Category Archives: Post Human

Today, preservationists are in a unique position: constantly racing against the clock to document, repair and maintain temples, structures, fortresses, and even human cultures, on the verge of collapse. What many of us dont realize is that heritage is central to the human condition it is what makes us human. Sadly many such sites are in danger of becoming too fragile to repair. So it stands that innovation in the technology industry is heritages best friend allowing for duplication and preservation of the echoes of the past, far into the future.

In an age of heightened efficiency, innovation in the preservation industry is crucial. Age old processes which historically took countless hours and exhausted manpower reserves, are becoming easier than ever to complete, and complete quickly. We still document sites with hand drawings and archaeologists still uses shovels, trowels and brushes to excavate, but we have new tools today. Drones, 3-D scanning, GPS, satellite imagery and rectified photography are helping us document sites while modern materials and techniques are revolutionizing the conservation o structures. Recent advancements, such as the ability to more rapidly and accurately collect and process large amounts of data, are allowing organizations to document, analyze, and ultimately preserve important heritage sites around the world.

Non-profit organizations like Global Heritage Fund and CyArkare using high-tech tools like ground penetrating radar, LIDAR and drones to preserve heritage sites at a pace never before seen, and in remote corners of the world. The use of 3-D imaging tools at Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia an endangered site among Cambodias top-listed sites for nomination to UNESCOs World Heritage List. The ruin is one of the great architectural masterpieces of Southeast Asia and the Khmer Kingdoms Angkorian Period, but lacking any conservation over the past 800 years, the temple complex has slowly collapsed and disintegrated.

Similarly, preservation of human rights is becoming an increasingly dangerous, remote and urgent job. In these cases, the AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Programemploys remote sensing, GPS and Internet mapping technologiesto observe conflicts, track climate change and disease spread, as well as safeguard human rights across a multitude of countries and regions. For example, AAAS has been working with human rights groups on a three-pronged initiative in Syria. Using high tech satellite imagery, AAAS has been able to identify and investigate human rights-related reports stemming from the conflict in Aleppo. The technology was also used to document escalation of the conflict, focusing on damage and destruction of cultural sites and important medical facilities across the region, and also military movement and evidence of vehicles and equipment.

Technology is invaluable in a number of ways during the preservation process. It not only allows for accurate and precise iterations of an at-risk site, allowing preservationists to maintain it for generations to come, but it also allows the industry to focus on other aspects of the site, including on-boarding community volunteers, working with local governments, and reinvigorating stalled economies. And for global humanitarian efforts, technology allows for anticipation and research of conflict, and speedier deployment of human rights services and aid.

While advanced technology does not often make a cameo on the big screen in films about heritage and humanitarian crises, there is much at work behind the scenes. Preservationists in many countries, from the United States to Cambodia, are using these tools to preserve and protect what seems to be taken for granted the most in 2014: culture. Its undeniable that there are few more real and tangible ways technology is helping to preserve our past while simultaneously ensuring it, and our ancestors, has a place in the future.

Vince Michael, PhD, is Executive Director of the Global Heritage Fund.

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Unlikely Causes: The Technology of Heritage Preservation and Human Rights Movements

Like a human post it note, Taimane Tuiasosopo a senior at Saint Mary's College, writes dorm room numbers on pieces of tape to be attach to personal belongings of incoming freshment outside of Augustine Hall in Moraga, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Over 590 new freshmen are moving in during the Annual Weekend of Welcome for new and returning students. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Bay Area News Group)

Like a human post-it note, Taimane Tuiasosopo (top), a senior at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, writes dorm room numbers on pieces of tape to be attached to incoming freshmen's personal belongings outside of the college's Augustine Hall on Aug. 28, the first day of the college's annual Weekend of Welcome for new and returning students. Almost 600 freshmen moved onto campus that weekend. Other Augustine Hall scenes: Saint mary's freshman Kaitlyn Humphries, lower left, of Valencia decorates her dorm room; and sophomores Alexa Gambero, Erika Navarro, and Patick Myers carry a new freshman's belongings.

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Moraga: Move-in day on the Saint Mary's College campus

Nature, Humans, post-human nature
I apologize for some shocking footage... Humanity is shocking 🙁 Nature will survive humanity and if we don #39;t come to our senses, our existence on this plane...

By: musback

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Nature, Humans, post-human nature - Video

If you think that focusing on improving relationships among teachers is just a warm and fuzzy idea that doesnt really matter to student achievement, read this post by Esther Quintero, senior fellow at the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute,where this first appeared.

By Esther Quintero

Debates about how to improve educational outcomes for students often involve two camps those who focus on the impact of in-school factors on student achievement and those who focus on out-of-school factors. There are many in-school factors discussed but improving the quality of individual teachers (or teachers human capital) is almost always touted as the main strategy for school improvement. Out-of-school factors are also numerous but proponents of this view tend toward addressing broad systemic problems such as poverty and inequality.

Social capital the idea that relationships have value, that social ties provide access to important resources like knowledge and support, and that a groups performance can often exceed that of the sum of its members is something that rarely makes it into the conversation. But why does social capital matter?

Research suggests that teachers social capital may be just as important to student learning as their human capital. In fact, some studies indicate that if school improvement policies addressed teachers human and social capital simultaneously, they would go a long way toward mitigating the effects of poverty on student outcomes. Sounds good, right? The problem is: Current policy does not resemble this approach. Researchers, commentators and practitioners have shown and lamented that many of the strategies leveraged to increase teachers human capital often do so at the expense of eroding social capital in our schools. In other words, these approaches are moving us one step forward and two steps back.

I would argue Daly and Finnigan did that this somewhat broad and diffuse notion that relationships matter is not some warm and fuzzy idea, but rather that it could hold an important key to educational improvement. Social capital is malleable; policies can and do shape teachers professional networks and how they function. For example, Gamoran, Gunter and Williams (2005) showed that sustained and coherent professional development can be used to create strong collegial ties (or social capital) among teachers. Similarly, Sun, Frank, Penuel & Kim (2013) showed that strategies that promote informalteacher leadership can be a mechanism to disseminate effective classroom practices through interactions something that formal leadership networks are not well-equipped to accomplish.Supovitz, Sirinides and May 2010demonstrated that principals indirectly affect the instructional practice of teachers, which in turn produces improvements in student learning; thus, principals attention to concepts like mission and goals or community and trust have subtle yet real organizational influence. Finally, one could also imagine a set of policies that incentivized not just teacher collaboration, but entire schools within a district (or even across districts) working together, an approach that would bolster social capital and cohesiveness at another level: The entire system.

But lets back up a little bit; why is social capital such a central concept? A number of studies suggest that good things happen for students in schools where teachers work together routinely. Here I review four empirical papers* showing that students learn more when their teachers are embedded in more supportive and collegial professional networks, and that teacher collaboration may have as great an effect on student achievement as teacher human capital. I hope, as do the authors of these papers, that this information can be used to guide future investments in each [form of capital] (p. 1103).

***

Despite the importance of teacher interaction and collaboration our understanding of how they influence student outcomes is still limited (see also Datnow, 2012 and Penuel et al., 2009). In fact, few studies make that direct link.

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Strauss: Do students learn more when their teachers work well together?

Eight men have been arrested in connection with human trafficking in Bristol

EIGHT men have been arrested in connection with human trafficking in Bristol.

Two women, aged 18 and 21, contacted police at the end of August to report incidents of sexual exploitation committed against them at a property in Eastville.

The women also gave details surrounding the arrangement of forced marriages and an investigation was launched.

As a result of police enquiries, six warrants were carried out yesterday morning under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), at four addresses in Bristol and two in Birmingham.

The properties were in Eastville, Easton, Southville and Oldbury Court in Bristol and in the Hockley area of Birmingham.

In total, eight men were arrested:

A 42-year-old man from Birmingham was arrested on suspicion of trafficking, rape and assault. He has been bailed for these offences but has been remanded in custody in relation to an outstanding warrant.

All the other men arrested were from Bristol:

Two men, aged 38 and 36, were arrested on suspicion of trafficking and have been released on bail.

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The Bristol Post commented Eight men arrested in connection with human trafficking in...

President Obama said the U.S. will work with a "broad coalition" of foreign partners to combat the Islamic State in his public address on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. (The Associated Press)

September 10 at 11:08 PM

President Obama has made a number of milestone foreign policy statements as he sought to move the nation to a post-9/11 national security policy that draws on American values, international coalitions, and diplomacy more than military operations to protect the country. At the core of his vision has been an end to Americas post-9/11 wars and a turn toward nation-building at home, as he has put it. The excerpts below chart the halting progress he has made toward that goal.

May 21, 2009 | At the National Archives, Washington

} Obama underscores the continued threat from al-Qaeda and the need to protect Americans. He says the country lost its way during the George W. Bush administration and pledged a counterterrorism strategy consistent with American values.

Now this generation faces a great test in the specter of terrorism. And unlike the Civil War or World War II, we cant count on a surrender ceremony to bring this journey to an end. Right now, in distant training camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives. That will be the case a year from now, five years from now, and in all probability 10 years from now.

Dec. 1, 2009 | At the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.

} Announcing an increase in U.S. troops for Afghanistan and an end date for the deployment.

I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means or our interests. And I must weigh all of the challenges that our nation faces. ... I dont have the luxury of committing to just one. Indeed, Im mindful of the words of President Eisenhower, who -- in discussing our national security said, Each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs. Over the past several years, we have lost that balance. Weve failed to appreciate the connection between our national security and our economy.

Dec. 10, 2009 | Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, Oslo

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The groundwork for Obamas post-9/11 national security policy

The human race is over in New Hampshire. OK, not really, but a man who was running for political office in the Live Free Or Die state named human lost his primary race last night.

Human was once known as David Montenegro, until he decided to legally change his name to human, complete with a lower-case h. He was running against Democratic state Rep. Rose Marie Rogers, but only a few wanted human in office. According to the Associated Press, human lost 181-30.

Montenegro has been legally known as human since 2012. If his name sounds familiar, thats because he was in the headlines back in November 2013 when he fought to get a vanity license plate that read COPSLIE. The state Division of Motor Vehicles initially said he couldnt use the phrase, but he eventually won his battle in court.

As the Washington Post pointed out, he explained to local media that his goal was to fight for the rights of other human beings, not to make a name for himself.

Rogers represents the city of Rochester and has held the seat since 2012.

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Human race over in New Hampshire

Bulgarias Kristalina Georgieva, who will hold the post of Commission Vice-President, responsible for Budget and Human Resources, said that Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker chose her because of her independence.

Georgieva spoke to a small group of journalists after Juncker announced the appointments of the 27 commissioners. The announcement of her portfolio made big headlines in her home country, Bulgaria, where President Rossen Plevneliev expressed pride that for the first time, a Bulgarian had received such an important Commission portfolio. Previous EU portfolios held by Bulgarians are Consumer Protection, held by Meglena Kuneva between 2007 and 2009, and Humanitarian Aid, which Georgieva still holds.

Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki introduced Georgieva's candidacy as soon as he took office, on 6 August.

Georgieva said she had learned about the possible appointment following a meeting between Plevneliev and Juncker during the 30-31 August EU summit. The summit decided on the appointment of Italian Prime Minister Federica Mogherini as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a post for which Georgieva was also a strong candidate.

>> Read: Juncker tries hard to get Georgieva on his team

Georgieva said that Juncker had chosen her because of her independence, because she is not a person who yields to pressure, be it from a government, a political party, or special interest groups.

Indeed, Georgieva, a former World Bank Vice President, has been away from her country long enough to be seen as detached from national politics. She was nominated for her first term by the centre-right government of then-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, but has never been an activist for his party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria).

In his speech, Juncker said Georgieva has won the admiration of heads of state and governments and of MEPs, and who has been able to build an impressive network of international contacts during her current term in office.

Just as Mr. Timmermans, Mrs Georgieva will have to work with all the commissioners, Juncker said. According to organigrams of appointments, only Georgieva and Frans Timmermans, the Dutch First Vice President for Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights, have all the remaining commissioners reporting to them.

Georgieva said that all the commissioners knock on the door of the budget commissioner, and that she had been doing that as Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner.

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Georgieva: Juncker chose me because of my independence

Human Rights

Awaiting the decision in United States v. Windsor. Image: Flickr, Photo Phiend.

Federal agencies are beginning to revise their policies in the wake of the decision in United States v. Windsor, where the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the controversial definition of marriage contained in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This paradigm shift has the potential to promote a rapid change in the way fundamental human rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled for the Queer Community in the United States.

The question in the case was simple, yet profound: whether the federal governments act of defining what marriage is violated the constitutional equal protection rights of same-sex spouses legally married under state law. The court employed forceful language in finding DOMAs construction constitutionally repugnant. The definition was described as motivated by an improper animus or purpose, offensive to a host of considerations that could not be overcome by any legitimate purpose.

Initial reactions seemed lackluster the federal government announced its still operative policy declining to provide some legal entitlements to domestic partnerships where Windsor requires them for legally valid same-sex marriages, echoing the holdings limitation. Now, as the individual actions necessary to come into compliance with Windsor are occurring, the logical import of the holding is becoming apparent.

The U.S. Department of Treasury, which includes the Internal Revenue Service, has announced its acceptance of this reality. Its decision to recognize all same-sex marriages for federal tax purposes issued the same day the Department of Health and Human Services announced that Medicare benefits now cover same-sex spouses. Domestic partnerships remain distinct from marriages and uncovered whatever the sex of the partners.

Windsor affects more than two hundred provisions of the tax code. Rather than amend all of these provisions to perpetuate a distinction between married couples, the IRS decision reads all references to husbands and wives and marriages to apply equally to same-sex marriages. What used to refer narrowly to a rigid conception of sex is becoming a more fluid, expansive conception of gender.

When legally married same-sex couples file jointly from states that do not recognize same-sex marriages, the question of this distinctions permissibility will be raised. From there, the general ability of the U.S. governments to maintain an institution of marriage exclusive to heteronormative standards will further erode. Several different lawsuits seeking to expand Windsors scope have already been filed, and the largest looming problem is the potential social backlash such momentum could encounter. Fortunately, constitutional grounds underpin the catalyst for recent progress.

Essentially, the federal legislature attempted to declare what marriage is through what it is not, and the federal judiciary responded that it could not define the term in an exclusionary, injurious way. This invalidated the definition set by the federal government, that marriage is between only one man and one woman and is beginning to show the same effect in popular conception. Despite the holding being limited to situations making distinctions between legally married couples irrespective of sex, the conceptual entertainment of a distinction between legally valid same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships is becoming more plainly untenable.

Two prime examples reflecting the move away from accepting the logical fallacy inherent in having a checkerboard recognition and nonrecognition of marriages and partnerships can be found within contemporary judicial reasoning and in popular economic activity. Shortly after Windsor was handed down, federal courts began building on the decision by expounding on the unconstitutionality of state same-sex marriage bans. Just prior to the decisions of the federal agencies, the worlds largest employer after the U.S. and Chinese militaries, Wal-Mart, announced its new policy of extending benefits to domestic partners as it would to opposite-sex spouses of its employees. This trend appears poised to continue, and is precisely this augmenting of a broad cultural viewpoint that the human rights community seeks to engender.

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Post-Windsor Progress

Post Office sign. Photo credit should read: Lewis Stickley/PA Wire

Sam Russell Friday, September 5, 2014 10:59 AM

Jobs could be lost at a central Norwich Post Office, as new ways of working are introduced.

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Managers insist that a move to install four new self-service kiosks at the Castle Mall branch will be a positive move for customers, that no staffing decisions had been made yet and no redundancies would be compulsory.

They hoped new technology would help reduce waiting times, without losing the human touch.

It is understood around two dozen people work at the branch, and union chiefs have vowed to keep a close eye on the situation.

A Post Office spokesman said bosses were investing in new technologies nationwide, but also assessing staff duties and ensuring services were viable.

As part of this process, we are also assessing duties at Castle Mall Post Office, though no changes have yet been made, the spokesman said. Potential changes will not involve compulsory redundancies.

The revision of staff duties will be in line with current business levels, and we would like to assure customers that they will still benefit from quality service from trained staff.

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Self-service kiosks to be installed at Norwich Post Office amid fears of job losses