Author: SeniorWomenWeb

How Many Distracting Systems Needed While Driving? Try Dialing, Changing Music or Sending a Text Using Voice Commands

Potentially unsafe mental distractions can persist for as long as 27 seconds after dialing, changing music or sending a text using voice commands, according to research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The results raise concerns regarding the use of phones and vehicle information systems while driving. This research represents the third phase of the Foundation’s investigation into cognitive distraction, which shows that new hands-free technologies can mentally distract drivers even if their eyes are on the road and their hands are on the wheel.

Research assistants introduce study participants to special devices designed to gauge mental distraction during road tests. AAA photos

“The lasting effects of mental distraction pose a hidden and pervasive danger that would likely come as a surprise to most drivers,” said Peter Kissinger, President and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “The results indicate that motorists could miss stop signs, pedestrians and other vehicles while the mind is readjusting to the task of driving.”

Researchers found that potentially unsafe levels of mental distraction can last for as long as 27 seconds after completing a distracting task in the worst-performing systems studied. At the 25 MPH speed limit in the study, drivers traveled the length of nearly three football fields during this time. When using the least distracting systems, drivers remained impaired for more than 15 seconds after completing a task.

“Drivers should use caution while using voice-activated systems, even at seemingly safe moments when there is a lull in traffic or the car is stopped at an intersection,” said Marshall Doney, AAA’s President and CEO. “The reality is that mental distractions persist and can affect driver attention even after the light turns green.”

The researchers discovered the residual effects of mental distraction while comparing new hands-free technologies in ten 2015 vehicles and three types of smart phones. The analysis found that all systems studied increased mental distraction to potentially unsafe levels. The systems that performed best generally had fewer errors, required less time on task and were relatively easy to use.

The researchers rated mental distraction on a five-point scale. Category one represents a mild level of distraction and category five represents the maximum. AAA considers a mental distraction rating of two and higher to be potentially dangerous while driving.

The best performing system was the Chevy Equinox with a cognitive distraction rating of 2.4, while the worst performing system was the Mazda 6 with a cognitive distraction rating of 4.6. Among phone systems, Google Now performed best with a distraction rating of 3.0, while Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana earned ratings of 3.4 and 3.8. Using the phones to send texts significantly increased the level of mental distraction. While sending voice-activated texts, Google Now rated as a category 3.3 distraction, while Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana rated as category 3.7 and category 4.1 distractions.

“The massive increase in voice-activated technologies in cars and phones represents a growing safety problem for drivers,” continued Doney. “We are concerned that these new systems may invite driver distraction, even as overwhelming scientific evidence concludes that hands-free is not risk free.”

Previous AAA Foundation research established that a category 1 mental distraction is about the same as listening to the radio or an audio book. A category 2 distraction is about the same as talking on the phone, while category 3 is equivalent to sending voice-activated texts on a perfect, error-free system. Category 4 is similar to updating social media while driving, while category 5 corresponds to a highly-challenging, scientific test designed to overload a driver’s attention.

“Developers should aim to reduce mental distractions by designing systems that are no more demanding than listening to the radio or an audiobook,” continued Doney. “Given that the impairing effects of distraction may last much longer than people realize, AAA advises consumers to use caution when interacting with these technologies while behind the wheel.”

Dr. David Strayer and Dr. Joel Cooper of the University of Utah conducted the research. A total of 257 drivers ages 21-70 participated in the study of 2015 model-year vehicles, while 65 additional drivers ages 21-68 tested the three phone systems.

October 22, 2015
Canada Elected Justin Trudeau – Imagine That!

By Diane Girard

Canada has a new, young, attractive Prime Minister and people are suddenly plastering pictures of him everywhere, especially in the online media. There will probably be a rush of single people wanting to enter the “true north strong and free” so they can meet someone gorgeous. Well, yes, many Canadians are beautiful but we don’t like to brag about it, and that’s not why Justin Trudeau won the election.

Photo by Trudeau pour Papineau, Creative Commons licensed

In my opinion, the Liberals and Justin Trudeau’s team won the election because the Conservatives, led by the ultimate control-freak Stephen Harper, decided that running a mean-spirited anti-Muslim anti-almost-anything-progressive campaign would appeal to the voters who had supported the Conservatives all along and that would give his party enough votes to win. He said that it was his decision and his decision alone, to run that campaign and given his need to control every tiny thing, there is little doubt that’s true.

I say Stephen Harper made the wrong choices. However, he has never been able to admit it. That is why some of us are not sure if he’s a real Canadian. He never says he’s sorry.

It turns out that the Conservatives, or rather the Harper Conservatives, thought that there were only minor rumblings of dissent from the populace and that discontent could easily be quelled by throwing a few dollars at the middle class and saying taxes would be cut. The Canadians who disapproved of the undemocratic legislation which contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was rammed through parliament by the Harper Cons would merely mutter in their beer and not do anything. Mr. Harper was wrong again.

We are a polite nation. Even our demonstrations against government actions are polite (well, nearly always). When we protest, we make posters, we sing, and most important, we talk to each other about how to unite to make change happen.

Talk led to action, polite but effective action. Many different groups opposed the regressive changes made by the Conservatives (the Harper Cons) during their ten years in power. More and more people agreed that the government absolutely had to be defeated for the sake of preserving Canada. And, the only way to do that was to unite behind the centrist party which had the best chance of winning. Grass roots organizations held candidates debates, ran forums, read party platforms and opined on them and urged people to vote together. The fear that the Harper Cons would win again by dividing the left-wing vote led to a consolidation of the leftish vote and to strategic voting. Many voters who had chosen the New Democratic Party in past elections voted for the Liberals this time. The Liberals also received votes from some former members of the now extinct Progressive Conservatives, votes from indigenous people who hadn’t voted before, student voters and throw-the-bums-out-because-they-smell-now voters. In the end, the result was Liberal majority.

Justin Trudeau was consistently underestimated by the Conservatives. Too young, too shallow, they said. When it was already too late in the campaign; they decided it was time to throw a scare into ‘ethnic’ voters. Brothels and more drugs and evil people will be in your neighborhoods, folks. And, marijuana will be legalized — leaping lizards — that’s scary. I wonder what Harper knows about downtown slum neighborhoods in our major cities. You can’t see much through the window of a limo and maybe that was part of the problem.

Mr. Harper wasn’t interested in interacting with ordinary Canadians, or Members of Parliament, or the press, or scientists (muzzle them before they spill the truth), or anyone really, except when it suited his political purpose. On the other hand, Justin Trudeau spent a lot of time going around the country and talking with Canadians about his positive vision for the country and seeking their input, adding young people to his supporters, and helping to rebuild the party.

He didn’t indulge in personal attacks. He laid out the Liberal platform at the right time, leaving the Conservatives less time for rebuttal. He’s personable, he’s handsome, he’s an Arts graduate (imagine that!) and he’s a boxer. His partner, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, and his young children are the most important people in his life.

He knows Canada can’t be micro-managed by one man so he has chosen knowledgeable people to work with. The Liberals have promised many changes so he and his party have a lot of work to do to make them happen. He knows that isn’t easy. He didn’t talk often about his father, former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, but when he did Justin Trudeau made it clear that he is his own man, and he is also his father’s son. He supports the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and he insisted that Liberal candidates support it and therefore support women’s freedom of choice.

There is steel in his spine. I for one, am in his corner.

©2015 Diane Girard for SeniorWomen.com

October 21, 2015
The Bored of Education: Lessons From a Lifetime in the Classroom

Editor’s Note: In advance of Election Day when changes to Boards of Education might be on the ballot, we felt Julia Sneden’s article well timed.

by Julia Sneden

Washington County, St. George, Utah; Wikimedia Commons, 2013

There is a peculiar phenomenon in this country. We profess to have a great respect for learning. When someone pursues particular knowledge and emerges as a doctor or a lawyer or a scientist, we assume that he or she is capable of performing appropriate duties. This does not, of course, always happen, but to ensure correct performance, we trust their professional boards to oversee them. Those boards are made up of active members of their professions.

When it comes to the professionals who teach our young, however, we don’t give them parity. We elect or appoint School Boards that are largely made up of people whose only understanding of education comes from their own, individual experiences. Once in awhile, a retired principal is elected to the School Board, but he or she is a rarity.

School Boards are supposed to hire and then interact with the local Superintendent of Schools (at least in most states). As nearly as I can understand, it’s the business of the Superintendent and his administrators to hire teachers. It is the business of the School Board to “set policy,” whatever that means, and to evaluate that policy’s effectiveness. Most School Boards work under the mandates of their state’s Division/Department (or whatever-it’s called) of Education. They also deal with budgets, and make recommendations regarding the need for new or renovated school buildings.

While it is often left to the populace to vote on bond issues creating new schools, the need for school maintenance and repair seems to me to be every bit as vital. Too often it is shoved aside for other matters, buried somewhere between the School Board’s purview and the Central Administration offices. From the outside, it is hard for the general public to determine the intricacies of the pecking order.

Local school superintendents are usually people who have been principals, so it’s more than likely that they are a long way from the classroom. School Superintendents may well be people who tried teaching for a year or two, hated it, and went back to school to pick up Masters’ or Doctorate degree in Education, which would enable them to become principals or administrators, thus escaping the classroom forever.

School Board members are usually people who are even farther removed from the classroom. They are not always the people best qualified to set educational policy. It is an odd thing, but the world is full of people who are certain they know all about education, because after all, didn’t they themselves go to school? That, as the Bard said, ” … must give us pause.” The real problem of citizen control of the schools is that it often surrenders our children’s educational progress to people who are themselves uneducated, or badly educated.

I am reminded of the time I met with a parent who demanded that I introduce his kindergarten child to letters using the same outdated approach that his own teachers had used. As his wife soon revealed, he was functionally illiterate. Apparently, he felt that the method used to teach him to read was the only correct one, even though it didn’t work.

Anyone who has read this writer’s Still Learning series on education knows that I am no fan of the Departments of Education in our universities. It would not, however, be fair to lump them all together. They churn out untold numbers of would-be teachers. Some of those graduates emerge with a brilliant grasp of the process of teaching. Some haven’t a clue.

As a result, there are vast differences in the competencies of teachers within any school district. There are also differences in each state’s requirements for the licensing of teachers. We may have a national Department of Education headed by a Secretary of Education at the cabinet level, but our local schools are still usually administered by appointed Superintendents who are hired by local School Boards.

October 21, 2015
After 55: Changing to Every Other Year for Mammograms
Editor’s Note: We’re using the American Cancer Society’s own article on this release of new guidelines as other sources including the Journal of the American Medical Association and JAMA Oncology are lengthy and too technically oriented, we feel,for the lay person. We have undergone multiple exposures to radiation this past year to provide clarity for ‘suspicious’ circumstances still under review, so the news that lowers the radiation testing need is welcome.

Article date: October 20, 2015; A doctor examines mammograms on a view box, NIH

By Stacy Simon

The American Cancer Society has released new guidelines for breast cancer screening. Among the changes, the new recommendations say all women should begin having yearly mammograms at age 45, and can change to having mammograms every other year beginning at age 55.

The guidelines were published October 20, 2015 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the Society’s Chief Cancer Control Officer, Dr. Richard C. Wender, MD, new research has helped doctors understand the best ways to use mammograms for screening.

“Since we last wrote a breast cancer screening guideline, there have been the publication of quite a number of new studies that inform us about the benefits and drawbacks of screening with mammography, so the American Cancer Society commissioned a detailed evidence review by an external expert group to review all of this new data which was then presented to our American Cancer Society guideline committee,” said Dr. Wender. “That committee then considered all of this evidence over a period of months, did the very difficult job of balancing the benefits and harms, and that’s what led to the change in the guidelines that we’re publishing now.”

The new recommendations
- Women with an average risk of breast cancer – most women – should begin yearly mammograms at age 45.
- Women should be able to start the screening as early as age 40, if they want to. It’s a good idea to start talking to your health care provider at age 40 about when you should begin screening.
- At age 55, women should have mammograms every other year – though women who want to keep having yearly mammograms should be able to do so.
- Regular mammograms should continue for as long as a woman is in good health.
- Breast exams, either from a medical provider or self-exams, are no longer recommended.
The guidelines are for women at average risk for breast cancer. Women at high risk – because of family history, a breast condition, or another reason – need to begin screening earlier and/or more often. Talk to your medical provider to be sure.
RESOURCES:
Behind the guideline

The goal of screening mammograms is to find breast cancer early, when treatment is more likely to be successful. But mammograms aren’t perfect, and they do have risks. Sometimes mammograms find something suspicious that turns out to be harmless, but must be checked out through more teststhat also carry risks including pain, anxiety, and other side effects. Experts weigh these benefits and risks when making recommendations about who should be screened.

“We know that debates will continue about the age to start mammography,” said Dr. Wender. “This guideline makes it so clear that all women by age 45 should begin screening – that’s when the benefits substantially outweigh the harms.”

But once a woman turns 55, said Elizabeth T.H. Fontham, MPH, DrPH, member of the Guideline Development Group, screening every other year preserves most of the benefit of screening every year – with fewer risks.

Breast exams are no longer a part of the screening recommendations because research does not show they provide a clear benefit. Still, the American Cancer Society says all women should be familiar with how their breasts normally look and feel and report any changes to their health care provider right away.

Talk to your doctor

The best way to know when to begin screening for mammograms and how often to get screenings is to talk to your medical provider.
- Begin talking to your medical provider about breast cancer screening by age 40.
- Share your family history and personal medical history to determine whether you are at average risk or higher risk for breast cancer.
- Understand the benefits, risks, and limitations of breast cancer screening. Mammograms will find most, but not all breast cancers.
Learn more about breast cancer screening by calling the American Cancer Society anytime day or night at 1-800-227-2345 or visiting us at cancer.org/breastcancer.

Citation: Breast Cancer Screening for Women at Average Risk 2015 Guideline Update From the American Cancer Society. Published October 20, 2015 in Journal of the American Medical Association. First author Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
October 20, 2015
Forget Cherishing Women: Family-friendly Policies Are Essential Tools in Fighting Income Inequality

By Judith Warner

Early this year, a team of distinguished economists, current and former government ministers, academics, labor leaders, and opinion makers gathered at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, to announce an ambitious plan to create “inclusive prosperity” on a transnational scale. The experts — led by former US Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers and Britain’s then-Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Ed Balls — spoke about new investments in infrastructure, raising wages, and more progressive taxation. They also highlighted a time-tested approach that is too often omitted from mainstream economic debate: maximizing the earnings power of women.

The Scandinavian nations have largely managed to avoid the ‘toxic cocktail’ of ‘growing inequality’ that is now poisoning social and economic life in much of Europe and the United States, said Pär Nuder, Sweden’s former minister of finance. A key reason for this success, he said, is that “we have, contrary to many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, mobilized the whole work force. Not only the male part but also women.”

Nuder conveyed a truth that has been proven time and again in studies around the globe: Women’s employment is key not only to a nation’s economic growth but also as a powerful countervailing force to the contemporary scourge of income inequality.

Since the 1980s, household income inequality has increased in nearly all advanced industrialized countries. The rate and extent of that increase, however, has varied among nations due to a variety of social, economic, and political factors. Among the most important of these is women’s work, which is supported in many countries through generous paid leave, child care, and flexible scheduling policies. A 2013 European Commission policy brief stated this categorically: “It has been shown that ‘women-friendly’ reconciliation policies play a major role in facilitating work-life balance for female second earners in households, thus increasing household income and countering inequality.”

The dual awareness that women’s work serves as an income equalizer among households and that family-friendly policies, by extension, are essential tools in fighting income inequality has been slow to take root on this side of the Atlantic. In recent years, it instead has been fashionable in the United States to point to studies showing that women’s work has actually worsened income inequality. That conversation has focused on “assortative mating” — the practice of people marrying others like them, in this case, others with a similar education level — to argue that the widespread movement of women into the workplace since the 1970s has brought high-earning men and women together into even more high-earning households in an entirely new way.

This report will argue that this line of reasoning is misleading and — worse — pernicious: It is the latest in a set of destructive attitudes that have kept the United States from moving forward with the rest of the industrialized world in adopting policies that support women’s employment.

It has previously been established that women’s earnings have played a key role in bolstering the health of the US economy. Last year, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, or CEA, analyzed decades of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey and reported that nearly all of the rise in U.S. family income between 1970 and 2013 was due to women’s increased earnings. “In fact, if women’s participation had not increased since 1970,”CEA wrote, “median family income would be about $13,000 less than what it is today.”

Women’s earnings have also played a central role in tempering the growth of inequality. A new analysis from the Center for American Progress, carried out by Policy Analyst Brendan Duke, shows that from 1963 to 2013, inequality in the United States — measured by the distribution of income among the bottom 95 percent of married couples — rose 24.9 percent. Women’s earnings in that period rose fivefold. That increase, Duke demonstrates, had a significant effect on counteracting the rise of inequality; indeed, he shows that if women’s earnings had not changed, inequality would have increased 38 percent. In other words, inequality in the United States would have grown more than 50 percent faster if women’s earnings had not increased between 1963 and 2013.

Economists Maria Cancian and Deborah Reed previously measured the impact of wives’ earnings on income inequality by developing a set of counterfactual scenarios that could be compared to observed findings. Using data from 1979 to 1989, they compared data on married couples’ incomes to a series of alternative scenarios in order to isolate the effect of wives’ increased labor force participation and earnings. They concluded that wives’ earnings reduced income inequality because the income distribution would have been more unequal in their absence.

Economist Susan Harkness conducted similar research, using data from 2004, that compared counterfactuals in which no women worked and all women worked. Her findings reinforced the conclusions drawn in previous research, finding that if no women worked for pay earnings, inequality among coupled households would be 63 percent higher, while if all women worked, it would be 22 percent lower. Brendan Duke’s analysis builds upon this previous body of research by expanding the time period studied to 1963 to 2013 and by tweaking the counterfactual scenario with which the observed data are compared. In his analysis, the observed data on incomes of married couples are compared with an alternate scenario in which women’s earnings inequality and inflation-adjusted earnings remained unchanged from the early 1960s. In doing so, he found that the wives’ earnings helped reduce income inequality growth because inequality would have grown roughly 50 percent faster without their increasing contributions to their families’ income.

October 18, 2015
Has Hillary An Eye On a Rival? Wonder Woman and Friends Take New York

Superheroes in Gotham, on view until February 21, 2016

The New-York Historical Society is sharing the untold history of comic books, a cultural phenomenon born in 1930s New York City that has since taken the world by storm. On view through February 21, 2016, Superheroes in Gotham will focus on our culture’s most legendary superheroes — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man — as well as more recent characters inspired by the contemporary city. Beyond the characters, Superheroes in Gotham considers the importance of New York as a creative force behind a uniquely American mythology.

Ms. magazine (Issue No. 1), 1972. New-York Historical Society. Courtesy and © Ms. magazine

Among the range of material on display are: a rare comic book featuring Superman’s first appearance (Action Comics No. 1, June 1938), clips from early radio and film adaptations, Philip Pearlstein’s Superman painting (1952), original drawings by Steve Ditko of Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy (No. 15, 1962), a Batmobile made for the Batman television series (1966), a costume from Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark (2011), hip-hip pioneer Darryl McDaniels’ DMC comic book (2014), and his signature fedora.

“Comics are a huge cultural force, but few remember their New York roots,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. “Superheroes in Gotham will immerse visitors in the early days of comics and their evolution, so they can learn more about the genesis of their favorite characters, encounter new voices that continue the creative tradition today, and perhaps see aspects of their own neighborhoods imaginatively captured on the page.”

Upon entering the New-York Historical Society’s Central Park West entrance, visitors are greeted by an original working Batmobile (1966), one of three cars created for the 1966-68 Batman television series. The first gallery traces each character’s origins within the context of their creators and period events. A range of first-issue comic books are displayed including Superman’s Action Comics No. 1 and Batman (No. 1, Spring 1940). During World War II, many superhero stories channeled American concerns about the conflict. In addition, several of their creators also enlisted. Wartime issues of Captain America (1942) and an original drawing (ca. 2000) by Joe Simon — who served in the US Coast Guard — presents Captain America as the ultimate patriotic warrior. Superman was also enlisted, and lent his support in a range of US Army and Navy training materials (ca. 1942-43). A drawing of Wonder Woman in an early version of her patriotic costume by H.G. Peter (ca. 1941) is shown alongside a “Wonder Woman for President” issue (No. 7, Winter 1943).

Two of Steve Ditko’s original drawings of Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy (No. 15, September 1962) are displayed alongside a copy of the published issue. Considered Spider-Man’s “birth certificate”, these drawings are on public view for the first time outside of the Library of Congress. Other Cold War-era artifacts include original cover art for The Invincible Iron Man (No. 1, 1968).

Amazing Fantasy (No. 15, September 1962). Published by Atlas Magazines, Inc. Serial and Government Publications Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC

The second gallery explores how superheroes flew from page to screen decades before they became blockbuster movie franchises. Scripts, audio recordings, animation cels, and cartoon clips illuminate Superman’s multimedia adaptation less than two years after his comic book debut. One particular clip from the Superman cartoon (1941) depicts the character flying for the first time, rather than leaping as he did in print. After appearing in two film serials in the 1940s, Batman was reimagined in a popular television series (1966-68) and full length film (released in 1966). In addition to an original Batmobile (1966), the exhibition features three Batman set paintings by art director Leslie Thomas (ca. 1966-68) and a Catwoman costume (ca. 1966). Clips from the Wonder Woman television series (1975-79), as well as a copy of Ms. magazine’s first issue depicting her at the helm (1972), illuminate Wonder Woman’s development as a second-wave feminist icon.

The third and final gallery examines the enduring influence of superheroes on a wide range of New York-based artists, cartoonists, contemporary comic book creators, and fans. Known today for his nude portraits, the exhibition will feature Philip Pearlstein’s Superman (1952), a proto-pop art painting from his early career. Also featured will be cartoonist Mort Gerberg’s original illustration art for The New Yorker (“Do you have any references besides Batman?”, July 1997) alongside Batman drawings he doodled inside a childhood Hebrew School book (circa 1940). A costume from Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark (2011), the most-expensive production in Broadway history, is also exhibited.

Superheroes in Gotham will also explore contemporary New York- based superhero comics. A copy of DMC (2014) — which follows the comic book alter-ego of musician Darryl McDaniels in 1980s New York — is displayed alongside the hip-hop pioneer’s trademark fedora, glasses and Adidas sneakers worn by the fictional superhero DMC as well . Also on view is art from Dean Haspiel’s independent web-based comic books, including the Brooklyn-based Red Hook and a comic book set, in part, during the 2003 blackout. The exhibition will conclude with ephemera from the United States’ first comic convention, which took place in New York in 1964, as well as photographs and posters from recent years.

October 16, 2015
#WomeninSTEM: Saving the Natural World through Conservation

As manager of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, Jennifer Owen-White is used to getting her hands dirty. Established in 2012, Valle de Oro is the first urban wildlife refuge in the southwest, and it’s becoming an important asset for the residents of New Mexico. In a recent TEDx talk, Owen-White shared her story of why she gave up being a doctor to play in the dirt and why we need more women in the conservation field.

Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of the newest wildlife refuges in the country. What makes it unique?
Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge is the first urban national wildlife refuge in the Southwest region, but what really makes it special is the community support and involvement in the refuge’s establishment and development. People from the surrounding neighborhood created Friends of Valle de Oro because they were concerned about what the land would turn into and wanted to see something positive for their community and families. Community members continue to play an active role in the refuge’s design and development — Valle de Oro is built by and for its community!

Why are urban wildlife refuges important?
Urban refuges bring the great conservation and restoration work of US Fish and Wildlife Service to the front doors and backyards of large populations of people, some of whom have limited access to the outdoors. This is key for Valle de Oro — 45 percent of New Mexico’s population lives within 30 minutes of the refuge. Providing a safe place for community members to get outside that’s easy to get to, allows people who may have never played in a field or experienced wildlife to learn about the connection between people and a healthy environment. This is critical not only to the success of Valle de Oro but also conservation work all over the country.

What are some interesting things visitors can do or learn about at Valle de Oro? What’s you’re favorite part of the refuge?
Since Valle de Oro is in its very beginning stages, it still looks like a dairy farm (it used to be the Valley Gold Dairies). The refuge doesn’t have trails or habitat restoration yet, but there is still a lot of wildlife to be seen. Our first Sandhill Cranes of the season showed up in early October, and in total over 200 species of birds have been seen in the area. Prairie dogs were just spotted on the property for the first time this summer, and through visitor observations and student research, we are adding new species to the refuge list all the time.

October 14, 2015
Another Scout Report Post: Comforts of a Luxury Cruise, Grammarly, To Live and Dine in L.A., Privacy Palette

Addressing the Empathy Deficit: Beliefs about the Malleability of Empathy Predict Effortful Responses when Empathy is Challenging

http://ssnl.stanford.edu/content/addressing-empathy-deficit-beliefs-about-malleability-empathy-predict-effortful-responses-0

Readers may download this excellent, peer-reviewed psychology article from the Stanford Social Neuroscience Laboratory for free. Authored by psychologists Karina Schumann, Jamil Zaki, and Carol Dweck, the study examines issues of empathy across seven studies. What they found has implications for everything from teacher training to law enforcement. In essence, empathy changes not only based on situation, but also mindset. Specifically, those participants who believed that empathy can be developed were significantly more likely to make an effort in challenging contexts than those people who believed that empathy was a fixed trait. This was true both for participants who came into the study with their own views and for those who were primed into one group or the other. As the researchers note, “these data suggest that people’s mindsets powerfully affect whether they exert effort to empathize when it is needed most.”

Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise (PDF)

·http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

Before he won a MacArthur Fellowship, before he won the Aga Kha Prize for Fiction, before he was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, and before he became a literary legend and the reluctant voice of a generation, David Foster Wallace was just a novelist scraping by and writing occasional essays for Harper’s Magazine. This essay, published only a month before his groundbreaking novel, Infinite Jest, made him famous, is classic Wallace, chockfull of never-ending, manic footnotes, crushing sadness, side-splitting insights, and, perhaps above all, beautiful, almost magical, sentences. Take these first lines, for example: “I have now seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled suntan lotion spread over 2,100 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as ‘Mon’ in three different nations. I have seen 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer enhanced. I have (very briefly) joined a conga line.” For readers who are looking for a brief introduction to this prodigious talent, this essay will provide the entry they’ve been looking for.

Quartz

·http://qz.com/

Launched in 2012, Quartz is a web-based (i.e. “digitally native”) news publication with a scrolling stream designed primarily for tablets and mobile phones. Aimed at “business people in the new economy,” the writing tends toward the laconic, rarely saying anything in 1,000 words that could be stated equally well in 500. Recent articles have argued against loosening Twitter’s 140 character limit, exposed Big Pharma’s habit of massively increasing drug prices, and covered the increasingly commonplace practice among executives of commuting across the globe for their jobs. In addition to scrolling down the screen for the latest news stories, readers may also scout the site using tools, such as The Brief (which offers a single short paragraph of each of the latest stories, with links), Our Picks, and Popular, Latest. A powerful built-in search engine also helps.

InsideClimate News

·http://insideclimatenews.org/

Three reporters from the online magazine, InsideClimate News, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for their work uncovering a giant, and largely unpublicized, Canadian oil spill. Since then, the magazine has continued to publish hard-hitting journalism on a range of climate-related topics. Coverage of Exxon’s own research into global warming in the 1970s — and its subsequent public campaign to discredit and block further investigation — is a case in point. In this multi-part series, published in late September of 2015, InsideClimate News reporters examine primary sources, including internal company files, to expose Exxon’s outright war on the science of global warming. Readers may also scout the site by eight other categories, including All Stories, Carbon Copy, Tar Sands, Clean Economy, Today’s Climate, Gas Drilling, ICN Books, and Big Oil, Bad Air.

Explore the Nobel Prize Talks Podcast

·http://www.nobelprize.org/podcast/index.html

There are few honors on earth as significant as winning a Nobel Prize. For readers who are curious about the scientists, authors, thinkers, and doers who have been awarded Nobels, this site provides the perfect window into the characters and curiosities of these most unusual women and men. For instance, May-Britt Moser, the 2014 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, describes her passionate co-investigation with her co-Laureate and husband, Edvard Moser, saying, “We didn’t care about salaries and having a nice car. We just cared about science and were really ambitious.” In fact, the passion for discovery runs through most of these narratives. As Tim Hunt, who won the prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001, puts it, “If we really understood things, there would be no sense of discovery.”

October 13, 2015
Congressional Bills Introduced: Grants to Women’s Small Businesses, Excluding Providers Involved in Abortions and Certain Research on Fetal Tissue
Abortion
S. 2159—Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)/Finance (10/7/15)—A bill to allow for greater state flexibility with respect to excluding providers who are involved in abortions.

H.R. 3729—Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)/Energy and Commerce (10/8/15)—A bill to prohibit certain research on human fetal tissue obtained pursuant to an abortion.

Health

H.R. 3691—Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)/Energy and Commerce (10/6/15)—A bill to reauthorize the residential treatment programs for pregnant and postpartum women and to establish a pilot program to provide grants to state substance abuse agencies to promote innovative service delivery models for such women.

Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wa. See Women’s Business Ownership (below)*

International

H.R. 3706—Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA)/Foreign Affairs (10/7/15)—A bill to implement policies to end preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths globally.

Military

S. 2137—Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)/Armed Services (10/6/15)—A bill to provide a period for the relocation of spouses and dependents of certain members of the Armed Forces undergoing a permanent change of station in order to ease and facilitate the relocation of military families.

On October 8, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing, Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining Abortion Procedures and Medical Ethics at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider. This is the fourth hearing in a series of hearings focused on Planned Parenthood Federation of America (see The Source, 10/2/12, 9/18/15, and 9/11/15).

The following witnesses testified during the hearing:

Anthony Levatino, obstetrics and gynecology;

Susan Thayer, former manager, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland;

Caroline Fredrickson, president, American Constitution Society; and

Luana Stoltenberg.
Senate Addresses Women’s Business Ownership

This week, the Senate approved S. Res. 280, a resolution recognizing October as National Women’s Small Business Month, while the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee passed the Women’s Business Ownership Act (see below).

Women’s Business Ownership Act

Also on October 7, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee approved, by voice vote, S. 2126. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), would authorize Small Business Administration (SBA) grants to women’s business centers (WBCs) to remove traditional barriers to women-owned businesses, including barriers to access to capital and training.

Among other provisions, the legislation seeks to improve the transparency of the WBC’s financial processes, create public-private partnerships to support women entrepreneurs, and conduct outreach to, and education of, startup and existing small businesses.

The bill also would require the SBA administrator to consult with organizations representing WBCs for “advice, input, and recommendations for policy changes” with regard to training programs and the general operations and administration of the program.

Courtesy of Women’s Policy, Inc

*From Senator Maria Cantwell’s site

The Senate Small Business Committee passed US Senator Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) Women’s Small Business Ownership Act of 2015. The bill was also co-sponsored by Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
October 12, 2015
Class Distinctions: Is the Sitter’s Dress Made of Silk or Coarse Wool? Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing (c. 1665); oil on canvas. Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer, Jr., in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer. National Gallery of Art

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will debut Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, the first exhibition to look at 17th-century Dutch paintings through the lens of the social classes. Including 75 paintings from collections both in the US and abroad, the exhibition on view until January 18, 2016 features major works by artists including Rembrandt and Vermeer as well as Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Gerrit Dou, among others. Loans from Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Budapest and London, many never before seen in the US, will complement those coming from other public and private collections in North America and Europe.

Galleries in the exhibition will be devoted to the three broad social classes, upper, middle and lower, and the last room will include paintings dedicated to where the classes met. Princes, regents and milkmaids figure in the thematic groupings within the classes, reflecting the social status of people and the importance their class had in the new Dutch Republic. The fine detail in the pictures will encourage close looking, inspiring the viewer to differentiate between a mistress and a maid or to distinguish a noble from a social-climbing merchant. The exhibition offers the rare opportunity to see works by Vermeer in Boston, in addition to featuring many subjects that are unusual in 17th-century Dutch painted depictions.

“These carefully selected paintings allow us to glimpse the ways rank and status are expressed pictorially. For example, is the sitter’s dress made of silk or coarse wool? Is the subject serving or being served? Does the figure stand upright or is he stooped? Even the person’s behavior, snoring in a pub or riding a horse, indicates his social class. Details like these encourage us to form a sharper and more nuanced picture of 17th-century Dutch life and society,” said Baer.

In the 17th century, the Princes of Orange were the ‘Stadholders’, the de facto rulers of the Netherlands. They were responsible for selecting municipal officials and commanding the army and navy of the Dutch Republic. Paintings of successive stadholders on view will include Michiel van Mierevelt’s Maurits, Prince of Orange (1607, Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft); Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Maurits’ half-brother Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange (about 1631–32, The Baltimore Museum of Art); and a small history painting of Frederik Hendrik’s grandson, The Arrival of King-Stadholder William III in the Oranjepolder on 31 January 1691 (1692, Mauritshuis, The Hague) by Ludolf Bakhuizen. This section of the exhibition will also feature an album of 102 watercolors by Adriaen van de Venne, open to a page featuring a miniature of The Winter King and Queen (1625-26, The British Museum, London) on horseback, preceding a mounted Frederik Hendrik and his wife, Amalia van Solms. The album describes the political and personal ties of Bohemia’s Winter King (who lived in exile in The Hague) to his uncle, Frederik Hendrik.

“Nobles and Aspiring Nobles” explores images of the landed nobility as well as families who aspired to the noble lifestyle. Many nobles in the Dutch Republic who enjoyed privileges that distinguished them from other classes lived on income from land, tithes, rents and other inherited rights. Often they commissioned portraits merely to document their lineage, marking their family genealogy rather than asserting their taste and social standing. One exception is Jan Steen’s Portrait of Jacoba Maria van Wassenaer, known as “The Poultry Yard” (1660, Mauritshuis, The Hague), which imaginatively depicts the young noble, Jacoba Maria van Wassenaer, in front of Lokhorst Castle. The property and coat of arms in the painting signal her kinship in the lineage that defined the noble’s place in the social hierarchy. The newly wealthy without a noble heritage could buy estates and titles. Their aspirations were expressed in paintings whose forms were typically reserved for royalty and high nobility, such as equestrian and hunting portraits.

Paintings of “Regents and Wealthy Merchants” represent the country’s urban elite, who benefited from the economic growth and prosperity that emerged as Holland became a global power in the 17th century. Regents drawn from the Republic’s prosperous merchants were men who held civic administrative or political appointments. Rembrandt’s portrait of Andries de Graeff (1639, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel,) depicts a confident member of the Amsterdam ruling class who amassed one of the largest fortunes in the city. Frans Hals’ Regents of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Haarlem (1641, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem) reflects the social prestige attained by wealthy administrators of charitable organizations.

Vermeer’s A Lady Writing (about 1665, National Gallery of Art, Washington) portrays a privileged woman engaged in the art of letter writing associated in 17th-century Holland with a certain degree of education and wealth. The painting offers a look at the luxurious, protected life of the women of the Dutch urban elite. Belonging to the same world, Vermeer’s The Astronomer (1668, Musée du Louvre, Paris) represents a wealthy “gentleman amateur,” engaged in scientific inquiry that had relevance to the maritime navigation crucial to the mercantile interests of the young country.

The astronomer, Johannes Vermeer, 1668. Louvre Museum, Paris

October 9, 2015