Friday, March 14, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Ukraine crisis: Russia reserves right to "take people under its protection" in Donetsk as John Kerry meets Lavrov – CBS
CBS/AP March 14, 2014

LONDON -- As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart met in London Friday in a last-ditch effort to find some common ground over the Russian invasion of Crimea, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning suggesting Moscow was willing to expand its military actions in Ukraine into another region.

The Foreign Ministry released a statement, according to the Reuters news agency, saying Moscow "reserves the right to take people under its protection" in light of clashes between pro-Moscow and pro-Western demonstrators in the city of Donetsk on Thursday.

One person was killed Thursday evening as the clashes -- which have occurred almost daily in the majority-ethnic Russian region -- became violent for the first time.
"Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine," said the statement obtained by Reuters.

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov -- recognized by the U.S. and Europe, but not Russia, as the legitimate leader of the nation -- said Monday that Russian forces massed on the border with Ukraine were "ready to invade," but he believed Moscow's "aggression" could still be stopped.

Russian forces have secured control over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, to the south of Donetsk, and Russia's parliament has given President Vladimir Putin permission to use the military to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

CBS News' Charlie D'Agata reports that, contrary to rampant Russian propaganda in the region suggesting the violence was being instigated by "fascist" backers of the new administration in Kiev, there has been violence from both sides.

"We are doing all we can to avoid war, whether in Crimea or in any other region of Ukraine," said Turchynov, adding that the country's forces were at full combat readiness.

"All of civilized humanity supports our country," said Turchynov. "All the leading countries of the world are on the side of Ukraine, and I am sure that this united effort in the international arena, bringing together all democratic countries, can still allow us to halt this aggression.

Those hopes were pinned Friday on a last-ditch diplomatic effort in London, where Secretary Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sat down together, again, to try and negotiate a path to reduce the tensions between the old Cold War foes in Ukraine.

Before the doors were closed on the meeting, Lavrov stood next to Kerry and admitted it was going to be a "difficult" morning of negotiations. "Many events have happened and a lot of time has been lost, so now we have to think what can be done."

President Obama has warned that if Russia refuses to reduce its military presence in eastern Ukraine, there will be "costs" for Moscow.

Secretary Kerry said earlier this week that if Russia tried to co-opt even more territory in Ukraine, it would trigger extremely punishing sanctions against Russia.
"It can get ugly fast if the wrong choices are made," said Kerry, "it can get ugly in multiple directions."

With little hope left of halting a Sunday vote to separate Crimea from the rest of the country, however, the West is poised to impose harsh sanctions on Russia for what U.S. officials described as Moscow's insistence in undermining the new upstart government in Kiev, and fueling tensions among those who oppose it.

On Sunday, Ukraine's pro-Russian Crimea region will vote whether to secede, and perhaps join Russia, in anger over new leaders in Kiev who seek to forge stronger economic ties with Europe.

A small group of Ukrainian protesters with posters reading "NATO Save Ukraine" awaited Kerry as he arrived at Downing Street for a meeting with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague ahead of his talks with Lavrov.

Cameron underlined the threat of sanctions when he sat down with Kerry, telling him that "we want to see progress as much as you do."

"We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other. And if they don't then there are going to have to be consequences," he added.

Kerry thanked his British hosts for their strong position, saying that "we're all hoping that we don't get pushed into a place where we have to do all this. But we'll see what happens."

The PM, @JohnKerry & @WilliamJHague are meeting to discuss US-UK shared position on #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/UolSdJFIR8
— UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) March 14, 2014

European and U.S. leaders have repeatedly urged Moscow to pull back its troops in Crimea, and stop encouraging local militias there that are hyping up the vote as a choice between re-joining generations of ties with Russia or return to echoes of fascism from Ukraine's dark World War II era, when some residents cooperated with the Nazi occupiers.

Western officials instead have asked Russia to start diplomatic talks with Kiev as a way of de-escalating the tensions.

But the Crimea vote seemed all but a done deal -- and experts said it would almost certainly result in breaking away from Ukraine.

Kerry told a Senate panel on Thursday that he planned to make clear how high the stakes are when he sees Lavrov in London. He suggested he would press Russia to accept "something short of a full annexation" of Crimea -- but did not elaborate on what that might entail.

"There will be a response of some kind of the referendum itself and, in addition, if there is no sign of any capacity to be able to move forward and resolve this issue, there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday in Europe and here," Kerry told senators.

"My hope is that they will come aware of the fact that the international community is really strong and united on this issue," he said.

The showdown has been cast as a struggle for the future of Ukraine, a country with the size and population similar to France, which is caught between its long-standing ties and traditions with Russia and more progressive and economic opportunities in the West. Twice in as many months, Russia has moved thousands of troops to its border with Ukraine that U.S. officials have described as an intimidation tactic cloaked as a military exercise.

It was not clear, however, whether Russia would heed the warnings, and Moscow has refused demands by the West to pull back troops from Crimea and respect Ukraine's territorial boundaries. Under a long-standing security agreement with Ukraine, Russia is allowed to deploy up to 25,000 troops to the Crimean Peninsula, and has a large navy there.

"There are limits on how much blunt force, in terms of sanctions and isolation, will move somebody who doesn't seem to have been particularly responsive to that throughout his career," said John Norris, a security expert at the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress think-tank in Washington. He was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kerry and Lavrov have spoken almost daily as the Ukraine crisis has unfolded but have yet to find any common ground.


Donetsk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donetsk is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius River. Administratively, it is a centre of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbas) region. The city of Donetsk is adjacent to another major city of Makiivka and along with other surrounding cities forms a major urban sprawl and conurbation in the region. Donetsk is a major economic, industrial and scientific centre of Ukraine with a high concentration of companies and a skilled workforce.

Renamed Donetsk in 1961, the city today remains the centre for Ukraine's coal mining and notable steel industry centre.
Donetsk currently has a population of over 982,000 inhabitants (2010)[1] and has a metropolitan area of over 2,000,000 inhabitants (2011). According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, Donetsk is the fifth-largest city in Ukraine.[

After the Euromaidan, and influenced by the Supreme Council of Crimea announcing the Crimean referendum, 2014 about the future of Crimea, the council of the Donetsk Oblast voted to have a referendum to decide the future of the oblast.[10] On 3 March, a number of people started storming Donetsk Oblast administrative building, waving Russian flags and shouting ″Russia!″ and ″Berkut are heroes!″. The police did not offer resistance. [11] Later in the week the authorities of Donetsk denounced the referendum on the status of the region.[12] And the police retook the Donetsk Oblast administrative building.[13][14]

Whether or not the Ukrainian Opposition are tinged by anti-Jewish attitudes and beliefs, Russia has such a long and unmitigated history of suppressive government and aggression against its former states that they are not a preferable option in this case. Russia also has been among the worst of nations for pogroms against Jews.

From the news article, “...Echoes of fascism from Ukraine's dark World War II era, when some residents cooperated with the Nazi occupiers” – so there is a fascist leaning element in the Ukrainian background. See the Slate article on this website: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/02/20/russia_says_the_ukrainian_protesters_are_fascists_and_nazis_are_they.html.

“The Russian government has a habit of throwing around labels like this a bit casually, but in this case—while undoubtedly self-serving—it’s not completely inaccurate.

One of the three figures who form the Maidan movement’s unlikely leadership coalition, along with boxer Vitali Klitschko and former Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, is Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the nationalist Svoboda party who has a habit of doing things like referring to the country’s government as a “Jewish-Russian mafia.” The party traces its roots to a Nazi-allied partisan army during World War II  and was known as the Social-National Party—in reference to National Socialism—until 2004. Last month the party held a torch-lit march in honor of Stepan Bandera—a controversial figure viewed by some as a Nazi collaborator.  

The rebranded party’s election to parliament for the first time in 2012 concerned many Ukrainian Jews, though Tyahnybok has unconvincingly defended himself from charges of anti-Semitism, saying, "I personally have nothing against common Jews, and even have Jewish friends, but rather against a group of Jewish oligarchs who control Ukraine and against Jews-Bolsheviks [in the past].”

It’s clear that the protests against the government by supporters of European integration started before Svoboda showed up and that the party's presence does not represent all—or even most—of the protesters in Kiev, which include a fair number of Jews. But Tyahnybok’s role has certainly made things awkward for the movement's international supporters.

Naturally, it is important to be attentive to the far right in Ukrainian politics and history. It is still a serious presence today, although less important than the far right in France, Austria, or the Netherlands. Yet it is the Ukrainian regime rather than its opponents that resorts to anti-Semitism, instructing its riot police that the opposition is led by Jews. In other words, the Ukrainian government is telling itself that its opponents are Jews and us that its opponents are Nazis.

The European Union is based on a historical lesson: that the wars of the twentieth century were based on false and dangerous ideas, National Socialism and Stalinism, which must be rejected and indeed overcome in a system guaranteeing free markets, free movement of people, and the welfare state. Eurasianism, by contrast, is presented by its advocates as the opposite of liberal democracy.

Svoboda’s prominence within the opposition movement is certainly concerning, not only because of the possibility it could now play a more prominent role in the future politics, but because it has  allowed an increasingly authoritarian leader and his blatantly authoritarian international backers to make the case that their opponents are the ones who pose a threat to democracy.




The cultural war between Jews and Christians in Europe is not dead. France has active antisemitism at this time and so does Germany. Still, their governments are democratic and work to put down antisemitic groups within their populations, and are invaluable allies to the US. There is even antisemitism in the US. The fear and hatred of the “other” is an unfortunate, but strong trend in the human personality and is based in feelings of insecurity and group cohesiveness which cause the need for a scapegoat. I don't think we need to fear backing Ukraine, since antisemitism is not the dominant element in their Opposition movement.




Obama orders review of controversial deportation policies – CBS
AP March 14, 2014

WASHINGTON -- With prospects for real immigration reform fading, President Obama is yielding to pressure from some of his staunchest allies and looking for ways to act without Congress to ease the suffering caused by deportation.

An Oval Office meeting with three Latino lawmakers brought about a late-night announcement from the White House on Thursday: Mr. Obama is directing his homeland security chief, Jeh Johnson, to review America's deportation program, with an eye toward finding more humane ways to enforce the law without contravening it.

It was unexpected, coming from a president who said as recently as last week that when it came to deportations, he's already stretched his presidential powers to the max.

Preferring a lasting legislative solution for one of the president's top priorities, the White House had wanted to avoid this course, knowing that any steps Mr. Obama takes that are perceived as overreaching will only give Republicans excuses to avoid dealing with immigration. After all, the GOP has already cast Mr. Obama as a president gone wild, citing endless changes to his health care law and his move to allow children brought to the U.S. illegally to stay here.

But what started as ordinary griping from a constituency that's been among Mr. Obama's most loyal has spiraled, with prominent Latino leaders denouncing Mr. Obama as the "deporter in chief." Advocates who had long given Mr. Obama the benefit of the doubt determined that his persistent efforts to push lawmakers to act were not enough - they were done waiting for Congress.

"It is clear that the pleas from the community got through to the president," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., adding that the White House had been "dormant for too long."

What is not clear is how far Mr. Obama will go - or what options are even available to mitigate the pain without consent from Congress.

White House officials declined to answer questions Thursday about what the government could do to make deportation more humane or whether there's a timeline for Homeland Security to finish an inventory and report back to Mr. Obama. But immigration activists will likely renew their call for Mr. Obama to halt deportations of parents of children brought to the U.S. illegally, among other steps.

"The president emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system," read a statement from Mr. Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney.

The conversation will start Friday, when Mr. Obama plans to meet with organizations working to pass bipartisan immigration legislation.

Separation of families is, in part, an incidental consequence of Mr. Obama's 2012 executive order that removed the threat of deportation for kids brought to the U.S. illegally, but did not extend that protection to their parents. A former law professor, Mr. Obama has insisted that he's already "stretched my administrative capacity very far."

"I cannot ignore those laws any more than I could ignore any of the other laws that are on the books," Mr. Obama said last week in a virtual town hall with Spanish-language media outlets.

Gutierrez, who represents a largely Hispanic district in Mr. Obama's hometown of Chicago, exemplifies the shift that's occurred among many immigration advocates. A liberal Democrat, Gutierrez has become a vocal critic of Mr. Obama on immigration, and on the House floor last week called Mr. Obama the "deporter in chief," parroting a nickname given to him a day earlier by the head of the National Council of La Raza, a powerful advocacy group.

Under Mr. Obama's leadership, almost 2 million people have been removed from the U.S.
So as grumblings among Latino members of Congress grew louder on Thursday, Mr. Obama invited Gutierrez and two other Congressional Hispanic Caucus members to a meeting at the White House that wasn't listed on Mr. Obama's public schedule. After the meeting ended, the White House said Mr. Obama still intends to pressure Republicans to pass an immigration overhaul, but would take another look at deportation policies in the meantime.

A top second-term priority for Mr. Obama, immigration appeared to be an area of potential bipartisan agreement coming out of the 2012 election, in which Republicans lost the Hispanic vote by a wide margin. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill in June with strong bipartisan support that would create a pathway for citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, tighten border security, and establish new visa and enforcement programs.

But the measure stalled in the House, despite calls for lawmakers to act from Republican leaders, business groups, religious organizations and labor. Although House Republicans said they wanted to pursue their own, piecemeal approach, Speaker John Boehner has acknowledged that stands little chance of happening this year, as Congress becomes consumed with midterm elections.




House Republican leaders want to write a piecemeal bill on Immigration, but probably won't do it this year. The Senate , however, has passed comprehensive bill that allows a path to citizenship. It would also tighten border security and create new visa and enforcement programs. Meanwhile the Homeland Security chief is ordered to look for more humane ways to enforce the existing law without rewriting it. What those changes would be has not been stated. I will follow articles on this as they are published.




Marijuana job fair attracts hundreds of job-seekers – CBS
By Bruce Kennedy Money Watch March 14, 2014

You could forgive the organizers of the CannaSearch event in Denver for appearing a bit shell-shocked, if elated, on Thursday, when they looked at the turn-out for what is believed to be the nation's first-ever marijuana industry job fair.

Tim Cullen, a marijuana entrepreneur who co-owns two cannabis shops in Colorado and is a founding partner of the group hosting CannaSearch, stared at the estimated 1,200 people waiting in line, in blustery weather, outside his company's offices.
"People started showing up about 6 a.m. this morning, for the doors opening at 11 a.m.," he said. "The line is longer than a block now."

Inside, representatives from 15 marijuana-related companies were meeting with job-seekers and struggling to be heard above the din.

"It's been great,"said Pete Vasquez, general manager of Medicine Man, a medicinal and recreational marijuana dispensary in Denver. "We've had hundreds of people stop by the booth. I have stacks of resumes right here in front of me, lots of cards given out. I'm sure we're going to find a great bunch of people to add to our company."
Shannon Foreman, owner of Hemp Temps, a marijuana industry staffing agency, found the response to the job fair nearly overwhelming, but very welcome. "We fill [positions] based on what the need is," she said. "Right now the need is outrageous, and we're trying to fill that."

Twenty states and the District of Columbia have legalized the sale of marijuana for medicinal use. As of January 1, the sale of recreational cannabis to adults also became legal in Colorado and Washington state.

Those changes have not only brought the marijuana industry out of the shadows, but also sparked an industrywide need for employees, from entry-level "budtenders" to CPAs and bookkeepers.

Back outside, and on a line that stretched around the corner and down a city block, people from all over the country were talking about their plans for working in the cannabis industry.

Nelson Lopez, 21, of Bellville, Texas, had decided at the last minute to make the 14-hour drive to Denver with his sister and a family friend. "I'm looking for an entry-level position," he said, "but it's just being here. It's the first job fair ever for cannabis."

Jack Valin, 27, and dressed for business in a suit and tie, moved to Denver over the weekend from Chicago, where he spent the last six months trying to find work.

"I have a hospitality degree, so I've been looking in the hotels, casinos, sales positions," he said. "I'm just looking all over."

Valin said he's not sure what kind of job he expects to find in the cannabis trade. "It's more about just coming out here," he said, "getting my name, using what credentials I've got from working in a cash-based industry in Chicago... to get my foot in the door somewhere, at least."

Others waiting on line had more specific goals. Missouri native Toni Chambers, who lives outside of Kansas City, wants to work in cannabis-related healthcare. "I believe in the medical use of this, very much," she said.

Chambers worked in California for several years as an in-home caretaker, and says she's seen the positive benefits of marijuana for patients with a variety of ailments. "I want to be able to take care of people that believe in this, and even people that don't -- that think that it's a problem, that it's a drug -- and show them that it's not," she said.

Chambers, married and a mother of two young children, says her family is planning on moving to Colorado in the next several months.

For his part, Tim Cullen believes the tepid economic recovery has played a role in the success of CannaSearch. "But I also think it's a new frontier," he added, noting that his group is already scheduling their next job fair. "Cannabis legalization in Colorado has gotten a lot of news, and there are people who are willing to relocate and come to Colorado to be a part of this."




The legalization of medical marijuana has “brought the marijuana industry out of the shadows, but also sparked an industrywide need for employees, from entry-level "budtenders" to CPAs and bookkeepers.” This surprises me. I didn't realize how many people are users of marijuana for either medical purposes or entertainment and therefore providing a market for it. I wonder how many states will legalize it. Just think, maybe it can add jobs in every state that does, as it brings in new businesses. I'm not sure I like this, though. I think that it damages brain cells and will tend to become at least psychologically addictive, if not physically. It's a major public health problem in the making.




'Love hormone' may help those with anorexia – CBS
By Randy Dotinga Health Day March 14, 2014

A small, preliminary study hints that a hormone connected to positive feelings could help ease obsessions with food and obesity in people with anorexia.

"Patients with anorexia have a range of social difficulties, which often start in their early teenage years before the onset of the illness," senior study author Janet Treasure, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, in England, said in a university news release.

"These social problems, which can result in isolation, may be important in understanding both the onset and maintenance of anorexia," Treasure said. "By using [the hormone] oxytocin as a potential treatment for anorexia, we are focusing on some of these underlying problems we see in patients."

Oxytocin is sometimes called the "love hormone." It's released during bonding activities like childbirth and sex, and researchers have linked artificial forms of it to lowering anxiety in people with autism.

In the new study, researchers gave oxytocin or a placebo, via nasal spray, to 31 patients with anorexia and 33 healthy "control" patients. They all were asked to look at sequences of images relating to different types of food, and different body shapes and weights. The researchers measured how quickly participants identified the images. If they had a tendency to focus on the negative images, they would identify them more quickly.

After taking oxytocin, the anorexic patients appeared to be less obsessed about images of food and obesity, the researchers said. The study did not, however, prove a cause-and-effect link between oxytocin and the decreased feelings of obsession.
"This is early stage research with a small number of participants, but it's hugely exciting to see the potential this treatment could have," Treasure said. "We need much larger trials on more diverse populations before we can start to make a difference in how patients are treated."

The study appears in the March 12 issue of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.


Oxytocin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oxytocin (Oxt) /ˌɒksɨˈtoʊsɪn/ is a mammalian neurohypophysial hormone (secreted by the posterior pituitary gland) that acts primarily as a neuromodulator in the brain.
Oxytocin plays an important role in the neuroanatomy of intimacy, specifically in sexual reproduction, in particular during and after childbirth. It is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and uterus during labor, facilitating birth, maternal bonding, and after, stimulation of the nipples, lactation. Both childbirth and milk ejection result from positive feedback mechanisms.[1]

Recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin's role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors.[2] For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the "bonding hormone". There is some evidence that oxytocin promotes ethnocentric behavior, incorporating the trust and empathy of in-groups with their suspicion and rejection of outsiders.[3] Furthermore, genetic differences in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) have been associated with maladaptive social traits such as aggressive behaviour.[4]


If this hormone can reduce all tendencies toward obsession, it might be useful in combating alcoholism and other drug addictions, which have a large mental component not to mention the psychological condition obsessive compulsive disorder, or “OCD” and some other psychotic illnesses involving obsessions. The stalker who keeps trying to follow you around could be cured, rather than merely jailed.

In this Wikipedia article, however, it says that it may also cause aggressive and ethnocentric behavior. We seem to have a lot of ethnocentric behavior in the US and especially the South. A persistent and conscious effort to confront our hatred of the “other” can remove it, I believe. As our federal government works to combat racist and other bullying events, and has made hate crimes more strongly punished, we could maybe work on some mental health issues from this new angle without causing another problem.




University offers to pay students for year off --CBS
AP March 14, 2014

MEDFORD, Mass. - A new program at Tufts University hopes to remove the financial barriers keeping cash-strapped U.S. students from taking a year off after high school to travel or volunteer, offering an opportunity now typically only available to more affluent students to explore different communities and challenge their comfort zones before starting university.

This "gap year" program launching this fall will pay for housing, airfare and even visa fees, which can often add up to $30,000 or more.

Although gap years are more popular in Europe, they have started to gain traction in the United States. About 40,000 Americans participated in gap year programs in 2013, an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2006, according to data gathered by a nonprofit called the American Gap Year Association.

Princeton University began offering full aid to need-based applicants in 2009 and nearly 100 students have participated, volunteering in Brazil, China, India, Peru and Senegal. The University of North Carolina offers $7,500 to gap year applicants, while students at Wisconsin's St. Norbert College can receive financial aid based on need, although airfare isn't covered.

Lydia Collins, 19, a Tufts freshman from Illinois said she took a gap year because she wanted to see what was outside of the classroom before committing to four more years of school.

"A lot of kids are very burnt out after high school," Collins said. "Taking this time to be with yourself and see yourself in a new community and light will only help you to succeed in college."

Collins worked in microfinance in Ecuador through Global Citizen and said the experience inspired her to pursue international relations, something she would not have known about beforehand.

Students who take part are able to see the world beyond the bubble they grew up in and return to school with a better perspective of their future, said Holly Bull, president of the Center of Interim Programs, which counsels students on taking gap years. Bull said the benefit of the structured time away from school is too valuable to exclude lower-income students.

"Students return to the classroom more focused, independent and confident," said Bull, who took a gap year herself to Hawaii and Greece, and said the students also tend to have less trouble adjusting to dormitory life.

"This experience taught me that everything I learn in the classroom will be able to help me when I leave Princeton," said Jeremy Rotblat, a 19-year-old Princeton freshman from New Jersey, who said his experience volunteering at a hospital in Senegal better prepared him for college. "It is easy at times to question the purpose behind all the school work. But seeing the value firsthand encourages me to push myself academically."

Students selected for Tufts' 4+1 program will be able to defer their admission for a year while still remaining tied to the university through video chat and email. Tufts will work with organizations including Global Citizen, City Year and Lift -- which offer volunteering positions in areas such as education, economics, health and the environment 7/8- to create packages that fit students' financial needs, including travel and living costs.

Patrick Callan, founding president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, applauds the gap year experience, but said structure is key.
"Sometimes, for less motivated students, taking a year off could lead to them never coming back," he said, adding that students that go in without concrete goals can be sidetracked from their studies. "You need to come in having a plan."




“Structured time away from school,” with structure being the key, will probably provide real growth as a person, especially if the student's activities involving “giving back” to people. I'm so glad to see this, because so many of us couldn't afford such a thing when we were young. Patrick Callan stresses that the student needs to have a game plan in place upon entering college, or the year without studies can sidetrack him rather than making him more focused on his studies. However, it seems to me that a year doing volunteer work in another culture can only open the student's mind and make him more rounded as a student, just like a good liberal arts education does. I'm glad to see that my alma mater UNC at Chapel Hill is one of the colleges which is offering the program. In more than a few ways, UNC is a very good college.




­A Boom In Oil Is A Boon For U.S. Shipbuilding Industry – NPR
by Jackie Northam
March 14, 2014
­
Scott Clapham peers down into a cavernous dry dock at the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard. He points to massive pieces of steel, some covered with a light dusting of snow. When assembled, they will form a 115,000-ton oil tanker.

It's one of two oil tankers being constructed for SeaRiver Maritime, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil, costing $200 million apiece. It takes roughly 1,000 workers more than a year to build, and the shipyard already has orders for four more tankers and two container ships, says Clapham, the senior vice president of Aker Philadelphia. He says orders for large vessels have shot up in the past year.

"We've seen, since 2013, just a steady increase in demand for the ships, both here in Philadelphia and other shipyards across the country," Clapham says.

The energy boom in the U.S. is having a knock-on effect on the country's shipbuilding industry. Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, says there is a relative boom in the construction of larger vessels at major shipyards across the country, especially oil tankers. He says three years ago, the tanker market wasn't even on the screen, but shale formations in North Dakota and Texas have changed that.

"All this oil is coming down to the Gulf Coast and we're going to need to move that oil around the United States to refiners," he says.

There are more than 15 oil tankers, along with hundreds of smaller tugs and barges, on order at U.S. shipyards across the country, according to the American Maritime Partnership. But it will take months, if not years, to build them.

In the meantime, the domestic energy supply is booming, yet oil companies cannot bring in foreign ships to help move the oil and gas around the country thanks to a 1920s federal law called the Jones Act. Tom Allegretti, the chairman of the American Maritime Partnership, says under the Jones Act, you can only move cargo between two ports in the U.S. under certain conditions.

"You need to do that on a vessel that is flagged under U.S. law, that is crewed by American citizens and that is built in a U.S. shipyard," Allegretti says. He says the Jones Act helps create jobs and keeps U.S. waterways in the hands of Americans.
But others say the Jones Act is pure protectionism for shipbuilders and unions. William Gray, an expert and consultant in shipbuilding, operations and regulations, says a lack of competition means the U.S. shipbuilders became less efficient and not as technologically advanced as builders in other parts of the world.

After A Downturn, Global Shipping Bets Big On Everything
"The designing of ships and the engines for ships and the equipment for ships; the United States was not very good at figuring out how to do that," Gray says.
Gray says shipbuilding in the U.S. has declined dramatically since World War II, and that there are only a handful of major shipyards now. A good percentage of those vessels being built are ordered by the Navy. Gray says the industry cannot keep up with the demand for merchant ships at an affordable price.

"We have very few of these shipyards that we used to have that made the larger ships: tankers, bulk carriers and container ships," he says. He says the cost is about three times as much as you find in shipyards in China, Japan and South Korea.

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard's Clapham agrees the Jones Act allows U.S. builders to capitalize on the surge in domestic oil and gas. He says without that federal law, ships would more likely be built overseas.

"The Jones Act, with its requirement to be built in the U.S., greatly helps support the manufacturing facility that you see here," he says.

But until more tankers come on line, energy companies may have to rely more on rail, pipeline and road to transport the glut of domestic oil and gas.




“It takes roughly 1,000 workers more than a year to build, and the shipyard already has orders for four more tankers and two container ships,” which is no small addition to the jobs market if each ship requires 1000 workers. The energy boom in the U.S is largely because of increased fracking. Unfortunately the US can't build the ships fast enough to move as much oil and gas as we have available. Due to the Jones Act, or the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, foreign ships cannot be used nor bought by US oil companies for the purpose. From this news article, it will take in the range of a year to complete each of those tankers, and in the meantime rail, trucking and pipelines will move the oil. Hopefully this activity between the ship building and the sale of the oil and gas will measurably improve our economy over the next few years.