"At a reception some years ago, a college student asked if I could help her with an assignment. She had one question and hoped to compose a paper by asking diverse people to respond. What, she asked, did I think was the largest problem for the 21st century. My mind raced passed privacy concerns in the electronic age, terrorist threats, deadly weapons, fierce partisan divisions in our legislatures and polity. I thought of Thurgood Marshall’s praise of the evolution of our Constitution’s opening words, 'We, the people,' to embrace once excluded, ignored, or undervalued people — people held in human bondage, Native Americans, women, even men who owned no real property. I thought next of our nation’s motto: E Pluribus Unum, of many, one. The challenge is to make or keep our communities places where we can tolerate, even celebrate, our differences, while pulling together for the common good. 'Of many, one' is the main aspiration, I believe; it is my hope for our country and world."

Jo Freeman Reviews: As women tackled employment discrimination, they discovered more and more inequities. The University [of Michigan] intentionally admitted more men than women, even though women had better qualifications. Among those admitted, men got more money. Women were not allowed on the marching band or into several clubs. Job ads called for "student wives." Capturing the essence of the traditional view toward women was a bas relief sculpture on the side of a major building. One side was called "The Dream of the Young Girl." It featured a woman holding a baby while a young child clutched her skirts. The other side was called "The Dream of Young Men." It featured an ocean voyage. It took 34 years to get it relocated to someplace less obvious. This [book] is an excellent case study of a nation-wide problem.

Altogether, the sector holds about $108 trillion in assets and faces a variety of cybersecurity-related risks. Key risks include (1) an increase in access to financial data through information technology service providers and supply chain partners; (2) a growth in sophistication of malware — software meant to do harm — and (3) an increase in interconnectivity via networks, the cloud, and mobile applications. Cyberattacks that exploit risks can occur against either public or private components of the sector. For example, in February 2016, hackers were able to install malware on the Bangladesh Central Bank's system through a service provider, which then directed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to transfer money to accounts in other Asian countries. This attack resulted in the theft of approximately $81 million.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified on the latest coronavirus response efforts. CDC Director on Availability Coronavirus Vaccine by "Late Second Quarter, Third Quarter 2021". CDC Director Redfield on Face Masks: "More guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine."

'It wasn't just a testing problem: if almost everyone in the U.S. wore masks in public, it could save about 66,000 lives by the beginning of December, according to projections from the University of Washington School of Medicine. Such a strategy would hurt no one. It would close no business. It would cost next to nothing. But Trump and his vice president flouted local mask rules, making it a point not to wear masks themselves in public appearances. Trump has openly supported people who ignored governors in Michigan and California and elsewhere as they tried to impose social distancing and restrict public activities to control the virus. He encouraged governors in Florida, Arizona and Texas who resisted these public health measures, saying in April — again, falsely — that “the worst days of the pandemic are behind us” and ignoring infectious disease experts who warned at the time of a dangerous rebound if safety measures were loosened."

If you happen to dig up an ancient ceramic cooking pot, don’t clean it. Chances are, it contains the culinary secrets of the past. A research team led by UC Berkeley archaeologists has discovered that unglazed ceramic cookware can retain the residue of not just the last supper cooked, but, potentially, earlier dishes cooked across a pot’s lifetime, opening a window onto the past. The findings, reported in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest that gastronomic practices going back millennia — say, to cook Aztec turkey, hominy pozole or the bean stew likely served at the Last Supper — can be reconstructed by analyzing the chemical compounds adhering to and absorbed by the earthenware in which they were prepared. 

Do you talk to your dog? Apparently that’s fairly common, especially with human contact reduced during the Covid 19 pandemic; and there’s no need to be concerned — unless your dog talks back. Just yesterday I had a heated (no pun intended) argument with my air conditioner. “Are you kidding me? You picked the hottest day of the year to quit?! Then, of course, there’s Alexa. She’s great, and always available to answer my questions, serenade me with my favorite music, play games, or just chat. I also talk to my blood pressure monitor (“That can’t be right!”); my check book register (“Wait a minute! I’m sure my balance is way higher than that!”); and my smart phone and smart watch, which are too smart for me.                              

This complaint concerns retaliatory actions taken or threatened to be taken against a longtime public servant, Brian Murphy (“Mr. Murphy”). The retaliatory actions were taken and/or threatened to be taken in light of at least five sets of protected disclosures made by Mr. Murphy between March 2018 and August 2020. The protected disclosures that prompted the retaliatory personnel actions at issue primarily focused on the compilation of intelligence reports and threat assessments that conflicted with policy objectives set forth by the White House and senior Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) personnel.

In 1938, with the outbreak of World War II looking more and more likely, the Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare decided to establish a women's voluntary organisation to assist in the event of possible future air attacks. On 16 May, the Women's Voluntary Service for Air Raid Precautions (WVS) was founded. When war broke out in September 1939, the WVS already had 165,000 members. Their work quickly diversified into helping in all areas of the Home Front, and their name was soon changed to the WVS for Civil Defence. Women could also volunteer to work for the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, known as the NAAFI. This had been founded in 1921 to sell goods to servicemen and their families, and to run recreational establishments for the armed forces. The NAAFI grew quickly during World War Two, at its largest running 10,000 outlets, including 900 mobile shops.

Ferida Wolff writes: I try not to casually dismiss each plant’s possibilities of expressing itself. I feel the same about people. We each have the possibility of offering the best of ourselves and especially in this difficult pandemic time, I hope that consideration of others is part of our social interaction. I notice lately that neighbors are waving and smiling when I take a walk, a friendly and welcome but sensitive distant greeting.

"While the Postal Service has made progress in preparing for the 2020 general election, there are concerns surrounding integrating stakeholder processes with Postal Service processes to help ensure the timely delivery of Election and Political Mail. These potential concerns include: Ballots mailed without barcode mail tracking technology; Ballot mailpiece designs that result in improper processing; Election and Political Mail likely to be mailed too close to the election, resulting in insufficient time for the Postal Service to process and deliver the mailpieces; Postmark requirements for ballots; and Voter addresses that are out of date. Resolving these issues will require higher level partnerships and cooperation between the Postal Service and various state officials, including secretaries of state and state election boards. Timely delivery of Election and Political Mail is necessary to ensure the integrity of the U.S. election process.

In 13 states and the District of Columbia, including the closely contested battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Michigan, election officials can’t start processing absentee ballots until Election Day, and in three more states they can’t start until the polls close. With millions of such ballots anticipated, that’s a daunting, if not impossible, task to perform quickly. And with many more voters using mail-in ballots for the first time, mistakes such as failing to sign the envelope or sending it too late likely will lead to a larger share of rejected ballots. The possible result: vote counts that aren’t complete for days or even weeks, creating an opportunity for candidates, parties, members of the media or others to sow doubts about the legitimacy of the process.

In a hyped press briefing the eve before the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump falsely said that convalescent plasma had been “proven to reduce mortality by 35%,” even though the therapy has not yet been shown to be effective for COVID-19. On 6 separate occasions, President Trump has claimed that Europe’s excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic is 33% to 40% higher than America’s. But that’s only possible when cherry-picking numbers or ignoring Europe’s larger population. Facebook posts falsely claim that under Joe Biden, the “tax rate on a family making 75000 dollars would go from 12% to 25%.” Biden’s proposal does not call for a tax increase on those making less than $400,000, though analysts say an increased corporate tax rate could effectively result in a small tax increase for middle-income earners. Social media repeats an error reported by Lou Dobbs on Fox Business in July, claiming that major corporations were donating large sums of money to Black Lives Matter. The companies have pledged support for racial equality initiatives, but haven’t specified Black Lives Matter as a beneficiary.

Jo Freeman Reviews: Joni Ernst describes herself as a "farmer, soldier, mother, Senator." Born in 1970, Ernst greatly benefitted from the doors opened by the 1960s women’s liberation movement, becoming the first woman to be elected to Congress from Iowa. Girls born in 1970 were still expected to be wives and mothers and not much more. During the Iraq War she was sent to Kuwait where she experienced combat first hand. All these experiences put serving veterans high on her personal priority list.