There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. But while it’s clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial “table.” More than a problem of bias, it’s a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.
With this in mind, UConn Reads invites all members of the UConn community to join in an engaging discussion around this year’s book selection: “All We Can Save.”
Since 2011, UConn Reads has gathered students, staff, alumni, faculty, and community members who share an interest and sense of pride in the University, who relish intelligent, respectful debate, and who bring their own individual perspectives and personal experiences to a thought-provoking and engaging conversation.
“All We Can Save” is a collection of provocative and illuminating essays from women on the front lines of climate change, as those most at risk, and those most likely to solve it.Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson, the book is a bestselling collection of writings by 60 women and offering abundant wisdom and solutions to lead humanity forward.
Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on each other or our collective future.
A national bestseller and named one of the best books of the year in 2020 bySmithsonian Magazine, the editors have curated a collection of “hope-filled perspectives on the climate crisis that has inspired many to think on the side of action rather than being paralyzed with worry about the future of the planet.” The publication has also sparked theAll We Can SaveMovement, to nurture future leaders of the climate community and encourage meaningful action.
The book was selected in collaboration with UConn for Women’s Herstory Month, being celebrated by theWomen’s Centerin March 2025.
If you would like to be involved with this year’s programming, please reach out to UConn Reads.
As we prepare to fall back once again this year on Sunday, Nov. 3, debates over the costs and benefits of Daylight Saving Time are sure to reemerge.
A bill to permanently end the practice passed in the Senate in 2022 and awaits further movement through the House of Representatives, indicating the argument to overturn the century-old policy is heating up.
Shinsuke Tanaka, assistant professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, has published work that helps inform this policy debate with evidence about the costs of Daylight Saving Time (DST).
When Tanaka, who is originally from Japan, first came to the U.S., Daylight Saving Time felt like a shock, as Japan does not engage in the practice.
An expert in environmental and health economics, Tanaka decided to look into the costs and benefits of DST. He found that many other researchers had been questioning the economic, environmental, and health impacts as well.
DST was first implemented during World War I as an energy saving policy. However, recent studies have found that people actually consume more energy during DST, because with more daylight, people run air conditioners for longer, even if their lights aren’t on for as long.
“The cooling consumes more energy, and the studies have shown that the energy consumption overall increases during Daylight Saving Time,” Tanaka says.
People also go out more often during the extended daylight, usually in cars, which increases carbon emissions.
For his research, Tanaka focuses on Indiana, because until 2006, only some counties in Indiana participated in Daylight Saving Time. This means Tanaka can look at data from before 2006 and after and get a clear picture of any changes that may be related to the start of participating in the policy.
Shinsuke Tanaka, assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics. (Contributed photo)
“This creates the change in policy,” Tanaka says. “So, I can see what happened without DST in the previous year, and then I can see what happened to some outcome after they adopted DST.”
Tanaka focuses on heart attacks, one of the most serious health impacts related to DST. Previous studies demonstrated that the number of heart attacks increases after the time change in spring, when clocks move forward one hour.
This may be because people lose an hour of sleep in the spring transition, which has many negative health impacts. Our internal clocks also become misaligned with the external environment.
“There is no clear mechanism in the medical literature,” Tanaka says. “But the evidence shows that sleep is important for cardiovascular diseases, and people do lose one hour of sleep during the spring forward, so then we can infer that this is one of the mechanisms.”
Tanaka found a 27% increase in the number of heart attacks in Indiana for two weeks after springing ahead when the entire state started practicing DST compared to the year before, while no significant impact was observed at the fall transition. This increase at the spring transition was substantially higher than other studies which had found more modest changes, closer to 5%, in other countries.
Tanaka explains this difference may be due to differences in physical environments and lifestyle habits between countries. Tanaka was also better able to control for seasonality because he compared data from before and after the transition to practicing DST.
“Indeed, we found that heart attacks would have declined without DST, and that’s not quite controlled for in the medical literature,” Tanaka says. “In my own study, we can see what happened without practicing DST at this time of year so we can better control for that and then we find much bigger impacts.”
Some have argued that this short-term negative health impact is offset by the opportunity to engage in more outdoor physical activity in the extended daylight. Tanaka, however, has shown that this is not the case. His research presents the first comprehensive evidence examining the overall impacts during Daylight Saving Time, countering the notion that the benefits of increased daylight could compensate for these harms.
“That’s an important piece of evidence when it comes to the policy debate because people don’t just worry about the short-term impacts, but what is the overall impact,” Tanaka says. “So that’s what we need to understand.”
Tanaka found that the increase in the number of heart attacks remained relatively consistent from year-to-year, indicating that it was just a shock from starting the practice for the first time in 2006.
“It’s hard to justify this policy at this point,” Tanaka says. “There’s no such big benefit that can justify the significant costs that we see in many aspects.”
This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.
U.S. imports of crude oil from Canada reached a record of 4.3 million barrels per day (b/d) in July 2024 following the expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline. July is the most recent month for which data are available in our Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM).
The Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) tripled the line’s previous 300,000-b/d capacity when it began commercial operation in May 2024, bringing additional crude oil produced in the landlocked province of Alberta to Canada’s west coast, where it can be exported. Historically, most crude oil exports out of Alberta have made their way either to refiners in the U.S. Midwest via pipeline or to the U.S. Gulf Coast by rail shipments, where they are either consumed by refiners or loaded onto tankers for seaborne re-exports. TMX was added alongside the previous Trans Mountain pipeline to move larger volumes of crude oil to the coast of British Columbia to then be exported directly to Pacific Ocean buyers.
Since TMX came online in May, early data indicate that refiners on the U.S. West Coast have been key buyers of the new export volumes. Between June and September, the U.S. West Coast accounted for just over half of all maritime crude oil exports out of Western Canada, with the rest going to destinations in Asia, according to data from Vortexa Analytics. The U.S. West Coast imported 498,000 b/d of crude oil in July 2024, according to our PSM, a record high for the region and an increase of 115% compared with July 2023.
Data source: Vortexa Analytics
The Western Canadian Select (WCS) crude oil spot price at Hardisty is used as a benchmark price to reflect regional crude oil production in Alberta. Historically, WCS spot prices are significantly discounted to other benchmarks because of WCS’s quality and the region’s landlocked geography, which limit its market. Unlike Brent (the global crude oil benchmark grade), WCS has a higher sulfur content and a lower API gravity, and additional costs are necessary to move WCS from its inland pricing location to a coastal seaborne export location.
Data source: Bloomberg L.P. Note: Price premiums are calculated using the Dated Brent price minus the WCS spot market price at Hardisty.
Since TMX came online in May, added takeaway capacity has had a mixed impact on WCS prices. In July 2024, the monthly average Brent price premium to WCS was $21 per barrel (b), $5/b higher than it was at the same time last year despite the additional capacity provided by TMX. The August price differential was between the five-year (2019–23) average and last year’s level. The September average price differential, however, was slightly below the five-year average level. As of October 29, the Brent price premium to WCS for October is narrower by $10/b compared with October 2023.
The WCS price differential to Brent and other benchmarks often widens in the fall, when Midwestern refiners reduce runs to undergo maintenance, limiting the pool of buyers from Alberta’s primary customers. If the price differentials remain near current levels through the end of the year, it may suggest that the added TMX capacity has helped to insulate Canada’s crude oil producers from the operational decisions of refiners in the U.S. Midwest.
During the training, experts from the IAEA, MD Anderson, PAHO and C/Can delivered lectures on breast anatomy, breast cancer epidemiology, risk factors, pathologies, clinical guidelines and image acquisition protocols for various clinical scenarios – with interactive hands-on image acquisition simulation and biopsy practice sessions. In underlining the importance of early detection, risk management, safety and image quality, they highlighted how essential a multidisciplinary approach is in treating cancer.
Instructors delivered common and parallel programmes tailored to the specific training needs of two diagnostic imaging professional groups – technologists (radiographers and mammographers) and physicians (namely radiologists and those who are also involved in the interpretation of breast images such as gynaecologists, oncologists and surgeons) – from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, strengthening cancer screening and diagnosis for the Caribbean region’s 3.8 million women.
Beyond providing financial support, the IAEA procured 52 breast mannequins on which participants could practice. For their part, MD Anderson and PAHO are providing participants with continued long distance teaching through their Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) telementoring partnership.
“This regional course – the first joint training under the IAEA’s recently expanded cooperation with MD Anderson –highlights the importance of collaboration in tackling cancer challenges across the globe,” said May Abdel-Wahab, Director of the IAEA’s Division of Human Health. “By working hand-in-hand with our partners to address specific needs, we can strengthen the cancer care capacities of IAEA Member States – enabling equitable care for all.”
TORONTO, Oct. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the holiday season approaches, a startling 94 per cent of Canadians say they expect it to cause financial stress, according to a new survey from CPA Canada and BDO Debt Solutions.
Nearly 40 per cent (39%) of respondents reported they expect to feel more financially stressed this year, while 55 per cent said they anticipate the same amount as last year.
Additionally, 56 per cent of respondents suggest they’ll rely on credit cards to cover their holiday expenses.
Canadians are planning to spend eight per cent less this year on holiday gifts—an average of $595, down from $645 last year.
“The notion that this should be a time of joy and generosity is sharply contrasted by the reality that many will start the new year in debt,” says Li Zhang, financial literacy leader at CPA Canada. “Given consumers are grappling with a consistently rising cost of living, it’s not surprising that the festive season has become a major source of anxiety.”
“It’s concerning that more than half of Canadians are relying on credit cards for holiday expenses.” says Nancy Snedden, Licensed Insolvency Trustee and President at BDO Debt Solutions. “Using credit cards for holiday shopping may ease the immediate financial burden, but it can create a much bigger problem down the line if balances aren’t paid off quickly.”
Other stand-out findings:
Generational stress: Stress peaks among younger generations—Millennials and Gen Z report feeling the highest levels of stress during the holiday season.
Expecting to overspend: While most respondents plan to maintain the same budget as last year, 18 per cent said they are likely to overspend.
Credit card crutch: Credit cards were tied with savings and regular income as the primary way Canadians planned to finance their holiday spending. Younger generations mostly feel the weight of this burden, with 59 per cent of respondents ages 18 to 34 relying on credit cards.
To travel or not to travel: 57 per cent of respondents are choosing not to travel this holiday season—with those who do plan to travel expecting to spend an average of 33 per cent more at $1,623 compared with $1,219 last year.
Not feeling philanthropic: Only 24 per cent of respondents intend to donate to charity this holiday season, reflecting a drop in generosity from last year’s 30 per cent.
Survey methodology Survey methodology Leger conducted the 2024 Holiday Spending OMNIbus online survey from Sept. 27 to Sept.29, 2024, among 1,626 randomly selected Canadians aged 18 and over. For the full survey results including regional breakdowns or to schedule an interview, please contact media@cpacanada.ca.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Boba Mint Holdings Ltd. (CSE: TNJ) (“Boba Mint” or the “Company”) is excited to celebrate remarkable growth milestones for its flagship blockchain mobile game, Tanjea. Since the last user download update in May, game downloads have doubled, now surpassing 409,670 total downloads, with over 24,000 monthly active users on the Android platform alone.
“I am impressed with the increase in game downloads—it’s a testament to the two engaging game modes we now have in the Tanjea ecosystem,” said CEO Rody Lazar. This impressive surge in user engagement underscores Boba Mint’s impact in the blockchain gaming industry and its commitment to redefining the mobile gaming experience.
TNJ Token Update
We anticipate that full withdrawal capabilities for our TNJ token will be available by the end of calendar year 2024, with plans for the token to trade on Uniswap in the future.
About Boba Mint Holdings Ltd.
Boba Mint Holdings Ltd. is focused on the development of blockchain mobile games that integrate ERC20 tokens and ERC721 NFTs. Its primary product is a mobile blockchain gaming ecosystem called Tanjea, where gamers collect NFT characters (primarily birds and wolves) in multiple mobile games and use them to earn $TNJ tokens.
Boba Mint is a pioneering blockchain gaming company dedicated to creating immersive, decentralized gaming experiences. Boba Mint has become synonymous with innovation and excellence in the blockchain gaming industry.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
Boba Mint Holdings Ltd.
“Rody Lazar” CEO
For further information, please contact:
Rody Lazar – CEO
Phone: 1-800-556-1015
Email: info@bobamint.com
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the CSE policies) accepts responsibility for this release’s adequacy or accuracy.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements”. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Boba’s actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “projects,” “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will,” “would,” “may,” “could” or “should” occur. Such statements include those relating to game development and the Company’s expectations and plans. Although Boba believes the forward-looking information contained in this news release is reasonable based on information available on the date hereof, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Examples of such assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, assumptions, risks and uncertainties associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; future legislative and regulatory developments in the blockchain sector; the Company’s ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favorable terms; mobile video game industry and markets in Canada and generally; the ability of Boba to implement its business strategies; competition; and other assumptions, risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward- looking information contained herein. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption “Risk Factors” in Boba’ Form 2A Listing Statement dated April 19, 2024 which is available on Boba’s profile at http://www.sedarplus.ca and on the CSE website at https://thecse.com/listings/boba-mint-holdings- ltd/.
This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state, province, territory or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state, province, territory or jurisdiction. We seek Safe Harbor.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, Oct. 30 — China and Canada will increase direct flights to meet demands for travel and trade between the two countries, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said Wednesday.
Air Canada plans to increase the frequency of its weekly round-trip flights from Vancouver to Shanghai from the current four to seven from Dec. 7 onwards, according to the CAAC.
Furthermore, Air Canada will resume the operation of its route from Vancouver to Beijing from Jan. 15, 2025 — offering seven round-trip flights per week.
Meanwhile, Chinese airlines are also expediting their application process for additional flights.
The surge in direct flights between China and Canada will help satisfy personnel exchange and economic and trade demands, and promote the further recovery of their shared air transport market, the CAAC said.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2024 (table 1), according to the “advance” estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.
The GDP estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (refer to “Source Data for the Advance Estimate” on page 2). The “second” estimate for the third quarter, based on more complete source data, will be released on November 27, 2024.
The increase in real GDP primarily reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, and federal government spending (table 2). Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
The increase in consumer spending reflected increases in both goods and services. Within goods, the leading contributors were other nondurable goods (led by prescription drugs) and motor vehicles and parts. Within services, the leading contributors were health care (led by outpatient services) as well as food services and accommodations. The increase in exports primarily reflected an increase in goods (led by capital goods, excluding automotive). The increase in federal government spending was led by defense spending. The increase in imports primarily reflected an increase in goods (led by capital goods, excluding automotive).
Compared to the second quarter, the deceleration in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected a downturn in private inventory investment and a larger decrease in residential fixed investment. These movements were partly offset by accelerations in exports, consumer spending, and federal government spending. Imports accelerated.
Current‑dollar GDP increased 4.7 percent at an annual rate, or $333.2 billion, in the third quarter to a level of $29.35 trillion. In the second quarter, GDP increased 5.6 percent, or $392.6 billion (tables 1 and 3).
The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the second quarter (table 4). The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 1.5 percent, compared with an increase of 2.5 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 2.2 percent, compared with an increase of 2.8 percent.
Personal Income
Current-dollar personal income increased $221.3 billion in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $315.7 billion in the second quarter. The increase primarily reflected an increase in compensation (table 8).
Disposable personal income increased $166.0 billion, or 3.1 percent, in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $260.4 billion, or 5.0 percent, in the second quarter. Real disposable personal income increased 1.6 percent, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent.
Personal saving was $1.04 trillion in the third quarter, compared with $1.13 trillion in the second quarter. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with 5.2 percent in the second quarter.
Source Data for the Advance Estimate
The GDP estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency. Information on the source data and key assumptions used in the advance estimate is provided in a Technical Note and a detailed “Key Source Data and Assumptions” file posted with the release. The “second” estimate for the third quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on November 27, 2024. For information on updates to GDP, refer to the “Additional Information” section that follows.
* * *
Next release, November 27, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. EST Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate) Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate) Third Quarter 2024
The number of voters registered as Democrats has tumbled in recent years in Florida, effectively removing the Sunshine State as a battleground and placing it firmly in the red column.
At least that’s the dominant narrative found in many media outlets. And it is true that Republican Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020.
Florida’s abortion amendment needs to pass with 60% of the vote, so turnout is key. Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo
Active voters
But Fried and the Democrats face a major hurdle – a widening voter registration gap – as Florida Republicans are quick to point out. Over the past several years, the GOP steadily narrowed the Democratic Party’s lead in voter registrations in the Sunshine State, finally surpassing Democrats’ plurality of active registered voters in 2021.
Fried thinks the widening gap between registered Republicans and Democrats is a mirage. She claims that the Republican advantage is an artifact of a shift in state law that more aggressively reclassifies voters as being “inactive” if they don’t vote in two general election cycles or keep their information on file with local supervisors of elections.
There is no question that the law, which went into effect in 2022, has deflated Democratic registration numbers. Here are the stats.
According to the Florida secretary of state’s website, updated on Oct. 7, 2024, there are more than 1 million more registered Republicans (5,455,480) than Democrats (4,400,561) in Florida, followed by no party affiliation (3,584,982) and those registered with minor parties (404,890). That is, Republicans appear to account for more than 39% of registered voters in the Sunshine State, while Democrats make up less than 32%.
However, the numbers posted on Florida’s official website, which amount to nearly 13.7 million registered voters, are misleading: They tally only active voters in the state.
There are more than 2.5 million inactive voters on the rolls as of Aug. 1, 2024, according to my calculation of publicly available raw voter files. This brings the total number of registered voters in Florida to more than 16 million people.
Inactive and unaffiliated voters
Inactive registered voters have every right to cast ballots just like active voters. The main difference between the two groups is that inactive voters didn’t vote in 2020 or 2022.
There are hundreds of thousands more inactive Democrats and unaffiliated voters than Republicans on the rolls. This is likely the result of lackluster campaigns in the state for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2020 and for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist in 2022. Uninspired Democrats and unaffiliated voters didn’t show up to the polls, particularly in 2022.
Currently, according to the publicly available Florida voter rolls, there are over 900,000 inactive Democrats and over 921,000 inactive unaffiliated voters, compared with fewer than 643,000 inactive Republicans. So, while Republicans account for 39% of active voters, they account for only 25% of inactive voters.
To sharpen the point: 1 in 10 Republicans are currently inactive, whereas nearly 2 in 5 of all registered Democrats and more than 1 in 5 unaffiliated voters in Florida are inactive. These inactive voters tend not to receive the same attention from parties and groups trying to mobilize registered voters to the polls.
There’s no question that the fortunes of the Florida Democratic Party have tumbled over the past decade. Twelve years ago, just prior to the 2012 general election, Democrats accounted for 40% of all active registered voters. It’s been a sharp decline down to 32%.
The biggest increase in the share of active voters over the same period is with unaffiliated voters, whose share jumped 5 percentage points, from less than 21% in 2012 to 26% in 2024. These unaffiliated voters in Florida tend to be younger and Hispanic, many of whom likely have been turned off by the toxic political landscape in the state.
But back to the November election and Fried’s prognostications.
Will the two statewide ballot measures – Amendment 3 on recreational marijuana and Amendment 4 on reproductive rights – offset the rise in Republican voter registration in Florida? Is the sizable lead of Republican active voters a mirage, only to disappear as Election Day nears?
It will come down to turnout and whether inactive Democratic and unaffiliated voters’ support for Amendment 3 and Amendment 4 primes them to back the Democratic ticket.
Daniel A. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
On Sept. 20, 2024, a newspaper in Montana reported an issue with ballots provided to overseas voters registered in the state: Kamala Harris was not on the ballot. Election officials were able to quickly remedy the problem but not before accusations began to spread online, primarily among Democrats, that the Republican secretary of state had purposefully left Harris off the ballot.
This false rumor emerged from a common pattern: Some people view evidence such as good-faith errors in election administration through a mindset of elections being untrustworthy or “rigged,” leading them to misinterpret that evidence.
As the U.S. approaches another high-stakes and contentious election, concerns about the pervasive spread of falsehoods about election integrity are again front of mind. Some election experts worry that false claims may be mobilized – as they were in 2020 – into efforts to contest the election through tactics such as lawsuits, protests, disruptions to vote-counting and pressure on election officials to not certify the election.
Our team at the University of Washington has studied online rumors and misinformation for more than a decade. Since 2020, we have focused on rapid analysis of falsehoods about U.S. election administration, from sincere confusion about when and where to vote to intentional efforts to sow distrust in the process. Our motivations are to help quickly identify emerging rumors about election administration and analyze the dynamics of how these rumors take shape and spread online.
Through the course of this research we have learned that despite all the discussion about misinformation being a problem of bad facts, most misleading election rumors stem not from false or manipulated evidence but from misinterpretations and mischaracterizations. In other words, the problem is not just about bad facts but also faulty frames, or the mental structures people rely on to interpret those facts.
Misinformation may not be the best label for addressing the problem – it’s more an issue of how people make sense of the world, how that sensemaking process is shaped by social, political and informational dynamics, and how it begets rumors that can lead people to a false understanding of events.
Rumors – not misinformation
There is a long history of research on rumors going back to World War II and earlier. From this perspective, rumors are unverified stories, spreading through informal channels that serve informational, psychological and social purposes. We are applying this knowledge to the study of online falsehoods.
Though many rumors are false, some turn out to be true or partially true. Even when false, rumors can contain useful indications of real confusions or fears within a community.
Rumors can be seen as a natural byproduct of collective sensemaking – that is, efforts by groups of well-meaning people to make sense of uncertain and ambiguous information during dynamic events. But rumors can also emerge from propaganda and disinformation campaigns that lead people to misinterpret or mischaracterize their own and others’ experiences.
University of Washington’s Kate Starbird explains rumors as collective sensemaking.
Evidence, frames and (mis)interpretations
Prior research describes collective sensemaking as a process of interactions between evidence and frames. Evidence includes the things people see, read and hear in the world. Frames are mental schema that shape how people interpret that evidence.
The relationship between evidence and frames flows in two directions. When people encounter novel events or new evidence, they try to select the best frame from their mental filing cabinets. The selected frame then determines what evidence they focus on and what evidence they exclude in their interpretations. This evidence-frame view of collective sensemaking can help researchers understand rumors and disinformation.
Everyone has their own ways of interpreting events based on their unique experiences. But your frames are not yours alone. Frames are shaped, sometimes intentionally, by information from media, political leaders, communities, colleagues, friends, neighbors and family. Framing – the process of using, building, reinforcing, adapting, challenging and updating frames – can be a deliberate strategy of political communication.
Frames play a role in generating rumors, shaping how people interpret emerging events and novel evidence. False rumors occur when sensemaking goes awry, often due to people focusing on the wrong piece of evidence or applying the wrong frame. And disinformation, from this perspective, is the intentional manipulation of the sensemaking process, either by introducing false evidence or distorting the frames through which people interpret that evidence.
In 2020, we saw these dynamics at work in a rumor about Sharpie pens in Arizona. In the lead-up to the election, President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly alleged that the election would be rigged – setting a powerful frame for his followers. When voters noted that the Sharpie pens provided by election officials were bleeding through their ballots, many interpreted their experiences through the frame of a “rigged election” and became concerned that their ballots would not be counted.
A Maricopa County, Arizona, election worker counts ballots in the 2020 election as false rumors that Sharpie pens were ruining ballots spread online. AP Photo/Matt York
Some people shared those experiences online, where they were soon amplified and given meaning by others, including online influencers. Concerns and suspicions grew. Soon, members of Trump’s family were repeating false claims that the bleed-through was systematically disenfranchising Republican voters. The effect was circular and mutually reinforcing. The strategic frame inspired misinterpretations of evidence – real bleed-through falsely seen as affecting ballot counting – that were shared and amplified, strengthening the frame.
Social media sensemaking
Collective sensemaking is increasingly taking place online, where it is profoundly shaped by social media platforms, from features such as repost and like buttons to algorithmic recommendations to the connections between accounts.
Not so long ago, many people hoped that the internet would democratize information flows by removing the historical gatekeepers of information and disrupting their ability to set the agenda – and the frames – of conversation. But the gatekeepers have not been erased; they have been replaced. A group of newsbrokering influencers have taken their place, in part by gaming the ways online systems manipulate attention.
Many of these influencers work by systematically seeking out and amplifying content that aligns with prevailing political frames set by elites in politics and media. This gives creators the incentive to produce content that resonates with those frames, because that content tends to be rewarded with attention, the primary commodity of social media.
These dynamics were at work in February 2024, when an aspiring creator produced a man-on-the-street video interviewing migrants to the U.S. that was selectively edited and captioned to falsely claim to show undocumented migrants planning to vote illegally in U.S. elections. This resonated with two prominent frames: the same rigged-election frame from 2020 and another that framed immigration as harmful to the U.S.
The video was shared across multiple platforms and exploded in views after being amplified by a series of accounts with large followings on X, formerly Twitter. X CEO Elon Musk commented with an exclamation point on one post with the embedded video. The creator soon found himself on Fox News. He currently has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram and continues to produce similar content.
Interactions between influencers and online audiences result in content that fits strategic frames. Emerging events provide new evidence that people can twist to fit prevailing frames, both intentionally and unintentionally. Rumors are the byproducts of this process, and online attention dynamics fuel their spread.
Collective sensemaking and election 2024
Heading into the 2024 election, false and misleading claims about election integrity remain widespread. Our team has tracked more than 100 distinct rumors since the beginning of September. The machinery for quickly converting perceived evidence from elections into widely shared rumors and conspiracy theories is increasingly well oiled.
Experts discuss election integrity and efforts to undermine voter confidence.
One concerning development is an increase in so-called election integrity organizations that seek to recruit volunteers who share the rigged-election frame. The groups aim to provide volunteers with tools to streamline the collection and amplification of evidence to support the rigged-election frame.
One worry is that these volunteers may misinterpret what they see and hear on Election Day, generating additional rumors and false claims about election integrity that reinforce that increasingly distorted frame. Another is that these false claims will feed lawsuits and other attempts to contest election results.
However, we hope that by shedding light on some of these dynamics, we can help researchers, journalists, election officials and other decision-makers better diagnose and respond to rumors about election integrity in this cycle. Most importantly, we believe that this collective sensemaking lens can help us all to both empathize with well-meaning people who get caught up in sharing false rumors and see how propagandists manipulate these processes for their gain.
Kate Starbird receives funding from the National Science Foundation, Knight Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Stephen Prochaska has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Hewlett Foundation.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Spokesperson Matthew Miller leads the Department Press Briefing, at the Department of State, on October 30, 2024
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On Oct. 29, 2024, former Chicago Metra Board Chair Romayne Brown, the first African-American woman to chair the board, was honored with a Metra Train Car dedicated to her tireless efforts as the Metra Board Chair.
During her term as chair, Brown helped lead the agency through COVID-19 challenges that became some of the most difficult times in the agency’s history. Brown has more than 31 years of operational and customer service experience at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), finishing her career with the agency in 2010 as the vice president of rail operations, which helped her navigate the agency through countless issues.
“I have worked with Chair Brown over the years, and she is one of the few people I have met who has always been able to see the power of working with labor,” said IAM Local 498 Chairman David May. “She has always helped the push agency to see labor’s perspective on issues. Chair Brown has always treated the Machinists members with dignity and respect and always found time to walk the shop floors to thank Metra’s unionized workforce for their hard work and dedication to the agency. Local 498 will be forever grateful for her incredible leadership.”
Brown was named to the board in 2013 and then held the Vice Chair role from October 2016 to 2020. She held the Metra Board Chair position from 2020 to 2024.
Artificial intelligence-generated summaries of scientific papers make complex information more understandable for the public compared with human-written summaries, according to my recent paper published in PNAS Nexus. AI-generated summaries not only improved public comprehension of science but also enhanced how people perceived scientists.
I used a popular large language model, GPT-4 by OpenAI, to create simple summaries of scientific papers; this kind of text is often called a significance statement. The AI-generated summaries used simpler language – they were easier to read according to a readability index and used more common words, like “job” instead of “occupation” – than summaries written by the researchers who had done the work.
In one experiment, I found that readers of the AI-generated statements had a better understanding of the science, and they provided more detailed, accurate summaries of the content than readers of the human-written statements.
I also investigated what effects the simpler summaries might have on people’s perceptions of the scientists who performed the research. In this experiment, participants rated the scientists whose work was described in the simpler texts as more credible and trustworthy than the scientists whose work was described in the more complex texts.
In both experiments, participants did not know who wrote each summary. The simpler texts were always AI-generated, and the complex texts were always human-generated. When I asked participants who they believed wrote each summary, they ironically thought the more complex ones were written by AI and simpler ones were written by humans.
Have you ever read about a scientific discovery and felt like it was written in a foreign language? If you’re like most Americans, new scientific information is probably hard to understand – especially if you try to tackle a science article in a research journal.
In an era where scientific literacy is crucial for informed decision-making, the abilities to communicate and grasp complex ideas are more important than ever. Trust in science has been declining for years, and one contributing factor may be the challenge of understanding scientific jargon.
This research points to a potential solution: using AI to simplify science communication. By making scientific content more approachable, this work demonstrates that AI-generated summaries may help to restore trust in scientists and, in turn, encourage greater public engagement with scientific issues. The question of trust is particularly important, as people often rely on science in their daily lives, from eating habits to medical choices.
What still isn’t known
As AI continues to evolve, its role in science communication may expand, especially if using generative AI becomes more commonplace or sanctioned by journals. Indeed, the academic publishing field is still establishing norms regarding the use of AI. By simplifying scientific writing, AI could contribute to more engagement with complex issues.
While the benefits of AI-generated science communication are perhaps clear, ethical considerations must also be considered. There is some risk that relying on AI to simplify scientific content may remove nuance, potentially leading to misunderstandings or oversimplifications. There’s always the chance of errors, too, if no one pays close attention.
Additionally, transparency is critical. Readers should be informed when AI is used to generate summaries to avoid potential biases.
Simple science descriptions are preferable to and more beneficial than complex ones, and AI tools can help. But scientists could also achieve the same goals by working harder to minimize jargon and communicate clearly – no AI necessary.
David Markowitz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health problem around the world. When bacteria like E. coli no longer respond to antibiotics, infections become harder to treat.
To develop new antibiotics, researchers typically identify the genes that make bacteria resistant. Through laboratory experiments, they observe how bacteria respond to different antibiotics and look for mutations in the genetic makeup of resistant strains that allow them to survive.
While effective, this method can be time-consuming and may not always capture the full picture of how bacteria become resistant. For example, changes in how genes work that don’t involve mutations can still influence resistance. Bacteria can also exchange resistance genes between each other, which may not be detected if only focusing on mutations within a single strain.
My colleagues and Ideveloped a new approach to identify E. coli resistance genes by computer modeling, allowing us to design new compounds that can block these genes and make existing treatments more effective.
Identifying resistance
To predict which genes contribute to resistance, we analyzed the genomes of various E. coli strains to identify genetic patterns and markers associated with resistance. We then used machine learning algorithms trained on existing data to highlight novel genes or mutations shared across resistant strains that might contribute to resistance.
After identifying resistance genes, we designed inhibitors that specifically target and block the proteins these genes produce. By analyzing the structure of the proteins these genes code for, we were able to optimize our inhibitors to strongly bind to these specific proteins.
To reduce the likelihood that bacteria would evolve resistance to these inhibitors, we targeted regions of their genome that code for proteins critical to their survival. By interfering with how bacteria carry out important functions, it makes it more difficult for them to develop mechanisms to compensate. We also prioritized compounds that work differently from existing antibiotics to minimize cross-resistance.
Finally, we tested how effectively our inhibitors could overcome antibiotic resistance in E. coli. We used computer simulations to assess how strongly a number of inhibitors bind to target proteins over time. One inhibitor called hesperidin was able to strongly bind to the three genes in E. coli involved in resistance that we identified, suggesting it may be able to help combat antibiotic-resistant strains.
By targeting the specific genes responsible for resistance to existing drugs, our approach could lead to treatments for challenging bacterial infections that are not only more effective but also less likely to contribute to further resistance. It can also help researchers keep up with bacterial threats as they evolve.
Some microbes can transfer resistance to other microbes.
Our predictive approach could be adapted to other bacterial strains, allowing for more personalized treatment strategies. In the future, doctors could potentially tailor antibiotic treatments based on the specific genetic makeup of the bacteria causing the infection, potentially leading to better outcomes.
As antibiotic resistance continues to rise globally, our findings may provide a crucial tool in the fight against this threat. Further development is needed before our methods can be used in the clinic. But by staying ahead of bacterial evolution, targeted inhibitors could help preserve the efficacy of existing antibiotics and reduce the spread of resistant strains.
China’s first intelligent manufacturing base for offshore oil and gas equipment was put into full operation on Wednesday in north China’s Tianjin Municipality.
Covering an area of about 575,000 square meters, this base built along the coast of the Bohai Sea focuses on producing offshore oil and gas platforms and high-end offshore products such as liquefied natural gas modules, according to its constructor China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), a subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
The base consists of four intelligent production workshops, eight production auxiliary centers, 16 final assembly stations and core facilities such as docks facilitating product transportation via large ships. There are also over 600 intelligent production machines at this base.
Compared to the traditional manufacturing process, a series of operations such as material retrieval, pipe coiling, cutting and hydraulic bending can be achieved via a single click through an intelligent manufacturing management platform available at the Tianjin facility.
According to Wang Lei, one of the senior executives of the Tianjin branch of COOEC, there are a variety of offshore oil and gas equipments, and in the past, producing them featured complicated manufacturing processes, and customized and non-standard requirements.
As a result, COOEC opted to develop an intelligent manufacturing management platform to achieve intelligent production under complex conditions, said Wang. “More manufacturing processes are now achieved through the use of equipment, while only a small number of workers are needed to undertake detail adjustment tasks.”
The base was constructed in two phases. The first phase of the project was put into use in June 2022, and delivered 35 offshore oil and gas platforms to countries such as China and Canada, with total weight exceeding 87,000 tonnes.
In the second construction phase of this project, eight final assembly stations and an intelligent pipe production line were added, while the capacity of docks was increased.
“Production efficiency achieved by the intelligent pipe production line has increased by about 20 percent when compared to what was possible in the first phase, and the overall production capacity of the factory has doubled through digital intelligent manufacturing and precise management,” Wang revealed.
In 2023, China’s offshore crude oil production had exceeded 62 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 3.4 million tonnes — accounting for about 70 percent of China’s total crude oil production increase last year.
Decades of the U.S. plotting to make profits at the price of Panama’s interests has pushed the Central American country to seek more global cooperation, a Panama-based international relations expert has said.
Julio Yao, former foreign policy advisor to the late Panamanian leader General Omar Torrijos, recalled the history of nonstop U.S. intervention in Panama since the turn of the 20th century in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Panama gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and from Colombia in 1903, though the latter was in essence “a deception” devised by the United States to gain control of the strategic Panama Canal, Yao said.
“From that moment on, the United States took over the so-called Canal Zone,” starting a long string of unfortunate events for Panama, he said.
On top of the list was the attempt to establish the failed Kellogg-Alfaro treaty in the 1920s, which was rejected because it aimed to legalize the presence of U.S. troops on Panamanian soil.
“That treaty completely turned Panama into a U.S. military base, that is, a military springboard for the rest of Latin America,” the expert said.
Nevertheless, unilateral interventions by the United States persisted in Panama, he said.
For much of the 1970s, the U.S. government was “permanently” pressuring Panama to grant it protection and defense rights over the canal in perpetuity, Yao recalled.
At the time, the career diplomat was advising Torrijos and then Foreign Minister Juan Antonio Tack in drafting treaties, such as the 1974 Tack-Kissinger Declaration, which made a point of setting a deadline on the U.S. occupation of the canal.
“Why did we have to emphasize the fixed deadline? Because the Americans always deceived Panama with a later date and never left Panama,” Yao said.
In September 1977, the Torrijos-Carter Treaties were signed by Torrijos and then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, establishing that the Panama Canal would be turned over to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999.
Prior to that, the U.S. “obsession” with controlling the Panama Canal occasionally turned “explosive,” Yao said.
On Dec. 20, 1989, a date now known as the Day of National Mourning, U.S. troops invaded Panama to capture Panamanian General Manuel Noriega, later convicting him of drug trafficking and money laundering.
To break with the past, Yao said he believes that Panama should look to more “humanist,” multilateral mechanisms such as BRICS.
Such mechanisms have created a counterweight to hegemonic power in several aspects, said the expert.
“The United States is really in a very ruinous position,” Yao said, noting that at such a juncture, concepts such as the Global South are relevant today since they shelve religious or political differences in favor of promoting joint development.
The Global South is “a good concept” because it addresses many similar situations in Africa, Latin America and even the Middle East, Yao said.
People want to emerge from underdevelopment or the lack of development, and to that end, BRICS countries have taken “the right path” towards global development, through measures that go beyond resolving local or regional issues, he said.
“I firmly believe in BRICS and I believe very firmly in the Global South,” Yao said.
“If you look at the new foreign policy of some African countries, they are on the right track. That is a great awakening for a region that has been very impoverished, very dominated, very interfered with, very manipulated, so I think there is reason to feel optimistic,” he said.
Michael Callan becomes High Commissioner in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Callan replaces Arif Keshani.
Michael Callan (BA Hons [Political Studies], Queen’s University, 2000; MSc Econ [International Security], University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2002). Prior to joining Global Affairs Canada, Michael Callan served in the Canadian Armed Forces and worked with the Aga Khan Foundation in Bangladesh and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow. Upon joining the Canadian International Development Agency in 2004, Mr. Callan took on assignments with the Humanitarian Assistance Division and the Afghanistan Task Force. Abroad, Mr. Callan was the Government of Canada’s first civilian deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he served as director, development, for Canada’s Provincial Reconstruction Team (2005 to 2006). His subsequent deployments included assignments as head of aid in Khartoum (2008 to 2010) and director, development, for the Middle East and North Africa in Cairo and Amman (2012 to 2016). He was then seconded to the Privy Council Office (2016 to 2017) before taking up a fellowship with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University (2018). Mr. Callan served as director of conflict prevention, stabilization and peacebuilding (2019 to 2021) prior to his most recent assignment as ambassador to Algeria (2021 to 2024).
These eerie forests, filled with standing dead trees, tell a story on the effects of sea level rise and extreme flooding. And scientists with the USGS are investigating!
When coastal forests are inundated with salt water or frequently flooded, trees can be stressed to levels they can’t withstand. If trees don’t survive, coastal forests can transform into different types of settings such as marshes or open water, creating ghost forests and leaving behind remnants of the ecosystems that once were.
What the USGS knows…
Coastal ghost forests typically occur in low-lying areas, and USGS scientists are studying how and where these shifts are happening across the nation. The USGS and partners are also working to forecast what areas might be impacted in the future, considering various sea level rise scenarios.
Changes can lead to potentially positive or negative impacts. Healthy coastal forests provide numerous benefits such as supporting wildlife habitat, filtering pollutants and offering flood protection along coastlines, while marshes also provide species habitat, improve water quality and absorb floodwaters, among many other purposes.
A ghost forest stands in Goose Creek State Park in North Carolina. This is an example of a freshwater forested wetland that is transitioning to open water. Photograph by Melinda Martinez, USGS.
USGS science can be used by decisionmakers such as land and wildlife managers as they consider the costs and benefits of conservation and restoration.
An example: The Chesapeake Bay
The eastern U.S. is a particular concern, as these transitions are taking place up and down the Atlantic coast. The USGS has projects in several areas, including, for example, ongoing research in the Delmarva Peninsula within the Chesapeake Bay. This region consists of several low sloped landscapes, which allows for rapid change to occur.
Drilling into the trees
Here’s where it gets even more interesting! The USGS and partners recently drilled into trees to see what’s inside. Why? To understand the role of ghost forests in greenhouse gas fluxes.
Trees are known to naturally absorb and release gases, but there’s limited research on whether and how that process changes when coastal forests die. A recent study finds that standing dead trees in ghost forests have tiny organisms that actually convert methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to carbon dioxide, which is less potent.
This insight is another piece of the puzzle as officials consider the trade-offs for how to manage these landscapes.
The USGS is a coauthor on that study, which was led by Hollins University.
Share the tale
Don’t forget to share what you learned with friends! Do they know ghost forests are real?
Ghost forest on the Delmarva Penninsula. Photograph by Kyle Derby, USGS.
A ghost forest stands in Goose Creek State Park in North Carolina. This is an example of a freshwater forested wetland that is transitioning to open water. Photograph by Melinda Martinez, USGS.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jamie Goldenberg, Professor of Psychology and Area Director, Cognitive, Neuroscience and Social Psychology, University of South Florida
Hurricane Milton flooded parts of the Tampa Bay region just days after Hurricane Helene made landfall nearby.Bryan R. Smithy/AFP via Getty Images
As TVs across Florida broadcast the all-too-familiar images of a powerful hurricane headed for the coast in early October 2024, people whose homes had been damaged less than two weeks earlier by Hurricane Helene watched anxiously. Hurricane Milton was rapidly intensifying into a dangerous storm, fueled by the Gulf of Mexico’s record-breaking temperatures.
Many residents scrambled to evacuate, clogging roads away from the region. Officials urged those near the coast who ignored evacuation warnings to scrawl their names on their arms with indelible ink so their corpses could be identified.
The two hurricanes were among the most destructive in recent memory. They are also stark reminders of the increasingly extreme weather events that scientists have long warned would be the consequence of human-driven climate change.
Still, many people deny that climate change is a worsening threat, or that it exists at all. As its impacts grow more visible and destructive, how is this possible?
Views of Hurricane Milton’s damage across Florida.
One answer lies in a unique facet of human psychology – specifically, in how people manage the fear aroused by existential threats. For many people, denying the existence of a climate crisis is not only convenient, but may feel psychologically necessary.
Terror management theory
The Pulitzer Prize-winning anthropologist Ernest Becker put it this way: “The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else … to overcome it by denying it in some way is the final destiny for man.”
In plain terms, he was saying that most people struggle to accept their mortality and take pains to distort their perception of reality to avoid confronting it.
In the 1980s, social psychologists developed “terror management theory,” showing the lengths people go to deny death. Hundreds of experiments have tested its implications. In a common method, participants reflect on their own death, while control groups consider less threatening topics, like dental pain. The key question: What does death awareness do to people?
After writing about death, people tend to quickly move on, pushing thoughts of it from consciousness with distractions, rationalizations and other tactics. Health care professionals see this every day. For example, people often dodge screenings and diagnostic tests to avoid the frightening possibility of discovering cancer.
Skidmore College psychologist Sheldon Solomon discusses Ernest Becker’s ‘The Denial of Death’ and terror management theory in the context of humanity’s history of brutal behavior.
But here’s the rub: Terror management theory suggests that when people are not thinking about death, it nevertheless holds influence. The unconscious mind lingers on the problem even after people have used strategies to quiet the fear by pushing it from awareness.
Social psychology experiments show that people often cope with the specter of death by attaching themselves to cultural ideologies, such as religious, political or even sports fandom. These worldviews imbue life with meaning, values and purpose. And that can ease the terror of mortality by connecting people to an enduring and comforting web of ideas and beliefs that transcend one’s own existence.
When people are made aware of death, those systems of meaning become even more critical to their psychological functioning. Existential threats make us cling even tighter to the meaning systems that sustain us.
From our perspective, it is not surprising that climate-related disasters disappear from the public consciousness almost as soon as they have passed. Google Trends data exemplifies this: Incoming storms instigated an uptick in searches for “climate change” and “global warming” in the days before Hurricane Helene made landfall on Sept. 25, 2024, and Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, 2024. Then those searches quickly declined as people shifted their focus away from the threat.
Unfortunately, climate change isn’t going away, no matter how hard anyone tries to deny it.
While climate denial allows people to protect themselves from feelings of distress, terror management theory suggests that denying death is just the tip of the iceberg. For some people, accepting the reality of climate change would necessitate reevaluating their ideologies.
Terror management theory predicts that individuals whose ideologies conflict with environmental concerns may ironically double down on those beliefs to psychologically manage the existential threat posed by climate-related disasters. It’s similar to how mortality reminders can lead people to engage in risky behavior, such as smoking or tanning. Hurricanes may reinforce denial and commitment to a worldview that rejects climate change.
A path forward: Building new worldviews
Although denial may be a natural psychological response to existential threats, the U.S. may be getting to a point where even deniers can’t ignore the existential threat associated with climate change.
A terror management analysis suggests that overcoming this crisis requires weaving a solutions-focused narrative into the ideologies that people rely on for comfort. As psychologists who work on terror management, we believe the fight against climate change should be framed not as an apocalyptic battle that humanity is destined to lose, but as a moral and practical challenge that humanity can collectively overcome.
Tampa, Florida, meteorologist Denis Phillips had the right idea as the two hurricanes headed for his community: His fact-based social media updates eschew partisan critique, encourage neighbors to support one another and emphasize preparedness and resilience in the face of incoming storms.
As Milton approached, Phillips told residents to remember his Rule #7: Don’t freak out. That doesn’t mean do nothing – it means evaluate risks without letting emotion interfere, and take action.
Shifting the narrative from helplessness to collective empowerment and action can help people confront climate change without triggering the existential anxieties that lead to denial – offering a vision for a future that is both secure and personally meaningful.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Research Bulletin features a selection of recent work on policy-relevant topics by ECB economists. Published on a monthly basis, the articles in the Research Bulletin are intended for a general audience.
The views expressed in each article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem.
Gov. Doug Burgum and First Lady Kathryn Burgum will welcome Halloween trick-or-treaters on Thursday, Oct. 31, at the Governor’s Residence, continuing a long-standing tradition.
Children and accompanying adults are invited to come to the east entrance of the residence between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Parking is available in the Capitol mall loop. The residence is in the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds, 600 E. Boulevard Ave., Bismarck.
This year’s theme for Halloween at the Governor’s Residence is tourism. Displays featuring North Dakota destinations will provide an interactive experience for children.
One of the perplexing aspects of the surge in witch trials that took place in Europe between the 15th and the 18th centuries is the question of how much the personal experiences of that era’s legal personnel influenced the practice of criminal justice throughout the period. In a previous post on this blog, we saw that the political philosopher and witchcraft theorist Jean Bodin cited the existence of a (mostly) invisible guiding spirit that helped to steel his resolve against demonic foes. In this post, we will take a look at Joost de Damhouder, the author of an important 16th century handbook on criminal law, who described an anomalous experience involving an amulet that shaped his views on the use of torture, a story that seems actually to have taken place.
In the first half of the 16th century, the legal field underwent a process of professionalization throughout much of Western Europe. This was driven in part by the expansion of the use of the printing press, which gave legal practitioners access to a much wider body of legal texts and information than was possible before the age of printing. That change also triggered new demand for small-format general practice guides that could put immediate and practical knowledge in the hands of the lawyers, magistrates and lower officials that managed the daily business of the law in Renaissance Europe.
Within a couple decades, the market for subject-specific practice books and treatises began to expand as well. On the subject of criminal procedure, two important examples of this literature appeared in Venice, Italy to solid commercial success, Practica causarum criminalis of Hippolytus de Marsiliis [Venice, 1529] and Practica Nova Causarum Criminalium of Lodovico Carerio (Venice, 1546). These were joined by others in short order. For example, Joost de Damhouder (1507-1581), a lawyer from Bruges who had worked in criminal law and who was a member of the fiscal council of the Netherlands in Brussels (which is now in Belgium), seized the opportunity to capitalize on this trend. He published in 1554 a work that captured the current state of criminal practice law in his home region of Flanders. (Dauchy et. al., ch. , 3sect. 26.) That work was Praxis rerum criminalium (Criminal Matters Practice).
Damhouder’s book contains images of various categories of crime, one of which, depicted here in this full-page woodcut illustration from Damhouder’s 1554 Enchiridion rerum criminalium, is the crime of parricide. Photo by Nathan Dorn.
Damhouder first published Praxis rerum criminalium under the title Enchiridion rerum criminalium (Guidebook of Criminal Matters) in Leuven in 1554 and changed the title in subsequent editions. It went on to be printed many times and became over a handful of years perhaps the most influential short handbook on the subject of criminal law in Europe. (Dauchy et al., ch. 3, sect. 26.) In some respects, this was because of the qualities of the text, which presented succinct and clear statements on a number of areas within the subject of criminal law, including rules governing accusation, investigation of crime, torture, incarceration, and various categories of criminal activity. Some of these categories are very familiar: theft, fraud, assault and battery, murder, rape, arson, and more. Others sound antiquated: throwing waste out of a window, adultery, banditry, and grave robbery, for instance. (Dauchy et al., ch. 3, sect. 26.) Some belong to a world that is distinctly alien to most of the audience of this post: blasphemy, sacrilege, treason against God, and witchcraft. Categories along these lines sufficed, apparently, to make the book widely useful.
A large measure of its success, however, must also be due to the 57 wood engravings that Damhouder commissioned for the book’s publication. Unlike many books of that format and price point, Praxis rerum ciminialium was more-or-less festooned with images. These depicted crimes, tribunals, and penalties suffered by the convicted. Illustrations of this or any quality were more typically found in books that sold at luxury prices. This title, however, was both offered in a less expensive format and illustrated with fascinating images of the world of crime and punishment. (Dauchy et. al., ch. 3, sect. 26.)
This image from Damhouder’s 1554 Enchiridion rerum criminalium depicts the crime of harming passersby through carelessly hurling waste out of the windows of city houses. Photo by Nathan Dorn.
An interesting point about Damhouder’s book is that it is, almost in its entirety, a Latin translation of a pre-existing manuscript that was written by another author. The original that stands behind Praxis rerum criminalium, was a Flemish work by Philips Wielant (1441 or 1442-1520), a magistrate who served on the Council of Flanders. That book was called Corte instructie in materie criminele. (Dauchy et al., ch. 3, sect. 26.) Wielant prepared a first version of the text in 1510 and a second, augmented version, in 1515. A French version dating to 1519 also exists. (Monballyu, p. 293.) Wielant, who was a couple generations older than Damhouder, never had the book printed, and it did not appear in print until an edition of Wielant’s works was made from existing manuscripts in 1872. That publication led to the discovery that Damhouder’s book cannibalized Wielant’s text. (Dauchy et al., ch. 3, sect. 26.)
The originality of Damhouder’s work has to do first with its publication in the Latin language, which made it far more accessible to the overall European community than the Dutch original, and secondly with the images that he added, which had something like the same effect. But we do see a flash of independence in another area, in a place in which Damhouder deviates from Wielant’s text. That is regarding the crime of witchcraft. (Monballyu, p. 299 and following.)
Damhouder places witchcraft in the category of lèse-majesté divine, treason against God. This image from Damhouder’s 1554 Enchiridion rerum criminalium depicts blasphemous acts. Photo by Nathan Dorn.
Where Damhouder provides a bit of original material is in his chapters on torture. (Monballyu, p. 293.) Of interest to him is that people who practice magic sometimes use magical means to avoid suffering the pain of torture. And if the torture victim suffers no pain from the ordeal, then she will not be compelled to answer the investigator’s questions. This renders the magistrates helpless to produce a confession. If this is allowed to take place, many accused will escape punishment. To avoid this, Damhouder makes a particular plea that investigators should never neglect to shave the entire body of a person accused of witchcraft. The purpose of this surprising measure is simple: one must expose to sight any place on the body of the accused where she might hide a talisman or a charm, since magical objects were often used to nullify the pain that the investigators were trying to inflict. Damhouder is especially insistent that shame and embarrassment should not prevent investigators from shaving the accused entirely. (Monballyu, p. 293.) In the French version of the book, Pratique judiciaire des causes criminelles, published in Anvers in 1564, Damhouder relates an experience he claims to have had that convinced him of the need for this precaution. The story appears in chapter 37 of the 1564 work, from paragraph 19 onward (ff. 38v.-41r.).
This image from Damhouder’s 1554 Enchiridion rerum criminalium depicts a tribunal attempting to extract a confession from the accused by torture. Photo by Nathan Dorn.
The story he tells took place when Damhouder resided in Bruges, a period between 1537 and 1550, during which time he was a city alderman. There was an old woman living in town who was said to be able to effect miraculous cures for people who had injuries or illnesses. In general, she was highly regarded by the public, which valued her healing skills and tended to think of her as a quite devout, even saintly, Christian, “an apostle of Christ,” in Damhouder’s telling. This reputation did not impress certain aldermen of Bruges who sought to have her investigated on grounds she might be using illicit magic to work her cures. In consequence of this, she was apprehended in the middle of the night and incarcerated with a view to questioning her. The interrogation was, at first, entirely useless, despite the investigators’ use of torture. The old woman insisted throughout that she was doing nothing at all out of line and that she was a devout Christian. In a strange episode, the mayor of Bruges, who was present, gasped several times on account of suffering a severe case of arthritis. When the woman commented on it, he offered her payment to cure him. She agreed, and when one of the men present asked what means she would use, she assured the mayor that he needed to do nothing but believe that she could heal him. These were fateful words. Upon hearing them, the men who were present warned the mayor that her answer revealed that she was not relying on God, but on some other power to effect her cures and that he should have nothing to do with it. Apostles of Christ, they said, always mention God’s name.
What followed was a series of fruitless interrogations assisted by torture. In the third session, Damhouder tells us, she mocked her captors and even fell asleep during the questioning. At length, it was noticed that while her hair was shaved in preparation for the fourth round of questioning, that the interrogators had neglected to shave all of her body hair before continuing. When they finally did so, they discovered, hidden on her person, a small parchment on which was written strange writing and the symbol of the cross. Once it was removed from her body, she was returned to be tortured again. During that session, she confessed to relying on the aid of the devil to perform her cures. In view of her age and gender, the authorities agreed to subject her to a brief public humiliation and then to banish her from the city rather than to execute her. In time, she was arrested again, this time by magistrates in Middlebourg, a town in
Donald Trump hugs an American flag as he arrives at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 24, 2024, in Baltimore. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States in January 2017, George Orwell’s 1949 novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list. Apparently, lots of people thought Orwell had something relevant to say in that political moment.
Nearly eight years later, the United States once again faces the prospect of a Trump presidency.
In 2016, many Americans were caught off guard by Trump’s win, leading them to grapple with the potential consequences of a Trump presidency only after he was elected. But this time, more people seem to be thinking about the ramifications of such an outcome in advance.
In my work as a professor of philosophy and law, I’ve spent a lot of time studying Orwell’s writing. I think people were correct eight years ago to conclude that Orwell could provide insight into a Trump presidency.
Here are three such insights that I think are useful for Americans to keep in mind as they prepare to vote for their next president.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they try to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Brent Stirton/Getty Images
Nationalism is not patriotism
In his 1945 essay “Notes on Nationalism,” Orwell distinguishes between the terms nationalism and patriotism.
For Orwell, nationalism was “the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.”
He was quick to point out that this was distinct from the concept of patriotism, which he defined as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people.”
To understand Orwell’s conception of patriotism, I find it useful to consider an analogy. Many parents think that their kids are the best kids in the world. This doesn’t mean that they think there are objective metrics that could be used to rank children. Most parents recognize that there is no such thing, and they don’t go around saying other children aren’t as good as theirs. Yet there is still a real sense in which they see their own kids as the very best.
There is something similar in the attitude of Orwell’s patriot. They may think that their country or their way of life is the best, but – and this may be the most important part – they have no wish to force their views or way of life on others.
Not so with the nationalist. Orwell claims, “Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power.” The nationalist is like a parent who goes around tearing other people’s kids down in order to lift theirs up.
Mere love of country is not inherently dangerous. Making advancement of one’s nation or culture one’s top priority is extremely dangerous. Patriotism sticks to the former. Nationalism goes in for the latter.
Orwell insightfully recognizes that when the nationalist makes advancement of their way of life their top priority, they inevitably end up placing that goal “beyond good and evil.” This makes the nationalist susceptible to endorsing unethical means for advancing their own way of life.
Donald Trump does exactly what Orwell predicts the nationalist will do. He conceptualizes everything, as Orwell put it, “in terms of competitive prestige” and “his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations.”
Fixation on competitive prestige is not patriotic. It’s unadulterated nationalism.
An autocrat is easy to underestimate
In a 1942 essay written during the middle of World War II and reflecting on his experiences as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, Orwell wrote that “our traditions and our past security have given us a sentimental belief that it all comes right in the end and the thing you most fear never really happens,” and that “we believe half-instinctively that evil always defeats itself in the long run.”
Orwell was worried by these optimistic instincts because he thought they ran counter to the evidence. The evidence, on the contrary, suggested that things typically don’t turn out right on their own. Rather, social improvements normally require concerted effort and vigilance against backsliding.
In another essay from the same year, Orwell criticized various intellectuals who treated Hitler as “a figure out of comic opera, not worth taking seriously.” And he criticized many English-speaking countries for being places where it was “fashionable to believe, right up to the outbreak of war, that Hitler was an unimportant lunatic and the German tanks made of cardboard.”
Yet many Americans excuse such talk, failing to treat it as the evidence of a threat to democracy that it is. This seems to me to be driven in part by the tendency Orwell identified to think that truly bad things won’t happen – at least not in one’s own country.
Orwell thought it was worth taking the possibility of bad outcomes seriously. This is one way to understand what he was up to in his most famous books, “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Americans would benefit from taking potential threats to U.S. democracy seriously, too.
George Orwell, whose writings from the middle of the 20th century have relevance in 2024. Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
Nationalism can attack within
You can read “Nineteen Eighty-Four” as Orwell’s attempt to think about what a ruling political party completely captured by nationalism might look like.
In “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” orthodox party members in the fictional nation of Oceania are obsessed with “competitive prestige” and “the desire for power.” Activities such as the Two Minutes Hate, where party members were encouraged to scream and jeer at a video of a political opponent, prompt party members to focus their thoughts on “victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations.”
A notable feature of the party is how often it turns on its own members through kidnapping, torture and murder. The occurrence was so frequent in Oceania that it had a name: being “vaporized.” Nationalists are a threat not only to those outside the nation but also to those inside the nation who don’t fully support the nationalist’s pursuit of power at any cost.
Orwell’s writing suggests that voters should take such threats seriously.
Mark Satta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Colin Wong, a blind Ph.D. student, can’t forget having to pay US$100 for an Uber when he needed to take a standardized test. There was no testing center in San Francisco, where he lived, that could accommodate his disability.
That kind of expensive hassle isn’t unusual. It costs nearly $7,000 more per year to live in the U.S. with his disability, according to research I, a social work scholar, conducted with four experts at the American Foundation for the Blind – a nonprofit dedicated to promoting equality and inclusion for people with blindness or low vision.
For our research, we looked at survey data from a representative sample of Americans, focusing on how people with visual impairments answered. We considered anyone who said they live with a vision disability – or said that they have a lot of trouble seeing or can’t see at all, even with glasses – as a person with low vision or blindness.
We calculated that people with blindness or low vision spend, on average, 27% of their household income on expenses related to their disability – about $7,000 per year.
Low-income Americans with disabilities are shouldering an even bigger burden. The people who took this survey and were earning less than $25,000 per year said they spent about 40% of their income on costs related to their disability, on average, compared with 16% for those with higher incomes.
That leaves them with less money for other essentials such as food and housing. About 1 in 4 of the people we surveyed said they spent less on food to cover their expenses associated with their disability.
And about 2 in 3 of the people we surveyed said they frequently go without goods and services they need, including medical care, assistive technologies and transportation to get to school or go to work.
One reason for the higher costs of living is that people with disabilities tend to incur many other extra expenses, such as spending more on transportation, prepared foods and grocery delivery services. Others struggle to afford the prescription and over-the-counter drugs and supplements they need.
Politicians and policymakers appear to be paying more attention to this problem, which my research team calls the “disability squeeze.” Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, announced in October 2024 a proposal to expand Medicare to cover the long-term care needs for older adults and people with disabilities.
Denise Chamberlin and her guide dog, Ridley, emerge from a Toronto subway station. AP Photo/Business Wire
What still isn’t known
Our survey included 288 people with blindness or low vision. Studies with larger numbers of participants could greatly expand upon what’s known about this problem and what can be done about it.
Expanding accessible public transit, making assistive technologies more affordable and increasing disability benefits might be enough for some people with disabilities to have an opportunity to thrive, but not for others.
Future research could shed a brighter light on the cracks in the U.S. health and social welfare systems. For example, researchers could look into why people with health insurance from Medicaid or Medicare told us they had more unmet needs rather than fewer than those with coverage through private insurers. Other studies could examine how the disability squeeze affects the health and employment of people with disabilities over the long term.
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
Zachary Morris’ research presented here is funded from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents of this survey do not necessarily represent the policy of the federal government or any government agency.
Many offices make a point to celebrate diversity, but what does that look like when it comes to faith?FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images
Since we spend so much of our lives at our jobs, it’s only natural that conversations with colleagues go beyond the work in front of us. People share interests and hobbies, family struggles, health concerns, and hopes or goals, from the silly to the serious.
The topic of religion, however, can provoke anxiety. Many people might second what the Muslim CEO of a technology company told us: “If you want to express faith, do it! Just do it on your own time.” Uncertainty surrounding religion’s role in the workplace tends to lead to silence. Even among researchers who study workplaces, religion is often ignored.
Yet for many people, faith is a core component of their identity – part of the “whole self” that employees are increasingly encouraged to bring to work. It’s an important piece of diversity but one that managers often tiptoe around. And for many Americans, faith is part of why they show up at their job each day: 1 in 5 consider their work a spiritual calling.
We are social scientists who spent the past five years conducting research on the role of faith at work. Our findings – from more than 15,000 surveys with a nationally representative population, and nearly 300 in-depth interviews with some of those workers – confirm that there are many challenges when religion comes into the workplace. However, the costs of ignoring or suppressing workers’ faith often exceed those risks and challenges.
Conflict and discrimination
The most common concern we heard about bringing up religion in the workplace is that it will lead to conflict – including conflict from people trying to change each other’s beliefs. A Catholic woman who works in eldercare told us, “I think we shouldn’t talk about religion at work because that’s when the problems arise. I’m going to defend what I think, and they will defend what they think, their way of being, their religion.”
Several other people we interviewed also expressed concerns that some forms of religious expression could make people uncomfortable, or even turn into harassment. A nonreligious security guard noted that during Christmas and Easter some of his Christian co-workers will say, “‘God bless,’ ‘Let’s pray,’ and stuff like that. It becomes very uneasy for me, uncomfortable.”
Asking workers to bottle up their faith when they start the workday may seem like the easiest way to avoid these problems. Some workers we interviewed agreed with this sentiment. As one Muslim federal employee told us, “If I wear my religion as a badge on my shoulder, it will rub somebody the wrong way. So, why do that?”
What’s more, silence around religion may seem like a neutral request. If no one expresses their faith, after all, then no one can be discriminated against, no one can be offended, and no one is seen as getting special treatment for their religious beliefs.
Not so neutral
There are a few problems with this logic, however.
What’s more, vague expectations about not acknowledging faith at work aren’t necessarily so neutral and often tend to disproportionately harm minority groups.
In our survey, we asked individuals whether they “conceal their religious beliefs at work for fear of others’ perceptions.” Nineteen percent of Jewish workers, 51% of Hindus, 29% of Muslims and 28% of Buddhists said they did. By contrast, only 9% of evangelical Protestants, 15% of nonevangelical Protestants and 13% of Catholics reported that they conceal their faith at work.
A Jewish project manager at an engineering firm told us how she has tried to conceal her faith from others: “The times that I did have to pray, I actually walked outside into a closed corner in the hallway to do it.”
In the same survey, we asked individuals if they “have been treated unfairly” at work due to their “religion or non-religion.” Overall, 31% of U.S. adults agreed, and such experiences are most common among Muslim and Jewish workers.
One Muslim woman we interviewed described how her colleagues made life extremely difficult for her, calling her names that were derisive, and said she’s received little support from her employer. Indeed, during one meeting her boss “got up and talked a lot about me being Muslim, and it was all negative.”
One of our surveys, for example, asked workers whether they “turn to faith for support through stressful times in their work life.” Nearly half agreed.
For many Americans, faith is also part of why they do their work in the first place. According to another one of our surveys, 20% of U.S. adults “see their work as a spiritual calling.” This percentage is higher among certain groups, such as evangelical Protestants and Muslims: 33% and 30%, respectively. Viewing work in spiritual terms is also more likely among women, at 24%, and Black workers, at 31%.
And it is not just workers in explicitly religious jobs who view their work this way. One marine biologist explained to us, “I think that all truth is from God and, as a scientist, I try to understand and reveal the truth of how the world works.”
Social science research has found that people’s well-being, social interactionsand performance are harmed when they feel the need to suppress an important part of themselves within a group or organization. In other words, everyone suffers when individuals are not allowed to bring their whole selves to work.
Welcome at work
Despite such evidence, our research finds that many organizations are not taking even basic steps to accommodate individuals’ religious lives.
In one survey, we asked workers whether their “workplace provides accommodations that allow people to practice their religion.” Almost one-fifth of workers disagreed. This percentage was highest among Muslim workers: 54%.
Workers appreciate when their employers take active steps to let employees know that religious accommodations are available and that religious expression in general is not forbidden. Having upfront conversations about what is or is not appropriate – not only legally but socially – can go a long way toward setting boundaries.
A Muslim optometry technician we interviewed, for example, recounted how appreciative she was when her boss told her, “If you ever do prayers or anything, feel free to go to that room – it can be your space, you can leave your mat in there.”
Ideally, however, organizations would take active steps to establish and communicate policies to all employees, rather than reacting to situations as they arise.
While we recognize the challenges when it comes to addressing individuals’ faith in the workplace, proactively engaging in conversations about the appropriate role of religion at work is better for workers and workplaces.
Christopher P. Scheitle receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.
Denise Daniels receives funding from the Lilly Endowment.
Elaine Howard Ecklund receives funding from the Templeton Religion Trust and the Lilly Endowment.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris present dueling platforms for U.S. education. Getty Images
When it comes to education policy, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris not only have mostly distinct visions but also distinct track records.
At the same time, there are some commonalities, including the growing importance of career and technical education. What follows is a review of what the two candidates have done in the world of education while in office.
On higher education
The candidates share a concern about the high cost of higher education. But they have different visions for how to address those costs. As California’s attorney general, Harris secured a US$1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian Colleges for false advertising. The judgment provides refunds for students who were misled by claims about job placement rates, program offerings and military affiliations.
The administration has faced challenges to the constitutionality of the loan forgiveness initiative on the grounds that the president does not have the authority under present law to unilaterally cancel debt. Opponents have also said any debt forgiveness would have to be authorized by Congress. Critics say further that loan forgiveness does not address the root causes of rising costs of higher education. Loan forgiveness could cause further price increases if institutions thought that students would care less about the cost of college in anticipation of having their debt forgiven.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Trump expanded college savings 529 plans to allow parents to save up to $10,000 per year tax-free for K-12 private school tuition.
As a candidate for the presidential nomination in 2019, Vice President Harris also called for federal funding to provide teachers with an average of a $13,500 raise, though she has not made a similar call in this campaign.
As California attorney general, Harris made reducing chronic absenteeism a signature issue when she led the In School and On Track anti-truancy initiative. This initiative included additional funding to districts and schools to use data to better understand and monitor absenteeism and to communicate with parents about the importance of school attendance.
Neither Trump nor Harris has a significant record of tangible actions when it comes to early childhood education. Project 2025, which Trump has disavowed but was written by close allies of the former president, calls for eliminating Head Start, a federally funded, locally run, early childhood learning program to support low-income families.
Although Trump made several similar proposals to cut funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant by about 5%, they were not passed into law by Congress.
More recent studies of some universal pre-K programs have raised questions about how long the academic gains from early childhood programs persist. On net, however, the evidence from the highest-quality studies for high-quality early childhood programs in general, and the Head Start program in particular, suggests that they improve cognitive skills among children.
Robert Shand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Published and released in October 2024 by University of Michigan Press, the album and digital archive features two volumes of hip-hop music, an annotated timeline, several videos and a digital book. The album – originally submitted to Clemson University in South Carolina as Carson’s doctoral dissertation – has been mastered. In the following interview with The Conversation U.S., Carson explains the significance of the project and what it means for hip-hop in the world of academe.
‘Owning My Masters’ seems like a deep play on words. Is it?
Yes. The Latin word “magister” was used to describe a master or teacher in ancient Rome. I earned a master’s degree before enrolling in my doctoral program, so I own that. People probably know that the final step in the process of composing an album is called mastering. In that process, a master version of the recording is created. This is what gets duplicated and released on streaming services, vinyl or whatever way you receive music.
It’s not always guaranteed that an artist owns the rights to those recordings, but I own all of my music.
Also, the album was written in South Carolina at Clemson University, which is located on a former plantation owned by the slaveholding U.S. politician John C. Calhoun. Buildings there are named for people who had owned, enslaved and trafficked people; fought in the Civil War to preserve the right to traffic people; and lynched Black people. Earning a terminal degree from a place with that kind of reprehensible history seemed like a way to figuratively own those so-called slave masters and so-called masters and teachers.
Who is your audience for this album?
I’m always thinking about multiple audiences. For lovers of hip-hop, the album demonstrates the power and promise I feel listening to albums that have influenced me. For academics, I believe it is the future of research. Academic credentials have been used by folks to perpetuate the idea that expertise looks and sounds a certain way, and this project infiltrates that system to disprove that idea.
If you’re interested in learning about hip-hop, academia and how arguments are made, the album can be instructive, challenging, entertaining and educational.
The album had to pass through a doctoral dissertation defense committee and then academic peer review. But before then, I posted drafts on SoundCloud to get feedback from regular folks who use that site to listen to new music.
What kind of themes does the album address?
My Ph.D. is in rhetorics, communication and information designs, so it’s also about rap rhetorics – including emphasis on the local and how hip-hop can preserve information like histories and counter-histories.
Since I had moved to Clemson, and was feeling anxiety about leaving home in Illinois, I wrote “Dissertation (Part 1: The Introduction)” early on in the process. And because I lived in that South Carolina college town, “See the Stripes” is a song about Clemson’s history and its present. The song and its video moved through Clemson’s communities, but then, as protests were happening on campuses across the world, it found national and global audiences with whom the subject matter resonates. When students were finally able to get Calhoun’s name removed from the honors college in 2020, they acknowledged their work was continuing efforts since “See the Stripes.”
The album is presented in chronological order from the time I arrived on campus in 2013 until I finished my coursework and submitted the 34-song project to my dissertation committee.
I would say earning a Ph.D., earning tenure and having the album count as my academic work qualify as success. Those are things that sound kind of selfish, but I think are incredibly significant for hip-hop and for the ways we think about expertise and success in the culture.
To me, success is being able to make a living creating challenging and thought-provoking music that doesn’t have to abide by traditional notions of success like sales charts or commercial music awards. I also measure success by the inquiries and applications of students who want to do similar kinds of critical thinking and making. When those people are able to launch and sustain careers, that’s a measure of success in my eyes as well.
Why haven’t we seen more albums in academia?
Change in academia comes at a glacial pace, it seems.
Audiences associate expertise, especially regarding subjects that are considered academic, with how people have demonstrated their understanding of the matters in writing, like traditional theses, dissertations, books and essays. I believe this is connected to the histories in the U.S. that link credibility with formal education and literacy. This is difficult to separate from the history of Black folks being legally prohibited from learning to read.
While music has long been one of the ways information is recorded and passed from one generation to the next, in my experience, music itself is still not taken as seriously as a form of scholarship as writing books or essays about music.
These previously excluded forms of scholarship can change the ways people regard academia. In my mind, music sits alongside other scholarly forms that emphasize academic prose. I believe universities should make space and resources available for students to explore it the same way. More generally, I think citing more albums as scholarship – the same way journal articles and academic monographs are cited – would also be transformative.
A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
