Monthly Archives: May 2022

The past few decades have not been kind to the democracies of the North Atlantic. Deindustrialization, financial crises, mass unemployment, chaos in the Middle East, and rising inequality have shortened life expectancies, undermined social stability, and opened the door to demagogues and authoritarians. And that was before the pandemic killed tens of millions of people and Russian President Vladimir Putins brutal invasion of Ukraine displaced millions more and upended global commodity markets.

Could the West have realistically avoided any of this? Or was it always going to be helpless in the face of structurally driven shocks, the effects of which have cascaded from one place to another and between the geopolitical, economic, and domestic political spheres, as University of Cambridge professor Helen Thompson puts it in Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century?

The question matters. If specific politicians and technocratsand the intellectuals who influence themmake mistakes, then there is hope. The world has the potential to learn from their choices and do better in the futureor at least make new, different mistakes. If not, then the most it can aim for is the peace of mind that comes from understanding that there are no alternatives.

Thompson believes that the troubles of the 21st century have their roots in 1970, when the United States oil self-sufficiency transformed into import dependence and energy poverty. This fundamental change, in Thompsons telling, made it impossible to sustain the post-World War II geopolitical, financial, and social order.

That, in turn, accelerated what Thompson believes is the natural tendency of democracies to descend into mob rule or, more often, oligarchic corruption. Welfare states were rolled back while democracies became increasingly unresponsive to democratic demands for economic reforms that would increase the return to labour. The consequences have varied across societies, but they include the growth of far-right parties across the European continent, the United Kingdoms departure from the European Union, and the U.S. presidential election of Donald Trumpas well as his supporters violent attempt to overturn the election of his successor on Jan. 6, 2021.

It is a complex argument that has Thompson covering subjects varying from historians Polybius and Niccol Machiavellis analyses of the Roman Republic to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchills pre-World War I views on the best way to fuel the British Royal Navy. Disorder is filled with many fascinating observations relevant to the current momentespecially the passages covering the geopolitical dynamics involving Western Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the Middle East, and the U.S. shale sector.

Unfortunately, Thompson makes her case harder to follow than it should be. The book is structured around three concurrent histories: geopolitics, economy, and democratic politics. As a result, many of the same events are described two or even three times but many pages apart. And although the first and third sections are well written and worth reading on their own for their many insights, the weaknesses of the central economy chapters raise serious questions about the entire project.

Echoing the language of many of the technocrats who set policy for much of this period, Thompson seems to believe that elected governments are powerless against vast and impersonal financial markets. But financial markets are just people trying to make moneyor avoid losing itwhile following the leads of regulators, legislators, and central bankers. Downplaying the agency of these political actors leads to unsatisfying explanations and a few outright errors.

Thus, while Thompsons account of the formation of the euro is full of details about negotiations among various government officials, it fails to address basic questions, such as: Was the euro a good idea, and were the countries that joined better or worse off than those that didnt? (She gives a hint when describing the costs of accession for Italybut roughly 100 pages later.)

Instead, it is taken as given that France had no choice but to tie its currency to Germanys one way or another. The United Kingdoms inability to remain within the European Exchange Rate Mechanism that preceded the euro is presented mainly as a story about the eventual inevitability of Brexit rather than as a chance to consider whether the U.K. and other major non-euro economies, such as Poland and Sweden, had significant advantages or disadvantages compared to their neighbors.

Coming to the crisis itself, Thompson writes, A Eurozone in which the [European Central Bank (ECB)] set monetary policy and elected member state governments decided on the rest of economic policy was a Eurozone heading towards its death. For her, the central bank could never end the financial panics of 2010 to 2012 unless Europeans first gave up democratic control over taxes, spending, and labor market regulations. To be fair, that is what many European elites believed at the time and in retrospect. But their view only makes sense if there actually was an inherent conflict between the policies that the ECB and national governments should have been pursuing.

The tragedy of Europes post-2008 experience is that there was no such conflict. Until the war in Ukraine, inflation in Europe had consistently been slower than the central banks target, thanks in large part to economic weakness caused by the euro crisis itself. The German government may have been led by scolds who practiced pedagogical imperialism, in the words of Der Spiegel, but ordinary Germans failed to benefit from its austerity. They may have done better than the millions of Spaniards who lost their jobs, but they nevertheless suffered from meager wage growth and degraded public services.

Europes problem was that too many of the technocrats and politicians simply misunderstood what was happening and what was needed, preferring cheap ethnic stereotypes over serious economic analyses. Ordinary Europeans paid the price. By the eve of the pandemic, consumer spending and public and private investment in Greece, Italy, and Spain were still well below pre-crisis levels while living standards in Cyprus, Portugal, and Slovenia had just barely returned to where they were in 2008 after more than a decade of misery. Shifting blame was easier for Europes elites than confronting the consequences of their own choices.

Thompsons explanation for the 2016 Brexit referendum suffers from similar flaws. That referendum, it must be remembered, was decided in a close vote that was only held because the Tories won an unexpected parliamentary majority the year before. And that election, it should also be recalled, was one in which European issues played almost no part. Instead, the supposed threat of Scottish independence was the decisive issue in key English constituencies. Moreover, according to the 2016 British Social Attitudes survey, only 22 percent of U.K. citizens wanted to leave the EU in 2015. But instead of treating the outcome as a fluke that needs to be explained by contingent circumstances, Thompson believes that it was a fundamental consequence of the United Kingdoms place outside the euro.

First, she argues that by growing faster than much of the euro area, Britain became a haven for European migrants looking for work, supposedly boosting the political fortunes of British nativists. Second, Thompson writes that the United Kingdoms status as an out marginalized it within Europe and limited its ability to protect its core interests. Thus, she attributes elite support for Brexit to the U.K. governments failure to secure regulatory protections for London-based financial services during the EUs debt negotiations of 2011 and 2012.

These are interesting arguments, but they are not persuasive. Britain did much worse than France from 2007 to 2013 and substantially underperformed Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland ever since the global financial crisis. (Switzerland is not in the EU, but it nevertheless allows full freedom of movement for EU nationals.) The United Kingdom may have done better than Spain or Greece, but it did not do well. Besides, the people who voted for Britain to leave the EU lived in the places with the fewest migrants. And although the U.K. government may not have won all of its battles over euro-denominated clearing while it was inside the EU, it clearly has had far less negotiating leverage with the rest of the European Union after it decided to leave.

The alternative explanation, made convincingly by economist Thiemo Fetzer, is that the U.K.s self-imposed austerity measures after 2010 created fertile ground for bigots and opportunists. And since the EU has always been a convenient bogeyman for national politicians in all of Europes member states, those voluntary budget cuts were decisive in shaping the outcome of a referendum that most people never expected would happen. But nobody forced former British Prime Minister David Cameron, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, and the rest of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government to pursue their ideologically motivated program. It was their choice.

More generally, Thompsons explanation of both the broader global financial crisis and the euro crisis would have benefited from a deeper understanding of the links between trade and financial imbalances. The normal way to pay for imports is to export more, and the standard reward for exporting more is being able to afford more imports. The unusual feature of recent decades is that this did not always happen, with massive imbalances arising among several major economies.

This omission has important implications. Thompson attributes this turmoil chiefly to the interaction between rising oil prices and the excesses of European banks. Higher oil prices squeezed discretionary incomes and limited the ability to service debt. Meanwhile, the creation of the euro led to a surge in bank lending within Europe, and many of those same banks also expanded their U.S. operations, borrowing dollars in the short term from U.S. money market funds to make long-term loans, especially dubious mortgages. For Thompson, the central problem was that the ECB, the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank had insufficient dollar reserves they could use to support their banks if U.S. money funds ever pulled their financing. Thus, when the crisis struck, the U.S. Federal Reserve had to step in and provide trillions of dollars in emergency loans.

None of this is wrong, but it is incomplete. It is not possible to understand why some places had debt booms and busts while others did not without also understanding how underconsumption and underinvestment were transmitted abroad through trade surpluses and deficits. Yet in her view, accounts that root the global crisis in this sort of balance of payments analysis are misleading.

Higher oil prices did not have to squeeze growth in either the 1970s or the 2000s. It was only because the exporters chose to hoard their windfalls by purchasing financial assets rather than using their newfound purchasing power to buy more goods and services that the rise in oil prices forced consumers to choose between cutting their spending and going into debt. If oil producers had simply let their living standards rise, workers elsewhere could have responded by making and selling more exports.

Similarly, the emergence of China as a major manufacturing power was so traumatic to the workers of the industrialized world only because the party state ensured that Chinese consumers were unable to spend the money they should have been paid on the goods and services they wanted. China did not practice export-led growth but rather wage suppression and financial repression that held down imports. That choice was bad for people in China, but it was also costly for everyone outside China who lost income because they couldnt sell enough to Chinese customers.

Thompson correctly notes that the boom in bank lending within Europe was motivated by the creation of the single currency and consequent reduction in the perceived risk of currency devaluation. But it is telling that she shows little interest in the reason German banks were particularly prolific in finding questionable assets abroadnamely, that there was such little borrowing and spending at home. And this underconsumption and underinvestment had its own origins in the choices of Germanys policy and business elites.

Most troubling is that Thompsons desire to emphasize the importance of oil and Eurodollars (a term for dollar-denominated lending that occurs outside the United States) in her narrative pushes her to make repeated factual errors.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan and his colleagues did not decide to move away from targeting the money supply because Eurodollar markets undermined national interest rates, as Thompson would have it. After all, interest rates are prices, which means that they are affected by changes in both money supply and money demand. There will never be a stable relationship between interest rates and the money supply as long as households and businesses change how much they want to hold in bank accounts relative to retirement funds, housing, and other asset classes. Instead, Fed officialslike central bankers in much of the rest of the worldrealized that money supply measures were inherently disconnected from what they cared about. The quantity of money that the private sector needs to grow without excessive inflation is constantly changing in unpredictable ways, which is why the Fed and other central banks stopped taking it seriously decades ago.

And although oil prices matter, the Federal Reserve did not begin raising overnight interest rates in June 2004 in response to what it feared might be the inflationary effects of rising oil prices. In fact, the transcript from the policy meeting makes clear that both the staff forecasters and many of the key policymakers believed that oil prices would fallor at least stay flat around $37 per barrel. Instead, Fed officials were simply trying to normalize short-term interest rates to keep pace with the broader economic recovery following the downturn of the early 2000s.

Even as oil prices kept rising, the Fed stopped raising interest rates in 2006and lowered them in 2007 and 2008because officials were consistently focused on underlying domestic U.S. economic and financial conditions. That is also why the Fed kept its cool during the commodity price spikes of 2011. The European Central Bank reacted differently both in 2007 and 2008 as well as in 2011, as Thompson notes, but that was a choice made by people with specific (and wrong) views about inflations outlook rather than the inevitable consequence of the ECBs legal mandate to prioritize price stability over growth.

Chinas troubles with capital flight began in 2012 with the start of its anti-corruption crackdown, not in 2015 when the Federal Reserve was preparing to raise interest rates. China never faced any dollar constraints because the minuscule dollar-denominated debts incurred by Chinese businesses had always been dwarfed by the hoard of reserves held by the Peoples Bank of China.

Most egregiously, the slowdown in Chinas growth rate that began in 2011 had nothing to do with the ongoing risks around dollar shortage problems in Eurodollar markets. Instead, it was a deliberate policy choice by Chinese officials who wanted to curtail the unnecessary and environmentally destructive construction projects that were launched in response to the global financial crisis. Thompson writes Chinese leaders were worried that Chinas dollar debt vulnerability had trapped the country in a lower growth paradigm. Yet she cites a Peoples Daily article from 2016 that warned against another yuan-denominated borrowing surge and welcomed slower growth because China has to make a choice between quantity and quality.

These kinds of errors unfortunately cast doubt on other parts of the book.

Why should the world believe grand assertions that democracies are fundamentally challenged by the problem of political time in ways that autocracies, presumably, are not? Why should a global switch to green energy intensify Sino-American rivalry if it reduces the zero-sum competition for fossil fuel resources? And if the United States succeeds in breaking its dependency on Chinese manufacturing supply chains while China expands its domestic markets to compensate, why would that necessitate conflict, as opposed to restoring the amicable relations that preceded the dislocations of the 2000s?

Policymakers may be constrained by the material and social circumstances in which they operate, with oil and gas playing especially important roles, as Thompson convincingly argues. But as Putin has reminded the world so vividly this year, individual choices can still make a differencefor better and for worse.

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How to Get the History of the Financial Order All Wrong - Foreign Policy

Jennifer Holland:

Catholics and evangelicals and also Mormons, they fundamentally disagreed, not only disagreed about theology, but believed they each of them believed that they had the monopoly on religious truth.

But they really are able to link themselves through abortion politics, and saying that they are linked by something called Judeo-Christian values, which the anti-abortion movement resuscitates as an idea in the '70s to sort of cover this idea that all Christians, of course, oppose abortion, and they always have. And, of course, that was a manufactured idea of this movement, because religious people had been very openly supporting abortion, and very recently.

And they knew that wasn't true. In the late '70s, '80s and '90s, you have Republicans acknowledge the power of this voting base. The movement has been incredibly good at developing a constituency for whom no other issue matters. Not any other issue matters as much as this issue.

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Exploring the history of abortion in the United States - PBS NewsHour

Today in OTM History

2021: Predicting how the season ends for Franchy Cordero; It was awesome, as long as he was in Triple-A, at least.

2020: Baseball may return within the week; Yeah, not so much.

2019: The quiet value of Hector Velzquez; This years club could really use that kind of pitcher. (And some bats, of course.)

2018: Rafael Devers is impressive, but showing his age; Unfortunately, he still shows some of these flaws to this day.

2017: A 17-run game in a win; What a concept!

2015: Giving up on Justin Masterson; It would indeed be the final season of his career.

1903: The first game between the franchises that would eventually become the Red Sox and Yankees takes place. At that time, it was a contest between the Boston Pilgrims and New York Highlanders.

2015: The struggling Red Sox fire pitching coach Juan Nieves, looking for a turnaround.

Happy would-be 93rd birthday to Dick Wiliams, whose playing career ended in Boston, and whose Hall of Fame managerial career started with Boston in the Impossible Dream 1967 team. Hed go on to win two World Series with the Athletics in the 70s.

Happy 38th birthday to James Loney, who only played 30 games for the Red Sox, but was part of one of the most famous trades in recent history, The Punto Deal.

Many thanks to Baseball-Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History for assistance here. Also thanks again to Battery Power for the inspiration for these posts.

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Today in Boston Red Sox History: May 7 - Over The Monster

By The Associated Press

Todays Highlight in History:

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims (rams), France, ending its role in World War II.

On this date:

In 1889, the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore opened its doors.

In 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

In 1928, the minimum voting age for British women was lowered from 30 to 21 the same age as men.

In 1939, Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

In 1941, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded Chattanooga Choo Choo for RCA Victor.

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

In 1963, the United States launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the Vietnam era. In Ho Chi Minh City formerly Saigon the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

In 1997, Science fiction film The Fifth Element written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich is released. Then the most expensive European film ever made.

In 2010, a BP-chartered vessel lowered a 100-ton concrete-and-steel vault onto the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in an unprecedented, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to stop most of the gushing crude fouling the sea.

In 2019, two students opened fire inside a charter school in a Denver suburb not far from Columbine High School, killing a fellow student, 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who authorities said had charged at the shooters to protect classmates. (Both attackers would be sentenced to life in prison; one who was 16 at the time of the shooting could be eligible for parole after about 20 years.)

In 2020, Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near the port city of Brunswick. (The two men and a third white man would be convicted of murder in state court, and hate crimes in federal court.)

Ten years ago: Vladimir Putin took the oath of office as Russias president for the next six years in a brief but regal Kremlin ceremony. Education Secretary Arne Duncan broke ranks with the White House, stating his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage a day after Vice President Joe Biden said on NBC that he was absolutely comfortable with gay couples marrying. (Two days later, President Barack Obama declared his support for same-sex marriage, a position he had previously stopped short of embracing.)

Five years ago: French voters elected independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, 39, as the countrys youngest president, delivering a resounding victory to the pro-European former investment banker and dashing the populist dream of far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

One year ago: A federal grand jury indicted the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyds arrest and death, accusing them of willfully violating the constitutional rights of the Black man as he was restrained face-down on the pavement, gasping for air. (Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder in state court, pleaded guilty in the federal case; the three others were convicted in February 2022 and also await sentencing.) Palestinian worshippers clashed with Israeli police at the famed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalems Old City as weeks-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians soared; as many as 53 people were injured in the violence. State officials announced that Californias population had declined in 2020 for the first time since they began measuring it. Tawny Kitaen, who appeared in rock music videos during the heyday of MTV and starred opposite Tom Hanks in the 1984 comedy Bachelor Party, died at her California home at 59.

Todays Birthdays: R&B singer Thelma Houston is 79. Actor Robin Strasser is 77. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 76. Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 76. Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is 75. Rock musician Prairie Prince is 72. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling is 70.

Rock Singer Steve Diggle (Buzzcocks) is 67. Actor Michael E. Knight is 63. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 61. Rock singer-musician Chris OConnor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 57. Actor Traci Lords is 54. Actor Morocco Omari is 52. Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 51. Actor Breckin Meyer is 48. Rock musician Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys) is 36. Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 35. Actor Taylor Abrahamse is 31. Actor Alexander Ludwig is 30. Actor Dylan Gelula is 28.

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Today in History: Today is Saturday, May 7, the 127th day of 2022. - wausaupilotandreview.com

Mary Ziegler, the author of several books on the history of abortion (and a critic of the draft decision), said that part was correct. But the opinion, she and others argue, underplays the fact that for most of the first 100 years of American history, early abortions before fetal quickening (generally defined as the moment when the fetuss movements can be detected) were not illegal.

This is the argument made in the historians brief, which outlines the history of abortion regulation up to 1866. For decades after the founding of the United States, common law did not regulate abortion, or even recognize that abortion was happening at that early stage. That is because common law did not even acknowledge a fetus as existing separately from a pregnant woman before quickening, the historians argue.

The central historical claims in Roe were accurate, the brief says, and remain so today.

Leslie J. Reagan, the author of When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine and Law in the United States, 1867 to 1973, said in an interview that abortion was common in the early 19th century, perhaps even more so than Roe depicted.

And regulation relied on womens own experience, since they were the ones who would know when quickening occurred. And before quickening, Professor Reagan said, taking medications or other treatments wasnt even considered abortion, but trying to get your menses menstrual period back.

It was after quickening that it was against the law, and considered immoral, she said. After quickening, women themselves would stop trying to get their menses back. It was considered a life.

While the draft makes references to the historians brief, it relies more heavily on other sources, including Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History, a 2006 book by Joseph W. Dellapenna that challenged Justice Blackmuns historical arguments in Roe.

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The Fight Over Abortion History - The New York Times

Crafted of wood, iron, plant fiber and animal sinew, the model of 10 men paddling a canoe would strike most viewers as a beautiful object. But to Haayuups, head of the House of Takiishtakamlthat-h of the Huupachesat-h First Nation, on Vancouver Island, Canada, it also holds a mystical power. A spirit canoe, it represents the ripple of invisible oars in the water a sound that people of his community report hearing after they have purified themselves through fasting and bathing.

When the Northwest Coast Hall at the American Museum of Natural History reopens to the public on May 13, after a five-year, $19 million renovation, the spirit canoe which was not previously shown will be one of more than 1,000 artifacts on view. Organized by Haayuups and Peter Whiteley, the curator of North American ethnology at the museum, the redesigned exhibit expresses the perspectives of the 10 nations whose cultures are on display: placing an emphasis on the spiritual and functional purposes of the objects for the people who made them, and incorporating testimony from community representatives about government repression of their culture.

The Northwest Coast Hall was the first gallery to open at the museum. Inaugurated in 1899 by Franz Boas, a giant of anthropology who conducted extensive field work in the Pacific Northwest, it embodied what was at the time cutting-edge thinking. At other museums, notably the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, Indigenous people were regarded as savages who needed to be civilized.

In radical contrast, Boas presented non-Western artifacts as the fruits of various sophisticated civilizations. There wasnt just one culture toward which all people were advancing. He popularized the idea of cultural relativism, in which societies exist as parallel universes, with beliefs and behaviors that are products of their environments. It had a revolutionary quality, Whiteley said. Until then, culture couldnt be pluralized. Boas wanted to place people and objects in context.

But yesterdays revolution can come to seem retrograde. In the renovated hall, contextual labeling for the cultural artifacts has been amplified to portray the viewpoints, in the voices of Indigenous people, of the communities that made and used them. In a presentation of Haida carvings, for instance, there is a discussion of the End of Mourning Ceremony, which is held to release the spirit of the deceased a year or more after death. To this explanation is added a pungent commentary: When missionaries arrived at our shores, they forced our Ancestors to adopt Western burial practices. Despite this, many of our traditions around death, mourning and remembrance have endured and are still practiced today.

Notwithstanding these curatorial interventions, some critics argue that the very idea of storing masterpieces of colonized societies in an anthropological museum is outdated. Haayuups is one of them. I still believe that that material belongs to us and it will never be given its true value in any other setting than our own Houses, he said.

Since 1998, the museum has returned 1,850 objects that hold singular importance to American Indigenous people, guided by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. But communities are seeking more. In a statement this week, the museum said it was in discussions with the representatives of Indigenous nations and pursuing a process for limited repatriation as we explore multiple ways of continuing our relationship.

Haayuups said he knows that a large-scale restitution is unlikely to happen anytime soon, and so he accepted the museums invitation to participate in the renovation project. Consultants from nine Indigenous nations were enlisted.

I wanted the treasures to be contextualized in a rich way and seen as the wealth of our people that had been stolen away, Haayuups explained. I wanted to see every bit of background in the display cases filled with words of the people who lived there. The single most important thing we could do is feature somehow the variety of belief systems that existed on the Northwest Coast and underline the particularity and similarity between them.

Public institutions are increasingly responsive to charges of post-colonialism and racism. In January, the museum removed from its front steps a bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt astride a horse and flanked by a Native American and an African, both bare-chested. In another gesture, it is in planning stages for mounting in the rotunda a land acquisition plaque that acknowledges that its building stands on land that once belonged to the Lenape. (The Metropolitan Museum installed such a sign a year ago, after adding its first full-time curator of Native American art, Patricia Marroquin Norby.)

The physical alterations to the Northwest Coast Hall, made in collaboration with the architect Kulapat Yantrasast of the firm wHY, are subtler. The transitions between eight alcoves and four corner galleries that represent 10 nations were opened up. Its not a radical departure, said Lauri Halderman, vice president for exhibition. Its down in the details. Formerly bordered on three sides, the alcoves have been reconfigured with walkways that ease visitor circulation and, on a conceptual level, reflect the porosity between these communities.

Theyre all fishing cultures that depend on the same economy, Whiteley said. It is unlike any culture anywhere. Because of the abundance of fish, it is a sedentary culture. (Typically, a sedentary culture is agricultural, and communities that depend on hunting and fishing will migrate to follow their prey.)

The different nations were interconnected in complex patterns of trade. The showstopper in the Northwest Coast Hall is a 63-foot-long canoe, which has been returned to this gallery, suspended from the ceiling, after being on display elsewhere in the museum for over 70 years. Carved from a single red cedar log around 1878, it is the largest Pacific Northwest dugout canoe in existence. Its hybrid origins are still in dispute. The Haida, whose land encompassed cedar forests, probably shaped it and decorated the prow and stern with designs of an eagle and killer whale. Then the craft was acquired by the Heiltsuk people, perhaps as a dowry, and there it was adorned with sea-wolf imagery and carved benches. One of the earliest pieces to enter the collection, in 1883, the canoe was embellished for exhibition in 1910 with figures representing Tlingits on their way to a potlatch ceremony. Colorful, yes, but the wrong native people. In 2007, they were removed.

Looming majestically in the hall are wooden crest poles, carved and sometimes painted, most of which were brought into the gallery during a previous renovation in 1910. In all, there are 67 monumental carvings, including house posts and other sculptures, ranging in height from 3 to 17 feet. The gallery also boasts headdresses, woven baskets, feast dishes and ceremonial curtains and panels.

A changing exhibition will showcase contemporary creations that extend artistic traditions; in the first rendition, sneakers, skateboards and basketballs are among the featured objects. There are very different ways of being an artist in the modern world, and we thought we should show some applied art, Halderman said.

In the ongoing process of discovery, representatives of Indigenous cultures have reviewed items retrieved from the museums storerooms and found extraordinary treasures that were never on public display. To exhibit them, the showcases were redesigned, because the old ones were so shallow that they functioned best to hold fish hooks. (Boas was partial to fish hooks.) Along with the spirit canoe, one previously hidden beauty is a finely woven conical hat from the late 18th or early 19th century that represents in semiabstract style men in a boat who are hunting whales.

One artifact on exhibit in the Northwest Coast Hall is a beaver canoe prow that is a replica of the original, which was repatriated in 1999 after a delegation of tribal elders recognized it among a group of objects that the museum kept in storage. Garfield George, head of Deishu Hit, or the End of the Beaver Trail House, Raven moiety, Deisheetaan clan of Angoon, in Alaska, was one of the Tlingit visitors at that moment of discovery.

In October 1882, the U.S. Navy bombarded Angoon in a punitive act of retribution. They gathered all the canoes and chopped them up and burned them, George said. But one canoe, which was probably out to sea at the time, survived. It was called The Canoe That Saved Us, he continued. Before the full onset of winter, sailors using that canoe were able to gather timber to build housing and construct new boats. Later on, the hull of the canoe cracked and they cremated it like it was a human being, George said. But they never mentioned what happened to the prow.

No one knew whether it even still existed. But it was documented in century-old photographs.

When they spotted its distinctive profile, the elders fell silent in reverential awe. Since its return to Alaska, at dedication ceremonies for a new or renovated house, the prow is on display. We bring it out at every potlatch, George said. Its on a post and it faces our guests. It is one of the first things people see when they come in. We say, Our beaver prow is going to steady your canoe, when you go through what youre going through now.

In a ceremony on May 4, representatives of the different nations in traditional dress, consecrated the Northwest Coast Hall. For some, it is a bittersweet duty. In the eyes of people whose animist religious beliefs endow power and spirituality to boulders and trees as well as to people and beasts, the confinement of cultural artifacts in a museum is akin to incarceration.

Haayuups compares it to the exhibition of orcas in a marine theme park. We dont need to have killer whales in captivity and we dont need to exhibit dance robes and rattles in museums, he said.

But he acknowledges that the legacy of Boas and his successors is a complex one. Without a doubt he is one of the major thinkers who brought people to where they are today, he said. Boas in mounting the exhibit was particularizing people and was adamantly anti-racist. He argued that different cultural groups could feel the same emotions and experience what other cultures experience. Yet he thought it was OK to steal things from the Northwest Coast and bring them for exhibit. He was a brilliant man and I have enormous respect for him. But he did things wrong. He was human. I want to look at that aggressively.

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Museum of Natural History's Renewed Hall Holds Treasures and Trauma - The New York Times

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Domesticated over 9,000 years ago, goats are one of humankinds favorite and most versatile animal companions. Folktales from around the world depict goats as sure-footed and quick-thinking, whether outwitting trolls or wolves or humans themselves.

They are a farmyard staple, valued for their milk, meat and hide, and are known for their voracious appetites, as well as their amusing antics. Goats never lost their instincts for king-of-the-mountain climbing stunts, head-butting, screaming and stiff-legged fainting spells.

Sure, goats are great, but what about the Greatest Of All Time? Thats a title contended with every generation, across every field (a certain No. 15 comes to mind), but the original GOAT is attributed to Earl Manigault, a New York City street ball player. Kansas City-born Don Cheadle played the character in the 1996 movie Rebound: the Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault." (Fun fact: GOAT Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stars as himself in the film, too.)

From natural beauty product to farmers market standard, agritourism darling to mob boss mascot (no kidding!), enjoy some goat facts and fun from around the Kansas City metro.

Get your goat... milk

Goat milk and goat milk products are popular around the world and, in many countries, are more readily available than cows milk. Most farmers markets will have a booth or two with goats milk products, including cheese, soap, candles and lotion.

Even though goat cheese has been around for centuries, it became a dining trend in the mid-1980s and is a common ingredient today due to its creamy texture and tangy flavor.

Goats milk is also used in various beauty products. Legend has it that Cleopatras beauty was thanks in part to her daily goats milk baths, and that Queen Elizabeth I also partook. Some spas offer milk baths (with flowers for added elegance and fragrance) and theres a growing trend in milk bath photo sessions for kiddos and mommies-to-be.

Goats milk soaps are found in stores throughout Kansas City. The product line ofZum, by Indigo Wild, started in 1996 at the kitchen table, selling at farmers markets. Today it ships nationwide from a factory in Midtown, with bars and balms made from goats milk, as well as other natural-ingredient household and beauty products.Bear Soap Companyhas products in the Made in Kansas City network of stores, as well as in Texas and California.

Many family-run companies, includingThe Goat Milk Soap Storein Ottawa, Kansas, started because goats milk is better for sensitive skin. The Store's soap is made from Lamancha goat milk. And check out theirbaby goat live feed!

Kinneman Farms, in Blue Springs, Missouri, runs an online shop year round and hosts aDay on the Farm on May 7, selling farm products and inviting folks to interact with the goats.

Madd Hill House, in Paola, Kansas, offers a variety of goat's milk products as well, including bath mix, lotion, soap and lip balm. In Atchinson, Kansas,Providence Hill Farmoffers soap making classes as well as a wide range of goat-centered activities.

Just kidding around

Goats natural playfulness make them popular with the petting zoo scene, too.

The Kansas City Zoo has feeding stations at its Billy Goats Gruff Yard, which is home to 25 goats, including endangered Arapawa goats. In 2020, five kids were born in Kansas City due to a breeding cooperation with the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita. The community helped name a set of triplets: Popcorn, Crackerjack and Peanut.

Goats big and small are part of the experience at Deanna Rose Childrens Farmstead in Overland Park, which opened for the season April 1. Pygmy goats caper in the petting zoo, baby goats can be bottle fed for $1 a bottle (two have already been born this year, with more expected), and American dairy goats fight each other over the chance to scarf kibble from your hand. Don't worry, there are frequent hand-washing stations throughout the farmstead.

Petting zoos are a common attraction at local agritourism businesses. Sometimes it's included with the ticket price, or for an additional fee. Some farms will even bring the petting zoo to your event.

Voracious and capricious

Margaret Chamas

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Margaret Chamas

The idea that goats will eat anything (even tin cans) is false, but these rowdy ruminants do enjoy a variety of food sources, so much so that herds are farmed out for vegetation management, a growing trend in landscaping and weed control.

Not only will they eat many weeds including poison ivy and invasive species such as honeysuckle but as they roam they also, well, fertilize and aerate the soil.

Iowa-based Goats on the Go is one business that brings goats to you, with affiliates through local farms, including Storm Dancer Farm in Smithville, Missouri. The city of Lenexa used the farm's grazing services to clear noxious weeds from Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park in 2021.

Goats have also helped restore eco-balance in Missouris Mark Twain National Forest in 2020, reportedby Harvest Public Media. Goats are able to more efficiently dispose of weeds than humans and, with their climbing abilities, get to tighter, steeped areas than humans, too.

Some goats even have a role in recycling Christmas trees, munching the needles, pine cones and bark until the trunk is stripped clean. Depending on the size of the herd, it can take a few hours to a full day for goats to completely strip a tree. Its beneficial for the goats, too, as pine trees contain antioxidants and act as a natural de-wormer.

Na-MAA-AAA-ste

Goat yoga started in 2016 and hit the Midwest shortly thereafter. Goat yoga sessions often sell out, and they are often only offered during a short time frame before the kids get too big and rambunctious. Babies are usually born in April and by May they are ready to play, though some places include adult goats, too.

KCURs Gina Kaufmann learned about goat yoga in a 2018 episode of Central Standard.

Sessions are meant to be fun and low-stress. Dress in clothes that can get dirty and nibbled theres a good chance your table pose presents a climbing challenge for the kids or your shoe laces get nibbled. Similar to dogs, some goats will insist on pets from their newfound friends.

There was a goat yoga hiatus due to the pandemic, but opportunities are picking back up, as most places offer outdoor experiences with their goats featuring trained yoga instructors. These events can serve as fundraisers, team building experiences, or just for fun.

In addition to yoga, some places offer cuddle therapy, a low impact/high dopamine activity.

Within the metro, iWerx hosts a session in North Kansas City on April 30 with Storm Dancer Farm goats, Falling Down Ranch starts sessions in May, and Faulkners Ranch has sessions in June. But there are a handful of farms within an hour of the city that offer sessions throughout the season, or will bring the goats to you.

Old goat Kansas City

Libby Hanssen

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KCUR 89.3

Though there are a few urban farms in the metro and numerous places just outside the city limits, 100 years ago goats were a fairly common component of city livestock. Before it was turned into Penn Valley Park, there was a shanty town on what was called Vinegar Hill. Reportedly, goats capered from crag to crag in the hilly terrain.

Other areas were known for goats, too, with a Goat Hill designated in both Kansas Cities: on bluffs of the Westside in Missouri, due to the prevalence of backyard farms in the mostly Irish immigrant neighborhood, and, in Kansas, where the Rosedale Memorial Arch now stands in Mount Marty Park.

It was erected in 1923 to honor the 42nd Rainbow Division of World War I, and subsequent plaques honor military who served in later conflicts. Decorative goat-head-shaped finials adorn the fence that surrounds it, a possible reference to that past moniker.

Kansas City, Missouris Goat Hill is probably what gave name to the Goats, a faction of the Kansas City Democrats controlled by Tom Pendergast, rivaled by the Rabbits, supporters of boss Joe Shannon. Goats were featured in campaign posters and a crew even took their goat mascot on the train to try and enter it into the Democratic State Convention parade (they were unsuccessful).

This tidbit of local trivia weaves its way into the local culinary scene as well. A few places around town acknowledge that history, with Goat Hill Coffee & Soda on the Westside, The Goat Brewing Co. in Lees Summit and Goat & Rabbit, a coffee/cocktail bar near KU Medical Center. Toms Town Distillery in Midtown tastefully references these abutting gangs in its decor.

And if all this goat talk inspires you to get your own goat, check your local ordinances as each city has its own laws regarding livestock.

Want more adventures like this?Sign up for KCUR's Creative Adventure Email.

Read more:

You herd it here first: A guide to Kansas City's goat facts, history and fun - KCUR

Is MLB using different baseballs?

USA Today Sports' Bob Nightengale breaks down MLB's offensive struggles and baseball changes.

USA TODAY

The Cincinnati Reds are off to the worst start to a season by any MLB team in more than 30 years, losing 22 of their first 25 games.

There isa multitude of reasons for the clubs historically poor start. Ownership cut player payroll in the offseason, leading to several popular players departing in trades. There are a league-high 15 players on the Injured List, crushing depth in all areas of the roster. And the Reds just havent played well at all.

The Reds completed a 0-6 road trip through Colorado and Milwaukee, and they were outscored 57-20. They rank last in the Majors in ERA (6.90) and offensive on-base plus slugging percentage (.585).

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Heres a look at how the Reds compare to the other worst starts through 25 games in MLB history:

Offense: .203/.267/.318 slash line with 79 runs, 18 homers, 7,1% walk rate, 26.5% strikeout rate and six stolen bases in 10 attempts.

Pitching: 210 IP, 6.86 ERA, 235 H, 160 ER, 120 BB, 209 K and 1.69 WHIP.

The Reds have only one win since April 10, dropping 20 of their last 21 games. They have lost 13 consecutive road games, which is the longest road losing streak since a 0-19 stretch from July 5-Aug. 24, 1933.

How much have the Reds been outplayed? Reds pitchers have allowed 166 runs and hitters have totaled 162 hits. No National League team has ever allowed more runs than the number of hits by its offense, according to Bally Sports Ohio.

Offense: .211/.287/.302 with 66 runs, 13 homers, 9.0% walk rate, 15.1% strikeout rate and 14 stolen bases in 21 attempts.

Pitching: 212.2 IP, 5.59 ERA, 253 H, 132 ER, 77 BB, 118 K, 1.55 WHIP.

If Reds fans want a silver lining, this Orioles team won 87 games the following season. It had a roster filled with two Hall of Famers, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr., and future All-Star Mickey Tettleton, and Baltimore acquired rookies Curt Schilling and Brady Anderson in a trade that summer for top pitcher Mike Boddicker.

The Orioles started the season with a 0-21 record, firing manager Cal Ripken Sr. after six games. Frank Robinson replaced Ripken Sr. and the Orioles finished the season with a 54-107 record.

When Baltimore reached 0-18, Robinson received a call from President Ronald Reagan, who said hed been accused of being a jinx after throwing the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day.

Frank, Reagan said, according to Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Kurkjian, I know what youre going through. Robinson responded, Mr. President, with all due respect, you have no idea what Im going through.

Offense: .183/.258/.256 with 57 runs, 11 homers, 8.4% walk rate, 19.2% strikeout rate and seven stolen bases in 19 attempts.

Pitching: 216 IP, 4.71 ERA, 242 H, 113 ER, 80 BB, 122 K and 1.49 WHIP.

The 2003 Tigers were coming off a 106-loss season and sunk even further during their 43-119 season. They reached the World Series in 2006, but there were a few key holdovers from the 2003 team, including Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe, Omar Infante Jeremy Bonderman and Jeremy Rodney. It was Alan Trammells first year as manager and the Tigers set an American League record in losses, dropping 100 games before September.

Current Tigers manager A.J. Hinch was a catcher on the 2003 team.

Offense: .205/.283/.309 with 63 runs, 18 homers, 9.4% walk rate, 16.8% strikeout rate and 12 stolen bases in 18 attempts.

Pitching: 224 IP, 5.63 ERA, 224 hits, 140 ER, 151 BB, 162 K and 1.67 WHIP.

Fresh off an 86-win year, a disastrous start sent Cleveland into a 62-99 season. It was a young starting rotation with the main starters younger than 30, but there was talent with Luis Tiant and Sam McDowell.

Ken Hawk Harrelson, who finished third in the AL MVP voting in 1968, thought about retiring when he was traded to Cleveland after the teams 1-8 start.

Read the original here:

How the 2022 Cincinnati Reds compare to 1988 Orioles, other worst starts in MLB history - USA TODAY

What happened on May 7 in the history of the New York Rangers

The New York Rangers got one of their most improbable Stanley Cup Playoffs wins on this date in 2012. They tied the game as time expired and then went on to win right after overtime began, beating the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals at Madison Square Garden.

Lets set the stage. The Rangers were trailing 2-1 with time running out in the game. They had gotten a first period goal by Anton Stralman, but couldnt get another one by Braden Holtby. Meanwhile, the Caps tied the game on a Brooks Laich goal in the second period and took the lead on a power play goal by John Carlson about four minutes into the third period.

With 22 seconds left in the game, Washingtons Joel Ward high-sticked Carl Hagelin, drawing blood and earning a double minor. With Henrik Lundqvist pulled they had a two man advantage and with just 7.6 seconds left, Brad Richards put the rebound of a Michael Del Zotto point shot into the net.

Terrific video of Brad Richards goal from an #NYR fan behind Capitals net. Perfect depiction of mayhem that ensued http://t.co/E3IR7oti

Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) May 8, 2012

The key factor was that Ward had been given a double minor, meaning that the Rangers had a power play as overtime started. 1:35 into the overtime, Marc Staal took a shot from the blueline that deflected off a Caps defender and past Holtby.

It was the first time in NHL history that a team scored the tying goal in the last 10 seconds of a game and then won in the first two minutes of overtime.

On a personal note, I was at that game and will never forget that when they gave Ward the double minor, a fan in front of me proclaimed, Great, we can tie it and still have a power play in overtime and win. Note that this was with 22 seconds left in the game. I thought he was nuts, but he turned out to be prescient.

The stirring win gave the Blueshirts a 3-2 lead in the series which they won in seven games.

Its hard to believe that Bobby Orr was in his prime about 50 years ago, but in that time he was the most dominant player in the NHL. That dominance was on full display on this date in 1972 in Game Four of the Stanley Cup Final. Orr had a hand in all three goals in a 3-2 win for the Bruins over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Orr scored the first two goals for the Bruins in the first period, then set up Don Marcotte for a shorthanded goal late in the second period. The Rangers clawed back on goals by Ted Irvine and Rod Seiling, but it was too little too late and the win gave the Bruins an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the series. The Rangers won Game Five in Boston, but were shut out in Game Six, giving the Bruins their second Cup win in three years.

The three points gave Orr an NHL record for a defenseman of 22 points in the playoffs, breaking his own record of 20 points that he set in 1970.

There were 22 NHL player born on May 7 with four forgettable New York Rangers in that mix.

Brad Isbister was born on this date in 1977 in Edmonton, Alberta. He played 10 seasons in the NHL, but only one season with the Rangers, playing 19 games and spending most of the season in Hartford. Isbister originally came up with Phoenix, but spent four years with the Islanders. One fascinating note about Isbister is that in less than two years as an Islander he drew five penalty shots, missing all except one. The left winger had five penalty shots himself while in that same time period, the entire Rangers team had a total of two penalty shots.

Dave Karpa was born on this date in 1971 in Regina,Saskatchewan. He was a defenseman who spent 12 seasons in the NHL, the last two with the Rangers after being signed as a free agent in 2001. He spent one full season on the blue line for the Rangers and split the next season between the Blueshirts and the AHL.

Reg Mackey was a defenseman born on May 7, 1900 in Ottawa, Ontario. He played 41 games for the Rangers in their first NHL season in 1926-27. That was the extent of his NHL career and he was scoreless in those 41 games and on playoff game.

Lawrence Nycholat was born on this date in 1979 in Calgary, Alberta. He was a defenseman who played in the NHL from 2003 to 2009 for five different teams including the Rangers. He played in 50 NHL games including nine games in New York as a rookie. He did spend many years in the AHL including three years in the Rangers system.

The Rangers have won only one game of seven playoff games on this date in regulations, but have pulled out two wins in overtime.

Playoff games: 7Wins: 1Losses: 4Overtime wins: 2Winning percentage: 43%

Read more:

On May 7 in NYR history: Doing the impossible in the playoffs - Blue Line Station

In honor of the triumphant return of Sanditon this spring, GBH Drama put together an email series to accompany each episode. For those who missed the emails, we now present them here (lightly edited for formatting).

Given what we knew about the returning cast for this season, I cant say Im totally surprised that Sidney has died off screen, but still, ouch: I know a lot of people (IRL and in Sanditon) are very upset. While we wait to unpack the mystery of why he took his fateful trip to Antigua in the first place, you may be wondering: whats the deal with yellow fever anyway? Glad you asked! Here's the story:

The virus that causes yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, and mostly causes fever, chills, and aches, and in some cases severe liver disease (thats where the name comes from: liver disease often results in jaundice). Nowadays its very preventable (vaccines to the rescue!) but in the early 1800s, yellow fever epidemics were a huge problem. Unfortunately for Sidney, hes exactly the kind of person whod be more likely to get sick in this era: a traveler with no built up immunity.

Even worse, at the time, doctors and scientists had a very different idea of how diseases spread: some thought outbreaks were caused by astrological forces, some thought they were caused by bad air. With that in mind, Lady Denhams mistrust of Dr. Fuchs doesnt seem so weird: nobody really knew what they were doing! It wasnt until the late 1800s that Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay proposed the idea that mosquitos were to blame for yellow fever. American history nerds may know the next part: Walter Reed (he of the Army Medical Center), concerned with the impact yellow fever had on troops during the Spanish American war, set out to prove Dr. Finlays hypothesis. While Dr. Reed often gets the credit, he made it clear that he got the idea from Finlay, so we have to give props to both. Having figured out the disease vector (how it spreads) it was then possible to eradicate yellow fever in Cuba and Panama. But unfortunately, that wouldnt be for about another hundred years after Sanditon is set.

Looking for more of the history behind Sanditon season 2? Check out our other coverage on our Sanditon hub here.

Link:

'Sanditon' deep dive: the history of yellow fever - GBH News