Monday, September 22, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Calif. School District Will Get Rid Of Controversial Armored Vehicle – NPR
by BILL CHAPPELL
September 20, 2014

Yielding to residents' concerns, the San Diego Unified School District says it's returning the 18-ton MRAP, or mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, that its police department recently acquired from the Department of Defense's surplus equipment program.

San Diego officials had said the MRAP would be used only as a rescue vehicle in extreme circumstances — but that didn't satisfy the plan's critics, particularly in a summer marked by controversy over police using military-grade equipment to face off with demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo.

"Some members of our community are not comfortable with the district having this vehicle," Superintendent Cindy Marten said in explaining the decision. "If any part of our community is not comfortable with it, we cannot be comfortable with it."

As we reported last week, the six-wheel Caiman MRAP has an official value of around $733,000. The San Diego school district paid far less than that amount, needing only to cover the cost of transporting it to California from a storage facility in Texas. The MRAP drew controversy after its acquisition was reported by inewsource.org, a news partner of member station KPBS in San Diego.

"The district was forced into the national spotlight last week when news broke that its police department had acquired a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle," Joe Yerardi reports from KPBS. "The vehicle, designed to survive blasts from improvised explosive devices, was provided for free under the Department of Defense's Excess Property Program."

Yerardi adds, "Officials emphasized the MRAP was unarmed. They said it would be used as a rescue vehicle, loaded with medical supplies and even teddy bears."

Of the reversal, the head of the school district's police, Rueben Littlejohn, said the public's trust and perceptions were more valuable than the benefits the vehicle would have brought.

"Our officers understand the community's concern and are committed to continuing the mission of keeping our students and schools safe as we have done since the department's inception in 1984," he said.

The district says it's holding on to the vehicle until the Defense Department finds a new taker.




The national consciousness has clearly been raised on this issue of equipping police departments with military armaments. When I was young and still living at home the first of the racial standoffs occurred in Greensboro, NC, only 20 miles away from my home town. I will never forget the newspaper photograph of a large crowd of poor looking black people standing stubbornly up against a dozen or more policemen with large German shepherds straining at their leashes. The picture on the TV news of the military armed police coming down the street of Ferguson left me with the same pit in my stomach. We just don't need that in America.




The debate over Common Core
CBS NEWS September 21, 2014, 9:35 AM

The core issue in education this brand new school year revolves around something called the Common Core. It's a prescription for teaching and grading students that's provoked an uncommonly spirited debate around the country. Our Cover Story is reported by Jan Crawford:

It's that familiar time again: Back to school. But something unfamiliar is happening in this fifth grade Florida classroom. It's a whole new approach to education.

"Who is ready to stand up as a team and be a lawyer, and be a group of lawyers, and defend their case with this?" asked the teacher.

"Very often, the strategy is to have students talk about things with other students in the classroom; that's what happens in real life," said MaryEllen Elia, the superintendent of the Hillsborough County School District in Tampa, where K-12 learning is being transformed by a new set of high academic standards called the Common Core.

"The Common Core raises the bar for students' performance," Elia said. "We have to challenge our students in ways that have them interact more actively in learning."

Florida is one of 45 states and Washington, D.C., that initially adopted the Common Core, which outlines what students must know at every grade level.

Launched by state officials, the Core was backed by the federal government, offering grant money to states signing on.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Crawford that Common Core focuses on critical thinking skills, "and making sure that young people graduating from high school are truly prepared to be successful in college."

Secretary Duncan was visiting Nashville, Tenn., during a seven-city, back-to-schoolbus tour, spreading the word about education reform.

"How can our students fulfill their tremendous academic and social potential if we don't have high expectations?" Duncan said at a town hall meeting.

Crawford asked, "Why the need for reform of America's schools?"

"So many states, their standards were so low that kids who had worked hard, who had played by the rules, huge percentages of them weren't ready to be successful in college," said Duncan.

Or the world: The latest international exam results in math, science and reading show American kids are below average or middle-of-the-pack.

"I want to keep high-wage jobs in this country," Duncan said. "Businesses will go where the most educated workforce is. I want that to be right here in the United States."

The goal of helping kids learn more in the classroom is something that everyone can agree on. But here's a hard lesson: It's not so easy to figure out HOW to improve education.

The Common Core is now at the core of a heated national controversy.

At parent information meetings around Tampa, MaryEllen Elia sees the opposition face-to-face.

One parent asked, "Is there anything that we as parents can do to drop Common Core? Is it up to us? Is it up to you? Is it up to the state? If we get enough people after it, can we drop it?"

Some complain about new methods of teaching: "We do not like the gyrations they go through in math," said one man.

Others have a different focus, believing, according to Elia, that Common Core has "a political agenda."

"There are factions that believe that Common Core is trying to take over students' minds, that it's trying to influence them in one political position or another," she told Crawford.

And then there's the perception among some conservatives that the federal government is overreaching into state affairs. That may be one reason why Florida re-named its standards the "Florida Standards," after making several changes, like the addition of cursive writing.

Crawford asked, "Is it mainly a change in name only, to get away from the toxic 'Common Core'?"

"Yes, it probably is, to an extent," replied Elia.

Other states -- like North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Indiana and Oklahoma -- are either rethinking the Core, or have already dropped it.

And then there's New York State, where our story takes an unlikely turn.

Crawford said, "A lot of people think a lot of the criticism is from conservatives, from Tea Party groups."

Carol Burris, the principal of South Side High School on New York's Long Island, one of the top-rated schools in the country, told Crawford, "In New York and California -- now these are two very blue states -- in one year the Common Core has gone from majority approval to majority disapproval.

"There's nothing wrong with having standards," Burris said. "Schools should have standards. States should have standards. But they've got to be good standards, and they have to be realistic standards."

And Common Core, Burris said, are neither.

A self-described progressive who campaigned for President Obama, Burris has now found common ground on the Common Core with her political opposites. That's thanks in part to test questions that she says are too hard, or just plain confusing. Like this one for first graders:

“Which is a related subtraction sentence?” in which all the answers are addition rather than subtraction.

"These [answers] are all adding," said Crawford.

"Yep. I have no idea," said Burris. "To be honest with you, I still haven't figured it out."

After raising her concerns in a letter to the President, Burris got a reply from Mr. Obama, disagreeing with her, but praising her school.

"Where have you been keeping this letter now?" Crawford asked.

"In a closet," said Burris. "I just can't bear to look at it. It would just be too much of a reminder of the hope that I once had that is now gone."

That hopelessness turned to anger last fall, when Secretary Duncan made a controversial remark. He stated that "white suburban moms" are opposing the Common Core because it shows that "their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were."

That, Burris told Crawford, "was the most incredibly insulting statement I have ever heard a Secretary of Education make. You know, he walked back a little bit of the remark, but not enough."

Duncan told Crawford, "I made one sentence that I didn't say perfectly, and I apologized for that. But for me the goal, again, is to have high standards for everyone."

But is that goal even possible?

When asked if she believes Common Core will survive, Burris said no: "I think parents are going to continue to push back. So I guess you could say that I'm doing my best to make what I think is inevitable happen faster."

But back in Tampa, supporters see something else as inevitable: classrooms nationwide that look like this one, where a teacher tells her students discussing a standard algorithm that they're "stepping outside of the box."

"We have been improving standards in this country in education since 1680," she said. "I don't know of a parent, when I speak to them, that doesn't want their child to be well-prepared for college or career when they walk out of high school."




“'Why the need for reform of America's schools?' 'So many states, their standards were so low that kids who had worked hard, who had played by the rules, huge percentages of them weren't ready to be successful in college,' said Duncan..... One parent asked, 'Is there anything that we as parents can do to drop Common Core? Is it up to us? Is it up to you? Is it up to the state? If we get enough people after it, can we drop it?' Some complain about new methods of teaching: 'We do not like the gyrations they go through in math,' said one man. Others have a different focus, believing, according to Elia, that Common Core has 'a political agenda.'.... And then there's the perception among some conservatives that the federal government is overreaching into state affairs. ...'There are factions that believe that Common Core is trying to take over students' minds, that it's trying to influence them in one political position or another,' she told Crawford. And then there's the perception among some conservatives that the federal government is overreaching into state affairs. That may be one reason why Florida re-named its standards the "Florida Standards," after making several changes, like the addition of cursive writing..... 'In New York and California -- now these are two very blue states -- in one year the Common Core has gone from majority approval to majority disapproval. There's nothing wrong with having standards,' Burris said. 'Schools should have standards. States should have standards. But they've got to be good standards, and they have to be realistic standards.' And Common Core, Burris said, are neither.”

I personally was shocked when I found that cursive writing was being dropped from the curriculum in many schools. Instead, kids are using computers to type their lessons. In the first few grades the kids physical skills with their hands are still developing, and learning to print and write cursive script neatly enough to be read is an important skill that they should know. Using computers (or at least typing by the touch method) is another important thing for them to learn, but encountering an adult with a college degree who cannot write or even print legibly is off-putting. I don't think I would give him a job. In the article it states that Florida, as one of its changes to the Common Core reintroduced cursive writing. Good for them. The Common Core is meant to be modified, anyway, and adoption is voluntary.

From the comments of some of the parents and the NY high school principal and avowed progressive Carol Burris the Core standards need improving. Her example of a test question for first grade students on arithmetic was indeed inscrutable to me, as to Burris. It looks like an ordinary error on the part of the writers of the Core to me. Burris's statement that “they've got to be good standards, and they have to be realistic standards.' And Common Core are neither.”

Conservatives in some cases have claimed that Common Core is “trying to take over students' minds, that it's trying to influence them in one political position or another,” which if so is not what the school system should be used for, not even if it is a liberal leaning direction. I think schools should teach respect for all races and religious groups and a true history of the races in the last one hundred fifty years, but it should be solidly based in facts rather than philosophical argument, unless that argument is a part of classroom discussion. Classroom discussion rather than merely the memorization of historical names, events and dates, is vital to improving young people's minds and also to engendering a greater interest in the subject at hand. Also, Some conservatives have complained about the fact that states have been given federal money if they will adopt the standards, and that trying to change curriculum from the national level is a violation of “states rights.” That does sound a little off to me, if the federal government has been in effect bribing states to adopt the Core. Of course that money was probably meant to be used to reorganize and revise the state's teaching methods for the Common Core.

I do empathize with the father who said he doesn't like “the gyrations they go through in math.” Students should understand arithmetic and higher math, so they need to learn the theory behind the rote memorization tasks, but they also need the rote. Teach both at the same time so the kids can understand arithmetic and problem solving better. I have used higher math almost none at all since I got out of school (though if I had taken more statistics or scientific courses I probably would have used it), but basic arithmetic has been very useful to me in the grocery store, when doing my bank book or budgets, and other times. So, just because teachers are teaching the theories doesn't mean they should forego the multiplication tables and addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. Those are all things I have used.

I did enjoy this article. It has given enough background information for me to understand what the complaints against Common Core are and why there are so many. It really is a cultural battleground. Because it is largely conservative groups who have objected to the Core – one article a few months ago said that some conservatives accused the new curriculum of trying to “turn children into gays,” which of course means that it is trying to teach empathy and mutual respect with gays and other minorities – I have been in favor of the Core, since I thought that was pure paranoia. I'm for teaching them to be polite kids rather than young bullies. The term “politically correct” arose a couple of decades ago among people who are cynical and who like to play roughly with others. The word is “polite,” and it is a very good thing.

However, if as Burris said, the Core is not actually improving the curriculum, and especially if it is not understandable to the students, I think it would need to be modified to make it useful at all, and probably be explained thoroughly by the teacher when presenting the material. The first grade test question that is phrased “Which is a related subtraction sentence?” is in the first place at least five or six grades above a six year old's English vocabulary level, and I personally think that mathematical theory is completely inappropriate for that age group if it is not taught in conjunction with the memorization of multiplication tables and with many addition and subtraction problems. Teach them more theory in the sixth grade or so in preparation for problem solving with algebra, etc. That particular test question is also is simply a totally foreign phrase to me, but maybe if I had ever studied math to a much higher level, it would perhaps be meaningful to me. Why is the word “sentence” used to describe a mathematical sequence? That's really “New Math.”






http://www.whdh.com/story/26589647/3-afghan-soldiers-reported-missing-on-cape-cod

3 Afghan soldiers reported missing on Cape Cod
Posted: Sep 21, 2014 9:13 PM EDT, Updated: Sep 22, 2014 8:55 AM EDT
Reported by Nicole Oliverio

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. (WHDH) -Three Afghan military officers were reported missing from the Otis Air Force Base during a training exercise. 

The members of the Afghanistan National Army, who were a part of a 12-person team, were last seen near the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis Saturday night.

The soldiers were identified as Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Captain Noorullah Aminyar.

The team was there participating in a joint exercise focused on tactical strategies that involved more than 200 participants from six other nations, including the U.S., according to officials. They arrived in the country on Sept. 11 and were scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday. This is an exercise that has been going on every year since 2004.

Base and exercise officials were working with local and state authorities to locate them. There is no indication the soldiers pose any threat to the public, military officials said.

Officials are actively searching for the officers and are asking the public for any information. 



http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/09/afghan-nationals-who-disappeared-in-d-c-while-training-with-dea-found-being-sent-home-107321.html

Afghan nationals who disappeared in D.C. while training with DEA found, being sent home
By Sam Ford, ABC 7 News
September 19, 2014 -

WASHINGTON (WJLA) -- Two Afghan policemen who were in the D.C. area for drug trafficking training and vanished last weekend in Georgetown have now been found, the Drug Enforcement Administration told ABC7 News on Friday.

The two men - Mohammad Yasin Ataye, 22, and Mohd Naweed Samimi, 24 - were found safe somewhere outside of D.C., but officials would not say exactly where.

The pair were part of a group of 31 Afghan police officers who were in the U.S. for a multi-week DEA training program at Quantico, Va. They disappeared while the group was on a DEA-supervised sightseeing trip to Georgetown.

The DEA said the two men separated from the group and left because they did not want to go back to Afghanistan.

The other Afghan officers graduated the DEA program and were due to return home Friday night. These two men were being sent home along with the rest of the group, the DEA said.




The White House says these men pose no threat to us here in America, but it is still a little unnerving, especially as there are two incidents in a week or so. Still, I will be glad when these men are caught. The first group just “wanted to stay” in this country. Unfortunately they are being sent back. The group of three have still not been found, and their reasons from leaving their group are not known. I have not forgotten the several incidents of Afghan police or soldiers suddenly turning their weapons unprovoked on Americans. I hope they find these guys quickly and examine them thoroughly.





http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Limbo-and-Steel-Drum-Party-Breaks-Out-in-I-76-Traffic-275937111.html

Limbo and Steel Drum Party Breaks Out in I-76 Traffic Jam
By Sarah Glover
Monday, Sep 22, 2014

A group of motorists stranded on I-76 in Pennsylvania turned the headache of the standstill traffic into a communal steel drum and limbo party on the highway. A car flipped over in the I-76 eastbound lanes about a mile from the King of Prussia exit Saturday afternoon.

Motorists emerged from their bumper-to-bumper parked vehicles and gave new meaning to a traffic jam.

"It was better than being stuck in a snowstorm," said Justin Berk of Baltimore, who was en route to the Philadelphia Half Marathon. "I've been stuck in a lot of traffic jams and got out and people started talking to each other."

The result was a chance meeting of Berk and David Gettes of Trinidad North Steel Drum Band & Company. Gettes and percussionist Paul Downie were traveling from the Muhlenberg International Festival in Reading to Media when they got stuck.

Just after 2 p.m., Gettes pulled out his steel drum and played a pop-up set of island sounds for 15 minutes as motorists danced in a limbo line.

"We were struck in the traffic. We saw people around us frustrated. I know the magic of the (steel drum) instrument. It was not taking any toll on me to do that so why not," said Gettes.

Berk pulled out his camera to record the fun. He said the stranded motorists worked together to make the best of a bad situation.




When my sister and I used to travel by car between Thomasville, NC and Washington DC we would be fine until we got within the last twenty miles of DC, at which point the traffic would always start to slow down even without a wreck to cause it. There are just that many people trying to get into DC and the roads are clogged. An interstate with a wreck is even worse, of course. I have sat still for many minutes as they did in this case. I was really amused by this story. People when under pressure, but utterly unable to proceed forward, will tend to get progressively more frustrated and more than a little silly, as anger clearly is useless. This street party must have been great to see. I wish I could have been there.






Homeland Security has a serious employee retention problem
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS September 22, 2014, 11:31 AM

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees are leaving at much higher rates than workers across the rest of the federal government, making it difficult for the agency to fulfill its mission of combating emerging threats ranging from terrorism to cyber attacks, a Washington Post report reveals.

Interviews with current and former officials reveal that a dysfunctional work environment and low morale are the factors leading employees out of the agency at nearly twice the rate of the overall federal government. They're often lured by much more lucrative jobs at private security companies that have sprungup around Washington since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The turnover spans the entire agency, which brought 22 different federal departments together when it was established in 2002 and employs more than 240,000 people.

The terrorism intelligence arm, the Washington Post notes, has been through six directors during President Obama's six years in office. Six different commissioners have helmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with four acting as caretakers because they were never confirmed by the Senate. After five years without a confirmed commissioner, Customs and Border Protection finally got a permanent head when R. Gil Kerlikowske was confirmed by the Senate in March.

The vacancies in the immigration branches of DHS are particularly notable given their role in managing the flood of Central American children coming across the southern border.

Even junior level personnel are leaving at high rates. Kenneth Kasprisin, a former acting head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) left the agency in May, told the Washington Post that the departure of both junior and senior personnel has created security concerns. Security employees miss weapons or explosives the agency tries to sneak through U.S. airports to test their abilities at "frightening" rates.

"You cannot sustain a high level of security operations when you have that kind of turnover,'' he said.

After Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was confirmed to his post earlier this year, he raised the alarm over "a leadership vacuum" and has taken steps to address the problem, looking for ways to reward employees and increase training.

Part of the dysfunctional environment is a result of DHS's sprawling mission, which has also led to a sprawling level of congressional oversight. The two former leaders of the 9/11 Commission warned on the 10th anniversary of their post-9/11 terror report that Congress has failed to implement a key recommendation of their report, which was to reform the "dysfunctional committee structure" that oversees the agency. The number of committees and subcommittees with an oversight role has only grown in the last 10 years, up from 88 to 92, they wrote.




“Part of the dysfunctional environment is a result of DHS's sprawling mission, which has also led to a sprawling level of congressional oversight. The two former leaders of the 9/11 Commission warned on the 10th anniversary of their post-9/11 terror report that Congress has failed to implement a key recommendation of their report, which was to reform the "dysfunctional committee structure" that oversees the agency. The number of committees and subcommittees with an oversight role has only grown in the last 10 years, up from 88 to 92, they wrote.”

What's wrong at DHS? “A dysfunctional work environment and low morale” as well as higher pay being available in the private sector. When DHS was first put together as a result of 9/11, I felt that it covered too much territory, and then when Katrina hit New Orleans and FEMA was all but paralyzed it seemed to me that they had too little attention from leadership and weren't organized well enough. The fiasco with the FEMA trailers that were built in large numbers, but the agency was disorganized and slow about giving them to families in need of shelter, so they sat out in a huge field slowly falling apart. I was not only pained by that, I was embarrassed for the US government. Handling disasters, especially in an age of global warming, is cause for a separate budget and bureaucracy, I think.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, likewise, has a separate and equally overwhelming job, between working with ICE and CBP, tracking and dealing with illegal immigrants already in the US and then the very possible arrival among the immigrants of someone from an organization like al-Qaeda across that open border with Mexico instead of impoverished would be citizens seeking a better life. While I think the right-wing thinkers in our society tend to get paranoid about such things, it is a very real consideration. It is good to know that current Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has noticed “'a leadership vacuum' and has taken steps to address the problem, looking for ways to reward employees and increase training.”

I hope that the congressional committees overseeing all these agencies will be pared down to a more manageable number and clarified. Perhaps DHS should be broken up into smaller units, while they are at the task of reorganization. Perhaps the Border Patrol, ICE, and CBP should be under the same management within yet a newer umbrella organization, as their functions are similar and are not related to FEMA, for instance. I used to hear about INS, but Wikipedia tells me that they were disbanded in 2003, and that USCIS, CBP and ICE have taken over its functions. INS went back to 1933, according to Wikipedia. Now all of those three are under DHS. The Wikipedia article “United States Department of Homeland Security” is informative reading about all these departments.





Three countries spur "dangerous" rise in global pollution
CBS/AP  September 22, 2014, 12:54 PM

WASHINGTON -- Spurred chiefly by China, the United States and India, the world spewed far more carbon pollution into the air last year than ever before, scientists announced Sunday as world leaders gather to discuss how to reduce heat-trapping gases.

The world pumped an estimated 39.8 billion tons (36.1 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the air last year by burning coal, oil and gas. That is 778 million tons (706 metric tons) or 2.3 percent more than the previous year.

"It's in the wrong direction," said Glen Peters, a Norwegian scientist who was part of the Global Carbon Project international team that tracks and calculates global emissions every year.

Their results were published Sunday in three articles in the peer-reviewed journals Nature Geoscience and Nature Climate Change.

That was the same day that protesters gathered in cities around to world to demand action on climate change; more than 300,000 took to the streets in New York City.

The research team projects that emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas from human activity, are increasing by 2.5 percent this year.

The scientists forecast that emissions will continue to increase, adding that the world in about 30 years will warm by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) from now. In 2009, world leaders called that level dangerous and pledged not to reach it.

"Time is running short," said Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter in England, one of the studies' lead authors. "The more we do nothing, the more likely we are to be hitting this wall in 2040-something."

Chris Field, a Carnegie Institution ecologist who heads a U.N. panel on global warming, called the studies "a stark and sobering picture of the steps we need to take to address the challenge of climate change."

More than 100 world leaders will meet Tuesday at the U.N. Climate Summit to discuss how to reverse the emissions trend.

The world's three biggest carbon polluting nations - China, the U.S. and India - all saw their emissions jump. No other country came close in additional emissions.

Indian emissions grew by 5.1 percent, Chinese emissions by 4.2 percent and the U.S. emissions by 2.9 percent, when the extra leap day in 2012 is accounted for.

China, the No. 1 carbon polluter, also had more than half the world's increases over 2012. China's increases are slowing because the Chinese economy isn't growing as fast as it had been, Peters said.

The U.S. had reduced its carbon emissions in four of the five previous years. Peters said it rose last year because of a recovering economy and more coal power.

Only two dozen of the about 200 countries cut their carbon emissions last year, led by mostly European countries. Spain had the biggest decrease.

The world emissions averaged to 6.3 million pounds (2.9 million kilograms) of carbon dioxide put in the air every second.




“Spurred chiefly by China, the United States and India, the world spewed far more carbon pollution into the air last year than ever before, scientists announced Sunday as world leaders gather to discuss how to reduce heat-trapping gases.... The scientists forecast that emissions will continue to increase, adding that the world in about 30 years will warm by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) from now. In 2009, world leaders called that level dangerous and pledged not to reach it.... The world's three biggest carbon polluting nations - China, the U.S. and India - all saw their emissions jump. No other country came close in additional emissions. Indian emissions grew by 5.1 percent, Chinese emissions by 4.2 percent and the U.S. emissions by 2.9 percent, when the extra leap day in 2012 is accounted for.... China's increases are slowing because the Chinese economy isn't growing as fast as it had been, Peters said. The U.S. had reduced its carbon emissions in four of the five previous years. Peters said it rose last year because of a recovering economy and more coal power. Only two dozen of the about 200 countries cut their carbon emissions last year, led by mostly European countries. Spain had the biggest decrease.”

The most populous and most industrially involved nations are at the top, it seems. The higher populations, especially in cities, use carbon in several ways – to create electricity, to run vehicles and to heat buildings. The greater number of people and cities also cause logging to increase, taking a greater bite out of the world's reserves of forest land, which are getting depleted to a dangerous degree now. The growth of forests is one of the natural solutions to problem of the CO2 that is in the air, because trees consume CO2 in photosynthesis. The amount of logging is progressing, either to use the wood for houses and fuel or to clear the land for agriculture and to make a place for yet more houses as the population grows.

The US cutting back on its population growth is causing us economic problems for the Social Security and Medicare systems, as they depend on currently paid payroll taxes and fewer young people working means less money for we oldsters to use in our retirement. That's bad, but overpopulation is not a good solution, as the decrease in world population is one of the main things we need to achieve for reducing the carbon in the atmosphere. It's a really complicated problem, and the situation is becoming dire indeed.

The Republicans, most of them, are against cutting back on the population, restricting logging and factory or power plant emissions, cutting back on big farming, creating more regulations on emissions control, and “big government” activity or “interfering with the free market” in general, so it's hard to get them to vote “yes” on any of these measures that we so greatly need passed. Some of the conservatives just believe in no taxes and no regulations no matter what, but others actually believe that “God's will” will determine what happens with our CO2 problems, and that prayer is the answer. Many believe that problems that occur in the environment, even diseases like AIDS, are the result of God's punishing our society. I hate to say it, but Big Religion is getting in the way of progress.

From my definition of what God's will is – fate – it will always be a controlling factor in life, but individuals and nations, by their actions, can go a long way toward building a basically good society that is relatively safe from disasters such as famine, man-produced global warming, etc. There are laws of the universe that always proceed undeterred of course, but humans shouldn't use that fact as an excuse to do nothing at all to try to help situations around them, especially when we obviously are influencing what is occurring by our pollution and wasteful use of resources. Scientists have been talking about slowing down the population growth since I was in my twenties, but many churches still prohibit the use of birth control, or especially abortion, on doctrinal grounds. I don't see how we will really solve this CO2 problem in the US, much less on a worldwide scale, but maybe nations getting together to discuss solutions will help. At any rate, I am in favor of their trying.





The Biology Of Altruism: Good Deeds May Be Rooted In The Brain – NPR
by MICHELLE TRUDEAU
September 22, 2014

Four years ago, Angela Stimpson agreed to donate a kidney to a complete stranger.

"The only thing I knew about my recipient was that she was a female and she lived in Bakersfield, Calif.," Stimpson says.

It was a true act of altruism — Stimpson risked pain and suffering to help another. So why did she do it? It involved major surgery, her donation was anonymous, and she wasn't paid.

"At that time in my life, I was 42 years old. I was single, I had no children," Stimpson says. "I loved my life, but I would often question what my purpose is."

When she read about the desperate need for kidneys, Stimpson, a graphic artist who lives in Albany, N.Y., says she found her purpose. She now blogs about her experience and encourages others to become donors.

People like Stimpson are "extraordinary altruists," according to Abigail Marsh. She's an associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University and one of the country's leading researchers into altruism.

Marsh herself was the beneficiary of extraordinary altruism when she was 20. She got into a freak highway accident and ended up stalled in the fast lane facing oncoming traffic. A man dodged traffic to come to her aid and help get her car started. He saved her life, she says, then disappeared before she could ask his name.

Marsh wanted to know more about this type of extraordinary altruism, so she decided to study the brains of people who had donated a kidney to a stranger. Of the 39 people who took part in the study, 19 of them, including Angela Stimpson, were kidney donors.

Marsh took structural images to measure the size of different parts of their brains and then asked the participants to run through a series of computer tests while their brains were being scanned using functional MRI. In one test, they were asked to look at pictures of different facial expressions, including happiness, fear, anger, sadness and surprise.

Most of the tests didn't find any differences between the brains of the altruistic donors and the people who had not been donors. Except, Marsh says, for a significant difference in a part of the brain called the amygdala, an almond-shaped cluster of nerves that is important in processing emotion.

The amygdala was significantly larger in the altruists compared to those who had never donated an organ. Additionally, the amygdala in the altruists was extremely sensitive to the pictures of people displaying fear or distress.

These findings are the polar opposite to research Marsh conducted on a group of psychopaths. Using the same tests as with the altruists, Marsh found that psychopaths have significantly smaller, less active amygdalas. More evidence that the amygdala may be the brain's emotional compass, super-sensitive in altruists and blunted in psychopaths, who seem unresponsive to someone else's distress or fear.




“When she read about the desperate need for kidneys, Stimpson, a graphic artist who lives in Albany, N.Y., says she found her purpose. She now blogs about her experience and encourages others to become donors. People like Stimpson are "extraordinary altruists," according to Abigail Marsh. She's an associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University and one of the country's leading researchers into altruism.... Of the 39 people who took part in the study, 19 of them, including Angela Stimpson, were kidney donors. Marsh took structural images to measure the size of different parts of their brains and then asked the participants to run through a series of computer tests while their brains were being scanned using functional MRI.... The amygdala was significantly larger in the altruists compared to those who had never donated an organ. Additionally, the amygdala in the altruists was extremely sensitive to the pictures of people displaying fear or distress. These findings are the polar opposite to research Marsh conducted on a group of psychopaths. Using the same tests as with the altruists, Marsh found that psychopaths have significantly smaller, less active amygdalas. More evidence that the amygdala may be the brain's emotional compass, super-sensitive in altruists and blunted in psychopaths, who seem unresponsive to someone else's distress or fear.”

This is striking research, and if psychopaths do have smaller amygdalas, that explains why they are so very dangerous as they grow up. The law tries to define insanity as being “the inability to tell right from wrong.” I don't think insane people are unable to make a moral distinction like that, but are unable to change their behavior, are lacking in compassion, or are plagued by delusions and hallucinations that thoroughly confuse and frighten them. Unfortunately they do often commit horrible crimes (Jack the Ripper, for instance) but they may well “know right from wrong.” They just can't resist the thrill of killing and torturing someone, plus possibly raping them. It is the only really good reason, in my view, for the death penalty, with it's problems of how to administer a quick and relatively painless death and worse, the fear of executing someone who was incorrectly prosecuted and imprisoned for a crime that someone else did. If this research is verified by other scientists, it seems to me that such a criminal could be examined to see what size his amygdala is. It shouldn't be the only test of psychopathy, but could be used as a factor in whether or not the criminal should be executed.