present day Sudan, in the North to Berbera in the present-day Somalia and inland as far as the Nile valley in modern Sudan. On the Arabian side of the Red sea, the Axumite rulers at times controlled the Coast and much of the interior of modern Yemen. During the sixth and seventh centuries, the Axumite state lost its possessions in South West Arabia and much of its Red sea coast line and gradually shrank to its core area, with the political center of the state shifting farther and farther Southward.
The rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula had a significant impact on Axum kingdom during the seventh and eighth centuries .By the time of the Prophet Mohammed’s death (A.D.632), the Arabian Peninsula, and thus the entire opposite shore of the Red sea, had come under the influence of the new religion. The steady advance of the faith of Mohammed through the next century resulted in Islamic conquest of all of the former Sassanian Empire and most of the former Byzantine domination.
During the spread of Islam by conquest, the Islamic State's relations with Axum were not hostile at first. According to Islamic tradition, some members of Mohammed’s family and some of his early converts had taken refuge in Axum during the troubled years presiding the Prophet’s rise to power, and Axum was exempted from the Jihad, or Holy war, as a result. The Arabs also considered the Axumite state to be on a par with the Islamic State, the Byzantine Empire, and China of the world’s greatest kingdoms. Commerce between Axum and at least some Ports on the Red sea continued, albeit on an increasingly reduced scale.
When Axum collapsed in the eighth century, power shifted to South. As early as the mid-seventh century, the old capital at Axum had been abandoned; thereafter, it served only as a religious center and as a place of coronation for a succession of kings who traced their lineage to Axum. By then, Axumite cultural, political, and religious influence had been established South of Tigray in Agew districts such as Lasta,Wag, Angot and eventually, Amhara.
This southward expansion continued over the following several centuries. The favored technique for expansion involved the establishment of military colonies, which served as core centers from which Axumite culture, Semitic language, and Christianity spread to the surrounding Agew population. By the tenth century, a post-Axumite Christian kingdom had emerged which controlled the central Northern highlands from modern Eritrea to Shewa and the coast from old Adulis to Zeila in present-day Somalia, territory considerably larger than the Axumites had governed.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Shewa region became the scene of renewed Christian expansion, carried out by Semities people-the Amhara.
About 1137 A.D. a new Dynasty came to power in the Christian highlands known as the Zagwe Dynasty and its center was based in the Agew district of Lasta. It developed naturally out of the long cultural and political contact between Cushitic and Semitic-speaking peoples in the Northern highlands. Staunch Christians ,the Zagwe ,devoted themselves to the construction of new churches and monasteries. These were often modeled after Christian religious edifices in the Holy Land, a locale the Zagwe and their subjects held in special esteem. The Zagwe kings were responsible, among other things, for the great churches carved into the rock in and around their capital at Adefa. During the time Adefa became known as Lalibela, the name of the Zagwe king to whose reign the Adefa churches’ construction had been attributed. Despite the Zagwe's championing of Christianity and their artistic achievements notwithstanding, there was discontent among the populace in what is now Eritrea and Tigray and among the Amhara, an increasingly powerful people who inhabited a region called Amhara to the south of the Zagwe center at Adefa. About 1270 A.D., an Amhara noble, Yekuno Amlak, drove out the last Zagwe ruler and proclaimed himself king.
The new dynasty that Yekuno Amlak founded came to be known as the "Solomonic" Dynasty because its scions claimed descent not only from Axum but also from king Solomon of ancient Israel. According to traditions that were eventually molded into a national epic, lineage of Axumite kings originated with the offspring of an alleged union between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Consequently, the notion arose that royal legitimacy derived from descent in a line of Solomonic kings. The Zagwes were denied to have any share in that heritage and viewed as usurpers. Yekuno Amlak’s accession, thus, came to be seen as the legitimate “restoration” of the Solomonic line.
Beginning in the thirteenth century, one of the chief problems confronting the Christian kingdom, then ruled by the Amhara, was the threat of Muslim encirclement. By that time, a variety of people East and South of the highlands had embraced Islam, and some had established powerful sultanates (or Sheikhdoms) .One of these was the Sultanate of Ifat in the North Eastern Shewa foot hills, and another was centered in the Islamic city of Harar farther East. In the lowlands along the Red Sea were two other important Muslim peoples - the Afar and the Somali.
Although the Christian state was unable to impose its rule over the Muslim states to the East, it was strong enough to resist the Muslims incursions throughout the fourteenth and most of the fifteenth century.
By the second decade of the sixteenth century, however, a young soldier in the Adali army, Ahmed Ibin Ibrhim Al Ghazi ,had begun to acquire a strong following by virtue of his military successes and in time became the de facto leader of Adal. Concurrently, he acquired the states of a religious leader. Ahmed, who came to be called Gran (the “left handed“) by his Christian enemies, rallied the ethnically diverse Muslims, including many Afar and Somali, in a Jihad intended to break Christian power.
It was not until 1543 that Emperor Galawdewos (reigned 1540-49), joined by a small number of Portuguese soldiers requested earlier by Lebena Dengel, defeated the Muslim forces and killed Gran. The death of charismatic Gran destroyed the unity of the Muslim forces that had been created by their leader’s successes, skill, and reputation as a warrior and religious figure. Christian armies slowly pushed Muslims back and regained control of the highlands.
With the request of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, Portugal gave an assistance for the defeat of the Muslims .The first Portuguese forces responded to a request for aid in 1541, although by that time the Portuguese were concerned primarily with strengthening their hegemony over the Indian Ocean trade routes and with converting the Ethiopians to Roman Catholicism. Nevertheless, joining the forces of the Christian kingdom, the Portuguese succeeded eventually in helping to defeat and kill Gran.
Efforts to induce the Ethiopians to reject their Monophysite beliefs and accept Rome’s supremacy continued for nearly a century and engendered bitterness as Pro-and Anti-Catholic parties maneuvered for control of the state . At last the expulsion of the Jesuits and all Roman Catholic missionaries followed. This religious controversy contributed to the isolation that followed for the next 200 years.
Emperor Fasiladas kept out the disruptive influences of the foreign Christians, dealt with sporadic Muslim incursions, and in general sought to reassert central authority and to reinvigorate the Solomonic monarchy and the Orthodox church .He established his camp at Gonder - a locale that gradually developed into a permanent capital and which became the cultural and political center of Ethiopia during the Gonder period.
After the 16th century of Fasiladas’s time most of Ethiopia’s history was dominated by regional nobility. But through this nobility sentiment, a certain king who was devoted to the unity of the country, rose. Tewodros II’s origin was in the era of the princess, but his ambitions were not those of the regional nobility. After controlling Shewa, he faced constant rebellions in other provinces, despite the fact that he could reign in a relatively peaceful atmosphere from 1861 to 1863. After 1863 internal and external oppositions were enhanced against Emperor Tewodros and Emperor Yohannes succeeded him in 1868.
By the late 18th century; although powerless Emperors and the Ethiopian Orthodox (Coptic) church provided an element of continuity, real power was in the hands of provincial Nobles from the highlands of Tigry, Oromo and Amhara, who fought for control of the throne .In 1880’s Yohannes IV from Tigray region successfully fended off Egyptians, Italians and Dervishes; his successor, Menilik of shoa, reunited and expanded the empire to the East, South and West of Shoa, taking over largely Oromo inhabited areas rich in coffee, gold, ivory and slaves. Menilik‘s successes coincides with the arrival of the European colonial powers. He defeated the Italians at the battle of Adowa in 1896.
Menilik (who died in 1913) presided over the first stages of Ethiopian’s modernization Haile Selassie (Emperor during1930-74) ;turned Ethiopia into a centralized autocracy. The process was interrupted by the Italian invasion and conquest of 1935-41. But after Ethiopia’s liberation Emperor Haile Selassie continued a largely successful policy of centralization, playing off the United Kingdom, which came close to occupying Ethiopia after 1941 (it only withdrew from the Ogaden in 1948 and reserved Haud area in 1954), against the USA. In 1952, after protracted discussion, Eritrea, a UN-mandated territory after the war, was federated with Ethiopia. Haile Silassie immediately begun dismantling its institutions, including the press ,trade unions, political parties and the elected parliament ,an anathema to his own highly centralized structure of control. In 1962 Eritrea became a province of Ethiopia, igniting the Eritrean struggle for independence. The struggle originally led by the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF), suported mainly by Muslim pastoralists from low land areas, by the early 1970’s was joined by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), which was more representative of the Tigrian highland agriculturists.
Emperor Haile Sellasie supplied the trappings of a more modern state, including, in 1955, a constitution with an elected, though powerless, parliament. He made no real effort to change land policy, or adjust the hierarchies of administrative power. During his reign Ethiopia remained essentially feudal, with small Amhara-dominated modern sectors in the bureaucracy and in industry. This provided the impetus for opposition among non-Amhara nationalities, in Tigrai region in 1943, among Oromos and Somalies in Bale in 1963-70 , and after 1961 in Eritrea. Emperor Haile Sellasie himself preferred to concentrate on international affairs. During his era Addis Ababa became the head quarters of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. His main ally was the USA. Ethiopia, the main recipient of US aid in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, provided the USA with a major communications base at Kagnew, in Eritrea.
Long term weaknesses of the regime included a growing agrarian crisis, inequitable distribution of land, and lack of development. More immediately, the costs of the revolt in Eritrea after 1961, drought and famine in Wallo in 1972-74 (in which 200,000 people died), and, by 1973, Haile Sellasie ‘s own near senility and his failure to designate an heir, fuelled the grievances of the military, students and workers. A series of army mutinies, started in January 1974, accompanied paralleled civilian strikes.Attempts at reform by a new Prime Minister made little progress, and from June a coordinating committee of the armed forces begun to arrest leading officials. Haile Sellasie was deposed in September, and was murdered the following year. His remains were finally reburied in Trinity Cathedral in November 2001, with the presence of many of the exiled royal family.The monarchy was formally abolished in March 1975.
Under the influence of left-wing politicians, the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), which replaced the Imperial regime, begun to see itself as the vanguard of Ethiopian revolution. In December 1974, Ethiopia was declared a Socialist state, and a program of revolutionary reforms called Ethiopia Tikdem ('Ethiopia First’) was initiated.
In April 1976, the Derg set forth its goals in greater detail in the program for the National Democratic Revolution (PNDR). As announced by the leaders, these objectives included progress toward Socialism under the leadership of workers, peasants, the petite bourgeoisie, and all anti-feudal and anti-imperialist forces. The Derg’s ultimate aim was the creation of a one party system.
Soon after taking power, the Derg promoted Ye- Itiopia Hibrtesebeawinet (Ethiopian Socialism). The concept was embodied in slogans such as “self-reliance,” “the dignity of labor” and “the supremacy of the common good.” These slogans were devised to combat the wide spread disdain of mutual labor and a deeply rooted concern with status.
Although the government took a radical approach to land reform, it exercised some caution with respect to the industrial and commercial sectors .In January and February 1975, the Derg nationalized all Banks and Insurance firms and seized control of practically every important company in the country.
In February 1977, Mengistu declared himself as Derg’s chairman and set about consolidating his power. However, several internal and external challenges prevented Mengistu from doing this. Various insurgent groups posed the most serious threat to the Derg. In February 1977, a terrorist attack known as the White Terror had been initiated against Derg members and their supporters. This violence provoked a government's counteraction-the Red Terror. During the Red Terror, which lasted until late 1978, government security forces systematically hunted down and killed suspected members and supporters of opposition groups. Mengistu and the Derg eventually won the struggle.
Despite strengthening its power, Derg couldn’t stand the activities of insurgencies which appeared in various parts of the country ,the most important of which were in Eritrea and Tigray. The Derg decided to impose a military settlement on the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Attempts to invade rebel-held Eritrea failed repeatedly, and the insurgent groups controlled most of the country. Despite large commitments of arms and training from Communist countries, the Derg failed to suppress the opposition.
Derg was able to intimidate and create disarray within the civilian opposition by detaining many leaders of labor, teacher and student groups because of their agitation against the military rule. The Derg’s hand against the opposition was strengthened resulting to an escalated struggle for freedom and democracy. As a result of these enhanced struggles, the regime was overthrown after 17 years of dictatorial rule, by the coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front ( EPRDF )on May 1991.
Federal Democratic Republic Of Ethiopia (FDRE)
Flag and Emblem
The Ethiopian flag comprises three colors. .In the center there is a national coat of arms .The three colors are set horizontally in equal dimension with Green at the top, Yellow in the middle , and Red at the bottom .
- The national coat of arms is a blue circle with depiction ;
Straight and equal lines of yellow come from all direction and join each other .
A star formed by the straight and equal lines.
Yellow rays radiating from the joints of the straight & equal
The national coat of arms on the flag reflects the desire of the nations , nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia ,as well as of its religious communities to live together in unity and equality.
Location and Boundary
Ethiopia is strategically located in the Horn of Africa, bordered by the Sudan on the west, Somalia and Djibouti on the East, Eritrea on the North and Kenya on the South. Its proximity to the Middle East and Europe, together with its easy access to the major ports of the region, enhances its international trade.
Ethiopia covers an area of 1.14 million square Kilometers (944,000 square miles)
Population (As of 2004 CSA)
Total: 71 million
Rular population: 84.87%
Urban population: 15.13%
Although Ethiopia lies within 15 degrees North of the Equator, owing to the moderating influence of high altitude, the country enjoys moderate temperature and pleasant climate, with average temperature rarely exceeding 20oc (68oF). The sparsely populated lowlands typically have sub–tropical and tropical climates. At approximately 850mm (34inches), the average annual rainfall for the whole country is considered to be moderate by global standards. In most of the high lands, rainfall occurs in two distinct seasons: the “small rains” during February and March and the “big rains” from June to September.
Entry Point by Air
Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa; upgraded airports include those at Dire Dawa ,Bahar Dar ,Gondar ,Lalibela , Axum, Arba Minch ,and Makale.
Entry Point by Rail
Dewele on the Dijibouti border. Arrivals undergo full customs and immigration checks. The rail way, with day and night trains, runs from Addis Ababa to Dijibouti via Nazaret ,Awash Station ,and Dire Dawa.
Entry Point by Road
Moyale (from Kenya), Humera And Metema (from Sudan), and Dewele (from Dijibouti) and Humera,Rama and Bure (from Eritera). All have full customs and immigration checks.
Telephone, telex, fax, internet and air mail services connect Addis Ababa to all parts of the world. Services are available at the General Post Office and its many branches ,as well as in the main hotels. International direct dialing is available from all major centers in the country.
The local currency is the Ethiopian birr, made up of 100 cents. Notes are issued in denominations of 1,5,10,50, and 100 birr. There are five different coins: 1,5,10,25, and 50 cents.
There is no limit to the amount of foreign currency imported into Ethiopia, but it must be declared on arrival, using a currency declaration form. Foreign currency may be changed only at authorized banks and hotels .The currency declaration form will be required by Customs on departure. Visitors may change back any excess birr into foreign currency at the air port before departure; but you must ,in addition to the currency declaration form ,bring with you all receipts for exchange transactions.
Drivers require a valid International Driving License, which can be obtained by exchanging your local license at the Transport and Communications office on Haile Gebre Sillasie Road in Addis Ababa. Visitors can recover their original driving licenses a day or so prior to departure. Those with their own vehicles will require a permit from the Ministry of Transport and Communication. Driving is on the right hand side.
Ethiopia uses 220 Volts and 50Hz. It is best to bring your own round, two-prong adapter and transformer if necessary.
All visitors (including infants) are required to posses a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate. Vaccination against cholera is also required for any person who has visited or been in transit through a cholera-infected area within six days prior to arrival to Ethiopia. Malaria is endemic through out the country. Visitors should begin taking a recommended chloroquine-based prophylactic two weeks before their arrival and continue taking them for six weeks after their departure. In addition, medication for chloroquine –resistant malaria is a wise precaution.
Medical facilities are limited and of generally poor standard. Existing facilities are sorely over taxed. Tourists and non-citizen residents should go to private hospitals and clinics. Contact your Embassy for referral to recommended doctor. Air rescue services are available, and you might want to make arrangements with one before your trip.
Addis Ababa, the largest city that is the seat of the federal government of Ethiopia, lies in the central plateau at an altitude of 2400 meters. Its average temperature is 160c .
Addis Ababa was founded in 1887. It is a host to the African Unity (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Several other international organizations have their head quarters and branch offices in the Capital. Addis Ababa is also the center of commerce and industry.
Ethiopia’s other important centers of trade and industries are; Awassa, Dire Dawa, Gonder, Dessie, Nazareth, Jimma, Harrar, Bahir Dar, Mekele, Debre Markos and Nekemte. All these towns are connected to Addis Ababa by asphalt and gravel roads and most of them have good infrastructure facilities, such as first class hotels and airports.
Calendar and time
Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar which divides the year in 12 months of 30 days each, with the remaining five (or six days in a leap year) constituting the short 13th month of "pagume". In Greek pagume means “Additional“. The Ethiopian New Year commences on the 10th or 11th of September every year.
Ethiopia is in the GMT +3time zone. Business hours vary according to the nature of the business. Normally government office and most other office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 P.m. to 5:30 p.m. from Monday through Thursday. Working hours on Friday are 8:30Am to 11:30Am and 1:30pm to 5:30pm.
Banks are open from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday through Thursday. Working hours on Friday are 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3: 00 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 to 11a.m.
Socio Economic Context
Features of the Ethiopian Economy : An overview
Ethiopia is a country, which is richly endowed with huge manpower, arable land and natural resources. However, much of its potential is not yet exploited. To start with, out of the sixty percent of its landmass which is known to have the potential for agricultural development, only 15 percent is said to have been developed. Although its contribution to the national economy is very limited, the country's livestock wealth is the 2nd largest in Africa. The mineral resources' potential is also high, much of it yet to be exploited. A few of them are gold, platinum, marble, tantalite, copper, potash, soda-ash, zinc, nickel, iron, and natural gas.
The Ethiopian economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for about 50 percent of the GDP. An estimated 85% of the population gains its livelihood directly or indirectly from agricultural production. Coffee exports accounts for more than 65 percent of foreign exchange earnings, while processed and semi-processed hides and skins are the second important foreign exchange earners.
The level of development of the manufacturing sector in Ethiopia is at its infancy; and the country's industrial base is very low. The share of intermediate and capital goods industry is very insignificant. The industrial sector is heavily dependent on imports of semi-processed goods, raw materials, spare -parts and fuel. In addition to imported inputs, the factories depend upon backward and subsistence agriculture for their raw material demand.
It is only fourteen years since Ethiopia began moving from a state run economy to the market economy. The country is in the process of taking various reform measures.
The industries include food processing and beverages, automotive industries which include production of components and parts, textile and textile products and garments, leather and leather products, fertilizers (mini-Plant) and chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals are some among others.
With regard to the foreign direct investment (FDI) alone indicates that from 1992 - 2005, a total of 11,760 foreign and domestic investment projects with aggregate capital of 129 billion Birr have been issued with investment licenses of these more than 4 thousand projects are under operation and implementation.
Besides, the foreign currency inflow has helped to facilitate transfer of technology and skills, earn & save foreign exchange and create backward and forward linkage effects in the economy.
The "service" sector which consists of Trade, Transport and Communications, Banking, Insurance and Real State, Public Administration and Defense, Education, Health and Domestic and other personal services has increased.
Policies, Strategies and Programs Introduced by the Government.
The New Economic Policy
Based on the new economic policy, the government formulated a long-term economic development strategy-Agriculture -Led -Industrialization (ADLI) which is geared towards the transformation of the backward economic structure. It is a two-pronged strategy, incorporating on one side the external sector (export -led part) and on the other the internal sector which shows the forward and the backward -linkages between agriculture and industry. In the connection, (1) agriculture will supply commodities for exports, domestic food supply and industrial output; and (2) expand market for domestic manufactures. The mining sector is expected to give an impetus to the development of the export sector.
The country's development strategy is supported by an economic reform programme developed in cooperation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and on a series of structural adjustment programmes since 1992.
Major gains have been made from the reform programme, particularly as a result of liberalization, low inflation, fiscal discipline and low government borrowing, infrastructure improvement and the growth of the private sector.
The government has initiated a privatization programe since 1995/96. Since this period of time, 85% of 909 factories have been privatized. However the number of manufacturing industries at the verge of the EPRDF led government was 283 operating only 20% of their manufacturing capacity compared with 70% currently.
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The North Carolina Bartram Trail Society was organized in 1977 to establish and maintain the North Carolina section of the memorial trail that honors Philadelphia-born naturalist William Bartram. Bartram was among the most well known of the early naturalists, botanists and explorers of his day. He traveled throughout the southeast from 1773 to 1777. Along the way, he wrote exact, vivid descriptions of the plants and animals he saw, and the Native Americans he encountered. In 1791, he published these writings under the title Bartram’s Travels, which has been published continuously and remains in print today in a number of world languages. This marvelous book is available online as part of the Documenting the American South literary project through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The 80+ miles of the Bartram Trail in North Carolina follows the original route as closely as possible on public lands. It takes up where the Georgia trail leaves off, near Rabun Bald just south of Highlands, winds north
-west, and ends at Cheoah Bald. Through its history the North Carolina Bartram Trail Society has blazed, built, and maintained the Trail, much of which lies within the Nantahal National Forest. At some point in the future, the Society hopes to reblaze an earlier portion of trail called the ‘western extension’ that traverses further across the Nantahala over a lovely heath bald called Old Billy Top (perhaps a reference to William Bartram himself?).
Following in the spirit of William Bartram, the North Carolina Bartram Trail Society seeks to promote further enquiry and knowledge about the plants and animals of the southern Appalachians, as well as the traditions and culture of the native Cherokee people. Today, the Society has around 200 members throughout the Southeast. It conducts twice-annual meetings, in spring and fall of each year, and organizes second Saturday monthly trail work hikes and other outdoor activities for youth groups, college groups and families. You can help support the trail by joining in activities or becoming a member.
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1) A horizontal grave-stone, sometimes supported on pillars.
1507 I will have a thrugh lade upon me after my decesse with iiij stulpis the heght of half a yerde, Kirk Smeaton
1521 I gif to order a through stone to lay on my grave withe scripture of laton of the same xls, Denaby
1542 to be buried within the church yerde ... of the northside nere myne awncetors and to have a thrughe stone laide ouer me prepared therfor, Otley
1557 a troughe [sic] stone wythe a remembrance of my selfe wyfe and chyldren in pycketures of brasse to be set ... and layd vpon the grave, Wakefield
1581 To be buried ... in the middest allie under the through stone where my father’s and mother’s corps were buried, Burnsall.
2) These words are now met with frequently in accounts of dry-stone walling but they are on record in mason work from a very early date. A ‘through-stone’ extended through the thickness of a wall, and a certain number were considered essential for its stability.
The earliest example in the OED is 1805 but both terms are found in the fabric accounts of York Minster, with references to j through-stane a quarera in 1400 and in caragio vj lapidum vocatorum thurghes in 1419. In 1648, a mason who was contracted to build a house in Illingworth agreed to build up the side with competent number of throughes in the same. There are frequent references also in bridge-building documents: 1602 as many through achlers into the stone works as the overseers shall think proper, Apperley Bridge. When Methley Bridge was rebuilt, in 1793, it was agreed that the walls which formed the abutments should be not less than 12 inches in Bed, with proper throughs or Bond Stones. Occasionally, it was used as a verb, as when the wall of Kildwick Bridge was well through`d in 1755.
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Last Updated Dec 19, 2014 7:17 PM EST
Flu season is picking up steam just in time to ruin a lot of people's holidays. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports widespread flu activity in 29 states, primarily in the South and Midwest. That's twice as many states as the previous week.
Most of the patients who have been hospitalized with severe cases of the flu are either very young or the very old. In recent days flu outbreaks have forced schools in Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina to close.
So far this season, the virus has killed 11 children.
Describing the pattern of this year's outbreak, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told CBS News, "There's almost like a Christmas tree right in the middle of the country of the hot spots for disease."
Thirteen states reported high levels of influenza-like illnesses, while another six states saw moderate activity.
Health experts say part of the problem is that this year's vaccine doesn't provide protection for H3N2, the strain of the influenza that's currently making the rounds. This year's vaccine does help protect against H1N1 and one or two strains of influenza B.
Earlier this month the CDC issued a health advisory stating that only 48 percent of flu virus samples taken through last month were closely related to this year's vaccine.
"Because the H3N2 is dominating, we probably will see more disease," said Schuchat. "There might be reduced protection as opposed to zero protection," she said.
However, the CDC and other health experts still recommend people go for the vaccine. At a minimum, the vaccine may prevent a more severe case of the flu if you have happen to be one of the unlucky ones this season. The shot will also protect against other strains of the flu that are still floating around.
"The stuff that's circulating out there is different than what they made the vaccine against," said CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. "Though unfortunately, as of today, it's only about 30 percent well-matched."
LaPook added this news shouldn't discourage people from getting a flu shot. Even if the vaccine is less effective than usual, it will still be better than no protection at all. "It's never too late until flu season is over. Flu season sometimes can go into May," he said.
The CDC says anyone who develops symptoms of the flu should contact their doctor immediately. Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir), two prescription antiviral drugs currently on the market, can actually lessen the time of acute illness by two days if taken early on.
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Preaching and Evangelism
Preaching is a work within the church
- Men were called evangelist: Acts 21:8; II Timothy 4:5
- Christ appointed some men as evangelists - Ephesians 4:11
- The word translated evangelism comes from a Greek word used to describe the bringing the joyous news of victory from the battlefront. It is often translated as "preaching the gospel" as in Romans 1:15.
- The same work is called preaching - II Corinthians 1:19, I Timothy 2:7, II Timothy 1:11
- The word translated preaching comes from a Greek word for a herald or town-crier.
- The same work is called ministry - Romans 15:15-16; Ephesians 3:6-7; Colossians 1:23; I Timothy 4:6
- The word translated ministering comes from a Greek word for a serving. This same word is used for a servant, a deacon, and a preacher. The context defines its usage.
- Preaching and ministering are used for the same work - Colossians 1:24
- Evangelism and ministering are used for the same work - II Timothy 4:5
- Preachers hold authority - Titus 2:15
The work of a preacher
- An evangelist is to build up Christians to maturity - Ephesians 4:11-13
- A minister reaches out to the lost - Romans 15:15-16
- A preacher proclaims the good news of salvation - Romans 1:15-16, I Timothy 4:16
- A preacher rebukes those in error - II Timothy 4:2, I Timothy 4:1-6
- A preacher reproves those who teach error - II Timothy 4:2
- A preacher exhorts people to live in accordance with God's will - I Timothy 4:13; II Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:15
- A preacher teaches - I Timothy 4:11, 13
- A preacher speaks, which can include speaking in the worship service - Titus 2:1, 15; 3:8; I Corinthians 14:26
- A preacher teaches other Christians to become teachers - II Timothy 2:2
- A preacher sets an example for others to follow - I Timothy 4:12
- A preacher is involved in the selection of elders - Titus 1:5
- A preacher is involved in the rebuking of elders who sin - I Timothy 5:17-21
- A preacher is involved in organizing a congregation - Titus 1:5
- A preacher guards the truth - I Timothy 6:20-21; 1:3-4; 1:18-19; II Timothy 1:13-14; Titus 1:13-14
- A preacher must study - II Timothy 2:15
Who can be a preacher?
- A woman cannot be a preacher - Titus 2:15; I Timothy 2:12
- A man can serve as both a preacher and an elder - I Timothy 5:17
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We spend a lot of time worrying about our physical health, but we sometimes neglect our mind in the process. To maintain good mental health, you can practise "emotional hygiene" in the same way you practise good bodily hygiene to help maintain physical health.
In this TED Talk, psychologist Guy Winch describes a different type of injury: psychological injury. Instead of being the result of twists, breaks and sprains, these types "injuries" come from mental traumas caused by failure, rejection and especially chronic loneliness. As Winch explains, loneliness and other psychological injuries can be harmful to your physical health; possibly causing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or even suppressing the function of your immune system.
So what can you do to battle the negative effects of psychological traumas? Imagine these injuries as wounds just like any other, and that they require the practice of good hygiene for it to heal. Stop and take notice when you feel emotional pain and recognise that you are hurt so you can address it. Stop the "emotional bleeding" by avoiding negative thoughts so you can clean it up. It also never hurts to reach out to someone else when the wound is too deep. And, when you're not hurt, build up your self-esteem to develop some protection for the future. Don't leave these types of injuries untreated, because they will just keep getting worse, just like the real thing.
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October 2, 2011
First-known Hitler Writing on ‘Jewish Question’ Displayed
Ten months after the end of World War I, a 30-year-old German army veteran wrote a two-page letter in which he explained the Jewish question on what he called a “rational” and “scientific” basis.
“An anti-Semitism based on reason must lead to a systematic combatting and elimination of the privileges of the Jews,” he wrote. “The ultimate objective must be the irrevocable removal of Jews in general.”
The letter was signed “Respectfully, Adolf Hitler” and got high marks for the author from his superiors in a military propaganda unit bitterly opposed to the newly established Weimar Republic as the perceived handiwork of Bolsheviks, socialists and Jews.
As the first written political statement of the future fuehrer, the letter is considered a document of immense historical value and was shown to the public for the first time on Oct. 4 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center at its Museum of Tolerance.
Noted UCLA historian Saul Friedlander, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a two-volume analysis of the Nazi regime, observed that “In his very first written statement about the Jews, Hitler shows that [hatred of Jews] was the very core of his political passion.”
At the behest of his superiors, Hitler wrote the letter to a fellow soldier propagandist, named Adolf Gemlich, and the document is known as the Gemlich letter. In contrast to his later public rants, Hitler assumes an almost professorial tone in the letter.
For instance, he expounded that “anti-Semitism is too easily characterized as a mere emotional phenomenon. And yet, this is incorrect. Anti-Semitism as a political movement may not and cannot be defined by emotional impulses, but by recognition of the facts.”
What are the facts? According to the letter, one is that “Jewry is absolutely a race and not a religious association.”
Throughout, Hitler never tires of the old stereotype of the Jew as a money-grubber bent on world domination. “Everything man strives after as a higher goal, be it religion, socialism, democracy, is to the Jew only means to an end, the way to satisfy his lust for gold and domination,” he wrote.
Hitler’s advocacy in the letter of “the irrevocable removal of Jews” has led to discussions among scholars as to whether the terms anticipate his later extermination campaign.
The German word for “removal” used by Hitler is “entfernung,” which is more commonly translated as “distance” or “withdrawal.” Taken in context, most experts believe that Hitler’s thinking at the time focused more on “segregation” or “expulsion” than a full-fledged Holocaust.
“Not even Hitler was capable of imagining in 1919 what could be done,” British historian Ian Kershaw told The New York Times.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center, who was instrumental in acquiring the letter for the museum and raised $150,000 for its purchase, draws two key deductions from the letter, one historical, the other applicable to our time.
“Apologists for Hitler and Holocaust deniers always cite the fact that no one has found a document, signed by Hitler, ordering the destruction of European Jewry,” Hier said. “Perhaps such a document was destroyed, or Hitler gave his orders verbally.
“In any case, the Gemlich letter proves his obsessive hatred of Jews more clearly than in his later book, ‘Mein Kampf.’ It is fair to assume that when Hitler wrote about ‘the removal of the Jews’ he wasn’t thinking about just throwing a few thousand Jews in jail.”
The second important lesson Hier draws from the letter is that we cannot afford to ignore or ridicule the demagogues of our day, like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“If in 1919, someone had warned that a man like Hitler would become a menace to the world, such a person would have been labeled as crazy,” Hier said.
As part of the permanent exhibit in the museum’s Holocaust section, the letter will be complemented by an interactive time line tracing the year-by-year spread of Hitler’s power and his ultimate defeat between 1919 and 1945.
To this reporter, the letter with Hitler’s slanted signature brings back some personal memories of growing up as a Jewish boy in Berlin.
I saw Hitler in person two times. The first was in 1934, when I was 9 and living in an apartment on the Reichsstrasse, a main avenue radiating out from the nearby central square, the Reichskanzler Platz (Chancellor Square).
Looking down from our window, we saw a procession of limousines, flanked by SS men, and in the middle was the fuehrer, riding in an open car, returning the straight-armed salute of the masses with his typical sloppy bent-armed wave. Perhaps he was returning from the Reichskanzler Platz, which had just been renamed Adolf Hitler Platz.
Much later, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy, it occurred to me that the distance and line of sight in the Dallas assassination was similar to the positions between Hitler and me in 1934.
My second encounter was in 1936, when Italy’s Benito Mussolini paid a visit to Hitler in Berlin, and the two dictators rode down Unter den Linden in the same car. I went to see the show amid masses of jubilant Berliners.
A final association with Hitler occurred on April 20, 1939, the day my mother, sister and I took a taxi to Tempelhof Airport to fly from Berlin to Croydon Airport in London, a big deal at the time.
On the way, every pole and public building was festooned with huge, streaming swastika flags, and I thought that my Aryan countrymen might be celebrating our departure from the fatherland. I was a bit disappointed to learn that in reality the city was celebrating Hitler’s 50th birthday.
I think the first thing that struck me on arriving in America was the flag. I had left behind the blood-red banners with the ominous black swastika in the middle, a symbol of ruthless force. By contrast, the American flag, with its colorful stars and stripes, seemed playful, a child’s banner in a make-believe parade.
Back to reality. The Gemlich letter was found by an American soldier among scattered papers at an apparent Nazi party archive, near Nuremberg. The soldier brought it back to America, and decades later the letter came into the hands of a California dealer in historical documents.
When the letter first came on the market in 1988, Hier was skeptical of its authenticity, partly because of numerous instances of forged Nazi documents.
Since then, experts in Germany, Britain and the United States have vetted the letter and have concluded that it is, indeed, the original version, written and signed by Hitler, although 100 percent certainty might require chemical tests of the age and composition of the stationery.
Hier, for one, has no doubt that he has the real thing. “This is the most significant document ever acquired by the Wiesenthal Center, with historical significance not only to the Jewish people, but to the entire world,” he said.
The exhibit, “The Hitler Letter, A Letter That Changed The World,” will open at 11 a.m. on Oct. 4 at the Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd. For information, phone (310) 553-8403 or visit www.museumoftolerance.com.
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Trigger warnings is this new phenomenon on college campuses that try to cocoon our children from words that might cause them consternation, bad thoughts, bring back bad memories and generally make them feel uncomfortable. Now granted that there are many out there in the world at large that deal with some form of post traumatic issue. There are any number of things in the environment that might cause a flashback or force someone to relive a horrible episode from their life. But campus thought police have taken the need to be protective to a ridiculous degree.
Trigger warnings are given out for works of literature (modern and classical), movies, history books and anything that might be deemed offensive. You are told to be mindful of how someone else might react to your words. In fact, mindfulness is another one of those idiotic psycho-babble do-gooder words used to keep people from saying what they truly think. Mindfulness is the psychological expectation that no matter what you do, or where you are, each individual is required to be exponentially tuned into the machinations and soul crushing debilitations of each and every other person in their present surroundings, even to the detriment of their own self-respect and humanity. Mindfulness is the self destruction of the individual in exchange for acceptance by the group. For mindfulness is never about others accepting you for who you are. It’s all about the person suppressing themselves to be accepted by those in the power structure, who ultimately are probably too ignorant to understand unique individuality in the long run.
Now there is a huge difference between calling someone a racial or ethnic epithet, which is the sign of a small ignorant mind, and trying to remember if the person in front of you will be offended by your actions or use of the word “XYZ” in public. Trying to keep abreast of every word you aren’t allowed to use, or being prescient about every appropriate social expectation, in order to circumvent someone else’s psychological issues is exhausting. Eventually the list of banned words and actions is going to be longer than the Oxford English Dictionary and Emily Posts Etiquette Manual combined.
Meanwhile, the reality and purpose of “art” and education is to be provocative. Language is used to elicit responses to situations that will not necessarily be comfortable. Language is used to challenge notions and belief systems so that the student grows, develops and sees outside of themselves. The power of the pen is that it can be used to change the course of history as much, if not more, than a sword.
Here is Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, one of the authors that may have trigger warnings put on her novels.
Furthermore, studying Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire and Hobbes led to the thinkers and doers of the American Revolution. None of it is emotionally easy to read. In fact, these words actually did lead to a war. They also led to freedom, liberty and equality. But should there have been “trigger warnings” back in the day, that some of the information disseminated would cause upset and possible political turmoil, thus leading to a “great expense of blood?” Should there have been words banned and thoughts derided because it made persons uneasy? Should there have been a “trigger warning” because it might bring flashbacks from the French and Indian War?
Trigger warnings are no more than the politically correct coddling of those who have been coddled for their entire lives. If you cannot handle and process the words found in great literature how will these very spoiled children handle the real world? In truth, what have we parents done to our children? What have we allowed educators to do to our children’s minds? Instead of teaching them to hold their own in the world, we taught our offspring that they are entitled to not be insulted or to feel oppressed because someone doesn’t worship at the altar of their self-esteem.
In truth, most of the young people today are not the problem. They want nothing more than a real future. Good jobs. Possibility of a family. Freedom. Liberty. Fruits of their labor. It is the educators and those who have never left the unicorn filled halls of academia that need to keep reinventing their own purposes so that they have a way to keep their useless jobs.
Meanwhile, apparently the celebrity braintrust has not caught onto the trigger warning movement. Lately Gwyneth Paltrow has once again opened her mouth and equated having paparazzi take your picture to being a soldier in battle. And Charlize Theron has said having her picture taken is like being “raped.” Someone needs to explain to these self-centered narcissistic brats that they chose the limelight with all its huge rewards, and having your picture taken is part of the job requirement.
These women did not become celebrities to better mankind or preserve freedom and liberty, unlike those who serve this nation in the military. Those who serve this nation do a selfless act on everyone’s behalf. On the other hand, these celebrity women selfishly promote themselves, for their own betterment, not for anyone else. It’s really simple. Stop making millions, give up your film career and no one will take your picture anymore. There, no more battle. Someone also needs to explain to these IQ challenged women what actually happens when a person does go to war and what rape is truly all about.
Not being a soldier I can’t tell you what it feels like in the middle of a firefight. And yes, as I have written, research has shown that parents of autistic children do have cortisol levels similar to battle weary soldiers. And yes studies also show that parents and autistic children as well, do suffer from a form of PTSD. But noone says living with autistic children or being a person with autism is like being in a war. Only that the stress levels and the emotional toll involved in dealing with the struggles associated with autism have an effect on your health. Psychiatry also notes that there are different kinds and types of PTSD.
But what I do understand about war is that when you are at war, there is always someone else on the other side trying to kill you and destroy those you care about. There is brutality, evil and every form of hell thrown at those in war, soldier and civilian alike. These addle-brained self-indulgent narcissists should ask a Syrian refugee if there is an equivalent between walking the gauntlet of paparazzi and the ravages of war.
No one is really trying to kill these pampered thespians, or destroy the world of these celebrities (OK yes they can have stalkers, but they have protection services as well if need be). Those who grab at the limelight have put themselves into the fray of fascination by their chosen field. Perhaps, they should try comporting themselves with more dignity, then those that need to validate their own lives by trying to denigrate the famous will diminish. Perhaps celebrities should also stop trying to teach us how to think, act and vote. They need to be “mindful” that their actions have a direct corollary with society’s need to know about them.
Rape however, we are all familiar with the real meaning. Don’t forget, men can and do get raped as well as women. Rape, even date rape, is about hate and power. It is about seeing the individual before you as anything but another human being. It is about taking from your victim their humanity. It is meant to degrade, dehumanize and destroy the victim. Rape is many things, but it is not about caring, love or the desire to be a part of someone else’s existence. Rape is the ultimate insult to another’s personhood. It is one of the oldest and one of the most brutal weapons of war.
In truth, when celebrities are photographed it’s because of the fantasy lives that they live. It is because society wants to be like them, not destroy them. It is because they are seen as the epitome of success and desire. They are seen as great talents and part of the best that this planet has to offer. There is no conspiracy trying to destroy them. No one is trying to kill them or those they love when a picture is taken. It would behoove those who deal with these ignorant celebs to explain to them that the world follows them because the world wants to be them. That is nothing like rape or war, that is adulation.
Meanwhile, someone also needs to remind these celebs that by equating the words “war,” and “rape” to their overindulged realities they may have “triggered” someone else’s true nightmare. Maybe these academic polemicists who think that students need warnings before they read Shakespeare or Defoe need to lobby for not allowing celebrities to say anything that has not been scripted by someone intelligent enough to have read and understood some of those “triggering” works of literature. That way these politically correct thought-controlling academicians would finally be doing the country some good by aborting celebrity ignorance before it begins. Of course this lobbying activity would only happen after a PETA sanctioned round-up of unicorns, the ACLU secured all illegal alien fairies, elves plus imps entry into the country, and the Occupy Movement distributed that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to the “white privileged abused” masses.
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These LEDs are connected to a thermistor that’s running just a little bit hotter than the ambient room temperature. So, by blowing on the thermistor, the birthday boy or girl is cooling it down, thus increasing the resistence. The microcontroller senses this and turns off a few of the LEDs as a result. Make one of these guys and you’ll never again have to worry about melted wax on your cake. For detailed instructions, head on over to Instructables.
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For a very long time, questions have been asked about whether mother Earth is able to sustain the entire livelihood which instead is keen on destroying her very essence. With the recent drive to improve the status of the Earth in terms of preserving and conserving its wellbeing, many people and corporations have joined in and stood for the cause. With the worsening trends of climatic change, it goes without saying that every human being should be a part of Project Save Planet Earth.
There are several companies and countries that have been spotted as dangerous stakeholders in the Project Save Planet Earth. These have been known to be pollutants and causes of degradation of Earth. Bearing in mind the fact that there is only one Earth and the better we looked after it, the better our chances of enjoying it longer, it should be everyone’s aim to stay within the limits of environmental conservation.
It is true that some trends of the recent climatic change are a little out of man’s jurisdiction. However, the vast majority of the climatic change cause factors are a result of man made activities and therefore there is need to curb the rate at which man is misusing the Earth and its resources. Man made activities account for the greatest part of the changes although other factors like volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, orbital changes and solar variations are bound to have some effects on the climate of the Earth.
Overall, Project Save Planet Earth looks to involve everyone in whatever small capacity to be able to have a fundamental impact on improving the status of the Earth in regards to climatic changes. Whether it is by proper disposal, use of environmental friendly raw materials in the production process or having rules and regulations against pollution of the Earth, every person, country and corporation can and must contribute to the fight so as to give mother Earth an extended stay.
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West Lafayette, Indiana - For a long while, more than a million years ago, Greenland wasn't covered in ice, scientists announced this week.
That may not seem like the biggest news in science, except for this: The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice cube on the planet, after the Antarctic ice sheet. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt – if it is even possible for the ice sheet to melt – then it's also possible that the planet's oceans might rapidly rise five or six meters, or more than twenty feet, and wreak havoc on coastal cities worldwide.
Before now, scientists didn't know whether Greenland's ice sheet was so stable that it would just weather any climate changes, or if there were ever a period in which Greenland was, if not verdant, at least a bit rocky.
It turns out there was, in fact, a time when it was largely ice-free, perhaps for as long as 250,000 years, more than a million years ago.
Scientists were able to determine this because the bare rock during that time was exposed to cosmic rays in the atmosphere, says Marc Caffee, professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University.
"We now have pretty conclusive evidence that for a time that ice wasn't there," Caffee says. "That's big. That's new. It's probably not much different in temperature now than it was then, so we shouldn't count on that ice sheet never melting again."
Caffee's lab, the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement (PRIME) Laboratory, was able to determine that the bedrock of Greenland had been exposed to the atmosphere and cosmic rays from outer space by looking at rock samples that had been recovered by a U.S. scientific team from beneath nearly two miles of ice in 1993.
It was only in the past year that Purdue's PRIME lab developed techniques using a gas-filled magnet attached to a particle accelerator that was sensitive enough to detect the beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 atomic isotopes. These isotopes had been created by the cosmic rays striking the rock and had been hiding beneath the ice for more than a million years.
The results of all of this scientific sleuthing were published in this week's Nature.
The lead author on the Nature paper, Joerg Schaefer, a paleoclimatologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, says it's possible that the Greenland ice sheet could go away again.
"Unfortunately, this makes the Greenland ice sheet look highly unstable," he said in a Columbia University news release. "With human-induced warming now well underway, loss of the Greenland ice has roughly doubled since the 1990s; during the last four years by some estimates, it shed more than a trillion tons [of ice]."
Additional authors on the paper include Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University; Nicolas Young and Roseanne Schwartz, Columbia University; Greg Balco, the University of California-Berkeley; Jason Briner, University of Buffalo; and Anthony Gow, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
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Background Storm water outfalls that flow into coastal waters can have significant potential impacts on human and environmental health. Elevated levels of pathogenic bacteria and viruses have been found in beach waters close to coastal storm water outfalls the world over, leading to closures of recreational beaches and shellfish harvesting areas as well as causing a variety of human illnesses. The areas adjacent to these outfalls are a cause of concern regarding human fecal contamination and the USEPA has identified this research focus to be one of the highest priorities relating to water quality.
The pipes and ditches of storm water drainage systems force polluted water to bypass natural filtration processes provided by soil and vegetation. Storm water drainage networks are believed to be conduits for pollution from residential development (sewage and septic systems, pet waste), industry (toxins and hydrocarbons) and agriculture (livestock waste, bio-solids and antibiotics). Storm water outfalls in coastal NC are poorly studied, but are a cause for concern given the sheer volume of precipitation that is received during annual and episodic (e.g. hurricanes, Nor'easters) timescales.
Funded by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), this is a joint project between UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Science (IMS) and the UNC Coastal Studies Institute. This project proposes to identify the key microbial constituents of storm water in these ocean outfalls, determine concentrations and likely sources of indicator and tracer microorganisms in the storm water, and provide measures of patterns of loading in storm and ambient conditions, in Dare County, North Carolina.
Project Description The study will consist of two phases. Phase I begins with a preliminary study including pilot scale monitoring on nine storm water outfalls in Dare County that will last approximately six months. The outfalls will be prioritized in terms of likely impact on recreational waters. During the first phase, water will be sampled from multiple stations within the watershed of each outfall. Sampling will be conducted during storm events producing at least one inch of precipitation. Up to three storms will be sampled as well as one period with no precipitation. During each sampling event more than 100 water samples will be processed and tested for Enterococcus sp., E. Coli and total coliforms using IDEXX lab procedures.
Next, samples will be pumped through individual filters and frozen for transport to UNC-IMS for Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (QPCR) based analyses for tracers of human fecal contamination and other human pathogens. Further molecular analyses will be conducted to identify the potential source of the microbial contamination. In addition, samples at each station will be tested for temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a and salinity while Doppler flow meters measure the amount and velocity of water that passes through the system. Combining bacteria concentrations with flow measurements will provide the total amount of pathogenic bacteria passing through the system.
Phase II incorporates a comprehensive monitoring project for all nine outfalls after the installation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). This phase will consist of a sampling protocol used in Phase I. A storm water BMP is a broad term that refers to a practice or method that effectively reduces sources of pollution. The engineering firm Moffatt and Nichol will explore the use of BMPs including but not limited to bioretention areas and marshland buffers. These BMPs can provide wildlife habitat, increased evapotranspiration and infiltration rates while decreasing the amount of sediment and nutrients in storm water run off. Other possible BMPs include filters installed into the outfall catch basins, UV disinfection and hydrodynamic separators.
During Phase II, dye studies will be conducted at outfalls determined to be a significant public health risk. During periods of flow, Rhodamine dye will be released into catch basins and tracked along the beach with fluorometers. The information gathered will provide an idea of how far and how fast viruses and bacteria travel from outfalls.
This research should provide us with a better understanding of the levels of bacteria and viruses in stormwater, as well as an idea of the possible sources. In addition, the dye studies will show how far along the beach the health risk to the public extends during times when the outfalls are flowing. The data will also aid the development of predictive models to better foresee potential public health risks in the presence of stormwater.
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Beth Kitchin PhD RDN blogs on health and nutrition. Her blogs are fact-based and offer a common sense approach to a healthier life. She's a food lover so don't expect her to tell you what not to eat! Beth is a an Assistant Professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Nutrition Sciences Department and the patient educator at UAB's Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Clinic. She also appears weekly as a guest contributor on WBRC's morning show "Good Day Alabama".
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Your Risk of Breast Cancer with these 3 Science Supported Habits
cancer is the most common cancer in women. One in eight women will get breast
cancer in her lifetime. Medical treatment can cure it in many women. However, experts
estimate that 40,700 women will die of breast cancer this year. Like all women,
I want to know how to reduce my risk. I don’t have a family history of breast
cancer – but many women who get it don’t have one either. So, I went looking for
the best evidence on what we can do to lower our risk. One of best websites for solid, science based
cancer prevention recommendations is the American Institute of Cancer Research
(AICR). They estimate that 33% of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. are
preventable. That means 81,400 women who could avoid breast cancer. But how?
can’t avoid all of the risk factors for breast cancer. Age and genetics
increase your risk and you can’t do much about them. But there are some things
you do have control over. Research shows that these three steps may actually
lower your risk:
Lower Your Breast Cancer Risk:
– and Stay – at a Healthy Weight
Extra body fat correlates with post-menopausal
breast cancer risk. About 1 in 5 cases of breast cancer is in women with extra
body fat. Fat tissue increases inflammation and hormones that promote cancer
cell growth. Overweight and obesity correlate with 10 other cancers as well.
Physically Active Every Day
Exercise helps lower the risk of both pre- and
post-menopausal breast cancer risk. It can help you stay at a healthy weigh and
boost the immune system. Thirty minutes a day may be all you need! It can be
any activity – walking, gardening, dancing, swimming, hiking and the list goes
Alcohol can act as a carcinogen in the breast
tissue. It can damage DNA and increase hormones that promote cancer. Women
should limit alcohol to no more than one drink a day or seven per week on
average. Less is best when it comes to alcohol and cancer risk.
those three are the most evidence-based recommendations. There’s a lot of
interest in Mediterranean diets and the risk of cancers. One recent study showed
that a Mediterranean eating style – particularly nuts and olive oil – reduces
breast cancer risk. The study was a randomized controlled trial. That’s the kind
of study that can actually show cause and effect. It's a really strong study design. But it’s just one study – so we
can’t really make recommendations on it just yet. Also, the women in the study
were eating around four tablespoons of olive oil a day! That’s a lot to work
into your diet (although I’m pretty sure I’m getting at least two to three a
day!). Some new research is also linking smoking with breast cancer.
at least for now, you can take these three steps and rest assured that you’re
doing all you can to lower your risk!
Kitchin, PhD, RDN
Assistant Professor, Nutrition Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
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Allergy is used to describe a response within the body to a substance (known as an allergen) that is not necessarily harmful in itself but results in an immune response and a reaction that causes unwanted symptoms and disease.
Common allergens include pollen from trees and grasses, house dust mites, moulds, cats and dogs, wasp and bee stings, some medicines and certain foods such as nuts, fish or eggs.
An allergic person’s immune system judges certain allergens to be damaging and so produces a special type of antibody (IgE) to attach the invading material. This leads other blood cells to release further chemicals (including histamine) which together cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.
Common symptoms include:
- Coughing and sneezing
- Runny nose
- Sinus problems
- Itchy eyes and ears
- Shortness of breath
- Severe wheezing
Allergy affects one in four people at some time in their lives, and in the UK, this figure is rising by 5% every year – half of these being children.
How is it diagnosed?
A simple skin prick test will provide quick and simple results within 15 to 20 minutes.
Blood tests can also be performed by the Immunology Department. The test measures the amount of specific IgE present in the blood for the allergen. Results range from class zero (negative result) to class 6 (severe).
A doctor will usually prescribe a treatment that is specific to the allergy in question. Prescribed medicines often contain antihistamines as a means of limiting the body’s response to the allergy.
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A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt in the 1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency (i.e. precedence network) relationships between activities. Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule status using percent-complete shadings and a vertical "TODAY" line as shown here.
Although now regarded as a common charting technique, Gantt charts were considered revolutionary when first introduced. In recognition of Henry Gantt's contributions, the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal is awarded for distinguished achievement in management and in community service. This chart is also used in information technology to represent data that has been collected.
Historical development
The first known tool of this type was developed in 1896 by Karol Adamiecki, who called it a harmonogram. Adamiecki only published his chart in 1931, however, in Polish, which limited both its adoption and recognition of his authorship. The chart is named after Henry Gantt (1861–1919), who designed his chart around the years 1910–1915.
One of the first major applications of Gantt charts was during World War I. On the initiative of General William Crozier, then Chief of Ordnance these included that of the Emergency Fleet, the Shipping Board, etc.
In the 1980s, personal computers allowed for widespread creation of complex and elaborate Gantt charts. The first desktop applications were intended mainly for project managers and project schedulers. With the advent of the Internet and increased collaboration over networks at the end of the 1990s, Gantt charts became a common feature of web-based applications, including collaborative groupware.
Advantages and limitations
Gantt charts have become a common technique for representing the phases and activities of a project work breakdown structure (WBS), so they can be understood by a wide audience all over the world.
A common error made by those who equate Gantt chart design with project design is that they attempt to define the project work breakdown structure at the same time that they define schedule activities. This practice makes it very difficult to follow the 100% Rule. Instead the WBS should be fully defined to follow the 100% Rule, then the project schedule can be designed.
Although a Gantt chart is useful and valuable for small projects that fit on a single sheet or screen, they can become quite unwieldy for projects with more than about 30 activities. Larger Gantt charts may not be suitable for most computer displays. A related criticism is that Gantt charts communicate relatively little information per unit area of display. That is, projects are often considerably more complex than can be communicated effectively with a Gantt chart.
Gantt charts only represent part of the triple constraints (cost, time and scope) on projects, because they focus primarily on schedule management. Moreover, Gantt charts do not represent the size of a project or the relative size of work elements, therefore the magnitude of a behind-schedule condition is easily miscommunicated. If two projects are the same number of days behind schedule, the larger project has a larger effect on resource utilization, yet the Gantt does not represent this difference.
Although project management software can show schedule dependencies as lines between activities, displaying a large number of dependencies may result in a cluttered or unreadable chart.
Because the horizontal bars of a Gantt chart have a fixed height, they can misrepresent the time-phased workload (resource requirements) of a project, which may cause confusion especially in large projects. In the example shown in this article, Activities E and G appear to be the same size, but in reality they may be different orders of magnitude. A related criticism is that all activities of a Gantt chart show planned workload as constant. In practice, many activities (especially summary elements) have front-loaded or back-loaded work plans, so a Gantt chart with percent-complete shading may actually miscommunicate the true schedule performance status.
In the following example there are seven tasks, labeled A through G. Some tasks can be done concurrently (A and B) while others cannot be done until their predecessor task is complete (C cannot begin until A is complete). Additionally, each task has three time estimates: the optimistic time estimate (O), the most likely or normal time estimate (M), and the pessimistic time estimate (P). The expected time (TE) is computed using the beta probability distribution for the time estimates, using the formula (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6.
|Activity||Predecessor||Time estimates||Expected time|
|Opt. (O)||Normal (M)||Pess. (P)|
Once this step is complete, one can draw a Gantt chart or a network diagram.
See also
- Critical path method
- List of project management software which includes specific Gantt Chart software.
- Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
- H.L. Gantt, Work, Wages and Profit, published by The Engineering Magazine, New York, 1910; republished as Work, Wages and Profits, Easton, Pennsylvania, Hive Publishing Company, 1974, ISBN 0-87960-048-9.
- Peter W. G. Morris, The Management of Projects, Thomas Telford, 1994, ISBN 0-7277-2593-9, Google Print, p.18
- Wallace Clark and Henry Gantt (1922) The Gantt chart, a working tool of management. New York, Ronald Press.
- Project Management Institute (2003). A Guide To The Project Management Body Of Knowledge (3rd ed. ed.). Project Management Institute. ISBN 1-930699-45-X.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gantt charts|
|Look up gantt chart in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
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Well, let me start by saying I’ve won an award! I’ll have more in a day or two, so stay tuned. Because I want to blog about the award later in the week, I’ve swapped some blog ideas around and am posting Rosa Parks Day a few days early.
The U.S. celebrates Rosa Parks Day on February 4th (Saturday this year). Rosa Parks, a seamstress, became famous on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. In the segregated South, African Americans were forced to sit towards the back of the bus and give up their seats to white passengers. Ms. Parks was arrested and fined for her defiance setting off the Montgomery bus boycotts. Many people mark her protest as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
What few realize is that Rosa Parks was an activist and NAACP member at the time of her arrest. Her refusal to give up her seat was not a spur-of-the-moment decision born out of tiredness, but part of a larger, organized movement. In fact, the NAACP had been looking for a case to use as the basis of a law suit. Unfortunately, many myths about Rosa Parks still perpetuate, especially in children’s literature. Nikki Giovanni’s book, Rosa, is one of few that attempts to put Rosa Park’s case in context.
Teaching children about Rosa Parks is a great way to kick off Black History Month. The Museum of Living history boasts a wonderful biography of Rosa Parks…..here. The site also includes a 1995 interview and many photos from the period. Scholastic.com’s Teacher section contains many resources about her life and importance.
If you are a classroom teacher, here’s a wonderful lesson plan for grades 4 through 7 by Mandy Roman, which will help students experience what it was like to sit at the back of the bus. Teach-nology has a host of free Black History Month lesson plans as well, which are perfect for upper elementary and middle school students.
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16 Dec 2018
Trauma is often referred to as Post Traumatic Stress, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The term was originally identified as ‘shell shock’ after the First World War when war veterans returned home reporting experiences of flashbacks to past events (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic memories of the past). These experiences are so real it is considered a real attack and/or fear of attack. These flashbacks can repeat on a daily basis for years and create a huge interruption of daily life. Often war veterans cannot live their lives fully and need long term therapy and support. Other experiences can lead to flashbacks and have devastating effects on people, such as rape, childhood sexual abuse, natural disaster, domestic violence, neglect, control, imprisonment, slavery, divorce/separation, moving house, workplace bullying, school yard bullying,racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, misogyny, high stress environments, unrealistic expectations, alcohol/drug abuse, hospitalisation, surgery, terminal illness, bereavement and loss. The list is longer.
Trauma is a normal response to challenging experiences, sometimes life threatening. The brain reacts in a way that attempts to manage the impact of the trauma emotionally, mentally and physically. Often trauma is not experienced under normal consciousness. When you are relaxed, safe and grounded you experience things in a way that is holistic where all 5 senses are integrating the external experience and bringing the messages inside to your own awareness. When something unusual or life threatening occurs the automatic fear response is triggered and the amygdala becomes activated. All normal, rational and logical thinking at the front of the brain in the frontal cortex is deactivated and all energy responses are centred in the amygdala, an almond shaped structure in the centre of the brain. All responses are quickly assessed against past memories of similar experience so the fight, flight, freeze and fawn responses are enacted in order to keep one as safe and un-traumatised as possible. You have no control over this response and reaction. It hijacks normal consciousness and one goes into fight, flight, freeze and fawn. When one experiences PTSD for example quite normal experiences, stressors and situations can trigger this past reaction again, even in non-threatening situations and the brain triggers the same fight, flight, freeze and fawn response:
- Fight response – self-defence and protection
- Flight– escape
- Freeze– play dead
- Fawn – submit and comply to external demands to keep the peace and avoid harm
These conditions are often triggered in many of us in normal life because the amygdala can be highly activated due to low or high levels of certain chemicals and hormones in the body. People’s rational and logical thinking is often not stimulated so much as in more healthy people so they spend more time in their fear centre. People suffering trauma symptoms often experience high levels of anxiety and depression, self-harm and suicidality. Medication,diet, encouraging more healthy sleep patterns, reducing negative external stimulus, physical exercise and relaxing hobbies and pastimes can help reduce the fear state and promote more healthy mental states. Talking therapies can help address negative thinking and introducing more healthy thinking patterns that promote healthy feelings. Self-compassion, self-counselling and mindfulness practices can help with keeping a healthy mind.
One of the other effects of trauma is dissociation where the individual has to cope with difficult events or memories of events by literally drifting away. This is a natural response to these experiences so as to minimise the emotional and mental pain. People may find themselves focusing on something around them like a picture and shutting down to all events around them. They may simply glaze over and disappear into a day-dream like experience. This response is common and allows the person to protect themselves from more inner trauma. It’s like the internal systems shut down to external harm – the individual is not there.
A flashback can be as traumatic as the original event because it feels like the event is replaying again. When this happens it is important to soothe yourself by saying, ‘I am no longer in the past being harmed. I am safe and in a safe place.’ Comforting oneself with focusing on the surroundings and feeling one’s feet and body grounded in the present environment also reminds the mind that it is safe and no longer under threat. Likewise a friend, relative or therapist provides this reassurance and reminds when and where the individual is and is no longer under threat.
Flashbacks reduce with therapy so we work through strategies and techniques to manage these events. Therapy doesn’t necessarily mean going back to the events to describe them and relive them. This can be more traumatic and deepen fear and vulnerability. What is essential in the initial stages of trauma processing is being able to manage the fear and anxiety by self-soothing. We often overlook this need in all of us so we talk about using hobbies and pastimes to focus the mind on something in the here and now. Art, painting,pottery, drawing, crafts, knitting, dramatic arts, sports, exercise, outdoor recreation, yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, playing a musical instrument, listening to music, socialising with people, joining groups, team games are all methods of self-soothing and relaxing. They are essential because they begin to soften your approach to yourself and generate self-understanding, self-worth, self-awareness, self-value and self-compassion. It is something we often neglect and is something that when we reintegrate into our life the results bring a great sense of self-wholeness and belief in oneself. The differences are profound. All of these strategies are intended as a preventative measure to further flashback and dissociation but can be useful when a flashback or dissociation returns.
Skills of self-counselling are explored in therapy. This can take along time to learn because the mind is well-versed on very negative and long used strategies of self-talking. Loops of negative thinking and emotional echoes in response to this negative thinking create bouts of depression,anxiety, fear and self-loathing. Survivors of trauma often have very negative views of their self. If an abuser was involved their strategy to control may have been to belittle, bully, minimise, undermine self-belief, destroy a sense of self-worth and value and generally create a vulnerable and weak person that they could abuse even more. This treatment has very deep effects in the psychology of the individual and therapy explores these effects of abuse and how they create an internalised critic inside. People might find they need to question these beliefs they have of themselves and realise they are not weak and useless or are to blame for what happened (which is what abusers do to them) in order to take control. The process of healing means placing the blame for the trauma where it truly is, not in themselves but in the circumstances of the traumatic event or the person who inflicted the trauma. New loops of positive thinking, self-belief, self-worth and self-compassion begin to heal the process and a period of time is experienced where these positive and negative loops are playing out a battle, if you like, for dominance and this is where patience and repetition of the techniques and strategies is required both in the therapy sessions and in the individual’s life and work between the sessions.
Often we need to explore how flashbacks and memories have been dealt with in the past by self-medicating strategies like alcohol, drugs, sex,escapism fantasies and avoidance. Sometimes self-harming strategies are used as a coping mechanism and time needs to be taken to move away from harmful strategies to healthy strategies. This may need to be done gradually and carefully and may require supervision from a professionally trained therapist or healthcare worker. More challenging still might be feelings of suicidality which are very normal responses to trauma and emotional and mental pain.
Working through trauma is essential and achievable to move from a life of just surviving to a life of thriving. When I worked with clients in a rape and sexual abuse centre I was struck with the courage and tenacity of them to deal with their traumatic pasts and move into more fulfilling and happier lives where they actually liked themselves compared to how much they hated themselves before. When flashbacks become rare and manageable we can get on with our lives and be happier and more productive and satisfied. Right now someone may be feeling far from ok but they need to hear someone say it doesn’t have to be always like this and there is a way forward and hope and prospect of better days.
© Martin Handy 2018Google+
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The exciting variety of things to grow in a garden are introduced, explained and celebrated in this sticker and activity book published in partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Join Rosie, Ren and Gran as they spot spring flowers, discover what grows in a greenhouse and taste the delicious foods that come from plants. Strawberries, blueberries, peas and carrots …YUM!
This activity book is the perfect first introduction to the marvellous things that grow just outside our back door. With delightful illustrations by the much-loved Clair Rossiter and plenty of activities that link to the national curriculum for Key Stage 1, entertain little nature lovers by making paper flowers, creating a bee hotel and even baking a delicious apple cake.
Produced in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Kew is the world famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Over the past 250 years, Kew has made innumerable contributions to increasing the understanding of plants and fungi, with many benefits for humankind.
Activities include: spotting spring flowers, planting sunflowers, learning what makes up a flower, making a cress head, growing your own basil, starting your own allotment and more.
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Environmental Projects in Africa
Over the years Ripple Africa has developed its environmental projects. As a result of deforestation in Malawi our first environmental project was community tree planting which continues to be a very successful project with about three million trees planted each year. We also realised it was important to enable the local communities to protect their forests so our forest conservation project started.
At the same time we became aware that one of the big causes of deforestation was the traditional method of cooking which used large amounts of firewood. We worked with the communities and developed a fuel-efficient cookstove which we called the Changu Changu Moto (Fast Fast Fire). Today, we have more than a quarter of a million people who have their food cooked every day on one of these fuel-efficient cookstoves. This is saving 80,000 bundles of wood every week.
With the success of these projects and the community engagement, we realised the same approach could be utilised in Lake Malawi to address the over-fishing problem. That was the start of the Fish Conservation project in 2012 and today there are over 2,000 Fish Conservation Committee members protecting 300km of lakeshore.
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Japanese migration to Malaysia
|Regions with significant populations|
| Kuala Lumpur and
|Japanese, Malay, English|
|Related ethnic groups|
Even during the relatively open Ashikaga shogunate (1338–1573), Japanese traders had little contact with the Malayan peninsula; after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and their policy of national isolation, most contact came to an end, though traders from the Ryukyu Islands continued to call at Malacca. The 1911 census found 2,029 Japanese in Malaya, four-fifths female; however, other sources suggest the population may already have reached four thousand people by then. In British North Borneo (today the Malaysian state of Sabah), the port city of Sandakan was a popular destination; however, the city today has little trace of their former presence, besides an old Japanese cemetery.
The December 1941 Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation of Malaya brought many Imperial Japanese Army soldiers to the country, along with civilian employees of Japanese companies. After the Surrender of Japan ended the war, Japanese civilians were mostly repatriated to Japan; about 6,000 Japanese civilians passed through the transit camp at Jurong, Singapore. In the late days of the war and the post-war period, around 200 to 400 Japanese holdouts were known to have joined the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), aiming to fight against the British post-war attempt to re-establish control of Malaya. The largest concentration at Kuala Kangsar, Perak seem to have been executed by Lai Teck; however, others would go on to join the Malayan Communist Party and remain hidden in the jungles. As late as 1990, two elderly Japanese civilians from that period remained in hiding with the MCP in the jungles on the Malaysia–Thailand border. They emerged and requested repatriation to Japan after the end of the Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89). In media interviews these individuals stated that they remained behind because they felt morally obligated to aid the fight for Malayan independence from the British.
In the late 2000s, Malaysia began to become a popular destination for Japanese retirees. Malaysia's My Second Home retirement programme received 513 Japanese applicants from 2002 until 2006. Motivations for choosing Malaysia include the low cost of real-estate and of hiring home care workers. Such retirees sometimes refer to themselves ironically as economic migrants or even economic refugees, referring to the fact that they could not afford as high a quality of life in retirement, or indeed to retire at all, were they still living in Japan. However, overall, between 1999 and 2008, the population of Japanese expatriates in Malaysia fell by one-fifth.
Business and employment
During the early Meiji era, Japanese expatriates in Malaya consisted primarily of "vagabond sailors" and "enslaved prostitutes". Most came from Kyushu. The Japanese government first ignored them, but in the era of rising national pride following the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, came to see them as an embarrassment to Japan's image overseas; however, their presence and the money they earned formed the basis for the early Japanese commercial enclaves and small businesses in Malaysia. Soon after, the expansion of those businesses, and of Japan's commercial interests in Southeast Asia, would spark changes in the composition of the population. Japan worked with local colonial authorities to suppress Japanese women's participation in the sex trade, and by the 1920s most prostitutes had been forced to repatriate to Japan.
By the early 20th century, most Japanese in Malaya worked in rubber cultivation. At the peak of the industry's success in 1917, there were 1,776 Japanese employed on rubber plantations. They worked primarily at Japanese-owned plantations, concentrated in Johor, Negeri Sembilan, and Borneo. By 1917, Japanese planters owned 170,000 acres (690 km2) in Johor alone. However, British legislation enacted that year restricted the sale of land greater than 50 acres (200,000 m2) to foreigners; the Japanese consul lodged a strong protest, as the Japanese were the most-affected among all foreigners, however to no avail. By the mid-1920s, the number of rubber plantation workers had declined to around 600, in concert with the fall in international rubber prices. Between 1921 and 1937, 18 of the 23 Japanese corporate-owned plantations in Malaya shut down.
More urbanised Penang shows a somewhat different pattern of economic development. As in other parts of Malaya, the early Japanese community there was based around prostitution. As early as 1893, the community had set up its own cemetery. In a form of "spillover effect", other Japanese tertiary sector workers followed them and set up their own businesses catering to them, such as medical and dental services and hotels; these also found customers among local people, who saw them as high quality while being lower cost than the equivalents patronised by Europeans. The Japanese were also credited with opening the island's first cinemas and photo studios. Many of these businesses clustered around Cintra Street and Kampung Malabar (see list of streets in George Town, Penang). With the growth in the number of Japanese ocean-liners travelling between Japan and Europe which called at Penang, the hoteliers were able to expand their customer base beyond prostitutes; they used the capital and experience they had already accumulated to establish higher-quality establishments to cater to the needs of travellers.
In the 1970s, the number of Japanese subsidiaries and joint ventures in Malaysia increased significantly. By 1979, roughly 43% of Japanese JVs in Malaysia were engaged in manufacturing, primarily in the electronics, chemicals, wood products, and chemicals. The movement of Japanese manufacturing to southeast Asia, including Malaysia, intensified with the implementation of strong-yen monetary policies under the 1985 Plaza Accord. Japanese subsidiary companies in Malaysia show a tendency to employ a far higher number of expatriate staff than their British or American competitors; a 1985 survey found a figure of 9.4 expatriate Japanese staff per subsidiary, though noted a declining trend.
In the aftermath of the 1931 Mukden Incident which led to the establishment of Manchukuo, anti-Japanese sentiment began to grow among the ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia. In Penang, Chinese community leaders encouraged people to boycott Japanese shops and goods. The hostile environment contributed to the outflow of Japanese civilians. In the lead up to and during the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Chinese people suspected that the remaining Japanese were spies and informants for the Japanese government, though in fact the major collaborators were local Chinese who dealt in Japanese goods, as well as people from Taiwan who, bilingual in Hokkien and Japanese, served as intermediaries between the locals and the Japanese.
Japanese management practises in Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s show a different pattern of interethnic relations. Some authors suggest that the Japanese show favouritism in promotion towards Malaysian Chinese over bumiputera, due to their closer cultural background. Despite efforts to localise the management of JVs, most managers continue to be expatriates. One author, however, noted a repeating pattern in several companies she studied: there would be a single high-up local manager, an ethnic Chinese man who attended university in Japan and married a Japanese woman; however, the Japanese wives of other expatriates tend to look down on such women, and there is little social contact between them. Japanese staff in Japanese JVs and subsidiary companies tend to form a "closed and exclusive circle", and develop few personal relationships outside the workplace with their Malaysian peers and subordinates. This is often attributed to a language barrier, yet Japanese sent to Malaysia tend to possess at least some proficiency in English; as a result, other scholars suggest that cultural and religious differences, as well as the short stay of most Japanese business expatriates, play a role as well.
The Japanese Association of Singapore, established in 1905, would go on to establish branches in all of the Malay states. It was closely watched by the police intelligence services.
There are Japanese day schools in a number of major cities in Malaysia, including the Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur in Subang, Selangor, The Japanese School of Johor (Malay: Sekolah Jepun(Johor); ジョホール日本人学校), Kinabalu Japanese School (コタキナバル日本人学校), and Penang Japanese School (Malay: Sekolah Jepun P. Pinang; ペナン日本人学校). The Perak Japanese School is a supplementary education programme in Ipoh, Perak.
In popular culture
In Japan, interest in the history of Japanese prostitutes in Malaysia in the early days of the 20th century was sparked by Tomoko Yamazaki's 1972 book Sandakan hachiban shokan, a recording of oral history of women from the Amakusa Islands who had gone to Sandakan and then returned to Japan in the 1920s. Yamazaki's book went on to win the Oya Soichi Nonfiction Prize (established by novelist Sōichi Ōya), and enjoyed nationwide popularity. It was fictionalised as a series of popular films, the first of which, the 1972 Sandakan No. 8 directed by Kei Kumai, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
This is a list of Japanese expatriates in Malaysia and Malaysians of Japanese descent.
- Endon Mahmood, late wife of ex-Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, born to a Malay father and a Japanese mother
- Tadashi Takeda, footballer for JEF United Ichihara Chiba, born in Malaysia
- Chef Wan, Malaysian celebrity chef
- Syatilla Melvin, Malaysian actress and model
- Tun Fuad Stephens, first Chief Minister of the state of Sabah in Malaysia, and the first Huguan Siou or Paramount Leader of the Kadazandusun community
- "The number of Japanese residents (April 2014)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- Embassy of Japan 2009, §2
- Imaoka 1985, p. 354
- Denker 1998, p. 3, based on British censuses
- Leng 1978, p. 163
- Denker 1998, pp. 2–3
- Warren 2000, p. 9
- Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 272
- Bayly & Harper 2007, p. 273
- "2 Japanese emerge after 45 years of fighting with guerrillas in Jungle", Deseret News, 12 January 1990, retrieved 20 June 2011
- Ono 2008, pp. 154–155
- Ono 2008, pp. 155–157
- Ono 2008, p. 159
- Embassy of Japan 2009, §1
- Furuoka et al. 2007, p. 314
- Warren 2000, p. 5
- Shimizu 1993, p. 81
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- Leng 1978, p. 169
- Denker 1998, p. 6
- Shimizu 1993, p. 83
- Liang, Clement (18 September 2007), "The Pre-War Japanese Community in Penang (1890–1940)", Penang Media, archived from the original on 24 August 2011, retrieved 20 June 2011
- Imaoka 1985, pp. 339–342
- Smith 1994, p. 154
- Furuoka et al. 2007, p. 319
- Imaoka 1985, p. 348
- Furuoka et al. 2007, p. 316
- Smith 1994, p. 160
- Smith 1994, p. 175
- Denker 1998, p. 5
- "School Outline." Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur. Retrieved on January 13, 2015. "Saujana Resort Seksyen U2, 40150, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia"
- Home page. The Japanese School of Johor. Retrieved on January 15, 2015. "No.3, Jalan Persisiran Seri Alam, 81750 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim, West Malaysia."
- Home page. Kinabalu Japanese School. Retrieved on January 15, 2015. "〒88450 Lorong Burong Ejek House No.8, Jalan Tuaran, Miles 3.5, 88450, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia"
- Home page. Penang Japanese School. Retrieved on January 15, 2015. "140.Sungei Pinang Road 10150 Penang,Malaysia."
- "アジアの補習授業校一覧（平成25年4月15日現在）" (). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Retrieved on February 13, 2015.
- "Japanese expatriates prefer high-rise condominiums with schools nearby", New Straits Times, 10 February 2001, retrieved 20 February 2010
- Warren 2000, p. 3
- Warren 2000, p. 2
- Koh, Lay Chin (21 October 2005), "Endon's legacy to the country", New Straits Times, retrieved 20 April 2010[permanent dead link]
- "36 Tadashi Takeda", Team Roster for 2008, JEF United, 2008, archived from the original on 3 August 2008, retrieved 19 April 2010
- Bayly, Christopher Alan; Harper, Timothy Norman (2007), Forgotten wars: freedom and revolution in Southeast Asia, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02153-2
- Denker, Mehmet Sami (1998), "Ties That Bind: Japan-Malaysian Economic Relations in Historical Perspective" (PDF), İktisadi ve idari bilimler fakültesi dergisi, 8 (1): 1–15, archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2011
- Furuoka, Fumitaka; Lim, Beatrice; Mahmud, Roslinah; Katō, Iwao (2007), "東マレーシアと日本の歴史的関係に関する考察" (PDF), 『東西南北』, 15: 309–321, archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2011
- Imaoka, Hiroki (1985), "Japanese management in Malaysia" (PDF), Southeast Asian Studies, 22 (4)
- Leng, Yuen-choy (1978), "The Japanese Community in Malaya before the Pacific War: Its Genesis and Growth", Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 9 (2): 163–179, JSTOR 20062723, doi:10.1017/s0022463400009735
- Ono, Mayumi (2008), "Long-Stay Tourism and International Retirement Migration: Japanese Retirees in Malaysia", in Yamashita, Shinji, Transnational migration in East Asia: Japan in a comparative focus (PDF), Senri Ethnological Reports, 77, pp. 151–162, ISBN 978-4-901906-57-9, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011
- Shiraishi, Saya; Shiraishi, Takashi, eds. (1993), The Japanese in colonial Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian Publications, 3, Cornell University, ISBN 978-0-87727-402-5. Chapters cited:
- Shiraishi, Saya; Shiraishi, Takashi (1993), "The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia: An Overview", The Japanese in colonial Southeast Asia, pp. 1–20
- Shimizu, Hajime (1993), "The Pattern of Economic Penetration of Prewar Singapore and Malaysia", The Japanese in colonial Southeast Asia, pp. 63–86
- Smith, Wendy A. (1994), "A Japanese Factory in Malaysia: Ethnicity as a management ideology", in Sundaram, Jomo Kwame, Japan and Malaysian development: in the shadow of the rising sun, Routledge, pp. 154–181, ISBN 978-0-415-11583-4
- 田邉 保博 [Tanabe Yasuhiro] (2003), "マレイシア・クアラルンプール日本人学校の教育事情", Bulletin of the Center for Research in International Education (26): 109–111
- "コタキナバル日本人学校", 『海外子女教育』, 32 (3), 2005, ISSN 0287-7058
- Warren, James F. (September 2000), "New Lands, Old Ties and Prostitution: A Voiceless Voice", Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context (4), retrieved 27 August 2012
- 『マレーシア在留邦人数の調査結果について』, Malaysia: Embassy of Japan, 14 February 2009
- Abdullah, Syed R. S.; Keenoy, Tom (1995). Japanese managerial practices in the Malaysian Electronics Industry: Two case studies. Journal of Management Studies. 32. pp. 747–766. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1995.tb00150.x.
- Raduan, Che Rose (2002). Japanese style management abroad: The case of Malaysian subsidiaries. Selangor, Malaysia: Prentice Hall, Pearson Education. ISBN 978-983-2473-01-5. OCLC 51554618.
- Smith, Wendy A. (1993). Japanese management in Malaysia. Japanese Studies. 13. pp. 50–76. doi:10.1080/10371399308521875.
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As technology surges in use, it’s increasingly reaching every area of our lives.
Your classroom is next—that is, if technology hasn’t gotten there already!
Times are changing quicker than we realize, leaving us language educators with no option but to board the tech train or get stuck behind the times.
It can also provide students with a respite from customary classroom activities while still encouraging and reinforcing learning.
Oh, and they’re all free or extremely affordable.
So, why shouldn’t you start upgrading your teaching and experimenting with the highest-rated apps for language educators? It’s a no-brainer!
The Benefits of Using Apps in Your Language Teaching
First, let’s explore some ways incorporating apps in lessons benefits both students and teachers.
Apps can enhance student engagement
Technology is always a welcome addition in any classroom, in the same way technology is welcome in the world at large when it betters people’s lives. It has applications across the board from healthcare and science to education and personal finance. Whatever you need to learn or teach, there’s probably an app for that.
Students really enjoy incorporating technology in their language learning routines, often preferring it to conventional reading, writing and classroom activities.
That said, you might think that technology in the classroom would be a major distraction—something that hinders learning rather than maintaining student focus. Well, you’d be correct in the assertion that the constant distractions caused by widespread technology have been found to lower student attention spans.
But, weirdly enough, language learning and teaching apps let you harness this gravitational power of technology for good. Let students take a break to get lost in a round of fun app learning when they’re getting restless, and they’ll be productive with their language while indulging in the use of their favorite technology.
Apps add a whole new dimension to learning
Using apps in the classroom adds a whole new dimension to student learning by reinforcing the material and allowing students to experience language through fresh, uncharted and interactive means, beyond the pen, paper and textbook. This is a novel idea for students as much as it is for teachers—they’ve probably never had a real reason to use their gadgets in class before. And that novelty is great at inspiring excitement and enthusiasm for learning.
Apps make learning more easily accessible
With the easy accessibility of apps, they can be used both inside and outside of the classroom.
Apps are easy to use for both students and teachers, and they require minimal time. For example, if students are waiting in a line, why not encourage them to study for a few minutes on apps they’ve been learning with in class? We’ve all had students overuse the excuse, “I left my notebook and books,” so this way they can maximize their free time, increase their productivity and lose the excuses!
Of course, many students don’t have access to smartphones, computers or tablets due to their economic circumstances, so use your own discretion here. It comes down to your classroom and your students.
Apps can ease the challenges of classroom management
Now there are many apps out there that make our lives easier. These allow us to focus more on teaching and less on attendance, grading and other little things we need to keep track of that take us away from teaching time. Since I know this is a priority for many educators, this is the focus of the second half of my recommended apps list below, starting with the seventh app on the list.
12 Killer Apps for Language Educators
1. Study Blue
We all have experienced student boredom and at times discontent with conventional flashcards. Here’s the app responsible for revolutionizing this study tool so students memorize vocabulary, phrases and grammatical concepts more effectually, as well as mastering other studying skills.
If you’re working from a textbook, you can upload all the vocabulary, phrases and grammatical concepts to the app as you’d like. Students will then be responsible for creating and using their in-app flashcards based on what you upload as study tools for their assignments and tests.
One of its unique perks is its ability to appraise students’ pronunciation of each word in the app with its audio capabilities.
Don’t take my word for it; check out this educator’s Study Blue review.
2. Head’s Up!
Android | iPhone
Watch Sofia Vergara from “Modern Family” and Ellen DeGeneres play Head’s Up live on her show. In this game (called Adivinando or “guessing” in Spanish), one student has a word that they’re trying to guess by listening as another student describes it. This game helps students build speaking confidence and encourages them to use adjectives, synonyms and antonyms. Not to mention, it lets students have fun and be creative. It’s guaranteed to engender risas (laughs) while students creatively practice vocab.
It even works great for educators of other languages beyond English and Spanish. Students simply rest the word on the app against their forehead and the other student describes it in the target language until they get it right. Depending on skill level, students can use body language and keep a dictionary handy (as long as they don’t give away the actual target word). There are many fun categories suitable across the ages and learning contexts.
This may be the most frequently used go-to language learning apps students already have on their phones. How can it help in the classroom, you ask? One great way to use this in the classroom is to provide students with an excerpt, any excerpt, possibly one based on current class topics, (I recommend shorter than 4 sentences for simplicity and with content they’re likely to understand). Then have students translate the text via Google Translate.
The next step is the most educational, led a discussion about the quality of the app’s translation. What phrases and words were translated well? Which ones don’t fit? Which grammatical concepts is the app not sophisticated enough to understand?
This should teach them many nuances and complexities of language learning, as well as translation! This in-class activity will make it clear that this app mainly functions well only on a word-by-word translation configuration, so it’s crucial to be vigilant when translating full sentences, phrases, idioms. sayings and more.
Language learners across the globe use Duolingo as an autonomous language guide. Duolingo contains lessons that integrate conversation, vocabulary, speaking and listening skills. At the end of each section, students are tested on the relevant skills, and then the results show what parts students are excelling in, as well as where they could use more practice.
It also is helpful in classrooms with students of varying skill levels. When the more advanced students finish their work early, they can stay productive by advancing to the subsequent levels in Duolingo, similar to a video-game. Video-gaming and learning simultaneously! I’m sure you well know that this can significantly incentivize students!
Bonus: There’s also a friendly little automated bird that accompanies with each student during all of the lessons. It also sends users email reminders to put in their daily 5 to 10 minutes of study time. If these reminders are ignored after a while, the poor bird finally caves and says, “these emails don’t seem to be working. I’ll stop for now.” Ha! One student told me this response actually encourage her to study!
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, commercials, news, cartoons and inspiring talks—and turns them into language immersion experiences. Unlike more conventional apps, FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease your students into language and culture over time. They’ll learn language as it’s spoken in real life by native speakers.
FluentU has a huge collection of authentic language videos that native speakers in each language actually watch regularly. This is content that’s known internationally for its quality and entertainment value. Students get excited when they see their favorite clips appear in the classroom.
But it doesn’t just stop with great videos. On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and come with built-in language lessons. These videos are also carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocab lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like flashcards and fun “fill in the blank” exercises.
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects, as well as homework. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about learning languages!
This game is not only helpful for encouraging word formation, but it’s also a wonderful way to introduce a culture into the classroom, since millions play Words With Friends daily. In this automated scrabble-like game, students spell out words for points adhering to certain parameters.
A fun way to integrate this game into the classroom is by holding a Words With Friends championship. Have students play with each other in several rounds; the student with the highest score move on to the next round and eventually become the Words With Friends classroom champion. Quite an engaging way to practice spelling and vocab!
Evernote is primarily helpful with organizing language course content digitally. From planning a course, to delivering a lesson plan and to capturing feedback after class (before, during and after!), you can plan your classes with tags. Tags are a great way to structure your classes weekly or by class. For example, if you know that there’s certain content to be taught during the sixth week, then for all related content you can use the tag “week 6.” Once this is in place, you can keep adding additional tags as the semester progresses.
During class you can share a digital notebook with your students: After you create it, it uploads automatically to their Evernote app. In accord, anything you add can be viewed immediately by students, sort of like a teaching cloud similar to Apple’s iCloud, Dropbox and Google Drive. You can also do whiteboard photos by taking snapshots of the whiteboard and uploading them for later use. Take a pic of the whiteboard before and after class for an accurate time-stamped snapshot of what you were working on, on any given class day.
After class you can streamline grading by scanning graded tests, including scantrons, and add them to Evernote. You can then enter them into your in-app spreadsheet when you have time.
Here’s another online virtual classroom platform, most useful for tests and discussion forums. Educators can redact a quiz, upload it to the app for students to take on their their phones or tablets. The structure is already conveniently in place for multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank. All they need to do is enter the in-app code specific to that quiz. Students’ responses update immediately, enabling a comprehensive understanding of each student’s performance, and the class’s aggregate performance as a whole.
The results can be emailed to you or whomever immediately, and you can compare all students’ performances across metrics such as response time and correctness, and give them instant in-app feedback. It’s great for games, vocab tests and most importantly motivating both parties, us educators and our students! It seems like students are loving it too!
This is my preferred app if I either don’t want my students to be on their devices for that day or class activity, or if they don’t have their own devices. It enables us to appraise students using the app’s paper cards, via your own device.
The most convenient way to use it is to create multiple-choice questions before class starts. You ask a question and students raise the answer in the air with their cards. This is what enables the app’s special magical feature. With merely the device’s camera, you scan the raised hands (each student is linked to their Plickers car’s number) for an instant count of all your students’ in-class answers.
Especially magical is that it can see how each student answered, allowing us to quickly gauge who is and isn’t understanding the class material and how challenging it is. We can then project the class responses (graph-mode is most useful here) on the whiteboard so students get an idea too.
This is the simplest, yet arguably most practical and useful of all the apps here. It fixes a common classroom problem. We all know what it’s like to propose a question to the class, especially one that we know is thoughtful enough to provoke educational dialogue, only to find that no student raises their hand. So what do we do in the face of their blind stares?
Instead of using popsicle sticks or a bingo-type random choosing of labels with students’ names, we can create an in-app virtual class list with all students’ names. Talk about environmental friendliness and convenience; with the app open, just tap or shake the screen to randomly assign a student to answer. When a student is chosen, they fall into the “used” category so you don’t call on them twice. If you do want to call on them again, you can simply “reset” their stick so their name can still be randomly chosen.
What I find most useful is that students can also be sorted according to their aptitude (based on Bloom’s taxonomy) in the target language. The app is smart, in that it learns to link students to the questions most fitting to their name and aptitude with time and use. What’s cool is that you can act like your student selection is random, when in reality you’re strategically challenging each student based on their unique learning curve. Unfortunately this app isn’t free, but it’s cheap. It only costs $2 to $4 depending on whether it’s through iOS, Amazon or Google Play.
Sick of passing around an attendance sheet everyday for every class? This is a great opportunity to go paperless, particularly with classroom management. It tracks students’ attendance across various classes. But that’s not all.
The app is more than a digital class record. You can track where each student sits, back up any important class material to the Dropbox digital cloud, make behavior notes for each student, manage a digital gradebook, redact student progress reports, quite easily. I like its calendar, which helps you track each lesson at each time in the day, which students are absent, their participation, and behavior ratings! We’ve all forgotten a student’s name, so all the in-app data is linked to their photo! This clearly makes our job easier.
Your time is precious, so ideally you spend it more on teaching and less on classroom management! I think TeacherKit can make a big difference here.
12. Too Noisy
Tired of reminding your students to “quiet down?” This app shows how loud it is in the room at any given moment, projected visually! Quite simple and useful.
As long as students are within the preferred noise level, which you choose in the setting modes, the cartoon face is happy and the car-like meter is in the green. If the noise goes over the threshold, the meter goes into the red and the face angry. You can customize it by adjusting its sensitivity and setting it to silent mode, during tests, for example. You can also “dampen” the meter’s sensitivity, if the class is doing a group activity for example, in which they’re supposed to converse. when they’re in groups as well, each one can have their own meter too on too to modulate their own noise level.
The simple version is free, while the pro $3 version tracks more background noise and has no ads.
As a language educator, you play an undoubtedly fundamental role in an increasingly global, diverse and multilingual society. It’s up to us to develop the language acumen of our students with fun and creativity, ultimately turning out happy, engaged and highly dedicated students!
I hope you found these apps helpful in your classroom. What would be better than checking these out to keep you “on top of your game,” and add more tools to your teacher’s tool box?!
Jason Linder, MA, is a doctoral student and intensely passionate Spanish tutor and blog writer. In his free time, he enjoys Telenovelas, traveling around Latin America, meditation, yoga, exercise, reading and writing. Learn more about his free Spanish learning resources and tutoring.
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach languages with real-world videos.
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As experts in this field, we know the quality and character of a handmade brick cannot be mass-produced; it’s the little imperfections created during the process that makes each brick unique.
To get a really special product takes real craftsmanship and our brickmakers have the skills and experience required to create superior products in the traditional way.
We make our handmade bricks using methods dating back to the 15th century.
A ‘clot’ of roughly shaped clay is prepared and thrown by hand into a wooden mould dusted with dry, fine sand. Excess clay is removed with a wire bow and a flat wooden pallet is placed on top, with the mould being inverted to remove the brick.
These bricks – known as ‘green’ bricks – are then stacked and left to air dry, creating the unique creases or ‘smiles’ on each brick face.
Next, the green bricks are carefully stacked by hand into a coal fired kiln where the temperature is gradually increased.
The colour and texture of fired bricks depend on the minerals in the clay and kiln temperatures. Pink bricks contain more iron, while bricks with yellow tones are produced from clay with a higher lime content.As the kiln temperature increases, the bricks undergo a spectrum of changes; red bricks will darken to a purple tone, then turn brown or grey at around 1300°C.
After firing, the bricks are cooled in the chamber before they are removed for grading and packaging.
The complete brick making process consists of the following stages:-
Winning – digging for clay
Preparation – preparing the clay for shaping/moulding
Shaping – moulding of the bricks by hand
Drying – in open air and in kilns
Firing – in kilns
Quality Control – selecting only first quality bricks
Packing – packaging and preparing bricks for dispatch
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(UNI EN ISO 140/3 - UNI EN ISO 717-1 - EN 14351-1 - UNI EN 20140 part 10)
The ability of an element in a building (window, rolling shutter box, door, etc.) to provide passive protection against noise and to insulate domestic interiors. The soundproofing power of a product is expressed in decibels (dB) and is denoted by Rw (C; Ctr). This value can be determined through a direct test method, set out in international regulation UNI EN ISO 140/3, designed to verify the sound-insulating power of a window installed on a partition wall of a double reverberant room. Alternatively, this value can be determined by using the tables contained in regulation EN 14351-1: this requires the knowledge of a product’s air permeability class, number of seals, and sound insulation of the double glazing to be used.
Doc Legno window (item 68/68) has a sound insulation of Rw = 43 dB
Sound insulation (UNI EN ISO 140-3 - UNI EN ISO 717-1)
Top 68/68 with 4 + 4 glass. 1 Stratophone / 15 argon / 3 + 3 top
Sound insulation index: Rw 40 (-3, -7) dB.
68/68 top with 4 + 4 glass. 2 Stratophone / 15 argon / 4 + 4. 2 Stratophone top.
Sound insulation index: Rw 43 (-3, -7) dB
According to regulation UNI EN ISO 717-1, the evaluation index for maximum sound-insulating power is equal to R'max = 65 dB
Elite 92 with 6+6 glass. 1 stratophone / 15 argon / 4+4. 1 stratophone top.
Sound insulation index: Rw 45 (-2;-5) dB
According to regulation UNI EN ISO 717-1, the evaluation index for maximum sound-insulating power is equal to R'max = 67 dB
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Meds Yeghern — “Great Crime” — is what the Armenian language calls the purge that the Ottoman Empire carried out against Armenians living in Anatolia between 1915 and 1918. From the survivors’ memories we learn how drastic these actions were.
In her 1934 memoirs of her travels in the Middle East, Agatha Christie included the story of Aristide, an Armenian cab driver living in Beirut. The man told the intrigued writer how a brotherhood of blood connected him to the Bedouin tribe of Anajza.
When he was only 7 years old, along with his parents and siblings, he was thrown into a deep pit, doused with tar and set on fire. His family was burned alive. But the boy, miraculously saved, was found by Bedouins and raised as their own. Although these few sentences promise a dramatic story, the famous crime fiction author quickly loses her interest. She doesn’t give a second thought to the fact that Aristide’s story is not an isolated incident, nor that it is only one of the many facets of the tragedy that befell the Armenian people in the early 20th century.
Meds Yeghern or genocide
Meds Yeghern—“Great Crime”—is what the Armenian language calls the purge that the Ottoman Empire carried out against Armenians living in Anatolia between 1915 and 1918. There was no accident in it. Christians were suspected of supporting Russia, with which the Empire was at war at the time. What is more, the newly forming nation of the young Ottoman Empire was to be homogeneous and comprised primarily of Turks.
The displacements, pogroms and “death marches” towards Syria were ordained by the highest authorities and carried out by Turks and Kurds. From the survivors’ memories we learn how drastic these actions were. It is estimated that as a result, from the 2–2.5 million population of Armenians living on the territory of the Empire, between 600,000 and 1.5 million people died.
Grece: He wanted a better life for his child. Read about the Afghan refugee accused of the death of his son here >>>
Genocide, the term used to describe these tragic events, was coined as late as 1944, together with Raphael Lemkin’s Axis Rule In Occupied Europe. The formation of this term and its meaning in international law was undoubtedly influenced by the Nazi crimes. As a direct response to them, Lemkin was also involved in the creation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted on December 9, 1948. Nevertheless, it was the history of the Armenians whose suffering was not accounted for after World War I that drew Lemkin’s attention.
The long road to international recognition of the Armenian tragedy
In 1921, while the Versailles peace conference was still underway, in Berlin an Armenian student assassinated the former Turkish Minister of Interior Affairs Mehmed Talaat. Soghomon Tehlirianin, because that was the student’s name, thus avenged his mother’s death—by taking the life of a high Turkish official co-responsible for the purges. The German justice system acquitted Tehlirianin; the trial was covered also by the Polish press at the time. His self-administration took place the same year, when 130 Turkish soldiers, detained in Malta and accused by the Armenian delegation at the conference of crimes against their nation, were released without trial.
The Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was established on April 24. It is the date of the deportation of the Armenian intelligentsia from Istanbul in 1915. Of the thousands of people who had to leave their homes, the majority lost their lives.
On the 50th anniversary of this event, huge spontaneous protests took place in Yerevan, the capital of the then Armenian SSR, with the slogan of regaining the “Armenian lands.” The USSR, which had avoided the subject of the Armenian Genocide since the end of World War I, now wanted to avoid irritating Ankara and decided to channel this anger. A memorial complex was erected a few dozen kilometers west of Yerevan. To this day annual ceremonies commemorating the victims of the genocide are held at this place.
The ongoing Armenian-Turkish conflict
Although more than a century has passed since these events, the Armenian-Turkish conflict does not fade. The reason for this is not only Turkey’s failure to acknowledge the scale and significance of the crimes committed. The conflict was revived again in late 2020 with the war over Nagorno-Karabakh. It lasted intermittently since the 1980s, its main parties being Armenia and Azerbaijan, the latter supported by Turkey. Azerbaijan’s victory in the latest stage of this conflict, while not actually benefiting Turkey, was humiliating for Armenia.
However, as in many conflicts of this type, the most painfully affected was the local civilian population. Already in early October 2020, it was reported that over half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population, consisting largely of Armenians, had to be displaced due to fighting in the area. While the agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan guarantees the residents a return home, not everyone will have a place to return to.
Politicians and artists who are not afraid to talk about genocide
Armed conflicts do not make old wounds heal faster. Especially if one of the parties refuses to admit to having inflicted the damage in the first place. However, there are more and more voices not afraid to call a spade a spade.
Unofficial sources of the media such as the Wall Street Journal and Reuters suggest that in a statement planned for April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden intends to officially call the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century a genocide. This would be consistent with his announcement a year ago, when he was still running for president, and with the actions of the House of Representatives which in 2019 passed a historic resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. However, commentators point out that the fear of aggravating already strained relations with Turkey may prevent Joe Biden from taking this step.
Artists are also taking a stand on the Armenian Genocide. Among them is Fatih Akin, a German director of Turkish descent, who in his film Rana (2014) presented the story of a man trying to find his family after he learns that they may have survived the 1915 purge. Also, a Turkish writer Elif Shafak, in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul, alludes to the complicated Turkish-Armenian relationship by telling the story of a family who discovers their true roots amidst the consequences of actions taken against Armenians.
Patriarchy and minorities. What can you learn from Elif Shafak’s The Bastard fo Istanbul? Read the review of the book here >>
Among those affected by the right-wing Turks’ outrage over the Armenian tragedy is 2006 Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. He was taken to court for speaking in a Swiss newspaper about the enormous scale of the killings of Armenians in the early 20th century, even though he had not actually used the word ‘genocide’ in his statement.
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide in Poland
The Polish contribution to the commemoration of the genocide victims is Stefan Żeromski’s novel The Coming Spring. Published in 1924, that is several years after the purges had ended, it provides an emphatic description of the massacres carried out by Turkish and local Azeri troops.
For more information on cultural texts relating to the Armenian genocide, see Lesław Czapliński’s “MEC JEGHERN” znaczy zagłada (ang. “MEC JEGHERN means extermination”).
The Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians encourages you to join the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day online here >>>.
The symbol of remembrance of the victims is the purple and blue forget-me-not flower.
Julita Dudziak – graduated international relations and Far Eastern cultural studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Member of the Salam Lab team.
Translation: Anna Babiec – philologist and translator by day, blues dancer by night; passionate about the history and culture of the Middle East. Member of the Salam Lab team.
Christie Agatha, Opowiedzcie jak tam żyjecie, Warszawa 1999.
Armenian genocide: survivors recall events 100 years on, Channel 4.
Szymon Ananicz, Turcja i Armenia w cieniu Wielkiej Tragedii, „Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich”, nr 167, 21.05.2015,
Krzysztof Persak, 120. Rocznica urodzin Rafała Lemkina, 24.06.2020,
Halil Berktay, Słowo na L, którego nie użył Pamuk, “Gazeta WYborcza”, 04.04.2011,
Andrzej Zięba, Genocidium: Rafał Lemkin i Ormianie polscy we Lwowie,
Zbigniew Rokita, Przeszłości nie można przewidzieć „Znak” kwiecień 2015,
Wojciech Górecki, Górski Karabach: kapitulacja Armenii, sukces Rosji, „Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich”, 10.11.2020,
Połowa ludności Górskiego Karabachu musiała uciekać z domów z powodu walk , PAP, 07.10.2020,
Humeyra Pamuk, Trevor Hunnicutt, Arshad Mohammed, Biden expected to recognize massacre of Armenians as genocide – sources, “Reuters”, 22.04.2021,
Maciej Orłowski, Historyczna uchwała Izby Reprezentantów ws. ludobójstwa Ormian. „Żadne obce mocarstwo nie zmusi nas do milczenia”, Gazeta Wyborcza, 30.10.2019,
Maureen Freely, ’I stand by my words. And even more, I stand by my right to say them…’, “The Guardian”, 23.10.2005,
Lesław Czapliński, „MEC JEGHERN” znaczy zagłada, “Akant”, 2015, nr 10,
Remembering The Armenian Massacres, BBC,
An Armenian Genocide Survivor Speaks (1 of 3), testimony of the late Hagop H. Asadourian (1903-2003) recorded on April 24, 2003 in New York.
Cover photo: elderly woman on Armenian cementary. Credit: Montecruz Foto via flickr.com.
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The world has been shaken by the Arab Revolution. From the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, revolution is on the agenda. And once again Egypt has been at the heart of this process, as it has always played a leading role in the region, due to its size, population and economic weight.
In the past Egypt had a leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was regarded as an anti-imperialist. Under his rule much social change took place, and he is still remembered today, as is testified by the fact that during the demonstrations in Cairo in the recent period, placards with the portrait of Nasser have been seen.
No other Arab leader has ever achieved the same popularity as the revolutionary colonel Nasser. His attempt to create a modern, industrialised and civilized Egypt was immediately met with opposition on the part of imperialism. Every single reform and gain for the masses was achieved through confrontation with the capitalist system.
However, what we need to look at on the one hand is the nature of the revolutionary regime of Nasser, and on the other how this same regime was transformed into the monstrously oppressive US imperialist backed regime of Mubarak despised by the Egyptian masses. The answer is not to be found in the different personalities of these leaders, but in deeper processes taking place within society.
The Colonial revolution
After the Second Wold War, an anti-imperialist movement swept throughout the colonial countries. In Asia and Africa the masses rose up against their colonial rulers, taking advantage of the power vacuum that opened up by the shift in the balance of world relations determined by the outcome of the war. In the Middle East the post-war scenario was radically transformed by the demise of French and British imperialist rule (the dominant forces until then), the rise of the USA as the main capitalist world power and the growing influence of the USSR on the back of the Red Army's victory against Nazi Germany. US meddling in the area aimed at taking over the spoils of the former colonial rulers played an important role in further destabilising the Middle East.
In the Arab world, imperialist partition into spheres of influence controlled by Britain and France was already in place after the First World War. Egypt and Sudan had already been de facto British protectorates since 1882 and annexed to the British Empire in 1914. Algeria was occupied by France in 1830 followed by Tunisia in 1881.
The British government offered Arab independence to gain the support of Arab guerrilla forces against what was left of the Ottoman Empire, but in the post-war treaty all references to Arab independence were forgotten. The Arab nation was artificially divided into a number of states, the boundaries of which were drawn arbitrarily in the sand. Formal independence was granted to Jordan, Iraq and Egypt where monarchies were established to reward some of Britain lackeys but these weak regimes were placed under strict imperialist patronage (including a direct military presence) and would have fallen without open British or French support. In Egypt the British-backed monarchy of King Farouk was soon exposed for all its weakness.
There was the burning need to develop a modern industrial base to meet the most basic demands of the population, build the infrastructure of a modern economy and achieve political and economic emancipation, and remove the appalling misery of the masses, etc. All these basic tasks, however, could not be achieved without a genuine break with colonial rule. Thus revolution was on the agenda.
Apart from the economic interest in the exploitation of the increasingly important oil reserves that were being discovered in the region, for the imperialists, the Middle East and North Africa became after the Second World War a region of strategic importance in the struggle against the USSR and “communism”. Egypt was rightly regarded as the key to the whole area. Conservative politicians such as Winston Churchill spoke of Britain’s “rightful position” in the area around the Suez Canal as a way of ensuring their strategic presence in the region. The British capitalists stressed that the Suez Canal was a key supply artery for the Empire.
However, by the end of the Second World War, Egypt was moving rapidly in the direction of revolution. The masses demanded that the foreign troops should leave. Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mahmoud Nuqrashi, was forced to ask the British for a re-negotiation of the Suez Canal treaty and for a withdrawal of the troops. The right-wing British Labour leaders, who sided with the interests of British capitalism rather than the world working class, turned this down. Violent protests and riots erupted in Cairo and Alexandria. Workers and students attacked British soldiers and companies. Eventually, Britain was forced to promise a withdrawal of the troops by 1949, but that did not happen.
As in all colonial and ex-colonial countries, the national bourgeoisie in the Arab countries has never played any progressive role. Their development as a class took place under the patronage of imperialist domination, their privileges depending on the crumbs of their masters' looting of the country's wealth. Before the revolution of 1952, the Egyptian elite loyally served the interests of British capital. The traditional party of the Egyptian bourgeoisie, the Wafd, sided with the British during World War Two.
The Egyptian Communist movement on the eve of 1952
The Egyptian working class in the context of a general mass upsurge was emerging strengthened with a significant rise in trade union activity and organisation. The Communist movement, however, was rife with internal disputes and divisions.
Communist parties (CPs) in the Arab world already had to bear the consequences of the Stalinist policy of supporting the so-called “democratic” imperialist countries that happened to be fighting the war in alliance with the USSR, in particular Britain. In order to do this the CPs had to suddenly abandon the anti-colonial struggle to help organise the “war effort”.
After the war, the CPs went through a second deep crisis. The USSR decided to support the UN resolution for the partition of Palestine. This resolution and the disengagement of British imperialism from the Mandate over Palestine created the conditions for the Zionist leaders of the Jewish Agency for Israel to strike a blow by means of armed force and start a campaign of terror to drive the Palestinian Arabs out of their villages and homes, leading to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. In May 1948 the State of Israel was proclaimed and, again, the USSR was the first state to recognise it. These events demoralised and fragmented the Arab Communist organisations, with Egypt being no exception.
The Egyptian Communists had until then countered the rising influence of the Zionist movement on a class basis, while opposing any discrimination or attack against the Egyptian Jews (mainly by the Muslim Brotherhood). These policies got an echo and the Communist-led Israeli League developed significant support amongst Egyptian Jews, to the extent that they were able to dispute for control over the Makkabi Club in Cairo against the Zionists in a long drawn-out battle which culminated in April 1947. The attempted armed expulsion of the Communists from the club was successfully fought against and only state repression allowed the Zionist bourgeois to regain control. The Israeli League was disbanded by force and many of the leaders arrested or expelled.
At the time of the UN declaration on the partition of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish state in 1947, however, the poisoned fruits of Stalinist influence over the Egyptian Communists had taken their toll. A violent turn in the policies of the main CP factions was enforced in order to align swiftly with Stalin's decision to endorse the formation of Israel. Confusion and demoralisation were the inevitable consequences.
The 1952 revolution
With the CP having failed to become a revolutionary party capable of leading the working class in the revolution, the discontent of the masses found an expression through sections of the armed forces. Many junior officers (among them the young Nasser and Anwar Sadat) were hoping for a British defeat in the war – not out of sympathy for Fascism, but in the hopes of being able to drive out the British and achieve genuine independence.
An increasingly big chasm was opening between the overwhelming majority of the army’s lower ranking officers (not to speak of the troops) and the monarchist loyalists in the high command. The British troops were seen more and more by the masses as an occupation force.
A further blow was dealt by the disastrous 1948 Arab-Israeli War, ignominiously lost because of the different agendas pursued by the Arab regimes, and lack of coordination and poor preparation of the military campaign. The Egyptian high command's incompetence was exposed. The radicalisation of the lower ranking officers in the Egyptian army and troops led to the growth of the clandestine “Free Officers Movement”, launched in the aftermath of the war and led by a young officer, then 30 year-old Gamal Abdel Nasser.
A string of attacks on British forces culminated in an incident in Ismailia. In retaliation, the British Army attacked a local police barracks, killing fifty Egyptian police officers and wounding one hundred. Suddenly Egypt was in flames.
On January 26, one million workers and peasants took to the streets against the monarchy of King Farouk, starting a turbulent period of mass revolt that exposed the narrow base of support for the monarchy. This movement had an impact on the most consistent sections of the national-revolutionary movement and the army ranks. On the back of the mass unrest, on July 23, the “Free Officers” staged a largely bloodless coup under the formal command of a senior army general, Muhammad Naguib, and King Farouk was ousted.
After the coup, the Free Officers formed a Revolutionary Command Council to dictate the policies of the civilian government. All nobility titles were abolished. Their aim was to initiate a process of transforming Egypt from a backward, semi-colonial country into a modern industrialized nation.
Uninterrupted character of the revolution
The original intention of the “Free Officers” was limited to the ousting of king Farouk and his clique, not that of ending the monarchy. But the very dynamic of the revolution led in a few months to the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic on June 18, 1953. The national-democratic revolution in Egypt had been set in motion and developed according to its own logic, as a struggle between living forces, regardless of the original intentions of its leaders.
The programme of the Free Officers was to liberate Egypt from the domination of imperialism. But events were soon to prove that this programme – the programme of the national-democratic revolution – could not be achieved without a break with capitalism.
The Free Officers Movement from their inception had quite a heterogeneous composition and different perspectives coexisted within a general nationalist framework at the very top of the RCC, provoking in the first years of the regime a sharp struggle for the leadership, mainly around the figures of General Muhamad Naguib and the more radical wing around Nasser. These frictions – often involving a power struggle between different wings of the army and ending up in the reshuffling of posts in the hierarchy – were a distorted reflection of the class struggle. Major rifts erupted, for example on the question of agrarian reform.
Every clash resulted in the radical wing emerging strengthened. Nasser eventually succeeded in gaining the upper hand after an assassination attempt against him by the Muslim Brotherhood in October 1954. The subsequent wave of repression targeted not just the MB (which had several leaders arrested and some sentenced to death) but also the Communist Party, the trade union movement and the Wafd party. 20,000 people were arrested in a matter of weeks. Nasser was appointed president by the RCC in January 1955. A new constitution confirming and extending the ban on parties introduced in January 1953, established a one-party system and was confirmed by referendum in 1956. By then Nasser had established firm control.
In spite of these divisions, the Free Officers carried out a number of revolutionary changes and launched an ambitious programme of industrialisation. Soon, however, the local bourgeoisie turned against Nasser’s plans. The hopes of the officers that the Egyptian bourgeoisie would contribute to modernising Egypt by investing in industry were quickly dashed. As was the case for example after the February revolution in Russia in 1917 and after the 1998 electoral victory of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the national bourgeoisie proved to have no interest in the genuine development of the country. On the contrary, they wished to maintain the subservient position of the country to foreign capital and the landlord class that they were benefiting from.
The role of secular forces in the revolution was primary and it is worth noting that even well established bourgeois Islamist organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood played no role. However, several leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood tried to gain positions in the post-revolution government, opening up ferocious internal feuds over ministerial posts. The failed assassination of Nasser marked the final defeat of the MB and those sympathizing with them were purged from all important positions.
Nasser, therefore, found the road to an alliance with the bourgeoisie blocked. However, he refused to accept that this was the end of his attempt to modernise the country, and thus sought support among other layers. He thus turned to the masses, which in turn pressured him for relief from their appalling social conditions.
A series of reforms were introduced, including a reform of the education system, labour laws that introduced guarantees against sackings, the 7-hour working day, health insurance and insurance against accidents at work and progressive legislation to affirm women's rights. Egyptian society was undergoing profound changes.
The revolutionary government
Because capitalism was incapable of developing the backward countries, many movements around the world took on a so-called “socialist” character, despite the fact that the working class was not able to become the leading force of the democratic revolution. Revolutions occurred, although this was often in a distorted and unfinished form. In the absence of a revolutionary leadership of the working class, other social layers, including sections of the military caste in a number of countries, were pushed to the forefront.
The allegiance of the small and poor peasants to the new regime was immediately strengthened. In September 1952 the RCC passed its first major domestic measure, the Agrarian Reform Law, which drastically reduced land rent and distributed to the small and poor peasantry the land belonging to the big estates. More than 400,000 landowners were expropriated. The poor peasants’ incomes were doubled. A maximum limit for individual land ownership was also introduced.
The following years saw a big growth and development of the industrial sector. Production of electricity boomed as did the textile industry. The share of agriculture in GDP dropped by more than half from 1952, stabilizing at around 15 percent throughout most of the 1980s. Industry's share moved in the opposite direction: from only 13 percent in 1952 to around 35 percent in the 1980s.
Nasser was moving in the direction of a decisive break with capitalism. The foreign banks and insurance companies were nationalised in the period 1955-57. Later on, a minimum of 51 percent public ownership was introduced in the most important industries.
But Nasser never went the whole way and capitalism remained in place. There was no real planning of industry, but at the same time, capitalism was unable to function in a “normal” manner due to all the regulations and restrictions imposed by the state. This ambiguous set up led to big contradictions in the economy (including corruption and waste within the state sector). The fact that the revolution had stopped half way without finishing capitalism off and introducing workers’ democracy and a planned economy, was eventually to pave the way for the subsequent counter-revolution under Anwar Sadat, after Nasser’s death.
The stalemate determined by the crisis of the old colonial rule, the change in world power relations, the lack of a social basis of the Farouk monarchy on the one hand, and the mass upsurge left without a revolutionary leadership based on the working class on the other hand, created a vacuum that was filled by the coup of the “Free Officers”.
The regime that came to power could be described as a Bonapartist regime in the classical sense as analyzed by Marx. It was a regime of crisis in a situation where the class struggle reached a stalemate – the ruling elite was unable to restore their rule while the revolutionary proletariat and the masses were unable to take power into their hands. In this situation the state – that is, in the last analysis, armed bodies of men in defence of the property relations of the ruling class – became more independent of the ruling class itself, while never reaching complete independence.
However, in the case of Egypt and many other colonial or ex-colonial countries, the fabric of the state was not as solid as in the more advanced capitalist countries. In 1978, Ted Grant summed up these peculiarities in The Colonial Revolution and the Deformed Workers' States :
“In bourgeois countries in the past, where the bourgeoisie has a role to play and looks forward confidently to the future – i.e. when it is genuinely progressive in developing the productive forces – it has decades and generations to perfect the state as an instrument of its own class rule. The army, police, civil service, middle layers and especially all key positions at the top; heads of civil service, heads of departments, police chiefs, the officer corps and especially the colonels and generals are carefully selected to serve the needs and interests of the ruling class. With a developing economy and a mission and a role they eagerly serve the 'national interest', i.e. the interest of the possessing class – the ruling class.
“In Syria, as in all the ex-colonial countries, the imperialists, in this case the French, partly under the pressure of their rivals, especially American imperialism, were compelled to relinquish their direct military domination. The state which emerged is not fixed and static. The weakness and incapacity of the bourgeoisie gave a certain independence to the military caste. Hence the perpetual coups and counter-coups of the military. But in the last analysis they reflect the class interests of the ruling class. They cannot play an independent role.
“The struggle between the cliques in the army reflects the instability and contradictions in the given society. The personal aims of the generals reflect the differing interests of social classes or fractions of classes of society, the petit-bourgeois in its various fractions, the bourgeoisie, or even under certain conditions the proletariat in so far as they are successful in gaining power. The officer caste must reflect the interest of some class or grouping in society. They do not represent themselves though of course they can plunder the society and elevate their own ruling caste. Nevertheless they must have a class basis in a given society.”
It is the Bonapartist nature of these forces that explains for example why a regime like that of Nasser – insofar as it needed to seek the support of the working class and the poor peasants – could gain so much independence from the bourgeoisie and imperialism to the point of being on the verge of breaking with capitalism altogether. At the same time, the regime could not allow any independent organised force of the working class to exist and develop. Any attempt in that direction was ruthlessly suppressed.
That is why the regime couldn't give way to true revolutionary democracy, let alone workers' democracy and control, while reacting empirically to the revolutionary pressure of the masses in granting important reforms as long as these did not question the grip over the state by the military caste.
In other words, while granting unprecedented reforms and thus playing a progressive role, the regime undermined the ability of the working class and the masses to defend them in the long run, keeping them forcefully passive. This explains why when the regime started swinging back into the sphere of influence of US imperialism and privatisation and counter-reforms became the main features, the military did not lose their grip, but just had to resort to more repression to stay in power.
The demise of the Egyptian CP
The weakness and fragmentation of the Communist movement was further amplified during the 1950s by the inability of all Communist factions to understand the nature of Arab nationalism precisely when it was rising as a mass force and taking the lead in the revolution through Nasser's “Free officers”. The fact that several prominent figures in the Revolutionary Command Council and the Free Officers had links to HADITU (the main Communist organisation at the time of the revolution) didn't make up for the lack of an independent revolutionary strategy from the party.
New divisions opened up among those who supported the Free Officers' regime uncritically and those factions who simply rejected the “Free officers” straight away, denying the revolutionary character of the July 1952 coup and the abolition of the monarchy.
This second trend was undermined by the growing mass support for the social reforms the government had implemented and eventually it capitulated to Nasserism, while the pro-Free Officers wing (around the HADITU faction) went so far as to identify their goals with the military and to actively campaign in Alexandria and Kafr Dawar for the workers to “keep calm” with regards to the regime's decision to execute two workers' leaders after the violent suppression of a strike in Kafr Dawar. It goes without saying that this position provoked splits in the party and alienated the base the CP had amongst trade unionists and the working class.
Despite subsequent twists and turns in its policies and a formally successful attempt to re-unite the party, the unified CP was never able to play anything other than an ancillary role to that of Nasser. It never developed an independent revolutionary policy. It bent more and more under the repression of the regime, losing what credibility it had gained in the eyes of the most militant section of the working class, until it eventually dissolved in 1965.
It is worth noting that the first wave of repression against the CP was as early as January 1953, when the legal press of the two main communist organisations was banned. The fact that Nasser was forced within a couple of years to move towards a bloc with the USSR did not improve in the slightest the position of the Egyptian CP, as the Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow was too busy cultivating its relationship with the Egyptian leader to bother too much about the targeting of the CP for repression.
The Suez crisis
The relationship between Nasser and imperialism continued to worsen. One of the first decisions on the part of the Free Officers was to build the Aswan Dam in Upper Egypt. The dam would produce vast amounts of electricity and drastically improve conditions for agriculture. Thus, the dam became a symbol of the new Egypt. Initially, the US granted a loan of 56 million dollars for the construction. Britain granted a loan (conditioned by the US loan) of 14 million dollars. The World Bank granted a loan of 200 million dollars on condition that this would allow it to oversee Egypt's state finances. In this way, the imperialists sought to maintain colonial rule over Egypt.
The imperialists continued to behave as if they would be able to continue their long-standing domination of Egypt. Nasser was looking for a counterweight to the imperialist powers, and looked to the so-called “non-aligned” countries such as Yugoslavia, India and so on. He refused to join the Baghdad Pact – in reality an eastward expansion of NATO against the Soviet Union, including the regimes in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. This move made it impossible for Egypt to purchase arms from the West, and thus Nasser was forced to turn to the Stalinist countries instead. The Soviet Union, via Czechoslovakia, began supplying heavy arms to Egypt. U.S. and British efforts to match the Soviet offer failed to pull Nasser back. From this time on, Egypt purchased its military equipment from the Soviet Union and other countries in the Warsaw Pact. Western imperialism viewed Nasser as being on the verge of becoming a Soviet puppet.
When, finally, Nasser recognised the People's Republic of China during the height of tensions between China and Taiwan the imperialists stopped all loans to Egypt. Nasser responded by nationalizing the Suez Canal. Until then, the canal had been owned by a Paris-based company with strong British interests involved. The imperialists were infuriated by the move by Nasser. Such behaviour was unheard of! But the effect this had among the Arab masses was translated into enormous popularity for Nasser, as he was seen to be standing up against the imperialists.
The conflict culminated in the Suez crisis with the Anglo-French occupation of the Suez Canal. In a secret deal between the French, the British and Israel, it was agreed that Israeli forces would invade Egypt thus giving British and French forces the excuse to intervene as a “peacekeeping” force. On 29 October 1956 Israeli forces invaded Egypt. The next day the British and French issued an ultimatum to Nasser to end hostilities. Upon Nasser’s refusal to do so, British and French forces were sent into Port Said on 5-6 November. On 7 November the United States, the USSR and the United Nations condemned British and French military action, forcing a cease-fire and putting an end to the whole adventure.
For the British and French, the war was an attempt to regain their former position in the region and curb the rising influence of the US. They needed a secure strategic position in the Middle East, from where they could control shipping and oil supplies. A few years earlier, France had lost her possessions in Syria and Lebanon. The French were engaged in an armed conflict with the Arabs in Morocco and Algeria. The British imperialists, after having been pushed out of the region, had tried to achieve good relations with the Arab regimes, but with meagre results. They changed their previous position and decided to back Israel, a state that at this time was a new (and fast-growing) military power in the region. Israel’s position was one of complete dependence on Western imperialism, in particular US imperialism, against the neighbouring Arab states.
The Stalinist bureaucracies in Moscow and Beijing, on the other hand, were not too keen on seeing the Suez Canal falling into direct British-French control. But the United States also was not too pleased at seeing the British and French playing a role well beyond their real influence in the region, and had tried to avoid the situation leading to outright war. The British and French were hoping that the USSR would be too occupied with crushing the Hungarian Revolution to pay too much attention to the events in Egypt, but this turned out to be wrong. The USSR threatened to intervene in Nasser’s favour and the French and British had to withdraw without achieving their aims.
The Suez crisis shook up the masses and turned them even more against French and British imperialism. At the same time, the victory of Nasser made him a leading figure for the entire Arab nation. Pan-Arab nationalism was triumphant.
The blind alley
The effects of the Suez crisis were enormous. In the entire Arab world, the masses saw the victory as a great step towards liberation. The United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria was established. In effect, this was conceived as a mere expansion of the Egyptian market, and Syria withdrew after a military coup in 1961.
The development of Nasser’s policy was not dictated by a preconceived plan. Rather, Nasser improvised his way through, balancing between the classes. He leaned on the masses in order to strike blows against imperialism and the reactionary Egyptian elite. At the same time, he leaned on the military in order to smash any independent activity from the workers and the poor masses. The Communists were brutally repressed. On the international level, he tried to manoeuvre between the major power blocs. This was reflected in the alliance with Yugoslavia’s Tito and India’s Nehru.
After the humiliating defeat in the 1967 war with Israel, Nasser was personally demoralized and wanted to step down. However, mass demonstrations in Egypt and other Arab countries, under slogans such as “we want to fight!” demanded that Nasser stay as president. He stayed until his death in 1970, and his funeral turned into a mass demonstration of seven million in Cairo.
Behind the rhetoric about “Arab Socialism”, there was a utopian attempt to create “capitalism with a human face”. On the one side, the state sector was massively developed. But no real planning existed, and there was no participation from below. Many state bureaucrats in charge of the nationalized industries – strengthened in the Nasser period with restrictions on imports – later pressured for more privatizations (naturally with themselves or their families as private owners) in order to sell off the assets and get a quick profit.
The last years of Nasser’s rule were characterised by a series of counter-reforms. The revolution stopped half way. The workers found their wages coming under attack. Strikes broke out. Often, the army was sent in to quell protests and strikes.
The death of Nasser in 1970 marked the end of the revolutionary wave that had begun in 1952 and that ended in a blind alley because it was not carried through to its conclusion. The Egyptian bourgeoisie was strengthened by the very same industrialisation that they themselves had so much opposed. Furthermore, they gained political strength after the repression of all independent organisations of the working class and the masses. The balance of forces had changed. The counterrevolution was on its way.
Anwar Sadat, from the old-guard of the Free Officers, was the representative of the counterrevolution on the part of imperialism, the Egyptian bourgeoisie, state bureaucracy and the corrupt military hierarchy. They wished to turn back the clock and roll back the social gains of the Nasser era. In a sense, this reaction was quite “logical” on a capitalist basis. It was not possible to carry on with the massive public subsidies for basic goods and loss-making production. It had to end with either a complete state takeover with a democratic plan under the workers’ control, or a roll-back and a frontal attack on the living standards of the masses.
As always, religion became the convenient ideological cover for the counterrevolution. As he carried out his “market reforms”, Sadat released the MB activists from prison. He also encouraged the MB leaders, exiled in Saudi Arabia, to come back to Egypt, where they were given high positions. Despite all the “religious” and “pious” noises (Sadat named himself the “Believing President”), the counterrevolution had nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with class struggle.
Sadat’s cuts in the public sector hit the workers and poor hard. In 1977, the unbearable attacks on living standards provoked an open mass revolt, the bread riots, that threatened the very existence of the regime.
When Sadat no longer was in need of the services of the fundamentalists, he attacked them and dissolved their student organisations. Then the Frankenstein’s monster turned against its former master and thus Sadat was assassinated in 1981. But the military regime remained in place, and Hosni Mubarak took over.
In the Mubarak years, the IMF-dictated neo-liberal policies continued and were intensified. The minimum wage was frozen in 1984. Poverty reached unheard-of proportions at the same time as the top levels in society enriched themselves shamelessly. Mubarak’s Egypt was praised time and time again by the bourgeois economists. For the Egyptian people, the conditions were a living hell of poverty, humiliation and stifling dictatorship.
The new wave
For years, it seemed that the counterrevolution had a firm grip in Egypt. But this was only so on the surface. Beneath the surface, conditions for the new revolution – on an immensely higher level – had matured. Desperation and anger had accumulated. It began to find a way to the surface with the Mahalla workers’ strikes and occupations from December 2006 onwards. This movement, however, reached a temporary limit due to its unorganized character.
In “The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions”, Rosa Luxemburg described the dialectical development of the Russian revolution of 1905. Economic demands were succeeded by political demands and vice versa. A united, national movement was followed by local organisation and party building – this again paved the way for a revival of the united struggle on a higher level. This book is useful in understanding the developments of the Egyptian class struggle from December 2006 up until the mass uprising of 2011.
The decisive impulse in uniting all the anger against the Mubarak regime was provided by the Tunisian revolution. All the revolutionary energy was united. Now, the revolution has entered a new and higher stage. The lessons from the Nasser era clearly show that a revolution cannot be stopped halfway. If it stops short of doing away with capitalism, repression, humiliation and imperialist domination will return with a vengeance.
The older generation of Egyptians remember the Nasser era of the 1950s and 1960s as the country’s best years. It was a time of progress. But all the hopes and the steps forward were crushed by the counterrevolution. This must not be allowed to happen again! The lessons of the past are valuable for the new generation of revolutionaries. The new society struggled to be born in the Nasser period, but it ended as an abortion.
The failure of Nasserism was its failure to go beyond the limitations of bourgeois nationalism. This was the mistake that Hugo Chávez admitted in 2005 when he declared, that the Bolivarian revolution can only succeed if it succeeds as a Socialist revolution. This is all the more true for the Arab revolution.
The development and history of the Free Officers regime is also a warning for the working class in Egypt and internationally. Only as a socialist revolution, can the revolutionary idea advanced by Nasser about a united Middle East and North Africa become reality.
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March is the month of peak robin migration. We're off to a slow start with reports of robins still concentrated across the mid continent. Wave reports continue to outnumber those of robin song and first-seen robins.
An Exceptional Winter
Are there more robins this year? Or has the extreme and prolonged cold pushed further south the robins that would normally remain in the north? We can't know for sure but it’s been a long, harsh winter across much of North America. Robins are around all winter, but usually in wooded areas. Seeing huge waves of hungry robins may give the impression that robins are more numerous this year. Widespread snow cover is sending robins in search of bare ground, which can be more available in urban areas where it tends to be warmer. Robins cluster at bare spots, foraging for food where more observers can report them. Will we see a huge northward push once temps warm up and the robins' spring menu of worms becomes available? Your sighting reports will tell the story of spring migration after an exceptional winter!
- "Many waves all winter, but the first song of love started yesterday. Low 30, High 55 and sunny. Worms are up. " Crystal S., Brinnon, Washington (February 28, 2014)
Change is in the air and robins are about to spread across the map. By mid-March, the robin chorus
normally extends for miles. Get ready to listen for the surest sign that your male robins have indeed returned to claim territory, find mates and begin nesting:
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Dutch Citizens Still Adopt Graves at Margraten, Netherlands American Cemetery
The Dutch people (among many other countries and peoples) suffered greatly during WWII. Their country was occupied and ruled by the German forces for nearly the entire duration of the war. Under the circumstances, they had no alternative but to hope for the military assistance of the Allied forces to come to their rescue.
per Wikipedia (excerpted)
German soldiers guarding food dump established in forward area, talking to one of the Dutch drivers who is to distribute the food in a Canadian truck. May 3, 1945Main article:Dutch famine of 1944
The winter of 1944–1945 was very harsh, which led to 'hunger journeys' and many cases of starvation (about 30,000 casualties), exhaustion, cold and disease. This winter is known as the Hongerwinter (literally, "hunger winter") or the Dutch famine of 1944. In response to a general railway strike ordered by the Dutch government-in-exile in expectation of a general German collapse near the end of 1944, the Germans cut off all food and fuel shipments to the western provinces in which 4.5 million people lived. Severe malnutrition was common and 18,000 people starved to death. Relief came at the beginning of May 1945.
Member of theNSB
and "moffenmeiden" being rounded up
After crossing the Rhine at Wesel and Rees, Canadian forces entered the Netherlands from the east, liberating the eastern and northern provinces. The western provinces, where the situation was worst, however, had to wait until the surrender of German forces in the Netherlands was negotiated on the eve of May 5, 1945 (three days before the general capitulation of Germany), in the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen. Previously the Swedish Red Cross had been allowed to provide relief efforts, and Allied forces were allowed to airdrop food over the German-occupied territories in Operation Manna.
On the island of Texel, nearly 800 men of the Georgian Legion, serving in the German army as Osttruppen, rebelled on April 5, 1945. Their rebellion was crushed by the German army after two weeks of battle. 565 Georgians, 120 inhabitants of Texel, and 800 Germans died. The 228 surviving Georgians were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union when the war ended.
After being liberated, Dutch citizens began taking the law into their own hands, as had been done in other liberated countries, such as France. Collaborators and Dutch women who had had relationships with men of the German occupying force, called "Moffenmeiden" were abused and humiliated in public, usually by having their heads shaved and painted orange.
By the end of the war, 205,901 Dutch men and women had died of war-related causes. The Netherlands had the highest per capita death rate of all Nazi-occupied countries in Western Europe (2.36%). Over half (107,000) were Holocaust victims, deported and murdered Jews. There were also many thousands of non-Dutch Jews in the total, who had fled to the Netherlands from other countries, seeking safety. Another 30,000 died in the Dutch East Indies, either while fighting the Japanese or in camps as Japanese POWs. Dutch civilians were also held in these camps.
Memorial Day 1945 Margraten
The first day of remembrance of the American lives lost in the liberation of Holland was on May 5, 1945 at Margraten at the new and rough cemetery.
The following silent video solemnly portrays the outpouring of gratitude by Dutch citizens of all ages. When you think of how profoundly different the Dutch life would be now that the country was free from the oppression which had just recently ended, it is understandable how grateful they were. And they are still grateful.
Watch and feel the emotion of the people.
I found this video very sobering as I tried to imagine how close oppression, war and deprivation were to these newly freed people.
What amazes me is that they are still deeply grateful 70 years later.
Margraten Today - Still Respecting Lost American Lives
Our Memorial Day
With the Dutch experience of war and their continuing gratitude for the allied sacrifices that brought them liberation and freedom that has remained until today, I confess that I experience our Memorial Day differently from the Dutch.
They were liberated from the actual horrors of war.
I haven't actually experienced war, let alone war in my own country.
That seems to make all the military preparations we take, first of all to defend our homeland, and then to deter aggressive behaviors elsewhere in the world, less real and urgent compared to anyone who has lived through war in their own country and city and neighborhood.
This seems to be the mood of our country - tired of conflicts that entangle us in the Middle East and elsewhere. But if having war come to our homeland is made any more likely by a lack of resolve to deter aggressive behaviors around our world, then our military strength and resolve and interventions are surely in our national interest as well as in the interest of those being threatened.
My brother fought in the Korean Conflict in the 1950s and his experience left some lifelong effects. He enlisted in the Army and he never begrudged his service. He was proud of his service and we, his family, are proud of him.
I try to spend at least part of my Memorial Day in serious contemplation and in a mood of gratitude for those who have fought and died to bring America into being and to preserve it as a free nation for me and my family.
The price of my freedom has been high and I want my gratitude to match it, like the gratitude of the Dutch people.
If you think this post adds something useful/valuable to "Good News - Tastefully Presented", please use the Share Buttons and/or email the link below directly to your friends.
Thanks! - Dick S
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At the center of a galaxy cluster, 1 billion light years from Earth, a voracious, supermassive black hole is preparing for a chilly feast.
For the first time, astronomers have detected billowy clouds of cold, clumpy gas streaming toward a black hole, at the center of a massive galaxy cluster. The clouds are traveling at speeds of up to 355 kilometers per second — that’s almost 800,000 miles per hour — and may be only 150 light years away from its edge, almost certain to fall into the black hole, feeding its bottomless well. The observations, published today in the journal Nature, represent the first direct evidence to support the hypothesis that black holes feed on clouds of cold gas.
The results also suggest that fueling a black hole — a process known as accretion — is a whole lot messier than scientists had once thought.
“The simple model of black hole accretion consists of a black hole surrounded by a sphere of hot gas, and that gas accretes smoothly onto the black hole, and everything’s simple, mathematically,” says Michael McDonald, assistant professor of physics in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “But this is the most compelling evidence that this process is not smooth, simple, and clean, but actually quite chaotic and clumpy.”
Given the new observations, McDonald says black holes probably have two ways of feeding: For most of the time, they may slowly graze on a steady diet of diffuse hot gas. Once in a while, they may quickly gobble up clumps of cold gas as it comes nearby.
“This diffuse, hot gas is available to the black hole at a low level all the time, and you can have a steady trickle of it going in,” McDonald says. “Every now and then, you can have a rainstorm with all these droplets of cold gas, and for a short amount of time, the black hole’s eating very quickly. So the idea that there are these two dinner modes for black holes is a pretty nice result.”
McDonald is a co-author on the paper, which was led by Grant Tremblay, an astronomer at Yale University.
The researchers made their detection using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA — one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, designed to see the oldest, most distant galaxies in the universe. The team focused ALMA’s telescopes 1 billion light years away, on the central galaxy in the Abell 2597 Cluster, a galaxy that is some tens of thousands of light years across. This particular galaxy is among the brightest in the universe, as it is likely producing many new stars.
The team originally wanted to get a sense for how many stars this cluster was churning out, so they mapped all the cold gas within the cluster. This cold gas has cooled and condensed out of the diffuse halo of hot gas surrounding a cluster, forming clumps. It is the collapse of cold gas that creates new stars, especially in the cluster’s central galaxy.
“In the center of a cluster, there’s a single massive galaxy, the big daddy galaxy of the cluster,” McDonald says. “It’s sitting at the bottom of a gravitational funnel, and all the gas from a thousand galaxies is available to it. These are the galaxies that are the most massive, with the most massive black holes in the universe, and the most potential for star formation.”
The researchers used ALMA to map the spectral signatures, or radio emissions, from the galaxy cluster, looking specifically for signatures of carbon monoxide, the presence of which usually indicates very cold gas, of minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit and below. They mapped carbon monoxide across the entire galaxy cluster and found that as they looked further into the cluster, they encountered progressively cooler gas, from millions of degrees Fahrenheit to subzero temperatures.
At the very center, just at the edge of the cluster’s supermassive black hole, the researchers discovered something quite unexpected: the shadows of three very cold, very clumpy gas clouds. The shadows were cast against bright jets of material spewing from the black hole, suggesting that these clouds were very close to being consumed by the black hole.
“We got very lucky,” McDonald says. “We could probably look at 100 galaxies like this and not see what we saw just by chance. Seeing three shadows at once is like discovering not just one exoplanet, but three in the first try. Nature was very kind in this case.”
Richard Mushotzky, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, says the results prove that seeing is better than simply believing.
“In astronomy and astrophysics, there are a lot of good ideas out there likely to be true, but it’s important to prove they’re actually true,” says Mushotzky, who did not contribute to the paper. “That’s the big deal here. We believe [cold gas fuels black holes], it fits the models, but it’s much different to actually know than to believe.”
A high-energy feast
The team estimated the velocities of the three clouds to be 240, 275, and 355 kilometers per second, with all three headed toward the black hole. McDonald says these three cold gas clouds will likely not stream straight into the black hole but instead be absorbed into its accretion disc — the massive disc of material that will eventually spiral into the black hole.
He adds that while ALMA was only able to see three clouds of cold gas near the black hole, there may be even more in the vicinity, setting the black hole up for quite a feast.
“We’re only seeing this tiny sliver,” McDonald says. “If there are three clouds in just our line of sight, there might be millions of clouds all around. And there’s a tremendous amount of energy in just these three clouds. So if we were to look at this thing a million years later, we might see that the black hole is in outburst — much brighter, with more powerful jets, because all this high-energy material is landing on it.”
“ALMA has only been working for three years, turning on slowly,” Mushotzky adds. “It’s a very big and complex instrument, and this is very early data, but already things are turning out to be very exciting.
This research was funded, in part, by NASA, the European Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
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UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017
The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017 evidence report, prepared for the UK Government by the the Committee on Climate Change, identifies where more effort is necessary, and urgent, to address the risks of climate change.
Climate change is a global problem. The world is already around a degree warmer than it was, due to extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activity.
Scientists have warned for some time that a temperature rise of two degrees or more risks severe and potentially irreversible changes to our planet.
2016 is set to be the warmest year ever recorded. If so, it will be the third record warmest year in a row.
Last year’s historic Paris Agreement was an important step towards tackling this.
But the effects of climate change are already being felt in the UK.
Average temperatures are increasing and there is a trend towards milder winters and hotter summers.
We can also expect more frequent floods, like those we’ve seen in recent years.
And there are plenty of other challenges on the horizon.
Which is why the Committee on Climate Change has carried out a comprehensive, scientific assessment of the risks and opportunities for the UK.
The climate change risk assessment is the result of more than three years of work, involving hundreds of leading scientists, and experts from both the public and private sectors.
It shows that the greatest threats to the UK come from periods of too much or too little water, increasing average and extreme seasonal temperatures, and rising sea levels.
Action is needed to tackle six key risks:
- The increasing chance of more severe and widespread flooding.
- Risks to public health from higher temperatures, including in overheating homes.
- A risk of shortages in public water supplies, and scarce water for farming.
- A threat to nature including loss of native species.
- Food price spikes and potential disruption to UK and global food production.
- And risks from new and emerging pests and diseases affecting people, animals and plants.
The longer action is delayed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt to the changes, the higher the costs and risks will be.
Climate change is happening now.
This new UK risk assessment identifies where more effort is necessary, and urgent, to address these risks.
It’s time to act.
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The noble eightfold path of Buddha has been described as follows:
1. Right Vision:
The first means in the Buddha’s eightfold path is right vision.
Ignorance generates a wrong view of the relation between the world and self, and many mistakes a transient, painful and unspiritual object for a permanent, blissful and spiritual one.
The abandoning of this fallacious view and comprehending the real nature of objects is said to be the right vision. In this way, unflinching meditation on the four Noble. Truths is the proper view. This meditation takes one towards nirvana.
2. Right resolve:
The second means is right resolve. The determination to root out thoughts which entertain ill-will and a desire to do harm to others or contemplate attachment to sensual pleasures, is the right resolve. The Noble Truths can be profitable only if life is led according to them. Right volition should accompany right vision. Right volition includes sacrifice, benevolence and sympathy.
3. Right speech:
The third means is right speech. As a first step, man should control his speech by right resolve. Right speech means avoidance of false or unlikeable speech or criticism. Every man should avoid bad speech and adopt a good one. One word which calms the mind is better than innumerable meaningless words.
4. Right conduct:
The fourth means is proper conduct, which means refraining from activities like destruction of life, theft, sexuality, falsifying, excessive eating, visiting social recreations; the use of artificial means of beauty, jewellery, comfortable beds and gold, etc. All these laws apply to hermits.
But married people need obey only five laws. For ordinary people there are a number of other laws. Parents should protect their children from evil traits and cultivate good qualities in them, and marry them after their education is over. The children should make themselves noble by serving their aged parents. The students should study, respect their teachers, obey them, and fulfill their needs. The teachers should behave lovingly towards them and perfect them in the arts and sciences by cultivating goods habits in them.
The husband should respect his wife, be faithful to her and look after her welfare. The wife should behave lovingly towards her husband, manage the home efficiently, be hospitable to all guests and maintain marital fidelity. Continuing in the same vein, the Buddha has given a detailed description of laws regulating the mutual behaviour between various people related socially. He has preached the lesson of sacrifice, benevolence and sympathy for the multitude in its entirety. His laws aim at making both society and the individual happy. In view of these laws, no one can declare the Buddha to be an escapist.
5. Right means of livelihood:
Right livelihood means earning one’s bread and butler by right means. Without it, right activity cannot be fully practised. According to the Buddha, one should not trade in weapons, animals, meat, wine, etc. It is never good for any person to earn his money by unfair and bad means like pressure, fraud, bribe, chicanery, dacoity, etc.
6. Right effort:
Along with obedience to laws regarding vision, volition, speech, action and livelihood, it is also necessary to stop bad impressions and avoid bad feelings. Endeavoring to this end is called right effort. It includes self-control, negation of sensuality, stopping bad thoughts, awakening good thoughts and concentrating the mind upon universal welfare.
The following modes of restricting bad thoughts have been advocated:
(1) Meditate upon some good thought.
(2) Study the result of acting upon bad thoughts.
(3) Analyse the cause of bad thought and stop its results.
(4) Control the mind by physical effort.
(5) Observe dharma. The observance of dharma depends upon the mind, and upon the observance of dharma is dependent the attainment of liberation. Thus, even a person who has made some progress along the spiritual path needs proper exercise in order to eliminate the risk of any future lapse.
7. Right mindfulness:
Right mindfulness means the retention of the body, the conscience, and the real form. Bad thoughts occupy the mind only when their real form is forgotten. When actions take place according to bad thoughts, pain has to be suffered and the tendency to bad thoughts also becomes stronger. Right mindfulness includes the remembering of the impurities of the body, pleasure, nature of pain, hatred and doubtful mind, five skandhas senses, means of liberation and the four Noble Truths, Right mindfulness destroys attachment and releases one from pain.,
Gautama, the Buddha, described right mindfulness meticulously. He preached that body should be treated as constituted of earth, water, fire and air. It is filled, it must be remembered, with deplorable things like bones, skin, intestines, spleen, urine etc. One should see the burning of the body in a crematorium, its destruction, its conversion into food for vultures and dogs, and its becoming dust. The remembering of these truths, makes one forget love and attachment for one’s own or another’s body. Due to this the attachment to other evil tendencies is also destroyed. It result in complete lack of passions and elimination of pain. In this way, man avoids worldly attachment.
8. Right concentration:
By pursuing the seven laws propounded above, man’s tendencies of the chitta or mind are pacified and he becomes capable of entering right concentration. Before Nirvana is attained, right concentration has the following four stages:
(1) In the first stage, the four Noble truths arc meditated upon with a calm mind. Pure and detached thought creates unique happiness.
(2) In the second stage, efforts like meditation are suppressed and reasoning becomes unnecessary. Doubts are removed and faith in Noble Truths increases. Hence intuition replaces thought. Profound contemplation results in peace and evenness in the mind. At the same time, bliss also is experienced.
(3) The third stage is one of indifference. Here the endeavour is to remove happiness and introduce indifference in the mind. In this state, the mind is in equilibrium, but one becomes indifferent to the happiness of concentration.
(4) The condition of absolute peace is the fourth stage in which pleasure and pain are destroyed. In it, the tendencies of the mind are negated. It is a stage of perfect peace, perfect indifference, and perfect negation. In it, pain is completely destroyed and nirvana attained.
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What Factors Help Determine Nitrogen Rates?
Nov 21, 2012
Question: What is the deciding factor in varying the rate of nitrogen? Is it relative to CEC?
Answer: There are multiple factors that have to be put into play. Are you dealing with a high-yield or low-yield environment (both of which can be in a single field)? What is the plant density--are we pushing for high yields? What is the soil’s ability to supply nitrogen?
Traditionally that is a factor dealing with organic matter CEC. The healthier the soil, the more nitrogen it usually supplies. But, it can also depend on field history such as whether it’s been in corn-on-corn, or if manure has been applied to it. One of the things we’re looking at is testing for organic nitrogen followed up with nitrate testing, trying to predict high, medium or low mineralization rates.
The last thing we need to tie into this is the potential for nitrogen loss through nitrification or leeching. An example of this would be a high-yield environment with the ability to supply sufficient nitrogen that it would allow us to reduce our input of nitrogen. Yet that environment could be a high-risk area due to drainage, or, under wet conditions the nitrogen could be lost and we’d have to rescue those areas with more nitrogen.
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What you need to know about Human Growth Hormone
HGH is an acronym for Human Growth Hormone, also commonly known as Growth Hormone or Somatotropin. HGH is a hormone produced naturally in the pituitary gland to enable cell growth and regeneration. genf20 plus for sale is responsible for increasing bone density and muscle mass. This vital hormone is also a major contributor to the general health of all the body tissues as well as organs like the brain. When released from the pituitary gland, HGH spends very few minutes in active state while in the bloodstream. However, these few minutes are normally enough for the liver to convert the hormone into growth factors such as the IGF-1 which is insulin-like.
A healthy man normally produces about five or less nanograms per milliliter in blood circulation. A woman on the other hand produces at least twice the man’s capability. The reason for the higher amounts of HGH produced in women is the fact that she will need more growth hormones when bearing a child. These levels are normally at a peak during puberty but they drop drastically in their early years of adulthood.
In 1985 the FDA approved the development of synthetic human growth hormones only for specific use in children and adults. However, many people have since used synthetic HGH alongside performance-enhancing drugs to try and improve athletic performance and build bigger muscles. These synthetic products are now even being tested by anti-aging experts to reverse the deterioration of body shapes due to aging. However, none of these experiments are approved by the FDA and the side effects of using synthetic HGH are not known.
There are other HGH products that are said to aid in the production of natural growth hormones such as GenF20 Plus. These products may not be FDA approved but they are still prescribed by doctors in the event that one is diagnosed with HGH deficiency. Some of these prescriptions are taken orally while others are injected.
Most people buy HGH Online where it is readily available and for those people who use it for the cosmetic benefits can have it sent in discreet packaging direct to their homes.
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Soviet space dogs
|Part of a series of articles on the|
|Soviet space program|
During the 1950s and 1960s the USSR used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. The number of dogs in space is smaller, as some dogs flew more than once. Most survived; the few that died were lost mostly through technical failures, according to the parameters of the test. A notable exception is Laika, the first dog to be sent into orbit, whose death was expected from the outset.
- 1 Training
- 2 Sub-orbital flights
- 3 Orbital flights
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 External links
Dogs were the preferred animal for the experiments because scientists felt dogs were well suited to endure long periods of inactivity. As part of their training, they were confined in small boxes for 15–20 days at a time. Stray dogs, rather than animals accustomed to living in a house, were chosen because the scientists felt they would be able to tolerate the rigorous and extreme stresses of space flight better than other dogs. Female dogs were used because of their temperament and because the suit the dogs wore in order to collect urine and feces was equipped with a special device, designed to work only with females.
Their training included standing still for long periods of time, wearing space suits, being placed in simulators that acted like a rocket during launch, riding in centrifuges that simulated the high acceleration of a rocket launch and being kept in progressively smaller cages to prepare them for the confines of the space module. Dogs that flew in orbit were fed a nutritious jelly-like protein. This was highly fibrous, and assisted the dogs to excrete during long periods of time while in their small space module. More than 60% of dogs to enter space were reportedly suffering from constipation and gallstones on arrival back to base.
Dogs were flown to an altitude of 100 km on board 15 scientific flights on R-1 rockets from 1951 to 1956. The dogs wore pressure suits with acrylic glass bubble helmets. From 1957 to 1960, 11 flights with dogs were made on the R-2A series, which flew to about 200 km. Three flights were made to an altitude of about 450 km on R-5A rockets in 1958. In the R-2 and R-5 rockets, the dogs were contained in a pressured cabin.
Dezik, Tsygan, and Lisa
Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, "Gypsy") were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on 22 July 1951. Both dogs were recovered unharmed after travelling to a maximum altitude of 110 km. Dezik made another sub-orbital flight in July 29, 1951 with a dog named Lisa, although neither survived because the parachute failed to deploy. After the death of Dezik, Tsygan was adopted as a pet by Soviet physicist Anatoli Blagonravov.
Lisa and Ryzhik
Lisa (Лиса, "Fox" or "Vixen") and Ryzhik (Рыжик, "Ginger" (red-haired)) flew to an altitude of 100 km on 2 June 1954.
Smelaya and Malyshka
Smelaya (Смелая, "Brave" or "Courageous") was due to make a flight in September but ran away the day before the launch. She was found the next day and went on to make a successful flight with a dog named Malyshka (Малышка, "Baby").
Bolik and ZIB
Bolik (Болик) ran away just days before his flight in September 1951. A replacement named ZIB (a Russian acronym for "Substitute for Missing Bolik", "Замена Исчезнувшему Болику" Zamena Ischeznuvshemu Boliku), who was an untrained street dog found running around the barracks, was quickly located and made a successful flight.
Otvazhnaya and Snezhinka
Otvazhnaya (Отважная, "Brave One" (Female)) made a flight on 2 July 1959 along with a rabbit named Marfusha (Марфуша, "Little Martha") and another dog named Snezhinka (Снежинка, "Snowflake"). She went on to make 5 other flights between 1959 and 1960.
Albina and Tsyganka
Albina (Альбина, a real female name) and Tsyganka (Цыганка, "Gypsy girl") were both ejected out of their capsule at an altitude of 85 km and landed safely. Albina was one of the dogs shortlisted for Sputnik 2, but never flew in orbit.
Damka and Krasavka
Damka (Дамка, "Queen of checkers") and Krasavka (Красавка, "Little Beauty") were to make an orbital flight on 22 December 1960 as a part of the Vostok programme which also included mice. However their mission was marked by a string of equipment failures.
The upper-stage rocket failed and the craft re-entered the atmosphere after reaching a sub-orbital apogee of 214 km. In the event of unscheduled return to the surface, the craft was to eject the dogs and self-destruct, but the ejection seat failed and the primary destruct mechanism shorted out. The animals were thus still in the intact capsule when it returned to the surface. The backup self-destruct mechanism was set to a 60-hour timer, so a team was quickly sent out to locate and recover the capsule.
Although the capsule was reached in deep snow on the first day, there was insufficient remaining daylight to disarm the self-destruct mechanism and open the capsule. The team could only report that the window was frosted over in the −45 degree temperatures and no signs of life were detected. On the second day, however, the dogs were heard barking as the capsule was opened. The dogs were wrapped in sheepskin coats and flown to Moscow alive, though all the mice aboard the capsule were found dead because of the cold.
Damka was also known as Shutka (Шутка, "Joke") or Zhemchuzhnaya (Жемчужная, "Pearly") and Krasavka was also known as Kometka (Кометка, "Little Comet") or Zhulka (Жулька, "Cheater"). After this incident Krasavka was adopted by Oleg Gazenko, a leading soviet scientist working with animals used in space flights. She went on to have puppies and continued living with Gazenko and his family until her death 14 years later. After the incident Sergey Korolyov, who was the designer of the rocket, wanted to make the story public, but was prevented from doing so by state censorship.
Bars and Lisichka
Bars (Барс (pron. "Barss" not "Barz"; "Snow leopard") and Lisichka (Лисичка, "Little Fox") were also on a mission to orbit as a part of the Vostok programme, but died after their rocket exploded 28.5 seconds into the launch on 28 July 1960. Bars was also known as Chayka (Чайка, "Seagull").
Other dogs that flew on sub-orbital flights include Dymka (Дымка, "Smoky"), Modnitsa (Модница, "Fashionable") and Kozyavka (Козявка, "Little Gnat").
At least four other dogs flew in September 1951, and two or more were lost.
Laika (Лайка, "Barker"), became the first living Earth-born creature (other than microbes) in orbit, aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3rd, 1957. Some call her the first living passenger to go into space, but many sub-orbital flights with animal passengers passed the edge of space first. She was also known as Zhuchka (Жучка, "Little Bug") and Limonchik (Лимончик, "Lemon"). The American media dubbed her "Muttnik", making a play-on-words for the canine follow-on to the first orbital mission, Sputnik. She died between five and seven hours into the flight from stress and overheating. Her true cause of death was not made public until October 2002; officials previously gave reports that she died when the oxygen supply ran out. At a Moscow press conference in 1998 Oleg Gazenko, a senior Soviet scientist involved in the project, stated "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog...".
Belka and Strelka
Belka (Белка, literally, "Squirrel" or, alternately, "Whitey") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Little Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik 2 (Sputnik 5) on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth.
They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, flies and several plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.
Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space. One of the pups was named Pushinka (Пушинка, "Fluffy") and was presented to President John F. Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. A Cold War romance bloomed between Pushinka and a Kennedy dog named Charlie, resulting in the birth of four pups that JFK referred to jokingly as pupniks. Two of their pups, Butterfly and Streaker were given away to children in the Midwest. The other two puppies, White Tips and Blackie, stayed at the Kennedy home on Squaw Island but were eventually given away to family friends. Pushinka's descendants are still living today. A photo of descendants of some of the Space Dogs is on display at the Zvezda Museum outside Moscow.
A Russian animated feature film called Belka and Strelka: Star Dogs (English title: Space Dogs) was released in 2010.
Pchyolka and Mushka
Pchyolka (Пчёлка, "Little Bee") and Mushka (Мушка, "Little Fly") spent a day in orbit on 1 December 1960 on board Korabl-Sputnik-3 (Sputnik 6) with "other animals", plants and insects. Due to a reentry error when the retrorockets failed to shut off when planned, their spacecraft was intentionally destroyed by remote self-destruct to prevent foreign powers from inspecting the capsule on 2 December and all died. Mushka was one of the three dogs trained for Sputnik 2 and was used during ground tests. She did not fly on Sputnik 2 because she refused to eat properly.
Chernushka (Чернушка, "Blackie") made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik-4 (Sputnik 9) on 9 March 1961 with a cosmonaut dummy (whom Soviet officials nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich), mice and a guinea pig. The dummy was ejected out of the capsule during re-entry and made a soft landing using a parachute. Chernushka was recovered unharmed inside the capsule.
Zvyozdochka (Zvezdochka, Звёздочка, or "Starlet"), who was named by Yuri Gagarin, made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik 5 on 25 March 1961 with a wooden cosmonaut dummy in the final practice flight before Gagarin's historic flight on 12 April. Again, the dummy was ejected out of the capsule while Zvezdochka remained inside. Both were recovered successfully.
Veterok and Ugolyok
Veterok (Ветерок, "Light Breeze") and Ugolyok (Уголёк, "Coal") were launched on 22 February 1966 on board Cosmos 110, and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March. This spaceflight of record-breaking duration was not surpassed by humans until Soyuz 11 in June 1971 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs.
- Animals in space
- List of individual dogs
- Monkeys and non-human apes in space
- Sputnik program
- Voskhod program
- Organisms at high altitude
- Cosmo (comics)
- Canine Nation (3 November 2002). A Few Facts about Russian Space Dogs via dogsinthenews.com.
- Chris Dubbs (2003) Space Dogs: Pioneers of Space Travel, iUniverse, ISBN 0-595-26735-1
- Chris Dubbs and Colin Burgess, Animals In Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle, Springer, 2007, ISBN 0387360530
- Ushakova, et al., Istoriya Otechestvennoi Kosmicheskoi Meditziny, Moskva-Voronezh, 2001.
- Asif Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, University Press of Florida, 2003, ISBN 081302627X, p. 96
- DE Beischer and AR Fregly (1962). "Animals and man in space. A chronology and annotated bibliography through the year 1960.". US Naval School of Aviation Medicine. ONR TR ACR-64 (AD0272581). Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- Kate Baklitskaya (1 May 2013) The remarkable (and censored) Siberian adventure of stray dog cosmonauts Comet and Shutka. Siberiantimes.com. Retrieved on 14 May 2013.
- John Rhea, Roads to Space: An Oral History of the Soviet Space Program, Aviation Week Group, 1995, ISBN 0076070956 pp. 197–199 and 415–417.
- Remarkable survival of Russian space dogs who plummeted 200km to Earth when rocket malfunctioned then spent four days in −40C Siberian wilderness. Dailymail.co.uk (4 May 2013). Retrieved on 14 May 2013.
- "First dog in space died within hours". BBC. 28 October 2002. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
- Dick Abadzis, afterword to Laika, First Second, 2007, ISBN 1-59643-302-7
- John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. Reference Desk: Pets. Accessed 8 July 2007
- Bark At the Moon: A Short History of Soviet Canine Cosmonauts From About.com Space / Astronomy. Accessed 8 July 2007
- Dogs in Space: James M Skipper's visit to the NPO Zvezda Museum, The Skipper Family magazine. Accessed 7 July 2007
- Asif A. Siddiqi (2000). Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974. NASA. SP-2000-4408. Part 1 (page 1-500), Part 2 (page 501-1011). p. 267
- A book chapter about biological experiments in geophysical rockets (in Russian)
- Space Today Online article about animals sent into space
- One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps, Official Documentary Site Documentary features rare footage of Laika and others.
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In recent Vietnam, the ownership rate of air-conditioners and the number of units owned has broadly increased in accordance with a rise in standards of living due to economic growth, and the increase in energy used in air-conditioning has become a problem. This study aims to consider ways of living and residences capable of suppressing rising of energy consumption in the future by understanding the current state of cooling and air-conditioning of homes in Vietnam.
Interviews with residents of stand-alone homes built in Haiphong City in northern Vietnam were carried out and room temperatures were taken. The interviews were carried out in August of 2014 and questions were asked about (1) air-conditioner and electric fan usage status, (2) indoor space usage status, and (3) the degree of hotness and coolness indoors. The rooms subjected to temperature measurements were decided from the results of the interview and measurements were carried out in 10 minute intervals in July of 2015.
Three of the four target residences were so called pencil style residences with narrow entranceways, great depth, and three or four floors. The other residence was a single story farmer's residence. All four residences were structures combining reinforced concrete construction with brick walls that were built without insulation.
The three pencil residences had air-conditioners installed in the private rooms of the intermediate floors which were used for approximately 10 total hours for naps and going to sleep at night. The room temperature was maintained at around 28°C and many residents gathered in the cooled room before sleeping and then slept there together. Outside of the cooling period the first floor dining room (or living room) had the lowest natural room temperatures indoors. The residents spend most of their time in this space when not sleeping and carried out various daily activities here such as eating, family socializing, breaks, and receiving visitors. The highest floors on the other hand had exceedingly high temperatures. Consequently, the private rooms on the highest floor are mostly not used during the summer and daily activities on the highest floors are limited to drying laundry.
As stated above, the first floors of pencil residences are the coolest place indoors and are a low priority for air-conditioning while the highest floors are exceedingly hot which leads to the assumption that the air-conditioning efficiency will be poor on the highest floors. Air-conditioners are installed in private rooms on the intermediary floors as a result. Furthermore, along with the phenomenon of there being a persistent high demand for air-conditioning for sleeping periods, little psychological resistance to sleeping with multiple people in the same room, and a poor partitioning between staircases and public spaces such as dining rooms and living rooms which leads to poor air-conditioning efficiency, there is an established way of living where the private rooms on the intermediary floors are cooled and slept in together by the family. The residents of course also consider the heat characteristics of the spaces on each floor at the time of air-conditioner installation and flexibly change where the family stays as necessary. One could say that they have mastered each floor space of the pencil residence.
In the farmer's residence the daytime maximum temperatures are kept low during the day due to the light shielding effect of the plants which cover the garden. In addition, it's also easy to get ventilation since the flat residence is almost like a one room space and there is currently no air-conditioner installed.
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Raccoons Carry Deadly Parasite
Raccoons may be infected with Baylisascaris procyonis, a roundworm that is dangerous to people. Reported cases of Baylisascaris infection in people are rare, but can be severe or life-threatening. People become infected when they accidentally ingest soil, water, or objects that have been contaminated with raccoon feces. Most infections are in children and others who are more likely to put dirt or animal waste in their mouth by mistake.
Baylisascaris infection: Raccoons more active in spring…
Raccoons emerge from their winter dormancy (sleep) and become more active in the spring. They begin scavenging for food and searching for a mate. This means raccoons may be around your home more often in the spring.
A parasite common to raccoons killed two Minnesota children within the past five years and poses a threat to others who play where raccoons feed and defecate, warns a Twin Cities medical researcher who played a key role in ascertaining the cause of death of the two children.
“It seems to be toddlers that are at greatest risk,” says Christopher Moertel, medical director of hematology and oncology at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics in St. Paul and a clinical associate professor at the University of Minnesota.
The parasitic nematode lives harmlessly in the brains of about 50 percent of the raccoons in Minnesota and perhaps as many as 75 percent in some other parts of the country, says Moertel. The worm can pass into people who touch raccoon feces and then touch their mouth or food. The nematode “has to be introduced into the intestinal tract so it can hatch,” Moertel said. Children are susceptible because they play on the ground and often put their hands in their mouth.
Inside the body, the parasite migrates to the brain, inciting an immune response. The neurotoxin the human body produces to kill the worm also destroys the white matter of the brain. “Certainly when they travel to the brain, that’s when devastation and death occur,” Moertel says. Nationwide, the nematode has killed or seriously injured children in about 20 documented cases, he says.
The first known Minnesota victim was an Onamia boy whose family kept a pet raccoon. He contracted the disease about five years ago and died about two years ago when he was 5. The second state victim may have become infected from playing in the back yard or in a nearby park when the family lived in Richfield, a Minneapolis suburb. He contracted the disease when about 18 months old and died three years ago when he was 3. In both cases, over a period of months, the victim began to stumble and fall and eventually slipped into a coma before dying, says Moertel.
Both cases initially stumped doctors. Doctors treating the Onamia boy contacted Moertel because the victim was believed to have a rare blood disorder. Reviewing medical literature, Moertel discovered a disease with similar symptoms, described by Joseph Butterfield at Mayo Clinic. Testing the boy’s cerebrospinal fluid, Butterfield was able to measure the concentration of neurotoxin. As the concentration increased, the boy’s condition worsened. Doctors treated him with steroids and chemotherapy, but the boy’s brain had already been destroyed.
At this point, Moertel and Butterfield still did not understand the origin of the disease. Several months later, the second case was reported. Again perusing the literature, Moertel discovered an article by Purdue University parasitologist Kevin Kazacos about the effects of raccoon roundworms on humans. Moertel sent samples of blood serum and CSF from the second victim to Kazacos. Kazacos tested the serum and fluid for antibodies to the raccoon nematode and both samples tested positive for large amounts.
The effects on the Minnesota boys “were among the most intense responses to the worms he had ever seen,” Moertel says. Autopsies were never performed on the boys, but Kazacos’ work left little doubt that the raccoon-borne nematodes were responsible, he says.
To protect youngsters from the disease, Moertel and Kazacos recommend the following:
- Avoid attracting raccoons. Make sure bird feeders are raccoon-proof, and store feed where raccoons can’t get into it.
- Avoid domesticated raccoons.
- Keep youngsters away from areas with signs of raccoons, such as feces or tracks.
- Don’t let children put soil or objects from the ground into their mouth.
- Wash toddlers’ hands.
If a child does ingest raccoon feces, bring the child and any remaining feces to a doctor right away. The disease can be prevented if treatment is begun in one to three days.
The best prevention advice is to stay away from wild animals, live or dead, and call a Wild Animal Control Expert immediately. Also, if your pet is acting ill or strange, contact your veterinarian immediately.
More on: Baylisascaris
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International polling poses special challenges to surveyors. The sampling procedures are specific to each country and may affect what mode is selected for data collection. For example, in many countries face-to-face interviewing may be the only available method that covers the entire population. In addition, data collection needs to be coordinated across multiple countries and field organizations. One of the biggest challenges in international surveying is how questions are translated and interpreted across multiple cultures and languages.
Most of the international surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center are through the Pew Global Attitudes Project. The Pew Global Attitudes surveys were launched on a regular basis in 2002. The Project has conducted a series of worldwide public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad array of subjects, ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life also conducts international surveys about the role of religion around the world.
Depending on the data collection mode best suited to a country, the surveys are conducted by telephone or face-to-face. Most of the national surveys are representative of the entire population of a given country. Although sometimes it is necessary to limit the coverage and conduct interviews only in certain areas, resulting in a survey that is not fully representative nationally.
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Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections firstname.lastname@example.org
Photograph of exterior frontal view of residence, showing bare hill cut, [s.d.]. In the foreground, a straight vertical cut from the hill in front of a residence and driveway can be seen. Packed dirt and rock can be seen along the bare face of the hillside. At the base of the cut hill, large planks can be seen. A cracked stone wall sits adjacent to the small front lawn. In the background, part of a small house can be seen on the hill. A small set to stairs leads to the covered porch supported by four, thick columns. A small sign can be seen along the side of house near the stairs. At least two windows can be seen on the structure, and a small garden borders the base of the house.
1 photograph : photoprint, b&w 13 x 18 cm. photographic prints photographs
chs-m4096 USC-0-1-1-4186 [Legacy record ID] CHS-44783 http://doi.org/10.25549/chs-m4096 http://thumbnails.digitallibrary.usc.edu/CHS-44783.jpg
Building Dwellings Los Angeles--Department of Public Works--Construction scenes #5--Unidentified Residential sites
California Los Angeles USA
44783 [Accession number] CHS-44783 [Call number] California Historical Society [Contributing entity] unidentified no: 3606 [Identifying number]
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One of the greatest cyber threats organizations face today is the dreaded DDoS attack. In just the first quarter of 2020, there was a 278% spike in DDoS attacks and another 31% increase on top of that in the first quarter of 2021. With no signs of slowing down, it’s imperative that businesses keep DDoS mitigation at the forefront of their DNS and Cloud strategies.
DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service. As the name implies, this type of cyber attack is designed to deny access to a domain. This is achieved by assembling a botnet (typically a large group of hacked devices) and instructing it to swarm a specific server or network. Websites and systems without redundancy are especially vulnerable to DDoS attacks as they can easily and quickly be rendered inoperable.
Tip: Want to learn more about this type of attack? See our “What is a DDoS attack” resource.
One minute of downtime can cost an organization as much as $5,600—sometimes more depending on the size and nature of a business. If you consider that the average length of an attack is around four hours, the cost could easily surpass the million-dollar mark. And that’s just from the duration of the attack itself. That amount increases when you factor in the staff hours it takes to restore systems to working order, loss of employee productivity, and less tangible points of consideration like damage to brand reputation.
To make matters worse, industry experts predict that DDoS attacks will begin lasting even longer—up to as many as 10 days. An attack of this duration could have lasting negative effects on any company. Threats like these can’t be ignored in our current digitized world.
Did you know?: The cost of downtime can be much higher for some corporations. For example, in the last quarter of 2020, Apple and Amazon reported record-breaking revenues that averaged $950,000 per minute. Just an hour of downtime for a company generating this amount of income would cost more than $57,000,000.
Failover is a DNS strategy that is essentially a safety net for your domain. The way this service works is by configuring multiple IP addresses or hosts for your domain. When Failover is enabled, IPs/hosts are continually monitored by health checks. If a server or system is down, your web traffic will automatically be routed to the next healthy server in your configuration. DNS Made Easy and its sister company Constellix take it one step further and verify the health of your backup servers before sending traffic to another resource.
Failover is an effective and dependable way to avoid service disruptions. However, if you rely on only one DNS or CDN provider and they are a target of a DDoS attack or experience another issue that results in an outage, your domain will still go dark for as long as the provider’s outage persists.
Secondary DNS is another safety precaution for your domain. Unlike Failover, Secondary DNS ensures your website or applications stay online even if your primary provider goes down. DNS Made Easy supports traditional Secondary DNS, while Constellix supports primary/primary configurations with API calls through services like OctoDNS and Terraform. These types of configurations are best practice since they afford you two authoritative nameservers for your domain. While not impossible, it is highly unlikely that two DNS or Cloud providers will experience an outage or attack at the exact same time.
With the right DNS monitoring tools, IT administrators can often spot anomalies or malicious traffic behavior before it has a chance to cause damage to a server or network. At DNS Made Easy, you have the option of using Real-time Traffic Anomaly Detection and advanced analytics alongside your DNS services.
The ability to monitor your domain’s web activity is critical for DDoS prevention and mitigation. With solutions like Real-Time Traffic Anomaly Detection, you can see unusual traffic patterns as they occur. This lets you make proactive decisions rather than reactive ones, as there is usually a noticeable spike in traffic at the onset of a DDoS attack.
When choosing a DNS or Cloud provider or if you want to bolster your current DDoS mitigation strategy, be sure to ask about any DNS analytics and reporting features. Such tools are invaluable in preventing DDoS attacks as well as pinpointing misconfiguration errors that can also cause large query surges.
Having redundancy at every point of failure is the most effective way of preventing a DDoS attack. Fortunately, this can be done on the DNS level with the right strategy in place. While stand-alone DDoS mitigation services are available, having all your bases covered by redundant DNS or multi-CDN is the most cost-effective solution. And, if you select a provider(s) that has advanced analytics and/or monitoring tools, your domain can not only remain online during a DDoS attack, but can prevent an attack altogether.
If you liked this, you might find these helpful:
If you found this useful, why not share it? If there’s a topic you’d like to know more about, reach out and let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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Dear readers, With the launch of e-newsletter CUHK in Focus, CUHKUPDates has retired and this site will no longer be updated. To stay abreast of the University’s latest news, please go to https://focus.cuhk.edu.hk. Thank you.
After an unprecedented one-year delay, the Tokyo Olympics finally opened on 23 July 2021. While billions of fans around the world tuned in to watch their favourite athletes from home, many were fuelled to ditch the couch and lace up their sneakers: sports facilities were fully occupied, fitness courses saw spikes in enrolment, and sportswear stores were swarming with old and new customers. But the question remains—how can we stay motivated and maintain an active lifestyle after the Olympics Effect? CUHKUPDates poses this question (and many more) to Prof. Cindy Sit, chairperson and professor of the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education, who points out the most convincing reasons for us to go active, and the most effective and scientific ways to lose some pounds and get in shape.
The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are aplenty. But which are the most desirable ones?
Undoubtedly, the most desirable benefit of exercise is weight loss and muscle building. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. After exercising, your body repairs tired muscles and builds up new ones. Since all of this takes calories to do, exercising more will help you control your weight.
Regular exercise has many emotional perks, too. It stimulates feel-good endorphins and other natural brain chemicals that can enhance your sense of well-being. It takes your mind off worries so you can get away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed depression and anxiety.
In people over the age of 50, exercise also improves certain aspects of cognition, such as memory, attention and learning. Studies show that people who are physically active are less likely to experience a decline in their cognitive function and have a lowered risk of developing dementia by about 30%.
In a word, physical activity does wonders for your body, mind and brain.
How much exercise is needed to reap these benefits?
According to the 2020 World Health Organization guidelines on physical activity, adults aged 18–64 years should do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, such as walking and biking, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity, such as running and swimming. They should also do muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week, such as doing push-ups, lifting weights and working with resistance bands.
Of course, regular trips to the gym are great, but don’t worry if you can’t find a large chunk of time to exercise every day. Any amount of activity is better than none at all. Just try to slip in physical activity throughout your day—take the stairs instead of the elevator, or get off the bus at an earlier stop and walk home. These simple tricks can make a big difference and add up to provide health benefits.
Sitting for long periods of time may negatively affect your health, even if you get the recommended amount of weekly activity. A recent review by a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge analysed 54 intervention studies and found that reducing or breaking up sitting time alone can improve cardiometabolic risk biomarkers such as glucose and lipid metabolism and blood pressure regulation in adults. If you have to sit for hours a day at work, aim to take a five-minute break for every 60 minutes spent sitting, walk more frequently to get a drink of water, or stand during phone conversations or video meetings. The bottom line is to limit the amount of time spent being sedentary as much as you can.
When it comes to weight control, what are the biggest myths about it?
Many believe sit-ups can burn off belly fat, but that’s a misconception. Sit-ups are great for tightening your core, but to lose a pound of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories, which translates to 30 minutes of exercise a day for most of a month, be it sit-ups or brisk walking. While it is relatively easy to walk for half an hour, doing sit-ups for the same amount of time is as silly as it is impossible.
It is also widely believed that exercising on an empty stomach helps burn more fat. Wrong again. You need energy to get active, and the main source of energy for your body comes from blood glucose. When you work out in a fasted state, low blood glucose may leave you feeling lightheaded, nauseous or shaky. You will have to reduce your exercising time and intensity, hence less effective in fat burning. A light meal before your workout, like having some toast or bananas, is more recommended.
Then what are the most effective, science-backed ways to lose body fat?
As a rule of thumb, weight loss is generally 70% diet and 30% exercise. It is easy to consume a large number of calories very quickly, like eating an entire pizza worth around 1,000 calories. At the same time, it is hard to burn a large number of calories—even after a really intense workout, you are still only likely to burn around 600 calories. While diet and exercise are both important for long-term weight loss, you can never out-exercise a bad diet.
But it’s also worth remembering that eating pizza or drinking bubble tea every now and then isn’t bad. And there’s no reason to feel guilty if you do. It’s just a case of adjusting the rest of your daily or weekly intake so that you’re still eating fewer calories than you burn. After all, diets that leave you feeling deprived, hungry or unhappy can cause you to give up. To eat well for less, remember this: it’s the quality of food rather than quantity that counts.
After the Olympic craze, how can we stay motivated and make exercise a habit?
Exercise does not have to be boring, and you are more likely to stick with it if you are having fun. Find sports or activities that you enjoy. Vary the routine to keep it interesting. Join forces with friends, co-workers or your other loved ones to feel that you are not in this alone.
What you wear matters too. When you own nice workout clothes that you love to wear, you are more likely to find excuses to wear them. A trip to the gym will then turn from a burden into an activity you look forward to. Fitness trackers, like smart watches, can be used to increase motivation, as they help you understand your body better by tracking things like heart rate, steps taken, calories burned and improvements you have made.
Remember to make your goals realistic and achievable. Start with simple goals and then progress to longer range goals. It is easy to get frustrated and give up if your goals are too ambitious.
Once you have sustained your exercise routine for a while and crossed the six-month threshold, you can be assured that you have replaced your old habits and will be able to continue your behavioural change.
As members of CUHK, how can we make the most of the campus resources to become more physically active?
Plenty of sports facilities, including tennis courts, swimming pool and recreation rooms, are available for students and staff. The University Track and Fitness Room open at seven in the morning, which allows you to go for a run and pump some iron before starting work or school.
CUHK has a fantastic green landscape that is ideal for walking, jogging and hiking, and it is totally for free! Trails in different levels of difficulty can be found. Take the relatively flat path for an easy walk, or go for steeper slopes or stairs if you need more intensity. A 15-minute walk up the campus hill will be enough to hit the basic amount of daily activity.
Photos by Eric Sin
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Up to Table of Contents|
Backward to What's New|| Forward to Client-Side Security|
The risks are most severe from the Webmaster's perspective. The moment you install a Web server at your site, you've opened a window into your local network that the entire Internet can peer through. Most visitors are content to window shop, but a few will try to to peek at things you don't intend for public consumption. Others, not content with looking without touching, will attempt to force the window open and crawl in. The results can range from the merely embarassing, for instance the discovery one morning that your site's home page has been replaced by an obscene parody, to the damaging, for example the theft of your entire database of customer information.
It's a maxim in system security circles that buggy software opens up security holes. It's a maxim in software development circles that large, complex programs contain bugs. Unfortunately, Web servers are large, complex programs that can (and in some cases have been proven to) contain security holes. Furthermore, the open architecture of Web servers allows arbitrary CGI scripts to be executed on the server's side of the connection in response to remote requests. Any CGI script installed at your site may contain bugs, and every such bug is a potential security hole.
From the point of view of the network administrator, a Web server represents yet another potential hole in your local network's security. The general goal of network security is to keep strangers out. Yet the point of a Web site is to provide the world with controlled access to your network. Drawing the line can be difficult. A poorly configured Web server can punch a hole in the most carefully designed firewall system. A poorly configured firewall can make a Web site impossible to use. Things get particularly complicated in an intranet environment, where the Web server must typically be configured to recognize and authenticate various groups of users, each with distinct access privileges.
To the end-user, Web surfing feels both safe and anonymous. It's not. Active content, such as ActiveX controls and Java applets, introduces the possibility that Web browsing will introduce viruses or other malicious software into the user's system. Active content also has implications for the network administrator, insofar as Web browsers provide a pathway for malicious software to bypass the firewall system and enter the local area network. Even without active content, the very act of browsing leaves an electronic record of the user's surfing history, from which unscrupulous individuals can reconstruct a very accurate profile of the user's tastes and habits.
Finally, both end-users and Web administrators need to worry about the confidentiality of the data transmitted across the Web. The TCP/IP protocol was not designed with security in mind; hence it is vulnerable to network eavesdropping. When confidential documents are transmitted from the Web server to the browser, or when the end-user sends private information back to the server inside a fill-out form, someone may be listening in.
It's important to realize that "secure" browsers and servers are only designed to protect confidential information against network eavesdropping. Without system security on both browser and server sides, confidential documents are vulnerable to interception.
Protecting against network eavesdropping and system security are the subject of sections 1 to 5 of this document. Client-side security is covered in sections 6 and 7. Section 8 deals with security alerts for specific Web servers.
The answer is yes, although the Unix and NT communities may not like to hear it. In general, the more powerful and flexible the operating system, the more open it is for attack through its Web (and other) servers.
Unix systems, with their large number of built-in servers, services, scripting languages, and interpreters, are particularly vulnerable to attack because there are simply so many portals of entry for hackers to exploit. Less capable systems, such as Macintoshes and special-purpose Web server boxes, are less easy to exploit. The safest Web site is a bare-bones Macintosh running a bare-bones Web server. See Servers, Q20 for details.
In the real world, of course, many sites will want to run a Windows NT or Unix server in order to gain the performance advantage of a multitasking operating system and the benefits of database and middleware connectivity . Security holes have been found in both Unix and Windows NT server systems, and new security holes are being found on a regular basis. On the whole Windows NT systems seem to be more vulnerable at the current time, partly the OS is relatively new and the big bugs haven't been shaken out, and partly because the NT file system and user account system are highly complex and difficult to configure correctly.
If you have configured your system correctly and are compulsive about applying your vendor's security patches promptly, a typical Unix system will be more secure than a typical NT system. However, you also have to factor in the experience of the people running the server host and software. A Unix system administered by a novice system administrator will be far less secure than an NT system set up by a seasoned Windows NT system administrator.
Version 1.3 of NCSA's Unix server contains a serious known security hole. Discovered in March of 1995, this hole allows outsiders to execute arbitrary commands on the server host. If you have a version 1.3 httpd binary whose creation date is earlier than March 1995 don't use it! Replace it with the patched 1.3 server (available at http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/) or with version 1.4 or higher (available at the same site). The Apache plug-in replacement for NCSA (http://www.hyperreal.com/apache/info.html) is also free of this bug.
Servers also vary in their ability to restrict browser access to individual documents or portions of the document tree. Some servers provide no restriction at all, while others allow you to restrict access to directories based on the IP address of the browser or to users who can provide the correct password. A few servers, primarily commercial ones (e.g. Netsite Commerce Server, Open Market), provide data encryption as well.
The WN server, by John Franks, deserves special mention in this regard because its design is distinctively different from other Web servers. While most servers take a permissive attitude to file distribution, allowing any document in the document root to be transferred unless it is specifically forbidden, WN takes a restrictive stance. The server will not transfer a file unless it has been explicitly placed on a list of allowed documents. On-the-fly directory listings and other "promiscuous" features are also disallowed. Information on WN's security features can be found in its online documentation at:
A table comparing the features of a large number of commercial, freeware and public domain servers has been put together by the WebCompare site:
Server side includes, snippets of server directives embedded in HTML documents, are another potential hole. A subset of the directives available in server-side includes instruct the server to execute arbitrary system commands and CGI scripts. Unless the author is aware of the potential problems it's easy to introduce unintentional side effects. Unfortunately, HTML files containing dangerous server-side includes are seductively easy to write.
Some servers, including Apache and NCSA, allow the Web master to selectively disable the types of includes that can execute arbitrary commands. See Q10 for more details.
For Web servers running on Unix and NT systems, here are some general security precautions to take:
http://www.fish.com/cops/On Windows NT, give Midwestern Commerce's Administrator Assistant Toolkit a try:
A source of timely information, including the discovery of new security holes, are the CERT Coordination Center advisories, posted to the newsgroup comp.security.announce, and archived at:
A mailing list devoted specifically to issues of WWW security is maintained by the IETF Web Transaction Security Working Group. To subscribe, send e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org. In the body text of the message write:
SUBSCRIBE www-security your_email_address
A series of security FAQs is mainted by Internet Security Systems, Inc. The FAQs can be found at:
The main WWW FAQ also contains questions and answers relevant to Web security, such as log file management and sources of server software. The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at:
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Backward to What's New|| Forward to Client-Side Security|
Lincoln D. Stein (email@example.com) and John N. Stewart (firstname.lastname@example.org)
$Id: wwwsf1.html,v 1.7 2003/02/23 22:46:27 lstein Exp $
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What is enterprise in education?
It is about young people:
- Developing enterprising skills and attitudes including self motivation, ambition, creativity, confidence, enthusiasm and team building skills
- Taking responsibility for their own learning
- Having the confidence to take risks
- Being encouraged to try new things
- Finding out more about all the different jobs that exist
- Working with local businesses, parents and the wider community to give their learning a real life context
How can I get involved?
There are many different ways to get involved both at home and at school.
In Stirling, some of the parents have supported enterprise in their child’s school by:
- Attending careers days and providing pupils with some information on their job and the skills and attitudes they need to carry out that role
- Carrying out a demonstration of a particular skill that they have, for example a beautician has carried out a demonstration of a treatment for pupils
- Supporting a team of pupils with an enterprise project, for example a parent who has an interest in gardening has passed on some hints and tips to a gardening committee and a parent who works in project management has given a team of pupils practical examples on how they could better manage their outdoor classroom project
- Offering a work experience placement at their place of employment
At home, you can support your child by encouraging them to try new things, to take responsibility, to find out more about the jobs they are interested in and to generally encourage them to be the best they can be. Through talking to them about their ambitions and plans for the future you could also help them identify their strengths and link those to potential careers.
If you would like to support St Modan’s High School with enterprise please complete the Parent/Carer Engagement Form and return it to us through this website.
Skill (national bureau for students with disabilities) www.skill.org.uk
One Parent Families Scotland Tel: 0800 018 5026 www.opfs.org.uk
ParentLine Scotland Tel: 0808 800 2222 www.children1st.org.uk/parentline
Parent Network Scotland Tel: 0131 555 6780 www.parentnetworkscotland.org.uk
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I was reading all the posts about 17th December and the big flight and i'm very mad by now.
The Flight of Wright Brothers is a BIG LIE. This is one of the biggest lies of all times. The first flight ever made by man was made by the Brazilian SANTOS DUMOND in Paris in 1906.
You can read about it on: http://www.thefirsttofly.hpg.ig.com.br/pioneer2.htm
The flight from wright brothers was not a true flight. The aicraft of wright brothers was catapulted, not respecting the international rules for flight with machines heavy then air. So... why everybody says that Wright brothers were first?
Santos Dumont appears in the first place and the Wright brothers only in 8th. (Note: the “National Aeronautics” is a magazine of the United States). Why? Very simply because, just as in all conquests and competitions, in all branches of activity – sport or science – the records are ratified by scientific commissions and the first flight verified in this way was that one made by Alberto Santos Dumond.
Santos Dumond Flew in Paris, with his 14 Bis, In October 23, 1906 the Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont made the first mechanical flight on a heavier-than-air machine: at 4 p.m. his airplane, the “14-bis”, rose from the ground and traveled the distance of 60 meters at a height of 2 to 3 meters: a small flight for a man but a great flight for humanity!
Here is a comparison between the power and the mass of the “14-bis” and the “Flyer”:
Year Pilot Airplane Engine Mass Velocity to take-off Relation power/mass
1903 Wright Flyer 12 hp 340kg 50 km/h 1 cv to each 28,3 kg
1906 Dumont 14-bis 50 hp 290 kg 41 km/h 1 cv to each 5,8 kg
The relation power/mass of the Wright’s airplane is evident that the same could never fly.
TheNorth-American Ken Hyde, a expert builder of replicas of the first Wright Flyer, in an interview to “The News Observer” of December 15, 2002, declared:
KNOW HOW TO
PUT THE MAN ON
, BUT WE
HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN
FLYING A TRUE WRIGHT AIRPLANE.”
Conclusion: Santos Dumont was indubitable the first man to fly in an airplane. The North Americans historians do not have any proof for promoting the Wright brothers as the first to fly.
When Santos Dumont decided to attack the problem of the mechanical flight, this conception was considered utopian by his contemporaries, and remained so until 1905. After Dumont’s flight, nobody doubted more of the possibility of the mechanical flight. French Captain Ferber in his book “Aviation” written in 1907, says: “The Brazilian inventor has proved that flying machines can fly,” which is equivalent to saying that until then nobody else had.
These are his own words, taken from pages 97 and 98 of his book:
“On October 23rd, before the Aviation Committee, at 4.45 p.m. the airplane rose from the ground, gently and without the slightest jolt. The crowd, astonished, had the impression that a miracle had been performed and at first were struck dumb with admiration; then they raised a shout of enthusiasm as the plane landed, and rushed forward to carry the aviator in triumph.”
And, a few lines further on:
“The record was raised to 220 meters a month later and the news flashed round the world at lightning speed. A new era opened from this date because the paralyzing spell had been broken. It had been proved that flying machines could fly.”
The airplane of the Wright brothers could not take off under its own power, even in 1908. Without a catapult to launch the airplane or sufficient headwinds, the Wright’s machine could not fly. Compare the flight of Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle with one of the Wright's European flights!
So... guys... after all this... tell me what you think!
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Today Ferrell Jenkins and I visited sites in Jerusalem, but for our post for now I wanted to note a couple of biblical sites we visited yesterday.
One was Kiriath-jearim. This location is of importance because the Ark of the Covenant was there from the days of Samuel (after Eli’s death and the Philistine destruction of Shiloh 1 Sam. 4-5). We read in 1 Samuel 6:21, “So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, ‘The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up to you.'”
Once the ark was returned to Israel by the Philistine enemies, ca. 1100 BC, it would remain there until King David made Jerusalem his capital, ca. 1003 BC, i.e. for 100 years. But first the ark came to Beth-shemesh. The biblical narrative explains how the hand of God was involved as two milk cows, with their calves kept behind, pulled a cart carrying the ark straight from Ekron of the Philistines to the border town of Beth-shemesh of Israel (1 Sam. 6).
Our photo shows the suggested site in Beth-shemesh (in foreground) where the cows pulling the ark were slain as sacrifices. Our view looks toward Philistia in the distance (left from center), the direction from which the ark would have come. As stated above (1 Sam. 6:21), from Beth-shemesh the ark was taken to Kiriath-jearim, where it remained until the days of King David.
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Demos means “the people” of a nation, and it is the root word of democracy. Yet the diverse members of our extraordinary American demos have never enjoyed equal access to the rights and freedoms of democracy. Our founders set out the aspiration for a democracy where everyone had an equal say, but it has taken movements of people over generations to expand the promise of full citizenship to all Americans, from the Reconstruction Amendments, through women’s suffrage, the Voting Rights Act, the 26th Amendment, and beyond. In many ways, America’s history has been a march towards greater political equality.
Today, that struggle continues. After the election of our first African American president and record levels of voting by people of color, reactionary politicians have erected more barriers for citizens than we have seen in 40 years. Today, voting freedoms of millions of Americans are unduly burdened or denied altogether and millions of aspiring citizens await their own chance to have a vote—leaving America with an electorate that is not at all representative of our diverse demos.
At the same time that the rights of citizenship are becoming more difficult to attain, the Supreme Court’s dismantling of campaign finance rules has led to the hollowing out of the ultimate promise of citizenship: a say over the policies that shape our lives. Demos’ 2013 report Stacked Deck: How the Dominance of Politics by the Affluent and Business Undermines Economic Mobility in America revealed that the dominance of politics by the wealthy and organized business interests has left the majority of Americans with little to no independent influence over policy, particularly unable to win reforms that would improve economic mobility at a time of worsening inequality. Stacked Deck sounded the alarm about a growing class of super-citizens, whose increasing influence contrasted jarringly with the diminished citizenship rights of so many Americans of color.
This follow-up report, Stacked Deck: How the Racial Bias in Our Big Money Political System Undermines Our Democracy and Our Economy, reveals how the distortions of money in politics also hold back the policies that would advance racial equity and fulfill the promise of a multiracial democracy. It finds that a campaign system dominated by a narrow set of donors who are overwhelmingly (at least 90 percent) white diminishes the importance of communities of color to our elected officials as a whole. Underrepresented in government and among the wealthy interests with the most access to government, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans are less able to win policies that would improve their communities, on issues from fair lending to criminal justice. A provocative implication of the report’s findings is that the leadership of the movement for a representative democracy must itself be more representative, a challenge that we at Demos are taking up directly through new partnerships with racial and economic justice organizations.
At Demos, we believe that our great diversity is what makes the experiment of American democracy a beautifully radical one, and one that is far from finished. The conclusions of this report call on us to admit that designing a system of campaign finance that is not biased by race or class is not only fair, but it is the only way that America can truly be a democracy—with a government of, by, and for all the people.
Heather C. McGhee
One hundred and fifty years after the Reconstruction Amendments and more than a generation after the civil rights revolution, achieving true racial equity remains a central challenge of our time. Both structural barriers and racially biased policies contribute to a racial wealth and income gap that is higher today than at any point since the Federal Reserve began tracking it 30 years ago. And the drive for racial equity in America faces a serious headwind: the role of private wealth and big business in our political system. The undemocratic role of big money is especially exclusionary for people of color, who are severely underrepresented in the “donor class” whose large contributions fuel campaigns and therefore set the agendas in Washington and state capitals across the country.
Race intersects with our big money system in two important ways. First, because donor and corporate interests often diverge significantly from those of working families on economic policies such as the minimum wage and paid sick leave, people of color are disproportionately harmed because a larger percentage are poor or working class. Second, and more profound, our nation’s legacy of racism and persistently racialized politics depresses the political power of people of color, creating opportunities for exploitation and targeting—exemplified by the subprime lending crisis, mass incarceration, and voter suppression laws. The dominance of big money in our politics makes it far harder for people of color to exert political power and effectively advocate for their interests as both wealth and power are consolidated by a small, very white, share of the population.
Summarized below are this study’s findings on (1) the racial bias inherent in our big-money political system; (2) our policy recommendations on how to make government more responsive to all people; and (3) five case studies detailing the real-world impact of money in politics on people of color and examples of how to shift power from wealthy interests to all voters.
The Racial Bias Inherent in Our Big-Money Political System
- Recent research has demonstrated that a) the rich have different policy preferences than the general public; and b) the government is sharply more responsive to the preferences of the wealthy than to those of the average voter.
The economic bias in our political system creates and sustains similar racial bias because the donor class as a whole and campaign contributors specifically are overwhelmingly white; and because the policy preferences of people of color are much more similar to those of the rest of the general public than to those of the rich.
- The top 10 percent of wealth holders are more than 90 percent white, whereas the rest of the country is less than 70 percent white.
- A significant majority of campaign money at the federal and state levels comes from a small number of elite donors (less than 1 percent of the population) making large contributions (of $1,000 or more).
- More than 90 percent of $200+ federal contributions in the 2012 election cycle came from majority white neighborhoods.
- When asked whether it’s more important to create jobs or hold down the deficit, people of color agree with lower-income Americans that creating jobs is the clear priority, whereas the wealthy have the opposite view.
- Elections funded primarily by wealthy, white donors mean that candidates as a whole are less likely to prioritize the needs of people of color; and that candidates of color are less likely to run for elected office, raise less money when they do, and are less likely to win. Ultimately, people of color are not adequately represented by elected officials.
- A recent study of black candidate success concluded that “the underrepresentation of blacks is driven by constraints on their entry onto the ballot” and that the level of resources in the black community is “an important factor for shaping the size of the black candidate pool.”
- Candidates of color raised 47 percent less money than white candidates in 2006 state legislative races, and 64 percent less in the South.
- Latino candidates for state House raised less money than non-Latinos in 67 percent of the states where Latinos ran in the 2004 election cycle.
- In a typical election cycle, 90 percent or more of the candidates who raise the most money win their races.
- Ninety percent of our elected leaders are white, despite the fact that people of color are 37 percent of the U.S. population.
- Latinos and Asians are more than 22 percent of the population, but hold fewer than 2 percent of the elected positions nationwide.
- In 2009, just 9 percent of all state legislators were African American and 3 percent Latino, compared with 13.5 percent and 15.4 percent of the total population, respectively.
- In a 2011 study, researchers found that white state legislators of both major political parties were less likely to reply to letters received from assumed constituents with apparently African American names (like “DeShawn Jackson”).
- Record corporate political spending on election campaigns and lobbying has amplified the political exclusion of people of color.
- The policy outcomes resulting from this big-money campaign finance system fail to address the needs of people of color, and in some cases actively restrict progress on racial equity in America.
The pathway to a fairer country is through a stronger democracy. A key to promoting economic mobility and racial justice for people of color is to give these communities more say over the decisions that affect their daily lives.
To accomplish this we need to both curb the influence of the wealthy, white “donor class” and amplify the voices of all Americans, including people of color, so that elected officials will listen to and work for all of their constituents, not just a privileged few. This requires reclaiming our Constitution from a runaway Supreme Court and matching small political contributions with public funds.
Restoring Our Constitution
In cases such as Buckley v. Valeo, Citizens United v. FEC, and McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court has stepped in to dismantle democratically-enacted policies intended to prevent wealthy interests from translating economic might directly into political power.
- We can transform the Supreme Court’s approach to money in politics so the Court overturns its own bad decisions—just like the justices have reversed course on New Deal economic protections, racial segregation, LGBT rights, and more. We can accomplish this by developing and promoting robust interpretive frameworks that go beyond fighting corruption as compelling values that our Constitution protects; mobilizing allies across the political spectrum and within the legal community to support these ideas; ensuring that newly appointed justices share the public’s common-sense understanding of the role that money should play in our electoral system; passing cutting-edge laws at the state and local levels; and fighting back in the courts to establish an enduring interpretation of the Constitution that empowers the people to pass sensible limits on the use of big money.
- We can amend the Constitution to clarify that the people have the power to rein in the influence of big money.
Matching Small Contributions with Public Funds
The best way to encourage candidates to listen to constituents and help people of color have their voices heard in the political process is to match small contributions with public funds.
- Matching small contributions six-to-one or more and providing a voucher or tax credit to small donors can encourage millions of Americans to participate through $25 or $50 contributions that actually matter, providing the incentive for candidates to reach out to—and listen to—average voters, not just big donors.
- Studies of New York City’s matching system and similar grant-based systems in Arizona and Connecticut have shown that such programs can significantly increase the diversity of the donor base and help more candidates of color run for office and win elections.
- The Government By the People Act (H.R.20) and the Fair Elections Now Act (S.2023) are leading proposals to bring a small donor matching system to the federal level.
Fundamental change is always difficult to achieve, but momentum is growing for several reasons. The silver lining of the Supreme Court’s extreme interventions on money in politics has been unprecedented public awareness and concern. A growing list of civil rights, environmental, workers’ rights and other progressive organizations are coming together to embrace the insight that enacting transformative change around their first priority issues requires strengthening our democracy and reducing the role of big money. Public support for common sense solutions remains exceptionally strong across party and ideological lines. There have been important recent victories, with the prospects for bigger wins on the horizon. Together, these factors provide real cause for optimism in the face of a daunting problem.
Case Studies on Money in Politics and Racial Equity
Three case studies demonstrate how big money thwarts progress on racial equity; a fourth shows how a fairer system for electing public officials can lead to policies that better serve our communities; and a fifth tells the story of how a community-based organization is building the power of people of color to fight back. And, the stories illustrate the two basic ways race interacts with our big money system. The first two case studies examine how the power of big money combined with systemic racism has fueled two of the most destructive policies targeted toward people of color: the prison industrial complex and predatory mortgage lending. The third and fourth case studies examine two ostensibly race-neutral policies—the minimum wage and paid sick days—that have disproportionate impact on the lives of people of color, who are over-represented among the working class.
- Private Prisons and Incarceration. Incarceration in the U.S. has increased by 500 percent over the past three decades, with people of color vastly over-represented in our nation’s prisons and jails. This is the result of policies that have put more people in jail for longer sentences despite dropping crime rates, policies boosting the bottom line of the growing private prison industry.
- The Subprime Lending Crisis. Because of rampant discriminatory lending practices, the subprime-lending crisis hit people of color especially hard. Banks and other mortgage lenders used millions of dollars of political contributions and lobbying to weaken and circumvent consumer-friendly regulations, resulting in the largest loss of wealth in communities of color in American history.
- The Minimum Wage. The federal minimum wage has remained stagnant, losing real value over the past several decades. Raising the wage to $10.10 an hour would lift more than 3.5 million workers of color out of poverty, but Congress has instead prioritized policies favored by the wealthy.
- Paid Sick Leave. The U.S. is one of the only prosperous democracies that does not guarantee even minimal paid sick leave to all employees, which would improve public health and disproportionately benefit Latino workers. A paid sick leave proposal was bottled up in the Connecticut legislature until the state passed a “fair elections” system that enabled candidates to run for office without depending upon wealthy donors and special interests. Following this change, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to guarantee paid sick leave.
- Voting Rights in Minnesota. TakeAction Minnesota recently demonstrated how organizing in communities of color can help defeat restrictions on the freedom to vote. Now, as they turn to expanding the franchise for formerly incarcerated people, TakeAction and its allies are building power for a multi-year strategy that connects voting rights and money in politics, breaking down silos and continuing to build the movement for a fairer and more inclusive democracy.
The one ideal that nearly all Americans can agree upon is that through hard work and determination everyone should have a chance to improve her life circumstances regardless of race, gender, or class. At the same time, Americans strongly believe in political equality—the notion that civic life should be a level playing field and everyone should have an equal voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Yet today, there is widespread recognition that our nation is not living up to either of these cornerstone ideals.
New research demonstrates that economic inequality is deepening1 and that this trend is likely to continue without aggressive intervention.2 This widening gulf between the rich and the rest of us, combined with lax rules that facilitate the direct translation of economic might into political power, has produced a system in which our government is sharply more responsive to the needs and priorities of the wealthy than to the public as a whole—a system that appears to more closely resemble a plutocracy or an oligarchy than a government of, by, and for the people.3
People of color experience this gap between our ideals and our reality even more sharply than do white Americans, as the historical legacy of exclusion from both our economy and our democracy remains deeply embedded in current social and economic structures. Both structural barriers and biased policies contribute to a racial wealth and income gap that is higher today than at any point since the Federal Reserve began tracking it 30 years ago.4 Mass incarceration—driven by a misguided drug war—has ravaged entire communities.5 And, people of color face daily indignities from racist “stop and frisk” style policing,6 with the increasing militarization of local law enforcement driving up the stakes of each encounter.7 One hundred and fifty years after the Reconstruction Amendments and more than a generation after the civil rights revolution, achieving true racial equity remains a central challenge of our time.
But the drive for racial equity in America faces a serious headwind: the role of private wealth and big business in our political system. The undemocratic role of big money is especially exclusionary for people of color, who are severely underrepresented in the “donor class”8 whose large contributions fuel campaigns and therefore set the agendas in Washington and state capitals across the country.
Money and politics have been linked since the beginning of our republic. Concentrated private wealth has long played an outsized role in our electoral and political systems, and politics has long been a rich man’s game. For example, over the past two centuries only two percent of members of Congress have come from working class backgrounds.9 And, in 2002, congressional candidates received the majority of the money they raised from individuals in contributions of at least $1,000—from just 0.09 percent of the population.10
The American people are well aware of the undemocratic role of big money in our political system and throughout our history have taken concerted action to mitigate its effects.11 But, time and again, the Supreme Court has stepped in to eviscerate basic protections against translating wealth directly into political power.12 In 1976, the Court struck key provisions of Congress’s post-Watergate reform law and signaled its skepticism of policies intended to limit the role of big money.13 Two recent rulings, Citizens United v. FEC14 and McCutcheon v. FEC,15 have opened the door to unlimited outside spending by billionaires and corporations, and shifted the balance of power in candidate fundraising even more sharply towards the elite “donor class” and away from ordinary citizens.16These cases have made a bad situation far worse, with large majorities of Americans correctly perceiving that government is far more responsive to the priorities of the narrow donor class than to the needs of the general public.17
The consequences have been severe. In our 2013 report Stacked Deck: How the Dominance of Politics by the Affluent and Business Undermines Economic Mobility in America, Demos examined how deficits in our democracy lead to policies that benefit the already-rich, stalling economic mobility and undermining basic economic security for working families struggling to stay afloat.18 This report focuses specifically on how our big money system holds back the cause of racial justice, by examining the disproportionate damage political and economic inequality has wrought in communities of color.
Race intersects with our big money system in two important ways. First, race intensifies the exclusion of people of color because they are less affluent, on average, than whites. The interests of large donors and major corporations often diverge significantly from those of working families on core economic policies, and when government is more responsive to the donor class, people of color are disproportionately harmed. Second, and more profound, our nation’s legacy of racism and persistently racialized politics creates opportunities for exploitation. The dominance of big money in our politics restrains the political power of people of color, making it harder to push back successfully against attacks on historically marginalized communities.
We begin the report by analyzing how our big money campaign finance system entrenches political inequality for people of color, marginalizing the voices of communities that have already faced countless barriers to full and equal participation in our political system. We then provide concrete policy recommendations for forging a democracy in which the strength of one’s voice does not depend upon the size of her wallet.
Finally, we examine the role that money in politics plays in five specific areas of policymaking that have profoundly and disproportionately affected people of color: 1) the growth of the private prison industrial complex; 2) the subprime lending crisis; 3) the stagnant minimum wage; 4) the recent passage of paid sick leave legislation in Connecticut after the enactment of publicly funded elections; and 5) the fight to protect basic voting rights.
These case studies illustrate the distinct ways in which race intersects with our big money system. The first two examine how the power of big money combined with systemic racism has fueled two of the most destructive policies targeted toward people of color. The third and fourth stories examine generally applicable policies that may not be a direct result of clear racial targeting and yet have had disproportionate impact on the lives of people of color, who are over-represented among the poor and working class. In addition, the Connecticut paid sick days example shows what we can accomplish when our elected officials have the opportunity to run for office by appealing to ordinary voters, not just wealthy donors and special interests; and the final story demonstrates how organizing in communities of color to protect the freedom to vote can build long-term power to address the role of money in politics.
The goal is to connect the dots and make explicitly clear what many already suspect or feel: that our political system underserves communities of color; that the outsized role of large campaign contributions from a small number of wealthy, white contributors is a key reason; and that solving this problem is a critical component in the larger drive for racial equity in America.
Let us be clear: people of color have always been underserved by the political structures in the United States; that is nothing new. What is novel, and dangerous, is how comprehensively wealth has come to dominate our politics, how easily and smoothly business elites and other wealthy interests are able to translate economic might into political power. We are caught in a vicious cycle in which the rich pour money into elections; secure political power; and write rules that keep themselves wealthy and the rest of us struggling to get ahead. This is a cycle that builds upon itself in a dangerous feedback loop. And, it’s a cycle that freezes out people of color and entrenches existing hierarchies based upon centuries of race-based oppression.
This is an old problem with new urgency. Solving it remains part of the unfinished business of the civil and voting rights movement.19
THE RACIAL BIAS INHERENT IN OUR BIG-MONEY POLITICAL SYSTEM
The initial Stacked Deck report highlights how affluent and business interests dominate both political participation and campaign spending, and as a result are able to set the policy agendas in Congress and state capitols, and translate their priorities into actual legislation—policies that benefit the already-wealthy at the expense of building a strong and diverse middle class. The key elements of this story are that a) the rich have different policy preferences than the general public, and do not prioritize policies that support economic mobility; and b) the government is sharply more responsive to the preferences of the wealthy than to those of the average voter.
Princeton scholar Martin Gilens examined the connection between public preferences and policy outcomes in his important 2012 book Affluence and Influence, and he concluded that:
The American government does respond to the public’s preferences, but that responsiveness is strongly tilted toward the most affluent citizens. Indeed, under most circumstances, the preferences of the vast majority of Americans appear to have essentially no impact on which policies the government does or doesn’t adopt. . . . .The complete lack of government responsiveness to the preferences of the poor is disturbing and seems consistent only with the most cynical views of American politics . . . . [M]edian income Americans fare no better than the poor when their policy preferences diverge from those of the well-off.20
Strikingly, when the preferences of the top 10 percent of income earners diverge from the rest of us, the 10 percent trumps the 90 percent. And, as Larry Bartels wrote in his 2008 study Unequal Democracy, “the preferences of people in the bottom third of the income distribution have no apparent impact on the behavior of their elected officials.”21
More recent research by Gilens and the Northwestern political scientist Benjamin Page has confirmed this troubling conclusion. Gilens and Page find that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”22 They conclude that “[i]n the United States…the majority does not rule—at least in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.”23
The Donor Class is Overwhelmingly White
While this bias toward the rich is troubling for all Americans, the concern is amplified for communities of color. Due to historical and persistent structural inequalities, people of color are underrepresented among the wealthy who drive policy outcomes and over-represented in the bottom third of the income distribution—the millions of people who Bartels finds have no discernable influence on the policies that affect their lives. More than half of African American households and close to half of Latino households have incomes that put them at the bottom third of the income distribution (see Figure 1).
In contrast, the top income strata are overwhelmingly white. The top one percent of income earners are more than 90 percent white, and the top 10 percent are approximately 85 percent white (compared to 63 percent of the population).24 The same goes for total wealth, which is likely a better reflection of the ability to influence politics (see Figure 2).25
The White Donor Class Does Not Share the Views or Priorities of People of Color
Race and class are not the same; but in the United States they are inextricably intertwined. Not surprisingly, on key issues, the views of people of color have more in common with the policy preferences of the rest of the general public than with those of the rich.
These differences are very clear on questions of how to structure the economy and what role the government should play. For example, in December 2013 the Washington Postasked “Do you think the federal government should or should not pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans?”26 White respondents held very similar views to those earning at least $100,000 per year—in both groups a bare majority (53 percent) said the government should try to reduce inequality.27Respondents who were people of color, however, supported government fighting inequality at a much higher rate; fully two-thirds backed government action to reduce the wealth gap (see Figure 3).28
Seventy percent of people of color surveyed felt that government policies favor the wealthy over less well-off Americans.29 Those making more than $100,000 still believed policy favors the wealthy but not by nearly as much—58 percent to 36 percent believing it favors the less well-off.30
When asked whether it is more important to create jobs or hold down the deficit, people of color agree with lower-income Americans that creating jobs is the clear priority, whereas the wealthy have the opposite view (see Figure 4).31
The differences are even more pronounced on this issue between the general public and the very rich. A survey of Americans with a median wealth of $7.5 million and an average income of more than $1 million revealed that they list reducing the deficit as the nation’s top priority in an open-ended question much more often than do members of the general public, who more often listed unemployment (see Figure 5).32
The preference gap plays out on issues beyond the economy, and in some cases touches directly upon issues of racial equity. For example, a majority of whites believe that “blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment as whites in the criminal justice system” as do half of those making more than $100,000 per year.33 Yet only 41 percent of those making less than $50,000 believe this, and only 26 percent of people of color.34And, when asked what is most important to help them achieve the American dream, wealthy and white respondents listed lower taxes as their first priority, whereas people of color listed access to an affordable college education as their top choice.35
But, access to college without family wealth is also being thwarted by the gap in priorities between the wealthy and the rest of us, and our debt-for-diploma system disproportionately affects people of color. Seventy-eight percent of the public believes that the federal government should make sure that everyone who wants to go to college can afford to do so, but just 28 percent of the very wealthy agree (see Figure 6).36Meanwhile, college costs have risen far beyond inflation and family income over the past few decades.37
This is due in part to policy shifts at both the state level—where states have cut student funding by 22 percent over the past decade38—and federal level, where grant aid has failed to keep pace with increasing need.39
This helps explain a persistent gap in college graduation rates by race. The most recent data show that of those who entered college in 2005, 62 percent of white students earned degrees within six years, versus 51 percent of Latino students and just 40 percent of black students.40 These figures underestimate gaps because they do not include community college and part-time students—populations that are both less likely to graduate and comprised of a higher proportion of students of color.41
Students of color are also more likely to take on debt to pay for college. Over four-in-five (81 percent) of African American bachelor’s degree recipients borrow at public four-year schools, compared to 63 percent of white students.42 Latino and African American students are also far more likely than white students to borrow at private non-profit schools as well. At every type of institution and for every type of degree (including associate’s degrees), African American graduates in particular are forced to borrow more to attain a degree or credential.
The clear differential in policy preferences between the wealthiest Americans and people of color on critical issues means that when Congress focuses on the priorities and preferences of the wealthy, it enacts policies that cater far more to the interests of white households and ignores the priorities of the diverse and vibrant communities of color throughout the United States.
Wealthy, White Individuals Dominate Campaign Funding
As we noted in Stacked Deck, this differential responsiveness is caused by skewed rates of political participation of all kinds across the income spectrum, but particularly the influence of campaign contributions. These same factors are at play for people of color.
Due to historic marginalization, unnecessary barriers to voting,43 and restrictive voting laws,44 voter registration rates and turnout have typically been lower for people of color than for white citizens.45 Solving these problems is rightfully an urgent priority for civil rights and pro-democracy organizations.46 But, this is a critical yet incomplete part of the recipe for political equality. Ensuring that every vote counts only goes so far if the choices voters face at the polls are limited and skewed.
Ensuring real, functional political equality requires addressing the role of money in politics. As with the differential influence of the rich over working families, wealthy white Americans are able to multiply their impact on public policy most significantly when they break out their checkbooks, spending large sums to shape the electoral, and hence policy, landscape in America. So, the lack of attention given to people of color is in part due to the racial disparity in campaign contributions and the resulting relative lack both of candidate focus on these communities’ priorities and of elected officials of color.
Large Donor Dollars Fuel Campaigns
Election campaigns in the U.S. are financed predominantly by a small number of elite donors making large contributions.47 Far less than one percent of Americans gave $200 or more to a federal candidate, party, or PAC in the 2014 election cycle, and yet these contributions represent more than two-thirds of the total money these entities raised.48
The sharp increase in “outside spending” in recent elections has been fueled by unlimited contributions to Super PACs, non-profits, and trade associations.49 Fundraising by federal candidates—while subject to contribution limits—is not much more democratic. Candidates for the U.S. Senate in the 2012 election cycle, for example, received 64 percent of the funds they raised from individuals in contributions of at least $1,000—from just 0.04 percent of the population (see Figure 7). These crucial direct contributions help determine who can mount an effective campaign for office and who has the best chance to win.
Combining outside spending with candidate, party, and PAC fundraising paints a grim picture. The Sunlight Foundation calculated that more than one-quarter (28%) of the money fueling the 2012 federal elections came from one ten-thousandth (0.01%) of the population.50
State and local campaign finance rules vary, but in most places an elite donor class is responsible for a large majority of campaign funds as well.51 In the 2012 elections, state-level candidates raised nearly two-thirds of their funds in $1,000+ contributions from individuals and PACs, while less than one percent of the population contributed any funds at all.52 Small donors gave just 16 percent of candidates’ funds.53
Large Donors Are Overwhelmingly White
We have long known that large donors are more likely to be wealthy, male, and white than the rest of the population. According to a nationwide survey funded by the Joyce Foundation during the 1996 congressional elections, 81 percent of those who gave contributions of at least $200 reported annual family incomes greater than $100,000.54This stood in stark contrast to the general population at the time, where only 4.6 percent declared an income of more than $100,000 on their tax returns.55 Ninety-five percent of contributors surveyed were white and 80 percent were men.56
And, while a comprehensive analysis of the race of individual campaign donors is not available, there are some useful proxies. First, Census Bureau data on the racial composition of communities across the country can tell us how communities of color are represented—or underrepresented—among large donors. In the 2004 presidential election, for example, the vast majority of individual contributions of at least $200 came from majority non-Hispanic white neighborhoods.57 President Bush raised 91.7 percent of his $200+ contributions from majority white neighborhoods and Senator Kerry raised 89.3 percent from majority white neighborhoods.58 This trend continues, as more than 90 percent of $200+ contributions in the 2012 election cycle came from majority white neighborhoods.59 Of the $1.38 billion in itemized contributions to 2012 presidential campaigns, less than four percent came from Latino neighborhoods, less than three percent came from African American neighborhoods and less than one percent came from Asian neighborhoods (see Figure 8).60
We do have some direct data at the very highest levels. The upper echelon of campaign donors provides a significant percentage of overall funds and is completely white—which is hardly surprising given that the racial wealth gap is at historic levels, leaving fewer people of color in a position to make very large contributions.61 The top ten Republican donors collectively gave over $130 million in 2012.62 The top ten Democratic donors collectively donated $43.3 million in the same election.63 All of these donors appear to be white.64
Small Donors Are Much More Likely to Reflect the Diversity of the Population
In contrast, there appears to be significant racial diversity among small donors.65 A preliminary analysis of donors in New York City’s 2009 municipal election conducted by Public Campaign shows that donors giving $10 or less live in neighborhoods that are more racially diverse than the city as a whole.66 These donors live in neighborhoods where people of color comprise 62 percent of the population, versus 56 percent of the population of the city overall.67 Donor diversity falls as contribution level increases.68 By the time donations reach $250, most of the donor diversity has been lost.69 Donors contributing between $200.01 and $250 have average neighborhood racial diversity of 30 percent, far less than the 62 percent of very small donors (see Figures 9, 10, & 11).70
A similar analysis by Michael Malbin of the Campaign Finance Institute concluded that small contributors come from a much more diverse range of neighborhoods than large donors and “there can be little doubt that bringing more small donors into the system in New York City equates to a greater diversity in neighborhood experience in the donor pool.”71
It is important not to minimize the hard-won gains made by various communities of color in recent decades. As more people of color own businesses and build wealth, more African Americans and Latinos than ever are in a position to make large campaign contributions.72 Nevertheless, the broader trend holds: large campaign donors remain disproportionately white. In fact there appears to be a fairly straightforward inverse relationship between contribution size and donor diversity. African Americans and Latinos are just as likely as whites to make small contributions, but as size of contribution increases, fewer come from predominantly black or Latino neighborhoods.
The lesson here is clear: people of color are not any less politically engaged or motivated to give than white Americans;73 but because of significant discrepancies in wealth they simply lack the ability to make large contributions at nearly the same rate.
People of Color Have Less Influence
The dominance of white donors disadvantages people of color in two key ways. First, candidates running for office (of all races) are less likely to prioritize issues of concern to Americans of color because they are forced to spend a significant majority of their time dialing for dollars to wealthy (usually white) donors. Second, communities of color are underrepresented in elected office, as candidates of color without access to networks of wealthy (usually white) donors find it more difficult to compete in the “wealth primary” necessary to run competitive campaigns.74
Candidates Ignore People of Color
All of our views are shaped by our surroundings, and candidates for elected office are no different. Unfortunately, our current big-money system incentivizes candidates to spend more time courting wealthy donors than listening to their potential constituents. This affects the way that aspiring officeholders view the pressing issues of the day, and provides a further incentive for them to shade their policy positions to align with the donor class.
Speaking at a conference on money in politics in 2013, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy was admirably frank about this effect, noting that when making fundraising appeals he was not calling anyone who could not contribute at least $1,000 and who likely earned at least $500,000 to $1 million per year:
I talked a lot more about carried interest inside of that call room than I did in the supermarket . . . [The people I’m calling] have fundamentally different problems than other people. And in Connecticut especially, you spend a lot of time on the phone with people who work in the financial markets. And so you’re hearing a lot about problems that bankers have and not a lot of problems that people who work at the mill in Thomaston, Conn., have. You certainly have to stop and check yourself.75
The result is a candidate pool that sees the world more like the disproportionately wealthy and white donor pool than the more diverse country as a whole. In this way, regardless of who wins the actual election, large donors have succeeded in shaping the nation’s policy agenda.
Communities of Color Are Underrepresented in Elected Office
A second critical result of our white-dominated big money system is that communities of color are underrepresented in elected office, reducing the influence of people of color over the policy decisions that affect their communities on a daily basis. The Women Donors Network recently completed a comprehensive study of more than 41,000 elected officials nationwide—from county to federal office.76 Their findings are stark. Although people of color are 37 percent of the U.S. population, 90 percent of our elected leaders are white. White men are just 31 percent of the population but 65 percent of elected officials. At the other end of the spectrum, women of color hold just 4 percent of elected positions in spite of being 19 percent of the population.
The New American Leaders Project recently published a review of immigrant representation in America.77 The Project found that “[w]hile Latinos and Asian Americans comprise over 22 percent of the general population in the United States (almost one in every four people) they hold fewer than 2 percent of the more than 500,000 elected positions nationwide, from county commissioners, to school boards, to mayors, to Congress” (see Figure 12).78 Only four states “have state legislatures that most closely resemble their diverse populations” while 11 states lack a single Latino or Asian American state legislator.79
These findings are consistent with a recent National Conference of State Legislatures study of the racial composition of state legislatures. In 2009, just 9 percent of all state legislators were African American80 and 3 percent were Latino.81 That same year, African Americans comprised 13.5 percent of the total U.S. population and Latinos comprised 15.4 percent.82 And the prior election year, 12.1 percent of eligible voters were African American and 7.4 percent were Latino.83
The underrepresentation continues at the federal level. In the 113th Congress (2013-2014), 8.1 percent of the total membership is African American, 6.9 percent is Latino, 2 percent is Asian, and only two Representatives are Native American.84 By contrast, African Americans cast 13.4 percent of the votes in the 2012 elections; Latinos cast 8.4 percent; and Asians cast 2.9 percent.85 If we were to assume that racial representation should flow directly from votes cast (a crude assumption, but one that is useful to illustrate a basic point) then African Americans are underrepresented in Congress by nearly 40 percent and Latinos by just under 18 percent.
Underrepresentation is a particular problem for women of color, who often face a combination of gender- and race-based obstacles. Black women have made impressive gains over the past two decades, outpacing both black men and white women in political representation.86 Yet, they remain drastically under-represented in Congress and the states. Although they are 7.4 percent of the population, black women are currently only 2.6 percent of the U.S. Congress,87 and fully “37 states have never had a Black woman in their congressional delegation.”88 In 2014 only 0.6 percent of statewide executive officeholders89 and 3.3 percent of all state legislators are black women.90 In South Carolina, black women make up 14.9 percent of the population but only 2.9 percent of the state legislature.91
Big Money Politics Holds Back Fair Representation
This underrepresentation results in part from a system that filters out and holds back candidates of color from beginning to end. While we cannot ignore the effects of gerrymandered districts and racially-polarized voting, money plays a key role in this story throughout.
Fewer Candidates of Color Run for Office
First, it’s likely that fewer candidates of color run for office because they accurately perceive the need for access to networks of wealthy donors that they do not have.92 For example, a recent study of black candidate success concluded that “the underrepresentation of blacks is driven by constraints on their entry onto the ballot.”93And, research has shown that women of color are less likely to be encouraged or recruited to run for office and more likely to be discouraged.94 It is well-known that fundraising potential is a strong factor in party leaders’ recruitment decisions.
The most profound impact of our big money campaign finance system is that it allows large donors to act as gatekeepers (or kingmakers), filtering out candidates who cannot or will not appeal to them at the very beginning of the process. This is because when deciding whether to run for Congress or state office the first question a potential candidate must ask herself is, “How much money can I raise?” This translates loosely to “Do I have access to a network of wealthy friends and associates who can afford to give me $1,000 or more for my campaign.” Potential candidates of color recognize this as a real barrier. In a recent survey, 66 percent of people of color (and 64 percent of whites) agreed that lack of access to donors is an important reason preventing people of color from being represented in elected office.95 And, the study on black candidate success cited above found that the level of resources in the black community is “an important factor for shaping the size of the black candidate pool.”96
The notion that the need to raise big money is limiting the field of candidates of color is bolstered by the fact that fairer campaign finance systems—such as those that match the contributions of small donors with public funds—have been associated with more diverse candidates running for office.97 Arizona and New York City saw significant increases in the number of candidates of color once they adopted public financing systems.98
Candidates of Color Raise Less Money
Next, when candidates of color do run, they raise less money than their white counterparts,99 and as a result are (all else equal) less likely to win elected office.100Since data on candidate race is not collected regularly or systemically, we do not have up-to-date figures on this phenomenon. But, the most recent data we do have illustrates the larger point. For example, a study of more than 3,000 candidates running in more than 2,000 state legislative races in 2006 found that adjusting for factors such as incumbency, partisanship, and district income “non-white candidates raise an average of 47% less compared to white candidates when all other mitigating factors are controlled.”101 The effect of race was even greater in the South, where candidates of color raised nearly 64 percent less than their white counterparts (see Figure 13).102 The study’s author concluded, “the cost of fundraising and financing a campaign remains an inequitable burden…The findings from [this] study affirm that a fundraising gap clearly exists still across race/ethnic lines. Non-white candidates fundraise substantially less than white candidates and…this can translate in[to] a disadvantage to an already underrepresented population.”103
During the 2004 election cycle, Latino state House candidates raised less than non-Latinos in 67 percent of states where Latinos ran; and Latino state Senate candidates raised less in 53 percent of states.104 And, in some places the fundraising gap was extreme. For example, non-Latinos at least doubled Latino fundraising in House races in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington and in Senate races in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and South Carolina; and non-Latino House candidates raised three times as much in Wisconsin.105
While not surprising, it is interesting to note that white legislators raised more from significant industry sources in most states. General business contributors (manufacturers, retailers, etc.) gave more to white legislators in 82 percent of states; finance, insurance, and real estate interests gave more to whites in 89 percent of states; and energy and natural resource interests gave more to whites in 93 percent of states.106 White candidates were also significantly more likely to be able to self-fund campaigns, doing so at higher rates in 84 percent of states.107 Only labor funding was significantly more balanced, with labor organizations giving more to legislators of color than whites in 48 percent of states.108
The racial wealth gap drives fundraising disparities through smaller campaign donations from people of color, and because candidates of color are less likely to be able to put significant personal resources into their own campaigns.
Candidates of color often win in so-called “majority-minority districts,”109 but the real challenge is in statewide races or diverse districts where whites have shown a willingness to vote for candidates of color. People of color need to win elections in these statewide races and “coalition” districts in order to expand their power and reach in executive positions, Congress, and state legislatures. It’s clear that the need to raise large sums of money is perceived as a real barrier to achieving equal representation.
Corporate Political Spending Amplifies Political Exclusion
The outsized influence of money does not stop with wealthy white individual donors. Corporations assert undemocratic control over policy outcomes in several ways: campaign contributions from employees and associated Political Action Committees (PACs) and direct spending from their treasuries—often filtered through trade associations or 501 c(4) organizations that do not have to disclose their donors—help elect public officials friendly to their profit-driven agendas; and lobbying sitting officeholders skews legislatures’ priorities towards special-interest giveaways at the expense of the public good.
The elections following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision have seen unprecedented levels of campaign spending by groups other than candidates or political parties.110 For the first time, non-party outside spending topped $1 billion.111 It’s not possible to determine precisely how much of that came from corporate treasuries because more than $300 million in outside spending was conducted by nonprofits and trade associations that are not required to disclose their donors.112 Given that for-profit corporations were not permitted to spend money directly on federal elections prior to 2010, however, it’s safe to say that there’s more corporate election spending than ever before.
In addition to the high level of election spending, corporate interests spend billions to influence the legislative process in Washington and state capitals across the country. The top 20 federal lobbying interests—dominated by business associations and industries such as pharmaceutical companies and securities and investment companies—spent more than $4.1 billion on lobbying in Washington during 2012 and 2013 alone.113Comprehensive information on state-level lobbying is not available.114
The predictable result is that, as Justice Nelson of the Montana Supreme Court has commented, “corporations wield enormous power in Congress and in state legislatures. It is hard to tell where government ends and corporate America begins: the transition is seamless and overlapping.”115 This exacerbates the problems stated above because organized interests such as corporations “do not seek the same policies as average citizens do” and yet “organized interest groups have a very substantial independent impact on public policy,” with the influence of business groups nearly twice that of mass citizen groups (largely because there are so many more business interests in the game.116 The fact that corporate boards are dominated by whites likely makes corporate spending even less responsive to the needs of people of color. In 2012, for example, 86.7 percent of Fortune 500 corporate board seats were held by whites, with only 7.4 percent held by African Americans and 3.3 percent by Latinos.117
Big Money Dominance Has Real Consequences for People of Color
The undue influence of wealthy donors and big business runs counter to basic notions of democratic fairness and equality. But, the problem is much more than theoretical for people of color, who are not adequately represented or heard throughout the policy process.
As a general matter, white constituents likely have better access to and the open ear of their white representatives. For example, in 2011 two researchers sent letters to state legislators using the names “Jake Mueller” or “DeShawn Jackson” and including partisan signals.118 They found that “putatively black requests receive fewer replies” and concluded that “white legislators of both parties exhibit similar levels of discrimination against the black alias” but that “[m]inority legislators do the opposite, responding more frequently to the black alias.”119 This is consistent with other research that has found, for example, that local election officials exhibit bias against Latinos.120
This bias and the general lack of diversity among elected officials translates into real policy outcomes that harm vulnerable communities. Numerous studies have shown that “[t]hrough shared experiences and a deep understanding of community, minority representatives (‘descriptive representatives’) are more likely to advocate for issues of importance to their communities than non-minority or non-immigrant candidates.”121 For example, the New American Leaders Project found that “minority elected officials, particularly immigrants, are far more likely to introduce and champion legislation that is welcoming to immigrants” and that states with no Latino or Asian American state legislators are “the most likely to pass punitive anti-immigrant policy…”122
Add the power of lobbying and campaign contributions to the baseline of underrepresentation and the results can be tragic. The disproportionate and heavily-armed response of local police to protests in the aftermath of the recent slaying of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri is the most recent example. The Ferguson police are accountable to a white mayor and an 80 percent white city council in spite of a local population that is two-thirds black.123 And, the increasing militarization of local police has been driven in part by a federal government program that has resulted in the transfer of more than $4.3 billion in free equipment from the Department of Defense to local jurisdictions.124 This “1033 Program” is quite profitable for defense industry contractors as it increases demand for their products. When some members of Congress pushed to end it in June of 2014, the proposal was defeated 62-335 and MapLight reported that “[r]epresentatives voting to continue funding the 1033 Program have received, on average, 73 percent more money from the defense industry than representatives voting to defund it.”125
As an addendum to this report we provide five case studies that show how the role of money in politics has profound effects on the lives of people of color. Three of these examples show how destructive public policies skewed by big money fall squarely on their backs—on issues ranging from mass incarceration and inhumane conditions in private prisons to matters of basic economic security such as housing policy and a living wage. A fourth case study tells the story of how Connecticut guaranteed paid sick leave, demonstrating how a fairer system for electing public officials can lead to policies that better serve all of our communities. A final story, authored by state-based partner TakeAction Minnesota, demonstrates how their work organizing in communities of color to defeat restrictions on the freedom to vote is building power to push back on big money in politics.
White Donor Class Domination is a Policy Choice, Not An Inevitable Condition
It is likely that the wealthy have enjoyed more political influence since the beginning of time; and in the United States this has always been tied to race. But, we do not have to allow wealthy individuals and interests to translate economic might directly into political power. We can create strong policies that mitigate the influence of the donor class, amplify the voices of all voters regardless of wealth, and in the process produce outcomes that are more favorable to people of color.
In a 2014 study, for example, Baylor University political scientist Patrick Flavin examined spending priorities in the various states between 1962 and 2008, and compared them with campaign finance laws.126 Flavin concluded that:
campaign finance laws do have important effects on public policy decisions that matter most for disadvantaged citizens…Specifically when states more strictly regulate the financing of political campaigns, they tend to devote a larger portion of their spending each year to redistributive programs such as public assistance and housing and community development. This relationship between stricter laws and more spending holds even after accounting for differences in the ideology and partisanship of a state’s citizens and elected officials over time and, importantly, does not extend to policy areas that are not typically considered redistributive.127
In other words, the way we set the rules of the game for our democracy can have a significant impact on the substantive policy choices we make as a society. In the following section, we offer specific policy recommendations to forge a democracy in which the size of one’s wallet does not determine the strength of her voice.
The pathway to a fairer country is through a stronger democracy. A key to promoting economic mobility and racial justice for people of color is to give members of these communities more say over the decisions that affect their daily lives.
To accomplish this we need to both curb the influence of the wealthy, white “donor class” and amplify the voices of all Americans, including people of color, so that elected officials will listen to and work for all of their constituents, not just a privileged few. This requires reclaiming our Constitution from a runaway Supreme Court and matching small political contributions with public funds.
Restoring Our Constitution
In order to enact common-sense limits on the use of big money to dominate our political discourse we must find ways to remove barriers imposed by the Supreme Court.
The Constitution is our basic framework for a robust democracy, guaranteeing vibrant discussion of issues and ideas and ensuring that all Americans come to the political table as equals. But, over four decades, the Supreme Court has turned the First Amendment into a tool for use by wealthy interests to dominate the political process. Time and again, the Court has stepped in to dismantle democratically-enacted policies intended to prevent wealthy interests from translating economic might directly into political power—from 1976’s Buckley v. Valeo, which struck campaign spending limits and equated money with speech;128 to 2010’s Citizens United, which gave corporations the same speech rights as individuals and opened the door to billionaire-funded Super PACs and unlimited, undisclosed “dark money;”129 to McCutcheon v. FEC in 2014, which eliminated caps on the total amount that one wealthy donor is permitted to contribute to federal candidates, parties and PACs.130
The justices have come to these results because they have been asking the wrong question. For decades, when evaluating rules around money in politics, the Court has asked only: is this regulation necessary to fight corruption or its appearance? And, Justice Roberts made clear in McCutcheon that the government is permitted to regulate campaign money to attack only the narrowest “quid pro quo” corruption, writing “government regulation may not target the general gratitude a candidate may feel towards those who support him or his allies, or the political access such support may afford…” but rather must be laser-focused on “a direct exchange of an official act for money.”131
But clean governance is only one of the core American values at stake in addressing the role of money in politics. To properly interpret our pro-democracy Constitution, the Court must ask a broader set of questions.
For example, isn’t our entire political system corrupted when incumbent politicians become dependent upon the campaign cash of a tiny minority of citizens? What happens to the voice of an ordinary citizen who cannot afford to buy TV ads or fund Super PACs when one person or corporation can flood the system with millions of dollars? Can the open marketplace of ideas thrive when a few wealthy citizens are able to monopolize the political conversation with their money? Can all Americans really claim Equal Protection of the laws when wealth is a prerequisite to equal access to the political process? And if the people, through their elected representatives, conclude they do not want to live in a democracy where the size of a citizen’s wallet determines the strength of her voice, should the Court nullify those choices and substitute its own view of how to best structure the republic?
It’s time for a movement to give new life in our Constitution to the fundamental American values of political equality, accountable government, and fair representation for all regardless of wealth while promoting a diverse, vibrant marketplace of ideas. Respecting these values would overturn decades of disastrous money in politics decisions by the Supreme Court and clear the way for common sense limits on big money. We would be able to end Super PACs, ban election spending by for-profit corporations, limit the amount of personal wealth millionaire candidates can use to buy elected office, limit spending by candidates and outside groups, and protect publicly funded election systems from onslaughts of outside spending.
In other words, we could finally build a democracy in which candidates run for office by reaching out to all voters regardless of race or class rather than depending upon a tiny minority of wealthy (mostly white) donors; people express their views by banding together with fellow citizens to strengthen their collective voices, not by writing large checks; and government is ultimately accountable to the people, not just the donor class.
We can restore our Constitution in one of two ways. First, we can transform the Supreme Court’s approach to money in politics so the Court overturns its own bad decisions—just like the justices have reversed course on New Deal economic protections, racial segregation, LGBT rights, and more. We can accomplish this by developing and promoting robust interpretive frameworks that go beyond fighting corruption as compelling values that our Constitution protects; mobilizing allies across the political spectrum and within the legal community to support these ideas; ensuring that newly appointed justices share the public’s common-sense understanding of the role that money should play in our electoral system; passing cutting-edge laws at the state and local levels; and fighting back in the Courts to establish an enduring interpretation of the Constitution that empowers the people to pass sensible limits on the use of big money. With five justices hostile to these ideas currently in control, reclaiming the Constitution to protect the voices of all the people won’t be easy, and will take some time—but it must be done.
Second, we can amend the Constitution to clarify that the people have the power to rein in the influence of big money. This will also take years of concentrated effort, but momentum is building. Public support for such an amendment is overwhelming, crossing ideological and partisan divides.132 Already 16 states and hundreds of municipalities have called for an amendment to overturn Buckley, Citizens United, and related cases.133 And, in September 2014 a majority of the U.S. Senate supported an amendment that would clarify that Congress and the states may enact reasonable limits on electoral contributions and spending—an historic milestone that demonstrates that demands for action will not recede.134
Concerted action must be taken on both fronts to reclaim our Constitution and to start building a democracy in which the strength of a citizen’s voice does not depend on the size of her wallet.
Matching Small Contributions with Public Funds
There are also powerful ways to immediately put voters, including people of color, in the center of our democracy rather than billionaires and special interests. One key strategy is to match small contributions from average citizens with public funds. This way a $50 contribution from a constituent can be worth $350 or more to a candidate for elected office.
Public matching funds can change the way candidates run for office, allowing them to spend more time reaching out to—and listening to—voters and less time dialing for dollars and holding exclusive events for those who can afford to give $1,000 or more. Evidence also suggests that matching programs and similar grant-based systems (in which candidates raise a threshold number of small contributions from local constituents and receive a lump sum public grant) can diversify the donor pool, giving candidates greater incentive to prioritize the needs of people of color.
New York City employs a system that matches the first $175 of a local resident’s contribution to qualifying city council or mayoral candidates six-to-one.135 This is not ideal targeting because it still subsidizes part of a large contribution. Yet because of the significant match, the program enjoys robust participation from low-income communities and communities of color across the city.136 Nearly 90 percent of the city’s census blocks were home to at least one small donor for a city council race.137 In contrast, State Assembly campaigns, for which no comparable program exists, received small donations from only 30 percent of the city’s census blocks.138 In one example, 24 times more small donors from one poor, predominantly black neighborhood gave to City Council candidates (with a matching program) than to State Assembly candidates (without one).139 Critically, small contributions from diverse neighborhoods were far more important to City Council than to State Assembly candidates—in the case of contributors from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, 11 times more important.140
These programs don’t just work on a local level. Once Connecticut introduced a grant-based public financing system, the legislature passed a slate of policies that helped working families including a statewide EITC, a minimum wage increase, and the country’s first statewide paid sick days policy.141 In addition, more people of color, women and younger candidates were able to run for office and win. Latino representation in the state legislature reached its highest percentage in 2012 and women make up 32 percent of the legislature.142 The result is a legislature that more closely mirrors the demographics of the state.
Arizona also employs a grant-based system of public funding for elections. The system more than tripled the number of contributors to gubernatorial campaigns between 1998 and 2002, and increased the economic, racial, and geographic diversity of contributors.143 Candidates participating in Arizona’s “clean elections” system raised twice the proportion of their contributions from heavily Latino zip codes than did privately-funded candidates.144
A second important strategy is to provide vouchers or tax credits to encourage more moderate and low income Americans to make small political contributions. A tax credit has enjoyed support from presidents Kennedy, Truman, and Eisenhower and benefited from years of experimentation at the federal and state levels.145 Experience shows that a properly designed credit can be an effective way to increase participation by non-wealthy constituents.146
On the federal level, the Government By the People Act (H.R. 20) would encourage small donor participation by matching truly small contributions (up to $150) six-to-one or more; establishing a $25 refundable tax credit for small donors; and providing additional resources to candidates who meet a threshold limit for small donations to help fight back against outside spending.147 The Fair Elections Now Act (S.2023) is a similar bill in the U.S. Senate.148 The NAACP supports both of these bills.149
Can These Reforms Really Pass?
Any reform that fundamentally changes the way that candidates run for office will be challenging to achieve. But, momentum is growing for several reasons. First, the silver lining of the Supreme Court’s extreme interventions on money in politics has been unprecedented public awareness about the problem. A majority of Americans are actually familiar with the Citizens United ruling, which is very rare for a Supreme Court case;150and during the 2012 Republican primary elections, Steven Colbert led a national seminar on the absurdities of Super PACs.
Next, a growing list of civil rights, environmental, workers’ rights, and other progressive organizations are coming together to embrace the insight that enacting transformative change around their first priority issues requires strengthening our democracy. Led by the NAACP, the Communications Workers of America, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and now Common Cause, more than 50 organizations with a collective membership of millions of Americans have come together under the banner of the Democracy Initiative. These organizations are cooperating and coordinating as never before on addressing the role of big money, protecting the freedom to vote and fighting gridlock in the U.S. Senate.
Finally, public support for common sense solutions remains exceptionally strong across party and ideological lines. A 2012 poll showed that by wide margins Americans strongly oppose unlimited corporate spending in politics and the outsized role of large donors more generally; and also support the transformative solutions presented above, as well as more incremental changes such as improving the transparency of political spending.151 More recent polling has confirmed this public support.152 No matter party or creed, it appears that the vast majority of Americans believe that we should come to the political table as equals, with an equal voice over the decisions that affect our lives.
This momentum has expressed itself in a string of recent victories, with the prospect for bigger wins on the horizon. Twenty-five states have some form of public funding for election campaigns, including three states with comprehensive, small donor-oriented public funding programs.153 California, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Vermont have all passed laws to increase transparency of political spending in 2014.154 The most populous county in Maryland passed a small donor matching program in late 2014 by unanimous vote.155 And after two hard-fought campaigns and near-victories, advocates in New York will continue to press to bring a small donor matching system to the nation’s second-largest state. The leading federal reform bill has 160 co-sponsors in the U.S. House;156 and, as noted, a constitutional amendment recently received majority support in the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, community-based organizations such as TakeAction Minnesota and ISAIAH are building the power of communities of color as part of a multi-year strategy to reduce the role of money in politics. The success of their campaigns on voting rights and other issues can serve as examples of how to connect the money in politics field to a broader pro-democracy agenda, which will help build the mandate for a fairer and more inclusive political process.
Nobody is under any illusions that reform will come easily. Profound change never does. But, by channeling widespread public support through improved organizational cooperation and activist mobilization critical victories are within reach.
Despite the long-standing struggle for racial equity in the United States, we have a long way to go before our nation lives up to its highest ideals. Several factors contribute to the lived experiences and economic insecurity of people of color. Many of these are highly complex and deeply embedded in American society—from interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism to the type of unconscious bias that leads well-intentioned people to act in ways that perpetuate racial hierarchy.
But, there is at least one impediment to progress that is clear and soluble: the undemocratic influence of big money in politics, which plays a substantial role at every stage of the policy process.
The wealthy, white donor class has different policy priorities than do the general public, including people of color. Large individual donors and corporations help determine who can run effectively for office and who wins elections, filtering out candidates of color and ensuring that those who do run are more attuned to the priorities of the donor class. Then, corporations engage actively in the policymaking process through millions of dollars in lobbying, pursuing policies that have no relation to public support and that often further marginalize vulnerable communities. Ultimately, elected officials are nearly exclusively responsive to the preferences of the donor class, and people of color have their voices marginalized.
The cumulative effect of this big money system is a set of policy outcomes that has held back our decades-long drive towards racial equity and economic opportunity in the United States. The case studies that follow examine just a handful of examples of how this process results in real harm to communities of color on a daily basis; one example of how different money in politics rules can produce better outcomes; and one story of how we can organize to win future reforms.
Civil rights leaders have rightly prioritized pushing back on systemic attacks on the freedom to vote, and that fight must continue. But, the right to vote is incomplete without the chance to vote for candidates who have not been preselected by the largely white donor class. The right to cast a ballot and the ability to advocate for chosen candidates without being drowned out by billionaires and big business are flip sides of the same coin: the fundamental American right to an equal voice in the political process, akin to the principle of one person, one vote.
Clarifying that the people have the right to enact common-sense limits on big money in politics and matching small contributions with public funds to amplify all of our voices can help put people of color’s needs and priorities onto the agenda in Washington and state capitals across America. In this way, curbing the influence of big money in politics is part of the unfinished business of the civil rights movement. And, it is a necessary step to finally forge a democracy that is truly of, by, and for all the people.
PRIVATE PRISONS AND INCARCERATION
The Problem and Its Impact on People of Color
The United States puts more people in prisons and jails than any other country in the world. The number of people incarcerated here has increased by 500 percent over the past three decades to 2.2 million.157 This striking change has not been a reaction to increasing crime. In fact, the current rate of serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault is at its lowest level since 1963.158 Instead, the rise in incarceration is due to policy changes in the criminal justice system, including dramatic increases in the length of sentences for similar crimes caused by mandatory sentencing and three-strikes policies as well as the “war on drugs.”159 The incarceration rate of people sentenced to more than a year of prison has more than tripled over the past 30 years—from 139 to 502 people per 100,000 in the general population.160
Communities of color bear the brunt of the social and economic devastation caused by mass incarceration.161 African American men in the U.S. are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white men,162 with one in 12 working-age African American men behind bars.163 African American women are more than three times as likely as white women to be incarcerated.164 While they make up roughly 12 percent of the total U.S. population, African Americans constitute almost 40 percent of the currently incarcerated population.165
Incarceration rates for Latinos are also troubling. One in 36 working-aged Latino men are incarcerated,166 a rate more than double that of white men. Latino women are 69 percent more likely to be incarcerated than white women.167 And, Latinos constitute more than 20 percent of the incarcerated population,168 compared with 17 percent of the adult population as a whole.169 This proportion is likely to get worse in coming years since, according to June 2011 statistics, due to fast-track immigration enforcement Latinos accounted for nearly half of all defendants sentenced to federal prison.170
These differential incarceration rates result in large part from institutional and structural racism manifest through policies and practices such as the school-to-prison pipeline,171differential enforcement of drug and other crimes,172 and punitive immigration policies. And, the gap has been growing over time. In 1960, the incarceration rate for black men was five times that of white men; by 2010 the black male incarceration rate was nearly six and a half times that of white men.173
The social and economic effects of these inflated incarceration rates are devastating for entire communities. Imprisonment not only reduces the potential workforce in communities during incarceration; it also reduces employment potential long after sentences are complete. Formerly incarcerated individuals lose productive time while in prison and face widespread employment discrimination once released. Recent studies have shown that incarceration decreases male employment rates anywhere between 1.5 percent and 6.3 percent.174 Incarceration can also decrease wages between 14.5 percent and 26.4 percent compared to individuals who have never spent time in prison.175 One Pew study found that prior incarceration reduces the expected earnings of a 45 year-old male by 40 percent.176
All told, aggressive incarceration costs communities of color billions of dollars of potential wealth, making it much more difficult for both individuals and entire communities to break cycles of poverty and build the social capital that helps elevate people into the middle class. Pew found that incarceration reduces the total expected earnings by all black men by 9 percent, and Latino men by 6 percent; and that formerly incarcerated men are twice as likely to remain stuck in the bottom earnings quintile.177
But, the problem doesn’t stop there. An increasing number of inmates have been placed into private prisons run by corporations for profit. The private prison industry was born in the early 1980s and between 1990 and 2009, the number of people incarcerated in private prisons grew by 1664 percent.178 A more representative growth rate for a more mature industry still shows substantial expansion in recent years, with the privately incarcerated population more than doubling between 1999 and 2012 (see Figure 14).179The newest growth area is in immigrant detention. By 2011, nearly half the capacity in our civil detention system was in private facilities, up from just 10 percent over the previous decade.180
Conditions in these facilities have been notoriously inhumane, as companies cut corners to pad their bottom lines. In just one example, a 2012 Department of Justice Report found that guards at a facility run by one of the countries largest private prison companies (GEO Group) routinely beat young people and engaged in sexual misconduct and tolerated youth-on-youth rape.181 And, due to being younger (in part because many came into the system after the War on Drugs took effect) and hence cheaper to house (because of fewer medical problems), incarcerated people of color are even more overrepresented in private prisons than in correctional facilities in general.182
The Role of Money
As noted above, the profound change in incarceration rates over the past thirty years is not due to more crime, but rather the result of specific policy decisions that have dramatically increased sentencing rates. While recent comparative polling data is difficult to find, some research suggests that wealthier people are more likely to support building more prisons as a strategy to reduce crime. For example an analysis of political scientist Martin Gilens’ data shows that respondents in the highest income bracket polled were more likely than those in the lowest to favor building more prisons.183
These policy decisions have led to billions of dollars in profits for one special interest: the private prison industry. Private prison companies are an entire industry built around a profoundly perverse incentive: the more people our society puts in prison and the longer their sentences, the more money they make.184 And these companies have not left this basic math to chance. Over the past thirty years—the same period in which the number of people incarcerated in America has exploded—the industry has employed a deliberate and targeted strategy to shape public policy through campaign spending and lobbying.185
Under the rubric of public safety, private prison companies and special interest groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), spend millions of dollars to lobby for policies that create demand for their product: incarceration. A 2012 Associated Press review found that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), The GEO Group, and a third privately-held company Management and Training Corp. spent at least $45 million in combined lobbying and campaign contributions at the federal and state levels in the previous decade.186 ALEC is a partnership between approximately 300 corporations and 2,000 conservative legislators in which corporate lobbyists vote alongside legislators on model bills to push in state legislatures across the country.187 Together, they have successfully lobbied for harsher sentencing laws for non-violent offenses, “three-strikes” laws that incarcerate individuals for life, mandatory sentencing that removes the ability of judges to consider any circumstances outside of the case, and so-called “truth in sentencing” laws that eliminate the option of parole.188
Their work has paid off. Since securing their first contracts in the mid-1980s, private prison companies have experienced growth year after year. While the total number of inmates in federal and state prisons doubled between 1990 and 2009, the private prison population grew 17 times over the same period.189 Substantial profits have followed. The two largest for-profit prison companies, CCA and GEO Group, saw their annual revenue double over the last decade due to the sharp rise in incarcerations.190 Both are now billion-dollar companies.
Influencing National Policy
The three largest private prison companies have spent more than $24.5 million lobbying Congress since 2000, with the lion’s share in expenditures coming from CCA.191 Over that time period CCA paid the K Street lobby firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP nearly $3 million in addition to spending more than $13.5 million lobbying on its own behalf.192
CCA claims that “[u]nder longstanding company policy, CCA takes no role in the drafting, lobbying or support for immigration or crime/sentencing laws.”193 Yet, these issues are core to the industry’s business model,194 and it certainly appears that the industry—at times through intermediaries such as ALEC—has put its muscle behind policies that will increase demand for its product. As one observer told the Associated Press, “[t]hat’s a lot of money to listen quietly.”195
At the federal level, for example, the industry has shown great interest in the issue of immigration. CCA’s first facility—opened more than thirty years ago—was a federal immigrant detention center in Houston, Texas, and immigration-related detention remains a core part of its business.196 In 2012, approximately one quarter of the company’s $1.7 billion in revenue came from contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons for incarcerating non-citizens.197 That same year, CCA and GEO Group, combined, took in more than $738 million in these contracts.198
With so much revenue dependent upon punitive detention practices, the industry has left little to chance. More than $5 million of CCA’s own lobbying expenditures and nearly $1.3 million in payments to Akin Gump occurred during periods in which the issue of immigration or policy related to ICE detention facilities is mentioned in lobby disclosure reports.199 The industry’s lobbying peaked around 2006 when Congress was debating an overhaul to our immigration laws. The outcome, which featured increased border enforcement but no pathway to citizenship, was a boon to private prison companies’ bottom lines.200
In recent years, the industry has also invested heavily in elected officials who favor the kinds of enforcement regimes that fill its facilities, including Senators John Cornyn ($24,750 in the 2012 cycle) and John McCain ($30,000 from CCA employees or PAC).201McCain has attempted to codify into federal law the “Operation Streamline” program initiated by the Bush Administration and carried forward by the Obama Administration.202The program enforces criminal penalties for every undocumented immigrant arrested at the boarder, whereas previously most had faced civil deportation proceedings. Between 2002 and 2012 the number of immigrants sent to private prisons for criminal incarceration jumped from 3,300 to more than 23,000, with revenues skyrocketing from $760 million to $5.1 billion through multi-year contracts.203
The industry has also used its political muscle at the federal level to protect itself from transparency and oversight. It’s lobbying has helped kill the bipartisan Private Prison Information Act (PPIA) that would have required for-profit prisons to comply with public records requests about their federal prison operations.204 More than $6.3 million in CCA direct lobbying expenditures occurred during periods in which their reports specifically mentioned PPIA.205 This is particularly troubling given the abuses noted above.
Evidence from the States
The campaign spending and lobbying by for-profit prison companies is not limited to the federal level. Through political action committees and executives of private prison corporations, the industry has given more than $7.3 million to state candidates and political parties since 2001.206 In 2010 alone, state spending on candidates and parties by the industry totaled $1.9 million.207 Since 2003, CCA has employed 204 lobbyists in 32 states and GEO Group has employed 79 lobbyists in 17 states.208 The Associated Press found that CCA, GEO Group and Management & Training Corp. spent at least $8 million lobbying across 10 states, generally those with prominent immigration policy debates.209And, similar to the federal level, the influence and success of the private prison industry is clear.
ALEC and the private prison industry have been a formidable team. CCA is a former ALEC member and has been the co-chair of its Criminal Justice Task Force.210 GEO Group has also participated in this task force.211 Working together, the industry has been able to leverage significant campaign and lobbying expenditures with cozy relationships with conservative legislators to pursue (and often achieve) its policy agenda.
Wisconsin and Ohio provide two examples of this partnership in action. When current Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was a state legislator, he was a member of ALEC and used its materials to successfully pass a “truth in sentencing” law in 1997, which contributed to a 14 percent increase in the state’s prison population over the following seven years.212 Walker also introduced legislation to privatize Wisconsin’s prison system and to allow private prisons into the state.213 In December of 2010, CCA contributed $10,000 to former ALEC member and current Ohio Governor John Kasich’s transition fund. Kasich proceeded to appoint former CCA consultant Gary Mohr as the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction;214 and approximately six months later the Governor signed HB 153, which sold the Lake Erie Correctional Institution to Corrections Corporation of America.215 To be clear, these contributions were not likely bribes leading directly to official action, but rather expressions of a mutually beneficial partnership between the private prison industry and ideological allies who believe in privatization of public services.
The private prison industry has even benefited from the political spending of organizations that actually oppose its operation. Corrections officers unions, which often represent only public employees, for example, have spent millions of dollars to support “tough-on-crime” policies that increase both the incarcerated population and length of sentencing. Unions typically represent the interests of working families to balance the power of corporate America, and in recent decades their policy agendas have usually aligned with the needs of people of color. But, occasionally a particular union’s parochial interests will run counter to the greater interests of disadvantaged communities. Corrections officer unions have presented this special case.
California, which faces a perennial prison-crowding crisis, is a tragic example. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling ordering the state to ease overcrowding, with Justice Kennedy agreeing with the lower court’s conclusion that prisoners were dying as a result.216 The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) opposes private prisons, but staunchly supports and defends the punitive policies that helped create the current crisis and boost the private prison industry’s bottom line, including strict sentencing laws and pro-incarceration policies.
The CCPOA’s political action committee, CCPOA-PAC, is the second largest political action committee in California and the organization spends $8 million per year on lobbying.217And, the organization has been particularly active in the ballot initiative process. In particular, CCPOA contributed $101,000 in 1994 (more than $160,000 in 2014 dollars) to pass Proposition 184, California’s “three strikes” ballot initiative, which puts three-time offenders in jail for lengthy mandatory terms.218 CCPOA also spent more than $1 million to successfully defeat Proposition 66 in 2004, a measure that would have amended the three-strikes law.219 In 2008, it gave $1 million to successfully defeat Proposition 5, which would have reduced prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.220 CCPOA spent more than any other single entity to defeat Proposition 5, four times as much as the second highest spender.221
The three strikes law was in place until 2012, when voters approved a ballot initiative to soften the policy.222 In this case, advocates in favor of the anti-three strikes initiative outspent their opponents, but those in favor of harsh sentencing laws didn’t go down without a fight. The Peace Officers Research Association of California made the single largest contribution to the “Save 3 Strikes” group, for $100,000.223 In November 2014, voters approved a measure reclassifying low-level property and drug offenses as misdemeanors.224 Again, proponents outspent opponents and again the Peace Officers Research Association made the single largest contribution against the proposition—this time for $230,000.225
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has also been a significant presence in California politics, spending nearly $300,000 on California campaigns during the 2012 cycle.226 In October of 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed a deal to lease a Corrections Corporation of America prison for $28.5 million per year in order to help ease the crowding crisis.227 California paid $214 million to CCA in 2012, second only to the federal government.228 All told, California houses approximately 12,300 inmates in private prisons, with about two-thirds of those in CCA facilities.229
Private prison companies have not just focused on increasing the overall incarcerated population; but have also pursued a narrower agenda that harms communities of color in particular. Recent research shows that private prisons finely tailor contracts to ensure that the people they house are younger on average, because older inmates have higher health care costs. Due to historical sentencing patterns, aging inmates are more likely to be white while younger incarcerated people are far more likely to be people of color.230Prior to the 1980s, most incarcerated people were white.231 However, people of color now comprise the majority of the current incarcerated population in large part due to the War on Drugs and its disproportionate criminalization of communities of color.232 Private prisons prefer younger people, who are overwhelming people of color, because it saves on health care costs and maximizes their profit margins.233
The private prison industry’s undemocratic influence on public policy has contributed to historic rates of incarceration, particularly for people of color. Serving time in prison not only strips productive members from their communities, but the negative economic effects continue long after incarceration has ended, perpetuating cycles of poverty. Communities of color bear a disproportionate burden from our nation’s sky-high incarceration rates, and without significant changes in criminal justice policy the private prison industry’s profits will continue to flourish at the expense of so many young men of color.
THE SUBPRIME LENDING CRISIS
The Problem and Its Impact on People of Color
The subprime mortgage crisis was a national tragedy. For years, shortsighted and unscrupulous mortgage lenders pushed American borrowers to take out variable rate and high interest loans they could only afford if housing prices kept rising at the recent, bubble-inflated rate. When the bubble burst millions of borrowers found themselves with homes worth far less than their mortgage payments.234 The result was a huge number of foreclosures and a shocking national loss of wealth. Between the beginning of the crisis and 2011, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that “at least 2.7 million households lost their homes to foreclosure.”235 In January of 2012, the Federal Reserve reported that, “house prices have fallen an average of about 33 percent from their 2006 peak, resulting in about $7 trillion in household wealth losses.”236
The consequences of the subprime-lending crisis have been particularly dire for people of color. African American and Latino borrowers are almost twice as likely to have been affected by the crisis as non-Hispanic whites.237 Among loans originated between 2004 and 2008, nearly 10 percent of African American and nearly 12 percent of Latino borrowers have lost their homes to foreclosures, compared to 5 percent of whites (see Figure 15). The racial and ethnic disparities in these estimated foreclosure rates hold even after controlling for differences in income patterns between demographic group.238And in total, 1.5 million whites, 635,000 Latinos, and 397,000 African Americans lost their homes—a much larger share of homeowners in communities of color.239
This was not due to the overall creditworthiness of African American or Latino borrowers, but rather to the discriminatory practice of pushing predatory loans in communities of color. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, racial and ethnic differences in foreclosure rates persisted even after accounting for differences in borrower income.240This is largely because African Americans and Latinos were much more likely than similarly situated white borrowers (with the same credit score range) to receive high interest rate (subprime) loans and loans with features associated with higher foreclosures.241 A National Consumer Law Center report found that subprime products were not only sold disproportionately to lower-income homeowners, they were also sold disproportionately to borrowers of color, even adjusting for income.242 Data from the Federal Reserve shows that during the height of subprime lending, more than 53 percent of loans and 49 percent of refinancing loans made to African American borrowers were subprime loans.243
In fact, the disparities were especially pronounced for borrowers with higher credit scores. Among borrowers with a FICO score of over 660 (indicating good credit), African Americans and Latinos received a high interest rate loan more than three times as often as white borrowers.244 Overall, African Americans were 2.8 times and Latinos 2.2 times more likely than whites to receive a subprime mortgage.245 Many borrowers of color who ended up with subprime loans actually qualified for, but did not get, more affordable prime loans.246
The subprime crisis came on the heels of longstanding housing discrimination in the U.S, and this discrimination exacerbated the crisis’ impact on communities of color. A 1996 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study, for example, reported that “even after controlling for financial, employment, and neighborhood characteristics, black and Hispanic mortgage applicants in the Boston metropolitan area are roughly 60 percent more likely to be turned down than whites.”247 This discrimination resulted in increasing residential segregation,248 which made it easier for financial institutions to target communities of color for subprime loans249 and ultimately contributed to the housing crisis which disproportionately devastated these communities.250
The New York Times reported that Wells Fargo, “saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania;” that one loan officer “pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages;” and that another “stated in an affidavit…that employees had referred to blacks as ‘mud people’ and to subprime lending as ‘ghetto loans.’”251 A Times investigation revealed that black households making more than $68,000 a year were nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as whites of similar or even lower incomes.252
And, the least responsible players overall were also the most likely to engage in discriminatory lending. Federal Reserve Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data indicates that, among mortgage lenders that went bankrupt in 2007, black borrowers who received loans in 2006 were three times more likely to receive a subprime loan than a prime loan, and Latinos were twice as likely, while whites borrowing from the same lenders were more likely to receive a prime loan. Among the institutions that did not go bankrupt, blacks were just as likely to receive a prime as a subprime loan (50.7 percent of loans were prime, while Latinos were far more likely receive a prime loan (63 percent of loans were prime) and whites received prime loans 26 percent of the time.253
The results of this race-based targeting for subprime loans have been catastrophic for communities of color. A 2011 Pew Research Center study found that from 2005 to 2009, the median level of home equity held by Latino homeowners declined by half—from $99,983 to $49,145—while the homeownership rate among Latinos also fell, from 51 percent to 47 percent.254 The wealth drop caused by the financial crisis was more acute for Latino and African American households than white households. During the same period, the inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66 percent among Latino households and 53 percent among black households, compared with just 16 percent among white households.255 All told, subprime borrowers of color lost between $164 billion and $213 billion from 2000-2008, which represents the, “greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern US history.”256
The Role of Money
The political power of mortgage lenders—through high-paid lobbyists and major campaign contributions—influenced Congress to deregulate the lending industry, loosen consumer protections, and convince regulators to look the other way.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the housing market, it became clear that banks and financial interests exacerbated the crisis by using their influence to water down legislation that would have protected consumers and communities. Extensive lobbying and targeted campaign contributions gave banks and financial interests the leverage to fight consumer protections that could have prevented predatory targeting of communities of color.
Influencing National Policy
The financial and banking industry is well represented among the top 100 contributors to federal campaigns since 1989, with more than $272 million in campaign contributions from their corporate PACs or employees (see Figure 16).257
Adding to this is the more than $662 million the commercial banking industry has spent on lobbying since 1989 (see Figure 17).258
Their long history of political and electoral spending gave banks and the financial industry great leeway to prey on communities of color by aggressively advocating for deregulation and by circumventing existing protections, particularly the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which requires lenders to provide equitable services to all client communities.259The CRA only applies to commercial banks and thrifts, not investment banks, non-bank lenders, and mortgage brokers.
Banks went around these protections by using subsidiaries, affiliates, and funded non-bank lenders or mortgage brokers to escape review for abusive lending practices.260Banks were also free to target poor communities and communities of color for abusive or predatory lending if there were no bank branches in those communities.261 In addition, it was perfectly legal for mortgage brokers to steer customers into paying the highest amount of interest on a loan—and they were rewarded for the practice.262 These problems, combined with lax mortgage rules and inadequate enforcement created perverse incentives that led lenders to make abusive loans.
Ironically, some have tried to blame enforcement of the CRA for the housing crisis, when the facts show the opposite is true. According to federal data, “[o]nly one of the top 25 subprime lenders was directly subject to the housing law that’s being lambasted by conservative critics.”263 And, just when federal officials should have been strengthening regulations to take full advantage of the law’s consumer protections and potentially stave off risky lending practices, “[i]n late 2004, the Bush administration announced plans to sharply weaken CRA regulations, pulling small and mid-sized banks out from under the law’s toughest standards.”264
This loosely regulated landscape represented a huge return on investment for the banks and financial institutions that had spent millions of dollars on campaign donations and lobbying. Ameriquest Mortgage Company, one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders, spent $20 million in state and federal political donations between 2002 and 2006.265Other subprime lenders, such as Citigroup, Inc., Wells Fargo and Company, Countrywide Financial Corporation, and the Mortgage Bankers Association also spent heavily on lobbying and campaign contributions.266 Citigroup alone spent over $5.44 million on lobbying in just in 2002.267
And, the most aggressive anti-regulation lobbyers are often subjecting consumers to the most risk. An International Monetary Fund working paper has identified a connection between lobbying activity and negative outcomes for consumers. The report authors find that “lenders that lobby more intensively on [mortgage regulation] have (i) more lax lending standards, (ii) greater tendency to securitize, and (iii) faster growing mortgage loan portfolios…delinquency rates are higher in areas in which lobbying lenders’ mortgage lending grew faster.”268 They conclude that their analysis “suggests that the political influence of the financial industry can be a source of systemic risk” and “provides some support to the view that prevention of future crises might require weakening political influence of the financial industry…”269
Evidence from the States
The industry’s campaign contributions and lobbying were not limited to the federal level, and the impact of pressure in the states is clear. Ameriquest, for example, targeted Georgia and New Jersey for successful efforts to weaken state consumer protection laws.270
In Georgia, the subprime industry was successful in getting a key provision that would have protected many subprime borrowers eliminated from the state’s Fair Lending Act. Passed in 2001, the law as initially enacted required lenders to prove that a refinancing of any home loan less than five years old would provide a “tangible net benefit” to the borrower.271
Ameriquest and others immediately began lobbying the state legislature to remove that provision and began contributing to Georgia politicians.272 In 2002, the commercial banking industry was the top contributor to Senator Don Cheeks and the Georgia Association of Mortgage Bankers was one of the top contributors to Senator Terrell Starr, both of whom would eventually introduce the amendments that weakened Georgia’s law.273 In addition, in 2002, Citigroup, and interests associated with it, made more than $48,000 in contributions in the state274 and the Mortgage Banker’s Association of Georgia spent more than $40,000.275 Industry lobbying and contributions, along with other pressure tactics, led the Georgia legislature to eliminate the tangible net benefit requirement.276 A similar situation occurred in New Jersey, and the state rolled back significant portions of new laws intended to protect borrowers.277
These rollbacks allowed the mortgage industry to target thousands of additional potential customers and set the stage for Georgia’s and New Jersey’s severe housing crises. Not surprisingly, both states were hit hard by the subprime collapse and are still struggling to recover.278 In 2012, the New York Times reported that Atlanta Georgia was, “one of the biggest laggards in the economic recovery.”279 Bloomberg reported in 2014 that New Jersey had, “surpassed Florida in having the highest share of residential mortgages that are seriously delinquent or in foreclosure.”280 Both states qualified for the U.S. Treasury Department’s “Hardest Hit Funds,” which provides funding to the 18 states (and the District of Columbia) hardest hit by the housing crisis.281 And, the African American populations of both Georgia and New Jersey are higher than the national average (as are New Jersey’s Asian and Latino populations), so the housing crisis in these states had a disproportionately large impact on communities of color.282, 283
A Thumb on the Recovery Scale
Once the bubble started to burst, banks and financial interests invested heavily to ensure any legislation meant to clean up their mess still protected their bottom line. In the fall of 2009, as the worst of the recession hit the housing market “…34 members of the U.S. House of Representatives that offered amendments to weaken consumer protections in the House financial reform package received $3.8 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector in 2009, an average of $111,000 each.”284
The American Bankers Association (ABA) also spent $26 million on lobbying between 2009 and 2011.285 Among the largest targets of their lobbying in 2009 was the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, which provided foreclosure relief to families affected by the mortgage crisis.286 While the bill did provide important protections, lobbyists were able to successfully eliminate a crucial component that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to write down mortgages on a primary residence to the current fair-market value of the property. The provision would have also allowed bankruptcy judges to monitor and stop the practice of banks using fraudulent documents to foreclose on homeowners.287
In addition, during the 2010 campaign cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with the commercial banking industry gave more than $22 million to federal candidates, committees and parties.288 The ABA alone gave more than $3.8 million to House and Senate candidates with an average contribution close to $6,000.289 These efforts have forestalled strong, consumer-friendly responses to the housing crisis.
Even through the housing crisis, homeownership continues to be a critical pathway to building wealth for low- and moderate-income households.290 Yet, the outsized role of big money in politics has contributed to a significant erosion of the American dream in the past decade. The subprime mortgage crisis is a textbook example of how corporate interests, backed by millions in campaign contributions and lobbying, were able to maximize their profits while households of color faced the greatest loss of wealth from their communities in modern history.
THE MINIMUM WAGE
The Problem and Its Impact on People of Color
The minimum wage directly or indirectly affects millions of American workers. In 2013, 1.5 million workers earned the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and another 1.8 million earned less.291 Less than half the workforce is covered by a higher state-level minimum.292
After peaking in 1968, the real value of the federal minimum wage has declined fairly steadily ever since. State minimum wages have in general also not kept pace with inflation, meaning that for the vast majority of minimum wage earners, purchasing power has declined over the past four decades (see Figure 18).
The lack of wage growth at the bottom is a huge problem for millions of Americans because minimum wage purchasing power is clearly insufficient. Working 40 hours per week at the federal minimum wage for 52 weeks over the course of the year (no vacation), a worker earns only $15,080 per year, which is below poverty level for a two-person household.293 As McDonalds inadvertently highlighted in 2013 by issuing a sample budget for its employees,294 this is not enough to live on, and many minimum wage workers depend upon multiple jobs, government programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, and mounting debt just to get by.295
People of color have paid a particularly high price for the stagnant minimum wage, a fact that lead The Leadership Conference Education Fund—the public education arm of the nation’s leading civil and human rights coalition—to partner with the Georgetown Law School Center on Poverty and Inequality to release an October 2014 report titled Improving Wages, Improving Lives: Why raising the minimum wage is a civil and human rights issue.296 The report notes that “raising the minimum wage was a key demand of the 1963 March on Washington.”297
And for good reasons that unfortunately persist. Latinos and African Americans are a disproportionate share of minimum wage workers298 and a disproportionate share of workers making poverty-level wages overall (see Figure 19). In 2013, 42.2 percent of workers earning poverty wages were Latino and 35.7 percent black, whereas whites represented just 22.5 percent in spite of being the majority of the workforce.299 The median hourly wage for white men in 2011 was 39 percent greater than the median wage for black men and 55 percent greater than the median for Hispanic men.300
There is also a stark gender gap with respect to minimum wage work, meaning that women of color are far more likely to work for the minimum than any other demographic. Women make up 60 percent of full-time minimum wage workers, and twenty-two percent of minimum wage workers are women of color.301 Women also make up two-thirds of all tipped workers, who earn a minimum wage of just $2.13 per hour.302 Ten percent of tipped workers are Asian, more than 10 percent are African American, and nearly 20 percent are Latino.303
Raising the minimum wage would lift millions of workers out of poverty, including millions of workers of color.304 In total, if the minimum wage were raised to $10.10 an hour, more than 3.5 million workers of color would be lifted out of poverty.305 Nearly 25 percent of all affected workers would be Latino, though Latinos comprise only 16 percent of the overall workforce.306 Likewise, more than 14 percent of workers affected would be African American,307 while African Americans comprise only 12 percent of the overall workforce.308 Twenty eight percent of all African American workers and 32 percent of all Latino workers would benefit from an increased minimum wage.309 Asian Americans could see their wages rise a collective $2.4 billion if the wage were raised to just over $10 per hour.310 Critically, raising the floor doesn’t just help workers earning the minimum, but creates upward pressure on wages that would boost earnings for more than 11 million workers currently earning more than $10 per hour.311
Some have claimed that raising the minimum wage would cost jobs for the very people advocates seek to help. This view, conveniently forwarded by industry trade groups,312 is not borne out by the facts. The 13 states that have recently increased their minimum wages have had above-average employment growth in recent months.313 The Economic Policy Institute estimates that raising the federal minimum wage incrementally to $10.10 per hour by 2016 would actually create 85,000 new jobs during the phase-in period.314
Average family income and employment stability are two factors responsible for the widening wealth gap between communities of color and white communities.315 For many workers of color, a stagnant minimum wage and sustained levels of high unemployment have prevented the economic stability needed for wealth accumulation. For these reasons, African American and Latino civil rights organizations have made raising the minimum wage a key priority in recent years.316
The Role of Money
Increasing the minimum wage is widely popular with the general public and would help millions of struggling families. Yet the minimum wage remains stagnant at the federal level and in many states because it is not a priority for the affluent, and because business interests actively advocate against raising it. In contrast, a low capital gains tax rate is generally unpopular among the public but continues to receive favorable treatment because affluent and corporate interest support keeping it low. The result is that millions of workers, particularly workers of color, face increasing levels of economic insecurity.
A Priority for People of Color, But Not for the Wealthy
In addition to providing more economic stability for workers, increasing the minimum wage would be a popular move for Congress. Consistently, the public overwhelmingly supports raising the minimum wage. More than 70 percent of Americans support raising the federal minimum wage to nine dollars,317 and 78 percent support a minimum wage high enough to keep families with at least one full-time worker out of poverty.318
Support for raising the minimum wage is even higher within communities of color, where 86 percent support raising the minimum wage (see Figure 20).319 In fact, 93 percent of African Americans and 83 percent of Latino Americans support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and adjusting it for the cost of living in subsequent years.320
In contrast, raising the minimum wage is not a priority for affluent individuals. A recent survey of individuals with an average income over $1 million found that only 40 percent of them supported having a minimum wage high enough so that a family with one full time worker would not live in poverty—about half the level of support reported by the general public (see Figure 21).321 The difference in support for increasing the minimum wage is not surprising since the policy does not affect affluent people the way it does low-wage workers. As discussed above, these affluent Americans provide a substantial and highly disproportionate share of campaign funding for elected officials.
In addition, many business owners and corporations actively oppose raising the wage. These businesses, or individuals associated with them, spend significant amounts of money on elections. For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which strongly opposes raising the minimum wage, spent at least $36.1 million directly on election activities in the 2012 cycle—a fraction of the money spent by the corporations associated with the Chamber and individuals who work for them.322 Twenty trade associations that oppose an increase in the minimum wage—including heavyweights such as the Chamber and the National Restaurant Association—collectively spent more than $91 million lobbying Congress in 2013 alone.323
Public Support, But Little Action from Congress
The overwhelming support for higher wages among the public and communities of color has resulted in a strong grassroots movement to raise the minimum wage. After implementing a system of publicly-funded elections that reduced the influence of special interests in the legislature, Connecticut increased its minimum wage in 2008.324Connecticut plus nine other states and DC have raised the wage in 2014, and a total of 34 states considered increases during the legislative session.325
Thousands of workers in fast food, retail, and other industries have risked their jobs and livelihoods over the past two years by striking for higher pay and the right to join a union.326 President Obama recently signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 per hour.327 And, Seattle recently enacted the nation’s highest minimum wage, which will ultimately reach $15 per hour.328
Yet in spite of this momentum, Congress and many states have allowed the real value of the minimum wage to decline in recent decades. Before it was increased in 2007, the federal minimum wage was stuck at $5.15 per hour for ten years.329 It has now been more than five years since it was last increased.330 While troubling, this is not surprising given the recent study (noted above) by Princeton and Northwestern political scientists which found that wealthy Americans and organized business interests have a strong impact on policy outcomes, while average voters have virtually none.331
The Contrast: Affluent and Corporate Interests Support, and Receive, a Low Capital Gains Tax Rate
Increasing the minimum wage may not directly affect many affluent Americans, but the capital gains tax rate certainly does. Keeping the capital gains rate low is also a top tax priority for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.332
Affluent households get the lion’s share of capital gains. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that in 2012, the top one percent of households received 71 percent of all capital gains.333 The small percentage of households that benefit from a low capital gains tax rate happens to overlap almost perfectly with the “donor class,” the wealthy individuals who comprise a tiny percentage of the public and yet account for the majority of campaign donations.334 Of those who contribute more than $200 to a campaign, 85 percent have annual household incomes of $100,000 or more.335 An annual income of $100,000 puts a household in the top 20 percent of income earners—the same class that receives 94 percent of capital gains.336
Those who benefit from capital gains are also overwhelmingly white. People of color invest in stocks and financial instruments at lower rates than whites so they receive less benefit from capital gains.337 Nearly 85 percent of the top quintile of income earners, who also receive 94 percent of all capital gains, are white.338
Congress has taken repeated action to lower the capital gains tax rate despite polls long showing that a majority of Americans think that capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as income.339 Congress lowered taxes on capital gains in 1997, again in 2001, and once more in 2003. (Congress also sharply cut the top rate on dividend income in 2003.)
As a result of these tax changes, the tax rate on capital gains reached a near-record low during the late 1990s up through 2012 when the top tax rate for capital gains was increased to 20 percent, as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal.340 Only for one brief period in the late 1980s and early 1990s did tax policy comply with the public preference that capital gains be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income (see Figure 22).
Raising the minimum wage is popular with the public, but not the wealthy. Candidates, who understand that fundraising is essential to a successful campaign, have a significant incentive to oppose raising the minimum wage and often little or no financial incentive to support it. Unions have lobbied heavily for increasing the wage and are substantial players in election and advocacy campaigns—but they are consistently and substantially outspent by wealthy donors and corporate interests.341 The opposite relationship is true with the capital gains tax rate—a low rate is unpopular with the public but enjoys strong support from the donor class.
The result, in our big money system, is economic policy that benefits the wealthy (largely white) minority, and leaves people of color the rest of low- and middle-income America behind. Even though far fewer Americans benefit from capital gains than from an increased minimum wage, Congress maintains a special lower tax rate on capital gains but refuses to increase the wage. The real value of the minimum wage is lower now than it was in 1968, leaving millions of workers—who are disproportionately people of color—struggling to stay afloat.342
PAID SICK DAYS IN CONNECTICUT
The Problem and Its Impact on People of Color
One hundred and forty-five countries, including nearly all of the most prosperous ones, guarantee their workers at least a few paid days each year to take care of themselves or their loved ones when they fall ill.343 The United States is an exception. Unlike Australia, Canada, the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, the U.S. does not require employers to provide even short-term paid sick leave for their employees.344
As a result, more than 41 million U.S. workers (39 percent) lack the option of taking paid days to recover from illness or care for sick family members.345 And many of those left out are workers who can least afford to take unpaid time off. Almost all high-income workers—close to nine out of every ten in the top quartile—enjoy the benefit of paid sick leave.346 But only about one third of workers in the bottom quartile of wage earners have access to paid sick days.347 That number drops to 21 percent for workers in the bottom tenth.348
What, exactly, are low-income parents without sick leave protections supposed to do when their young children come down with the flu? The economic impact of taking unpaid days off work can be devastating for working families. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that, even in a two-parent household in which both parents earn $10 per hour (well above minimum wage), the loss of three and a half days of one parent’s pay would cost the family a month of groceries.349 Just three days of unpaid leave would cost almost a month of health care.350 Sixteen percent of Americans report that they have lost a job because they took time off to care for themselves or a sick family member and another 14 percent have feared losing their jobs.351
The costs spread far beyond these families, affecting the broader economy and public health. Workers without paid leave are less likely to seek preventive medical care such as cancer screenings352 and more likely to go to work sick, putting coworkers’ and customers’ health at risk. Research suggests that offering a single paid sick day could reduce flu transmission by 25 percent and two paid days could cut it by almost two-fifths.353
Access to paid sick days is an issue of particular concern to the Latino community. While 64 percent of white workers and 62 percent of African American workers have access to paid sick days, fewer than half of Latino workers enjoy the same benefit.354
The Role of Money
Unsurprisingly, given the benefits outlined above, the vast majority of Americans favor proposals to guarantee workers paid sick days. Polls consistently find support for paid sick day laws at around 70 to 75 percent of the population.355 And this is one issue on which Americans all along the political spectrum agree. Majorities of not just Democrats but also Independents and Republicans support paid sick day laws. Indeed, most Americans on both sides of the aisle believe paid sick days are a basic worker’s right, akin to being paid a decent wage.356
Though support for paid sick day laws is high across the board, it’s often a particular priority for people of color and lower-income workers. Ninety percent of African Americans support paid sick day laws and African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately likely to consider paid sick leave a basic worker’s right (see Figure 23). Eighty percent of Hispanics and 95 percent of African Americans count it as a fundamental right, compared to 74 percent of whites. Similarly, eighty percent of workers earning $20,000 per year or less support paid sick day proposals compared to 73 percent of those making $80,000 or more and nine out of ten lower-wage workers consider paid sick leave a basic worker’s right versus seven of ten workers in the highest-income bracket.357
Despite the overwhelming public support for paid sick day laws, however, there is no federal law mandating paid sick days and, before 2011, not a single state had such a law on the books.
The lack of paid sick day laws isn’t due to a lack of legislative proposals. The Healthy Families Act, which would give workers throughout the nation the opportunity to earn paid sick days, has been introduced in every Congress since the 108th in 2003-2004.358At the state level, lawmakers in about 20 states have introduced paid sick leave bills in the last two years alone.359
However, opposition from business interests has impeded progress on these proposals. National organizations, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business360 and the National Restaurant Association, have lined up against the Healthy Families Act.361 And their state and local counterparts have taken a similar line against state and municipal proposals.362
Connecticut’s experience with paid sick days offers an example of this dynamic. The state’s chamber of commerce, the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA), was an immediate and vocal opponent of paid sick day legislation.363 Its anti-paid sick day push received early support from then-Governor Jodi Rell.364 Rell, who received campaign contributions from the CBIA and positioned herself as staunchly pro-business, threatened to veto any paid sick day bill the state General Assembly passed.365
CBIA’s efforts were also bolstered by another beneficiary of its campaign spending, then-Speaker of the Connecticut House James Amann.366 With leadership opposing the bill, it stalled in the state House. Despite receiving favorable reports from multiple joint legislative committees and passing the state Senate with votes to spare, the bill wasn’t put up to a vote of the full House while Amann held the speakership.367
But Connecticut is also a good example of how to change the dynamic. In late 2005, the state passed a “fair elections” system that provides an option for candidates for statewide constitutional offices and General Assembly to receive a public grant to fund their campaigns.368 These candidates must qualify for the system by raising a set amount of funding from a sufficient number of small donors and agree to certain spending limits. The program took effect for the 2008 General Assembly elections. In the first year it was available for gubernatorial elections, progressive candidate Daniel Malloy used his grant to win the 2010 race.369
That win changed the game for paid sick days in Connecticut. Malloy staked out a very different position on the issue than his primary and general election opponents, Democratic small businessmen Ned Lamont and Republican Tom Foley respectively. In a conversation with the Connecticut Mirror, Lamont said, “I think we deal with sick leave just fine at the small-business level where I live. I’m not sure I need the government stepping in and putting another mandate on businesses like mine.”370 Foley took this a step further, saying that the paid sick day legislation was “a job killing policy and will make Connecticut radioactive in terms of trying to bring employers here… [F]or the state legislature to mandate employers to provide it is idiotic.”371 Malloy, by contrast, enthusiastically supported the bill. He campaigned on paid sick days and continued to champion them when in office.372
And Malloy’s win probably would not have been possible without public financing. A leader of the paid sick day campaign, Connecticut Working Families’ Lindsay Farrell, notes that “Connecticut’s public financing system helped us to pass paid sick days because, in the Democratic primary, there was a multimillionaire who spent tons of money and the general election had a Republican who was a multimillionaire. Without public financing, [Malloy] wouldn’t have been both competitive and progressive.” Public financing “allowed him to be competitive in a race at that level without compromising on an issue like paid sick days.”373
By the time Malloy took office, the state House speakership had also changed hands. Publicly-funded progressive Chris Donovan had replaced moderate Amann at the head of the House and, unlike Amann, he backed the paid sick day proposal.374 With Donovan leading one chamber, publicly-funded Senate President Donald Williams, Jr. leading the other, and Malloy in the governor’s mansion, the paid sick day bill sped through the legislative process.375 Before the end of the first year of Malloy’s first term in office, he had signed it into law, making Connecticut the first—and, until California earlier this year, only—state in the nation to guarantee workers access to paid sick days.376
The Effects of Paid Sick Days
Connecticut’s paid sick day legislation expanded the number of Connecticut workers with access to paid sick days at little or no cost to local businesses. Service workers in companies with 50 employees or more are now guaranteed the opportunity to earn paid time off to care for themselves or their families during an illness. Contrary to the concerns the CBIA raised, the negative impact of the paid sick day law on businesses seems to have been modest—with some employers even seeing positive effects.377Within eighteen months of the law going into effect, 77 percent of Connecticut employers supported the paid sick day law.378
Connecticut’s paid sick day law is a testament to the power of public financing to swing the political pendulum towards voters and away from wealthy interests. When elected officials are dependent on corporate donors to fund their campaigns, business interests enjoy disproportionate sway over the policymaking process. They can block policies they perceive as against their interests and drown out opposing voices.
When candidates have access to public financing, they can run—and win—on policies that are supported by voters and benefit working- and middle-class families and people of color. Changing the way campaigns are funded can change the debate, ensuring that a wider range of voices is heard, and elevating candidates and policies that are better aligned with the preferences of the general public and more responsive to constituents’ needs.
BUILDING POWER TO GET BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS BY ORGANIZING ON VOTING RIGHTS
by TakeAction Minnesota
“Through grassroots organizing to build independent political power, we are creating a virtuous cycle where our communities achieve meaningful progress on critical issues and in the process, come to believe that the promise of a government of, by and for the people is not only still possible, but worth fighting for.”
Voter ID Laws in the United States
Thirty states have enacted some sort of voter identification law.379 These statutes appeared in statehouses across the country immediately after the 2008 national election, when 89.6 percent of registered voters cast a ballot, the largest proportion in forty years.380 The surge in participation reflected a more diverse electorate, what is now called the “Rising American Electorate.” In response, conservative lawmakers proposed 62 strict new voter ID bills in 37 states in 2011 and 2012.381 They received inspiration from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a think-tank funded by major corporations, which drafted, circulated and publicized model photo ID legislation throughout the country.382
Supporters of voter ID laws claim they are concerned with voter fraud, but there is little evidence of fraud to be found. Between 2000 and 2010, 441 Americans were killed by lightning strikes, but only 13 credible cases of in-person voting fraud were documented.383 The broader intent of the laws appears to be to shift political and economic power.
Voter ID laws have a particular meaning in the context of today’s growing wealth inequality, greater than it has been in nearly 100 years. Those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder—low-income people, people of color, students, seniors—experience the economy very differently from the corporate executives who fund ALEC. Voter restriction laws protect the interests of an economic elite that uses campaign contributions to promote their economic interests and advance privatization, deregulation, attacks on workers’ and women’s rights, and an end to immigration reform.
Eleven percent of voting-age Americans lack government issued photo identification cards, and the number is higher among those on the losing end of income inequality: students, African Americans, immigrants, seniors and low-income voters.384 A recent report by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) bore out fears that voter ID laws could reduce voting by under-represented groups: new voter identification requirements passed in Kansas and Tennessee suppressed overall voter turnout by between two and three percent compared to similar states without these laws, with the strongest deterrent effects among young people and African American voters.385
Suppressing the vote increases the power of money in politics. The people whose votes are most easily suppressed are the most socially and economically marginalized voters. Low-income voters already vote less reliably than wealthier voters, and increasing the barriers to the franchise reduces their turnout disproportionately. Thus voter restriction measures leave a wealthier electorate. Only a small elite has the resources to make their voices heard by writing checks, but the vote is (or should be) available to everyone.386
Voter restriction measures thus translate the economic gap between rich and poor into a political gap between donors and voters. They allow wealthy people to control the political system the way they already control the economy. Thus it is no surprise that the same corporate interests that seek to undermine campaign contribution limits also support measures to restrict the franchise. On the flip side, grassroots efforts to preserve and expand voting rights are central to any strategy to oppose corporate influence over politics.
ALEC Brings Voter Restriction to Minnesota
In the spring of 2011, Minnesota’s governor vetoed a bill that would have required a photo ID to vote.387 The bill’s author, the state chair for ALEC, circumvented the governor and placed the measure on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in time for the 2012 election.388
Minnesota was a prime target of the national voter restriction movement. The state consistently led the nation in voter turnout,389 and the non-partisan FairVote has ranked its electoral system as the most democratic of all 50 states.390 In their ambition to take down the country’s best functioning democracy, the proponents of voter restriction crafted one of the toughest voter suppression policies in the nation. The proposed statute would have required voters to present a current government-issued ID without exemptions, not even for military voters, absentee voters, or nursing home residents.391It would have all but eliminated same-day registration, a program used by more than half a million voters, with high participation of people of color.392 These restrictions would have been enshrined in the state constitution, making it very hard to amend or remove.
A poll conducted by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in May 2011 showed 80 percent public support for the proposal.393 One headline read, “Slam Dunk: Minnesotans Love Photo ID.”394 But a small cadre of organizations with electoral experience and roots in communities of color, knew something the pollsters didn’t: the voter ID amendment could be defeated. TakeAction Minnesota knew this level of public support was a result of the misleading “fraud-free elections” narrative that was drummed-up by the bill’s proponents.395 We immediately took to the streets and started canvassing door-to-door. We had just 18 months before the measure would appear on the ballot. Our volunteers found that while most voters were predisposed to support a photo ID to vote, a trusted member of their community could often change their mind by helping them to understand the impact of requiring IDs. Our canvassing team discovered latent anger amongst community members who saw the measure as an attempt by powerful corporate interests to silence them. This anger proved the key ingredient to defeating the initiative.
How Grassroots Organizers Defeated Voter Restriction
Two community groups—ISAIAH, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change—along with the local Communications Workers of America (CWA) and SEIU union locals, joined TakeAction Minnesota to launch a grassroots organizing campaign to defeat the amendment. We knew that in order to win, we needed to talk to our communities both about the use of racial anxiety to promote the bill, and about the corporate interests and donors who were the financial backers.
We also set out to change the media narrative. We organized a “week of action” where different organizations led direct action protests and media events. TakeAction Minnesota released a report showing the state’s largest banks and financial institutions were the primary funders of the legislators promoting the voter restriction law.396 We turned out 300 people for a silent protest at the state capitol with dollar bills pasted over our mouths. From that point forward, the news media began to describe photo ID as “controversial.”397
Next, TakeAction Minnesota exposed the explicit racism of the voter ID campaign. On the campaign’s website was a caricature of fraudulent voters. First in line was an African American man in a prison jumpsuit, next a Latino dressed as a mariachi.398 The ad was in line with proponents’ strategy to fuel their campaign with racial anxiety. By drawing attention to the racism, we put the voter restriction campaign on the defensive.
Opponents of voter restriction initially had almost no money, so we built the vote no campaign on the existing infrastructure of grassroots organizations. Community organizers and volunteers were the backbone of a massive grassroots campaign called Our Vote, Our Future, which reached voters across the state. Volunteers and staff steadfastly refused to debate the false notion of voter fraud, and focused instead on the consequences, complications and cost of the voter restriction amendment (the name we gave the measure and used in all public communications). As important as this message were our messengers: grassroots volunteers who belonged to the communities where we canvassed. Volunteers persuaded unsure voters to vote no, and encouraged no voters to show up on Election Day. One voter at a time, these volunteers made the difference. Altogether, 80 grassroots organizations eventually joined the campaign, each connecting the issues its constituency cared most about to the need for full, unrestricted, civic participation.
On October 9, 2012 the campaign had raised the resources to launch our first TV advertisement. By that time, the tide of one-on-one conversations with voters, letters to the editors and articles in local papers had dropped support for the amendment from 80 percent to 51 percent—well within striking distance.399 TakeAction Minnesota alone organized more than 3,200 volunteers, who attempted to reach 800,000 voters and spoke with more than 117,000. The whole campaign reached more than 400,000 voters. By Election Day, more than a million voters had changed their minds (one out of every three) and the voter restriction amendment went down to defeat 52 percent to 46 percent.400 Minnesota was the first, and is still the only, state in the country to defeat a voter ID proposal on the ballot.
The defeat of the amendment was a blow for its corporate backers. It also strengthened the grassroots organizations that opposed the initiative. We built our capacity by expanding our volunteer base, growing our email list and online followings, forging new relationships with reporters and media, and building powerful new coalitions across communities and issue interests. Many of the legislators who had backed voter ID were swept out of office. As the political landscape shifted, the organizations that led the campaign to defeat voter restriction had new authority and power to advance our agendas.
The Next Step: Empowering Disenfranchised Voters
Defeating the voter restriction amendment helped preserve the power of ordinary people to have a say in their political system, and reduce the influence of money in politics. While we are working to align with other state-based community organizations and national organizations working to pass campaign finance policy reforms and transform the Supreme Court’s approach to money in politics, we are also going on the offensive here in Minnesota to reclaim control of our democracy, and to open the doors to participation for people who have been excluded from the right to vote.
TakeAction Minnesota, along with the leadership of our allies, has begun a campaign to restore the vote to one of the most disadvantaged and reviled groups in the state: people with criminal records.
Minnesotans charged with a felony lose the right to vote until they are released from supervision. There are currently 63,000 people in the state who live at home, participate in their community, work to support their families and pay their taxes, and yet are unable to vote due to a past criminal conviction.401 The number has increased in recent years as felony convictions and sentence lengths have expanded, especially for non-violent related offenses. Since 1974, the number of voting age Minnesotans disenfranchised as a result of a criminal conviction has increased by more than 400%.402
Felony disenfranchisement in Minnesota disproportionately affects African American and American Indian men. In 2011, nearly 16,000 African Americans were disenfranchised in Minnesota, roughly eight percent of African Americans of voting age.403 A quarter of the disenfranchised are African Americans and six percent are American Indians, far exceeding their proportion in the population.404 Felon voter restriction has long-lasting repercussions for communities of color, since children whose parents don’t vote are themselves less likely to participate in the democratic process.405
TakeAction Minnesota has joined with others under the banner of Restore the Vote, a broad coalition supporting legislation that would allow citizens to vote as long as they are not incarcerated. Since voting is a powerful symbolic act of community contribution, the reform we support will promote successful reintegration into the community for returning citizens.406
Organizers are using similar community engagement strategies to those that we used to defeat voter ID. During the fall of 2014, our volunteers are knocking on doors and calling voters by phone to build and demonstrate broad public support. Other volunteers are circulating petitions, signing up supporters, meeting with decision-makers, hosting educational forums, writing letters to the editor, and using Twitter and Facebook to get the word out. Once again, a powerful coalition of community groups, election officials and advocates have come together from across the political spectrum to stand up for the right to vote.
Building Power to Take on Big Money in Politics
Like the defeat of voter suppression efforts, how we wage the campaign to restore the vote is as important as the policy victory itself. Through grassroots organizing we are creating a virtuous cycle where our communities achieve meaningful progress on critical issues and in the process come to believe the promise of a government of, by and for the people—not just wealthy elites—is not only still possible, but worth fighting for.
In the 1990s and 2000s we learned a valuable lesson in our work to curtail money in politics, a lesson that was affirmed in the campaign to defeat of the voter restriction amendment: building a broad-based grassroots movement for democracy reforms requires people to connect the “bread and butter” issues of economic opportunity, social inclusion and racial justice to the ideas of unfettered democratic participation and self-determination. Through protecting voting rights and developing a holistic pro-democracy agenda, we are building the people power we’ll need to both support national efforts to change money in politics policy through Congress and the courts and to mobilize for small donor democracy here in Minnesota.
- Emmanuel Sanz & Thomas Piketty, Inequality in the Long-Run, 344 Science 838 (2014).
- Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century 571-77 (2014.)
- Martin Gilens, Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America 234 (2014).
- Signe-Mary McKernan et al., Less than Equal 1, Urban Institute (2013), http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412802-Less-Than-Equal-Racial-Dispariti....
- Kim Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010).
- See Floyd v. City of New York, 959 F. Supp. 2d 540, 574 (S.D.N.Y. 2013); Jennifer Fratello et al., Coming of Age with Stop and Frisk: Experiences, Perceptions, and Public Safety Implications, Vera Institute of Justice (Sept. 2013), http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/stop-and-fri....
- Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?, Wall Street Journal (Aug. 7, 2013), http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142412788732384880457860804078....
- Spencer Overton, The Donor Class: Campaign Finance, Democracy, and Participation, 153 U. Pa. L. Rev. 73 (2004).
- Nicholas Carnes, White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making 4-5 (2013).
- Adam Lioz, The Role of Money in the 2002 Congressional Elections, U.S. PIRG Educ. Fund, 15 (2003), http://uspirgorg.live.pubintnet-dev.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Role_of....
- Adam Lioz, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: How the Supreme Court Helped Create the Inequality Era and Why a New Jurisprudence Must Lead Us Out, 43 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1227, 1260-61 (2013).
- Id.; Linda Greenhouse, Polar Vision, N.Y. Times (May 28, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/greenhouse-polar-vision.html.
- Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
- Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 558 U.S. 310 (2010).
- McCutcheon v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 134 S. Ct. 1434 (2014).
- Adam Lioz & Blair Bowie, McCutcheon Money: The Projected Impact of Striking Aggregate Contribution Limits 1-3, Demos & U.S. PIRG Education Fund (2013), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/McCutcheonMoney-20....
- See generally, Brief for Communications Workers of America et al. as Amici Curiae Supporting Appellee, McCutcheon v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 134 S. Ct. 1434 (2014) (No. 12-536), available at http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/mccutcheon_sc_demo....
- David Callahan & J. Mijin Cha, Stacked Deck: How the Dominance of Politics by the Affluent and Business Undermines Economic Mobility in America, Demos (2013).
- In 1990, veteran civil rights advocate Gwen Patton said, “We have fought and died for the right to vote, but what good is the right if we do not have candidates to vote for? Getting money out of politics is the unfinished business of the voting rights movement.” See National Voting Rights Institute, About Us, http://www.nvri.net/about/camfinance.shtml
- Gilens, supra note 3, at 81.
- Larry Bartels, Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age 285 (2008).
- Martin Gilens & Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens 3, Perspectives on Politics (forthcoming 2014), available at http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%2....
- Id. at 23.
- Lisa Keister, The One Percent, 40 Ann. R. of Sociology 347 (2014); State & County QuickFacts, U.S Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045216 (describing the percentage of the population that is non-Hispanic white).
- Post-ABC Poll: December Monthly, Wash. Post (Dec. 19, 2013), http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/12/18/N....
- July 2012 Post-ABC Election Poll, Wash. Post (July 16, 2012), http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/07/10/N....
- Benjamin I. Page et al., Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans, 11 Persp. on Pols. 51, 55-56 (2013), available athttp://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf.
- July 2013 Washington Post-ABC News Poll – National Politics, Trayvon Martin, Health Care, Wash. Post (July 26, 2013), http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/07/22/N....
- Post-Miller Center Poll: American Dream and Financial Security, Wash. Post (Nov. 25, 2013), http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/09/28/N....
- Page, Bartels, and Seawright, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans (2013), http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf
- College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2013 (2013), Tables 2A, 20A. http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/
- State Higher Education Executive Officers, State Higher Education Finance FY13 (2014), http://www.sheeo.org/sites/default/files/publications/SHEF_FY13_04292014...
- College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2013 (2013); College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2001 (2001).
- U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics (2013). Table 376. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_376.asp
- Calculations from the U.S. Department of Education National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey 2012 (NPSAS:12).
- J. Mijin Cha & Liz Kennedy, Millions to the Polls: Practical Policies to Fulfill the Freedom to Vote For all Americans, Demos (2014), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/m2p-Main.pdf.
- See Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens Without Proof: A Survey of Americans’ Possession of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification (2006), http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/d/download_file_...
- Notably, African American turnout eclipsed white turnout in 2012 (and perhaps in 2008); but this was a departure from previous trends. See Thom File, The Diversifying Electorate—Voting Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin in 2012 (and Other Recent Elections), U.S. Census Bureau (May 2013), http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-568.pdf; Rachel Weiner, Black voters turned out at higher rate than white voters in 2012 and 2008, Wash. Post (Apr. 29, 2013) (describing analysis of Professor Michael McDonald that showed the turnout rate of black voters was higher than white voters in 2008 when people who did not respond to the census were excluded from the figures), http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/04/29/black-turnout-....
- This is in fact a high priority for Demos. We work extensively on promoting Same Day Registration, enforcing the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights and election reform priorities. See, e.g., Cha & Kennedy, supra note 43.
- See generally, Adam Lioz & Blair Bowie, Billion-Dollar Democracy: The Unprecedented Role of Money in the 2012 Elections, Demos & U.S. PIRG Education Fund (2013), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/BillionDollarDemoc....
- Center for Responsive Politics, Donor Demographics, https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/donordemographics.php (accessed on 10/29/14).
- Lioz & Bowie, supra note 47 at 4.
- Lee Drutman, The Political 1% of the 1% in 2012, Sunlight Foundation June 24, 2013, http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/06/24/1pct_of_the_1pct/.
- See generally National Institute on Money in State Politics, www.followthemoney.org.
- Campaign Finance Institute, CFI Releases Analysis of Money in State Elections(October 30, 2014), charts available at http://www.cfinst.org/pdf/state/tables/States_12_table1.pdf and http://www.cfinst.org/pdf/state/tables/States_12_table2.pdf.
- John Green et al., Individual Congressional Campaign Contributors: Wealthy, Conservative and Reform-Minded (1998).
- Public Campaign, The Color of Money: The 2004 Presidential Race 2 (Feb. 2004), http://library.publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/2004_cofm_pres_comp....
- Id. at 3.
- Jack Gillum & Luis Alonso Lugo, Minorities Donating Little to Presidential Races, Associated Press (Nov. 3, 2012), http://bigstory.ap.org/article/minorities-donating-little-presidential-r...
- Brentin Mock, McCutcheon and the two-pronged attack on voting rights, Institute for Southern Studies (Oct. 9, 2103), http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/10/mccutcheon-and-the-two-pronged-at....
- Tarini Parti & Robin Bravender, The Billion-Dollar Buy: Republican Mega Donors, Politico (Aug. 7, 2012, updated Nov. 7, 2012), http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79413.html.
- There is no way to be certain of anyone’s racial identity without asking him or her, but in reviewing photographs of these large donors all appear to be white.
- Because the threshold for disclosing contributions to federal candidates is $200, it is very difficult to analyze the racial composition of the federal small donor pool and therefore present a direct comparison to the data cited above. The data presented in this paragraph analyze contribution data for New York City, which has a system that encourages candidates to disclose very small contributions so they can be matched by a public fund. Evidence suggests that this system itself has a positive impact on the diversity of the small donor pool (beyond simply encouraging small contributions without respect to race). This effect, however, is not likely to be so large as to overwhelm the general point that small contributions are inherently more likely to come from a diverse donor pool than are larger contributions.
- Public Campaign preliminary analysis of donor demographics and small donor impact in New York City elections conducted in the spring of 2013, using contribution data from 2009 and American Community Survey 2007-2013 five-year averages.
- Michael J. Malbin et al., Small Donors, Big Democracy: New York City’s Matching Funds As A Model for the Nation and States, 11 Election L.J. 3, 13 (2012) (describing the increase in donor diversity in the 2009 New York City elections).
- See e.g. U.S. Census Bureau, Census Bureau Reports the Number of Black-Owned Businesses Increased at Triple the National Rate; Geoscape, Hispanic Businesses & Entrepreneurs Drive Growth in the New Economy (2014) (reporting that “Hispanic businesses are growing at more than twice the rate of all U.S. firms”); Economic Policy Institute, Black median family income, as a share of white median family income, 1947-2013 (showing steady growth in ratio since the 1980s), http://stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/ratio-of-black-and-hispanic-to-w....
- See e.g. T.S. Arrington & G.L. Ingalls, Race and campaign finance in Charlotte, NC, 37 Western Political Quarterly 578, 582-83 (1984).
- The legal scholars John Bonifaz and Jamin Raskin originally coined the term “wealth primary” in two path-breaking articles in the early 1990s: Equal Protection and The Wealth Primary, 11 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 273-332 (1993) and The Constitutional Imperative and Practical Superiority of Democratically Financed Elections, 94 Colum. L. Rev. 1160-1203 (1994). For a more recent in-depth discussion of how the wealth primary functions in practice, see Adam Lioz, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: How the Supreme Court Helped Create the Inequality Era and Why a New Jurisprudence Must Lead Us Out, 43 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1227 (2013).
- Paul Blumenthal, Chris Murphy: Soul-Crushing’ Fundraising is Bad for Congress, Huffington Post (May 7, 2013), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/chris-murphy-fundraising_n_3232....
- See the results at http://wholeads.us/. All figures that follow in this paragraph are from this study.
- The New American Leaders Project, Represent 2020: Toward a Better Vision for Democracy (October 2014).
- Id. at 4.
- Id. at 8-9.
- National Conference of State Legislatures, African-American Legislators, http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/african-american-l....
- National Conference of State Legislatures, 2009 Latino Legislators, http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/latino-legislators....
- Les Christie, Census: U.S. becoming more diverse, CNN (May 14, 2009), http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/14/real_estate/rising_minorities/.
- Mark Hugo Lopez & Paul Taylor, Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History, Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project (April 3, 2009), http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/04/30/dissecting-the-2008-electorate-mos...
- Jennifer E. Manning, Membership of the 113th Congress: A Profile 8-9, Congressional Research Service (Jan. 13, 2014), http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42964.pdf.
- U.S. Census Bureau, The Diversifying Electorate—Voting Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin in 2012 (and Other Recent Elections) 3 (May 2013), http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2013/demo/....
- Kelly Dittmar, The Status of Black Women in American Politics, The Center for American Women & Politics for Higher Heights Leadership Fund 3 (2014).
- Id. at 4.
- Id. at 7.
- Id. at 10.
- Id. at 14.
- Id. at 14.
- There are 100 African American candidates on congressional or statewide ballots for the 2014 elections, a post-Reconstruction record. See Jesse J. Holland, Record Number of Black Candidates Seeking Office, Associated Press (October 15, 2014). This is a hopeful sign, but does not approach parity.
- Paru Shah, It Takes a Black Candidate: A Supply-Side Theory of Minority Representation, Political Research Quarterly 2 (Aug. 2013).
- Dittmar, supra note 86 at 2.
- David Binder Research, Reflective Democracy, Women Donors Network (October 2014), accessed at file:///Users/adamlioz%201/Downloads/dbr-reflective-democracy-survey-pre... .
- Shah, supra note 93, at 7.
- Memo from Center for Working Families to Citizen Action of New York, Public Financing of Election and Communities of Color (Feb. 16, 2012), available athttp://www.scribd.com/doc/81949813/Public-financing-of-elections-and-com....
- Angela Migally & Susan Liss, Small Donor Matching Funds: The NYC Election Experience, Brennan Center for Justice (2010), http://brennan.3cdn.net/8116be236784cc923f_iam6benvw.pdf ; Steven M. Levin, Keeping it Clean: Public Financing in American Elections, Center for Governmental Studies (2006), http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/kmayer/466/Keeping_It_Clean.pdf.
- Jason P. Conti, The Forgotten Few: Campaign Finance Reform and its Impact on Minority and Female Candidates, 22 B.C. Third World L.J. 99, 109 (2002).
- More than 90% of the biggest campaign fundraisers and spenders routinely win elected office. Money does not always win the day, but raising more money certainly gives a candidate a better chance to win. See Center for Responsive Politics, Money Wins Presidency and 9 of 10 Congressional Races in Priciest U.S. Election Ever (Nov. 5, 2008), http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/11/money-wins-white-house-and/;Wesley Lowery, 91% of the time the better financed candidate wins. Don’t act surprised, Washington Post (April 4, 2014).
- Laura Merrifield Albright, Not Simply Black and White: The Relationship between Race/Ethnicity and Campaign Finance in State Legislative Elections (Aug. 4, 2014), http://ssrn.com/abstract=2475889.
- Megan Moore, Money and Diversity: 2004 State Legislative Elections, National Institute on Money in State Politics 11 (2006).
- Id. at 13.
- Id. at 10.
- Shah, supra note 93, at 10 (finding that when black candidates run they have a greater than 50 percent chance of winning).
- Lioz & Bowie, supra note 47.
- Andrew Mayersohn, Four Years After Citizens United: The Fallout, Center for Responsive Politics (Jan. 21, 2014), http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/01/four-years-after-citizens-united....
- Center for Responsive Politics, 2012 Outside Spending, by Group, http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2012&chrt=V&di....
- Center for Responsive Politics, Top Industries, http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2013&indexType=i.
- The National Institute on Money in State Politics is the leading organization tracking state-level political spending, but they have not released a figure for state-level lobbying across the country and a number of academics consulted report that such a comprehensive analysis is not available.
- W. Tradition P’ship, Inc. v. Attorney Gen. of State, 271 P.3d 1, 34 (Mont. 2011) cert. granted, judgment rev’d sub nom. Am. Tradition P’ship, Inc. v. Bullock, 132 S. Ct. 2490 (2012).
- Gilens & Page, supra note 22, at 574, 575.
- Alliance for Board Diversity, Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards 9 (2012), http://theabd.org/2012_ABD%20Missing_Pieces_Final_8_15_13.pdf.
- Daniel Butler & David Broockman, Do Politicians Racially Discriminate Against Constituents? A Field Experiment on State Legislators, 55 Am. J. of Pol. Sci. 463 (2011), available athttp://www.danielmarkbutler.com/uploads/1/7/6/8/17688231/ajps_discrimina....
- Ariel R. White et al., What Do I Need to Vote? Bureaucratic Discretion and Discrimination by Local Election Officials (July, 11, 2014), http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/arwhite/files/fallernathanwhite_voterid...
- The New American Leaders Project, supra note 77, at 5 (citing several studies on “descriptive representation”).
- Id. at 6, 10 (emphasis in original).
- German Lopez, Why Ferguson’s government is so white, Vox (Aug. 14, 2014).
- Christopher Ingraham, The Pentagon gave nearly half a billion dollars of military gear to local law enforcement last year, Wash. Post (Aug. 14, 2014), athttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/14/the-pentagon-....
- Donny Shaw, Defense Industry-Backed Lawmakers Voted to Continue Police Militarization Program, Maplight (Aug. 14, 2014), http://maplight.org/content/73514.
- Patrick Flavin, Campaign Finance Laws, Policy Outcomes, and Political Equality in the American States (March 3, 2014).
- Buckley, supra note 13.
- Citizens United, supra note 14.
- McCutcheon, supra note 15.
- Id. at 1441.
- Public Citizen, As Senate Vote Looms, Poll Shows Strong Support Across Party Lines for Constitutional Amendment to Curb Money in Politics (Sept. 3, 2014), http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=4270.
- See United for the People, Local and State Resolutions, http://www.united4thepeople.org/local.html.
- Demos, President Heather McGhee on the Senate’s Vote and Debate on the Democracy for All Resolution (Sept. 11, 2014), http://www.demos.org/press-release/president-heather-mcghee-senates-vote....
- New York City Campaign Finance Board, Why Should I Join? (2014), http://www.nyccfb.info/candidates/candidates/whyJoin.aspx?sm=candidates_...
- Elisabeth Genn et al., Donor Diversity through Public Matching Funds, Brennan Center for Justice & Campaign Finance Institute 4 (2012), http://cfinst.org/pdf/state/ny/DonorDiversity.pdf.
- J. Mijin Cha & Miles Rapoport, Fresh Start:The Impact of Public Financing in Connecticut Demos 2 (2013), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/FreshStart_PublicF....
- Clean Elections Institute, Reclaiming Democracy in Arizona: How Clean Elections has expanded the universe of campaign contributors 3 (2004), http://www.followthemoney.org/assets/press/Reports/200409301.pdf.
- Nancy Watzman, All Over the Map: Small Donors Bring Diversity to Arizona’s Elections, Public Campaign 1-2 (2008), http://www.washclean.org/Library/AOTM_AZ08_Rpt.pdf.
- Thomas Cmar, Towards a Small Donor Democracy: The Past and Future of Incentives for Small Political Contributions, U.S. PIRG Education Fund 13 (2004), http://www.uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Toward_A_Small_Donor_Demo....
- Government by the People Act of 2014, H.R. 20, 113th Cong. (2014); see also, Adam Lioz, The Government By the People Act: Legislation to Curb the Power of Wealthy Donors and Put Government Back in the Hands of Voters, Demos (2014), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Demos-GovByThePeop....
- Fair Elections Now Act, S.2023, 113th Cong. (2014), https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2023.
- Letter from Alliance For Justice et al. to Congress (Feb. 12, 2014), http://campaignmoney.org/files/2-14SenateSignOnLetter.pdf
- Pew Research Center, Super PACs Having Negative Impact, Say Voters Aware of ’Citizens United’ Ruling (Jan. 17, 2012), http://www.people-press.org/2012/01/17/super-pacs-having-negative-impact....
- Liz Kennedy, Citizens Actually United: The Bi-Partisan Opposition to Corporate Political Spending and Support for Common Sense Reform Demos (Oct. 25, 2012), http://www.demos.org/publication/citizens-actually-united-bi-partisan-op....
- See Josh Israel, POLL: Voters Hate Super PACs, Want More Campaign Finance Disclosure, ThinkProgress (Nov. 14, 2012) (“A new poll of 2012 voters by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Democracy Corps and Public Campaign Action Fund shows huge national concern with the growing role of money in politics and the lack of disclosure thereof. Fully 61 percent of voters (60 percent of Romney voters and 62 percent of Obama voters) oppose the current level of money in politics. Just 18 percent of voters share Mitt Romney’s and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) view that there should be no limits on campaign contribution or spending. In addition to showing about two-thirds of voters support some sort of public financing system with matching funds for Congressional candidates, a stunning 85 percent said they support requiring disclosure of who funds secret outside advertisements.”), http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/14/1181671/poll-voters-hate-sup...Memorandum from Celinda Lake et al., Lake Research Partners, Recent research on the amendment to overturn Citizens United 1 (Aug. 14, 2014) (“Recent survey research of likely November 2014 voters1 finds solid opposition to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and support for a constitutional amendment to overturn it.”), http://www.citizen.org/documents/Memo.CitizensUnited.frev.pdf; Lydia Saad, Half in U.S. Support Publicly Financed Federal Campaigns: Vast majority supports limiting campaign spending and contributions, Gallup (June 24, 2013); Sarah Dutton et al., Americans’ view of Congress: Throw ‘em out, CBS News (2014) (“Perhaps for this reason, most Americans (71 percent) continue to think individual contributions to political campaigns should be limited. Majorities of all partisan stripes would like to see campaign contributions limited, but Democrats and independents are more likely to hold that view than Republicans. Along the same lines, most Americans (76 percent) say that spending by outside groups on political advertising should be limited.”), http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-view-of-congress-throw-em-out/; Peter Moore, Keep the Total Donation Cap (2014) (showing that most Americans support aggregate limits), https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/04/07/donation-cap/.
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Public Financing of Campaigns: An Overview (Jan. 23, 2013), http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/public-financing-of....
- See, e.g., Cal. Gov’t Code § 84222; Del. Code Ann. tit. 15, § 8030; Haw. Rev. Stat. § 84-17 (implementing 2014 Hawaii Laws Act 230 (2014); Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 55, § 18; N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 163-278.39; Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2962.
- Seth Endo, Maryland’s Montgomery County Just Enacted Public Financing, Demos (Oct. 3, 2014), http://www.demos.org/blog/10/3/14/marylands-montgomery-county-just-enact...
- Government By the People Act of 2014, H.R.20, 113th Congress (2014) (showing 159 co-sponsors, not including the bill’s original sponsor Rep. John Sarbanes), https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/20/cosponsors.
- The Sentencing Project, Incarceration, http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=107.
- Daniel P. Wood, US crime rate at lowest point in decades. Why America is safer now, Christian Science Monitor (Jan 9, 2012), http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0109/US-crime-rate-at-lowest-p....
- See e.g. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights & Leadership Conference Education Fund, Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System 21-14, http://www.protectcivilrights.org/pdf/reports/justice.pdf.
- Justice Policy Institute, Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies, (June 2011), http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/gaming_the_....
- See Alexander, supra note 5.
- Bruce Drake, Incarceration Gap Widens Between Whites and Blacks, Pew Research Center (Sept. 6, 2013) (“Black men were more than six times as likely as white men in 2010 to be incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and local jails.”), http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/incarceration-gap-betwee....
- Pew Charitable Trusts, Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility 4 (2010), http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/Co....
- The Sentencing Project, Women in the Criminal Justice System (May 2007), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/womenincj_total.pdf.
- Pew Research Center, Religion in Prisons: A 50-State Survey of Prison Chaplains, App. C: The State and Federal Correctional System (Mar. 22, 2012) (“A majority of the U.S. prison population is made up of racial and ethnic minorities: 38% of U.S. prisoners are black and 22% are Hispanic. Just 32% are non-Hispanic whites, and 8% are of other racial background.”), http://www.pewforum.org/2012/03/22/prison-chaplains-appendix-c/.
- Pew Charitable Trusts, supra note 163, at 4.
- The Sentencing Project, supra note 164.
- Total Hispanic prison population in 2013 was 314,600 males and 17,600 females out of the total prison population of 1,516,879 males and 104,134 females equaling 20.49% of total prison population. Bureau of Just. Stat., Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool – Prisoners, Quick Tables: Prisoner Characteristics(2013), http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=nps.
- According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “Hispanics constituted 17% of the nation’s total population [in 2012].” Profile America: Facts for Features, U.S. Census Bureau News (July 30, 2013), http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/cb13ff-19_hispanicheritage.pdf.
- Matt Clarke, Dramatic Increase in Number of Hispanics Sentenced to Federal Prison, Prison Legal News (May 5, 2012).
- See e.g. ACLU, What is the School to Prison Pipeline (June 6, 2008), https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/what-school-prison-pipeline; Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools, Advancement Project, ACLU of Mississippi, Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, and Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse (Jan. 2013), http://b.3cdn.net/advancement/bd691fe41faa4ff809_u9m6bfb3v.pdf.
- See e.g. Jamie Fellner, Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States, 20 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 257, 269-70 (2009) (“The data demonstrate clearly and consistently that blacks have been and remain more likely to be arrested for drug offending behavior relative to their percentage among drug offenders than whites who engage in the same behavior.”).
- Drake, supra note 162.
- John Schmitt & Kris Warner, Ex-Offenders and the Labor Market, Center for Economic and Policy Research (Nov. 2010), http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/ex-offenders-2010-11.pdf; Amanda Geller et al, The Effects of Incarceration on Employment and Wages An Analysis of the Fragile Families Survey (2006), http://www.saferfoundation.org/files/documents/Princeton-Effect%20of%20I....
- Economic Mobility Project and the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trust, Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility (2010), http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/Co...
- David Shapiro, Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration, American Civil Liberties Union 12 (2011).
- Prison Policy Initiative, Public and Private Prisons, 1999-2012 (2014), http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/public_private_1999-2012.html
- Associated Press, “Private prison companies making big bucks on locking up undocumented immigrants” (August 2, 2012).
- Booth Gunter, Investigation, Lawsuit Expose Barbaric Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison in Mississippi, Southern Poverty Law Center (May 3, 2012), http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-investigation-lawsuit-ex....
- Rina Palta, Why For-Profit Prisons House More Inmates Of Color, NPR (Mar. 13, 2014), http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/03/13/289000532/why-for-profit-....
- Gilens, supra note 3. Demos Research Assistant Sean McElwee’s analysis of Gilens’ dataset.
- This perverse incentive is perhaps best illustrated by the shocking “kids for cash” scandal in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania where a juvenile court judge was convicted of sentencing children to a private juvenile detention center in exchange for bribes. See Juvenile Law Center, Luzerne County “Kids for Cash” Scandal, http://www.jlc.org/current-initiatives/promoting-fairness-courts/luzerne.... This is of course an aberration and not an example of standard industry practice; but it illustrates a larger point.
- Pico National Network & Public Campaign, Unholy Alliance: How the private prison industry is corrupting our democracy and promoting mass incarceration (2011), http://publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/PICO_Report_Private_Prisons....
- Associated Press, supra note 180.
- Center for Media and Democracy, What is ALEC? (2014), http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F.
- Author’s analysis of Center for Responsive Politics federal lobbying data accessed at www.opensecrets.org on 10/19/14.
- Author’s analysis of U.S. Senate Lobby Disclosure Act database filings available at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/Public_Disclosure/LDA_reports.htm (last accessed on Oct. 19, 2014).
- Corrections Corporation of America, Update: NPR Sets the Record Straight, http://thecca360.com/?p=60. Beginning in the first quarter of 2013 notes began appearing in both CCA and Aikin Gump’s lobby disclosure forms stating that CCA and Aikin Gump on its behalf “does not lobby for or against any policies or legislation that would determine the basis for an individual’s incarceration or detention.”
- Corrections Corporation of America, CCA 2010 Annual Report 19 (“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws.”).
- Associated Press, supra note 180.
- Lee Fang, How Private Prisons Game the Immigration System, The Nation (Feb. 27, 2013), http://www.thenation.com/article/173120/how-private-prisons-game-immigra....
- Author’s analysis of U.S. Senate Lobby Disclosure Act database filings available at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/Public_Disclosure/LDA_reports.htm (last accessed on Oct. 19, 2014).
- See, e.g., Denise Gilman, Realizing Liberty: The Use of International Human Rights Law to Realign Immigration Detention in the United States, 36 Fordham Int’l L.J. 243, 333 n.67 (2013).
- Fang, supra note 196.
- Associated Press, supra note 180.
- Author’s analysis of U.S. Senate Lobby Disclosure Act database filings available at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/Public_Disclosure/LDA_reports.htm (last accessed on Oct. 19, 2014).
- Fang, supra note 196.
- Associated Press, supra note 180.
- Mary Bottari, ALEC in Wisconsin: The Hijacking of a State, Huffington Post (May 20, 2012), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/alec-in-wisconsin-the-hij_b_1...Brendan Fischer, ALEC, For-Profit Criminal Justice, and Wisconsin, Center for Media and Democracy (July 18, 2011), http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10902/alec-profit-criminal-justice-a....
- Center for Media and Democracy, GEO Group (2014), http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/GEO_Group.
- Bottari, supra note 210.
- Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Director (2014), http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web/director.htm.
- The bill passed with the support of 17 state representatives and 11 state senators whom were also ALEC members. People for the American Way, ALEC in Ohio, http://site.pfaw.org/pdf/ALEC-in-Ohio.pdf.
- Brown v. Plata, 131 S. Ct. 1910, 1923, 1927 (2011).
- Amanda Carey, The Price of Prison Guard Unions, Capital Research Center Labor Watch (Oct. 2011), https://capitalresearch-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/....
- Id. at 4.
- Id. at 4.
- Id. at 5.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, People Against the Proposition 5 Deception, http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/committee.phtml?c=3357.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Proposition 36: Three Strikes Law. Sentencing for Repeat Felony Offenders, http://followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/ballot.phtml?m=964.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Save 3 Strikes, http://followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/committee.phtml?c=11800.
- California Voters Pass Proposition 47 Sentencing Reform, The Sentencing Project (November 5, 2014).
- National Institute on Money in State Politics at http://followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=26247639 and http://followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=26478570(last accessed on 11/21/14).
- Saki Knafo & Chris Kirkham, For-Profit Prisons Are Big Winners of California’s Overcrowding Crisis, Huffington Post (Oct. 25, 2013), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/california-private-prison_n_415....
- Christopher Petrella, The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons, 3 Radical Criminology 81, 83-84 (2014), available athttp://journal.radicalcriminology.org/index.php/rc/article/download/44/pdf.
- Id. at 83.
- Matt Berger, America Underwater: The mortgage crisis in data, Marketplace (Feb. 8, 2013), http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/which-way-home/america-underw....
- Center for Responsible Lending, Lost Ground (2011), http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/research-analysis/Los....
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, The U.S. Housing Market: Current Conditions and Policy Considerations (2012), http://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/other-reports/files/housing-w....
- Center for Responsible Lending, supra note 235.
- Center for Responsible Lending, Foreclosures by Race and Ethnicity (2010), http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/research-analysis/for...
- Daniel Lindsey et. al, Why Responsible Mortgage Lending is a Fair Housing Issue, National Consumer Law Center (Feb. 2012), http://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/credit_discrimination/fair-housing-brief.pdf.
- Robert B. Avery et. al, The 2006 HDMA Data, Federal Reserve Bulletin (Dec. 2007), available at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2007/pdf/hmda06final.pdf.
- Center for Responsible Lending, Foreclosure Damage Index (2011), http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/tools-resources/forec....
- Lindsey et. al, supra note 242.
- Alicia Munnell et. al, Mortgage Lending in Boston: Interpreting HMDA Data, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (1996), http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/wp/wp1992/wp92_7.htm.
- Douglass Massey, Racial Formation in Theory and Practice: The Case of Mexicans in the United States, 1 Race Soc. Probl. 12 (2009), available athttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2931357/.
- Guy Stuart, Discriminating Risk: The U.S. Mortgage Lending Industry in the Twentieth Century (2003).
- Jacob S. Rugha & Douglas S. Masseya, Racial Segregation and the American Foreclosure Crisis, 75 Am. Sociological R. 629 (2010), available athttp://www.prrac.org/pdf/Massey_foreclosure.pdf.
- Michael Powell, Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks, N.Y. Times A16 (June 7, 2009), available athttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html?pagewanted=1.
- Robert Avery, The 2007 HMDA Data, Federal Reserve Bulletin (2008), http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2008/pdf/hmda07final.pdf.
- Paul Taylor et. al, Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, Pew Research Center (2011), http://ehub29.webhostinghub.com/~busine87/assignments/business_statistic....
- Center for Responsive Politics, Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014, https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php.
- Center for Responsive Politics, Commercial Banks, https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=F03.
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, The Community Reinvestment Act: About (Feb. 11, 2014), http://www.federalreserve.gov/communitydev/cra_about.htm.
- Lindsey et. al, supra note 242.
- David Goldstein & Kevin G. Hall, Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis, McClatchy Newspapers (Oct. 12, 2008), http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/10/12/53802/private-sector-loans-not-fan....
- Robert Gordon, Did Liberals Cause the Sub-Prime Crisis?, The American Prospect (Apr. 7, 2008), http://prospect.org/article/did-liberals-cause-sub-prime-crisis.
- Glenn R. Simpson, Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess, Wall St. J. (Dec. 31, 2007), http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB119906606162358773; National Institute on Money in State Politics, Ameriquest Mortgage, http://www.followthemoney.org/database/search.phtml?searchbox=ameriquest.
- Simpson, supra note 265.
- Center for Responsive Politics, Annual Lobbying by Citigroup, Inc. (2002), http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000071&year=2002.
- Deniz Igan, et al., A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis, International Monetary Fund 26 (2009).
- Id. at 27.
- Simpson, supra note 265.
- Simpson, supra note 265.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Ameriquest Mortage, available at http://followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=1827575406
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Contributors Result,http://www.followthemoney.org/search-results/SearchForm?Search=mortgage#...National Institute on Money in State Politics, Cheeks, Don, (Carere Profile), (2002), http://followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?c=2251; National Institute on Money in State Politics, Starr, Terrell (Career Profile), (2002), http://followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?c=2264.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Contributors Result: Citigroup, http://www.followthemoney.org/search-results/SearchForm?Search=citigroup.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia, http://www.followthemoney.org/search-results/SearchForm?Search=mortgage%....
- Simpson, supra note 265.
- Legislators Rock Georgia into Subprime Crisis, Athens Banner-Herald (Jan. 3, 2008), http://onlineathens.com/stories/010308/opinion_20080103012.shtml; Federal Reserve Bank of New York, A Look at New Jersey’s Subprime Mortgages in Foreclosure, Facts & Trends (Aug. 2008), available at http://www.newyorkfed.org/regional/2008_Facts_Trends_Vol.1-1.pdf.
- Motoko Rich, In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Pain, N.Y. Times B1 (Feb. 1, 2012), available at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/business/economy/in-atlanta-housing-wo....
- Prashant Gopal, Foreclosures Surging in New York-New Jersey Market, Bloomberg (Feb. 26, 2014), http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-26/foreclosures-climaxing-in-new-y....
- U.S. Department of Treasury, Hardest Hit Fund (May 5, 2014), http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/TARP-Programs/ho...
- United States Census Bureau, State and County Quickfacts, Georgia, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13000.html. In 2012, Georgia’s African American population is 31.1 percent, whereas African Americans make up 13.1 percent of total US population. At the time of the legislation, Georgia’s African American population was 28.7 percent while the total US population was 12.3 percent
- 283 United States Census Bureau, State and County Quickfacts, New Jersey, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/34000.html, In 2012, New Jersey’s African American population is 14.7 percent, the Latino population is 18.5 percent (higher than the national average of 16.89 percent). At the time of the legislation, New Jersey’s African American population was 13.6 percent and the Latino population was 13.3 percent. United States Census Bureau, http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.....
- Consumer Watchdog, Sponsors of Anti-Consumer Amendments to U.S. House Financial Reform Bill Received $3.8 Million from Financial Sector in 2009 (Dec. 10, 2009), http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/sponsors-anti-consumer-amend....
- Center for Responsive Politics, American Bankers Association: Client Profile 2011,(Oct. 18 2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000087&year=2011; Center for Responsive Politics, American Banker Association: Client Profile 2010 (Oct. 28, 2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000087&year=2010;Center for Responsive Politics, American Banker Association: Client Profile 2009, (Oct. 28, 2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000087&year=2009.
- Center for Responsive Politics, American Banker Association: Bills Lobbied 2009(2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000087&year=2009.
- Arianna Huffington, Lobbyists on a Roll: Gutting Reform on Banking, Energy, and Health Care, Huffington Post (June 25, 2009), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/lobbyists-on-a-roll-gut... Alex Ulam, Why a Mortgage Cramdown Bill Is Still the Best Bet to Save the Economy, The Nation (Oct. 20, 2011), http://www.thenation.com/article/164096/why-mortgage-cramdown-bill-still....
- Center for Responsive Politics, Commercial Banks: Top Contributors to Federal Candidates, Parties, and Outside Groups, (Feb. 4, 2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.php?cycle=2010&ind=F03.
- Center for Responsive Politics, American Banker Association: Money to Congress 2010 (Apr. 25, 2011), http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000087&cycle=2010; Center for Responsive Politics, American Banker Association: Heavy Hitter, (Mar. 25, 2013), http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000000087&cycle=2010.
- See e.g. Christopher E. Herbert et al., Is Homeownership Still an Effective Means of Building Wealth for Low-income and Minority Households? (Was it Ever?) 48, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University (2013) (“Even after the tremendous decline in housing prices and the rising wave of foreclosures that began in 2007, homeownership continues to be a significant source of household wealth, and remains particularly important for lower-income and minority households.”).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 1048 BLS Reports (March 2014), http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2013.pdf.
- Economic Policy Institute, Real value of the federal minimum wage and share of workforce covered by higher state minimums, 1979–2011 (May 21, 2012), http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/chart/swa-wages-figure-4ag-real-fed....
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014 Poverty Guidelines (Jan. 22, 2014), http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm.
- Tom Philpott, McDonald’s to Employees: Get a (Second) Job, Mother Jones (July 26, 2013), http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/07/mcdonalds-budget-mcwrap.
- Laura Shin, How She Lives On Minimum Wage: One McDonald’s Worker’s Budget, Forbes (July 19, 2013), http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/07/19/how-she-lives-on-minimu...
- The Leadership Conference Education Fund, Improving Wages, Improving Lives: Why raising the minimum wage is a civil and human rights issue (Oct. 2014), http://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/reports/Minimum-Wage-Report-FOR-WEB.pdf.
- Id. at 9.
- Sylvia A. Allegretto & Steven C. Pitts, To Work With Dignity: The Unfinished March Toward a Decent Minimum Wage, Economic Policy Institute, (2013), http://www.epi.org/files/2013/Unfinished-March-Minimum-Wage.pdf.
- http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/chart/swa-wages-figure-4f-share-wor.... Whites were 80% of the workforce in 2012. U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2012 (Oct. 2013), http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsrace2012.pdf.
- Economic Policy Institute, Hourly wage growth by gender and race/ethnicity, 1989–2011 (2011 dollars) (May 14, 2012), http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/chart/swa-wages-table-4-21-hourly-w...
- National Women’s Law Center, Fair Pay for Women Requires Increasing the Minimum Wage and Tipped Minimum Wage (Oct. 1, 2014), http://www.nwlc.org/resource/fair-pay-women-requires-increasing-minimum-...
- Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, Recipe for Success: Abolish the Subminimum Wage to Strengthen the Restaurant Industry 4 (2014).
- Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, Realizing The Dream: How the Minimum Wage Impacts Racial Equity in the Restaurant Industry and in America (2013), http://www.scribd.com/doc/161953370/Realizing-The-Dream-How-the-Minimum-...
- The Leadership Conference Education Fund, supra note 296 at 9.
- National Women’s Law Center, supra note 301.
- Scott Manley, Raising the Minimum Wage Will Kill Jobs, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (Apr. 7, 2014), https://www.wmc.org/news/raising-the-minimum-wage-will-kill-jobs/; New Lennox Chamber of Commerce, Government Affairs Report: The November Advisory Referendums are a Jobs Killing Agenda, http://www.newlenoxchamber.com/formembers/legislation.cfm.
- Ben Wolcott, 2014 Job Creation Faster in States that Raised the Minimum Wage, Center for Economic and Policy Research (June 30, 2014), http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/2014-job-creation-in-state....
- David Cooper, Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Lift Wages for Millions and Provide a Modest Economic Boost, Economic Policy Institute (Dec. 19, 2013), http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-federal-minimum-wage-to-1010/.
- Thomas Shapiro et al., The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide, Institute on Assets and Social Policy (2013), http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-m/racialwealthgapbri...
- The Leadership Conference Education Fund, supra note 296 at 9.
- Gallup Politics, In U.S., 71% Back Raising Minimum Wage (Mar. 6, 2013), http://www.gallup.com/poll/160913/back-raising-minimum-wage.aspx.
- Hart Research Associates, Public Support for Raising the Minimum Wage, (July 23, 2013), shttp://www.nelp.org/page/-/rtmw/uploads/Memo-Public-Support-Raising-Mini....
- Page et al., supra note 32, at 57.
- Center for Responsive Politics, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=US+Chamber+of....
- Robbie Feinberg, The Money Against The Minimum Wage, Center for Responsive Politics (Apr. 4, 2014), http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/04/the-political-money-against-the-...
- Cha & Rapoport, supra note 139.
- National Conference of State Legislatures, State Minimum Wages: 2014 Minimum Wage by State ( Sept. 17, 2014), http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-cha...
- See Strike Fast Food, http://strikefastfood.org/.
- White House, Executive Order — Minimum Wage for Contractors (Feb. 12, 2014), http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/12/executive-order-mi....
- Gregory Wallace, Seattle approves $15 minimum wage, CNN (June 3, 2014), http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/02/news/economy/seattle-minimum-wage/
- Raise the Minimum Wage, Minimum Wage Question and Answer, http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/pages/qanda.
- U.S Dept. of Labor, Statement by US Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez on the need to raise the minimum wage to benefit workers and the economy (July 24, 2014), http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA20141375.htm.
- Gilens & Page, supra note 22, at 3.
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Issues: Taxes, http://www.uschamber.com/issues/priorities/taxes.
- Chye-Ching Huang & Chuck Marr, Raising Today’s Low Capital Gains Tax Rates Could Promote Economic Efficiency and Fairness, While Helping Reduce Deficits, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Sept. 19, 2010), http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3837.
- Overton, supra note 8, at 74.
- Green et al., supra note 54.
- Urban Institute & Brookings Institution, Income Breaks, 2011, http://taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?DocID=2970.
- Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tracing the Causes of Racial Wealth Disparity 17 (May 31, 2011), http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/poverty/publications/tracingcauses_pove....
- Carmen DeNavas-Walt et al., Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States in 2012, U.S. Census Bureau (Demos calculation of data in Table A-1), https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-245.pdf.
- Allison Kopicki, Poll: Partisan Split Over Tax Policies, N.Y. Times (Jan. 24, 2012), http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/poll-partisan-split-over-t....
- James Nunns & Jeffrey Rohaly, Tax Provisions in the American Tax Payer Relief Act of 2012, Tax Policy Center (Jan. 9, 2013), available at http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412730-Tax-Provisions-in-ATRA....
- See Paul Blumenthal & Dave Jamieson, Koch Brothers Are Outspent By A Labor Force Millions Of Times Their Size, But..., Huffington Post (Mar. 15, 2014) (“All business sectors combined to spend at least $9.5 billion to influence politicians at the federal and state levels in the 2012 election cycle, including campaign contributions and lobbying. Labor unions spent $600 million.”), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/15/kochs-brothers-labor_n_4966883.....
- Raise the Minimum Wage, Real Value of the Federal Minimum Wage (constant 2013 dollars), http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/facts/entry/amount-with-inflation/.
- Jody Heymann et al., Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, The Work, Family, and Equity Index How Does the United States Measure Up? 5, http://www.mcgill.ca/files/ihsp/WFEI2007FEB.pdf.
- Jody Heymann et al., Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries, Center for Economic and Policy Research 1 (May 2009), http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/paid-sick-days-2009-05.pdf
- Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Paid Sick Days Access in the U.S.: Differences by Race/Ethnicity, Occupation, Earnings, and Work Schedule (Mar. 2014), http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/paid-sick-days-access-in-the-unite....
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 6. Selected paid leave benefits: Access, National Compensation Survey (Mar. 2014), http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.t06.htm
- Elise Gould et al., The Need for Paid Sick Days: The Lack of a Federal Policy Further Erodes Family Economic Security, Economic Policy Institute 6 (June 29, 2011), http://www.epi.org/files/page/-/BriefingPaper319.pdf?nocdn=1.
- Id. at 7.
- Tom W. Smith & Jibum Kim, Paid Sick Days: Attitudes and Experiences, National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago 5 (June 2010) (prepared for the Public Welfare Foundation), http://news.uchicago.edu/static/newsengine/pdf/100621.paid.sick.leave.pd...
- Supriya Kumar, The Impact of Workplace Policies and Other Social Factors on Self-Reported Influenza-Like Illness Incidence During the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic, 102 Am. J. Public Health 134 (2012), available athttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490553/.
- Supriya Kumar, Policies to Reduce Influenza in the Workplace: Impact Assessments Using an Agent-Based Model, 103 Am. J. Public Health 1406 (2013), available at http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301269
- Institute for Women’s Policy Research, supra note 345.
- Smith & Kim, supra note 351 at 5; Emily Swanson & Dave Jamieson, Paid Sick Leave Supported By Most Americans, Poll Finds, Huffington Post (June 6, 2013), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/20/paid-sick-leave-poll_n_3471789.....
- Smith & Kim, supra note 351 at 7.
- Id. at 16.
- Healthy Families Act, S. 631, 113th Congress (2013), https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/631.
- National Partnership for Women & Families, State and Local Action on Paid Sick Days(2014), http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/campaigns/psd/state-....
- Steven Greenhouse, Bill Would Guarantee Up to 7 Paid Sick Days, N.Y. Times A9 (May 16, 2009), available athttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/health/policy/16sick.html?_r=1&.
- Letter from the National Coalition to Protect Family Leave to Congress (Feb. 24, 2009), http://www.npelra.org/files/public/Breaking%20News%20pdfs/Adv_HR%201542_...
- Michael J. Chow, Effects of a Paid Sick Leave Mandate on Massachusetts Small Businesses, National Federation of Independent Businesses Research Foundation (2012), http://www.nfib.com/surveys/massachusetts-paid-sick-leave/; Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Mandatory Paid Sick Leave (2013), http://www.vtchamber.com/External/WCPages/WCWebContent/WebContentPage.as... California Chamber of Commerce, Paid Sick Leave Mandate to Be Considered in Senate Committee (2014), http://www.calchamber.com/Headlines/Pages/06102014-Paid-Sick-Leave-Manda....
- Bill DeRosa, Why mandating paid sick leave is bad for business, bad for Connecticut, 88 CBIA News 1, 2 (Apr. 2010), http://www.cbia.com/cbianews/1RAD/zPDF/2010/CBIAnews_0410.pdf.
- Stephen Singer, Connecticut 1st state to require paid sick time, Wash. Post (July 5, 2011), http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/connecticut-1st-state-to-....
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=6574414.
- Brian Lockhart, Are the prospects for a paid sick days bill’s passage better this year?, CTNews.com (Mar. 3, 2009), http://blog.ctnews.com/politicalcapitol/2009/03/03/is-it-really-a-good-t... National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=6404829.
- Conn. Substitute Bill for S.B. No. 217 (2008), http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bi...
- State Elections Enforcement Commission Citizens’ Election Program Overview: 2014 General Assembly and Statewide Office: Primary and General Elections (Mar. 2014), http://www.ct.gov/seec/lib/seec/2014gaandstatewide/cep_overview_2014_wit....
- Jon Lender & Christopher Keating, Official Governor Results Released: Malloy Wins, Hartford Courant (Nov. 5, 2010), http://articles.courant.com/2010-11-05/news/hc-ct-governor-election-resu... National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=7192819.
- Mark Pazniokas, Lamont: A political ‘rock star’ tries to expand his base, CT Mirror (Feb. 8, 2010), http://ctmirror.org/lamont-political-rock-star-tries-expand-his-base/.
- Greg Bordonaro, Foley Says Union Power Hurting Competitiveness, HartfordBusiness.com (Oct. 25, 2010), http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20101025/PRINTEDITION/310259980/....
- Malloy for Governor, Malloy says Lamont is wrong on paid sick leave, StamfordPlus (Feb. 2010), http://everybodybenefits.org/2011/01/malloy-says-lamont-is-wrong-on-paid... Christopher Keating, Malloy Tells Business Audience He Favors Requiring Paid Sick Leave, Hartford Courant (Jan. 7, 2011), http://articles.courant.com/2011-01-07/news/hc-malloy-cbia-sick-leave-20....
- Personal communication between source quoted and Demos Policy Analyst Karen Shanton on June 24, 2014.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=3709206; Lockhart, supra note 366.
- National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=6378395
- Chad Garland, Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill to require paid sick leave, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 10, 2014), http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-brown-paid-sick-leave-20140911-sto... Singer, supra note 364.
- Eileen Appelbaum et al., Good for Business? Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave Law, Center for Economic Policy and Research 2 (2014), http://www.cepr.net/documents/good-for-buisness-2014-02-21.pdf.
- Id. at 15.
- National Conference of State Legislatures, “ Voter Identification Requirements,” October 21, 2014, available at: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx.
- Thom File and Sarah Crissey, “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008,” U.S. Census Bureau (July 2012), available at: https://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p20-562.pdf.
- Ethan Magoc, “Flurry of Photo ID Laws Tied to Conservative Washington Group,” News21 (August 2012), available at, http://votingrights.news21.com/article/movement/.
- Lisa Graves, “A CMD Special Report On ALEC’s Funding and Spending,” Center for Media and Democracy (July 2011), available at, http://prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10887/cmd-special-report-alecs-funding-a....
- Hamed Aleaziz, Dave Gilson and Jaeah Lee, “UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud,” Mother Jones, (July/August 2012), available at, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/voter-id-laws-charts-maps.
- Suevon Lee, “Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws,” ProPublica (November 5, 2012), available at: http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-a....
- Government Accountability Office, “Issues Related to State Voter Election Laws,” (September 2014), available at, http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/gao-report-voter-identification-l....
- Callahan & Cha, supra note 18.
- Reuters, “Minnesota governor vetoes voter identification bill,” May 26, 2011, available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/us-minnesota-idUSTRE74P8E92011....
- Ethan Magoc, “Flurry of Photo ID Laws Tied to Conservative Washington Group,” News21 (August 2012), available at: http://votingrights.news21.com/article/movement/.
- John D. Sutter, “5 reasons Minnesota is tops at voting,” CNN (October 27, 2012), available at: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/27/opinion/ctl-minnesota-best-voting/.
- Mark Ritchie, “Minnesota voting amendment would change much more than you might think,” MinnPost, September 6, 2012, available at: http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2012/09/minnesota-voting-amendm....
- Cha & Kennedy, supra note 43.
- Brian Lambert, “Slam Dunk: Minnesotans love Voter ID, Strib poll finds,” MinnPost (May 2011), available at, http://www.minnpost.com/glean/2011/05/slam-dunk-minnesotans-love-voter-i...
- Hamed Aleaziz, Dave Gilson and Jaeah Lee, “UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud,” Mother Jones, (July/August 2012), available at, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/voter-id-laws-charts-maps.
- TakeAction Minnesota, “The 1% vs. Democracy in Minnesota,”(February 2012), available at: http://www.mnfaireconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/14704-final.pdf; Brentin Mock, “The Wealthy One Percent That’s Behind Minnesota’s Voter ID Push,” Colorlines (February 2012), http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/02/minnesota_1_percent_voter_disenfr....
- David Bailey, “Minnesota legislature bypasses governor, puts voter ID on ballot,” Reuters (April 4, 2012), available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-usa-minnesota-voter-id-idUS....
- Tim Pugmire, “Racism alleged in Voter ID campaign,” February 20,2012, available at: http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2012/02/racism_alleged/.
- Amanda Melillo, “How Minnesota’s Voter ID Amendment Was Defeated,” Brennan Center for Justice, November 8, 2012, available at: http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/how-minnesota%E2%80%99s-voter-id-amend....
- Minnesota Public Radio, “Voter ID Amendment,” available at: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/2012/campaign/resul....
- ACLU, “Voting Restoration,” available at: http://www.aclu-mn.org/issues/votingrights/voting-restoration/.
- Christopher Uggen and Suzy McElrath, “Draft Report on Felon Disenfranchisement in Minnesota,” (October 2012), http://www.soc.umn.edu/~uggen/MNReport_2012.pdf.
- Hedwig Lee, Lauren Porter, and Megan Lee Comfort, “People Wit Family Members In Prison Are Less Likely To Be Engaged American Citizens,” SSN (February 2014), available at: http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_key_findi....
- For example, research has shown that people with criminal convictions are less likely to be repeat offenders if they live in states that restore voting rights after incarceration. Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith and Matthew Vogel, “The Ballot as a Bulwark: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement on Recidivism,” SSRN (August 2011), available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1919617.
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Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are essential to summarize evidence relating to efficacy and safety of health care interventions accurately and reliably. The clarity and transparency of these reports, however, is not optimal. Poor reporting of systematic reviews diminishes their value to clinicians, policy makers, and other users.
Since the development of the QUOROM (QUality Of Reporting Of Meta-analysis) Statement—a reporting guideline published in 1999—there have been several conceptual, methodological, and practical advances regarding the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Also, reviews of published systematic reviews have found that key information about these studies is often poorly reported. Realizing these issues, an international group that included experienced authors and methodologists developed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) as an evolution of the original QUOROM guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of evaluations of health care interventions.
The PRISMA Statement consists of a 27-item checklist and a four-phase flow diagram. The checklist includes items deemed essential for transparent reporting of a systematic review. In this Explanation and Elaboration document, we explain the meaning and rationale for each checklist item. For each item, we include an example of good reporting and, where possible, references to relevant empirical studies and methodological literature. The PRISMA Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (www.prisma-statement.org) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
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Sekkizhar’s Periyapuranam is a Tamil literary masterpiece, a strong spiritual guide and a narrative that sparks with the vitality of the culture and ethics of the people prevailing in those times. For instance, hospitality was practised as a means of serving God, as is seen in the case of Ilayankudi Marranar, Sri R. Selvaganapathy pointed out in a lecture.
This Siva devotee was munificent, and being a rich landlord, deemed it a great fortune to be able to serve food to Sivanadiyars, and spent his wealth (gained by toil) for this cause. Neither did he wither when such philanthropy reduced his earnings drastically and he was not sure of his own next meal.
Siva chose to make known to the world this devotee’s innate generosity and visited him one night in the rainy season. The devotee and his wife had gone to bed hungry, but were eager to serve food to the guest. With not a grain in the house, they decided to reclaim the sown paddy seeds and cook them to provide a simple repast. Such was the ethics of this couple to whom serving the adiyars was serving God Himself. Siva revealed Himself and granted liberation to him, narrates Sekkizhar.
In another instance, it is shown that pure love can win over enmity. Eripaththar was a devotee who served the Lord by protecting the servitors against those forces that stood in the way of their worship. Once, Eripaththar came to know that an elephant had trampled the flower garland meant for worship of Siva that had been strung by a devotee named Sivakamiyar. Apparently, the elephant had been attracted by the garland which Sivakamiyar had tied to the top of a long pole. Eripaththar killed the elephant, the mahout and others who belonged to a king from a neighbouring land. The king (also a Siva devotee) thought that this was an enemy attack and visited the spot. But he found an enraged Siva devotee ready for further fight. The king then knew that his elephant must have erred to provoke the adiyar. He offered his life as expiation for the elephant’s misdeed. Eripaththar’s anger now melted and gave way to self-reproach. The Lord intervened and explained that it was His divine will to establish the supremacy of love.
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Leiden, a.d. XIII Kal. Mar. MMDCCLXIX A.U.C.,
At the age of 92, Henry Kissinger, head of the National Security Council and secretary of state of the USA during the Vietnam War, is still as productive as ever. Last year he wrote what some have called his summa diplomatica: ‘World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History’. Chapters 1 and 2 explain how the modern international system came about as a result of the religious wars in Europe in the early 17th century, ending with the Peace of Westphalia, which introduced the concept of sovereign states. From then on most countries in Europe agreed to respect the domestic policies of other states. This system was almost destroyed by Napoleon, but even then the balance of power ultimately restored the Westphalian system of multipolarity, until the Great War, and a bipolar system replaced it after the second world war.
The subsequent chapters show different conceptions of world order, ranging from radical Islamic ideas of a world wide ummah under one Caliph and China as the centre of the world, to Indian principles very similar to Machiavelli’s ideas and the Westphalian principles and Japanese ideas based on the balance of power. It is here that I completely lose Kissinger’s theoretical train of thought. In chapters 1 and 2 it appears that rational actors, acting in a ‘realist’ way came to an understanding, after which they behaved according to Westphalian principles, in their own self-interest. Once in a while countries tried to upset this system, such as France under Napoleon, Germany under the Hohenzollern dynasty and again under Hitler, and the USSR under Stalin, as they did not subscribe to the sovereignty of other countries, however, they were still constrained by other countries. They had to respond to other countries, what went wrong in the first three is that they did not respond adequately, in the latter, Stalin did understand that he could not take over the world and that trying to would not benefit him.
However, after these two chapters, it is less clear how Kissinger envisions the relation between ideas and behaviour of political leaders. Is this through their preferences? Through their strategies? If different leaders of the same country can pursue entirely different strategies, how relevant is the cultural background of that country? Do nations have a character? Or do individuals have preferences, which can be more or less widely shared in a community? If nations have a character, does that mean that it does not matter who leads the country? And how do major policy changes come about? Given that all countries want to achieve their goals, and maximize their power, and are constrained by other actors, how much do the preferences of individuals and the character of nations even matter in terms of foreign policy? Kissinger leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
The strange thing is, that in The White House Years Kissinger hardly refers to these big ideas, as his own experience showed that they are only important in a very indirect way. He portrayed many rational actors, who tried to achieve certain goals. These goals might be set as a result of certain ideological persuasions, but seeing he was dealing with people in Vietnam, China and Russia predominantly, and communism was invented by a German, it is hard to argue that traditional philosophy that characterizes a nation is the main explanatory or only variable to understand the behaviour of individuals. So while the White House Years shows Kissinger is very perceptive of how individuals make decisions based on ideas and preferences and external pressures, here he focuses on ‘the character of nations.’ In my view this is less fruitful.
Kissinger makes three further points that are of importance. Firstly, keeping in mind how the ascendancy of countries can lead to major wars, think of WW1 or WW2, we need to make sure that the rise of China and India will not be coupled with similar wars. Hillary Clinton, in her review of this book, said that this is exactly what she tried to do when helping Obama with the pivot to Asia. By showing China both that the USA will do everything in its power to protect the international order, and extending a hand to China to be welcomed in that international order, something started by Kissinger in 1973 by the way, Clinton hopes to have played a part in that.
Secondly, with the increasing importance of the internet, the vulnerability of these systems to cyber attacks, and the difficulty of determining who is behind cyber attacks, we need new rules of engagement. While Kissinger does not provide a set of rules that would work, the fact that at his age he has understood the potential dangers of cyber attacks, while understanding the arguments in favour of a free internet is impressive.
Lastly, according to Kissinger the USA needs to balance its urge to bring liberty to the whole world with pragmatism. While I agree at large that the USA has protected liberty, in both WW2 and the Cold War, Kissinger is not very critical of more recent American conduct. The utter stupidity of the Iraq war cannot be defended by either pragmatism or idealism. If the Iraq war had really been about promoting freedom, Guantanamo Bay would never have been opened, the USA would have had a plan to build a state, and the USA would not have had to lie about weapons of mass destruction. The Iraq war was not about freedom, even if I do not have a clue why it was waged. Torturing people to prevent terrorism and introducing the Patriot act are not liberal. Nevertheless, I agree with Kissinger that the USA should strive to support freedom through a smart strategy. A shorter version of the points of this book are more or less in this Wall Street Journal article, in which he is more practically focused.
Bottom Line: All in all this is not Kissinger’s best book, I prefer (and was highly impressed by) the White House Years. It is not really clear what the theoretical point is that Kissinger tries to make, apart from the indefensible position that culture alone, or rather the character of a nation, explains world order.
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Goals and philosophy
With proper support and stimulation, we strive towards children’s lifelong learning based on their abilities and interests. By the objectives of the Swedish national curriculum for preschool lpfö 2018
Kidzateljé encourages children’s inner desire to explore
Children learn through interaction with others and with their surroundings. Since we speak both English and Swedish in my family, your toddlers will have a natural bilingual environment.
We want to draw out inspiration from the imagination and create joy by:
- Create a learning environment where children are included in the design of their learning.
- A well thought-out pedagogical environment which is based on fundamental didactic questions, such as; what, why and how.
- Mindfulness where children feel involved and seen from the child’s perspective.
- The creation of cultural identity and develop a sense of belonging in the global community by developing a sense of respect for other cultures.
- Create awareness for sustainable learning and values of humanity.
- Strive for better education through reflection, evaluation and security.
- Encourage bilingualism; Swedish/English in the business, thus creating better conditions for the upcoming school year in global citizenship.
Our interim goals
Multiculturalism and equality
Teach children to respect everyone’s differences and similarities and feel self-respect and respect for others by the CRC guidelines. Children from other cultural backgrounds than Swedish will have the opportunity to develop their cultural identity as well as their mother language.
Helping children to develop their communication skills, symbolic thinking and imagination. Playful, educational activities with children puts a common focus on language.
Kidzateljé wants to help children understand the different emotions in themselves and others by topic integrated activities.
Kidzateljé wants to help children develop healthy self-esteem, independence as well as a sense of responsibility. They must be able to express emotions through different activities and thereby ensuring and developing the ability to make decisions as well as to take initiative for their learning.
Help children understand their environment, fellow citizens, themselves and respect others in an empathic way.
Kidzateljé wants to extend children the ability to play, learn and create as well as encourage them to discover new things. To use mathematics and simple scientific phenomena in different contexts and encourage them to ask many questions.
Offer children a constructive way to socialize with other children, learn and keep friends and to appreciate and respect different cultures.
Kidzateljé wants to help kids learn to work together through play, communication and group activities. To help them develop the ability to handle conflicts by communicating with each other to find a solution.
Kidzateljé wants to give children the opportunity to express their views and to influence and shape their learning environment.
Kidzateljé wants to teach children how their actions affect their surroundings. Children should learn to take responsibility for shared materials regardless of in- or outdoor environment.
Gross and fine motor skills
By offering different eye-hand coordination, balance and body perception in the form of sport, play and dance and creative activities, Kidzateljé strives to help children develop these skills.
Teach children a respectful and caring attitude towards nature.
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In Emmon Bach, Eloise Jelinek, Angelika Kratzer & Barbara Partee (eds.), Quantification in Natural Languages. Kluwer (1995)
|Abstract||In this paper, we discuss some rather puzzling facts concerning the semantics of Warlpiri expressions of cardinality, i.e. the Warlpiri counterparts of English expressions like one,two, many, how many. The morphosyntactic evidence, discussed in section 1, suggests that the corresponding expressions in Warlpiri are nominal, just like the Warlpiri counterparts of prototypical nouns, eg. child. We also argue that Warlpiri has no articles or any other items of the syntactic category D(eterminer). In section 2, we describe three types of readings— "definite", "indefinite" and "predicative"—which are generally found with Warlpiri nouns, including those which correspond to English common nouns and cardinality expressions. A partial analysis of these readings is sketched i n section 3. Since Warlpiri has no determiner system, we hypothesize that the source of (in)definiteness in this language is semantic. More specifically, we suggest that Warlpiri nominals are basically interpreted as individual terms or predicates of individuals and that their three readings arise as a consequence of the interaction of their basic meanings, which are specific to Warlpiri, with certain semantic operations, such as type shifting (Rooth and Partee 1982, Partee and Rooth 1983, Partee 1986, 1987), which universally can or must apply in the process of compositional semantic interpretation|
|Keywords||No keywords specified (fix it)|
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What is Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin)?
Vitamin B12 is utilised in the formation of healthy red blood cells, maintenance of the nervous system and proper metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. It also helps maintain proper growth and appetite in children.
A daily B12 supplementation is often recommended for vegans and vegetarians as vitamin B12 is mainly found in meat products.
What are Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) tablets for?
Processing carbohydrates, proteins and fats and help to make all of the blood cells in our bodies
Important for maintenance of our nerve sheaths
May help in reducing the symptoms of pernicious anaemia
May be helpful for mouth irritation or infections
Deficiency includes mental confusion, tiredness, pale skin and recurrent mouth ulcers
Who are Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) tablets for?
Those who want to increase their energy level
Vegans and vegetarians who may be lacking B12 from their diet
Those who need mental clarity
Those who have hereditary heart conditions
When should I take Vitamin B12?
Vitamin B12 is best to be taken for increased energy, or daily by vegans or vegetarians and those with heart conditions.
Recommended Daily Intake
Children 3 to 12 years of age; one tablet daily. Adults and children over 12 years of age, one tablet daily, can increase to two tablets daily if required. Do not exceed recommended daily intake unless advised by a suitably qualified person.
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At the time of your school days, you were bound to follow certain rules while writing sentences in English. The rule has a common name which is known as ‘Grammar'. You used to follow each and every step of your grammar textbook to get good scores in exams! Do you remember been taught in school that you cannot begin a sentence with a conjunction? Or you cannot end up with a preposition! And you, as a student had to follow those so-called rules blindly. But sometimes these guidelines are not accurate. These particular ‘inventions' have their own style and form which might break their format! That is why; you find grammar as a tough one.
You can't start a sentence with a conjunction -
There is a common myth regarding a rule in English grammar that you cannot start a sentence with a conjunction! Conjunctions are certain words those are used to connect clauses, words or even sentences. Like and, but, so, and if. A grammatical false notion takes place from the consideration that these words cannot be used to start a sentence. As they are used to connect separate clauses, they suggest the incidence of a portion when used at the beginning of a sentence! It tells that by starting a sentence with and Or but, it will provide with an incomplete thought or fragment. Therefore, it is considered incorrect. But, it can be used as a stylish preference rather than a grammatical rule!
To make your writing more descriptive, use more adjectives -
The words that describe things are known as objectives. It is terrific ways to make you’re writing a lot more interesting. But it does not mean that adjectives are meant to use to write a descriptive. Rather play with the sentence structure to make it more descriptive. The best education consultancy can only provide you with a different perspective to use adjectives in sentences.
‘She claimed that she would turn her head off as she walked down the hilly region but she lied.' – a sentence without an adjective! Basically, as per the mood of a sentence, it can make a descriptive one. Adjectives do not require every time.
You can't end a sentence with a preposition -
Hardly you will find anyone those who used to end up a sentence with a preposition in school days. But since the 17th century, legend writers had tried to codify English to fit more in order with Latin grammar. There were days when grammarians used to find a sentence simply poor or over formal while ending up with a preposition. But there exist typical situations those are considered as natural.
For instance, a passive structure like ‘The match was rained off.' Or an imperative sentence like ‘Which class she is in?' etc are few examples where the proposition is sitting at the end.
Put a comma when you need to take a breath -
A break in reading is not always a dependable reason to use a comma in a sentence. There is no such rule about using a comma while taking a breath! The comma is punctuation and it is used to stop a word from being overuse! It is used to avoid confusion. It's set off phrases that express contrast. It is on the writer whether he thinks a reader should briefly pause, he uses a comma.
Adverbs are the words that end in ‘ly' -
Adverbs adjust a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or an entire clause or sentence. Adverbs end in -ly is quite a natural thing. But there are so many cases where adverbs do not end in –ly! For instance, even, fast, almost, already, best, quick, rather and so on. ‘EMI for Education is the best part for all the individuals to achieve with higher studies!' – a perfect example of a sentence where –ly adverbs is not in use.
These are few of the misconceptions that you were taught wrong in school. That is the reason students should evaluate their teachers while organizing the sentences you might find that English is not following the basic rules of grammar. In order to communicate with different people uses English in a different way. And this is not a wrong procedure. Time and language do not stand still for any of us!
Top 5 Things You Were Taught At School Level But its Wrong!
4/ 5Oleh kaushik
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Thirst - excessive
Excessive thirst is an abnormal feeling of always needing to drink fluids.
Increased thirst; Polydipsia; Excessive thirst
Drinking lots of water is healthy in most cases. But the urge to drink too much may be the result of a physical or emotional disease. Excessive thirst may be a symptom of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia). It can be an important clue in detecting diabetes.
Excessive thirst is a common symptom. It is often the reaction to fluid loss during exercise or to eating salty foods.
Causes may include:
- A recent salty or spicy meal
- Bleeding enough to cause a large decrease in blood volume
- Diabetes insipidus
- Medicines such as anticholinergics, demeclocycline, diuretics, phenothiazines
- Loss of body fluids from the bloodstream into the tissues due to conditions such as severe infections (sepsis) or burns, or heart, liver, or kidney failure
- A mental disorder called psychogenic polydipsia
Because thirst is the body's signal to replace water loss, it is most often appropriate to drink plenty of liquids.
For thirst caused by diabetes, follow the prescribed treatment to properly control your blood sugar level
When to Contact a Medical Professional
Call your health care provider if:
- Excessive thirst is ongoing and unexplained.
- Thirst is accompanied by other unexplained symptoms, such as blurry vision and fatigue.
- You are passing more than 5 quarts (4.75 liters) of urine per day.
The health care provider will get your medical history and perform a physical exam.
The provider may ask you questions such as:
- How long have you been aware of having increased thirst? Did it develop suddenly or slowly?
- Does your thirst stay the same all day?
- Did you change your diet? Are you eating more salty or spicy foods?
- Have you noticed an increased appetite?
- Have you lost or gained weight without trying?
- Has your activity level increased?
- What other symptoms are happening at the same time?
- Have you recently suffered a burn or other injury?
- Are you urinating more or less frequently than usual? Are you producing more or less urine than usual? Have you noticed any bleeding?
- Are you sweating more than usual?
- Is there any swelling in your body?
- Do you have a fever?
Tests that may be ordered include the following:
- Blood glucose level
- CBC and blood differential
- Serum calcium
- Serum osmolality
- Serum sodium
- Urine osmolality
Your provider will recommend treatment if needed based on your exam and tests. For example, if tests show you have diabetes, you will need to get treated.
A very strong, constant urge to drink may be the sign of a psychological problem. You may need a psychological evaluation if the provider suspects this is a cause. Your fluid intake and output will be closely watched.
Pfennig CL, Slovis CM. Electrolyte disturbances. In: Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, eds. Rosen's Emergency Medicine. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2014:chap 125.
Reviewed By: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, medical director and director of didactic curriculum, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
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Examining Social Psychology Paper
MUST be Plagiarism FREE, USE Citations and References
In this assignment, you will demonstrate understanding of the field of social psychology as it applies to helping professions and management.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you examine social psychology. Address the following items:
•Define social psychology.
•Discuss how social psychology can be applied to one of the helping professions (counseling, social work, education, law enforcement, and so on), organizational leadership, or management.
•Provide an example of how social research can benefit education, work, or personal life.
Cite a minimum of 2 scholarly references.
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- OUR PROJECTS
- Projects By Location
- Projects By Type
- Projects by Activity
- Projects by Structure
- ABOUT US
- BONITA'S CHALLENGE
1) Development of the Kite Anchor for Mulberry Harbour – Lecture Notes
By Allan Harry Beckett:
The notes below were prepared by Allan Beckett for use in a presentation of his design for the Kite anchor. The note explains the design process whereby he developed the exceptional holding power of the Kite anchor.
"To moor the Whale bridges and keep them straight in any weather required a mooring to each pontoon capable of withstanding a pull of 20 tons. To give a reasonable margin of safety some form of anchor with a holding power of 30 tons was necessary. To lay these anchors quickly over the beaches dictated that they should be light weight and fairly easily handled in small craft capable of operating in..
2) Allan Beckett, the Kite Anchor and Mulberry Harbour (PDF, 0.5MB)
A paper by Allan Beckett forming part of a series called "The Engineer at War". Originally published by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1948.
Written in 1991 this document includes Allan's first hand recollections of the design and construction of Mulberry Harbour.
7) A Mulberry Harbour CDROM is available from:
This CD contains a wealth of information on the engineering aspects of the Mulberry Harbours and includes CAD annimations of the principal equipment together with contemporary video clips and technical drawings. The CD was produced with Beckett Rankine's assistance for the 60th anniversary of D Day.
Written by Brigadier Sir Bruce White just after the war this paper contains his overview of the Mulberry Harbour project.Click here to download.
9) Mulberry Harbour Codewords. (JPG, 36MB)
Are you confused about the codewords used for the Mulberry Harbours? If so you are not alone; this explanatory diagram was prepared in 1946 by the drawing office of the War Office's Tn5 department which was responsible for preparing many of the Mulberry Harbour design drawings.
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Individuals on Dialysis
In an emergency situation, detailed preparation is key. Missourians on dialysis need to be prepared for any type of emergency. Ready in 3 outlines steps you can take now to prepare.
The Family Safety Guide provides comprehensive information on the three steps in preparing in advance of any emergency. The guide is available in print in English, Spanish, Bosnian and Braille and electronically in Romanian and Russian. Order your Family Safety Guide here!
An emergency plan and kit checklistis, available in English, Spanishand Bosnian, for individuals on dialysis outlines the information that is necessary as plans are being put into place for emergency situations of all kinds.
A video that acts as a step-by-step guide to preparing for emergencies is also available.
By using the three steps outlined in Ready in 3 and the emergency plan and kit checklist for individuals with dialysis, Missourians relying on dialysis can be ready for their next emergency situation. It is also extremely important for dialysis patients to consider their diet as plans are put into place for handling emergency situations.
Know what emergency diet to follow if your dialysis might be delayed.
Dialysis takes the waste from your blood. Wastes and fluid build up between dialysis treatments. Normally this build up is small and does not cause a problem between regular dialysis treatments. If your dialysis must be delayed, these wastes and fluids can build up and cause problems. To keep the build-up of protein wastes, potassium, and fluid as small as possible, you need to follow a special 3-day emergency diet. THIS DIET PLAN IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR DIALYSIS.
If you can’t get dialysis, your life can depend on limiting the amount of waste that builds up in your blood by changing your diet. Look at this diet plan with your renal dietician to see if it will work for you, or to see if it needs to be modified to fit your special health needs. This gives you a chance to ask questions before an emergency occurs. If you are on Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and can’t get to your supplies to do your exchanges, this emergency diet may also apply to you. You should make every attempt to get dialysis within 3 days. But if it takes longer, be sure to continue the 3-day emergency diet plan until you can get your dialysis treatment.
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Speech and Language Therapy
Pediatric speech and language therapy is focused on improving a child’s communication, language and speech as well as their oral-motor and feeding skills. Our speech therapists will evaluate and treat your child’s receptive and expressive language, articulation, fluency, and oral-motor control to improve their skill level and make gains in communication. We can also evaluate for augmentative communication devices as a compliment to their speech/communication development.
Some of our specialized Speech therapy services include:
- Specialized Swallowing/Feeding assessment and therapy including the Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach
- VitalStim Therapy: For the treatment of Dysphagia, VitalStim is a non-invasive treatment using Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation to improve swallowing
- PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets): A tactile-kinesthetic approach to develop motor control and development of proper oral muscular movements. It is appropriate for children with apraxia/dyspraxia as well as a wide range of communication disorders
- Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing: A treatment approach for children with apraxia that uses a cueing hierarchy with decreasing levels of supports as child achieve success
- Phonological/Language assessment and interventions, using a structured literacy approach to develop language skills necessary for reading
- Lexonik and Lexonik Leap: a literacy program from the United Kingdom that dramatically and rapidly improves literacy, vocabulary and comprehension. Intervention is prescriptive, intensive and highly effective.
- Lindamood-Bell programs that focus on the sensory-cognitive processing necessary for reading and comprehension including:
- Seeing Stars (Symbol Imagery for Phonological and Orthographic Processing in Reading and Spelling
- Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking
- Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech (LiPS)
- On Cloud Nine Math
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication trained therapists for children who need a communicative method other than oral speech, including devices such as Tobii Dynavox, Prentke Romich, Saltillo, AbleNet, PECS, and Don Johnston products. We can also complete assessments for switch access and keyboard adaptation.
- Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT) certified speech therapists
- Specialized training with children on the Autism Spectrum
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Nature inspires color-sensitive, CMOS-compatible photodetector
Researchers at Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have developed a new image sensor that mimics the way we see color by integrating light amplifiers and color filters directly onto the pixels. The new design enables smaller, less complex, and more organic designs for CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors and other photodetectors used in cameras.
Conventional image sensors work by first converting light into electrical signals, then combining that information with the red, green, and blue color data determined by separate filters (or, especially in low-end cameras, a single filter array that uses a mosaic pattern to interpret colors). But this approach adds bulk to the sensor, and the filters gradually degrade under exposure to sunlight.
The Rice researchers stumbled upon the new technique while studying the hypothesis that cephalopods, such as octopus and squid – which are colorblind – detect color through their skin, as part of an Office of Naval Research program that aims to mimic cephalopod skin using metamaterials (synthetic materials with non-natural properties).
LANP graduate student Bob Zheng set out to create a photonic system that could detect colored light, but in what lab director Naomi Halas calls a “great example of the serendipity that can occur in the lab,” he wound up with a device with far broader applications.
For more detail: Nature inspires color-sensitive, CMOS-compatible photodetector
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This is reposted from an article written by Daryn Lewellyn for EHS Today, May 1st 2011.
Any safety training program, regardless of the hazard, needs to influence and change worker behaviors in order to prevent injuries. It must impact trainees to the degree that they buy into the new safe work practices. In other words, it needs to make a difference.
Electrical safety training that merely covers the work practices spelled out in NFPA 70E and OSHA is lacking in…Continue
Added by SafetySkills™ on June 7, 2011 at 4:01pm — No Comments
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On April 29, 2019, the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia began listing to the radio signals from the Sun’s nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, just over 4 lightyears away. The telescope was looking for evidence of solar flares and so listened for 30 minutes before retraining on a distant quasar to recalibrate and then pointing back.
In total, the telescope gathered 26 hours of data. But when astronomers analyzed it in more detail, they noticed something odd — a single pure tone at a frequency of 982.02 MHz that appeared five times in the data.
The signal was first reported last year in The Guardian, a British newspaper. The article raised the possibility that the signal may be evidence of an advanced civilization on Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star that is known to have an Earth-sized planet orbiting in its habitable zone.
But researchers have consistently played down this possibility saying that, at the very least, the signal must be observed again before any conclusions can be drawn. Indeed, the signal has not been seen again, despite various searches.
Now Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have calculated the likelihood that the signal came from a Proxima Centauri-based civilization, even without another observation. They say the odds are so low as to effectively rule out the possibility — provided the assumptions they make in their calculations are valid.
The new signal was found by researchers at the Breakthrough Listen project, an international collaboration of astronomers searching for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence and funded by the billionaire Yuri Milner. They called the signal Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 or BLC1.
The signal is interesting because narrowband tones do not generally occur in nature, which instead tends to produce broadband noise. But BLC1 has all the characteristics of a technosignature — one that originates from a technologically-capable civilization.
By far the most likely origin is Earth. Most signals of this kind are quickly attributed to radio interference from nearby mobile phones, microwave ovens, passing cars, aircraft and satellites and the like.
But the team analyzing this signal have yet to find an obvious source. And they say the frequency of the signal drifts slightly over time, a phenomenon consistent with a signal from a rotating or orbiting body. This has increased the intrigue.
So the work of Siraj and Loeb is timely. Their approach is based on the Copernican Principle, the idea that the Earth has no privileged place in the universe and is at no special time, so that observations made from here are no more unusual than observations made anywhere else in the universe.
This principle has a storied past. It is named after the 14th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who suggested that the Earth did not sit at the center of the universe and instead orbited the Sun. Almost 30 years ago, the astronomer Richard Gott used the same principle to show with 95 percent confidence that our species is likely to survive for at least 200,000 years but no more than 8 million years.
The basic idea is that humanity had a beginning and will eventually come to an end. We currently sit somewhere on the timeline in between but at no special place or time, not particularly near the beginning or the end. In mathematical terms, we are unlikely to be in the first 2.5 per cent of humanity’s existence nor in the final 2.5 per cent. So with 95 percent confidence, we must be in the middle.
Then it’s just a question of slotting in the numbers. We know our species is about 200,000 years old which must be at least 2.5 per cent of the total. That suggests with 95 per cent confidence that humanity should be around for at least another 200,000 years but not longer than 8 million years.
Indeed, Gott used the same argument to suggest that the chances of finding evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy is tiny, even if we assume that these civilizations must exist. Given that we have only been radio-capable for just over a hundred years, the chances of this period overlapping with another civilization’s similar capability is tiny. “A targeted radio search of 1,000 nearby stars is not likely to succeed,” says Gott.
Siraj and Loeb apply the same argument to the likelihood that our civilization’s radio capability overlaps with another civilization’s capability on Proxima Centauri. And the numbers are not promising. They conclude that if the Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 was produced by a technologically advanced civilization, this would violate the Copernican Principle by eight orders of magnitude. “This rules out, a priori, Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 (BLC1) as a technological radio signal from the Alpha Centauri system,” says Siraj and Loeb.
The Panspermia Theory
Indeed, given the huge number of potentially habitable planets in the galaxy, the idea that two neighboring stars should host advanced civilizations at the same time seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Unless there are other factors at work. One such factor is panspermia — the idea that life is seeded from space. That increases the chances of neighboring stars hosting advanced life at the same time. However, this argument is complicated by the fact that life emerged on Earth some 4.5 billion years ago before the Sun and Proxima Centauri became neighbors.
Of course, the Copernican Principle cannot rule out entirely the possibility that the signal heard at Parkes is from another civilization. It’s just that the possibility of it being a stray signal of terrestrial origin are many orders of magnitude more likely. In the meantime, all astronomers can do is point their radio telescopes back at Proxima Centauri and wait.
Ref: The Copernican Principle Rules Out BLC1 as a Technological Radio Signal from the Alpha Centauri System: arxiv.org/abs/2101.04118
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SAN DIEGO, December 27, 2016– With the Christmas season slowly winding down, it is customary to look ahead towards the promise of a new year.
Basking in the peace, good-will and afterglow of holiday merriment, looking forward with optimism is anticipated by many.
There is something in the human spirit which is driven to believe in a better tomorrow.
Many Americans set new goals through the traditional practice of creating New Year’s resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions first began with the ancient Babylonians.
The Babylonians would promise their gods that they would pay off their debts, and also return anything which they borrowed from another.
Over time this early tradition spread all over the world and morphed into a variety of practices and resolutions which were varied, depending upon the country, culture and belief systems.
Eventually making its way to the Western Hemisphere, Americans relish the opportunity to reflect upon the year which is coming to pass, while setting a new future course for self-improvement and hope for the future.
New Year’s resolutions also include a variety of opportunities to pledge becoming a better version of self.
From health, family, career, and more Time offers the following Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year’s Resolutions:
- Lose weight and get fit.
- Quit smoking.
- Learn something new.
- Eat healthier and diet.
- Get out of debt and save money.
- Spend more time with family.
- Travel to new places.
- Be less stressed.
- Drink less.
Though the Top 10 New Year’s Commonly Broken Resolutions may sound familiar, how many Americans actually succeed in reaching them?
It is estimated that approximately 35% set unrealistic goals, 33% do not track progress, and 23% end up forgetting about them altogether.
According to a study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol, approximately 88% of the 3,000 participants studied were not successful in reaching their goals.
Is it possible that too many goals were made at one time, or that expectations for success too high or unrealistic?
It is far likelier to be successful in setting a simple goal and accomplishing it if it does not require significant behavioral change.
Achieving a goal, however, likely requires dedication, commitment and sacrifice.
Letting go of behavior or behaviors which may be easy and comfortable in favor of the more challenging and difficult in order to be successful could prove daunting.
For the relatively small group of those who are fortunate enough to accomplish one or more New Year’s resolutions this year, the excitement, possibility and satisfaction in overcoming any obstacle to reach the
desired end result will be a source great personal pride, self-improvement and an inspiration to those who touch their lives.
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes…
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself.
Make mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes
nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that
isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: Art, or love, or
work or family life.”
Could it be that what stops many from attaining New Year’s resolutions is fear–fear of failing–resulting in behaviors which defeat progress, and ultimately giving up on attaining the desired outcome?
Positive change is entirely possible but only if there is belief that the end result is far greater than any potential struggle required to accomplish it.
Happy New Year from all of us at LifeCycles.
Until next time, enjoy the ride in good health!Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2016 Communities Digital News
• The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or management of Communities Digital News.
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Frank da CruzSee photo gallery of Embury New Deal projects See table of Embury New Deal projects
Bronx NY, November 2019
Last updated: 31 March 2022
Compared to most other parts of the country, New York City enjoys a rich New Deal legacy... and an even more remarkable ignorance of it beyond some vague notion that "master builder" Robert Moses did it all himself, seemingly with his own bare hands. In reality, we owe NYC's construction boom during the Great Depression to President Roosevelt and the New Deal agencies he created and that paid for the materials, labor, engineering, and architecture. And to the close friendship of FDR and NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who obtained so much federal money for New York City that it was sometimes called the 49th state — the only non-state entity that had its own WPA branch. Throughout the Depression WPA* crews were all over the City constructing bridges, highways, tunnels, subways, public schools, clinics, hospitals, campuses, marinas, boathouses, parks, playgrounds, zoos, athletic fields, golf courses, recreation centers, swimming pools, beaches, bathhouses, bleachers, band shells, housing projects, fire houses, police stations, comfort stations, and on and on.
When you think of architects who left their mark on New York City, who comes to mind? McKim, Mead, and White? I.M. Pei? Anybody else? Probably not!Meet Aymar Embury II, member of President Roosevelt's Advisory Committee on Architecture 1934-43 and New York City Parks Department's chief architect from 1934 until the end of the Great Depression, and well beyond. In this capacity, he is said to have designed or supervised the design of over six hundred public projects in New York City. He was a well-heeled, prosperous, and highly-regarded upper-crust architect who for some 20 years had specialized in elegant homes for the wealthy. He certainly did not take the Parks job for the money. More likely he took it on because at a time when unemployment in New York City exceeded 30%, he would be designing projects that would employ tens of thousands of jobless workers and once built, many of these projects would improve the lives of struggling families. Anyway, he liked his new Parks Department job better than his other ones because "it's such a madhouse".
In some ways Embury's public-spirited New Deal work diminished his own architectural legacy. Quite aside from the fact that he was now designing structures for ordinary people rather than estates in the Hamptons, there was the WPA's quite proper insistence on the least expensive construction materials — cheap concrete and bricks — to be able to hire the most workers. This was fine with Embury; in fact, he became a veritable master of the Aesthetics of Concrete. The downside was that such gems as his Orchard Beach pavilion would decay and turn ugly over time. Yet it is a tribute to the value and impact of his New Deal creations that at least twenty of them have achieved landmark status and now, after decades of shameful neglect, many of them are being restored to their original glory.
I have no special knowledge of Embury and I know of no biography of him although he certainly deserves one. (What would Robert Moses have been without him?) He must have worked long hard days years on end to bring so many public works to fruition, with little recompense and not much recognition either since most NYC New Deal structures are not credited by the Parks Department to any particular architect, nor indeed to the very New Deal funding and labor that made them possible. No matter, Embury's work speaks for itself; it ranges from the humble and workaday (comfort stations, drinking fountains, ticket booths) to the monumental and magnificent:
I am not aware of any published list of Embury's New Deal projects, so I have been working on assembling one myself. At this writing (25 November 2019) I have identified 235 of them. In most cases I can't say to what extent he designed a project personally, or collaborated with other architects on it, or simply supervised; short of digging through mountains of boxes at the Embury archive in Syracuse, we can only rely on official records that name him as architect of a given New Deal project. The current list of these projects is here:
http://kermitproject.org/newdeal/embury/And a gallery of some of his most striking projects here:
http://kermitproject.org/newdeal/embury/gallery/The list is useful in identifying New York City New Deal projects in cases where no other New Deal connection is recorded. By virtue of Embury being on a federal New Deal payroll, any particular project can be classified as a New Deal project if Embury is officially credited as its architect in his Parks Department capacity during 1934-1943.
Eighty years hence, countless people traverse Embury's bridges and highways and tunnels, and visit his beaches and pools and parks and zoos and other creations, without having the faintest notion of how these marvels came to be. In 1965 Embury's son, Edward Coe Embury, paid tribute to his father's New Deal career by designing the marvellous Delacorte Clock for the Central Park Zoo that his Dad had designed in 1934.
In 1995, a New York Times article reported how Embury's descendents were taken by the Parks Department on a bus tour of some of his most famous and enduring New Deal public works. The article concludes: "During the years of the Federal Works Projects Administration construction, while he served as chief architect for Robert Moses, he did as much as anyone to bind the city together and to help it dig its way out of the Depression."
|*||For simplicity, "WPA" is used in this article as a shorthand for any New Deal agency such as FERA, CWA, PWA, or WPA itself, that paid for public works.|
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Pneumocystis Pneumonia and AIDS
Pneumocystis is a fungus that can sometimes cause pneumonia in people who have AIDS.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs. Pneumonia can make it hard to breathe and to get enough oxygen into the bloodstream. Symptoms often begin suddenly and may be similar to those of an upper respiratory infection, such as influenza or a cold. Common symptoms of pneumonia include:
- Fever of 100°F (38°C) to 106°F (41°C).
- Shaking chills.
- Cough that often produces colored mucus (sputum) from the lungs. Sputum may be rust-colored or green or tinged with blood. Older adults may have only a slight cough and no sputum.
- Rapid, often shallow breathing.
- Chest wall pain, often made worse by coughing or deep breathing.
- Fatigue and feelings of weakness (malaise).
Your doctor may suggest an HIV test if you have not been diagnosed with HIV and Pneumocystis pneumonia is:
- Suspected on a chest X-ray.
- Detected in a test that evaluates sputum (thick fluid produced in the lungs and in the airways leading to the lungs).
If you get PCP, it can be treated. Antibiotics can get rid of the infection. You can also take care of yourself at home:
- Take your antibiotics as directed. Do not stop taking them just because you feel better. You need to take the full course of antibiotics.
- Take all your medicines exactly as prescribed. Call your doctor if you have any problems with your medicine. If you are taking IV medicine at home, follow your doctor's instructions.
- Get plenty of rest and sleep. You may feel weak and tired for a while, but your energy level will improve with time.
- Drink plenty of fluids, enough so that your urine is light yellow or clear like water. Choose water and other caffeine-free clear liquids until you feel better. If you have kidney, heart, or liver disease and have to limit fluids, talk with your doctor before you increase the amount of fluids you drink.
- Take care of your cough so you can rest. A cough that brings up mucus from your lungs is common with pneumonia. It is one way your body gets rid of the infection. But if coughing keeps you from resting or causes severe fatigue and chest-wall pain, talk to your doctor. He or she may suggest that you take a medicine to reduce the cough.
- Use a humidifier to increase the moisture in the air. Dry air makes coughing worse. Follow the instructions for cleaning the machine.
- Do not smoke or allow others to smoke around you. If you need help quitting, talk to your doctor about stop-smoking programs and medicines. These can increase your chances of quitting for good.
Have your blood tested regularly to check the strength of your immune system and to help your doctor decide if you need to take medicines to prevent this type of pneumonia. If you were diagnosed with HIV but are not being treated for it, start antiretroviral therapy (ART) to help strengthen your immune system and lower the risk of PCP returning.
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Loving and caring for your teeth.
10 ways you wreck your teeth Part 2
We started this topic, giving you five ways you have been wrecking your teeth. Find below, the remaining five ways.
- Drinking soda: we all take soda because they contain sugar , but the amount of sugar and acid contained in these drinks is quite substantial. The sugar and acid can coat the teeth and erode the enamel.
- Taking Sport drinks: if you think sport drinks are different from soda or soft drinks, you would be wrong. The truth is they both contain acid and sugar. People take sports drink after exercising when their mouths are drier. The bacteria present in the mouth use the sugar as food and create cavities.
- Biting Your Nails: A lot of us are guilty of this. However, this habit causes splinters and cracks in your teeth. Asides that, biting your nails introduce nasty germs in your mouth which can infect your gums and teeth.
- Grinding your teeth: if you grind your teeth while sleeping, you put too much pressure on the jaw as a result of clenching them and stressful situations for the teeth while sleeping. Try to relax often or you can get a night guard to protect your teeth if you grind them while sleeping.
- Cough drops/Lozenges: Just because your doctor prescribed a cough syrup for your or that you go to a pharmacy does not make it completely healthy for your teeth. Most of them are loaded with sugar. So after using the lozenges or the cough syrup make sure you brush your teeth well. The sugar in the cough syrup or lozenges reacts with the sticky plaque that coats the teeth . Then bacteria in the plaque convert the sugar into an acid that eats away at tooth enamel.
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In his fourteen points, Wilson supported the right of peoples to govern themselves, the transparency of diplomacy, freedom of travel and commerce etc... and provided for the creation of an international body, the League of Nations, tasked with monitoring compliance with these resolutions.
The 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson
Created shortly after the war, the League of Nations agreement contained disarmament clauses which had a significant influence on the production of French military equipment between the wars. Initially given a cool reception, Wilson's text however formed the basis for the Treaty of Versailles and demonstrated the growing role of the United States on the international scene.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION…
Book : Rémy Porte, Les Etats-Unis dans la grande guerre : une approche française, 2017
Source : public domain
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