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Category Archives: History

The Most Competitive Top Ten Men’s Field in Games History? – Morning Chalk Up

Posted: May 20, 2021 at 4:59 am

Credit: The CrossFit Games

For the first time in eleven years, neither Rich Froning nor Mat Fraser will compete in the mens individual division of the CrossFit Games. Commentators and prognosticators (myself included) have suggested that as a result, this years final heat of the mens competition would be the most competitive ever.

Its an easy claim to make, but a bit tougher to support statistically. Jeremy Schwartz of Maxability Sports and CrossFit, took it upon himself to do the research and what follows is a discussion of what he found.

The data: Schwartz took the top ten finishers in the mens field going back to 2007 and applied a uniform scoring system to those athletes. He opted for the Open style scoring system (one point for first, two points for second, etc.). The points awarded are not relative to the other top ten athletes, they are their actual finishing positions from the events at the Games that year relative to all of the athletes who competed in each event.

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The Most Competitive Top Ten Men's Field in Games History? - Morning Chalk Up

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The Controversial History of Colorizing Black-and-White Photos – PetaPixel

Posted: at 4:59 am

The ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) image colorization were recently brought to public attention when several historical images were altered using digital algorithms.

Irish artist Matt Loughrey digitally colorized and added smiles to photos of tortured prisoners from Security Prison 21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-79. His photos were published in Vice and prompted outrage on Twitter.

Matt Loughrey in Vice is not colourising S21 photographs. He is falsifying history: pic.twitter.com/z6J99J7BOE

John Vink (@vinkjohn) April 10, 2021

Read more: Colorization Artist Slammed for Adding Smiles to Genocide Victims

Vice removed the altered photos from their website and apologized to the families of the victims and the communities in Cambodia. Meanwhile, the Toronto Stars Heather Mallick described them as thoughtless, ahistorical and self-congratulatory and proclaimed that we must stop trusting photography.

AI colorization refers to the use of digital algorithms to substitute colors into a black-and-white photograph by making an informed guess based on the greyscale root.

When data scientist Samuel Goree tested DeOldify, an AI colourization app, to convert a greyscale copy of Alfred T. Palmers 1943 photograph Operating a hand drill at Vultee Nashville, the result produced an image in which the black female subjects skin was lighter.

Interventions like these are not unique among the history of photographic manipulation the Cottingley Fairies photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in 1917 are a prime example. But alongside sophisticated internet tools like deepfakes (where a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else), the use of algorithms to alter photographs has provoked renewed anxiety about the authenticity of photography in the digital era.

As a researcher of film and visual culture, I am interested in exploring the convictions behind controversies like these by looking at them through the history of image manipulation. The use of colorization to create revisionist histories of atrocity and synthetic skin tones is concerning, but it does not mark the first time colorization has caused controversy.

In 1992, the clothing brand United Colors of Benetton sparked outrage when it re-purposed a colourized photograph of David Kirby, who had just died of AIDS-related complications, and his family for its advertising campaign.

The face of AIDS was the name given to the photo in the iconic spread in LIFE magazine. Photographs like these were meant, in part, to encourage sympathy and relatability towards sufferers of the most stigmatized illness around.

On National HIV Testing Day, we revisit the deeply moving photos that changed the face of AIDS: http://t.co/ttsBxnf8 | pic.twitter.com/5nGHJTEb

LIFE (@LIFE) June 27, 2012

When the black and white photo was selected for Benettons ad campaign, executives made the decision to colorize it. This was done using a technique that was developed during the early years of photographic production called hand-coloring that required setting pigment down on the image and removing it with cotton around a toothpick.

The two issues that galvanize this strange campaign are its realism and its dignity.

Opposition to colorization often points to the artifice of the practice, but for the Benetton executives, the problem with the Kirby photograph was not that it looked too real, but that its realism seemed incomplete.

The colorist, Ann Rhoney, described it as creating an oil painting, and the act of making a photograph more real by turning it into a painting appears to reverse longstanding assumptions about the art practices that are closest to reality.

However, Rhoneys self-stated objective was not to make the photograph more real, but to both capture and create Kirbys dignity. Kirbys father supported the effort, while gay rights organizations called for a boycott of Benetton.

Marina Amaral, a Photoshop colourist working to colourize registration photos from Auschwitz for Faces of Auschwitz, claims her work helps to restore the victims dignity and humanity while Cambodias culture ministry said Loughreys images affected the dignity of the victims.

Disagreements about dignity tend to mirror those about photography and colorization: for some, dignity is inherent to an original, for others, dignity is something you add.

And the examples are abundant. Peter Jacksons decision to colourize historical footage from the First World War for his 2018 film They Shall Not Grow Old drew criticism from historian Luke McKernan for making the past record all the more distant for rejecting what is honest about it. The YouTube channel Neural Love has faced resistance to its upscaling of historical footage using neural networks and algorithms.

Colorization became routinely controversial in the 1980s when computers replaced hand colorists and studios began colorizing a host of classic films to appeal to larger audiences. Objections to the practice ranged from poor quality, the commercial forces behind the practice, and the omission of the qualities of black and white, to the implicit contempt for artists visions, a preference for the originals, and a disregard for history.

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously called the practice Hollywoods New Vandalism. Philosopher Yuriko Saito suggested that disagreements over the value of colorization often turn on an implicit belief in whether a work of art belongs to the artist or to the public.

In the context of historical images, the question becomes: to whom does history belong?

Photographs contribute to our development as moral and ethical subjects. They allow us to see the world from a point of view that does not belong to us, and alterations that make photography and film more familiar and relatable complicate a primary role we have given it as a vehicle for overcoming our egocentricity.

The recent controversies around image colorization point to the similarities between photography and AI. Both are imagined to create representations of the world using the least amount of human intervention. Mechanical and robotic, they satisfy a human desire to interact with the world in a non-humanized way, or to see the world as it would look from outside ourselves, even though we know such images are mediated.

What is fascinating about new techniques of colorization is that they can be understood as photography seeing its own image through AI algorithms. DeOldify is photography taking a photograph of itself. The algorithm creates its own automatic representation of the photograph, which was our first attempt to see the world transparently.

With the increasing accessibility of tools for colorizing photographs and making other alterations, we are re-negotiating the very difficulties first brought about with photography. Our desire for and disagreements about authenticity, mechanization, knowledge, and dignity are reflected in these debates.

The algorithm has become a new way of capturing reality automatically, and it demands a heightened ethical engagement with photos. Controversies around colorization reflect our desire to destroy, repair, and dignify. We dont yet know what a photograph can do, but we will continue to find out.

About the author: Roshaya Rodness is a postdoc fellow at the University of Toronto. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. This article was also published at The Conversation and was licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.

Image credits: Header: The left photo shows a Kodak booth in Australia in the 1930s. The right photo is colorized using the software program DeOldify. (Museums Victoria/Unsplash, DeOldify)

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The Controversial History of Colorizing Black-and-White Photos - PetaPixel

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A History Of Vaccine Rollouts, From Smallpox To COVID-19 : Goats and Soda – NPR

Posted: at 4:59 am

In January 1929, Dr. L.E. Bensom of Los Angeles used his vacation to mush to native villages in Alaska. At the close of a particularly hard day on the trail, he found himself with 70 patients on his hands, all suffering from smallpox. There were 100 people in the village with no medical facilities. Bettmann/Getty Images hide caption

Vaccines delivered by drones and by burros. People who shout about the danger of vaccines and refuse to get a jab. Public health campaigns to convince the vaccine hesitant. Public criticism of a failure to provide vaccines for lower-income countries and marginalized populations.

These are all part of the unprecedented world vaccination campaign now going on.

They're also the hot-button topics that go back to the very first vaccine for smallpox in 1796.

Dr. Sergen Saracoglu (left) and nurse Yilzdiz Ayten (center) arrive at the village of Guneyyamac in Turkey on Feb. 15 as part of an expedition to vaccinate residents 65 years and over with Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine. Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Dr. Sergen Saracoglu (left) and nurse Yilzdiz Ayten (center) arrive at the village of Guneyyamac in Turkey on Feb. 15 as part of an expedition to vaccinate residents 65 years and over with Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine.

In photographs and illustrations from past and present vaccine campaigns, you can see both the similarities and the striking contrasts.

James Colgrove, a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, and Sanjoy Bhattacharya, a professor of history at the University of York and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories, helped us out with historical context to go along with the images.

The vaccine has been created. Now how to get it where it needs to go?

Getting a vaccine from point A to point B has been a logistical problem since the very start with the smallpox vaccines, Bhattacharya says.

Back then, it was a painstaking process. Liquid was usually taken from an open smallpox sore, dried and mixed with water when ready to vaccinate. But transportation delays would sometimes render the vaccine ineffective. (The method had a shelf life of weeks to months not a long time considering the transport options at the time.)

In 1900, a young cow is tied onto a table waiting for the extraction of pox sore to be used for vaccines for smallpox. Berliner Illustrations Gesellschaft/ullstein bild via Getty Images hide caption

The solution? Medical teams would take children (in one case, orphans were used to transport the virus from Spain to its colonies) and animals (such as cows and horses) from village to village or from country to country, harvesting liquid from smallpox or cowpox sores and getting it under the skin of an unvaccinated person. But that was clearly not a sustainable practice, Bhattacharya says, for ethical and scientific reasons.

Many years of innovation followed, including the development of freeze-dried vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine world is dependent on cold chain technology that uses super freezers to keep vaccines at temperatures as low as minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit while they make their way on planes, trains and automobiles.

Ousseynou Badiane, the head of Senegal's vaccination program, stands in front of newly built cold rooms at Fann Hospital in Dakar, Senegal, in January. These cold rooms may be used to help store the country's stock of COVID-19 vaccines. John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Relying on cold storage technology is still not a perfect system.

The challenge has always been the greatest in poor and rural areas. "You have to make sure you have generators to maintain refrigerators," Colgrove says. It is the same problem countries are having with the COVID-19 vaccine today.

Left: A West German Navy vessel hands over vaccines to the U.S. transport General Patch in July 1957 for people sick with the Asiatic flu. The ship was anchored off Bremerhaven, West Germany, after a flu outbreak. Right: Health workers use a speedboat to make their way to vaccinate Quilombo communities against COVID-19 in Oriximin, Brazil, in February. Henry Brueggemann/AP; Tarso Sarraf/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Left: A West German Navy vessel hands over vaccines to the U.S. transport General Patch in July 1957 for people sick with the Asiatic flu. The ship was anchored off Bremerhaven, West Germany, after a flu outbreak. Right: Health workers use a speedboat to make their way to vaccinate Quilombo communities against COVID-19 in Oriximin, Brazil, in February.

Vaccine inequity is "just one part of a larger picture of inequity," Colgrove says. "People have been unvaccinated for the same set of reasons that they have always been deprived of other material goods."

For every vaccine, there's been a campaign against it

"Anti-vaccination movements are as old as vaccines themselves," Bhattacharya says.

What drives people to oppose a vaccine? You have to look at what is happening in a country or community culturally and politically and that is where you'll find your answers. It is usually a combination of factors that create doubts about how safe and effective a vaccine is, Bhattacharya says.

Left: A drawing of a human with a cow head holding a needle menacingly toward a child as he administers a tainted smallpox vaccination was meant to sow distrust of smallpox vaccines. Right: Protesters against COVID-19 vaccinations hold a rally in Sydney in February. Bettman/Getty Images; Brook Mitchell/Getty Images hide caption

Left: A drawing of a human with a cow head holding a needle menacingly toward a child as he administers a tainted smallpox vaccination was meant to sow distrust of smallpox vaccines. Right: Protesters against COVID-19 vaccinations hold a rally in Sydney in February.

But what really gets people riled up, Colgrove says, is when governments mandate vaccinations. "What gets people marching in the stress, forming orgs, creating pamphlets is when governments start to require it. If you don't want the vaccine, but you don't feel like anyone is forcing you to get it, then you just don't get it. Anti-vaccination movements really arose in the mid-19th century when governments started to require it."

There have always been trust issues

A vaccine campaign must address the issues of trust between those giving the vaccines and those receiving it, Bhattacharya says. You can't run it just with logistics. The vaccine campaigns that don't take trust into account end up struggling while the process drags on to get a disease under control.

In the case of polio, Bhattacharya says, it was difficult to convince communities to get the vaccine in places where governments hadn't acted in the communities' interest on other issues.

Boys stand in line to be vaccinated through the smallpox eradication and measles control program in West Africa in 1968. While smallpox has been eradicated, measles remains a leading cause of death among young children, even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, the World Health Organization says. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images hide caption

Boys stand in line to be vaccinated through the smallpox eradication and measles control program in West Africa in 1968. While smallpox has been eradicated, measles remains a leading cause of death among young children, even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, the World Health Organization says.

People wait to see if they have a reaction after receiving COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination center in February at Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption

"It was about [the government] convincing people that the polio vaccination was about their best interests in a context where governments had done little for their general welfare. This was the context in which polio vaccination drives were resisted in northern India, for example," Bhattacharya says. People have said it was superstition about the vaccine that prevented Indians from getting the vaccine, but it was actually about "a fundamental lack of trust."

It's all about the advertising

To get the word out and make a convincing argument about the vaccine, it's all about marketing and messaging. Advertising techniques were first used in the 1920s for diphtheria immunizations, Colgrove says. (Think images of smiling babies with warnings in red ink that diphtheria kills.)

A 1963 poster featuring the CDC's national symbol of public health, "Wellbee," encourages the public to take an oral polio vaccine. CDC/PHIL/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

The way a vaccine is given is also critical. The first oral vaccine in the 1960s for polio replaced the hypodermic needle. It certainly made it much easier to sell to those who might be hesitant or fearful of needles, Colgrove says.

"Needle phobia is a big deal, and orally administered vaccines are more acceptable to many people. Also you don't have to worry about the injection equipment [which was helpful for mass vaccinations]," Colgrove says. "In fact one of the reasons the global polio eradication ended up being so successful was they used the oral vaccine as opposed to the injected vaccine." The oral vaccine also did a better job of protecting against the virus.

The West makes the vaccines and the rules. That's actually kind of new

The West wasn't always the main player in vaccine production although it was always on the path to be. Following World War II, several newly independent (decolonized) countries were keen to develop their own vaccine production capabilities. Two examples are India and Pakistan, Bhattacharya says.

"Countries like India and Pakistan were able to play Cold War foes [the U.S. and Soviet Union] against each other to get access to new vaccine production technologies, assistance in setting up new vaccine production units," he adds.

So how did the West ultimately get control? In that post-World War II era in the West, people started to realize there was money to be made in all pharmaceuticals (not just vaccines), and "the business landscape changed," Colgrove says.

Marie Josette Francou (right), a Red Cross nurse, vaccinates a child against cholera in 1953 in Indochina (now Vietnam). Intercontinentale/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

What had been a cottage industry of small pharmaceutical companies, individual investigators and physician scientists started producing more products along with vaccines, Colgrove says. They evolved into the mega companies that exist today.

That said, other countries are still in the vaccination business albeit with mixed results including Russia's Sputnik V, China's Sinovac and outlier Cuba.

Workers wait to open a secure door in the packaging area of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine during a media tour organized by the State Council Information Office in February in Beijing. Sinopharm is one of China's largest state-owned biotech companies. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images hide caption

The power and politics behind vaccines

Politicians love their mottos and the vaccination effort is no different. In the U.S., government officials called it Operation Warp Speed and now the "We Can Do This" campaign. In Germany, it's "Vaccinate, Vaccinate, Vaccinate." In Israel, it's "Getting Back to Life."

So, how much of vaccine production and distribution is about political power and money?

Bhattacharya says pretty much all of it. "Pandemic responses, including the vaccination programs that underpin them, are always political," he says. "Those who claim that they know the means of accentuating 'global solidarity' are no less political; they just have different political goals."

Left: Thousands of New Yorkers, on an appeal by government officials, came to city hospitals and health stations to get vaccinated against smallpox. Here a crowd lines up outside a Bronx hospital in April 1947. Right: In an aerial view from a drone, cars line up for a mass COVID-19 vaccination event in January in Denver. Bettmann/Getty Images; Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images hide caption

And the money? Most vaccines wouldn't exist if Big Pharma didn't make a profit off them, Colgrove says.

One of the criticisms is that we have vaccines for diseases that burden rich countries but not for those that plague poor countries such as malaria and dengue fever. "If those diseases were a problem in Europe and the U.S., we would probably have vaccines for them now."

That's the contradiction of the pharma industry, Colgrove says. "On the one hand they produce these drugs for the benefit of everyone, but their mission is to make profits for their shareholders."

What will the world say about the COVID-19 vaccination effort in 100 years?

People will not remember the details, Colgrove says. Take, for example, the polio vaccine rollout, he says. If you ask people today, they would say it was a huge success, but they forget it was total chaos for a while.

"There were a lot of problems with the initial distribution during the period when the demand exceeded the supply. The polio vaccine was developed by a nonprofit foundation. The U.S. government had very little involvement because the Eisenhower administration saw involvement as the opening for socialized medicine.

"There was also lots of confusion and uncertainty about who should get the vaccine first and supplies were limited. There were stories of rich people pulling strings to get their kids vaccinated first."

Sanitation worker Ramesh Solanki cleans the streets outside India's Palghar railway station. "I get up every morning at 5:30, and I see news about the vaccines on TV," he says. "I don't know about any controversies. I just know I'm proud to be part of this." As a sanitation worker, he was among the first Indians eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine. Viraj Nayar for NPR hide caption

Sanitation worker Ramesh Solanki cleans the streets outside India's Palghar railway station. "I get up every morning at 5:30, and I see news about the vaccines on TV," he says. "I don't know about any controversies. I just know I'm proud to be part of this." As a sanitation worker, he was among the first Indians eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine.

When it came to the COVID-19 vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew there were limited supplies so it was able to prioritize certain populations such as health care workers and older people, Colgrove says. "But I think the way people will remember the COVID rollout will depend on what happens in the coming months and years."

No one can deny the incredible feat of making vaccines in a year. But Bhattacharya points to another legacy.

Bhattacharya says it's unfortunate, but this vaccination effort will be all about profits, not humanity the world was let down when it comes to equity and access to the vaccine.

Two men, wearing personal protective equipment, visit the grave of a relative in a public cemetery, reserved for suspected COVID-19 victims, in December in Jakarta, Indonesia. Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images hide caption

"I think our descendants will look back with some shame at the efforts of so many private vaccine producers to make immense profit from human misery and anxiety."

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A History Of Vaccine Rollouts, From Smallpox To COVID-19 : Goats and Soda - NPR

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Uncovering the History of Americas First Koreatown – The New York Times

Posted: at 4:59 am

Good morning.

It was 1904 when Ahn Chang-Ho, the revered Korean independence activist and Korean immigrant leader, left San Francisco for Riverside.

Drawn by the booming citrus industry that made the city one of Californias richest at the time, Ahn started an employment agency to help other Koreans find work nearby. Slowly, a settlement grew from a few dozen to a few hundred residents. At its height, almost 1,000 people were living in what was known as Pachappa Camp, named for the street where it was started.

Life there was difficult: The settlement was segregated. The wooden shacks that housed its residents had initially been built by railroad construction workers in the 1880s, and deafeningly loud trains would regularly rumble past. There was no running water or electricity.

Much of that wasnt unusual in the communities where Californias first Asian residents lived. Japanese immigrants toiled in the fields and lumber mills of the American West at the turn of the 20th century. Chinese immigrant workers endured treacherous conditions as they built the Transcontinental Railroad through mountains and desert.

But Pachappa Camp was unique, said Prof. Edward T. Chang, a professor of ethnic studies and the founding director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

For one thing, he told me recently, it was a family settlement as opposed to the mostly bachelor societies formed by other immigrant laborers. Men and women lived together at Pachappa Camp.

The biggest thing that set Pachappa Camp apart, however, was the fact that it was a distinctly Korean community the first in the United States, predating the founding of Los Angeless Koreatown by the businessman Hi Duk Lee by more than half a century.

And while Ahns life and legacy have been deeply studied, extensively documented and honored, his role in founding a Korean community in Riverside was virtually unknown until about five years ago, when Chang stumbled across a 1908 map issued by an insurance company. It had a caption labeling a Korean settlement in Riverside.

I thought, Korean settlement? In Riverside? he said.

Chang said it was known that Ahn spent some time in Riverside. He had seen an image of Ahn picking oranges there. And a 1913 episode known as the Hemet Valley Incident which involved Korean fruit pickers Chang later determined had come from Riverside has been widely cited as a pivotal moment for the Korean national identity.

But what Ahn was doing in the Inland Empire for more than five years before he moved his family to Los Angeles in 1913 was a puzzle. That puzzle turned into what Chang described as the most gratifying research of his career.

People said its like destiny, he said. Ive been teaching in Riverside for almost 30 years, and I didnt know anything about it.

As it turned out, Pachappa Camp was also a place where Ahn honed many of the democratic ideas that he brought back to Korea, which had been a monarchy and was occupied by Japan.

I was able to trace the birth of whole democratic institutions to here in Riverside, Chang said. I was uncovering all of this and I was so shocked.

With the help of graduate student interns from Korea who translated documents from older Korean, Chang last month published a book of his findings, Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States.

Chang himself moved to Los Angeles from Korea with his family as an 18-year-old in 1974. He enlisted in the Army in part to force himself to learn English, and eventually became one of the first scholars in the nation to get a Ph.D. in ethnic studies from U.C. Berkeley.

He said that it had been powerful for him to be able to help strengthen the historical foundations of Asian-American identity and poignant to see parallels between history and the fraught present.

In Pachappa Camp, residents abided by strict rules: Women wore white. No smoking or drinking was allowed.

That kind of self-regulation, Chang said, stemmed from pride. But it also came from an impulse to prove worthiness of a place in America, to be model citizens, in the face of violence and discrimination. Ahn left San Francisco in the first place in part because anti-Asian violence and discrimination prevented him from making a living.

Chang said that it was frustrating that it took a surge in anti-Asian hate to bring the issue to the fore. Still, he said, Asian-American invisibility in the national dialogue on race is finally being cracked.

If there was ever a perfect time to make a life change, this is it, The Timess Well columnist Tara Parker-Pope wrote this week.

Behavioral scientists have long said that times of disruption and transition are also opportunities for growth. And, well, I dont need to tell you weve all experienced a lot of disruption lately.

So on Monday, Tara will kick off Wells Fresh Start Challenge, sending readers daily texts with tips for mindful living, forging deeper connections with friends and family, and building healthy habits. To sign up, just text Hi (or any word) to 917-809-4995 for a link to join. If you dont want to receive texts, you can still join in online.

Just bookmark this page, and youll find a new challenge posted daily.

A programming note: I will be out on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but my colleagues will keep you up to date on everything you need to know.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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– History for Kids

Posted: May 14, 2021 at 5:59 am

History is the study of the past as it is narrated in written documents. The word originates from Greek,historia, meaning knowledge acquired by investigation or inquiry.

History can also be described as the bodies of knowledge about the past produced by historians, together with everything that is involved in the production, communication of, and teaching about that knowledge.

Where do historians obtain their material? The answer lies in the dusty ancient manuscripts stored away in vaults. These historical records provide historianswith the chance to trace stories back through time.

At History for Kids, you can explore all available facts about ancient or modern history, from Egypt to Greek to Roman and beyond. We are a completely free A-Z resource available for kids, pupils, parents and teachers to learn many interesting facts about history.

You can explore History Kids by using the A-Z list below.

Excel HS offers an accreditedonline high school diplomathat meets state standards and prepares learners for success in college and beyond.

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Cemeteries and Burials | Utah Division of State History

Posted: at 5:59 am

Please read the complete grant guidelines to determine your eligibility and matching requirement.

Match RequiredIndividual matching grants can be up to $10,000. The matching requirement will range in terms of percentage required for a match. All matching funds need not be monetary. Volunteer time is allowed to be calculated at a rate of $13.00/hour. Also, in-kind donations or contributions can also be used toward the matching requirement.

Digitization projects must provide the electronic report of burials and any maps produced to the program administrator. Preservation projects must provide proof of work done with photographs and site visit.

TiersMatching requirements will be based on the County Classification used by the Utah State Legislature. This classification is based on population using Utah Code Section 17-50-501*. Applicants can determine their county classification below to identify the percentage of match required.

1st Class (population of 700,000 or more) - match is at 50%.2nd Class (population of 125,000 to 699,999) - match is at 40%.3rd Class (population of 31,000 to 124,999) - match is at 30%.4th Class (population of 11,000 to 30,999) - match is at 25%.5th Class (population of 4,000 to 10,999) - match is at 20%.6th Class (population less than 4,000) - match is at 15%.

* County Classifications are determined by the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel of the Utah State Legislature.

TimelineNew grant cycles begin July 1st of every year. Applications are accepted throughout the year. However, all funded projects must be completed with no new expenses incurred by June 30th of each year.

Grant funds are limited and are on a first come first serve basis. Applicants are free to apply for consecutive grant cycles.

Project Eligibility

Cultural ComplianceHistoric cemeteries (anything over 50 years old) that embark on a preservation project will need to comply with state and federal law concerning cultural resources. Consultation may be required with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) if the project includes major rehabilitation, restoration, and repair work involving significant changes or replacement of key features and entire markers or other historic structures.

StandardsThe following standards are adapted from the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for the Treatment ofHistoric Properties:

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History the way it is meant to be heard The British History …

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This show is advertiser free. Seriously. You can listen to entire episodes without EVER having to hear me awkwardly pretend that I use Blue Apron.

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Membership is voluntary. The vast bulk of episodes are free and will remain so. In fact, the whole main show is free so you dont have to sign up to listen to the BHP.

However, to thank people for supporting the podcast we do offer a few exclusive extras for Members.

And all of that costs about the same as a latte per month (unless youre getting some sort of gold plated fancy latte, in which case Thanks for listening, Your Highness.)

If you would like to become a hero of the Werod, you can sign up for Membership by clicking this little button.

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How Republicans Aim to Rewrite the History of the Capitol Riot – The New York Times

Posted: at 5:59 am

WASHINGTON Four months after supporters of President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol in a deadly riot, a growing number of Republicans in Congress are mounting a wholesale effort to rewrite the history of what happened on Jan. 6, downplaying or outright denying the violence and deflecting efforts to investigate it.

Their denialism which has intensified for weeks and was on vivid display this week at a pair of congressional hearings is one reason that lawmakers have been unable to agree on forming an independent commission to scrutinize the assault on the Capitol. Republicans have insisted that any inquiry include an examination of violence by antifa, a loose collective of antifascist activists, and Black Lives Matter. It also reflects an embrace of misinformation that has become a hallmark of the Republican Party in the age of Mr. Trump.

A denial of finding the truth is what we have to deal with, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday. We have to find the truth, and we are hoping to do so in the most bipartisan way possible.

She drew a direct link between Republicans ouster of Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming as their No. 3 leader a move that stemmed from Ms. Cheneys vocal repudiations of Mr. Trumps election lies, which inspired the riot and their refusal to acknowledge the reality of what happened on Jan. 6.

A House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the riot on Wednesday underlined the Republican strategy. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, the chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, used his time to show video of mob violence purportedly by antifa that had unfolded 2,800 miles away in Portland, Ore.

His fellow Freedom Caucus member, Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina, used his turn to question whether rioters involved in the Capitol attack had actually been Trump supporters despite their Trump shirts, hats and flags, Make America Great Again paraphernalia, and pro-Trump chants and social media posts.

I dont know who did the poll to say that they were Trump supporters, Mr. Norman said.

Another Republican, Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia, described the scene during the assault nearly 140 were injured and at least five people died in connection with the riot as appearing like a normal tourist visit to the Capitol.

Lets be honest with the American people: It was not an insurrection, Mr. Clyde said, adding that the House floor was never breached and that no firearms had been confiscated. There was an undisciplined mob. There were some rioters, and some who committed acts of vandalism.

He then asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was the acting attorney general at the time of the attack, whether he considered it an insurrection, or a riot with vandalism, similar to what we saw last summer, apparently referring to racial justice protests that swept across the country.

Immediately after the attack, many Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the violent takeover of the building known as the citadel of American democracy. But in the weeks that followed, Mr. Trump, abetted by right-wing news outlets and a few members of Congress, pushed the fiction that it had been carried out by antifa and Black Lives Matter, a claim that the federal authorities have repeatedly debunked. Now, a much broader group of Republican lawmakers have settled on a more subtle effort to cloud and distort what happened.

The approach has hampered the creation of an independent commission, modeled after the one that delved into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to look into the Capitol riot, its roots and the governments response. Ms. Pelosi said discussions had stalled given Republicans insistence on including unrelated groups and events, and that Democrats might be forced to undertake their own inquiry through existing House committees if the G.O.P. would not drop the demand.

Now were getting this outrageous Orwellian revisionist history, where Donald Trump is out there saying that his most loyal followers came in literally, he said, hugging and kissing the Capitol officers, said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. My colleagues should stop with all of the evasions, the diversions and the distractions. Lets figure out what happened to us on that day.

Republicans involved in the effort to shift attention from the Jan. 6 attack argue they are merely pointing out hypocrisy by Democrats, who want to investigate supporters of the former president but not those aligned with movements on the left. The topic took center stage this week over Ms. Cheneys ouster.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, has insisted the commission must investigate left-wing violence, while Ms. Cheney publicly undercut him by arguing that it should be narrowly focused on the events of Jan. 6.

That kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have been playing a role they should not have been playing, Ms. Cheney said in an interview broadcast on Thursday on NBC.

Ms. Cheney may have been referring to the fact that some Republicans actively pushed Mr. Trumps lie that the election had been stolen from him, urging their supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to make a defiant last stand to keep him in power. The lawmakers linked arms with the organizers of the so-called Stop the Steal protest that preceded the riot and used inflammatory language to describe the stakes.

There is also deep concern among Republicans that an independent investigation will focus negative attention on their party as the 2022 midterm elections near. And many Republicans say they are listening to their voters, who continue to want them to stand with Mr. Trump and oppose Mr. Bidens victory as illegitimate.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois and a supporter of Ms. Cheney, said a sort of circular logic had taken hold of his party, in which Mr. Trump makes false statements, his supporters believe them and then Republican lawmakers who need backing from those voters to get re-elected repeat them.

The reality is, you cant blame people that think the election was stolen, because thats all they hear from their leaders, Mr. Kinzinger said. Its leaders job to tell the truth even if thats uncomfortable, and thats not what were doing.

Instead, Republicans are portraying themselves and their supporters as victims of a scheme by Democrats to silence them for their beliefs.

Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of the leading proponents in Congress of the Stop the Steal movement, used his time at the hearing this week to accuse the Justice Department of harassing peaceful patriots across the country.

Outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters, he said.

Representative Jody B. Hice, Republican of Georgia, painted Trump loyalists as the true casualties of the Jan. 6 attack.

It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, he said, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others.

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

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How Republicans Aim to Rewrite the History of the Capitol Riot - The New York Times

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History combines with elegance and convenience in Ipswich – The Salem News

Posted: at 5:59 am

The Isaac Lord House circa 1763 - 1806 has sat proudly on High Street surrounded by the largest collection of First Period houses in America for centuries. Today, it will serve as the anchor for Ipswichs newest luxury community. The Condominiums at Lords Square will be comprised of the renovated historic single-family and five brand new townhomes. Expertly built by Arthur Allen of Asap Construction and presented for sale by LUX Realty North Shores Team Cotraro, these soon-to-be listed stunning residences will start in the $580s.

Though all of the new homes will be enhanced by hardwood floors, fireplaces, primary en suites with walk-in closets and double vanities, finished basements with egressed windows, and gourmet kitchens with quartz counter tops, white maple cabinets, stainless steel appliances and induction cook tops, buyers will have their choice of styles. Two 1700 square foot duplex units will offer three bedrooms and two and a half baths while the three 1500 1900 square foot tri-plexes will feature three and four bedrooms and either two and a half or three and half baths. Additional highlights will include private rear patios, second floor laundries, central air, single-car garages with two extra parking spaces, and a lovely green space for communal gatherings.

Should you be looking for a bit more notoriety or a little more space, the restored 1850 square foot house could be the perfect fit. Along with the inclusion of the aforementioned modern-day amenities, Allen and his team have made it their mission to retain the historic elements that made this property so special in the first place. As soon as you see it, you will notice details like wood siding and trims, solid wood garage doors, exposed beams, original fireplace and aluminum clad windows, says the builder. To keep the feel of a true historic neighborhood, we have incorporated these components along with reclaimed original wood and period appropriate lantern street lights throughout the project. The whole idea was to blend the old with the new.

Close to downtown restaurants and shopping, new owners will surely enjoy the proximity to Crane Beach, the commuter rail and Routes 1A, 128 and 95. With expected delivery dates just around the corner, Realtor Mike Cotraro asks interested parties to call sooner rather than later about details.

For those who buy early, there is still time to select finishes and really make it their own, he says. This is a very exciting opportunity in a highly sought-after area. For more information, call Mike Cotraro at 978-337-6355 or visit http://www.luxrns.com.

AT A GLANCE:

6 new residences

3-4 bedrooms

2.5-3.5 baths

1500-1900 square feet

Starting in the low $580s

LISTED BY:

Team Cotraro

LUX Realty North Shore

Mike Cotraro, 978-337-6355 http://www.luxrns.com

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History combines with elegance and convenience in Ipswich - The Salem News

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History is not on the Browns side vs. the Chiefs in Week 1, and it has nothing to do with Clevelands past: E – cleveland.com

Posted: at 5:59 am

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kevin Stefanski cannot catch a Week 1 break.

Last year the NFL awarded the first-time head coach a debut vs. then-reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, fresh off a 14-2 season. A year later, Stefanski and the Browns open against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, who also only lost twice in 2020.

It gets worse. But before we continue, heed my warning.

This piece centers around historical data. If that frustrates you because of prior trauma, I understand. I cannot read of Vikings woes around the kicking game. But I promise, this unfavorable intel has nothing to do with Cleveland, Stefanski or the Browns.

From here on, Im writing about the Chiefs. Specifically, how wicked deadly Andy Reid is on Week 1.

Lets get to the numbers.

Andy Reid wins a lot of openers and does so explosively

Kevin Stefanski, left, talks with Andy Reid after last January's playoff game in Kansas City. AP

In 2013 when Reid arrived in Kansas City, he made a swift, franchise-steadying move: trading for Alex Smith. Immediately Kansas City won, beating the Jaguars 28-2 in Jacksonville to start the Reid era.

As a head coach, Reid has seen 23 openers. His record is 15-8. He left the Eagles following 2012. His Week 1 record with the Eagles was 7-7. Since joining the Chiefs, Reid dominates openers. Home or away, doesnt matter. Reid is 7-1 with a six-game winning streak filled with Mahomes highlights and high scores.

Speaking of Mahomes, he doesnt miss in September. On Thursday, Colin Cowherd showed a graphic detailing the Michael Jordan of footballs (its true) stats during the first month of the season. He averages 330 passing yards, holds an undefeated 10-0 mark and has thrown 32 touchdowns without an interception.

Read that again.

Back to Reid. With the Chiefs, his offenses average 380 yards per game. In seven games with the Eagles, they averaged 424 yards. I dont have exact numbers for this (because I am simply one man) but Im confident Alex Smith is responsible for that slight yardage dip.

Mahomes, Mike Vick and Donovan McNabb are Reids Mount Rushmore. The fourth spot features Travis Kelce rockin the freshest fade.

Good offenses gain yards. Historically respected ones score touchdowns. The Chiefs average 31.5 points per game in openers under Reid. Opponents must remain aggressive versus Kansas City. So much so that punting should be considered surrendering at least three points.

Its more likely Tim Tebow catches an NFL regular-season pass than a Mahomes-led offense rushing for more than it throws. But Reid has dominated on the ground in three opening victories, all with Philly. In 2011, the Eagles and LeSean McCoy hung 236 yards on the Rams. A 2009 win at Carolina accumulated 186. In 2000 playing at Cowboys Stadium, Duce Staley ran for 201 of Philadelphias 306 yards.

About 20 years later, Cleveland would rush for 307 yards at Dallas.

Perhaps the Chiefs learned a costly Super Bowl LV lesson and will display a greater commitment to running. Unlikely, but well find out in 17 weeks at Kansas City, where Reid hasnt lost in Week 1 since 2014. Alex Smith completed 19 passes for 202 yards, was intercepted three times and sacked four more.

If Mahomes plays anything like that on Sept. 12 then crown this new-look Browns defense. However, history suggests Stefanski must plan to score 30-plus.

The 2020 coach of the year wont admit hed appreciate an easier Week 1 opponent next season but Im sure he would. Hey Jimmy Haslam, call dibs on Detroit.

Tell Roger Goddell Cleveland earned it for hosting the most rockin draft ever.

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History is not on the Browns side vs. the Chiefs in Week 1, and it has nothing to do with Clevelands past: E - cleveland.com

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