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  • Thirty Interesting Facts About Dorothy Day’s Life, Many Commonly Known and Others Less So

    Dorothy Day,  highlighted as one of the four Americans that Pope Francis spoke of in his address to Congress. She was born in Brooklyn Heights, New York City. Photo from Wikimedia CommonsDorothy Day

    “The biggest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution that has to start with each one of us.” — Dorothy Day

    From the Catholic Worker Movement site:

    1. Born in 1897, she was raised in a nominally Protestant family and became a Roman Catholic in 1928.
    2. One of her early memories was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and how her mother offered help to quake victims.
    3. Her father was a sportswriter who covered racetrack news.
    4. She loved reading novels from early childhood on, and her favorite author was Fydor Dostoevsky.
    5. She rejected organized religion in college because she didn’t see so-called “religious people” helping the poor.
    6. In the World War I period she was part of a circle of social radicals and literary types like Eugene O’Neill.
    7. She first went to jail with a group of suffragists in 1917 who were demonstrating at the White House in favor of giving women voting rights.
    8. She had an abortion in a failed relationship when she was 22 years old.
    9. The birth of her daughter Tamar in 1926, within a common-law marriage, brought her great joy and happiness, and led to her final embrace of the Catholic faith.
    10. She was a single parent who supported herself as a free-lance journalist.
    11. She met Peter Maurin in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression.
    12. The Catholic Worker newspaper appeared in May 1933 with 2,500 copies distributed by hand. Circulation grew to 190,000 by 1938, and dropped to 50,000 during World War II, largely because of the paper’s pacifist stand. (Today’s circulation is over 80,000.)
    13. The first House of Hospitality opened in 1933. Today over 220 Catholic Worker communities exist in thirty-nine states and ten foreign countries.
    14. She maintained throughout her life that Peter Maurin, not she, started the Catholic Worker Movement. She called him a modern St. Francis who was responsible for completing her Catholic education.
    15. Her written work includes 8 books, 350 plus articles for journals and magazines, and over 1,000 articles for The Catholic Worker newspaper.
    16. A heavy smoker for years, she finally gave up the habit “cold turkey” after praying for several years for help in quitting.
    17. She went to daily Mass and weekly confession, and regularly went on religious retreats.
    18. She read the Bible at a time most Catholics didn’t.
    19. She travelled long distances by bus. She carried a Bible, a missal, the Divine Office, and a jar of instant coffee on her hundreds of trips.
    20. She went to jail four times from 1955 to 1959 for acts of civil disobedience. She with others refused to take shelter during civil defense drills that simulated a nuclear attack on New York City.
    21. In 1955 she became a professed secular oblate of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Procopius.
    22. She and a group of women fasted for ten days in 1963 in Rome, at Vatican Council II, wanting the bishops to condemn all war. They did condemn nuclear war.
    23. She was instrumental in founding Pax Christi USA.
    24. She was a prolific letter writer, including many years of correspondence with the monk Thomas Merton.
    25. She was a grandmother nine times, with one grandson going to Vietnam with the US military during the war.
    26. She was a friend to bishops and cardinals, while being critical of the Church’s wealth and support for war and war preparations.
    27. She went to India to speak to Mother Teresa’s novices and received a cross from Mother Teresa worn by the Missionaries of Charity.
    28. Her last jailing was in 1973 at the age of 75 while protesting with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in California.
    29. She loved the beauty of the natural world and would seek out the quiet of a small beach cottage she owned on the shore of Staten Island.
    30. Her gravestone has engraved on it a design of loaves and fishes and the words “Deo Gratias” (“thanks be to God”).

    Content from the “The Catholic Worker Movement” website at www.catholicworker.org.

  • What Do Americans Think of Pope Francis? More Than 64% Express a Favorable View

    Papal coat of armsU.S. General Public Continues to View Pope Francis Favorably

    Pope Francis’ Coat of Arms

    Among US adults overall, more than six-in-ten (64%) express a favorable view of Pope Francis. While this is lower than the high of 70% who gave Francis a favorable rating in February of this year, the share of Americans expressing an unfavorable view of Francis also has ticked down (10% now, compared with 15% in February). Making up for these differences: The share of people who say they cannot rate the pope has increased from 15% earlier this year to 27% now.

    A large majority of US Catholics (86%) say they have a favorable view of Pope Francis, comparable to the 90% registered in a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year. Throughout his two-year papacy, Francis’ favorability ratings among Catholics have tended to be higher than those of his immediate predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, and they have approached the very high ratings given to Pope John Paul II in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

    While Catholics in general express highly favorable views of Pope Francis, some subgroups are even more enthusiastic than others. For example, more Catholic women than men say they view the pontiff very favorably (57% vs. 46%). And Catholics who report attending Mass at least once a week are more likely than those who attend less regularly to hold a very favorable view.

    Francis Widely Popular Among Catholics

    Catholic Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to express positive views of the pope, as are both conservative and liberal Catholics.

    Non-Catholic Americans also give Pope Francis largely positive ratings. Seven-in-ten white mainline Protestants have a favorable view of Francis (69%), as do majorities of black Protestants (59%) and those with no religious affiliation (58%). White evangelical Protestants express a somewhat less positive view, with roughly half (51%) saying they have a favorable view of the pope, down from 60% in February of this year. But the share of white evangelicals who express an unfavorable view of Francis also has dropped by eight percentage points since February, while the share of evangelicals who offer no opinion of the pontiff has grown by 16 points.

    Most Non-Catholic Religious Groups Rate Pope Francis Favorably

    A large majority of Catholics (74%) continue to view Pope Francis as representing a major change for the Catholic Church. And most who hold this view also say that Francis represents a change for the better. Indeed, about seven-in-ten Catholics (69%) say the pope represents a major, positive change. Only 3% of Catholics see Francis as a change for the worse. About one-in-six Catholics (17%) say Francis does not represent a major change for the Catholic Church.

  • Microbeads on Your Teeth in the Morning: A Plastic Crisis and a Nontoxic Alternative

    Microbeads 

    Microplastic poses a growing concern in oceans and other aquatic habitat. (Image by 5Gyres, courtesy of Oregon State University)
     
    An outright ban on the common use of plastic “microbeads” from products that enter wastewater is the best way to protect water quality, wildlife, and resources used by people, a group of conservation scientists suggest in a new analysis. 

    These microbeads are one part of the microplastic problem in oceans, freshwater lakes and rivers, but are a special concern because in many products they are literally designed to be flushed down the drain. And even at conservative estimates, the collective total of microbeads being produced today is enormous. 

    In an article just published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, scientists from seven institutions say that nontoxic and biodegradable alternatives exist for microbeads, which are used in hundreds of products as abrasive scrubbers, ranging from face washes to toothpaste. Around the size of a grain of sand, they can provide a gritty texture to products where that is needed. 

    “We’re facing a plastic crisis and don’t even know it,” said Stephanie Green, the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow in the College of Science at Oregon State University, and co-author of this report. 

    “Part of this problem can now start with brushing your teeth in the morning,” she said. “Contaminants like these microbeads are not something our wastewater treatment plants were built to handle, and the overall amount of contamination is huge. The microbeads are very durable.” 

    In this analysis, and using extremely conservative methodology, the researchers estimated that 8 trillion microbeads per day are being emitted into aquatic habitats in the United States – enough to cover more than 300 tennis courts a day. But the other 99 percent of the microbeads – another 800 trillion – end up in sludge from sewage plants, which is often spread over areas of land. Many of those microbeads can then make their way into streams and oceans through runoff. 

    “Microbeads are just one of many types of microplastic found in aquatic habitats and in the gut content of wildlife,” said Chelsea Rochman, the David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California/Davis, and lead author on the analysis. 

    “We’ve demonstrated in previous studies that microplastic of the same type, size and shape as many microbeads can transfer contaminants to animals and cause toxic effects,” Rochman said. “We argue that the scientific evidence regarding microplastic supports legislation calling for a removal of plastic microbeads from personal care products.” 

    Even though microbeads are just one part of the larger concern about plastic debris that end up in oceans and other aquatic habitat, they are also one of the most controllable. With growing awareness of this problem, a number of companies have committed to stop using microbeads in their “rinse off” personal care products, and several states have already regulated or banned the products.

    The researchers point out in their analysis, however, that some bans have included loopholes using strategic wording. Many microbeads are used in personal care products that are not “rinse off,” such as deodorants and cleaners. And some regulations use the term “biodegradable” to specify what products are allowed – but some microbeads can biodegrade just slightly, which may allow their continued use. 

    If legislation is sought, “new wording should ensure that a material that is persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic is not added to products designed to go down the drain,” the researchers wrote in their report. 

    “The probability of risk from microbead pollution is high, while the solution to this problem is simple,” they concluded. 

    All the authors on this study were funded by the David H. Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program, which works to develop science-based policy options for conservation and environmental issues. Other collaborators were from the University of Wyoming, University of California/Berkeley, Wildlife Conservation Society, College of William and Mary, and Georgia State University.

  • Defund Planned Parenthood Act – Who Voted For and Against; Pope Has Addressed Congressional Joint Meeting

    see you in phila screen shot 

    Update: Look for the Pope in a small, black Fiat 500 Popemobile, going to and from the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC. And that is the man who’s constantly at the Pope’s side?  His translator, Msgr. Mark Miles.

    Screen shot of Pope, “See you in Philadelphia” video. Vatican Network … 2015-09-20 Vatican Radio (Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Sunday sent a video message to the people of . . . http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-see-you-in-philadelphia

    Speaker to declare a recess on Thursday, September 24, 2015, for the purpose of receiving in joint meeting Pope Frances of the Holy See. House of Representatives — September 16, 2015); Text of this article available as: PDF

    —

    On September 18, the House approved H.R. 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, and H.R. 3504, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The measures were introduced in response to controversial videos involving several affiliates of Planned Parenthood of America and the availability of fetal tissue for medical research.

    Defund Planned Parenthood Act

    Sponsored by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), H.R. 3134 would place a one-year moratorium on federal funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) unless PPFA and its affiliates certify that they will not perform any abortions or provide funds to entities that perform abortions during that period, except in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother.

    The Department of Health and Human Services would be required to seek repayment of such funds from PPFA affiliates that do perform abortions during the one-year ban on funding.

    House Approves Abortion-Related Measures

    09/18/2015 On passage Passed by recorded vote: 241 – 187, 1 Present (Roll no. 505).

    Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

    Under H.R. 3504, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), medical professionals who fail to provide medical assistance to a fetus that survives an abortion procedure could be subject to criminal charges and civil penalties. Specifically, medical professionals would be required to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.” Individuals who fail to so do would be subject to fines and/or up to five years in prison.

    Women who undergo abortions would not be subject to prosecution under the bill, but would be permitted to seek civil penalties against the medical professionals who fail to comply with the law.

    The House approved the bill by a vote of 248-177.

    Pope Francis will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday. The House also reconvenes on Thursday.

    FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 505(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)


          H R 3134      RECORDED VOTE      18-Sep-2015      12:47 PM
          QUESTION:  On Passage
          BILL TITLE: Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015

      AYES NOES PRES NV
    REPUBLICAN 239 3 1 3
    DEMOCRATIC 2 184   2
    INDEPENDENT        
    TOTALS 241 187 1 5

  • Ferida Wolff’s Backyard: It’s Still Summer; Hummingbirds Are Particularly Special and Peter Cottontail Rescued

    Ferida moth

     It’s Still Summer
     
    It’s still officially summer and the temperature continues to be shorts-friendly. But things change in September. School vacation is over. Neighbors are back from the shore. The flowers that enlivened so many of our yards are off until next year. There are no more purple lilacs adding sweet perfume to the atmosphere. Faded blue hydrangeas are a reminder of former puffy table decorations. Dried flower stalks are starting to bend over the full-bodied hosta leaves.
     
    There are always exceptions, of course, depending on where your garden is. My hibiscus plants are still pumping out those incredible blossoms, almost in a frantic end-of-season burst. The bees are still looking for nectar, gathering over the hummingbird feeder. And the mosquitoes are as big a nuisance as ever.
     
    I actually like the change of seasons; there are always things of interest to see and learn. The insect on the last of the fading flowers I thought was a moth but it turned out to be a Cabbage White Butterfly, a common species that is a frequent visitor to gardens. I discovered that they exist pretty much all over the world. Summer turns into Fall later in the month and things change even more dramatically. For example, the deciduous trees sport dramatically colored leaves, which then turn brown and fall leaving the branches bare and shape of the tree beautifully evident. I often stop and look up, delighted, into the burst of color.
     
    There are so many possibilities in the change of seasons — to see something new, to rethink something familiar, to expand our understanding. The shift of my perception of moth to butterfly pleased me. I saw it anew. Perhaps that’s what the seasons really foster, new ways of seeing our usually familiar world.
     
    Learn about the Cabbage white Butterfly:
    http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/cabbage_whiterabbit
     
    Editor’s Note: We subscribe to the Department of the Interior’s weekley newsletter. This week it features: A historic settlement ends a 25-year legal battle between the US government and 600+ tribal entities; as wildfires continue to burn across the West, a call to change the way the nation pays for wildfire costs; good news for the rabbit that inspired “Peter Cottontail,” and more on This Week at Interior.

    Hummingbirds are Exciting

    hummingbirds
    There is something particularly special about hummingbirds. They are so small yet full of such energy. And sometimes surprises.
     
    I was sitting out back the other day watching them flit back and forth from the feeder, their wings stirring the air as they hovered. Then one of the hummers came directly in front me, fluttering about a foot away. I was astounded! I spoke to it as it hung there, thanking it for coming over to say hello. I thought my voice might have scared it away but it remained. Was it listening? Was it checking me out, trying to see if I was an adversary? It stayed there for a full minute then sped off into the tree behind me. It soon returned to the feeder and proceeded to chow down, ignoring me completely.
     
    I couldn’t stop talking about the experience to anyone who would listen. My sister said that when she was in Florida there were many hummingbirds and they were quite friendly. I wondered if this was just a young one who was exploring its environment but whatever the reason, I was infinitely pleased.
     
    Sometimes nature presents us with large, demanding challenges like earthquakes or snowstorms or droughts. Sometimes, in our often-turbulent world, it offers the tiniest, delightful possibilities for us to reflect on and appreciate.
     
    Facts and encouragement:
     
    Check out the hummingbird stories:
     

  • Federal Reserve: Keeping the Target Fderal Funds Rate Below Levels the Committee Views as Normal in the Longer Run

    Federal Reserve System Pamphlet

    Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in July suggests that economic activity is expanding at a moderate pace. Household spending and business fixed investment have been increasing moderately, and the housing sector has improved further; however, net exports have been soft. The labor market continued to improve, with solid job gains and declining unemployment. On balance, labor market indicators show that underutilization of labor resources has diminished since early this year. Inflation has continued to run below the Committee’s longer-run objective, partly reflecting declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports. Market-based measures of inflation compensation moved lower; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

    Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. Recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term. Nonetheless, the Committee expects that, with appropriate policy accommodation, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace, with labor market indicators continuing to move toward levels the Committee judges consistent with its dual mandate. The Committee continues to see the risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market as nearly balanced but is monitoring developments abroad. Inflation is anticipated to remain near its recent low level in the near term but the Committee expects inflation to rise gradually toward 2 percent over the medium term as the labor market improves further and the transitory effects of declines in energy and import prices dissipate. The Committee continues to monitor inflation developments closely.

    To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the Committee today reaffirmed its view that the current 0 to 1/4 percent target range for the federal funds rate remains appropriate. In determining how long to maintain this target range, the Committee will assess progress–both realized and expected–toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation. This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments. The Committee anticipates that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate when it has seen some further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term.

    The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. This policy, by keeping the Committee’s holdings of longer-term securities at sizable levels, should help maintain accommodative financial conditions.

    When the Committee decides to begin to remove policy accommodation, it will take a balanced approach consistent with its longer-run goals of maximum employment and inflation of 2 percent. The Committee currently anticipates that, even after employment and inflation are near mandate-consistent levels, economic conditions may, for some time, warrant keeping the target federal funds rate below levels the Committee views as normal in the longer run.

    Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Janet L. Yellen, Chair; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Lael Brainard; Charles L. Evans; Stanley Fischer; Dennis P. Lockhart; Jerome H. Powell; Daniel K. Tarullo; and John C. Williams. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at this meeting.

    Editor’s Note: Image of Fed Reserve pamphlet above 

    A publication of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

    This book is available in Adobe Acrobat format, as a complete publication or by chapter.

    *The accessible versions of this document are found in the individual chapters below.

    Complete publication

    (2.7 MB PDF)

  • Are Women Mistreated by the Criminal Justice System?

    woman under arrest

    Research published in the 25th Anniversary Special Issue of Women & Criminal Justice  finds evidence of changes in police perspectives, actions, and policies toward women both as perpetrators and victims of crime. The study, Police and the War on Women: A Gender-Linked Examination Behind and In Front of the Blue Curtain, offers a straightforward examination into the current treatment of women from the criminal justice system by reviewing trends of female offenders, police responses to crimes against women, and policies and practices that may improve understanding.

    Photograph of an FBI agent leading away an adult suspect arrested in the “Operation Cross Country II”; source FBI.gov, Wikimedia Commons

    “We simply explored the extent to which the data suggest that the police are playing a role in what some in the media and scholarly world are calling the war on women,” explained the authors L. Thomas Winfree Jr. and Christina DeJong in a joint statement. “We had no agenda or, as journalists and others like to say, no axe to grind. We are social scientists interested in what the evidence says and going where it leads us.”

    Using arrest data compiled over a 20 year span (1993-2012) from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the researchers found that arrest of females for all crimes increased dramatically each year — from 19.7 percent of all arrests in 1993 to 26.2 percent of all arrests in 2012. Conversely, male arrests have declined from 80.3 percent to 73.8 percent. “The sum total of these arrest statistics, generated as they are by the actions of public police, leads us to conclude that forces were at work on the arrests of women that were distinct and different from those that shaped the arrest statistics of men,” wrote the researchers of their results.

    The study also examines changes in police policies and practices toward women as victims of crime with an emphasis on violent victimization. In terms of police practices and policies towards women as victims of crime, the 20 year trend suggests that women have not fared well in the hands of the police. Mandatory arrest policies, which state that the police arrests all parties to a domestic violence situation, likely account for increases in disorderly conduct arrests for women, as well as arrests for simple and aggravated assault, when, in the latter situations, women may simply be defending themselves.

    “There is no ‘smoking gun’ clearly indicating an ongoing *war against women,” stated the authors. “At the same time, the empirical evidence and policy analysis are more than suggestive that some combination of gender-linked benign neglect, animus, or indifference towards women and their involvement with the criminal justice system is at work.”

    “The war on women was a term coined during the 2012 election cycle that referred to attempts to pass legislation that would limit women’s rights, from control of women’s bodies (with a particular focus on birth control, abortion, and the aftereffects of rape) to equal pay for women and their rights in the workforce (M. E. Gilman, 2014). One arena in which evidence of such a war’s impact on women may be assessed is behind and in front of the blue curtain of policing. To what extent, then, does policing reflect culture that supports and facilitates a war on women? We review arrest trends for female offenders, discuss police responses to crimes against women, and examine policies and practices that may improve understanding of the criminal justice system’s role in this war. We find evidence of changes in police perspectives, actions, and policies toward women as perpetrators and victims of crime. Specifically, at the same time that police undertook more aggressive enforcement efforts against certain types of female offenders, resulting in trends for women that were often the reverse of those for men, there was an absence of similar attention to laws and policies protecting women as victims.”

    Editor’s Note:  Above paragraph from the publication detail at Michigan State University

    Police and the War on Women: A Gender-Linked Examination Behind and In Front of the Blue Curtain

    L. Thomas Winfree Jr. and Christina DeJong 

    About Women & Criminal Justice 

    Women & Criminal Justice is a peer reviewed journal that is published five times per year. The journal is committed to feminist scholarship that contributes to our understanding of female offenders, victims and practitioners, and especially is interested in analyses of the intersections of race, ethnicity, and class with gender. Such integrative approaches will contribute to theory and policy analysis in order to improve domestic and international responses to crime and victimization involving women and girls.

  • Automatic Emergency Braking Systems Available From 10 Car Companies … And Not Just Luxury Brands

    AEB

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ten major vehicle manufacturers have committed to making automatic emergency braking (AEB) a standard feature on all new vehicles built, the US Department of Transportation, its National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced last week.

    Illustration from Clemson Vehicular Electronics Laboratory

    “We are entering a new era of vehicle safety, focused on preventing crashes from ever occurring, rather than just protecting occupants when crashes happen,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “But if technologies such as automatic emergency braking are only available as options or on the most expensive models, too few Americans will see the benefits of this new era. These 10 companies are committing to making AEB available to all new-car buyers.”

    The announcement, made at the dedication of IIHS’s newly expanded Vehicle Research Center, represents a major step toward making crash-prevention technologies more widely available to consumers. The 10 companies – Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo – will work with IIHS and NHTSA in the coming months on the details of implementing their historic commitment, including the timeline for making AEB a standard feature. The Department and IIHS encourage all other light-vehicle and trucking manufacturers to bring automated vehicle technology to all vehicles on US roadways as soon as possible.

    Automatic emergency braking includes a range of systems designed to address the large number of crashes, especially rear-end crashes, in which drivers do not apply the brakes or fail to apply sufficient braking power to avoid or mitigate a crash. AEB systems use on-vehicle sensors such as radar, cameras or lasers to detect an imminent crash, warn the driver and, if the driver does not take sufficient action, engage the brakes.

    “The evidence is mounting that AEB is making a difference,” said IIHS President Adrian Lund. “Most crashes involve driver error. This technology can compensate for the mistakes every driver makes because the systems are always on alert, monitoring the road ahead and never getting tired or distracted.”

    AEB technology is already showing benefits in the real world. Several studies, including a recent report from IIHS, show that AEB technology can reduce insurance injury claims by as much as 35 percent. The 10 manufacturers committing to across-the-board AEB represented 57 percent of US light-duty vehicle sales in 2014.

    The expanded IIHS facility opened today, made possible by special funding provided by IIHSs insurance company sponsors, provides IIHS with the capabilities needed to test evolving crash-avoidance technology.

    In January, NHTSA announced its proposal to add automatic emergency braking to the list of recommended advanced safety features included in its New Car Assessment Program. In May, Secretary Foxx announced a series of steps DOT and NHTSA will take to accelerate the development of advanced safety technologies such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications and autonomous driving.

    “Secretary Foxx’s direction to NHTSA is clear: We must work to expedite the implementation of advanced technologies to save lives at every opportunity,” said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind. “These 10 manufacturers have committed to an important principle: AEB is a life-saving technology that should be available to every vehicle owner. In the months ahead, NHTSA will work closely with IIHS and the auto industry to carry out that commitment, and we encourage every other manufacturer to join this effort.”

    The DOT and IIHS have long-standing commitments to promoting life-saving technology innovations. Moving forward, IIHS and NHTSA will set specific performance criteria for manufacturers to meet their commitment, and will determine how soon consumers can expect to see AEB technology as standard equipment. In order for a vehicle to earn IIHS’s highest safety award, ‘Top Safety Pick’, IIHS requires the vehicle to have an automatic braking system.

    Stay connected with NHTSA: Search for open recalls with VIN look up | Download the Safercar Mobile App for Apple or Android devices | Receive recall alerts by email | Visit us on Facebook.com/NHTSA | Follow us on Twitter.com/NHTSAgov | Watch 5-Star Safety Ratings crash tests on YouTube.com/USDOTNHTSA | SaferCar.gov

    Editor’s Note:

    From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: 

    Front crash prevention tests

    Crash avoidance features by make and model

    Electronic stability control by make and model

    Motorcycle antilocks

    Information on antilock brakes for motorcycles is available in the motorcycle topic area.

  • The Hitchhiker, A Peace Conference and the Frequent E-mailer

    by Joan L. Cannon SI Hayakawa hitchiking

    The Internet has accomplished so many important things for everyone who is within reach of its influence — many more than it reaches directly — it’s hard to keep up. At the top of the list is probably its presence to aid any investigation whether from pure curiosity to an effort to thwart censorship. It also, because of its incredible efficiency at dissemination is equally a frightening offender.

    Once it used to be said that one shouldn’t believe everything one reads in the papers. Now the caution needs to be extended to what one reads on the Internet. One difficulty is that there’s no editor or arbiter of policy for the Net when it comes to the dissemination of lies, calumny, foolishness, and the grinding of numberless axes. 

    S.I. Hayakawa waving from the back of a train during his US Senate campaign Los Angeles Times photographic archive, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA 

    A case in point would be an acquaintance who is a heartfelt conservative. She sends me regular warnings about the sorry state of our country with Obama as president, about American heedlessness to the power of Islam to override US traditions, religions, military, domestic affairs, and in short, to take over this country because of the stubborn, stupid, blindness of our citizens.

    This woman is college educated, a retired businesswoman, twice widowed, and still filled with enthusiasm and energy. I doubt she has ever studied any of the ‘liberal arts’other than what she caught by chance during her education. She may know historical facts, but little history.

    She e-mails me several times a week. Sometimes she sends wonderful series of photos of things like the idiotic comical positions and places in which dogs or cats have been found sleeping, or gorgeous photomontages of fabulous scenery (usually accompanied by easy-listening music) at seasons or times of day that make them appear mythical, or sometimes series of homely gentle jokes.

    Those e-mails are the smaller part of what occupies her Internet communications. Most of them are edited, selected pieces of public information couched so as to elicit immediate fury or panic on the part of the reader. She is honestly afraid of every Muslim who sets foot in this country, or who is already here. She uses her out-of-context evidence with the convictions of a missionary.

    She advances statistical evidence that if we don’t stop immigration, and if the rest of the western world doesn’t wake up, Islam will have engulfed all other religions and we will all be subjected to Sharia Law.

    I used occasionally to point out via FactCheck.org or Snopes the inaccuracy or falsity of some of her assertions, but I don’t even bother to check them any more. I know perfectly well that I can’t influence that mindset. That’s what’s frightening. 

    In high school, one of the essays we read — perhaps in the ninth grade — was by Professor and Senator S. I. Hayakawa (see Google for more information about him). The essay was about the dangers of stereotyping. Its premise could be summed up in the phrase, “Cow A is not cow B.” 

  • Rings At the Cloisters: Declarations of Status, Expressions of identity and Protective Talismans

    Rings from Griffin Collection

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Clockwise, from top left: Octahedral Diamond Ring, second half 3rd – early 4th century. Roman. Devotional Ring, inscribed “Hail blessed Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, my Lord and God,” 13th century. Probably British. Langobard Bishop’s Ring, 7th–8th century. Italian, Lombardy. Merovingian Architectural Ring, mid-6th century. French, Gaul. Renaissance Triumph of Love Cameo Ring, 16th century (cameo), 19th century (setting). Italian. Gold Marriage Ring, inscribed “Concord,” 6th – 7th century.” Byzantine. Inscribed Sapphire Ring, late 14th century (setting), 10th century(?) (sapphire). Italian. Cusped Ring, 15th century. North European. Renaissance Gimmel Ring with Memento Mori, dated 1631. German. Griffin Collection.

    Exhibition Location: Glass Gallery, The Cloisters, Gallery 010

    Worn by women and men, finger rings are among the oldest and most familiar forms of jewelry. In addition to their use as personal adornments, rings can serve as declarations of status, markers of significant life events, expressions of identity, and protective talismans. Some three dozen ancient, medieval, and later examples are shown in the exhibition Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffin Collection, that opened May 1 at The Cloisters — a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. The collection is named after the mythical creature that was part lion and part eagle. In medieval lore, the griffin was often a guardian of treasure and was known for seeking out gold in rocks — hence its fitting use for this private collection of precious gold rings. The exhibition is made possible by the Estate of Eldridge Greenlee. A Goldsmith in His Shop
     
    The rings are displayed alongside two dozen related works in a range of media, including paintings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and goldsmith work spanning the late second-third century A.D. to the 16th century from the Metropolitan’s departments of Greek and Roman Art, European Paintings, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Medieval Art and The Cloisters, and the Robert Lehman Collection. The Petrus Christus painting A Goldsmith in his Shop (1449), for example, shows a goldsmith weighing a wedding ring, while raw materials for making rings and other forms of jewelry and finished products line the shelves of the shop. 
     
    A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius, 1449; Petrus Christus (Netherlandish, active by 1444, died 1475/76). Oil on wood; Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 
     
    Exploring the making of rings from raw material to finished product and from goldsmith to owner, the exhibition highlights rings as both physical objects and works of art. The significance of rings in the lives of medieval and Renaissance people is a featured topic. Also discussed is the connection of rings to religion, superstition, love, marriage, and identity.