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Monthly Archives: August 2017
At The Human Library, The Books Are People And The Stories Are All True – 90.5 WESA
Posted: August 2, 2017 at 8:46 am
Stories from the Human Library launch at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh East Liberty branch on Monday, July 31, 2017.
The meeting space was standing-room-only at the Carnegie Library branch in East Liberty at Mondays launch of Pittsburghs Human Library project.
A library is, essentially, a collection of information and stories that live inside books, on tape or via DVD. In a human library, the stories are told aloud by the people who lived them. The idea started in Denmark in 2000, as a way to break down stereotypes and has since made its way around the world.
Dan Schlegel, 67, of McKeesportwas one of the storytellers at Mondays event. The audience was rapt as he recounted how he nearly lost his life on his 21stbirthday, three weeks after deploying to Vietnam. He was in the outhouse, feeling sorry for himself that hed have no cake or candles that year.
Then all of a sudden I hear [a whistling sound], I know its a rocket, I hit the floor, next thing I know, the whole outhouse blows up on top of me, Im shaking but I can feel fingers and toes and my nose, and Im like Well, Im still alive, Schlegel said.
It was the first of many experiences that all added up to leave Schlegel with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The best description I can give is when I came home from Vietnam, my body came back, but I felt like my mind was in hold baggage. It didnt show up for close to a year, he said.
Evalynn Farkas, 21, a senior at Chatham University, said she also suffers from PTSD.
Sometimes I tell my friends I feel like a ghost, Farkas said. Not existing inside this world or outside of it. Thats the best way I know to describe it.
She said growing up in an abusive home and surviving multiple rapes and sexual assaults has caused her to experience memory loss, panic attacks, anxiety and nightmares. But she said the library and academic have been her solace, and despite the challenges she faces she holds four jobs and is on track to graduate in May. She said she hopes to build a career helping other women who have experienced trauma.
You are here, you will heal, Farkas said. Be gentle to yourself.
Jayme Lynn McIntyre, 57, of East Liberty, said after living as a man for more than 50 years, surviving sexual assault, and struggling with addiction, she became depressed and suicidal.
I can be in a really big room like this and we can all be laughing and talking, and meanwhile Im thinking Id love to get up on that damn steeple and just swan dive off and end it, you know, just end it, McIntyre said.
She credited the behavioral health and social services available in Pittsburgh with saving her life. And though it took her decades to start living as her authentic self, she said its better late than never.
I want you all to know that its never too late to [join] the party just show the hell up, she said.
Organizers said this weeks event was only a launch, and that they expect more Human Library events to pop up around the city exploring different topics in a variety of settings in the coming months.
Groups and individuals interested in hosting a Human Library event can get in touch with Kali Stull at the Consumer Health Coalition.
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Reviewers of Tesla’s Newest Vehicle Are Unanimous: The Model 3 Has No Competition – Futurism
Posted: at 8:45 am
In BriefThe first reviews of Tesla's Model 3 are in and they areresoundingly positive beyond expectations, even for thoseanticipating the world from the new model. Yes, the reviews arefilled with hyperbole and they're absolutely heartfelt, with thedetail to back them up. A Peerless Ride
As the Tesla Model 3 launch was imminent, Jack Stewart of Wired wrote, The arrival of Teslas Model 3 signals a new chapter in automotive history, one that erases 100-plus years of the gas engine and replaces it with technology, design, and performance hot enough to make electric vehicles more than aspirational to make [electric vehicles (EVs)] inspirational. But would it live up to its promise?
If youre still feeling skeptical about Teslas Model 3, the reviewers definitely arent. Heres what they have to say now that theyve driven it.
In a piece prefaced with, The Tesla Model 3 is here, and it is the most important vehicle of the century. Yes, the hyperbole is necessary, Kim Reynolds of Motor Trend raved: If anybody was expecting a typical boring electric sedan here, nope.
Magic, Im telling you. Magic. And this is the single-motor, rear-wheel-drive starting point. The already boggled mind boggles further at the mention of Dual Motor and Ludicrous, Reynolds continued. Have I ever driven a more startling small sedan? I havent. At speed, it gains a laser-alertness I havent encountered before [] [The] 2.0-liter Alfa Romeo Giulia [] feels like a wet sponge by comparison.
Ive driven all Teslas vehicles, Matthew Debord ofBusiness Insider wrote,But the Model 3 is something else [] [its] going to blow many, many minds. This is easily the most attractive entry-level luxury, all-electric car on the market[] I can safely say that the Model 3 has no competition.
[T]here isnt anybody whos going to sit in the drivers seat of this car and not want it, Debord continued. The Model 3 stokes immediate desire, and the lust lingers. That truly changes everything.
Peter Holley of The Washington Post gave a sense of the Model 3 as the car of the future, writing thatfrom the moment you sit inside the Model 3, you do sense that you have entered uncharted territory[] I attribute that feeling to the intuitive nature of the Model 3s minimalist design [and] the way the car seamlessly incorporates technology that is already second nature in many peoples everyday lives.
Its not so much that Tesla is ushering in the future, Holley argued. After riding in the Model 3, Im more inclined to think that Tesla is single-handedly pulling the automotive industry into the present the way anyone born before the Internet thought 2017 would look like decades earlier.
Charlie Turner of Top Gear explained the Autopilot experience: Our brief excursion also allowed us to test the Autopilot, a system that still feels like witchcraft. The levels at which the car is capable of processing information are staggering and if were honest its clearly concentrating a lot harder than most of us after a hard day at the office.
And both Engadget and Wired see the Model 3 and a sign of a new era in transportation. Engadgets Andrew Taratola wrote, While the Roadster put Tesla on the map, the Model 3 really feels like the car that will bring electric vehicles as a whole into the mainstream. And for Stewart, This car feels like an automotive tipping point, a sign that electric vehicles and hopefully, the infrastructure that supports themhave finallycome into their own.
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Facebook’s Language-Creating AI Bots Are Now Required to Negotiate in English – Futurism
Posted: at 8:45 am
In BriefAfter Facebook researchers discovered their artificiallyintelligent chatbots created a new language to more efficientlynegotiate, they decided to tweak the systems to require that theyuse English. This raises the question of whether the "new language"should be allowed it it means the systems would be better equippedto meet their goals. A Secret Language
While developing negotiating chatbot agents, researchers at theFacebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR)lab noticedback in Junethat the artificially intelligent (AI) bots had spontaneously developed their own non-human language.
In a reportexplaining their research, they noted that this development spawned from the systems goal of improving their negotiation strategies the system of code words they started to use were clearly designed to maximize the efficiency of their communication.
Although the bots started out speaking English, the researchers realized they failed to provide a reward for speaking English. In other words, the systems had no reason to stick to English as it didnt contribute to their end goal of becoming more efficient negotiators.In fact, the systems had multiple incentives to veer away from the language, the same way communities of humans with expertise or niche knowledge create and use shorthand to discuss complex ideas more quickly or efficiently.
In that sense, the behavior should have been predictable. It was, in some sense, a very human adaptation as it was designed to enhance performance and minimize effort something the human brain excels at.
As they explained in their June post, the researchers could decode the new language with fairly little trouble as it was still English-based, but they could never be certain that their translations were 100 percent correct.Its important to remember, there arent bilingual speakers of AI and human languages, FAIRs Dhruv Batra told Fast Code Design.This new language also didnt serve the purpose of the research. Our interest was having bots who could talk to people, explained Mike Lewis, a research scientist at FAIR.
In the end, the researchers decided to tweak the agentsto avoid this drifting away from English.
The initial spontaneous development of the independent language highlights how much we still dont understandabout AIs, which is a huge part of the debate regarding AI research. AI could undoubtedly help us, and very few dispute that the technology is here to stay. However, the way we prepare for a world shared with AI, and whether or not that world will be safe for humans, is hotly debated.
To be sure, much AI-related fear is based more in science-fiction than fact. According Nigel Shadbolt, Oxford professor of artificial intelligence and chairman of the Open Data Institute, We most certainly need to consider the restraints and safeguards that we need to engineer into the hardware, software, and deployment policies of our current AI systems. But the next self-aware computer you encounter will only be appearing at a cinema near you.
The language issue cropping up at FAIR and elsewhere appears to fall squarely within the realm of restraints and safeguards. Should we allow AIs to develop task-specific dialectsif they improve performance, knowing it would mean we couldnt truly understand what they were saying?
Many experts urge that we err on the side of caution. Georgia Tech AI researcher Mark Riedl told Future of Life that AIs trained to optimize rewards could eventually come to see humans as a threat to their optimization plans.
Perhaps the most vocal warnings about AI advancing too quickly have come from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. One of the most salient points in their arguments is that by the time we perceive a risk, it may be too late. That may be the best argument of all for shutting down the chatter in a project like this.
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Hypothalamic Stem Cells Could Provide New Insights Into Aging – Futurism
Posted: at 8:45 am
Hypothalamic Stem Cells
The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that helps to regulate internal conditions like body temperature and blood concentration, but new research shows that it may fail us as we age. The research indicates that as the hypothalamuss stem cells die off, the region actually starts to promote aging, causing mental and physical faculties to decline at a more rapid pace.
In the past, researchers have observed that the hypothalamus becomes inflamed over time. This lead them to posit that the area is connected to aging. Recent research on mice proved that reversing the inflammation in the hypothalamus increases the animals life span and slows physical deterioration. In this latest study, scientists focusedon the stem cells of the hypothalamus. In younger animals, these stem cells divide and replace damaged and dead cells. However, as this research shows, over time the number of stem cells present in the hypothalamus drops. Inold age, they are essentially gone.
The team believed they were on to something, but undertook some practical experiments to see if their ideas were borne out by the evidence. First, they altered mice genetically to ensure theyd be out of stem cells(at a point earlier than would occur naturally). Reducing the stem cells in the mice by around 70 percent meant a life span that was about 8 percent shorter. This accelerated loss of stem cells also caused a loss of coordination, endurance, and memory, as well as behavior that was less youthful, curious, and social. When the team injected stem cells into the hypothalami of middle-aged mice, those mice gained about about 10 percent more mental and physical capabilities compared to mice injected with regular brain cells.
Originally, scientists believed that the stem cell loss could besignificant because it meant the host was unable to repair and replace damaged and dead cells. However, when the hypothalami of middle-aged mice were injected with stem cells, they improved too rapidly for this to be thecorrect mechanism. Instead, the team suspected microRNAs might be at work.
The RNA molecules, called microRNAs, are manufactured and released by stem cells to carry messages to other cells. Practically, based on the messages they carry, microRNAs mayalter the proteins cells produce. The researchers discovered that the stem cells in the hypothalamus produce massive amounts of microRNAs contained in tiny exosomes. In fact, when they injected mice with exosomes packed with microRNA from young hypothalamus stem cells, the effects were almost as effective in slowing signs of mental and physical aging as injections of stem cells were.
Recent research has focused on the role of mitochondria in aging and on the use of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in combatting aging in hematopoietic stem cells. Research from this year has also shown that cannabis-based treatment appears to reverse aging in the brains of mice. Concerning thisresearch, protecting or replacing the stem cells of the hypothalamus or somehow reinforcing or replacing the microRNA effects could slow aging in humans. This could mean testing current drugs such as acarbose (presently used to treat diabetes) to see if they can suppress the hypothalamic inflammation that causes the stem cells to die.
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The golden rule of business – Samoa Observer (press release) (blog)
Posted: August 1, 2017 at 6:42 pm
Think a minute...This is the true story of a boy named Jim who started working on farms at the young age of eight. By the time he was 20 Jim was training as a store manager, and within a year was a successful salesman. Then in 1901 he married a young woman named Berta. After a couple of more years, Jim was put in charge of a brand new store. He put a big sign on the front that read Golden Rule.
He worked hard to manage his store from early morning until late at night. He and Berta lived in a small room above the store that was an unfinished attic. Their dining table was just a box turned upside down and shoe cases for chairs. But their Golden Rule store was on its way. Jims wise, hard work paid off. After 12 years he had 71 stores. Three years later he had 177 stores. And 11 years later Jim owned and a chain of more than 1,000 stores across America!
Maybe you have heard this true story of the J.C. Penney stores and the young man, James Cash Penney, who built it all from nothing. But you probably have not heard of the terrible suffering and disappointments he had to overcome to accomplish it.
Back in 1910, Jim lost the most important partner and person in his life when his wife Berta died. Then came the famous stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression in America. So by 1931, J.C. Penney was in the hospital from a physical and nervous breakdown.
When he woke the next morning, he heard music and followed the sound to the small chapel in the hospital. There Jim met God who began to heal his broken heart and restore his purpose for living. Jim had lost 40 million dollars! But that day he discovered wealth greater than any amount of money. So at the age of 56, with his new-found purpose and passion, he started his life again.
Jim traveled everywhere speaking about the power and principles of Jesus Christ, including The Golden Rule. In fact, Jim rebuilt his company even bigger! No matter what disappointments you have had in the past, you can start all over again today. But this time you live your Makers way. Remember, His way is the only way you can have real prosperity and peace that can never be taken away from you. Just think a minute
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The golden rule of business - Samoa Observer (press release) (blog)
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The West’s anti-liberal backlash can’t escape its racism – The … – Washington Post
Posted: at 6:41 pm
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The turbulent politics of the past year have hinged on a grand historical premise: Theliberal status quo of the West is in crisis. Figures such asPresident Trump swept into power promising jobs for the disaffected, closed borders for migrants and economic protectionism; kindred spirits in Europe preached an even more xenophobic message.
But in thechaotic months sinceTrump's inauguration, Europe's far right suffered electoral setbacks and the president's own agenda provedsomething of amuddled mess. His campaign-trail populism quickly gave way to policies that favored the mega-rich. What has endured are the identity politics the resentments toward multiculturalism and immigration that galvanized his base, which has remained loyal to Trump even while the president racksup historically low approval ratings.
And although the Trump administration tries to distance itself from "white nationalism" and its supposedly fringe adherents, ethnic grievances anchor the West's anti-liberal backlash.It's at the heart of the "traditionalist" Christian nationalism embraced by White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who despite various rounds of West Wingpurges has held onto his post.
"I think Trump was a legitimatizer,"said William Regnery II, a secretive funderof a slew of "alt-right" organizations that champion extreme anti-immigration politics in the United States. Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Regnery said that white nationalism has gone "from being conversation you could hold in a bathroom to the front parlor."
Over the weekend, a group of committed white nationalists, including some figures directly connected to Regnery's funding networks, held a conference in Tennessee, debating everything from Trump's record on race tothe prospect of fashioning some chunk of America intoa whites-only "ethno-state."
Jared Taylor, the founder and editor of American Renaissance, the far-right website that staged the event, spoke to the Guardian about the millennials turned on by his message. "These young white guys," Taylorsaid, "they have been told from infancy that they are the villains of history. And I think that the left has completely overplayed its hand."
A similar argument ismade by considerably more powerful people in Europe.Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivered a speechin a leafy Romanian town where a majority of the population is ethnic Hungarian. Not many international outlets covered the event far-right website Breitbartwas an exception,gleefully quoting the right-wing premier at length for his call to stop a "Muslimized Europe."
This rhetoric is familiar coming from Orban, an outspoken leader among the European statesmen railing against immigration and the challenge ofMuslim integration into Western societies. (No matter that the E.U. refugee quotas Orban resists would do little to change his nation's demographic composition.) But this time, he offered a shout-out to Trump, whose nationalist speech in Warsaw in early July clearly thrilled the Hungarian leader.
Orban quoted from Trump's Warsaw address, in which the president warned of anexistential threat facing the Westand appealed to a narrow Christian cultural identity in the face of enemies at the gates. "Our freedom, our civilization and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture, and memory," Orban said, echoing Trump. (Absent in either of their remarks were similar paeans to Western ideals such asdemocracy and the rule of law.)
The Hungarian prime minister also celebrated the fact that such statements are being made in public at all: "These words would have been inconceivable anywhere in the Western world two years ago," he said.
He went on to bemoan what is afflicting Europe. "Christian democratic parties in Europe have become un-Christian: we are trying to satisfy the values and cultural expectations of the liberal media and intelligentsia," Orban said, swatting at the transnational commitments of technocrats in Brussels and growling over his bete noir, Jewish American financier George Soros.
"In order for Europe to be able to survive and remain the Europeans continent, the European Union must regain its sovereignty from the Soros empire," Orbansaid. "Until that happens, we have no chance of retaining Europe for the European people."
Others on the far right are taking matters more directly in their hands. This summer, a group called "Generation Identity" set about trying tochallengethe efforts of NGOs such asDoctors Without Borders that are operating ships in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants whose own vessels have sunk or become inoperable. Hoisting a "Defend Europe" banner, they tried to disrupt rescue efforts and even threatened to tow stranded migrants back to sea. Over the weekend, they were confronted by leftist activists in the Sicilian port city of Catania.
Britishjournalist Rossalyn Warren described Identity Europe inThe Washington Post's Global Opinion section:
"The group is known for its publicity stunts andcreepy promotional videosshowing white Europeans playing sports in what looks like summer camp for fascists. Their reach hasnt just been limited to Europe either. Though the group is small around 400 to 500 members in several countries including Austria, France and Germany theyve since been joined in Sicily by high-profile, far-right activists from Canada and the United States. Theyve also been supported by neo-Nazi leaders, including former KKK headDavid Duke, a vocal supporter of the Defend Europe mission."
Duke, of course, was also a vocal supporter of Trumpduring last year's election. The president may disavow these links, but leading far-right ideologues, including Regnery and Bannon, aremore coy. Bannon, after all, once described Trump as a "blunt instrument" for his agenda. And althoughthe effect of months of bludgeoning isstill hard to measure, it's impossible to ignore the rhetoric that binds politiciansin Central Europe to once-fringe radicals in Tennessee and Washington.
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The Unexpected Value of the Liberal Arts – The Atlantic
Posted: at 6:41 pm
Growing up in Southern California, Mai-Ling Garcias grades were ragged; her long-term plans nonexistent. At age 20, she was living with her in-laws halfway between Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, while her husband was stationed abroad. Tired of working subsistence jobs, she decided in 2001 to try a few classes at Mount San Jacinto community college.
Nobody pegged her for greatness at first. A psychology professor, Maria Lopez-Moreno recalls Garcia sitting in the midst of a lecture hall, fiddling constantly with a cream-colored scarf. Then something started to catch. After a spirited discussion about the basis for criminal behavior, Lopez-Moreno took this newcomer aside after class and asked: Why are you here?
Garcia blurted out a tangled story of marrying a Marine right after high school, seeing him head off to Iraq, and not knowing what to do next. Lopez-Moreno couldnt walk away. I said to myself: Uh-oh. Ive got to suggest something to her. At her professors urging, Garcia applied for a place in Mt. San Jacintos honors programand began to thrive.
Nourished by smaller classes and motivated peers, Garcia earned straight-A grades for the first time. She emerged as a leader in diversity initiatives, too, drawing on her own multicultural heritage (Filipino and Irish). Shortly before graduation, she won admission to the University of California, Berkeley, campus, where she could pursue a bachelors degree.
Today, Garcia is a leading digital strategist for the city of Oakland, California. Rather than rely on an M.B.A. or a technical major, she has capitalized on a seldom-appreciated liberal-arts disciplinesociologyto power her career forward. Now, she describes herself as a bureaucratic ninja who doesnt hide her stormy journey. Instead, she recognizes it as a valuable asset.
I know what its like to be too poor to own a computer, Garcia told me recently. Im the one in meetings who asks: Never mind how well this new app works on an iPhone. Will it run on an old, public-library computer, because thats the only way some of our residents will get to use it?
By its very name, the liberal-arts pathway is tinged with privilege. Blame this on Cicero, the ancient Roman orator, who championed the arts quae libero sunt dignae (cerebral studies suited for freemen), as opposed to the practical, servile arts suited for lower-class tradespeople. Even today, liberal-arts majors in the humanities and social sciences often are portrayed as pursuing elitist specialties that only affluent, well-connected students can afford.
Look more closely, though, and this old stereotype is starting to crumble. In 2016, the National Association of Colleges and Employers surveyed 5,013 graduating seniors about their family backgrounds and academic paths. The students most likely to major in the humanities or social sciences33.8 percent of themwere those who were the first generation in their family ever to have earned college degrees. By contrast, students whose parents or other forbears had completed college chose the humanities or social sciences 30.4 percent of the time.
Pursuing the liberal-arts track isnt a quick path to riches. First-job salaries tend to be lower than whats available with vocational degrees in fields such as nursing, accounting, or computer science. Thats especially true for first-generation students, who arent as likely to enjoy family-aided access to top employers. NACE found that first-generation students on average received post-graduation starting salaries of $43,320, about 12 percent below the pay packages being landed by peers with multiple generations of college experience.
Yet over time, liberal-arts graduates earnings often surge, especially for students pursuing advanced degrees. History majors often become well-paid lawyers or judges after completing law degrees, a recent analysis by the Brookings Institutions Hamilton Project has found. Many philosophy majors put their analytical and argumentative skills to work on Wall Street. International-relations majors thrive as overseas executives for big corporations, and so on.
For college leaders, the liberal arts appeal across the socioeconomic spectrum is both exciting and daunting. As Dan Porterfield, the president of Pennsylvanias Franklin and Marshall College, points out, first-generation students may come to college thinking: I want to be a doctor. I want to help people. Then they discover anthropology, earth sciences, and many other new fields. They start to fall in love with the idea of being a writer or an entrepreneur. They realize: I just didnt have a broad enough vision of how to be a difference maker in society.
A close look at the career trajectories of liberal-arts graduates highlights five factorsbeyond traditional classroom academicsthat can spur long-term success for anyone from a non-elite background. Strong support from a faculty mentor is a powerful early propellant. In a survey of about 1,000 college graduates, Richard Detweiler, president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, found that students who sought out faculty mentors were nearly twice as likely to end up in leadership positions later in life.
Other positive factors include a commitment to keep learning after college; a willingness to move to major U.S. job hubs such as Seattle, Silicon Valley, or the greater Washington, D.C., area; and the audacity to dream big. Finally, students who enter college without well-connected relativesthe sorts who can tell you what classes to take or how to win a choice summer internshipbenefit from programs designed to build up professional networks and social capital.
Among the groups offering career-readiness programs on campus is Braven, a nonprofit founded by Aime Eubanks Davis, a former Teach for America executive. Making its debut in 2014, Braven already has reached about 1,000 students at Rutgers University-Newark in New Jersey and San Jose State University in California. Expansion into the Midwest is on tap. Braven mixes students majoring in the liberal arts and those pursuing vocational degrees in each cohort, the theory being that all can learn from one another.
One of Bravens Newark enrollees in 2015 was Dyllan Brown-Bramble, a transfer student earning strong grades in psychology, who didnt feel at all connected to the New Jersey campus. Commuting from his parents home, he usually arrived at Rutgers just a few minutes before 10 a.m. classes started. Once afternoon courses were done, hed retreat to Parking Lot B and rev up his 2003 Sentra. By 3:50 p.m., hed be gone.
Brown-Brambles parents are immigrants from Dominica. His father runs a small construction business; his mother, a Baruch College graduate, manages a tourism office. Privately, the Rutgers student is quite proud of them, but it seemed pointless to explain his Caribbean origins to strangers. They typically reacted inappropriately. Some imagined him to be the son of dirt-poor refugees struggling to rise above a shabby past. Others assumed he was a world-class genius: an astrophysicist who could fly. There wasnt any room for him to be himself.
When Brown-Bramble encountered a campus flier urging students to enroll in small evening workshops called the Braven Career Accelerator, he took the bait. I knew I was supposed to be networking in college, he later told me. I thought: Okay, heres a chance to do something.
Suddenly, Rutgers became more compelling. For nine weeks, Brown-Bramble and four other students of color became evening allies. They met in an empty classroom each Tuesday at six to construct LinkedIn profiles and practice mock interviews. They picked up tips about local internships, aided by a volunteer coach whose life and background was much like theirs. They united as a group, discussing each persons weekly highs and lows while encouraging one another to keep trying for internships and better grades. We had a saying, Brown-Bramble recalled. If one of us succeeds, all of us succeed.
Most of the volunteer coaches came from minority backgrounds, too. Among them: Josmar Tejeda, who had graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology five years earlier with an architecture degree. Since graduating, Tejeda had worked at everything from social-media jobs to being an asbestos inspector. As the coach for Brown-Brambles group, Tejeda combined relentless optimism with an acknowledgment that getting ahead wasnt easy.
Keep it real, Tejeda kept telling his students as they talked through case studies and their own goals. Everyone did so. That feeling of being the only black or Latino person in the room? The awkwardness of always being asked: Where are you from? The strains of always trying to be the model minority? Familiar territory for everyone.
It was liberating, Brown-Bramble told me. Surrounded by sympathetic peers, Brown-Bramble discovered new ways to share his heritage in job interviews. Yes, some of his Caribbean relatives had arrived in the United States not knowing how to fill out government forms. As a boy, he had needed to help them. But that was all right. In fact, it was a hidden strength. I could create a culture story that worked for me, Brown-Bramble said. I can relate to people with different backgrounds. Theres nothing about me that I have to rise above.
This summer, with the support of Inroads, a nonprofit that promotes workforce diversity, Brown-Bramble is interning in the compliance department of Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical maker. Riding the strength of a 3.8 grade-point average, he plans to get a law degree and work in a corporate setting for a few years to pay off his student loans. Then he hopes to set up his own law firm, specializing in start-up formation. Id like to help other entrepreneurs do things in Newark, he told me.
Organizations like Braven draw on the power of the cohort, said Shirley Collado, the president of Ithaca College and a former top administrator at Rutgers-Newark. When students settle into small groups with trustworthy peers, she explained, candor takes hold. The sterile dynamic of large lectures and solo homework assignments gives way to a motivation-boosting alliance among seat mates and coaches. You build social capital where it didnt exist before, Collado said.
For Mai-Ling Garcia, the leap from community college to Berkeley was perilous. Arriving at the famous universitys campus, she and her then-husband were so short on cash that they subsisted most days on bowls of ramen. Scraping by on partial scholarships, neither knew how to get the maximum available financial aid. To cover expenses, Garcia took a part-time job teaching art at a grade-school recreation center in Oakland.
Finishing college can become impossible in such circumstances. During her second semester, Garcia began tracking down what she now refers to as a series of odd little foundations with funky scholarships. People wanted to help her. Before long, she was attending Berkeley on a full ride. Her money problems abated. What she couldnt forget was that initial feeling of being in trouble and ill-prepared. Her travails were pulling her into sociologys most pressing issues: how vulnerable people fare in a world they dont understand, and what can be done to improve their lives.
Simultaneously, Berkeleys professors were arming Garcia with tools that would define her career. She spent a year learning the fine points of ethnography from a Vietnam-era Marine, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, who taught students how to conduct field research. He sent Garcia into the Oakland courthouse to watch judges in action, advising her to heed the ways racial differences tinged courtroom conduct. She learned to take careful notes, to be explicit about her theories and assumptions, and to operate with a rigor that could withstand peer-review scrutiny. Her professors would stay in academia; she was being trained to have an impact in the wider world.
What can one do with a sociology degree? Garcia tried a lot of different jobs in her first few years after graduation. She spent two years at a nonprofit trying to untangle Veterans Administration bureaucracy. After that, she dedicated three years to a position at the Department of Labor, winning many small battles related to veterans employment. She had found job security, but she couldnt shake the feeling that a technology revolution was racing through the private sectorand leaving government far behind.
Companies like Lyft, Airbnb, and Instagram were putting new powers in the publics hands, giving them handy tools to hail a ride, find lodging, or share photos. By comparison, trying to change a jury-duty date remained a clumsy slog through outdated websites. Instead of bemoaning this tech gap, Garcia decided to gain vital tech skills herself. She signed up for evening classes in digital marketing and refined that knowledge during an 18-month stint at a startup. Then she began hunting for a government job with impact.
In 2014, Garcia joined the City of Oakland as a bridge builder who could amp up online government services on behalf of the citys 400,000 residents. This wasnt just an exercise in technology upgrading; it required a fundamental rethinking of the way that Oakland delivered services. Buffers between city workers and an impatient public would come down. The social structures of power would change. To make this transition, it helped to have a digitally savvy sociologist in the house.
Over coffee one afternoon, Garcia told me excitedly about the progress that she and the city communications manager were achieving with their initiative. If street-art creators want more recognition for their work, Garcia can drum up interest on social media. If garbage is piling up, new digital tools let citizens visit the citys Facebook page and summon services within seconds.
Looking ahead, Garcia envisions a day when landing a municipal job becomes vastly easier, with cities Twitter feeds posting each new opening. Other aspects of digital technology ought to help residents connect quickly with whatever part of government matters to themwhether that means signing up for summer camp or giving the mayor a piece of ones mind.
This article has been adapted from George Anderss new book, You Can Do Anything.
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We Have More Choices Than Liberal Or Conservative – Huffington Post Canada
Posted: at 6:41 pm
You're either a liberal or a conservative, right? And once you choose, it governs everything about you. Your political viewpoint. Your bias. Your circle of friends. How awkward your Thanksgiving dinner will be. That's how it's always been, and how it will always be...
Or, at least it's been that way (kind of) since the Enlightenment, which happened mostly in Europe, around 250-300 years ago. In fact, there were many philosophers back in the 1700s, and only a few of them were what we might call "liberals" or "conservatives." On the liberal side, you had a lot of Johns and Jeans (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau), while the conservatives had good old Edmund Burke.
But there were many other philosophers around the world with wildly different views on politics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, and other philosophical words. In those days, philosophers did it all! Science, ethics, mathematics, engineering, politics, relationships, medicine...you name it, some philosopher had an opinion about it. As we moved into the 1800's, there were more specialists. There were people who really focused on chemistry, biology, medicine, anthropology.. and there were political philosophers as well. We debated, theorized, and tested millions of ideas, theses, philosophies, and perspectives.
We've progressed a lot since the 1700's, but we still hold onto many antiquated belief systems. Some people believe the earth is flat. Some people are afraid of vaccines. Some people are afraid of ghosts (I am one of those people). And many of us (at least in North America) consider ourselves to be liberals or conservatives. Of course, those terms have changed so much over the years that a modern-day conservative might sound more like John Locke than Edmund Burke.
It's weird that we're so beholden to these concepts of liberal and conservative. It's weird that our political parties fall along this arbitrary spectrum.
This false dichotomy has resulted in a lot of acrimony and hatred. There's a real "us vs. them" attitude in political debate, because you supposedly only have two choices.
But we're all amateur philosophers, aren't we? Our belief systems are cobbled together from our religious upbringing, our friends, our parents, our experiences, and what we've read, watched, and listened to. I'm not a liberal anymore, I'm a "Joshist," following the Josh philosophy. It's a mix of Socrates, Chuang Tzu, and Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino. And if I learn something new, that is incorporated into my ever-evolving beliefs.
Donald Trump isn't beholden to traditional conservative values, just as Justin Trudeau isn't beholden to traditional liberal values. Is Xi Jinping liberal? Is Emmanuel Macron conservative? All of these leaders have made decisions that break from these respective philosophies, and their actions can and should be evaluated independently. No matter how you identify, you should be reflective enough to recognize and be critical when someone you like does something you disagree with, and vice versa.
The way it is now isn't how it has always been, and it isn't how it must always be. So be free and break away from tradition. You can be anything you want to be.
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Is this the face of a liberal? – Amarillo.com
Posted: at 6:41 pm
Amarillo Globe-News columnist is being taken to task for the piece he wrote July 29 about the bathroom bill the Texas Senate passed last week.
For background, you can take a second look at that column here.
Tex Kopke of Spearman wrote this letter to the editor that took an opposing view:
Letter to the Amarillo Globe-News editor in response to Saturday, July 29 front page Amarillo Globe-News article by Jon Mark Beilue
Apparently the liberal editorials have now been moved to the front page with the Saturday editorial by Jon Mark Beilue concerning the state transgender bathroom bill.
In his first paragraph of the story Jon Mark states that he is not a liberal, he is a part of a growing group he would call embarrassed conservatives and he wonders what has happened to sane, reasonable conservatism in the wake of the election of Donald Trump and what has drifted down further to the statehouse.
Well I know exactly how he feels, except that I feel I am among the growing group of true area Christian conservatives, the silent majority, who is embarrassed by Jon Mark claiming he is a conservative and that he and the Amarillo Globe-News represents our thoughts.
Yes we wonder what has happened to our sane, reasonable newspaper and editors that we used to have. Have they all been replaced by a news staff from New York, San Francisco or by Austin liberals. Would the Globe-News have dared print such a liberal pro transgender rights and anti parents rights article even five years ago.
Jon Mark says that the bill states that people will be required to use the bathrooms and changing rooms at public and charter schools, and buildings overseen by local governments, based on the sex listed on their birth certificate or state-issued ID card.
What the bill states is obvious common sense to us Christian conservatives but is somehow beyond Jon Mark Beilus understanding.
Would Jon Mark seriously want transgender males using the changing room and showers with his school age daughters if he had any? Yet he wants schools to be able to force your daughters and sons to shower and change with transgenders in order to protect the rights of transgenders, rather than protecting the rights of parents and their children. Very mixed up priorities if you ask me.
Jon Mark goes on to state that transgenders obviously have emotional issues they have confronted to want to change their sex, but Jon can promise us that none of them involve the idea that it would make it easier to assault young girls in restrooms.
How Jon Mark knows what transgenders think I can only guess but I can be sure he is wrong if he thinks most parents want their children exposed to naked or partially exposed transgenders in changing rooms or bathrooms.
The area silent majority voted overwhelmingly for conservative federal and state leadership. If the Amarillo Globe-News cant accept this perhaps they should start selling their newspaper in a more liberal part of the country and stop trying to cram all these liberal points of views down our conservative throats.
Enough with all the liberal stories, editorials and editorial cartoons. Why should we pay for the privilege of having you insult and ridicule our conservative Christian values every day.
Conservatives now is the time to speak up before we get to the point that the Amarillo Globe-News is only fit to use in the bottom of cat boxes and you are embarrassed to even have your neighbors see it laying out in your yard.
Advertisers are soon going to have to start posting warning notices in their ads that the liberal anti Christian views of the Globe-News do not reflect their own values.
Jon Mark ends his article saying that at least as an embarrassed conservative he hopes the Texas House will be more of a voice of reason and respect.
I too hope that they will use a voice of reason and keep transgenders out of our opposite sex childrens restrooms and changing rooms and to respect the wishes of parents.
And finally, Jon Mark doesnt need to be worried about being an embarrassed conservative because he isnt a conservative to begin with.
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How a liberal blitzkrieg from Hollywood and the press got the Boy Scouts to surrender – Fox News
Posted: at 6:41 pm
Liberals have learned that if they attack, attack and attack some more, they can pressure organizations into surrender. Just like France.
That was the case with the Boy Scouts, a group that has repeatedly caved to alt-left pressure. President Trump spoke to more than 40,000 Scouts, leaders and volunteers Tuesday at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia and the media and left went insane comparing the Scouts to the Hitler Youth. Anyone who cheers this president gets thrown under the Panzer by liberals.
On Thursday the Scout leadership bowed to the assault. "I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree," said Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh. "That was never our intent."
President Trumps speech caused a media firestorm because the president tying his shoes would cause a media firestorm. He was attacked by liberals, and both news and entertainment media.
The New York Times headlined that Late Show host Stephen Colbert Says Trump Attacked Boy Scouts Belief in Our Democracy. Colbert built his career on attacking conservatives and recently drew criticism for making an obscene reference to President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Compared to that, saying the Boy Scouts were like Hitler Youth was mild for the left. But liberals were angry that the Scouts cheered President Trump. So they compared them to Nazis. That sounds reasonable to no one except libs.
Liberals have been calling Trump a Nazi since 2015 when he first began his race. One of the most obvious examples of that stupidity was ABCs The View star Whoopi Goldberg. In response to Trumps opposition to bringing Syrian refugees to the U.S., she compared the two and said: Hitler was a Christian. She also made a similar comparison to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
That was amateur hour compared to this week. Liberals call Trump Hitler or say hes a Nazi at the drop of a hat. But liberals went from attacking Trump to attacking kids with the same ferocity.
Heres how Newsweek set the order of battle. As the scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal, Trump said, before adding, We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that. As he spoke, the crowd chanted U.S.A and applauded.
Oh geez, they chanted U.S.A and applauded. The social media battle began. Twitter hashtags filled the space that sanity sometimes occupies. Terms like #Hitler Youth #Hitler and #HitlersYouth were flooded with comments from humans and bots.
Far-left filmmaker Michael Moore cited a famous Nazi propaganda movie in his comparison: I'm an Eagle Scout. Trump using the 30,000 BoyScouts as his props tonight was a scene out of Triumph of the Will. Shocking abuse of children.
John Haltiwanger, senior politics writer for the obscure Elite Daily (The Voice Of Generation-Y) started making comparisons between President Trump and Hitler. Haltiwanger said both wanted loyalty and didnt like the press. But he didnt stop there: Trump is not Hitler. Would be irresponsible to say they're the same. But he did make the Boy Scouts feel a lot like the Hitler Youth today, he tweeted.
Soap opera star Nancy Lee Grahn joined in. Tragically, #boyscouts in 2017 applaud Trump just like the all blonde blue eyed youth did for Hitler in the 30's.
Medium ran a piece by S. Novi headlined: Deranged Trump Emulates Hitler Youth Speech to Boy Scouts.
Igor Volsky, a vice president at the George Soros-funded Center for America Progress, was slightly more subtle. Trump is trying to turn the Boy Scouts into Trump Youth, he wrote. There were so many Nazi references running around on the left, it looked like Joseph Goebbels was running their media machine.
Even the outlets commenting on the trend embraced their biases. Of all of the outrageous and reprehensible things Trump has said and done over the past six months of his presidency, this seems to have really struck a raw nerve with people for a number of reasons, wrote Uproxx. Buzzfeed focused on angry Scout leaders, who naturally made the Hitler Youth comparison.
CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza listed the 29 most cringe-worthy lines from Donald Trump's hyper-political speech to the Boy Scouts. But remember, CNN only thinks conservative media have opinions.
The left has long hated the Boy Scouts, bullying the organization into accepting first gay scoutmasters and now pushing to let girls join the Boy Scouts. Because boys arent allowed to have any spaces where they can just be boys. And every organization must push a left-wing agenda, or be destroyed. Or surrender. And then be destroyed. The left is OK with either.
Dan Gainor is the Media Research Center's Vice President for Business and Culture. He writes frequently about media for Fox News Opinion. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.
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