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Circa 1890. "Frances Benjamin Johnston, self-portrait, dressed as a man with false mustache." The Washington, D.C., photographer was one of the first women to rise to prominence in the profession. Albumen print.
link: Incognito: 1890 | Shorpy Photo Archive
John W. McArthur writes:
Our global coping mechanisms are on a brink. The World Food Program is slashing emergency humanitarian programs amidst a reported $5 billion budget gap. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria faces its own multi-billion dollar gap that will prevent live-saving services from reaching millions of people. The H1N1 virus has officially reached global pandemic proportions, with uncertain implications. Meanwhile climate change proceeds at a quietly relentless pace, straining ecosystems and social systems across the planet.
How to manage the complexity? In the United States, the Obama Administration has been criticized for setting too many priorities at once. Yet the critique of an overcrowded plate overlooks the fundamental challenge of modern public leadership. Today there is no choice but to tackle a multidimensional global agenda. Which among macroeconomic coordination, food production, energy, climate change, or disease control could be considered optional at this stage?
The reality is that problem-solving must now be both multilateral and multisectoral. Even in the United States, the world's richest country by many measures, long term prosperity hinges on concerted progress across health care, education, energy and infrastructure. Foreign policy success will hinge on programs to address global health, agriculture, and climate change. It is far from trivial that budget director Peter Orszag has stressed health care performance as the single biggest priority for America's long term fiscal wellbeing. Nor are the climate-linked agricultural and economic warnings of Energy Secretary Steven Chu to be taken lightly.
link: John W. McArthur: A New Approach to Global Problem-Solving
Oliver Sacks writes:
There are certain passions—one wants to call them innocent, ingenuous passions—that are great democratizers. Baseball, music, and bird-watching come immediately to mind. At the herring festival, there was no talk about the stock market, or gossiping about celebrities. People had come to eat herring—to savor them, to compare them. In its purest form, this meant seizing the new herring by the tail and lowering them gently into the mouth. The sensation this produces is voluptuous, especially as they slip down the throat.
link: An annual herring festival: The Talk of the Town: The New Yorker
With U.S. unemployment at a 20-year high, some Americans are working for free while looking for a job, but experts are split over whether it is a sign of dedication or desperation.
Unpaid job seekers can keep their resumes fresh by boosting their experience and learning new skills, experts say, but others warn businesses may take advantage of the jobless and that it is illegal for commercial companies not to pay workers.
link: Crisis spurs people to work for free - good or bad? | U.S. | Reuters
Electric car sales could jump to 86 percent of U.S. light vehicle sales in 2030 if consumers don't have to buy batteries themselves, according to a University of California, Berkeley study to be released on Monday.
A company called Better Place and emerging rivals plan to offer pay-per-mile plans, similar to cell phone minutes. A family would buy a car but Better Place would own the battery, offer charging stations, and swap out batteries as needed to extend the driving range.
The cost of building charging systems will be more than $320 billion over the next couple of decades, although health-related savings due to less vehicle pollution could be $210 billion, according to the study by economist Thomas Becker.
The main benefit to drivers would be cars with price tags and operating costs similar to or less than gasoline models.
link: Electric cars could dominate U.S. roads in 2030 | U.S. | Reuters
A defeated candidate in Iran's disputed election has said the Islamic system may face "collapse" unless it embraces change, in unusually blunt language from a prominent establishment figure.
Conservative Mohsen Rezaie, a former Revolutionary Guards commander who finished third in the June 12 vote won by hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for national unity in a statement posted on his website on Sunday evening.
"Continuation of the current situation would lead us to collapse from inside," he wrote. "We need cooperation and brotherhood. We need to respect people and their rights."
link: Iran defeated candidate warns of system collapse | International | Reuters
Amphibians around the world synchronise their mating activity by the full Moon, researchers have discovered.
This global phenomenon has never been noticed before, but frogs, toads and newts all like to mate by moonlight.
The animals use the lunar cycle to co-ordinate their gatherings, ensuring that enough males and females come together at the same time.
In doing so the creatures maximise their spawning success and reduce their odds of being eaten.
link: BBC - Earth News - Amphibians mate under a full Moon
Nick Anderson writes:
As the Obama administration considers new legislation to fix schools, House Republicans have chosen an education policy leader who is eager to turn the page on the No Child Left Behind era and roll back federal mandates for testing students.
The ascent of Rep. John P. Kline (Minn.) last month to ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee marked a watershed. For the first time since enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002 under President George W. Bush, the top GOP member on a congressional education committee is not someone who voted for the landmark law. Kline wasn't even in Congress at the time.
Unlike his predecessors, who gave Bush crucial support for the law, Kline said he is not committed to the core requirement of testing all students in reading and math in grades three through eight, and once more in high school. He said he wants to give states "maximum latitude."
"I'm not looking to tweak No Child Left Behind," Kline said. "As far as I'm concerned, we ought to go in and look at the whole thing."
link: Key Republican Ready to Roll Back Testing Mandates of ‘No Child Left Behind' - washingtonpost.com
