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·       TED Talks: www.ted.com

·       Podcasts: https://listenwise.com/, https://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/

·       Poetry: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems

·       Narratives: www.storycorps.org, www.themoth.org

·       Short-form Essay: https://www.npr.org/series/4538138/this-i-believe

·       Flash Fiction: https://flashfictionmagazine.com/

·       Articles: http://www.tweentribune.com/

·       Art: http://www.wga.hu/index.html

·       History, science, etc.: https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse, https://www.youtube.com/user/itsokaytobesmart

·       Short passages from longer texts, Pixar shorts, etc.

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Community spirit

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Community Spirit - by David Harris.I can remember a time br when the neighbourhood bond was strong. br When you could chat to one another br over the..

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Don't Heal in Isolation | Eamonn McCaughan | TEDxYouth@WIS

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https://www.ted.com/talks/eva_maria_geigl_the_history_of_the_world_according_to_cats/transcript#t-24925

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Maya Angelou’s “Alone”

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Isolation history

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A blistering report released on Wednesday by an investigative panel looking into the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last year, exposes a litany of school security breaches and chaotic protocol leading to the deaths of 17 students and faculty, and it recommends arming teachers to prevent or slow future on-campus attacks.

The probe also tears into school staff and sheriff's deputies involved in the incident, some of whom it says contradicted "ample evidence" captured on video and audio surveillance footage. The Public Safety Commission argues they either intentionally told falsehoods or offered differing accounts due to incompetence.

"All stakeholders-school districts, law enforcement, mental health providers, city and county governments, funding entities, etc. - should embrace the opportunity to change and make Florida schools the safest in the nation," the report says in its opening pages, which includes short biographies of each of the victims.

"There must be a sense of urgency-and there is not, across-the-board-in enhancing school safety," it says.

The analysis, comprising a 439-page report, examines "what happened leading up to the shooting and the law enforcement response." That includes a moment-by-moment recounting of the shooting as well as a comprehensive scrutiny of the shooter's life - Nikolas Cruz - from birth through the Feb. 14, 2018.

The report and its recommendations were sent to the governor's office and legislature for consideration.

"We will not wait, we will be vigilant and we, like the legislature, expect compliance and change with urgency," the Commission says.

Among the most controversial recommendations for the state legislature is that it should expand the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program "to allow teachers who volunteer," and get training, to carry concealed firearms on campuses.

Under the program - named in honor of the football coach who died while protecting students during the attack - administrators and other staff can receive training to carry concealed weapons. But only teachers with a military or law enforcement background are allowed to participate in the program.

President Trump has repeatedly called for arming teachers as a means of making schools safer spaces. "We have to have offensive capability to take these people out rapidly before they can do this kind of damage," Trump told reporters at a news conference in the weeks following the tragedy in Parkland.

He also reasoned that security guards "don't love the students" as teachers do, NPR reports.

However, the Florida Education Association, which represents teachers, and the Florida PTA, both oppose the expansion of the law believing more guns on campus will make schools less safe, the Miami Herald reports.

Several chapters of the report chronicle myriad security breakdowns, systemic school security failures and the absence of a cohesive protocol that allowed Cruz to easily enter the campus and embark on the shooting rampage: Gates and doors were left unlocked while others were inaccessible just when students needed additional hiding spaces; there were no public address system speakers in the hallways that might have improved communication throughout the bloody chaos.

Additionally, the report notes that a recent shift in policy by Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, telling deputies that they "may" enter a building where there is an active shooter, where previously they were trained to enter, created confusion and led to inaction by eight deputies responding to the active shooter.

According to the report, Deputy Scot Peterson, the school's only dedicated armed security officer on the day of the shooting, opted not to enter the building where Cruz had begun firing on students and teachers. Instead, he took up what the report calls a "hiding place" at the base of a stairwell for 48 minutes and only emerged after Cruz had run off campus and into the surrounding neighborhood where he was eventually arrested.

The report also notes Peterson was repeatedly untruthful about where he was from the moment he first heard the gunshots through the end of the massacre. In a statement given on Feb. 16, 2018, to the Broward Sheriff's Office, Peterson said that he was in his office at the time he heard what he believed to be firecrackers. But video indicates he was elsewhere on campus.

The Commission also found fault with the FBI for its failure to follow up on tips regarding Cruz and the danger he posed to students and faculty months before the attack.

Similarly, it details several instances in which parents and students allege they approached Principal Ty Thompson and Assistant Principal Jeff Morford with concerns about Cruz' behavior, claims both men deny.

Still, the report says, "Investigators found Morford to be remarkably absent-minded in remembering details about various events and/or being intentionally deceptive."

The panel called for a broad evaluation of existing mental health and social services "to ensure they are producing the desired results." It stressed services should focus on "evidence-based best practices with specific metrics to measure outcomes.

Gov. Rick Scott, whose last day in office is Jan. 8, said he will review the report.

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Parkland Shooting Panel Report Calls For Arming Teachers, Chronicles Slew Of Blunders

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A blistering report released on Wednesday by an investigative panel looking into the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last year, exposes a litany of school security breaches and chaotic protocol leading to the deaths of 17 students and faculty, and it recommends arming teachers to prevent or slow future on-campus attacks.

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Require Community Service?

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Lately there has been talk in New York State (and others) to set a requirement of 100 hours of community service in order to graduate from high school [a recent 21st Century Opinion Poll question]. There are many who are against thi

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Harry Baker: A love poem for lonely prime numbers

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Performance poet (and math student) Harry Baker spins a love poem about his favorite kind of numbers -- the lonely, love-lorn prime. Stay on for two more lively, inspiring poems from this charming performer.

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The Dog Runner

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/11/the-dog-runner/

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Mother reflects on sons suicide

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The mother of a bullied teen tells the story of his suicide.

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The mother of a bullied teen tells the story of his suicide.

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Police story

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In 1992, four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of assaulting Rodney King whose March 1991 beating at the hands of police was captured on video. The news sparked unrest in the city, and no neighborhood was hit harder than South Central Los Angeles.

KJLH, an urban R&B station located on Crenshaw Boulevard, was in the center of it all. General Manager Karen Slade, DJ Eric "Rico" Reed, and KJLH's driver Arthur "Sonny" Williams remember what happened during those days.

KJLH later won a Peabody award for its coverage of the riots.
Originally aired April 13, 2012 on NPR's Morning Edition.
Top photo: An auto parts store burns out of control in Los Angeles, April 30, 1992. Numerous fires were set and stores were looted after the Rodney King beating trial verdict. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

Bottom photo: Karen Slade, Eric "Rico" Reed, and Arthur "Sonny" Williams.

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Karen Slade, Eric "Rico" Reed and Arthur "Sonny" Williams

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In 1992, four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of assaulting Rodney King whose March 1991 beating at the hands of police was captured on video. The news sparked unrest in the city, and no neighborhood was hit harder than South Central Los Angeles.

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In March, 1993, LeAlan Jones, thirteen, and Lloyd Newman, fourteen, collaborated with public radio producer David Isay to create the radio documentary Ghetto Life 101, their audio diaries of life on Chicago's South Side. The boys taped for ten days, walking listeners through their daily lives: to school, to an overpass to throw rocks at cars, to a bus ride that takes them out of the ghetto, and to friends and family members in the community.

The candor in Jones and Newman's diaries brought listeners face to face with a portrait of poverty and danger and their effects on childhood in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Like Vietnam War veterans in the bodies of young boys, Jones and Newman described the bitter truth about the sounds of machine guns at night and the effects of a thriving drug world on a community.

Ghetto Life 101 became one of the most acclaimed programs in public radio history, winning almost all of the major awards in American broadcasting, including: the Sigma Delta Chi Award, the Ohio State Award, the Livingston Award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards for Excellence in Documentary Radio and Special Achievement in Radio Programming, and others. Ghetto Life 101 was also awarded the Prix Italia, Europe's oldest and most prestigious broadcasting award. It has been translated into a dozen languages and has been broadcast worldwide.
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois. Premiered May 18, 1993, on WBEZ Chicago.
Update on Ghetto Life 101
Lloyd Newman and LeAlan Jones, the reporters of Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse, sent in the following updates in May 2001. Lloyd Newman writes:
I know a lot of people have been wondering what's been going on with me over the past few years. Is he living up to his words or is he still living that Ghetto Life? Well, I'd have to say both. Since the documentaries and the book came out, I have attended three different colleges, searching for the one that fits me best. I'm not living a Ghetto Life but I'm still living in the ghetto (when I'm not at school), which doesn't bother me at all, even though there are rats and roaches still crawl the wall. My father has been doing the same. Some people might think, "Oh he's a terrible father," but a father who loves his kids as much as mine does is the best father you can have. My sisters are still doing great, raising great kids, even thought they still don't have jobs. Lately I've been thinking of a million things that I want to do, but I've had a hard time putting it all together. Yes, I have been blessed with success in journalism, but I was a kid then and had a lot of help. Now that I'm in college, I see you have to work hard to get to where you want to be. All I can say is: I got ideas. Don't think that this will be the last time you will hear from me because I will put those ideas to work.
LeAlan Jones writes:
I am now a junior at Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois, were I am taking up Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in Poli-Sci. I will be graduating from Barat in the spring of 2002 with a Bachelors Degree in the above fields. I have been continuing to speak at all levels of academia, from grade schools to graduate and law schools around the United States. I firmly committed to changing the intolerable conditions of urban America. I still live in the same community and have immersed myself in attempts to affect the social climate of poverty. A change will come when we as a people embrace difference and respect all capacities of life. Whether it be a ghetto or an isolated rural community, we have to begin working towards One America. This is my goal, my life, and my mission.

Lloyd Newman, David Isay, and LeAlan Jones in the Sound Portraits office, March 2002.
Archival photos of the Ida B. Wells housing projects from the Library of Congress
A class in radio for youngsters at Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3- 000319-D. Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-004871-D. A childrens' rhythm band in a music class, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000294-D. Children playing a game in a music class, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000270-D. A meeting of the Cub Scouts in the community center, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000290-D. An apartment in the Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-038652-D.

The Carr family in their living room, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000086-D.

In the kitchen of the Carr home, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000085-D.

Jelna Carr and her father listen to the 6:45 news broadcast, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000075-D.

Jelna and her sister Grace both play the piano, Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000078-D.

Ralph and Grace Carr, Jelna's brother and sister.. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000068-D.

Jelna likes sciences, is going to be a doctor. For Christmas her parents bought her this chemistry set. Ida B. Wells Housing Project, 1942.. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000076-D.

Mrs. Ella Patterson, the oldest resident at the Ida B. Wells Housing Project, Chicago, Illinois, and her grandson, 1942.. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000105-D.
Photos of the Ida B. Wells housing projects, by John Brooks

A study guide, for teachers who want to share Ghetto Life 101 with their class [PDF file, 416 KB]
This documentary comes from Sound Portraits Productions, a mission-driven independent production company that was created by Dave Isay in 1994. Sound Portraits was the predecessor to StoryCorps and was dedicated to telling stories that brought neglected American voices to a national audience.

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In March, 1993, LeAlan Jones, thirteen, and Lloyd Newman, fourteen, collaborated with public radio producer David Isay to create the radio documentary Ghetto Life 101, their audio diaries of life on Chicago's South Side. The boys taped for ten days, walking listeners through their daily lives: to school, to an overpass to throw rocks at...

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Valentine's Day 2019 marks one year since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the deadliest high school shooting in our country's history.

Maya Altman had just stepped out of her freshman biology class when she heard gunshots. That day, she would lose her friend, Alyssa Alhadeff.

At StoryCorps, Maya sat down with her mom, Robyn, to remember.

Top Photo: Maya Altman and her mother Robyn Altman at StoryCorps in Parkland, Florida. Photo by Madison Mullen for StoryCorps.
Middle Photo: Maya Altman and her mother Robyn Altman moments after Maya was evacuated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. Photo by Adam Altman, Maya's father.
Originally aired February 8, 2019, on NPR's Morning Edition.

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Valentine's Day 2019 marks one year since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the deadliest high school shooting in our country's history. Maya Altman had just stepped out of her freshman biology class when she heard gunshots. That day, she would lose her friend, Alyssa Alhadeff.

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Pixar Short “Community” Teamwork

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Pixar 2014 The Power of Teamwork   Short Film

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Sebastian Junger: Our lonely society makes it hard to come home from war

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Sebastian Junger has seen war up close, and he knows the impact that battlefield trauma has on soldiers. But he suggests there's another major cause of pain for veterans when they come home: the experience of leaving the tribal closeness of the military and returning to an alienating and bitterly divided modern society.

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Poetry.org

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I Never Figured How to Get Free - The war was all over my hands.

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https://www.ted.com/talks/david_sengeh_the_sore_problem_of_prosthetic_limbs

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Hurricane Harvey & Helping Each Other

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HOUSTON - For Yatin Thaker and his family, Hurricane Harvey brought a new appreciation of his fellow Houstonians and the cultural diversity that distinguishes the city.

Thaker, who emigrated from India in 2000, drove his family of four through floodwater Monday in a frantic escape from Harvey's relentless torrents in southwest Houston. In the 24 hours since, he has witnessed an outpouring of support from the Indian community, where restaurant owners anted up free food and scores of volunteers - of diverse backgrounds - hit the streets to deliver hot meals and necessities to families in need.

Unable to return home, Thaker is prepared to help in whatever way possible.

"Diversity helps people understand each other's pains," Thaker said Tuesday evening as his two young children raced around the Richmond house they're temporarily calling "home."

Houston has experienced a cultural boom in recent decades and was labeled the most racially and ethnically diverse large metropolitan area in the United States by researchers with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas.
More: More: Hurricane Harvey evacuees forced out of storm shelter Away from their flooded homes, Harvey evacuees fret about looters
It surpasses New York City and holds the distinction of having every racial and ethnic group as a demographic minority, based on Census data in that report.

"Harnessing the burgeoning racial (and) ethnic diversity is a central challenge for the Houston region," researchers wrote in their report.

But for many experiencing this disaster - and for those effecting rescues and assisting in their own ways - it's a chance to defy boundaries.

'Nails striking the window'

Thaker knows flooding and disaster.

He moved to Houston two months after Tropical Storm Allison ravaged the region in June 2001, and he witnessed the lengthy recovery that followed.

Like any longtime resident in a Southern state, he can rattle off his list:

* Side-effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

* The brunt of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

* The devastation of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Harvey was different, though, partly because of the storm itself and partly because his life now is different. Back then, he was single and would ride out storms without a second thought, staying awake until the power went out.

"With a family, the whole perspective changed," he said. "This was really different for me. Decision-making is harder when you have to keep family as a center."

The rain was relentless - like "nails striking the window."
More: More: Harvey to be costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, estimated cost of $160 billion 'Catastrophic flooding' persists even as Houston waterways recede
This was like Ike and Allison in one shot.

Upwards of 30 inches had fallen by Tuesday night at the family's home in southwest Houston, according to the National Weather Service. Though far from the 50 inches that dumped elsewhere in the region, the amount remains difficult to fathom.

With his children sleeping in the backseat and his wife, Dipal, in the passenger seat, they followed another vehicle through the water. It came midway up their SUV.

Having seen social media reports about six members of another family that were killed when water swept away their vehicle, the Thakers prepared themselves for a worst-case scenario.

Their plan: Roll the windows down so they could get the kids out.

And, hopefully, themselves.

It didn't come to that, though.

'They all came together'

Mihir Shah closed on his sprawling new home in Richmond on Aug. 11.

Two weeks later, he was sheltering his friends, the Thakers.

And he was preparing to take in others in need.

The Thakers don't think their house sustained significant damage, but they're unable to return until high water subsides on the entry roads to their community. In the meantime, they're mulling how to give back.

It's a sentiment shared by Houstonians of all backgrounds. A few miles to the north, an Asian family used inflatable kayaks Tuesday morning to rescue people from homes as reservoir water crept higher in nearby neighborhoods.
Follow Jason Pohl on Twitter: @pohl_jason.
Restaurant owners of virtually all cultural backgrounds have stepped up to distribute food and supplies, using social media to rally delivery drivers. One Indian restaurant has made more than 1,000 deliveries since the storm began, and untold numbers of others have similar stories.

Thaker talks of mingling with neighbors in the days before leaving their home near Sugar Land. The neighborhood - a microcosm of the region and country - include Latinos, Bangladeshis, Indians, Chinese and African Americans.

They quipped about having a post-Harvey cookout to see which culture offered superior cuisine, Thaker said.

Now he looks forward to getting home and making that a reality.

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Houston's diversity on display as communities band together to help Harvey's victims

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HOUSTON - For Yatin Thaker and his family, Hurricane Harvey brought a new appreciation of his fellow Houstonians and the cultural diversity that distinguishes the city. Thaker, who emigrated from India in 2000, drove his family of four through floodwater Monday in a frantic escape from Harvey's relentless torrents in southwest Houston.

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https://storycorps.org/stories/ghetto-life-101/

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Days before Halloween in 1995, Janette Fennell, her husband Greig, and their 9-month-old son Alex arrived home from a night out with friends. After pulling into the garage of their San Francisco home, they were confronted by two armed men who forced the couple at gunpoint into the trunk of the Fennell's car and drove away.

During the several-hour ordeal, which the family survived, both Janette and Greig believed that Alex was still in the backseat of the car in his car seat were they had left him.

The carjackers were never caught, but Janette and her husband continued to drive the car (pictured at left in a 1999 photo with Alex and his younger brother, Noah, sitting with their parents on the trunk) they were kidnapped in for several years.

Alex, now in college, sat down for StoryCorps with his mom to talk about the experience.

Janette went on to devote herself to improving car safety by founding a nonprofit that lobbies for car safety reform. Due to her efforts, emergency trunk releases are now standard equipment on all new cars. She has also worked on legislation requiring child safe windows and rear view cameras on all cars.
Originally aired October 23, 2015, on NPR's Morning Edition.
Photos courtesy of Janette Fennell.

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Days before Halloween in 1995, Janette Fennell, her husband Greig, and their 9-month-old son Alex arrived home from a night out with friends. After pulling into the garage of their San Francisco home, they were confronted by two armed men who forced the couple at gunpoint into the trunk of the Fennell's car and drove away.

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Value - In those days all shops were called Ma This or Mister That.

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Government programs

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subscribe to NPR Politics Podcast podcast

The federal deficit ballooned to $779 billion in the just-ended fiscal year - a remarkable tide of red ink for a country not mired in recession or war.

The government is expected to borrow more than a trillion dollars in the coming year, in part to make up for tax receipts that have been slashed by GOP tax cuts.

Corporate tax collections fell by 31 percent in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, despite robust corporate profits. That's hardly surprising after lawmakers cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21.

Income taxes withheld from individuals grew by 1 percent. Overall tax receipts were flat. As a share of the economy, tax receipts shrank to 16.5 percent of GDP, from 17.2 percent the previous year.

"The president is very much aware of the realities presented by our national debt," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.

He insisted that accelerating economic growth will eventually help fill the deficit hole, though so far there's little evidence that growth is finding its way to government coffers.

The White House also argued that government spending is to blame for the yawning deficit, even though spending rose just 3 percent during the fiscal year and spending as a share of the economy actually shrank.

"This fiscal picture is a blunt warning to Congress of the dire consequences of irresponsible and unnecessary spending," Mulvaney said in a statement.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the growing deficit "very disturbing." He argued the problem is neither tax cuts nor beefed-up military spending, but rather the big three entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"There's been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs," McConnell said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Hopefully at some point here we'll get serious about this. We haven't been yet."

McConnell's comments drew a swift rebuke from the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who blamed the rising deficit on Republicans' "tax cut for the rich."

"To now suggest cutting earned middle-class programs like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid as the only fiscally responsible solution to solve the debt problem is nothing short of gaslighting," Schumer said.

The fiscal year-end report from the Treasury Department was broadly in line with White House and Congressional projections. Although White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow falsely claimed in June that the deficit was coming down, the trend toward rising red ink was widely anticipated.

"As expected, recent tax cuts and spending increases - all put on the national credit card - are making a bad problem even worse," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Growing deficits, coupled with rising interest rates, will increasingly put pressure on other government spending priorities. MacGuineas notes that interest payments jumped 24 percent in the last 12 months, to $325 billion.

"Those elected to Congress this year will face stark and difficult choices to put the debt on a downward path and protect our nation's social programs from insolvency," MacGuineas said. "It's no longer a problem for the future."

President Trump has complained repeatedly that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates too quickly.

"My biggest threat is the Fed," Trump said Tuesday in an interview with the Fox Business Network. "The Fed is raising rates too fast. And it's independent, so I don't speak to [Fed Chairman Jerome Powell]. But I'm not happy with what he's doing."

The deficit typically grows during recessions - when tax receipts shrink and demand for food stamps and other government assistance rises - then falls during good times

The current spike in the deficit at a time of strong economic growth and low unemployment represents a break with that historical pattern.

The last time unemployment was this low - in 1969 - federal government ran a small surplus.

After peaking at nearly 10 percent of GDP in 2009, the deficit declined as share of the economy through 2015. It's been rising since, hitting 3.9 percent of GDP in the fiscal year just ended.

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Federal Deficit Jumps 17 Percent As Tax Cuts Eat Into Government Revenue

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subscribe to NPR Politics Podcast podcast The federal deficit ballooned to $779 billion in the just-ended fiscal year - a remarkable tide of red ink for a country not mired in recession or war. The government is expected to borrow more than a trillion dollars in the coming year, in part to make up for tax receipts that have been slashed by GOP tax cuts.

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Community Art in Action

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In the classroom, there are numerous ways to practice community art in action: -An art teacher or school might decide to collaborate with a visiting artist.

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https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102961694

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https://www.ted.com/talks/hector_garcia_we_train_soldiers_for_war_let_s_train_them_to_come_home_too?referrer=playlist-what_comes_after_war&utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

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https://www.ted.com/talks/hector_garcia_we_train_soldiers_for_war_let_s_train_them_to_come_home_too?referrer=playlist-what_comes_after_war&utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

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Hector Garcia: We train soldiers for war. Let's train them to come home, too

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Before soldiers are sent into combat, they're trained on how to function in an immensely dangerous environment. But they also need training on how to return from the battlefield to civilian life, says psychologist Hector Garcia. Applying the same principles used to prepare soldiers for war, Garcia is helping veterans suffering from PTSD get their lives back.

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Farida Nabourema: Is your country at risk of becoming a dictatorship? Here's how to know

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Farida Nabourema has dedicated her life to fighting the military regime in Togo, Africa's oldest autocracy. She's learned two truths along the way: no country is destined to be oppressed -- and no country is immune to dictatorship. But how can you tell if you're at risk before it happens?

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All Money Matter Belief

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All Money Is A Matter of Belief - Every poet glistens with the dew

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Latino Education Crisis

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Will the United States have an educational caste system in 2030? Drawing on both extensive demographic data and compelling case studies, this powerful book reveals the depths of the educational crisis looming for Latino students, the nationâe(tm)s largest and most rapidly growing minority group.Richly informative and accessibly written, The Latino Education Crisis describes the cumulative disadvantages faced by too many children in the complex American school systems, where one in five students is Latino.

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Guys’ Masculinty and Isolation

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When Paul Kugelman was a kid, he had no shortage of friends. But as he grew older and entered middle age, his social world narrowed.

"It was a very lonely time. I did go to work and I did have interactions at work, and I cherished those," he says. "But you know, at the end of the day it was just me."

Kugelman's story isn't unusual: researchers say it can be difficult for men to hold on to friendships as they age. And the problem may begin in adolescence.

New York University psychology professor Niobe Way, who has spent decades interviewing adolescent boys, points to the cultural messages boys get early on.

"These are human beings with unbelievable emotional and social capacity. And we as a culture just completely try to zip it out of them," she says.

This week on Hidden Brain, we look at what happens when half the population gets the message that needing others is a sign of weakness and that being vulnerable is unmanly.
Resources:
This episode refers to the Harvard Study of Adult Development, Niobe Way's book, Deep Secrets,and research on suicide rates and social interaction.
The Hidden Brain radio show is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Parth Shah, Jennifer Schmidt, Rhaina Cohen, and Matthew Schwartz. Our supervising producer is Tara Boyle. You can also follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain.

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Guys, We Have A Problem: How American Masculinity Creates Lonely Men

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When Paul Kugelman was a kid, he had no shortage of friends. But as he grew older and entered middle age, his social world narrowed. "It was a very lonely time. I did go to work and I did have interactions at work, and I cherished those," he says.

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https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/edible-forests-are-sprouting-across-america/

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Melissa Walker: Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds

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Trauma silences its victims, says creative arts therapist Melissa Walker, but art can help those suffering from the psychological wounds of war begin to open up and heal. In this inspiring talk, Walker describes how mask-making, in particular, allows afflicted servicemen and women reveal what haunts them -- and, finally, start to let it go.

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Picture Books that Nurture Emotional Awareness

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Explore strong emotions through story. Research tells us that children who understand emotions are more likely to act kindly toward others. Encourage this by reading these amazing stories and completing the unique workbooks listed below.

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The Turtle

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The tortoise enjoyed a quiet life in the junkyard. The sun would rise and he would poke his head out from his protective home and into the light. He wandered on his typical paths through the maze of rusted car parts, broken furniture, tattered cloth. He climbed and slid and tumbled over mounds of yellowed paper, scattered bones, broken appliances.

He did not care for the broken things, though occasionally they provided shade or a hiding place from circling vultures. What he really was after was found beneath the surface of the trash. With a flick of his beak and a stretch of his wrinkled neck, he could overturn a hubcap or a bit of newspaper and reveal a writhing feast: Wriggling grubs, fat purple worms, carpets of wrestling beetles, centipedes, pill bugs. He snatched them up greedily, chewing and swallowing while the bugs still squirmed so that his belly felt robust and alive. He especially liked biting earthworms in two and watching rich brown soil ooze from the severed halves.

There were other kinds of food in the junkyard, too. Tiny forests of mushrooms, fermented berries, sweet husks of melons and gourds, sugary black banana peels, minty grass that grew along the rocky edges of the roads that ran like veins through the trashscape. He searched for these first thing in the morning, before raccoons and the other scavengers arrived. He would snack on wounded moths if he could find them, lazy spiders, lost crickets, even a baby mouse if he were really lucky.

It was a good life for a tortoise, though the junkyard was not without danger. The talons of a dozen different birds had decorated his shell over the years. The tiny claws of raccoons and foxes had chipped away at the seam where his shell met his breastplate, but none had ever been able to pry them apart. He was a survivor.

The worst predator had no claws. Instead of footprints, it left in its wake twin lines of trampled dust. This predator roared like a wounded dog, rumbled like thunder, groaned like bending bone. Every morning and every afternoon, it prowled the junkyard. Its eyes were dirty glass. Its shell was almost like a turtle's, heavy and protective, but this shell could tip backward and spill out a load of trash.

He quickly learned to avoid the dump truck. He knew its schedule and could elude most passings, but sometimes the truck would appear unexpectedly and he was forced to crawl to the edge of the road and curl up tightly in his shell. After the cloud of the dust and the storm of sound passed, he would wait for several minutes before cautiously moving on.

He walked, he ate, he hid. He spent the nights burrowed beneath the cool sand. And the decades ticked by as the trash rose, rotted, rose again.

The older he got, the less time he spent searching for mates. Once, he tried mating with a broken stereo, but the experience left him feeling empty and isolated, and he had not repeated it.

One hot day with a sultry sun and a parched blue sky, he was in a corner of the junkyard he rarely visited. The truck had come there the night before and the scent of mildew and rotten meat had woken him early. He made his way vigilantly to the source of the smell and spied a bunch of grapes on a heap of cardboard. Bloated, black, sparkling like treasure. Most were dusted with white mold, but a few were glistening and perfect, their skin stretched to bursting. Seeing no competitors around, he hurried forward toward the lane that separated him from the fruit.

The tortoise felt young again as he advanced across the gravel in the certain assurance of a succulent meal. Perhaps that was why he did not feel the immediate onset of fear when the sound of the truck came to his ears from down the alley.

He did not take his gaze from the grapes, but the noise grew louder and soon the rising cloud of the dust could no longer be ignored. He panicked, unsure of whether to turn back or scurry forward.

He continued forward, feet racing over the gravel. The clamor of the truck was deafening. He stopped halfway across the road, heart racing, breath hissing, then turned and slipped as he crawled back the way he had come.

The truck swerved into view and barreled toward him. He strained every muscle as he charged. Pebbles scraped along his breastplate. The wheels were nearing. The groans of the engine howled in his ears.

At the last second, his body stopped obeying the urging of his mind, and even as his neck craned forward and his front legs tore at the gravel, his shell tightened, squeezing on his limbs and pinching his tail.

The wheel passed over his shell with a little pop, but that was lost in the crunching of the gravel. The truck passed on down the lane.

He did not die right away. The back half of his body was crushed, but he found that he could move his head from side to side. This he did for the rest of the afternoon. Back and forth, eyes unfocused. He could no longer smell the grapes.

When the sun went down, his head drooped to the road and he stopped moving altogether.

Next morning, his corpse was crawling with little worms and ants. For lunch, a bird took his eyes. For an afternoon snack, a raccoon pried apart what remained of his shell and slurped down each morsel of meat before licking clean the jagged scraps.

By the time the dump truck rumbled past that evening, he was just another scrap of garbage in the road.

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The tortoise enjoyed a quiet life in the junkyard. The sun would rise and he would poke his head out from his protective home and into the light. He wandered on his typical paths through the maze of rusted car parts, broken furniture, tattered cloth.

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Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz

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letter beginning with two lines by czesław miłosz

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Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz

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Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz - You whom I could not save,

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Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest

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Students turn food into non-perishable powder

Next time you toss rotten lettuce or moldy berries you should think about this. Globally, we waste more than a third of the food we produce. That is according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

A group of Swedish graduate students is working to fight that fact. They are in the Food Innovation and Product Design program at Lund University and have come up with a way to use produce that is about to go to waste. It may help people who have limited access to food.

They are calling it FoPo Food Powder. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is dried, powdered, shelf-stable fruits and vegetables. The powder can be dropped into relief efforts after natural disasters. Or it can be given out in low-resource areas where fresh food and refrigeration are hard to come by.

"When we found out that one third of the food produced was going to waste while people in the world were starving, we could not back out," says Kent Ngo. He is one of the students who developed it.

Ngo says they are not making something ground-breaking. Powdered food has been around since the early days of astronauts. But they are rethinking the waste and delivery channels. Their development team reached out to farmers and retailers to source fruit. The food scientists experimented with different drying and powdering methods. They settled on spray-drying it. The process then included grinding it up. From there, the students looked at ways to give it out, through commercial and government supported sites.

One member of the group is Gerald Perry Marin. He grew up in the Philippines. It is the country's capital. He had seen how typhoons and other natural disasters cut people off from their food supply. And how important it was to have food options that were easy to access in a relief situation.

"Today a relief bag for humanitarian disasters contains various foods such as strawberry jam, peanut butter and peas in tomato sauce. We think that an easily transported pack of cheap dried food powder with high nutritional value would fit in perfectly," Ngo says. The team has been trying to keep its prices down, too. That would aid low-budget humanitarian groups and non-governmental groups.

Freeze-dried food retains most of the nutritional benefits of raw food. It loses some vitamin and mineral density in the drying process. But it is still a good way to get fiber and nutrients.

The makers of FoPo are currently running a pilot program in Manila. For their first run, they are drying calamansi. It is a citrus fruit. Ngo says it tastes like a mix of lime and tangerine. There is a surplus of it. It is not available in other places. And it is easy for their Philippine manufacturing program to dry and powder.

The group has reportedly gotten support from senators in the Philippines. And they are about to start working with the U.N.'s Initiative on Food Loss and Waste. The want to try and reach more people and countries that could benefit. To broaden their reach, they are also working with commercial suppliers and companies that want to use FoPo in their food products. Some examples might be cake mixes and ice cream. Consumers can also sprinkle it into food or drinks, or use it in baking. The company has almost 40 international supermarkets on board.

"I was a bit surprised that the calamansi powder tasted so good," Ngo says. "I cannot wait for the mango and pineapple powder."

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Why is FoPo powdered?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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Students turn food into non-perishable powder

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Students turn food into non-perishable powder Next time you toss rotten lettuce or moldy berries you should think about this. Globally, we waste more than a third of the food we produce. That is according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. A group of Swedish graduate students is working to fight that fact.

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https://themoth.org/storytellers/jamie-johnson

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Denise Scheurmann has a terminally ill father but her neighbors don't forget to light her Christmas luminaries.