Transportation Futurist Simon J. Anderson to Speak Today on the Future of Trucking – Digital Journal

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Speaker Simon J. Anderson will present a session on the future of trucking on the opening day of the in.sight User Conference + Expo in Nashville today. Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec will give the closing keynote on Wednesday.

Nashville, TN - August 14, 2017 - (Newswire.com)

Thought-provoking keynote speaker, award-winning author, and energy and transportation futurist Simon J. Andersonwill be speaking today at the in.sight User Conference + Expo in Nashville.

Andersons presentationwill be partially based on insights from the latest edition ofhis award-winning book Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow [Updated & Expanded] (co-authored with globally acclaimed futurist Jack Uldrich). In this session, he will provide aneye-opening look into the near future of trucking and transportation and helptransportation leaders recognize important trends and technologies that are reshaping the industry, and providenew approaches to anticipating the opportunities and challenges that they could create.

Topics to be covered include trends and technologies that are transforming the future of trucking, including advancements in automation, artificial intelligence, the impact of retail trends,the internet of things, and disruptive new technologies such as theblockchain.

As a transportation futurist and founder of Venture Foresight, LLC, Anderson's work has been featured in a variety of transportation-related publications including Fleet Maintenance Magazine, Car Wash Magazine, and FleetOwner.com

In the past year, Anderson has spoken to clientsincluding the Institute for Supply Management - Twin Cities, the Georgia Telecommunications Association, the Michigan Bankers Association, and the Florida Educational Facilities Planners Association. Otherclients include MN DOT, ND DOT, the American Heart Association, AT&T, andFlorida Tax Collectors, Inc.

Parties interested in learning more about Futurist Simon J. Anderson, his book Foresight 20/20 (ISBN: 978-1592988945), his blog, or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website at http://www.ventureforesight.com.

For availability, contact info@simonspeaks.com.

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Transportation Futurist Simon J. Anderson to Speak Today on the Future of Trucking - Digital Journal

SpaceX Just Completed Another Launch, Marking the End of an Era – Futurism

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In BriefEven if the Dragon 2 wont be taking the most precious cargo(i.e. humans) to the Red Planet, SpaceX is expected to have acargo-only version of the craft for future resupply missions. Recycling the Dragon

Minutes ago, as SpaceXs Dragon took off atop the Falcon 9 toward the ISS, an era ended. Concurrently, another was ushered in as smoke (dont worry, it was the good kind) engulfed Launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the same Pad that will be the center point for the Falcon Heavy, crewed flights, and potentially even the future Interplanetary Transport System.

Todays launch which brought more than 6,400 pounds of supplies, equipment, and science experiments to the Expedition 52 crew was the first for SpaceX in more than a month. While it may just sound like another resupply mission for Elon Musks spaceflight company, it truly marked a shift in focus.

The craft used today will be the last new first-generation Dragon spacecraft to fly. In a NASA advisory meeting, Sam Scimemi, NASA Director for the ISS, discussed the upcoming SpaceX missions for 2017. He noted that all future CRS-1 launches from SpaceX will be conducted with reused capsules. After today, there are eight more contracted cargo missions through the first CRS program, which means eight more opportunities to reuse the Dragon 2.

Since SpaceX will no longer be making the Dragon 1 spacecraft, resources can be reallocated toward the Dragon 2. This craft is designed to transport up to seven humans to the ISS or, someday, the Red Planet as a part of the Red Dragon Mission.

However, this Martian destination may not be set in stone. Musk recently tweeted, saying:

There was a time that I thought the Dragon approach to landing Mars, where youve got a base heat shield and side-mounted thrusters, would be the right way to land on Mars. Now Im pretty confident that is not the right way and theres a far better approach.

Musks tweet hints that the Red Dragon mission could be pushed back, or even cancelled from the original 2018 date. Even if the Dragon 2 wont be taking the most precious cargo (i.e. humans) to the Red Planet, SpaceX is expected to have a cargo-only version of the craft for future resupply missions.

Suffice itto say, SpaceX fans have quite a bit to look forward to throughout the rest of the year, with the excitement (arguably) culminating in the maiden Falcon Heavy launch. The Dragon 1 that launched today will attempt to land on the LZ-1 pad, which is already being prepped for the dual booster landing of the Falcon Heavy this November. While the side boosters land on LZ-1, the core booster will attempt to touch down onSpaceXs drone shipOf Course I Still Love You.

If all goes well, the most powerful operational rocket in the world will restore the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars in the very near future.

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SpaceX Just Completed Another Launch, Marking the End of an Era - Futurism

This New Device Turns Your Smartphone Into a Medical Lab – Futurism

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In Brief University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a device that connects to smartphones and serves as a mobile lab. The inexpensive and versatile device will bring medical access to areas that cannot support a traditional lab. Swiss Army Tech

The advent of the smart phone was a key development in the technological evolution of our species. What used to be relegated to entire rooms and even buildings can now fit snugly in our pockets giving each person the potential to access massive amounts of information from the palm of their hand. This evolution has not reached its apex, however, as continuing innovations are allowing for more and more capabilities for the technology. With the help of some researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we can now even replace medical labs with technology optimized by a smart phone.

The relatively inexpensive system known as the spectral transmission-reflectance-intensity (TRI)-Analyzer costs only $550. The device uses light and spectral analyses to do many of the most common laboratory tests. Our TRI Analyzer is like the Swiss Army knife of biosensing, says Professor Brian Cunningham, the Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering and director of the Micro + Nanotechnology Lab at Illinois.

Given the devices capabilities, it is able to adapt to perform a wide variety of tests without the need for a dedicated laboratory. Any test that utilizes a liquid that changes color or generates a light output (think fluorescent dyes) can be run on this device hooked up to a smartphone. Our Analyzer can scan many tests in a sequence by swiping the cartridge past the readout head, in a similar manner to the way magnetic strip credit cards are swiped, said Kenny Long, an MD/Ph.D. student and lead author of the research study.

Technology like this device will go a long way in bringing much needed medical access to areas that need it most. Coupling the inexpensive cost with mobility make this device an invaluable tool in serving the people living in underdeveloped regions all over the world. With the help of science and technology, we are taking the lab out of the hospital and, quite literally, putting it into the hands of people who now have the power to save and change lives.

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This New Device Turns Your Smartphone Into a Medical Lab - Futurism

LA Is Testing a Pavement Treatment That Can Drop Street Temperatures by 12 Degrees – Futurism

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In Brief Los Angeles will trial GuardTop's gray pavement coating on certain black asphalt streets in an attempt to beat the heat. The coating could lower temperatures by as many as 12 degrees Fahrenheit, helping cut down on A/C usage and therefore lowering the city's greenhouse gas emissions.

In Los Angeles, temperatures that exceed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) during the summer are not uncommon. Dark pavement can contribute to thesehigher temperatures, but a new asphalt treatment could reportedlycut street temperatures by as many as 6.6 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) after just one coat.

Black asphalt absorbs between 80 and 95 of sunlight, but the cool pavement treatment marketed by the California-based sealcoating firm GuardTop reflects it. This could have a big impact on street temperatures and make life more comfortable for people in urban environments.

After successful testing the treatment in parking lots, Los Angeles is ready to be the first major city to put it through its paces on a public road. Officials will monitor how residents react to the new pavement, as well as how long it takes for traffic conditions to soil the gray coloration of the coating.

As Alan Barreca, an environmental science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told AFP, Lower temperatures due to the pavement mean less reliance on air conditioning. So, that means less greenhouse gases.

However, despite the potential advantages of cool pavement coatings, research conducted by the Department of Energy indicated that they do have some drawbacks in terms of the energy and emissions associated with their manufacture, installation, use, and disposal.

By approaching the treatment with caution, rather than rushing into a wide rollout, L.A. can determine whether these drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits and make an educated decision on how to proceed.

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LA Is Testing a Pavement Treatment That Can Drop Street Temperatures by 12 Degrees - Futurism

Dubai Just Moved One Step Closer to Launching Its Flying Taxi Service – Futurism

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In Brief Volocopter, the German startup behind Dubai's upcoming autonomous aerial taxi (AAT) service, just secured $29.5 million in new funding. Dubai plans to begin testing the startup's two-seater VTOL, the Volocopter 2X, before the end of this year. Investing Big

In February, Dubai, a city known for its active pursuit of all things futuristic, revealed plans to partner with German startup Volocopter on a flying taxi service. The city then updated the timeline for those plans in June, and now, it has moved one step closer to implementing them thanks to a 25 million (roughly $29.5 million) investment in Volocopter by Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler AG, Berlin tech investor Lukasz Gadowski, and a few others.

The strong financial commitment of our new investors is a signal as well as proof of the growing confidence in the newly emerging market for electrically driven [vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles] put to use as personal air taxis, Florian Reuter, Volocopter managing director, said in a press release announcing the new round of funding.

The startup has been working on a flying car for some seven years now, and the Volocopter 2X, a two-seater VTOL vehicle powered by electricity and capable of autonomous flight, is their second-generation vehicle.

Volocopters AAT would work like most ride-hailing services a passenger would be able to summon the service on demand and then be ferried to their destination. The company will work closely with Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) during a five-year testing period for this autonomous aerial taxi (AAT), which is set to begin by the fourth quarter of 2017.

The benefitsof a flying car or a flying taxi service seem obvious enough. For one, youd avoid the usual traffic congestion of busy urban centers.Secondly, Volocopter 2X is safe and quiet, thanks to the 18 rotors that lift it off the ground.

According to the company, it wont require heavy infrastructure support, either. One moment, it is the replacement for a bridge that is being repaired, the other moment it is an air taxi used as a shuttle to a trade fair, they explain on their website. This would effectively eliminate the typical concerns regarding the use of VTOLs in cities, such as the ones Elon Musk previously raised.

Volocopter isnt the only company working on a flying car or an AAT. Uber has had plans for a flying vehicle and an aerial taxi servicein the works for a while now, and a number of bothestablishedcompanies andsmaller startupshave their own designs for such vehicles, increasing the odds that flying cars will have a place in the future of transportation.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism as a sponsor and does not hold a seat on our editorial board.

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Dubai Just Moved One Step Closer to Launching Its Flying Taxi Service - Futurism

The Acosta of Freedom – Commentary Magazine

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And yet realism is currently in crisis.

Realism was once a sophisticated intellectual tradition that represented the best in American statecraft. Eminent Cold War realists were broadly supportive of Americas postwar internationalism and its stabilizing role in global affairs, even as they stressed the need for prudence and restraint in employing U.S. power. Above all, Cold Warera realism was based on a hard-earned understanding that Americans must deal with the geopolitical realities as they are, rather than retreat to the false comfort provided by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

More recently, however, those who call themselves realists have lost touch with this tradition. Within academia, realism has become synonymous with a preference for radical retrenchment and the deliberate destruction of arrangements that have fostered international stability and prosperity for decades. Within government, the Trump administration appears to be embracing an equally misguided version of realisman approach that masquerades as shrewd realpolitik but is likely to prove profoundly damaging to American power and influence. Neither of these approaches is truly realist, as neither promotes core American interests or deals with the world as it really is. The United States surely needs the insights that an authentically realist approach to global affairs can provide. But first, American realism will have to undergo a reformation.

Realism has taken many forms over the years, but it has always been focused on the imperatives of power, order, and survival in an anarchic global arena. The classical realistsThucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbesconsidered how states and leaders should behave in a dangerous world in which there was no overarching morality or governing authority strong enough to regulate state behavior. The great modern realiststhinkers and statesmen such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan, and Henry Kissingergrappled with the same issues during and after the catastrophic upheaval that characterized the first half of the 20th century.

They argued that it was impossible to transcend the tragic nature of international politics through good intentions or moralistic maxims, and that seeking to do so would merely empower the most ruthless members of the international system. They contended, on the basis of bitter experience, that aggression and violence were always a possibility in international affairs, and that states that desired peace would thus have to prepare for war and show themselves ready to wield coercive power. Most important, realist thinkers tended to place a high value on policies and arrangements that restrained potential aggressors and created a basis for stability within an inherently competitive global environment.

For this very reason, leading Cold Warera realists advocated a robust American internationalism as the best way of restraining malevolent actors and preventing another disastrous global crack-upone that would inevitably reach out and touch the United States, just as the world wars had. Realist thinkers understood that America was uniquely capable of stabilizing the international order and containing Soviet power after World War II, even as they disagreedsometimes sharplyover the precise nature and extent of American commitments. Moreover, although Cold War realists recognized the paramount role of power in international affairs, most also recognized that U.S. power would be most effective if harnessed to a compelling concept of American moral purpose and exercised primarily through enduring partnerships with nations that shared core American values. An idealistic policy undisciplined by political realism is bound to be unstable and ineffective, the political scientist Robert Osgood wrote. Political realism unguided by moral purpose will be self-defeating and futile. Most realists were thus sympathetic to the major initiatives of postwar foreign policy, such as the creation of U.S.-led military alliances and the cultivation of a thriving Western community composed primarily of liberal democracies.

At the same time, Cold War realists spoke of the need for American restraint. They worried that Americas liberal idealism, absent a sense of limits, would carry the country into quixotic crusades. They thought that excessive commitments at the periphery of the global system could weaken the international order against its radical challengers. They believed that a policy of outright confrontation toward the Kremlin could be quite dangerous. Absolute security for one power means absolute insecurity for all others, Kissinger wrote. Realists therefore advocated policies meant to temper American ambition and the most perilous aspects of superpower competition. They supportedand, in Kissingers case, ledarms-control agreements and political negotiations with Moscow. They often objected to Americas costliest interventions in the Third World. Kennan and Morgenthau were among the first mainstream figures to go public with opposition to American involvement in Vietnam (Morgenthau did so in the pages of Commentary in May 1962).

During the Cold War, then, realism was a supple, nuanced doctrine. It emphasized the need for balance in American statecraftfor energetic action blended with moderation, for hard-headed power politics linked to a regard for partnerships and values. It recognized that the United States could best mitigate the tragic nature of international relations by engaging with, rather than withdrawing from, an imperfect world.

This nuance has now been lost. Academics have applied the label of realism to dangerous and unrealistic policy proposals. More disturbing and consequential still, the distortion of realism seems to be finding a sympathetic hearing in the Trump White House.

Consider the state of academic realism. Todays most prominent self-identified realistsStephen Walt, John Mearsheimer, Barry Posen, and Christopher Layneadvocate a thoroughgoing U.S. retrenchment from global affairs. Whereas Cold War realists were willing to see the world as it wasa world that required unequal burden-sharing and an unprecedented, sustained American commitment to preserve international stabilityacademic realists now engage in precisely the wishful thinking that earlier realists deplored. They assume that the international order can essentially regulate itself and that America will not be threatened byand can even profit froma more unsettled world. They thus favor discarding the policies that have proven so successful over the decades in providing a congenial international climate.

Why has academic realism gone astray? If the Cold War brokered the marriage between realists and American global engagement, the end of the Cold War precipitated a divorce. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, U.S. policymakers continued to pursue an ambitious global agenda based on preserving and deepening both Americas geopolitical advantage and the liberal international order. For many realists, however, the end of the Cold War removed the extraordinary threatan expansionist USSRthat had led them to support such an agenda in the first place. Academic realists argued that the humanitarian interventions of the 1990s (primarily in the former Yugoslavia) reflected capriciousness rather than a prudent effort to deal with sources of instability. Similarly, they saw key policy initiativesespecially NATO enlargement and the Iraq war of 2003as evidence that Washington was no longer behaving with moderation and was itself becoming a destabilizing force in global affairs.

These critiques were overstated, but not wholly without merit. The invasion and occupation of Iraq did prove far costlier than expected, as the academic realists had indeed warned. NATO expansioneven as it successfully promoted stability and liberal reform in Eastern Europedid take a toll on U.S.Russia relations. Having lost policy arguments that they thought they should have won, academic realists decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater, calling for a radical reformulation of Americas broader grand strategy.

The realists preferred strategy has various namesoffshore balancing, restraint, etc.but the key components and expectations are consistent. Most academic realists argue that the United States should pare back or eliminate its military alliances and overseas troop deployments, going back onshore only if a hostile power is poised to dominate a key overseas region. They call on Washington to forgo costly nation-building and counterinsurgency missions overseas and to downgrade if not abandon the promotion of democracy and human rights.

Academic realists argue that this approach will force local actors in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia to assume greater responsibility for their own security, and that the United States can manipulatethrough diplomacy, arms sales, and covert actionthe resulting rivalries and conflicts to prevent any single power from dominating a key region and thereby threatening the United States. Should these calculations prove faulty and a hostile power be poised to dominate, Washington can easily swoop in to set things aright, as it did during the world wars. Finally, if even this calculation were to prove faulty, realists argue that America can ride out the danger posed by a regional hegemon because the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Americas nuclear deterrent provide geopolitical immunity against existential threats.

Todays academic realists portray this approach as hard-headed, economical strategy. But in reality, it represents a stark departure from classical American realism. During the Cold War, leading realists placed importance on preserving international stability and heeded the fundamental lesson of World Wars I and IIthat the United States, by dint of its power and geography, was the only actor that could anchor international arrangements. Todays academic realists essentially argue that the United States should dismantle the global architecture that has undergirded the international orderand that Washington can survive and even thrive amid the ensuing disorder. Cold War realists helped erect the pillars of a peaceful and prosperous world. Contemporary academic realists advocate tearing down those pillars and seeing what happens.

The answer is nothing good. Contemporary academic realists sit atop a pyramid of faulty assumptions. They assume that one can remove the buttresses of the international system without that system collapsing, and that geopolitical burdens laid down by America will be picked up effectively by others. They assume that the United States does not need the enduring relationships that its alliances have fostered, and that it can obtain any cooperation it needs via purely transactional interactions. They assume that a world in which the United States ceases to promote liberal values will not be a world less congenial to Americas geopolitical interests. They assume that revisionist states will be mollified rather than emboldened by an American withdrawal, and that the transition from U.S. leadership to another global system will not unleash widespread conflict. Finally, they assume that if such upheaval does erupt, the United States can deftly manage and even profit from it, and that America can quickly move to restore stability at a reasonable cost should it become necessary to do so.

The founding generation of American realists had learned not to indulge in wishfully thinking that the international order would create or sustain itself, or that the costs of responding to rampant international disorder would be trivial. Todays academic realists, by contrast, would stake everything on a leap into the unknown.

For many years, neither Democratic nor Republican policymakers were willing to make such a leap. Now, however, the Trump administration appears inclined to embrace its own version of foreign-policy realism, one that bears many similarities toand contains many of the same liabilities asthe academic variant. One of the least academic presidents in American history may, ironically, be buying into some of the most misguided doctrines of the ivory tower.

Any assessment of the Trump administration must remain somewhat provisional, given that Donald Trumps approach to foreign policy is still a work in progress. Yet Trump and his administration have so far taken multiple steps to outline a three-legged-stool vision of foreign policy that they explicitly describe as realist in orientation. Like modern-day academic realism, however, this vision diverges drastically from the earlier tradition of American realism and leads to deeply problematic policy.

The first leg is President Trumps oft-stated view of the international environment as an inherently zero-sum arena in which the gains of other countries are Americas losses. The postWorld War II realists, by contrast, believed that the United States could enjoy positive-sum relations with like-minded nations. Indeed, they believed that America could not enjoy economic prosperity and national security unless its major trading partners in Europe and Asia were themselves prosperous and stable. The celebrated Marshall Plan was high-mindedly generous in the sense of addressing urgent humanitarian needs in Europe, yet policymakers very much conceived of it as serving Americas parochial economic and security interests at the same time. President Trump, however, sees a winner and loser in every transaction, and believeswith respect to allies and adversaries alikethat it is the United States who generally gets snookered. The reality at the core of Trumps realism is his stated belief that America is exploited by every nation in the world virtually.

This belief aligns closely with the second leg of the Trump worldview: the idea that all foreign policy is explicitly competitive in nature. Whereas the Cold War realists saw a Western community of states, President Trump apparently sees a dog-eat-dog world where America should view every transactioneven with allieson a one-off basis. The world is not a global community but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage, wrote National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn in an op-ed. Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it.

To be sure, Cold War realists were deeply skeptical about one worldism and appeals to a global community. But still they saw the United States and its allies as representing the free world, a community of common purpose forged in the battle against totalitarian enemies. The Trump administration seems to view U.S. partnerships primarily on an ad hoc basis, and it has articulated something akin to a what have you done for me lately approach to allies. The Cold War realistswho understood how hard it was to assemble effective alliances in the first placewould have found this approach odd in the extreme.

Finally, there is the third leg of Trumps realism: an embrace of amorality. President Trump has repeatedly argued that issues such as the promotion of human rights and democracy are merely distractions from winning in the international arena and a recipe for squandering scarce resources. On the presidents first overseas trip to the Middle East in May, for instance, he promised not to lecture authoritarian countries on their internal behavior, and he made clear his intent to embrace leaders who back short-term U.S. foreign-policy goals no matter how egregious their violations of basic human rights and political freedoms. Weeks later, on a visit to Poland, the president did speak explicitly about the role that shared values played in the Wests struggle against Communism during the Cold War, and he invoked the hope of every soul to live in freedom. Yet his speech contained only the most cursory reference to Russiathe authoritarian power now undermining democratic governance and security throughout Europe and beyond. Just as significant, Trump failed to mention that Poland itselfuntil a few years ago, a stirring exemplar of successful transition from totalitarianism to democracyis today sliding backwards toward illiberalism (as are other countries within Europe and the broader free world).

At first glance, this approach might seem like a modern-day echo of Cold War debates about whether to back authoritarian dictators in the struggle against global Communism. But, as Jeane Kirkpatrick explained in her famous 1979 Commentary essay Dictatorships and Double Standards, and as Kissinger himself frequently argued, Cold War realists saw such tactical alliances of convenience as being in the service of a deeper values-based goal: the preservation of an international environment favoring liberty and democracy against the predations of totalitarianism. Moreover, they understood that Americans would sustain the burdens of global leadership over a prolonged period only if motivated by appeals to their cherished ideals as well as their concrete interests. Trump, for his part, has given only faint and sporadic indications of any appreciation of the traditional role of values in American foreign policy.

Put together, these three elements have profound, sometimes radical, implications for Americas approach to a broad range of global issues. Guided by this form of realism, the Trump administration has persistently chastised and alienated long-standing democratic allies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific and moved closer to authoritarians in Saudi Arabia, China, and the Philippines. The presidents body language alone has been striking: Trumps summits have repeatedly showcased conviviality with dictators and quasi-authoritarians and painfully awkward interactions with democratic leaders such as Germanys Angela Merkel. Similarly, Trump has disdained international agreements and institutions that do not deliver immediate, concrete benefits for the United States, even if they are critical to forging international cooperation on key issues or advancing longer-term goods. As Trump has put it, he means to promote the interests of Pittsburgh, not Paris, and he believes that those interests are inherently at odds with each other.

To be fair, President Trump and his proxies do view the war on terror as a matter of defending both American security interests and Western civilizations values against the jihadist onslaught. This was a key theme of Trumps major address in Warsaw. Yet the administration has not explained how this civilizational mindset would inform any other aspect of its foreign policywith the possible exception of immigration policyand resorts far more often to the parochial lens of nationalism.

The Trump administration seems to be articulating a vision in which America has no lasting friends, little enduring concern with values, and even less interest in cultivating a community of like-minded nations that exists for more than purely deal-making purposes. The administration has often portrayed this as clear-eyed realism, even invoking the founding father of realism, Thucydides, as its intellectual lodestar. This approach does bear some resemblance to classical realism: an unsentimental approach to the world with an emphasis on the competitive aspects of the international environment. And insofar as Trump dresses down American allies, rejects the importance of values, and focuses on transactional partnerships, his version of realism has quite a lot in common with the contemporary academic version.

Daniel Drezner of Tufts University has noted the overlap, declaring in a Washington Post column, This is [academic] realisms moment in the foreign policy sun. Randall Schweller of Ohio State University, an avowed academic realist and Trump supporter, has been even more explicit, noting approvingly that Trumps foreign-policy approach essentially falls under the rubric of off-shore balancing as promoted by ivory-tower realists in recent decades.

Yet one suspects that the American realists who helped create the postWorld War II order would not feel comfortable with either the academic or Trumpian versions of realism as they exist today. For although both of these approaches purport to be about power and concrete results, both neglect the very things that have allowed the United States to use its power so effectively in the past.

Both the academic and Trump versions of realism ignore the fact that U.S. power is most potent when it is wielded in concert with a deeply institutionalized community of like-minded nations. Alliances are less about addition and subtractionthe math of the burden-sharing emphasized by Trump and the academic realistsand more about multiplication, leveraging U.S. power to influence world events at a fraction of the cost of unilateral approaches. The United States would be vastly less powerful and influential in Europe and Central Asia without NATO; it would encounter far greater difficulties in rounding up partners to wage the ongoing war in Afghanistan or defeat the Islamic State; it would find itself fighting alonerather than with some of the worlds most powerful partnersfar more often. Likewise, without its longstanding treaty allies in Asia, the United States would be at an almost insurmountable disadvantage vis--vis revisionist powers in that region, namely China.

Both versions of realism also ignore the fact that America has been able to exercise its enormous power with remarkably little global resistance precisely because American leaders, by and large, have paid sufficient regard to the opinions of potential partners. Of course, every administration has sought to put America first, but the pursuit of American self-interest has proved most successful when it enjoys the acquiescence of other states. Likewise, the academic and Trump versions of realism too frequently forget that America draws power by supporting values with universal appeal. This is why every American president from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama has recognized that a more democratic world is likely to be one that is both ideologically and geopolitically more congenial to the United States.

Most important, both the academic and Trump versions of realism ignore the fact that the classical postWorld War II realists deliberately sought to overcome the dog-eat-dog world that modern variants take as a given. They did so by facilitating cooperation within the free world, suppressing the security competitions that had previously led to cataclysmic wars, creating the basis for a thriving international economy, and thereby making life a little less nasty, brutish, and short for Americans as well as for vast swaths of the worlds population.

If realism is about maximizing power, effectiveness, and security in a competitive global arena, then neither the academic nor the Trump versions of realism merits the name. And if realism is meant to reflect the world as it is, both of these versions are deeply deficient.

This is a tragedy. For if ever there were a moment for an informed realism, it would be now, as the strategic horizon darkens and a more competitive international environment reemerges. There is still time for Trump and his team to adapt, and realism can still make a constructive contribution to American policy. But first it must rediscover its rootsand absorb the lessons of the past 70 years.

A reformed realism should be built upon seven bedrock insights, which President Trump would do well to embrace.

First, American leadership remains essential to restraining global disorder. Todays realists channel the longstanding American hope that there would come a time when the United States could slough off the responsibilities it assumed after World War II and again become a country that relies on its advantageous geography to keep the world at arms length. Yet realism compels an awareness that America is exceptionally suited to the part it has played for nearly four generations. The combination of its power, geographic location, and values has rendered America uniquely capable of providing a degree of global order in a way that is more reassuring than threatening to most of the key actors in the international system. Moreover, given that today the most ambitious and energetic international actors besides the United States are not liberal democracies but aggressive authoritarian powers, an American withdrawal is unlikely to produce multipolar peace. Instead, it is likely to precipitate the upheaval that U.S. engagement and activism have long been meant to avert. As a corollary, realists must also recognize that the United States is unlikely to thrive amid such upheaval; it will probably find that the disorder spreads and ultimately implicates vital American interests, as was twice the case in the first half of the 20th century.

Second, true realism recognizes the interdependence of hard and soft power. In a competitive world, there is no substitute for American hard power, and particularly for military muscle. Without guns, there will notover the long termbe butter. But military power, by itself, is an insufficient foundation for American strategy. A crude reliance on coercion will damage American prestige and credibility in the end; hard power works best when deployed in the service of ideas and goals that command widespread international approval. Similarly, military might is most effective when combined with the softer tools of development assistance, foreign aid, and knowledge of foreign societies and cultures. The Trump administration has sought to eviscerate these nonmilitary capabilities and bragged about its hard-power budget; it would do better to understand that a balance between hard and soft power is essential.

Third, values are an essential part of American realism. Of course, the United States must not undertake indiscriminate interventions in the name of democracy and human rights. But, fortunately, no serious policymakernot Woodrow Wilson, not Jimmy Carter, not George W. Bushhas ever embraced such a doctrine. What most American leaders have traditionally recognized is that, on balance, U.S. interests will be served and U.S. power will be magnified in a world in which democracy and human rights are respected. Ronald Reagan, now revered for his achievements in improving Americas global position, understood this point and made the selective promotion of democracyprimarily through nonmilitary meansa key part of his foreign policy. While paying due heed to the requirements of prudence and the limits of American power, then, American realists should work to foster a climate in which those values can flourish.

Fourth, a reformed realism requires aligning relations with the major powers appropriatelyespecially today, as great-power tensions rise. That means appreciating the value of institutions that have bound the United States to some of the most powerful actors in the international system for decades and thereby given Washington leadership of the worlds dominant geopolitical coalition. It means not taking trustworthy allies for granted or picking fights with them gratuitously. It also means not treating actual adversaries, such as Vladimir Putins Russia, as if they were trustworthy partners (as Trump has often talked of doing) or as if their aggressive behavior were simply a defensive response to American provocations (as many academic realists have done). A realistic approach to American foreign policy begins by seeing great-power relations through clear eyes.

Fifth, limits are essential. Academic realists are wrong to suggest that values should be excised from U.S. policy; they are wrong to argue that the United States should pull back dramatically from the world. Yet they are right that good statecraft requires an understanding of limitsparticularly for a country as powerful as the United States, and particularly at a time when the international environment is becoming more contested. The United States cannot right every wrong, fix every problem, or defend every global interest. America can and should, however, shoulder more of the burden than modern academic and Trumpian realists believe. The United States will be effective only if it chooses its battles carefully; it will need to preserve its power for dealing with the most pressing threat to its national interests and the international orderthe resurgence of authoritarian challengeseven if that means taking an economy-of-force approach to other issues.

Sixth, realists must recognize that the United States has not created and sustained a global network of alliances, international institutions, and other embedded relationships out of a sense of charity. It has done so because those relationships provide forums through which the United States can exercise power at a bargain-basement price. Embedded relationships have allowed the United States to rally other nations to support American causes from the Korean War to the counter-ISIS campaign, and have reduced the transaction costs of collective action to meet common threats from international terrorism to p.iracy. They have provided institutional megaphones through which the United States can amplify its diplomatic voice and project its influence into key issues and regions around the globe. If these arrangements did not exist, the United States would find itself having to create them, or acting unilaterally at far greater cost. If realism is really about maximizing American power, true realists ought to be enthusiastic about relationships and institutions that serve that purpose. Realists should adopt the approach that every postCold War president has embraced: that the United States will act unilaterally in defense of its interests when it must, but multilaterally with partners whenever it can.

Finally, realism requires not throwing away what has worked in the past. One of the most astounding aspects of both contemporary academic realism and the Trumpian variant of that tradition is the cavalier attitude they display toward arrangements and partnerships that have helped produce a veritable golden age of international peace, stability, and liberalism since World War II, and that have made the United States the most influential and effective actor in the globe in the process. Of course, there have been serious and costly conflicts over the past decades, and U.S. policy has always been thoroughly imperfect. But the last 70 years have been remarkably good ones for U.S. interests and the global orderwhether one compares them with the 70 years before the United States adopted its global leadership role, or compares them with the violent disorder that would have emerged if America followed the nostrums peddled today under the realist label. A doctrine that stresses that importance of prudence and discretion, and that was originally conservative in its preoccupation with stability and order, ought not to pursue radical changes in American statecraft or embrace a come what may approach to the world. Rather, such a doctrine ought to recognize that true achievements are enormously difficult to come byand that the most realistic approach to American strategy would thus be to focus on keeping a good thing going.

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The Acosta of Freedom - Commentary Magazine

KING: Stop saying this nation was founded on faith and freedom it was founded on violence and white supremacy – New York Daily News

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, August 14, 2017, 10:34 AM

As violent, cruel, demeaning white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville, Va., this weekend, and one of the men murdered a woman and injured dozens of others in broad daylight, Donald Trump, the sitting President of the United States, who rose to power with their full support, refused to call them out. Of course he refused. They are his most devoted followers and he has taken great care not to offend or isolate them. Many Republicans, though, did call them out. Senators Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio and even Ted Cruz made some of the strongest statements from conservatives I've ever read on white supremacy, but one consistent and critically important error was present in so many statements from seemingly well-meaning white men. Those statements, over and over again, said something to the effect that white supremacy has no place in America and that this nation was founded on the principles of faith and freedom.

51 photos view gallery

That's a damn lie. It's as big a lie as a lie can get. It's ahistorical. It's insulting. It's not even in the ballpark of reality. And when civic and business leaders say that this nation was founded on such warm, fuzzy ideals and principles, it reveals many things chief among them just how far we are from actually dismantling the systems of white supremacy and white privilege in this nation.

Before I was a journalist, I was a preacher in Georgia and Kentucky. From the pulpit I liked to use colorful metaphors to explain complex scriptures so that they made more sense for everyday people. If you don't mind, I'd like to lean on that part of my history for a few moments.

Imagine you're in your house and you smell a foul stench. You check your refrigerator and realize that you have some spoiled food in there. That must be it! You get ready to throw it away, open up the garbage can, then realize that something foul seems to be coming from there too. So you bag up the foul garbage with the spoiled food and take it out of the house confident that you have solved the problem only to come back inside to find it smelling worse than ever. You check the bathroom and flush the toilets in case that might be it. No matter what you do, the smell won't go away. It's getting so bad that you can hardly stand it. You are now feeling light-headed. Then, you notice on the television that people are evacuating their homes on a street that looks very, very familiar. It's your street. On the television, you see a home that looks like your home and a car that looks like your car. On the television screen, smoke is enveloping the home and car that look like they are yours.

Charlottesville mayor says Trump campaign emboldened hate groups

The news caption reads, "Neighborhood built on toxic waste dump about to explode."

The smell that you thought was leftovers in the fridge or fish in the garbage or a turd in the toilet was none of those things. Your home is built on a ticking time bomb of toxic waste.

Ted Cruz and Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio each spoke of white supremacy and neo-Nazism as if it could be easily flushed down the toilet with a tweet, wink and a nod. This is as dangerous a denial of the past, present and future of this country as we could ever have.

America was not built on kindness or the Christianity of Christ. It was not built on freedom or liberty. This nation was built on white supremacy. Its founders owned human beings that they worked to death and raped at will for sexual pleasure. The indigenous people were slaughtered and terrorized for land and profit. Not for years, or decades, but for centuries, this nation exploited and victimized every single person who was not a white man denying them all the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness denying them all the right to vote, the right to safety, the right to dignity.

Jason Kessler shouted down at Charlottesville news conference

We have women in this nation who were born before women were allowed to vote. A black woman who voted in this past presidential election was the daughter of slaves! Donald Trump's own father was reportedly arrested at a KKK rally 90 years ago this summer (something Donald Trump has refuted). Right here in New York City Nazis held a rally in Madison Square Garden.

So don't tell me this nation was founded on faith and freedom. It was founded on oppression and violence. What we're seeing in Charlottesville isn't un-American. NO! That violence and bigotry are as American as it gets.

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KING: Stop saying this nation was founded on faith and freedom it was founded on violence and white supremacy - New York Daily News

The Freedom Wall – Buffalo Rising

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The next time that you pass the corner East Ferry and Michigan, you will recognize some familiar faces. This corner is also considered the gateway to the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor. The mural project that is currently underway features 28 notable civil rights leaders in American history. Of course this public work of art could not have come at a better time, considering the racial turmoil underway in Charlottesville. The Freedom Wall is part of the ongoingAlbright-Knox Art Gallery Public Art Initiative. The wall was generously donated bythe Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA).

The wall itself adds a beautiful artistic effect to the series of micro murals. The striations that run vertical on the surface create another dimension, almost a 3D quality, to the faces. Its as if there is added character that could not be captures on a flat surface. It just goes to show that sometimes the texture of a wall can add to a public work of art. And thats a good thing, because this lifeless corner certainly needed a splash of color and dignity.

The four American artists chosen to paint their works areJohn Baker (1964),Julia Bottoms-Douglas (1988),Chuck Tingley (1983), andEdreys Wajed (1974).

In order to choose the 28 figures to go on the wall,Karima Amin, Max Anderson, Dr. Cynthia Conides, Hiram Cray, Eva Doyle, and Dr. Henry Taylor took up the challenge to whittle the list down from an original 300 suggestions. Following are the heroic faces that appear on the wall (still underway). These are the faces of local, national and world renowned activists.

Rosa Parks, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure), Mama Charlene Miller Caver, William Wells Brown, King Peterson, Angela Davis, Bill Gaiter, Malcolm X, Alicia Garza, George K. Arthur, Al-Nisa Banks, W. E. B. DuBois, Eva Doyle, Huey P. Newton, Shirley Chisholm, Frank Merriweather, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary B. Talbert, Reverend J. Edward Nash, Sr., Dr. Lydia T. Wright, Frederick Douglass, Dr. Monroe Fordham, Thurgood Marshall, Fannie Lou Hamer, Arthur O. Eve, Minnie Gillette, Marcus Garvey and Harriet Tubman.

On Tuesday, August 15 from 5pm to 7pm, a community event will take place at the Freedom Wall. Come meet the artists, and enjoy a free cookout with Buffalo United Front. Attendees can park at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts.

Learn more about the initiative, and the artists, by clicking here.

AK Public Art mural projects are generously underwritten by the New Era Cap Foundation.Additional support for this mural has been provided by Hyatts Graphic Supply Company.

Tagged with: Chuck Tingley, Dr. Cynthia Conides, Dr. Henry Taylor, Edreys Wajed, Eva Doyle, Hiram Cray, John Baker, Julia Bottoms-Douglas, Karima Amin, Max Anderson, Michigan Street African-American Heritage Corridor, mural, The Freedom Wall

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Newell Nussbaumer is 'queenseyes' - Eyes of the Queen City and Founder of Buffalo Rising. Co-founder Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts. Co-founder Powder Keg Festival that built the world's largest ice maze (Guinness Book of World Records). Instigator behind Emerald Beach at the Erie Basin Marina. Co-created Flurrious! winter festival. Co-creator of Rusty Chain Beer. Instigator behind Saturday Artisan Market (SAM) at Canalside. Founder of The Peddler retro and vintage market. Instigator behind Liberty Hound @ Canalside. Throws The Witches Ball at The Hotel @ The Lafayette, and the Madd Tiki Winter Luau. Other projects: Navigetter.

Contact Newell Nussbaumer | Newell@BuffaloRising.com

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The Freedom Wall - Buffalo Rising

Freedom Town Column: Summer reading program coming to a close – Conway Daily Sun

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The summer reading program is drawing to a close. Adults and teens have until Wednesday, Aug. 16, to turn in their final book entries and reading logs and kids have until Saturday, Aug. 19. The library is having a free make-your-own-sundae event for all ages on Tuesday, Aug. 22, from 3 to 4 p.m. The library's weekly summer programs have ended except for preschool story time which continues on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. through Aug. 23. It will resume after a two-week break on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

Congratulations to Freedom seasonal residents Ed and Hilary Cipullo, winners of the library's kayak raffle. This raffle raised over $800 for the library. Many thanks to all who bought tickets and to the volunteers who helped sell them.

Join the Freedom Historical Society on at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the town hall as certified genealogist, Diane Gravel, explores obscure and neglected sources that can provide "New Paths to Genealogical Success."

Gravel is a full-time professional genealogist and lecturer. She has lectured at the local level, as well as at state, regional, and national conferences. Gravel co-edited Volume I of New Hampshire Families in 1790, and is currently working on Volume II of that project. She serves on the board of directors of the Association of Professional Genealogists and is the vice president of the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists. An extended period for questions and answers will follow the presentation. The public is welcome to attend, and refreshments will be served following the program. For more information, call (603) 539-5799.

An extremely special program featuring Maestro George Wiese and friends will be held on the evening of Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. at the South Eaton Meetinghouse. George and George team up again. In 1890, George Woods of Boston built the beautiful reed organ which now resides in the South Eaton Meetinghouse, and on this special Tuesday evening, Wiese returns to Eaton to play it. This summers program will feature a wide array of music created and adapted for reed organ. Suggest donation is $10. Directions: After Purity Spring Resort, heading south on Route 153, turn on Horseleg Hill Road and follow to the corner of Towle Hill and Burnham Roads.

Camp Huckins Family weekend is being held on Sept. 8, 9 and 10. This is a getaway weekend at Camp Huckins with a special rate for Freedom families. Call now to reserve your space as there are only 10 cabins left. Families stay together in one cabin and participate in camp activities. Meals included two cookouts and other meals will be served at the Camp Huckins Dining Hall. One family member must be a resident of Freedom to receive special sliding fee scale (family of four) additional family members $10. Tier one is $50, tier two is $75 and tier three is $125. Choose the tier that best suits your family. To register, call the Camp Huckins office at (603) 539-4710.

Do you want a clean car? Well, you can get one and help raise money for the Freedom Village Store at the same time. The store has gift cards from Top Cat Car Wash for sale, that are worth $24 but will cost you $20 which is a 20 percent savings. For every card sold, the store gets a $10 donation. Pennies grow into dollars, and so with time and enough cards sold, this could become an important means of an easy way of helping the Freedom Village Stores bottom line. Top Cat, which is either fully automated or you can do it yourself, is on Route 16 in Ossipee just south of Hannaford.

Lisa Wheeler can be contacted at wheelersinfreedom@roadrunner.com.

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Freedom Town Column: Summer reading program coming to a close - Conway Daily Sun

Charlottesville violence too much like 1961 for ex-Freedom Rider beaten by white mob: ‘I thought we got beyond that’ – New York Daily News

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Charlottesville violence too much like 1961 for ex-Freedom Rider beaten by white mob: 'I thought we got beyond that' - New York Daily News

Freedom Rock artist to begin Aug. 28 – Waynesville Daily Guide

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St. Robert residents are in for a surprise and real treat for the eyes at the end of the month. Acclaimed artist Ray "Bubba" Sorenson will be stopping in St. Robert to paint the city's Freedom Rock as part of his 50 State Freedom Rock Tour.

Freedom Rocks painted by Sorenson are meant to honor veterans and those currently serving in the Armed Forces.

Sorenson will be in St. Robert, on August 28, painting the large boulder that has been placed on St. Robert Boulevard, in a place of honor, near the tank, and the large group of boulders that military organizations have been painting to represent themselves.

An enclosure will be built over the rock, according to the city, in order to protect it from the weather and to preserve the mural Sorenson will paint on it.

The design of St. Robert's Freedom Rock is a mystery that will only be revealed when Sorenson finishes painting it. According to Jerry Watkins, St. Robert Park Facilities Lead, Sorenson will develop the design that he paints on the rock as he works.

Watkins told the Daily Guide that Sorenson learns information about the area, is provided with background and history by the city, and "gears" his painting towards the area.

Sorenson started out painting one Freedom Rock in his homes state of Iowa in 1999 as a way to honor veterans on Memorial Day. He would repaint it differently every year. Then Sorenson added all the counties in his home state. Currently he's working on a 50 state tour and taking applications from places in those states to start booking Freedom Rocks.

Sorenson was already a successful mural artist, but he is gaining fame painting the Freedom Rocks that can be found in four different states. St. Robert's Freedom Rock will be the third one located in Missouri, according to Sorenson's website.

The first Missouri Freedom Rock is located in Maryville, in the northwestern part of the state, while the second is located in Cape Girardeau in the southeastern part of the state. St. Robert's central location will be the third one for the state.

Sorenson plans to be finished with St. Robert's Freedom Rock by September 11, 2017. The city plans to hold a formal unveiling ceremony after Sorenson completes the mural.

Individuals interested in seeing Sorenson's work on other Freedom Rocks can visit his website at http://www.thefreedomrock.com. Images of the rocks that he's painted are available throughout the website.

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Freedom Rock artist to begin Aug. 28 - Waynesville Daily Guide

Poet Imagines Life Inside A 1910 Institution That Eugenics Built – NPR

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In her book The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded, poet Molly McCully Brown explores themes of disability, eugenics and faith. Kristin Teston/Persea hide caption

In her book The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded, poet Molly McCully Brown explores themes of disability, eugenics and faith.

Growing up in southwestern Virginia in recent decades, poet Molly McCully Brown often passed by a state institution in Amherst County that was once known as the "Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded."

Since 1983 the facility, which was founded in 1910, has been called the Central Virginia Training Center, and it is now a residential home for people with various intellectual disabilities. But in the early 20th century, the place Brown now refers to as "the colony" was part of the eugenics movement taking hold in the U.S., and a variety of treatments now considered inhumane were practiced there including forced sterilization. Brown, who has cerebral palsy, notes that had she been born in an earlier era, she might have been sent to live at the institution herself.

"It is impossible to know that for sure," she says. "I can look at my life and look at my family and look at my parents and think, No, never. That never would have happened. But I also understand that if I had been born 50 years earlier, the climate was very different."

She hopes to give voice to those early generations of residents, in her book of poetry, The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And Feebleminded.

For Brown, the themes of disability and poetry have been constant throughout her life: "In my life, there has always been my body in some state of falling apart or disrepair or attempting to be fixed, and there has always been poetry. And I couldn't untwine those things if I tried."

Interview Highlights

On seeing the buildings and grounds of the old facility

It was incredibly moving and incredibly powerful. The place is interesting because it is still an operational facility for adults with really serious disabilities, although it is in the process of closing. But like a lot of things in Virginia, it was initially built on an enormous amount of land. And, so, a really interesting thing happened, which is that as the buildings that were originally part of the colony fell into disrepair, they were largely just moved out of and new buildings were built on accompanying land, but those original buildings were not necessarily torn down. So the place itself is this really strange combination of functioning facility and ghost town of everything that it has been. I've never been in a place that felt more acutely haunted in my life.

On how some people assume her physical disability means she also has an intellectual disability

We do have a strange tendency in this country to equate any kind of disability with less intellectual capability and with even a less complete humanity. Certainly as a child and as a teenager and even now as an adult [I] encountered people who assumed that just because I used a wheelchair, maybe I couldn't even speak to them. I often get questions directed at people I'm with, as opposed to me, and that's a really interesting phenomenon.

On the connection between poetry and theology

Both poetry and theology for me are about paying attention to the world in a very intentional way, and about admitting a mystery that is bigger than anything that I rationally understand. ... I think poetry has always been for me a kind of prayer. So those things feel very linked for me. And, again, poetry does feel like the first and in some ways best language I ever had for mystery and for my sense of what exists beyond the world we're currently living in.

On how Catholicism has helped her accept her body

One of the things that I find so moving about Catholicism is that it never forgets that to be a person is inherently and inescapably and necessarily to be in a body a body that brings you pain, a body that brings you pleasure, a body that can be a barrier to thinking more completely about your life and your soul but [that it] can also be a vehicle to delivering you into better communion with the world, with other people and to whatever divinity it is that you believe in.

What Catholicism did for me, in part, is give me a framework in which to understand my body as not an accident or a punishment or a mistake, but as the body that I am meant to have and that is constitutive of so much of who I am and what I've done and what I hope I will do in the world.

More and more ... I've come to see my body as a place of pride and potential, and as something that gives me a unique outlook onto the world. And I'd rather that, I guess, than be infuriated by it.

On her twin sister, who died shortly after birth

She lived about 36 hours after we were born. ... It's a phenomenon in my life that I have not a lot of rational explanation for, ... but it is true that I miss my sister with a kind of intense specificity that has no rational explanation, and that I feel aware of her presence in this way that I can't exactly explain or articulate, but which feels undeniable to me. ...

I do think that that sort of gave me no other option than to believe in some kind of something beyond this current mortal life that we're living. Because what is the explanation otherwise for the fact that I feel like I miss and I know this person who only lived a matter of hours? And for the fact as much as I know that she is dead and is gone in a real way, she doesn't feel "disappeared" to me.

On how her physical disability and her poetry are intertwined

I think the easiest way I have of describing it is I have two [early] memories. ... One of them is of sitting on a table in a hospital room in the children's hospital in St. Louis, choosing the flavor of the anesthetic gas I was going to breathe when they put me under to do my first major surgery. I was picking between cherry and butterscotch and grape. And the second memory that I have is of my father reading a Robert Hayden poem called "Those Winter Sundays."

Roberta Shorrock and Therese Madden produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Deborah Franklin adapted it for the Web.

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Poet Imagines Life Inside A 1910 Institution That Eugenics Built - NPR

Eugenics in Tennessee: Trading Sterilization for Freedom – The Libertarian Republic

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Written by Brent Derider

On May 15th 2017 at 2:05PM, Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield signed a standing order that, effectively, puts White County, TN, in the business of trading sterilization for freedom. It stated that any inmate who completes a neonatal health class has an option to have their jail time reduced. Female inmates can get a Nexplanon birth control implant in their arm and male inmates are subjected to a vasectomy. For this, they receive 30 days credit toward their sentence.

Proponents of the order tout the program as relieving the burden on taxpayers and the welfare system and deny accusations of coercive eugenics, claiming that the program is voluntary. Says former S.C. Republican Congressional hopeful, Kris Wampler, Right now, we pay people to have kids by offering them welfare. We are literally subsidizing the birth of countless kids no one will care for. Doesnt it make more sense, if were going to pay someone anyway, to pay them to be less of a burden on society?

Judge Benningfield claims the order will give them a chance when they get out to not be burdened with children.

It seems, however, that not everyone is quite so thrilled with White Countys new involvement in eugenics. District Attorney Bryant Dunaway opposes the order. Those decisions are personal in nature, and I think thats just something the court should neither encourage nor mandate. said Dunaway. The White County DA further remarks I instructed my staff not to be involved in this type of arrangement in any way.

Thomas C. Arnold Jr., respected liberty advocate and LPTN Chair, spoke clearly against the action. It is a heinous attack on civil liberties in Tennessee. No individual, regardless the crime, should be coerced in this manner. It sickens me.

Most inmates are a product of the failed war on drugs and shouldnt be incarcerated at all, but even actual criminals have the right to their ability procreate. Forcing people to choose between sterilization and their freedom isnt an offer. Its coercion. If a person can be released into society, safely, they should be. Sterilization has no role to play. This goes far beyond government over-step. This is a great stride down a dark road that leads us directly back to 1940s Germany.

As far as this activist is concerned, enough is enough. A clear message needs to be sent to Judge Benningfield and those like him. As both a Libertarian and a proud southerner, I am appalled at this clear attempt to target the reproductive ability of a class of people that Mr. Benningfield finds unappealing. This is not within the scope of legitimate government. This is coerced eugenics and stopping it is the duty of every one of us.

To contact Sam Benningfield and share your thoughts on this abuse of power:

111 Depot Street, Suite 2, Sparta, TN 38583

Phone & Fax: 931-836-3600

eugenicsprisonSterilization

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New details on Cyborg in ‘Justice League’ and his solo movie – Batman-News

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Last week Justice League actor Joe Morton gave us an update on the reshoots, and this week Comic Book Movie had a chance to talk to him about even more. Morton plays Dr. Silas Stone, and was asked if Victor Stone feels any resentment towards him for turning him into Cyborg.

Yeah, some of that still exists in the film where Victor sort of feels like, yes you saved my life, but look what you made me look like, Morton explained. I cant go out and be a regular person. He has no alias, nothing to hide behind. So what I think is great about that idea is you begin, in a metaphoric way, sort of talking about what it means to be the other in society. Even if you have something tremendous to contribute to society, the first thing that most social situations will do is ostracize you because you look different because they dont know who or what you are. So I think thats a big deal in this film for that character, and for Silas, and makes for interesting film making.

Way back in October of 2014 a solo Cyborg movie was announced. It was nowhere to be seen last month at Comic-Con when Warner Bros. announced a more updated slate of movies. CBM asked Morton if the movie was still happening.

As far as I know it is still happening, he said. I believe, although Im not entirely sure, that it should start sometime around 2020. That seems to be a wonderful metaphoric year for these Cyborgs, he joked.

Morton also confirmed that he signed a three movie deal.

It was set up as a three picture deal. The first being Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, the second one being Justice League and the third one being the Cyborg film. So thats how its been set up, but its all contingent on how these movies do. And so far, Wonder Woman did really well, and were hoping that Justice League does equally as well.

SOURCE: Comic Book Movie

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WWE News: Cris Cyborg implies that she isn’t facing Becky Lynch at SummerSlam because of Ronda Rousey – Sportskeeda

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Cris Cyborg has taken to social media in order to fire off a rather subtle shot at Ronda Rousey, implying that the latter is the reason behind Cyborg not being recruited by the WWE to face Becky Lynch at SummerSlam.

Ronda Rousey previously worked with the WWE in a segment alongside The Rock, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H at Wrestlemania 31 and has reiterated her love for the sport of professional wrestling and the WWE.

On the other hand, Cris Cyborg and Becky Lynch have been exchanging barbs for quite some time now on social media, with Cyborg lobbying to face The Irish Lass Kicker in a professional wrestling match at WWEs August 20th PPV SummerSlam.

On that note, given the fact that SummerSlam is upon the WWE Universe, the WWE is yet to book Becky Lynch in a match for the event.

Furthermore, Ronda Rousey is part of MMAs Four Horsewomen stable and Cris Cyborg has subtly chosen to allude that the WWEs disinterest in signing her for a potential appearance at SummerSlam may be because of Cyborg's relationship with the WWE higher-ups. Heres what Cyborg stated:

Cris Cyborg seems to be all set to defend her UFC Womens Featherweight Championship against Holly Holm at UFC 219.

On the other hand, Becky Lynch hasnt been booked for an appearance at SummerSlam, whereas Ronda Rousey is rumoured to be training for a career in professional wrestling.

In my opinion, the WWE would benefit more with Rousey as their representative rather than Cris Cyborg since the former Invicta Champion has failed steroid tests multiple times in her career, and the WWE has previously been at the centre of steroid/illegal PED controversies.

Besides, with Rouseys charisma and star power, who wouldnt love to see her grace the WWE ring?

Send us news tips at fightclub@sportskeeda.com

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WWE News: Cris Cyborg implies that she isn't facing Becky Lynch at SummerSlam because of Ronda Rousey - Sportskeeda

Coach Wink suggests Cris Cyborg’s PED history matters more than Brock Lesnar’s – Bloody Elbow

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Back in February, when Cris Cyborg was fighting a suspension from USADA from which she eventually received a retroactive exemption Coach Mike Winkeljohn took to the media to give his thoughts on a potential fight between Cyborg and notable Jackson-Wink talent Holly Holm. The long and short of those thoughts being that, if such a fight were to happen, Cyborg should have to sit out a year first, to ensure that shes clean.

So, with all the talk about Brock Lesnar himself currently suspended for PED use potentially fighting Jon Jones, it only stands to reason that Winkeljohn would feel just as strongly; that Lesnar needs to take more time and really prove hes clean, rather than being rushed into a bout with the Jackson-Wink light heavyweight champion.

As he explained in a recent interview with Submission Radio, however, that isnt really the case.

Well, you know what you got in front of you, Winkeljohn said when asked if he had any hesitations about Lesnar vs. Jones given his past comments on Cyborg. Like I said, so you got this guy whos just gigantic and stuff and coming at Jon, so it is what it is. No, its not really a concern with him. I think guys that have done PEDs in the past is different than girls that have done them in the past, because they do get bigger, but you kind of expect that with the guy. The girls that do it, you know, Im always worried about, okay, theyre clean, but what about their past? Did it change bone structure? Did it change density on different things? Thats where things change a little bit. So I think it has more of an effect for girls than it does for guys, not that its not cheating for guys as well.

I would love to see that fight happen, he continued, but I would put Jon fighting a lot sooner than that one fight between (him and Brock) just because of the fact that I dont think Brock can fight for a while. But if that was possible, I would love for that to be the next fight.

As for how the fight might go, if it were to happen? Winkeljohn put it out there that he does think Lesnar could get Jones down, but might get more than he bargained for if he did.

He could, he responded when asked if Lesnar could take Jones down, but people will be surprised. You havent seen Jon on his back, what Jon can do. Hes got some great sweeps in there, but also, getting Jon on his back is very hard. His hips are first all the time, hes very good in the scramble and Jons hard to take down. Its like I said, Brocks gonna shoot on him, but it doesnt mean Jons gonna be right in front of him. So expect Jon, like I said, to get out the tracks, and I see Brock coming so hard that hes gonna be one of those things, Id like to see Jon get out of the way and Brock basically run into the cage, you know, in essence, that kind of theory, get out of the way. So stuffing the shot is different than not letting the shot happen and doing things to your strikes that makes him not wanna shoot. You know, scare him kind of like Alistair Overeem did. So theres a lot of different ways for the fight to play out.

Coach Wink also talked about a potential matchup with Stipe Miocic, and why its the harder fight for Jones, as well as his belief that Jones could knock Lesnar out. So give the whole thing a listen.

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Coach Wink suggests Cris Cyborg's PED history matters more than Brock Lesnar's - Bloody Elbow

Dawn of the CYBORG? Bendable batteries created which can be implanted in humans – Express.co.uk

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Researchers from Chinas Fudan University have created flexible batteries that can be implanted into humans as they do not have the toxic chemicals used to make traditional versions of the power source.

The team say that the breakthrough could have huge implications for medicines and treatments and will be a game changer in wearable and implanted technology.

Yonggang Wang, one of the researchers from Fudan, said: Current batteries like the lithium-ion ones used in medical implants generally come in rigid shapes.

Additionally, most of the reported flexible batteries are based on flammable organic or corrosive electrolytes, which suffer from safety hazards and poor biocompatibility for wearable devices, let alone implantable ones.

GUO ET AL

The team created two flexible design batteries; one being a 2D belt comprised of electrode films over a steel mesh, and the other being a carbon nanotube fibre weave with nanoparticle electrodes both of which showed excellent performance.

The flexibility and small size of the batteries makes them suitable for implants, even on the brain, the researchers stated in their study published in the journal Chem.

Previous probes have shown brain-computer interfaces can help people with spinal injuries regain mobility as they can restore neural signal transmitters and receptors that have been damaged.

GETTY

But another huge breakthrough with the new batteries is that they can be used to treat cancer.

The carbon nanotube in the battery converted dissolved oxygen into hydroxide ions at an accelerated rate which can starve cancerous cells.

AP

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The BMW i Vision Future Interaction concept ca

Wang explained: "We can implant these fibre-shaped electrodes into the human body to consume essential oxygen, especially for areas that are difficult for injectable drugs to reach.

"Deoxygenation might even wipe out cancerous cells or pathogenic bacteria since they are very sensitive to changes in living environment pH. Of course, this is hypothetical right now, but we hope to investigate further with biologists and medical scientists."

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Dawn of the CYBORG? Bendable batteries created which can be implanted in humans - Express.co.uk

Germaine de Randamie slams drug cheat Cris Cyborg after having world title stripped – Daily Star

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GERMAINE de Randamie has no regrets at being stripped of her world title.

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The Iron Lady defeated Holly Holm in February to become the UFCs first female featherweight champion.

But she refused to defend the belt against Cris Cyborg due to the challengers 2011 suspension for a positive drugs test.

Cyborg she also tested positive for a banned substance last year but a therapeutic use exemption certificate saw her cleared of any wrongdoing.

De Randamie said of her anti-drugs stance: I dont regret anything. I stand for my principles and I believe that forbidden substances are not allowed in sport.

Thats especially the case in fighting. This is a full contact sport. People have ended up in wheelchairs.

I was just reading the other day that a boxer did his first pro fight and is now drinking out of a straw.

We put our lives on the line and we are here to entertain people. I dont regret anything, there are things I dont support and thats my opinion.

The Dutch fighter, 33, will now drop down to the 135lbs division against Marion Reneau at UFC Fight Night 115 in Rotterdam on September 2.

CONOR MCGREGOR was among the famous faces at the Grand National today.

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De Randamie, who has won four of her five UFC contests, is the clear odds-on favourite to come out on top against the 40-year-old Californian.

Reneau (3-2-1 in UFC), is ranked at 11 in the bantamweight division and goes into the fight on the back of a draw with Bethe Correia in March.

Her fight with De Randamie is the main support bout to the heavyweight fight between Stefan Struve and Alexander Volkov.

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Germaine de Randamie slams drug cheat Cris Cyborg after having world title stripped - Daily Star

Greenville South Carolina – Greenville SC – Destination360

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The city of Greenville South Carolina is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, about 100 miles north of Columbia, the state capital. Greenville is a moderately sized city and the site of a number of Greenville SC attractions for history lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. Due to its location near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Greenville South Carolina is a great place to go as a base for fishing trips, camping and white water rafting in the area. Greenville tours of downtown reveal some interesting architecture from the 17th and 18th century.

Greenville South Carolina originally developed as a trading post in the early 18th century. Its central location and proximity to the Appalachian Mountains made it a prime location for trade and mail delivery. Its proximity to the Appalachians also made it an attractive resort town for plantation owners, who can to Greenville often for relaxing vacations and outdoor getaways. After the Civil War, Greenville South Carolina took the lead in the state as the major producer of textiles, which would prove to be a major economical boost to the state during the reconstruction period. Today, Greenville is still a great place to go in search of resorts and relaxation. Whether travelers plan to stay in Greenville hotels as a base for other side and day trips or simply want to stroll around town enjoying the local Greenville SC attractions, there is plenty to explore.

One of the most popular Greenville SC attractions is the Greenville Zoo. Located within town, the Greenville Zoo is somewhat small but impeccably maintained. An excellent collection of exotic and domestic animals characterizes this zoo, as does the surrounding park which is full of picnic tables and a playground; perfect for lunch on a sunny day. Another popular attraction in town is the Museum and Gallery at Bob Jones University, which is full of interesting art and artifacts and is open for Greenville tours from Tuesdays until Sunday from 2pm until 5pm.

Greenville is also a great place for golfing. Although it does not feature the high number of courses that a place like Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head might, there are still a few great courses in town. The Verdae Green Golf Course and the Bonnie Brae Golf Club are two of the most popular options; green fees for both are under $50 per person. Greenville tours of the downtown area can also include the exploration of the Greenville nightlife scene. Bars and pubs, rather than dance clubs, tend to be the norm in downtown Greenville, and travelers will find lots of choices that include jazz bars, pubs with live folk music and more. In addition to these great attractions, there are also some fun annual events happening in Greenville.

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Greenville South Carolina - Greenville SC - Destination360

Massive Pipes Have Washed Up on English Beaches – Atlas Obscura

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In mid-July, in the vast waters of the Norwegian Sea, two ships collided, loosing 12 massive sections of pipe into the water. No one was hurt, but the pipes scattered. Some were salvaged, while others drifted away. Last week, they began washing up on the beaches of Norfolk, England.

The pipes were apparently headed for power and desalination projects in Algeria, and are extremely largenearly eight feet in diameter, with the longest around 1,570 feet in length. A video from The Guardian gives you a sense of the scale here:

The plastic pipes were created by a Norwegian firm called Pipelife, which has told beachgoers not to approach the pipes or climb on top of them, lest they be crushed. This hasnt deterred the curious, as recent aerial footage showed two men walking on top of one of the pipes, as others took selfies, The Guardian reported. A salvage operation is currently under way to tow the pipes back to Norway.

It is essential now that the salvage team fence off the pipes, Trygve Blomster, a manager at Pipelife, told The Guardian. If a 2.5-meter diameter pipe, several hundred-meter long pipe is moving in the water it is extremely dangerous. If you fall beside that while it moved you will be smashed.

Its quite the sight, but keep your distance.

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Massive Pipes Have Washed Up on English Beaches - Atlas Obscura