Monday, January 31, 2022

Notations On Our World (Special Month-End Edition): On the Prowl in our "Virtual Route 66" This Week

 Our team had the opportunity to visit the Orange County Great Park this past weekend.    We caught images of the history of our World which we hereby present as we look forward to the privilege to serve:

















We close out this final edition of January 2022 notations with the following courtesy TED: 

At TEDWomen in 2012, educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh challenged the world to dare to educate Afghan girls and help create the best-educated generation Afghanistan had ever seen, after years of oppressive Taliban rule. The result? School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) — the country's first and only all-girls boarding school — was forged. In 2021, the Taliban returned and Basij-Rasikh faced a new challenge: coordinating the evacuation of more than 250 SOLA students, staff and family members from Kabul to Rwanda.
Two events, nine years apart. Now Basij-Rasikh tells the story of the days that came between, and her hopes for the days to come. An exceptional story of courage and resilience — and a challenge for the world to not look away.


Saturday, January 29, 2022

"Outsider Vibes" (Special W-End Edition): Andre X Jad live at Jabal Al Arbaeen, Lebanon for Cafe De Anatolia

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Notations From the Grid (Special MId-Week Edition): A Teacher Tip For the Day

 

An image of ... kids learning together

 

Be a Teacher Leader: Tips for Leading as You Teach

 

Catering to your homeroom students’ needs is fantastic, but you also may consider extending educational boundaries beyond the homeroom and become a teacher leader who drives positive change among peers.

 

By Stephanie Williams-Britton

 

Read More

Monday, January 17, 2022

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): On the Year That Was.....

 


On this Martin Luther King 2022 here in the United States, we begin with a sentiment we embrace as a team in this spirit as we present a snapshot of the Year that was courtesy the team at USAFacts: 

How did the economy perform in 2021? 

Many words describe the 2021 US economy; historic might be one of them. However, we at USAFacts believe the best way to describe the economy is with numbers. So, we dug into the data: here are the metrics on how the American economy performed last year. 
  • November 2021 marked the nation’s all-time highest quits rate, breaking a record just set months earlier in September. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the quits rate as the number of quits per month divided by the total number of employees.)
     
  • Even before the pandemic, leisure and hospitality had the highest quits rates of any industry. In 2021, workers in the industry quit at the highest rates in 20 years. The leisure and hospitality quits rate peaked at 6.2% in September and was 5.7% in October.
     
  • Total job openings reached 10.1 million in October 2021. From 2000 to 2020, the nation had a monthly average of 4.6 million openings.
  • Inflation reached a 65-year high in November. By then, 2021’s annual inflation average was 3.3 percentage points higher than the 2020 annual average and 5 percentage points higher than 2019. 

Get the full recap here, including numbers on the downward trend in unemployment and the uptick in hourly earnings.

 

What states enacted abortion laws in 2021? 

The Supreme Court heard arguments on two abortion laws last year: Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act (originally passed in 2018) and the Texas Heartbeat Act. While these laws attracted a lot of attention, dozens of states also enacted abortion access laws in 2021. USAFacts recently detailed the various actions states took, including:

  • Five states restricted insurance coverage of abortion. Alaska, for example, banned using Medicaid funds to pay for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or if the pregnant person’s life is endangered. Wyoming prevented the University of Wyoming and state community colleges from funding abortions with their health insurance programs. Arkansas, Idaho, and Montana also restricted access.
  • Arkansas passed 10 acts on abortion, including The Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortion in cases of rape and incest. The only exception is when the pregnant person’s life is endangered.
     
  • Meanwhile, New Mexico repealed its trigger law that banned abortion if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Virginia revoked a ban on state insurance covering abortion, while Washington mandated that any college health insurance offering maternity care also include abortion services coverage. Colorado and Hawaii also passed laws that expanded access.


One last fact

As of January 1, the Omicron variant accounted for 95.4% of US coronavirus cases, followed by Delta and Alpha.

Click here to learn more about the pandemic where you live, including demographics on cases and vaccinations.

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Notations From the Grid (Special Edition): On the Costs Of War

 

A Legacy of Extraordinary Renditions, Unlawful Detentions, And Torture
New Report Outlines The Global Costs of
Unlawful Detention And Interrogation Post-9/11
Twenty years after Guantánamo Bay detention operations commenced on January 11, 2002, a new report assesses the massive costs of U.S. unlawful transfers, secret detention, and torture after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The report, released in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, outlines how these abuses trample on the rights of victims and suspects, create a burden to U.S. taxpayers, and damage counterterrorism efforts worldwide, ultimately jeopardizing universal human rights protections for everyone. 

The report also cites instances in which unlawful rendition and detention and torture have undermined U.S. security goals. The Islamic State (ISIS) and other armed groups have used U.S. abuses as a propaganda tool to lure recruits and bolster their narrative that Washington and its Western allies are waging a crusade against Muslims. 
 
The authors call on the Biden administration to close the Guantánamo prison and enact significant legal and policy reforms to end further abuses. Reforms should include far greater transparency about crimes that U.S. forces committed and accountability at the highest levels, as well as robust efforts to address religious, racial, and ethnic bias in counterterrorism efforts.

Save the Date: Spread the Word About #TeachingCostsOfWar on January 18
Join our Teaching Costs of War campaign and help us spread the word about our dynamic resource hub for educators teaching about contemporary U.S. war and militarism.

On Tuesday January 18, we're having a #TeachingCostsOfWar outreach day. Please encourage the educators you know to share our resources on the causes and consequences of the post-9/11 wars and add their name to the campaign.
Costs Of War: In The News
Costs of War research on military contractors was cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Costs of War co-director Catherine Lutz was quoted in Vox.com on military spending.
Costs of War’s research on the U.S. military’s emissions was featured in E&E News.

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