#Faculty of economy

[notebook91286]

33/365

[steelycunt]

my university l<3ves making me fill out preference forms so poorly and vaguely designed they feel like saw traps and it l<3ves putting first come first served at the end of them also

[cringefailnarwhal]

the only class that doesn't make me want to cave my head in this semester is religion and art for guides and interpreters and only because I got to choose it

[jcmarchi]

Making a measurable economic impact

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/making-a-measurable-economic-impact/

Making a measurable economic impact

How do you measure the value of an economic policy? Of an aid organization’s programming? For Saeed Miganeh, who completed an MITx MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Development Policy and is now enrolled in MIT’s master’s program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), these are key questions he is determined to answer.

“Enrolling at MIT fed my interest in investigating the political economy questions surrounding the development of African countries,” he says. “It boils down to promoting pro-poor, evidence-based policymaking in the developing world.”

Miganeh earned a bachelor of business administration from the University of Hargeisa and completed coursework in Open University Malaysia’s master of business administration program. Before enrolling at MIT full time, he spent 14 years as an accountant with the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration. His work with the IOM fed his curiosity about intent and impact, particularly how political agendas can affect policy adoption, how safeguarding human rights strengthens peace and prevents conflict, how climate change adaptation policies affect the poor, and how promoting intra-African trade spurs economic growth in the continent.

“My journey to DEDP began when I earned a certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation offered by the International Training Center of the International Labour Organization,” he recalls. “Our course coach recommended taking MITx courses, which led me to the MicroMasters program.”

Saeed grew up and completed his early education in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland during the reconstruction period after a decade-long civil war with Somalia. He was inspired by his country’s development of a functioning democracy and economy after conflict. Miganeh’s work is all the more impressive for someone who has lived almost exclusively there — with the exception of four years as a child spent in Ethiopia due to the civil war in Somalia — and whose studies have taken place entirely in the republic.

“Africa is the new battleground for fighting global poverty in the 21st century,” he says.

Practices and progress toward measurable improvement

Before pursuing graduate study at MIT, Miganeh worked in youth development programs with the Somaliland National Youth Organization. “I was the coordinator for one of their youth networks that worked on health,” he says. “After completing my undergraduate study, I assumed the position of finance officer for the organization.”

Later during his tenure with IOM, Miganeh learned that, while the organization has a central evaluation function that evaluates projects and programs, Somaliland’s governmental institutions lacked the capacity to effectively evaluate public policies and programs effectively. His work with the IOM helped him discover the practice areas where he might benefit from partnering with others possessing expertise he’d need to make a difference. “During my work with IOM, I was involved in development projects’ administrative and accounting functions,” he remembers. “I was interested in knowing how projects were impacting beneficiaries’ lives.

Miganeh wants to dig deeper into understanding and answering developing African countries’ political economy questions, noting that “development projects can consume lots of resources from design through implementation.” Ensuring these programs’ effectiveness is crucial to maximizing their impact and societal benefit. “Every country needs to have the necessary human capital to undertake evidence-based policy design to avoid wasting resources,” he says.

He returned to Somaliland to complete a capstone project that will allow him to put his newly acquired skills and knowledge to work. The project is an important part of his master’s program. “I’m [working] with the Somaliland Ministry of Education & Science, assisting in institutionalizing evidence-based policymaking in the education sector,”  he says.

A unique vision to drive effective change

Miganeh is already planning to use the skills he’s acquiring at MIT to facilitate change at home. “I must discover and produce policy insights using my research and, with the guidance of the top academics and professionals at MIT and other institutions, translate them into effective policies that can make a demonstrable impact,” he says.

Miganeh reports that MITx’s MicroMasters and DEDP master’s programs help students develop the unique blend of skills — including the ability to leverage data-driven insights to design, implement, and evaluate public policies that improve societal outcomes — that can help them become effective agents of social change.

“My early enthusiasm for mathematics in high school and my later work in development organizations gave me the right combination to excel in the rigorous developmental economics coursework at MIT,” he says. “Once I’ve completed the program, I will establish a consultancy to advise government agencies, nonprofits, and the private sector’s corporate social responsibility departments on designing, implementing, and evaluating policies and programs.”

Miganeh lauded the faculty and students he encountered while continuing his studies. “I have developed professionally and personally,” he reports. He saved his highest praise for the Institute, however.

“Pursuing this master’s degree at MIT, where modern economics education has been reinvented and is home to faculty including Nobel laureates and other distinguished professors and scholars, was an enriching lifetime experience, personally and professionally,” he says. 

“Looking back on discussions of how to tackle the world’s development challenges is a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

The Pevensie children are too old for their age.

Their mom notices, at the dinner table. She sees no nagging children, no stupid fights. She sees Lucy eating and speaking with perfect manners, Edmund analysing the economy and war with concerning skill, Susan being gracious but poised, like a diplomat.

Their father sees it in Peters eyes the first time they get into a fight. When he moves to punish Edmund for speaking out of turn, Peter calls him out on it. When his gaze meet his eldest son's, he's leveled by the war he sees behind it, the tensed muscle in his arm, the knuckles white around his knife. He's seen that before, in other soldiers. He doesn't know how to react.

Other children notice, too. Talking to all the Pevensie kids at the same time is like being the only one left out of a secret, and the way they touch and tease each other speaks of a history far deeper than their polite demeneor lets on. And when they walk they fall in line, as if there is a natural hierarchy between them.

The first time anyone picks a fight with Edmund, Peter comes home with a three week suspension and blood around his mouth. He looks more alive than you've seen him in weeks.

When Susan gets back in the pool after Narnia, she wins all the contests. Coaches can't explain how to beat her, because they don't understand how she's doing it, either. She seems to almost disappear when underwater.

Lucy, always gay and golden-haired, starts dancing, and never misses a step. She moves with an elegance that no 10 year old should have, and all the girls want to be friends with her

Edmund soon becomes the best student in his faculty. He always seems to know the right thing to say, and teachers laud his ability to think through complex problems. His mouth does get him in trouble sometimes, but the boy seems uncatchable, always talking his way through the cracks. And if not?

No one actively fears Peter, but everyone is a little scared of him sometimes. He's tall for his age, sure, but there is something else, some other air that seems to give him an authority far beyond what's normal for a teenage boy. He's nice enough, but teachers can't stand it, and bullies learn very quickly that pissing him off means missing teeth and black eyes.

The Pevensies are not quite inhuman, but not fully mortal, either

[fouryearsofshades]

Generally the colour of the flowers and the yunjian are chosen based on the faculty colour. Most Chinese universities use the following colours:

White - Medicine

Yellow - Engineering

Grey - Sciences

Red - Military

Pink - Humanities (including arts, literature, philosophies, education, management, economy etc.)

Green - Agriculture

[covid-safer-hotties]

With the toll of new COVID-19 infections regularly topping 1 million a day and weekly deaths creeping toward the 1,000 mark, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a campaign aimed not at protecting the public from this ongoing pandemic, now in its fifth year, but at washing its hands of responsibility.

CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen held a press conference August 23 to review the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and encourage the public to get their winter COVID-19, RSV and flu vaccines once they are made available. While bluntly acknowledging that “COVID is with us,” she tried unconvincingly to assure reporters and viewers that “we have the tools to protect ourselves.” She then added, as a way of shifting the blame, “We just need to use them!”

Dr. Cohen was silent on who was responsible for the failure of most Americans to get booster shots or otherwise protect themselves from a disease, which can be fatal for many and cause lifelong debilitation for many more.

She could have named the Democratic administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, which ended the COVID-19 emergency more than a year ago and treats the pandemic as a thing of the past. She could have named Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the promoter of quack remedies like ivermectin and bleach, who recently welcomed into his campaign the anti-vaxxer and enemy of science and public health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

And if she had been equipped with a mirror—and a conscience—she could have pointed to herself and other top CDC officials, who have collaborated in the anti-scientific rampage to shut down both mitigation efforts and even elementary data collection on cases of illness, hospitalization and death.

Most importantly (and therefore least likely) she could have acknowledged that within the framework of the capitalist system, the profits of giant banks and corporations are far more important than the lives of human beings. That is the meaning of the incessant claims that schools, factories, public transportation and facilities must be kept open, to save “the economy,” despite the inevitable spread of the infection as a result.

Dr. Cohen, like her predecessors and colleagues at the top of the public health establishment, puts political pressures above science and medicine. The nearly hour-long briefing was simply political theater, where a panel of experts attempted to place the public health agency in the best light despite acknowledging the monumental number of daily infections that have seen hospitalizations and fatalities climb.

Meanwhile, schools across multiple states have announced closures—affecting thousands—just as the new academic year has begun, in response to mass infections among faculty and students.

So far this year, more than 26,000 Americans have died from acute COVID-19 complications, and more than 800 per week are being killed by a preventable infection, a figure 20 percent higher than last year this time. At the current rate, it is expected that between 50,000 to 60,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 in 2024, a rate two to three times higher than fatalities from flu. However, these do not take into consideration excess deaths, and given the complete dismantling of the reporting systems, these figures are known undercounts.

Such figures could only appear low in comparison to the colossal death toll of the first three years of the pandemic, when 352,000 died in 2020, 464,000 in 2021 and 260,000 in 2022. In 2023, 76,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded. All these numbers are underestimates, as excess mortality figures are considerably higher. The cumulative death toll from COVID-19 is likely well over 1.4 million in the United States and approaching 30 million worldwide.

Neither did the panel address any concerns over the fact that millions continue to suffer from Long COVID, which has taken a significant toll on the health of Americans and the world over. It bears mentioning that a recent study noted that 410 million people across the world have had Long COVID with a $1 trillion impact on global GDP. Yet, no treatment for this condition exists. Without health insurance and means, issues of brain fog, chronic fatigue and sleep disturbances become part of one’s physiognomy.

Much about Dr. Cohen’s characterization of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is deeply flawed and should have been taken up by the press, who remained silent on the matter. First and foremost, her claim, in response to a direct question that COVID-19 “is endemic,” is completely misleading.

An infection is endemic when it is contained, not spreading uncontrolled and not causing significant impact on the society. COVID-19 is none of these. It remains a pandemic, with new waves of infections where millions are being infected daily by a virus whose mutation far outstrips the efforts of public health agencies and pharmaceutical companies to provide vaccines, medicines and mitigation practices. It continues to cause large-scale social disruption, economic loss and general hardship.

The opposition of both capitalist parties to any significant effort to fight the pandemic was on display last week. The Democratic National Convention, like its Republican counterpart in July, was a massive superspreader event, with thousands of delegates and media personnel congregating in an enclosed arena, where there was continuous cheering, shouting and singing. There are already anecdotal reports of widespread sickness in state delegations returning from Chicago.

As for the Republicans, Trump staged his appearance with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday afternoon, beaming as Kennedy announced he was folding up his independent presidential campaign and endorsing the ex-president and would-be dictator. Kennedy said he was working with Trump on staffing agencies like the CDC, NIH, FDA and USDA from the standpoint of ending the “chronic disease crisis.” By this he means, of course, ending efforts to fight diseases and letting children, the elderly, and the entire American population suffer the consequences.

Fundamentally, all large epidemics and pandemics are serious social issues that require broad-scale infection control in place to disrupt and prevent disease. And with respect to COVID-19 and all future pandemics, these require an international collaborative perspective.

In 2024 so far, 179 million people were infected in the United States, a total that is eventually expected to surpass 2023, when more than 248 million Americans, or three-quarters of the population, caught COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels throughout the pandemic suggest that there have been more than 1.1 billion infections in the United States, between three and four for every person in the country.

This begs the question how are those most vulnerable, such as the elderly, immunocompromised, and those with chronic disabling medical conditions, which represent a significant portion of the population, to protect themselves from perpetual mass infection?

For the CDC director to present public health efforts as a matter of individual, personal choice is a gross falsification of reality. The policy of mass infection has been forced on the population.

As for having the tools to protect themselves, what is being offered are simply vaccines and more vaccines as a means to prevent COVID-19. As the WSWS recently noted, “Despite the limitations, the uptake of the vaccines is vital for the health of the population. The shots have a strong, proven safety record and do prevent severe disease and potentially reduce the risk of Long COVID, as studies have indicated. However, they do not prevent infections and the immunity they offer is short-lived given the constant mutation of the virus.”

The vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna carry a cost of $120 to $130 per shot. In some regions, these can be as high as $160 or even $200. However, the rescinding in March of $4.3 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services in COVID-19 supplemental funding means access to free vaccines for the 26 million uninsured and tens of millions more underinsured, essentially all from working class families, will only mean that the vaccination campaign will simply languish as it did last year when only 7 million Americans accepted the boosters within six weeks of their delivery to pharmacies.

As for other tools in their toolbox, Cohen refers to anti-viral treatments like Paxlovid, which are regularly being denied to patients by their physicians or when they actually are given a prescription, face the daunting price tag of $1,300 to $2,400 per course because their insurance denies them coverage. Meanwhile, repurposed medications like Metformin, a drug that treats diabetes, which has shown anti-viral properties and shown in randomized trials to reduce COVID-19 viral loads and decrease risk of Long COVID, remain unmentioned. In particular, this raises the question of why there are so few tools in the toolbox, and why some are being removed, such as the ability to wear N95 masks in public.

The arrest of an 18-year-old New York man in Nassau County on Tuesday who was wearing a black ski mask utilizing the recently passed mask-ban legislation will only embolden police departments and threaten the public who face possible detentions and arrest simply on charges of police suspicion.

At the Democratic National Convention, guidance was issued forbidding mask wearing by attendees unless “it was necessary due to a disability” and this at the discretion of security.

[a-twistedheartslonging]

IM LOVING UR NONHUMAN AU.

Do you think Crowley would be protective of us? Maybe fend off the beasties that try to court us?

That's a cute thought.

Realistically, Crowley is a dick that often leaves the protagonist to fend for their self and pushes them to take care of dangerous stuff that they really shouldn't have to.

But on the other hand…hehe birb dad.

One of the reasons he avoids us is because of the whole us “wanting a way home thing.”

Imagine his surprise when you tell him you would rather stay. Maybe you don't have a family, maybe the family you have is horrible, or maybe it's because our world is a polluted mess with a cruddy economy. Regardless it means he doesn't have to (pretend) to put in the work of sending you home. 

Well, as long as there's a place for you to stay that is. He is sort of your guardian and it would be in the best interest of himself and the entire school if you stayed.

Now a thing I like to think about…this man is likely lonely. I mean, a lot of people don't like the guy. (for good reason) The students and teachers are tired of his shit, though he and Trien seem to be homies and have tea together, the guy’s cat still hates him. Crowley also doesn't have a mate or any hatchlings waiting at home for him.

Combine the guilt trip of having nowhere else to go, add his loneliness, and then butter the guy up. I would say you have a good chance of getting him attached.

Imagine he sees you heading his way and is about to screw off cuz he doesn't want to deal with whatever thing you need to get fixed or have to complain about, you catch the sleeve of his coat before he can, and so he braces himself. But instead of asking him for something or scolding him you simply ask him about his day and how he's doing.

Birdman is shook.

Bit by bit the tasks and chores he gives you are ones where you'll be around him or he’ll randomly pop in to check in on you while doing them. Soon you end up being the preferred person for making and bringing him his tea. He pretends to nap on his office couch while you do his paperwork. May even ask you to help him file his claws on occasion. If it wasn't so dire for you to take care of things at the school he would be half tempted to bring you along on one of his vacations. If you give him anything it's going on his desk and he will brag about it to anyone who enters his office.

His cheap ass isn't going to spoil you but he will bring you small gifts. Usually the random shiny thing and small souvenir from his trips away. You might start finding loose feathers around Ramshackle and more crows around who also bring small things.

He starts thinking up plans for you to stay on as official faculty of the school once graduating. Of course, it's only because you are super useful and not because he’ll miss you or anything…

It doesn't really hit him until after he sees one of the teachers getting all father figure-y with you and he gets jealous.

Displeased bird noises.

Even before he started to get attached to you he did keep an eye on you, your easy prey amongst beasts after all, but he does develop a habit of popping in more when a boy happens to show his interest in you…or anytime he thinks someone is trying to sneak in and swipe his unofficial dad role…he does a lot of that with Crewel and Trien in particular.

Still, even with his affection for you, he’s still very much…him and the boys know this. Not long till he finds the more well-off beasty boys in his office offering donations to the school in exchange for certain things. More info about you, making you a member of his dorm, ect. A few have learned that the best thing to butter him up with is to talk about what a kind and generous father figure he is and how lovely it would be for Crowley to give the perfect away on their wedding day.

As a result, he, and probably Grim, are going to nudge you toward certain preferred suitors.

[readytoescalate]

"EMORY IS EVERYWHERE": AN OPEN INVITATION FROM PROTESTORS OCCUPYING EMORY UNIVERSITY

As the Palestine Solidarity movement rips across college campuses, college administrators and government bureaucrats are rushing to denounce anyone taking action as an “outside agitator”. Those who grease the gears of the war machine think that this rhetoric will erode public support for bold actions at Emory. They are wrong. 45 years after the Camp David Accords - an infamously botched, imperialist plan for peace between Israel and Egypt with no input from Palestinians - was orchestrated by an Emory faculty alum President Carter, we observe that there is nowhere on Earth “outside” of Emory University. We want to say as clearly as possible - we welcome “outside agitators” to our struggle against the ruthless genocide of Palestinians. Emory University has the highest tuition, the lowest acceptance rate, and by far the highest endowment of any institution in Georgia. Economic barriers, infamously racist standardized testing, and nepotism have barred many from studying at Emory. To students in Atlanta and beyond - we invite you to struggle with us. Local high school students dream of attending Emory, and many teachers encourage them to study hard and take up extracurriculars to increase their chance acceptance, knowing their chance of admission is slim. To local high school students and teachers, we invite you to struggle with us. Just down the street from Emory Hospital Midtown is the site of the former Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter. In a bid to gentrify the city and evict its houseless population, the City closed the shelter and did not replace it, displacing hundreds and cutting off a last line of support for thousands of poor people in the city. Emory University purchased this building, just one example of Emory’s contribution to gentrification in Atlanta. To those without homes, or those displaced by gentrification, we invite you to struggle with us. Emory’s $11 billion endowment, the 11th highest in the country, is an outsized influence in Atlanta’s economy. While economic inequality widens in the city, Emory remains a bastion of the rich. To the restaurant workers, house cleaners, gig workers, and all proletarians - we invite you to struggle with us. In 2020, Emory University laied off or furloughed over 1500 employees. To those who are no longer affiliated with the university - we invite you to struggle with us. 4 out of 5 students at Emory are not from Georgia. While the Freedom Riders were heading down to Georgia in the 1960’s to fight for Black people’s right to vote, segregationist governors cast them as “outside agitators”. To those from outside Atlanta and Georgia, we invite you to struggle with us. 1 in 5 students at Emory are from outside of the United States. The Palestinian students murdered by American weapons under Biden will never be one of those students. To those from outside of the country, we invite you to struggle with us. In April 2023, Emory admin called the police to break up a protest led by students against Cop City on the quad. None of the pigs were Emory students. To all of those who struggle against police brutality, we invite you to struggle with us. EMORY IS EVERYWHERE. THE PLACE FOR DIVISION IS NOWHERE. WE INVITE YOU TO STRUGGLE WITH US.

[ruknowhere]

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time --when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”

~Carl Sagan

"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"

[communist-manifesto-daily]

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Part 1

[ Table of Contents | Next ]

1892 English Edition Introduction - 1

General Introduction and the History of Materialism

The present little book is, originally, part of a larger whole. About 1875, Dr. E. Dühring, privatdocent [university lecturer who formerly received fees from his students rather than a wage] at Berlin University, suddenly and rather clamorously announced his conversion to Socialism, and presented the German public not only with an elaborate Socialist theory, but also with a complete practical plan for the reorganization of society. As a matter of course, he fell foul of his predecessors; above all, he honored Marx by pouring out upon him the full vials of his wrath.

This took place about the same time when the two sections of the Socialist party in Germany — Eisenachers and Lasselleans — had just effected their fusion [at the Gotha Unification Congress], and thus obtained not only an immense increase of strength, but, was what more, the faculty of employing the whole of this strength against the common enemy. The Socialist party in Germany was fast becoming a power. But, to make it a power, the first condition was that the newly-conquered unity should not be imperilled. And Dr. Dühring openly proceeded to form around himself a sect, the nucleus of a future separate party. It, thus, became necessary to take up the gauntlet thrown down to us, and to fight out the struggle, whether we liked it or not.

This, however, though it might not be an over-difficult, was evidently a long-winded business. As is well-known, we Germans are of a terribly ponderous Gründlichkeit, radical profundity or profound radicality, whatever you may like to call it. Whenever anyone of us expounds what he considers a new doctrine, he has first to elaborate it into an all-comprising system. He has to prove that both the first principles of logic and the fundamental laws of the universe had existed from all eternity for no other purpose than to ultimately lead to this newly-discovered, crowning theory. And Dr. Dühring, in this respect, was quite up to the national mark. Nothing less than a complete "System of Philosophy", mental, moral, natural, and historical; a complete "System of Political Economy and Socialism"; and, finally, a "Critical History of Political Economy" — three big volumes in octavo, heavy extrinsically and intrinsically, three army-corps of arguments mobilized against all previous philosophers and economists in general, and against Marx in particular — in fact, an attempt at a complete "revolution in science" — these were what I should have to tackle. I had to treat of all and every possible subject, from concepts of time and space to Bimetallism; from the eternity of matter and motion, to the perishable nature of moral ideas; from Darwin's natural selection to the education of youth in a future society. Anyhow, the systematic comprehensiveness of my opponent gave me the opportunity of developing, in opposition to him, and in a more connected form than had previously been done, the views held by Marx and myself on this great variety of subjects. And that was the principal reason which made me undertake this otherwise ungrateful task.

My reply was first published in a series of articles in the Leipzig “Vorwärts”, the chief organ of the Socialist party [1], and later on as a book: "Herr Eugen Dührings Umwalzung der Wissenchaft" (Mr. E. Dühring's "Revolution in Science"), a second edition of which appeared in Zurich, 1886.

[1] Vorwärts existed in Leipzig from 1876-78, after the Gotha Unification Congress.

[ Table of Contents | Next ]

[girlactionfigure]

She was a teacher. She just wanted to help.

She was born in Milwaukee on September 16, 1902. She was known as "Mili" to her friends and attended West Division High School, now known as the Milwaukee High School of the Arts.

She would meet her future husband at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1925, and a Master of Arts in English in 1926. They were married at her brother's farm near the village of Brooklyn, Wisconsin.

"They had a profound connection through literature, her Ph.D. was in literature," Madison arts program administrator Karin Wolf said. "That's what inspired and sustained them, the works of Walt Whitman in particular. I just feel them as very real people. They liked to hike, they liked to canoe, they liked being outdoors."

In 1929, she and her husband moved to Germany, where she worked on her doctorate. She taught modern American literature at Berlin University, becoming one of the first Americans on a faculty that included Albert Einstein.

The position was short lived, however, according to a story in The New York Times. Fifteen months later, the university had fired her for not being “Nazi enough.”

Adolf Hitler had been granted dictatorial powers by a subservient legislature. After the concentration camps opened, the couple had decided to stay in Germany, to assist immigrants fearful for their lives.

"They were confronted with this unacceptable situation, and they did what they felt what they needed to do as moral beings,” said Wolf.

They were saddened at what was happening to their beloved country, to see a dictator use racism to divide the people and use his propaganda machine to reinforce his power and control the people, destroying the country from within.

Alarmed by the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime, she and her husband joined a small resistance group that helped imperiled Jews, assisted forced laborers, and documented the atrocities of the Nazis in Germany. Her husband would regularly meet with the first secretary of the American embassy to keep Washington informed on the state of the Third Reich’s economy, its trade agreements, rearmament and war plans.

Their group published an underground newsletter, and fed economic information not only to the U.S., but also to Soviet embassies in Berlin. After Germany invaded Russia, the group transmitted military intelligence to Moscow via radio “concerts,” prompting the Gestapo to call them the “Red Orchestra.”

On September 7, 1942, Mildred Fish-Harnack and Arvid Harnack were arrested while on a weekend outing in Germany.

Arvid was sentenced to death on December 19, 1942, and was put to death three days later. Mildred would be executed two months later, beheaded, on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was the only American woman executed on the orders of Hitler. She was 40 years old.

"She could have come home at any time," Wolf said. "But there was something bigger than her that was compelling her to fight in the way that she could. I just think of that strength of character."

Shereen Blair Brysac, Harnack's biographer, said in a 2011 Wisconsin Public Television documentary that Mildred "had an American passport and she could travel to France and Norway and Denmark," but she instead used her connections to help those trying to flee Germany ahead of the Holocaust.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was initially given six years in prison, but Hitler refused to endorse the sentence and ordered a new trial, which ended with a sentence of death.

"This is a woman who 75 years ago was executed for her role in fighting fascism," said Wolf.

According to Jay Rath of isthmus, Wolf noted that Mildred Harnack never set out to be a hero. “She was just trying to do the right thing. Which I feel we’re called to do in every era, and have that kind of moral compass; that you won’t see your neighbor treated that way. You will risk your own safety and your own comfort, because it’s not right.”

Ellie Gettinger, education director at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, agreed, saying, the lesson of Mildred's life is to do what's right, even when it's hard.

This summer, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, unveiled a new sculpture to honor Mildred Fish Harnack, a teacher who just wanted to help - a Wisconsin farm girl who became a World War II resistance fighter in Germany.

The artist of the sculpture, John Durbrow, said the sculpture recognizes Mildred's "strength, courage and resolve to address early on the forces of oppression which eventually inflamed the entire world."

"None of us, hopefully, are ever going to face the kinds of conditions that Mildred faced," Gettinger said. "But if we can just say, we did what was right in that moment, that's keeping up her standard of excellence."

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[oneheadtoanother]

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness..."

~Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

[tainted-liquor]

'Baby Mama.˚ *꒰ঌ✦໒꒱ * ˚.

Father!Hobie Brown x Mama!BlackFem!Reader Ingredients: Extra sugar, kisses, and tons of smiles! TWs: Dumb dad Hobie, cussing, thas it W/C: 891 A/N: You have a son🥺

It had been about 3 months since you and Hobie welcomed a tiny bundle of blue into the world. To say he was head over heels was an understatement; he was enamored. There were a couple of times where he popped a nigga with the force of a bullet train in the name of your son, Renzo, for various reasons. He popped Miles for "holding him the wrong way", judo-flipped Pav for attempting to hold the baby's hand, and absolutely smashed Miguel for even breathing too hard at his son during his nap time. He was the most adoring and doting father you had ever seen before Lil Renzie could even open his eyes.

Initially, Renzo wasn't a planned baby, as fucked up as that sounds. Hobie didn't quite believe in bringing another life form into an economy that was falling apart at every turn, rendering it impossible to live without relying on some sort of capitalist company. But by no means take this as a hint that he was in ANY capacity a deadbeat, absolutely not. He hated the idea of bringing a child into a world of pure evil but hated the idea of abandoning a human being somewhere out in the world even more and leaving all the responsibility on his mother. If the kid is his, IT'S HIS. So when he got the call that you were in labor, he dropped whatever it was he was doing.

"Yeah love, y'alright?" He cooed almost as soon as he answered the loud ringtone of his 1000 BCE phone. "Hey, so I don't wanna worry you or anything, but my water broke n' we're on our way to the...Hello?" You pulled your phone to your face to look at the screen, only to see that Hobie had hung up. You thought that maybe the call dropped and he was out on a mission, but no; Hobie was rapidly approaching your location from his watch, heaving and panting as he practically flung himself out of HQ. It took him a total of 2 minutes to seemingly appear by your side. "I'M 'ERE! IM 'ERE WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENIN'-" He yelled in the middle of the hospital. From that point forward, everything was chaos.

It took several midwives and you to calm him down, and 9 doctors to wrestle him out of the delivery room when it came time for you to push. Best believe he was still there every step of the way, despite the plethora of faculty asking for him to leave the room. At the end of the day, nobody wanted beef with the 6 foot 5 tall ass punk man with the meanest resting bitch face of all time, so they miraculously left him alone and let him be present for the entire birth. And when your son was finally born, he started baby bawling right along with him. Yes, he was crying as loud as humanly possible.

"Here, sweets you hold him-...are you crying?"

"No." He muttered with his eyes literally full of tears.

From that day forward, all he ever did was spend time with his son. Whenever he went to HQ he would insist on keeping Renzo so you could "get some rest", sticking him to his back as he did idle tasks, getting into nonsensical babble wars, and helping him learn how to stick to walls. Whenever he was allowed to dress up Renzo, he had the little homie dressed down in spikes, black leather, and a mini version of whatever outfit he had on without fail. He even made him a mini version of his guitar out of some plywood, rubber bands, and spare metal. There were times when Hobie would help Renzo "play" his fake guitar, muttering some of his song lyrics in the process.

You woke up from your cat nap to hear giggles coming from Hobie and Renzo in the living room. You shuffled your way out of your bedroom to see what was happening, and instantly covered your mouth so they wouldn't realize you were there just yet. Hobie stood in the middle of the living room, arms crossed, and staring at the tiny baby on the couch. "Ah-! Don't laugh at me, young man. You need to start learning how to be a proper Spider-Man!" he 'argues' as he holds back giggles. Renzo offers him a sleepy blink and yet another fit of laughter as he falls over on his side. You silently emerge from the doorframe, picking up your son and holding him near Hobie's face.

"C'monn, he's only a baby! Tell daddy I don't need to be a Spider-man just yet" you coached with a kiss to the side of the baby face. "I need to focus on being mommy's baby!" you giggled. "Ahh, c'mon. He should be able to stick to walls already, yeah?" He snickered. You rolled your eyes as you watched Renzo practically jump from your hands to Hobie's, earning a loud laugh from your 'husband.' "See? Proper Spider-Man! Yeah, mate!" he chuckled as he held a squirming Renzo. He watched as his tiny feet kicked and danced in his red and blue "Spider-Punk" onesie Hobie knicked from his world. You watched as his small grin turned into a full grin and his waterline pricked with tears.

"Don't cry, Hobie."

"'m not."

[jcmarchi]

Faces of MIT: Jessica Tam

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/faces-of-mit-jessica-tam/

Faces of MIT: Jessica Tam

The MIT Office of the Vice President for Finance (VPF) determines the best ways to allocate funds for the goods, resources, and services that support the research, education, and important work performed by students, staff, and faculty at MIT. The attention to detail and organization of VPF’s staff members help community members understand and use Institute financial resources. One of the 170 staff members in VPF who works hard behind the scenes to make life at MIT more effective is Jessica Tam, senior strategic sourcing analyst, travel and hospitality.

Tam has been in the travel and hospitality industry for over 20 years. She worked for hotels for 15 years before arriving at MIT, leaving one side of hospitality for the other. Tam is well-versed in forming and maintaining relationships with vendors, including travel companies and caterers. Those invaluable skills allowed her to comfortably pivot from what she refers to as “being a supplier” to “being a buyer.”

A member of the strategic sourcing and contracts team, Tam is responsible for everything related to travel and hospitality (catering, dining, tents, and events) that involves purchasing. Knowing how to connect with people is a significant part of her job, as she oversees reaching out to suppliers, both potential and preferred, managing requests for proposals (RPFs), negotiating contracts, securing concessions, and ensuring the best value for MIT travelers and event planners. When assisting with travel accommodations, she troubleshoots issues that a traveler may run into. Tam also answers vendor questions and works very closely with Institute Events.

Even though she is constantly meeting and speaking with new people, Tam notes that the hospitality industry is small. When she came to MIT there was a lot to learn, but knowing the major players in the industry helped her to acclimate quickly into the role. With her expertise, Tam was immediately able to help streamline the hotel side of travel. With her knowledge of the industry, she was able to rebalance MIT’s negotiated rates so that they were competitive and in line with what she believed MIT should be paying.

A significant part of Tam’s job is vetting vendors to be included on the list of MIT preferred businesses. For example, when a staff member asks for VPF’s list of preferred hotels, it comes with expected price points for each that have already been negotiated by Tam, eliminating the need for that staff member to carry out a selection of source — finding two or three other competitive quotes. Terms and conditions have also already been put in place so that after selecting one of the preferred hotels, it is simple to gain approval in the buy-to-pay process. 

In May 2024, Tam received an Excellence Award for Embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for a project she began in March 2020 that was put on hold due to the pandemic. The initiative’s purpose was to bring diverse catering options for events taking place at MIT. The preferred catering services list in place when Tam started her job was mostly known, big-box caterers. When she resumed work on the project, Tam issued RPFs to small, local, Black- and minority-owned catering businesses. At the project’s conclusion, Tam had almost doubled the number of preferred caterers available to the community. In her award nomination, colleagues noted that Tam’s work “fosters inclusivity, contributes to the growth and success of our local economy, and brings new, diverse culinary options to our very global community.” 

Soundbytes

Q: What do you like the most about your job?

Tam: I enjoy introducing people to resources at MIT that they did not know existed. Sometimes there is a travel hiccup for a faculty member, and I get them on the next flight. If a catering order does not show up for an event, I check which preferred vendor has availability to come up with bagged lunches on a tight deadline. I’m here to answer questions that make my colleagues’ travel and events as seamless as possible. I want the community to know that I am here to be a resource. It’s a little-known fact that the VPF website is a great tool available to the community that has every possible piece of information not just for travel planning and hospitality, but for expense reports, budget planning, and more. 

Q: What do you like the most about the people at MIT?

Tam: I am a member of the strategic sourcing and contracts team, and everyone is so friendly. When we come together on in-office days it feels like a family. Our Vice President of Finance Katie Hammer is approachable and will ask, “How was your weekend? How are your kids?” I can walk to her office and ask a question, which is nice and probably different from other universities where you might hear about your VP but you could never ask them a question directly or say hello.

I also love that at MIT you might not initially know the accomplishments of the person you are working with. I have been talking to Professor Tod Machover, who is a composer, and it turns out that the popular video games “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” grew out of Machover’s group at the Media Lab — something that never came up in our work conversations. My first year at MIT I had to reach out to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is the inventor of the World Wide Web. You never know who you’re going to meet or talk to.

Q: What advice would you give to a new staff member at MIT?

Tam: Try and meet the people you will work with in person, even if your job is hybrid. This is my first job in higher education, and I had heard that working at a university can feel like you work in a silo. In hospitality I learned that a five- or 10-minute conversation goes a long way, even if it is just to say, “I’m Jessica, I’m in this role, and I look forward to working with you.” When I first started, I found a list of departments and people that I knew I would be working with and visited their offices to introduce myself and have a brief conversation. Meeting in person gives you a good understanding of how people communicate.

[eretzyisrael]

Dion J. Pierre

The lawsuit dismisses concerns about rising antisemitism at Penn, describing efforts to eradicate it as a conspiracy by “billionaire donors, pro-Israel groups, other litigants, and segments of the media” to squelch criticism of Israel and harm Arab students and academics. It also castigates the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, calling it a tool of a “militant minority which believes that Israel can do no wrong.” The IHRA definition and its use by the House Education and Workforce Committee in its investigation into antisemitism at Penn, the lawsuit continues, is “unconstitutional” and part of a larger plan of a “‘social engineering movement to repeal the First Amendment.”

If successful in disrupting Congress’s investigation into Penn, the lawsuit could conceal from lawmakers, and thereby the public, evidence indicating that Fakhreddine — who has praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel as a “new way of life” — and other Penn officials involved in organizing “Palestine Writes” intentionally invited antisemitic speakers to campus.

Held in September, the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” outraged Jewish community members, as well as non-Jewish leaders and lawmakers, for its inclusion of anti-Zionists who have weaponized classic antisemitic tropes to undermine support for Israel. Speakers listed on the event’s initial itinerary included University of Gaza professor Refaat Alareer, who said in 2018, “Are most Jews evil? Of course they are,” and Salman Abu Sitta, who once said in an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”

Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, was also a scheduled speaker. Last year, a documentary revealed fellow musicians detailing Waters’ long record of anti-Jewish barbs. In one instance, a former colleague recalled Waters at a restaurant yelling at the wait staff to “take away the Jew food.”

By the time former Penn president Elizabeth M. Magill — who resigned in December — appeared before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Dec. 5 to testify about her handling of the event — which included refusing to cancel it — anti-Zionist protests at the university amid the Israel-Hamas war had descended into demagoguery and intimidation of Jewish students, as activists berated pro-Israel counter-protesters for condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught.