Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates(Photo: Nina Subin/Marvel Comics via AP)

Like a literary superhero, Ta-Nehisi Coates is able to leap the huge stylistic divide between the intellectual commentary and mass-market comic books in a single bound.

He wona National Book Award in 2015 for"Between the World and Me," a best seller called "required reading" by Toni Morrison. He'sthe recipient of a MacArthur genius grant, and he's the mancalledthe single best writer on the subject of race in the United States" by the New York Observer.

Last year, the new "Black Panther" comics serieshe wrote was an immediate hit. The first issue sold a whopping 300,000 copies. The director of the upcoming "Black Panther" movie, Ryan Coogler, has said he has been influences by the vivid writing of Coates.

You can see Coates in person when the acclaimed author appears at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Detroit Mercy. He will be speaking at an event sponsored by several offices of thecollege, BlacDetroit magazine and the Michigan Chronicle.

The visit came about through the friendship between Coates and Roy Finkenbine, aUDMhistory professor.Coates,a national correspondent for Atlantic magazine, phoned Finkenbine whilehe was researching a 2014 article that became the George Polk Award-winning essay"The Case for Reparations."

In the piece, Coateswound up citing Finkenbine, who specializes in the topics ofslavery, abolition, the Civil Warand the Underground Railroad and also chairs the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission.

The two men have stayed in touch and corresponded by phone and e-mail. This week will be the first time they meet in person.

Finkenbine describes the Coates appearance as asignature occasion for the college. "The last time we probably had somebody of this intellectual importance speaking in Calihan Hall was Robert Frost in 1962. It doesnt come along that often. Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity;take advantage of it," he said in a UDMstory on the event.

In a Monday interview with the Free Press, Finkenbine said, "(Coates) hasbeen talked about, and I certainly agree with that, (as) the most original and important thinker on race today in America. He's not only increasingly well-known, but I think he's provoking a lot of Americans ...to think more deeply and talk about the issue ofrace."

UDMhad a "phenomenal student and faculty conversation" last week spurred by "Between the World and Me," according to Finkenbine. Thestanding-room-only gathering held in advance ofthe Coatesappearance is part of discussions that will continue after Tuesday's lecture, according to Finkenbine.

The book "Between the World and Me" (which is also the title of Coates' UDMtalk) is written as a letter to the author's teen son. It has been described as his precise, multilayered,bracingly honest thoughts on what it means to be black in America.

Coates continues to have an impact with his work for Atlantic. His January/February issue story, "My President Was Black," explored the the meaning of President Barack Obama's time in office. It generated buzz in cultural circles and on TV when Coates was a guest onNBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

This image released by Marvel Comics shows the cover of the "Black Panther," by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates lifelong love of comic books made him jump at the chance to write Marvels Black Panther, one of the first comic books heroes of color. His 11-book series is currently on sale. (Marvel Comics via AP)(Photo: AP)

Debuting this month is Coates' latest project for Marvel, "Black Panther & the Crew," which follows Black Panther, the king of a fictional African nation calledWakanda, and a team ofblack superheroes. Coates is cowriting the series with poet Yona Harvey.

Coates told the New York Times that he wants hiswork to be seen in some ways as a cohesivewhole. "What I want people to feel ultimately is that this is part of the entire oeuvre that I put together. I don't want it to be 'Ta-Nehisi Coates just took a break and did comics.' It is not a break for me."

The "Black Panther" movie slated for 2018 isn't being written by Coates, but its director, Ryan Coogler ("Creed"),told vulture.com that Coates' interpretation of Black Panther has influenced his image of the characterandwork on the new comic book series.The film will star Chadwick Boseman in the title role and Lupita Nyongo, Michael B. Jordanand Danai Gurira.

Coates often gets attention for the difficult issues he addresses. In March, at a Harvard conference calledUniversities and Slavery: Bound By History,he drewa warm reception with his thoughts on how colleges mustapproachtheir own legacy with slavery.

I think every single one of these universities needs to make reparations, Coates said according to the Huffington Post.I dont know how you conduct research that shows that your very existence is rooted in a great crime, and just say well, shrug and maybe at best say Im sorry and you walk away.

What will Coates talk about in Detroit? Something that should and will packan auditorium, it's safe to say.

Contact Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

6:30 p.m. Tue. (doors at 5 p.m.)

University of Detroit Mercy

Calihan Hall, McNichols Campus

$10 (free to UDMstudents and staffers with ID), available at UDMwebsite

Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2nCmdVG

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Author Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak Tuesday in Detroit - Detroit Free Press

ROCKET MAN

OKLAHOMA CITY I was in the Florida panhandle, somewhere near Pensacola, and Im looking at a wall, like one would find in a mausoleum, and Im with an old friend named from my high school days named Peter, who is directing me to open up one of the top drawers.

In this is not a body of a deceased love one, but, rather, a large model of the Discovery One spacecraft as featured in Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Peter Hyams sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).

The "model" in my dream was a lot bigger than this one, but you get the idea. (Atomic City Models)

I pull the tray out and look at the model and wonder what this is all about.

I wake up and its 3:30 a.m. I sense that I need to rewatch 2010: The Year We Make Contact, with Roy Scheider (American Dr. Heywood Floyd) and Helen Mirren (Soviet Cmdr. Tanya Kirbuk).

This is the film where the Soviets approach Dr. Floyd about their plan to send an investigative team to Jupiter to find out what happened to Discovery before astronaut David Bowman disappeared.

Of course this film came out in 1984, in the midst of some very tense times between the U.S. and Russia. In the film, there is a serious issue developing in Central America between the American and Soviet militaries and war seems inevitable as the Soviet-led Alexei Leonov spacecraft, which includes Floyd, Curnow (John Lithgow) and Chandra (Bob Balaban) head to Jupiter and the mysteries of the large monolith and within Discovery and its onboard computer HAL 9000.

In that early morning darkness I watched the drama unfold, especially as they send a probe to check out signs of life under the icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa.

When they arrive at the LaGrange Point between Jupiter and the volcanic moon Io, they find Discovery spinning in place, like a clock (a sync with Saturn, perhaps?)

The Alexei Leonov approaches the "800-foot-long shipwreck," the Discovery. (MGM)

Watching the Discovery spinning like that as the Leonov approaches, and Jupiter and Io offer a colorful and somewhat menacing backdrop.

What is important to remember about 2010 is that despite serious disagreements (communism vs. capitalism, etc.) back on Earth, out around Jupiter, the Americans and Russians are actually working together (as some insiders say President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev were attempting to do, behind the scenes, with their respective space programs) to figure out what the monolith, Bowman and HAL are trying to tell humanity, which is caught up in what is essentially "tribal" warfare, as 2001 filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and 2001 novelist Arthur C. Clarke are saying about us in the "Dawn of Man" segment of the film - as the "bone" weapon turns into an orbiting "nuclear" weapon by the year 2001, as we noted in "Guns in the sky."

As it turns out, the message (something wonderful) was that the main monolith and billions of smaller monoliths are working inside the Jovian atmosphere to create a mini-sun called Lucifer (light-bringer) in an attempt to encourage evolution on the moon Europa.

As the 2001 wiki notes: The monoliths compressed gasses in the Jovian atmosphere, making nuclear fusion possible.

APRIL THESES

With the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is at its lowest point, I watched a little over an hour into 2010, before heading back to sleep for another hour or so. I was thinking about the film and how great it would be if our country and the Russians (and the Chinese and everyone else, for that matter) would put our petty, terrestrial differences aside and work together in a serious fashion in hopes of making new discoveries, especially as there seems to be an increased focus on outer space both here in the U.S. and in Russia, China, and with the Europeans. And puzzling "fast burst" cosmic signals being increasingly detected by receivers on Earth.

Rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves have puzzled astronomers since they were first detected nearly 10 years ago. Illustration similar to opening scenes of 2010: The Year We Make Contact. (The UK Daily Mail)

After watching more than half of 2010, I fell back asleep, experiencing dreams that were a little more pleasant this go-round, with "flying" taking place, a sensation that feels very real when I'm in my dream state.

But upon waking, and hearing that a deadly bomb blast today in the St. Petersburg, Russia "Metro" subway, killing more than 10 and injuring dozens more - on the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's arrival to Finland Station in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), when hereturned to Russia from exile in Switzerland on 3 April 1917 ahead of theOctober Revolution. What the Bolshevik leader returned with, his "April Theses," was like a "bomb" going off for the Russian proletariat, with Lenin writing (as featured in Pravda, the newspaper noted twice in the opening scenes of 2010), including nationalization of all lands, abolition of (czarist) police, army and bureaucracy, and much more for the revolutionary proletariat.

V.I. Lenin arrives in Petrograd on April 3, 1917, after living in exile in Switzerland. (Image via the BBC)

Red Dirt Report's Dust Devil Dreams section has been addressing "Cold War echoes" for at least three or four years now as tensions are as heightened as ever. Justin Raimondo suggests today that we may be heading to a replay of "World War I."

Writes Raimondo: "The end of the cold war did not eliminate the prospect of a conflict between these two nuclear-armed powers indeed, in retrospect, it may have increased the chances of a catastrophic collision."

Interestingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not in Moscow or at the Kremlin today, rather, he wasin St. Petersburg during the presumed terrorist bombing, taking part in the All-Russia Peoples Front media forum that opened on April 1st. And RT.com reports: "Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied earlier media speculation that President Putin was due to pass by the Sennaya Metro station around the time of the blast."

While discussing the bomb blast on her MSNBC program, host Andrea Mitchell said this of Putin: "St. Petersburg (aka "Leningrad") was his home base, where he got his start in the KGB."

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said very little about the attack.

Terrible. Terrible thing. Happening all over the world, Mr. Trump said when a reporter asked about the attack in St, Petersburg.

From the look of things, both Trump and Putin are going to continue being proverbial "bulls in the china shop" on the world stage. After all, look at America's hawkish, doltish Ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who said President Trump has basically put it on Haley to "beat up on Russia," since Trump has too much going on, like golfing.

"He's got a lot of things he's doing, but he is not stopping me from beating up on Russia," Haley blurted out on ABC's This Week program.

Do we need an American diplomat beating up on anyone?

I was thinking back on last night's dream and how the events in 2010 mirror what we're facing today, in certain respects. I then thought of the fact that a long-lost friend, "Peter," was with me in that strange dream last night as I entered the mausoleum and opened the door to reveal the Discovery ship model ... I realized that "Peter" was syncing with Russia's "Peter the Great," who saw to the creation of what would be "Saint Petersburg," the cultural capital of Russia and that large nation's second-biggest city.

The final line in (the very gnostic)2010: The Year We Make Contact, after Lucifer is born, Dr. Floyd sends a message to his son as he and the Soviet/American crew heads back to (a more peaceful) Earth, now with two suns

My dear Christopher, this is the last time I'll be able to speak to you for a long while. I'm trying to put into words what has happened. Maybe that's for historians to do sometime later. They will record that the next day, the President of the United States looked out of the White House window and the Premier of the Soviet Union looked out of the Kremlin window, and saw the new distant sun in the sky.

They read the message, and perhaps they learned something because they finally recalled their ships and their planes. I am going to sleep now. I will dream of you and your mother. I will sleep knowing that you are both safe, that the fear is over. We have seen the process of life take place. Maybe this is the way it happened on Earth millions of years ago. Maybe it's something completely different.

I still don't know really what the monolith is. I think it's many things. An embassy for an intelligence beyond ours. A shape of some kind for something that has no shape. Your children will be born in a world of two suns. They will never know a sky without them. You can tell them that you remember when there was a pitch black sky with no bright star, and people feared the night. You can tell them when we were alone, when we couldn't point to the light and say to ourselves - 'There is life out there.'

Someday, the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends. You can tell your children of the day when everyone looked up and realized that we were only tenants of this world. We have been given a new lease and a warning from the landlord.

Indeed.

Lucifer and Ol' Sol, above the Giza Pyramids in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

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LUCIFER (April Theses) - Red Dirt Report

In its latest statement, the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB) hailed the housing tax provisions announced by Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leito, and at the same time called for more tangible measures to improve home ownership in the 2017-18 budget.

The steps the QFREB is advocating for include the removal of the real estate transfer tax for first-time home buyers in the province, a levy known as the welcome tax.

Concrete measures are needed in real estate given the fact that Qubec consumers are facing major mortgage tightening measures introduced by the federal government in recent years. Home ownership is more and more difficult for young families looking forward to building a family nest of their own, QFREB president Patrick Juanda said.

Other measures introduced in the budget were warmly received, including a new tax credit for residential wastewater treatment systems.

This measure will financially assist homeowners up to $5,500 per taxpayer who must undertake repairs to their septic system. Although the amount awarded is small compared to the huge cost that homeowners must assume for the work, the QFREB recognizes the government's desire to lighten their financial burden.

The QFREB welcomes the government's decision to maintain the RnoVert tax credit for renovations, which benefits both present homeowners and future home buyers, the organization added. The announcement of the construction of 3,000 new social housing units was also very favourably received by the QFREB and its members.

Related stories: Why we shouldnt worry about debt-to-income record Budget 2017: Good news for the housing industry

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Quebec real estate organization calls for abolition of 'welcome tax' - Mortgage Broker News

Last year, in an article, Rowley's abdication strategy:, I pointed to the Prime Minister pursuing a surreptitious abdication of responsibility when, at a People's National Movement (PNM) forum in San Fernando, he again pointed fingers at the police service for the horrifying murder rate, saying it is their responsibility to deal with crime, implying his Government had little to do with it, that he could just let the police do their job, fail or succeed, whilst he and his Cabinet get on with less troublesome matters. And go on holiday, of course.

I asked then, if the police alone is responsible, why have we had a minister of national security since independence, with responsibility for the general policy of his ministry which includes, as the most substantial component, a modern, well-equipped, proficient police service? And why do we have a National Security Council chaired by the Prime Minister himself? This abdication strategy will not work. The buck stops with you, Prime Minister, not the police service.

I am therefore pleased Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, former attorney general, has spoken strongly on the issue, saying: The law enforcement agencies do not go up for elections. No government can therefore use, as a defence, if there is an upsurge in crime, to say it is the job of the police and for the government to wash its hands. The electorate did not elect the Commissioner of Police or the law enforcement agencies. The electorate elected the government. The government therefore has a legal and political responsibility to see the Police Service can deal with crime. The buck stops with the government. Right, Ramesh, right!

It seems some awareness is seeping through the density of this administration. Last week national security minister Edmund Dillon finally accepted the government's role, saying his administration fully understands the electorate has charged us with that responsibility. We will do all that is required. Can we expect action after one and a half years, 715 murders and counting?

But effective policing alone will not ensure the rule of law. We must also repair the shambolic administration of justice. Faris Al-Rawi, Attorney General, has brought two bills, one providing for trial by judge instead of jury, the other to abolish preliminary inquiries (PI) in criminal cases. But strong objections have come from DPP Roger Gaspard SC, Pamela Elder SC, Peter Pursglove SC and Maharaj SC, all not persuaded the bills would reduce the court backlog. Gaspard says abolition of PI would transfer delays from the Magistrate Court to the High Court, worsening the situation; Elder has called the bill fundamentally flawed and a compilation of legislative babble; and Maharaj says trial by judge alone would aggravate delays by placing additional burdens on High Court judges. All have called for withdrawal of the bills and more consultations, a view supported by former chief justice Sat Sharma.

But, where is the current CJ, Ivor Archie in all this? Away for almost one month to deliver a speech in Australia! The man is holding to his promise made at the opening of this law term , after which, in an article, Chief Joker', I said , Archie was self-satisfied, arrogant and dismissive , comparing himself to an eagle, saying he would flap his wings and fly the world as much as he wants, instead of spending more time at home, attending to the administration of justice, which at its present rate would take 20 years to clear the present backlog according to Attorney Brent Winter who says we are sitting on a ticking time bomb.

Pursglove, a constitutional expert who has worked with this and other countries in improving justice delivery, thinks Archie should have been here to air his views. He praised co-operation from Michael de la Bastide, as CJ, and expressed doubt such co-operation exists today. Pursglove feels the country has to address the real issue: delays in the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Why does the judiciary take so long to deal with matters? Are so many delays allowed because counsel in Trinidad get away with many things in delaying cases that in other jurisdictions they would not get away with? And what are the CJ's answers to these questions?

Ramesh Maharaj has already made several recommendations to unclog the courts. He called on Archie to establish a task force to monitor speedy hearing of criminal cases, determine these cases in the magistrate courts within six months and in the High Court within a year. Part of an eight-point plan, including a DNA bank; temporary magistrates and temporary judges; plea bargaining and additional courts; a supervisory unit to oversee the justice system and improve the witness protection programme; a case management system in the magistrates court where a clerk of the peace and his administrative staff can be involved in adjournment of cases, visiting prisons with the magistrate, eliminating the transportation of prisoners all over the country. And regarding indictable matters, where notes of evidence in the magistrate courts are not being sent to the DPP's Office, Maharaj said the CJ, Attorney General and DPP should get the necessary resources from the government for a special task force to have these notes prepared and sent within two months.

These are practical, workable solutions, demanding collaboration between the executive and the judiciary, Rowley/Al-Rawi and Ivor Archie. But the nation has heard of no discussions between them on the administration of justice in one year and a half, a damning indictment on both whilst, according to Brent Winter, the criminal justice system is teetering on the brink of collapse! Last week, Ramesh Maharaj warned there is a high risk the rule of law would be overthrown and the country would become ungovernable. Those in charge should listen. Ramesh is right!

Originally posted here:

Right, Ramesh - Trinidad & Tobago Express

Scotlands top law officer has been criticised over a rethink on plans to abolish the law on corroboration.

The Scottish Government wanted to drop the need for evidence from at least two sources in a bid to boost low conviction rates for crimes such as rape and domestic abuse.

But ministers were forced to shelve those plans over concerns that a basic safeguard of Scots law would be lost, leading to miscarriages of justice.

However, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said in an interview yesterday that abolishing corroboration was something that we will come back to.

Wolffe, who was appointed last year, said: Lord Bonomy identified a range of things which ought to be put in place if we abolish corroboration.

They included changing the majority for a guilty verdict in a jury, giving the judge the power to withdraw a case from a jury if the evidence was not properly conveyed and a range of other measures.

Theres further work to be done by way of research but I suspect we will come back to the debate, which might include the abolition of corroboration, so long as the system as a whole is robust.

I think we should come back to that debate at an appropriate point.

But Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: The weight of expert legal opinion is in favour of keeping corroboration, and any attempts to scrap it will only serve to damage our justice system.

Scottish Labour said: Justice Secretary Michael Matheson must stick to his decision and not bring this proposal back to parliament.

Almost 2000 people reported rapes or attempted rapes to the police in Scotland in 2015. Just 270 reached court and 125 were convicted.

Sandy Brindley of Rape Crisis Scotland said: The requirement for corroboration in Scots law has a disproportionate impact on rape cases because they often take place in private and it can be difficult to find corroboration.

Only a very small proportion of rapes reported to the police ever make it to court, and by far the most common reason given is lack of corroboration.

The Scottish Government said: Future consideration of reform needs to await the findings of research.

Read more:

Legal chiefs slammed over plans to reform rape corroboration law - Scottish Daily Record

-OpEd-

BOGOT Great writers are not just observers, narrators or interpreters of social happenings: They are also prophets who survey history. They send us auguries from above.

The rise of Donald Trump in the United States, Marine Le Pen's ascendance in French opinion polls, Brexit and Colombia's No vote to the peace deal with the FARC guerillas have drawn readers to apocalyptic works of fiction like George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Reading such works can give us a deeper understanding of what is happening around us, and what we are leaving behind. Im going to cite three texts that have held up a mirror to the world and have illustrated how our lifestyles are making us forget our human nature.

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote an article in 1950 in the paper La Nacin entitled "The Wall and the Books" (La muralla y los libros) about Chinese Emperor Shih Huang Ting. He wrote, "I read some days ago that the man who ordered that almost infinite wall of China was its first great emperor, Shih Huang Ting, who also ordered that all books preceding him be burned. I was both inexplicably satisfied and worried that one person should be the source of two vast operations, one of putting up 560 leagues of stones against the barbarians, and the other, a rigorous abolition of history or the past."

That text reminds me of our own times, when walls that had come down are being rebuilt stone by stone to ensure we stay ignorant about other people's humanity and to make us deaf to their voices and languages. Like that Chinese emperor, history today condemns us to forget ourselves, our pasts and what we did to arrive here. Burning books symbolizes the destruction of all knowledge and the histories of peoples; it robs us of our legitimate curiosity and the right to mold our reality.

Borges in 1976 Photo: Wikipedia

The world today is sending us back, blinded, to situations and tragedies that must not occur again. The French playwright Eugne Ionesco foresaw our present fate in the mid-20th century, when automation was already underway as part of the grand strategy of productivity. He told a conference in 1961 that "the modern, universal man is the busy man. He has no time and is a prisoner to necessity. He cannot contemplate the absence of utility. He also fails to understand that useful things are themselves a useless, depressing weight."

Such individuals have not only forgotten an innate curiosity inherent in human impulse toward knowledge and beauty. They have also placed themselves at the eternal service of whoever commands them, sacrificing their lives to mass production, and paying homage to an empty life filled with wealth and belongings.

Lifting himself above his primitive needs, he made himself human.

Borges and Ionesco both painted accurate portraits of our current time. One depicted the historical forces that would move us, with an emperor that may remind us of Trump or Le Pen. The other revealed to us ourselves the people who work everyday and submit to the reckless rhythm of productivity, without curiosity or a moment to pause and admire a setting sun.

Besides bequeathing us their predictions, the souls behind those masterful writings invite us to recall everything we have forgotten: our taste for beauty, our pulsating minds, the yearning for knowledge itself.

Japanese writer Kakuzo Okakura observed in The Book of Tea (1906) that men transcended their animal impulses with the first bouquet of flowers they offered a girl. "Lifting himself above his natural and primitive needs, he made himself human. And when man sensed there was use in the useless, he entered the realm of art."

With these words Okakura reminds us of our identity, and fills us with nostalgia. He helps us see how the present that overwhelming tide that brings all and takes all has cast the treasures of our humanity on a distant shore thats waiting to be found.

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All This Has Been Written Before, Literature As Oracle - Worldcrunch

The average age of employed scientists in the U.S. rose from 45.1 to 48.6 between 1993 and 2010.

Sir Isaac Newton was in his 20s when he developed his theories on calculus, gravity and optics.

English physicist Paul Dirac was 31 when he won a Nobel Prize for predicting antimatter.

Albert Einstein introduced the worlds most famous equation, E=mc2, at 26. He later said that a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.

Especially in more abstract fields, people think the best work is done at earlier ages, said Bruce Weinberg, an Ohio State University economist. Thats not quite as clear a pattern as people think.

In fact, the average age of scientists in the United States is increasing, Weinberg and fellow OSU economist David Blau found in research published Monday. The average age of employed scientistsrose from 45.1 to 48.6 between 1993 and 2010.

The workforce as a whole is aging, Blau said. But (this rate) is pretty specific to academia.

At Ohio State, 37 percent of tenured or tenure-track STEM faculty members are 55 or older.

This is happening across the country, said Jan Weisenberger, senior associate vice president for research and a speech and hearing science professor at Ohio State.

The finding makes sense toOhio State astronomy professor emeritus Brad Peterson, who said there are incentives to delaying academic retirement. Through long careers, scientists maximize their expertise and professional connections.

You become a known quantity, said Peterson, who officially is retired but still teaches and works as a distinguished visiting astronomer for NASAs Space Telescope Science Institute.Scientists are curious, driven people. Any good research turns up two or three more research questions. Theres no end in sight.

The OSU economists dont yet know whether the graying research community means thatbudding scientists are missing out on opportunities or what the trend means for scientific creativity and productivity.

If there are more older researchers, and they were to retire, its hard to know how many slots that would open for younger scientists, Weinberg said.

The study, published this week in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," analyzed data on the age, field of degree, job tenure, occupation and sector of employment of about 73,000 scientists. The pool spanned STEM fields from mathematicians to social scientists and included researchers at university labs and those working in the private sector for biomedical, pharmaceutical or tech companies.

The general aging of scientists and engineers can largely be attributed to Baby Boomers nearing retirement age, Blau said. That effect gradually will fade away.

Eventually the huge Baby Boom bulge will pass, he said.

But changes in retirement laws have contributed. Many professors have extended their careers since the 1994 abolition of mandated retirement.

According to the new study, the share of scientific workers 55 or older almost doubled between 1994 and 2010, from 17 percent to 33 percent. Over the same period, the share of all workers in that age bracket increased less, from 15 percent to 23 percent.

By age 70, most people have retired. Thats not necessarily true of science, Weinberg said. Weve observed a big pileup of people who didnt have to retire anymore.

Mary Ellen Wewers, a public-health professor emeritus at Ohio State, might be counted among them. She retired from her position as an associate dean for research but still teaches and is the co-principal investigator on a five-year, $18 million project on tobacco control.

That had always been my plan; I definitely didnt want to give up my research career, she said. I still have a lot of work thats important to get out there. I dont intend to retire from research any time soon.

The economists plan to continue studying what the advanced age of the scientific community means for its productivity.We dont know if they still are riding the arc of creativity or like hanging out in academia, Blau said.

Hazel Morrow-Jones, professor emeritus of city and regional planning, still works part time at Ohio State, but as a retiree, she now spends more time on her garden.

I was no longer concerned about establishing a reputation, or getting tenure, or the next promotion or getting a raise, she said. I could bring the most to the job.

mrenault@dispatch.com

@MarionRenault

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Why are there so few young scientists? - Special - Columbus ... - Columbus Monthly

Im here at the U.N. asking for an abolition of nuclear weapons, said Toshiki Fujimori, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, to diplomats from more than 120 countries gathered at the UN general assembly on 27 March.

Nobody in any country deserves seeing the same hell again.

Peace Doves fly on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (2005)

Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weaponsever created and yet they are the only weapons of mass destruction not yet comprehensively prohibited in international law. Biological weapons,chemical weapons, and cluster munitions have all been explicitly and completely banned. But a new treaty will change that.

Protesters come together during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC to call to eliminate the 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today (2016).

Back in December 2016, the UN General Assembly voted on a historic resolution to launch negotiations for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. 113 countries voted in favor. This week marks the first round of negotiation at the UN headquarters in New York. Representatives began the drafting process by discussing and submitting language for the various components of the treaty. Work on the draft text will continue over the next few months. Then the next round of negotiations will take place over three weeks in June-July 2017.

While 120 countries have joined the negotiations, the United States and most other nuclear powers oppose the talks and are boycotting the negotiations. On Monday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, held an unusual press conference outside, stating: we have to be realistic'. Haley was joined by diplomats from France, UK, Australia and others boycotting the talks. Germany as well is not taking part (see here for a full list - 'how your government is doing?').

But make no mistake - these countries boycotting negotiations are not just being realistic. Rather, by insisting on the wrong notion that nuclear weapons mean security in a complex and fast changing world, they stand on the wrong side of history.

Nearly 25 years after the end of the Cold War there are still estimated to be 16,300 nuclear weapons at 98 sites in 14 countries. Rather than disarm, the nine nuclear-armed states continue to spend a fortune maintaining and modernising their arsenals. Last month President Trump indicated he wants to ensure the US nuclear arsenal is at the "top of the pack". The 9% increase to the Pentagons budget proposed by the new administration will be partly used to modernise the US nuclear arsenal, as part of a modernisation plan that has already started under the previous administration.

This is a travesty.

Greenpeace activists blockade the trident nuclear submarine base at Faslane, Scotland (2007).

But things are changing, and those countries that dominate world politics cannot stop it. This week marks an end to more than two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. A growing number of states are demanding a total ban of nuclear weapons. In supporting the negotiations, they are joined by civil society organisations, scientists as well as the Pope and faith group.

A treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons would make using, possessing and developing nuclear weapons illegal under international law. Ideally, all states would, and eventually will, sign onto a nuclear weapons ban, but the lack of participation of nuclear-armed states will not prevent an agreement being reached or compromise the value of a ban itself. A ban would make it harder for nuclear weapons to be portrayed as a legitimate and a useful means to provide security. According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), It would create a global norm against nuclear weapons, which would not only put pressure on both nuclear-armed and non-nuclear weapon states to reject nuclear weapons permanently, but would also set the stage for future progress in nuclear armed states should its domestic political situation change (read more about this here).

Greenpeace activists clash with French police during a protest against the imminent arrival of two BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels) ships, which are carrying 140kg of radioactive weapons-grade plutonium (2004).

Greenpeace believes that the fight to rid the world of nuclear weapons, the first ever campaign Greenpeace engaged with, is more urgent than ever. Greenpeace joins the call for all governments to join and support the negotiations of the new treaty. We salute our civil society allies who are in NY, pushing governments to do the right things.

"We have no doubt that this treaty can and will change the world," said Setsuko Thurlow another Hiroshima survivor, to delegates. "I want you to feel the presence of not only the future generations, who will benefit from your negotiations to ban nuclear weapons, but to feel a cloud of witnesses from Hiroshima and Nagasaki".

Jen Maman is the Senior Peace Adviser at Greenpeace International

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This treaty would ban nuclear weapons. But will the world take it? - Greenpeace International (blog)

Liat Ben-Moshe, Ph.D., assistant professor of disability studies at The University Of Toledo.

Liat Ben-Moshe, Ph.D., assistant professor of disability studies at the University of Toledo presented her lecture Epistemologies of Abolition as part of the Philosophy Speaker Series on Thursday, March 23 at Halle Library.

Moshes lecture focused on the institutionalization of disabled people, which is the movement of people outside of large residential institutions for people with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric hospitals and looking at these as forms of incarceration.

Moshe also lectured on how to respond to critiques of abolitionary movements and looking at the epistemological assumptions in those critiques. She focused on penal abolition, which tries to replace prison systems with more effective systems.

She referenced Viviane Saleh-Hanna, Ph.D., associate professor of criminology at the University of Massachusetts. Hanna describes penal abolition as not only a social movement to eliminate the penal system but a theoretical framework which re-conceptualizes crime, offenders, community and justice and a political strategy leading to safer communities that will no longer be based on punitive principles.

Moshe said that abolition is a political framework and agenda for action and an epistemology or study of knowledge and an ethical position. These movements strive to create non-carceral and non-segregationist societies. Carceral locales are a variety of enclosures such as psychiatric hospitals, detention centers and institutions for people with disabilities.

She touched on the various critiques of abolition. It does not focus on prescriptive or policy recommendations, it does not give solutions, but it does give a utopian vision of the world, and is unrealistic to espouse this worldview in the world we currently occupy.

She said that these critiques can be conceptualized as strengths and provide a unique strategy of epistemology and ethics to resistance to incarceration. She said that abolition as a radical epistemology can be constructed in two ways: As a counter hegemonic epistemology and as producing specific forms of knowledge. One can view abolition as an epistemology that is counter-hegemonic. Hegemonic discourse is the need to segregate others in the name of safety and punishment.

Abolition is counter-hegemonic in the vision it encourages. She said that epistemology is not just from erudite knowledge but subjective knowledge or knowledge that has been viewed as non-scientific. Abolitionist knowledge reconceptualizes what gets to be defined as a crime, who gets to be defined as criminal, and what is disability and rehabilitation. It also questions ideas of punishment.

She said that abolition is an attachment to the idea of knowing and needing to know that is part of knowledge and all economies. It is letting go of the definitive consequences of doing or not doing.

Moshe said that the goal of abolition is the process of trial and error. Abolition takes place when one breaks with the established order.

It is a goal and a mindset used to come up with new alternatives. Abolition efforts should take place when people are still enslaved. Dont wait until the time is right. Prisoners cant wait for a totalitarian government to be free from bondage. It is revolutionary. We need to imagine alternatives of a totalitarian government with a sense of urgency.

This sense of urgency enables abolitionism, as utopian epistemology, to become a model for political activity with a vision for the future. If prison systems were closed now, it would be better than the system that is already in place. The expectation of happiness is what gives the future promise. Constructing an optimistic future for those who are perceived to not have one can be reparative. It can give prisoners a reason to do better because the future will be better.

Moshe said that abolition is ethical, not just a tactic or a strategy. It is about creating a society free of a system of inequity, which produces violence, desperation and suffering. It goes to the root cause of issues.

Vanessa Thorburn, junior majoring in philosophy, said that she was very impressed with how Moshe gave new insight to epistemology.

Im new to the idea of epistemology. It was interesting to see it applied to sociohistorical institutions. I have been studying mass incarceration for a year, and I like how she presented it. Epistemology is a new way of approaching abolition epistemically, she said. I liked how she distinguished white washing abolition which defeats the purpose of abolition. This has been a present-day issue with liberation in terms of social justice.

Dean Adams, professor of gender studies at the University of Toledo, said that the lecture addresses big issues in our society that need to be addressed.

Its important to look at how systems of oppression connect to our carceral system and how those systems continue to place people of color and people with disabilities in prison to enhance and continue capitalism, he said. And these people are seen as disposable populations because they usually cant work or dont have jobs. If people of color are imprisoned it helps to create jobs for whites because they become prison guards.

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Professor of disability studies speaks abolition of institutionalization - Eastern Echo

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania The discovery of a cache of cannonballs left behind after the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War brought construction on a Pennsylvania apartment complex to a halt Tuesday while workers waited for the ordnance to be removed.

At least 20 cannonballs were unearthed Monday in Pittsburgh by a contractor on the site of the former Allegheny Arsenal, where a Sept. 17, 1862, explosion killed 70 mostly teenage workers.

There were too many cannonballs for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Polices bomb disposal unit to remove, so a specialty firm from Maryland was called in to clear the site, said Sonya Toler, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety.

They should be on the site today to begin the work, Toler said Tuesday in an interview.

Officials believe the cannonballs are stable, but have posted a 24-hour police guard on the site, Toler said.

Workers had been alerted of the possibility that ordnance would be found, and stopped when the first cannonball turned up in the bucket of a excavator.

Many of the victims of the arsenal were torn apart and burned beyond recognition by the blast, which killed the 13-year-old daughter of one of the plants supervisors, who had worked on the production line.

The disaster took place on the same day as the Battle of Antietam, which stands as the deadliest one-day battle of the war that led to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

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Cache of Civil War cannonballs found at Pennsylvania construction site - Bangor Daily News